Chapter 556 Zhu Biao Selected the Battlefield for the Decisive Battle!

New warship.

The deck is stepped and has two layers.

Both the upper and lower layers are equipped with guns, with the lower layer having the largest caliber, up to ten inches.

The upper layer has the old-fashioned caliber of eight inches.

Both have the ability to rotate the turret 180 degrees.

During the battle, the warship does not need to engage the enemy from the side.

Whether it is the bow or the stern facing the enemy, most of the guns on the ship can be deployed.

When the flagship fired the first round of artillery, the remaining seven warships immediately opened fire almost at the same time.

The billowing smoke instantly enveloped the entire sea surface.

In the thick smoke.

Near the gun position where the shooting was completed, the naval officers and soldiers have begun to get busy.

Pull the bolt.

The breech loading port is exposed.

At this time, Ye Kai, who was observing with a telescope, suddenly ordered: "Order, the second round of artillery fire, use the latest developed shrapnel shells!"

"Second round of artillery fire, shrapnel shells!"

The flagship's order and the whistle signal sounded immediately.

At the flagship's gun positions, the soldiers who were already preparing solid iron bullets quickly put the iron bullets back into the box and carefully took out special shrapnel shells from the box next to them.

The shells were sent into the barrel from the breech loading port.

The soldiers holding cylindrical and columnar propellant bags quickly stuffed the propellant into the barrel.

Bang!

With a dull sound, a gunner closed the bolt.

A gunner rushed up and poured granular gunpowder into the ignition groove.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!"

Each turret was upright, waving and shouting.

The granular gunpowder in the ignition groove ignited instantly, and thick smoke suddenly burst out with dazzling light.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The dull sound of artillery fire sounded in various turrets.

The barrel suddenly moved back and quickly reset forward.

Thanks to the slight progress of Yanhua's steel industry in these years, a more durable large spring assembly has been developed.

The turrets of the new generation of warships have changed from the original rail-type unloading.

To the tube-recoil type.

The rail unloads the reaction force of the shells, which not only requires manual reset after the shelling, but also requires the installation of rails, so the turrets take up more space.

As a result, the number of guns on the old generation of ironclad ships is limited.

The new generation of Duke-class warships.

If it were not for the insufficient power of the steam engine, more guns could be installed.

Even so.

The new generation of ironclad ships is by no means comparable to the previous generation of ironclad ships.

This point.

The generals of the Ming Dynasty Navy on the opposite side soon realized it.

Bang bang bang...

Boom boom boom!

Dense shrapnel shells hit the sea surface, and then there was an explosion.

The broken shells splashed and hit the Ming Dynasty Navy ship.

One day ago.

Song Sansi, the commander of the Songjiangkou Navy who rushed back to the Navy Camp, looked particularly pale and ugly.

The general standing behind him stared at the sea about 500 steps ahead, the constant explosions and flying shrapnel, his face was pale without a trace of blood.

Until the third round of solid bullet bombardment, a barrage fell about 100 steps.

After the sea surface gradually calmed down.

The naval general looked at the opposite side, the steel giant looming in the billowing smoke.

Then he spoke in a trembling tone.

"How can we fight this? Commander, we can't fight this at all!"

"That's right. We are all wooden ships, but the problem is that our artillery is not as powerful as theirs, and our artillery speed is completely incomparable to theirs."

"It's not just the artillery speed. The shells in the second round of deterrent artillery just now still exploded when they fell on the sea. Just imagine, if such shells hit our deck, how much damage would they cause?"

...

"Commander, we can't fight these wooden ships at all!"

"If not for ourselves, we have to think about our brothers, right?"

...

Song Sansi listened to the trembling pleading behind him, and raised his hands tremblingly, the exquisite copper monocular telescope.

So beautiful!

Yanhua's new generation of warships is really beautiful.

The whole hull is intact, without a gun port window, and the riveted steel plates are painted with black anti-corrosion paint.

It looks very solid.

On the first step of the deck, there are black and thick artillery.

On the second floor, in the middle of a circle of turrets, stood a neat and orderly ship island.

Above the ship island, so as to prevent the vertical stripes of the Yanhua tricolor flag from fluttering in the wind.

He could even see it clearly.

Ye Kai stood on a spiral staircase outside the commander, also holding a telescope, and observed him from a distance.

The sixteen ironclad ships that were already considered assets of the court navy were completely incomparable to the eight new generation ironclad ships on the opposite side!

It turned out that Yanhua had secretly owned such beautiful, majestic and magnificent warships.

Your Majesty did so much.

In the end, he only got sixteen outdated warships?

He really couldn't imagine that these eight, such beautiful ironclad ships, appeared under the city of Jinling and in the Qinhuai River.

What would your majesty think after seeing it?

Of course, at this moment, he had no time to think about your majesty's emotions at that time.

He needed to make a decision now.

Should we fight!

Or not!

He would definitely not be able to fight!

Don't think that he has more than 30 Duke-class hybrid warships on hand.

Originally, there were 60.

When the prince was the crown prince, when he was reorganizing the Chaohu system in the navy, he deployed more than 20 hybrid warships to the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

Balanced the power of the three naval forces of the Ming Dynasty.

However, even before equilibrium, so what if he had sixty ships?

Can't beat it either.

Not fighting?

His Majesty showed great kindness to them and his son.

He serves the country as a loyal soldier.

Even when he saw Xu Xianchang kneeling to His Majesty in the imperial study, and heard that His Majesty was planning to seize Yanhua's sixteen armored ships, and was trying to take advantage of Yanhua's loss of naval power to send troops to Yanhua.

Shocked.

I don’t particularly agree with His Majesty’s approach.

But as a minister.

Even if His Majesty is wrong.

He must also be loyal to the king and repay His Majesty's kindness to his Song family father and son.

Song Sansi gritted his teeth suddenly and turned around with sharp eyes. After looking around for three rounds of intimidating bombardment, his already timid colleagues snorted coldly: "Back when Your Majesty was the crown prince, you were trying to rectify the Chaohu faction within the Songjiangkou Division. Which of you was the best? Huan, who is patting his chest on His Majesty’s face and speaking out loudly, the Songjiangkou Division will be more powerful than the Chaohu Division in your hands!”

In fact, His Majesty completely disintegrated the Chaohu system within the Songjiangkou Division.

He somewhat disagreed.

Compared with these people in North Korea.

He served as the unofficial envoy of the Ming Dynasty to the Chen Dynasty for more than ten years.

Close to Yanhua.

He knows as much about the Yanhua Navy as he does about the Chaohu Department headed by Yu Tongyuan.

Yanhua Navy pays great attention to tradition!

But Yanhua, through its real technical backbone, has continued to preserve naval technology, spirit and other traditions and promote development.

In the Ming Navy.

The one who has studied Yanhua most deeply is definitely the Chaohu group.

Completely transfer the Chaohu generals from the Songjiangkou Division.

In his opinion, it was undoubtedly a destruction of the tradition of this powerful navy.

But at that time.

Hu Weiyong, Lu Ben and other conservatives who were hostile to the Chaohu clique actively promoted it.

And the naval generals in front of him, who were jealous of the Chaohu generals, were also making trouble.

His Majesty did not know much about the navy or naval warfare, so he made the decision to completely disintegrate the Chaohu system of the Songjiangkou Division.

"When you first suppressed the Chaohu Clan, you were beating your chests and uttering heroic words. If you don't dare to fight today, you will collapse on your own and retreat into the military port, causing the Yanhua Navy to march straight to the gates of Jinling City. You may wish to think about this. What will happen to you after it’s over!”

The generals looked frightened and uneasy.

Your Majesty has just ascended the throne.

The Yanhua navy marched all the way to Jinling City.

Long Yan was swept away.

There must always be a scapegoat to save His Majesty's face.

Undoubtedly, Master Songjiangkou is the best target.

If you fight and die in battle, your family will not be implicated.

Even if they were lucky enough to escape with their lives, even if they were defeated, they could still say that this battle was not their fault, but that their weapons were too lagging behind.

"beat!"

"Control must be beaten! Beat hard!"

"Use this battle to let the Yanhua Navy understand that the Ming Dynasty cannot be insulted lightly, and the Central Plains cannot be insulted lightly!"

…

After the generals briefly weighed the pros and cons, they suddenly broke out into shouting and killing.

This group of generals are not pure generals at all, they are just a group of political generals who weigh the pros and cons.

The Ming Dynasty Navy, in the final analysis, is truly the purest military commander, and is actually the Chaohu Clan who is jealous and feared by His Majesty.

However, at this moment, he couldn't care about this anymore.

It is a foregone conclusion that this battle will be lost.

He was loyal to His Majesty and repaid his kindness at the same time.

Bury these bastards here.

When His Majesty builds the Daming Navy again, it is very likely that the Chaohu system will be reactivated and reused.

Perhaps, this is why he is loyal to death.

The real value of the entire Songjiangkou Division army being destroyed.

Song Sansi didn't think too much, turned around, his eyes gradually became firm, staring at Yanhua's three-color vertical flag opposite.

The meaning of this three-color vertical flag.

He knows.

The white in the middle represents the people of Yanhua and the pure Juche ideology.

The bright yellow on the left and the blue on the right respectively represent the Yanhua royal family and all the people of Yanhua living on the blue sea, tightly clustered around the pure Juche idea.

Defend, persevere, carry forward and develop, the idea of ​​national democracy proposed, promoted and formed by King Yan.

‘Perhaps the meaning of this flag is the reason why Ming Dynasty lags behind Yanhua step by step? ’

He is neither a conservative nor a reformist.

He is just a minister who is favored by the emperor and loyal to the emperor.

But at this moment, he suddenly felt that maybe Fang Xiaoru and Lan Yu, the reformists who spoke loudly within the Ming Dynasty, were really right.

‘Is this the realization that man is about to die? ’

Song Sansi smiled bitterly and came back to his senses, shook his head, and then, his gaze became firm again, and he ordered: "Aim at the Yanhua Navy on the side, use the flying geese formation, roll back and outflank!"

Woo woo woo...

The mournful and dull sound of the trumpet sounded immediately.

"The Songjiangkou Division issued a war cry!"

…

The onlookers on the merchant ships heard the sound of the horn and screamed in surprise.

On the flagship.

Ye Kai held up the telescope and frowned.

Why……

He sighed silently, and said in a depressed mood: "Send the order, arrow-shaped attack formation, use full firepower, use the fastest speed to defeat the Songjiangkou Division, tell the brothers not to use explosive bullets, use solid bullets, grape bullets , aim at the mast and power cabin as much as possible!”

The mast and powerhouse were knocked down.

The Songjiangkou division is basically useless.

He didn't want to cause too much evil.

If the new emperor hadn't been like this, there would have been no need for bloodshed on both sides!

immediately.

A one-sided naval battle took place at the mouth of Songjiang River.

Boom boom boom...

Yanhua's eight armored ships fired almost ten times the firepower intensity of the Songjiangkou division.

The iron chains connected the grape bullets to the small iron bullets. As they roared, they broke the mast of the Ming Dynasty Navy.

A solid bullet.

Falling on the sea.

Landed in the gun cabin.

More fell into the power bay.

"attack!"

Song Sansi's flagship was luckier, although the mast was broken.

However, the power cabin was not seriously damaged, and after replacing the cow, it still provided power for the battleship.

Song Sansi stood at the bow of the ship, his forehead bleeding, and he drew his sword and pointed it directly at Ye Kai's flagship in front, trying to close the distance and directly engage in the most primitive battle to recruit allies.

"He is a brave and loyal minister, but unfortunately, he is loyal to the wrong person."

Ye Kai held up the binoculars and stared at Song Sansi while he nodded and commented, the flagship fired a fierce barrage.

In the telescope.

Song Sansi's flagship immediately disintegrated.

…

The sea fell into calm.

It took less than thirty minutes!

Except for the ten warships that broke away from the formation in a hurry at the beginning of the war and fled back to the Songjiangkou camp.

Other ships completely lost power and were floating and spinning on the sea.

Only Song Sansi's flagship was disintegrated by shelling.

Ye Kai didn't feel any joy of victory.

No one on the Yanhua Navy warship looked happy at all.

Smoke filled the air.

A pair of eyes, slightly red, looked at the messy sea.

Be silent.

At this moment, it was as if the world between heaven and earth had lost all color and sound.

"Send people to look for Song Sansi to see if they can find Song Sansi, and send orders to the merchants who are watching the excitement, and order them to stay here to treat the wounded in the navy. The other ships should not delay and set sail immediately. Ship No. 78 is to Vanguard, defeat all obstacles along the way, and I will stand at the foot of Jinling City at the latest the day after tomorrow!"

…

"Yanhua has a more advanced naval fleet, do you know?"

That night.

Royal study room.

Zhu Biao stared at Xu Xianchang, eyes blazing and asked angrily.

Xu Xianchang lowered his head, cold sweat flowing down his face, "Your Majesty, I really don't know..."

There was a hint of crying in the voice.

Hu Weiyong glanced at Xu Xianchang, then looked at Lu Ben secretly, and then said: "Your Majesty, Duke Zhongyong must not know about it. This also shows how cunning and insidious King Yan is. Now we are not investigating how this fleet appeared, what? When the construction is completed, where to build it, now we should consider how to repel this fleet. "

If so.

The blow to the new emperor's power and the negative impact on conservatives are really too great.

"Report!"

Just when Zhu Biao's lips moved slightly and he was about to speak, there was a sudden rush from outside the hall.

Bang!

The palace door was knocked open in a panic.

Ji Gang's face was pale and his steps were messy. He hurried in and said breathlessly: "Your Majesty, news just came from Songjiangkou. The navy was defeated. The life and death of the Song Dynasty is unknown. The Yanhua Fleet has entered our Ming Dynasty Inland Canal from Songjiangkou! "

Zhu Biao's body shook violently.

"How dare you!"

The sound of anger just started.

"Report! Report! Report! The Champa royal family is eight hundred miles away and calling for urgent help!"

At this moment, there was another rushing sound outside.

A news soldier rushed in, knelt on his knees, and said in a weak voice: "Your Majesty, I came back from Guangxi in humble duty. A large-scale peasant uprising broke out in the occupied city. The rebels shouted, overthrow the decadent royal family and offer sacrifices to Yanhua." "Dedicate the soil to the people" has become the slogan of the Yanhua people. When I left, the imperial army of the Champa royal family had been defeated, and the royal family was preparing to withdraw to the Southern Dynasty to seek asylum from the Southern Dynasty royal family! "

"The royal family of the Southern Dynasty is very panicked. In the Southern Dynasty, affected by the situation of occupying the city, there is also the potential to start a prairie fire."

"The royal family of the Southern Dynasty was even more frightened. The rebel army occupied the city and invaded the Southern Dynasty."

"The royal family of the Southern Dynasties further stated that behind the uprising army occupying the city, there is the shadow of Yanhua,"

"The leader of the Southern Dynasty has advised that once the Southern Dynasty falls and becomes the territory of Yanhua, Yanhua's military front will directly hit the southwest weakness where the imperial court is weakest!"

After the messenger tried his best to finish speaking, he collapsed and passed out.

There was silence in the imperial study room.

At this moment, everyone understood.

King Zhu Di of Yan dared to come back because he was confident.

The navy went all the way to Jinling City.

Along the way, he instigated peasant uprisings in the southwest vassal territory of the imperial court, threatening the imperial court's southwestern weakness.

"Your Majesty..." Lu Ben said with a trembling voice: "We have another card, King Yan Zhu Di! Using his life and death threat may be able to solve the current situation..."

Sharp gazes fell on him.

There are not only reformists such as Fang Xiaoru and Lan Yu who hope to make friends with Yanhua.

There are also Zhu Biao and Hu Weiyong.

Use Zhu Di's life to threaten Yanhua.

Once this is done.

The emperor's majesty and image in the hearts of the people will be gone.

And, do threats really work?

This time, King Yan Zhu Di made it clear that he had made various preparations.

If his life and that of his family are threatened.

Will it lead to a situation worse than now?

"Your Majesty..." Hu Weiyong pondered for a moment and broke the silence with clasped fists, "The Southern Dynasty and Champa City can be ignored for the time being, but our Dynasty must block the Yanhua Navy and defeat the Yanhua Navy. Only in this way can our Dynasty barely regain the initiative. "

As long as the Yanhua Navy is blocked.

Whether to advance or retreat, there is room for maneuver.

Now, it is completely passive.

Zhu Biao looked at Xu Xianchang, "Can the court's sailors board the ship and fight?"

In fact, he didn't want to send out this fleet so hastily. After all, he had planned for more than 20 years to seize this fleet from the fourth brother!

But now.

He can only rely on this newly acquired navy.

Xu Xianchang nodded with difficulty.

Now, he can only bite the bullet.

Otherwise, he will definitely be in trouble later.

Zhu Biao stared at Xu Xianchang: "The battlefield will be chosen outside Jinling City, on the Qinhuai River. I will watch you fight on the top of the city, and the coastal defense artillery in various parts of Jinling will also cooperate with you. In this battle, you must knock down the arrogance of the Yanhua Navy in front of the people and officials of Jinling, and destroy the Yanhua Navy on the Qinhuai River!"

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