While the armory workshop was expanding, the production and manufacturing work never stopped for even a moment. Since Zheng's successful expedition on May 18, by the beginning of August, Chen Kai had replicated the miracle of the previous month and a half, with more than 700 spears, hundreds of rattan plaques, nearly 60 waist knives, almost the same number of foot bows and a small number of arrows of various types.

The number of craftsmen has severely limited the overall production capacity, but for now, under Chen Kai's leadership, the production speed of the ordnance workshop has caught up with the expansion of Chen Bao's newly built town of Nanao. In the following days, basically the weapons produced were used to wait for Zheng Chenggong's further expansion after returning to the division!

In July, Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu in the prison state, announced the imperial conquest, and the gentry from all over Fujian responded in groups, and a new round of anti-Qing upsurge on the southeast coast kicked off in northeastern Fujian.

On the fourth day of the seventh month, Zhu Changhu, the king of Yunxi, Wang Qi, Li Changjiao, the leaders of the rebel army, and others led their troops to capture the city of Jianning in northern Fujian, killing Li Yingzong, the general of Jianning, Cao Yinji, the deputy general, and Gao Jian, the prefect of Jianning, and others. Immediately afterwards, this rebel army connected Jianyang, Chong'an, Songxi, Zhenghe, Shouning and other counties in Jianning Prefecture, and had the posture of cutting off the throat from Xianxia Pass to Fujian.

In the same month, Tongan Bo Yang Geng recovered the Pinghai Acropolis. At the same time, the gentry Wang Jizhong, Wang Shihua, Wu Yongning and others raised troops one after another, and began to besiege the Xinghua Mansion in the following month, and completed the recovery of the Mansion in April of the following year.

In August, the Ming army of King Lu of Jianguo captured Lianjiang County in Fuzhou Prefecture. In October, it was connected to Changle, Yongfu, Minqing, Luoyuan, and Ningde counties in Funing Prefecture. At the same time, Liu Zhongzao, a scholar of the Longwu Dynasty, also raised troops in Fu'an County and captured the county seat of Fu'an.

The Ming army of the Lu Jianguo system, Liu Zhongzao's headquarters dominated by Feng Longwu, and the rebel armies from all over the country swarmed, quickly recovering the vast area of 27 counties in three prefectures and one prefecture in northeastern Fujian, and launched a strategic encirclement posture against Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province!

At the beginning of August, Zheng Chenggong's department, which had been training troops on Gulangyu Island for more than a month, also sent troops to Haicheng with Zheng Cai's allied army. Haicheng, that is, the moon port with absolute significance in the history of maritime trade in the Ming Dynasty, is the richest county seat in Zhangzhou Prefecture. Strategically, this is the gateway to Xiamen, and it is also the only way to enter the capital of Zhangzhou by land, Zheng Cai and Zheng Chenggong are bound to win.

The army landed and stationed at Zushantou, and immediately recovered Shiweigang, Jiudu and other places on the periphery of Haicheng County. Zheng Chenggong cooperated with Zheng Cai to send troops, and at the same time confessed his position in the Ming and Qing wars to the world. Within a few days, a large number of Ding Zhuang came to join the army, and there was a great tendency to replicate the mass response in northeastern Fujian.

However, a few days later, with the arrival of Zhangzhou reinforcements, it was only a confrontation, Zheng Chenggong's troops were defeated, Hong Zhengzhong, the head of Zuo Xianfeng Town, was injured by an arrow, and Yang Qihuang, the supervisor of the army, was killed in battle.

After the defeat in the first battle, Zheng Chenggong's troops were forced to retreat to the coastal strongholds, and most of Zheng Cai's troops returned to Xiamen, leaving only a very small number of troops to continue to cooperate with Zheng Chenggong to assist in the defense.

"Damn, the two armies joined forces to attack the city, let's fight to the death, Zheng Cai's guy didn't have the strength to die, otherwise how could he be defeated by the Tartars so easily."

"He's not deadly, but he's not without force."

Hong Zheng, the head of the left pioneer town, was injured and is still being treated in the wounded and sick center, and Chen Hui, the head of the right pioneer town, was furious in the big tent of the Chinese army, but Zhang Jin, the head of the town of Ding Town, also explained a sentence for him. It's just this explanation, listening to that tone, but there is always a feeling of yin and yang, but it contrasts with the iron blue face of the piece below the self-handsome Zheng Chenggong in this big tent.

"The defeat in this battle, in the final analysis, is that there are too many recruits in our department, even those veterans from the South Australian Association, most of them have never been in battle, they have seen blood, and they just train more."

Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Cai joined forces to besiege the city, and Qing reinforcements from Zhangzhou Mansion arrived, so they had to besiege the city for reinforcements. Zheng Chenggong's troops entered the battlefield according to their usual training, and withstood the shots of the Qing army, and entered the stage of hand-to-hand combat with the Qing infantry. However, with the death of several soldiers and the wounding of some soldiers, fear overwhelmed the tolerance limit of the recruits, and the town of Zuo Xianxian, which was the first to engage in the battle, collapsed, and Hong Zheng and Yang Qihuang were still trying to turn the tide, but in the end they could not recover the decline.

As for Zheng Cai's troops, they were as unwilling to contribute as Chen Hui and Zhang Jin said - Zheng Chenggong's recruits couldn't bear it, and they didn't launch a counterattack when the Qing army was attacking Zuo Xianfeng Town with all their might, but retreated with Zheng Chenggong's troops, without the demeanor of those Zheng Group's old troops, and even the momentum of the main force of the coalition army, but Zheng Chenggong's department behaved more like the main force of the coalition army and the advocate of attacking Haicheng.

"If it weren't for the fact that the pikemen were well armed, they withstood the last round of the Tartar cavalry's onslaught, and I was afraid that there would have been many more casualties." Thinking of this, Zheng Chenggong unconsciously thought that if Chen Kai had come earlier, maybe he would have been able to get some other weapons and equipment, and the damage to the soldiers might be smaller. Just thinking of this, he had to sigh, the defeat in this battle really has nothing to do with weapons and equipment, the key is that there are too many recruits, and they panic when they see blood, and their tolerance for casualties is too low.

The army was defeated, the only thing to be thankful for is that the task of the Qing army was only to try to relieve the siege of Haicheng, the Ming army was numerous, and temporarily stabilized its position, and they did not dare to pursue too much, lest they would backfire against it.

At the end of the battle, the army withdrew to a preset camp near the sea, and after counting, the town of Zuo Xianfeng suffered the heaviest losses, and less than 100 soldiers were missing. Whether he was lost, killed in battle, or captured by the Qing army, is unknown. However, the town lost more than 20% of its troops, and its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.

Due to the hard work of Hong Zheng and Yang Qihuang, although Zuo Xianfeng Town was the first to collapse, it also further attracted the offensive of the Qing army. In the other towns, the damage is minimal, and it is not impossible to fight again. However, the defeat in the first battle is now even more of a dilemma, and the haze of defeat hangs over the army, and it cannot be dispersed for a long time.

"It's come to this, and it's useless to say more. For the sake of today's plan, our department still has to decide on the next step as soon as possible. ”

This is the first time to fight against the Qing Dynasty on Nanao Island, and when it comes to high hopes for this and the thirst for victory, everyone present is not as big as Zheng Chenggong as the coach.

However, the army was newly defeated, and Zheng Cai's troops saw that Haicheng could not do anything and retreated to most of Xiamen. Advance, Zheng Chenggong's department is not enough to complete the strategy of Haicheng; Retreating, and even more so, admitting defeat is a blow to the confidence of the officers and men in the army in victory, and it is also an invisible burden in future wars.

The army was in a dilemma, but Zheng Chenggong made an inquiry, and the generals also looked at each other and did not know the essentials. To put it bluntly, they came at the invitation this time to cooperate with Zheng Cai's troops to attack Haicheng. Now Zheng Cai's main son has given up on Haicheng's strategy, their friendly army and weak brigade do not have enough capital to act independently, and they are deeply unwilling to return to the division, how can it be a tangled.

Under Zheng Chenggong's encouragement, the generals spoke freely, and some said that the army should be stationed here for a while, gather some new soldiers in the countryside, and even find opportunities to attack some small groups of Qing troops, one is to train the troops, and the other is to reinvigorate morale. However, the army has been away for a long time, not to mention the danger, the military food was originally supported by Zheng Cai, and now that Zheng Cai has withdrawn the army, grain and grass have become a big problem.

Because of this, some generals said that they might be able to change their targets, such as Zhangpu and Yunxiao in Zhangzhou Prefecture. First, the Ming army's sailors came and went freely, and the sea transportation ability was stronger, and secondly, Yunxiao and other counties were closer to Nanao, even if they had to transport grain from Nanao, it was always easier than here.

Through this battle, the current situation of this army is indeed not suitable for a head-to-head confrontation with the main force of the Qing army, even if it is only the Qing army at the prefectural level. Fortunately, after this battle, the soldiers saw some blood, maybe the next performance will be better, but no one can guarantee whether it will be worse, so they are now also inclined to find some weaker Qing troops, even if the benefits cannot be compared with Haicheng, the right is to practice hands.

The discussion was still ongoing, but there was no result, but a few days later, when Zheng Chenggong had already begun to retreat, Yang Cai, the deputy general of the general of Qinding Town, who was on duty to guard the camp today, came with a messenger who was in the dust, and the latter handed over a letter to Zheng Chenggong.

"Oh Mu Wu nephew, see the letter like ......"

Damu is Zheng Chenggong's number, which was taken by his teacher Qian Qianyi, who was in the midst of the national disaster of Jiashen, and the meaning of this name is to support the expectation of social Ji for him.

The letter was sent by Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Chenggong's fourth uncle, Dingguo Gong. Different from Zheng Cai's "relatives" who came over the spectrum, Zheng Hongkui is Zheng Zhilong's half-brother, born in the Chongzhen Dynasty Wujinshi, when Zheng Zhilong of the Hongguang Dynasty served as the general army of Fujian, Zheng Hongkui led his troops to guard the key places in Zhenjiang in the lower reaches of Nanjing, and later supported Emperor Longwu, which was also the first master of Zheng Hongkui.

Zheng Hongkui is the general of the Zheng Group, his person has a close relationship with Zheng Zhilong, and Zheng Cai, Zheng Lian brothers have a very good personal relationship, and Zheng Chenggong is more loving, last year Zheng Zhilong surrendered, if it were not for Zheng Hongkui's protection, Zheng Chenggong would be taken away by Boluo like Zheng Zhilong, and there would be no future generations of Yanping County King.

Zheng Chenggong silently read Zheng Hongkui's letters, and the strokes that filled him were exactly what he was familiar with. The letter was pinched in his hand, and after thinking for a moment, Zheng Chenggong had already made up his mind when he put down the letter again.

"Dingguo Gong got the news that the northern part of Fujian was in turmoil, and the Quanzhou defenders were isolated and helpless, and now they invite our department to join forces. Ben Shuai has made up his mind to attack Quanzhou! ”