From Changshu to Chongming Island, it is only 60 kilometers. Zheng Chenggong took Wang Xinyu, Zheng Cong, Liu Guoxuan, Chen Yonghua, Huang Ting, Wang Yuyou, Huang Zhao and others on a fast boat and went down the river, but they arrived at Chongming Island in two hours.

Zheng Chenggong and his entourage landed on Chongming Island, and Cai Yun, who was responsible for escorting the new-style swarm of rockets, stepped forward and bowed his hand: "Knock on the prince!" All 20 new fire vans have arrived! ”

"Let's go, take Gu to have a look!" Zheng Chenggong waved his hand.

When I walked to the place where the new swarm of bees was parked, I saw twenty gun trucks covered with canvas swinging out and parked on flat ground. Zheng Chenggong stepped forward and lifted the canvas of a gun truck, but saw that this new type of swarm rocket, known as the fire box car, was very different from the previous Ming military fire box car, a swarm of bee rockets. In the past, the Liaodong Ming army used a swarm of rockets to deal with the Houjin, and the rockets were loaded in a wooden cylinder, and a wooden cylinder could launch three to thirty-two rockets; In the past, there were 300 arrows and 128 arrows in the car, which was actually a swarm of rockets placed on the car.

Instead of the body of the original one, the new type of wagon used a Western-style four-pounder gun carriage with two large wheels that could be pulled by horses. On top of the gun carriage, there are copper pillars supporting thirty-two copper firing guides. This is Dai Cang's drawings of the rocket slip in the "Wubei Zhi", which merged the original single copper guide rail to form a multi-launch rocket launcher, which was placed on the gun carriage to become a new type of fire box.

The copper launch rail means that this kind of swarm can be reused, unlike the original wooden cylinder, after a launch, the wooden cylinder is also burned out and has to be replaced with a new one.

Zheng Chenggong said: "Take a look at the new swarm of rockets." ”

Cai Yun asked people to present a new swarm of rockets and put them in front of Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong looked at the rocket carefully. I saw that the head of the rocket was made of thick cardboard, and behind it was a very long wooden pole, which was used for balancing.

Wang Xinyu also picked up the rocket and observed it, estimating that the diameter of the warhead of this rocket is a little more than two inches, the length of the warhead is two feet, and the wooden pole behind it is five feet long. The structure resembles the later Congreve rocket. A rocket weighs about ten pounds, and there is a fuse behind the warhead.

"How powerful is this rocket?" Wang Xinyu asked.

Cai Yun replied: "A rocket contains three catties of explosive gunpowder, as well as steel balls and tribulus terrestris, which is as powerful as the flowering shell of a Hongyi cannon. But the lowly has seen this kind of rocket test launch, and the explosion rate is much higher than that of the flowering shell of the Hongyi cannon, and the rate of fire is fast. Although the accuracy is very poor, there are multiple salvos, which can compensate for the weakness of poor accuracy. ”

"What about range?" Zheng Chenggong asked.

"It can shoot two hundred zhang away, which is not as good as the range of the Hongyi cannon. Even the range of the mortar is inferior. However, it can be fired in dense numbers, and can kill and injure pieces of Tartars. Cai Yun replied.

Wang Yuyou said with a smile: "When I was in Xiamen, I saw Lord Dai's father and son test firing this kind of weapon, if it is a formation, to deal with the Tartar cavalry, this is a sharp weapon!" It's just that this rocket is extremely expensive. ”

"How much does it cost?" Zheng Chenggong asked.

At that time, the reason why the Ming army in Liaodong could not be equipped with a large number of rockets and powerful fire vans that could deal with cavalry was that they could not bear the high cost of these weapons. Feather arrows fired by a fire van and a swarm of rockets. The cost of an arrow is between one tael and two taels of silver, and more than a dozen fire vans are fired at one time. It's a few thousand taels of silver! And the effect is equivalent to the random arrows fired by the archers.

Chongzhen was so poor that his dragon robe was patched at that time, how could he be equipped with such a luxurious weapon in large quantities? And the range of a swarm of bees is not as good as the cannon of Houjin, since Kong Youde surrendered to Houjin, Houjin has a cannon, the Ming army is no longer equipped with a luxury and easy to become the target of the opponent's artillery.

Wang Yuyou replied: "This weapon is more expensive than the fire box car in Liaodong back then!" A rocket filled with ordinary gunpowder costs about thirty miles of silver, and if it is loaded with a new type of gunpowder like General Wang. A rocket costs hundreds of silver. ”

Zheng Chenggong gasped: "Good guy! A car will cost 1,000 taels of silver at a time! A salvo of these twenty fire vans is more than 20,000 pieces of silver! ”

"And this kind of fire box car is very fast, after one salvo, it can be reloaded again for a second salvo immediately. After three salvos, it is only after the launch rack that it is necessary to think about cooling the launcher. Cai Yun replied.

Zheng Chenggong smiled: "It's more expensive." It's good to be powerful! Three salvos are fired, each of which is a flowering bullet, and how many Tartars can be destroyed! Fortunately, there is a Manila trade route opened up by Yu'er, otherwise, Lone really can't afford such a silver consumption! When the Tartars are defeated, Lone will go back to reward Dai Cang's father and son! ”

Next, Wang Yuyou introduced new weapons such as sub-mother cannons and copper mortar cannons made by Dai Cang's father and son.

The sub-mother cannon is a new type of artillery improved by Dai Cang and Dai Zi father and son according to the Franc machine, and its weight is lighter than that of the Franc machine, because of the improved air tightness, the accuracy and range are more than the Franc machine. This kind of cannon was originally made by Dai Zi for Kangxi, and he made great contributions when he was in Pingsan and against Galdan, but now he came to this world in advance and became a sharp weapon in the hands of the Ming army. There are two kinds of cannons, one is a ninety-pound iron cannon, and the other is a forty-pound copper cannon.

The copper mortar cannon is a new type of mortar cannon improved by Dai Zi according to Wang Xinyu's mortar drawings.

Compared with the original iron cannon, the copper cannon can have a thinner barrel wall and is less prone to explosion under the same caliber, so the weight is lighter. A copper mortar cannon that can fire a thirty-two-pound flowering cannonball weighs only more than 200 catties! The bronze mortar cannon that fired an eight-pounder shell weighed only about 40 catties.

Seeing these copper mortar cannons, Wang Xinyu was overjoyed: such a weight is close to the mortars of later generations! The mountain troops are easy to carry and powerful, and they are a sharp weapon for fighting cattle across the mountains! Although the rate of fire was much slower than that of later mortars, it was already a very advanced weapon in this era.

As for the real mortar, it is possible to wait for a large area to be planted with rubber, to install a closed air ring on the shell, and to solve the problem of the airtightness of the shell and the barrel, which is still early.

After seeing these new weapons, Zheng Chenggong was very happy, but soon he came back to his senses and thought of a very important question: "Jieqi (Wang Yuyou's character)." The army you mentioned can take advantage of the advantages of weapons and take the initiative to attack and find the main force of the old thief in the hilly area for a decisive battle. However, if Aobai does not attack our hills, but adopts the means of encirclement, taking advantage of the superiority in troops, to cut off our logistical supply lines. Our soldiers are trapped on the mountain, and in the end, are they not going to be defeated? ”

Wang Yuyou said: "Back to the prince, we are using the hill to arrange copper mortar cannons, scattered soldiers, and attack the Tartars everywhere. But the battlefield of the real decisive battle is on the flat ground between the hills and the hills! Ao Bai suffered the loss of our copper mortar artillery at the beginning, and he would definitely not lose a large number of men to attack the mountain, and would choose to cut off our baggage transportation line and surround our army. Since he is going to choose to surround our army. Then our army will fight a decisive battle with Aobai on the flat ground in the col! ”

"This requires going to the field to survey the terrain before we can make a deployment of troops." Zheng Chenggong said.

Wang Yuyou nodded: "I am going to survey the terrain and arrange the location of the decisive battle." When the time comes, if Ao Bai wants to encircle us, we can first avoid its edge, use mobile forces to disperse the enemy's forces, and finally counter-encircle one of their protrusions and concentrate our forces. Annihilate one! As for our logistical transport lines, they must be safe. Therefore, the decisive battle site cannot be too far from Hangzhou. But not too close. ”

Zheng Chenggong nodded: "This king understands that it is too close to Hangzhou, and the Tartars will directly bypass the flat land north of Hangzhou and attack the city directly." It is too far from Hangzhou, and our troops are insufficient to guarantee the safety of the transport line. ”

Wang Xinyu asked, "Mr. Wang." We chose to fight the Tartars in the west of Hangzhou, but our main force was still in Changshu, and from Changshu to Hangzhou, even if we took the canal to transport troops, it would take two days and two nights at the earliest. And after we arrived in Hangzhou. It can no longer rely on waterways, so it can only march by land, and it is very fast to be able to travel fifty miles a day! According to this calculation, it will take at least more than 10 days for our army to deploy to the west of Hangzhou. And Aobai has already arrived in Jing County, if the Tartars speed up the march, more than ten days later, they have already arrived in the west of Hangzhou, at that time we have not been arranged, how to fight? ”

Wang Yuyou said with a smile: "General Wang, I have studied several battles you have fought, and they have all used the method of procrastination to slow down the Tartars' march. This time, we can still use the method of dragging! Harass the enemy with small forces, make the Tartars uneasy along the way, and buy time for our army! ”

"What if Ao Bai ignores us and also sends a small force to contain our harassment team, and their main force takes Hangzhou before us?" Wang Xinyu asked again.

Wang Yuyou said: "Ao Bai doesn't dare to take such a risk!" If their rear is unstable, they rashly attack Hangzhou, but it will cause their more than 100,000 troops to fall into the isolated city of Hangzhou and fall into the encirclement of our army! General Wang, you look at the map yourself, there are our harassment troops in the west, Huzhou in the northwest, the Qiantang River in the east, and Jiaxing and other places in the north that we occupy. At that time, as long as we cut off the logistical supply lines of the Tartars, and we are fortified in Hangzhou, they will run out of food and suffer a crushing defeat. Ao Bai came this time to win steadily, and he would not take rash risks. ”

"Mr. Wang is really smart!" Wang Xinyu said with a smile, "The general also has an idea: when we win this battle, we will send a team into Jiangxi, establish our base in the mountainous area, and insert a nail in the heart of the Tartars, so that the Tartars of the two lakes, Anhui, Jiangsu, Fujian and Zhejiang will not be at peace!" ”

Between Nanjing and Hangzhou, the hills and rivers are dense, it is precisely because there are many hills, so the economically developed area is between Nanjing and Shanghai and Shanghai-Hangzhou, and the railway lines of later generations give priority to Shanghai-Nanjing and Shanghai-Hangzhou, and go around a big bend. It was not until the development of science and technology that the Nanjing-Hangzhou high-speed railway was built. Southern Anhui, west of Nanjing-Hangzhou, is also mostly mountainous and hilly terrain, with a large number of jungles, streams, hills and small rivers, which is not conducive to cavalry mobility. There is only a little place to the north of Hangzhou, and it is a plain from Hangzhou to Huzhou, but the water network area from Huzhou to Hangzhou is defended by the artillery of the Zheng Jiajun Naval Division, and Zheng Chenggong is not worried about the Qing army going to Huzhou.

As for whether the Qing army would have diverted its route to attack Changshu because the road to Hangzhou was blocked? I don't worry about this Zheng Chenggong, the Heaven and Earth Society has a perfect intelligence system, and you can know the movements of the Qing army at any time.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army and the Qing army fought in the customs and the Qing army several times in the battle, the Ming army suffered a big loss in intelligence, at that time there were two reasons: the first is that the emperor Taiji continued to send to the Guannei and bought a large number of fine works, so that the Later Jin knew everything about the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming army did not know anything about the Later Jin; The second is that before the battle, the number of scouts who were good at riding horses in Houjin was much more than that of the Ming army, and the Ming army suffered a loss due to the slaughter of spies on both sides. At the same time, the Later Jin army also killed or captured all Han Chinese who approached their army, cutting off the Ming army's source of intelligence.

The situation is different now than it was then, the Qing court occupied most of the country, the Han people were shaved and changed, and it was impossible for the Qing army to kill all the people it met on the march; The second is that Jiangnan is mountainous and jungled, which is conducive to the concealment of Ming army spies, and the intelligence at this time is fair to both sides.

The support of the logistics line of the Ming army was very important, and Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army took on the role of ensuring the logistics supply line of the Ming army.

After Zheng Jiajun triumphantly crossed the river from Yangzhou and returned to Changshu, Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army left Changshu and arrived in Hangzhou. After the Ming army arrived in Hangzhou, they opened up a channel along the Xin'an River upstream. Entering the mountainous area, the Zhejiang army landed and successively conquered Tonglu, Qingxi, Jiande, Yanzhou and other cities.

The main force of the green camp in Zhejiang was annihilated in the city of Hangzhou, and in these counties, there were almost no green camp Qing troops, only some county officials and people. Because of the bad impact caused by Zhu Guozhi's three major Jiangnan cases, the Jiangnan scholars hated the Qing court from the bottom of their hearts. After the arrival of the Ming army, the local magistrate was obstructed by the local gentry, and even the people could not be gathered.

After Wang Yuyou's battle plan was formulated, Wang Xinyu sent the second mountain town of the Qiongzhou Army to catch up with Hangzhou by boat, preparing to join forces with the Zhejiang Army to contain the main force of the Qing army. Although the second mountain town was a new mountain army formed later (the old mountain army had already marched westward in Sichuan), the combat effectiveness of this army was not bad, and it was good at mountain warfare. With the cooperation of the Zhejiang army, the second mountain town of the Qiongzhou Army can hold the nose of the Qing army.

At this point, the Ming army established a transportation and supply line for Hangzhou to sail upstream along the river, and after arriving at Tonglu, it followed the mountain road by the stream to southern Anhui. This is the safest logistical supply line, which is not easy to be cut off by the Qing army.

In the territory of Jingde County in southern Anhui, the mountains overlap, and a winding official road passes through the col between Kushiling and Xianling Mountain.

In the dense mountain forest, several figures in green military uniforms appeared, holding monoculars in their hands, observing the mountain road in the mountain pass. After a few moments, the Qing scout cavalry passed through the official road. (To be continued.) )