Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 331 Crossing the River and Crossing the River
The first day of November.

In the early morning, there is a vast white mist.

Yangzhou, Guazhou Ferry, is located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, and Yangzhou Port is adjacent to it.

The Bian River flows, the Surabaya River flows, and flows to Guazhou Ancient Ferry"

"Jingkou Guazhou One Water Room"

Guazhou Ferry is facing, which is the Jingkou of Zhenjiang on the south bank of the river.

It used to be a sandbar in the middle of the river at first. It was an underwater dark sand formed by the impact of quicksand in the Yangtze River. It appears and disappears with the tide of the river.

After thousands of years of sedimentation, it connected to the north bank and became an important ferry on the north bank of the Yangtze River. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the Yilou River was opened for 25 miles, connecting the original canal, from the south of the Yangtze River to Guazhou and connecting the Yangtze River. Since then, Guazhou has become a north-south It is the meeting point of the Xiang Canal and the cross-shaped golden waterway extending east-west to the Yangtze River.

The hub of water transportation and salt transportation, sails and masts are like weaving, and it has become a giant town by the river.

The Ming Dynasty set up the Tongzhi Office, the Ministry of Industry Department, and the Guanhe Tong Judgment Office in Guazhou. The circumference of Guazhou City is more than [-] steps, and the height is two feet one. There is also a ghost willow city outside the east gate of the city.

Although Guazhou is not as big as Yangzhou, it is not much less prosperous.

But at this time, this Guazhou ferry has become the front line of the war, with countless ships gathering and troops everywhere.

All kinds of war materials piled up like mountains.

"This year is a good weather." Zhu Yihai stood on the Guanchao Pavilion in Guazhou and looked at the white mist, but said the weather was good.

Ruan Jin, the admiral of the Imperial Navy, stood beside him and nodded, "The fog is really good."

"Are you all ready?"

"The preparations have been made a long time ago. Everything is ready to wait for the east wind. Now the fog is together and it is done." Huang Binqing replied, and Zhou Hezhi, Liu Shixun, Zhu Chenggong and other naval generals stood beside him.

Wu Yi, Shen Youlong, Shen Tingyang and other ministers were also there.

"Will this strategy really work? After all, the Tartars have already used it."

Standing there, Zheng Cai was a little embarrassed to hear this. The Qing army also crossed the river and attacked Jingkou from then on. At that time, Zheng Hongkui was the commander-in-chief of Zhenjiang stationed in Jingkou, and Zheng Cai was the deputy commander-in-chief.

"The strategy doesn't need to be so inscrutable, sometimes the simpler the strategy is the more effective." Zhu Yihai is confident and confident.

"Command, cross the river!"

The guard Zhang Dapeng yelled for an order, ran down the attic, got on his horse and went to the ferry to give the order to cross the river.

"There is an order to supervise the state, cross the river!"

"Cross the river!"

With a shout, the misty pier ferry began to move.

Numerous wooden rafts and small boats, etc. that had been prepared long ago, were placed on grass figures, and torches were inserted to push the boats into the Yangtze River.

The fog was thick and tens of thousands of boats were rowing into the river. The scarecrow on it was indistinct in the fog, and the torches emitted a little light, like fireflies flickering in the night sky.

"Drumming!"

"Blow the horn!"

Zhang Quan, the commander-in-chief of Banner Bearer Town, took the lead in beating the cowhide war drums, and countless big drums began to beat.

Guazhou Ferry and Xijin Ferry in Zhenjiang are less than ten miles away, and there is Jiangxin Island in between. The white fog in the early morning is so thick that no one can be seen ten steps away, but the sound is not affected.

In this rumbling battlefield, the horn of leisure is extremely loud.

In Jiangxin Island between the two crossings, the admiral Cao Jiang Chen Jin, who was in command here, also heard it. He woke up very early. The thick fog made him very uneasy, worried that the Ming army navy would take advantage of the fog to sneak in , Take the armor to patrol the fort early.

He also took out a few boxes of silver and rewarded some sailors with good water skills, and asked them to drive a small boat into the river but be vigilant against the Ming army's smuggling.

Who knew that after waiting for half a morning, the Ming army did not find the smuggling. Seeing that the sun was already getting brighter in the mist, there was so much movement on the other side at this time.

"Ming thief must be bluffing to disturb me on purpose."

Chen Jin tried his best to look at the opposite bank, but only saw the thick fog. He analyzed to the general next to him, "In such a thick fog, the Ming army should sneak in to attack, but because they are afraid of me rolling in Jianglong and Jiangzhou Fort, and the floating city of Shuiying on the south bank , I couldn’t find a way to crack it, so I wanted to use it to exhaust our army.”

Even so, Chen Jin didn't dare to be careless. The Lu Jianguo and the Jiuwang brothers always acted unexpectedly, so they couldn't be deduced by common sense.

"Go and wake everyone up, be on full alert, anchor all ships, and be ready to join the battle at any time!"

The drums are thundering.

more excited.

In the fog, several small boats rushed out.

The Qing army was taken aback.

"Don't shoot arrows, it's a sentinel boat!"

The people on board shouted.

"Report, the army of Ming thieves on the opposite side has already begun to cross the river. There are countless boats on the river, and torches are planted all over the place. I can only see the dense concentration of soldiers, countless, endless!"

The Qing army on the patrol boat was patrolling in the heart of the river. Amidst the astonishing sound of war drums and horns, they saw countless fire shadows and human shadows coming in the shape of boats, and they hurriedly retreated in fright.

Hurry to report.

Chen Jin didn't expect to be slapped in the face so soon, but he couldn't care less now.

"Damn it, what game is this playing?"

"Fort, hurry up and prepare for shelling, aim at the heart of the river, and as soon as you see an enemy ship, I will blow my mother to hell."

"Shuiying, get on the boat and prepare for the water battle!"

The sun hung in the eastern sky, but it was still just a gray mass with a dull yellow light, like a huge fried egg.

The sound of drums came and went, and the sound of shouts came from afar.

Finally, a distant fire loomed in the river.

More and more dots of light appeared, followed by the shape of a ship, and even soldiers standing at the bow with knives.

"fire!"

"fire!"

Seeing this, the guard of the fort couldn't hold back anymore, so the Jiangzhou Fort, which Chen Jin had built with all his strength during this time, began to bombard the river violently with more than a hundred guns, large and small.

The cannons were like thunder.

Responding to the drums and horns on the other side.

"It's hit, it seems to be hit."

However, the fierce shelling of the Qing army did not make the Ming army's navy retreat, and the flames of those ships continued to rush towards them.

Chen Jindu could only keep his eyes red, shouting and firing at the fog, fire, and boat shadows.

The gunners worked nervously.

Suddenly a cannon made a loud bang, exploded, and screamed. A group of artillerymen on the gun emplacement were blown up, and the explosion also caused the explosion of the gunpowder cart next to it, and the entire artillery emplacement was flattened. Yes, more than a dozen people were killed at once.

Chen Jin didn't care about these things, and was still urging the artillery to continue the bombardment.

Facing the Ming army navy who seemed to be going all out and rushing over regardless of casualties, they did not dare to relax for a moment.

The gunners desperately loaded and fired, cleaned, loaded and fired, then reset, and repeated.

Under the continuous bombardment, several more cannons were blasted.

But the Ming army did not stop, and the Qing army had no choice but to continue shelling with all its strength.

"Why did the gun stop?"

"Continue to boom!"

"Junmen, there is no more ammunition!" A battalion officer reported helplessly.

They continued to bombard for more than an hour without stopping for a moment.

"Why are you out of ammunition? Where is the ammunition I gave you?" Chen Jin angrily grabbed the battalion officer's lapel and lifted him up, spraying his face with saliva.

"Junmen, that's all we got for the forts on the continent, and they're all finished."

Of course, the officer was not telling the truth. Chen Jin attached great importance to the Navy and Jiangzhou Fort. He dispatched more than 100 cannons and a lot of gunpowder pellets.In fact, the officers on the island sold a lot of gunpowder in private.

This thing is very valuable now, it can be called hard currency.Especially now that Yan Jinglue is wantonly rectifying the military barracks, requiring real soldiers to be paid in real money. In this way, officers can't eat empty salaries, can't deduct them randomly, and just rely on the little salary on the surface.

Ordinary soldiers used to only have more than one tael of silver plus three buckets of rice a month, but Yan Wogong said that he would pay more, and then the soldiers added two taels of silver a month, but the three buckets of rice were gone.Now that there is a famine in the south of the Yangtze River, after the autumn harvest, one stone of rice still costs at least two taels of silver.

This rises to two taels of silver a month, and it is just a stone of rice.

And a battalion chief of the sixth rank, only 12 taels of silver a month, and a governor of the fourth rank, only 30 taels of silver per month.

What can you do with this little money?
Who is behind the soldier is not a family, there are old and young, and there are even servants and maids who need to be ordered. In the past, everyone could eat a little bit of empty pay, plus a little bit of fighting, rewards and so on. It's okay to go, don't count on that little salary.

But now that Mr. Yan has rectified in this way, the heads who dare to eat empty wages are all done on the Jiangning city wall, and the deduction is not too obvious, only a little.

What to do if there is no income, of course you have to find compensation elsewhere.

Ever since, the officers rely on mountains to eat mountains, and rely on water to eat water.For example, the soldiers on the Shuiying boats used their ships to carry private salt, and even collected some protection fees on the river, but the soldiers on the Jiangzhou shore defense forts did not have these opportunities. Cannons can never be sold, so they sell gunpowder and shells .

Most of the gunpowder in Jiangzhou was secretly sold by them like rats moving house, and many of the remaining ones were sold and exchanged for some refills.

A dozen or so cannons were blown up before. The reason was that the gunpowder was shoddy, and then the guns were fired in a hurry, and something went wrong.

There were still more than 100 cannons, but there was no gunpowder. Chen Jin also didn't expect it, so he could only quickly order people to bring them from Zhenjiang to replenish them, and at the same time, he had to order Shuiying to drive a boat to intercept them.

Those water camps didn't expect Chen Jin to be so stubborn.

Seeing the shadows of light spots in the fog, which seemed to be endless, they also panicked.

The forts behind them are all dumb, how do they fight with these newly formed naval battalions with small boats and small cannons?But Chen Jin was in a hurry, so he could only bite the bullet and sail the boat to attack.

Not too far into the fog, there was a bunch of bows and arrows flying around in the distance, and then they stopped cruising up and down in the fog.

Fortunately, those boats in the middle of the river seemed to have been seriously damaged by the artillery bombardment, so they failed to rush over, and even the sound of drums on the other side became quieter.

Gradually, the fog dissipated.

Those Qing army sailors who were afraid of ups and downs on the river were surprised to find that the Ming army crossing the river fleet disappeared, and there were only countless wooden fragments left on the river...
"we won?"

"Won!"

The excited sailors hurriedly rowed the boat back to report the victory to Chen Jin excitedly, "The fleet of Ming bandits crossing the river has been defeated!"

"Great victory!"

Chen Jin was stunned for a while, but he stood on a high place and looked at the river, and indeed he did not see the fleet that seemed to be overwhelming.

Even the sound of the drums on the other side completely stopped.

"Damn it, I won." Chen Jin wiped the sweat from his forehead. When the ammunition ran out, he thought it was over.Unexpectedly, there is no unparalleled road.

"Hurry up and report the victory to Zhenjiang Yangong, our army has severely damaged the fleet of Ming thieves crossing the river."

After finishing speaking, he recruited his subordinates, "Hurry up to Zhenjiang to urge the gunpowder to be replenished. Also, let me check carefully, where is the gunpowder here? Cut one by one, hurry up!"

(End of this chapter)