Chapter 088
"One million troops rolled up the white flag, and no one in the world went to Liaoxi!"
This is a crossword puzzle in itself, but the problem is that it was widely circulated in the late Ming Dynasty, almost comparable to "Wuxiang Liaodong Wandering Death Song" written by Wang Bo at the end of the Sui Dynasty. It also has the same deterrent power.
After experiencing a series of disastrous defeats such as the Saarhu defeat, the Battle of Hunhe, the annihilation of the Sichuan and Zhejiang armies, the fall of Shenyang, and the disastrous defeat at Dalinghe, the Ming Dynasty, both civil servants and military generals, regarded western Liaoning as a fearful road.
Of course, western Liaoning is different from southern Liaoning. In western Liaoning, at least the supply of materials is sufficient. The fortress group established during Sun Chengzong's period is still there. Although the offense is insufficient, the defense does not have much problems.
In fact, until Wu Sangui changed his clothes and shaved his head and surrendered to the Manchus, the Manchus had not broken through the Guanning line of defense. As for Liaonan, except for Sun Yuanhua, they were still deeply concerned about it, but they had long been selectively forgotten by all the ministers.
The Ming army guarding southern Liaoning, that is, the Dongjiang Army, only had more than 4,000 soldiers, and was short of food, clothing, and equipment. Of course, everyone was happy that the Dongjiang Army won the battle, and everyone was calm about the loss of troops and territory. At this time, the court Among them, many ministers have chosen to be ostriches.
No general has ever proposed to personally lead troops to reinforce Liaonan. If he did, everyone would definitely think that he was crazy and his brain was stuck. Cheng Shijie was on the good side. As soon as he came up, he expressed his intention to take the initiative to lead troops to Liaonan and recapture Liaonan.
With a wave of his hand, Emperor Chongzhen gave him a first-grade military attache from the Zuo Governor. This was not a promotion, but it was clearly meant to honor him after his death. Maybe he could be promoted to another level and be rewarded with an honorary title of Minister of the Ministry of War.
Sun Yuanhua looked at Cheng Shijie's retreating back and sighed, "What a pity! I have lost an important opportunity."
Xu Dacheng asked with some confusion: "What does Mr. Futai mean..."
"This constitution will never have another chance!"
In Sun Yuanhua's eyes, Cheng Shijie was already half buried in the loess. Death was a big deal. As long as Cheng Shijie died in Liaonan in the future, the imperial court would only reward him heavily and would never throw dirty water on him. It was clear that he Ning Haijun launched a mutiny, and there was no way to settle the score later.
Xu Dacheng was also speechless at this time.
Sun Yuanhua was still thinking about this matter. If Cheng Shijie hadn't known how to proceed and retreat, and was replaced by an ordinary reckless military commander, Sun Yuanhua's body would have grown hair.
Gao Qiqian was also not optimistic about Cheng Shijie, thinking that Cheng Shijie didn't understand military matters, so he didn't care about muskets and artillery. The whole army only had eight French artillery pieces, so what was their use?
A fire blunderbuss can punch through a tree as thick as a bowl. Jiannu's shield is useless, but what about a crossbow? It can't penetrate iron-clad shields, nor can it penetrate heavy armor. Unless it's equipped with armor-piercing heavy arrows, how can a fire blunderbuss save trouble?
However, Cheng Shijie did not feel like dying. On the contrary, he still had strong self-confidence. He saw hope in the Thunder Gun. Although the power of this Thunder Gun was not comparable to the machine guns of later generations, it was barely enough to deal with Jiannu's cavalry charge.
Liaonan will be Cheng Shijie's new territory. There, Cheng Shijie has already thought of several ways to restrain the Jiannu cavalry. Although in this era, the Jiannu cavalry and heavy infantry are unparalleled and have very powerful combat effectiveness.
However, both cavalry and heavy infantry were eliminated in later generations. Even though Cheng Shijie has not arrived at Jinzhou City yet, Shen Mingyu has received Cheng Shijie's order and started to arrange the Jinzhou City's defense system according to Cheng Shijie's plan.
In fact, the destination of Cheng Shijie's ship was not Jinzhou, but Gaizhou, which was later Yingkou Prefecture City, and now Gaizhou Wei.
Cheng Shijie, the fourth guard in southern Liaoning, is determined to win, and this is his new territory. Naturally, he cannot only occupy one Jinzhou and let Jiannu bring the war directly to the Jinzhou Guard. If that is the case, he will have no chance to develop.
His plan was to take advantage of the weak strength of the Jiannu Navy, but he had more than 300 warships. Although these warships were uneven, they had an overwhelming advantage. The navy can maneuver along the Bohai Bay and Dalian Bay in southern Liaoning.
He would launch a division and siege war against Jiannu who entered Liaonan at any time. As long as Jiannu dared to come, he would dare to bury them.
Since Ning Haijun's Guns and Artillery Bureau dismantled its equipment and moved to southern Liaoning, the Guns and Artillery Bureau has produced a total of 148 Thunder Guns. In addition to the 18 in Shen Mingyu's hands, Cheng Shijie now has 130 in his hands. Ten weapons can fire 3,900 bullets at a time. If Jiannu charges, he will experience a hail of bullets.
In addition, Ning Haijun also had a Western-style army trained by Sun Yuanhua, equipped with more than 4,000 fire cannons made by Sun Yuanhua. These fire cannons were different from the fire cannons produced by the Imperial Staff Bureau. The fire cannons produced by the Military Staff Bureau exploded as soon as they were hit. The chance of killing yourself is greater than the chance of killing the enemy, so even the soldiers of the Ming army did not dare to use it.
I would rather trust the knife in my hand. Cheng Shijie once experimented with sixty of these firecrackers made by Sun Yuanhua. At a normal shooting frequency, it would take twenty-five rounds to turn red, but none of these firecrackers exploded. The quality is very excellent.
Even if the thunder blunderbuss and fire blunderbuss cannot stop the enemy, Cheng Shijie has his own new toy, a land mine made of black powder. This kind of land mine has never been able to deal with bandits and rebels. Phosphorus and copper wire Porcelain fragments placed in a copper tube, when pulled, ignite the red phosphorus, which detonates the black powder.
Black powder is not as powerful as TNT, but in large quantities, quantity makes up for the lack of quality.
A large warship of the Ning Navy Navy was densely packed with more than 460 field soldiers and their families. Due to the large number of people, the narrow space, the dirty air, and the fact that some of the field soldiers were seasick, you can imagine the smell inside.
A woman was holding her young son in her arms. Her face was pale. She was almost going crazy from being tortured by seasickness. She turned to her husband beside her and said, "His father!"
"Um!"
"Why can't we stay?"
The man slowly opened his eyes: "If we continue to stay in Ninghai, we will definitely die!"
"How is it possible? It was the commander-in-chief who offended Mr. Futai, not us. No matter who wants to farm, they have to use people, right?"
The man stared at the woman and said, "It's true... the land in Ninghai Prefecture has been deserted for so many years, who is going to reclaim it? Do you think anyone can reclaim it?"
The woman fell silent.
"With the marshal gone, no one will care about our life and death. Those nobles have good land, so why should they go to cultivate wasteland? Besides, if I go to Liaonan and work with the marshal, I can earn a bushel of food a day. You also earn seven liters, but if you don’t go to Liaonan, you will have no choice but to starve to death."
"But the slaves in southern Liaoning are very fierce!"
The man narrowed his eyes: "This damn world is nothing more than early death and late death!"
The woman hugged the child tightly in her arms: "The people in Liaonan said they would allocate fields to us?"
"What good thing do you want to do? The points will be given to Ning's navy officers and soldiers, and will not be given to the field army like us. However, we only need to pay 30% of the rent, and the rest is ours! Do you want the land?"
"think……"
"But the commander-in-chief doesn't want an old, weak, sick or disabled person like me. If my body is not injured, I will risk my life to earn a hundred acres of land for you and your mother-in-law!"
The other cabin was filled with densely packed garrison soldiers. Most of these garrison soldiers were reformed from the rebel prisoners of Kong Youde's tribe.
They were not disgusted by the dirty air in the cabin, and there was still a twinkle in their eyes. Because they have been displaced from place to place, they understand the true meaning of people leaving their hometown and being humble.
A Shandong man said to the small flag from the field next to him: "Boss, I heard that the slave builders are very fierce!"
"Afraid of birds, they are humans too, carrying a head on two shoulders. If you cut them with a knife, they will bleed, and if their heads fall off, they will die!"
"You are not afraid!"
"I'm not afraid, I'm afraid I won't be able to see my ancestors in the future!"
In the universal values of Chinese people, living up to one’s ancestors is the principle and bottom line.
Xiaoqi held onto his only weapon, a Ming army-style saber. The quality was very average. After all, Ning Haijun's good equipment was in the hands of the soldiers, and the field soldiers were only auxiliary.
As Shen Mingyu occupied Jinzhou City, which was almost in ruins, Cheng Shijie sent out troops this time not only with Ning Haijun's infantry, cavalry, and artillery units, but also with a large number of accompanying army troops.
After the bumps and drifts on the sea, Cheng Shijie led the fleet to Gaizhou, which was later known as Yingkou Port. Of course, there was no port at this time, and it was not difficult to build a pier for a large wooden ship with a draft of more than one meter or two meters deep.
The warship cannot dock directly, but can rely on the extended trestle to reach the land.
Hundreds of Ning Navy soldiers greeted Cheng Shijie and his party on the tidal flats. Chen Guodong was the first to disembark. His feet had just stepped on the beach. He faced the harsh sea wind, stretched out his arms, knelt heavily on the ground, and shouted: " I, Chen Guodong, am back! Father, mother, the unscrupulous son Chen Guodong is back!"
A Ning Haijun soldier from the Dongjiang Army also shouted in the direction of Liaonan: "I, Du Erniu, am back. I won't run away this time..."
"I, Li Dayong, am back."
"I'm back!"
"I'm back!"
"I'm back!"
More and more voices sounded on the sea, and their shouts even covered the waves.
Ma Shilin said to Cheng Shijie: "Congratulations, Commander, your military morale is available!"
"Very good!"
Cheng Shijie thought of an army in later generations. They also had a heart to go home, but they couldn't help it. Today's soldiers from the Dongjiang Army all have red eyes and are about to shout: "I, Hu Hansan, am back again!"
"Pass this command!"
Cheng Shijie picked up the microphone, and Cheng Shijie's voice came from the speaker.
"I have nothing to say to Jiannu. The Han thieves are sworn to be incompatible. When they come from the sea, we will fight them on the sea. When they attack Jinzhou, we will fight them in Jinzhou. When they attack Lushun, we will fight hard in Lushun. Beat them! Wherever they attack, we will kill them without leaving a single piece behind! There is no compromise, no negotiation, only a bloody fight to the end, until one side is completely defeated and defeated, the war is over. "
Almost all the Ning navy officers raised their arms and shouted: "The commander is wise!"
At this moment, a soldier from the Dongjiang Army reached out to his crotch and took out a piece of dark silver, about two taels in weight, and said: "Commander, starting from today, I will give myself As a dead man, I don’t want this money anymore. I can’t leave it to the slaves as trophies, so don’t be too little. With this little money, you can buy more weapons..."
As he spoke, the soldier threw the silver directly to the ground.
"Commander, I won't run away again!"
A Dongjiang Army soldier said with tears: "I will fight to the end!"
As he spoke, the soldier pulled off the clothes in his arms, revealing two broken pieces of silver, and threw them directly on the ground: "Don't use them as trophies for the slaves!"
"Fight to the death!"
"Never back down!"
There was a clanking sound, and a pile of silver, jewelry, gold, jade, and various valuable trinkets fell. Under the influence of the soldiers of the Dongjiang Army, the local soldiers of Ning Haijun and Shandong also threw away the rewards they received. on the ground.
"Kill all the slaves!"
"Don't back down until you die!"
Ma Shilin, who was standing next to Cheng Shijie, wiped off a cold sweat, looked at the soldiers Ning Haijun who rushed to the battlefield without hesitation, then looked at the coins that were thrown on the ground as garbage, and swallowed his saliva.
A terrible thought appeared in his mind. The disaster of the Ming Dynasty was not far away...
He didn't dare to say it, for fear that Cheng Shijie and the surrounding Ning Haijun soldiers would hear it.
Cheng Shijie looked at the soldiers and said: "You have done very well. You treat yourselves as dead men. Only such warriors can survive on the battlefield. When you return in triumph, I will give you five times or ten times the reward. If you die in battle, you Your parents will be supported by the army, and your children will be raised by the army! You don’t have to think about anything. Just grab your weapons and go to the battlefield. When you meet the enemy, defeat them, annihilate them, and kill them all! Many of you are destined to be unable to Come back alive, but don’t worry, follow me and fight Jiannu to the end! We have no choice but to die, and the Liaonan under our feet will always belong to us."
After a period of silence, Ning's navy soldiers and field soldiers both let out a roar that almost shook the sky: "Fight to the death!"
The sound was so loud that it soared into the sky.
…
Forbidden City, Imperial Study Room.
Emperor Chongzhen finally saw the portrait he wanted to see most. Cheng Shijie was indeed the Changshan Zhao Zilong in his heart. Cheng Shijie was willing to go to Liaonan, and Emperor Chongzhen was even more excited.
At the same time, he was also very embarrassed. All the other generals of the Ming Dynasty were as afraid of Liaonan as tigers. They ran as far as they could. No one thought about sharing the worries for the emperor. Cheng Shijie wanted neither food nor equipment, so he stepped forward without saying a word. What a loyal minister!
Chongzhen was a little sad. Such loyal ministers are not easy to find. It is not cost-effective to bring loyal generals into Liaonan, a place where rabbits do not poop or birds do not lay eggs...
Emperor Chongzhen muttered: "Wang Cheng'en!"
"The slave is here!"
"Do you think Cheng Shijie can defeat Jiannu in southern Liaoning?"
"this……"
Wang Chengen thought for a while and said: "Well, General Cheng is loyal to the emperor and wants to worry about the emperor. This intention is good, but... the power of establishing slaves is strong... but just in case..."
Emperor Chongzhen now has no one available. Lu Xiangsheng, the only one who was promoted, is still acting as a fire brigade, putting out fires everywhere. In desperation, he sent Wang Chengen to Tianjin. From Tianjin, he allocated 86,000 taels to Cheng Shijie from the inner treasury. The silver, as well as some fire guns and armor, can be regarded as his best effort.
…
Jinzhouwei has always been an important military town in the Ming Dynasty. In terms of status, it belongs to the frontier position of Dengzhou. As early as the fifth year of Hongwu, Jinzhou was established. The Acropolis is located in the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula, later in the central and southern part of Dalian City.
In the first year of Tianqi, Jiannu captured Shenyang, and then occupied the southern Liaoning area including Lushun. Jinzhou and Lushun fell at the same time. In April of the fourth year of Tianqi, Mao Wenlong led his subordinates Zhang Pan, Dusi Zhu Guochang and others to take advantage of the empty defenses of Jiannu. After fierce fighting, they occupied Jinzhou and Lushun.
On January 14, the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Nurhaci led an army of 6,000 slaves to attack Lushun, killing all the Ming troops, destroying the city and retreating. In March, Mao Wendong led the Dongjiang Army to return to Lushun, and appointed the capital commander Zhang Pan to stay in Lushun. Mao Wenlong moved the Dongjiang Army's headquarters from Pidao to Shuangdao in Lushun. Until Mao Wenlong was killed, Lushun was in the hands of the Dongjiang Army.
However, after Mao Wenlong's death, the Dongjiang Army was in civil strife. It was not until June of the third year of Chongzhen that Huang Long was appointed as the chief military officer of the Dongjiang Army. He put down Liu Xingzhi's rebellion and guarded Lushun.
To be fair, the Dongjiang Army's territory in southern Liaoning was limited to the north and south cities of Lushun, and it was unable to capture Jinzhou City, which was more than 120 miles away. The Dongjiang Army and the Jiannu generals Jinzhou Guard, Haizhou Guard, and Fuzhou Guard and Gaizhou Guard as a buffer zone.
At this time, Jinzhou City seemed like a huge construction site. Countless Ning navy soldiers were quickly repairing the city wall. They used fire to heat hot water, patted the snow on the gaps in the city wall, and poured hot water on it to form ice walls.
Some people dug large pits in the open space outside Jinzhou City, and then covered them with branches and trunks to form nests.
"General Shen!"
"Mr. Song!"
Song Xiance pondered: "Have the scouts been sent out?"
"The dispatch has been sent out. Is there any problem?"
Shen Mingyu had only a hundred or so cavalry under his command, all of them were scouts. When he came to Jinzhou Acropolis alone, he felt guilty and dispersed all his more than a hundred cavalry to act as ears and eyes.
"Song is uneasy, fearing that something bad is going to happen!"
As a charlatan, Song Xiance likes to tell fortunes and use them to judge good or bad luck. He has calculated five hexagrams in a row today, including three evils and one good fortune, and one great evil and half good fortune.
This made Song Xiance very uneasy.
Shen Mingyu said: "The furthest service was sent to the junction of Jinzhou and Gaizhouwei, which is more than a hundred miles away from us. There are more than a dozen temporary beacon fire camps set up along the way. If Jiannu comes, then...
At this moment, the sound of horse hooves sounded.
In Shen Mingyu's line of sight, three plumes of smoke appeared, and smoke columns like buckets rose into the sky.
Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty wrote in a poem: "The solitary smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun is setting over the long river!"
Guyan is the smoke of peace, which means there is no war. If there are two smokes, it means there are more than 1,000 and less than 10,000 enemy troops attacking. If there are three wolf smokes, it means there are more than 10,000 enemy troops. If there are five bursts of smoke, it is time to retreat quickly. The enemy is unstoppable.
"Be alert, everyone return to the city!"
"Dong dong dong..."
The majestic and vigorous war drums sounded, and when they heard the sound of the gathering drums, the soldiers of Zuo Dusi of the Ning Navy who were working immediately threw down their tools, picked up their weapons, and began to assemble.
Song Xiance looked very nervous at this time: "It really came true... What a pity."
Shen Mingyu said: "They can't get through!"
To the north of Jinzhouwei is the Jinshi Mountain District, about a hundred miles away. This is one of the four roads from north to south, and it is also the junction of Jinzhouwei and Gaizhou District.
Five scouts from Fenghuo Tun gathered around a bonfire. It was recognized that the food of Ning Navy soldiers was good. Even if they are performing a mission like this, they can still have hot meals and hot water.
A small iron pot was hung on the campfire, and everything inside was simmering and bubbling. You can see that pancakes are cooking in the soup. One of the scouts was holding a branch with a salted fish burning on it.
As the flames roast, the salty aroma of salted fish comes to your nostrils. A veteran shouted: "It's time to eat soup cakes, eat soup cakes!"
There was salt in the pot, but there were no other condiments. The only thing that went with the meal was salted fish. In fact, for these hungry and frightened Ning Navy soldiers, salt was enough, and they could get by without salt.
"Eat it while it's hot, and after eating..."
The Fenghuo soldiers looked at the smoke in the distance and did not care about eating. One of the thin cavalrymen quickly ran to the hillside and lit the smoke.
"Boss, what should we do now? Shall we withdraw?"
"Quit, we are not cavalry, can we outrun four-legged beasts?"
"That……"
"Get ready guys, give them a try!"
At the mountain pass, two Ning Haijun cavalry appeared. Both cavalry were in a very embarrassed state. Their horses had dense arrows on their backs. If they were not too thickly dressed and protected by iron armor, they would have been cold.
"Whoosh..."
A hail of arrows swamped the two Ning navy cavalry scouts.
"well……"
"Pity!"
The veteran punched the snow hard. At this moment, a Ning Navy scout climbed up from the snow. His body was full of arrowheads.
"Hangou, surrender!"
The chasing Jiannu cavalry surrounded the Ning navy soldier. The Ning navy soldier walked towards his horse that fell on the ground. He reached out and touched the horse's head: "Surrender, what good will I gain if you surrender?"
Seeing that Ning Haijun wanted to surrender, the Jiannu cavalry showed contempt on their faces: "I will spare your life!"
"I can't do it until I die!"
The scarred Scout Ning showed his big yellow teeth and said with a happy smile: "If I die in the battle, my father and mother can share a hundred acres of land. With you, one, two, three, four...twenty-five , my father can get two hundred and fifty acres more land!"
The Jiannu cavalry looked puzzled. The cavalry scout took off a black iron can from the horse's neck. It was a powerful weapon made of pig iron, a bomb weighing fifteen kilograms.
It was almost equivalent to one and a half kilograms of TNT. As the scout pulled the fuse, black smoke came out of the iron can. The slaves looked confused: "You want to use such a big iron ball to kill us?"
There was a loud bang, and as the bomb exploded, dozens of Jiannu cavalry were instantly blown to pieces.
(End of chapter)
