At the beginning, the Emperor of the Apocalypse responded to the threat of Liaodong in order to reorganize the armament. Through the Dutch, the drawings and craftsmanship of the Hongyi cannon, the firing gun, and the Galen warship were obtained.

However, the cunning Dutch only provided the drawings of the medium-sized Galen warship, and the Dutch mechanics were not very good at guiding the Ming shipbuilding, and they actually did not want the Daming to master the construction technology of the Galen ship soon.

In addition, there were no large shipyards in Fujian, and there was no reserve of timber for building huge ships, so the progress of construction was very slow.

The Fujian shipyard has been built for more than 2 years, and still has not built a Galen warship.

A group of officials in the Ming court, led by Xu Guangqi, advocated strengthening cooperation with the Portuguese.

Sun Yuanhua, as a disciple of Xu Guangqi, naturally firmly supported this strategy.

Sun Yuanhua was fond of reading since childhood, good at martial arts, and later learned from Xu Guangqi, introduced Western mathematics, and raised people in the 40th year of Wanli (1612). In the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), Sun Yuanhua submitted two strategies of "Beijing" and "Frontier Defense" to the imperial court, and was later promoted to the head of the military department.

can be regarded as an official with both civil and military skills.

After Chongzhen overthrew Wei Zhongxian, the Donglin Party regained power, and Sun Yuanhua soon served as the governor of the right capital and Denglai under the recommendation of Xu Guangqi.

Sun Yuanhua himself was proficient in Western studies, especially artillery, and also had a deeper understanding of Dutch drawings.

He independently researched and wrote a series of scientific monographs, such as "Geometric Usage", "Geometric Body Theory", "Taixi Arithmetic", and "Miscellaneous Works on Western Studies", which made important contributions to the dissemination and popularization of Western studies.

Since his appointment as governor of Denlai, he has hired Portuguese mechanics and built a new artillery factory, and in just a few months he succeeded in producing an 18-pounder Red Cannon, which outperformed the Dutch.

So Sun Yuanhua was rewarded by Emperor Chongzhen.

For Sun Yuanhua's proposal to build a gallening ship and strengthen the Denglai sailor in order to cope with the changes in Liaodong in the future, it is even more strongly supported!

The shipyard in Denglai was built a year later than Fujian, but they built the Spanish Galen sailing ship earlier than they did.

When he learned that Sun Yuanhua built a fort in Dengzhou and built two 500-ton Spanish galleons in less than a year, Li Xianzhong was even more surprised!

Dengzhou is less than 200 kilometers away from Lushun in a straight line.

Although the 500-ton old Spanish Galen sailing ship could not possibly pose a threat to the new 1,820-ton light Galen galleon of the Liaodong Naval Division.

However, Sun Yuanhua's move will definitely affect Li Xianzhong's next move.

The quickest way for Liaodong to send troops to the Central Plains is to take Dengzhou directly from Lushun.

Now that the Yanzhou official army controls the waterway, it is becoming more and more difficult for the Intelligence Department to provide material support to Wang Xifan.

The island had sufficient food and ammunition reserves, but there was no firewood for the fire.

Originally, the few trees on the mountain had already been cut down, and although the Intelligence Department had been transporting coal and briquettes, Wang Xifan said that his White Lotus Sect Army should not survive this winter.

Asked Li Xianzhong to send troops directly to Shandong.

In addition, it was rumored that Chongzhen was going to use the main force of the Yulin Battalion to go to Shanxi to exterminate Gao Yingxiang and other 36 battalions of rebels.

forced Li Xianzhong to send troops to Denglai.

However, after all, Liaodong has not officially turned its face with the Ming Dynasty, so it is not appropriate to directly use the main force of the Liaodong Army.

So Li Xianzhong handed over the 20,000 new troops recruited by Liaodong to Zheng Zhilong, and asked him to send troops to Denglai in the name of the East Ryukyu Company.

Previously, Zheng Zhilong took over the subordinates and industry of the great pirate Li Dan.

Now he is a true sea overlord, and his East Ryukyu Company owns 50 large Galen warships, in addition to more than 300 large merchant ships, completely monopolizing the maritime trade of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other places.

And has extended his hand to Macau and Manila.

However, due to the presence of the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong's current trade in Nanyang is still difficult.

At present, the annual trade amount of the East Ryukyu Company is as much as 10 million taels, and the profits paid to Liaodong every year are 5 million taels.

This is also where Li Xianzhong's confidence lies in daring to engage in deficit finance.

At this time, there were 4 1,820-ton and 8 1,200-ton light Galen warships off the coast of Dengzhou.

There are also more than 30 800-ton and 500-ton Galen warships!

Of course, the 1,820-ton warship belonged to the Liaodong Naval Division and was borrowed by Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong's development momentum was a little too rapid, and Li Xianzhong had to take some restrictive measures.

For example, all the shipyards and supply ports of the East Ryukyu Company were controlled by their cronies.

Limit the tonnage of the Eastern Ryukyu Company's warships, and if necessary, the Liaodong Naval Division will send larger warships to cooperate with the Eastern Ryukyu Company.

Zheng Zhilong's eldest son, Zheng Sen, was taken to Kaiyuan, and he was asked to accompany his three sons to study and receive military training as a companion.

In addition, he did not interfere too much in Zheng Zhilong's actions, and the East Ryukyu Company still had considerable autonomy.

In the face of so many giant ships, the two 500-ton boats in Sun Yuanhua's hands are a little insufficient.

Soon they were sunk in the harbor of Dengzhou.

And the Dengzhou Fort, which Sun Yuanhua painstakingly managed, was finally destroyed by Zheng Zhilong's powerful naval artillery.

Facing the countless giant sails in the sea outside the city, Sun Yuanhua seemed a little overwhelmed.

Although the 18-pounder redcoat cannon he created was not inferior to his opponent's, the number was too small.

One of the enemy's large warships is equipped with hundreds of guns, and even if only half of the guns on each side can be fired, the firepower is quite impressive.

It's just that this kind of giant battleship is a "gold-swallowing monster", how much silver does the other party have to support such a huge fleet?

With the arrival of a letter of persuasion, the answer was finally revealed.

Zheng Zhilong arrogantly wrote in the letter: The East Ryukyu Company has taken a fancy to the Denglai area as a base, and gives Governor Sun 3 days, you should move the place quickly, otherwise I will bombard Dengzhou City in three days, and the jade in the city will be burned at that time!

Don't say it's a Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid that for thousands of years, no pirate dared to directly ask a central dynasty to directly cede the rich coastal land of the two provinces?

But Zheng Zhilong does have arrogant capital, and his naval guns are sharp enough.

However, Sun Yuanhua did not intend to give up resistance, no matter how powerful the artillery of the thieves at sea was, they would always have to land.

At most, he gave up the wall near the sea in Dengzhou, and three days was enough time for him to mobilize the surrounding army to fight a decisive battle against these pirates.

Sun Yuanhua secretly mobilized the soldiers and horses of Laizhou Mansion to the vicinity of Dengzhou, and at the same time rescued Liu Zhaoji, the general soldier of Shandong.

Zheng Zhilong was powerful, and Liu Zhaoji had to give up the encirclement of Wang Xifan and the White Lotus Sect, and instead went north to support Dengzhou.

In addition, the Qingzhou Prefecture also sent some reinforcements.

For a time, tens of thousands of Ming troops had been assembled near Dengzhou, and Sun Yuanhua was very confident that he would fight a decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong and other pirates on land.

Unexpectedly, at this time, the target of the thieves was Laizhou.

Dengzhou is located in the easternmost part of the Shandong Peninsula, and Laizhou connects Dengzhou with the whole Shandong.

At this time, Lu Xiangsheng had already led 20,000 Liaodong recruits to land in Ye County, the capital of Laizhou, and the troops of Ye County were empty at this time, and soon the Liaodong Army occupied the capital of Laizhou.

Then Lu Xiangsheng divided his troops to the south to occupy Gaomi, Jiaozhou, Jimo and other cities, and directly controlled the entire territory of Laizhou.

In the past few years, Lu Xiangsheng has been training in Pingyu County (formerly Hetuala), and his hands have long been itching.

At the same time, Sun Chuanting, who joined Liaodong with him, had already carved out a world in Taiwan, but he could only train in Liaodong.

This batch of recruits was trained by him, so he took the initiative to ask Ying to lead the army to fight this time.

Although Liaodong is a famous general, but this time it is in the name of the Zheng family pirates, so naturally he can't use acquaintances, so Lu Xiangsheng picked up such a big bargain.

At this time, the men and horses of Liu Zhaoji, the general soldier of Shandong, happened to rush to the Jiaozhou area in the south of Laizhou.

As a result, the pirates who held high the banner of "Zheng" greeted Lu Mi with a 6-pounder Franc field gun, and returned with a direct defeat, losing more than 3,000 horses.

Sun Yuanhua, who heard of Liu Zhaoji's defeat, couldn't sit still any longer, he didn't expect these pirates to be so strong on land, so he hurriedly asked Jingshi for help.

After receiving Sun Yuanhua's urgent report, Chongzhen was also the first two big.

On the one hand, the more than 200,000 peasant troops in Shanxi were high-profile against the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, the pirates in Shandong actually wanted to openly occupy the second mansion of Denglai.

He can not care whether Sun Yuanhua lives or dies, but Dengzhou is his artillery and warship base, and if it is lost here, the consequences will be unimaginable.

In the end, it was decided to divide the Yulin battalion into two, Cao Wenzhao led 20,000 Yulin battalions to Shanxi to quell the rebellion, and Zuo Liangyu also led 20,000 to Shandong to relieve the siege of Dengzhou.

Lu Xiangsheng took advantage of the gap period when Zuo Liangyu went south and took the opportunity to occupy Weihaiwei, Chengshanwei, Jinghaiwei, Fushanwei and Ninghaizhou on the outskirts of Dengzhou.

They even captured the gold mine in Zhaoyuan.

As for Dengzhou City, the Zheng family's warships only bombarded the northern city of Dengzhou from time to time to give Sun Yuanhua some deterrence.

After all, you have to use the "bait" of Dengzhou to catch the big fish of Zuo Liangyu.

Now that the fish has not been hooked, it is natural that the "bait" of Dengzhou cannot be swallowed.

Zuo Liangyu has risen all the way since joining the Yulin Battalion, and he has stained his official robes red with the blood of a large number of peasant soldiers.

Except for a little loss from Wang Xifan in Yanzhou, it has always been smooth sailing.

He couldn't ask for bandits.

Shanxi thieves are powerful, many of these people were originally strong border troops, and the officials and soldiers suppressed for a year or two, and the result was more and more, so he naturally refused to go to Shanxi.

As for Denglai's side, although what Sun Yuanhua said was quite scary, he estimated that the group of pirates was a sharp warship, and land warfare would definitely not work.

Moreover, the terrain of Shanxi was too easy to be ambushed by the peasant army, so he wisely chose to go to Shandong.

Now the Yulin Battalion under Zuo Liangyu is the elite of the Ming elite, not only well-equipped, but also never in arrears.

They followed Zuo Liangyu to suppress the bandits, and they got a lot of silver.

This time they went to Shandong to fight pirates, and they were all grinding their fists and eager to try.

Lucheng, which was supposed to take about ten days, only took seven days to arrive.

After arriving at Qingzhou Mansion, the Yulin Battalion soon launched an attack on Laizhou.

Their morale was high, and they conquered Weixian and Changyi all the way, and soon arrived at the city of Laizhou.

However, the Yulin battalion was deflated here, and the Liaodong Army took advantage of the range advantage of the Lumi gun to give the Yulin battalion a lot of damage.

After two days of attack, the Yulin battalion suffered nearly 2,000 casualties.

As the most elite unit of the Ming Dynasty, Zuo Liangyu's Yulin battalion was naturally equipped with cannons, but they did not use the light 6-pounder Franc cannon of the Liaodong Army, but the bulky 12-pounder and 18-pounder Hongyi cannons.

The Yulin Battalion was walking so fast before, and the Hongyi cannon was naturally still on the way at this time.

Just when Zuo Liangyu was at a loss, the sentry came to report: "Qi Qi Zuo General Soldier, the thieves have run away, and thousands of thieves have rushed out of the north gate and run towards the sea." ”

This group of pirates obviously has an advantage, why do they want to run, I'm afraid there is fraud among them!

Haikou's firearm is farther than his own range, he doesn't dare to ask Zuo Liangyu to attack the city at this moment, who knows if this is a trick by the Haikou to lure the enemy?

However, now these pirates who are out of the city are all infantry, and they should not be able to run fast, and it is not much risk to use the cavalry in their hands to take advantage of the situation to cover up.

Soon Zuo Liangyu sent 5,000 cavalry to chase and kill the thieves who left the city.

Originally, I thought that it would be easy for the cavalry to chase the infantry, but I didn't expect that these pirates would actually throw thistles all the way.

Although their horses are equipped with horseshoes, the U-shaped horseshoe cannot protect the center of the horse's hooves, so the horses will still be stinged by thistles, which will affect the speed of pursuit.

As a result, they were never able to catch up, and finally they were lured six or seven miles from the coast before they knew it.

At this time, the warships on the sea roared in unison, and the Yulin battalion did not expect that Haikou's naval guns could exceed 7 li, and their 18-pounder Hongyi cannons generally hit 4 or 5 li at most.

Moreover, the pirates' warships used flowering shells, and almost instantly they were fatally hit.

Hundreds of 18-pounder Hongyi cannons from more than a dozen capital ships roared in unison, and this movement was tantamount to shaking the mountains, and even Laizhou City, more than ten miles away, felt the vibration.

Of course, the thousands of shells fired were also a lot of money.

However, the results of the battle were also very brilliant, and most of the cavalry casualties of the Yulin battalion were lost, and in the end only more than 2,000 people escaped.

But at this moment, the Liaodong cavalry in the city had blocked their way.

Where do these frightened birds still have the will to fight?

After a short time, they lost the will to resist, and finally half of them surrendered directly to the pirates.

At this time, Zuo Liangyu had no cavalry in his hands, and he brought a total of 5,000 cavalry to Shandong this time.

Who would have thought that the Shui Kou not only had sharp firearms, but also cavalry?

In this battle, the Yulin Battalion was directly frightened by these water robbers, and Zuo Liangyu hurriedly hid in Qingzhou Mansion.

After "repulsing" several of Haikou's sentinels, Zuo Liangyu lied about the "great victory in Qingzhou".

Claiming that there were 50,000 thieves and armed with Western-style guns and artillery, his own Yulin battalion repelled the thieves only after paying the price of 7,000 dead.

and sent his subordinates to slaughter the village on a large scale, and they made up tens of thousands of "thief heads".

After repelling Zuo Liangyu, the Zheng family's warships began to shell Dengzhou City, and finally Lu Xiangsheng commanded tens of thousands of Liaodong troops to launch an attack on Dengzhou with the cooperation of naval artillery.

Yu Hualin, the general soldier of Dengzhou, saw that the situation was not right, and quickly tied up Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, and surrendered to Zheng Zhilong.

Technical talents like Sun Yuanhua were sent to Liaodong.

At this time, Wang Xifan, who had been dormant for several years, once again revived in Yanzhou, raising tens of thousands of troops to kill Dengzhou.

At this time, Zuo Liangyu of Qingzhou did not dare to go out of the city, and could only watch these White Lotus Sect members converge with Haikou.

After Zheng Zhilong occupied Denglai Erzhou, the Jingshi was shaken.

In the end, the Jingshi sent another 10,000 feather battalion, and Emperor Chongzhen and Sun Chengzong also repeatedly asked Zuo Liangyu to enter the army to recover Denglai.

However, at this time, Zuo Liangyu was already scared, and Zheng Zhilong also took the initiative to send someone to get in touch with him.

Zheng Zhilong said that his Eastern Ryukyu Company only wanted Denglai Erzhou as a base, and had no intention of invading Qingzhou, and as long as Zuo Liangyu did not come to fight him, he would not take the initiative to trouble him.

In the end, the two armies engaged in tacit warfare, and the sentinels engaged in some "small frictions" on the border between Qingzhou and Laizhou from time to time.

But soon Chongzhen was in no mood to care about Denglai, because King Gao Yingxiang had made a big move again.

After Cao Wenzhao entered Shanxi, he fought more than ten battles with the Yiyi Army, and won successive battles!

forced "Cao Cao" Luo Rucai and several other rebels into Mopan Mountain.

The cavalry of the Yulin battalion is too powerful, and it is impossible to be brave with Cao Wenzhao. The rebel army was no match for the official army in the plains, and could only rely on the mountains to resist.

Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, understood that although there were many rebels, it was difficult for him to defeat Cao Wenzhao's Yulin battalion from the front to relieve Luo Rucai and others.

In the end, at the suggestion of the military Guangdao, the rebel army carried out a major strategic shift.

The rebel army gave up Zezhou, Shouyang and other places, and Gao Yingxiang led his troops south to Taihang, attacking Jiyuan, Qinghua, and Xiuwu; Then he surrounded Huaiqing, sneaked into Xishan, smashed Shunde and Zhending, and entered Gyeonggi.

Cao Wenzhao's main force was encircling and suppressing the rebels in Mopan Mountain, but he didn't expect Gao Yingxiang to give up the territory in Shanxi and go all the way to Beizhili.

At this moment, Zuo Liangyu was fighting Zheng Zhilong in Qingzhou, and only the last 30,000 Yulin battalions of the Beijing division were left.

Originally, Chongzhen was ready to let the border army of Jizhou go south, but at this time, it was reported that the Liaodong Army was frequently moving outside Shanhaiguan, and it was likely that there would be a big move.

Chongzhen did not dare to take the risk of being "stolen" by Li Xianzhong, and mobilized the border army of Jizhou to go south.

He hurriedly summoned Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, and Zhang Weixian, the Duke of Britain, and asked them to lead the "three battalions of the Beijing Division" to the south to suppress the bandits.

Although the two were extremely reluctant, with Chongzhen's temper, if they refused to go south, they would probably be pushed to the end.

In the end, after the two begged for a batch of military funds, grain, grass and silver, they still led 50,000 horses south to defend against the enemy.

However, their advance was slow for fear of engaging the main force of the rebels.

Gao Yingxiang quickly judged that the two intended to avoid the battle.

So he simply gave up the Zhending Mansion to them.

Sure enough, after Zhu Chunchen and Zhang Weixian occupied Zhending, they immediately reported to Chongzhen, and then they stood still and sat back and watched the rogue move freely.

Although Chongzhen urged the two to march several times, they deliberately gave up Zhending with the thief, which must have lured the enemy deeper. Once they give up their true determination, they are likely to be ambushed by the thieves in the field.

If it is really determined to gain and lose, then the Jingshi will lose the barrier.

Even Sun Chengzong thought that Gao Yingxiang was likely to think so, and the combat power of the Beijing camp was not strong.

At this moment, although Zhang Zhu and the others did not destroy the enemy, they managed to stabilize Zhending and consolidate the safety of the Jingshi.

If you take a risk, you may not be able to gain more than you lose.

In the end, Chongzhen had to order Cao Wenzhao to go east to Taihang and enter Beizhili to chase Gao Yingxiang!

Although the thieves in Mopan Mountain are not all the main forces, there are as many as forty or fifty thousand people, and it is a pity to give up at this moment.

However, the emperor's order was difficult to do, and in the end, he was able to leave a small number of soldiers and horses to guard and lead the army east to Taihang.

Luo Rucai and others seized the opportunity to break through the blockade of the official army and escaped from Mopan Mountain.

Now the situation in Shanxi is very unfavorable to the righteous army, and Luo Rucai and others decided to go south to Henan.

At the same time, Gao Yingxiang and others also got the news that Cao Wenzhao was about to go east.

This also means that they can't stay in Beizhili anymore.

Although the northbound Jingshi was able to directly attack Huanglong, the Jingshi of the Ming Dynasty was extremely strong, and Gao Yingxiang knew that they were unable to break through the Jingshi.

So in the end, you still have to go south, and there are two options for going south.

One is to go to Shandong, where it is said that Zheng Zhilong's Haikou occupied Denglai.

However, Denglai was a dead land and could easily be blocked by the imperial court, so he gave up the idea of going to Shandong.

Zheng Zhilong is a sea coward, when the time comes, they can retreat by boat, what will happen to the more than 100,000 brothers under their command? It was clear that Henan was more in line with their goals, where there were mostly plains, and the rebels came and went freely.

The most important thing is that northern Shaanxi and Shanxi have almost been robbed by the righteous army, and Henan has not been robbed.

Moreover, there are many vassal kings in Henan, and the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty are all fat and oily, if they can grab one or two, the money and food of the righteous army will be all available!

In order to distract the attention of the officers and troops, Gao Yingxiang sent two suspicious troops, all the way around Zhending, attacking Cangzhou, and had the momentum of going north to Beijing.

The other way was from Hejian Province to the east into Shandong, and it was clear that the rebel army wanted to join Zheng Zhilong Haikou in Denglai.

No matter which of these two goals is achieved by the thief, Chongzhen is unacceptable.

He hurriedly ordered Cao Wen to relieve the siege of Cangzhou and ensure that the Beijing division was worry-free; Then he ordered Zuo Liangyu to enter Jinan, and he must prevent the Liukou from converging with the Haikou.

In November of the second year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang suddenly turned from the river to enter the Weihui Mansion in Henan, and then threw off the officials and troops all the way to the west, and went straight to Huaiqing Mansion to join Luo Rucai and others.

He also took advantage of the opportunity of the freezing of the Yellow River to fly from Maojiazhai into Henan, and broke the three counties of Mianchi, Yiyang and Lushi.

The rebels soon surrounded Luoyang.

Luoyang is the place where King Fu is a vassal of the Ming Dynasty, and it is not an exaggeration to say that King Fu is the first domain of the Ming Dynasty.

The governor of Henan did not dare not save him, so he hurriedly ordered Mao Yong, the deputy general of Kaifeng, to lead 7,000 people to support Luoyang, and finally encountered the main force of the righteous army in Xingyang, east of Luoyang.

The official army was defeated, and Mao Yong led more than 1,000 people to escape.

The rebels took advantage of the situation to occupy Xingyang.

At this time, the Yulin battalion led by Cao Wenzhao had reached the edge of the Yellow River and was about to cross the river.

So Gao Yingxiang held the "Xingyang Conference", in order to avoid being annihilated by Cao Wenzhao, they finally decided to break the whole into pieces and attack from all sides, so that the imperial court lost its goal.

Ma Shouying, the "old returner", led the "Fifth Battalion of Zuo Ge" to the north and returned to Shanxi.

"Cao Cao" Luo Rucai and others went west into Shaanxi, "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong went south into Huguang, and Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng and others went southeast into Nanzhili.

This trick really worked, and the court couldn't figure out the direction of the righteous army.

Fortified everywhere, loopholes everywhere.

And Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and others marched all the way to the south of Zhili, approaching Fengyang, the central capital of the Ming Dynasty.

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Sorry, it's late today!

(End of chapter)