scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 246 Breaking through the Yangtze River
The application time is approaching, and the naval decisive battle on the Luoshan battlefield is still going on. The Mite Qingshui Division, which has always occupied the superiority in the number of ships and naval combat power, has unknowingly gained a new advantage-the superiority of soldiers' physical strength!
The tactics of the Qing army's navy was to use less movement to control more movement, using the best soldiers and large ships, and strive to fight with the Wu army's navy on the side of the ship; Strong advantages, make up for the weak with spirit, and make up for the weak with speed.

The two tactics have their own strengths and strengths, and it is indeed difficult to distinguish between the top and bottom in a short period of time, but as time goes on, with the exhaustion of the oarsmen's physical strength, the weakness of Wu Jun's warships with less troops will gradually become weaker. It was exposed, almost every soldier was exhausted, and almost every soldier had been sent to the paddling position with the most physical exertion several times in turn. It also slowed down - and the warships of the Wu Army have been running around and fighting, and the physical exertion of the soldiers is naturally even greater.

On the contrary, after a long period of time, the cumbersome but large-capacity warships of the Qing army gradually revealed the advantage that the soldiers had less exercise and had time to rest and recover their physical strength. Even the most cumbersome and slow warships The sand boat has also gradually caught up with Wu Jun's light and flexible medium-sized warship in speed, and has gradually narrowed the distance from Wu Jun's warship.

"Son Du Hui, you are a pirate who was born in naval warfare." Seeing the speed of the warships of the self army gradually catching up with the speed of the warships of the Wu army, Yang Jie couldn't help showing a grin on his handsome face, and murmured: " So you have forgotten that river warfare is not as good as surface warfare. On the surface of the sea, as long as the wind and current are suitable, the boat is small and flexible, and there is a lot of room for maneuvering. The sailors have time to take advantage of the wind to rest. You can't win, and you will never lose! But in the narrow river battlefield, hehe, your ships rely on manpower to paddle quickly, and I want to see how long your navy recruits can last!"

"Yang Jie, you are lucky." Du Hui, who also discovered this situation, also smiled wryly, and sighed secretly: "If I can have twenty more warships..., even ten more, or I If the sailors have more experience and experience, they can destroy more warships full of dogs when they have enough physical strength before. In this battle, it is not a dream to win the battle with the weak. But..., hehe, the success is on the verge of failure, and the victory is near failure."

"Flag!" After observing the battlefield situation for a long time, Yang Jie stood up and ordered: "All the ships move closer to the flagship, give up the outer water surface to Wu Dog, and let Wu Dog play for a while until they are exhausted. Now, it’s not too late to clean them up!”

The flag was played, and the well-trained ships of the Qing army began to converge on the flagship, compressing the space for the Wu army's warships to move inside the battlefield, and giving the relatively wide outer water surface to the Wu army.Seeing this scene, although Du Hui immediately understood Yang Jie's sinister intention to consume the soldiers' physical strength faster, but because of the small number of ships and weak soldiers, and the lack of collision resistance, the heavy warships could only order The ships continued to roam and fight on the periphery, taking the opportunity to think hard about the strategy to defeat the enemy.

"Boom!" At this moment, there was an earth-shattering loud noise in the Qing army fleet. A Qing army sand-crushing boat swayed violently. Flames burst out from the side of the ship, blasting a hole more than three feet high, and the river surged into the cabin. It tilted rapidly, and the Qing soldiers on the ship didn't even have time to react and adjust, they were already screaming and rolling into the water, causing the Qing army fleet to be in chaos.

"When did Wu Gou's suicide boat sneak in?" Yang Jie jumped up in shock, and quickly shouted: "Send the order quickly, be careful of Wugou's sampan boats, all the Wugou boats in the middle of the fleet are sunk! "

"Boom!" Another loud noise sounded from under the bow of Yang Jie's flagship, and the bow jumped up like an electric shock. Yang Jie seemed to be pushed violently, and suddenly staggered and fell on his back. Fortunately, the soldiers rushed to help him Stopped, but before Yang Jie and the others stood still, the bow of the flagship had already hit the river again, and the huge inertia brought Yang Jie and the soldiers to dive forward together, and they all fell to the ground.

"Junmen, Junmen!" Several Qing soldiers rushed forward, trying to support Yang Jie, but Yang Jie ignored his chin and scratched a large piece of oily skin on the deck, and just yelled frantically: "Send the order quickly!" , order to sink all Wugou sampans! Sink all Wugou sampans!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Although all the Wu army's sampans and small boats on the battlefield were taken care of by the Qing army's warships, the sound of terrifying and violent explosions still sounded one after another in the Qing army's fleet. The ships were damaged and destroyed at the same time, and the soldiers and generals of the Qing army on these warships were also very puzzled. There were obviously no Wu army ships around us, so why were our warships blown up for no reason?

"It was our own boat that blew it up!" Finally a soldier of the Qing army saw the situation clearly and shouted, "I saw it, it was our sampan that blew it up, and our flag was planted on the boat that exploded just now! Our boat is not Wugou's boat!"

When the news finally reached Yang Jie, Yang Jie had already given up on the period when he was severely damaged by the explosion, and moved to a Qing army bird boat next to him.But when he heard the news, Yang Jie's face turned pale all of a sudden, and he shouted: "It's been tricked! Wu Gou's suicide boat must have been disguised, disguised as our boat, and sneaked into our boat." Fleet! Quick, send the order, beware of all boats and sampans!"

Such a complicated order, which was encountered for the first time, naturally the bannerman could not use the flag to convey the order to the ships of the Qing army, and could only send small boats to pass the order from ship to ship. However, in this way, the speed of order transmission was naturally greatly restricted. The Wu Jun Huitian sampan, which became the sampan of the Qing army, was merciless, either fighting separately, or two in a group, taking advantage of the opportunity of the explosions and chaos of the Qing army fleet, they spotted the target and mixed into the Qing army ship Next to it, or directly hit the side of the Qing warship and ignite and dive, or throw a hook to hook the Qing warship, ignite and dive, and then the violent explosion will naturally occur next to the waterline of the Qing warship. Contact, just the shock wave, can completely smash the side of the Qing army ship, causing it to be severely flooded and completely lose its combat effectiveness.

The Qing army sand rushing ship with a tilted front end and a heavy load is Wu Jun's favorite sampan when he turned back. He drilled under the bow and detonated it. Once the explosion is accurate, a small sampan can pull a Qing army sand rush with a load of nearly [-] tons. Even if the sand boat was buried with it, even if it couldn't be sunk directly, it would be turned into a piece of waste floating on the river, and it would have no combat value other than sinking slowly.Explosions continued in the fleet of the Qing army, large and small boats collided and crushed each other, soldiers ran for their lives, screams and cries for help were heard endlessly, and it became a complete mess.

Such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, how could Du Hui, the commander of Wu Jun's navy, miss it?After an order was given, the remaining warships of the Wu army rushed into the chaotic Qing army fleet, and frantically threw the last incendiary bombs and grenades, killing people and setting fire everywhere. The Qing army fleet was in chaos, and Yang Jie was completely unable to command After being restrained, countless large and small ships of the Qing army turned around and ran away, while the warships of the Wu army took the opportunity to split into a joint attack, ignited seven or eight Qing army warships in one breath, surrounded two Qing army warships, and jumped on the deck to kill and seize the ships.The Qing army's navy completely lost their fighting spirit, including Yang Jie, all turned around and fled, and the Wu army's fleet went all out to chase and kill them.

Seeing such a situation, the old traitor Wu immediately ordered the civilian ships to attack to replenish Du Hui's fleet with weapons and ammunition so that the Wu army's navy could continue to expand the battle results.On the other hand, Tu Hai cried loudly on the north bank. Regardless of the persuasion of the generals, he broke through the barriers and jumped into the Yangtze River to commit suicide. Save me, you are harming me! The defense line of the Yangtze River was breached by Wu Gou, the master will not spare me, I would rather die now than be escorted back to the capital to be hacked to pieces!"

"Tutang, I can't blame you, I can't blame you!" Countless Qing generals wailed, "It was our army that was transferred, our main force was transferred to Fujian, and the Yangtze River was broken by Wu Gou. Yes! If our main force is still there, no matter how powerful Wu Gou is, he will not be able to break through our Yangtze River defense line!"

"Generals, you must never say that." A man who is about to die speaks kindly, and Tu Hai, who has been selfish all his life, even said a few words of truth when he knew that he was doomed. Weeping loudly: "Remember, when reporting the battle of the Yangtze River to the master, you must not say that the Yangtze River was broken by Wu Gou because the master transferred our main force. You can only say that Wu Gou is treacherous and shameless." , the sneak attack succeeded, or I made a mistake in command and planning, but it must not be said that it was because the master transferred our main force..."

"Otherwise, all of you will be like me, dead without a place to die!"

Tuhai's sincere and caring words were heard by the generals of the Qing army, and they were inevitably moved to tears. Among them, Mu Zhan pulled Tuhai's sleeve and cried loudly: "Tutang, since Wu Dog's breakthrough into the Yangtze River is a foregone conclusion. , then we should not waste our precious troops in vain, and retreat to Jingzhou as soon as Wu Dog is still chasing and killing our navy. Yichang) Xu Zhengzhi's navy is in the upper reaches. As long as we hold there, Wu Dog will not dare to go all out to the Central Plains. Wu Dog in Sichuan and Wu Dog in Huguang will not be able to form a line. The master also has time to react and adjust , When our main force returns to the division, there is still hope of re-blocking the Yangtze River."

"What about Hanyang?" Tu Hai cried and asked, "If we don't rescue Hanyang, what will happen if Hanyang falls again?"

"Tutang, do we still have the strength to rescue Hanyang?" Mu Zhan cried and said, "Our navy has been defeated, and we can no longer transport troops by water. When we pass by land, Wu Gou's army has long been gone. The waterway has arrived at Hanyang. According to the opinion of the last general, Hanyang should also give up, let’s save our army first, and keep the green hills, so we don’t have to worry about running out of firewood!”

Tu Hai was silent. After a long while, Tu Hai gritted his teeth and struggled to stand up, choking with sobs, said: "The left and right are exterminated, for the Qing Dynasty, for the emperor, I will bear all the crimes. Order, the whole army abandons Luoshan, Withdraw to Jingzhou by land! Then send an order to Yang Jie to evacuate to Jiujiang Poyang Lake to join Dong Weiguo! Then let him give an order to Cai Yurong, let Cai Yurong defend Hanyang if he can hold it, and give up Hanyang and retreat to Macheng if he can’t Let's block Wugou's way to go north to the grain-producing areas of Anhui."

The Qing army cried and agreed, and a moment later, the Qing army stationed at Luoshan abandoned its position and fled northward, while the navy retreated downstream to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The end of the victory also announced that the Qing army's Yangtze River defense line was completely broken by the Wu army. The Yangtze River is naturally dangerous and can no longer stop the southwestern athletes from going north!

........................

Almost at the same time, the attack and defense of Hanyang in the north of Wuchang was already in full swing under the personal command of Lu Fatty. Politely resorted to artillery formations, carried all the light artillery on the Wuchang Fortress of the Wu Army across the river, and bombarded the west gate of Hanyang indiscriminately. It was ghosts crying and wolves howling, flesh and blood flying everywhere, as if they were in Shura Hell.

At the beginning of the Shenshi period, the Wu army finally stopped shelling. The Wu army generals Liu Zhifu and Xu Hongren each led their headquarters to the battle, and charged towards the west gate of Hanyang, which had been bombed out and all the towers had collapsed. Facing the battle, the fortifications of the city were helplessly destroyed by the Wu army's artillery fire, and the morale of the generals and soldiers also collapsed. Not to mention the effective blocking of the Wu army's offensive, even the arrowheads and bullets shot from the city wall were sparse, unable to resist the Wu army's footsteps at all.

Seeing the ladders one after the other on the top of Hanyang city, and the soldiers of the Wu army rushing up the city wall of Hanyang like a tide, Wu Yingqi was so happy that he patted Fatty Lu on the shoulder and said with a big smile, "My nephew, there is a way, first cover it with intensive artillery fire." , It is more effective to attack the city after blowing up the courage of the dogs, than to attack the city directly. Well, this time the siege battle, we are sure to win! In the future, if we encounter a city full of dogs, we can use this method to attack the city the city."

"Uncle has won the prize. This move is effective, but it consumes too much ammunition. If Hanyang is not too important, my nephew really doesn't want to use this move." Fatty Lu said calmly: "So in the future when we meet When it comes to Jiancheng, it’s better to use other methods to break the city, otherwise, every city will be like this, our logistics simply can’t afford it, and the firearms battalion can’t produce so much ammunition.”

"That's right, it's really expensive." Wu Yingqi nodded his head, agreeing with Fatty Lu's opinion.

"Uncle, nephew and son-in-law will give you another credit." Fatty Lu suddenly lowered his voice and said in a low voice: "Now the west of Hanyang City is being attacked by us, the east is blocked by our captured warships, and the south is the Yangtze River, full of dogs. I can’t escape even if I want to, so my nephew concluded that if Man Gou breaks through and escapes, he must go out of the north gate and go to the upper reaches of the Han River to flee for his life, and my nephew will give you three thousand cavalry for your uncle.

"Understood." Wu Yingqi grinned grimly, and said, "Nephew, don't worry, you are here to command the siege, and when the dogs break through and escape, uncle will definitely entertain them on the way."

"If that's the case, then please." Fatty Lu arched his hands, and reminded in a low voice: "Uncle, and, according to our detailed investigation, there is still Prince Gong Changning, the brother of Emperor Mangou in Hanyang City, and Prince Mangou If the dog breaks through, he must be in the middle of the team. If my uncle can capture him alive, I believe my grandfather will be very happy." Wu Yingqi laughed and agreed, and immediately went down to draw up the cavalry, and rushed to the Qing army to ambush on the way to break through the siege. The fat man commanded the main force to step up the siege without mentioning it.

The ambush was arranged in advance when the infantry attacked the city. Fatty Lu was not arrogant. The main reason was that Fatty Lu knew the character of Cai Yurong, the general of Hanyang in the Qing army. Cai Yurong was the first to take the lead in escaping in Yuezhou, and later in Wuchang. , Cai Yurong left the entire city's soldiers and civilians to flee across the river alone, greedy for life and afraid of death, how much determination can he have to fight to the death?And the fact is exactly the same. With the siege of the Wu army, the father and son of Cai Yurong inevitably came up with plans to break out of the siege and save their lives, but they were worried that once Hanyang fell, Kang Mazi would definitely not spare him, so Cai Yurong and his son inevitably hesitated , I will not be able to make up my mind for a while.

It was Kang Mazi's younger brother, Prince Gong Changning who gave Governor Cai a chance. Seeing Wu Jun attacking the city wall of the West Gate, Prince Gong, who was afraid that his thumb would be cut off by captives, rushed to Governor Cai almost scrambling, and pulled Cai Yurong's sleeve belt. He cried and asked: "Cai Butang, can Hanyang hold it? Can it hold it? Wu Gou has already killed the city wall of Ximen!"

"My lord, don't worry, although Wu Gou is powerful, his firearms are also sharp." Governor Cai replied impassionedly: "But as a minister of the Qing Dynasty, the slave naturally vowed to live and die with Hanyang, even if it is the last soldier. , as long as the servant is alive, Wu Gou will never even think about stepping into Hanyang City!"

"Then what should I do?" Chang Ning almost didn't growl, and said with a mournful face: "What about the king? Will Wu Gou spare the king?"

"This..." Cai Yurong originally wanted to say that you can also commit suicide to die for your country, but after thinking about it, Cai Yurong changed his mind and said: "Then, Lord Gong, what do you think the servant should do?"

"Let's break through." Chang Ning said impatiently: "I asked just now, Wu Gou didn't arrange troops at the north gate, we have time to break through from the north gate now."

"My lord, I dare not issue this order." Cai Yurong quickly shook his head and said, "Although the force in the hands of this slave is less than [-]% of Wu Gou's, Wu Gou has already demolished half of the city wall at the west gate of Hanyang, and it is only time to break through Hanyang. The problem, but the slave is entrusted by the emperor and entrusted by the master, so he can only live and die with Hanyang City. Long live the emperor has explained."

"Let me explain for you!" Prince Gong stomped his feet and said, "Governor Cai, thanks to you being an experienced military officer, why don't you even understand the principle of not sticking to the gains and losses of one city and one place? You are the only one in the middle of Huguang now. With an army, if all of them are lost in Hanyang City, what can be used to stop Wu Gou's army from going north?"

"This..." Governor Cai pondered hypocritically, "Of course the words of the prince are the best and most reasonable, but what about the master..."

"I've already said it, I'll explain it for you!" Chang Ning stomped his feet even more, and said anxiously: "Don't you even believe what I say? Do you want me to write a memorial for you in front of you? It means that you are I gave up Hanyang to protect me from breaking through, and I will bear all the blame! I don’t believe it, the third brother would want my younger brother to be like Jie Shu and Le Erjin, who was captured by Wu Dog and cut off his fingers, and even doubled. I can't even lift the chopsticks!"

"It's fine with your words." Cai Yurong was happy in his heart, but said with hesitation on his face: "Of course the prince is right, but..."

"I knew that you were afraid of taking on this responsibility!" Chang Ning yelled helplessly, "Bring a pen and paper, and I will give Cai Butang ink to prove that the order to retreat was given by me."

As he said that, Prince Gong actually wrote a handwritten warrant to Cai Yurong, ordering Cai Yurong to give up the Hanyang guards to break through by himself, and then forced it into Cai Yurong's hands. After receiving this warrant, Cai Yurong was completely relieved. It was urgent, and the Qing army's retreat and destruction of the city was a foregone conclusion. Cai Yurong quickly issued an order, "Come here, gather all the troops, and escort Prince Gong to break through to the North City, and go to the upper reaches of the Han River to find a ferry to cross the river."

After a while, Cai Yurong hastily assembled the last 2000 troops, regardless of the self-armed soldiers who were still fighting hard on the west gate wall, surrounded Chang Ning and went to the north gate to break through.When the news spread to Ximen, the defenders of the Qing army at Ximen yelled and threw down their weapons and surrendered to the Wu army. The things were returned to their original owners, and a little bit fell into the hands of Wu Jun.

Cai Yurong's army, who successfully broke through the siege, was not happy for long. Their team hadn't escaped thirty miles north along the Han River before they were ambushed by Wu Yingqi's cavalry who had been waiting here for a long time. After a fierce battle, their morale completely collapsed. The [-] Qing army was wiped out, nearly half of them were wiped out, and the rest all surrendered. Cai Yurong, his eldest son Cai Lin, and his second son Cai Xun escaped from the Han River by swimming with logs in their arms. Cai Ji and other three sons died tragically in the chaos. In the middle, he was trampled into meat sauce by Wu Jun's cavalry.

As for our Prince Gong, because his status was too noble, he was always stared at by Wu Jun, and he didn't have the courage to dive into the water to escape. In the end, he still held the thought that losing his fingers is better than losing his head, and surrendered to Wu Jun, which became the battle of Wu Jun crossing the river. The most important prisoner captured in the war, Chang Ning's deputy Hubu servant Dadu also surrendered helplessly, and was captured by the Wu army together with Chang Ning.

So far, the Wu army's sudden campaign of crossing the river ended in a complete victory. The defense line from Dongting Lake to Hanyang of the Qing army was completely broken by the Wu army. The main force of the navy was almost wiped out, and the cavalry suffered heavy losses. Fleeing to Jingzhou, Huangzhou, Jiujiang and other places to survive, Hanyang, an important town on the Yangtze River, fell and became the advance base of Wu Jun's Northern Expedition.The prefectural capitals in northern Huguang, Henan, Anhui, and Shaanxi in Mite Qing are also like beauties stripped of their clothes, completely exposed to the greedy big pervert of Pingxi Palace!In the land of the Central Plains, Mite Qing is already there, and there is no danger to defend!

(End of this chapter)