"Beep--"
On the early morning of the eighth day of the lunar month, with the piercing whistle sound, the Bohai navy camped in Wanshou Town began to get up in an orderly manner, put on their armor, and slowly left the camp.
At a third-floor restaurant in Wanshou Town, Zhu Gaoxu used his binoculars to look at the direction of the whistle, and sure enough he saw a huge crowd slowly coming down from the north.
"Yu, Ping... it should be Yu Tongyuan and Ping'an. I guessed it right."
Zhu Gaoxu put away his telescope, turned around and told Chen Chang, Ta Shi, Dole and Qi: "If they get close, use explosive bullets and matchlocks to greet them. If they are far away, use solid bullets. In short, the entire army should not fight with them in the field." , the purpose of our army is not to annihilate them all, but to wait to cross the river."
"Yes!" Chen Chang and others bowed in response, and quickly went downstairs to the front, rear, left and right armies.
In the north, in the open space five miles away from Wanshou Town, Yu Tongyuan squinted his eyes and looked at the Bohai camp that was almost invisible. Beside him was Ping An riding a tall horse.
"According to what Sheng Qianshi said, the Bohai people don't seem to be in a hurry to attack the city, as if they are waiting for something."
On horseback, Ping An was talking with a portable iron gun. Yu Tongyuan nodded after hearing this: "They should be waiting for the navy from the Yangtze River Estuary to enter the Yangtze River. However, I heard that Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu have successfully repelled his navy. If he continues If we wait here, I’m afraid it won’t be long before we have to evacuate because we run out of food and grass.”
"But that's fine. When he runs out of food and supplies, we can use our light cavalry to flank him and capture this Bohai commoner alive."
Yu Tongyuan never understood Zhu Gaoxu's courage, so he said such words.
Hearing this, Ping An immediately spoke up to remind Yu Tongyuan and his son: "The Marquis of Yuexun must not underestimate this Bohai common man. He has great strength. When outside the pass, he has the record of killing hundreds of people on foot. He can also pull down wild horses. His courage extraordinary."
After fighting Zhu Gaoxu, Ping An calmed down and was not as impulsive as he was when fighting Zhu Di, clamoring to capture his coach alive.
"Fighting a hundred people on foot is indeed an incredible achievement, but it's nothing." Yu Tongyuan chuckled and stroked his beard. It wasn't that he looked down on Zhu Gaoxu, but that killing a hundred people was not a very outstanding achievement in the early Ming Dynasty.
Fu Youde, Hua Yun, Qu Neng and his son, as well as his father and son from the Yu family, all have the record of killing a hundred people, but except for Hua Yun, there is really no fierce general like Zhu Gaoxu who can kill a hundred people in foot combat.
Thinking of Zhu Gaoxu's bravery, Yu Tongyuan became a little eager to try it, wanting to see if Zhu Gaoxu was praised by everyone, or if he really had the ability.
Yu Jing, who was riding behind the two men, was holding a long sword at his waist. He wished he could fight to the Bohai Formation now to see how powerful Zhu Gaoxu was.
It's a pity that their wish came true. For a whole day, Zhu Gaoxu made no movement, and he looked like he wanted to fight a protracted war with them.
Of course, Zhu Gaoxu did nothing in this. At least the Yangtze River Navy sent good news.
"Okay, with the help of Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu, our crossing of the river will be several days faster than expected."
After receiving the news that Chen Xuan and Yang Qiu had surrendered, Zhu Gaoxu was not in a hurry to drive them because Yang Zhan, Xu Sheng and others had not yet arrived at Changzhou Mansion, let alone Yingtian Mansion hundreds of miles away.
As the attacker, Zhu Gaoxu was still calm, but as the defender, the Jianwen court kept urging Sheng Yong, Ping An and others to test the Bohai troops, so that Wu Gao and Li Jian could quickly launch an attack when they led their troops south. .
"Fixed shot loading, ready...fire!!"
"Boom boom boom——"
At noon on the ninth day of the lunar month, when the sound of artillery sounded in Wanshou Town, north of the Yangtze River, the Tingcao cavalry in Beijing, who accepted the imperial military order to test the strength of the Bohai Sea, began to attempt a face-to-face assault on the Bohai Navy.
However, what greeted them was a dense burst of explosive bullets and solid bullets that were enough to penetrate three to five soldiers.
In one trial, dozens of Confederate cavalrymen were killed, which made Yu Tongyuan very heartbroken.
Yu Tongyuan did not dare to despise Zhu Gaoxu anymore, so he had no choice but to withdraw his cavalry. He described the Bohai Navy's sharp firearms to the court in detail, and said bluntly: "Your Majesty only has this property. If Yangzhou is in danger, Jiangnan will be lost."
Yu Tongyuan's heartfelt words did not win Zhu Yunwen's respect. Instead, he felt that he was damaging his own morale.
Fortunately, Huainan has no generals to replace, otherwise Zhu Yunwen might even have to replace Yu Tongyuan.
Amid such a stalemate, calls for peace began to ring out in the temples in the capital on April 10th.
The six ministers were divided into two groups. One group thought that Zhu Gaoxu could be entrusted with the title of Liaodong, and the Daning and Beiping areas north of the Baigou River could be established as a state for Zhu Di.
The other group believed that the natural chasm of the Yangtze River was insurmountable, and Zhu Gaoxu was only showing off for a moment. When he ran out of food and supplies, the only way to go was to withdraw his troops.
The two groups of ministers argued endlessly, but still no result was achieved.
Everyone knows that the emperor really wants to negotiate for peace at the moment, but he is worried that he will lose the royal dignity if he talks about peace, so he wants to let the ministers come up with the idea of peace themselves.
However, no one from the six ministers has spoken, and it is difficult to find an important minister in the temple.
Time faded away little by little, and as the eleventh day arrived, the sky began to become gloomy, as if a plum rain was coming.
"Your Highness, it seems like it's going to rain?"
In the camp of Wanshou Town, when Chen Chang spoke with a worried look on his face, Zhu Gaoxu calmly raised his hand: "Don't worry, we will still use muskets and artillery to defend against the enemy as previously arranged."
Zhu Gaoxu was not worried about the coming plum rain, but Sheng Yong, Yu Tongyuan, Ping An and others were excited for a long time.
As they watched, the plum rain began to fall, making the outside of Yangzhou city muddy.
Faced with this situation, the Bohai Navy treated it as usual, but the Southern Army began to organize its troops to prepare to meet the enemy.
When the plum rain stopped, 60,000 troops from the north and south of Yangzhou City began to march towards Wanshou Town in the east.
They used wooden planks and flat boats to make pontoon bridges. Sixty thousand troops began to slowly land on the east bank. At the same time, Yu Tongyuan, Pingan and others in the north also led their cavalry out of the camp. Feeling the mud after the plum rain, their attention was always on Sheng Yong's troops. .
"This group of people are not grateful to us for letting them confront each other. Is it so difficult to just wait for Your Highness to enter the capital?"
Ta Shi complained, while Zhu Gaoxu took a look at the situation of Sheng Yong's troops.
It has to be said that Sheng Yong is really good at training troops. The 40,000 garrison troops have begun to take shape under the leadership of 20,000 elite troops. It is no wonder that the regiment led by Sheng Yong can be penetrated by cavalry three times without collapsing.
However, if he remembered correctly, the elite troops led by Sheng Yong should be from Yu Lin's left and right guards.
For a moment, Zhu Gaoxu recalled Wang Jian, Wu Zhangyi and others back then.
It's a pity that they didn't seize the opportunity in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have become ants now, being trampled on among tens of thousands of troops.
As time passed, when the Yangzhou Jianghuai Corps crossed the canal under the command of Sheng Yong and all arrived on the east bank of the canal, Yu Tongyuan and others in the north also began to mobilize their war horses to patrol about two miles outside the Bohai Navy.
"The artillery of the Bohai Pirate Army has a rest period. Our army must disperse and break in, and then find the right place to break in and disrupt their formation."
Yu Tongyuan said something that seemed very easy, but only those around him could understand how difficult it was to achieve this step.
Soon, tens of thousands of cavalry were ready. At the same time, Sheng Yong also seized the opportunity and launched a full-scale attack after reorganizing the army.
"Uuuuuu——"
"Dong...dong...dong..."
Bugles and drums sounded one after another. Compared with the Southern Army's rich command objects, the Bohai Navy only had the simple wooden whistle.
But even so, when the wooden whistle was blown uniformly, the so-called drum sound was still suppressed by the whistle.
"Fixed firing and reloading, the artillery awaits military orders from the Chinese army, and the front army's spear array is ready to defend against the enemy."
Zhu Gaoxu sat in the center of the army, while Chen Chang went to lead the 15,000 front troops facing Sheng Yong's 60,000 soldiers.
The former army had no artillery, only pikes and matchlocks.
Even so, facing the pressing steps of the Southern Army, Chen Chang did not order a counterattack at all, but watched eagerly as they approached.
"Fifty steps..."
"Forty steps..."
"Fire the arrow!!"
The Confederate army began to fire arrows, but Chen Chang was still calculating the distance between the two armies. Finally, when the Confederate army reached a distance of about twenty steps, he released the Tangqi, and a dozen Tangqi blew their wooden whistles.
"Pah, pah, pah—"
Thousands of lead bullets were fired from behind the thick white fog. Not only that, the sound of the row of guns never stopped, but lasted for three consecutive rounds before the figures began to move.
But at the moment, Sheng Yong could no longer care about the movements of the Bohai Navy, because in his eyes, the 60,000 soldiers and horses he had trained were falling in pieces at this moment.
For a time, the spear array deployed by Sheng Yong was opened one by one by matchlocks. Although the Bohai Navy did not pursue the victory, this scene made the surrounding Southern soldiers who were charging feel timid.
There were also fire portal guns among them, but their fire portal guns were mainly used in conjunction with the spears. Therefore, when the spear formation in front collapsed, the entire army immediately stopped.
"Don't be timid, put the firearm on!"
Sheng Yong dared to go out of the city to deal with Zhu Gaoxu, so he was naturally confident.
He ordered the Tangqi on the left and right, and soon the news came that the entire army was continuing to march. At the same time, the Bohai Navy's musketeers retreated, and the pikemen came on top.
Yu Tongyuan and Pingan in the north had not heard the sound of the Bohai Navy's artillery for a long time, so they did not dare to charge at all.
The Bohai Navy dared to use muskets to fight back at close range, mainly because they were not forced to go to the battlefield, but relied on their own extraordinary courage and firm military quality.
They are invincible not by relying on an egg-pounding style of play, but by relying on a variety of sophisticated equipment.
As the most elite army in the world at this time, every soldier in Bohai needs to master formation and basic tactics, drawing and literacy skills in order to be successfully selected.
Tactically, the Bohai Navy uses a linear formation. Under the sound of the horn, rows of soldiers advance slowly on the battlefield. As long as there is one person, no team member will choose to retreat until the opponent is defeated.
Needless to say, this kind of volley shooting could completely crush the armies of other countries in the early fifteenth century. Even Zhu Yuanzhang's elites, who had been training for thirty-one years, could not compete head-on with the Bohai Navy.
"Don't be greedy for credit and pursue, continue to defend the camp."
Zhu Gaoxu sat in charge of the central army and watched the southern army retreat after being attacked.
However, compared to the troops stationed who had stepped up their training for half a month, the elite elites who came out of the capital with Sheng Yong did show a tough side.
With nearly one-tenth of the soldiers in the front row killed, the elite troops continued their charge, and the Southern Army's spears successfully collided with the Bohai Navy.
"Your Highness, Sheng Yong used the garrison troops as cannon fodder and successfully sent Yu Lin and other elites to engage in hand-to-hand combat with our army."
"I saw it."
Chen Chang rode his horse to the Chinese army to report the situation. Zhu Gaoxu remained calm and did not show any worry for half a year.
"Continue to attack Sheng Yong's troops with spears and matchlocks. I want to see how long they can hold on."
Zhu Gaoxu's understatement successfully caused the 60,000 Jianghuai Southern Army to encounter the most tenacious resistance.
The combined formation of muskets and spears makes the Bohai Navy invincible, and the excellent medical system also makes it easy for the Bohai Navy to rescue the wounded on the battlefield.
A bottle of wine, a copper needle, and surgical sutures became the best means of first aid on the battlefield.
Seeing that the Bohai Navy was standing still, Yu Tongyuan finally couldn't stand it anymore and finally chose to order an attack.
"Buzz buzz-"
The dull sound of horse hooves sounded, but what they had to face were more than a hundred tents set up outside the town.
When the curtain was opened, the Bohai Navy's artillery, which had been prepared early, began to unleash its power.
"Boom boom boom——"
The dull sound of cannons almost pierced the dark clouds over Yangzhou City. Hundreds of iron cannonballs spanned a distance of one mile, successfully killing horses and cavalry one by one, and scattering yellow and white objects on the ground.
Of course, their charge earned them a moment of opportunity.
After the artillery was fired, the next artillery could not be fired within a word. Yu Tongyuan, Pingan and others led the cavalry to penetrate the right army of Bohai Sea.
Upon seeing this, the tower guard stationed here immediately raised his command flag: "Musketeers, prepare!"
"Beep--"
A harsh whistle sounded, and as the cavalry rushed into the distance of 200 steps, the Bohai Navy musketeers began to raise their muskets, waiting for their own firing orders.
Even if it was the cavalry who launched the charge this time, the Bohai Navy's musketeers were not afraid.
"Beep!"
A shrill whistle sounded, and the Confederate cavalry was ordered to fire at a distance of fifty paces.
"Pa bang bang..."
Under Zhu Gaoxu's watchful eye, the three thousand musketeers began to replace their spears after the shooting, while the soldiers at the back gathered their matchlocks and retreated.
In an instant, thousands of pikemen gathered, forming a pike formation that was very deadly to the cavalry.
In the past, when faced with such a spear formation, Yu Tongyuan would wait for his own artillery support. However, their artillery was like a passive target in front of the Bohai Navy.
He did not retreat, but observed Zhu Gaoxu's method of changing formations when facing the enemy.
Obviously, Zhu Gaoxu has grown much compared to when he first fought against Wu Gao. The 40,000 troops under his command are impeccable unless he insists on charging.
But if that happens, the last ten thousand cavalry left by the imperial court will probably be buried here.
"withdraw!"
Yu Tongyuan did not continue to fight with Zhu Gaoxu, but ordered the cavalry to retreat.
Seeing the cavalry retreating, Sheng Yong had no choice but to lead his troops to retreat.
For a moment, there was nothing on the battlefield except the smell of gunpowder smoke and some wailing wounded.
"Your Highness, what do you mean by them trying to fight like this?"
Ta Shi rode his horse to the Chinese army. In his opinion, Yu Tongyuan and Sheng Yong's attack on their own side was completely outweighed by the gains and losses. It was better to wait for Wu Gao and Li Jian to go south.
But in this regard, Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Ta Shi: "Sometimes it's not them who want to fight, but the people behind who force them to fight."
"Oh..." Ta Shi seemed to understand, but Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the Yangtze River to the south when he saw this.
The Yangtze River is five or six miles away from them, and there are many ships cruising on the Yangtze River.
Looking at the ship, Zhu Gaoxu didn't know how Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng were doing, but he knew that his eldest brother's position might not be stable anymore.
"More than three thousand people were killed or injured..."
In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Yunwen held the military report that had just arrived in the capital from Yangzhou. He could not believe that Shangzhi and the cavalry in Beijing, who were regarded as the best in the world, could not even touch the corpse of a Bohai soldier who died in battle. Bring it back.
He looked at the military report in his hand and was in a daze.
Faced with his confusion, the summoned Valley King Zhu Sui stepped forward and bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the Bohai pirates are currently unable to cross the river. Our army can delay the attack and negotiate a temporary peace. Then we will recruit brave soldiers from all over the south of the Yangtze River. Come to defend against the enemy bandits."
Valley King Zhu Sui, as a vassal king who had a good relationship with Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Yunwen did not demote him to a commoner, but put him in the capital and entertained him with delicious food and drinks.
He was able to appear in Wuying Hall today only because Huang Zicheng and others all believed that the delaying strategy was feasible, so he was able to appear here.
Zhu Yunwen's idea was very simple, that is, let Zhu Sui, the king of the valley, go to Wanshou Town in Yangzhou to discuss peace with Zhu Gaoxu in detail.
After the local warriors are recruited, Zhu Yunwen will send his troops north to suppress the rebels.
Zhu Sui was not worried about this. After all, he was also Zhu Gaoxu's uncle. Zhu Gaoxu could not kill anyone, and he was just sending a message, so there was no need to bully him.
"In that case, let's ask Uncle Nineteen to come over."
Zhu Yunwen came to his senses and waved his hand to Zhu Sui.
Seeing that he had something to do, Zhu Sui immediately turned around and exited Wuying Palace, preparing to go to Yangzhou early tomorrow morning to persuade Zhu Gaoxu to negotiate peace.
However, after he left, Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai, Fang Xiaoru, Bao Zhao and others began to speak one after another.
"The Bohai pirate army has been entrenched in Yangzhou, probably waiting for the Bohai navy to defeat the Pingwo navy."
"That's right, I think it's appropriate to send supervisory troops to supervise Pingwo and Yangtze Navy."
"Pingwa and the Yangtze River Navy are the lifeblood of the imperial court and must not be lost."
"Your Majesty, please make your decision..."
The four people spoke one after another, but the suggestions they gave were all based on hindsight. After all, when the imperial court issued treasure notes to the Yangtze River and Pingwo Navy, it had already damaged the morale of the two naval forces. Even if they were rewarded more now, I'm afraid it wouldn't be enough. What effect will be achieved.
"His Majesty!"
Suddenly, the sound of singing and singing came from outside the hall. Not long after, Xu Zengshou walked in from outside the hall, holding a memorial in his hands.
"Cao Guogong has written a memorial, and the common people of Yan have withdrawn fifty miles. It seems that they are not prepared to fight with my army at Baigou River again."
After being reminded by Zhu Gaoxu, Xu Zengshou actually took the initiative to convey the military information of the north to Zhu Yunwen. This situation surprised Zhu Yunwen.
He remembered that Xu Zengshou basically did not participate in the memorials related to Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu. What is going on now?
"Mr. Qi..."
Zhu Yunwen looked at Qi Tai, who frowned when he heard this: "I think the Yan people must have learned about the Bohai people's surprise attack on Huaidong, and are currently confronting our army in an attempt to use up our army's food supplies."
There are indeed tens of millions of grains in Yunhe Shuicicang, but these grains have long been emptied due to Zhu Yunwen's profligate spending in the past two years, and now even ten million stones may not be available.
If we include the people's rations, these tens of millions of stones of food can only last for one year at most.
"Should we move our troops south?"
Zhu Yunwen asked Qi Tai, but Qi Tai shook his head: "Right now, the Yangzhou Bohai Pirate Army seems to be well prepared, otherwise it would not have been camping there for several days."
"What our army needs to care about is the navy and the Yangtze River. We must not allow the common people in the Bohai Sea to obtain the Yangtze River and warships."
Qi Tai explained the situation, and then continued to talk about the situation in the capital: "Right now, there are more than 10,000 soldiers in the capital, plus 60,000 soldiers and horse commanders and Xiangyong."
"Although it is already impregnable, we still need to recruit more brave people to prepare for emergencies."
"Bohai Chronicles": "Shang Chenggong, Meng Zhang crossed the river, and Qiu Xuan agreed. Although Jianwenjun wanted to negotiate peace, he declined."
"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "On April 11, Yong and Tongyuan led their troops to invade Wanshou Town, and the superior army was defeated. Therefore, everyone in the south of the Yangtze River was sad when they heard about this battle, and the ministers wanted to negotiate peace."
(End of chapter)
