Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 633

For the next ten days, the Ming army continued to send scout cavalry to harass.

However, the Qing army ignored it, and only waited until the Ming army's scout cavalry approached within [-] steps, would they use red cannons or Franc machine guns to smear their faces.

It is loaded with shotguns to attack.

The Franc cannon's shotguns have a limited range.

But the shot from the red cannon was far and hard.

After suffering several losses, the scout cavalry of the Ming army no longer dared to get too close.

The Qing army was not in a hurry, and only built one gun platform forward every day. They would rather slow down than rush forward.

However, when it came to the No.11 sky, something happened suddenly.

That day Hong Chengchou was having breakfast when Hong Da walked in suddenly.

"Master something happened." Hong reported panting.

"Shut up!" Hong Chengchou said angrily, "Didn't you see Master I was eating?"

Although he has been surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Hong Chengchou still regards himself as a Confucian gentry. Confucian gentry pays attention to eating without talking or sleeping, so he is very taboo about being disturbed while eating.

Hong Da didn't care, and said: "Ming Gou has also started to repair the gun platform."

"What's so strange about this?" Hong Chengchou said disapprovingly, "The Ming army wants to repair the blunderbuss platform, just let them do it."

"Oh, no." Hong Da stomped his feet anxiously, "Minggou's blunderbuss platform was repaired to the east, and it was also built into a line, obviously trying to cut off the blunderbuss chain of our Qing soldiers."

"There is such a thing?" Hong Chengchou's face darkened slightly.

While talking, Hou Fangyu also hurried in.

"Butang, I heard that the Ming army is also repairing the blunderbuss platform?"

Hou Fangyu came in and asked, "And a horizontal line?"

Hong Chengchou didn't say much, got up and walked out on his own.

The two quickly went to the south gate tower of Jinghai County. The city wall of Jinghai County is only about two feet high, and the highest point is less than three feet high, but the view is excellent.

Because there is no obstruction nearby.

The two stood on the top of the city, and with the help of binoculars, they could have a panoramic view of an area of ​​more than ten miles around. Even the Chenguan Tun Camp, which was seven or eight miles away, could be clearly seen.

Looking at it, it turned out that there was a problem.

I remember that yesterday, the Ming army in the Chenguantun camp did not have any unusual actions, but today, suddenly many more civilians appeared, and they were rushing to repair the gun platform in the open field east of the Chenguantun camp.

Moreover, the civilian husbands of the Ming Dynasty did not repair one blunderbuss platform by one blunderbuss platform, but repaired more than a dozen blunderbuss platforms at the same time!

So standing on the top of Jinghai City, it seems that a root beard suddenly grew out of the Chenguan Tun camp, and this very beard still extends straight to the east.

Looking north from this root, you can see the blunderbuss chain that the Qing Dynasty was building.

It's just that the Qing's blunderbuss chain only extended about a thousand steps to the south, and in addition to avoiding the Chenguantun camp, it deliberately drew an arc to the east, so it has not yet been repaired to the Chenguantun line.

So now, the front end of the Qing Dynasty's blunderbuss chain is still some distance away from the Chenguantun camp.

This directly led to a result. Before the Qing's blunderbuss chain crossed Chenguantun, the Ming's blunderbuss chain might have extended to the North Sea, which was troublesome.

"Hong Butang, it's troublesome now."

Hou Fangyu said with a dark face, "Ming Gou took the lead."

Hong Chengchou's thick eyebrows have also twisted into a Sichuan character.

"How many civilians did the Ming army recruit? Repair more than a dozen blunderbuss at once?"

Hou Fangyu estimated, and said in a deep voice: "Looking at this scene, there are at least tens of thousands of people."

"Tens of thousands of people!" Hong Chengchou sighed, "The two of us spent a lot of effort and finally recruited more than 5000 civilian husbands, but Chongzhen recruited tens of thousands of civilian husbands from Jiangnan without any effort. Including Beijing and the civilian laborers who transported food and supplies along the way, the Ming army probably employed more than 50 civilian servants."

Hou Fangyu said: "The Ming army must have used more than 50 civilians, but the Ming Dynasty's approach is obviously different from ours in the Qing Dynasty."

Hong Chengchou said, "What do you mean?"

Hou Fangyu said: "Our peasant husbands in the Qing Dynasty were recruited by force, and they only gave food and no money. However, the civilian husbands in the Ming Dynasty were recruited through grain merchants. That is, the Ming court gave the grain merchants a total price, and then the grain merchants Responsible for transporting grain and grass to the front line, and the needed peasants and livestock are also hired by grain merchants."

Stretching out his hand, Hou Fangyu said again: "Including the above peasants, most of them are also hired by businessmen."

"What are you doing with these irrelevant things?" Hong Chengchou said angrily, "This department just wants to tell you that the manpower of our Qing Dynasty is simply incomparable with Nanming's."

"There's nothing we can do about it." Hou Fangyu was also a little annoyed.

"The population in the north was originally inferior to that in the south. When the Qing soldiers entered the pass, they killed a lot of people, and then scared a lot of them away. As a result, the population of the northern provinces decreased to six out of ten, and the manpower was exhausted."

After a short pause, Hou Fangyu asked again: "Do you want to continue repairing the blunderbuss chain?"

"Of course." Hong Chengchou gritted his teeth and said, "This is the last chance for Qing Dynasty."

Hou Fangyu said: "However, judging by the construction progress of both sides, the Ming army will obviously finish it first. When the distance is close, our peasants in the Qing Dynasty will have to build the blunderbuss platform against the artillery fire of the Ming army."

"It needs to be repaired against the artillery fire of the Ming army." Hong Chengchou said.

Hou Fangyu didn't say anything more, he could only give it a try.

If the blunderbuss chain cannot be repaired, there is really nothing to do.

……

So in the next month, the two sides began to frantically repair the gun platform.

After the civilian husbands of the Ming Dynasty repaired a chain of gun platforms from Chenguantun to Tianshuijing, they began to repair the second chain, so that the people who transferred luggage could walk in the middle of the two chains of gun platforms, which was safer.

The peasants who built slaves began to increase the specifications of each gun platform, which became larger, the wall was thicker, the trench was wider and deeper, and even the slope protection was increased from the original five feet high to ten feet high and three feet long.

Moreover, Jiannu added a blunderbuss chain on both sides of the original blunderbuss chain.

In other words, Daming plans to widen the single lane into a double lane.

But Jian Nu directly decided to use the third lane, and set the highest standard.

Because the construction standard is too high, and there are still three lanes, the progress is naturally slow.

Until March 22th, the 1649nd year of Chongzhen (3), the North Sea had thawed, and the two-lane expressway of Daming and the three-lane expressway of Jiannu were finally about to converge.

The day when the two sides' blunderbuss chains intersect, is the time of the decisive battle.

Hong Chengchou and Hou Fangyu are very clear about this.

Looking through the binoculars at the thousands of Lianyong and the Eight Banners Han army on standby in the trench, Hou Fangyu frowned.

"Hong Butang, the Ming army's blunderbuss has been preemptively repaired, which is equivalent to occupying the initiative on the battlefield. Do we really want to attack by force?"

"Otherwise?" Hong Chengchou asked back.

"Does Hou Canjun have a better way?"

Hou Fangyu said: "Maybe we can change the battlefield. Since Minggou has already repaired the blunderbuss chain between Chenguantun and Tianshuijing, then we simply don't have too much entanglement with the Ming army here. We might as well turn our attention to the route from Chenguantun to Beijing. Of the three hundred miles in between, wouldn’t it be enough to find an opportunity to cut off one of them?”

Hong Chengchou said: "The Ming army can build a chain of blunderbuss between Chenguantun and Tianshuijing, can't they build another chain of blunderbuss between Beijing and Chenguantun? The manpower that the Qing can mobilize is far less than that of the Nanming, so We will never be able to win Nanming in the competition of repairing the gun platform, so let's face the reality."

Hou Fangyu said: "From Tianshuijing to Chenguantun for more than 200 miles, the Ming army built more than [-] blunderbuss platforms, and from Chenguantun to Beijing for [-] miles, the Ming army built at least [-] blunderbuss platforms. Wouldn’t the troops be scattered? This would not only break the siege of Beijing, but also make the Ming army scattered and restrained everywhere.”

"It's just your wishful thinking." Hong Chengchou said.

"Nanming's manpower is far superior to my Qing Dynasty, so there will still be a shortage of troops?"

Having said this, Hong Chengchou went on to say: "Don't forget, the total strength of the Nanming New Army is 27, but so far, Chongzhen has only used 15 of them."

Hou Fangyu was silent for a while, because what Hong Chengchou said was the truth.

Not only did Nanming still have 12 new troops, but also 70 million town soldiers.

The reason why Chongzhen did not mobilize all his troops is probably because he wanted to lure the Qing soldiers to fight with him.

Therefore, once the Qing soldiers really threatened the safety of the Ming army's food roads, Chongzhen might really transfer the remaining 12 new troops and 70 million town soldiers.
Hong Chengchou let out a long sigh, and said again: "These are actually not important. What's more troublesome is that it will take another month or two to repair another blunderbuss chain from Jinghai County to the west."

"Hou Canjun, do you think we will have such a long time?"

After a pause, Hong Chengchou said again: "Not to mention whether the national power of the Qing Dynasty can be afforded, even if it can be consumed, will the regent allow us to continue to consume it like this?"

Hou Fangyu said: "The regent is wise and wise, which is rare in ancient and modern times. He will understand our difficulties."

Hong Chengchou said: "The regent understands our difficulties, but what about the other nobles of the Eight Banners? Can the emperor, the queen mother, and the Han officials in Beijing also understand our difficulties? Hou joined the army, and the regent is also under great pressure."

Hou Fangyu was finally persuaded by Hong Chengchou, and immediately turned his attention to the gun platform ahead.

"Hong Butang, I don't need to say more about the result of the storming of the Chenguantun camp last time."

After a short pause, Hou Fangyu said again: "This time, the Eight Banners Han Army and Lian Yong can take down the Ming Army's blunderbuss platform?"

"I don't know, I don't know either." Hong Chengchou said helplessly, "I won't hide it from you until now, but I just do my best to obey the destiny, so try your best."

Speaking of this, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but think of an ancient essay.

That is "The Donkey of Guizhou" written by Liu Zongyuan, a great scholar in the Tang Dynasty.

Hong Chengchou felt that he was the donkey described by Liu Zongyuan.

Qian donkeys are poor, and now Hong Chengchou is really poor.

(End of this chapter)