Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 288: The Dilemma of Pi Island

In October, the Liaodong region has entered late autumn. The temperature has begun to drop gradually and the cold has become more intense. Even in the Heilongjiang River Basin further north, the first snow has fallen in some places, ushering in the icy early winter season.

When Shen Zhixiang, the right lieutenant general of Dongjiang Town, arrived at Kuniang Island (now Liaoning Haiyang Island) in a small boat, it was the most comfortable season of the year on the island.

Like the Dongjiang Islands, the island has a temperate monsoon climate, significantly influenced by the ocean, with distinct four seasons: warm and humid summers, cold and dry winters, and pleasant spring and autumn.

Due to the regulating effect of the ocean, the temperature of Kunniang Island is not low at this time, and the fluctuation range is also small, ranging from about 10 degrees to 18 degrees. It is warm during the day and slightly cool at night.

What is even more rare is that October is the island’s dry season, with less precipitation, mostly light rain, and very dry weather.

Occasionally, sea fog appears on the island, adding a hazy beauty to the island.

The vegetation and crops on the island have begun to change color. The trees, bushes, and corn are dyed a layer of golden yellow, which contrasts sharply with the surrounding blue sea, creating a unique scene.

But Shen Zhixiang turned a blind eye to these beautiful sights. After landing, he went straight into the village under the guidance of an island guard.

After several years of operation, this tiny island has been transformed by the new Chinese into the most stable immigration transit point and trade center in the Liaohai Sea.

Large warehouses and godowns were also built around the exposed docks to accommodate the unloading and storage of cargo for the ships passing through.

On the hillsides on both sides of the harbor, several coastal defense batteries are hidden among them. The black muzzles firmly lock the entire "U"-shaped bay, protecting the safety of the entire island.

The flat valleys on the island have all been reclaimed and large areas of vegetables and coarse grains such as corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are planted.

The long sections of wooden walls that were once made of simple wood and stones have been replaced by huge and thick rocks (cement).

More than ten armed guards stood at the gate of the village with swords and guns in hand, staring vigilantly at Shen Zhixiang and other Dongjiang Town soldiers.

Without any extra words, Shen Zhixiang ordered several servants who were accompanying him to unload their weapons and hand them over to the guards on the island, and then hurried to the Xinhua government office.

Unfortunately, the person in charge of Xinhua was not in the yamen, but went to inspect Dongzhai (now Haiyangdao Salt Field Village) with his guards.

The staff who stayed behind saw that Shen Zhixiang had a bad look on his face and was vaguely resentful, so they sent someone to find Marshal Zhong.

However, it was not until the sun set and dusk fell that Marshal Zhong of Kunniang Island slowly returned to Xizhai (i.e. Xibang Village on Haiyang Island).

Then he washed his hands, cleansed his face, changed into light clothes, and walked leisurely to the government office hall to meet Shen Zhixiang.

"Are you from Xinhua planning to join forces with Huanglong to take over Pi Island?" Shen Zhixiang stared at Zhong Minghui with a gloomy expression.

"Hey, General Shen, where do you get this from?" Zhong Minghui asked with a smile.

"Half a month ago, Xinhua sent five more cannons and thirty muskets to Lushun. Is that true?"

"Yes, it was delivered." Zhong Minghui said nonchalantly, "You know what, Old Huang is quite particular. He paid for the goods upon delivery without any delay. It was very prompt!"

"Our general asked you to purchase six cannons half a year ago. Why did you reject us on the grounds that there was no stock?" Shen Zhixiang asked with gritted teeth.

"At that time, we really didn't have any extra artillery stockpiles on our island," Zhong Minghui explained sincerely. "Just a few months ago, when our Xinhua immigrant fleet passed by Kunniang Island, they brought us a dozen artillery pieces."

"In that case, can you grant us the number of artillery pieces we requested earlier?"

"Your Pi Island is far from land, so why would you need so many artillery garrisons?" Zhong Minghui looked at him scrutinizingly. "The Jiannu don't have the advantage of boats. Are you afraid they might swim over here?"

"Although Pi Island is far from the land, don't forget that in the winter, when the sea is frozen, the Jiannu can also come here on floating ice."

"Don't you Pi Island send out strong men to break ice in the surrounding seas every winter?"

"If there were artillery, the island would be somewhat safer."

"..." Zhong Minghui looked at the other party intently after hearing this, "Is your General Shen worried that Huang Long will come and attack Pi Island?"

"Humph, Huang Long is definitely going to resort to such sinister tactics in order to gain power!"

You know, in the past two years, as the court has increased its support for Huang Long (Huang Long: Huh?), the power of Huang Long's troops has grown extremely rapidly.

When they first separated from Pi Island, they had only about 8,000 soldiers and more than 60 ships. However, after they gained a foothold in Lushun, Guanglu Island and other places, they continued to expand their military strength and strengthen their armaments.

As of June this year, a rough estimate shows that Huang Long had commanded more than 19,000 troops and more than 130 naval ships. He not only successively captured Gaizhou, Fuzhou, Haizhou, Yaozhou and other forts, extending his influence to the northern end of the peninsula, but also conquered many coastal islands such as Shicheng Island and Changshan Island (i.e. Liaoning's Big and Small Changshan Islands), covering almost 70% of the territory of Dongjiang Town.

The army of Pi Island was no more than 10,000, and half of them were old and weak. They could only rely on a few isolated islands with poor land and low population, such as Tieshan (an island near Tieshan County, North Korea today), Simi (Simi Island, North Korea today), Jiaodao (Jiaodao, North Korea), Zhangzidao (Zhangzi Island, North Korea), and Ludao (Ludao, North Korea) to maintain their survival.

Faced with Huang Long's increasingly powerful troops, Shen Shikui naturally felt guilty and worried, fearing that the other side would retaliate, so he wanted to strengthen his own military strength through the profits of smuggling.

You know, when Huang Long was in charge of Dongjiang Town in Pi Island, Shen Shikui and other old Dongjiang generals excluded him and even manipulated a mutiny, which made Huang Long very embarrassed.

Although times have changed, Shen Shikui does not believe that Huang Long has a broad mind and will not pursue the many dirty things that happened in the past.

In July, the Jiannu army marched westward to Chahar and attacked Xuanfu and Datong along the way. Huang Long, as the general of Dongjiang Town, ordered Shen Shikui to lead his troops to "carry out a surprise attack" to attack the Jiannu from the flank to ease the military pressure from the capital and Lushun.

In order to prevent Shen Shikui from disobeying orders, Huang Long also asked Fu Zonglong, the governor of Ji and Liao, for the royal command plate, ordering him to launch an attack immediately without any delay after receiving the order.

Shen Shikui knew very well that the other party was trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife, but under the strict order from the Governor of Ji and Liao, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and personally lead 3,000 soldiers to attack the Yalu River.

After Shen Shikui arrived at Zhenjiang (now Jiuliancheng, Dandong City, Liaoning Province), he divided his 3,000 troops into three groups.

Along the way, General Jin Chenggong led 500 soldiers to cross the river from Yizhou, Korea. According to the pre-planned attack route, they gradually attacked Qingshan, Anzishan, Fenghuangcheng, Xueli Station and other places. After completing the mission, they returned to Jiangyanbao.

Another route was led by guerrilla Li Chengdong, who led 500 soldiers to cross the river from the lower reaches of Madao, detour to Matou Mountain, and successively attacked and looted Jiangyanbao, Ningdongbao, Xianshanbao and other places. After completing the mission, they returned to Jiangyanbao and reunited with Jin Chenggong to retreat.

The above two routes were both decoy troops, used with great fanfare to attract the attention of the Jiannu.

The final main force, led by Lieutenant General Qu Cheng'en, guerrillas Li Guozhu, and Li Shangzhong, led 2,000 troops from Changcheng, Korea, crossing the river upstream. They advanced stealthily, moving by day and night along the riverbeds, from Kuandian around to Yanshuiling and Liangmadian, passing through Shitou Mountain City and crossing Huolian Mountain to Hetuala, the former stronghold of the Jiannu. He commanded the Pidao navy to guard Zhenjiang, protecting the army's rear.

The main force groped their way forward, being cautious along the way. It took more than half a month before they arrived near Hetuala, the old capital of the Jiannu.

Although there were only three to five hundred Jiannu soldiers stationed in the city, Qu, Li and others did not dare to lead their troops to attack, for fear of being captured.

However, after they attacked the Jiannu army's rear, they had to give an explanation to the imperial court.

So Qu Cheng'en led his troops to attack the Suguli Village (Gan Guli) near Hetuala, slaughtered all the Jiannu soldiers, men, old and young in the village, and captured alive one Niulu Ezhen Jianshan, as well as a large number of women, cattle and horses (mainly sold to the Xinhua people).

Although the Jiannu cavalry followed and pursued them after hearing the news, due to proper pre-war planning and the rugged and dangerous roads that were not conducive to the cavalry's movement, the Pidao Army was able to retreat safely to the east bank of the Yalu River at the cost of only a hundred casualties.

This Ming army even launched a surprise attack on the pursuing Jiannu cavalry near Qidaohe with more than 40 Xinhua guns they carried, shooting and killing more than ten armored cavalry on the spot, including an Eight Banners lieutenant.

Afterwards, Shen Shikui reported the victory to the Governor-General of Ji-Liao and the Governor of Liaodong, claiming that he had beheaded more than 320 slave soldiers, captured more than 60 Jiannu women, and seized countless cattle and horses.

However, several Korean officials who participated in the battle sent a real-time report of the battle, saying, "Thousands of islanders have landed, but they have been divided into two groups. After only a few breaths, they still linger. When they see a shaved head, they are terrified and may even flee in panic. For such an army, trying to control the newly captured cavalry is like driving sheep to attack a tiger!"

After the truth was revealed, Shen Shikui wrote a memorial to defend himself, blaming it on the lack of horses and weapons. He also asked Huang Long and the Governor of Ji and Liao for 3,000 horses and a large amount of military equipment to boost the army.

Besides, the more than 10,000 officers and soldiers under my Pidao are not only short of food and weapons, but also owed wages for half a year. Under such circumstances, we have already done a great service to the court by achieving such a "brilliant record"!
After dealing with the affairs of the court, Shen Shikui had not yet caught his breath when he learned from the spies that Huang Long's troops had obtained several cannons and several muskets from the Xinhua people, and had formed a separate firearms battalion, training day and night using the Xinhua training method.

Huang Long's troops occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, faced the Later Jin army head-on, and formed a firearms battalion, mostly to defend against the southward invasion of the Jiannu.

But Shen Shikui couldn't help but wonder, in addition to constantly asking the court for food, wages and equipment, Huang Long also relied on the cattle, horses and other property he looted from the villages outside the Jiannu to secretly purchase cannons and muskets from the Xinhua people. By constantly increasing his military strength and armaments, would he find an opportunity to come to Pi Island and fight him?

Moreover, the Xinhua people were so close to Huang Long that they helped him win a great victory in Dengzhou, provided him with artillery and muskets, and sent a number of military personnel to help train the firearms troops, as if they were excluding Shen Shikui from the cooperation.

It’s not very decent for you Xinhua people to do this!

Back then, when you wanted to cooperate with Dongjiang Town and obtain immigrant population, it was all facilitated by me, Shen.

We even happily did smuggling business together.

You have silver and grain, and we have furs, ginseng and eastern pearls. We have made the trade of northern goods very prosperous, and everyone has a good income.

What? Now that you have established contact with Huang Long, you are ready to kick me, Shen, away?
What made Shen Shikui even more dissatisfied was that the Xinhua people not only transported a large amount of furs from their homeland every year, but also bypassed Dongjiang Town and opened up another fur supply channel in other places, causing the amount of fur goods in the coastal areas of the entire Ming Dynasty to suddenly increase several times, and forcibly lowered the fur transaction price by 20% to 30%, causing their Dongjiang faction to lose a lot of money.

It is said that the Xinhua people seemed to have established a base in a place called Beiying Island, and bought up furs from the surrounding native peoples, and then had them transported directly to Denglai, Suzhou, and Guangzhou by immigration ships, making huge profits.

The northern goods trade that was originally monopolized by their Dongjiang Town has been broken by the new Chinese, so that in the past two years, the number of southern merchants going to Pi Island to trade has decreased by almost half.

You know, among all the towns in Liaodong, Dongjiang Town is definitely a stepmother in terms of treatment and status. Not only is nearly half of its annual food and salary deducted, but it is also often in arrears, causing the lives of the military and civilians under its jurisdiction to be extremely difficult.

The officers and soldiers of their Pi Island were raised by their stepmother in Dongjiang Town.

Because these old Dongjiang forces had offended General Huang Long, they were deliberately targeted and made things difficult during the distribution of food and wages every year.

After the imperial court sent money and food, it would usually distribute the bulk to Huang Long's direct troops first, and then send the remaining small amounts to Pi Island.

This is why the officers and soldiers of Pi Island were often in a state of hunger, which made generals such as Shen Shikui very distressed.

For this reason, he frequently went to the Governor-General of Ji-Liao and the Governor of Liaodong to cry and complain, and even submitted a memorial to the Ministry of War, denouncing the general Huang Long for corruption, harsh treatment of his subordinates, and intention to kill tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Pi Island.

Of course they do!
From the Cabinet and the Ministry of War to the Governor of Liaodong, no one paid any attention to him.

What is there to sympathize with when a bunch of soldiers who only know how to smuggle?
Besides, since the death of Mao Wenlong, your Dongjiang Town has not achieved any commendable military achievements.

On the contrary, if there are mutinies every few days and a group of soldiers kill each other, they will become arrogant and target their own people.

If I wasn't afraid that you soldiers would give up and surrender to the Qing army, I might not even give you a single ingot of silver or a single grain of food!

Without sufficient "aid" from the imperial court, in order to stabilize the military morale, Shen Shikui and other Dongjiang generals could only take out a portion of the profits from smuggling to appease the officers and soldiers of Pi Island.

Alas, just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.

These days are getting worse and worse.

If Huang Long launched another purge against them, it would probably kill all of them.

Therefore, in order to protect itself and gain more bargaining chips, Pi Island must strengthen its armaments in a timely manner.

Even if we don't dare to land and fight the Jiannu, at least we will have a certain counterattack capability when Huanglong is ready to deal with us.

After several battles with the Jiannu, the generals of Pi Island discovered that the guns and cannons provided by Xinhua were not only reliable but also extremely powerful, and were definitely a powerful weapon to defeat the enemy.

By placing the Xinhua cannon on a warship, it can easily blow the small sampans built by the Jiannu into pieces, and it will be invincible and invincible.

The Xinhua gun is also a close combat weapon that can penetrate armor from a hundred steps away and is relatively easy to load. It is much stronger than the three-eyed gun and bird gun sent by the court.

There is also Xinhua plate armor, which is hard in texture and lighter than cotton armor. Wearing one piece on the front and back of the chest is definitely the best life-saving equipment.

Therefore, in order to deal with the "external threat", Shen Shikui sent his nephew Shen Zhixiang to the Ku Niang Island to find new Chinese people to purchase some guns, cannons and armor to strengthen the armed forces of Pi Island.

Last time, you used the excuse that you had no stock and did not sell us any artillery, but only gave us dozens of muskets and plate armor.

Well, since you have come to us today, we shouldn’t go back empty-handed.

Since you can sell it to Huang Long, why can't you sell it to us?
"Will you in Pi Island surrender to the Qing army?" After hearing Shen Zhixiang's request, Zhong Minghui pondered for a while and suddenly asked.

"..." Upon hearing this, Shen Zhixiang looked at him in surprise.
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(End of this chapter)