Qiming 1158

Chapter 692 A generation of famous generals withered
After about an hour of this fierce water battle, Song Jun showed a downward trend.

The Song army sailors may be slightly better technically, but physically weaker than the Ming army sailors.

The soldiers of the Ming army had three meals a day, and they were able to eat enough food every day, so they were strong and energetic, and their endurance in fighting was relatively high.

Compared with the Ming army, the Song army's physical strength was not so sufficient, and gradually fell behind in the fierce fighting.

At noon, the Ming army successfully seized more than 20 Song army warships through boarding and jumping gang battles, and sank more than 20 Song army warships, and used these Song army warships to charge the remaining Song army warships and defeated them. The second attack of the Song army.

The Song army suffered heavy losses, while the Ming army's losses were less than one-third of that of the Song army.

Then, the Ming army's counter-offensive began.

The Ming army pressed on with a large number of warships, first attacked with large rockets, and then attacked with Thor cannons, stones, crossbow arrows, and kerosene when they got closer. The Song army fought fiercely as soon as possible. and kerosene to fight back against the Ming army.

Despite this, the Song army's backwardness in the number of warships and the frequency of attacks made them gradually at a disadvantage, unable to compete with the high-frequency and high-intensity attacks of the Ming army, so that the warships were seriously damaged, and they were attacked by sharp firearms of the Ming army. Shocked, began to retreat.

At the beginning, it was only a few warships that fled, and did not affect the brave resistance of other warships. Other warships were still fighting bravely and did not give up.

But soon, Wu Chao, the commander of the Guazhou navy, saw that he had less than fifty warships left, and the Ming army navy became more and more brave, and a large number of warships surrounded him, as if he wanted to give his entire army to one. The posture of eating out of breath is very frightening.

Frightened, Wu Chao quickly lost his will to fight, and could no longer insist on Liu Qi's order of [Death to Guazhoudu at all costs].

He looked at the black smoke on Jiangbei's bank, and thought about Liu Qi, who was still fighting despite his illness, and felt ashamed in his heart.

While he was fighting psychologically, a large rocket launched by a Ming warship hit the starboard side of the flagship with a loud bang. He was knocked to the ground, and after he got up in a hurry, the struggle in his heart no longer existed. Now, what Liu Qi, what kind of past kindness, has been completely ignored by him under the threat of life.

Wu Chao eventually became a fugitive, ordering the flagship to immediately move to the south bank port, escape, no longer insist on fighting, and then ordered the navy to retreat.

The flagship took the lead in escaping, and the rest of the Guazhou Navy's warships saw it and stopped fighting. They quickly followed and fled together. The warships that had gritted their teeth and insisted on losing their will to fight only wanted to escape.

Because Wu Chao only cared about escaping as soon as possible, but after issuing the retreat order, he did not order an orderly retreat, so that the entire Song Army Navy became chaotic.

The Song army navy became chaotic in order to retreat, but the Ming army navy still maintained an offensive posture, so the Song army's warships could not cope with the cooperation of the Ming army ships, and were sunk and captured one after another.

Zhou Mancheng quickly determined that the Southern Song navy was escaping in a hurry. He was overjoyed and realized that he had won this battle and that Guazhoudu was about to be completely controlled by the Ming army. Enter the general attack state.

The remaining ships of the Guazhou navy could not compete, and the retreat soon turned into a rout, while the Ming navy kept chasing, all the way to the port of crossing the river south of Guazhou, basically annihilating the Guazhou navy.

The remaining warships of the Guazhou Navy were either blown up by the Ming army or smashed and smashed by the Ming army, and some of the ships surrendered voluntarily after being surrounded and avoided being sunk.

After Wu Chao gave up the fight, he ran away very fast. He hurriedly abandoned his flagship and fled south. Many sailors also tried to follow along, but they were killed by Ming guns at the port.

Zhou Mancheng then sent troops to land on the beach, shouting shocking slogans such as [Da Ming has won] [Liu Qi has been defeated], and defeated the port defenders in the Southern Song Dynasty.

After two sticks of incense, Zhou Mancheng's sailors successfully captured the Jiangnan port, successfully controlled the Guazhou crossing the north-south route, and completed the first stage of the Ming army's southward goal.

After Zhou Mancheng took control of the port, he immediately sent people back to Jiangbei to inform Zhou Zhi and asked Zhou Zhi for reinforcements in order to complete the landing and further attack Zhenjiang Prefecture.

In almost a daytime, Zhou Mancheng commanded the Ming army navy to successfully defeat the Southern Song navy, and achieved quite good results.

In the first battle, the Ming army navy sunk and destroyed more than [-] Song army warships, captured more than [-] Song army warships, annihilated more than [-] Song sailors, and captured more than [-] people.

The navy of the Ming army was destroyed and sunk 21 ships in this battle, and lost nearly [-] sailors. The loss is not small, but the results of the battle are really great, and it has indeed met the pre-war requirements. .

That is, the navy seized the Guazhou ferry, cut off the contact with the Song army in the south and north of the Yangtze River, and laid the foundation for the main force of the army to successfully cross the Yangtze River and escorted it.

The navy has successfully completed this task.

In the evening of the same day, Zhou Zhi was overjoyed when he learned of this, and immediately arranged for some troops to go to Guazhou Ferry, preparing to cross the river on a large scale under the protection of the navy, and set foot on the southern part of the Yangtze River to create some conditions for the subsequent arrival of large troops and consolidate the water. Master's results.

That night, some soldiers stayed awake and used the lights on both sides of the strait to help nearly [-] Ming cavalry soldiers cross the river. After dawn, they stepped up their efforts to cross the river. By the end of the hour, more than [-] Ming soldiers had successfully crossed the river.

Yuan Xian, the commander of the third division of You Yi Army, who took the lead in crossing the river, believed that it was the decision that best served the interests of the Ming army to launch an attack as soon as possible and not allow the Song army to reorganize the defense. Ming Ming army soldiers launched an attack on Zhenjiang without delaying any more time.

However, when he led his army to Zhenjiang City, he was surprised to find that there was no resisting army in the city. The legendary Zhenjiang garrison disappeared strangely, as if it never existed.

He led the army to occupy Zhenjiang City with ease, and obtained a major town in the south of the Yangtze River without a single shot. He obtained a large amount of grain and supplies for the Song army that had not yet been transported or captured, as well as a lot of money to reward the army, as well as ordnance and military life. supplies, etc.

After doing some calculations, he found that the military supplies stored in this city were enough for the 3000 troops of the Ming army participating in the battle for a month, and there was still some surplus, which could be used for about 35 to [-] days.

Laotie from the Southern Song Dynasty kindly sponsored the Ming Army to go south to fight the munitions belonging to Yes.

But I am the attacker, you are the defender, you kindly sponsored my military supplies, what is the way?
Yuan Xian looked stunned at the huge gain.

He never thought that he would be able to capture Zhenjiang Mansion so quickly. He also wanted to use a trick to hide from the sky and create a huge illusion to force the Zhenjiang defenders to surrender, but he didn't expect that the Zhenjiang defenders would run away and would not use any tricks for him at all. Opportunity.

Is this the army of the Southern Song Dynasty?
At this moment, Yuan Xian felt that he could almost understand why there were millions of forbidden soldiers in the Northern Song Dynasty, but they were still beaten to death by 10,000+ golden soldiers and completely lost half of the country.

With such an army, it is difficult to be invincible.

The army in his impression should be an iron army like the Ming army who insisted on fighting until the very end and never gave up. They had absolute trust in each other, supported each other on the battlefield, never gave up or abandoned each other.

Therefore, although Zhou Zhixue, the secretary of the pre-war army, asked everyone not to hold too much respect for the Song army during the pre-war mobilization, the difference between the Song army and the Ming army after liberation should be fully considered, and the Song army should be recognized. The main body is the numb people at the bottom who are illiterate and have not been liberated, and do not have a broad and strong will to fight.

But at this time, Yuan Xian still felt that he had overestimated Song Jun, and wrongly believed that all Song Jun would insist on fighting just like Song Jun who was trapped in Lujin Town before.

He has only 4000 people here, and the military intelligence before he came said that there were [-] defenders left by Liu Kai in Zhenjiang. If the defenders of Zhenjiang closed the city and defended it, he would definitely not be able to take Zhenjiang.

As a result, all the defenders of Zhenjiang ran away, leaving him a defenseless city, allowing him to easily occupy Zhenjiang.

So far, the Ming army has set foot on the south of the Yangtze River, gaining a firm foothold and taking full advantage.

Zhou Zhi learned about this after half a day, and he was not so surprised anymore, because the succession of happy events made him realize that the enemy he faced was too much.

Then the enemy who pulled his hips diluted his joy in winning the battle.

Not to mention those unknown generals, even Liu Qi, a famous general, did not perform well. He felt that Liu Qi was not at all as brave and tenacious as when he fought against the Jin Army.

He felt that if this was the so-called elite of the Song Army, there was no need to fight this battle, he had already won.

But then again, at this point, Yangzhou still hasn't been won. Yangzhou City is still under Liu Qi's defense and has not surrendered, and he is still ready to hold on. Zhou Zhi feels that he needs to go south as soon as possible and cannot put the main army here.

So he held a military meeting, and everyone came up with a solution.

It took him two days and two nights to mobilize the entire army and some civilians. He gathered a manpower of 7 people to use the water in the canal to dig a bigger and wider moat. Come and use this ditch to physically isolate the traffic inside and outside Yangzhou City.

Then, on the side of the river ditch, set up a horse-rejecting crossbow and a crossbow, and sent bowmen to guard, so the offensive and defensive situation changed instantly. If people in Yangzhou City wanted to come out, they would have to face the river ditch dug by the Ming army.

The matter has come to this point, there is nothing to worry about, Zhou Zhi left the second division deputy commander Ling Zishi to lead [-] soldiers to surround Yangzhou City with this river ditch, cut off traffic inside and outside Yangzhou City, prevent the soldiers in Yangzhou City from leaving the city, and then lead the main force of the army south. Cross the river.

Before crossing the river, he also sent a letter of persuasion to surrender, telling the defenders in the city that Guazhoudu had been controlled by the Ming army, that the Guazhou Navy had been wiped out, and even Zhenjiang City had been conquered by the Ming army, and Yangzhou was completely isolated. , there is no food and grass inside and no reinforcements outside, what else is there?
When will you not surrender now?
After reading the letter of persuasion to surrender, the acting guard Wang Fang was shocked, and noticed that the Ming army had really abandoned Yangzhou City and went south, and could not help but be scared to death.

Of course he knew what the loss of Guazhoudu and Zhenjiang meant.

Not only will Yangzhou become an isolated city, Jiangnan will also face great danger, and even Lin'an will be very dangerous.

Before the Ming army went to war, they said that they wanted to [go straight to Lin'an]. At that time, Wang Fang thought that the Ming army was too big, and that they dared to go straight to Lin'an with tens of thousands of troops, which was even more outrageous than the Jin Wushu that year.

But now he realized that it was not the Ming army that was outrageous, but the Song army itself.

At this time, it was just that Liu Qi's condition was getting better, and when he was drinking porridge to recuperate, Wang Fang thought again and again, he still wanted to tell Liu Qi about this, and see if Liu Qi had any good solutions to the problem.

Wang Fang couldn't bear the consequences of concealing the news.

When Wang Fang went to see Liu Qi, Liu Qi's spirit improved slightly. He leaned on the bed and closed his eyes to rest. When he saw Wang Fang coming over, his face was bad, he realized something, and then closed his eyes again.

"Did something bad happen? There hasn't been a war in the past few days. What happened outside the city?"

"You know it's a bad thing?"

"You can tell from the look on your face. You can never hide things. Whatever you have in your heart, put it on your face for others to see."

Wang Fang lowered his head and was silent for a while.

"The Ming army dug a larger ditch around the moat to introduce canal water. Now, Yangzhou City is surrounded by the Ming army's ditch."

Liu Qi suddenly opened his eyes.

"What happened to Guazhoudu?"

"The Ming army sent a letter of persuasion to surrender, saying that both Guazhoudu and Zhenjiang have already..."

"Zhenjiang?!"

Liu Qi glared angrily: "What a joke! There are [-] elite soldiers stationed by me in Zhenjiang Prefecture! The soldiers are full of rations! The Ming army didn't even dare to attack Yangzhou, how could it be possible to occupy Zhenjiang so quickly? The defenders of Zhenjiang are all dead. Why? Why not resist?!"

Liu Qi became angry, his face turned red, and he coughed violently as soon as he finished speaking. Wang Fang was startled, and quickly stepped forward to help Liu Qi's chest, and finally let Liu Qi stop coughing and take a breath. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and his face turned pale.

"General! General! Come! Come! Call the doctor! Call the doctor!!!"

Wang Fang panicked, crying and roaring. Liu Qi's guards also panicked and ran to find the doctor. The whole mansion was in chaos.

Liu Qi gasped for a while before gaining some strength, and then grabbed Wang Fang's wrist.

"If...if Guazhoudu and Zhenjiang Mansion were lost, Yangzhou would really be an isolated city, but...but an isolated city also has the use of an isolated city, think of a way...find a way to keep it here, on this premise, keep going. ... harassing the Ming army... can't stop..."

Wang Fang was stunned for a while, and was very sad and angry.

"General! It's all for this sake! How can we fight? We are left alone! The kingship is not here, the Zhenjiang defenders are gone, and the court reinforcements are not there. We are helpless! We are helpless! The battle has been lost!"

"No! I'm still alive! Yangzhou is still there! Why are you just coughing...cough...cough..."

Liu Qi's eyes widened in retort, and when he was excited, he almost coughed and rolled over.

Now Wang Fang didn't dare to say anything, and quietly listened to Liu Qi's instructions.

"We... we are just a nail... nailed to Jiangbei, making the Ming army helpless, no matter what, don't surrender, the city... there is enough food... we... we are on their grain transportation route, the Ming army is The army's confidant, they can't let us be nailed here, rest assured to go south..."

Liu Qi used all his strength to tell Wang Fang what he wanted to say. Wang Fang nodded again and again, and immediately said that he would do his best to defend the city and never surrender.

"Absolutely not! With us here, they don't dare... don't dare to go too far south... Remember... we... we didn't lose, we didn't lose..."

Liu Qi held Wang Fang tightly in his hand, and stared at Wang Fang, as if he had exhausted all his strength.

Wang Fang didn't know why Liu Qi had to make such an exhortation as if he was dying, but it sounded like he was inexplicably uneasy.

The doctor came soon, gave Liu Qi diagnosis and treatment, prescribed medicine, and sent down a bowl of medicine, hoping to hang Liu Qi's life and cure him.

However, Liu Qi's spirit never improved, and his breath became weaker and weaker.

A day later, on the morning of April [-], Liu Qi died.

Before dying, the white-haired Liu Qi suddenly opened his eyes, sat up abruptly, and shouted "kill the thief" three times in a row with a face full of unwillingness, and the sound resounded throughout the mansion.

Then he fell limply on the bed, staring at him, lifeless.

A generation of famous generals has withered.

(End of this chapter)