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Chapter 305 Banditry in the South China Sea 4
However, the staff said that accidents are inevitable in everything, and one plan alone is not enough to ensure the success of the operation, so there must be backup plans. It is best to prepare several more sets, all of which are well practiced and can be replaced immediately in case of an accident.

Yuan Keli did what was good, but he only had one backup plan.It's not that they are lazy, it's that the admirals really can't remember so many routines. It's not easy to practice two sets of plans in more than a month.

Compared with the first set, the second set of plans is simply shoddy. There is no routine at all, just one word, fight!

If they are discovered and interfered with during landing, the team from whichever household comes ashore first will form a formation and attack.If the opponent has too many people, they can dig trenches for defense and wait for the field artillery to come ashore to blast.

Then one thousand households were left to besiege Qinghua City, and the remaining three thousand households went to Shangguan Road to rush to Shenglong Mansion, blocking Buddhas and gods along the way and killing gods. It still took three days to arrive.Blow down city walls, loot, set fire to, and arrest people!Go back the way you came, get on the boat and leave.

According to the intelligence analysis provided by the Guangxi capital commander and Mo's guide, the number of troops defending Qinghua City was less than a thousand, and the number of troops left behind in Thang Long Mansion was also less than [-]. They were equipped with a small number of firearms and their combat effectiveness was not as good as that of the Ming Dynasty frontier army.

It is impossible to stop the four thousand marines with this small army. Yuan Keli has never been on the battlefield, but Li Ruzhang is not the only veteran in the navy.According to their assessment, even if the Li family's elite Liaodong cavalry were called over, four thousand versus four thousand would still be a loss, and it would be a disastrous defeat. If they ran slower, they might be wiped out.

This is not to say how capable the Marine Corps is. Speaking of which, [-]% of the soldiers in this team are new recruits who have never been on the battlefield. At most, they have been pirates and followed the fleet to exterminate disobedient pirates. They have killed people. A few people and muskets were fired, but never a large battle formation.

But it can't stand up to the powerful weapons. The Shenji Battalion is the strongest firearms army in the Ming Dynasty. If it is put in front of the Marines, it will be defeated in one encounter.The range, rate of fire, accuracy, and power of the Marine Corps' muskets are overwhelming. Coupled with the extremely clumsy but effective tactics, the more veterans they are, the more they understand their advantages.

The process from the beach to the outskirts of Thanh Hoa was extremely smooth. Several small villages along the way had just fallen asleep. Faced with the sudden arrival of the black-clad army, the farmers in Annam closed their doors even if they were awakened, hiding in their houses with bewildered faces. Peeping through the cracks, no one dared to come out to ask, and it is estimated that no one knew the Chinese characters on the flag.

Thanh Hoa City officials and defenders faced thousands of people who suddenly appeared on the dirt road to the east of the city. They hesitated for half an hour before they showed up. What came out was a few men wearing straw sandals, carrying a rattan chair tied to a bamboo pole. , there was a guy in official uniform sitting on it, and the guide told him that it was all about Qinghua Road.

The administrative divisions of Annan are similar to those of the Ming Dynasty. There are also thirteen provincial-level units called Dao.The central court and local official positions are basically the same, but some have different names.

Everything was from the sixth rank. When he saw Li Ruzhang's crimson official uniform and the wild goose patch on his chest, his aura immediately dropped by five points. Then he heard that he was an imperial envoy from the Ming Dynasty. He didn't even read the necessary customs procedures and got on the sedan chair. He quickly returned to the city to report to his boss.As for the groups of men in black in the distance who are advancing towards the south of the city, they can no longer care about them.

By the time the chief official from Qinghua City came out, the imperial envoy's team had long disappeared. It was said that they had gone up the official road to the west of the city in the direction of Thang Long Palace.They would certainly be able to catch up, but the defenders did not dare to pursue them, for fear that Qinghua City would be captured as soon as the front foot left, because there were nearly a thousand followers of the Ming Dynasty imperial envoy stationed 2 miles away.

With his rank as the capital official, he could neither receive the Ming Dynasty imperial envoy alone nor dare to stop him. The only remedy at this time was to send someone to Shenglong Mansion to report the news.

However, none of the messengers sent from Thanh Hoa City to Thang Long Palace will arrive. Behind the Ming Dynasty imperial envoy team, there will be a dozen waves of small teams left behind, both as scouts and as cleaning teams. When encountering locals who behave suspiciously and may be faster than the large army, they will be killed first without saying a word.So far, the second step is half completed, and it is smoother than expected in the plan, and the prospects are very optimistic.However, the next three days of journey made Li Ruzhang a little depressed.

Annan's official roads are in name only, and in the Ming Dynasty, they are probably not as good as the paths between villages.The soil is soft, narrow and winding, and even if it doesn't rain, it is still full of mud pits and gullies washed out by water.

The Marines were able to pass smoothly, but the four-wheeled carriage transporting field artillery and supplies was a little difficult to move. After not going very far, the wheels would be covered with clay and became thick several times, so they had to stop and clean them.

In addition, there is a jungle. There are villages of different sizes along the way, as well as farmland, as far as the eye can see.But they are not connected, and are often separated by patches of dense forest.The rugged dirt road passed through the dense forest. In order to avoid being ambushed, the large army had to send out multiple scouts to confirm that there were no enemies inside before entering.

As a result, the traveling speed was seriously slowed down, and the distance planned to be covered in one day was only covered by less than half at night.Li Ruzhang had no choice but to divide the 500 marines in his hand into two parts, leaving [-] men to accompany the carriage and move forward slowly, while the rest marched quickly through the night, relying on little sleep and rest to make up for the drag of the road.

Are the 500 people safe?These field guns were strictly protected by the governor. Even if the battle was defeated, they were not allowed to be discarded casually and must be completely blown up.

If it were yesterday, Li Ruzhang would not have dared to send only 500 people to drag behind alone, but after a whole day of marching, he would be very confident.Let alone 500 people, it is safe to reduce it by half.

Along the way, except for locals who looked like government officials in a few small villages and places that could barely be called towns, not even the shadow of Annan's army was seen.

According to the guide, Annan's domestic troops are basically concentrated near each Taoist government, such as Qinghua City, but their number is extremely limited, with a maximum of three to five hundred in non-war times. No more can be sustained.

Only around Thang Long Mansion would thousands of troops gather. After all, it was a royal city.The rest of the army is all temporary recruitment for the war. Each province can gather enough troops to recruit tens of thousands of people, which is the limit.The time cannot be too long, otherwise no one will farm.

The guide's statement was quickly confirmed. When we marched until noon the next day, the scout horse in front came back and reported that the official road was cut off by a river. There was a ready-made bridge, but if you wanted to pass through, you had to go through the city because of this. The stone bridge is part of the northern part of the city.

"Get ready for battle and attack the city!"

Should he continue to lie like the Ming Dynasty imperial envoy like Qinghua City and get through, or use force to forcibly occupy the city? Li Ruzhang fully listened to the opinions of his staff, carefully questioned Mo's guide, and finally chose the latter.

(End of this chapter)