Yangzhou, Guazhou Ferry is located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, and Yangzhou Port is adjacent to it.
Bian water flow, Si water flow, flowing to Guazhou ancient ferry."
“Jingkou Guazhou One Water Room”
Facing Guazhou Ferry is the Jingkou of Zhenjiang on the south bank of the Yangtze River.
This place was originally a sandbar in the river, an underwater sand bank formed by the impact of quicksand in the Yangtze River. It disappeared and appeared with the rise and fall of the river tide. It was shaped like a melon, so it was called Guazhou.
After thousands of years of sedimentation, it connected with the north bank and became an important ferry on the north bank of the Yangtze River. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the Yilou River was opened for 25 miles, connecting the original canal and connecting the Yangtze River from Jinnan to Guazhou. From then on, Guazhou became the
It is the intersection point of the north-south canal and the cross-shaped golden waterway of the east-west Yangtze River.
Water transportation, the hub of salt transportation, with sails and canopies woven together, has become a huge town by the river.
The Ming Dynasty set up the Tongzhi Office, the Industrial Department Office, the Guanhe Tongju Office, etc. in Guazhou. The perimeter of Guazhou City was more than 1,500 steps, and it was two feet high. There was also a ghost willow city built outside the east gate of the city.
Although Guazhou is not as big as Yangzhou, it is not much less prosperous.
But at this time, Guazhou Crossing has become a war front line, with countless ships gathering and troops everywhere.
All kinds of war materials piled up like mountains.
"The weather is good this year." Zhu Yihai stood on the Guazhou Tide Viewing Pavilion and looked at the white fog in the sky, but said that the weather was good.
Ruan Jin, the admiral of the imperial navy navy, stood beside him and nodded, "This fog is indeed a good one."
"Are you all ready?"
"We have been prepared for a long time. Everything is ready and waiting for the east wind. Now the fog has come together." Huang Binqing replied. Next to him stood Zhou Hezhi, Liu Shixun, Zhu Chenggong and other naval generals.
Wu Yi, Shen Youlong, Shen Tingyang and other ministers were also there.
"Will this strategy really work? After all, the Tatars had already used it before."
Zheng Cai stood there and felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. Back then, the Qing army crossed the river and attacked Jingkou directly. The Zhenjiang commander-in-chief who was stationed at Jingkou at that time was Zheng Hongkui, and the deputy commander-in-chief was Zheng Cai.
"Strategies don't have to be too unpredictable. Sometimes the simpler the strategy, the more useful it is." Zhu Yihai, however, was confident and confident.
"Send the order, cross the river!"
The guard Zhang Dapeng shouted the order, ran down from the attic, got on his horse and went to the ferry to deliver the order to cross the river.
"There is an order from the prison to cross the river!"
"Cross the river!"
Following the shouts, the foggy pier and ferry began to move.
Countless rafts, boats, etc. that had been prepared were put on with straw men, put on torches, and pushed the boats into the Yangtze River.
The fog was thick, and thousands of boats were discharged into the river. The scarecrows on them were looming in the fog, and the torches emitted little lights, like fireflies twinkling in the night sky.
"Bang the drum!"
"Blow the trumpet!"
Zhang Quan, the commander-in-chief of Banner Town, personally took the lead in beating the cowhide war drum, and countless large drums began to beat.
The crossing between Guazhou Ferry and Xijin in Zhenjiang is only ten miles away, and there is Jiangxinzhou in the middle. The white fog in the early morning was so thick that no one could be seen ten steps away, but the sound was not affected.
In this rumbling battlefield, the leisurely horn is extremely loud.
In Jiangxinzhou between the two crossings, Admiral Cao Jiang and Chen Jin, who was personally commanding here, also heard it. He woke up very early. The thick fog made him very uneasy. He was worried that the Ming navy would sneak across the river in the fog.
, took armor to inspect the fort early in the morning.
He also took out several boxes of silver, rewarded some sailors with good water skills, and asked them to drive small boats to the river but be on guard against Ming troops sneaking across.
Who would have thought that after waiting for half a morning, no Ming troops were found sneaking across. Seeing the sun gradually brightening in the fog, there was such a big movement on the other side at this time.
"The thief must be bluffing and deliberately disturbing me."
Chen Jin tried his best to look at the other side, but only saw thick fog. He analyzed to the general next to him, "With such heavy fog, the Ming army should sneak across and attack, but because they were afraid of me, they would roll over to the Jianglong and Jiangzhou Forts, as well as the Shuiying Floating City on the south bank."
, couldn’t find a way to crack it, so they wanted to use it to tire out our army.”
Although he said this, Chen Jin did not dare to be careless. The two brothers Lu Jianguo and Jiu Wang always acted unexpectedly, so they could not be deduced by common sense.
"Go and wake everyone up, be on full alert, weigh the ships, and be ready to join the fight at any time!"
The drums of war are thunderous.
More and more excited.
In the fog, several small boats rushed out.
The Qing army was shocked.
"Don't shoot the arrow, it's a sentinel boat!"
People on the boat shouted.
"Report, the army of Ming thieves on the opposite side has begun to cross the river. There are countless boats on the river with torches everywhere. I can only see the soldiers densely packed, countless, endless!"
The Qing troops on the patrol boat were patrolling in the middle of the river. Amidst the astonishing sound of war drums and horns, they saw countless fire shadows and silhouettes of people approaching in the shape of boats. They were so frightened that they hurriedly retreated.
Come and report quickly.
Chen Jin didn't expect to be slapped in the face so quickly, but he couldn't care less at this time.
"Damn it, what kind of fun is this?"
"Fort, prepare for bombardment quickly, aim at the center of the river, and as soon as you see an enemy ship, shoot the hell out of it."
"Shui Ying, get on the fucking boat and prepare for a water battle!"
The sun hangs in the eastern sky, but it is still just a gray ball with a dark yellow light, like a huge fried egg.
The drums beat loudly and urgently, and the shouts came from afar.
Finally, a fire loomed in the river in the distance.
More and more light spots appeared, then the shape of a ship, and it even seemed like there were soldiers standing on the bow of the ship holding a knife.
"fire!"
"fire!"
Seeing this, the garrison of the fort could not hold back, so the Jiangzhou fort, which Chen Jin had worked hard to build during this period, began to fire fiercely at the middle of the river with more than a hundred cannons of various sizes.
The sound of cannons was like thunder.
Responding to the war drums and horns from the other side.
"It hit, it seems like it hit."
However, the fierce bombardment by the Qing army did not make the Ming navy retreat, and the ships and fire continued to come.
Chen Jindu could only stare at the mist, fire, and ship shadows with red eyes, shouting and firing.
The gunners worked nervously.
Suddenly, a gun made a loud bang and exploded. There was a scream, and a group of artillerymen on the gun position were blown up. The explosion also triggered the explosion of the gunpowder truck next to it, and the entire gun position was flattened.
, killing more than a dozen people at once.
Chen Jin ignored this and still urged the artillery fire to continue bombarding.
Facing the Ming Navy who seemed to be trying to take over the enemy regardless of casualties, they did not dare to relax for a moment.
The gunners worked hard to load and fire, clean, load and fire again, then reset and repeat again.
Under the continuous bombardment, several more guns exploded.
But the Ming army still did not stop, and the Qing army had no choice but to continue bombarding with all its strength.
"Why did the cannon stop?"
"Keep banging!"
"Military gate, there is no ammunition!" A battalion officer reported helplessly.
They continued the bombardment for more than an hour without stopping for a moment.
"Why is there no ammunition? Where did I pull out the ammunition I gave you?" Chen Jin angrily grabbed the battalion officer's shirt and lifted him up, spitting on his face.
"Junmen, this is what our fort on the island has been allocated to. They are all finished."
Of course, this officer did not tell the truth. Chen Jin attached great importance to the navy and Jiangzhou Fort. He brought in more than a hundred cannons and even many gunpowder pellets. There was no way that they would be gone after an hour of fighting. Facts
The officers on the island and the island secretly sold a lot of gunpowder.
This thing is very valuable now, and can be called hard currency. Especially now that Yan Jinglue is reorganizing the military camp and requiring real troops to be paid. In this way, officers cannot take advantage of empty pay or make arbitrary deductions, relying only on the apparent salary.
, how many taels of silver is this?
Ordinary soldiers used to have just over one tael of silver and three bushels of rice per month. Duke Yan said that they would increase their pay, and then the soldiers were raised to two taels of silver a month, but the three bushels of rice were gone. Now there is a famine in the south of the Yangtze River, and after the autumn harvest, one bushel of rice still costs
At least two taels of silver.
This increased to two taels of silver a month, which is just one stone of rice.
A senior Ying Qianzong of the sixth rank earns only twelve taels of silver per month, and a Dusi of the fourth rank earns only thirty taels of silver per month.
What can you do with this little money?
There is no soldier who is not just a family, with seniors and juniors, and even servants and maids to call upon. In the past, everyone could get some free wages, deduct some, and rob some in battles, and get rewards and so on.
It's okay, I don't expect that little salary.
But now that Mr. Yan has rectified the situation like this, all those who dare to take advantage of free money are already on the wall of Jiangning City. They don't dare to make deductions too obvious, and can only deduct a little bit.
What to do if there is no income, of course you have to find somewhere else to make up for it.
As a result, officers depended on mountains to feed themselves and water to draw water. For example, the soldiers on the water camp ships used warships to carry private salt, and even collected some protection fees on the river. However, the soldiers on the Jiangzhou coastal defense fort did not have these opportunities.
Now, the cannons can’t be sold, so we have to sell gunpowder and shells.
Most of Jiangzhou's gunpowder was secretly sold like a rat moving, and many of the remaining gunpowder were sold in exchange for some recharge.
There were about a dozen cannons that had their chambers exploded before. The reason was that the gunpowder was of inferior quality, and then the cannons were fired too hastily, and something went wrong.
There were still more than a hundred cannons, but they were out of gunpowder. Chen Jin didn't expect it, so he could only quickly order people to bring more from Zhenjiang to replenish them. At the same time, he had to order Shuiying to sail a boat to intercept them.
Those in the water camp didn't expect Chen Jin to be so stubborn.
Seeing the shadows of boats in the mist, which seemed to be coming in an endless stream, they also panicked.
The forts behind them were all mute. How could they, the newly formed naval battalions, with their small boats and small cannons, attack? But Chen Jin was in a hurry, so he could only bite the bullet and sail the boats to attack.
Not far into the fog, we saw in the distance a bunch of bows, arrows, and muskets, and then they stopped cruising up and down in the fog.
Fortunately, the Ming boats in the river seemed to have been seriously damaged by artillery fire, and they were not able to rush over. Even the drumming on the other side was muted.
Gradually, the fog dissipated.
Those Qing naval officers who were frightened by the ups and downs on the river were surprised to find that the Ming army's fleet across the river disappeared, leaving only countless wooden fragments on the river...
"we won?"
"Won!"
The excited navy quickly rowed the boat back and reported the victory excitedly to Chen Jin, "The fleet of Ming thieves crossing the river has been defeated!"
"Great victory!"
Chen Jin was stunned for a while, but he stood on a high place and looked at the river, and indeed he no longer saw the seemingly overwhelming fleet.
Even the drumming on the other side completely stopped.
"Damn it, we win." Chen Jin wiped the sweat from his forehead. When he ran out of ammunition, he thought it was over. Unexpectedly, there is no perfect path.
"Hurry up and report the victory to Zhenjiang Yan Gong. Our army severely damaged the Ming thieves' fleet crossing the river."
After saying that, he summoned his men, "Hurry to Zhenjiang to call for gunpowder and replenish it. Also, check carefully for me, where is the gunpowder here? Damn it, if you dare to touch such a deadly thing, I will catch you."
