Thousands of ships sailed mightily on the Yangtze River, and the distance between the front and back stretched for dozens of miles. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Swimming against the current, not very fast. Fortunately, although it was winter, there was still a wind, and the hunting north wind blew on the sails on the mast, driving the ships westward. The boat travels in all directions, and this is the case.

On the seventh day of the first month, Ren Siqi's "Princess" arrived at the river outside Jiangyin City, looking at the south, the broken Jiangyin city wall several miles away was still faintly visible, recalling the fierce battle that lasted more than 80 months ago, Ren Siqi couldn't help but feel ups and downs. Yan Yingyuan and others arrived in Chongming, and his subordinate Jiangyin township soldiers were also incorporated into the army and became a member of Chongming, and Yan Yingyuan was also appointed as the town general, and he also went out with him this time.

On the 15th day of the first lunar month, the vanguard fleet reached the Zhenjiang River and was attacked from both sides by the Qing troops in Zhenjiang and Guazhou, Jiangbei. Mao 18 commanded the fleet to fight hard, defeated the Qing army on the river, sank and burned more than 100 warships, and the Qing army did not dare to come out in the water village. Xue Yulai personally led his subordinates to attack Guazhou on the north bank, entered the Qing army's water village, killed and wounded more than 3,000 Qing troops, and captured more than 20 red-coated cannons. This is Hong Chengchou ordered to transport artillery from Nanjing, in order to establish a fort to block the Yangtze River, who knew that before it could play a role, it was captured by the Chongming army, it was really the timing of the Chongming army's dispatch was too good, who would have thought that there would be an enemy attack from the river during the Chinese New Year!

After defeating the defenders of Guazhou, Mao 18 commanded all the ships to approach the south bank, and all the guns on board launched a fierce bombardment of Zhenjiang City.

Zhenjiang Card is located at the place where the South Canal joins the Yangtze River, and the north passes through Guazhou to Yangzhou, and the geographical location is extremely important. If you want to attack Nanjing, you must lay Zhenjiang as a foundation.

The defender of Zhenjiang was the general of the Green Battalion, who was originally a fierce general under Huang Degong, the prince of the Jingguo of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and when Azig attacked Wuhu, he surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty with Tian Xiong, and was still appointed as the chief soldier.

Ma Degong has more than 5,000 green battalion soldiers under his command, most of whom are elites who have followed him for many years and have strong combat power. But looking at the huge fleet on the river, Ma Degong suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness. His soldiers are in the elite, but they can't drive to the river to fight the Ming army!

The only 100 warships have been sunk by the Ming army, and Zhenjiang is now in a situation where he can only be beaten and cannot fight back. The artillery on the Ming army ship was too powerful, and it could still accurately hit the Zhenjiang city wall from a distance of seven or eight miles.

The main force of Mao's fleet was a hundred three-masted galleons, each with a redcoat cannon mounted on the bow, and his flagship, the Exocet, was a Western-style sailing ship with as many as 24 cannons on board. In order to attack Nanjing this time, Ren Siqi has already invested a lot of money and taken out all the accumulated strength.

Hundreds of Hongyi cannons bombarded in turn, the power was earth-shattering, the sound shook the sky, the Zhenjiang city wall was bombarded by the pile of dishes flew together, full of holes, the defenders on the city were frightened by the sound of the shelling, and the bones and tendons of the colleagues around them made them tremble. Hundreds of red-coated cannons bombarded at the same time, which was rarely seen in the history of the Ming Dynasty, even if Duoduo attacked Yangzhou Jiangyin, it only mobilized dozens of red-coated cannons to participate in the battle.

The red-coated cannon is not an ordinary tiger squat cannon Franco, but a giant cannon weighing 5,000 catties, the price of each of these cannons requires thousands of taels of silver, and its weight determines that it can only be placed at the head of the city, and it is inconvenient to move at will. Therefore, for an ordinary city, there may be dozens or even hundreds of cannons on the city wall, but there are very few real red-coated cannons.

Who would have thought that the Chongming Army would actually carry the red-coated cannons onto the warship, and there were hundreds of them at once! In order to quickly capture Zhenjiang, Ren Siqi allocated almost all the red-coated cannons to Mao's 18th Army.

The artillery continued to roar, and the Qing troops at the head of Zhenjiang City did not dare to show their heads at all, and the shells fell over the city wall and into the city, and the houses collapsed, and the entire Zhenjiang City was smashed with thousands of holes.

Under the cover of artillery, hundreds of sand boats entered the canal, where a brigade of Chongming Army infantry was laid down on the east bank of the canal.

Chen Mingyang, the town general, led 5,000 soldiers and attacked Zhenjiang City.

The canal is full of houses and buildings, and the confluence of the canal and the Yangtze River is very prosperous, even outside Zhenjiang City, it is still lively like a market. Today is the Lantern Festival, which makes it even more lively everywhere.

The Chongming army came too quickly and suddenly, and the people panicked and found that it was the Ming army who came over, and they were all overjoyed. Compared with the brutal rule of the alien race, they were forced to shave their hair and change their clothes, and they missed the days of the past even more. At this time, less than a year after the fall of Jiangnan, all the people have not completed the transformation of their identities in their hearts, and they still think that they are Mingren. Now that the army of the imperial court is coming, how can we not be excited.

The people ate pot pulp to welcome the arrival of the Chongming army, and there were also hot-blooded young men who took out the steel forks and shovels at home and followed behind the Chongming army.

In Zhenjiang City, the people in the city also stirred, and there were people constantly secretly uniting. On weekdays, intimidated by the obscenity of the Qing army, most people dare not move, and now there is a powerful royal family coming from the river, so what are you waiting for if you don't do it! The situation of sails and masts on the river gave them great confidence, and the powerful firepower of the Chongming army made them even more confident. Although many people's roofs were hit by shells, and some relatives were injured by shells, not many people complained.

Feeling the fluctuation of the people's hearts in the city, Ma Degong knew that the big thing was not good, the strength of the Ming army in the river was too strong, and the people in the city were fluctuating, and Zhenjiang could not be defended.

Since he can't keep it, of course, he can't be sent to death, Ma Degong is not a loyal person, he became a traitor for glory and wealth, how can he be loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty now?

After judging the situation, he quickly assembled his troops, opened the east gate, and fled in a hurry. The Ximen Ming army had already landed on the canal, and Ma Degong did not dare to fight the Ming army at all.

After Chen Mingyang landed on the canal, there was no Qing army to intercept him, and he easily entered Zhenjiang City, only then did he know that the guard Ma Degong had escaped!

Ma Degong fled, Zhenjiang prefect Li Weiguo took the initiative to surrender, and Zhenjiang City returned to the Ming Dynasty.

On the seventeenth day of the first month, Ren Siqi led the main force of the Chongming Army to Zhenjiang City, and sent Yan Yingyuan to lead a town of soldiers to attack Danyang Jintan, blocking the way for the Qing army in Suchang Prefecture to rescue Nanjing. Then he ordered the main infantry to disembark and go ashore and march by land towards Nanjing. Because the Yangtze River further up from Zhenjiang has become very narrow, and the current is turbulent, the speed of taking a boat is far less fast than walking.

Ren Siqi personally led 40,000 infantry to Nanjing by land, and Mao 18 commanded the fleet along the Yangtze River, advancing by land and water, and attacking Nanjing!