Section 167 occupies Tiger Mén

Preparing to go up the mountain is a squad of spearheads. No one expected that when they appeared at the foot of Wushan through the smoke of gunpowder, the officers and soldiers on the mountain of Yaniang Shoes Island would collapse. By the time the 10-man reconnaissance team reached the top of the mountain, the Chinese military camp, which had originally numbered more than 600 people, had become empty. Tents, banners, and ordnance were all over the ground.

After the task force occupied the island, Chen Haiyang ordered a halt to the attack. The officers and soldiers got a little respite, and the scattered soldiers were lucky not to be caught, and finally fled to the village of Humén. Some of the officers and men stationed in the Humén area retreated to the Humén village, and the ships of the naval division retreated to Dahushan Island.

Whether it is Dahu Mountain or Tiger Mén Village, it is easy to capture. Chen Haiyang ordered the fighting to stop because it was about to get dark. He did not intend to get into a hún battle with the Ming army after dark, in vain to increase unnecessary casualties.

The Fu Bō army set up an observation post on Wu Mountain to monitor the Hu Mén village below the mountain. The location of the Tiger Mén Village has become extremely dangerous at this time, and the entire Hu Mén Village can be overlooked from the Wu Mountain, and a few Mén field guns can make the entire village unable to hold. Such phenomena that violate the most basic military common sense abound in battle.

China's military system, jishu, and tactics were already in a state of obvious stagnation by the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the battle of Tiger Mén, the elders have already had a clear experience.

The navy had full confidence in its own military liliang and jishu after this battle - the Ming government could not say that there was a navy to use, and now it proved that the land defense was equally vulnerable.

Looking down from the mountain, the whole Hu Mén village is brightly lit and noisy at this time. After Shi Zhiqi observed, he thought that the situation in the village was húnluàn, and he was afraid that the entire army would collapse before midnight.

"Break up, break up, save the trouble of attacking tomorrow." Chen Haiyang looked at the map in the tent he had just set up, "Take the tiger village early tomorrow morning." There is a Taiping Ruins in front of the Tiger Mén Village, try not to hurt the lives and property of the people. ”

"Understood"

"Provided, of course, that they're honest. If they come and attack us, you're welcome. ”

The next day, Chen Haiyang Jihua transferred the artillery boats and sampans to the Sanmén waterway to support the navy in attacking Humén Village. The three mén waterways are between the tiger mén village and the wu mountain, and the wu mountain is lost, and the three mén waterway has become the only barrier of the hu mén village. In Xu Tingfa's battle plan, a sandbag battery was originally to be set up at the entrance of the Sanmén waterway. But at this time, the construction had not yet begun, and there were only a dozen soldiers on the fort position guarding the building materials, and they had already fled at this moment. The fleet of xiǎo-type ships easily passed through the Sanmén and entered the Sanmén waterway to take the Humén village directly.

On the 21st of September, after a night's rest, the sailors quickly crossed the three mén waterways with sampans. Lined up in front of the Taiping Market. The people in the Taiping Ruins hurriedly sent a few old people out to offer gifts, asking the army not to attack the Taiping Ruins.

"We will do our best to prepare everything the army needs." Several old men kowtowed vigorously at Shi Zhiqi's feet, "Please restrain your subordinates ......"

"I'm not a king." Shi Zhiqi wanted a few beautiful eyebrows to kneel at his feet and kowtow and beg for mercy, I can't bear to do this for a few old men, so he immediately said solemnly, "We are a dignified Fu bō army who came here to seek justice from the Ming officials in Guangdong." Rest assured, as long as you do what we say, we will never hurt you or a tree."

A few old men thanked them again. Immediately, Shi Zhiqi ordered someone to escort them to Chen Haiyang. He has a dedicated civil affairs staff to communicate with the local indigenous people.

The spearhead sent by the "report detachment leader" to reconnoiter returned, and "there is no one in the stockade" He gasped, "It's an empty village"

"Have you searched around?"

"Searched without any sign of the enemy. We caught a few wounded soldiers who stayed in the stockade, saying that the group had fled in all directions since midnight, and General Xu did not stop him, and ran away with his own soldiers and others. ”

Shi Zhiqi scratched his head: "He walked away with a good breath." ”

The Tucheng of Hu Mén, which Xu Tingfa painstakingly built, was empty, including Xu Tingfa, Li Xijue, Fan Wencai and others, all fled overnight, and a large number of ordnance, grain, grass, and ammunition were abandoned in the village. Even the Hongyi cannons that had been transported with great difficulty were all abandoned. A large number of fires and cannons were just thrown in place, and they didn't even make the move of setting fire. Such a careless way of discarding military supplies made Shi Zhiqi smack.

There was originally a workshop behind the Tiger Mén Village to make fire yào and cast cannonballs, but at this time it also fell into the hands of the navy. In addition to the seizure of many finished products, there are also a large number of saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal and other raw materials for making fire, and more than 200,000 catties of metal materials such as lead and pig iron have been seized, which can be described as a rich harvest.

More than 200 craftsmen and their families who lived near the workshop were taken prisoner, and the officers and soldiers forgot about them when they fled.

The battle lasted even longer, as the ten warships led by Chen Qian retreated without engaging the battle, and the Dahushan Fort was completely paralyzed after withstanding the repeated shelling of the tǐng and the spy boats. The sailors landed on Dahushan Island, dismantled the cannons, and searched for the routed soldiers. Military operations in the Tiger Mén area were all over by noon on 21 September. 1,000 officers and men were killed or wounded, and 600 were captured. The task force captured 140 of all kinds of artillery alone. In addition, 22 boats and xiǎo boats were seized.

The total casualties of the contingent were 2 killed and 31 wounded. Ten ships were shot, but none of them could be called lightly wounded. However, the consumption of ammunition was huge, and the large-caliber mortar guns on the artillery boats fired fifty shells per mén gun during the two days of fighting, and even the shells stored on Hong Kong Island were only six shells per mén gun. There is also a lot of ammunition consumption on the spy boat.

"We're almost the U.S. military in time and space. High investment, high logistics. Chen Haiyang looked at the form sent by the logistics staff and sighed.

The consumption of a modernized and hot-weaponized army was more than ten times that of the medieval army, and Chen Haiyang fought two battles at the mouth of the Pearl River and consumed two-thirds of the total deadweight tonnage of the entire fleet carrying ammunition.

Chen Haiyang began to set up a temporary supply line from Hong Kong Island to Hu Mén. The supply lines were carried by captured sampans, long dragons and other xiǎo vessels, which continued to transfer supplies from Hong Kong to Hu Mén. The maritime patrol system at the Pearl River Estuary, which was established after the navy eliminated the pirate gangs on Lantau Island, greatly improved the maritime security in the entire Lingdingyang region, and the use of high-speed and flexible patrol boats also made navigation clumsy, and the inferiorly armed pirate ships disappeared. Only a small number of armed ships were needed for the supply line

The seized supplies were also loaded onto ships and transported to Hong Kong Island via this route for transshipment back to Lingao – some for local use. As for the various construction materials left on the positions of several unfinished forts, all of them were also transported to Hong Kong for use. As for the other forts, barracks and other buildings, except for a small part for the use of the fleet, most of them were dismantled by the prisoners, and the dismantled building materials were also sent to Hong Kong for use.

"All the houses we don't need are demolished," Chen Haiyang ordered.

So Shi Zhiqi became the leader of the demolition team, driving the captives to demolish the house every day. With the exception of a few relatively Haode barracks houses, which were temporarily retained and disinfected for temporary barracks, all buildings were razed to the ground.

Chen Haiyang intends to use Tiger Mén as a temporary base. To this end, he renovated the trestle bridge at the foot of Wushan Mountain to supply the fleet ships to dock and rest. He himself moved his headquarters to the top of Wu Mountain.

He then met with the people of Taiping Xu. The trembling people brought gifts—fifty taels of silver, two quintals of cane sugar, and ten bare pigs. Chen Haiyang ordered to accept it. The people were asked to elect a liaison officer, and at the same time a reasonable burden was announced, which was actually a kind of extortion of the people, and of course, it could also be called a tax. The Senate used it as a tax. Although the Pearl River Delta region will not be able to be brought under their direct rule in the short term, the Central Government Council believes that it is entirely possible to impose a "reasonable burden" from now on.

Zheng Zhilong levied a navigation tax at sea, while the pirates of the Qing Dynasty had been collecting various "fees" on the Pearl River, both from villages and from transport vessels and trading houses sailing along the Pearl River and the coast. Anyone who refuses to pay will face brutal reprisals. When piracy was most rampant, there was even a semi-public tax collection agency in Guangzhou, which collected "fees". The same is generally true for crossing the group, but the technique and degree should be a little more gentle and beautiful.

According to the provisions on reasonable burden, when the people and ships passing through the group need to collect labor and materials on the spot in Taipingxu, the materials and labor force collected and issued can be discounted to offset the reasonable burden payable by the village. If the claim exceeds the amount of reasonable burden, the excess amount will be paid by the crossing group according to the price.

As for the amount of reasonable burden, after some bargaining, it was set at 30 taels of silver per Chinese New Year's Eve - because the villagers had already sent 50 taels of silver, Chen Haiyang generously promised to waive the payment this year, starting from the next year. The "reasonable burden" can also be offset by rice and other physical goods according to market conditions. According to the economic level of Taipingxu, this amount is not very large - if you can buy a safe place, the villagers are still willing to accept it.

Through this expedition, the Finance Directorate hoped to form a primary taxation system for villages along the Pearl River, and open up a second source of taxation outside of Hainan, especially the various agricultural products abundant in the Pearl River Delta, which were very much needed by the Crossing Group.

The current tax amount is of course insignificant, but it can always remind the villagers of the Pearl River Delta to cross the existence and power of the group.