After following the hook rope to swing to the cabin roof of the Korean warship, Shen Lian took a deep breath to calm down his inner emotions to prevent him from getting too excited and causing a fire.
Yes, this Shen Lian is the servant who has followed young master Shen Shuren for three years.
When Chen Shuren first arrived in Huangzhou, he wanted to expand the army, so he was asked to serve as a general among the recruits recruited from dock workers and hunters. Later, he followed Zuo Zixiong and fought several battles with Liu Xiyao, and performed well.
, he was promoted to CEO in the second year.
Later, he fought a fierce battle with Erhe and followed the Shen Shuren to occupy Wuchang. Shen Lian was always diligent, and he had a courageous background as a seafarer. He gradually accumulated hard work and was now promoted to the rank of garrison.
This time, the Shen family selected five thousand private soldiers to deal with Zheng Chenggong. Shen Lian was among them. He was one of the three guards sent by the Shen family, and he was the only one of the three guards who was born as a servant of the Shen family.
He happened to be following Zheng Chenggong, nominally protecting Zheng Chenggong and serving as a guide, but in fact he also took on the task of helping Chen Shuren monitor Zheng Chenggong.
Today, Zheng Chenggong suddenly encountered a good opportunity on the battlefield, and it was possible to capture a Korean warship that had no intention of fighting. Shen Lian was selected as the leading officer because he had followed the family owner for several years in Korean maritime trade in his early years and was proficient in Korean.
…
"Put down the blunderbuss! Those who surrender will not be killed!"
As Shen Lian's soldiers took control of the top of the cabin and asked several strong men to hold iron sand hand cannons (grenades of the Ming Dynasty) to guard the cabin door, he shouted for the officers and soldiers inside to surrender.
If there is no agreement from inside, he can throw mines directly into the cabin. This kind of indoor battle with a wooden structure is definitely the scene where the power of earthen grenades is most effective.
However, a response in Chinese soon came from the cabin: "My general is the legitimate son of the Korean soldier Cao Banshu. He was defeated in the battle today and is willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty! Don't open fire! We are willing to put down the blunderbuss!"
Then Shen Lian heard a noise coming from the cabin. Several blunderbuss were symbolically thrown out of the cabin door, and more blunderbuss were probably just put down on the spot.
Shen Lian's wariness was somewhat relieved, but new suspicions arose. With a look, he motioned to his five or six soldiers to open a path with loaded bayonets and muskets to control the situation, and then he followed.
After entering the cabin, he took a quick glance and saw one of the officers wearing satin cotton armor. He should be of high rank. He walked up to the officer warily and suddenly asked in Korean:
"Who is the surname of Bing Cao's judge? When he raised military rations for Dongjiang Mao Town, who handled the transportation?"
Li Yu was caught off guard and was stunned for a moment. He knew Chinese. He was worried that the Ming general opposite would not understand, so he deliberately shouted in Chinese. Unexpectedly, the Ming general opposite actually spoke Korean to him.
But he soon realized that the other party was trying to defraud his identity and wanted to confirm whether he was a Korean disguised as a Tatar, so he quickly answered in Korean:
"My father, Li Shibai, did raise "three hands of rice" for the king fifteen years ago and provided military rations for Mao Zong Town in Dongjiang. I wonder who the general is? He knows so much about my Korean affairs that he even knows all this?
I was still young back then and don’t remember much, but I vaguely heard my father mention that after he raised military rations, a Ming Dynasty maritime merchant came to subscribe and deliver them to Mao Zongzhen. The maritime merchant seemed to be named Shen Tingyang.
But since Ding Mao's chaos in the early years of Chongzhen, our country in North Korea had to cut off military rations from General Mao's town. I heard that Shen Tingyang later gave up business and entered politics, bought an official position, and never came to North Korea again. The Shen family's trade in North Korea
There may still be some people doing it secretly, but they are all entrusted to family members.”
Shen Lian breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing what the other party said was so detailed and fluent in Korean, he finally confirmed that there was no problem:
"Okay, put away the blunderbuss, everyone put down their weapons and tow the ship back to the dock. No matter what your reason is, thank you General Li for turning from darkness to light."
Li Yu finally felt at ease. At least no one on his ship was killed and he surrendered peacefully. Otherwise, if he had not said otherwise, conflicts and misunderstandings would inevitably lead to individual casualties.
After the situation was brought under control, Zheng Chenggong soon came across the ship to inspect the situation out of curiosity. Shen Lian went on to explain all the twists and turns.
Li Yu also briefly explained why he had no choice but to surrender. He hoped that Zheng Chenggong would keep it secret for him and only tell the public that they had been killed in battle, not to mention that they had been captured and surrendered.
Of course, Zheng Chenggong and others were secretly happy: they came here to help the Chenshu people recruit private soldiers. It happened that there were some North Koreans here who wanted to fake their lives to hide their identities. They just hit it off and got what they needed.
After this was done, the large fleet of Kong Youde's rear army a few miles away was gradually approaching, and Zheng Chenggong's peripheral patrol boats were already at war with Kong Youde's troops.
Zheng Chenggong had no time to pay attention to the situation here, and quickly ordered Shen Lian to help him put the flags on the thirty Korean ships to pretend to be prisoners, and then tow them all away and bring them back to the water village.
Zheng Chenggong returned to the flagship and led all the Chinese army's Hongyi cannons and gunboats to kill Kong Youde.
Kong Youde's arsonist fleet was completely wiped out, and only a single-digit number of Ming army ships and some dock facilities were burned. The North Korean fleet was also "annihilated."
Kong Youde's remaining combat strength plummeted from 11,000 to about 7,000 in an instant, and he also lost the opportunity for a sneak attack. Zheng Chenggong brought elites who had been at sea for many years, and the Hongyi artillery still had an advantage.
, the subsequent battle was of course overwhelming.
However, when Kong Youde first watched the battle between Zheng Chenggong and Li Yu, there was mostly gunfire, but he could hardly hear the roar of the Hongyi cannon, which caused Kong Youde to underestimate the enemy.
It was thought that the number of Zheng Chenggong's Hongyi cannons was far less than expected, or that the cannons had already been transported to land and deployed in water fortresses, and they were temporarily unable to turn their muzzles to bombard targets at sea.
Kong Youde relied on his eagerness and still stepped forward to fight Zheng Chenggong. As a result, the two armies were so close that there were only two or three hundred steps left, and the Hongyi artillery from both sides opened fire one after another.
Kong Youde also had several ships equipped with cannons, but the total number was only five or six, and the quality was not as good as Zheng Chenggong's. Zheng Chenggong had more than twenty cannons, and he concentrated his firepower and fired at random, which immediately caused Kong Youde's troops to fall into a brief panic.
The fierce fighting only lasted for a quarter of an hour. After finding that he was unbeatable, Kong Youde turned the boat around and started to retreat. At this time, it was already half past nine o'clock, and it would be dawn if he didn't move.
Seeing that the flagship had escaped, other warships under Kong Youde also fled one after another. Zheng Chenggong followed behind and killed many Qing sailors with firearms.
"This star really wants to retire"
It is a pity that the solid artillery shells of this era are still very difficult to sink warships - at the same time, the Galen gunboats in the West often blasted a bunch of big holes in the upper cabins, but they could not sink the ship.
The wooden hull was too light and required little buoyancy reserve. In addition, the Ming Dynasty's watertight compartment technology was already very mature, unlike the iron-hulled ships of later generations that could flood with a large amount of water just by breaking a few holes.
It was also difficult for early artillery to hit the part below the waterline of the warship. After a bloody battle, many Kong family warships had several big holes, but no water entered. Only the soldiers in the cabin were beaten to pieces and were beaten to pieces.
The splattered wood caused terrible damage.
Kong Youde saw that it would be completely dark if he didn't keep the distance, so he gritted his teeth and fired the signal for counterattack again, but in fact he led the main force of the Chinese army to escape at an accelerated speed.
A few uninformed Qing navy warships mistakenly believed the general's counterattack signal, and ended up helping their teammates to block the attack, and were surrounded and annihilated by Zheng Chenggong.
It was not easy to sink the ship. In the end, Zheng Chenggong used firearms to kill and wound most of the people on the ship, and then sent a team of killers to join the gang to clean up the battlefield, killing all those who deserved to be killed and all the prisoners who deserved to be captured.
Then set fire to the broken ship. If the ship is in good condition and can be repaired, just pull it back.
In the bloody battle for more than half an hour, Kong Youde lost nearly two thousand men and horses, and finally cut off their tails to survive miserably.
Eleven thousand men went on an expedition, and when they returned to the Hekou village in Daling, Jinzhou, they counted the troops and found that only over 4,700 were left.
His own direct line strength was almost half lost, and the North Korean gun battalion was completely lost. Even the soldiers lent to him by Geng Zhongming died in hundreds.
The Manchu and Qing Dynasty's Han military flag, Zhenghong Banner, was severely damaged as a result, and almost half of the banner's strength was lost.
…
Zheng Chenggong returned to his army after a great victory, and when he arrived at Bijiashanshui Village, the sky was completely bright.
In the past few days, they slept during the day and fought bloody battles in the middle of the night. The soldiers of the Ming army were also caused to have day and night reversed. Their biological clocks were extremely disordered. Instead, they fell asleep as soon as they lay down at dawn.
And Shen Lian, who stayed behind to help him collect the prisoners, had secretly placed all the Koreans.
Those thirty Korean warships can only be given to Li Fuming and Cao Bianjiao who returned to Shanhaiguan. We will see if they can exchange more resources at that time. For example, they will no longer be given to Cao in the future, and Li will return the other rescued Ming army soldiers.
.
Because the Korean warships, which were derived from the wooden house ships, sacrificed long-distance wave resistance and seaworthiness in order to strengthen defense, they were offshore warships that sailed close to the coast.
If you expect to cross the strait from Bijia Mountain to climb up, or even go directly to the open sea back to the Yangtze River Estuary, it will most likely cause it to capsize halfway.
It was impossible to leave Wu Sangui to Wu Sangui. This time, before Zheng Chenggong and others set off, Shen Shuren told him that when making friends with the Liaodong generals in the future, he would rather have a heart-to-heart exchange of interests with the rescued generals, but he should also be wary of Wu Sangui.
So it can only be given to Cao and Li.
Seeing Zheng Chenggong returning to his army, Shen Lian and Zhang Mingzhen, who was responsible for guarding the water stronghold, both went up to greet him. They talked loudly and asked about the results of the battle. They also toasted to celebrate the victory and drank from a big bowl.
Only then did Zheng Chenggong have time to ask how Shen Lian confirmed Li Yu's identity at that time and why both parties knew each other's details so well.
Shen Lian then said casually: "My father took over the North Korean maritime trade at home more than 20 years ago. While doing business, he made friends with North Korean dignitaries.
In the early years of Korea, there was a dark period of friendship with the Tatars. At that time, King Gwanghae was in power. However, in the third year of the Apocalypse, General Li's grandfather supported the "Guihai Anyway" and deposed the Tatar king. Since then, Korea has regained its friendship with the Ming Dynasty.
, began to provide support to Dongjiang Mao Wenlong.
My husband took advantage of this situation and helped to purchase the military rations raised by North Korea and resold them to Mao Wenlong. The North Korean side could also get rid of some suspicions and would not openly transport grain to Mao Wenlong and bring disaster to the Tatars.
It's a pity that this trade only lasted four years. North Korea was invaded by the Tatars and Mao Wenlong died. My husband was disheartened and felt that the business was no longer possible, so he donated his official position the year after Mao Wenlong's death.
Therefore, my family is very familiar with the situation in North Korea, and the high-level dignitaries in North Korea who participated in supporting Mao Wenlong are also very familiar with my family. When it comes to the inside story, they know the details."
Zheng Chenggong listened with great interest, but he did not expect that there were so many opportunities to write a book.
He had originally only heard from Brother Shen that Duke Shen was an official donated as an imperial supervisor in the second year of Chongzhen. Looking back now, wasn't this what happened after North Korea was invaded by the Tatars and Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan in the first year of Chongzhen?
Completely connected in time.
Zheng Chenggong smoothed over the causes and consequences and encouraged Li Yu with emotion:
"From this point of view, all this is God's will. To tell you the truth, Zheng also worked with Brother Shen. Brother Shen was the eldest son of Wumei Gong (Shen Tingyang's nickname) who raised food for General Mao Town.
, now only twenty-two years old, he has already become a governor in our Ming Dynasty, pacifying thieves and destroying bandits.
Mr. Wu Mei is now the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing. We have done a great job in protecting the canal this time. I am afraid that Mr. Wu Mei will be promoted to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing after we return! If you work with the Shen family, you will inevitably be granted the title of wife and daughter-in-law in the future! Wait for the future
After destroying the Tatars, you no longer need to remain anonymous!"