"Minister Huang, Damu, shall we go to the war room? I'll tell you more about the plan. Yan Yingyuan continued.

Huang Degong finally agreed to Yan Yingyuan's battle plan, because this battle plan could put pressure on Hong Chengchou as quickly as possible, and it could also relieve Li Chengdong's second army as soon as possible.

It's just that the combat missions of the Second and Fifth Divisions have changed, and Huang Degong ordered people to go ashore to notify them.

Zheng Chenggong ordered the fleet to start moving at full speed towards the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, but the fleet had not been moving at full speed in order to wait for the second division to capture Huangmei.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the fleet was on the river outside Jiujiang City, and Zheng Chenggong ordered the fleet to stop.

The position where the fleet stopped was outside the range of the artillery on the Jiujiang city wall, and the artillery on the city wall was a threat to the fleet, and the artillery on these walls had to be cleared first.

The two battleships, "Yue Fei" and "Ran Min", lined up in a row on the wide river, and the guns on the sides of the ships were all ready to shoot.

As Zheng Chenggong gave an order, the red flag in the hands of the flag soldiers waved downward, and the two warships opened fire on Jiujiang City at the same time.

The caliber of the main guns on the "Yue Fei" and "Ran Min" was 130mm, while the seven guns on the sides were 105mm, which were huge cannons for this era, especially the shells that used the new type of zha medicine.

As the guns rang out, the huge hulls of the two battleships shook on the surface of the river, and this was the first time since the two battleships were built that the one-sided guns all fired.

As soon as the cannon sounded, Huang Degong pressed his ears tightly with his hands and looked at the head of Jiujiang City, Yan Yingyuan, who was born as an artilleryman, had already prepared. He took a handful of cotton from his pocket and stuffed it into his ear. also tore a large piece and handed it to Huang Degong.

What everyone didn't expect was this. The artillery on the "Yue Fei" and "Ran Min" fired this salvo to take Jiujiang City, which the Wehrmacht could not capture for a long time.

It is said that no book is made without coincidence, but this time it is really a coincidence.

Just when the fleet was heading in the direction of Jiujiang, Lu Guangzu, the chief soldier of Jiujiang, soon received a report that the general soldier Lu, who had been conscientiously guarding Jiujiang City, hurried to the city wall with a group of generals this time, as usual.

The city wall of Jiujiang is very wide, Lu Guangzu and a group of generals stomped the city to see out, and everyone was frightened by the two huge warships that appeared in the Yangtze River.

It's just that the battleship is still more than ten miles away from Jiujiang City, and Lu Guangzu ordered the artillery on the city wall to be ready to shoot. While continuing to observe these huge warships, the fleet quickly stopped on the river, which made Lu Guangzu and the generals on the Jiujiang city wall feel a little strange.

Lu Guangzu and his generals did not expect the battleship to stop in preparation for the bombardment of Jiujiang City, and in their cognition, this distance was not within the range of artillery at all.

However, the battleships on the "Yue Fei" and "Ran Min" were able to fight so far, and what Lu Guangzu did not expect was that a shell fired by the main gun on the "Yue Fei" directly hit the city wall where Lu Guangzu was standing.

The result is undoubtedly that Lu Guangzu and the main generals of the Qing soldiers in Jiujiang City were served by the main cannon on the "Yue Fei". Only one general was far away and escaped this fate, but he was also sat on the city wall. When I stood up, I found that my pants were already wet.

When Huang Degong and Yan Yingyuan felt that the artillery on the head of Jiujiang City was no longer a threat to the fleet. Zheng Chenggong ordered the fleet to stop the shelling, and in order to prevent possible shelling on the city of Jiujiang, the fleet passed the possible firing range of the artillery on the city wall of Jiujiang as quickly as possible.

The Qing soldiers in Jiujiang City had not yet woken up from the artillery fire, and the Wehrmacht fleet passed Jiujiang directly, which made the Qing soldiers in the city glad that they had finally escaped.

Although they avoided the first day of the new year, the Qing soldiers in Jiujiang City were even more worried about the upcoming fifteenth.

Just two days after the fleet, the Fifth Division began to approach outside Jiujiang City, and the frightened deputy general directly led people out of the city to find the Fifth Division, and handed over Jiujiang City to the Fifth Division.

Huang Degong and they didn't know what happened to Jiujiang City after they left, they were stopping on the river outside Ezhou City at this time, Ezhou was garrisoned by 20,000 Qing soldiers led by Li Guoying, the former chief soldier of Zuo Liangyu's department, Yan Yingyuan's battle plan had a plan to attack Ezhou, and the capture of Ezhou City was to knock on the mountain and shake the tiger, and the news here quickly spread to Hong Chengchou.

Ezhou has a long history, Emperor Yao was "Fan State", Xia was "Hubei Capital", Yin Shang was "Hubei State", Chu and E King Fief during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, and Sun Quan was called emperor here during the Three Kingdoms. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Xiong Qu, the king of Chu, divided his son Xiong Hong to Ezhou as the king of Ezhou and built the city of Ewang, which is also the origin of Hubei's abbreviation "E".

Ezhou City, like Jiujiang City, is also built near the river, the city wall of Ezhou is not very tall, but it is close to the Yangtze River, but it is extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The fleet was extremely fast, Li Guoying did not receive the news of a large-scale attack by the Wehrmacht, and there was no tense wartime atmosphere in the city of Ezhou, as usual.

When the Qing soldiers on the Ezhou city wall saw the thick black smoke floating on the river, they realized that something was wrong with the situation, and reported it layer by layer, and when Li Guoying heard the news and rushed to the Ezhou city wall, several huge warships had already appeared in the field of vision.

Li Guoying was shocked, Ezhou is located in the hinterland of Hubei, and its combat readiness in peacetime is not as good as Jiujiang's, and Li Guoying did not expect that the fleet of the National Defense Forces would appear directly in Ezhou.

There was a rush on the city wall of Ezhou, and the generals began to look for their subordinates, and the chaos on the city wall had not stopped, and the fleet of the National Defense Army had stopped on the river outside Ezhou City, but this distance was still outside the range of Qing artillery.

Almost all the Qing soldiers in Ezhou City were frightened by the huge ships anchored on the river, Li Guoying was still shouting hysterically, a large number of Qing soldiers began to flock to the city wall near the river, the city wall was already full of Qing soldiers, and rows of muskets began to point at the river, but at this time the fleet was too far away.

Huang Degong is still standing on the main deck of the "Yue Fei", this time he has gained some experience, and when Zheng Chenggong gave the order to fire, his ears have already been stuffed with thick cotton, if Yan Yingyuan hadn't handed him cotton in time last time, Lao Huang is estimated to be so shocked that he can't hear the sound for a few days.

Like Lu Guangzu, Li Guoying also did not expect the Wehrmacht warships to open fire at this distance. Wait until a violent explosion is heard inside and outside the city walls. Li Guoying felt that his head was scolded. So far, how is it possible?

This time the fleet was actually not far from Ezhou City, about five or six miles away, and the fleet opened fire at this distance, obviously Zheng Chenggong was to improve the accuracy of shooting and better kill the Qing soldiers in the city.

This time, Zheng Chenggong had no luck in Jiujiang City, and Li Guoying was still unscathed after a cannon fire, but a large number of Qing soldiers began to fall in the artillery fire.

The Qing soldiers on the city wall began to flee down the wall. The city wall was already full of Qing soldiers, and they all knew that this was a dead end for artillery fire. Li Guoying was also caught by several personal soldiers and ran down the city wall and hid at the foot of the city wall.

Zheng Chenggong became more and more courageous, and ordered the fleet to directly press towards Ezhou City, which was only more than two miles away from Ezhou City, and Zheng Chenggong wanted to shoot directly at Ezhou City here, which could save a lot of shells.

The Qing soldiers who were still guarding the city wall saw the two behemoths approaching Ezhou City more and more, and hurriedly ran down the city wall to report to Li Guoying, Li Guoying shrank behind a few pro-soldiers holding shields and cowered on the city wall, far away just now, although he felt that the battleship of the Wehrmacht was big enough. But the visual impact is not great, and now it is close. Li Guoying shrank her head in fright.

The two battleships that were close to each other slowed down their firing rhythm at this time, and the side guns on the two battleships fired one shot at a time, but the shooting effect was much better than the intermittent shooting just now, and many shells exploded directly at the head of the city.

Seeing that the artillery fire of the Wehrmacht warships was no longer intensive, Li Guoying's courage slowly grew, and he hid behind the stomping and began to carefully observe the two giant ships.

Li Guoying was a little strange that the two warships were only shelling Ezhou City on the river outside Ezhou City, and it seemed that there was no sign of attacking the city at present.

"Could it be that the Wehrmacht warships came to Ezhou just to teach themselves a lesson? Or did the Wehrmacht have other intentions? Li Guoying thought to herself.

"Damu, did you say that Liheng and they are in place?" Taking advantage of the pause in the sound of the cannon on the "Yue Fei", Huang Degong hurriedly asked Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, "According to the battle plan, Brother Liheng is already starting to attack the city, right?" The sound of our artillery is so loud that we can't hear the movement of their siege. ”

It turned out that Yan Yingyuan and his marines were not in the fleet at all now, and Yan Yingyuan had landed more than ten miles away from Ezhou City with his marines before the fleet arrived in Ezhou City.

In addition to clearing the Qing artillery that threatened the fleet, the fleet's current artillery bombardment towards Ezhou City was actually more of a cover for Yan Yingyuan's siege.

Huang Degong held a telescope and looked at the head of Ezhou City, and was frightened by the fleet's artillery fire, so that not many Qing soldiers who were hiding in Tibet appeared on the city wall, and the fleet's artillery was still firing without a single cannon, and the Qing soldiers on the Ezhou city wall did not know when the shells would fall on their heads, and Li Guoying also ran down from the city wall.

Suddenly, Huang Degong saw through the telescope a large number of Qing soldiers running towards the city wall, and he was feeling strange, and the observation post standing on the top floor of the "Yue Fei" reported that a large number of Qing soldiers were also running towards the north.

When Zheng Chenggong's fleet arrived outside Ezhou City, Yan Yingyuan had already marched to the south of Ezhou City with 8,000 marines, and after the fleet opened fire, the attention of the Qing soldiers was almost all attracted by the fleet, and the Marines rushed to Ezhou City from the village where they were hiding.

What Yan Yingyuan didn't expect was that the south gate of Ezhou City was still wide open, and Yan Yingyuan and his marines entered Ezhou City effortlessly, and the resistance they encountered at the beginning was extremely weak, and the hundreds of Qing soldiers on the southern city wall were quickly wiped out, Yan Yingyuan didn't think about capturing prisoners, and now he can't deal with them at all.

Later, the Qing soldiers in Ezhou City seemed to react, and a large number of Qing soldiers began to rush from the south of the city to the south of the city, and the battle in the city really began.

Unlike the battle of the First Army and the Qing soldiers in Guide City, the Marines were specially trained in street fighting, and with Yan Yingyuan's order, the Marines quickly launched a formation, and the soldiers were seven or eight people as a small team, relying on the streets and houses as cover, and advancing in echelons, although the Qing soldiers also had a lot of new muskets, the Qing soldiers obviously did not have the training to reload ammunition in motion, and compared with the firepower of the Marines, the firepower of the Qing soldiers was almost negligible.

What's more, the Marines are equipped with a battalion of grenadiers, although this thing has a short range, it is a sharp weapon in close combat, and a grenade can fly out, and the Qing soldiers can fall in pieces.

Under the fierce fire of the marines, the Qing soldiers were gradually compressed to the north of the city, and as a marine soldier on a civilian house raised the red flag in his hand, Zheng Chenggong ordered the fleet to stop the shelling, and the fleet began to move towards the city of Ezhou. (To be continued.) )