"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" The calls of the princes and nobles woke Shang Yuan up. "What should we do?"
Yes, what should I do... Shang Yuan tasted a bitter taste in his mouth. The enemy's warships were much larger than ours, and the most fatal thing was that they had too many guns.
Although we had many ships, we had surprisingly few guns.
Ryukyu did not produce iron, so all ironware was imported, so the price of ironware was ten times that of Ming Dynasty. Those unscrupulous Portuguese merchants even sold inferior large iron cannons at sky-high prices.
The Ryukyu Kingdom bought a few guns, but they were only installed on forts and towers for defense, and few were installed on ships. The high cost was not the main reason, because the structure of the galleys limited the gun positions to the bows; secondly, due to the lack of iron, the Ryukyu mainly used wooden nails and mortise and tenon joints to build ships, and rarely used iron nails and iron rivets for reinforcement, so the hull could hardly withstand the recoil of the cannons.
Therefore, there were only a dozen large tribute guns on the fifty ships, plus dozens of Portuguese guns, which were the entire firepower of the Ryukyu navy.
Shang Yuan just counted them and found that the three largest sailing ships alone had more gun positions on one side than this number...
The disparity in firepower is too huge. How stupid must he be to run headfirst into it?
"Your Majesty, I am willing to lead half of the warships to disperse them and pave the way for the Three Mountains to unify the fleet!" As the commander of the navy, Xie Liting had to bite the bullet and say, "Fifty against thirty-three, the advantage is mine..."
As if to dispel his hope, the opposing fleet suddenly launched a salvo.
This round of salvo was actually used to correct the shooting, but amid the earth-shaking rumbling of cannons, columns of water like jade forests on the sea surface shot up into the sky, and then turned into a torrential rain and fell down.
It also wiped out the fighting spirit of the Ryukyu naval officers and soldiers.
"..."Xie Liting's face also turned pale, and he dared not to show off his abilities anymore.
"Your Majesty, let's retreat to the shore first. It's too dangerous on the sea!" Ma Deshun suddenly said, "I think there are no more than a thousand people on the shore. We have three thousand royal soldiers and bird guns, which is enough to repel them."
"Hmm..." King Shang Yuan frowned and thought for a moment, then nodded with difficulty. Ma Qingjia was right. It was too dangerous at sea. Under the fierce artillery fire of the enemy, life and death really depended on the sky.
Ma Deshun immediately ordered Xie Liting to drive the warships carrying the Left and Right soldiers to the north and south ends of the pier separately, so that the enemies on the shore would be distracted.
"Row towards the shore!" The commands came one after another, passing through the boats.
Not to mention, rowing boats are more flexible than sailing warships and are not easily affected by wind and waves. Soon, the Ryukyu warships drew white tracks on the sea and turned their heads to the shore.
"Captain, they are trying to escape to the shore!" On the 102 ship, the deputy captain Xiao Ya put down the telescope and shouted to Haierdi anxiously.
"No need to be so loud, I saw it." Haierdi looked at the Ryukyu fleet that was turning with an expressionless face, but did not give any orders.
"Shouldn't we chase them?" Xiao Ya asked anxiously.
"There are Marines on the shore, why rush?" Haierdi said calmly.
"That's why I'm anxious." Xiao Ya whispered, "We finally waited for a battle, but now they are going to steal the limelight."
"Hahaha, don't worry, there will be plenty of fighting this time, and I will beat you until you vomit." Haierdi smiled lightly and said, "Let the Marines take the limelight this time."
He knew that if they were arranged in battle lines, they could issue unified orders. But once the order to advance was given, each ship would have to fight on its own. The captains were all like Xiao Ya, like a woman who had been lonely for a long time. Who could stop fighting in a chaotic battle? If one of them accidentally killed the King of Zhongshan with a cannon, it would be a lot of fun...
So let the Marines teach the disobedient Ryukyu people a lesson with their Longqing style.
~~
On the shore, Wu Da stood on one foot on a big rock, staring at the Ryukyu warship that turned around with a happy face.
"Old Pan, they are going to surround us from both ends of the dock." Then he turned happily to the police commissioner who was working with him and said, "Let's put them on shore first to prevent them from firing from the boat."
"Well, they are lined up and shot, so of course we have to wait until they are lined up before shooting them." Pan Jinlian, the police commissioner of the Marine Corps, is a clean-looking police officer who is said to have passed the examination for Tongsheng. Although he has a small problem of showing off his knowledge, the two of them work well together.
"We confirmed during our reconnaissance just now that the ship can only approach a hundred meters from the shore." Ximen Qing came up and said, "The largest firearm on the ship is the Dafa Gong, which has a range of five hundred meters."
"Well, then we'll line up 400 meters from the shore." Wu Da nodded and said to Pan Jinlian, "We'll each lead two squadrons. I'll go to the south and you go to the north."
Then he turned back to Ximen Qing and said, "Your squadron will stay here as a reserve team."
"Don't worry, we've been feeding mosquitoes all night..." Ximen Qing was anxious.
"Who hasn't fed mosquitoes all night?" Wu Da glared at him and said, "This is a battlefield, not a market where you can haggle!"
"Yes!" Ximen Qing had no choice but to accept the order reluctantly.
"Don't be like that." Pan Jinlian patted Ximen Qing on the shoulder and said, "You have worked hard on the investigation, and the reconnaissance squadron must be included in the reward for merit."
After that, he shouted loudly: "Three and four squadrons, run!"
The Marines from the third and fourth squadrons, carrying their guns, lined up and ran after the police commissioner.
The drummers of the two squadrons beat the small drums hanging around their waists in unison.
The rhythmic and inspiring drumbeats directed the Marines to line up and march forward to the beat of the drums.
"Tell us who we are?" Amid the sound of drums, Pan Jinlian walked side by side with the police officers on the front line, shouting loudly to boost morale.
"Heroes of the Marine Corps!" The Marines responded in unison as they marched forward.
"What's the temper of a Marine?"
"Don't care about life or death. Just fight if you don't agree!" the Marines shouted loudly.
"How?!"
"Fight bravely, with thousands against ten thousand!" The majestic and orderly roar almost caught up with the sound of the artillery fire just now.
"March, stand still!" They walked all the way to 400 meters from the beach. Pan Jinlian selected a section of the road that the enemy must take to land, and then he ordered the troops to line up facing the enemy.
The four hundred Marines were divided into two rows, forming two lines of two hundred men, and like a pack of wolves selecting their prey, they stared viciously at the small boats that were approaching the beach.
No matter how good the conditions of this natural harbor are, it is impossible for a large ship to dock. So the last 200 meters had to be sampaned.
On the large ship behind the sampan, after unloading the soldiers, the Dafagong and the Portuguese began shooting.
The shells whizzed over the heads of the Ryukyu soldiers and landed on the beach in front of the two armies, splashing up high clouds of dust.
The Marines still stood straight, unmoved. Execution by firing squad requires supreme courage. Once the line is formed, only death can make them retreat. Any retreat or even evasion will be regarded as a cowardly deserter and severely punished!
Under the cover of sparse artillery fire, or to give courage, the Ryukyu soldiers jumped off the sampans, waded onto the shore, and began to form a team.
This made Ma Deshun, who was supervising the battle on the big ship, breathe a sigh of relief. He was most worried that the enemy would take advantage of their landing and attack them halfway across the river, which would cause too much damage.
However, in order to avoid being bombarded, the enemy chose to line up outside the artillery range, thus wasting this fleeting golden opportunity.
"They are so afraid of death, they are definitely not elite soldiers." Ma De casually set up a awning and looked at the thin blue line lined up on the shore. He said with more disdain: "Is this a long snake formation? It's neither fish nor fowl!"
The general beside him hurriedly said, "What do you mean, sir?"
"The military manual of the Celestial Empire says that the key to the long snake formation lies in the cavalry on both wings. Without the mobility of the cavalry, the infantry is just a dead snake." Ma Deshun said with a look of understanding: "Why bother dealing with a dead snake? Pass the order down, attack it in sections, so that the head and tail cannot respond! Then use the superior force to surround and annihilate it!"
"Yes!" The general responded and was about to pass on the order.
"Wait." Ma Deshun stopped the man and said, "If they surrender, stop attacking. After all, they are from the Celestial Empire. If we kill too many people, it will affect our tribute in the future."
"Yes!" The general's face was full of admiration, thinking that Lord Ma was really a mature and wise man in planning for the country.
~~
After a short rest after landing, the 1,000 Ryukyu soldiers were divided into three teams. Driven by their generals, they brandished their weapons and rushed towards the thin blue line with their claws and fangs bared.
Pan Jinlian stood in the front row and ordered in a deep voice: "Prepare for shooting!"
The two squadron leaders blew short whistles.
The police officers skillfully raised their guns, opened the Longqing-style powder pot, pulled out a paper shell bullet from the waterproof bullet belt on their chests, bit open the back shell, poured the gunpowder into the powder pot, closed the powder pot cover, and then used a cleaning rod to push the bullet into the gun barrel to compact it, pulled out the cleaning rod and stood by.
The whole process took only six to eight seconds, and after eight seconds, all the Longqing-style rifles were ready to fire. This was the result of hard training day after day. Even the new Marines had gone through at least five thousand repetitions of reloading practice.
The purpose of the exercise is to engrave each step into the muscles of the team members and turn it into a completely subconscious action. This way, no matter what situation they face on the battlefield, they can keep their movements intact, reload without errors or slowdowns. This is the guarantee of the firepower output of the line shooting.
But Pan Jinlian did not order to shoot immediately. Instead, he watched the Ryukyu soldiers, who were several times larger than him, approaching within 300 meters, 200 meters...
The Ryukyu people on the opposite side had even started shooting with the muskets in their hands. Although most of the bullets flew away nowhere, a few bullets hit the Marines in the front row. The marines fell down with a groan and were immediately pulled away by the medics.
Pan Jinlian remained indifferent, and the coast guard members remained motionless.
It was not until the distance between the two sides reached 100 meters that he gave the order in a deep voice: "Aim!"
The Marines raised the Longqing rifles in their hands, with the front row kneeling and the back row standing, with the muzzles of their guns like a forest, all pointed at the enemy soldiers close at hand, and then they cocked the hammers.
When the enemy approached to 90 meters, 80 meters, and 70 meters away, the whistle ordering shooting finally sounded.
Suddenly, gunshots rang out like firecrackers, and the Ryukyu soldiers in the front fell down in large numbers like mowing the grass.