Of course, these troops composed of Nanming's surrendered soldiers and generals were still not able to shake thousands of native soldiers, especially in plain field battles, let alone their opponents.
I was a cannon fodder at first, but I still feel uneasy now! The right commander of the "Zhongyong" camp, Wang Hui, glanced at the guard commander Ba Yong from the corner of his eye, and he couldn't help but feel resentment in his heart. He worked hard to get this job.
Wu Sangui still sent his cronies to supervise. Could it be that with thousands of casualties and the leading generals leading the charge and fighting bravely, it still didn't show their loyalty?
"King Governor." Bak Yong suddenly turned around and said with a smile: "If those soldiers do not dare to come and are just bluffing, will our army continue to wait here?"
Wang Hui was stunned for a moment, then said with a smile: "Mr. Ba, you are joking. Your Majesty must be very confident. He must first defeat the enemy's reinforcements on the east route, and then use a roundabout plan to sneak across, so that these thousands of native soldiers can be reduced to turtles in an urn."
"Haha, Governor Wang hit the mark with his words, he is quite strategic!" Ba Yong obviously got Wu Sangui's instructions. Although he was supervising and urging, he had to be gentle and win over. Regardless of whether Wang Hui was right or not, he praised him.
, "When Yuanjiang City is defeated and rewards are given based on merit, the Zhongyong Camp has made an indispensable contribution, and the King Commander can be promoted to a higher level."
"Thank you for your humble position, Your Majesty." Wang Hui looked grateful and bowed his hands in the direction of Jiangbei Camp.
Bak Yong pretended to be affectionate and patted Wang Hui's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Don't you know the loyalty and sincerity of Governor Wang? Let's go, those soldiers and monkeys, why don't we wait for you? Let's go back to the camp to drink tea and take a rest!"
"
"Your Majesty, that's right." Wang Hui was a little behind, extending his hand to greet him.
………………
The sound of artillery roared, and the Qing army's Hongyi cannons continued to bombard the northeastern city wall. However, the generals standing at the northwest corner of the city wall seemed to have not heard anything. Chen Guogong and Wu Zisheng raised their binoculars from time to time and looked at the river in the distance. Several
The general passed two telescopes in his hands, looking eagerly from time to time and talking in low voices.
Na Song was the most uneasy one. He opened his mouth several times, but swallowed back his words. He paced back and forth on the city wall from time to time, his expression changing.
Wu Zisheng put down the telescope and rubbed his eyes that were stung by the reflection of the river water. After a while, he squinted at the sun and estimated the time. He raised the telescope again.
Suddenly, a black spot appeared in the field of view of the telescope, and then it quickly expanded and became longer. At the junction of water and sky in the distance, the tip of a mast appeared. Then came the second, and the third...
…
"Here we come!" Wu Zisheng was so excited that his voice changed a bit. There was a shout from beside him, and all the generals' eyes widened and they surged up in unison.
Four large sailing ships, two in a row, sailed ahead in a triangle, taking advantage of the wind to cut across the river, appearing in everyone's sight. Behind them were more than 20 ships of various sizes, with sails of various sizes spread out.
.Coming along the river. Because the distance between the ships is large, the fleet looks very long.
"Are your respective troops ready?" Chen Guogong Wu Zisheng turned around and asked loudly to the generals.
"The last general Zhao is victorious, and his three thousand troops are ready."
"The last general is Xu Mingchen, and his three thousand troops can go out of the city at any time to kill the enemy."
"The last general, Gao Yingfeng, has three thousand men and horses under his command, waiting for orders."
"The governor leads five thousand troops to ensure that the city is not lost."
Wu Zisheng nodded towards Na Song as a sign of courtesy, then turned around and continued to stare at the river. A counterattack would depend on his ability to put together the navy. His palms were slightly sweaty.
"Lower the sails and slow down, lower the boat." Following the order, the speed of the sailing ship slowed down, and the pontoon bridge in the distance was already in sight.
Several small sampans were put into the water from both sides of the large ship. There were two sailors in each sampan. Thick iron nails protruded from the front of the sampan. The front cabin was tightly covered with oilcloth. There were also temporary erected on the small boats.
A small sail.
As soon as the rope was untied, the sailor rowed hard and adjusted the small sail. The speed of several sampans became faster and faster, leaving the slowing sailboat and rushing down the current.
Fire boats? The sudden appearance of the fleet on the river not only saw the people in Yuanjiang City, but also alarmed Wu Sangui of Jiangbei Daying. At this time, he was observing from the top of the camp. When he saw a few small sampans suddenly
As he rushed down the river towards the pontoon, these two words came to his mind. Although he was not familiar with water fighting, he had read a lot of books and could roughly guess a few things.
"Order the troops guarding the bridge to intercept, and order the artillery on the river bank to bombard." Although Wu Sangui was not sure, he still shouted the order to the village downstairs.
But it seemed a little late. The four small sampans were traveling very fast. When they were fifty or sixty meters away from the pontoon, the sailors had already lit the fuse under the oilcloth and rolled over into the river one after another.
Several solid artillery shells flew randomly from the river bank, but in a hurry they were unable to hit the boat that hit the pontoon at full speed. With the help of the wind from the small sail, the four small sampans hit the pontoon one after another in more than ten seconds, and the bows of the boats hit the pontoon.
The iron nails were driven deeply into the wood of the pontoon.
"Put it open, push the boat open." The Qing soldiers on the pontoon ran over and used the pulled rope to push hard with their spears under the officers' roars and orders, trying to push the boat away from the pontoon.
The iron nails on the bow of a small sampan were somewhat loose, and it seemed that it was about to be pushed away from the pontoon. However, the sudden explosion of the small sampan turned the Qing soldiers' attempts into sawdust and black smoke.
In the explosion, wood chips flew across the pontoon bridge and broke into several pieces. There were screams on the bridge, and the nearby Qing soldiers were staggered by the explosion and fell into the river one after another.
The two large sailboats were originally in the second row. After the first row of ships slowed down, they accelerated from both sides and rushed to the front. After approaching the pontoon, there was a rumble and white smoke rose from the bow. Several pellets
The large artillery shells dispersed in the air and turned into dozens of small artillery shells, which hit the Qing artillery on the shore.
These two large sailing ships look rather weird. They are actually made of four ships. They are covered with wooden planks. Their speed is affected, but their stability is good, so they become the launching platform for the sky-blasting cannon. In the fleet,
There are several other ships that have been modified in this way. One is to bombard pontoon bridges and form a double insurance with the blasting ships; the other is to suppress enemies on the shore and prevent them from building pontoon bridges again.
Wu Sangui didn't have many artillery on the shore. They were all small cannons with a short range, but the firing time was about the same as that of a big cannon. It was still slow. The bombardment of the sampan just now had no effect. At this time, there was no time to move the muzzle. Three hundred meters away
The sky-blasting cannon gave them a head-on blow.
This batch of flying artillery shells was also different from usual. Some bounced when they hit the ground, and some were nailed to the ground all of a sudden. These were improved arrows specially designed for bombing pontoons.
The biggest difficulty in bombarding the pontoon is the bounce of the shells. There is no sensitive detonation fuse, and it is difficult to control the time of delaying the fuse. It is an almost impossible task to make the shell explode on the narrow pontoon bridge.
Zhu Yongxing also thought hard about this and suffered from a headache. Later, he accidentally discovered several old-fashioned bed crossbows in Erhai Acropolis, and curiously asked the soldiers to demonstrate the bed crossbows. When the thick arrows penetrated the city wall,
He couldn't help but suddenly enlightened, and thought of some secrets about the expeditionary army's battle in Tengchong in history.
He remembered the attack on Tengchong. Because the Tengchong city wall was made of volcanic stone and was very elastic, the bombs dropped by Allied aircraft often bounced a certain distance before exploding, causing little damage to the city wall. Later, the American pilot thought
They came up with a method, which seemed to be to tie a steel bar to the bomb or install a metal spike, and then fly at a very low altitude for bombing. In this way, the bomb could penetrate the city wall with the help of the steel bar or spike and explode. This destroyed the northwest part of Tengchong.
Corner Building. Breached Tengchong City.
With the idea in mind, the technical improvement is not complicated. It is to install iron clusters on the head of the bomb of the Hongtian Cannon so that it can be stuck on the pontoon and no longer bounce and roll. After testing, it was proved to be feasible and effective. So,
In addition to using gunpowder boats to blast the pontoon bridge, Zhu Yongxing had another powerful weapon, which made him more confident in destroying the Yuanjiang pontoon bridge.
Of course, Zhu Yongxing did not know that similar arrows had already existed, but they could not explode, but were real big iron arrows. They seemed to be the sky-shaped cylinders and ground-shaped cylinders cast by Korea in the mid-16th century.
It is to fire general arrow artillery shells weighing more than 20 kilograms.
However, this is no longer important. The explosion of the gunpowder ship has blown the pontoon into several sections. The sailing ship speeds up again, and under the cover and suppression of the bombing platform, it rushes forward with the ships behind it, crushing it and passing by.
Destroy the first pontoon bridge that was already scattered.
Countless wooden planks, debris, and ropes were carried downstream by the fleet. The two bombardment platforms lowered all their sails and slowly moved along the coast. They were still firing cannons and bombarding, and they also responded to several sailors who fell into the water and swam over.
"One is broken." Chen Guogong and Wu Zisheng stamped their feet. The telescope moved with the fleet and stared at the next pontoon bridge.
Wu Sangui was so surprised that he hurriedly climbed down from the village tower, took his personal guards and followers, rushed out of the camp, and rushed downstream along the river. Although he was surprised by the speed at which the enemy broke through the pontoon bridge, Wu Sangui did not realize that the situation was extremely critical.
After all, according to the intelligence and the careful arrangements he had made, even if the pontoon bridge was completely destroyed and communication between the two sides was lost, Jiangnan's army would not be able to be defeated by the enemy.
It's just a temporary isolation. The enemy can't shake Jiangnan's troops; the food and supplies are enough to last for seven or eight days. By that time, the pontoon bridge can be built again. However, the enemy has a navy, how to deal with it?
What? Wu Sangui was riding on his horse. What he was thinking about was not the safety of the troops on the other side, but how to prevent the pontoon bridge he had built from being attacked by similar attacks.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Two more bombardment platforms in the fleet came out and fired specialized arrows towards the second pontoon bridge.
Dozens of small bombs were scattered in the air, and most of them fell into the river. However, a dozen of them landed on the pontoon, and seven or eight of them were successfully nailed.
The smoking shells panicked the Qing troops on the pontoon, and they jostled to avoid them. They did not risk their lives, and emerged as brave warriors. Unlike the artillery shells that can kill infantry, this kind of arrow shells is slightly larger.
The large cannon shells can only be divided into five or four, in order to increase the destructive power and destroy the pontoon bridge in the shortest time.
To be on the safe side, the fleet still released two gunpowder boats and rushed toward the pontoon.
Explosions came one after another, white smoke rose from the water, sawdust flew across the river, and Qing soldiers fell into the water on the bridge. This was followed by the collision of two gunpowder ships, and later there were two more violent loud noises.
One ship was hit by artillery on the shore, its masts were broken and its sails fell, but before it lost control, the wooden oars rowed and fell at the back of the fleet.
"Light up the smoke!" Wu Zisheng watched the fleet crushing across the second pontoon bridge. He was so determined that he finally put down his telescope, turned around and ordered: "The generals will go down to the city to lead the army, and prepare to leave the city to attack the enemy in the west."
Two lines of smoke rose in Yuanjiang City, indicating that the attack operation was more than half successful, and also marked the official launch of the joint attack operation.
"Look, my lord, it's another fleet." Na Song suddenly pointed to the northwest.
Yes, more than twenty ships appeared on the river. This was the second wave of attacks to break the pontoon bridge. Obviously, the smooth operation left them no room to use, let alone the third wave that followed.
"His Royal Highness Min is really cautious." Chen Guogong Wu Zisheng couldn't help but smile and showed his sincere appreciation. He said to Na Song: "Please guard the city, Governor. I will also go to the west of the city to take command and welcome His Highness Min's army to arrive."
"Go with peace of mind, Duke, Yuanjiang City is no longer worried." The look on Na Song's face showed a sense of relief. Although Yuanjiang City's defense was very effective and there was no danger of being breached yet, until this moment, his heart
That’s when I basically let go.
……………
Lower reaches of Yuanjiang River.
Ma Bao led his army to set up camp more than 30 miles away from the Qing army's camp, dug trenches to defend it, and faced off with Wang Fuchen's camp, which was ten miles away from the enemy. It was less than a day, and the two sides only conducted tentative exchanges.
During the scouting battle, they were obviously very cautious.
But five or six miles east of Ma Bao's camp, there is a narrow place in the river. From early this morning, the boats going up the river began to anchor. One by one, they lined up. From the river banks on both sides
Extending towards the center of the river, the construction of the floating bridge has been mostly completed.
When the two flames of war in Yuanjiang City were reported to Ma Bao by Ma Weixing's headquarters in the south of the Yangtze River, the construction of the pontoon bridge suddenly began to accelerate under his strict order. An hour later, as the two large ships anchored, the pontoon bridge was finally basically completed.
Finish.
Bamboo rafts were laid out one after another, and the pontoon bridge was completely completed. Ma Bao's army quietly left the camp, marched five or six miles quickly, and began to cross the river. However, the flags in the camp did not fall down, and a thousand empty troops pretended to move, hiding the Qing army from the enemy.
The scouts also deceived the Qing general Wang Fuchen.
Ma Bao led the army across the river to advance eastward. At this time, the smoke had already turned into three lines. The success of the attack made Ma Bao both excited and anxious, and repeatedly urged the army to speed up its march.
……………
The war situation was undergoing drastic changes, but Wu Sangui and other Qing generals did not realize or underestimated the seriousness of the danger.
Three pontoon bridges were destroyed, and the Qing troops on both sides of the strait made corresponding adjustments. Wu Sangui mobilized troops to set up defenses on the shore. Although there were few artillery, he was able to improvise rockets, and also pulled in all the dozens of crossbows guarding the camp, and
Auxiliary troops were sent to prepare timber and prepare to build a pontoon bridge.
Prime Minister Xia in the south of the Yangtze River stopped bombarding the city wall and sent people to transport the Hongyi cannon to the shore, preparing to attack the enemy navy with the friendly forces on the other side to ensure the re-construction of the pontoon bridge.
However, the war situation took a turn for the worse. Although Wu Sangui and Xia Guoxiang's remedial measures were reasonable and quick, they were a bit late. The first breakthrough of the Ming army was to the east of Yuanjiang City, and Zhongyong Camp was caught in a sudden outflank.
Ba Yong's smile froze, and Wang Hui's eyes flashed with panic. The soldiers and generals of the Zhongyong Battalion were dumbfounded, and the relaxation and disdain just now disappeared without a trace in an instant.
On the right side of Zhongyong Camp's military formation, the Ming army was pouring in. The armor scales on their bodies and the countless white blades of their weapons gave off a cold light under the sunlight. Although they were still more than two miles apart,
The murderous aura seemed to have invaded him.
On the opposite side, the mountains, woods, and soldiers were constantly emerging from the mountains and woods a few miles away. The enemies that the Zhongyong camp seemed to be able to defeat easily, suddenly became difficult to defeat after the enemy troops suddenly gained momentum.
win.
"What, what's going on?" Wang Hui stared at the enemies on the flanks intently, not forgetting to order the military formation to turn around, where was the most threatening place.
"Where did this enemy come from?" Bak Yong swallowed hard, with an incredulous expression on his face.
No one answered, and there was no need to answer. A large flag was raised in the Ming army's formation, with yellow characters on a red background fluttering in the wind, and "Min" was clearly displayed in front of the Qing army.
"Pseudo clan——" Ba Yong's eyes almost fell out, his mouth opened into an O shape, and he couldn't close it for a long time.
Wang Hui opened his mouth and said nothing, but a complicated look flashed across his face. Ashamed? Guilty? Afraid?... As a surrendered general, when he saw the royal family he had previously loyal to, his mood was really indescribable. Not only
He, there was also a low discussion in the military formation. Obviously, the imperial power has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is not something that can be completely changed by shaving your head or changing clothes. The sudden appearance of the royal family members still oppressed the psychology of the Qing soldiers.
.
After the formation was completed, Zhu Yongxing looked stern, drew his sword suddenly in his hand, pointed at the Qing army, and shouted angrily: "Attack."
"attack!"
"Kill the enemy!"
As the roar became louder and louder, heavy footsteps sounded from around Zhu Yongxing. The Ming army formed a battle formation and pressed against the Qing army with great momentum. The general Wang Sancai, Wei Junzhong, the son of Mengjin Hou Wei Yong, led
Another group of troops headed towards the retreat of the Qing army.
"Fight and kill the enemy! Those who kill the false clan members will receive a reward of ten thousand taels." Bak Yong woke up and roared loudly, but there were only a few who responded.
Facing the Ming army, which had an absolute superiority in strength and was personally commanded by the royal family members, the momentum of the Zhongyong Battalion was completely suppressed.
If he had known that the false clan would appear here, he should not have sent troops like the Zhongyong Camp to surrender. Ba Yong regretted it in his heart, but at this time there was nothing he could do except fight to the death. He cast his aggressive eyes on Wang Hui,
And the generals beside him.
Wang Hui gritted his teeth, pointed his sword forward, and shouted loudly, "Fight."
"Come on!"
"Kill!"
With the shouts that resounded throughout the battlefield, countless people rushed together, causing the earth to tremble slightly. Then, the sounds of fighting and the clash of weapons filled the ears, and the sounds of musket shooting and artillery shell explosions came one after another.