"With two ships to block the enemy's army of 500,000 for two days, who do you think will suffer and who will gain? Besides, do we lack these ships in the Great Song? There are no boats in Taipingdu, but there are many on Jiankang's side. The enemy is coming from afar, and what they want is a quick victory, and if we can use dozens of ships to drag them for a month or two, wouldn't it be cost-effective? Don't worry that they won't come out, you should worry about what to do if they come out, hundreds of boats come out together, can we all wipe them out in the Yangtze River. ”

Yang Congyi immediately answered Su Zhong's questions, and at the same time put forward the questions they should think about.

"Any questions?"

Seeing that the generals did not answer, Yang Congyi said: "If there is no problem, we will divide the combat tasks next." In the first mission, ten warships went to the river outside the mouth of the enemy river to provoke and lure the enemy ships into the river. In the second mission, fifteen warships were ambushed at the southern end of the island, and after the enemy ships entered the river, they bypassed the island and went straight down the river to intercept the retreat of the enemy ships. In the third mission, fifteen warships ambushed at the northern end of the island, waiting for an opportunity to support in case the enemy ships went straight down the river and broke through the encirclement of the warships in front. The fourth task is to prepare two warships full of sediment and stones, and also ambush them at the southern end of the island, wait for the 15 search warships in front to block the retreat of the enemy ships entering the river, wait for the opportunity to find a suitable location for the shipwreck at the mouth of the river, bring a car and ship with them, and pick up the soldiers on the sunken ship in time. The remaining warships were on standby at the ferry, ready to support. Take your own strengths and receive combat missions on your own. ”

"I'll lure the enemy, I've dealt with them a bit in the past few days, and I'm familiar with the waters over there." Xue Wang was the first to receive the task.

Su Zhong immediately said: "Then I'll take the second mission, ambush!" ”

Pan Cheng then continued: "I'll get the third!" ”

But the fourth task has not been picked up for a long time.

"The last mission is crucial, who goes?" Yang Congyi was quite surprised, this task did not seem to be difficult.

"My lord, our warships are very strong, they will not sink when they hit a reef in the wind and waves, and there are no reefs in the Yangtze River, they are full of mud and sand, our warships cannot sink, and it is even more difficult to sink in the estuary without being scattered by the enemy." Suddenly, a pair of generals replied.

Yang Congyi thought about it for a while and found that it is indeed not that simple to sink a shipwreck, it may not be difficult to sink a ship, but it is very troublesome to sink a ship in a designated place in the flowing river water.

"It's difficult, but it's not impossible. Besides, as I said just now, this matter is very important, if you can't sink the ship and block the river, even if you lure dozens or hundreds of boats out, it is useless, and the initiative in this battle is still in the hands of the enemy. The shipwreck is the key to this battle, who can do this, I will give him the first credit for this battle! ”

Yang Congyi's voice fell, and the deputy general immediately hugged his fists and said: "The last general is willing to go!" ”

"Okay, split up and prepare, and attack at noon tomorrow!"

"Yes, sir!"

The generals were ordered to quickly return to the camp and prepare.

There are two enemies with the most difficulty in this battle, one is to lure the enemy ship out of the river and into the river, and the other is to sink the ship at the appropriate position at the mouth of the river.

As for how to lure the enemy ship, Yang Congyi was not worried, Xue Wang would definitely have a way, but he couldn't rest assured about the sinking of the ship, so the vice general who ordered the sinking ship was left alone.

The two discussed for a long time how to accurately sink the ship at the mouth of the river, but no matter what they did, they could not be sure that the ship could be sunk in time at the required location, so they had to try it themselves and try to sink a warship in the middle of the river first.

Since all the warships of the Jingwu Army are sea ships, the bilge has a watertight compartment, which stores fresh water on the one hand, and prevents the ship from running aground and sinking on the other hand. Nowadays, if you want to sink a warship into the river, you must first destroy the watertight cabin.

Therefore, after selecting the test ship, they first cleaned the fresh water in one of the watertight cabins in the bilge, and then chiseled a hole with a large bowl mouth in the bottom of the cabin with an axe, and when the river water poured into the watertight cabin, the watertight hatch cover was immediately sealed.

Subsequently, Yang Congyi personally took the deputy general and more than 20 soldiers to sail the warship into the river to test the fixed-point shipwreck.

Because the sealed partition of the watertight compartment was nailed, the warship stayed in the river for half an hour, and there was still not much sign of water seepage, even if it continued to be in the water for ten days and half a month, the warship would not have much problem.

Seeing this, Yang Congyi ordered to open the sealed partition of the watertight cabin that was chiseled through the bottom of the ship.

When the sealing partition was opened, the icy river water instantly poured into the bilge!

The speed of the river water entering the cabin was unexpected, everyone hurriedly got out of the cabin, ran onto the deck, and the rescue vehicles and ships on the side immediately approached, ready to rescue.

But Yang Congyi and the others did not leave immediately, they all stood on the deck, wanting to see with their own eyes how the warship sank into the river.

Who knows, this is an hour.

As the river was about to overflow the deck, the sinking of the warship became slower and slower, and finally the warship stopped sinking, and drifted downstream with the current of the Yangtze River.

The experiment could only end there, and everyone moved to the parallel vehicles and ships one by one.

At the cost of a warship, Yang Congyi and others witnessed the difficulty of accurate shipwrecking, and also found many problems that were not expected.

Their ship was very large, with only a large hole in the mouth of a bowl, and the shipwreck was too slow, and if the ship occupied the estuary, it could not sink the ship to the bottom in two quarters of an hour, and the river flowed, and the final sinking position must not be the ideal position.

After discussion, it was decided to start from two aspects, on the one hand, it was necessary to dig a few more holes in the watertight bilge, there were 12 watertight cabins on the warship, and if five or six of them were selected, the speed of water ingress in the cabin would definitely be greatly increased. On the other hand, it is necessary to load sand and gravel in the bilge and bilge to increase the weight of the warship itself, firstly to speed up its silence, and secondly, to prevent it from being carried away by the current or being forcibly dragged out of the river by the enemy after sinking.

After the plan was decided, he immediately began to clean up the warship, load the sand and gravel, and enter the intense and busy preparations.

In the evening of the same day, Yu Yunwen came to the riverside and sent the first batch of grain, only 1,000 quintals, which was only enough for seven or eight thousand people at the ferry to eat for three or four days.

But Yu Yunwen told Yang Congyi that in fact, the grain, grass and materials stored in Jiankang Mansion are very rich, but now the people are panicking, the people are fleeing, and the defenders can't leave.

The problem of food and materials, Yang Congyi is not very worried, Jiankang Mansion is a big city in Linjiang, it is definitely a rich place, and the imperial court wanted to establish a defense line on the Yangtze River from the beginning, relying on natural dangers to resist the enemy, so the material reserves of Linjiang Prefecture must be very sufficient.

Yang Congyi knows very well who Yu Yunwen is, even if the historical records are wrong, just because he was alone at the last moment, he organized the defense of Linjiang in time, stopped the enemy's vanguard outside the city in time, and delayed the process of the enemy's attack on Taiping Prefecture, so Yang Congyi was very relieved about Yu Yunwen's logistics and supply problems.

Yang Congyi did not have many reservations about the battle plan for crossing the river that was determined not long ago, and informed Yu Yunwen in 1510.

Regardless of whether he understands military affairs or not, in the case of all the officials in Taiping Prefecture fleeing, Yu Yunwen from Lin'an is the head of the local military and government, and naturally wants to be in charge of the military and political power in Taiping Prefecture.

For the Song court, all military power that was not controlled by civilian officials was dangerous, even when the enemy was pressing.

Now 500,000 enemy troops are eyeing the other side of the Yangtze River, if the Jingwu army is defeated in this battle, naturally no one will be held accountable, but if the enemy army is defeated, the whole country will be shaken, and the eyes of the Great Song Dynasty will be concentrated on Taiping Prefecture, no matter what flaws Yang Congyi and the Jingwu army have will be recorded by people with intentions, once the crisis passes, the lord and faction of the court raise their heads, and the infighting begins, they are the victims of the struggle.

Therefore, Yang Congyi did not want to leave a handle for anyone, and all his military actions must be approved by Yu Yunwen, who was in charge of the local military and political power on behalf of the imperial court.

Although Yu Yunwen did not understand military affairs, he had been thinking about how to defend and how to retreat from the enemy these days, and he couldn't sleep at night, so as soon as he heard Yang Congyi's battle plan, he immediately agreed, took the initiative to attack, disrupted the enemy's plan to cross the river, and forced them to cross the river in a hurry.

Therefore, Yu Yunwen ordered Yang Congyi, the commander of Taiping Prefecture, to command the Jingwu Army, the Yangwu Army, the local defenders of Taiping and the people who came to Taipingdu to support, block the enemy army from crossing the river, and wait for the opportunity to defeat the enemy's naval army!

After receiving the order, Yang Congyi dispelled his last concerns.

The next day, the day was noon.

Xue Wang led ten warships to shore the shore, entered the Yangtze River, went upstream, bypassed the islands in the river, and went straight to the direction of the enemy camp in Hezhou.

Then Su Zhong led the warship to the shore, from the island and the river bank upstream, to the southernmost point of the island in the river.

"Commander Ma, Commander Yuan, Taipingdu will be handed over to you for the time being, there are 500,000 enemy troops on the opposite side, in case they smuggle in from the upstream and attack around the rear, we must always be vigilant, do not take it lightly! If there is really an enemy attack, don't mess with your position, the Yangtze River is wide, it is difficult for the enemy to cross the river, the number of people who attack and harass will definitely not exceed 1,000, hold the Taipingdu position, and destroy them! ”

This time he took the initiative to attack, Yang Congyi had to personally go to the front line to command, and before boarding the ship, the Taiping River Defense had to make arrangements.

"My lord, if there is really an enemy attack, and they don't come to the ferry, but go to attack Taiping City, what will we do?" After the two received the order, Yuan Hua asked.