For Wang Xinyu, fly legs are also meat. Although the Dutch did not have many ships, they had to grab them all, firstly, to reduce the losses of the Ming army, and secondly, it was very good to snatch these ships as large armed merchant ships.

When the Ming army was in Xijiang, several large armed merchant ships defeated the Qing army without fighting back. Beat the Qing army's naval division, sinking a Qing warship with a salvo; The land division of the Qing army was even more one-sided slaughter, and a long line of boats lined up on the river, bombarding the shore in turn, beating Zhang Guoxun's green battalion army to the ground.

Wang Xinyu put forward a suggestion: "We should find a bay, transform it into a port that looks very similar to the port of the red-haired ghost, put a few boats in it, and let my sailor special combat team conduct ship-grabbing training, it is estimated that after seven or eight days of training, they can be familiar with how to enter Nanbokou to seize ships." ”

He Bin said: "This is a good proposal! We can train how to capture enemy ships in Liuluo Bay. Now there is another question, look at this castle of Reshalan, how to break such a castle? As he spoke, he presented the drawings of the castle of Reshalan.

Zheng Chenggong glanced at it and gasped: "Such a strong city, there are four-story castles!" Our men were exposed to the threat of guns and cannons on the first floor behind them, and even if there were two floors, there would be two more floors inside! ”

Wang Xinyu looked at the drawings of Resharan Castle, and saw that the structure of the castle was like terraces built on the hillside, and the outermost layer was a square-shaped platform. The city is square, but there are four semicircular castles, and the walls and castles are densely arranged with shooting holes, and the inside can provide muskets and small cannons to fire outward; By the time the opponents had gone through the walls and reached the second platform, the third floor was the most powerful castle of the Dutch: four prismatic castles at the four corners. If you attack the city gate, you will be hit by fire from three sides! At the top of the castle, there is also a layer of turrets, which are condescendingly capable of destroying all approaching siege weapons and opponents' long-range artillery.

Originally, Wang Xinyu planned to bombard the city with the ship's mortar cannons, but the range of the cannons in the city was obviously longer than the mortar cannons. The fleet simply could not get close to the city of Reshalam.

The city of Resharan was on a peninsula, and when attacked by land, it had to pass through a narrow strip of land from south to north. On the way, you need to pass through the fortress of Utrecht, which must be conquered before you can set up mortars to bombard the castle.

He Bin told Wang Xinyu: "Once we conquer Utrecht Fort, we will be able to capture a hill higher than the city of Reshaland, on which we can set up cannons and bombard the castle from a high position." ”

There is still a big difference between the topographic map of Dongfan Island at that time and the later topographic map of Taiwan Island. At that time, there were not so many alluvial plains in western Taiwan, and many places were the same as the eastern part of Taiwan, with mountains and forests reaching to the sea. Later, due to the development of Taiwan, some mountains and forests near the sea were cut down, and rivers carried sediment to the west coast to create large plains.

At that time, the urban area of Tainan City today was still a vast ocean.

Zheng Chenggong asked another question: "He Bin, you said that because it is a northwest wind, the fleet of the red-haired ghost in the East India Company will not come to reinforce it?" Can you guarantee it? ”

He Bin replied: "Go back to the prince!" Humble guarantees that the Red-Haired Devil's fleet will not come to reinforce it! ”

"Good! If your prediction is wrong. I'm the only one who asks! Zheng Chenggong warned He Bin very harshly in advance.

Wang Xinyu recalled when he used to visit the Zheng Chenggong Memorial Hall, and vaguely remembered that it seemed that the Dutch had a fleet to reinforce them. It seems that He Bin was punished by Zheng Chenggong for this incident. So he hurriedly took a preventive shot first, so as not to be punished by He Bin at that time: "Lord Wang, although it is a northwest wind, the ship of the red-haired ghost can take a crosswind route, as long as they take a zigzag route at sea, they can come over!" But there is a lowly fleet of ships. Humble duty guarantees that the red-haired ghost can't get in! ”

Zheng Chenggong showed a smile on his face: "There is a fleet of virtuous nephews, and this king doesn't have to worry about the red-haired ghost." ”

Through a conversation with He Bin, Wang Xinyu learned that the Dutch mainly used arquebuses in this era. Like most Westerners back then, the ignition rate of ordinary flintlock guns was low because the dog-lock bolt was not widely used. The trigger travel was long and it was very difficult to pull the trigger, so most Westerners abandoned the more advanced flintlock pistol in favor of the outdated arquebus.

"Lord Wang, the banquet has been prepared, it's time to eat!" Just when Zheng Chenggong, Wang Xinyu and He Bin were discussing, a pro-soldier came to call that it was time to eat.

The next morning, Wang Xinyu went to test a 64-pounder mortar that had just been completed.

Experiments of this new type of artillery were carried out on the island of Little Kinmen, and the mortars made by the cannon factory were loaded on wooden rafts, carried down the river into Yundang Harbor, loaded onto ships, and sent to the island of Little Kinmen.

Wang Xinyu first went to Xiamen Port, followed Zheng Chenggong, Huang Ting, Yang Chaodong and others to take a boat to Xiaojinmen Island. When I went to Xiaojinmen Island, I saw that Zheng Tai and others had been waiting for a long time, and Chen Shuijie and the workers of the gun factory had already sent the newly cast mortar to the seaside experimental site.

When I arrived at the experimental site, I saw a cannon with a particularly large caliber and a very short barrel on the gun carriage, with the muzzle facing the sky, and the hardwood gun carriage on the ground. There were several flowering shells on the ground next to the cannon. Unlike the previous wooden cannonballs, these cannonballs do not have wooden supports, they are all round balls. There is a hole in the top of the ball, and a cork tube is stuffed inside, through which the fuse protrudes into the shell.

Seeing Zheng Chenggong's arrival, Chen Shuijie and a group of artillery factory workers knelt down and saluted: "Humble (grass people) knock to see the prince!" ”

"Get up!" Zheng Chenggong waved his hand.

"This cannonball is big enough!" Huang Ting looked at the cannonball and sighed.

Yang Chaodong asked: "What is the difference between this kind of cannon and the cupola cannon originally used by our Ming army?" ”

Wang Xinyu replied: "The Chaotian cannon is much smaller, and the power is not so great. ”

Chen Shuijie and the workers of the artillery factory were busy and made preparations before the launch. A huge circle was drawn on the beach three miles away from the mortar, and that was the target that the cannon was about to shoot.

"Ready to test the gun! Try the solid bullet first for the first shot. Wang Xinyu ordered.

The firing chamber of the mortar cannon is very narrow, much narrower than the caliber of the cannon, and the shells can be put in, just enough to completely block the chamber, ensuring the airtightness of the gunpowder gas, so there is no need to add wooden boards. Several workers from the artillery factory poured black huo medicine through the muzzle of the gun. Then take a wooden stick and push all the gunpowder into the chamber, load it into the cannonball, and then insert a fuse into the tail fire door.

For the sake of safety, fearing that the artillery might explode, King Yanping and a group of generals who were watching retreated far away.

"Ignition!" Chen Shuijie shouted.

A worker pointed a torch at the fuse of the fire door and quickly ran away.

The fuse was quickly shortened into the fire door. Only a "bang" sound of gunpowder gas explosion was heard, a cloud of white smoke erupted from the muzzle of the gun, and a huge shell burst out of the muzzle and flew into the sky. Due to the low muzzle velocity of the mortar cannon, a black ball can be seen rising into the air with the naked eye, gradually shrinking in people's eyes, rising into the air, drawing an arc, and smashing down on the target.

The moment the shell leaves the muzzle. The timekeeper flips the bronze hourglass switch, and sand flows out of the hourglass. At the same time, Chen Shuijie used a monocular to observe the shells landing. When Chen Shuijie saw the cannonball landing, he immediately shook the small flag in his hand. Wang Xinyu shouted: "Stop!" ”

The worker in charge of the hourglass immediately turned off the bronze hourglass switch, and the hourglass stopped the sand leakage.

"The shell didn't hit the target!" A Ming sergeant ran back from the shooting range to report the situation. As he spoke, he handed the sketchbook over.

In the drawing book, the target and the bullseye are drawn, and the distance is also standard. The soldier clicked on the sketchbook with a brush to indicate where the shell had landed. and the deviation distance from the bullseye.

Wang Xinyu picked up a pen and paper, calculated it himself, and after a while, he asked the workers to load the medicine according to the results of his calculations.

Chen Shuijie still understands something, and he said: "Wang Junmen, there is also the role of the wind." The wind direction and speed are different at any time, which will also affect the location of the shells. ”

"The shells of the sixty-four-pounder cannon are very large, and the effect of the wind is not so obvious yet, unless the wind is particularly strong. The specific charge situation can be adjusted by test firing in wartime. Wang Xinyu replied.

The second test launch began. Another test solid shell flew out, this time the charge seemed to be a little over, and the shell hit a little farther than the bull's-eye. After adjustment, the third shell landed accurately in the center of the circle, with an error of less than five meters from the center of the bull's-eye, which is already a high hit rate.

The next test to be carried out was to use a flowering cannonball loaded with black medicine.

The weight of the two shells differed, the flowering shells were slightly lighter and the amount of charge charged was slightly less. After the workers loaded according to the charge calculated by Wang Xinyu, they cut the fuse of the shell according to the time calculated by the hourglass.

The fuse is inserted into the cork fuse, and the fuse of the cannonball is pointed upwards to load the cannonball into the muzzle. Due to the short barrel, the fuse of the flowering shell could be ignited from the muzzle, so there was no need for a wooden shell.

"Ignition!" Chen Shuijie shouted.

One worker lit the fuse from the muzzle of the gun and quickly ran away, while another worker lit the fuse on the fire door.

With a blast of gunpowder gas, the shell flew into the sky, drew an arc, and smashed down hard above the target. Disappointingly, however, the shell exploded into a fireball far above the target before it could hit the ground.

"The fuse is too short, it needs to be lengthened." Chen Shuijie put down the binoculars and said.

The second test shot of the flowering shell, the fuse was too long, and the shell fell to the ground for a long time, rolling out of the distance before exploding. It wasn't until the third test launch, shortly after the shell landed, that an orange fireball exploded in the center of the target.

Then came the most exciting moment: the test firing of a flowering cannonball filled with a new type of gunpowder!

"Ready to test fire a new type of shell!" Wang Xinyu gave the order.

After reloading the gunpowder, a worker picks up a red-painted cannonball and stuffs it into the muzzle. This new flowering cannonball is filled with the new gunpowder made by Song Yingxing and his son, that is, the Dana explosive made according to Wang Xinyu's formula. Unlike the previous flowering shells, this shell has a detonator under the cork fuse, and after the fuse burns out, the detonator is ignited before the new gunpowder is detonated.

One worker stood at the muzzle of the gun, lit the fuse of the cannonball from the muzzle and quickly ran away, while another worker then lit the fuse on the fire door.

The cannonball flew out with a "bang", pulled an arc in the air, and landed accurately in the middle of the bull's-eye. I saw a dazzling flash of fire, a large fire quickly expanded from the bull's-eye, expanded, and black smoke like a mushroom cloud rose from the ground, and it was several seconds before the sound reached people's ears. The sound of a violent explosion was like thousands of cannons firing at the same time. The explosion shook violently, and the earth shook as if it were shaking.

Nearly 50 catties of artillery shells were filled with 12 catties of Dana explosives, and the explosive power of this shell was equivalent to the explosive power of more than 1,600 catties of black huo! A 155-millimeter howitzer shell in later generations was only an eight-kilogram charge, and the power of this kind of shell was close to the power of heavy artillery shells in later generations. As for the disadvantage of short range, after capturing the fortress of Utrecht in front of the city of Reshaland, you can capture a piece of high ground, and you can bombard the castle from the high ground.

Although the range of the battery guns in the Dutch castle was long, if the Ming army occupied the high ground and set up mortars in high places, the Dutch could not see the movement on the high platform, and no matter how far the range of the cannons was, it would be useless. What's more, the Ming army could also take advantage of the terrain on the high platform and set the mortar gun emplacements behind the hillside, so that the Dutch direct fire artillery could not do anything.

Using a curved cannon to attack a direct-fire gun, with terrain cover, can compensate for the weakness of insufficient range.

"That's amazing!" The people who watched the trial were all stunned. Everyone was struck by the enormous power of such shells.

After a while, Zheng Chenggong laughed: "With such a sharp weapon, why not be afraid of the red-haired ghost's Resharan Castle!" Hahaha! It is estimated that it will not take a day to blast open the castle of the red-haired ghost! ”

"Lord Wang, now our new gunpowder is still not enough, and we can only make more than ten rounds of this kind of shell." Wang Xinyu said.

Zheng Chenggong stroked his beard and smiled: "It is likely that more than ten rounds will not be needed, this king thinks that if there are five or six cannonballs smashed over, the red-haired ghosts will be frightened, and they will honestly open the city gate and surrender!" ”

After the test, the new type of artillery shells was immediately put into production, and when Zheng Chenggong attacked Taiwan, Zheng Jiajun could produce 12 rounds of this new type of flowering shells. Because of the method of directly igniting the fuse index shell, the success rate of the explosion was much higher than that of the Mutuo flowering shell fired by the cannon, and it is estimated that the twelve shells can explode seven to eight rounds.

At the same time as the production of new artillery shells, the special combat team of the naval division also conducted training to seize ships.

In Liuluo Bay, Kinmen, Zheng Jun imitated the layout of the Dutch South Bokou according to the drawings sent by He Bin, and the two Dutch Galen ships captured by Wang Xinyu were used as training targets and anchored in the harbor. In the past few days, every night the special combat team members have quietly approached the Galen boat with sailors who are familiar with Western-style boats, so as to avoid being discovered by the people on board, climb onto the boat, attack the imaginary enemy on board, and then raise the sails and drive the ship away. (To be continued......)