Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 516 Net ([-])

"The last time our army got news about Li Zicheng's troops following the army was in October last year, and the news itself has a certain lag, so strictly speaking, our information is likely to be very inaccurate." Junior The second lieutenant first made such an opening remark, and then continued: "The news we got at the time was that Li Zicheng fought against the Qing army of Azig in Hubei. He lost consecutive battles and lost a lot of troops and horses. General Liu Zongmin and others who were not recovered from their wounds were captured. He himself was even injured, and then he led his army to flee in the direction of Hunan, and there were many conflicts with the He Tengjiao tribe in the Southern Ming Dynasty. Currently, they occupy half of Hubei and a small half of Hunan, so we have to try to get in touch with them."

"After getting in touch, we will have a comprehensive understanding of their current situation." Junior first talked about the somewhat vague current situation of the Shun army, and then said firmly: "Hunan is hot, and the Eight Banners soldiers are quite impatient. Therefore, at present At least half of the Manchu Eight Banners soldiers who are the best at fighting in the Azige Department of the Qing Army have been transferred to the east to attack Jiangxi and Nanzhili, and to support the Qing Army of the Duoduo Department. Those who stay in Hubei now are only part of the incorporated Ming army and Shun army, supplemented by some Sanshun kings and Mongolian troops. The pressure on the Shun army has been greatly reduced. I think we should take the opportunity to fight with them Get in touch, and then try to subsidize them with some equipment and restore their vitality as much as possible."

"How to get in touch with them? What if they have been wiped out or have taken refuge in Nanming?" Zhang Xudong, an army officer of the young army who was the new captain of the first wing, suddenly asked.

Zhang Xudong is 35 years old this year. Before crossing over, he was a college student studying in Italy. His English is very good, his Italian is passable, and he can barely speak some Spanish.A student who was originally ignorant, after studying abroad for two years, he became a passionate and strong nationalist. After crossing, he has been hanging around in the Ministry of the Army, and he is also a veteran of the army when it was first established.After many activities, he was transferred to the Far East and served as the captain of the First Wing of the Volunteer Squad. He was a captain, and he was considered a respectable senior army officer on the ground in the Far East.

"Returning to Chief Zhang, if Li Zicheng is not dead, then they will definitely not seek refuge with Nanming, and it is even difficult to achieve peace; if Li Zicheng dies unfortunately, then most of his tribe will split up, and we will discuss the situation in detail at that time." For a specific analysis, in short, we still need to try to get in touch with them." Junior replied sternly, "As for how to get in touch with them, after repeated discussions, considering that the Qing army has already mastered a considerable number of inland river boats, With a certain ability to intercept inland rivers, we decided to send two 'Amur River'-class inland river steam gunboats to go up the Yangtze River, and then try to find Shunjun troops in Yueyang, Jingzhou, and Changde in order to get in touch with them."

The "Amur River" class inland steam gunboat is fully steam-powered, with strong horsepower (140 horsepower), shallow draft (0.8 meters), and extremely fast speed (design speed is 10 knots, and the limit is 12.5 knots).Even on inland waterways such as the Yangtze River and Xiangjiang River, it has extremely strong penetration capabilities.It can be imagined that when two steam gunboats sailed on the Yangtze River at a standard speed of 10 knots, even if they were encountered by the Qing army, their extremely slow and slow-moving boats would have nothing to do with the speedboats on the east coast. , It was too late to organize a fleet to round up the two ships of the East Coasters.Even the speed at which they delivered the news within six hundred miles couldn't keep up with the speed of the two ships on the east bank. Therefore, when they found the "Amur River" class steam gunboat on the river, they basically could only watch it off. up.

The standard displacement of an "Amur River"-class inland gunboat is 250 tons. Since it is not a professional transport ship, its full-load displacement is only 330 tons.That is to say, after removing the standard spare artillery, machine parts, coal, water, ammunition and other sundries, the ship can only carry about 80 tons of cargo, and the two ships can only carry 160 tons together.However, if this important and reasonable use is almost enough, at least it can transport a considerable amount of armor, muskets, cannons and ammunition for Li Chuang's troops, which can greatly improve their situation.Li Chuang's troops are not the scumbag troops of Nanming, but they still have considerable combat effectiveness. At least they will not easily become the captain of the transportation team and give away the firearms and equipment sponsored by the people from the east coast to Man Qing for nothing.

Hearing what Junior said, Zhang Xudong didn't say anything, but still frowned.Maybe he felt that it would be dangerous to send these two speedboats upstream alone, and it was not very reliable, but he didn't have any good solutions. In addition, Mo Ming himself was probably involved in the formulation of this plan. It was convenient for me to say anything more, so I just shut up.

"It is not difficult for us to establish a relationship with Li Zicheng's department. After all, we still have the title of Dashun Ninghai Defense Envoy. There are also a considerable number of officers or soldiers from the Shun Army in our stand-up team system. There must be a lot of acquaintances in the Shun army of Li Zicheng's department, and it is easy to make connections." Second Lieutenant Junior explained, "No matter what, we have to try. The Dashun army is one of the few in the south that can fight against the Manchus. The military forces that pose a threat, funding them is tantamount to helping ourselves, and it is extremely helpful to our strategy of maintaining the balance of power on the mainland. After all, their troops number in the tens of thousands, and our own strength is still quite limited. "

It is said that in mid-October last year, the mainland once again transferred several ships to the Far East. In addition to the unshakable two steam engine sailboats, there was also a fast cruiser and two inland steam gunboats—the "Amur River" and "Liaohe" Number.Along with the fleet, there are about 300 Polish veterans, more than 300 Tatar cavalry; 100 supplementary soldiers from the mainland; and a battalion of South African Eight Banners infantry-this is the last reinforcement from South Africa .

这些官兵到来后，东岸共和国在远东的兵力更加雄厚了，计有陆军4个连（含补充连）940余人、炮兵约160人、司令部参谋警卫及杂役人员60余人、治安队斥候200人（已补充）、南非八旗新军4个营（含补充兵）3400人、黑水港驻防黑人士兵230人、利尻岛驻防水兵50人、宪兵50人、各地巡警80多人，以上共计将近5200人，算是东岸人自己可以充分信赖的武装力量了。

There are currently more than 6100 officers and soldiers in the stand-up team system, more than 1200 cavalry brigades (plus newcomers), and more than 400 artillerymen from each fort in the Yantai Fortress Area (plus newly recruited ones). Leading and controlling, the loyalty is high, but not as trusted as the troops from the mainland and South Africa.

Finally, there are vassal armed forces attached to the people on the east coast, namely Zhai Cong'e, Wang Jiazhong, and Qin Shangxing, who occupy Jeju Island, with 5500 people, and about 500 people in Henggunzhai and Temple Street, with a total of about 6000 people.Except for the 2000 people from Zhai Cong'e's department who are more loyal, the rest are not credible and can only be used.

The total number of each department is 2400 to 900, which seems to be a lot, but there are not many who can really be pulled out to fight in the field. There are only about 1400 black soldiers, 4700 East Coast Army, 5000 cavalry brigades and scouts, about [-] people.If the four [-] people practice well and cooperate with each other tacitly, Mo Ming is still confident that he will lead them to fight against the same number of Eight Banners soldiers and win.

As for the various brigades of the stand-up brigade, their combat strength is uneven. The early-established brigades can fight head-on with the Qing army's Green Battalion, which is relatively strong. , but the combat effectiveness is still worrying, and they can only fight against the green battalion, which is not very effective.Those vassal armed forces can’t even say that, except for the savages in the Amur River Basin who are more capable of fighting, those former Qingzhou anti-Qing rebels can only bully the Koreans, and even the Koreans on Jeju Island took it by surprise. , if it is not yet known who will die in a head-on battle, we can know how powerful it is.

In general, with the current size of the army on the east coast, if the entire army is dispatched, it will basically be able to win if the entire army faces the green battalions of Shandong, Beizhili, and Jiangbei. After all, two fists are no match for four hands.And the army of the Manchu and Qing is scary now, not counting the more than 70 people assembled by the Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Eight Banners. The Ming and Shunjiang troops that were incorporated alone amounted to 30 million. This number is piled up You are dead.So, it is still necessary to find helpers. Although Li Chuang's subordinates have been hit repeatedly, it is not a problem to gather more than [-] people capable of fighting.With these more than [-] people and the civilian husbands who pulled them together, it is no problem to gather [-] to [-] people, and they can also carry the green camp armed head-on. They are definitely potential helpers who cannot be ignored by the people on the east coast.

"To sum up, the northern node is composed of our own armed forces directly under our own control, the southwest node is composed of the Dashun Army of Li Zicheng's department-maybe the Daxi Army that may appear in the future, and the southeastern node is composed of the Nanming regime. And the Zheng family formed, exerting force on three sides, resisting steadily, and doing our best to slow down the pace of the unification of the Qing Dynasty." Second Lieutenant Junior closed the document in hand, then looked up at the people under the podium to make a concluding statement: " It is hot in the south, and the soldiers of the Eight Banners are extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, many battles in the south will still be fought by the green battalion. If we subsidize these helpers well, we may really have a chance to weave this big net against the Manchu Qing court. Manchu Once the Qing cannot quickly unify the country, with their current radical and oppressive policies, I think there may be some new changes in the war situation on this ancient eastern continent—new changes that are beneficial to us.”

(End of this chapter)