Dominate the Country

[Thanks to ‘Zou Yong’ for his 500-bit reward]

When the smoke of gunpowder rose over Daya Bay, Chen Mingren also left Xiamen. With Chen Yongsheng as the commander-in-chief of the front line, he led his troops south to Chaozhou, preparing to land in Shantou, and then head north to capture Chaozhou Prefecture.

Chen Ming himself stayed on Nan’ao Island.

However, the situation in Chaozhou changed dramatically in the short two days when he and Chen Yongsheng led their troops south by sea and arrived at Nan’ao Island. The Tiandihui in Chaozhou revolted. The local Tiandihui leaders Chen Jinsheng and Li Qi organized hundreds of backbones, captured the unguarded Chaoyang County overnight, and then marched towards Shantou under the banner of the Fu Han Army.

The force soon expanded to more than 3,000 people.

Shantou was not a county at that time. The Qing army and militiamen who were guarding it only had a thousand people. The leader, Hou Aiquan, was a wealthy local family. Seeing that the situation was not good, he simply rebelled himself. He led his people to take Chenghai and arrested the magistrate of Chenghai. With a flag raised, thousands of people gathered overnight, and then divided the troops into two groups. One group was in Qipusi [now Jinping District] to resist Chen Jinsheng and Li Qi from Chaoyang, and the other group was in Chenghai County to guard against possible attacks from Chaozhou.

This news was quickly delivered to Chen Ming.

Then Chen Ming was very unhappy. He knew with his toes that Chen Jinsheng and Li Qi were just "taking advantage of opportunities" to start a rebellion at this moment, and this move made him feel disgusted. Even Hou Aiquan made him impatient.

The backbone forces under Chen and Li were the real gang forces, the Chaoshan secret society, an old tradition. In the late Qing Dynasty of the original time and space, they were the standard forces of the secret society; and Hou Aiquan was born in a local wealthy family. Judging from his previous and later actions, he was completely in the category of gentry.

"Your Highness. I'm afraid that the Chaozhou incident is just the beginning." Xiong Bingzhang is now more and more like Chen Ming's butler. The voice and weight of his words are getting heavier in front of Chen Ming.

Liu Wu was very powerless and gave the power that he originally held to Xiong Bingzhang. With Wang Huizu in Lushan and staying in the Grand Commandery, Xiong Bingzhang's position in Chen Ming's headquarters became more and more prominent.

"Do you suspect that there are still people in Guangdong who are starting an uprising?"

"Your Highness, Guangdong has always been a place with many secret societies. The Tiandihui is as strong and numerous as Fujian." Xiong Bingzhang has read some secret reports sent by the dark camp, and he has a very bad impression of the Tiandihui in Guangdong. Compared with the Tiandihui in Fujian, the Tiandihui in Guangdong focuses more on making money and is more like a gang, rather than anti-Qing.

The rebellion of Chen Jinsheng and Li Qi is just a tricky business.

"Now that Chaozhou is in full swing, no matter how unsatisfactory Chen Jinsheng and Li Qi are, Your Highness should also reward them a few, give them a half-official position, and set them as an example. This trend is unstoppable. I think Your Highness should let the Dark Camp quickly start the rebellion."

The Dark Camp's operation in Guangdong was only the Tiandihui at the beginning, but when the Fu Han Army went south for the second time and took over Jiangsu and Zhejiang with great momentum, many local gentry in Guangdong Province also boarded the Dark Camp's ship. Now is the time for the Dark Camp to exert its strength, no matter when the victory news from the sea comes, it is better to strike first. Otherwise, the entire Guangdong secret society will learn from Chen Li, and then lick their faces to ask Chen Ming for money, management, and rewards, which will not only add a lot of pressure to the Fu Han Army, but also cause chaos in the local area.

The former is very disgusting to Xiong Bingzhang, and the latter is even more hindering the Fu Han Army's grand plan.

In the future, when attacking the southwest, Guangdong's money and food will be the source of military funds for the Fu Han Army! How could Chen Ming tolerate the chaos in Guangdong?

The Fu Han Army itself did not clean up the local area and kill the gentry and gentry, so how could it tolerate the party taking the opportunity to make a fortune?

Chen Ming did not correct Xiong Bingzhang's views. The Tiandihui in Guangdong at this time was indeed very different from the Tiandihui in Fujian. Although in the original time and space, they also caused a vigorous Hongbing uprising after the Taiping Rebellion, and once gathered 200,000 troops to besiege Guangzhou, but this was a different time.

Chen Ming did not hesitate at all, and immediately issued a secret order to the Guangdong dark camp according to what Xiong Bingzhang said. He originally wanted to wait for the victory report of the navy to come, and then order the dark camp to instigate the local area and cooperate with the Fu Han Army to encircle and annihilate the Qing army in Guangdong as much as possible, but now the plan did not change quickly.

"Your Highness, what official do you think you want to confer on the Chen and Li factions?" Liu Wu asked on the side.

"Those who are not qualified will be given money to be dismissed, and those who are qualified will be taken into the army and incorporated into the logistics troops. Chen Jinsheng and Li Qi will give them a battalion officer." Chen Ming was disgusted by these two people. Chaozhou was originally in the hands of the Fu Han Army, but now Chen Ming feels like he has eaten someone's vomit. But he has to swallow this loss.

So Chen and Li can't expect to have an easy life. Besides, the backbones of these two people are all secret societies. In other words, they are all gangsters. They will be a disaster if they are released to the local area. They will be all dragged into the army and trained hard.

But Hou Aiquan, who was born as a gentry, was a scholar himself, and his ancestors were officials. Although the highest was only from the fifth rank, they could be considered gentry. The Hou family is not a big family in Chenghai, but the clan power is not weak. If it is normal times, he may be able to get a position as a local county magistrate.

"Let him go to Chaoyang to be a county magistrate, or go to Chaozhou to be an assistant official. What about the county magistrate circled by Hou Aiquan?"

"How is his official reputation?"

"It's okay? That's good. Ask him if he is willing to surrender. If he is willing, let him stay in Chenghai."

Chen Jiqing, who was accompanying him, raised his eyebrows. He knew that his outstanding cousin, who had already made him, his cousin, unable to compare with him, would never let Chen Li and others have a good time.

Chen Ming's temperament was not very aggressive, but he was a bit "vindictive". In the Fu Han Army, he basically punished those who made mistakes and rewarded those who made contributions. He remembered many things and merits very clearly. So the disgusting Chen Li and others would never be well, and even Hou Aiquan was implicated. Although the fruit that Chen Ming handed to Hou Aiquan looked very beautiful, he was the only one who could decide how it tasted. The Chenghai County Magistrate who was imprisoned by Hou Aiquan is still sitting in the Chenghai County Government. Will the Hou family have a good life?

"The Fujian Tiandihui is a timely help, and these people are not even icing on the cake!" For the overall situation in Guangdong, the uprising of the Chaozhou Tiandihui had no good influence at all, and it also brought about quite bad consequences.

After the Fu Han army landed in Shantou, it entered Chenghai the next day and rushed to Chaozhou the day after. The Qing army and civilians guarding Chaozhou City only put up a little resistance before surrendering. The money, food, gunpowder and other materials were all well preserved, while the prefect, the deputy prefect and the judge of Chaozhou fled to Dapu by boat via Hanjiang River.

The front army left a reinforced battalion [with an additional mortar team] to cooperate with Hou Aiquan's troops to defend Chaozhou City. The main force of the Fu Han army was stationed in Shantou. The logistics troops and more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians were busy from the moment they got off the ship.

The Fu Han army "forced" to buy more than 400 buffaloes, more than 700 large livestock such as donkeys, horses and mules in the surrounding areas at a price 10% higher than the market price. In addition to the animal power seized from Chaozhou and other places, the entire Shantou Port was stinking for a while.

...

In the early morning, the sun just sprinkled thousands of golden rays, outside Guangzhou Xin'an City.

The shadows of sails on the ocean covered the sea. Just when the Qing Navy and the Southeast Navy of the Fu Han Army were fighting in Daya Bay, the Zheng brothers also brought their fleet to the sea outside Guangzhou, and then directly broke into the unguarded Pearl River Estuary, pointing their spearheads directly at Xin'an County.

As the base camp of the Zheng brothers, Zheng Lianchang and Zheng Lianfu were very familiar with Xin'an.

The army went directly to the seaport outside Xin'an City. More than 20 main gunboats and hundreds of cannons fired at the port. The Qing soldiers guarding the port fell apart and fled in all directions. At this time, Su Bai, the deputy general of Sanjiang Association in Xin'an County, had just sounded the drum to gather troops.

Su Bai, whose old surname was Guarjia, was already the third generation of bannermen born in Guangzhou. His ancestors moved to Guangzhou in the 30th year of Kang Mazi, only ten years later than the first Guangzhou general.

Eighty years have passed, and Subai has taken root in Guangzhou. He has never left Guangdong Province or Beijing in his life. His belly is as big as a woman who is six or seven months pregnant. He is so weak that he can't walk a hundred steps without sweating. He can't ride a strong horse, can't shoot a hard bow, and has no military achievements. But with his identity as a Manchu, he jumped out of the category of banner soldiers and sat on the position of deputy general of Sanjiang Association, which made countless people salivate in ten years.

The stone lions at the gate of this yamen are all oozing oil.

"Hurry up, hurry up, boys!"

In Macau opposite Xin'an, Shadanye and several Portuguese artillery officers kept checking the preparations on the artillery platform, shouting loudly to encourage the soldiers. A group of black slaves, with their chests half naked, transported boxes of shells from the rear to the position.

The Zheng family fleet suddenly rushed into the mouth of the Pearl River, which was something the Portuguese had not expected. Although they knew that this Chinese pirate had become a force of the Fu Han Army, Europeans in Macau were still very worried that the Zheng family fleet would suddenly attack them.

The Zheng family fleet was a gathering of most of the South China Sea pirates, and was the most hated existence of European merchants in the past. Now they rushed into the mouth of the Pearl River without a single greeting. It would be strange if Macau did not raise its defenses.

Since the news of the Fu Han Army's mobilization of troops reached Guangzhou, a large number of Europeans withdrew from outside Guangzhou to Macau. One after another, Western sailing ships also sailed from Huangpu to Macau for anchorage. Now even these sailing ships are making preparations...

Half of the artillery on the large and small forts of the Portuguese sold to the Qing Dynasty. If the secret camp had not warned them severely, these Portuguese would probably have sold most of the forts, instead of half of them now. This is the Portuguese's revenge on the Fu Han Army!

The Zheng family fleet that captured the dock first laid down a large number of sailors, and then small and medium-sized artillery. The Zheng brothers, who thought they had the upper hand, were careless even when constructing the artillery positions. Not to mention using rattan baskets and sandbags to build the outer protection of the artillery positions, even the high-rise buildings used for observation and reconnaissance were more like a simple hanging bucket.

The muzzle began to rise little by little, reflecting a touch of cold light.

The sun rose from the right rear of the Nanyang Navy's land camp position. The clean air in the morning made people breathe smoothly. The golden sunlight cast the slanting light and the shadows of the cannon on the ground. The grove in the distance was like a carved emerald, and the black treetops could be seen on the horizon.

The official road of Xinhui extended along the seashore to the northwest, and a small village could be seen in the distance.

Xinhui Nanguan was in chaos, and a large group of people fled with their families. By the time Subai had finally assembled his troops, thousands of civilians had already fled from Nanguan - which stretched from the city gate to the seaside pier.

Now Xin'an Nanguan has been occupied by people from Nanyang Navy's land camp. After all, the Qing army wanted to defend Guangzhou, not Xin'an. Subai was just showing up here, not even building or preparing defensive positions and forts. Now that the Zheng brothers suddenly led troops to attack, Subai was unable to form a complete defense system for a while.

The early morning Lingding Ocean is filled with morning fog. When the sun rises, the morning fog melts and dissipates, becoming transparent under the bright sunlight. All the visible scenery in the fog slowly becomes clear. contour.

The smoke from the guns mixed with the fog, and in the smoke, the bright lights of the morning shone everywhere - sometimes on the water, sometimes on the shore, sometimes inside Xin'an City, sometimes outside the city.

Through the smoke, you can see the black city walls of Xin'an County, with soldiers, muskets and cannons on them.

All of this seemed to be floating, floating in the mist. The entire space in this area is filled with smoke and fog. Especially on the right wing of the battle line, the Qing soldiers who came out of Xin'an County were attacking the flank of the Nanyang Navy's land camp.

In the woods, fields, depressions, and highlands, thick smoke continued to rise out of nothing, sometimes appearing singly, sometimes in groups; grenades thrown by both sides continued to explode.

Amidst the sharp copper whistles and high-pitched shouts, the armies on both sides seemed to have returned to a hundred and twenty years ago, when the Manchu and Han armies once again started fighting in Xin'an. But compared to the battle of the Fuhan Army, the collision here was only fierce but not tragic.

The combat effectiveness of the Nanyang Navy's land camp was terrible. Compared with the Fuhan Army Marine Battalion active along the coast of Shandong, although the Nanyang Navy Marine Battalion has a large number of people, it is really a group of complete rabble. Not to mention volley shooting, they couldn't even form a complete and clean formation. However, the Sanjiang Association under Su Bai was equally bad. It was only under Xin'an City that the two sides entered an anxious state of "meeting their opponents". But as more and more Nanyang Navy Lu Yong rushed up and more and more cannons came ashore, the Zheng family fleet still gained the upper hand little by little.

The smoke expanded and exploded, and explosions kept ringing outside Xinan City. Artillery fire occasionally caused large fires, but the fires were often extinguished by both parties who were well prepared before they spread.

The Mazu Temple at Xinhui Pier is a solid stone building. Zheng Lianfu and a group of leaders stood in front of a map hanging on the wall, pointing. This is a very detailed map of Xin'an. The Qing army's gunpowder, food, various material reserves and campsites are all marked.

However, the gunnery level of the Nanyang Navy was too poor. Such a detailed map is of no use at all.

Zheng Lianchang, who was at sea, looked ashamed at this time. He was too embarrassed to look at the liaison officer at hand.

Looking at the Xin'an battle situation from the sea, it is very simple and clear.

The firepower of the Nanyang Navy's land camp was completely dominant. Dozens of cannons fired fiercely at the South Gate of Xin'an, not only smashing the city gate tower, but also sweeping away almost all the parapets at the top of the city. If it were the Fuhan Army who took advantage of the firepower and climbed up to the top of the city with a long ladder, this battle would have been fought. When they stood at the top of the city, how could the Qing army sweep them down again?

But what about the land camps of the Nanyang Navy? Not only was their charging speed slow, but all the cannons behind them had to cease firing before they dared to rush forward. Moreover, he rushed to the city three times and was killed by the Qing soldiers in the city three times. The liaison officer himself was also drunk.

Of course, the Nanyang Navy Lu Ying eventually occupied Xin'an County.

Because their strength and morale are much greater than those of Sanjiang Xie Qing Army Lu Yong.

The liaison officer did not disembark, he just wrote a letter, and two of his entourage disembarked. That night Chen Ming received a message from Fei Ge in Shantou. The news that Xin'an had been captured did not surprise him. What surprised Chen Ming was that the secret camp liaison officer's letter greatly improved the Nanyang Navy's land combat capabilities...

"Is it really that weak?" The dark camp's assessment of the Nanyang Navy's land combat capabilities is that it is not as good as the ordinary green camp!