Three hundred miles from Jurong to Jiangyin, Gu Zhengchen led the army on a forced march for more than three days before arriving at Jiangyin Guard.
Jiangyinwei has a very prominent geographical location. It is built next to the Yangtze River, with Xiangshan to the east. It can be seen from a high position. The Yunliang River behind it connects the Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, making river transportation convenient.
Jiangyin belongs to Changzhou Prefecture, adjacent to Suzhou Prefecture to the east, Zhenjiang Prefecture to the west, and Yingtian Prefecture to the west.
As the key guard post guarding the entrance of the Yangtze River, Jiangyin Guard is indeed well-deserved. There are sergeants on the Xiangshan Mountain, ships are cruising in the port, the sound of sergeants training is endless, and there is a chilling atmosphere in the air.
Gu Zhengchen was observing the layout of the Jiangyin Guards when he suddenly heard a sound of footsteps, followed by a group of sergeants. They were all big and round, tall and powerful. They also held spears in their hands and hung swords at their waists. They huffed around them.
"I heard that a man from Quanzhou County is here, and we want to see him!"
Among the crowd, a middle-aged man with a round face walked out, his beard almost hanging down to his chest, and his face was full of flesh, with a fierce look on his face.
Gu Zhengchen looked at Feng Fu. Feng Fu quickly walked out and stood aside Zhuang Xing: "Deputy Zhuang Qianhu, this is the governor of Jurong. He was ordered by the Marquis of Jinghai to temporarily command the Jiangyin Guard. He has the authority to deal with the guard. When it comes to responding to matters, you must not be arrogant."
This has been made very clear. Although Gu Zhengchen is the governor of Jurong Guard, he is now the temporary chief of Jiangyin Guard. He holds the power in his hands and cannot afford to offend.
But Zhuang Xing couldn't listen at all. He grinned and spat: "Mr. Quanzhou County, Jiangyin Guard has an unwritten rule, that is, whoever cares about the brothers must show skills that make the brothers admire! Ruohao Incompetent, haha, sorry, it’s not the Jiangyin Guard’s turn to give orders and point fingers!”
Zhao Hai took a step forward and shouted angrily: "What are you talking about? Who cares about you? If it weren't for Marquis Jinghai's order, how could Gu Zhenfu have traveled hundreds of miles a day to bring us here! It's fine if we don't welcome you, how dare you be so presumptuous? , If you don’t respect generals, who do you think you are?”
Zhao Hailou admired Gu Zhengchen extremely, and now that he was Gu Zhengchen's subordinate, he couldn't bear to see him being bullied in the slightest.
Military generals have bad tempers.
Zhuang Xing took a step forward and slammed Zhao Hailou with his chest, forcing Zhao Hailou to take two steps back: "Huh, if you don't have the ability to come to Jiangyin Guard, you will die! The soldiers of Jiangyin Guard are ready to board ships and go to sea at any time, pirates are rampant Cruel, I'm doing this for your own good. If you don't have the ability, get out of here as soon as possible, don't cry for your father and mother!"
Zhao Hailou was angry, strode forward, and hit his chest violently. Zhuang Xing took a sharp breath, and his body tensed up.
Bang!
Dull impact.
Zhuang Xing took two steps back. If he hadn't been supported by the sergeant behind him, he would have fallen to the ground.
Zhao Hailou patted his chest and snorted: "Whoever has no ability is a fool. If you don't accept it, I can beat you until you accept it!"
Zhuang Xing was furious. He stepped forward, raised his hand and snatched the spear from the sergeant's hand, pointing it at Zhao Hailou!
"enough!"
The spear landed and shook in front of Zhao Hailou's eyes.
Gu Zhengchen walked towards Zhuang Xing, his brows furrowed. He seemed to have hurt his inner thigh while riding a horse. Holding the sword in his left hand, he shouted coldly: "According to the order of the Marquis of Jinghai, I, Gu Zhengchen, am temporarily in charge of the Jiangyin Guards, and I will respond to thousands of households. Hundreds of households, general banners, small banners, and sergeants, listen to my orders! If anyone can't obey the orders-"
Canglang!
The sword was half out of its sheath, gleaming with cold light.
"I can teach him the rules!" Gu Zhengchen stared at Zhuang Xing who was right in front of him and asked in a deep voice: "Deputy Zhuang Qianhu, do you understand the rules and military orders?"
Zhuang Xing didn't expect that the young and weak Gu Zhengchen could be so strong. After a struggle, he put away his spear, turned around and left.
"stop!"
Gu Zhengchen shouted.
Zhuang Xing suddenly turned around and looked at Gu Zhengchen: "What's the matter?"
Gu Zhengchen said with a straight face: "I am the governor of the imperial court. You are just a deputy of a thousand households. Do you dare to be polite when you see me?"
Zhuang Xing gritted his teeth, tilted his head, cupped his fists and said, "I've seen Gu Zhenfu before."
"It's not loud enough."
"you!"
"how?"
"I've met Gu Zhenfu!"
Zhuang Xing shouted angrily.
Gu Zhengchen nodded with satisfaction. Seeing that Zhuang Xing was about to leave again, he shouted: "I am here and I want you to accompany me. Where are you going?"
Zhuang Xing's mouth trembled and his hands clenched.
Feng Fu sent someone to arrange for the Jurong Guard sergeant to settle down, and the Jiangyin Guard sergeant returned to training under Gu Zhengchen's order.
Gu Zhengchen took only Feng Fu, Zhuang Xing, Zhao Hailou and Zhang Pei to the riverside.
"Feng Fu said a few days ago that there was intelligence indicating that pirates might attack Suzhou, or even enter the Yangtze River and go upstream. Is there any more accurate information now?"
Gu Zhengchen asked Zhuang Xing.
Although Zhuang Xing didn't have a good impression of Gu Zhengchen, he didn't dare not say anything about it because of the military situation: "I received news yesterday that the Marquis of Jinghai led the navy to defeat a group of pirates in the sea off Wenzhou, killing 160 enemies. Yu, and more than fifty prisoners. As for whether there will be other pirates threatening Suzhou Prefecture and peeking into the Yangtze River, there is no further news now. "
Gu Zhengchen frowned: "If the information is not timely, I'm afraid there will be problems."
Zhuang Xing snorted: "Gu Zhenfu can say that, but every time the pirates come, they never tell us in advance. Now the southeast wind is picking up, and the pirates are in the wind. Yesterday, they were in Wenzhou, and today they are in Suzhou or even At the mouth of the Yangtze River, whereabouts are uncertain, how can we get timely information?"
Gu Zhengchen glanced at Zhuang Xing: "Does it mean that Marquis Jinghai didn't even question the prisoners when he took them? Since there are prisoners, we can't put a few agents in. These people always have to go ashore. Isn't it difficult to send a message? In addition, How many storms can a pirate's ship withstand? It can't be too far from the coastline. There are many islands on the seaside. Have you ever thought of building a tower as high as that to look out at the sea as a warning? "
Zhuang Xing followed Gu Zhengchen's hand and saw that there was a tall tower on the Fragrant Mountain.
"The inability to keep up with the intelligence is the Navy's fault."
Gu Zhengchen said seriously.
Zhuang Xing didn't know how to refute, but it seemed that Gu Zhengchen was right.
Arriving at the Yangtze River, Gu Zhengchen took a deep breath while looking at the rushing water of the Yangtze River.
Some people in later generations said that the Yangtze River water in Jiangyin has strong waves and hard water; the people in Jiangyin are strong-willed and straightforward. Come here and take a look, Jiang Guoguo is Pentium. Because there is a twin-mountain island in the middle of the Yangtze River north of Jiangyin. The existence of the island makes the Yangtze River channel narrower, and the water flow is naturally much more rapid than outside Jinling.
The port is located west of the camp, in a recess in the river.
However, at this time, there were only about fifty small boats moored in the port.
"Is our warship so small?"
Gu Zhengchen walked toward the port and asked uneasily.
"no way……"
Feng Fu felt bitter.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the boats in the port, full of sadness.
The boats here, not to mention the big fortune boats, let alone the treasure boats, are just grasshopper boats, which are so small that it is sad.
A ship can accommodate up to ten sergeants, and two to four sergeants are assigned to row the boats. If this ship encounters a pirate's big ship, it will be a bit unclear who is the pirate...
It is shameful to say that Lao Chen is an expert in shipbuilding. He once led a group of giant building ships such as "Hunjianglong", "Zaiduanjiang", "Knocking Down Mountain" and "Jianghaiao" to cover the river and attack Lao Zhu first ran aground in Longwan and was almost captured. Later, he mobilized an unprecedented naval fleet on Poyang Lake and invented a super warship with good sound insulation and the ability to race horses.
It's a pity that in that battle, Lao Zhu used a fire and burned many good ships. However, Lao Zhu, who inherited Lao Chen's shipbuilding skills, did not follow Lao Chen's path of naval supremacy. The reason why Ming Dynasty is still there The most important factor in shipbuilding was not fighting, but transporting food by sea or transporting things by river. For example, in the sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to supervise the construction of 285 horse ships in order to transport horses to Sichuan.
These ships did not fill the navy and form the navy's combat power.
Of course, Jiangyin Guards also had large ships, but there were fewer of them, and they were taken away by Wu Zhen, leaving only these ships of little use.
Gu Zhengchen had a headache.
If I can't persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to abandon the sea ban, revitalize the navy, and prosper the voyage trade, then if I want to see the treasure ship fleet, I'm afraid I will have to wait for Zhu Xiaosi...
However, Zhu Dalang is now in good physical condition and in a good mood. He has taken the princess on his "honeymoon". It is estimated that there will be no knots in the past two years.
The key to the problem is that as long as Lao Zhu doesn't go on a killing spree and Zhu Dalang doesn't quarrel with Lao Zhu, with Zhu Dalang's physique, there is still hope of living another thirty to fifty years...
"What is the weapon of a marine sergeant?"
Gu Zhengchen asked.
It is impossible to install a divine machine gun on such a small ship.
"Crossbows, fire guns, and stones..."
Feng Fu introduced.
"Stone?"
Gu Zhengchen was a little depressed. Although the Stone Age had long passed, stones were still used as weapons in war.
After all, there is nothing shameful about using stones. The cannon stones of divine machine cannons and the "bullets" of fire blunderbuss are mostly made of stones nowadays...
"If we don't improve our firearms and install large warships, it will be difficult to calm the sea."
Gu Zhengchen lamented.
There was a noise behind him. Gu Zhengchen turned around and saw a young man in a brocade robe chasing a woman not far away. Behind them, there were two sergeants. After the sergeant, there was a man of five or six. The year-old child is crying.
The woman couldn't run and fell to the ground. Looking back, the man in brocade robe rubbed his hands and smiled lewdly: "Run, where can you run? Your man is at sea now, can he still save you?"
"Mr. Zhou, please respect yourself and let me go."
the woman begged.
"Oh, the little lady is quite pretty. As long as you stay with me, your man can be promoted from a big soldier to a hundred households. Don't you understand such a simple truth? If you don't understand, there is no way your man will die on the front line with a sword. Eyeless, the sea is ruthless..."
Zhou Lin stepped forward with a smile. He was very excited when he saw the woman's expression of fear and begging for mercy. Seeing that the woman had nowhere to hide, he waved his hand and shouted to the two sergeants following him: "Carry her back."
The two sergeants stepped forward, but before their hands touched the woman, they felt a cold light in front of their eyes. Looking up, they saw a long sword stuck on the ground, swaying gently, and the sharp edge looked particularly dazzling in the sunlight.
