Dominate the Country

An oil lamp, with a flame as big as a soybean, illuminated half of the bedroom.

Old Man Li, whose hair was mostly silver-white, was sitting on the bedside. The tobacco in the cigarette pot in his hand had long been burned out. Old Man Li held it tightly in his hand and smoked continuously. He has deep wrinkles on his forehead and dark skin. He is over sixty years old. Time has taken away his strength, but Old Man Li has very good energy. In the Jiujiang Shipyard, he is one of the two masters in charge of long-term ships.

On the other end of the bed, sat Old Man Li's eldest son and third grandson. These two people are the next generation of Master Li and the next generation of Master Li who have inherited the shipbuilding knowledge in Old Man Li's mind. If it weren't for the Fuhan Army, the Li family's life would be so comfortable. Relying on this craft, the Li family has no worries about eating and drinking. Although they are not rich, having no worries about eating and drinking is already a life that many ordinary people dream of.

It was the Fuhan Army that changed everything. Their arrival forced the three generations of the Li family to enter the cabin, and forced the three generations of the Li family to work for them. Old Man Li made more money in two months at the shipyard than he had in two years in previous years. Even his third grandson, a simple boatman, had two silver dollars a month.

But this money is very difficult for all three generations of the Li family to get their hands on.

How long can the Fuhan Army hold out in Jiujiang? If the imperial court comes back in the future, and those who are 'thieves' like the Li family, it will be a disaster. Especially when the navy battalion of the Fuhan Army formed an army, they would definitely go to the river in the future. If this battle failed, haha, the sin of a family of shipwrights and carpenters like the Li family was not a big one, but is that possible?

What kind of ships were killed from Hubei? There seemed to be hundreds of civilian ships and fishing boats, and they were so dark that if they really fought, even the warships launched by the Jiujiang Shipyard would be broken into pieces in half.

The Fuhan Army had very urgent requirements on time and quality, and they also asked for the best materials to be used as much as possible. For example, the wooden mast is made of straight fir wood, and if it is not long enough, it is connected, and its surface is surrounded by iron hoops inch by inch. The Fuhan Army's words were too long and were cut off; the beams and canopies were made of nanmu, eucalyptus, elm, and locust wood. Camphor wood is not used, because part of the camphor wood is cut in spring and summer, and there will be powder moth; the pallet is not limited to wood. The Fuhan Army requested that nanmu and teak be used as much as possible, which was extremely wasteful.

Old Man Li could sense the urgency of the Fuhan Army. They were squandering the shipping materials they captured during their attacks on Wuhan and Jiujiang. It was obvious that this was not going to last long. How can this give Old Man Li confidence?

"Don't move rashly." I don't know how long it took, but Old Man Li finally said these four words. The risk of leaking information is too great for the Li family to do. "The Fuhan Army has been locking us up in the shipyard and has imposed harsh laws in order to keep it secret. Others can leak the information about the warship, but we cannot do it."

I don’t know where it started in the Jiujiang Shipyard. Some people were working secretly underground. At the beginning, dozens of shipwrights and carpenters in the shipyard were implicated. Five people were shot dead on the spot when they were doing trouble. , and the rest were all taken away by the Fuhan Army. No one knows whether they are dead or alive now. But those sneaky figures became active again after a few days of silence. The Fuhan Army was already very strict in supervising the officialdom, but they just couldn't catch those people at their roots and hunt them down.

Now that the naval battalion of the Fuhan Army has been formed, the water battle is about to begin, and those sneaky shadows are jumping around very actively just like the New Year. The three members of the Li family have all received things like notes or messages behind their backs, and tricks. With the establishment of the naval camp, each of these boatman masters is under tremendous pressure.

As a first-class master in the shipyard, Old Man Li has his own separate room. After dinner today, his eldest son and third grandson came to the door and talked about this matter. However, the two of them have been "blamed by the imperial court" for six years. The big character was frightening.

The honest and responsible "working people" of China have no idea that the word "fishing law enforcement" exists in this world. Fortunately, the Li family was not fished away.

When the Fuhan Army's naval camp sailed out of Hukou, no one knew that a cleanup was also underway in the Jiujiang Shipyard.

Chen Ming would not kill all the boatmen and carpenters who took advantage of the hook, but their status could only be changed from workers to labor reform prisoners, which greatly saved the Fuhan Army a lot of expenses.

It also shocked everyone greatly!

The existence of the naval camp was just the beginning. The Fuhan Army had to travel up and down the river, and warships were indispensable no matter what. Chen Ming also needs a second and third naval battalion. In the future, he will need warships that can cross the ocean. Jiujiang's shipyards still need to continue to exist.

In fact, ‘fishing law enforcement’ can be regarded as a killing stick. Kill the arrogance and enthusiasm of these master shipwrights and carpenters.

What Chen Ming wants is a sailing warship that can cross the ocean, not a traditional Chinese fortune ship. He also knows that shipbuilding technology needs to be accumulated day by day, but the more important thing is that the skills of shipbuilding craftsmen must continue to improve. Otherwise, if they are allowed to remain deficient, their progress will not be able to keep up with Chen Ming's expectations. The current scene of the "Great Purge" is to put a knife on the head of all the master shipwrights and carpenters, and add a thorn whip behind them to constantly remind them of their "humbleness".

…

"Boom boom boom..."

On the river with a width of no more than five miles, hundreds of large and small warships from both sides were intertwined. The Qing army, which used civilian ships as warships, faced the iron bullets fired by large sampan boats, long dragon boats and fast crab boats. , shotguns, there is no resistance at all, and no backhand power.

At the beginning, the Qing army wanted to rely on the large number of ships, their location upstream, and their speed advantage in going down the river. They planned to get close to the Fu Han Army Navy Battalion for a hand-to-hand fight, or burn the ships with fireballs and kerosene, but the Fu Han Army's artillery and grenades made their ideas vain. Although the Qing army's initial fierce attack and charge did cause some minor damage to the leading sampans.

The arrows, guns, and fire bombs fired by the Qing soldiers all caused damage to the sampans. But this damage was far from enough to cause the sampans to sink. And the artillery fired from the sampans could easily clear a ship of Qing soldiers with each shot. The planks of those civilian ships were weak, and as long as they were hit by the shotgun, they would become like honeycombs.

…

While launching a counterattack on the water, Chen Yongsheng pulled out the two battalions of soldiers that had been stationed there from the shipyard. Now, a new battalion of soldiers was enough to take care of the shipyard and capture people.

After the two battalions of fresh troops joined the battlefield on the south bank of the Yangtze River - Jiujiang Prefecture, plus the thirty artillery pieces and sufficient ammunition sent by Yang Shijin and others, the Qing army could not hold on immediately.

Dozens of cannons were bombarding hard, as if they wanted to vent all the depression they had suffered for more than a month.

The continuous sound of artillery reflected half of the sky in the south, and the explosion sounded from Chihu not far away. Alyajiang was heartbroken. Chihu was the main battlefield for the Qing army to attack Jiujiang after Chengzi Town. In the past, they had spent so much effort to force the Fu Han army to withdraw from the Chihu area step by step, but now the Qing army lost it so easily.

With the help of cannons, the battle of the Fu Han army on land was completely like a god's help, and they easily broke the defense line of the Qing army in the east of Chihu, and then the war was burned to the west of Chihu. Alyajiang couldn't retreat now. The result of the battle on the river was not yet known, but he could imagine that it was very unfavorable to the Qing army.

If he chose to retreat now, when the navy of the Fu Han army won the current battle, blocked Chengzi Town, and attacked Fuchi Town, Alyajiang's team would immediately lose morale. Because no one was willing to cross the mountains that stretched for hundreds of miles and escape to Xingguozhou.

Now the sun was setting, and the army in chaos and low morale in the dark night was frightened by the news of the defeat in the water battle, and the team was really finished. He could only hope that Chen Yongsheng would also consider it inconvenient to fight again because it was dark, and at least dragged tonight.

"General, general, Xujiazui is lost..."

However, how can you wish for a good result in the war? At dusk, Alyajiang received two pieces of bad news. First, the Fire King Temple and then Xujiazui. The Qing army's defense in the area west of Chihu was completely torn apart by the Fu Han army. At this time, Chengzi Town had been blocked by the Fu Han army's victorious navy camp.

An uncontrollable heartache made Alyajiang want to faint, and before he turned around, he could hear the guns and shouts of the Fu Han army in Zhangjiazhuang where he was now. Then not long after, the huge sound of the flying thunder cannon rang in his ears, and the Zhangjiazhuang where Alyajiang settled was about to become a battlefield.

"Quickly take the army out of the village..."

Alyajiang's ears were almost deafened by the sound of the flying thunder cannon, and he was surrounded by his subordinates like a puppet, ignoring the two thousand troops gathered in Zhangjiazhuang, and fled straight to the west.

Alyajiang's mind was in a mess. He couldn't figure out how the Fu Han army could have such a powerful artillery team. Not only did the cannons on land completely overwhelm the artillery fire of the Qing army, but there were also dozens of warships on the water, and each warship had more or less cannons and small cannons, which was hundreds of them. It was incredible.

And this can only be blamed on Alyajiang's low rank, and the Qing army did not pay much attention to the coordination and communication of military information between the troops of various provinces. Alyajiang was busy fighting in the north and south of Jiujiang, and faced Chen Yongsheng, whose artillery power had not changed much, without showing any difficulty. He didn't know that the Fu Han army in Jiangnan had already changed its guns and cannons, and its firepower soared.

"Boom boom boom..."

"Boom boom boom..."

The artillery shells of the Fu Han army were like raindrops, and the flying thunder cannons that flew into the sky were densely packed. In less than two quarters of an hour, Zhangjiazhuang was completely reduced to ruins. No matter how solid the house was, it could not withstand the fierce bombardment of the flying thunder cannon, and no matter how many soldiers there were, they could not withstand the baptism of artillery shells. Most of the 2,000 Hubei Green Camp soldiers were Alyajiang's soldiers, some dead or wounded, and those who were still alive were completely abandoned and completely collapsed!

When the information from the front came back, Chen Yongsheng didn't care about the darkness at all, and immediately directed the troops to continue to march westward to Chengzi Town, showing almost reckless confidence. Hitting the drowning dog, in his opinion, perhaps his advance was just a non-threatening pursuit of victory.

The Qing army suffered a series of defeats during the day, and the area west of Chihu was scattered with remnants of the Qing army. At night, the Fu Han army continued to attack and kill, and the news that the water battle was lost and the river surface of Chengzi Town was blocked by the Fu Han army was also fully spread. These defeated soldiers had no fighting spirit at all, and fled to the west one by one. Under the cover of night, the entire Huguang Green Camp under Alyajiang was in chaos. One by one, they turned around and fled westward, all the way west...

Even several military camps that blocked the Fu Han army's path were abandoned by the Qing soldiers. The Fu Han army cautiously arrived at the military camp, but there was no one inside.

It is only seven or eight miles from Zhangjiazhuang to Chengzi Town. If you march during the day, you can get there in less than half an hour. It is dark now, and Alyajiang and his party have slowed down a lot, but even if they slow down, Chengzi Town will be in front of them. Alyajiang breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked around at the people behind him. His personal guards were still there, as well as the remnants of soldiers gathered along the way, and the team that escaped from Zhangjiazhuang, a total of seven or eight hundred people. But everyone's face was full of misery. When the flickering torch light shone on their faces, you could not see a trace of brilliance. They have lost confidence in this battle. The sudden burst of fighting power of the Fu Han Army has frightened them.

"It's impossible. This defeat has completely ruined the reputation of the Huguang Green Camp. I feel guilty towards the elders of Huguang and everyone else." Alyajiang sighed, tears streaming down his face: "Everyone, I am a general of the court, and I have received great favors from the court. I have been defeated in many battles, and now I have no choice but to die. You don't have to perish with me. All of you should go. The disaster of Chen Ni cannot be eliminated in a short time, and the court will have many uses for you in the future. Please be loyal and serve the country when the time comes!"

"Chengzi Town is where I will be buried. You have done me a great favor by protecting me to this point. All of you should go, go west, take care of yourself, and wish you the best!"

What he said was completely different from his usual high spirits, and he was really weak. The people around looked at each other, and after a long while, one of them sighed and said, "Why do you say that, General? You are a member of the nation, and we have also enjoyed the grace of the court for generations. This life naturally belongs to the court. Moreover, since last autumn and winter, we have been able to save our lives and official positions despite repeated defeats, all thanks to your kindness. If we abandon you and run away at this time, are we still human beings?"

"If you fight to the death in Chengzi Town as you wish, I am willing to follow you." This person's words are very comforting, but he is also faintly discouraged.

"Yes, General, it's just a death, what's there to be afraid of? I am willing to follow you."

"I am the same."

A group of officers following him made suggestions one after another, regardless of whether they really thought so in their hearts, they said so in their mouths.

Alyajiang was so moved that tears came out of his eyes. He really didn't expect that the people around him would repay him in this way in the end. He choked up and said, "I am a defeated general and an incompetent man, and I have dragged you to death with me..." A cry of sadness without any heroic spirit was heard outside Chengzi Town.