Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 778: Defeating the Enemy at Sea
Jing Wuer was not idle at this time either. He "delayedly" reported the news of his "defeat" in Jinzhou, and said that he withdrew because he was defeated after a fierce battle. He also took the heads of those Han soldiers as trophies as evidence.

After reporting, Jing Wuer waited for a reply calmly and continued to stay in Chengzitan. At this time, Daishan in Shenyang and Huang Taiji in Jinzhou also received news of the fire in the backyard. Huang Taiji was furious and transferred part of the troops to support, while he continued to besiege Jinzhou.

At this time, Huang Taiji clearly knew the real intention of the Ming army, which was nothing more than using the tactic of besieging Wei to save Zhao to force him to withdraw from Jinzhou. Once he withdrew, the siege of Jinzhou for several months would be in vain, and this long-planned war would end in vain.

Taking Jinzhou was an important strategic goal of Huang Taiji. Because of the re-establishment of Jizhou Town in the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Mongolian Tumed, Huang Taiji's tactic of continuing to attack the Ming Dynasty through Mongolia was completely bankrupt. Huang Taiji had returned empty-handed in the previous battle at the Great Wall. Without the passage to attack the Ming Dynasty from Mongolia, Huang Taiji had to go back to the old way to attack the Ming Dynasty again, which was to open up the Liaoxi Corridor and take Shanhaiguan directly like Nurhaci did in the past.

But if he did so, Jinzhou would be the first to be hit. If Huang Taiji could not take Jinzhou, he would not be able to open up the Liaoxi Corridor, because Jinzhou was the gateway to the Liaoxi Corridor, and the Ming army had heavy troops stationed in Jinzhou, and Zu Dashou, the old and difficult enemy, was the commander. It would not be so easy for Huang Taiji to take Jinzhou.

Relying on the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners, they would naturally have no problem fighting in field battles, but they would be unable to fight siege battles.

Although the Eight Banners were good at fighting, their advantage was in riding and shooting, while the Ming army's advantage was in defending cities. Moreover, the total strength of the Eight Banners was not large. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, which owned the whole world and had a vast territory and a large population, Huang Taiji did not have that much capital. This was why he adopted the strategy of besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements, intending to trap Jinzhou and force Zu Dashou to surrender.

Originally, everything was planned well. Although the Ming army had learned its lesson and did not rush to rescue Jinzhou as expected, giving Huang Taiji the opportunity to attack the reinforcements, at least Jinzhou had been surrounded by Huang Taiji. Zu Dashou and his tens of thousands of Ming troops were trapped. It was only a matter of time for Huang Taiji to get Jinzhou.

But no one expected that at this time the Ming army would be so bold and adopt the tactic of crossing the sea to attack the north, directly bringing the war to Huang Taiji's backyard, which made Huang Taiji very angry. Now this Ming army is erratic in various places in Liaodong, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong. The local Eight Banners garrison suffered a great loss at the hands of the Ming army because the territory they controlled was too large and the troops were insufficient.

If the army returned to support at this time, the battle of Jinzhou would fail, which was something Huang Taiji could not accept. You know, Huang Taiji mobilized a lot of resources and troops for this battle, how could he withdraw his troops at this time?
But the Ming army in the rear could not be ignored. If they sat back and watched, the Ming army would become more and more powerful. Moreover, Huang Taiji's foundation was weak, and he could not withstand the Ming army's torment in his own nest. In desperation, Huang Taiji could only withdraw part of his troops to provide support, and ordered Daishan, who was stationed in Shenyang, to let his troops move south as soon as possible to unite with the Eight Banners stationed in various places to encircle and suppress this Ming army.

In addition, Huang Taiji also sent orders to the various troops stationed in Pi Island and Korea, asking them to lead part of their forces westward to cooperate with the troops heading south to attack the Ming army from both sides, compress the opponent's movement space, and annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop.

At the same time, Huang Taiji's naval forces were also dispatched accordingly. Since the Ming army was attacking across the sea, they relied on the strength of the navy. If the Ming army lost this navy, the landing Ming army would not be able to support itself and would become rootless.

Destroying the Ming army's navy, or in other words, inflicting a severe blow on the enemy's navy and forcing it to leave Liaodong, is the fundamental solution to the problem. For this reason, the Eight Banners of Liaodong were quickly mobilized and rushed towards the troops of Zheng Hongkui and Li You, as if they were going to swallow up the enemy in one fell swoop.

Faced with this situation, Zheng Hongkui and Li You had already been prepared. Shortly after the Battle of Gaizhou, the army moved back to the Dalan area. Dalan was well located in the central part of Liaodong, where it could be used for attack or defense. Relying on the terrain, Li You once again repelled the attack of the Eight Banners soldiers with the cooperation of Zheng Hongkui's warships, then boarded the ship and left, disappearing for a while.

Just as the various Eight Banners troops were searching for his whereabouts, no one expected that Zheng Hongkui would take a risky move. Instead of withdrawing the fleet back to Shandong, he sailed directly to the east, circled half a circle on the sea, and quietly ran to Kashima. He planned to use Kashima as a base to set up an ambush at sea, waiting for the enemy navy to fall into his trap.

The Qing army originally had no navy. The current navy was composed of Mao Wenlong's subordinates who followed Shang Kexi and others to surrender to Huang Taiji after the civil strife in Pidao. After surrendering to Huang Taiji, Huang Taiji promised Shang Kexi a high position and generous salary, and formed a new Han Army Flag based on his original troops and handed it over to him to command.

Shang Kexi's surrender gave Huang Taiji advanced firearms and navy, which was a dream come true for Huang Taiji. You should know that in the war with the Ming Dynasty, the biggest disadvantage of the Eight Banners was the problem of firearms and navy. With the arrival of Shang Kexi, this shortcoming was filled. Although it was still not as good as the Ming army, it at least greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners.

Shang Kexi is now following Huang Taiji in the direction of Jinzhou. The one who stays in Pi Island is his subordinate Quan Jie. Quan Jie was a brave general when he was in Dongjiang Town. After Shang Kexi surrendered to Huang Taiji, he was granted the position of general and led the Han army of the Bordered Blue Banner. As for Quan Jie, his status also rose with the times and he became a deputy general, commanding the Qing navy stationed in Pi Island and cooperating with Yue Tuo in Korea to control the surrounding areas.

Originally, it was Amin who ruled Korea, but Huang Taiji later took action against Amin. Not only did he seize his position as the leader of the flag and replace him with Jirgalang, he also found a reason to imprison Amin.

After Amin fell, Jirgalang stayed in Korea for a while in his place, and soon after, Yuetuo took over. Yuetuo was Daishan's eldest son, and he played a role in supporting Huang Taiji when he came to power. In dealing with Amin, Yuetuo helped Huang Taiji solve Amin's plot to stay in Korea and establish a separatist regime, which made Huang Taiji trust him even more.

Therefore, soon after Jirgalang replaced Amin, Huang Taiji not only rewarded Yuetuo as Duoluo Beile, but also let him take over Korea, which was extremely important. After receiving the order from Huang Taiji, Yuetuo immediately began to mobilize troops, not only the Eight Banners of Korea, but also the troops of Korea including the Korean Navy. The army was led by Yuetuo himself, with eleven Niulu, a total of 3,300 elite Eight Banners, plus more than 5,000 Han army flags and Korean soldiers, a total of nearly 9,000 people marched from east to west.

As for the navy, Quanjie led more than 70 warships, and the Korean navy had nearly 50 ships, a total of more than 120 warships, advancing westward by water.

They advanced both by land and sea, intending to use their military superiority to suppress the Ming army crossing the sea and annihilate Zheng Hongkui and Li You's troops in one fell swoop.

In terms of both troop strength and scale, Yue Tuo and Quan Jie's troops were superior to the Ming army. It would be difficult for Zheng Hongkui and Li You to win in a head-on confrontation. Moreover, their original intention of crossing the sea to attack was guerrilla warfare and harassment, not to fight a war of attrition or a decisive battle with the enemy. What's more, both the navy and the army were the elite of the Ming army. It would be too not worth it to waste their troops in such a battlefield.

For this reason, Zheng Hongkui and Li You discussed and decided to avoid Yuetuo's troops on land and attack Quanjie's navy first to eliminate the opponent's navy first.

Zheng Hongkui believed that although Quanjie's navy was larger than his own, the actual number of warships on both sides was not much different, and the fleet commanded by Quanjie was originally the Pidao Navy, and the Pidao Navy during Mao Wenlong's period mainly undertook transportation and smuggling, not naval warfare. Because the Jiannu had no navy at all, a naval battle was impossible.

For this reason, the Pi Island Navy was not strong in naval combat capabilities, and nearly half of the fleet he led this time was from the Korean Navy. Korea was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and had always been loyal to the Ming Dynasty. If it had not been for Yuan Chonghuan killing Mao Wenlong, which led to civil strife in Pi Island and rebellion of generals, giving Huang Taiji an opportunity to take advantage of, Korea would not have fallen into Huang Taiji's hands.

Even if Korea is now forced to submit to Huang Taiji, it is still unclear how much sincerity it has. From this point of view, it is unlikely that the Korean navy will do its best for Huang Taiji. At best, they are forced to send troops and just play a supporting role.

As a pirate who traveled all over the world, Zheng Hongkui was very familiar with the situation of the countries surrounding the Ming Dynasty. Although he had never been to Korea, he was most familiar with Japan. Japan and Korea were neighbors, and a war broke out between the two countries decades ago. If the Ming Dynasty had not sent troops to Korea, it would have been annexed by Japan.

Zheng Hongkui was also clear about the combat effectiveness of the Korean navy. He judged that once the war broke out, the Korean navy would not only fail to help the whole section, but would hinder the opponent. Moreover, they were the navy of the Ming Dynasty, and Korea had always been respectful to the Ming Dynasty. Once the war broke out, as long as they had the upper hand, the Korean navy might even turn against them.

Zheng Hongkui was very confident in his ability to fight at sea, and he looked down on his opponent Quanjie. In his opinion, the fleet of the Zheng family was invincible at sea, so what was Quanjie? Before, it was just a guerrilla navy of Dongjiang Town, who was so-so at transporting goods and people by ship, and was not good at fighting at sea. Wouldn't it be easy to catch such a person?
After discussing with Li You, the two decided to wait for Quanjie's fleet at Kashima Island and give them a severe blow to let Quanjie know who is the overlord of the sea.

Shortly after Zheng Hongkui set up the ambush, everything went as he expected. Quan Jie led his fleet westward in a mighty manner and arrived at the waters near Ludao a few days later.

The battle was about to break out. Zheng Hongkui discovered Quanjie's fleet first and commanded his warships to gain the upper hand. All the ships rushed straight to the enemy. At this time, Quanjie's fleet was advancing in a cruising posture and had no time to react. When they saw Zheng Hongkui's fleet suddenly appear on the right, they hurriedly adjusted the array and formed a battle formation, but it was too late.

Compared with Quanjie's side, Zheng Hongkui's fleet was superior in terms of firepower and tactics of the warships. Moreover, there were many subordinates of the Zheng family commanding his fleet. These guys were old pirates with many years of experience, and their ability in naval battles can be imagined.

Just shortly after the war broke out, three ships of the entire fleet were sunk. At the same time, several warships directly commanded by Zheng's subordinates broke through the enemy fleet's formation, splitting the enemy fleet into two, making it impossible for the fleet to connect.

That’s not all. In addition to artillery and rocket attacks, Zheng Hongkui also personally commanded the jump-off ship operation. He jumped onto the enemy warship with a big knife and killed anyone he saw, making the enemy terrified.

At this time, Quanjie intended to use some warships to block the enemy, and the rest of the warships temporarily withdrew to reorganize the formation. However, he never expected that at this moment, the scene that Zheng Hongkui had expected would happen. When the Korean navy, which had little combat power and morale, saw the Ming warships so brave, how could they dare to fight against the Ming fleet? They turned around and ran away in a hurry.

As the Korean warships fled from the battlefield, the entire fleet not only failed to reorganize its formation, but was instead torn to pieces by the charge of the Korean warships. The entire fleet was instantly in chaos, and each fought on its own and was beaten miserably. Defeat was imminent.

(End of this chapter)