The scholars in Nandu City had different ideas from Qian Qianyi. As long as they could drive away Chongzhen, they would be worthy of celebration.
It would be great if he could be appointed as an official by the Xitian King Division, which would just satisfy everyone's long-cherished wish for many years.
How about Huang Degong, who prides himself on being brave and good at fighting? What about the Yongwei Battalion, which claims to be invincible?
Facing the King of the West, he was so frightened that he ran away with his head in his arms, but his true colors were revealed.
If Prince Dog's troops come, they will most likely end up like the Yongwei camp.
Jiangnan scholars did not approve of Zhu Cixiang's proclaiming the emperor, calling him a "hypocrite" and calling his father Zhu Youjian a "tyrant"!
These two monarchs are a scourge to the people. If there is a chance, they must be eradicated in order to restore justice to the world.
However, this cannot be achieved by relying on Shilin's strength. We have tried many times before, and even if we unite merchants, we have failed.
The scholars thought that they would live in darkness for a long time, but they never expected that the opportunity would come so quickly.
The King of the West suddenly came to the south of the Yangtze River and took the southern capital, scaring away the emperor Chongzhen. This was really a blessing to the people in the city.
As a scholar who aspires to benefit the people, he naturally has to serve such a king who eliminates violence and brings peace to the people.
As for the many bad deeds of Master Wang in the city, the scholars naturally ignored them.
Even if your own family is affected, you have to accept it. After all, a small impatience will mess up a big plan.
The situation in Jiangdu (Yangzhou), an important town in the north of the Yangtze River, was even worse. The Lianghuai salt merchants happily welcomed the arrival of the Xitianwang Division heading north along the canal.
Most of the salt merchants had a relationship with Chongzhen, and they even hated the rebellious Prince Gou.
It's just that we are defenseless and unable to seek justice for our industry, so we have no choice but to endure the humiliation and bear the burden.
Now that he has Master Xitian, the hard days are finally over, and he no longer has to look at the faces of Baojun and his son.
The general in charge of guarding Jiangdu, Ma Jinggong, had already fled to Huai'an with his subordinates who tortured the merchants.
It would be great if the King of the West could conquer all of Jiangnan in one fell swoop and even change dynasties.
How people used to traffic in private salt outside the customs, how they will serve the King of the West in the future.
In order to express their sincerity, the salt merchants gave Master Wang a meeting gift of five hundred thousand taels of silver.
But this was far from satisfying the appetite of the Spaniards who occupied Jiangdu, and the salt merchants were required to collect ten times the amount of silver.
At this time, everyone couldn't help but be a little stunned. Master Xitian Wang really opened his mouth and asked for five million taels.
Isn't it better than the Dog Emperor and comparable to the Dog Prince?
What should I do?
In order to frighten the merchants in the city, the Marquis of Los Villers ordered his men to build a gallows at a street corner.
All merchants in the city were imprisoned in a nearby courtyard and their families were sent to collect silver.
Within ten days, if his family cannot collect an equal share of silver, the businessman will be hanged in public!
If it weren't for the fact that these yellow-skinned monkeys had paid half a million taels of silver to their subordinates, the Marquis of Villers would have used the same tactics he used against the Inca Empire.
Ten days is not a short period of time. If you still cannot meet your requirements, you are deliberately going against the powerful imperial forces.
These businessmen with ulterior motives may send information about the city to the Ming army at any time, and they must be deterred at all times to ensure that they do not dare to act rashly.
The Ming Empire's capital defenders were scared away, as was the big city where they came to collect taxes.
Now the Marquis of Villers can basically confirm that the Ming army is just a bunch of rabble and they don't dare to fight against their own troops.
Perhaps in Europa, the Spanish army still has some old enemies who dare to challenge.
But in the Eastern world, the Spanish army is the invincible army of kings.
The Marquis of Villers has twenty-seven companies under his command, and each nine companies can form a large square formation of 900 people.
With only 2,700 men to attack such a large city, even with the cover of the fleet, the Marquis of Villers was not very sure at first.
But once he arrived at the battlefield and entered the city without any bloodshed, the Marquis of Villers felt completely relieved.
The defenders in the city had already fled. They were just a bunch of ridiculous cowards and cowards.
It took less than 3,000 men to easily occupy such a large city. From this, Marquis de Villes deduced that 50,000 imperial troops could indeed occupy half of the Ming Kingdom, and might even destroy the pseudo-empire.
Ridiculous country, ridiculous army, ridiculous businessmen!
Everything here made the Marquis of Villers feel despised, and such a large area of land was wasted.
If it can be completely occupied by the imperial troops, His Majesty the King will no longer have to worry about empty treasury.
France, Sweden, and the Netherlands, these old enemies of the empire, will all be defeated by the powerful imperial forces!
More businessmen have gone to Shanyang (Huai'an) to seek asylum from Shi Kefa, and the fleet even chose to enter Hongze Lake upstream to take refuge.
Three days later, Shi Kefa learned about what happened in Jiangdu, but due to the small number of troops and low combat effectiveness, he was unable to regain the lost territory.
Previously, Shi Kefa had received letters from Emperor Chongzhen and Emperor Haojing. The former asked Shi Kefa to stick to Shanyang, and the latter asked him to stick to this place and wait for the Beiting army to move south.
In short, Shi Kefa cannot lose the strategic town before the reinforcements arrive in Huai'an Prefecture, otherwise he will be punished.
This requirement is not too high for Shi Kefa, and after reading his resume in the Heavenly Book and Emperor Haojing's tactics, Shi Kefa also knows some ways of perseverance.
In addition to hiring young men to reinforce the city and increase reserves, they also sent people to dig a large number of horse pits outside the moat and produced tens of thousands of jars of gold juice...
However, these preparations were in vain because the army led by Hong Chengchou had already arrived in Huai'an.
There are not many troops, only more than 20,000, but this is just the forward force of reinforcements.
Emperor Haojing is going to march in person this time, and an army of more than 100,000 will arrive shortly.
A certain new emperor estimated that the Spanish fleet could reach Huai'an at most, and going further north would be asking for death.
The canal was not suitable for navigation by sea ships, so the Spanish fleet could only send speedboats to cover the army's attack.
The more pragmatic goal is to capture Jiangdu. Maybe we can win it directly without even fighting.
Hong Chengchou did not expect that he would lead his troops back to the south of the Yangtze River so soon. Especially when they saw Shi Kefa in Shanyang, both of them had a lot of feelings.
The arrival of this distinguished guest was a reassurance for Shi Kefa, who had been anxious for many days.
Although the two were both civil servants, Hong Chengchou's military literacy was undoubtedly much higher than that of Shi Kefa.
With Hong Chengchou helping him to hold on to Huai'an, there was no need to worry about Xiyi troops going north to attack this place.
But both Shi Kefa and Hong Chengchou were in a dilemma about how to regain Yangzhou Prefecture.
Because what Xiyi relied on this time was not the land division, but the fleet. Without destroying the fleet, they could not completely defeat the enemy.
The specifics will have to wait until Emperor Haojing arrives at Huai'an Mansion to discuss it. The two men's current plan is to collect nearby troops and prepare to launch a counterattack with the main force of the King's Division.
Within five days, a new emperor led an army of about 150,000 people to Shanyang. Shi Kefa, Hong Chengchou and a group of officials met him outside the city.
In order to prevent Emperor Taiji from launching a surprise attack on Jifu after hearing the news, the new emperor asked General Zhou Yuji to lead the garrison consisting mainly of nine brigades of East Palace Guards, supplemented by nearly 50,000 German mercenaries and tens of thousands of French troops, to ensure that the capital would be safe. .
A certain new emperor led the remaining five brigades of the East Palace Guards, plus 30,000 Yulin soldiers, as well as 5,000 soldiers each from Liu Guoneng, Li Wanqing, Gao Jie, Liu Guangzuo, Bai Guangen, Shandong and Baoding, and went south to face the powerful enemy.
Previously, Gao Jie, Liu Guangzuo and others complained that a certain new emperor did not allow his troops to meet the enemy, so they made a lot less money. Now, they don't have to worry about braids, let alone accidentally hurt their own people.
Hong Chengchou's troops were mainly composed of 15,000 troops from the Ma Ke Division, supplemented by Tang Tong, Luo Dai, and Yang Guozhu.
Miao Youcai, Feng Ju, Yang Yufan, Jiang Mingwu and other troops stayed at the junction of Huguang, Henan, and Nanzhili to continue to suppress the remnants of the rogue bandits.
Even if a new emperor leads an army to Huai'an, the problems he will face are very difficult.
It is now certain that Jiangdu City has been occupied by the Spanish, and there are many Spanish warships in the canal.
This is just a superficial phenomenon, because it is not difficult to recover a city in the north of the Yangtze River. What is difficult is how to deal with the Spanish army that is poisoning all parts of the south of the Yangtze River.
The flying cavalry reported that the river east of Ma'anshan to the mouth of the Yangtze River was covered with enemy warships. It was impossible for the Ming army to cross the river directly.
Because of this, relying on the powerful fleet to support itself, the Spanish Army was able to have no fear in the area south of the Yangtze River, burning, killing and looting everywhere.
If the Ming army wanted to eliminate these locusts, they had to cross the river, but they could not confront the Spanish fleet head-on, otherwise they would suffer huge casualties after all.
This requires a detour, at least to Taiping Prefecture in the upper reaches of Ma'anshan, such as Wuhu. It will be safer to use boats to cross the river.
Otherwise, if we just point to the 30 to 50 thousand people under Huang Degong's command in the south of the Yangtze River, we will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey to eliminate these locusts.
Hong Chengchou took the initiative to volunteer and took over this difficult task. He was willing to lead his troops to cross the river first and cooperate with Nanting's troops to stop the enemy.
Even so, enough ships must be collected, which is another thorny problem.
After the shipowners learned from newspapers about the imminent invasion of the Western Barbarians, some of the ships ran into the canal, some went upstream, and some went to sea to take refuge in Denglai or Tianjin.
The ships in the canal, because the Spanish fleet controlled the southward exit of the canal, could not provide the necessary help to the army.
The ships on board are scattered all along the coast, and it will take a lot of time to collect them.
Optimistically speaking, it would take at least a week for Hong Chengchou to find enough ships to allow his troops to cross the river.
The next question is how to destroy the Spanish fleet in the Yangtze River. This is the biggest difficulty.
The intelligence previously provided by the French said that Philip IV mobilized between 800 and 1,500 armed merchant ships. The given range was a range. The actual number had to be guessed by the new emperor...
The latest intelligence shows that the British have also come to take advantage of the situation and have dispatched no less than 300 armed merchant ships.
So many large ships are crowded into the Yangtze River, even if the other party anchors and stops on the river, they will not fight back.
A certain new emperor's bastard would probably take a lot of effort and take half a month to deal with it.
Each department of the Donggong Guard carries a large number of anti-ship missiles, but they must be launched under certain conditions.
First of all, the distance from the target should not be too far, secondly the visibility should be good, and finally there should be a bunker, otherwise the opponent will counterattack.
Where these three conditions are met at the same time, I'm afraid there won't be too many enemy ships for our side to destroy.
To deal with these uninvited guests, we will ultimately have to rely on Zheng Zhilong's fleet.
But how to coordinate simultaneous attacks by land and sea is a big problem.
It is a good thing that the Spanish and British combined fleets all rushed into the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but the enemy's situation must be viewed dialectically.
If you can't destroy the opponent, but your own side is severely damaged by the enemy's fleet, you'll really have to suffer a lot.
"Close the door and beat the dog" must first close the door, and then you can have a personal dog fight...
Even if the door is closed, the dog will choose to jump over the wall when the situation is unfavorable!
This situation is completely opposite to that when we sent troops outside the pass. Now the enemy has the advantage in the rivers and seas.
The people in each department have no experience in this area and can only continue to explore and try in actual combat.
A certain new emperor was also worried that Hong Chengchou and Huang Degong might not be able to defeat the Spanish and British armies south of the Yangtze River.
The opponent has another retreat route, which is to flee from Nandu towards Qiantang, and finally board a ship at Jinshanwei to escape.
Judging from the map, it is entirely possible that there are wealthy cities along the way.
After the robbery, Sparks and Lightning went home, which would be the same thing if it were a new emperor.
Taking this into consideration, a certain new emperor asked Gao Jie, Liu Guangzuo, and Bai Guangen to be assigned to Hong Chengchou's command.
Only by increasing the number of troops crossing the river can we inflict heavy losses on the invaders who are wreaking havoc in the south of the Yangtze River.
As for how Hong Chengchou got his men to cross the river, a certain new emperor didn't have the time to take care of it.
Naming him the "Commander of the Suppressor of Barbarians" and bestowing Shang Fang with a sword and an imperial edict was a big gift to Hong Chengchou.
After agreeing on the preliminary strategy, Hong Chengchou quickly led his troops to set off, while the new emperor led his remaining army of more than 100,000 people south along the canal in an attempt to regain Jiangdu.
On August 15th, after sunset, Lin Baoguo's 4th Infantry Brigade, Wang Yuncheng's 5th Infantry Brigade, and Wang Zhilun's 6th Infantry Brigade used the cover of the woods to approach the Spanish warships on the riverside.
Less than 200 meters away from the target, more than 300 "Harpoon" anti-ship missiles were suddenly launched!
At least 20% of them hit their targets, and no fewer than forty Spanish armed merchant ships were hit.
The shipowner and sailors were completely unprepared for such a sudden attack.
It wasn't until I saw that incredible picture, which reminded me of the "Evil Dragon of the East" as the Dutch call it, that I suddenly realized it, but it was too late.
More than ten armed merchant ships sank directly and disappeared on the river as the fire exploded the ammunition in their cabins.
The rest were also running away from this ghost place like crazy, causing many collisions.
Unlike warships, the owners of these armed merchant ships were here to plunder and could not bear the consequences of their merchant ships being sunk.
This is not an ordinary attack. Being hit once can cause the ship to sink and people to die.
The irritated shipowners chose to leave the canal one after another. They knew very well that launching a bombardment after sunset would only continue to expose their positions, and the bombardment would have little effect.
This move is tantamount to betraying the Marquis of Villers's troops in the city...
