When Zheng Tai arrived in Dinghai, Xu Lei also escaped back to Hangzhou. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info is just the only one who returned to Hangzhou, and his father-in-law Yu Fenqi did not come back.

"Father-in-law, he, father-in-law died of injuries on the road and has passed away. Now the Ming army in Shaoxing is still searching for it, and the son-in-law really can't bring back the body of his father-in-law, so he has to bury it there for the time being, make a mark, and pick up bones in the future. ”

Bowing down in front of his mother-in-law, Xu Lei slammed on the ground one by one, but the news of Yu Fenqi's death still made his mother-in-law faint.

"Mother!"

A group of children rushed forward, and it was only with great difficulty that their mother was awakened. But I woke up, but the tears couldn't be stopped.

In fact, when the first defeated soldiers fled back, it was Dasu and his guards who fled back to Hangzhou, and when the news of the Qing army's crushing defeat at Siming Lake came, they already knew about it. As more and more defeated soldiers fled back, the vast majority of them were the Eight Banners Army, and there were very few who could escape back without the promotion and raising of war horses. Day by day, Yu Fenqi has never heard from him, and it was not until today, when Xu Lei brought the bad news, that they found that no news was sometimes a good thing.

A room full of crying, including Xu Lei. fled back to Hangzhou, did not return to the camp, did not go home, but went to his uncle's house to confirm that Xu Xin had also fled back, so he hurriedly fell home to report the funeral.

"Sister-in-law, my father was unfortunately warn, and even Tian Dashuai was not spared. Now that everything is in chaos, what should I do, I still need to think a little more, and the foolish brother has thanked him here. ”

"Family, why did my brother say this."

Helping Yu Fenqi's eldest son, Xu Lei mentioned the matter of arranging the aftermath, and also went to his uncle Xu Xin to discuss the matter of helping the court to ask for grace. After a busy day, Xu Lei found out that he hadn't told his wife, Yu Fenqi's own daughter, about the bad news.

Hurried home, Xu Lei told the truth of the matter, and sure enough, his wife fainted when she heard that her father had died in Shaoxing.

After another toss, it was easy to send the crying wife to the carriage, and he took advantage of the day when the water and rice did not enter to stay at home for dinner, and by the way, he spent the night at home, and only then could he continue to do things tomorrow.

Eating the dinner that was almost supper time, Xu Lei could be described as gobbling it up, it really tired him these days, but while eating, he found that something seemed to be missing at home.

"Where's Aunt Li?"

"Back, back, back, sir......"

The servants who were waiting around him were completely terrified when they heard him ask about the little sister of the Li family, which really made Xu Lei feel extremely uneasy.

didn't eat anymore, and didn't listen to the words, Xu Lei hurriedly ran to the small courtyard. It wasn't until he rushed into the door and saw Li Ruixin's mother sitting on the edge of the bed chatting with the little sister of the Li family wrapped in a quilt in a low voice that his heart fell.

However, when the little sister of the Li family saw him, her eyes, which were already red and swollen, were accompanied by a series of tears welling up with a wail.

"Husband, child, it's gone, our child is gone!"

………………

Last year's arms contract was still being executed, and before departure, Zheng Tai had already arrived to deliver the gold, silver and goods worth one million taels of silver to Wenzhou. At that time, a large number of hydraulic workshops were built on both sides of the Dongyang River through the large-scale manufacture of hydraulic machinery. Using these workshops, the speed of weapon manufacturing increased rapidly, and by the time Zheng Tai arrived, not only did the manufacturing progress of his own weapons and equipment not delay, but the Zheng family's order was almost completed.

Being able to complete the order so quickly really aroused Zheng Tai's great amazement. However, as Huang Zongxi restarted Dalan Mountain, it didn't take long for the Qing army to encircle and suppress it, Chen Wen was anxious to send troops, and Zheng Tai returned to Wenzhou to supervise the transportation of the fleet, plus to purchase more goods.

Wenzhou is now a hub for trade between the Ming army in Zhejiang and Fujian, and even the expansion of the port is on the agenda. Zheng Tai was there, not only to supervise the bulk trade, but also to facilitate contact with Zheng Chenggong, the best of both worlds, logically speaking, he should not appear in this awkward place of Dinghai.

What's more, Dinghai is located at the mouth of the Yongjiang River, and if you want to reach Dinghai from Wenzhou by sea, you must not only pass through a series of coastal islands east of Ningbo, but also bypass the land that rises to the east for dozens of miles. And more importantly, on the way, it is inevitable to pass through the Luotou Waterway and the Jintang Waterway between Ningbo and Zhoushan. The Qing army still had a force of 1,000 infantry and 2,000 sailors in Zhoushan.

If there is a matter, one or two messengers can be sent by land to discuss. Coming by sea in person, Zheng Tai's trip was full of dangers, which deepened the irrationality.

Common sense is a demon, especially when another one may appear in his mind, Chen Wen hurried to Dinghai.

"I see that the Furen army is gathered here, and even the coastal patrol sailors of Zhejiang are also heading north, but they intend to wave Zhoushan?"

"On the side of the couch, you will not allow others to snore. The geographical location of Zhoushan is extremely important, so it is natural to recover it as soon as possible. ”

Hearing this, the corners of Zheng Tai's mouth couldn't help twitching, although it was very slight, but it was all in Chen Wen's eyes. After a blink of an eye, as if he had made up his mind, Zheng Tai turned to Chen Wen and said: "Furen should know that Zhoushan Deputy General Ba Chenggong was born in the standard battalion and participated in the battle of Siming Lake in the fourth year of Yongli. By now, he had sent someone to ask the foolish brother to surrender, and wanted to switch to Da Mu's command. ”

I knew it!

As soon as he received the news, Chen Wen had already anticipated this possibility, because only this possibility could perfectly explain Zheng Tai's unusual situation in this matter.

Now that Chen Wen has recovered the eight mansions in eastern Zhejiang, the news of the defeat of the Eight Banners of the Hangzhou garrison may have also reached Zheng Tai's ears. The land combat capability of the Zhejiang Ming army is getting stronger and stronger, while the Fujian Ming army, as an ally, is still dominated by naval divisions, and even the paper strength of the naval divisions of both sides is constantly shrinking with the number of large and small ships built and various artillery pieces cast along the coast of Zhejiang.

The world is undecided, and this will inevitably create a great sense of crisis.

What's more, in Chen Wen's memory, the Zheng group originated from pirates, and it was already a disadvantage in land warfare, and the infantry battle was strengthened by the rattan armor soldiers and the iron man army, and the cavalry was also vigorously recruited for the cavalry generals who switched from the Qing army. Ma Xin, Li Bi, Wang Rong and others are examples, and Ba Chenggong was originally Zheng Chenggong, who surrendered in the ninth year of Yongli, and changed his name to Ba Chenxing, Guan Xuanyi's former town and iron cavalry, and immediately became a cavalry general under Zheng Chenggong. As for this Mongolian Tartar, it was given to Zheng Chenggong more than 100 war horses and the means to train cavalry.

However, unlike the original history, Zheng Chenggong only successfully besieged Zhoushan at that time, which led to the surrender of Ba Chenggong and Zhang Hongde, the deputy general of Ningbo, who assisted in the defense, but now it is the time when Chen Wen completely recovered the eight prefectures in eastern Zhejiang. At this time, whether Ba successfully took the initiative or not, or the Zheng family deliberately did it, Zheng Tai, who has always been left and right, dared to cut off his beard so blatantly, which shows how much the Zheng group is in urgent need of experienced cavalry generals.

However, in this way, the relationship that was originally brought closer through trade began to crack. Especially in Yu, once Ba Chenggong became Zheng Chenggong's subordinate, Zhoushan would also fall into his hands, which meant that things were not just as simple as cracks!

Seeing that Chen Wen's face was getting worse and worse, Zheng Tai sighed, and had to say: "Furen, we don't talk darkly, then this Ba Chenggong and his cavalry from the standard battalion will be a dead end in your hands, Damu is very difficult to face the Geng family's cavalry in Fujian, and he lacks this kind of help." The foolish brother didn't say hello in advance about this matter, and all the mistakes were made by the foolish brother, and the foolish brother had nothing to say. ”

"What did the elder brother say this, can the younger brother still punish the elder brother?" Speaking of this, Chen Wen changed his words. "It's just this Zhoushan ......"

"Leave it to the virtuous brother."

"Then there's Brother Law."

For the sake of a small Zhoushan, war, this is impossible.

On the way, Chen Wen has already analyzed: militarily, Zhoushan has an important geographical location, which can be used as both a gateway to Zhejiang and a springboard for attacking surrounding prefectures and counties, but most of the areas that are more threatened by it are already Chen Wen's territory, but it is not as good as Chongming Island, which is controlled by Zhang Mingzhen's army controlled by Zheng Chenggong; Economically, the islands in Zhoushan cannot be compared with Ningbo across the sea in terms of area, and they are basically mountainous areas, and the grain output is very low; As for politics, in recent decades, there has been no other political significance except for the actions of King Lu.

Assuming that if the Zheng family dominates Zhoushan, there is indeed not much way to use Chen Wen's sailors, but that will mean a serious confrontation between the two major anti-Qing groups on the southeast coast. Military rivalry can cause both sides to spend more resources on each other; And economic antagonism will lead to the severance of trade; Politically, it doesn't make any sense.

All this, for the Zheng Group, which is expected to make profits by receiving goods from Zhejiang this year and then changing hands elsewhere, and the income will not be less than one million taels of silver, the annual income of such a scale has been increased in vain, and the power it has transformed is reflected in the military, and the balance of Fujian is more and more tilted towards Zheng Chenggong. If there is no such income, it will be more than worth the loss if you have to enter a state of confrontation with Chen Wen in Zhejiang, not to mention that this number is expected to gradually increase in the next few years.

Although the geographical location of Zhoushan is good, but as a maritime merchant, it is completely a piece of chicken ribs, not even chicken ribs, can only be regarded as a fish bone, eat it, you may be able to lick a few traces of fish meat on it, but it means that it will be stuck in your throat, which is completely meaningless.

Zheng Tai was sent away, and Zheng Tai also began to transport Ba Chenggong's army back to Fujian in batches as promised. The rest of the matter had been handed over to Ma Xin, who was temporarily stationed in Dinghai, and he took the staff group on the road back to Jinhua.

On the Shaoxing side, Yin Yue has said that he has recovered all of them, and is now confronting the Qing army on the Qiantang River. Appropriate pressure was necessary, but Chen Wen did not have the energy to recover Hangzhou now, and he even felt that it was a waste to put five battalions of troops in Ningshao.

Entrenched in Zhejiang for many years, Chen Wen has always faced the dilemma of strategically fighting on multiple fronts, so much so that it is difficult for him to achieve a large-scale breakthrough at one point in each of his victories -- Yongli defeated Ma Jinbao and Zhang Guoxun in five years, and Yongli defeated Chen Jin twice in six years, but the existence of the Qing army on the northern front has always held on to Chen Wen's hind legs, and it was not until last year that it began to ease somewhat.

Last year's four provincial capitals, the mobile forces of the Fujian Green Battalion were all wiped out, and now they are still recuperating there, by the way, they assisted Geng Jimao to share the pressure of Zheng Chenggong, and it was completely a defensive posture for Zhejiang; At the same time, the recovery of Yanzhou Prefecture made the core occupied areas no longer vulnerable to surprise attacks by the Qing army, and threatened the security of Hangzhou, the core area of Manchu rule in Zhejiang. And the next Ma Xin and Hu came to the pilgrimage anyway, which made the Zhejiang Ming army face the sea and bloom in spring.

This year, with the recovery of Ningbo and Shaoxing, as well as the destruction of the main force of the Qing army in Zhejiang, there is no pressure on the northern front for the time being, and it seems that it can sweep Hangjiahu and even Jiangnan, but it is not a good time to go north.

In the second battle of Siming Lake, Dasu was defeated, but the Eight Banners Army had a lot of horses and pack horses, and lost more than 2,000 people, but there were not a few who fled the battlefield, especially the Mongolian Eight Banners were basically well preserved, and with these troops to cooperate with the green battalion and water division of Hangjiahu, Dasu was not without the ability to hold on and wait for help.

What's more, Hong Chengchou is still there, and he must gather a large army in Quzhou and Yushan County at the front to defend himself, and he can't concentrate all his forces to go north!

With the issuance of the order, Chen Wen still stationed the Pujiang battalion in Yanzhou with Chen Guobao to maintain pressure and presence on Hangzhou; The Shaoxing Mansion facing the Qiantang River is dominated by Yin Yue, of which the Ruian Battalion is deployed along the Qiantang River, and the Dongyang Battalion is stationed in Shaoxing Mansion as a backing; In the coastal direction, Ma Xin led the Tiantai battalion to assist in the defense of the Yuyao-Cixi-Dinghai line, the Wenling battalion took care of the defense of Taizhou and Fenghua and Xiangshan in southern Ningbo, and Hu Laijin was to lead the Huangyan battalion south to Wenzhou, replacing Wu Dengke to take care of the two prefectures.

In this way, Chen Wen could concentrate nine war battalions in the direction of Quzhou, including Nantang, Weiwei, Shentang, Yiwu, Lishui, Chun'an, Yushan, Feixiong, and Tieqi. In addition, some units including the Hulu Town Fort and the Zhengjiawu Town Reserve Battalion were withdrawn, the number of garrisons was reduced in the Anhua Town Fort, and the new batch of recruits who had completed training in the recruit training camp replaced part of the garrison, and there were always 20,000 troops, and they should fight to the death with Hong Chengchou as soon as possible.

On the way back to Jinhua, Wang Jiang had already begun to familiarize himself with the relevant government affairs, but what interested him more was the trade between the Ming army in Zhejiang and the Ming army in Fujian.

"It turns out that buying and selling human beings and weapons is so lucrative."

Wang Jiang, a good talent who is good at financial management and government affairs, was led into the wrong path of "going to prison and eating guns", Chen Wen couldn't help but hide his face and smile bitterly.

"Such a thing, I'm afraid I won't do it with the Zheng family again in the future."

Wang Jiang, as Chen Wen said, can fully understand that the ownership of Zhoushan has left a knot between the two major anti-Qing groups -- in the eyes of the Ming army in Zhejiang, the Ming army in Fujian cut off Zhoushan and robbed them of their military merits and captures; On the Fujian Ming army's side, it was determined that it was the Zhejiang Ming army that oppressed people with power and took away the Zhoushan Islands that had fallen into their hands in an empty glove white wolf style.

The rift has been formed, and this time Chen Wen defeated the Eight Banners Army, but Zheng Tai did not mention the new round of purchases of the Eight Banners Army, weapons and equipment, which is a clear proof.

"Then we also have to organize maritime trade as soon as possible, Japan, Korea, and Ryukyu, none of which need to go through Fujian, we can't let the Zheng family always hold us."

"That's right, don't hide it from Uncle Elder, there are already many sea ships under construction along the coast, including many cargo ships. In terms of territory, the Zheng family only has some islands and half of Zhangzhou in their hands, and they want to compare with our Zhejiang Wangshi, hehe. The only thing to consider now is how to mobilize the resources and forces of the private sector. (To be continued.) )