In Dengzhou Water City, four infantry battalions belonging to Xu Hai Jiedushi Gaojie are boarding the ship. These four infantry battalions are all Morris Formation formations. One battalion has a full strength of more than 500 people, and the four battalions combined have more than 2,000 people. people. The officers and soldiers of these four battalions were all granted land in Xuzhou, and everyone had a share of the family property. In addition, the Haizhou owned by Gao Jie is also very fat, and Princess Yuntai (Xing) is good at management. Last year, she took advantage of the rising rice prices in the southeast to make a lot of money.
Gao Jie, who had money in his pocket, did not treat his soldiers badly. He not only gave them full military pay, but also ordered a batch of firecrackers from Shanghai through the Shachuan Gang. He also sent a memorial to Zhu Cixiang to send a group of instructors. Help his army reorganize.
Gao Jie's army has many veterans with battlefield experience. However, due to lax military discipline, lax training, and poor equipment, their combat effectiveness has always been poor. In the past, we could deal with rogue bandits and harm the common people.
However, since Gao Jie and Xing became the masters of Xu Hai, the situation of the army has been greatly improved. With the land grant and sufficient military pay, Gao Jie and the Xing family truly took control of the army - the land grant allowed the officers and soldiers to have families and businesses, and they were all under the control of the Gao family! The sufficient salary made the Gao couple become benefactors of officers and soldiers. Adding the two factors together, the Gao family's control over the Gao family army has reached an unprecedented level, and naturally they can drastically improve military discipline and strengthen training.
After some reorganization, the Gao Jiajun finally became an army that looked capable of fighting. Now they can cautiously go to the Liaodong Peninsula to do big things.
The dock was filled with civil and military officials who came to see him off, including Wu Guoyong, who had just arrived in Dengzhou.
Just a few days before Wu Guoyong arrived in Dengzhou, good news came from Shandong that he had recovered Ziyang County and defeated the Qing army.
This is great news!
In the past two or three years, the Ming and Qing armies in the direction of Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province have been fighting between Ziyang and Qufu. At one moment, the Qing army built the Yishui camp to peek at Qufu, and at the other moment, the Ming army attacked the Yishui camp to remove the threat from Qufu. As the major strongholds of both sides, Ziyang and Qufu were rarely attacked.
Unexpectedly, Ziyang, which the Qing army had defended for two or three years, was actually defeated by the Qufu training army sent by Shi Kefa!
This makes Gao Jie, who has no dealings with Shi Kefa, Huang Degong and his gang, feel a bit shameful. Therefore, as soon as Wu Guoyong arrived in Dengzhou, Gao Jie proposed a strategy to conquer Liao across the sea.
Today is the day when Gao Jie's four battalions board the ship to attack Lushun!
It is only a day's sail from Dengzhou to Lushun, and since the islands between Lushun and Dengzhou are all under the control of the Beiyang Navy, there is no risk in crossing the sea. The risk is what will you encounter after landing?
"Since the fall of the Jinzhou Zhongzuosuo City in Lushunkou, it has been an important coastal defense town for the Donglu. It is also equipped with Hongyi cannons, but this cannot stop our Beiyang Navy..."
The speaker now is Shen Tingyang, the governor of Beiyang. He is accompanied by a dark-skinned, strong man with large pores on his face and a beard. He wears a cut green silk arrow jacket, and there are He wore a pair of breastplates - a simple plate armor made of two pieces of iron sheets hammered on a special mold with a water hammer. It was produced by the Lopez Arsenal opened by the Portuguese in Shanghai.
"General Gao," Shen Tingyang pointed at the strong man wearing a breastplate next to him. "This is Liu Xinyu, the commander of the Beiyang Navy's Forward Battalion. He often comes and goes to various places along the Jinzhou Guard's coast. He is very familiar with it! This time, he will lead the fleet to send Gao Zongrong's troops and horses. Port Arthur.”
The organization of the Beiyang Navy is modeled after that of the Land Division, with regiment-level units such as the War Fleet, Merchant Marine, Shipbuilding, and Water City Regiments. Among them, the main task of the warship group is to maintain Beiyang sea power and harass the coasts of Liaodong and western Liaoning.
The warship regiment has five water warfare battalions, namely the forward battalion, the central battalion, the left wing battalion, the right wing battalion and the rear guard battalion, which are also five "squadrons". Each of the five squadrons is equipped with two or three large centipede ships and some medium-sized sand ships with a material of about 2,000 pieces. The former is mainly used for water warfare, and the latter is mainly used for transporting troops and military supplies.
"The last general has met Gao Zongrong." The navy leader named Liu Xinyu gave a greeting, "Today is a south-westerly wind in the south, and the sea is calm. It is a good time to go to sea. The last general is still the general. Rong prepared a centipede boat with three thousand materials, which is very comfortable."
Gao Jie helped Liu Xinyu up and said with a smile: "I have heard of Beiyang Shachuan Liu. In the past two years, you have come and gone like the wind on the Beiyang sea. You are invincible. You can even go to the coasts of Liaodong and West Liaoning."
Shen Tingyang stroked his beard and nodded slightly, feeling a little proud. The Tatars and the like were really not in the eyes of him, the governor of Beiyang - the civil and military officials on the mainland of the Ming Dynasty had a headache when dealing with the Tatars, but he, the governor of the sea, made the Tatars helpless.
His people can go and leave the coastlines of Liaodong, West Liaoning and North Korea whenever they want!
The imperial court is still planning to land in Liaodong and western Liaoning, but Beiyang has been visiting frequently for a long time.
Wu Guoyong also smiled and complimented: "With the navy of the sinking army, there is no problem for us to land near Lushunkou. Even if the Tatars have two or three Hongyi cannons, it will be useless. How far can the Hongyi cannons hit Lushunkou? There are too many places around Jinzhou Zhongzuo where you can land, and they can't defend it at all.
As for the city of Zhongzuo in Jinzhou, there is no need for Gao Zongrong’s men to attack it. The city is located close to the mountains and the sea, and is surrounded by a circle of hills. As long as Gao Zongrong’s men can capture a few, I will send artillery to lead them. Cross the sea with a twenty-four-pound mortar, and then set up the cannon on the mountain. From a high position, you can use explosive shells to drive away the Donglu in the city of Zhongzuo.
Once the Zhongzuosuo City is obtained, we will carry out extensive construction and build it into our base city in Liaodong..."
The terrain of Lushunkou is a natural hazard for an army equipped with modern firearms!
It is surrounded by mountains, a small piece of flat land and a small bay in the middle, and a peninsula called Laohuwei blocks the entrance of the bay, leaving only a waterway of less than one mile - as long as it is around Jinzhou Zhongzuosuo City Build a fort on the top of the mountain and place a twenty-pound mortar, so that you can bombard the enemy who tries to invade with explosive shells from a high position. The coastal defense fort built at Tiger tail can block enemies at sea.
What's even better is that the bay at Lushunkou faces the Yellow Sea to the southeast and backs to the northwest. Therefore, you can avoid the cold in winter and it is a harbor that does not freeze all year round. Moreover, the area of Lushunkou Bay is much larger than that of Dengzhou Water City! It is an extremely ideal home port for the Beiyang Navy's war fleet.
Therefore, Shen Tingyang has been planning to capture Jinzhou Zhongzuosuo City since last year, and then transform it into the new Beiyang base.
But before he could take action, Dorgon sent a Niu Lu Zhenglu Banner soldier to garrison Zhongzuosuo City in Jinzhou!
Therefore, the operation to capture Lushun escalated into a medium-sized battle.
When dozens of Ming army warships and transport ships formed a convoy, taking advantage of the rare southwesterly wind in autumn to travel to Lushunkou, Niulu Zhangjing Cao Hutan, the leader of the Qing Dynasty's green flag, was sitting and sleeping in the Zhongzuosuo Castle in Jinzhou. disturbed.
Yes, just uneasy!
Because Cao Shutan knew that he and his brothers were thrown to the Jinzhou Zhongzuo Institute, the "front line of resistance against the Ming Dynasty," as cannon fodder.
Otherwise, if he was doing well in Shandong, why would he follow Kong Tingxun, the crown prince of Dingnan, to Liaodong?
According to the order of Emperor Amadorgun, a total of forty Niulus were drawn out from the Zhenglv Banner and divided into eight Jiala, which were stationed in Jinzhou, Fuzhou, Gaizhou, Jinzhou, Ningyuan, Yizhou, Guangning, and Haizhou respectively. States and other places.
They did not leave their families behind in the customs and come out alone to fight against the Ming Dynasty. Instead, they brought their families with them.
Now there is an entire Niulu family living in Zhongzuosuo City in Jinzhou, more than five hundred households, and two to three thousand people!
The prince of Dingnan also allocated a farm to each household, with the minimum being 300 acres. Cao Shatan was allocated 500 acres to himself... He can be considered a family and business in Liaodong. If Ming Ming When the army comes, families will be destroyed!
