1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1176 Haihan's request

Since Hangzhou was captured by the Ming army in 1366 and changed from Hangzhou Road in the Yuan Dynasty to Hangzhou Mansion, this important town in the south of the Yangtze River has never experienced large-scale battles during the reign of the Ming Dynasty.Even though the Qing army attacked Hangzhou in 1645, and Zhu Changhao, then the superintendent of the Ming Dynasty, chose to surrender directly, the city was still untouched by the flames of war. In the end, the Ming Dynasty was regarded as a peaceful and blessed place—of course Yes, this possibility can only be realized on the premise that Haihan has not come to this time and space.

In such a historical environment, the Haihan army came to the city at the beginning of the eighth year of Chongzhen, and the panic and chaos caused by it were unprecedented since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.Most of the people who originally lived outside the city packed up their belongings and rushed into the city to take refuge after they discovered the arrival of the Haihan fleet.This also caused all the inns and hotels in Hangzhou to be full overnight, and there are still a large number of refugees sleeping on the streets because they cannot find temporary accommodation.

In order to prevent people from freezing to death on the streets, the government has thought of many ways to resettle the refugees. While mobilizing the residents of the city to open their houses to resettle refugees, or donating some bedding, they have arranged many charcoal pots on the streets for the refugees to keep warm. , and distributed ginger soup and hot porridge in large quantities to ensure that the refugees have enough physical strength to survive the cold winter night.At the same time, the garrison and yamen servants in the city stepped up their patrols to prevent people from making trouble in the city.But such a method can only be used as an emergency. If Haihan does not retreat, the chaos in the city will only intensify.

But the people who are most anxious now are not these refugees, but the bureaucrats who were the local governors at that time. Report on resettlement of refugees.Hangzhou is originally a land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, and the surrounding areas are also rich in products. What the city lacks most now is not various living materials, but places to resettle these refugees.

"There are still thousands of refugees in the city who have nowhere to resettle. Do you have any ideas?" After listening to He Guanzhi's report, Wang Ji asked for opinions from everyone present.Almost all the civil and military officials above the fifth rank in the city were present, which was considered to be a rare gathering of officials recently.

The prefect and fellow magistrate Zeng Sheng responded: "The lower officials think that too many refugees will inevitably occupy the main traffic routes in the city, and they will consume a lot of supplies every day to rescue them, which is not good for defending the city. The Haihan army has limited strength and is unable to surround Hangzhou city. Arrange the evacuation of the people to the north and west of the city, Deqing, Wukang, Yuhang, Lin'an and other counties can divert refugees, it is much better than crowding them all in this city."

Wang Yuan, the general judge, immediately objected: "The city of Hangzhou can't be resettled, but it can be solved in the county seat? Mr. Zeng's words are wrong. The most urgent task at the moment is to try to get the Haihan people to retreat, not to consider the long-term resettlement of these refugees. Don't you think so? Your Excellency plans to fight with the Haihan people for a year or so?"

The magistrate He Guanzhi shook his head and said, "Let's not say a year and a half, maybe ten days and a half months will be hard to sustain. Everyone knows the situation of the navy and the Haihan people fighting today. The navy will be defeated at the first touch, and it is not the opponent of the Haihan people at all. It is not enough to rely on the current means to drive Haihan out of Hangzhou Bay. If you want Haihan to retreat, you have to solve the root cause."

What is the "root" mentioned by He Guanzhi, everyone present is actually very clear.The reason why the Haihan people started their crusade was the unnamed fire that happened at Tongsheng Wharf a few days ago.Everyone knows that Hai Han is the direct victim of this case, but more than ten days have passed, and the investigation has not made substantial progress. The identity of the murderer has not been found, and the missing property has not yet been found.The ultimatum issued by the Haihan people to the Hangzhou government did not receive enough attention, but now it is full of irony.

But no one will directly mention the investigation of the case on this occasion, because Wang Ji, who is also the chief envoy and inspector, is in charge of this matter. Scanned his face.Besides, although the Haihan people sent troops in the name of seeking justice, it is not difficult for a discerning person to see that Haihan is making use of the problem and deliberately making things bigger.It's just that there is currently no channel to contact Haihan, so the officials are still not sure what Haihan's purpose is for such a big fight. It is impossible for them to want to start a war with the entire Ming Dynasty with their thousands of troops, right?

Wang Yuan coughed dryly and said, "Nowadays, all the elite soldiers from the Hangzhou government have gone to Henan to quell the chaos. It would be a little troublesome to start a war with the Haihan people. In my opinion, the Haihan people blocked the Qiantang River as a demonstration against the government, but it may not be so." It seems that they really want to fight. If we can communicate well, maybe we can persuade them to retreat on their own."

Commander Liu Feng snorted coldly and said, "The Haihan people just arrived in Hangzhou today, but they just gained the upper hand. Everyone wants to talk about peace. Are you a little too anxious?"

The main force opposing Haihan in the Zhejiang officialdom is the military personnel, and it is mainly a group of high-level officials from the Zhejiang Dusi Yamen.However, there are already many commanders and thousands of households in the coastal prefecture who have taken advantage of Haihan, so this attitude has not been well implemented at the grassroots level, and the decree basically has no effect when it comes out of Hangzhou.The Dusi Yamen has been suffocating for a while, looking for an opportunity to show Hai Han some color, but today's record is really too much to show, Liu Feng was already upset, and he was even more angry when Wang Yuan mentioned the negotiation .

When Wang Yuan was refuted by him, he didn't make much excuses. Since you were going to run into trouble, why should I stop you.Hai Han had already made peace with him, so he didn't have to force himself to propose peace talks, and Wang Yuan was also happy to save trouble.Anyway, the situation deteriorated in the end, and the main combat factions like Dusi Yamen must bear the blame.

Wang Ji asked: "Then what can Mr. Liu do to solve it?"

Liu Feng pondered and said: "The Haihan people are good at water warfare, as long as they avoid their sharp edge, when they come ashore, they can try to encircle and annihilate them."

Liu Feng's words are actually just self-consolation, not to mention whether Haihan will land and attack Hangzhou City, even if he disembarks and goes ashore, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army currently guarding Hangzhou City may not be able to stop the opponent. What encirclement and annihilation is even more idiotic.As the commander of the Zhejiang capital, he is not ignorant of Haihan's combat methods, but the current situation does not allow him to back down, so he can only bite the bullet and brag.If the Haihan army really went ashore, he would probably order to retreat and defend the city instead of confronting the opponent head-on.

However, there was still timidity in his words, and Wang Ji responded, "It's better to take the initiative to drive them away when they come ashore. Mr. Liu, since you are so sure of winning the battle, why don't you lead your army to attack instead of fighting decisively by the Qiantang River?"

Liu Feng said: "The Haihan people are coming in menacingly. We should hold their ground first to dampen their spirit, and then look for opportunities to deal with them. If we go out of the city and face them head-on, wouldn't it be exactly what they want?"

Wang Ji thinks that he has understood the attitude of the other party, and he will not continue to debate with him now. What he wants now is to solve the problem as soon as possible, instead of wasting time like this and let the situation continue to develop out of control.Since Liu Feng is afraid of war, it is unlikely that he can count on the military to solve the current troubles.

The officials participating in this meeting, no matter whether it is the main battle or the main peace, everyone knows that the Haihan people will not retreat easily when they come to Hangzhou this time.But no one is willing to take the initiative to stand up and take corresponding responsibilities, so after some discussion, a plan that can be implemented immediately has not been discussed.In the end, Liu Feng could only step up the deployment of troops and strengthen the defense of Hangzhou City, so as not to leave Haihan any chance to take advantage of it.

In the early morning of the next day, Haihan clearly expressed his attitude and sent two companies of the army to land on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Qiantang River five miles east of Hangzhou City.Since the Ming army had retreated to garrison near Hangzhou City, there were no Ming army troops to show up here to stop the Haihan army's actions.However, this landing operation was not without any resistance. The militia militia organized in several nearby villages made a bold attempt to drive the group of foreign invaders back to the ship.

For the Haihan army, these militiamen armed with messy weapons, scattered in formation and even without a basic formation are really hard to call a formidable enemy. Not to mention compared with the regular armies of various countries, even Haihan trained on Zhoushan Island after arriving in Zhejiang. The militia is also much more decent than this group of mobs.

Haihan's action this time required to minimize the killing of innocent people, but such a situation like this kind of self-calling was not among them.The first platoon to land was assembled by the officers, and then randomly fired a few rounds of guns at the militia group who were still in the whole platoon about fifty feet away.As the screams mixed with the gunfire continued to sound, the originally anxious militia immediately dispersed, and some of them even dropped their weapons and flags in order to escape faster.

It is obvious that these people have not received strict military training, and they may be just farmers who have been caught temporarily. This kind of civilian armed forces rely on their numbers to frighten bandits and bandits. The opponent really gave it away for nothing.

The officer directing the battle checked the results with a telescope. About five or six people on the opposite side were shot and fell down, but they were all carried and dragged away from the battlefield by their companions.The opponent's ability to withstand combat casualties is very weak, perhaps this is the negative effect caused by living in peace for too long.But this is also a good thing for the Haihan army. After all, this operation does not need to cause too many killings. It is enough to disperse these ignorant villagers with the smallest action.

Of course, the Haihan army will not take this lightly, because now it is impossible to know whether there is a Ming army nearby secretly watching this battle with great disparity between strength and weakness.If there is a regular army to fight, it should not be so easy.What's more, almost all of Haihan's limited cavalry troops have gone to Shandong. Now there are only a few cavalry scouts among the landed army. If there are Ming cavalry ambushing around, there will still be a considerable risk.

In order to ensure that there will be no such extreme situation that the landing troops with limited strength will be blocked by the Ming army and cannot withdraw from the shore, the staff officers of the Haihan Army also took great pains in formulating the action plan. The planned army activity areas are all near the shore, and Send several warships to follow along the river. If you encounter a large group of enemy troops, you can immediately retreat to the river bank. Even if you can't board the ship right away due to the terrain, you can at least retreat to the range of the naval guns and get the protection of heavy firepower. .

However, the staff officers obviously overestimated the courage of the Ming army. Apart from the harassment of the militia when they first landed, the army troops marched two or three miles towards Hangzhou City after landing, but there was still no sign of the Ming army.

Wang Tom was also a little surprised by the news that he got a return on the flagship. He thought that even if the Ming army gave up the confrontation with ships on the river, they would not sit back and watch Haihan land directly near Hangzhou City, at least they would send troops to contain their own actions. .But judging from the current situation, it seems that the opponent really intends to defend the city.

But if you think about it carefully, the opponent's response may be out of helplessness. After all, most of the elite Ming troops in Hangzhou Prefecture and surrounding areas have already left Zhejiang, and the only ones who can fight against the Haihan Army are second-rate troops. , the high-level Ming army probably also knew that this situation is not suitable for a head-on battle, so they chose to shrink the line of defense.

At noon, the vanguard could clearly see the city of Hangzhou.It was not until this time that the city of Hangzhou finally sent envoys to contact the Haihan army.The person who came was not a member of the government, but an entrusted silk merchant.

The businessman's name was Zheng Taisheng, and he also had business contacts with Haihan before that, and had met Shi Diwen and others in Zhoushan Port.However, the main reason why the government rejected him as an envoy was because he "happened" to be the brother-in-law of the prefect He Guanzhi, and he could barely be considered a semi-official person, and his status could barely gain the trust of both warring parties.After undergoing a body search, Zheng Taisheng was sent to the flagship in a small boat by the sailors, and met Wang Tom, who was leading the army this time.

Although Tom Wang didn't know Mrs. Zheng, there was someone on board who knew him. As soon as he introduced his identity, Tom Wang knew that this was a lobbyist representing the Hangzhou government, so he immediately asked straight to the point: "Boss Zheng is here to talk about peace. Yes, there must be some benefits for us, right?"

Zheng Taisheng said sternly: "I'm not here to talk about peace, but to persuade General Wang to withdraw quickly, so as not to damage the relationship between the two countries."

Tom Wang waved his hand and said, "We haven't formally established diplomatic relations with Daming, and we can't say that we have any relationship. Besides, when our people happened such a big incident in Hangzhou, did the government consider the relationship between the two countries when dealing with it?"

Zheng Taisheng coughed dryly and said: "About the fire at Tongsheng Wharf, the yamen in charge of criminal prosecution and arrest and arrest in the city are all investigating, and I ask General Wang to be calm and calm, and with a few more days of grace, the truth will surely come to light and the culprit will be brought to justice. Give it a heavy sentence!"

Tom Wang snorted and said, "There's no need to talk about the routine. If I can solve the case, I don't need to go here myself. Didn't the lord who sent you say anything else?"

Zheng Taisheng said: "If General Wang has any request, you can make it first, and I can pass it on for you."

Wang Tom stood up from his chair and said in a deep voice, "My request is very simple. First, find out the truth and hand over the murderer; second, the government's ineffective governance has caused huge losses to us, and we must pay ten times the compensation. Only then will it work; thirdly, open the trading authority of the state capitals of Zhejiang, and no longer restrict the entry of Haihan merchants and goods in the future. First achieve these three points, and then we will talk about the truce.”

(End of this chapter)