On the fifteenth day of August in the sixth year of Yongli, on this day of Mid-Autumn Festival reunion, Li Dingguo regained Wuzhou. This announced the great victory in Guilin on the fourth day of July. It had only been a month since then. The Ming army basically resumed its offensive in Yongli.

The entire territory of Guangxi fell between the fourth year and the fifth year of Yongli. However, less than a month later, as Heshuo Jingjinqin and King Nikan went south, Qin Wang Sun Kewang ordered Li Dingguo to lead his troops back to Huguang to fight.

Guangxi was once again so empty that only flags that had been put up for a long time were left.

In September, Dingnan Fan's admiral Xian Guo'an, Dingnan Fan's left-wing commander Quanjie, Dingnan-fan's right-wing commander Ma Xiong and Guangzhou navy deputy general Qiang Shijue commanded the waterway army to advance westward under the command of Shang Kexi, and quickly

The important town of Wuzhou was captured and Ma Xiong continued to guard the city.

The Qing army took a short rest and determined that Li Dingguo's army could not be driven back for the time being, so they pushed towards the northwest again. On November 28, Guangxi Governor Xu Tianyou led his troops to withdraw from Guilin, the provincial capital, to Liuzhou. Guilin was only led by Ming Dynasty clan Anxi General Zhu Sanxi.

More than a thousand miscellaneous troops stayed behind.

After receiving the news, the Qing army took advantage of the situation and defeated Yining Bolongtao in Pinyuefu City on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month. Chief Liao Feng led his troops and occupied the city. This place was already close to the boundary of Guilin Prefecture, and it was not even close to the border.

One month later, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the following year, the Qing army occupied Yangshuo County in the southeast of Guilin Prefecture, and then invaded the city of Guilin. Zhu Sanxi's small army was defeated by the Qing army's powerful Dingnan Fan force. Finally, on the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, Guilin fell again.

, the admiral Xian Guoan, the left-wing commander Quanjie, and the new governor of Guangxi Chen Weixin occupied the area.

Due to the emptiness of Guangxi, the Qing army once again entered Guangxi and captured the three prefectures of Wuzhou, Pingle and Guilin with little effort or hard fighting. The fall of these three prefectures cut off the

The effective connection between the Ming Army in Huguang and the Ming Army in Guangxi enabled the Qing army to pose military threats to the areas controlled by the Ming Army from multiple directions. This is like Chen Kai arriving in Hong Kong by sea and using his naval superiority to blockade the Pearl River Estuary.

It is effective, but it does not involve maritime trade interests.

After the Qing army entered Guangxi, it encountered a devastating situation, which stemmed from the Ming army's own strategic adjustments under heavy pressure. In contrast, the Ming army in eastern Guangdong always relied on this strong city to stand ready, and the Qing army was still waiting for the Eight Banners Army.

Going south to assist in the war, they only sent Xu Degong, the commander-in-chief of the left wing of the Jingnan clan, and Zhang Daocheng, the commander-in-chief of Dongguan, to Haifeng County to reinforce Huang Yingjie.

They hauled seventy-three red cannons, and prepared sufficient gunpowder and 400 shells for each of the seventy-three red cannons. They completely regarded the Lufeng Twin Fortresses as the fortified city of Guangzhou.

Treat it as a general existence.

Speaking of which, these seventy-three artillery pieces had already traveled this road a few months ago, once and for all. This time, Li Dingguo went north to die, and Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao also made up their minds to do nothing more than three things.

Just wait for Alzin's Eight Banners Army to arrive and fundamentally eliminate the Ming Army in Chaozhou.

As the situation further changed, the Qing army in Guangdong attacked on two fronts, using the troops that were originally stationed or fighting on the east and west fronts. In the hinterland of Guangzhou, there were still a large number of troops stationed.

The troops of the Eastern Expedition were still marching, but Chen Kai had already returned to Chaozhou City. He had not been away for a long time, but some of the work that had been carried out earlier had already achieved initial results.

The manufacturing bureau in the south of Chaozhou City has basically completed its outer buildings. Chen Kai came here as soon as he returned to Chaozhou. When he entered, he saw a scene of construction, but there were a few special buildings in the distance.

The obvious building is already standing on the bank of Hanjiang River.

The huge waterwheel rotates at a constant speed driven by the water flow. Standing outside, you can clearly hear the sound of tapping metal inside. The heavy shaft of the waterwheel drives the gear, and the rotation of the gear drives other gears and shafts to rotate continuously.

, what finally fell in front of Chen Kai's eyes was the forging hammer continuously hitting the iron material on the iron felt at a speed that was difficult for humans to reach.

"The speed is far faster than ordinary blacksmiths, even the master craftsmen are far behind. What's more, the strength is always consistent, as long as a blacksmith uses iron tongs to clamp the iron material for the forging hammer to strike. As for the details,

Then the blacksmith can manually correct it, which can save a lot of time and labor in the hammer forging alone."

The official in charge of the workshop here explained the working principle and advantages of this hydraulic forging hammer to Chen Kai in detail. In fact, he did not need to explain at all. Chen Kai drew the drawings based on those European books and his memory.

The principle, as well as the advantages of hydraulic machinery over human and animal power were all in his mind. At this moment, while listening, he was digging out those memories in his mind, just to see if there was a stone from another mountain that could be used to attack jade.

"Besides this water-powered forging hammer, what else is there?"

"If we go back to the main system, other machinery is still under construction."

Beads of sweat appeared on the official's forehead. He knew very well how much Chen Kai attached importance to this manufacturing bureau. However, everything was starting from scratch. Being able to turn out the first hydraulic forging hammer in such a short period of time has already achieved success.

It was not easy, but Shangguan's eager expectations also made him feel worried.

After saying this, the officials turned their attention to Ding Youyi, who was favored by Chen Kai, but before the latter could explain, Chen Kai expressed his understanding and encouragement for their work.

"It is our great honor that the general manager is considerate of his subordinates. I will definitely work harder to get this manufacturing bureau back on track as soon as possible."

There has been progress, although it is not very big, but at least something can be seen. Chen Kai is not in a hurry, because he knows very well that this is not something that can be done in a hurry. He has already prepared too much earlier.

All that is missing is time.

After leaving the manufacturing bureau, Chen Kai returned directly to the Dao Yamen. There has been little movement from the Qing army recently, and the internal disputes between locals and foreigners have been rising. After Chen Kai regained Hong Kong and realized the plan to restore Guangzhou in stages, the news spread in Chaozhou.

He also calmed down further.

The hope of fulfilling the promise is nothing more than this.

As the southern Fujian direction entered a stalemate stage as expected, Chen Kai focused more on the battlefield in Guangdong. Li Jianjie, who had been sent back earlier, had been appointed by Zheng Chenggong as the chief military officer of Huqi Town and was still under Chen Kai's control.

In terms of temperance and war horses, they are being replenished from the last capture, but it will take time to regain their strength.

In this way, aside from the city defense troops in each county, Chen Kai still has Zhongchong Town, Qianchong Town, Houchong Town, Aid and Suppression Hou Town, Guard You Town, Guard Front Town, Guard Hou Town and Houjin Town.

The strength of these eight infantry towns, as well as the two cavalry battalions of Tiejia Town and Hussar Town. In addition to the two standard battalions directly under his control, there are already tens of thousands of soldiers. It is just difficult to throw them all at the same time.

Just on the same line.

He still needs stronger strength to have a chance to launch a counterattack. Chen Kai deeply understood the strength gap between the Ming and Qing armies on the Guangdong battlefield. However, the Qing army obviously would not give him time to continue to develop. Soon, he received
Chapter completed!