Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 628 General ([-])

He has sent people to post notices in Guangzhou and Qiongzhou, recruiting people who know the inside story of the Kun bandits and who are familiar with the situation in Lingao.They also found some sailors and merchants who had been to Lingao, and questioned the details of the Kun thief.

But all these people could tell him was that the Kun thieves had big iron boats and fast boats, and that the Kun thieves were very good at doing business, which was not very useful for fighting.

As for the combat power of the Kun thief, he knew from these populations that the opponent "does not wear armor, but only uses bird guns, with a well-organized army and strict discipline."The other is the "sharp firearms" that were blasted outside.

These few words alone are of course not enough.But merchant sailors are not members of the army, and they don't care much about the guns and weapons of the gangsters.What he said was not exhaustive. Some people were greedy for rewards or to be intimidated by the authority, and some talked nonsense. There were many contradictions, which made him a little confused.

It seems that we still need to find local gentry and scholars. How can ordinary foolish men and women make troubles about such important military affairs.Thinking of this, he asked the staff around him:
"Are there any applicants in Qiongshan and Guangzhou?"

The staff said: "There are a few of them, but if they are questioned a little bit, most of them are people who want to advance in a hurry to offer a strategy to defeat the enemy. There is not a single person who really knows the inside story of the Kun thief."

Back in the camp, the latest Hainantang newspaper sent from Zhaoqing was already placed on the table.Recently, the number of Tang newspapers from Hainan has greatly increased.He Rubin opened it and saw that it was the latest battle report of Chengmai and Lingao sent by the Hainan branch.

The first one was about Lingao's pond newspaper.Sun Tianbiao, a hundred households who was the only officer who escaped from Qianhusuo, a subordinate of Wuqianhu in Lingao Neifuwei, had arrived in Zhaoqing and told the details of the fall of Qianhusuo.According to him: Originally under the supervision of Liu Qianhu, everyone fought hard for six days and nights, but the Kun bandits were still unable to break through the city. Take advantage of everyone's unpreparedness to attack suddenly.Killing Liu Qianhu and stealing the city gate opened the city gate, which made the city fall. The "traitors" also used the command arrows and documents seized in the city to make money in other villages and camps.As a result, the entire Houneifu Hou Qianhu Army was wiped out.

Because this pond newspaper is first-hand information, it is much more valuable than hearsay information obtained through careful inquiry, so He Rubin read it very carefully.

Then it was about inquiring about the situation of the siege of Lingao. According to Sun Tianbiao, who had fled back, he heard that the thieves engulfed more than ten thousand local soldiers and civilians to besiege Lingao County, but he didn't know much about the specific situation. , the road is full of bandits and horses."He himself broke out by "abandoning his wife and son, sacrificing his life and forgetting his death".

This is nonsense, He Rubin thought about the content of the previous pond report, when Sun Tianbiao fled to Qiongshan, there was no news of the siege from Lingao—the emergency messenger from the county arrived several days later .

As for the siege of Lingao, there was no specific news - except for an urgent document sent by the magistrate of Lingao.After Chengmai was besieged, the post road was completely interrupted, and the news was almost completely interrupted.Once the post road was interrupted, even the news from Danzhou and Changhua could not be transmitted. Tangbao had to go around the island from the opposite direction or deliver it to Duleizhou before it could be delivered to Qiongzhou Fucheng.

"Where is the person who delivered the emergency documents from Lingao?"

"The book was sent to Qiongshan, and then transferred to the province by the prefect of Qiongzhou. The person is probably in Qiongshan." An aide said, "It has been seven or eight days, and I probably returned to Lingao early."

He Rubin thought it would have been better if Tang Yunwen had been told to detain the contributor.This person must be able to provide a lot of news about the thieves.

The second letter is a message from Chengmai.He Rubin originally thought that Chengmai must have fallen—he knew the size of the county on Hainan Island. It is simply wishful thinking to rescue the county.As long as a team of 3000 people is willing to attack with all their strength, it is impossible to fail to attack.

But it was Chengmai County that opened the newspaper.It seems that Chengmai is still in the hands of the government, and the external traffic has not been blocked.

Wen Kun's bandits called themselves the Fubo Army. There were about a thousand Japanese infantry artillerymen, dozens of cannons, and they stood outside the south gate of the village.The thieves gathered outside the city, and the strong people in the city bravely went out of the city to fight, beheading hundreds of thieves.The Nai thieves are powerful and have sharp firearms, and our soldiers are slightly frustrated.The Kun bandits took advantage of the momentum to attack the south gate. The army and the people in the city fought desperately. The tower changed hands dozens of times.According to the prisoner's confession: among the real kuns cut off, there was a member of the fake title "Director" and a fake guard.The Kun thief waited to risk his life and snatched the thief's corpse.Seeing that the county seat was not going down, the bandits headed to visit Lao Hu, and the rest only divided their troops into four townships to plunder.Bombarded with giant cannons, arrows and bullets flew across the city, countless soldiers and civilians were killed and injured in the city, houses were burned, rubble was everywhere, women and children lived outside, and the sound of wailing continued all day long.Those who must report to the pond!
He Rubin breathed a sigh of relief.It seems that the Kun bandits' land battles are really sloppy.The small town of Chengmai was not captured with thousands of men and the so-called "sharp" artillery.No wonder Lingao County has been able to persist for more than three years.

In this way, he became more and more determined not to use the boat master, but only use the Lu master's strategy.He originally wanted to give an order to Tang Yunwen to help Chengmai immediately.Tang Yunwen's department plus the local Xiangyong can mobilize almost 2000 people. It is only half a day's journey from Chengmai to Qiongshan. There is no need for additional deployment and food expenses. As long as they can force the thieves to withdraw from the siege, it will be considered a small victory. .

He told people to invite the staff immediately.Discuss the war to aid Cheng.

His main staff is of course not Lu Yizhong. Although Lu Yizhong is quite a "knowledgeable soldier", after all, he was sent by the governor, and he was separated from him by this layer.He wants to listen to the opinions of his staff who are closely related to his interests.

The aides read the Tang newspaper and thought that the Kun thieves must have known that the imperial court wanted to encircle and suppress them, so they attacked the county everywhere.

He Rubin smiled and asked: "I intend to transfer General Tang's troops to rescue Chengmai, what do you guys think?"

The aides believed that the Kun bandits had sharp firearms but could not attack Lingao and Chengmai, which showed that they were indeed incompetent in land warfare.Tang Yunwen's troops are relatively "good at fighting" among the Ming army in Guangdong, and sending him to rescue Chengmai will surely pay off.

As long as the Kun bandits who besieged Chengmai are driven away, the constant "war reminders" from the governor can be buffered.Generally speaking, the opinions of most staff members are still "cautious".I don't want the whole army to land on the island early to crusade.

But one of the staff members shook his head again and again: "Lord Zhentai, most of General Tang's troops are navy divisions. Breaking through the siege in the field is not his specialty. Rescue rashly, in case of setbacks, the morale may be shaken."

This staff member is called Chang Qingyun, and he is a juren.He is quite good at economics. Although he has never been an official, he is very familiar with officialdom.He is one of He Rubin's most trusted staff members.

He Rubin nodded silently, thinking that although Tang Yunwen's troops were said to have 5000 men, there were only more than 2000 soldiers.Most of them are sailors, who are not familiar with infantry combat and don't have many firearms for land warfare.These people are also scattered in many states and counties in Hainan.If he were to rescue Chengmai, he would only use Qiongshan's bravery as the main force.

Although the fighting strength of the township brave is strong, but the morale of the local people will be greatly reduced if they leave the hometown, and they will fight desperately only if they have a big reward.According to the Tang newspaper, the Kun bandits built a long wall under the city of Chengmai and stationed in the camp.The fortification must be very tight.When the time comes, the opponent will defend the stronghold to fight, and the firearms will be fierce. Tang Yunwen may not be able to take advantage of it.Aren't the officers and soldiers in a dilemma at Chengmai's feet?

Thinking of this, he temporarily dismissed his plan to ask Tang Yunwen to send troops to rescue Chengmai.However, if Chengmai falls, Tang Yunwen, as the general of Qiongya Land Road and other places and also in charge of the coastal defense of Baisha Shuizhai, has the greatest responsibility.However, he is the chief military officer of Guangdong and the chief general who conquered the Kun bandits, so the responsibility for the fall of the county cannot be escaped.

"According to the students, it's better to issue an order to General Tang immediately from the town hall, asking him to act accordingly and rescue Chengmai quickly."

All the aides nodded one after another: Since it is "speedy" and "camera", this is really ingenious!Anyway, Zongbing He gave the order for rescue, and the ball kicked directly to General Tang Shen's feet if he was rescued or not.Even if Chengmai fell, He Rubin would not be held accountable—his battalion had already crossed the sea, so it cannot be said that he would not save him.This is the first; second, even if Chengmai falls temporarily, when the army gathers, recovering Chengmai is just a matter of effort during the march.

"Furthermore, from the student's point of view, the Kun Bandit has no power to break the city." Chang Qingyun said, "If he has the power to break the city, why should he force the peasants to build a long fence? This must be the Kun Bandit being the leader The siege is planned. The county magistrate of Chengmai only needs to guard carefully, and he will be able to keep the city safe. The current plan is to order people to sneak into the city and send the letter that the army will come to rescue. The soldiers and people of the whole city will definitely meet Guard with all your strength and wait for the army."

He Rubin felt that his idea was not bad, so he asked a master who handled the letter to apply for a warrant for Tang Yunwen, and wrote a note in his hand asking the officials, gentlemen and people in Chengmai City to stick to it:
It is said that Chengmai ordered Qiu and Chengmai city guards to learn from each other: the town has recently come to the aid of the pro-command army, and I hope that we will stick to it and wait for the rescue.

The date is not written below, only his payment.

After thinking about it, he wrote the same second note, but the previous paragraph changed to: "Zhilin Gaoling Wu and Chengmai city guard officials and gentry".

After writing, order to select two fine soldiers who can speak Qiongshan dialect from the army, and each will reward 20 taels of silver, and send them across the sea immediately with two letters.

After doing these two things, He Rubin felt a little more relaxed, thinking that because Lu Yizhong kept urging the soldiers to cross the sea, it gave him a chance to make a mistake.

He smiled and asked everyone: "We don't know much about the thieves in this cross-sea expedition. I brought the 1 men and horses. Excluding the empty quota, the old and the weak, there are only more than [-] soldiers capable of fighting. A war against the thieves?"

Everyone couldn't help being flattered, saying "once the army arrives, we will clean up the ugly people", "strike against Zhang Zhang", "show the might of the army" and so on.Half of this is flattery to him, and half is the real thoughts of the staff - in their view, the Kun thief is just relying on his skills and ingenuity, and his firearms are more powerful. The opponent of the imperial army.So no one doubted the outcome of the war.

One of the aides said that although the thieves were nothing to worry about, after all, the ships were strong and the guns were strong, and tens of thousands of "traitors from Fujian and Guangdong" were gathered.But the officers and soldiers know very little about the details of the Kun bandits, not even the name of the leader of the Kun bandits.

The government's only source of information is the Tang newspaper and various market rumors.

"Iron boats can float on the sea, but fast boats can do without oars. Isn't this a monster!" It is common to shirk responsibility or exaggerate military exploits and exaggerate the enemy's situation.

"It's so-called knowing yourself and the enemy and you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles. Although our army knows ourselves, we don't know the enemy." Chang Qingyun sighed.

"That Sun Tianbiao escaped from Lingao, so he must know a lot about the details of the Kun bandits, why not transfer him to the front of the army to listen to him?" an aide suggested.

"Sir, what you said is very true." He Rubin nodded, since Sun Tianbiao escaped from Lingao and is also an officer, he must know a lot about the situation. If he listens to it in front of the account, he can get a lot of useful information. "I'm going to ask Lord Zhijun to transfer this person. First appoint him a foreign committee to take the title of general."

Chang Qingyun said: "Master Zhentai is going to suppress the thieves, and he will reap all the merits. This is needless to say, but it is necessary to suppress the thieves in a good way. If you mobilize the army like Marshal Yu did back then, in the end there will only be one who forces the entire army to retreat. In the end, it was far less powerful than the Shuangyu Great Victory."

He Rubin used to be very wary of people from overseas, and at first he only used his military power to drive away the red-haired people, because the civil and military officials thought that there was a huge disparity in combat power, and even if they won the battle, they would not be able to explain to the court if the losses were too great.Now Qingyun often talks about it, thinking that Wang Zunde is just doing the old trick of the year.

But Chang Qingyun thinks that the Kun bandits have big iron boats and fast iron boats, if they are only forced to tear down the city wall and go away, they will definitely choose another place to build another fort. How can China's trade be easily let go?It will inevitably find another nest.Although the Dutch retreated because of the strength of the government and army, they finally got the promise to allow businessmen to trade in Taiwan.And they immediately turned to Taiwan to build castles.So far, the red-haired Fanyi is still a problem along the coast of Daming.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"The thieves are good at boats and boats. Although our army can't fight the waves on the sea, we can break them with a strange strategy." Chang Qingyun said with confidence.

One of the staff laughed and said, "Do you want to follow Zhuge Wuhou's old trick?"

"Most of the Kun thief's ships are made of iron, so it's hard to handle." Another staff member shook his head to express his disapproval.

Chang Qingyun's surprise soldiers turned out not to be the fire attack boat, a traditional weapon of Chinese water warfare, but the main means used by the Ming and Qing water divisions to resist foreign aggression.His surprise weapon is an underwater dragon - a traditional Chinese-made mine.According to some books, the underwater Hunjianglong is the original anchor mine, and its meaning is the same as "swarm of bees" is the originator of modern rocket launchers.

However, due to the serious problem of the firing mechanism and the difficulty of deployment, this kind of anchor mine has never been of practical use, and it has gradually become a "magic weapon" in the book.

Of course He Rubin knew about such things. The end of the Ming Dynasty was an era when firearms exploded in China. Anyone who could read a few words was talking about the invention of firearms.

The underwater chaotic dragon has no practical value at all, He Rubin knows this very well.But Chang Qingyun's surprise soldier is an improved version of Hunjianglong-similar to Piaolei.

Chang Qingyun immediately drew a sketch on the table using tea as ink.Basically, gunpowder is packed in clay pots and sealed, and then bamboo is cross-tied on all sides, which not only provides buoyancy but also makes it easy to hang ships.The top of the raft is covered with straw and the like.It was pushed to the side of the Kun thief's boat by a brave soldier who was good at water, and then ignited the fuse.

"Or you don't need to use soldiers, just send small boats, and when the night tide enters the port, release a hundred or so dragons outside the harbor, and float them into the port with the tide, and use incense to ignite the fire inside the dragons instead." Chang Qingyun said.

Of course, it is not accurate to cast floating mines like this, so it is necessary to release more, one or two hundred at a time, even if they do not hit the ship, as long as they explode at that time, they can still have the effect of disturbing the bandits.If you can sink and injure the big iron ship that the Kun bandits think of as the Great Wall, the Kun bandits will have no choice but to surrender.

Chang Qingyun's new tactic caused a lot of discussion among the staff.Of course, they understood the meaning of the Hunjianglong. If a large number of Hunjianglong were cast in Bopu, not only would the ships of the bandits be damaged, but the remaining ships would not dare to stay in the port too much.It is bound to be summed in advance.

He Rubin wondered if this thing would work?But it cost little.He Rubin didn't really believe that this thing could sink a large iron ship, but it would be a great achievement to sink a few iron clippers.Immediately promised to let people make a trial batch first.

"It's best to push this thing into Hong Kong with soldiers who are good at water." Chang Qingyun suggested, "It's better to build a mine battalion, Mr. Zhentai, and choose a hundred or ten water warriors who are familiar with water to practice, and they will surely achieve amazing results!"

A local staff member said: "There are lowly Dan people in this province. These people usually live on the water and wander around. There are many people who commit adultery and robbers. However, the water quality is very good. Why don't we recruit water warriors to drive the river dragons? .The effect of fighting poison with poison is not a pity even if there are occasional casualties. It will not damage Tianwei, and it can eliminate harm for the local area."

From there, the staff talked about firearms.The end of the Ming Dynasty was originally an era when everyone talked about firearms. There were many books of all kinds and it was not difficult to obtain them, so most of the staff members could say something ugly.He Rubin is also a person in this way, and he has written books, and when he talks about it, he is even more eloquent.Because it was rumored that the Kun thief's firearms were powerful, everyone wanted to find some more powerful ways to restrain the enemy.

He Rubin pondered for a moment, recruiting Shui Yong, he can't do it alone, it needs the approval of the governor and the governor.However, this is not a way to defeat the enemy.It doesn't cost much to recruit two or three hundred water warriors.Even if that chaotic dragon is useless, it can be used to fight.

　Note: 1. As pointed out by Wang Luobin and others, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in the Ming Dynasty was stationed in Zhaoqing.It is hereby corrected.The previous plot does not move.

　　2. The original text of Tangbao was provided by Dumo, with slight expansion and revision.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)