Yizhen. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"Quick, quick, the Holy Driver!"

On both sides of the Yiyang Canal, countless excited shouts sounded at the same time, and then countless densely arranged soldiers and civilians all hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to the ground, and at the same time shouted long live.

On the narrow river of the Yiyang Canal in front of them, there seemed to be endless inland river boats slowly coming downstream, and on a 600-material boat with twelve dragon flags fluttering in the front, a yellow crank umbrella stood on the deck in front of them, and a figure wearing a red dragon robe and a silver helmet and a scarlet cloak behind his back stood with his hands in his hands, scanning both sides of the bank with a proud gaze.

His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty came to Yizhen.

Just passing by, of course.

From Yangzhou into the Yangtze River to Nanjing at this time actually more Yiyang Canal, this is the most important channel for Huaiyan southward transportation, and Guazhou is more downstream to the north of the ship walking, in addition to this time Guazhou is not a modern Guazhou, the ancient Guazhou City originally collapsed into the Yangtze River in the history of the Qing Dynasty, Yang Feng is from the north to Nanjing, take the Yiyang Canal to take a section of the countercurrent river is of course the best,

However, he no longer needs to fight Nanjing City on this trip.

In fact, his first stop was not to Nanjing.

Li Zicheng has withdrawn from Nanjing, is going all out to attack upstream, and Zheng Chenggong's Yangtze River pontoon bridge has also been built, the West Route Army is constantly crossing the Yangtze River, the decisive battle between the two sides is about to start between Dangtu and Wuhu, which can be said to be the Ming Dynasty for many years of turmoil, draw a final end of the decisive battle, after this battle is only some finishing work. The total strength of Li Zicheng's army returned to the west is actually only more than 50,000 people, his army is too large, and the Yongchang Emperor of Dashun, who originally had millions of troops, has come to this day, and only these 50,000 people are still following him, but these 50,000 people are really in a hundred battles, Zheng Chenggong's department is only 20,000, whether they can block their full attack is not easy to say, Yang Feng must rush to reinforcements as quickly as possible.

So he won't go to Nanjing for the time being.

"I am the commander of the army to rebel against the rebels, recover Nanjing, sacrifice and sweep the filial piety tomb, the local people do not need to panic, and the rebellious officials surrender themselves to the crime, anyway, the armies maintain order, and wait for the return of the thieves to deal with it separately!"

Then the emperor's voice sounded.

The sound resounded on both sides of the strait, and could be heard even if it was a mile away.

"Hooray, hooray, hooray!"

Long live the mountain cry followed suit.

In this shout, the emperor's fleet passed downstream, and the locks at the mouth of the downstream river were all opened, and the water level of the Yangtze River dropped significantly in autumn at this time, and even slightly lower than the water level of the canal......

What is that?

Almost at the same time, Liang Cheng's hand pointed forward and shouted.

Immediately afterwards, Yang Feng saw three three-masted galleons slowly heading up against the current, as well as the tricolor flag fluttering at the top of their masts, and the almost diamond-shaped symbol in the middle of the flag.

"Dutch East India Company?"

Yang Feng put his hands behind his back and said with interest: "This is an unexpected gain!" ”

This is indeed a bonus.

On the three armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company, the captains and sailors looked as if they were endless, and the warships that kept pouring out of this small estuary were also confused at once, and the gun doors on the starboard side of each opened as fast as they could, and even the total of more than 30 cannons inside were pushed out. However, this is not of much use, the number of the Ming army is too much, although these ships are much smaller than them, and they are not warships, but the problem is that the ships are full of artillery, and the guns of various calibers fixed on the deck are also aimed at them under the operation of the artillery.

"Tell them that they will enter the Yangtze River without my permission, and immediately stop the ship and wait for disposal!"

Yang Feng said with a sneer.

At this time, the total number of Ming army ships gushing out of the Yiyang River has exceeded thirty, ten of which are loaded with artillery, these artillery ships are specially modified four hundred large ships, and there is a special artillery fixed position on the front and rear decks, which can act as a support for the opposite shore when necessary, at this time, the twenty twelve-pounder guns on the ten ships are all aimed at the three armed merchant ships, and the Cao boats that are also carrying cannons behind are still sailing out one after another, and the Dutch on the three armed merchant ships are vigilantly staring at this side, and at the same time continue to lean south.

Immediately after the flag on Yang Fengzao's ship was issued, a small sentinel ship immediately sailed away from the fleet and approached the past.

It came back half an hour later.

"Your Majesty, they said that they only came to Nanjing to do business, because they had previously rebelled and occupied Nanjing and could not contact the officials of the imperial court, so they had to come presumptuously, if Your Majesty did not allow them to go to Nanjing, they were willing to immediately turn around and sail away from the Yangtze River and return to the sea."

The officer who went to contact said.

"It's a good idea, this Yangtze River is not the Rhine, can they come and leave as they want?"

Yang Feng said.

"Go and tell them to stop the ship and surrender, or sink it!"

Then he said.

With the help of the speed of the water, the total number of boats sailing out of the Yiyang Canal at this time has exceeded 100, one-third of which have artillery, and more than 60 cannons form an absolute advantage over the three armed merchant ships, and the artillery carried by the latter, the vast majority of them are nine-pounder or even six-pounder guns, and the number of twelve-pounder guns is not much, but the vast majority of the Ming army are twelve-pounder guns, and the only problem is that the Ming army's cao ships are still too small compared to these three-masted armed merchant ships with a displacement of hundreds of tons.

"That's the emperor of Beijing, if you kill him, we'll give you a million taels."

Just as Yang Feng said this, less than seven hundred meters away from him, on the Dutch armed merchant ship Tulip, Gong Dingyu pointed at him and said to Captain Philip.

"No, it's too risky."

Philip shook his head and said.

"Besides, I don't think that if they all hit Nanjing, you will still have such a ability to pay."

Then he shrugged and said.

He took these three armed merchant ships to trade in Ningbo, and then met with Gong Dingyu, the representative of the Dashun Emperor of Nanjing, under the introduction of local partners, who offered to borrow troops to defend the Yangtze River, and the offer was to give them all Penghu in Taiwan, and allow them to set up a residence similar to Macao in Zhoushan, in addition to borrowing military expenses, which could be discussed in Nanjing. Of course, he can't miss such a good thing, their main trade comes from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, if they can help the Shun army to hold the Yangtze River, then they will definitely get the privilege of trade in the future, so as to completely overwhelm the main opponent Portuguese, although he actually has no authority to make such a major decision on behalf of the company, but it does not prevent him from coming to Nanjing to see the situation.

However, I didn't expect this to be the case.

If the army had not yet fought the Yangtze River, then the deal could have been considered, but now it is meaningless.

"It's not Nanjing for you, but for your Majesty the Qing Emperor of Xingjing."

Gong Dingxiao said with a smile.

"Is your identity interesting?"

Philip said with a smirk.

"But then it will be even worse, what will His Majesty the Emperor, who is said to have only a small mountain area left, pay, and even if he does not pay this money, then what can we do? It's clear that your credibility isn't worth a million. ”

Then he said.

"You don't have to worry about the ability to pay, His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty has enough silver, although he has lost the land of Liaodong, but the gold and silver accumulated by the three generations of the Qing Dynasty in the past few decades have already been sent to the treasury in Xingjing, and one million taels is not a big amount. As for the question of credibility, isn't the current Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in need of your help? He needs cannons, he needs new birds, he needs everything that will make him rise again, and who else in the north can transport these things to the mouth of the Tumen River? Only your fleet on Dejima can, so do you still need to worry about Your Majesty's credibility? ”

Gong Dingxiao said.

"Aren't you Han? Why was it so loyal to the Tatars? ”

Philip asked with interest.

"Because they are the true Holy Lord Mingjun!"

Gong Dingyu said with a righteous face.

"No, I can't promise you, we invest in the winners, not the losers, and no amount of silver you give us will make up for the loss of our trade with this country."

Philip shook his head and said.

Obviously, he is a smart man, and the basis for his willingness to cooperate with Gong Dingyu is only that the silk tea production area in the south of the Yangtze River is controlled by the Shun army, and for them, helping these people to hold the Yangtze River will get additional benefits, but now that His Majesty the Ming Emperor has fought the Yangtze River, then the silk tea production area is also controlled in the hands of His Majesty the Emperor, even if the emperor is killed, it will still make the East India Company expelled because of the anger of this empire, no matter how much money Gong Dingyu pays, he can't make up for this loss, After all, at least half of the value of the East India Company's existence lay in its trade with China.

"Well, you're not going to give me to them, are you?"

Gong Dingxiao said helplessly.

"Of course not, although our deal will not work, I am still looking forward to trading with His Majesty the Emperor behind you."

Philip said with a smile.

"Thank you very much!"

Gong Dingxiao said.

Then he sighed, and walked down the aft building in a hurry, Philip did not look at him again, but stared at the small boat that was coming again, Gong Dingyu did not enter the cabin, but walked directly to the deck of the ship, those sailors who were nervously staring at the Ming army no one paid attention to him, just when he walked to the side of a deck gun, he suddenly crashed into the gunner, and before the latter could react, he grabbed the ignition lever.

"Lord Rui, the slave has avenged you!"

He yelled like crazy.

He then put the arquebus into the ignition hole.

The cannon that happened to be pointing at Yang Feng suddenly erupted into blazing flames.