Like Chai Guozhu, Li Hualong's mood is naturally very bad.

Along the way, he saw the masterpieces left by the Zhennan Army on both sides of the canal, and when he arrived at the Yangtze River to observe the Zhennan Army Naval Division on the other bank, he couldn't help but be surprised by the scale of this naval division.

The scale of this sailor was too large, he had never seen such a large sailor, and with this sailor across the river, it was almost impossible for him to cross the river from the front.

Unless this naval division is defeated by warships, it is impossible for him to get by even if he can gather a small wooden boat to transport troops across the river, but if this naval division still has combat effectiveness.

Combat effectiveness is naturally beyond doubt.

"Inspector, if this sailor is on the river, how can we rush over?"

Li Hualong's cronies around him were all surprised and uneasy for this sailor, and felt troubled and worried.

Now to start building a new sailor?

Thinking too much, it is financially impossible, it takes a long time to build a naval division, and now the reliable shipyards are in the south, and the south is controlled by the naval division of the Zhennan army, and there is nothing that can be done.

Retrofitting a makeshift sailor with a transport ship?

Regardless of the quantity, can it be said that the temporarily restructured fleet can really beat a professional sailor?

Li Hualong couldn't help but worry about the follow-up of this war.

At least he already knew the fact that if he didn't eliminate this water division, he couldn't really open up the canal channel, and if he didn't eliminate this water division and let him continue to cruise on the river, even if they recaptured Zhenjiang Mansion and opened up the grain road, this water division would attack the grain road at any time, and the grain road would never be stable.

If there is no food to eat, the court will be in a hurry.

"Let's go back!"

Li Hualong directly led people back to Yangzhou City, and then summoned Yangzhou officials.

"How many ships can you come up with? If you collect boats along the entire canal, can you come up with 500 boats? ”

Li Hualong asked directly.

The prefect of Yangzhou looked at several officials under his command, and these officials summed up and reported a vague number of about "eight hundred", which of course did not mean that it was a warship, but a total of various boats plus small fishing boats.

"A large number of ships are in Jiangnan, and we really don't have many ships that can be used here, but if we send people to the north to search and requisition all the ships along the canal, it should be a little more."

A Cao Yun official said.

"Overseer, are you going to use the Cao Ship to fight against the Sailor Warship?"

The prefect of Yangzhou looked embarrassed.

"Not to mention the battle, even if it is to transport troops across the river, it is necessary to have boats, the original plan of the governor was to send a group of men and horses to help you defend Yangzhou, and the governor himself led the troops to cross the river and then directly attacked Nanjing, and fought a decisive battle with the bandits on land! But the imperial court has to die to protect Yangzhou, this is the end! ”

As soon as he talked about this matter, Li Hualong became even more angry, and scolded the Yangzhou prefect so much that he couldn't raise his head.

"Go collect the ships first, and then ...... later"

"Overseer! The rebel sailors have attacked!! ”

On the afternoon of 18 September, the first section of the Zhennan Army and Naval Division swaggered into the northern channel of the canal, drove directly to Yangzhou Prefecture, and bombarded the outposts on both sides of the bank and the newly placed defensive facilities with Furlong aircraft along the way.

After the naval division entered the Yangtze River channel again, it also swaggered along the north shoreline, so angry that the imperial army on the north bank pushed the artillery to fight a decisive battle with the naval division.

The naval division of the Zhennan Army decisively retreated to the south bank.

When Li Hualong learned of the surprise attack of the naval division of the Zhennan Army, he destroyed the coastal outposts and defense facilities that he had arranged with great difficulty, and also caused two or three hundred casualties, so angry that he blew his beard and glared.

At this moment, Li Hualong directly ordered the Furlong machine guns and trebuchets that could be collected among the army generals, as well as the long-range strike weapons in the bed crossbows, to be placed in the coastal positions, so that the soldiers from the Jingying Shenji Battalion could use them, so that they could bombard intensively when they saw the Zhennan Army Naval Division coming, and the Zhennan Army Naval Division was not allowed to enter the channel again.

The next morning, the Zhennan Army Navy attacked again, and the North Bank was full of confidence and ready to fire artillery, but the Zhennan Army Navy opened fire from a distant position.

Their naval artillery hit one by one, and before the artillery of the imperial army on the north bank started, the Zhennan army had already fired naval guns, and countless iron balls and eggs smashed on the heads of the imperial army, and the imperial artillery tried to return fire, but found that their shells could not reach those naval warships.

What's going on?

The officers of the Shenji Battalion looked at each other.

After several rounds of firefighting, the sailor successfully dumbed down the firepower of the imperial army.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, a group of marines landed on the north shore, easily routed the imperial army participating in the battle on the shore, beheaded five or six hundred, captured more than 30 Furlong guns and a large number of gunpowder shells, and then swaggered back to the ship.

When Li Hualong arrived with a large army in a hurry, the water division of the Zhennan Army was cruising on the river again.

That leisurely and leisurely appearance felt like he was mocking them, and Li Hualong's whole face turned red with anger.

Not only that, when Li Hualong led his troops to the north shore, the Zhennan Army Navy Division seemed to have discovered something, more than a dozen boats kept attacking the north shore, and then another round of bombardment, which frightened Li Hualong's cronies and immediately protected Li Hualong and left the north shore.

His side could not fight back, and the sailors of the Zhennan Army fought smoothly, and suffered big losses several times in a row, and now the firearms suffered heavy losses, and Li Hualong had to send additional firearms to the surrounding state capitals to support him in Yangzhou Mansion.

At the same time, it was decided to adopt a more conservative method, that is, to block the mouth of the river, and then extend the coastal defenses back, so that the naval division of the Zhennan army could not enter the channel, and at the same time, it was impossible to attack the imperial army on the north bank, so as to buy time to rebuild the transport ships.

Being beaten like this every day, the morale will be wiped out in a few days, and the Zhennan Army will not need to fight it by itself, and the soldiers will become frightened birds that are difficult to control, which Li Hualong knows very well.

So Li Hualong and his subordinates discussed how to block the estuary, such as sinking ships or blocking the river with iron cables, but the premise was that the canal could not be completely damaged, because it was necessary to rely on the canal to transport grain, and irreversible damage was not allowed.

The prefect of Yangzhou told him with a bitter face that they had tried all these methods, but they were useless.

The shipwreck was salvaged after the Zhennan Army seized control of the coast, and the iron cable was dismantled by the Zhennan Army after repulsing the troops on the shore, which did not hinder them.

Moreover, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal cannot be completely destroyed, otherwise the point of them fighting here would not exist.

Faced with such a situation, Li Hualong fell into a deep entanglement.

He had never imagined that a sailor would cause him so much trouble.