The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

If Luo Zhen's subordinates were all "sensible", they would have followed suit and asked someone to call a doctor to treat Luo Zhen.

Unfortunately, some of his subordinates don't know what's good for them.

The Jingjiang water camp was divided into two divisions, the left and the right, each with two lieutenant generals. Each division had two guerrillas, plus a guerrilla who was in charge of Luo Zhen's boat, for a total of five guerrillas.

If Luo Zhen is unable to lead the troops into battle due to illness, according to convention, the Lieutenant General of the Left Camp should be responsible for leading the troops.

Huang Gui, the lieutenant general of the left camp, also knew that the enemy was powerful and that the Jingjiang Water Camp might not be able to defeat them. He wanted to follow Luo Zhen's example and take leave due to a sudden illness.

But he was not as thick-skinned as Luo Zhen, and he was also worried that the excuse of sudden illness would not be acceptable to the court, so he had to offend Luo Zhen.

Seeing Luo Zhen lying unconscious on the ground, Huang Gui said anxiously: "General, how could you fall ill at this time? Our Jingjiang Water Camp is finished now."

"Let's not talk about the fact that the imperial court will hold us accountable later. If the pirates want to enter the Yangtze River, they will definitely not ignore the Jingjiang Water Camp. I'm afraid they will break through the Water Camp first!"

After hearing this, Luo Zhen couldn't help but curse in his heart: Huang Gui is so ignorant. This general is sick, can't you lead the troops to fight?

The other generals thought that what Huang Gui said made sense.

Even if you want to avoid fighting, you can't pretend to be sick.

The most important thing is, it’s impossible for all of them to pretend to be sick. What would that look like?
When they reported this back, even if the officials in the court were fools, they would know that they were feigning illness to avoid fighting.

Then he followed Huang Gui and started talking anxiously beside Luo Zhen.

Luo Zhen saw that he could not get away with it, so he could only wake up and said, "Alas, I am ill and I am afraid it is difficult for me to board the ship to fight the enemy. General Huang, you will lead the army to intercept the enemy."

Huang Gui didn't expect Luo Zhen to be so shameless that even after his pretending to be sick was discovered, he was actually ordered to lead his troops into battle.

However, military orders were as firm as a mountain. Even though he knew Luo Zhen was faking illness, he had no choice but to respond bitterly, "I obey your orders."

After saying that, he was about to summon the water camp warships to intercept the warships of the Hui army.

At this time, Luo Zhen shouted again: "Wait a minute, General Huang. Since the enemy warships are huge and our water camp warships are difficult to defeat, you might as well rely on the water fort and land defense artillery to fight the enemy on the island. I will send someone else to ask for help from the Zhenjiang camp."

Zhenjiang is located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, and is a hub for communication between the north and the south. It is extremely important. Therefore, heavy troops were stationed in Zhenjiang throughout the dynasties to ensure that the place was safely in the hands of the court.

The Great Chu set up two large camps, one on land and one on water, in Zhenjiang, both of which were affiliated with the border army.

The land camp was outside Zhenjiang City, called Zhenjiang Town. Officially, there were more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, led by the Zhenjiang General.

The navy was called Zhenjiang Water Camp, which officially had more than 5,000 soldiers and hundreds of warships, and was led by another deputy general.

According to Luo Zhen, the actual combat effectiveness of the Zhenjiang Water Camp may not be as good as that of his Jingjiang Water Camp.

Therefore, his request for help from Zhenjiang was nothing more than doing his best and leaving the rest to fate.

He had already made up his mind. Once the others left, he would take his two concubines and the floating wealth in his villa to Changzhou Prefecture to "see a doctor". When the pirates left, when the disease was cured...

On May 25, in the 27th year of Jiahua in the Great Chu Dynasty, the Dalai Hailongwei fleet entered the Yangtze River in the Great Chu Dynasty, and 15 warships bombarded the Jingjiang Water Camp.

At that time, Deputy General Luo Zhen was not in the Jingjiang camp due to illness. The Left Assistant Commander Huang Gui led all the soldiers in the water camp to rely on the camp and the artillery on the island to defend the camp.

However, the ferocity of the cannon fodder of the Dalai fleet far exceeded the expectations of the soldiers of the Jingjiang Water Camp. After holding out for half an hour, they saw the camp gate tower was destroyed by the Dalai fleet. Some of the soldiers of the Jingjiang Water Camp fled, and the rest either died in battle or surrendered and begged for life.

May 26th.

The Dalai Hailongwei Squadron arrived outside Zhenjiang City and wanted to bombard the city again.

Li Guoqi, deputy general of Zhenjiang Water Camp, led his soldiers on board the ships to hastily engage in battle, but was badly defeated. Hundreds of warships were almost all destroyed in the battle.

In the end, only Li Guoqi and Qian Yushuiying soldiers jumped into the river and escaped with their lives.

The six assistant ministers stationed in Nanjing of the Great Chu were horrified upon hearing the news, and hastily mobilized troops from the surrounding prefectures and counties to strengthen Nanjing's military strength and armaments.

May 28th.

The Dalai Hailongwei Squadron arrived outside Nanjing City and bombarded the city!
Although Nanjing also had a naval camp with hundreds of warships and tens of thousands of soldiers in the city, it was helpless in the face of the bombardment of the Hailongwei Squadron and could only defend the city.

As the news of the three battles of Jingjiang, Zhenjiang and Nanjing spread, the whole Chu and the south of the Yangtze River were shocked, and the whole world was shocked!
In a short time, the reputation of the Dalai fleet spread throughout the Chu State, causing all kinds of discussions among the gentry and the common people...
Time enters June.

Xiangjing, the imperial city.

Emperor Jiahua, who had originally paid great attention to self-cultivation, roared angrily in Chengtian Hall again.

"Good-for-nothings! They are all good-for-nothings! The three naval camps of Jingjiang, Zhenjiang, and Nanjing have more than a thousand warships in total, but they are no match for the dozen warships of the pirates! It is simply a disgrace to the soldiers of the Great Chu!"

In the hall there were not only several cabinet ministers, but also ministers from the Ministry of War and several military heroes.

There was silence at this moment.

However, some people couldn't help but wonder in their hearts: The three naval camps are said to have more than a thousand warships, but who knows how many there actually are?
Perhaps for the commanders of the three naval camps, this battle actually solved their problems - if the court wanted to investigate the warships of the naval camps, it would definitely cause a big case. Now, they can all say that they were destroyed by the enemy's artillery fire.

When Emperor Jiahua saw that no one responded, he became even angrier. His chest heaved violently and he even felt dizzy.

He felt that all the efforts he had gained from practicing immortal arts over the past ten years were probably wasted, and he might have to start practicing all over again in the future.

Thinking of this, he controlled his anger and asked in a cold voice: "Now that pirate warship is still showing off its power outside Nanjing City. Every day it stays is like a slap in the face to my Great Chu."

"If this continues, it won't be long before the people of the world see our Great Chu court as no longer prestigious. By then, I wonder how many ambitious people will take advantage of the situation."

"You are all important officials of the Great Chu State, and you are my right-hand men. Tell me, how can we save this situation?"

From what Emperor Jiahua said, it can be seen that he still attaches great importance to the Great Chu Kingdom.

He can destroy the great Chu kingdom, but it cannot perish in his hands.

Below, the cabinet minister Gao Sheng said: "Your Majesty, the only solution now is to quickly gather troops from all over Jiangnan to help defend Nanjing."

"The most important thing is to dispatch more Tianwei cannons. Even though the pirate ships' cannons are powerful, they only have a dozen ships. As long as we can mobilize enough Tianwei cannons, we can suppress the pirate ships' artillery fire and even destroy them."

Emperor Jiahua looked at the Minister of War Chen Wan and asked, "What does the Grand Marshal think?"

Chen Wan did not go against Gao Sheng because of the previous dispute with him. Instead, he said, "What Gao said is the most important way to deal with this matter. We just need to act quickly. It would be best if we send an imperial envoy from the Ministry of War to supervise this matter." Emperor Jiahua glanced at the officials of the Ministry of War and said, "Then let Zhao Zhiwei, the deputy minister of the Ministry of War, go to Jiangnan and be responsible for supervising the dispatch of the Tianwei cannon."

Zhao Zhiwei, a handsome man in his forties, immediately stepped forward to receive orders.

Then he asked again: "Your Majesty, may I ask how many Tianwei cannons should be mobilized this time, and from which provinces should they be requisitioned?"

The Tianwei Cannon was built by Chu Taizu Xiong Mingyuan. Over the past two hundred years, emperors of all dynasties have made additional modifications to it.

Today, there are more than a thousand Tianwei cannons recorded in the military department of Da Chu!
However, most of the Tianwei cannons are large and bulky. They are usually cast locally and used locally, and are rarely requisitioned from other places.

Therefore, Zhao Zhiwei wanted to clarify the matter so as to avoid being entangled with the local authorities due to unclear imperial orders.

Emperor Jiahua didn't understand this, so he looked at Chen Wan again, "Grand Sima, you speak."

Chen Wan said: "The cannons in Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Sichuan can all be mobilized, and they can be transported along the Yangtze River."

"As for the cannons from other provinces, they are too difficult to transport, so there is no need to consider them."

"According to the news from Nanjing, each of the pirate ships weighs more than 3,000 tons, is armored with fine iron, and is equipped with 30 to 40 cannons. So, 15 warships, it is estimated that there are more than 400 cannons."

"If we want to suppress the artillery of the pirate fleet, we need to mobilize at least 500 Tianwei cannons."

At least five hundred?
Even Emperor Jiahua, who issued an edict to the Ministry of War, couldn't help but frown when he heard this.

After all, it took the Great Chu nearly two hundred years to forge more than one thousand Tianwei cannons, and this bandit fleet had more than four hundred cannons, which was really incredible.

The most important thing is that among the more than one thousand cannons of the Great Chu, more than one hundred were placed in Xiangjing, and important cities such as Nanjing, Kaifeng, Yanjing, and Wuchang also had dozens of cannons each.

These cannons are used to guard the area. They are extremely important and cannot be moved lightly.

Under such circumstances, it would probably be difficult to requisition more than 500 cannons from provinces such as Jiangnan mentioned by Chen Wan.

Zhao Zhiwei immediately said: "Unless Your Majesty allows me to requisition the cannons from Xiangjing first, I am afraid I will not be able to complete my mission."

Emperor Jiahua asked: "Grand Marshal, is it possible that the pirate fleet will enter the Han River to attack Xiangjing?"

Chen Wan bowed and said, "If the pirate fleet dares to enter the Han River, it will be a great thing for our Great Chu. The Han River is much narrower than the Yangtze River, and the pirate ships are all over 3,000 tons. If they can really enter the Han River, our Great Chu can send a large number of troops to capture them!"

What this means is that the Dalai fleet cannot enter the Han River.

In fact, it is very unlikely that a seagoing ship of more than 3,000 tons could pass Nanjing and go upstream, because a seagoing ship is different from a river ship and is very likely to run aground in a river.

After Emperor Jiahua understood, he immediately pretended to be generous and said: "Then I will allow you to take fifty artillery pieces from Xiangjing to Nanjing. As for the artillery pieces in Wuchang, all of them will be requisitioned!"

Zhao Zhiwei immediately bowed and said, "I obey your command!"

After a preliminary discussion on how to resolve the crisis in Nanjing, the rulers and ministers of the Chu State were able to think about more things.

Cabinet minister Xu Wei stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, we all thought that Liu Sheng was just a big pirate before, but based on his performance in the past year and the news from Shandong, he is definitely not an ordinary pirate."

"It is said that Liu Sheng's men all call themselves the Lai Army, saying that they are from an overseas country called Da Lai. They seem to be the remnants of the Tang Dynasty who fled overseas."

"When we first heard about this, we thought it was just a rumor, but now it seems that it is probably true."

"After all, it's impossible for ordinary pirates to have so many guns and such a powerful fleet."

Xu Wei's words made many ministers in the hall nod their heads.

Emperor Jiahua said, "What Xu Qing meant was that this bandit was a foreign enemy, not a rebel?"

Xu Wei said: "That should be the case."

Emperor Jiahua looked even more serious, but he was puzzled and asked, "When did a country called Hui exist overseas? How come I have never heard of it? Even if there is one, it should be quite far away from our Great Chu, right? Why would they travel across the ocean to attack our Great Chu?"

Xu Wei said: "I don't know either, but I think that since Liu Sheng is the ruler of another country, we might as well send an envoy to question him."

"If we can learn their purpose and make them withdraw from Shandong and stop invading our Great Chu, that would be great."

"Even if we can't, we can still use the delegation to investigate the true strength of the bandits and prepare for the upcoming war."

Emperor Jiahua nodded, "Let's follow Lord Xu's proposal, but how should we arrange this delegation, and who will be the chief envoy?"

Then, the king and his ministers of the Great Chu argued about the matter for half an hour before they decided on the specifications, number of people, and the candidate for the chief envoy of the delegation.

···
What the rulers and ministers of the Great Chu did not know was that in early June, when most of the remaining troops in Jiangbei were transferred to support Nanjing, an anti-Japanese army attacked Huai'an Prefecture in Jiangbei from Qingzhou.

Haizhou and Ganyu in the northeast of Huai'an Prefecture are connected to Juzhou in the south of Qingzhou. Therefore, after occupying Juzhou, the Lai army can directly march into Huai'an Prefecture.

Just as Liu Sheng had expected, Jiangbei was short of troops because it had sent troops to support Shandong and Nanjing.

Therefore, the army sent by Liu Sheng, which was composed of a brigade of personal guards as the main force and three brigades of security forces as the auxiliary, entered Huai'an Prefecture with great momentum. Within a few days, they successively captured Ganyu, Haizhou, Shuyang, Suqian, Andong, Qinghe and other places, almost occupying all the areas north of the Yellow River in Huai'an Prefecture.

When the prefect of Huai'an, the governor of Da Chu in Shanyang City, heard the news, he was so frightened that he almost resigned and fled. But for the safety of his family, he gritted his teeth and stayed in Shanyang City, and hurriedly sent people to Yangzhou for help.

Although Yangzhou was not a provincial capital, it was an important town in northern Jiangsu, and therefore tens of thousands of Chu troops were stationed there before.

However, after sending troops to support Shandong and Nanjing, there are only 5,000 defenders left in Yangzhou, which is not enough to defend the huge city of Yangzhou. It is necessary to temporarily recruit civilians, not to mention sending troops to rescue Shanyang.

Therefore, the Yangzhou prefect could only report the matter to Nanjing and Xiangjing and continue to ask for support...
Nanjing.

The pirate fleet remained on the river.

But it was not like the first day. The naval guns bombarded Nanjing City for nearly half an hour, causing many casualties among the defenders on the city walls. The rest were so scared that they fled down the city wall and did not even dare to defend the city.

After the first day, the pirate fleet only fired one round of artillery at Nanjing City every day, and would fire a stone bomb in advance as a warning.

At first, when the people of Nanjing learned that a large pirate group had arrived outside the city and was bombarding Nanjing, they were so scared that they hid in their houses and dared not come out.

However, when they discovered the pattern of the enemy fleet's bombardment of Nanjing City, many people went out.

It's not that they are not afraid, but the need for livelihood forces them to go out to work. (End of this chapter)