Chapter 88 Lure the enemy deeper

Author: Scholar Wu

Chapter 88 Lure the enemy deeper

After Zeng Jiahui returned to the Ming Dynasty, he was appointed by Qian Mo as the commander-in-chief of the Zhejiang Navy of the Ming Dynasty, and led the fleet to blockade Hangzhou Bay.

Now that there is no Qing naval force in Hangzhou Bay, Qian Mo can even directly support Ningbo and Taizhou through waterways. The strategic environment has improved a lot.

As a person of later generations, Qian Mo understands the importance of the ocean very well. Now that the "Age of Discovery" has arrived, China has lagged far behind the world in this regard. If it does not catch up, it will inevitably become a prey in the eyes of the Western powers.

Now the Portuguese have occupied Macau, while the Dutch have just driven away the Spaniards and occupied Taiwan alone. The failed Spaniards are also eyeing the land of China in Manila, as well as the new "sea overlords" England who have not yet set foot in China.

.

However, the navy Qian Mo currently has is not enough to compete with these great powers. The top priority is to find ways to restore maritime trade and earn some money.

Qian Mo immediately ordered Xia Wanchun and Qian Buer to organize a caravan to conduct maritime trade and sell specialties such as silk, Hu pen, and tea overseas.

We can first open up the traditional Japanese and Korean markets, and then slowly spread to the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and Africa, and finally Europe.

The profits from ocean trade are eye-popping. You don't need Qian Mo to give too much credit to the merchants. As long as you organize a successful trade, the high profits will naturally attract them.

The ancestors of Wuyue have always had the foundation of maritime trade, and the Jiaxing area has always had a tradition of overseas trade. Although there are not many maritime merchants who are familiar with foreign trade due to the long-term ban on seas, once such huge profits reappear, merchants

In front of us, the sense of smell of our Chinese merchants is definitely not inferior to that of any other country.

In addition, a large shipyard must be built to build new types of warships. The Intelligence Department has begun to search for shipbuilding craftsmen everywhere, and even went to Macau to recruit Portuguese craftsmen at high prices.

Father Philip has also notified his businessmen friends in Macau to come to Haining for business cooperation. Qian Mo is willing to exchange "fairy lime" for guns and other commodities produced by the Portuguese in Macau.

At this time, Qian Buer complained to Qian Mo. Although Huzhou Prefecture has increased taxes by 40,000 taels of silver a month, with the crazy expansion of the Suhu Governor's Office and Qian Mo's wanton purchase of grain, construction in the three places has

Bastion and other projects. The silver deposits in the domain treasury have reached a record low, and are now less than 300,000 taels.

Qian Buer said that building new shipyards and organizing ocean-going trade caravans would require a large amount of money, and his chief envoy Yamen would definitely not be able to afford so much money.

Qian Mo said that the ocean-going fleet can use private ships and let the merchants prepare their own goods and ships, and the Industrial Department can cooperate with them to form a caravan. There is no need to do everything by themselves. The Industrial Department currently does not have the ability to eat such a big piece of cake.

The Hangzhou Navy can send warships to protect it all the way, but the merchants have to bear the corresponding costs.

In addition, the Chief Envoy's Yamen will establish a new Shipping Department to manage merchants participating in trade and collect reasonable taxes from them.

Now that we have just secured a port like Haining, the charter can be drafted first, and then we can slowly discuss and perfect various details during the period.

Trading caravans, shipyards, and shipping companies must be established!

There is no need to worry about the shortage of money. Although the investment in these projects is large, it is not a one-time expenditure. During the occupation of the counties in Hangzhou Prefecture, 300,000 taels of silver were confiscated from the treasury and the property of traitors in various places was confiscated. You can start with

Use it as start-up capital for the shipyard.

Previously, the Suhu Governor's Office had hoarded a large amount of grain. With the outbreak of war, grain prices in various places have begun to rise to varying degrees. However, Qian Mo knew that it was far from the time to harvest. Once the war in Ganzhou and Nanchang became intense,

, the price of food will rise to a sky-high price, and then you will have as much money as you want.

Jiaxing Prefecture was still under the management of the Qing Dynasty in name, but it had actually been Qian Mo's territory for a long time. At the moment, the road from Jiaxing to Hangzhou was blocked, so there was no need to escort taxes to Hangzhou.

At present, the biggest problem encountered by the Suhu Governor's Mansion is the lack of troops. There are only 1,000 Qing troops in Yanzhou Mansion. If there were enough troops, Qian Mo would even want to go south to capture Yanzhou.

Qian Mo ordered Xia Wanchun to form a new Tianmu Battalion in the Tianmu Mountain area, with Bai Bing as the commander-in-chief. The 1,000 soldiers and horses of the Jiaxing Battalion who stayed in Tianmu Mountain were transferred to Jiaxing to deal with threats from the direction of Su Song at any time.

Now that we are determined to build a shipyard and a shipping company in Haining, we must have enough troops to defend Jiaxing, otherwise we will be in vain.

On March 24, the second year of Yongli reign (1648), Zeng Jiahui led the newly formed Zhejiang Navy of the Ming Dynasty to sail from Hangzhou Bay into the Qiantang River.

I saw the Ming Dynasty's triangular dragon flag fluttering in the wind, and dozens of blessing boats spread out on the river. The scene was quite spectacular.

The people on the shore were also amazed, praising the majesty of the Ming Dynasty King's army!

An old man said with tears: "After more than two years, the Ming Dynasty King's Army finally crossed the Qiantang River again. Now we can finally cut off these damn braids."

Following Zeng Jiahui's order, the gunners on each ship began to fire off cannons. Amidst the rumbling sound of cannons, the sentry towers, forts and other buildings built along the coast by the Qing army were instantly blown to pieces.

Hong Fugui said: "The Zhejiang Navy's first appearance was indeed extraordinary. The Qing army's Qiantang River defense line was almost in vain!"

Zeng Jiahui said with a smile: "Commander Hong is ridiculous. This is the first time that our Zhejiang Navy has cooperated with your department in fighting. Zeng naturally does not dare to be careless. The next step will be up to Commander Hong."

Dozens of troop transport ships were seen heading to the river, and then 2,000 soldiers from the Chongming Battalion quickly disembarked and launched a charge towards Xiaoshan County.

There were Ming soldiers all over the mountains and plains below the city. Where had the magistrate of Xiaoshan seen this scene before? He immediately cut off his braid and ordered his men to open the city gate to welcome Master Wang into the city.

The successive losses of Haining and Xiaoshan also meant that Hangzhou was now completely surrounded by the Ming army.

Since Lu Bingwen met Qian Mo in Tianjiazhuang, his official career has been smooth sailing. Not only did he become the prefect of Jiaxing as he wished, but he also became a close confidant of Xiao Qiyuan, the governor of Zhejiang.

Even after the news of Jiaxing's commander-in-chief Wang Zaixing's surrender to the Ming army reached Hangzhou, Xiao Qiyuan did not raise any suspicion on Lu Bingwen.

Xiao Qiyuan probably never dreamed that at this time, most of the officials in Jiaxing from top to bottom were Qian Mo's people, but they still had pigtails and hung the flag of the Qing Dynasty, and they did not announce that they were returning to the Ming Dynasty anyway.

At this time, a beggar-looking man appeared at the gate of Jiaxing Magistrate’s Office.

Lu Bingwen said: "Governor Qian has already issued an order. Once Su Song's Qing troops support Hangzhou, I must attract them to Tianjiazhuang."

"General Qian only needs to organize the army in Tianjiazhuang to prepare for war. Leave the rest to me."

In Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture, Zhang Tianlu, the Jiangnan Admiral of the Qing Army, was also on pins and needles.

Not counting the Wusong Navy huddled in the port, there were only 10,000 troops in Suzhou and Songjiang at this time. Zhang Tianlu's 5,000 green battalions were to be guarded in Wusong and Huating. Due to insufficient troops, the Qing army even

All gave up.

At this time, Zhang Tianlu received an order from Ma Guozhu, the governor of Liangjiang, asking him to send troops to support Hangzhou. However, Ma Guozhu did not specify how many troops to send, leaving it to Zhang Tianlu's own discretion.

Zhang Tianlu was not stupid. He kept his troops stationary on the pretext that the Chongming Ming army showed signs of attacking Songjiang.

Ma Guozhu had no choice but to send 2,000 Mongolian Eight Banners from Zhenjiang to support Songjiang, so that Zhang Tianlu could send troops to support Hangzhou.

At this time, soldiers outside the camp came to report that there was an envoy from Hangzhou who wanted to see him.

A person from the Intelligence Department pretended to be Xiao Qiyuan's messenger and said: "Now the Ming army has captured Haining and is bombarding Hangzhou day and night. The military situation is urgent. We also ask Admiral Zhang to send troops to support Hangzhou quickly."

Zhang Tianlu said in embarrassment: "I have received the order from Governor Ma to send our troops south to support Hangzhou, but the Eight Mongolian Banners who will take over our defense have not yet arrived in Songjiang. Now the Ming army in Chongming is also eyeing Songjiang, and we still need to wait for some time.

Time."

Seeing that Zhang Tianlu was in dire straits, the messenger could only take out Xiao Qiyuan's autographed letter and hand it to Zhang Tianlu.

After seeing Xiao Qiyuan preparing to send Jiaxing Prefecture's 30,000 taels of tax to Songjiang, Zhang Tianlu immediately beamed with joy and asked the envoy: "When will Jiaxing Prefecture's silver taels arrive in Songjiang?"

The messenger said: "When I set off for Songjiang, the convoy of Yunyin had already set off from Jiaxing Fucheng and should be here soon."

When he heard that Yinzi was about to arrive, Zhang Tianlu said: "The Eight Mongolian Banners will arrive at Songjiang tonight. Our army will set off early tomorrow morning and go south to relieve the siege of Hangzhou."

Zhang Tianlu waited for more than an hour but still did not see Yunyin's convoy, so he sent a sentry to Jiaxing to investigate.

Soon after, the sentinels brought back two soldiers from Jiaxing Prefecture. The soldier said: "Oh no, our team was ambushed by the Ming army not long after they left Jiaxing Prefecture. Most of the escorting soldiers and horses were killed and captured by the Ming army. Silver

They were all kidnapped by the Ming army, and we ran out while it was dark to report to your lord."

Hearing that the silver had been robbed, Zhang Tianlu was furious and asked quickly: "Where is the Ming army? How many men and horses are there? Do you know where the silver was transported?"

The soldier said: "The Ming army consisted of four to five hundred people, under the banner of Qian Mo, the governor of Suhu. They used firecrackers with fierce firepower. They wiped out most of the 300 brothers we escorted in a short time."

"The Ming army put us prisoners in charge of pushing carts and sent the silver to a manor near Jiashan. There was a small fortress there, which should be a stronghold of the Ming army. The two of us sneaked out while the Ming army was unprepared.

"

Zhang Tianlu scolded: "The Ming army actually built a stronghold in Jiaxing Prefecture. What do you do for food?"

The soldier said: "Now I only have 1,000 troops in the entire Jiaxing Prefecture. It will be good if I can barely hold on to the city. How can I take care of other places."

"I know that this place was originally Tianjiazhuang, the private estate of the former prefect. It was originally built with tight fortifications, but I didn't expect that it was occupied by the Ming army and used as a base."

So Zhang Tianlu said: "The Ming army probably hasn't transported the silver away yet. I'm sending an order to my general. 1,000 cavalry will set out first to surround Tianjiazhuang, followed by 2,000 infantry. They must take back the silver."

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