nucmednet Chapter 127 Departure from Guangzhou
Chapter 127 Departure from Guangzhou
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After arriving in Lingao, Wu Duowang and his men had nothing to do except watch the guards test-fire their artillery. Their former boss, Sun Yuanhua, was always busy at the arsenal and didn't pay much attention to them. The mass production of the 10-jin field gun, also known as the 12-pound Napoleon cannon, greatly impressed Wu Duowang and his men: this new cast iron cannon was cheaper than bronze cannons, much lighter than the similarly caliber Hongyi cannons, and its range and accuracy were far superior.
After dealing with the officers and soldiers who were prisoners of war, Liu Ye and Liang Xiaoming found them and asked if they would be willing to go back to their old profession and train artillerymen for the guard.
“Mr. Wuduowang, you are an expert in artillery. If you are willing, I would like to hire you as our artillery instructors to train our gunners.”
Wu Duowang was both surprised and delighted: "I would be very happy to help!"
Liang Xiaoming said, "You have seen our newly cast 12-pound cannon. Together with the original 12-pound howitzer, this will be our main artillery on land. If you accept this job, before you formally train the gunners, you must be familiar with and master the performance of the two cannons, test the angles that need to be adjusted for different ranges, and the amount of propellant required for different types of ammunition."
With his right hand across his chest and his body slightly leaning forward, Wu Duowang replied respectfully, "It is our duty. Please provide us with a few prototype guns and allow us free access to the firing range for testing."
“That’s no problem,” Liang Xiaoming said. “Currently, we only use solid shot from 12-pounder mountain guns with fixed propellant charges, and the firing angle is 5° for horizontal firing. We don’t have precise values for the propellant charge and the range at larger elevation angles for the other shot and grenade. After you test the data, I will engrave it on the inner cover of the gun box. In the future, gunners will only need to refer to the table on the battlefield to choose the correct firing method in the shortest amount of time.”
Wu Duowang was full of admiration. This simple measure could train gunners in large numbers, and there would be no more bad situations on the battlefield where gunners would panic and load the wrong amount of gunpowder or spend too much time adjusting the range and angle.
These people had traveled across the ocean to the Ming Dynasty to make a living, but their work in Dengzhou had been disrupted by rebels. Now, they were overjoyed to be able to resume their old profession. Under Wu Duowang's leadership, they moved into the firing range and began to calculate and fix relevant data.
This task sounds simple, but it's not easy to do. Both mountain guns and field guns can fire solid shot, grapeshot, and high-explosive shells. Except for grapeshot, which has a shorter range and is relatively easier to test, solid shot and high-explosive shells require different amounts of gunpowder, and their ranges also differ at different firing angles. Even when using the same type of ammunition, the caliber and shell weight of mountain guns and field guns are different, so their propellant and range must be calculated separately.
After discussing with his companions, Wu Duowang decided to conduct the tests separately according to the type of cannon. They would first test the data of the three types of shells used for the mountain cannons, and then test the data of the field cannons. The rumbling sound of cannons began to resound day and night over the firing range. Zuo Wuwei could also hear it in his barracks. He was itching to see this new cannon that could completely suppress the Hongyi cannons as soon as possible.
In July, carrying ten newly cast 10-inch mortars, Liu Ye boarded the "Lingao" ship and quietly left Bofu Port, heading straight for Guangzhou.
Bombarding Guangzhou was no child's play. Besides leaving 200 men to guard the city, there were also more than 100 wounded. Liu Ye took almost all his belongings with him, including 5 Wuyi-class ships.
This operation was actually very risky. There were still several thousand Ming troops in Qiongshan. Although they were kept in the prefectural city by delaying tactics, which wouldn't affect the operation in Guangzhou, it posed a great threat to the already vulnerable Lingao. If the objective of this mission wasn't achieved quickly, and news reached Qiongshan that Lingao was using an empty city ploy, He Rubin would definitely be eager to make a move. Therefore, Liu Ye's plan was to create a time gap, bombard Guangzhou, and then run away, returning to Lingao to wait for Wang Zunde to fall before discussing the matter of pacification.
Onboard the "Lingao," Liu Ye and Liang Xiaoming stood at the bow, gazing at the vast sea. Liang Xiaoming joked, "Is this some kind of 17th-century version of Blitzkrieg?"
"We're nowhere near as good! The Third Reich's blitzkrieg used the mobility of aircraft, tanks, and mechanized forces to launch surprise attacks and win the war in the shortest possible time. We were left with a vulnerable rear, so we had no choice but to give Wang Zunde a quick blow and then retreat. In the end, it's still a matter of insufficient strength. If I had 10,000 men at this time, no, even 5,000, I could fight on two fronts in Guangzhou and Qiongzhou, stunning Wang Zunde on one side and crippling He Rubin on the other."
Liang Xiaoming nodded: "The advantage of Qiongzhou as a base is that the Ming Dynasty's control is very weak, making it easy to expand. The disadvantage is that there is insufficient population resources. Once it expands to a certain extent, it will encounter a bottleneck due to population problems. The advantages and disadvantages are both very obvious."
"The population of the entire Qiongzhou is less than that of a few counties in the interior. Half of them are timid and fearful farmers, and the other half are unruly Li people. Trying to expand our armed forces is like trying to do something in a snail shell!" Liu Ye pointed to the north. "There are many starving people in the Shaanxi area, but we can't get there because of the Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces. In the end, we will have to start from Shandong."
Liang Xiaoming pondered: "Are you planning to use the Shandong mutiny as an opportunity to do something underhanded?"
"What do you think I risked my life to infiltrate the rebels using clues about the White Lotus Sect? Wasn't it to completely disrupt Shandong and create an opportunity to fish in troubled waters? If history had unfolded as it should have, Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde's mutiny would have eventually turned into a major battle with the imperial army at Laizhou. Apart from the Dengzhou-Laizhou region, the other prefectures and counties would have remained relatively stable. After my intervention, the rebels avoided an early decisive battle with the government forces, and the entire Shandong was thrown into chaos. Regardless of who wins or loses in the end, a huge mess will be left behind: the people will be displaced, the landlords will be ruined, and what awaits us will be an abundant labor force, a source of soldiers, and a large amount of unclaimed land..."
Although I had heard him make similar remarks back in Dengzhou, none of them were as specific as this. Liang Xiaoming sighed, "Should I say you have foresight or should I scold you for treating human life like dirt?"
Liu Ye replied without hesitation, "Those who do great things don't concern themselves with trifles. Temporary sacrifices are to avoid greater disasters in the future. You only see the negative consequences of what I did for the people of Shandong, but you haven't considered that their fate was even worse in the past: the mutiny depleted the military strength of Shandong and Tianjin, weakened the defense capabilities of the Beizhili region, and made it easier for the Qing army to invade. During the fifth Qing invasion alone, nearly 50 people were captured in Shandong and other places, and countless people were killed or wounded. How many people became victims of the Qing army's swords, and how many became slaves of the Eight Banners?"