Chapter 1110 Lushunkou
This black smoke slowly rose into the air, like a black dragon entrenched between heaven and earth. It was extremely conspicuous in the clear sky and could be seen from more than ten miles away. Obviously this was not an accidental forest fire, but the smoke set off by the sentry on the mountain as a warning. The Hou Jin Army obviously did not ignore Laotieshan, an excellent observation point, and deployed manpower at high altitudes to monitor the situation at sea. Haihan's fleet came from the south, and it looked like it was not a good place to come. Naturally, the Houjin sentry on the mountain saw it and immediately sent a warning to the rear.
"These wild boar skins, the vigilance is quite high!" Wang Tom was also a little moved when he saw this. Houjin attaches great importance to coastal defense. It seems that most of them will be deployed in the Lushun area behind Laotieshan. army.
However, the main purpose of Wang Tom's trip was to conduct on-site investigation of Lushunkou. If the Jin army wanted to take countermeasures against Haihan, it would suit Wang Tom's appetite. After moving north to Shandong this time, the several large and small battles that occurred were all done by the Army, and the Navy did not get any credit. He also specially sent the exploration-class warship to the upper reaches of Jiahe River to assist the army. As a result, the opponent Wanjiajun was too weak and could not get within the range of the naval gun. In the end, the navy failed to fire a single shot and could only act as a mascot. Role.
Naturally, Wang Tom was not willing to let his officers and men continue to do nothing. He planned this northward expedition to inspect the Bohai Strait and the Liaodong Peninsula in order to find something for the navy to do. If Haihan can complete the infrastructure construction project of the Zhifu Bay base this year, it will be a complete achievement. There is no spare capacity to launch a formal attack on the Liaodong Peninsula across the sea. However, Wang Tom still hopes to have the opportunity to let the navy train its troops and not to use the military skills to fight. My skills are rusty. Moreover, Hou Jin's maritime armed strength is far inferior to that of Ming Dynasty. It should be a pleasant thing to pinch this soft persimmon from time to time and keep Hou Jin's army busy for a while.
The seaside side of Laotieshan is full of cliffs, and there is no suitable terrain for docking ships. Wang Tom ordered the fleet to turn northeast and continue along the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula. About five nautical miles further from here is Lushunkou, an important port at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula.
In the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, that is, 1371, Ming generals Ma Yun and Ye Wang led their troops across the sea from Dengzhou, Shandong, and landed here. Because the voyage was smooth sailing, the old name of Shizikou here was changed to Lushunkou, and it has been used ever since. Come down.
The port of Lushunkou is surrounded by mountains, with Golden Mountain in the east, Baiyu Mountain in the north, and Laohuwei Peninsula in the west. The harbor is connected to the sea through a long and narrow waterway. The harbor is hidden and windproof, and it is one of the few ice-free harbors in the north. Of course, in the current Little Ice Age, whether the sea surface in the harbor will freeze in winter depends on actual conditions.
If Zhifu Bay is more suitable for building a civilian trade and immigration port, then Lushunkou, located on the Liaodong Peninsula, is undoubtedly one of the best choices for a military port. The terrain of this place presents a semi-enclosed structure, wide inside and narrow outside. There are commanding heights on both sides of the channel entering and exiting the port. It is naturally easy to defend and difficult to attack. It can be regarded as the Haihan military's favorite military port terrain. Wang Tom's interest in this place even exceeds that of Dalian Bay, which has a larger harbor area in the north.
Before the Liaodong Peninsula was captured by Hou Jin, it was under the jurisdiction of the Jinzhou Guards of Liaodong Dusi. Jinzhou Guard was established in the eighth year of Hongwu, with a staff of more than 6,000 people, and six thousand-household offices under its jurisdiction, namely Jinzhou Zuoqianhu Office, Jinzhou Youqianhu Office, Jinzhou Zhongqianhu Office, and Jinzhou Qianhu Office. The first four thousand-household offices are located in Jinzhou City. Zhongzuo Qianhu was established in the 20th year of Hongwu. It was located on the northwest coast of Lushun Port. It was also the main stronghold of the Ming army at the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula.
However, these guard posts deployed by the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong failed to defend the territory in the end, and the one who gave them the final blow was the rebel general Kong Youde who once guarded Liaodong. Now the Jinzhou Guard's jurisdiction has been completely occupied by Hou Jin.
The fleet soon passed Laotieshan from the east side. Although the smoke on the top of the mountain continued to rise, the soldiers on the ship did not feel much nervousness before the battle. They had already roughly understood it during the pre-war preparation meeting. After understanding the situation of the Jin Army, and knowing clearly that the opponent does not have enough strength to pose a threat to itself at sea, it is natural to face the enemy's reaction in a relatively relaxed state.
When he was about to arrive at the Tiger Tail Peninsula, Wang Tom saw through his telescope several small sailboats parked on the shore. Judging from their appearance, they were not military ships. Next to him, Sun Bing explained to him: "This place was originally a salt farm. Jinzhou Wei once had a special salt house here. I think it should have been preserved by the Jin Dynasty after coming."
This salt field is only a few miles away from Laotieshan. From here, you can clearly see the smoke rising from Laotieshan. If someone lives here, they will definitely receive a warning. From the boat, you can no longer see anything on the shore. There is human activity.
Wang Tom asked: "How was the output of this salt farm in the past?"
Sun Bing scratched his head and said: "I am not serving here, so I don't know the details, but in the past, the salt consumed by Jinzhou Guards was basically supplied from here."
Wang Tom made some calculations in his mind, and found that the Jinzhou Guard's establishment was about 6,000 people. Taking into account the needs of the people in the jurisdiction, there would be at least 100,000 kilograms of salt a year, which is a production capacity of about 50 tons of salt. With this In terms of the production capacity of the era, it is not too low.
Wang Tom then asked: "How many salt fields are there on this scale in the Liaodong Peninsula?"
Sun Bing responded: "As far as I know, there is a salt farm on the coasts under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou Guard and Gaizhou Guard, but the scale is unclear."
The reason why Wang Tom asked about the situation of the salt field was naturally because he had the idea of these places. If fleets can be dispatched from time to time to raid these salt fields, the supply of salt in the Liaodong Peninsula will inevitably fall into an unstable situation. In the bitter cold land of Liaodong, salt, iron, tea, cloth and other supplies are all It is a hard currency, and its supply will directly affect social stability. Targeting the salt field, which is close to the sea and has flat terrain that is not suitable for guarding, can allow Hou Jin's rule in the Liaodong Peninsula to influence the whole body. It is a very good choice at this stage.
However, the current task was to conduct reconnaissance at Port Arthur, and there was no rush to attack the salt field. The fleet soon arrived at the southwest entrance of the harbor smoothly.
The reason why this place is called Tiger Tail is because the tail of the peninsula here goes deep into the sea and presents a long and narrow S-shaped curved embankment. Therefore, it is vividly called Tiger Tail, which can be regarded as a natural barrier for Lushun Port Harbor. Seeing that the tiger's tail had appeared in sight, Wang Tom ordered all personnel to prepare for battle. All the artillery on the ship entered combat positions, and the steam engine on the flagship also switched from preheating standby to power supply state. Although the maritime armed force of the Hou Jin Army is not strong, it is very likely that there are warships deployed in this harbor, and it is necessary to prepare for battle in advance.
The narrow waterway entering the harbor is only about 300 meters wide and about 1,000 meters long. On the west side of the channel is Laohuwei Sandbar, and on the east side is Huangjin Mountain, the commanding heights guarding the harbor entrance. Later, in the late Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang chose the small harbor behind Huangjin Mountain to build Lushun Daw, which served as the logistics maintenance base for the Beiyang Navy. He also built a large-scale coastal defense fort on Huangjin Mountain.
This narrow waterway is the dividing line in Lushun Port. On the east side is a small harbor with a diameter of about 300 meters, which is suitable for use as a logistics maintenance site or building a shipyard. On the other hand, the harbor area on the west side is larger, at least 300 meters in diameter. More than six square kilometers of sea area are navigable for ships, which is also the key inspection area of the Haihan Fleet.
However, before they actually entered the harbor, an enemy warship appeared at the other end of the narrow waterway, blocking the way of the Haihan fleet. However, the opponent's lineup was obviously far inferior to that of Haihan. There were only four sailing ships with a displacement of less than 300 tons, and judging from their appearance, they were obviously lucky ships that once belonged to the Navy of the Ming Dynasty.
"Dengzhou rebels!" Of course Wang Tom knew where these warships originally belonged to the Ming Navy came from. When Kong Youde defected to Liaodong last year, he took away all the floating ships in Dengzhou Water City, including It also includes an entire naval force that Shandong Dusi spent several years and countless silver coins to build since the Tianqi Period.
There is currently no detailed information on how many warships and sailors this navy, which was kidnapped by Kong Youde and defected to Liaodong, had. However, judging from the appearance of the ships that appeared on the other side of the waterway, they at least maintained relatively complete hulls. , and Wang Tom also confirmed from the telescope that there were artillery deployed on the bow of the other side's ship.
In such a narrow waterway, it is difficult for the Haihan warship with a larger hull to deploy its formation and use its side guns to target the opponent's bow. If both sides do not retreat, they can only confront each other head-on here.
After seeing the situation clearly, Wang Tom did not hesitate and immediately issued a combat order: "Rush over and kill them!"
Wang Tom has full confidence in the firepower superiority of his own warships. After dealing with the Ming army for so many years, he has a good understanding of the Ming army's standard warships. The standard weapons on a Fu ship of this tonnage are one Daifa Gong, six Folan cannons, three bowl-mouth blunderbuss, and ten bird-bill blunderbuss. In addition, conventional weapons such as spray canisters, smoke cans, crossbows, and rockets are provided. weapons. The Dafa Gong on the opposite ship was mounted on the bow. Based on its firing speed, Wang Tom judged that there would be at most three or four shots. As for other weapons, including the Fran cannon, it is basically impossible to penetrate the side plates of the Majesty-class warship at a distance of about thirty meters.
As long as it can withstand the first few shots from the opponent's bow gun position, once the two armies enter a state of interlocking, Haihan's ship-borne artillery fire can teach the opponent how to behave. With the tonnage of this lucky ship, Wang Tom could be sure that its hull would never be able to withstand the close range bombardment of a six-pounder gun. Just one shot from the more than twenty cannons on the sides of the flagship was enough to paralyze it.
After Wang Tom's order was issued, the whistle on the flagship immediately sounded, conveying the battle signal to other ships following behind. The Haihan fleet formed a line and headed straight north with Wang Tom's flagship as the pioneer. Rushed over.
When the two sides were still about three hundred meters apart, the 48-pound cannon on the bow of the flagship opened fire first. The heavy shells roared through the air and passed four or five meters away from the mainmast of the other side's head ship. If the mast was hit right this time, it would definitely be broken into two pieces, which would also make Tom Wang, who was watching the battle, secretly cry out for pity.
Seeing this, the opponent was not to be outdone, and fired back with the Dafa Gong on the bow of the ship. However, the range and accuracy of the shot were far behind. The projectile was more than 20 meters away from the bow of Haihan's flagship before it fell into the water.
The two sides were facing each other in the waterway, which was only a kilometer long, and they were approaching extremely fast. The gunner on the bow of the ship completed the loading of ammunition as quickly as possible, and fired a second cannonball at the other side before the bows of the ship crossed. This time, the distance between the bows of the two ships was only a dozen meters. The cannon hit the bow of the opposite ship firmly, knocking over the gun emplacement where Dafa Gong was deployed. In the smoke and dust, the chaotic screams from the other side's ship could be heard, and it was unknown how many lives had been taken by this shot.
But this was just the beginning. When the ships on both sides began to stagger, the side guns fired one by one. At this distance, almost all of them hit the hull of the enemy warship without missing a beat. Although the opponent's Fo Lang machine gun was also fighting back, due to its limited power, the projectiles hitting the Shanghai-Han warship only left a small dent on the ship's deck before being bounced into the sea.
The firepower competition between the two sides on the deck was not just an artillery battle. Several rockets flew up from the deck of Houjin's warship and shot at the sail of Haihan's flagship. It's just that Haihan's canvas is not only thick, but also treated with fireproofing. Even if these rockets can hit, it will be difficult to achieve immediate results. But these rocket-firing archers had to face the dense grapeshot fired from the Haihan warships. The upper deck of the Haihan flagship deployed twelve-pound cannons loaded with grapeshot and chain bullets. Both of these projectiles are standard deck reapers. In addition, the height of the Haihan deck is more advantageous, allowing the Houjin warship to The soldiers had no way to avoid it, and a large number fell down as soon as the shot was fired.
When Haihan's flagship sailed past the first enemy ship, the ship had become incomplete under a round of bombardment. Although there were still surviving crew members on the ship, most of its combat effectiveness had been lost. However, their nightmare did not end there, as they were bombarded by the second Haihan warship.
The only thing that the Houjin warship could cause real trouble to Haihan was the rockets fired at it. However, Haihan had already had a way to deal with this kind of naval warfare method commonly used by the Ming army. There were several weapons on the deck. The team members were waiting with water guns made of bamboo tubes. The rockets shot onto the ship would be quickly extinguished before they ignited the surrounding area. There are even two human-driven high-pressure water cannons on the deck to ensure that rockets fired high on the sails can be extinguished in time.
(End of chapter)