Chapter 215 Artillery can actually shoot so far

Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 215 Artillery can actually shoot so far

Chapter 214

Shen Boyun was in a pretty good mood.

In fact, the boss is not the easy one. Although the boss can eat and occupy more, he has to bear a lot of responsibilities and risks.

When the Shachuan Gang was suppressed by the Zheng family, he couldn't eat well, sleep well, and had a big head. Although this is still the case now, the problem is that these troubles are no longer Shen Boyun's, but Cheng Shijie's.

Now Shen Boyun no longer has to worry about Zheng's more than 3,000 warships, nor does he need to worry about being knocked on the door and beheaded by pirates from the Zheng Group in his sleep.

There was no need to worry. He could cry in front of the families of the Shachuan Gang. The most important thing was that he could see how Cheng Shijie dealt with the Zheng Group.

At this time, the northeasterly wind started and turned into a tailwind. With the wind to take advantage of, the sailing speed was greatly increased.

Shen Boyun sprinkled a handful of colored wood chips from the bow into the water, counting silently in his mind. When the wood chips on the water moved to the stern, he calculated the speed, looked at Cheng Shijie and said: "Commander, if the wind does not change, there will be another hour."

, how far is it before we can reach Chongming?"

Cheng Shijie looked at Shen Boyun and said: "Bojun..."

Cheng Shijie's philosophy of governance is still to rule the country by law, but as the territory becomes larger and larger, especially after the Shachuan Gang has taken refuge, it means that the composition of the Liaodong forces has become more complicated.

Cheng Shijie originally wanted to use thunderous means to deal with it, but the problem is that if this is the case, other forces will not take the initiative to join him in the future, and may even stand against Cheng Shijie.

If he used thunderous means to deal with those gentry, Cheng Shijie would not have any psychological burden, but the problem is that the nature of the Shachuan Gang is that, like the Cao Gang, they are a group of bitter people.

"My commander-in-chief has always governed the army by military law, and governed Liaodong by military law. You must understand that you cannot do anything if you have something to do, and the Shachuan Gang cannot be above the law!"

Cheng Shijie said with a serious face: "I hope you will personally handle the affairs of the Shachuan Gang and not leave any trouble. I am afraid of trouble!"

Listening to Cheng Shijie's words, Shen Boyun broke into cold sweat.

The key to the problem is that he still doesn't know what happened. Shen Boyun hurriedly returned to his Jixian, and Gu Siyuan, Shen Boyun's long-term follower and confidant, hurriedly greeted him: "Master!"

"Siyuan, I have something to ask you. What happened to the Shachuan Gang and made the commander very dissatisfied?"

"No?"

Gu Siyuan thought carefully: "Could it be..."

"What is it?"

"Master, it is inevitable that the hands and feet of the people under your hands will be dirty!"

Shen Boyun came to his senses: "You mean Chongming Island?"

Chongming Island is shaped like a lying silkworm and is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. It is about 80 kilometers long from north to south and 13 to 18 kilometers wide from east to west. As the largest sand island in the Ming Dynasty, the rainfall here is very abundant, making it a good place for farming.

It's just a pity that the weather in this era is not very friendly. There are often strong winds and heavy rains. Life on Chongming Island is not easy.

Chongming at this time was completely incomparable with the extremely prosperous and glamorous Oriental Magic City of later generations. Shanghai in the late Ming Dynasty was still a quite poor place. For such a large area, the only one that really developed in a decent way was Huating.

Just a small piece.

There is no way. Coastal cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macau have developed under the background of close exchanges between the East and the West. They will either become distribution centers for import and export trade, become windows for exchanges between the East and the West, or become financial centers. If

Without this background, it is really difficult for them to rely on their own meager resources to develop.

However, the farming in Chongming is not being used at the moment. Chongming's business has begun to flourish, and the silk weaving industry is gradually developing. Some of the cotton and silk produced in Jiangnan are also resold to foreign countries. These are all real.

benefit.

In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, if the Ming Dynasty could open up the country to trade with Europe, I believe the financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty would be solved soon. And landowners' annexation of land would also become unprofitable, and the common people would suffer more due to the rise of industry and commerce.

A way to survive.

However, the problem is that the ruling officials of the Ming Dynasty were civil servants. As a group of carnivores who made the rules, they never considered the life and death of the people at the bottom. They represented and safeguarded only their own interests.

Spring is ushering in Chongming now. In fact, Cheng Shijie began to make arrangements on Chongming Island as early as when the Shachuan Gang took refuge with Cheng Shijie.

Because Cheng Shijie would not change his strategy because of an imperial edict from Emperor Chongzhen, such as attacking Zheng Zhilong. Even if Emperor Chongzhen strictly ordered Cheng Shijie not to fight, what should Cheng Shijie do or how to fight? Chongming Island became Zhu Weiti's fiefdom, and Cheng Shijie regarded it as

Chongming became his own territory.

It's that simple and crude.

At this time, Chongming Island originally had a population of only 140,000 to 145,000, and more than 80% of them were members of the Shachuan Gang or their family members. Now Chongming Island has become a huge construction site, with a large number of people wielding hoes and shovels, building in full swing.

Warehouses, dock expansion, and trestle construction.

Chongming Island is the largest sand island in the Ming Dynasty. There are not many places that can be used as docks. Compared with the 1,200 square meters of later generations, Chongming Island is one-third smaller, with a land area of ​​only more than 800 square kilometers.

, originally five adjacent sand islands, gradually became connected together.

Since the construction of Chongming Island was about to begin, a large number of workers would definitely be needed. The Shen family turned to Cheng Shijie, and the supervision, recruitment, and construction work naturally fell on the Shen family.

But the Shen family is used to being aloof, and when the Shachuan Gang is running boats for transportation, they will give food to whomever they use, so they have developed this habit.

In order to speed up the progress of the project, Cheng Shijie recruited workers from the people of Chongming Island according to a daily salary of one bucket of rice, or fifty yuan. But the problem was that in the hands of the Shen family, one bucket of rice turned into three liters, fifty yuan.

The money turned into twenty cents.

Since then, although the workers involved in the construction were also very satisfied, Shen took money from Cheng Shijie, which made Cheng Shijie very unhappy. However, Shen had just come over, and the outstanding craftsmen of the Shachuan Gang had also been recruited to shipyards or water companies in Liaodong.

In the division troops.

"Confused!"

Shen Boyun was trembling with anxiety.

How short-sighted are the Shen family members? If their hands and feet are not clean, how could Cheng Shijie entrust important matters to them? Maybe Shen Boyun has already left this impression in Cheng Shijie's mind.

Shen Boyun was so anxious that he quickly ordered a wheel ship to be mobilized. The wheel ship is called a thousand-mile ship. It uses a pedal-type wheel mechanism to drive the ship forward. It is not afraid of the wind direction and the speed is very fast. But the problem is that people will be very tired, so this kind of

Ships cannot be built too big and can only sail short distances.

Just when Shen Boyun hurried back to Chongming Island,

To the south of Chongming Island is Changxing Island, and to the south of Changxing Island is the famous Wusongkou.

In the 19th year of Hongwu's reign in the Ming Dynasty (1386), the Wusong Guarding Station for Thousand Households was established. In the 36th year of Jiajing's reign (1557), the Baoshan Guarding Station for Thousand Households was set up at the high bridge southeast of Wusong's Guarding Station.

This is the largest garrison of the Ming Army in Wusongkou, with two garrison posts. No forts were built in Wusongkou until the 17th year of Shunzhi (1660), when the West Fort was built in Yangjiazui on the west bank of Wusongkou. In the fifth year of Kangxi's reign,

In the 17th year (1718), the east fort was built on the east bank of Wusongkou. In the 12th year of Guangxu (1886), the north fort was built. The original site was located at the northern end of Nanshitang (the north end of today's Wusongkou National Defense Project), and it was at the corner of each other with the west fort.

Although there was no fort at Wusongkou at this time, it was built as Wusongkou Qianhusuo. Qianhusuo was actually a small military fortress, especially located in the south of the Yangtze River. The city was built with glutinous rice juice and blue bricks, occupying an absolute advantage.

Easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Just when Zheng Zhibao's huge fleet appeared on the river at Wusongkou, the soldiers guarding Qianhu Station in Wusongkou were stunned. The shadows of sails were heavy and the sky was blocked.

However……

No matter how powerful the fortress is, it must be defended by someone. If the people are not good enough, even the fortress with copper walls and iron walls will be vulnerable. Jiangnan has been peaceful for more than 200 years, and the armaments have long been abandoned. The smoke of the anti-Japanese war during the Jiajing period has long since dissipated, and the bloodshed of the war has also followed.

After being forgotten, the Ming army stationed at Wusongkou returned to its old ways. Shangguan continued to find ways to drink the blood of the soldiers, and the guards continued to try to escape or steal something to eat. How bad were they?

So bad that you can just ignore them!

The first reaction of these guardsmen guarding Qianhu Station was neither to ask for help nor to gather to prepare for a counterattack. Instead, they turned around and ran away. From the time Zheng Zhibao's battleship appeared in sight, by the time they arrived at Wusongkou, it took just half an hour.

Within a short period of time, the defenders at Wusongkou had disappeared.

When Zheng Zhibao came to the river more than 1,000 meters above Wusongkou, he used his binoculars to look at Wusongkou's garrison of Qianhu Station. There were no soldiers guarding or arraying on it, and there were only quiet people on the shore.

Zheng Zhibao was very cautious at this time, fearing that he would be ambushed, so he ordered: "Prepare for bombardment, and the landing troops will be ready!"

Following Zheng Zhibao's order, the messengers of Zheng's fleet hurriedly issued orders to the ships. One by one, the warships began to turn and move sideways, aiming their broadside guns at Wusongkou.

"Boom boom boom boom boom..."

The sound of the cannon was like midsummer thunder, and hundreds of lead balls roared out from the muzzle and hit Wusongkou hard!

Since the artillery of Zheng's fleet used black powder to fire, the sound of hundreds of artillery firing at the same time was not small, but it blocked his line of sight.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't see clearly what was going on at Wusongkou Fortress. As one round of bombardment ended, and then another, for five consecutive rounds, Zheng Zhilong ordered people to land.

When Cheng Shijie arrived at Chongming Island, he knew that Wusongkou had been lost, and even the Ninghai Navy on Chongming Island, which was more than 60 kilometers away, had no time to provide support.

Just as Cheng Shijie's Eighth Princess entered the Yangtze River Estuary, Zheng Zhibao led another fleet to arrive. Hundreds of warships were crowded at the Yangtze River Estuary. Looking around, almost all of them were warships.

Zheng Zhibao wanted to see what Ning Haijun's combat effectiveness was, but Cheng Shijie had no intention of entering into an open battle with Zheng.

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Good guy, aren't Zheng's going to live a good life? There are hundreds of ships, which is really enough to give you face!"

Li Zhixiang said: "Commander, how are we going to fight this battle?"

"No fighting for now!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Look at the Zheng family's fleet. They are crowded here. We have the upper hand. If we don't take advantage of this wind, we will be sorry to God."

"The commander-in-chief means fire attack?"

"That's right!"

Cheng Shijie looked at the 400 gunboats in the fleet and the old ship channels of the Shachuan Gang: "These dilapidated ships have lost the value of repair. Instead of wasting energy on dismantling them, it is better to use them as waste!"

Li Zhixiang understood what Cheng Shijie meant and immediately ordered Ning Haijun's 400-material gunboat to be quickly dismantled. The 400-material gunboat had eight small-caliber Franco machine guns, which were the ones originally equipped by Ning Haijun's infantry.
To be continued...