the world is at stake

People living in this era don't feel that this is inappropriate, but Guo Hai and others who have been in Hetuala for more than half a year know that the Jianzhou side's reaction is too slow.

Slow as a dementia.

Guo Hai participated in the high-level discussions in the Khan Palace of the Dajin Kingdom, and Guo Hai walked out of the inner city of Hetuala with a sullen face.He was full of depression at the moment and had nowhere to vent, and he felt tired even when he sighed.

The inner city was where the Jurchen nobles lived, while the outer city was a mix of merchants, artisans and farmers.Just from this difference, it can be seen that Guo Hai's status is embarrassing at the moment.

Hetuala in later generations was rebuilt by the Qing Dynasty, and was also renovated after the founding of the People's Republic of China.But the Jianzhou Department is too poor now, and the streets are full of wooden houses and thatched houses, where servants serving noble lords live.

Nurhachi was blown up to heaven in later generations, but Guo Hai really saw him and found that he was just a militarized bandit leader.

The "Khan Palace" has a beautiful name. It faces south and faces two courtyards. The interior is not only simple, but the living environment is also very ordinary.More than a dozen ugly Bulaki Fujins live together with maidservants and 'wild boar skin', forming an ordinary courtyard house.

It doesn't matter if you live poorly, Nurhachi probably read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" too fascinated.

Guo Hai bought a large amount of urgently needed military supplies for Da Jin, but the King of Da Jin was worried that he was here to engage in countermeasures, and did not trust the 'Federation' team very much.

Tong Yangzhen was sent back to Hetuala, and the news of Tong Yangxing's defeat and death also confirmed that the Kuandian direction roughly figured out the strength of the foreign Han troops—after a delay of half a month, the total number of them swelled to [-].

The Jianzhou sentry saw a large Han ship sailing on the Yalu River. It had no sails, no oars, no wind, no wind, no smoke, no noise, and it ran very fast.

In addition to the big boats, the Han people also brought a small boat with a very shallow draft, no more than half a meter.It also smokes and sounds, and can travel upstream along the Ai River and Pushi River.

Now that Zhenjiang Fort has fallen into the hands of the enemy, the Han Chinese boats are exploring the river, obviously intending to go up the river.Fortresses such as Xianshan, Tangshan and even Fenghuangcheng are all facing the front of the army, and they may not be safe.

Once this group of Han people launches an attack, they will be able to reach Kuandian within ten months.If Kuandian falls, the southern gate of Hetuala will be opened, and there will be no strong fortress to defend the road to Hetuala.

Alas... Guo Hai's thoughts were also confused, and he sighed with his head drooping.

Now Nurhachi's side is already noisy.Some people said to send troops to fight to the death, others said to stick to it through the winter, and some even said to ask the Ming court, who is attacking?

who?

It's a gang of rebels!

It was rumored that the group of Xinhua rebels entrenched in the south of the Yangtze River was short of wood, so they drove a big boat to Liaodong to chop wood, and beheaded the Jurchens along the way.

Guo Hai and the others were dumbfounded by the news, but they were all bitter in their hearts.

The bandit group's strength is limited, and its habit of being cowardly in case of defeat is fully exposed.Only 500 people died, and a leader of the Han army was lost, so they felt a lot of pressure.

But this time the attacker was even more terrifying than the senior officials of the Dajin Kingdom thought.They came for the heads of Nurhachi and other high-level leaders in Jianzhou.

The only fast transportation between the mountains is the waterway, and the small steamer with a shallow draft is obviously specially customized for the mountainous environment in Liaodong.It is difficult for others to go against the current, not for the army of 'Holy Light'.

Zhou Qingfeng Bingfeng pointed out that the speed will be faster than everyone imagined.

In order to deal with the coming bad situation, Nurhachi convened the ministers around him to discuss for many days.

Guo Hai has made many intrigues in the past six months, and was allowed to attend the speech.His suggestion was to use the Jurchens' good fishing and hunting skills to harass guerrillas in the mountains.

However, the high-level officials in Jianzhou, including Nurhachi, were not very interested in this. They still thought about how to win or lose in a single battle, and wanted to play a frontal battle.Guo Hai vomited blood in anger.

You barbarians who command serfs, want to play line up and shoot?Zhou Qingfeng could die of happiness.

Back at his residence in the outer city of Hetuala, Guo Hai recounted the scene of the quarrel between the 'masters', and all ten members of the 'Federation' were dumbfounded.

Yan Li pointed out the lack of Guo Hai's thinking, "Zhou Qingfeng is not afraid of any guerrilla warfare. His army is not here to occupy and rule, but purely to destroy. He will never go to the deep mountains and old forests to hide and seek."

Guo Hai was taken aback for a moment, and then he understood why Nurhachi refused to fight guerrillas.How could the big gold foundation that the slave chief had spent most of his life give up the town that he finally took over and go to the mountains to be a savage?

The barbarian capital is too small to afford to lose.Once the 'wild boar skin' became a savage, the Ministry of Jianzhou would perish without attack.

Wanting to understand this, Guo Hai and the others suddenly felt powerless.The opponent pointed out the two technologies of steam engine and flintlock gun, and they didn't care about occupation, they only wanted to destroy, they obviously couldn't bear it.

"What should we do now?"

"There is no other way but to save the south gate of Kuandian until the end of the mission. If we can't keep it, we can only flee and return to the customs immediately to live in seclusion. If the mission fails, it will fail."

Everyone in the 'Federation' instantly turned pale.

It was Yan Li who thought of an idea, and said sadly, "We still have some viruses, which can be used in Kuandian."

"What do you mean?" Guo Hai listened with pricked ears.

"Zhou Qingfeng moves very quickly. I guess he has the courage to take Kuandian before winter to prepare for the complete solution to Hetuala next year. It's already September, and the battle must be over before November.

As long as we grasp the timing, release the virus to Kuandian before the battle breaks out.Zhou Qingfeng's army will also be infected accordingly.If he is unlucky, the virus might spread to Songjiang along the way. "

Yan Li spoke viciously.Guo Hai's eyes lit up, and he said affirmatively, "Yes, this is our last chance. If we seize it, we can turn the tables. You don't have to wait for the war in Kuandian. Zhou Qingfeng is gathering the mountain people in Liaodong, and we can do it now."

The "Federation" group was still dying, Zhou Qingfeng moved the headquarters more than 20 kilometers to Zhenjiang Fort.This place was originally garrisoned by the Ming army, and it took only a month for Jiannu to come here, and the owner changed again.

The castle is dilapidated, but the population is several thousand, and they mainly make a living from farming, which is considered an important place in Liaodong.

The Tong family occupied this place at the beginning, and the Ming army in the fort directly surrendered.The Tong family fled, and the original Ming army surrendered to the Xinhua Expeditionary Team. There were seven or eight hundred people.

Zhou Qingfeng was not interested in managing these people, he just asked them to be honest.If he can cut down some trees, or hire for the expedition, he can pay for the money and food.

It's just that when the transport ship 'Dongting Lake' of the expedition team arrived at the wharf of Zhenjiang Fort, the people in the fort were still shocked.Thousands of people came out of the empty alley, men, women and children ran to the bank of the river to see the wonder.

A wooden ship more than 30 meters long and more than 100 tons is a rarity.If you look closely, you can appreciate its hugeness.The boat was still smoking when it was running, as if cooking with a fire, which was very different from ordinary wooden boats.

The mountain people who were hired earlier formed an engineering team, and they are wielding axes and hammers to build a docked trestle on the shore.They responded with great disdain to the people who poured out.

Country bumpkin, I don't know.The steamship of the expedition team, it was there a few months ago.

Someone dared to ask the mountain people who were working, "What is the origin of this group of officers and soldiers? Do they get paid for their work?"

The working mountain people only naturalized a few months in advance, but they like to show off their old status.

A foreman came out and deliberately coughed a few times to promote, "Folks, the team here is not an official army. They don't collect taxes or food.

This is the Xinhua Expeditionary Team, which came to Liaodong for development.See the big boat in the river?People call it a steam boat, which can be moved by burning coal and firewood.

People from the south of the Yangtze River just want some Liaodong wood, and they don't care about our money and food.

But if anyone wants to earn some money and food, he can work for the expedition team.For ordinary coolies, three yuan of silver per month, or two stones of wheat, is the best wheat ground into flour, enough for an old family to drink.

If you can write and count, the monthly silver will be doubled. "

Liaodong is rich in resources, but there are many mountains and little land, and the climate is bitter and cold.The people have nothing but a bad life.If it wasn't for evading the government, who would come to this ghostly place?

Hearing the foreman say that they are not officers and soldiers, they don’t levy money and food, and they are paid for their work.

On board the 'Dongting Lake', Han Ai and Han Tongyi, who had received short training, stood up.

Seeing the crowded crowd on the shore, the North Korean blushed and shouted, "Han is back again. I am now the special commissioner of Xinhua in Liaodong, an out-and-out civil servant of the Celestial Dynasty."

Several naturalized cadres came back together, all of whom were originally from mountain people.They were active at the beginning, and were sent back to Liaodong after a short training to help Zhou Qingfeng consolidate his grassroots management capabilities.

The "Dongting Lake" is an improved version of the "Liao" class, with a displacement of 150 tons, a larger cargo hold, and more cargo.It can transport hundreds of tons of goods at a time.

In 1617, the grain and cotton harvests in the entire south of the Yangtze River were bumper again.The active production of millions of peasant households that broke the shackles has provided the 'Holy Light' team with almost inexhaustible money.

In the future, a transport ship will arrive in Dandong or Zhenjiang every day, and a steady stream of grain, cloth, salt, medicine, and iron will be brought in.Also on the same boat were civil servants transferred from Songjiang to enrich Liaodong.

With such a strong supply of materials and talents, the 'Holy Light' can quickly take root in Liaodong, and no one can move it.If you want to brag in the future, you can say-it is easy to shake mountains, but it is difficult to shake Xinhua.

Chapter 37

Before the 'Dongting Lake' docked, two small ten-ton steamships were lowered by a crane.

The boat was flat-bottomed, seven or eight meters long, two and five meters wide, and had a draft of less than half a meter. It had a very simple engine room and cabin, powered by a twelve-horsepower compact steam engine.

This ship can lead two or three squadrons to carry out missions, and has a cruising radius of [-] kilometers. It is specially designed for inland river and shallow water operations.In order to strengthen the firepower, a [-]mm front-loading gun was specially equipped on board to support land operations.

It is much easier to build such a small ship than a hundred-ton ship, and one can be completed in three or four days.The matching steam engine is also simple, and Songjiang arranged for naturalized craftsmen to enter the production line.

Cast iron is used for a large number of parts, and the cost and man-hours are greatly reduced. At present, more than a dozen units can be manufactured in a month.

This ship is called the "mosquito" class by the mechanical team, and it has shown great practicability in the river network area in the south of the Yangtze River.Its carrying capacity is several times or even ten times larger than that of ordinary civilian ships, and its speed and flexibility are also high, which can be said to be very popular.

The 'mosquito' class is not picky about fuel, it can burn coal or firewood.After the trial, the Xinhua Navy couldn't put it down, and forcibly requisitioned all production capacity, and regarded it together with the "Hu" class transport ship as important equipment for the Liaodong battle.

This kind of boat does not have a ship name, only a serial number.

The two "mosquito" class ships that arrived at Zhenjiang Fort with the "Dongting Lake" were hoisted into the water and immediately accepted the mission. They each led two squads to the upper reaches of the Yalu River and the Ai River, a tributary, to conduct armed investigations.

The soldiers and civilians of Zhenjiang Fort huddled on the shore opened their eyes, and were surprised that small boats could be loaded on the big ship.Small boats can also chug upstream, guided by naturalized mountain people, and go deep into the upper reaches of the river.

This ability to act is too fast, and the typical concept of time in industrialization is completely different from that of farming society.

There was constant noise among the soldiers and civilians.Chen Liangce, a military officer in Zhenjiang Fort, stood behind the crowd, stepped on his feet and watched with a few relatives, he was greatly stimulated, and felt that there was nothing more strange than this.

Half a year ago, the Jiannu army went south, Kuandian was completely occupied, and Zhenjiang Fort was not spared.As an officer of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Liangce had more than 1000 men under his command. Unfortunately, he became a thief.

A month ago, Tong's family brought more than 500 Jiannu Han troops here one after another, and Chen Liangce could only wait on them, not daring to fart too much.

It's just that Tong's soldiers came fast and died even faster. More than 500 Han troops rushed to fight the so-called Jiangkou Ming army, but most of them never returned. Only a few such as Tong Yangzhen escaped by chance.

When Tong's family came, Chen Liangce was still puzzled - where did the Ming army come from Jiangkou?There is no one guarding that place!

But in the past six months, there have been rumors circulating that a Han Chinese team came by boat from the south of the Yangtze River, occupied the mouth of the Yalu River, cut down trees and built a fortress, intending to stay there for a long time.

The Tong family sent people to inquire, and Chen Liangce also arranged for his men to go to the expedition team station to inquire about the news.But most of the people who went there didn't come back, and when they came back occasionally, it didn't take long for them to move with their children.

After further inquiry, it is said that the master from the south of the Yangtze River is generous, and he is very generous in giving money and food.Even if you are a lumberjack, you can have enough food and get new clothes.One can support a family and earn better money than digging in the fields.

The treatment is good, so people will naturally flock there.

Chen Liangce was a coward at any rate, and he thought that no matter who came, he would have to pay a visit—good guy, the first time the expedition team came to pay a visit, they drove a 150-ton transport ship and came with the victorious momentum of annihilating Tong's brigade.

Chen Zhongjun looked at the smoking ship, then at the well-equipped fusiliers with stern faces, and then at the naturalized mountain people whose faces were red and their skin was shiny.He wisely stopped talking.

Hey... Who is it not to take refuge in?

The Tartars were so vicious, burning, killing, and looting teams could bear it, but the foreign Xinhua Expeditionary Team was kinder.No exploitation, no disturbance to the people, fair business, no deception, the Yue family army is nothing more than that.

But things developed far beyond what Chen Liangce thought.

Han Ai and other naturalized officials were familiar with Liaodong and could speak various dialects. When they went ashore, they held power in their hands and established the Zhenjiangbao Civil Affairs Center.

The first thing the naturalized officials did was organize the three hundred old naturalized mountain people into a militia to maintain law and order.As for the original number of hundreds or thousands of Ming troops, they switched to engineering or logging.

Chen Liangce originally thought that his subordinates would mutiny immediately.

But I didn't expect that after the naturalization officials registered the roster, they would start distributing food and cloth according to the head, and announced the employment system. As long as they are used by "Xinhua", they will have no worries about food and clothing, and they can come and go freely.

Boxes of money, food, and goods were unloaded from the 'Dongting Lake', which was specially used to win people's hearts.The people in the fortress did not have a deep hatred with 'Xinhua', so they naturally yearned for it.

The place is peaceful, and the army and sailors of the expedition can concentrate on fighting.

The naturalized civilian engineering team was led by civil servants supported by Songjiang, and when they entered Zhenjiang, they drew lines and requisitioned land to build houses.The whole fortress was rattling loudly inside and out.

Chen Liangce found that he became a bodhisattva in the temple, it was just a decoration, no one came to greet him at all.Even the ordinary soldiers of the expedition team were very rude. Knowing that he was an officer of the Ming army, they stared and their noses could catch fire.

The expedition team built a wharf in Zhenjiang Fort, and the wood was processed in the hydraulic sawmill at Dandong Military Station. On the deck of the "Dongting Lake", more than a dozen naturalized people pulled the chain of the crane to unload the standard transfer boxes to build.

There are complete sets of tools for working. When a box is opened, there are several kinds of hammers inside.Saws, axes, hoes, shovels, everything is complete.

The important work of the foreman is to arrange tasks every day, distribute tools, check and check, and wages will be deducted if there is any loss.If someone is in charge, they dare not mess around.

"It's rich, it's rich. It's a lot of work for so much money."

Only looking at the management ability and the means of distributing money, Chen Liangce sighed, knowing that the Jianzhou army might not come back, let alone Da Ming.

Chen Liangce had no choice but to let go of his arrogance, walked to the edge of the construction site, bowed his hands to the Xinhua civil servant who was recruiting, and stuffed a piece of silver in the past.

"Excuse me, this is Zhenjiang Chen Liangce, who was originally a military officer in this fort, and I would like to see your lord."

The recruiting civil servant was polite, pushed the money, and helped to pass it on.

After a while, Wang Xin ran out from the 'Dongting Lake', looked it over, and asked, "Are you Chen Liangce from Zhenjiang? Where is Mao Wenlong?"

what……?

Chen Liangce was dumbfounded by this question, and replied after a while: "Chen has been in Liaodong for a long time, and his reputation is not obvious. I don't know how the honorable master knows?

As for Brother Mao, he is guarding Aiyang, but he is familiar with me.But half a year ago, Jiannu went south and Aiyang Castle fell, so there was no news of him. "

Wang Xin laughed straight, thinking: "There are not many people who know about you, Chen Liangce, but many know about Mao Wenlong. Aren't you the one who once surrendered to build slaves, and later turned against you again to help Mao Wenlong win Zhenjiang?"

Zhenjiang was lost, and Nurhachi was furious, so he sent Huangtai and 3000 troops to take it back.Mao Wenlong was forced to flee to North Korea, and Chen Liangce followed him.

Compared with traitors like Li Yongfang who became hardcore slaves after surrendering, Chen Liangce still had some conscience.Wang Xin didn't make things difficult for the other party, he bowed his hands and asked, "What's the matter with Mr. Chen?"

Chen Liangce was so cheeky, and said after a while, "Your Majesty has a bad reputation in Zhenjiang, and I want to do something for the people."

Are you here to run an officer?

Wang Xin heheed a few times, but shook his head and said: "Our expeditionary army is not a government. If Mr. Chen is looking for an official position, it is useless to find us. If you want to make some money, you can cooperate with us."

'Shengguang' established the 'Xinhua' system at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and never directly accepted the original local officials.No matter who wants to enter the 'Xinhua' system, they must start from the grassroots.

Han Ai was just a translator, and was recommended to Songjiang for short training because he actively cooperated with Zhou Qingfeng, and came back because of the shortage of talents in Liaodong.Chen Liangce is an ex-military officer, and 'Holy Light' is extremely wary of the infiltration of its own side by the old system personnel.

Wang Xin continued: "We need to pool and use the manpower in Liaodong. If Mr. Chen is willing, why not help us recruit manpower. As many people as you can recruit, we will give you money per head."