On a large transport ship, Rear Admiral Chen Keqiao was listening to the adjutant's report on the previous battle between the Navy and the Ming Army's naval division.

Although he could see the smoke of gunpowder in the upstream direction just now, and the sound of artillery was even more dense, but the detailed battle situation could not be seen, and he could judge that the navy had won the victory in this battle, but the specific battle situation was still unknown.

However, since it has been determined that the navy has won a complete victory, then he has completely settled down, and in the next landing battle, he will no longer be interfered by the Ming army's naval divisions, and he can calmly launch a landing operation.

"My lord, the first batch of transport ships is already preparing to dock, and the Ming army on the other side has not set up an interception line on the beachhead!"

Hearing this, Chen Keqiao nodded slightly: "It is a wise move for the Ming army not to resist on the beachhead, if it were me, I would not risk the enemy's naval artillery to resist on the beachhead, but be sure to let the 13th Infantry Regiment be careful, quickly advance to the predetermined location after landing on the beachhead, open up a safe landing ground, cover the landing of follow-up troops and artillery troops, but must not rush into pursuit, in case the enemy army sets up an ambush on the beachhead!" ”

The landing operation of the Tang Dynasty Division is so huge, as long as you are not blind, you can see the transport ships and warships of the Tang Dynasty Division, and even the Ming army and naval division on the Yangzhou side can rush to intercept it, and the Ming army on the Tongzhou side must have discovered it a long time ago and made full preparations.

Chen Keqiao did not intend to let the troops advance, he only wanted the 13th Infantry Regiment to land honestly under the cover of naval guns, and then establish and stabilize the landing ground, as long as he let his Fifth Infantry Division all go ashore, then the enemy forces on the Tongzhou side would absolutely not be able to drive themselves down the river again.

According to the intelligence obtained from the preliminary reconnaissance, the Ming army deployed about 20,000 troops in the direction of Tongzhou, of which at least half were the Jiangbei New Army.

The predecessor of the Jiangbei New Army was actually the Jiangnan New Army, and after the main force of the Jiangnan New Army was annihilated in Jiangnan, the remaining Jiangnan New Army and some of the border troops reinforced by the Jiangnan Army fled north across the river and then were reorganized.

Part of it fled to Anqing, and then the original Jiangnan New Army in the place, as well as other chaotic local new troops, were strongly integrated by Yu Dayou and reorganized into the Broken Thief Army, with about 50,000 troops in this part, with about 20,000 Jiangnan New Army and Broken Thief Army originally stationed in Anqing as the core.

The other part fled to Yangzhou, including more than 10,000 Jiangnan New Army who were originally stationed in Jinling City and other cities in Jiangnan, and then more than 10,000 Jiangnan New Army who were dispersed from the battlefield.

At the same time, there were also some local new troops reinforced from Huai'an, Shandong and other regions.

After the integration, the Jiangbei New Army has about more than 40,000 troops!

However, it is worth noting that in the Jiangbei region with Yangzhou as the core, there are not only the Jiangbei New Army, but also about 20,000 people in the Beijing camp and more than 50,000 people in the border army.

In the entire Yangzhou region, there are about 120,000 new-style troops equipped with guns and cannons, and there are more than 30,000 young men who have been temporarily conscripted.

The garrison in Tongzhou is mainly the Jiangbei New Army, not only Tongzhou, but also other Ming troops stationed in the eastern periphery of Yangzhou, including Taizhou and other places, are also mostly Jiangbei New Army, as for Yangzhou City itself, it is garrisoned by 50,000 elite border troops.

The Liuhe area in the west of Yangzhou is garrisoned by 20,000 Beijing battalions!

It can be seen from this deployment that the Ming army now does not trust the combat effectiveness of the new army in the Jiangnan region very much, and they put their hopes on the 50,000 elite border troops.

The enemy in Tongzhou has about 20,000 people, even if all of them are attacked, as long as his Fifth Infantry Division is successfully landed, he will be sure to block it.

Under Chen Keqiao's order, the 13th Infantry Regiment, which was the first to land, landed quickly after landing, and was not resisted when landing, but it was possible to find that the Ming army's reconnaissance cavalry was frequent, and there was no need to guess that there must be the main force of the Ming army behind it.

The 13th Infantry Regiment also ignored them, but dug trenches and deployed their own defenses to cover the troops of the 5th Infantry Division to continue to land.

Because the Ming army did not resist the beachhead, and the 13th Infantry Regiment did not advance, the expected fierce battle did not appear, but the navy's covering battleships did not relax, but continued to anchor on the shore, aiming many artillery pieces at the land, as long as the Ming army appeared, then they would carry out artillery bombardment.

Under the cover of the 13th Infantry Regiment, the other two infantry regiments of the 5th Infantry Division, as well as the artillery regiment, also began to land rapidly.

Since there was no wharf, the landing was very troublesome, and the first landing could only be a large number of infantry, and the infantry approached the shore by small boats, and then jumped off the boat, stepped on the river and silt, and gathered in the open space of the beachhead with difficulty.

As for the landing of artillery units, it was more troublesome, as the engineering units had to urgently set up a temporary dock and then dock the transport ships loaded with artillery and large quantities of ammunition before the heavy guns could be unloaded.

For this landing operation, many elite engineers were drawn from the navy and army to form a boat bridge battalion of about 500 people, and even hundreds of craftsmen were temporarily seconded from the factories of the Ministry of Industry, and the Royal Academy of Science also sent a team of technical advisers of more than 10 people.

And all this is to quickly build a temporary wharf by the river!

After all, before the official capture of Tongzhou and the occupation of the port there, the Fifth Infantry Division, which landed in advance, will rely on such a temporary wharf for the unloading of its artillery and ammunition, and the replenishment of logistics materials.

The Zhouqiao Battalion was under intense construction, and the infantry of the Fifth Infantry Division also landed one after another, and then strengthened the defense of the landing ground to avoid the attack of the Ming army.

In fact, the counteroffensive of the Ming army has already begun, and their infantry naturally does not have the courage to directly rush up to counterattack, because on the riverside, many capital ships of the Tang Navy and armed merchant ships can directly anchor and act as fixed batteries to provide direct fire support for the Fifth Infantry Division.

And the support of naval artillery is much stronger than the army's own artillery firepower!

The Ming army's counteroffensive was to use artillery, but there were not many of them, only a few, and the Fifth Infantry Division risked sending several elite infantry squads to directly break up their artillery positions and expel them.

Later, the Ming army used cavalry, but even their cavalry did not dare to storm the landing ground of the Fifth Infantry Division.

So on the first day, there was basically no large-scale fighting between the two sides!

By the time it was almost evening, the Funhashi Battalion had finally lived up to expectations and erected a temporary wharf, which, though very rudimentary, was strong enough to unload artillery, wagons laden with ammunition, and horses for the cavalry battalion.

The artillery regiment, cavalry battalion, baggage regiment and other troops that had been waiting by the river for a long time also landed one after another!

And those unloaded transport ships are once again returning to the south bank, ready to load the second batch of landing troops to cross the river!

In the evening, in the middle of the night, all the artillery and ammunition of the artillery regiment were put ashore, and a temporary artillery position was constructed, extending the artillery coverage of the Tang Dynasty's division several hundred meters forward.

By the early morning of the next day, all the troops of the Fifth Infantry Division had successfully landed, especially the many baggage such as artillery and ammunition.

At six o'clock in the morning, the Fifth Infantry Division finally launched a formal attack after the landing, and began to move forward, they wanted to capture Tongzhou in a short time, and the capture of Tongzhou was not to annihilate the Ming army inside, but to seize the wharf along the river outside the city of Tongzhou.

Although the Fifth Infantry Division has landed, there are still a large number of troops of the Third Army waiting to land behind, and in the follow-up landing troops, there are a large number of heavy artillery units, cavalry troops, and baggage troops.

The Third Army had to seize a ready-made port where large ships could be berthed and loaded and unloaded, and the wharf along the river outside Tongzhou was the best option.

Although the scale of this wharf is not very good, and the scale is also very small, the intelligence department of the Navy has already mapped this small wharf in advance, although the scale is small, but several of them are deep-water ports, enough to berth those large transport ships of more than 300 tons, and more than 100 tons to more than 300 tons, this interval is also the main tonnage of a large number of transport ships that are currently free and requisitioned by the Datang Navy and Army.

This kind of ready-made wharf is much better than a temporary wharf, and through non-stop loading and unloading operations day and night, it can barely support the necessary supplies of the Third Army.

So, the 5th Infantry Division went on the offensive!

The Fifth Infantry Division moved, and it was attacking east along the river, and the ships on the navy's side were also advancing, ensuring that the Fifth Infantry Division could be given the most powerful fire support at any time.

When the Fifth Infantry Division moved, the city of Tongzhou was in chaos, and the more than 10,000 Ming troops in the city were arguing endlessly, but the nearly 10,000 people who went out of the city to intercept the landing force of the puppet Tang thief army, that is, the group of Ming troops who were ambushed in the depths of the landing city yesterday, had quietly retreated to Taizhou at this time.

When the Fifth Infantry Division approached Tongzhou, the defenders of Tongzhou decided to abandon the city and flee after some arguments.

Tongzhou, they can't hold it, this is not to say that they are timid and unwilling to fight, but the fact, if they continue to defend to the death, it is estimated that the end of the whole army will be annihilated, so they retreated decisively, of course, before leaving, they did not forget to set a fire, and burned down the warehouses and other buildings in the city.

However, the fire in Tongzhou City had little impact on the Tang Army, because the strategic purpose of attacking Tongzhou was not to seize the city, but just to a small dock!

So after seeing that the Ming army retreated, the Fifth Infantry Division did not pursue, but took over Tongzhou City, and then prepared to meet the main force of the Third Army!

That night, the second landing force of the Third Army arrived in Tongzhou, and then took advantage of the capture of the arrival pier for quick unloading!

The next day, the third and fourth landing forces arrived one after another!

The Third Army used a large number of ships to directly transport all the main forces of the Third Army, including artillery, ammunition, and other baggage, across the river, and the amount of ammunition carried was sufficient for the Third Army to experience five days of high-intensity operations.

After the landing, the Third Army officially advanced westward and killed Yangzhou!