In the next ten days, the Ming army continuously sent out cavalry scouts to raid and steal stolen goods.
However, the Qing army ignored them and only waited until the Ming army's scout cavalry approached within 400 steps before they used red-coat cannons or Fran cannons.
Just load shotgun to attack.
The cannon's shotgun has a limited range.
But the bullets from the red cannon were far and hard.
After suffering several losses, the Ming army's scout cavalry no longer dared to get too close.
The Qing army was not in a hurry. They only built one gun platform every day. They would rather go slow than rush forward greedily.
However, on the eleventh day, something unexpected happened. The stolen goods were stolen.
Hong Chengchou was having breakfast that day when Hong Da suddenly walked in.
"Something happened to the master." Hong Qian reported breathlessly.
"Shut up!" Hong Chengchou said angrily, "I'm eating without seeing you, sir?"
Although he had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Hong Chengchou still regarded himself as a Confucian gentry. Confucian gentry believed in eating and sleeping, so they were very taboo about being disturbed while eating.
Hong Da ignored it and said, "Ming Gou has also started to build a blunderbuss platform."
"What's so strange about this?" Hong Chengchou said disapprovingly, "The Ming army wants to build a gun platform, just let them build it."
"Oh, no." Hong Da stamped his feet anxiously, "Ming Gou's gun platform was built to the east, and it was also built in a line. It was obviously intended to cut off the chain of gun platforms of our Qing soldiers."
"Is there such a thing?" Hong Chengchou's face darkened.
While talking, Hou Fangyu also walked in hurriedly.
"Budang, I heard that the Ming Army is also building a gun platform?"
Hou Fangyu came in and asked, "And a horizontal line was built?"
Hong Chengchou didn't say much, he stood up and walked out on his own.
The two quickly climbed up to the south gate tower of Jinghai County. The city wall of Jinghai County is only about two feet high, and the highest point is less than three feet high, but the view is excellent.
Because there is no obstruction nearby.
The two stood on the top of the city. With the help of telescopes, they could have a panoramic view of the area more than ten miles away. Even the Chenguantun camp, which was seven or eight miles away, was clearly visible.
Looking at it, I found a problem.
I remember that yesterday, the Ming army at Chenguantun Camp did not do anything unusual, but today, suddenly there were many civilians working in the wilderness to the east of Chenguantun Camp to repair gun platforms.
Moreover, the people of the Ming Dynasty did not build one gun tower one by one, but built more than a dozen gun towers at the same time!
So standing on the top of Jinghai City, it seems as if Chenguantun Camp suddenly sprouted a root, and this root is still extending straight to the east.
Looking north from this root, we can see the chain of gun platforms being built by the Qing Dynasty.
It's just that the Qing Dynasty's gun platform chain only extended about a thousand steps south. In addition, it had to avoid the Chenguantun camp, so it deliberately drew an arc toward the east, so it had not yet reached the Chenguantun line. The stolen goods
So now, the front end of the Qing Dynasty's gun platform chain is still some distance from the Chenguantun camp.
This directly led to a result. Before the Qing Dynasty's gun platform chain crossed Chenguantun, the Ming Dynasty's gun platform chain might have extended to the North Sea, which would be troublesome.
"Hong Butang, we are in trouble now."
Hou Fangyu said with a dark face: "Ming Gou got the better of us."
Hong Chengchou's thick eyebrows have also been twisted into the character "Sichuan".
"How many civilians did the Ming army recruit? To build more than a dozen gun towers at once?"
Hou Fangyu made an estimate and said in a deep voice: "Look at this scene, there are at least tens of thousands of people." The stolen goods were stolen.
"Tens of thousands of people!" Hong Chengchou exclaimed, "The two of us spent a lot of effort to recruit more than 5,000 civilians. However, Chongzhen easily recruited tens of thousands more civilians from the south of the Yangtze River.
, plus the civilian men in Beijing and along the way who transported grain, grass and baggage, the number of civilian men employed by the Ming army probably exceeded 500,000."
Hou Fangyu said: "The Ming army must have mobilized more than 500,000 civilians, but the Ming Dynasty's approach is still obviously different from our Qing Dynasty."
Hong Chengchou asked: "What do you mean?"
Hou Fangyu said: "Our Qing Dynasty civilians were forcibly recruited, and they were only given food and no money. However, the Ming Dynasty civilians were recruited through grain merchants. That is, the Ming court gave the grain merchants a general price, and then the grain merchants
Responsible for transporting grain and grass to the front line, the required civilian laborers and livestock are also hired at the expense of grain merchants."
Pointing out his hand, Hou Fangyu added: "Most of the civilian men in front of me are also hired by businessmen."
"Why are you saying these irrelevant things?" Hong Chengchou said angrily, "This department just wants to tell you that the manpower of our Qing Dynasty cannot be compared with that of the Southern Ming Dynasty."
"There's nothing we can do about it." Hou Fangyu was also a little annoyed.
"The population of the north was not as large as that of the south. When the Qing soldiers entered the country, they killed many people and then scared many away. As a result, the population of several northern provinces was reduced to six out of ten, and the manpower was exhausted."
After a pause, Hou Fangyu asked again: "Do you still want to continue repairing the gun platform chain?"
"Of course." Hong Chengchou said through his teeth, "This is the last chance for the Qing Dynasty."
Hou Fangyu said: "But looking at the construction progress of both sides, the Ming army will obviously be the first to complete it. When the distance is close, we Qing civilians will have to build the gun platform against the Ming army's artillery fire."
"We have to repair it despite the artillery fire of the Ming army." Hong Chengchou said.
Hou Fangyu said nothing more and could only give it a try.
If you can't repair the blunderbuss chain, there's really nothing you can do.
…
So in the next month, both sides began to frantically build gun platforms.
After the civilians of the Ming Dynasty repaired a chain of gun platforms from Chenguantun to Tianshuijing, they began to build a second chain, so that the people transporting baggage could walk between the two chains of gun platforms, which was safer.
The civil servants who founded the slaves began to improve the specifications of each cannon tower, making it larger, the protective walls thicker, the trenches wider and deeper, and even the slope protection increased from the original five feet high to one foot high and three feet long.
Moreover, Jiannu added a gun platform chain on both sides of the original gun platform chain.
In other words, Daming is planning to widen the single lane into a two-lane road.
But Jiannu directly decided to go to three lanes, and he set the highest standard. The stolen goods
Because the construction standards are too high and there are only three lanes, the progress will naturally be slow.
By March 20, the 22nd year of Chongzhen (1649), Beihai had thawed, and the two-lane highway of Ming Dynasty and the three-lane highway of Jiannu were finally about to intersect.
The day when the blunderbuss chains of both sides intersect is the time of decisive battle.
Both Hong Chengchou and Hou Fangyu knew this very well.
Looking through the telescope at the thousands of Lian Yong and Eight Banners Han troops waiting in the trench, Hou Fangyu frowned.
"Hong Budang, the Ming army's gun platform has been built in advance, which is equivalent to taking the initiative on the battlefield. Do we really want to attack with force?"
"Otherwise?" Hong Chengchou asked.
"Does Hou Shenjun have a better way?"
Hou Fangyu said: "Maybe we can change the battlefield. Since Minggou has repaired the chain of gun platforms from Chenguantun to Tianshuijing, then we simply don't have to tangle too much with the Ming army here. We might as well turn our attention to the area between Chenguantun and Beijing."
Of the three hundred miles between us, wouldn’t it be enough to just find an opportunity to cut off one of them?”
Hong Chengchou said: "The Ming army can build a chain of gun platforms between Chenguantun and Tianshuijing, but can't they build another chain of gun platforms between Beijing and Chenguantun? The manpower that the Qing Dynasty can mobilize is far less than that of the Nanming, so
We will never win Nanming in the competition to build a gun platform, so let's face reality."
Hou Fangyu said: "It is more than a hundred miles from Tianshuijing to Chenguantun. The Ming army built more than 200 gun platforms. It is three hundred miles from Chenguantun to Beijing. The Ming army would have to build at least 400 gun platforms. In this way, the Ming army
Wouldn't the Ming army's forces be dispersed? This would not only relieve the siege of Beijing, but also disperse the Ming army's forces and control them everywhere."
"This is just your wishful thinking." Hong Chengchou said.
"The manpower of the Southern Ming Dynasty is far greater than that of the Qing Dynasty. Is there still a shortage of troops?"
After saying this, Hong Chengchou continued: "Don't forget, the total strength of the Nanming New Army is 270,000, but so far, Chongzhen has only used 150,000 of them."
Hou Fangyu was silent for a moment, because what Hong Chengchou said was true.
Not only did Nanming's 120,000 new troops remain untouched, but there were also six to seven hundred thousand town troops left untouched.
The reason why Chongzhen did not mobilize all his troops was probably because he wanted to lure the Qing soldiers into fighting in the field.
Therefore, once the Qing soldiers really threatened the safety of the Ming army's food routes, it was really possible for Chongzhen to transfer all the remaining 120,000 new troops and 600,000 to 700,000 town troops. If so, why would he intercept the food routes?
Hong Chengchou let out a long sigh and added: "In fact, none of this matters. What's more troublesome is that it will take another month or two to build another chain of muskets from Jinghai County to the west."
"Hou Shenjun, do you think we will have such a long time?"
After a pause, Hong Chengchou continued: "Not to mention whether the Qing Dynasty can afford to use up its national power, even if it can, will the regent allow us to continue to use up the stolen goods like this?"
Hou Fangyu said: "The regent is wise and wise, rarely seen in ancient and modern times. He will understand our difficulties."
Hong Chengchou said: "The regent can understand our difficulties, but what about the other Eight Banners nobles? Can the emperor, the queen mother and the Han officials and gentry in Beijing also understand our difficulties? When Hou joins the army, the regent is also under great pressure."
Hou Fangyu was finally persuaded by Hong Chengchou, and immediately turned his attention to the gun platform ahead.
"Hong Butang, I don't need to say more about the result of the last attack on the Chenguantun camp."
After a pause, Hou Fangyu said again: "This time, the Eight Banners Han Army and Lian Yong can take down the Ming Army's gun platform?"
"I don't know, I don't know either." Hong Chengchou said helplessly, "I won't hide it from you until now. I'm just doing my best to obey fate, so try your best."
Speaking of this, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but think of an ancient article. Stolen goods
That is "The Donkey of Guizhou" written by Liu Zongyuan, a great scholar of the Tang Dynasty.
Hong Chengchou felt that he was the donkey in Liu Zongyuan's novel.
The skills of a donkey in Guizhou are poor. Now he, Hong Chengchou, is really a donkey in Guizhou and has no skills.
