Deng Mancang didn't care about saying anything more, and ran down directly to stop the soldiers from going to the bridge. Looking at the fleet that was getting closer and closer, there was a pang of grief in everyone's hearts. Because there was no sailor, the pontoon bridge that had been worked so hard to repair could only be broken by the big ship of the Qing army.

Zhu Youdong couldn't care about it at this time, and shouted: "Quick, everyone is hidden, there must be artillery on the Qing army's naval division, if the Qing army finds out that our army is here, we will only be bombarded." ”

When everyone was hiding around, Ma Weixing came over and said, "Your Highness, whether we want to hide or leave now, we are very good." But now that the Qing army sailors have discovered us, they are going down the river, and in less than two days, they can inform the Qing army in Wuchang, what should we do? If the army wants to sneak attack the Qing army again, it can't. ”

Zhu Youdong was taken aback and said, "Yes, if the Qing army goes down the river, we won't be able to sneak attack." Will the army that crossed the river come back? Can Gou Xingwang, who has already left for Hanyang, come back? Zhu Youdong thought for a while, and suddenly said: "No, we can't let them go to Wuchang, let us open fire with the cannon and directly attack the Qing army's naval division." ”

Li Rubi, Wang Xing and the others were suddenly startled, and Hu Yiqing said: "Your Highness, I know that Your Highness is worried about the army, but we are attacking the Qing army now, and it will not have the slightest effect, they can still send ships to Wuchang to report the news." Unless we can wipe out all the Qing army and naval divisions, it will be useless at all, even if a boat goes to Wuchang, it will be a result. ”

Li Rubi said: "Your Highness, let's withdraw to Sichuan while the army has not lost yet." Or return to Jingzhou. We can also train sailors in Jingzhou, and then go straight down to Wuchang from the waterway, and when the time comes, as long as we wait to resist the sailors of the Qing army, it will not be too difficult for us to capture Wuchang. ”

Zhu Youdong also knows that the best way now is to return. The army led by Zhu Youdong can return, but can the army that has already set off be chased back? Zhu Youdong looked at Deng Mancang, who was sweating profusely, and said: "Brother Mancang, you send a few people across the river and tell Zhou Dazhu to return to Yuezhou directly, and we will take this place as the boundary, and now we will go all out to capture the entire Huxi Prefecture and Changsha, Hengzhou, Baoqing and other prefectures in the south." ”

Then he said to Peng Changbao: "Send scouts immediately, no matter what, we must let Gou Xingwang withdraw to the Jingshan area, and echo Suizhou." Zhu Youdong thought for a moment and said: "Forget it, let Gou Xingwang return directly to Zhongxiang, Li Dingguo return to Xiangyang, and deploy defenses along Yicheng." ”

Zhu Youdong was a little weak when he said it, although he issued an order to retreat. But when the army has already set out, and when the scouts find the army of Gou Xingwang and Li Dingguo, can they still retreat at that time? Will the Qing army be able to make them retreat safely? Can the defensive line that was formed in such a hurry really be held? Zhu Youdong didn't have a bottom in his heart.

The other generals also sighed, the good situation, just because of the sudden appearance of the Qing army's sailors, is now about to be wasted. No one felt comfortable in their hearts, and the generals no longer had the pride they had when the pontoon bridge was first built.

Looking at the dejected generals in front of him, Zhu Youdong simply crossed his heart and said: "Let's give up crossing the river, go directly to the north bank of the Yangtze River, attack Hanyang, and go to join Gou Xingwang." ”

Xia Guoxiang said: "Your Highness really wants to attack Hanyang? Our army only has about five days of food and grass, and the army is about to run out of food, and if we can't capture Hanyang, I'm afraid we won't even have a chance to withdraw. ”

Li Rubi and others also came to persuade them, of course, Zhu Youdong could not directly lead the army to Hanyang, if there was an army to meet Gou Xingwang and them, Zhu Youdong would definitely never hesitate. Just when Zhu Youdong hesitated, Peng Changbao said: "Why don't these Qing army sailors fire cannons?" What are they waiting for? Didn't you find us? ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youdong also reacted and said: "Yes, if it is said to be the Qing army sailor, how could it be that he didn't find us, after all, an object as big as the pontoon bridge is there." ”

When everyone was wondering, Liu Zhen from the riverside ran over and said to everyone: "Your Highness, great joy, here is our sailor, and the general on the ship is General Jiang Chao." ”

"What?" The generals present were instantly stunned. Zhu Youdong never thought that it was actually the sailor of the Restoration Army, but the Restoration Army Sailor did not have so many warships.

Zhu Youdong asked, "Tell me what's going on?" How did Jiang Chao get so many sailor warships? Liu Zhen said: "I don't know, but I just looked at General Jiang Chao from a distance, and they were docking." Look at General Jiang Chao, they came over in a small boat. Saying that, Liu Zhen pointed to the river.

Zhu Youdong took a look, and sure enough, among the warships on the river, several small boats suddenly sailed out. The people on the boat were vaguely Jiang Chao and others, Zhu Youdong said: "Let's go, let's go to the riverside and have a look." ”

The generals also did not know the situation, and followed them to the river. When Zhu Youdong came to the riverside, it was Jiang Chao, who had already gotten off the boat. Seeing Zhu Youdong, he immediately said happily: "Your Highness, the last general is not too late." ”

Zhu Youdong was overjoyed and said, "How can it be late, it came just right." Tell me how you managed to get a lot of ships, I'm afraid there are thirty or forty of them. Our Chongqing Navy Division has only more than ten warships. You've done a great job. ”

Jiang Chao said: "Your Highness, this is not my credit, this is all Mr. Zhou's credit." Zhu Youdong was stunned for a moment and said, "Mr. Zhou? Which Mr. Zhou? ”

Jiang Chao pulled the scholar from behind and said, "It's this Mr. Zhou, I can be regarded as convinced of him." Zhu Youdong looked at this person, who was also in his thirties, and immediately bowed his hand and said: "Mr. has obtained such a warship for my Ming Dynasty, and he is the hero of my Ming Dynasty. ”

It was the first time for Zhu Youdong to speak so civilly, even if Wen Anzhi, Zhang Huangyan and others had done before, Zhu Youdong did not attach so much importance to it.

The scholar who had just disembarked said: "His Royal Highness Returning to the Prison State, the student's surname is Zhou, and his single name is Chang." Zhu Youdong said: "Okay, I don't know what clever strategy Mr. Zhou used to win this Dongting Lake water master for Daming." ”

As soon as Zhu Youdong's words fell, a general next to him knelt down to Zhu Youdong and said, "Sin General Fan Shaozu, meet His Royal Highness the Prison State." Zhu Youdong looked at the general kneeling on the ground, and hurriedly helped him up and said: "The general can get lost and return, anyway, he will return to the Ming." It's also a great achievement, please get up quickly. ”

Fan Shaozu still refused to get up, and said: "The sin blinded the previous lard, and followed the Manchu Qing to do a lot of unconscionable things, and now I regret it very much, I just want to return to the Ming Dynasty, do something for the Ming Dynasty, and make up for my past sins." ”

Zhu Youdong said: "Okay, general, get up quickly, for example, today, there are a few people who can be alone, but as long as they can return to the Ming anyway and survive for us Han people, they are all men who stand up to the sky, and the general doesn't have to blame himself in the past." Hurry up, please. ”

Zhu Youdong saw that this was the warship of the Restoration Army, and asked the soldiers to start crossing the river one after another, because there was no port here, so the warships of the sailors could not help. But just let these warships stop here, and the morale of the army was a little higher.

And they did not look for a place, but stood by the river and spoke. Zhu Youdong asked Zhou Chang in detail how he said that the Dongting Lake Water Master returned to Ming. Zhou Chang also said it in detail.

It turned out that on the same day, after Jiang Tong and others captured Jiangling City, Li Youshi rushed over with the navy the next day. As soon as Zhou Chang saw the navy of the Restoration Army, he immediately had an idea. Then he said to Jiang Tong: "The Qing army has a water division in Dongting Lake, and it is Fan Shaozu who leads the water division. We can persuade Fan Shaozu to surrender, and if our sailors have the Qing army's Dongting Lake sailors joining, it will be even stronger. It's not just going to be like this, just in the water. ”

Jiang Tong looked at the sailors of the Restoration Army, and it was indeed not good. Although when he was in Yidu, he also incorporated the sailors of the Yu Hai Department of the Qing Army. But it still can't take on big responsibilities. Now Zhou Chang wants to persuade Fan Shaozu to surrender, Jiang Tong is also an ignorant and fearless, and no matter how many soldiers and horses he has, he directly agrees.

To say that this Fan Shaozu is also a general of the Ming army, he was originally the general soldier of Wenzhou in the Ming Dynasty, and later the Qing army went south, and all the officials ran away, so Fan Shaozu stayed and surrendered. After surrendering, Fan Shaozu was also reused by the Qing court and served as the deputy general of the Fuzhou Naval Division.

Fan Shaozu's attack on King Lu's forces in Fujian can be regarded as an outstanding achievement, and King Lu was forced to survive a little along the coast. Seeing that King Lu's ministry could not stand in Fujian, he had no choice but to seek refuge with Zheng Chenggong. As a result, the Qing court did not think of his merits, and casually found an excuse and directly transferred Fan Shaozu to Dongting Lake to serve as the deputy general of the water division.

Can this Dongting Lake sailor be compared with the Fujian sailor? Fujian is a battlefield, and I want to earn a lot of credit. It's purely idle, and there's only a lot of training all day. So he was encouraged by Zhou Changyi, what is the restoration of the Ming army without a water division, as long as the general returns to the Ming, he is the commander of the Ming Dynasty.

The general is young, does he want to stay in this Dongting Lake for the rest of his life? So when it comes to reading people and poisoning, Fan Shaozu sees that the world is stable, even if he trains soldiers in Dongting Lake for a lifetime, he is still stable. As a result, Zhou Chang teased with a few words, which aroused Fan Shaozu's desire for power in his heart, and he took 5,000 officers and soldiers of the Navy Division and more than 40 warships with him in a daze. Inexplicably, it was surrendered, and there were only 3,000 officers and soldiers of the Daming Water Division.

Fortunately, Fan Shaozu didn't know that the sailors of the Restoration Army were overwhelmed at all, so he could directly turn back on the spot and arrest all these people from the Restoration Army.

After Fan Shaozu felt that he had surrendered, Zhou Chang took Fan Shaozu back to Jiangling City with him. As soon as I got out of Dongting Lake, I saw Jiang Chao with more than 30 small boats, heading downstream.

Jiang Chao was terrified all the way, and he was afraid of running into the Qing army's Dongting Lake water division. As a result, now that the thirty boats of his own have collided directly with the naval warships of the Qing army.

When Jiang Chao saw the Dongting Lake sailor, he was immediately frightened, and hurriedly asked someone to dock the boat to the shore, and everyone went ashore. But the less it looks like it's causing trouble, the more things are coming. Before Jiang Chao could bring the fleet to the shore, the boat of the Dongting Lake Sailor had already come over.

Jiang Chao thought that he was dead, but he didn't know that after the Dongting Lake sailor came over, he didn't do anything at all. There were still people on the battleship shouting the name of Jiang Chao.

Jiang Chao took a closer look and found that it was Marven standing on the boat. After some explanation, Jiang Chao knew that the sailors of the Qing army had been clarified. Jiang Chao was overjoyed and said, "Quick, turn the bow of the boat, let's go downstream, and we won't go back to Jiangling City." ”

After Jiang Chao explained for a while, the Dongting Lake Water Master, who was originally going to Jiangling City, also turned around and came directly to Huangpeng Mountain. Just sent a messenger back to Gangneung City to report the news.

Jiang Chao took the warship of the sailor and rushed to Huangpeng Mountain, and this was the scene that Zhu Youdong and others saw. After listening to this process, Zhu Youdong sighed: "This is God helping me, how could the Qing court never think that they originally wanted to transfer General Fan Shaozu, but they sent me a real sailor to Daming." ”

Ma Weixing said: "Your Highness, now that we have a naval warship, we are more certain to raid Wuchang." Zhu Youdong said: "We should take a good look at how to lay down Wuchang City this time." ”