First Prince of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 16 Poyang Lake Water Battle

On the sixth day of the seventh lunar month, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led 20 navy troops to rescue Hongdu.On the [-]th, we arrived at Hukou, Jiangxi.

First, they sent troops to defend Jingjiangkou (now Susongnan, Anhui), and another army was stationed at Nanhuzui (now northwest of Hukou, Jiangxi) to cut off Chen Youliang's return route; and sent troops to guard Wuyangdu (now the east of Nanchang County, Jiangxi) to prevent Chen Jun They fled; Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the navy to enter Poyang Lake from Songmen (now Changnan, the capital of Jiangxi), forming a trend of closing the door to beat the dogs.

When Chen Youliang heard that Zhu Yuanzhang's army was coming to aid, he immediately withdrew from the siege of Hongdu and went east to face Poyang Lake.

On the 20th, the two armies met on the surface of Kanglang Mountain (in today's Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province).At that time, Chen Jun's giant ships were connected and deployed for dozens of miles. "Looking at it like a mountain", Zhu Yuanzhang divided his ships into [-] teams, each equipped with large and small artillery. , fire guns, rockets, caltrops, large and small muskets, magic arrows and crossbows, when ordering each team to approach the enemy ship, firearms first, bow and crossbow second, and then use short weapons to fight when approaching the enemy ship.

The next day, the two sides fought fiercely.Zhu Jun's general Xu Da took the lead, led the fleet to charge bravely, defeated Chen Jun's forward, killed 1500 enemies, and captured a giant ship.

Yu Tonghai fired a cannon in the wind and burned more than 20 of Chen Jun's ships. Many Chen Jun were killed or drowned.

But Zhu Jun also suffered a lot of casualties, especially Zhu Yuanzhang's ship ran aground and was besieged.

The battle was stalemate.From morning to sunset, the two sides shouted to withdraw their troops, and the battle came to an end. There were casualties on both sides.

On the 22nd, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the navy to fight.However, the Chen ship was huge, and the Zhu warship was too small to attack, and suffered setbacks one after another.At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the suggestion of his subordinate Guo Xing in time and decided to use fire to attack the enemy.

At dusk, the northeast wind was blowing on the lake. Zhu Yuanzhang chose brave soldiers to drive 7 fishing boats. The boats were filled with gunpowder and firewood. They approached the enemy ships and set fires downwind.

For a while, the flames soared and the lake was red, and hundreds of Chen Jun's ships were burned in an instant. More than half of Chen Jun was killed or injured, and Chen Youliang's two brothers and general Chen Pulue were both burned to death.

Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the momentum to launch a fierce attack, killing more than 2000 enemies.

On the 23rd, the two sides clashed again. Chen Youliang watched Zhu Yuanzhang's flagship launch a fierce attack. Zhu Yuanzhang had just moved to another ship, but the original ship was smashed by Chen Jun.

On the 24th, Yu Tonghai and others led 6 warships to break into Chen Jun's fleet, galloping bravely, like a dragon swimming, like entering an uninhabited land.Zhu Jun's morale was greatly boosted and he launched a fierce attack.

In the end, Chen Jun was defeated and retreated, and the abandoned flag and weapons floated over the lake.Chen Youliang had no choice but to gather the remnants and turn to defense, daring not to fight again.In the evening, Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of the victory to advance to the Zuoli (now northwest of Duchang, Jiangxi), and took control of the upper reaches of the river. Chen Youliang also surrendered Zhuji (now Xingzinan, Jiangxi).

The two armies were stalemate for three days, and Chen Jun suffered repeated defeats, and the situation became increasingly unfavorable.Chen Youliang, the two generals, saw that the situation was over, so they surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Chen Youliang was angry and annoyed, and ordered all the captured prisoners to be killed to vent his anger.However, Zhu Yuanzhang did the opposite, returning all the captives, mourning the death and treating the wounded, dismantling the morale of the Chen army, and thus winning the hearts of the people.

Chen Jun's internal parts collapsed, and his morale was even lower.Zhu Yuanzhang judged that Chen's army might break through and retreat into the Yangtze River, so he moved the army to the mouth of the lake, set up wooden fences on the north and south banks of the Yangtze River, set up large boats and fire rafts in the middle of the river, and sent troops to capture Qizhou and Xingguo, control the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and block the enemy's return route. Standby to destroy the enemy.

After more than a month of confrontation, Chen Youliang was trapped in the lake, his military supplies were exhausted, and his plans were exhausted, so he made a desperate attempt to break through.

On August 26, they broke through from Nanhuzui, trying to enter the Yangtze River and return to Wuchang.

When they reached the Hukou in Jiangxi, Zhu's army attacked from all sides with boats and fire rafts. Chen's army was unable to move forward. He returned to the Jingjiang River, and was blocked by Fu Youde's ambulance. It was defeated, and more than 5 people surrendered.

The water battle, which lasted 26 days from July 37 to August [-], was unprecedented in its length, scale, input of troops, ships, and intensity of battle.

The decisive battle ended with Zhu Yuanzhang's complete victory, which was regarded as the largest water battle in the medieval world.

It created a famous example of less victory over more in the history of Chinese water warfare, laid the foundation for the unification of Jiangnan, and created extremely favorable conditions for the subsequent Northern Expedition and the attack and destruction of the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the unification of the whole country.

　It is rumored that after the battle between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang in Longwan.The next day, he visited a monastery privately, and the host saw that his face was not good, and he was very angry, so he wanted to defuse him and asked his name.Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a poem on the monastery wall and left laughing.When the monk saw the poem, he was surprised and wrote:

　　Killing all the millions of soldiers in Jiangnan, the sword around his waist is still bloody.The mountain monk didn't know the hero, so he just asked the name.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)