Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 788 Hangzhou Bay ([-])

On July 1649, 7, Guanhaiwei, Ningbo Prefecture.

Under the ruins, a battalion of infantrymen from South Africa was cleaning the battlefield with their spears. They "cleaned" very carefully. Every time they found something good on the corpse of a Qing soldier, they would immediately smile. Put it in your pocket, and the military police who supervised the battle often turned a blind eye, letting these black soldiers who didn't even have wages make a small fortune.

These black soldiers came from the Supplementary Battalion of the Eight Banners New Army in South Africa. Compared with the normal establishment of 765 people in the first battalion, they only had more than 500 people.The supplementary battalion, as the name suggests, is to supplement the vacancies for the other three infantry battalions. Therefore, although the South African side adds recruits to this battalion every year, basically this battalion has never been fully staffed and has been in a state of shortage.

This time, Captain Liu Haiyang, the commander of the Blackwater Task Force, decided to use the limited forces at hand to launch a landing attack on the southeast coast in response to the offensive of Shao Shude, Mao Desheng and others in Shandong.Shao Shude admired their spirit of taking the initiative to attack in the south, so he took the initiative to allocate the Black Eight Banners supplementary battalion to him to increase his troops.

This army is tall, brave, and well-equipped. After being transferred to Liu Haiyang's subordinates, it almost became his trump card.In several small-scale battles near Hangzhou Bay, with the cooperation of artillery (the naval gunners made a temporary cameo), they often only needed one charge to kill the soldiers of the Qing army guarding the place, such as Lian Ding, Yan Ding, and Yamen servants. The bloody and rotten weapons were defeated, and he was definitely a good hand at torturing vegetables.

Of course, at this time Liu Haiyang's various troops may not be very good at fighting tough battles, but they are actually good at abuse.For example, Sun Shouzheng, one of the three divisions of Jeju, has [-] regiments from the original Rugao County to train soldiers, and the more than [-] soldiers recruited by Dashun Cai Huaze in Shandong. The Green Battalion will be about the same.But who let them have muskets and cannons? If they encounter them in the wild, if the Qing Army's Green Battalion does not have a great advantage, their fate will be really worrying.

For example, Cai Huaze's tribe, who was arrested and left on Daishan Island, originally had only 200 veterans from Dashun. Later, he recruited many Qing army prisoners in Shandong and recruited some recruits, expanding the number to nearly 40.Among these people, the proportion of musketeers is relatively high, reaching as much as 32%, and the rest are mostly armored spearmen and some miscellaneous personnel, without cavalry or artillery.The firearms they use are relatively complicated, including the [-]-B flintlock rifle (the one without the bayonet) produced locally on the East Bank, and the Spanish matchlock guns captured in good condition during the war (the ones sold by the East Bank to the Shun Army ), and things like shotguns seized from the Qing army treasury.

Although the types of muskets are complicated and the performance is different, but in all fairness, the soldiers of this unit usually train quite diligently, and the people on the east coast will also give them some gunpowder and lead from time to time on Daishan Island. At this time, people from all walks of life in China may be second to none in Mali.After this battle is over, Cai Huaze will lead his troops to sneak to Huguang to return to Jian in the inland river gunboats of the people from the east bank, and then the Shun army may select another group of people to come to Daishan Island to learn modern art from the people from the east bank. War technology, while fighting behind their buttocks, accumulating experience in firearms combat.

And these soldiers who have learned modern warfare technology, after returning to Dashun, believe that they can give a big touch to those bumpkins who came from thieves, let them know that they can no longer play the same way in war now.The emergence of new weapons will inevitably innovate tactics. Whoever innovates tactics and military system first will be able to seize the opportunity and be closer to victory.

More than 500 black heavy infantry, 1500 spearmen from Sun Shouzheng's department, and 1200 mixed troops from Cai Huaze's department, plus more than a hundred naval gunners, these 3000 people are most of Liu Haiyang's strength (newly recruited by Sun Shouzheng's department) Five hundred recruits stayed on Daishan Island).These soldiers are neither too many nor too few. If they don't encounter the main force of the Qing army, they are well-equipped and well-trained, and they can basically walk sideways along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

After all, under Zhang Cunren, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, there are only about 6 soldiers who can fight at all, of which 4 elites are led by Chen Tai to stay in Fujian, suppress Guangdong, and cannot move lightly; the other [-] people basically They are all guarding various places in Zhejiang, and it is difficult to gather together in a hurry.What's more, the ground in Zhejiang is not very peaceful now. If all the green battalions that suppressed the localities are taken away and there are sudden disturbances in the localities, Zhang Cunren will die without redemption.

For the current plan, the only way is to order all localities to guard their gates, act like a turtle, give up some unimportant places and give up, and try to guard those famous cities and big towns.I believe the Lord Regent also understands his difficulties, and will not blame himself too much, after all, it is hard for a clever woman to cook without rice.

Under such a guiding ideology, the activities of the East Coast people in the coastal areas of Zhejiang went much more smoothly.They will basically never encounter regular green camps along the way—even if there are few, most of them will encounter local miscellaneous names such as regiments, government servants, Yanding, etc., just like what they encountered here in Guanhaiwei. Depending on the collapse or the First World War, a small coastal town can be captured with only minor casualties, as easily as an armed parade.

"Where are King Lu's men?" Liu Haiyang asked easily, releasing a brass button on the top of his military uniform.The battle in the southeast coast is really too easy. If he had known that the number of Qing troops in Fujian and Zhejiang was so small and the chief officer was so conservative, he would have killed his mother and led his troops to kill Zhang Cunren in vain. for so many days.

"It's still half a day's journey from here. Those people are slow-moving, and their efficiency is too low. And their soldiers don't look like soldiers, and they are not much different from fucking farmers. I heard that most of them usually They are busy with farm work all the time, and they only come out to practice for a while before the battle, and they are a gang of mobs, whose combat power is not worth mentioning." The one who answered him was Huang Yi, who was in charge of the foreign trade in the Heishui area.This gentleman has been in the Far East for three or four years, and he has a close relationship with Marshal Mo who has returned to his hometown. Huang Yi is in charge of the trade between the East Bank and Dashun and Zheng's (actually half selling and half giving away), so he and Huang Yi are in charge. The connection with these local forces in the Ming Dynasty is also done by his people-under the guise of doing business.

The "those people" that Huang Yi said refers to the troops of Lu Wang Zhu Yihai who is currently retreating to the coast of eastern Zhejiang.Ever since they were defeated by the patchwork army led by Chen Tai in the northeast of Fujian, they began to move towards the junction of Fujian and Zhejiang. However, they are currently in short supply of food and equipment. low.Fortunately, the people on the east bank don’t dislike these anti-Qing fighters. Although they have lost the 27 counties in Northeast Fujian that they occupied in their heyday, and no longer have any goods to exchange with the people on the east bank, Liu Haiyang still gave them some cold weapons and protective gear. As an aid, to strengthen their determination to resist the Qing Dynasty.Not to mention that, the naval warships on the east coast moored on Daishan Island would also patrol the waters near Shacheng, where King Lu was stationed, from time to time, and occasionally give them a little food, so that they could have a little breathing space, and their subordinates would not collapse immediately.

This time Liu Haiyang took Shao Shude's order and launched a large-scale landing raid along the southeast coast in order to contain and disrupt the sight of the Qing army.In order to avoid the shortage of troops, Liu Haiyang invited some troops from King Lu's department to fight with them, and by the way, they also had the opportunity to collect some valuable materials nearby.Generals Zhang Mingzhen, Ruan Jin, Wang Chaoxian and others under the command of the King of Lu discussed for a while, and felt that being confined in the small Shacheng is not a long-term solution. Now it is time to join forces with the pirates on the east coast and go to the east coast of Zhejiang. Go get another piece of land to settle down.

First, it is close to Zhoushan. Although Huang Binqing of Zhoushan is domineering, he is a loyal man with a heart for Ming Dynasty. For some, it is also more convenient to raise food and wages.Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, they still decided to send troops to help in the battle.At present, Zhang Mingzhen led more than [-] people from his headquarters to go to Jiantiao by boat, intending to capture there as a place to stay; while Chao Xian also led more than [-] people to land in Hangzhou Bay, echoing with the army on the east coast, As for Danghu Bo Ruan Jin, he led the main force of the navy to station in Shacheng Port to protect the safety of King Lu and supervise the country, and was ready to support Zhang and Wang's two ministries at any time.

Since Wang Chaoxian met Liu Haiyang once when he landed in Hangzhou Bay in early July, he led his army to collect food and grass in the nearby countryside—well, or looting—except for sending people to fight with Liu Haiyang every day. Except for the exchange of information between the troops on the east bank, there was basically no coordinated attack, and they were almost like passers-by.But in fact, everyone is really unfamiliar. Liu Haiyang has given them a lot of assistance, but it is still somewhat difficult to expect them to put down their bodies and cooperate with the people on the east coast now, unless there are great benefits in it.

This time, after Liu Haiyang led his army to break through Guanhaiwei City, seeing that the Qing army did not respond like a dead pig, he became more courageous and planned to lead his army south to attack Cixi, Dinghai, Yinxian, Fenghua and other places.After all, these places are known as rich and prosperous, and it is much better to grab a few than dig three feet in the backcountry.However, it would be impossible to attack these counties without the assistance of more than 1 people from the first dynasty. After all, there are few soldiers on the east coast and they cannot withstand too much loss.In case the Qing army in some county towns decided to defend to the death, even if the army on the east bank blasted the city wall, there would inevitably be more casualties in the following street battles, which is really not worthwhile.Therefore, it is better to leave this kind of rotten battle to the Ming army, since they have a lot of cannon fodder anyway.

Wang Chaoxian was first surprised by Liu Haiyang's invitation, and then overjoyed.He didn't have the twists and turns in Liu Haiyang's stomach, he just simply thought that the pirates in yellow were friends and interesting enough, and it was good to never forget them, so he, who lacked the ability to tackle tough problems, immediately agreed to come together attack.At this time, the Ministry has almost reached the vicinity of Guanhaiwei.

(End of this chapter)