The Yangtze River defense system of the Ming Dynasty has collapsed since the last Chinese army's anti-sea ban war. The Caojiang Navy originally stationed at Xinjiangkou, the Army Jiang Defense Battalion at Puzikou on the north bank, and the eight naval battalions along the river.
Its combat effectiveness has long been degraded to worse than that of pirates and fishermen.
During the Jiajing period, when the Japanese pirates invaded, the Yangtze River defense was in name only and did nothing. The last time the Chinese army broke through Jinling City, the last few ships of the Caojiang navy were burned. After the Puzikou River defense camp collapsed, it was in name only. Now the court has simply canceled it.
The establishment of these two troops.
During the Jiajing period, it was determined that the civilian censor Cao Jiangdu would coordinate the defense of the Yangtze River. This position is now concurrently held by Zhou Qiyuan, governor of Su Song. Zhou Qiyuan is a member of the Donglin Party and a native of Haicheng, Fujian. His hometown is now occupied by the Chinese army. Suzhou, Songjiang
Most of the territory in each prefecture and county was controlled by the Chinese army. He, Governor Su Song, was very frustrated. He could only manage half of the area under his jurisdiction. Therefore, Zhou Qiyuan believed that he was sworn in with the Chinese army. At the beginning of the second year of Tianqi, he also served as commander.
After taking up the post of Jiangdu Censor, he worked very hard. He inspected all the battalions along the river and found that the Ming army's Yangtze River defense was empty. On paper, the so-called eight battalions along the river, including the Taiping Camp and the Ranger Camp, had more than 5,000 sailors.
Hundreds of warships. But after checking the soldiers and ships, he found that the actual number was less than one-fifth.
At this time, there was a mutiny in northern Zhejiang. The imperial court had no intention of strengthening the Yangtze River Navy. It also had no money or manpower to do this.
After the mutiny in northern Zhejiang was suppressed, Zhou Qiyuan continued to report to the court to strengthen Jiang defense. It happened that the Ministry of War was in charge, and Nanjing manager Sun Chengzong was presiding over the preparations for the counterattack south of the Yangtze River. Zhou Qiyuan was asked to be responsible for coordinating and arranging the gathering of Yangtze River naval forces. Zhou Qiyuan worked hard while waiting.
After most of the naval battalions along the river were assembled in Anqing, Chen Daoheng, the Minister of War in Nanjing, came to inspect in the name of inspection. He took over all his powers with a wave of his hand and ordered the mobilization of ships from all the prefectures and counties along the river to gather in Anqing.
Chen Daoheng is nearly 70 years old. He has just been promoted from Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Industry to Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing. This old minister is named Meng Qi.
With praise, he is sincere and auspicious, and he is also an official in Nandu. He is known as "Jiangyou Sanqing". "Qing" people are the only ones who are honest and honest. Chen Daoheng lost his mother, his home was destroyed by fire, and he lived in someone else's house. "There is no curtain in the cold winter."
His wife wore Ge Shang, and he and his son collected the remains of firewood to keep out the cold. There may have been gifts, but they refused to accept them." From Huguang to participate in politics, he moved to Shandong as an envoy, and on the right as an envoy. He moved to Fujian to the left. He did not keep a single penny. He moved to the right.
The deputy capital censor, Admiral Cao Jiang, Guang Zongli, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, and the governor He Dao. In the second year of Tianqi, the demon thief Xu Hongru made a rebellion. Dao Heng guarded Jining and eliminated all key points. He defended the canal and everything went smoothly. He increased his salary and gave him silver coins.
.
Now the imperial court has assembled a large army around Jinling, preparing to attack the Chinese army in the south of the Yangtze River. The importance of Yangtze River defense has been highlighted. Chen Daoheng served as the censor of Jiangdu. Therefore, Sun Chengzong asked him to go to the Yangtze River Navy to inspect and supervise the preparations for the battle.
Chen Daoheng has always prided himself on being strict and self-disciplined, not forming cliques and clinging to cliques. Zhou Qiyuan is a native of Donglin, and he also prides himself on being a gentleman. Chen Daoheng is a slender and powerful old man. Zhou Qiyuan is dark and short. However, for some reason, these two gentlemen are mutually exclusive.
Disdainful. As soon as Chen Daoheng arrived in Anqing, he immediately overwhelmed Zhou Qiyuan with his official rank and qualifications. He unceremoniously snatched away all the power of Zhou Qiyuan's Cao Jiangdu censor. In Sun Chengzong's plan, once the war started, along the river water
The commander of the division is Zhou Qiyuan. But now, Zhou Qiyuan has no choice but to become Chen Daoheng's subordinate.
The Ming Dynasty still did not change the tradition of "civilian control of military affairs". In war, civilian officials were the main commanders. Part of the navy assembled in Anqing was under the command of Jiangfang Tongzhi Wuping. Jiangfang Tongzhi was only the fifth rank and the fifth pass. He was mainly in charge of the militia. Troops (Minzhuang). The rest of Jiujiang Bingbei Road, Yuezhou Bingbei Road, etc. are under the command of Cao Jiangdu. Therefore, in the Anqing Navy Camp, Chen Daoheng is now the commander-in-chief.
The river defense troops nominally under the command of Zhou Qiyuan include Taiping Camp, Ranger Camp, Tushan Camp, Xunjiang Camp, Sanjiang Camp, Guazhou Water Camp, Guazhou Land Camp, Yizhen Water Camp, Yizhen Land Camp, Digang Camp, and Anqing Camp, Nanhu Camp, Luzhou River Defense Post, etc. Including temporary gathering of civilians. The Ming Navy Navy is said to have more than 35,000 people and has more than a thousand warships. In addition, in addition to the local Anqing army, various forces came to assist the Jiangnan counterattack. There were many officers and soldiers. Because Nanjing was besieged, they all gathered in Anqing:
Today, there are more than ten thousand Fengyang soldiers in Anqing City. They are led by Yang Shuzhong, the governor of Fengyang, and are stationed in the north of Anqing City.
Zhu Shishou, the right deputy governor of Guangxi, led more than 15,000 officers and soldiers from Guangxi and Guangxi to station in the south of Anqing.
Qin Bangping, the commander of Shilidu, commanded more than 15,000 Baigan soldiers from his headquarters and Sichuan troops from Chengdu and other places stationed in the east of the city. They were placed under the command of Wang Xiangheng, the governor of Yingtian. Wang Xiangheng, the governor of Yingtian, was named Liyu. He has been raising food for the Nanjing garrison in Anqing. Nanjing After it became an isolated city, he could not return to Jinling City, so he was temporarily appointed by Chen Daoheng to supervise the Sichuan Army.
In this way, Anqing had a large number of Ming army troops with no clear leadership relationship and no unified command structure. It seemed that the Ming army camped together for more than ten miles inside and outside Anqing City. More than a thousand warships were densely packed on the river, blocking out the sky and the sun. The formation is very scary.
In October of the forty-fifth year of Wanli, the Chinese fleet sailed up the Shuo River and approached Anqing. Zhang Heming, the Minister of War at that time, also recruited civilian ships and fishing boats as fire ships in an attempt to intercept the Chinese fleet. As a result, Anqing fell. And this time Nanjing was Chen Daoheng, Minister of the Ministry of War, repeated his old tricks. Many people were very disapproving and were not optimistic about his plan.
Yu Jiang, the prefect of Anqing, and Qi Zhongyue, the Anqing military commander, were even more pessimistic. They privately believed that the Ming army would be defeated. Yu Jiang was a student at the Imperial College in Nanjing City at the time. Qi Zhongyue was a subordinate of the former Anqing military commander who died in the battle. They all witnessed the Feizi battleship with their own eyes. Scene of artillery salvo.
But there is nothing they can do. There are a lot of high-ranking officials in Anqing City who are much higher than them. No one listens to what they say.
Not only that. In the cold weather of the twelfth lunar month, Anqing's General Qi Zhongyue had to serve as a vanguard scout for the Jiangjiang Navy. He commanded more than 1,000 soldiers in his headquarters to drive more than 20 warships down the river to explore the situation of the Chinese fleet. They The type of "warship" they drove was the most common flat-bottomed sand boat in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Most of them were modified merchant ships and fishing boats. The firearms they carried were mostly small Folang machines with a range of about a hundred steps, bowl-mouth blunderbuss, etc.
There is not a single boat on the usually busy Yangtze River. In addition, there was a heavy snowfall on both sides of the Yangtze River the day before. Looking up, the sky and the earth are pale. Everything on the water and on the land is empty.
After the thick fog in the morning was blown away by the river wind, all the Anqing soldiers' warships slowed down and only hung half of their sails. Qi Zhongyue stood on the bow of his boat and looked far into the distance. He could vaguely see the mist on Jiangxin Island in front of him. There was a vague shadow moving around.
Qi Zhongyue was born into a local military household. The soldiers around him were all locals. He turned around and asked the captain of the soldiers: "Ah Wu, look at what's going on in Jiangxinzhou ahead."
Ah Wu, who was only seventeen or eighteen years old, agreed. He jumped off the bow and climbed up the mast. After a while, Ah Wu slid down like a monkey. He hurriedly said to Zhongyue: "Report to General. During the patrol the day before yesterday, we were on Jiangxin Island. There aren’t many people around yet. Now there seem to be a lot of dark shadows on the north shore of the sandbar. If it hadn’t just snowed, I wouldn’t have been able to see them.”
"The river was closed ten days ago. All the people have fled long ago. Even if some brave people want to come out to fish, all the boats along the river have been collected by Mr. Chen. How can they go to Jiangxinzhou? Oops. Oops. Quickly, turn the bow of the boat, all rowing, and go quickly."
"Is it a pirate navy?" Ah Wu didn't understand yet.
Qi Zhongyue patted this guy's head: "Besides them, who else could be there? Hurry up and turn the ship around."
The black shadows on Jiangxin Island are two outposts of the Chinese Navy's Beiyang Fleet Marine Corps and a Liaodong militia unit. They have built a temporary dock here. The water conditions in front are unknown and the river is relatively narrow. Therefore, the two largest ships in the fleet are Because each of the new battleships carried 90 cannons and the draft was too deep, they could only temporarily anchor in the center of the river. Therefore, Mai Dahai, Yang Qi, and Chen Zhongji decided after discussion to build a temporary base on Jiangxin Island for surveillance. On both sides of the Yangtze River, two giant ships were protected.
The other two battleships Feizi, including Feilong, each carry 70 cannons. They can still barely pass through the Jiangxinzhou Channel.
The flagship Feilong was still in the north of Jiangxinzhou. The lookout on the main mast sent a signal, informing him that there were enemy ships on the river ahead. Soon, a lookout shivering with cold came to Mai Dahai and reported: "Report , report to the commander-in-chief. Ahead, five miles away, at the southern end of Jiangxinzhou, there are twenty-one Ming army ships, under the banner of General Anqing."
Mai Dahai, Yang Qi, and Chen Zhongji were all on the bow of the boat, holding telescopes to look ahead. All three of them were wrapped in tight fur coats. They kept stamping their feet. They no longer cared about their image.
Mai Dahai turned around and said: "Brother, you have worked hard. Go down and have a rest. Drink hot ginger soup to drive away the cold..."
Chen Zhongji breathed hot air into his hands: "Jiangnan has never been so cold in the past. This winter is particularly cold."
Yang Qi muttered: "It's the winter for straight women. You have never been in Liaodong. That's called cold. It's freezing cold. You can even go to a hut to urinate. You can't stop talking like this." ice."
Mai Dahai smiled and said: "It seems that General Anqing's ship has planned to turn around and escape. How about sending a ship to chase it?"
He is the oldest among the three and has the most seniority. He helped Yin Feng recruit the first batch of sailors in the Chinese Navy. Yang Qi thought for a while and thought: "Forget it. Let them report the news. "
Mai Dahai nodded: "I think so too: I didn't encounter any battles along the way. Finally, the Ming Navy navy assembled in Anqing. Let them gather together and go together. We will have a decisive battle in an upright manner and deal with them in one go."
Chen Zhongji did not participate in the specific combat command. Therefore, he said: "In that case, I will go and prepare. It will take half a day for the logistics arms fleet to arrive here. I will supervise it. Otherwise, just distribute the ammunition here."
Mai Dahai nodded: "The messenger. Send a signal to the entire fleet: Rest for half a day. Replenish arms and ammunition. Check the fireproof ship poles. After half a day, we will march to Anqing."