Qiming 1158

Chapter 690 Why do I feel like I'm fighting alone?
Regarding Liu Qi's vomiting of blood and coma, the remaining generals were terrified, but in order to survive, they had to make efforts to rectify the army.

So according to Wang Fang's request, the generals of the Song army reluctantly calmed the hearts of the army, and let the soldiers continue to stay in Yangzhou and arrange defense.

But this is far from enough.

Liu Si was killed, Wei You was killed, Wang Gang was killed, and the entire army of [-] was wiped out.

The battle had just started, and the battle situation was not very clear. As a result, Liu Qi lost two brave generals, his nephew, and a good army of [-], which caused an extremely serious blow to the morale of the Song army.

Moreover, Liu Qi himself vomited blood and fainted, and his condition suddenly worsened, making Yangzhou city defense even worse.

Fortunately, Liu Qi's previous arrangement was still appropriate. Yangzhou had become a pretty good war fortress. Even if the Ming army wanted to attack, it was not so easy. Therefore, the Ming army vanguard did not attack the city with iron and quickly retreated.

At noon the next day, Liu Qi woke up leisurely, and the guards immediately informed Wang Fang of the news. Wang Fang was overjoyed and immediately came to visit Liu Qi, intending to tell him what happened during this time.

When Wang Fang arrived in Liu Qi's ward, Liu Qi was crying on the sickbed. Wang Fang sighed when he saw it, so he comforted Liu Qi and told him not to be too sad about Liu Qi's affairs.

"Generals have died in a hundred battles, and strong men have returned in ten years. For those of us who joined the army, it is our destiny to return the body of the horse leather."

Liu Qi nodded again and again.

"Yes, the generals died in a hundred battles, I know, so I'm not crying for Liu Si. When people go to the battlefield, they must be ready to return the body in horse leather. I'm crying for the army, for the Song Dynasty, and for myself.

Because of my mistake in command, the [-]-strong army was wiped out, the Song Dynasty suffered a tragic defeat, people's hearts were floating, Yangzhou was in crisis, Zhenjiang was in crisis, and once the Ming army was sent to Jiangnan through Guazhou ferry, I... What face would I have to meet your majesty?

Your Majesty trusts me, and the court trusts me, so they gave me such an important front-line land and army in Zhenjiang Prefecture to lead me, but what did I give them in return? "

Liu Qi continued to cry, his face full of guilt.

Wang Fang was silent when he heard this.

After a while, Liu Qi sighed, beckoned, and let Wang Fang sit on the edge of his sickbed.

"You are the only one who can be of great use to me now. You must strictly guard Yangzhou, and you must not let Yangzhou fall. Once Yangzhou falls, Jiangbei will inevitably fall, and Zhenjiang Prefecture will not be guaranteed. It is too difficult, really too difficult, to rely on sailors alone. ah..."

Wang Fang immediately stated that he would do his best to defend the city and never let Yangzhou fall.

Liu Qi nodded and sighed again: "I am not only worried about Yangzhou, but also Guazhou Town, and even more worried about the Guazhou Navy. If Guazhou Town is not protected, Yangzhou will become an isolated city and Zhenjiang will be in crisis.

And if the navy can't defeat the Ming army navy, Yangzhou will become an isolated city, and it will not be able to keep Zhenjiang. Once Zhenjiang is lost, Jiangnan will be in danger, and the Ming army will be able to drive straight in... When will the Lin'an reinforcements arrive? "

There was definite news that Zhao Gou had approved [-] reinforcements for Zhenjiang Prefecture, all of them were the elite Sanya Imperial Army. Liu Qi was also very happy about this, and felt that if Zhenjiang Prefecture had [-] reinforcements, he would definitely be able to hold on.

As a result, no reinforcements have been seen so far.

What about reinforcements?
"Three days ago, I said that there are still three days to go, but yesterday, I said that there are still three days to go, and I don't know what to say today. Maybe they have already arrived, but they don't want to come! General, I think those Lin'an Imperial Guards are cowardly. War, just don't dare to fight against the Ming army!"

Wang Fang said very angrily: "It is clear that we have agreed to come to support, if the [-] forbidden troops arrive in Zhenjiang, we don't have to be so stretched, we only need [-] troops to defend Yangzhou, and only [-] troops to support General Wang Gang, those bastards. The Imperial Army, if I can survive this time, I have to ask them to settle the account!"

"Don't be impulsive! As long as there is enough food, [-] soldiers are enough to keep Yangzhou, but that's not the problem."

Liu Qi said slowly: "Once we are in decline here, the isolated city of Yangzhou will be difficult to defend, and Zhenjiang Mansion will not be able to keep it. If there is a problem in Zhenjiang Mansion, the downstream Jiankang Mansion will also be very dangerous, and I have no confidence in the kingship.

A person like Wang Quan, you said, once the news of my defeat passed, would he dare to bring troops to rescue me?I have already sent someone to ask for his support. Has he sent a soldier to rescue me now?

My relationship with him is clearly a dead end, can't he even see such a problem?I really don't believe it, so why didn't he come?Hehe, it's ridiculous to say that there are so many troops in the Great Song Dynasty, why do I feel like I'm fighting alone? "

Wang Fang was deeply saddened by this, but could not do anything about it.

Liu Kai continued: "The Ming army is too powerful. I never thought that Wang Gang's 30 soldiers and Liu Si's [-] soldiers are considered elite, right? Field battles are not their opponents, and they were all wiped out by them. It can be seen that the Ming army's field combat ability is no less than that of the gold thief [-] years ago, and it must not be used in field battles unless it is absolutely necessary."

"My subordinate understands."

Wang Fang nodded.

"That's enough."

Liu Kai let out a long sigh, and said quietly: "It's a pity that I am dying. If it was 30 years ago... no, even if I would die in battle ten years ago, I would fight the Ming army with real swords and guns. But now, I am old and weak, and I am afraid that I will fail His Majesty's entrustment..."

"As long as the subordinates are still alive, the Ming army will never let the Ming army pass Yangzhou City, and please rest assured that the general will rest and recuperate, and leave everything to the subordinates!"

Wang Fang took on the responsibility of Yangzhou city defense, dispatched troops to arrange defense, set up front-line defenders and reserve teams, sent people to train the strong men in the city in case of emergencies, and tried his best to do what he could.

At the same time, the Ming army did not choose to start attacking Yangzhou City, but surrounded Yangzhou City.

Zhou Zhi judged that the city of Yangzhou was too strong to be captured by a strong attack, so he decided to find another way, surrounded Yangzhou city with the main force, and then sent troops directly south to capture the town of Guazhou.

Guazhou Town is the location of the Guazhou crossing the north of the river. There were not many defenders of the Song army, and it was easily captured by the Ming army.

Then the Ming army quickly conquered the port, erecting catapults and crossbows in the port, throwing Thor cannons, and launching large rockets to attack the Song Army naval ships in the port. .

Next, it was time for Zhou Mancheng to appear.

On the morning of the tenth day of the first month of April, Zhou Mancheng led the Ming army's Inland River Navy Division and faced Liu Qi's Guazhou Navy Division.

The Ming army fought against the Song army navy, who was more familiar with hydrology and had more experience in sailing, with the advantage of numbers. The two sides launched a very fierce confrontation along the Yangtze River.

At the beginning of the battle, the Song army navy tried to use the tactics of cutting and encircling, trying to use their richer experience in water warfare to get close to the Ming army ships, to divide the Ming army ships, so as to achieve local use of more and less, with impact and slap sticks. And the jumping gang tactics gradually defeated the Ming army navy.

The Ming army navy's response strategy is also very clear.

After the Song army navy approached a similar range, the Ming army navy collectively launched large rockets.

In the water battle, the bed crossbow launched a large rocket with a greatly increased charge and whizzed away to the Song army ship.

Due to the large amount of launches and the not wide shooting surface, the number of Song army warships in the unit area is relatively large, so under such circumstances, the Ming army's large rockets hit the Song army warships one after another, and only a small amount fell into the water and failed to hit the Song army successfully. vessel.

What followed was a series of explosions.

The Song Army sailors who were advancing bravely thought that this was just the usual bed crossbow with big arrows, nothing special.

When the big rocket hit the warship, they realized that something seemed amiss, how was it smoking, and then there was a deafening explosion.

With the help of the crossbow, the Ming army had a means to achieve long-range attacks with gunpowder weapons before they had artillery. Although the accuracy was not very good, the power could not be strong enough to destroy the Southern Song navy at a long distance, but More or less a deterrent.

The explosion of gunpowder brought not only a loud noise, but also considerable destructive power. First of all, some of the Southern Song naval warships had been blown open several times, and the deck was full of broken wooden boards and wounded, warships. dead sailor.

The Southern Song navy had no psychological or practical preparation for the emergence of the Ming army's new gunpowder weapons.

(End of this chapter)