Chapter 181 Two-way push

With the arrival of September, the rainy season in the south gradually began to end, and the military operations of the Dazhong army in the south began to unfold again.

After June, the southern armies basically stopped large-scale attacks and turned to a rest period. In the past three months, under the auspices of the Ministry of War and the support of various ministries, after the end of the autumn harvest, the food problem of large-scale military use has also been solved. The southern armies have accumulated sufficient combat materials, and for three months. During the rest period, all armies continued to strengthen their drills. By September, all the armies were basically strong soldiers and prepared for all military attacks.

At the request of the Ministry of War, Xiao Tianjian agreed to the southern battle plan for the second winter of Tianyuan. On the tenth day of September, the southern armies launched a full-scale attack on the Zheng army and the Yongli Dynasty.

After the generals Shi Ran, Liu Yaoben and Luo Rucai got the consent of the oracle, they all began to take action on the tenth day of September.

Shi Ran launched an offensive against Fuzhou Fu from the land of Funing Prefecture with 20,000 elite soldiers, while Liu Yaoben supervised more than 20,000 people and launched an offensive against Yanping Prefecture from Jianning Prefecture and Shaowu Prefecture.

Luo Rucai gathered 30,000 troops from Shaozhou Prefecture as the starting point and rushed directly to Guangzhou Prefecture. At the same time, he took a small-scale attack and nuisance operation in the area of Guilin Prefecture to contain the Ming army in Guangxi to rescue Guangdong.

As for the marine division, Liu Jiang is not idle. In the past few months, the two major shipyards located in Ningbo and Nanjing are making every effort to build various warships for the marine division. Once it is started as a national machine, the shipbuilding capacity of China and North Korea began to advance by leaps and bounds, and with a large number of scattered shipbuilding craftsmen being re-recruited. It was woven, and the wages of the craftsmen were not deducted from the Great China and the Dynasties, which made these craftsmen regain their place of life, which immediately made these craftsmen radiate great enthusiasm for work.

Therefore, as soon as the two major shipyards began to build ships, the craftsmen recovered their skills very quickly. Even some lost crafts were rediscovered by them. In addition, a large number of displaced people displaced by the famine and war were also recruited and sent to the two major shipyards as apprentices. In a short time, the two major The shipyard has formed a large shipbuilding group of more than thousands of people, and warships are launched almost every day and delivered to mariners.

In addition, the European shipbuilders brought by the missionaries also took office in these two major shipbuilding bases. The other group of new shipyards in Dengzhou also began to work. In September, the shipyards in Nanjing and Ningbo each built a twin-masted fast sailboat with a displacement of about 150 tons and 100 tons, which was delivered to the sea. The division was used as a naval training ship, and at the same time, it continued to build two three-masted Clark sailboats with a displacement of about 300 tons, which were about to be put into use.

If nothing unexpected happens, soon these European shipbuilders will continue to build an improved Galion sailboat. If everything goes well, in the next few years, as long as the problem of the Zheng Pirates Group is solved, they can open the channel of the South Sea and fundamentally solve the problem of wood used in shipbuilding. Major shipyards will continue to build larger tonnage ships. In this way, it will not take long for the warships of China and North Korea to catch up with the sailboats of Western countries in quality.

Therefore, the strength of the sea division has expanded very fast in the past few months, and the manpower has also been guaranteed with the return of a large number of pirates.

The most important thing is that these large Western-style sailboats solve the problem of loading heavy guns by the warships of the Great China and North Korean Marine Division, which greatly improves the combat effectiveness of the Great China and North Korean Marine Division.

In the past, the warships of the Greater China-North Korea Marine Division could not withstand heavy artillery and could only be loaded with some honest artillery. The firepower did not have an advantage over the Zheng Army Marine Division. However, in the past few months, in addition to building new ships, the two shipyards also reinforced the old warships, so that they could load new artillery, two training ships, and more It is equipped with 14 24-pound short-bend guns and four 24-pound long-bend cannons. More than seven cannons can be fired at the same time on the left and right sides. There are also two cannons available in the bow and stern, which are far more powerful than the Fu ships and Haicang ships previously used by the Dazhong army.

Even some of the newly built blessing ships in the marine division have strengthened their ribs so that they can carry new artillery, which has also improved their combat effectiveness, so that the naval division's combat strength has been greatly improved in the past few months.

Although these ships have to apply some undried wood because they are in a hurry, which greatly affects the service life of these new ships, so that the ship may be scrapped in two years due to the deformation and cracking of the hull wood, at present, as a stopgap measure, Xiao Tianjian is still allowed to build these. Temporary warships to meet the use of mariners.

After those sailors from Europe entered the naval martial arts hall, Xiao Tianjian gave them a high salary. These sailors from Europe did not cherish themselves. They took out their skills and passed on their knowledge of sailing boats to the cadets of the naval martial arts hall.

Especially when the two-masted fast sailboats as training ships were delivered to the naval martial arts hall, they were even more powerful. Schumann, the downtrodden Dutch captain who liked to drink, was appointed by Xiao Tianjian, also cheered up. Although the wine was not completely quit, it still reduced the amount of drinking and took Those European sailors personally boarded the ship and took the cadets of the Dazhong and North Korean naval martial arts hall for training. After a month of high-intensity training, although these cadets are not proficient in operating these Western sailboats, they can already drive these two sailboats.

After September, the two training ships were also ordered to go south to Wenzhou and temporarily integrated into the naval fleet to be used as the naval assault force. Even these European instructors, under the high reward, decided to fight with the ship and help the large and medium-sized navy operate the two training ships and lead this. Some cadets participated in the next battle.

So after the tenth day of September, a large and medium-sized naval division fleet composed of more than 200 warships of various types went to sea in Wenzhou Port Yang Fan, directly taking advantage of the north wind on the sea, went south with the wind and rushed to the sea off Fuzhou.

On September 19, the armies of both sea and land launched a fierce attack on the Zheng army in Fuzhou. Although the Zheng army had already expected the arrival of this day, it also made relatively sufficient preparations. On land and at sea, a considerable number of troops and ships were deployed to try to fight against the Dazhong army again. .

Although Zheng Zhilong has been negotiating with the Dazhong Dynasty to surrender in the past few months, the final question is whether the Zheng family can retain the power of the sailor. The Zheng family has always insisted on continuing to take charge of their sailors after the Dazhong Dynasty, but the Dazhong Dynasty However, it insisted that the Zheng family could not retain the strength of the navy, but could only preserve their merchant fleet. The Zheng family's navy must be included in the navy of China and North Korea and re-organized, which caused a deadlock in the negotiations between the two sides, resulting in the delay in reaching an agreement.

At the end of September, the war in Fujian was in full swing. Under the leadership of Shi Ran, Liu Yaoben and other generals, the Dazhong army launched an offensive against Fuzhou Prefecture and Yanping Prefecture.

Although the Zheng family's strength on land still has nearly 100,000 horses by this time, the combat effectiveness of the Zheng army's army's army can't confront the large and medium-sized army at all. Even if they take the defensive posture based on the city, in the face of the attack of the large-sized army equipped with a large number of new large-caliber cannons, the cities controlled by the Zheng army. It was still quickly conquered by the Dazhong army. A large number of Zheng troops were either annihilated on the spot by the Dazhong army, or they could only flee. Many Zheng soldiers saw that they could not defeat the Dazhong army, so some generals of the Zheng family chose to surrender.

As a result, after a month, Shi Ran led his army to the city of Fuzhou and surrounded Fuzhou City. At the same time, Liu Yao's headquarters on the other side also successfully occupied Yanping Mansion, and the front of the soldiers pointed directly to the area of Quanzhou Prefecture, the hometown of the Zheng family.

At the same time, the large and medium-sized army and navy, which has greatly increased their strength, also launched a great war at sea with Zheng Jun's navy in the sea. In this battle, Liu Jiang divided his fleet into two groups. He gathered a slow and large number of lucky ships, Haicang ships and winter ships together as the main force to contain them in the sea off Fuzhou. He lived in the Zheng family's navy, and he adopted the advice of Dutch captain Schumann, and formed two training ships and those centipede ships into a squadron, and first arranged them to stand by in the distance.

Just after the main force of the Zheng Army's navy fought with the main force of the Dazhong Army's naval division, both sides tried their best to defeat each other, and when there was nothing they could do about it for a while, Schumann led the squadron to suddenly enter the battlefield, relying on the fast speed of the squadron and fierce artillery. The advantage suddenly disrupted the layout of the Zheng family's navy. Zheng Jun was caught off guard and was attacked by the inside and outside of the navy. Outside Fuzhou, he suffered a big defeat. The coach Zheng Zhibao saw that the momentum was not right and immediately ordered to retreat. As a result, he was chased and killed by the navy and lost dozens of warships.

After this battle, the naval division of the Dazhong Army has completely gained prestige. For the first time, it has won a big victory at sea. For the Dazhong Army Navy, it undoubtedly declares that the Dazhong Army Navy has a considerable naval battle ability, at least it is not so afraid of the Zheng family's naval force.

And in this battle, Zheng Jun was shocked to find that the figure of a Westerner's splint ship appeared in the Dazhong Army's navy. Although these two splintships are not too big, they are really the splint ship that only Westerners have. The artillery equipped on it is much larger than the Guangchuan and Fu ship used by Zheng's navy. This is nothing. It is suspected to have a great psychological blow to Zheng Jun (in this era, Chinese people refer to large sailboats from Western countries as splint ships).

Their years of experience in dealing with the Dutch, the Spaniards and the Portuguese, let them know that the Western splint ships are very powerful, not to mention the ships are strong and tall, and they are equipped with a large number of cannons, fighting with such Western-style splint ships, in addition to relying on quantity. In addition to their advantages, it is difficult for them to win the naval battle.

Although the two training ships of the Dazhong Army are not as good as the sailboats commonly used by the Red-haired people, they have exceeded the warships they use in terms of speed and firepower. After the two-masted fastships appeared on the sea, relying on their speed advantage, they were like no one among the Zheng family's sailors. In general, he led more than a dozen centipede boats (grouting boats) to rush left and right, and soon disrupted the formation of the Zheng family's navy, so that the Zheng army's navy soon fell into a situation of fighting separately. In addition, there were also a large number of other warships in the Dazhong army, which made the Zheng army's navy suddenly fall behind, causing their big Defeat.

Then a worse news came to Zheng Zhilong's ears in Quanzhou. With the war in Fujian falling into a rotten situation, the war situation in Guangdong was also more rotten. Under the attack led by Luo Rucai, another large and medium army attacked Guangzhou Mansion like a broken bamboo, and in early October After conquering Guangzhou City in one fell swoop, a large number of Nanming defenders in Guangzhou did not resist too much at all, and quickly announced their surrender under the front of the Dazhong army.

Not only was Guangzhou Prefecture defeated, but even the Nanming defenders in Huizhou Prefecture, Chaozhou Prefecture, Zhaozhou Prefecture and other places also surrendered to the Dazhong Army. In this way, what Zheng Zhilong was most worried about appeared. With most of Guangdong being captured by the Dazhong Army, the Zheng family completely fell into the situation of being attacked by the enemy, and they could control on land. There are only three places left in Quanzhou Prefecture, Zhangzhou Prefecture and Tingzhou Prefecture, and the current situation of Tingzhou Prefecture is also in danger. At this time, an army division under Liu Yaoben has begun to march towards Tingzhou Prefecture, and Zheng Jun does not have many people in Tingzhou Prefecture, and the fall is only a matter of time.