Daming: Stealing Chen Yuanyuan at the beginning

Chapter 337
The 3 people of the Ming army sailed into the Gu River by boat and marched northward.

The Gu River has been an important river in eastern Shandong since ancient times. It is formed by the confluence of the Dagu River, the Xiaogu River and the Jiaoshui River. Its estuary is quite open.

In March and April, the snow melts and snow water flows into the river, becoming a spring flood.At this time, the river water surged, which brought convenience to the Ming army fleet.

But in any case, rivers are not the same as oceans. The water surface is narrow and the water current is shallow. Therefore, the Ming army fleet used small warships, and did not bring much food and artillery.

Going up along the Guhe River and entering the boundary of Dengzhou, you will find the waterway of the Dagu River. The water flow is reduced and the riverway is narrower.

Zheng Chenggong didn't take these situations to heart at all, and just urged to move forward. He said to the generals: "To attack Laiyang City, the most important thing is to take Laixi County on the east bank of the Dagu River. As long as this place is recovered, Laiyang City will have no shelter." Unstoppable is exposed to the front of our army."

Standing at the bow of the boat, Princess Changping listened to Zheng Chenggong's words, watched the fleet's driving situation in her eyes, and thought to herself: "Thirty thousand sailors poured into the small Dagu River. Difficult to maneuver, in case the enemy has an ambush, how to meet the enemy?"

She turned her head to Zheng Chenggong and said, "Uncle Zhongxiao, I think we'd better go ashore and go to Laixi County by land."

"Going by land is too slow, and as I said before, our army's advantage lies in the water, and we cannot attack the enemy's strengths with our own weaknesses. Your Royal Highness, please rest assured that we will be able to enter the city of Laixi this afternoon. "

Princess Changping frowned and stopped talking.

After traveling for dozens of miles, at Shen time in the afternoon, the fleet came to a bend in the river.Landing on the river bend here, you can go to Laixi County.

Dozens of warships at the front sailed into the river bend first, while those behind were squeezed into the river, stretching for several miles.There is a reed marsh growing at the bend of the river, with withered and yellow reed leaves fluttering in the wind, and the end cannot be seen at a glance.

Seeing this scene, Princess Changping immediately became vigilant and said: "Uncle Zhongxiao, this place is dangerous, let the boats approach the shore quickly, and the soldiers should go ashore immediately."

Zheng Chenggong also saw the clue, and said: "Well, if there is an ambush in the reed marsh, it is indeed a bit tricky! Come on, pass on my general order..."

He didn't speak, but he heard the rumble of drums, the reeds shook violently, and dozens of small boats came out of the reeds.

"Sure enough, there is an ambush!" Zheng Chenggong shouted, "Meet the enemy!"

At this time, Zheng Chenggong still did not take these enemies seriously.Don't blame him for being too big, it's just that this group of ambush soldiers was too shabby.

The small boats they were driving could be seen as fishing boats and ferries temporarily requisitioned, and they seemed insignificant in front of the huge warships of the Ming army, like an egg hitting a stone.Looking at the enemies on board, there are at most about ten people per ship, and the total number of them is less than 500.

In Zheng Chenggong's eyes, the enemy's equipment was invisible and their numbers were small, so why not be afraid?

After the enemy warship sailed out of the reed marsh, it moved forward rapidly.Hundreds of meters away from the Ming army's foremost warship, the enemy suddenly lifted the tarpaulin on the boat, picked up earthen pots and poured things into the water.

Not long after, there was a layer of shiny black oil floating on the surface of the water, and the smell was very special.

Princess Changping shouted: "It's oil, the enemy wants to attack with fire!"

Our people discovered and used oil the earliest time in the world, according to research, it started at least 3000 years ago.

"Book of Changes": "There is fire in the marsh", "upper fire and lower marsh", are the earliest records about oil.In "Hanshu·Geography" written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is written: "There is flammable water in Gaonu County", which is the earliest record about the oil production area.

Later, ancient Chinese people used oil not only for mechanical lubrication, but also for lighting and fuel.By the Tang and Song Dynasties, oil had been widely used in wars.

Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in the Song Dynasty, in the encyclopedia "Mengxi Bi Tan", named the names of stone paint, stone resin water, kerosene, fierce kerosene and other names used in history as oil, and predicted that oil would "popular in the world" in the future. World".

Therefore, it is not surprising that Princess Changping knows about oil.

And because of the influence of His Majesty the Emperor, Princess Changping carefully read "Tiangong Kaiwu" written by Song Yingxing. The narration further deepened Princess Changping's understanding of oil.

I don't know how many cans of oil the enemy brought, poured one can after another, the river water became greasy, black and shiny, and the smell was pungent.

Princess Changping didn't know that the area around Weifang, Shandong was rich in oil.After Zhang Shangxian noticed this object, he sent people to dig a well and secretly stored a lot of it, which happened to come in handy at this time.

"Stop them!" Zheng Chenggong shouted.

The soldiers were about to shoot, and Princess Changping stomped her feet and said, "Don't use firearms, use bows and arrows to suppress their momentum. The rest of the people quickly leave the ship and go ashore. The enemy is going to set fire to it!"

The navy archers fired a burst of arrows, and the enemy soldiers poured out all the oil they brought, set fire to the boats, and then jumped into the river one after another, swimming back into the reed marshes.

Dozens of small boats were burning, and the oil floating on the river was also on fire.The fire took advantage of the wind, and the wind blew the flames. In the blink of an eye, the river bend became a sea of ​​flames, and the thick smoke shot straight into the sky.

The dozens of small boats crashed down, and there were still piles of sulfur, gunpowder, dry firewood and other things in the boats. There was thick smoke billowing and sparks flying, and many warships were set alight.

Zheng Chenggong was shocked, and hurriedly issued an order: "All the warships in the river bay are docked, and it is important to abandon them to save their lives! The warships in the river retreat quickly and stay away from the sea of ​​fire!"

If you want to turn the bow of the boat to escape the flames in the bend of the river, you will definitely not be able to do it.Zheng Chenggong was still calm and calm, and he didn't lose the big because of small things. At this time, it is only reasonable to abandon the warship and save the lives of the soldiers.

The soldiers of the Ming army fled to the shore in a panic and panic. There were too many people and it was extremely crowded. Many people fell from the pedals into the river, and there were stampedes in several places.

If this is the case, the loss of the Ming army will not be too great.Just when the Ming army was in a state of chaos and the soldiers had not yet gained a firm foothold when they went ashore, Zhang Shangxian personally led [-] elite soldiers to kill them.

Seeing the killing of tens of thousands of Qing soldiers, Zheng Chenggong was shocked and complained: "I underestimated Zhang Shangxian and underestimated the enemy!"

There is a saying in the art of war that the enemy will strike at halfway across.It means that when fighting by the river, waiting for the enemy to cross the river and attacking when they are in a state of panic can achieve good results.

Zhang Shangxian first used fire to disrupt the Ming army's position, making it impossible for the Ming army to disembark calmly, and then led a large group of troops to cover up the attack, killing the Ming army by surprise.He is indeed a man of extraordinary ability, he can be regarded as a Confucian general.

Zheng Chenggong hastily gathered more than 3000 people around him, bit the bullet and faced the enemy head-on, wanting to head-on with the enemy.

His idea is very good, first use 2000 people to entangle the enemy army, and buy time for other soldiers to go ashore.There are only tens of thousands of enemy troops, while the Ming army has [-] soldiers. Once the Ming army is all ashore and assembled, they will be able to form an advantage and turn the tide of the battle.

I have to say that Zheng Chenggong is an excellent coach who can think of the best strategy against the enemy in a hurry.

But Zheng Chenggong still underestimated Zhang Shangxian's ability. When 2000 men and horses came forward to meet him, the Qing army was waiting, but they didn't take advantage of the chaos to charge forward.When the formation was set up and the Ming army was about to rush in front of them, the Qing army suddenly rolled out hundreds of strange large copper cabinets with carts.

After some operations by the Qing soldiers, the barrel cabinet suddenly erupted into flames, which were two feet long.

The soldiers of the Ming army rushed forward without expecting such a skill from the Qing soldiers. Many people were burnt to pieces and burst into flames, screaming.

The large copper cabinet used by the Qing army is called the fierce fire oil cabinet.

"Wu Jing Zongyao" records that the fierce fire oil tank uses fierce fire oil (that is, petroleum) as fuel, and uses cooked copper as the cabinet. There are 4 feet on the bottom and 4 reels on the top. The orifice is as big as a grain of millet. The head is a round mouth with a diameter of half an inch. There is an orifice next to the cabinet. The reel is the mouth, and the mouth has a cover.The pump (primitive piston mechanism) is placed horizontally on the pipe, which communicates with the oil tank, which is filled with oil.

The front of the pump is equipped with a "fire building", which contains gunpowder.When launching against the enemy, ignite the igniting powder in the fire building with a red-hot burning cone, so that a high temperature zone is formed in the fire building body, and at the same time, through conduction, the fuel injection channel in front of the preheating cylinder forms a preheating zone, and then the pump is pulled hard to The air in the oil tank is compressed so that when the fierce fire oil is sprayed out through the fire tower, it will be ignited when it is heated, and flames will be ejected from the nozzle of the fire tower, shaped like a fire dragon, to burn the enemy and incinerate war equipment.

The fierce fire oil tank appeared in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and was once used as a weapon for offensive and defensive combat.In the Ming Dynasty, with the increasing development of firearms, fierce fire oil tanks were gradually eliminated.

However, Zhang Shangxian is a person who likes to read ancient books and also likes to delve into ancient combat weapons. When he discovered that Weifang, Shandong was rich in oil, he asked craftsmen to build fierce fire oil tanks according to the records in ancient books.

The fierce fire oil tank is tall and bulky, and is actually only suitable for defending the city.Zhang Shangxian also had no choice but to use heavy fire oil tanks in field battles because he did not have much equipment. This is why the Qing army set up formations.

At the same time, Zhang Shangxian invented a small flamethrower in order to replace the oil tank with a copper gourd, so that it could be carried and moved easily.

When the three thousand soldiers of the Ming army were suppressed by the flames, hundreds of Qing soldiers came out carrying copper gourds with flames spraying from their mouths. Wherever they went, the soldiers of the Ming army had to retreat. , There is no power to fight back at all.

The [-] soldiers that Zheng Chenggong managed to gather fell into chaos again. Everyone was too busy to take care of themselves.

Not long after, there were only more than 1000 people left around Zheng Chenggong.And Zhang Shangxian had already noticed Zheng Chenggong. Although he didn't know that he was the commander-in-chief of the Ming army, he must be a general of the Ming army from the appearance of his clothes, so he ordered the soldiers to surround him and surrounded Zheng Chenggong.

When Zheng Chenggong realized the danger, there were Qing soldiers in front of him, and he secretly screamed: "My life is over!"

(End of this chapter)