The Yangtze River Fleet set off from the base in Tongzhou on July 8th, gathered in Jiangyin, Jingjiang and other places, and then divided into three teams, sailed up the river towards Nanjing. At the same time, Cheng Jin and Yang Wucheng also headed towards Zhenjiang.
, Ningguo Mansion is approaching.
Duduo, who was in charge of Nanjing, also received the urgent message from Shang Shanfa. After learning that the Qing army was defeated in the Hubei war zone, and even Huangzhou was in danger, Duduo was also shocked. However, at this time, the garrison strength in Nanjing was less than ten.
Ten thousand, there is no way to send reinforcements.
Fortunately, at this time, Obai led the second batch of reinforcements to go south. Duduo also immediately ordered Obai's troops to station in Luzhou, Shucheng, and Lu'an Prefecture, preparing to enter the Hubei battlefield and launch another attack on the merchant army in Hubei area.
Duduo also estimated that although the merchant army defeated the Qing army's third attack, it would not suffer any losses at all, and its troops would also be exhausted. If the Aobai tribe joined the Hubei battlefield at this time, they would immediately attack
The merchant army launches another attack, and the chance of victory is still very high.
But at this time, the merchant army from Zhejiang launched another attack on Nanjing. Therefore, Duduo did not dare to be careless, so he had to order Aobai to station in Luzhou and wait and see what would happen. If Nanjing could withstand the attack of the merchant army, Duduo did not dare to be careless.
If Nanjing is in danger, then Aobai will still lead his troops to fight in the Hubei area. If Nanjing is in danger, he will immediately send Aobai to cross the river to reinforce Nanjing.
At the same time, he immediately dispatched troops and generals. He ordered Xianglan Banner Gushan Ezhen Tunqi to lead 30,000 men to garrison Ningguofu, and ordered Beizhi Mandahai to lead 20,000 men to garrison Zhenjiang. At the same time, he also ordered the navy to attack.
Fight against the merchant army.
After winning a water battle, the Qing army also realized that the fire ship offensive tactic was indeed a very effective move. Although the Qing army itself burned more than 200 ships in World War I, the actual number of warships lost was more than
The merchant army was still large, but they still prepared according to this idea, so they transferred nearly a large number of ships from Huguang and gathered more than 200 ships. They were still divided into groups of three and connected with iron chains to form seventy ships.
There were multiple groups of fire ships. However, because fire ships were disposable items, the Qing army did not dare to attack easily and could only wait for the merchant army to take the initiative to attack.
Because Hong Chengchou was supervising the battle in Jiangxi at this time, this naval battle was also personally directed by Liu Mengjiao, the naval admiral. However, how the Qing army won in World War I was clearly visible to Liu Mengjiao and Hong Chengchou from the same boat.
After returning to Nanjing, Liu Mengjiao also thought over and studied the experience of this battle over and over again, until he had a clear understanding of the situation. This time, Liu Mengjiao was confident that he could defeat the merchant army's navy again.
The Qing army still used fire ships as the vanguard. Every twenty groups of fire ships were spread out horizontally on the river, with a total of three rows. Finally, there were more than 80 main warships of the Qing army.
But when Liu Mengjiao saw the warships of the Merchant Army, he couldn't help but be a little dumbfounded, because the Merchant Army only dispatched a total of eight warships, formed two columns, went up the river, and charged towards the Qing army's array.
And several miles away, countless sails can be vaguely seen undulating and swaying.
"Why did the Merchant Army send so many ships?"
What now makes Liu Mengjiao feel in a dilemma is whether he should set off the fire ships? If he sets off the fire ships, there will only be eight ships in front of him. The other warships in the fleet are several miles away, so the fire ships can be used.
You can float along the river, but when you reach the Merchant Army's large fleet of warships, you'll probably have almost burned them first. Is it worth using more than 200 fireships to burn these eight ships?
But if he didn't set fire to the ship, the opponent would immediately attack him. How could he respond? Although the merchant army only came with eight ships, Liu Mengjiao did not dare to take it lightly at all, because he remembered it very clearly.
In World War I, the Merchant Army was just a warship. It fought its way through an array of more than a hundred Qing warships, sank and wounded nearly thirty Qing warships, and then again
Liu Mengjiao felt a little weird when he thought about how he safely escaped from the siege and returned home smoothly.
Although these eight ships were smaller than the warship that broke into the Qing fleet at one time, Liu Mengjiao really didn't dare to dare what the consequences would be if all eight ships were allowed to enter his formation.
Think about it no more.
But should we set off fire ships to fight? This is really a difficult question to choose. At this time, Liu Mengjiao couldn't help but get angry. Why didn't the merchant army follow the routine when fighting? There were so many war ships, why did they only send eight?
What about ships going to war? Isn’t this embarrassing?
In fact, this is one of the tactics Huang Zhen and the squadron commanders of the Yangtze River Fleet came up with to deal with fire ships, because once the fire ships are burned, they must be in a row. Only in this way can they form a large scale and make it difficult for the enemy to attack them.
Therefore, Huang Zhen first sent only eight destroyers, personally commanded by He Bin, the commander of the First Squadron, as the first batch of attacking warships. What would the Qing army do? If the Qing army set fire to the ships, the merchant army would
At most, these eight warships will be lost, and the main force will still be there. After all the fire ships are burned out, the main fleet will be dispatched to fight against the Qing army.
Of course, these first batch of eight warships had to take great risks. In order to facilitate the penetration of the fireship array, they all used destroyers with more flexible maneuvers and the two cruisers of the First Squadron.
, are placed in the second echelon.
If the Qing army did not set off the fire ships, then these eight warships would directly enter the Qing army and start a melee with the Qing army. The main fleet would follow, leaving the Qing army no chance to use the fire ships.
Sure enough, after using this move, Ma left the Qing army at a loss as to how to deal with it.
But in the end, Liu Menglong decided to use fire ships. This did not mean that Liu Menglong had made up his mind, but because Liu Menglong had no other method except to use fire ships. He really wanted to send war ships to fight against the merchant army, but it was a pity that Liu Menglong had no choice but to use fire ships.
The Qing army's warships were blocked by fire ships and could not come forward to fight.
But due to such hesitation, when the fireships began to dispatch, the distance between the two sides was less than 300 steps. At this moment, the merchant army took the lead. He Bin, the commander of the First Squadron, took the
The flagship Tianwei was at the forefront of the left column. Seeing that the Qing army's fireships were finally forced to move, they immediately gave the order to start firing thunderbolt rockets.
So the two destroyers at the head of the two columns fired thunderbolt rockets continuously towards the Qing army's fireships.
Thunderbolt rockets ejected brilliant flames one after another, bringing out streaks of black smoke, roaring across the distance between the two sides. Most of them fell into the river, but some also hit the Qing army's guns.
Fire ship. Originally, the fire ship was filled with ignition materials. With the sound of explosions, the kerosene poured into the thunderbolt rockets also shot out, fell on the deck, ship building, and sails, and immediately ignited.
A fire broke out and was out of control.
Each of the two cruisers launched ten Type 25 and Type 36 rocket launch boxes. A total of more than 1,200 Thunderbolt rockets were fired. Although the accuracy of Thunderbolt rockets was not high, such a dense attack could Still, most of the fireships were hit and burned.
Because after the fire ship burns, the sailors on the ship will jump overboard and escape. In this way, the direction of the fire ship cannot be controlled. Therefore, in principle, the sooner the fire ship is lit, the better. In some battles, even The fire will only start after hitting the enemy's warship. Of course, it is impossible for the Qing army to do this now, but they usually have to wait for the fire ship to move away to a distance of fifty to sixty steps from the enemy's fleet. The ignition will start later.
But for the Yangtze River Fleet, this fire is important anyway. It is better to light it early than to light it late. Therefore, when the two sides were still two or three hundred steps away, the Merchant Army took the lead and used Thunderbolt rockets to light the fire first. The ships were all set on fire, and as a result, the sailors of the fire ship were forced to jump off the ship in advance to escape. In this way, no one was controlling the fire ship, and they could only follow the current of the river and drift into whatever shape they wanted.
This is also the merchant army's second tactic against fire ships.
At this time, on the river a few miles away, Huang Zhen had also discovered that most of the Qing Army's fireships had been ignited in advance. He also knew that the first two tactics had been successful, which meant that this The battle was already half successful, so he immediately ordered the remaining warships of the First Squadron to follow immediately and join the battle.
However, it will take at least half an hour until the remaining warships arrive on the battlefield. During this time, they still have to rely on the eight warships in front for support.
The distance between the merchant army and the eight warships and the opponent's fireships was gradually closing, and He Bin also ordered the flags to be raised, allowing each warship to fight freely, penetrate the Qing army's fireship queue, and attack the Qing army's The main fleet. And it is also based on the superior combat effectiveness of a single ship based on merchant warships.
This is also the merchant army's third tactic against fire ships.
Of course, this move depends entirely on the sailors' sailing skills of each ship. This has also been a key training project of the Merchant Army in the past two months. However, at this stage of the war, even if all eight warships are destroyed by the Qing army, After the fireships were burned down, the merchant army still had a greater chance of victory, because at this time, the Qing army's fireships had been used up, and the first squadron still had seventeen warships, followed by the second, Third Fleet.
At this time, on the battlefield, the eight destroyers of the Merchant Army had already rushed into the Qing army's fireship array. They relied on their sailing skills that they had practiced hard for more than two months to move and dodge in the fireship array. , dodge left and right.
However, if you want to successfully pass through the array of fire ships, skill is an important factor, and luck is also an indispensable part. Once the cruiser Tianwei was able to successfully pass through the array of fire ships, luck also played a big part. Some factors.
As a result, three warships were hit by fire ships for various reasons and burned, but the other five successfully passed through the array of fire ships and rushed towards the Qing army's main ship array.