Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 220 The first confrontation with Li Shiyao, Governor of Liangjiang

The Li Jiajun only dug trenches to the north and west of Danyang City.

To the east is the Grand Canal, which does not need to be dug, and to the south there is no digging in the open land.

Typical surrounding three ques and one!

Even the civil servant, the magistrate of Danyang County, noticed it and said with a smile:

"Sir, do the thieves want us to run south?"

"Hey, it's just a dream."

Jiangning garrisoned the Eight Banners and took the lead, and Asifu couldn't help but laugh.

Although Danyang City is small, it is also a serious city wall with thick green bricks and rammed earth. It circles the city for 7 miles and has 2000 soldiers. The thieves chieftain could only rely on the thousands of infantrymen outside the city to break through the city. It was simply a fantasy.

However, they soon stopped laughing.

Zhou Zhixian suddenly pointed at a large ship approaching in the sun and shouted:

"Sir, there are thieves and even gunboats."

"what?"

Asifu had fought in the war, and the warship approaching on the canal had a gunwale so densely packed that it was simply outrageous.

More formal than the warships of officers and soldiers!

"Master Zhou, this city may not be easy to defend."

"Isn't it?"

Zhou Zhixian secretly cursed in his heart, why is Asifu, an Eight Banners officer, so shameless? I just said it was impregnable, but now I am changing my words and it is hard to keep it.

……

The Grand Canal flows through the east of Danyang City.

This navy ship is the "Taihu Ghost" that sailed all the way from Xishan Island in Taihu Lake.

The ship is equipped with two 36-pound heavy guns, which are the largest caliber artillery currently available from Xishan Gun Factory.

In order to better accommodate these two big guys, simple modifications were also made inside.

Three guns were dismantled on each side to free up enough space, and the original gun sides were widened.

The Taihu Ghost is a brand new and refitted merchant ship. It is the largest tonnage among the river flat-bottomed warships of the Li Navy.

There are no obvious shortcomings except that the freeboard is too low and cannot withstand wind and waves.

Fighting in the inland river is enough!

"Captain, you're ready."

"Then let's blast and break open the turtle shell in Danyang City for our infantry brothers."

The 36-pound muzzle on one side spurted out white smoke.

The huge recoil caused the entire ship to move to the other side, at least half a foot in place.

This is one of the disadvantages of the Chinese hard-sailed flat-bottomed boat.

A solid iron ball weighing more than 30 kilograms roared and hit the city gate tower of the east gate. The city gate building with two-story cornices collapsed instantly.

The sailors on the ship laughed and controlled the sails to turn the ship's bow.

Use the 36-pounder gun on the other side to bombard again.

Unfortunately, the shot missed. After crossing the city wall and entering the city, I could only see smoke and dust but no specific damage.

……

This is the disadvantage of the naval gun not being equipped with a fusillator. It cannot be triggered immediately, and the match rope has a burning time.

A small undulation will cause a large error in the muzzle angle.

One shot goes to the sky and the other goes to the ground is no joke.

The Taihu Ghost began to turn around again, and the 36 pounds on both sides were loaded in turn. Each loading took about 2 minutes.

Water pillars rose from the river half a mile away. This was the artillery counterattack of the Danyang Qing army.

Out of reach!

Asifu's face turned ugly, and he was thinking rapidly.

What should I do once the city walls and gates are destroyed by heavy artillery? Street fighting or breakout.

Before leaving, Jiangning General Chongdao once told him that if something cannot be done, he should protect his people and defeat the enemy. To put it bluntly, if you can't defeat it, don't hold on and keep your troops.

"My lord, the thieves have begun to attack."

To the west and south, there were Li Jiajun militiamen wearing blue military uniforms, pushing shield carts and began to move forward slowly. Along with them were artillerymen pushing artillery pieces.

According to the artillery manual formulated by the Lord, when engaging the enemy, moving artillery positions over short distances should use manpower.

Soon, Danyang City was filled with smoke, and both sides were firing guns wildly.

Lin Huaisheng stood in the distance and suddenly said coldly:

"They say the Eight Banners is based on cavalry and shooting. I think they can't do without firearms."

"What the commander-in-chief said is that all mounted shooting is lies."

……

I saw the infantry brothers starting to attack despite their casualties.

The Taihu Ghost was also anxious. Instead of firing from a distance, it cut straight in and bombarded at close range.

If you think the bombardment isn't powerful enough, you're not close enough.

Taking advantage of the gap in the loading of Qing artillery on the city wall, the ship withstood the firepower of crossbows and shotguns and fired fiercely at a distance of more than 100 meters.

The 36-pound gun is terrifyingly powerful.

The entire city gate was smashed, and smoke billowed.

All the other artillery on one side also fired, and the east wall was in a panic.

"Sir, the east gate is broken."

"what?"

Zhou Zhixian almost fainted and held on to the wall.

Asifu was much calmer and put his lightning rod helmet on his head.

He grabbed the saber and said:

"Gather all the bannermen, prepare their horses, and prepare to break out."

Zhou Zhixian was anxious and blocked the road with open arms:

"Sir, this city can be defended."

"Can't hold on."

Zhou Zhixian roared: "We can defend it!"

Bang, I got a big slap in the face and spun around in place for a week and a half.

The civil servant was weak and was knocked unconscious at first.

Asifu quickly walked down the city wall and whispered:

"Brothers, all gather at the south gate and follow my general to break out."

"The thieves are powerful. We have to rush back to defend Jiangning City. Our home is there."

……

The bannermen withdrew from the city one after another.

The rest of the Green Camp soldiers also lost their fighting spirit, and the defensive firepower of the city wall gradually became sparse. Especially on the east wall, no one dared to stay.

The Taihu Ghost, which sailed away, was reloaded and did not continue the bombardment.

Instead, they began to move south, preparing to intercept the breakout Eight Banners cavalry.

Sure enough, the south gate opened.

First, the green battalion soldiers were driven in front and absorbed a lot of firepower.

Immediately afterwards, hundreds of Eight Flags horse teams rushed out crazily. They all lay on the backs of their horses and cracked their whips desperately.

The bannermen were overjoyed when they saw that there was still a large gap between the bandits and musketry formation and the canal. As long as their horses were fast enough, they could rush out.

Lin Huaisheng was also overjoyed. Field battles are easy to fight and he can achieve maximum annihilation with minimum casualties.

With the roar of multiple rounds of muskets, flag soldiers continued to fall from their horses.

Asifu secretly groaned in his heart. He found that the firearms of the bandit soldiers were denser than he expected.

After being shot twice, he finally got out of the firearms range.

He breathed a sigh of relief and looked around, only half of the people were left.

"First go south, then west, and return to Jiangning via Jurong."

There were more than 200 people, and the cheering group ran wildly.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a boat parked on the river ahead.

There was a flash of fire, and people around him fell on their backs.

Taihu Ghost, the artillery on one side fired a salvo, a dozen shells smashed into the dense retreating group, and there were also wasp-like pellets.

This modified ship was equipped with four short-barreled shotguns.

There are also 20 large guns, which can be brought to the deck to fire a volley. The effect is simply beautiful.

The reason why we can hold so many firearms and ammunition is that we have our own territory along the way and can replenish daily supplies at any time.

This freed up more space in the cabin for guns.

……

Asifu fell from his horse and suffered severe tinnitus.

His body was covered in blood. After wiping it, he found that it seemed to belong to someone else. Next to him was a war horse that had been beaten into two pieces.

In front of it is a flag that has been beaten into a pulp and cannot be shoveled up.

A loyal house slave rushed over and pulled him up.

He desperately helped him onto a war horse:

"Master, leave quickly."

The musketeers who came running from the west stood still, white smoke rising.

Asifu was not able to escape after all, because he was mounted on a war horse, which made his target more conspicuous.

The cotton armor was smashed by the concentrated fire of mini bullets.

The dozen or so lucky people who escaped were intercepted by the Li family's cavalry.

Wusimai raised his cavalry sword high, and in one turn, the blood of Manchu was covered in his own blade.

He could finally claim that the Mongolian Eight Banners were far superior to the Manchu Eight Banners.

However, the lord was very dissatisfied with him.

Because the cavalry regiment under his command only has more than 300 people who can be considered proficient in equestrian skills, and the rest are half-baked cavalry. In anger, he was ordered to be demoted by his lord. The cavalry regiment was demoted to a cavalry battalion, and he served as the battalion commander.

The remaining one thousand cavalry were converted into dragoons.

As we all know, dragoons and dragons have nothing to do with each other.

It was a group of infantrymen meeting a group of war horses. Mount your horse during the march and dismount when you reach the battlefield.

Horses are just for transportation.

However, from a cost perspective, the cost of a dragoon of the same size is much lower than that of a light cavalry.

……

Wusimai carefully captured a dozen intact war horses and quietly hid them in the camp. He still hoped to expand his light cavalry battalion.

The remaining dozens of good horses were captured by the First Legion and incorporated into their scouting teams.

"Commander Lin and his subordinate Wu Simai are here to report."

"An hour later, the whole division will start attacking Jurong. You will be the vanguard."

"As ordered."

Danyang Zhouzhi County lived up to expectations.

Immediately after waking up, he ordered the city to be burned.

The hot oil collected by the defenders became a good ignition material. After the fire started, all the soldiers in the city were so frightened that they left the city and surrendered.

Zhou Zhixian himself stood on the city wall and jumped into the sea of ​​fire. He was loyal to the Qing court and left some relief to Qianlong.

This kind of attitude of both jade and stone is in line with Qianlong's narrow-mindedness.

Lin Huaisheng didn't have much anger, and he didn't even plan to put out the fire. He just allocated 200 militiamen to deal with the aftermath and escort the prisoners to the north for hard labor.

On the tidal flat at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River (Zhenjiang Prefecture), a masonry and cement structure fort is being built, which requires a large number of manpower.

……

Surprisingly, when the army arrived several miles away from Jurong, they saw a city that was also in flames.

Who burned Jurong City?

Lin Huaisheng asked people to find several people who had escaped from the city and asked them to find out.

Two hours ago, a group of officers and soldiers suddenly passed by outside the city.

Then the Jurong County government officials beat gongs all over the city and told the people to evacuate within half an hour, otherwise they would be burned to death.

The government officials, together with the officers and soldiers of Jiangning Prefecture, lit the government offices and official warehouses one by one until the whole city was burned to the ground.

Some were unwilling to leave, or were too slow to run, and all perished in the flames.

"Commander Lin, what is going on?"

"I don't know either. The person who issued the order to burn the city is quite courageous."

The enemy praised by Lin Huaisheng was Li Shiyao, the governor of Liangjiang.

The Qing army scouts who had been away from the battlefield witnessed the whole process of the fall of Danyang City and flew back to Jiangning Mansion.

Li Shiyao was ruthless and decisive in his work.

After listening to the whole process described by the scout, I realized that Jurong County could not be defended.

Instead of losing the troops and losing the generals, and the grain and grass hoarded in the city's treasury are still stolen by the thieves, it is better to simply burn them all first.

He sent out his supervising horse team to supervise the execution of this crazy order by the Jurong magistrate.

The whole city was burned to the ground, and all the officials, gentry and green troops moved into Jiangning.

The people gave it up and looked for ways to survive.

In the face of the general situation of fighting against chaos, no one cares about their life or death.

……

The next day, Li Yu arrived.

Attacking Jiangning Mansion was a big deal, and he was worried about it.

Immediately ordered:

"All the homeless people in Jurong can go east and help build fortifications for our army, take care of food and shelter, and pay wages."

"Skilled craftsmen can voluntarily join the logistics queue and let Du Ren arrange it."

"Those who are young and strong and willing to serve as soldiers will be put into the new military camp for training, starting with the militia."

Unfortunately, only a few thousand people were willing to accept the kindness, which was about one-tenth of the people in the city.

Among them, only 13 were willing to serve as soldiers.

This shocked Li Yu, but he was relieved immediately.

Lin Huaisheng comforted him and said:

"No need to be angry, probably because we are afraid of being driven away as cannon fodder for our arrows."

"My lord, what makes me angry is why no one wants to join the Li family army as a soldier? They will be paid in full and have three full meals."

Li Yu smiled and didn't want to explain too much.

This issue is very complicated. It is a social science and historical issue that people from Jiangnan should not be soldiers.

As for the issue of troop sources, he had other considerations.

Just said:

"I brought 10 ships of rations and asked the Ministry of Transport to go to the canal to receive them. Now we have to gnaw on the hard bones."

"We brought the heavy artillery to Jiangning City and bombarded it."

"It's not that simple. Counting the militiamen, baggage, and craftsman services I brought, our army only has more than 8000 people. How many soldiers are there in Jiangning City? At least 2. How big is Jiangning City? Just one circle can exceed it. 60 miles. How thick is the city wall? Four carriages can run parallel to each other."

Lin Huaisheng was stunned and didn't know what to say.

"Huaisheng, our attack on Jiangning Mansion is like that snake swallowing the elephant. If we are not careful, our belly will burst and we will die in pieces."

……

Lin Huaisheng's face was solemn, and after a long time he nodded and said:

"Lord, I listen to you."

"I might as well tell you that Liu Qian is in Jiangning City, waiting for an opportunity."

"what?"

"Correct."

The two of them were silent. This was another obstacle before Li Jiajun. It seems that the situation is raging, but in fact there is a powder keg underfoot.

If the siege of Jiangning Mansion fails, they may collapse thousands of miles away.

If that's the case, just pack up your baggage, pack up the remaining soldiers, board a ship and go to sea, go to Nanyang for secondary development, and make a comeback in ten years.

There is always a way out.

But you can't tell it, otherwise it will shake the morale of the military.

"My lord, what is Director Liu planning to do when he sneaks into Jiangning City?"

"Do no evil and support our army in attacking the city."

Li Yu said it seriously, but Lin Huaisheng laughed at it.

Before leaving, Liu Qian solemnly asked for permission. Li Yu's answer was just four words: "Acting on expediency."

Compared with the White Lotus Sect, the internal forces like to use force to seize the city gate.

The 100 or 200 people Liu Qian brought in were mainly in "fine work" roles to reduce unnecessary battle losses.

Walk out of the big tent,

I saw the baggage team pulling empty carts out of the camp and going to the canal to pull military rations.

Li Shiyao's burning of Jurong County was a disguised attempt to clear the country and create trouble.

The sky gradually became higher and cleared.

The rainy season is officially over, and it’s a good season for fighting!

……

There was a sound of horse hooves,

It turned out that Wusimai came back from reconnaissance. He quickly got off his horse and knelt down on one knee.

"Greetings, my lord."

"Get up. What's going on in Jiangning City?"

"The city gates were closed, and scouts came out to fight with their subordinates."

Only then did Li Yu notice that the horses Wu Si bought were stained with blood.

He walked over to the saddle and looked at his weapon.

A riding bow (slightly shorter and softer than a walking bow), a short spear, a kettle of arrows, and a truncated flintlock.

So he asked:

"Aren't you a big fan of mounted shooting? Why don't you use a musket?"

"Hehe, I'm not stupid."

His flintlock gun had a hole in the butt and was fastened to the iron ring of the saddle with a rope. This was a measure to prevent loss.

"Take it off and show me."

"My lord, please take a look."

Li Yu took it and turned it over to look at the barrel of the gun.

"A cork? Are there bullets?"

"Yes, it was bumpy immediately to prevent the lead bullet from falling out, so I blocked it with a cork."

"Gunshot or slug?"

"One single-point bullet, plus four shotgun shells, wrapped in paper."

"Yes, creative. Your cavalry battalion?"

"One shot per hand."

(End of this chapter)