Waiting for Lang Tingzuo and his entourage, when they came to Yuejiang Tower. The fleet on the Yangtze River has come to the city of Nanjing, and I saw the mighty fleet on the river. Lang Tingzuo was startled, and said to the city gate guard: "How can there be so many sailor warships? Did they reply? ”

Lang Tingzuo looked at the fleet on the Yangtze River, and these warships were still under the banner of the Qing Dynasty. It stands to reason that they are absolutely and do not dare to ignore Nanjing's inquiry, let alone ignore the people sent by Nanjing. What's more, Nanjing is also the seat of the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang, and has jurisdiction over all the armies in the land of Liangjiang.

Similarly, there are Eight Banners garrison troops in Nanjing, and any naval army that passes under the city of Nanjing should report its itinerary and purpose. No general would dare to have such courage to come directly to the city of Nanjing with the army. Unless it's a rebel, or a Ming army. But now in the land of the two rivers, there is no such military land at all.

Seeing Lang Tingzuo's inquiry, the guard general hurriedly replied, "Your Excellency the Governor, they still haven't replied, and the people we sent have not returned. Liu Fangming looked at the river and said suspiciously: "This is not right, who can mobilize the army without authorization, and there are so many sailor warships." I'm afraid there are no less than 1,000 of these ships, even if you put all the naval warships in the Yangtze River and my Qing Dynasty together, there are not so many. ”

Hearing Liu Fangming's words, Lang Tingzuo suddenly had a thrill and said, "Could it be that this is my Yangtze River sailor of the Qing Dynasty?" Who has such great ability to gather all the sailors in several places. No, someone has to be sent to ask for clarification. ”

The guard said, "Your Excellency, it is useless to send people again, and the people in the fleet will not pay attention to it at all. At this time, Tikhamu also came to Yuejiang Tower and said, "Lang Tingzuo, what's going on?" When Lang Tingzuo saw that it was Khakhamu coming, he immediately said politely: "General Titham, now we don't know what the situation is, and there is no response from the two waves of people we have sent." I was about to send someone to find out what was going on. ”

Titicham interrupted: "What are you going to inquire about now?" Let the gunner fire directly, if it is my Qing Dynasty sailor, he will definitely send someone to contact him immediately. If it was really the thieves who controlled the sailors, they would definitely fire back, or they would have quickened their speed towards the sea. ”

Lang Tingzuo suddenly realized: "Yes, why didn't I think of it. It is still General Titicham who is familiar with military affairs and deserves to be a veteran of a hundred battles. There were soldiers next to him to inform the gunner, and before they could wait, the city defense artillery on the head of Nanjing roared angrily, and the shells flew from the city to the center of the Yangtze River.

Suddenly, the water in the middle of the Yangtze River was stirred up by a two-zhang high column of water. It's not that the gunners in the city, the accuracy is too poor, and they can't hit at such a close distance. It was Lang Tingzuo's own soldiers, who came to give the order to try the cannon shot, not to shoot the ship directly, so the gunner also fired directly into the air.

Although it was an empty shot, the sailors on the Yangtze River were suddenly panicked. Even Lin Risheng and Fan Shaozu couldn't sit still. If all the cannons in Nanjing City were fired now, the ships of the sailors would become live targets. Immediately shouted at Lin Xingzhu: "It's not good, the cannon has been fired on the city of Nanjing, I said that I should deal with the people sent by the Qing soldiers, but you just didn't listen, and now they must have found out." ”

Lin Xingzhu interrupted: "Don't shout, they must not have found out, they just fired a cannon to scare us." Otherwise, they would not have fired just one shot, but all the artillery in the city. Fan Shaozu also understood: "Yes, they must not have found out yet, but what should we do now?" Our ships were better, but most of the others were troop carriers, not only slow, but also not capable of counterattacking. ”

Lin Xingzhu said: "Don't be afraid, let people raise the flag towards Nanjing City first, so that they don't get injured by mistake, we are ordered to go to Fujian to exterminate Zheng Chenggong's sailors." Then inform the troop transport ship and the boat carrying the soldiers of the Restoration Army to speed up, and when they leave, we will also fire our guns and follow them. ”

Fan Shaozu worried: "Can this be useful?" Lang Tingzuo and Kaqam are afraid that they will not be easily believed, after all, we have already detained two waves of their envoys before. Lin Xingzhu said: "Don't care about it for now, if you really can't fool it, then we'll find a way." The big deal is to fight an artillery battle with the city of Nanjing, we have a lot of artillery, what are we afraid of. ”

Lin Risheng persuaded: "Or we will also send someone to explain to them." If our people don't show up, they won't believe it. Fan Shaozu said: "Even if we send people, it is estimated that the effect will not be great." And there is no guarantee that the people we send will not say anything about us. ”

Fan Shaozu looked at Lin Xingzhu and said: "If other officials are afraid, they will believe it, but there are Lang Tingzuo and Kakhamu, one of them is a Manchurian, and the other is a traitor who has surrendered to Manchuria for a long time." These two people are both veteran of military affairs, and they are also ruthless people, and it is not easy to deceive the two of them. ”

Lin Xingzhu said: "If you can't send someone to be willing, let the flag bearer give the flag to the city first." Tell them that we are sailors who went to Fujian. Then let all the cannons be in place, and as soon as the order is given, the artillery will immediately open fire and counterattack. ”

As the flag bearer of the sailor played the flag, there were also flag bearers in the city, looking at the flag of the sailor, and hurriedly explaining the meaning to everyone in the city. After understanding the words from the water master, Wang Shaolong and Su Songxun in the city immediately relaxed their hearts. Busy said: "Fortunately, they are the sailors of the Qing Dynasty, and they were ordered to be transferred to Fujian." ”

Liu Fangming said: "Not necessarily, although they have played the flag, the entire fleet has not stopped, and there are signs of acceleration." I think there is something wrong with eight or nine, and they should be intercepted immediately. ”

Lang Tingzuo also echoed: "Yes, this is really wrong, not only is the fleet accelerating, but there is not even a person to report." "But after this toss, the fleet is already halfway over. And with the acceleration of the fleet, many ships have already sailed through the city of Nanjing.

At this time, the person in charge of the banner dialogue came and said, "Your Excellency Governor, the sailor said that they were ordered to be transferred to Fujian to help attack the pirate sailor. They were ordered to rush to Fujian as soon as possible, but no one was sent to report it. He also asked the cannons in the city not to fire to avoid accidental injury. ”

Tikhamu was very sensitive to military operations, but now that he heard that there was a normal transfer, he was relieved: "How to transfer them to Fujian, Dasu will not send someone to inform me." So saying, he turned and went away, and was about to leave. Lang Tingzuo was shocked: "No, Fujian wants to mobilize the army, why don't you tell us?" Are they transferring the water division of Huguang, or the water division of my two rivers? Besides, the Qing Dynasty also had a water division in Fujian, and it never said that it would transfer an inland water division. ”

At this time, Liu Fangming also said: "Yes, Fujian wants to use marine sailors, and it is useless to transfer Huguang or our inland sailors from the two rivers to it." Wang Shaolong also reacted, and said in horror: "In other words, they have already surrendered to the enemy, and they are not my Qing Dynasty sailors at all." ”

Lang Tingzuo pulled his own soldiers and shouted: "Go quickly, let the gunners in the city open fire immediately and sink those ships, they are traitors." Then Lang Tingzuo sighed again: "It's a pity that there is no sailor in Jiangning City now, otherwise all the traitors will definitely be stopped." Immediately there was a panic in the city, and shouts were everywhere.

The sailors on the Yangtze River are speeding downstream. At this time, Lin Xingzhu had just received an order from Zhu Youdong to ask the sailors to open artillery to attract the defenders of Nanjing City. It was not that the orders of the Ming army were transmitted slowly, but because there were too many ships. The people who came to give the order couldn't find Lin Xingzhu's ship at all, so they followed the ship all the way to the city of Nanjing.

At this time, I heard that Lin Xingzhu was on the command ship outside Nanjing, so I came over. Lin Xingzhu listened to Zhu Youdong's order, although he didn't want to carry it out, but now he had a misunderstanding with the defenders in Nanjing. Even if Lin Xingzhu wants to regret it now, it's too late, even if he surrenders again, it is estimated that Lang Tingzuo and Kakhamu will not believe themselves.

Just when Lin Xingzhu hesitated, the cannon on the Nanjing city wall had already fired. Suddenly, the sailors on the Yangtze River wanted to surrender, but they probably couldn't. What's more, after Lin Xingzhu surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he returned to the Ming Dynasty anyway. I have to think about how the Manchus will treat themselves after surrendering to the Manchus again.

Now that all the cannons in Nanjing have been fired, Lin Xingzhu immediately broke off the idea of surrendering again. Directly to the herald on the ship, he shouted: "All the warships, all open fire and return fire, give me a hard blow." "On each warship, the cannons have already been prepared, just waiting for Lin Xingzhu's order. Now after receiving the order, they immediately spat out tongues of fire, and countless shells flew into the air towards the city of Nanjing.

Suddenly, there were also a large number of water columns on the river, rising in the fleet of the sailors. The city defense artillery of Nanjing City is much larger than that of the naval division, and there are a lot of shells. Whether it is a warship or a troop transport ship in the sailor, as long as they run next to each other, they will suddenly have sawdust. Some of the ships were directly hit by the shells, and countless soldiers howled wherever the shells flew.

Soldiers' stumps and severed arms were everywhere, and many did not even have a chance to scream. was directly smashed by the shell and flew in half, and the whole person was broken in two on the spot. Lin Xingzhu was also drenched in the soup chicken by the water column stirred up by the cannonballs around him.

But now Lin Xingzhu didn't have time to care about this, and shouted: "All the warships are firing back, and the ships transporting troops behind speed up and leave the shelling range." Then he kept urging the gunners on the ship to return fire.

Seeing this, the other troop carriers also rowed desperately to get the boats out of the shelling range as soon as possible. Walking in the last fleet, is Fan Shaozu's Dongting Lake Water Division. Seeing that there was already an exchange of fire in front, the warships that suddenly let themselves have their own fleets adjusted the angle of their cannons one after another and fired at the city wall of Nanjing City.

For a time, there were more shells on the city of Nanjing than the fleet on the Yangtze River. However, the cannon of the sailor division was much smaller than the cannon in Nanjing. The damage to the city wall is not much. But no matter how small a shell is, it still can't be withstood by people.

Moreover, there are a lot of cannons in the naval division, at least about two hundred. In an instant, in the area of Yuejiang Tower, the entire city wall of Nanjing City, cannonballs fell like raindrops. The cannonballs were falling in a steady stream, and there was no way for people to stand on the walls anymore. Suddenly, Titicamu, Lang Tingzuo and others fled the city wall.

After Lang Tingzuo and the others ran down the city wall, their faces turned pale. Especially Wang Shaolong and other civil officials, they were even more frightened and trembling all over. The other defenders also withdrew from the city wall, and some people were strong before, and they even ran down the city wall with rolling and climbing. For a while, the city wall was full of people.

Ma Tengsheng went to the city, sat down on the ground directly, and said, "My mother, the people of the water master are crazy. With so many warships and cannons, it is definitely not something that a sailor can have. This must be the sailor on the entire Yangtze River, could it be that Zhang Huangyan has become a master in Huguang. Took in all the people of my Great Shimizu Master at once? ”

Lang Tingzuo suddenly scolded: "Nonsense, when he Zhang Huangyan was in Jiangnan, he was defeated by us and ran around, where he has so much ability." I don't believe him, Zhang Huangyan changed places, and he could succeed. ”