A day passed, and the reinforcements reached 20,000, and at this time, Yang Chao already had nearly 40,000 reinforcements in the city of Nanjing, plus the Nanjing guards that had been recruited, and at this time he already had more than 50,000 troops.

Yang Chao planned to transfer all the troops in Yangzhou back, and there should be more than 80,000 troops at that time, and Yang Chao planned to launch a counteroffensive against the Qing army.

"My lord, my lord, the Qing army sailors are coming to attack, covering the sky and the sun, and there are 10,000 warships!"

Zhang Dawei couldn't help but panic, at this time he had less than thirty ships in his hands.

Yang Chao's current naval army is already very large, with a total of 100 brigs and boats, but there are not many small boats, mainly because more than 300 boats were sunk by the wind and waves on the river last time, and now there are more than 300 small boats.

However, for the purpose of transferring the Ming army back from Yangzhou, most of the ships were on the route from Yangzhou to Nanjing.

"Panic what!"

Yang Chao couldn't help but shout.

This Zhang Dawei is good at everything, but his personality is a little weak, he has followed Yang Chao for so long, and he still has not cultivated a vigorous and resolute military character, which makes Yang Chao quite disappointed, so he will divide the ten most powerful sea ships and let Zhang Dawei bring out Jiang Fan as the commander.

Zhang Dawei was scolded by Yang Chao, but he didn't dare to fight back.

"Where are the Qing troops?"

However, the Qing army sent tens of thousands of warships down the river, and Yang Chao still attached great importance to this news.

"It's already from Jiujiang!"

Zhang Dawei replied.

These days, he has been sending clippers to reconnoiter the intelligence of the Qing army, so he knew the actions of the Qing army for the first time.

Yang Chao nodded: "With your experience, tens of thousands of warships, how many days will it take to travel from Jiujiang to Nanjing?" ”

If it is a two-ship warship, it can be reached in three days at most if it goes down the river for a day or two, but it is not so easy for tens of thousands of warships.

Zhang Dawei thought for a while and said, "It will take three days at the earliest!" ”

Yang Chao nodded: "In three days, all the boats that came back were detained." Enough to take back twenty large ships, and a hundred small ships, and then we will have one hundred and fifty large and small ships, all with cannons. The decisive battle with the Qing army's sailors may not be without the strength of a battle. ”

Yang Chao knew that the warships of the Qing army were all small boats, and the ships built by Li Zicheng on the Han River could be as big as they were, and most of them were probably looted fishing boats. Such a boat is a little rougher, and I am afraid that I will capsize.

And Yang Chao's smallest ships are probably larger than the Qing army's warships, and a big blow may not be able to make up for the lack of numbers.

"Also, send fast horses to Wusong, let Jiang Fan drive all the big ships over, let the Qing army see our gunboats, and teach them how to fight water battles!"

After Yang Chao's series of orders were issued, Zhang Dawei felt a little more stable.

Although he was not very satisfied with Zhang Dawei, Yang Chao still let him command. After all, Yang Chao himself really lacks experience in water warfare, and Zhang Dawei has been clearing and suppressing river bandits on the river all year round, and he still has a lot of experience in water warfare.

Sure enough, according to what Yang Chao said, one hundred and fifty large and small ships were collected back on the third day.

Yang Chao drove all the gunners he could find in Nanjing to the ship and told Zhang Dawei to use artillery to bombard the Qing army from a distance as much as possible, and not to give them the opportunity to engage in broadside battles, so that they would not be able to give full play to the advantages of having more ships and more people, even if they could not win the artillery battle. If you can delay until all the ships come back, you will be victorious.

At noon on the third day, the Qing army's naval divisions had already arrived at the Dasheng Pass, and they really planned to attack the Dasheng Pass.

Dashengguan was originally a river-defending place. If they captured here, the horse infantry would land at Dasheng Pass and reach Nanjing, so Yang Chao's warships also intercepted the Qing army at Dasheng Pass.

A large water battle broke out between the sandbars and on the water near Dasheng Pass.

At this time, there were 300 warships in the vanguard of the Qing army's naval division, and 150 warships of Zhang Dawei's navy, with a ratio of two to one.

According to Yang Chao's requirements. Zhang Dawei lined up more than 100 warships and constantly bombarded the Qing army with artillery, not giving the Qing army a chance to take the side at all, although it took a day.

The numerical superiority of the Qing army could not reach the point where it could ignore firepower at this time, and after an hour, after being bombed and sunk more than a dozen ships, they chose to retreat, and as soon as they retreated, they retreated to Taiping Mansion and anchored at Dangtu Port.

At this time, Azig's army also gathered here to rest.

Zhang Dawei did not dare to pursue, and the battleship docked at Dashengguan nearby, and then quickly sent a good news to Yang Chao.

Azig calmed the king's body who commanded the navy.

Wang Tizhong was originally Li Zicheng's general Bai Wang's subordinates who guarded Jingxiang Sifu, the Qing army chased Li Zicheng all the way, Li Zicheng took Bai Wang's main force of 70,000 people away to follow him to fight Jiujiang, Bai Wang couldn't resist the Qing army, gave up Jingxiang Sifu, and fled all the way to Li Zicheng, as a result, Wang Tizhong took advantage of the chaos to kill Bai Wang, surrendered to the Qing army, and was named deputy chief soldier by the Qing army.

Later, Azig defeated Li Zicheng forty miles away from Jiujiang City, captured Li Zicheng's tens of thousands of warships, and handed them over to the commander of Wang Tizhong.

But in the first battle, Wang Tizhong was defeated.

"The art of war of the Ruhan family is cloudy: victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, and General Wang has not yet arrived, and the first taste of defeat is just a small defeat, which is not enough to worry about."

Azig's statement made Wang Tizhong grateful, and promised to kill the Ming army as soon as the main force of his warship arrived.

On the fourth day, there was no fighting all day, Zhang Dawei continued to gather the warship, and Wang Tizhong was also waiting for his rear team, and both sides thought that time was in their favor.

Day 5.

The number of warships in the king's body has reached 1,000, so he once again attacked the port of Dashengguan with great vigour.

Zhang Dawei once again commanded the naval army to attack, still with artillery bombardment.

At this time, there were 1,000 warships in the king's body, and the number of warships of Zhang Dawei also reached more than 300.

Among them, 50 ships and more than 250 sloops were killed.

After a day of artillery battle, more than 100 warships were sunk in the king's body, and the king's body retreated again.

The situation of the water war continued to be transmitted back to Nanjing, and although it was won in the end, Yang Chao went to see the crisis.

Because there were many warships approached by the Qing army, there was a broadside battle, and most of the Qing troops were repelled under hand-to-hand combat, but one ship was captured by the Qing army, and the sailors on board jumped into the water and fled.

It seems that relying entirely on artillery cannot make up for such a large numerical disadvantage, and the fact that the PLA was able to defeat Lao Chiang's big ship with fishing boats in later generations shows that quantity is still very important.

Yang Chao's method of dealing with it was to find those elite infantry who were familiar with water and had been following him to fight in the south and the north. Even if these Eight Banners soldiers on horseback were on board, Yang Chao didn't think that their individual soldier quality could play a role.

For three days in a row, the Qing army did not attack again, which gave Yang Chao enough time to adjust. At the same time, all the warships were retracted, and Zhang Dawei had 300 dhows and 100 brigs under his command.

Each of the small ships had one or two cannons, and the large ships were equipped with three to five cannons, depending on how strong the ships were.

There were a thousand cannons on these ships, of which six hundred were ordinary tiger squat cannons. More than 200 general cannons, as well as more than 100 Franky cannons, almost all the cannons that could be used in Nanjing City were removed, only those red-coated cannons could not be loaded on these ships, and they were still left in Nanjing City.

On the ninth day, the fiercest artillery battle began.

On this day, Jiang Feng made a great effort, and the Ming army was still headwind.

Originally, the Qing army occupied the upstream position and enjoyed a certain advantage, and now it has an advantage. Their ships ran faster than the Ming army.

And this time the Qing army was much smarter, and even put down the fire boats along the river, but unfortunately there were no dead soldiers on their fire boats, and they did not dare to drive the ships straight to the Ming warships, and the Ming warships could calmly avoid these fire ships.

However, the Ming army's formation was chaotic, and the Qing army's naval division took advantage of the situation to attack in a big way, and it seemed that all the ships were rushing down the river frantically.

It seems that the Qing army has not wasted time in the past three days, the military discipline of these sailors has obviously been rectified, I don't know how many people the Qing army killed, anyway, it aroused the courage of the sailors.

Downstream, river breeze. With a large assault, this time the artillery of the Ming army lost its effect and could not prevent the other side from approaching at all.

Constantly engaged in battles with the Qing army, at this time the Ming army relied on the advantage of large ships. still took a big advantage, condescendingly slashing the Qing army with all kinds of weapons.

From morning to noon, thousands of warships of the Qing army were sunk, but almost most of the Ming army was entangled by the Qing army and fell into a bitter battle, and the Qing army often surrounded a ship of the Ming army with more than ten ships. Surrounded on all sides, but it was difficult to capture one in the hands of elite infantry, and finally the Qing army chose to set fire again.

At this time, the two sides were mixed together, and everyone was at risk of being implicated in the arson, but the Qing army that was cornered could no longer take care of it, and the boats tied to the Ming army were constantly ignited, and then the Qing army jumped into the river and swam away.

In this way, the Qing army quickly sank hundreds of ships of the Ming army, and Zhang Dawei saw that the situation was not good, and immediately ordered a retreat.

Fighting while retreating, bombarding the pursuing Qing warships with artillery.

Fortunately, the sailing ships of the Ming army performed better than the fishing boats, and Jiang Feng also helped a lot, and finally 300 warships rushed out, broke away from the battle with the Qing army, and retreated all the way to Nanjing.

The people of Nanjing City soon saw the warships on their side, and also saw the Qing army sailors who covered the sky and the sun.

In an instant, the whole city was in an uproar, and the people came to watch the battle.

But seeing that his own navy fought and retreated, he could only open a distance to bombard the other party, but he couldn't sink a few ships, and the other party set fire to the boats one by one, and at the same time tried to engage in the broadside battle without listening, everyone's hearts were in their throats.

Everyone knew that if the navy was defeated, the Qing army would be able to land anywhere on the Yangtze River, and it would be ready to attack the city of Nanjing at any time.

Yang Chao also watched the battle at this time, although he was not as easy to get nervous as the common people, even if it was to let the Qing army eliminate the sailor division and attack the city of Nanjing.

But Yang Chao didn't want to see the warship he had worked so hard to build annihilated like this.

When he saw that the battleship had retreated to the vicinity of Xinjiangkou, Zhang Dawei finally began to set up a formation and bombard the Qing army's naval division.

Xinjiangkou is the bottom line set by Yang Chao for Zhang Dawei, telling him that he can retreat in case of defeat, but he must not retreat across Xinjiangkou, otherwise military law will be involved.

Xinjiangkou is already located in the northwest part of the city of Nanjing, and if it retreats further, it will lose the significance of defending Nanjing.

The broadside battle inevitably broke out, a large number of Qing army boats, ants bite half of the elephant, frantically rushed into the Ming fleet, constantly attacking!

Seeing that a warship was captured, burned, and sunk, Yang Chao was already ready for defeat in his heart, and was even ready to send someone to inform Song Kun to give up Dasheng Pass, after all, if the Qing army could land near Nanjing, Dasheng Pass would lose its effect, and there would be no point in staying there except for being surrounded by Qing troops.

"My lord, there is a boat, and there is a boat over there!"

Zhang Dian suddenly reminded Yang Chao that several warships had also appeared in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Yang Chao looked to the right-hand side, and the big sea ship appeared. (To be continued.) )