Chapter 563: Naval Battle

The gunshots and explosions that suddenly appeared in the area of Bao'en Temple suddenly made the nearby Yuan soldiers tremble, and the soldiers of the Yuan army, who could have taken advantage of the terrain to resist stubbornly and fought and left, were completely shattered by this burst of gunfire. For a while, the Yuan army around Bao'en Temple thought that the surrounding positions had all been broken by the Song army, and they had become the lone army of the Song army to attack from the north to the south.

More than 10,000 Song troops who successively went up to the ground used Bao'en Temple as a base and began to attack south.

At noon, the main force of the Song army from south to north crossed one defense line after another, and several of the front-line assault teams successfully rushed to the front of Bao'en Temple and joined up with Wu Songhan and Wenzhang.

The Yuan army around Bao'en Temple organized several counterattacks, hoping to recapture Bao'en Temple, but under the attack of muskets and grenades, each time it was in vain, and only hundreds of corpses could be left behind.

Half an hour later, the Song army in the south of the city completely opened the road from the south gate to Bao'en Temple, and according to the order of the headquarters, the army did not continue to attack to the north, but turned to the left and right, and attacked laterally. Although most of the Mongol soldiers were still struggling desperately, they were still unable to block the attack of the Song army's firearms, and many Han soldiers began to respond passively to the battle, and even more, like the common people, seized the opportunity to flee south, which also made the Yuan army's rout much faster than the previous two days.

By this time, the defense line at the front of the Yuan army had been broken to pieces, and because it could not be connected into pieces, it was broken one by one after being divided and surrounded by the Song army. Under the advantages of the other, the Yuan army, which was five miles south of the palace, could only become a turtle in an urn, waiting to be captured.

By the end of the third day's battle, the Song army's forward position was less than five miles away from the Dadu Palace. If you look north from the roofs of some of the slightly taller buildings, you can see the outline of the palace.

As before, I arrived at the command post where Lu Wenhuan was located after the fighting stopped.

"See Your Majesty."

"Well, the generals are exempt."

"Your Majesty, today's battle has been brilliant, and we have advanced nearly five miles in one day. According to preliminary estimates, our army killed nearly 10,000 Yuan troops and captured more than 3,000 in one day, including more than 200 Mongolian soldiers. Lu Wenhuan reported excitedly.

"Well, according to today's progress, we will be able to attack the vicinity of the imperial palace of the Yuan Dynasty tomorrow evening."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Generals, what is the situation of the people in the city today?"

Lu Wenhuan subconsciously looked at Yin Yinglei and Zhao Huaidao: "Your Majesty, in today's battle, our army rescued at least more than 50,000 people, but the number of dead people also exceeded 20,000 and more than 10,000 were wounded. ”

"What?" I exclaimed, "Thirty thousand dead and wounded, so many? ”

The number of people living in Dadu is far less than that of Beijing in later generations, with a total of only more than 300,000, and nearly one-tenth of the casualties in this day, this number is not small, and it is heart-wrenching.

Seeing that my face was different, Lu Wenhuan and the others nodded silently and said, "Yes." ”

"This is war." I thought about it, knowing that this was not the time to be merciful, let alone to blame anyone, so I just sighed to myself, and said to the three of them: "Three generals, let my military hospital and hygienists do their best to help these people. In the past few days, if there is a shortage of food for the people in the city, our army will provide them free of charge, and we must ensure that not a single citizen will starve to death, and in addition, for the homeless, arrange for them to live in the barracks outside the city, so that the troops outside the city can do a good job of pacifying them. The captured Yuan army was detained first, and as for the anti-water team of hundreds of people, it was handed over to Wu Jiu, who commanded it as a guide for the front army. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

I continued: "Judging from the battle situation in the past few days, the troops invested by the Yuan army in the south of the palace are mostly Han and Jin soldiers, and it is estimated that tomorrow will be about the same, and the day after tomorrow, the remaining ones in the Yuan army in most of the capital should be the Mongolian elite, that is to say, the battle of the palace that will begin the day after tomorrow will be more intense. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Tomorrow's battle will still be carried out in accordance with the established policy, with the commando team as the arrow, capture the key points in the city, and then press the army, and at the same time minimize the casualties of our soldiers and civilians. Below, let's sum up and how to attack the palace the day after tomorrow. ”

When the three of them saw that I didn't pursue the matter, they were relieved and began to discuss.

Early in the morning of the fourth day, the Song army, under the command of Lü Wenhuan and others, launched another attack to the north.

On the evening of the third day after the Song army broke through the south gate of the capital, Liu Quan, the commander of the Yuan army's naval division located in the Bohai Bay, learned the news.

After a night of hard thinking and meditation, Liu Cheng finally made a decision to break through. If most of the capital falls, the land base of the naval division will soon be occupied by the Song army, and then it will be under pressure at both ends, so it is better to make a desperate bet and break out of the encirclement as soon as possible.

Liu Quan's proposal was supported by all the generals in the army, even the Mongol supervisors sent by Kublai Khan to the naval division, who thought it was the only feasible solution. As for what to do after breaking out of the encirclement of the Southern Korean Naval Division, it can only be discussed at that time.

Early the next morning, when the Song army in the capital launched an attack, Liu Chuan led all the Yuan warships to leave his naval base and sail towards Bohai Bay. In the afternoon, the warship arrived in the Bohai Strait.

The commanders of the warships had already been ordered to break through to each other. If they are able to successfully break out of the Bohai Strait, they will head northeast and meet at an island two days from the Bohai Strait.

However, the Song Dynasty sailors naturally would not let the Yuan army sailors have a good time.

Li Beiyang remembers very well that I once said that Liu Chuan was a traitor, completely different from the Han generals Zhang Rou and Shi Tianze in the Mongolian army, and he would never be spared. As for the personal grievances between Li Beiyang and Liu Quan, they have long been settled in the last naval battle, whether it is the tonnage or number of warships, whether it is the equipment of weapons or the way of attack and defense, the sailors of the Great Song Dynasty are ahead for more than a hundred years.

Although I did not give much direct guidance to the sailors, the basic knowledge of the navy that everyone knew in later generations greatly expanded the thinking of Li Beiyang, Ouyang Jianqing and other sailor generals.

Of course, in Li Beiyang's view, the most powerful ones are naturally the two giant ships of Shenzhou, not to mention that there are twenty artillery pieces on each of them.

One after another, the Great Song warships were in full array, surrounding the two giant ships, cutting off the sea route of the entire Bohai Strait.

With the attack order issued by Liu Quan's flagship, the rest of the Yuan warships attacked without reservation. The Yuan army all knew that if they rushed out, there would be a glimmer of life, otherwise it would be a dead end. Most of the generals in the Yuan army's naval division were Liu Quan's former subordinates, colleagues or fellow villagers, and they knew better that the Song Dynasty regarded them as mortal enemies, so everyone scrambled to be the first, hoping to fight a bloody way.

At first, the warships of the Yuan army could still move forward in a certain formation, but when they rushed to the vicinity of the Song warships, they suddenly changed their tactics, and it seemed that they were like a pirate warring team that had never been trained, and there was no formation at all.

Soon, Li Beiyang, who was standing on the Shenzhou Giant Ship, found that the Yuan warships had no intention of fighting and only cared about attacking forward.

"What? Is this to escape? The experienced Li Beiyang immediately thought.

"Your Excellency, the warships of the Yuan army have entered the range of artillery, do you want to open fire?" The adjutant general on the side said.

"Well, pass the order, don't have to save ammunition, open fire."

The commanders on the two giant ships received orders and gave the order to open their guns together.

"Boom, boom, boom"

The sound of artillery shook the sky, and the artillery on the side of the giant ship began to bombard. The warships of the Yuan army were generally small, and some warships even only needed to be hit by one shot, and there was a leakage phenomenon. The giant ship was located in the middle of the sea area, and the warships of the Yuan army that rushed to the front were immediately under the bombardment of artillery, and in the sea areas on both sides that were not covered by artillery fire, hundreds of warships of the Song army launched attacks at the same time.

Although some warships on both sides also rushed through the encirclement of the Song army, most of the Yuan warships were intercepted by the Song army, especially the enemy ships in the center, and they were completely caught in a bitter battle.

Time passed little by little, and the warships of the Yuan army decreased one by one.

About an hour later, Li Beiyang saw that the three main ships of the Yuan army were hit by artillery one after another, and the wooden warship soon ignited a fire.

Li Beiyang ordered: "Turn the direction on the spot, and the artillery on the right side is ready to fire." ”

The speed of the giant ship was naturally not as good as that of the warships of later generations, and taking advantage of the pause in artillery, many Yuan warships rushed to the front. However, compared with the giant ships, these warships were not at all comparable, and the Song soldiers condescendingly threw projectiles at these warships. At such a close distance, specially trained throwers can almost hit every shot, compared to artillery, which is a missed shot.

Later, the warships of the Yuan army saw that the situation was not good, and they turned one after another, trying to slip away from the sides of the giant ship. Li Beiyang would not let it succeed, and ordered the warships behind the giant ship to attack with the flag.

Two quarters of an hour later, both ships had adjusted their orientation, and the guns on the right roared again.

The warships of the Yuan army a hundred meters away were once again caught under the bombardment of artillery, and in desperation, many warships chose to flee in the direction of the base.

At this time, Liu Quan, who had already changed into the uniform of an ordinary sailor, stood on a small warship, looking at this one-sided situation, he could only sigh, and then ordered the sailor to sail quickly to the left.