Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 938 The Battle of the Yangtze River ([-])

"Boom! Boom!" Four "Amur River"-class inland river shallow-water gunboats lined up, one by one, stepped forward and bombarded a water village set up by the Qing army in Jiangyin.And on the central waterway of the Yangtze River farther away, the majestic "Cadiz Rock" opened its majestic gun windows, with 24-pound, 18-pound, 12-pound, and 8-pound guns. The long and short artillery made it easy to control the dominance of this section of the river.

At this moment, the heavy frigate "Rock of Cadiz" is like a lion patrolling its own territory, so proud and invincible - it has reason to be so proud, because the brand new single-cylinder 150 horsepower steam unit and a large number of The strong sails gave it the ability to move freely in relatively narrow and cramped rivers, and the small boats and fireboats of the Qing army going down the river could not threaten its existence at all.Coupled with the lightning-fast inland river gunboats that surround them at any time, the Yangtze River Navy of the Qing army has completely disappeared, perhaps hiding in the inland river port branch to avoid the attack of the navy on the east coast.

However, monks could not run away from the temple, and the Yangtze River navy of the Qing army avoided fighting. The army and navy divisions fought, and they harvested a lot of money, grain, cloth, tea, porcelain and other things, and it also seriously affected the water transportation between the north and the south.

The Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yangtze River had hundreds of thousands of troops in the air, but they couldn't turn into fish and turtles to fight with the navy on the east coast. This kind of powerless situation is the most damaging to morale.It is not that the Yangtze River Navy of the Qing Army did not resist, but after they were beaten back on the Zhenjiang River on May 5 by the First World War—in this battle, the Qing Army Navy lost more than 24 ships, large and small, under the siege of the East Coast Navy. Hundreds of officers and soldiers were killed and injured-their Yangtze River Navy has become a decoration, and now the only function is probably to escort those ships full of silver and grain at night to smuggle across the river north.

Although the population of China today has dropped sharply after the revolution of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, although most of the green camps in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties are now fighting in the south (which means that they eat locally), although the order of agricultural production in the north has changed after Li broke into it. Beijing has been restored a year or two ago. Although the northern court has not yet developed a great dependence on the southern grain and silver, the Grand Canal has been messed up by people on the east bank, and the normal navigation of a large number of ships has been affected. The flow of goods and money between them was greatly reduced, but it also made the Manchu and Qing courts in Beijing feel a lot uncomfortable.

At least, they depend on the south for a lot of money paid to the civil and military, nobles and hard-core crops of the Manchu Dynasty, right?Furthermore, Huihui and the Mongols in the northwest are not at peace now. I heard that there are bandits in yellow clothes in their hometown in the northeast. Of course, food, rice and vegetables can be raised locally from the north when the army is used—the drought in the north has eased for nearly ten years. In 30, the population and social order had also been greatly restored, and it was no problem to raise a military supply of [-] million horses and horses—but the problem was that not only food and grass were required for war, but also wages had to be paid!

Now it is not the first year of the dynasty when we first entered the customs. At that time, Manchurian soldiers entered the customs, and the descendants were like clouds.Whether it is the officials who surrendered or the hundreds of thousands of troops recruited, to put it bluntly, the salary requirements are very low, as long as they don't kill people indiscriminately, and they are given food.But now "My Great Qing Dynasty" has formally established a system, with the emperor, year title, official system, and military system.What is the first step according to the rules? Of course, it is to distribute money and food to officials and soldiers. Without them, how can you stabilize the situation in this world?

To pay salaries and maintain the operation of the court, the taxes in the north alone may not be enough. After all, the Green Camp, Han Army, Manchurian Eight Banners, and some local garrison troops under the Qing government now add up to 90 million. A lot of money is spent to appease the tribes of Mongolia and raise hard-core crops. This annual expenditure is not a small amount.Some people may say that most of the green camps are now in the south, and the local government can pay them on the spot, but the problem is that if the military pay and rations are all provided by the local government, and this kindness does not come from above, then what prestige does the Beijing court still have? Word?

The army is fed locally, the military pay is raised locally, and the armaments are supplied locally. This can only be used as an emergency measure in an emergency, and it cannot be normalized. This is not what the central court wants to see.

Now Jiangnan Cheng announced that the wealth of the Minister of Political Affairs (that is, Jiangnan Province) accounted for [-]% of the country's wealth, not to mention that since the end of Ming Dynasty, the local area has produced a large number of important commodities related to the national economy and people's livelihood, such as cotton cloth, silk, and tea. [-]. Silver cannot be transported to the north through the Grand Canal smoothly, so if it takes a long time, it will be more or less a big trouble for "My Great Qing"-lack of money to pay wages, is it possible to engage in rationing and follow the route of planned economy?

So, to put it bluntly, the ships of the people on the east bank are frequently active in the area from Nanjing to Chongmingsha. Although it cannot completely limit the traffic between the north and the south of the Qing court, it has seriously hindered the supplies and money between the two places. Flow is real.It is estimated that nothing can be seen in a short period of time, and at most it will make the Qing court uncomfortable for a while, but after a long time, the Qing court may also have to jump.If they can't concentrate their navy to drive the ships on the east bank out of the Yangtze River, then they can only find another way and detour to transport them from other places, but this will undoubtedly greatly increase the cost, and at the same time reduce the prestige of the Qing court. Hard to say.

"My lord, the gunboat of the bandit in yellow is very brutal. It has also been shot down here. Please move down the mountain quickly. It is safer there." road.My God, isn't the huge deck ship of the bandits in yellow just floating on the river? My dear, there are dozens of cannons on a ship, which is more than the entire Jiangnan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places combined. I really don't know these gangs How did the thief in yellow make a cannon!The men of the Ministry of War, it took a lot of effort to make a cannon, and it was a fucking small cannon. Compared with a thief in yellow clothes, he was not even worthy of carrying shoes!

"Where is the safe place in the Jiangnan chief envoy today?" Zhou Guozuo smiled wryly twice, and finally couldn't bear to shake Ma Bian's heart who had followed him for many years, turned around and went down the mountain: "The yellow-clothed thief Tens of thousands of people are raging thirty miles away, but our army has not been able to attack for a long time. Prince Zheng, who is in charge of Jiangnan military affairs, is extremely furious. If the yellow-clothed bandits who are staying there are not driven away, there will be countless people in Jiangnan If I want to be dismissed from office, I, the governor of Jiangning, who spent a lot of money to move here, might also be beaten, it's really bad luck, bad luck!"

Zhou Guozuo was born in Liaodong, a veteran traitor.In the years after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, a group of people who surrendered outside the customs and were incorporated into the Han army banner made a rapid fortune. The governors, governors, admirals and even the chief soldiers of the provinces in the customs basically fell into the hands of these people.And these old-fashioned traitors are indeed very hard-working. They spared no effort to fight for the Qing court and level the land. The new generation of traitors who surrendered after entering the customs felt envious and hated, and hated themselves for not being an early leader. The traitor hates himself for betraying the country and having nowhere to go.

Zhou Guozuo was in his prime of life, and currently served as the left servant of the Ministry of War, the right deputy Du Yushi, and the Zhenghuang Banner Han Army deputy Du Tong. He can be regarded as one of the top officials in the Han Army Banner.After entering the customs, he got Jiangning governor (the predecessor of the later Jiangsu governor) this fat and oily job by spending money and giving gifts and hugging his thighs. The goddamn yellow-clothed thief came all the way from the Yangtze River, which made Zhou Guozuo, who had just taken in a concubine, cold from head to toe like pouring a basin of ice water.

Zhou Guozuo, who heard the news, immediately lay in his concubine's quilt and wrote a report to it, saying, "The bandit army in yellow clothes is 40, and the soldiers are divided into three groups. Dozens of soldiers were sent out and wounded, but there are few soldiers, and they are powerless... I hope that the imperial court will quickly deploy [-] soldiers and [-] cannons in Manchuria, and the ministers should be full of energy, and the yellow-clothed pirates will be wiped out in one battle..."

Who is Jierhalang who sits in Hangzhou? Naturally, he won't be confused by Zhou Guozuo's little tricks to fool people -- let alone the people in the Beijing court. Li Zicheng's "80 thieves" is a wonderful thing-strictly order Zhou Guozuo, Tong Tulai, Liu Zhiyuan and others to work together to mobilize the Nanjing garrison and 6000 green camps in various places. At the same time, he also ordered Zhao Butai to lead [-] Manchurian officers and soldiers to set off from Nanjing to fight together all the way.

To be honest, more than 3 troops raised armaments, food, grass, and draft animals quite quickly—at least it was countless times more efficient than the Ming Dynasty—they set off from their respective garrisons within a few days, then contacted and joined each other, and went to Changshu County, where thieves in yellow clothes raged, can be called the rapid reaction force of the 17th century.

And when they just arrived at the junction of Changshu and Jiangyin counties and surrounded the main force of the yellow-clothed thieves, they were still trembling at first, because the great reputation of the yellow-clothed thieves in Shandong was not fake.However, after several vanguard battles, they found that many so-called yellow-clothed thieves were unbearable to fight at all, especially some troops who knew at a glance that the training time was not long and they could not hold their weapons steadily (Zhang Huangyan's department), so they were easily defeated by "my big brother" The defeat of the loyal and brave Green Battalion in the Qing Dynasty is really puzzling.

But after interrogating the captives, they finally understood that these are all fucking fake yellow clothes thieves!The real yellow-clothed thief is actually very vicious. One of Zhou Guozuo's subordinates, Mr. Qian, was abused when he attacked the black slave army, and he lost hundreds of people like chopping melons and vegetables. The officers and soldiers of the green battalion feel sympathetic.

"Help me on my horse, I'm going to see Mr. Zhao." Zhou Guozuo, who came down to the mountain, said to his close horse, "The bandits in yellow set up camps by the river, and they neither fight me in the field nor leave me. I can guess the reason. One or two. Forget it, let’s go to Mr. Zhao. He was sent by Prince Zheng to supervise the battle. I, the governor of Lao Shizi, is a fart in front of him. Now the [-] to [-] troops (a collection of some miscellaneous troops and regiments) have stopped. Jiangyin, it’s not a solution either, we have to find a way to get rid of this yellow-clothed thief.”

(End of this chapter)