"It's a real risk."

After jumping from the ferry to the ground, Xu Ping looked back at the vast river, and the soldiers of the Guards Battalion on the other side looked like little ants, and even the eagle flags they held high were difficult to recognize.

The main force of the Jiangbei army has crossed the Yangtze River before Xu Ping, since the first batch of Jiangbei troops successfully crossed the river, the Ming army of various ferries and fortresses on the south bank began to surrender to Cheng, and the boats and boats collected by the Southern Ming Dynasty in advance were placed in these ferries and fortresses, and after the Shun army obtained them effortlessly, the army was able to quickly start crossing the river.

The only trouble was that the sailors of the Funing army also tried to harass the Shun army to cross the river, but the Ming army's river defense troops near the landing site of the Shun army had also defected, and as soon as they saw the sailors of the Funing army, they lit a beacon fire to give an alarm. After receiving the warning, the Shun army will suspend the crossing of the river and wait for the alarm to be lifted before continuing the operation.

Xu Ping was the biggest target, and the Funing Naval Division had been hovering over the river near his troops for a long time and had refused to leave, and the other divisions had not left after completing the crossing, so Xu Ping had to let the armored battalion march to other safe crossings to cross the river.

The Shun army that crossed the river continued to expand their influence, and Zhou Dongtian and Sima Li Laiheng, who followed the armored battalion across the river, assigned men to control the various Ming strongholds along the river, so that the Funing Naval Division could be supplied and anchored. If it was discovered that the Funing army was attempting to land, the Jiang defense army would light more beacon fires to give alarms, so that the nearby Shun army field troops could arrive in time to expel them.

After the evacuation of the Funing Army and the Navy Division yesterday, Xu Ping was able to cross the Yangtze River with the guard battalion, and now he looked at the river and couldn't help but sigh: "No wonder since ancient times to pacify the south of the Yangtze River, we have to first build the upstream momentum, and the water division can only send troops. ”

After Zhou Dongtian and Xu Ping rounded, they reported to the commander that although the Shun army controlled all the Jiangfang fortresses and bravely shot at the Funing Naval Division, the effect was very bad: "Whether it is the artillery of the Jiangfang Army or our artillery, it is useless against the ships of the Funing Army, and our shells will bounce into the water as soon as they hit the wallboard of these ships." ”

"What about the arsonist ship?"

"Where are the fireboats so fast," Zhou Dongtian went to prepare the arsonist boat, and also asked the Jiangfang Army, who was familiar with hydrology, about the location of the reef and shoal, the ships of the Funing Navy Division were all large sea ships, and it was not easy to turn around in the river, Zhou Dongtian originally planned to gather a group of arson boats to ambush, and then launch a surprise attack near a certain reef group, but the beacon reported that the Funing Navy Division went straight east along the river to the sea: "The Jiang Defense Army collectively defected, and the Funing Navy Division knew nothing about the movement on the shore, probably they also sensed the danger, so they simply retreated." ”

"What is the firepower of these big ships of the Funing Naval Division?" Xu Ping remembered that Zheng Zhilong boasted to himself that the main ship of the Funing Navy Division had 30 guns on one ship, which was equivalent to the artillery firepower of the six battalions of the Shun Army at that time, so when the Funing Navy Division was circling around Xu Ping, he asked the Guards Battalion to hide far away and never close to the shore.

"Very fierce!" Zhou Dongtian inquired about several Jiangfang fortresses that were attacked, and the defenders reported that when the Funing army fleet opened fire, it was said that it was a rain of bullets, and the defenders had no possibility of returning fire at all, so they could only hide underground to avoid the other party's bullet rain: "If we let our artillery fight them, it is almost suicide, our artillery can't move them at all, and they are less than their artillery, but the Funing army has nothing to do with us, at first they tried to land and destroy our battery, Li Sima arrived and stood still, waiting for the soldiers of the Funing army to land in large numbers, After starting to attack the fort, he launched a counterattack and eliminated more than 300 of them. ”

Seeing the fierce artillery of the opponent, Li Laiheng did not dare to pursue into the field of view of the opponent's big ship, so he could only hide behind the bunker and watch the remnants of the enemy board the small boat and escape back to the big ship.

Later, the Funing Army tried to land several times and destroyed several Jiangfang batteries, but was ambushed by the 6th Infantry Wing and lost hundreds of people. Zhou Dongtian felt that the other party actually couldn't take advantage of this kind of combat mode: "As long as we hide well, we can't lose many people, and we want to completely destroy a fortress by artillery?" Then they can't even run out of gunpowder on the whole ship. "Without the means of landing, the Funing army can only be satisfied with suppressing the Jiangfang fort to prevent them from harming themselves, but in this way, the Funing army cannot obtain gunpowder and shells to replenish, and the Shun army will wait for the Funing army and sailors to leave, then go out from the bunker to rearrange the cannons, cover them with camouflage and hide them, and then launch a sneak attack when the Funing sailors pass by again. The river was unobstructed, and the terrain on the shore was much more complex, and after each sneak attack, the gunners had time to flee back to the trench bunkers before the Funing sailors could return fire.

"Speaking of arson," Zhou Dongtian asked his subordinates to take out an object for Xu Ping to see, it was a large and a small steel barrel connected together, and there was a long barrel similar to a musket in front, but there was no bayonet slot, but there were two things that looked a bit similar to the trigger, but they were several times larger, and they had to be held with the whole palm of their hands, and they were still a pair; The surface of the cylinder is polished to a shiny finish, and the parts on it are made with great care, extremely detailed and exquisite: "General, guess what this is?" ”

Xu Ping looked at it over and over for a long time, and after guessing a few times, Zhou Dongtian shook his head and said no: "General, don't guess, this is not a porcelain vase of a rich man's family, didn't the last general say it, this is related to arson, and it is a weapon of the Funing Army." ”

Despite Zhou Dongtian's repeated reminders, Xu Ping still had no clue, Zhou Dongtian triumphantly called a soldier to let him operate this weapon, and he pulled Xu Ping to stand far away and watch.

The soldier first put a piece of charcoal on the slot next to the muzzle, lit the charcoal, and then tossed it again, and then pressed the big wrench on the left, and immediately heard a whistling sound from the muzzle, and then pulled down the right one with force, and suddenly a flame shot out of the muzzle.

After Xu Ping looked at it carefully for a while, Zhou Dongtian shouted to signal that it was okay, the Shun soldier carefully put away the wrench on the right first, the flame of the muzzle disappeared and only the whistling sound remained, and after waiting for a while, the Shun soldier sent another wrench, and the wind disappeared, the soldier gently put the cylinder on the ground and saluted Zhou Dongtian and Xu Ping with fists.

"What is this?" Xu Ping asked suspiciously.

"At first, we didn't know, after carefully questioning the prisoners, we learned that this is a new weapon researched by the Funing Army, I heard that Huang Hou personally ordered it to be made after he arrived in Fujian at the beginning of the year, and gave this thing a name 'flamethrower', which was just made last month, and this time it was handed over to the Funing Navy Division to test it on the battlefield, and it was captured by our army." Zhou Dongtian told Xu Ping with a smile that after their urgent questioning, the captives also confessed that this thing was a weapon specially designed by the Funing Army to fight against the Shun army: "We have always used trenches and fortresses to fight against the offensive of the new army, and Huang Hou designed this thing to use against our trenches and fortresses." ”

"Flamethrower," Xu Ping muttered to himself, having never heard of this weapon in his time in the New Army: "Is this thing any good?" ”

"It's not easy to use at all, and it's very dangerous, originally we captured three of these things, all of them were captured intact, and the Funing Army soldiers who were holding them were knocked down by our muskets before they got close, but ...... "According to the prisoner's confession, this weapon was personally supervised by Huang Hou, and the craftsmen didn't understand what Huang Hou wanted to make, the design was drawn by Huang Hou himself, and he had to personally explain to the craftsman in charge what he wanted to make, and several Funing Army soldiers who were seriously injured and captured with flamethrowers also saw Huang Hou himself, This weapon is extremely cumbersome to use, and there is no room for error, and when firing, it is necessary to turn on the air first, and then the oil; When the fire is turned off, the oil must be turned off first, and then the wind will be turned off, and if you are not careful, it will pour fire, and when Zhou Dongtian asked people to test the weapon, there was an explosion, killing and injuring several Shunjun soldiers: "General, you have also seen it, although this thing can breathe fire, but it is only sprayed more than one zhang and less than two zhang, who will let them get close?" It's a sneak attack at night, and you have to light charcoal before you can use it, isn't this a target? ”

"Then what is the Hou Ye personally supervising this?" Xu Ping asked the soldier to bring the pair of cylinders over and observe them carefully: "Do you know how this thing breathes fire?" ”

"Adults have seen street showers breathing fire, right?" In many towns, there are such entertainers, with some wine in their mouths, taking a deep breath and then spraying on the torches, spewing out a large ball of fire: "The last general thinks that Huang Hou is looking at the idea of these showmen, one of these two cylinders is full of gas, as if we took a deep breath, this small bottle is full of oil, as soon as the handle is opened, it flows down the pipe to the muzzle, and then is blown out by the wind." ”

Zhou Dongtian said that the captives said that this kind of cylinder can be inflated when it is used up, but no one knows how to charge it, and the empty bottles are recycled and reused during the Fujian experiment, but more technical details are not known to these soldiers.

"How did you charge it?" Xu Ping's curiosity rose, he pulled the wrench on the left, and the wind that erupted from the muzzle of the gun was very strong, which could blow people's faces faintly painful: "Even if it's a cow, you can't blow such hard gas into it." ”

Zhou Dongtian initially guessed that Huang Hou's method was to see the inspiration of the child playing with the floating bucket in the water, and press the exhaled air into a floating bucket, and then press it into this cylinder, but after seeing the wind force, he immediately knew that it was definitely not the case: "The adult stumped me, I don't know, no one in the army can figure out how Huang Hou did it." But this thing is really useless, Huang Hou is in vain. ”

Xu Ping didn't think that it would be of much use to spray only a few meters of fire, so he pointed to the vial again: "What kind of oil is this?" ”

"This oil is very vicious, at the beginning of the end of the general thought it was pine resin or something," the smell of flamethrower oil no one can say, even a few flamethrowers do not know the origin, fortunately Zhou Dongtian caught a Funing army prisoner who happened to work in the port before, he confessed that this is a kind of oil imported from the South Seas, very dangerous Every time Funing Town will send someone to pick up the goods, loading and unloading is also like a great enemy, he remembered the taste of this oil: "It seems to be called oil, oil is black, from which this kind of oil can be refined, just a little, And it's very sticky and will stick to people and burn, if you are really sprayed, most of them will not survive. ”

Since all his subordinates thought that this weapon was not powerful, Xu Ping did not plan to spend his efforts on researching and trying to imitate it, and now that there were problems with the production of flintlock pistols, it was even more impossible to make this kind of flamethrower that could not even understand the principle: "How about Nanjing?" ”

"Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo sent people to report that Huang Degong came from Taiping Mansion to attack Nanjing, he returned to the division alone, and the advantage was to fight quickly, and the two Liu generals are now strong, and when his sharp energy is exhausted, Li Chengdong has also rushed to Taiping Mansion to reinforce Liu Zeqing and them." Zhou Dongtian asked Xu Ping whether to go to Nanjing first or rush to Taiping Mansion to supervise the war.

"Of course, I will go to Taiping Mansion first, and Nanjing will not fly again."

……

After the Jiangbei generals, who were already in the Shun army, dragged Huang Degong in Taiping Mansion for a few days, the whole army of the Huang army lacked food and people's hearts fluctuated, and deserters began to appear the day before yesterday, and a large number of soldiers fled last night.

Today, the Jiangbei Army swaggered out and put on a field battle posture, and also sent Huang Degong a war letter inviting him to fight to the death, although he knew that this may not be a good time for a decisive battle, but Huang Degong knew that if he waited any longer, it was estimated that his army would collapse without waiting for others to fight him.

Although Emperor Hongguang personally beat the drum to cheer, Huang Degong fought hard for a morning and failed to defeat Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo, but was gradually suppressed by the opponent, seeing that the battle situation was unfavorable Huang Degong was even more impetuous, the other party's commander Xu Ping had not yet arrived at the battlefield, and now he couldn't even defeat these people, so how could he take back the Beijing Division?

At noon, seeing that the Huang Department was already exhausted, Li Chengdong's department, which had been hiding behind the battle to recuperate, also joined the battle group, Li Chengdong personally led the cavalry of the headquarters to attack Huang Degong's flank, and saw that thousands of cavalry stepped on the ground and shook the mountains, and suddenly killed from the flank, the people were panicked and fought hard for a long time, and the Huang Department immediately collapsed......

"Your Majesty, let's go." Huang Degong was already in a cloak, and he rushed to Emperor Hongguang's side with a blood-stained sword: "Big deal!" ”

Although he didn't understand military affairs, he saw his troops scattering and fleeing, followed by enemies all over the mountains and fields, and Emperor Hongguang didn't need to understand military affairs to understand that this battle was lost.

"The emperor is leaving," Huang Degong urged, and waved the sword in his hand vigorously: "Weichen is the emperor's queen." ”

Before Emperor Hongguang had asked the empress and the prince who was only a few years old to be sent to Fujian, because Emperor Chongzhen asked King Lao Fu to recognize Huangshi's wife as a righteous daughter, so theoretically Huangshi was the concubine of the dynasty and the brother-in-law of Emperor Hongguang. At the same time, Emperor Hongguang also decreed that his godbrother-in-law was once again named the Duke of Qi - the Duke of Qi, and at the same time sent an edict, which said that if he was unlucky, let him be the regent of the Duke of Qi and the concubine, and assist the prince to ascend the throne.

"Let's go together," Emperor Hongguang threw down the drum hammer in his hand and shouted to Huang Degong: "Aiqing will follow me to Fujian." ”

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