Chapter 255: The Iron Chain Blocks the River, Seeking Jingzhou
Su Zhuang led a large force and took a transport ship out of the Xiling Gorge.
We took a boat along the Yangtze River waterway, and the water flow was very fast.
Su Zhuang passed by places such as Wu Gorge and saw the huge drop in the Yangtze River here.
There is no waterfall or vertical waterway.
But the Yangtze River waterway has a very large inclination angle.
When a ship goes down the river from upstream, it's like diving straight down from a mountain.
Many soldiers who had never experienced the Three Gorges by boat were frightened when they crossed this section of the waterway.
I was afraid that the boat would go too fast and hit the cliffs on the shore.
Su Zhuang stepped off the boat and looked at Liang Feng, who was already waiting beside the horse's head.
From here to the east, the Yangtze River waterway will become very gentle, and there will no longer be a drop of hundreds of meters.
Su Zhuang gave a thumbs up and praised: "Master Liang Zhu, you are dredging the Three Gorges waterway. This is a great achievement.
If we can win in the future, everyone will be grateful to you.
Once the Three Gorges waterway is opened, transport ships will be able to transport grain, grass and arms from Sichuan, continuously supporting our operations.
Huguang is the granary of the Ming Dynasty, and there is definitely no shortage of food here.
After we capture Huguang, food can be transported to various places via the Yangtze River.
But the Three Gorges cannot be opened, and there are a large number of weapons produced by the Chongqing Arsenal and medicines from the Sichuan Pharmaceutical Factory.
Transporting it by land to Huguang and then transporting it to various places via the Yangtze River would be extremely cumbersome and the transportation time would be extended a lot."
Liang Feng just smiled and accepted Su Zhuang's compliment.
He then said with a serious face: "Captain Su Zhuang, after I clear the Three Gorges, I will send the third division eastward to inspect the situation in Jingzhou's capital city.
The surrounding Ming troops had all been defeated by the Third Division, and they all retreated to Jingzhou Fucheng.
The officials of Jingzhou Prefecture are extremely smart, maybe they have read too many novels about the Three Kingdoms.
In the Yangtze River section in Jingzhou, he directly used iron cables to block the river.
Using sunken ships and iron cables, they directly locked the Yangtze River near Jingzhou.
These are iron cables that pass through boulders located on the shore.
The boulders weigh several tons and cannot be destroyed with cannons.
This area is also covered by the firing range of the Hongyi cannon on Jingzhou City.
Without solving the capital city of Jingzhou, there is no way to solve the iron cables and sunken ships.
The sunken ship blocks the channel and only small boats can pass through.
There was certainly no way for the Yangtze River Navy's river warships to rush across the Yangtze River, which was blocked by iron cables and sunken ships, and surround Jingzhou's capital city.
After testing by the Third Division, Jingzhou City was extremely well-defended, with more than thirty Hongyi cannons and dozens of other artillery pieces on each city wall."
Su Zhuang listened to Liang Feng's report and was surprised by the situation in Jingzhou's capital city.
Is it possible that the southwest and northwest regions are so different from the Central Plains region?
The cities in Sichuan and Shaanxi, Chongqing, Xi'an and other places are not as tightly defended as the capital city in Jingzhou.
Su Zhuang was wrong when he thought about it. Guangdong was extremely wealthy, so he cooperated with the First Army to attack Guangdong and Guangdong.
He also learned about the situation in Guangdong and that the cities in Guangdong were similar to the Ming Dynasty cities in his impression.
Su Zhuang noticed something unusual in Jingzhou Fucheng, so he did not blindly attack Jingzhou Fucheng.
Find the local secret guards and the person in charge of the military intelligence bureau, and learn from them the intelligence in Jingzhou City.
The person in charge of the secret guard didn't know much about the situation in Jingzhou's capital city.
Their main manpower is in Wuchang, taking advantage of the fact that Wuchang now has no backbone.
Provoking internal fighting between the civil and military forces in Wuchang, the Ming army in Huguang will not be integrated because of the internal fighting, and will not support other prefectural cities under attack in Huguang.
The person in charge of the Military Intelligence Bureau introduced some situations in Jingzhou Prefecture to Su Zhuang.
The backbone of Jingzhou Fucheng was Liu Kun and Liu Yuanhe, the great gentry of Jingzhou.
Liu Kun's father-in-law was the prefect of Jingzhou.
Liu Kun is not a Donglin Party member, but he believes in the rhetoric put forward by the Donglin Party. The squires must defend themselves and cannot rely on others.
Liu Kun used the influence of the Liu family, the power of his father-in-law, and marriages with other gentry generals to control all the armies in Jingzhou.
He also united most of the gentry in Jingzhou Prefecture to contribute money and efforts to purchase a large number of artillery to arm Jingzhou's city defense.
After listening to the report from the Military Intelligence Bureau, they basically understood the situation in Jingzhou's capital city.
Su Shan said: "This is group training! King Qin has always been wary of gentry organizing group training.
Looking at the situation in Jingzhou’s capital city, the gentry’s regiments and armed forces are guarding their hometowns, which is much more dedicated than the Ming army.”
Su Zhuang nodded and said: "This should belong to the Tuan Lian Armed Forces. They only obey the orders of the Liu family and may not obey the orders of the Ming Dynasty.
We won't know the quality of these regiments' training and weapons until we fight them.
The soldiers had just crossed the Three Gorges and their bodies had not recovered yet, so they were asked to rest for two days.
At the same time, let the artillerymen unload the cannons and arrange artillery positions.
We are well prepared and conducting a tentative siege."
The Qin army reached an agreement and began to camp and rest not far from the capital of Jingzhou.
…………………………
Jingzhou Fucheng, here is the Liu family's mansion.
Liu Kun and Mr. Liu tasted Longjing before the rain and listened to the opera about Liu Bei's attack on Jingzhou.
"Okay, this opera was sung so well. I will give this troupe a hundred taels of silver as a reward."
Mr. Liu Kun and Mr. Liu walked around the house with their hands behind their backs to relieve the anxiety in his heart.
"Liu Bei's army is well-prepared, and he has Zhuge Liang in literature, Guan Yu in military affairs, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun.
He was defeated by Lu Xun, a young boy from Soochow, who set the whole camp on fire and was defeated.
Now the thief in yellow is Liu Bei, and I am Lu Xun.
My intelligence is much better than that of Lu Xun, no matter how much I have to compare with Zhuge Liang.
Nine locks chained the Yangtze River to block the big ship of the yellow thief.
The thief in yellow dared to get close to the iron rope and directly attacked with fire to burn down all the thief in yellow's ships.
We are sending troops to attack and destroy the army of thieves in yellow.
In this way, I will definitely be able to preserve Jingzhou Mansion and preserve the foundation passed down from generation to generation by our Liu family."
Liu Kun and Mr. Liu were cheering themselves up when they heard the housekeeper running into the room, panting heavily.
"Master, master, it's not good, the thief in yellow who was defeated by us some time ago came to besiege the city again.
There are a lot of thieves in yellow this time, much more than last time."
When Liu Kun heard the news, he clenched his fists.
"Hurry up and bring the sedan here. I want to go to the city wall and see for myself.
If we can defeat the thief in yellow the first time, we can defeat the thief in yellow the second time.
Victory will definitely belong to us in Jingzhou."
Liu Kun took a sedan chair and soon arrived at the west gate of Jingzhou Fucheng.
He saw the thieves in yellow dragging cannons slowly approaching the capital of Jingzhou.
"Fire the gun, blow it up for me, blow it up hard for me.
Use the yellow thief's cannon to blast the yellow thief hard."
Liu Kun was extremely excited. He was very happy when he thought of using the yellow thief's cannon to blow up the yellow thief.
Liu Kun cooperated with You Shihai and spent a lot of money to obtain a batch of weapons from the thieves in yellow.
They obtained many standard weapons of the yellow thieves.
You Shihai stayed further away, choosing to transport lightweight rockets, landmines, sea mines and other weapons.
He chose the yellow thief's strongest cannon.
"There are too many mediocre officials in the Ming Dynasty. If they were all people like me and Brother You, how could the world be like this?"
Liu Kun watched the artillery fire at the top of the city. The cannons of the thieves in yellow were indeed fierce.
Use the yellow robed thief's cannon to blow up the yellow robed thief, knocking them all off their feet.
…………………………
Tong Yunpeng looked at the cannonballs fired from Jingzhou City.
This is not the conventional solid bullet of the Ming Army, nor is it the explosive bullet with poor technology of the Ming Army.
A huge roar sounded, and a pit with a radius of two to three meters appeared on the ground.
The area around the impact point of the shell, which was more than ten meters away, was immediately cleared.
Tong Yunpeng looked at Su Zhuang and said: "Commander, this is obviously the power of the yellow gunpowder explosion.
Could it be that the Ming army also produced yellow gunpowder? This would be a big problem.
With yellow gunpowder, the intensity of the war will increase a lot.
Our weapons generation gap has also been weakened by the Ming army, so we can only rely on the strong quality of our soldiers to compete with the Ming army."
Yuan Qingpeng came over holding a shell fragment.
"Commander Su Zhuang, commander, look at the fragments of this shell."
Su Zhuang looked at the shell fragments in Yuan Qingpeng's hands.
The entire shell exploded directly from the middle. This cannot be said to be shell fragments, but can only be called the shell body.
The missile body was relatively complete and had not been exploded at all.
He looked at the cannonballs and the words carved with a carving knife.
【4332012……】
[Chongqing soldiers...]
Su Zhuang said in shock: "This is ammunition produced by the Chongqing Arsenal. Who is so bold as to sell our army's standard ammunition to the Ming Dynasty?"
Su Zhuang's face was already sweating slightly. The ammunition produced by the Chongqing Arsenal was mainly supplied to the armies of the Southwest Governor's Mansion.
He is the governor of the Southwest Governor's Office. He cannot escape the blame for such a major arms loss problem and must bear great management responsibilities.
Yuan Qingpeng guessed: "It is unlikely that this will be lost from the military.
Every ammunition used by the military has detailed tracking records.
Regarding the issue of ammunition, those in the Military Justice Department have several pairs of eyes on it.
When a soldier discovers the loss of ammunition, he will report it through various channels and will not collude with the officers.
It is against the law to report for promotion and accompany the superior.
Nowadays, soldiers have no personal dependence on officers.
Smart people will report it."
Yuan Qingpeng was very confused. The loss of arms had not been discovered. Are the people in the Military Law Department useless? They usually look very majestic.
The Minister of Military Justice is Su Ying, who is extremely tough.
With him as the backend, promotion does not depend on military merit, but on the ability to handle cases.
The Military Justice Department does not give face to any officer and handles problems directly if they are found.
More and more shell fragments were being transported, and everyone felt heavy.
Su Shan looked at these shells and listened to the casualty reports from frontline officers.
He said: "I don't think these shells flowed out through the military channels.
The production dates of these shells are very neat.
The manufacturers are all Chongqing Arsenal.
The ammunition stored by the military is basically mixed and will not have such neat production dates and manufacturers.
From the fragments we found, we know that none of the shells were completely shattered.
These shells have huge quality problems.
I think there was a problem with the arsenal's process, which resulted in the production of a batch of inferior ammunition.
According to regulations, these should be destroyed, but someone did not destroy them and sold them instead."
After Su Shan's reminder, everyone also realized the difference between these shells.
Observing the explosion of these shells, it does not look like shells of outstanding quality.
Su Zhuang looked at the crowd and said: "As for the issue of arms leakage, I will personally write to Su Ying and ask him to send a capable force to investigate the matter.
Our main task now is to capture the capital city of Jingzhou.
After taking Jingzhou, we can fight all the way to Dongting Lake.
At that time, according to the plan of the staff, the Second Army will continue to attack Wuchang Prefecture, and the Sixth Army will go south and occupy a large area on the south bank of the Yangtze River."
Tong Yunpeng thought for a while and said: "There are artillery leaked by our army in Jingzhou Fucheng. According to our guess, there is something wrong with the quality of these artillery and shells.
But these are breech-loaded cannons, with a rate of fire and power that far exceeds the Ming army's Hongyi cannons. A strong attack will cause great damage to our army.
The capital city of Jingzhou is now surrounded by our army on three sides.
It's just that the section near the Yangtze River is blocked by iron cables, so our warships can't pass.
The number of Ming troops in the capital of Jingzhou was too small, and even if they purchased some firearms, they would not be able to survive for long.
When they discover that we are attacking, they will definitely ask Wuchang Prefecture for help.
We can pretend to be reinforcements from Wuchang Prefecture and seize the opportunity to seize Jingzhou Prefecture."
Su Zhuang asked: "We have many official uniforms of the Ming army and flags of generals.
But if the Ming army came from Wuchang Prefecture so quickly, they must have taken a boat upstream.
We can send troops to secretly cross Jingzhou City at night and pretend to support the Ming army.
But what about the ships? The people don’t have those large warships, and our warships can’t get across, and the Yangtze River is blocked by iron cables and sunken ships.”
Tong Yunpeng thought for a long time but could not come up with a solution.
They sent too few troops and came in small boats, so there was no way to seize the city gate.
Sending too many troops, either by boat or on foot, will create too many holes.
After Zhu Qiansheng listened to Tong Yunpeng's suggestion, he suggested: "There is no need for us to follow the waterway and pretend to be the Ming army in Wuchang Prefecture.
We interrogated the prisoners of the Ming army and found that the Fifth Army was already attacking Chengtian Mansion.
They can completely pretend to be the remnants of the Ming army who escaped from the direction of Jingmen.
Our two armies used blank ammunition and pretended to be fierce exchanges of fire to lure the Ming army out of Jingzhou Fucheng.
If they don't leave the city, they will let the fake Ming army in Jingmen find a way to enter the city.
If we can act realistically and win the trust of the Ming army in the capital of Jingzhou, our plan will be successful.
The Ming army was not deceived, and we suffered no losses."
Su Zhuang supports this plan, which is extremely feasible.
They perfected the plan and added many details.
After consideration, Su Zhuang handed over the task of posing as the Ming army to the Wu Ming Department of the First Division of the Second Army.
His usual behavior is most like that of a somewhat domineering Ming army officer.
The surrendered Ming army could not perform Wu Ming's heartfelt actions.
Wu Ming changed into the clothes of the Ming army.
There were only a few soldiers in the front row, wearing armor and holding flintlock muskets, while most of the soldiers held matchlocks, broadswords and spears.
Such a Ming army, which was composed of servants and military households, stood in line, and it looked nothing like the Ming army.
Su Zhuang specifically explained: "The soldiers in the front row must choose soldiers who can act.
The formation is so neat, who can believe that this is their Ming army.
If the team is loose, it is best to show panic and fear, and to show desperation and ferocity when encountering the enemy."
Wu Ming led the troops in a drill and satisfied everyone before he set off at night.