On the sea, the cannon rumbled, the fire soared into the sky, from the night until the third day before the curtain came down, the Lu army nearly 10,000 warships rushed through the pass, and the 2,000 warships of the East China Sea Division were in hot pursuit, large and small warships went into battle, and the cannonballs and arrows used up in one day were more than those used by the Chinese army and sailors for more than ten years.

From the sea of Suzhou Prefecture to the Ryukyu Kingdom, there are broken ship fragments and corpses floating everywhere, and in three nights, two thousand Lu army warships were broken and five hundred were captured, these are some warships and merchant ships, and only nearly two hundred warships of two thousand materials and fifty warships of four thousand materials participated in the battle.

In fact, Kong Youxing had already broken through in a large circle from the sea in the Beijing-Tianjin area with about 1,000 warships and about 1,000 merchant ships.

During the day on the fourth day, when the First Fleet of the Huaxia Army returned to the garrison to repair the warships, leaving the Second Fleet to continue to blockade the Lu army, the Lu Army concentrated 500 warships of more than 4,000 materials and more than 1,000 warships of more than 2,000 materials to break through.

The Second Fleet pursued closely, and at the same time sent clippers back to move rescue troops, the First Fleet led more than 300 warships that were good at fighting, and dispatched 1,000 warships below 1,000 materials from the Yangtze River Garrison Naval Division to assist, and pursued closely, catching up with Hong Chengchou's warship fleet on the sixth day, nearly 3,000 warships and merchant ships could not go fast, and nearly 6,000 warships on both sides fought together, and finally Hong Chengchou still led most of the merchant ships and 500 search warships for a total of 1,200 ships to reach the Ryukyu Kingdom.

In the six-day naval battle, Lu lost 4,000 warships and merchant ships of less than 2,000 materials, 1,500 warships of more than 2,000 materials and less than 4,000 materials, and 600 warships of 4,000 materials to more than 8,000 materials, which can be described as heavy losses.

Almost eighty percent of the sea forces of the Lu State were lost, or all were taken away.

The East China Sea Division also lost 1,600 warships below 2,000 materials, and 800 warships between 2,000 and 6,000 materials, almost completely losing the auxiliary ships, nearly half of the warships, and 30,000 troops, and it was even more unable to prevent the withdrawal of the Lu army.

After a seven-day breakout, the Lu army took away 70,000 soldiers and horses, three new army towns of the Lu army, 30,000 elite old army troops, as well as a large number of gold and silver treasures, weapons and equipment, and a population of 100,000.

After Zhang Qiang learned about this, he immediately ordered the garrison of the Yangtze River Naval Division to launch an attack on the shore fortifications of the Lu army on the Yangtze River defense line, and at the same time led the 200,000 troops of the Guards Corps from Shandong Prefecture into Suzhou Prefecture to fight, Xiao Fei's Corps also led 200,000 troops from Anhui Prefecture to Suzhou Prefecture, and the Jinqi Corps transported a small number of elite cavalry and artillery units to the opposite bank through the troop carriers of the Yangtze River Naval Division Garrison, took some small bridgehead positions, and invested troops to attack the enemy's Yangtze River defense line.

In fact, the main force of Suzhou Prefecture is still the Golden Qi Corps.

On the evening of the seventh day, when the 1st Cavalry Brigade secretly took advantage of the enemy's deployment of troops to deal with the garrison of the Yangtze River Naval Division, it used a battalion of small boats to sneak attack a small village on the Yangtze River defense line.

Where is a battalion of soldiers and horses of the 11th New Army Town of the Lu Army stationed.

The 1st Cavalry Brigade instead of the 1st Field Brigade was because the Cavalry Brigade could be used as an infantry attack or a quick attack on the enemy's weak points, and although it was more cumbersome to transport horses, once the gap was opened, the small strength of the cavalry brigade could cause great trouble for the enemy.

The landing operation Jinqi Corps has been practicing for decades, waiting for this day, for this day Jinqi has been planning since he was transferred to Jinling, and has repeatedly used small forces to test the enemy's defense line, and has repeatedly sent small groups of ships of the Yangtze River Garrison Water Division to infiltrate the hinterland of the enemy's defense line, landing from an unexpected place of the enemy, either sending one or two people, or sending some supplies, and then quickly returning to the channel, there are successes and failures, with more failures, the weakness of the enemy's defense line is touched through, Know where the defenses are, where the enemy may ignore, where the enemy patrols and where the enemy is best to deal with.

This time a battalion of cavalry brigades and their horses, as well as a number of three-pounder and six-pounder guns, were suddenly sent up, allowing the unit to move quickly.

As soon as they landed, the vanguard of this small force, about twenty people, quickly settled the patrol posts along the coast, the old army units of the Lu army patrolling on war horses, a dozen drunken Mongol cavalrymen, and two Han cavalrymen.

The small force of twenty men left six to wait for the troops behind, and quickly launched a reconnaissance, and the movements of the nearby five miles were clearly detected, and then the second wave of landing troops arrived, and another twenty people, and at the same time brought forty horses, this time they could raid the second wave of the enemy's passing cavalry patrol and the enemy's secret sentry cavalry near the village.

Thirty cavalrymen came and went like the wind, and quickly cleared all the enemy within five miles, turning the area into a dark vacuum of force, and after half an hour five cavalry returned, and a third wave of landing troops arrived, bringing in artillery, and a company of cavalry.

More than 200 cavalry could already make the enemy feel fearful, leaving 50 cavalry to garrison here, more than 100 cavalry quickly seized the ferry, and more than 50 cavalry expanded the reconnaissance and search area to twenty miles, clearing the enemy's scouts and patrols.

The fourth wave of troops arrived and brought with them baggage, shells, ammunition, and fifty cavalry, which quickly departed in a boat to support the more than a hundred cavalry who had seized the ferry.

Shots rang out, and there was a mess on the ferry, which was resolved in less than ten minutes, and at this time the cavalry of the whole battalion arrived by boat, and all the troops and supplies were brought ashore, and the wagons with cannons, the wagons of the baggage soldiers, and a company of garrisons connected to the ferry, while the cavalry battalion quickly pounced on the enemy's village, and the enemy in the village was already in disarray, and they all turned over and rushed to the ferry, followed by a group of infantry.

However, it was ambushed by 600 cavalry on the way, and in less than two hours, the cavalry battalion completed the first step, occupied the ferry, destroyed the enemy's forces defending the ferry, and captured the bridgehead.

Subsequently, the warships of the Yangtze River Garrison Navy Division sailed to the ferry to prevent the enemy's warships from attacking, and the troop transports continued to transport supplies and troops to the shore.

The cavalry battalion had cleared the small enemy forces within a radius of fifty miles.

With the arrival of the cavalry regiment, the line of defense within fifty miles was taken, about three batteries, three ferries were taken, a small town was occupied, and after daybreak, all the forces of the cavalry brigade arrived, after which they pounced on the enemy's county seat.

After they left, a garrison regiment arrived, took over the defense, and then the 2nd Cavalry Brigade arrived, the 12th Field Brigade arrived, and by the eighth day the Chinese army had occupied a radius of 100 li, captured the largest crossings, and jammed the rivers of some tributaries.

A steady stream of forces passed through this direction into the enemy's hinterland.

Of course, the Huaxia Army landed in more than one place, a total of three places were selected, two were successful, one failed, which one failed was a county crossing, where there was the enemy's largest coastal defense battery, the Huaxia Army's Jinqi Corps lost two battalions of cavalry brigade soldiers, a garrison company of soldiers, 1,000 marines, 50 warships, 100 merchant ships and fishing boats transporting troops, only destroyed the enemy's three shore defense batteries, and took a few small ferries of the enemy, and was driven down the river bank by a large number of enemy troops.

Hong Chengchou's operation on this defense line in recent years has not been fruitless, and this is also why Zhang Qiang does not want to risk huge losses to attack, but has formulated a long-term strategy to carry out a roundabout encirclement operation against Hong Chengchou's Qing army, and has surrounded Hong Chengchou's Qing army as a whole for thousands of miles.

The battle of crossing the river lasted for a day and a night, broke through the enemy's land of 150 miles, and lost a cavalry regiment, a garrison battalion, 2,000 marines of the naval division, a battalion of field brigade troops, 1,000 militia units, 200 warships of less than 1,000 materials, 300 merchant ships, and more than 80 fishing boats.

At a landing ground by the sea, in a small town fifty miles away, the 13 th Field Brigade had nearly 13,000 troops, and the 30,000 infantry of the old army commanded by Ma Bao were in full swing.

Ma Bao only came once in the early morning, and then handed over to a Manchu general to command, and he returned to Yangzhou Mansion, sitting in the original palace of Hong Chengchou, on the emperor's throne, holding on to the handrail, quietly thinking about things.

Hong Chengchou was originally going to leave him six new army town troops, 100,000 old army troops, but now Hong Chengchou only took three new army town troops, 30,000 old army troops, and the sea was blocked by the Huaxia Army behind, and the Yangtze River Garrison Water Division of the Huaxia Army blocked the river without losing it, and fought with the Lu Army Naval Division that remained, and at sea, the Second Fleet of the East China Sea Division of the Huaxia Army blocked the sea outlet, and the First Fleet blocked the coastline of nearly 500 kilometers along the coast, just blocking all the coastline on the territory of the Lu Army in Suzhou Prefecture.

Now he has nine new army town troops, more than 200,000 old army troops, and 10,000 Mongolian cavalry, but this can only be said to be a drop in the bucket for the Huaxia Army's offensive troops with 600,000 troops, and the territory that needs to be defended is too big to hold at all.

Although the guards corps of the Huaxia Army, led by Zhang Qiang, attacked from Shandong Prefecture, is still a few hundred miles away from Yangzhou Mansion, and Xiao Fei's Corps is also two or three hundred miles away from Yangzhou Mansion, and they are still on the east side of the canal, but the strength of the Golden Qi Corps has surrounded Yangzhou Mansion from both sides, although it is still a hundred miles away, but he knows that the Lu State is over, and the troops in his hands cannot hold these territories.

There are still 500 large warships in his hand, 1,500 small and medium-sized warships, but he knows that it is impossible to break through the defense line of the Huaxia army and flee to the Ryukyu Kingdom, well, it may be the Lu Kingdom now.

He was very frustrated, very frightened, wiped a handful of tears for a long time, and shouted outside the palace, "Bring the wine." ”

(End of chapter)