Just when the Qing army arrived at Bailuoji, the gunboats cruising in the Yangtze River also received the news of the flagship, and Admiral Ding ordered to anchor and rest on the sandbar in the Yangtze River tonight, and at the same time ordered all ships to do a good job of guarding at night.

Ding Hai glanced at the Qing army on the other side, and breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, as long as the Qing army and the Ming army in Guangxi were connected tomorrow, his task would be completed. Ding Hai has not had a good rest in the past month, for fear that the Qing army will make some small moves. However, although it was now the last moment, Ding Hai could not relax his vigilance, and ordered two gunboats to be on duty at night to strictly prevent the Qing army from sneaking up on the night.

Jierharang stood on the shore and looked at the Ming Army's sailors in the center of the river, and asked Ma Jiaolin, the chief soldier of the Navy Division beside him: "Ma Commander, can your Navy Division attack the Ming Army's Navy Division at night?" ”

Ma Jiaolin is the chief soldier of the Huguang Water Division, and has had many contacts with the Ming Army Water Division this year, but they have all been defeated and returned, and now he is listening to him to attack the Ming Army Water Division, and the frightened Ma Jiaolin does not dare to speak.

Ma Jiaolin is a subordinate officer of Luo Xiujin, the governor of Huguang, Luo Xiujin was angry when he saw his subordinates like this, and scolded: "General Ma, what Prince Zheng means is that you don't have to work hard, but find a way to sink the gunboats of the Ming army!" ”

Ma Jiaolin saw that the two Shangguan said this, and he didn't dare to refute it, so he quickly nodded and said, "Don't worry, the two adults, the lower officials will definitely find a way!" ”

"General Ma, you go down and find a way, all the materials in the army are called by you, if the surprise attack is successful tonight, you will be a great achievement, if it is not successful, the whole family will wait for the head to hit the ground!"

Ma Jiaolin listened to Ji'er Harang's death order, his eyes rolled, he knew that at this time, if he didn't use his brain, the whole family would be a dead end. Ma Jiaolin gritted his teeth and said, "Lord Zheng, the lower official wants to ask the prince to transfer a few thousand catties of gunpowder to me!" ”

Wuchang city defense is strong, in order to siege the city of Jierharang specially transferred ten Hongyi cannons from Shaanxi, although the gunboats in the river can not reach, but there is gunpowder in the army.

Zilharang was stunned, what is gunpowder used for water warfare? "Can gunpowder be used in water warfare?"

"Lord Zheng, Xiaguan plans to do so, wrap every hundred catties of gunpowder into a package, use an oilcloth tightly and solidly, and then tie it into a bamboo raft, and then go down the river from the upper river, the bamboo raft is low, and it is very difficult to find in the night!"

Listening to what Ma Jiaolin said, Jierharang nodded again and again: "Okay, just do as you say, give you 5,000 catties of gunpowder, go down and prepare!" ”

Ma Jiaolin got the general's order, returned to the camp and selected five hundred water ghosts, led by his henchman Ma Xiong, and gave each one five hundred taels of silver, and promised that no matter whether he lived or died, there would be one thousand taels afterwards. Rewarded with a lot of money, these 500 people promised to complete the task.

Then Ma Jiaolin mobilized manpower and prepared twenty bamboo rafts, each of which placed two large gunpowder bags. However, the two gunpowder bags are 200 catties, and they really can't be on board, so the water ghost team has no choice but to float in the water and act with the bamboo raft. Although it has entered March now, the river is still very cold, and staying in the water for a few hours is enough for these water ghosts.

After all the preparations were completed, Ma Jiaolin took advantage of the night to release a bamboo raft ten miles away from the Ming army's naval division, and drifted down the river towards the gunboat. He himself returned to the army to prepare the boat, hid by the river, and waited for news from the front.

In this era, there was no light pollution, and there were no coal ships coming and going on the Yangtze River. Now at night, it is absolutely dark on the Yangtze River, and it is really difficult to find more than 20 bamboo rafts that are only one meter above the river. At the same time, Ma Jiaolin chose a very good timing, released the bamboo raft at the time, and after two hours of drifting, he came to the periphery of the Ming Army's naval division at the end of the time.

Yin Shi is the time period from three o'clock to five o'clock, this time is the most sleepy time, and at the same time the darkest time. The Ming army sailors have been floating on the water surface of the Yangtze River for a month, and their physical strength and energy are about to run out, so they haven't found these water rats.

In order to ensure the success of the first battle, Ma Jiaolin even sent his own henchman, his clansman Ma Xiong, as the leader, and guaranteed that he would be promoted as a general if he had to succeed.

After soaking in the river for two hours, Ma Xiong had already frozen wood, but when he was about to get close to the gunboat of the Ming Army's naval division, he also forgot about it, and paid full attention to the movement on the boat.

Fortunately, the Ming army relaxed their vigilance and did not find this gang of water rats, so Ma Xiong and his gang approached the side of the boat without danger.

Seeing that the big ship of the Ming army was within reach, Ma Xiong was overjoyed, which meant that the surprise attack tonight was half successful.

Ma Xiong led ten people, trying to shake his numb body, so that the bamboo raft gently leaned to the side of the boat, and at the same time did not make a sound. Then Ma Xiong took out the drill bit beside him and gently fixed the gunpowder bag on the outside of the hull.

Ma Xiong and the others soaked in the river for two hours, their hands and feet were numb from the cold, and they didn't dare to exert their strength, so it took half an hour to put the gunpowder bag away, and at this time the sky was already a little bright, and they could see the people within five meters.

Just after Ma Xiong and the others were ready, they heard a shouting voice from twenty meters away: "Who?" There are people in the water! ”

As soon as this cry came out, the twelve gunboats parked in the water immediately opened the pot, and the soldiers on the night vigil on board shouted: "There are people in the water! Someone in the water is coming up! ”

Seeing that he had been found, Ma Xiong didn't care about the others, took out the flint wrapped in oiled paper from his bosom, and lit the seal of the gunpowder pack.

At this time, someone on the ship had already discovered the gunpowder bag on the ship, but it was too late, more than twenty seconds later, the gunpowder bag made a loud noise, and a hundred catties of gunpowder exploded outside the hull, and at the same time, there were multiple explosions in the distance, and it seemed that other water ghosts had also succeeded.

Ma Xiong floated in the water and looked at the Ming gunboat in the distance, and blew out two huge holes two meters wide below the waterline of the hull, and the river water poured into the boat, and the ship had already capsized seriously.

Ma Xiong nodded, and swam to the shore with the remaining two hundred people.

At this time, Ma Jiaolin, who was hiding by the river, also heard the sound of explosions, and he was ecstatic in his heart. He took the remaining more than 100 ships of the Qing army to hide in the reeds by the river, listening to the news on the river in fear.

Now hearing that Ma Xiong had succeeded, Ma Jiaolin was overjoyed, and stood on the bow of the boat and shouted: "Brothers, the Ming army sailor has been recruited, let's go up and beat the water dogs!" Lao Tzu promised you that those who bravely kill the enemy will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver, and those who capture the officers above the Ming army will be rewarded with 1,000 taels of silver! ”

The more than 5,000 officers and soldiers of the Qing Army's naval division heard that the chief soldier offered such a reward, and shouted excitedly one by one, "Kill the enemy!" ", rushed towards the Ming army sailors two miles away.

Ding Hai was afraid that he would catch the Manchu Qing Dynasty at night, so he didn't take off his clothes, and lay directly with his clothes, and now he heard the explosion and quickly got up to find out the situation.

As soon as Ding Hai came out of the hatch, his frightened face turned white when he saw this miserable appearance. It turned out that eight of the twelve ships had capsized, and two were still holes above the waterline, and they could still hold on, but they could not fight. The only two were intact, including the flagship.

This really cannot be blamed for the poor quality of the ships of the Guangdong Navy, but in order to save money, Zhu Hongsan's inland river fleet was rebuilt from some merchant ships of about 100 tons. Anyway, it was driving on inland rivers, and the wind and waves were not strong, so in order to ensure firepower, each ship was equipped with a full twenty guns. At the same time, because the quality of these modified gunboats is uneven, and some of the ships were made during the Wanli period, such warships can still be good there, but they are enough to deal with those Manchu Qingshui divisions who only have a dozen tons.

Now this thin-skinned gunboat was blown out of the hole, and naturally sank quickly, seeing eight ships capsize, and the sailors on board who were still alive jumped out of ship to escape.

Fortunately, the anchor last night was not far from the sandbar in the middle of the river, and Ding Hai hurriedly asked the herald to raise the flag, and all the sailors of the eight gunboats that capsized abandoned ship and swam to the sandbank.

At this time, Ding Hai saw a large number of small boats rushing out of the north bank of the Yangtze River, and knew that this was the Qing army coming to pick up the bargain.

Ding Haiqi scolded: "Come on, order the two ships that can't move to stay and protect the sailors!" The one that's okay is going to meet the enemy with me! ”

Ding Hai was completely burned by anger at this time, and now was not the time to fight to the death, but should form a defensive circle with the two gunboats that could not move, and relying on the ship's artillery to protect himself was the right way.

Now that Ding Hai has gone out to fight to the death, it is refreshing, but it has divided the already insufficient firepower in two. The river gunboats were no better than the first and second class warships of the Navy, each of which had dozens of guns, and the sides of the ships were so high that they could not jump on them with manpower alone. However, the river gunboats were different, these merchant ships were converted from merchant ships with a man's height on the side, and the enemy could jump with the help of flying claw ropes, and these gunboats had only twenty guns each, and they were still twelve-pounder guns of the army type.

In this way, Ding Hai rushed into the fleet of the Qing army with two small boats, and the Qing army was a number of small ships of more than ten tons.

Ding Hai's gunboats only had one hundred and fifty sailors, and seeing the Qing troops rushing up one after another, Ding Hai knew that he was completely defeated today, and he sighed and shouted: "Your Majesty, Ding Hai is sorry for you!" After speaking, he committed suicide with a waist knife.

Ma Jiaolin was overjoyed when he saw that he had captured two large ships, the ships were secondary, and the artillery on the main ships was too important. The Qing army and the Ming army in Guangdong have been fighting for many years, and they have suffered a lot from artillery, and now that they have captured so many cannons, Prince Zheng will definitely be able to reward them heavily.

The battle on the river ended, and Ma Jiaolin turned his head to deal with the Ming sailors on the sandbank. Under the superior strength of the Qing army, hundreds of sailors on the sandbar were either killed or captured, and the two immobile gunboats also sank by themselves. Less than thirty of the remaining sailors escaped in small boats.

Ma Jiaolin was a great success in this battle, and at the cost of 2,000 Qing troops, he killed 820 Ming sailors, captured four Ming gunboats, 37 artillery pieces, and countless ammunition.

The first thing Ma Jiaolin did after he came ashore was to adopt the horse male as his adopted son and take him into the big tent of Zilharang to repay the victory.