Chapter 168: Guangzhou’s Defense
The task force stopped at Humen - after passing the Humen rung, it can reach the outskirts of Guangzhou within three or four days of continuous sailing - but Chen Haiyang was not in a hurry to attack the city of Guangzhou. According to the established policy: his main task was "Showing off force" and "proclaiming peace". [Read the latest chapter] Now that the purpose of showing off force has been fully achieved, the focus is on "propaganda" - first, the residents of Guangzhou City and along the Pearl River must be given enough time to spread the news of the fall of Humen.
The task force began to form many small detachments, each consisting of about a hundred men, carrying small artillery, and equipped with civilian personnel and exploration personnel. The Xiao detachment will take sampans and long dragons along the branches of inland waterways as dense as spider webs to go deep into villages and towns along the Pearl River to collect "reasonable burdens" and post notices. Build a lot of momentum. And, of course, severe punishments were imposed on any village that attempted to resist them.
Due to the insufficient number of sailors, Shi Zhiqi, who was in charge of this operation, transferred some people from the sailors to strengthen the small detachment. A large part of the navy's sailors are pirates. They are not only familiar with the Pearl River waterway, but they are also experts at it. At that time, they also followed the "shopkeepers" of various gangs and units in small boats deep into the inland rivers, plundering and kidnapping everywhere.
News of the fall of Humen reached Guangzhou that day. The four cities were shaken for a while. The prefect of Guangzhou hurriedly came to see Li Fengjie and asked whether the city gates should be closed immediately.
Li Fengjie was shocked. He did not expect that Humen would fall so quickly. Once the tiger gate was lost, it was only three or two days before the thieves arrived in Guangzhou. Thinking of the Kun bandits attacking Guangzhou, his face turned pale.
"Don't close the city gates for now. Closing them will shake people's hearts." Li Fengjie calmed down, "You and Nanhai and Panyu counties should send more people to each city gate to step up inspections to prevent thieves from entering the city."
"Yes, I'll do my humble job now."
The only weapon in Li Fengjie's hand was his own weapon. However, Fubiao suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Chengmai. One thousand of the men sent out were either killed in Chengmai and captured or trapped in Qiongshan. So far, none of them have returned. Fubiao currently has less than 700 men available for fighting. Fortunately, these people are elites in Fubiao. Li Fengjie is very kind to them on weekdays, and they are a force that can be relied on at critical times.
Li Fengjie was not worried about guarding Guangzhou: Guangzhou was not only well-defended but also had a large population. When necessary, a large-scale recruitment of strong men can be carried out, and it can be done in an instant to mobilize 100,000 strong men to the city. In addition to Fu Biao, there are also coastal defense general Xu Ting's troops and some sporadic troops inside and outside Guangzhou. In addition, there are guard posts garrisoned in Guangzhou and surrounding areas. Although these guard posts are dilapidated, they can still fight with thousands of people. There is gain. The senior officers and soldiers of Guangzhou Guard were very famous at that time, and were often sent out to fight against Miao and Yao throughout the Ming Dynasty.
The total number of these troops is three to four thousand, which is enough to serve as the core of Guangzhou's city defense. But as the governor of Guangdong, he has to consider not only the city of Guangzhou, but also the counties and villages along the Pearl River. If he was killed and plundered by the Kun thieves, he would not be able to bear it even if the censor impeached him.
Li Fengjie summoned officials and staff in the city to discuss countermeasures. Everyone's opinions are generally based on consolidating the city defense of Guangzhou itself and strengthening the self-defense capabilities of villages and towns along the river.
When Liu Xiang was originally active in the Pearl River Estuary, Guangdong local authorities stepped up the implementation of the Baojia Law in various parts of the Pearl River Delta, encouraging gentry from all over the country to form and train regiments to practice rural bravery and self-defense. Each county has established a public office, with the county magistrate serving as the head of the general regiment, and a reputable local gentleman who is willing to contribute as the deputy chief of the regiment. The government could lend cannons to those who organized and trained regiments in each village and town, and each village was also allowed to make its own cannons. Watchtowers and fences were erected at various intersections and river mouths, and gongs were equipped to convey warnings. It also provides for multi-village joint insurance. When a village is in trouble, all neighboring villages will send out villagers to provide support. As for the required funds, each village shall bear it itself: some come from donations from large gentry households, and some come from apportionments to all villagers. Some counties simply levied an additional sum of money on the land tax as the cost of team training for the entire county.
This system has been implemented since the beginning of last year and has already begun to bear fruit. Most of the officials believed that the Kun thieves were unfamiliar with the place and did not necessarily dare to go deep into the various inland rivers along the Pearl River. The villages along the Pearl River had been the most active in fortifying and practicing bravery, and Xu Ting's navy was generally still intact. The thieves will not be too rampant.
He Chengzong suggested: It is better to defend the city than to defend the river. The Kun thieves have strong ships and powerful guns, but they have few soldiers and dare not move too far away from the ship. Therefore, there is no need to worry about them attacking Guangzhou from the 6th route. The officers and soldiers only need to defend on the Pearl River and cooperate with the Xiang Yong to consume the Kun layer by layer. The spirit of a thief. Ultimately, the goal was to force the enemy to withdraw from the Pearl River.
From Humen to Guangzhou, there are many defensive passes on the Pearl River. Among them, Wuyong is the most important. He Chengzong suggested that most of the troops should be concentrated in Wuyong, build sandbag forts, and mobilize more cannons, sampans, and long dragons.
"Wuchong controls the important river in the province. Our army is stationed here. It can enter the Pearl River to help defend everywhere along the river. When it retreats, it can ensure the safety of the provincial capital. This is the top priority."
He Chengzong vigorously advocated his theory of Wuyong's victory. Most officials and staff agreed with him. However, Xu Ting, who saw the Kun thief's powerful firepower with his own eyes, expressed opposition.
Guangzhou's defense must be stepped up. "Xu Ting was temporarily stationed in Huangpu after his defeat at Humen. The core of his unit was still intact - originally the main force was the Navy, and the Navy only lost some ships to be repaired in the Battle of Humen. The main ships and all the soldiers withdrew. He sent people along the river to recruit the defeated soldiers. The soldiers who had escaped from Humen Village and other places returned one after another in the past few days, and he had nearly 2,000 more troops in his hands.
"The villages along the river can at most protect themselves and cannot stop the bandits from going up to Guangzhou. As for Wuyong, how do you gentlemen think it compares to Humen?" Xu Ting said.
The Humen Fort was built during the Wanli period, and has been heavily repaired and refurbished in the past year. Regardless of the strength of the fortifications or the number of artillery pieces, it cannot be compared to the Wuyong Fort that was built in a hurry and was not even scratched.
It was this kind of fort, guarded by 2,000 soldiers, that collapsed in less than a day of fighting. This psychological impact was extremely huge for Xu Ting. He saw clearly that with the current quality and weapons of the officers and soldiers, they were no match for the Australians, who had strong ships and powerful guns.
Therefore, Xu Ting's suggestion is to directly defend Guangzhou, concentrate most of the troops that can be collected into Guangzhou city itself, build additional forts on Yuexiu Mountain, and station them at Dongsheng Temple in the east of Guangzhou and Fenghuang Gang in the west. Heavy troops.
As for other key points along the provincial river, such as Liede, Pazhou, and Qinzhou, it does not matter whether they are fortified or not, because the hastily built forts cannot withstand the enemy's shelling and will only increase casualties in vain.
Only the city of Guangzhou itself, with its high defense walls and deep trenches, a century-old operation, and countless strong people as support, can probably withstand the fierce attack of the Kun thieves.
"Is it possible to let the Kun thief's gun captain drive straight in and reach the gate of Yangcheng?" Li Xijue said dissatisfied. He is now attending the meeting as a representative of the governor's office - after all, Wang Zunde is the highest military commander of the two provinces, and the military attachés of Guangdong and Guangxi are under his control. Li Fengjie wants to kick the governor away to negotiate a peace, but it is absolutely unacceptable to kick him out and start a war. possible.
Li Xijue had seen the artillery fire of the Kun thieves, so he could somewhat understand Xu Ting's fear of fighting. However, despite understanding, he could not help but despise this man, thinking that he was greedy for life and afraid of death, and was unwilling to fight to the end.
But he couldn't toughen his tone. First, when he escaped from Humen Village a few days ago, he also took the lead and ran away holding the horse's neck. Secondly, the only decent people around Guangzhou are Xu Ting's supervisor. In Guangzhou, the coastal defense military commander was stationed, so he had to pretend a little bit.
Xu Ting suggested that instead of building useless sandbag forts everywhere that were vulnerable to gunfire, it would be better to choose places with narrow rivers and more siltation on the provincial river leading to Guangzhou, and put wood and rocks in to block the channel, and at the same time place wooden logs on the river. Arrange iron chains to lock the river.
"Many of the Kun thieves' ships have been modified, and there are many soldiers and equipment on board. The draft is deep. If we block the river, the enemy ships will be afraid of running aground on the rocks and will not dare to go deep into the provincial river."
However, Xu Ting's suggestion was rejected by Li Fengjie. First of all, he was unwilling to let the Kun thieves' ships appear at the foot of the provincial capital - if the news reached the capital, they would be punished. Secondly, he thought Xu Ting's so-called Kun thieves' "strong ships and powerful artillery" were exaggerated: as long as they were attacked, When a battle is defeated, the officials and generals in charge will always describe the enemy as extremely powerful, many of which are untrue. Li Fengjie is an old local official, so how can he not know this trick? He regarded Xu Ting's suggestion as a sign of the general's "fear of war" and didn't care.
The final decision of the governor's office meeting was to strengthen the defense of the inland river and at the same time practice regimental courage "to build up prestige". For this purpose, a special Youth League Bureau was set up in Guangzhou to summon enthusiastic and powerful local gentry to handle league training affairs. In addition, he informed all prefectures and counties in the Pearl River Delta and ordered each county to set up a Youth League Bureau to handle Baojia.
Xu Ting garrisoned Wuyong, a key pass into Guangzhou's inner river. Immediately build an emergency sandbag fort in Wuyong and place 18 Hongyi cannons. At the same time, according to Xu Ting's suggestion, several old ships filled with sand and gravel were sunk in Wuyong, Liede, Ershawei and other places to block the waterway, and civilians were hired to drive wooden piles in the narrow places on the river. As for the long iron chain that blocked the river, they were nowhere to be found, so they had to send people to Foshan to build it on a starry night.
There are 1200 troops stationed in Wuyong. All 40 naval vessels under Xu Ting were concentrated near Wuyong, ready for reinforcements at any time. At the same time, sandbag forts were urgently built and Hongyi cannons were installed in key provincial and river locations such as Qinzhou, Pazhou, Liede, Ershawei, and Dahuangjiao.
