"Throw all these Tartars into the river to feed the fish, burn the pontoon!" Du Gu issued a new order, and it was true that Liu Cheng only asked him to make a feint, but the more lively the fighting here, the less the Tartars would notice the pontoon bridge over there in Wuzhongbao? Cheers resounded over the river, and the warships of the Ming army chased the fleeing enemy ships like wolves chasing elk.

Suddenly, there was a violent tremor under his feet, and Du Gu almost fell from the bow into the river, and he shouted, "What's the matter? ”

"My lord, it looks like I've hit the rocks!" The experienced helmsman shouted.

"Fart, where did the reef come from?" Du Gu scolded that he had walked this section of the river at least six or seven times, and there was not even a large rock, let alone a reef. But no matter how hard the oarsmen slid the long oars, the boat could not move, and the bilge began to seep water, indicating that the bottom planks were already broken. Du Gu poked his head out in annoyance, and was surprised to find two rows of wooden stakes under the water on both sides, which seemed to be less than half a meter deep from the water, which was obviously a trap set by the Mongols.

"Damn, what the hell, those Tartar boats are all right, we ran into them!" Annoyed and angry, Du Gu scolded.

"My lord, the Tartar boat has a shallow draft, so it's okay, our boat is big and the draft is deeper, so we will run into it!"

"Come on, go to the bilge and block the opening, and throw the superfluous things off the boat, paddle upside down, and exit from these stakes!"

The oarsmen paddled their oars backwards with all their might, and the soldiers threw everything they could throw into the river, including even a furlong and buckshot in the bow, but they could not move but could not move when they heard only the creaking sound of the hull, and the water in the bilge increased. A layer of sweat oozed from his forehead, and he was the first to jump out of the bilge, pick up the bucket and scoop the water into the river, shouting loudly as he did it: "Everyone, do your best." Be sure to get over this hurdle! “

There was a trumpet sound in the darkness, and Dugu looked up to catch a glimpse of the fleeing Mongol fleet turning around again, and the number had increased considerably, and these rowboats, rafts, small sailboats, and even kayaks that could only hold a few people were rowing towards them. If a few minutes ago, this stray bunch of water waste would have only made Dugu laugh his big teeth, but now he couldn't laugh at all, a warship stuck on a stake was no different from a great white shark stranded on the beach, and it only took a swarm of seabirds to dismember its body.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency!" A soldier ran up to Dugu with a thick rope. shouted loudly: "We are saved, Qu Bing asked us to tie the rope to the post at the stern, and the two boats will row back together, and we will definitely be able to escape!" “

"Quick, quick!" Surprised, Dugu hurriedly grabbed the thick rope, circled the aft post a few times, tied a few dead knots, and then the two boats rowed back vigorously at the same time, watching the Mongol boats get closer and closer. But his own boat was still stuck on the stake, and Du Gu cried out, "The oarsmen continue to row, and the gunners and archers will follow me to kill the enemy."

At the front was a rowboat, and Dugu gave a loud order to shoot. As a row of fires flashed, the people in the rowing boat fell to the ground, losing the driver's control, and the rowing boat deflected. Gliding towards the right side of the battleship, the pit oarsmen struggled to push it away with their blades so as not to crash into the hull.

By this time, six or seven Mongolian ships had already come into range. The soldiers on these small boats, despite the danger of being hit by birds and arrows, struggled to throw javelins and arrows at the large ships of the Ming army, although most of them were blocked by the bamboo rafts erected high on both sides, but the sound of arrows and javelins hitting the bamboo rafts was as dense as raindrops, and it was chilling to hear.

"Shoot the arrows, release the guns!" Dugu shouted loudly, and as the big ship fired buckshot and arrows, the boat kept falling, but more came closer. Finally, a claw hook was thrown, hooked to the upper edge of the bamboo row, and with a strong pull, the bamboo row was torn apart, and the Mongols on the boat let out a burst of cheers, and more hook claws were thrown over.

"Quick, cut off the hook!" Du Gu pulled out his waist knife, the first to rush to the side of the ship, and cut the rope behind these hook claws, the other soldiers did not care about the danger of being shot by arrows, leaned out to cut the rope, but the hook claws thrown over were too many, and finally on the starboard side was asked to leave a gap more than a foot long, the Mongolian soldiers on the small boat climbed up with the help of hook claws and bamboo ladders, Du Gu led the soldiers to meet up, in the dark night, people on the deck slashed each other, rushed, and people kept falling, but the vacancy was immediately filled by the people behindThe blood soon soaked the fine sand on the ground, which made the shaking deck very smooth, and from time to time someone fell.

Dugu made his way through the scuffle crowd and tried to cut down the enemy wearing the helmet of the Captain of the Ten, but before he could get closer, the enemy was killed. Dugu was standing next to the corpse, and was thinking about whether to throw it into the river, when someone attacked him from behind, but fortunately the iron helmet blocked it. His head buzzed, but it didn't shatter. The dazed Du Gu subconsciously rolled on the spot, and the sneak attacker shouted and chased after him, but Du Gu held the knife with both hands and stabbed into the lower abdomen of the incoming person first.

"Your Excellency!" One of his men helped him up: "We have driven the enemy down!" "Indeed, there were no more Mongols alive on deck, but only half of the soldiers on board were left, everyone was wounded, and more enemy ships were approaching. The two captains of the second line struggled to intercept them, and Du Gu took off his helmet and touched the side of his face, which was covered with sticky blood. He turned and walked towards the bilge, the deck was covered in sticky blood, so slippery that he even had to reach out and grab the railing on the side.

Below the deck was another world, stuffy, foul and dark filled the place, the panting of eighty men made it look like a beehive, Du Gu suddenly felt that the deck covered with blood was actually not so bad, he was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: "Everyone, go on deck!" “

"My lord, what's wrong?" One of the oarsmen asked in surprise.

"The ship can't be saved, I'll scuttle it when you go up, and I can't leave the boat to the Tartars!" Du Gu's face was full of remorse, if it weren't for his greed for merit and forgetting the general's order to let himself feint and distract the Tartars, how could he have gotten such a field.

"My lord, we have done the boat digging thing. Go up there! The leader of the bilge oarsmen whispered. Du Gu shook his head: "No need, I don't listen to the general's instructions, resulting in this defeat, how can I still have the face to see him, you go back and tell the adult, just say that Du Gu has no face to see the lord again, and he has already cut himself!" “

"My lord, why do you bother?" The leader of the oarsmen was shocked when he heard this, and was about to persuade him, but there was a huge tremor under his feet. The crowd was unsteady on their feet and fell to the ground. Dugu got up and was about to order the oarsmen to get up to the deck quickly, when he heard someone shouting, "The boat can move!" ”

"What, the ship can move?" Du Gu was startled at first, but then overjoyed, he rushed to the side deck of the bottom cabin, looked out through the oar hole, and sure enough, the ship was slowly drifting backwards. It turned out that an unmanned raft had just floated over and hit the starboard side of the boat, detaching it from the stake that had been stuck. Du Gu hurriedly ordered the oarsmen to paddle hard and escape.

"Hutuketu, Hutuketu, Hutuketu!"

The warriors beat their shields with their weapons. While rhythmically shouting the honorific name of the Great Khan. Not far away, on the riverbank, four Ming warships had been dragged onto the riverbank, and hundreds of the most agile and brave youths carried captured birds, weapons, armor, Ming flags, and other trophies through the crowd and placed them in front of the Great Khan's tent. Behind was a long list of Ming prisoners. The crowd was not only men, but also women and children, who were enthusiastically shouting the names of their husbands and sons. Cheers to their courage and resourcefulness.

Lin Dan Khan sat on the throne in front of the sweat tent, with a reserved smile on his face, and he was very happy with his victory. Others say that the Mongols are good at riding and the Han are good at boating, but the wise people can defeat the enemy on the shore and on the water. At this time, a general walked quickly to Lin Dan Khan's side, and whispered in his ear: "Great Khan, I have already asked, the general of the Ming Kingdom is not among the prisoners. “

Lin Dan Khan's face showed obvious disappointment: "I remember that their flagship was not in the first row?" It was good luck that I didn't hit a stake. “

"Great Khan, I heard from the captives that their general's boat hit a stake, only to flee later!" He looked at Lin Dan Khan's face, thinking that the Great Khan wanted to take revenge with his own hands, so he whispered: "Great Khan, that guy's name is Dugu, sooner or later it will fall into the hands of the Great Khan, open his chest, and use his heart to pay tribute to the Immortal Heaven!" ”

"No, I didn't mean to kill him!" Lin Dan Khan shook his head.

"Don't want to kill him?"

"Yes, this land of the Hetao, surrounded by the Yellow River, if you want to turn this place into a land for our Mongols to graze horses, you must learn the art of water warfare. If we are on horseback, we Mongols are not afraid of anyone, but we are not as good as the Han people on the water, and if we can hold them, we can learn the art of water warfare from them. “

"Great Khan, are you going to stay here permanently?" When the Mongolian general heard this, his face couldn't help but change slightly, for the vast majority of the people in the Chahar Department, this invasion was just to grab a sum of money for the winter, but they didn't expect that Lin Dan Khan planned to stay here.

"What's the matter, can't you?" The corners of Lin Danhan's mouth showed a slightly mocking smile.

"Don't dare!" The Mongolian general's forehead suddenly oozed a layer of sweat, compared to the previous Khans who slept in the drunken countryside all day, Lin Dan Khan was a powerful character, if he said the wrong thing, it would not end well.

"Isn't the countryside fertile here? Aren't aquatic plants fatty? ”

"Not really." The Mongolian general gritted his teeth and replied: "No matter how good it is, it is not a place for us Mongolians to sing and graze horses, just loot, but there is no need to stay for a long time!" ”

"Huh!" When Lin Danhan heard this, he suddenly laughed: "The earth under the blue sky, whoever occupies it belongs to whom, when the Han people built a fence and said that it was his, you also thought it was really his." Being able to occupy the Hetao this time is a gift from the Immortal Heaven, and with this land, I will be able to reunify all the tribes of the grassland in ten years at most! Speaking of this, Lin Dan Khan paused slightly, pointed to the weapons on the grass in front of him, and said: "Look at how sharp the armor made by the Han people is, if it is made by the craftsmen of the Han people and the warriors of the Chahar Department, who can resist my soldiers on the grassland?" “

"However, the Ming Kingdom will definitely send troops to fight for it!"

"Not bad!" Lin Dan Khan nodded: "If it is in the past, it will indeed be, but after I take the land of Hetao, I find that there is a deep internal disease, and I am unable to deal with us, even if I send troops to come for a while, it will not last, I plan to move some craftsmen and farmers to Daqingcheng after winter, if he makes a big move, I will retreat, find a gap and enter again, if it is two or three times, he will not support, and this place will definitely be owned by me!" “

"The Great Khan is wise!" This time, the Mongolian general was already convinced, threw himself to the ground, and said respectfully: "You are worthy of being the descendant of Genghis Khan, and the Sulu ingot spear will be rising in your hands!" “

Lin Danhan smiled reservedly: "You take a good look at these captives, and then select five hundred astute young people from your tent to come out and learn the art of boat management from them!" “

"Yes, Great Khan!"

The Yellow River passes through the mouth of the Qingtong Gorge, turns to the north, the river water is gradually flattened, Wuzhong Fort is located near this turning point, from here to the Huamachi of Ningxia Weiwei is not more than 100 miles apart, which becomes the root of the Hetao that stretches into the protrusion, in order to prevent the nomads on the grassland from breaking into the area of the flat Huamachi, and separating this protrusion from the interior, the Ming army built many fortresses in this area, and many place names in this area also have words such as "fort" and "zhai", which is the remains of that time. One of them is Wuzhongbao, which controls an important passage to cross the Yellow River to the west and enter the Hetao Plain.

"My lord, the Hu garrison has begun to cross the river!" On the watchtower at the entrance of the fort, Liu Cheng pointed to the pontoon bridge in the distance and explained to Lu Boqi beside him.

"Hmm!" Although Lu Boqi tried his best to pretend to be calm, his trembling fingers still betrayed the tension in his heart, he looked at the left and right people, and asked in a low voice: "Lord Liu, will the sweat ambush the troops on the other side, and the art of war is cloudy?" Isn't that what we are talking about? “

"Don't worry, sir!" Liu Cheng pointed to the other side of the river and said with a smile: "Look at it, there is a flat river on the other side, where did you come from to ambush the soldiers?" Besides, these **** have made the navy feint, and the Tartars should pay attention to the pontoon bridge and won't notice it. (To be continued.) )