Daming pirates

Zhu Dadian was considerate and agreed immediately, ordering all parts of Shandong to vigorously raise soil salt and send it to Fushan Institute in accordance with Yu Xiaotian's request.

In order to reduce transportation costs, Yu Xiaotian simply built a refining workshop in Fushan to directly refine the soil saltpeter into refined fire saltpeter. In addition, he also produced a by-product, that is, edible salt, which was produced on the spot.

It can be resold at a profit, and the refined saltpeter becomes the most important raw material for the production of black powder.

Of course, these are all idle talk, so don’t mention it. In short, Yu Xiaotian tried his best to get all the things he needed from Zhu Dadian. Although it was far from enough to make up for his investment, it would be better if he could pay less.

Pay some compensation.

After the official army surrounded Dengzhou City at the end of September, they began to attack Dengzhou City. However, due to the strong artillery of Dengzhou City and the large number of rebel troops, the official army's several attacks were frustrated and failed to achieve much results.

Of course, the Shandong and Zhejiang soldiers suffered the most losses. They had no cash weapons to use and could only use the most primitive methods to attack the city. Therefore, they suffered heavy losses under the rebel artillery fire.

The situation of the Yu Jiajun was different. They had very strong firepower. Although they failed to break through Dengzhou City, the most they lost was some ammunition. The loss of personnel was not very large. The main loss was caused by the rebels on the city.

under artillery fire.

However, the rebels also suffered considerable losses. Wherever the Yu family army attacked the city, the rebels suffered heavy casualties. The defense line could be said to be in danger. If Li Jiucheng, Kong Youde and others had not been supervising the battle, they would have been killed.

Yu Jiajun broke through.

Two months have passed since the siege of Dengzhou City. In order to defend Dengzhou City, the rebels went out of the city many times to attack the defense lines of the government troops, broke through the defense lines of the government troops several times, and also robbed a batch of supplies and grain from the government troops.

Furious, Zhu Dadian angrily rebuked those incompetent generals and even killed several generals who had neglected their duties to frighten the officers and soldiers.

However, the defense line where Yu Jiajun is stationed has never been attacked by the rebels. As long as the place where Yu Jiajun is located is the death zone designated by the rebels, no rebel will be so bold as to dare to attack Yu Jiajun.

line of defense, so of course Yu Xiaotian will not receive any scolding or harsh criticism.

Later, in order to trap the rebels, Zhu Dadian could only use the method of digging out the soil, and asked the army to dig a wide and deep trench around Dengzhou City, which completely blocked the rebel counterattack.

But when the weather reaches October, the temperature drops sharply. In mid-October, the first snow of the year falls in the sky. The ferocious face of the Little Ice Age is finally revealed at this time.

Due to insufficient supplies, a large number of officers and soldiers were still wearing single clothes until it snowed. They were all shivering from the cold and could only gather around the campfire to keep warm every day.

On the other hand, if you look at the generals of the Yu Jiajun, they deserve to be compared with each other, and goods should be thrown away. Since October entered and the temperature dropped sharply, the Yu Jiajun quickly received a large number of supplies of cotton-padded clothes and quilts.

Every Yu Jiajun soldier and general put on warm winter clothes and cotton boots, and even had cotton gloves on their hands. At worst, the soldiers would be given a pair of double-layered thick cotton gloves.

Therefore, the soldiers of the Yu family army did not suffer too much after winter entered. However, relatively speaking, frostbite occurred from time to time among the soldiers of the Yu family army.

The main force of these Yu Jiajun soldiers are actually southerners. Although there are some northerners, the proportion is lower. These Fujian soldiers, although the winter in Fujian is not warm and even snows, but relatively

That's just extreme weather. Most of the time, the temperature in Fujian is still above zero.

Therefore, the southern soldiers' cold tolerance here is much worse than that of Shandong soldiers. If they are not careful, they may suffer from frostbite. By the end of October, Yu Xiaotian has discovered that many of his soldiers

Frostbite began to appear on people's hands, feet and face, which really made him feel a little distressed.

However, this kind of frostbite is not too serious. This time to fight north, it is actually an opportunity for these southern soldiers to experience northern winter combat and hone their ability to fight in northern winter.

In addition, Yu Xiaotian required the soldiers and generals to conduct regular running training in the morning every day in the camp, so that the soldiers and generals can move their bodies as much as possible and keep their blood vessels smooth. They can rub their hands and face more often and pat their whole body when they have nothing to do.

, to improve their adaptability to severe cold.

In addition, he prepared a relatively sufficient amount of cotton-padded clothes in advance and distributed them early so that the officers and soldiers did not suffer too much.

But even so, Yu Xiaotian felt that the matter could not continue to be delayed like this. Historically, the army did not defeat the rebels until after December, but he did not want to delay it any longer.

Because at this time he received a letter from Xiong Wencan, in which Xiong Wencan politely asked him to lead his troops back to Fujian as soon as possible, because after he took office in Guangdong and Guangxi, he encountered the problem of pirates, especially

Over in Guangdong, there are many pirates. There are hundreds of pirates, big and small. If even the fishermen were to take action, there would probably be hundreds of pirates.

These pirates dare not easily go to the coast of Fujian to cause trouble. Now they basically rely on the coast of Guangdong and Guangxi, and even go to the coast of Qiongzhou Prefecture to plunder.

After Xiong Wencan took office, he sorted out the large pirates there, and found that there were only one or twenty pirates there, and the medium-sized pirates had forty or fifty. Although Guangdong also had a navy, there was no need to think about their combat power, and they were simply unable to deal with these pirates.

Moreover, these pirates are entrenched in various islands along the coast of Guangdong, and collude with some local rich and gentry along the coast. They come and go without a trace. When the government and the army send troops to suppress them, they lead people to escape into the sea. As soon as the government and the army leave, they return in front and back.

Continue to do so, which has caused constant complaints from the government and the people and gentry along the coast in Guangdong over the years.

This time the imperial court transferred Xiong Wencan to serve as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. In addition to rewarding him, another idea was to ask Xiong Wencan to solve the piracy problem in Guangdong and Guangxi. To put it bluntly, it was to let Xiong Wencan calm the sea in Guangdong and Guangxi.

After Xiong Wencan took office, he was full of confidence and launched a banner to recruit pirates in the past. However, although he recruited several pirates, these pirates could not compare with Yu Xiaotian. After the recruitment, what should these guys do?

What else are you doing? He even changed into the skin of an army officer, which makes him even more arrogant.

As a result, Xiong Wencan found that the recruitment strategy did not seem to be very effective in Guangdong and Guangxi. After thinking about it, he still believed that the only option was to use hard measures, and it was best to completely eliminate them.

The biggest problem in Guangdong and Guangxi is that the naval force is too weak. On paper, there are 20,000 to 30,000 naval forces, but after his investigation, in fact, there are only 6,700 soldiers, and most of them are old and weak. On paper, there are only 6,700 soldiers.

There were more than 300 warships on board, but in fact there were less than 200, and most of them were old and broken.

What's even more annoying is that among these warships, the serviceable ones were not used as warships. Instead, they were used as private merchant ships for some generals, and the sailors became their personal sailors, specially used for them.

Travel to the sea, engage in maritime trade, and earn a lot of money. Once you are robbed or lost in a storm, you will report that you were lost in a storm during the exercise.

So although he wanted to use tough measures, he had no soldiers or ships at hand. Finally, he thought of Yu Xiaotian. Now only Yu Xiaotian controls a powerful naval force in the Ming Dynasty, and only Yu Xiaotian can

Only Yu Xiaotian's navy had the strength to deal with these pirates.

So Xiong Wencan was in a hurry, so he wrote a letter to Yu Xiaotian in his own name, sent someone directly to the Denglai front line, found Yu Xiaotian, and handed the letter to Yu Xiaotian.

What Yu Xiaotian was waiting for was this letter from Xiong Wencan. For so many years, he had never reached out to Guangdong and Guangxi openly. It was because he was wearing official clothes and was embarrassed to stretch his hands too far in a big way, so he could only use

They use secret means to reach out and operate along the coasts of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Among these dozens of pirates, at least several are secretly controlled by him. In addition, the two groups of Yan Siqi and Chu Cailao are actually his secret chess pieces. Both groups secretly obey his orders and keep following him.

his connection.

Therefore, Yu Xiaotian is very familiar with the situation there in Guangdong and Guangxi. Every month, the intelligence department will have a detailed summary, which will be handed over to him and report to him the main things happening along the coast of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Yu Xiaotian's ambition is not to be satisfied with controlling the coast of Fujian and occupying Taiyuan Island. What he wants to do is to be the true king of China's seas, and the entire China's offshore waters must be included in his pocket.

Even this is not enough to describe Yu Xiaotian's ambition. Now Yu Xiaotian's ambition cannot even be satisfied by even competing in the Central Plains. His greater wish is to use his maritime power to reach out to China after taking over China.

Going around the world and establishing large-scale colonies was his long-term future plan.

Now he has just taken the first step, reaching out to Shandong and establishing a firm foothold in the Denglai area. Next, he will use Xiong Wencan to cover the sea along the coasts of Guangdong and Guangxi, including Qiongzhou Prefecture (Hainan Island).

It was also completely included in his own pocket, and this time he had to use Daming's money to achieve his goal.

So he can go back now, but if he wants to go back, the prerequisite is to solve the problem of the Dengzhou rebels first. Only after this area is wiped out, can he turn back to Fujian and start using troops against Guangdong and Guangxi.

So he finally decided not to wait any longer. He sent Xiong Wencan's messenger to return to Guangdong first. He promised to rush back to Fujian immediately after the war here ended, but the premise was that the war here ended, and Xiong Wencan had to first

Give the court a good clue and let him go back. Otherwise, if the person sitting in the court is happy, he and his soldiers and horses will be left in the north, and he will be sent to deal with the slaves outside the pass, or he will be sent there.

The suppression of bandits in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places will be ruined!

(Thanks to Brother Ying Zhiwu for the reward! The monthly ticket list is falling rapidly! Brothers, can I ask for a few more monthly tickets?)