Cutting 1719

Chapter 140
At this time, Chu Ni, who was remembered by Kangxi, was also actively preparing for the battle. The third division of the main force and the three defense divisions were placed on the front line of Xinyang, scattered and stationed in the fortress made of concrete, and cleared the field with a strong wall. Resistance is the main idea. This kind of combat idea was also put forward by Ning Yu before, in order to delay the time of the decisive battle as much as possible.

In Ning Yu's previous vision, when he led the first division and the second division to the south, he could quickly take over Hunan. However, Wuchang has been in business for a long time, and there are key points such as the Hanyang Gun Factory and Daye Iron Mine, so he must not give up. .In particular, most of the current Fuhan Army troops are local Chu people, so they must stick to Wuchang in order to have a chance to achieve a comeback.

In the defensive battle against Wuchang, the only truly capable field force was the main third division, and the rest of the garrison divisions were only sufficient for defense. If they fought head-on on the battlefield, they might easily collapse.After all, the garrison division has just been established, and its own training time is short, so it is naturally difficult to compete with the Qing army in the field.

In this case, Ning Yu moved out the big killer of cement and grenades. His idea was to use the fortress built of cement and the firepower of grenades to carry out all-round defense, that is, to use the firepower of later generations Zeng Shaved his head with the method of "building a stronghold and fighting a dull battle" to make up for the shortcomings of the lack of experience of the garrison division of the Fuhan Army at this time.

Ning Yu used this method to gradually train the newly formed defense divisions, and then use the main third division as the key defense force to check for omissions and fill in the gaps. Together with the fort made of cement, the Xinyang area can be turned into a big city. The quagmire, let the Qing army slowly grind around those fortresses.

This tactic has already been tried in Xunyang. With the strength of the [-]th Division and the Xunyang City Defense Regiment, which are no more than [-] people, blocking [-] Shaanxi soldiers on the front line of Yunyang can reflect the power of this tactic. .

On the ninth day of July, Ning Zhongyuan wore armor and led his entourage, Ning Zhongjing, Ning Zuyi, Cheng Ming and others, to inspect the fortresses along the frontier of Xinyang City. Every time he went to a fortress, he would personally He went to comfort the soldiers stationed in the garrison, and sprinkled a lot of silver rewards to motivate the fighting spirit.

If it is said that the original Fuhan army was very short of money and materials, but since it took Hunan, it has confiscated the property of many officials and gentry who had defected to the Qing Dynasty, and a large amount of materials were able to enrich the treasury of the Fuhan army. The silver alone has reached 200 Ten thousand taels is huge, so it is enough to support the military expenses for this period of time.

In terms of internal affairs, the Zhengshitang headed by Ning Zhongjing and Cui Wancai is also vigorously restoring the damage caused by the war. The military has overcome the current difficulties, and next year's tax revenue can also effectively supplement the current predicament.

In addition, the Huguang Chamber of Commerce, which was previously dominated by Ning Yu, is also operating in a healthy manner. The Fuhan Army also vigorously supports industry and commerce in terms of policies, making Wuchang a well-known commercial and prosperous place.As a result, the commercial tax has also become the source of income for the Fuhan army, but the current method of collecting commercial tax is largely done by the Huguang Chamber of Commerce.

Regarding this point, Ning Zhongjing, Cui Wancai and others have some different opinions. In their view, even if they need to support the merchants, how can the commercial tax be controlled by the chamber of commerce?Besides, the chamber of commerce was originally a tool for the Ning family to unite several other companies. Now it seems a bit inappropriate to give this part of the business tax to the Huguang chamber of commerce.

Regarding this problem, Ning Yu also knew it in his heart. He wrote his thoughts in a letter and sent it back to Wuchang in Hunan. As a rule, if it is changed in the future, it will be confirmed. Now it is not black and white, but it will be conducive to big actions in the future.

How to do it at that time also needs to be related to the environment at that time, but the current method has reduced many disputes and can collect business taxes as quickly as possible, although the amount is only 80 taels Silver, but for the current Fuhan army, it is better than nothing.As the saying goes, fighting for the hearts and minds of the people is not limited to ordinary people.

Because of this, Zhengshitang temporarily gave up its plan to directly collect commercial taxes, but fortunately, the original Huguang mainly relied on land taxes, which is not harmful.Regarding this matter, Cui Wancai was also quite helpless towards his student. He once joked with the officials under him: "If Duke Hanyang went to be a merchant, I'm afraid he could also become a billionaire."

Gossip less, before the inspection, Ning Zhongyuan expressed doubts about the feasibility of the fort, but when Cheng Ming directly pulled a cannon to bombard the fort, only to find that there was only a small hole in it, he was pleasantly surprised Looking back, the best scene he expected appeared.

After inspecting all the fortresses, Ning Zhongyuan was a little excited and curious, and asked, "How amazing is this cement? It is much stronger than ordinary bricks and mud. Ning Yu, this kid, has a lot of things in his mind. There are so many ideas.”

Ning Zhongjing is mainly responsible for the logistics of the entire Fuhan Army, and he is quite clear about this matter. He said with a smile: "I didn't know earlier, but Yu'er personally promoted this matter. Later, I found out that the cement It's really amazing, after being solidified by water, it becomes as hard as iron and stone, it's hard to hurt by ordinary knives and axes, even our army's thunder-type cannon can only leave a small hole, it can be called a sharp weapon for city defense."

"If Wuchang City can be completely covered with such a layer of cement, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the Qing army to conquer it. How much lime is there now?" Ning Zhongyuan touched his chin, thinking about covering all the cities of the Han army. with cement.

Ning Zhongjing smiled wryly and said: "Since our army discovered that this cement is quite effective, we have started to increase production. However, although this product is good, it needs a lot of quicklime to burn mature lime when it is made, but quicklime mines. In the deep mountains, it is quite inconvenient. After Yu’er came back from Yunyang that time, he said that he found a lot of this thing in Yunyang, so my Zhengshitang sent people to Yunyang to build a cement workshop in Yunyang. produce this cement."

"Because the population of Yunyang is not small, many people joined the workshop to mine quicklime and burn it every day. Now thousands of catties can be burned every day. At present, it is mainly supplied to Yunyang and Xinyang. If later If there are more produced, it may be available elsewhere.”

Speaking of this, Ning Zhongjing was a little helpless, "Although lime is good, it is not easy to burn. It is not bad to be able to produce a thousand catties a day. If you give it a period of time, you may be able to increase the production."

Ning Zhongyuan was slightly disappointed when he heard this, but after thinking about it, with this item, the time of the stalemate in Xinyang can also be greatly increased, and it can also give the current Fuhan army more growth opportunities.

It's just that because of thinking of Ning Yu all of a sudden, Ning Zhongyuan felt a little bit of joy and a little bit of doubt. According to the news from Zhengnan Dudu's Mansion, Ning Yu should be besieging Linjiang now.The [-] Qing troops led by Gao Qiwei might meet in Linjiang and start a battle.

This battle is probably more difficult than the first battle in Changsha.

(End of this chapter)