The appearance of steam engine warships made the Qing army's naval divisions unable to adapt to its combat rhythm for a while, and also because the Qing army's building ships could not compete with steam engine warships in terms of warship performance and attack ability. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In addition, there are more than 1,000 Ming warships upstream, showing a trend of overwhelming mountains and seas, covering up and killing, and defeat is inevitable.

What Azig can do now is to concentrate all the warships near the east coast, completely abandon the ability to maneuver, with large ships outside and small boats inside (the draft depth causes large ships to be able to be outside), relying on shore defense guns and a large number of guns on the building ships to defend, hoping to hold out until dark, so that everyone can break through.

The waterway of the Yangtze River is not wide, this water area in Huarong County, Ezhou, the widest point is only 2.5 kilometers, although the Ming army has the advantage of range, but it is impossible to get infinitely close to the west bank, and then shoot towards the east bank, after all, the warship has a draft, too close to the shore is easy to run aground.

In this way, if you want to shoot head-on with the Qing army's naval divisions, the advantage of range no longer exists.

The only way to deal with the enemy is to "peel the skin", from far to near, from the outside to the inside, layer by layer.

Zheng Chenggong led the battleships to fight from the downstream, and Shi Lang led the battleships, and after annihilating a large number of Qing naval divisions that were scattered by mines, they also began to assemble the fleet and slowly grind down from the upstream.

Even though the Qing army's naval division suffered heavy losses, its warships were gathered together, and they were separated by more than ten miles from end to end, and it was almost impossible to sink them all within two hours with artillery alone, without relying on charges and hand-to-hand combat.

And so it turned out...........

The sky is getting darker, and almost two-fifths of the fleet of the Qing army on the opposite side is still alive, especially the building ships, and there are still more than 200 of them.

This guy is too huge, sometimes he eats four or five shells, and he still has the ability to fight back, plus the terrain problem, it is impossible for the Ming army to fully roll out the naval division, so until now, the Qing army still has more than 700 large and small warships.

In fact, such a result is already very big for the Ming army's sailors, and it is only a one-day battle, not to mention that it was a weak attack on the strong at the beginning, and it can't be like Zheng Zhilong did at the beginning, and he will have a decisive battle with the other party as soon as he came up.

After this battle, the Ming army once again had an advantage in the number of warships between the two sides, coupled with the weapons and equipment, and the quality of the soldiers, the Qing army's sailors did not want to cross the river, and even the courage to fight against the Ming warships was gone.

As night fell, the Ming army sailors began to collect their troops and went in the direction of the upper reaches of Chibi, and before leaving, the Ming army sailors released a wave of "underwater dragon king cannons".

"Underwater Dragon King Cannon" is another kind of mine researched by the Ming Dynasty sailors, which appeared in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, which is the earliest floating mine in the world and the originator of modern drifting mines.

Its structure is to use cow urine bubble (i.e., cow's bladder) as a thunder shell to maintain watertightness, and it is filled with black powder, and incense is used as a fuse to ignite the fire to play the role of delayed detonation.

The cow urine bubble is connected to the wooden board floating on the water surface and under the goose wings, and the goose wing tube and sheep intestines are used to ventilate the incense, no matter the wooden board goes up and down with the waves, the water cannot be poured in, so as to ensure that the incense can burn normally.

There is also a certain weight of stones falling under the cow urine bubble, so that it is balanced by force and keeps the center of gravity stable, so that it will not overturn and fail.

According to the record of "Heart Strategy", when this weapon is used, "measure the dock of the thief's boat, enter the water shallow and deep, fall the heavy stone, put it down in the dark night, incense to the fire, the cannon is shot from the bottom of the water, the bottom of the ship is shattered, the water thief sinks, and it can be captured and sitting."

In other words, the fuse of this underwater weapon is based on the distance to the enemy's ship and the speed of the water flow to determine the length of the incense, and then predetermined the time of the explosion, it uses the water flow as a driving force, and when approaching the bottom of the enemy's ship, "the incense fires, and the cannon hits from the bottom of the water", and bombards the enemy ship from the water by surprise.

The Qing Army's naval division has now become a frightened bird, and can only shrink on the shore to use the shore defense artillery to defend, and the dignified Qing Water Division was forced by Zheng Chenggong's steam battleship to stand on the pile, which provided the best opportunity for the "underwater dragon king cannon" to attack.

Taking advantage of the nightfall, it was down the river again, and the warships of the Qing army's naval division were once again bombed and sunk more than 50 ships.

The Ming army won a complete victory and retreated to Wuchang with the intention of fighting again tomorrow.

The location of Wuchang is nearly 80 miles away from the battlefield during the day, and it is also more than 150 miles away from the Qing army's naval division base in Chibi, and it is impossible for the Qing army's naval division to travel more than 230 miles against the wind and current overnight.

Zheng Chenggong thought of this, the Qing army was also not stupid, Azig knew that going upstream was more likely to be more than lucky, so he did not hesitate to lead the rest of the warships down the river..........

"What if Azig led the warship down the river?" Shi Lang heard about Zheng Chenggong's plan and quickly raised this question.

"Don't think about it either! Nearly a thousand miles downstream, as long as the Jiujiang River is crossed, the Qing army sailors will not have any harbor to moor, with the speed of our warships, it is easy to pursue the Qing army sailors, even if they let them escape for two more days! Zheng Chenggong said confidently.

In the morning, Duoduo also said: Even if Zheng Chenggong's fleet runs for two more days, it will not be able to catch up with the vicinity of Huarong County.

Now Zheng Chenggong actually said words with similar meanings.

However, Zheng Chenggong was indeed confident in saying such a thing, because his steam warship was fast enough, if it were not for the need to replenish ammunition, Zheng Chenggong would not even drive the warship back to Wuchang, but directly maintain a safe position fifty miles from the Qing army's naval division, and wait until tomorrow daylight, and then continue to attack the Qing fleet.

On the second day, the spies sent news that the Qing fleet had indeed fled downstream, and it had traveled more than 180 miles overnight and arrived at the territory of Jiujiang.

Not only that, after the Qing army arrived in Jiujiang, they did not enter the port to rest, but directly crossed Jiujiang and continued to flee eastward, it seems that they wanted to distance themselves from Zheng Chenggong enough, and then leave through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Zheng Chenggong could not let him get his wish, after the fleet was replenished with ammunition, he immediately led more than 70 steam warships (more than 20 were sunk in battle) to pursue it, and on the morning of the third day, caught up with the enemy warships near Chizhou.

Zheng Chenggong was not greedy, just like eating, slowly digesting one bite at a time, and when the Qing army sailors fled into the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, there were only 100 building ships left, and more than 300 small and medium-sized warships.

If it weren't for the days of fighting, the soldiers were exhausted, and the steam boiler was also using the maximum power all the way, resulting in an overload, and even blowing up two battleships, Zheng Chenggong really wanted to chase into the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and eat all this sailors.

"On the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, let's have a reunion dinner in Nanjing, so that those remnants of the defeated army will drink the northwest wind on the water!" These are Zheng Chenggong's exact words.

However, the soldiers, who were in no mood to eat, waited for the warship to stop in the harbor, and fell asleep directly next to the boiler room one by one.

These days, they sleep in shifts, basically near the boiler room, although the conditions are a little harder, but at least it is warm here.

The sailor warship stopped in the port of Nanjing, but did not see a single soldier step off the warship, which surprised the official in charge of reception: Could it be that these are all "ghost ships"?

That's not right! They were notified, and the official in charge of the port had personally contacted them, and knew that it was the sailors led by the country surnamed Ye who came in, otherwise it would not be them who came here, but the coastal defense troops and artillery.

Zheng Chenggong didn't sleep, but as soon as he entered the port, he went to the palace to report the results, so this group of officials in charge of reception is now being "dried" on the shore.

With apprehension, the officers cautiously boarded a warship, and when they found the sleeping soldiers, they instantly understood.

"Send someone to get me all the cooks in the neighborhood, and make a fire to cook in this port, so that they can eat hot food as soon as they wake up!" In addition, go to a nearby cloth village and buy me a lot of cloth quilts, if the cloth village is not enough, I will go to the people's homes to buy them, and these soldiers must not be frozen! The leading official hurriedly ordered.

Although it was warm enough in the boiler room, now that the ship was stopped and turned off, the temperature would definitely drop slowly, and most of the soldiers were sleeping on the floor, susceptible to dampness and cold.

However, these people have just fallen asleep for a long time, and now they wake up and go outside to blow the cold wind, and they are more likely to get sick, and the best way is to cover them with quilts and let each other sleep well first............

In the first battle of Huarong County, the Ming army's naval division regained control of the waterway again, not only completely annihilating Zuo Mengeng's fleet, but also crippling the Azig naval fleet.

When Zheng Chenggong led the army and pursued Azig for thousands of miles, the naval division coalition led by Shi Lang was not idle, they returned to the battlefield in Huarong County again, first cleared the army on the opposite bank with artillery, and then began to salvage the Qing army's sunken ship.

Most of the warships of the Qing Army's naval division have been scrapped and can no longer be used, but the artillery can be used!

There are more than 7,000 Hongyi cannons on more than 300 building ships alone, and the number of artillery pieces on 300 building ships should be said to be 7,200, which is also the main reason why the Manchu Qing Dynasty gathered the strength of the whole country and only built more than 500 building ships.

Hongyi cannon was originally an imported weapon, a cannon across the ocean, can be sold for nearly a thousand taels of silver, later improved by Xu Guangqi, plus the Ming Dynasty craftsmen themselves technology is not much worse than Westerners, as long as you know its working principle, you can quickly imitate it.

The imitation Hongyi cannon, the range and power, even slightly higher than the imported artillery, counting the scrap rate, the final cost of each artillery is about two hundred taels.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty also mastered the technology of making artillery, so they dared to launch so many Hongyi cannons at one time, 500 ships are 12,000 guns, and counting other small and medium-sized warships, as well as the army's firearms and equipment, the number of artillery pieces is as high as 20,000.

Even if it is according to the cost price of 200 taels, it is 4 million taels of silver, counting 2,000 warships and all kinds of ammunition, the Manchu Qing Dynasty invested 30 million taels of silver in order to equip these firearms.

As a result, this battle basically ran out of money..........

Only the artillery salvaged by Shi Lang has already earned back the ammunition money of the Ming army's westward expedition, and if you count the people's fat and ointment collected by the Qing army's local governments, the military expenses have also been settled.

Now that the Yangtze River has been sealed, Haoge and Wu Sangui still have 400,000 troops stranded south of the Yangtze River.

After Hauge and others learned about the situation of the Yangtze River water battle, the intensity of the attack on the First Army dropped significantly, and after knowing that there would be no more reinforcements to cross the river, Hauge took the initiative to give up the attack and withdrew to Yueyang to defend to the death.

How long can it be kept?

There was a shortage of food in the city, and there was no need for the Ming army to attack, or in less than two months, the big guys would have to starve to death.

Outside the city was surrounded by the Ming army, looking for food would definitely not work, and even Li Dingguo, the "Xiningbo" in the Yunnan-Guizhou region, also led 50,000 elite soldiers to participate in this decisive battle, and the Qing army had no advantage in terms of troop strength.

Hauge's time, there is really no way to enter the heavens and the earth............

Wu Sangui didn't want to die here, and since there was no hope of winning, he tried his best to persuade Haoge to break through.

Fall?

Wu Sangui didn't dare to descend, and he couldn't descend!

Hauge also wants to break through, but now that there is no cover from the sailor, where can he break through?

After thinking about it, the only way is to build a raft and break through to the north shore at night, whether you can escape or not, purely resigned to fate.

But in this way, with the amount of timber in the city today, how many soldiers can successfully cross the river?

If you escape, at least half of the casualties will be killed, it is better to stay and fight to the death with the Ming army in front of you.

The more Hauge thought about it, the more aggrieved he became, and finally hardened up, planning to lead the army to take the initiative to attack, even if the whole army was annihilated, as long as he could fight half of the Ming army's strength, it would be considered a victory.

He is a Manchu, and he is also a Manchu royal family, so he naturally understands the situation of the Manchu court now, and only by hurting the main force of the Ming army on the western expedition and making it impossible for the other party to cross the river to the north in a short period of time, it is possible to win respite for the Manchu Dynasty.

Although he hated Dolgon in his heart, it did not hinder his determination to be loyal to the Manchus.

Haoge wanted to fight with his life, but Wu Sangui didn't want to, and seeing that he couldn't persuade Haoge, he turned around and usurped Aobai.

Ao Bai was not afraid of death, but he didn't want Haoge to die like this, so the ghost sent the god to agree to Wu Sangui's proposal.

At a routine military meeting, Ao Bai knocked Haoge unconscious, and asked Wu Sangui to lead more than 500 of his own soldiers to flee across the river at night.

Aobai himself, on the other hand, took over the troops left behind by Hauge and launched a final charge against the Ming army that surrounded them.

Ao Bai this practice, is to want a life for a life, he is Haoge's henchman, naturally have to work for Hao Ge, now stay in Yueyang, in addition to Hao Ge, he and Wu Sangui have the greatest military power, Wu Sangui is a Han general, Manchu soldiers are difficult to convince the public, so let Hao Ge leave, Ao Bai is the best choice.

This is also the main reason why Wu Sangui usurped Aobai, he was not afraid that Aobai would not let him cross the river...........