I want to be emperor

Chapter 404

In the late July of the tenth year of Chongzhen, the Sixth Division of the Great Chu Empire Army, with the cooperation of the No.18 Garrison Division, conquered strategic locations such as Fenshuiguan, Fu'an, Ningde, and Dajinsuo in Funing Prefecture. And down.

There were more than 1 men from Zheng Zhilong's department who deployed defenses at important places such as Fenshui Pass, and more than [-] soldiers from the Fujian local guards. A total of [-] people died or surrendered, and only [-] people fled to Fuzhou Prefecture.

In the same month, the provisional No.12 Mixed Brigade, with the cooperation of the No.12 garrison division, conquered multiple checkpoints such as Jiaoling Pass, Cenyang Pass, Gukou Pass, and Fenshui Pass in Jianning Prefecture, Fujian Province, and then entered Jianning The hinterland of the government and conquered Chong'an, Jianyang, Jian'an and other cities, and then went all the way south along the upper tributary of the Minjiang River, and forcibly conquered the strategically important Nanping of Yanping Prefecture.

Then a garrison was sent to cooperate with the No.14 garrison division in Jiangxi to attack Shaowu Mansion from both sides. Thousands of local Ming troops surrendered without a fight.

After conquering Nanping, the No.12 mixed brigade of the Chu Army and some of the main force of the garrison went down the river and went straight to Fuzhou, Fuzhou, which is also the capital of Fujian Province, Min County.

When the No.12 mixed brigade went south to Fuzhou, the Ming army was deployed on the northern line of defense, that is, Zheng Zhilong's troops in Jianning, Shaowu, and Yanping, and Fujian's local guards had a total of more than [-] soldiers. People fled outside the Fuzhou government, and about a thousand people died in battle. Most of them surrendered or surrendered, and some fled.

After fighting in the above two directions, the two lines of defense in Fujian that Zheng Zhilong painstakingly managed have been completely conquered by the Chu army, and a total of at least 2 troops have been lost.

In addition to the loss of personnel, the loss of weapons and equipment such as guns, armor, swords and spears is also extremely heavy.

After entering August, the Chu army further intensified its ground offensive against Fujian.

On the sixth day of August, with the joint efforts of the Sixth Division and the No.12 Mixed Brigade, Fuzhou City was forcibly captured and more than 6000 defenders in the city were wiped out.

It is actually not appropriate to say that it was annihilated, because the local defenders did not resist, but simply surrendered after the hopeless breakout. After all, among the more than 6000 defenders, more than 5000 were from Funing Prefecture and Yanping The remnant soldiers and defeated generals fled back from the government and other places.

Their morale was extremely low, and they had also seen the fierce offensive of the Chu army before. Knowing that they could not fight and could not escape, many people simply surrendered.

Anyway, rumors about how the Chu army treated prisoners of war well have spread, and they don’t have to worry about their lives after surrendering. If they are strong enough, they will be selected to join the garrison.

The Great Chu Empire now has more than [-] garrison divisions, and the soldiers of these garrison divisions are all selected from the Ming army who surrendered and surrendered.

There is no exception here in Fujian. The Military and Political Department of the Great Chu Empire sent personnel to conduct a preliminary selection of the surrendered soldiers accepted by Funing Prefecture, Fuzhou Prefecture, Jianning Prefecture, Yanping Prefecture, and Shaowu Prefecture. More than 7000 people initially formed the No.20 Third Garrison Division.

-

After taking Fuzhou City, the Chu army rested for two days, and then continued south to Xinghua Mansion, and Xinghua Mansion failed to stop the Chu army for a few days.

On August 23, the vanguard of the Sixth Division of the Chu Army had already reached Jinjiang, the capital city of Quanzhou.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong, who had lost troops continuously and lost generals, could no longer mobilize much ground troops to establish a new line of defense.

After all, in a series of battles with the Chu army, Zheng Zhilong's troops lost tens of thousands of troops.

When fighting in Zhejiang before, Zheng Zhilong's troops had already lost at least 5000 troops. When fighting in the Pearl River Estuary, Zheng Zhilong's troops lost another 1000 people. Chu army, but they also lost a lot, at least more than 2000 people.

But the real loss was in Fujian. Zheng Zhilong's troops lost at least 3 people in the two lines of defense in the early stage, and then in the battle of Fuzhou City and a series of battles in Xinghua Mansion.

The above-mentioned losses occurred in just over half a year.

In half a year, Zheng Zhilong's unit lost at least 5 people.

Even if most of them were urgently recruited by Zheng Zhilong and organized into an army in the past six months, even so, these troops can be regarded as sentry soldiers on the side of the Ming army. The soldiers of the Inland Guards were one-on-one.

In the original time and space, Zheng Chenggong, the son of Zheng Zhilong, was able to continue to fight against the Dong captives in the coastal areas for many years, not only relying on their fleet, but also relying on their ground forces. The quality and quantity are not too bad. Call back and forth.

However, these soldiers under Zheng Zhilong's command can still fight the garrison army in the Chu army just about half a catty, but once they meet the main force of the Chu army, they are not enough.

The gap in weapons, equipment and tactics is relatively large.

To a certain extent, Zheng Zhilong's troops, who made their fortunes at sea, were not as good as the new standard troops in the Ming court in terms of tactics and even the use of new weapons, that is, field guns and new matchlock guns.

Because, Zheng Zhilong's department has never engaged in any new standard forces from the beginning to the end...

On the contrary, the governors of the Ming court, because they were beaten too hard by the Chu army again and again, urgently wanted to change.

Another very important point is that the new standard army, you seem to be tall and powerful, but it is actually cheaper than the traditional army... Just get some artillery, some muskets, and some spears. It can be pulled out to fight, which is simple and convenient and saves money.

And when it comes to fighting, it's not too bad to be honest!
The typical ones are Huguang New Standard Army, Guangdong Guangxi New Standard Army, and Jiangbei New Standard Army.

As for Zheng Zhilong, he is not short of money. Guns can be arranged, but expensive armor and other things can also be arranged. Moreover, Zheng Zhilong still has a group of traditional soldiers with rich combat experience under his command.

So Zheng Zhilong felt that there was no need to create a new standard army, and just equip his own army with more guns.

This is actually taking the same path as Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou is also based on old-style soldiers, supplemented by a large number of new-style thief-killing cannons and thief-killing guns.

This mode of army building strategy actually has its merits, and it has also achieved certain results in actual combat. I fought against Dongyao when I was in Beizhili before, and the effect was not bad.

Another is the army under Sun Chuanting. The new Qin army under his command is more special. The main reason is that many of them are cavalry. They mainly fight with cavalry, supplemented by artillery and infantry, and their mobility is quite high. , Strong field combat ability, but poor offensive ability, and poor field firepower.

Strictly speaking, the more than 5 people under Zheng Zhilong's hands are not bad.

But in the end, he still couldn't hold on, and was gradually killed by the Chu army.

This can't be blamed for their poor combat effectiveness, but that there are too many Chu troops attacking Fujian, and they are strong.

In the main force alone, there are mixed divisions and regiments, and there is also a half regiment of independent mortar troops.

There are more than 2 garrison troops to assist in operations.

The above are still combat troops, and in the rear, there are tens of thousands of transport battalions directly belonging to the logistics department, transporting various materials day and night.

The military of the Great Chu Empire is different from the Ming court and Zheng Zhilong, and they will not include all kinds of civilians, young and strong, in the army.

When calculating the strength of troops, I don't like to use any titles... But in the ancient feudal army, in order to confuse the enemy and boost morale, it was often called [-] for thousands of people, [-] for [-], and [-] for [-]...

And when calculating the strength of the troops, in addition to the soldiers, the young and strong temporarily recruited, and even the civilians who transported the supply team in the rear are also included. The ancient army, which is known as a [-] army, can actually participate in front-line battles. pretty good...

So don't look at the loss of more than 5 people under Zheng Zhilong's troops, but compared with the Chu army, they are still at a disadvantage in terms of strength!

The weapons and equipment are not as good, the tactics are not as good, and even the number of troops is not as good. It is not surprising that Zheng Zhilong's troops are retreating steadily, losing troops and losing generals.

When the Chu army reached Jinjiang, Zheng Zhilong couldn't mobilize much ground troops, so he could only reluctantly mobilize thousands of sailors to go ashore to fight as ground troops to organize the defense line.

But these sailors are good players in water battles. However, after they landed, they couldn't even line up. Facing the volley of guns from the Chu army, their performance was not as good as that of the peasants and soldiers who had been trained for several months...

In the end, Zheng Zhilong could only watch helplessly as Jinjiang was conquered...

Then came Anping County, his hometown, and then other surrounding cities. It only took half a month for the Chu army to completely sweep across a large area in Quanzhou Prefecture, and incidentally captured Longxi, Haicheng, Zhangpu, etc. in Zhangzhou Prefecture. land.

Immediately, the No.12 mixed brigade simply went south to Chaozhou Prefecture, and captured Haiyang and other coastal cities occupied by Zheng Zhilong's troops in September.

After entering mid-September, Zheng Zhilong's painstaking management in the coastal areas of Fujian, Zhejiang and western Guangdong, many large and small strongholds, and tens of thousands of troops have all come to naught!

At present, only some offshore islands are left, such as Chongming Island, Zhoushan Islands, Kinmen, Nan'ao, Xiangjiang and other offshore islands are still under their control.

However, there are not many ground forces on these islands. The reason why they can still control these islands is purely relying on their powerful fleet strength.

Zheng Zhilong's department and other core executives have now fled to the sea and are stationed on various important islands.

Now there are only two ways left for Zheng Zhilong, either give up the mainland and retreat to Dayuan Island and other islands, and continue to be a pirate like many years ago.

Either accept the appeasement of the Great Chu Empire, hand over the fleet honestly, and then enjoy the glory and wealth.

As for other ways, they are basically unreliable, such as relying on Ming Ting... Ming Ting is in danger now, and he cannot save Zheng Zhilong at all.

Going to Dongyao is also an option... But Dongyao is only nesting in Liaodong now, and it can't help him. Dongyao who has not entered the customs is not worthy of Zheng Zhilong's surrender.

Just when Zheng Zhilong was struggling and hesitating, the Great Chu Empire sent envoys to change the terms of appeasement.

Except for dozens of large warships that must be handed over and merged into the navy, the rest of the armed merchant ships and ordinary merchant ships are no longer forced to merge into the navy, but are restructured into several maritime trading companies controlled by the Ministry of Industry. Zheng Zhilong and other members of the group Big bosses, you can get some shares of these maritime trading companies and share dividends.

In the future, these maritime trading companies will continue to engage in maritime trade under the management of the Ministry of Industry.

The envoy handed out an envelope to Zheng Zhilong and other core executives in a serious tone at the end: "Your Majesty's secret decree, burn it after reading it."

Zheng Zhilong took it over and took a look, and there was only a simple sentence on it: this is the final condition, if you agree, you will agree, if you don't agree, you will be pulled down; the big deal is that I will kill hundreds of warships after a few years and kill Dayuan Island. dog does not stay!

After Zheng Zhilong finished reading, his face was very ugly!

At the beginning, he didn't understand why such a dignified emperor would be so disrespectful and say nothing, but when he thought that Luo Zhixue came from a bandit and was also engaged in large-scale family raids and extermination in the interior, he figured it out. That's it... That bastard is not a traditional emperor, but a pirate leader who is more ruthless than him, the pirate leader.

It is really possible to do such a thing as chicken and dog.

At this time, the messenger on the opposite side smiled and reminded: "Burn after reading."

Zheng Zhilong then burned the secret decree with fire, and then raised his head and heard the envoy from the secretariat say: "No matter what is said in the secret decree, there is one sentence I want to remind you: the emperor has no jokes!"

----

In the third year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, and on the third day of October in the tenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong led the people to formally surrender to the Great Chu Empire on the Penghu Islands.

The rest of Zheng's group received their own rewards.

As a result, the Zheng's pirate gang, which has been criss-crossing the East Asian waters for many years, has officially become a thing of the past.

For a moment, China was shocked, and the East Asian seas were shocked!

(End of this chapter)