On September 15, the Qing army led by Ao Bai defeated the Zheng Raid Corps in Jiangbei, even though the Zheng army had the advantage of the navy, but there were still thousands of people drowned in the water--- most of these people were servant troops, and none of the old squad who came down from the ship drowned, and thanks to these, Zheng Raid and Gan Hui gathered more core troops.

"Quick, quick!" Four large ships kept lowering their dinghys, loaded with soldiers of half a sentry and two or three guns. In the same way, these guns were also flintlocked, and after nearly a hundred doors were lined up, the scattered iron sand harvested the pursuers in pieces, and gradually gathered the routs under the command of the military flag.

In fact, this weapon replaces the function of the tiger squat cannon, and it can also be fired with a bracket, and the firepower is much stronger.

"Boom!" The two general guns on the side of the ship opened fire one after another, and the shells fell into the ranks of the Qing troops who were charging intensively, frightening the Qing army to rout and retreat. Using the fire of four large ships, a narrow safety zone was formed within less than a mile of the shore.

"With Amber, why did you let those new fake Tartars get on board first?" A Qian general manager who has been with Gan Hui for many years wondered, shouldn't he hold the core first at this time?

"Aren't those people our soldiers?" Gan Hui asked rhetorically, "These people can't swim, our old camp can swim, and the boat is left for those who can't swim, so we can bring more people back to Jiangnan." ”

Of course, Gan Hui's move also has the move to buy people's hearts, although the troops in his hands have been dispersed, but the core troops have not lost too much, and the few subdued military leaders were completely scattered in the war, and they don't know what to do, this is a good time to expand their core troops, and at this time, sending these northerners who rarely know how to swim from the rolling Yangtze River to the boat is the best coagulant for people's hearts.

More and more ships rushed over from the wharf on the south bank, and slightly smaller gunboats also rushed to Jiangbei, dragging a few huge rockets and flying towards the regrouped Qing army. In order to save the Jiangbei Corps, nearly half of the Zheng army's naval army was concentrated on this section of the river, and Aobai, who was looking in the distance, gasped and ordered the withdrawal of the army. On the water is different from on land, a ship can concentrate firepower, and the defense is much stronger than on land, can you let a horse run into the water to attack hundreds or thousands of warships?

That night, Zheng Jing, who stayed in Nanjing, saw his uncle, and seeing his uncle's embarrassed appearance, Zheng Jing was so frightened that he didn't know what to do, and immediately sent a horse to the Wuhu camp to report the past.

The news of the defeat of the Jiangbei Army came to Yangzhou almost at the same speed as the advance of the Aobai army, and the defenders in Yangzhou at this time were less than 2,000 in the city. Ao Bai raised his cold butcher's knife to those wealthy merchants who had surrendered to Zheng Zheng......

Even if Yangzhou has been in the war several times, but it is still a little oily and water, and it has won the big cities that can be ranked in the top ten or so in China at this time, and the eyes of the Qing army are red, although Ao Bai wants to slowly shear the sheep and oppose the practice of killing chickens and eggs to loot, but it is not too bad to hurt morale, so he had to order to allow the looting for three days.

Of course, the big mansion where those merchants lived was directly dragged by the Qing army, and the heavy gate was opened with a cannon, and after a burst of chickens, flying dogs and jumping mixed with various cries of primates, dozens or hundreds of people came out with a few packages on their backs and laughing, and some even set fire to burn the traces they left.

Seeing the flames in the city, Ao Bai was very upset and ordered Goshha to prohibit such behavior. "If each valley and mountain, or battalion or sub-district, occupies an area, and there is a fire in the city that burns down the houses, the chief officer shall be punished, and after this order, the arsonist shall be beheaded."

After all, there are so many good houses in Yangzhou City, you have burned them all, do you have to rebuild the city in the future? A bunch of uninformed minions!

The minions were uninformed, but they were obedient, and the flames in the city quickly subsided.

After three days of looting, Ao Bai ordered people to cut timber and prepare to make boats to cross the river.

At the same time, Zhu Chenggong also received the bad news in the county government where he was temporarily camped, and immediately ordered the whole army to gradually retreat from tomorrow, abandon all prefectures and counties along the way, and stick to Nanjing. However, retreating in front of the enemy is also a technical job, and how to choose the troops behind the palace when the disadvantage reflects the quality of a commander. After many rounds of deliberation and coordination, Zhu Chenggong set a phalanx of "the navy will not withdraw and the army will withdraw, and the non-descendants will withdraw first and then retreat". While the non-descendant troops retreated, the descendant troops slowly shrank by relying on the various fortifications that had been built. The navy continued to attack the mouth of the lake, Pengze and even Poyang Lake and other important transshipment points on the grain route, firing rockets and artillery to try to burn down the granaries and attack the fleet.

At this time, if the ship wants to go upstream in the river, in addition to pulling the fiber, it can only rely on the wind to sail, so the speed of sailing upstream is not very fast. A fleet of four ships kept turning their hard sails, cruising almost unyieldingly upstream with the eight-sided wind. About ten miles behind this fleet, there was a larger fleet, and they once again set out upstream to carry out the task of invading the grain routes of the Qing army.

In addition to shipbuilding, excellent sailors are actually more important (not to mention that the Qing army did not have time to dry the ship), so compared with the army brothers who fought to the death, the battle of the navy can be said to be easy and pleasant, and the number of casualties is not as much as drowning in the water! What, you say that the chain can block the Yangtze River? When did the Qing army try to blockade the Yangtze River, wasn't it broken by the ship's artillery? What's more, they also have to occupy both sides of the Yangtze River.

With this state of mind, the four ships were extremely quiet, and the sailors who were like bandits slept in the peculiar smell of the cabins, thinking about the good things to rest after disembarking on the return journey, and there was not even a single person on the lookout on the side of the mast, only the sailman on duty who was in charge of the sails.

Directly in front of these boats, the sound of the waves of the Yangtze River echoed hypnotically, making the river carrying the flames show a little fragile luster, and the sound of fluttering diving was quickly drowned in the waves.

A wave hit, and a fireship that no one was steering quickly crashed into the big ship in front of it, and the firewood and grass on the fireboat were shaken and fell off the boat, but the hull coated with tung oil and flames scorched the ship's planks. Immediately afterward, another fireship plunged into this sea of fire.

The sailman shouted in surprise and lowered the sail, which was fixed with a bamboo and wood frame, so that the ship he was in did not move forward, but quickly fled for his life.

In the midst of the sporadic flames, a fisherman who could not sleep seemed to smell something, tiptoed open the hatch of the ship, climbed onto the deck, and cried out in fright: the upstream direction was full of flaming boats, almost crushing the sky with the help of the power of the water.

Seeing this, the fisherman plunged into the water. Letting the ship gradually be engulfed in flames--- as a sailor who was forcibly recruited half a month ago, he wished that all these people would be burned to death.

(End of chapter)