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

boom!
With a cannon shot, a stone bullet shot from the river onto the Nanjing city wall. The stone bullet exploded and a hole of medium size was blasted into the wall.

The Nanjing residents outside the city took a look and most of them went about their business.

However, there were also some merchants and travelers who had just arrived in Nanjing that day. When they saw this scene, they were so frightened that they shrank their necks and hurriedly hid behind a house.

He was surprised to see that other Nanjing residents on the city streets seemed not to notice the bombardment.

One of the merchants stopped a friendly passerby and asked curiously, "Are these the pirates on the river bombarding Nanjing? Why don't you hide?"

The person being questioned asked back, "You just arrived in Nanjing today, right?"

"Not bad, what's wrong?"

The traveler said, "Ever since the pirates with the '崋' flag broke through the three navies of our Great Chu in Jingjiang, Zhenjiang and Nanjing, and came to the outskirts of Nanjing, they have been bombarding Nanjing for seven days."

"Take a look at the houses and restaurants in the northern city. How many of them are damaged?"

The merchant recalled the scenes he had seen along the way into the city area, and found that there really was no residential building that looked like it had been destroyed by a shell.

The merchant was also a smart man. He immediately realized something and said, "Could it be that the pirates only bombarded the walls of Nanjing, and their artillery fire was very accurate?"

The passerby laughed and said, "That's just one of the reasons. The key point is that, except for the first day when the pirates bombarded the Nanjing city wall for half an hour, every day thereafter, more than a dozen warships bombarded the city wall once, firing only about four or five hundred stone bullets."

"At first, we, the people living in the city, were very scared when we saw the pirates firing cannons. We hid in our houses and didn't dare to come out."

"Later, we discovered this rule and had to work hard to make a living, so we all gritted our teeth and went out to work."

"After a few days, we got used to the pattern of the pirates bombarding Nanjing City, and we became accustomed to it."

While the two were talking, the warships of the Hai army on the river began to fire one after another.

What was fired were stone bullets, not iron bullets, let alone shrapnel bullets.

Nanjing was the deputy capital of the Chu State. Although the city walls were vast, strict regulations were enforced near the city walls, and no residential houses were allowed. This was not to prevent the common people from being affected by the war, but because the residential houses were too close to the city walls, which would hinder the city defense arrangements.

Therefore, although the stone bullets fired by the Lai army had made this side of the Nanjing city wall full of holes and even collapsed some battlements on the top of the city, they had hardly caused any damage to the residential houses in the city.

As for why the Hui army did not use more powerful iron bombs or shrapnel bombs, one reason was mission requirements and the other was to save money.

The first mission of this squadron coming to Nanjing is to attract the attention of the Chu court and transfer part of the Chu army in Jiangbei.

The second is to slap the face of the Chu court by bombarding Nanjing City, continue to reduce the prestige of the Chu court, and at the same time publicize the military power of the Hui army and its excellent military discipline and military style that completely surpassed the Chu army.

According to the plan, this squadron would most likely continue to bombard Nanjing for ten days, half a month, or even longer.

If iron shells and shrapnel shells were used every day, not to mention whether they would scare the people of Nanjing, the accumulated cost of shells would be a considerable sum, and the shell reserves carried by the squadron might not be enough.

Therefore, using cheap stone bullets became the best choice. As for the source of the stone bullets, the Xunfengwei spy had someone open a stone carving factory on the north bank of the river a few months ago...

On a battleship of the squadron, the regiment commander Huang Ting used a telescope to look at the lively life of the people outside Nanjing City, and said to the regiment's military and political officer He Weizhi: "The Chu army has huddled in Nanjing City, and only a small gate has been opened here. It is unlikely that the Chu army will be able to leave the city quickly. I think we can proceed to the second step of the mission."

He Weizhi also looked through the telescope and said with a smile: "It's only been a few days and these people have gotten used to our bombardment. Humans are really very adaptable creatures."

After saying that, he looked at the battalion commander Liu Guoxuan and others who were waiting on the side and said, "You guys go ashore. As long as nothing unexpected happens, everything will proceed according to the plan."

Liu Guoxuan immediately saluted and said, "I guarantee that I will complete the mission!"

In the original history, Huang Ting and Liu Guoxuan were both generals of the Zheng family. However, because of their outstanding talents as naval commanders, they were able to enter the Sea Dragon Guard and came to the Great Chu of this world.

Huang Ting was born in 1620 in Tongan, Quanzhou, Fujian.

According to historical records, he joined Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing army in the third year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, and quickly became a capable general under Zheng Chenggong. Later, he followed Zheng Chenggong to recapture Dongfan Island.

It can be said that Huang Ting was a powerful naval commander who was definitely among the top three in ability under Zheng Chenggong at that time, and was granted the title of Marquis of Yong'an of the Southern Ming Dynasty.

Unfortunately, the anti-Qing situation became worse year by year. In the third year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Huang Ting saw that there was no hope of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty, so he led more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians to surrender to the Qing court.

After surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, Huang Ting achieved even more military achievements.

He participated in the expedition against Wu Sangui, defeated Zheng and recovered Dongfan Island, participated in the bloody battle of Yaksa in Heilongjiang, and participated in the expedition against the Junggar tribe. He died in Dengzhou, his garrison, at the age of ninety-seven.

If we ignore his choice to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, his life can be said to have been an outstanding military achievement.

During this time and space, Huang Ting's talents were not buried after he entered the Dalai Navy system.

After he emerged in the South China Sea Navy, he was selected into the Sea Dragon Guard because of his outstanding performance and relatively clean background.

Later, he joined the Third Brigade of the Sea Dragon Guards and then the North Pacific Exploration Fleet, where he made many contributions and was eventually promoted to colonel and commander of the Third Regiment of the Third Brigade of the Sea Dragon Guards.

Although Huang Ting is already forty years old, as a rising star, being able to be promoted to this position in the Royal Guard system is already a very good achievement.

If nothing unexpected happens, after Liu Sheng conquers the Great Chu in the future, there will be much room for improvement in his military rank.

As for Liu Guoxuan, he was also a famous general under Zheng in the original history. It was not until the final defeat in the Battle of Penghu that Liu Guoxuan followed Zheng Keshuang to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. He could be regarded as a loyal minister of Zheng.

But in this time and space, Liu Guoxuan was eight years younger than Huang Ting and entered the Dalai Navy system later, so his achievements were naturally lower. He is currently only a major battalion commander.

But Liu Guoxuan was a military academy student and is now thirty-two or thirty-three years old, and is already quite mature.

After receiving the order, he immediately returned to his warship and led their warship to a dock outside Nanjing City.

At this time, the artillery bombardment of the Lai army had ended, but the Lai army's warships of more than 3,000 tons were huge compared to other ships on the river, and they were still emitting black smoke, so this movement was extremely conspicuous.

Near the dock, the people who first noticed the unusual movement of the pirate warships were stunned, and then they exclaimed: "The pirate warships are coming to the shore!"

The pirate warship is about to dock?
Upon hearing this, the others looked towards the river and saw a pirate warship heading towards the dock.

Suddenly the whole dock was in chaos.

Fortunately, due to the daily bombardment by the Wei army, although there were many civilians traveling around Nanjing city, the number was still far less than in the past and was not dense.

In addition, they had experienced this kind of panic caused by the enemy's attack once seven days ago. Although the crowd was in a panic at this time, there was no crowding or trampling accident - after all, there were not many people outside.

Many people shouted as they ran to remind others.

"The pirates have come ashore, run!"

"Close the doors and windows!" Merchants in the city called on their servants, hurriedly closed the doors and windows, and begged the "pirates" not to cause trouble after landing.

"Mom, wuwu..." In the chaos, some children were separated from their families and stood on the street crying and shouting.

In short, the scene was in chaos.

The top of Nanjing city.

Although most of the Chu army had to withdraw due to the irregular daily bombardment by the Hui army to avoid too many casualties, some Chu soldiers were still ordered to stay on the city wall to monitor the movements of the Hui army's warships.

Therefore, when the warships led by Liu Guoxuan moved, the Chu army on the city wall quickly noticed it and became extremely nervous.

The leading garrison officer shouted in panic, "Oh no! The bandits are about to attack the city! Beat the drums and raise the smoke signals to warn them!"

Nanjing City was too big and its city walls were too long, so messages were only transmitted quickly through drums and smoke signals.

The guards at several small gates on the north side of the city heard the drum beats and knew that the enemy was attacking, so they were so scared that they quickly ordered the city gates to be closed.

In fact, if possible, the officials and generals who stayed in Nanjing would have closed the city gates every day just in case.

However, Nanjing is a vast city with a population of 700,000 to 800,000. The daily needs of the people, such as firewood, fruits and vegetables, rice, etc., are huge.

If the city gates are closed for a long time, it will not only cause difficulties in people's lives, but will also lead to various other related problems and even civil unrest.

In addition, the Hui army only had a dozen warships, which had been staying on the river for several days, and did not look like they could land and attack the city. Under internal pressure, the officials and generals who stayed in Nanjing allowed several city gates to open to facilitate the flow of personnel and materials in and out of the city.

At this time, it was known that the Hui army was about to land and might prepare to attack the city. Not to mention the people coming out of the city, even the civilians in the city wanted to hide in the city.

However, when many people hurried to the city gate, they found that it had been ruthlessly closed by the Chu army.

For a moment, many people cried and begged outside the city gate.

"General, please let me in. I live in the city!"

"General, please open the city gate quickly and let us pass. Otherwise, if the pirates come, we will all be dead!"

"Open the door quickly! I am the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Jiang. If I die outside, you will be in big trouble!" "I am General Yang's second steward. Brothers guarding the door, open the door quickly!"

"···"

The guard inside the city gate looked grim when he heard all kinds of noises outside the city - he had offended many people this time.

Even so, he did not dare to open the city gate.

There was an order from above that if the bandits landed, the city gates should be closed immediately.

If he offended some powerful people in the city, he might just be in trouble; but if he was soft-hearted and cowardly and opened the city gate, he would be violating military orders and would only end up dead.

Therefore, facing the different expressions of his soldiers, he could only pretend not to hear the various shouts and pleas outside the city gate.

At the same time, I mourn for these people in my heart.

In his opinion, since the pirates have landed, even if they do not attack the city, they will definitely burn, kill and loot in the city. Otherwise, why are they called thieves and pirates?
···
Weishi Fruit and Vegetable Shop is an ordinary shop close to the pier.

Ever since the old Wei family bought this shop a hundred years ago, it has been passed down for several generations. It is considered a time-honored brand and has a very good reputation in the wharf area.

Because the shop was not big, only Xu and her eldest son were busy in the store.

Upon hearing that pirate ships were approaching the dock, Xu and her eldest son immediately packed up the fruits and vegetables outside the shop, closed the doors and windows, and hid inside the shop.

The eldest son, Wei Hui, was only sixteen years old. He was even more nervous than Xu at this moment. He couldn't help but whispered, "Mom, our shop is so close to the dock. Could it be that pirates broke into our shop?"

Mrs. Xu said, "We are a fruit and vegetable store, and it's just a small shop, not a gold and silver jewelry store. The pirates don't look down on our shop."

She seemed calm, but she was actually very flustered and somewhat regretted opening the shop today.

But then again, her family didn't farm, they only had a few acres of vegetable fields, and the whole family, young and old, now depended on the income from the fruit and vegetable shop to make ends meet. If the shop was closed for a few days, without income, they couldn't sustain it for long.

The most important thing is that she would feel like she is losing out if her competitors don’t open a store.

Now she could only pray silently to the gods and Buddhas to avoid this disaster.

woo-

The pirates' smoking ironclad ship emitted the familiar whistle sound again, but this time it seemed to be coming from close by and was particularly loud.

In addition, there was no longer the sound of panicked shouting and running of the crowd on the street, only silence, which made Xu and her son even more nervous, and they even couldn't help but breathe lighter.

The mother and son waited in agony for an unknown period of time before they heard a somewhat orderly sound of footsteps approaching from afar.

Finally, he stopped in front of her store.

"Captain, there is a fruit and vegetable store here!" someone said in a strange accent.

Hearing this, Xu and her eldest son's hearts suddenly rose to their throats.

Then I heard another person say, "We have a mission to purchase fruits and vegetables. This store looks good. Let's knock on the door."

"Yes."

Then there was a knock on the door.

Although the sound was not loud, it almost made Xu and her eldest son's hearts stop.

"Shopkeeper, open the door. We want to buy some fruits and vegetables."

How could Xu dare to open the door? So she pretended that no one was inside.

The man said again: "Captain, there seems to be no one in the store, what should we do?"

The captain said, "Looking at this glance, all the shops on the street are closed. If they are not open, we can't buy anything. So, we can just pry the door open, buy some fruits and vegetables, and leave the money behind."

"Yes!" the soldier responded, and then shouted, "Is the store owner here? If so, please open the door. Otherwise, we will not be polite!"

The Weishi fruit and vegetable store was relatively small and had no back door, so if the door was broken open, Xu and her eldest son would inevitably be exposed.

Xu was worried that the pirates would get angry and kill people if they didn't open the door, so she signaled Wei Hui to hide.

However, Wei Hui was worried that his mother would be humiliated - his mother, Ms. Xu, was only 33 years old. As she was a commoner, she did not look old and was quite beautiful.

Since his father died of illness seven or eight years ago, his mother has been in charge of the shop. She is known as the beauty of fruits and vegetables in this area, and is often harassed by some idlers. Who knows if the pirates will be tempted by her beauty?
Therefore, after receiving Xu's signal, Wei Hui not only did not hide, but rushed over with a fruit knife and opened the shop door.

His original intention was to threaten the pirates not to cause any trouble.

But when he opened the door and saw dozens of soldiers outside holding muskets, swords and wearing fine armor, he suddenly felt weak and trembled subconsciously, "Don't... don't mess around, I'll chop people!"

The soldier who knocked on the door saw Wei Hui holding a knife, and reflexively pointed his pistol at Wei Hui.

At this time, Xu also rushed out.

Although she was also very scared, she was calmer than Wei Hui because she wanted to protect her son. When she saw the black muzzle of the gun, she hurriedly explained, "Don't misunderstand, my son has no intention of going against you."

"We don't have anything else in our store, just some seasonal fruits and vegetables. You can take whatever you want to eat. All we ask is that you can spare my life."

The captain's eyes lit up when he saw Xu, and he stepped forward and said, "You two have misunderstood. Our army has strict discipline and will never take anything from innocent people for nothing."

"We were ordered to purchase a batch of fruits and vegetables, so we had to disturb you."

"We want all the fruits and vegetables in this store. The shopkeeper can calculate how much they will cost based on the market price."

Hearing the captain's words, Xu and Wei Hui were stunned for a moment.

Pirates actually have to spend money to buy things?

Even the Chu army would not pay for things they bought on weekdays, right? Taking advantage of others was common.

However, these people do not look like the ferocious pirates as rumored, and seem to be more like government troops than the government troops.

Coming to her senses, Xu thought the captain was trying to test her, so she said with a wry smile, "It is an honor for our store to have you eat our fruits and vegetables, how dare we charge you?"

The captain frowned, "Boss, don't waste our time. I told you that we will buy all the fruits and vegetables at the market price. Boss, we will settle the bill. If we take it directly, won't it mean that we are violating military discipline?"

Seeing that the captain seemed really angry, Xu didn't dare to say anything more.

Even though he was suspicious of the behavior of these "pirates" who called themselves "崋军", he still took his son to pack and weigh the fruits and vegetables in the palace one by one.

Speaking of which, her store had actually had some backlog of goods over the past two days - the flow of people in the city had been affected by the bombardment, and business was far less than before.

Not to mention fruits and vegetables, neither can be stored for a long time. If some goods cannot be sold today, they can only be sold to others at a low price to feed livestock.

From this perspective, the soldiers in front of her took over all the fruits and vegetables in her house, which was a help to her.

The premise is that these people are really willing to pay according to the market price.

Therefore, after weighing, packing, and calculating the bill for all the fruits and vegetables, Xu said nervously, "Sir, the total cost of all the fruits and vegetables is seven strings of cash, four hundred and thirty-seven coins."

Xu had just reported the market price and weight of each kind of fruit and vegetable. He did this because he was worried that these people would use this as an excuse to make trouble.

On the other hand, the soldiers of the Hui army were also keeping a close eye on him. Xu did not commit any fraud and did not dare to do so.

Therefore, upon hearing this, the captain took out the copper coins of the Great Chu that he was carrying and handed them over.

"Thank you, shopkeeper. We will come to buy fruits and vegetables in the next few days. I hope you can prepare them. Everyone, take the fruits and vegetables back to the ship!"

After the captain finished speaking, he left with his soldiers.

Only when they saw this team of Haijun soldiers carrying large and small bags of fruits and vegetables and leaving in a line until they disappeared around the street corner did Xu and Wei Hui come to their senses.

Xu looked at the empty shop and the large bag of copper coins on the counter, wondering what she was thinking.

Wei Hui couldn't help but ask: "Mom, are these people really pirates? Why do they look..."

Wei Hui is young after all, and he didn’t know how to describe that feeling for a moment.

Xu had studied for a few years when she was young, and at this moment she could not help but say leisurely: "They are more like the king's army than the official army of the Great Chu."

Wei Hui's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said, "Yes, they are more like the king's army than the government troops!" (End of this chapter)