Chapter 220 Thousands of miles of rivers and mountains open up 24

[220] Ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains have a new look (24)

Li Hongzhang's contribution to Yao Fan's army was able to quickly sweep north of the Yangtze River.

As early as during the military expansion training, Li Hongzhang wrote a letter and sent it to governors in the south according to Yao Fan's request and opinions. These letters were mostly in the same format, that is, to attract and threaten.

The basic meaning of the letter is that Yao Fan's army is the first in the world, even stronger than foreigners. This is not my old Li's bragging, but a lesson from the blood of my Li Hongzhang's Huai army. I, Li Hongzhang's Huai army, can't beat Yao Fan. Can you compete with Yao Fan by newly organized some brave people and corrupt green camps in various places? Now that the imperial court is gone, if you resist stubbornly, there will be no nominal righteousness.

Since you can't beat it, and it is untenable in principle, you should study Yao Fan's enlightened gentry policy, plan for your future, and seek long-term benefits for future generations.

Li Hongzhang greatly praised Yao Fan's land policy in his letter, whether it was sincere admiration or flattery. In short, he was painstakingly to let governors know that the land reform policy has been beneficial in modern times and fundamentally solved the historical cycle rate of dynasty replacement.

Under Li Hongzhang's persuasion, many middle and lower-level local officials and even governor-level officials have adopted a passive policy of non-resistance, wrapping gold, silver, jewelry and government-owned treasury and silver as much as possible. After the arrival of the revolutionary army, they called themselves an enlightened gentry and demanded a leniency policy.

However, there are still many hard-line emperors. Before the arrival of the troops, the big landlords in many areas recruited private armed forces and built earthen around their own courtyards to store grain and practice knives and guns. For these people, Yao Fan asked the troops to carry out a severe crackdown on them that they would never forgive, kill them, and the rest would be copied from home for reform.

Because there are too many areas liberated for a while, the entire territory north of the Yangtze River needs large-scale land reform and political consolidation, as well as the autumn harvest. Yao Fan asked the troops to rest along the river and carry out military adjustments and the establishment of socialist regimes in accordance with the central deployment.

However, the desire to fight is very positive, and there is a strong demand to take the city in Jiangbei as a bridgehead, so with the approval of Yao Fan, the battle in September basically revolved around capturing the bridgehead on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

After the Ninth Army captured Yangzhou, Hu Guangting, the commander, planned for a whole week to attack Nanjing. After collecting and requisitioning all the ships on the north coast, he was ready to cross the river.

Hu Guangting's first goal is Zhenjiang, which is next to Yangzhou and is only separated by a river.

On September 12, just as soon as the day was bright, the troops crossing the river silently began to cross the river without blowing the charge. At the beginning were 27 large ships, each with an infantry squad, a whole battalion, and 81 light machine guns were set up in the bow. The second group of troops is also a battalion. Most of the boats are small fishing boats. Each boat can only seat three to four people. If it is a hard fortress, it is necessary to be seven or eight people. However, considering that the northern soldiers are not good at boating, many people can't even swim, so each ship must be equipped with money-hired princes, plus With the weight of equipment and materials, Hu Guangting finally controlled the number of people on the small fishing boat to three to four.

When the ship traveled to the middle of the river, the defenders at the head of Zhenjiang City on the opposite bank found the bright national defense green of the revolutionary army and shouted and began to shoot. There were also four thick and heavy copper cannons on the head of the city in turn. * thick smoke suddenly enveloped the head of Zhenjiang City. Looking at the river, the goal is extremely obvious.

Hu Guangting saw it clearly in the telescope and immediately ordered: "Order the 25th Division's Artillery Battalion to fire, knock on the city opposite the river, ask these new artillerymen to aim well, correct the fight, don't come up and shoot together like Yangzhou. As a result, it didn't hit a single shot. He told Fu Dahammer to wave again this time. Fei shells, but it's not 200 push-ups. I punished him to do a thousand!"

"Yes!" The guards around him answered loudly and turned around and ran to the command post by the river to issue a notice.

After receiving the notice from the walker, Fu Dachui, the commander of the Artillery Battalion of the 25th Division, wiped the cold sweat on his forehead anxiously and repeatedly measured the head of the shadow pupil across the river with an optical scope. Fu Dachui was originally a clerk in a rice shop in Jinan. He was assigned to the artillery because he could quickly calculate a good account in his heart. In the expansion of the army, the rocket was generally promoted to battalion commander, with a monthly income of 31 taels of silver, which was exactly 30 times more than before working as a clerk in the rice shop.

The salary structure of the revolutionary army is basically divided according to the salary structure of the People's Liberation Army at the beginning of the founding of New China. Soldiers, squad leaders and squad leaders are all 10 taels of salary, 15 deputy platoon commanders, 20 platoon commanders, 24 deputy company commanders, 25 deputy battalion 29, main battalion 31 battalions, quasi regiment (chief, director of political department) 3 6, deputy regiment 39, main regiment 44, para division 49, deputy division 60, main division 71, paramilitary 93, deputy army 104, regular army 115, paramilitary 147, deputy regiment 180, regular regiment 213, member of the Military Commission, * and political committee 278, Chairman of the Military Commission 327.

In fact, this salary is not high. These days, the annual salary of a professor at Oxford University in the United Kingdom is about 700 pounds, that is to say, more than 3,000 taels of silver, about 250 taels per month, which is equivalent to the salary level of a member of the Military Commission and *.

Prices in the Qing Dynasty have also been rising. During the reign of Kangxi and Qianlong, large families bought only a few taels of silver, while small households were more expensive to buy, about ten taels of silver. This is because most people think that selling their children to enter large families is also a blessing. But the price of maids who have read books is very expensive. According to their appearance, the average price is about 100 to 300 taels of silver. During the Guangxu period, where Yao Fan is now living, prices have risen sharply compared with the early Qing Dynasty. Generally, domestic slaves generally ask for between 30 taels of silver and 120 taels of silver. Beautiful maids who are illiterate and long. In the rich Jiangnan region, there are many records of wise and reasonable maidservants who trade with thousands of money, and even rich businessmen spend tens of thousands of taels. Silver bought a woman from the brothel that knows everything from the brothel and went home as a concubine. Of course, most of the money in it is earned by people's teeth. People who sell their children and daughters often can only get a few taels of silver, and they have to be cheated by people's teeth to get some handling fees.

At this time, the wind on the river was not strong, and Fu sledgehammer hit Zhenjiang City with its first test shot. The huge explosion caused panic among the defenders in the city. After the second school shooting, the shells hit the head of the city in Linjiang impartially, causing death and injury to the Qing army guarding the city. Suddenly, the army in the green camp in the city was dishearty and everyone thought of fleeing.

Fu sledgehammer saw the target of the city in the telescope, and then made a reassuring decision. The whole battalion fired in unison, so 27 shells came across the river. The city head of Zhenjiang City was hit by five or six rounds, and the broken limbs flew all over the sky. Zhenjiang's guarding the green camp was suddenly chaotic and howled. Under the sky, the soldiers who lost their lives were as brave as frightened birds and beasts and fled everywhere.

Hu Guangting stood by the river and grinned and said, "Good fight! Good job! Fu Dachui has grown up this time!"

Guard Yin Sanmu said, "Military commander, the wind is small today. If the wind is bigger, I think battalion commander Fu will hold his head and cry again."

Hu Guangting smiled and ordered, "Call the 3rd Battalion of the 73rd Regiment to set off immediately and keep up with their regiment leader!"

Hu Guangting's Ninth Army has three divisions, 25th and 27 divisions, namely 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80 and 81. In addition, each division has a divisional artillery battalion.

Due to the fierce expansion of the army, the commanders of each army are still used to directing everything in person. A typical example is a military commander like Hu Guangting who likes to order directly to various battalion-level units. Some military commanders will even directly order company-level troops.

In order to save ammunition, Fu Sledgehammer stopped shelling after two rounds of volley. At this time, there was a sudden sound of artillery on the river, and a shell landed in the heart of the river. Although it was far from the small fishing boat of the revolutionary army, the shells splashed everywhere, which immediately aroused the vigilance of the Ninth Army.

Hu Guangting quickly asked, "What's going on?" Who is in*?

At this time, the news came from the troops in charge of vigilance on the east side that a fleet came from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, retrograde from east to west towards the river between Yangzhou and Zhenjiang.

"Report to the military commander! The 77th Regiment, which served as a guard downstream, confirmed that the other party was flying the rice flag, which was the British warship! They are shelling the North Shore, and the 77th Regiment is demanding reinforcement. The guard rushed to Hu Guangting and reported.

Hu Guangting was furious when he heard the words: "Order the two artillery battalions of the 26th and 27th Divisions to immediately shell the British ships in the east!" Use high explosive*! Give them to me!!!"

After saying that, Hu Guangting turned around and left the riverside and rushed to the direction of the headquarters in person.

It was the Chinese fleet among the ten British fleets that came to block the river. The Chinese fleet has a total of 15 warships. This time, six five-class warships, two six-class warships and three small artillery ships came.

The so-called five-class warship is not a battleship at all, but a frigate. Britain's lightest battleship is a fourth-class ship, and the whole Chinese fleet has only one flagship "Elle Court" as a fourth-class ship, equipped with a major general.

As a frigate, the fifth-class ship carries 130 people and 44 12-pound guns. The captain is equipped with the rank of colonel, while the so-called sixth-class ship is a reconnaissance fast ship, carrying 92 people, 32 12-pound and 10-pound guns. As the name implies, it is used to quickly detect the water surface, blockade ports, and suppress smuggled ships. There are only 60 small gunboats in the United Kingdom, ranging from 18 to 26 guns, with shallow water and can enter very shallow inland rivers and inland lakes.

Hu Guangting did not know how British warships were subdivided, but he knew that Yao Fan had ordered that the British warships in the Far East were all wooden shell sail ships, and only three small gunboats were hybrid sail and steam. When the British fleet interfered, he only had to use the high-explosive * bombardment of the mortar. The range of the mortar equipped by Yao Fan was much farther and more accurate than the British's 12-pound naval gun.

Hu Guangting rushed into the headquarters and ordered continuously: "Order the artillery battalions of the 26th and 27th Divisions to quickly replace the high-explosive* shelling the river where the British warships are located. The front troops should pay attention to cooperating with the artillery, use the walker to guide the communication, and must smash the wooden boat of the British!"

The messenger sitting in front of the radio reported: "Report, the 77th Regiment in front of the report that the British shelling killed and injured 19 people in the 77th Regiment on the east side of the river!"

Hu Guangting roared angrily, "Anger Ge Shunan to hold on to me! Try to hide and approach and shoot British ships with machine guns! Don't take a step back! I don't believe that the British wooden boat can block 7.62!!!"

Hu Guangting's confidence is reasonable. The steel core bullets used in the 56-and-half and 81 light machine guns are penetrating enough to penetrate 40cm thick boards and 6mm thick steel plates 300 meters away. Hu Guangting heard Yao Fan say that he did not believe in evil and personally test a big tree. As a result, he pierced through a big tree and penetrated it. The tree behind was five centimeters, so it worshipped the number 7.62.