Chapter 34 Fighting Zuo Liangyu See the Eight Kings

suffered losses twice in Poyang Lake, which made the sexually violent Zuo Liangyu furious, but Zuo Liangyu was not a reckless man. After carefully understanding the reasons for the two losses, he did not punish his subordinates. Let them carefully study the response to the encounter with the kiln gang warship again. Tell his subordinates: "The kiln gang people started by doing business, and they do everything in order to earn money." So they will definitely come to Jingdezhen again, so that we still have a chance to take revenge. ”

Zuo Liangyu was thinking hatefully, I don't care where you Yaogang people are, it's up to me to get here. Don't scare me with any imperial bronze medal, even the emperor doesn't dare to do anything to me now.

This time, Sun Chuanting sent troops south to suppress the thieves and ordered Zuo Liangyu to send troops to help in the battle, Zuo Liangyu also clearly obeyed the order, but in fact, the main force did not move at all. Afterwards, Zuo Liangyuxin said: "Thanks to Lao Tzu, I didn't go to your funeral." Otherwise, if we have no soldiers and horses, who will take Lao Tzu seriously. ”

Zuo Liangyu's military discipline is very bad, but Zuo Liangyu's training is not ambiguous. His navy had already come up with several ways to deal with steamships. Their general strategy was not to let the steamers take advantage of their speed to escape, and then to use the advantage of their own ships to find a way to surround them, and try to engage in close combat to prevent them from taking advantage of their artillery fire.

This time, as soon as Li Mao's fleet arrived in Jingdezhen, there was news to inform Zuo Liangyu's battalion.

Zuo Liangyu's navy set up a big net at the exit of Poyang Lake and waited for Li Mao and them.

Although Li Mao and the others did not encounter trouble when they came to Jingdezhen, Li Mao and Mu Yi did not dare to relax their vigilance, but let them be extra careful, because Zuo Liangyu guarded the Yangtze River and was famous for being a live pickpocket, and it was very abnormal not to meet them. In fact, Li Mao and the others were really wrong, because the Yangtze River was divided into several sections by several people, there were very few ships on the Yangtze River in transportation, and they had no interest in waiting for the ship for a long time, and they all returned to the port to stay. Therefore, Li Mao and Mu Yi did not encounter interception.

This time, because Li Mao and the others had two warships, and there were also two flat-bottomed tugboats, they had a bottom in their hearts, so they set sail and left Jingdezhen Wharf during the day.

The two warships led the way, leading the way.

Li Mao and Mu Yi knew that the most dangerous place was the place where Poyang Lake exited, because it was the only way for boats to enter and exit.

When he was about to reach this dangerous area, Mu Yi ordered the soldiers on the lookout to pay attention. As soon as Mu Yi finished speaking, the lookout soldiers shouted: "A large number of warships have been found ahead. ”

Mu Yi shouted: "Keep watching!" He came to the cab with Li Maoyi and used the set up telescope to observe. However, because the position is not as high as the lookout, the shadow of the ship is not visible for the time being. Mu Yi said: "We should let the two flat-bottomed boats take the fleet and drag it back, and our two warships will go to meet them first, and see what tricks they have again?" ”

Li Mao said: "It seems that Zuo Liangyu must have gotten the information that we are coming, otherwise they would not have come out with so many warships waiting for us." Today they are going to fight in groups, and I think we will keep our distance from them, hit them with our mortars, prevent them from approaching, and eliminate them one by one. ”

Mu Yi said: "Actually, we are not afraid of them in close combat, just be careful with their red-coated cannons." However, they are only effective when they are close enough to be about three or four hundred meters. Otherwise, if we stop there and let them fight, they won't be able to fight. ”

Mu Yi ordered to signal the flat-bottomed boats behind them to pause their advance, and ordered another warship, following Mu Yi's command ship, to prepare for battle, advance in parallel, and slowly approach the mouth of Poyang Lake.

The officers and men of Zuo Liangyu, who were waiting at the mouth of Poyang Lake, had been waiting impatiently for a long time, and finally heard the sound of a "booming" steamship in the distance, and they all signaled to each other and lifted their spirits. Because they sent sixteen large and small warships this time. Prepare to take revenge on the humiliation twice.

When the two sides slowly approached, Mu Yi and the others slowed down the speed of the ship, and through the telescope, Mu Yi found that the other party's ships were really many, and he must not rush into the middle of their fleet and let them surround them. Besides, if the other party doesn't say anything, he really can't shoot casually. Finally, Mu Yi ordered the ship to stop and observe.

Zuo Liangyu's sailors saw Li Mao and their two ships coming, and they planned to let them get closer, so they swarmed up, surrounded them in the middle, and annihilated them in one fell swoop. But the cunning opponent suddenly stopped the ship. However, at this time, the opponent was already very close to his own fleet, and the leader of the team ordered: "Now open the cannon, and rush up together to surround it." ”

Zuo Liangyu's official army's ship came up with cannons from afar. In fact, firing artillery from such a distance can only play the role of creating momentum, and cannot create any real threat.

Li Mao said to Mu Yi: "It's up to you now." ”

Mu Yi smiled and said, "I'm waiting for this day, and I'm a little anxious to wait." Command to reverse and keep a distance from enemy ships. ”

At this time, the problem of enemy ships was exposed.

Zuo Liangyu and the others thought of one of the several tricks to deal with the Yaogang steam ship, which was to connect several warships blocking the way together with a big rope, if the other party rushed between the two ships, they would inevitably be stopped by the north rope, and the ships on both sides would be docked towards the blocked ship. This should be said to be a good solution, but what they didn't expect was that the opponent did not rush over, but retreated. And their leader ordered the pursuit, and the ships in the pursuing fleet were not of the same type, and the distance between the front and rear of the ships in their naval army was widened. Mu Yi used his telescope to see that there were two warships in it, which had just finished firing their guns, and they were the most actively chasing, and their positions were very prominent.

Mu Yi ordered a signal to stop the retreat of the other ship and his own and advance to attack the enemy. Mu Yi's ship and another warship each tacitly agreed to deal with an enemy ship that was prominently pursuing. When the two sides approached more than 1,000 meters, Mu Yi's ship opened fire first. At such a long distance, they are all on board to deal with moving targets, and the hit rate is very low. There were twenty mortars on each ship, but the shells fell around the opponent's ship, which immediately caused the opponent to panic, and as the two sides approached, the enemy finally saw an explosion on the ship. Since they are all wooden ships, the lethality of a **** is not small. Wait for two shells to fall on the opponent's ship. The opponent's ship was no longer in control, and it almost stopped there, at the mercy of the wind.

Mu Yi ordered the replacement of the fire oil shells, and after two batches of shells were fired, one fire oil bomb landed on the opponent's ship. The coal tar immediately set fire to the opponent's sail rigging. The ship also immediately burned into a large torch on the water.

Mu Yi saw that the opponent of another warship also had smoke on his ship, and it seemed that he had also been shot. Just wanted to go over and support another warship. The enemy ship, which suddenly smoked, also caught fire.

Mu Yi ordered the signal to continue reversing and retreating.

Two ships, each on fire, and the enemy ship retreated.

Zuo Liangyu's sailors saw that two ships were on fire, and several warships were ready to lean over to rescue, but when they got closer, they didn't dare to approach, the fire was too fierce, so they could only rescue the sailors who jumped into the water, and then watched the two ships burn.

When the leader of Zuo Liangyu's navy saw the two warships that were constantly retreating, he still thought that there were few ships in Yaogang, and he was afraid that he would have too many ships, so he signaled to continue the pursuit.

But now the warships of Yaogang have moved away from the exit of Poyang Lake and entered Poyang Lake, the lake is wide, and the two warships of Yaogang use the maneuverability of the boats to not retreat in a straight line, but to maneuver left and right, and soon the warships of Zuo Liangyu's navy are separated from the distance between the left and right.

Mu Yi seized the opportunity and counterattacked again, and each warship sank a warship of Zuo Liangyu's navy. At this moment, the leader of the team led by Zuo Liangyu's water army was a little hot, like a gambler who lost with red eyes. Desperately ordered to pursue these two warships, in fact, at this time he also knew that he couldn't catch up, but what if he didn't chase now.

At this time, Li Mao saw from the telescope that the two flat-bottomed boats drove over together. It's just that none of them have towing barges behind them. It turned out that the two flat-bottomed boats in the back had been waiting in the back, but for a long time, only occasionally a burst of cannon fire could be heard, and finally the captains of the two flat-bottomed boats discussed that the enemy ships in front must be too difficult, so it was better for us to drop anchor the barges and go to help in the battle. The two captains actually had an itch in their hearts for a long time, and they hit it off.

When Mu Yi saw them coming, he ordered each of them to cooperate with one warship. In this way, two ships, one large and one small, cooperate to rush up as long as they see the opportunity to meet a lone ship, and they will soon sink the opponent. Because the flat-bottomed boat was also equipped with ten mortars. This kind of firepower against a wooden sailing ship is like a cat playing with a mouse. Finally, after Zuo Liangyu's navy lost seven warships, it could not resist and began a comprehensive retreat.

At this time, Li Mao did not order to chase, he knew that as long as he subdued them and made them no longer a threat to him, it would be useful to keep them to restrain Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng. Besides, Li Mao has always had an idea, that is, to meet this Lord Zuo Liangyu, although Li Mao is really disgusted with Zuo Liangyu, but Li Mao knows that if they can form an alliance with him, they will definitely be a restraining force for Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

Looking at the Zuo Liangyu naval warship that had fled far away, Li Mao ordered the flat-bottomed boat to go back and tow the barge back, and then went straight to the exit of Poyang Lake, this time there were no ships to intercept it. When they left the mouth of Poyang Lake, they entered the Yangtze River, and increased their horsepower all the way to the west, going upstream.

After entering the Yangtze River, Li Mao said: "It seems that we will not be able to reach Hankou today. ”

"It's coming, it's just night." Mu Yi said.

Li Mao said: "No, we have to go there during the day. ”

"Haha! Li Gongzi, I think you're a little uninteresting. You're still hiding something from me. Mu Yi was a little dissatisfied.

Li Mao measured Mu Yi and said, "I want to see this person, and the fewer people who know, the better." I can't hide this from you, I wouldn't have seen him without you. ”

Mu Yi said smugly: "Haha! It's good that you know. If we had to go to Hankow during the day, we would find a place where the water would ease before dark, and anchor for the night. ”

Li Mao said: "That's it. ”

After the fleet passed Daye (Huangshi) and Ezhou, at a bend in the Yangtze River, found a place where the river was relatively wide and the water flow was gentle, Mu Yi signaled the other ships and ordered them to stop and anchor and rest here for the night. After dropping anchor, Li Mao asked Mu Yi to put down the boat and go to pick up the other three captains. On the command ship, Li Mao held a meeting with them.

Li Mao said to Mu Yi and several captains very seriously: "The content of our meeting this day needs to be kept strictly confidential, please remember it clearly." The entire operation, including tomorrow, needs to be kept strictly confidential. ”

After speaking, Li Mao looked up at everyone one by one, and saw that everyone nodded solemnly. Li Mao continued: "The ships we brought this time are all our own ships, and the people are also our own people, so I think the secrecy work should be easy to handle." Tomorrow we will trade the goods of the two barges with the people of the Eight Kings on the Wuchang Wharf, and if this matter is spread and the government knows about it, it will be the crime of banditry. So we must not be careless. Tomorrow, I will take the flat-bottomed boat that pulls the goods for the Eight Kings to dock at the dock and trade with them, and Mu Yi will take the other ships to guard by the side in case of accidents. If something really happens, Mu Yi will lead the team not to stay, continue to finish the rest of the work, and don't care about me. We set off as soon as we finished trading and continued to swim against the current. Is it clear to everyone? ”

"Clear!" Let's talk about it together.

"Any questions?" Li Mao asked.

"Nope!"

"It's not good, let's go back and rest first. We'll set sail early tomorrow morning. Li Mao said.

After the boat sent everyone away, Mu Yi asked Li Mao: "I said, isn't it a bit risky for you to go directly to the trade by yourself?" ”

"It's not just about trading, I'm going to meet him this time and talk about it carefully. I guess it's fine. Just be prepared. As he spoke, Li Mao drew a figure of eight.

Mu Yi knew that Li Mao's meeting of Zhang Xianzhong was definitely a big deal, and everyone else thought that he was doing a somewhat illegal business with Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates, and they didn't know that there was such a thing happening under their noses.

Mu Yi began to admire Li Maolai, if there was no similar thing, everyone couldn't see any difference together, as soon as there was such a thing, the difference between people and people would come out.

I don't know how much work Li Mao has done behind them.

In the morning, Li Mao had breakfast and took a small boat to the flat-bottomed boat. Mu Yi's command ship first added coal to the fire, and when the steam was already sneering, the captain looked at the pressure gauge, and then told Mu Yi that it was okay.

Mu Yi said: "Whistle and set sail!" ”

"Woo!" With a flute, the warship slowly rolled up the big iron anchor, activated the propeller, and continued to move forward.

The other ships also raised their whistles and set sail.

There was some mist on the river.

When the fleet came to the river in front of Wuchang, the lookout reported that "two warships were found in front!" The flag is unknown. ”

Mu Yi ordered: "Look again! ”

When I got closer, I saw clearly that the ship of Zhang Xianzhong's navy was in front of me, and according to the agreement, Mu Yi ordered to carry out a red-clothed cannon, put it on **, and set off a cannon in the sky.

Usually, Mu Yi and they don't use this kind of cannon at all, but it is easy to use him for communication, and the sound of the cannon can be heard far away. The opposite side quickly responded with two cannon shots. Because the redcoat cannon is the opponent's main cannon, they are prepared for a long time, so the cannon is also fast. Also according to the agreement. The other party hung a string of red flags on the mast, and Mu Yi hung a yellow flag on his side.

Zhang Xianzhong's warship turned around and led the way in front, while Mu Yi's warship followed behind.

When he came to a wharf on the south bank of the Yangtze River, Zhang Xianzhong's warship stopped not far away.

Mu Yi's warship and the warship behind him gave way to the channel, and let Li Mao's flat-bottomed boat, dragging five warships, to the dock.

There were already a lot of people on the pier, and they helped the flat-bottomed boat tow a string of barges and slowly docked on the pier. Although the boat came to a standstill, Li Mao did not leave the wheelhouse. He used his binoculars to look around the docks. He did not see the man he was waiting for, and did not move.

After waiting for a while, a few people arrived from Pegasus in the distance. When they came to the dock, they were about to get on board, but the musketeers on board stopped them. Li Mao saw it and hurriedly walked out of the wheelhouse to pick up the people on board.

The person who came was an old friend, and the first time he bought a horse from the Yaogang people was this person, who claimed to be Song Tao, and had been doing business on behalf of Zhang Xianzhong and the Yaogang people.

Songtao came to the boat, took a sip of tea, and said, "Shopkeeper Li, I'm waiting for you so hard!" How did you get there? ”

Li Mao said: "Hey, don't say it, we were entangled by Zuo Liangyu's army yesterday, and we finally beat them away before coming over." ”

Li Mao said it lightly, but Song Tao was shocked when he heard it, he said: "Oh, Zuo Liangyu's navy is powerful, we fought a few battles with them, and we won and lost each other." Now we are well water, not river water, and we do not cross the line with each other. I didn't expect you to knock them back. ”

Li Mao said: "It's nothing. Li Zicheng's army was also defeated by us in one night in the Yellow River. ”

Song Tao said: "Our host will come over after a while. Let's take stock of the goods first! ”

"yes, that's exactly what I want."

Since the goods on the two barges were for Song Tao and them, the two sides separated two groups of people to count the unloaded goods.

Song Tao said to Li Mao: "Actually, Daye, which is not far from us, is a place that produces good steel, but compared with your good hand, ours is too bad." ”

Li Mao knew that he was talking about manganese steel, and the price of manganese steel was about the same weight of silver here.

The various industrial products produced in the kiln were loaded into a shipload and a half, and the rest were goods from the north such as cowhide, cow tendon, and horn.

Soon a large group of horse-drawn carriages with no end in sight came.

Song Tao said: "How about it, let's go to the dock and see how about the silk and embroidery you want?" ”

Li Mao gave half of the silver obtained from the sale of the goods to Song Tao and asked them to help buy silk and embroidery. This is all said in advance.

It seems that Song Tao wants to do this business. is very attentive, Li Mao is very satisfied after reading it.

Song Tao said: "Shopkeeper Li, this kind of business should be done often, do you know how many embroidery women we can make a profit in this business?" ”

Of course, Li Mao's fabrics and embroideries this time can benefit many people, but such words, coming out of Song Tao's mouth, made him look at Song Tao very differently.

Li Mao said: "With the words of Shopkeeper Song, we have done this kind of business, and we will try to make it bigger." Let thousands of people follow us to benefit. ”

Song Tao said: "Now that the war is continuous, and the people are living a difficult life, we work hard to earn some silver ourselves, and also benefit the people." ”

"With the people in your heart, our business will be expanded. Shopkeeper Song, come with me. Li Mao said.

Li Mao led Song Tao to the cabin and asked people to take out a roll, a zhang wide bleached woven cloth for Song Tao to see.

This Song Tao is a knowledgeable person, he opened the cloth scroll and saw that he had never seen it, white dazzling, flat, bright and soft wide woven cloth. Song Tao's eyes lit up and said, "Good things, good things!" How can you weave such a good cloth? We want as much as you have this stuff. ”

Li Mao said: "This roll of cloth is for you to make samples, and we will grow cloth in large numbers of producers in the future." and those with a width of one zhang and those of three feet and five feet. After we have made the price, we will contact us again and try to bring more and buy more silk and embroidered tea. Let the people here also benefit. ”

After unloading the goods, the goods brought by Song Tao were loaded onto the barge, and the silver brought by Song Tao was also loaded onto the flat-bottomed boat.

The two of them drank tea on the boat for a while, and a team of people came from the dock and surrounded the dock on all sides.

Song Tao immediately got off the boat and came to the dock. After a while, another group of people came. Li Mao also came to the dock, and Song Tao said, "He's here." ”

Li Mao saw that the person came and turned over and dismounted, and he seemed to be very athletic. Song Tao and Li Mao greeted them.

Li Mao had long heard that Zhang Xianzhongsheng's appearance was peculiar, and this peculiar appearance also saved his life. In his early years, Zhang Xianzhong worked as a catcher in Yan'an Mansion, and was later dismissed, so he went to Yansui Town to serve in the army. Because he violated the law and was beheaded, the main general Chen Hongfan saw his strange appearance, pleaded with the chief soldier Wang Wei for him, and beat a hundred military sticks to remove his name, while the other seventeen people in the same case were beheaded. When I saw it today, Zhang Xianzhong did look extraordinary, he was born with a long body and a golden face, no wonder some people called him "Yellow Tiger".

According to the prior agreement, in order to keep the meeting confidential, they all used special names. Li Mao stepped forward and said, "Li Mao of Yaogang has seen Zhang Dongjia. "Zhang Dongjia is called Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Xianzhong was stunned for a moment, and immediately reacted, saying: "No courtesy, no courtesy, shopkeeper Li, my old Zhang can be regarded as the person who saw you." ”

Li Mao hurriedly said: "Zhang Dongjia is not a place to talk here, we are talking on the boat. ”

Zhang Xianzhong was also busy saying: "Okay, good." ”

Zhang Xianzhong walked to the boat accompanied by Song Tao and Li Mao. Zhang Xianzhong's personal soldiers wanted to go up first, but Zhang Xianzhong waved his hand and said, "Go back!" ”

The soldiers had to stop.

Entering an upper cabin behind the cab, Zhang Xianzhong sat down and found that the place where he sat was soft. Li Mao hurriedly said: "Zhang Dongjia is a sofa, you are not used to it, right?" ”

Zhang Xianzhong said: "Get used to it, you kiln people do all the weird things, and you can also make a way out of this thing under the ass." Ha ha! ”

There are glass windows on both sides of the upper warehouse, so the cabin is very bright, and it seems that Zhang Xianzhong is in a good mood.

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Mechanics of Materials, Theoretical Mechanics, Elastic Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".