Chapter 645: Defeat the Enemy

Although the battle of the flagship seemed to be evenly matched, the balance of victory and defeat had gradually tilted in favor of the Song army.

The Left Route Army of the Jiaozhi Navy originally tried to reinforce the Chinese army, but at this time it was already facing the embarrassment of being difficult to protect itself, and at this time, two large ships of the Song Army appeared in the center of the battlefield like a whirlwind, successfully blocking the connection between Ruan Kuai's flagship and the warships of the Jiaozhi Navy in the rear. Reinforcements could no longer smoothly ascend to Nguyen Kua's flagship. Nguyen Kui had to go on the defensive. Ruan Kuai's two sons could only watch their father slowly fall into the encirclement. On the other side of the battlefield in the middle, Wu Ning, the commander of the Jiaozhi Navy, tried to attack Gao Hu's ship, but he was hit by a projectile fired by a fire gun, killing him on the spot, and the morale of his subordinates suddenly collapsed. In the broadside battle, the well-trained Song spearmen showed their particular prowess, forming a phalanx of spears and slowly advancing on the deck, crushing everything, and the enemy either lost their lives or had to jump into the sea to escape. Due to the proximity, the oarsmen had lost their effectiveness, and although the oarsmen on the warships of the Cochin Navy were untrained, they also jumped out of the cabin to fight with high morale, shouting: "Kill the Northern Barbarians!" But they were also quickly defeated by the Song army and slaughtered.

The hand-to-hand engagement between the flagships of the two sides had lasted for two quarters of an hour, and the Jiaozhi naval forces attempted to launch a second wave of offensive, but were stopped by the dense fire of the Song army. At this time, Yue Lun joined the battlefield with a heavy sword, but in the confusion, he was shot in the thigh by an arrow, but he failed to penetrate the armor, so he was not injured, Yue Lun turned around and found that Ruan Kuai, the flagship of the Jiaozhi Navy next to him, was shooting at him with a bow and crossbow, he sneered, did not pull out the arrow, but swung his sword to join the battle, and killed more than ten Jiaozhi officers and soldiers one after another like a meat grinder.

As reinforcements gradually arrived, the Cochin people came under increasing pressure. At this time, another Song army warship began to approach Yue Lun, and used its powerful firepower to repel all opponents who tried to take the side. Although Chen Guangqi, the general of the Jiaozhi Naval Army, tried his best, but at this time, his stern rudder was destroyed and lost power, and he himself had already hung the color, and he was afraid of the artillery and arrows of the Song army, so he threw down the commander and left the battlefield on a small boat alone. The soldiers of the Cochin Navy on the warships under his command surrendered one after another. Ruan Kui has fallen into a desperate situation. His sons made a desperate attempt to rescue their father, but they still failed to do so.

At this time, the reinforced Song army war ship was close to Ruan Kuai's ship, and its deck was "cultivated" with intensive firepower, and the entire superstructure was bombarded to pieces. Yue Lun took advantage of the situation to organize a counteroffensive. The final decisive battle took place near the shipbuilding of the flagship of the Cochin Naval Army. When his soldiers jumped into the sea to avoid the rain of bullets, Ruan Kui was still fighting tenaciously with bows and arrows. Because of his dazzling clothing, he was "cared for" by the Song army, and was finally knocked down by the projectile fired by the firebolt, and a Song soldier cut off his head and stuck it on the tip of the spear to show the public. As a result, the battlefield resounded with cheers of victory, and the big yellow flag with the character "Chen" on Ruan Kuai's boat and the military flag of Ruan Kuai fell and were replaced by the flag of the Song army. The morale of the Cochin Navy was completely shattered.

The Song army began to sweep the entire battlefield. All of Nguyen's sons were captured, and the remaining remnants either surrendered or fled. Out of a thirst for revenge on the Jiaozhi people, the Song soldiers showed no mercy to most of the remnants of the Jiaozhi soldiers and their captives, and most of the enemy overboard floating on the surface of the sea were executed. Then they looted the booty. Although this was a great victory, the performance of the Song soldiers after the victory clearly violated the Confucian spirit of "benevolence and righteousness".

The victory and defeat were divided, and the soldiers of the Song army began to loot the spoils left by the Jiaozhi people. The sea was a mess, full of burning, capsized ships, and even some wandering "ghost ships" (whose crews were all dead), making people shudder.

Although the blood-red sea was like hell, the Song soldiers were elated - the spoils were too rich, because the Jiaozhi people, especially the Jiaozhi generals, were always accustomed to carrying large quantities of gold and silver money with their ships in order to reward their subordinates and boost morale at any time. On Ruan Kuai's ship alone, the Song army found 50,000 copper coins, as well as a large amount of gold and silver.

In the battle of less than an hour, more than 40,000 soldiers of the Cochin Army were killed, nearly 300 large and small warships were destroyed, and more than 100 ships of various types were captured. Among them, there were only more than 2,500 Jiaozhi prisoners, most of whom were noble children and women, and most of the captives were executed by the Song army. In contrast, the Song army's casualties were small, with more than 1,200 killed and more than 700 wounded. During the battle, the large and medium-sized warships of the Song army were not lost, and only 12 sentinel ships were destroyed.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the Song army continued to land, because there was no resistance and interference from the Jiaozhi army, it only took an hour for the Song army to complete the landing, and a large number of artillery was also transported to the shore.

At the same time, Chen Guangqi, who was lucky enough to escape with his life, tried his best to contain the scattered warships of the Jiaozhi Army, and after counting, there were only 12 warships and 33 small boats left in the entire Cochin Naval Army.

Fan Wulao witnessed the entire battle of the Baiteng River and the destruction of the Jiaozhi Water Army, in view of the fact that the Song army had already landed, he did not dare to act rashly, so he had to take more than 100 of his subordinates to hide in the nearby mountains and forests, until the sun went down, and did not leave quietly while the Song army did not find them.

"Even if you take the sea control over this time, right?" After Ye Chuchu listened to the battle report, he said to Sun Hui, "I don't think it is possible for them to have a naval army of the same size." ”

"That's all there is to it." Sun Hui nodded, "There may still be some residual strength, but it is impossible to pose a threat to us." ”

"Brother Sun, how do you know that there are so many wooden stakes in the bay that they have laid in ambush?" Xiao Tiantian tilted her head and asked.

"Yes, Brother Sun, how do you know so clearly?" Wang Linlin also asked curiously.

When the Song convoy reached the mouth of the Baiteng River, Sun Hui ordered to stop the advance and let Xiao Tiantian and Wang Linlin use their strength to dismantle all the wooden piles equipped with iron tips that the Jiaozhi military had first arranged at the mouth of the bay, and the two trestle bridges on the shore that were crucial to the landing of the Song army were the masterpieces of the two of them after using these wooden piles to "waste use".

"Historically, the Song army's conquest of Vietnam and the Yuan army's conquest of Annam both suffered a big loss of wood and stakes here, and if we don't learn some lessons this time, we can't talk about it." Sun Hui told them with a smile that in the original history, when the Song army conquered Vietnam, Liu Cheng's naval army was blocked by the wooden stakes laid by the Yue people in the Baiteng River and failed, and later the Yuan army conquered Annan, and it was also here that the ambush with an iron-tipped wooden stake laid by the famous Yue general Chen Guojun suffered heavy losses.