In late July of the 10th year of Chongzhen, the Sixth Division of the Chu Empire Army, with the cooperation of the 18th Garrison Division, captured strategic locations such as Fenshuiguan, Fu'an, Ningde, Dajinsuo, and other small cities in Funing Prefecture.

Watch the wind and fall.

There were more than 6,000 people under Zheng Zhilong's command who had defended Fenshui Pass and other important places, and more than 5,000 soldiers from the Fujian local garrison. A total of 12,000 people either died or surrendered, and only more than 3,000 people fled to Fuzhou Prefecture.
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In the same month, the temporary 12th Mixed Brigade, with the cooperation of the 12th Garrison Division, captured Jiaoling Pass, Cenyang Pass, Gukou Pass, Fenshui Pass and other checkpoints in Jianning Prefecture, Fujian Province, and then entered Jianning.

They conquered Chong'an, Jianyang, Jian'an and other cities in the hinterland of the prefecture, and then went south along the upper tributary of the Min River to forcibly capture the strategic location of Nanping in Yanping Prefecture.

Then a garrison was dispatched to cooperate with the 14th Garrison Division from Jiangxi to attack Shaowu Mansion from both sides. Thousands of local Ming troops surrendered without a fight.

After conquering Nanping, the main force of the Chu army's 12th mixed brigade and part of the garrison went down the river and headed straight for Fucheng, Fuzhou, and Min County, the capital of Fujian Province.

When the 12th Mixed Brigade moved south to Fuzhou, the Ming army was previously deployed on the northern defense line, that is, Zheng Zhilong's command in Jianning Prefecture, Shaowu Prefecture, and Yanping Prefecture, and there were more than 10,000 local guards in Fujian except for

Thousands of people fled outside Fuzhou Prefecture, and about a thousand people died in the battle. Most of them surrendered or surrendered, and some fled.

After the battles in the above two directions, the two lines of defense in Fujian that Zheng Zhilong had worked so hard to manage had been completely conquered by the Chu army, and a total of at least 20,000 troops had been lost.

In addition to the loss of personnel, the loss of weapons and equipment such as guns, armor, swords, and spears was also extremely heavy.

After entering August, the Chu army further intensified its ground offensive against the Fujian region.

On the sixth day of August, with the joint efforts of the 6th Division and the 12th Mixed Brigade, Fuzhou City was forcibly captured and more than 6,000 defenders in the city were wiped out.

It is actually not appropriate to call it a total annihilation, because the local defenders did not put up a stubborn resistance, but simply surrendered after having no hope of breaking through. After all, of the more than 6,000 defenders, more than 5,000 came from Funing Prefecture.

, the defeated generals who escaped from Yanping Prefecture and other places returned with the remaining soldiers.

Their morale was extremely low, and they had witnessed the fierce offensives of the Chu army before. They knew that they could not defeat them, and when they could not escape, many people simply surrendered.

Anyway, the Chu army's good treatment of prisoners of war has been widely spread. After surrendering, you don't have to worry about your life. If you are strong enough, you will be selected to join the garrison.

The Chu Empire now has more than twenty garrison divisions, and the soldiers of these garrison divisions are all selected from the Ming army who surrendered.

There is no exception in Fujian. The Military and Government Department of the Da Chu Empire sent personnel to conduct a preliminary selection of the surrendered troops accepted by Funing Prefecture, Fuzhou Prefecture, Jianning Prefecture, Yanping Prefecture, Shaowu Prefecture and other places.

More than 7,000 people initially formed the 23rd Garrison Division.

——

After taking Fuzhou City, the Chu army rested for two days and then continued southward to Xinghua Mansion, but Xinghua Mansion could not stop the Chu army for a few days.

On August 23, the vanguard of the Sixth Division of the Chu Army had already reached Fucheng, Quanzhou Prefecture.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong, who had suffered continuous losses of troops and generals, could no longer mobilize many ground troops to establish a new line of defense.

After all, in a series of battles with the Chu army, Zheng Zhilong's troops had lost tens of thousands of troops.

When fighting in Zhejiang before, Zheng Zhilong's troops had lost at least 15,000 people. When fighting at the Pearl River Estuary, Zheng Zhilong's troops had lost more than 1,000 people. Although the battle in Chaozhou Prefecture was temporary,

They blocked the Chu army, but they also suffered heavy losses, at least more than 2,000 people.

The real bulk of the losses were in the battles in Fujian. From the two lines of defense in the early stages to the Battle of Fuzhou City and the series of battles in Xinghua Prefecture, Zheng Zhilong's troops lost at least 30,000 people.

The above-mentioned losses occurred in just over half a year.

In more than half a year, Zheng Zhilong's troops lost at least 50,000 people.

Even if most of them were urgently recruited and organized into an army by Zheng Zhilong in the past six months, even so, these troops can be regarded as battalion sentries for the Ming army. Others dare not say that they are beating the Ming court.

The soldiers of the Interior Guard are accurate every time they hit them.

In the original time and space, Zheng Chenggong, the son of Zheng Zhilong, was able to continue to fight against the Japanese invaders in coastal areas for many years, not only by relying on their fleet, but also by relying on their ground forces. The quality and quantity were actually not too bad, and he could fight against the Japanese invaders.

The fights come and go.

However, these soldiers under Zheng Zhilong's command can still do a half-match job against the Chu army's garrison, but once they encounter the main force of the Chu army, they are not enough.

The differences in weapons, equipment and tactics are relatively large.

To a certain extent, Zheng Zhilong's troops, who made their fortune at sea, were inferior to the new standard-setting troops in the Ming Dynasty in terms of tactics and even the use of new weapons, namely field guns and new matchlock guns.

Because, Zheng Zhilong’s department has never created any new champions from beginning to end...

On the contrary, the governors at the Ming court were eager to ask for change because they were beaten too hard by the Chu army again and again.

Furthermore, a very important point is that the New Standard Army may seem very high-end, but it is actually more economical to build than a traditional army...just get some artillery, some muskets, and some spears.

You can drag them out to fight, it’s simple, saves trouble and saves money.

And when it comes to fighting, to be honest, it’s really not that bad!

Typical examples are the New Standard Army in Huguang, the New Standard Army in Guangdong and Guangxi, and the New Standard Army in Jiangbei.

As for Zheng Zhilong, he is not short of money. He can arrange guns and cannons, but he can also arrange expensive armors and other things. Moreover, Zheng Zhilong still has a group of traditional soldiers with rich combat experience under his command.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong felt that there was no need to build a new standard army and could just equip his own army with more guns and cannons.

This is actually the same path as Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou also used old-style soldiers as the mainstay, supplemented by a large number of new-style thief-killing cannons and thief-killing blunderbuss.

This model of army-building strategy actually has merits, and it has achieved certain results in actual combat. I had fought against the Donglu in Beizhili before, and the effect was pretty good.

Another type of army is the army under Sun Chuanting. The new Qin army he created is more special, mainly because there are many cavalry on the outcrops. They fight mainly with cavalry, supplemented by artillery and infantry, and their mobility is quite high.

, strong in field combat ability, but poor in attack ability and poor field firepower.

Strictly speaking, the more than 50,000 people under Zheng Zhilong are not bad.

But in the end, they still couldn't hold on and were gradually killed by the Chu army.

This cannot be blamed on their poor combat effectiveness, but on the fact that there are too many Chu troops attacking Fujian and they are strong.

The main force alone consists of one division and one mixed regiment, and there is also an independent mortar unit of one and a half regiments.

There are more than 20,000 garrison troops to assist in the operation.

The above are all still combat troops, and behind the scenes, there are tens of thousands of transportation battalions directly belonging to the Logistics Department transporting various materials day and night.

The military of the Great Chu Empire was different from the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong and others, and would not include all kinds of young men and women in the army.

When calculating military strength, I don’t like to use so-called nicknames... In order to confuse the enemy and boost morale, ancient feudal armies often called themselves ten thousand, ten thousand, thirty thousand, and thirty thousand, one hundred thousand...
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And when calculating the strength of the troops, in addition to the combat soldiers, young men and women who were temporarily recruited and even civilian men who worked in the rear transport teams were also included. The ancient army was said to have an army of one hundred thousand, but only twenty to thirty thousand people could actually participate in the front-line battles.

Pretty good...

So despite the fact that Zheng Zhilong’s troops lost more than 50,000 people, compared to the Chu army, they were actually still at a military disadvantage!

The weapons and equipment are inferior, the tactics are inferior, and even the number of troops is inferior. It is not surprising that Zheng Zhilong's troops are retreating steadily and losing troops and generals.

When the Chu army arrived, Zheng Zhilong could no longer mobilize many ground troops. He could only reluctantly mobilize thousands of sailors to fight ashore and act as ground troops to organize the defense line.

However, these sailors are good at water battles. However, after landing on the shore, they could not even line up in line. Facing the Chu army's guns and cannons, their performance was not as good as that of the peasant soldiers who had been trained for several months...<

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In the end, Zheng Zhilong could only watch helplessly as he was conquered...

Then came his hometown of Anping County, and then to other surrounding cities. It only took half a month for the Chu army to completely sweep through a large area in Quanzhou Prefecture. By the way, they also captured Longxi, Haicheng, Zhangpu, etc. in Zhangzhou Prefecture.

Land.

Then the 12th Mixed Brigade simply went south to Chaozhou Prefecture, and in September captured Haiyang and other coastal cities occupied by Zheng Zhilong's troops.

After entering mid-September, Zheng Zhilong's painstaking efforts in the coastal areas of Fujian, Zhejiang and western Guangdong, many large and small strongholds, and tens of thousands of troops were all in vain!

At present, only some offshore islands, such as Chongming Island, Zhoushan Islands, Kinmen, Nan'ao, Xiangjiang and other offshore islands are still under their control.

However, there are not many ground forces on these islands. The reason why they are still able to control these islands is purely relying on their powerful fleet strength.

Zheng Zhilong and other core senior officials have now fled to sea and are stationed on important islands.

Now there are only two ways left for Zheng Zhilong, either to abandon the mainland and retreat to Da Yuan Island and other islands, and continue to be a pirate like he did many years ago.

Either accept the favor of the Chu Empire, hand over the fleet honestly, and then enjoy the glory and wealth.

As for other options, they are basically unreliable. For example, counting on Ming Ting... Ming Ting cannot save himself now, and there is no way he can save Zheng Zhilong.

defecting to Dongli is also an option...but Dongli is just living in Liaodong now, and can't help him either. Dongli, who has not entered the customs, is not worthy of Zheng Zhilong's surrender.

Just when Zheng Zhilong was hesitating, the Chu Empire sent envoys to change the recruitment conditions.

Except for dozens of large warships that must be handed over and merged into the navy, the rest of the armed merchant ships and ordinary merchant ships are no longer forced to merge into the navy, but are restructured into several maritime trading companies controlled by the Ministry of Industry. Zheng Zhilong and other members of the group

The big bosses can obtain part of the equity of these maritime trading companies and receive dividends.

In the future, these maritime trading companies will continue to engage in maritime trade under the management of the Ministry of Industry.

The messenger finally handed an envelope to Zheng Zhilong and other core executives in a very serious tone: "Your Majesty's secret decree, it will be burned after reading."

Zheng Zhilong took it and looked at it, and there was only a simple sentence on it: This is the final condition, if you agree, you will agree, and if you don't agree, you will be pulled down; the worst case scenario is that I will spend a few years to destroy hundreds of warships and attack Dajuan Island, and then the family will be confiscated and the entire clan will be destroyed.

No dogs left!

Zheng Zhilong looked very ugly after reading it!

At first, he didn't understand why a dignified emperor could be so disrespectful of dignity and say nothing about chickens and dogs. However, when he thought that Luo Zhixue was a gangster and had engaged in large-scale confiscation of homes and genocide in the interior, he figured it out.

Oh...that bastard is not a traditional emperor, but a bandit leader who is more ruthless than the pirate leader himself.

This kind of thing is really possible if chickens and dogs are not spared.

At this time, the messenger opposite smiled and reminded: "Burn after reading"

Zheng Zhilong then burned the secret decree with fire, and then raised his head and heard the secretariat messenger on the opposite side say: "No matter what the secret decree said, there is one sentence I want to remind you: The emperor has no jokes!"

————

In the third year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, on the third day of October in the tenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong led his troops to formally surrender to the Great Chu Empire in the Penghu Islands. Emperor Chengshun of Chu, Luo Zhixue, named him Zhenhaibo, awarded him the rank of Rear Admiral, and appointed him as a senior naval adviser.

The rest of the Zheng Group each received a reward.

As a result, the Zheng pirate gang, which has been operating in East Asian waters for many years, has officially become a thing of the past.
Chapter completed!