However, to be safe, Zhu Ci decided to first deal with Zuo Liangyu and, while at it, strengthen his own navy.
The Great Ming's navy is currently in a state where having it is no different from not having it, which is quite frustrating.
Originally, he felt that as long as they continued to push northward, whether or not there was a navy wasn't that important.
After all, whether in Henan or Hebei, the north has vast plains and relatively few waterways; the cost of shipbuilding is too high, so it can be set aside for the time being.
But if he could snatch them from someone else's hands, it would be a different story.
Zhu Ci thought of this and couldn't help but feel restless. He glanced at the map, calculated for a moment, said directly, "We are going to raid Zuo Liangyu's forces."
Zhao Jia, who was standing by his side, was startled for a moment. "Your Majesty, this.. Zuo Liangyu's forces number in the millions. I fear we are no match for them."
Even if one intended to defeat a stronger force with a weaker one, there had to be some basic principles. They had brought a total of nearly ten thousand men; even though they had been absorbing refugees all along the way, they only numbered about eleven or twelve thousand by now. How could they fight an army of a million?
Zhu Ci sneered, "You actually believe him? Back then, how much military strength did the entire imperial court even have? Does he really command a million soldiers? If he truly commanded a million soldiers, why haven't we seen him engage in battle with the Marquis of Huating?"
After Fu rebelled and occupied Nanjing, why didn't Zuo Liangyu go directly to Nanjing under those circumstances?
When Fu started his uprising, he only claimed to have a force of one hundred thousand soldiers.
Zhu Ci judged that the soldiers in Zuo Liangyu's troops numbered only in the tens of thousands, he likely did not have Red-coated Cannons on hand; otherwise, he wouldn't have surrendered so readily in the original story.
After making up his mind, he began writing letters to Fu Cai to request boats.
The Great Ming had no warships, but the Grand Secretary of the Great Ming had warships; it sounded quite absurd.
Zhu Ci decided to take this opportunity to buy the warship back from Fu, otherwise, it would be inappropriate for the warship to remain in his hands, the civil and military officials of the court would likely be uneasy.
One of the main reasons most people do not dare to oppose Fu becoming the Grand Secretary is that he truly has the strength to rebel once more.
If he is truly pushed into rebellion, the imperial court will truly be finished this time.
Fu Cai was somewhat surprised to receive Zhu Ci's letter; his family's Little Emperor rarely wrote to him these days, likely because he was afraid that he would bring up the matter of calligraphy again.
To write a letter proactively instead of a direct imperial decree—could it be that he has encountered some unexpected accident?
Only after opening the letter did Fu realize that it wasn't Zhu Ci who had encountered an accident, but Zuo Liangyu.
Or rather, Zuo Liangyu was about to encounter an accident.
Regarding the arrangement of the warships, to be honest, after Zhu Ci led his troops away, Fu felt that he would be able to use a navy sooner or later, so the navy under his command had long been incorporated into the Great Ming army's ranks, the warships naturally belonged to them as well.
Because of this matter, the censors of the Censorate have been extremely pleasant toward him lately.
Fu agreed to the mobilization of the ships, but an administrative order still had to be supervised by the Censorate to pass; even if the Emperor and the Grand Secretary agreed, it would still not be enough.
Huang Chunyao was slightly stunned upon hearing this: "Has His Majesty not gone to pursue Ajige?"
Huang Chunyao no longer wanted to say anything about the Emperor's habit of insisting on leading every battle personally.
Even a general in the field might not obey the Emperor's commands, let alone those of us who offer remonstrance.
Moreover, this Little Emperor's luck is truly excellent; no matter how difficult the war becomes, something strange and unexpected always happens on the opposing side.
Both Liu Liangzuo and Hu Maozhen were veteran generals of many years, yet they were both inexplicably captured, they were killed before they even had the chance to beg for mercy.
Fu said, "His Majesty has already sent a letter of persuasion to Li Zicheng. Currently, Ajige is hiding among the navy to recover from his injuries. Although he is wounded, his subordinates are watching like tigers, Li Zicheng's attitude remains ambiguous. None of the three sides dares to act rashly. His Majesty happened to learn that Zuo Liangyu harbors ambitions of becoming emperor and has also attempted to recruit Li Zicheng, so he intends to let Li Zicheng and Ajige face off against each other. He will deal with Zuo Liangyu first."
Huang Chunyao gave a cold laugh after hearing this: "Zuo Liangyu is dreaming."
Fu Lue was somewhat surprised; in his impression, this was the first time Huang Chunyao had spoken so bluntly.
Since becoming the Left Censor of the Censorate, he had been extremely cautious in every word and action, fearing that anyone might find fault with him.
After all, although he came from a background of jinshi scholars, he had never held any official position, it was no surprise that people were whispering behind his back about him being entrusted with such a heavy responsibility right from the start.
After Huang Chunyao finished speaking, he stamped the mobilization orders that Fu had brought.
With the seals from the Grand Secretariat and the Censorate, the mobilization of the navy became a matter of course.
As for His Majesty's seal.. we'll have to make it up later. There's no other way; the current imperial court is such a makeshift operation. What can you do when His Majesty is away on a campaign?
Everything must follow the established procedures; if one is not adaptable, all strategic opportunities will be lost!
Because the Great Ming navy also had to be on guard against Zhu Yujian and Zhu Yihai, they did not deploy too many troops, totaling only twenty thousand, the number of warships was not particularly large.
Large warships, such as the Wheel-rim Barge, are equipped with Birdlock Guns, nozzles, Fire-Dragon Water-Spouts.
Medium-sized warship Ho Boats, also known as scout ships, are used for relaying orders and pursuit.
In addition to those, there were light fire-attack vessels: Red Dragon Boats and Mother-and-Child Boats, where one was responsible for rushing forward to set fire to the enemy's ships, while the other used the child boat to ignite them while the mother boat attacked.
There weren't many ships, perhaps about a dozen in total, but they were all very well-suited for inland river warfare.
These warships entered the Songjiang Prefecture rivers from Songjiang Prefecture, traveling along the Huangpu River, Wusongjiang Post, the Jiangnan Canal, the Yangtze River, before finally docking at Wangjiang.
Zhu Ci left Zhao Jia in Huangzhou and boarded the warship with only a squad of personal guards.
Let's go, let's head for Leichi!
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: Although I didn't follow the formal procedures, I know you all won't object. An evil kitty jumps onto the bow and waves its paws. jpg
Next update at 6:00 PM~
Chapter 122
The thunderous pool—the very same "thunderous pool" from the proverb that warns one never to step a single inch beyond its boundaries.
This is a strategic chokepoint of the Yangtze River waterways, a place that military strategists have fought to control since ancient times.
It was only because the war had not yet advanced to this location that Zuo Liangyu was able to occupy this place so easily.
Because Zuo Liangyu's forces were waiting to see how things unfolded, most of the navy's strength remained near Huangmei.
Zhu Ci's fleet was indeed a bit small in number, but it had the advantage of being difficult to detect, making it very suitable for a surprise attack.
After entering the Leichi waters, he directly sent the Red Dragon Boat and Mother-and-Child Boat ahead to launch a surprise attack, followed closely by the Ho Boat, with the Wheel-rim Barges coming last.
After all, the Wheel-rim Barge was a massive river vessel, making it very easy to detect.
As for issuing orders, since all those who had arrived this time were naval commanders under Fu's command, Zhu Ci intended to see what these people were made of, so he simply said nothing more and let them act freely.
If there are no major problems, these people will have to hold up a piece of the sky for the Great Ming navy in the future.
Zuo Liangyu's troops had no idea they would be ambushed, or rather, they had never considered that they would face a sudden raid from Wangjiang.
Most of their defensive efforts were focused on Poyang Lake, primarily to guard against Zhu Yujian; even Zhu Yihai was not taken seriously by Zuo Liangyu.
After all, Zhu Yujian has Zheng Zhilong under his command, which poses a great threat.
Unexpectedly, someone launched a sneak attack from the direction of Wangjiang!
At that time, Zuo Liangyu was already critically ill; upon hearing this, he immediately said, "They are Fu's subordinates."
Fu's subordinate? Isn't that just the current Imperial Court?
But isn't it true that the imperial court has no navy?
My Lord, the enemy has dispatched a total of three Red Dragon Boats and two Mother-and-Child Boats!
Zuo Menggeng let out a cold laugh. "It seems that Little Emperor has been blinded by victory. To attempt a sneak attack with a mere handful of ships is simply audacious. Father, I shall lead men to intercept them immediately."
Zuo Liangyu didn't take it to heart, merely saying, "Perhaps they are here to test our strength. Strike back with all your might!"
In fact, fighting back fiercely was likely out of the question.
The Fire-Dragon Water-Spout, combined with a hundred tigers charging with Single-shot Rockets, was no less powerful than the Red-coated Cannon.
Zuo Menggeng stared at the sky, which had been stained red by the firelight, felt momentarily dazed.
Before, they had also heard to some extent that the imperial firearms had improved lately, to the point where even the Qing Army was no match for them.
But previously, both the Imperial Court and the Qing Army had only fought on land; they had no combat record on the water.
How did it suddenly turn into this?
Fortunately, they had the advantage of numbers. The most important thing now was to seize the upstream position, then send boats to flank both sides before ordering the soldiers to board the ships for hand-to-hand combat; this was a tactic frequently used by Zuo Liangyu's forces.
And clearly, when Fu started the uprising, he might have also viewed Zuo Liangyu as one of his enemies. His subordinates were very well-informed about Zuo Liangyu and understood his tactics perfectly; in response to such tactics, he directly ordered the archers to open fire.
The archers used both exploding arrows and ordinary arrows; the exploding arrows were primarily used to sink enemy ships at long range, while the ordinary arrows were used to pick off Zuo Liangyu's soldiers who approached the Great Ming warships.
This was the first time Zhu Ci had observed naval warfare from a close distance. By comparison, the battles he had fought when he previously went on raids against pirates were nothing more than child's play.
That was true; the pirates didn't have firearms, forget about firearms, they didn't even have firecrackers.
And Zuo Liangyu's forces were not only elite troops and capable generals, but they were also far beyond the reach of mere pirates.
During the battle, Zhu Ci held a single-lens telescope and observed for a while, only to discover to his surprise that the Great Ming army, which had always lacked supplies, actually held the upper hand in terms of military equipment.
But then again, it made sense. If Zuo Liangyu truly had enough supplies, he wouldn't have had to resort to looting Wuchang before daring to raise an army.
Not to mention that the territory he currently holds is too small, consisting only of Nanchang Prefecture and Jiujiang Prefecture.
The original plan was to head all the way north to Nanjing, but now they have been intercepted halfway.
No matter how poor the Great Ming might be, it can no longer be said to possess only half the world; at the very least, it holds a territory equivalent to one-fifth of the future realm, which is far beyond what Zuo Liangyu's forces could ever hope to challenge.
However, no matter how sharp the firearms were, it would be difficult to defeat the enemy in one go given the massive disparity in numbers.
Although Zuo Liangyu's forces did not number in the millions, they still numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Sometimes, warfare is all about morale; Zhu Ci had taken the initiative, since Zuo Liangyu's troops were not particularly brave, after two failed attempts to approach the Great Ming's Wheel-rim Barges, they simply turned around and began to flee.
Seeing that the two sides were in a stalemate, with the opponent unable to break through their defensive line and themselves finding it difficult to break through the opponent's, Zhu Ci was already considering a temporary retreat.
In any case, their weapons were more flexible, they could certainly take opportunities to launch sneak attacks from time to time later on.
Holding the upper reaches provides a clear advantage.
Unexpectedly, Zuo Liangyu's forces actually turned and fled.
Zhu Ci was neither surprised nor unconcerned. When his subordinates requested instructions, he said, "Pass the order: there is no need to pursue."
The opponent might truly be fleeing, or they might be luring them into a trap.
The Great Ming was not that familiar with the waters around Leichi. If they rushed into a pursuit and encountered a trap, their only naval forces would be destroyed here.
The Red Dragon Boats and Mother-and-Child Boats that were pursuing ahead were somewhat unwilling to obey the order to retreat, but the Emperor's command could not be defied; if they truly angered the Little Emperor, he would truly kill them.
After firing a volley of Single-shot Rocket artillery at the ships of Zuo Liangyu's forces, the Mother-and-Child Boat turned its bow and retreated.
They retreated so quickly that it actually left Zuo Menggeng feeling somewhat puzzled: "They didn't even pursue? Could it be that they are merely strong on the outside but weak on the inside?"