Chapter 730 The steam ironclad ship is about to be completed
"Did they discover our ambush?"
"This is impossible, absolutely impossible."
Lan Yu frowned deeply, feeling extremely confused.
After setting up an ambush in Banpo, Lan Yu waited for the enemy's army to arrive.
If you want to lure the opponent's elite into the encirclement, you will naturally need enough bait.
Compassion does not command troops.
There is no such thing as death in war.
Lan Yu organized a team of three thousand people to launch a surprise attack on the enemy.
The elite troops on Basong's side naturally stayed in the atrium, and Lan Yu fought first, leaving only the fragile local troops.
Although Southeast Asia is rich in food products, these local armies are all skinny monkeys. The swords in their hands are rusty, most of them are not to mention leather armor, and even their clothes are in tatters, just like beggars.
In fact, beggar armies are very common no matter where they are. Including when Zhu Yuanzhang was conquering the world, most of his subordinates were beggar armies like this.
Even Genghis Khan's army was in a similar situation.
The majority supporting the minority is the mainstream of today's era.
Lan Yu's vanguard army rushed into the local army, chopping up melons and vegetables, and slaughtering them all.
In terms of physical strength and equipment, this is not a battle of the same level.
No matter how powerful a dozen half-year-old children are, there is no way they can defeat a strong man armed with weapons.
The local troops did not dare to run away. Behind them were the elites of the royal capital to suppress them. Anyone who did not hear the order and retreated privately would be killed!
Even so, the team of three thousand men opened a gap from the local army like a sharp sword.
But that's all. It's impossible to attack the royal capital's elite later on. That would be tantamount to seeking death.
"retreat!"
Seeing the elites of the royal capital starting to rush towards this side, the vanguard immediately retreated.
This is the beginning of the danger. Once the vanguard army is bitten by the elites of the royal capital, they will suffer huge casualties, and their mission is to lead the elites of the royal capital into the artillery range as much as possible.
If there are no accidents, this kind of ambush is still very effective.
It's impossible for Lan Yu to claim victory, as long as he causes heavy casualties to the opponent.
Even if dozens of artillery pieces may be lost as a result.
The key to the power of artillery lies in the strength of the gunpowder. Artillery alone cannot reach the range of the Ming Dynasty artillery.
An accident happened.
When the vanguard army retreated, the elite troops of the royal capital had no intention of pursuing them at all. Instead, they stopped and reorganized.
The general leading the opponent's army was not Basong.
But after the meeting in the past few days, the generals of the Ayutthaya Dynasty did not want their soldiers to fight to the death with the Ming Dynasty.
You won a war with no merit, so why bother fighting a hammer?
Each general in the Ayutthaya Dynasty was equivalent to a family, and many of the soldiers under his command were members of his own clan.
If you really want to fight with the Ming army, not only will your own power be weakened, but you won't get any benefits.
The generals are not fools. Of course, let others do such things.
Therefore, pursuit is absolutely impossible.
This situation made Lan Yu very distressed.
Because as the opponent's elite troops in the royal capital moved forward, they gradually began to enter an ambush circle.
But the opponent's advance army cannot naturally be an elite army, but local armies who are like beggars.
Using artillery to bombard these beggar troops, Lan Yu felt it was a wasteful act.
After all, artillery is not cheap. Counting the local soldiers killed by artillery, they are not worth as much as the gunpowder.
The elite troops of the royal capital did not care at all about the casualties of the local troops.
"These despicable bastards, it is their honor to die here, do we want our elite Royal Capital Army to confront them head-on?"
"These Ming troops are really powerful. They are really just envoys. Aren't they the most elite Ming army?"
"Although these scoundrels have low combat effectiveness, this is too exaggerated. Even if my soldiers go up, they will have to pay several times the casualties in order to keep these Ming troops."
Westing watched the local army die in large numbers without any emotion at all.
He is a general of the kingdom and a noble nobleman. How could he put himself in danger?
On the contrary, he had a very intuitive understanding of the power of the Ming army, and his tone was full of admiration.
He often bought newspapers from the capital of the Ming Dynasty, which was also the habit of many nobles today. Almost all nobles were unavoidably envious of the wealth and prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.
However, most nobles still expressed doubts about the military strength disclosed by the Ming Dynasty in Di Bao.
Mainly, this feels too exaggerated and unreal.
But now, Westin feels that the news in the newspaper is true.
"His grandma's bear, if any envoy comes out, he has the power to destroy the country. Damn it, how can the Ming Dynasty be so powerful."
Westin suddenly realized that this was a very dangerous thing.
Will their current pursuit of Ming be met with revenge from Ming?
This is already the case with more than 10,000 people. If there are tens of thousands more, the Ayutthaya dynasty will be destroyed.
Westin made up his mind that no matter how the Ming army charged, as long as they didn't attack him directly, he would never fight back.
Just let those bitches die.
the other side.
Lan Yu noticed something unusual.
"Our soldiers have already arrived in front of the elite soldiers on the other side, but the other side did not make any movement. Instead, they adopted a defensive posture."
"The scouts reported that the opponent has a lot of muskets and cannons in their hands. According to their attitude towards the local army, if you really want to fight back, you will most likely fire directly. This is obviously abnormal."
Lan Yu's words made many princes understand.
Those who came with Lan Yu this time were all high-level officials of the Huaixi Generals Group.
But no one expected that such a thing would happen during a simple trip to Zhenla.
Everyone crawled out of corpses and were not unfamiliar with war at all.
If it had been another guard post or an ordinary mission, they would have been destroyed by the mission when they were attacked along the coast.
Zhang Yi, the Marquis of Heqing, Chen Huan, the Marquis of Puding, Cao Zhen, the Marquis of Jingchuan, Zhu Shou, the Marquis of Shunshang, and Xie Cheng, the Marquis of Yongping.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This is a luxurious lineup of one male and five princes.
If any marquis was killed here, it would be a huge event.
The imperial court must send a large army to destroy the Ayutthaya dynasty.
Even now, the Ayutthaya Dynasty must compensate enough losses. If the Ming Dynasty is not satisfied, the same outcome will be the same.
As a vassal state, this is a serious crime.
Of course, there are many such things in history.
It mainly depends on the situation of the Central Plains dynasty.
But now the Ming Dynasty is obviously an extremely powerful deterrent to other countries, and it also has powerful expeditionary capabilities.
That is to say, the Ayutthaya Dynasty is now at its peak. If other countries were under Lan Yu's conquest, they would probably be fighting to defend their royal capitals.
"General, it's obvious that the other side doesn't want to fight us. It seems that our ambush is of little use anymore."
"Perhaps we can retreat now."
Chen Huan, the Marquis of Puding, spoke.
He didn't want to spend any more time in this rainforest. He was old, and he was infected with miasma a few days ago and almost died. Fortunately, the doctors accompanying the army were highly skilled and managed to save him.
Otherwise, they would have been buried in a foreign land.
Except for Lan Yu, the other princes are also suffering terribly. They are all getting older and no longer have the same physical condition as before.
"Yes, this jungle is really not a place for people to stay."
"It is obviously impossible to take down the opponent, and there is no point in spending time. We are not well prepared this time. After all, we are just a mission. We should report to His Majesty and send a large army to suppress it to let them know how powerful it is."
"I didn't expect that these alien races would dare to attack us. If there were tens of thousands of soldiers, I would definitely overthrow their royal capital."
Several princes said one after another.
Lan Yu glanced at them and knew they couldn't fight anymore.
"Okay, let's retreat then. Even if they look like this, they don't dare to fight us. Those artillery can't be cheap any more. Inform the brothers to take them away."
This decision was supported by several princes.
The other party didn't dare to fight anyway.
The news that the Ming army was gradually retreating soon reached the elite troops of the royal capital.
"Your Excellency, General, it seems that the Ming army has sensed our intentions." Westin reported.
Basong nodded: "These Ming troops are very strong, and their will to fight is also very firm. Such an army is definitely a soldier that can fight in a hundred battles."
"The Ming Dynasty was only founded more than thirty years ago. Many of their soldiers have experienced wars in troubled times. It is not surprising that such a situation exists."
"The other party only has more than 10,000 people, and yet they dare to set up an ambush on us at this time. Obviously, the Duke of Liang Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty is not in vain."
After several repeated tests, if Basong still couldn't guess that the opponent was ambushing him, most of his life's battles would have been in vain.
At the same time, I also felt a little scared.
If they hadn't had any intention of starting a war, this ambush would definitely have caused heavy casualties to the elite troops of the royal capital.
The opponent's military quality was also clearly revealed when fighting the local army.
The local army killed five to six thousand people, but not even a single body was left behind. Such a battle loss ratio is simply exaggerated.
But this has a lot to do with the opponent's excellent leather armor.
Ordinary bows and arrows can almost penetrate the opponent's leather armor. Even if it is injured, the opponent's soldiers can quickly cover it.
In a direct battle, how could the skinny peasant army be a match for the muscular soldiers?
In terms of size, each Ming army member was on average a head taller than the peasant army.
As long as the elites of the royal capital do not take action, no matter how many of these peasant troops there are, they will just deliver food.
If you can hurt the other party, it is because of the Lord Buddha's blessing.
Lan Yu knew that the opponent did not dare to fight, so he simply pulled the cannon slowly.
Thousands of people were holding down the formation, but the peasant army on the opposite side did not dare to step forward.
Just a few hundred meters apart, I watched the Ming army slowly leave.
Basong's troops were like bodyguards. They would follow the Ming army as soon as the opponent took a few steps.
However, what both sides knew was this.
In the nearby waters, a fleet of hundreds of ships has already arrived in the waters of Chenla.
This is the Fujian navy that Zhu Ying ordered to come over to support Lan Yu previously.
"Quick, look, that's my Ming Dynasty Navy Master."
The fleet brought over by Lan Yu soon discovered the existence of the Fujian Navy and immediately shouted with joy.
They had been docked at the seaside port of Chenla.
During these nearly two months, Chenla was naturally responsible for supplies.
After knowing that Duke Liang of the Ming Dynasty had repelled the 100,000 attacking army of the Ayutthaya Dynasty, the King of Chenla, Shenlie Popiya, was naturally very grateful.
Especially after knowing that Lan Yu was directly retaliating against the Ayutthaya Dynasty, tens of thousands of troops were integrated to cooperate with Lan Yu's actions.
It's just that Chenla is really too decadent, and their combat effectiveness is very different from the regular army of the Ayutthaya Dynasty.
If you meet the elites of the opponent's royal capital, they will not be on the same level.
Not only is the difference in the individual qualities and morale of the soldiers, the difference between the generals is even greater.
It also plays a role of waving the flag and shouting.
Historically, the Ayutthaya Dynasty easily broke through the royal capital of Chenla, and then forced Chenla to move its capital, and directly destroyed Chenla in just a few years.
The rule of the Khmer Empire truly came to an end in history.
Even if the Ming Dynasty intervened, Zhenla today is just hanging on.
That is to say, Zhu Ying wanted to leave Zhenla to his son, and at the same time, he wanted to use the entire Southeast Asia region as the granary of the Ming Dynasty to intervene in the wars of various countries.
Preserving Chenla would be of greater benefit to the Ming Dynasty, otherwise Shenlie Popiya would not even have the chance to reform.
.....
Daming Palace.
Huang Guan sat in charge of the supervision of the armored ship and was reporting the progress to Zhu Ying.
"According to His Highness's order, there are now three shifts in the shipyard. The shipbuilding speed is extremely fast, and it is now gradually coming to an end."
"Seventy percent of the hull armor has been completed. It will be completely completed by the end of this month. All that remains is to wait for the steam engine to be installed."
In order to ensure the smooth operation of the ironclad ship, especially the production of propellers.
While building the hull, the carpenter has simultaneously produced an equivalent model.
The size of the model is about the same as that of a calf. Except for the fact that there is no steam engine, everything else is restored to the proportions of a neat ironclad ship.
I have to say that the carpenters of the Ming Dynasty were extremely skilled in their craftsmanship.
Zhu Ying also took the time to look at the wooden model and found no problems for the time being.
There is a real problem with steam ironclad ships, and it is most likely that it will also appear on steam engines.
After all, after so many years of technological inheritance, in terms of ships, Ming's shipbuilding technology has reached the pinnacle of sailboats.
In order to ensure the progress of the ironclad ship, both the scientific research department and the shipyard began to work overtime on a large scale.
There is still nearly a month left until the March deadline set by Zhu Ying. Judging from the progress, it can probably be completed ahead of schedule.
Although Taisun did not say there would be any punishment for not completing the project, no one dared to delay the construction period.
Zhu Ying was also very happy to hear that it only took half a month to complete.
"If everything goes well with the steam armored ship this time, Huang Aiqing will be the first to take credit."
Zhu Ying also sighed a little.
If Huang Guan hadn't suddenly taken action to complete the steam engine, we still don't know how long it would have taken.
Rubber can make the steam engine run better, but it is not a necessary condition.
After all, the utilization of rubber and later steam engines took several generations to develop.
"This is all under the guidance of His Highness, I dare not take credit." Huang Guan bowed and said.
He is naturally very concerned about steam armored ships now. In addition to His Highness Taisun's expectations, Huang Guan also knows how much impact the steam armored ships will have on the world once they are manufactured.
Even when there is no wind, a steam-armored ship can easily sail the sea, and its armor can withstand most ocean dangers.
In terms of speed, no ship in the world can match it.
On the sea, if an enemy ship encounters a steam armored ship, it will be impossible to fight or escape.