Although the weather along the southeastern coast is already very warm in April, most of the time the northerly or northeasterly wind blows on the sea surface. The northeast monsoon prevails in winter in Taiwan, and the southwest monsoon prevails in summer. There is a transition between the northeast monsoon, southwest monsoon, and southeast monsoon. During this period, the mainland air mass and the ocean air currents waxed and waned with each other, and the cyclone was active. The wind brought to Taiwan was later called a "transition cyclone". Its wind direction was changeable, often forming cyclones and showers. For large-scale ships, Traveling in teams is very disadvantageous.
Therefore, Yin Feng's fleet and infantry could only wait in chicken cages and Tamsui in the Taipei area, waiting for the wind direction to change and the weather to improve.
On the night of this sneak attack, Taiwan's Gangcheng District suffered heavy losses. Over 3,000 Chinese and foreign people were killed or injured, including many family members of the convoy soldiers. Among them, more than 400 convoy soldiers were killed and more than 800 were injured. During the subsequent multi-day battle against Japanese pirates and rebellious indigenous tribes, Mai De's second regiment spread their grievances on the Pingping rebels and went on a killing spree. Mai De wanted to limit the extent of the killing, but the grassroots of the escort team Officers and non-commissioned officers lost many brothers and family members in this incident, so it is difficult to limit their retaliatory behavior.
The soldiers who hoped to go north to fight the Japanese pirates and avenge the sneak attack on Taiwan Port were also anxiously waiting for the wind to change. There was even a small commotion in the army. People kept coming to Yin Feng's ship to petition, and Yin Feng had to agree to them. Good players will be selected from the entire army, and when the next time the Sea Spirit secretly reinforces Naha Port, these people will be the first batch to go north.
Those assembled in the Taipei area are mainly most of the First Infantry Regiment, a small number of soldiers from the Second Regiment, and the Li Xing Division of the Third Regiment are now all transferred to the areas around Taiwan Port to garrison the city, port terminals, and Anping Port on the south coast. Therefore, now There are about 5,000 infantry soldiers assembled for the escort, including foreign mercenary groups, Yan Siqi's student army, indigenous auxiliary soldiers, etc.; the naval force includes three large battleships: Flying Tiger, Flying Leopard, and Flying Wolf, and the newly built Flying Tigers. The Eagle Ship has returned to Taiwan Port and is on forbidden duty as a precaution.
The rest of the warships that serve as escorts and transport commodities were also sent back to the south in a group to serve as defense missions in Taiwan Port. There were also 20 large three-masted Fuchuan as troop transports, and 50 two-masted Fuchuan as escort ships. and troop transports, plus 100 small sailing boats and fishing boats as logistics vessels - a total of nearly 5,000 naval troops, including the Sailor Musketeers, have been staying in Jilong Tamsui and other places for almost half a month.
Now, everything has to wait for the weather to improve as soon as possible and the wind direction to change as soon as possible.
…
On the second day of the blood and fire at Naha Port, the dock area was completely burned down.
This was not done by the Shimadzu Army, but by the straight rockets launched by the Chunghwa Commercial Building. In the morning, more than ten Anzha ships of the Shimadzu Army arrived at the dock area along Mie Castle, which had surrendered in the evening, in an attempt to land and enter the city. The Zhonghua Company Commercial Building is about 800 meters away from the dock area, about a mile and a half close, which is just within the range of the new straight rocket.
This is also the first time that the newly invented rocket was put into actual combat after the Weapons Research Department referred to the use of rockets in the Battle of Penghu Fengguiwei. Yin Feng called this rocket the "Thunderbolt" rocket, which was actually based on the early Kanger rocket. Something invented by the Reeve rocket.
In the Song Dynasty, China could already manufacture rockets propelled by gunpowder. This kind of rocket was introduced to India around the Yuan Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, and was quickly imitated and improved by the Indians. From the 16th to the 18th century, the development of Chinese rockets in the Ming and Qing Dynasties It entered a wrong path. There were many types of rockets but they were impractical. It was not until Zhao Shizhen built China's straight-rod rocket that improvements were made, but it was not adopted by the imperial court. During the same period, India's rocket technology developed greatly. The power and range of rockets have been greatly increased. The powder barrels of some rockets have been made of iron (the rockets of the Ming Dynasty only had paper tubes). Various models have also appeared. The length of large rockets can be up to 61 cm, the inner diameter is 7.62 cm, and it is equipped with 6.1 The meter-long bamboo balance guide rod has a range of more than 2.4 kilometers. In the 17th century, Britain, France and other countries invaded India. Rockets played a great role in the Indians' fight against the Western powers. The Sultan of Mysore Dipo Sabu (also known as Tipu Sultan) used a specialized rocket unit to fire a large number of rockets in the battles against the British army in 1792 and 1799, causing heavy casualties to the British army.
After the British army conquered Mysore, they brought the captured rockets back to the country. It was during the Napoleonic War, and Napoleon tried to land on the British mainland. Since the British Army was short of troops and needed to destroy the enemy at sea, it was urgent to be able to effectively attack French landing ships. As a weapon, Indian rockets aroused great interest in artillery colonel William Congreve, who worked at the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich Arsenal. He believed that rockets were the best weapon against Napoleon, so he immediately started to develop them. For transformation, Congreve used new gunpowder to create a practical rocket in 1805. It weighed 14.5 kilograms, had an arrow length of 1.06 meters, a diameter of 0.1 meters, and was equipped with a 4.6-meter-long balance rod. The early model With a range of up to 1,800 meters, this rocket mainly used tail flames to kill enemies at first, and was later equipped with explosive warheads.
The rocket technology at that time was not very high. As long as the shape adhered to basic aerodynamic principles, it could fly. Of course, it was not accurate. That was a common problem of all rockets before the emergence of modern rockets. Yin Feng had no way to solve it. The rockets that advocated development abandoned the fancy appearance of the Ming Dynasty rockets at that time (a fire dragon coming out of the water, it would be good if it could fly, and you have to beg God to hit the target), and adopted the reasonable part of the Chinese rocket's segmented boost, copycat The epoch-making "Thunderbolt" rocket was launched.
"Thunderbolt" uses solid wood as a balance pole, ** feet or about ten feet long. The arrow barrel is two feet long and three inches in diameter. It is made of thin copper or tinplate. There are six holes on the bottom of the barrel to ignite the fire, and the arrow tail is balanced. The rod is tightly fixed with iron wire and passed through the barrel. A sharp wooden ruler is inserted through the barrel. The wood is made of iron like a gun barrel. The lower two-thirds of the rocket launcher is filled with igniting powder. The upper third of the rocket launcher is filled with explosives. , the barrel bursts into pieces, and the fire scatters, causing injuries to people with fragments, or burning tents and houses.
There is also a Thunderbolt rocket used in maritime operations, which has explosives and oil in the warhead to burn ships.
Chen Zhongji gave the order from the east gate tower and fired more than ten Thunderbolt rockets at once, hitting the dock area a mile and a half away. As a result, not only did the entire dock burn, but it also spread to the sea and burned three Shimadzu ships. The remaining Shimazu military sailing ships had no choice but to retreat.
Shimazu Army Deputy General Hirata Masumune was in a good mood in Mie Castle. Yesterday he robbed half of Naha City. He had gained a lot. He was planning to pass through the Naha Port area to attack Yaraza Mori Castle in the south, and then Then he can control the entire Naha Port area, and he plans to extract more windfalls from this prosperous port city.
Shimazu Navy Admiral and Shipping Officer Kono Odori hurried over and poured cold water on Hirata Masumune's good mood: "Hirata-kun, three of our ships were burned in the direction of the dock, and the dock area was also burned. All the ships were burned. The ship couldn't dock, so we had to come back,"
"What are you talking about? Who did it? A soldier from Xie Mingqing Fang Lishan?"
"No, it was a rocket that flew from somewhere. It exploded and burned down the dock pier and warehouse, and also burned down our ship." Shipping manager Kono Odori said angrily: "In my opinion, it should be the China Company Flying from the direction of the shopping mall,"
"Is it the Chinese Company's Commercial Building? This is really troublesome," Vice Admiral Hirata covered his face and said distressedly: "You know, the shogunate and the lord both sent orders the day before yesterday, asking us to treat Ming Dynasty merchants well. This is really troublesome. Ah, Lai Tian, have you found out what happened at the Zhonghua Commercial Building yesterday?"
A slender samurai bowed and said: "Your Majesty General, the makeup entry personnel we sent and the people of Oyuzaemon behind them have all disappeared."
"What?" Hirata Masumune was troubled for a while, and then suddenly asked: "Raitian-kun, these Chinese have never left the gate, right?"
"I have sent people to monitor. So far, no other Ming people have been found in other areas of Naha Port."
Hirata nodded: "Okay, as long as these people don't come out to cause trouble, we will ignore them for the time being. Kono will follow suit and dispatch 100 of your sailors to help blockade and monitor the Chinese merchant house. When we capture the Uraza Mori Castle , come and deal with them again,"
Compared with the Satsuma Shimazu family's economic goals for the Ryukyu Nakayama Kingdom, the Tokugawa Ieyasu shogunate focused more on the political aspect for the Ryukyus. In order to replace the Toyotomi family, Ieyasu spared no effort to attack the Toyotomi regime in Japan domestically and externally. He also wanted to seek recognition from the Ming Dynasty as a major country in East Asia, so he did not want to get too stalemate with the Ming Dynasty. In order to achieve this goal, Ieyasu used all possible methods. Ieyasu was very interested in Ryukyu, a country that he had no knowledge of before. Pay attention to it, regard it as a life-saving straw, pin all hopes for normal relations in the future on Ryukyu, and continue to send envoys to the Ming Dynasty to entrust the king of Ryukyu Zhongshan King to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. He wants to restore trade with the Ming Dynasty of China. This convection During the World War, the shogunate only pushed the Shimadzu family to work, and the dispatch of troops to Taiwan was just an action of the Shimadzu family at the instigation of Dasmarinas, and the shogunate only sent the shogunate Naotomo Yamaguchi to supervise, although Taiwan has already Nominally it belongs to the Ming Dynasty, but in fact the Japanese knew that the Ming Dynasty court did not have the ability to actually control Taiwan, so they dared to take action against Taiwan.
Regardless of whether it was for economic or political purposes, the Shimazu family and the shogunate were unwilling to kill the goose that laid the goose to lay the eggs, so they were open to merchant ships and merchants. The chaos in Taiwan Port was actually caused by the lack of organization and discipline of those ronin.
After Chen Zhongji drove away the Shimazu family's ships, he sent a message to Zheng Jiong in Yaraza Mori Castle, informing him of the movements of the Shimazu army and that the Zheng family members had sailed to Taiwan. At this time, the southern part of Naha Port There was no sign of the Japanese pirates yet, so the envoy who delivered the message returned safely soon, and also brought with him Xie Yuanshui, the captain of the guard named Lord Zheng Jiong of the Qing Dynasty.
Xie Yuanshui bowed his hand to Chen Zhongji, and his attitude was much more respectful than when they first met: "My lord, I would like to thank shopkeeper Chen. Within the scope of your authority, my lord has specially granted you the position of steward of the boathouse, general manager..."
The shipkeeper is equivalent to the captain of the royal fleet, and the general position is generally reserved for Ryukyu Chinese. Chen Zhongji smiled bitterly in his heart: He did not come here just to be an official in the Ryukyu Kingdom.
At that moment, he had no choice but to clasp his fists and bow his hands in thanks: "Thank you, Mr. Zheng. I don't know if you are sent here specially. Do you have anything else to do? The Japanese pirates may attack Wuliangzuo Forest City soon. I am willing to help defend against the enemy."
Xie Yuanshui nodded: "My lord is about to send troops to rescue the Shuri Royal City. I hope you can send someone to help guard the Uraza Mori Castle."