Hou Fangyu smiled and said, "Does Hong Butang know how the army of the Ten Kings was defeated in the Battle of Shanyang?"
"The Battle of Shanyang?" Hong Chengchou said, "Although Benbutang did not personally participate, he has heard about it. It is said that it was because the Ming general Yan Yingyuan had many tricks and tricks, which made it difficult for people to guard against."
Hou Fangyu asked again: "Does Hong Butang know what conspiracies Yan Yingyuan used?"
"That's a lot." Hong Chengchou frowned and said, "It's mainly fire attacks, and then there are fake surrenders. Oh, by the way, there are also explosions of ice on the canal, which will wipe out thousands of our Qing elites in a moment..."
Speaking of this, Hong Chengchou's voice suddenly stopped.
Wang Fuchen, Geng Jimao and others who reacted quickly also reacted immediately.
What a thief! Geng Jimao cursed secretly in his heart, the person named Hou is really insidious, can you even imagine this?
The look on Hong Chengchou's face suddenly became serious: "Did Hou Shenjun mean to blow up the ice? Bury the gunpowder in advance, wait until the Nanming army arrives, and then blow up the ice and bury them in the sea?"
"Of course." Hou Fangyu asked with a sinister smile, "Does Hong Butang think it's okay?"
Hong Chengchou was still seriously considering the feasibility of blowing up the ice, but the generals could no longer bear it.
There is indeed a chain of contempt between people. If the generals of the Ming Dynasty were at the bottom of the chain of contempt, then in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the people at the bottom of the chain of contempt were eunuchs.
Therefore, generals like Xia Longshan and Wang Fuchen instinctively refuted it.
"Explode the ice? You said it quite easily. How? How much? Did you blow up the entire North Sea?"
"That is, how much gunpowder do we have in total? How many acres of ice can we blast? Do you know where the Ming army passed by? You can dare to say that hundreds of thousands of Nan Ming troops will be buried under the sea."
"Sir, please don't listen to his nonsense."
Dorgon trusted Hou Fangyu, but these generals would not spoil him.
Hou Fangyu was furious to death, but he had nothing to do with the generals, because he could only monitor Hong Chengchou, but the generals of the Eight Banners Han Army and the Green Camp were not under his control.
However, Hong Chengchou was seriously considering the feasibility of exploding the ice.
Not sure where the Ming army passed? This is not a problem at all.
If the Ming army really came on the ice, they would not have much choice, except for the Wei River, Chao River, Shah River and other rivers, because when marching from the ice, they could use ice sledges to transport bulky red cannons and baggage.
, which can greatly reduce the consumption of food and fodder while speeding up the marching speed.
So they only needed to plant gunpowder at a few river mouths.
Moreover, the temperature this year is slightly higher than in previous years, and the ice in the North Sea is also thinner than in previous years. Coupled with the heavy pressure of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Ming soldiers and horses, there are hundreds or even thousands of red cannons.
, in view of the above points, it doesn’t actually take much gunpowder to blow up the sea ice.
At most, two thousand explosive points and one hundred thousand kilograms of gunpowder are enough.
If you feel it is not safe enough, there is no problem in adding another hundred thousand kilograms of gunpowder.
The Qing Dynasty could still get a mere 200,000 kilograms of gunpowder, and it would not affect the subsequent battle. The Eight Banners Han Army's musketeers and the Green Battalion's artillery still had enough gunpowder available.
The most critical issue is still the time of the Ming army's invasion.
If the Ming army waited until the beginning of spring before attacking, all the gunpowder would be in vain.
Hou Fangyu seemed to have guessed what Hong Chengchou was thinking, and immediately went on to say: "Don't worry Hong Butang, I dare to say that Chongzhen will definitely launch the Northern Expedition before the year."
"Why is Hou Shenjun so sure?" Hong Chengchou asked.
"Because Chongzhen is impatient." Hou Fangyu said, "If Nanming is really ready, Chongzhen will never delay the Northern Expedition until next spring, but will definitely launch the Northern Expedition immediately!"
After a pause, he added: "What's more, it doesn't matter if Chongzhen doesn't launch the Northern Expedition a year ago. At worst, we can retrieve the gunpowder before the ice thaws in spring. These hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder only need to be sealed in wooden barrels and wrapped in oil paper.
, it will definitely not get wet, and it can still be used by our Qing soldiers."
After hearing this, Hong Chengchou did not hesitate anymore.
Indeed, as Hou Fangyu said, it is always possible to give it a try.
"Hou Shenjun, you will personally supervise the handling of this matter." After speaking, Hong Chengchou turned to Geng Zhongming and said, "King Jingnan, you will lead the Eight Banners Han Army's right battalion to assist in handling this matter. It must be completed within half a month."
"Hey!" Hou Fangyu and Geng Zhongming came out at the same time and agreed.
…
At this time, we are on the Baishuiyang at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
A huge fleet almost covered the White Water Ocean and was sailing northward with full sails.
In this Northern Expedition, in addition to the navy's 400 large and small warships, the Ming Dynasty General Chamber of Commerce also collected more than 1,000 sand ships or ocean-covering ships from maritime merchants.
With so many ships, three towns and all weapons and baggage can be transported at one time.
Therefore, the first batch of Ming troops who went out with Chongzhen this time had a total of three towns.
It should be noted that these three towns have all been reinforced with artillery units.
What does it mean? It means that the artillery brigades under the jurisdiction of these three towns have changed from 1 to 2.
In other words, the actual strength of each town is not just 25,000, but more than 30,000.
It was the first time for many officers and even soldiers of the New Army to go to sea, so they were all amazed that the sailboat could sail against the wind. How was it possible?
Chongzhen then smiled and said to Zheng Zhilong beside him: "Mr. Fujian, the soldiers are all praising you."
"What's there to show off about sailing against the wind? Who can't make a living on the sea?" Zheng Zhilong shook his head and said, "Besides, the soft sails of the Folangji are more suitable for sailing against the wind than our hard sails."
"The Duke of Fujian said that the sailboats of the Folangji people are faster than ours?" Zhang Huangyan asked in surprise.
"Yes, the warships of the Fo Langji and Hong Maofan are indeed faster than ours." Zheng Zhilong said with deep conviction, "We suffered a lot of losses when we were in Nanyang."
"Zheng Qing, this will soon change." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "It won't be long before the warships of our Ming Navy can get rid of sails and rely on steam engines for propulsion. By then, they will no longer be restricted by
Depending on the change of wind force, you can sail even in windless areas, and the speed is several times faster than that of a sailboat!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Chongzhen is trying to spread the pie. It is certain that a steam engine ship is faster than a sailboat.
But to say that early steam ships could be several times faster than sailing ships would be bragging and impossible.
After a pause, Chongzhen continued: "In addition to being faster when equipped with steam engines, Ming warships can also be equipped with iron plates on both sides of the warship to strengthen defense."
"In the future naval battles, our Ming warships will only be able to attack the Western Yi warships with cannons."
"I'm afraid it will be difficult for Xiyi's naval guns to penetrate the side armor of our Ming warships. In short, the date when our Ming navy will dominate the world again is not far away!"
"Your Majesty, I can't wait any longer!"
Even though Zheng Zhilong was already in his forties and was used to big scenes, he couldn't help but be moved by the big cakes painted by Chongzhen at this moment. Needless to say, those scholars wanted to join the navy immediately.
Lu Xiangguan, a Qinwang scholar who was born as a Jinshi, asked: "Your Majesty, is it too late for me to transfer to the Navy now?"
Lu Xiangguan, Lu Xiangtong and Lu Xiangsheng are all cousins of the same clan. In another time and space, the two brothers led their tribesmen to raise troops after the Qing troops went south to celebrate the death of the country.
However, Lu Xiangguan's ability to command troops is obviously not as good as that of his cousin Lu Xiangtong, and it is even less comparable to his cousin Lu Xiangsheng.
He can barely be considered a middle-aged person.
"Of course I can." Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed when he heard this.
"If you from the Shizi Camp want to join the navy at any time, I welcome you."
Zheng Zhilong didn't think highly of the Qinwang scholars in the scholar camp before, but now he has changed his mind 180 times.
The reason is also very simple. This group of diligent scholars led by Xu Yingwei and Yan Yingyuan are really good at fighting.
"My lord, this is too much." Xu Yingwei's face fell, "How can you poach our New Army in person? The soldiers in the Shizi Camp and our New Army are not worthy enough."
The Ming Dynasty's new army was organized into 11 towns.
The commander-in-chief, brigade commander, battalion officer, commander-in-chief and even staff officers of these towns all had to be served by scholars from the scholar-camp.
The 11 towns require a general commander, a total of 33 deputy commanders, 132 brigade commanders and deputy brigade commanders, 396 battalion officers and deputy battalion officers, and a total of 1,980 commanders and deputy commanders.
This is already 2,541 people, nearly half of the Shizi Camp.
In addition, each Zhentai headquarters, brigade headquarters, and battalion headquarters require a certain number of staff officers. The number of staff officers at the Zhentai headquarters is as many as dozens. Fortunately, the first batch of students from the Imperial College have graduated before the end of the year. Otherwise,
, Chongzhen really couldn't find enough officers to organize these 11 towns.
Therefore, there is a real shortage of scholars in the Scholar Camp now.
Even Huang Zongxi's Supervision Section and Zhang Huangyan's Secret Investigation Section sent a group over.
So Xu Yingwei is really not talking to Zheng Zhilong, but he really has an opinion against him.
Zheng Zhilong was also a little unhappy after hearing this. He thought to himself that a young man who is as old as my son, what qualifications do you have to pretend to be a garlic clove in front of the father-in-law of the country? But he was angry because he was angry, and he didn't want to quarrel with others.
At that moment, Zheng Zhilong turned away and ignored Xu Yingwei.
Chongzhen couldn't laugh or cry when he saw this. He thought to himself, wouldn't the navy and the army of the Ming Dynasty also become incompatible? It would be really embarrassing if they ended up becoming the navy's red deer and the army's red deer.
If the army and navy hold each other back during overseas colonization in the future, it may lead to tragedy.
At that moment, Chongzhen smiled and said to Xu Yingwei: "Youzhen, the Northern Expedition is imminent, and the Shiziying will definitely give priority to ensuring the new army, so you don't have to worry about the Min Guo Guo poaching the new army."
Xu Yingwei felt a little embarrassed, and immediately scratched his head and said: "Your Majesty, the talented minister just now was also rude. In fact, it is okay to give a hundred or ten scholars to the navy."
"We can wait until the Northern Expedition is over to discuss this matter." Chongzhen waved his hand, then turned to Zheng Zhilong and said, "Zheng Qing, this matter is due to my poor handling and neglect of your navy."
】
[Thank you Bodhi Bodhi for the huge reward of 100,000 yuan]
