The timing of Zhang Jiayu's arrival was just right, if he came half a day late, then Nanchang City would be completely breached. The loss of Nanchang will inevitably cause the passivity of the entire Jiangxi battlefield, and the front line against the Manchu Qing will retreat to the Ganzhou area, so that the strategic goal of seizing Jiujiang and seizing Wuchang before Yongli can not be completed in time.

In addition to accomplishing the set goal, it is also necessary to weaken Jin Shenghuan's power with the help of the Manchu Qing, which is difficult to grasp. There is a reason why Zhu Hongsan chose Zhang Jiayu to lead a war zone, that is, Zhang Jiayu's fighter plane is very good, and Zhu Hongsan discovered it when he was in the military aircraft department that year.

After Zhang Jiayu came to Fengcheng and stationed in Fengcheng, he had to send three waves of scouts to Nanchang every day to investigate. At noon on the 20th, the scouts came with the news that there was movement in the Manchu camp, and the Qing army began to drive the people to prepare for the siege.

After Zhang Jiayu got the news, he knew that the last moment of Nanchang was coming, and after almost a month of siege, the endurance and morale of the Nanchang defenders were basically exhausted. The most important thing is that because of the Nanchang fire, the materials originally prepared in the city to defend the city were burned to the point that there was not much left, and there was almost nothing left in this month. Therefore, Zhang Jiayu estimated that the Qing army was preparing for the last battle to defeat Nanchang.

Knowing the enemy's actions is simple, Fengcheng is less than a hundred miles away from Nanchang, and it can be reached in half a day along the river. Zhang Jiayu ordered Ma Kun and Ma Rufeng to be found, plus Ding Hai, the commander of the inland river fleet transferred from Guangdong, to prepare for the Nanchang Campaign.

After Zhang Jiayu occupied Ganzhou, he saw that the Ganjiang River had abundant water flow and developed shipping, and was ready to use the water division to go down the river. After all, the most powerful thing in the Guangdong New Army is artillery, and a battleship can be equipped with dozens of guns, and the power when shooting at close range is not trivial.

After Zhang Jiayu had this idea, he wrote to Emperor Zhu Hongsan, asking the emperor to transfer a few naval officers. After receiving the letter, Zhu Hongsan also supported Zhang Jiayu, saying that the navy's ships had too deep draft, and they were all sea vessels, and unlike the flat-bottomed boats on inland rivers, he would have to fight in the Yangtze River valley in the future, and it was imperative to properly organize a group of inland river fleets.

The Emperor agreed, and the Military Aircraft Department immediately sent a letter to Yan Qingshan, who was on the Zhoushan Islands, asking him to find a capable person to be appointed as the Admiral of the River Fleet. After Yan Qingshan received this information, he immediately thought of his godson Ding Hai, who was thirty-four years old Chinese New Year's Eve, and followed Yan Qingshan to rob houses on Luoma Lake all year round, and was the best candidate for the admiral of this river fleet.

Ding Hai has now become the captain of a first-class capital ship, leading a giant ship of more than 1,000 tons to run rampant on the sea, and he is very unhappy to hear that his godfather asked him to go inland as a water rat again.

Yan Qingshan saw that Ding Hai didn't like to go, and scolded: "You turtle grandson, you know no, it is difficult for you to continue to be in the navy, you see that there are more than 50,000 people in the navy now, and you have come to the end of being a captain, and you have no hope of becoming the admiral of the detachment in this life." But going to the river fleet is different, His Majesty the Emperor will definitely occupy Nanjing in the future, and he will definitely rely on the river fleet at that time, not to mention the river fleet, if you go, you must be the commander of the fleet, and you can choose the chicken head and ox tail yourself! ”

Yan Qingshan's words said in Ding Hai's heart, now that these old water thieves and pirates in the navy are no longer popular, and his godfather Yan Qingshan has also proposed to go home for the elderly many times. Now you have to be literate to be the captain of the ship, and it is best to know Spanish, and you can communicate with those Spanish instructors, and your worst shortcoming is the cultural department, who the fuck knows what to read with those crooked letters! Maybe the godfather said that letting yourself go to the river fleet is the way to go.

After thinking about it, Ding Haisi agreed to Yan Qingshan and served as the commander of the Ganzhou Inland River Detachment, and at the same time took ten captains and one hundred skilled sailors.

Originally, Ding Hai thought that the river fleet had just been formed, so he could have more than a dozen ships, but when he arrived in Ganzhou, he knew that he had fallen for Zhang Jiayu. The ship is there, it's quite big, but it's a merchant ship. It is said to be a transformation, but it is just a few gun windows on a merchant ship and ten guns. Ding Hai came to see it and complained bitterly, what kind of warship is this, there is no waterproof warehouse, the ammunition depot and the kitchen are together, the sailors are all sailors on the merchant ship, and they have no sense of combat, so they have to train from scratch. And what made Ding Hai most dissatisfied was that there were only three warships converted from merchant ships like this, and the others were some sand ships and Meng Chong. Ding Hai complained in his heart, but there was no way, he had already come here, and he had to give full play to all his subjective initiative to solve the difficulties by himself.

In the past six months, Ding Hai begged his grandfather and grandmother many times, and finally expanded his fleet of three warships to five, which made the army very dissatisfied, because the guns of the battleships were all appropriated from the army, and the special artillery of the navy could not be transported until the Yangtze River route was completed. In this way, Dinghai's small inland river detachment slowly grew up in the wind and rain.

Zhang Jiayu waited until all his army and sea generals came, explained the current situation, and prepared to set off in the evening, striving to rush to Nanchang at dawn tomorrow.

"Generals, I am ready to send General Ding Hai to lead five warships to occupy Nanchang Zhangjiangmen, and then the army will enter the city to help Jin Shenghuan defend the city, and the navy will eliminate the Manchu sailors! As long as Zhangjiangmen and the Ganjiang River water passage are in our hands, Nanchang will not be able to be attacked, and after a long time, the Manchu Qing will naturally retreat, and when the time comes, we will occupy the strong ships and artillery, and we can follow the pursuit, and strive to annihilate them before the Qing army retreats to Jiujiang! ”

Zhang Jiayu's method is a safe way, although the five warships are broken ships in the eyes of Ding Hai, but they are behemoths in front of the Qing army sailors who have just been built. These warships are all converted by Zhang Jiayu from a 100-ton merchant ship, the inland river is narrow, this kind of big guy with a width of four meters, a length of 20 meters, and a draft of one meter is completely invincible, and it is much stronger than the small boats of the Qing army that only have five or six people.

Ma Kun was very unhappy when he heard that this plan was going to make the navy take the lead, and the army has always been at odds with the navy, because a 1,200-ton warship in the navy costs several hundred thousand taels of silver, which is enough to form an army division. In recent years, in order to develop the navy, the emperor has opened up the construction of first-class warships, even smaller second-class warships have also built dozens of them, and the army has only eight divisions so far, and half of them have just been formed in the past six months. Now Ma Kun hears that Zhang Jiayu still wants the navy to take the lead, how can this work.

"Lord Zhang, I don't think there's any need to be so troublesome, this battle only needs our army, and the navy also asks Lord Ding to take his fleet to clean up the river bandits, lest our army brothers cut off the meat!"

Ding Hai was very annoyed when he heard Ma Kun's sarcastic remarks, but Ma Kun's rank is a colonel, and he is a lieutenant colonel, so he doesn't dare to directly scold each other, but it's okay to say something cool.

"That's right, the army brothers are all worth 10,000, and the navy is ashamed of itself, but I don't know who was rescued by our navy in the battle of Jiangyin back then?"

Ma Kun was one of the battalion commanders who followed Qian Yong to Jiangyin, if it weren't for the navy's death to shoot at close range, the army would probably die in Jiangyin City, although the army finally escaped safely, but the Jiangyin World War I army also died hundreds of brothers. When Ma Kun heard Ding Hai talk about his disgraceful history, he was about to stand up and go crazy.

Zhang Jiayu knew that these Qiu Ba would do it when they said they would do it, and there were all those who were in a hurry and moved their guns. Seeing Ma Kun standing up and about to make a move, he hurriedly shouted, "What are you going to do?" This official has the holy decree of His Majesty the Emperor and the absolute command of the new army of the Jiangxi army and navy, do you dare to disobey the holy decree? After speaking, Zhang Jiayu's fox fake tiger power hurriedly took out Zhu Hongsan's holy decree in one fell swoop.

Zhu Hongsan had absolute authority in the new army, and when he saw the holy decree Ma Kun, Ma Rufeng, Ding Hai and other generals quickly knelt down, he didn't even dare to say anything.

Zhang Jiayu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he had subdued these Qiu Ba, and said, "Okay, just do what the official just said, Lord Ding's fleet will attack Zhangjiangmen!" ”

Hearing Zhang Jiayu say this, Ma Kun stood up and asked, "Lord Zhang, does His Majesty the Emperor's holy decree say that Lord Zhang only has the right to command and not the right to make decisions on the spot?" ”

Zhu Hongsan was afraid that Zhang Jiayu would be a layman and an insider, so he wrote in detail in the holy decree that Zhang Jiayu was only responsible for strategy, that is, where to fight and how to fight still have to listen to the generals.

Zhang Jiayu didn't expect Ma Kun to ask like this, "Hmm... Is this ... It is indeed written in the Holy Decree, but ... ”

Ma Kun listened to Zhang Jiayu's admitation, and then said: "Okay, the last general asks for orders, our army wants to have a showdown with the Manchu Eight Banners outside Nanchang City, and see if the Eight Banners of Manchu are powerful or our new army is powerful!" After Ma Kun finished speaking, he didn't give Zhang Jiayu a chance to react at all, and took Ma Rufeng out to prepare.

Zhang Jiayu saw that Ma Kun was so faceless, he trembled with anger, pointed to Ma Kun's back and said to Ding Hai: "General Ding, these guys are angry with me, what if they fail?" ”

Zhang Jiayu didn't understand the combat effectiveness of the new army, and in his impression, the new army was probably about the same as the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners, and now how could he not be afraid when he heard Ma Kun so arrogant.

However, Ding Hai, who was also part of the New Army, still knew more about the New Army, and you must know that in the Battle of Jiangyin, Qian Yong's regiment of 3,000 people withstood the attack of 50,000 Manchu Qing Dynasty.

"Lord Zhang, don't worry, these earth rats are crazy, their fourth division has 18,000 people, 6,000 more than other divisions, I estimate that they can withstand the charge of the Qing army's 50,000 cavalry in the front!"

Zhang Jiayu was taken aback when he heard Ding Hai say this, he didn't expect the new army to be so combative, and hurriedly asked, "Is this really the case?" ”

Ding Hai nodded, "Ma Kun is from Qian Yong's first division, this guy is thick and fine, and he won't fight a battle that he is not sure of, not to mention that Qian Yong and they in Jiangyin used 3,000 people to resist the attack of 50,000 people of the Han Army Banner, although our navy has helped a lot, but the combat effectiveness of these earth rats is still good!" ”