Dominate the Country

On February 24, Chen Ming had arrived in Wuhu.

Compared with the "catastrophe" encountered last time, the impact on the Jiangnan rice market, which was once again captured by the Fu Han Army, was just a drop in the bucket. It was completely different. This time, the Fu Han Army only hastily confiscated the assets of a few famous Jiangnan eunuch families, and turned a blind eye to ordinary merchants, even those with Qing Dynasty official backgrounds.

Chen Ming's father, his second uncle, his eldest uncle, Wang Huizu, Xiong Bingzhang, Liu Dezhao, and even Chen Guangqian who joined the Fu Han Army in Hunan, and Liu Jijiang, etc., too many people have successively, either explicitly or implicitly, indicated that he could be a little more lenient when dealing with Jiangnan officials.

"It cannot be said that there is no Zhu Dadian among those people, but there are definitely not a few people like Qian Qianyi." Chen Hui said this so bluntly in the letter to him. Chen Ming's current "giving a hand" would be a more obvious signal. In Chen Hui's eyes, Chen Han already has Hubei and has taken over most of Hunan. Now it is going to connect the southeast, plus Southwest Henan and Hanzhong. Chen Hui feels that he already has the capital to "recruit talents".

And Chen Ming has already done so in Hunan. This time he will make the "signal" more explicit when he goes to Jiangnan.

But even so, the Fu Han Army's gains in Wuhu are huge. Who makes Wuhu one of the best handicraft bases in the entire Jiangnan region? Even though the economy here is based on rice market transactions and pulping and dyeing industries, the blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and carpenters throughout Wuhu cannot be underestimated. After conquering Wuhu, the Fu Han Army collected more than 200 rough flintlock rifles, which were produced by Wuhu craftsmen.

"How long can this spring last?" Chen Ming held the disassembled spring towards the sun. Liu Wu and others around him laughed.

Although he didn't know the texture of the main spring and main spring of the bolt, Chen Ming didn't think they were that good. How many times can this thing support the flintlock? And the flintlock made in Wuhu is so heavy in the hand.

The manufacture of the musket flintlock of the Fu Han Army was also self-exploration at first, but soon they had a physical reference - the Portuguese musket. After several years of training and many improvements in materials and craftsmanship under a heavy reward, Chen Ming dared to say with confidence that the level of his flintlock would not be lower than that of Portugal. However, the cottage of local craftsmen in Wuhu was even rougher than the earliest Xiaonangou workshop, and its reliability and mechanical performance were not ideal. In addition, the material and forging process of the gun barrel are the same as before. If the gunpowder of the Qing army had not been improved to some extent - the gunpowder in various places has changed from powder to granular, the range and power of this thing would not be much better than the previous matchlock musket. Moreover, the manufacturing speed of the local flintlock rifle in Wuhu is slow!

But no matter what, this is also a flintlock rifle. The craftsmen who can produce this kind of firearms, the Fu Han Army searched the list in the Wuhu government office, and followed the map. As long as the person is still at home in Wuhu, even adults and children will be swept away and join the gun and artillery bureau of the Fu Han Army.

Now the gun and artillery factory under the Fu Han Army has opened to the sixth branch, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more deaf-mute and disabled people in it. In the work within their ability, the deaf-mute and disabled people are serious and hard-working, obey orders, and strictly abide by discipline. They are the employees that any "factory" dreams of. However, they are still a little behind in learning and mastering new knowledge, and they are even worse than normal people in improving and inventing new things in their work. Of course, with a large number of people, there will always be a few talents, and here we are talking about most of them. Chen Han has already collected some people who know sign language from the people to be their teachers, but if you want to change their overall quality, you must wait patiently. This time may even take several generations.

Therefore, the research and development and transformation of the gun and artillery skills of the entire Fu Han Army are still in the hands of normal people. Adding more folk craftsmen can stimulate their initiative and creative desire.

It was also the day when Chen Ming arrived in Wuhu that the first batch of troops of the 1st Garrison Division left Nanjing, and the first battalion led by Wei Baocheng was of course among them. On the way from Anqing to the east, the first battalion was in the limelight, and Wei Baocheng was in high spirits standing on the bow.

In less than a day, they landed at the Zhenjiang wharf.

One by one, the troops landed at the wharf, assembled, and then lined up in neat rows to the barracks that had been prepared outside Zhenjiang City.

The Qing army heading south from Zhenjiang has already evacuated Danyang. Now the Qing soldiers and militiamen in Suzhou and Hangzhou are still gathering towards Changzhou. In addition, after the initial battle in Taiping Island, the navy warships of the Qing army in Jiangyin patrolled Taiping Island twice in a row, and exchanged fire with the warships of the Fu Han army cruising there twice and three times. When the Fu Han army navy was dispatched in large numbers to overwhelm Taiping Island, the Qing army warships in Wuguidun retreated to the surface of the river.

All these battle reports were sent to Chen Ming.

Chen Ming was not interested in the battles on land between the Third Division and the First Garrison Division. He focused on the navy.

The Fu Han army and the Qing navy have already clashed three times. Except for the first time when the Fu Han army had an advantage in manpower and took a relatively large advantage in the collision, the remaining two small-scale encounters can only be said to be neither won nor lost.

After three collisions, the navy troops had a clearer understanding of the Qing army's gunboats, and their cannons were not good. The range rarely exceeds two miles, and the gunners' accuracy is no better than that of the hastily assembled Fu Han Navy gunners. The number of cannons is indeed less than that of the Fu Han Army.

Such a large Dazeng ship can carry about ten cannons, while the Fuhan Army's Tingchuan can carry 16 to 20 cannons, and not only small cannons such as two-pound cannons and three-jin cannons, but also powerful cannons. A lot of powerful five-pound cannons.

Then the ships of the Fuhan Army generally added mortars, and if the distance was really close, they also had muskets and grenades. However, the Qing Army seemed to still hold on to the concept of gang warfare, and many sailors kept their swords and guns.

However, there were no gang fights between the two sides during the three collisions. The fleets on both sides were not large in size, and the fighting time was not very long. The tactics of the Fuhan Army were all based on the large number of artillery, charging directly into the enemy's territory and bombarding them. The Qing Army also acted very bravely, but they did not show any skillful coordination in a small area.

If it is a decisive battle between the two sides, and there are so many warships on each side that the Yangtze River is blocked, how should we fight?

Chen Ming stood in front of the sand table for a long time, his mind was turned into a ball of mush, but he still had no clue. He knew nothing about water warfare, especially the inland river warfare in the Yangtze River.

As for the river battlefield, he had indeed handed it over to Yang Shijin before. He also believed that the Fuhan Navy's artillery power would be better than that of the Qing Army. However, now that it was time to fight, he became worried again.

"If Your Highness is worried, you can just take a boat to Zhenjiang first." Liu Wu whispered from the side.

"No. Since the battle of the rivers has been left to Yang Shijin, let the navy fight it by himself." Chen Ming felt a little tempted, but he immediately suppressed it. When he left Southwest Henan, he once warned his father not to "make blind orders". He couldn't cite Chang Kaishen as an example, so he cited Tang Xuanzong as an example. Now it was his turn, and Chen Ming somewhat understood the pain of this kind of suffering.

Time turned two more pages in Chen Ming's "painful suffering". On February 26, on the Changzhou battlefield, the First Division of the Third Division plus the two regiments of the vanguard of the First Division, totaled 13,400 soldiers. Thousands of people fought a battle with more than 50,000 Qing troops in Changzhou.

This was not Huang Jie's initiative to attack the Qing army, but the Qing army's general Feng Sheng'e's initiative to launch a counterattack against Danyang.

The Qing army also had its own sources of intelligence. Large units of the Fuhan army were arriving in a steady stream. Fengsheng'e knew this very well. If he didn't take advantage of the weak strength of the Fuhan army in front of him to win a battle and improve his morale, would he have to wait until Chen Ni's army gathered and came crashing over before fighting?

On the one hand, Feng Sheng'e asked the Suzhou and Hangzhou troops to speed up, and on the other hand, he adjusted his troops. In the early morning of the 26th, he took the initiative to counterattack against the Fuhan Army's position.

The Fuhan Army's positions were quite simple. There were no bunkers, no permanent fortifications of cement and iron bars, and not even many mounds of earth for parapets. This is a fertile farmland. In the dozens of miles between Danyang and Changzhou, many people have returned. Last year they didn't hear gunfire for almost a year. However, this year has not yet entered February, and rumors of the Fuhan Army's march south were spreading in the south of the Yangtze River. When the Fuhan Army really marched eastwards in early February, many people still abandoned their homes and farmland and fled to other places. The camp where the Fuhan Army was stationed was located in a large area of ​​deserted land. It was almost March, and there was no tillering, rice-planting, or even watering in this farmland.

After hearing the scouts' report about the gathering of Qing troops, Huang Jie immediately gathered his troops. When the large Qing troops arrived at the Fuhan Army's positions, the Fuhan Army's formations in battalion units were already ready.

The armor shone brightly in the spring sunshine.

Feng Sheng's eyes flashed with sadness. The weapons of Daqingguo's army, which was rich in the world, were not as good as a rebel army that had only been raised for two or three years. It was really incredible and helpless.

The armies of both sides formed an array, and cannons were placed at the forefront of the array on both sides. The Third Division and the First Garrison Division easily took out 80 five-pound cannons and twenty-four eight-pound cannons. Although the Qing army had a large number of people, they were weak in terms of artillery fire. They only had sixty or seventy cannons, and some of them were old and new, and the calibers were also very different.

However, the accuracy of artillery in this era was really poor. Artillery targeted infantry on both sides more often and was specifically used for counter-artillery. In terms of efficiency, the gains outweighed the losses.

There were large groups of cavalry on the left and right wings of the Qing army. Feng Sheng'e led the troops aggressively, but did not launch an attack immediately.

"Tell Chunyou to lead the cavalry to Chen Ni's left flank. Focus on the communication channel between the rebel army and the rear camp."

Fengsheng, who felt he had a heavy responsibility, let out a long breath and issued the first order of the Qing army in this battle.

As for the Fuhan Army on the opposite side, Huang Jie also issued his first order at this time. He asked the artillery unit with the advantage to advance.

"The escort troops are ready to attack!"

Then he saw a cavalry of more than a thousand cavalry emerging from the Qing army's formation and rushing towards their left flank. The Fuhan Army's artillery, which had just received the order to move, immediately stopped when they saw the Qing Army's cavalry dispatching, and the escort troops quickly spread out.

However, it soon became clear where the Qing cavalry was going. Huang Jie at the rear did not change his order, and the artillery unit resumed the action it had just stopped. The escort troops changed their five-row formation into a four-sided hollow formation, just like the wicker baskets and sandbags built in front of the artillery position - for bulletproof purposes. During the battle, it is inevitable that the artillery shells will fall right in front of the artillery position. Ahead, those bouncing iron bullets were mostly blocked by wicker baskets and earth bags and sandbags - blocking the Fuhan Army's artillery to the left and right.

Following the artillery, there were two infantry battalions, one was the guard battalion of the third division, and the other was the first battalion of the first garrison division.

The sound of sniper gunfire rang out on the left wing of the battle line. The flank of the Fu Han Army, which was mainly composed of infantry artillery, had a large Qing cavalry, which had a very diverting effect. Moreover, this Qing cavalry frequently went around the side and rear of the Fu Han Army array, which was close to the original defensive position of the Fu Han Army. What did this cavalry want to do? Huang Jie knew it very well.

"Boom boom boom..." The sound of artillery in front of the formation finally started.

The Qing army's artillery released its anger at the Fu Han Army artillery that moved within their range. The gunpowder smoke soon blurred the front of the Qing army.

Of course, the Qing army's artillery had already fired, and the Fu Han Army's large artillery positions had almost moved enough, with a distance of about four miles on both sides. This distance made a large part of the artillery in the Qing army's artillery group become decorations, and only a small number of new artillery could reach this range. Two quarters of an hour later, the simple artillery positions of the Fu Han Army were completed, and the first part of the artillery groups arrived in position and quickly launched a counterattack. During this period, there seemed to be only a few dozen Fu Han Army gunners, engineers and guards killed or injured by the Qing Army's artillery shells; there was not a single cannon destroyed by the shells.

When the artillery of the Fu Han Army also roared, and the smoke completely annihilated the artillery positions, the artillery effect of the Qing Army became even worse. The artillery effect of the Fu Han Army was not very good, but the artillery of the Fu Han Army could send shells four miles away, which was much more powerful than that of the Qing Army.

The artillery of the Fu Han Army was organized as a "battalion". Each battalion had two or three teams, with twelve to twenty-four artillery pieces. These artillery pieces concentrated on firing at one Qing Army artillery position, and there was almost no time when they missed, and the shells fired were mostly shrapnel shells.

After the Battle of Taizhou, Chen Ming got a new invention from Europe from the British - a wooden conical fuse. After seeing this invention, he thought of the wooden sabot. In the past, many people on the Internet had introduced the sabots during the American Civil War. It was really a "resurrection". Now, it is unknown whether the sabot technology innovation has been invented in Europe, but even if it was invented, the initial sabots on the European battlefield were immature - the wooden sabots were too thin. The Fu Han Army's was a mature form. Not only was the wooden sabot thickened, but four iron bars were used to directly combine the sabot and the shrapnel shell into a whole. The effect was really powerful.

Adding a soft wooden sabot to the tail of the shell can not only effectively seal the gas leakage, but also play a buffering role for the shrapnel shell during launch, reduce the pressure on the shell wall, and the shrapnel shell fired will cause a "badminton principle" self-stabilizing structure with a heavy head and a light tail due to the lightweight wooden sabot, making the trajectory more accurate. This technology can also be used on solid shells. Of course, the sabot itself has quality, which will also affect the range to a certain extent.

Relying on these two technologies, the Fu Han Army has made new and great progress in the manufacturing technology of shrapnel shells. The wooden sabot can greatly reduce the high chamber pressure of shrapnel shells, so that the shell wall of the shrapnel shell can be thinned, the amount of gunpowder inside can be increased, and the lethality of the shrapnel shell can be increased. The wooden conical fuse further improves the detonation reliability of the shrapnel shell, greatly increasing the actual combat effectiveness of the shrapnel shell.

Now in the Fu Han army, even the shrapnel shells equipped with mortars are equipped with wooden sabots.

One by one, the new cannons were fired, and the eyes of the Qing artillery commander Fu Chun were red, and Feng Sheng'e also had a stern face and ordered the infantry to prepare.

"Infantry, move forward..."

The gunpowder smoke has filled the entire battlefield. Feng Sheng'e ordered that the entire Qing army began to shake.

The artillery battle on both sides is still going on. The cannons cannot be fired all the time. Even if there is water cooling, the frequency of firing must be strictly controlled. This "degree" has been systematically managed in the artillery of the Fu Han Army, but the Qing Army...

"Boom..." A large cannon exploded in the Qing Army's artillery position. Blanco, who was a hundred steps away, held his head helplessly. He had already made suggestions to Fu Chun, the artillery commander of the Qing Army, but it was useless. The Tatar did not listen to his advice. Although in this very unfavorable situation, it is indeed necessary for the cannon to seize the time to fire every shot it can.

Feng Sheng'e thought at first that the cannon was hit again by bad luck. They were standing in place waiting for the Fu Han Army to take the initiative to attack. All the artillery defense fortifications were built very well. As long as the artillery position was not hit by the Fu Han Army's shells, Feng Sheng'e believed that the Fu Han Army's shells could smash through the thick earth slope and defensive wall in front of the position. As a result..., it exploded!

"Send a message to Ayintu, and have him lead the musketeers to attack head-on."

"Tell Duan Xiulin to lead the troops to attack Chen Ni's left wing."

"Order Wu Ge to lead the cavalry to harass Chen Ni's right wing."

Feng Sheng'e dared to fight this battle because he had a large number of soldiers and generals, and relied on the thousands of cavalry in his hands, not the cannons in his hands! He dared to take advantage of the small number of soldiers in Danyang's Fu Han Army to rush over and take advantage of it, relying on the large number of people.

After the two armies had been fighting for half an hour, the battle of Danyang finally entered a big clash of infantry.

"Beep beep beep..."

Sharp whistles sounded in the Fu Han army formation, "Forward..." Wei Baocheng stood under the camp flag, waving his sword and shouting loudly. The first battalion of the 1st garrison division and the guard battalion of the third division not far away, as the vanguard of the entire Fu Han army, the first wave passed through the space reserved by the artillery and marched towards the Qing army head-on.