Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 63
Among the Ming army, apart from Zheng Hongkui, who was a navy division, all the other divisions were land divisions. Although people in the south of the Yangtze River generally knew how to swim, it was not easy to fight in water by boat.

Thousands of warships shuttle back and forth on the river, how to drive the boats?After fighting with the enemy, how to fight?How to cooperate?It all takes training.

The Ming army assembled in Zhenjiang and wanted to cross the river to aid Yang. Ruan Dacheng naturally ordered the whole army to practice water warfare, but after all, the training time of the Ming army was still short. Except for Zheng Hongkui, the rest of the Ming army were not proficient in water warfare.

Zheng Hongkui was the vanguard of crossing the river and commanded an army of [-] to cross the river to fight against the Qing navy.

On the river, Zheng Hongkui connected [-] Fuchuan and Wusong boats with iron locks, surrounded each other, and ordered Fang Guoan's elite Ming army to bring Zuo Maodi, Chen Zilong and other newly recruited troops. More than [-] people did this War is the main force.

The Fuchuan and Wusong ships are large warships of the Ming army. The buildings on the ships are as high as a city, and they are equipped with various firearms such as Dafolang Machine Cannon and Wankoutong.

Both the Fang Guoan Ministry and the newly recruited army were not good at water warfare. Zheng Hongkui used the strategy of connecting the boats, chaining the boats with iron chains, and laying wooden planks on them, so that the army would be like stepping on the ground, and used land warfare to fight against the Qing army's navy.

In order to guard against the Qing army's fire attack, Zheng Hongkui also ordered the soldiers to smear the boat with mud, and then prepare long logs and long bamboos to be safe.

Zheng Hongkui, together with Wang Wei's department, took Haicang boats, Cangshan boats, wheel boats and other small and medium-sized warships to guard the company.

The [-] Ming army spread out on the Yangtze River for several miles. Looking at it like a mountain, the momentum is overwhelming, and it seems to be sweeping the Qing army's warships on the river.

Standing on the tower of the South Gate, Wang Yan looked at the reinforcement ships with a binoculars, and he felt like a long wall moving on the river, and he was immediately happy.

The Yangzhou garrison defended for 66 days. The civilians suffered heavy casualties. There were only 50 people left, and the young and strong between the ages of 40 and [-] were almost exhausted.

In the nearly two months of war, Yangzhou's blood is almost shed.Now that reinforcements finally appeared above the Yangtze River, Wang Yan's heart was agitated.

"After two months of hard work, Master Wang has finally arrived. Yangzhou is saved!" Wang Yan put down the binoculars and sighed, "Your Majesty has not forgotten us, and the imperial court has not given up on Yangzhou!"

On the city tower, He Gang, Qu Congzhi and others were already in tears. The beating in Yangzhou was really miserable, and the beating was really hard.

"My lords!" With the Ming warship coming north, Wang Yan was confident, "Once the reinforcements break through the Qing army's navy on the Yangtze River, they will surely enter the canal and go beyond the east gate. We must prepare elite soldiers. The horses are inside the east gate, ready to cooperate with the reinforcements inside and outside to smash the Qing army camp outside the east gate!"

On the north bank of the Yangtze River, Duoduo left a small number of troops to monitor Yangzhou, and led a large Qing army to deploy defenses along the river, and the Qing army warships on the river were also ready to go.

The Qing army came from the north and was good at riding and shooting, but not water warfare.

The method of water warfare was originally a sharp weapon used by the southern regime to fight against the northern army going south. Soochow used it to fight against the strong Wei, and the Eastern Jin used it to lean to the left of the Anjiang River.

The navy was originally the head of the Han people. The Manchu and Yidi only knew how to destroy and did not know the technology of China. They could not build ships and train the navy. Tens of thousands.

On the Yangtze River, the strength of the Qing army was far greater than that of the untrained Ming army navy, because it was recruited by the established Jiangbei navy.

Duoduo didn't understand water warfare, so he appointed Liu Liangzuo as the commander of the Qing army's navy, and Aixinjue Luo Handai, Shangshu Aixinjue Luo Handai of the Ministry of War of the Qing court, accompanied the ship to monitor.

Liu Liangzuo surrendered to the Qing Dynasty for some time, he has been stationed in Jiang'an, he has never done any meritorious service for his new master, he was terrified.

Now that he has won the general order of Doduo, Liu Liangzuo is immediately delighted, thinking that he has the opportunity to help the Manchus to make meritorious deeds, and as long as he can defeat the navy of his old team as a general, not only will Duduo no longer suspect that he has two intentions, but he will be rewarded for his meritorious deeds in the future , he must also be a high-ranking official and generous salary in the Manchu and Qing courts.

At this time, as the Ming army fleet came to the north bank, Liu Liangzuo led the generals Yang Chengzu and Zhang Tianfu, and the deputy generals Yang Shoucheng, Zhang Sida, Gao Qian, Yan Shiyi and others, with a strength of [-].

Although the number of Qing soldiers was smaller than that of the Ming army, they were all serious and well-versed in naval warfare.

Zhang Tianfu observed that the Ming army's large ships were connected by iron chains, which was not conducive to advancing and retreating. He then advised Liu Liangzuo, "The Ming army's warships are huge and connected together. Our army's small ships are not conducive to confrontation. It is better to divide into several teams, be flexible and maneuver around. And hit."

When Liu Liangzuo heard about it, he thought it was very reasonable. Following Zhang Tianfu's strategy, he divided the Qing army's warships into ten teams, and each team was equipped with large and small cannons, firecrackers, rockets, fire thorns, large and small muskets, magic arrows, and crossbows. Order each team to fire firearms first when approaching Ming warships, then use bows and crossbows for the second time, and then use short weapons to kill when approaching enemy ships.

The warships of the Qing army marched together on the north bank, and met the warships of the Ming army in the center of the river, and a fierce battle ensued.

Zuo Maodi and Chen Zilong didn't know how to fight in water, but they guarded the boat like a city with iron chains.

The sound of rumbling guns was endless, and jets of water were blown up beside the ship, splashing wet the skirts of the soldiers on the deck.

The shells sometimes smashed the mast, causing chaos on the ship, and sometimes smashed the baffle and the hull, causing river water to pour in and the warship to tilt.

"Let it go!" "Light it up!" Amidst the shouts of officers on both sides, shells shuttled back and forth across the river, and countless officers and soldiers fell into a pool of blood.

After only a short time of fighting, the gap between the Ming army and the Qing army became apparent. The iron chain boat moved slowly, and the target was huge. The Qing army almost hit every shot. However, the Ming army had some difficulty in attacking the Qing army's moving ships, with less than [-]% of the hits. .

Fortunately, Zheng Hongkui and Wang Wei led the Ming army's small boats and entangled with the Qing army's warships, so that although the Ming army was at a disadvantage, they did not miss the defeat.

During the artillery battle, the distance between the two armies continued to approach.

At this time, the Ming army had lost more than 800 warships and killed more than [-] people, while the Qing army sank only seven warships and killed more than [-] people.

As the warships approached and the firearms fired at each other, the Ming army's advantage of using ships as a city became apparent, and the battle was stalemate.

Chen Zilong, who didn't have much confidence in the Ming army's water warfare, saw the newly recruited soldiers relying on the advantage of iron chains and boats to shoot against the Qing army and not be at a disadvantage. , Playing the fire system, forcing the Qing army's warships to dare not come close to fight with short soldiers.

The water battle lasted from morning to noon. There were countless miserable boats on the river, and fires broke out everywhere. Although the Ming army suffered more casualties, it could not be regarded as the winner.

In the afternoon, Liu Liangzuo personally led the warships to fight, but the Ming army's ships were huge, and the Qing army's ships were too small to attack from their backs.

At this time, Liu Liangzuo once again adopted the suggestion of Zhang Tianfu, the commander in chief, and decided to use fire to attack the enemy.

Near dusk, Liu Liangzuo chose [-] fierce soldiers to drive a hundred serial boats, mother and son boats. They filled the bows with gunpowder and firewood, and suddenly appeared in front of the Ming army's boats.

The chain of captains is four feet long. It looks like a boat, but it is actually two boats. The front boat accounts for one-third, and the rear boat accounts for two-thirds. They are connected by two iron rings in the middle.The front boat has a number of large inverted beard nails, loaded with fireballs, magic smoke, magic sand, poisonous fire, and fire guns, and the rear boat is equipped with oars to carry soldiers.During the war, sail straight to the enemy's line with the wind, the front ship is nailed to the enemy ship, and all kinds of firearms are ignited. At the same time, the iron rings are released, and the rear ship returns.

The mother-child ship and the chain boat are also similar, both are a kind of warship used for fire attack.

Eight hundred Qing troops with hundreds of serial boats rushed towards the big Ming army ship, but Zuo Maodi and others were already prepared, ordering the soldiers to hold up long logs and bamboo poles to withstand the oncoming arson boat, and then ordered the soldiers to throw fire. The rocket, ignite it, so that they will burn out before they hit the boat.

In history, Cao Cao evened the boat for the fire attack of the Eastern Wu Dynasty. Zhang Shijie, the great general of the Southern Song Dynasty, also failed several times.

Most of the fire boats of the Qing army were resisted by the Ming army, and a small part was still hit. However, the Ming army had previously covered the boat with mud, which greatly reduced the fire, and the effect was not obvious.

When the Qing army set fire to the boat, Wang Wei saw that the Ming army was always being beaten passively, and he couldn't help but feel anxious for a while. When he was thinking about the way to defeat the enemy, he saw Liu Liangzuo coming out in the boat and had already reached the front line.

Wang Wei was overjoyed to see this, and he rushed forward with several warships, took aim at Liu Liangzuo, and ordered the artillery to bombard him.

Unable to take precautions, Aixinjue Luo Handai, Minister of the Ministry of War of the Qing Dynasty, was shot to death. Liu Liangzuo was shocked and quickly moved to another ship. The original ship was shattered by Wang Wei and soon sank to the bottom of the river.

Aixinjueluo Handai, the superintendent arranged by Duoduo for Liu Liangzuo, was beaten to death by the Ming army. He didn't even get his body back and was buried in the Yangtze River, which made Liu Liangzuo terrified.

If he can't defeat the Ming army and make great achievements, Duoduo will definitely punish him severely for the crime of losing the Manchu royal family, and he may even be killed.

Thinking of this, Liu Liangzuo couldn't help but his eyes turned red. He was not willing to fail, nor was he willing to leave him with glory and wealth, and he was even more unwilling to be killed by Duoduo after the defeat. Ordering the warships to attack the Ming army's warships will definitely defeat the Ming army's navy on the river.

At this time, it was almost dark, but neither army had the intention of a truce.

Zuo Maodi hadn't eaten for a whole day from early morning to evening during the water aid battle. The fact that the Ming army was able to fight the elite Qing army navy at peace made the old man very excited.

The sound of cannons roared, the huge ship capsized, the flames lit up the river, and the sound of shouts filled the heaven and earth. The grand and heroic battle scenes made Zuo Maodi's blood boil.

The tension and intensity of the battlefield made him forget his hunger and exhaustion.

Before he knew it, his old faults of literati and bureaucrats appeared. Faced with this situation, he couldn't help but want to write a poem about this battle.However, at this moment, a gust of north wind suddenly blew on the surface of the river, instantly extinguishing his passion.

(End of this chapter)