The composition of the Chu Army's water division is quite complicated, the veterans of the original Daming Water Division are timid and afraid of death, and are accustomed to opportunism, the Song River water bandits are more fierce, but the discipline is poor, and most of the recruits recruited are farmers and fishermen, with soft and glutinous personalities, and they are not good soldiers...... But Ye Jinghai was a brave battalion officer, who pinched this group of rabble together and launched a decisive raid on the Qing army's transport fleet.

A soldier is a bear, and a nest of bears will be a nest, but a real good general can turn decay into magic and raise the combat effectiveness of the troops to a higher level, and Ye Jinghai happens to have this quality.

The war drums suddenly sounded, and the warships and rafts of the Chu army swarmed up, riding the southwest wind and rushing straight to Huarong Harbor, where the Qing army fleet was located.

More than 20 sampans were postponed, four large ships of 500 stone were in the center, in front were six or seven warships of 100 stone, and there were more than 20 large bamboo rafts, and Ye Jinghai's handsome flag stood on the largest bamboo raft.

These bamboo rafts are the unique equipment of the Chu army sailors, three or four times larger than ordinary rafts, five zhang long, two zhang wide, made of hundreds of bamboo binding, and then set up a sail, you can shuttle back and forth on Dongting Lake, the carrying capacity is no less than that of warships, fully embodies the pragmatic style of simplicity due to ugliness.

Wang Kefan brought a group of shipbuilders from Guangdong, and they were imitating the pirate Luo's long boat fast crab, but due to the short time, there are only a few half-finished ships now, and the cannons dismantled from the 500-stone warship are being installed in the shipyard of Changde Mansion, and they did not participate in the war this time.

As the Chu army approached Huarong Port, there was immediately chaos in the port, and the horn of the alarm sounded non-stop. Some warships untied the cables hanging on the pier, hoisted their sails and turned to move slowly, preparing for the battle in the harbor. Nearly 1,000 officers and soldiers of the Qing Army's naval division ran in from outside the dock and rushed towards the ship like a swarm, but the narrow gangplank kept shaking, and so many Qing soldiers were fighting for me, but it was even more chaotic.

It was clear from the binoculars that a Qing army general with more than a dozen pro-soldier staff members was late. It took most of the time of half a column of incense before he ran to the shore out of breath and boarded a handsome boat with a colorful canopy. Immediately after the beating of war drums, it was announced that the commander of the Qing army had finally returned to his combat post.

"Congratulations to Ye Shuai, the Tartars are careless and underestimate the enemy, this battle will be won!" Seeing that the surprise attack has worked. A sailor general clenched his fist at Ye Jinghai. Licking his lips excitedly.

What do you mean by that? General Liu, please help me with my doubts! Ye Jinghai humbly asked for advice.

"There are three wins in this battle!"

The general's name was Liu Zhixin, who turned out to be a general under Hei Yunchang of the Ming Dynasty, who was quite good at water warfare, and immediately explained: "The guard ships on the periphery of the Tartar port were insufficient, and there was no timely warning, so that our army took advantage of the weakness to enter, which was the first victory, and the Tartar officers and soldiers easily left the ship and landed. If you can't react, it's the second win. These are the common sense of the sailors' marching soldiers, and it is impossible for the Tartar sailors to not understand it, he is so arrogant and careless, it is nothing more than relying on the strength of the ship and the artillery, thinking that our army will not dare to attack him! ”

Water warfare and land warfare also have similarities, vigilance and reconnaissance are indispensable, and no matter ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, it is an iron discipline that naval divisions are not allowed to go ashore easily, but this group of Qing troops went ashore to rest in a big way, leaving only a few small boats outside Huarong Harbor to guard at close range, which shows that the organizational and control capabilities of this Qing army's naval division are very poor, and at best it is a third-rate force.

This situation is not surprising, the Manchu Qing Dynasty lived in the north for a long time, basically did not have their own sailors, after going south, they collected a group of surrendered Ming army sailors, although they became fake Tartars with money rat tails, and almost completely inherited the fleet of the Southern Ming, but in their bones they were still rotten to the root of the Ming official army, which was too far worse than Zheng Zhilong Zheng Chenggong's Fujian sailors.

"Good! Good! However, General Liu only said two wins, what is one more victory? Ye Jinghai was a little curious, Liu Zhixin said that there were three wins in this battle, and the remaining one victory was definitely more important.

"The third victory is the ship formation laid by the Tartars." Liu Zhixin pointed to the Huarong Port in front of him, and said with a smile: "The last general has listened to the repeated teachings of the sailors, and the ship will stop in the harbor, and it will be sparse!" Although Huarong Harbor is a good port, the water surface in the port is narrow, and dozens of large ships of Tartar are crowded in it, which cannot withstand the wind and cannot see the fire. ”

The navy division should be berthed and camped to open the distance, this is the history of Chinese and foreign wars from the experience of countless painful lessons summed up, the ancient warships have poor performance, in the berthing to keep the distance, in order to prevent fire attack, wind and waves, as much as possible to increase the safety factor, and in modern warfare there are similar examples, such as the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, the US Pacific Fleet is crowded in the port, so it will suffer heavy losses.

In order to be greedy for convenience, dozens of large ships with hundreds of materials were crowded around the wharf, the transport ships waited for the evening to unload, lined up in a long line, and more than half of the warships also leaned on the shore, waiting for the sailors returning from the shore, and a collision was inevitable in the hasty movement, and the damaged ships stopped there, blocking the movement of other warships, and the vanguard of the Chu army's sailors had already entered the port, but the Qing army only had a small number of warships just ready for battle.

In the chaos, the Qing army will go to the top of the ship, put up a pergola and look at the Chu fleet, the sun is west in the evening, and the dazzling sunlight makes him unable to open his eyes, and it is easy to see the flag of the army clearly, and suddenly he looks up to the sky and laughs.

"Why is the big handsome laughing?" Although the general next to him was panicked, he didn't forget to ask a funny question.

"Hahaha, what kind of heavenly soldier and general did I come, it turned out to be Song Jiang's gang of water bandits, hum, this guy doesn't know how to fight water battles at all, and he dares to come and pick Lao Tzu's tiger whiskers!" The commander of the Qing army ordered loudly: "Tell the brothers not to panic, stabilize the position, and teach Song Jiang a good lesson!" ”

Ye Jinghai had just taken office, his reputation was not obvious, and in the information that the Qing army had, the Chu army's sailors still respected Song Jiang and others, but he was just a water bandit, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead to attack Huarong Port, of course he couldn't spare him.

"Dashuai, Nanban's warships are sailing downwind, they are coming too fast, our warships are all crowded together, and we can't move for a while!" The general shouted.

The chief general of the Qing army smiled coldly: "What are you afraid of? Sailing with the wind, easy to advance and difficult to retreat, Song Jiang is free to beg for a life on Dongting Lake, he has never seen the world, and he doesn't even understand the truth of this idea, just let him rush in, let's fire dozens of large and small warships together, beat him to the bottom of the lake and feed Wang Ba! ”

That's right! Several generals of the Qing army suddenly realized, or the main general of our family is calm and calm, not surprised in case of change, smooth wind and water is a taboo in water warfare, the fleet of the Chu army rushed into Huarong Port, just besieged by the Qing army's naval division on all sides, although the momentum is violent, in fact, there is nothing to fear.

"Bang! Bang! ”

As the warships of the Chu army got closer and closer, the warships of the Qing army fired cannons one after another, stirring up columns of water on the lake, and saw that the Chu army's forward flags were lined up, and there was a one-zhang high deputy general flag, all the cannons of the Qing army were aimed over, wanting to kill several generals of the Ming army, and made great achievements.

What kind of tactics is this? The commander-in-chief of the Qing army secretly doubted in his heart, the adjutant general was already a big official, and if he was killed on the battlefield, it would seriously affect the morale of the troops, and he would not charge directly...... If you want to say that it is a bluff, there is no reason for that, the military flag on the battlefield is the most important, and the flag is really standing on a bamboo raft, and there is no benefit in sending it to the Qing army under the cannon in vain.

Well? There was a general flag, two guerrilla flags, and four thousand general flags in the back, how many generals could there be in the Chu Army's naval division, why did they all run to the front and charge?

Seeing the Chu army fleet rushing towards the handsome boat with a colorful canopy, a Qing general shouted: "Dashuai, Nanban is here to fight hard, and wants to jump to help rob our handsome boat!" ”

Right! The Qing generals suddenly realized that Song Jiang's gang of water bandits were all outlaws, not good at water artillery battles, but good at jumping gangs to grab boats, they wanted to capture the thief and capture the king first, and rushed over directly to grab their handsome boat, destroying the command system of the Qing army's sailors in one fell swoop!

"Shoot Lao Tzu and stop them!" The commander of the Qing army gave orders again and again, and let the other warships move closer to the front to protect his handsome boat.

More and more Qing warships joined the battle, and there were more than a dozen large ships of four or five hundred materials alone, and the whizzing cannonballs swept over the water, like an iron net scattered towards the fleet of the Chu army.

"Bang! Boom! ”

The warships and rafts of the Chu army were constantly shot, and the broken pieces of wood and bamboo were shot everywhere, turning into fierce life-killing weapons, and the sailors generally did not wear armor, and they were seriously injured immediately after being hit by the fragments, and a miserable cry and muffled snort sounded one after another.

On the largest bamboo raft, Ye Jinghai was unobstructed, standing in front of the general with his waist straight, persuading him to take shelter for the time being, but he did not move...... Why do you want to hide? I took the risk to charge in person, just to boost morale, even if I was hit by a shell of the Qing army, I couldn't hide and flee for my life in embarrassment, besides, there was no safe place on this bamboo raft, it was the same wherever I hid, and it all depended on God's will to live or die.

The Chu Army's naval division has no way to restrain the enemy's artillery fire, so it can only launch a decisive charge with courage, so it is better to simply do it to the extreme! Under the encouragement of Ye Jinghai, the morale of the officers and men of the naval division was high, and they did not bow their heads in the face of the fierce artillery bombardment of the Qing army, concentrated on paddling and sailing, and kept moving forward desperately.

A cannonball whistled and flew into the water, almost grazing the bamboo raft and falling into the water, and the two sailors who rowed their heads bowed their heads to dodge, but were laughed at loudly by the others: "Goods without eggs, are you afraid of death?" Your life is more precious than Ye Shuai? ”

In the midst of laughter, the two sailors blushed, sat up straight and swung their oars vigorously, and the raft split the water briskly, rushing forward even faster! (To be continued......)