Chapter 1116 Zhenjiang Fort

The Haihan Army conducted a simple search of the remaining settlement area near the port of Guanglu Island, but did not find any living people left on the island. It can be seen that Shang Kexi's attitude was very decisive when he evacuated this place, regardless of gender. All the young and old were packed up and taken away. However, the various living facilities on the island are quite complete. Various handicraft workshops, warehouses, private schools, clinics, government offices, and military camps are all available. The areas where the people live are also planned like camps. It is so well organized that there is even a small salt farm on the island, basically forming a complete social system that is self-sufficient and has a clear division of labor.

Considering that it has been the frontline of the battle between the Ming Dynasty and Hou Jin Dynasty in recent years, even if measured by the standards of the Haihan model island colony, Wang Tom believes that the operating conditions of Guanglu Island are enough to receive a relatively high evaluation. The obvious shortcoming is probably that the port here lacks coastal defenses. Wang Tom did not see facilities such as forts here. However, in the future, Jin’s naval combat capabilities were negligible. The Ming army that once stationed here probably did not think of the need. Build coastal fortifications to defend against possible attacks from the sea.

Of course, after successively acquiring the former Daming Navy brought by Monk Kong Youde and initially establishing his own naval force, Houjin is no longer a weakling with no naval combat capabilities. Similar to the Changshan Islands This kind of place that is very close to the mainland will no longer be a safe area in the traditional sense. It only takes half a day for the Houjin Navy, which is hiding in Jinzhou Bay, to kill Guanglu Island. If Haihan wants to occupy this place To carry out secondary development, these potential threats must first be resolved.

The next day, the fleet sailed away from Guanglu Island, continued to move eastward, sailed out of the waterway between the big and small Changshan Islands, and then turned north. Since Guanglu Island, which was the garrison of the Ming army, had been cleared, Changshan The status of other islands in the archipelago was unknown, so Wang Tom did not plan to land and investigate one by one. He only ordered people to check the locations of the islands and correct the insufficient details on the map.

In the afternoon of the same day, the fleet sailed from the west side of Shicheng Island and arrived at the coast near Hongyazi. This place used to be under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou Guards, the capital of Liaodong Province, and was later renamed Zhuanghe. There was no news coming from the south here. Therefore, when the fleet sailed into the coastal waters, the fishermen working nearby were frightened and panicked, and they quickly turned around and fled to the shore.

Speaking of which, the people in these places are also in a difficult situation. On the one hand, when the Ming army comes over, they need to provide supplies to the Ming army. On the other hand, the actual ruler here is Hou Jin, so they also have to provide supplies to Hou Jin. However, neither the Later Jin Dynasty nor the Ming Dynasty could accept the "enemies" behavior of these people, which made the people in the cracks very difficult. Regardless of the Later Jin Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, for some people along the coast of Liaodong They are not good people, so when they see a large number of armed fleets appearing near the coast, their first reaction is to return home as soon as possible and stay as far away from these soldiers as possible.

However, Wang Tom did not intend to collect grain from the private sector here. The main purpose of arranging this route was to examine and check the differences between the coastline and the map data at hand, as well as the population distribution in the coastal areas. People like Hongyazi have certain Settlements with a large population will also be Haihan's key targets for recruiting immigrants in the future.

About sixty nautical miles further east from Hongyazi, we arrived at the mouth of the Yalu River. The Jianzhou Jurchens who established the post-Jin regime in Liaodong lived on the banks of the Pozhu River, a tributary of the Yalu River. The relationship between the Ming Dynasty and North Korea was basically the same.

This water vein is regarded as the natural national boundary, and further east, the land boundary belongs to Korea.

On the west bank of the Yalu River estuary is the location of Zhenjiang Fort, the most important military stronghold of the Ming Dynasty in this area. It is located in Dandong City in later generations. During the Tianqi Period, the Jurchens captured Liaoyang, and Mao Wenlong led 200 people directly into the Jurchen rear area, which was in Zhenjiang

Bao captured the rebel general Tong Yangzhen and his son, and conquered hundreds of miles of land in Liaodong for the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, this stronghold has also fallen and is currently under the control of Hou Jin.

Now that he had arrived at this place, Wang Tom would certainly not miss the opportunity to find out the strength of Houjin's garrison. He left several supply ships near Xindao outside the estuary, and led a group of warships into the estuary aggressively.

Although Zhenjiang Fort is named after the fort, the scale of its stronghold is that of an acropolis. It has a complete city defense system. The city wall is more than two feet high and is equipped with more than ten large and small iron cannons cast by the Ming Dynasty. It can be regarded as a

A fortified city along the Yalu River. However, this fortified city was ultimately unable to stop Hou Jin's iron hoof, and was captured by Hou Jin with superior force last year.

The number of troops stationed by Hou Jin here is unknown, but one thing Wang Tom is sure of, that is, the number of combat ships Hou Jin can deploy here will definitely not be too many. Sure enough, the fleet sailed into the Yalu River without encountering any resistance until the distance

When Zhenjiang Fort was not far away, we saw two sailing ships with a displacement of no more than fifty tons on the river.

Wang Tom called Pan Yan to him and asked, "Are any of your former colleagues assigned here?"

Pan Yan looked at the sailboats on the river, shook his head and said: "I am not very clear about the personnel distribution arrangements, but these two ships are definitely not warships of our Ming Navy. Looking at the flags on the ships, they should be

The golden thief belongs."

Since Pan Yan said that this was not a naval warship, Wang Tom was rude and ordered to chase and destroy the two ships. The steam engine in the cabin soon roared, and immediately there was a huge splash behind the ship, and the underwater

The propeller pushed the battleship to slowly accelerate towards the enemy ship.

The two ships were a little panicked when they first saw the arrival of these uninvited guests. They immediately turned around and sailed towards the river bank, but at a slightly slower speed. One of the ships was quickly overtaken from behind by the battleship Haihan. The cannon on the side

He unhurriedly fired seven or eight cannons at a distance of less than twenty meters. One of the chain rounds directly broke the mast of the enemy ship, causing it to immediately lose its forward momentum. And the other ship

The ship took this opportunity to speed up and escape, successfully escaping from the Haihan battleship's fire range.

Wang Tom has observed the situation on the river bank through the telescope. Although there are a few ships parked on the bank, there are no real warships. It seems that Hou Jin has not had time to fully digest this place, otherwise it will be different from here.

The distance between the islands makes it impossible not to take precautions against them. Not even a decent warship is deployed here.

There are still people alive on the enemy ship that was damaged by the gunfire, but Wang Tom has no time to stop and interrogate them now. Naturally, he will take this opportunity to continue the pursuit and deal a greater blow to the enemy. The task of capturing the prisoners will be handed over to him.

Give it to the boat behind.

The sound of the Haihan battleship's firing obviously also alerted the Zhenjiang Fort defenders on the river bank. Many people could be vaguely seen quickly avoiding the fort. The river bank where Zhenjiang Fort is located has a very flat terrain, and there is no area for several miles around.

There were buildings or hills that blocked the view. Wang Tom held up his telescope and observed carefully to make sure that there was no possibility of a cavalry ambush on the river bank, and then ordered the ship to dock.

Since the Yalu River will have a flood season in July and August every year, the location of Zhenjiang Fort is nearly one mile away from the river bank to avoid the tragic situation of flooding the Seventh Army when the flood season comes every summer. Haihan's

Naval guns basically have no power at this distance, so Wang Tom decided to land ashore to test the strength of the Hou Jin army here.

It took the Haihan fleet about half an hour to mobilize a company of infantry to land ashore without encountering any obstacles. The Jin army seemed determined to defend the city and did not wait for an opportunity to come out and make a halfway crossing.

The idea of ​​hitting.

Seeing this situation, Wang Tom also muttered a little. Considering the distance between the Jinzhou Guard and this place, it stands to reason that the warning signal should not have been received. After that, Jin Mingming had the upper hand in the battle for Liaodong. How could this happen?

The fighting style is so conservative, it looks more like the weaker side.

The other party showed such weakness, but Wang Tom became more suspicious of fraud. He immediately had the prisoners of war captured just escorted over for interrogation. This time, Wang Tom was not disappointed. At least two of the captured personnel were serious "

"Qi Ding". However, these two guys were not very fluent in Chinese, so Wang Tom asked the navigator Sun Bing, who was born in Liaodong, to act as an interpreter and conducted an emergency interrogation of the two men.

Wang Tom didn't want to spend too much time in this place, so he didn't show any mercy to these two guys at the moment. He first asked his men to beat them up before he started asking questions. After a slight hesitation, he started to fight with fists and kicks.

They were not given a chance to slowly think about making up a story. This torture method, which had been verified many times by the intelligence department, was quite effective. The two prisoners of war did not hold it for long before they spoke and told Tom Wang about the local Zhenjiang Fort.

intelligence.

The Hou Jin army captured Zhenjiang Fort after Shang Kexi defected at the beginning of this year. The elite Hou Jin forces who attacked here were attracted by Shang Kexi's men. Zhenjiang Fort was positioned to guard the national border and could monitor the movements of Pidao nearby.

The top brass of the Jin Dynasty still attach great importance to this place. After occupying it, they mobilized thousands of soldiers and horses to guard this place. However, a major plague occurred in this place this summer. More than half of the personnel stationed here died. Although the commander leading the troops did not

Something was wrong, but he was so frightened that he fled back to Fengcheng inland.

Concerned about the risk of the disease spreading, Hou Jin did not dare to send troops over immediately to supplement the garrison strength here, so there are currently only two to three hundred troops garrisoned here. The arrival of the Haihan Navy made them mistakenly think that it was Dongjiang Town.

When soldiers and horses attack from the direction of Pi Island, they naturally first choose to retreat into the city and rely on the advantages of city defense to conduct defensive battles.
Chapter completed!