Author: Scholar Wu

After entering Chongming City, Yang Wenqi cooperated with the defenders outside the city to quickly capture the north and south gates.

Seeing that they could not withstand Yang Wenqi's army, the remaining defenders retreated from the west gate without hesitation.

In this way, Chongming County changed hands for the third time in one day!

On the other side, Tu Guobao is still waiting for "Yang Wenqi" to surrender, thinking about how to deal with Yang Wenqi next and swallow the 280,000 taels of silver.

As a result, the sound of artillery fire was heard from the boats on the river, and several No. 2 Fuzhou ships were lined up in a straight line, firing like here.

Tu Guobao shouted loudly: "I've been fooled. Yang Wenqi actually has reinforcements. Everyone, retreat to the south and don't get hit by artillery shells!"

Wang An heard the sound of cannons outside and knew that Yang Wenqi's side should have captured Chongming County, and he immediately felt relieved.

In fact, just now he was still very worried that Tu Guobao would make a desperate move and launch a desperate attack on the fortress.

In this case, his "bait" would be swallowed up by Tu Guobao!

Although Tu Guobao began to retreat now, he did not dare to attack rashly with the few troops he had. If Tu Guobao suddenly made a "returning attack", all the previous efforts would be in vain.

At present, the only option is to hold on until dark, then board the ship, and find a way to return to Chongming County to meet Yang Wenqi.

Tu Guobao, who was retreating, was filled with regret!

There is a saying: If you are reluctant to let go of your children, you will not be able to trap the wolf.

How can there be no casualties in a war? I should not worry about gains and losses, and missed the opportunity to encircle and annihilate Yang Wenqi.

At this time, soldiers who had returned from the defeat in Chongming County also came to join them.

Tu Guobao, who learned that Chongming County had been lost again, was furious and cursed Yang Wenqi for being cunning and treacherous!

At this time Huang Dabiao said: "Judging from the current situation, Yang Wenqi's reinforcements should not be many, only a few hundred people."

"Although we lost Chongming City, we did not suffer much loss of troops and horses. We still have more than 2,600 people."

"Now we can lure the snake out of the hole. The local army will personally lead 1,600 troops to besiege Chongming City on all sides, while the humble army will lead 1,000 troops to ambush. Yang Wenqi only asks for help, and we will first eat the wave of troops he has guarding the fort."

Tu Guobao laughed loudly: "Da Biao, you still have a way, we will act according to your plan. As long as Yang Wenqi's foreign aid is eaten up, he will be the turtle in the urn!"

Just when Yang Wenqi and Tu Guobao were having a fierce fight on Chongming Island.

The Zhoushan Ming Army led by Zhang Mingzhen has approached Chongming Island.

(Zhang Mingzhen, born in Jiangning, Yingtian (now Nanjing, Jiangsu) in the late Ming Dynasty, was named Houfu. In the late Chongzhen period, he was a guerrilla in Shipu, Taizhou. After the death of Hongguang in Nanming, he and Zhang Huangyan and others supported King Lu to supervise the country, added General Fuping, and made him a Marquis of the West. After the fall of Shaoxing

, entered Zhoushan and attached themselves to Huang Binqing. In the second year of Lu's supervision (1647), Wu Shengzhao, the governor of Songjiang, rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and sent a letter to Zhoushan. Because Binqing did not respond, he led an army of 50,000 to Chongming to help. When he arrived in Chongming, he was hit by a hurricane and the entire army was wiped out.

, returned to the sea alone. In the fourth year, he led his troops to join Binqing to welcome the King of Lu to Zhoushan, and became the Grand Master of the Jin Dynasty. He took charge of the military affairs. In the sixth year, Zhoushan fell, and he resumed sailing under the command of King Lu. In the eighth year, he led 20,000 troops to go northward.

He intercepted the Yangtze River and garrisoned Pingyangsha in Chongming. Xun was slandered and withdrew. The next year, he traced the Yangtze River again and invaded Jingkou, shocking Nanjing. In the ninth year of Yongli Dynasty (1655), he was worshiped as marshal by Zheng Chenggong. He died of illness; one theory is that

Success poisons people to death.)

Zhang Mingzhen was a forthright man who valued love and righteousness. Some people say that Zhang Mingzhen was the last hero of the Southern Ming Dynasty. His most praised heroic deeds are his "entering the Yangtze River three times", climbing Jinshan Mountain, and paying homage to Xiaoling Tomb from afar.

In the first month of the eighth year of Yongli reign (1654), Zhang Mingzhen led hundreds of large-scale ships up the Yangtze River and arrived in Zhenjiang.

In Jinshan, Zhang Mingzhen held a memorial ceremony for three days, paid homage to Xiaoling from afar, shed tears and wrote a poem on the cliff, saying:

Ten years ago, I was alone across the sea, and I was looking forward to the truth in Zhongshan Mountain.

The quail-shouyi banner has just left Chu, and Yan Yun's feather has passed through Fujian.

Master Wang was so upset that his heart and liver were choked, and his father and mother kissed each other in tears.

To the south, you can see Xiaoling Bing Zhensu, and you can see Dahuan Longjin.

In April this year, in order to cooperate with Wu Zhaosheng, Zhang Mingzhen fought against all opinions and led tens of thousands of Ming troops to sail into the Yangtze River. However, God did not help, and they encountered a storm near Chongming, and almost the entire army was wiped out.

An ordinary person would have been disheartened, but Zhang Mingzhen suffered such a big setback and never lost his ambition. He sneaked back to Nantian to recruit his old troops and regroup.

Continue to keep a low profile in Zhoushan, waiting for the opportunity to make a comeback.

If Gu Yanwu had not gone to Zhoushan to report the news, a few days later, when Zhang Mingzhen learned that King Lu was kidnapped by the Fujian warlord Zheng Cai, he would have led his troops to break through the Changguowei (south of present-day Xiangshan, Zhejiang) occupied by the Qing army and stationed in Jiantiao.

Suo (east of today's Sanmen, Zhejiang Province) stabilized the position, and then welcomed King Lu to Jiantiao.

After learning about the "Chongming Incident" from Gu Yanwu, Zhang Mingzhen believed that this was a golden opportunity to regain Chongming, and immediately urged troops to be sent.

Huang Binqing is actually not interested in Chongming, but considering that Zhang Mingzhen has been in Zhoushan, it has a great influence on him. Now that Zhang Mingzhen is willing to take the initiative to move to Chongming, it can also help disperse the pressure on the Qing army. So he went along with the flow and sent 3,000 troops to help Zhang Mingzhen win it in one fell swoop.

Go to Chongming.

It’s just that the Zhoushan Ming Army had just experienced a major defeat half a year ago, with heavy losses of troops and horses. Now the fleet led by Zhang Mingzhen only has 13,000 soldiers (5,000 naval troops, 8,000 infantry divisions) and more than 100 warships, which is larger than before

Much smaller.

However, the warships of the Ming Navy were much more powerful than those of the Qing Navy.

Zhang Mingzhen's flagship is an improved version of the No. 1 Fu Ship. It is fifteen feet long, two feet six feet wide, and one foot three feet deep. It is divided into twenty-three cabins. It has five masts in the front and rear. The big mast is seven feet long and two feet long.

Six feet and five inches in length, with the remaining parts shorter (1 feet = 3.33 meters). The ship is equipped with 20 Qianjin Folang machine guns, and its displacement is close to 300 tons.

However, the Ming Army only had 3 such enhanced No. 1 Fu Ships, followed by 10 standard No. 1 Fu Ships, 20 No. 2 Fu Ships, and some other smaller warships.

Such strength is more than enough to crush Yang Wenqi and the Tuguobao Department on Chongming Island!

At this time, Gu Yanwu introduced the situation on Chongming Island to Zhang Mingzhen and said: "The original Chongming Fort has been completely destroyed and will not pose any threat to our navy."

"The main channel of the Qing army's Chongming water village has been blocked by sunken ships, and all the warships of the Qing army's Chongming navy have been burned. There are still a few No. 2 lucky ships left by Yang Wenqi's troops, which no longer pose a threat to our army!

"

"There should be more than 4,000 members of Yang Wenqi's and Tu Guobao's tribes on the island, but by now they should have been fighting for nearly a day and night. They are exhausted troops, and they will definitely be unable to stop my Ming Dynasty King's division."

After hearing the news, Zhang Mingzhen said with confidence: "So Chongming is really empty. Zhongqing, you don't need to go to Fujian anymore. When Chongming is captured, I will directly welcome His Royal Highness here."

"Zhou Boda, Yang Wenqi and more than 10,000 elite troops of the Tuguobao Department were destroyed. The Qing army's strength in the Susong area is unprecedentedly empty. Coupled with the cooperation of the Taihu Rebel Army, it is not a bad idea for us to take advantage of the situation and capture Susong."

Hearing this, Gu Yanwu couldn't help but frowned.

I thought: Qian Mo's worries are indeed right. As soon as the Ming army took Chongming, they wanted to recover "Susong". The land of Susong is easy to capture, but it cannot be defended. If they just plunder the treasury,

That's not a bad idea.

So he said: "There are still 350,000 taels of silver in Chongming County, which can be used to support troops."

"Our top priority is to use our naval superiority to first destroy the remaining naval warships along the Yangtze River Estuary of the Qing Army and guard the exit of the Yangtze River."

"The Qing army will not sit back and watch the fall of Chongming without doing anything. I'm afraid there will still be tough battles to be fought by then. But as long as the Qing army's navy is defeated, not to mention the land of Susong and where along the Yangtze River cannot be attacked?"

"We only need to make the Qing Dynasty suffer a tax deficit in Liangjiang and Jiangjiang, and they will naturally be unable to sustain it for a long time. At that time, we will take the opportunity to strengthen our strength, and it will not be too late to plan for prefectures and counties."

Zhang Mingzhen also understood what Gu Yanwu meant, that Chongming should be consolidated first and then developed based on it.

At this time, the fleet has also arrived at Chongming Island.

Zhang Mingzhen ordered: "Fire the cannon and the army will land!"

At this time, Tu Guobao had already led his troops and surrounded Chongming County.

To be honest, from the early morning battle until now, his men were already exhausted, so he did not take any measures to attack the city.

While Yang and Tu were confronting each other, only the roar of cannons was heard.

Soon Zhang Mingzhen's army arrived at Chongming City.

At this time, how can Tu Guobao and Yang Wenqi still have the intention to fight again?

Immediately he announced that the situation was over and raised the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty!

Yang Wenqi originally wanted to brag about how he fought against the Tu national treasure and stood firm in Chongming waiting for help, but Master Wang finally arrived.

However, when he saw Gu Yanwu next to Zhang Mingzhen, he immediately gave away the silver to show that he would obey Zhang Mingzhen's orders!

Of course, Zhang Mingzhen did not expose Yang Wenqi on the spot. He just said politely: "This time, General Yang and General Tu Bing set an example for the world by bringing order to the chaos. I have informed His Majesty the Supervisor that a reward will be sent to you soon.

I will temporarily take over the post of Commander-in-Chief."

However, Chongming's land and sea armies now have more than 17,000 people, and new camps need to be built. The original water camps of the Chongming Navy need to be dredged and expanded, and the Chongming Fort also needs to be repaired.

A lot of "construction tasks" were arranged for the two of them. Yang Wenqi's department was responsible for clearing the water fortress passage and repairing the water fortress; the Tu National Treasure Department was responsible for repairing the fort and expanding the military camp.

Of course, in order to win over all parties, at Gu Yanwu's suggestion, Zhang Mingzhen went to each battalion with silver coins to distribute rewards to the soldiers in person. Regardless of who they belonged to before, the 17,000 soldiers in Chongming were all given 2 taels of silver as rewards first, and the officers were even more

a bit more.

In this way, all the original ministries are grateful to Zhang Mingzhen!

Soon, "Yang Wenqi, Tu Guobao raised his troops and returned to the Ming Dynasty, and the news that the Ming army captured Chongming Island in one fell swoop spread quickly."

In fact, as early as the second day after the Yunyin fleet encountered the storm, bodies were washed up one after another on the shores of Zhenjiang and Guazhou.

The Yunyin fleet did not arrive in Guazhou at the designated time, and there was no news at all. The guard in Guazhou had already reported the situation.

Without Hong Chengchou, Ma Guozhu now became the only governor of Nanjing. Naturally, the news was immediately reported to Ma Guozhu, the governor of Liangjiang and Henan.

The fleet disappeared for no reason, and the bodies of many soldiers were found washed ashore. Ma Guozhu already felt that something was wrong.

Although he had never directly intervened in the escort of the money, the disappearance of the fleet occurred within his jurisdiction after all. He immediately arranged ships to patrol the Yangtze River and soldiers on both sides of Jiangguazhou to search for clues.

However, the result is that the Yangtze River from Zhenjiang to Guangzhou encountered a rare storm last night, and the silver transport fleet may have encountered an accident.
To be continued...