1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Although the Haihan Army didn't let shopkeeper Ding and his buddies help in the kitchen, and didn't even let them touch the well in the backyard, as the owners of the inn, they couldn't just sit idle. They still spent half a day cleaning the inn inside and out. The outside was cleaned again, and all the bedding and pillowcases in the two upper rooms were replaced with new ones.

During this period, the combat troops of the Haihan Army also passed through Fudong Town one after another and continued to march north.

Many people came to the inn again. These people put together several dining tables in the lobby of the inn, and then took out a large stack of blueprints from the box, spread them on the table and began to stitch them together. After a while, they formed a huge picture. map.

A few other people climbed up to the roof of the inn and set up an iron frame shaped like a branch on it. From above, a black wire as thick as chopsticks was drawn into the house, and connected to a device that Shopkeeper Ding did not recognize.

What puzzled Shopkeeper Ding the most was that a large group of soldiers gathered next to the big map in the lobby, all of whom seemed to be military officers, turned out that many of them were not Han Chinese, and some of them were even blond and blue-eyed Westerners.

He thought that these people were the "big shots" that the officer who came to the inn earlier said, but it didn't seem to be the case.These people came and went in and out of the inn, looking very busy, and the real big shots obviously wouldn't behave like this.

Until the evening, the officers in the lobby seemed to have received some kind of order, and they all went to wait in line outside the gate of the inn. Shopkeeper Ding guessed that this time the rightful owner should have arrived, so he also went outside the gate to watch the excitement.

A black carriage escorted by dozens of armed cavalry slowly stopped at the entrance of the inn. After the door opened, a man with gray hair and a strong figure got out.

Although shopkeeper Ding didn't know Haihan's military system, but judging from his posture, he could guess that the person who arrived must be a senior general in Haihan's army.

Sure enough, those officers standing at the door raised their arms in unison, and saluted the visitors.

The person who came also raised his hand to return the salute, and said lightly while looking around the crowd: "Everyone has worked hard!"

After the Haihan officers returned to the inn, shopkeeper Ding said to the staff with lingering fear: "Did you get caught by that general's gaze just now? It feels like a knife is being scraped across your face. It's really scary!"

The clerk nodded repeatedly and said, "My back is still getting chills right now... Shopkeeper, maybe this is murderous intent?"

Shopkeeper Ding muttered, "How many people would have to be killed to have such a murderous aura!"

General Haihan who walked into the inn surrounded by a group of officers was of course the initiator of this battle, Shi Diwen.However, the frightening aura emanating from his body is not entirely murderous, but also partly the majesty accumulated over the years as a superior.

The Haihan army assembled in Hangzhou and Huzhou will attack Nanjing by land, and Shi Diwen will personally command the soldiers and horses, and hand over the relatively easy water attack to Yan Chujie.

On the offensive route, Shi Diwen chose to attack Shuntian Prefecture, where Nanjing City is located, from Changzhou Prefecture, so that he can make full use of the convenient shipping of the Jiangnan water system and transport logistics materials directly to Yixing through the canal and Taihu Lake.

In this plan, Yixing County will become an important transshipment place for Haihan's combat materials, and it must be captured at the beginning of the war.

As for the importance of Yixing's geographical location, as long as the generals on the Ming side were not idiots, they would of course be aware of this, so they might have mobilized troops here long ago.

Shi Diwen didn't dare to be careless. According to the regular combat process, he sent a vanguard battalion to explore the way, and led the army to gradually advance to Yixing County.He knew that as long as he fought steadily, even if the opponent could station [-] troops in Yixing County, they would still be unable to stop the frontal attack of the Haihan army.

However, it is less than [-] miles away from Yixing County, and it happens to be located in Fudong Town on the shore of Taihu Lake. It can not only command the front battle, but also deploy the personnel and materials in the rear. It is very suitable as the frontline headquarters of this battle.

The Qianfeng Battalion arrived at Fudong Town half a day earlier than the main force. Although they bumped into a small group of Ming troops here unexpectedly, the battle to seize control of Fudong Town did not have any twists and turns. After leaving the town, he conveniently requisitioned Shopkeeper Ding's inn as a temporary headquarters headquarters.

The inn is located in the center of the town. The place is spacious and easy to enter and exit. It has complete supporting living facilities for eating, drinking, sleeping, and there are no guests staying recently. It is really a suitable place to deploy the headquarters.

The various people who arrived at the inn earlier were the Division Headquarters of the Fifth Army Division, the Military Observer Group of the Foreign Army, and the communication platoon, sanitation platoon, cooking squad, etc. directly under the Division Headquarters, and soon transformed the inn into a wartime headquarters.

After finishing all the messy things here, and just starting to work, Shi Diwen arrived in Fudong Town, and the timing was just right.

After Shi Diwen took his seat, he first listened to the report on the battle situation of the Vanguard Battalion.

The Qianfeng Battalion captured several Ming army prisoners in Fudong Town. According to their confession, thousands of soldiers and horses have been assembled in Yixing County, and there are still Ming army troops rushing to the place from other places.

But for a more detailed military situation, the level of these prisoners is too low, but they can't say one, two, three.

Shi Diwen said: "These Ming troops came to Fudong Town, are they going to stop us, or are they just to scout the military situation?"

A military officer responded: "Commander, according to their confession, in fact... just to rob property!"

"Oh?" Shi Diwen raised his eyebrows: "What do the local people say?"

When it comes to local people, there are ready-made interrogators present.

Shopkeeper Ding and his buddy were brought in front of Shi Diwen out of nowhere. The two of them felt terrified when they were caught by Shi Diwen's eyes before, but now they didn't dare to look up at him, and they knelt down on the ground together consciously.

"Get up and answer! We, Haihan, don't like to kneel to the government. If we want to kneel, we only kneel to our parents and elders."

Hearing Shi Diwen's words, the two kneeling on the ground looked at each other, then slowly stood up tremblingly.

Shi Diwen said: "If I ask you anything, you can answer it truthfully."

Shopkeeper Ding quickly responded: "The villain must tell the truth, and dare not lie!"

The matter is actually very simple. The confession of the prisoner of war was compared with that of shopkeeper Ding, and the answer was quickly obtained.The Ming army who were driven away by the Qianfeng battalion really just wanted to take advantage of the interval before the war to make a fortune from the war.

It's just that they didn't get the timing right, they moved a little late, and ended up bumping into the vanguard battalion of the Haihan Army in Fudong Town.

These Ming troops had never been prepared for a battle before, so they fled northward at the first touch of Wudong Town, but this seemed like an act of the Ming army to lure the enemy, so the Qianfeng Battalion did not dare to be too aggressive.