After the capture of Xiangyang, the main force led by Zhou Dayong did not sit idle, and after the follow-up mobilization of troops to catch up and consolidate the Xiangyang garrison, they quickly moved south along the Han River, and soon occupied Jingzhou Prefecture and even Yuezhou and other places downstream. It's just that at this time, the real test of the revolutionary army has come. That is the Poyang Lake sailor in the Jiujiang area, and even the Dongting sailor of the Yueyang generation.

At this time, the pattern of forests and timber resources in the sea has been very different from that of hundreds of thousands of years ago, and a large amount of decent timber is often in the area of Dongting Lake, which is not densely populated, but when passing eastward in the area of Dongting Lake, you will encounter many rivers that are not wide. In the era of pure cold weapons, even if the river surface is about one mile wide, as long as there is the right to control the river, it will form a great threat and obstacle, but in this era, if the distance is less than one mile, then the first test faced by the Neijiang Naval Division will be the blasting method pioneered by the team led by Xiao Xuan. Not to mention, there are also endless blasting attacks such as mines.

If the Battle of Poyang Lake hundreds of years ago announced the advent of the era of fireships, and even water warfare was not done with giant ships, then Xiao Xuan realized early on after some experiments that on the sea or lake, fireship tactics may become more and more difficult to use with the increase of firearms. However, in inland water warfare, reliable firearms and even fireships are likely to still have a great deal. This is especially true when the revolutionary army has the greatest resource that the old army did not have: the elite with a stronger spirit of sacrifice.

At this time, the commander of the Dongting Naval Division of the Yuezhou generation originally had a lot of pressure, but after seeing the sampan boats approaching the river near Yuezhou, he became a little disapproving: "If they only have these sampan boats pulled by horse-drawn carriages, then it is impossible to say anything that is the opponent of our army's naval division." I think that the battle of Poyang Lake of Emperor Taizu back then, although it was a small victory over a big one, it was only because the gap between the two sides was not too big. Today's firearms in our army are far from comparable to those of 200 years ago. Tell the sailors of the boat, don't be afraid. As long as we deploy a strong garrison on the shore before the night, and don't let those water ghosts take advantage of it, and advance in a relatively scattered formation at the fastest speed during the day, the landlubbers on the shore who can only sampan boats will not be able to help us! ”

For the sake of insurance and showing their talents, some other strategists and even naval generals originally planned to say something about caution, but after seeing those too simple sampan boats, they were not embarrassed to say such words after all: "Yes, now that the enemy army is approaching Wuchang, our army should reinforce Wuchang and other places while remaining behind a part of the naval division to be ready to threaten the enemy's rear road at any time." As long as you reach the Jiujiang River and even the area of Poyang Lake, there will be no too narrow river surface in early spring. At that time, even if they had an upstream advantage, it would not be of much use... ”

Because of traditional military thinking, many generals in this era did not study much in details and tactics, but they did not lack common sense in military geography. Essentially, most of the population of Jiangnan is concentrated in Jiujiang and the southeast to the east. If the army crosses the river from the Dongting generation, it will also face many logistical difficulties and even the need to re-attack the fortifications. At that time, the Mongols had invaded Hunan from the west, but they did not rely on this alone to quickly destroy the Song Dynasty.

Ships with a scale of 100 or even hundreds of materials are nothing in the southeast sea area in this era, but on the river, they are still quite a behemoth. The greatest advantage of this type of ship is that it can effectively defend against the threat of many firearms, from turtledoves to light artillery. And in the face of these common threats, the firepower unleashed on the sampan boats does not seem to have much effect at all. Even three or two bullets of the strong charge standard did not seem to be able to threaten even fifty or sixty enemy ships at all.

In the tentative confrontation, at least a dozen or so sampan boats were forced back by heavy fire before they could get close to the opposing side during the day, and even the personnel had to escape to the shore by diving before they finally survived. Such a result was more severe than Zhou Dayong expected, and it also contributed to the psychological advantage of the sailors in the Dongting area to a large extent.

"Hehe, those people are simply too arrogant, what do they think of our sailors?"

"After all, it is in the past year that the firearms of the sailor have also been greatly improved. Otherwise, just with those three-eyed guns and even rockets in the past, it's really hard to say that those people can go diving and swimming at a distance of dozens of steps... "After the war, the hearts of many sailors on the river were completely relaxed.

In this way, the main force of the Neijiang Naval Division of the Ming Army, which was reinforced to the east in the Yueyang area, quickly used the speed to throw off the enemy on the shore who had arrived in Yueyang after all, and completed the convergence with the Jiujiang Naval Division after not too far in time. The momentum of hundreds of large ships and even more than 20,000 sailors when they opened fire made the main force of the difficult road led by Zhou Dayong also feel great pressure at this time.

However, the rampant presence of the Ming army sailors from Yueyang to Jiujiang on the rivers and lakes did not last long. One night after the sailors' meeting, when the fleet of ships was moored about two miles from the shore in order to avoid the threat of explosions and even mines and firearms on the shore, the small boats in charge of guarding the periphery seemed to notice something wrong on the lake.

"What's that sound in the water?"

"It should be the enemy's water ghost! Get in the water! ”

However, only a moment later, a huge explosion came from the water, leaving no life for those who were on guard within a radius of ten kilometers. At this time, the violent explosion also began to alarm the main force of the flotilla moored on the lake.

"There are water ghosts! Get in the water! "Many people also had to light torches and jump off the lake at night.

However, at this moment, the fierce flames suddenly erupted on the water surface like a fire dragon, driving a lot of water vapor to form a lot of momentum, and it violently attacked in the direction of the big ship at a distance of about ten zhang.

That was a means that the revolutionary army had been prepared for a long time when it went south. Using rocket power, small catamaran "boats" that can surface if necessary can drive mines carrying hundreds of catties to 1,000 catties of black powder, break through the enemy ships at the fastest speed, and may approach and attack the opponent at night. As long as there is a range of about ten zhang, it is enough. The rapid travel of this level is enough to prevent the temporary underwater demolition force of the Volunteer Army from having to threaten the opponent with heavy losses in suicide attacks.

This method is obviously ineffective in naval warfare, but in the inner lake, where even the deepest part is only a few dozen miles away from the shore, it is beginning to be feasible. In this way, the torpedo named "Huitian," with a range of only a few tens of meters, was put into the battlefield for the first time.

(End of chapter)