Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 308
Gongshun Wang Kong Youde was ordered by Tan Tai, the general of the South University, to lead his headquarters as a forward to go south and rush to Xuzhou to garrison.

As soon as the soldiers and horses arrived in Nanyang (Yutai), they received a bad news.

The reconnaissance cavalry rushed over, bringing the news that Xuzhou had fallen, "Shen Bao, the deputy commander of Xuzhou's garrison, rebelled and surrendered to the Ming."

Kong Youde was eating the stewed fish caught in Weishan Lake. He almost got his throat stuck when he heard this, and dropped his chopsticks, "Shen Bao rebelled against Ming? He is one of Liu Liangzuo's five tiger generals. It seems that Liu Liangzuo has also rebelled!"

"Your Majesty is wise, Liu Liangzuo turned against Huai'an, and even encouraged several old ministries to surrender together. Now Sizhou, Haizhou, Xuzhou, and Qingyang have all surrendered without a fight."

"Pass me the order, set off immediately, and rush to Xia Town!"

"Your Majesty, the Ming bandits are coming aggressively, and the Liu bandits are rebelling. Do you want to station here first and report to General Tan first?" a general reminded him.

"What kind of thing is Huama Liu?" Kong Youde said disdainfully, "This guy was just convicted and dismissed by the court for losing Yangzhou, so he was afraid of surrendering the enemy, let alone the Ming thief. Go south quickly, don't let the thief come again Stolen Xia Town."

Xia Town was originally called Xia Village, a small village by the lake in Weishan.

At the end of Jiajing, because of the newly opened transportation route from Xiacun to Nanyang, Xiacun became a port along the transportation, and industry and commerce became more and more prosperous. In the third year of Longqing, the village was changed into a town.

At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and the Department of Household Affairs moved from Gutou Village to Xiazhen. Starting from the 16th year of Wanli, it took two years to build four earth walls and four towers.

It is more than nine hundred weeks old and two feet and five inches high.

Troops are stationed here all the year round to maintain water transportation, so it is also called the Ministry City.

Xiazhen borders Nanzhi and Shandong, and is divided into two provinces.

The north of the town belongs to Teng County, Shandong, but the south of the town is under the jurisdiction of Zhipei County in the south, so there is a saying that one step has two provinces and three temples, and one street has two counties.

Kong Youde didn't pay attention to the flower horse Liu, nor did he pay attention to the Ming army. This king of obedience was originally a miner in Tieling, Liaoning. Kong Youxing defected to Mao Wenlong, participated in the Zhenjiang victory, and then transferred to Pidao.

He also had a close relationship with Geng Zhongming, a fellow villager, and worshiped him as a righteous brother.

Kong Youde became the crown of all generals because of his bravery and fighting spirit, and he was the first to rise to the top of the battle. Mao Wenlong adopted him as his adopted grandson and named him Mao Yongshi.

It was only later that Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were dissatisfied, and finally left Dongjiang to join Sun Yuanhua, and finally went to Denglai with him.

At that time, Sun Yuanhua advocated Western learning and actively built a new army of Western-style firearms. He purchased many firearms from Macao, Guangdong, Fujian and other places, and recruited many Western gunners, instructors, tools, etc. to Denglai to form a new army. Kong Youde became this new army. generals.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde led the new army across the sea to support the battle in Liaodong, but returned in the face of strong winds at sea, and transferred [-] riders to support by land. The road encountered snow and snow, and the supplies were insufficient. When the soldiers passed Wuqiao, they ate chicken at the landlord's house and did not give them money. , was sued to Kong Youde, and Kong Youde punished the soldiers with arrows piercing their ears. As a result, the hungry and angry soldiers mutinied, burned the landlord's manor, persuaded Kong Youde to mutiny, and returned to Dengzhou.

That was 13 years ago.

In the Denglai Mutiny, Kong Youde was defeated in the end. He led more than [-] troops across the sea to invest in Houjin, and brought with him the fleet, red cannons and craftsmen that Houjin urgently needed.

Kong Youde was awarded the title of Marshal of the capital, settled in Liaoyang, and formed his own army, called Tianyou Bing.

A few years later, after the Jin Dynasty was changed to the Qing Dynasty, Kong Youde was even named the King of Gongsun.

Afterwards, Kong Youde acted as a vanguard in the conquest of North Korea and the Ming Dynasty, and made many military exploits. However, the Tatars did not trust the King of Subordination very much, and basically never let Kong Youde lead the army alone.

This time King Sanshun was dispatched together, but he was still subordinate to the two first-class dukes Tan Tai and He Luohui.

Kong Youde did have some qualifications to look down on Wenchang Bo Huama Liu, after all, when he was in Liaodong and separated Denglai, Liu Liangzuo hadn't made his debut yet.

Although Kong Youde was a miner, he had fought for half his life.

His former opponents were Nurhachi, Huang Taiji, Zhu Dadian, Yuan Chonghuan, Wu Sangui, Li Zicheng and others. Many heroes were defeated by him, so he naturally looked down on the flamboyant Liu and Lu Jianguo.

Kong Youde rushed to Xiazhen not because he was so loyal, but simply because his army did not have much food and grass supplies. The original plan was to go to Xiazhen for supplies after passing through Nanyang, and then go to Xuzhou to replenish.

If he couldn't rush into Xia Town, he would have no food in the army.

This time Kong Youde brought the Six Thousand and Eight Banners Han Army from Liaoyang. This army is relatively elite. Unlike those green battalions, they are veterans who have experienced battles. Many of them were brought to Liaodong from Denglai when he crossed the sea.

Among the [-] soldiers and horses, there are [-] cavalry soldiers, accounting for half of the soldiers and horses, and there are [-] infantry battalions. In fact, the [-] soldiers are Kong Youde's artillery, not the traditional infantry.

He traveled from the Liaoyang waterway to the Bohai Sea, crossed the sea to Tianjin by boat, and then went down the canal until Shandong.

Basically the canal along this road, his chariots, artillery, gunpowder, and artillery were not affected, and the marching speed was very fast.

Kong Youde even firmly believed that after his 6000 men replenished supplies in Xia Town, they could advance directly to Xuzhou City. And he has rich experience in blasting city walls with gunpowder.

As long as the Ming army does not gather in large numbers in Xuzhou City, he can take Xuzhou directly.

Kong Youde's troops were marching very fast. While sending people to report to Tan Tai and others who were still in Jining, he rushed to Xia Town at a speed of [-] miles a day.

The distance between the two places is only more than a hundred miles. At this speed, they can reach Xia Town before dark.

You can garrison in the city at night, you don’t need to camp outside. It’s already September, it’s already a bit cold outside at night, and the Ming army has captured Xuzhou, so the wilderness is not very safe.

Garrisoning in the city can not only save the trouble of camping, but also make it safer.

Xuzhou.

Shen Bao from Xuzhou only had one thousand green battalion in his hand. He originally had two thousand, but Chen Tai took away one thousand from him when he went south last time, so he only had one thousand left, and this thousand was still picked. The old and the weak after leaving the elite.

Of course, this thousand is only in name, and it is only stored in the military register.

In fact, after being siphoned away by Chen Tai, there are only about 600 people left in Shen Bao's hands. As for the missing [-] or so, it is the vacant salary shared by him and his officers, and only the names are in the register. In fact, there is no one, and all the money, food, equipment, etc. have been eaten by them.

Xuzhou was originally an important town in the Jianghuai River and a strategic point.

But because the Qing army had already reached the Qiantang River, this important town was not so important.

Shen Bao led about [-] old and weak people, how could he defend Xuzhou?
So when Liu Liangzuo sent his son to meet him and told him that the Qing court wanted to seize their military power and punish them, Shen Bao had nowhere to go.

Yangzhou, Yancheng, Gaoyou and other places were lost, and he, the deputy general of Xuzhou, was also responsible, because although he was stationed in Xuzhou, he was also under Liu Liangzuo's command and was also the defender of Jiangbei.

Liu Liangzuo said that he had already surrendered, and Shen Bao immediately followed suit.

After all, Liu Zehan brought all the reward edicts from Lu Jianguo, Shen Bao was named Xuzhou General Soldier, and he was also named Viscount of Tancheng County.

Shen Bao received the edict and changed the banner, and a Ming army came outside the city, obviously it had come a long time ago, if Shen Bao didn't agree, Liu Zehan might have asked their men to tie him up just now.

The Jinwu Town cavalry stationed in Xuzhou quickly took over the defense and sent troops to attack Xia Town, two hundred miles away. At the same time, a navy also sailed into Weishan Lake from the canal.

When Shen Bao was told that Xuzhou would be demolished and abandoned immediately, he was not unhappy, and even felt a sense of relief. If Xuzhou was demolished and he didn't have to defend it, he would naturally not have to fight bitterly with the Tartars. He wished so much.

So he rolled up his sleeves himself, led his men to drive away the people in the city, and began to demolish the city.

Another fleet over there sailed to Xuzhou, and began to ship money, food, books, craftsmen, etc. to leave.

Kong Youde's soldiers marched all the way, and when they finally arrived at Xia Town, they suddenly heard loud rumbling noises coming from the direction of Xia Town.

"Send scouts to check!"

Qingqi galloped away and brought back amazing news not long after.

"Xia Town is gone."

"What do you mean by gone?"

Gone is gone.

Xia Town is not a city wall covered with bricks. Although it took two years to build it, it is still a rammed earth city wall. The city wall is more than two feet high, but the Ming army arrived one step ahead of them. They used a simpler method. Dig holes directly under the city wall, build many blasting chambers, and pile up gunpowder.

Ignite and explode.

Although it took a lot of gunpowder, it was indeed the fastest and most effective way.

After the materials, archives, craftsmen, etc. in Xiazhen were emptied, the Ming army blasted the city walls and gates of Xiazhen, and blew up the canal, which used to be a bustling industrial and commercial town. There were gaps everywhere, and even the docks were burned and silted up. .

Kong Youde approached Xia Town cautiously with his soldiers, and only dared to enter the city after confirming that the Ming army had really withdrawn.

It was found that the town was indeed destroyed, and all the people in the city ran out and did not dare to come back.

The city wall was crumbling here and there, all four city gates were blown down, and the canal piers outside the city were all destroyed, making it impossible for ships to rely on.

Not to mention that the batch of grain and grass that the officials had urgently collected under the order of the Qing army was not even half left at this time.

Look at this broken city.

Kong Youde threw off his helmet angrily.

It took a long time to let out a long breath of anger, but he went to those gaps again, and carefully examined them one by one.

After watching it for a long time, I only came to one conclusion.

Those Ming soldiers who bombed the city seemed to be the same blasting masters as him. The holes dug and the amount of gunpowder used were just right.

Blasting the city wall is a technical job. It is not just a matter of digging a hole and stuffing gunpowder in it. It is necessary to select those weak spots in the city wall. In that blast hole, the right-angle turn must be sealed with masonry at the end, leaving only a small hole for the fuse to ignite.

Doing so can maximize the power of the gunpowder blasting, otherwise it will be difficult to exert enough power if you put a lot of gunpowder. These are all experiences.

But now that the Ming army has completely destroyed Xiazhen, its blasting methods are surprisingly good, it can be called perfect.

Watching the twilight sink.

Kong Youde's expression became serious, he knew that he had met his opponent.

"The whole army withdrew into the city. Hurry up and block the gaps with wood and stones. The city will rest tonight. Send more soldiers and horses to guard and defend. Beware of thieves attacking in the middle of the night."

"All artillery, chariots and horses have entered the city."

The wharf was destroyed, the ship could not dock at the wharf, and the guns on the ship were not easy to get into the city, but Kong Youde still didn't dare to be careless, and insisted on letting the soldiers work hard to transport all the guns into the city.

That Ming army was stronger than he expected, so he had to be careful.

"Tonight, 6000 people, all of them will sleep with their eyes closed!"

(End of this chapter)