"After capturing Jiangxia, we will use Jiangxia County as a logistical center to attack Yuezhou from Ezhou and Tanzhou. We must capture Baling County at all costs. As long as Baling County is captured, Li Ye's army will not be able to attack Chang'an.
If we gain a foothold on the south bank, we can only retreat to the north bank.
After all, his enemy is the Yan Army. The Yan Army will attack Xiangyang at any time. He does not dare to stay in the south for a long time. In this way, we have saved the west Jiangnan Road. Then we will aim to fight against the Anlushan rebels and move towards Huaixi.
To develop Taoism, if we can capture Huaixi, we will have a buffer."
Li Lin excitedly told everyone about his plans for next year. He wanted to consolidate the territory of Jiangnan West Road, develop northward, and capture Huaixi Road. Perhaps the year after next, he would march to Jiangnan East Road and Huainan Road.
At this time, a low horn sound came from the distance, and Ji Guangchen said quickly: "Your Majesty, the attack has begun!"
Li Lin was refreshed and quickly looked to the north.
There is a several-mile-long Caohe waterway in the northeast of Jiangxia City. The waterway connects to the Dadong River and flows directly into the Yangtze River. Twenty-five large ships were seen approaching in a queue. They were all three-thousand-stone cargo ships. Each large ship was fully loaded with hundreds of people.
Soldier.
The big ship is about two feet high and is still one foot away from the city head, so a wooden platform about ten feet high is built on each big ship. The wooden platform is about six or seven square meters, and there is also a bridge board for the upper city, which is one foot long.
About five feet and three feet wide, soldiers can quickly run along the bridge to the top of the city.
"Woo——"
The trumpet sounded again, and 20,000 King Yong's troops rushed towards the moat of the East City.
On the top of the city, 10,000 Jianghan troops had already entered the city. The soldiers were filled with murderous intent and were ready to fight. Lei Wanchun looked coldly at the fleet that was about to enter the moat and shouted sternly: "No arson, follow my order!"
A large amount of dry straw was piled under the city, and two thousand militia soldiers were responsible for carrying this hay.
There are also a thousand jars of kerosene, each jar is about five kilograms. The jars have handles and can be thrown directly. They are all thin-skinned pottery jars that break when they fall to the ground.
There were also 300 jars of rapeseed oil, which were also used to deal with enemy soldiers ascending the city.
At this time, the first large ship sailed into the moat. It was a large ship of three thousand stones, followed by more than twenty similar large ships, and there were several small boats beside each large ship just following.
Lei Wanchun saw clearly that just as Jiedushi said in the pigeon letter, he planned to use a big ship as a nest car, prepare to use a three thousand stone ship to dock in the city, and then use small boats to build a pontoon bridge.
Lei Wanchun waved his hand and said, "Send straw!"
After the order was conveyed, two thousand militia soldiers gathered towards the east city holding straws, but they tried to run as close to the female wall as possible so that the Yongwang Army soldiers outside could not see them.
Under the city, Hun Weiming personally led 20,000 troops to participate in tonight's siege. Of course, Ji Guangchen considered the enemy's fire attack. They prepared dozens of buckets of water on each ship. Once the Jianghan army threw burning wood over, the soldiers
They immediately doused it with water.
As the ship sailed into the moat, the two armies first launched an intensive bow and arrow battle. Arrows were fired at the ship and the city head like raindrops, and people kept screaming when they were hit by arrows.
The fleet did not immediately rely on the city wall, but continued to sail southward along the moat. A dozen ships had already entered the moat, but the Yongwang Army had to wait until all the ships entered the moat before they began to attack the city in a large scale.
Li Lin was watching the battle from a distance. He saw the enemy troops on the top of the city were in a panic, with horns sounding continuously and figures running, full of the sudden tension and panic of the battle.
Li Ye's army seemed completely unaware that there would be ships coming tonight. Even the generals behind him felt the enemy's panic and uneasiness, and everyone burst into laughter.
But Ji Guangchen discovered that something was wrong. The other party's performance tonight was completely different from the calmness before. Initially, he sent troops to attack the city at night, but the other party was very calm, rational and orderly. He was not as panicked as he was today.
Moreover, the opponent's tactics were wrong. They only used bows and arrows to shoot and did not use fire attacks. This is unreasonable. At least there should be countless torches thrown out. This only shows that they are prepared. The soldiers are controlled and are not allowed to use fire. The opponent is very likely to
Attack with fire.
"Your Majesty, the enemy has been prepared. We will suffer a disastrous defeat tonight. I suggest you cancel the operation immediately and withdraw the army!"
Before Li Lin could ask, the military advisor Xue Yu next to him snorted dissatisfiedly, "Why did Ji Shijun say this?"
Ji Guangchen explained: "The other party clearly knew that we would use ships to attack the city, but they showed no preparation. This is not normal. Lei Wanchun was well prepared and calmly dealt with the previous attacks. He was so panicked tonight.
It was clearly a deliberate act."
Xue Yu asked: "We were refitting the ship twenty miles away, but Lei Wanchun couldn't see it at all. How could he know that we were using ships to attack the city?"
"Comrade Xue, don't forget that the enemy war fleet came to monitor our modified ships three days ago. I think Li Ye will definitely send a pigeon letter to Lei Wanchun to remind him to defend."
Xue Yu sneered, "What a 'I think!' Ji Shijun, you just take it for granted that Li Ye and Jiang Xia have a dove letter connection. In fact, it is just your guess. Let me ask you something, if Li Ye thinks that we want to
If he uses ships to attack, then why doesn’t he destroy twenty-five large ships? Isn’t it possible that he can’t do it with his naval strength?”
Xue Yu's last rhetorical question was very sharp. The fact is that he is a swordsman and I am a fish. It would be easy for the other party to kill twenty-five large ships. The reason why they did not take action can only mean that they did not think of this siege plan. Since they did not think of it, Li
How could Ye remind Jiangxia City?
Li Lin nodded secretly. He agreed with Xue Yu's inference, which was interconnected and reasonable. However, Ji Guangchen's request to withdraw the troops was a bit taken for granted. It was probably because he had lost three battles in a row and was a little timid.
Ji Guangchen said for a long time: "Perhaps Li Ye had a deeper idea that prevented us from destroying our ship!"
Li Lin was very disapproving and waved his hands and said: "The arrow is already on the string and has to be fired. Whether we win or lose tonight, it has nothing to do with Ji Shijun!"
Ji Guangchen sighed deeply in his heart, it must be wrong, but he couldn't find a reason to refute Xue Yu.
At this time, all twenty-five enemy warships sailed into the moat. The ships threw flying anchors towards the city head. The flying anchor caught the city head. It was tied not with ropes but with iron chains. The soldiers on the city head could not
Cut off.
The soldiers on the ship worked hard together, and the ship gradually moved closer to the city.
The ship was still two feet away from the city, and Lei Wanchun shouted sharply: "Attack!"
"Woo——"
The horn sounded, and the soldiers squatting at the base of the wall stood up one after another, lit the shells of clay pots filled with kerosene with torches, and threw them towards the nearest ship.
In the night sky, hundreds of red fireballs were seen flying towards the ship.
Then there was a crashing sound of 'Bang! Bang!'. This was the fireball hitting the ship, the clay pot shattered, and a fire broke out on the deck and on the ship.
The sudden change stunned Li Lin and everyone. Then, hundreds of fireballs flew towards the ship, and many clay pots smashed into the cabin. A fire broke out in the cabin, causing the soldiers inside to scream.
Hun Weiming reacted and shouted: "Up to the city! Attack the city!"
There was still some time before the ship was completely burned down, and they made full use of this short period of time to allow soldiers to rush to the city.
The pontoon bridge beside the ship had been built, and the soldiers on the shore were coerced and urged by the generals and had no choice but to rush towards the burning ship.
The soldiers on the ship had already begun to attack first. They held short spears and shields and climbed onto the platform. They turned the bridge to the top of the city. There were iron hooks on the front end of the bridge that could hook onto the top of the city.
But soldiers on the city had already dumped cans of rapeseed oil onto the bridge board. The bridge board was covered with greasy rapeseed oil. The soldiers of the Yongwang Army rushed onto the bridge board with their spears, but they could not stand at all, and they all slipped and fell.
If you fall down, you are lucky to be able to fall into the water, but the bottom is almost covered with stone slabs.
The soldiers suffered broken bones and tendons, and if they were unlucky, they died on the spot.
At this time, countless soldiers at the top of the city threw bundles of straw onto the city.
Hun Weiming tried to make a desperate move, but the defenders were unequivocal and did not give them any chance. Thousands of bundles of straw were thrown onto twenty-five large ships in succession. All the large ships were engulfed in blazing fire. The soldiers on board could not withstand the burning flames.
, there was a cry of ghosts and howls of wolves, and everyone jumped off the boat to escape for their lives.
The twenty-five large ships on the moat were all covered in flames, turning them into fire ships. Even if there were soldiers who could rush to the top of the city, it would be meaningless.
Xue Yu was so anxious that he stamped his feet, but Li Lin looked at the twenty-five ships that were completely engulfed in flames in despair. His heart was filled with despair. Li Ye had such sharp firearms, how could he be his opponent?
At this moment, Ji Guangchen hurriedly came with a soldier to report, "Reporting to the prince, the eldest prince was defeated in Tanzhou. Almost all the 30,000 troops were destroyed. The eldest prince only fled back to Hongzhou with a few hundred people!"
Li Lin was stunned. This news became the last straw that overwhelmed his will. Looking at the blazing fire in the distance, at this moment, Li Lin had already begun to quit. He no longer wanted to stay in Hongzhou or Jiangnan.