The author's note: I didn't think carefully before, but the time in the article felt too tight. After revising it, the time of the Battle of Xiamen in this book was changed to August 10th.

...

When the Ming army and the Qing army fought a decisive battle in Xiamen, Deng Ming met Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi in Zhenjiang, as well as the good news that they had already controlled Chongming Island.

This was the first time Ma Fengzhi met Deng Ming, and his behavior seemed a little cramped. Zhang Huangyan was obviously in great interest. When talking about the recovery of Chongming Island, he was even more excited: "The Prince of Yanping wanted to take this island last time, but he fought hard for many days but still failed to win. I didn't expect that he would get it this time without any effort."

Last time Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong left Nanjing side by side, Zheng Chenggong talked about the idea of ​​establishing the Yangtze River Navy. If Chongming Island could be captured, it could be used as a base to continuously harasse the Qing army's grain transportation. Zhang Huangyan didn't know that Deng Ming came this time because he wanted to monopolize the salt business and attack the competitors of Sichuan salt merchants, but thought that Deng Ming and Zheng Chenggong thought of going together: "Speaking of this, the Admiral and the Prince of Yanping coincided with this."

"Yes, the grain transportation is the lifeblood of the prison court, and the prince of Yanping is really good." Deng Ming was embarrassed to tell the other party as soon as he came up that he came to Jiangnan just because he was asked by a guy who almost died of chicken eating. In Deng Ming's view, the grain transportation was undoubtedly very important, but he was also worried that the attack on the grain transportation would be subject to fierce counterattack from the Qing court. Now whether the Ming army can launch a war of attrition around the grain transportation in Jiangnan is a question: "If the grain transportation is in danger, they will inevitably concentrate their efforts to move south. Even Wu Sangui and other southwest Sanfan tribes will probably 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 Tartars needed more than 10 million taels of silver in Jiangnan and millions of stones of food every year to drive the green camps in the north to buy those who betray their ancestors to serve them. If the Tartars had no canal transportation, they would jump in a few days."

However, Deng Ming was not as optimistic as Zhang Huangyan, because he remembered that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had cut off the canal transport, but the Qing Dynasty survived. He suspected that without the canal transport, it might make it much more difficult for the Qing court. However, if the strength of the Ming army was severely consumed in order to achieve this goal, Deng Ming had to weigh it. After all, the power of the Ming army is more precious now and it is more difficult to replenish than the Qing court.

If the canal transportation is severely threatened by long-term cutoff, Deng Ming suspected that the Qing army would send more troops to Jiangnan, which would prevent him from using the small amount of troops in his hands to blackmail him like he is now. This will of course greatly affect Deng Ming's reconstruction work in Sichuan. His IOU was guaranteed by tomorrow's prosperity and provided funds to overcome today's difficulties. If there is no prosperity tomorrow, it is hard to predict how bad the economy will become.

"And if the enemy court transferred the Three Feudals back to rescue him, the King of Jin could leave Guizhou." Zhang Huangyan said casually. Influenced by Deng Ming, the Ming army in Fujian and Zhejiang had a better view of the invasion and the Western armies. At least now, Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong would never take the "Li thief advocated chaos" as the beginning of the manifesto.

After hearing this, Deng Ming was stunned. He had been thinking about the benefits of this matter for Sichuan. After finally establishing some tacit understanding with officials in Jiangnan, Deng Ming began to tend to be conservative, subconsciously hoping to maintain the status quo so that he could absorb strength from the Yangtze River Basin for a long time and enhance Sichuan's strength.

Therefore, after Zhang Huangyan's unintentional words, Deng Ming sounded like a kind of blame to him. Deng Ming's attitude towards Yunnan was to not take the initiative to contact him.

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

As Deng Ming became more and more powerful in Chengdu, his feelings for Yunnan became more and more subtle, and Deng Ming was not ignorant of the hostility between Jianchang and Kunming. Last time Di Sanxi rushed to Chengdu, he praised Deng Ming for his contributions, saying that Jianchang firmly obeyed Deng Ming's leadership - of course this statement was watery. The relationship between Jianchang and Chengdu was currently an ally, and it was even more solid as Deng Ming and Li Laiheng's alliance. But at least Feng Shuangli's faction was an ally of Deng Ming. If Yongli pursued Deng Ming's crime of pretending to be a royal family, Deng Ming knew that Feng Shuangli would probably stand on his side like Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, Hao Yaoqi, He Zhen, and others, while Li Dingguo was different.

Therefore, Deng Ming naturally felt alienated from Kunming, and his identity problem caused him to feel guilty and fear, and this fear even caused some hostility towards Kunming in Deng Ming's heart.

Deng Ming never admitted that he was hostile to the great hero Li Dingguo, but now he reflected carefully for a while and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Actually, I am full of caution towards King Jin, which is different from Prince Yanping. Because I, Tingmutan, said that he mistakenly thought of me as the Young Tang King, so I naturally held my heart to Prince Yanping and would take the initiative to think about how to cooperate with Prince Yanping, how to help each other and benefit each other. But I never put myself in my shoes and thought about anything for King Jin. King Jin used a broken Yunnan to fight against the pressure of Wu Sangui, and had to endure the conflicts and frictions with Jianchang... Alas, I have never considered how to contribute to the soldiers of Yunnan."

"What Zhang Shangshu said is." After he blamed himself, Deng Ming seriously discussed the feasibility of completely cutting off the canal transportation with Zhang Huangyan. If the Qing court had to transfer the troops of Wu Sangui and other Sanfan from the southwest, although Deng Ming might have to bear more pressure, Li Dingguo could undoubtedly breathe a sigh of relief and gain the opportunity to recuperate. In a few years, Li Dingguo could threaten Guangdong and Guangxi again and share the pressure of Deng Ming and Zheng Chenggong: "If we stick to Chongming Island, the Qing court would inevitably concentrate the troops around four or five provinces to attack. What is the chance of victory?"

"The Admiral is looking at the Lu Court, and Yanping can disperse a lot of Tartar troops for us." Zhang Huangyan believes that the opportunity is not small. Last time Deng Ming suggested that he harassed the canal transportation, because the Ming army did not have a stable base here in the Yangtze River. Now that Chongming Island is available, we will naturally go further: "Yanping threatens the Lu Court's defense of thousands of miles. Zhejiang and Shandong are not only unable to support the Liangjiang River, but also need the Lu Court to send troops to assist in the defense."

As he said that, Zhang Huangyan told Deng Ming again that the Qing Dynasty had already concentrated the naval forces of the five provinces to attack Xiamen. He heard that he would fight to the decisive battle with Zheng Chenggong: "When Yanping wiped out the naval forces of the Luting Court, how could 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 not fail before regaining Taiwan, he was worried that this was an external change caused by his arrival: "The prince of Yanping would not have any difficulties in concentrating the navy of the five provinces to attack Xiamen, right?"

"Can the admiral trust Yanping so much?" Although there was some displeasure between him and Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan was still full of confidence in the Fujian army: "If the enemy troops do not leave, they will be defeated if they leave."

Deng Ming was still a little worried: "I heard that Dasu brought many elite soldiers from the north and south green camps."

"Even if you land, you are not afraid. Yanping was really abnormal in the last battle in Nanjing." Zhang Huangyan knew why Deng Ming was worried, because Deng Ming did not understand Zheng Chenggong's true strength. He used the example of Zheng Chenggong fighting with Jin Li. Zheng Jiansheng had been fighting with two years at that time and began to know how to fight and train troops - although he was still implementing the rule that Ma'er was equivalent to the head-level merit. However, Jin Li also came with the coalition forces of several provinces. At the beginning, because Zheng Chenggong was young and was proud to underestimate the enemy for several consecutive games, he took the initiative to fight with Jin Li's ten times the strength of the troops. Although the 10,000 Ming army was still in charge.

However, if the 100,000 Qing troops were surrounded, it was still unable to be annihilated because of insufficient troops. It was defeated by Jin Li, and the Ming army was defeated. After having to retreat to Hai Cheng, Zheng Chenggong gritted his teeth and held the city to eliminate the spirit of the Qing army. After all the food and grass were exhausted, Zheng Chenggong used this to inspire the army to go out of the city to fight back, defeating Jin Li's 100,000 Green Camp in one fell swoop. The man was dismissed: "Because of Nanjing's failure, perhaps Dasu thought that the Yanping Land Battle was not his main force. The Tartars who had lost to Yanping in the past were incompetent, so they actually wanted to cross the sea to attack Yanping! It was just a death sentence."

In Deng Ming's previous life, Zhang Juren had great expectations for Zheng Jiansheng. After the two parted ways because of King Lu and others, although Zhang Juren criticized Zheng Jiansheng, he still hoped to resolve his past grudges one day until he learned that Zheng Jiansheng died in Taiwan. Zhang Juren felt that he could not bear it alone and was completely desperate about the situation. He disbanded the Zhoushan rebel army and asked them to survive and be executed generously.

Zhang Huangyan's confidence also infected Deng Ming: "If Yanping can severely damage the five navy of the Lu court, it will indeed be of great help to us."

...

Huang Wu commanded the main force of the navy around the south bank and headed towards Gulangyu. He met Zhou Rui and Chen Yaoce who were waiting for the battle.

"The Tartars are here!" Seeing the Qing army's ships appearing one after another, Zhou Rui asked the ten battleships he commanded to line up in an orderly row, and then ordered loudly: "Get the anchor! Drop the sail!"

Zhou Rui's ship was the first to complete this action, and the other nine Ming army warships arranged in a row with him also made this action together. Sails are one of the weaknesses of sea ships. Not only will the fire cause the warship to lose power, but it will also cause the fire to spread to the warships. Zhou Rui had no intention of maneuvering, so he did not need sails anymore, and of course there was no need to put this target.

The Qing army's ships were getting closer and closer and began to fire artillery at the Ming army. The Ming army stopped motionlessly on the sea, enduring the Qing army's artillery bombardment.

"Are you waiting to die?" Huang Wu, who was commanding the battle, was also a little confused when he saw the movements of the Ming army opposite. The Ming army fell sails and anchored, which was a fixed target on the sea surface. He could only endure the ravages of Qing army artillery fire. Although there were no sails, it was not easy to make the Ming army ships rise and the raging fire, but being beaten like this could only delay the sinking time, and it would be only a matter of time before the destruction was completed.

The shells shot from the ten Ming army warships in all directions, and wood chips flew across the deck. Although Zhou Rui and the soldiers were hiding behind the cover, people were still hit from time to time.

"Take water, dig water!" In the cabin, a Ming army officer shouted loudly with all his might. The continuous shelling finally caused cracks in the hull, and sea water poured in. The Ming army sailors tried their best to block the gap under the water line with wood, while forming a queue, scoop up the water from the bottom of the bilge and pour it off on the deck. Wooden sea boats can be used to persist for a long time by relying on this method of repairing and scooping water. As long as the hull does not catch a fire, it is extremely difficult to sink a sea boat with artillery.

Soldiers were constantly hit by splashing wood chips, and Zhou Rui was still standing on the observation post on the deck. He leaned down and stared at the Qing fleet not far away, waiting for the opportunity to fight back.

The ten Ming army ships in front of them were broken by Qing army artillery, and the masts were broken. Seeing the masts falling into the sea, Huang Wu still found no signs of counterattack, and there was no oar protruding in the oar area below. The other party was not far from the coast, and the hull had been severely damaged and had lost its main mobility, but it still had no intention of leaving the battlefield.

Under normal circumstances, enemy ships with all masts destroyed will no longer be the first target of attack. Naval battles give priority to attacking those intact enemy ships. Such enemy ships that lose their mobility are not threatened, and may also wait until after the war to make a forced landing. But today, these ten Ming army warships blocked the Qing army's way to Xiamen Port, and the sails were lowered early but still did not catch fire.

"When will this fight last?" Huang Wu didn't have the patience to continue to waste, so he ordered the Clippers to attack these ten Ming army warships.

After seeing the Qing army's ship approaching, Zhou Rui's fleet finally began to fire artillery counterattacks. However, because the ship's position could not be adjusted, the Qing army's fast ship quickly bypassed their artillery dense area and approached Zhou Rui's ship.

"Kill!" After seeing countless iron chains thrown from the opposite ship, Zhou Rui shouted loudly, pulled out his waist knife and jumped onto the deck. The Ming soldiers behind him also imitated him and rushed to the side of the ship, shouting and fighting with the Qing army who jumped over.

While besieging these ten Ming army warships, the Qing army was also vigilantly looking at the other ten Ming army warships behind Zhou Rui's fleet. They were not far from the war zone. The Qing army needed to be wary of them rushing up to launch a collision or reinforce Zhou Rui's troops in a tough battle.

But the Ming army ships behind seemed to have not seen the fierce battle in front of them, so they stayed in the distance and watched the battle situation without moving. After half an hour, the fighting sounds of two Ming army ships stopped, and the green flag was raised to the end of the incomplete mast. The Qing army ships surrounding the two Ming army warships turned around and drove to the Ming army warships that were still fighting.

"Kill, kill!" Zhou Rui yelled, and waved the big knife in his hand harder. The four fingers on his left hand had been lost. He just now blocked a dagger that he had no time to dodge. While losing half of his left hand, he stabbed the knife into the enemy's stomach.

There was no time to bandage the wound, and more enemies jumped to the gang, and Zhou Rui had fewer and fewer companions around him. Before he knew it, several more wounds were added to him, and the enemies formed a circle around him...

When Zhou Rui opened his eyes angrily and fell weakly on the blood-flowing deck, the last few Ming soldiers were forced to the stern of the ship. Another Ming soldier was fatally injured. He sat on the ground, leaning against the side of the ship, and looked at the sea behind him in despair. Chen Yaoce's fleet was not far away, and it seemed to be only two or three arrows apart. The dying soldier couldn't help but mutter, "Can you come and help us?"

Pads were poked out on both sides of the lost friendly warships. Chen Yaoce knew that the enemy wanted to use the captured paddle to drive the ship out of the channel and free up an attack channel for the Qing fleet behind.

"Good!" Chen Yaoce looked at the ship that was once Zhou Rui and said softly. He looked at the sky and the sun had risen to the top of his head. Although the ocean current under the ship was still from south to north, its speed had become relatively slow. Chen Yaoce murmured to himself again: "There is still an hour, and the tide should fade away."

After leading the fleet back a little distance and adjusting the distance between the ships, Chen Yaoce issued the same order as Zhou Rui had just now, but he added two more: "Throw all the oars into the sea and destroy the rudder."

The order was executed without fail.

The ten blocked ships in front of him were all driven away by the Qing army and rushed to the beach to the east. Chen Yaoce knew that the enemy's attack on him was imminent. He looked back at the back. At that time, Chen Hui's fleet was ordered to stay behind Chen Yaoce's back: "You don't have a chance to get on, save your energy to avenge us."

...

Takasaki.

After hearing the sound of cannons in the south, Shi Lang concluded that Huang Wu had already fought fiercely with Zheng Chenggong's main naval force. In the short term, Zheng Chenggong would have no time to take care of others, so he sent a signal to launch a surprise attack by the Qing army in the north.

Chen Peng's confidants were deployed on the ten Zheng army warships deployed here. After seeing the signal, they suddenly launched an attack and took the warships to surrender to the Qing army on the other side. Although the incident suddenly happened, two Ming army warships refused to surrender. The sailors on the ship defeated Chen Peng's confidant and hurried towards Xiamen Port.

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 had no time to react.

After the Qing army waiting on the shore saw the eight battleships raising green flags, they all cheered. After the Qing army boarded the warships and obtained control of the battleships from the surrendered Chen Peng's troops, the five thousand Qing army boarded the ferry on the shore and shouted toward the Gaoqi coast.

When the Qing army on Gaoqi launched a forced transit, Shi Lang also began to launch a large-scale landing on the long coastline. This time, not only did the Green Camp, but also the troops of the powerful Eight Banners.

"The east and west sides are fighting, and the officers and soldiers are working hard to land." Chen Peng looked at the Qing army ships driving over and thought to himself: "When the officers and soldiers get ashore, should I take them to attack Xiamen Port? Or should I lead them to attack Gan Hui or Yu Xin first?"
Chapter completed!