Fenghou

"Then how did your army cross the sea?"

"We usually use merchant ships to transport soldiers across the sea."

Cao De nodded. He had seen the merchant ships of the Three Buddhas Qi Kingdom, which were built fairly solidly and could sail along the coast.

"Actually, your king made a wishful thinking, and the battle at sea will be handed over to the Yong army."

Chanon was a little embarrassed and said: "Our king is willing to sell the Three Hundred Miles Peninsula precisely because he has great expectations for your army."

……

It was mid-April, and on this morning, two patrol warships found a strange ship with a very slender hull, like a praying mantis, about a thousand stones.

It was completely different from the merchant ships we usually see. The two sentry ships gradually approached the mantis ship. The mantis ship suddenly spotted the sentry ship of the Yong Army, and suddenly speeded up, trying to escape.

The two sentinel boats chased for hundreds of miles, watching the mantis boat enter the Strait of Malacca and sail westward.

Only then did the two sentinel ships rush back to report.

Cao De sent someone to invite Zhang Jiugong from the post station.

Not long after, Zhang Jiugong rushed over, clasped his fists and asked, "What orders does Mr. Cao have for the villain?"

Cao De handed him a blueprint and said with a smile, "Jiu Gong is well-informed, have you ever seen such a ship?"

Zhang Jiugong glanced at the ship and was taken aback, "This is Zhu Luo's ghost ship!"

"What ghost ship?" Cao De asked puzzled.

"Actually, it is the sentry ship of the Zhuluo Kingdom. There used to be a group of pirates in the Straits of Malacca, who killed people and looted goods. They were very cruel. Their ships were this kind of ghost ship. Later, I found out that this pirate was the Zhuluo Kingdom's army in disguise. They have been monitoring the Three Buddhas. Qi State."

"Is this band of pirates still there?"

"It was killed by Liu Dajiang and the others last year. It doesn't exist."

Cao De nodded, "I understand, so the ghost ship that appears now cannot be a pirate, it can only be a sentry ship from the Zhu Luo Kingdom."

"That's exactly what it means!"

Cao De felt a little remorseful, and should have ordered the sentinel ship to capture the ghost ship, but there was nothing he could do now.

He was a general, and he knew that once the outpost appeared, the main force of the enemy army would appear soon.

Cao De immediately made deployments. On the one hand, he sent several sentry ships to monitor near the Malacca Strait, and on the other hand, he sent people to inform the Three Buddhas and Qi Kingdom to prepare as soon as possible, and the Zhu Luo Kingdom was about to kill them.

Ten days later, hundreds of large ships appeared on the sea in the Malacca Strait, and a hundred thousand Zhuluo army came to kill them.

Zhu Luoguo was established for more than 1000 years, and it gradually came to the end of the dynasty. Various disadvantages abounded, the gap between rich and poor was extremely serious, the people at the bottom were displaced, the people were in dire straits, peasant uprisings continued one after another, the government could not collect taxes, the finances deteriorated, and they could not afford the army's expenses.

Under internal and external difficulties, in order to divert domestic conflicts and plunder wealth, the king and nobles of the Zhuluo Kingdom decided to invade Nanyang again and completely plunder the wealth and population of Nanyang.

The first thousand and 550 chapters and seven sea battles

Cao De immediately made a decisive decision to leave only [-] troops to guard the island, and the remaining [-] naval troops attacked. Thirty thousand-stone ships and twenty two-thousand-stone warships sailed out of the bay and headed towards the old port.

The first goal of the Zhuluo fleet was the city of Zhanbei. Hundreds of warships came out of the Straits of Malacca and headed straight for Zhanbei.

Although Palembang is still the capital, the economic and trade center has been transferred to Zhanbei, and all the trade and wealth have gradually been transferred to Palembang. There is only a bloated and dilapidated city left in Palembang, and the population is not much in Zhanbei.

Zhu Luoguo has been pretending to be pirates to collect intelligence about the Three Buddhas. Of course they know that Zhanbei is where the population and wealth are concentrated.

The warships of the Zhu Luo State were also very large, no less than the Wanshi ships of the Yong Dynasty, but their warships were far less flexible than the Wanshi ships of the Yong army, and they were very clumsy and slow.

But even so, the arrival of the [-] troops from the Zhuluo Kingdom still terrified Zhanbei City. The people fled here and there, and many people living outside the city fled into the virgin forest. city ​​guard.

However, Nanyang cities are generally small and rammed with mud. They are still vulnerable to the powerful fire attack of the Zhu Luo Kingdom. Even the soldiers of the Zhu Luo Kingdom can smash the city walls with giant logs.

I saw white sails like clouds on the sea in the distance, and dense ships covered the sea. The soldiers in Chamber trembled with fright, and they felt like abandoning the city and fleeing.

At this moment, someone shouted: "Look, there is a fleet coming from the east!"

I saw another fleet appeared on the sea farther to the east. It was the lucky boat they were familiar with. "It's the fleet of the Celestial Dynasty. Our reinforcements are here!"

Tens of thousands of soldiers on the top of the city suddenly cheered...

The warships of the Yong army were all equipped with paddles and sails, so they sailed extremely fast. Although Cao De was also on the big ship, the commander of the battle was Ruan De, the commander of the upper army. He was the commander of the navy and had rich experience.

Ruan De discovered the characteristics of the enemy's warship from a distance. It was huge, clumsy, and slow. It was still more than ten miles away from the enemy. Ruan De ordered: "Lower the sails!"

The signal was given, other ships lowered their sails, and the fleet slowed.

At this time, Zhu Luoguo's fleet also found the fleet coming from the east. They thought it was a warship from the Three Buddhas and Qi Kingdom killed from Palembang.

The opponent's ships are not many, only fifty warships, compared to Zhu Luo's hundreds of warships, it is still too few. Zhu Luo's tactics are also very simple, concentrate their forces to surround the opponent, and then set fire to destroy the opponent's ships.

Fifty years ago, this is how they destroyed the navy of the Three Buddhas. More than 50 sailors and nearly a hundred warships were surrounded by the Chula fleet and burned to the ground. Tens of thousands of soldiers of the Three Buddhas were in The scene of being burned to death and howling on the water made Zhu Luoguo happy for decades.

"A geese formation!"

Ruan Du gave an order, and the warships of the Yong army began to disperse. Two ships were in the middle, and the other warships spread out to both sides. This is a classic naval battle formation. A small number of warships are used as bait to break into the encirclement of the enemy. , other warships attacked from the periphery.

This kind of naval warfare tactic is very risky. Generally, high-value ships enter the encirclement, so the opponent's encirclement will not be disbanded easily. In fact, they are sacrificing themselves to create opportunities for other ships.

Of course Ruan De would not sacrifice himself, he ordered a three-thousand-stone warship to follow him, and if necessary, he would use the high flexibility of the three-thousand-stone warship to break through.

The opponent's commanding flagship entered the encirclement, and Zhu Luoguo's coach was really unwilling to give up. He ordered the encirclement to be contracted, and waited for other large ships to enter the encirclement before killing them all.

A warship of Wanshi and a big ship of Zhuluo State passed each other with a distance of about [-] steps. The sailors of Zhuluo State threw kerosene pots and bottles at the ships of Yongjun. It's just that there are a lot of them, and hundreds of them throwing kerosene bottles together is quite spectacular.

It's a pity that the two big ships are more than [-] steps apart, and the manpower can throw more than [-] steps at most. Although this tactic is good, it is very unreliable in actual implementation. All the kerosene bottles fell into the sea. It can only be said that Gu Asan The genetics are strong.

However, the way of thinking of the Zhuluo people is still different from that of the Yong army. It doesn't matter if the clay pot falls into the sea, anyway, it will flow out and float on the water. When it is ignited, it will also burn into a sea of ​​flames. After a while, the enemy soldiers Falling into the sea will make them feel better.

Just as the two big ships passed each other, the Yong army also launched an attack, 'Bang!boom! There were two muffled sounds in a row, and two small trebuchets launched at the same time. What they fired was burning kerosene, but the target was the sail of the enemy's large ship. Dots of kerosene flew towards the sail, and dozens of groups The fire sludge hung on the sails and burned, and the sails quickly turned into a mass of fire. The soldiers of Zhuluo State exclaimed and rushed to set sails to put out the fire.

At this time, the mast should be cut off, instead of letting down the flaming sails, the burning sails fell, and the deck was full of flames, causing the soldiers of Zhuluo to be in chaos.

At the same time, the porthole on the hull of the Yongjun warship opened, and three stone cannons stretched out, which are actually giant crossbows. The three stone cannons were fired together, and the three spiked iron fire mines were fired together. The stone cannons were not projectiles. Accuracy is much higher than projectile.

The long spikes of three ten-pound iron fire thunders were inserted into the hull and nailed to the hull, emitting green smoke. Soldiers on the side of the ship saw the iron fire thunders and pointed at them and shouted loudly .

At this moment, "Boom! Boom! Boom!" Three explosions sounded at the same time, flames burst out, black smoke filled the air, three large holes were blasted into the hull, sea water poured in, the hull tilted rapidly, and the enemy soldiers Falling into the sea, the kerosene floating on the sea was ignited by the fire on board, and there was a scream on the sea.

The ship began to sink, creating a huge vortex on the surface of the sea, and sucked all the soldiers into the bottom of the sea. The surface of the sea was clean, except for some bits and pieces of kerosene still burning.

But this is just the beginning. The warships of the Yong army have mastered the weaknesses of the enemy's ships. Thirty three-thousand-stone warships have given full play to their maneuverability and are interspersed among the enemy's giant ships. The rockets shot at the sails, and within a moment, more than half of the sails of hundreds of warships were set ablaze.

Without the sails, the Zhuluo Kingdom's giant ship lost its power. It was already slow and clumsy, but now it was even slower, like elephants trapped in the mud, unable to move on the sea.

Ruan Du's flagship relied on its wheels and paddles to exert its huge speed and flexibility advantages, and it continued to take the initiative to attack. It stared at the enemy's flagship.

This is also a flagship of nearly ten thousand stones. Its sails have been burned by the fire mud thrown by the three thousand stone warships, and it cannot move on the sea.

But Ruan De's ship had just approached the enemy's giant ship, and the rain of arrows shot at it, but it had no effect. The soldiers on the ship did not dare to throw the kerosene tank, otherwise the kerosene would burn in the sea, and they would only fall into the flames.

The enemy's flagship was also aware of the danger, and the soldiers on board rowed desperately with long poles, but with little effect, and could only move slowly eastward along the ocean current.

"Seventy steps, turn right!"

Ruan De gave the order, the left wheel oar stopped turning, the right wheel oar turned quickly, and the hull also turned right quickly, so that it was parallel to the enemy ship. At this time, there were two ships.

A few iron fire mines shot across, one fell into the sea, and the other two were nailed to the hull of the ship. The iron fire mines in the sea exploded first, setting off a huge wave, and then the iron fire mines on the ship also exploded,' boom!boom! 'The explosion was deafening.

The ship lost its balance, capsized on the surface of the sea, and soon sank into the sea. Together with the commander, five hundred soldiers died at the bottom of the sea.

The warships of the Yong army became more and more courageous as they fought. They were merciless and aggressive. Huge ships were blown up and sank in despair. Soldiers who fell into the water were also shot to death by random arrows, leaving no one alive.

This is a classic naval battle. Although the nearly [-] giant ships of the Zhu Luo Kingdom are huge in size, their technology is very backward, and they are completely driven by wind power. broiler.

Although the number of warships of the Yong army is not as many as that of the opponent, they are superior in that they have advanced firearms and projection technology, as well as flexible and flexible wheels, so that the ships can sail at high speed on the sea without relying on wind power at all.

As long as you don't get close to the opponent, so that the opponent's close-range hand-to-hand combat cannot be played out, then there will be no suspense about the outcome of this naval battle.

It took the Yong army one day to wipe out nearly [-] giant Zhuluo ships and [-] troops from the sea.

The Sanfoqi army watching the battle from a distance also witnessed a powerful Celestial army, and they were even more terrified from the bottom of their hearts. For hundreds of years since then, the Sanfoqi Kingdom and later the Majapahit Kingdom have always surrendered to the Celestial Kingdom , all because of this.

Shortly after the war, the Chula Kingdom was destroyed by the Pandya Kingdom established by the Tamils ​​in the south.

Chapter 550 and Eight Vulnerabilities

In Xianyang County, a middle-aged man hurriedly walked into an alley called Chunshui Lane.

The man's name is Kong Yuan, and he was appointed as a master craftsman by the official. He has no fame. He first turned from a civilian officer in the army to a professional officer. It is also because of his lack of fame. Kong Yuan has been hovering in the eighth-rank official for these years, and it is difficult for him to be promoted. .

Kong Yuan walked to the end, knocked on the door, a young lady opened the door, she turned around and shouted: "Ma'am, it's the master!"

Immediately afterwards, a three or four-year-old child ran out, opened his arms and shouted, "Daddy hug!"

Kong Yuan hugged his son joyfully, "My dear son, I miss my daddy!"

A young woman came out of the room, she was very pretty, she smiled and said, "When did you come back?"

"Just came back, haven't come home yet!"

"Then can the master spend the night here?"

"can!"

The young woman was overjoyed, and quickly took some copper coins and handed them to the maid, "Go buy some wine and come back, do you have any vegetables at home? By the way, take Xiaobao with you."

Watching the maid take the child away, Kong Yuan picked up the woman and walked into the house, "My dear, do you miss me?"

"Let me go, she'll be right back."

Kong Yuan chuckled, "No, she is sensible."

The two chatted in the room, but the maid did not come back, put on her clothes, Kong Yuan put ten taels of silver on the table, "This is for you."

"Master, I have given it this month."

"Take it! There is a lot of waste this month, so I made some money."

"Master, what about the title you agreed upon?"

Kong Yuan's face suddenly became bitter. This young woman used to be a singer. She was taken care of by Kong Yuan, and she was very competitive. She gave birth to a son for him after only one year of support.

But young women want titles, they can't be wives, concubines are fine, but Kong Yuan is not qualified to take concubines, he doesn't meet the three qualifications for concubines, he has no honorary officer, no fame, and he is two levels away from the seventh-rank official.

The key is that he has no talent, his ability is mediocre, and he is rated as middle or above every year. If he wants to be promoted, he must have at least three years in a term of office. , if the evaluation is low, he will be demoted.

If he has no money to donate to an honorary officer, he can't be promoted to an official position, and he can't pass the exam for fame. He has no hope of marrying a concubine. Of course, there is another way to divorce his wife and marry a bride. But his wife's natal family is very powerful, and he dare not divorce his wife .

Seeing that he didn't say a word, the woman said aggrievedly: "It doesn't matter if I have a name or not, but Xiaobao is four years old, and he is still an illegitimate child. Don't you feel sad?"

The woman's words hit Kong Yuan's life gate, and he sighed, "I'll go and find a way!"

He got up and walked out, but the woman quickly stopped him, "Master isn't staying here for the night?"

"I'm going to find a friend to find a way, and come back in two days."

The woman couldn't stop her, so she had to watch the man go away, feeling remorse in her heart, that she shouldn't have forced him.

……

Kong Yuan found Yao Kaishan, Wei of Xianyang County. Yao Kaishan was his good friend. He also sympathized with Kong Yuan. He was in his 40s and only had two daughters. .

The Yong Dynasty had very strict management on concubinage qualifications, mainly to encourage childbearing, so that women of the right age had the opportunity to have more children, and the emperor himself set an example. The palace maids at the age of 20 were all released to marry and have children, usually married to guards .

Another more ruthless thing is that those who have taken a concubine for five years and have not given birth must remarry. Like Zhou Kuan's several concubines, who have been a concubine for five years and have not given birth, they have to pay a sum of money to let the concubine go back to his hometown and remarry.

Although this move was ruthless, the final result was good. Zhou Kuan's concubines all gave birth to children after remarrying and became mothers.

Yao Kaishan sighed and said, "I have two suggestions for you. First, you should write an agreement with that woman. She has nothing to do with you. Do you understand? If she wants to find a man or marry someone, it has nothing to do with you. But son, you recognize that the money you gave is for raising the son, and has nothing to do with her."

Kong Yuan knew what Yao Kaishan meant. It was a big taboo to raise a housewife. Once an official was found out, he would lose his official position or be convicted of a crime. If people cannot be fined, they will be punished.

As the population grows, the strict regulations on taking concubines and keeping other housewives may be gradually relaxed in the future, but they will not be relaxed for at least ten or twenty years.

Kong Yuan was silent for a moment, then asked again: "What about the second suggestion?"

"The second suggestion is to take her as a concubine as soon as possible. Does your wife allow it?"

Kong Yuan sighed, "If she has a son, she should allow it, and she has promised it before, but the point is that I can't get the right to be a concubine!"

"It should be fine to donate an honor officer, you are now Captain Yunqi!"

"I also know that I am now a captain of Yunqi. I have to upgrade two levels to be a captain of Xiaoqi, and I can only take concubines when I am a captain of Xiaoqi. I have to spend at least two thousand coins. Where can I get it? Sorry!"

"Not so much, five hundred coins is enough!"

Kong Yuan was taken aback, "Why?"

Yao Kaishan smiled slightly and said, "You can also donate food."