Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 410
One day passed, and the reinforcements reached another 5. At this time, Yang Chao already had nearly [-] reinforcements in Nanjing City, and with the incorporated Nanjing guards, he already had more than [-] troops.

Yang Chao planned to bring back all the troops in Yangzhou. At that time, there should be more than [-] troops. Yang Chao planned to launch a counterattack against the Qing army.

"My lord, my lord, the navy of the Qing army is coming to attack, covering the sky and the sun, with tens of thousands of warships!"

Zhang Damiao couldn't help but panic, at this time he had less than thirty ships in his hand.

The scale of Yang Chao's current navy is already very large. There are a total of 300 two-masted chasing boats, but there are not many small boats. The main reason is that more than 300 boats were sunk by the storm on the river last time, and there are still more than [-] small boats. look.

However, for the purpose of transferring the Yangzhou Ming army back, most of the ships were on the route from Yangzhou to Nanjing.

"What are you panicking about!"

Yang Chao couldn't help shouting.

This big mast is good at everything, except that his character is a bit weak. After following Yang Chao for so long, he still hasn't cultivated a vigorous and resolute military character. This makes Yang Chao quite disappointed, so he divides the ten most powerful sea ships out. , let Zhang Dawei bring out Jiang Fan commander.

Zhang Dawei was reprimanded by Yang Chao, but he was obedient and dared not retaliate.

"Where did the Qing army go?"

However, Yang Chao still attached great importance to the news that the Qing army sent tens of thousands of warships down the river.

"Already set off from Jiujiang!"

Zhang Dawei replied.

These days, he has been sending fast boats to spy on the intelligence of the Qing army, so he knew the actions of the Qing army immediately.

Yang Chao nodded: "Based on your experience, how many days does it take tens of thousands of warships to go from Jiujiang to Nanjing?"

If it is a two-ship warship, it can be reached in three days at most if it goes down the river for a day or two, but it is not so easy for tens of thousands of warships.

Zhang Dawei thought for a while and said, "It will take three days at the fastest!"

Yang Chao nodded: "In three days, all the ships that came back will be detained, enough to recover 150 large ships, and [-] small ships. At that time, we will have [-] large and small ships, all equipped with cannons. A naval decisive battle may not necessarily be invincible."

Yang Chao knew that the warships of the Qing army were small boats. Li Zicheng's boats on the Han River could be as big as they were.

And Yang Chao's smallest ships are probably larger than the Qing army's warships, and a big hit is small, which may not be able to make up for the lack of numbers.

"Also, send fast horses to Wusong, let Jiang Fan bring all the big ships over, let the Qing army see our gunboats, and teach them how to fight water battles!"

After Yang Chao issued a series of orders, Zhang Dawei felt more stable.

Although he was not very satisfied with Zhang Dawei, Yang Chao still let him take command. After all, Yang Chao himself really lacked experience in water warfare. Zhang Dawei has been fighting bandits on the river all year round, and he has rich experience in water warfare.

Sure enough, according to what Yang Chao said, 150 ships of all sizes were brought back on the third day.

Yang Chao drove all the gunners he could find in Nanjing onto the ship, and told Zhang Dawei to use cannons to bombard the Qing army from a distance as much as possible, and not to give them a chance to fight on board, so that they would not be able to take advantage of the large number of ships and people. Even if you can't win by artillery battle, if you can delay until all the warships return, it is a victory.

At noon on the third day, the navy of the Qing army had already arrived at Dasheng Pass, and they really planned to attack Dasheng Pass.

Dasheng Pass was originally used to defend the river. If they captured it, the horse infantry would land from Dasheng Pass, and it would be a flat river in Nanjing. Therefore, Yang Chao's warships also intercepted the Qing army at Dasheng Pass.

A big water battle broke out between the sandbars and on the water near Dasheng Pass.

At this time, there were 150 warships in the vanguard of the navy of the Qing army, and [-] warships in the navy with large masts, a ratio of two to one.

According to Yang Chao's request, Zhang Dawei lined up more than 100 warships and bombarded the Qing army with cannons, not giving the Qing army a chance to join the ship, although it took a day.

At this time, the Qing army's numerical advantage could not reach the point where firepower could be ignored. After an hour, after being bombarded and sunk more than a dozen ships, they chose to retreat, and as soon as they retreated, they retreated to Taiping Mansion and anchored at Dangtu Port.

At this time, Azig's army also gathered here to rest.

Zhang Dawei didn't dare to chase after him, and the warship docked at Dasheng Pass nearby, and then quickly sent Yang Chao a good news.

Azig appeased Wang Tizhong, who commanded the water army.

Wang Tizhong was originally under Li Zicheng's general Bai Wang who was guarding the four mansions of Jingxiang. The Qing army pursued Li Zicheng all the way. Li Zicheng took away the main force of Bai Wang's 7 people and followed him to fight Jiujiang. Bai Wang couldn't resist the Qing army and gave up. The Jingxiang four mansions fled all the way to Li Zicheng's place. As a result, Wang Tizhong took advantage of the chaos and killed Bai Wang, surrendered to the Qing army, and was named the deputy general soldier by the Qing army.

Later, Azige defeated Li Zicheng at a distance of forty miles from Jiujiang City, captured tens of thousands of Li Zicheng's warships, and handed over these warships to Wang Tizhong for command.

But in the first battle, Wang Tizhong was defeated.

"There is a saying in the Ru-Han family's art of war: Victory or defeat is a common matter for military strategists. Kuang General Wang's ships have not arrived yet, and it is just a small defeat for the first time, which is nothing to worry about."

Azig's statement made Wang Tizhong very grateful, and promised to kill the Ming army as soon as the main force of his warship arrived.

On the fourth day, there was no fighting all day long. Zhang Dawei continued to gather the warships, while Wang Tizhong was also waiting for his rear team. Both sides thought that time was in their favour.

fifth day.

The number of warships in Wang Tizhong has reached a thousand, so he once again aggressively attacked Dashengguan Port.

Zhang Dawei commanded the navy to attack again, still using shells.

At this time, there are thousands of warships in the king's body, and the number of warships with large masts has reached more than 300.

Among them, there were 250 boats and more than [-] single-masted boats.

After a day of artillery battle, more than 100 warships in Wangtizhong were sunk, and Wangtizhong retreated again.

The situation of the water battle was constantly reported back to Nanjing. Although they won a big victory in the end, Yang Chao went to see the crisis.

Because many warships were approached by the Qing army, there was a board battle, and most of the Qing army was repelled in hand-to-hand combat, but one ship was captured by the Qing army, and the sailors on board jumped into the water and escaped.

It seems that relying entirely on guns cannot make up for such a large number disadvantage. The fishing boats used by the People's Liberation Army in later generations can defeat Lao Jiang's big boats, which shows that the number is still very important.

Yang Chao's way to deal with it is to find those elite infantry who are familiar with water skills and have been following him in the South and North Wars to board the ship. With these people, they should not lose to the Qing army in hand-to-hand combat, unless the Qing army is willing to send the elite of the Eight Banners on board. Even if the Eight Banners soldiers on horseback were on board, Yang Chao didn't think their individual qualities would be able to play a role.

For three days in a row, the Qing army did not attack again, which gave Yang Chao enough time to adjust, and at the same time gathered all the warships. At this time, Zhang Dawei had [-] sloops and [-] ships. Brig.

Small boats are equipped with one or two cannons each, while large ships are equipped with three to five cannons depending on how old the warship is.

There are a thousand cannons on these ships, of which 200 are ordinary tiger squat cannons, more than [-] general cannons, and about a hundred Frankie cannons, almost dismantling all the cannons that can be used in Nanjing City Only those red-clothed cannons could not be loaded on these ships, and they were still left in Nanjing City.

On the ninth day, the most intense artillery battle began.

On this day, Jiang Feng made a big move, but the Ming army was still against the wind.

Originally, the Qing army occupied the upstream position and enjoyed a certain advantage, but now it has an advantage even more. Their ships run faster than the Ming army.

And this time the Qing army was much smarter, and even put down the fire boats along the river. Unfortunately, there were no dead soldiers on their fire boats, and they dared not drive directly at the Ming army warships.

However, the formation of the Ming army was chaotic, and the Qing army navy took advantage of the situation to attack aggressively. It seemed that all the ships rushed down the river crazily.

It seems that the Qing army has not wasted time in the past three days. The military discipline of these sailors has obviously been rectified. I don't know how many people the Qing army killed, but it aroused the courage of the sailors anyway.

Shunliu and Jiangfeng made a large-scale assault. This time, the Ming army's artillery lost its effect and could not prevent the opponent from approaching at all.

Constantly fighting with the Qing army, at this time, the Ming army still took advantage of the advantage of the size of the ship, condescending and beheading the Qing army with various weapons.

Fighting from morning to noon, thousands of warships of the Qing army were sunk, but almost most of the Ming army was entangled by the Qing army, and fell into a bitter battle. The Qing army often surrounded a Ming army with more than ten ships, and surrounded it on all sides. Fighting, but it was difficult to seize one in the hands of elite infantry, and finally the Qing army chose to set fire again.

At this time, the two sides are getting mixed up, and everyone is at risk of being implicated in setting the fire first, but the Qing army, which is driven to a desperate situation, can no longer take care of it. Small boats tied to the Ming army are constantly being ignited, and then the Qing army and the navy Jump into the river and swim.

In this way, the Qing army quickly sank hundreds of ships from the Ming army. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Dawei immediately ordered to retreat.

Fighting while retreating, bombarded the chasing Qing warships with cannons.

Fortunately, the sailing boats of the Ming army were better than the fishing boats, and Jiang Feng also helped a lot. In the end, [-] warships rushed out, broke away from the battle with the Qing army, and retreated all the way to Nanjing.

The people in Nanjing City soon saw the warships on their side, and also saw the Qing army sailors covering the sky.

In an instant, the whole city was in commotion, and the people came to watch the battle one after another.

But seeing their own navy retreating in a row, they could only widen the distance to bombard the opponent, but they couldn't sink a few ships, and the opponent kept setting fire to the boats, and at the same time they refused to listen to the pursuit and tried to catch up with the ship. Everyone's heart was touched throat.

Everyone knows that if the naval army is defeated, the Qing army can land anywhere on the Yangtze River and approach Nanjing at any time.

Yang Chao is also watching the battle at this time, although he is not as nervous as ordinary people, even if the Qing army wiped out the navy and attacked the city of Nanjing, so what.

But Yang Chao didn't want to see the warship he worked so hard to build be wiped out like this.

When he saw that the battleship retreated to the vicinity of Xinjiangkou, Zhang Dawei finally began to deploy and bombard the Qing army's navy.

Xinjiangkou here is the bottom line Yang Chao set for Zhang Dawei, telling him that he can retreat in case of loss, but he must not retreat past Xinjiangkou, otherwise military law will be used.

Xinjiangkou is already located in the northwest part of Nanjing City. If it retreats further, it will lose the meaning of defending Nanjing.

The boarding battle inevitably broke out. A large number of small Qing army ships, more than half of which were killed by ants, rushed into the Ming army fleet frantically and continued to attack!
Seeing that a warship was seized, burned, and sank, Yang Chao was already prepared to lose the battle, and even prepared to send someone to inform Song Kun to give up the Great Victory Pass. After all, if the Qing army can land near Nanjing , Dasheng Pass lost its function, and staying there, apart from being surrounded by the Qing army, has no meaning.

"My lord, there are boats, and there are boats over there!"

Zhang Dun suddenly reminded Yang Chao that several warships also appeared in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Yang Chao looked to the right, and saw a large ship appearing.

(End of this chapter)