In the roaring cannonball, Xu Hao swayed left and right with each salvo of the battleship, sniffing the thick and pungent smell of gunsmoke, and enjoying the spectacular scene of the Vietnamese warship being sunk by artillery.

Nearly 600 ships of all kinds were squeezed into the harbor, and despite the unscrupulous inclination of bullets from the Ming warships, the Annan sailors had already abandoned their ships and landed ashore, staring at the cannonballs whistling one after another, trembling with fear.

Xu Hao planned to choose the landing site at Haiphong Port, the largest and most important port in Annam, which was the second largest port in Vietnam in later years, and could directly reach the thousand-year-old capital of Thang Long (Hanoi) along the river.

"Summons to stop the attack."

The shelling, which lasted for half an hour, gradually stopped, and more than 200 small boats were slowly sinking, Xu Hao did not want to destroy all the Annam warships in one fell swoop, so he had to change to local small boats because of the attack on Thang Long.

Seeing from afar that the number of enemy troops on the shore exceeded 50,000, Xu Hao decided to cancel the landing, and after cruising around the Ming warships, they collectively turned around and sailed to Cat Ba Island, which was to be used as the base camp of the fleet.

The rolling hills and the twisting coastline form calm bays, including natural deep-sea harbors, which have been safe havens for ships traveling by sea since ancient times.

The scenery of the island is extremely beautiful, the blue sky, the beach is white and the mountains are white, the golden monkeys on the big trees can be seen from time to time, the first 5,000 people are cutting down trees, blowing up the stone walls to build military wharves and camps, the area of the island is about 140 square kilometers.

Xu Hao acquiesced in the whole army's plundering of the fishermen on the island and other evil acts, and fought in a foreign land. This is the best means to maintain morale, and the teacher who has not committed benevolence and righteousness in autumn is always the spring and autumn penmanship in the history books.

The merchant who came with the ship came running and shouted, "Tell the Governor, the island is full of white checkered wood and frankincense wood, and it is truly a treasure land." ”

Xu Hao was overjoyed, stepping on the soft white sand, and once again looked towards the endless forest, he naturally did not know that the forest area had reached tens of thousands of hectares, and there were a large number of precious trees and rare birds and beasts.

Frankincense wood is also known as honey fragrance tree, and the sap can be extracted and deposited to obtain agarwood, which will emit aroma when burned. It has a deworming effect.

Agarwood is known as the diamond of plants. The value of the best agarwood is three times that of gold, and the agarwood produced in Annam is called Anxiang in the Central Plains, which is the top grade of all the agarwood in the Nanyang area, and the fragrance of burning is the most durable. Prices remain high all year round.

I didn't expect to run into a big fortune as soon as the war started. Xu Hao smiled and said, "The brothers' salaries have been settled. ”

Once greed arises. More than 3,000 innocent residents of the island were quickly slaughtered, making Cat Ba an uninhabited island that was occupied by the Ming Dynasty for about a hundred years. A hundred years later, a bare island is left.

Sailors catch seafood in the nearby seas, and in the evening, Xu Hao's table is filled with steamed cuttlefish, boiled prawns, fried sea cucumber with green onion and sweet and sour sardines, steamed abalone with garlic and sizzling squid.

When he was feasting, Mu Hui came over happily and said happily: "Good news came from the front line, and the Annan guards Modi, Mo Sui and Ruan Xun led their troops to surrender. Mu Sheng defeated Zuo Shengling's general Hu Chai, killed 6,000 enemy troops, and captured the north bank of the Mumaru River in Yuechi. ”

Xu Hao immediately looked at the map of Annan, to be honest, he was not optimistic about Mu Sheng, compared to Mu Ying and Mu Chun, Mu Sheng's fighting ability was very ordinary, and he could make great contributions so smoothly, which showed that the Annan army was unstable.

With the defeat of the main force of the naval division, now Annan has put more than half of the troops on the front line of many states, and if Thang Long City is lost, there is no danger to defend, and it is not difficult to break through in one fell swoop.

Leaving behind 3,000 soldiers and nearly 10,000 sailors and other logisticians that night, Xu Hao abandoned Haikou Port, which was heavily garrisoned, and led 10,000 people to land in Halong Bay, which is located in the north of Cat Ba Island, and marched towards Guang'an, a choke point.

In the early morning, the fog had not yet been dispelled by the sun, and the Ming army suddenly appeared behind the general Hu Du who rushed to the rescue, facing the salvo of 10,000 flintlock muskets and the fierce attack of artillery, the Annan army was frightened by this sudden blow, and had no time to make any resistance, so it was scattered under the bombardment of guns.

The long and narrow terrain gave Xu Hao the best ambush conditions, with 2,000 men and 300 artillery pieces on the front, 3,000 people on each flank, and Mu Yi led 2,000 people to surround it in a roundabout way, intending to block the escape route of the Annan army.

In desperation, Hudu ordered the whole army to retreat in a bloody way, and in an instant, the Annamites threw away their weapons and turned around and ran towards the rear together.

The melodious sound of war drums resounded all over the land, Mu Yi ordered to shoot on the spot, in just one hour, more than 4,000 people were killed, more than 3,000 people surrendered on their knees, and Hu Du was lucky to escape to the river with more than 1,000 people.

Xu Hao is very satisfied with the combat strength and skillful movements of his subordinates, the strict training in the past few years has not been in vain, and the officers at all levels who have graduated from military academies in various places have made the whole army have the prototype of a modern army, but I don't know whether they can persist in fighting until the last moment in the predicament.

Mu Hui asked, "What should we do with these captives?" Was it brought to the island to do hard labor to cut down trees? ”

"No, I don't." Xu Hao's heart was already as hard as a rock, and he said lightly: "Behead on the spot, build a Jingguan to warn the people of Annan." ”

The military order was like a mountain, more than 3,000 Annamite people cried and shouted and were hacked to death by the Ming army with swords, and piles of heads were stacked into a pyramid-shaped Jingguan, and blood stained the river red.

Du Man, the commander of the naval division not far from Hu Du, heard that the friendly army was surrounded, and was anxious to come to help the battle, but the two armies were dozens of miles away, and the mountain road was rugged and it was inconvenient to reinforce.

The Ming army, under the banner of the righteous army, did not become deaf and blind in a strange land, and some local people came to tell the truth, and they did not care about the dead compatriots.

The endless stream of leading the party made a staff group composed of dozens of people play a role, analyzed and summarized various news, and concluded that there were nearly 100,000 defenders in Guang'an, and there were many garrisons nearby with a total of 50,000 or 60,000 people, and the government was issuing orders to the surrounding places, requiring all men to go into battle to kill the enemy, and kill a Ming army with a reward of 20 taels of silver.

Soon there were several attacks one after another, and some Annamite people relied on complex terrain such as dense forests and rivers to sneak attack lone soldiers on patrol, and in the unprepared attack, the musket lost its power and was far less effective than the short knife and spear.

The casualties made Xu Hao very annoyed, because of the death of a captain, the generals begged him not to go to the front line in person, after all, no one can afford any accident in the dignified Chinese military governor's mansion, even if he has a cold, Xu Hao reluctantly promised to be in a safe place in the rear.

News came from the locals that General Hu Du and Du Maner mobilized soldiers and civilians to dig deep trenches outside the city in an attempt to hold the city, and there were guards on both sides with troops to support.

Xu Hao reacted immediately after receiving the enemy's intentions, and decided to turn north to storm Xialongcheng, which happened to block the 20,000 defenders rushing from Xialongcheng to Guang'an.

Xu Hao didn't know the actual situation on the front line, so he could only wait for the result, the two armies met on a plain, and attacked each other at the same time, facing the overwhelming Annan soldiers, Mu Yi smiled.

10,000 against 20,000 is the best way for the Ming army to meet the enemy head-on, and everyone has the confidence to win. Seeing that the Ming army calmly stood in a queue for non-stop shooting, under the powerful offensive, the Annan army did not have the power to fight back at all, and soon could not support the wolf bèi to flee, the Ming army took advantage of the victory to pursue, and that night the city gate was blown open with artillery, and occupied the city of Ha Long.

By the time Xu Hao arrived with his people, the entire town had become a ghost, all the men were slaughtered, the Ming army was looting anything of value from house to house, and the cries of women were heard everywhere.

Four or five children ran out in a panic, blocked in the corner by a dozen laughing Ming soldiers, Xu Hao turned around and left, and the screams of the children before death were faintly heard behind them.

Along the way, there were corpses with different heads everywhere, and the woman who was brutally killed by rape was lying in a pool of blood with her eyes staring, Xu Hao frowned and returned to the temporary military camp outside the city, and met with the generals at all levels who asked for merit, and the most courageous soldiers in the battle were directly promoted to official positions, and announced that the property and women who had obtained it would be owned by the individual as a reward.

For a time, the soldiers were thunderous with joy, the morale of the whole army was high, and the war after that was fought bravely one by one, the Ming army successively sacked the three big cities of Tonggan, Anle and Jinpu and hundreds of villages, killed tens of thousands of enemies and killed hundreds of thousands of Annamite people, and left no chickens and dogs in a radius of 100 miles, returned to the beautiful Halong Bay with trophies, and returned to Cat Ba Island by boat.

At the same time, Zhang Fu raised his arms in front of the battle and shouted: "The great husband will report the national merit today, and the first person to climb to the top of the city will be rewarded!" ”

The officers and men of the whole army saw the commander taking the lead, and their morale was immediately boosted, and Huang Zhong, the governor of the army, took the lead and led the 4,000 soldiers who were defeated that day to attack the city of Duobang.

In advance, the Ming army began to feint in other places, which attracted the attention of the Annan army, and Zhang Fu organized the elite of the whole army to plan to forcibly break through a little, and it was necessary to take many states today.

Although nearly 2 million men were densely guarding the 900-mile-long defensive line, and the total strength was far greater than that of the opponent, the 200,000 Ming troops attacked the city of Duobang, and the forces of the two sides were almost equal, and the Annamite people obviously made a big mistake.

After two months of confrontation, the Annan people had already become a little lax from the grass and trees, taking advantage of the dark night when they couldn't see their fingers, Huang Zhong ordered the war horses to rush out of a road alive, and the Ming army that followed behind carried a large number of ladders and erected them on the wide trench.

The commander made Cai Fu take the lead in the city, jumped to the city wall after slashing the defenders to death, and the rear continued to climb up the sergeants, at this time Annan was shocked to realize that the Ming army had attacked.

Zhang Fu under the city immediately issued a military order, and at the same time, seeing that all the torches were lit, the deafening sound of war drums sounded behind him, and the Ming army pushed a cart loaded with tons of gunpowder and braved the rain of arrows to kill the city.

Thundered! The city gate was blown apart, and the huge power even the city walls on both sides were collapsed, Zhang Fu took the lead in killing into the city, and 200,000 Ming troops poured in like a tide. (To be continued......)