Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1077 Madang

May 1655, 5, morning, mist.

Amidst the sound of the rumbling guns, following Xie Qian's order, a large group of officers and soldiers of the Sixth Division in khaki uniforms jumped out of the boat, waded through knee-deep muddy water, and rushed straight to the beach shouting; On their left, a small inland gunboat puffing out black smoke cautiously drove up to a patch of reeds. The gunners filled the cannon barrel with broken iron pieces, gravel and iron nails, and then fired it violently. Suddenly, there was a lot of screams in the long reeds; and on the distant river, orange fires flashed from time to time in the morning mist, and a bunch of old-fashioned Chinese hard sailing ships were beaten to the ground and fled with their lives.

This is Madang Town, an important node of the Qing army controlling the Yangtze River. A medium-sized Qing army navy is stationed all year round. There are more than 5 soldiers, land and water soldiers and horses. It can be regarded as an important military town in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.But today, May 10th, with more than [-] land and water soldiers from the "Yellow Clothes Thieves" rushing forward, Madang Town is actually in a precarious state...

"Report, Captain Junior has led his troops to land in Xiangkou Town, downstream, and defeated a battalion of the Qing army (about 500 people) in front of him. Du Chong's troops have overcome all difficulties, and basically all of them have landed ashore and completed preparations for departure. Pioneer More than [-] riders have already searched westward, and the main force is coming one after another, and will join our troops soon, and firmly surround Ma Dang Qing army." The second staff officer, Peng Yuanzhi, immediately received the battle report. He rushed over to report to Liu Haiyang.

After Liu Haiyang received the battle report, he glanced at it briefly and then lost interest. That was not the main line of defense of the Qing army, and it is not uncommon for it to be broken by the new army on the east coast. Now the focus should be on the frontal landing field—the dog The Japanese Tartars somehow got several cannons and placed them on the top of the city, facing the river.Although limited by the range factor, these cannons could not pose a threat to the densely packed east bank fleet on the river, but they caused a certain amount of trouble to the east bank army who rushed to land on the beach-of course, it was just a nuisance, a total of six cannons (of which The two seem to be river defense guns, but the range is completely out of reach. The threat posed by the east bank fleet floating in the center of the river is really limited. After covering a loose front, and then covering the landing of the army field artillery in the rear, the Qing army has only caused a few dozen casualties to them so far.

Three hours later, all 5000 members of the Sixth Division of the New Army had landed, and roughly built a starting position in front of the formation, repelling the two raids of the Qing army in the city.As many as 16 army field guns were also in place one by one, and began to engage in artillery battles with the Qing army on the top of the city, and the battle became more and more intense.

Piao Yan, a Dutch-born Korean, and a dozen of his attendants stood on a small rickety fishing boat, silently looking at the large yellow figure wriggling on the river beach ahead. These people were all holding cold weapons and lined up The loose formation silently headed for the Madang Fortress guarded by the Qing army in front. The shells fell on the surroundings of these people from time to time, causing disturbances in the ranks, but generally a certain order was still maintained, which is already very good up.

According to Pu Yan, at least 2-3 iron cannons used by the Qing defenders in the Madang Fortress seemed to be cast by the English. He reckoned that they should have been sold by the Dutch East India Company. As the defense of the fortress (which doubles as a naval camp), it was placed at the head of the city.However, how can this small 4-pound or 6-pound gun at best be able to defeat the 12-pound portable field guns of the people on the east coast?Not to mention that they also have 12-pound long-barreled heavy guns specially cast for siege. There are a total of 4 of these guns. There should be no suspense about the outcome of the artillery battle. The 6 small-caliber artillery pieces of the Qing army cannot defeat the enemy's 16 army field artillery pieces plus 4 long-barreled siege artillery pieces. It is only a matter of time before they are defeated.

In fact, this is indeed the case. At 26:1 noon that day, more than 3 officers and soldiers from the 1th Division of Du Chong's Department arrived in Zuojin from the east, and with the cooperation of artillery, they defeated a Qing army that had left the city. At that time, the artillery battle that brought together [-] artillery pieces also came to an end: at the cost of losing one cannon, the people on the east coast completely destroyed [-] Qing army cannons, injured [-], and the Qing army blew up one. , the last one seemed to have run out of shells, or there was some glitch, in short, it was misfired.

After clearing away the threat of the Qing army's artillery, the artillery on the east bank quickly turned their guns and blasted the city wall of Madang Town.What is just surprising is that the Qing army seemed to have made great efforts to strengthen the city wall of Madang Town to guard against the bandits in yellow clothes. After dozens of cannons fired fiercely for several hours, only a few small cracks appeared on the city wall; The gate was also unsuccessful, because the Qing army seemed to have piled up a large amount of earth and rocks behind the gate, and it was difficult for shells to penetrate. As a last resort, they bombarded the city wall again.

Fortunately, everyone has plenty of time. Since the southeast wind started in late April, more than 4 troops have attacked this area at the junction of Jiujiang and Chizhou without any obstacles. As many as 3 gunboats on the east bank continued to harass and attack the Qing army along the river, making the entire Yangtze River the safest back garden on the east bank. The two battlefields of the Qing army in the north and the south were not well connected, and the situation was somewhat impeded—— Such a quick and decisive military action, the Qing army is naturally unable to parry. To put it bluntly, at this time, the main force of the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River does not know whether it has left Nanjing. This undoubtedly gave everyone enough time to besiege the horses. When the town of this fortress.

On May 5, after six days of continuous bombardment, a section of the city wall of Madang Fortress finally collapsed uncontrollably. Pao stepped forward, and after a fierce fight, he finally broke through the formation that encircled the Qing army, and formally broke into Madang Town.

In the night of the same day, Shen Yongzhong (Shen Zhixiang, the chief general of the Qing army and Lord Xushun (Shen Zhixiang had died of illness, lived a few years longer than in history, and the title of Lord Xushun was inherited by his nephew Shen Yongzhong) and his clansman Shen Cheng were killed in the camp. , the surviving more than 2000 Qing troops died in battle, more than [-] were scattered, and most of the remaining nearly [-] people were captured.As for the [-] officers and soldiers of the Qingshui Division outside the city, they were routed as early as the first day, killing and injuring more than a thousand prisoners, which basically severely damaged the strength of the Qing army's navy in Jiangxi.In this battle, the newly organized Sixth Division, Eighth Division and artillery units of the East Bank lost more than [-] people. East Coasters cause no small trouble.

After capturing Madang Town, Liu Haiyang immediately ordered the 1.2 North Korean masters who accompanied the army to act quickly, collected materials to repair the city wall, perfected the fortifications, and moved his headquarters into the city; They were stationed in the navy camp of the former Qing army, and sent a large number of small boats (mostly sent by the king of Lu and the Zheng family because of their affection, they did not go to battle, but specialized in transporting supplies. boat) was taken into the water village.As for the main warships and sail transport ships on the east coast, they can only berth in deep water near the coast, surrounded by naval gunboats to prevent surprise attacks by the Qing army-of course, the possibility is very slim.

Madang Town is the naval camp built by the Qing army since the last Yangtze River battle. The land fortress is also quite strong, and it can be regarded as a strong city in the era of cold weapons.It's a pity that they encountered the "sharp guns" of the Yellow Army, and they were captured in less than a week. The navy also suffered more than half of their casualties, and they were unable to fight again in a short time. The Qing army received a heavy blow.

After conquering the hub node of Madang Town, Dongliu and Jiande in Chizhou Prefecture in the east, Wangjiang and Susong in Anqing Prefecture in the north, and Pengze and Hukou counties in Jiujiang Prefecture in the west fell on the east bank. Within the range pointed by Ren Bingfeng.

On May 5th, the east bank army, which had been resting for a day, was divided into two groups, and the main force of more than 17 soldiers (the fifth and sixth divisions of the new army, and [-] Korean bird gunners) marched eastward, and plundered Chizhou Prefecture as planned. The focus of the two counties of Dongliu and Jiande is to collect people and supplies. Of course, if you have the opportunity to conquer the county, you can try it, but this is not the point; Thousands of relatively elite soldiers, together with more than [-] men from the Nanming Xintai Hou Hao Shangjiu, went west to plunder the rural areas of Pengze and Hukou counties. The offensive launched by Guo Sheng's troops was attracted within the territory of Nanchang Prefecture. The two groups of troops should not encounter any strong resistance in the short term, and they can rest assured to arrest people in the countryside.

Beginning on the 20th, one after another groups of people were weeping and escorted to Madang Town by officers and soldiers from the East Bank.More than 3000 people from the Eighth Division of the New Army who stayed behind immediately broke up and reorganized them (of course, as a family unit as much as possible), and then escorted them to the small boats moored in the water village in groups of dozens of people, and took part in some naval gunboats. Under the escort of the army, he went down the river and went straight to Chongmingsha (there were also support personnel there, and [-] people from the Sun Shouzheng Department of the Third Division of the New Army were stationed there), and nearly a thousand people were sent away that day.

On May 5, after Pengze County was breached (the county was breached on the 21th and only resisted for one night), Hukou County was also supported by the Shun Army Department on the west bank of Poyang Lake. The young general Zhang Guangcui led the army to conquer. So far, the front of the Dong'an people has actually joined the Shun army Guo Sheng's troops.In the afternoon of the same day, Guo Sheng, who heard the news, sent a general to lead 18 people across Poyang Lake to Hukou County to guard against possible counterattacks by the Qing army.For the first time, the East Bank and Dashun have achieved a large-scale confluence on the battlefield!

(End of this chapter)