Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1599

432 River defense

The Haicangkou Fortress in the night is gray and gray. Looking from a distance, the lights hanging outside the sentry tower are adjacent to the stars in the sky, which seems far away from the world.The glue is flowing quietly, and clusters of silver-white waves are silently flickering, embellishing the long lonely and cold night.On the bank of the river is a stretch of shacks, like a huge and old black beast, curled up on this remote river beach, hibernating for a short but long dying year.

The watchman with an ugly male duck voice had just passed the watch, when Man Qingxiao, the leader of the Xianghuang Banner Coordinator Sa Busu, and two capable attendants slipped into the reeds on the river beach.They carefully controlled their movements, trying not to make any noise, and then they moved a small wooden raft out of the reeds, sat on it, and slowly rowed to the opposite bank.

"It's really dangerous this time, and I was almost discovered by the patrols of the yellow-clothed thieves." Sabusu, who is in his early forties this year, touched the top of his bald head and said with lingering fear: "But fortunately, we finally escaped. God, no one folded it there, which is a great luck."

The other two entourages who also had bald heads paddled the raft unhurriedly, and said with a low smile, "This is the master, you are brave, resourceful, wise and brave, so that you can kill the thieves in the yellow clothes thief's territory." Going in and fighting out, it’s not like someone else has the ability. The slaves and others have followed the master for a long time, and they can brag to others after they go back. Many people don’t even know what the yellow-clothed thief looks like.”

"What do you two slaves know? I have a deep hatred with this thief in yellow, and I came to Haicangkou to spy on their military situation. Is it just to brag?" Sabusu took the scabbard and lightly whipped the two of them. , laughed and cursed.

He said just now that he had a big enmity with the thief in yellow, but this is not a lie.The ancestors of his family had lived in the area of ​​Ningguta for generations, and they surrendered to the old slaves in the later Jin Dynasty, and most of the family's properties were located there.But who would have imagined that the people on the east coast would rise up strongly in the outer northeast, and then go southward step by step through the waterways of the Heilongjiang, Songhua River, and Wusuli River, gradually squeezing the Manchu Qing to the point where they were forced to abandon Ningguta City. end.

And Ning Guta's strategic abandonment naturally made Sabsu and his family suffer heavy losses, and it seems that there is no possibility of returning to their hometown in the short term. How can this prevent Sabsu from being angry!What's more, one of his uncles had fought against the bandits in yellow in the north of Heilongjiang, and died shortly after returning from injuries. Their influence is completely cut off.

It's just that the bandits in yellow clothes have been in the northeast, Shandong, and Zhejiang for more than 20 years, and they have not been driven into the sea by "My Qing Dynasty", so they must have merits.In the early days, the Qing army realized through constant fights that they were "sharp guns, resolute and brave to fight", which was completely different from the scumbag opponents they used to come into contact with, and the countless fights were quite overwhelming. Some losses are very dreadful; and now, as people from the east coast are increasingly intervening in the situation in the mainland, and they continue to expand land in Ningbo, Denglai, Liaodong, Heishui and other areas, the Manchu and Qing courts treat them The fear is getting deeper and deeper, and it has risen from the early indifference to the situation of life and death. After all, this group of yellow-clothed pirates has already threatened Liaodong, the land of Longxing in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

From the perspective of the Qing court, although the bandits in yellow are now expanding their affairs in Liaodong and Zhejiang at the same time, in the short term, they are actually scabies.What was really deadly to the Qing court was actually the silent Denglai area!It is relatively close to the important places of Beijing and Tianjin, and people from the east coast can drive their giant deck ships across the Liaohai Sea to Dagukou in Tianjin.Moreover, if they succeed in attacking Qingzhou and Jinan from the west of Laizhou, then the army on the east bank can go west to Henan, cut off the connection between the north and the south, and cause great trouble to the Qing government. The reason why the government has stationed a large number of troops and hoarded a large amount of food, grass and equipment is that it has to be guarded against.

It was against such a background that Sabsu was selected and transferred to Shandong from the Eight Banners in Northeast China. Of course, that was also after the Ningguta Deputy Capital was abandoned.After being stationed in Qingzhou Prefecture for several years, Sabusu's understanding of the yellow-clothed thieves has reached a new level. At the same time, he is more wary of this group of well-equipped and well-organized "thieves". The desire to defeat them is also more urgent.

"Master, didn't the Dutch red hair in the army draw us the big size of the sea cangkou fort of the thief in yellow? It is said that this is a very common fortress in Europa. If the red cannon is installed, it will be fine." Going straight to the other side of the river, I think the painting by that foreign artist is the same, why do we have to take the risk of sneaking into the east bank of the river to investigate?" A coated servant asked cautiously while rowing.

"What the red-haired painter draws is one thing, what we see with our own eyes is another. We can't rely on others for everything and live in a muddle." Sabsu took out a handful of boiled soybeans from his pocket, While eating slowly, he reprimanded: "Besides, I am not only here to see the military deployment of the bandits in yellow, but more to see the local style and see what capital they have to dare to compete with us." It's a pity that the time is too tight, and I didn't see anything useful after a quick glance. It's a pity that the thieves in yellow are about to run these places like iron buckets. Is there a chance to come over to spy, what a pity, what a pity!"

"Now, I can only hope that the imperial army will gather as soon as possible to wipe out the demons and ghosts on the land of Denglai with the momentum of sweeping the caves, and return the people to a bright future. This day should not be too far away. I will free up my hands to deal with the yellow-clothed thieves, and I hope to gain something." Sabsu looked at the night sky again and said quietly.

Seeing his master sighing so much, the two coats also looked at each other, not knowing what to say.I could only silently row the boat and head towards a hidden hiding place on the other side of Jiaosu, planning to go back to the Weixian area that was still under the control of the Qing government (Changyi County was divided and controlled by the East and Qing, but the boundary line was quite similar. Vague).

……

And just when the Qing court sent its own spies to spy on Laizhou Prefecture, which is in the area controlled by the people on the east coast, in the early morning of the next day, in a certain camp outside Jiaoxian County with a plaque of "Denglai New Army Third Division", Denglai pioneered Team leader Liao Xiaoyao was having a conversation with a returning Gendarmerie intelligence officer.

This Lieutenant of the Gendarmerie is also a veteran intelligence officer. He used to be Liao Xiaoyao's old subordinate, and the relationship is very close, so the atmosphere of the chat between the two is relatively relaxed.I saw this lieutenant sitting on a huge bluestone, looking at the wiggling toes protruding from the toe of his right shoe, and his clothes were tattered. The embarrassment of the fight - it seems that this trip to the Qing army-controlled area to investigate and spy on intelligence is not a simple matter, otherwise it would not be so embarrassing.

The lieutenant of the gendarmerie took off the hat on his head, revealing the ugly money rattail bun on the top of his head, and he said in a slightly tired tone: "The Qing Dynasty should have carried out a large-scale The mobilization includes both material mobilization and manpower mobilization. Material mobilization mainly includes grain, horse feed, gunpowder, artillery shells, equipment, luggage and other war materials. It is said that most of them are transported from Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi provinces. I haven’t fought any battles for many years. The population and economy have recovered very quickly, so they can support a large number of troops stationed in the four prefectures of the East and West. Manpower mobilization is mainly concentrated in the four prefectures of the East and West. Alas, the poor people there have just recovered from the drought. , locust disasters, earthquakes, and floods (the Yellow River embankment burst after the earthquake) recovered somewhat, but they were told over and over again by the government to perform hard labor. Well, it is mainly to build warehouses for hoarding materials and transportation of materials in various places. Roads, and even building castles and fortresses. My God, I swear that I have personally seen the Tartars building a bastion somewhere, and it should be built under the command of British or Dutch engineers, because the officials of the Qing Dynasty did not have any mathematical concepts at all. With more than 100 of them, they cannot build a modern fortress that meets the specifications of mechanics and geometry."

"Hoarding supplies and launching a big campaign, are you really out of your mind and want to forcefully attack the second mansion of Denglai? It's impossible!" Liao Xiaoyao touched his thin chin, a little puzzled: "The most urgent thing for them is right now. Isn’t the task of unplugging our reclamation counties on the right bank of the Yalu River in Liaodong and closing down the second battlefield we opened up? What’s going on in Shandong? Maybe it’s because we’ve been expanding in Laizhou a while ago and felt uncomfortable , and then come to regain the lost ground? This shouldn’t be, and it doesn’t make sense!”

At present, the disaster in Shandong can basically be said to have come to an end. The victims who flocked one after another are resettled and transported away. The remaining more than [-] people have been organized into three production and construction corps. All kinds of infrastructure are being worked hard on the land of Shandong, the most important of which is naturally the Jiaolai Xinhe-the glue line of defense.

This line of defense was the basic route of the Jiaolai Canal in the Yuan Dynasty. People on the east coast have been trying to dredge and widen it so that it can have military defense value as well as shipping functions.This plan started in the era of Liang Xiangjian. When Liao Xiaoyao took the post of captain of the Denglai Pioneering Team, not only did he not veto the plan, on the contrary, he invested further manpower and material resources. His main tasks included dredging, digging rivers, and supporting A series of military forts, forts, ammunition depots, material depots, grain depots, health centers and even a road network extending in all directions were built along the canal.

There is no doubt that the scale of this plan is extremely large, and once it is actually implemented and completed, the second mansion of Denglai might really be separated by the Jiaolai Canal, forming an artificial separation line in the geography of Shandong. , the east belongs to the east bank, and the west belongs to the Qing Dynasty. The two sides occupy one end and are engaged in endless military confrontation.

At this stage, the people on the east bank have encountered great difficulties in excavating canals, and the dredging and widening of rivers are also difficult. The only ones that are progressing most smoothly are probably several major fortresses including Haicangkou, and more than a dozen small The construction of the secondary fortress.If there is no accident, most of these fortresses and fortresses will be left under the jurisdiction of the river defense command that guards the canal in the future. Independent cavalry, artillery, and engineering troops, the only task is to guard the Jiaolai Canal, to ensure the safety of some people in the east of the river - and then as the most effective weapon to contain the Qing army, so that they will not have the courage to attack unless they are willing to pay a huge amount cost of human casualties.

"Who knows if they really want to go east to squeeze our power in Laizhou, or just make a gesture to cover their actions in other areas?" The lieutenant of the gendarmerie shook his head and said casually: "Commander Liao, please Forgive me, I heard that the situation in the south is not very good now, and Wu Sangui, the Pingxi King of the Qing Dynasty, is likely to sweep the entire southwest. Therefore, no matter whether the Qing Dynasty can't trouble us this time, we must be fully prepared, that is, if they don't Come to beat us, but we still want to beat them, and try to create as much momentum as possible, so that the Qing court panicked, and even unable to give Wu Sangui more assistance (although this is extremely difficult), so that the situation in Nanming can be turned into safety. The Southern Pioneering Team has been doing this kind of thing, and Liaodong has been doing it all the time, and now it's Denglai's turn to 'express'."

"Fucking nonsense!" Liao Xiaoyao was a little annoyed by the words of the lieutenant of the military police, and only heard him say: "There are only a few soldiers here in Denglai, and self-defense is still insufficient, so they took the initiative to attack Qingzhou Prefecture? Isn't this an act?" What is death? Zhuobutai in Jinan is probably about to smile crookedly! Denglai still needs to stay calm for the time being. Even if he wants to take action in the future, he has to wait for me to finish the military system reform. We will talk about it after the formation of the third and fourth divisions of the new army. Until then, we’d better not do anything and just digest the newly acquired land and people with peace of mind.”

After chatting with the intelligence officials, Liao Xiaoyao had breakfast in the headquarters of the Third Division of the New Army, and then called a meeting of officers at all levels of the Third Division. etc.He believes that when the military system reform of the entire Far East San Francisco is completed, the military strength of the people on the east coast here will leap to a new level. With the assistance of fortifications, it is not a problem to carry out internal operations steadily.

"Forget it, I really have nothing to say to you warriors who fight and kill. I'll hurry back to Yantai after finishing the matter here. The annual immigration transportation is almost over, and soon we will free up a large number of people. When the ship comes out, maybe we can seize the opportunity to transport a batch of war supplies to Guangdong and Huguang to support their operations, I hope it will not be too late." Liao Xiaoyao waved his hand and said with a wry smile.

(End of this chapter)