Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

"Your Highness, the patrol boats I sent out discovered that the Wu army was transporting troops through the Yangtze River. Two fleets have landed. The larger one arrived in Chizhou, with about 20,000 people, and the smaller one arrived in Anqing, with about 5,000 people," Yang Laijia, deputy admiral of the Huguang Navy, reported respectfully to the General of the Eastern Expedition and the Prince of Qin, Chuo Siji. This man was an old subordinate of Zheng Chenggong, proficient in naval warfare, and also served as the general of Xiangyang. He was familiar with the Yangtze River waterway, so he was sent by Chuo Siji to scout the enemy situation in the Yangtze River.

"You mean that the Wu army will gather heavy troops in Chizhou instead of Anqing?" Upon hearing this, Chuo Siji was stunned. He stationed heavy troops in Huangmei, which should pose a greater threat to Anqing than Chizhou, but why did the enemy deploy like this?
"In my opinion, the Wu army must have been confused by the fact that Your Highness had stationed troops in Huangmei for more than a month without moving, and thought that you were setting up a false formation in Huangmei, but in fact you wanted to launch an attack in other directions. The heavy deployment of troops in Chizhou must be because Lang Tingzuo, the governor of Jiangnan and Jiangxi of Wu, thought that you wanted to go south through Wuchang and enter Chizhou via Jiujiang," said Xi Rimo, the deputy general of the Eastern Expedition. As expected of an old general who had experienced many battles, he actually guessed the Lang brothers' thoughts to be almost accurate.

"No way? I heard that Lang Yanzuo once followed Haoge to fight Zhang Xianzhong, followed Ajige to quell Jiang Ge's rebellion, and once joined forces with Kakamu, Guan Xiaozhong, Liang Huafeng, Jiang Guozhu and others to defeat Zheng Chenggong's army in Nanjing. He is considered to be a veteran in the battlefield. How could he make such a mistake? Is there a trick?" Chuo Siji shook his head. Before going on the expedition, he ordered people to investigate the situation of the governors and governors-general of various provinces in detail, and believed that Lang Yanzuo was a strong enemy.

"There are many examples throughout history of people who fail to live up to their reputations. Lang Tingzuo was just a minor general when he conquered Zhang Xianzhong and Jiang Ge a few years ago. Even the battle with Zheng Chenggong was the result of Guan Xiaozhong's false surrender plan and Zheng's carelessness, not that he was good at fighting. Now, the good generals in Nanjing, Kakamu, Guan Xiaozhong, and Jiang Guozhu are all dead, and Liang Huafeng is far away in Songjiang to guard against Zheng in Taiwan. It is not surprising that he made such a deployment based on this person alone." Xi Rimo also carefully studied the opponent he was about to fight, but his opinion was completely different from that of His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin. Seeing that Chuo Siji did not comment, the Wolf of Oirats smiled again and said, "If Lang Tingzuo's opponent is just an ordinary person, he may really think that we are stationing troops in Anqing in preparation for capturing Anqing, but who are you? You conquered half of Huguang with a small army, and have been stationed in Wuchang for several years preparing to move south. You have long been famous, how could you be unprepared? So he must have thought that you have some plan, and the most likely thing is to move south from Wuchang. Not to mention him, even the old ministers have had the idea of ​​moving south to Jiujiang via Wuchang. Such a deployment is not surprising."

Hearing this, Chuo Siji suddenly became enlightened and laughed, "You are right, we can't think too much about war. Thinking too much can easily lead to mistakes! No matter what Lang Tingzuo thinks, or whether he has any evil schemes, let Xuan Youcai fight a battle first. To prevent any accidents, you lead 20,000 cavalry to cruise along the north bank of the Yangtze River. Once you find that the Wu army in Chizhou is crossing the river to reinforce Anqing, harass them immediately."

"I obey your command!" Xi Rimo, who was depressed because his position as vanguard was taken away by Xuan Youcai, was so happy to hear that there would be a war that his beard was flying. He accepted the order with great vigor and spirit.
-
The north bank of the Yangtze River connects Huangmei County in Hubei Province, Wangjiang County and Susong County in Anhui Province, which is a huge body of water. It was called "Lei Chi" in ancient times. This lake is located in the southwestern Anhui riverside area between the Chu and Wu regions. It is densely covered with a vast network of waterways. Its lower reaches have accumulated into a pond in the east of Wangjiang County. This is the origin of the idiom "dare not cross the Lei Chi". This place has been an important place for river defense since ancient times, firmly guarding Anqing.

It was late at night, and a small boat on the wide lake was quietly sailing towards the inlet where the Leishui River flows into the Leichi. The Leishui River is just a small river that is not very long. If you go up the river, you can reach the southwest corner of Susong County, Anqing Prefecture. Two "fishermen" wearing straw raincoats and bamboo hats were paddling vigorously. A fisherman at the front of the boat was trying hard to test the water depth with a long line tied with stones and marked with scales. Another man who looked like a boat captain was staring at the front, sitting cross-legged like a sculpture, motionless. The group of people were all barefoot, and the calluses on the soles of their feet were very thick, just like fishermen who made a living on the boat.

"Guardian, this river is deep enough for our small warships to enter," the fisherman who was testing the water depth suddenly said excitedly to the captain.

"Hush~" The captain suddenly shouted in a low voice and blew out the small light on the bow in one breath. Seeing this, the rower immediately rowed the boat to the edge of the river.

Two large sampans came over. Unlike civilian sampans that usually held two or three people, these two sampans could accommodate ten people each. They were patrol boats sent by the Wu army in Susong City. After patrolling the river for a while and seeing nothing unusual, the patrol boats returned to the city.

"Let's go back to the camp and report to the general commander," the captain of the boat sighed and ordered to go back to the camp. Don't be fooled by the shabby clothes and bare feet of this man, he actually has a great background. He is Liu Qingli, the adopted son of Liu Qizhen, a famous leader of the rebel army in the 48 camps of Qihuang. Liu Qizhen originally occupied the Baigao Town, Macheng County, Huangzhou Prefecture, Huguang and acted as a local emperor. Later, he was recruited by the David Kingdom and led a group of rebel leaders near Macheng to rise up against the Qing Dynasty and support the Wei army to enter Huguang. He repeatedly made military achievements and was awarded the garrison of Macheng. After his death in battle, His Royal Highness the King of Qin praised his merits and gave his adopted son Liu Qingli a garrison officer, and ordered his father's troops to be transferred to the control of Xuan Youcai, the deputy admiral and general of Jizhou.

In order to mobilize the morale of his subordinates, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin secretly ordered people to spread the word that if they could capture Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces this time, they would petition the court to establish an admiral in each province. Xuan Youcai surrendered to the Wei Dynasty earlier, and was very dissatisfied with his position being lower than the admiral Guo Yi and the admiral Sangge of the land division who surrendered later. This time he set his sights on the position of admiral of Anhui. After begging in every possible way, he finally got the position of vanguard from His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin. After getting the job, the general suddenly found that he had encountered a big problem: Anqing, located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is located in the water network area along the river in southwest Anhui. It is not only close to the river, but also has many lakes and rivers in the territory, such as Lei Chi, Taihu Lake, Ci Lake, Pogang Lake, Laizi Lake, Baidang Lake, Leishui, Qianshui, Wanshui, Houbu River, Malu River, etc., countless. Fighting here requires not being able to row a boat, but most of his 20,000 subordinates are northern men who don't know how to swim. It's really hard! Fortunately, His Royal Highness the King of Qin had already considered it for him, and assigned 10,000 troops under his command, including the guerrillas Tan Yicong, Zou Junsheng, and the garrisons Liu Qingli, Cheng Zhenbang, and Chen Dingye. These five troops were all from the Qihuang 48 Villages Volunteer Army. The Qihuang area was only adjacent to Anqing, and there were not only many mountains, but also many rivers and lakes. These southerners were not only proficient in water, but also good at rowing boats!
As the war was imminent, the young and energetic Liu Qingli volunteered to disguise himself as a fisherman to scout the enemy. After ten consecutive days of reconnaissance, he had a clear understanding of the enemy situation in Susong and Wangjiang counties. The military situation was urgent, so he had no time to change his armor and entered the tent in a straw raincoat. "I am here to see the general," he saluted respectfully to Xuan Youcai.

The general of a town would have looked down on a small garrison, but since ancient times, ships from the south and horses from the north have always been used. Xuan Youcai, who was not good at naval warfare, had to borrow a lot from the southern generals at this time, so he had to lower his status and ask politely: "Captain Liu, you have worked hard these days, have you found out anything?"

"Susong City originally had only 2,500 soldiers and horses stationed by Xin Weishi, the guerrilla of the left camp of Fu Biao under the pseudo-governor Zhang Chaozhen. Together with the original 500 city guards in the city, there were only 3,000 people. A while ago, the pseudo-governor Lang Tingzuo ordered the guerrilla Fu Xi and the commander Fan Shuying to lead 5,000 troops across the river to help Anqing. Zhang Chaozhen placed these two troops in Susong. Currently, there are 8,000 enemy troops in the city. The river section from Leichi to Leishui is very deep, and small and medium-sized ships can pass through; there are Wu In addition, Zhang Chaozhen ordered Liu Jirun, the lieutenant general of the Anqing Navy Camp, to lead 3,000 navy camps to station in Wangjiang. Together, there were 8,000 people. Most of Liu Jirun's navy ships were large ships, which only cruised along the Yangtze River and did not enter the Leichi. There were only some small patrol boats of the enemy on the Leichi..." Liu Qingli had obviously worked hard and described the enemy situation in Susong and Wangjiang in great detail.

"Great! If we win this battle, you will be the first to achieve the credit!" Xuan Youcai was overjoyed and looked at Liu Qingli with admiration: "I want to cross the Leichi and take Susong first, then Wangjiang. Are you willing to be my vanguard, Liu Shoubei?"

"Thank you for your kindness, General. I am willing to die for my country!" Liu Qingli was overjoyed. (End of this chapter)