The deafening sound of artillery never stopped, and the smoke of gunpowder almost enveloped the entire Wuwang Temple and Banbi Mountain, and the huge water waves also continued to rise and fall on the river. Pen "Fun" In the smoke of artillery fire and gunfire in the pavilion www.biquge.info, the soldiers of the Taiping Army, whose morale was like a rainbow, forgot their lives, and launched a charge and assault on the Wu army's iron cable defense line again and again, setting fire to the ship, swinging an axe and cutting the chain, allowing the waves to push them to the ground, and also allowing the light and dark mines of the Wu army to suddenly explode around them and even under their feet, no matter whether the deadly shells could come at any time, the Taiping soldiers still lit the Wu army ships one after another to set off the iron cable, and also cut off one thick iron cable after another, like ants gnawing bones, destroying the Wu army's iron cable defense line little by little.

Although it paid a lot of casualties, but the progress made by the Taiping army was quite gratifying, it only took one morning, the Taiping army sailors successfully smashed the fourth iron line of the Wu army, and with the smoke of gunpowder, the cannon body after the artillery was fired one after another was too hot, the Wu gunners who were blocked in sight not only greatly reduced the shooting accuracy, but also forced to slow down the frequency of artillery firing a lot, the Taiping soldiers who hung the gourd on their waists took the opportunity to rush and fight, and destroyed the fifth iron cable defense line of the Wu army a lot, and there was no doubt about continuing to make a breakthrough.

In the case of a huge disparity in the number of artillery, the officers and men of the Taiping Army struggled to maneuver the large boats and maneuvered, constantly hitting the water fortifications of the Wu army with a limited number of shells, and from time to time bombarding the Wu army's batteries on both sides of the Yangtze River, and accurately hitting many times, greatly reducing the pressure on the army.

The Taiping soldiers after falling into the water did not panic as long as they still had a breath of air, and slowly floated to the troop transport fleet swimming downstream to seek rescue with the hollow gourd tied around their waists as a floating object. As long as the ship could still float on the river and the bow gun could continue to shoot, the officers and men of the Taiping Army kept firing more than once, making every effort to suppress the Wu army's artillery fire and help the comrades who hit the iron cable to reduce the pressure.

Relying on this tenacious fighting spirit and hard work, in the case of paying a heavy price again, the Taiping army really got its wish and smashed the three iron cable defense lines of the Wu army in the second day's battle, and also destroyed one more Wu army's water wooden shaft, which greatly reduced the Wu army's water defense strength, so when the troops were withdrawn after dark, the scarred Taiping army fleet was full of cheers, and many people excitedly sang the military song of the Taiping army, full of confidence in the third day of the battle.

Even the soldiers are so confident, Wei Jun, the commander of the Taiping Army's sailors, is of course even more confident, and as soon as he returned to the camp, he immediately convened a meeting of the generals under his command, and decided to set out tomorrow, striving to completely break through the Wu army's water defense line within one day, and then force the Wu army's sailors to fight a decisive battle.

The confident generals of the Taiping Army all clenched their fists and obeyed the order, and did not hesitate to take the order issued by Wei Jun, but the deputy Zhong Tingsheng felt that something was wrong, and couldn't help but remind Wei Jun: "Prime Minister Wei, do you think that the battle in the past two days has been too smooth?" We are swimming against the current, and we can still break through the six iron lines that surpass the little demon in two days one after another, and the battle is so smooth that the last general ...... and the last general ....... ”

"What's wrong with you?" Wei Jun asked strangely, and then asked, "Isn't it good to fight well?" Does it have to be bad for things to go well? ”

"That's not what the last will mean." Zhong Tingsheng shook his head and said: "The last general just thinks it's too smooth, much smoother than the last general imagined, and it's as if it's not true, so I always feel that there seems to be something wrong." ”

"Don't think about it." Wei Jun waved his hand and said: "You didn't go to the front line, I don't know the situation there, our advance this time was so smooth, all because our soldiers fought bravely, everyone scrambled to be the first, and they all took out twelve percent of their strength to attack the Wu Demon defense line, so they were able to achieve such brilliant results." ”

Zhong Tingsheng nodded, sighed again, and said: "But our losses are also large, thirteen towing boats were sunk in two days, five were completely scrapped, and the casualties of the soldiers were even more amazing. ”

"It doesn't matter, as long as you can break through Wu Demon's iron cable defense line and annihilate Wu Demon's main force of the Sailor Division, it's definitely worth paying these costs!" Although Wei Jun, who had been mentally prepared, was actually equally distressed, he still spoke very beautifully, and said: "Besides, as long as we can kill the main force of Wu Demon's sailors, those idle warships brought by the little demon from Wuchang will all be ours, enough to make up for the loss of our ships." ”

At this time, a clipper came from outside the cabin to report that the soldiers of the Qing Army's naval division who had withdrawn from Hubei had arrived at Fuchikou by land, and were crossing Fushui overnight to continue driving north. Wei Jun twitched the muscles on his face when he heard this, then slapped the table and said, "Go down and prepare immediately, no matter how much you pay tomorrow, you must completely break through the remaining iron cable defense line of Wu Demon for me!" Otherwise, when these demon sailors cross the river and get on the boat to reorganize into an army, we will have worked hard in vain for the past two days! ”

…………

As expected by Wei Jun and others, although they successfully withdrew to Tianjia Town, the Qing sailors led by Bao Chao and Liu Liansheng could not immediately drive the boat to participate in the battle, and they had to spend time crossing the river to reorganize and familiarize themselves with the new ship. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue did not rush to urge Liu Liansheng and Bao Chao and others to immediately lead the army to board the ship to participate in the battle, but only gave the Qing army sailors a day to rest and reorganize, and then took over the spare warships he brought from the provincial capital.

The emperor is not in a hurry to be a eunuch, Wu Chaoyue is not in a hurry, Bao Chao, who has long wanted to change the door to hug Wu Chaoyue's thigh, said: "Wu Futai, I heard that Changmao has broken through six iron cable defense lines in the past two days, and we now only have four iron cable defense lines left to defend, or let us get on the boat tonight, while resting and familiarizing ourselves with the new ship, tomorrow if you need it, as long as you give an order, we can immediately sail the ship to participate in the battle." ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled when he heard this, and said with a smile: "I understand General Bao's kindness, but don't worry, Changmao will come back tomorrow, you just wait to watch a good show." ”

In the puzzled confusion of Bao Chao and Liu Liansheng and others, the night passed quickly, and in the early morning of the third day of the battle of Tianjia Town, the main force of the Taiping Army's naval division really set out to kill Tianjia Town, and nearly 1,000 ships of all kinds covered the river and waves, large and small, and could not see the end at a glance, and the momentum was unprecedented since Wu Chaoyue took office as governor of Hubei.

Correspondingly, of course, the Wu army's side was also dispatched, the army guarded the battery to operate the artillery, and the naval division crossed the river to the south, and at the same time, Wu Chaoyue also stipulated the signal for this big battle early - Shuaitai raised a red flag, the breech guns fired, and bombarded with picric acid shells, and at the same time, the four main warships also all switched to picric acid flowering shells! Lowering the red flag to stop using picric weapons, and raising a green flag is to launch Congreve rockets with all your might!

Wu Chaoyue, Zhao Liewen and others waited calmly, when the hour was approaching, the main force of the Taiping Army's naval division arrived at the battlefield, and Wei Jun, who was in charge of the steam gunboat, personally issued an order, and the first wave of attacks dispatched 200 military sampans, each carrying five soldiers, to attack the Wu army's seventh iron cable defense line head-on, and at the same time dispatched 20 towing boats in one breath to cover the sampan with artillery fire to launch an attack.

It was not easy to attract all the main forces of the Taiping Army's naval division, Wu Chaoyue certainly would not scare the Taiping Army away so quickly, or only let the artillery fire of the batteries and sailors on both sides of the river protect the iron cable defense line, while the Taiping Army Naval Division, which was familiar with the road, calmly advanced, and moved forward flexibly against the Wu army's artillery fire and the waves of the Yangtze River.

Because the wooden stool of the seventh iron cable had been burned on the first day, the Taiping soldiers made the first breakthrough faster than the first two days, and easily destroyed the seventh iron cable of the Wu army in just over an hour, cheering and immediately launched a charge towards the eighth iron cable, Wei Jun was overjoyed, and he couldn't wait to send a hundred military sampans to participate in the battle, and at the same time let these sampan ships bring expensive picric acid weapons, Determined to break through the Wu army's water defense line today.

Another hundred enemy ships joined the battle, and while the pressure on the soldiers of the Wu army guarding the water defense line increased sharply, a sinister smile appeared on the corner of Wu Chaoyue's mouth, and after casually giving an order to Wu Dadao next to him, a huge red flag quickly rose above the Wu army's marshal. Then, the main artillery battalion of the Wu army, which had endured for more than two days, was no longer polite, and immediately pulled the gun rope, and the first round of shelling blasted out a full fifty picric acid shells - although the price was expensive, Wu Chaoyue still bought a batch of breech-loading rifled guns from the British, and at the same time, the Daye Arsenal had also been successfully copied, so the number of artillery in the Wu army's artillery battalion had long been unprecedented.

The picric acid shells that fell from the sky did not attract the attention of the Taiping soldiers, and in the case of the gunpowder smoke that had long been accustomed to the gunfire, even if the picric acid bombs fell into the water and exploded, or hit the ships of the Taiping Army and exploded, the Taiping soldiers also thought that it was just an ordinary black powder flowering shell, or after the bitter acid shell showed a far from extraordinary explosive power, the Taiping soldiers who were caught off guard found that the situation was seriously wrong, and when they saw the flames that were floating on the water after the picric acid shell exploded, Only then did the soldiers of the Taiping Army burst into bursts of heart-rending screams, "Demon artillery shells!" Beyond the little demon shot the demon cannonball! ”

It was too late to scream, and the bitter acid cannonball, which was born to be the nemesis of wooden boats, exploded, and raging flames quickly appeared on the water surface of the Yangtze River, quickly igniting the surrounding Taiping Army sampan boats. The sampan of the Taiping Army, which was directly hit by two picric acid shells, was even worse, and it was directly blown into a state of parts, and none of the sailors on the ship were spared, and they were directly turned into meat puree. There were also three large boats that had been hit by picric shells, and a huge flame quickly erupted, and the water could not be extinguished, and the sand could not be extinguished, and the sailors on board shouted at the raging flames, but there was nothing they could do with this damned flame.

At the same time, the four main warships of the Wu Army's naval division were also replaced with picric acid shells to shoot, and between the successive shots on the shore and water, countless fires quickly rose in the Taiping army's fleet, and more small boats were shattered, and large ships caught fire, and the Taiping soldiers who fell into the water could no longer escape calmly as before and in the first two days, they could only carefully dodge the picric acid flames and strive to escape, but there were still many Taiping soldiers who were directly shrouded in picric acid flames, and they were burned in the water to cry wolves, and their bearded clothes were on fire everywhere, and they died miserably.

The fierce artillery fire continued one after another, and the fleet of the Taiping Army, which had always been heroic and fearless, finally appeared a huge chaos, large ships and small boats scurried everywhere in order to avoid fire and bombs, during which they collided endlessly, shouting and screaming, and some ships began to flee because they were afraid of bitter acid shells, and they could no longer play the high morale and high momentum they had before, and their morale was greatly demoralized, and the morale of the army was even more chaotic.

The difficult choice was placed in front of Wei Jun, Wei Jun could not judge whether the Wu army suddenly blasted a large number of picric acid shells, whether it was the final death struggle, or a premeditated and deliberate act, and it was even more difficult to decide whether to continue the all-out onslaught at any cost, or to withdraw the troops and preserve the strength that had been damaged.

"At this time, the soldiers will be withdrawn, and the brothers who died two days ago will die in vain!"

With this thought in mind, Wei Jun finally made up his mind, and ordered the front to disperse the queue and continue the attack. As a result, after Wu Chaoyue saw that the Taiping army fleet was stretching the queue, he also decisively ordered to stop firing picric acid shells, saving valuable shells while continuing to lure Wei Jun into the front.

Wei Jun breathed a sigh of relief from the picric acid shells that gradually stopped firing, knowing that Wu Chaoyue was reluctant to use more of this kind of overly expensive shells, but the Taiping army was too scattered because of the formation, and in the case of a great reduction in pressure, it was no longer able to maintain the previous fierce offensive, and the damage to the Wu army's barrage was greatly reduced, and it also gave the Qing soldiers guarding the water fortifications more opportunities to attack the Taiping sailors with muskets and mines, and the casualty number rose rapidly.

Should troops be thrown to the front again? When Wei Jun hesitated about this decision, Zhong Tingsheng quietly came to Wei Jun's side, pointed to the location of the Wu Army's artillery camp and said, "Prime Minister Wei, have you noticed?" Wu Demon's demon artillery shells were basically fired from that position? ”

After being reminded by Zhong Tingsheng, Wei Jun suddenly came to his senses, and hurriedly sent someone to give an order to the battlefield ahead, so that the towing boats could concentrate their firepower and bombard the positions of the Wu army's artillery camp. At the same time, Wei Jun also gritted his teeth and threw ten tugboats and a sampan fleet into the front, continuing to strengthen the impact on the Wu army's iron cable defense line!

Patiently waiting for the follow-up fleet of the Taiping Army to enter the firing range, Wu Chaoyue ordered the red and green flags to be raised at the same time, and Zhao Liewen next to him asked with a smile: "Comfort Pavilion, what's the matter?" Don't tease the long-haired play? ”

"Don't be funny." Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "Long hair is not a fool, if you eat a big loss again, you will definitely run, rather than let the fat in your mouth grow wings and fly away, it is better to swallow it in one bite first." ”

As he spoke, the Wu army's rocket troops, who had endured for a longer time, couldn't wait to move, constantly lighting the fuse with torches, and one after another nine-foot-long Congreve rockets roared out, shooting at the Taiping army's towing ships with dazzling tail flames, and at the same time, the main warships of the Wu army also flew out one after another, shooting at the enemy ships in front of them, and cooperating with shore-launched rockets to cover the Taiping army's towing fleet.

As mentioned earlier, the Taiping Army also used Congreve rockets, but unfortunately the rockets used by the Taiping Army were old-fashioned rockets without stable wings, and the hit rate was very low and terrifying, so when they saw that Wu Jun suddenly used a large number of Congreve rockets, the Taiping soldiers were still not too nervous, on the contrary, there were many people who showed disdain, confident that even if the ship stopped and did not move, it would never be hit by Wu Jun's rockets.

Then, when the huge rockets of the Wu army spun a large number of towing boats that accurately hit the Taiping army, the Taiping soldiers were of course pleasantly surprised, "How is it possible?" When will such a big rocket be so accurate? ”

Not only was it accurate, but the power of the explosion was even greater, although each Congreve rocket carried a small amount of picric acid explosives, the power emitted when it exploded was far from black powder, and it exploded into a large hole in the hull of the Taiping Army's towing ship, and then sprayed a picric acid flame that could not be extinguished at all. Coupled with the rapid launch characteristics of Congreve rockets, in less than five minutes, the Taiping Army's more than 20 towing ships on the front line had all risen into flames, or bitter acid flames that could not be extinguished at all, and the hull and sails ignited a sky-high fire.

At the same time, the breech artillery of the Wu army, which fired frantically again, once again turned the battlefield on the river into a hell of fire and water, and the cannonballs with huge explosive power exploded into the water, without direct hits, and the waves alone could directly overturn the surrounding enemy boats, and then burn the enemy who fell into the water with flames, and the formation of the Taiping army's fleet was scattered again, and at this moment the casualties also increased greatly, and the ships capsized and caught fire countless times.

Bitter acid shells continued to bombard the Taiping army fleet one after another, and Congreve rockets were also whistling towards the Taiping army fleet one after another, and the Taiping army tugboat that was under key care was like being in purgatory, no matter how to dodge, it was impossible to dodge the east and west, and the cannonballs could not avoid the rockets, the raging fire burned on the towing boat, and cold sweat rolled down from Wei Jun's forehead.

"Fooled, the Transcendence Demon was just teasing me yesterday and the day before yesterday, deliberately didn't exert his strength, and deliberately led me to dispatch a large number of warships, only to use these weapons suddenly, and hit my sailor strength ...... at one time."

After finally understanding Wu Chaoyue's vicious intentions, Wei Jun also roared out the retreat order with a blushing face, but when the flag of retreat was played, the light and flexible sampan boat fled quickly, the heavy and clumsy tow boat could only turn around and escape with difficulty against the fire smoke and overwhelming Wu army's firepower, and eight tow boats could no longer turn around and escape because the rudder was blown up and the waterline was shot, and the sailors on the ship could only jump into the water to escape before the warship was completely burned down......

By the way, the rest of the Taiping army's tugboats were no better, none of them were not hull sails that caught fire and smoked, and even if they could escape, they were basically doomed to be scrapped.

By the way, today's losses, plus the losses of the previous two days, and the losses of the Jiujiang Battle, the Taiping Army's naval divisions have lost more than 60 percent of the towboats, and the water artillery fire force has been greatly reduced. The losses of the sampan boat were relatively small, but in the water sports battle, the four main combat ships of the Wu Army's naval division had to be able to maintain a high speed without firing, and the waves alone could directly overturn this small wrecked ship. (To be continued.) )