Of course, Feng Quan knew that the so-called cutting off of the canal was just a threat to these water gangsters.

Although the current fortune ships of the Yangtze River Sailors are not the opponents of those Western sailing ships, they only have 3 boats, and they dare not leave the river near Chongming at all.

If it takes them about a day to go back and forth to Zhenjiang, they can land on Chongming Island.

Tian Ergeng said: "If the garrisons around Nanjing fully cooperate with us, even if the warships do not have the advantage, it is not impossible to compete with those water bandits. ”

"But it's obvious that all of these people are not working, and I even suspect that there are many people who are secretly colluding with the water gangsters."

Tian Ergeng's words made Feng Quan's heart palpitate, and he almost died in the belly of the fish in Taihu Lake that day.

Now he said that he didn't dare to go to the mouth of the Yangtze River to supervise the battle in person.

Although Feng Quan is a Qincha, after all, fighting is not his forte.

Truth be told, the situation he is facing now is far more than he originally expected.

Feng Quan's "dragon crossing the river" was almost suppressed by those ground snakes.

However, Feng Quan's status today is definitely not just because he has a good skin, he quickly thought of a countermeasure.

Since he couldn't defeat Chongming, he simply threw the pot and handed over the matter of pacifying the rebellion of Chongming Shuikou to Yuan Keli, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department.

If Yuan Keli can't take down Chongming's Shuikou, then he can take advantage of the situation to take down his Nanjing Military Department Shangshu.

The gang of "Flying in the Waves" is really too unspeakable.

Originally, it was just to make trouble in Taihu Lake, but now it actually occupies Chongming, and threatens to cut off Caoyun, which is already an open rebellion.

Chongming is known as the "gateway of the great river" and "the barrier of ten counties".

Now it is equivalent to blocking the shipping of the Yangtze River, although the Ming Dynasty is forbidden to the sea, but it does not mean that there is no smuggling in the south of the Yangtze River.

"Flying in the waves" is tantamount to cutting off the financial route of these people.

Cui Wensheng, the garrison eunuch, discussed with Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, that if he allowed this to develop, he would also cut off his own financial route.

Even if there was no Feng Quan, there were rebels on the ground in Nanzhili, and it was their task to quell the rebellion.

So the two also put pressure on Yuan Keli together, asking him to quickly put down Chongming's rebellion.

Yuan Keli is in a dilemma, and many Donglin Party members hope that he can open the net, at least for a while.

Zhang Pu of the Restoration Society even said that their move was just to put pressure on the eunuch party, as long as the eunuch party made concessions on commercial tax matters, then Yuan Keli only needed to recruit An "Flying in the Waves" and others, and there was no need to use swords and soldiers to pacify Chongming.

Yuan Keli naturally knew that Feng Quan's purpose was also very clear, if he couldn't quickly quell Chongming's rebellion, he would take advantage of the situation.

However, on the surface, Yuan Keli still made detailed arrangements, first of all, he mobilized more than 30 Franc machine guns in Nanjing City and Jinshanwei and other places, and expanded the fort in Wusongkou.

In the 48th year of Wanli, the British East India Company's "Unicorn" battleship suddenly encountered a typhoon and sank in the waters near Yangjiang, Guangdong.

In the original history, it should have been salvaged in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, perhaps because Li Xianzhong made the Hongyi cannon in advance, and it was salvaged in the third year of the Apocalypse.

Now this batch of Hongyi cannons has been sent to the Beijing Division.

Yuan Keli believed that the range of the Franc cannon was not enough, and the Wusongkou Fort needed a cannon with a longer range if it wanted to stop the enemy ships from attacking.

So he applied to the imperial court to transfer ten Hongyi cannons to come to Wusongkou to help.

Of course, his main purpose was to stall for time, not to mention that the imperial court would not necessarily agree.

Even if they agreed, it would probably be a month or two before these cannons arrived at Wusongkou.

In addition, he also took the Yangtze River Water Division and the Jinshan Weishui Division of Zhenjiang as the team to form a Wusong Water Division.

Although the capital ship of the Wusong Naval Division is still a large fortune ship, it is not an opponent of the Shui Kou warship.

But under the cover of the fort, there was no problem for the Wusong Water Division to guard the Wusongkou.

Yuan Keli said that he had mobilized 5,000 soldiers and horses, and was ready to recover Chongming, as long as the main force of the imperial court's Hongyi artillery or naval division went south, he could immediately send troops.

When the news of Feng Quan's request for the sailor to go south reached the Jingshi, it caused quite a stir.

Originally, Cui Chengxiu was at odds with Feng Quan, but Gonggong Wei supported Feng Quan to go south, and he was helpless.

Now Feng Quan has defeated two battles against bandits in Suzhou, not only losing troops and losing generals, but even intensifying the contradictions between the people of Suzhou and the imperial court, so that the water invaders directly captured Chongming and blocked the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Naturally, he would not let go of this good opportunity to hit Feng Quan.

It just so happened that at this time, many officials in Jiangnan impeached Feng Quan for his misdeeds in Jiangnan, which led to the stirring up of popular uprisings.

Cui Chengxiu secretly instructed his henchmen to add fuel to the fire, so that the Emperor of the Apocalypse also knew about the Suzhou riot and the failure of Feng Quan's suppression of bandits.

So there was a voice of "severely punish Feng Quan" in the court.

Cui Chengxiu also understands whether he can win Feng Quan or not, it depends on the meaning of "nine thousand years old".

His subordinates even preached everywhere that Feng Quan was promoted by betraying men, just a nerd with little experience, embarrassed by the big responsibility.

Even Wei Liangqing said in front of Wei Zhongxian that Feng Quan, a "little white face", could only write some articles, and he couldn't do anything big at all.

At this time, Cui Chengxiu even said to Wei Zhongxian: "Now the turmoil in Jiangnan is caused by Feng Quan, as long as Feng Quan is taken down to calm the public opinion in the world, Jiangnan will soon be calmed down, and the tax revenue will be restored." ”

Tian Ergeng, the only commander of the Jinyi Guard who supported Feng Quan in the imperial court, was not in Beijing at all now, so naturally there was no one to speak for him at this time.

Gonggong Wei can now be described as "full of talents", and he no longer lacks the support of civil officials as he did at the beginning.

Eventually, at the instigation of Cui Chengxiu, he decided to remove Feng Quan from office in order to quell the unrest in Jiangnan.

And Cui Chengxiu went to Jiangnan to replace him after successfully defeating Feng Quan.

Cui Chengxiu originally advocated not intensifying the contradictions, but now that he has won Feng Quan, he can naturally reach a compromise with the gentry in Jiangnan temporarily.

He said in front of Wei Zhongxian that he could handle the rebellion in Jiangnan without leading troops.

Therefore, it is naturally impossible for the sailor that Feng Quan is looking forward to day and night to reach Jiangnan to support.

Whether it is the Tianjin Sailor or the Denglai Sailor, it will take ten days at most to go south to the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Now that almost a month has passed, there is no news of the sailor going south, which makes Feng Quan have a bad premonition.

At this time, a brocade guard wearing a flying fish suit hurriedly walked in and whispered a few words beside Tian Ergeng.

Tian Ergeng's face changed greatly after hearing this.

Feng Quan knew that something must have happened.

So he asked: "Governor Tiandu, but something happened in Beijing?" ”

Tian Ergeng said with some frustration: "Master Feng, Tian can't stay in Suzhou to help you!" ”

"Gonggong Wei has ordered Tian to immediately escort those suspects of the Donglin Party to Beijing for trial."

"In addition, according to the news from the Kyoshi. Cui Chengxiu has repeatedly slandered that Gonggong Wei has decided to remove you from office, and Cui Chengxiu will come to Suzhou in three days to announce the news. ”

At this moment, Feng Quan stayed on the spot.

Although Feng Quan guessed that after his failure, Cui Chengxiu would definitely speak ill of himself in front of Wei Zhongxian.

But he never expected that "Nine Thousand Years Old" would be so ruthless and directly remove himself.

After all, since he joined the eunuch party, he has done his best.

This time, he used the opportunity of "Jingcha" to drive the Donglin Party out of the court, and almost all of them were brought about by himself.

This time I came to Jiangnan and did not forget to fight the Donglin Party for the "nine thousand years old".

Even in such a critical situation, he was still trying to cut Yuan Keli's military power.

How can Feng Quan, who is a young man, accept this?

After all, you still have to pay the price when you are young, and it seems that you can't fight the old and spicy Cui Chengxiu.

But he was not reconciled, he became a cabinet scholar at the age of 27, and he was the youngest cabinet minister in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

even had the hope of serving as the first assistant at one time, but now he was directly abandoned by the "nine thousand years old" like this?

Tian Ergeng knew that this incident hit Feng Quan very hard, and wanted to comfort him, but he didn't know where to start.

But soon Feng Quan said to Tian Ergeng: "Since Cui Chengxiu still has three days to arrive, this matter must be kept secret!" ”

"I can't just accept my fate, I have to make a last stand."

Soon Feng Quan found Yuan Keli and said, "Is the sergeant of Yuan Shangshu and Wusongkou ready to raid Chongming?" ”

Yuan Keli said: "Our army is naturally ready to recover Chongming at any time, but the thieves and warships are sharp, and our army can't resist it!" As soon as the northern sailors arrive, I will immediately send troops to recover Chongming! ”

Feng Quan said: "Presumably this news Chongming's Shui Kou has also known, and now that the Northern Sailors have not arrived, they must have thought that we would not attack the island, and they were just caught off guard at this time." ”

Yuan Keli was frightened by Feng Quan's bold idea, but after thinking about it, it was really possible to succeed.

However, he still said: "It is too risky to attack the island overnight, and although the enemy ships may not be able to hit our ship, we ourselves are likely to deviate or even run aground." ”

Feng Quan said: "How can there be a sneak attack without taking risks, Yuan Shangshu will not be afraid of the enemy and war, right?" ”

Yuan Keli knew that Feng Quan was threatening himself, and if he refused to fight, he would probably take advantage of the situation to take him down.

He said: "Let the soldiers of each battalion prepare, and in an hour I will send troops to Chongming." ”

Feng Quan said: "These water cowards are all natives of Suzhou, it is inevitable that there are their meticulous work in the camp, so for the sake of safety, it is better to gather soldiers directly and set off, so as not to leak the news!" ”

"In order to boost morale, Ben Qin sent to fight with Lord Yuan!"

The risk of attacking Chongming at night is actually not small, Yuan Keli didn't expect Feng Quan to dare to drag himself to go out with the army.

However, since he is not afraid of the eunuchs, he can still retreat as the secretary of the military department.

The risk of crossing the river at night was too great, and in the end, Wu Song's sailors had to give up the small boats and use the large fortune boats.

Under the reflection of the moonlight, dozens of lucky ships slowly sailed away from Wusong Wharf.

If it was in the daytime, their actions would definitely not escape the eyes and ears of the water cowards.

However, at this time, the wind and waves were urgent, and it was night, although the movement of Wusong Sailor leaving the port was very noisy, but the water on Chongming Island knew nothing.

Chongming Island has not become a large island as in later generations, but is composed of several sandbanks such as Yaoliusha, Changsha, Nansha and Sansha.

The county seat of Chongming is located in the westernmost Yao Liusha.

After leaving Wusongkou, Wusong Shuishi did not go north directly to Chongming, but went west along the riverside, and then continued to go north after passing Liuhe Fort.

Since the landmarks are so clear, there is no possibility of yaw.

In fact, Yuan Keli had already thought of the tactics of night attack, and he didn't expect Feng Quan, a civil official, to think of this method.

It can be seen from Feng Quan's methods of dealing with the Donglin Party that this Qincha is actually not the one who sold his hue as rumored.

Although he became a cabinet scholar after defecting to the eunuch party, he was also born in Hanlin, and he became a scholar at the age of 19, and there are few people in the entire Ming Dynasty.

It's just that such a promising young talent is willing to be Wei Zhongxian's lackey, which is really embarrassing!

Yuan Keli said: "From here to the north, you can reach Chongming in two quarters of an hour at most. It's just that now that the moon is dark and the wind is high, we can't see the channel clearly at all, and there is a risk of hitting the reef or even running aground when approaching Chongming Island! ”

Feng Quan said: "This is the reason why Yuan Shangshu gave up the boat, right? ”

"Actually, it doesn't hurt even if it runs aground, our main task is to get to the island. As long as they can land on the island, these water bandits are no match for the official army at all. ”

Yuan Keli also agreed with Feng Quan's statement that it was impossible for a group of water robbers to win the official army head-on.

"Flying in the Waves" was only the nominal leader, but in fact, the real commander in Chongming City at this time was Shen Zhengzong, a wealthy merchant in Wujiang.

On Chongming Island at this moment, in addition to the 300 water cowards under the command of "Flying in the Waves", there are also 3,000 Suzhou rebels.

Most of these people are the families of wealthy merchants in Suzhou and the group training in the countryside, not those people who have no pure iron, so they still have considerable combat effectiveness.

In particular, Shen Zhengzong and other businessmen purchased a large amount of weapons and equipment from Zheng Zhilong.

A thousand of them wore heavy cloth armor, and a hundred even wore piercing armor.

It is no exaggeration to say that the equipment of these rebels is far better than that of the officers and troops of Nanzhili.

At this time, they had occupied Chongming for a month, and they were already proficient in bird guns and various types of artillery.

However, this raid by the official army still surprised them.

When Wusong Shui Shi appeared on the river near Chongming Island, they were still in a mess.

However, the batteries on the island opened fire on the enemy ships on the river for the first time.

To be honest, with the accuracy of the Franc machine guns of this era, coupled with the visual distance at night, if you can hit the enemy ship, it will definitely belong to the blind cat and run into a dead mouse.

However, the main purpose of the defenders was not to sink the enemy ships, but to inform everyone on the island that the officers and troops had come to steal the island.

Sure enough, with the rumbling sound of artillery, the rebels in the city and the water robbers in the water village were all awakened.

Under the reflection of the moonlight, they could still see the sails of the enemy ships on the river.

Although the firepower of the ships in the hands of the rebels is strong, it is almost entirely a matter of luck to sink the enemy ships in this environment.

For a while, the cannon on the island rumbled, and the fighting was very happy.

However, at this time, for the Wusong Naval Division who attacked secretly, the biggest threat did not come from the warships and batteries of the Shui Kou, but the reefs around Chongming Island.

As they get closer to the island, so does the risk of running aground.

The Ming army's fortune ships also had a displacement of 200 tons, and soon several fortune ships ran aground.

However, at this time, it was not far from the shore, and soon the Ming army launched from the stranded warship and charged towards the shore.

Their target was the Bugger's battery.

At this time, the rebels did not have many men and horses stationed in the fort, only 500 people.

In the face of a large number of officers and soldiers flocking to them, they were still somewhat panicked.

However, under the command of "Flying in the Waves", they quickly maintained their focus.

"Bang, bang, bang"

With a puff of white smoke rising, many of the charging officers and soldiers were put down by the birds!

Now it was the turn of the officers and soldiers to be dumbfounded, these "water cowards" were actually equipped with firearms, and there were quite a few of them.

When they fought against these water bandits, they were even more shocked.

The combat power of the water bandits is very strong, if it were not for the superiority of the number of officers and soldiers, I am afraid that they would be repelled by these water bandits.

Now that the official army and the water coward are actually tied?

Soon, with a sharp sound, an arrow dragged a long imprint and cut through the sky.

After seeing the signal, the three Galen warships floating on the river hurriedly adjusted their muzzles, and changed the target of the shooting from the original Fu boats of the Ming army on the river to the officers and soldiers who were charging towards the fort.

Soon the dense artillery shells exploded in the Ming army, and due to the use of flowering shells, the Ming troops who charged suffered many casualties.

In the blink of an eye, there were two or three hundred casualties.

The Shui Kou guarding the fort took advantage of the distraction of the Ming army and hurriedly evacuated the fort.

Shen Zhengzong is not stupid, they have Chongming County to rely on, and there is no need to fight field battles with the officers and troops in the fort.

Feng Quan and Yuan Keli did not go to the island to direct the battle, they just watched everything on the island from a distance on the Fu boat.

Although Yuan Keli was very surprised that these water robbers had firearms, now that he had taken the fort, the next step was naturally to capture Chongming County.

The officers and soldiers who occupied the fort used the guns on the fort to bombard the enemy ships on the river, and although they were not able to hit the enemy ships, they still interfered with them.

This made it difficult for the Sailors to use naval guns to bombard the officers and troops who had already landed.

Song Zuyi, the general soldier of Wusong, soon commanded the Ming army that had landed on the island to set off for Chongming County.

The county seat of Chongming in front of us was built in the eleventh year of Wanli (1583), the city wall is square, the circumference is more than four miles, five city gates, and two water gates.

Outside the four city gates in the southeast, northwest and northwest, there is also a southeast gate - Chaoyang Gate.

The goal of the officers and soldiers is to represent this Chaoyang Gate.

Because he did not carry siege equipment, Song Zuyi had to make people build siege ladders from local materials while filling in the moat of Chongming City.

Soon the officers and soldiers, under the cover of the shield bearers, rushed towards the moat.

At this time, the rebels in the city had already been waiting for a long time, and with Shen Zhengzong's order, the tiger squat cannon and fire gun in the city immediately launched an attack on the officials and troops under the city.

Although the darkness affected the effect of shooting, the dense formation of the officers and soldiers still allowed them to achieve a lot of results.

Judging from the screams of the officers and soldiers, the other side lost at least several hundred people.

This result surprised Song Zuyi.

These trolls are also armed with too many firearms.

What you know is that you are fighting the water, and what you don't know thinks you have run into the Shenji Battalion?

At this time, the sky was already a little bright, and "Lang Li Fei" said: "Now that the morale of the officers and soldiers is low, we will just hit them at this time. ”

"If it really drags on until dawn, the brothers are not necessarily the opponents of the official army!"

At this time, the morale of the rebels was at their peak, and Chongming was their home turf, although it was a bit risky to go out of the city to fight, but they were able to quickly resolve the battle while it was dark.

Shen Zhengzong also understands the truth of "fight with one punch, lest a hundred punches come".

After hesitating, he decided to take the initiative to attack, as long as the landing of the official army was thwarted in a short time, I believe that they would not dare to attack Chongming easily.

In the end, he decided to leave 1,000 musketeers to defend the city, and the remaining 2,000 men led by "Flying in the Waves" attacked.

Just when Song Zuyi and the others were still anxiously waiting for dawn, they found that the suspension bridge in Chongming City had been lowered.

Then a large number of water robbers rushed out of Chongming City.

Song Zuyi was overjoyed and said: "Brothers, the general army is worried that it will not be able to break the city, and this group of water robbers actually took the initiative to go out of the city to die, and everyone will go into the city with me." ”

Soon the two groups of men and horses were killed together, but the official army led by Song Zuyi soon fell into disadvantage.

The subordinates of "Flying in the Waves" are all old bandits who have accumulated years of experience, killing people like hemp, and the more than 100 volunteer soldiers in front are all wearing armor.

Song Zuyi also oppressed ordinary people around Nanjing on weekdays, and he never went to the battlefield at all.

In the face of such an all-iron-clad water bandit, where can they resist?

Only some officers in the army he led wore armor, and there were only about 300 officers and men wearing heavy cloth armor.

This group of anti-thieves actually has hundreds of ironclad soldiers and more than 1,000 heavy armoured soldiers, how can this be fought?

Soon Song Zuyi was killed by "Flying in the Waves", and most of the remaining Ming troops surrendered!

At the cost of more than 400 deaths, the rebels killed nearly 1,000 officers and soldiers and captured more than 1,500 people, which can be described as an unprecedented victory.

Soon after, the Shuikou, who had reoccupied the fort, began to fire at the Ming warships on the river.

At this time, the sky was getting brighter, and Feng Quan and Yuan Keli had to order the retreat.

The army dispatched 36 large ships, and as a result, 20 ships were sunk or stranded.

The 2,500 infantry divisions that landed were completely wiped out, and the losses of sailors killed or captured in battle exceeded 3,500 people.

The desperate Feng Quan finally ended in a fiasco.

Soon after, Cui Chengxiu arrived in Suzhou and directly announced that Feng Quan had been dismissed on the spot.

He even mocked Feng Quan fiercely with the attitude of a victor.

said: "I heard that Scholar Feng is good at seducing men with sex, if you can satisfy me, maybe I will consider keeping your official position!" ”

Feng Quan brushed his sleeves and left!

He was abused again, is it because he is young and handsome that he has to be insulted repeatedly?

At this moment, Feng Quan even had the urge to be disfigured.

But soon Cui Wensheng stopped him, and Cui Gonggong said: "Why should Scholar Feng be depressed, there are not only eunuchs and Donglin parties in this world. ”

"A few years ago, the miscellaneous family, like you, lost the protection of Concubine Zheng Guifei, thinking that they had become fish and meat. However, at a critical time, there was a person who saved our family, and this person had to be afraid of even the 'nine thousand years old' Wei Gonggong. ”

Cui Wensheng's words made Feng Quan's eyes light up, in addition to the emperor in the whole world, the only person who can make Duke Wei jealous is Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao!

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(End of chapter)