Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 801 Sweeping Thousands of Armies 2
Han Peng had already detected Zheng Zhibao's movements, and dismissed Zheng Zhibao's attempt to cut off his logistical supplies and force him to withdraw his troops.In his opinion, Zheng Zhibao's tactics cannot be said to be wrong, the problem is that the timing is wrong.If Zheng's fleet made such a move before Heluo's new army entered Fujian, maybe he was really restrained everywhere, unable to punch or stretch his legs, but now his army has firmly established itself in Fujian Materials such as heels, food and medicine can be purchased on the spot, and weapons and equipment are sufficient, even if the logistics are cut off, it is no big deal.Each of his soldiers is issued with [-] rounds of bullets and [-] hand grenades, and the shells have two bases. Now his army is only one step away from Xiamen. These ammunition reserves are fully enough to support him to take down Xiamen and cut off his logistics. Supplies are for birds!
Therefore, the entire army from Han Peng down did not take the threat from the rear seriously at all, leaving only 1000 people to guard Zhangzhou, and all [-] troops were dispatched to attack Xiamen with the momentum of Mount Tai!
As soon as Han Peng's army was launched, Zheng Sen, who was staying in Xiamen, felt overwhelmed.

It's not that he's bad, it's that Zheng Biao is too cheating, and he sent Zhangzhou out readily to open Xiamen's door.There is only a narrow strait between Zhangzhou and Xiamen. Although there are still many fortresses in Zhangzhou that are in the hands of the Zheng family, but Zhangzhou is lost. What use are these small fortresses?At most, it's just to delay Han Peng for a while, it's useless!As he expected, those fortresses quickly fell apart under the roar of the 85mm howitzers. The damned howitzers are so powerful that no matter how strong the fortress is, it will collapse in a few shots. The dust came whistling, and what awaited the Zheng soldiers who were dizzy from the bombardment was naturally a sharp saber.And Han Peng was also very patient, not in a hurry for success, but pulled out points along the way, destroying those strong fortresses one by one.The general knew very well that the most powerful Zheng family was not the army, but the navy. Before Zheng's navy was severely damaged, any move to directly attack Xiamen would be foolish.He was waiting, waiting for the result of the battle between Yang Menglong and Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Sen is also waiting.

Zheng's army is not as bad as Han Peng thought. Don't forget, this army is composed of desperadoes. It is very different from the Ming army who forcibly pulled farmers to make up the numbers. In addition, Zheng's monopoly The maritime trade along the coast of South China is very rich, and he has enough financial resources to equip his army with sophisticated weapons, and even import them directly from the Western Yi and Japanese. Excellent and well trained.Naturally, Zheng Biao, a scumbag, leads a motley army. The troops that can really fight are still in Xiamen and the Kinmen Islands, with a total of 3 people.This army of the Zheng family has strict discipline and hard training. It has two ace troops, one is a foreign gun team composed of Europeans and Africans. There are more than 500 people in total. With discipline and tenacious will, you can advance against the rain of arrows, reach the thirty or forty steps in front of the enemy's formation, and then raise your guns to shoot a volley. If a volley of guns passes by, the enemy will be killed and injured.The other is the archer troop, which also has about 500 people. A major feature of this troop is that its arrows are extremely precise. Many skilled archers can shoot down petrels flying in the sky with one arrow.In history, these two trump card troops played a huge role after the Zheng family raised troops to fight against the Qing Dynasty. The foreign spear team fought fiercely with the Qing army cavalry for several days and nights under the city of Nanjing, killing the Qing army corpses everywhere, and the archer team The troops showed great prowess in the battle to recover Taiwan. The Dutch described that "the arrows shot by these archers are as accurate as rifle bullets, and those who hit them will fall."With such an ace force and the assistance of a large navy, Zheng Sen still has the confidence to compete with the Heluo new army.

But he still felt that it was too much, because Han Peng's army's offensive was too fierce, no matter how strong the fortress was, it couldn't resist it.The most terrible thing is that Han Peng seems to be playing psychological warfare with him. He is not in a hurry for success, but is fighting steadily like a steamroller, pulling out those fortresses one by one, creating an overwhelming momentum and shaking the morale of the army.Sometimes it is not the best choice to go straight to Huangchao as fast as lightning. The Battle of Zhangzhou has already made Zheng's army fearful of Heluo's new army. Now Han Peng wants to deepen this fear and let them know that no fortress can To resist the advance of the new army, not even Xiamen!
Han Peng's army is pressing down on the border, and the main fleet goes north to fight the enemy, but there is no news for a long time...

All unfavorable factors were thrown to his side by Heluo Xinjun, it is strange that Zheng Sen can bear it.Facing the aggressive Han Peng Army, he gritted his teeth and ordered: "The Yingxia Army should not move, the Jinmen Army will follow me to the Zhangzhou Plain to face the Heluo New Army!"

Before Zheng Zhilong left, he had already entrusted all the military and political power in Xiamen to Zheng Sen. No one dared to disobey his orders. Besides, the whole of Xiamen is now in panic, rumors are flying everywhere, and someone has issued an order. It doesn't matter whether it is right or wrong, it is better than no one cares. , everyone continued to be in a mess.Therefore, under Zheng Sen's strict order, the Kinmen Army stationed in Kinmen and Kinmen rushed to Zhangzhou Plain with thousands of sails.

As the name suggests, the Kinmen Army is the troops stationed in Kinmen and Kinmen. The main force is the ethnic minorities in Guangdong and Fujian. There are also many Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese and European adventurers. The total strength is 4000.This large army has been confronting the Dutch and Spanish colonists for many years, and has rich experience in actual combat. At least it has suffered a lot of shells and will not be easily bombarded by the cannons of the Han Peng Army.Originally Kinmen was Zheng's long arm extending to Taiwan, and the Kinmen army could not be mobilized casually, but the situation is critical now, and people in Xiamen are panic-stricken.While mobilizing the Golden Gate Army, Zheng Sen also ordered the remaining departments in the Zhangzhou Plain to immediately abandon the fort that was no different from an egg and retreat, and build a circular defense line with Xiamen on their backs to defend the Golden Gate. The mountain barbarians asked them to send troops to help with the promise of heavy rewards.This kid is indeed a genius, the few orders are orderly, clear, and all to the point, the Zheng's army, which was terrified, immediately found the backbone, followed his orders to abandon the useless fortress, and rely on the Xiamen organization The line of defense, and the local clans and mountain barbarians who usually received a lot of benefits from the Zheng family also sent troops one after another. In addition to the Jinmen army who landed, they actually organized an army of more than [-] people in a very short period of time. .

But even so, Zheng Sen was still uneasy.When he took the battleship to the Zhangzhou Plain, Shi Lang looked around and saw the flags like forests and white sails like clouds, he was very proud, but he sighed in his heart.Even though he was unwilling, he still had to admit that the Heluo New Army had already dealt a huge blow to his family. Half a month ago, the Zheng family still had three thousand warships, two to three hundred thousand troops, and a behemoth of one thousand soldiers. Now there is not one out of ten warships that can fight, and Shi Lang is the only general around him who can help. Those who can fight have gone with Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhibao, and the rest are a bunch of idiots!
Regardless of whether it is a sea battle or a land battle, I hope to achieve a reasonable victory, then shake hands with the champion Hou, compensate him for his losses, and then everyone stop fighting, otherwise the Zheng family will really be finished...

Zheng's army built a defense line in Jiaomei area.Probably because they were frightened by the howitzers of Han Peng's regiment, they mobilized a large number of civilians to dig trenches frantically. The excavated soil was used to build an earth wall two meters high and one and a half meters wide on their side, which stretched for several miles, which was quite spectacular. .Hidden behind this earth wall are more than 3000 cannons and more than [-] gunmen and archers, and behind them is the main force.When Han Peng's army arrived, the construction of the earth wall was nearing completion. Looking at the fortifications that appeared almost overnight and reached the sea at both ends, the Heluo New Army was surprised. Even Han Peng was also surprised. Stunned for a moment.He galloped along the line of defense on his fast horse. After running around for a while, he returned to the same place and said with approval: "Zheng Zhilong has given birth to a good son. The eldest son of the Zheng family is not a fuel-efficient lamp!"

Xu Gong smiled: "Isn't that better? The opponents I met along the way are so bad, I can't even get excited!"

Han Peng said solemnly: "This line of defense is backed by Xiamen, the supply is smooth, and there are seas on both sides. Our army can't turn around at all, we can only fight recklessly! Of course, this earthen wall cannot withstand the bombardment of our artillery, but our artillery shells can't resist it. There is no way to blow it all down, it will be a huge obstacle to our army's advancement, as long as this Mr. Zheng can stabilize the army's morale, we will surely fall into a hard fight... Don't underestimate the enemy anymore, from now on, we must fight Get your spirits up!"

Hearing what he said, everyone's heart trembled, and they put away their contempt.It's true that the Heluo new army likes head-to-head, but it doesn't mean they don't care about their own casualties at all, especially in this situation where they have the upper hand, unnecessary casualties can be avoided as long as they can be avoided.Everyone gave up the idea of ​​rushing to drive Zheng's army into the sea, built a camp on the spot, and brought up howitzers and shells as quickly as possible, preparing for a strong attack.

While Han Peng was galloping along the solid earth wall, Zheng Sen was also sizing up his opponent behind the earth wall, and saw the mighty Heluo new army, marching like an endless cloud of birds As if being pulled over from the inland sea, he was secretly startled, and muttered to himself: "What a team of tigers and wolves! Zheng Biao's defeat in their hands is not too unfair!"

Shi Lang cupped his hands and said: "My lord, it looks like they don't intend to attack immediately, I am willing to go to the enemy camp to dampen the spirit of the enemy general!"

Zheng Sen smiled: "Actually, you are just worried about Uncle Shi, right?"

Shi Lang nodded honestly: "Yes!"

Zheng Sen murmured and said, "Alright, I'll prepare a letter and a generous gift. You can take it with you and go to see General Han Peng. If the two armies do not fight, he will not embarrass you."

Shi Lang agreed.

Therefore, Zheng Sen swiped his pen and wrote quickly, first complimenting the Heluo new army's illustrious military exploits, and then changed the topic: "The new army is like a group of tigers, like a shark line up; when a tiger roars in the valley, all animals are terrified, and sharks When a group strikes, the giant whale will be crushed; however, my army is as numerous as sparrows, as numerous as swimming fish, denser than grass! Although the tiger's claws are sharp, the sparrows will be pecked with scars; although the shark's teeth are sharp, they will eventually become Food for fish and shrimp; beetles have hard shells, and they will turn into pus and blood under the blow of a hammer! Was it done by those who know the soldiers? Please retreat and stop fighting, so as not to tarnish the reputation of the general who is always victorious!" After finishing writing, he prepared another thousand taels of gold and a hundred pearls for Shi Lang to take with him to see Han Peng.

In the camp of the new army, Shi Lang fulfilled his wish to see Shi Daxuan who was unscathed and had a great time fighting against Zheng Biao, Shi Fu and others for the landlord. His hanging heart finally let go.He brought back the good news that "the captured soldiers are safe and sound", and also brought back the reply letter written by Han Peng to Zheng Sen:
"Even though the grass is luxuriant, it can be cut with a sickle; although there are many chicks, it can be wiped out with a net; the rice and wheat cover the earth, and a plate of water mill can grind them all into powder; the earth is full of clods, and a giant wheel rolls by. It's dust! Thy army may be many, but it's nothing but flies on the carrion, birds on the grain heaps! Flies swarm innumerable, and they scatter with a flick of a finger; Ten thousand, one stone will scatter them. Although our new army is small, it is like a sharp sickle, a water mill that turns endlessly, try to see if the grass will be cut off or the sickle will be broken first, the rice and wheat will be polished or the millstone will be broken?"

When Zheng Sen faced Han Peng, he was at an absolute disadvantage from the very beginning, even if he was bickering, he couldn't take advantage of it.Every general who can fight has been beaten. His era has not yet come, and all he can do now is to be beaten.

(End of this chapter)