Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 316 Qing Army Comes to Help
As soon as they crossed the river, scouts brought over several Qing soldiers. One of them was dressed in the clothes of a fifth-rank civil servant of the Ming Dynasty, but he claimed to be Zhang Cunren's envoy.

Needless to say, he must have surrendered not long ago and had no time to make Qing Dynasty official uniforms, so he simply used Ming Dynasty clothes to make up the numbers. Zhang Cunren sent him here to persuade him to surrender, just to delay time.

Dan Chu was too lazy to waste time talking to him. He put on his armor and mounted his horse, looking like he looked down on the world.

The Qing envoy was frightened before he could speak. He tried to remain calm, struggled to stand up, and said, "General, I am from the Great Qing..."

A lieutenant had already stepped forward and hit the Qing envoy's calf with a meteor hammer. This meteor hammer is small and convenient, a short wooden stick with a handle on one end and an iron bone on the other end. It is often used by cavalry to chase infantry.

The Qing envoy felt the pain, his knees softened, and he fell to the ground, but he still refused to give in. He struggled to get up and said, "Since ancient times, when two armies fought, they did not kill envoys. Why did you deliberately humiliate me, General?"

Danchu snorted coldly and ordered: "Smash his knees."

Soldiers were happy to punish traitors. The soldiers on both sides held the Qing envoy, and the lieutenant used all his strength to hit the Qing envoy's knees.

The Qing envoy was sent to the Red Army only because Zhang Cunren had promised him a promotion. When he saw the Red Army taking action, he immediately became timid and cried for mercy.

"I finally understand the meaning of the word 'knock'." Danchu said to his attendants, and then asked the Qing envoy: "Why did Zhang Cunren send you to the Red Army to lure me?"

"Reply, reply to the Lord's words. Cunren said that as long as the Lord is willing to surrender, he is willing to recommend the Lord as a king and ask the Lord to guard western Guangdong."

"The title of King is indispensable, but it's not enough to just guard western Guangdong. I have to guard both western and eastern Guangdong provinces at the same time to feed my 500,000 Red Army." Dan Chu pretended to be mysterious and said.

The Qing envoy's expression changed. He knew that Cen Danchu's request was too high, so it was difficult for him to bargain.

"Lord, why waste your breath on this traitor?" The people around him said, "Why not just cut him to pieces with a knife? That would be considered ridding the country of this evil."

"Ah?" The Qing envoy's voice trembled, and he changed his words and said, "My Lord, I came here to persuade peace, and I have no intention of harming you."

Danchu sneered with a murderous look on his face, and asked, "Let me ask you, where is Zhang Cunren? How do you know my whereabouts?"

The Qing envoy hesitated, thinking of his family and family, and said, "I really don't know where Cunren is stationed. I only received a verbal message asking me to go to Luoding to meet the king."

"Someone, cut his tendons." Dan Chu said impatiently.

The pain in his knee was unbearable, and if the hand plate was cut, the Qing envoy would be even more disabled. He collapsed to the ground and cried, "My Lord, I met Cunren in Zhaoqing a few days ago, and then I served as an errand in Deqing. Yesterday, I received an order and rushed to Luoding overnight."

Something is wrong, there must be treachery. Danchu hesitated for a moment, ordered the Qing envoy to be dragged away, tortured, interrogated, and summoned his confidants to discuss military affairs.

The counselor Qian Bingdeng said: "The whereabouts of the king have been exposed. The Tartars sent envoys to lure him to surrender. First, they want to test the king's attitude, and second, they want to buy time and wait for reinforcements."

There was a lack of internal support in the city and not enough artillery, so it was basically impossible for the Red Army to capture Luoding before the Qing army's reinforcements arrived.

Cen Danchu readily followed his advice and said, "Send an order to stop the siege, and set up camp on the east bank of Longshui River, build fortifications, and prepare to fight the Tartars. As for the Second Town, urge them to speed up, and at least send cavalry to Luodingzhou first."

"Please advise your Majesty, what should we do with the Tartar envoys?"

"Leave a soldier to go back and tell him that I am willing to make peace and demand to defend western and eastern Guangdong forever. The rest of you will be tortured, interrogated for intelligence, and then all will be executed." The army changed from attacking the city to setting up camp, and the military order was changed temporarily. The army was in a turmoil until the afternoon when it gradually calmed down. The Imperial Guards set up six camps on the east bank of Longshui River, and the Auxiliary Soldiers' Engineers and Boat Bridges arrived one after another and set up four camps on both sides of Longshui River.

The sky was gloomy and it looked like heavy rain was coming. In order to prevent the Taki River from flooding, the boat bridge embassy dispatched personnel to build a floating bridge on both sides of the Taki River to connect the two sides.

On that day, the Red Army set up more than a dozen camps outside Luoding City, spanning both sides of the Longshui River, and had apparently regarded Luoding as the main battlefield.

At the same time, scouts and reconnaissance officers continued to gather intelligence, and the situation of the Qing army gradually became clear.

Bashan, the Qing Dynasty's Jingnan General, was originally the commander-in-chief of the Qing army on the northern front. Upon hearing about the changes in Luoding, he made a prompt decision to hand over the front-line military affairs to Geng Jimao and personally led the army to rescue Luoding.

Among the reinforcements, the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia had the strongest combat effectiveness, with about a thousand bannermen. Including the baoyi aha who served as attendants, the number was no less than two thousand, and there were about three thousand war horses.

Jingnan also sent out an elite "divine weapon camp" led by the left wing general Xu Degong, with one man and one horse, and at least 4,000 soldiers. Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were old subordinates of Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai in the Ming Dynasty, and were good at using firearms.

In order to deal with the Red Army, Geng Jimao established the "Firearm Battalion" in the army. Last year, the Firearm Battalion fought fiercely with the Red Army in the north of Guangzhou and was defeated. Afterwards, it was rebuilt and renamed the "Divine Artifact Battalion". The Divine Artifact Battalion imitated the Red Army's personal guards and was equipped with a large number of light field artillery and heavy matchlock guns. Each person had one horse, which was convenient and fast, and its strength should not be underestimated.

It is worth mentioning that the Qing army also improved the heavy matchlock gun and imitated the paper-wrapped bullet.

The Manchus started out as horseback archers, but they attached great importance to firearms technology. In the past, when fighting against the Ming army, the Manchus were not strong opponents, so when developing firearms, they attached more importance to artillery, especially the red cannon for siege, the sky rocket for field battles, and the highly mobile shotgun, which were the most favored by the Qing army.

After the fall of the Hongguang Dynasty, the focus of the Ming-Qing battlefield shifted to the south of the Yangtze River. The southern Ming army was accustomed to using matchlock guns in combat, and each battalion had a musketeer, known as a "gun soldier." However, the gun soldiers had poor organization and discipline, and the bird guns were not powerful and reliable, so they were despised by the Qing army.

The Qing army was able to suppress the Nanming bird guns with traditional large bows, so they had no intention of developing matchlock guns. It was not until they encountered the Red Army that the Qing army realized the importance of matchlock guns and flintlock guns. Both Dorgon and his successor Fulin showed great interest in matchlock guns and flintlock guns, and ordered the Ministry of Works to improve them within a time limit.

The Qing Dynasty had already occupied most of China and could mobilize a lot of resources to develop new muskets. However, due to time constraints, the Qing army did not develop a reliable and durable flintlock rifle, and still mainly used improved bird guns.

Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangnan, Northern Zhili and other provinces all have mature bird gun craftsmen, among which the imitation bird guns made in Zhejiang and Fujian provinces are the most sophisticated.

The Qing army called all kinds of matchlock guns "bird guns", which were essentially light matchlock guns with bullets weighing between three and five coins. The bird guns supervised by Zhejiang and Fujian provinces imitated the Red Army's Dinglu rifles, used paper shell bullets as bullets, and were equipped with bayonets.

However, the iron smelting technology of the Qing army did not make much progress, and the reliability, power, and accuracy of the bird gun were not as good as the Dinglu rifle. Instead, it was heavier than the Dinglu rifle. The bayonet was also relatively primitive, with the end inserted into the muzzle instead of being sheathed outside the barrel.

In addition to the bird gun, the Qing army also invented the lifting gun. This lifting gun originated from the Japanese "big barrel", which is essentially an ultra-heavy matchlock gun, weighing 20 to 30 kilograms, without a bracket, requiring two people to operate it. It can fire five lead bullets at a time, which is very powerful, but has a slow firing rate and is inconvenient to carry.

Bird guns and handguns were the main equipment of the Qing Dynasty's firearms battalion. The Qing army originally planned to establish a firearms battalion in the armies of Dingnan and Jingnan, but due to the defeat of Dingnan, it was changed to establish it in Jingnan and Pingnan.

In addition to the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners and the Jingnan Fan Shengqi Battalion, the Qing army on the northern front also sent 7,000 Green Camp followers, with a total force of about 13,000. Together with the Luoding Prefecture garrison, the Qing army deployed between 16,000 and 18,000 troops on the Luoding battlefield, outnumbering the Red Army.

The vanguard was composed of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia and the Jingnan clan. The vanguard had passed Deqing and advanced to the Jinkang Township area.

The spring thunder rumbled, but it started to rain at an inopportune time.

The rain was getting heavier and it was getting dark. It was impossible to fight today. The Qing army seized the houses of Jinkang villagers and camped there. Danchu ordered them to close the camp and guard the place, conserve their energy and prepare for the battle tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)