Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1687 Population Reserve

"Crackling" sounded again and again, and Lieutenant Colonel Junio, the acting battalion commander of the Seventh Mixed Battalion, raised his binoculars and observed the top of the fort wall of Nanqiao Town, which had just been swept by a dense volley of guns, except for a few dilapidated walls. Apart from the unrecognizable flag, there was no one left.

In fact, thinking about it, Nanqiao Town is just an ordinary town in Songjiang Prefecture. Although its population is larger than that of ordinary towns, it is not a well-known and prosperous place in the world, so there are not many capable people stationed on weekdays: There is no Manchurian uncle, and the green battalion has only one thousand generals. It is not so much for defense, it is more for surveillance, to monitor the yellow-clothed pirates attacking from the sea.

Mr. Qian who is stationed here is also a wonderful person. Maybe he knows that what he is leading is not a good job, so this master should eat, drink, and take a lot of money on weekdays. Those who stretched out their hands also hugged a little. They have visited the Qinlou Chu Pavilion in the town and even Huating County. They really have an attitude of enjoying life.

So, when the people from the east bank really came from the sea this time, this guy didn't panic, he directly closed the gate of the village, and then he focused on guarding it, as if he hoped that the people from the east bank would go away after being plundered.Of course, if the people on the east bank insist on taking down Nanqiao Town if they don’t leave, then he has no choice but to fight to the death. Just drag the family members far away in Henan.

But now it seems that he really wants to "serve the country with death", because the 1450th mixed battalion, the elite of the East Coast, even set up a temporary headquarters in a village outside the town, and then killed all 1000 people in the battalion Come here and surround this town.Don't think it's ridiculous that more than 1000 people surrounded more than 1000 people. In fact, these [-] Qing troops had no fighting spirit. "Surrounded" by people, there is no one left.

Today is already February 1675, 2, the third day that the people from the east coast surrounded Nanqiao Town.When two to 6 people from the Fifth Division of the Zhejiang New Army who attacked them swept all the surrounding villages and gathered all the people, food, property, books and other valuable things they could find, Junio The lieutenant colonel finally lost his patience and ordered to break through Nanqiao Town, intending to take a rest and continue northward.

After all, the captured population and belongings must be sent south to the seaside as soon as possible, and some key supplies must also be sent from the Jinshanwei area in the south (this guard has been abandoned by the Qing Dynasty in fact, and the population has also moved inward), so temporarily Unable to move north quickly.At this time, some people may ask, since the people on the east coast have the advantage at sea, why don't they transport supplies through the Huangpu River?That is not only fast and has a large volume, but also very safe, and no one can intercept it.

But in fact it's not that simple. It's not that the people on the east bank didn't go to the Wusongkou area to try. As a result, when they braved the firepower blockade of the coastal defense batteries arranged by the Qing court and rushed to Wusongkou, they suddenly found that the bottom of the river had been beaten by the Qing army. The wooden stakes are also connected by iron chains, which all of a sudden dampened the desire of the people on the east bank to go upstream from the Huangpu River estuary, because no one knows if there are any obstacles upstream, and it is not worth the risk.

Therefore, the Huangpu River was impassable, and the people on the east bank could only land in the Jinshanwei area honestly, and then pushed northward.Thanks to the Qing government's ban on the sea, Jinshanwei, an important coastal defense town established in the Ming Dynasty, has long been abandoned by them. After landing here, the army on the east bank basically encountered no resistance, and drove straight in all the way, rushing to Nanqiao Town.

Of course, the Qing army now has very few soldiers in Songjiang Mansion. Even if they wanted to effectively intercept the more than 4000 east bank soldiers who landed, it seemed impossible, so they shrank their troops wisely. Gather up the Qian Zong and the head office who were scattered in various flood areas in the wild, and gather them in Huating County, the prefectural capital, to defend them, and act like a shrinking turtle.And the reason why the Qing army is so useless is actually inseparable from the current war situation in Zhejiang——

It is said that since Lu Fang and others solemnly proposed to Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Exploration Team, to engage in trouble in Shaoxing Prefecture and mobilize the main force of the Qing army to go south, after careful consideration, Ma Wenqiang recently accepted their opinions and decided to deploy two servant divisions in Xinchang and Shengxian Sixty-seven thousand people, together with 7000 people from the Bogdan Department of the Second Division of the New Army (the number after the completion of the repair), exerted strong pressure on the Qing army east of Kuaiji Mountain, forcing Tong Guogang, who was sitting in Hangzhou, to invest more troops here .

At the same time, Ningbo also sent envoys to Wenzhou, requesting Lu Wang Zhu Yihai to strictly order his troops not to retreat, and try his best to storm the southwest of Shaoxing Mansion; The pressure caused them to send troops stationed in Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Songjiang, and Suzhou to the south, creating favorable conditions for the people from the east coast to land in the north.

To be honest, King Lu, who seems to have no ambitions, is not very interested in counterattacking Shaoxing Mansion, and he is very satisfied with being able to recover all of the relatively affluent Jinhua Mansion.However, who made the regime of King Lu more and more inseparable from the people from the east bank?You see, more than half of their weapons are half sold and half given away by people on the east coast, one-third of their military supplies are obtained through trade with the east, and war horses are also purchased from people on the east coast, not to mention other commodities. Even some of Lu Wang's own diseases were detected by doctors from the East Bank. It is a bit too much to say that they are a puppet regime, but in fact, they can't find out too much, can they?

Therefore, when Ma Wenqiang's envoy arrived in Wenzhou and met Queen Lu, Zhu Yihai had no choice but to pinch his nose and order Governor Zhang Huangyan to march northward, relying on Zhuji County (which was acquired by the Ming Dynasty in early 1674) Army Conquer), peeping at the Qing territory west of Kuaiji Mountain.

Zhang Huang said that this move naturally made the Qing army extremely uncomfortable.You know, although their combat effectiveness is not very strong, but there are more than 3 soldiers and horses!These 1 people echoed the more than [-] troops on the east bank in the Xinsheng Basin to the east of Kuaiji Mountain, and at the same time launched a counterattack against the Qing army. The Qing army resisted extremely hard for a while, and lost several important nodes in just two months. , Lost more than ten thousand soldiers and horses, which shocked the Hangzhou camp.

As a last resort, Tong Guogang could only mobilize troops from other prefectures to go south to stabilize the situation in Shaoxing.Because if he doesn't do anything else, once the Eastern and Ming coalition forces attack the northern part of Shaoxing Mansion, the rear of a large number of Qing army field troops facing each other across Siming Mountain and the east bank will be threatened. unacceptable.Therefore, in order to avoid the collapse of the front line, Shaoxing Mansion was occupied by yellow-clothed thieves. Kangxi's uncle could only spread his message to various places in the summer of 1674, ordering him to dispatch "Kong Wu Yongjian Sergeant" and go south to Shaoxing Mansion for reinforcements. ease the situation on the ground.

In this way, the idea that Lu Fang and others expected to mobilize the main force of the Qing army to go south and create conditions for the large-scale landing of the army on the east coast in the area around the mouth of the Yangtze River in the north has been perfectly realized so far!The areas of Songjiang, Jiaxing, and Huzhou are extremely empty. As long as there are capable fighters landing here, there should not be any large-scale and organized Qing army coming to harass them in the short term, and they can do whatever they want in the prefectures and counties.

And the people on the East Coast do the same!After preparations were completed in the second half of 1674, Ma Wenqiang ordered at the beginning of this year to use the Seventh Mixed Battalion and the Fifth Division of the Zhejiang New Army. They were selected from the militias of various counties in Ningbo Prefecture. At present, there are more than 2700 people gathered, and their combat effectiveness is very average. They formed a landing detachment. Lieutenant Colonel Junio ​​served as the commander-in-chief. They landed in the Jinshanwei area of ​​Songjiang Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty, and then advanced into the hinterland of the Prefecture. Collect the population and use it as a reserve population for immigration transportation in the next year.

From Ma Wenqiang's order, it can be seen that the main task of this "big army" on the east bank, which numbered only in the early 1674s, was not to capture the city in Songjiang Prefecture and eliminate the vital forces of the Qing army, but to plunder more people to replenish the Qing army. Now there is no immigrant population reserve—you know, in order to make up the population of the 1675-[-] immigration transportation season, Commander Liao of Denglai used the so-called Production and Construction Corps (formerly Shandong Earthquake Corps) that was dredging the Jiaolai New River Most of the refugees who escaped at that time) were sent to the immigration ship, and there was a lot of trouble because of this. This shows the lack of immigrant population, so it can be understood why Captain Ma Wenqiang emphasized not to use Annihilating the enemy or occupying land is the main goal, and collecting people is the top priority.

After the previous landing detachment landed in the Jinshanwei area, it immediately made a division of labor. The elite seventh mixed battalion was responsible for attacking any hostile Qing troops encountered along the way, while the fifth division of the new army with average combat effectiveness had two to three thousand people. Scattered to various places to collect people, and then slowly transferred to the Jinshanwei area, and the navy ships were responsible for sending people to Dinghai Port.

If counted from the first day of landing, this east coast force led by Lieutenant Colonel Junio ​​has been "raiding" in Songjiang Prefecture in Southern Zhili of the Qing Dynasty for more than half a month, and searched for more than The [-] Qing residents were then escorted to the Jinshanwei area and transported away by the navy.

Now, there are hardly many people caught in the wild, and the Qing residents who got the news have already fled. It will not only take time and effort to catch them at this time, but they may also be attacked by a small group of Qing troops, which is not worth it.Therefore, after receiving the news from the Fifth Division of the New Army, Junio ​​did not intend to continue playing with the Qing army, and immediately ordered to break through Nanqiao Town and capture a large number of Qing residents hiding in the town—— After the people from the east bank landed in Songjiang Mansion, many residents in the wild began to squeeze into the towns. After all, there are city walls here to provide them with a sense of security. Therefore, the fortresses in all counties and important towns are overcrowded. Once captured, the harvest is inevitable. Very big.

And Nanqiao Town's thin rammed-earth fortress walls obviously couldn't stop the well-equipped officers and soldiers of the Seventh Mixed Battalion.They used the long-range and high-precision Miniguns (the rate of fire is slow and the firepower projection is not enough, but it is more than enough in this occasion) to suppress the possible counterattacks of the Qing army at the top of the city, and then they took their time. Set up artillery positions outside the city gate, intending to use artillery to blast the gate of Nanqiao Town - these are actually old routines, but the Qing army just couldn't crack them.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, with a cheer that resounded through the sky, the scarred iron-clad wooden door in Nanqiao Town was smashed into pieces by a 12-pound shell. A good hand, killed in from the gate of the city.Surprisingly, the more than a thousand Qing troops participating in the city surrendered without much effective resistance. The officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division who were prepared for a hard fight were overjoyed: they could occupy Nanqiao Town without any effort. There are such beautiful things!

After the capture of Nanqiao Town, the people on the east bank did not have time to count the food, gold, silver and supplies in the city, but made a rough count of the number of people. After learning that this small town was crowded with tens of thousands of people, they felt very sad. Let out a long sigh of relief, this is one step closer to completing the target.

On February 2, the troops on the east bank who took a rest in Nanqiao Town easily crossed the Huangpu River without encountering any obstacles, then turned to the northwest and headed straight for Huating County, intending to see if there was any trouble here. can be fished.

Huating County is the capital city of Songjiang Prefecture. In addition to the county government and government government, there are also weaving government offices, salt roads and other institutions in the city. There are many officials and relatively wealthy.Moreover, it is also the garrison of a general under the command of General Su Songchang of the Qing Dynasty. There are three battalions (there were originally six battalions, but last year three battalions were deployed to reinforce Shaoxing), and the defense is relatively strong.

Of course, the officials of the Qing Dynasty dare not be so optimistic. They have dealt with the people on the east coast for many years, and they have long known that no matter how strong the city wall—as long as it is not made of stone—under the continuous bombardment of more than a dozen cannons, the city will be destroyed. It's only a matter of time before the wall collapses, so when I see the army on the east bank approaching the city, my heart trembles unconsciously.

Fortunately, Major Junio ​​was too lazy to deal with these people for a while, so he still used the old method. The elite Seventh Mixed Battalion kept watch over the Qing army outside Huating County, while members of the Fifth Division of the New Army went to the surrounding villages and towns to "relocate" the population. and supplies.If the Qing army in the county couldn't take it anymore and went out to fight in the field, then it happened that the Seventh Mixed Battalion could defeat them in one go; People from the Fifth Division continued to arrest people and sent them to Jinshanwei, until there was nothing to catch around them, and then they gathered together to break through Huating County together and make a big one!

In the emptiness of Songjiang Mansion, the people on the east bank are so self-willed!

(End of this chapter)