Chapter 490 Resistance

The safety of Huai'an Mansion City itself, Chen Jin naturally did not dare to relax.

In order to prevent the thieves from taking the dry road and going north by sea instead, he sent a lot of soldiers to the coastal towns on both sides of the Yellow River - this is by no means unfounded, you know, when the first attack on Fuzhou, that group had already merged with Zheng Sen, and his Zheng family, but the hegemon of the South China Sea, mobilized the fleet to cross the sea to commit crimes is by no means alarmist.

His strategy was: "echelon deployment, continuous resistance" - to disperse the Cao troops along the coast.

Although the land is vast and there are few soldiers, and each coastal town and port can only station more than 100 people, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a virtual reality, but it finally has a vigilant appearance, at least it can give a timely warning, right?

Because of this, the first batch of Hongyi cannons with the new grinding plate gun mount were installed in Yunti Pass, although the first batch of cannons made in a hurry was only a few pieces, but it finally strengthened the threat of Tucheng Fort to the river surface.

At the suggestion of a general who had fled from a defeat in Fuzhou at the beginning of the year, he sent another sentry next to the fort to protect him -- this gang of thieves was much more fierce on land than on a ship, and they were very good at attacking the east and west, and went straight to the point.

In this way, there are a total of two sentries stationed in the small Yunti Pass, and more than 400 people are guarded.

In addition, he temporarily hired more than 3,000 people among the boat owners to supplement the sailor battalions in the canal and the Yellow River—this move finally increased the number of water sentinels, and as for the combat effectiveness, it was not so much for the time being.

In addition, he also set up a new camp outside Andong City, and sent an additional battalion of men and horses to garrison it as a barrier to Huai'an City.

Unexpectedly, everything had just begun, and the gang had already arrived—so quickly!

Last night, after receiving the alarm, Chen Jin was shocked, but he was a little relieved.

Surprised-they really went north along the coastal road and came directly to his lair!

Thankfully, I finally made some preparations in advance, so that I would not be caught off guard and sing empty plans.

Without much hesitation, Chen Jin decided to set off immediately and took Zhang Tianlu to Andong City overnight.

I can't talk about the command of the battle, at least go to the front line to make an appearance, and it is also excellent to cheer up the soldiers, Huai'an can hold the best, even if the battle is not supported, there will be an explanation to the court in the future.

He resolutely decided to meet the enemy, in fact, there is a more important, but ulterior consideration - unlike the Fucheng Shanyang, the county seat of Andong is located on the north bank of the Yellow River, in case the Ming thieves are too fierce, it is more convenient to escape by land and water.

According to the Tang newspaper, there were no more than 5,000 thieves gathered in Clam Harbor, and less than 100 large and small ships.

"No matter how greedy they are, they just want to drink Ma Huanghe, right?"

Chen Jin speculated, with this person alone, no matter how fierce the thief was, he probably didn't dare to cross the river directly, and the lone army went deep into the hinterland of the Central Plains.

If this is the case, he will be able to keep most of Huai'an Mansion in his worst ending.

At that time, the governor's palace can also be moved to Pizhou, or Haizhou—for the sake of not losing all the salt-producing areas, the imperial court will not ask him about his capital crimes......

However, after arriving at Anton, the military situation he learned made Chen Jin's courage leak most of it at once - the armament of the Yellow River estuary, which he had invested a lot of money and grain to rebuild, was almost completely useless.

The Cao soldiers stationed in various towns fled all the way, not only did the Clam Harbor Fort not fire a single shot, but even the nearby towns of Miaowan, Yukou, and Maluo fell in the blink of an eye.

The more than 1,000 recruits under Anton's training guerrilla subordinates, who he worked hard to personally supervise, went so far as to disperse directly, and only a dozen or so pro-soldiers ran back to Andong City with the training guerrillas.

Chen Jin secretly regretted in his heart that his so-called strategy of "echelon deployment and resistance" had become a cake!

Knowing this, it is better to gather all the soldiers and horses on the river defense, in order to fight with all their might!

However, it is useless to regret it at this moment, and now that the coastal defense has been lost, the banks of the Yellow River have become a place that must be defended.

The situation no longer allowed him to take it calmly - it turned out that his estimate of the speed of the capture army's march was also wrong.

After the captives captured Clam Harbor and other places, they hardly did not make any rest, neither "rested for a few days" nor "plundered for three days", but actually went non-stop, and the next day they went up the river and went straight to Huai'an.

However, Huai'an Mansion did not have many troops, and in a hurry, it was too late to ask for help from Lord Hong in Luzhou.

Even if you add the pro-soldiers of the generals and officials who fled from Hangzhou and other places...... Added up, there are less than 6,000 people around Fucheng.

In contrast, although the strength of the Ming thieves is only a few thousand, and the warships are not more than a hundred, but several of them are majestic ships, all of which have "giant cannons" on them.

As a result, the idea of "fire attack" became the consensus of the Qing army generals.

After the plan was agreed, Chen Jin ordered people to go out overnight to collect civilian merchant ships and fishing boats, and instructed Zhang Tianlu to prepare enough dry firewood, tung oil and gunpowder, and drive to the upper reaches of Yunti Pass in the morning, and hand it over to the general manager of the guard Qian, named Fan Shizai.

Knowing that the fire attack fleet had finally set off, Chen Jin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, whether Huai'an could hold it or not, success or failure was a matter of success or failure!

The fleet of the sailor battalion was divided into two according to his orders.

The few broken ships in Yunti Pass followed the fire attack fleet, and once the fire attack ships broke the Ming thief fleet, they took the opportunity to cover up and kill them downstream, expanding the results of the battle.

The more than 40 boats of the main force of the river defense battalion were all lined up on the river in front of Andong City, and once the fire attack ships could not break the enemy, they would serve as the last line of defense on the river.

"Lord Taiwan, it's useless for these sailors to stay on the river,"

Zhang Tianlu, the commander-in-chief, admonished in a low voice, "If the fire attack ships cannot break the enemy, these ships will be as vulnerable as local chickens and tile dogs...... Why don't you press the whole army, take advantage of the momentum of the fire and attack the ship, fight downstream, or have a chance of winning......"

It stands to reason that Chen Jin's current position is the governor of Caoyun, and his subordinates should call him "Lord Caotai", but Zhang Tianlu is his old subordinate, and he still calls him according to his previous habit.

Zhang Tianlu knew that this would be more intimate, and at the same time, he would also show his difference in front of everyone.

When Chen Jin heard this, he only smiled and did not speak.

Zhang Tianlu didn't understand what he meant, so he had to step aside.

Only Chen Jin's Chinese generals knew the mystery - these ships were designed to buy time for the Governor to flee for his life.

Once the Ming thieves approached the city, he immediately abandoned the city and left, got on the ship and retreated to Huai'an.

However, although the prepared rower prepared three classes of sturdy oarsmen to take turns to replace them, after all, they were going up the river, and their movements were inevitably slow, and if there was no sailor to stop them, I was afraid that they would not be able to run far before they would be captured alive by the thieves.

In fact, what even the generals of the Chinese army didn't know was that as a last resort, Chen Jin even planned to abandon the city and flee north, but the shelf of resistance still had to be put out......

……

"Enemy ships spotted!"

A few miles ahead is the Yunti Pass, and you can faintly see the city, but the lookout post on the "Qinzhou" reports loudly.

In fact, even if he didn't report it, the captain Jiang Dazhuan was already in the telescope and saw the mast that appeared at the bend upstream.

"It's really out to fight!"

He muttered to himself, as he did every time he had before entering a fight, and his body tensed up.

(End of chapter)