Wang Shirong looked embarrassed: "The prince of Pingxi also remembered that the army was against the Qing Dynasty, but the prince was in the hands of the imperial court." Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Wang Xinyu said with a smile: "It doesn't matter if the prince of Pingxi doesn't have soldiers!" As long as you don't add to the chaos of this domain! However, if he does not raise troops to rebel against the Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that he will not be able to live in Yungui in the future, and the domain can tolerate him, but the court cannot tolerate him. ”

Wang Shirong said: "If the prince has a way to help us rescue the prince from the Pingxi Palace, the prince is naturally willing to send troops against the Qing Dynasty." ”

Wang Xinyu pondered for a moment and said: "If you want to save the son, I'm afraid it will be extremely difficult!" If the prince of Pingxi has not been able to raise troops, and when the domain recovers the capital, at that time, if the court wants to turn against the prince, what should the domain do? After all, the first beauties of the Pingxi Mansion are all here in this domain. Perhaps, this domain can show you a clear way. ”

"I don't know how the prince will treat the Pingxi Mansion at that time?" Wang Shirong asked with confusion.

Wang Xinyu turned around and shouted, "Come on, bring the map!" ”

A personal soldier presented the map, and after Wang Xinyu opened the map, he pointed to the Yunnan-Guizhou region on the map and said: "In fact, Yungui is too poor, they are all barren mountainous areas, and the grain harvest is not self-sufficient, and the taxes of the prince of Pingxi in Yungui are simply not enough to feed so many people." Now that Huguang has started a war, trade has been interrupted, and the Tartar court has restricted the inflow of special offerings from the Eight Banners, I'm afraid that the prince of Pingxi doesn't have much income, right? ”

Wang Shirong nodded and said, "What the prince said is extremely true, since the war in Huguang, his income has decreased a lot. The Tartar court began to ban the special offerings of the Eight Banners again, and also cut off our salaries, and now the Pingxi Royal Mansion has long been unable to make ends meet. ”

Wang Xinyu thought for a moment and said: "If the prince of Pingxi is willing to send troops against the Qing Dynasty, this domain can pay the prince a salary. ”

"The student has also persuaded the prince, but the prince is really not at ease." Wang Shirong replied.

Wang Xinyu pointed to the eastern region of India on the map and said: "If the prince is worried about the prince and refuses to send troops to the Qing court, it will not be possible, but Yungui is not a long-term solution." Look here, this is not far from Yungui, and the land is fertile, in the south of Tibet, the climate is not too hot, and Kunming, you can also choose to occupy here. ”

Wang Shirong looked at the map of eastern India and asked suspiciously: "The territory here is not small, is there no army here?" We went, can we occupy it? ”

"As long as the prince of Pingxi is willing to send troops, there is naturally no problem!" Wang Xinyu said, "You can also take this map back to the prince of Pingxi, let the prince of Pingxi decide for himself." ”

At present, as long as Wu Sangui does not make trouble, it will not be a problem for the Qiongzhou army to solve Huguang at all, and whether Wu Sangui is willing to raise troops against the Qing Dynasty does not have much impact. However, in order to let Wu Sangui see the power of the Qiongzhou army, Wang Xinyu still asked Wang Shirong to visit the upcoming battle of Dongting Lake.

"Please also ask Mr. Wang to visit the battle of Dongting Lake before going back!" Wang Xinyu made an invitation.

Wang Shirong followed Wang Xinyu and got on a car and boat.

The light deck on the upper part of the ship was not very large, and it was very narrow, except for the helm, mast and long-barreled cannon, and there was not much room for people to stand.

"Let's go, go to the helm!" Wang Xinyu greeted.

The two men walked into the stern helm of the ship, which was sealed and protected by thick oak planks to protect the occupants from the opposing weaponry. The rudder is a bit like the bridge of later ships, and the rudder is not directly operated with a lever, but a disc rudder.

The sailor in charge of the helm only needs to turn the steering wheel, through the gear link, can drive the rudder at the stern of the ship, the steering wheel adopts a labor-saving transmission ratio, and the sailor turns the steering wheel very easily. The reason why the rudder is taken is because of the need for a sealed rudder. In the case of a traditional rudder, the person at the helm must stand at the stern of the ship. With a steering wheel structure, the helmsman can lean forward and look out from the bridge window.

The helm tower is the highest point on deck, with the helm station in front and the captain's quarters in the back.

"Let's go and have a look!" Wang Xinyu said.

The two of them stepped into the gun deck, and what caught their eyes were two rows of neat and thick guns, and the gunners stood neatly in front of the guns and saluted Wang Xinyu.

"It's a big ship!" Wang Shirong stood in the artillery deck, looked at the rows of cannons, and said with endless praise, "This is not a sea ship, it is really not easy to build such a big one!" But why is the mast so low? The sails don't seem to be big enough, this ship sails in the river, if it encounters adverse currents, such a big ship is slow, right? ”

Wang Xinyu said with a smile: "This ship usually uses sails, but when it fights, it does not rely on sails, but uses human feet to step on it, and it can walk on the water like flying!" ”

While he was talking, the car and boat left the dock.

As the sailors on the boat stepped on the pedals, the wheels of the car and ship turned rapidly, and two white wave marks appeared on the stern of the car and boat, and the car and ship dragged the long tail marks and sailed at high speed on the water.

"This boat is running so fast!" Wang Shirong sighed.

"In water warfare, speed is the key, of course, in addition to the speed of this ship, the firepower is not weak, and it has no problem sinking them when it encounters ordinary Tartar ships." Wang Xinyu said.

The channel leading from the Xiangjiang River to Dongting Lake has been fully opened, and the Ming army entered Dongting Lake on the 26th day of the fifth lunar month.

In real history, Wu Sangui and the Qing army fought a decisive battle between Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River, but because the water battle level of Lin Xingzhu, the general of the Qing army's naval division, far exceeded that of Wu Sangui, the Wu army lost the water battle. Of course, the reason for Wu Sangui's failure was not only the failure of the water war, Wu Yingxiong was killed, and Wu Sangui died of old age and illness, all of which were the reasons for the failure. If Wu Sangui could live a few more years, the ending might not be the same.

Shi Lang also put the decisive battle site in Dongting Lake, because Shi Lang's spies also found that the Ming army had a very fast boat, according to Shi Lang, if that kind of boat entered the Yangtze River with complex flow conditions, it could only be more beneficial to the Ming army, after all, Liu Guoxuan was not a straw bag, and he also knew how to use the hydrological conditions of the Yangtze River. The same is taking advantage of the hydrological conditions, so having a boat that can sail quickly against the current is a great advantage.

And Shi Lang also knew that in fact, it may not be more advantageous for the car and boat to fight in Dongting Lake than in the river, because in the lake, there are many sundries such as algae, reeds, water hyacinth, and lotus.

Of course, Liu Guoxuan also knew the weaknesses of the car and ship, so the car and ship were placed in the middle, and the periphery was protected by other warships such as river gunboats and clippers. As for the main weapons to attack the big ships of the Qing army, they were completed by pole mineboats piloted by the Japanese people.

The Ming army had a total of 120 pole mineboats, which were operated by more than 1,000 Japanese people.

In fact, if the pole minecraft is used well, the survival rate will not be too low.

As soon as the Ming army fleet entered Dongting Lake, a black and oppressive Qing army fleet appeared in front of it.

The dense Qing army fleet lined up in a diamond-shaped formation, killing the Ming army fleet. The Qing army is a large fortune ship of 400 to 500 materials, equipped with Hongyi cannons and thousand-pound Buddha Lang machines, which is the backbone of the fleet; Outside the Fu boat, there are a number of Haicang ships and Cangshan ships; On both sides and in front, there are double canopies, fast sentry boats, fast crabs, small sampans, and fire attack ships. According to Shi Lang's tactics, it was the small boats that charged in front, covering the fire attack ships, and launched an attack on the big ships of the Ming army.

Liu Guoxuan's tactics are basically the same as Shi Lang's, the vehicle and ship are in the middle, they are the backbone, the periphery is the river gunboat, and then the outside is a small clipper, attacking the Qing army's big ships rely on pole mineboats, which are also equivalent to the Qing army's fire attack ships, but the power is much greater than the Qing army's fire attack ships.

The boats on both sides took the lead in attacking each other, and the boats of the Ming and Qing armies rowed towards the opponent at full speed.

In fact, the boats of the Ming army and the Qing army are basically the same, there is not much difference, but the weapons equipped on the boats are very different: the boats of the Ming army are equipped with rattan baffles, which are covered with wet felt, and when approaching the opponent's boats and entering the opponent's range, the baffles of the boats can be erected to block the attacks of the opponent's long-range weapons. In addition, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Army's naval division wore rattan armor, and the protective power obviously exceeded that of the Qing Army's naval division.

During the water battle, the soldiers on the boat were not allowed to wear iron armor, cotton armor and leather armor, because if they wore iron armor, they would sink to the bottom once they fell into the water; Although cotton armor and leather armor are relatively light, they will absorb water, and after absorbing water, it is also very heavy, and it is difficult for people to surface when they fall into the water.

"These are all our Guizhou vines!" Wang Shirong looked at the officers and soldiers of the Ming Army Navy Division wearing rattan armor and said.

Wang Xinyu smiled: "This is thanks to the prince of Pingxi, who provided us with a lot of strong and lightweight Guizhou rattans, so that we can equip so many rattan armor." ”

The small boats of the Ming army rushed quickly towards the small boats of the Qing army, and the ships of both sides approached at high speed.

Clouds of white smoke rose from the big boat behind the "boom, boom, boom," and the guns on the big ship opened fire, and the shells whistled across the lake and fell into the water, raising columns of water that soared into the sky. The sailors of the Ming and Qing armies braved the dense artillery fire, rowed desperately, and rushed towards each other's boats.

The big ships on both sides are desperately shelling each other's small boats, and the accuracy of the smoothbore guns in this era is really not high, and the targets of the small boats are small and fast, so it is difficult to be hit.

However, whether it is an inland river gunboat or a vehicle ship of the Ming army, the accuracy of the long-barreled cannon on it is much higher than that of the artillery on the Qing warship, the reason is that the inner wall of the Ming army's gun chamber is processed with a boring machine, the gun chamber is very smooth, and the body of the long-barreled cannon is long, the muzzle velocity of the shell is high, and the accuracy is obviously much higher than that of the Qing army's artillery.

"Bang" A small boat of the Qing army was hit by an eight-pounder cannon shell fired from a mile away, and the shell smashed on the small boat, the small boat was immediately pierced through a hole, and the shells rose up in the cabin of the filled blood mist, and the pierced ship board was splashed in all directions like shrapnel, and the Qing troops on the ship screamed and fell down, and the small boat began to sink into the water.

After a while, another small boat of the Qing army was shot and sank.

The long-barreled cannons of the Ming vehicles, ships and gunboats fired incessantly, sinking six Qing boats in a row. And the cannonballs fired by the big ships of the Qing army only sank one small boat of the Ming army.

The boats of both sides are already approaching the target, and the two sides are about to entangle. The guns on the big ships on both sides no longer fired at the small ships of the opposing side that were about to make contact, but raised the muzzles a little and opened fire on the big ships behind the other side.

The sergeants of the Ming army boat erected rattan boards, and the archers opened their bows and arrows, shooting rows of random arrows at the Qing army's boats. At the same time, the small boats of the Qing army also shot locust-like arrows.

The first round of shooting, the effect is obviously different, most of the feather arrows shot by the Qing army boat were blocked by the rattan baffle, a small number of feather arrows were shot at the Ming soldiers, and they all failed to shoot through the rattan armor, only a few Ming soldiers did not have rattan armor to protect the arms and legs of the arrows.

Looking at the Qing army's side, the Ming army fell with a rain of arrows, and the wooden armor with poor protection was pierced with arrows, although it was not guaranteed that every arrow would penetrate the wooden armor, but the unreliable protective ability of the wooden armor allowed many feather arrows to drill through the gaps in the wood chips and penetrate into the body of the Qing army. Some of the arrows were so powerful that they pierced a hole in the wood chips of the wooden armor, and the arrows pierced into the body of the Qing soldiers with the broken wood chips, and a miserable scream suddenly sounded.

The fast crab boat of the Ming army also arrived, although the fast crab boat was also a small boat, but the boat was equipped with a sub-mother cannon, and the range exceeded that of the bow and arrow of the small boat of the Qing army.

The "Bang Bang" fast crab boats spat out tongues of fire one after another, white smoke rose from the surface of the lake, and shells hit the Qing army's boats one after another. Although the sub-mother cannon is a small-caliber artillery, it is not powerful to attack a large ship, but when it hits a small boat, it can send a small boat to the bottom after two to three shells hit.

The Ming army used fast crab boats and small sampans to cooperate with each other, rushing back and forth in the small fleet of the Qing army, and sinking the small boats of the Qing army into the lake from time to time.

Some of the boats on both sides collided with each other, and the gangside gang battle began.

The Ming sergeant brandished steel knives and axes in his hands and jumped onto the small boat of the Qing army. A flash of swords, and the sailors on the small boat of the Qing army were cut down in the cabin one after another, or they were cut into the water.

There were also a few fast crab boats that directly hit the Qing army's small boat, and the fast crab boat was much larger than the small boat, and when it was hit by the fast crab boat, the small boat immediately capsized, and the Qing soldiers on the boat fell into the water one after another.

"Attention, small boat, be careful to stop the fire attack ship of the Tartars!" Liu Guoxuan gave the order.

The soldiers on the big ship waved their small flags and signaled to the small boats in front of them, telling them to pay attention to intercepting the Qing army's attacking ships.

Several fire attack ships appeared in front, and immediately a small boat of the Ming army rowed up. The archers on the boat opened the tinder jars, lit the torches, and then the rockets.

"Shoot the arrows!" A captain of a small boat shouted.

The Ming archers opened their bows and arrows, and a row of rockets shot at the Qing army's attack ships. The rockets soaked in pine oil pierced the firewood of the Qing army's attack ships, and immediately caught fire, and the fire attack ships that were still far away from the target caught fire one after another.

The small boats behind the Qing army also came up, trying to prevent the small boats of the Ming army from attacking their fire attack ships. (To be continued.) )