Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 519 The Strategy of Crossing the River
The Taihu Rebel Army is a place in the south of the Yangtze River. The essence of the rebel army that rose from hundreds of thousands of bee chrysalis after the cruel struggle against the Qing Dynasty.After they went south, they brought many talents to Wang Yan.

When he was besieged in Yangzhou at the beginning, the rebel army in Nanzhi area spontaneously rescued him. Thanks to Jin Sheng and Jiang Tianyi's master and apprentice leading thousands of Huizhou soldiers to feign surrender, he was able to defeat the besieged Yangqing soldiers in one fell swoop and break out of the siege.

After that, Wang Yan took the people to the south, while Jin Sheng and Jiang Tianyi returned to their hometown Huizhou to fight against the Qing Dynasty. They did not expect to get together again now.

In fact, in the Taihu Rebel Army, apart from Jiang Tianyi, most of the rest were Wang Yan's acquaintances, and it was precisely because of this that he incorporated them into the Loyalty Army.

Jiang Tianyi's words naturally attracted Wang Yan's attention. They are indeed not from Chongqing. They don't know the terrain of Sichuan and Shu and the water pattern of the river. The Qing soldiers are not from Sichuan. Maybe there is a way to cross the river. Neither the Ming army nor the Qing army knew that it was indeed feasible to ask the locals for a strategy to cross the river, and they might be able to reap unexpected joy.

In line with the principle of stabbing two poles if there is a date or not, Wang Yan immediately ordered to post a notice in Ba County, ask the people for advice, and offered a reward of one hundred taels of gold.

The next day Wang Yan and a few people continued to analyze the situation, and a military officer happily reported outside the hall: "Report, my husband, someone has revealed the list, and he is outside the hall, saying that he has a way to help the army cross the river."

This remark caused a commotion in the hall. If there is a way to cross the river, it will be of great help.

For a moment, everyone turned their gazes to the outside of the hall, and Wang Yanyi was overjoyed to invite someone to come in, but it was a middle-aged man wearing a cloth robe and a mustache.

When he arrived at the hall, his pair of clever little eyes scanned all the people in the hall quietly, then locked his eyes on Wang Yan, knelt down and kowtowed to Wang Yan immediately, and said: "Small man, Zheng Sihai, from Chengdu, He is a Shu brocade businessman who usually makes a living by transporting goods from Chengdu to Ba County for reselling.Today I saw the notice posted by the official army, and I am here to help my husband. "

Wang Yan raised his hand to let him stand up, and asked in a loud voice, "What can you do? Say it!"

"Reporting to Mr. Shu, there are many bamboos in Shu, and I thought the officers and soldiers could cross the river on bamboo rafts!"

After Wang Yan heard this, the fire of hope in his heart was extinguished immediately, and the hall was dead silent, and the disappointment could not be concealed on the faces of everyone.

He thought that with a lot of money, he could really get one or two tricks like Wanyan Zongbi, but he didn't think it would be a raft to cross the river.

When the Qing army retreated from Ba County, they took all the boats to the north bank, and burned all the boats that could not be taken away. When the Ming army came, they first chose to build rafts and tried to cross the river. Before reaching the center of the river, he was washed downstream.

Wang Yan also deliberately chose Taihu Lake general Yu Shizhong, who was familiar with water warfare, and led a thousand soldiers who were familiar with water, and made more than 100 wooden rafts to cross the river. When a raft entered the river, it was washed away by the current. Yu Shizhong was carried by the current for five miles. He lost the raft and came back after dark. Some unlucky ones drifted to the other side and were shot and killed by the Qing army .

After this trial, the Central Route Army learned from experience that a few people crossing the river on a raft is fine, but tens of thousands of people crossing the river, nine out of ten they will suffer defeat.

Wang Yan was disappointed in his heart, but his face was still calm, and he stood up, "I am very pleased with your dedication to the court. Shi Kui, take him down and take five taels of silver as a reward."

Lu Shikui clasped his fist when he heard this, and strode towards Zheng Sihai. After Zheng Sihai heard this, he boldly said: "My lord, the villain bought goods from Chengdu and transported them to Ba County. They were all made of rafts. Big rafts are no better than Bad boat!"

"Can a raft be compared to a boat?" Yu Shizhong had hoped to hear some good strategies for crossing the river, but he was disappointed. Hearing what he was talking about, he took a step forward and angrily yelled while holding his saber.

He has the most right to speak about this. The Taihu Rebels are best at manipulating ships and fighting against Qing soldiers. They know the ships like the back of their hands, and he has personally experienced crossing the river on a raft. If the raft can be compared with the boat, he will be washed away. to something.

He had a thousand brothers, but more than 100 did not come back. This small businessman wanted to kill the entire Central Route Army for a hundred taels of gold.

Zheng Sihai was taken aback by Yu Shizhong's scolding, and saw many generals in the hall holding the handles of their knives, each of them looked unkind, and even paled with fright, and stammered: "Msgrand, villain, what are you doing?" , Dare, dare to tease the officers and soldiers, lend me a courage, I dare not~"

Seeing his appearance, Wang Yan was slightly puzzled. He waved his hand and made Lu Shikui and Yu Shizhong step aside, "Can a raft really compare to a boat? Don't worry, speak slowly!"

After hearing Wang Yan's words, Zheng Sihai calmed down a little, swallowed his saliva, and then said, "Your Excellency should have heard of the phrase "buy a boat and go east." Downstream is very easy, but returning can only rely on fiber pulling, but the cost of pulling back is too high, so most merchants in Shu area first pay to build a boat, load the goods out of Sichuan and go down the river, and do business along the way along the river. , In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the goods were almost sold out, so I sold the boat and returned to Sichuan by land.”

Wang Yan didn't understand what this had to do with rafts?But although he was puzzled in his heart, he didn't open his mouth to ask, and listened patiently.

As a small businessman, Zheng Sihai is very good at observing people's words and expressions. Seeing that everyone's faces were not good, he quickly got into the subject: "It's the business of big businessmen to buy a boat. How can a small businessman like a villain have the money to buy a boat? Therefore, big bamboo rafts are built in the upper reaches. Most of the bamboo in central Sichuan is big bamboo. If you make it bigger, you don’t have to worry about the cost of materials. Generally, the rafts can stand up to two layers, and it’s great if you can stand ten people. The raft we built has three layers of big bamboo It is three feet long and two feet wide, and the cargo it carries is absolutely no less than that of an ordinary ship."

"Three feet long and two feet wide?" Wang Yan frowned slightly. It was indeed much larger than the raft they built, but he still had doubts: "Your raft is big enough, but the raft has no sails or paddles, and the current of the Yangtze River is fast. , how can you control the direction?"

Zheng Sihai swallowed another mouthful of saliva and explained: "Reporting to my lord, we set up a raft and lowered it from the upper reaches. We have to walk hundreds of miles on the river, relying on long poles to control the direction, but the most important thing is to be familiar with the water patterns on the river. Where is urgent, where is slow, and where there is an undercurrent, you must be clear. The river in Baxian County turns a bay at Dadukou, but the water has inertia, and the big raft can use the force of the water to rush across the center of the river. , close to the north bank. At this time, the water potential will suddenly change, and it will suddenly flow back to the south, but as long as you support the bottom of the river with a long pole and push forward, you can rush to the shore."

After he said this, everyone in the hall immediately started discussing, most of them were happy.

The shipbuilding process is complicated and takes a lot of time, but the raft is fast and boundless, and there are big bamboos on the surrounding mountains, which are inexhaustible, so there is no need to worry about running out of materials.

If everything is as Zheng Sihai said, then there is no unparalleled road. With Luzhou's boats and big bamboo rafts, crossing the river will be easy!The Ming army killed across the river and outflanked Wu Sangui. The odds of winning the Sichuan-Shu battle were at least [-]%.

Wang Yan's heart moved, and he glanced at Zheng Sihai, with a look of love on his face. He stood up, pressed his hands, and told everyone to be quiet, and then said: "Well, Shi Kui, you take Zheng Yuanwai down to receive the reward! Dai Zhifan You bring people into the mountains to cut bamboo, Mr. Chen
Responsible for sending people to recruit folks who are good at driving bamboo rafts, and even the poorest people will go to this pavilion to build rafts! "

"No!" Everyone cheered up and responded in unison!

(Thanks to longhong2530, Qin Songwang's monthly pass. The next chapter will be at 12 o'clock.)
(End of this chapter)