Chapter 132: Ready to go

Li Wei was coming to the deck, but saw Lai Yongguo leading a dozen soldiers to shoot seagulls with muskets on the side of the ship to dispel their interference from the watchtower. Seeing Li Wei coming, Lai Yongguo smiled and said, "The Changshan Island is about to be around, and there are more seagulls. Since all the fishermen on the island retreated, these islands have become the territory of seabirds. Every time they come here, a large number of seabirds come to attack the warships, but they are afraid of muskets. After several rounds of shooting, they dare not get close to the ship."

Li Weizheng was very interested in this musket. He took one. It was an original light pistol, also called a fire gate gun. It was more than one foot long and weighed about seven or eight kilograms. In fact, it was a straight wooden handle behind a copper tube. There was a fire door above it for ignition rope. When using it, first fill the gunpowder at the mouth of the pipe, then pound it in dozens of small iron beads, then tamp it tightly, and then ignite the fuse behind it, and it was shot out by the pressure generated by the burning of the gunpowder in the chamber. Although it was a hot weapon, it was slow to load and clumsy to use. It was still not as good as crossbows in the battle between the two armies at high speed. However, in the defense of the city and naval battles, the function of cannons and pistols was far better than that of crossbows. Therefore, in the Ming Navy, the ratio of cannons and pistols and equipment was much higher than that of the army.

Although this kind of musket is still very ancient and backward, Li Weizheng knew that it was a general trend to replace cold weapons. About a hundred years later, European mesh guns and Franc artillery were introduced to the Ming Dynasty, giving the Ming Dynasty a qualitative leap.

Li Wei shook his head with some regret. Although he had seen some old flintlocks and clamps on the Internet, he would never have to make one. At this time, a hundred households handed him a pistol filled with gunpowder and bullets to him and said with a smile: "Sir, try a shot, too."

"Okay!" Li Weizheng took the pistol with interest, and also imitated the soldiers' appearance. He first placed the pistol on his arms. Then a soldier stepped forward, 'Click!' and lit the fire sniff. Li Weizheng quickly squatted down again to prevent the sea breeze from blowing out the fire. After igniting the fuse, he held the pistol tightly with his right hand, held the pistol with his left hand, aimed at several hovering seagulls from an oblique angle. The fuse disappeared into the fire door, and white smoke came out of the hole. Li Weizheng's heart almost raised to his throat. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and a powerful recoil almost made the pistol escape from his hand. He was originally aiming at the seagull, but it was shot by the recoil. Several seagulls were so scared that they flew around, but the bullets were shot. Li Weizheng looked blankly for a long time, with a look of frustration.

"It's the first time for adults to use a musket!" Lai Yongguo next to him saw that Li Wei was a novice, so he quickly comforted him and said with a smile: "Sir, shooting muskets requires special training, and at least several hundred shootings are required to be proficient. It's the same old saying, 'Practice makes perfect'. I asked several musketmen to practice for adults to see."

After saying that, as soon as he waved his hand, the ten musketeers immediately began to perform. They were in groups, one of them was loading and aiming, and the other was igniting. The movements and cooperation were extremely skilled. They were loading, filling, igniting, and shooting in one go, almost as fast as crossbow archers. With the five loud bangs of "bang! bang!", more than a dozen seagulls were hovering above their heads and were shot onto the ship.

"Not bad! Not bad!" Li Wei was repeatedly exclaiming. The skillful use of the soldiers made him take back his contempt for this kind of musket. He nodded repeatedly, but the two were a bit wasteful. After all, these ten people are the best among muskets. How could ordinary soldiers reach this level? Moreover, the range of muskets is not far. If a musket or even a flintlock rifle could be invented and an army was formed, wouldn't the Ming army's combat power be invincible in the world? Although he himself could not make a musket and a gun, he knew a little about the principle. His theory and excellent craftsmen might not be able to make it.

He pondered for a moment and asked, "Do we have a factory for building muskets here?"

Lai Yongguo shook his head, "This kind of musket factory is mainly concentrated in the capital, but Jinan Prefecture has a Baoyuan Bureau and Liaodong Dusi, but we don't have it here."

‘Liaodong Dusi?’ Li Wei was looking north with his hand curtain. It was only two hundred miles from Penglai to the Liaodong Peninsula, and it could be reached in three days. He had the idea of ​​going to the Liaodong Guns and Cannon Factory to take a look.

"Sir, we have arrived!" The shouts of Tiao Wangbing interrupted Li Weizheng's thoughts. He followed the eyes of everyone and looked to the front of the left and vaguely saw a black line, which was Changshan Island.

As the name suggests, Changshan Island is a small island with mountains. When the weather is good, you can see the mountain in the island vaguely. Qin Shihuang regarded this mountain as a fairy mountain in the sea. At this time, the sea was banned for more than 20 years. There were no fishermen on the island, only a beacon tower and a general flag guarding the island. The treasure ship Li Wei was on could not approach Changshan Island, so he could only circle the island for one day, and two small boats transported supplies to the island.

Lai Yongguo pointed to the beacon tower surrounded by rich trees on the top of the mountain and smiled: "Sir, please see, there are more than 20 large and small islands in the waters outside Penglai, among which Huangcheng Island, Tuoji Island, Dazhu Island, Hei Island and Changshan Island all have beacon towers. Once Japanese pirates attack, the beacon tower will be lit immediately. We can go out to sea to fight within a quarter of an hour. Our Penglai Institute and the Jinzhou Zhongzuo Institute in Liaodong each have division of labor. Basically, we are bounded by Imperial City Island. We are responsible for patrolling the islands south of Imperial City Island, and Jinzhou Zhongzuo Institute is responsible for patrolling the Laotie Mountain Channel north of Imperial City Island. We have ships to patrol the Imperial City Island yesterday, and we are expected to be back today."

Li Weizheng nodded. When he saw the boat that was sending supplies back, he asked: "Can you grow some vegetables and food on the island by yourself? If you cannot go to sea in bad weather, you will not be able to leave the supply."

Lai Yongguo smiled and pointed to the overwhelming seabirds on Changshan Island and said, "I don't know that there are many seabirds along Penglai coast and cannot grow grain at all. Not to mention growing grain, the seeds will be pecked immediately after they are sown."

Speaking of this, Lai Yongguo suddenly thought of a place. He pointed to the northeast and smiled: "But there is a place that can be planted. Twenty miles away from here, there is a small island called Guidou Island. There is a gourd-shaped giant rock on the island. The giant rock has a round hole. The wind blows through it and makes a harsh roar. Therefore, there is no seabird around the island, and the land on the island is fertile, but it is only about a dozen acres, which makes no sense."

"The ship is starting!" As the sergeant shouted, the sails of the treasure ship were pulled up and slowly turned around to the way back. He was originally going to go to Hei Island, but because of the wind, the treasure ship could not move forward and could only return to the water city, and two vehicles and ships went to deliver supplies.

In fact, this is why Zhu Yuanzhang was anxious to build a ship. After three or four months, the wind on the sea surface turned to southeastern wind, which was just right for transporting grain from the south to north. Otherwise, the northwest would blow in autumn and winter, making it difficult for the grain ship to transport grain.

The treasure ship returned to the water city. Due to the change in the wind direction, Li Weizheng set off for Weihaiwei the next day, while Qianqian stayed in Penglai County. The house had been arranged and Zhao Gong was taken care of, Li Weizheng could also be completely relieved. What he was anxious about now is the opportunity to appear in the Danluo Island of Goryeo, and he must seize it as soon as possible.

Due to the west wind, Li Weizheng's fleet was traveling with the wind and was extremely fast. In just two days, the fleet arrived at Liugong Island outside Weihaiwei, which is today's Weihaihai. The harbor is located in a bay. Compared with Penglai Water City, the harbor of Weihaiwei is obviously much smaller in scale. However, there are heavy troops stationed around Weihaiwei, and there are no counties nearby, with relatively few people, so Japanese pirates generally do not come to attack here. Most of them attack the slightly densely populated Penglai County.

Commander Zhou, the former commander of Weihai Guard, was transferred to Datong to form a new Datong Guard in December last year. Now the daily affairs of Weihai Guard are in charge of the commander Tongzhi. Commander Tongzhi is the deputy commander, responsible for the logistics affairs of the army, food and salaries, salt administration, and coastal defense construction. From the third rank, only half a level lower than the commander, there are usually two. One of them went to Datong with the previous commander. The new Tongzhi will be transferred from Fujian and has not arrived yet. At present, there is only one commander Tongzhi of Weihai Guard, named Zheng Yuan. He received a express message from Penglai the day before. The new commander will arrive at Weihai Guard by boat in the near future. Early in the morning, he sent people to sea to inquire about the situation.

Zheng Yuan is a civilian officer in his forties. He loves playing chess very much. When he has free time, he will find someone to play chess. At this moment, he is fighting with an aide, but he seems a little absent-minded. In a short while, he repeatedly makes trouble, and even the defeat is decided. His aide is surnamed Mao and is from a Juren. When he saw that the Tongzhi was uneasy, he smiled and said, "Sir, are you worried about the new Commander Li?"

Zheng Yuan was not interested in playing chess anymore. He threw away the chess pieces in his hand and sighed, "This person is a Qianhu of Jinyiwei. I heard that his methods are fierce and vicious. He came to Weihaiwei to serve. I am very worried that officials at all levels of Weihaiwei may be in trouble."

But aide Mao smiled and said, "I think the adults are a little over-concerned."

Zheng Yuan frowned and said, "What do you mean?"

"How many methods are there for doing things in the Jinyiwei? This is their duty. They are the inspectors, and even if they pretend, they have to pretend to be fierce, but the commander is different. Don't forget that he is the prince's person, and he represents the image of the prince outside. With the prince's kindness and lenientness, how could he do the opposite? If he was as fierce as he was in the Weihaiwei as he was in the Jinyiwei, the prince would not tolerate him first, so I ask the elders to be relieved. Commander Li and Li Qianhu will never be the same person."

After listening to the analysis of the staff, Zheng Yuan also admitted that he made some sense. At this time, the personal soldiers suddenly heard the report from the door: "Sir, news has been heard from the sea, and the commander's boat has arrived."

"He is finally here." Zheng Yuan stood up and said to his personal soldiers: "Go and notify all the officials of the Commander and all the Thousand Houses and Hundred Houses, go to the dock to welcome our new Commander."

Li Weizheng's treasure ship was slowly approaching Weihaiwei Wharf, and there were more than a dozen small boats with him, nearly a thousand officers and soldiers. Li Wei was standing on the bow of the ship with his hands behind his back and looking at the harbor. Unlike Penglai Port, there were not so many warships in the harbor of Weihaiwei. Although there were more than a dozen large ships, most of them were cargo ships, with only two warships, and the rest were patrol boats. Weihaiwei was also a city, but it was a land city, built on a cliff. It took two or three hundred steps to walk from the wharf to the city. This city is not a county town, and the military city of Weihaiwei has nearly four thousand troops stationed in it, and their families of accompanying the army live.

There were 5,500 troops stationed in Weihaiwei, including 500 troops stationed in Qishansou, Jinshan Zuosuo and Baichiyaou. Most of the troops still live in Weihaiwei City. With the sound of long horns, Li Wei was seeing a large group of officials coming to the dock along the steps. Everyone looked up at the treasure ship from time to time, and his expression was shocked. He knew that these were all coming to greet his subordinates.

The treasure ship was docked, and the thick iron anchor fell into the sea with its chains. A wooden hanging ladder was placed from the ship. The navy soldiers on the ship walked off the ship one by one. Li Wei was getting off the ship, and the officials who were greeting him immediately came up.

The leader was a middle-aged man. Although he was wearing a military uniform, he looked quite gentle. He bowed to Li Weizheng and said, "My subordinate Weihaiwei commander Zheng Yuan, who was in charge of the Weihaiwei commander, met Lord Li."

The officials behind also saluted. Although Zheng Yuan was only half a level lower than Li Weizheng, he had the right to make decisions at sea in Li Weizheng's appointment letter, which was a power that even the commander Ye Sheng of Shandong did not have. It can even be considered that he was actually the emperor's special envoy to some extent, so Zheng Yuan was very respectful to Li Weizheng.

Li Weizheng hurriedly returned the greeting: "I first arrived in Weihaiwei, and I would like to ask my colleagues to take care of you in the future."

Everyone was relieved when they saw him being polite, not as arrogant and fierce as they imagined. As long as Li Weizheng was willing to compassionate his subordinates, it would be their blessing. In fact, more than 20 days ago, the officials of Weihai Guard received news that Li Weizheng was in charge of Weihai Guard. They immediately used various channels to inquire about Li Weizheng's background, but they felt a little disappointed. This new commander was actually Qianhu of the Third Jinyiwei Institute, nicknamed "Li Bopi". In the Guo Heng case, several hundred households of the Third Jinyiwei Institute came to Shandong to handle the case. Their bloody methods left a deep impression on Shandong officials. Now, the Qianhu of the Qianhu of the Third Jinyiwei, who was called "Li Bopi" by an official in Beijing, has actually come to Weihai Guard. Several unclean officials even had the idea of ​​resigning.

However, the other two news made them feel slightly relieved. One was that he was the prince's confidant, hoping that he could be influenced by the prince's kindness. The other news was that the emperor actually gave him the right to make decisions at sea, which means that he had a task to come to Weihai, and perhaps he would not have time to cause trouble for everyone.

The actual situation seems to confirm everyone's last guess. After Li Weizheng entered the city to take office, he immediately held a meeting of important officials. Those who attended the meeting were all important officials of Weihai Guard. Zheng Yuan, the commander-in-chief, four commanders and two custodians, and three thousand households and six deputy thousand households. In addition to Li Weizheng, a total of seventeen people attended the first meeting.

"Everyone should also know that in the Ministry of War's transfer order, I have the right to make decisions at sea. I will not hide it. This power is particularly granted by the Emperor."

Li Wei was standing at the window of the conference room and explained to everyone one by one that the conference room was located in the northeast of the city, close to the sea, and was made of huge stones. From the window, you could directly see the surging sea and the giant treasure ship. You could only hear the waves in your ears afraid of the roar of rocks. Everyone looked serious and their waists were straight.

"The reason why the emperor gave me this sea-first decision-making power is to send troops to fight against Japanese pirates. I can tell you one thing. The emperor has decided to transport military rations by sea. In May this year, the first batch of grain will go north and be transported to Peiping via Bohai and Tianjin Wei. Therefore, the emperor's intention is very clear, that is, we must attack the arrogance of Japanese pirates before May. The task is urgent. Now it is late January, and in fact there are only three months left. Time is very tight!"

Li Weizheng's words made everyone look at each other. A few of them came to Weihaiwei for less than two years. Not to mention fighting Japanese pirates, they have never seen Japanese pirates. Now the focus of Japanese pirates is to invade the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang. Although Japanese pirates attacked the Shandong Peninsula three times last year, the attack points were in Laizhou Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture on the south side of the peninsula. There have been no Japanese pirates in Weihaiwei for two years.

"Mr. Li means we take the initiative to attack and look for fighter planes?" Qianhu asked, standing up.

Li Weizheng nodded, "That's right. I can't wait for the opportunity in three months, so we can only take the initiative to look for it."

Zheng Yuan's expression seemed very embarrassed. Although Li Weizheng was speaking outsiders, he dared not refute. This was the emperor's intention. He had to fight, and he had to fight without fighting. They had no choice. He sighed secretly and said, "Mr. Li, my subordinates also know that things are urgent, but it is not easy to send troops to fight Japanese pirates immediately. First of all, we need to prepare supplies, military rations, and mobilize warships. These will take at least one month. Of course, there are military rations and materials warehouses, and there are warships in Penglai. I also serve as thousands of households in Penglai. It should be no problem to transfer ships. The key is where we go to fight Japanese pirates. We can't go to Japan to fight! So my subordinates think that intelligence is the top priority. We must explore information to be targeted. Otherwise, we will float around the sea and we will not be able to find Japanese pirates in half a year."

"Mr. Zheng said this so disgustingly, how could there be no way?" At this time, a thousand-household family stood up from the corner of the house. He was tall, handsome and only twenty-five or twenty-six years old. He first bowed to Li Weizheng and introduced himself: "In Sima Tong, the second thousand-household in Weihaiwei, please commander to let me speak."

Seeing that he was young and heroic, he was notorious, he nodded and said, "Sima Qianhu, please speak."

Sima Tong said to Zheng Yuan: "Mr. Zheng, the commander just now has made it very clear. The emperor wants to transport military rations north by sea, but he is afraid of being attacked by Japanese pirates. Then our mission is very simple. We can even pretend to be a grain ship and wait for the Japanese pirates to come to their door. Isn't this a good idea?"

"This..." Zheng Yuan was a little speechless. It was indeed a correct answer to escort the grain ship.

Unexpectedly, Li Weizheng waved his hand and smiled, "General Sima is right. If we can't find the Japanese pirates for a while, we must participate in the escort. However, this time my main goal is not escort for the time being. The transaction between the court and the Southern Dynasties of Japan has not been completed. The emperor was extremely angry at the first mistake and ordered me to escort the cargo ship to Japan immediately. This is the main goal of this operation."

Speaking of this, Li Wei was scanning everyone. Seeing that all the officers were full of energy, he nodded with yearning in his eyes. He nodded with satisfaction and continued: "I got the news that the second son of the Japanese Ouchi family took advantage of the opportunity of the domestic coup in Goryeo to occupy Danluo Island. They were the ones who hijacked the Ming cargo ship several months ago. The ten cargo ships that I was hijacked by the Ming Dynasty were still in their hands. Therefore, our mission is to attack Danluo Island first, annihilate the demons of the Dalai family, regain the stolen cargo ship, and escort the Busan ship to Japan. All this will be completed within two months. Finally, we will return to the Ming Dynasty to participate in the escort of the grain ships."

Zheng Yuan was stunned by Li Weizheng's plan. Danluo Island is the territory of the Goryeo people, so naturally the Goryeo people should solve the problem of being occupied by the Japanese. However, Li Weizheng used the excuse to regain the cargo ship and ran to intervene. Isn't this obvious intention to occupy Danluo Island? He was about to object, but suddenly remembered that Li Weizheng had the right to make decisions at sea, so he had to swallow the objection back to his stomach. When he saw the Qianhu present, the deputy Qianhu showed excitement on his face, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: Even if he had the right to make decisions at sea, the new commander would be a little too brave. See how he explained to the emperor.

He stopped persuading and asked coldly: "I wonder when Lord Li is going to attack the Japanese on Danluo Island?"
Chapter completed!