Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 280 Bloody Storm
Oh, ah, ah, ah————

At the Hezhou Port dock, Lu Jin's mount Yaoguang seemed to understand that they had to board a ship to cross the river. It was very excited. It kept kicking its hooves and shaking its head in place. Fortunately, the personal soldiers helped to hold its reins to prevent it from running around.

Lu Jin was also saying goodbye to the officials who came to see him off.

"Sang Shijie."

"The general is here!"

Lu Jin looked at him and instructed, "When the troops are transported, Hua Gao will return to Hexian County. You will take on the responsibility of commanding the Second Marine Regiment. You must train the troops well and prepare for battle, and arrange patrols on the river. From now on, the Second Marine Regiment will be handed over to you."

"Ah? This..." Sang Shijie was stunned. He didn't expect Lu Jin to suddenly give him a promotion. He asked quickly, "What about Commander Hua?"

"I have other plans for Hua Gao. He has the talent to be a commander. How can he stay in the navy forever? Don't take it lightly. I have tasks for the navy in the next few months. You should train the troops well."

"Yes, thank you for your cultivation, Marshal." Sang Shijie quickly agreed.

Lu Jin looked at Qin Li again and instructed, "For the time being, you stay in He County and supervise the local officials to do their work well. Don't think that they can do whatever they want just because the Marshal's Office is not in Huainan. We are fighting for the world now. There will be plenty of official positions in the future. I will reward those who have done meritorious deeds first. If anyone dares to take action recklessly, I will come back to deal with them."

"Yes, Marshal, don't worry. I will definitely keep an eye on Huainan and make sure there is no trouble." Qin Li said hurriedly. In fact, he also had a mission, which was to take good care of Lu Jin's wife and children. Now Zhang Yunxiu and Lu Jin's eldest son were also in Hexian County. They were just waiting for Lu Jin to cross the river and gain a foothold, and then they would follow him. However, there was no need to say this openly, as Lu Jin had already instructed him last night.

But before he left, he was still worried and said one more thing, "I will send new troops back in a while. You and Yan Shiguo must urge the counties to cooperate in the placement of new soldiers, preside over the land distribution, and organize the people to help open up wasteland during the slack season. Don't miss the important task of expanding the army."

"Don't worry, my lord. I will do my best!" Qin Li agreed quickly.

Finally, Lu Jin looked at Xu Jichuan, the director of the Construction Bureau. The Construction Bureau was one of the few institutions that did not cross the river with the Marshal's Mansion this time. Lu Jin stretched out two fingers and gave him instructions.

“Two months. I will ship back a group of craftsmen for you. You can arrange them to study in various workshops and ironworks. Also, select a group of technical backbones in advance and have them come to Jiangnan to open a new factory. As for the parts for the rolling mill, you can ask the ironworks to prepare a few spare sets.

"Have them learn quickly. My requirement is that in a few months, when I ask you to select key personnel to open a new factory, the output and quality of various weapons and armors of the old Huainan factory must not be reduced, and the craftsmen must not be treated harshly. If someone causes dissatisfaction among the craftsmen due to corruption or oppression, and causes trouble, thus affecting the output of weapons and armors, don't say I didn't tell them in advance."

"Yes, Marshal, rest assured. I will supervise strictly." Xu Jichuan also quickly agreed.

Lu Jin nodded, glanced at the people who came to see him off, and then resolutely turned around, "Get on the boat and cross the river!"

Everyone boarded different ships one by one. Li Shanchang, Feng Guoyong, Shi Naian, Bian Yuanheng and others boarded different ships to prevent sudden accidents that would lead to the collective annihilation of the high-ranking officials of the Marshal's Mansion.
Hey~Hey~
Lu Jin led Yao Guang onto a large boat. The boatmen immediately shouted and raised the sails. Someone at the back held up bamboo poles and rowed the oars. Driven by the west wind, the sailboat immediately rushed towards the east coast.

When they reached the center of the river, the soldier on the bow shouted, "Look, Marshal, there is a signal smoke in the direction of Caishiji!"

"Huh?" Lu Jin looked up immediately and saw a thick black column of smoke rising straight into the sky. Bao Yu, who was on the same boat, explained immediately upon seeing this.

"Don't panic. That's the Caishi Yuan army's signal smoke. It's used to warn Dangtu City when Caishi is lost. Since the signal smoke has risen, it means our vanguard has already entered Caishi's inner harbor. We have won the battle!"

As expected, when Lu Jin was crossing the river, Chang Yuchun had already led his first battalion and Pingding's third battalion to charge into Caishiji Inner Harbor. After burning the catapult position, Wang Zhiyuan's second battalion also rushed over.

With Chang Yuchun, the god of killing, leading the charge, the soldiers below became more and more courageous. In addition, they used grenades to clear the way along the way. When they encountered Yuan troops who dared to form a formation to resist, they would first throw a few grenades at them, and then the spearmen would charge forward and immediately defeat the enemy. Now, when they could fully control Caishiji depended on how fast Chang Yuchun and his men could charge forward.

Cao Xu, the defender of Niuzhuji, quickly fled to the inner harbor with the defeated soldiers after losing the outer harbor. However, the inner harbor could not be defended at all. Once Niuzhu, the gateway between two mountains and a harbor, was lost, the enemy could land continuously and enter the inner harbor. The inner harbor was all flat land. It was originally a port terminal. In order to facilitate the loading and unloading of goods, the terrain was open and flat, and there was no strategic location to defend. Even if he wanted to organize a defense, he really did not have the ability to do so.

Cao Xu did organize several defenses and tried to form a formation to block Chang Yuchun, but each time he was unable to complete the formation and was immediately overwhelmed by his own fleeing soldiers and Chang Yuchun.

Chang Yuchun knew that speed was of the essence in war. He ignored the Yuan troops who surrendered along the way and rushed over to chase and kill the defeated soldiers, not giving Cao Xu any chance to reorganize his defense.

There was no other way. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Cao Xu could only fulfill his last duty. He ordered his men to light smoke signals to report to Dangtu City that Cai Shi had fallen, and then he rode away on horseback with a few of his personal soldiers.

Unfortunately, this guy was unlucky. He finally managed to escape, but he didn't go far before he encountered the Shengwu Army cavalry who were responsible for protecting the road. Seeing nearly a hundred elite white-armored cavalrymen with bows and spears surrounding him from all directions, Cao Xu looked at the less than six personal soldiers around him and chose to surrender.
At the same time, in Dangtu City, Nahachu stood on a street two alleys away from the city wall, listening to the deafening explosions coming from the West City and the South City. He was completely defeated.

At this moment, a soldier suddenly came to report to him, "Report, Lord Wan Hu, there is smoke rising from the quarry!"

Nahachu stood up suddenly and looked towards the northwest. Sure enough, he saw black smoke rising. He was immediately surprised and said, "So fast? It's not even 9 o'clock yet, and it's less than half an hour since the bandits crossed the river, and they've already attacked the quarry? Are the more than a thousand archers and fennel cannons I gave them just for show? They're useless!"

Chen Yesian frowned upon hearing this and said, "Kang Maocai, the former Huaixi envoy, had seven ships under his command, but they were all seized by the Lu bandits. Now we only have three ships outside the city, and they have already made the city walls untenable. If the other four ships are all quarrying, how can they hold on?"

"Humph, I underestimated this thief's preparations."

Nahachu cursed angrily, but there was nothing he could do. He knew that Lu Jin had so many ships and must have planned to cross the river long ago, but he didn't expect that Lu Jin was so well prepared and had quietly prepared so many heavy firearms, which had never been used in other battles before. It was used once on a small scale when fighting Anqing before, but those who had seen the artillery were captured by Lu Jin, and later those surrendered soldiers were subdued and absorbed, and the news was not leaked on a large scale, resulting in him being completely unprepared. Until the last moment of crossing the river, Lu Jin showed these big killer weapons, which immediately made Nahachu very embarrassed.

Originally, Nahachu was personally commanding on the city wall. He saw with his own eyes the three ships stopped two miles away, hesitating in the river to adjust for a long time, and then suddenly spewed white smoke towards the top of the city wall. Nahachu immediately thought something was wrong.

He had seen muskets before and knew that they were the characteristics of igniting gunpowder. Sure enough, the next moment, shells flew to the top of the city. Some flew too low and hit the wall, while others flew too high and flew from the top of the city into the city. Only a few landed right on the top of the city, and then there were continuous explosions.

Nahachu was stunned on the spot. Although he had seen various kinds of muskets, he had never heard of any musket that could fire so far and with such great power.

Seeing that the three ships stopped after firing a round, he immediately understood that the gunners were adjusting their targets. He immediately went down the city wall with his personal soldiers. Sure enough, in less than a moment, a shell hit the south city wall. Then there was continuous bombardment, which caused shrapnel from the city wall to fly and soil and rocks to splash.

The Dangtu city wall was built of rammed earth and was not covered with bricks on the outside. After only a few rounds of attack, the half-man-high parapet that was higher than the top of the city wall was beaten down to pieces like a dog's gnaw. A lot of the city defense equipment placed on the top of the city wall was also damaged. The tower on the south gate where Nahachu was previously located still had a lot of firewood and kerosene for defense, which were all used to boil gold juice. As a result, they were also blown over and ignited by the shells. The tower soon caught fire and engulfed the entire tower.

Nahachu secretly said to himself, "It's a close call. Fortunately, he ran fast. However, as a result, no one could stand on the city walls on the west and south sides. If they continued to stay there, they would only be bombed. So he had to send people to squat and look at the stairs behind the city wall, occasionally looking out to see if the enemy's ships were approaching. He himself hid two streets away from the city wall.

It's not that he was afraid of death. The key point was that the enemy troops had not arrived yet. If he died in the artillery bombardment without even seeing the enemy troops, wouldn't that be a loss?

"Tell Wang Hui to guard the north city. Cai Shi has been breached by the bandits, and they are likely to come from the north."

"Yes."

Nahachu had just finished arranging the defense in the north, but the southwest corner suddenly became quiet and the artillery fire stopped in an instant. Just as he was wondering what happened, another soldier came to report.

"Sir, the three enemy ships are approaching, heading towards our city wall!"

Nahachu immediately stood up and shouted, "Hurry up and climb the city walls to defend against the enemy. Don't be afraid of the enemy's muskets. If they are too close, they won't be able to hit the top of the city walls. Hurry up."

"Yes."

While giving orders, Nahachu ran towards the city wall to supervise the defenders. He had left more than 400 archers in the city, who were gathering at the foot of the wall to avoid the bombardment. When they heard the order from behind, they immediately climbed up the stairs to the city wall, but they were shocked by the situation before them.

The top of the city wall had been blown into ruins and the parapet had been basically blown away. Without the protection of the parapet, they were immediately exposed on the city wall, just like standing on the side of a building without guardrails. One step forward was a moat hundreds of meters wide. It was very unfriendly to people who were afraid of heights. They were afraid that if they were not careful, they would be squeezed down from the top of the city wall by friendly forces. Many soldiers shrank back and dared not move forward.

Fortunately, there were many officers supervising the archers, who were able to stand on the wall in formation. A captain of archers saw the tower ship approaching, calculated the distance, and immediately drew his bow and shot an arrow at the tower ship. With a click, the arrow hit the ship.

Liu Chuanyi stood on the third deck, calm and composed, not dodging or avoiding. When he saw the Yuan army's arrows coming, he knew that the distance was almost enough, and immediately ordered, "The third company aims at the top of the city, and fire freely."

The next moment, the 12 revolving submachine guns on the side of the third deck of the ship he was on immediately ignited, and a burst of loud rumbling noises broke out in an instant. At a distance of 60 meters, the 12mm breech-loading rapid-fire guns fired all shotguns. Each gun could fire hundreds of cast iron projectiles each time. The guns fired thousands of iron bullets in an instant, like a shower of hot iron rain, sweeping towards the top of the city.

"what--"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh————

Dense swarms of bullets flew everywhere on the city walls. The tower ships launched the attack before they got close enough for the archers to shoot directly at them. Immediately, there was a bloody storm on the city walls. A large number of archers were shot into sieves by the shotgun shells before they could even fire an arrow.

Some people who were directly targeted were hit by a large number of bullets and shattered on the spot. They merged with the rammed earth on the top of the city wall and exploded into a cloud of blood mist above the city wall, flying everywhere. Even the centurion who had shot the arrow first was no exception.

Nahachu happened to arrive at this time. Before he climbed to the top of the city wall, he heard screams and the whistling sound of bullets breaking through the air. Several corpses were swept down from the top of the city wall and fell in front of Nahachu with a thud. He kicked the man and found that there was a bloody hole on the archer's face, big enough for a finger to fit in, and a hole as big as a bowl was blown out behind his head. White and red blood flowed all over the ground, and he died on the spot.

Nahachu swallowed his saliva, his face turned pale, and he asked quickly, "What's going on?"

It happened that at this moment there was an archer who was shot in the chest and abdomen. He was knocked down the stairs. When he heard Nahachu's question, he spoke while spitting blood.

"The pirate ship has three layers of muskets." After that, there was no more sound.

Nahachu looked up and listened, only to hear the continuous sound of cannons outside the city, which was getting closer and closer. He knew that the enemy's ships were about to enter the moat, but no one dared to climb up the city wall at this time. The sound of bullets breaking through the air kept coming from above their heads. If they were exposed on the city wall, they would die immediately.

Soon someone picked up a few iron bullets from the streets of the city and handed them to Nahachu.

"My lord, it is this thing."

Nahachu took it and looked at it. He saw that they were several round iron beads, the size of sheep dung balls. He didn't know how they were made so round.

How many surprises did Lu Jin prepare for him?
(End of this chapter)