The last time the Wu Army Navy Division and the Taiping Army Navy Division had a steam gunboat duel, it was when the strength was slightly inferior, and the opportunistic tactics of relying on fishing nets to wrap the paddle wheel were won. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info and this time in the battle of Poyang Lake, Wu Junshui did not have such an opportunity, so he could only rely on real fists to speak.

It is a pity that the Wu Junshui Division still does not have much upper hand in strength this time, although it is one more steam paddle gunboat than the Taiping Army, but in the previous raid on the Taiping Army's pontoon bridge, Wu's four steam gunboats were injured by varying degrees of severity, and the right paddle wheel of one of the steam gunboats also happened to be hit by the shells of the Taiping Army's shore artillery, and two blades were broken, and the speed of the ship was greatly affected, and the decisive battle with the Taiping Army Naval Division was not ideal.

The four steam gunboats of the Wu army, which had been damaged differently, faced off against the three intact steam gunboats of the Taiping army, and there was not much difference in strength between them, and the tactical level of the commanders of the two sides naturally became one of the most critical factors in determining the victory or defeat. But fortunately, in this regard, Xu Lai, the commander of the Wu Army's water division, had a clear advantage.

When the two sides encountered, the Wu army's sailors who turned around and killed from the mouth of Poyang Lake were in a disadvantageous position against the wind, and although the water flowing northward was not too rapid, it also affected the speed of the Wu army's ships to some extent, and the wind direction and current were unfavorable to the Wu army's sailors. In this regard, Xu Lai, who had received training from the British Navy, chose to take a counterclockwise detour and lead the Wu army fleet to the right flank en masse, allowing the relatively small but large number of gunwales to undertake the combat mission, and at the same time striving to seize the advantageous position of the smooth wind.

Hu Dingwen, the chief general of the Taiping Army's naval division, who was born in Yeluzi, also made a good choice, taking advantage of his army's superiority, commanding the Taiping army's fleet to charge the waist of the Wu army's naval division in a roundabout, bombarding the Wu army's fleet with large-caliber bow guns, and at the same time striving to cut off the Wu army's naval fleet.

In the rumbling of artillery, although the commanders of both sides made the right choice, and the soldiers of the two warring sides also faithfully carried out the order, but the too scarce long-range firepower doomed the Taiping naval division to be unable to disrupt the Wu army column through artillery bombardment, and in the case that only three bow guns could open fire, no matter how desperately the three steam gunboats of the Taiping army opened fire and opened fire, they could not directly disrupt the queue of the Wu army's fleet, so they could only rely on the speed advantage to move forward desperately and do their best to quickly close the ship distance.

On the other hand, the Wu army's four steam gunboats and two red single boats fired desperately, and even if the whistling shells fell by luck, they were still able to effectively disrupt the small boat queue of the Taiping army's sailors, resulting in confusion among the small pulling boats and sampan boats that protected the Taiping army's steam gunboats, and they were constantly falling behind, which quickly weakened the Taiping army's naval division's near-board combat capability.

Even so, the unfavorable position of the Wu army sailors still failed to stop the Taiping army sailors from rushing into the waist of their fleet, several Wu army sampans were directly overturned by the waves brought by the Taiping army steam gunboats, and at the same time, the long-standing Taiping army steam gunboats also fired at the same time on both sides, hitting the Wu army warships many times in succession, and the overall formation was also successfully cut off by the Taiping army.

At the same time that the Taiping gunners fired, the Wu gun's bow and stern guns also fired at the same time, and they also hit the Taiping steam gunboats one after another at close range, exchanging many minor injuries for two serious injuries to the enemy.

At this time, Hu Dingwen, who had not received systematic education, made his first command mistake, and as soon as he cut off the Wu army's fleet, he couldn't wait to lower the sail and reduce the speed, desperately shooting with gunwales, in a vain attempt to force the Wu army's fleet to split into two, so as to break the Wu army's fleet all over the place.

Although the idea was good, it was a pity that Hu Dingwen forgot that the small boat fleet of the Taiping Army that protected him near the board had been disrupted by the Wu army first, and the sampan of the Wu army, which was in complete formation, took advantage of the opportunity of the Taiping army's steam gunboat to take the initiative to reduce its speed and rushed up to fight a close battle, setting fire bombs and spraying fire oil to set fire to the Taiping army's big ships.

The sound of ping-pong gunfire continued, and the fire sprayed from the watering cans swept back and forth on the hull deck of the Taiping Army's steam gunboats in a column, and the firebombs also continued to shoot on the side of the Taiping Army's steam gunboats, and the three steam gunboats of the Taiping Army caught fire in many places.

Although Hu Dingwen also waited for a large number of small boats from the army to come to reinforce him, it was a pity that the chaotic formation was destined to make the small boats of the Taiping army unable to drive away the sampan fleet of the Wu army besieging the big ship, and at the same time, in the small boat near-board battle, the bitter acid grenade of the Wu army was too restrained by the small boat boat, and in desperation, Hu Dingwen could only dispel the idea of completely cutting off the Wu army's fleet, and shouted: "Raise the flag, go at full speed, and get rid of the demon soldier boat first." ”

The flag was raised, and the three steam gunboats of the Taiping army marched at full speed again, finally shaking off the Wu army's sampan fleet like kraft candy. The rear team of Wu's naval division took the opportunity to advance calmly and continued to maintain collective action. At the same time, Xu Lai was keenly aware of the arrival of the fighters, and decisively ordered the flag to let the sailing fleet of the self-army meet the enemy on the spot, and the sailing fleet of the Taiping Army, which was in charge of the Taiping Army, only brought four steam gunboats to meet the battle at high speed.

By the way, Xu Lai left a part of the sail force of the Wu army by his side, not to slow down his overall speed, but to worry that the sail fleet of the Taiping Army sail division would go to the mouth of Poyang Lake to make trouble and prevent the Wu army sail division commando from destroying the pontoon bridge, which would have successfully entangled the sail force of the Wu army, and of course Xu Lai would pull out the highly mobile steam cannon boat to do it alone.

Rushing through the sail battlefield at a superior speed to seize the upper hand, Xu Lai first commanded four steamships to turn around and rush to the three steam-gunboats of the Taiping Army in a column, and at the same time raised the flag early and ordered each ship to concentrate fire on the flagship of the Taiping Army.

At the same time, Hu Dingwen made his second command mistake, and even ordered the fleet to turn around and counter-charge when it was already in a downwind and headwater, and still wanted to come to engage in a melkew-to-side battle with the Wu army's steam gunboats. Xu Lai laughed when he saw it, and decisively ordered the fleet to turn the rudder to the right at a certain angle, luring the Taiping fleet, which was still carrying some small boats, to continue to stretch the battle line, and at the same time, first bombarding the Taiping flagship with large-caliber bow guns, and then slowly cutting the flesh with a large number of gunwales.

The sound of cannons continued, the whistle was piercing, the roar of the steam boiler resounded across the lake, and the seven steam gunboats and countless large and small sail warships chased after me on the wide Poyang Lake, rushing left and right, constantly firing artillery and shooting at each other, fighting inextricably, and the fierceness of the fierce battle was worse than that of the land battlefield above.

After successfully breaking up the formation of the Taiping Army, under the skillful command of Xu Lai, the steam gunboats of the Wu Army not only did not expose the weakness of the speed of the ship that had been affected by the previous injury, but on the contrary, with the advantage of the water flow and direction, in turn they occupied the upper hand in the fierce battle, and at the same time, the trained officers and men of the Wu Army Naval Division also maintained a far higher hit rate than the Taiping Army in the artillery battle. The continuous and focused bombardment of the flagship of the Taiping Army gradually damaged the flagship of the Taiping Army.

Hu Dingwen, who was born in Yeluzi, gradually completely exposed his weaknesses that he had not received professional training during the fierce battle, and always believed that there was one less steam gunboat in his own army, and he did not want to fight long-range artillery battles with Wu Jun's naval divisions, and he always fought with small boats with the intention of fighting close-quarters battles, and gave up the advantage that the hull was intact and the speed could be fully opened, and he was always passively beaten in the fierce battle, and was constantly weakened by the Wu army's artillery fire like ants gnawing bones.

As a result, when the flagship was seriously damaged and there were fires and smoke in many places, Hu Dingwen suddenly woke up and knew that the Wu army was playing the tactic of capturing the thief and capturing the king first, so he quickly ordered the steam cannon ships of the self-army to follow suit like the Wu army's naval division, and also concentrated firepower to bombard the flagship of the Wu army's naval division. Unfortunately, it was too late to do so, and the building of the flagship of the Taiping Army had not only been seriously damaged by the Wu army's artillery fire, but even the steam paddle wheel had been hit three times, one side lost power, and the ship's speed dropped seriously.

It is worth mentioning that at this point, Hu Dingwen still hasn't found out that it was his command mistake that led to complete passivity, missing the opportunity to win, and he was so anxious that he even blamed Shi Dakai, muttering: "The Wing King is eight thousand years old, and the sailor who surpasses the little demon is obviously one more steamer than us, and he actually forced me to fight a decisive battle with the demon sailor." ”

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When Hu Dingwen complained about Shi Dakai's blind command, Shi Dakai had already made a wise choice under Jiujiang City - with tears in his eyes, he ordered the withdrawal of the besieging army and gave up attacking Jiujiang City, and at the same time ordered the army to pull out the camp and go east overnight, preparing to withdraw to Hukou to protect the main army. However, at this time, Zhu Yidian, the general who stayed in Meijiazhou, sent someone to report urgently, saying that the three pontoon bridges at the mouth of Poyang Lake had been damaged by the Wu army, and the third was also damaged.

"What is Zhu Yidian for? Why can't you even hold a few pontoon bridges? Tell him that no matter what, he will keep the third pontoon bridge for this king, prepare other equipment ships, kill the demon fleet, and repair the first two pontoon bridges immediately! ”

Even the defeated Shi Dakai was very angry with others, first forcing Zhu Yidian to defend the bridge with all his might, and then urging the army to retreat eastward to Meijiazhou as soon as possible, and at the same time ordering Hong Ronghai, who was cutting the cable Tsui, to hold his position with all his might, drag the well-equipped Daye Wu army, and buy time for the main force to retreat eastward.

Still after Shi Dakai finished arranging the arrangement, the chief strategist Zhang Suimou said with some hesitation: "Wing King, looking at the posture of surpassing the little demon, it is clear that he wants to annihilate us on the west bank of Poyang Lake, if the pontoon bridge cannot be saved, and our sailors are not in a good situation, our main force may be in danger." ”

"So what can I do?" Shi Dakai, who was in an extremely bad mood, asked angrily: "Do you want to stay and wait for death?!" ”

Zhang Suimou's expression was even more hesitant, and he said after a while: "The Wing King is eight thousand years old, judging from the current situation, maybe we should retreat to the south?" ”

"Retreat south?" Shi Da opened a flute.

Zhang Suimou nodded and said: "Taking advantage of the fact that the little demon has not yet formed a big advantage for us on the Jiujiang battlefield, and also taking advantage of the fact that we still have some grain and grass with the army, we will take the army to the south, go to the direction of Dechang with open terrain, rob grain and self-sufficiency all the way, and bypass Poyang Lake to return to Raozhou." ”

"In this way, we can not only be more sure of keeping part of the main force, but also turn the rear hinterland of the Transcendence Demon upside down, and also receive the effect of containing the Transcendence Demon."

If Wu Chaoyue could hear Zhang Suimou's words at the scene, then Wu Chaoyue would definitely be able to chew Zhang Suimou's bad ideas! But fortunately, at the critical moment of deciding whether Wu Chaoyue could be disgusted to the extreme, Shi Dakai made a conservative choice again, hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said: "It's too risky to do this, not to mention that the little demon is still heavily garrisoned in Nanchang, even if we can withdraw to Raozhou, we won't have many troops left." It's better to go to Meijiazhou first, if you can't do it, then think about it again. ”

Zhang Suimou didn't dare to insist, but sighed quietly, looked at the direction of Dechang where the Wu army's strength was empty, and said in his heart: "The Wing King is still too far behind the Transcendence Little Demon, if it is replaced by the Transcendence Little Demon, he will definitely choose to go to Dechang without hesitation, and as long as he catches the opportunity, he will directly enter Hunan and Hubei!" ”

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At the same time, on the battlefield of Poyang Hukou, the fierce battle of the Wu Army's naval division commando also entered the most critical moment, although it successfully blew up two pontoon bridges, but when attacking the last pontoon bridge of the Taiping Army, the Wu Army's naval division commando encountered the most stubborn and frantic resistance, and many attacks were repulsed.

In order to keep the last pontoon bridge, the Taiping troops on both sides of the lake mouth simply rushed directly to the pontoon bridge to line up to meet the battle, and the Wu army's sampan boats driven by a group of five people were to get a little closer to the pontoon bridge, and they would immediately be hit by fierce firepower, and there was no chance to get on the pontoon bridge at all, let alone place explosives to detonate, no less than ten charges failed to receive any effect, and six or seven sampan clippers were captured by the Taiping army because all the sailors on board were killed.

It is not only the land division of the Taiping Army that is crazy, but also the shore artillery of the Taiping Army and the small boats on the water, the artillery on both sides of the strait has always roared endlessly, and the small boats are like moths to the fire, constantly pounce on the two red single boats of the Wu Army's naval division commando, frantically throwing fire bombs and spraying fire oil, one of the Wu Army's red single boats has almost turned into a fireball, and it is destined to be lost, and the ship of Wang Pengnian, the general of the Wu Army's naval division, who led the army to assault, has also caught fire in many places and suffered serious damage.

The boat ride was in great danger, but Wang Pengnian didn't have the heart to care about it at all, his blackened hands just held the binoculars tightly, nervously watching the two sampan clippers of the self-army attack the third pontoon bridge of the Taiping Army. However, it is a pity that one of the Wu army sampans has lost control before they have time to get on the pontoon bridge, obviously the five soldiers on board have been killed or seriously injured, and the other sampan boat has just approached the pontoon bridge, and immediately countless Taiping soldiers jumped on the sampan boat, removed the ignition fuse, and rolled into the lake with the remnants of the Wu soldiers on board.

After putting down the binoculars in despair and looking around at the battlefield full of fire and smoke, Wang Pengnian gritted his teeth and made up his mind, and yelled and ordered: "Go forward, use my boat to hit the third pontoon bridge of Changmao, and move all the gunpowder to the front cabin!" All the gunpowder on board was moved to the forward cabin! ”

Some of Wang Pengnian's sailors on the ship were afraid to accept the order, but there were still some sailors and personal soldiers who faithfully carried out Wang Pengnian's order, and while entering the cabin to carry gunpowder, they struggled to drive the badly injured red single boat forward, and rushed into the gap between the first and second pontoon bridges of the Taiping Army from the gap where the Wu army's sampan had been bombed before.

The Taiping army soon discovered the intention of the Wu army's red single boat, shouting and screaming that the attack was more fierce, but after all, the red single boat was big, even if it was hit by more guns and rockets, it would not sink for a while, Wang Pengnian personally took the helm, turned the hull with difficulty, and gradually rushed to the big gap blown up by the Wu army on the second pontoon bridge of the Taiping army.

It's a pity that although the red single boat rushed to the gap of the pontoon, the bottom of the boat ran into the Taiping Army's pad bridge dirt bag that was not blown up and washed away, and the hull of the boat suddenly stopped. The surrounding Taiping troops were thunderous, but Wang Pengnian shouted with red eyes, "Throw all the artillery into the water, and throw all the things you don't want into the water!" ”

A heavy cannon was pushed down the lake from the broken gun window, and all kinds of debris on the deck were thrown out one after another, and the hull gradually floated, and the Wu Junhong single boat suddenly moved again, with the friction sound of the bottom of the boat across the gap of the second pontoon bridge, and continued to rush to the third pontoon bridge of the Taiping Army, the Taiping Army was horrified, and quickly re-accelerated the offensive, and at the same time, the Taiping soldiers on the third pontoon bridge also shot frantically at the Wu Army's red single boat, but it was useless, the huge Wu Army Red single boat was still with raging fire, The bow of the ship hit the third pontoon bridge of the Taiping Army.

snatched a torch with his hand, Wang Pengnian was about to rush to the cabin with his waist bent, but a personal soldier next to him threw him on the deck, grabbed the torch and rushed into the cabin, and shouted with a crying voice: "General, dive into the water!" Remember, my name is Julun Buku, if you go to Wukurtun in Heilongjiang in the future, remember to tell my family! ”

"Tsulunbuku!"

Wang Pengnian cried loudly, but the soldiers in the northeast border that he rescued from the Tsarist Russian fleet did not speak, but just dragged him to jump off Poyang Lake and fled away with him in the water. Then soon, an earth-shattering loud bang sounded behind Wang Pengnian......

"Boom!"

Hearing this sudden huge explosion, Shi Dakai, who was hurriedly retreating east with the army, suddenly sank in his heart, and a sense of foreboding once again enveloped his heart, and said secretly: "Won't it?" ”

Shi Dakai's sixth sense was fulfilled again, when he hurried to the mouth of Poyang Lake with the main force of the Taiping Army at the dawn of the sky, he could clearly see without a telescope that the three pontoon bridges he had worked hard to build at the mouth of Poyang Lake had all been broken and broken, and the two pontoon bridges on the inner side of the lake had disappeared nearly half under the impact of the current.

kicked Zhu Yidian, who was crying and mourning on his face, and kicked Zhu Yidian with four feet to the sky, Shi Dakai roared angrily: "Repair! Fix the pontoon bridge for the king right away! ”

"The Winged King is eight thousand years old! Oh no! Oh no! ”

A scout stumbled in from the direction of the north bank, and before he could salute Shi Dakai, he shouted, "The demon soldiers are here!" The demon soldiers' troop carriers are coming from upstream! Hundreds of troop carriers! It's almost time to get to Jiujiang Wharf! ”

Hearing this, none of the Taiping Army people present were not as pale as paper, but Shi Dakai was pale and black, and his hands and fists were clenched so that his joints turned white.