The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 661 The Dust Settles
When Zhu Linmi and his party approached Lishui County—this place is located in the southeast of Nanjing and is also the location of the Longwei Army’s central camp in the plan—he found that there were many fewer craftsmen repairing wooden rails along the way, and he walked for more than ten miles before seeing them. The first craftsman.

Could it be that the officials responsible for this section of the wooden track were corrupt or dereliction of duty?There is a war going on right now, if the wooden rails break, it will delay the military situation!He ordered Shi Lin to call the craftsman on the roadside, and after asking, he found out that the thirty-mile-long wooden track was built by Tianrui, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry.This person had repaired wooden rails in Yunnan, and knew very well that wooden rails were easily damaged.So after repeated pondering and experimentation, when building the wooden track of the Lishui section, he made long iron bars embedded in the top of the wood, which greatly improved the durability of the track.The maintenance craftsmen needed for these thirty miles of wooden tracks are more than four times less than other places.

Zhu Linmi couldn't help sighing, the Chinese nation really has a lot of talents. Without the craft of casting iron rails, they tried to strengthen the wooden rails. Even he, a later generation, did not think of such a clever plan.

Why didn't he apply for a patent?Zhu Linming instructed Shi Lin, "Call this Tianrui to see me later."

"Yes!"

After walking for another half an hour, Zhu Linmi brought the imperial battalion to the vicinity of Lishui City.

The camp of the Dragon Guards was set up next to the forest six or seven miles northwest of the county seat. Zhang Jiayu and Yu Xin had reported that the holy chariot was coming, and they had already brought hundreds of guards to wait beside the wooden rails. up.

"How is the enemy situation ahead?" Zhu Linming got out of the car, returned a military salute, and waved to Zhang Jiayu and Yu Xin, "Go back to the camp and talk while walking."

Zhang Jiayu waited for him to get on the horse, followed by a horse's head behind him, and said: "Return to Your Majesty, this time Duoduo led the troops down from Zhenjiang, the soldiers and horses engulfed many civilians, the momentum is unprecedented.

"Now the rebel army is relying on Dantu County, with a company battalion for more than [-] miles. They have built large earthen fortifications, densely covered with ravines, formed camps and camps for defense, and stationed troops at Wuzhou Mountain and Shuangling Mountain, forming the horns of each other."

Zhu Linmei frowned, "It seems that Duoduo is going to fight steadily, and the encroachment is advancing."

Zhang Jiayu nodded and said: "Your Majesty sees it clearly, and the last general and others also think the same way. The purpose of building captives is to attack Nanjing directly."

Zhao Shichao said aside: "But it is also possible to continue to go south, attack Ningguo, Guangde and other places, and then invade Hangzhou. Cut off all the lines for our army to reinforce Nanjing, and finally make Nanjing an isolated city."

The possible movements of the enemy army had been fully considered at the meeting of the Jiangning Staff Department, Zhu Linmi was not surprised, and asked: "How is our army deployed?"

"Return to Your Majesty, each battalion has left Jiangning for the ambush site the day before yesterday..."

Zhu Linmi raised her eyes and saw that Lishui was stationed, so she signaled to Daying, "Let's go into the big tent and talk about it in detail."

After entering the general camp of the Chinese army, Zhang Jiayu asked people to spread out the map, pointing to Chunhua in the south of Nanjing, and said: "Your Majesty, 5000 troops from Yu Zhen, Sun Qi, and Shi Qin's troops from the Polu camp have arrived in Chunhua that day. The last general, together with Xuanqing, will lead a Chinese army of [-] troops to town Lishui."

He continued to move his fingers to the east, "6000 troops from Jin Wu and Tie Dake of the Polu Camp went to Fangshan, and 6000 troops from Deng Shan, Ma Wenhu, and Gan Hui went to Jintan. These two armies were selected according to the plan last night. The location is camped.

"Commander Yu personally led Jiao Lian, Huang Qishou and other elite Dragon Guards to Dushan. According to the time estimate, they should have arrived, but they haven't sent a message yet."

Zhang Jiayu pointed to the Liyang line further south, "In addition, more than [-] troops from the Zhejiang Army, the Jiangxi Army, and the Southern Strait Garrison have marched to Liyang, Shijiu Lake and other places, and they will arrive in at most two days. The outside of the barracks constitutes a line of defense."

Zhu Linmei looked at the map and nodded slightly. Counting Nanjing City, Chunhua, Lishui, and Dushan, there is a faint encirclement of Zhenjiang from west to east. No matter whether Duoduo is attacking Nanjing in the west or Hangzhou in the south , the Ming army can gradually gather according to the enemy's movements.

At that time, Yu Xinsuo, who is located on the northeast side, will lead the elite to penetrate the enemy's rear, cooperate with Li Dingguo's swift battalion to cut off the retreat of the Jiankui, and then attack in four directions at the same time. The Qing army will immediately fall into a tight siege.

At the same time, there are Zhejiang Army, Jiangxi Army and other departments on the periphery to intercept the enemy who may escape.Although their combat effectiveness is relatively weak, it shouldn't be a problem to deal with the defeated army fleeing in panic.

According to the current deployment situation, as long as the Ming army does not reveal its strategic intentions and waits patiently for the completion of the encirclement, basically all of Duoduo's 15 troops will be buried here!
Zhu Linmi pointed to the Yangtze River again, and asked, "How is the situation on the navy's side? Can we stop the enemy army when it retreats?"

Zhang Jiayu said with some regret: "Returning to Your Majesty, according to the report from Xunjie Battalion, the water level of the Yangtze River is extremely low at the moment, and a warship of more than [-] tons can travel near Zhenjiang at most, and if it is bigger, it will easily run aground.

"And the captives built forts on both sides of the river, the river is only fifty or sixty steps wide, and it is difficult to deploy warships, so it is absolutely difficult to get close to attacking the enemy..."

In this regard, Zhu Linmi did not complain about bad luck.Although the dry water in the Yangtze River is not conducive to the performance of the Daming Navy, it will also make Duoduo more confident and bold to invade the south. There are advantages and disadvantages.

Then Zhang Jiayu talked about the relocation of the people, the arrangement to confuse the Jianlu, etc., and they were basically implemented according to the plan, and they did it properly.

Zhu Linming felt relieved.After his long-term efforts, the Dragon Guard Army and the Polu Camp already had their own "souls". A large number of officers with modern combat concepts such as Zhang Jiayu and Yu Xin have also matured. They were all well organized too.

According to this trend, it won't be long before I can let them go alone.In the future, Ming Dynasty will surely travel to the five continents and four oceans. It is impossible for him to follow the expedition all the time. It is really gratifying that this strong army initially has the ability to safeguard national interests.

Seeing that it was getting late, he finally told Zhang Jiayu: "Tomorrow, we will start to lure the enemy into the depths gradually according to the strategy we discussed in advance." He prepared to send all the generals back to rest, after all, a big battle was about to start.

"Yes!"

As soon as Zhang Jiayu finished speaking, a hussar galloped to the left and shouted: "Huguang mansion report!" Then he entered and handed a letter box to the officer at the door.

Zhang Jiayu opened the letter box, and immediately smiled, "Your Majesty, good news, Changsha has won!"

Zhu Linmei took the residence newspaper and read it carefully.It turned out that Zhai Shisi and Yang Zhan were unable to conquer Changsha for many days, so they deliberately left a gap in the defense line. The rebel Liu Tiren's troops were eager to break out and join Wang Jincai's troops. Seeing this, they immediately led their troops out of the city and were ambushed by Zhai and Yang's troops. Kill most of them.Liu Tiren fled back to the city with only 700 people.

The Ministry of War previously ordered Zhai Shisi and Yang Zhan to rush to Nanjing to assist in the war immediately after recovering Changsha.At this time, although Changsha had not been captured, it was basically in the bag, so Yang Zhan's five thousand Sichuan troops and three thousand Guangxi troops had already set off for Wuchang, where they were going to take a boat along the Yangtze River and enter South Zhili, leaving only five thousand Gui troops. Continue to attack the city.

Zhu Linmei put away the military newspaper and said with a smile: "The battle in Huguang has been settled, and we must concentrate on dealing with Duoduo from now on!"

(End of this chapter)