Chapter 408 General Fuping's Fleet Appears in Jiangkou!
The arrival of the multi-barreled artillery gave the navy a shot in the arm, giving them confidence to defeat the Zheng navy blocking the river mouth.
"Right now, the artillery brought by Juntao can probably be used to modify a dozen sea ships. With ships equipped with multi-barreled guns, we will have escort power, and the rest of the war will be easier." Ren Shuangyou basically understood the new artillery.
After improving its performance and usage, he began to formulate the next strategic concept. As long as he could open up the sea route, he would have enough energy to carry out the next step. The army was delayed on Chongming Island for a long time, and he had to quickly capture Songjiang Mansion.
The current Chongming Island is different from the Chongming Island of later generations. It is only about half the size of later generations. It is composed of several small islands separated by rivers. The area is very small and there are very few people living there. It is not suitable as a logistics base.
, nearly 10,000 troops need to be transported by ship for food and drink, unlike Songjiang! If Songjiang is occupied, at least there will be a way to supply food and drink locally.
"We still have a few ships. Even if there are about ten more lucky ships now, we can completely drive the Zheng thieves out of the river mouth." Fang Ruocheng was a little dissatisfied with the current situation. He thought about completely driving the Zheng family out of the river.
The harassment was eliminated, but the current strength does not allow it, which is really regrettable.
After suffering Liu Juntao's loss, the Zheng family stopped a lot in the next three or four days, and even the Zheng family's sentinel ship no longer appeared at the river mouth.
In order to maximize the profits of Liu Juntao and others, Ren Shuangyou, together with Fang Ruocheng and others, gave more than 400 prisoners to Zheng Cai, saying that he was entrusted to transport these 400 prisoners to Dengzhou for custody.
Asking people from the Zheng family to escort the prisoners of the Zheng family was a very clever move. It all depends on how Zheng Cai reacts. At this time, Ren Shuangyou no longer has any hope of winning over Zheng Cai! By doing this, he is trying to force Zheng Cai
He expressed his position that if he wanted to betray the Zheng family now, or if he wanted to, he should quickly bring a hundred broken ships to find his master, so as not to stay here and be an eyesore, and to involve part of the army to guard against them.
Zheng Cai received the hot potato thrown by Ren Shuangyou, and the expression on his face could not be called rich. He was too conflicted in his heart, and the current situation made him in a dilemma. The performance of the Imperial Navy was a bit too impressive, but
There was no decisive victory. At this time, Zheng Cai was afraid that it was too early to dump Zheng Zhilong, and he was also afraid that if he did it too late, he would not be able to sell it at a good price and would not be taken seriously by the imperial navy.
Zheng Cai, who was hesitant, finally discussed with his brother Zheng Lian, and did the same double-dealing job as Zheng Zhilong. He neither took these prisoners to Zheng Zhilong, nor took the prisoners to Dengzhou, but
We will wait and see if this group of family members are detained in Chongming. I hope that in the next few days, the war between Zheng Zhilong and the imperial court will be basically resolved.
In fact, in recent days, Zheng Zhilong has been sending people to pass orders to ask Zheng Cai to cooperate with their actions. However, Zheng Cai used the excuse that the imperial army was on tight guard and he had neither artillery nor soldiers.
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It seems that the excuses he gave to both parties were similar. They all had no weapons and no one, so he couldn't do it anyway. Although Zheng Zhilong was not very satisfied with Zheng Cai's answer, he also knew that it was basically true. He originally asked Zheng Cai to be a loan soldier.
At that time, they were indeed not equipped with heavy weapons, only some muskets. With muskets, it was difficult to fight against the current navy of the imperial court.
"Report, a fleet of more than fifty ships has appeared on the sea more than thirty miles south of the Jiangkou, and is approaching us. Please prepare early." A sentry hurriedly entered the port.
The ship brought an urgent military message.
"A fleet of more than fifty ships? Could it be that Thief Zheng wants to make a desperate move and fight a decisive battle with us? Quickly send the order to the fleet and leave the port to fight." Ren Shuangyou was a little confused as to why the Zheng family suddenly came to fight? Now fight
War seems to be more disadvantageous to them!
"Commander, the incoming fleet is a bit strange. Most of them are small boats, not like Zheng Jun's usual style." The investigators reported the special situation they observed to Ren Shuangyou. Due to the urgency of the matter, they only saw the fleet and did not see clearly above.
The flag was hoisted and he hurried over to report.
"They may have changed their tactics. Maybe they have prepared gunpowder on the boat and sent dead soldiers to blow up the camp." Thinking about the worst when things happen is called being prepared! When Ren Shuangyou was thinking about naval tactics in the past few days, he had something in his mind.
He had experienced this kind of life-threatening fighting method, so he took it for granted that the Zheng family might also have thought of this kind of fighting method.
Fang Ruocheng was ordered to quickly organize his fleet to go to sea to meet the enemy. When he and his fleet had just left the port, the sentry ship responsible for reconnaissance reported the latest military situation. The fleet seemed to be a friend but not an enemy.
Seemingly friends but not enemies? Will the imperial navy have friendly forces on the sea? Fang Ruocheng asked the sentry ship in some unbelievable way what the situation was.
"Deputy Commander, the flag command from the other side said they were here to help the imperial navy! Their general's flag is that of General Fuping."
"General Fuping? Isn't this the general number of the Taizhou Shipu guerrilla Zhang Houfu? Is this Zhang Houfu?" Fortunately, Fang Ruocheng is from Taizhou, otherwise he might not know who General Fuping is. General Fuping is not the official title.
, belongs to the miscellaneous title, guerrilla general is not a high-profile professional title in the old military order of the Ming Dynasty. Unless they are very familiar with the court allusions and military order, it is really difficult for ordinary people to think that General Fuping is Zhang Mingzhen.
"There is a flag with the character Zhang."
"Command the fleet to prepare for battle and not to take it lightly. In addition, the sentinel ship approached Zhang Houfu's fleet and asked them about their true intention of coming to the river mouth. If they are friends rather than enemies, please lower the sails first and let General Fuping come to our fleet alone.
Answer. If they don't listen to dissuasion, they will be treated as enemies." Although Zhang Mingzhen is not from the Zheng family, Fang Ruocheng has not heard of any connection between him and the Zheng family. However, it is necessary to be on guard against others, even if he is not here for the Zheng family.
, that may not be a friendly army. Maybe he is someone transferred from Nanzhi to deal with the imperial court.
Not long after the military order was sent out, the sentinel ship brought another news. Zhang Mingzhen's fleet said that they were here to help Wang's division fight against Zheng's thieves, and asked the commander-in-chief of Wang's division to come to the battle to answer the question to confirm.
The two sides communicated back and forth for a long time before the generals of the two armies met in front of the formation. In this era, there are no real-time communication tools and contact methods. It is very troublesome for friendly forces to communicate with each other. There are even more procedures for communication between the enemy and ourselves than the enemy.
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"Late student, deputy commander of the Ming Navy, Taizhou Fang Ruocheng met General Fuping." Standing on the bow of the flagship, across the floating board between the two ships, Fang Ruocheng bowed his hands and said hello to Zhang Mingzhen. Anyway, Zhang Mingzhen
He is a senior in the military field. It was his first official meeting with Fang Ruocheng. He had to give him face and say hello first.