Dragon Sea Empire

When the Ming court received the news that Tianjin Wei had fallen, the commander of the army to conquer the pirates had not yet been determined. Tianjin Wei had 6000 defenders and strong cannons, but it fell so quickly. Even Liu Yi, who commanded the defense of Tianjin Wei, also fought He died, which surprised all the court officials.

The Taiwanese pirates who called themselves the "Chinese Army" had captured Tianjin Wei, and then took advantage of the collapse of the Ming army to occupy Wuqing County; It has already appeared on the outskirts of the capital. In the northeast direction, all the anti-sea soldiers in the saltworks along the coast have collapsed. From the Baihekou at Dagukou to Daxindian has been completely empty. In the Daxin store.

In the southwest direction, several small units of the Chinese Army have been operating outside Jinghai County, and a large number of water transport ships are congested at the junction of Shandong and Tianjin Wei. The Chinese Army has eased the logistical pressure due to the large amount of food stored in Tianjin Wei. They were able to distribute surplus food to relieve victims and buy people's hearts, and the gunpowder depot of the Ming army did not have time to destroy it. Although the quality of the gunpowder of the Ming army was poor, it could still be used to make grenades.

Under such a crisis situation, the imperial court finally temporarily put aside the factional strife and infighting, and appointed the then Zuo Shilang and Youqian capital censor, governor Ji Liao, and Wang Keshou of Baoding as the commander-in-chief and Tianjin Jinglue to command the entire Beijing army. Heqin Wang's frontier soldiers counterattacked the Chinese army.

Wang Keshou, courtesy name Yixu, nicknamed Jingfeng and Sanpan Jushi, was a native of Wangge, Dushan, Huangmei, Hubei. He studied under Shi Kunyu and Li Zhi. The assistant minister is also the censor of the capital of Youqian and the governor of Jiliao.

On the tenth day after the fall of Tianjin Wei, when the court finally made up its mind to deal with the Chinese Army's northern troops, a piece of news from the south almost made the officials not believe their ears.

"More than a thousand warships of Taiwanese pirates sailed upstream along the Yangtze River, occupied Chongming and Zhenjiang, and surrounded Nanjing,"

The northern and southern capitals were simultaneously threatened by the "sea bandits" of the Chinese army, which has never happened in all dynasties.

The 45-year war in Wanli was an unprecedented war situation in history: attacking from the sea to the inland, from east to west, one side of the war has convenient water transportation conditions and superior mobility; while the other side is empty. The vast inland, but passive everywhere along the coast.

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All of Li Xing's Third Division, one regiment of Mai De's Second Division, two regiments of the Artillery Brigade, the Taiwan Aboriginal Auxiliary Force, as well as the Luzon Pangbangya Aboriginal Battalion, Hainan Li Min Battalion, a total of more than 25000 infantry soldiers and their troops Weapons and equipment, there are more than 300 transport ships on board, including the munitions and food transport fleet, the navy escort ships, and the mighty southern Chinese army fleet has more than 500 large sailing ships. From Taiwan to the coast of Zhejiang within a month. In this era, it can be said that only the Chinese Army has the ability to gather more than 500 large sailing ships and make overall arrangements to carry out a combat operation. Although Yin Feng is the chief of the southern line, the main Xu Hongji, Zeng Shan, Li Xing, Ye Hua and others are in charge of daily affairs.

Now in Taiwan, Luzon, Ryukyu, the Nanyang colonies, and Guam, only the garrison and Zhuang Ding teams are defending. The infantry mobile units are only Zhao Xuanming's Nanyang brigade and Hainan Island's Hainan brigade. The two regiments of the German Second Division have less than 20000 people, and many of them are still recruits. Fortunately, the main force of the Navy's Third Fleet is all cruising in Nanyang, and not a single ship has been drawn out.

Dinghai Zhongzuo of the Zhoushan Islands along the coast of Zhejiang is now the location of the Dinghai Port of the China United Company. A large number of sailing ships gather here to transfer supplies for the northern and southern combat troops. The Qianchangsuo, Juexisuo, and Shipu Qiansuo, Shipu Housuo, Changguowei and other island guard bases belonging to the Ming army have all been controlled by the Chinese army; tens of thousands of fishermen, former pirates, and smugglers along the coast of Zhejiang have mobilized and formed the Zhoushan Islands. A thriving trading market, at the same time, the Chinese navy is also recruiting soldiers in Changguowei and Dinghai Shuqi, recruiting many skilled sailors for the navy.

On the third day after Chen Zhongji's troops landed in Penglai City on the northern line, the Chinese naval navy fleet, led by the latest main battleship "Yuanzi" "Weiyuan", led the formation with four Feizi, 35 three-masted gunboats, and hundreds of fast ships. Ships, patrol boats, etc. flocked into the mouth of the Yangtze River, suddenly attacked and captured Chongming Acropolis and Chongming County in one fell swoop, and then on the next day, the officers and soldiers of the Wusong Suoming Army on the opposite bank of Chongming Island abandoned the city. The fleet's sailor musketeers easily occupied Wusong's place.

Although Chongming Island was still a small island in this era, and the sediment alluvial situation in the Yangtze River was not too serious, only the central channel of the Yangtze River waterway was suitable for the giant ships of the Chinese Army, and the waterways along the coast were not suitable for the operations of the battleships Yuanzi and Feizi. After occupying Chongming Island, the Chinese Army used the captured and temporarily rebuilt flat-bottomed sand-bottomed sailing ships as the transport fleet, and the three-masted Fuchuan as the main force of the artillery fleet.

The Chinese army going up the river broke through the resistance of the Ming navy navy along the river, and sank, destroyed or captured almost all the Ming navy warships along the Yangtze River. , the most equipped firearms are small Frang machine guns. Under the intensive bombardment of the ship-borne cannons and thunderbolt rockets of the Chinese navy's naval gunboats, the Ming army's navy was unable to fight back. The main force of the Chinese army was in Zhenjiang ten days later. When they landed along the Yangtze River, the sailor musketeers and 1000 sentinels lined up in five burst formations, using continuous flintlock firepower to prevent the impact of 5000 Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers from Zhenjiang Guard on the beachhead.

The 5000 Ming army was reinforced by 4000 Ming soldiers from Taicang and Zhenhai, and once again attacked the position of 1000 sailors at the bridgehead of Zhenjiang. The Li Kuiqi Artillery Corps, which had successfully landed, had [-] flower howitzers and dozens of gunboats on the Yangtze River. Hundreds of cannons came together to cover them with artillery fire, and hundreds of thunderbolt rockets were launched from rocket vehicles, and fell on the Ming army's position with a long tail of white smoke.

The Ming army had never seen such a violent bombardment. They were killed and wounded everywhere. The banks of the Yangtze River flowed into rivers, and the broken limbs flew around. The city was also abandoned.

After the fall of Zhenjiang, within two days, Yangzhou City was also attacked by the Chinese army.

After observing the launch of the hot air balloon with the latest artillery, Li Kuiqi used ten siege mortars to fire explosive bombs weighing [-] kilograms and solid iron bullets weighing about [-] kilograms, continuously bombarding the city walls of Yangzhou. The wind is not durable; these days Yin Feng can't come up with any high-pressure gas jet heating technology, he can only use a human blower and a charcoal brazier to heat the air to make the hot air balloon go up, and the balloon will lose its buoyancy and come down in just half an hour. It needs to be reheated, so the precise bombardment continued intermittently for a whole day. Finally, on the second day of the siege of Yangzhou City, the artillery of the Chinese Army forcibly made a gap five feet wide near the east gate of Yangzhou City Wall.

The Chinese army was not in a hurry to rush up, but under the guidance of the artillery observation balloon, they deployed 200 light field cannons to reach the city wall [-] steps away and fired explosive bombs, killing the Ming army who was eager to block the gap. A large area, and then a [-]-jin heavy explosive package (containing iron sand and stones) was thrown with a thunderbolt mortar, killing the Ming army behind the gap in piles.

The observer on the hot air balloon kept shaking his head with the telescope, and waved the signal flag to signal to the following: "Cease fire, no one else,"

There were indeed no living people near the gap. Hundreds of bloody corpses lay here and there, and the soldiers of the Ming army were fleeing. Only then did the infantry of the Chinese Army swagger through the gap, entered Yangzhou City, and occupied Yangzhou with almost no casualties. , Captured thousands of collapsed Ming army soldiers.

The two important towns of Zhenjiang and Yangzhou have fallen, and Nanjing has opened its door wide.

The sharp firearms of the Chinese army have shocked the world so far, deterring all the officers and soldiers of the Ming army.

The sailor musketeers of the Chinese army began to advance southward along the waterways extending in all directions in the south of the Yangtze River. The Chinese army pointed at the front of the south of the Yangtze River, and the defense of the Ming army collapsed. He has a nephew named Ye Ying, and with only a team of [-] sailors and musketeers, he came to the city of Taicang for "reconnaissance". They fired a few shots at the top of the city. As a result, these few gunshots caused thousands of people from the Taicang Weiming Army to blow up the battalion; these officers and soldiers had just fled back from Zhenjiang, and they were frightened by the power of the Chinese Army's firearms, and half of the Ming Army soldiers fled , the other half of the Ming army Kaesong surrendered to twelve Chinese army sailors and marines.

Ye Ying foolishly accepted the surrender of more than a thousand soldiers of the Ming army. Eleven of his subordinates were also pleasantly surprised, maybe a little more. Fortunately, another team of 20 sailor musketeers passed by on a sampan to help them Received Taicang City.

While Chen Zhongji and Fan Tao's troops on the northern line surrounded Tianjin Wei, all 25000 infantry troops of the Chinese Army landed in Zhenjiang and marched towards Yingtianfu in Nanjing.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River are in a state of panic. The culture in this area is developed, the business is prosperous, and all kinds of news are circulating very quickly. "Although everyone on the surface scolds the Chinese army for its treachery, lack of a ruler, and destruction of human relations, some people are thinking in their hearts: businessmen, or ordinary people, can negotiate terms with the emperor, as if they are equal. Isn’t that impossible? If you are innocent, you shouldn’t be arrested and punished for no reason. Isn’t this a matter of course? Isn’t overseas people the people of Ming Dynasty?

The power of tradition is very strong, but because of the closedness of traditional culture, it cannot withstand the blow of harsh reality. The Chinese army shouted the slogans of equality of all peoples, open sea ban, and open business, and the powerful force displayed was somewhat painful. Those short-sighted officials and gentlemen, but generally speaking, the political demands of the Chinese Army have not received much response except for some businessmen and ordinary people.