Lu Ming

The construction of Youguang actually started more than four months ago.However, because the Youguang is actually a verification ship, some theoretical differences have always existed, which has led to a delay in the construction progress.When those small "destroyers" were already attacking Zheng Zhilong on the sea, Youguang was still lying in the dock.

In the end, all the differences disappeared after the destroyers brought back the first-hand actual combat data of the Cormorant Island naval battle.

According to the battle situation at that time and subsequent measurements, the 12-pound Napoleon gun processed by the industrial equipment of later generations is fully capable of breaking the Fuchuan deck at a distance of 1000 meters and penetrating enemy ships at a distance of 500 meters.

In other words, it turns out that even Zheng Zhilong’s ship lacks ship ribs and is an old-fashioned Fuchuan structure with a single-layer plank: the arc-shaped ballistic iron ball, as long as the angle is right, can guarantee to penetrate the deck within 500 meters and bottom plate, causing flooding of the vessel.This effect is also effective within 1000 meters, but the probability is lower.

Actual combat is the best way to test theory.Now that the answer has been revealed, there is a conclusion about the final naval gun configuration of the Youguang: there is no need to install a small number of larger-caliber naval guns, and as many 12-pound guns as possible are enough.

Youguang is a 400-ton motor sail gunship. The original intention of building this class of ships was to deal with the Chinese pirates headed by Zheng Zhilong.The reason why the ship has not been outfitted is largely because of the ongoing debate on the layout of the naval guns: the debate between the full 12-pounder Napoleon guns and the larger caliber guns.

Now the controversy is finally over: the "full light artillery" faction has won the final victory.

……

The British battleship "Dreadnought", launched in February 1906, was the first truly modern battleship: it was the first capital ship equipped with steam turbines, and its speed reached an astonishing 2 knots.

However, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is: In addition to some small-caliber rapid-fire guns against torpedo boats, the "Dreadnought" is only equipped with 10 12-inch main guns, and has no medium-caliber guns at all.

This caused the long-range large-caliber firepower of the "Dreadnought" to be one and a half times stronger than other battleships; the artillery firing director ensured that its large-caliber artillery still had a high hit rate at the maximum range.

It is precisely because of this unique "full armor and heavy artillery" layout that the "Dreadnought" has epoch-making significance and has become synonymous with the 150 modern battleships built around the world after that.

And some of the "full light artillery" layouts proposed by the arty, in a sense, also borrowed from the design ideas of dreadnought ships: all the deck space is reserved for 12-pound Napoleon guns, and small-caliber secondary guns are no longer arranged... All the work of the secondary battery at close range is done by the musket.

This naval gun layout can maximize the traverser's advantages in firepower, observation and aiming, and rate of fire.But this layout also has flaws: Youguang's imaginary enemy can only be the Chinese pirates driving the Fuchuan Guangzhou Ship, and they can't chew on European ships.

……

The captain of Youguang is 44 meters long and 7.5 meters wide. The shape of the ship is not much different from the previous clipper bows and streamlined destroyers, except that the tonnage has been enlarged to 400 tons.And a warship of the level of Youguang can only be regarded as a fourth-class ship in Europe, and its tonnage is too small.

The 17th century was the time when the Age of Discovery was in full swing, and Europeans had left other nations far behind in the field of ships.All European-style ships that can cross the ocean to East Asia, even pure merchant ships, are far superior to Chinese-style ships with single-layer hull structure in terms of hull structure: without thick hulls and ribs, navigators have long been in the sea. Feed the fish in the storm.

And in the lair of these Europeans, powerful warships are emerging one after another on the sea.Even in the battle of the Armada 30 years ago, the British and Spanish fleets headed by the Triumph and the San Juan already had many 1000-ton Gallion-style warships.The thick oak hulls and ribs of these battleships are even more difficult for the 12-pound gun on the Youguang to penetrate easily.

Therefore, while Youguang determined the layout of the naval guns, it also clarified its own grade: it only fights pirates.

After determining the layout of the naval gun, the outfitting work officially began.

The outfitting of ships in this era is different from that of later generations.It usually takes half a year for the battleships of the later generations to outfit - it is not so easy to install hundreds of tons of gun mounts and 15-inch cannons.

However, it only took 5 days to complete the outfitting of Youguang.

Outfitting was simple: first a gas power system was installed in the engine room at the stern.Since the displacement of Youguang is only 400 tons, there is no need to lower the hull first and then install the turbine.

The practice of the shipyard is to hoist the equipment directly on the ship frame.

After the gas furnace, engine, propeller, and a small boiler were hoisted into the stern cabin, the engineers headed by Qiao Zhengtai spent two days running this small turbine system.

After the test run, the ship was launched.The next step is to hoist the Napoleon gun on the designed gun position.

A total of 10 artillery positions are set up on the deck with Guang.

The gun positions are all concentrated on the center line of the ship, separated by the ship building arranged in the middle of the deck, with 5 guns at the front and rear.The gun position is a 360-degree chassis steering design, and there is a retractable canopy above the head.

In order to save the deck space to the maximum extent, this time, the large circular slide rail was not installed on the gun position of Youguang, but replaced by the gun well.

The position of the gun well is just below the gun position, and it is composed of steel reinforcement ribs and a slide rail system.When the artillery above the head is fired, the huge recoil force will be transmitted along the steel cable and slide rail system. At this time, the sear placed between the slide rails will be forcibly raised like an elevator to consume the recoil force of the artillery.

The gun well is an extremely advanced system, which can completely offset the recoil of the naval gun, so that the gun crew does not need to adjust the gun position again when firing rapidly: the circular slide rail cannot do this.

Moreover, the existence of gun wells also reduces the number of gun crews.Generally speaking, for a land Napoleon artillery team, the standard number of artillery crew should be 6-8 people.

The reason for the large number of people is the weight: whether it is marching, laying out, or shooting, the artillery crew needs to cooperate at any time to move the heavy artillery hoe, and move back and forth between the ammunition carts behind them.

But now with this system, the artillery crew on Youguang immediately became a 3+1 combination. The 3 people are responsible for a series of simplified shooting procedures on the deck, while the members in the gun well are responsible for the replacement and delivery of ammunition overhead.

In short, the recoil is solved, and the deck can become concise and tidy.Under the command of the walkie-talkies and tweeters on the command building, all gun positions can not only fire in salvo, but also be divided into two groups to shoot at different targets.

In this case, it is very difficult for an enemy Chinese ship to break into the 300-meter range of Youguang...unless there are a lot of enemy ships.However, the speed of ships passing through forces has never been a problem, not to mention the sky-defying propellers to solve the problem of headwinds, so the enemy cannot form an enveloping formation.

As the price of maximizing the accumulation of artillery, there is also a weakness in the light: the mast.There are only a mainmast and a foremast of average height on the ship, and there is no mizzenmast.This kind of design indicates that Youguang is a motor sailing ship that pays a lot of attention to fuel, and the utilization rate of turbines and sails is almost equal.

You must know that the previous destroyers did not use propellers most of the time.The Youguang is different: a large amount of equipment fuel in the bilge and armaments on the deck, coupled with the reduced mast, make the downwind cruising speed of the Youguang only about 8 knots, and if the turbine is turned on, the ship's speed will be reduced. The maximum can only reach 14 knots.

Of course, this speed is enough, or that sentence, now is the 17th century.

……

Including the electronic equipment in the command building, the machine gun nest, and the motor system that assists in the lifting and lowering of the sails, all the outfitting projects of the Youguang took only 24 days with the continuous efforts of a large number of workers in the shipyard. It's all over.

There is plenty of time now: after the Navy takes over the new ship, it will have at least 10-20 days for running-in and training.And people like Wang Xiaohui can let go of their worries and formally use Youguang as the core flagship to design a plan to wipe out the pirates.

Chapter 228: The Completion of Qun Xian ([-])

The sea breeze is blowing, the blue sky is thousands of miles away, and the ocean is full of the smell of water vapor after the storm - this thing is called negative oxygen ion in later generations, and it is an ion that sub-healthy people in the city need to spend money to inhale...

Time: On the morning of July 1628, 7.Coordinates: Zhongzuosuo Wharf outside the city in the southwest corner of Xiamen Island.

Du Dewei, who is dressed in a blue short robe, with a short knife across his waist, has a strong body and thick eyebrows, is standing with his arms on the bow of the slow-moving boat at this moment, his headband is still being blown by the sea wind, but his face is expressionless .

Du Dewei is 27 years old and is from Xianyou, Fujian.Du's family was born as a small maritime merchant, and his father's family business was not bad when he went to sea in his early years, so Du Dewei was able to study in elementary school run by a local academy when he was young.

However, when he was 15 years old, his father died in a shipwreck, and the Du family fell into ruin. Du Dewei was also forced to follow his father's old path: running to sea.

After more than 10 years of hard work on the ocean, Du Dewei has now worked hard to pull together a small team of 20 ships, and he has become the shopkeeper himself.Today, the place he is going to go by boat is the large tent of the Chinese army outside the center left.

……

Since Shopkeeper Zheng Da defeated the Guanjun and Hongyi in a row, and captured Tongshansuo and Zhongzuo, a large number of small pirates from Fujian and Guangdong have come to vote, and the momentum has been the same for a while.And the shopkeeper Du Dewei Du is naturally not exempt from the custom: gathering and dispersing is the normal state of pirates. The powerful ones raise the flag, while the weak ones follow suit.

And not long after joining the group with the crowd, Du Dewei suddenly heard a rumor: Mr. Zheng is going to recruit again.

To be honest, he himself is still full of longing for this old joke about recruiting security: since the first day he was a pirate 10 years ago, he has had a dream of recruiting security.Du Dewei, who went to a private school since he was a child and is proficient in writing, can never forget that his family is a decent person. If it weren't for the business of killing and robbing for the sake of his widowed mother and his younger siblings, he would not have done it from the bottom of his heart.

To his surprise, the rumor this time turned out to be true: one day not long ago, the young Zheng Dalong summoned all the shopkeepers, big and small, in the Zhongjun tent, and announced a big event in public—he was going to Fuzhou and The elders of the government discuss the matter of recruitment in person.

Not to mention that shopkeepers from all walks of life made noises after the incident, as far as Du Dewei himself was concerned, this was indeed good news.So, two days later in the early morning, he made a special trip to send the shopkeeper off by boat.

……

Unexpectedly, the big shopkeeper just went away and never came back.

From the day the news came from the spies who were ambushing in Fuzhou from various shopkeepers, the pirate camp near Zhongzuo began to become chaotic. During those few days, I took a boat from Fuzhou Wharf to return to Zhongzuo Institute.

The straight-line distance between Fuzhou and Xiamen is only 200 kilometers, which is more than 100 nautical miles in conversion. Even the slow fleet can climb back after 3 days of effort... However, until the spies who set off later came back one after another, no one was there. I saw the traces of Zheng's fleet.

After July 7th, all kinds of rumors could no longer be suppressed—because a large number of people who were frantically spread out by the shopkeepers, after sneaking around from Fuzhou City, there was still no trace of the Zheng family fleet ...

Pirates have no concept of information control, so when a large number of spies came back this time, the public opinion market suddenly boiled over, and all kinds of true and false news began to spread.

It is said that Xiong Wencan sealed off the inner and outer cities of Fuzhou on the occasion of seeing him off, and secretly mobilized Fubiao elites to surround and kill Zheng Zhilong and his gang outside the city of Fuzhou.

It is also said that the shopkeeper was first introduced into the Marshal's Mansion by Xiong Wencan, and then Xiong threw a cup as a sign. The shopkeeper was immediately bound by the ambush soldiers who rushed out from the hatchback. The sword given by Shang Fang cut off the head of the big shopkeeper on the spot.

... A group of storytellers are vivid, and those who listen to the stories are engrossed, as if they were there in person.

A rumor that is closest to the truth is: Zheng's fleet was ambushed and killed by a brigade of government troops in the open sea, and the entire army was wiped out.

However, this rumor has the least market among the pirate executives.You must know that the treasurers who can have a high-ranking position in the Chinese military tent these days are all leaders of large gangs with more than a hundred ships in their hands. These people are well-informed, shrewd and capable, so they will never believe such rumors.

The shopkeepers of the big gang, who have the most authentic first-hand information, are now generally inclined to the most insipid answer: Zheng's fleet encountered a strong wind in the open sea, and the entire army was wiped out.

...Zhu Baba said that after removing all impossible answers, the remaining one is the truth, no matter how unbelievable it is.

The shopkeepers thought so too—although the possibility of the gust of wind blowing away all 5 people on the 800 big fortune boats sounds a bit low, but in their opinion, this ending is the only reasonable answer right now.

Because they knew that Xiong Wencan was innocent: the shopkeepers knew very well the scene where Xiong Dafu went out of the city and Yiyi bid farewell to Zhilong.Still the same sentence, Xiong Wencan didn't do anything in the dominant city of Fuzhou, so the possibility of doing something overseas is zero... If the officers and soldiers have this ability, they still need to appease Zheng Zhilong?

Therefore, for the shopkeepers who have first-hand information, the logic is very clear: the Zheng family fleet was shipwrecked, and there is no other explanation.

Time passed day by day, and while there was still no news about Zheng's fleet, the situation became clear: Zheng Zhilong was dead, and most people had already confirmed this.At this time, if the big and small shopkeepers who are still gathered in the Zhongzuo Office don't know how to find a way out for their brothers, they will be mentally handicapped.

As a result, the Zhongjun Tent, which originally symbolized the prestige, has become a vegetable market since the beginning of July, and shopkeepers from all walks of life are arguing endlessly every day.And as time went by, when Zheng Dalong's hope of surviving was completely extinguished, it was time for a showdown in recent days-people completely lost patience.

"Huh..." Thinking of this, Du Dewei, who was standing on the bow of the boat and sailing towards the Chinese military tent, couldn't help but let out a long sigh—the death of Zheng Zhilong shattered the dream of Du Dewei, a small pirate leader, to go public through a backdoor. He regretted it.

……

Before Zheng Zhilong accepted the recruitment, Xiamen Island in the 17th century was just an ordinary island. There were some fishermen and guard slaves living on the island as usual, and it was not prosperous.

In history, after Zheng Zhilong became a coastal defense guerrilla, by occupying Zhongzuo City, cracking down on the import and export trade of Yuegang, and forcing merchant ships to come here for trade, he built Xiamen Island into the center of Fujian's foreign trade in a short period of time. At that time, Xiamen The island began to flourish.

But today's Xiamen Island is much more desolate than usual: some time ago, the repeated battles between officials and bandits caused the remaining residents on the island to flee.And the Acropolis of Zhongzuo, which is located in the southwest corner of Xiamen, has long been deserted at this moment, and the door is just there half open.

Before this, many pirates lived in the city directly after the war.However, before Zheng Zhilong set off for Fuzhou, in order to show a little humility, he ordered all the pirates in the city to be driven out at that time, creating a scene where the government has not lost the city... It can be regarded as saving some face for the officials. .

Of course, with Zheng Zhilong's accident, his previous ban gradually became useless.However, the situation changed again at this time: Since the shopkeepers were confronting coldly in the Chinese military tent every day, naturally, the subordinates could no longer go to the Weisuo City, which is a few miles away from the pier, to station.Now tens of thousands of pirates entrenched outside Zhongzuo's wharf all spend the night on their own boats - this is called combat readiness duty.

The boat that Du Dewei was riding on was slowly heading towards the pier.Passing by along the way are a large number of Fuchuan, Cantonese, Bird Boats, fishing boats and other miscellaneous boats.Many of these boats are cooking breakfast, so there is smoke from the cooking along the way.A large number of tattered pirates were fighting and making noise for a bowl of food, and some of them who had already eaten were sitting on the bow of the ship, with their dirty chests shining, roaring some local tunes.

Not long after, Du Dewei's boat arrived at the pier.After nimbly jumping onto the pier, Du Dewei took only one confidant, and walked to the Chinese military tent not far from the pier.

At this moment, there are quite a few shopkeepers who are outside the tent of the Chinese army. Du Dewei walked all the way, smiling all over his face, and while greeting his brothers, he went straight to the door of the big cowhide tent filled with flags of various houses. , opened the leather curtain and walked in.

A small shopkeeper like Du Dewei with only 20 ships has no seats in the Chinese military tent.Because pirates are not an army, most gangsters don't have many main ships that can go into battle, and most of them are scrap fishing boats and the like.

Those who really have high positions in the Chinese military tent are the big shopkeepers who can pull out hundreds of large ships at any time.

After Du Dewei entered the tent, his eyes darkened habitually, and then he hastily clasped his fists around and bowed around, then walked to a corner with a grin.But at this moment, the few people who were already sitting in the two rows of high chairs in the middle of the big tent didn't pay any attention to him.

"How? Is there a result?" After Du Dewei stood where he should be, he turned his head and asked in a low voice to a tall, fat man with stubble on his face.

This man's name is Hu Ba, and he is also the leader of a gang of bandits.This person and Du Dewei have similar identities, and they talk speculatively. The two have looked at each other since the day they met, and they take care of each other on weekdays.

"I'm already thinking about the Liangtai." Seeing that he was an old friend, Hu Ba lowered his head, with a sneer on his face, and said to Du Dewei in a low voice: "I'm afraid we have to make a decision today, you and my brother should be careful." .”

Before Hu Ba could finish his sentence, a Cantonese voice came out from the top chair: "Now that you are staying here, the sons and daughters are still sitting and eating. It's not convenient to put silver rice on the grain table these days, I'm afraid I don't know what kind of blind thoughts some people have. It's better to leave early, and it's okay for the brothers to gather again when Zheng Dazhang returns from his home in the future."

Chapter 229

The one who unceremoniously pointed out that there was a problem with the logistics and proposed to break up the team was a man with short stature who was a bit shorter than others even when he was sitting on the top chair.

This person was about 40 years old, with a dark complexion, narrow face, narrow eyes, and broad forehead. He was wearing a nondescript Nanjing poplin short robe, a short knife on his waist, and a pair of fast boots on his feet. He was the leader of the Shibazhi gang. One of the hills: Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang was born in a poor fisherman's family on Lamma Island. He is the only Cantonese in Shibazhi, and most of his subordinates are heroes who defected from Guangdong.So for a long time, the Liuxiang gang whose main force is mainly Cantonese and the Shibazhi other hills whose main force is mainly Fujianese have not been very easy to deal with.

With the MAX of dominance, Zheng Zhilong, the only one who can suppress these rebellious bosses, is now "unaccounted for", so everyone's usual dirtyness will naturally erupt. Among them, the most radical disbandment attitude is the Liu Xiang Group.

There is actually a deeper reason why Liu Xiang is so eager to disband the gang.

……

Apart from Zheng Zhilong being a Portuguese horse boy in Macau in the early years, Zheng Zhilong's political line has been moving closer to the Dutch since then.

Ever since he worked as an interpreter for the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong has actually drifted away from the Catholic forces represented by Portugal and Spain.

You must know that Comrade Yiguan did not work as an office white-collar beside the Dutch when he was an "interpreter" for senior officials. Thief's messenger ship.

In other words, since then, Zheng Zhilong has been hostile to Spain and Portugal.Of course, the law of the jungle prevails on the seas of East Asia in this era, and it is normal for everyone to fight today and fight tomorrow.Later, when Zheng Zhilong grew up, he and the Dutch also fell in love and killed each other.

But Zheng Zhilong in history finally chose the combination of Holland + Daming.From the moment Zheng was recruited, the Dutch continuously obtained raw silk and porcelain from him.

What does this behavior represent?It means that Zheng Zhilong completely abandoned the Catholic combination of Portugal and Spain, and chose the Dutch side, which is more dynamic, more commercialized, and more forceful, representing Protestantism, as his business partner.

Spain at this point in time is still nominally the suzerain of Portugal.Although the two countries are constantly dirty in their old nests in Europe, in the East Asian ocean, facing the aggressive Dutch who will shoot when they meet, Portugal and the West have maintained a good alliance between Portugal and the West.

So here comes the question: Since Zheng Zhilong is unreliable, who should Portugal and Spain support to be their own Zheng Zhilong?

Liu Xiang.

This is the reason why Liuxiang Group urgently needs to disband the gang after confirming that Zheng Zhilong is dead.

For Liu Xiang, the current situation is actually beneficial to him: the monopoly of Japanese trade, and the loss of contact (death) of Zheng Zhilong, who suppressed him and the Portuguese and Western maritime merchants behind him, is a very good thing, because whether it is Trade or other aspects, from now on, a vast space has been opened.

Now he urgently needs to withdraw from Zheng Zhilong's big banner, and then return to his old home in Chaozhou, and contact the Portuguese and Western forces that he has had a close relationship with.

The next step is simple: after getting the support of the master behind him, Liu Xiang can completely prepare his army and watch the fire from the other side.After the gang of Hokkien sea masters can kill each other, Liu Xiang at that time can follow Zheng Zhilong's old way of recruiting peace, retreat can continue to plunder the coast, and compete with other big gangs for the monopoly of trade with Japan. a lot.

In real history, Zheng Zhilong did not give Liu Xiang this chance.

From the beginning of Zhao'an, Liu Xiang, who represents the forces in Western Portugal, and Zheng Zhilong officially fell out. After that, the two sides fought a naval war that lasted for 7 years.

Facing the strategic oppression of the powerful enemy in the north, the Liuxiang Group retreated step by step in desperation.In order to maintain the cohesion of the group, Liu Xiang could only go too far and plunder along the coast of Guangdong, bringing the war into his old nest.

The price of doing so was also painful: Liu Xiang was loathed by Guangdong officials, which eventually led to a joint killing operation led by Zheng Zhilong, which led to his demise.

Of course, that wave of Liu Xiang didn't lose in the end—this one even brought Zheng Zhihu to accompany him before he died.As the last Shibazhi superficial brother who was dealt with by Zheng Zhilong, the dwarf Liu Xiang is also a typical example of a disabled man.

……

His eyes returned to the big tent of the Chinese army.

When Liu Xiang repeated the disbandment request that he had been advocating for the past few days, a 45-year-old man with gray hair and a short cotton robe from Songjiang, with a short machete on his waist, said, "Master Liu, Things have not yet been decided, might as well wait a little longer.”