After discovering Wu Chaoyue's evil deeds, it became the best choice for the main force of the Taiping Army's water division to retreat to Hukou as soon as Wei Jun ordered the whole army to retreat, and a new problem immediately came out.

"If the sailor who surpasses the little demon dares to chase it, we will turn around and fight with all our might! Although we suffered heavy losses in this battle of Tianjiazhen, our overall strength is still stronger than that of Wu Demon Water Division, and the decisive battle is still certain! ”

This is the voice of many Taiping army generals, but Wei Jun said that he didn't dare to take it lightly anymore, and said: "If we just deal with the Wu Demon Water Division alone, then we do have a lot of certainty, but don't forget, the soldiers of the Qing Demon Water Division have already arrived in Tianjia Town by land, and they can get on the boat at any time to chase us down with the Wu Demon Water Division. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

The Battle of Jiujiang has made the Taiping Navy Division no longer dare to underestimate the Hubei Navy Division, thinking of the desperate strength of the Hubei Navy Division outside the north gate of Jiujiang that day, many Taiping Army generals are still a little apprehensive, and they also know that if the Hubei Navy Division still wants to work so hard last time, the self-army may be more than lucky.

"Then for the sake of prudence, we better retreat with all our might." Zhong Tingsheng changed his words and said: "At present, the Qing Demon Water Master has not yet boarded the ship to prepare for the battle, we will hurry up and retreat, if the Wu Demon Water Master comes to chase first, we will not pay attention to it, and retreat at full speed, as long as we retreat to the mouth of the lake, we will no longer need to be afraid of the Wu Demon Water Master and the Qing Demon Water Master joining forces." ”

Wei Jun still refused to rest assured, and said in a deep voice: "If we retreat with all our strength, in terms of ship speed alone, our steamers can throw off the Wu Demon Sailors, but our tugboats and sampans will not be able to outrun the four main warships of Wu Demon no matter what." When the time comes, the Wu Demon Sailor catches up with us, and there is no need to rush to fight with us, as long as he uses his four main warships to drag us by the tail, so that we don't dare to speed up the boat, then we may not have time to retreat to the mouth of the lake, and the Qing Demon Sailor will already catch up. ”

Sorrow was immediately written on the faces of the generals of the Taiping Army's naval division, chasing and fleeing to compete for the speed of the ship, and at full speed, the three steam gunboats of the Taiping Army could rush to the front, using the first-mover advantage to completely shake off the pursuers, but the Taiping Army's towboats, military sampans and miscellaneous ships transporting grain and troops could not outrun the four main warships of the Wu Army's naval division in any case. Without the protection of the steam gunboats, without the Wu army's Loyalty and Renyi, the two steams of the Wu army alone are enough to severely damage the Taiping Army's sailors, and it can also rely on the advantage of speed to make it difficult for the Taiping Army's sailors to fight back.

Of course, the Taiping army could also choose to let the three steam cannon ships protect the main fleet, but in this case, it would be necessary to sacrifice the speed of the steam cannon ships, resulting in even the steam cannon ships being unable to shake off the pursuit of the Wu army's sailors, causing more dangerous consequences.

After racking his brains, Zhong Tingsheng suddenly had an idea, and proposed: "Prime Minister Wei, otherwise, we will put the steamer behind the last hall, if the Wu Demon Sailor comes to chase first, we will let the steamer fight alone, entangle the Wu Demon Sailor, and buy time for our main fleet to retreat, and then wait for the main fleet to open up the distance between it and the Wu Demon Sailor, and then let the steamer withdraw from the battlefield." ”

"In this way, the warships that can catch up with our steamers on the side of the Wu Demon Sailor are only those two steamers, not to mention that they may not dare to catch up with the little demon with two enemies and three, even if he really catches up, our three steamship ships will introduce them into our main fleet, and then turn around to meet the battle, and the whole army will attack together, and there is great hope for killing the two steamships that surpass the little demon."

After thinking about it for a long time, he felt that Zhong Tingsheng's suggestion was the only ideal choice at present, so Wei Jun nodded and agreed to deal with the pursuit of Wu Jun's sailors according to this method. At the same time, for the sake of prudence, Wei Jun decided to personally lead three steam gunboats to provoke the task of the palace, and the main fleet was handed over by Wei Jun to Zhong Tingsheng and Gu Long Xian to temporarily command.

When the Taiping army adjusted the retreat order of each returning ship, Wu Chaoyue also hurriedly handed over the defense of Tianjia Town and the refitting of the Hubei Navy Division to Zhao Liewen to deal with on his behalf, preparing to personally lead the Wu Army Navy Division to launch a pursuit. In this regard, Zhao Liewen and Shao Yanhong and other cronies were inevitably a little worried, and reminded: "Weiting, if you want to chase us and not stop you, but you must be careful and careful, you must not take risks, the strength of the long-haired sailor is still above us, and with the strength of our army, we are not the opponent of the rest of the long-haired sailor." ”

"Don't worry, I know this very well." Wu Chaoyue nodded and said: "I want to personally lead the troops to chase after me, because I am afraid that Wang Fu and Xu Lai will be greedy for merit and risk, so I have to go to the water division to calm the situation and adapt to the situation." ”

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue said solemnly, Zhao Liewen, Shao Yanhong and others no longer objected, and respectfully sent Wu Chaoyue to the dock, but what everyone didn't expect was that Wu Chaoyue was sitting on a small boat that turned out to be a loyalty ship that was not as powerful as a steam cannon ship, and raised the handsome flag on the old ship Loyalty to command the battle. In this regard, even Wang Fu, who was in charge of the Loyalty, was extremely surprised, and asked Wu Chaoyue: "Lord Futai, why did you get on the ship of the last general?" ”

"What? Not welcome? Afraid that I will mislead you? ”

Wu Chaoyue asked jokingly, and Wang Fu, who was pulled to this position by Wu Chaoyue, of course quickly shook his head and said respectfully: "The last general doesn't dare, the last general just always thinks that Lord Futai, you will definitely get on the moral number or brave number that is much faster than the loyalty number, so I asked more." ”

"The steam gunboat is important, but in this battle, the Loyalty and the Renyi have a more important mission, so I have to come and take command in person."

Wu Chaoyue replied lightly, and beckoned his soldiers to hurry up and put the things that had just been sent by a few small boats onto the Loyalty and Renyi respectively, in Wang Fu's opinion, the things that Wu Chaoyue specially brought were of course very strange, and when he asked Wu Chaoyue about the role of those things, Wu Chaoyue smiled and did not answer.

In a short time, Wu's naval division was ready, and after Wu Chaoyue gave an order, first the last three iron cable defense lines temporarily lowered the movable iron cables to make way for the passage channel, and then the sampan stepped forward and lined up to cross the iron cable defense line, followed by two steam gunboats and the Loyalty Renyi. When all the ships had crossed the chain defense, Wu Chaoyue quickly lined up his troops, with the two steam gunboats in the front, the Loyalty and the Renyi in the center, and put the sampan with the worst power in the last tail, and together they set sail in pursuit.

The uncertain wind direction created a lot of trouble for the pursuit of the Wu Junshui Division, it was okay when the wind was downwind, and the front and rear formations were not too far apart, and when facing the headwind, the weakness of the Wu Junshui Division's different speed was immediately exposed, the two steam gunboats rode the wind and waves, and could continue to maintain high speed with the steam-driven paddle wheel, but the Loyalty and Renyi could only rely on the river to push and desperately turn the spinnaker to find wind power to help move forward, and they couldn't keep up with the speed of the steam gunboats. And the military sampan, which was rowed entirely by manpower, was even worse, not to mention the steam cannon ships, that is, the Loyalty and Renyi could not keep up, and the front and rear formations were quickly expanded, and the front and rear were gradually disjointed.

In this regard, Wu Chaoyue is not in a hurry-the self-army is difficult, and the Taiping army will definitely not be comfortable there. After raising the flag to let the steam gunboat slow down appropriately, maintaining a distance of two miles from the flagship Loyalty, and letting the Loyalty also maintain a distance of two miles from the sampan fleet, Wu Chaoyue no longer paid attention to it, and patiently waited for the moment when he caught up with the Taiping Army's sailors.

Chasing and chasing, Wu Chaoyue gradually became a little breathless, because of the drag of the sampan fleet, the overall speed of the Wu Army's water division was obviously slow, and the pursuit for more than an hour failed to catch up with the main force of the Taiping Army's water division that retreated first, and the distance between Tianjia Town and Hukou was not far, and the Taiping Army Water Division, which began to retreat at about three o'clock in the afternoon, would definitely be able to escape to Hukou at noon the next day at the latest, leaving little time for the Wu Army Water Division to take advantage of the fire to rob. So after thinking about it for a long time, Wu Chaoyue still gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and shouted: "Flag, Loyalty and Benevolence are moving forward at full speed!" The steam gunboats continued to be two miles away from the flagship, and the sampan fleet followed! ”

"Wu Futai, isn't this too risky?" Wang Fu was shocked and hurriedly reminded: "Without a sampan to protect the nearboard, even if we catch up with the long-haired sailor, it will be very dangerous?" ”

"You have to take a risk, or you won't be able to catch up." Wu Chaoyue replied coldly, and said: "Also, on this section of the river, except for the three steam gunboats of Changmao, there is no fourth boat that can outrun our four warships, and Changmao will definitely not know that our formation has been disjointed!" ”

Wang Fu, who was greatly favored by Wu Chaoyue, did not dare to say much, honestly obeyed his orders, and secretly told his subordinates to do their best to protect Wu Chaoyue, and the result was not as expected by Wu Chaoyue, although the Loyalty and Renyi sailed at full speed, although they quickly threw the sampan fleet away, but also greatly accelerated the speed of pursuit, and then when it was about to six o'clock in the afternoon, Wu Chaoyue finally saw the outline of the Taiping Army fleet on the Loyalty.

The Taiping army put the three steam gunboats at the end to serve as the queen of the palace, although it was a very correct and wise choice, but for Wu Chaoyue, who had long been holding back his stomach full of bad water, it was a happy good news. What made Wu Chaoyue even more ecstatic was that he found that the Wu army's warships were chasing behind, and the three steam gunboats of the Taiping army actually fell over the bow of the ship together and put on a battle posture.

"Heaven forbid, the other ships of the long hair must continue to run! Otherwise, if they don't run, I'll have to run, and my best chance will be missed. ”

When Wu Chaoyue prayed in his heart that the heavens had no eyes, Wei Jun was also fighting on the flagship of the Taiping Army's steamship fleet, and hesitated whether to meet the battle with only steam gunboats according to the original plan, so that the main fleet could retreat first - the reason for the hesitation was that of course, the Wu Army's naval division only came with four main warships, and in the absence of a sampan to protect the nearboard, all the Taiping Army's naval divisions turned back to fight to the death, maybe they couldn't help the Wu Army's steam gunboats, but it was easy to clean up the cumbersome and huge Loyalty and Renyi.

"Wu Demon Sailor's sampan fleet is there, is it not far from the rear, or is it already far out of touch? If Wu Demon's sampan fleet is thrown away, this is definitely a good opportunity to turn defeat into victory, should you take a risk? ”

At the critical moment of the difficult decision, an accident seriously interfered with Wei Jun's judgment of the enemy situation - a subordinate next to him suddenly pointed to Wu Jun's loyalty and exclaimed: "Prime Minister Wei, look, surpass the handsome banner of the little demon!" Surpass the little demon himself on the Loyalty! ”

Raised his head in surprise, and quickly raised his binoculars to observe the Loyalty that was rapidly approaching, and by the afterglow of the setting sun, Wei Jun soon saw clearly that Wu Chaoyue's big banner with teeth and claws was indeed fluttering on the mast of the Loyalty. Then, Wei Jun completely misjudged the enemy's situation.

"Since it is beyond the little demon to personally lead the army to chase, or on the Loyalty, which is not as fast as the steamer, it means that his sampan fleet is definitely not far away! Otherwise, with his greed for life and fear of death, he would definitely not dare to take such a risk and give us a chance to capture him alive. ”

"We can't take any more risks, with sampan boats to protect the nearboard, even if we turn around and fight with all our might, we don't have much confidence in killing the two sail warships of the Wu Demon Water Division, on the contrary, it will only delay our retreat speed for him, so that the Qing Demon Water Master has a chance to catch up with us!"

Having come to these two logically correct but absolutely wrong conclusions, Wei Jun also made a decision that made his intestines repent—he ordered the main fleet to retreat at full speed with the banner, and ordered three steam gunboats to meet him head-on, and launched an attack on the main ship of the Wu army with three enemies and four enemies.

Just when Wu Chaoyue cheered the main fleet of the Taiping Army to retreat at full speed, since the beginning of the world, the first battle between steamships and steamships finally started on the inland waters of the Yangtze River in China! The steam gunboats of the Taiping army rumbled, frantically pouring artillery fire on the steam gunboats of the Wu army, and the steam gunboats of the Wu army, which were inferior in number, were not to be outdone, and also fired at the steam gunboats of the Taiping army.

Although Wu Chaoyue spent a lot of money and effort to train sailors, the skills of the Wu army sailors who operated the steam gunboats were no longer under the foreigners, but it was a pity that the people who drove the Taiping army steam gunboats were directly foreigner mercenaries, who also received strict technical training, and had more practical combat experience than the Wu army sailors.

If it weren't for the powerful Loyalty and Renyi, which continued to fire cannons to help the battle, the situation of the Wu army's steam gunboats would definitely be even worse, but even so, after just 20 minutes of fighting, Wu's two steam gunboats were still shot 13 times one after another, and both of them were not lightly damaged, and the side of the brave ship was directly blasted out of a big hole, while the three gunboats of the Taiping Army together were only shot eight times in total, although they were all wounded, but they were all slightly injured.

It must be explained that another important reason why the Wu army's steam gunboats were so embarrassed was that Wu Chaoyue, out of some considerations, forbade the steam gunboats to use bitter acid cannonballs to shell enemy ships without authorization.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Wu Chaoyue could only risk injuring the warship of the army by mistake, and ordered the Loyalty to use picric acid shells alone to meet the enemy, but this hand also received some effect, the Taiping army steam gunboat, which was also a wooden hull, was afraid of the flames, and no longer dared to be so unscrupulous as before, and was forced to open the distance between the Loyalty and Renyi to avoid the artillery fire, and the Wu army steam gunboat also took the opportunity to get out of the crisis, hiding in the range of the Loyalty and Renyi to seek protection, and continued to bombard the Taiping army under the cover of their comrades.

The Taiping army also fought very smartly, knowing that the side guns of the two sail warships of the Wu army were strong and did not dare to fight hard, so they quickly changed their tactics, wandered and gradually detoured back to the back of the Wu army's loyalty and Renyi, and turned the hull of the ship to bombard the tail of the Wu army's warship with its gunwales, and the Wu army's loyalty and Renyi were too cumbersome, and it was difficult to turn around, and in the fierce battle, they kept rotating like headless flies, but they still couldn't turn the ship against the enemy, and it was difficult to fight back after being kicked in the buttocks.

The stalemate in the battle was still a little unfavorable, but Wu Chaoyue's expression was very calm, patiently just waiting for the mobile phone to appear, and after a fierce battle, Wu Chaoyue's long-awaited fighter plane really arrived - while swimming, the three steam gunboats of the Taiping Army pulled away from each other, and it was difficult for each other to quickly rescue each other. Seeing that Wu Chaoyue was unceremonious, he immediately ordered the flag, ordered the two steam gunboats of his own army to attack the flagship of the Taiping Army, and casually pointed to an enemy ship nearby, and shouted: "Wang Fu, the Loyalty is your command, no matter what, you must grab the upstream of the long-haired steam gunboat for me, and also grab the bow of his ship!" ”

Originally, the engine power was at a disadvantage, and it was necessary to seize the upstream and bow of the enemy ship, and the task that Wu Chaoyue handed over to Wang Fu was of course extremely difficult, no matter how hard Wu Jun's sailors worked to control the sails, and no matter how hard Wang Fu commanded the rudder, he said that if he couldn't catch up, he couldn't catch up. However, just when Wu Chaoyue and Wang Fu were sweating profusely together, a loud report came from the lookout, "Wu Futai, General Wang, there is an enemy ship downstream of us, and it is rushing towards the flank of the stern of our ship at full speed!" ”

Wu Chaoyue and Wang Fu were shocked, and hurriedly ran to the side of the ship facing downstream to check the situation, but what surprised Wu Chaoyue and Wang Fu was that in order to seize the upstream sideways hull, the self-army accidentally exposed the stern of the ship, which had been injured a lot, in front of another Taiping steam gunboat, and the Taiping army steam gunboat that was fighting fiercely with the Wu army's steam gunboat seized the opportunity, and suddenly the boiler was fully opened, and with the steam power and the position that happened to be downwind, it was rushing directly to the stern of the Loyalty. Get ready to smash the stern of the Loyalty with hard metal ramming!

The panic was followed by an unexpected ecstasy, and he didn't care about asking Wang Fu to command the Loyalty to dodge, Wu Chaoyue directly shouted: "Throw down the fishing net I brought!" Throw it down in the direction of this steam gunboat! Throw them all! Fast! Fast! ”

Thanks to the blessing of strict training in peacetime, when the stern of the injured ship could be hit and destroyed by the Taiping army's steam gunboat at any time, the officers and men of the Wu army still faithfully carried out Wu Chaoyue's order, hurriedly moved a large group of fishing nets, and threw them down in the direction of the impact of the enemy ship............

Damn luck is on Wu Chaoyue's side this time, at this moment the sky has already unconsciously gradually entered the night, in the case of insufficient light, although the steam gunboat of the Taiping Army rushed from the downstream also found that the Loyalty threw something down the Yangtze River, but did not see clearly what the soldiers of the Wu Army were throwing, let alone found that countless fishing nets with pit paddle wheel blades and rotating shafts had been unfolded in front of them, and were drifting with the waves on the water, just burning the boiler to the most vigorous, at the fastest speed, plunged headlong into Wu Chaoyue's carefully arranged fishing net array.

At that moment, Wu Chaoyue closed his eyes nervously, and muttered in his heart, "God bless, if I can succeed, I promise that I will never download Japanese love action movies online in my life." (To be continued.) )