Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 605 Qing Yongchang, Tongling mining
In Chizhou City, Jin Li had already fallen asleep, and when he heard the sound of the cannon, he was startled and sat up suddenly on the bed. He grabbed a piece of clothing and ran out before he could put on his shoes.

The secret works of the Ming Dynasty spread all over the south of the Yangtze River, and the Qing government also dispatched a large number of spies in Chu and Jiangxi. Judging from the intelligence, Wang Yan and He Tengjiao are preparing troops in Huguang. .

Hearing the sound of the cannon, Jin Li broke out in a cold sweat as if he had fallen into a hole in the ice. Could it be that Wang Yan's guy secretly planned to kill him by surprise and brought the army down?
Jin Li rushed out of the bedroom in a hurry, and saw Zong Yiqian running towards him in a panic.

This man was obviously in a mess, tripped over a stone and was eating shit, the bamboo hat on his head fell aside and exposed his bald scalp, and he didn't pick it up, he ran to Jin Li out of breath, and said in a panic: "The general is not good, The Ming army marched eastward, and the fort broke out."

After hearing this, Jin Li walked out while putting on his clothes. Behind him, the guards were already chasing up with their armor and shoes.

When he boarded the city wall amidst the sound of "rumbling" cannons, Jin Li had already put on his clothes. He looked at the river from a distance, and saw the artillery erupting in the hazy night. There was a mess in the flames, and it took a long time to fire back one or two shots.

On the edge of the sandbar, a group of Ming soldiers had rushed to the river beach from the waist-high river.

"Send an order to ask Hu Maozhen to bring 2000 people to support immediately."

The Qing soldiers in the city were mobilized urgently, and the water gate of Chizhou was opened wide. The Qing army came out of the city with small boats, followed the moat and entered the Qiupu River, and rushed to the sandbar by the force of the water.

At this time, Xu Junsheng led the Ming army and had rushed to the fort. Several Qing soldiers were fiddling with artillery and firing at the fleet. The Ming army rushed forward and immediately cut down the Qing soldiers.

A thousand Qing soldiers were suddenly shelled, and in the dark night, they were already in chaos and could not organize a resistance at all.

Qing general Hu Maozhen led nearly a hundred small boats and rushed out from the mouth of the Qiupu River. In the dark night, the mountains of big blessing boats cut off the Qing army's warships.

The ships of the Qing army were small, and they were not fire boats. They were fishing boats and cargo ships. Army sailor.

The Ming army's big ship was rampaging on the river, and the Qing army, which had just rushed out of the river mouth, immediately turned the boat back after seeing this battle.

On the big ship, soldiers of the Ming army stood on the side of the ship holding their guns, shooting and killing the Qing soldiers who fell into the water, and the river was red.

Two thousand Ming troops rushed to the fort, and there were screams on the sandbar. In less than half an hour, except for more than 300 people who were captured alive, the rest of the Qing soldiers were all killed.

When Man Dazhuang boarded the sandbar, Xu Junsheng greeted him with cupped fists and saluted, "Report to Duzhen, the fort has been taken down, and the reinforcements from Chizhou have returned to the city."

"How many people did we kill?"

"320 people were captured, and a total of 680 people were killed. No one escaped on the sandbar."

Man Dazhuang nodded, he looked at the night, it was almost dawn, and then ordered: "The sentry ship is closely monitoring Chizhou, and the rest of the brothers rest on the spot and set off after dawn!"

In Chizhou City, all the Qing troops spent the night in fear. Jin Li and Zhong Qing were unable to judge the situation outside the city. They didn't know if the main force of the Ming army was attacking. They had to wait until dawn to investigate.

Jin Li didn't go down to the city until a gleam of white appeared in the east, and the hazy night gradually became clear. Finally, he could see the scene on the river clearly. A huge Ming army fleet was moored near the sandbar, on the fort The sun and moon flag with a blue background has been planted.

The warships of the Ming army were moored on both sides of the sandbar, and the flags on the ship were flying. The decks were full of Ming troops, no fewer than ten thousand, exuding bursts of murderous aura.

Jin Li leaned on the wall and looked at it, feeling uncertain. At this time, a Qing general rushed up the tower with his sword in hand, "General, the spies have returned, but they haven't found the main force of the Ming army. Thirty miles along the river, there is only This navy."

After hearing this, Jin Li breathed a sigh of relief, and then became a little annoyed. Ten thousand Ming troops dared to attack Chizhou, so it was too much to despise him.

"Give me an order to set up the cannons to the riverside, and let Hu Maozhen organize troops to take back the sandbar." Now that the main force of the Ming army did not come, Jin Li had no scruples.

He ordered that the Qing army was about to be moved, but a Qing general pointed to the sandbar and said, "General, the Ming army seems to be preparing to retreat."

"Where to retreat?" Jin Li heard the sound and all the Qing generals turned around and looked at the Ming army fleet. They saw that the Ming army on the sandbar was boarding the ship, and the artillery on the fort was also carried onto the big ship by the Ming army. The supplies were swept away by the Ming army.

"Forget them to know each other." Jin Li snorted coldly, and at the same time he was relieved. It was a good thing for him that the Ming army took the initiative to retreat.

At this time, he was staring at the river, his eyes suddenly moved to Zhoutan, and his brows immediately frowned.

I saw more than 300 green battalion soldiers, with their hands tied behind their backs, kneeling in a row on the beach. Behind them, a row of Ming soldiers held swords in their hands, raised their swords high, and chopped off one by one, killing more than 300 prisoners. He was kicked into the river and drifted down the river.

This was a naked provocation, a naked demonstration, but the Qing soldiers really had nothing to do with the Ming army. The green battalion soldiers on the city watched this scene helplessly and fell silent.

Man Dazhuang pressed the hilt of his knife, looked at the top of the city, his face was full of complacency, and when all the prisoners were thrown into the river, he laughed and waved: "The whole army boarded the boat and continued to go east."

Half an hour later, the Ming army moved all thirty cannons, two thousand catties of gunpowder, and one thousand shi of rice and grain from the sandbar, and then burned the barracks on the sandbar with a fire, and set sail eastward.

Jin Li on the top of the city was slightly taken aback when he saw this. He thought that the Ming army was going to withdraw to Huguang, but he didn't expect to continue eastward. Could it be that tens of thousands of people wanted to sneak attack Nanjing?
"Quickly, send a fast horse to inform Governor Hong!" From Chizhou to Jiangning, the Qing army had no beacon towers and had to rely on horses to run.

Tongling County, the prefecture of Chizhou, is the same as the copper produced in Tongren, Guizhou Province. You can know that there must be copper mines in Tongling County just by looking at the place names.

In fact, Tongling not only produces copper but also iron. To the southwest of Tongling City, there is a large mine, Tongguan Mountain.

At this time, Fan Yongdou's Qing Yongchang Company employed nearly [-] workers to mine and smelt the copper ore. After the copper ore was smelted into copper ingots, it was transported along the Datong River into the Yangtze River by cargo ship.

At the mouth of the Datong River, after Yan Congnian transported the pig iron from Yangzhou to Jiangning Zhubaofang, he came to Chizhou Prefecture to extract ore. He led twenty large cargo ships to anchor at the mouth of the Datong River, loading copper ingots from the mine.

Both iron and copper were important materials for casting cannons in the Ming Dynasty. With this batch of copper and iron, the Qing army was able to build a batch of artillery in a short period of time.

Hong Chengchou's casting speed was not slower than Wang Yan's, on the contrary, it was faster. The Qing court occupied most of the world, and the most affluent Jiangnan. Most of the Ming Dynasty's cannon casting workshops and craftsmen fell into the hands of the Qing court. As long as the Qing government wants to build, artillery will inevitably continue to flow.

Yan Congnian stood on the deck, watching the hired workers loading and unloading copper ingots. At this moment, a hired worker suddenly pointed at the river and shouted: "There are dead people!"

Hearing the commotion, Yan Congnian hurriedly moved to the side of the boat, looked in the direction pointed by the hireling, and saw a few corpses floating downstream in the river, they were all tied behind their backs, rising and falling with the waves, with a "soldier" on their clothes. " word, let him turn pale with fright.

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(End of this chapter)