Wang Zongbing was the largest officer of the Wuchang Naval Division, and he claimed to have more than 100 warships, and was the largest naval division in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the Qing court. But he himself knew in his heart that in fact, there were only more than 20 ships that could really fight, and the others either had problems with the rudder or anchors, and they had long been in disrepair and could not be used. The imperial court did not allocate funds for maintenance, and the ship, which was originally just a few faults, was quietly dismantled by his subordinates and sold a lot of equipment, so it became completely unusable.

The remaining 20 or so ships were only used to cope with the inspections above, and there were no funds, and military salaries could not be paid on time, and the sailors had long since stopped training, and whether the guns could be fired or not was a problem.

However, he still has some confidence, and he heard that the Taiping Army is just a rogue, and they are all from mud legs. They were strong on land, and they had never heard of any victories on the water. He still has a huge flagship, which is the only trump card in his hand.

The flagship ship of the Wuchang was more than 60 meters long, with two ends raised high, more than 20 meters high, the three masts in the front, middle and rear were more than 40 meters high, and there were eight artillery pieces on each side, which could be called a giant at that time. "Even if it hits, it can knock over the long-haired ship," Wang Zongbing was very confident in his flagship.

But this confidence lasted less than three days, and when the spies told him that the Taiping navy also had warships of similar size to the Wuchang, he was not convinced. After more and more people reported this situation, Wang Zongbing began to panic, how could he not figure out where the long hair came from, which did not even have the official army of Yuezhou?

On the Yangtze River, the brand-new naval warships of the Taiping Army were lined up, and the defenders on Wuchang City had the illusion of inverted identity. It seems that the Taiping Army, which has many large warships, is more like an official army, and its own crooked and dilapidated warships are more like a bandit army.

This Wang Zongbing is still a man, rather than being blocked by the Taiping army in the port and sunk with artillery, it is better to fight. He ordered a dozen small boats with hay and oil to set fire to the Taiping army's big ships.

But he miscalculated two things, first, the Taiping army of the river at this time was downstream, and the Taiping army had the advantage in speed; Second, the Taiping army had many more small boats than themselves, and they were easily intercepted on the way.

Yang Xiaoshan stood on the big warship, observed the movements of the Qing army, and smiled slightly, he guessed that the Qing army would play fire attack with him, and this hand of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written badly, how could he be tricked? As soon as he waved the flag, Tang Zhengcai commanded a team of more than 30 small boats to meet him.

When the distance is about the same, the archers in the boat cast rockets. The Qing army did not set the ship of the Taiping army on fire, but they themselves caught fire first. Seeing that his ships were "lit up" by the Taiping army one by one, General Wang had nothing to do.

Yang Xiaoshan knew that the Qing army's donkey skills were exhausted, and it was his turn to appear. There were already as many as five or six battleships that had been transformed by Tang Zhengcai, and each ship was armed with 20 guns. Under the cover of the small boats in front, the warships of the Taiping army began to press over.

Mr. Wang was already panicked and asked the helmsman to turn the helm and prepare to escape. But how could the Taiping army let him run away at this time?

The main gunner of the Taiping army lit one first and tested the landing point of the shells. Knowing that the Qing army was already within range, dozens of cannons opened fire at the same time, and the shells poured down on the flagship of the Qing army like a basin of water. The shells smashed on the Wuchang, and suddenly there were many transparent bullet holes in the sound of the ship.

"Report to the Chief Soldier, the hull of the ship is leaking."

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief, the mast has been broken."

"Report to the Chief Soldier, the storage room is on fire."

。。。。。。。

Only one round of shelling made Wang Zongbing "unable to take care of himself".

"Let the boat go, abandon the ship!" Wang Zongbing knew that the general situation was inviolable, and ordered his own soldiers to say that if he didn't leave, he would be buried in the belly of the fish with the ship.

easily swept away the Qing army's naval division in Wuchang. Yang Xiaoshan specially asked people to fire a few cannons at the head of Wuchang City as a warning, and by the way, to show off the strength of the Taiping Army.

The governor of Chang who watched the battle on the city wall was even more frightened, these days the fierce looks are continuous, a few days ago in Wuchang City, within a radius of dozens of miles, a black object suddenly rained in the sky, they were shaped like jujube cores, smashed on the roof tiles, and made a crackling sound. It didn't look like hail, and none of the people who heard it knew what it was.

The day before yesterday, I actually sweated in my own letter, and the color of this sweat was as red as blood, and I couldn't wipe it off. Yesterday, Wuchang City suddenly filled with black fog, and there were almost no people in front of each other. Then the wind blew and the roof tiles flew away.

All kinds of fierce appearances seem to indicate that the situation in Wuchang City is precarious, and Governor Chang is still sighing for a long time, feeling that his future is not good.

According to the inspector Ruiyuan, he came over again and reported: "Lord Governor, the Buddhist temples in Wuchang City are changing their doors, and now they are all hanging plaques like Wenchang Pavilion. This always makes people feel that we are cowardly before we fight, should you punish them? ”

"I heard that Changmao likes to burn Buddhist temples, and the monks are also for self-protection, so let them go." Governor Chang shook his hand and signaled that he would leave it alone.

"In order to prevent the Taiping army from relying on the houses outside the city to attack the city, Admiral Shuangfu is forcibly demolishing their houses. The people begged bitterly for a few days to let the officials and adults talk. What do you think, Lord Governor? Ruiyuan continued to report.

"Let's give a grace period of three days, the house is full of people's lives, and you can't just say that you can move it. Hankou, Hanyang has not been lost, and Long Hair is not ready to attack the city immediately, so let the admiral give the people some time and don't force people to death. Governor Chang sighed, he was generally a good person, and he was not so cruel to the people.

The Admiral Shuangfu was different, he ostensibly promised the governor to give the people more time to move, but that night he treacherously sent his men out of the city to set fire to the houses while the people were asleep.

Pity those people who naively believed in the government's assurances, and some of them were burned to death in a daze, and the property that did not die was also burned by the fire. Many people are unbearable, crying bitterly that their families are ruined and busy, and there are not a few people who commit suicide by throwing themselves into the river. More people scolded Admiral Shuangfu for having no conscience, and secretly doing these hurtful things, eager to cut him with a thousand knives.

The Taiping army had not yet entered the city, and the Qing court had already lost the support of the people, and some people even went to the Taiping army to report the situation in Wuchang City, hoping that the Taiping army would avenge themselves.

However, the Taiping army was progressing smoothly, and good news came from Hankou and Hanyang, and the local defenders had been transferred to Wuchang to defend by the governor of Chang, and the Taiping army drove directly into these two empty cities. At this point, all the river defenses on the periphery of Wuchang were lost, leaving only a lonely city waiting for the Taiping army to attack.