Chapter 1245 - Xiamen's Counterattack
The crowd gathered before Dunren Pavilion disintegrated into panic.
Wailing and howling filled the air; the solemn atmosphere of subordinates holding their breath and awaiting orders vanished in an instant. People desperate for survival stumbled and scattered, fleeing in every direction to escape this sudden death.
Ying Yu fired one shot after another at a fixed rhythm, landing a shell every ten seconds. The dense rounds rained into the courtyard. Deafening explosions cracked against flagstone ground and rooftops, sending plumes of flame and black smoke roaring toward the sky. Gravel, tiles, bricks, and shattered wood flew in all directions. Within moments, the courtyard was heaped with corpses.
He knew his gun could not be perfectly precise; blanketing the area centered on Dunren Pavilion was enough. As the impacts accumulated, smoke and dust grew denser, making accurate positioning by the observer increasingly difficult. Continuing meant many stray rounds—but that was trivial now. After twenty high-explosive shells, no one would remain willing to stay in the Zheng residence.
He steadied himself. Twenty seconds after the last HE round, he switched to shrapnel. No more calibration—this was fire for effect, covering the entire compound to inflict maximum casualties on fleeing personnel.
Black puffs of explosion smoke burst one after another in the sky, spraying iron balls downward. People pushing and shoving through courtyards and corridors, desperate to escape, had their lives harvested by wave after wave of iron hail. A single shell detonating at the courtyard gate mowed down twenty-five people like grass.
Those fleeing did not understand what they had encountered. Some primal instinct told them only that they could not stay. They ran in a frenzy toward every exit of the residence, mouths emitting meaningless screams and roars, shoving and trampling one another. Women, children, and the elderly were ruthlessly pushed down and crushed underfoot; many were trampled to death. Walkways and doorways became heaped with corpses and groaning wounded.
Zheng Zhilong was not in the residence.
For days now, he had been on Xiamen Island, establishing an arms workshop on Gulangyu. The connection Zheng Zhifeng had arranged—and the extravagant promises of the other party, along with the firearm samples provided—had greatly piqued his interest. For over a year, he had felt keenly the gap in "technical level" between himself and the Australians. Without "strong ships and powerful guns," the maritime trade hegemony he had striven so hard to build would be snatched away.
This mysterious Kirishitan had expressed willingness to establish a weapons workshop for them, manufacturing "new Red Barbarian Cannons" in no way inferior to Dutch or Portuguese pieces. He could even provide cannons identical to those used by the Australians—though naturally, the latter came at exorbitant cost. But to Zheng Zhilong, who felt increasingly desperate, this offer brought great hope.
Were it not for such urgency, he would never have agreed so readily to Zheng Zhifeng's proposal to cooperate with the Kirishitan called Paul. For the "rearmament" plan now being formulated, he was sending men to Macau to recruit "Black Barbarians" as mercenaries, dispatching others to Japan to hire ronin he knew well, and purchasing copper for casting cannons.
The first wave of cannon fire from Anping had woken him. But he knew nothing of what was happening at Kinmen—only that rumbling guns and fire filling the sky indicated someone was attacking Greater and Lesser Kinmen Islands.
He could not determine who the enemy was or the strength of their forces. It was dozens of li by sea to Kinmen; a small sailboat took nearly half a day for a one-way trip. Even if Kinmen dispatched a messenger immediately, they would not reach Gulangyu until noon.
He could only trust the general guarding Kinmen: his brother Zheng Zhihu, whose bond with him was most unusual. Zheng Zhihu had followed him wandering in Macau and braved death alongside him as a pirate in Japan; their bond ran deepest, and he trusted few men more. Moreover, Zhihu was brave and decisive, a formidable fighter who had established repeated war merits sweeping the seas. At that time, the saying went: "Long's wisdom, Hu's courage." So Zheng Zhilong had placed his brother to guard Kinmen—the key to both Xiamen Bay and Weitou Bay.
Now he stood atop Sunlight Rock on Gulangyu, gazing at the smoke and fire in Kinmen's direction. Whoever they were, the attackers must have come with many men and ships. A bitter fight was surely unfolding.
"Has Second Master Mang sent a message?" he asked the guard beside him again. He and Zheng Zhihu had agreed that if urgent news came and there was no time to dispatch a ship, a man would be sent by fast horse.
"Reporting to the General—not yet."
Zheng Zhilong watched the gradually whitening sky. The smoke and fire grew; the heavens above Kinmen Island were almost entirely shrouded in black. He felt a cold foreboding. The battle on Zhihu's side was clearly not going well. There was no time to wait.
"Beat the drums and raise the standard immediately!" He waved his sleeve. "Prepare the boat—we return to Zhongzuosuo City!"
The signal cannon sounded, followed by the dense rhythm of drums and the woo-woo of horns. Zheng family generals who had been hesitating hurriedly armored themselves and flocked to the central army tent inside Zhongzuosuo City.
Half an hour later, the first batch of fire ships set sail under the cover of other warships. The commander was Zheng Lian, stationed on Xiamen. The ships anchored in Xiamen Bay turned out in full force—all except for a few useless small boats. Half the fire ships were held in reserve, since fire ships were more effective in the narrow waters between Gulangyu and Xiamen Island than in the open bay. If Zheng Zhihu and the reinforcement fleet could not hold the enemy, the enemy would storm Xiamen with their momentum. As long as Zheng Zhilong retained fire ships, he still had a chance for a final fight.
Simultaneously, he sent two teams of personal guards—one by sea, one by land—riding at full gallop toward Anping. The city's defender was his clan cousin Zheng Zhiguan—a man of limited ability but honest and steady. With Anping protected by the Kinmen islands, its defender did not require great skill, only the maturity to maintain order in the city and the safety of the Zheng family.
Yet if the enemy truly pressed up to Anping's walls, Zheng Zhilong was not confident that Zheng Zhiguan had the ability to hold the city and protect the family—especially his wife, Lady Dong, and their son Fusong, brought from Japan, who were now within those walls. He felt Zheng Zhihu might not be defeated at Kinmen—and even if Kinmen fell, the enemy might not dare to penetrate deep into unfamiliar waters and lay siege to the heavily guarded fortress of Anping. Still, a gentleman does not stand beneath a dangerous wall. Temporarily transferring family members to Jinjiang County City was the prudent course.
Zheng Lian was on his flagship.
It was not a three-masted gunship but a large three-masted vessel recently purchased at great expense from the Portuguese—an old merchant ship mounting twenty-four bronze cannons, the largest firing twenty-four-pound balls. To operate this European ship, he had specially recruited foreign sailors from Macau and Manila. It was currently the most comprehensively powerful vessel in the Zheng fleet. That Zheng Zhilong had entrusted it to him as flagship showed how highly he was valued. Zheng Lian hoped to perform well at this critical juncture.
He and his brother Zheng Cai were not of the Shijing Zheng clan but of the Gaopu Zheng clan—not typically considered Zheng Zhilong's kinsmen or adopted sons. The brothers had joined Zheng early and quickly risen to become backbone subordinates. Zheng Cai became a guerilla general stationed on Xiamen Island in 1640, only one or two ranks below Zheng Zhilong himself. Zheng Cai had been stationed in Xiamen for years, managing foreign trade at the mouth of the Jiulong River. Before Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing, the brothers had formed a powerful faction within the Zheng group. After Zheng Zhilong was taken to Beijing, Zheng Cai controlled the family's main foreign trade, once almost able to contest Zheng Chenggong for leadership. Zheng Chenggong's later decision to move first against Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian in Xiamen to reorganize the group was not without reason.
The main force led by Zheng Lian comprised three three-masted gunships, two European-style sailing ships, and dozens of Fujian and Guangdong vessels. Over one hundred fire ships packed with dry wood sailed in a mass on the opposite flank. Every vessel was equipped with iron hooks and chains to ensure fire ships could latch tightly to their targets.
With the wind in their favor, Zheng Lian led the fleet under full sail toward Kinmen.
Though unclear on the battlefield situation, he understood a bitter fight awaited. The only forces daring to intrude into Weitou Bay were the Dutch, Old Liu Xiang, and the Australians. The Dutch and Old Liu Xiang had long colluded; when Liu Xiang had recently attacked Min'an, Dutch-style sailing ships had appeared in his fleet.
But Liu Xiang had suffered a defeat at Min'an with heavy losses. He could not possibly have recovered so quickly. If it were the Dutch, their factor's ship at Xiamen had shown no abnormalities. Nine times out of ten, this sudden attack on Kinmen was the work of the Australians.
The thought made Zheng Lian secretly uneasy. He had heard that Australian ships were sturdy and their guns sharp—formidable beyond measure. Even the leader himself dared not confront them head-on. If the Australians were indeed behind this, he would have to proceed with extreme caution.
While the Zheng reinforcement fleet sailed with the wind, the First Squadron's five steam warships were also bearing toward Xiamen at eight knots.
Because the First Squadron was fast, the transport ships and motorboats carrying landing troops could not keep pace. So the landing troops—four infantry companies and their attached light artillery—had been loaded aboard the five warships for short-distance transport. Shohatsu landing craft were stowed on deck.
By nineteenth-century standards, the First Squadron was entering battle in an extremely dangerous state: decks packed with soldiers, ammunition stowed below, small boats lashed above. A single enemy shell finding its mark would be enough to cause severe casualties and damage.
But their advantage in firepower and mobility allowed the Senator officers to disregard this risk—as long as efficiency was maximized.
(End of Chapter)