Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 604 Full and strong, take the sandbar at night
The 1 Dongting navy sailed from Wuchang without stopping. The fleet traveled eastward along the river, and did not meet Jin Shenghuan when they passed Anqing.

The huge fleet sailed mightily on the Anqing side of the Yangtze River. The scene was very spectacular. Many people rushed to the riverside to watch this rare event. Even Jin Shenghuan was alarmed and ran to the city wall to look into the river.

After passing Anqing, the fleet entered the area controlled by the Qing army. It was getting dark, but the fleet did not anchor, but went down the river in the dark night.

The banks of the Yangtze River in Chizhou Prefecture and Anqing Prefecture are mostly low and gentle hills. In the dark night, the Ming army only felt black shadows passing by.

"General Town, Chizhou is coming soon."

At night, the two sides of the strait could not be seen clearly, but the observation post standing on the mast and watching the battle still reported based on experience.

After hearing this, Man Dazhuang waved his hand, and the officer behind him immediately took out a blueprint and unfolded it, while another person approached with a torch.

This blueprint is the defense map of the Qing court along the river. Where there are piers, where there are forts, where the Qing soldiers can be avoided, and where the fleet can park and rest, most of them are clearly marked.

This is a protégé of Qian Qianyi, working under Tong Yangliang, Admiral of Jiangfang of the Qing court.

"The general is right! We're almost there!" A general next to him pointed to a piece of land protruding into the middle of the river and said, "This is Biandan Prefecture, and Chizhou is twenty miles ahead."

The general's name was Xu Junsheng, whose name was Dawang. He was a descendant of King Zhongshan, but he was a side branch of the Xu family.

Because he used to run a business for the Duke of Wei, and often traveled to and from the Yangtze River, he was very familiar with the water pattern terrain in the Nanzhi area.

After hearing this, Man Dazhuang looked around and saw a piece of land protruding into the Yangtze River, narrowing the waterway of the Yangtze River, and Chizhou was populated by Qing soldiers, so he asked, "Is there a Qing army fort nearby? "

Xu Junsheng spread out the blueprint and looked at it, then nodded, "Chizhou is located at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Qiupu River. The sediment has accumulated and formed a sandbar in the middle of the river, named Fengyizhou, which just chokes the waterway. From the blueprint Judging by the markings, there is indeed a fort on it, with thirty general cannons and a thousand troops stationed there."

Man Dazhuang pressed the handle of the knife, this fort must be pulled out, not only this fort, but all the forts along the river must be destroyed, the Qing army will not be allowed to build forts on both sides of the Yangtze River, and boats will not be allowed to enter The Yangtze River and the Dongting Navy are so domineering.

Man Dazhuang waved his hand and ordered: "All the ships put out the torches, and when they approached the sandbar, the big ships bombarded, and the small boats landed on the island with bee chrysalis, shoot down the fort!"

"Here!" Xu Junsheng clasped his fists in response, then took the torch, and waved it at the soldiers on the watch a few times in a regular manner. The soldiers immediately hung up two red lights when they saw it, and the lights in the fleet were extinguished one by one in a short while , the entire fleet turned into hills moving in the dark.

The fleet went down the river at an extremely fast speed, and the moonlight sprinkled on the river surface, sparkling.

In the middle of the night, the fleet was only three or four miles away from Fengyi Continent. Xu Junsheng pointed to the front, and there was a flickering fire on a black shadow and said, "It's right there."

Man Dazhuang smiled when he saw it, "Jiangxin Fortress actually lit a bonfire at night, shouldn't this tell me where they are so that I can get ready?"

The moonlight is bright enough tonight. Although the fleet has extinguished the torches, they can still be spotted if they are closer. The key depends on who can prepare first, who will be exposed first, and whoever fires the first round of artillery will definitely have the advantage.

"The Jiang defense of the Qing army is indeed a mess, but it also helped us." Xu Junsheng laughed.

There are thousands of green battalions on the sandbar, and there are [-] Qing soldiers in Chizhou City. The gap between the sandbank and the river bank is not an insurmountable horizontal ditch, and swimmers with good water quality can swim across it. Once the Qing soldiers in Chizhou support, Or if the Shazhou Green Camp is prepared, it will be more difficult to fight.

Man Dazhuang did not dare to be careless, and quickly formulated a strategy in his mind. The fleet was divided into three parts. One part bombarded the sandbar with 150 large ships, one part let Xu Junsheng take 2000 small boats and led 150 people to wade ashore, and the last part Ten large ships and [-] small boats were prepared to send troops from Chizhou for reinforcements.

The Yangtze River is wide, and a fort is built on the sandbar. The general cannon, which is one level lower than the red cannon, is placed in the center of the canal and can also guard the waterway.

After the inexplicable fall of Anqing, the defense focus of the Qing soldiers was placed on Chizhou, and the expansion and reinforcement of the Shazhou Fort was imperative.

At this time, stones and blue bricks were piled up everywhere on the sandbar. Jin Li obviously wanted to turn the original rammed earth fort into a brick and stone fortress.

At this time, it was close to the fourth watch, most of the green battalion soldiers had fallen asleep, only a few soldiers stood guard on the unfinished fort, and the fire that Man Dazhuang saw was the work of these sentries.

This team was inexperienced and bold, caught some big fish, and then lit a fire to cook the fish, and it was this fire that exposed the location of the fort.

Watching on the shore at night, it is easy to be killed when lighting a fire. What's more, the naval warships dealt with by Jiangfang, the torch can illuminate 50 meters at night, which is good, but the artillery on the ship can hit a few miles. If the fleet finds out first, the Ming army will occupy it. got a head start.

The seven or eight Qing troops were completely unaware of the approaching danger. The sandbar was surrounded by water on all sides, so there was no need to worry about the infantry attacking them. A few of them ate happily around the fire, but the older one suddenly stood up, rubbed his eyes, Then he pulled the person next to him and said: "Gouzi, you have sharp eyes, help me see if I am dazzled, why does it seem like there are mountains moving on the river?"

The dog stood up, and was so frightened that he was scared out of his wits. He kicked over the fire and spilled the fish soup all over the floor. Everyone looked at him in astonishment, but the dog shouted even more horrified: "Mother, it's over, you Ming military!"

He hadn't finished speaking when the "rumbling" cannons from the boat on the pitch-black river surface, the soldiers of the Qing Dynasty could only see a black mountain sitting in the distance, jets of flames spewed out, and blue smoke rose up, flying misty into the air , and then blown away by the river wind.

Amidst the sound of shells piercing through the air, the fire pile received special attention, and half of the people were killed immediately.

The shells fell into the barracks, waking up the sleeping Qing soldiers, and they swarmed around like headless chickens, and the alarm bells in the distant city of Chizhou suddenly rang.

Xu Junsheng, who had already been transferred to the boat, drew his sword in his hand, and coldly ordered: "Kill me!"

More than 100 small boats rushed to the sandbar downstream. Two thousand Ming soldiers held swords and rattan cards. When the boats stopped, they jumped off the boats one after another and attacked with their backs.

(Thanks to Xiaoyao Shanshuijian, abcde4869, puzzydog for their rewards, and Shuhai wuya, Shuyou 3072 for their monthly pass)
(End of this chapter)