Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 290 It finally begins
"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

When Ustu returned to the riverside in a small boat, the sound of gunfire from the red-haired warship was much sparser than before, but at the same time, more than a dozen slightly smaller pirate ships were slowly approaching the direction of Guangzhou City. It was obvious that his previous negotiations had worked.

He was naturally extremely puzzled by Red Hair's behavior, but now those boats with powerful firepower had already taken action. He was worried about his men who had already landed, so he was in no mood to delve into the reasons.

"Oh, really, Red Hair agreed?"

"Ok!"

As soon as the boat that Ustu was on reached the shore, a sturdy man with a happy look on his face came to greet him with several generals. It was obvious that they had seen the results of the negotiations from the warships that were slowly moving forward.

According to common sense, having accomplished such a great thing, Ustu should be content to accept the praise from his subordinates. However, who would have thought that he just hummed and looked at the soldiers who were landing with a sullen face, and then had no further reaction.

I swear to God, it’s not that Ustu got angry because of his promotion. The key point is that in the first half of his life, he had only led a team of a dozen people at most, so how could he have led a team of thousands of people?

Originally, this task probably would not have been his turn.

After all, Academician Hong attached great importance to this brilliant plan, so how could he entrust such an important task to a green hand among military generals like him?

But Academician Hong could never be the master of the Manchus.

As far as Wustu knew, when this plan was first proposed, Lekedehun had expressed his disapproval in front of his generals, but because Huai'an was apparently establishing a new dynasty, he did not directly oppose it.

His reason was simple. The sea was different from the inland rivers. If they really sailed all the way to Guangdong, the soldiers they sent would probably have lost half their lives, so how could they capture Guangzhou?
At first, Ustu also agreed with this.

It wouldn't be a problem for him to stay on horseback for ten to twenty days, but thinking about the dizziness of swaying back and forth, he really didn't want to do it from the bottom of his heart.

At that time, no one knew whether Lekedehun did it on purpose or his generals leaked it unintentionally, but the words of Prince Beile, "the one who came up with this plan does not take the lives of soldiers seriously," became known to the whole army, and the Manchu and Han soldiers began to dislike the arrogant prime minister because of this.

According to common sense, if someone else was under such pressure, they would probably simply abandon the proposal. However, who would have thought that not only did the Grand Secretary Hong not make any excuses, but he also recruited brave men from the surrendered troops in Lianghuai with great fanfare.

It was naturally difficult for a low-level military officer like Wustu to understand such behavior. He even felt that Scholar Hong, who was highly regarded by the late emperor, did not live up to his reputation.

Otherwise, how could the prince be forced into such a state of confusion and make so many stupid moves with just this one move?
If Wusitu's idea were applied to an ordinary person, it probably wouldn't be too wrong, but that University Scholar Hong was a man who was able to climb to the position of governor in the fiercely competitive Ming Dynasty court.

Just when everyone thought that a joke was about to happen, the university scholar Hong used a considerable reward to recruit an army composed entirely of veteran soldiers within ten days.

Afterwards, while he was training the new troops, he not only set a date for departure, but also used his status as the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty to ask Lekedehun to send out soldiers from the Eight Banners to supervise the battle. He used this combination of punches to force Lekedehun into a corner.

To be honest, when Ustu first heard this he didn't quite understand.

In his opinion, since you, Hong Chengchou, are prepared to send people to die, then just send them. They are all Han people anyway, so what does it have to do with them, the Manchus?
But to his surprise, only three or two days later, the prince, who had been silent, actually went directly to Hong Chengchou's mansion.

Afterwards, no one knew what kind of collusion they had, but the situation turned around, and Ustu inexplicably became the commander of the army heading south.

"Xu Youji, tell all teams to adapt quickly. The Reds' artillery is powerful, and the Guangzhou city walls won't hold out for long. Don't come all the way here only to get diarrhea at the critical moment." "That's right."

After hearing what Ustu said, the sturdy man standing in the front of the army responded, and then the soldiers took the order and left, and Xu the guerrilla continued to speak.

"The Prime Minister's method is indeed good. The soldiers' combat effectiveness has not been reduced much."

Xu Youji was originally from the navy's land camp, but was picked out by Hong Chengchou to lead these Han troops because of this southward expedition.

Originally, he was unwilling to get involved in this matter, but the military order had been issued and his family was in Huai'an.

Under such circumstances, unless he is really like those heroes who abandon their wives and children without even frowning, what other choice does he have except to obey orders?

It’s just that people’s ideas always change due to various factors.

During the special training of more than a month before heading south, these guerrillas and soldiers were locked in the cabin and constantly instilled with various reasons for victory. Now he only feels that cooperating with the Dutch to capture Guangzhou is simply a stroke of genius, so how could he have any negative thoughts?

"Well, Scholar Hong's method is indeed good. After more than a month of traveling back and forth on the sea and on the shore, the discomfort of the soldiers has indeed been reduced a lot, but..."

"Are you really worried about something?"

Faced with Ustu's hesitation to speak, Xu Youji, as his "subordinate", naturally had to ask further questions. However, Ustu, who had just become a general, realized that something was wrong after he uttered the word "just". In addition, he did not have a deep connection with Xu Youji, so he could only pretend to be in deep thought and try to get away with it.

"Are you really worried that Guangzhou will be difficult to defend?"

Is Xu Youji a little tactless?
His superior obviously showed an attitude of not wanting to answer, but he still followed up with another sentence.

Normally, this seems to be the wrong thing for a subordinate to do, but during the special training and brainwashing during that period, he believed that he had understood the prime minister's true intentions. So after noticing that his superior was a little unsteady, Xu Youji, who was quite confident in this plan, wanted to eliminate it.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

Facing his men's questioning, Ustuben was ready to say something, but before he could figure it out, his thoughts were interrupted by the sudden and intensive sound of artillery fire.

Then the soldiers present instinctively turned their eyes to Guangzhou City four or five miles away, and then slowly rising clouds of smoke appeared in their sight.

Finally they started bombarding the city walls.

By the way, I didn’t deliberately increase the difficulty by letting the Dutch join in. According to the “Report on East India Affairs”, the Dutch’s plan was to “send clippers and sailing ships to occupy the entire Chinese coast from Nan’ao (Guangdong) to Anhai (Fujian).”

However, the Ming Dynasty won the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, so the Dutch temporarily gave up this idea.

If in real history the Ming and Qing dynasties had been in a stalemate, I think the Dutch, who were at their peak, would never have missed this opportunity.

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(End of this chapter)