Buried alive in the Qing Dynasty

Page 261

Mr. Zhao Guozuo, who joined Nurhachi with his father Zhao Yihe, is 71 this year, but he is still healthy and strong, with white hair in the army.I saw that he also came to Yue Le with a smile, and said with a smile: "My lord, the battle in Huguang is related to the survival of Wu and Zhou. They dare not give up their lives, so don't worry too much. Our country has its own God bless, have you encountered fewer difficulties in the past few decades? Didn’t you come all the way? Besides, our new Eight Banners army is unprecedentedly strong! Even the old Eight Banners of Emperor Taizu’s time came back alive, and there is no new one now. The Eight Banners are powerful, so we will definitely win this battle!"

Looking at this confident old man, Yue Le's mood has also improved... He is so old and still stands up to protect the Qing Dynasty. As a prince of Aixinjueluo, how can he cheer up?

Thinking of this, Yue Le nodded his head heavily, and ordered: "Send someone to investigate again... As long as the Chibi fire breaks out and the pontoon bridge burns down, we will send troops to Wulin!"

Chapter 608 The west wind is tight, and the sky is on fire!

In the twilight and westerly wind on August 28, a fleet of ships was going down the Yangtze River.

Most of the ships in this fleet are large grain ships that travel between the major water systems of Huguang. A large arson ship capable of going into battle was acquired.

In addition to firewood, these arson boats also have large tanks of fire oil-all of which are viscous fire oil with gum arabic added!

This method of adding gum arabic to the fierce oil tank was taught by Zhu Heqi to Wu Sangui who fought against the Qing Dynasty together in the early years!

Those who were steering the boat were all officers and soldiers from the right army of Wu Zhou's naval division, they were not Wu Sangui's old subordinates, they were all fishermen or water bandits in Dongting Lake, all of them had deep water skills and were good at sailing.

However, the morale of the officers and soldiers of Wu Zhou's navy, which looked quite strong and well equipped, was a bit low.

All of them were bullied by officials and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty.That is the suffering of the dead!Moreover, the Qing army and Nanming had a long-term tug-of-war in the Huguang area...

So they all joined the Wu Zhou army with hatred for the Qing Dynasty, thinking that they could quickly overthrow the Qing Dynasty and restore the Han people.

Unexpectedly, Wu Zhou has been suffering from internal and external troubles in the past two years, and now he is attacked by the Ming Dynasty in the east, and he is also uniting with the Qing Dynasty to fight against the Ming Dynasty!

It's so ironic to turn against the Qing Dynasty and turn it back, and become an ally of the Qing Dynasty...

And now they have to burn the water camps and warships of Daming with the fierce fire oil that should have been used to burn the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty... This is really painful for the loved ones, and quick for the enemies!

Is this wave of anti-Qing cause going to follow in the footsteps of Nanming?

Although these people were unhappy, the military discipline of Wu Zhou's army was still quite strict.Wu Guogui sent his servants to supervise the battle on these fireboats, and all sailors could only sail forward under the command of these servants.

In addition to the fire boats, there are ten or twenty real warships in the fleet, all of which are fast boats that can be used with paddles and sails.There are at least six sub-cannons on each ship.

There are still 24 strong and sturdy oarsmen sitting in the cabin, carrying long oars, and not paddling-now the wind is smooth, of course they don't need to contribute, but after the fire is set, the twenty fast boats It is necessary to gather the officers and soldiers on the arson boat, and then retreat together, and then you have to paddle hard.

On one of the warships, a general in bunt but with an iron helmet on his head was standing on the bow while holding on to the railing.

This general is Zhou Zhenbiao, the right general of the navy under Wu Guogui. He was also a water bandit in Dongting Lake. After Wu Sangui fought in Hunan, he revolted and responded, so he got his current official position.He was originally holding the anti-Qing exorcism, and by the way, he threw himself under Wu Sangui's command with a certain background.

He is quite disgusted with the Lianqing attack on the Ming Dynasty and the internal strife in the Wu family, but now he seems to be in high spirits!

Because Wu Guogui not only gave him a "labor fee" of [-] silver dollars, but also gave him the bottom line-he didn't come here to burn Ming Dynasty this time, but to betray Qing Dynasty!

It will be a "fake burning" later... It's acting for some shit Prince An from the Qing Dynasty.

That Lord An was fooled, and he would bring a hundred thousand Qing soldiers to deliver the heads. If he could deliver them all in one battle, the Qing Dynasty would almost be destroyed.

At that time, the world may be peaceful!

I really didn't expect that his new boss, Wu Guogui, has thick eyebrows and big eyes, and looks quite upright, but there is actually a lot of bad water inside.This time, he also helped Kang Mazi sell the Qing Dynasty...and sold it for 100 million silver dollars, which is really good at business.

With such a boss, are you afraid that you won't be able to eat spicy food in the future?

In the twilight, the fleet led by Zhou Zhenbiao passed by a sandbar, and what suddenly appeared was the Zhaizha stretching along the south bank of the Yangtze River.

From a distance, dozens of wooden boats can be seen circling in a circle on the water, connected by ropes, forming a rather large water camp.

There are also hundreds of wooden boats moored in the water camp, and each wooden boat is filled with various flags, waving in the wind and fluttering.

On the water farther away, there is a pontoon bridge connecting the north and south of the river.

Zhou Zhenbiao quickly raised the binoculars, and carefully observed the water villages and pontoon bridges in the distance.

With the dim light, he only found some "soldiers" standing there who couldn't move... These "soldiers" should be blind, and they didn't notice the fleet approaching rapidly on the river at all, they still didn't move at all. move.

This is a trap!

Moreover, this is still a big scam with a lot of money.If it really burns up, the scene will be spectacular!

"Beat the drum!" Zhou Zhenbiao shouted, "Charge the fireboat!"

With a rush of drums, his order was quickly conveyed.

"Quickly, break the jar!"

"Quickly pull up the sails and aim the bow at the water village!"

"Aim the bow of the boat at the pontoon...quick!"

The servants on the fireboat got the order and immediately began to give orders.

After a while, dozens of wooden boats with flames appeared on the river.Driven by the wind and flowing water, he quickly rushed to the deserted water village and the wooden bridge across the Yangtze River.

……

"It's burning, it's burning, look at it, Your Majesty!"

From a watchtower on Chibi Mountain, there was a sudden shout like a silver bell.

This is Wu Tu, who came back from Yuezhou, cheering. The "fake burning" on the river means that his father did not take Zhu and Qi's money for nothing.

When Wu Tu shouted, Zhu Heqi was holding up a binoculars to watch the endless plains on the north bank of the Yangtze River.He still doesn't know where the Qing Brigade is?

But he knew they had come!

So once the scouts of the Qing army saw the fire on the water of the Yangtze River, they would definitely rush out to die by themselves!

Hearing Wu Tu's shout, Zhu Heqian immediately looked down at the river.At a glance, they found burning ships, water villages, and floating bridges.

Because the sailors of Wu and Zhou who came to set the fire used the sky fire prepared with kerosene and gum arabic, and the wooden boat that was ignited was filled with a lot of firewood.So the fire was very fierce, and soon the river was full of flames!

The northwest wind was blowing more and more intensely on the Yangtze River, and the fire spread like this!

Soon, the fire burned through the circle of serial boats outside the water village, and burned into the water village.One wooden boat after another was set on fire, and the scene was extremely spectacular.

Seeing the scene of burning Chibi, Zhu Heqi thought to himself: "Now the sky has darkened, even if we are dozens of miles away, or even hundreds of miles away... we should be able to see the burning red sky here on Chibi Mountain, right?"

……

"It's burning, it's burning! Look, my lord, the sky is burning red."

"God bless the Qing Dynasty! My lord, please order troops to be dispatched."

"My lord, hurry up and send troops, I'm afraid that the Puppet Ming army will escape if it's too late."

"My lord, let's send troops!"

In the camp of the Qing Army by the Changxia River, many generals also saw the sky reddened by the fire, and they all ran to Prince An Yue Le to challenge him.

And Prince An Yue Le has been on the watchtower since the evening, holding a binoculars, constantly looking in the direction of Chibi Mountain.It can be said that it was watching the fire of Chibi Mountain.

Yue Le, who just walked down the watchtower, also seemed extremely excited.The flames on the river can be seen clearly from such a distance, so it is obviously not a fake.Otherwise, how expensive it would be!

Thinking of this, Yue Le had already made up his mind, but he didn't give an order immediately, but asked, "Where is Wu Guogui? Is he leading the team?"

"Reporting to the prince, he personally led the team." Xue Zhang said to Yue Le: "Wu Guogui's [-] troops are crossing the Yangtze River on the Junshan floating bridge. Even if they march day and night, it is estimated that they will not reach Wulin until tomorrow evening."

Yue Le nodded and said: "It's not too late, we should be able to catch up... Let's go first and give orders!"

Yue Le looked at the generals surrounding him.Many of them are old and gray-haired, but they are still fighting for the Qing Dynasty.His tone was also a little dignified: "Order the three armies, the survival of the Qing Dynasty is in this battle..."

"Whoo!"

Chapter 609 White-haired old man, young man, real soldier

go ahead!go ahead!

In the night, the officers and soldiers of the brigade lit torches and formed a large column of participating leaders.On the great plain on the north bank of Honghu Lake, rolling and moving forward, there was a sound of people shouting and neighing.

The terrain around Honghu Lake is as flat as a tabletop, but it is densely covered with water nets and rice fields, which is very unfavorable for cavalry combat and movement.Even the infantry, which formed a wide column, was not very convenient to move forward on this muddy and wet plain.Because they have to give up the few roads they have to cavalry and artillery, and they have to form a wide column that can be put into battle at any time.As a result, they had to walk through muddy paddy fields, and their boots were soaked in mud before long.

However, the main force of the Qing army who went south to aid the Zhou Dynasty still quickly completed the concentration after seeing the fire in Chibi, and drove out of the camp when night fell that day.Then they divided into three roads, and rushed forward in a mighty way under the starry sky in autumn in Huguang.And the morale was high, everyone just wanted to finish the 40 miles quickly, and then break through the Wulin camp of the Ming army in one fell swoop!

The commander-in-chief of the Qing army in the Southern Expedition, General Ningyuan Pingkou, Prince An, Yue Le, was riding on the horse.Together with his staff and the palace guards, he marched forward by the dim light of the torch.The rice fields on both sides of the official road where he was located were full of brigades, brigades of infantry marching dully.

These infantry were all from Gushan, the Zhenglan Banner Central Army led by Yue Le himself.Because the Zhenglan Banner was not one of the upper three banners personally commanded by the Qing emperor, it has always been a bit of a "second-class eight banners".It was okay when the Qing Dynasty was prosperous, but the brave talents in the banners did not have a wide path, and when they climbed up, they could not compare with those who were born in the upper three banners.

But now that the Qing Dynasty is in trouble and the Eight Banners Building is about to collapse, the life of Zhenglan Banner is quite difficult. Eating and drinking can be regarded as trying his best, and all kinds of methods of attracting poison to quench thirst have been used.But he couldn't conjure up enough Eight Banners disciples... Kangxi couldn't open up and join the new army of the Eight Banners to join the Han people!

The Eight Banners new army must always ensure a certain amount of "full content", otherwise the "Eight Banners new army" will become a "new army"...

In order to keep the "full content" of the [-] Gushan Mountains of the New Eight Banners, Kangxi had to lower the standard of banners.The first is to relax the standard of identification. In the past, only those who were born in the official household were considered "True Manchuria".

The second is to relax age and height restrictions.According to the Eight Banners military system, banner man men between the ages of fifteen and 60, as long as they are tall enough, are considered bannermen and can be recruited as soldiers.However, in the years when the population of the Eight Banners was relatively prosperous, a group of 15-year-old half-grown children and 60-year-old old men would not be recruited to the battlefield.But now, due to years of war consumption and the damn Burni Rebellion, the number of Eight Banners has been greatly reduced.In order to maintain the "full capacity" of the new army of the Eight Banners, Kangxi had to relax the restrictions, and the height did not matter... Now is the era of queuing up and shooting. If you are shorter, the target is smaller, it is not easy to be hit, and you can still shoot. Placed in the front row - will not block the view of the rear row.As for the age, thirteen, fourteen and 15 years old are about the same, so Kangxi limited the age of the Eight Banners to 12 years old!As for the upper limit... As long as you are in good health, wouldn't it be good to work for a few more years?Being idle at home is also idle, so there is no cap!

While relaxing the identification standards and height and age standards, Emperor Kangxi did not forget to use the method of "raising the flag" and selected a group of strong and strong Manchurians from the afternoon flag to make up for the Shangsan Banner.

So the twelve who marched to Wulin with Yue Le all came from Gushan under the Five Banners. Among them, there are a little too many white-haired men and young men...

However, the morale of these old people and children is still very high, and Yue Le can hear the loud and optimistic discussions from these old people and children from time to time.

"We are Wulin who stole Zhu Thief's camp! Did you see the flames? That's the fire in Chibi! Zhu Thief's navy has been burned down, and Wulin's Zhu family soldiers are all alone!"

"Where do those Han people know how to fight? They don't even know the reason to use energy in one place. They always like to disperse their soldiers. Now, when Chibi is burned, their soldiers in Jiangbei will be our dishes!"

"That's right! That's what Saarhu was like back then. I was too young to kill the Ming army with Emperor Taizu, old man, but this time I caught up! Cough cough cough..."

When Yue Le heard the old man's coughing, he felt really uncomfortable!Salhu was 60 years ago, and it was too young 60 years ago, so it happened!Then he is at least over 60 this year... At this age, he is still carrying a gun to defend the Qing Dynasty, so loyal.

Thinking of this, Yue Le pulled the rein, rode his horse down the official road, arrived at the team where the old man was, and shouted: "The one who missed Saarhu, come out!"

Then he heard a muffled voice shouting: "Zhang Zhongqi, the prince is calling you!"

"My lord? Where are you?"

"Look left!"

"Ouch... this is coming, this is coming!"

A little old man wearing a blue flag cloth face armor and a gun helmet on his head got out of the team with a crudely made flintlock gun, ran to Yue Lema and gave a thousand salutes: "Slave Zhang Zhongqi See you, my lord, you are auspicious!"

"Your surname is Zhang?" Yue Le looked at the old man in front of him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Are you from the Han Army?"

"If you go back to the prince, the servant has already been carried into the Zhenglan Banner to be a Manchurian, and now he is a Manchurian!"

"Oh, oh..." Yue Le nodded, "When did you carry the Han army flag? Before..."

"Returning to the prince, the servant was the one who threw the flag as a coat during the Tianming period, and was greatly graciously carried by the master during the Tiancong period to carry the Han army flag."

"You are so old, why are you still carrying a gun?" Yue Le asked again, "Is there anyone else in your family?"

"Returning to the prince, the slave feels that he has received the emperor's favor all his life, and he can't repay it. Now that he knows that the Qing Dynasty is in trouble, it is worthwhile to give up his old bones to serve the Qing Dynasty. As for the servant, there are three sons in the family. A grandson. The sons all have errands, and the grandson is still young, led by the daughters-in-law. In addition, the slave also married a new wife the year before last, and only this year, hehehe..."

"You are indeed worth it!" Yue Le nodded and said, "Zhang Zhongqi, for your grandson, for your little daughter-in-law, fight hard! Go!"

"Whoo!"

Zhang Zhongqi responded, then stood up and went to catch up with his team with a flintlock gun on his shoulder.But Yue Le looked at his back and sighed softly, the corners of his eyes were actually a little moist...

……

The scene of 10,000+ people lighting torches and marching in a wide column in the vast night, of course, cannot hide the sharp eyes of Fang Shiyu, who is in a high position!

Of course, the life trajectory of Fang Shiyu, who runs a silk and satin shop at home, has also changed in this era.He is a genius who graduated from the Third Academy of Guangfu, and was admitted to the Nanjing Army Military Academy. He is a graduate of the reconnaissance department of the "Xiaolingwei Phase I".

After graduating from the military academy, Fang Shiyu did not lead troops in the army, but was sent to the "Sky Army" directly under the military division's office as a "heavenly soldier", a real celestial soldier, a soldier who can go to heaven!

Right now Fang Shiyu is floating in the sky!But he didn’t grow wings to fly up, but sat in a hot air balloon and soared into the sky—for Zhu Hechi, hot air balloons are not difficult things, it’s nothing more than a big bag sewed with rubber cloth, Then use the kerosene stove to blow hot air inside.

Of course, this is the theory... It will take a lot of money and time to make it.However, for the Ming army lacking light cavalry, it is also a good choice to form an "air and space army" from a high perspective.So after Zhu and Chi settled down in Nanjing, they started working on this thing.After doing it dozens of times, the balloon that Fang Shiyu is using now is here.

Chapter 610 Pocket Array

Under the night, the surrounding area of ​​Honghu Lake was pitch black, except for the flickering flames of a few villages and towns that were lit by unknown people, there was only a fire dragon composed of torches lit by the advancing Qing army, slowly moving toward Wu Inner Jingshui, north of Linzhen, advanced.

It has to be said that the scene of tens of thousands of troops lined up neatly, lighting torches, and surging forward under the night is indeed extremely spectacular, and it can be said to be breathtaking.However, Fang Shiyu, who witnessed all this from the sky, felt that those Qing soldiers holding torches were very pitiful, they were just a group of pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered on the way to the slaughterhouse.

Fang Shiyu, who has received a serious military education, can figure out a pocket formation in his mind to fight against the Qing army-this is simply too easy!The villages that were set on fire had already been marked on a military map in Fang Shiyu's hand. With these villages as coordinates, Fang Shiyu knew at a glance which route the Qing army was going to take.

And by observing the number of torches, Fang Shiyu can also estimate the number of the Qing army—he can even count how many leaders the Qing army has!Because the infantry of the Qing army usually forms a leader-level column when advancing in the frontier area of ​​the field, so that it can be deployed immediately and put into battle in an emergency.And each leader-level column will keep a certain distance between them, so as not to huddle together in case of an attack.Therefore, the marching dragons of the Qing army were not continuous, but section by section.Fang Shiyu only needs to count the "number of sessions" to know how many participants have come...

After counting twice, Fang Shiyu determined that the number of participating leaders of the Qing army was not too many, exactly 120!

So he immediately said to an air soldier beside him, "Light it up for me."

"Yes."

A lantern was brought up immediately, and Fang Shiyu was holding a map sandwiched on a wooden board in his hand. He took out a lead stick and wrote and drew on the map for a while.Then he took down the map, rolled it up, stuffed it into a long tube tied with a rope, and finally hung the long tube with a rope and lowered it to the ground.

Of course, there were people guarding the hot air balloon, and one of them got on the long tube, got on his horse, and galloped towards Wulin Town.