Section 168 Defense of Canton

The task force stopped at Hu Mén -- after crossing the Hu Mén rung, it could reach the outskirts of Guangzhou in three or four days in a row -- but Chen Haiyang was not in a hurry to come to the city of Guangzhou, and according to the established policy, his main task was to "show off force" and "proclaim and appease." Now that the purpose of the show of force has been fully achieved, the focus is on "Xuanfu" -- first of all, to give the inhabitants of Canton and along the Pearl River enough time to spread the news of the fall of Hu Mén.

The task force began to form a number of xiǎo detachments, each consisting of about a hundred men, carrying xiǎo-type artillery and staffing civilian and exploration personnel. The Xiǎo detachment would travel along the cobweb-dense inland waterways in sampans and long dragons to villages and market towns along the Pearl River, collecting "reasonable burdens" and posting notices. Make a big splash. And, of course, severely punish any village that tries to resist them.

Due to the insufficient number of naval soldiers, Shi Zhiqi, who was in charge of this operation, transferred some men from the sailors Chōu to reinforce the Xiǎo detachment. A large part of the navy's sailors are pirates, and they are not only familiar with the Pearl River waterways, but also experts in doing this. In those years, they also followed the "shopkeepers" of various gangs and units to go deep into the inland river in xiǎo boats and loot and kidnap tickets everywhere.

The news of the fall of Tiger Mén reached the city of Guangzhou on the same day. For a time, the four cities shook. The prefect of Guangzhou hurried to see Li Fengjie and asked if he wanted to close the city immediately.

Li Fengjie was taken aback, he didn't expect that Hu Mén would fall so soon. As soon as the tiger mén fell, it was only three or two days after the thief arrived in Guangzhou. Thinking that once the thief attacked Guangzhou, his face turned white.

"Don't close the city for the time being, if it is closed, it will shake people's hearts" Li Fengjie made up his mind, "You and Nanhai and Panyu counties will send more people in each city to step up the investigation and prevent thieves from entering the city."

"Yes, let's do it"

The only weapon in Li Fengjie's hands was his own Fu Biao. However, Fubiao suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Chengmai, and the 1,000 people sent out were either killed and captured in Chengmai or trapped in Qiongshan, and so far no one has returned. Fu Biao currently has less than 700 people to fight with. Fortunately, these people are jīng rui in Fubiao, and Li Fengjie is kind to them on weekdays, and they are a liliang that they can rely on when it is critical.

Li Fengjie was not worried about defending Guangzhou: it was not only a strong city, but also a large population. When necessary, a large-scale requisition of Ding Zhuang and the mobilization of 100,000 Ding Zhuang to the city are also a matter of moment. In addition to Fubiao, there are also the men and horses of Xu Tingfa, the general of coastal defense, and some sporadic troops inside and outside the city of Guangzhou, in addition to the guards stationed in Guangzhou and the surrounding areas. The officers and soldiers of the Guangzhou Wei were very famous at that time, and throughout the Ming Dynasty, they were often transferred out to fight against Miao and Yao.

These troops were gathered to three or four thousand people, which was enough to serve as the core of the defense of Guangzhou. But as the governor of Guangdong, he had to consider not only the city of Guangzhou, but also the counties and villages along the Pearl River. If he was killed and plundered by a thief, he couldn't bear to be impeached by Yushi.

Li Fengjie convened the officials and staff members in the city to discuss countermeasures. The opinions of the people were generally from two aspects: consolidating Guangzhou's own urban defense and strengthening the self-defense capability of villages and towns along the river.

Originally, when Liu Xiang was active in the Pearl River Estuary, Guangdong localities stepped up the implementation of the armor protection law in various parts of the Pearl River Delta, encouraging the gentry in various places to train regiments to practice the courage and self-defense of the countryside. Each county has already established a public office, with the magistrate serving as the head of the regiment, and the local prestige and willing to contribute to the gentry serving as the deputy head of the regiment. The government can lend artillery to those who train regiments and towns, and villages are also allowed to forge their own artillery. Watchtowers and fences were erected at intersections and river estuaries with gongs to transmit alarms. And it provides for multi-village joint insurance. When a village is in trouble, all neighboring villages must send out their villagers to help. As for the necessary funds, each village bears its own responsibility: some from donations from large gentry households, and some from assessments to all villagers. Several counties simply levy a sum of silver on the field as the county's group training fee.

This system has been in place since the beginning of last year, and it has already begun to bear fruit. Most of the officials thought that the thieves were unfamiliar with the land and did not necessarily dare to go deep into the inland rivers along the river, while the villages along the Pearl River were the most active in fortification and training, and Xu Tingfa's sailors were generally complete. Thieves aren't too rampant.

He Chengzong proposed: It is better to defend the city than to defend the river. The thieves were strong and strong, but they did not dare to move too far away from the ships, so they did not have to worry about them attacking Guangzhou by land, as long as the officers and soldiers defended on the Pearl River and cooperated with the villagers to fight the fierce spirits of the thieves. In the end, the goal of forcing the enemy to withdraw from the Pearl River was achieved.

From Hu Mén to Guangzhou, there are many important points on the Pearl River that can be defended. Among them, Wuchong is the most important. He Chengzong suggested that most of the troops should be concentrated in Wuchong, and the sandbag forts should be built, and more cannons, sampans, and long dragons should be mobilized.

"Wuchong controls the provincial river to be Jin. Our army is stationed here, and it can enter the Pearl River to assist in the defense of various places along the river, and retreat can ensure the safety of the provincial capital. is a top priority. ”

He Chengzong vigorously advocated his Wuyong theory of victory. Most officials and aides agreed with him. However, Xu Tingfa, who saw the powerful firepower of the thieves with his own eyes, objected.

Guangzhou's defense must be stepped up. "Xu Tingfa was temporarily stationed in Whampoa after returning from the defeat of Humén, and the core of his headquarters was still intact - the original main force was the sailor, and the sailor only lost some ships to be repaired in the battle of Humén. The main ships and men all withdrew. He sent people along the river to appease the rout. The soldiers who escaped from Humén Village and other places have returned one after another in the past few days, and he has nearly 2,000 troops in his hands.

"The villages along the river can protect themselves at most, and they can't stop the thieves from going up to Guangzhou. As for Wu Chung, what do you think is better than Hu Mén? Xu Tingfa said.

The Tiger Mén Fort began to be built in the Wanli period, and it has been extensively repaired and refurbished in the last year, regardless of the fortifications or the number of artillery, it is impossible that the Wuchong Fort that is ready to be built in a hurry can be compared.

It was such a battery, guarded by 2,000 soldiers, that collapsed in less than a day of fighting. This psychological impact is extremely huge for Xu Tingfa. He saw very clearly that with the existing quality and weapons of the officers and men, they were no match for the Australians, who were strong in ships and guns.

Therefore, Xu Tingfa's suggestion was to directly defend Guangzhou, concentrate most of the troops that could be collected in the city of Guangzhou itself, build additional forts on Yuexiu Mountain, and at the same time station heavy troops in Dongsheng Temple in the east of Guangzhou and Fenghuanggang in the west.

As for the other points along the provincial river, such as Liede, Pazhou, and Qinzhou, it did not matter whether they were fortified or not, because the hastily built forts could not withstand the enemy's shelling at all, and in vain increased casualties

Only the city of Guangzhou itself, relying on the high walls and deep ditches of the city defense wall, has been operating for a hundred years, and has countless people as support, and it can probably be supported by the onslaught of thieves

"Isn't it possible to let the gunboat captain of the thief drive straight into my Yangcheng City?" Li Xijue said dissatisfied. He is now attending the meeting as a representative of the governor of the government -- after all, Wang Zunde is the supreme military governor of the two provinces, and the military attachés of the two provinces are under his control, and Li Fengjie wants to kick out the governor to negotiate peace and return the peace, and it is absolutely impossible to kick out the governor to fight.

Li Xijue had seen the gunfire of the thieves, so he could somewhat understand Xu Tingfa's fear of war, but in addition to understanding, he couldn't help but despise this person, thinking that he was greedy for life and afraid of death, and refused to fight to the end.

But he couldn't harden his tone, first of all, when he fled from the Tiger Village a few days ago, he also took the lead and ran away with the horse's neck; Secondly, the only decent force around Guangzhou is now left by Xu Tingfa's Governor of Guangzhou, and the headquarters of the Guangzhou Coastal Defense General is a little pretended.

Xu Tingfa suggested that instead of building sandbag forts everywhere that were vulnerable and useless under the fire of thieves, it was better to choose a place on the provincial river leading to Guangzhou where the river channel was narrow and there was a lot of siltation to block the channel, and at the same time place wooden rafts and iron chains on the river surface to lock the river.

"There are many modifications to the ships of the thieves, and there are many soldiers on board. The draft is heavy. We will block the river, and the enemy ships will not dare to go deep into the provincial river for fear of running aground and hitting the reef. ”

However, Xu Tingfa's suggestion was rejected by Li Fengjie. First of all, he was reluctant to allow the thief's ship to appear at the foot of the provincial capital, which would be given a handle when it was passed on to the capital, and secondly, he thought that Xu Tingfa's so-called "strong ships and guns" were exaggerated: Whenever a battle was lost, the officials and generals in charge would always say that the enemy was 120,000 points bad, and there were many untruths in it. Li Fengjie is an old magistrate, how can he not know this trick? He regarded Xu Tingfa's suggestion as a manifestation of the general's "fear of war" and did not care.

The final decision of the governor's meeting was to strengthen the defense of the inland river, and at the same time to train the regiment to "make a strong reputation". To this end, a special general league bureau was set up in Guangzhou, and local enthusiastic and powerful gentlemen were summoned to handle the affairs of the regimental training. In addition, he issued a message to all prefectures and counties in the Pearl River Delta, and ordered each county to quickly set up a regimental bureau to handle the protection of armor.

Xu Tingfa was stationed at Wuyong, a key pass into the inland river of Guangzhou. Immediately in Wuchong, a sandbag fort was urgently built to place 18 Hongyi cannons. At the same time, according to Xu Tingfa's suggestion, several old ships full of sand and gravel were sunk in Wuyong, Liede, Ershawei and other places to block the channel, and people were hired to drive wooden stakes in the narrow places of the river. As for the long iron chain blocking the river, there was nowhere to find it for a while, so I had to send people to Foshan to make it in the starry night.

1,200 troops were stationed in Wu Chung. All 40 ships of the naval division under Xu Tingfa were concentrated near Wuyong, ready to be on standby for reinforcements at any time. At the same time, sandbag forts were urgently built in Qinzhou, Pazhou, Liede, Ershawei, Dahuangjiao and other provincial river key places, and Hongyi cannons were placed.