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Chapter 373 The Seemingly Perfect River Crossing Plan

On the evening of the ninth day of November in the 17th year of Chongzhen,
South of Yangzhou City, Guazhou Ferry.

A group of dilapidated warships of the Qing army dragged the Han people full of wounded and defeated soldiers again, and sailed back to the port miserably.

These defeated Han people were not the Han banner troops brought by Dodo from the north, but the traitor sailors who followed Liu Liangzuo to surrender when Liu Liangzuo of Huai'an surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

Just earlier in the day, these soldiers were forced by their new masters to drive the warships of the former Huai'an Ming Army to fight on the Yangtze River, trying to find out about clearing the waterway.

However, they were unsurprisingly fought by the Ming army navy at Jinshanzhou on the opposite bank. The two armies fought fiercely between Guazhou and Jinshanzhou, two small islands in the center of the Yangtze River. The Qing army was defeated.

"My lord, this slave is incompetent, please forgive my sin, the enemy's ships are so powerful that my brother is hard to overcome!"

After returning from defeat, Liu Liangzuo hadn't shown up yet, but Liu Liangzuo's younger brother, Liu Liangchen, was the first to find Duo Duo and help his brother to plead guilty.

This Liu Liangchen was besieged with Zu Dashou in the Dalinghe city during the four-year battle of Dalinghe in Chongzhen, and finally surrendered.At any rate, Zu Dashou became capricious later on, while Liu Liangchen was completely a traitor. It has been 13 years now.

Before the Qing army entered the customs, Liu Liangchen had been successively assigned as the captain of Qingche and the leader of the Han army banner with a yellow banner.

That's why Liu Liangzuo brought the fake Fu Wang to the Qing Dynasty so smoothly this time, because their family already had a relative who had been a traitor for more than ten years, and he knew the high-level relationship on the other side better, knowing that if he voted, he would get preferential treatment immediately.

Of course, Duoduo would not be harsh on such hardcore traitors, not to mention that the tentative water battle attacks in the past few days were originally forced by Duoduo to fight, and Duduo had already predicted that they would lose.

So he also waved his hands generously: "General Liu, don't blame yourself, victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs, and it is my king's strict order to let you rush in and out of battle.

Your warships and artillery are not as good as Zheng Hongkui, and you can't blame you if you lose, at least you have tested the defenses of the Nanmanzi navy.Let's go down to recuperate first, and then kill pigs and goats to reward the soldiers. "

Only then did Liu Liangchen heave a sigh of relief, and quickly retreated.

In Duduo's remarks, he also mentioned that the Ming army general who was in charge of the river defense work in Zhenjiang on the opposite bank recently was Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Hongkui.

Prior to this, many people in the Nanjing court also wondered: Why not let the water guards of Shen Tingyang, Minister of the Ministry of household affairs, be in charge of river defense, but Zhang Mingzhen should be sent to carry out the task of breaking diplomatic relations and raids on the Yellow Sea, and delaying the Qing army from raising troops from the rear of Liaodong and other places. Warships were transported to the front.Then the Yangtze River Defense in the Zhenjiang area was handed over to the main force of the Zheng family navy.

But this kind of doubt is actually caused by ignorance of navigation - as I said earlier, the sphere of influence of Ming Dynasty at sea has been south and north for decades.The sea conditions of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are different. The Yellow Sea is suitable for sand boats, while the East China Sea is more suitable for Fuchuan.

Although in the 15th year of Chongzhen, Zheng Chenggong also took some of the Zheng family's sea ships to participate in the Battle of Bijiashan and to respond to the besieged Ming army in Liaodong to break through the siege, but it was not professional enough after all.

And the route to be intercepted this time is more close to the coastal areas of the Yellow Sea and northern Subei, where the loess shoals have been silted up by the sediment brought by the Yellow River estuary for hundreds of years at the end of the Ming Dynasty (from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River was The Huai River was seized into the sea, so the land around Yancheng, Jiangsu in the later generations, grew hundreds of miles into the sea from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, and it was all new land silted up by the Yellow River), and it was easy for the lucky boat to run aground when entering it. I am used to the local sandboats, but it is convenient to come and go.

In contrast, the main channel of the Yangtze River is deep and easy to navigate, much better than the coast of the Yellow Sea, and Fuchuan and Shachuan can sail unimpeded.Based on the logic of letting professional people do professional things, Shen Tingyang left Zhang Mingzhen the battlefield where the advantages of the Shen family fleet could be best utilized, and left the battlefield where anyone can come to the Zheng family, which can be regarded as maximizing efficiency.

As for the original history, when Duoduo led the Qing army southward in the first year of Hongguang, Jiangfang around Nanjing was also handed over to Zheng Hongkui.

Looking at it now, Zheng Hongkui's performance so far has been pretty good. Liu Liangzuo's subordinates tried several times to attack Jinshanzhou from Guazhou, but they were all repelled and lost troops.

……

After Liu Liangchen left, a relatively high-ranking staff member beside Doduo turned around from behind the screen and discussed military plans with Duduo in the tone of an old acquaintance:
"Has the prince really made up his mind to take risks? Recently, our army has deliberately defeated the arrogant enemy several times, misleading Zheng Hongkui to make him think that our army has to cross the river from Guazhou, and it seems to have had an effect.

However, our army is short of ships after all. Even if the smuggling is successful, there will always be a problem of lack of succession when we reach the south of the Yangtze River. The prince should be cautious. "

It turned out that this staff member was named Zhang Cunren, and he was also the main staff member of Duoduo who led the troops to the south this time.The general status is similar to the role played by Tong Tulai in Azigana Road.

This piece of Cunren is quite similar to that of Liu Liangchen just now - he was also a general under Zu Dashou's command in the Battle of Dalinghe in the fourth year of Chongzhen, and he also surrendered with Zu Dashou after Dalinghe ran out of food.

But Zhang Cunren's status at the beginning was much higher than Liu Liangchen: Liu Liangchen was just a guerrilla under Zu Dashou's command, and Zhang Cunren was Zu Dashou's deputy general from the beginning (Zu Dashou himself was the chief soldier, and the chief soldier became the deputy general)

As Zu Dashou's second-in-command, Zhang Cunren had a high starting point, and his promotion in the past ten years was naturally much higher than that of Liu Liangchen.Before the Qing army entered the customs, Zhang Cunren had already obtained the hereditary title in the Han Army Banner, and successively served as Chengzheng of the Inspectorate of the Qing Dynasty, and Meile Ezhen (deputy banner owner) of the Han Army Xianglan Banner.

The Han Banner troops brought by Duoduo this time are mainly the two blue banners in the Han Army, with Wanyan Yechen as the leader and Zhang Cunren as the deputy.As a Han Chinese, Zhang Cunren knew more about the technical arms of the navy and artillery than Duduo and Wanyan Yechen, who were Manchus, so his opinion weighed heavily.

Doduo was still very polite to him, and he also accepted the risk he reminded, but he still insisted on launching a sneak attack to cross the river:

"Since ancient times, when encountering a brave man on a narrow road, is there a perfect strategy for leading troops to fight without taking risks? This king decided to paralyze the enemy army and take advantage of the opportunity to divide the troops to rush for smuggling.

Brother Yingwang (Azig) has reported many times that the main force of the Huguang Ming army was dragged by him on the battlefields of Nanyang and Xiangyang. The two armies fought several times, with heavy casualties.Zhu Shuren didn't know how many strong ships and guns he had gathered in Nanyang and Xiangyang, defending the line of Han River and Bai River.

This opportunity is very rare. If Nanmanzi had not had such confidence in the Yangtze River, Zhu Shuren would not have dared to be so arrogant. He only wanted to hurt Brother Ying and then deal with us.Therefore, our army must take advantage of the opponent's blind self-confidence and seize the opportunity to break through the natural moat of the Yangtze River!After Zhu Shuren really pulled out his hand, there would be absolutely no possibility for our army to cross the river!Don't miss this opportunity! "

Zhang Cunren sighed and reminded: "However, because Zhang Mingzhen's water guards were harassing the coast of Huai'an, the speed of our army's large ships was much slower than expected.

Originally, according to the plan, it is now necessary to raise enough boats for 20 people and the follow-up military supplies to cross the river, but now, only 8 people have been raised for the first batch of rush crossings, not even half of the plan. arrive.

According to the battle report from the rear, in the past half month, at least thousands of civilian sailors, some of Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming's sailors, and more than a hundred large sand ships were intercepted and captured by Zhang Mingzhen!If I want to gather the original number of ships, I am afraid I will have to wait until the twelfth lunar month. "

Doduo's eyes were serious for a moment, but he soon regained his determination: "Will this king not know what you said? But because of this, the Nanmanzi will not be on guard against us rushing across the river right now. We don't have enough ships for this news. Not only do we know it, but the barbarian on the other side also knows it.

In the past five or six days, the king has been asking Liu Liangzuo to cross the river in Guazhou, just to make Zheng Hongkui believe that - because I don't have enough ferry boats in the Qing Dynasty, I can't just find a place with unfavorable hydrology to cross the river, but I have to fight in the water first. Defeat a part of the Ming army, seize a ferry on the opposite bank, and then use a limited number of ships to go back and forth several times, and get the rear army to the south bank in batches.

In this way, the Ming army will only stare at Jinshanzhou and will not worry about our army detouring elsewhere. The river defenses with hundreds of miles around will always be caught by our army.

In addition, Liu Liangzuo has also tried out these few days. Zheng Hongkui's boats are mostly lucky boats, and it is difficult to sail fast by paddling, let alone modify the treadmill boats that existed in the pre-Song Dynasty like sand boats.So choose a day with no wind and little wind, and make a detour to smuggle in advance, Zheng Hongkui will definitely not be able to stop it in time!
Back then, during the Southern Song Dynasty, my Jurchen ancestor Wanyan Zongbi (Jin Wushu) was trapped by Han Shizhong in Huang Tiandang between Jinling and Zhenjiang. The traitors reported the weakness of the Song army, and Han Shizhong couldn't catch up when he broke through the siege on a calm day. thus get away.

Now the disadvantages of Zheng Hongkui's naval division are just like Han Shizhong's, but our army has been aware of its disadvantages in advance, so we can naturally avoid the detours Wanyan Zongbi took. "

When Zhang Cunren heard Duoduo mention this example, his teeth were gritty secretly, he felt it was unlucky, and he thought that the current war is going on, what example is not good to give, and he must cite the Jinling offensive and defensive battle of Jin Wushu and Han Shizhong?
Although you have consciously avoided the main shortcoming of Jin Wushu, but the opponent may not only have Han Shizhong's tricks back then,

What if the Ming army on the opposite side also learns a lot of wisdom, learns the lessons of history and ambush some unknown new killer move, which can do better than Han Shizhong?
Zhang Cunren took a deep breath: "My lord, you decide..."

Duoduo's eyes sharpened, and he took a decisive defensive position: "It's just a few days, wait for a day when there is no wind or pure north wind, and let Liu Liangzuo feign attack at Guazhoudu to contain Zheng Hongkui.

Then the main force of our army, divided into tens of thousands, detoured to Liuhe, Chuzhou, and used the ferry that our army had secretly transferred to Chushui to hide in the Yangtze River these days, and went straight to Longtan Town, Jinling on the opposite bank!Bypass Zhenjiang's Jiangming army! "

Zhang Cunren was startled, and said compassionately: "This smuggling, with such a long period of numbness and weakness, is indeed very likely to succeed, but once our army has a firm foothold on the south bank of the river, unless our army can immediately take some strongholds on the south bank Otherwise, the Ming army will react immediately and use the Zheng family navy division in Zhenjiang to copy our army's rear. At that time, the backup will be cut off, and it will be even more difficult to pull more people across the river."

Doduo was not too worried about this: "When did you become so timid? When did I, Qing Dynasty, fear the Southern Barbarians' chasing and intercepting? Back then, the Jimen Great Wall could enter and exit whenever it wanted, and the Ming army could still Can't stop my Qing cavalry in the field?

Even if these tens of thousands of people cross the river and cannot break through the city of Nanjing for a while, the timidity of the southern barbarians will definitely be able to greatly shock the morale of their troops!At that time, it is also possible that the chaos will force the soldiers and civilians in peripheral Zhenjiang, Dangtu, Jiangyin and other places to surrender to our Qing Dynasty.If Zhenjiang is lost and Zheng Hongkui's home is taken over by our army, will he fight us for a long time by hanging alone on the river?
As long as my cavalry of the Qing Dynasty obtains one or two fertile lands in the south of the Yangtze River as a source of money and food supplies, we will be able to support the war with all odds!We've already reached the most affluent place in the world, and I'm afraid we won't be able to do it without military rations!We're all in the granary! "

(End of this chapter)