Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 197 Be careful, there are bears! (ask for subscription, ask for monthly pass)

On the Yangtze River, a fleet of five large ships of five to six hundred materials is forming a horizontal line, passing through the white rain and fog, and going down the river.

These five large ships are all large grain transport ships that are very common on the vast land of lakes and rivers. They have been reinforced and modified so that they can go into battle to kill the enemy.

On each boat, wide and heavy wooden shields were erected on both sides, which could withstand shotgun bullets, and some large and small holes were opened in the wooden shields.

Protruding from some of the larger holes are long oars, undulating the river water, adding strength to the big boat going down the current.The oarsmen are all young and strong men, shirtless in such a cold weather, their muscles are bulging, and their foreheads are covered with sweat.

The other part of the hole is the shooting hole, and what protrudes from the hole is a black hole barrel. Looking at the thick and strong appearance of the barrel, you can tell that it is not an ordinary shotgun, but a powerful turtledove foot. pistol!Because it was still raining in the sky, in order to prevent the rain from wetting the gunpowder and matchsticks, the midships of these five large ships were also erected with canopies to keep out the wind and rain.

Under the canopy, in addition to oarsmen and musketeers, there are elite soldiers who jumped to fight.

In water battles near the river, you can't wear heavy armor.These elite soldiers are all just tight-fitting bunts, wearing light straw sandals on their feet, and their weapons and armors are a waist knife, a small rattan plate, and a small ax with a handle more than two feet long--this kind of ax The ax is small and not heavy, but it is a sharp weapon for piercing armor in close combat. Once the ax is cut hard, no matter what armor you wear, you will suffer a serious injury!
And this kind of ax can also be used to cut the ropes that bind the pontoon bridge, and it can also be thrown out and used as a throwing axe!

On a boat in the middle, two generals wearing bamboo hats and coir raincoats just stood at the bow.One of them was Li Zicheng's grandnephew, Li Laishun, the successor of Dashun Fengtian Army.The other is a few years old, surnamed Hu and named Yiqiang. He is a "second generation Chuang". His father used to be Li Zicheng's bodyguard, but where did he go?It is estimated that he died in Dashun.And he grew up in Jiashan Temple since he was a child. Although he shaved his head and pretended to be a monk, he was the same as Li Laishun.

Since Jiashan Temple is next to the Lishui River, surrounded by streams, Li Laishun and Hu Yiqiang, a group of "second generations of Chuang", were all good at water, and some of them even learned the skills of sailing.

The five large ships that are sailing quietly on the Yangtze River under the cover of rain and fog are actually merchant ships owned by Jiashan Temple—there are so many monks in Jiashan Temple to support, it is not enough to rely on Li Zicheng's savings, and the land owned by the temple can also be reaped. There were not many tenants, so Li Zicheng ordered people to buy merchant ships very early to do business between Lishui and Yuezhou, and sometimes he would go to the Yangtze River.

And those who do business with Li Zicheng usually have no good people, either water bandits in Dongting Lake or thugs on the Yangtze River. Therefore, Li Laishun and Hu Yiqiang, the "second generation" of Jiashan Temple, are very concerned about jumping into the gang water war. Not unfamiliar.

After Li Zicheng made a comeback under the name of Li Fengtian, many heroes from the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake came to join him. Now, half of the fighters who followed Li Laishun and Hu Yiqiang to steal the Yangtze River floating bridge were from rivers and lakes. !

This is really beyond the expectation of the gambler prince Ezha. Li Zicheng, who was born in the Loess Plateau and has been a bandit for half his life, has actually cultivated the skills of a water thief.

Although he didn't know that Li Zicheng had activated the water thief skill, the gambler prince Eza still deployed defenses on the Shashikou pontoon bridge.

Amidst the rain and mist, when five warships of the Fengtian Navy turned around a bay, what suddenly appeared was a huge pontoon bridge on which a team of fully armed Eight Banners soldiers wearing bamboo hats and coir raincoats were patrolling. !
The soldiers of the Eight Banners did not expect that five large boats would suddenly appear on the river through the rain and fog, but their reaction was quite fast. After a commotion, the horn sounded through the rain and suddenly sounded.

On the other side, Li Laishun also yelled with angry eyes: "Add an oar and hit it!"

Following Li Laishun's order, the oarsmen of the boat he was on began to pull the oars vigorously, and two white waves immediately separated from the bow, and the speed was raised immediately, rushing towards the pontoon ahead!

And Li Laishun stepped aside again, then turned his head and yelled at Hu Yiqiang: "One shot! Shoot the motherfucker!"

Hu Yiqiang had retracted under the canopy at this time, and set up a turtledove foot gun with a matchlock lit, and found the target. Hearing Li Laishun's order, he pulled the trigger and shouted: " middle!"

"Bah!"

After a clear gunshot, the head of a small officer who was waving a waist knife and directing his subordinates to deploy defenses and fight against the Eight Banners exploded like a rotten watermelon, and red, white, and gray things flew around. It's over, I can't even scream, as if struck by lightning, my limbs twitch and I fall on the pontoon bridge.

"Change the gun!" Hu Yiqian, who had succeeded in the first blow, roared immediately, and then threw back the empty turtledove musket in his hand, and someone caught it immediately, and then handed over another loaded musket into his hand.Without further ado, he took the musket and stood up again, aimed at another Eight Banners soldier who was screaming, and shot again in the head, hitting the Eight Banners soldier on the shoulder!

Sure enough, it was a hundred shots and one shot killed!Well, the bullet from the turtledove footgun weighs one or two, and when it hits the shoulder, it will make a hole the size of a bowl. You will shatter all armor, flesh, and bones!Of course, the blood vessel was also broken, and the blood flowed out like a fountain, and the Eight Banners soldier let out heart-piercing screams in pain.

"Bah! Bah!"

After Hu Yiqiang killed the two Eight Banners soldiers, the sharpshooters of the Fengtian Army on the other two large ships also fired the turtledove foot muskets in their hands, and then two more Eight Banners soldiers fell down in response!
Sporadic gunshots continued to ring out, and the Eight Banners soldiers on the floating bridge kept being shot and fell down!Although the firepower was not very intensive, it was sustained and precise. After a while, the Eight Banners soldiers on the pontoon bridge were beaten to "dead bodies all over the bridge"!

And they have no effective countermeasures.

It was raining heavily now, and there was no shelter on top of them, so of course the muskets couldn't fire, and even the matchlock couldn't be lit!

Their bows and arrows are still usable, but they have been patrolling in the rain for a long time, and the bows of the Manchurian bows they carry have absorbed enough water. The canopy on the top of the warship was impenetrable.

Although the Fengtian army had the upper hand in this round of firefights, the contest between the turtledove muskets and bows and arrows did not last long. Under the combined action of suitable water currents and oars, the five large ships quickly approached. On the Yangtze River, a pontoon bridge made of hundreds of boats and wooden planks crashed into it!

"Canopy! Canopy! Canopy"

Several loud noises came, overwhelming the sound of water, the sound of the golden drums and horns of the Qing army calling the police, and the exclamation and shouts of the Qing army on the shore and on the bridge!

For today's collision, these five wooden boats have all undergone certain modifications. Bronze casting horns are installed on the original flat bows.The angle of impact was like a knife blade, cutting into the floating bridge suddenly.

The chopped and smashed sawdust flew all over the sky, and the entire pontoon bridge was shaken violently. More than 100 Eight Banners soldiers who were close to the impact of the five warships were shaken to the ground before they even had time to get down and grab the wooden boards. They rose several feet high, and then flew dancing and falling into the rolling Yangtze River. They were all wearing rather heavy cloth armor!After falling into the water, I couldn't float up at all. I just struggled desperately for a few times, and then sank straight down without even taking a bubble.

Although the Eight Banners soldiers who were a little farther away were not knocked into the Yangtze River, they couldn't stand still. They all fell on the slippery pontoon bridge, stumbling around, struggling to get up.

The people on the bridge were so shaken that they fell into the water and fell into the water, but the people on the boat were all prepared. Before the impact happened, they had already firmly grasped the ropes on the deck, and then everyone except the musketeer All the people picked up their shields, raised their axes, screamed like "a tiger getting off the boat", jumped off the bow, got on the pontoon bridge, swung their axes, and slashed at the crumbling Eight Banners soldiers.

There are more than a hundred soldiers on these five big ships, including the oarsmen. Now, except for the musketeers who continue to shoot black guns on the boats, everyone else is copying guys and jumping on the pontoon bridge to kill people. There are more than 400 people rushing down at once. !
Li Laishun also rushed down to the bow of the ship with an axe. First, he killed a Eight Banners soldier who was struggling to get up, and then shouted angrily: "Kill the tartars to avenge the martyrs who died in Shanhaiguan and Maolu Mountain! Kill! Kill! "

The soldiers of the Fengtian Army who had rushed up, and those who had not yet rushed up the pontoon bridge, were immediately aroused to fight - they were all proper "second generations" in the first place!

Dashun has already won the world!
After these heroes, wouldn't they enjoy endless wealth and glory?But once disturbed by these hateful Tartars, the hard life has been going on until now.

How can this Tartar not be hated!
All the soldiers of the Fengtian Army roared like thunder, and started killing one-sidedly on the pontoon bridge!
"Kill all the dog tartars, and take back Dashun's country!"

Well, I want to take back everything that should belong to them!
When the Shashikou pontoon bridge was attacked, Zhang Chaozhen, the governor of Hubei, was leading his Fubiao to guard the Shashikou commercial port, anxiously waiting for the good news ahead. Ezha is a gambler, but he is not a gambler.His family was originally the Guangning garrison of the Ming Dynasty, and he joined the Qing Dynasty with Sun Degong. He was a member of the Zhenglan Banner Han Army.To be able to climb up to the governor of Hubei today is to be conscientious every step of the way, even if this is the case, it is inevitable that he will be blamed or punished for a small mistake.

He is very opposed to Ezha's "one hand to determine the outcome". The credit for winning the bet is all Ezha's, and he will be unlucky if he loses the bet. It's no wonder he doesn't object.

But what's the use of his objection?

Kangxi himself was a child, and the people he trusted most were a group of Manchurian dignitaries who were not much older than him. Not to mention his old man from the Han Dynasty and Eight Banners, even if he needed a Manchurian veteran, he might not be trusted much.

Therefore, Zhang Chaozhen could only take half of the pacesetters to Jingzhou to look after Eza after receiving the order from Eza—the main force in Jingzhou had been taken away by Eza, leaving only a small number of banner soldiers and dispatched from various places. There were less than 500 soldiers from the Green Battalion here, and Zhang Chaozhen's bidders accounted for half of them.

With just such a small number of people, he was divided into three parts, 1000 people guarding Jingzhou City, and 1000 people guarding the bridgehead on the south bank of the pontoon bridge—Zhang Chaozhen was very worried that Li Zicheng would take a back route and break the pontoon bridge, but he guessed it.

However, he didn't expect that Li Zicheng, a native of Shaanxi, would now be able to fight in the water. Instead of attacking the bridgehead on the south bank of the pontoon bridge by land, he would directly attack the pontoon bridge by water.

The guards on the pontoon bridge were one of his pacesetters and one of the Eight Banners soldiers sent to him by Babur, the governor of Jingzhou. There were about 1000 people in total.

When Li Laishun and others attacked, it happened to be the turn of the Eight Banners soldiers to patrol, but unexpectedly, they all fell into the hands of the second generation of Shun, who were holding back their evil fire.

Zhang Chaozhen, who got the report from the people below, has been caught!
The enemy came from the waterway, and most of Zuo Ling's Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers were gone, and the pontoon bridge was already occupied!There are more than 100 and [-] of the Eight Banners soldiers led by the assistant leader, and they are wiped out in a blink of an eye. How many enemies are there?one thousand?two thousand?

He only had a thousand or a few hundred men left, and he had to defend Shashikou, Jingzhou City, and recapture the pontoon bridge.
How can this work?

Since it is not enough, there must be a priority!

The prince himself wants to gamble, and if he loses, he can't cut off his head!

But if Jingzhou City is lost, then his head will be lost!
Thinking of this, he quickly ordered: "Hurry up, go back to Jingzhou City and guard behind closed doors!"

The people below were stunned: "Futai, where do you want to guard?"

"Guard Jingzhou! Jingzhou is the foundation of the imperial court in Hubei, and there must be no mistakes!"

"Then, what about the lord in the south of the Yangtze River? The pontoon bridge section, the lord's retreat is easy."

This person stopped talking wisely at this point, because he had already seen the vicious look in the governor's eyes.

Seeing that the people below were silent, Zhang Chaozhen said again: "Quickly, go and give orders to the generals and deputy generals in Yichang, Jingmen, Xiangyang, etc., and tell them that Jingzhou is in danger, and the prince's back is blocked. Let them bring troops to Jingzhou to meet up immediately." !"

Convergence means. Of course it means moving closer to me!
Zhang Chaozhen is now very worried that Li Zicheng's men will cross the river to attack Jingzhou after seizing the pontoon bridge!

Li Zicheng had 2 troops, and Jingzhou City had more than 1000 defenders. Even if all the family members of the Eight Banners soldiers were able to fight, they might not be able to gather [-] troops.

Twenty thousand against three thousand. I can't keep it!

So he had to concentrate his forces!
As for whether Wu Yingxiong will come out of Kuimen to attack Yichang, it is not in Zhang Chaozhen's consideration.

Amidst the rain, an army of tens of thousands of people was marching forward in a zigzagging way among the high mountains of Daba Mountain.

This is the elite army that Wu Yingxiong personally led to attack Xiangyang!

In this big gamble, everyone on the Qing side underestimated the "big bear" Wu Yingxiong, a big bear...also a bear!Besides, Wu Yingxiong is still a "thousand bear" who can make thousands.

Because Yang Laijia, the commander-in-chief of Xiangyang Town in the Qing Dynasty, had secretly informed Wu Yingxiong early in the morning, so he was fully aware of Eza's military deployment!
Moreover, the section of the mountain road from Kuizhou to Xiangyang was also guarded by soldiers from Yang Laijia.

Therefore, Wu Yingxiong is now leading an army of [-] to attack Xiangyang through the rugged and complicated mountains, basically there is no risk. To be honest, he is cheating!
In addition, even if Yang Laijia, who rebelled from the Yanping Palace to the Qing Dynasty, had a brain twitch and was going to be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, with the [-] town marks under his command, he could still deal with the [-] Wu family led by Wu Yingxiong. Elite?
This is the elite soldier who beat Yue Le to jump into the river and forced Kangxi to conquer himself!
If Yang Laijia had that ability, why would he be a traitor?Helping Zheng Chenggong conquer Nanjing and establish the Zheng family dynasty (as it should be), isn't he popular?

Moreover, Wu Yingxiong didn't think that Eza could win Li Zicheng's bet - he had already informed Li Zicheng of Eza's sneak attack across the river. It would be wrong for an old fox like Li Zicheng to be fooled.

So this time, Wu Yingxiong was playing tricks, trying to rob E of his wealth in Huguang, and the possibility of losing did not exist at all.

Since he couldn't lose, then of course he had to show a good performance, so he didn't send his generals to lead the troops, he just went up by himself, led [-] elite soldiers, and marched at the speed of a rapid march on the rugged and bad road.Even though it was raining now, he never slowed down.

Wu Yingxiong walked this time by himself, and saw him walking on the mountain road with difficulty, leaning on a walking stick and putting on leggings according to the method his son Wu Shifan taught him.Surrounded by soldiers, everyone watched the chubby son measure the mountain road with his feet, and everyone couldn't help but quicken their steps.

Wu Shifan, the son of Wu Yingxiong, also participated in the sneak attack. He led his group of fusiliers and a group of white soldiers from the Ma family called from Zhongzhou to the front. The pole soldiers are composed of mountain people who are accustomed to walking on mountain roads. Although the mountain roads of Daba Mountain are difficult, they cannot stop their footsteps.Just when Li Laishun captured Shashikou and Jingjiang Floating Bridge, the team led by Wu Shifan had already quietly entered the territory of Yunyang Mansion, which is next to Xiangyang Mansion.
Now, bear, to a bear amazing!

(End of this chapter)