The Hangzhou Prefecture's guards only have a total of more than 10,000 people. Compared with the blood-licking pirates and Wang Zhi's troops with well-equipped weapons and equipment, the Southeast Guards, who have been without war for a long time, have already lost their combat effectiveness and equipment. It sucks.
It is impossible to have armor, so only a few sets of tattered armor in the general banner, and hundreds of households, can have rare items such as cloth face armor. Most of the soldiers only have a set of mandarin duck war jackets. The regular army versus the rebels The biggest advantage is virtually eliminated.
Firearms and the like are also old items from dozens or hundreds of years ago.
Not to mention their fighting ability, they are completely peasants and have never fought in a war.
Moreover, even these more than 10,000 people still have water.
Zhao Wenhua's Beijing army was nominally 4,000 strong, but actually only had 3,000. The remaining Hangzhou guardsmen, after careful calculation, he almost fainted.
Theoretically speaking, there should be tens of thousands of Hangzhou vanguards and Hangzhou defenders stationed in Hangzhou Prefecture. Even if there are several thousand households stationed in the county, based on the six thousand households in the city, the number of troops should be nearly 7,000.
But in fact, there are less than 4,000 people, and the rest are all vacant! Even among these four thousand people, many of them are already in their seventies or eighties and cannot fight at all.
There was no way. In the heart of the south, there had been almost no wars since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The generals were naturally desperate to make money. Now that a disaster was approaching, they were all dumbfounded.
Zhao Wenhua was also frightened. Facing the Japanese pirates outside who were building ladders and bringing in artillery, he couldn't help but fight.
He urgently ordered Tang Shunzhi to lead his army back to rescue Hangzhou.
However, except for the 6,000 Beijing troops under Tang Shunzhi's command, the rest were all guards with low combat power. Although they had gone through a certain amount of training, they were still far from being able to go to the battlefield.
However, Zhao Wenhua urged him urgently, and Tang Shunzhi had no choice but to lead his army to fight.
However, Wang Zhi had originally planned to encircle the city and call for reinforcements. At this time, Tang Shunzhi came, which suited his wishes. He left 10,000 people to besiege the city, and the remaining 20,000 people directly faced the enemy.
Tang Shunzhi himself was capable, but his troops were useless if they couldn't bear it. After several rounds of shelling and musket fire from Wang Zhi's elite men, the Ming army began to be unable to bear it. When the Japanese pirates began to charge, the Wei army took the lead in fleeing, and the Jing army The army was also forced to flee, and in the end Tang Shunzhi had no choice but to flee with him.
They fled all the way back to Shaoxing and suffered losses of more than 3,000 people.
Hangzhou became an isolated city, and the Japanese pirates officially began their attack. In just a few days, the city was already crumbling.
It seems that a tragedy is about to happen.
But surprisingly, the city was saved in the end.
Because the wealthy businessmen in the city gathered together and prepared 300,000 taels of silver to buy off the Japanese pirates.
All of a sudden the Japanese pirates stopped attacking.
What are they looting for? It’s not just for money! However, the rich people are protected by city walls, which cannot be easily conquered, and the harvest each time is not big. And the money purchased this time is already comparable to the previous ten invasions, or even more!
Although Wang Zhi had his own plans, looking at the bright eyes of the leaders, he knew that he could not persuade them to continue the war.
Otherwise, it would be hard to say that he would be betrayed first. After all, he is just an alliance leader.
Zhao Wenhua finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the Japanese pirates collecting money and boarding the boat to leave the waters of the Ming Dynasty. However, before the excitement of the rest of his life could overwhelm him, greater depression already filled his chest.
His life was saved, but his official position was not guaranteed.
Such a defeat caused more than half of the casualties of the Beijing army and the local guards. Japanese pirates were rampant in the prefectures and counties, and many villages were plundered. The emperor would not let him go.
Sure enough, when the news reached Beijing, Jiajing was immediately furious.
"Mr. Xia Ge, take a look!"
He threw the memorial in front of Xia Yan, his tone full of coldness:
"This is what you recommended to me, this is what you said, the talented person who is not inferior to Hu Zongxian!"
"Okay, he is indeed a good talent! He almost lost my Hangzhou! Mr. Ge really knows people with a keen eye!"
Jiajing was really angry, and there was even a hint of sarcasm in his words.
Comparing it with Yan Song who recommended Hu Zongxian next to him, the gap became clear instantly.
One achieved military exploits and expelled the enemy invaders within a few years; the other was defeated by the enemy invaders and suffered numerous casualties among his men. He was still trapped in the city and almost caused the loss of a major town in the south of the Ming Dynasty...
Why is there such a big gap between people?
Jiajing's face turned even worse when he thought so.
They were obviously just a group of pirates, but they were brought to this level by Zhao Wenhua!
Xia Yan's face turned blue and he stood speechless.
How did he know that Zhao Wenhua was such a waste! At that time, it seemed that he was speaking eloquently, but why did he stretch his crotch like this as soon as he got started?
With his head lowered, he understood that after experiencing this incident, his status in the emperor's heart had greatly declined, and he had fallen out of favor.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Yan Song with jealousy.
Why is this guy so lucky? He can find a genius like Hu Zongxian when he searches...
"Pass the message." Jiajing didn't care what Xia Yan's reaction was, he just ordered the eunuch:
"Order Chen Guogong to lead 30,000 troops from the capital, oversee military affairs in the south of the Yangtze River, and destroy the Japanese pirates!"
Jiajing finally plans to throw out his own Wang Zha!
…
Yan Yuanmo soon led the army to his hometown.
The first thing he did when he came here was to meet Yan Ling.
"What strategies do you have to pacify the Japanese?" Yan Ling asked, sipping tea.
Next, Yan Yuanmo is sitting upright. He thought for a while and replied:
"As far as I know, the strength of the Japanese pirates is not in combat power, but in his mobility. In a real comparison of combat power, can he compare to the Mongolian cavalry? But along the southeast coast, Japanese pirates can land from any place at any time. Harassing a place is even more difficult than Tatar Oara.”
"This is not the same as on the grassland. When the Tatars march south, it's not that they won't divide their troops, but they are basically twisted into one rope."
“My initial idea now is to delineate a defense zone along the coast and have different generals lead troops to garrison it. Once the Japanese pirates land, they will immediately attack them head-on, stabilize the situation for the time being and prevent them from becoming so rampant, and then slowly plot their root causes. "
"It's just that my veterans have been with me for many years and are very experienced in fighting Tatar cavalry. This Japanese pirate..."
Yan Yuanmo was a little hesitant. After all, the two were completely different combat methods, and he was really afraid that his generals would not be able to adapt.
Yan Ling touched his beard and said with a smile:
"I have expected it a long time ago, so I have already identified several candidates for you."
"Who are they?"
"The first one is Qian Shi and Qi Jiguang, the commanders of Dengzhou Guards; the second one is Tan Lun, the prefect of Taizhou; and the third one is in Dongqian Academy, Xu Wei and Xu Wenchang!"
"Use these three people well, and the Japanese pirates will be defeated!"
Yan Yuanmo left Yan Ling's house with curiosity.
He knew his ancestor's abilities.
What kind of person would be the person who could catch his eye?
He was already looking forward to it.
(End of chapter)
