Lu Ming

Chapter 410 Black Smoke
Before the mid-period, the spirit and physique of the Ming army were relatively healthy, so the generals at that time were all solid leaders, and it was not uncommon for a general to have tens of thousands of soldiers under his command.

After arriving in Jiajing, there were more than three or four thousand participating generals and leading troops.Now in the Chongzhen period, the national strength is weak, the vacancies are flooded, and the military system is chaotic. There are only 2000 generals under their command.

This situation was unavoidable in feudal dynasties.In the late Song Dynasty, there were too many officials and too many soldiers to eat up the finances, and it was the same in the late Ming Dynasty.

As far as the army is concerned, there are a large number of hereditary nobles with false titles such as commanders and commanders in Jinyiwei.Except for a few officials in charge of the hall, the rest are all rice worms accumulated over the past dynasties to eat the finances.

Not to mention in the late Qing Dynasty, the hard-core crops of the Eight Banners were world-famous.

So when it comes to the general Hangjiahu who sent troops to suppress the thieves, the number of troops dispatched this time is 1500.This number is already very good, because the total number of soldiers under the general's command is only 3000, which is still a credit for being stationed in a high-GDP area.

After a series of dazzling operations were completed, the seemingly inconspicuous, but actually quite important official document was sent from Nanjing City to Jinshanwei in an expedited way.

At this time, just three days had passed since December 12th when Ma Baihu was brutally murdered.The bureaucratic system, which seemed to be staggering and slow, was actually super efficient under the impetus of a special force, and the paperwork was completed in just a few days.

And when General Feng of Jinshanwei received the official document, he immediately summoned two guerrillas under his command, "Understand the strategy."

What strategy does Xiao use?There is one thing to say.

The army is different from the local area, everyone in the army is a robe, as long as it is not deliberately framed, then it is good to speak directly, so the general will tell the whole story of the mobilization.

Feng Shen will clearly tell the two subordinates that this trip seems to be "official work", but it is actually "private work", so he himself is "not active".Because firstly, his own actions made too much noise, and secondly, there was no room for the imperial court to change things after the incident happened.

The military chief in one place must not leave the administration without permission.Although the official document for "assistance and suppression" has been sent, the wording in this official document is vague, and the procedures are also irregular, so General Feng Shen intends to stay in charge.

In this way, if the court investigates it in the future, he will control the matter within a reasonable range.In short, the generals decided to stay at the rear to resist the pressure, and deal with the first and last ends from the political side.Of course, if things come true, adults will definitely want a share of the pie.

Master Feng then analyzed the pros and cons of this dispatch to his two subordinates: things will be done, there will be silver rewards, shares, and the number of promotions that the Land Deed Alliance will operate in the court in the future.Things fail, troops are lost, generals are lost, "assistance and suppression" becomes "looting", and loss of office is a high probability event.Fortunately, with this muddled official document, there is probably no loss of life.

After analyzing the pros and cons, Lord Feng gave the choice of leading troops to the two guerrillas: whoever wants to go to the muddy water, you can now have a detailed discussion with the lobbyist sent by the Xu family.

In the end, Wang Deqiao, a middle-aged and vigorous guerrilla training guerrilla under his two subordinates, couldn't hold back his professionalism, and expressed his intention to fight this battle.And another old guerrilla, who was older and had little ambition left, gave up his chance.

So when Wang Guerrilla and the lobbyists negotiated various conditions, Jin Shanwei's battalion soon set off on December 12th.

Theoretically speaking, the deployment of the army is also very slow.But due to the same principle as before, with the intervention of mysterious power, everything becomes smoother and faster.

First of all, the most troublesome issue of funds for troop deployment was easily solved this time: since the gentlemen have already made a big bet this time, they don't care about the ten thousand taels of silver.

So Wang Guerzilla didn't make a fool of himself this time, and actually brought out 1500 soldiers and 200 auxiliary soldiers from the camp.And took a batch of high-quality weapons and armor from the arsenal. Anyway, someone paid the bill, and there would be no such shop after passing this village.

Secondly, the problem of marching troops along the way has also been improved.

Generally speaking, when regular troops march, they have to eat supplies in various states and counties along the way, which has caused delays in the march: the states and counties have limited reception capacity, the troops are forced to disperse, not to mention, the journey is delayed, and they need to be regrouped afterwards.

Not so much this time.

From Jinshanwei in the south to Zhangsugang in the north, it is nothing more than passing through the Yangtze River Delta. The journey is a total of 60 kilometers, and the journey is very short.

In addition, since this operation itself has many violations, the gentlemen are reluctant to speak out, let alone eat the public food of the local state and county-this is a sin when it comes to the situation.

So it is still the old way, the bandit suppression troops rest directly in the Jinshenzhuangzi along the way, which will not disturb the people, but also get sufficient food and fodder supplies.

On the 60-kilometer road, 1500 battalion soldiers walked steadily for two days after taking the silver and having sufficient supplies along the way.In the end, Wang Deqiao, a military training guerrilla, led his highly motivated subordinates to the outskirts of Shanghai Port built by Xiong Dao on Double 12.

The entire port of Shanghai is already under martial law.

Just like when the Lake Bandits came last time, the surrounding commercial and warehouse areas had been vacated, and Daming generously left them for the invaders to live in.

But this time the defense plan is not to lure the enemy into deep: the barbed wire has surrounded the periphery of the port affairs compound, and the low wall has become the main line of defense.At this moment, nearly 200 action members put the Erba Dagai on the wall, waiting for the enemy.

When the morning sun slanted on the faces of officers and soldiers in big red fat jackets, causing them to squint their eyes, Wang Guerrilla, who had already formed an army formation at a distance of one mile outside the port affairs compound, came out with a slap in the face from his horse.

In the past few days, Wang Guerzilla has learned the ins and outs of the matter from Song Xiucai, the envoy accompanying the army.Not only did he know the reason, Wang Guerzilla now also knows that the "quick guns" in the hands of the guards behind the opposite wall can hit four to five hundred steps away.

Regarding this information, Song Xiu dared not lie.The gentlemen paid a huge price to invite this army and horses this time, not to use them as cannon fodder like the Lake Bandits, so Wang Guerrilla already knew about the relevant information.What's more, Wang Guerrilla also has his own news channel - the local guard.

Therefore, Wang Guerrilla, who had figured out the situation, already had some calculations in his heart about how to fight this "bandit suppression" war.

First of all, from the moment he learned about the performance of the fast gun, Mr. Wang did not intend to send troops to attack.He knew in his heart: no matter what the outcome of the battle was, once the battalion under his command suffered mass casualties, he would definitely suffer after the inspection by all parties.

Secondly, since the essence of this "suppression of bandits" is that two groups of rich people are fighting for money, it means that the two sides will withdraw their troops and cease fire at any time to reach an agreement.Under such a situation, if Wang Guerrilla was still in a daze and sent troops to Mang Yibo, it would only show that he was politically immature.

Besides, behind the businessman surnamed Xiong on the opposite side is the real deputy commander in chief, who has hundreds of times more soldiers and horses than a guerrilla in his hands.This time Wang Deqiao's troops surrounded Shanghai Port, just to deceive the general soldier's hand that he couldn't reach so far.

However, everyone is in the same line of the military. Although Wang Guerzilla said he was on Jinshen's ship this time, he didn't intend to do everything right. What if one day in the future, he went to Fujian and Guangdong to serve?
Therefore, after synthesizing various intelligences, Wang Guerrilla set a strategic policy for this mission: use pressure to promote talks, and use talks to promote peace.

Now the first step has been completed: just one mile away from the courtyard wall, the 1500 battalion soldiers, who are majestic, full of energy, and sharp-armored, have already set up their formations, with their swords out of their sheaths and their bows stringed up, with a murderous aura. steaming.

At this time, an eloquent yellow-faced soldier sent by Master Guerrilla came out in formation, waved a small white flag, and walked straight to the gate.

This soldier is also surnamed Wang, and he is a member of Wang Guerrilla's tribe.Before he came to the circle of barbed wire, a guard had already come out from the small gate of the compound. He untied a section of the barbed wire with his hands and put the envoy into the courtyard.

After Wang Qinbing walked into the compound, he didn't see anything that made his eyes shine.A large number of guards are behind the wall at this moment, behind them there is a circle of tables and chairs, with some firecrackers and gunpowder on it, that's all.

Soon, he saw Master Xiong on the steps.

"The villain pays respects to Mr. Xiong on behalf of my lord."

Xiong Dao saw the other party's obedient attitude, so he nodded: "Excuse me. Your king Guerrilla came here this time, what can you tell me?"

"It's good to teach Master Xiong to know: when we came here, my general said that we were entrusted by an old friend to bring troops here this time, so we had to do it as a last resort."

"If Mr. Xiong is willing to save face, my general is willing to be a middleman for a while, helping the gentlemen to make peace. In this way, all parties can make a fortune together without fighting. Wouldn't it be a good thing?" pile?"

"En." Xiong Dao nodded when he heard this, "I can recognize your general's kindness."

"However." Xiong Dao dragged the end here: "There are too many causes and effects involved in this matter. With the weight of your general, it cannot be weighed down. So there is no need to say too much, just go back and tell me Wang Guerzilla, show me some skills first, good friends, you don’t know each other without fighting.”

When Wang's soldiers returned to the army, Wang Guerzilla couldn't help but sighed after listening to the narration, and then he raised his hand again: "It seems that you have to see blood to know how powerful it is!"

Following Wang Guerzilla's voice, two bronze tiger crouching cannons were slowly pushed out from behind the formation.

Tiger crouching guns have been widely used by the Ming army in Qi Jiguang's era.This kind of gun is not very powerful, similar to the mortars of later generations, it mainly uses curved shots.The range of the tiger squatting gun is not too far. Usually, under the condition of strong charge, it can reach a distance of 500 meters. Of course, the accuracy is not enough at this time.

However, in today's situation, the tiger squatting cannon is just able to show its power: Wang Guerrilla's purpose is to promote peace, so as long as the shells can penetrate into the opposite compound, it is enough for Mr. Xiong to understand the truth that war will kill people. .

So under the excited gaze of the whole army, the two tiger squatting guns pushed to the front of the formation began a series of pre-launch preparations: pressing the gun mounts with stones, cleaning the gun barrels, and loading gunpowder.
But just as the gunner picked up an iron bullet from behind and was about to stuff it into the barrel, his head burst suddenly, and the iron bullet rolled to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, people heard the gunshot, and with good eyesight, they also saw the flashing flame of the gun muzzle: it was on the top of the second-floor building opposite.

But that's all.No matter how good the eyesight of the officers and soldiers was, they couldn't see Comrade Lu Cheng, who was wearing a red cassock and sitting on an officer's hat chair on the top of the opposite building, aiming at his opponent with a MK17 sniper rifle in a very flamboyant manner.

With a "hula", after seeing the gunner's brain-cracked corpse, all the people surrounding the tiger crouching gun dispersed.

And Wang Guerzilla, who was behind the artillery position, was also shocked.Sitting on the horse, he saw the flames of the gun on the opposite side and heard the sound of the gun, but now he couldn't figure out whether the gun was blind or was it really such a magical shot?

"Didn't you say that the fast gun can only take four or five hundred steps? It's already a mile!" Wang Guerzilla, who was furious, now wished he could beat Song Xiucai to death beside him with a whip.

However, apart from cursing a few words, he no longer cared about Song Xiucai: the artillery crew was fleeing in all directions, and some soldiers who were close to him were also slowly retreating with white faces. He needed to maintain his formation quickly to avoid chaos among the army .

He dispatched his personal guards to press down on all fours, and after slowly suppressing the position, the furious Wang Guerzilla jumped off his horse, and first whipped the flag of the artillery group severely: "It's just a blind cat meeting a dead mouse, what are you afraid of, let me go fire!"

So the trembling gun crew started the loading procedure again.

The next moment, Xiaoqi, holding the iron bullet, had his brain burst and died in front of Wang Guerzilla.Immediately afterwards, the urging gunshots sounded one after another, shooting and killing the people around the tiger squatting cannon.

The army then retreated two hundred steps.When everything stabilized again, the morale of the whole army was gone.We must know that we have retreated for a mile and a half now, and we can't even see the enemy on the opposite side, but we are facing the shooting of that weird musket at any time.

Wang Guerzilla knew that he was still overbearing, and it seemed that the old man's money was really hard to earn.

But Wang Deqiao had already guessed that everyone would have the accurate monster gun on the opposite side, otherwise if he fired a few more rounds of guns just now, he would have to go home.

The situation before Wang Deqiao now is: either send out a wave of troops recklessly in order to offset the impact of the strange gun, or just spend it like this, and finally leave in despair.
So Wang Dayouzhan gritted his teeth and chose the third path: cannon fodder flow.

He grabbed Song Xiucai by the collar and said in a harsh voice: "Go and tell the masters in the village behind, I want five hundred auxiliary soldiers for the battle. Also, bring more wooden boards, the iron wire is tied to the horse It needs to be broken with planks."

"I obey, I obey!" Song Xiucai, who was also frightened, nodded repeatedly at this moment: "I wonder when the general will want these auxiliary soldiers?"

"Today's morale has declined, and I can't fight. Go back and tell your master, don't be reluctant to give up money. I will charge tomorrow, whether it succeeds or fails, it depends on whether those auxiliary soldiers will sell their lives!"

Song Xiucai nodded repeatedly, got on his horse and galloped away.

Here, after Wang Deqiao arranged the strategy for tomorrow, he led his troops and confronted the opponent feebly for a long time.In the afternoon, the army ended hastily and moved into the empty commercial area.

At this time, sumptuous meals were also delivered from nearby Zhuangzi.In view of today's confrontation that made the officers and soldiers baffled, disheartened, and morale plummeted, Wang Guerzilla made timely adjustments: a silver reward was given to all the officers and soldiers, and some wine was rewarded to half of the officers and soldiers.

The generous rewards and money incentives restored the morale of the officers and soldiers a lot.Wang Guerzilla, who was relieved, urged his men to rest early after arranging the troops to guard against the enemy's night attack—tomorrow, he was going to be reckless, and he had to recharge his batteries.

The night passed in a hurry, and the time came to December 12th. Seven days have passed since December 13th when Ma Baihu was brutally murdered.

In the early morning, Wang Daguai, who was eating chicken in the main hall of the inn, was suddenly pulled out the door by the pale-faced guards.

"What's disturbing? Are those nurses coming here?"

"Black, black smoke!" The soldiers were already incoherent, unable to speak clearly, and just kept pointing their fingers in the direction of the sea.

The next moment, Wang Guerzilla opened his mouth wide, and the chicken leg fell from his hand.

What caught his eyes was a large ship emitting black smoke on the sea.One of the largest giant ships was covered with white sails on its mast, shining blue and gold in the morning light, while billowing black smoke, full of coercion.

"It's broken, Xiong called his godfather." Wang Deqiao murmured at this moment.

(End of this chapter)