Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 360 Yantai ([-])

The "big army" led by Mo Ming marched along the post road built by the Ming government.The road conditions were pretty good. They headed south first, and then turned east. After traveling for half a day, they finally arrived at their first destination - Qishan Shouyu Qianhusuo City.Before arriving at the Qishan Station, the people from the east bank also pulled out two or three smoke piers along the way. These smoke piers were laid along the official road to convey important military information.It’s just that today, in the 16th year of Chongzhen, most of these smoke pier only exist on paper. Many military households in the pier have fled, and only one pier still has some old soldiers farming and guarding.And these people, without any accident, became the captives of the East Coast people.

Qishansuo was established in the 31st year of Hongwu. It is a small city with a city of two miles. The height of the city is two feet and two feet thick.The inner layer of the wall is rammed earth, and the outer layer is covered with bricks - a stereotyped Ming Dynasty guard city.There are more than [-] soldiers in Qishan Suo, but after many years of wars, especially in the battle of the Tartars two months ago, the few soldiers in Qishan Suo escaped.It has been nearly two months since the Tartars retreated, and some soldiers who fled from the city have come back to set up farms one after another.

Since the Tartars only retreated in March, and their return from other places was delayed for some time, when they took out the hidden grain and prepared to start this year's spring sowing on the barren land, it was actually a bit late for farming.However, if you don't farm the land for a year, you won't have food for a year. These guards and soldiers who are nominally military households but are actually serfs are still working mechanically and laboriously in several farming sites outside the city.Therefore, when the troops from the east bank marching extremely fast suddenly appeared in front of the west gate of Qishan Qianhusuo, what they saw was such a rural scene.

And when they appeared, those ragged and skinny military households were stunned for a moment, and after seeing their faces clearly, they yelled suddenly and fled in all directions.The direction they fled to was naturally Qishan Qianhu City, and these people did not forget to bring farm tools when they fled-one of their extremely important properties.

What followed was a boring chasing game. A group of officers and soldiers from the stand-up team seized the wide-open west gate of Qianhusuo City before them.On the other hand, some officers on horseback led strong and well-trained infantrymen and opened a large circle around the periphery, surrounded these fleeing military households one by one, and then arrested them on the spot.Because Mo Ming issued an order not to kill or injure as much as possible, it took a lot of effort to arrest them.

And when the army soldiers and these military households were playing the game of eagle catching chickens in the field, the main force of the stand-up team, led by Kurhan, rushed into the city with lightning speed, and took away those who wanted to escape. A group of health officials blocked him on the spot.After a short, not very intense battle broke out, the officers and soldiers of the stand-up team captured the officials and their families at the slight cost of injuring three people.

The whole "battle" finally came to an end after two hours.The people on the east bank successfully captured the city of Qianhu in Qishan, and captured 298 people from the deputy Qianhu (Qianhu did not know where to end), plus a small amount of food and livestock.There are still dozens of old shotguns, a small amount of gunpowder and lead, and a few rusty knives and spears in the official warehouses in the city, which look extremely shabby.

"With this kind of armament, this kind of training, and this kind of morale, I can't beat the Tartars!" Mo Ming was disappointed after looking at the arsenal, and then he quickly told a young staff officer behind him: "These rubbish weapons are loaded Pull the car back, and bring some food and tools over on the way back. In addition, inform Li Yi that he send [-] North Korean men to come over to demolish the city wall. This old-fashioned city wall cannot effectively take advantage of our firepower. It is inevitable that we will be aided by the enemy, so it is better to dismantle it and transport the materials to Zhifu Island to repair our fortress and dock."

The walls of thousands of households in Qishan Mountain are high and thick. The outer layer of the wall, the city tower, and the lookout post are all built with large blocks of blue bricks, while the gates and foundations of the city are made of large blocks of stone.The blue bricks that have been eroded by wind and rain may not be able to be used to repair the city wall according to the standards of the people on the east coast, but it is not a problem to use them to repair the houses in the city; and those large bluestones that are polished extremely smooth are more important. The material is very suitable for the foundations, walls, gates or towers of a bastion.

Mo Ming gave an order, and soon, these 298 captured men, women and children, under the threat of bayonets from the East Bank, had tears in their eyes, and even cried and demolished the city of thousands of households in Qishan Mountain.They first started demolishing the buildings in the city, leaving none of the yamen, arsenal, official warehouses, and residential buildings.People on the east bank distributed tools such as hammers, picks, and irons to the men to facilitate their work. At the same time, they also controlled women and children so that these people could not think of rebelling.

After leaving half (65) officers and soldiers of the No. 3 Squadron to stay behind, Mo Ming led the main force non-stop to the next target—Ninghai Prefecture.The main force of the army is still the 102nd company of the army, supplemented by more than 60 officers and soldiers of the volunteer team and dozens of North Korean masters (25 carriages, 5 of which have returned), heading towards Ninghaizhou City at a neither fast nor slow speed.This section of the road does not seem to be easy to walk. Due to the collapse of local order in recent years, the road has been in disrepair for a long time and is very dilapidated. This severely restricts the marching speed of the people on the east coast.This is mainly because these large four-wheeled carriages are quite difficult to drive on the potholed roads. If it were not for the addition of a lot of lubricating oil to the axles and the shock absorbing springs installed under the carriages, some vehicles would have been damaged by now.

It was only at this time that Mo Ming understood why some troops in history liked to use mules and horses to carry military supplies.For example, the Japanese pack horse division is like this. It is true that mules can carry goods faster than horse-drawn carts. Although the efficiency is a bit lower, it is still very practical on rough and difficult roads.Well, you can write down this article and submit it to the military department in the future, so that they can reform it themselves.

The troops rested on the banks of the Xin'an River in the evening.The camp for hundreds of people was set up along the river, and the soldiers skillfully took bundles of barbed wire and wooden stakes from the carriage, and then set up camp.After pulling up two barbed wire fences, they connected the carts together end to end as an inner defense facility.After everything was settled, they started to set up tents, boil water and cook food. The whole process was carried out according to the infantry drill code, which seemed to be in order, which made the bumpkins standing next to them and the North Korean masters stunned.

Immediately after dinner, the soldiers were driven into their respective tents, and the officers would take them to a routine political study, the main content of which was blackening European countries and promoting the theory of superiority on the east coast.After the sentries hung bells and barbs on the barbed wire, they began to patrol the camp. The wolf dogs also pricked up their ears vigilantly and followed the sentries around the camp.

Nothing happened overnight.The next day, the rested troops successfully crossed the Xin'an River through a dilapidated stone bridge. At this time, they were only more than ten miles away from Ninghaizhou City.Although Luo Tiansheng is greedy for life and afraid of death, he is still very competent in leading the way after walking around for a long time.Now that the goal is in sight, there can be no further delay.Mo Ming ordered to speed up the march, and soon, more than two hours later, the dilapidated state city of Ninghai Prefecture appeared in everyone's eyes.

On February [-]th (lunar calendar), the city of Ninghai Prefecture was captured by the Tatars. Officials such as Zhizhou and Tongzhi were killed.Therefore, at this time, there are only some scattered residents in Ninghai Prefecture City.These residents scattered to the countryside or other cities before the arrival of the Tartars, and they came back one after another after the Tartars retreated.But for now, most of the people who dare to come back are low-level ordinary people. They can't wander outside for a long time in order to survive, especially those self-cultivating farmers, small landlords, handicraftsmen or small businessmen who still have some family property.

The city wall was still dilapidated, and there was not even a senior official in charge of affairs in the city.The gentlemen in Dengzhou only sent a guy who looked like an aide to come over to have a look, inquired about the situation, and then left in a hurry after the Tartars had retreated.But no matter when the Xinzhizhou appointed by the top comes over, everyone has to continue to live.Everyone silently cleaned up their dilapidated homes and checked their few possessions.

However, their nightmare is obviously not over yet, because a force that suddenly appeared outside the city shattered the newly ignited desire for life of everyone here.This team with a large number of carriages and hundreds of well-equipped soldiers easily rushed into Ninghai Prefecture City, which had no defense force, and took control of the entire city.

What happened next was just like what happened in Qishan Qianhu.The scattered people on the east bank began to arrest the residents of the city, but their 300-odd soldiers obviously couldn't control such a large city, especially after they assigned dozens of soldiers to control several city gates, the force became weaker Obviously, they couldn't control the situation in the city in a short time.They were busy until three o'clock in the afternoon. After shooting and killing two groups of city residents who gathered to resist, the people from the east bank finally took control of this undefended city as they wished, and controlled the remaining 300 residents in the city. destiny.

On May 1643, 5, just after the Manchu Qing army led by Abatay left the suburbs of Beijing with a convoy full of property and looted people for more than 26 miles, it was far away in Ninghai, Dengzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. A small army with more than 30 carts and more than 20 looted residents also embarked on the return journey.

The difference is that Abate's army was followed by 30 "onlookers" of the Ming army, while behind the troops of the East Coast people there was only a desolation.

(End of this chapter)