Chapter 1176 Haihan’s request

Since Hangzhou was captured by the Ming army in 1366 and changed from Hangzhou Road in the Yuan Dynasty to Hangzhou Prefecture, during the reign of the Ming Dynasty, this important town in the south of the Yangtze River has never experienced large-scale wars. Even in history, the Qing army attacked in 1645

In Hangzhou, the Ming Dynasty's supervising king Zhu Changzi chose to surrender directly, and the city was still not affected by the war. The Ming Dynasty was regarded as a peaceful and blessed place - of course, this possibility would only happen in Haihan.

It can only be realized without coming to this time and space.

Under such a historical environment, the Haihan Army arrived at the city in the early eighth year of Chongzhen. The panic and chaos caused were unprecedented since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Most of the people who originally lived outside the city immediately packed up after discovering the arrival of the Haihan Fleet.

Possessions poured into the city for refuge. This also caused all the inns and hotels in Hangzhou to be full overnight, and there were still a large number of refugees sleeping on the streets because they could not find temporary accommodation.

In order to prevent people from freezing to death on the streets, the government has also thought of many ways to resettle refugees. While mobilizing city residents to open their homes to accommodate refugees, or donating some bedding, they have also arranged many charcoal pots on the streets for refugees to keep warm.

, and distributed large amounts of ginger soup and hot porridge to ensure that the refugees had enough physical strength to survive the cold winter nights. At the same time, the garrison and government officials in the city also increased patrols to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble in the city. But this way

The only means available are emergency measures. If Haihan does not withdraw his troops, the chaos in the city will only get worse.

However, the most anxious people now are not these refugees, but the bureaucrats who were the local governors at the time. At this time, in the Chief Envoy Si Yamen, He Guanzhi, the prefect of Hangzhou, was reporting to the Zhejiang Chief Envoy Wang Ji and the Du Commander Liu Feng and others.

Report on the resettlement of refugees. Hangzhou is originally a land of plenty in the south of the Yangtze River, and the surrounding areas are also rich in products. What is most lacking in the city now is not various living materials, but a place to resettle these refugees.

"There are still thousands of refugees in the city who have no place to resettle. Do you have any ideas?" After listening to He Guanzhi's report, Wang Ji solicited opinions from everyone present. Almost all civil and military officials of fifth rank and above in the city were already present, which is rare in recent times.

There was an official meeting.

Zeng Sheng, a fellow prefect, responded: "The lower official believes that too many refugees will inevitably occupy the city's traffic arteries, and a large amount of supplies will be consumed for rescue every day, which is not conducive to defending the city. The Haihan army has limited troops and is unable to surround Hangzhou City, but

Arrange for people to evacuate to the north and west of the city. Deqing, Wukang, Yuhang, Lin'an and other counties can allocate the refugees. It is much better than crowding them all in this city."

Wang Yuan, the general judge, immediately objected: "Hangzhou city cannot be resettled, so it can be solved in the county? Mr. Zeng's words are wrong. The top priority now is to try to get the Haihan people to retreat, rather than considering the long-term resettlement of these refugees. Don't you think so?

Sir, do you plan to fight with the Haihan people for a year and a half?"

The prefect He Guanzhi shook his head and said: "Let alone a year and a half, I'm afraid it won't be able to sustain it for ten days and a half months. Everyone knows the situation of the battle between the navy and the Haihan people today. The navy collapsed at the first touch and is no match for the Haihan people. If you want to

To expel the Haihan people from Hangzhou Bay, these current methods alone will not suffice. If we want the Haihan people to retreat, we must solve the root cause."

Everyone here knows what the "source" He Guanzhi mentioned is actually very clear. The reason why the Haihan people launched an army to attack was the unknown fire that occurred at Tongsheng Pier a few days ago. Everyone knows that the Haihan people are responsible for this.

The direct victim of the case, but more than ten days have passed, and the investigation has not made substantial progress. The identity of the murderer has not been found, and the missing property is still missing. The ultimatum sent by the Haihan people to the Hangzhou government at that time was not

It has received enough attention, but now it is full of irony.

But no one will directly mention the investigation of the case on this occasion, because this matter is currently in charge of Wang Ji, who is also the chief envoy and prosecutor. Mentioning this unsolved case that has not yet been solved will actually be more or less

It ruined his face. Besides, although the Haihan people sent troops in the name of seeking justice, it is not difficult for a discerning person to see that Haihan was using the topic to make things worse. However, there is currently no channel to contact Haihan, so the officials

It's still not clear what Haihan's purpose is for starting such a big war. It's impossible for them to want to start a war with the entire Ming Dynasty just based on their thousands of troops, right?

Wang Yuan coughed dryly and said: "Now that the elite soldiers of the Hangzhou Prefecture have gone to Henan to quell the chaos, it will be a bit troublesome to start a war with the Haihan people. In the opinion of the lower officials, the Haihan people's blockade of the Qiantang River is an act of demonstration to the government, but it is not necessarily

Seeing that I really want to fight. If we can communicate well, we might be able to persuade them to retreat on their own."

Liu Feng, the commander of the capital, snorted coldly and said: "The Haihan people just arrived in Hangzhou today. They only have a slight upper hand. You are just thinking about peace talks. Are you a little too anxious?"

The main opposition to Haihan in Zhejiang's official circles were military personnel, and they were mainly high-level officials from Zhejiang's Dusi Yamen. However, there were already many military commanders in the coastal state capitals, and Qianhu took advantage of Haihan, so

This attitude has not been well implemented at the grassroots level, and the decree has basically no effect after it leaves Hangzhou. Dusi Yamen has been holding back his anger and wanted to find an opportunity to show Haihan some color, but today's performance is really too

Liu Feng was already unhappy because he couldn't take action, and he became even more angry when he heard Wang Yuan mentioned the peace talks.

When Wang Yuan was refuted by him, he didn't make any excuses. He thought to himself that since you were going to hit a wall, why should I stop you? Haihan had already been angry with him, so he didn't have to forcefully propose peace talks, and Wang Yuan was happy to save the trouble.

.Anyway, if the situation deteriorates in the end, the main war factions like Dusi Yamen will definitely take the blame.

Wang Ji asked: "Does Mr. Liu have any solution?"

Liu Feng pondered and said: "The Haihan people are good at water warfare. As long as they avoid their sharp edges and wait for them to land, they can try to surround and annihilate them."

Liu Feng's words were actually just to comfort himself. Not to mention whether Haihan would land to attack Hangzhou City, even if they disembarked and went ashore, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army units currently guarding Hangzhou City might not be able to stop them. As for the

Encirclement and annihilation are even more of a dream. As the commander of the Zhejiang Dusi, he is not ignorant of Haihan's fighting methods, but the current situation does not allow him to give in, so he can only bite the bullet. If the Haihan army

If he really goes ashore, he will probably order to shrink the defense and defend the city, and will not engage in a head-on confrontation with the opponent.

However, he still showed timidity in his words, and Wang Ji responded: "If you wait for them to come ashore, it is better to drive them away. Mr. Liu, since you are so sure of winning, why not lead the army to attack and fight decisively on the banks of the Qiantang River?"

Liu Feng said: "The Haihan people are coming with force. We should first dampen their energy by standing firm, and then look for opportunities to deal with them. If we go out of the city and fight them head-on, wouldn't it just fulfill their wishes?"

Wang Ji believed that he had understood the other party's attitude and stopped arguing with him now. What he wanted now was to solve the problem as soon as possible, instead of wasting time like this and letting the situation continue to develop out of control.

Since Liu Feng is afraid of war, it is unlikely that he will rely on the military to solve his current troubles.

Regardless of whether the officials participating in this meeting were leading the war or calling for peace, everyone knew that the Haihan people would not retreat easily when they came to Hangzhou this time. But no one was willing to take the initiative to stand up and take the corresponding responsibilities, so they discussed it for a while.

In the end, no plan was discussed that could be implemented immediately. In the end, Liu Feng could only ask Liu Feng to speed up the deployment of troops and generals to strengthen the defense of Hangzhou City, so as not to leave any opportunity for Haihan to take advantage of.

In the early morning of the next day, Haihan made his attitude clear and sent two companies of the army to land on the north bank of the lower reaches of the Qiantang River, five miles east of Hangzhou City. Since the Ming army had withdrawn to garrison near Hangzhou City,

No Ming army troops showed up here to stop the Haihan Army's actions. However, this landing operation was not without any resistance. Militia armed groups organized by several nearby villages made a bold attempt to drive away this group of foreign invaders.

Go back to the boat.

For Haihan's army, these militia soldiers with messy weapons, scattered formations and no basic formations are really hard to call a strong enemy, let alone compared to the regular armies of various countries, even those trained by Haihan on Zhoushan Island after arriving in Zhejiang

The militiamen are much more decent than this rabble.

Haihan's operation this time required minimizing the killing of innocent people, but this situation of knocking on the door by oneself was not one of them. The first platoon to land was gathered by the officers, and then they attacked the group that was still forming about fifty feet away.

The vigilante group fired several rounds at will. As the screams mixed with the gunfire continued to sound, the already anxious vigilante group dispersed in a hurry. Some of them even threw away their weapons and flags.

I hope I can escape faster.

Obviously these people have not received strict military training. They may just be farmers who were caught temporarily to make up the numbers. This kind of civilian armed forces rely on their numerical superiority to frighten bandits and bandits and still get along. When they encounter the Haihan Army who have rich experience in actual combat,

The opponent really gave it away for free.

The officer commanding the battle used binoculars to confirm the results of the battle. About five or six people on the opposite side were shot and fell, but they were all lifted and dragged away from the battlefield by their companions. The opponent's ability to withstand battle casualties was very weak. Perhaps this

It's just the negative effect caused by living in peace for too long. But this is also a good thing for the Haihan Army. After all, there is no need to cause too much killing in this operation. It is enough to disperse these ignorant villagers with the smallest movement.

.

Of course, the Haihan Army will not take this lightly, because it is not known whether there are Ming troops nearby secretly watching this battle with a huge disparity in strength. If there were regular troops fighting, it would not be so easy.

What's more, almost all of Haihan's limited cavalry troops have gone to Shandong. There are only a few cavalry scouts in the landed army. If there are Ming cavalry ambushes around, there will still be considerable risks.

In order to ensure that the limited-strength landing force would not be stuck on the shore by the Ming army and unable to withdraw from the extreme situation, the staff of the Haihan Army also took great pains when formulating the action plan. The planned army activity areas were all near the coast, and

Send several warships to accompany you all the way on the river. If you encounter a large group of enemies, you can immediately retreat to the river bank. Even if you cannot board the ship immediately due to the terrain, you can at least retreat within the range of the naval gun and receive heavy fire protection.

.

However, the staff obviously overestimated the courage of the Ming army. Except for the harassment by militia groups when they first landed, the army troops marched two or three miles towards Hangzhou City after landing, but still found no sign of the Ming army.

Wang Tom was also a little surprised by the news that he had received a reward on the flagship. He believed that even if the Ming army gave up the ship confrontation on the river, they would not sit back and watch Haihan land directly near Hangzhou City, and at least send troops to curb their own actions.

.But judging from the current situation, it seems that the other party is really planning to defend the city.

But if you think about it carefully, the opponent's response may be out of helplessness. After all, most of the elite Ming troops in Hangzhou Prefecture and surrounding areas have already gone north and left Zhejiang. The only ones that can be pulled out to fight against the Haihan Army are second-rate troops.

, the top brass of the Ming army probably knew that this situation was not suitable for a head-on battle, so they chose to shrink the defense line.

At noon, the leading troops could clearly see the head of Hangzhou City. It was only at this time that Hangzhou City finally sent an envoy to contact the Haihan Army. The person who came was not a member of the government, but just an entrusted official.

The coming silk merchant.

This businessman's name was Zheng Taisheng. He had business dealings with Haihan before, and had also met Shi Diwen and others at Zhoushan Port. However, the main reason why the government excluded him as an envoy was because he "happened" to be the prefect.

He Guanzhi's brother-in-law could barely be considered a semi-official person, and his identity could barely gain the trust of both warring parties. After undergoing a body search, Zheng Taisheng was sent to the flagship by a small boat by the sailors, and met Wang Tom, who was leading the army this time.

Although Wang Tom did not know Zheng Taisheng, there was someone on the ship who knew him. As soon as he introduced his identity, Wang Tom knew that he was a lobbyist on behalf of the Hangzhou government, and he immediately asked straight to the point: "Boss Zheng is here to make peace."

Yes, there must be some benefits for us, right?"

Zheng Taisheng said seriously: "I'm not here to make peace, I'm just here to persuade General Wang to withdraw his troops quickly, so as not to damage the relationship between the two countries."

Wang Tom waved his hand and said: "We have not officially established diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, and we can't say that we have any relationship. Besides, when our people had such a big incident in Hangzhou, did the government consider the relationship between the two countries when handling it?"

Zheng Taisheng coughed dryly and said: "Regarding the fire at Tongsheng Pier, the city's yamen in charge of criminal proceedings and arrests are all investigating. General Wang, please be patient and wait a few more days. The truth will come to light and the culprit will be brought to justice."

Give him a heavy sentence!"

Tom Wang snorted and said, "There's no need to say clichés. If the case can be solved, I won't have to make this trip myself. Didn't the gentleman who sent you say anything else?"

Zheng Taisheng said: "If General Wang has any requests, you can put them forward first, and I can pass them on to you."

Tom Wang stood up from his chair and said in a deep voice: "My request is very simple. First, find out the truth and hand over the murderer; second, the government's poor governance has caused huge losses to us, and we must pay ten times the compensation."

That will do; third, open up the trade authority of the Zhejiang state capitals, and no longer restrict the entry of Haihan merchants and goods. After completing these three points, we can talk about the armistice."
Chapter completed!