I want to be emperor

Chapter 338 The Navy Blocks the Door
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On the morning of September [-], a large number of Chu army ships sailed down the river and arrived at the mouth of the Yangtze River where Poyang Lake entered and exited.

On the head of Hukou City, you can clearly see the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, almost covered with ships of the Chu Army's Yangtze River Fleet.

These ships vary in size, but they are all warships.

These warships seem to be many, but except for the six very conspicuous large warships, the tonnage of the other ships is actually not large from a modern perspective, generally only a few tens of tons, and there are even some sampans with several tons boat.

Without exception, these ships are all galleys, that is, there are dense oars on both sides of the ship to enhance the maneuverability of the ship when the wind is insufficient or turned to combat.

According to the internal division of the Great Chu Empire Navy, these ships were divided into first to third class inland warships.

And this kind of division is also simple and rude, directly divided by the number of artillery carried.

First-class inland warship, equipped with more than ten naval guns.

Second-class river warships, equipped with two to nine guns.

The third-class inland warships have one or no long-barreled naval guns at all.

It can be seen from the matching of the number of this naval gun that this naval gun does not count those short-barreled artillery that can only shoot shotguns, but only counts the artillery that fires solid shells.

After all, for warships, those light short-barreled shotguns are actually not the main artillery, but only auxiliary firepower, mainly used to kill the deck personnel of the enemy ship.

According to the classification of inland river warships, only six of the more than 100 warships in the Great Chu Empire Navy can be regarded as first-class inland river warships, and they are also called large warships in daily life.

The matching naval guns are also different. Four of them were captured from the navy of the Ming Army. The Chu Army Navy modified the naval guns of these four large warships, and deployed two nine-pound naval guns and eight five-pound field guns. , In addition, it is also equipped with a batch of [-]-jin short guns for auxiliary combat.

The other two were warships refitted from merchant ships. These two ships were sand ships with a displacement of about [-] tons. They were also equipped with ten naval guns after refitting.

For the second-class inland warships, this one is more complicated, because the size is different, some are captured, some are self-made, some are refitted from merchant ships, and the ship shape is also messy. Cannons don't wait.

As for the third-class inland warships, because the ships are too small, they are not directly equipped with long-barreled naval guns, but mainly equipped with various short-barreled artillery.

Generally speaking, although the navy has implemented the classification of inland river warships, due to factors such as the relatively short period of army establishment and the complicated sources of warships, the various types of warships in the interior are still relatively chaotic.

There are seven or eight types of ships alone, including sand ships, centipede ships used as main battleships, a large number of sampan ships, and some sand ships, Guangzhou ships, etc.

However, as the number of ships built by the Chu army gradually increases, the chaotic ship shape will gradually change or even disappear.

At present, the Great Chu Empire Navy has basically finalized several ship types of inland river warships based on the ship types of some of the warships captured from the Ming army, as well as many private merchant ships.

The most core one is the Guangzhou Ship as the prototype. At the same time, it has also been improved with reference to the large inland river warships of the Ming army. It is a first-class inland river warship with a rated displacement of [-] tons and ten naval guns.

This thing is said to be for inland river warfare, but in fact, more consideration is given to the subsequent use of the Yangtze River estuary and coastal areas. Otherwise, it doesn’t need to be so big at all. This first-class inland river warship is still under construction for the time being. They haven't served yet.

At present, the ships built on a large scale in the Chu army are centipede ships that were used before the Ming Dynasty but were quickly abandoned.

Of course, it is not a pure centipede ship, but a self-modified centipede ship, which is mainly reduced in size, making the ship more suitable for navigating in narrow inland rivers. mobility.

After the special armed modification, a large number of artillery was installed, which made the firepower of this ship extremely outstanding.

And this kind of centipede ship is also the key ship built by the Great Chu Empire Navy for inland river warships. In the past half a year, more than 20 ships have been built at one go, and the displacement is basically about [-] tons. The absolute main warship in inland river warfare.

In addition, the Chu army also built a batch of small ships with a smaller tonnage of only [-] to [-] tons.

Today, the surface of the Yangtze River outside the Hukou is covered with these warships of the Chu army.

There are first-class inland warships with huge size and powerful firepower.

There are also centipede ships that are extremely flexible and have good firepower.

There are also a large number of extremely flexible sampan boats.

Shi Kefa on the top of the Hukou city was terrified when he saw the densely packed warships.

Under the watchful eyes of Shi Kefa and others, these warships of the Chu army gradually approached the mouth of the lake, but they did not get too close. Instead, they stopped when they were still some distance away from the fort and dock on the shore.

Well, this place is also the camp of the Ming army navy outside Hukou City, and at least twenty or thirty warships and dozens of ordinary ships that are not warships are parked outcropping.

This made many people who thought that the Chu army's navy was going to directly kill the navy camp heaved a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, these Tiansha's Chu thieves did not come to directly attack the navy camp.

Fortunately, they built a coastal defense turret near the pier outside the city, and deployed at least twenty Hongyi cannons on it, otherwise, these Chu thief warships would probably come directly to the camp pier.

Otherwise, the naval divisions of the Ming army that seem to have a large number of camps, but in fact there are not many large ships, let alone artillery, and the morale of the army has fallen to the bottom, may not be able to block these incoming forces. The raging Chu army fleet.

However, at this time, a few people pondered a question.

The warships of these Chu thieves set up their battleships with great fanfare to attack them, but they only parked outside the naval camps and did not attack them. They even made a group of huge civilian sand ships directly connected in a row. This is not right no matter how you look at it .

However, several naval generals of the Ming army who survived the Battle of Wuchang and fled to Hukou frowned after seeing this scene.

Others, even Shi Kefa and others couldn't figure out why the Chu bandits came over with such great fanfare, but didn't attack.

However, these few of them knew.

The warships of these Chu thieves did not come to attack the Ming army navy in the port of Hukou at all, they came to block the door.

And when was the last time the Chu thief navy ran to the door of the Ming army navy to block the door?
When the Chu thief crossed the river last year!
The scene at that time was almost the same as the current scene. The Chu bandit sailors were dispatched on a large scale, and then directly blocked the Ming army sailor camp outside Wuchang City.

Not only did they use warships to block the door, but the Chu thief navy at that time also brought a large number of ordinary ships over, and the ships loaded with sand and gravel rushed directly outside the camp of the Ming army navy to self-sink to block the channel.

In the end, even if the navy of the Ming army stationed in Wuchang tried to counterattack, they still failed to break through the blockade of the Chu thief navy, and were finally trapped to death in the naval camp outside Wuchang.

The Ming army in Wuchang City could only watch as the Chu army crossed the river with great fanfare not far upstream and built a pontoon bridge safely.

When the Chu thieves crossed the river on a large scale and pulled down a large number of artillery pieces outside the city of Wuchang, the naval divisions of the Ming army deployed outside the city faced the ground artillery fire of the Chu army, unable to escape or fight. Most of the soldiers of the Ming army's navy were taken captive, and even a large number of ships were captured by the Chu army.

Now that the Chu thief is playing this game again in Hukou, those naval generals of the Ming army who fled from Wuchang to Hukou suddenly remembered the situation of the Wuchang battle last year, and then all of them changed their complexions. .

Immediately, someone shouted: "Quick, rush out, we can't let them block the waterway, or we're all going to die here!"

"Quickly tell your superiors that the Chu thief is going to cross the river, the Chu thief is definitely going to cross the river!"

It's a pity that although these naval generals of the Ming army anticipated something bad and issued warnings, they don't have many direct subordinates under their command now, and as defeated generals, no one listens to them.

So, after shouting for a long time, I found that no one answered me!

In the end, these people all showed helpless expressions!
"What should we do now? Do we want to rush out by ourselves? They are waiting to die. We can't die with them!"

"Once the Chu bandits successfully cross the river, the naval camps outside the city will absolutely be unable to stop the Chu bandits. It's hard to say in the city, but the naval camps inside the city will definitely be wiped out."

"Escape? Just the few of us escaped alone with a few boats. There are more than 100 Chu thief boats outside. How can it be so easy to escape!"

"It is impossible to escape with a boat, but there is still a chance to go from the ground."

"The few of us and hundreds of brothers under our command finally escaped from Wuchang. We can't just die at the mouth of the lake. We can't stay here any longer. Let's go ashore and go to Jiangnan."

"I don't want this boat anymore. As long as we can escape smoothly, we won't be afraid of losing the boat if we have someone in hand."

After some discussion, the generals of the Ming army sailors began to contact their confidant sailors. In about half an hour, they quietly fled from the sailor camp with more than 300 sailors...

And at this time, the others finally knew why they were fleeing.

Chu thief, cross the river!

When the Yangtze River Fleet successfully arrived outside the Ming Army Navy camp stationed at Hukou and completely blocked the Ming Army Navy camp, a large number of ships and even bamboo rafts in the rear were loaded with a large number of soldiers and weapons of the First Infantry Brigade. The ammunition was set off, and the battle of crossing the river was officially launched!

Seeing this scene, Shi Kefa was not too moved, but said indifferently: "The Chu thief's infantry has begun to cross the river, the navy will attack and intercept it."

In fact, Shi Kefa also knew that with the strength of the dozens of warships of the Navy, let alone interception, even if he wanted to rush out, he might not be able to rush out.

But it doesn't matter.

There is a high probability that this battle will be lost, and Shi Kefa has already been prepared for it.

But you can lose, but you have to fight!

So no matter what the result is, you have to go out and fight.

This situation is also used for subsequent new standard troops and other battalion sentinels.

Just because Shi Kefa thinks this way, it doesn't mean that other people will think the same way!
(End of this chapter)