Jin Shusheng himself could go to the battlefield with the ambition to die, after all, his family was under the control of the Qing court.
He can only fight to the death, there is no other choice!
But he could not ask his brothers in the navy to be like him, to go to the battlefield with the determination to die and fight the Ming army for nothing.
Most of the soldiers in the Qiongzhou Navy are locals from Qiongzhou, and their family papers are all around them.
If the war goes against their will, they will surrender without any psychological pressure.
Under such circumstances, if you want to drive the army to fight, you still have to rely on generous rewards!
He Wenwei said.
"Don't worry, Admiral, I will go and raise the funds right now!"
Regardless of his dignity as a civil servant, He Wenwei held up the hem of his robe and strode down the city wall.
Then he asked his personal servant to bring his famous assassin to invite the wealthy gentry in Qiongzhou to the government office to discuss matters.
In order to raise military supplies and war expenses, no matter what, there is no way to bypass the large local gentry in Qiongzhou!
How does that sentence go? The money of the big families will be returned in full, and the money of the common people will be divided into 30-70 accounts.
Without the cooperation of local big players, many things would not be possible!
Here He Wenwei went to raise military resources.
However, Jin Shusheng did not sit idle, but sent orders to the brothers in the naval camp to prepare for war.
The ship raised its sails and anchor, and sailed out of the military port!
A shrill siren sounded in the camp, and a soldier named Qing Navy was gathered together in a chaotic manner.
The leading soldiers in the army began to make rice!
The pace of naval battles in this era is like this, and it can't go any faster.
From the time the enemy is discovered to the time the two sides engage in combat, it may even take several days.
Even if this is not an encounter at sea, but an unavoidable offensive and defensive battle, it will take at least three to five hours from the two sides discovering each other to engaging in combat.
Generally speaking, the visual distance between two ships at sea is eight nautical miles!
One nautical mile is approximately equal to 1.825 kilometers, and eight nautical miles is approximately 145 kilometers, which is less than 30 kilometres.
The speed of ships in this era, if there is no wind, is very slow.
As time passed, the Qing navy's naval battalion was ready for battle, and the war expenses raised by He Wenwei were also in place.
Although the wealthy gentry have not relented yet, He Wenwei put the overall situation first and first used the gold and silver in Qiongzhou's treasury.
I thought about filling the holes in the treasury after the war expenses raised by the wealthy gentry arrived!
Immediately, Jin Shusheng paid a large sum of money in front of everyone, which made the morale of the Qing army boil.
"Kill the thieves of the Ming Dynasty and protect the Qing Dynasty!"
"Kill the thieves of the Ming Dynasty and protect the Qing Dynasty!"
"..."
Amidst bursts of cheers, Jin Shusheng waved his hand and ordered the soldiers to board the ship.
Small boats filled with kerosene, gunpowder and other ignition materials, as well as sand ships loaded with large and small artillery, the Guangzhou ship sailed out of the port.
What Jin Shusheng was planning to use was fire attack, a method that had been tried and proven in naval battles.
…
As the Qing navy went to sea to fight, the Ming fleet was also ready for battle.
Nearly a hundred warships lined up in a row, their dark muzzles aimed at the Qing navy in the harbor!
The gun window was opened, and Zheng Jun's gunners were skillfully performing the loading work!
The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, and the rangefinders kept reporting the distance between the Qing navy and them.
"The enemy is close to five hundred steps!"
"The enemy is nearly three hundred steps away!"
"The enemy is nearly two hundred steps away!"
"..."
Two hundred steps is not that far.
But for naval battles, it is far from the distance of firing.
If you were on land, you could basically fire with perfect accuracy from a distance of 200 steps.
However, this is a moving target at sea, and the launch platform is constantly bumping due to wind and waves on the sea.
At a distance of two hundred steps, the artillery's hit rate is pitifully low!
Even for the most skilled gunner, if he can achieve one out of ten, it will already be considered an extremely amazing achievement!
Suddenly, the artillery fire from the Ming army opened fire!
If you fire at a distance of 200 steps, although the hit rate is not high, you can almost start calibrating.
With the roar of cannons, the shells were fired towards the Qing fleet as if they were free of charge!
Boom! Boom!
Several cannonballs fell into the sea, spraying up tall water mist.
Water vapor fills the air!
The roar of heavy artillery fire almost covered everything.
The gunpowder smoke on the sea will not dissipate for a long time!
Each ship fired one gun, which added up to at least dozens of guns.
However, facing the roar of dozens of artillery pieces, even if the shells failed to hit the ship, the sailors of the Qing army all had pale faces and felt fear from the bottom of their hearts.
The sound of heavy artillery fire was really too great. They had never seen such a scene before!
"The enemy is close to 150 steps, prepare for the second round of firing!"
The navy of the Ming army was ready for the second round of shooting.
Boom! Boom!
The dull sound of artillery resounded throughout the battlefield again.
One after another, as if for free, the cannonballs were fired at the Qing ships.
Katcha!
Jin Shusheng watched helplessly as a cannonball fell from the sky and hit a ship not far from his own ship.
There was a loud bang, and the shell pierced the side of the Guangzhou ship.
In an instant, broken wood chips were scattered all over the sea!
A large amount of seawater poured in through the gap in the side of the ship!
This Guangzhou ship, which can be called the battleship of the Qiongzhou Navy, began to sink rapidly!
From the ship's hull tilting to its complete sinking, it only took half a stick of incense!
In the blink of an eye, two or three ships were sunk.
In front of the heavy artillery on the Ming army's ships, the Qing army's ships were really vulnerable!
The naval officers and soldiers of the Qing Army jumped into the sea like dumplings, holding wooden boards and floating on the sea, with a look of fear on their faces.
Finally, the distance between the two sides was less than a hundred steps!
As far as naval battles are concerned, it is almost a slap in the face!
Jin Shusheng gave the order.
"Go forward at full speed, get into the Ming thieves, light a fire, and use the fire boat to burn these damn Ming thieves to death!"
"Pull harder!"
"..."
The oarsmen on the Qing army's small boats rowed hard, and under the influence of inertia, the speed of the arson boat became faster and faster.
This is because the battlefield is in the port and there is no wind this season, otherwise the Qing army's arson ship will be faster!
The Ming army responded in an orderly manner!
Several poles stretched out from the deck of the battleship, preparing to block the Qing army's arson ship.
Zheng Jun was accustomed to using fire attacks in previous naval battles. How could he not be prepared for the enemy to use fire attacks against him?
Boom! Boom!
The heavy artillery of the Ming army was still roaring and firing faster and faster.
The entire battlefield is almost obscured by gunpowder smoke!
Cannonballs seemed to be free of charge, and they hit the Qing fleet.
The shells penetrated the hull of the ship mercilessly, shattering the Qing army's arson ships into pieces.
The Qing army's arsonist ship wanted to get close to the Ming army's warships to start a fire, but it was pushed away by the support pole and could not do it at all.
No matter how loudly the Qing soldiers on board shouted, the Qing's arson ship could not advance any further.
Fu Haishan held a big ax in his hand and frantically slashed at the poles holding up his ship, trying to clear the way for the arson ship.
However, the front part of the pole is covered with iron sheet, and the wood used is also extremely strong iron wood.
After being immersed in water, it is even more resilient!
For a while, the basics kept cutting!
There was a loud bang!
Fu Haishan fell into a daze as a huge cloud of gunpowder smoke came over, and the hot wind blew his eyebrows and hair as if they were about to burn.
The shock wave directly knocked him to the ground.