In Jiangyin, one ship after another, whether it is a large transport ship of several hundred tons, or those small and medium-sized transport ships of only a few tens of tons, are all busy at this time, and the fleet full of the Fifth Infantry Division began to set off together, and at the same time, there is a cruiser, two frigates, and six armed merchant ships to escort them, and when they land, provide direct artillery support for the army troops.

However, at this time, more people did not set their eyes on them, but turned to the upstream!

Because in the upper reaches of the Ming army has appeared densely packed with ships, in addition to more than 30 obviously large large ships, sand boats, more of them are only a few tons of small boats, these small boats densely covered almost the entire river.

You don't need to look at it to know that many of these small boats must be loaded with all kinds of ignitions, and most of these are arsonist boats!

Perhaps it was aware of the time for the real decisive battle, but the Ming army's sailors obviously did not hesitate, and in a short period of time, all the ships that could move were sailed.

And now, the river surface in the upper reaches of Jiangyin is densely packed with ships of the Ming army's sailors!

On the Jiangyin Fort, the commander of the Yangtze River Fleet, Rear Admiral Chen Pingyang, frowned: "The one who came is not good!" ”

At the same time, a naval colonel next to him said: "Yes, look at this posture, the enemy's naval division has already poured out, there are more than 30 large ships of more than 100 tons, and there are more than 60 medium ships of tens of tons, and those small boats are nearly 200, this number is basically the same as the number we got from our previous reconnaissance!" ”

After saying that, he showed a hint of sorrow: "The enemy army is pouring out, I'm afraid that the firepower on the side of the battery will not be able to catch it, and there is no way to give the fleet too much support!" ”

At this time, Chen Pingyang said: "As long as the fort provides covering firepower according to the predetermined plan, the rest depends on Lord Ouyang!" ”

"In this battle, Lord Ouyang personally led the main force of the First Fleet to fight, and this battle will be won!"

At the same time, on the Lianzhou, the flagship of the First Fleet, Ouyang Gui was also accompanied by a group of naval generals, looking at the dense Ming army sailors upstream with binoculars, but unlike Chen Pingyang and others on the shore of the fort who were worried, Ouyang Gui now seemed full of confidence!

Ouyang Gui is confident, naturally not because of arrogance, but because of the strength of the First Fleet!

In order to cooperate with the army's river-crossing operation, the navy has invested a lot of money this time, and basically all the combat ships that can be dispatched are transferred here.

Here, not only the warships of the First Fleet and the Yangtze River Fleet, but also the Second Fleet also dispatched capital ships to the north to support the operation, in addition to the Minjiang Fleet and some inland river ships of the Pearl River were also transferred.

At this time, the Tang Navy, which gathered on the river surface of Jiangyin Port, had three cruisers, nine frigates, sixteen armed merchant ships of more than 200 tons, and six patrol ships of 150 tons.

Then there are about 50 river gunboats of tens of tons to assist in operations, and more than 200 transport ships of various types of navy themselves or temporarily requisitioned.

Some of these warships will directly escort the transport ship to land, while most of them will conduct interception operations.

So many ships are also covering the entire river!

Although the Ming army on the opposite side was numerous, and they were ready to use their geographical advantages to launch a fire attack, the strength in Ouyang Gui's hands was not weak, and they were well prepared.

At first, the army was not prepared to land in Tongzhou, but planned to cross the river at Quarry, a place where soldiers would have to fight, but this plan was resolutely rejected by the navy.

Because Quarshiji is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the strength of the navy in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is weak, although there are nearly a dozen armed merchant ships, but these ships can barely control the Jinling River defense on weekdays, but to cover the landing of the army, it is almost impossible.

Once there is no cover from the navy, the landing of the army across the river is just a joke!

Later, the navy proposed to land in Tongzhou, east of Jiangyin, and in this way, the army was very reluctant, because if it landed in Tongzhou, it would be too difficult to cross the river, and the logistics supply would be more troublesome, and it was too far away from Yangzhou, and it was easy to be counterattacked by the Ming army if the number of troops was small after the landing, but if the landing scale was large, it was very difficult.

At the same time, it will also face the threat of the Ming army's naval divisions, and the Ming army's naval divisions can attack from the upstream, and the risk will be greater at that time.

Later, the navy made a package ticket, and the navy will do its best to form a blockade line in Jiangyin to ensure that the Ming army's naval division cannot cross the Jiangyin blockade line, and at the same time, it will also gather more transport ships to ensure that it can transport one division of the army ashore at one time, and transport one division at a round trip, and strive to send the entire third army to the opposite shore within two days.

After the navy made a package ticket, and it was really after the main force was exhausted, the army agreed to the plan of landing in Tongzhou.

And now, the battle plan has been launched, the Fifth Infantry Division of the Third Army has all boarded the ships, and under the cover of a small number of naval warships, it has crossed the river to prepare for the landing in Tongzhou, while the other units of the army are also preparing intensively, although there are not many ships left, but they can transport as many as they can, and now, every quarter of an hour is very precious.

The army is crossing the river and landing, and the time to test the navy is coming, because the Ming army sailors are coming, and as soon as they come, they will come out of the nest, and the comers are not good!

Retracting the binoculars, Ouyang Gui turned sideways to the chief of staff next to him and said, "Order all detachments to prepare for battle according to the predetermined plan!" ”

Immediately, the Lianzhou was unfurled with a flag to convey the latest orders to the detachments.

The huge fleet began to change formations, and it was divided into three, but instead of deploying a single horizontal column as usual in naval operations, three columns were arranged.

According to the plan formulated by the navy, it was almost an impossible task to stop the almost 200 arson ships of the Ming army's naval division head-on.

As long as they are not sunk on the spot, then they can go all the way down the river, and then load the battleships and transport ships of the Tang Navy, which are almost facing the river.

Therefore, this time, the Datang Navy changed its traditional tactics and changed the horizontal team into a column.

Since it is impossible to stop these fireships head-on, let them drift down the river, but use the huge crossfire of the column to crush them directly!

That's why they formed three columns, so that they could maintain control of most of the river and make full use of crossfire to annihilate the arsonists.

Such tactics also put forward higher requirements for the firepower of the Datang Navy, because if there is not enough firepower, then it is impossible to destroy these arson ships.

And it would be almost a disaster to let such a large number of arsonist ships go down the river, survive the interception of the battleships, and then pounce on the large, slow-moving fleet of transports.

"They're almost there, and now they're less than seven hundred meters away!"

"The battery is about to open fire!"

The three columns, with the three most powerful cruisers as their respective flagships, were followed by numerous frigates, armed merchant ships, and at the rear were several new Lianping-class patrol ships.

Of course, in addition to these capital ships, nearly 50 ships with only a few tens of tons, built directly by the navy in the Yangtze River valley, or simply drawn from the Minjiang and Pearl River fleets, are also indispensable main forces in this war.

These gunboats are small and very flexible, and those arsonists are hardly much of a threat to them, and all they have to do is destroy them one by one!

Not long after, the artillery of the Jiangyin battery on the shore opened fire!

Of course, more importantly, the ships of the Ming Army's naval division are almost densely spread across the river, and the artillery of the Jiangyin Fort is also a lot, not only there are dozens of shore defense guns of the Jiangyin Fort itself, but also the three independent howitzer battalions of the Third Army, the Sixth Artillery Regiment and the Eighth Artillery Regiment have also moved all the artillery to the Jiangyin Fort, making the number of artillery here more than 200.

More than 200 artillery pieces fired one after another, and most of them were arson, grenades, chain shells and other shells with destructive power to ships, while ordinary solid shells did not hit much.

Watching the Jiangyin Fort shoot almost barrage-like shells, even Ouyang Gui on the river couldn't help but nodded, this level of firepower, even if it is on the navy's side, can only be done by concentrating the main fleet.

However, such a level of firepower did not move Ouyang Gui, because the firepower of the main fleet of the navy was even stronger, and the huge fleet under his command had a total of more than four hundred guns of more than five catties, and the firepower directly exceeded twice the firepower of the battery!

In addition, the battleships were also equipped with a large number of shotguns, which were of little use in naval warfare, but were very useful against arsonists of only a few or dozens of tons.

In this interception battle, the Datang Navy and Army are preparing to use unprecedented firepower coverage to intercept the Ming army's arsonist ships, and use a total of more than 600 artillery pieces to cover the landing of the army carrying transport ships in Tongzhou!

As the barrage of barrages was fired from the side of the battery, the ships of the Ming army that came quickly upstream inevitably had their ships hit and suffered different injuries, some of the hulls were damaged, some were directly hit and caught on fire, some were killed and wounded, some had broken masts, broken sails, and all kinds of things.

However, there were many ships in the Ming army, so they continued to go down the river!