Chapter 301: The Yellow River Fu (Middle)

The moments of leisure stolen out of the busyness are always in a hurry.

For the next day and a half, Zhu Chongjiu was as busy as a waterwheel on the edge of the Yangtze River, and even stopping to wear his mouth became a luxury.

The First and Third armies were both 30,000 troops, and the Fifth Army had just expanded to 20,000, with a total of 80,000 men of food and grass.

In addition, there were spirits, bandages, herbs, and all kinds of jars and jars for wounded soldiers, which were also filled with three large ships, and in order to transport the supplies to the designated location in time, it was necessary to collect as many ships as possible, which further led to the chain of problems such as shipping lanes and cargo transportation, which were enough to keep the entire Grand Governor's Mansion busy.

In this era, there are no satellites, no telegraphs and telephones, and the most convenient means of transportation are limited to sailboats, so if you can make more preparations, you will have one more chance of survival, although Zhao Junyong had solemnly promised when he asked for help that he would be responsible for all the consumption, but Zhu Chongjiu did not have the habit of passing on such a huge pressure to friendly troops, in his opinion, helping Zhao Junyong is helping himself, once Zhao Junyong was exterminated by Meng Yuan, the next object must be Huaiyang.

It turns out that God occasionally takes care of good people, and no one would have thought that this choice made entirely because of personality ended up allowing the entire Huai'an Army to escape a monstrous disaster.

Just as the vanguard of the third army just left by boat, the shape shì began to take a sharp turn, the boat gang at the cost of the lives of more than ten men, sent the most urgent news of the Huai'an army, three days ago, the prime minister of Meng Yuan detachment led more than 50,000 elite cavalry mobilized from outside the Saiwai, straight to Xuzhou, all the checkpoints along the way were blocked, no one did not have a warrant from Daru Huachi above the prefecture level, no one was allowed to pass guò, and all the ferries on the Yellow River were also forbidden to sail, including Xiapi, who had secretly frowned with the Huai'an army. Officials in Anton and other places also turned their faces neatly, and the eyes that tried to send the warning to the south were either executed by them on the spot or arrested and imprisoned, and almost none of them were able to successfully send the news.

"Tonghai, you will ride a fast horse to chase Xu Da now, pass on my general's order, let him speed up, take over the defense of Suining, and then try to get in touch with General Manager Zhao to determine the latest enemy situation, and then continue to Xuzhou." After so many battles, Zhu Chongjiu already had some kind of intuition about danger, and an ominous premonition immediately surged in his heart, and he took out an arrow and quickly handed it over to his own soldier Yu Tonghai.

"Yes." Yu Tonghai didn't dare to slack off, took the arrow, turned over and jumped on his mount, "The last general will go, before dark, he will definitely catch up with General Xu's fleet." ”

"Lao Hei, take your brothers, get on the boat and rush to Huai'an immediately, and then prepare with Hu Dahai to pick up Xu Da at any time." Zhu Chongjiu thought about it, and then ordered Lian Laohei, the battalion commander of the gun-carrying battalion.

This battalion was originally equipped with a large gun, in order to ensure accuracy, almost selected more than 300 brothers with the best marksmanship at that time to enlist, the combat effectiveness was originally one of the best in the same level of units, and now all have replaced Jiao Yu's rifled guns that have not been around for a long time, and the attack power is even more amazing, the same number of enemy troops, it is impossible to get close to them, more than a hundred steps away, they will be coated with soft lead bullets into a sieve, even if they are covered with double iron armor.

"Yes." Even Lao Hei happily agreed, pulled his legs and left, but Zhu Chongjiu grabbed him again, and continued to command in a low voice, "Pick a few good marksmanship, water is also good, take a light boat to the vicinity of Xuzhou, those dog officials on the north bank of the Yellow River dare to turn their faces with us, they must feel that they are very sure that they will completely eliminate us by going south this time, I estimate that the old thief has other insidious means in addition to the two secret sons of Chahan Timur and Li Siqi, and now hide it from people to see, just waiting for the critical moment to give us a fatal blow." ”

Lian Lao Hei nodded and said loudly, "Then I'll go by myself and hand over the brothers to General Hu for unified dispatch, if you talk about marksmanship and eyes, in the entire Huai'an army, you may not find someone better than me." ”

Zhu Chongjiu knew that this sentence was not bragging, so he smiled and nodded slightly, "Okay, but you should be more careful yourself, no matter what the situation, saving your life and coming back is the most important thing." ”

Lian Lao Hei replied movingly, "Yes." He picked up the arrow and turned to leave.

Zhu Chongjiu thought about it, and then ordered Chen Ji to take his own arrows to the dock, and bring out the two imitation Arabian dhows that had just been bought back by Shen Wansan from the south and the artillery had not yet been assembled, and asked the commander of the sailor to send 200 good men to the ship, and go out with the team, in case they were needed from time to time.

Zhu Qiang was of course overjoyed to let the brothers under his command show their skills on the Yellow River, and immediately personally led people onto the boat, and personally debugged the only two six-pound guns on each ship, and then carefully inspected all the sails, ropes, and female walls and arrow holes on both sides of the deck, and then reluctantly handed over the battleship and the team together.

On the evening of the third day, Zhu Chongjiu led the First Army and the Fourth Army to sail north, and 50,000 soldiers and auxiliaries sat on more than 160 large ships that had been temporarily recruited, plus more than 200 cargo ships that specialized in transporting grain, grass and baggage, and pulled up bamboo hard sails to cover the sky and the sun, and rushed to Xuzhou day and night with the help of the southerly wind blowing slowly.

There are scouts and messengers along the way, the news of the red scarf parties has come, one is heavier than the other, the Mengyuan court this time not only mobilized more than 300,000 troops in the north, in Sichuan, Huguang two provinces, but also mobilized more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, led by the Pingzhang political affairs that had just exterminated the Sichuan red scarf, and pressed to Xiangfan with lightning speed, now the southern red scarf general Zou Pusheng has been defeated, retreated to De'an, and the south lock red turban general Meng Haima was defeated more simply, was forced directly into the bamboo mountain.

Almost at the same time, Zhang Liangbi, a wealthy gentleman of Huayin, was also suddenly difficult, killed his own sworn brother, Zhang Chun, the deputy marshal of the red scarf in the north lock, seized his subordinates, and stole the pond, the marshal of the red scarf in the north heard the bad news, and hurriedly went to avenge Zhang Chun, but was beaten by Zhang Liangbi, so he had to pack up the remnants of the defeated army under his command and went to Liu Futong, Zhang Liangbi directly took the political affairs of Pingzhang in Shaanxi Province, and was awarded the post of Daru Huachi in Henan Mansion by the Mengyuan Imperial Court, ready to spy on Bianliang at any time.

Hundred-legged insects, dead but not stiff, in the absence of any modern means of communication, the Mengyuan court can still from the south, north, west three directions, almost at the same time to launch a crazy attack on the Red Turban Army, now, in addition to the east facing the sea, Mengyuan Sailor is not able to catch it, other areas are in flames, and the Red Turban Army in a hurry, the disadvantages brought about by the excessive expansion of territory and soldiers and horses in the previous period of time, all of them are undoubtedly exposed, in all battlefields, they have been beaten to no strength, those who joined the Red Turban bandits, either the troops did not move, or they defected and accepted the officials on Meng Yuan's side, and few people stayed to share the weal and woe with the Red Turban Army.

"Damn." Zhu Chongjiu was so angry by the bad news that 6 continued, his face turned black, his hand pressed the handle of the knife, and he gritted his teeth and scolded, the enemy from within is the most terrible, against the soldiers and horses on the side of Mengyuan, Zhao Junyong and Bu Wangsan and others still occupy the advantage of firearms, and Li Siqi, Zhang Liangbi and others rebelled, which is equivalent to giving the biggest killer weapon of the Red Turban Army to the enemy.

"Come and don't be rude, lord, since Tokhoff wants to win outside the battlefield, we might as well return him a trick to draw salary." Zhang Yi, the newly appointed Chinese soldier in the army, was unwilling to be beaten and couldn't do anything, so he walked to Zhu Chongjiu's side and whispered.

"How can we draw the law, we can't take so many benefits to buy the other party's generals." Zhu Chongjiu smiled and replied with a frown.

"It's not about bribing the generals, but between the Mengyuan court and the army of Totok, put a fire on it." Zhang Yi thought for a while and lowered his voice lower, "The lord may not know, the nobles of Mengyuan are not able to pass the crops, and the farmland near the capital city was all turned into pasture at the beginning of the founding of the country, so the grain in the capital has always been supplied by Jinan and Yidu in the south of Jiangnan and Zhongshu Province, and now our army occupies a small half of the canal, and the grain in Jiangnan can only rely on the sea transportation of Fang Guzi, and the number of sea transportation is limited after all, and the time cannot be determined, not only to feed the 300,000 troops who have escaped, but also to supply hundreds of thousands of Mongolian lords in the capital, The grain stocks on the side of the Mengyuan Imperial Court must have been stretched thin. ”

"You mean that you want me to take the grain from the buyer and let him reduce the grain supply to the capital." Zhu Chongjiu's eyes suddenly lit up, and he asked in a low voice.

"Fang Guzi doesn't have that guts, he still wants to be a high-ranking official of Meng Yuan, at most, after receiving our benefits, he detained the grain ship for ten days and a half under the pretext of strong wind and waves." Zhang Yi was very ashamed of Fang Guozhen's behavior, smiled, and shook his head slightly, "Weichen's construction is that the chief manager sent a bold general, with five thousand elites, to directly pull out Andong Prefecture on the other side of the Yellow River, and then no matter how Totoku reacted, he gave up Anton, went straight to Yidu, Jinan and Dongping, burned all the way, and destroyed the summer grain in Zhongshu Province." ”

"Hmm." Zhu Chongjiu was stunned, and muttered in a low voice while hitting the side of the boat, Zhang Yi's strategy is quite similar to the frog jumping tactics in later legends, but at this moment, the ability of the sailor in his hand is very limited, he can crisscross the Yangtze River, but he can't carry out long-distance shipping at all, so the 5,000 soldiers who crossed the river are likely to end up all dying in battle, and none of them can survive.

In Zhang Yi's imagination, the five thousand elites were originally a group of dead soldiers, and after they were scattered, they didn't plan to let them come back alive, but seeing Zhu Chongjiu's hesitant face, he hurriedly added in a low voice, "If the lord is reluctant to give up those brothers, he might as well summon Shen Wansan again, since their Shen family has been doing sea trading all year round, there is definitely a way to send a ship to the north to bring the brothers back safely by sea." ”

"You mean, after the brothers burned Meng Yuan's crops, they would assemble in the Wendeng area, and then the Shen family would send sea ships to transport them all back." Zhu Chongjiu frowned again and asked in a low voice.

This method has some merits, since the Shen family's fleet can even go to Ceylon, a trip to the Shandong Peninsula in the future should not be any problem, the key is, what kind of price do you have to pay, so that the Shen family is willing to contribute to the Huai'an army, you know, this family's appetite is not ordinary, if you can't get it, even the manufacturing process of artillery, they dare to put it forward as a quid pro quo.

"In fact, you don't need 5,000 troops, as long as it is the elite who dare to fight, the minister estimates that taking out 500,000 soldiers and horses at a time is also the limit of the Mengyuan court, and now there are not many garrisons in the north at all, and the purpose of this team is not to capture the city at all, but also to wreak havoc, so that the Mengyuan court will feel embarrassed, and it will lose patience with Totok." Zhang Yi thought for a while, and added in a low voice, "Even if this plan fails, the summer grain in Yidu, Jinan and Dongping will not be able to be harvested at all, and the 300,000 troops will compete with the Mengyuan nobles in the capital, and if the war between the enemy and us is stalemate, those princes and nobles in the capital will definitely not go hungry to support the detachment." ”

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