Just when Dorgon made up his mind to change the strategy of driving away tigers and devouring wolves, and instead launched an attack on the Ming Dynasty territories in Shandong and Henan, Zhu Cixiang was not idle either, but came to strike first!
On the fourth day of April in Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, dozens of sand boats broke through the fog on the sea in the early morning and landed on the beach in the bay on the south side of the "waist" of Juehua Island with a bang.
Before a sand ship could stop, two long springboards were placed on the square bow. Then came the Ming army wearing red cloth-covered armor and iron-clad war hats, holding fire blunderbuss with match ropes already lit, and rushed down the gangplank with shouts. Another officer, holding a gun in one hand and a sword in the other, also got off the boat.
At the same time, dozens of other boats also lowered their gangplanks, and groups of heavily armed Ming troops rushed onto the beach of Juehua Island in western Liaoning.
Every one of these Ming troops, both officers and soldiers, looked nervous.
"Has anyone seen a Tartar?"
"No, I didn't see any Tatars..."
"This is Tatar territory, be careful..."
"Quickly, form an array, with the muskets in front, the archers in the middle, the swords on both sides, and the spearmen in the back!"
"The Tatars will appear at any time, hurry up and form a formation!"
The officers had already reacted, shouting at the top of their lungs, and ordered their men to form four battalion square formations on the beach of Juehua Island.
Those who landed on Juehua Island today were four battalions of the Denglai New Army's Tengzhou Association. The Dengzhou Association is a group of guards, and it is almost considered a "third-line" force in the New Army to overcome difficulties. However, the combat effectiveness of these "third lines" is not weak, and is even much stronger than many "second lines", that is, divisions and armies that have not yet been adapted into "model regiments".
This is because the regiments of all divisions and armies have been determined to be "modelled", that is, adapted into European-style troops using Morris tactics-which requires the deployment of a large number of firecrackers, spliced plate armor, and three-pound regimental cannons. Morris-style formation training must also be carried out, and a large number of officers and artillery must be trained.
This is a huge systematic project, and it is impossible to complete it in two or three years.
And the twelve regiments that are currently undergoing "modelling" have not yet been completed! The remaining more than twenty infantry regiments could only make up their numbers with spears, swords, shields, and bows and arrows. Not only did they have no firearms to use, they didn't even have many good bows. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of these troops is very unreliable, and they are not as good as the guards with relatively complete equipment!
After all, the guards have a strong foundation in guard posts. The guard posts in Jiangnan are in terrible condition, but places like Shandong, Henan, and Fengyang have been in chaos for a while. Therefore, their military equipment has been restored to some extent. Many of the guardsmen's disciples joined the army with armor, so their military equipment is actually better. The Dengzhou Association was the best among the guards. Not only was it established the earliest, it was also strengthened by Shen Tingyang and Su Guansheng. Each battalion now has a firecracker flag, equipped with firecrackers produced by Shen Tingyang's Dengzhou Gun Factory. Moreover, he also fought against Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo's troops in last year's Northern Expedition, which ended in an anticlimactic manner and won a complete victory!
But last time we were fighting traitors, this time we were fighting Tatars!
Therefore, no one in the Dengzhou Association dared to take it lightly, and soon four square formations were listed in battalion units.
"Okay, we finally formed the formation..." Yu Daren, the co-president of the Dengzhou Association, breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Zhang Huang, who was the magistrate of Penglai and Juehua counties, and said, "Magistrate Zhang, You are a civil servant, just wait on the boat now, I will go ashore first."
Yu Daren and Zhang Huangyan were riding on a Centipede warship of the Beiyang Navy. For today's landing, Shen Tingyang spent a lot of money, and four centipede ships came out in full force. Now they are on the sea less than two miles away from the coast. They lined up, lowered the big anchor, and opened the gun windows in the bow. Eight 12-pound red barbarian cannons were now aimed at the beach, waiting for the Tatars to appear!
"I will go ashore with you!" Although Zhang Huangyan is a civilian official, he is now fully armed, with an arrow jacket, a quiver on his shoulder, a Kaiyuan bow on his back, and a sword in one hand. He is a bit skinny and his face is too pale. At first glance, he looks like a scholar pretending to be a robber.
"Okay, let's go ashore together!" Yu Daren saw that he was very interested, so he didn't stop him. After all, Juehua Island is an isolated island, and there will probably be no Tatar army on the island.
Centipede warships cannot be used to wash the beach. They have to be on guard near the beach to guard against the unknown Dai Qingshui Division. If necessary, they will also use the bow cannon to support the battle on the beach, so they must maintain mobility.
Therefore, Yu Daren and Zhang Huangyan could only take a sampan and rush to the beach. The four battalion commanders under Yu Daren had already come over to see the report.
"Xietong, my subordinates have sent out sentries to be on guard, but no Tatars have been found so far..."
As soon as the battalion commander who was leading the report said this, a sharp whistle came from the distance. This was someone shooting a loud arrow into the air!
Yu Daren immediately became nervous, raised his hand to stop the battalion commander who was reporting, and then listened for a while, but there was no second sound of arrows. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and said to Zhang Huang: "It should be the common people. ..... Magistrate Zhang, do you want to see them?"
"Of course I want to see you!" Zhang Huang said, "I am the magistrate of Juehua County, and the people here are the people under my rule!"
Yu Daren nodded, and then ordered one of his battalion commanders to lead his men in formation and protect him and Zhang Huangyan to meet the people of Juehua Island.
The place where the people were found was a shabby village. The terrain of Juehua Island is peculiar, a bit like a dumbbell, with large east and west ends and a narrow middle. Therefore, two natural bays are formed in the north and south of the island.
Yu Daren and Zhang Huangyan landed in the bay south of the island today.
In addition, the east and west sides of Juehua Island are covered with hills and woods. Only the northeastern corner of the eastern end of the island has some flat land and a bay that can be sheltered from the wind. Earlier, when the Ming Dynasty did not give up on Ningyuan, the bay was very busy. The food and wages shipped to Ningyuan are all transited there. Therefore, docks, warehouses and a government office were also built. If the Tatars stationed troops on the island, they were probably there.
The narrow middle part of the island is full of farmland and villages, and there is a small fishing village near the bay on the back. However, the first village Yu Daren and Zhang Huangyan arrived after landing on the island was a farm hidden in the woods, surrounded by newly sown wheat fields.
More than a hundred men and women were captured from the village and gathered in the grain drying field at the entrance of the village. They looked at the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who appeared out of nowhere in panic!
They are all people who moved from Ningyuan after the massacre of Juehua Island in the sixth year of Tianqi. They have lived on the island for more than ten years. Every winter, when the sea freezes, they are always on tenterhooks, fearing Donglu's attack. The soldiers suddenly came and killed them, and they could not live a peaceful life until last winter... Because at that time, the whole territory of Ningyuan was the territory of the Qing Dynasty, so they were naturally the subjects of the Qing Dynasty, and they were obedient people.
All the men on the island obediently shaved their hair and tied their hair into braids, and no one wanted to resist the rule of the Qing Dynasty - the price of resistance was too heavy, and it was not something they, ordinary people like them, could afford. They just wanted to live in peace on Juehua Island. live on.
The Qing Dynasty didn't seem to care much about the people of the outer islands. In addition to letting the men among them shave their heads, and handing over some food and seafood, it didn't embarrass them too much. It was really a great favor from the emperor!
In the words of later generations, now they are stable slaves and can be peaceful and obedient people from generation to generation.
But just when they felt "stable", something unexpected happened to them.
I don’t know where a group of Ming soldiers came from that looked very strange. They looked fierce, but they didn’t steal things or rape women. They didn’t look like they wanted to “borrow” their braided heads to repay their merits. , just let everyone go to the grain drying field at the entrance of the village to listen to a lecture from a heavily armed county magistrate...
