Children are afraid of being beaten, women are afraid of aging due to their appearance, and old people are afraid of their children being unfilial.
Speaking of what men fear most, they are not afraid of ghosts or death, but they are most afraid of poverty.
The word "poor" brought many men to tears.
Because he is poor, he cannot afford a wife.
Because I am poor, I cannot afford to raise children.
Because of poverty, I saw my parents sick in bed but unable to treat them.
No matter how heroic you are, a penny can make your hair turn gray.
The fishermen are really poor, otherwise they would not go out to sea to fish, risking their lives in the belly of the fish, or even become pirates.
When Li Yunze offered a large reward, all the sailors on the shore fell into madness.
Although it is necessary to risk one's life to attack the pirates' ships, compared with poverty, what is fate?
"Dong Hai."
Summoning the envious Dong Hai, Li Yunze whispered, "Give you three days to teach them how to use fire ships. After three days, pick a time and let them go to sea and burn those ships."
Three days later, the government and army gathered a large number of fishing boats on the beach, making a gesture of strengthening the bay.
The pirates on the opposite side responded quickly and gathered dozens of ships to cruise in the bay, always ready to fight.
When the pirates' attention was drawn here, several small boats came along the current on the Lujiang River.
The fire attack boats were filled with all kinds of hay, gunpowder, sulfur and poured with kerosene. Driven by brave sailors, they rushed straight towards the pirates' ships like crazy.
The strength of this pirate group is average. There are only a dozen small cannons on dozens of ships.
Launched with full force, it only capsized a few fire ships.
For the sake of money, the brave sailors rushed to the nearest distance, lit fire to attack the ship, and jumped into the sea one after another.
The pirates fled desperately, but seven or eight of the largest ships were still set on fire.
The remaining ships were in a state of disarray. They either ran aground on the beach or fled far away, daring not to come back again.
The officers and soldiers took the opportunity to forcefully cross the strait on fishing boats and landed on Xiamen Island. They successfully recaptured Zhongzuo Suo in just one afternoon.
After all, pirates have good fighting ability when they are at sea, but when they go to land and face the regular army, they are useless.
"The prisoners were screened one by one, and those with blood on their hands were disposed of on the spot. Those who came with the instructions were asked clearly. Those who are willing to join the army will be admitted to the army, and those who are unwilling will be given travel expenses to go home."
Li Yunze, who landed on Xiamen Island in a small boat, called on the sailors participating in the fire attack to gather on the beach.
"My general is true to his word." He stretched out his hand to indicate the large scale on the side. "Those who burned those big ships come here and weigh themselves. I will give you money now."
If you want the army of this era to dare to risk their lives, the most important thing besides rigorous training is to feed them first.
Li Yunze, who has no shortage of money, will never be stingy in this regard.
In the following days, the entire battalion of soldiers and horses gathered on the island for training while waiting for Li Yunze's iron ship.
Just having an iron ship is not enough. All the large Western ships in this world are equipped with artillery. If a cannon is fired, even a fishing boat with just iron skin will be punched with holes.
In the modern world, look for the well-known Laiyang Steel Pipe and order a batch of large-diameter thickened seamless steel pipes in the name of exporting to Africa.
Then various accessories are ordered from many small processing factories and shipped to Xiamen Island for craftsmen to install and debug.
Don't even think about going beyond shooting. Artillery in this era is all about direct aim.
Li Yunze used a powerful weapon and equipped each artillery piece with an optical direct-aiming system.
It's said to be a system, but it's actually an optical sight similar to a sniper rifle.
Just use your eyes to center the target and then light it.
Laiyang steel pipe is of high quality, and after being rifled four times, it can be shot far and accurately.
Artillery is nothing. The Zhou Dynasty was similar to the Ming Dynasty and had already been popularized on a large scale.
But the arrival of the iron ship made everyone tremble, especially the sailors who were fishermen, and some of them paid homage directly.
In my impression, if iron is thrown into water, it will sink immediately.
But it is a miracle that such a huge and heavy iron ship can actually float on the sea.
Li Yunze's explanation is simple. He spent a lot of money to buy it from an overseas country thousands of miles away.
As for the rest, there is no explanation.
Don't ask anyone, just jump into the sea to practice your water skills.
It is said that it is a 500-ton fishing boat, but it is actually a simplified version.
Except for the only ship that retained a sea-penetrating radar, all other equipment, including fishing equipment, had been dismantled.
The deck was strengthened when it was ordered, and multiple strong gun emplacements were welded to place the artillery.
Apart from these, this is an iron troop carrier.
As for subsequent maintenance, cleaning the bottom of the boat, refurbishing the engine, etc., Li Yunze never thought about doing these things when he bought it.
They are all disposable consumables, just throw them away when they are no longer useful.
Anyway, if there is no diesel, it will be useless if it falls into anyone’s hands.
Li Yunze personally trained the captain and chief engineer.
Fortunately for the captain, he just knows how to steer, knows how to use a walkie-talkie, and knows simple semaphores.
It's a bit difficult for the chief engineer. The main thing is to teach them to understand the many instrument panels, what to do when the pointer on the instrument panel reaches what position, etc.
The training of gunners is also very important, but it is relatively simple, just shoot guns all day long.
This is also a technique where practice makes perfect.
Fortunately, there was enough time, and Li Yunze had enough time to train his troops on the island while collecting various ships.
There are ten 500-ton fishing boats. It’s not that we can’t afford them, but it’s too troublesome to train manpower, and there are too many and it’s unnecessary.
There were more than 10,000 people on the island at this time and more ships were needed for transportation, so Li Yunze has been buying large wooden ships.
During this period, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang sent messengers several times, either asking Li Yunze to report, or asking him to send troops to a certain place as soon as possible.
Regarding these, Li Yunze's response was to ignore them.
He knew very clearly that by coming to fight the ghosts, he had touched the cakes of countless big business owners in the southeast.
The imperial court denounced Fangui for wreaking havoc because it basically received little money.
Private maritime trade activities are actually extremely developed.
A large amount of exported goods and a huge amount of gold and silver in exchange went into the pockets of merchants and sea owners. The court could only watch but could not reach out.
Because behind these people, there is the sky.
What Li Yunze has to do is to beat up those business ghosts and make them go to designated places to do business with designated people.
The place has been chosen, it is on Xiamen Island.
As for the candidates, when he passed by Yingtian Mansion before, Li Yunze made a special trip to Xue Mansion.
It is most suitable for the Xue family, who is the descendant of Ziwei, to make white gloves.
For someone like Li Yunze, who was born in Beijing and had nothing to do with the southeastern merchants and merchants, and who made it clear that he did not want any negotiation at all, the big merchants and merchants responded quickly.
After some coordination, they gathered together multiple groups of pirates from various parts of the southeastern coast and formed a coalition force to attack the center and left with great momentum.
It takes a few months to gather hundreds of large and small ships and a fleet of at least 20,000 to 30,000 men. Considering the communication level of this era, the response is indeed very fast.
Standing on the observation deck of the pier, Li Yunze, holding a telescope, saw several large sailing ships with obvious European style.
"These guys are quite powerful. Even the ghosts have been mobilized."
This is actually very simple. As long as you threaten to cut off the supply of goods, the ghosts will come naturally.
Putting away the telescope, Li Yunze turned around and got off the observation deck, "The armored fleet's hot engines are out to fight!"
When ten fishing boats rushed out of the waterway, the huge fleet on the opposite side was all dumbfounded.
They all make a living at sea and have seen all kinds of ships.
Even turtle boats without sails and relying solely on oars have been seen by some people.
But there is no sail or oar, but it can run very fast on its own. What's even more exaggerated is that it is an iron boat. I have never thought about it.
In terms of numbers, they are ten to hundreds, but in terms of combat effectiveness, they are completely opposite.
The fixed artillery on fishing boats are all thickened seamless steel tubes with rifling. The use of new granular gunpowder not only has a long range but also is powerful.
What's even more terrible is that each artillery piece is equipped with an optical sight.
I can’t tell if it’s far away, but it’s extremely accurate within a kilometer.
"Draw up a battle line and attack the four large ships of the Ghosts first." Li Yunze, holding a walkie-talkie in his hand, informed the captains to draw up a battle line, as if he was not commanding a fishing fleet, but a local fleet or the high seas.
fleet.
Bangui's ships are big guys with towering sails like clouds, double-layered shelling decks on both sides, and dozens of cannons.
In terms of physique and displacement, there is no doubt that he is a big guy.
The only radar was used to measure the distance. When the distance reached one thousand meters, Li Yunze gave the order to fire through the walkie-talkie.
There were only four cannons on each side of the specially reinforced deck. Even if ten ships fired at the same time, they would only be able to project forty shells in one round.
This amount of projection is only slightly stronger than that of a Bangui wind sailboat.
Seeing the iron fleet on the opposite side firing at such a long distance, the golden and red haired people on the sailboat burst into laughter.
At such a long distance, the range is barely enough.
But the accuracy is so low that they can barely guarantee shooting accuracy at a distance of three hundred meters.
Then, the roaring shells directly covered the first large sailing ship.
At least a dozen cannonballs landed on the ship, destroying everything in its path with huge kinetic energy.
The wooden hull was smashed into pieces, and the bodies of the unlucky sailors were smashed open. Everything, even the extremely strong mast, was broken with one blow.
In an instant, this large sailing ship with a double shelling deck turned into a tattered sieve, with holes everywhere, heavy casualties on board and blood flowing on the deck.
What's even more terrible is that the gunpowder barrels placed on the deck in preparation for the battle were ignited, and a raging fire broke out.
Seeing such brilliant results in the first round of bombardment, the sailors cheered and cried with joy.
But Li Yunze shook his head with regret, "If I had a real warship, even if it was just a patrol boat, I would have to beat these pirates today until the spring breeze blows and the peach blossoms bloom!"
Retired patrol boats can naturally be purchased, but they do not have the supporting armament systems and the personnel to operate them.
"Keep the speed steady and fight again, get a little closer, and make sure the ship is destroyed."
The sailors, with high morale, quickly cleaned and reloaded, fired another round, and once again ravaged the unfortunate sailboat.
After closing the distance, the shooting accuracy became more accurate. Two of the three masts of the sailboat were broken, a raging fire broke out on the ship, and it was vaguely visible that many people had begun to jump off the ship. It was destined to be scrapped.
"Get closer." Seeing the counterattacks from the opposite side flying everywhere, Li Yunze once again closed the distance between the fleets and "Hit the second ship!"