Chapter 176: China is Rich in Emperors This Year (2)

Nanzhili, Changzhou Prefecture, Jiangyin County

The mighty Yangtze River flows past the county seat, and the ancient city walls are mottled with damage and blood.

Among the grass growing at the foot of the city walls, there were scattered burned siege equipment, and occasionally a few bones could be seen that had not yet converged. The villages and post stations that were originally scattered within a few miles of Jiangyin County have been burned to the ground of charred ruins.

In the spring of the seventh year of Chongzhen, in the entire territory of Changzhou Prefecture, Jiangyin County was the only Ming Dynasty city that had not yet been occupied by the Qing army.

The wounds inflicted on the city by the last Qing invasion had not yet healed, and the smoke of a new wave of attacks had quietly ignited at this time.

Turg, the general of the Qing army who attacked Jiangyin three months ago, only used more than 200 real Tartars of three Niu Lu, plus thousands of traitors who were temporarily recruited, and he had already beaten Jiangyin County to a pulp. And this time, the Manchu prince Abatai, who was about to invade Jiangyin, had a full twenty Niu Lu's true Tartars under his command, as well as tens of thousands of Han troops who had shaved their hair and surrendered to Tartar, and the pressure on Jiangyin County could be imagined.

Fortunately, at this critical juncture, the soldiers and civilians stationed in this Jiangyin county town received a batch of vital assistance.

“…… Woo."

Accompanied by a long whistle and billowing soot, a steam-powered ship appeared on the water of the Yangtze River, which was very different from that of this era.

If a modern amateur of ship sailing sees this ship, he will probably think that it is a mix of ancient and modern styles: a slender clipper shape, a semi-sealed deck, an open turret arranged along the center line, two tall masts, and two sets of steam engines that burn pulverized coal.

In fact, this "Hurricane" fast cruiser, which had just been launched at the Lingao Shipyard on Hainan Island, could almost be regarded as the most advanced warship that could be built independently on the earth at present.

Because a large part of the world is still in a state of wilderness, considering that it is much easier to dig coal than to extract oil, and wood can be burned if necessary, coal-fired steam engines are chosen instead of more advanced diesel engines as power. Eventually, after the design was completed, except for the wooden hull, it was a destroyer from the First World War. It is worth mentioning that this battleship has an astonishing speed that is almost unmatched in the world: in a sea trial, the fast cruiser "Hurricane" sailed at the same time in sea conditions of force 6 winds, and at one point it reached a high speed of 25 knots. Even in normal sailing in peacetime, the ship type can easily exceed fifteen knots.

In addition, at the end of the chimney that was led to the outboard of the ship on both sides, an advanced sprinkler smoke suppression device was also used, which could spray a water curtain on the smoke outlet to flush the smoke and dust, so that the identification distance of the battleship was reduced from more than ten nautical miles to three nautical miles, which greatly increased the concealment of the cruiser's actions.

(Anyone who has watched "The First Sino-Japanese War" knows that the naval battles in the era of steam ironclads were all about warships before they appeared, and they could already see the smoke column.) ）

This was the first mission of the "Hurricane" fast cruiser after it completed sea trials and officially put into service. Due to the need to go deep into the inland waterways and contact and negotiate with unreliable "allies" who have unpredictable attitudes and like to put on stinky shelves, in order to prevent the navy from making any trouble in Jiangyin, the owner of Zhao Yinggong Zhuang left Hangzhou Phoenix Mountain Villa very rarely and personally supervised the aid operation. And Wang Qiu, who had nothing to do, also came over, wanting to see what the famous Jiangyin Anti-Qing Righteous Army was like in history.

Under the guidance of a navigation boat, the fast cruiser "Hurricane" slowly approached the dock outside Jiangyin City, and the marines carrying it immediately disembarked in a procession, controlled the pier in accordance with tactical regulations, and guarded against attacks.

On the other side, Shen Tingyang, the commander of the Yonghe Imperial Court who is now stationed in Jiangyin, is standing on the shore with a group of colleagues at this time, and at the same time carefully looking at this unfamiliar force According to Shen Tingyang's careful observation, he found that although these short-haired thieves have experienced a long voyage, their military appearance is quite neat, just looking at their neat military formation on the dock. and the proficiency of changing formations in the voice of the officers and the brass whistle, we know that this army can be called well-trained, at least much better than the "official army" called Huazi in Jiangyin City, who can't even get together their uniforms.

However, although the "Australians'" arrival can be called a relief in the snow, there are still people in Jiangyin who do not welcome this "friendly army" very much.

“…… Hmph, in vain, this thief claims to be a descendant of the Song Dynasty and Miao, and now looking at it, he is wearing a bearded suit, and his beard is also destroyed at will. Behind Shen Tingyang, Chen Zhenhui, a famous scholar from Nanzhili who had just fled all the way from Yixing to Jiangyin with his family, shook his head with disdain, and sighed as if he was sorry, looking at his expression, it seemed that he had seen some terrible human tragedy.

“…… Hmph, that's it! Xia Yunyi, the soldier who was standing on the side, snorted angrily when he heard the words: "...... I have also read the "Records of the Matter", this generation of crumbs have lived overseas for many years, and their clothing, speech, and law are not similar to Chinese, and there is no doubt that the Taoist system is broken! The virtuous brother has also read the thief's documents, the words are straightforward, the literature and science are incomprehensible, and it is simply insulting! What's more, the thieves are said to have divided the land privately, bought traitors, persecuted the gentry, and did the things of beasts! With such a wolf's heart and lungs, what can the husband say? When the Tartars are expelled in the future, they will definitely raise a large army to go south and kill all the thieves! ”

Xia Yunyi was born in Songjiang Mansion, which had never fallen, and his family's property had not suffered any losses in this earth-shaking turmoil. However, Xia Yunyi, who was born in the gentry class and had a fiery temperament, still looked down on the land reform policy implemented by the "Australian thieves" in a small area and sporadically in Zhejiang (because of the lack of staff, not so much land reform as a punishment for some diehard landlords), and had a feeling of hurting the like. Even though he knew that the Manchu Tartars who were about to attack were the number one enemy at the moment, he couldn't help but sharply criticize the thief reinforcements in front of him.

Xia Yunyi's scathing criticism aroused the echo of more readers behind him, and these so-called reading seeds began to comment on everything they saw on the dock, if they listened carefully, it was nothing more than negative words such as "strange tricks", "immoral", "different from beasts", "jackals, tigers and leopards", as if they were all eager to raise their swords and slash at the thief ships on the opposite dock.

Shen Tingyang, who was standing at the front to greet him, saw that it was not a problem, so he turned around and scolded a few times before calming down this chaotic discussion. And several sand boat gang bosses around Shen Tingyang were even more mocking and secretly laughed at them, several of them were rough people from pirates, although they were deeply appreciated and reused by Admiral Shen Tingyang, but they were always tricked by these sour dings in a weird way, and they had already held back the fire in their stomachs. At present, the Jurchen Tartars who are committing murder in Jiangnan were killed by thieves in Liaodong, and they had no choice but to wander to Jiangnan. This kind of tiger and wolf division is also what you helpless sour people can beak in? Do you really think that thieves don't dare to kill? It's ridiculous!

Even the "Ming Dynasty" in Songjiang Mansion has been able to support it until now, thanks to the support of Australian thieves! If there were no hundreds of thousands of stone grains and rice sold by thieves across the sea, and tens of thousands of hungry people who had been transported away, the Shanghai Imperial Court, which was poor and white, would barely have a little capital to transfer and move, and the current Songjiang Mansion would have been burned to ruins by the mob, where could the sailors be sent to support Jiangyin? Don't think that these rice grains are paid, so you don't take it seriously, take it for granted, if there is no Australian thief to sell grain by sea, even if you hide a lot of silver at home, what can you buy in such a troubled world? After all, everyone is counting on the Australian thief to survive!

But even with the reinforcements and grain and grass from Songjiang Mansion, if there is no such sharp ordnance supported by the thieves, the current battle of Jiangyin is afraid that the chances of victory are limited. At that time, they can certainly retreat, but you sour Ding can only stay and wait for death or slavery!

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Just when everyone in Jiangyin County was thinking differently, the warships on the shore had already begun to unload the arms to aid the Ming army.

“…… Everyone's hard work! Pull! ”

“…… Be careful! ”

On the deck of the fast cruiser "Hurricane", the sailors struggled to pull up the cargo wooden containers with pulleys, and then relied on the coolies of the Jiangyin County Government Organization to transfer them to the open space on the shore at the end of the trestle and stack them.

The long-awaited Ming officers and soldiers hurriedly stepped forward and pried open the wooden cabinet with all their hands, revealing ammunition and knives and guns buried in the straw.

“…… Mr. Zhao, meet again. Shen Tingyang was wearing a big red official robe and carrying a scimitar at his waist, and walked majestically towards Zhang Mingzhen and the others. He and Zhao Yinggong had only met once in Hangzhou not long ago, and they were not familiar with each other, but this did not prevent him from making a cordial gesture.

“…… Hehe, Shen Junmen is also unharmed. Although he didn't have any friendship with Shen Tingyang, the leader of the Sand Boat Gang, Zhao Yinggong had been in Jiangnan Shilin for so long, and he had learned all kinds of surface kung fu well, so he didn't pause at all, so he stepped forward and grabbed Shen Tingyang's hand, and said with a smile: "...... Fortunately, he has sent 20 pairs of armor, 900 sabers, 6,000 iron spears, 600 fire caps, and 10 barrels of gunpowder. In addition, there were 20 boxes of grain bricks, 5 six-pounder guns, and 300 shells...... Well, the sailors have already unpacked their guns! ”

The five six-pounder guns that Hangzhou had given to the Ming army in Jiangyin were packed in five fully sealed wooden cabinets, along with the supporting gun carriages, propellants, and shells. Now it has been unpacked and assembled by the sailors. These 700-kilogram guns look gorgeously decorated, as if the god of artillery has descended. In fact, it was just an ordinary smoothbore howitzer of the 17th century, but it was a bit bluffing.

But Shen Tingyang stroked the dark and smooth barrel, and his eyes lit up, "...... Good cannon! Sure enough, it's a militaristic weapon! Well, the fire cap fast gun has also been obtained in Hangzhou before. After Jiangyin has these sharp weapons, it must be able to make the Tartars suffer another setback! ”

“…… The Jurchen Tartars were just clowns who jumped off the beam, and they were lucky enough to go crazy for a while and steal the capital of Jinling. But is there no good man in the land of my God? As long as all the heroes work together, they will be able to expel the Tartars and restore Jiangnan. Zhao Yingong replied with a smile and said some kind words casually.

In this regard, Shen Tingyang, who knew that the current situation was sinister, just smiled slightly, but Xia Yunyi, a stunned young man, took it seriously, and no matter what the current situation was, he immediately jumped out and spoke: "...... Mr. Zhao, thank you for your help, but although the two countries have now negotiated a peace alliance, there are some things that need to be made clear first. Your country claims to be descendant of the former Song Dynasty and Miao and inherits the Chinese Taoist system, but where does this put me in the Ming Dynasty? Since the Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty, I have leveled the thieves and driven the Tartars. Win the world in a hundred battles. Since ancient times, there is no one who has won the country more righteously. What's more, I have thousands of reading seeds. The style of learning is not comparable to a barbarian small state like your country, and it has to be explained clearly where this Huaxia Zhengshuo is. In the future, when the king expelled the Tartars and restored Shenjing......"

“…… Yi Zhong said carefully! Because he was afraid that this overly straightforward guy would say something that would make it impossible for both sides to get off the stage, Shen Tingyang was in a hurry, so he had to pull Xia Yunyi back, and at the same time interrupted loudly: "...... Today, the Tartars are rampant, and the south of the Yangtze River is fishy, and this time is critical for survival. There is no benefit to the country, the people, the court, or the emperor, but it is only to provoke the Tartars to laugh at them! Be careful! ”

Xia Yunyi originally wanted to say something more, but after hearing Shen Tingyang's words, he forced himself to endure it, and after snorting, he didn't say anything, but still stared at Zhao Yinggong and the others with hateful eyes, and a group of scholars around him also put on such a posture of "killing people with their eyes", as if they couldn't show their contempt and contempt for Australian thieves without taking the opportunity to show their scholarly character.

In this regard, Zhao Yinggong smiled coldly, although he was not from a poor man who was oppressed and exploited by the gentry, but for the wastes in front of him who were about to be eliminated by the times, he was still very disdainful that he had fallen to the point of relying on his own snort to survive, and he was still crooked, it was really a death!

So, taking advantage of the hostility of these gentlemen, Zhao Yinggong cleanly rejected Shen Tingyang's request to let the "Australian warship" assist in the defense of Jiangyin after completing the handover and transfer of this batch of ordnance and ammunition, on the grounds that he was worried that he would be stabbed in the back by Xia Yunyi's gang

Then, before the flag of the Qing army appeared on the horizon, the fast cruiser "Hurricane", which had completed the scheduled task, sounded its whistle, spewed smoke, and sailed away from the city that was about to turn into a battlefield in the complicated eyes of everyone in Jiangyin.

Commissioner Wang Qiu leaned on the railing at the stern of the boat, watching the county town of Jiangyin in the distance become smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared from the end of sight.

“…… What is your opinion of the Ming Righteous Army in Jiangyin City? Comrade Wang Qiu? Zhao Yingong held a cigar in his hand and slowly walked over.

“…… Very disappointed! The soldiers are as dejected as beggars, and the gentry officials are arrogant as the classic mediocre aristocrats of anime games. It's hard to imagine that these decrepit people can become national heroes. Wang Qiu shook his head, "...... By the way, why haven't you seen the famous Yan Yingyuan canon? ”

“…… Yan Yingyuan? Please, it's only been Chongzhen for seven years, okay! Zhao Yingong took a puff of smoke rings and said with a smile, "...... The Yan Yingyuan canon, who led 60,000 righteous people, faced 240,000 Qing army iron cavalry and more than 200 heavy artillery, still held Jiangyin for 81 days, made the Qing army defeat three kings and eighteen generals in a row, and killed 75,000 people. But he is not from the south, but from Tongzhou, Beijing! According to the original history, it will not be until the eleventh year of Chongzhen to come to Jiangyin as a pawn history, and I don't know where to hang around at the moment! Maybe he's dead. ”

“…… What the? Yan Yingyuan is not in Jiangyin? Wang Qiu was taken aback, "...... So will they be able to hold on this time? ”

“…… Who knows? Zhao Yingong shrugged his shoulders, "...... Shen Tingyang, who was sent by the imperial court in Shanghai to garrison Jiangyin, is also a well-known anti-Qing hero in history, and he still has some ability. However, even if they are unlucky and end up defeated, it doesn't seem to matter! It's that we may have a little trouble in Hangzhou, and I'm afraid we need to deal with some Qing soldiers who don't have long eyes......"

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I have to admit that although the famous Yan Yingyuan canon history is missing, the blood of the people of Jiangyin is still extraordinary.

The day after the "Hurricane" cruiser withdrew, the Qing prince Abatai led more than 30,000 troops to surround Jiangyin County, build a ladder to crash into the car, and attacked for five consecutive days, but not only failed to break through the city, but was killed and wounded by the defenders with the musket guns and "Australian artillery" they had just obtained, and lost more than 3,000 soldiers. In the fierce battle, even women and children in Jiangyin County climbed the city wall and threw stones to smash people. In the water battle on the Yangtze River, Shen Tingyang's Shachuan Gang also easily swept the Qing army's Yangtze River Naval Division, firmly holding the control of the river, so that the Qing army could never cut off Jiangyin's external communication channels.

At this time, behind Abatai, there was no big empire that could provide a steady stream of manpower and supplies, whether it was Emperor Hauge or the other two vassal kings Zilharang and Azig, they all had an unlucky relationship with him, and all losses had to be borne by his own subordinates.

So, after repeatedly attacking the city, Abatai decisively gave up the hard bone of Jiangyin, retreated and retreated.

At this point, the second Jiangyin defense battle that broke out in this time and space still ended in the victory of the Ming army.

But the problem is that the victory in the defense of Jiangyin does not mean the victory of the entire Jiangnan battlefield.

After the setback of the attack on Jiangyin, Abatai naturally avoided the real and the false, retreated for a while, and then waved his army around the county seat of Jiangyin, and once again easily broke into Suzhou Prefecture, then swept Taicang Prefecture, and then attacked the territory of Songjiang Prefecture. The Yonghe Imperial Court in Shanghai was suddenly in chaos. Chen Zilong, the squire of the military department, led 5,000 volunteers to deploy in Anting Town, but was rushed and defeated by the Qing cavalry of three Niu Lu, and had to flee into the county seat of Shanghai to hold out.

Fortunately, although Sun Yuanhua, who was guarding Shanghai, was not a famous general, he was the most outstanding military engineer of the Ming Dynasty in this era. Several Qing troops launched a tentative siege on the county seat of Shanghai, but because of the lack of heavy artillery and other equipment and the fierce firepower of the defenders, they all hit their heads and broke their blood.

At this time, the Qing army of the Eastern Expedition had captured a lot, and Abatai was reluctant to fill in too many soldiers and horses for the ant-attached siege on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was worried that Hauge or Azig would be black from behind his back, and the current Qing Dynasty was already divided by warlords, and the relationship between the emperor and the vassal king was to see each other as unlucky and fall into the well. So he decided to accept it when he saw it, returned with 30,000 troops, and returned to the old camp in Changzhou Mansion.

So far, the Yonghe Imperial Court in Shanghai has finally survived this wave of military crisis and survived temporarily. The price is that the entire Suzhou Prefecture has been looted and massacred for the second time this year, and mourning is everywhere. And half of Songjiang Mansion was also ruined and dying.

But in any case, the situation of the confrontation between the Ming and Qing dynasties in the south of the Yangtze River still continued to be maintained.

In this way, on the land of China in this time and space, there were Zhu Cihong of Huizhou, Zhu Yihai of Yonghe Emperor of Shanghai, Haoge and Zhu Yousong of the Qing Emperor of Nanjing, and Dolgon, the Dajin Emperor of Xuzhou.

However, it seems that the heavens are not accustomed to all the noble emperors, and they are all crowded into the territory of the small Nanzhili, and then, in the rest of the provinces under the great tomorrow, there are also lonely and widowed characters who are called lonely and widowed in the rich and weak Jiangnan water town, when the Tartar iron cavalry turned into a flesh and blood mill, the northern country, which has been temporarily extinguished, has once again quietly ignited a new flame......

After the collapse of the Qing Empire and the Huameng army of the traverser stopped outside the Shanhai Pass, the vast land south of the Great Wall and north of the Yellow River became the territory of the Guanning army. However, as the external military pressure subsided, the factional contradictions within the Guanning army immediately heated up rapidly. In order to compete for the position of sole leader, Zu Dashou, the king of Jin, and Wu Xiang, the king of Zhou, did not give in to each other, which eventually led to a series of divisions and infighting.

After a short but fierce battle, Wu Xiang, the king of Zhou, hastily evacuated Gyeonggi with his soldiers and horses and fled back to his base camp in Luoyang, where the Jin king Zu Dashou took advantage of the situation and took control of Datong, Xuanfu, Shanxi, and most of Beizhili. However, Wu Xiang only controlled a part of the western Henan region centered on Luoyang, as well as Pingyang Mansion in the southwest corner of Shanxi Province, and the Guanning army was officially split into two princes of Zhou and Jin.

However, just when the Jin King Zu Dashou whipped his horse and chased the north in an attempt to lay a bigger country for the ancestral family, he didn't notice that a suspicious man with a fox tail quietly entered his territory and came to the Shifokou in Luanzhou, northern Hebei.

He is the leader of the Smelling Fragrance Sect who just set off a big chaos in Shandong and Lianghuai not long ago, Wang Ke.

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PS: There is one thing I want to consult with readers, I was originally scheduled to write "Sword Art Online" in the next volume, but recently someone suggested that "Sword Art Online" is too old-fashioned, and it is better to write "Overlord King of the Undead". I imagined the Flying Squirrel, the King of Bone Pride, looking around for other players, only to find that his grave had become a newbie village, and it seemed like a lot of fun. What do you think?