Chapter 2007
Due to the open terrain, the gunshots fired on the river bank spread very far at night. At least this burst of short and dense gunshots could be heard upstream and downstream of the pier and in the riverside area of two or three miles across the canal. The sound of gunshots caused many watchdogs raised in nearby warehouses to bark wildly after being alerted. However, even if most people hear the noise, they still don’t know what is happening by the river. They just subconsciously think that it should be the sound of firecrackers. Although setting off firecrackers by the river in the middle of the night is too weird, it is probably normal. This is the only reasonable explanation that the people can think of within their cognitive scope.
But among those who heard the gunfire, there were also people who knew the source of the sound and sensed the danger signal.
The place where Lu Kangtai supervises the battle is about a mile away from the dock where the accident occurred. Although the real-time fighting situation cannot be seen here, gunfire from the direction of the dock can still be heard. If necessary, he can also issue new instructions to the combatants. But everything happened too fast. By the time he realized that the gunfire coming from the battle site was too dense, the battle on the front line had actually come to an end. He didn't even have time to send someone to inquire about the battle situation ahead or issue instructions to the front line. With the new order, the gunfire from the south had stopped.
Lu Kangtai is very aware of the combat capabilities of his musketeers. It is unlikely that they can maintain such a high firing frequency in battle, and there is no need to fight against a group of fellow salt merchants. Based on the experience of previous operations, as long as the first platoon shoots and kills a few people, the opponent will immediately collapse and will not encounter much strong resistance at all. And today's unusual gunshots meant that something unexpected must have happened ahead.
Lu Kangtai did not immediately think in a bad direction. He still believed that the Musketeers were strong enough to cope with emergencies. However, out of caution, he immediately sent his men on horseback to the front line to check the fighting situation to confirm his judgment. is right.
The reward was faster than Lu Kangtai imagined, because the people sent out met the members of the Musketeers who were fleeing back from the dock halfway. After learning about the battle ahead, they quickly withdrew together.
No matter how steady Lu Kangtai was on weekdays, he was so shocked that he jumped up from his chair after hearing the news of the rout of the Musketeers. To be able to make a fat man of over 200 and almost 300 pounds make such light movements shows how much this news shocked him.
"How could this happen! Tell me, what happened!" Lu Kangtai pointed at the man who escaped from the front line and said sternly: "How could he be defeated!"
The gap in strength and preparations between the two sides was so huge that the Salt Merchant Musketeers suffered heavy casualties in the battle almost just after a face-to-face encounter, leading to the ensuing rout. This process was so fast that even the people involved did not really realize what was happening. They only saw their own people falling continuously, and most of them were killed or injured almost in an instant. If those who were lucky enough to survive did not turn around, Even if you run away, you probably won't be able to escape the same fate.
But Lu Kangtai had high hopes for the Musketeers and was really unable to accept such a result. He immediately grabbed the teacup on the table and threw it directly against the wall. He roared at his men: "Go and gather people! Fight with them!"
However, he quickly calmed down from his rage, stopped his men who were about to carry out his instructions, and asked them to evacuate to a safe area first. Now that the big mistake has been made, if you continue to overestimate your capabilities and go to the other party to fight head-on, you may even lose your own capital. And if he loses again, it will probably have a big impact on his local status and influence.
In order to facilitate tonight's work, they had already spent money to bribe the government and the garrison not to interfere in the battle that took place by the canal tonight, so they dared to boldly let the musketeers form their formation and open fire on their own initiative. , but now that an unexpected emergency has occurred, they also have no way to ask for help from the officials in the city.
And Lu Kangtai also realized that since the other party had the strength to defeat the Musketeers, then gathering his own private armed forces to rush over would just be a matter of delivering food to their door. He had even thought that the people fighting against his musketry team on the dock were probably not the salt transport team of Ningbo salt merchants at all. They were just disguised as salt dealers, but in fact they were well-trained troops. The other party's purpose in coming to Ningbo was probably not just to sell salt and seize the market, but most likely came for his own musketeers team.
"Prepare the car and go to Hejia Manor!" Lu Kangtai knew that the current situation would be difficult to solve by himself. He must quickly inform his partners of the situation and ask them to use all feasible means to stop the "Ningbo" gang. Salt merchants" left Yangzhou. Although losing the Musketeers made him very distressed, the trouble it would cause him in the future was the real reason why he was so anxious.
His partners have warned many times that this armed force cannot be exposed to public view, otherwise it will definitely attract the attention of the Haihan people because of the weapons it uses, and may even trigger a military strike. Lu Kangtai once thought that this statement was just an alarmist statement from his partners, but after what happened just now, he realized that this warning was not just rhetoric. The existence of the Musketeers would really attract the prying eyes and attention of other strong men. blow.
On the dock not far away, Gong Shiqi and Ji Yuanqing were already directing their men to clean up the battlefield. The course of the battle just now was basically within their expectations. Building fortifications and positions like this, waiting for the opponent to attack, and winning a clean victory with mental arithmetic but no intention is the natural result, so their mood is relatively calm.
According to the plan made before the war, they needed to leave Yangzhou as soon as possible after the battle to avoid possible subsequent troubles. This kind of trouble does not refer to armed attacks from local salt merchants, but to the possible intervention of the local government. At that time, the private fights in the salt industry will escalate into diplomatic disputes between the two countries, which is what Haihan does not want to see. situation. Because their purpose was not to attack the Yangzhou salt merchants, but to find out who helped the Yangzhou salt merchants form this musketeer team.
After the battle, everyone immediately began to count the results of the battle, seized the opponent's weapons, and moved all the people who were defeated on the dock, dead or alive, to the ship.
As for the salt bags used to build the fortifications, there was no need to waste manpower on moving them back to the ship. Compared with the results achieved today, the cost of these props was only a small expense. The muskets that the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Agency have always been thinking about, at least more than 30 were seized during this battle. This time, there was no need to wait for a special test after returning to Zhoushan. Ji Yuanqing picked up one of them, looked at it with a torch and already came to the conclusion: "This gun was made by Westerners. We attacked Manila at the beginning of the year." When we arrived in the city, a lot of these muskets were seized locally, and some were later sold to the Koreans! ”
"Spanish!" Although Gong Shiqi has been active in the north in recent years, he is not completely unfamiliar with the existence of Spaniards. When he was still working with He Xi, he often listened to He Xi's popular science knowledge about Western countries. In recent years, there have been many battles of wits and courage between the Ministry of Security and the Spaniards. He also learned about the increasingly fierce fighting between the two sides from internal reports.
But how the Spaniards got through Haihan's blockade on the southeast coast, connected with the salt merchants in Yangzhou, and collaborated on such a paramilitary project was something that Gong Shiqiyi couldn't figure out for a while.
From the Pearl River Estuary to Hangzhou Bay, it can be said that the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty has been regarded as its own sphere of influence by Haihan. Merchant ships from countries such as the Netherlands and Portugal cannot enter Taiwan Island at will without Haihan's permission. In the northern seas, it is even more forbidden to bypass Haihan and directly trade with the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty and other countries. Haihan has multiple ports in this large sea area, and has deployed armed fleets near important waterways and regularly patrols the sea. If a Spanish galleon with obvious appearance characteristics is found, the military and the Ministry of Security should receive a report, but so far there is no news in this regard.
"I'm also wondering how the Spaniards got involved with Yangzhou salt merchants!" Ji Yuanqing seemed to know what Gong Shiqi was thinking. In fact, he had the same confusion. From Haihan's perspective, this matter is indeed a bit unreasonable.
"Perhaps there are other middlemen between them and the Spanish, such as brokers and arms dealers." Gong Shiqi could only find a reluctant possibility to explain the current situation.
Haihan is no stranger to the practice of supporting private armed forces and local armed forces in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, Haihan had already tried to do this as early as ten years ago. Li Jifeng in Guangzhou and Xu Xinsu in Fujian were both Haihan and Haihan. Han is the direct beneficiary of this measure. The results of this approach are also very significant. These local powerful people supported by Haihan must bind their interests to Haihan in order to obtain the military equipment and technical support they need. After they developed and grew, they became the spokesperson for Haihan's local interests. They played a big role in opening up the market for Haihan in the Ming Dynasty and obtaining raw materials and labor force.
But if other colonial countries want to use similar methods to support spokespersons in the Ming Dynasty, they will have a direct competitive relationship with Haihan, especially their Western counterparts who have extended their tentacles to all over the world. Haihan has always been paying attention and vigilance object. If there was a secret military cooperation relationship between Yangzhou salt merchants and the Spaniards, Haihan would definitely not sit back and watch this relationship continue to develop, but would decisively nip it in the bud.
Although it is still unknown where the Yangzhou salt merchants obtained batches of Spanish-made muskets, this is obviously an extremely dangerous signal. If these two parties unite to oppose Haihan, it is really possible to cause some trouble in the future. , after all, the Yangzhou salt merchants have a lot of money. As long as someone provides the corresponding military technology and gives them some development time, it is possible to use money to build an armed force.
"We can't control that much for the time being. Fortunately, we still caught some survivors. Maybe they can tell us what happened in the middle." Gong Shiqi didn't expect to get the answer right away. The first priority at the moment was to evacuate this place safely and bring Personal and material evidence were brought back to Zhoushan Island. Otherwise, if these local salt merchants went to the Yamen to report a robbery and murder case, and the government would intercept them after dawn, it might not be so easy for them to leave Yangzhou.
Another reason is that almost all the people they caught alive on the dock had gunshot wounds, so they were unable to escape in time. The medical conditions on the ship are limited and may not be able to provide timely treatment to the wounded. In addition, there is still nearly a thousand miles to travel from here to Zhoushan Island. It will be difficult to provide better medical conditions to the wounded for a while, and the journey will be delayed for an extra day and a half, he said. Maybe everyone will be gone, so we have to rush back as soon as possible.
While cleaning the battlefield, Ji Yuanqing also sent several groups of people to guard the perimeter of the dock to prevent the other party from gathering manpower to launch a counterattack again. However, perhaps the previous battle made the other party realize the gap in strength and did not send more people to die, so the offensive against them came to an abrupt end.
After spending more than an hour cleaning the battlefield and confirming that nothing was missing, Ji Yuanqing sent a signal to recall everyone on the shore, then ordered the anchor to be pulled up and the sails to be raised, and they returned to the Yangtze River waterway along the original route of the canal. However, visibility was poor at night and they were not familiar with the canal environment. In order to avoid accidents in the narrow channel, the two ships had to slow down and move forward slowly.
Gong Shiqi checked the time. It was about two hours before dawn, and it was about forty miles from the dock where they parked the ship to Guazhou, where the canal connects with the Yangtze River. They would definitely not be able to reach the Yangtze River in two hours. If anyone If they rush downstream with fast horses and notify the navy along the river to dispatch an interception, it is theoretically possible to get ahead of them. And all they can do at this time is pray that the local salt merchants will not be too stubborn and continue to pursue them relentlessly.
At the same time, Lu Kangtai had arrived at the He family manor and met He Huan and others who were waiting for news. But it is a pity that the salt merchants who had prepared a celebration banquet did not get the good news they expected. Lu Kangtai, who was responsible for commanding the operation, brought bad news. His invincible musketeers were They were defeated by the opponent in a very short period of time, and the weapons used by the opponent were also muskets.
"They are just waiting for my musketeers to show up." Lu Kangtai had figured out the key point on the way back and directly came to his conclusion: "This group of people came to Yangzhou to sell salt to anger us and make us angry." We take the initiative to use force to deal with them, and the ultimate target is my musketeers! Everyone, only seven of the people who went to the dock to perform the mission escaped alive, and the lives of the rest are unknown if we let them leave Yangzhou. , then the next time they appear, they will probably come to deal with everyone here!”
(End of chapter)