Wang Yuyou said: "It's too risky! Since the Tartars are preparing for a water attack, the embankment of Changhu Lake must be well guarded! If it is a surprise attack, it will inevitably be discovered by the Tartars. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIf the number of odd soldiers is too small to take the embankment; There were more people, the Tartars released water, and our army suffered heavy losses. ”

Yao Qisheng looked at Wang Xinyu a little strangely: "Dashuai, when you fought Xinhui, I didn't see that you were benevolent and kind, and you didn't care about civilian casualties at all, and bombarded the city. Why is he a different person now? ”

Wang Xinyu said: "Xinhui, those people help the Tartars defend the city, then they are no different from the Tartars!" Now in Jingzhou, the people have not helped the Tartars to defend the city, they are honestly sitting in their own homes, and they will also be flooded, which is really a disaster! They will all be the people of my Ming Dynasty in the future, and this domain really can't bear it! ”

"Marshal, in fact, our army spies have found out that from the Yangtze River to Changhu Lake, there is a small river, but the big boat is impassable, and the Tartars have arranged underwater hidden piles in the river, the small river channel is narrow, once the Tartars attack with rocket artillery on the shore, the small boat will be in danger." Wang Yuyou pointed to the map and said.

Hearing Wang Yuyou talk about the boat, Wang Xinyu suddenly thought of a solution: "There is!" We've got a solution! Isn't there a pole mineboat of the Japanese samurai? Transform the pole mineboat into an attack boat and carry the Japanese samurai and ashigaru, who are not afraid of death and can carry out this mission! We can send the latest steamer over to help the Japanese samurai. ”

"That's a good idea! The Japanese are familiar with the nature of the water, and even if they go ashore, they are not afraid of being flooded by the Tartars, they can swim back to the boat! Then attack the embankment of Changhu with the Japanese people! Wang Yuyou clapped his hands.

At present, Wang Xinyu already has a small steam steamer in his hands, which is a new ship that has just been completed at the Nanjing Shipyard, and this ship is equipped with a steam engine sent by the East and is being tested on the Yangtze River.

Since he wanted to send a small steamer up, Wang Xinyu ordered a catamaran clipper to be sent to Nanjing to convey the order and let the small steamer come up to help in the war.

Having received an order, the catamaran sailed out of the fleet and went down the river. It is estimated that the catamaran will only take two days and two nights to arrive in Nanjing, and let the small steamer come up.

The Ming fleet continued to march westward, although against the current, but with a tailwind, the fleet sailed for a day and a night, and arrived at the mouth of Yuezhou Lake. At the same time, another Ming army sailor on Dongting Lake also arrived. The Ming army temporarily settled down near Yuezhou, and Wang Xinyu had to wait for the small steamer to come up on the one hand, and on the other hand, he wanted to modify the pole mineboat.

The pole mineboats of the Japanese samurai and ashigaru were modified accordingly, and the pole mines in front were removed, and thick planks were added on both sides to strengthen the defense of the pole mineboats. The ship was equipped with sub-cannons and rifled guns, which could fire at both sides.

After the fleet had been waiting at the mouth of the lake for seven days, a strange-looking boat came up downstream, slowly heading upstream.

"What kind of ship is that? There is no sail that can swim against the current? ”

"It's our Ming ship, look at the flag on it!"

"Oh no, why did this boat catch fire? Smoke so much? ”

Seeing this strange-looking ship, the officers and men of the Nanyang Navy and the Yangtze River Naval Division talked a lot, and even the Japanese of the pole and mine boat battalion were also talking about it, they didn't know what it was.

When the boat got closer, someone shouted, "This must be a car ship!" Look, there's a wave rolling up in the back! ”

Another officer and soldier of the sailor division took a look at it and said, "It's not a car or a boat, is it?" There are two traces behind the boat, and there is only one trace behind the boat, and there are no wheel baffles on either side of the ship! ”

Wheel baffles are needed on both sides of the vehicle to protect the wheels from being damaged by the enemy's shells. And this ship is obvious, there are no wheels, it is certainly not a car ship, the stern is constantly turning up white waves, the speed of the boat is quite fast, the bow splits the waves on the river, sailing at high speed. It can be seen that the ship has two guns in the bow and tail, which seems to be a new type of gun. A thick pillar in the middle of the ship was emitting black smoke.

"Is it a fireboat? The same principle as a train? "Finally someone smart understands this.

This ship, which was a small steamer, had a displacement of only about eighty tons, and was armed with two six-pounder breech guns. Because this kind of artillery is extremely expensive, the manufacture of artillery is very inconvenient, and there are also the shortcomings of the leakage of the gun latch, Wang Xinyu thinks that the army is not suitable for equipping this kind of artillery at this stage, first, it cannot be used, and second, it is too complicated to maintain. However, this cannon can be mounted on a small steamer.

In addition to the two six-pounder breech guns, there were two three-pounder breech guns in the middle of the ship. The small steamer had a 60-horsepower steam engine propelled by the latest propellers. However, the problem of propeller leakage is to seal it with grease and solve this problem temporarily, but it is more troublesome to maintain, and the grease must be re-injected after a period of time.

At present, there is no industrial synthetic grease, it can only be made from whale oil and other animal fats, the cost is quite high, those problems have to be solved later, this ship is just a test ship.

The small steamer has a very shallow draft, less than one meter, which allows the small steamer to enter the small channels of inland rivers and also enter the canal to sail. Although the hull of the small steamer was made of wood, it was wrapped in thick steel plates, which greatly improved the ship's defenses. Due to the emergence of new iron-making blast furnaces and converter steelmaking, the price of steel has dropped significantly, and crude steel can be put into use in large quantities to replace iron sheets.

"Alright, our new ship has arrived! With this new boat providing fire support, we can get the pole minecraft into the inland waterway and reach Long Lake! Wang Xinyu pointed to the small fire wheel and said excitedly.

Preparing to attack the embankment of the Long Lake, in addition to the pole minecraft piloted by the Japanese samurai and the ashigaru, there is also a small steamer piloted by the elite Marine Corps special operations team, and twelve small ships of the Marine Corps. A total of more than 500 Japanese samurai, 2,000 Japanese ashigaru and 300 special combat personnel carried out this mission.

The leading general of the Marine Corps was Emperor Hu Dedi, and the leading general of the Japanese samurai was Sakai Tadanao. In addition, a hot air balloon is carried on top of the small steamer, which can monitor the ground from a high vantage point.

According to the battle plan formulated by Wang Yuyou, the Ming army was divided into two routes, and the main force continued to go upstream, controlling the Yangtze River embankment in Jingzhou, so as to prevent the Qing army from digging a gap in the embankment; The other way is a team that rushes to the embankment of Changhu Lake, enters from a small river channel, and sails upriver to Changhu Lake.

Before the army set out, a spy came to report: "There are Tartar sailors in the long lake!" There are more than 500 large and small ships! The Tartars also took control of the river leading to the Long Lake, and the Tartars threw stones in the river to block a section of the river. ”

"It seems that the pole mineboat battalion can only break through!" Wang Xinyu said.