lcionline Chapter 709 The Turtle Ships of the Korean Navy
Chapter 709 The Turtle Ships of the Korean Navy
Li Fei stood at the bow of the Yongle-class warship "Shandong," gazing at the distant sea.
This was the twentieth time he had led the newly formed Marine Corps out of Bofu, accompanied by the "Shandong" and a task force consisting of eight Wuyi-class warships. Liu Ye's mission for him was to occupy Pi Island and use it as a base to launch several attacks on the Liaodong hinterland. The goal was not necessarily to cause great damage, but mainly to make the Qing army hesitant and delay or force them to advance south.
"All you have to do is tell Huang Taiji, I'm here, right behind you, ready to ravage your ass at any time, are you scared or not!" These were Liu Ye's exact words.
"This time, your Marine Corps is equipped with the latest rifled guns, which I've named the Patriot Type 9 rifle. Its range and penetration power far exceed those of the Patriot Type 3 rifle. You need to promptly summarize your experiences and impressions during combat and provide feedback so I can make improvements. Oh, and by the way, the ammunition for this gun isn't interchangeable; it's one gun, one ammunition per person. Remember to carry enough ammunition for each mission and try not to use your comrades' ammunition. Of course, you can try in an emergency, but if using someone else's ammunition results in a misfire or a barrel explosion, don't blame me for not warning you beforehand..." This was Liang Xiaoming's parting advice.
With a powerful fleet, the latest weaponry, and elite soldiers selected from the best of the best, Li Fei was confident in completing the mission of containing the Qing army, even though the Marine Corps currently only had a strength of one thousand men. However, "small boats are easier to maneuver," and fewer men also have their advantages. Tactics can be more flexible, and both offense and retreat can be much more relaxed. They are also smaller targets, making it easier to shake off the Qing army's pursuit.
Before reaching Pi Island, the fleet stopped at Dengzhou for supplies and found a guide from Liaodong. The guide was a middle-aged man named Liu Xing, a Han Chinese who had fled from Liaodong to Dongjiang Town, and was very familiar with the Pi Island area and Liaodong.
He pointed to the island that was faintly visible in the distance and told Mu Lifeng, "Sir, that's Pi Island."
Li Fei took out his monocular telescope. In his field of vision was a rocky island with sparse vegetation, and not a soul in sight on the shore. He asked in bewilderment, "The imperial gazette says that General Shen Shikui of Dongjiang was killed by the Tartars. Why is there no one on the island? Don't the Tartars send anyone to garrison this place?"
Liu Xing sighed, "I heard about this in Dengzhou too. Back then, when Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde rebelled, Huang Long, the general of Dongjiang, moved his garrison to Lushun to assist in suppressing the rebellion. Later, the enemy attacked and captured the island, and Huang Long committed suicide after his defeat. Shen Shikui then took over Pi Island. However, within two or three years, he also died at the hands of the enemy, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on the island were massacred. Dongjiang Town was finished. But why didn't the enemy garrison it? I guess they thought it was too harsh here and couldn't stand it..."
"Too harsh?" Li Fei asked. "How harsh is it? The place where the Tartars live is a harsh and cold land. This place should be better than Liaodong, right?"
"Sir, you may not know this, but this place isn't as cold as Liaodong. However, the island is full of granite and sand, making it impossible to grow crops. Forget about grain, we can't even get vegetables. We rely entirely on supplies from outside the island. Naturally, the Tartars won't stay in this godforsaken place..."
"I see. That saves a lot of trouble." As Li Fei spoke, he checked through his binoculars to make sure the island was undefended before ordering, "Fleet, advance directly. Marines, land directly."
A fleet of nine warships raised their sails and headed toward Pi Island.
Just when everyone thought the landing was just a routine matter, the lookout on the Shandong shouted: "Report: Unidentified vessels have appeared to the east and are approaching our fleet!"
Li Fei immediately ordered, "Immediately confirm the size and number of the ships." He then went to the starboard side of the ship and examined it through binoculars.
The view from the deck was not as good as from the lookout; Li Fei could only see faint black shadows on the sea surface, and without careful observation, he could not tell that they were sails.
After a while, the lookout reported again: "There are about four or five hundred small boats, quite a few, about thirteen or fourteen in number."
Upon hearing the lookout's report, the atmosphere on deck immediately relaxed. The black man, Silva, joked, "If these small boats wanted to fight us, we wouldn't even need to use our 12-pounder longguns and 32-pounder carons; we could just ram them." He was a sailor Li Fei had recruited when he was a maritime merchant, and had been by Li Fei's side for years. Now he was the first mate and acting captain of the "Shandong"—Li Fei, the original captain, had voluntarily resigned from his position to become the Marine Corps commander. Over the years, his Chinese had improved significantly; aside from a slightly strange pronunciation, he spoke quite fluently.
In this timeline of Asia, a ship weighing 400 liao (a unit of weight) is the mainstream configuration for medium to large warships, such as the Zheng family's main warship, the "Da Qingtou". However, in the Qiong Navy's fleet, it is only equivalent to the smallest Wu Xiang-class patrol ship. Whether it is the 500-ton (1000 liao) Wu Yi-class warship or the 1,000-ton (2,000 liao) Yong Le-class warship, they are all behemoths compared to a 400-liao ship. Only the Qiong Navy has the confidence and qualification to call the other party a small ship.
Li Fei frowned and said, "Silva, you are now the acting captain of this ship, not a sailor anymore. You need to be more composed and not let the people below look down on you."
Silva stuck out his tongue: "I understand."
Li Fei ordered: "Raise the flags to signal all ships to slow down and postpone landing on the island. Observe the movements of these dozen or so ships to see if they are hostile."
The two fleets met in the waters about ten miles from Pi Island.
"They're actually North Korean ships! What are they doing here?" Li Fei noticed the ship's strange shape and the "Li" flag flying on it. Given that this place is very close to North Korea, he was basically able to determine the origin of this fleet.
“My God, what is this thing? I’ve seen Ming Dynasty flat-bottomed hard-sided sailing ships, Dutch galleons, and Spanish galleons, but I’ve never seen such a strange ship. It looks like… a turtle lying on the water?” Silva stared at the bizarre ship, his mouth agape.
“You’re right, these are the turtle ships of the Korean navy. You’ve been to Japan and Southeast Asia, but you’ve never been to Korea, so it’s not surprising that you haven’t seen them. These kinds of ships appear in the waters near Korea because they can’t go on ocean voyages.”
Everyone pressed their faces against the gunwale, scrutinizing the ship: a menacing dragon head was carved at the bow, and an enormous hull covered the entire deck, obscuring the sailors from the outside. Only a row of oars protruding from below was visible, with a row of holes above the oar holes, similar to the gunboats of the Qiong navy. Most striking of all, however, was the dense array of sharp spikes covering the stern.