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After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the world was in chaos and the Tartars took the opportunity to invade the Central Plains.
The killing was severe, the clothes were destroyed, the corpses piled up like a mountain and the blood turned into a river.
The jade seal appears, the true dragon descends, and the imperial star of Jinling shines brightly.
Drive out the Tartars, restore human clothing, and the world will be at peace when the King of Qin comes.
Children's songs like this are now widely sung in Jiangnan, and almost everyone knows them. Shortly after Qin Mu attacked Changsha, the number one figure of Yebushou, the commander Huang Lianshan, was sent to Jiangnan. In order to cooperate with the bank to raise money, Yebushou invested a lot of manpower in Jiangnan, and also formed many peripheral organizations among the refugees who poured into Jiangnan to help rob those officials and gentry who were rich and unkind in Jiangnan.
Therefore, Yebushou's membership in Jiangnan is the largest, most widely distributed, most tightly organized, and most efficient. Basically, there are many people active in every state and county.
As soon as Qin Mu's order was passed on, the Yebushou members in Jiangnan took action and publicized the various favorable policies of the Qin State, such as dividing land, reducing taxes and labor service, etc., as well as the Qin army's successive victories, how many enemies were killed, and how many prisoners were captured.
As for Qin Mu's acquisition of the imperial seal, it was like a real dragon coming down to earth, Ziwei descending to the mortal world, and loving the people like his own children. All the miracles that happened to him were compiled into small stories or nursery rhymes by He Ningzong, the commander of Yebushou, who was known as the Poisonous Scholar, and then asked the members of Yebushou to teach children from all over the country to sing them.
Even songs like "The East is Red" and "Liuyang River", which were once widely sung in Huguang and Jiangxi, began to spread in Jiangnan.
Under the powerful propaganda offensive, the people in the south of the Yangtze River, who were under the high-pressure rule of the Tartars, were full of expectations for the Qin army to save the country and the people.
Unlike the lower class people, the upper class officials, gentry and wealthy people care most about the fact that Qin Mu obtained the imperial seal. The imperial seal, which has been authenticated by Lu Daqi, Lu Zhenfei, Yang Tinglin, Guo Duxian, Ai Nanying, Luo Wanzao and others, is more convincing because everyone can trust the character of these people.
The imperial seal itself had a strong appeal, and most people began to believe that Qin Mu was really destined to be the emperor.
Even the anti-Qing forces in Jiading and Taicang took the initiative to raise the banner of Qin, remotely recognized Qin Mu as their leader, and sent people to Jiangyin to beg for troops.
Just as Yuan Zongdi was about to lead 10,000 cavalrymen to attack eastern Zhejiang, Su Jin sent 15,000 troops, of which 5,000 were to support the rebel forces in Taicang and Jiading.
The 10,000 cavalrymen used the name of reinforcement to cover up their true purpose. Yuan Zongdi and his deputy Niu Wanchuan led 5,000 cavalrymen each, divided into two groups, bypassed Suzhou from the southeast, and headed towards Songjiang Prefecture.
There were Ye Bushu along the way who provided information on the enemy's troop deployment. If they found a place that was easy to attack, they would quickly attack and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop to help the local rebels and get logistical supplies from them.
If you encounter an enemy with strong forces that are difficult to attack, quickly bypass them.
Twenty miles northeast of Pinghu County, Jiaxing Prefecture, Niu Wanchuan divided his troops into five groups, each led by a lieutenant general, and each took a shortcut to rush towards Pinghu County.
For more than two years, he has been Su Jin's deputy general, even like a follower, his martial arts are better than Su Jin's. But marching and fighting are not about personal courage, in the past two years of fighting in the south and the north, he has been patiently learning;
This time, he finally had the opportunity to lead the army alone. Although he was still Yuan Zongdi's deputy general in name, he was acting separately from Yuan Zongdi after all, so he had a lot of freedom.
Niu Wanchuan was actually a very careful person, and he noticed one thing. When Qin Mu was marching and fighting, he always let his generals do what they wanted, but this kind of letting go was not really letting them do anything, but taking precautions by using the combination of the generals;
For example, Meng Ke is paired with Xiang Liancheng, Liu Meng is paired with Huo Sheng, Ma Yongzhen is paired with Li Guo, and Su Jin is paired with Yuan Zongde. These generals often have different backgrounds and can exert certain implicit constraints on each other.
This time Qin Mu specifically asked him to be Yuan Zongdi's deputy general, which must have implied a restriction on Yuan Zongdi. This made Niu Wanchuan very happy, as it not only represented Qin Mu's recognition of his combat ability, but also represented Qin Mu's trust in him.
At the same time, what made Niu Wanchuan feel happy was that this military operation was unexpectedly smooth. With the accurate intelligence provided by Di Ge Ye Bu Shou, they were always able to take shelter and did not even have to worry about food and grass supplies;
Wherever he went, local rebel armies and wealthy families responded when they saw the Qin army's flags. Niu Wanchuan also had a powerful new weapon - the rocket launcher.
As early as the 26th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Shizhen, an official in the court, had developed the rocket launcher.
But compared with today's rockets, although the launching principle is the same, the power and accuracy are one in the sky and the other on the ground.
It is said that as early as two years ago, the King of Qin asked the Equipment Department to gather skilled craftsmen to develop it. However, due to the complex structure of the rocket shells and the fact that the new type of explosion was still in the trial production stage, it was difficult to equip the army in large quantities.
According to people from the logistics department, only more than 100 rockets have been produced so far. In order to allow 10,000 cavalrymen to successfully advance to eastern Zhejiang under the noses of the Tartars, this time the King of Qin gave most of the rockets to Niu Wanchuan.
With this powerful rocket, Niu Wanchuan is now truly "powerful". When this kind of shell explodes, it can be described as the collapse of the sky and the splitting of the earth. The wooden city gates of those counties and prefectures are like paper in front of this kind of rocket. As long as one hits, the violent explosion is enough to destroy the city gate.
Therefore, Niu Wanchuan and his men could quickly capture some county towns with narrow moats and obtain sufficient food and fodder supplies. At the same time, they could leave dozens of people in the local area and, together with the members of the Yebushou Group, organize the young and strong people in the city, raise the Qin Army flag to resist the Qing Dynasty, and continuously undermine the Qing Dynasty's rule in the south of the Yangtze River.
As for those big cities, since the moats are relatively wide, it would be difficult to cross the moats even if the city gates were blown up, and there are many defenders. Niu Wanshan and his men generally would not attack easily to avoid being slowed down.
Pinghu County is located to the east of Jiaxing Prefecture, about sixty or seventy miles away. Niu Wanchuan did not choose Jiaxing Prefecture this time, but chose Pinghu County instead, precisely out of consideration for a quick victory.
At this time, the scouts in front came back with a report: "Report, General Niu, we have contacted the Ye Bushou in Pinghu. There are only 400 Qing troops in Pinghu, and the garrison commander is Xu Youxian, who was originally a subordinate of Xu Dingguo."
"Are they all Green Camp soldiers?"
"Yes, General Niu."
"Fuck it, there are only 400 soldiers and generals, which is not enough for me to fill my teeth. Tell Qiao Dawei, Jiang Jin, and Zhou Ting not to stop and continue to rush west to Haining. After arriving in Haining, Qiao Dawei will temporarily take charge of the command, and Pinghu will be left to me and Lin Hu to deal with."
“Yes!”
Niu Wanchuan and Lin Hu each led a thousand soldiers to Pinghu County and stationed their troops at the north and south gates. The moat of Pinghu County was less than two meters wide. Without Niu Wanchuan's orders, the soldiers had already started cutting wood and building a bridge with ease.
On the top of the city wall, the Qing army defender Xu Youxian divided the 400 Green Camp soldiers into two groups to guard the north and south gates. Seeing the large Qin army suddenly rushing in with the noise of men and horses and the murderous aura, they were already frightened. Fortunately, they had the city as a support, which prevented them from collapsing.
But then, they would understand what a storm-like attack meant. They saw several Qin soldiers carrying two rockets, riding their horses to the point where they could shoot arrows from outside the city gate, dismounting, aiming, and firing.
The rocket, with a dazzling tail flame, headed straight for the city gate.
boom!
There was a deafening roar that shook the earth.
Unlike previous black powder explosions, this type of rocket produced less smoke and a particularly large fireball. The intense shock wave not only blew the city gate away in an instant, but also cracked the city gate tower into several large cracks. Broken stones and wooden boards flew into the air, and many Qing soldiers on the city were knocked to the ground, bleeding from their ears and noses, and standing like wooden chickens.
Immediately afterwards, the Qin army shouted like a tide and rode their horses to the foot of the city. Arrows rained down on the top of the city walls. Some of them carried the tied logs across the moat and laid the prepared door panels on top.
A simple bridge wide enough for war horses to pass was built across the moat less than two meters wide in just a few minutes. Then the Qin army rushed into the city with their horses and spears in hand.
The speed of capturing the city was simply unbelievable. The hundreds of Green Camp soldiers in the city collapsed instantly under the violent attack of two thousand Qin troops.
According to the usual practice along the way, after clearing out the Qing troops in the city and obtaining supplies of food, fodder and arrows, fifty people were left behind to organize the young and strong people in the city to defend the city with the local Yebushou.
The army set out again. In short, the speed of advance would be as fast as the combat intensity the horses could sustain. This wind-like speed of attack made it almost impossible for the Qing army in the nearby cities to react.
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ps: It was raining heavily, the sky was dark, there were lightning and thunder, and I was worried about power outages, so I posted this chapter in a hurry... Please support me by voting for me and recommending me.
.(To be continued..)
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