Lu Ming

"Damn it, why did you forget to come out!" Bai Yu'er realized in an instant: Xiong Wencan was going to leave the city from the south gate early this morning.These people who came to the south gate now must be the vanguard of Jingjie, so before Xiong Wencan returns to the city, the south gate will definitely not allow people to come in and out.

After Bai Yu'er figured this out, he started to run wildly again without hesitation: the direction was due east.

Since the south gate might be blocked, the best choice is the Tongxian gate in the east.Between Tongxian Gate and South Gate, there is only Jiuxian Mountain, which was newly opened in the fourth year of Hongwu, when Fuzhou City was rebuilt by Prince Consort Wang Gong.

Bai Yu'er ran desperately, running past the county government office of Min County, the government school, and the foot of Jiuxian Mountain. When the sky turned pale, he had already seen the gate tower of Tongxian Gate.

Not only did he see the tower, he also saw sparse people standing under the tower waiting to leave the city.Most of these people are carrying sticks on their backs, and they are laborers who are going to get up early and go outside the city to do the work.

At the same time as Bai Yu'er ran to the gate of the city to stand in front of the horse posts, a drum sounded from the top of the city.Then, panting heavily, Bai Yu'er, who leaned on his knees with both hands, was relieved to see through the dark city gate hole, the ray of skylight that gradually brightened as the city gate slowly opened.

Bai Yu'er knew that soon all the gates of the city would be opened, and then Cheng Ding would come and move the horses away. Afterwards, he only needed to pay a few copper coins to leave this murderous city and run towards the light. Run to freedom.

... The sound of horseshoes sounded again.

A group of five or six war horses came galloping from the street, frightening the pedestrians on the side of the road to retreat.However, the cavalry did not slow down until they rushed to the front of the horses, and the leading knight reined in the reins of the horses.

"I am Chen Ce, Chief of the Horse Army of Fubiao Camp, and the guard of the city gate came out to answer!" The one who shouted loudly on horseback was a man wearing bright silver armor and a helmet with phoenix wings on his head, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. A majestic and majestic young general with a broad face.

At this moment, the gatekeeper hurriedly ran out of the gate.

As soon as the young general saw the official robe on the general manager, he threw a scroll in his hand: "According to the military order of the governor, the gates of the whole city will be opened half an hour late today. After half an hour, people are allowed to enter and not allowed to leave. One hour before the gate can be withdrawn."

The gatekeeper smiled as he opened the paper and glanced at it hastily, then hurriedly turned his head and yelled at the gatehouse: "Close the gate, close the gate..."

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "supervising standard battalion" and "fubiao battalion" directly under the jurisdiction of a local governor were important strategic forces for maintaining the stability of a province.This kind of core force usually has sufficient military pay, excellent equipment, skilled soldiers, and high morale;

So when the gatekeeper of Tongxianmen saw such a domineering armored cavalry, he didn't need to guess that it was the Jingzhi army of Fubiao Camp.

So, the city gate that was half opened just now began to slowly close again.

Therefore, Bai Yu'er, who could no longer bear the blow of disappointment, turned over the horse stake without hesitation at this moment, and ran towards the freedom that had not yet been closed.

"Bold!" Chen Ce, a handsome man in armor, couldn't help being furious when he saw someone dared to violate the military order and pass through the barrier face to face.So as soon as he stretched out his hand, he took off a black lacquered Zhe wood bow from the side of the saddle. The next moment, the arrow was like a shooting star, and Bai Yu'er was nailed to death without even entering the city gate.

The fish that slipped through the net finally died under a certain force's ultimate move "Close the Nine Gates", without causing any waves.

……

At the same time as Bai Yu'er died, the guard of honor of Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan was passing through the south gate tower.

Since the fifth watch, Zheng Zhilong, who had been waiting for Shangguan at the official pier in the south of the city, had already seen a large group of people pouring out from the south gate.He naturally reached into his arms and took out the beautiful cloisonné pocket watch. After checking the time, he nodded slightly.

"Look, brother, Xiong Fujun is out of the city!" Zheng Zhihu, who was waiting with him, pointed in the direction of the city gate.

"Well, it's a bit early, my lord is looking forward to our men going back early." Having said this, Zheng Zhilong, who was in a great mood, couldn't help but smile.

"Then go early and come back early, and bring all the brothers to put on official clothes!"

"I'm afraid that some shopkeepers are not happy..."

While the Zheng brothers were chatting relaxedly, Xiong Wencan's large army gradually arrived at the pier.At this moment, the sky was already bright, and Zheng Zhilong and Naidi hurried up to meet Lao Xiong's eight-carried sedan chair as soon as it landed.

After the governor in a bright red official robe came out of the sedan chair, he enjoyed himself happily, and the drama of the monarch and his ministers getting along with each other was staged again.And this time there was an audience: a large number of elite bidders on the shore and a large number of elite Zheng's pirates on board witnessed this play performed by professional actors - "Farewell".

Prostrating and saluting, talking enthusiastically, Chunchun teaching, giving wine as parting farewell... When the four-act drama was finished, the last act finally began.

Zheng Zhilong stood at the bow of the boat, bowed slowly to the end, and shouted with a face full of reluctance: "My lord, Zhilong is going now."

And Xiong was also full of reluctance, with the expression of Wang Lun giving Li Bai a suit, and gently waved: "Go, go, go early, good morning..."

With the joy of Ke Jinggong's success and full of longing, Zheng Zhilong left like this.

And Xiong Wencan, who also achieved the purpose of publicity, turned back into the sedan chair with a blank expression at the moment the Zheng family's fleet sailed and weighed anchor, and headed back to the Yamen.

After "sending the Zheng family out of the country" with no risk of danger, the time-traveling forces finally took the initiative in their own hands at this moment—from now on, Xiong Wencan will no longer be able to exert pressure on the time-traveling people at will like this time, forcing They mobilized more resources to defend his political line.

……

At the same time as Old Xiong turned to get on the sedan chair, a man in blue came to the door of Zheng Huairen's paper shop, and handed a letter to the clerk at the door.Zheng Huairen, who was not sleeping well, opened the letter after receiving it, and what slipped out was a contact badge of Heng Guangkang, and a piece of paper outside.

A short line of words was written on the paper: "The back alley of Wang's pharmacy is not well-known."

Of course Zheng Huairen knew about Wang's pharmacy, it was in a small street not far from his home.So after reading the letter, Zheng Huairen immediately got up and went straight to the place mentioned in the letter.Not long after, when he reached the back alley of the pharmacy, he saw a guy in Heng Guangkang's gown beckoning to him... So he walked around a donkey cart parked at the alley and walked in.

Not long after, the donkey cart started.The car didn't stop all the way, it came straight to Hengguangkang's side door, and after entering, the driver unloaded the goods on the car in the sedan hall: Zheng Huairen.

In the afternoon, the martial law at the gate of the city was finally lifted, so the donkey cart, accompanied by two yamen servants in official costumes, began to bustle back and forth between the mass grave outside the city and Hengguangkang—this cart will be very busy today , because the body cannot be pulled out at once.

That night, Miss Shuixiu'er from Sanfu Pavilion picked up an elegant guest.Miss Shui Xiu'er, who has already saved enough money to redeem her body and is secretly planning to leave, has already been a little slow at work since today - she is not good at serving guests.

Fortunately, this guest is a generous and gentle person.When he saw that Shui Xiu'er was out of her mind, he didn't take it too seriously, had a few glasses of water and wine with the girl, and then left.

Shui Xiu'er died of the so-called urgent service: wind and cold three days later.

Now, all the finishing work is left to the last one: to transport the silk and satin and more than 2 taels of silver stored in Hengguang Kangli back to Xue Haiyuan's storehouse.

Chapter 211 Killing the King ([-])

According to the information released by the Oceanic Administration of later generations, Fujian has 2214 large and small islands.That is to say, even a native of Fujian can never tell the name of the island in front of the whole family.These islands are as large as counties and counties, and as small as half an acre of land. They are distributed along the coast of Fujian like broken stars, especially in the ocean between Fuzhou and Putian.

On June 1628, 6, three cruisers with clean white soft sails and graceful lines had ambushed in an unnamed small bay in the Meizhou Islands.

The naval task force commanded by Liu Zhe set off almost at the same time as Zheng's fleet.The difference between the two is: Zheng Zhilong sailed from Fuzhou Port in the early morning, while at the same time, the task force sailed from Dayuan Port.

It is now late June.The southeast monsoon blowing from the Pacific Ocean allowed the task force to move across the strait, relying only on sails, to maintain a high speed of 6 knots throughout the entire process.When the fleet drew a slanted line from Dayuan to Meizhou Island off the coast of Putian, it took only 12 hours for a total of 300 kilometers.

The dark night is hard for travelers, and the fleet quickly chose a small bay facing the direction of Fuzhou among the unnamed islands near Meizhou Island, and anchored.

There is a reason for choosing to ambush Zheng's fleet off the coast of Meizhou Island.Zheng's fleet leaving Fuzhou from the mouth of the Minjiang River will soon encounter a complex archipelago with Pingtan Island as its core on the way south.

This area belongs to the sea off Fuqing, densely covered with large and small islands, the waterway is tortuous, and there are too many uncontrollable factors, so it is not suitable for the maneuvering of high-speed fleets.The whole area of ​​the archipelago has to extend to the south of Nanri Island before the sea becomes empty.

Therefore, the task force set the ambush position on the ocean between Meizhou Island and Nanri Island-further south, it entered the border of Quanzhou, which was a bit close to Zheng's army, so it was not safe.

As for Zheng's fleet, they anchored and stopped long before dark. The Fuchuan did not have radar and sonar installed.Zheng's is now going from north to south, against the wind, and in a daytime, the Fuchuan fleet can't get out of the range of Nanri Island no matter what.

In fact, the crossing people now know the location of Zheng's fleet very well.

The pocket watch that Zheng gave me was only used to locate him—the battery and transmitter in the pocket watch are too small, so the monitoring distance is not far.As for Zheng's fleet... such an important large-scale operation that consumes countless resources, the people who travel through will naturally not pin their hopes on a small pocket watch.

During the few days when Zheng's fleet was moored at Fuzhou Wharf, Fuzhou Station had sent several "gifts" into the fleet through different officials.It also includes a gift from Huang Juren, the popular painting of the Governor's Yamen: Bronze Buddha.

The big belly bronze Buddha was finally entrusted to Zheng Zhihu by Huang Juren on the day Lao Xiong saw him off.And Zheng Zhihu also made a promise on the spot: he would definitely bring the bronze Buddha to the same year of a certain Mr. Huang in Zhangzhou.

Therefore, the task force now knows the location of the Zheng family's fleet very well: on the LCD screen of the computer, several red dots located in the north of Nanri Island are clearly displayed.

……

Early the next morning, off the coast of Meizhou Island.

The task force is slowly circling in circles on the ocean.The sailors, who have received formal training for more than half a year, are completing a series of pre-war work on the bumpy deck: sailing, cleaning the deck, maintaining artillery, binding items... The whole scene is orderly, busy but not chaotic, which fully reflects the importance of the navy. The fruit of hard training.

These sailors uniformly wear indigo double-breasted short jackets and leggings with cropped trousers today.In addition, they wear leather shoes on their feet today: buffalo leather shoes.

With the purchase of a large number of materials in Fuzhou City, the textile factory finally has enough ramie for weaving.Similar to denim, the twill imitation denim woven from 30 x 3 strands of ramie thread is quite powerful, and it has become the main clothing material for soldiers and workers as soon as it leaves the factory.

In addition to being heavy and prone to fading after weaving and dyeing with natural indigo, this cloth has few disadvantages, so the navy uses this cloth in large numbers to make clothing.

As for the expensive leather shoes, there was nothing to be done - the traversal crowd could not tolerate their soldiers wearing low straw sandals on the battlefield.So, to be honest, some people really gritted their teeth and bleed in today's operation.

Leather shoe craftsmanship is not worth mentioning to a certain force. There are more than 200 traversing miles, and no less than 5 of them have worked in the leather shoe industry in Wenzhou "during their lifetime", including the famous Wenzhou leather factory.

The difficulty with leather shoes is the material.

Taiwan can provide a lot of buckskin, but no cowhide.Deerskin is excellent for making soft high-end bags, but it is not suitable for soldiers who do cross-country training every day.

Therefore, cowhide, which can only be imported from across the sea for the time being, has now become a commodity in short supply.These big-toed leather shoes issued to soldiers are usually carefully preserved after a few days of running-in. They are only used for celebrations and battles like today.

……

Army soldiers dressed in light grass gray will also take turns to practice sighting and aiming at the side of the ship.It was originally decided that 50 Army soldiers would be stationed on each ship, but the number was reduced due to space issues.

The reason why I wear a somewhat earthy light grass gray military uniform is that it is one of the most easily available vegetable dyes.As for the chemical dyes in the future, whether to follow the hot and cool route of the British Emperor's big red lobster soldiers, or the cold route of the German Second Railway's gray, this has been being tormented by people, and it has not yet been decided.

It is already 6 am on June 25.This fleet, which concentrated the essence of the crossing army, was like a few lazy sharks, swimming slowly in the sea off Meizhou Island, waiting for its prey to come.

At the moment, a group of crossing officers are gathering in the poop of the flagship No. 301, collectively paying attention to the red dot on the computer screen representing the Zheng family's fleet.

"If I were Zheng Zhilong, the first time I saw the fleet, I would turn around and run towards the mainland. I might still have a chance." Wearing a light-colored tropical camouflage, the commander of the Marine Corps, Qian Tieshan, was two widths taller than others. , who was talking nonsense in the cabin at this time.

"That's because he needs to know how powerful we are." At this time, the navy commander Liu Zhe threw the pen on the tactical table with a "click", and then looked at the one beside him with a [-] points, wearing a gray jacket. The man in the shirt: "Ju Ma, does Lao Zheng know how good we are?"

"You underestimate Zheng Zhilong too much. Given how well he knows us, turning around and running away is a high probability event."

Ma Yue, former National Security Bureau professional.This person didn't travel for a long time. After traveling, relying on his unique specialty, he soon became the deputy director of the Intelligence Bureau and reached the sky in one step.

"Bosses now have boats coming in and out almost every day. According to our observations, various spies are still quite active. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong should have a clear judgment on our strength, especially in terms of force."

After listening to Ma Yue's opinion, Liu Zhe was not very surprised: "It doesn't matter, we have fully considered all the situations. It is the same whether he runs or not. The only thing we need to pay attention to now is Zheng Zhilong. Which side of Nanri Island should I go around?"

……

Nanri Island, located in the north of the task force, is shaped like a dumbbell across the sea.If Zheng's fleet goes south from the Nanri Strait near the mainland in the near future, then the task force will continue to wait for the enemy in the relatively wide waters of Meizhou Bay: It may flee to the coast of the mainland, which is only less than 5 kilometers away.

If the Zheng family's fleet goes to the sea off Nanri Island, then the task force can rush up: the sea distance of more than 20 kilometers from the mainland is enough for the attackers to sink all the blessing ships.

As time passed, Zheng's fleet heading south from the Strait of Haitan Island gradually approached Nanri Island lying ahead.Under the intense gaze of the passing crowd on the three ships, the red dot on the screen began to slowly change direction, moving towards the sea off Nanri Island.

"Turn the rudder and head north with full sail, and the engine room starts to add coal to preheat." When Liu Zhe was sure that the red dot on the screen had moved to the east end of Nanri Island, he began to issue the order for the whole army to go north.

Soon, the three ships of the task force lined up in battle line, heading north at full speed with full sail.The Zheng fleet, more than 30 kilometers away, was on the way around Nanri Island against the headwind.

The current distance between the two sides is more than 30 kilometers, that is to say, it only takes less than one and a half hours for the task force to go from the sea off Meizhou Island to the sea off Nanri Island.And since the two fleets are facing each other, in fact, it doesn't take that much time: about an hour at most, the two sides will meet.At that time, the Fuchuan team should have left Nanri Island about 1 kilometers behind.

The operations on the maps of naval officers are relatively accurate. Fifty minutes later, when the task force arrived near Cormorant Island as planned, the lookout in Wangdouli had clearly reported that a fleet was found ahead.

Cormorant Island is a small palm-sized island with an area of ​​only 1.2 square kilometers. It is located on the ocean between Nanri Island and Meizhou Island. It is one of the few scattered islands in this sea area.

At this moment, Zheng's fleet, not far from Cormorant Island, has also spotted the oncoming task force.

When Zheng Zhilong came out of the cabin after hearing the news and observed with a brass telescope, what was shown in the camera were three strange sailboats with graceful lines and bulging sails, speeding like lightning.

"It's the ship of the Kun people. The whole army is on deck and readying artillery." The young leader immediately recognized the identity of the enemy when he saw the enemy at first sight, and then calmly issued a battle order.

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong didn't have the slightest chance, because he knew the opponent's strength and intention very well.In fact, no one knew that he had sent spies of various professions to the officials a long time ago.Therefore, Zheng Zhilong is very aware of the range and power of these weapons, whether it is through the machine guns or Italian guns.

In addition, when destroyer No. 301 was still testing off Dayuan, he had already obtained the pattern of this ship.

Therefore, after he issued the first order to prepare for battle, he immediately issued the second order: "Turn the sails and head towards the land."

Chapter 212 Killing the King ([-])

The two fleets that were facing each other on the sea suddenly changed their course: the Fuchuan fleet from north to south began to collectively turn right.

On the right is the mainland.

"Run away, run away, I really ran away!" On the flagship of the task force with the hull number 301 and temporarily named "Taijiang" within the navy, a group of melon eaters with binoculars sighed at the same time.

And Liu Zhe, the real host of the fleet, has no time to deal with these goods now. He quickly issued a new order according to the actions of his opponents: "Add coal to the engine room, three-quarter speed."

"Yes! Three-quarter speed!" Next to Liu Zhe, a short boy named Mao Wu, less than 1 meters tall and shaved, put his feet together. After repeating the order loudly, he turned around and walked at a standard pace. Before reaching the microphone, pick up the hand microphone and start talking with the engine room.

Three-quarter speed refers to a speed of 18 knots: full speed is 24 knots.

This destroyer newly produced by the crossing forces can run at a speed of 13 knots when the wind is smooth.And once the engine room at the stern of the cabin starts working and the propellers turn on, the speed of the fleet will soon soar from 13 knots to about 18 knots.

In fact, the full speed of the empty ship is 24 knots.However, the facts have proved that once the wooden boat exceeds 18 knots, the fleet will break away from the safety line of "three-quarter speed", which is a bit of a loss outweighs the gain.

……

In history, the famous clipper ship "Short Shirt" with a length of 64.6 meters, a width of 11 meters, and a displacement of 2100 tons has a speed of only 17.5 knots.

The "Taijiang", a small all-wooden sailing ship, was born with osteoporosis, and could not be compared with the iron-ribbed wood-hulled clipper ship of the 19th century.They cannot withstand long-term high-speed sailing: at 18 knots, the waves will become as hard as a brick wall, and without steel ribs as a skeleton, the ship will crack and leak over time.

In addition, high speed is also troublesome.Just like using Pousang to reach 100 yards, once the speed reaches a certain level, the handling and stability of a sailing boat like the Taijiang will be greatly reduced.

To some extent, the benefits brought by propellers to destroyers are more reflected in improving the lower limit of the ship: increasing the speed of the ship in headwind, increasing the maneuverability of the ship in complex sea conditions, assisting the ship to enter the port, and so on.

As for increasing the upper limit of the speed of the ship... 18 knots is already a warning line, and it doesn't make sense to go higher.In addition, under the condition that everyone is in a favorable wind at the same time, the speed of the Fuchuan fleet is only six knots at the moment, and it is impossible to escape the pursuit of the fleet.

So just like Poussin chasing the pedal, the task force quickly caught up with the Fuchuan fleet.

It took less than 20 minutes for the two sides to discover each other head-on, to turn and drive towards the mainland almost at the same time, and then to the slow Fuchuan fleet being overtaken by the fleet.But the Fuchuan fleet, which turned to run, was chased up without even crossing Cormorant Island.

A slender hairtail caught up to a fat carp from behind... The analogy is not appropriate, but the truth is this: only fleets with broadside shooting capabilities will pull out the formation of battle lines.In the 17th century, the gang of pirates who played with cold weapons and jumped gangs did not have the concept of a battle line. The current fleet of five sand ships is a traditional zigzag formation.

As for the artillery fire on the Shuofu boat, in fact, it has no effect now.

In Zheng's fleet, each ship's bow is equipped with naval guns sold by the Portuguese to the Zheng family.The 5 guns were fastened to the bow using various counterfeit strapping methods - the technical pirates were neither able to master nor necessary for the turret slide rails.

……

Put a Fuchuan ship model with a "V"-shaped bottom on the table, and then blow from the side, the model ship will fall over.