Mountains stretch across Zhejiang and Fujian. The Xianxia Ridge Road connecting Quzhou and Jianzhou is the shortest and straightest by land. Mountain roads have been built since ancient times.
However, the situation of Xianxia Natural Precipice is dangerous. From south to north, there are six mountains: Liling, Fengling, Daganling, Xiaoganling, Chaling and Yaoling. They are connected by towering peaks. Although there are mountain roads, they are still in danger.
, only one horse can pass. After crossing Xianxia Ridge, there are waterways connecting both sides. However, the dry source of Jianxi River in Jianzhou in the south of Lingnan and the water of Oujiang River in Quzhou in the north of Lingbo are also dry and shallow for a long period of time.
, only small boats can be navigated, and the navigation capacity is limited.
Such a dangerous road has been the most important pass between Zhejiang and Fujian since ancient times.
Before the war between Zhejiang and Fujian, there were thousands of porters in Quzhou and Jianzhou on both sides of Xianxia Ridge carrying work for business travelers. A cargo weighing 100 kilograms was carried from Quzhou to the dock in Pucheng or from Puma to Puma.
The Oujiang Pier in Quzhou charges twenty or thirty copper coins as a fee.
Thousands of porters carrying the goods along the Xianxia Ridge Road in a year are not even as much as a large sea-going ship can carry in one round trip.
In the past, the flow of goods between Zhejiang and Fujian was very small, the sea route was difficult and dangerous, and there were pirates blocking the road. Suixianxialing Road could barely meet the needs of Zhejiang and Fujian business travelers traveling between the two counties. However, the She family occupied the land of Zhejiang and Fujian and needed a large amount of
The rice grains from Mingzhou and Kuaiji are transported to Jin'an, and the railways from Jian'an and Jin'an are transported to Mingzhou and Kuaiji. The amount of resource exchange between the two places has greatly increased, and the dangerous and narrow Xianxia Ridge Road cannot be used at all.
Meet needs.
Although the focus of the She family's military deployment has shifted from the sea to the land, and they are looking for opportunities to break through from the western front into Jiangxi and southern Huizhou, the main channel connecting northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang is mainly the sea route, supplemented by the Xianxia Ridge land route.
Three bird-headed boats with a capacity of 300 stone descended from the pier of Minqing, followed the clear water of the Minjiang River after autumn, bypassed the magnificent Jin'an Fucheng, and entered the Bailongjiang River in the lower reaches of the Minjiang River.
The Minjiang River is divided into two branches from Nantai Island on the east side of Jin'an City. The southern branch is wide and shallow, with turbid sand, and is called the Wulong River. The northern branch is narrow, about 70 to 80 feet wide, but the rapids are deep and are suitable for ships going to sea.
Main waterways.
Hu Axiang, the shopkeeper of Chunfutang, stood on the ship's armor and looked at the lush Nantai Island in the south. Just like them, there were twenty or thirty sparrow-headed boats on the river ready to go to sea, watching the flags hanging on the masts to go to Mingzhou Prefecture.
There were many boats, some going to Quanzhou Prefecture, but I didn’t see any boats going to Fuso Kagoshima.
Hu Axiang thought in his mind that although the sea journey to Kagoshima was difficult and dangerous, and pirates frequently appeared on the east side of the sea, the profits would be really huge. As the saying goes, wealth can be found in danger, if ordinary people have the courage to carry ten or eight loads to the ship
Once the raw silk is shipped to Kagoshima and sold, you will have no worries about food and drink for the rest of your life.
Most of the sea-going ships in Jin'an are two-masted bird-head boats, with a carrying capacity ranging from 300 to 500 stones. The bird-head boats with long and narrow ridges and the flat-bottomed and wide-headed loach boats are the most mature ones along the coast of East Fujian.
The bird-headed boat has a deep draft, but can sail fast in the wind; the loach boat has a shallow draft and can directly dock on the shoal. It was very popular with pirates in the early years.
In the past, there were only thirty or fifty small-headed ships in the Minjiang Estuary. In the past two years, the demand for sea-going ships going to Mingzhou has increased. Now, there are one to two hundred sea-going ships going exclusively to Mingzhou and Jin'an.
The ships that go to Quanzhou are mainly bird-head ships with a load of three to five hundred stone. However, the ships that go to Yizhou, Ryukyu and Fuso Kagoshima, and even to the Nanyang Islands, have almost all been changed to three-ship boats.
There are big ships, but the number is relatively limited.
The storms on the sea are dangerous, and the ability of large ships to withstand wind and waves is far beyond that of small ships. The Metropolitan Government has repeatedly ordered various companies to build more large sea ships. Compared with previous years, the quality of the ships that Jin'an Mansion goes to sea has been improved several times.
grade.
There were two warships patrolling the river mouth, and the ships were filled with war flags facing the cold wind. Wei Afu, the accompanying man, came over and said with some uneasiness: "Shopkeeper, I heard that the situation in the north is getting tight, and Huaidong has also officially declared war on this side.
, will there be warships from Huaidong coming around to the south as soon as we go out?"
Hu Axiang glanced at his clerk Wei Afu coldly. If he hadn't relied on his quick hands and feet to say such unfavorable words, he would have slapped him in the face. I don't know where Wei Afu knew the Huaidong Army Division's sea report order.
Hu Axiang snorted coldly and said: "I have 20,000 elite navy troops in Mingzhou Prefecture in Jin'an. The navy troops in Huaidong are fully equipped, and the total does not exceed 10,000. Even if one or two small boats leak over, you will be scared out of your wits."
Already?"
Not to mention Hu Axiang, the vast majority of generals in the Zhejiang and Fujian metropolitan governorships are still thinking about land wars over battle lines. Nowadays, Zhejiang, Fujian and Huaidong have formed a clear and distinct boundary between the Daishan Islands and the Shengsi Islands.
The defense line, and the Zhejiang and Fujian naval divisions are behind the Daishan defense line, forming a strategic depth of four to five hundred miles from Changguo to Mingzhou Prefecture and the eastern coast of Mingzhou Prefecture, and to Jin'an Prefecture, which is still nearly a thousand miles away. Even if
The Huaidong navy will invade deeply with warships, and it must be on a small scale.
As one of the eight surnames in Eastern Fujian, the Hu family has lived in Fujian for more than 200 years. There are as many as 7,000 or 8,000 Hu clans living in Fujian and Qing Dynasties. It is a large family after She and Song.
The Zhejiang and Fujian armies occupied southern Zhejiang and cut off the way for Jiangxi porcelain to enter Zhejiang. The porcelain produced by the Hu family became a hot commodity in southern Zhejiang. There were as many as eight sparrow-headed ships dedicated to transporting porcelain northward.
Such a large volume of goods must be transported by sea and Xianxialing Road. It would be great to be able to transport 11% of goods a year.
Hu Axiang led three sparrow-headed boats to the north this time, all carrying porcelain. After being warned by the Governor's Office, the three ships were escorted by more than a hundred armed guards, which were enough to withstand ordinary harassment. However, according to the requirements of the Governor's Office, it was recommended
Ships going out to sea travel in fleets, and the navy will even dispatch warships to escort them depending on the situation.
Hu Axiang felt that the governor's office was unnecessary. There was a short distance of two thousand miles from Huaidong to Jin'an. The Huaidong envoy took crazy medicine and sent a boat around Jin'an to rob him. If he really wanted to send it here, would the Zhejiang and Fujian naval forces be vegetarians?
, will it also allow them to live safely?
The ship arrived at the lower island of Nantai Island. The Zhejiang and Fujian Navy had a dock here. According to the rules, they were required to dock at the port, or to undergo inspection, or to wait for other merchant ships to come and sail in formation. Hu Axiang murmured in his heart, but did not dare to openly defy the generals.
The governor's office issued an order to bring the ship closer.
At this moment, several tall masts were exposed on the sea level, and several sea-going ships were coming to the Bailong River estuary. It was common for sea-going ships to appear and disappear at the estuary, so Hu Axiang didn't pay attention. On the contrary, the two warships patrolling closer to the estuary suddenly adjusted
direction, Xu was checking the identity of the incoming ship. After a while, the incoming ship approached the river mouth with the rising tide, and Hu Axiang saw clearly that the five ships coming over were all loach boats, full of war flags.
Blowing in the wind.
Before these five ships suddenly attacked the sentry ship, Hu Axiang thought they were warships from the Minshui Camp of Zhejiang Province. Probably the two sentry ships thought the same, so they approached the prosecutor unsuspectingly.
The war at the mouth of the Bailong River broke out suddenly. The two patrol boats were unprepared. Almost in the blink of an eye, they were covered by arrows and special burning tanks filled with kerosene. The five patrol boats that launched the surprise attack
The target of an enemy ship was obviously not just the two patrol boats at the mouth of the river. It threw away the two patrol boats that were blinded and caused a fire, and took advantage of the incoming tide to attack the Nantai Island pier!
"It's an enemy ship, it's an enemy ship coming in!" Most of the crew members on the Quetou ship had never seen anything before, and they shouted in panic when they saw five enemy ships rushing in with great momentum.
Hu Axiang wanted to slap the crow-mouthed Wei Afu. He was really shocked at what he was saying. He didn't know why five loach boats were able to bypass the outer cordon and sneak in. There were more than ten people stationed at the pier.
The merchant ships were all panicking and trying to escape.
There were only a hundred or so garrison soldiers on the pier, and they were all scattered soldiers. They were in a panic. They just took bows and arrows and weapons and rushed up to the pier. In fact, they couldn't help quickly. The beacon smoke was burning in time at this time, but after waiting
It will take some time for the water camp warships from Daoshui Village to arrive.
Hu Axiang first wanted to save the cargo on the ship, but he did not dare to show off with the hundreds of armed guards on the ship, shouting and telling the boatmen to change the sails and turn around to escape upstream!
The guards on the ship all took out their bows, crossbows, swords and spears, and a dozen leaders, with the help of others, put on their armor in a hurry. If the merchant ship could not escape and the reinforcements could not arrive in time, they would
These military guards resisted for a while.
Hu Axiang was lucky. He hadn't abandoned the anchor yet, and the sail had only been lowered halfway. The boatmen and sailors were all in their respective positions. After the initial panic, the three bird-headed boats quickly turned around and headed upward**
.
Most of the merchant ships stationed at the lower island were not so lucky. As soon as they pulled up the big anchor from the water, five enemy ships came to close. Although the merchant ships were somewhat escorted, there was no attempt to hijack the ship after the enemy ships approached.
Thoughts, when there was still some distance to the dock, he threw a large number of burning kerosene cans.
The kerosene tank was smashed on the deck, and the fire immediately spread all over the place with the splashing kerosene, and the crossbows and arrows overlapped. The sails and masts on the ship were all easily ignited, and the guards on the ship lacked the bows and crossbows to fight, so they were suppressed.
Unable to put out the fire.
Merchant ships cannot be compared with warships. Their decks are thin, they are not covered with cooked cowhide, their fire protection is poor, and there are no protective walls on their sides. It is difficult to withstand the fire of bows and crossbows. It is also unknown what kind of fire is contained in the clay pots thrown by enemy ships.
Oil, the fire was extremely strong, there was a faint blue light in broad daylight, and there were crackling explosions. As time went on, the fire burned through the deck, and the oil soaked into the cabin, and the fire could not be saved...
Seeing a dozen merchant ships at Xiadao Pier being plunged into a sea of flames in a short period of time, Hu Axiang was horrified: These five loach ships were warships disguised as a sneak attack by Huaidong. If they were replaced by ordinary pirate ships, they should be
It was mainly robbery, how could it be possible to directly set fire to the ship?
The warships on the island water village were not slow to dispatch. At this time, five or six fast-paddle boats came with oars first. The Bailong River in the north of Nantai Island is only 60 to 70 feet wide, and the water surface is narrow, which makes it difficult for sailing boats to use oars.
When the five attacking enemy ships saw the warships dispatched here, they gave up the opportunity to land and attack the lower island dock, and turned around and fled to the open sea from a distance!
Hu Axiang looked at the dozens of merchant ships burning on the left and right sides of Xiadao Pier. He broke into a cold sweat on his back and secretly thought that it was very dangerous: If he had come earlier, he would probably have to lower the sails and be unable to get out.
Most of the merchant ships in Jin'an Prefecture that can go to sea to make profits are closely related to the eight surnames, or are directly under the names of the eight surnames. Seeing so many ships being set on fire, many sailors and guards were forced to jump into the water to escape. Hu Axiang
He couldn't just ignore the situation. When he saw that the Shuiying warships were dispatched to drive away the enemy ships, and more than a dozen ships went out to sea to catch up, he ordered his men to turn around and go to the Xiadao Pier to help rescue people and put out the fire. He couldn't help but feel
She sighed: The war has finally reached Jin'an Mansion!