Chapter 1091 Kicked to the Iron Plate
The Haihan horse team did not wait too long. The fleet with red and blue flags appeared on the downstream river in time before they consumed the last of their food. After Liu Xian confirmed this information through the telescope, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. What he is worried about is not just the food problem. There are only fifty or sixty people in the cavalry at the moment. On the one hand, they have to watch over hundreds of refugees on the river bank. On the other hand, they have to be wary of the bandits in the direction of Fushan County and the Ming army stationed in the city. Manpower is really stretched thin.
Although there is another cavalry company operating in the area west of Jiahe, its target area is different from the team led by Liu Xian, and it cannot be contacted at the moment. Otherwise, if they can coordinate operations here, the pressure can be reduced. Much smaller.
The fleet that came to the upper reaches of Jiahe River today is composed of an expedition-class warship and three passenger and cargo ships. In addition to transporting a lot of food and daily necessities, there is also a company that came with the ship. Army, in conjunction with a cavalry company's operations outside Fushan County.
"Fellow folks, don't be nervous. There are brothers from the Haihan Militia on this boat. They are here to protect everyone and board the boat safely. After you get on the boat, someone will distribute dry food to you."
Sun Zhen foresaw that the arrival of these ships might cause some panic among the people, so he specially arranged propaganda personnel to vaccinate the people before the ships docked, so as to prevent them from causing chaos after seeing the Haihan Army with live ammunition.
Because of the different organization methods, the infantry company has several times more people than the cavalry company. Therefore, after this group of infantry arrives, a temporary base with a better defense mechanism can be established by the Jiahe River, so that Haihan's sailing ship can sail along the river. Jiahe went upstream to package the immigrants collected near Fushan County and transport them back to Zhifu Island.
The appearance of these ships actually gave the anxious people reassurance. Most of the information they had learned before was from the oral propaganda of this cavalry team, and their understanding of Haihan's strength was limited to this. Most people have doubts about the existence of the Zhifu Island immigration base described by the Haihan Horse Team. The road to obtaining survival opportunities through immigration is just a dead horse trying to take a chance on luck. But the appearance of this fleet at least proves that the Haihan Horse Fleet does have a certain degree of strength. Large sea-going ships like this are basically hard to see in Dengzhou Prefecture, and the other party dispatched four ships at once, proving that What he calls a maritime migration strategy is not a boast.
The reinforcements coming here were the Fourth Company of the Special Operations Battalion. Company Commander Amakusa Shiro did not wait for the boat to stop, but he jumped off the side of the boat and landed lightly on the river bank, allowing Liu Xian, Sun Zhen and others to see it. They all applauded secretly.
"Captain Amakusa, you have worked hard all the way!" Liu Xian quickly went up to greet him and saluted him with a military salute. Calculated from the perspective of the voyage, this fleet could arrive here in the middle of the morning, which obviously set off from Zhifu Island before dawn.
Amakusa Shiro returned the gift, and then cut to the chase, asking Liu Xian to talk about the local situation and the work that required the cooperation of the Fourth Special Operations Company. The order he received was to try his best to ensure the safety of the immigration recruitment site in Fushan County, and to cooperate with the cavalry company to complete the immigration recruitment task there.
The arrival of these sailing ships was quickly discovered by the Ming army in Fushan County and the Wanjia army outside the city. Huang Qu on the city tower was also quite surprised by the appearance of these ships: "This group of people actually has large ships! It seems that the notice about cross-sea immigration is not all bragging."
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Zhang Pucheng said: "If they really transport the people to the south for resettlement, that's fine. I'm afraid these people will coerce the people and do the same thing as the Wanjia Army!"
Huang Qu was worried that the magistrate would get excited and raise the issue of troops again, so he quickly advised: "Sir Zhang, no matter what the true intentions of these Haihan people are, wait until the news comes back from Qishan Qianhu Station."
Zhifu Bay and Zhifu Island are both under the jurisdiction of Qishan Qianhu. If the Haihan people really settled there, then the responsibility of guarding the territory should naturally be borne by Qishan Qianhu, regardless of whether they want to send troops or adopt other countermeasures. , Logically speaking, Qi Shan must have acted first. Huang Qu didn't want to take his men out of the city to take the lead and stand out. No matter what the Haihan people are doing outside the city now, in short, they have to defend the county seat first. Besides, even if they have a headache, it should be the Wanjiajun outside the city who have a headache first.
Huang Qu's judgment was indeed correct. The Haihan fleet came up the Jiahe River. The news reached Wanmeng and Pu Xueguang outside the city, which really caused a headache for them. Their original plan was to attack the immigrants while the Haihan horse team was escorting them to the seaside. The number of the immigrants was limited and they would be unable to resist them. However, they did not expect that the Haihan people would not take the usual route and sent a boat to the upper reaches of the Jiahe River. It seems that the plan is to transport these immigrants directly by boat through the waterway.
Although Wan Jiajun had some influence in Fushan County, due to the general environment, he did not have many ships under his command, because the coast of the Jiaodong Peninsula was full of Ming military garrison posts. Even if there were ships, it would be difficult to get any benefits along the coast. During the war in the past two years, people along the coast fled violently. Now there are only a few ferries on the Jiahe River. It is obviously beyond the power to deal with the large sailing ships of the Haihan people.
"Military advisor, the Haihan people sent a ship over, how should we respond now?" Wanmeng himself was too lazy to use his brain, so this question was naturally thrown to Pu Xueguang.
Pu Xueguang gritted his teeth and said: "In that case, I can't help but give them some color! Let's call the team together!"
Wanmeng was obviously much more interested in fighting than using his brain. He immediately stood up and said: "Okay! Come on, gather the team and prepare to go to war!"
Pu Xueguang remembered something and quickly stopped him: "Wait a minute!"
Wan Meng said: "Why did the military advisor regret so quickly?"
"It's not that I regret it, I just suddenly remembered something." Pu Xueguang said: "I have already sent some people to defect to Haihan. In my opinion, I should send another group of people over at this time to connect with the previous group. When we start from the outside, let them start together, and by combining the inside and outside, we will have better results.”
"He is still a brilliant military strategist!" Wan Meng heard that it made sense and immediately praised him. So the two of them picked more than a dozen of their subordinates, pretended to be poor people, put swords, daggers and other sharp weapons among the quilts, clothes and other household items, and headed towards the Haihan Station by the river in bits and pieces. Including the manpower sent previously, there were more than twenty people. Wan Meng and Pu Xueguang both believed that as long as the timing was right, these manpower would be enough to create chaos.
"Ten people in a row, no jumping in line, get on the boat in order!"
The soldiers responsible for maintaining order stood on the side of the ship with tin trumpets and shouted loudly to the people on the shore. Because the queues had been organized in advance, after the ships docked, they quickly boarded the springboard and began arranging for people to board the ships while unloading the supplies.
The infantry company brought by Amakusa Shiro was responsible for dividing these people into groups of about a hundred people in order to control the situation in the event of emergencies. Liu Xian's cavalry team was divided into three teams to further expand the existing cordon outwards.
After these fifty or sixty cavalry were spread out in the wilderness, the control range was quite large. Wanmeng and Pu Xueguang, who saw this scene from a distance, hesitated - they now only have a total of twenty cavalry, and their mobility is obviously not as good as It is estimated that the troops he transferred from the mountainous area will not arrive until the afternoon. But you can't just watch the other party take people away so smoothly, and you have to shoot when the arrow is on the string.
However, Wan Meng was more thoughtful and did not take action personally. Instead, he handed over the task to his subordinate Gan Qiang. Gan Qiang was originally a horse thief operating in Denglai and Denglai states. During the Denglai Rebellion, he took refuge with Wanmeng. Because of his excellent horsemanship skills, Wanmeng handed over his few "cavalry" to Gan. Strong command. Rushing to Fushan County in a hurry today, Wanmeng only brought one leader, Gan Qiang, with him. However, there was also a group of riders on the opposite side, so it was considered a well-matched confrontation - at least that's what Wanmeng thinks so far. .
Gan Qiang did not feel that he was weaker than his opponent just because the opponent had more horses than him. He was not the kind of ordinary person who was coerced into losing his fortune. He was definitely a professional in the banditry industry. He even fought against Kong Youde's rebels in the wild, leading a group of "cavalry" under him to wipe out a group of Ming troops. This special record was also the main reason why he was reused by Wanmeng.
Gan Qiang did not show off and lead the battle. Instead, he asked the assembled infantry to go in front, and he led the cavalry to follow closely. If the opponent takes the initiative to attack, the infantry in front will form a spear formation to resist, and he will lead the riders to come out from behind to attack the opponent's flank. Using such tactics may be able to make up for one's own disadvantage in the number of riders.
If the opponent does not attack, then he will use the infantry in front as a shield and push forward steadily in this formation. After the two sides begin to engage in battle, his accomplices ambushing in the opponent's camp will launch a pincer attack from the front and back, and should be able to control the situation. Although the opponent has more riders, Gan Qiang believes that his winning rate is higher. As long as he can hold down his position and deal with the opponent carefully when fighting, it is not an impossible task to defeat the opponent.
“It’s finally here!”
The main defense direction of the cavalry was towards Fushan County, and Liu Xian naturally quickly noticed the sudden appearance of this armed force. From the telescope, we can see that the weapons and equipment of this team are not uniform. There are long weapons such as spears, hunting forks, simple knives, and halberds. Some people also hold weapons such as swords and crossbows. Behind them, there were more than twenty cavalrymen, who seemed to be the cavalrymen in this team. Judging from the equipment and military formation alone, Liu Xian judged that this team was not the Ming army, but the Wanjia army that was said to be overwhelming the local government.
Liu Xian made a rough count and found that the opponent should only have more than a hundred and less than two hundred people. If he wanted to fight with this small number of people in the wild, his own cavalry company should be enough to deal with the opponent, not to mention there are special forces behind him. A company from the war camp serves as his back-up. However, out of careful consideration, he immediately reported the situation to the infantry units at the rear.
"Boarding is suspended, and everyone is under martial law. The first and second platoons go to the southwest to set up defenses, and the third and fourth platoons stay behind to keep an eye on these immigrants! If there are any abnormal situations, they can be dealt with as appropriate. Let the propaganda officer calm them down in advance and we will hear from you later. Don't mess with the gunfire." Shiro Amakusa reacted quickly after receiving the news and immediately made adjustments to the deployment. He personally led two platoons to the outskirts of the camp and set up a gun formation on the spot. Although this tactic was not what the special operations battalion was good at, it was undoubtedly the most reliable means of engaging in the current environment.
"Everyone listens to the order, stop boarding the ship, sit down where you are, and don't move around at will!" Soon the propaganda officer began to use the tin trumpet to direct the people on the shore: "There are bandits attacking outside, and our army has sent troops to meet them. If Anyone who disobeys the instructions will be treated as an accomplice of the bandits!”
When these common people heard that bandits were coming, they naturally knew that the ones coming must be the most rampant Wanjiajun nearby. They were also in an uproar, and some people started shouting, as if it was the end of the world. They were forced to linger in the slums outside Fushan County. The main reason was that the Wanjiajun made them unable to return home. The reason why they had to seek refuge with Haihan and leave here was to completely get rid of this threat. Now that he is about to leave here, but he is entangled by the lingering Wanjiajun, his emotions inevitably fluctuate.
Fortunately, there were two platoons of soldiers here to help maintain order. With the propaganda officer's constant preaching and the shining bayonets, most of the people still sat down on the ground as arranged. There were a few undercover bandits who wanted to stab or want to test the limits, but they were held at gunpoint almost instantly, and they immediately did not dare to commit any more crimes.
"Check the weapons and prepare to fight!" Liu Xian took out the cavalry's standard double-barrel flintlock rifle from the saddle bag and checked the loading of the ammunition.
In fact, the cavalry rarely has time to reload and reload during battle, so the rifle has only two firing opportunities. However, Harugong also obtained a five-shot flash cap runner for his men. Pistols, this kind of gun also has strong accuracy and lethality at a distance of twenty meters, which can effectively make up for the lack of shooting frequency of rifles. Harugong also tried to get the Ministry of National Defense to equip the cavalry troops with the latest seven-shot rifle, which is still in the development and improvement stage. However, due to its production capacity and cost, this application cannot be realized in a short time.
If the rifle and pistol are all out of bullets, the last resort weapon is the cavalry sword. But Liu Xian believes that the opponent's formation should be able to collapse before that. In the end, even if cold weapons need to be used, it will probably be the stage of harvesting heads.
Liu Xian also hoped to take this opportunity to successfully fight the first battle of the cavalry battalion on the Jiaodong Peninsula, so that the opponent who took the initiative to play the role of a stumbling block would know that they were firmly on the iron plate this time.
(End of chapter)