Chapter 2217

The reason why the armed forces under Lu Kangtai were able to suppress the Anhui salt merchants in the past period was mainly because they were equipped with standard muskets obtained from the Hirado Domain of Japan. The combat operations commanded by Lu Kangtai,

Most likely he just led the musketeers to set up an ambush in the middle of the road to intercept the rival salt caravan, and encountered little decent resistance. This also gave him a wrong self-perception of himself and his armed forces, thinking that with the help of

This set of things can travel sideways in the world.

Haihan's attack in Yangzhou City last year dealt Lu Kangtai a heavy blow. The Musketeers under his command almost lost all, but this lesson still did not make Lu Kangtai truly realize his own strength, and he also pinned his hopes on reorganizing the Musketeers.

To rebuild his reputation, he failed to consider that he had not resolved the conflict of interest that existed between him and Haihan.

By the time the news came that the Huizhou salt merchants were cooperating with Haihan, Lu Kangtai and the Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants group behind him were already in trouble. If they continued to attack the Huizhou salt merchants, they might be hit by Haihan and stop taking the initiative.

In the face of confrontation, his competitors may not be willing to let him go, and he may be pinned to the ground and beaten by the Huizhou salt merchants who have regained their composure in a year and a half.

The disadvantage will only get bigger if it drags on, so even though the situation is not good, Lu Kangtai can only choose to bite the bullet and take action, and such a hasty action is obviously not prepared for Haihan's direct intervention. Lu Kangtai thought that the attack on Daijiazhuang was frustrated.

It was just because he was in the light and the enemy was in the dark. If he faced off openly and openly, his side should be able to fight. But now that he was fighting against the opponent, he realized that things were not that simple.

Lu Kangtai didn't even have time to get his musketeers to form a combat formation. The battle suddenly started. From the commander to the combatants, everyone from the commander to the combatants showed their inexperience in an instant and failed to make a reasonable response.

He was already beaten to pieces.

Although the Golden Shield is only a paramilitary organization, and there is still a certain gap between the weapons and equipment and the combat methods of the Haihan regular army, it took the lead to seize the initiative on the battlefield and immediately gained an overwhelming advantage on the scene.

.However, Lu Kangtai's on-the-spot command fell into chaos. In addition to emphasizing high bounties, he could not come up with effective means to organize a counterattack.

It wasn't until he saw that the opponent's convoy had bypassed the congestion area and was continuing to march towards the canal that Lu Kangtai remembered the purpose of this blockade again and quickly ordered: "Shoot the horses! Let everyone shoot the horses first.

, stop the car!"

If Dai Yingda is allowed to board the boat and cross the river, all the previous deployments will be in vain, and the opponent already has the backing of Haihan, and it will be increasingly difficult to use force to surrender the opponent. Lu Kangtai cannot sit back and watch this possibly be the end.

The opportunity slipped away before his eyes, so he had to use all means to intercept Dai Yingda.

Shooting the packhorse pulling the cart is undoubtedly the most effective interception method at the moment. The packhorse has a large target and has no protective measures, so it is relatively easy to hit it as long as you focus your fire.

Sure enough, after adjusting their combat strategy, Lu Kangtai's musketeers quickly hit the packhorse of the leading carriage, causing the convoy to be forced to stop again. However, the carriage was immediately abandoned, and the following carriages were only briefly stranded.

After a while, he went around and continued moving forward.

The muskets equipped by Lu Kangtai were produced in Hirado. Although their performance seemed to be slightly better than the muskets currently equipped by the Ming army, they also had the shortcoming of being too slow to load ammunition. As a last resort, other armed personnel holding cold weapons

We can only rush out and fight again.

However, the effect of this kind of charge was extremely limited. What greeted them was another round of fire that had already been loaded. However, with the previous lessons, some of them also learned a lot. Seeing the people on the convoy side,

When a person takes aim with a gun, he either lies down on the spot or finds a nearby bunker to cover his body. The few who rush hard inevitably become living targets and are knocked to the ground in an instant.

The people who rushed out after looking at this opportunity finally succeeded in rushing closer, but what greeted them were several bright and sharp bayonets. With the blessing of this thing, the musket that had just finished shooting changed from a fire stick to a

Even a person with good skills would have a hard time dealing with several bayonets thrust at him from different angles at the same time. Even if he could successfully block one or two of them, he would still be unable to dodge the pursuers.

of last hit.

As long as this kind of bayonet penetrates the soft parts of the body, it will lose the ability to move in an instant. For a moment, there were screams in the field, and this wave of offensive was quickly broken up by the people of the Golden Shield.

However, the desperate charge of these people still slightly slowed down the advance of the convoy and bought valuable time for the musketeers to complete the reloading of ammunition. Therefore, after they completed the third round of firing, they finally caused casualties to the convoy.

Yuan Tao relied on the cover of the carriage and was unscathed, but what troubled him was that the horse in the carriage Dai Yingda was riding in had also been shot. After the horse suffered pain, it had to run forward, but the road ahead was also blocked.

Being blocked by his own carriage, the horse struggled furiously and almost kicked the driver over.

Upon seeing this, Yuan Tao thought that it was impossible for Dai Yingda to complete the last part of the journey in a carriage, so he made a prompt decision and asked Dai Yingda and Lin Zhong to get off the carriage and evacuated to the canal pier on foot under the protection of the guards.

At this time, almost all the irrelevant people had fled. The defenders of Yijiang Gate not far away did not seem to be interested in participating in the chaos outside the city. They closed the city gate and ran to the tower to watch the excitement.

.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the chaos outside the city is no ordinary battle. Both sides of the battle actually used a lot of muskets, which were even more advanced than the equipment of the city defense army. Moreover, both sides opened fire as soon as they came up and knocked down several people.

If you take the initiative to intervene in this situation, you may become a target for no reason, so it is safer to just sit back and watch.

Of course, the officer responsible for guarding Yijiang Gate did not forget to send someone to report the news to Gao Yongshou. After all, such a big thing happened outside the city, and according to the procedures, it must be reported immediately.

At this time, the situation outside the city showed that Lu Kangtai's side had a clear numerical advantage. After adapting to the rhythm of the battle, it was slowly forming an encirclement from the southeast and west. However, the smaller side had stronger combat effectiveness and was exposed to the enemy.

The people outside the carriage were almost armed with a musket, making it impossible for the opponents on the outside to get close.

"It seems that the incident last year also happened here!"

Someone on the tower suddenly thought of the battle that took place outside Yangzhou City at the end of last year. At that time, the two warring parties also used a large number of muskets, and the intensity of the firefight seemed to be even more intense than today. But how many casualties were caused in the battle that night, because the city at night

The door was closed, so we couldn't confirm it in time.

When the officials went to inspect the dock where the battle took place the next day, they found that it had already been cleaned up. Only the blood stains on the ground that had not been washed away proved that a tragic battle had indeed taken place that night. And the people along the canal

People, many people also heard gunshots coming from the canal that night.

Rumors about that battle have been circulating in Yangzhou city for more than half a year. There are various theories, but the most widely spread among them is that the Shanshan salt merchants offended the Haihan people, and the other party secretly sent an army to come

Yangzhou, to solve the problem of Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants. Lu Kangtai did disappear from the market for a period of time afterwards, which seems to confirm such rumors.

However, Yangzhou is a peaceful place, and the peace and security is quite good at ordinary times. Moreover, the battle took place at night, with almost no civilians witnessing the scene, and no victims came to the Yamen to complain afterwards. Therefore, except for a few insiders, this incident

In addition, people in the market just regard it as an interesting conversation piece.

Now that more than half a year has passed, many people have slowly forgotten what happened last year, but the sudden battle that broke out outside the city today reminds people of those previous rumors. And this time it was in broad daylight.

, at least hundreds of people inside and outside the city witnessed the outbreak of this battle. Now the people involved can no longer hide it through follow-up measures like last year, pretending that nothing happened.

Several packhorses in the convoy were shot one after another, causing the carriage to completely lose control. Yuan Tao could only order the carriage to be abandoned, and everyone broke out towards the dock on foot. At the same time, he ordered someone to take out a signal bomb, ignite the fuse and shoot a round into the sky.

This kind of military signal bomb can reach a height of more than ten feet and can be seen within a few miles. The signal released is that it is urgent and requires response and reinforcement as soon as possible.

Just in case, Yuan Tao arranged for dozens of musketeers to lurk on the two boats on the canal in advance, which came in handy at this time.

Soon, a burst of gunfire came from the south, and the encirclement formed around the convoy was immediately torn open. Lu Kangtai's side, which had no advantage in the first place, immediately fell into chaos again.

The firepower coming from the direction of the dock was stronger and more concentrated, and all the attacks were from behind. Originally, Lu Kangtai's command should not have made such a serious mistake, but he wanted to intercept Dai Yingda's convoy, but he ignored the tail and failed.

They made defensive arrangements in the direction of the dock, but were once again caught off guard.

After the originally fragile encirclement was broken, the two teams of Golden Shield quickly completed the merger, and then protected Dai Yingda and the wounded on their side and evacuated towards the dock. Although Lu Kangtai was still strictly ordering his men to pursue and intercept him, his morale was at a loss at this time.

Already lost, unable to organize a decent attack, seeing that this battle is about to be lost again.

Lu Kangtai watched from a distance as Jindun's team quickly retreated to the canal, his face ashen as death. Although this defeat would not immediately lead to the disintegration of Shanxi salt merchants' power in Yangzhou, he knew that after this confrontation, he might

There will never be a similar opportunity to attack the opponent again.

And under the circumstances of this ebb and flow, perhaps in a year and a half, the seven major surnames supported by Haihan will ride on him. By then, the prospects of Shanshan salt merchants in Yangzhou will become precarious, while they were still able to do so in the past.

The armed force that we rely on may no longer be an invincible weapon in the future.

Yuan Tao withdrew to the dock and saw that his men here had used various cargoes and ship rails on the shore to form a three-dimensional defense line. If the opponent continued to attack and prevented the ship from safely leaving the shore, he could rely on this line of defense to fight with the opponent again.

Make some rounds.

Of course, judging from the opponent's current reaction, it seems that there is no need to fight anymore. Evacuate this place of right and wrong as soon as possible and return to the south bank of the canal where you will be safe.

"Escort Boss Dai to the ship quickly!"

Yuan Tao was not in a hurry to get on the ship. As the commander, he wanted to make sure that all his men had been evacuated. He didn't want to leave his brothers to the other party if he had to see people dead or corpses.

Both Jin Dun and Dai Yingda's men were killed or wounded in this battle, but Jin Dun's rules were strict and everyone had to come and go together, so everyone withdrew, and even those who couldn't walk managed to carry or carry them

Dai Yingda's men were all soldiers who worked hard to die, but they were not so particular. The injured were taken away and the dead were left behind.

Yuan Tao turned around and saw Lin Zhong being held up by two people. There were blood stains on his pants. He was shocked and said: "Brother Lin is injured?"

Lin Zhong hummed and replied: "It seems that he was injured by a musket..."

Yuan Tao waved his hand and said: "There is a doctor on the boat. Come on board and bandage the wound!"

Lin Zhong was also unlucky. He and Dai Yingda rode in the same carriage. Yuan Tao asked them to get out of the car and walk forward. Dai Yingda got off with his front foot and it was okay. He got off the back foot and got off. As soon as he landed, a stray bullet hit him in the thigh.

He immediately couldn't walk. However, Dai Yingda did not abandon him as a meritorious minister. When he turned around and saw Lin Zhong injured and lying on the ground, he immediately asked his two personal guards to pick up Lin Zhong and take him away.

Although Lin Zhong's legs hurt, he also knew that this was a matter of life and death, so he could only grit his teeth and keep up. Fortunately, the distance to the canal was not long, and as long as he got on the boat, he would be safe again. There were people on the boat.

The doctors at Golden Shield are good at dealing with all kinds of injuries caused by swords and guns. As long as Lin Zhong's injuries are not fatal, it will usually be fine.

Yuan Tao first arranged for Dai Yingda and others to board the ship. After waiting for a while, he was sure that the other party had basically given up the pursuit, and then ordered the team to withdraw. Nearly a hundred musketeers retreated back to the ship unhurriedly, and then the sailors used poles to lift the ship.

Push away from the river bank and slowly slide along the current to the other bank.

The open land outside Yijiang Gate was now in a mess. The abandoned carriages and horses were parked all over the place. Several injured packhorses finally fell to the ground after pulling the carriages and colliding with each other.

The casualties in this battle were almost all over the battlefield, and the smell of blood and gunpowder in the air was very depressing.

The city defense troops who watched the entire battle on the top of the city were also dumbfounded. They had never encountered such a situation before. They didn't know whether to open the city gate immediately and go out to arrest the culprits, or wait for orders from their superiors before reacting.
Chapter completed!