Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 188: Island
"cut!"

On July 1631, 7, a bloody prisoner-killing operation was taking place on the coast of Shepo (now Seryang Island, North Korea). Hundreds of Jian slaves with pigtails knelt on the beach, waiting for their final fate.

With a loud shout, the Ming soldiers holding big swords swung down suddenly, and heads were immediately chopped off and fell on the Rouran beach. They rolled a few times and then stopped, revealing a ferocious face.

In a moment, the headless corpse fell limply to the ground, and a large amount of blood gushed out from the broken neck, dyeing the beach crimson.

Wei Yingbin's eyes twitched a few times and he subconsciously turned his head slightly away. It was obvious that he couldn't bear to look at this scene.

"General Wei, do you sympathize with these Jiannu?" Shen Shikui, the Right Lieutenant General of the Dongjiang Association and the Military Affairs Commander of Pidao, asked with a smile.

"No!" Wei Yingbin shook his head and said, "These Jiannu soldiers have incurred a heavy blood debt to the people of Liaodong. Their death is not a pity. I just think it's a pity to kill them like this."

Besides, how many of these beheaded Jiannu were real Tartars?
"Oh?" Shen Shikui rolled his eyes upon hearing this. "Why, are you still interested in these people?"

"In our place, anyone can be used!" Wei Yingbin said calmly, "It's a satisfying sight to see them chop down with a knife, and it's extremely satisfying. But this action is actually giving them a free pass. It would be better to let them work like slaves for the rest of their lives to atone for their atrocities."

"If you want, I will give all these people to you." Shen Shikui raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "But, gifts should be reciprocated, do you have anything you can give me?"

"what do you want?"

"Two cannons!"

"Haha, just relying on these hundred or so fake Tartars?" Wei Yingbin smiled broadly, "General Shen, this deal is a bit unfair!"

"All those captured Korean craftsmen and women will be given to you as well!"

“…” Wei Yingbin glanced at the dilapidated camp and did not respond.

"Add another three hundred sable skins and... two hundred stones of copper." Shen Shikui said gritting his teeth when he saw this.

"General Shen, your ship is too small and not very suitable for deploying this kind of artillery." Wei Yingbin was already tempted.

Two hundred dan of copper material is more than seven tons, which can be used to cast several land-based cannons and hundreds of thousands of copper coins. It is extremely cost-effective!
"Didn't the Portuguese place their red cannons on the bows of their warships and defeat the Jiannu at Yichuan?"

"This is just a stopgap measure by the Portuguese... the Portuguese." Wei Yingbin shook his head and said, "Your warships are all flat-bottomed sand ships. Forcibly placing heavy artillery on the sides of the ship will cause the hull's center of gravity to be unstable, making it easy to capsize. If the artillery is placed at the bow, it will not be able to fully utilize the firepower advantage, and can only attack fixed targets on land."

"That's all right," Shen Shikui said disapprovingly. "The Jiannu have almost no presence at sea. Our Dongjiang Navy roams freely across the Liao Sea, so there's no need to worry about engaging enemy ships. With the Red Barbarian cannons, we can follow the Portuguese method and place them on the bows of our ships. From the sea, we can attack the Jiannu's shore camps and troop concentrations, preventing them from threatening our Dongjiang Islands."

"What if the Jiannu have warships?" Wei Yingbin asked back.

"Haha, how is that possible?" Shen Shikui said with a smile. "Even if we gave them boats, the Jiannu wouldn't be able to control them. This time, the Jiannu gathered over ten thousand soldiers and horses, intending to cross the sea to attack our Dongjiang Town. After more than a month, they only managed to gather a dozen or so boats. When our Dongjiang Town gathered the navy to attack, we easily defeated the Jiannu army and beheaded over two thousand people. This is the greatest victory Liaodong has ever seen in the past ten years!"

"..." Wei Yingbin almost said that in a few years, Kong Youde and other traitors would take a large number of firearms and ships to surrender to the Later Jin, and then the Jiannu would also have a certain scale of naval force, and then use it to attack and destroy your Dongjiang Town.

However, Kong Youde is now serving as a lieutenant general in Dengzhou, and is honestly training troops for Governor Sun Yuanhua and defending the Liaohai Sea. He does not look like he is planning a rebellion at all.

Besides, Kong Youde was a remnant from Liaodong, and many of his relatives died at the hands of the Jiannu, so he had a deep hatred for them.

When Kong Youde followed Mao Wenlong in the battle against the Later Jin Dynasty, he was "brave and good at fighting, and was the first to go to the battlefield, which was the best among all the generals." He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General based on his merits.

Let me ask you, who would believe that such a person would surrender to the Qing army?

By the way, when did Kong Youde rebel and when did he surrender to the Later Jin?

These Dongjiang Town generals are so evil that it is impossible to predict what they will do next.

In March this year, another mutiny broke out in Pi Island.

Shen Shikui, together with former assistant lieutenant general Zhang Tao, killed Liu Xingzhi, who was temporarily in charge of Dongjiang affairs, and several of his brothers, and took control of the affairs of Pi Island.

After hearing the news, the Liaodong governor promoted Shen Shikui to the position of lieutenant general of the Central Rear Camp in order to appease the morale of the Pi Island army.

In May, the imperial court issued an edict, adding the title of deputy general to Shen Shikui and putting him in charge of the affairs of the Dongjiang camp.

Just when Mr. Shen thought he was about to officially take over Dongjiang Town, he never expected that the Minister of War Liang Tingdong and Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua would jointly recommend Huang Long, a former general under Mao Wenlong and deputy general of Luanzhou, to be the general of Dongjiang Town, which made him very depressed.

However, Shen Shikui, a merchant after all, knew how to assess the situation and refrained from openly defying the imperial court or the Liaodong Governor. Instead, he chose to remain dormant for the time being, quickly handing over all military and political affairs of Dongjiang Town to Huang Long. He even offered his beautiful daughter to the new leader of Dongjiang Town (who had passed through four generations?) as a gesture of friendship, thus maintaining the unity and stability of Dongjiang Town. Because, at this moment, they could not afford to engage in internal strife, as the Jiannu army was already approaching.

Just when Huang Long had just taken office as the general of Dongjiang Town, the slave chief Huang Taiji appointed Leng'erli, the deputy commander of the Eight Banners Bordered Blue Banner, as the commander of the right wing, and Kakduli, the lieutenant commander, as the commander of the left wing. They led more than 1,500 armored cavalry and more than 4,000 infantry to cross the sea and march south to completely solve this serious problem.

Later, the Later Jin Dynasty continued to increase its troops, and finally expanded its strength to more than 12,000.

The Jiannu army first quickly entered the territory of Korea, and then divided into four groups and stationed in camps near the coast of Pi Island, preparing to requisition ships from Korea to launch a thundering attack on Pi Island.

Fortunately, although Korea was severely beaten by the Later Jin and forced to stop supporting the Ming Dynasty, they were extremely resentful and dissatisfied with the Jiannu in their hearts.

When the Jiannu requested to provide ships, the local Korean government, although unable to resist, pretended to obey and made excuses, delaying the provision of ships to the Jiannu, thus disrupting the Later Jin's plan for a quick raid.

The Jiannu commander Leng'erli had no choice but to resort to a stupid method. He used more than ten small boats that he had forcibly seized to ferry part of his troops to small islands such as Yuncong (now Simi Island, North Korea) and Xuansha near Pi Island, in the manner of ants moving house, to serve as a bridgehead for future large-scale attacks.

The remaining main forces continued to stay on the mainland coast, digging trenches and building a series of simple fortifications as a temporary camp.

At the same time, the Jiannu also forcibly recruited hundreds of Korean craftsmen to cut down trees and build ships in preparation for a large-scale attack on Pi Island.

Under such circumstances, even if Shen Shikui felt resentment towards the imperial court and dissatisfaction with General Huang Long, he had to put aside his other thoughts and join forces with many Dongjiang Town generals to fight against the Jiannu's massive attack.

He still understands the principle that when the nest is overturned, all the eggs will remain intact.

After reporting the local crisis to the court, he received an immediate response.

Denglai Governor Sun Yuanhua deployed a large number of reinforcements to Pi Island and sent dozens of Portuguese soldiers with several red cannons to the island to assist in defense.

On June 6, the reinforced Dongjiang Town decided to take the initiative and strike first while the Jiannu army was still unstable.

On June 6, Dongjiang Town, with its superior manpower and firepower, defeated Yuncong Island, killing, wounding, and capturing more than 12 Jiannu soldiers, forcing most of them to flee back to the mainland.

On June 6, Dongjiang Town attacked Yichuan again, preparing to destroy the Jiannu's shipbuilding base there.

In this battle, the Ming army won again. All the boats they built were burned and more than 200 people were beheaded.

On June 6, the "Polang" and "Zhengtu" belonging to Xinzhou Huaxia arrived at Pi Island and carried out the food-for-person exchange.

Shen Shikui promised to invite the Chinese ships from Xinzhou to go to the coast of Korea and fight against the Jiannu together on the condition that they would provide a large number of Liao people and craftsmen.

After a little consideration, Wei Yingbin gladly accepted the invitation and joined Shen Shikui's Ming army to attack Shepu.

On June 6, the fleet arrived at Shepu Island. The "Polang" and "Zhengtu" fiercely bombarded the slave army on the island with their broadside cannons. "The magical cannons fired, the enemy formation was defeated, and many were killed and wounded."

On June 6, under the cover of naval guns, more than 20 Ming troops attacked the island, killing and wounding more than captured slave soldiers, and captured more than Korean craftsmen and abducted women.

After witnessing the power of the Red Cannon, Shen Shikui has been thinking about getting a few for his own use.

The Portuguese artillery team that came to support were foreign soldiers. Once the war here was over, they would return to Denglai with the artillery, so it would be difficult to claim them.

Therefore, he set his sights on the two gunboats led by Wei Yingbin.

But the other party directly refused, claiming that their new continent China was also facing the threat of invasion by barbarians at any time, and they could not easily "give" them the cannons on the ship for the time being.

Now, they set their sights on the captured Jiannu surrendered soldiers, Korean craftsmen and women on Shepu Island. He immediately took advantage of the situation and again proposed to exchange people for artillery.

"General Shen, if you can provide us with a small island in the Liao Sea for supplies and rest, perhaps we can give you a few artillery pieces."

"Oh?" Shen Shikui looked at him with amusement, "Which island do you want?"

"Crying Mother Island (now Haiyang Island)." Wei Yingbin said softly, "In addition to providing you with three cannons, we will also give you one thousand taels of silver every year as the lease fee for this island."

"..." Shen Shikui smiled, then nodded slightly, "This matter still needs to be considered in the long run."

(End of this chapter)