The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 291 If you can do it, so can I!

It was only then that Zhu Linmei remembered that the "leader" merchant just now was Mu Jing's bodyguard, and his name seemed to be Ya Le.

He hurriedly protruded, "There is no need to be too polite." Then he asked Mu Jing, "Didn't Mu Tongzhi and Lingmei return to Yunnan? Why are they still in Guangdong?"

Mu Jing cupped his hands and said, "Returning to Your Highness, the officials and their party wanted to leave Guangdong and enter Guangxi last month, but suddenly got the news that Ding Kuichu sent troops to curb the entire territory of Guangxi, allowing people to enter and not leaving.

"The lower official was worried about being taken hostage by the Ding family, so he has been lingering in Zhaoqing Mansion."

Zhu Linmin nodded, and said to herself, from this point of view, Ding Kuichu had already started plotting a rebellion at least half a month ago.

He only thought that the Mu brothers and sisters came here because of the war in Guangdong, and they were about to ask, when Mu Jing answered, "Your Highness, I am here to inform you that I am in a hurry."

"Oh? Mu Tongzhi, please tell me."

Mu Jing took a step forward and lowered his voice, "His Royal Highness, I have received reliable news that Ding Kuichu intends to embrace King Gui to rebel..."

Zhu Linmi was very surprised when he heard the words, Jin Yiwei got his "prophecy" and took a lot of effort to find the clue of Ding Kuichu's rebellion, the Mu family would know it so quickly!

"Mu Tong knows where to get the news?"

Mu Jing lowered his voice, "Returning to Your Highness, Ding Kui Chu urged Sha Dingzhou to serve as Gui Fan with him. But Sha Dingzhou said earlier that the Mu family rebelled against him, and his father refused, so he revealed the matter and said no." The day will gather a large army to overthrow the imperial court, and Xu Gaojue will lure my father."

These scourges!Zhu Lin said angrily inwardly, she couldn't see them when she was resisting the captives, and the civil strife is the same.If one is not careful, the mountains and rivers will be destroyed by them.

He suddenly remembered something, and asked Mu Jing puzzled, "Since Guangxi is no longer able to go in and out at will, how did this news get to you from Yunnan?"

"Returning to Your Highness, the Mu family has been in the southwest for hundreds of years, and there are some friends in Guidi." Mu Jing said, "If my father is not worried that the subordinate officials will be recognized, it may be possible to let them take the subordinate officials across Jiangxi."

"Oh." Zhu Linmei nodded, and immediately remembered the matter of rescuing Yongli, and asked Mu Jing again, "Then can you bring someone into Guiwang's mansion?"

"This..." Mu Jing thought for a moment, and said, "My father has some old friends with Jiangxi Deputy Envoy, and now Ding Kuichu relies on him as his confidant, so you can give it a try."

Zhu Linmi was overjoyed, and said to Mu Jing, "If it can be done, the Mu family will make another great contribution to the court!"

He also ordered Shi Lin, "Send someone to contact Xu Feihu, a thousand household in Jinyiwei, and ask him to discuss with Mu Tongzhi about sneaking into Prince Gui's mansion."

"Yes!"

Seeing that the assistant king was so solemn, Mu Jing hurriedly said: "Your Highness, the official will personally send Xu Qianhu to meet Deputy Envoy Lu, and he will try his best to help."

"Okay, then I will work hard for you."

"For important national affairs, lower officials should do their best."

After Mu Jing finished speaking, he looked at his sister again, as if he was a little worried.

Seeing this, Zhu Linmei said: "Young sister will follow in the army first, there will be no difference." He turned his head and said, "Shi Lin, divide into thirty soldiers, and carefully protect Miss Mu."

"Yes!"

Mu Jing hurriedly bowed and said, "Thank you, Your Highness, for taking care of me. It's not too late. I'm going to contact Xu Qianhu right now."

……

Three days later, the Dragon Guards arrived north of Humen, across the river from Guangzhou.

In the big tent of the Chinese army, Zhao Shichao was facing the sand table and introducing to the generals the deployment of the Cantonese army just reported by the hussars.

"Although it is the dry season, the surface of the Pearl River is still a mile and a half wide. As far as Tan Ma saw, there were a large number of sentry boats parading on the river, and some people found white-bottomed warships."

"If a boat is recruited to cross the river upstream, it will be bombarded by the warships of the thieves." He pointed to a narrowing part of the river on the south side of the Pearl River, "however, according to the survey at the end of the day, there are only less than [-] steps in the Pearl River. Wide, if you gather people and horses to pass at the speed of a boat, you may be able to cross by force."

He paused, and turned his fingers to the west bank of the Pearl River, "It's just that the bandits have built an earth barrier more than one mile wide here, and it's only twenty or thirty steps away from the river, but they are blocking the ferry."

Zhu Linmi frowned slightly. Two hundred paces, that is, a river more than 300 meters wide, if she wanted to cross with the firepower of more than 3000 enemy troops, she would probably suffer a lot of casualties.

"Oh, that's right," Zhao Shichao said again, "this morning, some hussars looked at the other side with binoculars, and saw that there seemed to be a red fan looming among the bandit army."

Barbarians?Zhu Lin wondered, could it be a mercenary?Mercenaries were quite common in the late Ming Dynasty, but these people were more difficult to deal with than Ding Kuichu's Cantonese army.

He immediately remembered Gu Yanwu once said that the Cantonese army defending the Pearl River seemed to have heavy artillery.

If there were Portuguese mercenaries and artillery defenses, he couldn't help shaking his head, "It's not advisable to cross here by force."

Chen Xiongfei said from the side: "My lord, maybe forty or fifty heavy artillery pieces can be dispatched from Fujing, and stand in the weak places upstream of the bandit army, and use the guns to disperse the bandit boats, and our army will take the opportunity to cross the river."

Fujing has seized dozens of cannons from Azig, but they are all equipped with old-style gun mounts, and their moving speed is worrying.

Zhu Linmi still shook her head, "It's been at least 20 days since the cannon arrived. Wuzhou may change at any time, so it's not advisable to delay it for a long time."

All the generals talked about it for a while, but they suffered from the lack of warships, so they couldn't come up with a good solution for a long time.

Crossing the river...Zhu Linming stared at the sand table in front of her, and suddenly remembered that Boluo was blocked by Lu Wang's navy on the north bank of the Qiantang River a few months ago, which was quite similar to her current situation.

No, the Qiantang navy is much stronger than the dozens of sentinel boats on the Pearl River, but Boluo was still smuggled into the Qiantang River from the shallow water, which led to the disaster of Jianlunan committing Fujian.

When he thought of this, his eyes suddenly lit up, "If you can do it, I can do it too!"

When everyone heard the words, they immediately turned to Zhu Linmi's side, and listened to his orders: "Zhao Shichao and Zhu Jiadi, immediately recruit civilian ships nearby, and gather on the opposite bank of the Cantonese Army's defense line."

The two of them decided to force their way out only as the auxiliary kings, and they immediately stood at attention and said, "Yes!"

Zhu Linmi looked at Zhang Jiayu again, "You will lead the first battalion of infantry, plus two companies of the second battalion, as well as a company of hunters and an company of engineers, and change them into civilian clothes, and go to the upper reaches of the Pearl River overnight.

"Remember, only march at night and rest during the day."

"Yes!"

Zhu Linmei thought for a while, but still felt uneasy, and told Li Ying, "Find another eight or nine hundred people, tell them to change into the uniform of the Dragon Guard Army, stand beside the camp, and get a penny every day."

"Yes!

"...My lord, why is this?"

"You just have to do it."

"Yes!"

Zhu Linming continued to gather everyone around the sand table, arranged the battle deployment in detail, and discussed several sets of plans, and the meeting ended at noon.

Long Weijun is extremely efficient in doing things.At lunch time the next day, there were already [-] or [-] fishing boats, sand boats and the like gathered on the south side of the Pearl River.

According to the strategy agreed yesterday, Zhu's brother ordered the boats to be tied together with iron cables, and then wooden boards and sandbags were piled on the bows of the boats.

It's just that the boat was still on the beach, and the sound of gunfire from the other side was heard. For a while, sawdust flew randomly, and several boats were shattered into pieces.

(End of this chapter)