Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 519 Net ([-])

"Boom! Boom!" Two guns rang out, and two puffs of smoke rose from the port side of the "Amur River" moving at low speed, and two solid iron eggs hit a Qing army patrol ship at close range. .

This ship came from upstream, its tonnage was not large, and its style was also an old-fashioned Chinese-style hard sailing ship, but it was extremely arrogant on the river, as if to deceive the Dashun army. The boats have been swaggering on the river.While setting useless blunderbusses far away towards the officers and men of the Dashun Army on the border of Yuezhou on the south bank, they triumphantly and loudly insulted them, as if they were invincible.

But they obviously forgot to read the almanac when they went out today.They saw two "huge" ships puffing and puffing black smoke rapidly upstream from the downstream. The water splashed from the bows made them stupefied. The ships were moving so fast!But their surprise quickly turned into fear, because when the two fast boats approached to a distance of tens of meters, the two eight-pounder guns on the side began to fire one after another.

The shell with an almost straight trajectory penetrated the thin hull of the patrol ship in an instant and created two huge holes near the waterline on the port side.The river flooded in wildly, and more than a dozen Qing army sailors on the ship looked at each other in blank dismay, then shouted, and jumped into the river with wooden boards and other floating objects, and then tried to stay away from the sinking place of the ship as much as possible.

The two steam gunboats, which were obviously more aggressive than the Qing army patrol boats, did not delay. They fired at full power, their bows easily split the water waves, and chased after the remaining Qing army patrol boats on the river.

"Fast as lightning, what a boat! What a boat!" Standing on the bank of the river, Guo Sheng set up a pergola to watch the "fierce battle" on the river. I don’t have any skills, but I’ve practiced the tortoise shell perfectly. I stayed in the city of Jingzhou all day long. I didn’t dare to go out to fight with us, but I sent some patrol boats to disgust people. Now it’s all right, I finally sank these bird boats Go down and feed the fish!"

Guo Sheng had reason to be happy. Last month (April) they repeatedly attacked Jingzhou City, but the Dashun army, which lacked heavy weapons for siege, failed to capture it, so they had no choice but to give up.In fact, they didn't do this at first, but who made them (Li Guo, Gao Yigong, etc.) lose a lot of supplies and heavy weapons when they broke through from Ningxia and Northern Shaanxi via Sichuan to Hubei. The artillery that played an important role in the war was also lost. Now there are only two or three small-caliber 4-pound short-barreled howitzers that can be used barely, but the tragedy is that the shells have long been exhausted and turned into a pile of broken copper. Rotten iron.Many of the flintlock guns handed over to them by the East Coast people were damaged, some of which were caused by improper maintenance, but more of them were caused by overuse.

The Northern Shaanxi Army under Li Guo and Gao Yigong first fought against the Qing army of Azige for several months, and then successively fought against the local militia, the Hui cavalry, the Qing Shun army, and the Mongolian soldiers of the Eight Banners. A bloody road, fought thousands of miles into Huguang, and joined Li Zicheng's troops.When the army broke through from northern Shaanxi with a number of more than 4, when it arrived in Jingzhou Prefecture, there were only more than 20 capable soldiers, and the losses were extremely heavy.However, the more than [-] people who arrived in Hubei were all elites who had survived a hundred battles, and their combat power was extraordinary. With them as the foundation, an army of more than [-] to [-] people could easily be raised again.

And they did.Although they failed to successfully capture Jingzhou City, most of the remaining prefectures and counties in Jingzhou Prefecture were captured by Dashun. They recruited tens of thousands of young men during this period, and slightly recovered their momentum.Of course, their scale of more than [-] people (including a large number of family members accompanying the army) also once again attracted the attention of the Qing army stationed in Wuchang and other places.The Qing army began to frequently dispatch troops and generals. King Sanshun, Eight Banners soldiers, Mongolian Fan soldiers, Xin Jiangshun Army and Ming Army began to march towards Jingzhou and Yuezhou, trying to wipe out the troops of Li Guo and Gao Yigong.At the same time, Li Zicheng, who was besieging Changsha, also suspended his offensive after hearing the news, and sent Liu Fangliang to supervise a partial division of tens of thousands of people to go north to Pingjiang and Baling to reinforce Li Guo.As for the fierce fighting in Changsha and Changde, Yuan Zongdi, Tian Jianxiu and others were in charge of the command, and Li Zicheng himself temporarily avoided the rear for recuperation due to his unhealed injury.

The above is what Li Zhengang learned about the current situation in Huguang through his acquaintances after he went ashore yesterday.Generally speaking, the situation is very unfavorable for Dashun.Although a large number of Eight Banners soldiers were transferred eastward to Jiangxi and South Zhili, the strength of the Qing army stranded in Hubei was still extremely strong, and it was not comparable to the Shun army.Moreover, with the loss of a large number of elite veterans due to the consecutive defeats of the Lien Chan Army, the combat effectiveness of the Shun Army has declined rapidly. Coupled with the shortage of supplies and the dangerous situation of being surrounded by enemies, the morale of the Shun Army is not very high. Many non-core troops have surrendered to the enemy. This made them unable to exert their due strength when facing the superior Qing army, so that they suffered repeated defeats.

Although the arrival of Li Guo and Gao Yigong's troops added more than 4 valuable elite veterans to the Shun Army, they brought a large number of family members with them, and they also added a heavy burden to Dashun, which had no stable base. What's more, the "grand occasion" of more than 20 troops from the two groups of soldiers and horses will surely make the Qing court turn its attention to this place again, and then mobilize heavy troops to encircle and suppress.

Li Zhengang was also a general of the Shun Army, and Guo Sheng's former subordinate. Although he is currently serving in the East Coast Standing Team system, he has always been extremely worried about Dashun's fate and future in his heart.Therefore, after taking a boat to Baling County (that is, Yuezhou City) yesterday to get in touch with the Shun Army, he immediately stated that he had brought a large amount of military aid, which greatly dissatisfied the second lieutenant Zamparini who accompanied Li Zhengang. You Li Zhengang is also a senior cadre of the stand-up team in name, which side is this ass sitting on?

Guo Sheng, who was resting in the outskirts of Baling County, immediately rushed to meet with his old subordinates after hearing the news, and had a long talk all night, which raised Zamparini's dissatisfaction to a new level. Officer?Go back and report to the above.

"Although these Tazi patrol boats are unbearable, they also have guns and cannons, and the sergeants are more skilled in sailing the boats. They are indeed much better than my Dashun soldiers. Most of our troops are from the north, and we are indeed not as good as them on this boat." Li Zhengang watched the gunboat commanded by Second Lieutenant Juan gradually go away, then turned his head and whispered to Guo Sheng: "Guo Shuai, can I meet King Chuang later? I have something important to discuss!"

"Erlang (that is, Li Zhengang), you and I have known each other for many years, and there are some things I don't want to hide from you. Now that your majesty is not in good health, I'm afraid I won't be able to see you. I just found out in the past two days. Unfortunately, he was wounded. Due to the emergency of the military, he was unable to take good care of his injuries. Later, General Quan (Liu Zongmin), Military Advisor (Song Xiance) and other old people passed away one after another. His Majesty was depressed all day long. The injury is also getting worse. He is currently camping outside Changsha City Rest in peace, except for a few trusted generals, it is difficult for others to see." Guo Sheng looked around, then whispered to Li Zhengang.

Li Zhengang listened silently.He and Guo Sheng are both from Luo Rucai's old department. To be honest, they don't care too much about King Chuang's life and death. What they care about is how to deal with the situation if something happens to King Chuang.Now this army, to be honest, is really screwed together by King Chuang. If something happens to King Chuang, God knows how many people will surrender, and how many will surrender. I am afraid that half of the 20 people in front of us will be scattered. Then everything will be over.

"It's a pity that I can't see King Chuang. Dong... My Marshal Mo intends to join forces with King Chuang to fight against the Tartars. The cargo unloaded yesterday is a gift for meeting. Guo Shuai, don't make such a weird expression. Everyone knows what happened to the title of Dashun Ninghai Defense Envoy you gave back then, but it was just used to win people's hearts. To put it bluntly, Marshal Mo wears this title if he wants to wear it. If he doesn't want to wear it, he just throws it away. Half a point loss. Over the years, many of our old brothers who he has gathered over the years have nothing to do with Dashun, even if you run over to Guo Shuai to pull people, you may not be able to pull them away." Li Zhengang quickly broke the silence again, Said: "Now the camp head organized and trained by Marshal Mo, known as the Standing Team, has more than [-] people. They train hard every day, and their combat power has improved rapidly. In addition, there are also thousands of Semu cavalry. They are rare elites, not to mention those black feudal ghost slave soldiers and East Coast gunmen, their strength should not be underestimated."

"How can I have any ideas." Guo Sheng said with a wry smile, "The old brothers who were sent away at the beginning now have a good place to go. I am too happy. How could I mess with people and ruin their future? Mo Da and I Shuai, although he has a small side, knows that he is a great person. Many people in Shandong and even in our battalion praised him as a hero. Now he is willing to wear the hat of Dashun, that is A kind of favor, we have to accept this kind of favor. And now we have sent people to send [-] firecrackers, [-] large and small cannons, [-] armor collars, [-] sabers, and [-] spears. You said, yesterday I sent someone to deliver a letter to Bohou (Li Guo). There are so many good things, so many people are jealous, especially those yellow cannons. With this cannon, I am afraid that Jingzhou will not be captured. The city? This time it must be called Zheng Siwei! Unfortunately, when we retreated from Gansu, we couldn’t take away a lot of artillery. Most of them were destroyed on the spot, and a small part fell into the hands of those Huihui. Otherwise, how could we have lingered under the Jingzhou city for so long? !"

"Well, you have sent so many things here, so I can't let you go for nothing." Guo Sheng said suddenly, "I will take you to meet Bohou and Cihou (Liu Fangliang) and discuss with everyone. Discuss, and then try to meet King Chuang. This is a good thing. Now that we are cramped in a corner of Huguang and lack food and equipment, it would be great if we can join forces with Marshal Mo. Right now, the generation of Yuezhou is Li (Guo), The three generals Gao (Yigong) and Liu (Fangliang) are the masters. After everyone agrees, they will go to Changsha to meet King Chuang. King Chuang will be very happy when he hears it. By the way, there are still some in our battalion. The orphans of martyrs, the old and the weak, women and children, or the wounded and sick, it is hard for them to follow us to fight, see if you can take them away and take shelter under the command of Marshal Mo..."

Guo Sheng and Li Zhengang walked towards the horses behind them while chatting, got on the horses and headed south, it was time to go back to the camp for discussion.And on the river in the distance, two steam gunboats had also turned back, and it seemed that all the patrol ships of the Qing army had been sunk.

(End of this chapter)