"There is no return!"

"Death to a confidant!"

The sailors of the Chu army shouted in unison, the bamboo rafts rushed forward with artillery fire, and the warships of a hundred materials fired back at the Qing army, but their firepower was insufficient, and they were obviously at a disadvantage in the fire.

The ships were strapped to the sides of a number of earthen guards, consisting of fishing nets, wet cotton wool, cowhides, and rattan plates, as well as several layers of thin scales woven from bamboo strips, which were thickly woven with human and animal hair, but none of them could withstand the artillery bombardment, and when the guns hit the guards, the scattered fragments only increased the casualties.

"Remove the guard!"

The generals of the naval division all followed the example of Ye Jinghai, and the soldiers stood under the flag of the general at the bow of the ship in advance, braving the cannon fire to boost morale, only to hear a crackling sound, all the guards were cut off and thrown into the water, and the unarmored soldiers stood straight behind the generals, ignoring the cannons whistling overhead, looking fanatical and excited.

Behind them, four large ships of five hundred materials sailed into Huarong Port in silence, getting closer and closer to the Qing army's fleet!

Seeing that the Chu army's sailors were so desperate, the Qing army's fleet was even more panicked, but the Qing army's commander under the colorful canopy was so proud that he felt that the Chu army was sending sheep into the tiger's mouth...... Suddenly, one of the generals next to him discovered the mystery and shouted a warning.

"It's broken! The big ships of the Nanban did not fire a single shot, and the draft was light, and they must have been filled with firewood and grass, this is to be attacked! ”

"What!?" The Qing army commander rushed to the bow of the ship, squinted his eyes and looked at the four big ships of five hundred materials, sure enough. The four warships had no guns, no ramming angles, and the waterline was high above the water. At first glance, it is a fire attack ship!

Song Jiang went crazy? Fire attack is very common in water warfare, but it is unheard of to use the main warship of 500 materials to carry out fire attack, winning is a defeat for both sides, and losing is a complete defeat, no matter what the victory or defeat of this battle is, the Chu army naval division will definitely cease to exist.

If the Chu army launched a fire attack with the small boats in front, the Qing army commander would definitely be on guard. But he thought that the other party was going to jump to the gang to seize the ship, so he specially ordered the fleet to be gathered together, and it was too late to disperse at this time.

That can't be stopped!

The commander-in-chief of the Qing army gave orders again and again. The fleet was ordered to spread out in all directions, but the water in Huarong Harbor was narrow, and the ships blocked each other, so the two ships were not transferred after a long day. Watch as the hulking warships turn slowly. The main general of the Qing army was so anxious that he jumped to his feet, and suddenly there was a big chaos behind him, and the four big ships of the Chu army had already rushed to him, each looking for a target, and crashed into the middle of the Qing army's fleet.

Lighting the fuse, the daredevils of the Chu army threw down the sampan, and then jumped into Dongting Lake, after they came up from the bottom of the water. There was no rush to board the sampan, but a fierce man plunged into the water again. When it came out again, it was already twenty or thirty meters away, and the farther away from those ships was the better.

The soldiers of the Qing army were stunned, the huge explosion set off an astonishing wave of air, the nearest warship broke into two, was overturned on the water, slowly sinking, but the soldiers were thrown into the air, let out bursts of frightened screams, in addition to the directly damaged warship, other Qing ships also ignited a raging fire one after another, followed by a few thunderbolts, the gunpowder ship of the Qing army exploded.

The daredevils of the Chu army drilled out of the water one after another, climbed the nearby sampan, rescued their comrades who were still in the water, and used short knives to kill those Qing sailors who were approaching.

Succeed with flying colors!

"Withdraw! Remove! Ye Jinghai's cheeks were covered with blood, but miraculously he was not seriously injured, and the task was completed by blowing up the gunpowder ship of the Qing army. The fleet of the Qing army was burning in the fire, but the remaining sampans of the warships were rushing to this side, and the warships of the Chu army's sailors were mostly damaged in the explosion, and the battalion was full of wounded soldiers, and it was necessary to leave some seeds for the future, and thirty-six strategies were the best policy......

……

After Kong Youde went to Yuezhou Mansion, Shang Kexi became the commander of the Qing army on the West Road, he led sixty or seventy thousand troops to launch a fierce attack on Changde Mansion, but was met with stubborn resistance from the loyal battalion, and after fierce battles occupied Shimen and Anxiang counties, there were still seventy or eighty miles away from Wuling, the capital city of Changde Mansion.

The battalion of plugging Yinxi and Zhongzhen has been operating in Changde Mansion for more than two years, not only the city defense is strong, but also a lot of camp strongholds have been built on the periphery, occupying a favorable geographical position and easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Qing army has to pay a huge price every time it pushes forward, and can only rely on artillery to open the way, so the gunpowder cannon is consumed very quickly, and it can not be helped in just over ten days, so it can only be temporarily rested in Anxiang County.

"The way of civil and martial arts, one by one, the sons and daughters have been fighting hard for days, just take a break, and when the gunpowder arrives, they can go straight to the Wuling." Shang Kexi is full of confidence in the prospects of the battle of Changde, after the Qing army occupied Shimen and Anxiang County, it has successfully broken through the Lishui River, forming a semi-encirclement situation on the north side of Wuling, and Kong Youde sent troops from Yuezhou Mansion to attack, now it is not a question of whether Changde Mansion can be captured, but how long it will take to capture Changde Mansion.

The Tianyou soldiers and the Tianzhu soldiers are both from Liaodong, and the Eight Banners are not tolerant of heat, Kong Youde and Shang Kexi both hope to occupy the entire Huguang before June, eliminate the loyal battalion and other strong enemies to end the battle, the Qing army's combat effectiveness will drop significantly, in case of a large-scale outbreak of infectious diseases, there is even the possibility of losing the battle.

"There has been no news from the fleet transporting gunpowder for the past two days, so there won't be any accidents." Shen Zhixiang, the Duke of Xushun, was a little worried that this batch of gunpowder was very important to the Battle of Changde, and would even affect the course of the entire Battle of Huguang.

"Don't worry, they are the elite of the Wuchang Naval Division, there are more than a dozen warships of four or five hundred materials alone, and there is no opponent in Dongting Lake, I think it was because they encountered some wind and waves a few days ago, and they were delayed on the road......"

Although Shang Kexi is a big traitor, his personal experience is very bumpy, which has caused a perverted distortion in his character, and he can only comfort himself with his belief in Buddhism, so he always has a butcher knife in one hand and a rosary in the other, killing people while eating fasting, although when discussing the military situation, he also kneaded a string of rosaries in his hand, and looked calm and calm.

Water warfare is the same as land warfare, strength is the key to determining victory or defeat, the Qing army's naval division ships are fierce, but during this time it has been busy transporting various supplies, and it can't take care of the Chu army's naval division in Dongting Lake, if the other party doesn't open his eyes to send him to death, there is no need to worry that the Qing army's naval division will be defeated.

He was just halfway through speaking, but a military general hurriedly rushed in outside the door, knelt down and saluted: "Lord Qiqi, the big thing is not good, the Southern Barbarian Naval Division Ye Jinghai and Song Jiang's troops raided Huarong, and our warships were burned seven or eight out of ten, and more than 1,300 soldiers and generals were killed and wounded......"

Shang Kexi's face suddenly became hideous, and the rosary in his hand also stopped: "What about gunpowder?" How much gunpowder and artillery is left? ”

The general didn't dare to answer, only kowtowed heavily, Shang Kexi and Shen Zhixiang glanced at each other, and both faces were shocked and angry!

……

After the news reached Changde Mansion, the loyal camp people were overjoyed.

The artillery of the Qing army is too powerful, especially the kind of Shenwei General cannon weighing more than 3,000 catties, the cannon weighs ten catties, no matter how strong the city wall camp is, it can't resist the bombardment of this cannon.

After defeating the gunpowder baggage of the Qing army, Changde Mansion had a precious respite, and the lives of thousands of soldiers were killed between one out and one in, and the merits of this water war cannot be overpraised!

"Song Jiang, this kid is not bad, he has two hits!"

"Who is Ye Jinghai? Why haven't you heard of it before? ”

In the noisy gossip and laughter of the generals, Li Guo stretched out his hand and pressed down: "Brothers, Wang Junmen has issued a clear order, ordering me to hold on to Changde Mansion for another twenty days, and then withdraw to Hunan as soon as possible......"

When the generals heard this, they immediately lost their smiles and screamed.

"What? has already thrown away Chengtian Mansion and Jingzhou Mansion, don't you even want Changde Mansion? ”

"It's so easy to win a battle, why do you want to run away!"

"There's nowhere to run, Hunan can't support our 200,000 troops, besides, even if we run to Hunan, what if the Tartars chase after us......"

Seeing that they were arguing too much, Li Guo knocked on the table: "There is always a way to solve the problem of food, the army can divide the troops and eat, part of it can enter the mountainous area of Xiangxi, if it is really not good, go over the mountains to Guizhou, where there is food, go there, and the other part go to Chenzhou Mansion and Baoqing Mansion, and Liu Chengyin to grab food." ”

"What, is this what Wang Junmen meant? Let us merge with Hunan officials? Yuan Zongdi's expression was strange, and he seemed to be very excited.

"I'm afraid it's not appropriate, if you work with Liu Chengyin with real knives and guns, He Dufu can't tolerate us." Tian Jianxiu shook his head again and again.

"It's not to fight with them, it's just to eat, let's go to Chenzhou Mansion and Baoqing Mansion, and we have to continue to resist the southern invasion of the Tartars, and it's not just eating and not working." Li Guo said with a smile: "He Dufu always wants to be alone, we can't fight with the Tartars here, we must pull the Hunan officials and soldiers on their backs!" ”

"I think it's okay! The Hunan officials and soldiers stood in the pit and didn't, they had already seen that they were not pleasing to the eye! ”

Yuan Zongdi and others agreed, but Tian Jianxiu's brows wrinkled into a big pimple: "Retreat from the north of the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River, and then retreat from Hubei to Hunan, when will this retreat come to an end......?"

"Yes, it's better to stay in Changde Mansion and fight to the death with the Tartars!" Liu Tichun, the second tiger, did not want to leave, half of his troops were trapped in Jiangbei, and they were forced to retreat to the Three Gorges area, and there was still the possibility of staying in Changde Mansion to meet them.

"This is what Wang Junmen meant, blocking the military gate has also agreed, the loyal battalion can't disobey!" Li Guo said solemnly: "At present, the enemy is strong and I am weak, if we want to defeat the Tartars, we have to involve the Hunan official army, we will retreat in great strides, and the supply lines of the Tartars will become longer and longer, and sooner or later there will be times when we can't hold on, then it will be time for us to counterattack......" (to be continued......