Dominate the Country

The sun shines through the dark clouds, giving Sandu a golden halo. There are many sails and masts outside the main tax port of Ningde, Sandu, and dozens of warships of different sizes are approaching one after another.

This is one of the few world-class natural deep-water harbors in China. Many novices in history have heard of Sanduao's reputation in later generations, thanks to Tuosun Canao.

Dozens of warships flying red flags, and hundreds of artillery pieces, large and small, fired locust-like shells into the port forts. The entire port was struggling painfully under the gunfire. After the explosive bombs exploded, gray-black clouds gathered into thick clouds. Smoke. The solid bullets tore holes into the hillside walls and houses. The damp ground was heated by gunpowder, and green smoke rose up from the soil.

"……put!"

Chen Liansheng stood next to a sixteen-pound forward-loading smoothbore cannon, staring at the Fuhan Army warships that came into view and shouted at the top of his lungs. Following Chen Liansheng's order, the gunner held a fire hook and lit the fuse. The fuse hissed softly with black smoke and quickly burned inside.

"Boom...boom..." The six artillery pieces fired one after another, and the artillery carriage weighing several kilograms suddenly moved backwards. The fort was filled with green smoke and filled with the choking smell of gunpowder smoke.

Chen Liansheng saw six blazing fireballs piercing the sky and flying toward the front warship as his cannons roared to the sky. But they all fell into the water not far in front of the warship, and high waves splashed on the sea. The bow of the Fuhan Army's warship swayed slightly without any movement.

"Niang Xipi, why did you miss?! Come again! Hurry up, refill the ammunition quickly. Aim more accurately this time, and don't f*ck me up again!" Chen Liansheng yelled loudly.

The forts in Sandu had been under construction since mid-February. News of the Fuhan Army's second march to the south of the Yangtze River reached Fujian. Mingfu had the foresight to build a fort in Sandu and spent a lot of money to purchase a batch of Western-style naval guns in Guangzhou. Although there are only three carefully built forts, they are all closed forts. They borrowed the layout and structure of the Portuguese forts and were completely different from the original open forts of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

Therefore, it is inevitable that the inside of the cannon will be filled with smoke when it is fired. It is midsummer now, and the temperature is already very good. Everyone is sweating profusely in the closed fort. When the cannon is fired, the temperature inside soars. , many people had simply taken off their clothes and were shirtless.

The gunner at the back quickly installed a new fuse on the artillery piece, added the prepared musket, loaded the artillery shell into the barrel from the front, and then pushed the artillery piece in front of the muzzle from behind.

The fuse was lit again, and there were six loud bangs in succession. Chen Liansheng's eyes were filled with white. When the smoke dispersed around, he saw that the cabin of the large Ting boat that the Fuhan Army was leading just now had a big hole in it, and the black Black smoke curled up from the gap, and sailors on the ship were scurrying around, busy putting out the fire. All the fire fired by his fort was hot bombs. It was obvious that the Fuhan Army's Tingchuan had been shot.

"Hit!"

There were cheers in the fort, and the morale of the gunners soared. Even though only one of the twelve shells hit after two firings, it was very exciting.

Each movement was faster and more agile, this was how Chen Liansheng felt. He felt as if a shot had hit, and the movements of his gunners became faster. Their ears could also hear the artillery on other forts around them roaring angrily at the Fuhan fleet.

"Boom..." A loud noise suddenly sounded from the top of the fort. The whole earth seemed to shake violently, and Chen Lian's heart was so frightened that he almost jumped out of his chest. The fort was hit, still on the top of its head.

The light inside the fort dimmed, and acrid smoke mixed with dust billowed in from the outside.

Holding on to the wall to calm his mind, Chen Liansheng's heart was still beating violently, and he kept shouting that he was lucky.

"Fortunately, fortunately!" Fortunately, the fort is closed, and the top is reinforced with clay, sleepers, and stones. If it were an open fort, if this shell falls, if the falling shell hits a gunpowder barrel again, Everyone here wants to see the King of Hell.

Although no one in the artillery base died due to direct hits from enemy shells, for the gunners, the trauma was more of a mental one, and their combat effectiveness was still greatly affected. What's more, as the Fuhan Army's first artillery shell fell, more and more artillery shells hit the artillery fort, and the loading speed and movements of the gunners in the artillery fort were slowed down.

The first time he was shot made Chen Liansheng frightened, but the second time, the third time... the fort took more hits, and he became more confident in the current defense of the fort. Still have time to take a thorough look at the fleet outside!

Although the Fuhan Army's fleet had an absolute upper hand in terms of the number of artillery pieces, the largest number of artillery pieces carried on board was only eight-pound cannons, and the number was very small. After half an hour of artillery battle, hundreds of large and small artillery pieces were able to defeat those. The open gun positions have been cleaned, but there is not much threat to the three most important closed gun positions. The artillery battle lasted for a long time, and I don't know how many iron bullets hit the fort. The rocks on the outside were cratered, but the Qing troops inside were not damaged at all, and the firepower was still as intensive as before. If the fighting continues like this, the Fuhan Army's warships will be damaged little by little.

"Vice Commander! Shark No. 11 has been killed." The lookout soldier on the mast shouted anxiously to the people below.

Shark-class warships are a general term for shuttle ships, bird ships, and large ganzhen ships. Shark No. 11 is a large ganzhen ship. The captain originally wanted the warship to get closer to the shore to carry out artillery fire, but a group of shells flew from the shore, one of which accurately landed on the gun position on the left side of the ship, detonating the gunpowder on the gun position, like a thunderclap in a clear sky, a sound louder than the explosion of a shell just now came from the sea. Billowing black smoke quickly rose from Shark No. 11 and enveloped the entire warship.

A large gap was blown open in the entire hull of Shark No. 11 warship, and the left side of the ship was completely gone. The sturdy mast in the smoke flew high in the smoke. When the smoke dispersed, Shark No. 11 warship was lying horizontally on the sea, the main mast fell not far from the hull, the secondary mast was half-broken, the sail was stained with fire, and there were several open flames outside the ship. Although the entire warship did not break in half, it was like a banana boat that had been bitten in the middle, and it almost lost its ability to move. No ability to fight back!

Luo Daliang cursed fiercely. Such a severe injury does not seem to be caused by the explosion of gunpowder on a single gun position. Shark No. 11 is so unlucky.

A huge water column suddenly aroused on the side of the bow of Shark No. 11, several red lights flashed suddenly, and several more water columns appeared around it.

"All are available! ... Aim at the big Ganzheng ship, ... Sink it for me! Pay attention, use incendiary bombs, use incendiary bombs." Chen Liansheng gritted his teeth and his cheeks twitched while he was sick.

This artillery battle has been going on for half an hour. He doesn't know how long it will last. If the Fu Han Army sends people to land, there will be enough manpower in Sandu. Xiapu [Fu Ning Prefecture] has been lost, and a large number of soldiers have retreated to Ningde. As long as it is not the large force of the Fu Han Army, only their sailors, Chen Liansheng is still confident that Sandu can be saved today.

As for what to do if the large force of the Fu Han Army comes? Then run away. When Fuzhou is finished, if he can still keep his life, he will flee to other places, cut his braids and become a submissive citizen of the Fu Han Army. Anyway, Chen Liansheng will never work as a coolie in the prisoner-of-war camp.

Although Chen Liansheng is a member of the Yellow Banner of the Han Army, his ancestors followed the Qing Dynasty, which was still the Later Jin Dynasty when he was in Liaodong, but the situation has deteriorated to that extent, and he has fought for his life, and he does not owe the Qing Dynasty.

On the warship Whale 4, the captain was persuading Luo Daliang that the fleet could not hit the stone closed turret with a solid outer shell, so it was better to retreat. It was a pity that Shark 11 was finished, but if they did not leave now, more warships would be damaged.

The Qing army moved the few good guns into the closed turrets. The cannons arranged in the open air outside were not as good as the cannons in the three closed turrets in terms of range and quantity. It was meaningless to continue to waste time.

"Deputy Commander, shall we retreat? To capture these three forts, we must have marines. Let's go back now and wait for the follow-up transport ships to arrive. We will rush in at night. Once we land, even the strongest forts will be easily captured."

After waiting for a long time, the captain found that Luo Daliang seemed to be still angry, and he also knew that he was angry now. Xu Youruo had just captured a fleet of Qing troops, led the army, and captured the Fu'ning Prefecture City almost without bloodshed. As a result, when it was his turn to lead the team south, he ran into the hard rock of Sandu.

He repeated again: "Deputy Commander, His Highness Lu Gong said that the fleet should not be allowed to engage in a battle with the prepared shore forts without the marines. I suggest that we retreat immediately! Deputy Commander? ... Deputy Commander?"

Luo Daliang turned his head and looked at him, his face full of helplessness, and said bitterly: "You are right. Without the marines, the fleet really does not need to engage in a battle with the prepared forts. Retreat!"

It can only be said that he is unlucky!

On the third day of June, the Fu Han Army took the sea route and easily captured the Fu Ning Prefecture. On the fourth day, a part of the Fu Han Army Navy attacked Sandu but failed. However, the Navy could not do anything to the Sandu artillery, while the Army easily captured Ningde from the land. Then, without waiting for the Fu Han Army Navy to enter Sandu, the Qing Army in Sandu Port retreated to Luoyuan.

After Luoyuan, it was Lianjiang, and then you could see Fuzhou City.

At the same time, the Second Garrison Division that entered Jianning Prefecture also completely met the Tiandihui Yijun who was stationed in Jianyang, Jianning Prefecture.

Chen Ming did not want to use force against the Tiandihui Yijun, otherwise Fujian was mountainous, and the land of Bamin would not know how many hands and feet and troops he could hold back, and it would waste precious time.

"Your Highness, Taiwan's letter."

Xiong Bingzhang strode in with an excited look on his face, with a gust of wind when he walked, and he held a book in his hand. Chen Ming took it and read it. The content was not surprising at all. It was about surrendering the land and all of Taiwan.

Looking at the signature, in addition to Yan Yan, the chief leader of the Tiandihui in the north and south, there were also the names of the leaders of many major clans in Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Chen Ming was of course happy, but the "Zhangzhou-Quanzhou armed conflict!" A twist in Taiwan's history that could not be avoided was also presented to him in a very straightforward way.