Author's note: I didn't think about it well before, and the time in the article felt too tight, so I revised it, and the time of the Battle of Xiamen in this book was changed to August 10.

……

When the Ming army and the Qing army were engaged in a decisive battle in Xiamen, Deng Ming met Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi in Zhenjiang and heard the good news that they had taken control of Chongming Island.

Ma Fengzhi saw Deng Ming for the first time, and his demeanor seemed a little cramped, while Zhang Huangyan was obviously very interested, and he was even more interested when he talked about the recovery of Chongming Island: "Last time, the king of Yanping County wanted to take this island, but he still failed to win after many days of hard fighting, and he didn't expect that this time it would take no effort to get it." ”

The last time Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong left Nanjing side by side, Zheng Chenggong talked about the idea of establishing a Yangtze River Naval Division, and if Chongming Island could be captured, it could be used as a base to constantly harass the Qing army's Cao Yun. Zhang Huangyan didn't know that the reason why Deng Ming came this time was to monopolize the salt business and crack down on the competitors of Sichuan salt merchants, but thought that Deng Ming and Zheng Chenggong thought together: "Speaking of which, the Admiral and the King of Yanping County coincide on this point." ”

"Yes, Cao Yun is the lifeblood of the court, and the vision of the king of Yanping County is really good." Deng Ming was also embarrassed to sue the other party as soon as he came up, and he only came to Jiangnan because he was at the request of a guy who almost died of eating chicken. In Deng Ming's view, Cao Yun is undoubtedly very important, but he is also worried that the attack on Cao Yun will be fiercely counterattacked by the Qing court, and now whether the Ming army can start a war of attrition around Cao Yun in Jiangnan is a question: "If the Imperial Court finds that Cao Yun is in danger, they will inevitably concentrate their forces south, even Wu Sangui and other southwestern feudatories may also be transferred back, can our army defeat the main force of the Tartars here in Jiangnan?" ”

Zhang Huangyan was much more optimistic than Deng Ming: "The Tatars need more than 10 million taels of silver and millions of stone of grain in Jiangnan every year to drive the green camp in the north and buy those who have turned their backs on their ancestors to serve them." If the Tartars had no luck, they wouldn't have been able to jump for a few days. ”

However, Deng Ming was not as optimistic as Zhang Huangyan, because he remembered that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had also broken the luck of Cao, but the Manchus still survived. He suspected that the lack of luck might make it much more difficult for the Qing court, but if the strength of the Ming army was strictly depleted in order to achieve this goal, then Deng Ming would have to weigh it, after all, the strength of the Ming army was more valuable now, and it was more difficult to replenish it than the Qing court.

If Cao Yun was threatened by the long-term severance, Deng Ming believed that the Qing army would send more troops to Jiangnan, and he would not be able to use the small number of troops in his hands to extort money as he did now. This, of course, will greatly affect Deng Ming's reconstruction efforts in Sichuan, and his IOU is guaranteed for tomorrow's prosperity, providing funds to tide over today's difficulties, and it is difficult to predict how bad the economy will be if there is no tomorrow.

"If the Imperial Court transfers the three feudatories back to save Jiangnan, the King of Jin can go out of Guizhou." Zhang Huangyan said casually. Under the influence of Deng Ming, the Fujian, Zhejiang, and Ming armies' views on the Chuang and Western armies have also become better and better, at least if they send troops now, Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong will never take out such a thing as "Li Thief advocating chaos" as the beginning of the article.

After hearing this, Deng Ming froze, he had been pondering the benefits of this matter to Sichuan, and after finally establishing some tacit understanding with Jiangnan officials, Deng Ming began to tend to be conservative, subconsciously hoping to maintain the status quo, so that he could draw strength from the Yangtze River basin for a long time and enhance Sichuan's strength.

Therefore, Zhang Huangyan's unintentional words sounded like a reproach to him in Deng Ming's ears, and Deng Ming's attitude towards Yunnan was not to take the initiative to make contact.

At first, Deng Ming felt troublesome, because his own life experience was really a big problem, and if the fake Huang Yue's King of Jin asked seriously, Deng Ming would have no reason not to give any answer. As far as Deng Ming knew, Wen Anzhi had been helping him share this pressure before, and he was vague about Li Dingguo's many inquiries. Although Deng Ming was grateful, he would definitely not mention this matter in front of Wen An, because he was neither willing to lie, nor could he give a reasonable explanation-in this case, it would be better to let Inspector Wen continue to misunderstand--After several attempts to explain failed, Deng Ming had always been this ostrich mentality on the issue of his life experience, pretending not to see this unsolved problem.

As Deng Ming's power in Chengdu grew, his feelings for Yunnan became more and more subtle, and Deng Ming was not ignorant of the hostility between Jianchang and Kunming. The last time Di Sanxi rushed to Chengdu's aid, he also praised Deng Ming's merits, saying that Jianchang resolutely obeyed Deng Ming's leadership -- of course, there was water in this remark, and the relationship between Jianchang and Chengdu was currently an alliance, and it was even stronger than the alliance between Deng Ming and Li Laiheng. But at least Feng Shuangli's faction is Deng Ming's ally, if Yongli investigates Deng Ming's crime of impersonating the clan, Deng Ming knows that Feng Shuangli will most likely be on his side like Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi, and He Zhen, while Li Dingguo is different.

Therefore, Deng Ming naturally has a sense of alienation from Kunming, and the issue of identity leads him to be weak-minded, and the weakness of the heart brings fear, and this fear even caused some hostility towards Kunming in Deng Ming's heart.

Deng Ming would never admit that he was hostile to the great hero Li Dingguo, but now that he seriously reflected for a while, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Actually, I am full of wariness of the King of Jin, which is different from the King of Yanping, because I heard Mu Tan say that he mistakenly thought that I was the King of the Young Tang Dynasty, so I naturally put my heart into the King of Yanping, and I will take the initiative to think about how to cooperate with the King of Yanping, how to help each other and benefit each other." But I never put myself in the shoes of the King of Jin, who used a ruined Yunnan to resist the pressure of Wu Sangui and endure the contradictions and frictions with Jianchang...... Alas, I really never thought about how to contribute to the soldiers in Yunnan. ”

"Zhang Shangshu is right." After remorseful himself, Deng Ming seriously discussed with Zhang Huangyan the feasibility of completely cutting off the Cao Yun, if the Qing court had to transfer back the troops of Wu Sangui and other feudatories from the southwest, although Deng Ming might bear more pressure because of this, Li Dingguo could undoubtedly breathe a sigh of relief and win the opportunity to recuperate. In a few years, Li Dingguo will be able to threaten Liangguang again and share the pressure of Deng Ming and Zheng Chenggong: "If we stick to Chongming Island, the Qing court will inevitably concentrate troops and horses from the surrounding four or five provinces to attack, what does Shang Shu think the odds of victory?" ”

"The Admiral has taken a high look at the Imperial Court, and Yanping can disperse a lot of Tartar forces for us." Zhang Huangyan thinks that the opportunity is not small, the last time Deng Mingjian harassed Caoyun, he did not object, but because the Ming army did not have a solid base here in the Yangtze River, and now with Chongming Island, it is natural to go further: "Yanping threatens the coastal defense of thousands of miles of the Imperial Court, and Zhejiang and Shandong are not only unable to support the two rivers, but also need the Imperial Court to send troops to assist in the defense." ”

Speaking of Zhang Huangyan and told Deng Ming, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already concentrated the naval divisions of the five provinces to attack Xiamen, and heard that a decisive battle with Zheng Chenggong was going to be held: "When Yanping sweeps away the naval divisions of the Imperial Court, how can they attack Chongming?" ”

Deng Ming did not remember the victory or defeat of the Battle of Xiamen in history, although he believed that Zheng Chenggong would most likely not lose before recovering Taiwan, but he was worried that this was because of his arrival and led to an unexpected accident: "The Imperial Court concentrated the naval divisions of the five provinces to attack Xiamen, and the king of Yanping County would not have any difficulties, right?" ”

"Can't the Admiral trust Yanping like this?" Although there was some unhappiness with Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan was still full of confidence in the Min army: "If the captives don't go, they will be defeated." ”

Deng Ming was still a little worried: "I heard that Dasu brought a lot of elite soldiers from the north and south green battalions. ”

"Even if you land, you are not afraid, in the last battle of Nanjing, Yanping was really abnormal." Zhang Huangyan knew why Deng Ming was worried, because Deng Ming did not know Zheng Chenggong's true strength, and he used Zheng Chenggong and Jin Li to fight in Haicheng as an example. At that time, Zheng Jiansheng had been in the army for two years, and he had begun to know how to fight and train soldiers, although he was still enforcing the rule that Ma Er was equivalent to the first rank of merit. But Jin Li also came with a coalition army of several provinces, at the beginning Zheng Chenggong because of his youth and a few consecutive victories were a little proud of the enemy, so he took the initiative to attack and engage with Jin Li's ten times the force, although the 10,000 Ming army surrounded the 100,000 Qing army, or because of the lack of troops and could not be annihilated, was surrounded by Jin Li, and the Ming army was defeated. After having to retreat to Haicheng, Zheng Chenggong gritted his teeth and held on to the city to wear down the spirit of the Qing army, and after all the grain and grass were exhausted, Zheng Chenggong used this to encourage the army to go out of the city to counterattack, and defeated Jin Li's 100,000 green battalion in one fell swoop, and Jin Li was dismissed: "Because of the defeat in Nanjing, perhaps Da Su thought that the land war was not Yanping's strength, and the Tartars who lost to Yanping before were all because of incompetence, so they actually wanted to cross the sea to attack Yanping!" Dasu is just walking to his own death. ”

In Deng Ming's previous life, Zhang Juren also had great expectations for Zheng Jiansheng, and after the two parted ways because of the problem of King Lu, although Zhang Juren criticized Zheng Jiansheng, he still hoped that one day he could release his previous suspicions. Until he learned that Zheng Jiansheng had died in Taiwan, Zhang Juren felt that he could not support himself and completely despaired of the situation, so he disbanded the Zhoushan Rebels and let them try to survive, while he was generous and righteous.

Zhang Huangyan's confidence also infected Deng Ming: "If Yanping can severely damage the five provincial water divisions in Yuting, it will indeed be of great help to us here." ”

……

Huang Wu commanded the main force of the naval division to bypass the south bank and march in the direction of Gulangyu Island, where he met Zhou Rui and Chen Yaoce, who were waiting for the battle.

"Here comes the Tartars!" After seeing the ships of the Qing army appear in front of him one after another, Zhou Rui let the ten warships under his command line line up in a neat row, and then ordered loudly: "Anchor!" Drop the sails! ”

Zhou Rui's ship was the first to complete this action, and the other nine Ming warships lined up with him also made this action. The sail is one of the weaknesses of the sea ship, not only the fire will cause the battleship to lose power, but also let the fire spread to the battleship, Zhou Rui has no intention of maneuvering, so he doesn't need the sail, of course, there is no need to put this target.

The ships of the Qing army approached closer and began to fire at the Ming army. And the Ming army just stopped motionless at sea, enduring the shelling of the Qing army.

"Is this waiting for death?" Seeing the movements of the Ming army on the opposite side, Huang Wu, who commanded the operation, was also a little confused, and the Ming army dropped sail and anchored, which was a fixed target on the sea, and could only endure the ravages of the Qing army's artillery fire. Although there were no sails, it was not so easy to make the Ming warships raise a raging fire, but such a beating could only delay the sinking time, and it was only a matter of time before they were destroyed.

Cannonballs were fired at the ten Ming warships from all directions, and sawdust flew all over the deck, and although Zhou Rui and the soldiers were hiding behind bunkers, people were still hit from time to time.

"Dig out the water, dig out the water!" In the cabin, a Ming officer shouted loudly with all his might, and the continuous shelling finally caused a crack in the hull, and the sea water poured in from it, and the Ming sailors tried their best to plug the gap in the waterline with wood, and formed a queue to scoop up the water from the bilge and send it to the deck to be emptied. Wooden sea-going ships can hold on for a long time by this means of repairing and scooping water, and as long as the hull does not catch fire, it is extremely difficult to sink a sea-going ship by artillery.

Soldiers kept being hit by flying wood chips, but Zhou Rui still stuck to his observation post on the deck, he bent down and stared at the Qing fleet not far away, waiting for an opportunity to return fire.

The ten Ming ships in front of him were hit by the artillery of the Qing army, and the masts were broken one after another, watching the masts fall into the sea, Huang Wu still did not find any signs of the other side fighting back, and there were no oars sticking out of the oar area below - the other party was not far from the coast, the hull had been heavily damaged, and it had lost its main ability to maneuver, but it still had no intention of leaving the battlefield.

Under normal circumstances, such enemy ships with destroyed masts will no longer be the first target, and naval warfare will give priority to attacking those intact enemy ships, and such enemy ships that have lost their ability to maneuver are not a threat, and may wait until after the war to make a forced landing. But today was different, these ten Ming warships were in the way of the Qing army to Xiamen Port, and because the sails were lowered early, there was no fire.

"How long is this going to be?" Huang Wu didn't have the patience to continue to wear down, so he ordered the clippers to attack the ten Ming warships.

Seeing the Qing ships approaching, Zhou Rui's fleet finally began to fire back, but because they could not adjust their positions, the Qing speedboats quickly bypassed their artillery intensive area and approached Zhou Rui's ship.

"Kill!" After seeing countless iron cables thrown from the opposite ship, Zhou Rui shouted, drew his waist knife and jumped onto the deck, and the Ming soldiers behind him also followed his example, shouting and rushing to the side of the ship, and fighting with the Qing army who jumped over.

While besieging these ten Ming warships, the Qing army has also been vigilantly looking at the other ten Ming warships located behind Zhou Rui's fleet, they are not far from the war zone, and the Qing army needs to be wary of them rushing up to perform ramming, or reinforcing Zhou Rui's troops in the bitter battle.

But the Ming ships behind didn't seem to see the fierce battle in front of them, they stayed in the distance, watching the battle without moving, and after half an hour, the fighting on the two Ming ships stopped fighting, and the green flag was raised to the end of the incomplete mast. The Qing ships surrounding these two Ming warships turned around and sailed towards the Ming warships that were still fighting.

"Kill, kill!" Zhou Rui roared as he redoubled his strength to swing the big knife in his hand, the four fingers on his left hand had been lost, just now he used his hand to block a dagger that he didn't have time to dodge, and while losing half of the palm of his left hand, he stabbed the knife into the enemy's stomach.

There was no time to bandage the wounds, more enemies jumped in, and Zhou Rui's companions became fewer and fewer, and before he knew it, several more wounds were added to his body, and the enemies also formed a circle around him......

When Zhou Rui's eyes were wide open and he fell weakly on the blood-soaked deck, the last few Ming soldiers were also forced to the stern of the ship. Another Ming soldier was mortally wounded, and he sat down on the ground, leaning his back against the side of the ship, and looked desperately at the sea behind him—Chen Yaoce's fleet was not far away, and it seemed to be two or three arrows away, and the dying soldier couldn't help but mutter, "Can't you come and help us?" ”

Oars poked out from the sides of the fallen friendly warship, and Chen Yaoce knew that the enemy wanted to use the captured oars to drive the ship out of the channel and make way for the Qing fleet behind.

"Well done!" Chen Yaoce looked at the ship that used to be Zhou Rui and said softly. He looked at the sky, and the sun had risen overhead. Although the ocean current below the ship is still from south to north, the speed has become relatively slow, and Chen Yaoce muttered to himself again: "There is still an hour, and the tide should recede." ”

After leading the fleet to retreat a short distance and adjusting the distance between the ships, Chen Yaoce gave the same order as Zhou Rui just now, but he added two more: "Throw all the oars into the sea and destroy the rudder." ”

The order was carried out to the letter.

The ten boats blocking the road in front of him were all driven away by the Qing army and rushed to the beach to the east, and Chen Yaoce knew that the enemy's attack on him was imminent. He glanced back at his back, it was Chen Hui's fleet, and he was ordered to stay behind Chen Yaoce's back and prepare: "You don't have a chance, save your strength to avenge us." ”

……

Takasaki.

After hearing the sound of artillery from the south, Shi Lang concluded that Huang Wu had already engaged in a fierce battle with the main force of Zheng Chenggong's naval division, and Zheng Chenggong would definitely have no time to worry about it in the short term, so he sent a signal to the Qing army in the north to launch a surprise attack.

Chen Peng's henchmen were deployed on the ten Zheng warships deployed here, and when they saw the signal, they broke out and took the warships hostage to surrender to the Qing army on the other side. Despite the suddenness of the incident, two Ming warships refused to surrender, and the sailors on board defeated Chen Peng's henchmen and hurried towards the port of Xiamen.

However, Chen Peng was not worried about this, because the Qing army on the other side could cross the strait in a blink of an eye, and Zheng Chenggong did not have time to react.

The Qing troops waiting on the shore cheered when they saw the eight battleships raising the green flag, and waited for the Qing troops to board the battleships and take control of the battleships from Chen Peng's subordinates who surrendered. Five thousand Qing troops boarded the ferries on the shore one after another, shouting and heading towards the coast of Gaoqi.

When the Qing army on the Gaoqi side launched a forced crossing, Shi Lang also began to launch a large-scale landing on the long coastline, this time not only the green battalion, but also the men and horses of the strong Eight Banners.

"There is fighting on both sides of the east and west, and officers and soldiers are trying to land." Chen Peng looked at the Qing army ships that drove over, and pondered in his heart: "When the officers and soldiers go ashore, should I take them straight to Xiamen Port, or will I lead them to attack Gan Hui or Yu Xin first?" ”