The mighty river rolls from the southwest, and the east of the Yangtze River is the so-called Jiangdong land, which has been the richest place in the world since the Tang Dynasty.

From the upper reaches of the Jiangdong River, the waterway is the most convenient, and the mighty river is the best way to transport troops. Because there are too many hills, lakes and rivers on the south bank of the Yangtze River, it is not conducive to the march of the army at all.

Over the years, there have been countless battles on this great river, rolling Yangtze River water, and countless heroes in the waves.

Now, on the Yangtze River, a great war between the Ming and Qing dynasties is about to start, and hundreds of thousands of troops are facing each other in the land of Wuhu.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty took the British prince Azig as the general of Jingyuan, and had 40,000 soldiers under his jurisdiction, more than 200,000 soldiers of the green battalion, and 1,000 warships.

The Ming Dynasty took Pingnan Hou Chen Yue as the general to capture it, and marched westward with the power of Yangzhou's great victory, with 60,000 Pingnan troops, 20,000 Zheng family troops, more than 60,000 Beijing battalion soldiers, a total of 140,000 troops, and more than 500 warships.

This is a battle to destroy the country, for the Ming Dynasty, if Wuhu is defeated, Nanjing not only has no barrier, but also has no army to fight.

For the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Duoduo Department on the East Road has been completely wiped out, and if the Eight Banners of the Azig Department lose too much, the Manchu Qing will lose most of their power, not to mention the occupation of the Ming Dynasty, and even the strength to suppress the Mongols is insufficient.

Since the battle is so important to both sides, and neither of them can afford to lose, it is natural that they cannot afford to fight. Neither side rushed to attack, but set up camp and then sent small troops to test each other, looking for the other's flaws. And that's the norm in a big war.

On the Yangtze River, from time to time, there are small-scale water battles, arrows flying indiscriminately, firearms roaring, fighting and fighting, and from time to time ships are ignited and sink into the river in the raging fire.

On the riverbank, Azig sent several green battalions to march along the riverbank, trying to defeat the Ming army from the shore, but the Ming army relied on the terrain to set up a solid camp next to Wuhu City, so that the green battalion soldiers returned from several attacks in vain.

A few days later, both sides also had a preliminary understanding of each other's strength. In the land battle, the Pingnan Army relied on the hills to set up a strong camp, and there were dozens of overlapping camps, and it took me no idea when it would take to break so many camps, and I didn't know how many troops would be lost.

The natural attrition of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, after all, there are more than 200,000 green battalion cannon fodder in the army. But time is not good, now it is about to enter summer, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, once the stalemate reaches June and July, the hot weather alone can destroy the Eight Banners, so Azig can't wait.

After all, as long as the Ming army's naval fleet cannot be destroyed, even if it is won on land, it will not be able to attack Nanjing.

In terms of the strength of the naval army, the Qing army had more than 1,000 ships of all kinds, which were much higher in number than the Ming army, and Li Guoying, Xu Ensheng, Hao Xiaozhong and other green battalion generals led the Jingxiang army and were familiar with water warfare. And the results of the water battles with the Ming army in the past few days show that the combat effectiveness of the two sides is about the same.

However, the number of warships of the Qing army was much higher than that of the Ming army, and it was further upstream, so Azig believed that the water battle was very likely to be won. However, he didn't know that in the water battle a few days ago, the Ming army did not use all the hole cards.

On May 20, the eighteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, on the water surface of the Yangtze River in the west of Wuhu City, a fierce water battle was underway.

Under the orders of Azig, Lu Guangzu, Zhang Yingxiang, Chang Deng and other green battalion generals led more than 300 warships down the river and launched an attack on the Ming army in Wuhu.

And the Ming army did not show weakness. Chen Yue ordered that Lu Tai, the chief soldier of the water battalion, be the commander, and the deputy general Wu Ping and the deputy general Zheng Hongkui Zuozhi should lead two hundred main warships to meet the attack.

On the Yangtze River, artillery roared, and gunpowder smoke filled the entire river.

This is a duel between sailors, not the kind of two days ago when a few dozen boats were trying to attack. As soon as the two sides came up, they used all their strength without reservation.

At the rear of the Ming fleet, Zheng Hongkui stood on the deck of the command ship, looking at the firepower of the Pingnan Navy in front of him in shock, he didn't expect the Pingnan Army to place so many guns on the warship!

The Zheng family's sailors controlled the routes of the South Seas and the Wa Kingdom, and it can be said that most of the Ming Dynasty's maritime frontiers were the Zheng family's world. The Zheng family naval division is also the strongest naval fleet in the entire Ming Dynasty, and in terms of naval warfare, the Zheng family is not even afraid of the Dutch on Dongfan Island, so Zheng Hongkui is very conceited.

Therefore, Zheng Hongkui was very unconvinced that Chen Yue asked Lu Tai to be the commander of the water battle.

But now, he saw the strength of the Pingnan Army's warships, so he was shocked.

Whether it was to exterminate the pirates or fight with the Dutch, the Zheng family sailors always relied on a large number of people and ships, and the naval battle of Liuluo Bay also relied on ships to surround and attack the Dutch to defeat the Dutch.

The Zheng family did not attach much importance to the use of artillery. Because even if the main force of the Zheng family's naval division, the three-masted Fu ship, is limited in structure, it can't fit many cannons at all. The Zheng family never intended to sink enemy ships with artillery, and naval warfare relied more on broadside battles, relying on bows and arrows, firearms, and fireships to attack.

And now Zheng Hongkui is followed by flat-bottomed warships, these ships are much smaller than the ocean-going ships, there are not many guns on the ships at all, only on the main warships will there be one or two.

But now, judging from the sound, almost every warship of the Pingnan Army Naval Division has artillery, because it is hundreds of artillery pieces roaring!

Zheng Hongkui didn't know that the Ordnance Department of the Pingnan Army had specially designed artillery pieces ranging from tens of catties to hundreds of catties for inland river warships, with ranges ranging from half a mile to several miles. Almost every ship had several artillery pieces, and the entire Pingnan Army had more than 300 main warships, and the number of artillery pieces was as high as six or seven hundred.

Of course, compared with the red-coated artillery, these cannons of tens and hundreds of catties are all small cannons, which are not used for siege and fortification, but they are enough to deal with enemy ships on the river.

The 300-pound cannon, with a projectile weighing two pounds and two pounds, has a firing range of three miles, and its power can easily penetrate the ship's gunwale. If you are hit by two shots, the ship will be flooded in large quantities, and the frame will be broken apart.

And now, the fleets of the Ming and Qing dynasties were still several miles apart, and the Qing ships were already covered under the range of the Ming army. Countless shells broke through the air, landed on the river water, and smashed on the boats, and from time to time the green battalion soldiers were grazed by the shells and let out howls that were not like human beings, and more were killed on the spot without saying a word.

Fight back? The warships of the Qing army were all captured from Zuo Liangyu's army and the Shun army, and where did these two armies have any professional sailors, saying that they were warships, they were more civilian boats used to ferry people. There are a lot of bows and arrows on the ship, and as for the artillery, please, how can such a heavy thing be carried on the warship?

Therefore, in the face of the attack of the Ming warships and artillery, the Qing fleet fell into a situation of passive beating at the beginning.