In order to increase the intensity of the fire, barrels of sulfur and gunpowder were piled on the ship, and many so-called toxic Chinese medicinal materials that could emit poisonous smoke were added. According to Xu Tingfa's estimation, with so many fires attacking the ship and the raft at the same time, the thief's cannons would no longer be able to fire.
Even if it is powerful, it cannot be reached. As long as one-third of the warships of the Kun thief can be burned, it will be able to disrupt the defense of the thief. Xu Tingfa gathered all the remaining navy warships and the rice ships that will serve as division ships when the expedition comes.
More than 40 salt boats were prepared to attack with fire. When the Kun thieves' fleet was in chaos, they took advantage of the situation and rushed into the enemy's formation, letting Shui Yong board the ship to fight. Li Fengjie offered an unprecedented reward: kill one of the fake Kuns, and reward one or two for the real ones.
Kun will reward fifty taels. If you burn a Kun thief's warship, you will be rewarded fifty taels for the small one, and one hundred taels for the big one. If you capture one Kun thief's warship, you will be rewarded two hundred taels.
Just when the Fubo Army occupied Ershawei and was busy cleaning up the bandits on Henan Island and temporarily stranded, Xu Tingfa ordered Chen Qian to lead the fire attack fleet to slowly go down the provincial river, and he personally led the navy behind to suppress the formation.
"Your kid has escaped from battle for the second time. This time I'll give you a chance to make atonement!" Xu Tingfa said viciously to Chen Qian before setting off, "Master Fujun has ordered me to act cheaply. You can do it yourself!"
Chen Qian secretly scolded Xu Tingfa for running faster than a rabbit, and this time he was planning to use him as a vanguard to die. But he did not dare to make a mistake. Everyone knew that Li Fujun was already red-eyed, and he would probably be killed if he lost another battle.
He chopped off his head.
"The last general will definitely take the lead bravely!" Chen Qianyan said insincerely.
"If it's official, let's leave it to the future." Xu Tingfa snorted and said viciously, "When the bandits entered Baietan and fired three or four rounds at the provincial capital, you and I will have to move our heads! Of course!
,you are the first!"
"The general will know." Chen Qian folded his hands and said respectfully. Sweat was already flowing down his face. Officers are very good at deniability. The problem now is that it is difficult for him to do so. His defense line is at Humen Village.
After fleeing all the way to Guangzhou, Fu Jun really wanted to kill people to blame others, and he was the perfect candidate.
But if he really wanted to move forward bravely, he didn't have the courage - Chen Qian could see clearly that if he tried to fight the Kun thieves face to face on the water, he would be courting death.
But now that Li Fengjie and others were under pressure, they had to go even if they died. Chen Qian had no choice but to choose two fast and flexible Changlong boats as his boats, and carefully selected dozens of people with good water skills and good boat handling skills.
Soldiers, be prepared to hide aside as soon as the fire attack ship comes aboard, and decide based on the situation.
Night falls.
The task force parked at Ershawei has lowered its military flag and entered a state of rest for the night. The sentries lit piles of bonfires on the abandoned Ershawei fort by the officers and soldiers. The sentries watched the river in the distance with vigilance -
- Officers on land have sent out long-range patrol posts. They have been specially trained to detect human silhouettes in the dark night. It is impossible for anyone to attempt to attack the task force from land.
The danger comes from the water. Despite careful arrangements: large ships in the core, small boats forming fixed sentries on the periphery, and patrol boats conducting uninterrupted night patrols. But on such a narrow water surface that is not conducive to maneuvering, once
There is very little room for maneuver in the event of a sneak attack.
Night commander Le Lin was sitting in a chair on the fort, wrapped in a thick military wool felt cloak - this was made of material bought from the Portuguese, keeping warm and waterproof, for the future mainland strategy plan
Make one of several material preparations. Troops and sailors cannot operate in the tropical zone forever.
Le Lin wrapped her cloak tightly. As a Hong Konger, he had never felt that the nights in Guangdong were so cold in the old time and space - even at Christmas in Lan Kwai Fong, he only had a coat at most. However, here,
Even though I was wearing my own British navy sweater, I still felt chilly. The damp and cold air penetrated all the way.
"Why is it so cold in the Little Ice Age?" He muttered, and in order to pass the boring time and space, he would occasionally raise the Russian-made infrared telescope in his hand and look around.
Sun Tianbiao secretly cursed - ever since he escaped from the Lingao Guards Station at night and went to Haikou Qianhu Clinic to seek help, he has been kicked around like a ball from Haikou, Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Haikou.
When it comes to the word "kun thief", it will all be his turn. When Chengmai was defeated, he escaped by diving into the chaos, found a fishing boat on the shore, crossed the sea and escaped back to the mainland. It was not easy to run all the way.
When he arrived in Zhaoqing, he was almost treated as a beggar. After Wang Zhijun asked him a few questions, his expression turned very bad, and then nothing happened. Sun Tianbiao just hung around in the Governor's Biography for a few days without any name or status.
Fan, was kicked to Guangzhou "Tingyong" again,
In the end, he finally found a job in the Humen Navy - but he had no soldiers and only received a salary. He also had to go out on patrol from time to time. How could he be as comfortable as living the life of a landlord in the guard station?
.
Not to mention, it was his turn to lead the arson boat attack this time - it is said that because he was familiar with the relationship. Sun Tianbiao had no choice but to board the first batch of ten boats, crouched in the cabin, and planned
Thinking about when to jump into the water to escape, I couldn't help but scold all the eighteen generations of Chen Qian's ancestors.
Seeing the dark shadow of the Kun Thieves' fleet appearing in the distance, Sun Tianbiao's heart was in his throat. Others didn't know it, but he was very aware of the "legends" about the Kun Thieves. Except for
Incomparably powerful firearms, as well as the legendary clairvoyance that can see people at night. Sun Tianbiao originally wanted to report this to Chen Qian, who was commanding the battle, but he did not expect that the other party did not bother to see him at all, and only told him to "move forward bravely."
"Are you going to die bravely?" Sun Tianbiao muttered, and then cursed, "Paddle slowly! The water is too noisy!"
The boat needed almost no power and floated slowly downstream along the current. Sun Tianbiao secretly thought - in this case, everyone from far away can jump into the water to escape, and there is no need to row the boat until it can hit the enemy ship.
Before he could finish his thoughts, the lights on the river brightened. For a moment, he could hardly open his eyes. In surprise, a strong beam of light had been projected from the direction of the thief's fleet, illuminating the entire arson fleet.
Got to be bright.
What was projected was just a medium-power stage spotlight, but it was enough to clearly illuminate the incoming arson fleet on the water.
"ignition!"
"Fire!"
Orders were issued almost simultaneously from the battery and from the arson ship.
The Kun thief's artillery roared almost instantly, mixed with clear and continuous screams like tearing clothes. Cannonballs and lead bullets flew in one after another and landed in the middle of the fleet. Several fire rafts were sunk by the waves before they could ignite.
Suddenly, an arson ship began to tremble, and pieces of wood were flying in the air, as if someone was beating it with an invisible whip. The sailors on top jumped up twitching and fell into the water.
A shell roared in and directly hit a fire ship. The ship filled with fuel immediately turned into a sea of flames. Sun Tianbiao even thought he heard the screams of the sailors.
Sun Tianbiao quickly picked up a tinder jar and threw it into the front cabin that was already sprinkled with gunpowder. The flames started to burst out. He ignored the greetings and rolled over and jumped from the side of the ship, followed by others on the ship.
Jumped into the water.
Lighting was the order, and one boat after another was lit on fire. The first wave of a dozen or so arson boats drifted along the current towards the task force on the mountain on the Ershawei River.
"Brothers, be careful, hold on!" Chen Qian, who was following behind, didn't expect that the Kun thief was so skilled and could actually emit such a huge light out of thin air in the dark night. Now a sneak attack is no longer possible, and the only way to escape safely is immediately.
I set the boat and the fire raft on fire and floated down, hoping that the thieves would be caught off guard and the blind cat would catch the dead mice and crash into several enemy ships.
However, this distance is too far! Chen Qian thought to himself - if it floats like this, the thief will probably run away long ago. How can he still hit the enemy ship? On weekdays, everyone can just be a little more angry and run for their lives.
, there was no room for blame this time, Chen Qian ordered the remaining ships to speed up and rush over, and not to light the fire until they got in front of the enemy ship.
"Anyone who lights a fire and abandons the ship without permission, behead him!" he yelled, waving his saber on his boat. "Everyone, rush forward! The bandits only have a few cannons! Those who hit them deserve to die. If they don't hit us, we will have a fortune."
!”
The people who were attacking the ships with fire were all desperadoes. After being shouted at by him, all of them had only money in their eyes. Seeing that the cannonballs had fallen on Sun Tianbiao's vanguard fleet, they quickly immersed themselves in rowing and sailed towards the fleet with all their strength.
.
Three minutes after Le Lin gave the order to fire, the main commanders of the fleet ran to the deck. Chen Haiyang raised his telescope and saw burning ships everywhere on the river in the distance. This was the enemy's fire attack! The people on the outside of the fleet were acting as cover.
The spy boat was firing fiercely with artillery and typewriters. The searchlight was patrolling back and forth on the river. Chen Haiyang estimated the distance and felt a little calmer - the nearest fire was still almost 2 kilometers away from the outer perimeter of the fleet. According to what they knew
The Ming army and pirates used the general tactic of attacking ships with fire. After igniting the fire, no one was left on the ship, and it was all driven by the current and wind. According to the current speed of the river, it would take at least 30 minutes to float to the anchorage of the fleet.
At this speed, many fire attack ships may be burned and sunk before they can float to the fleet's anchorage. Not to mention that artillery and typewriters are constantly firing at them.
"Tell Le Lin to follow the plan to counter the enemy's fire attack on the ship." Chen Haiyang ordered, "Strengthen observation! The enemy may have unfired ships moving in secret!"
The anchor chains of each ship were pulled up. The sailors were in their respective positions, especially the typewriter shooters. They quickly took off the oilcloth gun jackets, loaded the ammunition trays, turned the gun racks casually, and stared at the dark water.
Sun Tianbiao's vanguard was beaten to pieces by artillery and typewriters, turning into pieces of burning wreckage on the water, slowly drifting along the water, swirling, and sinking. The fire attack ship behind passed through the wreckage on the water.
, continuing to carry out special attack operations with a courageous attitude rarely seen recently.
Several small boats that had been keeping the fire going also came from the anchorage. They moved hundreds of meters forward and used typewriters to fire at the following fire attack ships. The dense bullets swept across the deck and beat the sailors to pieces. They rushed to the front.
The fire attack ships lost control and slowed down, and some simply rolled sideways on the water and collided with the ships behind them.
Chen Qian saw that the forward was once again intercepted by the Australians. Knowing that there was no hope of breaking through the enemy, Chen Qian had to bitterly order the fire. More than thirty fire attack ships and nearly a hundred fire rafts were set alight at once.
Fire, for a while the fire was blazing on the water, which was spectacular.
These fire boats and fire rafts drifted slowly downstream along the current. Because the speed was too slow and no one was operating them, several of them collided with each other and sank. Several more were huddled together on the water and burned first.
They were all gone. The remaining ones were pulled one by one to the river bank with long-handled iron hooks by the sailors on the sampans that had already arrived when they were close to 500 meters away, and left to be burned.
Seeing the flames in the river, Xu Tingfa thought he had succeeded, and immediately led 40 division ships down the river, preparing to take advantage of the situation to attack. Unexpectedly, he was hit by a heavy fire from a spy boat before he could reach him, and the three division ships in front immediately
The cannon caught fire. Xu Tingfa stiffened his hair and ordered a fierce attack. He placed fifty-two ingots of large silver and dozens of ingots on the deck. He waved his sword and shouted: "Those who advance will be rewarded! Those who retreat will be beheaded!"
While he was shouting to charge forward to "repay the favor of the imperial court," someone brought the dripping Sun Tianbiao in front of him.
"Sir, the firepower of the thief in front is fierce, and the ship cannot pass..."
Before Sun Tianbiao finished speaking, Xu Tingfa immediately shouted: "Drag him down and kill him!"
The soldiers on the left and right immediately pulled Sun Tianbiao, who had not yet recovered, to the bow of the boat, cut off the head with a knife, and presented the bloody head.
"Hang on the mast!" Xu Tingfa said loudly, "Whoever dares to escape from the battle will end up like this!"
All the troops suddenly shuddered, and while shouting for kill, they randomly released the firearms on the ship towards the tail of Ersha. The two dragons came out of the water, a swarm of bees, and fire pigeons. Regardless of whether the range was enough or not, they all shot out, which was really spectacular.
.Not only did he not hit the thief, but he accidentally injured a lot of sailors who jumped into the water to escape from the fireboat.
"You bastard... look carefully before you fight..." Shui Yong, who was hit by a rocket for no reason, cursed and sank.
"Attention! The enemy ship is 430 meters away. Load the solid bullets in one shot!" the gunnery officers on the spy boat shouted loudly while observing.
The final special attack of the navy led by Xu Tingfa lasted until midnight. The entire river was blazing with fire, the sound of guns, screams, curses and calls for help filled the night sky. As the night became darker and darker, more and more ships were on fire.
Finally, the Ming army's final counterattack failed. Xu Tingfa escaped by swimming ashore with his own soldiers. Chen Qian fled into the Xijiang River with his own boat. 40 warships participated in the counterattack.
Except for 4 ships that escaped during the battle, all were lost. When the sky was dimming, Le Lin and others, who looked tired, only saw corpses floating in the river and broken shipwrecks, with green smoke curling up from the shipwrecks.
.
The task force lost 5 sampans and 1 long dragon in this night battle. A steam boat was hit by a cannonball in the boiler, causing an explosion that killed 2 sailors and severely damaged the boat. This was the most serious disaster in the navy.
Losses. In addition, several ships were hit by bullets, but it did not affect the battle. All casualties were 3 dead and 14 wounded. They could not count the losses of the Ming army. They captured very few prisoners in the dark, but many people.
He swam ashore at night and escaped. However, after the war alone, five to six hundred corpses were recovered from the water by nearby villagers.
On November 3, 1630 AD, the mist on Baietan had just dispersed, and the Pearl River Task Force of the Australian and Song Fubo Army sailed into Baietan.
The iron chains clattered, and the anchors were thrown from the ship into the blue waves of Baietan. The black muzzle of the ship was facing the city of Guangzhou.
The city gates of Guangzhou were closed - the news of Xu Tingfa's failed counterattack had long been brought back to Guangzhou by the defeated troops. The city gates that were supposed to be opened early in the morning were not opened for the first time.
Yu Baocun, the prefect of Guangzhou, was watching on the city wall. When he saw the fleet approaching, he quickly got off the city wall and got into a sedan chair.
"Quick! Go to the governor's office!"
Li Fengjue was completely at his wits' end at this time. Xu Tingfa's counterattack failed, and he didn't even know where the others were. None of the forts along the way were effective. The five thousand Shuiyong who had spent a lot of money to recruit ran away with their lives, leaving less than two thousand left.
People. But the Folangji people, whom he originally had high hopes for, had no intention of dispatching warships to cut off the Kun thieves' retreat. According to the letters sent back by Li Luoyou, the Folangji people seemed to have accurately grasped Gao Shunqin's request to close the customs and even expel them.
The news, not to mention "borrowing troops to aid the war", it already cost Li Luoyou a lot of effort not to take advantage of the situation.
Although the letter did not say it explicitly, the implication was very clear: He was asked to negotiate a peace with the Kun thieves as soon as possible to avoid suffering a greater blow.
Negotiating peace, negotiating peace, Li Fengjie was half frustrated, half angry. He originally wanted to pay for peace, but he made the wrong calculation at the time, hoping to save a little face before contacting the Australians. Now not only does he have no face, he even loses his dignity.
They are almost gone. Now the Kun thief's fleet is anchored in Baietan, ready to bombard Guangzhou anytime and anywhere - putting him in a dilemma.
Negotiating peace will inevitably encounter attacks from many people, especially Gao Shunqin, who is extremely hostile to all overseas people. God knows how he will impeach the court.
If a war breaks out, there is no guarantee of victory - even if the Kun thieves fail to capture Guangzhou, it is certain that they will be dismissed from office after this round of troubles. If the Kun thieves break through the city, they will not even be able to protect their lives.
Thinking of this, he frowned and sighed.
He Chengzong whispered: "My lord, now we can only pay quickly to let the navy of Kun Thief withdraw from Baietan. As time goes by, there will be no way to explain!"
"I can't explain it now!" Li Fengjie said grumblingly.
"Sir, there is always a way to deal with it now. If this thief starts fighting outside Guangzhou again, I'm afraid there will be no way to deal with it!"