What Xiong Wencan is most worried about is that the army is "fearful of Kun as a tiger". He has felt this way since he came to Zhaoqing to receive the imperial seal, especially among the defeated generals who had fled and redeemed from Qiongzhou and could not hear the word "kun thieves".
If you say the word "fight", everyone will shake their heads. When talking about Kun thieves, it is nothing more than the clichés of "strong ships and powerful guns", "violent and not afraid of death", and "sophisticated equipment"... These are what Xiong Wencan has said since he took office.
I can almost hear cocoons in my ears.
At first, he thought this was just an excuse for a defeated general to conceal his defeat - this had been the case since ancient times. However, as time went by, especially after Chang Qingyun came to his side, he realized that what he said was true. Especially when the Kun thieves made a surprise attack on Zhongzuo Suo,
In one fell swoop, the Zheng Zhilong Group, which was the most powerful navy and army force in the southeast, was defeated in one fell swoop. After years of helplessness, the Zheng Zhilong Group not only razed Zhongzuo to the ground, but also killed Zheng Zhilong. Only then did Xiong Wencan have a clear understanding of the strength of the Australians.
Therefore, he never really considered how to fight against the Kun thieves militarily, but more about "appeasement".
Xiong Wencan made his fortune by appeasing Zheng Zhilong, but he was ruined by appeasing Zhang Xianzhong. Appeasement has always been a "panacea" for dealing with rebels from all walks of life. Therefore, soon after he reorganized the Ming army in Guangdong, he began to recruit the Kun thieves.
However, a few months ago, Chang Qingyun negotiated with Zhenkun, who had sneaked into Zhaoqing, to recruit him, but was rejected by the other party.
Not only that, the other party also reminded him clearly that the Senate was about to march into Guangzhou. If he wanted to save his official position and life, he would have to be transferred somewhere early.
Naturally, Xiong Wencan would not run away just because of the Kun thief's words. He knew that the Australians were by no means a people who threatened with empty words. However, according to the speed of the war between the government and the army, if he was asked to mobilize two large armies to suppress Qiongzhou, he would at least use
It would take eight months to a year to prepare; if it were the Kun thieves who wanted to set out from Hainan, they would definitely not be able to do it with a few thousand elite soldiers. They would have to "sweep the ground into an army" in Qiongzhou, coerce the people, and then organize and train it into an army.
It will be less than half a year.
So he made some preparations: he cast many cannons in Foshan; he made many new firearms - many of which were based on the military books and the atlases submitted to the imperial court by literati and generals from various places; he expanded the number of soldiers in various places.
Staff. An additional 5,000 people were hired from the households to supplement the navy at various places inside and outside the Pearl River Estuary.
He did not forget the safety of Zhaoqing itself: the first batch of Hongyi cannons equipped with the new Mopan gun mount were installed at the entrance of Antelope Gorge. Not only did a fort be set up at the east entrance, but also based on the defeat at Humen that year.
A general suggested that a guard be stationed next to the fort.
Not only did Antelope Gorge have a fort at the east entrance, he also set up a fort and a sentry camp at the west entrance close to Zhaoqing Fucheng. It turned out that he planned to set up two more forts at the Jiajiang River in the middle of the canyon. However, when he sent people to see it, they all said that the project was huge.
.Although the mountains on both sides of Antelope Gorge are not cliffs, transporting the Hongyi cannon weighing several kilograms to the top of the mountain with no roads and then building a fort would definitely be difficult within a few years.
In order to prevent the Kun bandits from taking the water route instead of taking the land route, he set up a new camp on Beiling Mountain northwest of Zhaoqing City and stationed a sentry to guard the canyon mountain road.
Unexpectedly, they arrived so quickly! And the armaments at the Pearl River Estuary, which he had invested a lot of money and food to rebuild, were completely useless: the defenders watched the wind and descend all the way, not only did the Humen Fort not fire a single shot, but even the city of Guangzhou was opened without blood.
The more than a thousand troops under the training guerrillas he had worked so hard to rebuild actually surrendered directly to Kun. The training guerrillas only escaped with a dozen soldiers and servants.
Xiong Wencan secretly regretted that his so-called strategy of "calmly deploying and resisting step by step" turned out to be a piece of cake!
It is useless to regret at this moment. Since Guangzhou has been lost, Zhaoqing is waiting for the place that must be defended.
However, he was no longer allowed to prepare calmly at this moment. Facts have proved that his estimate of the Fubo Army's advancing speed was also wrong. After the Fubo Army entered Guangzhou, they hardly made any stop, that is, they did not "rest for a few days" or "plunder three days".
"Sun", almost non-stop, passed through the city and headed straight for Zhaoqing. From the mouth of the officials and gentry who fled from Guangzhou, he learned that Fubo's army was non-stop and took a boat up the river. In just three days, Fubo's army
They have already arrived at Antelope Gorge.
However, Zhaoqing did not have many troops, and it was impossible to mobilize Luoding's east and west mountain ginseng in a hurry to assist in the defense. Only the Zhaoqing Navy Battalion was organized. Even his own relatives and those of the generals and officials who had fled from Guangzhou and other places were
There are only more than 2,000 soldiers and soldiers in the local guard station and troops...all together there are only more than 2,000 people. There are also 1,000 Shuiyong people from the Dan family.
According to the Tang newspaper, the Kun army gathered in Antelope Gorge only had about 3,000 men, and the navy had hundreds of large and small ships. Several of the large ships had "big guns". Obviously, letting the navy fight on the river would definitely lead to defeat.
So the idea of "attacking ships with fire" once again became the consensus of the Ming army generals.
Xiong Wencan watched the fire attack fleet set off in a mighty manner and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. Whether Zhaoqing could hold on or not would depend on this.
According to his orders, part of the navy's fleet followed the fire attack ship. Once the fire attack ship disrupted the Konthi navy, they took the opportunity to cover up and kill them down the river.
Attack ships cannot break the enemy's last river defense line.
"Master Zhu Tai, it is useless for these division ships to stay on the river," Chang Qingyun remonstrated in a low voice, "If the fire attack ships cannot defeat the enemy, these division ships will be as vulnerable as chickens and dogs. Why not use the whole army?
Press forward, take advantage of the momentum of the fire to attack the ship, and go with the current, there may be a slight chance of victory..."
Xiong Wencan only twisted his beard and smiled without saying a word. Chang Qingyun couldn't understand, so he had to step aside.
Only Xiong Wencan's Chinese Army Staff General knew the secret. These boats were to buy time for Governor Xiong to escape. Once the bandits came to the city, he immediately abandoned the city and boarded the boat to go to Wuzhou. However, although the boat he prepared was
Three groups of strong oarsmen were prepared to take turns to replace them. After all, they were going upstream, so their movements were inevitably slow. If there were no navy warships to block such an obstacle, they would probably be captured alive by the Kun bandits if they could not get out of the Dading Gorge.
In fact, even if he didn't report it, Schneider had already seen the exposed mast in the telescope.
"You really came out to fight!" He murmured to himself, as if he was about to enter a battle every time, his body suddenly became tense. He raised the telescope and adjusted the focus: the first ship appeared in the eyepiece, a Xijiang
We boarded a common small rice boat, with bamboo bundles installed on the bow and covered with mud. The waterline was very low.
Then, a second, third, and fourth ship appeared next to it... densely packed, countless ships came over. In an instant, the river was full of large and small ships. Sails were hung, oars were rowed, and boats were rowing smoothly.
It flowed down and hit the fleet.
Schneider's scalp was slightly numb. The river here was narrow, and he was in the countercurrent, so there was very little room for maneuver. He could only seize the distance difference and destroy the enemy ships as far as possible from a long distance.
Ruan Xiaowu issued a firing order: "Grenade, load!" The gunners used ejector rods to load the shells and silk powder packages into the chambers respectively. The gunners shook the handwheels, and steam spurted out from the gaps in the pipes, huge
The wine bottle-shaped body tube is raised.
"Loading complete!"
The ranging soldiers constantly reported the distance of enemy ships: "3.5 chains! 3 chains!"
The distance was reduced to 3 chains, and Schneider ordered: "Shoot!"
The battle flag of the Pearl River was raised to the top of the mast. The main gun on the Pearl River vibrated violently, and a ball of flame was ejected from the muzzle. Due to the extremely small tonnage of the Pearl River, the recoil and shock of the artillery made the gunship retreat violently.
, causing a huge splash.
The shell roared in the air and drew an arc. Ruan Xiaowu held a stopwatch in his hand and observed the impact point with a telescope.
There was almost no need to aim, and the grenade landed accurately among the densely packed fire attack ships on the river. A red light flashed, and a yellow water column rose into the air.
Ruan Xiaowu immediately corrected the impact point data.
"Based on the Pearl River, Suijiang opens fire. Grape bombs!"
The 130mm main gun on the 621 modified armed paddle steamer at the end of the formation fired at a high angle of elevation. The shells passed by the fleet, and the 130mm grape bullets came with a whistling sound. Then they exploded in mid-air, killing each 1
A total of 27 iron projectiles were sprayed towards the river surface indiscriminately.
In an instant, iron projectiles swept across the hull. Wherever the projectiles passed, broken shipboards, masts, sails and sailors' heads and bodies flew everywhere. The hot shells ignited the shells, which were covered with tung oil and gunpowder.
straw, a fire broke out in the cabin, and then it quickly tilted and sank due to the influx of river water...
"What the hell is this..." Cao Bajiao, who was standing on the deck of the last ship, saw it clearly and couldn't help but be secretly frightened. He couldn't help but shrink his neck. However, the second sound of cannon was heard soon after.
This time, the impact point of the cannonball was closer, and the whistling projectiles once again swept across the river. The whistling projectiles shot down from the air, once again harvesting the ships on the river. Cao Bajiao was so frightened at this time that he never returned.
Unintentionally "taking command from the center", he led the men down to the small boat at the stern, cut off the cable, and fled towards the river bank - he did not dare to go towards Zhaoqing, as he would be beheaded if captured.
"Distance 2 chains!" As the voice of the observation post came, Schneider ordered: "All ships shoot freely!"
At a distance of less than 400 meters, it is already an effective range for both the 30mm rapid-fire cannon and the 13mm typewriter. Moreover, it is hitting a surface target. It does not matter how large the spread of projectiles is when fired at a high elevation angle.
Dense lead bullets rained down on the fire attack ship in an instant, tearing apart the bamboo shield arranged on the bow of the ship and igniting the straw in the cabin. The fire attack ship was in raging fire, and the sailors on the ship were dying and trying to escape.
, the out-of-control fireships collided with each other and drifted along the river towards the fleet.