Chapter 295: Crazy and fearless death, Feng He

If the army is an operation on land, the manpower and animal power required for the transportation of food and supplies are extremely huge. Although Li Meng's Jiaozhou Camp is rich, such expenses are unnecessary.

In daily life, people and horses need a large amount of water, which is also a matter that needs to be considered in marching, so marching on the Grand Canal has become the best choice. After more than 9,000 soldiers gathered in Jining Prefecture, they walked south along the canal, entered the Yellow River in Nanzhili, and then went upstream.

This fleet can also be said to be in a vast way. In addition to more than 9,000 soldiers and horses from Jiaozhou camp, there are also many powerful men and women who are used to transport and assist.

There have always been a sentry between Jiningzhou and Xuzhou to send messages, and handing over the information collected by Lingshan Trading Company and other intelligence systems to Li Meng. Anyway, it is very convenient for ships to dock on the canal.

After entering Xuzhou Prefecture, Huang Ping personally handed the news to Li Meng. Judging from this information, Li Meng did not do his best to this battle, because in addition to the news of the bandit "Song Jiang", there were also the updates of the Huaibei Army and even the specific matters of the Xinyang Water Camp.

The current Huaibei Army is much more sensitive than before near Haizhou. Because of the active cooperation of the salt merchant Fang family, the news that Fang Yingren came to meet Li Meng should have just been sent to Zhangjiang through Li Meng's personal soldiers. It seems that the Fang family's preparations for this matter are much more sufficient than Jiaozhou Camp.

On the other hand, it has already started to do it. The Huaibei Army is extremely nervous about the cooperation that comes to the door, but it is much better than being more careful in Haizhou. In short, it is just a careful response.

Compared with the news here, there were several interesting interesting things happening in Xinyang Water Camp stationed in the East China Sea. They were mostly related to Denglas, who went there to be a captain of a hundred people. Xinyang Water Camp was recruited by young pirates in Qingzhou near the sea area. They did not have much normal training and did not know much about the allusions in Jiaozhou Camp. A foreigner suddenly appeared, which was really surprising.

According to the news, Dunglas had just arrived at the island in the East China Sea, and even people watched the meal. The pirates were surprised and praised, "It turns out that this ghost is also a meal."

In addition to eating, suddenly such a newcomer and a foreigner came to be their 100-man captain, these pirates were of course extremely dissatisfied. Seeing Yang Si's polite attitude towards this foreigner, many people's dissatisfaction became a little more a little bit.

Those young and strong-willed Shuiying, who had a hot temper, thought that this foreigner might not have any skills, but just a role arranged by the above. He wanted to find an opportunity to teach him a lesson.

There are many opportunities to teach foreigners this lesson, especially Deng, who is quite familiar with the exercises and training methods of Jiaozhou Camp. Seeing that the water camp is a little unfamiliar with this aspect, he is ready to carry out training. He thought that as long as he does this training well, he will be the capital to show his merits in front of Li Meng.

As a result, on the third day of the water camp, Deng Yangren pulled more than a hundred soldiers under his command to the school ground to prepare for training. Unexpectedly, the soldiers were disdainful of his training at all, saying that the non-commissioned officers sent by the Jiaozhou camp were enough and there was no need for new content.

The personnel under Huang Ping did not think so in-depth at the beginning of the investigation of the "Song Jiang" team, but just wanted to find out some very basic information.

There is naturally no sense of confidentiality among the Green Forest Road and the rioters in Henan. The leader of each thief wishes his reputation spread throughout the world and never knows to hide it. Huang Ping's subordinates checked it out as soon as he checked it. "Song Jiang"'s real name is Song Dagang, and the reason why He Jiaozhou Camp has a connection.

It is because Song Dagang was originally a military general under Liu Zeqing. It is said that he was once a Qianzheng general. He was guarding Anxingji in Caozhou. Li Meng led the cavalry to raid Caozhou. Liu Zeqing was caught and beheaded. His troops and horses were defeated near Caozhou and Ningyang County. Those small groups either surrendered to Jiaozhou camp or fled by themselves.

Song Dagang belonged to the group that he escaped. He was the robber leader in the Yimeng Mountain Village. After being recruited by Liu Zeqing, he went down the mountain to become an officer and soldier. Although he was vacant, he had more than 700 old subordinates who had followed him for many years. These subordinates were also fighting many wars. They were all veterans. Although these people may not have the ability to attack cities and sieges and die in the field.

However, when fighting hard, he can support him for a period of time and know some of the rules in the military formation. After learning that Liu Zeqing was dead, Song Dagang led this sloppy team to Henan. Don’t underestimate this sloppy team.

More than 700 such soldiers can already kill refugees several times or even ten times more. Song Dagang has worked as robbers in the officers and soldiers, and has a good understanding of the routines of rioters and officers and soldiers. When fighting or fighting together, he suffers few losses and wins many battles.

Moreover, Song Dagang has a boundary to do things. In Henan, Nanyang Prefecture will not go because there is Zuo Liangyu, a larger bandit, and Beizhili, and there will be heavy troops stationed by the court there. Shandong will not go. Li Meng is a evil god. Henan Province is not small, so it is enough to make trouble here.

Over the years, he actually gathered tens of thousands of people and was also a famous figure in Henan Province. This name is Song Dagang's claim to be a copycat. He was from a parody and the place where he guarded was close to Yuncheng County. Perhaps because he listened to too many stories, he called himself Song Jiang in order to show his benevolence and righteousness to his servants.

The troops under "Song Jiang" fluctuated between 16,000 and 40,000, which is also the characteristic of Henan bandits. Most of the people who follow the rebellion are refugees who cannot survive. Many people die on the road or die in hunger on the way to follow the riots. When encountering real battles, these refugees will not die too much on the battlefield, but they will also die in inexplicable chaos or in disturbance and escape.

Often, a team gathered tens of thousands of people. After a few days, the gathered people immediately dispersed for various reasons, but the number of such teams could quickly recover. There were too many refugees. On the ground in Henan, there were no need to be fooled by evil spirits. Any army that wanted to rebel would pass by, a large number of refugees would voluntarily follow. As a side note, if officers and soldiers passed by, there would be many voluntarily participating.

Everyone just needs to eat one bite of food, and they don’t care what they have to pay for this bite of food, even if they fight desperately.

If such a refugee who is pure cannon fodder survives several battles and survives on the battlefield, he can also become a qualified soldier, and such a person will become the real combat power in the chaos army.

Huang Ping and his intelligence personnel estimated that there would be more than 7,000 combat-capable personnel under "Song Jiang", because this was the number of "Song Jiang" subordinates at the lowest number in the past three years.

Li Meng smiled bitterly at this news. Strictly speaking, Song Dagang is the primary reason for his current disaster, but he naturally cannot tell others about such reasons.

On the one hand, when he went to the expedition, he was indeed a bit destined and in love with the King of Zhou in Kaifeng. After all, the other girl is at her home and now she is working as a counselor for herself, which is equivalent to raising such a big princess daughter for free, and she also has to pay a lot of gold, silver and treasures. Moreover, Mu Yunyao himself can receive most of the confidential information in the Jiaozhou Camp system, and he will definitely know about the matter in Henan.

The Henan Governor has already submitted a memorial to the court for Shandong to send troops to rescue Kaifeng. If he refuses, Mu Yunyao will definitely not be happy.

More importantly, most of the new recruits in Jiaozhou Camp currently lack the opportunity to train troops. This bandit near Kaifeng, Henan is undoubtedly the best choice for training and sharpening swords. Moreover, on the edge of the Yellow River, Jiaozhou Camp can also be transported by water, which is much more convenient than land aid.

For these new recruits who had just received simple military training in the military farm, even if they did not encounter enemies when they went to Kaifeng Prefecture, the march on the water was a very good exercise.

Li Meng's mentality is already very different from before. What he tried hard to strengthen his strength and not be damaged.

Shandong's territory is still being digested. A large number of new recruits are trained into troops, and everything is not stable. The court's indifference and cold treatment of Shandong is really in line with Li Meng's intention, but it is always so low-key and closed, and it also has its own shortcomings. This lack of opportunity to train troops is one of them.

Li Meng is still confident in the training of his troops, but only after rigorous training but not through actual combat, the army will definitely make a lot of jokes when it comes to the battle formation. Li Meng has also seen many jokes in the Jiaozhou camp.

Henan Province requests rescue and fights against bandits. No matter whether it is a big victory or a small victory, it will not be used as a basis for judging the strength of your army. As for the failure, Li Meng really hasn't considered it.

After traveling on the water for more than ten days, Jiaozhouying had no old relationship, but the Qingyan business on Gao Yigong was walking back and forth in the section of the Yellow River. Gao Yigong and Li Meng's names may not be very famous on the Yellow River, but anyone who knows them naturally dare not move.

The huge fleet went quite smoothly. After entering Guide Mansion, Henan Province, a horse exploration was arranged on Huanglinggang. Nearly a hundred cavalrymen on both sides of the strait disguised as horse thieves, traveling between the fleet and the front, constantly bringing the information of the investigation to the fleet.

Kaifeng City is the capital city of Henan and a well-known and prosperous city in the world. Although the city is strong, a large number of people have been mobilized to defend the city.

But after all, there are no regular troops in the city, and Song Dagang, who cannot cruise outside the city, feels that there is a chance to break the city. If you break such a city, you can immediately become a world-famous bandit like Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng. The arsenal, gold and silver, and population in the city are all coveted.

Even Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were in Henan, they didn't dare to think about these big cities, but this time the guard Chen Yongfu went to Nanyang Prefecture, and the city was extremely air-defense, and the opportunity was really rare.

You should know that almost all the soldiers in Henan are in the direction of Huguang and Shaanxi. The Henan Governor was thinking about asking for help from Shandong in Kaifeng City, which shows the embarrassment of the situation.

Song Dagang led tens of thousands of subordinates to plunder around Kaifeng City, and he had already tasted a lot of sweetness. The bandits below were also thinking about how to enjoy the happiness of entering Kaifeng City. People were easily blinded by interests. The shrewd Song Dagang stared at Kaifeng City and couldn't care about anything.

What's more, when a Shandong fleet of soldiers and horses encounters any ship along the way, they will immediately detain them. If they don't follow, there will be only the fate of a shipwreck. As the provocations and cavalry who follow the fleet along the coast get closer to Kaifeng, the more numerous they are placed on the shore. Even if Song Dagang arranges a probe for exploration, he will be intercepted and killed.

However, Li Meng really looked up to Song Dagang. He went westward and did not encounter any warning arrangements from the other party.

At the end of May, Li Meng's troops finally arrived at the Taojiadian Ferry, which was the only way for the Yellow River water transport to enter Kaifeng City.

Such a large-scale fleet came over and arrived so close. If "Song Jiang" didn't know about it, it would be a blind man. When Li Meng's ship appeared at the ferry, he found that the ferry was densely filled with people. Song Dagang's subordinates had already occupied this place and stared at the fleet on the water with great momentum.

Although the officers and soldiers on the ship looked terrible, as long as the ferry was blocked and the other party could not get ashore, there was nothing they could do.

Song Dagang has never left Kaifeng City. In recent days, he has cut down trees outside the city, knocked down houses, and created some simple siege equipment to prepare for siege.

This was really dazed. Kaifeng was so big that even if the powerful people defended the city, these bandits could not conquer it with some ladders. After several attacks, they were all bleeding. Now they were thinking about digging tunnels. As a result, the Kaifeng prefect led the yamen runners to bury the jars in the vital parts of the city to listen. Although the progress was not great, it was probably a failure to return. At this time, the troops from Shandong arrived.

In order to keep the secret while moving, the fleet led by Li Meng only relies on the red and black flags to lead the way, and there is no sign to identify the identity.

The bandits on the shore didn't even know where the soldiers were on the ship, but they must be officers and soldiers, because such a grand scale was not something that the fellows could afford.

The personal soldiers and horse team led by Li Meng disembarked near Lanyang County and were rushing towards Kaifeng Prefecture from another direction. At present, the commander of the Yanzhou Army, the commander of the fleet, was responsible for commanding the fleet, the guerrilla Chen Liu.

This time when Li Meng went to Henan, he brought the Yanzhou army to him. For Chen Liu, it was really a good thing that fell from the sky. The generals under Li Meng had the most chance of conquesting and fighting were Ma Gang, the general who was guarding Dengzhou. In various parts of Shandong, in addition to Li Meng, the military general who valued the most was Ma Gang.

Compared with Zhao Neng, who was determined to be the one who was always with Wang Hai next to Li Meng, Chen Liu was particularly anxious. Because of his mistakes, he and Wang Hai were arranged by Li Meng to be the commander of their personal soldiers for a long time, which delayed the opportunity to be released from the outside and guarded. He finally released from the outside, but because he had too few opportunities to perform in Yanzhou Prefecture, which was relatively peaceful.

Seeing Zhang Jiang, Wei Li, a group of later generals, also began to go out to seize the throne, but his core generals who started the business were unknown, so how could Chen Liu not be anxious?

Their glory and wealth are entirely because of Li Meng. There is no problem with being loyal, but Chen Liu also knows that if he wants to have greater glory and wealth in the future, he must show his performance.

When Chen Liu was guarding Yanzhou Prefecture, he also heard some rumors. One of them was particularly unbearable. He said that Ma Gang could have his current status rely on talent; Zhao Neng could have his current status rely on respect; Zhang Jiang had his current position rely on credit; Chen Liu could have his current position simply because he was close to the Shandong General.

In May, Li Meng led the cavalry to appear suddenly in Jiningzhou, saying that he wanted to take the Yanzhou army to Pingkou in Henan. This opportunity of falling from the sky made Chen Liu overjoyed.

Most of the recruits brought this time were recruits. Chen Liusheng was afraid that these recruits would cause trouble in front of Li Meng. During the march, Li Meng planned and listened to information on the ship every day. Chen Liu spent most of his time sitting on a small boat, patrolling the fleet back and forth, restraining his subordinates, and was so busy that he couldn't get in touch.

The enemy is right in front of you, but the ship cannot dock. This is a big problem. Judging from the chaos of these bandits on the shore, Chen Liu has no doubt about winning. I am afraid that when a large number of horse teams led by Li Meng appear behind these bandits, the troops will soon be defeated and disbanded.

The key to the problem is that it was defeated by the general himself. Before getting off the ship, Li Meng made an order to understand that your Yanzhou army is the main attacking force. The general led the horse team to cover up the killing behind, striving to completely wipe out the thieves.

If Li Meng's horse team arrived, but saw his fleet wandering around the river and unable to land, Chen Liu felt chilling when he thought about this situation. If this were the case, what would his impression in the coach's heart?

When Song Dagang knew that the officers and soldiers came from the water, he immediately felt that something was wrong, but now he couldn't run away. In the past few days, he just dreamed of breaking the city of Kaifeng, and the gold, silver and fine materials that robbed the settlements outside Kaifeng were not in time to clean up.

I came out to be a thief just for gold, silver and treasures. I spent so many days on my efforts. If I left empty-handed, wouldn’t I cry to death?

Song Dagang was also strange. According to the information he inquired, the Henan soldiers who came back as soon as possible had not made any noise. Moreover, according to the rules, the court would not send troops here. So where did this soldiers come from? It was strange and strange, but Song Dagang still sent his subordinates to the ferry and all places where he could land.

As long as he can resist the officers and soldiers for a while and buy himself time to pack up the gold, silver and fine materials, this is enough. "Song Jiang" who woke up did not have the courage to fight to the death with the officers and soldiers who came to rescue, and he had no loyalty to take care of the subordinates on the shore.

However, the bandits at the ferry and the nearby landing sites were quite well-organized. Song Dagang sent some old brothers who had served as soldiers to guide him. The ones on the front line were all archers. Although the military bows and hunting bows were mixed together, the arrows of these arrows were wrapped around the ignition oil cloth.

Whenever a ship approaches, it will shoot it desperately. The wooden boats that Shandong soldiers and horses are riding on are very troubled by such rockets. They will easily burn if they are touched. If they are burned on this big river, everything will be done.

Those boatmen and bosses, regardless of whether the ship was recruited by Jiaozhou Camp, would not dare to approach them if they were obedient or not. Even if they were held on their necks by a knife, they would rather die than obey.

Chen Liu was commanding on a large ship. Seeing this situation, he was so anxious that he jumped. More than a dozen ships were lined up in a row. Within 80 steps of a militia, he set up a musket on the side of the ship to bombard the shore, but the effect was extremely bad.

Although it is within range, the water waves are too high on a big river like the Yellow River, and every shot is not accurate.

The Jiaozhou Camp's muskets are very powerful, but their accuracy is very average. Needless to say, they must be arranged in a neat and dense formation when shooting, and they also have to be equipped with wooden forks to ensure the stability of the musket body. Even if all of these are done, a high hit rate cannot be guaranteed.

On such an unstable river, let alone any killing. Although it was a sound that shook the sky and smoke filled the sky, there were no people falling down on the other side.

Chen Liu looked at the situation opposite him and felt helpless. He felt that he had less and less time left for him and his future was dark.

The wooden boats and muskets near the shore had already been killed in the second round. The bandits on the shore did not retreat without saying a word. The edges of several wooden boats were shot by hanging bows and arrows. The boat was in a hurry, and the musket soldiers fell into the water from the boat and struggled in a mess.

Chen Liuya was about to bite her, and she could no longer care about her demeanor of commanding the general. She shouted to the messenger behind her at the top of her voice:

"Go and send orders to the artillery, and ask them to connect several ships with wooden boards, and set up the Flanger and the eagle gun to bomb the shore!"

The order was quickly passed to the artillery chief. Seeing the fierce attack in front, the artillery was unable to help on the water, and was also anxious. When he heard the commander's order, he immediately started to do what he wanted. The ships transporting the artillery were all owned ships of Jiaozhou Camp.

However, they never considered the situation of firing on the river. Chen Liu's proposal was considered a sensation. The wooden boards for repairing the cabin were found and connected between the side of the ship. The wooden wedges and ropes were all equipped. The boatmen and soldiers were busy together and quickly connected the ship.

After the third round of the fire gun in front, Chen Liu ordered the shooting to stop. It would be better not to waste it if you consume ammunition in this way.

The bandits on the shore cheered so loudly, treating the temporary retreat of the officers and soldiers as their huge victory.

As a result, the ships on the water gradually moved, and several ships connected together appeared in front of them. The ship was equipped with several small cannons. The river boat was originally very narrow, and after being nailed together, there was not much room for application. Although Jiaozhou Camp also carried three- and six-pound cannons, it could not be put out at all.

Those Florians and Eagle Cannons are almost a pound of small cannons. Strictly speaking, it is not impossible to call them enlarged muskets.

After seeing these artillery, the cheering bandits on the shore had no intention of retreating, but instead shouted louder and provoked the officers and soldiers on the ship.

"He is crazy, and ordered the soldiers to lean over and blow the place away and land immediately!"

While looking at the situation on the shore, Chen Liu nervously arranged orders to the messengers, and the orders were conveyed quickly.

"Boom boom boom" several consecutive sounds, the shot put hit the shore with a low-speed flying roar. There were so many ships on the river, even if there was no wind, they would create waves due to the movement of the ships.
To be continued...