Dominate the Country

The only person who could be relied on in the Guangdong war was Gan Guobao, who was in his sixties and from Fujian. He was good at both literature and martial arts, and was a true Confucian general. He was not only excellent in martial arts, but also good at writing, calligraphy and painting. It is said that when Gan Guobao was thirteen years old, he had finished reading the Four Books and Five Classics. At the age of fourteen, he participated in the county examination for Wentong, and his name was repeatedly ranked first in the county. The bad boys in the neighboring village often bullied him out of jealousy, so Gan Guobao was angry and became a disciple of Lin Diankui, a martial arts candidate, to learn martial arts. Because of his natural talent and hard work, his martial arts improved quickly. But whether this "rumor" was true or not, the secret camp could not verify it.

Although Beijing City was experiencing a "wave of distrust" towards the Han people because of the surrender of Wu Bi Da and Huang Shi Jian, in Guangdong, the three great giants of the Qing Dynasty, Bayan San, Zeng Hai, and Liang Qing, all trusted Admiral Gan Guobao and relied on him as a great wall.

The only difference between the goal of the Fu Han Army Navy and that of the Qing Army Navy in Guangdong is that the situation they have to face is much more complicated.

First of all, Gan Guobao is not sure of winning. He dare not easily fight a decisive battle with the Fu Han Army Navy, but he must fight the Fu Han Army Navy to a decisive victory. This is the biggest burden that troubles Gan Guobao, and it weighs heavily on his mind; because the Guangdong Navy must not be blocked in the mouth of the Pearl River. Otherwise, the entire Guangdong-Guangxi sea area will become a corridor for the Fu Han Army, and its army can land anywhere on the long coastline and then attack inland cities.

Secondly, Gan Guobao has gathered the main forces of the Guangdong Navy, Jieshi Town, Nan'ao Town [missing], Qiongzhou Town, Beihai Town, Gaozhou Town, with many people and ships, and it is not unreasonable to use them to confront the Southeast Navy. But in addition to a large-scale Southeast Navy, the Fu Han Army also has the Nanyang Navy led by the Zheng family.

Gan Guobao drew out the navy from Qiongzhou, Beihai and Gaozhou to confront the navy of Fu Han Army. But what if the Zheng family fleet took the opportunity to attack Qiongzhou, Beihai and Gaozhou? That is the westernmost part of Guangdong Province. If the Fu Han Army occupied the three prefectures and attacked Hainan via Leizhou to the north, it could attack Zhaoqing again and cut off the connection between Guangdong and Guangxi. Moreover, could the morale of the officers and soldiers of the three towns, whose old nests were not protected, remain as stable as a rock?

The Qing navy was obviously at a disadvantage, but the situation forced Gan Guobao to fight this battle urgently.

He set the battlefield in the waters around Huizhou, which is the eastern waters of Hong Kong in later generations. His calculation was: "Once the war situation is unfavorable, the navy will be divided into two, one part will retreat westward to Qiongzhou and Leizhou, and the other part will retreat to the mouth of the Pearl River."

Gan Guobao did not hide anything from Bayan San and the other three people. He spoke the truth and was absolutely sincere, but he seemed a little unconfident. Regarding this battle, Gan Guobao replied: "Although there is no certainty of victory, there is a determination to die for the cause."

Bayansan's face was very long and unhappy, but Zenghai did not feel that he was very discouraged. Instead, he comforted Gan Guobao and said: "A three-foot-tall orphan can still fight, let alone the unity of the people." Cowards often lose their souls in the face of dark clouds and lament their fate; only the strong can remain calm in the midst of chaotic clouds, and with fearless courage, open up the dawn of opportunities in the crisis.

In front of Bayansan and Liangqing, Zenghai is a strong man.

"The emperor's grace is great. Guobao has been promoted from a commoner to the governor of a province. I will die for him. I am ashamed to associate with people like Duan Xiulin, Wu Bi Da and Huang Shi Jian who are still alive in the world."

"I only hope that the emperor can cheer up, rebuild the country, and revive the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty. Guobao will die without regrets."

Before leaving, Gan Guobao said this to Zeng Hai who was seeing him off. Zeng Hai burst into tears. "Loyal minister, a great loyal minister."

Jiangnan is finished. Nanchang has been captured by the Fu Han Army. Now it's the turn of Guangdong and Guangxi. It's hard for the entire South to make any progress. What will happen to the Qing Dynasty in the future and where it will go depends on whether the emperor in Beijing can rebuild the world and rebuild the country.

The sound of cannons roared, gongs and drums shook the sky, and the huge fleet of the Guangdong Navy headed south little by little, towards the mouth of the Pearl River, towards the Lingdingyang, and towards the open sea. Zeng Hai looked at the fleet of the navy disappearing at the junction of the sea and the sky, and his eyes were always wet.

Gan Guobao's destination was Daya Bay. Later, the new China built China's first large-scale commercial nuclear power plant there.

As early as the Qing Dynasty more than 200 years ago, this place was already a military stronghold. Dapeng'ao in Daya Bay is one of the garrisons of the navy, and Sanmen Island not far away is an important sea pass and military fortress in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

It took the Guangdong Navy three days to get there, and three days after Gan Guobao led his troops to Daya Bay, a fleet from afar also arrived off the coast of Daya Bay. That was naturally the Southeast Navy of the Fu Han Army.

The Southeast Navy's voyage on the sea was three times that of the Qing Army, especially after passing Nan'ao Island and entering the Guangdong waters, the 600-mile sea route did not stop.

The battle started in the afternoon of the day when the Fu Han Army Navy arrived.

Gan Guobao would not make the same mistake as Zheng Ming's general Liu Guoxuan did back then, giving the enemy who came from afar a chance to breathe. Although this battle was of great importance, especially the first battle, any setback would inevitably affect the overall situation.

But he still boldly ordered Wei Wenwei, the general of Jieyang Town, to fight against the enemy, and He Sihe, the general of Nan'ao Town, to lead troops to respond.

It was already September, and it took less than a month to transport boats across the two thousand miles of sea before and after, and finally gathered more than 40,000 infantry in Xiamen, with a large amount of military supplies and ammunition.

At this time, the southeast wind has weakened to a negligible level, and the northeast monsoon on the sea is gradually getting stronger. The warships of both sides are moving fast and hitting violently under the whistling sea breeze. With the size of Chinese warships, even if they are in formation, they are easily blown away. When Shi Lang attacked Taiwan, he thought that the northeast wind was strong, and the fleet's attack would be easily blown away by the fierce northeast wind, and then it would become a living target. The south wind is stable, and even if the attack is frustrated, it can be arranged calmly and attack steadily. So it is advocated to attack Taiwan in summer.

The current war is just as Shi Lang said. The warship formations of Wang Haichao and Guo Nan, who were sent by the Fu Han Army to fight, were quickly blown away, and it was difficult to adjust. The Qing army also encountered the same problem, and the two sides simply mixed together, and the naval battle soon entered a melee.

All the troops sent by the Fu Han Army this time belonged to the original Zhang Qiu fleet. Although Zhang Qiu's fleet and Fujian Navy have merged into one, there is still a big rift between them. You push me and I compete for military merits, and they will not give in at all. It's just that the strict military discipline of the Fu Han Army makes them dare not really undermine each other, and they can only "encourage competition" in a "peaceful" situation.

This battle should have been sent by Fujian Navy and Zhang's fleet, but Zhang Qiu relied on his position as the top leader and rejected the suggestion of Dai Tingdong, the commander of the front army of the Southeast Navy. Deputy Admiral Ye Xiangde stayed in the rear team to supervise the battle. In this front army, there is no one in the Fujian Navy who can compete with Zhang Qiu.

Especially when Zhang Qiu was careless and unreasonable, he directly pointed out the generals of Wang Haichao and Guo Nan.

Of course, Dai Tingdong didn't think Zhang Qiu was well-intentioned. Wang Haichao and Guo Nan were not law-abiding people, especially the latter. Fujian Navy and Zhang's fleet are old rivals, and they are not ignorant of some things inside Zhang Qiu's fleet. Besides, in the more than one month since the two merged, Guo Nan had embarrassed Zhang Qiu several times in public. Of course, Guo Nan also ignored Ye Xiangde, even though Ye Xiangde had punished Guo Nan several times, Guo Nan was still very dissatisfied with Ye Xiangde. He was even more dissatisfied with Dai Tingdong's occupation of the first front army among the five armies of the navy.

Thunder ships, shuttle ships, Ganzheng ships, bird ships, Fu ships, large and small, hundreds of warships on both sides were mixed together.

The Qing army had a large number of warships, and the Fu Han army had strong quality warships. The former had both large and small ships, and the latter were all large and medium-sized main warships.

"Boom boom boom..."

The sea was filled with smoke, and the distance between the two sides was very close, and warships were hit from time to time.

Wang Haichao stood in front of the deckhouse in the red uniform of the Fu Han army. It was said that His Highness Lu Gong had prepared to write a letter to change the color of the navy uniform. The sea is all red, which is too unlucky. And the new military uniforms are said to be quite unique, designed by His Royal Highness Lu Gong himself.

Wang Haichao thought the red uniforms were very good, he was born to like red.

"Get the rockets ready!"

The large shuttle boat that Wang Haichao was riding on had completely entered the Qing army formation, and the nearest Qing warship was only three or four hundred meters away from it. At such a short distance, bombarding with artillery shells may not be accurate, but using fast and simple rockets to attack will definitely be very effective.

The rockets that Chen Ming made were "advanced weapons" that he copied and improved based on his impression of the Hale rocket. They were much more advanced than the Indian rockets of this era and the Congreve rockets invented by the British more than 20 years later.

The tail of the rocket is equipped with an inclined stabilizing spiral plate, and the tail of the rocket is reduced in caliber, which makes the ejected gunpowder gas faster and more powerful, and also makes the rocket spin in flight to achieve a certain degree of ballistic stability. In addition, the gunpowder in the projectile is arranged in sections - of course, it is not the automatic separation after the fuel is exhausted like modern rockets, but the gunpowder is burned in sections in the iron shell, which can make the rocket's "endurance" stronger, but the explosive power is weakened - the author's assumption, professionals don't shoot me - this has reduced the pressure inside the shell, the shell of the rocket is cast iron, and the wall thickness is very thin. When manufacturing rockets, it took several months just to test the optimal value of the wall thickness.

These new designs made the rocket leave the long guide rod of the Congreve era, and greatly improved the accuracy and hit rate of the rocket.

The Hale rocket in history was born at the wrong time. The era when it appeared was already an era when firearms entered the fast lane. Just like the Mini rifle, it became outdated as soon as it was invented. Even the British themselves rarely equipped Hale rockets. It was the Americans who paid for the patent of Hale rockets during the Civil War, and then the Austrians. They used Hale rockets to deal with the insurgents on the battlefields of Hungary and Italy. The latter had inferior weapons and equipment, which allowed the Austrian rocket troops to achieve considerable results. But in any case, in the second half of the 19th century, against the historical background of the rapid development of artillery technology represented by rifled guns and smokeless gunpowder, the decline of modern rocket weapons has become a foregone conclusion.

But if the appearance of Hale rockets had been advanced by 70 years, it would have been extremely powerful at this time!

As for why Chen Ming did not take out this weapon at the beginning, the concern was the same as that of the flying thunder cannon, which consumed too much gunpowder, and the manufacturing technology of this thing was too simple and had no technical content. As long as the Qing army could get one or two, the inferior goods they prevented from coming out could bring a lot of unnecessary trouble to the Fu Han army even if they could not compare with the original version in terms of long range and power.

The Fu Han Army was really awesome when Chen Ming solved his gunpowder problem and started to manufacture rockets. It was also the time when Chen Ming no longer had to worry about gunpowder. In addition, the troops went to Jiangnan and gathered a group of skilled craftsmen, who played a great role in the rocket shell casting process.

Hanzhong's high-quality saltpeter, Hunan, Hubei and even Jiangnan's rapidly developing saltpeter mines, plus Taiwan's high-quality sulfur, and even sulfur directly traded from Japan. Tang Feipeng, who was a fellow villager of Chen Jie and was sent to Japan, was able to quickly gain a foothold in Nagasaki thanks to the Japanese sulfur.

With both internal and external conditions, Chen Ming lit up the technology tree of "rocket".

Wang Haichao had a full 100 rockets on his ship.

The heavy ones were over 60 kilograms, the largest ones were over 70 kilograms, and the lightest ones were 20 kilograms.

The iron launcher only needed a few nails and a wedge to fix it. The speed of rockets was so fast that it could completely exceed the imagination of people of this era. A hundred rockets are a lot, right? If you get excited, it's just a blink of an eye. Wang Haichao has ten rocket launchers in his hands!

According to tests, when the firing angle is 4-5 degrees, the range of the rocket is about one mile; when the firing angle is 45 degrees, the maximum range can reach 4 miles, and the general range is no less than three miles. In the hot weapons of this era, the power, speed, accuracy and range are quite impressive.

A rapid white exhaust gas rises from the back of the launch tube, and the orange-red light seems to be sandwiched in the white gas. The white gas sprays on the deck, and the gas rises up, and Wang Haichao's face is as hot as a roasting fire.

In front of the launcher, a black streak passes quickly in a cloud of white smoke.

Looking up, you can also see the flickering tail flame in the air.

——On Earth, the course of the entire history of marine warfare has changed at this moment.

When Chen Ming applied rockets to the sea, he added a more cruel hell mode to the mode of naval warfare. Imagine two sailing warships facing each other, just like a volley of gunfire on land, shooting rockets at each other. How long can a first-class battleship, no matter how strong it is, hold out?

Of course, the premise of this scene is that the rocket technology has been made public. Another thing is that the distance between the two sides in the naval battle is very close.

In the chaotic naval battle, on the sea filled with gunpowder, a Qing warship being hit is not noticeable, but when more and more Qing warships are hit by rockets, especially two Qing army's large ganzheng ships are hit by rockets continuously and paralyzed on the sea, turning into two large torches, Wei Wenwei and He Sihe no longer know that the situation is not good, they are absolutely stupid.

"Boom boom boom..."

Wang Haichao's Leizi No. 1 warship was also hit by three shells at a short distance. The full sail was cut into two large holes. The third cannon on the starboard side had disappeared and fell directly into the sea from the hole. Five members of the entire gun crew died and one was seriously injured. The other two shells hit the bow and the other hit the cabin.

Wang Haichao didn't care about these minor injuries. He shouted to the helmsman to continue to approach the Qing warship, "Fire Dragon Bomb, hurry, Fire Dragon Bomb, get ready..." Fire Dragon Bomb is the official name of rockets in the Fu Han Army. Wang Haichao was so excited that he didn't even care about the cannons on the warship.

Fire Dragon Bomb, Fire Dragon Bomb, this is too amazing.

"Boom boom..." Five rockets, two hit the opposite Qing warship.

He Sihe had no idea where the two "shells" came from. He was looking through a telescope at the shells fired by a Fu Han Army ship in front of him. No matter how he looked at them, he felt that the shape of these shells was wrong. They were not round. They looked like firecrackers or sky rockets. The violent explosion made his body hit the wall of the ship like a thrown ball.