Chapter 164: Before Humen

Under the guidance of the Haitian, the fleet quickly passed Furongsha and continued upstream. For most of the Elders in the fleet, it was their first time entering the Pearl River Estuary and sailing on the Pearl River. Chen Haiyang had sailed on the Pearl River many times in the past—during his service in the South Sea Fleet, he had commanded warships into Huangpu Port on numerous occasions. But the Pearl River of this timeline was very different from the one in the old world. The river was much wider, the water and sky merging into one, as vast as the sea. There were harbors, river branches, and small sandbars and islands everywhere. The plains where numerous rivers converged on both banks gave the illusion of an inland sea dotted with islands. The rivers, which cut the land into small pieces, often made it difficult to distinguish them from the water surrounding the islands. There were small plots of cultivated land everywhere. The late rice was already flowering, and the fragrance of the rice blossoms filled the air. Villages and market towns were scattered along the riverbanks. There were almost no roads, and travel was done by boat. The large and small rivers formed a complex network, connecting the towns and villages. From time to time, the masts and sails of a few boats could be seen faintly in the depths of the rice fields.

This beautiful subtropical rural scenery had almost disappeared from the Pearl River Delta in the old world. The Elders in the fleet greedily took in the sight. Wasn’t this the living embodiment of “a great river with wide waves, the fragrance of rice flowers blowing on both banks”? The land of China had been so beautiful and fertile since ancient times. This beautiful scenery further aroused their strong desire—they must seize it!

There were some inland transport ships and fishing boats sailing on the river. Seeing such an aggressive and well-equipped fleet, they all fled to the harbors and river branches on both sides. Chen Haiyang ordered a few to be captured to inquire about the situation on the river.

According to the captured boatmen and sailors, there were no government patrol ships on the Pearl River. If there were any official armed vessels, it was only a few small boats at the Zini customs house on the river.

Most of the government warships were scattered in the large and small harbors between Xiangshan and Huangpu. There were a dozen or so government warships at Humen. Besides the naval vessels, there were many large ships anchored at Dahuangpu, numbering over 2,000 in total. Since the war with the “Kun thieves” began, many long-distance merchant ships dared not set sail, especially those bound for Vietnam and Siam, because they had to pass through the Qiongzhou Strait—which was now a “war zone.” Except for a few bold and well-informed shipowners, no one dared to risk the journey.

As for the defense of Guangzhou, it was said that the government forces had strengthened their alert, and many sandbag forts had been built on the riverbanks. The Anniangxie Fort at Humen had also been reinforced with more cannons and troops.

Chen Haiyang had a general grasp of the river defense situation and believed that Guangzhou had not made very complex preparations—of course, even the most complex preparations at the 17th-century level were of little value. The navy he commanded was at least at the level of the early 19th century. If not for the outdated design and small tonnage of the special service boats, he wouldn’t even have needed to mobilize so many ships to enter the Pearl River.

Chen Haiyang ordered, “Release all the captured boatmen and give each of them a souvenir.”

The captured boatmen and merchants had thought that even if they weren’t taken as hostages for ransom, they would lose both their ships and cargo. They didn’t expect the Kun thieves to be so polite. After the questioning, they were allowed to leave with their ships. Each person on board was even given an Aussie facecloth—a towel—as a gift. Towels were the most popular and common of Lingao’s industrial products.

The people on the boat stared blankly at the towels in their hands—they were even embroidered with red thread with the words “In commemoration of the Aussie Song Navy’s first entry into the Pearl River.” Looking at the fleet sailing away, they felt as if they had been in a strange dream.

The fleet headed straight for Humen. Chen Haiyang decided to take this strategic chokepoint of the Pearl River and the gateway to Guangzhou in the first battle. Humen, which belonged to Dongguan County during the Ming and Qing dynasties and in modern times, is a stretch of the Pearl River and its banks about 8 kilometers long, bordering Lingdingyang to the south and connecting with Shiziyang to the north. This place is a strategic chokepoint of the Pearl River and the gateway to Guangzhou. Historically, the security of Humen had an important psychological significance for the safety of Guangzhou. Once a foreign enemy captured Humen, it could shake the entire city. Therefore, the defenses here had been very strong throughout the dynasties. Although the Humen chokepoint had never been able to withstand a single frontal attack from a foreign enemy—not only had the British and Japanese, with their superior ships and cannons and tactical advantages, broken through this chokepoint, but even Chinese pirates during the Jiaqing era had easily broken through the Humen forts. He knew that in 1637, the Englishman Weddell had destroyed and occupied the Anniangxie Fort at Humen with just a few ships. With his forces, it wouldn’t take much effort to occupy this place.

As the Pearl River Task Force advanced, the defenses of the Humen area had been greatly strengthened. Although the Guangdong Commander-in-Chief, He Rubin, was besieged in Qiongshan, and Wang Zunde was unable to attend to his duties due to illness, the defenses of the entire Humen area had been greatly strengthened through the efforts of Li Fengjie, the local officials of Guangdong, and the Ming military commanders.

The defense of Humen was led by Xu Tingfa, the Superintendent of Guangzhou Coastal Defense, Chen Qian, the Humen Garrison Commander, and Fan Wencai, the Magistrate of Dongguan County. Humen was within Dongguan County, and Fan Wencai had an undeniable responsibility. He simply moved his office to Taiping Town in front of the Humen Garrison and conscripted thousands of laborers to build fortifications at Humen.

Xu Tingfa was a veteran of coastal defense. He knew that the defenses of Humen were very weak. The original fort on Anniangxie Island was a simple earth and stone structure, gradually built since the Wanli era, and many parts were collapsed and damaged. The cannons on the fort were mostly old large breech-loading swivel guns and culverins. Not only were they not powerful enough, but they were also left exposed to the elements and were heavily rusted. Besides the Anniangxie Fort, there was only one earth and stone fort on the opposite Shanghengdang Island, with 4 large breech-loading swivel guns. The crossfire formed with the Anniangxie Fort was very weak. And these two forts could only barely control the eastern channel of Humen. The western channel had no defensive measures at all. Only after passing Shanghengdang Island, on the south side of Dahushan Island, was there a simple Dahushan Fort that could barely block ships passing through the western channel.

These three forts had a total of only 36 cannons, all breech-loading swivel guns and even older culverins cast during the Wanli era or even earlier. The total garrison of the three forts was no more than 120 men, who were just simple guards for the cannons and forts.

Besides these three forts, the only force the Ming army could use to defend Humen was the Humen Garrison led by Chen Qian. The Humen Garrison usually had a garrison of 640 men, 10 warships, and 120 ship-mounted cannons.

This force was barely enough to intercept merchants and intimidate the common people. So in a real war, the Ming army had to send reinforcements here. The total force in wartime would be expanded to 2,000 men. Xu Tingfa knew that the Kun thieves were known for their strong ships and powerful cannons, far beyond what ordinary pirates could compare to. So, on the one hand, he consulted with Fan Wencai to clean the old cannons and repair the forts, and on the other hand, he transported newly cast Hongyi cannons from Foshan and other places to expand the gun positions.

The gun positions on the Anniangxie Fort were increased by 60, reaching an unprecedented 72. On Shanghengdang Island, not only was the original fort repaired, but a new fort facing the western channel was also planned, with 12 large cannons. The Dahushan Fort was also expanded with more cannons. The Humen Garrison itself was reinforced with an earthen wall, and another 18 cannons were planned to be installed.

Besides reinforcing and adding to the forts, Xu Tingfa, Fan Wencai, and others also began to build Western-style forts according to the design of Sun Yuanhua’s “Western-style Forts.” And at Dajiao and Shajiao, they temporarily built sandbag and earth forts, each with 2 Hongyi cannons and 10 large breech-loading swivel guns.

According to the plan of Xu Tingfa and others, forts would eventually be built along the coast of Luwan, west of Shanghengdang Island, to form a crossfire with the western fort on Shanghengdang Island, thus tightly sealing the western channel.

So many forts required a large amount of money and manpower, and it would take more than a year to complete them. But the Kun thieves’ invasion could happen at any time. Xu Tingfa and the others discussed and decided to first build temporary forts with sandbags and mount the cannons, which could at least have some deterrent effect.

Neither Xu Tingfa nor Lin Qian believed that these defensive measures could stop the Kun thieves’ large iron ship or ironclad fast ships. However, the Kun thieves didn’t seem to have many of these two types of ships, and mostly used sailing ships. The Ming navy was somewhat confident in fighting against sailing ships—the Guangdong navy had frequent battles with various pirates over the years and was quite experienced.

As soon as Chen Haiyang’s task force passed Dajiao, the forts at Dajiao and Shajiao discovered this well-formed fleet. With the red flags on the masts and the black smoke-belching motorboats, it was obvious who the newcomers were.

At 11:23 on September 20th, the Hongyi cannon at the Dajiao Fort fired for the first time. Subsequently, the other cannons at the Dajiao and Shajiao forts also began to fire one after another.

Chen Haiyang ordered the formation to tighten. The Haitian had already reported on the intelligence of these two forts: the best cannons on the Dajiao and Shajiao forts were just 12-pounder cannons modeled after British naval guns, with a maximum range of no more than 1,000 meters, which couldn’t reach the fleet at all. This was just for show.

He could have completely ignored the cannon fire and passed through. But Chen Haiyang’s mission this time was to teach the local officials of Guangdong a lesson and let them fully understand the strength of the transmigrator group. Such provocative behavior naturally had to be severely retaliated against.

He raised his telescope and observed the two forts: they were very simple temporary forts built with sandbags, and the number of cannons was not large. He gave the order to destroy the Dajiao and Shajiao forts.

“Attack the Dajiao Fort first! All cannon squadrons, fire at will. Alternate firing in odd and even sequences! Carronade squadrons, await my command to engage!”

The special service boats assigned to the task force this time had squadrons armed with either cannons or carronades. Although carronades were cheap and effective at close range in naval battles, their effective range was too short, and they had to get as close as 130 meters to be most effective.