****
The naval battle on the river was in full swing. Big waves suddenly broke out on the river. At the same time, thousands of Qing army corpses were swept up by the current and covered with water.
On the south bank, the cheers of more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians reached into the sky, and even the rumbling cannons on the river could not conceal it.
The news of the complete annihilation of the Qing army in Jiangyin came, and the morale of the Qin navy was greatly boosted. However, Zheng Zhilong could not help but hesitate. In addition, the terrifying mines in the waterway made it difficult for his large ships to advance. After losing two gunboats one after another, Zheng Zhilong They had to temporarily order their troops to withdraw and retreat to Chongming Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
At this time, Chongming Island was occupied by Zhu Chaoyang, King of Yiyang, and was founded by Hu Laigong, the former Ming general general. He claimed to have one hundred thousand troops. In fact, these one hundred thousand troops included the toothless old woman.
In the Ming Dynasty, the one-character king was the prince, and the two-character king was the county king. In addition to dozens of princes, there are also countless county kings. For example, the line of Zhou kings, that is, the descendants of Zhou kings, have the following distinctions:
King Yiyang, King Runan, King Shunyang, King Xin'an, King Yongning, King Ruyang, King Zhenping, King Yiyang, King Suiping, King Fengqiu, King Luoshan, King Neixiang, King Xucheng, King Yuanwu, King Yanling, King Heyin, King Xiangcheng, King Yingchuan, King Ruyin, King Linru, King Shenqiu, King Shangluo, King Luyang, King Lintuan, King Duyang, King Heqing, King Xinhui, King Yi King Ning, King Pingle, King Chongshan, King Haiyang, King Anding, King Qujiang, King Boping, King Liaocheng, King Fenxi, King Xinling, King Shaoling, King Laiyang, King Donghui, King Fuyang, King of Kuaiji, King of Pujiang, King of Lishui, King of Yingcheng, King of Yiyang, King of Fengxin, King of Nanling, King of Jingshan, King of Huating, King of Baodi, King of Tangxi, King of Ruijin, King of Shangcheng, King of Lin'an, King of Zhecheng, King of Xiu King Wu, King Anji, King Runing, King Zhangde, King Shunqing, King Baoning, King Yifen, King Anchang, King Suining, King Weichuan, King Ningyang, and King Renhe.
You readers may be dazzled, but this is definitely not just a matter of dazzling, it is simply terrifying.
There are so many county kings under one prince's lineage. How many county kings are there in all the prince's lineage combined
And these princes all have to reach out to the court to ask for salary. Lumi alone costs two thousand dan a year, but this is definitely just a trivial matter. How much fiefdom do these princes and princes occupy? How much food is stolen from local people every year
If all are counted. It is definitely enough to shock the heavens and the earth and make ghosts and gods cry.
Zhu Yuanzhang probably did this because he wanted to leave only the descendants of his Zhu family in the world after a thousand years, so that the Zhu family could be passed down for eternity and be immortal.
But what he didn't expect was that these countless princes and princes would eventually become cancerous tumors all over the Ming Dynasty. As Gu Junen pointed out, the demise of the Ming Dynasty was directly and inextricably related to these "cancers" all over the world.
Now that the Ming Dynasty has died, these "kings" are still unwilling to be lonely. There were many people raising banners on the mountaintop, and it was definitely not just the Lu Wang and Tang Wang families. None of them were good at resisting the Qing Dynasty, but they were not left behind by causing chaos.
When Jiangyin was besieged, Yan Yingyuan sent people to risk their lives to break out and come to Chongming Island to ask for help. The king of Yiyang, Zhu Chaoxin, sent a lot of nonsense but did not send a single soldier.
Su Jin was busy dealing with the Qing army and did not bother to capture him, but the first battle was unfavorable. Zheng Zhilong, who was full of anger, was no longer so polite.
After the fleet retreated to Chongming Island, Zheng Zhilong asked people to go ashore to send a message, asking Zhu Chaoyang to obey Longwu of Fujian as his orthodoxy, and at the same time provide food and drink for his army.
Zhu Chaoyun sent the eunuch Ji Taizhuan to bring some belongings on board the ship. He imagined that he could fool Zheng Zhilong just like Yan Yingyuan's messenger, but he forgot what Zheng Zhilong did to start his business.
Master Zheng immediately raised the banner of Longwu in the name of wiping out the rebellious ministers. He started working in his most familiar profession, but what Master Zheng didn't expect was that Zhu Chaoyin's troops were quite capable. Under the command of the general Hu Laigong, he actually defeated the 2,000 troops sent ashore by Master Zheng.
There were 2,000 men when they left, but when they came back, they abandoned their helmets and armor, leaving only 1,600 men. Master Zheng took a look and found that he had lost 400 men and horses on the small Chongming Island. Compared with Jingjiang and Qin, he lost 400 men and horses. The army lost a lot in the war, is this okay
It’s okay if we can’t conquer Jingjiang, but why can’t we conquer a small Chongming Island? kill! Master Zheng gave an order, and all the gunboats approached the shore and fired wildly, making Chongming Island tremble. Then Zheng Zhilong personally led his troops ashore to fight Hulaigong.
It took Zheng Zhilong two days and the loss of more than a thousand horses to finally defeat Hu Laigong and capture Yangyi King Zhu Chaoyin alive.
With such heavy casualties, Zheng Zhilong became more and more angry and cooked Zhu Chaoyin that day. The people on Chongming Island were not spared and were looted together.
The people sent to find out the information also returned. Not only were the tens of thousands of Qing troops under Jiangyin City wiped out, but the 50,000 Qing troops in Taiping Mansion were also defeated by Qin Mu. Only 800 people under Nikan managed to escape back to Jinling.
Qin Mu's army has already advanced from Taiping Mansion to Jinling, which is only one day away from Jinling.
And Su Jin of Jiangyin City also took advantage of the power of victory and rushed to Changzhou Prefecture with 5,000 cavalry. In one day, the army led by Prime Minister Hui Deng and Yan Yingyuan also advanced to Zhenjiang Prefecture, and it seemed that Jinling had been encircled. potential.
In addition, Liu Meng sent an army of 10,000 troops to the Baohua Mountain area east of Jinling to use the mountains to block Bolo's 30,000 troops. Bolo was blocked in Baohua Town and was unable to break through. If we delay for another two days, Su Jin's army, which was killed in Zhenjiang, will attack from behind.
After synthesizing this information, Zheng Zhilong felt that the Qing army was losing its power in the south of the Yangtze River. He couldn't help but sigh silently. He no longer had the intention to attack Youjingjiang, but he was unwilling to go back like this, so he kept watching on Chongming Island.
In Jinling City, Hong Chengchou was faced with the incident in which dozens of patrolling Qing troops were besieged to death. After all, he could not come up with a good way to solve the problem, and finally agreed to Bayintu's method of massacre and shock.
However, he still believed that as long as the effect of deterrence was achieved, the scale of the massacre could not be expanded indefinitely, lest the deterrence failed and instead triggered a full-scale riot in Jinling City.
The massacre area designated by Hong Chengchou was the people of two villages near Taoyedu, but what Hong Chengchou did not expect was that the news was spread while the Qing army was still gathering;
When the people in Liangfang near Taoyedu heard that the Qing army was going to carry out a brutal massacre, some were frightened and even more angry. Someone in the crowd shouted: "Folks, the Tatars are going to massacre the city, they are going to massacre the city." "Listen, folks, if you raise your head, it's a knife, and if you shrink your head, it's a knife. Let's unite and fight the Tatars."
"Fight!"
"Fight with the Tatars!"
The fierce artillery fire from the Qin army outside the city gave the people the courage to resist; the people were no longer willing to be slaughtered by others. Regardless of men, women, old and young, they looted their belongings. The young and strong were organized, stood on the front line, and marched in the streets. Roadblocks were set up at the entrance to block the Qing army.
The news that the Qing army was going to launch a massacre was not just spread around Taoyedu. This news was like a terrifying plague, spreading throughout the city at an alarming speed;
There are always some bloody people among the two million citizens in Jinling City, not to mention the presence of Huang Lianshan and others. Seeing that the people's situation is useful, they all stand up to encourage the people and organize resistance.
At this time, the Qin army's offensive was fierce outside Taiping Gate and Shence Gate, and artillery fire was rumbling. The Qing army only had more than 20,000 troops, most of which were defending on the city wall. There were only a few thousand troops on the actual side of the city to maintain order.
For Jinling City, which has two million people, a few thousand people are actually very thin. As soon as the news spread that the Qing army was going to carry out a massacre, public sentiment was turbulent and it was difficult to suppress it. On the contrary, the small group of patrolling green soldiers were still suppressed. They were so frightened that they ran away.
When Bai Yintu led two thousand troops to Taoye Ferry, he found that all the intersections were piled with bricks and debris. Countless people stood behind the roadblocks, holding wooden sticks, shovels, bricks and kitchen knives, looking angrily at the approaching people. Qing army.
"Kill! Kill me! Kill everyone who dares to resist!" Baiyintu roared hysterically.
After giving the order, the Qing army immediately drew their bows and fired. Qing Zhuang, who was on the opposite side, held an iron pot and a table to block the arrows. He rushed to the obstacle and fought back with stones and bricks. Many people were shot to death by powerful arrows. The smell of blood wafted away, and a bloody battle began.
Seeing that the first line of defense was about to fall, the young men set fire to the accumulated debris and then retreated to the second line of defense. Baiyintu was so enraged by this resistance that he ordered the Qing troops to attack from all street corners.
The beginning of his action undoubtedly confirmed the authenticity of the previous rumors that the Qing army was going to launch a massacre. Some people in other villages hid, and many more picked up their belongings and walked out of their houses.
Public sentiment in the city was raging, and the situation was out of control. Hong Chengchou was shocked when he received the news, and rushed to Taoyedu to stop Baiyintu's massacre. He also tried his best to restore the situation, but can the situation be restored? (To be continued...)
...