nucmednet Chapter 390 Infiltrating the Water City and Sabotaging
Chapter 390 Infiltrating the Water City and Sabotaging
Gao Jie gestured for him to continue: "Very good, tell me your suggestion."
Lin Chuanzong participated in the ambush of Guangdong General He Rubin's fleet in the Qiongzhou Strait. Although the battle was a resounding success, half of the ships escaped, ultimately due to the small number of his own warships. Even the sharpest knife will become sluggish if one person tries to kill a hundred or two immobile pigs. He liked to ponder things, and over time, he actually devised a clumsy method, but it required specific conditions to be implemented.
He replied, "Actually, it's not easy to do this, but it's not difficult either. Sailing ships rely entirely on wind power at sea; if you damage the sail, it'll be slower than a tortoise..."
The others nodded; this was a radical solution.
“That’s well said, but how can we sabotage it?” Gao Jie frowned. “Use chain shot to break the mast? But in that time, I could sink the ship.”
"It wasn't the chain shot, but rather the deliberate damage to the sails. Our Ming ships don't have the soft sails of the Western barbarians; they all have stiff sails. If you knock a few cracks or cut a few openings, it won't be noticeable on the surface, but once the wind picks up, they will break and collapse..." Lin Chuanzong explained.
Gao Jie was even more bewildered: "Chuanzong, I don't think this is a good idea. The rebel ships are definitely full of heavily armed soldiers. Before you can climb onto their ships and sabotage the sails, you'll be riddled with bullets!"
Lin Chuanzong chuckled: "Who said we'd sabotage them when war breaks out? The rebel ships are anchored in the harbor, and there probably aren't many guards at night. We can sneak up under cover of darkness and do our thing without anyone noticing..."
Li Fei, who had been silent all along, clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! This move is like cutting off the enemy's supply lines, enough to turn the rebel ships into floating targets. However, our ships must not get too close to Dengzhou Water City, lest the rebels suspect how you infiltrated the city?"
Lin Chuanzong concealed his smugness: "To be honest, before I joined the Qiongzhou Camp, I had a nickname, 'Sea Monkey.' I was a decent swimmer, and climbing masts was my specialty. The water city may have gates, but no matter how they are set up, there will always be waterways connecting it to the sea, making it convenient for ships to enter and exit. We can dive in and then climb the mast to damage the sails."
Gao Jie was overjoyed: "Excellent, let's do as Chuanzong said, let's get started tonight."
Li Fei reminded, "We must inform the general about the rebels' escape and our plans so that he can make preparations in advance."
Gao Jie nodded: "Of course. Before we take action, we should send someone to inform the general."
Late that night, two Wuyi-class warships quietly approached Dengzhou Water City under the cover of darkness.
The predecessor of Shuicheng was Daoyu Patrol Station during the Song Dynasty, where Daoyu Warships were moored to defend against the Khitans, and it was called Daoyu Village. In the ninth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1376), the Shuicheng was built, with a water gate in the north and Zhenyang Gate in the south, surrounded by an earthen wall, and seawater was drawn into the city, which was renamed Beiwo City. A breakwater about 80 meters long was built outside the Shuicheng.
The warships were anchored at the long breakwater outside the water city. A group of people jumped into the water, climbed onto the breakwater, and walked to the end of the dam near the sluice gate. Although the iron sluice gate could prevent ships from entering or leaving when closed, it could not stop people—the lower part of the gate was only a few feet underwater. These people quietly entered the water, submerged at the lower part of the gate, and swam into the harbor of the water city.
After the rebels occupied Dengzhou, they focused their main defensive efforts on the main city. The city was heavily guarded; no one other than Liaodong people was allowed to walk freely on the city streets, with violators to be executed. Each battlement of the city wall was guarded by five men at night, rotating shifts to relay arrows to alert those sleeping, and men were frequently lowered down to patrol outside the city at night. It was safe to say that no opportunity was left for the government troops to sneak in. However, compared to the main city, the defenses of the water city were practically non-existent. No one could have imagined that the threat would come from the sea. From the approach of the warships to the infiltration of several men, no one in the water city noticed.
The group that infiltrated the water town was led by Lin Chuanzong, nicknamed "Sea Monkey." He was not only an excellent swimmer but also incredibly agile, climbing masts with the nimbleness of a monkey. The men he brought were all carefully selected, former fishermen or pirates from Guangdong.
In order not to alert the garrison of the water city, they did not go ashore, but swam directly from the water to the boats moored at the dock.
The water city has a circumference of about six miles. The harbor inside the water city, commonly known as Xiaohai, is located in the center of the city. It is long and bag-shaped and is the main part of the water city. The shore of Xiaohai is lined with stone-built docks, which are 5 to 10 meters wide and are used for boats to dock. It is a place for naval training and ship mooring. The average width is about 100 meters and the length from north to south is about 700 meters. The water depth varies with the tides, and at its lowest point it is about 3 meters. The naval ships are moored at this dock.
Lin Chuanzong and the others swam to the side of the ship, threw out grappling hooks, hooked onto the gunwale, and climbed onto the deck. Seeing that it was pitch black and silent all around, they climbed up the mast. When sailboats are moored, their sails are furled; however, the soft sails of the West are rolled up, while the hard sails of the East are lowered. Damaging the hard sails didn't require climbing to the top; reaching about two people's height on the mast was sufficient.
Hard sails are supported by bamboo or reeds, making them easy to damage and less likely to be detected by sailors than soft sails. Lin Chuanzong clamped the mast between his legs, took the short knife from his mouth, and began to cut the bamboo support strips.
There's an art to sabotage; if it's too obvious, it'll be obvious and give you away. Lin Chuanzong only made slits in the sails, not cut them completely. This way, it wouldn't be noticed when the sails were raised, but once at sea, the strong winds would cause the sails to break. Once the sails broke, the entire sail was useless, and a boat without a sail was no different from a dead fish, completely at the mercy of others.
The rest of the men each chose their targets and proceeded to sabotage the sails according to Lin Chuanzong's method. Dengzhou was, after all, one of the most important naval bases in the north, and there were nearly a hundred ships of various sizes in the small sea. To improve efficiency, they only targeted the large ships, leaving those smaller than 100 liang (a unit of weight) unattended.
The garrison in Shuicheng were probably fast asleep, as no one appeared even after Lin Chuanzong and his men finished their work. Having succeeded, Lin Chuanzong and his men submerged back into the water and silently returned the way they came.
As dawn broke, a tense mobilization began within Dengzhou City; today was the day the rebels were to withdraw. At this time, the cannons on the city walls and in the "gun fortress" had not yet begun exchanging fire, and the soldiers had not yet started cooking; it was the perfect opportunity to evacuate.
At 1:15 AM, densely packed rebel troops filed out of the main city, heading straight for Shuicheng. No one made a loud noise, only the dense, chaotic sound of footsteps, occasionally punctuated by officers issuing orders in hushed tones. Behind the army were rows of carts, each carrying several large chests tightly bound together with hemp ropes. These chests contained gold and silver treasures looted by the rebels from Dengzhou and various parts of Shandong. Even if they were not accepted by the Later Jin, these riches would allow them to rise again.