Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 394

What is the Qing army going to do?
Yang Chao quickly held a military ceremony, and the officers agreed that the Qing army wanted to attract the Ming army to a decisive battle.

After Yang Chao's training, the strategic awareness of these senior officers is already very good.

"Hmph, besieging Wei and saving Zhao? Then we will go to the rescue!"

Yang Chao's words puzzled all the officers.

"But my lord, Haizhou is north of Huai'an, and the captives did not attack Haizhou before. The attack at this time is obviously to mobilize our army to go north. The Tartars must have been ready and set up a trap."

Zheng Yongwang said.

Yang Chao said: "That's right, this is forcing our army to fight with it!"

"My lord, our army is more than enough to defend the city, but not enough to go in. At least [-] soldiers lack armor."

The biggest loss among the material ships that capsized before was tens of thousands of armors, worth more than one million taels of silver.

Yang Chao said: "But why do we have to fight the Tartars? They want me to attack, so I will attack. What the enemy wants, I abandon!"

When marching and fighting, you can't do what your enemy thinks, but let the enemy do what you think. Mobilization and counter-mobilization are sometimes a matter of success or failure.

Zheng Yongwang didn't know what to do if he wanted to save Haizhou but couldn't go north to fight the Tartars.

His eyesight is still limited, Yang Chao sighed inwardly, but immediately enlightened him: "Haizhou! What's there in Haizhou?"

Sun Changfu asked suspiciously, "Is there any salt?"

Everyone knows that Haizhou is a place where salt is produced, and the first reaction is to think of salt.

But what is the use of salt at this time.

"There is the sea, and Haizhou has the sea!"

Li Wuliu exclaimed suddenly, he was right.

"Go by sea?"

Zheng Yongwang was surprised.

"Travel three thousand miles by sea, how do you do this?"

Sun Changfu expressed doubts about this.

Yang Chao said: "Why can't it be done? It's because I didn't tell you that the ship in my hand can go not only to Haizhou, but also to Tianjin. It's not difficult to transport [-] soldiers with ten large ships."

Yang Chao's subordinates have finally cultivated a group of helmsmen. Before that, they had to use the Zheng family's sailors to steer the boat. After learning for more than a year, they have been to Japan, let alone Haizhou, and Yang Chao's boats can be given to Tianjin from time to time. The grain shop in the village has sent one or two grain ships, and we are already familiar with the waterway from the Yangtze River to the north.

But these officers didn't know about these situations, and the only people who knew were Zhang Big Mast and a few core captains.

"Li Wuliu!"

At this time, Yang Chao ordered.

Li Wuliu stood up immediately, his face full of excitement, obviously he had a chance to make meritorious service.

"If you drop [-] soldiers, set off immediately, go south from Yangzhou into the river, and go to Wusong to change to a sea boat and go north. Remember to go to Haizhou. If the Tartars are besieging the city, defeat them immediately, and then enter the city to organize defense. It may be a long time I can't support you, you have to ask the craftsmen in Haizhou to make gunpowder and bird guns for you."

Li Wuliu said: "Don't worry, my lord, I will not disgrace my life!"

Yang Chao said: "Also, if the Tartars have already captured Haizhou, I want you to attack immediately and let the Tartars know that we can also attack the city. You can take half of the gunners from Yangzhou!"

Li Wuliu responded: "Yes!"

He likes this task, if the tartars enter the city and give up the rescue, he might have to make a trip for nothing.

Then Yang Chao assigned other tasks.

"Zheng Yongwang, you lead an army of [-] to march northward, raise the flag and drums more, and make a sign that the army is dispatched. When you arrive in Gaoyou, let many men send out cavalry, and let Lu Mo make some noise in Baoying."

Zheng Yongwang took the order.

"Do you know why you did this?"

Several people nodded: "Confused the Tartars."

Yang Chao said: "That's right, to confuse the Tartars, I want them to know that I am planning to rescue Haizhou. As long as they know that we plan to rescue Haizhou, the Tartars will not immediately attack Haizhou. If Li Wuliu arrives in Haizhou , the Tartars are only besieging the city, and the form is too favorable."

The officers went into action one by one.

Many men and Lu Mo have rich experience, so Lu Mo was sent to lead 2 elite soldiers to take charge of the front line of Baoying, and many men were sent to lead [-] people to meet Lu Mo, so these two men did not participate in the military meeting, while Song Kun stayed at Xinjiangkou However, for Yang Chao, Xinjiangkou was the base camp, and he had to leave safe people to guard it.

Li Wuliu was sent to rescue Haizhou. The first reason is that he has more combat experience than the two lieutenants Zheng Yongwang and Sun Changfu. The second is that his iron wall formation is more suitable for field battles. In other words, Li Wuliu's phalanx is the most effective.

At this time, Baoying took 1, Gaoyou 4, Zheng Yongwang took another [-], Li Wuliu took [-], Wang Pu took [-] people in Xinjiangkou, plus another [-] scattered to nearby counties and counties. There were only [-] soldiers in Yangzhou, and Yang Chao felt a little nervous again.

However, as long as Gaoyou kept his eyes on the direction of Huai'an, the Qing army would not be able to go south. Even if they wanted to go all the way to Si County and take the route that Duoduo attacked Yangzhou last time, it would depend on Huang Degong's answer.

The Qing army marched into the Jianghuai River this time, and pierced the paper tiger of the four towns in Jiangbei at once. The four towns could threaten the little emperor Zhu Cihong, but when they encountered a real strong enemy, they surrendered one by one. Although Liu Zeqing did not surrender, but After running to the sea, he submitted a letter of apology to the court, and the courtiers were discussing whether to pardon him.

Liu Zeqing left all the soldiers and the defended city to the Qing army, and ran away alone with the money, and now he wants the court to pardon him, which is simply unreasonable.

But the movement in the court indicated that he might really be pardoned, because many courtiers spoke for him, the reason was not whether he was guilty or not, but if he was not pardoned, he would probably surrender to the Qing Dynasty. After forcing Liu Zeqing to the Qing court, the court tended to pardon him.

But Yang Chao firmly opposed it. If he was defeated, Yang Chao could forgive him, or even appease him. However, this kind of escaped general must be punished as an example. The reason why so many courtiers spoke well of Liu Zeqing, Yang Chao guessed that it was not just for the sake of appeasement. Well, Liu Zeqing is very rich, and this is probably the main reason.

As for forcing the Qing army to go, a tiger without claws is a sick cat, so what harm does it do to the court.

So Liu Zeqing, one of the four Jiangbei towns, is still floating in the sea.

Needless to say, Gao Jie died in the battle. His soldiers also fought side by side with Yang Chao for a while. His son is now living the life of a little uncle in Nanjing, but Gao Jie will either die in battle or surrender. After entering the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they were finally caught by Yang Chao. Although he felt like fighting side by side, Yang Chao still did not pardon them and sent them all to Nanjing as coolies. It can't be cleaned anymore.

Liu Liangzuo, the flower horse in the four towns, surrendered to the Manchus and brought soldiers and horses to attack Yangzhou City. As a result, all the soldiers and horses were lost. He himself was fine and ran to Huai'an with Duoduo, but The flower horse Liu without a single soldier is tantamount to abolished.

There is only one Huang Degong left in the four towns. First, he joined forces with Yang Chao to wipe out Zuo Liangyu's bandits in the area of ​​Taiping Mansion. 15, then crossed the Yangtze River, went north to recover Fengyang and Shouzhou, which Liu Liangzuo had abandoned, and then continued to go north to recover Sizhou, and even planned to plot Xuzhou.

This time against Duoduo, Huang Degong’s contribution was even greater than that of Yang Chao, if only counting the recovery of lost land. Yang Chao only recovered one Yangzhou prefecture, while he took back Fengyang, Shouzhou, Sizhou and other places, three times as much as Yang Chao. tide.

In particular, the recovery of Fengyang caused the imperial court to issue a special reward, and the title went a step further, from Marquis of Jingnan to Duke of Jingnan!
Huang Degong's army is still quite effective. With him protecting the flanks, Yang Chao believes that the Qing army will not easily attack from Henan again. Moreover, the main force of the Qing army is obviously in Huai'an, and they have no ability to go south from Henan.

As for Huai'an, Yang Chao has already set his sights on it, and this rescue of Haizhou is only the first step.

Haizhou is in the north of Huai'an. Although it is not close to the Grand Canal, so it is not a strategic place, but Haizhou has a Yunyan River connected to Huai'an. Haizhou is in the hands of the Qing army, so there is not much threat to Yang Chao, but if Haizhou With the state in Yang Chao's hands, Duoduo in Huai'an should be restless.

Duoduo resorted to this similar strategy of besieging points to fight for aid and besieging Wei to rescue Zhao, trying to force Yang Chao to go north to attack the fortified city he was guarding.

Yang Chao believed that none of his generals would have thought of fighting by sea, let alone Duduo, who was born in an ethnic group.

You must know that there have been few decent examples of large-scale marches by sea in history. It seems that the purest sea and land march was made by Zheng Chenggong. Wan Dajun.

Now Zheng Chenggong is still called Zheng Sen. Obviously no one has the ability to do this kind of thing, because no one has the ability, so no one wants it.

But they think that no one is capable, but they don't know it. In fact, there are already people who are capable, at least with the conditions, to make the sea attack.

When Zheng Chenggong's 10 people sailed northward by boat, Man Qing clearly knew that his goal was Jiangnan and Nanjing, but he couldn't rescue him. The reason is very simple. The transportation capacity and efficiency of boats on water are far greater than those by land. For transportation, the Qing army knew it but couldn't do rescue, at least it was too late to rescue.

War horses can indeed give cavalry an exciting advantage over infantry, but at the level of tens of thousands of people, shipping has an advantage, and a three thousand-mile sea route advances, which is greater mobility.

"Let these horse riders see what big maneuvering, large-scale, and large-depth combat is. I hope they don't overreact and transfer Duoduo back to Beijing!"

Yang Chao thought to himself.

But Li Wuliu had already set off, arrived in Guazhou in one day, and then went eastward with the current.

From Guazhou to Wusong River, the waterway is only [-] miles, and it can be reached in three days with the current sailor's sailing skills. If the wind is strong, it can be reached in three days.

Li Wuliu is very lucky, obviously Yang Chao can't meet bad luck, and Jiang Feng can't always make things difficult for him.

Li Wuliu arrived at Wusong River smoothly on the fourth day.

Yang Chao's order was conveyed here, and the ten big ships patrolling in this generation were dispatched together to help them carry supplies, and the troops headed to Haizhou.

The journey from Wusong River to Haizhou is farther, nearly a thousand miles.

Li Wuliu was used to riding a river boat. Even his soldiers from Shandong, after the storm on the river last month, did not take the sea boat seriously. The captain reminded them that they Didn't care at all, scoffed.

As a result, after leaving the Yangtze River Estuary, it didn't take long for each of them to change color.

Li Wuliu was very lucky. The wind direction was good on the Yangtze River, and the wind direction was good when he was out at sea. The wind blowing from north to east was also suitable.

With such a wind direction and force, it is not difficult for a three-masted sailboat to run thirteen or four knots. The captain has already lowered it to twelve knots, but Li Wuliu and the others are still vomiting.

Twelve knots is equivalent to a speed of more than 40 miles per hour, and the sea surface is not as stable as that of the Yangtze River.

Li Wuliu felt as if he was directly thrown up and then thrown to the ground. Up and down, he felt a stream of heat on his body, sometimes going up, sometimes going down.

But the speed really didn't matter. They set off from Wusongkou at about noon, and after half a day and a night of turbulence, they saw the coastline of Haizhou in the evening of the next day.

In less than two days and one night, they traveled a thousand miles!

"Get up, get up, get up!"

When the ship broke down on a small fishing boat outside Haizhou City, each soldier was lying in the cabin like a collapse, enjoying the rare peace, but Li Wuliu yelled loudly and picked them up one by one. Get up, that one is lying down again.

"Get off the boat! Those who don't want to get off the boat, stay on board."

This threat is very effective, this group of people don't want to be a sea-going ship again.

But the soldiers were indeed extremely tired, not only because of the hard journey, but also because of the harsh conditions.

These sea-going ships were all [-]-ton ships sold to Yang Chao by the Dutch, and the largest flagship was [-]-ton, that is, [-] tons and [-] tons.

Each of such ships is stuffed with 1000 people and carries corresponding supplies. One can imagine how crowded it must be.

The cramped space, the unaccustomed journey, and the fact that many people were not only tired but sick, the health of the army was very poor at this time.

If Yang Chao were here, he would definitely not rush to attack immediately, but Li Wuliu was very anxious, because he had already seen cavalry running towards them, and the number was about 3000. Can wait to be captured.

In this way, the soldiers on the boats were driven off the boats and lined up on a gravel stall in the fishing village.

The cavalry in the direction of Haizhou was less than three miles away from them.

But the sea boat had already left the fishing village and slowly rowed into the deep water area.

Li Wuliu couldn't help becoming anxious. His soldiers were staggering to and fro, as if they were stepping on springs.

The formation that is usually strictly trained is not good at this time.

I can't even stand up, let alone reload the blunderbuss. If this state is beaten, the only way to lose is to lose.

Li Wuliu's urging was useless, even he himself felt weak in his legs and wobbled when standing.

Li Wuliu was anxious, even a little panicked. At this moment, he suddenly felt the ground shaking, and there was a rumbling sound behind him.

It turned out that the ship that had just sailed into the sea did not leave, but turned its position, the ship's side was pointed in the direction of Haizhou, and fired a round of salvos at the approaching Tartars!
(End of this chapter)