Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 789 Hangzhou Bay ([-])

"Second Lieutenant Juan is back!" A report awakened Liu Haiyang who was in reverie. He straightened his military uniform that had been stained with dust from days of war, and then turned around to look at a group that was moored on the bank of Cixi. An inland river gunboat on the east coast.At this time, a short and stocky naval officer on the deck of the gunboat was jumping onto the shore, and then walked towards Liu Haiyang.

"Let's get straight to the point." After exchanging military salutes with Second Lieutenant Juan, Liu Haiyang stopped his possible routine report and said bluntly, "What did Li Guo say?"

"The generals of the Shun State unanimously agreed to launch a counterattack against the Qing State. They have assembled more than [-] people and divided their troops into two groups to attack Jingzhou. The left is led by General Liu Fangliang of the Left Battalion, and the right is led by General Yuan Zongdi of the Right Battalion. , these two roads are the main force elite, with enough food and grass, in addition to some Spanish matchlock guns and bronze artillery supported by us, it should not be a problem to take down Jingzhou. In addition, Baron Linqu Gaoyi power Tian Hu, Yang Mingqi and other former battalion generals [-] The rest of the people went out of the Hunan-Chu border and are ready to respond at any time." Having said this, Second Lieutenant Juan also shook his head, obviously dissatisfied with the Shun Army's strategy of dividing troops: "They have lost more than they have won in the past one or two years. Sometimes I was a little unconfident, so I always like to divide my troops into multiple ways, for fear of being taken over by others."

"Is there any movement in Nanming?" Liu Haiyang continued to ask.To be honest, Nanming's monarchs and ministers are really messed up in terms of grand strategy. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are extremely stupid. Basically, they do things that make loved ones hurt their enemies.He was really afraid that He Tengjiao, who was entrenched in southern Hunan, would do something wrong, it was hard to say.

"I stayed in Baling and Changsha for more than three months. During this period, there were only a few small-scale border conflicts between Ming and Shun. Because Shun was in a hurry to go north, Shun gave up two counties to Ming. It calmed down. But two days before I came back, I heard that the Ming Kingdom in the south was engaged in friction again. They wanted the Shun Army to give up Changsha. (Li Guo did not proclaim himself emperor) He has led Ma Chongxi, Zhang Neng, Li Shiwei, Wu Pingxiao, Wang Youjin, He Lan and other middle camp and rear camp generals back to Changsha to sit in the town, and there are more than 7 soldiers and horses who returned with him. People can be used for the Northern Expedition to the Qing Dynasty. But the reality is that they can't concentrate, it's a pity."

"In addition, I heard that Hao Yaoqi, Liu Tichun, Wang Jincai and other generals of the Shun Army who took refuge in the Ming Dynasty also had a hard time. In addition, most of their subordinates were soldiers from Shaanxi and Henan, and many died of illness in Guizhou and Guangxi due to unacceptable conditions. Moreover, local Ming officials and local gentlemen were also very concerned. They hated them and deliberately refused to distribute food and grass to them; and once they had no choice but to raise food and grass by themselves, these people would scold them for looting and then mobilize troops to destroy them. In short, it seems that Ming has no plan To really accept these people is to use them up on purpose. Therefore, these generals hope to return to Shun Kingdom again, and it is said that their envoys have already contacted Li Guo's people many times."

"Hmph, it's more than enough to succeed than to fail. It's not surprising that a bunch of sour Confucian scholars are at this level." Liu Haiyang smiled coldly, and then said meanly: "I think Lu Wang's subordinates are much more sober than them, at least they In a precarious situation, knowing that there is no point in playing Xu's fart, it is king to preserve oneself first. For this reason, they can do everything, and their figure is much softer than that of Yongli. Nanming's gang of stupid pigs will only continue It is only a matter of day and night to make enemies. If Li Guo is not willing to kill each other, and we do not approve of it, the Shun Army might have wiped out He Tengjiao, who is self-respecting and has a different ambition. Stupid."

"Guo Sheng has now been promoted to General Youguoyi of the Zhongying. He is Li Guo's confidant general. He often speaks well of us in front of Li, Liu, Yuan, and other generals, and he also admires our army's tactics. Therefore , This time, Shunguo sent another group of people here on our speedboat, hoping that we can help them reorganize their troops. If possible, they also hope to re-equip the troops. Of course, they said they would pay for it. "Second Lieutenant Juan pointed to a group of people who were getting off the boat one by one on the bank of Cixi, and said.

At this time, eight inland river gunboats lined up on the bank of Cixi. Each gunboat carried about a hundred people. Their clothes were very messy, but their discipline was very good. The whole team started, and the efficiency was quite high, which made Liu Haiyang a little impressed.

The Shun Army dispatched less than a thousand soldiers this time, but among them, the proportion of old peasant soldiers from the three provinces of Shaanxi, Henan and Chu was not low, and their combat effectiveness was quite unambiguous.Sent to Fujian and Zhejiang provinces where the Qing army ruled weakly, it should be able to play a big role.

Their leading general is Liu Guochang, formerly known as Liu Xiyao, who is the deputy general of the Zuoying of Dashun.His seniority is very old and he is very radical. He resolutely opposes the decision of Li Guo and others to work together with Nanming.Therefore, this time he was kicked by Li Guo, Gao Yigong, and his old superior Liu Fangliang to the East Bank people, so as not to keep making noise in their ears.

He also came with Liu Shijun, Marquis of Dashun Yue, whose daughter Liu was the queen Li Zicheng established in Xi'an in the first year of Yongchang, so she has been pursued endlessly by the Qing court.This person has a very good relationship with Liu Guochang. Historically, they were opposed to joining Nanming, so they were besieged by the Nanming army in Guangxi, and then the two led their troops to leave Guangdong. Faced with the surrender of the Qing army, they remained unmoved and resolutely resisted, and were eventually defeated. Or died of illness on the hot and humid ground of Guangdong, and [-] to [-] people died out.

In addition to these two men, two young generals Zhang Guangcui and Zhang Jingchun of Yuan Zongdi's son Yuan Bao and Lin Yangcheng (originally named Lin Chengcheng, Li Zicheng changed his name to avoid taboo after ascending the throne, and died in a surprise attack by the Qing army's Zhengbai Banner at Jingzhou City) were also We came to the East Coast people together.Sending these new generation generals over to learn advanced organizational management and military technology, it can be seen that the Shun Army has the intention of cultivating successors.

"Call Ao Guanhai over here." After exchanging some pleasantries with the generals of the Shun Army, Liu Haiyang said to his adjutant.

Ao Guanhai came soon.This is a black Xhosa, formerly named Oran, who is a Krall in the supplementary battalion (second only to the officer in charge of the battalion). He was named Guanhai by Liu Haiyang because he was the first to break into the city when he attacked Guanhaiwei.

"Take these people down to eat, and then distribute weapons to them to prepare for the next battle." Liu Haiyang ordered.And following his order, these thousand Shunjun troops were soon arranged to live next to Cai Huaze's troops and began to eat lunch.Lunch is standard on the east coast, with corn rice and marinated saury, and each person can get a bowl of vegetable soup, which is quite good.

And while they were eating, the dynasty's first troops, which were surrounding Yin County, the prefectural city of Ningbo, continued to launch attacks.The city wall of Yin County has been blasted by the east bank artillery to open a gap several feet long. The Qing army in the city is frantically blocking it at this time, while the dynasty troops outside the city are attacking inward with the assistance of the east bank artillery. It was very hard, and I froze there for a while.However, the Qing army's resistance was futile. With no food inside and no reinforcements outside, Liu Haiyang estimated that the city would be destroyed before tonight.

In fact, Liu Haiyang somewhat overestimated the Qing army. In the evening, Liu Guochang and others, who had been watching the show for a long time, selected [-] elite fighters, and when the attention of the Qing army was attracted to the gap, they went to the city Success, and then killed a few Qing troops guarding the city gate, and opened the city gate.The resistance of the Qing army collapsed, and the Shun army also showed impressive combat effectiveness and its leader's excellent battlefield reading ability (knowing when and where to invest how much troops).

Yin County is the prefectural city of Ningbo Prefecture. It is extremely rich, and there are countless rich and wealthy families in the city.After Wang Chaoxian and Liu Guochang's troops entered the city, what they did was also very interesting.Among them, apart from looting the property of the generals of the Qing army, the subordinates of Chao Dynasty did not dare to offend the families of gentry and eunuchs in the city. They mainly raised wages from ordinary people; , basically did not intrude on the common people, but wantonly apportioned military pay and food to the wealthy businessmen and gentry in the city, for this reason, they almost had a conflict with the first department of the dynasty.

But no matter how noisy they were, Liu Haiyang still took them a total of 15 taels of silver, as well as a large number of valuable books, antique jade and jewelry. In addition, he also took a lot of raw silk, porcelain, tea, etc., all packed and sent back to the mainland Sell ​​it to save people from always saying that the Far East spends a lot of money.

After defeating Yin County, Liu Haiyang convened a meeting to unify his thoughts, and then led his army to set off quickly to the east, accompanied by naval gunboats, and captured Dinghai County with lightning speed.After raising some food and salaries, he boarded a naval transport ship moored outside, crossed the sea and conquered Jinshanwei in Songjiang Prefecture of Southern Zhili, shaking the two provinces.So far, from the breakthrough of Guanhaiwei on July 7 to today, August 30, the east coast army under the command of Liu Haiyang, Wang Chaoxian and Liu Guochang and other friendly forces have successively conquered Guanhaiwei, Yuyao County, Yin County, Cixi County, Dinghai County and Jinshanwei wiped out more than 8 Qing troops, seized countless supplies, and recruited a large number of craftsmen.

And as they continued to harass along the coast of Zhejiang, urgent documents from the Qing government flew to Hangzhou like snowflakes, which upset Zhang Cunren, governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.What's more, some local gentry whose family business was damaged in the process even wrote letters to their relatives and friends who were officials in Beijing, impeaching Zhang Cunren for standing still, and sitting and watching the local corruption, which caused the famous cities and towns to fall one after another, which harmed our country. The prestige of the Qing Dynasty should be severely punished.

But Zhang Cunren is a hardcore traitor (born in the Han army banner), how can they be easily shaken by these newly attached traitors?However, Lao Zhang's pressure was not small for a while when they were messed with like this.Therefore, after thinking about it, he still gritted his teeth and squeezed out 2000 green battalions stationed in Hangzhou, and handed it over to Ke Yongsheng, the former commander-in-chief of Jiaozhou Town who had just returned from Fujian, and asked him to lead the [-]-odd army (Ke Yongsheng's headquarters still has More than [-] people) entered Jiaxing Mansion and attacked Songjiang Mansion together with some reinforcements sent from Nanjing to suppress the bandits in yellow.

But there was an unforeseen situation. When Ke Yongsheng took the few mobile troops in Zhejiang (more than 4 soldiers under Zhang Cunren's command had to defend various main roads and garrison major cities, which were extremely scattered) and went to Pinghu County. Liu Haiyang's army suddenly encountered.At this time, the East Bank Army was mainly composed of three parts, namely, more than 3000 people from the East Bank Headquarters, more than 5000 people from the Shun Army Liu Guochang and Cai Huaze's troops (Liu Guochang expanded his army by [-] in Ningbo), and the King of Lu's general Chaoxian Department. More than [-] people, a total of nearly [-] people.

The result of the encounter is obvious. Ke Yongsheng's 7000-odd people are not overpowered. Except for the 2000-odd Jiaozhou soldiers in his headquarters who are still able to fight, the other 5000 people are ordinary. After holding on for more than two hours The whole line was defeated, and after losing more than half of the soldiers and horses, they hurriedly retreated to Jiaxing County.

On September 9, the army on the east bank broke through the capital city of Jiaxing County. Ke Yongsheng was defeated and committed suicide, and the remaining more than 13 remnants also surrendered.Many officers and soldiers of the first dynasty, because they hated these Jiaozhou soldiers for slaughtering their comrades in Fujian, vented their anger and killed more than 1000 captives of Ke Yongsheng headquarters who surrendered.

After taking down Jiaxing, the army from the east bank boarded the ship again, and then approached the empty city of Hangzhou, causing panic in Hangzhou for a while.Zhang Cunren summoned the gentry and wealthy households in the city to donate, and recruited warriors to defend the city, but he still couldn't give people any sense of security.But they were lucky, just when the reinforcements from Nanjing arrived, Liu Haiyang felt that the troops were insufficient, so he ordered the withdrawal.

But just when Zhang Cunren breathed a sigh of relief, news suddenly came from the south that King Lu's subordinates Ruan Jin, Zhang Mingzhen and others captured Jiantiaosuo, and then attacked the city nearby, laying down a large territory in a short time.

After Liu Haiyang heard the news, he dissuaded Chao Xian who wanted to go to the rendezvous, and then led his troops to land in Songjiang Prefecture again on September 9. After taking some captives and mobilizing the Qing army (the reinforcements sent by Nanjing), he boarded the ship and left again. And in the first ten days of October, they suddenly appeared along the Yangtze River and came to Zhenjiang Mansion, which made the Qing army have a good time.

At this time, Nanjing is already quite empty of troops, not to mention Zhenjiang, which is close to here.Some of the troops originally stationed here were transferred to Jiangxi to support Jierhalang, and some went south to support Hangzhou. The remaining troops were more than self-preserving but not aggressive enough.

On October 10, the army on the east bank captured Jingkou Ferry, which was guarded by the Qing soldiers. The Qing army failed to burn the huge amount of grain and tax silver stored here before retreating. Therefore, all of them fell into the hands of Liu Haiyang, Liu Guochang, and Wang Chaoxian. .The more than 10 shi rice grains, and as much as 45 taels of tax silver, were fully filled with more than ten 1200-ton motor sailing ships, and the people on the east coast also transshipped here for more than ten days.During this period, Nanjing sent some troops to try to recapture Jingkou Ferry, but they were not pleased with the east bank troops supported by naval guns, and retreated in embarrassment.

On October 10, after the Jingkou ferry was burned down, the army on the east coast returned to Hangzhou Bay by boat again at the end of the month. The Qing army, which was short of troops, was exhausted.The situation in the southeast coastal area, which was originally in a good situation and could provide stable food and salaries to the Qing court, showed a tendency to gradually disintegrate.

But at this time, the good luck of the Qing army gradually came.As the northeast wind blows on the nearby sea, as many as 18 1200-ton motor sailboats gathered here began to sail in batches to Yantai, Jeju, Dabo and other places—the annual immigration transportation season It started again.After all, the most important task of the people on the east bank in the Far East was immigration, and fighting the Qing army was the second most important task.

After these ships left, the East Coast Army, whose maneuverability was greatly reduced, could no longer freely launch a counterattack, because they only had four ships at this time (the navy gunboat and a coal carrier teamed up to the Jiujiang area, and the attack was for Jierha The small Qing army boats used by Langbu to transfer supplies, dragging its hind legs) can be used to transport supplies and personnel.And this obviously gave the Qing army in Zhejiang, which had been exhausted, a sigh of relief for a while, and was able to calmly adjust its layout.

After seeing the ships of the yellow-clothed thief sailing northward, Wang Chao felt that there was nothing to do down there, so after notifying Liu Haiyang, he began to lead his army back to Zhoushan.The more than [-] people in the department (the army has been expanded) will go to the gymnasium in the south after a short rest to join Zhang Mingzhen and Ruan Jin.I heard that Lu Jianguo, who was stationed in Shacheng Port, also intends to return to the east of Zhejiang, so it will be even better, everyone will join forces, and there will be no shortage of food and wages for the time being (the seizure was quite rich a while ago), which is just right for a great cause.

Liu Guochang, Liu Shijun, Cai Huaze and others from Dashun retreated to Ningbo Prefecture in eastern Zhejiang under the advice of the people from the east coast.There are plenty of things and people here, the terrain is excellent, and it is also close to the Zhoushan Islands, so it can be used as a base.Liu Haiyang suggested that they recruit civilians to build a bastion in the mountain corridor from Yuyao County to Yin County. The terrain here is narrow.If the Qing army did not pull out this nail, large groups of troops would no longer be able to easily enter the hinterland of Ningbo Mansion. In this way, the Shun army might take the opportunity to occupy here.Of course, if things go wrong, they can return to sea with the assistance of the East Coast Navy, which is very convenient.

At the beginning of November 1649, when Liu Haiyang in the south was racking his brains to cause trouble for the Qing army, on the Shandong battlefield in the north, the forwards of the Qing army who had returned from Shanxi also appeared in Guide Mansion of Henan Province and Hejian Mansion of North Zhili In the territory, the battle cloud once again shrouded the sky over Shandong.Of course, the people on the east bank discovered the movement of the Qing army very quickly. After all, it was difficult to conceal the movement of tens of thousands of troops. According to the plan made in advance, the people on the east bank began to pack their bags and made preparations to evacuate Jinan City.

(End of this chapter)