The sailors of the Ming army relied on many boats, and most of them were small boats that sank without heartache, so although they suffered certain losses, they still continued to advance, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

At 700 meters, 500 meters, 400 meters, and 200 meters, more and more Ming naval divisions were hit by the fire of the Jiangyin Battery, or sank, or caught fire, but more and more Ming ships broke through the blockade of the battery and rushed to the front of the Datang Naval Fleet!

At this time, some of the sailors of the Ming army at the forefront took the initiative to ignite the ignition on the ship, and after igniting it, they jumped into the water to escape, allowing the fireboat to rush to the fleet of the Tang Navy in front with inertia and current!

Looking at the Ming Army's sailor fireship that was only a few tens of meters ahead, Ouyang Gui once again ordered: "Strictly order all ships to maintain formation and shoot freely!" ”

Not long after his order was delivered, more than a dozen fireships rushed over with a heavy fire, of course, their luck could not be extremely good, and they would rush directly in front of the leading cruiser, but from both sides.

The Yangtze River here is relatively wide, not as narrow as the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, although there are many fireships of the Ming army, but there are not many that can directly hit the leading cruisers.

What's more, although several cruisers played the role of vanguards, in fact, in front of them, there were more small river gunboats, the tonnage of these gunboats was not large, generally about fifty tons, and the firepower was not strong, only a few guns were equipped, but they were more flexible.

If there were Ming fireships that happened to be coming towards the fleet, they would take the initiative to rush up and sink them if they could, and if they couldn't sink them, then they would use the method of collision to change the course of these fireships, or simply anchor in front of the capital ships and act as shields.

The small boats of the Ming army are worthless and can be sacrificed as fireships, and the small river warships on the side of the Tang Navy are also not valuable things, to put it mildly, the value of fifty river gunboats is not as big as a cruiser!

With the efforts of the river gunboats, although there were many fireships of the Ming army, none of them directly collided with the leading cruisers and frigates, and then interspersed from the middle of the ships!

However, at this time, these cruisers and frigates with powerful firepower exerted their terrifying side firepower!

Hundreds of naval guns opened fire one after another, so that the entire river was filled with cannon rumbling and gunsmoke!

As countless naval guns opened fire one after another, one after another the ships of the Ming army were sunk!

If you look down from the sky, you'll see something like this!

Many Ming ships rushed down one after another, they were first fiercely intercepted by the fire of the Jiangyin Battery, and after losing some of the ships, the remaining ships continued to rush down, and then took the initiative to ignite the ignition on the wear.

Immediately afterwards, some of them, especially those who threatened the main fleet, were targeted and strangled one by one by dozens of inland warships of the Tang Navy, while the fireships that did not pose any threat to the main fleet continued to go down the river, and then found the fierce shelling of the broadside guns of the main fleet!

The vast majority of the Ming ships were completely sunk in this process, or they lost power and floated, and the few that slipped through the net were also sunk by several new patrol ships in the rear one by name.

Not one, not even one of the fireships of the Ming army, could break through this interception net consisting of river defense batteries, inland river warships, and the main fleet, with a total of more than 600 artillery pieces!

This scene was also seen by several generals of the Ming army in the upper reaches of the rear, and in this battle, they also came with the belief of fighting to the death, and brought almost all the ships that could be looted.

But the process of this battle was different from what they expected, they also expected that the warships of the puppet Tang Thief Army had strong firepower, and they would intercept their own fireships with the kind of column of naval warfare, but they thought that even so, they could still have a certain chance of success, because they had enough ships.

But what they didn't expect was that the puppet Tang thief army did not use a horizontal line, but a column, and set up an interception net that seemed to allow them to rush over, but in fact it couldn't be rushed!

The fireship offensive has been a complete failure so far!

Although in the fireboat offensive, a few ships of the pseudo-Tang thief army were also ignited, but there were only a few, and it was harmless at all.

Although it is said that the fireship offensive I, the casualties of the personnel of their Ming army's sailors are almost negligible, because the sailors on the fireship basically jumped into the water in advance to escape.

But it is undeniable that they simply did not achieve the strategic goals they wanted!

The huge fireship offensive seems to be huge in scale, but it has no effect at all.

A general of the Ming Army's naval division had a very ugly face, and finally muttered: "Could it be that in the future, is it really the era of giant ships and cannons?" ”

This word is still passed from the pseudo-Tang Navy, and the Ming Army Sailors will also collect some intelligence about the Tang Navy, knowing that inside the Tang Navy, they highly respect naval guns and ships that can carry more artillery, which they call giant ship cannons!

"No, we still have a chance, our big ship hasn't gone up yet, as long as we rush over and start a broadside battle, we may not have a chance!"

"Opportunity? Will we still be able to rush through? Even if you rush over, will you be able to start a broadside battle smoothly? Can we win the overboard? ”

Others immediately raised questions, and behaved very Beiguan, he obviously didn't think that this battle could be won!

"But you can't just watch the puppet Tang thief army cross the Yangtze River and land, otherwise, Yangzhou will be in danger, once Yangzhou is lost, then it will be all over!" Someone insisted.

And a military general with the title of Zheng Erpin above gritted his teeth, and finally said: "Order the Chinese army to attack, be sure to destroy the pseudo-Tang thief army!" ”

The Chinese army, that is, more than 30 large ships of the Ming Army's naval division and the remaining more than 50 medium ships of tens of tons!

The Ming naval division launched the final attack, but the target of these large ships was more obvious than those small fireboats, and they had just entered the range of the Jiangyin Fort, and many of the shells fired by the guns of the Jiangyin Fort fell on these Ming ships.

The guns on the turrets have been marked in advance, and the hit rate is far more than the hit rate of the guns on the battleship.

At the same time, Ouyang Gui ordered the fleet to start changing formations, the previous three columns were just to deal with the Ming army's fireships, but now it is the main fleet of the Ming army that is going to be opposed, so naturally it is necessary to change the formation.

However, at this time, it is impossible to change from a simple column to a horizontal line, and it can only be a simple collection of three columns into two columns, so that the formation is more close, so that it can exert greater firepower at that time!

After the Ming Army's naval division broke through the fire interception of the Jiangyin Fort, it also crashed headlong into the array of the Tang Navy!

At that moment, the artillery of both sides opened fire fiercely, and then the Ming naval division also tried to get close to engage in broadside battles, and every time at this time, the battleships of the Tang Navy would use dense shotguns and howitzers to drive out the other side.

However, because of the battle in the river, there is very little room for maneuver, so it is inevitable that the ships will be entangled by the ships of the Ming army's sailors, and then they will be forced to engage in broadside battles.

The frigate Hangzhou, at this time, was to encircle two Ming ships that were obviously one size smaller than it left and right, and then the Ming army threw over rows of hook locks.

At the same time, on the deck of the frigate, a group of marines wearing full-body armor, half-body armor, and cuirass, wearing cuirasses and holding muskets, listed several squads, and then watched the Ming sailors on the opposite side climb up to their bow with ropes!

There was no need for the officers to order aiming, the soldiers of the Marine Corps were already shooting their own guns, and at such a close distance, it was naturally a dozen and one accurate!

However, after firing a shot, there is no time to reload them, and these musketeers are standing in rows and then facing the enemy with bayonets, and if there is an occasional gap, they will also reload!

In addition to the soldiers in the Marine Corps, most of the other sailors and gunners on the warship also picked up shields and waist knives to join the melee!

For a while, the three warships that were entangled with each other did not have the sound of cannons, but the gunfire was continuous, and the screams of the people were even more relenting!

This kind of hand-to-board combat is almost no different from hand-to-hand combat on land, and it is the kind of melee!

And in this kind of battle, the side in armor always takes advantage of it!

On the side of the Ming Army's naval division, they are just ordinary sailors, but on the side of the Tang Navy, the main force of the onboard battle is not those ordinary sailors, but the marines, and the marines are basically born specifically for broadside battles and landing operations.

Like the army, they were armed with plate armor, and one for each person, sword and shield men, front spearmen with full body armor, rear spearmen with half-body armor, and musketeers with cuirass.

In broadside battles, spears are naturally not used, but bayonets of more than two meters are just right, and with their armor, they occupy a great advantage in battle.

I don't know how long the battle lasted, the Marine Corps sergeant pulled his waist knife out of a small leader of the Ming army's sailors, and then looked around, but found that he could no longer see any Ming sailors standing.

The deck was full of dead and wounded, some of them were from the Ming army, some of them were from their own side, and the dead were silent, but the wounded and still alive were constantly making all kinds of sounds, some were making heart-rending screams, and some were moaning.

Blood flowed all over the deck, then seeped into the lower deck through the gaps in the deck with a crisp ticking sound.

Tick tick tick, even the rumbling cannon on the river surface is completely muffled!