A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 81
The food of the Confederate army mainly came from two sources.

One is grain and grass from Shaanxi, but this only accounts for a small part of the total grain of the Southern Army. Most of the grain and grass comes from Cao grain.

However, the canal did not lead to the battlefields of both sides. After the grain was transported to Dezhou, it had to be disembarked, then to Shunde, and then transported to the Southern Army camp.

The two armies are currently facing each other east of Taiyuan, with one south and one north, and Shunde is behind Feng Sheng's large army.

Zhu Di had already taken a fancy to the Confederate army's food and grass.

The Northern Army's cavalry came and went like the wind. The Yan Army often sent people to sneak attack the grain transport team. However, after losing one or two losses, Feng Sheng immediately sent troops to ambush and killed more than [-] Yan Army cavalry on the spot. Then he sent sentry cavalry in Shunde. Traveling between camps made it more and more expensive to attack grain convoys.

Zhu Di was forced to abandon this plan.

As for water transportation, specifically, grain and grass were collected from the south and transported to Texas through canals.

The waterway from Nanjing to Dezhou is not short, and although there are canal guard troops, they are only a few thousand people. After all, everyone knows that the Northern Army is not good at water warfare, and a team of several thousand people is completely enough.

On the contrary, Dezhou City, located at the end of the canal transport, deployed [-] defenders to prevent the Northern Army from attacking. A strong city garrisoned by [-] troops would never be captured unless the main force went into battle.

However, Yan Keng believes that water transportation can still be planned. If the canal is thousands of miles long, there is always a place to start.

It is true that the Northerners are not good at water warfare, but Yan Keng has no intention of using ships to fight directly with the opponent, and after all, the Grand Canal leads directly to Tongzhou, and the Northern Army also has a Cao army, although it only has about a thousand people.

He planned to board the canal.There are no storms in the Grand Canal, and the tonnage of the ships is not small. The fierce Northern Army is not afraid of fighting on the ships.

The key lies in how to board the ship.

Yan Keng's finger pointed at one place - Dong'a.

Dong'a County is located next to the canal and has a dock. It is an important transportation route. When the Cao Army arrives here, it must carry out some supplies.

This will be a great opportunity.

Zhu Di agreed to his strategy and appointed General Zhu Neng as his vanguard.

Yan Keng led the elite Yanshan right guard and Cao army and set off immediately.A total of more than [-] people entered Hejian Mansion eastward, then went south, bypassed Dezhou, crossed three rivers in a row, and made a surprise attack on Dong'a.

Dong'a is not far from the front line, but after all, there are Dezhou and Jinan blocking the front, so when the Northern Army suddenly appeared under Dong'a City, the defenders were shocked.

The Northern army easily broke through the city, and the five hundred garrisoned Confederate troops did not put up much resistance.Even when the people walked out at dawn, they realized that the city had changed hands.

Yan Keng ordered the city gates to be closed and the whole city sealed to prevent any news from getting out.

This time does not take long, because King Yan has a detailed plan in the court. According to that person's report, the governor of water transportation will arrive with the water ship in just one day.

That's when it's time to take action.
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Yan Ji stood on the bow of the boat, looking at the thousands of miles of blue waves on the canal.

People from Jiangsu and Zhejiang have certainly seen the sea. He is not a landlubber who doesn't know how to swim, and he even feels a little warm towards this scene.

such a pity.He sighed. This canal was still a little calmer. Compared with his hometown, it was a little less majestic after all.

He stretched out his hand and felt the breeze passing through his fingers.

When this war is over, I will retire.

He thought that he was already very old.

This time Zhu Yunwen sent him out, nominally because the water transportation matter was of great importance and needed someone close to him to take charge, but he knew that in fact, this was His Majesty's intention to expel him from the center of power.

Although he vowed to assist the emperor and achieve great things, but now, it is obvious that there is no place for him to be useful.

"Sir, Dong'a is just ahead." At this moment, a soldier suddenly came to him and reported.Yan Ji said "hmm" and said, "Are there sufficient supplies on the ship?"

"Your Majesty, the fresh water, fruits and vegetables, etc. have been exhausted, and candles, lamp oil, etc. also need to be replenished." The man responded respectfully.

"In that case, let's take a rest in Dong'e County." Yan Ji saw that the sun had already turned to the west, so he ordered.

The boats began to dock.

The dock is still prosperous and nothing is amiss.

The quartermaster himself disembarked to recruit coolies to prepare the necessary supplies. Of course, they were not the only ones disembarking.

Many officers in the army also got off the ship.

Of course it's not allowed in name, but if you take a chance and change your clothes, who would know?
Anyway, this place is considered the rear and is very safe.

This night, many brothels were filled with singing, much more than usual.

Of course, what no one noticed was that there were always eyes peeking around the brothel, and even the turtle men were a little cautious in their words.

The Northern Army has completely controlled this place. The "common people" who are left behind are basically played by Northern Army soldiers. Only certain special professions cannot be replaced. However, they also received a large amount of gold and silver, and their families were imprisoned in military camps. middle.

Everything seems to be the same as usual.

It's not like no one feels the strange atmosphere in the city, but if you look closely, there doesn't seem to be any big problem, and the nights in these small cities should be desolate and peaceful.

Maybe it was because I had been on the boat for so long that I suddenly couldn't adapt to life on land.They laughed at themselves, which was not uncommon after a long voyage.

They took a group of coolies and carried supplies on their backs and returned to the ship under the moonlight.

It was already late at this time, and many of the lights on the boat were extinguished.

Quartermasters took the coolies to the appropriate ships.

After entering the cabin and putting down their things, they looked at each other and suddenly lifted their clothes, revealing the blade at their waist. The sharp blade reflected a red light under the firelight.

The quartermaster's pupils suddenly shrank, and the next second, they fell on the boat one after another, holding their necks.

Hundreds of coolies occupied all three ships in an instant.

As the appointed time arrived, the doors of the houses near the dock were opened one after another, and people came out one after another, holding sharp blades in their hands, with a cold light flashing in their eyes.

Several Northern Cao troops led a dozen Northern troops in prepared boats and rowed toward the ships.

The three cannons slowly sailed towards the few escort warships.

The night was very quiet, until a scream resounded through the night sky, and finally a warship sounded its alarm, waking up the sleeping fleet.

But it was too late. The Northern Army was already very close to these ships, and even more Northern Army had already climbed onto the deck with daggers and long knives in their mouths.

Compared to hand-to-hand combat, the Southern Army was no match for these elite Northern troops.

Zhu Neng took the lead. He was a Chang Yuchun-like figure. He was highly skilled in martial arts and extremely fierce. He easily cut down more than a dozen Cao soldiers.Under his leadership, the morale of the Northern Army was greatly boosted, but when the Southern Army saw this tower-like man, it was as if they saw the black and white impermanence coming to claim their lives, and they couldn't stop retreating.

More importantly, many officers were not on board, which directly resulted in the army being leaderless and unable to organize and launch an effective counterattack!
After fighting fiercely for less than half an hour, a large number of cannons were out of control.

At this time, the building ship surrounded by the center finally attracted the attention of the Northern Army.

(End of this chapter)