Chapter 209: Capture

The sound of mortars in the direction of the estuary indicated that the flat-bottomed steamboat must have returned to support itself and the thief army behind it was fighting. Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun discussed and decided to turn around and go back immediately to completely deal with the remaining warships of the thief army and the navy.

The sound of mortars in the back was really the explosion of shells fired from that flat-bottomed boat.

As soon as the cannon sound of the two warships engaged the thief army in front of them sounded, the fleet behind knew it. The flat-bottomed steamer immediately accelerated and dragged the fleet downstream. When the flotilla passed through the mouth of the Luo River, the people on board the flotilla could see the burning warships on the Luo River. But at this time, they could not stay, they knew that this was according to the pre-war regulations, the warship had to drag the warship of the thief army and cover the passage of the fleet, and time was likely to be exchanged for life.

When the steamer had been towing the fleet far away, and there was no longer any light to see the burning warship fire, and no longer to hear the rumbling cannon sound on the Luo River, the steamer stopped the ship, unloaded the rope that dragged the fleet, and turned back to reinforce the two warships fighting in the Luo River.

The steam warships went all the way upstream, and easily beat the large warships of Li Zicheng's navy one by one, and the powerful combat effectiveness made none of those small warships dare to participate in the battle, and they could only watch the two powerful warships pass by in front of them as if no one was around. But when the warship left, these warships of all kinds gathered together. Since there was no unified command, after a long period of discussion, they finally organized and decided to fight when the two warships returned. For if the king found out that they did not take part in the battle, he would see that his great ships were set on fire, and he himself would not be able to escape death.

When this flat-bottomed steamboat had just entered the mouth of the Luo River. The little warships found a small steamship, and they thought that the small one must be easier to deal with than the larger one, so they swarmed around them.

The remaining little ships thought they could make some money on this small boat, but they were wrong.

Although this flat-bottomed steamship was much smaller than the warship, it was also a ship of 400 stones, which was not too small. The ship was equipped with ten mortars, as well as a number of bows, crossbows, minemen, and musketeers.

As soon as the boats approached, the searchlights on the steamers immediately locked on the nearest ship, and the mortars on the ships immediately began to fire at the ship, and the mortars did not have a high hit rate against these boats. But for such a small wooden ship, one shell was enough to solve the problem. From the moment the flat-bottomed steamer began to participate in the battle, almost at a single concentrated fire, a small warship sank under mortar hit. The gunners on the steamships are becoming more and more courageous, and the guns are getting more and more accurate. After sinking a total of seven or eight small ships, the other ships did not dare to come forward. Because every time the warship is locked by the light, it will soon be beaten and either set on fire like a candle, or it will be destroyed and sunk to the bottom of the water.

Now it is not a question of these warships besieging the Yaogang steamship, but of which of them the steamship will attack. The fleeing ships were in a state of utter fear, and they were even more afraid of the pillar of light than they were of the devil. Every time the pillar of light swept past their ship, the whole ship was terrified, and he was ready to jump off the ship as soon as his ship was locked by the pillar of light.

Because Yaogang's boats were blocked at the mouth of the Luo River, these Li Zicheng's warships could only escape against the current, but it was not easy for the sailing ships to escape against the current, and their only choice was to lean to the shore and abandon the ship. Of course, the sailors of Yaogang welcomed them to do so, so that they could save cannonballs and capture the ships completely, so why not.

By the time the two warships returned to the estuary to join the flat-bottomed steamer, the battle was over. After the three ships were combined, Liu Yun had been thinking about how to take advantage of today's surprise attack and expand some of the results. His opinion was to go back and bombard the forts he had just seen before dawn. Because the question that Liu Yun was thinking about now was no longer a question of fighting one more fort and one less fort, he was already thinking about the issue of the naval army fighting the fort in the future. What is more important is that such a blow to the morale of Li Zicheng's army was far greater than their actual losses.

Liu Yun's suggestion was unanimously supported by Fan Chengkun and Li Wei.

In this way, the two warships, one big and one small, went up the current at maximum speed in the night. Completely ignore the warships docked on the shore.

When he used the telescope to see clearly that there were four batteries in the distance, Liu Yun said to Fan Chengkun: "Now there are four batteries, and we will first concentrate all the firepower to bombard the largest one in the middle, and when this battery is hit and on fire, each of our three artillery groups will hit one each." An artillery crew is on standby. ”

Fan Chengkun nodded: "Yes! Good way. ”

Li Wei came over and said: "When the cannon is fired for a while, can you stabilize the speed of the boat, it is best to stand still against the water." In this way, the shelling is much more stable. ”

Fan Chengkun said: "That's no problem. Then he passed the order to the two ships behind him.

This fort on the shore was built by the Ming army in the past, and it is a throat from the Luohe River into Luoyang, and these forts are to guard this choke point. In the middle of the night, when the front batteries were bombarded, it was also reported that the defenders on the batteries were also waiting for the warships to attack from the river, and their guns were already loaded with medicine, waiting to be fired.

The defenders on the fort have always felt very strange, dozens of warships of their own navy are guarding the mouth of the Luohe River, how can there be warships of the Ming army going deep into the Luohe River to attack the fort. They thought it was the Ming Army's naval warship that came in. The water army of Yaogang has not yet entered the eyes of these people.

The artillerymen on the anxiously waiting fort could finally see a pillar of light appear on the surface of the river from a distance, although they did not know what the pillar of light was, but they knew that it was not their own navy, because their own navy did not have such a thing. When all the guns were aimed at the predetermined positions in the river and ready to fire, the opposing ships suddenly turned around and retreated. They thought that the warships of Yaogang had discovered that the artillerymen on the fort were waiting for them, and they were afraid and retreated.

The general on the battery, of course, was delighted, and he ordered not to let up and prevent the enemy ships from coming back again. But after waiting for a long time, the sound of artillery in the direction of the estuary has been silent for a long time. The defenders of the fort were already sleepy.

The generals on the fort discussed it and thought that there would be nothing wrong tonight. Tomorrow is dawn, let's see how the battle of the navy goes. It was decided to leave the sentinels to observe and the others to return to the camp to rest.

But not long after they returned to the camp to rest, the three warships of Yaogang came again.

This time, when the ship approached the vicinity of the battery, the searchlights on the ship were turned off, and the boat was heading upstream along the middle of the bright river. The sentinels on the fort did not dare to slack off, and kept paying attention to whether there were any pillars of light on the river downstream, because the pillars of light were very obvious when they came. But they never saw the pillar of light, but slowly they heard a kind of "boom" vibration sound that they had never heard before, which made the two sentries standing guard feel very puzzled, thinking that this was a very dangerous thing, and one of the sentries hurriedly went to call out to the little leader who led the class, the little leader who was sleeping in a daze, was woken up and asked: "What the fuck are you shouting, is the enemy ship coming?" ”

"No, but we heard something and felt something was wrong. Hurry up and listen! The sentry replied.

The little boss scolded angrily: "Fuck you, didn't the enemy ship come, don't bother Lao Tzu!" After saying that, he turned over and fell asleep.

This sentry was so depressed, he kindly reminded him to pay attention, and he was scolded if he didn't get well.

The sentry who returned to the answering post said to the other, "I told him to get up, but he was scolded if he didn't get up. ”

Another sentry said: "Fuck it, we don't care, when the enemy ship comes, we'll run first." ”

By this time, the steamship was already very close, and the roaring sound was already clear.

The two sentries still couldn't hold back, and one said, "It's really not good this time, I have to call him up." ”

The sentry said, "If I want to shout you, I will be scolded by him, and I will not be beaten if I go again this time." ”

He said, "Well, let's go together this time." ”

As a result, the two of them went to the place where the little boss was sleeping, and called out to him, "This time something is really wrong, go and see." ”

The little boss just wanted to have a seizure, and then he thought that these two people must have discovered the situation here, otherwise they wouldn't have come to call themselves again. Despite his reluctance, he got up and followed them to the fort. When he got to the fort, he also heard the sound of "boom" very clearly, and he was so angry that he scolded: "Fuck, why didn't you report it earlier." "I felt that something was wrong when I scolded, because someone called me and ignored me. The little boss looked at the river and was about to give the order to sound the alarm. The searchlights of the boats in the river suddenly lit up, shining a pillar of light on this fort, and the three men on this fort suddenly squatted down with their eyes. One of the sentries shouted, "Oh my! I'm blind, I'm blind! The other two men, who could not see anything with their eyes, heard his shouts and wondered if their eyes were also blind and blind.

At this moment, a series of "tongtong" sounds were heard from the river, followed by the screams of "squeak, squeak", and then the sound of cannonballs falling on them.

The officers and soldiers on the warships of Yaogang also relied on their trust in the weapons in their hands, extinguished the searchlights, and drove the boat to the bottom of the battery before the speed of the ship was stabilized against the water, so that the ship almost stopped on the river, and then suddenly turned on the searchlight, and the prepared thirty guns immediately came to a salvo, this time because of the close distance, most of the shells fell on the battery, and the shells overturned several guns on the battery to the ground, and what is even more tragic is that the shells detonated the ** and shells on the battery, and also ignited the twist of the cannon that was loaded with medicine and did not fire. The shells, **, and artillery immediately removed a corner of the boulder and blue-brick fort. The mortars in the kiln lost no time in replenishing a fire oil bomb, in order to use this high fort to make a torch to illuminate the three forts.

The artillery on the river, according to the plan, each group took care of one battery. After two more rounds of firing, the four batteries on the river bank became four tall torches.

At this scene, the defenders on the angry shore will be thunderous, and countless infantry and cavalry with torches will rush out of the camp, and they will come to the river bank and blindly fire bows and crossbows and arrows at the boats in the river.

Li Yunhe and Fan Chengkun could clearly see the beards of Li Zicheng's soldiers on the shore through binoculars.

Li Wei didn't seem to have enjoyed it yet, and came over and said, "When we leave, let's leave some thoughts for the brothers on the shore!" ”

Liu Yun said: "Two shots per cannon, you can arrange it." How you fight is your business. We're just looking at the fun. ”

Li Wei happily ran out, and after passing the order to the two boats behind, forty mortars from the three boats fired two salvos. Two rounds were fired from each gun.

This time, Li Wei divided the riverbank into four sections, and each group was responsible for one section. The main head of the artillery of each group divided the targets of each gun. Because the distance was too close, the shells were also very accurate, and in addition, none of the officers and men of Li Zicheng on the shore had any experience in being bombed, and they did not know how to lie down and dodge when they heard the sound of "squeak", and the shells exploded directly in the crowd on the shore. After two rounds of firing, the warship of Yaogang began to turn around in the river, and then in the faint morning light, it sailed down with the joy of the victors.

Li Zicheng's troops on the shore suffered numerous casualties in these two rounds of shooting, and more importantly, this blow was a blow to the morale of this team that had won many battles, and it was a blow more serious than the number of dead and wounded. Basically, they didn't have any power to fight back. Their generals understood that after completing the task of attacking the battery, they gave themselves such a moment, and they did not take it too seriously, and if they did not leave, they attacked themselves there, and the consequences were unimaginable.

Not long after the turnaround, Liu Yun said to Fan Chengkun: "Commander Fan is going to make a fortune this time, I saw when I came, there are at least four big ships that can be used, we just drag these boats on the shore out." ”

Fan Chengkun was obviously prepared very early, and said, "I have arranged the captains of the four ships. ”

Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun laughed at each other.

There is no one who thinks about these ships more than Fan Chengkun, and there are three boats that are well docked on the shore. Another ship was hit by a shell, but the fire before docking was extinguished by the ship's soldiers. The burn is not very bad.

Liu Yun: It was already dawn when they met the first ship. Although the officers and soldiers of the kiln gang did not rest after a night of fierce fighting, no one thought about sleeping at this time.

Unloading a dinghy, a new captain was sent with a couple of soldiers dragging a rope and rowing to the shore. The soldiers who came ashore carefully approached the side of the boat with muskets, and after checking that there was no one around, they cautiously climbed onto the ship, because the side of the ship was very high, and it took a lot of effort to climb onto the side of the ship. But it's easy to go up and drop the rope. As soon as the others got on board, they collected the whole ship. I didn't find anyone else, so I tied the rope that I dragged over to this big ship that was rushing to the shore, and two steamboats, one large and one small, worked together to slowly drag the boat into the water.

Liu Yun smiled at Fan Chengkun and said, "Congratulations to Commander Fan for getting another warship."

Fan Chengkun's smiling face blossomed, and he waved his hand vigorously to the cheering soldiers on the boat. When the steamer was close to the captured ship, some soldiers passed by, for a large ship needed many soldiers to handle.

According to the same method, Fan Chengkun commanded everyone to drag two more warships into the water and take over. Among them was the ship that was on fire. In fact, when I went to the ship, I saw that the whole ship was very intact except for the front deck of the ship, which burned a little.

Just as everyone was happily preparing to tow the fourth ship back into the river as well, trouble came.

These Li Zicheng's sailors rushed the warships to the river bank and abandoned the boats, not only were they timid and afraid, in order not to be sunk in the river, it was a good choice to grab the beach and dock. Because both sides of the river are Li Zicheng's territory, as long as the day dawns, Li Zicheng's army on the shore arrives. These warships docked were still owned by Li Zicheng's navy. What they didn't expect was that the kiln people didn't wait for dawn to start collecting the boat, and they didn't expect that they would tow away the boat leaning on the river bank with a steam boat.

When the morning dawned, when the imposing Li Zicheng's army accompanied the navy to the shore, they found that three large ships had been dragged behind the Yaogang steam ship, and there was still one large ship leaning against the shore. At this moment, those Li Zicheng's troops could no longer let the Yaogang people tug the boat.

Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun looked at Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers who were surrounding the warship on the shore, and after discussing it, Liu Yun called Li Wei and said, "You see Li Zicheng's army on the shore, you have to use mortars to beat them away, but you are absolutely not allowed to hurt that ship." ”

Li Wei said: "Don't worry, if someone hits that ship in broad daylight, I will eat him." ”

Li Zicheng's army on the shore looks very neat and must be his absolute main force. Apparently they were not the same unit that had been beaten last night, and they were about to run away from the boats in the river with their guns on the shore. At this time, Fan Chengkun controlled the speed of the ship, and Li Wei's mortar went to fire first.

The first row of shells blew up the artillerymen who were setting up their guns, and the fragments of the barrels and wooden gun carriages flew into the sky. Several boxes of ** they brought were also set on fire and exploded.

Only then did the commander of Li Zicheng's army feel that something was wrong, and the opponent's fire was too fierce. Then Li Wei's order was to shoot freely. The artillerymen now chose their own targets. Li Wei's mortars are already equipped with artillery scopes, and now they can all use the artillery scopes to shoot directly.

At such a close distance, forty mortars began a one-sided slaughter, and the gunners fired wherever they found the number of people. At the beginning, the disciplined team had been in formation amid the explosion, but after the second round of shooting, the team could no longer hold on and began to scatter and flee for their lives. The so-called defeat is like a mountain, and that's it. Because the generals in command hesitated and could not make a correct judgment on the situation in front of them, they suffered serious losses among their officers and men.

In fact, it is no wonder that Li Zicheng is the general of this army, it is impossible for them to let people tow their warships away in their occupied areas, and besides, he has never encountered such fierce firepower, and he does not know how to deal with this situation, he only knows that the soldiers of the king cannot be afraid of death, and cannot retreat and escape.

But if you don't take the initiative to retreat, you will be forced to retreat, and the price you pay will be very miserable. The soldiers who ran away could run through the shells on their legs, and the mortars let go of their hands and feet this time, firing one shot after another, and the soldiers who ran far away did not know how to lie down to avoid the shells, but only knew that the farther away from the river was better. The worst thing is those who run in piles, and the first thing the artillery hits is the people who are in piles. The banks of the river were littered with the corpses left behind by Li Zicheng's soldiers. The general who led the troops was lucky to be killed by a mortar bomb, otherwise Li Zicheng's military regulations would not have been able to let him go.

Now the most embarrassing thing is the sailors who have returned from the infantry with Li Zicheng, who have already boarded the ship they abandoned last night, and in the sound of mortar explosions everywhere, they found it safe to stay on this ship, so they all hid in the cabin. When the mortar stopped, they didn't dare to come out immediately. By the time they came out again, the ship had been surrounded by the musketeers of the kiln.

Looking at the muzzle of the black hole under the ship, the frightened sailors on the ship had no choice but to surrender in formation.

After Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun dragged the fourth warboat back into the river, they did not forget to drag the small warships on the shore into the river as well. A total of twelve Cangshan boats and eight wheels were available for these small warships. The four warships were two Fu ships and two centipede ships.

The four warships in Yaogang are all Fu ships, plus these two Fu ships Yaogang now has a total of six Fu ships, plus these two centipede ships, Yaogang now has eight large warships, twelve Cangshan ships, eight wheels, and three flat-bottomed boats.

This is already a very powerful naval force in the inland river.

Captain Mu Yi came over and said to Liu Yun, Fan Chengkun and Li Wei: "The surrendered sailor (captain) was also captured by the Ming army and surrendered to Li Zicheng, I used to know him, I want to go over and persuade him, use it for us, how about it?" ”

Fan Chengkun said: "This person will descend Li Zicheng, and then come to us, do we dare to use such a person who descends back and forth?" ”

Mu Yi said: "Actually, you don't know that the middle and lower-level officers in the Ming Army's naval division, that is, they can be a little more majestic in front of their brothers, are actually very unsatisfactory, and now it is difficult to pay food and salary on time." If you want to mix well in the army, you have to make offerings to the front, but those who are not willing to loot on those poor brothers do not have the money to offer, so the mixture is very unsatisfactory. As for surrendering Li Zicheng, there is no way, maybe it is more comfortable to do it to Li Zicheng than to do it to the imperial court, which is not easy to say. But I think that when they come to our team, they will soon feel that this place is different from other places. They'll blend in with us, too, and with their seafaring skills, I don't think it's a shame not to use them. Sailing is not like sailing in a river here, it requires real skills. ”

Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun were moved by Mu Yi's words. Fan Chengkun said: "Then you can have a good chat with him and see what his attitude is?"

The thief on the warship was called Shi Tao, of course, after a long conversation between Mu Yi and him, Shi Tao, who no longer wanted to live, agreed to work for Yaogang. He promised to surrender on the shore just now, because he didn't want his brothers to bleed in vain, he thought that he was dead, he surrendered from the Ming army to Li Zicheng, I am afraid that no one will accept him anymore, if he is handed over to the Ming army, it will be a dead end.

Just as he was in the lower compartment with his head down, he was lifted into the upper cabin. I didn't expect to meet Yang Junyi here.

Seeing Yang Junyi, Shi Tao hurriedly stood up and asked, "Is it really Brother Junyi?" ”

Mu Yi said: "Brother Shi, you are not mistaken, it is me. I have now changed my name to Mu Yi. is the deputy commander of the Yaogang Water Army, which is the second leader. ”

Shi Tao asked, "Didn't you say that you had already died in battle?" The coffins were all shipped back? ”

Mu Yi smiled bitterly and said, "That Yang Junyi is dead, and it is Mu Yi in front of you." ”

Shi Tao understood and said, "Gao Ming, Gao Ming." If you don't die, you have to die when you go back. Someone has to be a scapegoat. Alas! ”

"Alas!" Shi Tao remembered his situation again.

The kiln is a very mysterious place for Shi Tao, and there are many rumors from the outside world. After listening to Mu Yi's introduction this time, he naturally agreed to join the team of Yaogang.

On the way to Kaifeng along the water, Liu Yun, Fan Chengkun, Li Wei and Mu Yi invited Shi Tao to drink a meal of wine on the boat, which made Shi Tao, a man, move to tears.

After seeing Shi Tao, Liu Yun said to Fan Chengkun: "Commander Fan, you have accepted another general!" ”

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Calculus formulas, tables of chemical elements; Conquer Japan in the east and attack Mayi in the south; Penicillin, syringe. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".