Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 222

The weather is getting warmer, and the feeling of spring is finally coming. On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year in the 17th year of Yongli, the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army launched a full-scale offensive against the Qing Army!

At Hong Chengchou's residence in Wuchang Prefecture, a series of battle reports were sent over.

"...how could this be?" The old traitor, who had already recovered from the past, and his body and energy could not keep up at all, looked at the letters of help sent from all over, and was in a daze for a while.

His staff member Zhou Chang stood aside with his head down, also very helpless.

"It shouldn't be useless, what's wrong with it?" Hong Chengchou didn't understand, neither did Zhou Chang.

They took risks, and even disregarding the fact that creating refugees might cause huge harm to Huguang and other places, they still contributed to this wave of refugees. Nanming was tired of coping, so he gave them a longer time.

Both Hong Chengchou and Zhou Chang understood one thing, that is, the current Qing army is too far behind the Daming Fuguo Army. Whether it is a field battle or defending the city, they have no chance of winning.Hong Chengchou recognized the strength of the Ming army, but it didn't mean he thought the war could not be won.No matter how strong the dam is, it may collapse in an ant's nest. As long as Nanming's internal contradictions are excavated, he believes that the situation will be reversed.

Didn't he use the same method to disintegrate the Ming Dynasty, which was so big at the beginning? He can use all means of division, alienation, and temptation as long as they can be successful.

However, the Nanming court he was facing now was totally unreasonable, and he couldn't even understand all the means.What's more frightening is that they acted so fast that the Qing court couldn't react, and he, a sick old dog who was dying, couldn't react either.

"The navy of the imperial court is gone?" Hong Chengchou still couldn't believe the battle report he saw.

Just after Bai Mingxiu was annoyed that the Qing court used such shameless tricks to cause trouble for himself, Bai Mingxiu immediately urged the nearly prepared National Restoration Army to launch the Huguang Battle.Among them, the army of the East China Military Region sailed upstream from the south of the Yangtze River by boat, and set off at Anqing Mansion to attack Jiujiang.

The Qing army almost still used the same routine, setting up iron chains on the Yangtze River to block the river and setting up water villages.In order to fight this battle, Bai Mingxiu also specially exchanged more than ten small tonnage frigates from the system that can carry out activities in the Yangtze River waterway. Although they are smaller than his 74-gun sail battleships, they are still Still equipped with the navy's cutting-edge rifled guns, these frigates entered Poyang Lake after breaking through the Qing army's Tiesuo water stronghold, and started a fight with the Qing army's last Yangtze River navy. It was not intense, but the scale was not small. battle.

The person who commanded this battle was none other than Shi Lang, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Navy.After being defeated one after another by the navy of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army, the Manchu Qing had completely abandoned the naval defense along the coast, and transferred their most talented naval fighter, Shi Lang, to Jiujiang at this stage.

In order to guard against the Yangtze River, Shi Lang prepared more than [-] warships, many of which were requisitioned civilian ships, and his navy ships naturally lacked artillery.A large number of artillery pieces originally owned by the Qing army were lost in the war against the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming army obtained the old Francophone cannons of the Qing army, etc., and they were directly used as materials for melting and casting. Copper was basically used to make bullets. up.

"My lord, General Tiesuo Shuiying's formation has been breached by the Ming army."

Shi Lang stood on a small river boat, with a normal expression, and said, "This is expected. The Ming army navy in Jiangyin broke through once, and the iron chain is not a difficult thing to deal with."

For him, he is also not optimistic about today's battle.Getting the dragon from the sea to the river and lake was already a blow to Shi Lang, especially in today's situation, Shi Lang had already vaguely expected that the Ming Dynasty might reunify the world, and the Tartars might be killed by the prince. The prison country rushed to kill them all.

Shi Lang was also very hesitant, and he took refuge in the Qing court, but Shi Lang was actually not very popular.Although he helped Li Sutai defeat Zheng Jing of Jinsha not long ago, this was the only successful victory the Qing court had achieved in the war against Ming in such a long time, but the more this goes on, Shi Langyue will be able to see Clearly, following the Qing army is a dead end.

"Why?! The Ming army hasn't written to me yet to persuade me to surrender." Shi Lang felt bitter in his heart. He had actually made plans to surrender to Nanming for a long time. Although Zheng Chenggong killed his family, he and the Zheng family Hatred can be said to be irreconcilable.But no matter how great the hatred was, it was not as important as his own life. If Mingren sent an envoy to persuade him to surrender, then Shi Lang would still surrender.

Shi Lang's biggest worry was that the imposing Lord Guo Xing would deal with him, but judging from the comments he heard, although Zheng Chenggong was a prince in Nanming, the power of the Zheng family had already been disintegrated by the Prince Jianguo.Then, at least he, Shi Lang, can do one thing in Nanming.

Shi Lang had also seen the naval warships of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army. Although the mighty and high-spirited warships fascinated him, to Shi Lang, everything was not as important as his own interests.He is good at water warfare, but he does not have a specific concept of sea power and a sense of honor in the navy like many officers in the navy of the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army.

"My lord, the navy of the Ming army has entered Poyang Lake, with hundreds of large and small ships."

Shi Lang's heart trembled, Poyang Lake is also a relatively closed water area, after all fighting on rivers and lakes is different from fighting on sea.Even if the artillery of the Ming army is powerful, as long as they occupy a favorable position, launch a large number of small boats to siege, or use fire boats to attack, there is still a chance to defeat the Ming army.

But now Shi Lang is hesitating whether he should fight this battle or not.If he fights, he is a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty. If he wins for a while, he will be the savior who will help the building. However, there is a high probability that the Qing Dynasty will still be defeated, so he will die sooner or later; If he loses, he will die or be captured, no matter what kind of situation he will end up in.

If he did not fight this battle and chose to surrender to the Ming army, he might be eliminated by Zheng Chenggong, or if he was lucky enough, he would be accepted by Nanming and continue to become a respectable figure.

"It's really a difficult choice." Shi Lang was extremely helpless.

Seeing that the Ming Fleet had surrounded them, although Shi Lang's navy had already made relevant preparations, at the last moment, Shi Lang gritted his teeth and said to his subordinates: "Hang up the white flag, we surrender."

When the left and right sailors heard this, they were all relieved, and hurried to hang the white flag to avoid a battle.

In this way, the Inland River Fleet of the Ming Army took control of Poyang Lake without encountering resistance, and the Fourth Division of the Ming Army occupied Jiujiang that night.

(End of this chapter)