1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3287
This is the first time such a conflict has occurred in Victory Square since it was built and opened to the public.However, a large number of guards had already been deployed in the area. They immediately entered the scene as soon as they saw something was wrong. They quickly separated the crowds on both sides and did not let the situation escalate to the level of physical conflict.

But even so, this group of people who were regarded as hostile elements by the public were still bombarded with rotten eggs and rotten vegetables.

Faced with such an unexpected situation, Wang Chengen was really shocked and scared.He never imagined that just a few years after Hangzhou changed hands, the local people's hearts had already undergone such a complete change.

He stayed outside the Victory Palace for such a long time that he could count on one hand the number of locals who came to offer condolences. In the end, it was a group of foreigners who came to stand up for him.The local public opinion is obviously on the side of Haihan, and Ming is already treated as an enemy.

This is completely contrary to Wang Chengen's initial plan to take advantage of the situation and win the sympathy of the people.

The senior officials in the court kept saying that the people of Jiangnan wanted to return home and hoped that the court would defeat Haihan and regain the lost territory as soon as possible, but the actual situation did not seem to be the case.Now how many people's hearts are still on the side of Ming Dynasty? Wang Chengen no longer dares to have any optimistic thoughts.

The diplomats from various countries who lined up for him were even more panicked at this time. They did not expect that their actions would arouse such serious public outrage.

As fast as these people came, they will leave just as fast.Many people didn't even bother to say hello to Wang Chengen and hurriedly evacuated at the urging of the Haihan guards.

Thomas and Su Keyi, the two leading figures, didn't want to give up, but seeing the excited people around them, they actually couldn't help but worry about their own safety.Diplomats from other countries have quickly dispersed. Even if they insist on staying, they have lost their previous momentum.

The two of them could only say hello to Wang Chengen hastily, and then left in despair.

So after Wang Chengen experienced a brief period of being surrounded by people, he quickly returned to being alone again.At this time, there were still thousands of people watching nearby. If he continued to stay here, he would inevitably suffer various attacks.

Wang Chengen was not greedy for life and feared death, but his situation was equivalent to Daming being humiliated. Without the ability to respond effectively, staying any longer would only make Daming lose face.

Under the escort of a group of Haihan soldiers, Wang Chengen was the last to leave the scene of the incident. When the onlookers saw this scene, they burst into cheers, seemingly celebrating the victory of the confrontation.

After Su Keyi and Su Yongshan, father and son, got on the carriage in shock, they finally calmed down and ordered the coachman to leave Victory Square quickly.

Su Yongshan said: "Father, do you think the scene just now was organized by the people spontaneously, or was the government instigating it behind the scenes?"

Su Keyi said: "Even if it is a spontaneous organization, the government must be involved. Otherwise, why would the Victory Palace be such an important place so many people with unknown origins would be allowed to approach it? Also, as soon as those thugs arrived, the Haihan Guards immediately came forward to arrest them. The two sides are separated, and I think they are obviously prepared for this."

Su Keyi recalled what he had seen just now, and felt more and more that there were traces of government instigation behind this.Of course, he also knew that he could not find evidence to confirm his suspicion, let alone use it to accuse Haihan.

However, judging from the control measures at the scene, it seemed that the government did not want to escalate the situation, but just wanted to disperse their group from outside the Victory Palace.

Su Keyi understood this as a warning to some extent. Perhaps the executive committee had lost patience and did not want to see them continue this drama.

But if this matter stops here and the Ming envoy has no foreign aid, won’t the peace talks between the two countries return to a state of uncertainty?
As Su Keyi had guessed, the people's siege of foreign missions in Victory Square was not a simple outburst of public opinion. Official forces were indeed involved.The reason why the Executive Committee wants to take measures to interrupt this farce is because all forces have taken their sides and those whose positions should be exposed have been exposed. There is no need to continue watching this group of clowns perform.

But the meeting Wang Chengen was looking forward to would not come so soon.Until the situation on the North-South battlefield becomes clearer, armistice peace talks will not be put on the agenda of the Executive Committee.

In early May, Shi Diwen's and Yan Chujie's armies advanced together, completing the cleanup of land and water routes respectively, and advanced to the gates of Nanjing.

Although the Ming army also assembled more than [-] troops inside and outside Nanjing, and even had a clear advantage in strength, its situation was extremely passive.

After the Ming Navy was defeated in Zhenjiang, the remaining warships could no longer fight, so they had to retreat to Wuhu in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to preserve their strength. The Yangtze River near Nanjing was basically controlled by the Haihan fleet.

This made it difficult to quickly transport materials and personnel on the north bank of the Yangtze River to Nanjing City on the south bank. They had to cross the river in the upper reaches and make a large circle by land to complete the transportation.

The troops and officials stationed in Nanjing will face the same problem if they want to evacuate the area.

However, the order issued by the Ming Dynasty to Nanjing must be defended. Even if it cannot be defeated, it is not allowed to withdraw. It can only try to transfer troops from state capitals along the Yangtze River to Nanjing to participate in the defense to maximize the advantage of military strength.

However, Shi Diwen did not seem to intend to take Nanjing in one go. Instead, he wanted to encircle the point and call for reinforcements, and use this situation to consume the effective strength of the Ming army.

In Jurong, Tangshan, Moling and other places near Nanjing, the Haihan Army was constantly engaging in small-scale battles to gradually eliminate the small forces of the Ming Army stationed on the outer defense line.

In this way, the Ming army's defense line was peeled off layer by layer. By the time the battle line advanced to the Zhongshan-Qinhuai River line, the Ming army stationed in Nanjing had lost nearly one-third of its troops.

Compared with the losses suffered, the battle losses the Ming army could inflict on the Haihan army on the frontal battlefield were minimal.

If it weren't for the fact that many local armed forces in the newly occupied areas were resisting Haihan, forcing Shi Diwen to allocate part of his troops to go back and raid, perhaps Nanjing's situation would have been even more difficult.

Compared with the southern battlefield, the fighting in North China was more intense.

More than [-]% of the troops that Lao Zhu's family can fight are in the north.The armed forces, which are mainly composed of border troops, are much better than their counterparts in the south in terms of fighting will and equipment level.

Except for Tianjin Wei, which was relatively easy to capture because the defender surrendered on his own initiative, almost all other places required fighting to gain control.

Among them, the Sixth Lu Division from Liaodong Province fought the hardest. After fighting hard for many days to break through the Shanhaiguan defense line, they fought one after another with the Jizhou garrison and the border troops transferred from the Three Guards of Xuanfu on the way westward. The battle losses of more than [-] personnel were exceeded, and it was finally possible to complete the rendezvous with Chen Yixin in Shuntian Mansion.

(End of this chapter)