Chapter 176: China is rich in emperors this year (2)
South Zhili, Changzhou Prefecture, Jiangyin County
The surging Yangtze River flows past the county town, and the ancient city walls are covered with mottled damage and bloodstains.
Among the wild grass at the foot of the city wall, burned siege equipment was scattered, and occasionally a few unresolved bones could be seen. Several villages and inns that were originally scattered within a few miles outside Jiangyin County have been burned into blackened ruins.
In the spring of the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, Jiangyin County was the only Ming Dynasty city that had not been occupied by the Qing army in the entire territory of Changzhou Prefecture.
The wounds caused by the last Qing army's invasion of the city have not yet healed, and the beacon smoke of a new wave of attacks has quietly ignited at this time.
——The Qing general Turge who attacked Jiangyin three months ago only used three Niulu's more than 200 real Tatars, plus thousands of temporarily collected traitor surrender troops, to defeat Jiangyin County. dilapidated. But this time, the Manchu Prince Abatai, who was about to invade Jiangyin, had twenty real Tatars under his command, as well as tens of thousands of Han troops who had shaved their heads and surrendered to the Tatars. You can imagine the pressure on Jiangyin County. Know.
Fortunately, at this critical moment, the soldiers and civilians stationed in Jiangyin County received a batch of crucial assistance.
"...Woooo——"
Accompanied by a long whistle and billowing soot, a steam-powered ship with a very different style from this era appeared on the water of the Yangtze River.
If a modern ship sailing enthusiast sees this ship, they will probably think that it is a mixture of ancient and modern styles: a slender clipper ship shape, a semi-sealed deck, an open turret arranged along the center line, two high mast, and two sets of steam engines burning coal.
In fact, the "Blast" fast cruiser, which was just launched at the Lingao Shipyard in Hainan Island, can almost be regarded as the most advanced warship that can be independently built on the earth. After the establishment of the Hua League, various franchises Taking into account the needs of global strategy, the Republic believes that a "colonial patrol/intervention ship that can reach the target area as quickly as possible and play a role" should be built.
Because a large part of the world is still in a savage state today, considering that it is much easier to mine coal than to mine oil, and you can burn wood as a last resort, coal-fired steam engines are chosen as power instead of more advanced diesel engines. After the design was finally completed, except for the wooden hull, it looked like a World War I-era destroyer. What is even more worth mentioning is that this battleship has an astonishing speed that is almost unrivaled in the world: during a sea trial, the "Hast Wind" fast cruiser used both the machine and sail in sea conditions with Category 6 winds, and actually once reached a speed of Twenty-five knots of highway. Even during normal sailing, this vessel can easily exceed fifteen knots.
In addition, the ends of the chimneys that are led to the sides of the ship are equipped with advanced spray and smoke elimination devices, which can spray water curtains at the smoke outlets to wash away the smoke and dust, reducing the recognition distance of the warship from the previous dozen nautical miles to Three nautical miles, greatly increasing the concealment of this cruiser's actions.
(Anyone who has watched "The Sino-Japanese War" knows that in naval battles in the era of steam ironclads, the smoke plumes can already be seen before the warships appear.)
This time, the delivery of ordnance and ammunition to Jiangyin County, where the Ming army was stationed, was the first mission of the fast cruiser "Blast" after it completed sea trials and officially entered service. Since it was necessary to go deep into the inland waterways and negotiate with unreliable "allies" who had unpredictable attitudes and liked to put on airs, in order to prevent the navy from causing trouble in Jiangyin, the owner of Zhao Yingong rarely left the Phoenix Villa in Hangzhou to personally Supervise this aid operation. Wang Qiu, who had nothing to do, also came over, wanting to see what the Jiangyin Anti-Qing Rebel Army, which was famous in history, was like.
Under the guidance of a navigation boat, the fast cruiser "Blast" slowly docked at the dock outside Jiangyin City. The marines carried on the ship immediately disembarked in formation and controlled the dock in accordance with tactical regulations to prepare for attacks - very soon Obviously, they have no trust in the local Ming army.
On the other side, Admiral Shen Tingyang of the Yonghe Imperial Navy, who is currently stationed in Jiangyin, is standing on the shore with a group of colleagues to greet him. At the same time, he carefully looks at this strange force. According to Shen Tingyang's careful observation, he found these short-haired thieves. Although the soldiers had gone through a long voyage, their military appearance was quite neat. Just look at them in a neat military formation on the dock. As well as the proficiency in changing formations amidst the officers' commands and brass whistles, you know that this army is well-trained, at least much better than the beggar "official troops" in Jiangyin City who can't even get their uniforms together. .
However, although the "Australians" came to help in times of need, there are still people in Jiangyin who do not welcome this "friendly army" very much.
"...Hmph, it's useless for this bandit to claim to be a Miao descendant of the Song Dynasty. Now look at it, he is wearing something like Hu clothes, and his beard and hair are damaged at will. I guess the Chinese orthodoxy in his country has been extinct, and he is no different from the barbarians." Behind Shen Tingyang ,just Chen Zhenhui, a famous scholar from Nanzhili who fled all the way from Yixing to Jiangyin with her family, shook her head with disdain and sighed with compassion. Looking at his expression, it seemed as if he had witnessed some terrible human tragedy.
"...Hmph, more than that!" Xia Yunyi, the minister of the Ministry of War, who was standing aside, said angrily when he heard this: "...I have also read the "Gu Shi Ji Lu". This generation has lived abroad for many years, and their clothing, The language and laws are not similar to those of the Chinese, and it is no doubt that the Taoism has been cut off! My dear brother has also read Kun Thief's documents, and the words are straightforward and elegant. It doesn't make sense, it's simply insulting to the gentlemen! What's more, it is said that the thieves secretly divided the land, bribed the traitors, persecuted the gentry, and did such beastly things! What can I say about such a ruthless person in the future? After defeating the Tartars, we must raise a large force of heavenly troops to go south and kill all these thieves!”
——Xia Yunyi was born in Songjiang Prefecture, which had never fallen, and his family's property had not suffered any losses in this earth-shaking chaos. However, Xia Yunyi, who was born in the gentry class and had a fiery temperament, still couldn't stand the land reform policy that the "Australian gangsters" implemented sporadically on a small scale in Zhejiang (because of the lack of staff, it was not so much land reform as it was about a certain person). punishment of some die-hard landowners), there is a feeling of harming others. Even though he knew that the Manchu Tatars who were about to attack were the most important enemy at the moment, he still couldn't help but sharply criticized the reinforcements of the Kun thieves in front of him.
Xia Yunyi's harsh criticism aroused the echo of more scholars behind him. These so-called reading seeds began to comment on everything they saw on the dock. If you listen carefully, it is nothing more than Negative words such as "strange and obscene", "indecent", "no different from animals", "jackals, tigers and leopards" seemed to make everyone want to raise their swords and point at the thieves on the opposite dock. The warships slashed past.
Shen Tingyang, who was standing at the front to greet him, saw that it was not a big deal, so he turned around and scolded him a few times before calming down the chaotic discussion. The several Shachuan Gang bosses around Shen Tingyang even laughed secretly with sarcasm - they were all rough men with pirate backgrounds. Although they were highly appreciated and reused by Admiral Shen Tingyang, they were always ignored by these sour men. They are weird He was teasing angrily, usually he had been holding back his anger for a long time, but now when he saw these sour men still shouting and killing the thieves, he even sneered secretly in his heart: These "Australian thieves" are extremely powerful. Sharp, invincible in both water and land battles. The Jurchen Tatars who are currently showing off their ferocity in the south of the Yangtze River were forced to flee to the south of the Yangtze River because they were driven away from their old nest in Liaodong by the Kun thieves. Is this kind of tiger and wolf master something that you, the powerless pickers, can talk about? Do you really think that the Kun thief dare not kill people? It's so ridiculous!
Even the "Ming Dynasty Court" in Songjiang Prefecture is able to support itself until now, thanks to the support of the Australian thieves! If it were not for the hundreds of thousands of grains and grains that the thieves brought across the sea and the tens of thousands of hungry people they transported away, the impoverished Shanghai court barely had some capital to move around, the current Songjiang Mansion would have been burned down by the mob. It has been reduced to ruins. How can we send navy to support Jiangyin? Don’t think that you have paid for the rice and take it for granted - if there are no Australian thieves coming to sell food on the sea, no matter how much money you have hidden at home, in this war-torn world, What else can I buy? After all, everyone can only survive by pointing to the Australian thieves!
But even with the reinforcements and food supplies from Songjiang Prefecture, without the sharp ordnance supported by the Kun thieves, the current battle of Jiangyin would have limited chances of winning. At that time, the navy can of course set sail and retreat, but you sour guys will have no choice but to stay and wait to die or become slaves!
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While everyone in Jiangyin County was having different thoughts, the warships docked had already begun to unload the arms to aid the Ming army.
"...Everyone, try harder! Pull!"
"...be careful!"
On the deck of the fast cruiser "Blast", sailors struggled to use pulleys to pull up wooden cargo containers one by one, and then relied on the coolies organized by the Jiangyin County government to transport them to the open space on the shore at the end of the trestle and stack them.
The Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers who had been waiting for a long time hurried forward and pried open the wooden cabinet with all their hands, revealing the ammunition, knives and guns buried in the straw.
"...Mr. Zhao, we meet again." Shen Tingyang, wearing a red official robe and carrying a scimitar at his waist, walked majestically towards Zhang Mingzhen and others. He and Zhao Yingong had only met once in Hangzhou not long ago, so they were not familiar with each other, but this did not prevent him from making cordial gestures.
"...Haha, Shen Junmen is also fine." Although he has no friendship with Shen Tingyang, the leader of the Shachuan Gang, Zhao Yingong has been living in the intrigues and deceitful Jiangnan Shilin for so long, and he has learned all kinds of superficial skills well. Seeing that he didn't even pause, he stepped forward and took Shen Tingyang's hand, smiling and saying : "...I am fortunate enough to have fulfilled my duty. I have now sent you twenty pairs of armor, nine hundred sabers, six thousand iron spear points, six hundred quick-fire rifles, and ten barrels of gunpowder. In addition, there are twenty grain bricks. box, five six-pound cannons, and three hundred rounds of shells... Well, the sailors have already unpacked the cannons! ”
The five six-pound cannons provided by Hangzhou to the Jiangyin Ming Army, together with the supporting gun mounts, guns and shells, were packed in five fully sealed wooden cabinets. It has now been unpacked and assembled by sailors. These artillery pieces, each weighing 700 kilograms, look gorgeously decorated, like the arrival of the God of Artillery. In fact, this is just an ordinary smoothbore howitzer of the seventeenth century, but its appearance is more intimidating.
But Shen Tingyang stroked the dark and smooth barrel, his eyes shining brightly, "...What a cannon! It is indeed a weapon for the military and the country! Well, a batch of those quick-fire guns have been obtained in Hangzhou before. Jiangyin has these. After using the sharp weapon, I think it will definitely cause the Tartars to suffer another setback!”
"...The Jurchen Tartars are just clowns who were lucky enough to go wild and steal the imperial capital of Jinling. But are there no good men in our land of China? As long as all the heroes work together, we will be able to expel the Tartars and restore Jiangnan." Zhao Yingong cupped his hands and smiled. He responded, throwing in some kind words.
In response to this, Shen Tingyang, who was well aware that the current situation was dangerous, just smiled slightly, but Xia Yunyi, a stupid young man, took it seriously, regardless of the current situation, and immediately jumped out to speak: "...Mr. Zhao, thank you for your kindness. Come to help, but although the two countries have negotiated a peace and alliance, there are some things that need to be made clear first. Your country claims to be a descendant of the Miao people of the former Song Dynasty and inherits the Chinese Taoist tradition. , Where does this put our Ming Dynasty? Since the beginning of Hongwu, we have conquered the world through hundreds of battles, not to mention that there are countless people in our Ming Dynasty who have achieved great righteousness. . The style of Xiangxue is not comparable to that of a small barbarian country like your country. It will be clear where the Huaxia Zhengshuo will be in the future when the king drives out the Tartars and restores the Shenjing..."
"...Yi Zhong, be careful!" Because he was afraid that this overly straightforward guy would say something that would put both sides off the stage, Shen Tingyang, in desperation, had no choice but to pull Xia Yunyi back and interrupt him loudly. road:" ...The Tartars are tyrannical and the south of the Yangtze River is in a state of turmoil. At this time of critical survival, initiating such a dispute will not benefit the country, the people, the court, or the emperor. It will only make the Tartars laugh. Be careful! ! ”
Xia Yunyi originally wanted to say something more, but after hearing Shen Tingyang's words, he forced himself to endure it. He snorted and said nothing more. He just stared at Zhao Yingong and other "thieves" with hatred in his eyes. A group of scholars all acted like "killing people with their eyes", as if they couldn't show their scholarly character if they didn't take the opportunity to express their contempt and disdain for the Australian thieves.
In response, Zhao Yingong smiled coldly. Although he was not born into a poor man who was oppressed and exploited by the gentry, he was still very disdainful of the wastes in front of him who were about to be eliminated by the times - they were all so depressed that they relied on their own breath to survive. , and he was still gibbering. He was really seeking death!
Therefore, taking advantage of the hostility of these Jin gentry men, Zhao Yingong neatly rejected Shen Tingyang's request for "Australian warships" to assist in the defense of Jiangyin after completing the handover and transfer of this batch of ordnance and ammunition. The reason was that he was worried about being attacked by Xia Yunyi and his gang. Guy stabbed me in the back
Then, before the flag of the Qing army appeared on the horizon, the fast cruiser "Blast", which had completed its scheduled mission, sounded its whistle, puffed out thick smoke, and, amid the complicated eyes of the people in Jiangyin, weighed anchor and sailed away from the upcoming city. The city turned into a battlefield.
Commissioner Wang Qiu lay on the railing at the stern of the ship, watching Jiangyin County in the distance become smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared at the end of the line of sight.
"...What do you think of the Ming Dynasty Rebel Army in Jiangyin City? Comrade Wang Qiu?" Zhao Yingong strolled over slowly with a cigar in his hand.
"...very disappointed! The soldiers are as destitute as beggars, and the officials of the Jin gentry are as arrogant as the classic mediocre nobles in anime and games. It is hard to imagine that these wretched people can actually become national heroes." Wang Qiu shook his head, "... By the way , why didn’t you see the famous Yan Ying Yuandian Shi? ”
"...Yan Yingyuan? Come on, it's only been the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign!" Zhao Yingong puffed out a smoke ring and said with a smile, "...that man led 60,000 volunteers and faced 240,000 Qing army cavalry, more than 200 The heavy artillery still held Jiangyin for eighty-one days, causing the Qing army to defeat three kings and eighteen generals, and killed 75,000 Yan Yan. Ying Yuandianshi is indeed a man of iron bones and righteousness, but he is not from the south, but from Tongzhou, Beijing! According to the original history, he did not come to Jiangyin until the eleventh year of Chongzhen. It is not known yet. He's wandering around somewhere! He might even be dead."
"...What? Yan Yingyuan isn't in Jiangyin?" Wang Qiu was suddenly surprised, "...then can they hold on this time?"
"...Who knows?" Zhao Yingong shrugged, "...Shen Tingyang, who was sent by the Shanghai court to garrison Jiangyin, is also a famous anti-Qing hero in history. I think he still has some ability. However, even if they are lucky, Not good, it doesn’t matter if we are defeated in the end! It’s just that we may have a little more trouble in Hangzhou - I’m afraid we need to deal with some blind Qing soldiers by ourselves..."
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——What I have to admit is that although the Yan Ying Yuan Dianshi, who is famous in history, is missing, the blood of the people of Jiangyin is still extraordinary.
The day after the cruiser "Blast" evacuated, Prince Abatai of the Qing Dynasty led more than 30,000 troops to encircle Jiangyin County. They built a ladder and crashed into cars and attacked for five consecutive days. Instead of being able to break into the city, the defenders used the weapons they had just obtained. The percussion cap guns and "Australian artillery" caused heavy casualties and more than 3,000 soldiers were lost. During the fierce fighting, even women and children in Jiangyin County climbed onto the city wall and threw stones at people. During the water battle on the Yangtze River, Shen Tingyang's Shachuan Gang also easily swept away the Qing army's Yangtze River Navy and firmly controlled the river, making it impossible for the Qing army to cut off Jiangyin's external communication channels.
At this time, there was no big empire behind Abatai that could provide a steady stream of manpower and supplies. Whether it was Emperor Haoge or the other two vassal kings Jierhalang and Azig, they all regarded each other as unlucky. relationship, all losses must be borne by his own tribe.
Therefore, after repeatedly attacking the fortified city, Abatai decisively gave up on Jiangyin, a tough nut to crack, and withdrew his troops.
At this point, the second Jiangyin defense battle that broke out in this time and space still ended with the victory of the Ming army.
But the problem is that the victory of the Jiangyin Defense Battle does not mean the victory of the entire Jiangnan battlefield.
After being frustrated in his attack on Jiangyin, Abatai naturally avoided the situation and retreated for a while. Then he sent his troops to bypass Jiangyin County and easily broke into Suzhou Prefecture again. He then swept across Taicang Prefecture and then invaded Songjiang Prefecture. within the territory. The Yonghe court in Shanghai suddenly fell into chaos. Chen Zilong, the Minister of War, led 5,000 rebels to form a formation in Anting Town. They were defeated by three powerful Qing cavalrymen and had to flee into Shanghai County to hold on.
Fortunately, although Sun Yuanhua who was guarding Shanghai was not a famous general, he was the most outstanding military engineer of the Ming Dynasty in this era. He had studied the advanced fortress tactics of the Westerners, repaired many fortifications in the suburbs of Shanghai in advance, and installed the latest purchased weapons. "Australian Firearms". Several groups of Qing troops successively launched exploratory sieges against Shanghai County. Due to the lack of heavy artillery and other equipment and the fierce firepower of the defenders, they all suffered heavy losses.
At this time, the various Qing troops in the Eastern Expedition had already captured a lot of prisoners. On the one hand, Abatai was unwilling to send too many soldiers and horses for the siege of Yifu, and on the other hand, he was worried that Haoge or Azig would do something behind his back. -As I said before, the current Qing Dynasty is already divided by warlords. The relationship between the emperor and the vassal kings is to see each other's misfortune and add insult to injury. So he decided to give it up as soon as he could, and returned with 30,000 troops, fully plundered, and returned to the old camp in Changzhou Prefecture.
At this point, the Yonghe court in Shanghai finally survived this wave of military crises and temporarily survived. The price was that the entire Suzhou Prefecture was looted and massacred for the second time this year, with victims everywhere. And half of Songjiang Mansion was devastated and dying.
But no matter what, the confrontation between the Ming and Qing dynasties in Jiangnan continued to maintain.
In this way, in the land of China in this time and space, Zhu Cixiang of Huizhou, Yonghe Emperor Zhu Yihai of Shanghai, Qing Emperor Hauge and Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong of Nanjing, and Jin Emperor Dorgon of Xuzhou appeared at the same time. The situation in which the five emperors confront each other is dizzying.
However, it seemed that God couldn't stand the fact that all the noble emperors and majesties were crowded into the small territory of Nanzhili. Then, in the other provinces of the Great Ming Dynasty, there also emerged one after another those who were said to be lonely, Taoist and incompetent. Characters - Just when the wealthy and weak Jiangnan water town was turned into a mill of flesh and blood by the Tartar cavalry, the northern country, where the war had temporarily extinguished, once again quietly ignited a new flame of war...
After the Qing Empire collapsed and the Chinese Alliance army of the travelers stopped outside Shanhaiguan, the vast land south of the Great Wall and north of the Yellow River became the territory of Guan Ning's army. However, as external military pressure diminished, factional conflicts within Guan Ning's army quickly heated up. In order to compete for the sole leader position, Jin Wang Zu Dashou and Zhou Wang Wu Xiang refused to give in to each other, which eventually led to a series of splits and internal strife.
After a brief but fierce battle, King Wu Xiang of Zhou hurriedly evacuated the capital with his troops and fled back to his base camp in Luoyang. Prince Dashou of Jin took advantage of the situation to pursue and controlled Datong, Xuanfu, Shanxi and Beizhili. most areas. Wu Xiang only controlled part of the western Henan region centered on Luoyang, as well as Pingyang Prefecture in the southwest corner of Shanxi Province. At this point, the Guan Ning Army was officially divided into Zhou and Jin princes.
However, just when the King of Jin was riding his horse on his birthday, chasing death in the north, in an attempt to carve out a bigger piece of territory for his ancestral family, he did not notice that a suspicious-looking man with a fox tail sneaked in. He left his territory and came to Shifokou in Luanzhou, northern Hebei Province.
——He is the leader of the Wenxiang Sect, Wang Ke, who just caused a great chaos in Shandong and Lianghuai not long ago.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※PS: There is one thing I want to ask readers for their opinions. I originally scheduled One volume is about "Sword Art Online", but recently someone suggested that "Sword Art Online" is too cliché, so it would be better to write "OVERLORD, King of the Undead". I imagined the situation when the arrogant king of pretentiousness, Mr. Momonga, was looking for other players, only to find that his grave had become a novice village. It seemed quite interesting. What do you think?