I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 154 Breaking through the Yangtze River
The first year of Jianwu.

April.

In the city of Nanjing, Ming Dynasty's first expedition to Enke came to a successful conclusion, with more than 300 soldiers finally taken away.

The Ming army and Emperor Zhu, who had been dormant for almost a month, finally couldn't hold back and mobilized troops again.

On the tenth day of April, the same day that Yong Zheng in Beijing officially ascended to power, Yang Gong served as the commander-in-chief of the Western Expedition Army and personally led the First Army and the Second Army of the Ming Dynasty's New Army, together with the naval fleet, to march up the river. Anhui.

Zhu Yijiong's order to Yang Gong was very simple. At least within this year, the Jiangnan area south of the Yangtze River, excluding southern Jiangxi, must be captured. It is best to attack Huguang again.

Otherwise, it will take too long and wait until next year...

Zhu Yijiong remembers clearly that famine will break out in Jiangnan next year.

According to historical records, in the summer of the first year of Yongzheng's reign, there was a great famine in Tongzhou.In autumn, Jiaxing is hungry.

In the spring of the second year, there was a great famine in Putai.Summer, Yueqing, Jinhua, Shengxian...

Good guy, it’s all in Emperor Zhu’s territory.

Not just Yongzheng, but looking at the entire prosperous period of Kangxi and Qianlong, it can be said that great famines occurred almost every year in all parts of the country.

When Zhu Yijiong first read this piece of historical data, he even wondered how this kind of period, where famine occurred every year and even the prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River were unavoidable, was rated as a prosperous age.
Is it because of your face?

In short, Zhu Yijiong doesn't have much time. He must advance the front to Huguang at the end of this year, and use the wealth of Jiangnan and the Yangtze River defense line to deal with next year's famine and the Qing court's attack.

If he delays it for a long time, he will have to bear the disaster alone next year. If the Qing army comes again, then his Ming Dynasty will be really choked.

In fact, Zhu Yijiong not only wanted to open up the sea this time to generate income, but also to prepare for the famine.

On the day when the decree to open the sea was issued, Zhu Yijiong had ordered Kang Zifei and other imperial merchants to form a fleet and head to the Kingdom of Siam in Southeast Asia to find out how much Siamese rice was worth and whether it was really as cheap as history books said.

If the situation is true, some policies, such as exemption of tariffs, etc., must be used to allow these maritime merchants to go to Siam to buy more rice and food to store in case of famine.

……

Anhui Province, Cihu Town.

On the surface of the Yangtze River.

A naval fleet flying the "Qing" flag is cruising on the river. They are the Yangtze River Navy of the Qing Dynasty and have jurisdiction over the 22nd Battalion of the Green Camp Navy.

其中外海水师有吴松营、川沙营、狼山镇标右营，苏松镇标4营等共9营，内河水师有京口水师协所辖2营、太湖协2营、江南督标右营、盐城营、庙湾营、浏河营、福山营等共13营。

In the fifth year of Yongzheng's reign, in order to strengthen the river and sea defense in the Jiangnan area, the Qing government established the Eight Banners Navy, which had 1000 soldiers and 20 sand ships. However, it was later abolished in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign due to poor training and the Eight Banners' sailing skills.

It can be said that among the three major naval forces of the Qing Dynasty, only the Fujian Navy could barely see it.

But this is normal. After all, only the Fujian Navy has to look after Taihuan, and Taiwan was in trouble almost from Kangxi to Qianlong, non-stop.

"Aww~ Damn it, I can't even sleep well." A Qing army sailor yawned, standing loosely on the deck.

Next to him, there was a green camp sailor who was similar to him and also in low spirit: "Who said it was not the case? Or that it was to prevent the counterfeit rebels from attacking... Haha... Those gentlemen above know what to do every day. These present comparisons..."

"..."

At this time, the green camp sailor who started to complain suddenly stopped, rubbed his eyes, and stared at the river not far away: "Eh? Brother, what do you think that collapse is?"

"where?"

"That's it."

"That... seems to be a ship?"

"……not good!"

The next second, the sailor reacted, and he suddenly woke up and shouted: "The rebels are coming, the rebels are coming, the fake rebels are coming!!"

After three shouts, the entire deck instantly changed from laziness to a state of panic.

Soon, the boss inside was alerted. He put on his armor and went out of the cabin to take a look. Sure enough, there were large shadows of boats approaching on the river in the distance.

At this time of year, we are traveling upstream from Nanjing, so there is almost no need to guess.

Without even thinking about it, the president quickly reported the news to General Wang, who was leading the team this time.

In fact, there is no need for him to notify you. As long as you are not blind, you can basically see it.

The king's counselor was very decisive and immediately ordered all warships to retreat quickly.

No way, they are just an outpost on routine patrol. There are only a few boats in total, and they are not big. But in the distance on the river, just looking at the shadows, they are twenty boats too small.

If you don’t run away at this time, wouldn’t that be a gift?

When General Wang Shen's patrol fleet turned around and fled for their lives, the Ming Navy also discovered them.

Tang Tongjiang put down his telescope and softly uttered one word: "Chase!"

As a result, the two armies were like cats chasing mice, with hundreds of Ming army warships chasing after them, and the five Qing army boats in front speeding up to escape.

Soon, the two armies arrived at Caishiji, one behind the other.

The Yangtze River defense line deployed by the Qing army was finally revealed in its entirety. A rough count showed that there were hundreds of ships in the entire Caishiji Ferry, which was almost the same as the Ming army.

The Yangtze Navy of the Qing Army was actually just a general term, because their scope of activities included the Yangtze River, but they did not have a naval admiral.

Longkodo only used the power of Jiangnan Governor to act on his own convenience, and promoted a general named Wu Guoyin to the position of (acting) chief military officer of the Yangtze River Navy, responsible for overseeing the military affairs of the navy and the defense of the Yangtze River.

Of course, he did not treat this man badly and promised that as long as he could block the false Ming from the river, he would ask the emperor to reinstate the Yangtze Navy as the admiral and recommend him to be the admiral.

"Give me the order to fire!"

Seeing that the distance was close, Tang Tongjiang gave the order decisively without hesitation.

The messenger quickly went down to deliver the order.

"The commander has the order, fire immediately!"

"Yes!"

The gunner received the order, quickly loaded the gunpowder, calibrated the fire.

"Boom~boom~boom~~"

The continuous sound of cannons was like a fuse, and other warships of the Ming army also loaded and fired.

Wu Guoyin, the commander-in-chief of the Yangtze River Navy on the opposite side, also shouted: "Fire! Fight back! Fight back!"

"Bang~bang~bang~~" This is how the first round of artillery battle on the Caishiji River began.

In just a few moments, the artillery fire from both sides fired almost hundreds of shells, although most of them missed and fell into the river.

It's not a human problem, it's simply that the artillery of this era is just like that. It can't be guaranteed to hit fixed targets, let alone moving targets like river warships.

The Ming Navy was going upstream this time, and the number of warships on both sides was about the same. It was difficult to repeat the previous wolf pack tactics here.

Although the overall fleet of the Yangtze River Navy of the Qing Army was not as large as that of the Ming Army, Longkoduo wanted Wu Guoyin to garrison here in order to block the Puppet Ming from landing at Caishiji.

In addition, the Qing army was upstream, so Wu Guoyin also showed no cowardice at all.

The two armies were going back and forth like this, with the roar of artillery fire, and the warships on both sides were in perfect harmony and kept approaching quickly.

This is going to be a gang war!

After all, this is the mainstream of naval warfare in this era.

Even until the outbreak of World War I, there were still people playing gang-hopping.

The visual distance on the river surface soon arrived, and the Qing soldiers of the Yangtze River Navy on the Qing warships were already ready, with knives and shields drawn out.

After all, Longkoduo paid the full salary (actually it was not enough, but it was more than before, so the officers and generals had to make some money), and the combat elites obtained after eliminating the old and weak, of course, could not be as good as the previous ones in Zhejiang The Qing soldiers in Fujian were so miserable.

The warships on both sides were approaching quickly, and the distance was visible to the naked eye. Suddenly, a Ming army warship fired.

"Oh!"

There was a sound of artillery, and a heavy cannonball with fireworks flew out in a parabola shape, and there seemed to be something attached to the tail of the cannonball.

The clearing soldiers on the target warship reacted and subconsciously dodged to the side, but there were always a few who were unlucky and slow to react and still got hit.

A Qing soldier was hit in the chest and died immediately.

Just when other Qing army sailors were still rejoicing.

"boom!"

With a loud noise, the cannonball exploded!
The violent explosion directly engulfed the deck and nearby Qing soldiers who had no time to react. Under the double catalysis of sugar and iron filings, the granular black powder in the shell burned at an alarming rate.

Facing the fragile and flammable wooden deck of the Qing warship, without any surprise, the entire ship burst into flames from the deck.

The raging fire almost burned through the deck.

A warship, one cannonball, was completely destroyed.

At this time, the Qing army was immediately dumbfounded!

what's the situation?
Will the shells still explode?
Before these Qing soldiers could figure out the key, several other approaching warships of the Ming army also opened fire one after another.

A bomb with a weird shape, smoke, and a wooden cushion at the end flew towards the Qing navy's warship.

At such a close range, there is no reason why the cannonballs could not hit... It is true that a few missed the target and fell into the river, but most of the other cannonballs hit directly.

"Boom boom boom!"

Continuous and violent explosions were like fireworks, exploding on the deck and even in the cabin of the Qing Navy warship.

Five Qing warships were destroyed on the spot by the large-yield white sugar Big Ivan. The shell accidentally penetrated the deck, and the explosion actually broke the keel of the ship.

As countless Qing soldiers shouted and jumped into the water to escape, the five warships quickly saw water and sank.

In addition, there were more than ten Qing warships that were not much better. All of them were engulfed in flames. The surviving Qing soldiers on the ship were too busy putting out the fire. Why were they still fighting?

With one shot, he directly killed one-sixth of the fleet, and he was still at the forefront.

This visual impact is indeed incredible.

Exploding cannonballs?
It must be sorcery!

The hypocritical rebel actually knows sorcery!

The morale of the Yangtze River Navy of the Qing Army collapsed in an instant. Longkodo's salary was only one month, and the ordinary Qing soldiers below just fought if they could, and ran away if they couldn't!

Wu Guoyin was just a temporary commander-in-chief promoted by Longkodo, and could not fully control the Yangtze River Navy under his command.

Navy ships belonging to different official camps saw that the situation was not good and fled decisively.

As for deserters, if one flees, there will be a second one. Especially when fleeing on the battlefield, the problem is the most serious.

Unfortunately, Wu Guoyin doesn't have a military law team, so he can't fire artillery!
Not to mention whether he can hit or not, but if he hits, how can other warships still listen to him?

It would be nice if we don't fire artillery together to kill him, the general soldier.

Except for the dozen or so ships under his command that were still in dire straits, the other warships were all scrambling to escape one by one.

The battle has been fought like this, so why is there any need to fight?

When Wu Guoyin saw this, he immediately ordered the ship to be turned around, fled the battlefield quickly, and went to the rear to rebuild the defense line...

Ha ha.

Longko spent more than half of his money and deployed the Yangtze River defense line to block the Ming army. It was so easily broken... No, it should have collapsed on its own or been scared away.

This is also due to the good luck of Ming Jun and Zhu Yijiong.

Not only did the craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau develop explosive ammunition in time, but the Yangtze River Navy was also from the south. They had never heard of such a thing, let alone seeing it.

Of course, in fact, the Ming army's current explosive ammunition is still very immature, because at this stage, not only the Ming Dynasty, but also the entire world, the level of steel technology is not high.

In other words, it cannot meet the requirements of explosive ammunition.

Once the gun's chamber pressure is too high, it will easily crush the shell of the hollow shell, causing the chamber to explode.

The wooden block pad on the back is actually to protect the cartridge case, but even so, the chamber pressure it can withstand is not high.

Basically it can only be fired by mortars or medium-range artillery, and when fired by medium-range artillery, the chamber explosion rate cannot be said to be high, but it is by no means low.

This time, Tang Tongjiang cleverly used low-pressure artillery to catch the Qing army by surprise during a close-range gang fight.

After all, even the grenades in front can cause a chaotic rout of the Qing army, and even derive magic spells, so why can't exploding artillery shells.

Facts have proved that Tang Tongjiang's strategy was successful.

But, it can never happen again.

　so sleepy
　　
　
(End of this chapter)