Chapter 2009
Chapter 2009
Chapter 2009
Gong Shiqi's actions were much faster than that of the local salt merchants. Before Lu Kangtai and others could reach an agreement, the two salt ships had already left the wharf and went south along the canal.For this special mission team, the most dangerous part of the return journey is the tens of miles from the Yangzhou section of the canal to the Yangtze River. Once they are intercepted in this narrow channel, the possibility of their escape from the waterway Very small.
As for the other route that was originally planned to retreat to the coast via land, because it was too far away from where they were, and there were some prisoners on hand, and the operation route was completely in an unfamiliar area, there were too many uncertain risk factors, so Gong Shiqiu In the end, he resolutely gave up this alternate retreat route and chose to return by the same way as the waterway.As long as they can enter the Yangtze River smoothly, it will be difficult for the two ships to be intercepted by the pursuers at the speed of these two ships.
When Lu Kangtai rushed to the side of the canal with the people gathered by the Shanxi salt merchants, he found that the two cargo ships had disappeared.According to those who stayed nearby, the two ships had sailed to the south, and they seemed to be planning to flee Yangzhou overnight.
If the opponent really "fleeed", Lu Kangtai might feel a little better, but he quickly noticed that all the dead and wounded on his side who failed to leave the battlefield and the weapons they used were gone, obviously all were taken away by the opponent .
The other party took all these people away regardless of whether they were dead or alive, which shows that they were relatively calm when they evacuated, and it wasn't that they were done after fighting this time. Taking them away must be to collect evidence and carry out liquidation later.This made Lu Kangtai even more worried that the troubles that would follow in this matter would be too much for them to deal with.
At this time, several ships transferred to intercept the opponent arrived at the pier. Lu Kangtai gritted his teeth and ordered to board the ship and chase south.This time, he didn't plan to sit in the rear anymore. Anyway, after the other party captured the prisoners, they would soon know that he was the commander behind the scenes, and it didn't make much sense to hide his whereabouts.It would be better to attack in person, at least it would be able to command the assembled men from various families in real time. Otherwise, let these people chase to the south on their own.
Although it was midnight at this time, various salt merchants dispatched a total of sixteen large and small sailing boats to this pier in a short period of time. Probably only these local salt merchants with all-hands-on-the-eyes could achieve such efficiency.Coupled with the hundreds of young men who had assembled on the pier, the pursuit force was not weak, which finally restored Lu Kangtai's confidence.
Of course, considering that the opponent may be equipped with a large number of muskets, if you really want to fight head-on, these hundreds of people are still not enough.This made Lu Kangtai couldn't help thinking of his exhausted Musketeers. He had invested too much energy and financial resources in this armed force, but now it was wiped out overnight. In addition to his heartache, I also understand that the strength gap between the two sides is too large, and it is still difficult to truly complete an effective interception with the temporary manpower assembled at the moment.
So Lu Kangtai's expectation is to catch up with the opponent before he enters the Yangtze River, use these boats to block the canal, and then he can only hope that He Huan can quickly move the army, so that it is possible to truly give the opponent to him. Stopped in Yangzhou.
Although the pursuers led by Lu Kangtai set off a little later, their advantage was that they were very familiar with the water conditions of the canal, and their speed at night was much faster than the target they were chasing.If you can advance at full speed in the forty-mile canal waterway from the wharf to the Yangtze River, there is still hope that you can catch up with your opponent.As for whether he can suppress his opponent after catching up, Lu Kangtai really doesn't even have the slightest confidence now, so he can only take a step first.
The Yangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is relatively narrow, so ships traveling here, especially larger cargo ships, generally do not travel at night to avoid collisions with other ships on the river.This provided a lot of convenience for Gong Shiqi and others who were evacuated from Yangzhou. When they passed this section of the canal two days ago, they often had to stop and line up in the narrow section of the canal, but now they have avoided these troubles. Although it was night, the speed of travel was much faster than when it came.
"At our current speed, we should be able to reach Guazhou before dawn." Ji Yuanqing confirmed the speed through the Wenfeng Pagoda on the shore, which made him feel a little more relaxed.As long as they pass Guazhou, it means that they are about to escape. Even if the local salt merchants chase after them, it will be difficult to stop the two ships on the wide Yangtze River.
Gong Shiqi next to him responded, "I hope they don't worry too much. I don't want to stop and fight again."
Of course, what Gong Shiqi was afraid of was not fighting with the armed salt merchants, but being held back by the opponent and unable to escape.If you can't get away, even if you are much stronger than the opponent, you may still be consumed to death.
They are very clear about their mission, which is to bring as much evidence as possible back to Zhoushan, instead of massacring Yangzhou.So even though the armed force commanded by Gong Shiqi has considerable combat effectiveness and is more than enough to deal with ordinary civilian armed forces, he still does not love to fight at all, but takes leading the team to get out as soon as possible as his first choice.
But the local salt merchants were not slow enough to wait until dawn before taking countermeasures. Not long after they passed the Wenfeng Pagoda, a red signal bomb suddenly shot into the air and exploded in the direction of Yangzhou City. They could see it from several miles away. Clearly.This is the signal sent by the hidden pile near the pier after confirming that there is a pursuit from the other party organization.
"You really dare to chase!" Gong Shiqi couldn't help sighing as he watched the fireworks slowly burning out in mid-air.
"They probably won't be reconciled either! After all, the Musketeer team, which we worked so hard to manage, was eaten by us in one bite!" Ji Yuanqing's tone was somewhat smug.According to the information they had beforehand, the size of the musketeers dispatched by the opponent today even exceeded the previous operations, and they had reason to believe that this was basically the situation of all dispatches.And even if a few people escaped by chance after this battle, it would be very difficult for the Musketeers to recover their organization and combat effectiveness in a short period of time.
"Give me an order to unload all the salt loaded on the two ships into the river as much as possible, reduce weight and speed up!" Gong Shiqi has no special means now, he can only reduce the cargo load as much as possible in exchange for a faster speed speed.
As a result, while the two ships were moving, the sound of heavy objects falling into the water continued to sound from both sides of the ship.A bag of about [-] catties of refined salt became waste and was pushed into the river by the crew.Even though doing so was costly and did not necessarily have immediate results, they kept loading salt onto deck and throwing it over the side of the boat into the river.
This kind of practice is naturally very uncommon, and probably only Haihan with deep pockets can do it.However, in Gong Shiqi's opinion, this was just a trivial matter. The Ministry of Security did not always consider funding issues too much. As long as the goal could be achieved, it would be fine to take any measures within the scope of the budget.As for the salt on the boat, in Gong Shiqi's eyes, it was no different from other tools. It could be used for building fortifications when needed, and naturally it could be thrown into the canal to reduce the weight of the boat.
However, the two cargo ships have larger hulls after all, and the Yangzhou section of the Grand Canal is famous for its many bends. Large ships must slow down when cornering to ensure the correct course. It is difficult to speed up this speed.When halfway through the voyage, you can already see the dots of lights on the chasing ship.
Most of the boats temporarily mobilized by the local salt merchants are light fast boats with small hulls, and their speed may not be much faster than the two boats of Gong Shiqi, but the boats are small and easy to turn around, and they are much more flexible when navigating in this canal , so the distance between the two sides can be quickly narrowed.
If they continue to flee and chase at the current speed, before the two Haihan ships reach Guazhou, they will definitely be overtaken by the ships behind. This is not difficult to calculate.
"It seems that it's not that easy to leave Yangzhou!" Gong Shiqi put down his binoculars, not too optimistic about the current situation.
"When necessary, our ship will speed up a little bit to drag them down." Ji Yuanqing also realized that the current situation might not be able to escape smoothly, so he reminded Gong Shiqi to consider a backup plan.
When they left, they had already made a simple division of labor between the two ships. The front ship carried all the prisoners and captured weapons, while the two of them and the main force of the battle were on the rear ship. If the rear pursuers caught up, The ship they were on had to take on the task of covering after the break, so that the ship in front could get rid of the pursuit as soon as possible.
This arrangement is naturally to ensure that these hard-won evidence can be sent back to Zhoushan smoothly. As for whether they can evacuate safely, that is secondary. Big risks have to be taken on top.
Lu Kangtai was on one of the ships coming from the tail, and he had already seen the shadow of the ship ahead, and immediately ordered a full-speed pursuit to catch up with the ship in front as soon as possible.
Although his musketeer team was gone, and his long-range firepower output ability would be greatly reduced, but on this narrow river, which was only thirty or forty feet wide, as long as the boat was close to the opponent, there were still many offensive means available.Many of the people gathered tonight are veterans who have been running on rivers for many years, and they also have a lot of experience in fighting on water, so they are all starting to prepare their tools.
All kinds of grappling hooks with ropes, iron chains, and long handles, incendiary bombs filled with kerosene, pumps, long bows and short crossbows, long spears and short knives, as well as a temporarily armed one with stock muskets and privately owned bird guns Beggars' version of the musketeers, to be serious, this chasing team should not be underestimated, but because it is difficult to achieve a unified pace because it is temporarily convened from various families, the scene is inevitably a bit chaotic.
Lu Kangtai offered a very high reward for this temporary operation. He could get 500 taels of silver for killing one person, and a thousand taels of silver for capturing one alive.If you can catch the leader named Gong on the boat, you can get a big reward of 5000 taels of silver.As for the tens of thousands of catties of salt loaded on the previous ship, after the event is completed, the discounted price will be shared equally among all the people involved in the operation. On average, at least a dozen or twenty taels of silver can be guaranteed.
There must be a brave man under a heavy reward, and most of the people present did not know the result of the previous confrontation. They only knew that Lu Kangtai offered a sky-high reward in order to catch the foreign salt merchant on the boat ahead, which was definitely worth them Go for it.If he is lucky enough to catch the leader of the other party with his own hands, then tomorrow he can take over the mountains and go back to the countryside to buy hundreds of acres of fertile land and enjoy the happiness of being an owner.
For these people, the two ships in front were not carrying salt, but silver.As for who the opponent is and what weapon is in his hand, no one told them in advance.
Seeing that the boat behind was getting closer and closer, Gong Shiqi finally ordered the boat to slow down and let the boat in front go first.And in the eyes of the people behind, no matter what the reason for slowing down the ship in front is, this is definitely an excellent opportunity to attack.No need for Lu Kangtai to issue another order, the two ships rushing to the front had already caught up, one left and one right.
When they were still two or three feet away from the target, the people on the bows of the two fast boats threw grabbing hooks at the big boat one after another. They wanted to connect the boat they were on with the big boat ahead, and then they could get off. The anchor held the ship, allowing the ships behind to catch up and surround the target.
But at the same time, several muzzles protruded from the side of the big ship, aiming at the decks of the two ships diagonally behind.As a burst of gunfire rang out, the deck suddenly screamed, and almost none of the people who were crowded at the bow to take the lead were spared, and became victims of this wave of close-range firepower.Immediately afterwards, several long knives stretched out from the side of the ship, cutting off the ropes and iron chains connected behind the grapples that were thrown onto the ship earlier.
The fierce firepower on the big ship far exceeded the imagination of these people. At this time, they seemed to realize why Lu Kangtai offered such a high reward.Compared with the dangers encountered at present, the standard of working hard for money is actually not that high.
However, the allure of the high reward still made other people quickly ignore these casualties. Immediately, some people raised their crossbows and muskets to shoot at the people on the big ship.However, this kind of exchange of fire is undoubtedly quite disadvantageous for them. The people on the big boat not only have the side of the ship as a cover, but also fight from high to low. The people on the small boat are basically completely exposed to the opponent's shooting vision. The difference in the performance of the weapons of the two sides, the scene of this exchange of fire is actually still one-sided.
The active forces on the two small boats were quickly wiped out by the intensive firepower on the big ship, and the survivors at the helm at the stern quickly moved the boats to the shore to give way to the boats behind.
Lu Kangtai's face was ashen. He had a panoramic view of the battle just now, and finally understood why his Musketeers were easily killed by the opponent.The intensity of this firepower output is far from being comparable to that of the Musketeers. In addition, the opponent has built fortifications on the pier to wait for work, so it is reasonable to not beat the opponent.But this also made him firmer in his conjecture that the other party was not a salt merchant at all, but an army pretending to be a salt merchant.
(End of this chapter)
Gong Shiqi's actions were much faster than that of the local salt merchants. Before Lu Kangtai and others could reach an agreement, the two salt ships had already left the wharf and went south along the canal.For this special mission team, the most dangerous part of the return journey is the tens of miles from the Yangzhou section of the canal to the Yangtze River. Once they are intercepted in this narrow channel, the possibility of their escape from the waterway Very small.
As for the other route that was originally planned to retreat to the coast via land, because it was too far away from where they were, and there were some prisoners on hand, and the operation route was completely in an unfamiliar area, there were too many uncertain risk factors, so Gong Shiqiu In the end, he resolutely gave up this alternate retreat route and chose to return by the same way as the waterway.As long as they can enter the Yangtze River smoothly, it will be difficult for the two ships to be intercepted by the pursuers at the speed of these two ships.
When Lu Kangtai rushed to the side of the canal with the people gathered by the Shanxi salt merchants, he found that the two cargo ships had disappeared.According to those who stayed nearby, the two ships had sailed to the south, and they seemed to be planning to flee Yangzhou overnight.
If the opponent really "fleeed", Lu Kangtai might feel a little better, but he quickly noticed that all the dead and wounded on his side who failed to leave the battlefield and the weapons they used were gone, obviously all were taken away by the opponent .
The other party took all these people away regardless of whether they were dead or alive, which shows that they were relatively calm when they evacuated, and it wasn't that they were done after fighting this time. Taking them away must be to collect evidence and carry out liquidation later.This made Lu Kangtai even more worried that the troubles that would follow in this matter would be too much for them to deal with.
At this time, several ships transferred to intercept the opponent arrived at the pier. Lu Kangtai gritted his teeth and ordered to board the ship and chase south.This time, he didn't plan to sit in the rear anymore. Anyway, after the other party captured the prisoners, they would soon know that he was the commander behind the scenes, and it didn't make much sense to hide his whereabouts.It would be better to attack in person, at least it would be able to command the assembled men from various families in real time. Otherwise, let these people chase to the south on their own.
Although it was midnight at this time, various salt merchants dispatched a total of sixteen large and small sailing boats to this pier in a short period of time. Probably only these local salt merchants with all-hands-on-the-eyes could achieve such efficiency.Coupled with the hundreds of young men who had assembled on the pier, the pursuit force was not weak, which finally restored Lu Kangtai's confidence.
Of course, considering that the opponent may be equipped with a large number of muskets, if you really want to fight head-on, these hundreds of people are still not enough.This made Lu Kangtai couldn't help thinking of his exhausted Musketeers. He had invested too much energy and financial resources in this armed force, but now it was wiped out overnight. In addition to his heartache, I also understand that the strength gap between the two sides is too large, and it is still difficult to truly complete an effective interception with the temporary manpower assembled at the moment.
So Lu Kangtai's expectation is to catch up with the opponent before he enters the Yangtze River, use these boats to block the canal, and then he can only hope that He Huan can quickly move the army, so that it is possible to truly give the opponent to him. Stopped in Yangzhou.
Although the pursuers led by Lu Kangtai set off a little later, their advantage was that they were very familiar with the water conditions of the canal, and their speed at night was much faster than the target they were chasing.If you can advance at full speed in the forty-mile canal waterway from the wharf to the Yangtze River, there is still hope that you can catch up with your opponent.As for whether he can suppress his opponent after catching up, Lu Kangtai really doesn't even have the slightest confidence now, so he can only take a step first.
The Yangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is relatively narrow, so ships traveling here, especially larger cargo ships, generally do not travel at night to avoid collisions with other ships on the river.This provided a lot of convenience for Gong Shiqi and others who were evacuated from Yangzhou. When they passed this section of the canal two days ago, they often had to stop and line up in the narrow section of the canal, but now they have avoided these troubles. Although it was night, the speed of travel was much faster than when it came.
"At our current speed, we should be able to reach Guazhou before dawn." Ji Yuanqing confirmed the speed through the Wenfeng Pagoda on the shore, which made him feel a little more relaxed.As long as they pass Guazhou, it means that they are about to escape. Even if the local salt merchants chase after them, it will be difficult to stop the two ships on the wide Yangtze River.
Gong Shiqi next to him responded, "I hope they don't worry too much. I don't want to stop and fight again."
Of course, what Gong Shiqi was afraid of was not fighting with the armed salt merchants, but being held back by the opponent and unable to escape.If you can't get away, even if you are much stronger than the opponent, you may still be consumed to death.
They are very clear about their mission, which is to bring as much evidence as possible back to Zhoushan, instead of massacring Yangzhou.So even though the armed force commanded by Gong Shiqi has considerable combat effectiveness and is more than enough to deal with ordinary civilian armed forces, he still does not love to fight at all, but takes leading the team to get out as soon as possible as his first choice.
But the local salt merchants were not slow enough to wait until dawn before taking countermeasures. Not long after they passed the Wenfeng Pagoda, a red signal bomb suddenly shot into the air and exploded in the direction of Yangzhou City. They could see it from several miles away. Clearly.This is the signal sent by the hidden pile near the pier after confirming that there is a pursuit from the other party organization.
"You really dare to chase!" Gong Shiqi couldn't help sighing as he watched the fireworks slowly burning out in mid-air.
"They probably won't be reconciled either! After all, the Musketeer team, which we worked so hard to manage, was eaten by us in one bite!" Ji Yuanqing's tone was somewhat smug.According to the information they had beforehand, the size of the musketeers dispatched by the opponent today even exceeded the previous operations, and they had reason to believe that this was basically the situation of all dispatches.And even if a few people escaped by chance after this battle, it would be very difficult for the Musketeers to recover their organization and combat effectiveness in a short period of time.
"Give me an order to unload all the salt loaded on the two ships into the river as much as possible, reduce weight and speed up!" Gong Shiqi has no special means now, he can only reduce the cargo load as much as possible in exchange for a faster speed speed.
As a result, while the two ships were moving, the sound of heavy objects falling into the water continued to sound from both sides of the ship.A bag of about [-] catties of refined salt became waste and was pushed into the river by the crew.Even though doing so was costly and did not necessarily have immediate results, they kept loading salt onto deck and throwing it over the side of the boat into the river.
This kind of practice is naturally very uncommon, and probably only Haihan with deep pockets can do it.However, in Gong Shiqi's opinion, this was just a trivial matter. The Ministry of Security did not always consider funding issues too much. As long as the goal could be achieved, it would be fine to take any measures within the scope of the budget.As for the salt on the boat, in Gong Shiqi's eyes, it was no different from other tools. It could be used for building fortifications when needed, and naturally it could be thrown into the canal to reduce the weight of the boat.
However, the two cargo ships have larger hulls after all, and the Yangzhou section of the Grand Canal is famous for its many bends. Large ships must slow down when cornering to ensure the correct course. It is difficult to speed up this speed.When halfway through the voyage, you can already see the dots of lights on the chasing ship.
Most of the boats temporarily mobilized by the local salt merchants are light fast boats with small hulls, and their speed may not be much faster than the two boats of Gong Shiqi, but the boats are small and easy to turn around, and they are much more flexible when navigating in this canal , so the distance between the two sides can be quickly narrowed.
If they continue to flee and chase at the current speed, before the two Haihan ships reach Guazhou, they will definitely be overtaken by the ships behind. This is not difficult to calculate.
"It seems that it's not that easy to leave Yangzhou!" Gong Shiqi put down his binoculars, not too optimistic about the current situation.
"When necessary, our ship will speed up a little bit to drag them down." Ji Yuanqing also realized that the current situation might not be able to escape smoothly, so he reminded Gong Shiqi to consider a backup plan.
When they left, they had already made a simple division of labor between the two ships. The front ship carried all the prisoners and captured weapons, while the two of them and the main force of the battle were on the rear ship. If the rear pursuers caught up, The ship they were on had to take on the task of covering after the break, so that the ship in front could get rid of the pursuit as soon as possible.
This arrangement is naturally to ensure that these hard-won evidence can be sent back to Zhoushan smoothly. As for whether they can evacuate safely, that is secondary. Big risks have to be taken on top.
Lu Kangtai was on one of the ships coming from the tail, and he had already seen the shadow of the ship ahead, and immediately ordered a full-speed pursuit to catch up with the ship in front as soon as possible.
Although his musketeer team was gone, and his long-range firepower output ability would be greatly reduced, but on this narrow river, which was only thirty or forty feet wide, as long as the boat was close to the opponent, there were still many offensive means available.Many of the people gathered tonight are veterans who have been running on rivers for many years, and they also have a lot of experience in fighting on water, so they are all starting to prepare their tools.
All kinds of grappling hooks with ropes, iron chains, and long handles, incendiary bombs filled with kerosene, pumps, long bows and short crossbows, long spears and short knives, as well as a temporarily armed one with stock muskets and privately owned bird guns Beggars' version of the musketeers, to be serious, this chasing team should not be underestimated, but because it is difficult to achieve a unified pace because it is temporarily convened from various families, the scene is inevitably a bit chaotic.
Lu Kangtai offered a very high reward for this temporary operation. He could get 500 taels of silver for killing one person, and a thousand taels of silver for capturing one alive.If you can catch the leader named Gong on the boat, you can get a big reward of 5000 taels of silver.As for the tens of thousands of catties of salt loaded on the previous ship, after the event is completed, the discounted price will be shared equally among all the people involved in the operation. On average, at least a dozen or twenty taels of silver can be guaranteed.
There must be a brave man under a heavy reward, and most of the people present did not know the result of the previous confrontation. They only knew that Lu Kangtai offered a sky-high reward in order to catch the foreign salt merchant on the boat ahead, which was definitely worth them Go for it.If he is lucky enough to catch the leader of the other party with his own hands, then tomorrow he can take over the mountains and go back to the countryside to buy hundreds of acres of fertile land and enjoy the happiness of being an owner.
For these people, the two ships in front were not carrying salt, but silver.As for who the opponent is and what weapon is in his hand, no one told them in advance.
Seeing that the boat behind was getting closer and closer, Gong Shiqi finally ordered the boat to slow down and let the boat in front go first.And in the eyes of the people behind, no matter what the reason for slowing down the ship in front is, this is definitely an excellent opportunity to attack.No need for Lu Kangtai to issue another order, the two ships rushing to the front had already caught up, one left and one right.
When they were still two or three feet away from the target, the people on the bows of the two fast boats threw grabbing hooks at the big boat one after another. They wanted to connect the boat they were on with the big boat ahead, and then they could get off. The anchor held the ship, allowing the ships behind to catch up and surround the target.
But at the same time, several muzzles protruded from the side of the big ship, aiming at the decks of the two ships diagonally behind.As a burst of gunfire rang out, the deck suddenly screamed, and almost none of the people who were crowded at the bow to take the lead were spared, and became victims of this wave of close-range firepower.Immediately afterwards, several long knives stretched out from the side of the ship, cutting off the ropes and iron chains connected behind the grapples that were thrown onto the ship earlier.
The fierce firepower on the big ship far exceeded the imagination of these people. At this time, they seemed to realize why Lu Kangtai offered such a high reward.Compared with the dangers encountered at present, the standard of working hard for money is actually not that high.
However, the allure of the high reward still made other people quickly ignore these casualties. Immediately, some people raised their crossbows and muskets to shoot at the people on the big ship.However, this kind of exchange of fire is undoubtedly quite disadvantageous for them. The people on the big boat not only have the side of the ship as a cover, but also fight from high to low. The people on the small boat are basically completely exposed to the opponent's shooting vision. The difference in the performance of the weapons of the two sides, the scene of this exchange of fire is actually still one-sided.
The active forces on the two small boats were quickly wiped out by the intensive firepower on the big ship, and the survivors at the helm at the stern quickly moved the boats to the shore to give way to the boats behind.
Lu Kangtai's face was ashen. He had a panoramic view of the battle just now, and finally understood why his Musketeers were easily killed by the opponent.The intensity of this firepower output is far from being comparable to that of the Musketeers. In addition, the opponent has built fortifications on the pier to wait for work, so it is reasonable to not beat the opponent.But this also made him firmer in his conjecture that the other party was not a salt merchant at all, but an army pretending to be a salt merchant.
(End of this chapter)