Chapter 116: Sailing on the Qiantang River
"...In other words, through satellite reconnaissance images and the former Vladivostok Far East Company's informants in Liaodong, it is currently known that the Eight Jurchen Banners are moving into the customs on a large scale. By then, Liaodong's defense force will be further greatly weakened, and even more It is conducive to our attack... So the relevant departments are preparing to postpone the launch of the Liaodong offensive again, so they have freed up a field force for my side to use? "
In a tent on Zhujiajian Beach on Zhoushan Island, the frontline commander of the Jiangnan battlefield, Major General Sun Yang from the Chinese American Republic in North America, was sitting next to a table covered with a map of China in the seventeenth century, looking at today's The Chinese territory was torn apart by colored pencils representing various forces. "...Actually, no matter how many post-Jin armies there are in the cold weapon era, what's so scary about it?" He smacked his lips disapprovingly.
"...No, it is no longer the Jin army, but the Qing army." Wang Qiu shook his head and corrected, "...On the first day of the first lunar month of this year, Huang Taiji announced that he would move the capital to Beijing and change the country's name to 'Qing' . Although no one on our side is afraid of the Eight Banners soldiers, the smaller the resistance, the better!”
"...So, our opponent has become the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty?" Sun Yang whistled, "...Now, it becomes easier to talk about it. What I said before about Hou Jin always felt strange. Weird, it seems like it was still the same era as Yue Fei’s in the Southern Song Dynasty..."
"...No, Huang Taiji did not proclaim himself emperor, he was still the Khan of the Qing Dynasty." Wang Qiu shook his head again, "...Although some surrendered Han officials in Beijing were persuaded to join, Huang Taiji seemed to feel that his current territory He is still too young. If he proclaims himself emperor directly, he may be ridiculed as a mere monkey, so he plans to continue to conquer more territories first..."
"... He still thinks his territory is small? Could it be that he wants to take over the entire North China?" Sun Yang blinked in confusion.
Judging from the map, ever since the Guan Ning army defected and the Eight Banners soldiers entered the Pass, the Hou Jin Dynasty, er, the territory of the Qing Dynasty, has been in the process of explosive and rapid expansion - breaking through the Pass and heading south, sweeping the capital and seizing Beijing. Swallowing Zhili in the north, Shandong in the south, Xuanfu and Datong in the west... In just half a year, Huang Taiji had conquered more than 300,000 square kilometers of land.
Due to the maritime trade through Dagu Port in Tianjin, the cumbersome refugee population was exchanged for a large amount of food and materials with the "Global Chinese Travelers Alliance", so even the snowy winter did not stop the elite soldiers of the Eight Banners. Rushing forward - At present, the Qing army on the western front has been chasing after Emperor Chongzhen's exiled court, and has invaded the dilapidated Shanxi Province on a large scale. With the few remaining troops in Emperor Chongzhen's hands, it is impossible to resist the defeated generals. Live. The Qing army on the southern front broke through Dezhou in December and attacked Jinan and Kaifeng like mercury pouring from the ground.
With the logistics supply fully guaranteed, the sharp offensive of the Eight Banners Soldiers of the Qing Dynasty seemed unstoppable. Its vanguard even crossed the frozen Yellow River and penetrated deep into the border of Henan. But on the other hand, the rapid expansion of the occupied area also led to the rapid shortage of Qing troops... Therefore, Huang Taiji had to recruit surrender and rebels, and find ways to organize some traitor troops to maintain security in the rear; while desperately extracting troops from Liaodong People even asked the Eight Banners soldiers to move their families into the pass and be allocated farms and mansions to stabilize the occupied area and at the same time ensure that they had a strong enough field army in their hands.
As a result, the military power in Liaodong is naturally becoming more and more empty - but no one in the entire Eight Banners is worried about such boring things. Everyone is focused on staring at the colorful world in the pass, wishing they would never have to return in their lifetime. To that bitter cold place of ice and snow.
As for the "powerful pirates" who appeared in Vladivostok and burned Ninggu Pagoda, even Huang Taiji forgot to care about them.
Although in the eyes of the time-travelers, the white mountains and black waters that these people abandoned like worn-out clogs are the "emperor's foundation" that is enough to carry a large industrialized country!
"...Since Huang Taiji is wisely draining the troops outside the customs, we might as well continue to wait patiently so that we can take over the entire Liaoning Province in a more 'peaceful' way in the future - in this way, Vladivostok will be vacated. Thirty thousand mobile troops were deployed.”
Wang Qiu pointed to the Zhejiang area on the map, "...Currently, the governor of Zhejiang in the Ming Dynasty is leading the only field force in the province, about 13,000 people, in the Wenzhou area with the troops entrenched in Fenshui Pass. Two thousand Funing troops confront each other. At this time, the Funing Army camp in Xiapu, Fujian, has once again gathered 5,000 troops, commanded by Chief of Staff Jin Qiude, and is preparing to go north to Wenzhou to defeat this enemy in one fell swoop and complete the occupation of the entire southern Zhejiang region.
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Then, General Huangshi will soon come to Zhoushan to supervise the battle in person, preparing to use the [Suicide Gate] to transfer 30,000 temporarily idle Far Eastern troops from Vladivostok, land in Ningbo in a large scale, and launch a sweep of the entire eastern Zhejiang region... and finally fight against the Jin Dynasty. The Southern Route Army seeking virtue met in the Taizhou area. ”
"...So...General Huangshi is coming in person? So he didn't leave these 30,000 people under my command..."
Major General Sun Yang sighed with some disappointment, "...then, what is my mission? Stay in Zhoushan to guard the base?"
"...No, that would be too wasteful." Wang Qiu raised his eyes and looked at the huge fleet anchored in the bay, and said meaningfully, "...it's still pretty much the same as the original plan. Lingao will give you another plan. Replenish 3,000 troops, gather 8,000 land troops, and then conduct sneak attacks and harassment on the rear of the Ming army, just like what the Japanese pirates did in the past. As for the target of the attack... Hangzhou or Songjiang, you choose one! ”
"... Let's stick to Hangzhou. At least we can see the Six Harmonies Pagoda and the West Lake - Shanghai, or Songjiang, is really not interesting these days."
After a moment of hesitation, Sun Yang made a decision, "...However, before setting off, there are still some tails to be cleaned up in Zhoushan..."
——So, when a large group of African black uncles, fully armed and with oil paint on their faces, lined up in a chaotic formation, howling and screaming like Yakshas descending to the earth, they went up to Mount Putuo, frightening the bald donkeys in the temple to ring the bells at random and talk loudly. When reciting the blessings of Amitabha and Bodhisattva. The Chinese-American Republic Expeditionary Fleet, which had just swept across the Zhoushan Islands, once again hoisted the military flag, raised sails and anchors, and sounded the clarion call to set off for the mainland...
Then, accompanied by the sound of gongs, the densely populated Qiantang River suddenly fell into a commotion.
"...Kun thief! Kun thief's big ship is coming to kill us!"
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Hangzhou, Magistrate’s Office
It is now the time for the New Year's seal to rest, and there is no official business to deal with. The Yamen officers have already gone home to reunite with their relatives.
In the small study room of the back office, Liu Mengqian, the prefect of Hangzhou, was carefully wiping the shade of a glass oil lamp in his hand facing the winter sunshine.
——This is a treasure that the prefect's Yamen took out from the boudoir of "Australian famous prostitute" Pei Lixiu when they seized Ziming Tower in Hangzhou last autumn. The clear whale oil in the lamp always exudes bursts of wonderful fragrance, and the eight colorful pictures of beauties carved on the milky white glass lampshade are even more ingenious, revealing a clear but not demonic beauty everywhere, far better than those on the market. superior The ordinary "Australian oil lamps" on sale were more luxurious and exquisite, and Magistrate Liu, who prided himself on elegance, couldn't put it down at first sight. Even the menial work of scrubbing the lampshade had to be done by himself, lest he be slightly damaged by clumsy servants.
What's more, since the Fujian General Huang Shi colluded with the Kun thieves to rebel, and Nanjing issued a strict order requiring the Kun thieves and other foreign barbarians to "close the port and suspend the market", all kinds of "Australian goods" on the Hangzhou market have been cut off. It disappeared quickly, which made the citizens quite unhappy. Even the most common Australian lamps are priceless in Hangzhou today, let alone high-quality luxury goods like this.
In fact, Magistrate Liu Mengqian has always been disapproving of the inexplicable outbreak of the current war, and felt that he was taking the initiative to cause trouble. It's just that the words of others can't affect the decision-making of the Donglin Party bosses. They can only try to use this opportunity to get more benefits for themselves - during the inspection of "thief industries" such as Ziming Tower and Wanbi Bookstore, as well as Qinghefang Nanyang When there were shops selling "Australian goods" on the street, the entire Hangzhou government office made a huge fortune. Next, another sum of money was taken from the heads of the gentry who believed in Western Christianity.
However, just when the government officials who had made a lot of money were complacent and prepared to "attack" and "destroy all the remaining bandits", they went to inspect Fenghuang Villa, the "den of thieves" in the suburbs. He actually kicked the iron plate——He We people came to the door with iron rulers and sticks and just wanted to make a fortune, but they were beaten by the village guards who ignored the official law. They were beaten with volleys of guns and stabbed with long spears. More than a dozen people died in one go, leaving them in despair all the way. The ground fled back.
After the embarrassing defeat from Phoenix Villa, Magistrate Liu originally thought about mobilizing men to take revenge. Unexpectedly, he took stock of his own strength and found that the Hangzhou Mansion now had no troops to mobilize at all. At this time, The governor of Zhejiang has already led the entire province's troops south to Wenzhou, claiming to quell the rebellion in Fujian Province. However, due to the natural danger of the rebels seizing Fenshui Pass first, the officers and soldiers had no way to go south and could only endlessly follow in southern Zhejiang. Funing army confronts. And the Nanjing side was busy resisting the Wenxiang Cult monsters in Jiangbei and supporting the new emperor. For a while, no one could care about the Hangzhou side.
Even the passionate scholars who had been chanting slogans all day long to defeat the bandits and restore the bright future of tomorrow, after learning the news of the fall of Beijing and the flight of the emperor, they focused all their attention on deposing Chongzhen and supporting the new regime. In view of the emperor's great cause, he no longer cares about the wars in Fujian and Lingnan. Don't mention this little thing in Hangzhou... Therefore, regarding the fact that there are still "remnants of thieves" entrenched in the suburbs of Hangzhou, Magistrate Liu finally had no choice but to take a careless eye and deal with it vaguely - anyway, of course it was on his side. He couldn't get in, but the thief in the villa couldn't get out either.
In this case, let's just make do with it! Maybe as time goes by, this matter will slowly subside? Nowadays, the world is already raging with war, and the officials and gentry are all in danger. After all, Hangzhou is still a peaceful land, so why should I add more chaos?
After Emperor Yonghe of Nanjing, who was totally unconforming to etiquette and law, ascended the throne, he faced the dual military threats of Jiangbei rebels and Chongzhen's deposed emperor, as well as the unanimous opposition or indifference of the entire world's royal family and most of the provinces. The "insightful people" among the Donglin Party did not dare to cause trouble anymore. Not only did they not supervise In order to urge Magistrate Liu to continue to "clear out the remaining bandits", in the past two days, Donglin boss secretly instructed him to use this communication channel at Phoenix Villa to send a letter there in an attempt to test Huang Shi's "recruitment" The possibility of being a thief - Although Huang Shi was forced to rebel, his attitude didn't seem to be very firm. More than half a year since the war started, people have only been sent to seize Fenshuiguan and block the Zhejiang-Fujian channel, but there is no sign of going further north to Zhejiang... This gave Nanjing the illusion that "the problem may be solved peacefully"...
As for the situation in Lingnan... With both Huguang and Jiangxi refusing to recognize the Nanjing Communist Party, provinces further away from Nanjing have already cut off contact with the Nanjing court. Even if the bandits destroy Guangdong, what does it have to do with the Donglin gentlemen in Nanjing?
Alas, no matter what, in the eyes of Magistrate Liu, this chaos in Fujian is likely to end without any problem.
However, just as Magistrate Liu was carrying out wrong fantasies and playing with the beauty pictures on this "glass cup" in fascination, his old housekeeper pushed the door hard and burst in, panting. Shouted: "...Master, it's not good!"
In an instant, the "glazed lamp" with the picture of beauty fell to the ground and was smashed to pieces. Mr. Liu's mood fell to the bottom. Immediately, he became furious. He raised his right hand and was about to hit the butler in the face... …but looking at this old man in shock With a panicked look on his face, and remembering that he had been working diligently with him for more than twenty years, Mr. Liu finally managed to suppress his anger and asked in a deep voice: "...How can such a sudden and unexpected incident happen? Decency? Tell me, what’s the matter?”
However, the sudden change of "breaking the master's beloved glass lamp" made the housekeeper who was already panicked suddenly become even more panicked - the poor guy was so nervous that he was speechless for a while. , thinking blank, nothing can be said.
As a result, the anger in Magistrate Liu's heart began to increase, and it became increasingly difficult to control his emotions... Fortunately, before Master Liu's patience finally ran out, the old steward finally took a deep breath and said what he had been holding back for a long time. He said it all at once:
"...Kun thief, Kun thief came in! They are all big ships! Dozens of them! They are on the Qiantang River! They will be at the gate of Hangzhou soon!"
"...What did you say? Say it again!"
For a moment, the expression on Mr. Liu's face froze, but he even suspected that there was something wrong with his ears.
Naturally, the old housekeeper obediently complied with his request: "...Master! The Kun thief's warship has arrived on the Qiantang River outside the city!" After confirming the bad news, Magistrate Liu seemed to hear in his subconscious There was a sound like the broken glass oil lamp just now, and his face was pale - hadn't they already started talking? Why do these damn thieves keep coming?
"...Hurry, close the city gate immediately! And hurry up and get my film, summon all the gentry in the city, and discuss the important matter of defending the city together!"