Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 291 Defending the Yellow River
Back to Jiannu.

Along the south bank of the Yellow River all the way to the west, until Heyin finally stopped, because He Luohui finally found a shoal where he could get rid of the navy of the Ming army.

Because the Yellow River channel on the north side of Heyin has become extremely wide, as wide as twenty miles.

As a result of the widening, the river channel has become shallower. In addition, the rainy season has not yet entered, which is often referred to as the dry season, so the water depth of this section of the Yellow River is even less than three feet.

It's fine if the water is shallow, and it's divided into multiple strands.

Now the navy of the Ming army can only stare blankly.

He Luohui came back immediately and reported to Dorgon: "Master, we have found a river crossing point, which is the river bend north of Guangwu Mountain. Because of the shallow water, Minggou's naval warships cannot enter the river bend."

"Okay." Dorgon said, "Then quickly lead someone to build the pontoon bridge."

"Hey!" He Luohui knelt down and hit him a thousand times, then got on his horse and left.

As soon as He Luohui left, the real stone map with a white flag and a la forehead came over to report: "Master, Li Zicheng sent a messenger, saying that he wants to exchange prisoners of war with us."

"Li Zicheng wants to change prisoners?" Dorgon asked with some astonishment, "Who does he want to change?"

Shi Tu said: "He wants to exchange King Huaishun and King Gongshun back for Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing and his son."

Dorgon's face showed a look of embarrassment, Liu Zongmin could be replaced, but Niu Jinxing and his son could not.

The reason is also very simple. Niu Jinxing and his son have already surrendered to the Qing court, so they can't be sent back to Pseudo-Shun, right?

Hong Chengchou persuaded him: "Master, Niu Jinxing and his son are mediocre. I am very clear. There are not many fathers and sons, and there are not many fathers and sons. However, King Gongshun and King Zhishun are rare generals. They are all born in Dongjiang Town, especially good at water warfare and firearms, and they will be of great use when we conquer Nanming in the future."

Fan Wencheng and Ning Wan and I also echoed: "Master please be clear."

"Forget it." Dorgon nodded immediately, "Then let's agree on a place to exchange prisoners."

Shi Tu said: "They have already decided on the place for the prisoner exchange, which is just under Sishui Pass."

"No, they said it's under the Sishui Pass?" Dorgon shook his head.

"Another place is between Sishuiguan and Heyin County. The time is set at noon tomorrow."

Speaking of this meal, Dorgon said again: "Shi Tu, you will be responsible for the prisoner exchange at noon tomorrow. If there is a chance, you will destroy the puppet Shun army, and then bring Liu Zongmin and Niu Jinxing and his son back. If you don't The opportunity is fine, and you have to be careful, don't let the puppet Shun army plot against you."

"Hey!" Shi Tu yelled, got up and left.

Watching Shitu leave, Dorgon turned his attention to Kaifeng again.

Hong Chengchou then turned his head to look in the direction of Kaifeng Mansion, and said quietly: "Calculating the time, Xianglan Banner should have already dug the embankment on the south bank of the Yellow River, and Kaifeng Mansion is about to be flooded."

Fan Wencheng said: "It's a pity that the water volume of the Yellow River is a little less this year."

"It's really a pity." Ning Wanwan also felt a little regretful, "At most, Kaifeng Mansion and Guide Mansion will be flooded. Xuzhou is uncertain, and Huai'an Mansion is definitely hopeless."

Dorgon was silent.

……

The Yellow River's embankment burst is terrible.

But it is not so easy to let the Yellow River burst its banks.

Tun Qi is now jumping and scolding his mother: "A bunch of pigs and dogs, what are you doing for food?"

As soon as he got angry, Tun Qi ordered Qi Ding to push all the hundreds of wrappers who dug the embankment to the edge of the Yellow River and behead them.

After killing hundreds of Bao Yi in one go, Tun Qi finally exhausted his anger.

Then hundreds of coats were found, and the Yellow River embankment was excavated again.

This time, because the construction was on top of the original gap, the progress was greatly accelerated.

The original gap was dug for two days and nights, but this time it only took less than half a day to dig the gap again.

As soon as the gap was dug open, the muddy river immediately overflowed and flowed down the gap. Tun Qi hurriedly took Qi Ding to evacuate the embankment.

Then wait not far from the gap.

Although Tun Qi was dissatisfied with Dorgon's arrangement, Jiannu had extremely severe tribal punishments, so he did not dare to ignore the task Dorgon entrusted to Xianglan Banner.

Tunqi did not dare to leave without seeing the Yellow River's complete embankment breach.

However, after waiting for almost an hour, the river never flooded.

Full of doubts, Tun Qi took Qi Ding back to the embankment.

In the end, he was dumbfounded at first glance, and the gap he dug was blocked again.

"What's going on here?" Tun Qi couldn't understand, "The gap in the river embankment that has been dug can be closed by itself? Didn't it mean that the Yellow River bursts twice every three years and changed its course every century? Is it a lie? If you can block it by yourself, why should you say it? These smart dogs are so bad, they even blindly reported the disaster situation and defrauded the court of disaster relief money."

At this time, a coat said: "Master, this slave knows the reason."

"The reason?" Tun Qi asked with a bad expression, "What is the reason?"

Bao Yi said with some apprehension: "Because the water of the Yellow River contains a lot of silt, if the river water does not flow fast enough when it overflows the gap, the silt will deposit on the gap and then block the gap."

Tun Qi seemed to understand, but he didn't seem to understand: "Just tell me what to do?"

"The gap is too shallow." Bao Yi said fearfully, "It needs to be at least two feet deep."

"Do you want to dig so deep?" Tun Qi was skeptical, but then he thought again, if he couldn't complete the task, Dorgon would definitely not spare him when he went back, so he decided to give it a try.

Tun Qi shouted at the moment: "Dig deeper for me."

"If you don't dig two feet before dark today, you will die!"

Driven by Tun Qi and Qi Ding, hundreds of Bao Yi waded into the mud in the gap barefoot, wielding hoes or pickaxes to dig the embankment again, and dug deeper and deeper.

……

At this time, a fleet of the Navy was meandering down.

"Fourth uncle, are we going back to Xuzhou like this?" Zheng Cai said unwillingly.

"Otherwise? What else do you want?" Zheng Hongkui said angrily, "The depth of the Yellow River is less than three feet, and if you go further up, you will be stranded. What does stranded mean? Shouldn't fourth uncle tell you?"

Zheng Cai couldn't help sighing when he heard the words, of course he knew what it meant to be stranded.

At this moment, the sentry on the mast suddenly shouted: "General Town, look at the south bank."

Zheng Hongkui, who was talking to Zheng Cai, rushed out of the war shed and climbed up the ladder to the roof of the war shed.

In the whole bird ship, except for the watchtower above the main mast, the command position on the top of the battle shed has the best view.

After Zheng Hongkui climbed to the top of the war shed, he opened the binoculars and pointed it at the river bank to the south. The water surface of the Yellow River here is also extremely wide, conservatively estimated to be at least ten miles.

So even if you have a telescope, you can only get a rough look.

"There seems to be a lot of corpses?" Zheng Hongkui said in a deep voice, "Let's go."

With Zheng Hongkui's order, the sailors on the ship immediately adjusted the direction of the sails, and then slowly sailed to the south bank of the Yellow River with the cooperation of the stern rowing oars.

As we got closer, we could finally see clearly.

I saw a row of corpses lying on the embankment on the south bank of the Yellow River, at least two or three hundred, and all of them were headless.

Then point the field of view of the telescope at the river, and you can even vaguely see people's heads sinking and floating in the muddy river.

"Jiangnu thief, Jiannu is killing our common people again." Zheng Hongkui also said that these hundreds of headless corpses were all common people, and he couldn't help being so angry that he was half dead.

"General Town, there seems to be Jiannu outside the embankment!"

The sentinel climbing on the mast watch because he climbed high and could see far away, so he saw the coat who was wielding a hoe and pickaxe to dig the river bank, and the flagman with the blue flag who was watching.

Seeing this, the sentry suddenly shouted: "They are digging the embankment!"

"What?" Zheng Hongkui's face darkened immediately, "Dig the embankment?!"

Once the embankment of the Yellow River is dug up and the water of the Yellow River overflows, the consequences will be disastrous!

At that moment Zheng Hongkui sternly shouted: "Send me an order that all warships line up to stop them."

A total of six bird boats immediately lined up and quickly approached the south bank. The distance was about [-] steps. Zheng Hongkui ordered the anchor to drop, and then turned the hull to face the south bank.

At this time, Jiannu outside the embankment on the south bank also discovered the Ming army navy.

When even hundreds of Jiannu rushed to the embankment on the south bank and tried to shoot with their large bows, but found that the Ming army navy was two hundred paces away, they could only yell across the Yellow River.

Of course, the navy of the Ming army would not be polite to the prey that came to their door.

In just one round of shelling, more than a dozen Jiannu on the embankment fell and were all smashed to pieces.

Hit by the solid iron bullet of the Hongyi cannon, if it can still remain intact, it is not a human being.

The Jiannu on the river embankment quickly hid under the embankment and stopped showing their heads, but this couldn't help Zheng Hongkui and the artillerymen of the Ming Army Navy who had rich experience in operating artillery.

Under the guidance of the watchman on the watchtower,

The navy's ship-mounted Hongyi cannon successfully made curves.

This time, not only Jiannu suffered disaster, but also the coating that was desperately digging the Yellow River embankment.

The entire excavation operation could not continue soon, because the location of the excavation site chosen by Tun Qi was not very good, and the Yellow River embankment was not enough to provide enough shelter.

The artillery shells of the navy of the Ming army can easily hit Jiannu.

However, there seemed to be capable people on Jianu's side, and the location was quickly changed.

The position Jiannu re-selected was very tricky, because there happened to be two small soil pockets near the river embankment, and these two soil pockets seriously blocked the firing angle of the navy ship's guns, so they couldn't hit them.

Seeing Jiannu digging the embankment again, Zheng Hongkui became anxious.

At that moment Zheng Hongkui shouted to the deck: "A Cai, hurry up and take four people on a sampan to mobilize troops, and mobilize all the nearby warships."

After a pause, he said again: "Then report to Xuzhou!"

"Our navy alone may not be able to stop Jiannu."

"Please ask the holy army to come and stop Jiannu, hurry up!"

"Yes!" Zheng Cai responded, and immediately led someone to put down a sampan.

Then Zheng Cai took four sailors down from the bird boat to the sampan, and the four sailors also brought the oars, and saw the four oars flying up and down, stirring up pieces of water, forming a shuttle-shaped small sampan The board slid downstream like an arrow off the string, and Zheng Cai sat at the tail of the sampan to control the rudder and control the direction.

……

In the middle of the night.

In the night, a fast horse came galloping from the direction of Kaifeng Fucheng.

When Kankan passed an intersection, a dozen suet torches suddenly lit up like ghosts in the surrounding darkness.

The cavalry who was galloping along the official road was taken aback, and he reined in violently, the horse stood up, and the huge iron hoof kicked several times in the air, which could barely be stopped.

"Contemptible!" A voice shouted sharply.

Immediately, dozens of Yiding riders came out of the flames.

"General Hu!" Yi Ding named Mie Keqi said happily, "Quick! Hurry up and return to Xuzhou to submit a petition to the Holy Majesty, and ask the Holy Majesty to dispatch the army to Kaifeng Mansion as soon as possible. Jianshou wants to dig the Yellow River embankment!"

"What? Jiannu wants to dig the Yellow River embankment?!" Hu Guozhu's heart trembled when he heard this.

The next moment, Hu Guozhu turned back and shouted: "Ba Hanzhen, take people to Guide Mansion immediately, let Mr. Jin lead the cavalry battalion to Kaifeng Mansion quickly, and then return to Xuzhou to play the sage!"

"Yes." Ba Hanzhen reined in his horse and galloped away.

Several Qi Yi Ding also left with Ba Hanzhen.

"Let's go to Kaifeng Mansion." Hu Guozhu reined in his horse and left.

"General, we only have nineteen riders, and now there are only fourteen riders left."

Yi Ding, riding a horse, caught up with Hu Guozhu and said loudly, "What's the use even if we go?"

"Then inform the other Yi Ding quickly, and go to Kaifeng quickly." Even Hu Guozhu himself didn't realize that after staying with Chongzhen for a long time, and getting along with those Qin Wang scholars for a long time, his way of thinking has undergone a huge change. Variety.

Although he is a Mongolian, Hu Guozhu's way of thinking has been completely sinicized.

Even from the bottom of his heart, Hu Guozhu didn't think of himself as a Mongolian.

And only when he himself is a Ming person.

This is very Tang.

……

Early the next morning.

Kim Hyun dressed neatly and walked out of the tent.

In the quiet morning light, three thousand cavalrymen of the cavalry battalion were eating breakfast.

As usual, breakfast is a meal, but this time I came out in a hurry and didn't bring a pot to boil water, so I had to knead the meal with tempeh and a small piece of vinegar steamed cake and chew it together, otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat it at all.

If the mouth is really dry, eat a piece of black plum to moisten the throat.

Although Jin Xuan is a fifth-rank civil official, he can only eat the same dry food.

And Jin Xuan didn't look like he couldn't eat, even Wu Mei didn't need it.

For a ruthless person like Jin Hyun, this bit of suffering is not even considered suffering.

After hastily eating breakfast, Jin Xuan was about to gather his troops when the sound of hoofs suddenly sounded in front of him.

Immediately, Yi Ding, who rode several horses, arrived like flying, and the first one was Ba Hanzhen, who was one of the top ten loyal and brave men in front of the imperial court.

Without waiting for Jin Xuan to ask questions, Ba Hanzhen shouted loudly: "Master Jin, Jiannu wants to dig the Yellow River embankment, Hu Junmen asks you to speed up the cavalry battalion to Kaifeng Mansion to stop Jiannu!"

"Huh? Jiannu wants to dig the Yellow River embankment?!"

Jin Xuan's face changed suddenly: "Pass my military order, the whole battalion mounts and goes to Kaifeng Mansion!"

As soon as Jin Xuan gave an order, three thousand cavalry got on their horses one after another, and followed behind Jin Xuan to kill Kaifeng in a mighty manner.

Ba Hanzhen led several Yiding riders, took a dozen horses from Jin Xuan, and came straight to Xuzhou.

(End of this chapter)