Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 391
It has been ten days since Yang Chao regained Yangzhou.

On the fifth day, the second batch of reinforcements arrived. These reinforcements encountered a strong wind on the river and were blown to the shore and ran aground. The losses were not heavy. After the weather calmed down, they immediately set off and arrived in Yangzhou in two days.

In the next three days, other reinforcements had arrived, allowing Yang Chao to send troops to the neighboring prefectures and counties.

Yizhen County and Taixing County in the lower reaches of Jiangdu each sent soldiers from Yang Qian, and Tongzhou and Taizhou also sent 1000 soldiers.

However, Gaoyou Prefecture sent 3 people. Only the subordinates of Gaoyou Prefecture sent 1 people to Baoying County, which is on the same canal line as Yangzhou and Gaoyou. Xinghua County sent only 1000 people.

The three counties and three prefectures of Yangzhou Prefecture all sent troops to guard them. It wasn't that Yang Chao wanted to seize the power at the bottom. To put it bluntly, where did these soldiers go? Get started.

The reason why troops were sent there was firstly to guard against sneak attacks by the Qing army, secondly to suppress bandits, and thirdly to deter the defenders.

At that time, Duoduo went straight to Yangzhou, almost stabbed in the center, and did not attack other counties at all. The combat strategy was very good. He concentrated his forces to take down Yangzhou, and then the surrounding counties would definitely retreat without a fight. In Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, Duoduo all It is operated in this way, fighting for each city and place, Duoduo does not have the strength.

But I didn't expect that Yangzhou was lost, which made Duoduo fall into a passive position, and the disadvantage of not seizing the surrounding counties became apparent.

Fortunately, the Qing army was all cavalry. Duoduo led a small number of Eight Banners soldiers back to Huai'an. After getting enough horses, he immediately regained his mobility. .

Therefore, Yang Chao had to be on guard against Manchu cavalry entering the hinterland of Yangzhou to destroy them.

The second is the bandits. After Dodo went south, it caused a lot of chaos. Many guards surrendered to Dodo, but some refused. They left with their soldiers, but lost their garrison. He robbed his house for a living.

Therefore, Yang Chao sent people to guard against the bandits, and also asked Mr. Qian, who led the troops, to pay attention to recruiting these bandits. After all, they fell into the grass because they refused to surrender. It should be said that they have more integrity and can be absorbed into their own army.

There are also the defenders in various places. If these miscellaneous troops such as guards and township soldiers are not sent to supervise them, they may surrender as soon as the Qing army arrives. After Chao's death, it is equivalent to cutting off Yang Chao's back path.

As for Duoduo's resumption of deterrence against Yangzhou so quickly, Yang Chao only just got the news.

It turned out that the Qing army in Shandong went south and Yangzhou was besieged. Especially after the news that the city was broken, Liu Zeqing, who was stationed in Huai'an, fled in a hurry and handed over all the land, population, soldiers, horses, money and food accounts of the fourteen prefectures and counties in Huaiyang to himself. Bai Yongfu, the commander-in-chief under him, acted as an agent, and he fled to the sea with the governor of Shandong, Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong, Yushi Tianyang and other civil officials.

Some of these civil servants were appointed by King Fu when he was in charge of the country, and they were all officials in charge of Shandong. Obviously, the court had always hoped that Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong, would return to Shandong, but he had been staying in Huai'an and refused to leave. Following him in a panic, not only did they not regain Shandong, but the Qing army went south from Shandong, and they ran away immediately.

Bai Yongfu did not run away, but as soon as the Qing army arrived, he surrendered immediately. I am afraid that he was ordered by Liu Zeqing to negotiate with the Qing army. Liu Zeqing would come back to seek refuge only after it was confirmed safe, but obviously he was not sure, because Yangzhou He was taken back by Yang Chao again, so he could only float on the sea. It was not easy to go to the Manqing side, and he dared not go back to the Ming Dynasty side, so he was desperate for a while.

The surrender of Huai'an made Yang Chao extremely passive. A fortified city like Huai'an, if defended carefully, would be much stronger than Yangzhou in terms of defensive advantages alone. Liu Zeqing used [-] troops, but the enemy left in one go. Yang Chao was furious. Dropped the cup.

But then the deployment began, and all the [-] troops were transferred to Gaoyou. The purpose was obviously to prevent the Qing army from attacking south along the canal.

"The loss is heavy!"

Looking at the list of losses just calculated, Yang Chao couldn't help but feel heartbroken.

Especially when those manpower and material resources are not lost on the battlefield.

His own soldiers obeyed the order and went to help wholeheartedly, but in the strong wind and waves, a total of 1000 to [-] people disappeared in the end. It is estimated that most of them were buried in the belly of fish.

Compared with the loss of manpower, the loss of material resources is even more serious.

The big boats pulling people were better, only a dozen or so were lost, but the small boats transporting supplies almost all capsized.

There are only 20 dans of grain grains above, and the market price is more than [-] taels of silver.

In addition, there are weapons, cannons, armor and other items, which are converted to no less than 50 taels.

What's more, the ship itself is a high-value asset. More than 300 small boats capsized, and the [-] salt boats that Yang Chao knocked from the salt merchant Du Shouchang were all lost.

The loss of material resources has greatly reduced Yang Chao's mobility. These salt ships are a sharp weapon for transportation. Without these ships, Yang Chao's plan to communicate with Gaoyou and Baoying through the canal and block the enemy north of Yangzhou will have flaws.

"What about the court's reply?"

Therefore, Yang Chao has sent an urgent report to the imperial court, requesting the allocation of [-] tank ships.

When Yang Chao heard that the reply had come, he asked Huang Feng's mansion.

Huang Fengfu couldn't help shaking his head: "The imperial court said that there are no tank boats."

"No?"

There are thousands of water ships in the Ming court, and as many as [-] dilapidated water ships need to be replaced every year. I only need [-] ships. How could there be none? There are not many cities along the canal What about the tank boat?

"The imperial court said that they can send the water battalion."

Yang Chao nodded: "Alright, what I want is a boat, tank boats and warships are the same."

Huang Fengfu was a little hesitant: "But the imperial court said to send Chengyibo to command the water camp, and you, my lord, will also be under the control of Chengyibo."

Yang Chao couldn't help being stunned: "Liu Kongzhao! He dares to come to the front line?"

That's how it happened, the chatter and debate in the court hall a few days ago made the little emperor lose his appetite.

So when Yang Chao asked the court to turn the boat, the courtiers had a tacit understanding that they didn't want to see Yang Chao being too powerful, and planned to mix sand with Yang Chao.But for the issue of sending someone to supervise the teacher, the little emperor chose to support Xunchen this time, just like his father Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian's final choice, trusting Xunchen and eunuchs!
So Liu Kongzhao got the position of supervisor.

Huang Fengfu suddenly suggested: "My lord, I don't know if I should say something or not."

Yang Chao said, "Say it."

Huang Fengfu said: "This subordinate thinks that my lord has been away from Nanjing for a long time, and I am afraid that there will be changes in the court."

Yang Chao said: "You mean to let me go back."

Huang Fengfu nodded.

Yang Chao sighed: "The Duoduo army is in Huai'an, and they may go south at any time. I can't leave now."

Someone in the court impeached Yang Chao, and there was a lot of controversy. It is impossible for Yang Chao not to know about it, otherwise he would have set up so many eyeliners in the court for nothing. This matter made Huang Fengfu very worried.

Yang Chao has a large army, but now they are all in Jiangbei, which really allows the courtiers to let go of spreading rumors. If Yang Chao is in the court, many things will not be so complicated, and the distance will create illusions.

But Yang Chao felt that it was really inappropriate for him to go back now, but he had to deal with it at this time, since his family members were all in Nanjing.

After thinking about it, Yang Chao said: "Let Wang Pu lead [-] soldiers to guard the Xinjiangkou, so as to be safe."

The reason why Wang Pu was chosen is because this guy is rather domineering. Although he is often reckless, he can often intimidate people.

In addition, Yang Chao intended to punish him.

For Wang Pu's disobedience to the military order on the battlefield, Lu Mo had already judged him, and he was beaten with thirty military sticks in public.

Now keeping him away from the battlefield, I believe it will teach him a profound lesson.

"And the captives should be escorted to Nanjing. And how are the captives in Taiping Mansion handled?"

Together with Huang Degong in Taiping Mansion, Yang Chao captured almost all of Zuo Liangyu's remaining troops.

Huang Feng's mansion immediately said: "The public took 16 prisoners, Huang Degong took [-] away, and sent the other [-] to work in Xinjiangkou. President Hu Qian is responsible for guarding these people."

Hu Quan was very unlucky and lost all the cannons. Many of them were new cannons that had just been cast in the past few months. Seeing that the guys in his artillery had just hardened, all the storms were gone.

Fortunately, the artillery was not with the artillery, otherwise not only Hu Quan, but also Yang Chao would have cried. You must know that the artillery is full of elites, and most of the group of scholars recruited with great difficulty are in the artillery.

"The loss is heavy. It is not easy to cast these batches of cannons. It seems that the craftsmen must hurry up and continue casting."

Yang Chao couldn't help sighing.

"By the way, we should not be short of money!"

With such a large loss, especially the loss of ships, the shipping business might be affected for a while, so Yang Chao asked.

Huang Fengfu said: "Hehe, it won't matter if we last for a year or two. We have made a lot of money recently."

Yang Chao nodded. The properties he took back from the Tatars in Yangzhou alone amounted to more than 800 million taels of silver. With the discount on gold, silver and jewelry, 1000 million taels was enough, but with the current consumption, two years is enough. .

Huangfeng Mansion didn't play charades and immediately explained: "The subordinates haven't reported yet, so your lord may not know how much property we have seized from Zuo Liangyu."

Yang Chao nodded.

Huang Fengfu stretched out his hand and said, "1000 million taels!"

This number made Yang Chao gasp. Zuo Liangyu is too rich. You must know that the Qing army looted Yangzhou for three days, and finally killed 35 people, but they only got 1000 million taels. Zuo Liangyu has so much money.

Huang Fengfu sighed: "Zuo Liangyu plundered Wuchang City, where it is still a piece of white land. Later, he plundered Jiujiang City, and he looted all of them. Our warships on the river only captured Zuo Liangyu There are as many as one hundred ships transporting property."

Yang Chao frowned, knowing the source of Zuo Liangyu's huge sum of money.

Although Wuchang and Jiujiang are not as rich as Yangzhou, Huguang has already become the granary of Daming, and the export of this granary is Wuchang, not to mention Jiujiang, Jingdezhen is the most convenient export of porcelain, and the two large trades of grain and porcelain have accumulated over the years However, the merchants in these two places are also rich and powerful, so there is no difference between Yangzhou and Yangzhou.

"This group of bandits is really hateful!"

Yang Chao couldn't help cursing, a person like Zuo Liangyu can loot the city of his own country, that's all, and he even slaughtered Wuchang, it's almost to the point of anger between man and god, I really don't know the moral cognition of such a person What a pervert.

(End of this chapter)