Ye Hua, Li Xing and others suddenly discovered on Beigu Mountain: Nanjing City was filled with smoke and dust. The Ming army at Zhongfu Gate, Jinchuan Gate, Shence Gate and Xuanwu Lake in the north of the city collapsed. The gate to the north of Nanjing City was wide open. They heard the order
The main senior generals of the Chinese Army's southern front troops were stunned: Nanjing City had been breached.
At this time, the Ming army defenders at Chaoyang Gate in the east city, Tongji Gate and Zhengyang Gate in the south city, Sanshan, Shicheng, Qingliang, Dinghuai, Yifengmen and other places in the west city opened the city gates one after another and rushed out of the city in groups.
They did not attack the commanding heights outside the city held by the Chinese army. Instead, they fled one after another.
The Chinese Army at Purple Mountain, Fugui Peak, Zheng Zhilong's troops at Jubaomen, and the Chinese Army patrol troops patrolling and guarding in the southwest area outside Jinling City. They all sent out emergency signals. Dozens of rockets rose into the sky and exploded. The red fireworks signal was conveyed.
A message: The Ming army has abandoned the city and left.
Yin Feng was also surprised when he heard the news. He grabbed the messenger in confusion and asked: "What? You said that the imperial army had abandoned the city and left. This... the city of Nanjing was captured by us."
The messenger swallowed his saliva, nodded and said: "The balloon observer reported that the officers and soldiers in the city are running away to the south. All the gates in the north city have been opened. Our soldiers are entering the city. There are no reports of street fighting in the city yet."
According to previous intelligence, it was said that the Nanjing Ming Army numbered 100,000, and many surrounding Ming troops entered the city to assist in the defense. However, just one area of the Shence Gate in the North City was breached, which caused the entire city's defense in Nanjing to completely collapse.
This result was unexpected by Yin Feng.
"This imperial army is worse than we expected. They actually abandoned the city like this. This is Nanjing, the capital of Emperor Taizu." Zeng Shan stamped his feet and sighed. He didn't know who he was feeling upset for.
Yin Fengli stood up and said to Lin Yue, the captain of the personal guard: "Hurry up and get the Sea Spirit ready to depart. At the same time, send out a carrier pigeon to inform Taiwan: Nanjing has arrived. Please come quickly, Mr. Zeng." Everyone present lacked experience in managing government affairs in the mainland provinces.
.The governance system of the Chinese Company cannot be moved to Nanjing at once.
There are not so many manpower to call upon to take charge of a city as big as Nanjing. This has never happened before in the history of Zhonghua Company. Therefore, what Yin Feng is thinking about at this moment is Mr. Zeng Qi. In the entire Zhonghua Company system,
Among the talented civil servants, only Zeng Qi served as a local official at the state level.
He turned to Zeng Shan, Xu Hongji and others and said: "Nanjing City was so easily captured by us. This was completely unexpected by us. The top priority is to stabilize the situation in the city. The palace must not be entered. No nobles can be touched easily.
.Please be with the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and the Chinese Army.
Select a group of civil servants and lead them into the city quickly to take over government affairs, issue a peace proclamation, punish those who took advantage of the fire, clear out the rebels, implement martial law and other matters. We must all start quickly. It is really troublesome. We did not plan it in advance.
I just want to take over such a big Jinling City."
On Niushoushan Mountain, which is twenty miles away from Jubaomen in the south of Nanjing City, Yan Siqi did not get the news until the evening of that day. Nanjing City had been captured. He was shocked at first. But he soon burst into laughter and patted the big tree next to him.
Shu Dao: "The imperial officers and soldiers are so ineffective. Haha. There is no point in waiting here for us. Order the whole army of the fifth brigade to prepare to set off. All are lightly equipped and carry seven days of dry food and gunpowder bullets..."
Deputy brigade commander and supervisor of the fifth brigade Wu Hao (former guard captain of the Batavia Chinese Merchant House) quickly grabbed Yan Siqi and said: "Brother Zhenquan, there is no order from above. We cannot leave the flood area without permission."
Yan Siqi shook his head, patted Wu Hao on the shoulder and said, "It doesn't matter. Captain Yin is a sensible man. He will immediately send us an order to march south. The farther we go, the better... Haha. I'm right. Now the whole Jiangnan It’s like a beautiful woman who has taken off all her clothes. If we don’t rush forward quickly, it will be boring to take what God has given us.”
As he spoke, Yan Siqi issued orders one after another. The entire fifth brigade began to take action. Although the fifth brigade is a newly formed unit, the grassroots cadres and mid-level officers are all Yan Siqi's old men from the fifth regiment of the Nanyang Regiment. The best thing about marching operations is flexibility. And they are all very familiar with military affairs. At the moment, Yan Siqi only left two sentries to cooperate with the artillery battalion under his command to guard the Niushou Mountain stronghold. The remaining 5th Brigade had two regiments and one battalion. The troops, totaling more than 4,200 people, immediately went down the mountain and southward, chasing the defeated soldiers of the Nanjing garrison and chasing them.
When Yin Feng's messenger hurried to Niushou Mountain with the order, only the commander of the remaining troops was seen in the fortress on the mountain. This urgent order from Yin Feng passed through Li Xing and was passed directly to Yan Siqi himself. .While Li Xing was searching and suppressing Nanjing City's defeated troops, Yan Siqi's troops had already marched overnight and quickly approached Jurong.
The defeated Ming army was divided into many units. About 40,000 people fled Nanjing. They basically lost their unified command and organization when they fled from Kaicheng. They were running around like headless flies. The goal is to get as far away from Nanjing as possible. So basically the direction of escape is to the southeast.
Along the way, all the prefectures and counties were hit by the rout. The defenders of each city were frightened. They followed the large group of rout troops and abandoned the city and fled. As a result, Yan Siqi's troops fought without a single blow and continuously captured... Oh, it can't be considered as the capture of China. The army just chased the fleeing troops into various cities. Yan Siqi successively occupied Jurong, Liyang, Yixing and other cities along the way, approaching the city of Huzhou.
The Fifth Brigade basically suffered no casualties, except for more than 20 people who accidentally fell and injured on the road and more than 30 people who were reduced due to illness.
In addition to Yan Siqi's 5th brigade troops, the Marine Corps who occupied Wusongkou also sent 4,000 troops to attack southwest. They captured Jiading, Taicangwei, Kunshan and other places along the way, approaching the city of Suzhou.
The gentry and bureaucrats in the Jiangnan land soon responded to the rapid advance of the Chinese army.
The city of Nanjing was captured by pirates. This horrifying thing temporarily shocked the people in Jiangnan. After all, the Chinese army was not an alien army. Nor was it a ragtag group of pirates with poor military discipline. Scholars and scribes who always shouted "ruling the country and bringing peace to the world". While facing this terrifying and unfamiliar army angrily, I also saw that this army had excellent military discipline wherever it went. It did not commit any crimes. At the very least, it tried its best to avoid disturbing the people.
The Chinese Army has a large number of sea-going ships. It has a stable rear base and can obtain sufficient and stable logistics resources. Therefore, the Chinese Army does not collect food and pay wherever it goes. On the contrary, it opens government granaries to provide relief to the hungry and poor and maintain public order. , carry out trade.
When the situation in Nanjing stabilized, Yin Feng and the Chinese Army generals figured out the true strength of the Ming Army: It was impossible for the Chinese Army's detailed operations, hidden stakes and other intelligence personnel to count the number of Ming troops one by one. Therefore, they all used court officials. The information was obtained from written documents. However, most of the Nanjing garrison quota was taken up by officers. Therefore, the legendary 100,000 Ming army actually only had 45,000 people.
After the Chinese army occupied Nanjing, they sealed off the residential area of the distinguished family in Beicheng. They also sealed off the area around the palace, prohibiting everyone from entering and exiting at will. Unless the distinguished family intended to cause trouble, the Chinese army only restricted the entry and exit of people. No action was taken against them. However, the residence of Gao Cai, the Nanjing garrison eunuch, was confiscated. All Gao Cai's men were arrested. At the same time, the Nanjing treasury was opened and a large amount of grain and grass were requisitioned to provide relief to the people of Nanjing.
Various legends about the Chinese army's capture of Nanjing City also spread quickly around the world: Some said that the commander of the Chinese army, Yin Feng, was a demon who could fly into the air from the ground and directly enter Nanjing City from the air, and captured the city in one fell swoop.
Some people also say that the firearms of the Chinese army are all made by Western monsters. They are extremely powerful. One cannon can destroy the city gate... Others say that pirates come from the sea. The cannons can hit ten miles. There are magical objects that can make cannonballs. Chasing the leader of the army and fighting...
According to a more reliable legend, Yin Feng became a Japanese pirate leader like Wang Zhi. He led 200,000 Japanese pirates at sea to invade the Yangtze River. He relied on the tactics of human sea to flood the city of Nanjing...
The ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, including officials and gentlemen, were still in shock and had not woken up. Xiong Tingbi relied on his own soldiers to rescue him desperately. He rushed out of the city from Sanshan Gate and collected the defeated troops along the way. Relying on his personal prestige and efforts, he finally More than 1,000 officers and soldiers were gathered. On the eighth day after the fall of Nanjing, they fled south to Huzhou.
Eunuch Gao Cai failed to escape from the city. His soldiers abandoned him and ran away. Gao Cai wanted to hide in the homes of those nobles, but he was rejected repeatedly. Finally, he was captured by the Chinese army and imprisoned in the Yingtian Mansion Prison.
Nanjing garrison, Minister of War Wu Gongliang was internally injured by the shock wave of the Thunderbolt bomb. He was still in a coma when the city was breached. Governor Yingtian and his garrison rescued him out of the city and fled to Suzhou City. Along the way, he also A lot of broken troops were gathered up. Finally, they entered Suzhou City with more than 2,000 officers and soldiers.
Half a month after the fall of Nanjing, the Chinese army launched a victorious march on the front lines of Suzhou, Huzhou and Guangde.
In fact, the Chinese Army's Southern Front troops have deployed all infantry units and all sailors, totaling less than 40,000 troops, into the Jiangnan battlefield. They have also reached the limit of military expansion.
The Ming army in the south finally began to move in unison. The Ming army in Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Jiangxi and other places began to accumulate troops in Anqing and Huzhou. The imperial court also ordered Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi to recruit troops. They rushed to Anqing and Huzhou. Huzhou and Huzhou prepared to launch a counterattack to retake the city of Nanjing. At the same time, Zhang Heming, the left minister of the Ministry of War and the minister of the Ministry of Industry of Nanjing, was appointed as Nanjing Manager and Governor of Jiangnan Military Affairs.
The southern troops of the Ming Army have always been slightly inferior in combat effectiveness compared to the northern frontier troops; of course, special forces outside the system such as the Qi Jiajun are not included. In this counterattack on Nanjing, the imperial court did not draw from the northern frontier troops. One soldier at a time. Because the war near Tianjin Wei is about to begin. The Ming Dynasty has no spare power and no financial resources to support the crisis in the south.
At the same time, wars were launched on the northern and southern fronts. The imperial court's military expenditures were spent like a stream. They were already stretched to the point of being stretched. Therefore, Emperor Wanli ordered a tax of nine cents per acre on the country's fields. It was called "sea salary".