I want to be emperor

Chapter 339 Shi Kefa Sues the Nine Deadly Crimes
Under Shi Kefa's strict order, although the Ming army navy was unwilling, they had to launch a counterattack against the superior enemy, trying to break through the siege of the Chu army's Yangtze River fleet, and then attack the Chu army's cross-river transport fleet.

But because the strength gap between the two sides is too great, this counterattack was full of tragedy from the very beginning.

As soon as they rushed out, they were met with intensive firepower from the Chu army fleet!

The Chu army fleet is centered on six large warships, more than 20 centipede ships are the main force, and many small warships cooperate to form an almost insurmountable water wall. The navy of the Ming army suffered unspeakably, and suffered heavy casualties.

If it weren't for the relatively limited firepower of naval guns these days, and it would be more difficult to directly sink enemy ships in artillery battles, it is estimated that under such fierce firepower, the battleships of the Ming Army Navy would not last long before being sunk. .

But even so, many ships were still attacked and burned.

And the casualties were even more shocking. After the first counterattack failed, no matter how much Shi Kefa ordered them to attack, they would hesitate to go forward.

For this, Shi Kefa was extremely angry: "They are all a bunch of waste, they are paid by the court, but they are afraid of the enemy at the critical moment, what is the use of such waste!"

Immediately afterwards, Shi Kefa ordered to behead the two naval generals who refused to obey the order to continue attacking.

Trying to force the navy to continue to attack through strict military laws.

Even if he couldn't rush out, he would have to die on the battlefield with the Chu thief.

Ever since, the remnants of the navy of the Ming army had to continue to attack, but changes occurred after they attacked.

Several of the ships of the Ming army directly hoisted the white flag, and directly played the flag of surrender...

Immediately afterwards, more ships of the Ming army followed suit and surrendered directly...

If they continued to fight, they would be killed by the Chu army fleet, and they would be beheaded by Shi Kefa when they returned. When there was no way out before and after, they simply surrendered.

Lu Xingye, Minister of the Navy, who personally commanded the fleet, was surprised by this scene.

This is the first time that the navy of the Ming army has surrendered on such a large scale.

Even in the previous Battle of Wuchang, although the navy of the Ming army could not fight, they persisted until the Chu army landed and bombarded the fleet in the port from the ground before they were forced to surrender.

When they went to fight in the Dongting Lake area, although those Ming navy sailors also surrendered, they all surrendered on a small scale, but not a whole large fleet surrendered directly.

The navy of the Ming army in the mouth of the lake has created a precedent.

Shi Kefa on the top of Hukou City saw the same scene, and felt helpless in his anger.

With this army spirit and morale, how can we fight?
Can't beat!
-

After most of the ships of the Ming Army Navy ran out and surrendered by themselves, there was no suspense in the next battle across the river.

The strengthened First Infantry Brigade, escorted by naval warships, successfully landed in a wide area on the east side of Shizhong Mountain.

As batches of soldiers went ashore one after another, and then transport ships rushed directly to the beach, and after hoisting the field artillery they carried one after another, the [-]st Infantry Brigade had already established a firm foothold on the landing beach.

Although Shi Kefa wanted to take advantage of the fact that the bandit army was not firmly established, he would directly lead his troops to kill him, but he knew his own family affairs, and with the 2 troops in the city, relying on the city defense fortifications to resist, it is estimated that he can still defend for a while. time.

But if he took the initiative to run out of the city and play field battles with the Chu thieves who landed on the shore, he might die a miserable death.

In addition, he forced the navy to attack before, which eventually caused the navy to surrender to the enemy on a large scale.

Therefore, Shi Kefa didn't want to go out of the city to intercept the beachhead. Instead, he took advantage of the fact that the troops of the Chu bandits had just landed and hadn't come to Hukou City so quickly, so they mobilized people to take the Hongyi artillery in several forts outside the city to emergency. Transported back to the city.

The Hongyi cannons in the shore defense fort were originally intended to protect the navy on the shore and prevent Chu thieves from landing here on a large scale.

But now that the Chu thieves have gone to the side to land, and at the same time their own navy has surrendered to the enemy, these coastal defense forts have basically lost their main function. It is better to transport them back to the city and place them on the top of the city as a city defense force. Woolen cloth.

Ever since, a strange scene appeared in the battle of Hukou.

On the one hand, the Chu army swaggered to land, and even built temporary trestle piers, and the engineers and soldiers also began to build floating bridges. The Ming army turned a blind eye to this and hardly counterattacked at all.

However, the Ming army began to shrink back to the city in an all-round way, and even pulled back the Hongyi cannons in the coastal defense forts outside the city in an emergency. However, the Chu army who landed ashore was not strong, and it was too late in time. There is no way to stop it.

Ever since, the two sides are doing their own things now, and the scene is very harmonious.

In this way, the first day of crossing the river and landing operations was considered to have come to an end.

In the battle on the first day, some of the navy divisions of the Ming army were killed and injured, and most of them surrendered. The first infantry brigade of the Chu army also landed smoothly.

But the real siege battle has yet to come.

On the second and third days, the Chu army still did not launch a siege operation, but continued to stabilize the beachhead, built a pontoon bridge, and continued to transport reinforcements and materials to the east bank by boat.

On the fourth day, as the pontoon bridge was built, a large number of Chu troops and artillery successfully crossed the river through the pontoon bridge.

It was also from this day that the Chu army officially arrived outside Hukou City, built fortifications at the head of the city, and shelled and killed some Ming army fortifications outside the city, mainly some fortresses.

On the fifth and sixth days, the battle between the two sides was still dominated by this small-scale battle.

But on the seventh day, that is, September No. 14, when the Chu army completed all siege preparations and launched a large-scale general offensive towards Hukou.

The Battle of Hukou reached its climax on this day, and it also came to an end.

During the strong attack that day, the Chu army completely wiped out many fortifications of the Ming army outside the city.

The next day, September [-]th, the Chu army launched a fierce attack on the city wall!

No accident, although Shi Kefa personally went to the top of the city to supervise the battle, but it was still useless.

The Ming army defending the city was almost defeated at the first touch, and it didn't even break out with the Chu army on a large scale. The brutal hand-to-hand battle at the top of the city was followed by a crushing defeat!
On the same day, the Chu army invaded the city, formally declaring that it had seized the strategically important Hukou area, completely captured the Jiujiang defense line that the Ming army had painstakingly managed for more than half a year, and completely opened the passage to the south of the Yangtze River.

Shi Kefa, on the other hand, still commanded his own soldiers to resist at the last moment, and was captured after being outnumbered.

It's just that this person is different from Xie Xuelong. Although Xie Xuelong refused to surrender after being captured, he was more disciplined and did not do anything too outrageous.

However, even though Shi Kefa was captured, he still had a mouthful of Chu thieves and a mouthful of Luo Ni. He had a very tough attitude towards the tentative solicitation of the Chu army, saying that he would rather die than follow a thief...

However, even so, it failed to stop several pens of the Ministry of Rites of the Great Chu Empire. On the same day, they concocted an article signed by Shi Kefa, affixed with a private seal, and the "Blood Letter of the Nine Major Crimes of the Ming Dynasty" sealed by Governor Anlu.

He scolded the Ming court up to Chongzhen and down to ordinary soldiers, and he also said that the biggest responsibility for the disastrous defeat of the Jiujiang defense line was Chongzhen, followed by Wang Jiazhen who was in the south of the Yangtze River...

Since such a routine was used on Xie Xuelong before, the Great Chu Empire now likes this routine of forging documents captured by the ministers of the Ming court for publicity.

After doing such a thing in the name of Xie Xuekong before, it greatly stimulated the reaction of the Ming court, shook the morale of the Ming army, and at the same time increased the morale of its own soldiers. The dynasty has changed, and many traditional scholars in the folk have a voice.

Luo Chu is also an orthodox dynasty...

No, many traditional scholars have already participated in the rural examination of the Great Chu Empire this autumn.

Therefore, the top leaders of the Great Chu Empire continued to do this kind of thing secretly.

After all, this is just propaganda, true or false is not important, what is important is to be able to guide public opinion, public opinion that is beneficial to one's own side.

Then, Shi Kefa is still being imprisoned here, but the Great Chu Empire has already released Shi Kefa's "Blood Book of Nine Major Crimes", and even announced to the public that Shi Kefa has defected to the Great Chu Empire, and His Majesty Luo Zhixue cherishes talents , Shi Kefa has been appointed as the right servant of the Ministry of War Yunyun.

This appointment is actually true. It is directly stored in the official file and carried out by the Ministry of Industry, but it does not go through Shi Kefa himself, and Shi Kefa is not required to take office.

Basically, it is similar to the appointment of Xie Xuelong before, it is to give an empty name to fool ordinary people in the outside world, and when the influence is gone, then it can be downplayed.

How to deal with it when the time comes.

The handling of Shi Kefa is actually a trivial matter. The high-level officials of the Great Chu Empire are based on the idea that they can fool each other. Anyway, they write a few articles, and they don't need a lot of money to appoint a clerk for an empty name.

However, the handling of the [-] soldiers of the Ming army captured in Hukou City seemed more cautious.

The main reason is that this group of Ming soldiers in the city were captured, and thousands of them are still new standard troops.

The Chu army has always been more cautious in dealing with these new standard troops. Considering that the soldiers of these new standard troops are treated better, their training level is relatively high, and their overall quality is better than that of battalion sentinels. Training in new tactics, knowing how to use muskets or spears, etc.

Even though these soldiers are still not very good in the eyes of the generals of the Chu army, they are still much better than the battalion sentinels. After a lot of training, they will be qualified soldiers of the main force.

Therefore, according to the old rules, some people are selected to supplement the main force, and the rest and the selected battalion sentries are incorporated into the garrison.

But when the Chu army reorganized and dealt with these prisoners of war, the main force of the Chu army that ended the Hukou Battle did not stop, but continued to kill eastward.

At the same time, Jiangbei's Second Army also launched an attack on Taihu Lake, and after successfully taking Taihu Lake, they went straight to Anqing.

And Anqing is also the most important strategic goal in the second stage of the Great Chu Empire's Eastward Campaign.

Capturing this place means that the Yangtze River waterway can be opened, and various ships of the Great Chu Empire can reach Jinling City unimpeded all the way.

Even if the enemy hadn't built a strict river defense system in Jinling City, even the Chu army fleet could directly enter the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, that is, the Yangtze River, and finally head to the sea.

(End of this chapter)