Chapter 426

On the issue of the discovery of the New World, the Cabinet held a special meeting, and in particular, invited more than a dozen representatives of the expedition, through which the Cabinet learned detailed information about the New World.

It is said to be detailed, but in fact it is just a skin, but I know that this new continent is very large, and the iron ore is especially rich, and the ore quality is excellent, and there is not much contact with pig iron.

The natives of the New World are ignorant, still living a life of slash-and-burn farming, and there is a large amount of excellent iron ore but they don't know how to use it, which is a pity! There are many islands covered by island dung on the sea not far from the mainland, which are several zhang thick and inexhaustible, and the iron ore and manure of the new continent are priceless treasures, if they can be used, future generations will be infinitely useful, and they are ten million times stronger than gold and silver mines!

Of course, Cheng Shijie knows this information with his eyes closed, but Cheng Shijie's own words are not convincing, and many things need to be handled by the cabinet and the government.

Cheng Shijie pretended not to know and asked: "According to the opinion of the cabinet, can I immigrate there?" ”

Sun Zhilan said: "The natives of the New World have survived on that continent for hundreds of thousands of years, and they have not died out, on the contrary, they are growing stronger and stronger. The minister plans to throw 100,000 prisoners there first, and if he can really survive, he will throw another 500,000 prisoners over! ”

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly, it seems that Australia can't escape the fate of becoming a prisoner's detention place, and the British did the same in the eighteenth century!

Just when the Ming court was preparing to immigrate to the New World, there was a big problem in Jiangnan, Wu Sheng, who was originally the eighth brigade, led the arrival of Wusongkou, and the eighth brigade was supposed to receive adaptive training in Wusongkou, as a result, with the Ming Royal Army going south,

Jiangnan Jingentry finally panicked completely, stopped the infighting for the first time, paid for the rich, contributed for the poor, and resisted stubbornly.

The gold hidden in the cellar for an unknown number of years was sprinkled out in the daytime, and the frenzied recruitment of troops and horses, as long as the men with no problems with their arms and legs were allowed to be pulled into the army to replenish the number, for a time, the rebel army in the Jiangnan area was as many as 800,000 people.

However, due to the impact of the plague, Cheng Shijie did not start the war in the south, because according to the investigation of the Ministry of Health, it was concluded that the plague problem was due to the lack of food caused by the war, and the rats living in the wild could not find food in the wild, and these omnivorous rats ate the corpses buried in grass.

Later, after the corpse was eaten, the rats bred in the crowded places, especially the Ming Dynasty took the work for relief, and the people in the north had food, which made the rats breed more and more, and the people did not pay enough attention to hygiene, even if they saw the vegetables or food at home being eaten by the rats, they were reluctant to discard and continue to eat.

After the people were infected with the plague, at first they only had fever, dizziness, and weakness in their limbs.

In this case, Cheng Shijie can only delay the war in the south, because war cannot avoid deaths, and once the plague is allowed to form a nationwide epidemic in the Ming Dynasty, the consequences are unimaginable.

But the problem is that more than 20,000 men and horses on Wu Sheng's side have just arrived at Wusongkou, but they were attacked by unknown militants, and the merchant ships that paid taxes to Wusongkou were hijacked.

Wu Sheng said very angrily: "Damn, dare to break ground on Tai Sui's head!" ”

Zhou Yunxiang, chief of staff of the Eighth Brigade, frowned and said, "I'm afraid this incident is not simple!" ”

"That's true, there must be someone behind it!"

Since the Ning Navy occupied Wusongkou, it has been more than three years now, and it turned out that Ning Haijun collected the money from Gao Qiqian, and divided it into three parts, one for Cheng Shijie, one for Emperor Chongzhen, and one for himself, although this is a piece of fat, but the problem is that Cheng Shijie and Gao Qiqian can't afford to offend.

The most inconclusive.

Wu Sheng thought for a while and said, "Can't you just leave it at that?" ”

"You're going to send troops?"

"What kind of troops, the marshal strictly ordered, you can't send troops now, you must follow the orders from above to start fighting, not to mention that our eighth brigade still has nearly half of the landlubbers, they don't have any combat effectiveness here, they must complete the adaptability training as soon as possible!"

Wu Sheng's so-called adaptive training is actually very cruel, that is, the soldiers are tied to ropes, thrown into the sea or river, and pulled up when they are drowning, so that after a few times, people who can't swim and get seasick will get used to it. Of course, this kind of adaptation training is not 100% successful, and some people will leave a deeper shadow, and they will never be able to work in the navy again.

Zhou Yunxiang said suspiciously: "If you don't send troops, what should I do?" ”

"Call the people from the Shen family on Chongming Island!"

Zhou Yunxiang suddenly realized: "The Shen family? ”

The basic plate of the Shen family is the Sand Boat Gang, although it has now been changed to a maritime transportation company, but the Sand Boat Gang, like the militia organization, is a paramilitary organization.

Two hours later, Shen Huandong left Wusongkou and returned to Chongming Island after Wu Sheng's face-to-face instruction, and soon after, Chongming Island mobilized 26 flat-bottomed sand boats and more than 1,000 sailors.

However, let them deal with the water bandits, they are professional, because they are pirates and water bandits, after fishing and law enforcement, Shen Huandong set his sights on a small group of water bandits, this small group of water bandits has a total of more than 30 small river boats, a total of seven or eight hundred people.

Seeing the appearance of the sand boat with the flag of the Sand Boat Gang, these water bandits immediately ran away, Shen Huandong just followed behind unhurriedly in order to find out the black hand behind the scenes, those water bandits' boats are small, and they can be landed in many places, and when they want to abandon the ship and escape, they will be shelled by the Sand Boat Gang.

The average sand boat of the Sand Boat Gang is more than 1,000 materials, which is a small point on the sea, and a behemoth in the Yangtze River, especially the equipped Franc machine artillery, which has a very fast rate of fire.

When they passed through Nanjing, they wanted to rescue the Nanjing sailors, but the Nanjing sailors were also two or three kittens, and seeing that the sand boat gang was so fierce, they closed the camp door and didn't care about it.

A country's sailors are afraid of a gang, isn't that funny? However, this is true. The Daming sailors are really not as weak as pirates and bandits.

This water bandit went all the way upstream, eight days later, they arrived at the city of Anqing, the water bandit boat prepared not much food, in fact they only had four days of dry food, now there is no food, seeing that the surrender people do not accept, escape and can't escape, can only surrender to Anqing City.

Anqing City saw the water bandits' silver, so they accepted their surrender, this time made Shen Huandong think that he had caught the mastermind behind the scenes, he ordered his subordinates to fire shells at Anqing City, in fact, the light Franc machine artillery, the power is small, but the rate of fire is fast, it is okay to fight the water bandits, there is no way for Jiancheng.

Shen Huandong's original intention was to scare Anqingcheng and let Anqingcheng hand over the water bandits and the masterminds behind the scenes, but what he didn't expect was that under just a round of shelling, Anqingcheng directly hung up the white flag and surrendered, and more than 8,000 defenders outside the more than 2,600 sailors surrendered directly without firing a shot.

Shen Huandong saw the military exploits sent to the door, so he naturally had no reason to refuse it, so he collected all the soldiers of the Anqing garrison on the spot, including more than 2,600 sailors, and asked them to mobilize the entire Anqing ships, a total of more than 500 ships, and more than 12,000 people continued to go down the river.

Shen Huandong's original intention was to sell these Southern Ming troops directly and sell them to Luzon or Dayuan Tuntian, but the result is very funny that when Shen Huandong's troops arrived in Chizhou, Chizhou saw that the river was densely packed with boats, and under the banner of the Sha Boat Gang.

The defenders of Anqing don't know about the Sand Boat Gang, but Lin Yingcong, the prefect of Chizhou, knows that Lin Yingcong once served as the governor of Dingtao County, and was later promoted to the governor of Ninghai Prefecture, although he didn't have much to do with Cheng Shijie, but he also knew that this Sand Boat Gang had already taken refuge in Cheng Shijie, and it is said that Shen Boyun also became the Shangshu of the Northern Ming Dynasty, because the prefect Lin Yingcong was willing to surrender, and the Chizhou defenders also surrendered.

Shen Huandong looked at the defenders of Chizhou City with white flags, and suddenly became numb, he vaguely understood why Cheng Shijie didn't attack the small court of Nanming now, because there was no need to fight at all, as long as the food was solved, these mouths could be fed, and they could almost push all the way.

In fact, Shen Huandong's guess was right, Cheng Shijie's concern was this, if it weren't for the northern plague, which caused Cheng Shijie to lose a lot of food and medicine, the small court in Jiangnan would not have been able to hold out for a few months.

The most critical thing is the food problem, the population of Jiangnan is more than the population of the north, although it is rich in grain, but under the tyranny of those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, there is almost no food in all parts of the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, except for Nanjing, it is easy to capture a city, but it is not easy to feed the soldiers and civilians of a city.

Cheng Shijie can't learn from Boss Cao to fight Xuzhou, fight all the way to slaughter the city, doesn't Boss Cao want to earn a good reputation? In fact, he also thought, but there is no food, and the cities that have been defeated are also without food, and in the face of hungry people who have no food, he can only slaughter the city, because the hungry people don't care whether they have food from the army or not, as long as they have food, they dare to go up.

In this case, Shen Huandong accepted the surrender of the Chizhou defenders in line with the principle that a sheep is herded and a flock of sheep is also herded, but the problem is that Chizhou is not like Anqing, where there are many defenders, less food, and fewer ships. Shen Huandong took the same measures, directly mobilizing ships and loading the surrendered troops and their families onto the ships.

However, the problem is that Shen Huandong ignored the attraction of the Ming Dynasty to the military and civilians of the people in Jiangnan, Anqing was slightly better, and he didn't know Shen Huandong's identity over there, and he didn't have a strong desire to follow Shen Huandong, but the Chizhou prefect knew that Lin Yingcong especially wanted to follow Cheng Shijie, because he was not a member of the Donglin Party, and although he became the prefect of Nanzhili, he couldn't enter the core.

What's more, Lin Yingcong knew that the Nanming Small Imperial Court was definitely not Cheng Shijie's opponent, anyway, it was a knife to stretch out his head, and it was also a knife to shrink his head, instead of surrendering in advance, maybe he could have a good future, he followed Shen Huandong, which was equivalent to Shen Boyun's people, and the Shen family was also one of the mountains under Cheng Shijie.

To say that there are many people who read books, Lin Yingcong made a decision in a very short period of time, seeing that there were not enough ships, he thought about going by land, just like that, Lin Yingcong, the prefect of Chizhou, not only took more than 10,000 people with the Chizhou defenders, but also more than 30,000 people together with the army and civilians and the people. Of course, more than 600 large and small ships were also mobilized, and it was a bit excessive to say that the boats were many of them pallets and even rafts.

In this way, Shen Huandong has actually been held hostage by Anqing and Chizhou, and his men and horses even exceed 50,000 people, and more than 1,000 large and small ships.

In this way, Shen Huandong connected three cities in seven days.

When Wu Sheng followed Shen Huandong's battle report, he and the officers of the Eighth Brigade were directly stunned, Shen Huandong commanded more than 1,000 horses, 26 1,000 sand ships, and connected three cities and more than 1,000 troops in seven days, and collected more than 80,000 prisoners of the Southern Ming army and civilians.

However, since he surrendered, there was no reason to refuse it, if Shen Huandong not only brought these captives back from Tongling, he would still lose the face of the Ming Dynasty and Cheng Shijie.

The Wusongkou Navy did not have many men, but the problem was that the Shen family had more than 300 large ships, which were not small ships, but large sea ships that could carry five or six thousand stones.

Although inland river ships cannot enter the sea, sea ships can enter the Yangtze River, especially the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, after more than half a month of preparation, just when Tongling is about to hold on.

Wu Sheng and the Shen fleet arrived at Tongling, looking at a large area of dense prisoners in Wuyang, among which there were tens of thousands of people wearing the costumes of the Ming army, swords, guns, horses, artillery.

Wu Sheng was dumbfounded and said, "Did it really take seven days?" ”

"It only took six and a half days, to be exact!"

"Let more than 1,000 people catch more than 80,000 pigs in seven days, and they can't catch them all!"

When Cheng Shijie received this information, it was already late May, although the north still had not completely controlled the plague at this time, but the grain transported from the southern monkey and Luzon had already arrived in advance.

Song Xiance said: "Your Majesty, you should be able to do it now!" ”

"It's just that I'm afraid it's not easy!"

"We have the advantage of shipping, and we can first take the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River, such as Zhejiang and Jiangxi! If the king is ready to develop a new continent, he will go to Jiangnan to arrest people! ”

Cheng Shijie was persuaded by Song Xiance, nodded and said, "Then let's do it!" ”

Cheng Shijie ordered here.

On June 2, Cheng Shi and Jiang Wuyi of the Ming Imperial Army, more than 50,000 troops swept all the way from Huainan and Huaibei, and captured Lu'an and Hefei within seven days.

In the face of the fierce Ming Royal Army, the rebels guarding Hefei surrendered almost without firing a shot, on the grounds that these northern barbarians were very savage, and if they resisted, they would slaughter the city after the city was broken!

I have to admire that the rebel generals guarding Hefei are really far-sighted, and they haven't started fighting yet, so they wonder if they will slaughter the city after the city is broken!

The Jianghuai region moved, and Wu Sheng of Wusongkou also moved, but as a result, the cities along the way surrendered, so that Wu Sheng finally understood why Shen Huan relied on more than 1,000 sailors to take down three cities in seven days.

He led the main force of the Eighth Brigade to Yangzhou, and Wu Sheng encountered a famous figure in the history of the late Ming Dynasty, Shi Kefa. This hard-nosed commander commanded 40,000 horses to defend Yangzhou, and together with Zhenjiang, formed a line of defense as the last barrier in Nanjing.

Wu Sheng wrote a letter to Shi Kefa in the past to surrender, Shi Kefa replied, sprinkled thousands of words, five and six, quoted scriptures, laughed and scolded all into articles, sarcastic and mocking are natural, and the Beijing court from Cheng Shijie to the sweeping palace maid a greeting again, and finally the scholar said angrily: Cheng Shijie is rebellious and covets the artifact, and kills the Donglin gentlemen for his own selfishness, reuses a lot of rebellion, indulges in military warfare, and indulges in strange tricks and tricks, which leads to the collapse of etiquette and morality. The Han family no longer exists.

As a citizen of the Han family, Shi Mou reads moral articles, learns loyalty, filial piety, etiquette and righteousness, and has no reason to bow to rebellion, and will die with Yangzhou, and save a point of righteousness for heaven and earth!

This article is indeed brilliant, and Wu Sheng can't even reach it. So he didn't bother to waste his tongue anymore, mobilized cannons to bombard the Yangzhou city wall, and rushed into it after collapsing a section of the city wall.

He respects people like Shi Kefa, so he shoots mercilessly, this kind of person can't be persuaded, the best way is to do his best to defeat him, so that he can die without regrets.

But what surprised Wu Sheng was that the expected stubborn resistance did not exist at all, the defenders of Yangzhou were like headless flies, the entire defense line was full of flaws, he broke through the city wall with almost no effort in the army, and it only took an hour for Yangzhou to change hands, and Shi Kefa became a prisoner.

After being a prisoner, Shi Kefa was still calm, and his face did not change in the face of Wu Sheng's razor-sharp gaze, this courage was admirable, but... Shi Kefa seems to have only the courage to be admired.

Wu Sheng looked at the righteous and awe-inspiring Shi Kefa, he was puzzled, Yangzhou had more than 40,000 troops, including a considerable part of the artillery, and there were 20 Hongyi cannons alone.

If these 20 Hongyi cannons are successfully fired, the artillery regiment of the 8th Brigade will definitely lose a lot of weight, because the Hongyi cannons have a range advantage, an absolute advantage, in addition to 20 Hongyi cannons, there are more than 6,000 muskets, countless knives and axes, and more importantly, Yangzhou City has enough food for the defenders to eat for half a year.

Wu Sheng couldn't help but ask: "Why is Yangzhou so vulnerable?" Didn't you pay attention to defense at all? ”

Shi Kefa said lightly: "Shi only wants to die, where can I take care of these trivial matters?" ”

Wu Sheng was dumbfounded.

Zhou Yunxiang was dumbfounded: "The superintendent is at this level?" ”

…

(End of chapter)