Xiang Mingshi: "The poor came to vote, and Mingshi thanked the general system for taking it in." ”

Shou Xuan took Xiang Mingshi's hand, "What do you say to the general, your Chu army will rest in Suixi County with peace of mind." After recovering his strength, he will fight the Tartars again. ”

Xiang Ming took a deep look at the order.

Lao Xiang is very senior, Jia Shennian is already the deputy commander of the Juehua Island Naval Division of Huang Fei, the commander of the Liao Naval Division, and has fought against the Tatars in the Liaohai Sea for more than ten years.

Shou Xu experienced the Great Retreat of Dengzhou and the Battle of the Yangtze River in the first year of Hongguang with him.

Xiang Ming was not optimistic about Huang Fei's troops entering Taihu Lake, so he divided his troops with Huang Fei at that time and led his army to Fujian, avoiding the annihilation of the whole army together with the Dengliao Water Division in Deshenggang.

Emperor Longwu's practice in Fujian was to send the troops that had withdrawn south to the battlefield outside the province, and Xiang Ming was naturally no exception.

The three brothers will be divided into He Tengjiao's supervising battalion. There were thousands of Miao soldiers on the throne, and they died in the second year of Yongli. Lao He was martyred, and this governor disintegrated. Thousands of them retreated to western Guangdong with the Ming Dynasty and the south of civilization.

Shou Xuan and the Chu army have never cooperated, and the Chu army that first arrived in western Guangdong was influenced by Xiang Mingshi.

"Generals," Shou Ling said to more than a dozen generals, "everyone has worked hard, I will bring you food, please don't worry." ”

Gao Lei Governor Zhang Xiao raised his hand and stroked his beard, "After the west of Guangdong, it will be your home, please settle the soldiers and the people to live." You may have to work a little harder. I will send someone to familiarize you with the defense area, guide you to build the city, and please organize the manpower to resume production as soon as possible. ”

The arable land has been allocated to the Ming army, and the Federation and Hainan will make some supplements, but the bulk of the land will depend on themselves after all.

Zhang Xiaoqi's civilian officials still have to be dispatched, and they have to control a little administrative power, and at the same time, they also have the reality of supervising the army. The boundaries of power between civilian officials and military generals were blurred, and in order to reduce embarrassment, Hainan selected a group of officials who were well-matched.

The establishment of the defeated army urgently needs to be reorganized, and it is certainly not possible to distinguish between soldiers and civilians in this way. One of Zhang Xiaoqi's tasks was to review the number of soldiers in each army, and divide the soldiers into three levels: battle, defense, and baggage. This is an old tradition in China for thousands of years, and it is also the proper meaning of the question, and the generals of various ministries have no objections.

According to Zhang Xiaoqi's rough estimate, for example, in an army like Xiang Mingshi, there are more than 6,000 officers and soldiers with their families, and after the reorganization, the maximum number of soldiers is 500, and the rest will be scattered to cultivated land and fishing boats to engage in production.

Zhang Xiaoqi sent people to guide the armies to repair the castle. He Liangtao opened a military industrial school in Qiongzhou, mainly teaching students with a certain foundation in military industry and engineering. There are very few eligible students, mostly immigrants from Macau.

With nearly 10,000 Macau immigrants in Qionghai and shrinking trade between China and the Philippines, the island's largest Catholic community has even attracted Manilans and Indians. Out of so many people, only a few dozen students are eligible. During the war years, there was no time for students to grow up calmly, and they would go straight to the battlefield for internships after they came out of school.

Sending off the generals, Shou ordered and said to Zhang Xiaoqi: "Draw the Xiang Ming Shi Department out of the Chu army and place it in Zhanjiang Fort." ”

The largest number of people in the Chu army was not Xiang Mingshi, but the general soldier Zhou Lie, who hung the seal of General Wuwei. Zhou Lie will guard near Wuzhou, and the southward retreat of Hezhou Town must pass through Wuzhou City, and most of Suixi County will be ceded to his son Zhou Guangjie in order to envelop him.

Zhanjiang Fort is a planned new fort located in the area of Guangzhou Bay where the city of Zhanjiang is located. Around the Wanli period, the place name Guangzhou Bay appeared in Leizhou inexplicably. Two new forts are planned in Guangzhou Bay, namely Zhanjiang Fort on the west bank and Potou Fort on the east bank. In the Ming Dynasty, there was an old foundation of the Dengzhou Naval Division, and it was put in Zhanjiang Fort to make the best use of it.

In order to be in a hurry, most of the newly built and reconstructed fortress-type fortresses in Lei and Gao Erzhou are civil engineering structures, and the half-moon fort with acute angles is added, and it is too late to wrap bricks and build the façade with logs. Thicken the walls, add diagonal embankment guns in front of the moats, and lower the walls if necessary.

The outer walls of the large fortresses are extremely thick, and the height is no less than the city walls of the state and county. When the conditions are not available, civil engineering works are also fine. Many bastions in western Guangdong are only 3.4 meters high from the bottom of the moat to the top of the wall. The fortress did not specifically require the fortifications themselves to hinder the besieging party's reinforcements, but on the premise of making full use of firepower.

The Second House of Regaux was largely based on the Dutch home defense system. In the hypothetical, the field battle is not the enemy's opponent, and the defender uses the fortress fortress to consume the enemy's strength, and accumulates counterattack power in the rear.

The fortress relied mainly on firepower rather than wall defense, and it was necessary for Hainan to strengthen the firearms of some of the defenders. However, there is no hurry to strengthen the armament, and the order needs to be further examined to the loyalty and obedience of the Ming army of each department.

"What weapons is the Great Ruler going to give them? I am afraid that Hainan's weapons production will not be able to meet the needs of such an army. ”

"Most castle 4-pounder iron cannons are enough, I'll get the fire gun Franc machine, you don't have to worry."

"Yes, I see. Great Commander, why didn't you choose someone to garrison Huazhou City just now? ”

"General, Huazhou is too important, it's hard for me to decide."

Huazhou is located on the right bank of the Jianjiang River, on the official road from Gaozhou Mansion to Leizhou Prefecture. The Jianjiang River flows from the direction of Maoming City in the northeast to the southwest, the Luojiang River, the main tributary of the Jianjiang River, flows from the northwest to the southeast, and the two rivers continue to flow into the sea in the south after meeting under the city of Huazhou. The north and east walls of Huazhou City are obstructed by natural rivers.

The Luojiang River originates from Beiliu County, and can attack Luchuan County, that is, the back of Bobai County. The plan was to hold Huazhou and block the enemy's main forces east of the Jianjiang and Luojiang rivers. To protect the security of the southeast flank of Yulin Prefecture, the rebel army in the mountainous area at the junction of the two Guangxi on the northern flank was supplemented by the Guangdong coastal fortress line and the naval division on the southern flank to ensure the safety of Hainan Island in the depths.

A continuous line of defense visible to the naked eye has a strong supporting effect on morale. In a war, we are most afraid that the defense line will be broken through, and the enemy army will go deep into the depths and stir up. If there is no continuous defensive line, it will be difficult for the Ming army to hold on, and the enemy army will enter the running race of the dead road friend immortal poor road as soon as the enemy comes.

A continuous line of defense that can only be supported by the natural obstacles of mountains and rivers and the replenishment of complex water systems. The best road for transportation is undoubtedly the waterway.

South of the Great Wall, China is divided into geographical water systems, including the Yellow River water system, the Huai River water system, the Yangtze River water system, the Pearl River water system, and the southernmost water system of the two Guangzhous that independently enter the sea.

The Yellow River Plain could not be defended, China was invaded by the northern captives in successive dynasties, and once the Great Wall was lost, it could only retreat to the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River to confront the north and south.

Nanming successively lost the Qinling Huai River and the Yangtze River, and retreated to the Nanling and Pearl River water systems.

Qu Shiyun operated a continuous defensive line on the Hunan and Guizhou borders, and each department divided the defense area to guard four or five passes. With this simple line of defense, the Ming army held out for 4 years. The defeated army that had been defeated for thousands of miles in Hunan stopped running away when it reached the Hunan and Guizhou borders. The Ming army knew that friendly forces would also stop on this front, and they had a chance to win.

The Nanling defense line is about to be finished, and western Guangdong has to hold the last line of defense of China, and the two Guangxi provinces have these small rivers that independently enter the sea beyond the Pearl River. As long as the officers and men knew that the left and right flanks of the headquarters were friendly forces, they would be able to turn back and fight the Tatars.

Gaozhou Mansion is difficult to defend, and Huazhou City is a fortress at the forefront of the outer defense line in western Guangdong.

The existing Huazhou city wall has two city walls, the outer city wall is 870 zhang long and 1 zhang 6 high; The inner city wall is 563 zhang long and 1 zhang 9 high. The castle is circular, the enemy tower corner tower is 4 respectively, the nest shop is 30, there are only two city gates in the east and south, and each builds an urn city.

In terms of state cities, Huazhou is very strong. However, such a wall could not withstand the long-term bombardment of Hongyi artillery, and it had to be modified.

The ideal plan for the order is to change Huazhou into a large star-shaped fortress, build seven or eight large acute angle platforms, build another seven or eight half-moon forts, and dig three trenches inside and outside.

The fortress relied on a huge amount of earthwork, and Zhang Xiaoqi was short of money, food, and people, so it was obviously difficult to build Huazhou City into an ideal state for a while. Therefore, the first phase of the plan is to thicken the wall, especially the wall that is not facing the river on the west and south sides, build 4 solid acute corner platforms outside the moat, 2 half-moon forts, and dig a moat outside the new fortress to build a slope to prevent artillery.

Shou Xuan gave Li Mingzhong, the Gaozhou guard, a large piece of land between the Sharibas River and the Gulin River in Borneo. Li Mingzhong planned to remove the people of Gaozhou and tear down the city walls. These building materials could not be wasted, and they were transported along the Jianjiang River to Huazhou and Wuchuan for the purpose of reinforcing the new fortress.

Zhang Xiaoqi knew the importance of Huazhou, and said to Shou Xu: "After settling the officials and troops who retreated south, I will go to Huazhou City in person and preside over the construction of the city." ”

"Discuss everything with Mr. He. Who will do it? Did you choose well? ”

"Yazhou Tongzhi Yu Cuiqing Mao recommended himself."

"This position is very important. ”

"Yu Cuiqing's mother, wife and children all moved to Houjiang, and he wrote me a blood letter, determined to live and die with Huazhou."

"That's good, you keep an eye on it."

"The general system, the garrison troops still hope to be set as soon as possible, and it will take time for the civil and military forces to run in."

"I know", Shou Xuan sighed slightly, "Now these armies are difficult to take on the heavy responsibility of guarding Huazhou, let's study it again, you first recruit officers and soldiers who volunteer to join in each defeated army, and see how many people can be recruited." ”

"Yes..."

The fortress is not invincible, and if there is enough time, the attacker can concentrate firepower and forces to open one or two sharp corners, and the city can be broken.

Huazhou will definitely be surrounded, and it is very likely that it will be held alone for 1 year. If you want to hold out for a longer time, you must equip the city with plenty of artillery and gunpowder. The defenders must be reliable and have a strong will to fight, and the order must be carefully selected without committing to the Federal Army.

"General, Lei Gao's Second Mansion will be handed over to you, I have to leave for Xiangshan."

"Guangzhou's more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians cannot fall into the hands of the enemy, and even if the general control is gone, there will be me in the rear."

Shou Xiang patted Zhang Xiaoqi on the shoulder.

Two days later, Shou Xiang boarded the frigate Yuexiu and left Baigemen Water City.

In the past two years, the Federation has vigorously supported the orderly Guangdong immigration plan, coupled with the military spending of the war with Spain and the expansion of the army and navy, the Nanyang Bank is borrowing like crazy, and the government is already heavily indebted, and I am afraid that it will have to be digested for many years after this wave.

With so many resources invested, the order had to squeeze out more wealth and people from Guangzhou, and only when he returned to China could he give an account to the Senate.

Accompanying Yuexiu are two notification ships, Jianjiang and Lingjiang.

At the mouth of the Tanjiang River, Shou handed over a few handwritten letters to the two captains, "Take my letters to Fujian and Zhejiang, and tell my friends there that I need a boat." ”