Qizhou in late August is already full of autumn, after the Mid-Autumn Festival, it will begin to cool in the morning and evening, the sun is no longer so dazzling, blazing, compared with the land of Yuzhou where fierce battles broke out, Qizhou will appear to be high and cloudy, pleasant and leisurely, no one would have thought that such a beautiful weather, war would come suddenly.

Zhu'a County, Qi County, this is the first county town closest to the Yellow River in the counties of Qizhou, less than three miles away from the Yellow River, built the Yellow River wharf, this expedition to Yuzhou, Zhu'a County has become the most important military capital distribution center, hundreds of large warehouses have been built on the wharf, and the wharf is extended and widened, ten large ships of 5,000 stones can be berthed at the same time.

Not only that, the Qi army also dug a 50-mile-long artificial canal between Zhu'a County and Jinan City, connecting the Yellow River and the Daqing River, so as to facilitate the transportation of various military materials such as grain and ordnance from all over Qizhou to the wharf of Zhu'a County.

One mile east of the wharf of Zhu'a County, is the entrance of the Cao River, at the mouth of the Cao River, the Qi army built a three-zhang high castle with huge stones, became the command center and lookout tower of the Cao River and the Zhu'a County Wharf, stationed with hundreds of soldiers.

Their mission was to look out in the direction of the Cao River and prevent the boats coming from the Cao River from colliding with the boats in the Yellow River, and three soldiers would keep a watchful eye every day for twelve hours.

On this morning, the three soldiers on duty were still observing the movement of the Cao River as usual, and a batch of grain would be transported from Jinan Mansion in the next two days, so they paid special attention.

This is when a soldier was looking at the scenery of the Yellow River at the other end, he accidentally noticed that a dense small black dot appeared on the river surface in the distance, he pointed to the black dot and shouted in surprise, "Look, what is that?" ”

The other two soldiers rushed forward and looked out over the river, both with surprises or shocks in their eyes.

"Oh my God! That's a warship! ”

One of the veterans recognized the black spots, he exclaimed, took two steps back, and said to himself, "There are thousands of warships, who is here?" ”

"Ring the alarm!"

He suddenly reacted and immediately shouted, "Ring the alarm, stupid! ”

"When! While! While! The rapid and piercing sound of the bell echoed over the castle, not because of the arrival of a ship from the Cao River, but because of the discovery of the enemy.

In a moment, dozens of soldiers rushed to the lookout, everyone was stunned, and a captain also came, "What's going on?" He pushed the crowd away and stepped forward, his eyes widening, and he shouted in a low voice, "Oh my God! ”

The sailor warship of Chuzhou has been swept away, the sails cover the sky, as if the entire Yellow River is covered by big ships, the fleet is divided into three teams, sailing in line on the river, there is no end in sight, at the front of the fleet is an incomparably huge giant warship, Qizhou also has one, at this time, all the soldiers understand that this is the Chuzhou Navy is coming, there are only five Shenzhou-class warships in the world, one is in Qizhou, and the other four are in Chuzhou.

The mother ship of the Chuzhou Navy stopped on the river, and slowly sailed up three warships of 5,000 stones, and the strings on the side of the ship opened windows one by one, stretching out a number of swarthy cannon muzzles, and the muzzles were aimed at the castle, as if they were quietly waiting for something?

Although no one knew what the black pipe on the wall of the ship was, the huge pressure and invisible killing machine still made all the soldiers look at each other in shock, at this moment, the earth-shattering shelling sound sounded on the surface of the river, the muzzle of the cannon spewed out a stream of white gunsmoke, dense shells shot at the stone fort, violently exploded, the stone fort and the stone fort around the explosion one after another, rubble flew around, screams everywhere, in a moment, the three-zhang high stone fort collapsed, the soldiers and workers on the dock were frightened, scattered and fled.

The collapse of the stone fort marked the all-out war of the Chuzhou naval army against Qizhou, a ship full of soldiers and war horses docked at the dock one after another, a group of soldiers began to disembark in a queue, more than 10,000 war horses were also led down from hundreds of large ships, at the same time as the soldiers and war horses disembarked, more than 100 gunboats of 3,000 stones entered the Cao River and headed for Jinan Mansion 50 miles away.

．．．．．．．． Half an hour later. The news of the landing of the Chuzhou army in Zhu'a County reached Jinan City, which is the state of Qizhou, and it is also the nest of the king of Qi, many family members of the Qi army live in the city, the 300,000 troops of Qizhou marched westward, and the general Luo Wei led 100,000 troops to the south to conquer Pengcheng County and Xiapi County, the hinterland of Qizhou was empty, and there were less than 10,000 defenders in the city of Jinan.

Panic and helplessness caused chaos in this large city of hundreds of thousands, people rushed for their lives, the major gates were crowded with people trying to flee the city, and at the south gates, the defenders even clashed with the fleeing people.

There was also chaos in the palace of the King of Qi, and everyone's subordinates were busy packing up their things, although they knew that it was futile, but the princess was slow to move, so they had nothing to do but pack their things.

In front of Princess Qi's living room in the inner courtyard of the palace, more than a dozen guards stood in the courtyard and anxiously urged, "Princess, evacuate quickly!" The Chuzhou cavalry has already arrived twenty miles north of the city, and it will arrive in the north city in half an hour at most, and it will be too late if they don't leave. ”

There was no sound in the room, and after a while, I heard Princess Luo Qifeng ask, "Has the news been sent to King Qi?" ”

"The news has been sent, not only to His Royal Highness King Qi, but also to General Luo's side at the same time, now wait for the princess to leave quickly."

"How many troops are coming from Chuzhou, do you have to let me leave?"

"Back to the princess, there are thousands of warships in Chuzhou, I'm afraid there are 100,000 troops, and there are more than 10,000 cavalry, we only have 8,000 defenders, and we can't hold the city at all, please leave the princess quickly, otherwise, the princess and the prince will be captured, which will seriously hit the morale of the Qi army."

King Qi's prince Zheng was born to the former princess, Luo Qifeng only gave birth to two daughters, and there was no son, perhaps the last words of the guards moved her, if something happened to the prince, she really couldn't explain, and after a while, Luo Qifeng finally agreed, "Okay!" I set out and told the soldiers not to put up unnecessary resistance, lest they hurt innocent people. ”

The guards were overjoyed, and they rushed out to prepare the carriage, and after a while, the princess of Qi took the wife and concubine of the king of Qi and a dozen children in twenty carriages, and left the city of Jinan under the escort of two thousand cavalry of the prince of Qi's personal guards, and evacuated to the south.

At the head of the city, more than a thousand soldiers looked nervously at the north, they were at a loss, and wanted to close the city gate, but the people who swarmed to block the city gate, dozens of carriages blocked the city gate, the city gate could not be closed at all, and more importantly, the princess had not left yet, so that they did not dare to close the city gate.

The eyes of every soldier were full of worry, it was said that 100,000 Chu troops had landed, God knows how they suddenly appeared, there was no intelligence at all on the southern coast!

At this time, one of the princess's guards rushed up to the city, and shouted from afar: "General Yao! ”

General Yao Zhi is the left-behind general of Jinan Prefecture, and he is currently the highest-ranking officer in the city, and thousands of troops in the city are under his command.

He stepped forward and asked urgently, "Have the princess and the prince left?" ”

"The princess and the prince have left, and before leaving, the princess has an order that if the army cannot resist, it can also be evacuated, so as not to hurt the people."

Yao Zhi said hatefully: "If you haven't fought a battle, will you just run away like this?" ”

He had 8,000 soldiers in his hands, which was no more or less, which made him very embarrassed, and at this moment, a scout rushed from under the city and reported loudly: "General Yao, more than 100 warships are heading south along the Cao River, and they have already passed the Queshan Mountain and are approaching the city, only five miles away from us!" ”

'Five miles! ’

Yao Zhi hurriedly looked into the distance of the Cao River, and sure enough, he saw a fleet of ships heading towards the Daqing River, with only more than 100 boats, and at most more than 20,000 troops, he gritted his teeth and said: "Pass my order, prepare stone artillery, and meet the Chu army fleet!" ”

．．．．．．．． The Cao River leads directly to the Daqing River in the north of Jinan City, and also connects the moat, the Daqing River is also called Jishui, it is the natural barrier of Jicheng, and flows two miles away from the north of the city, the princess of Qi is slow to move and the defending army dares to go out of the city to meet the battle, it is because there is this river to block the Chu army from going south.

To deal with ships, it is generally the use of mines or stone generators, and you can also use the trebuchet to throw thunderbolts, but because the waterproof technology is difficult to solve, the actual combat effect of projectile thunderbolts is not ideal, most of them fall into the water and extinguish, and there is no special in-depth research, in actual combat, it is more to use small boats to carry mines, and wait for the small boat to shoot rockets to detonate after approaching the big ship, or directly send water ghosts to fix the mines on the ship and detonate.

Twenty or thirty small boats were distributed on the river, each small boat had more than a dozen iron-hulled mines, the ship was smeared with fire oil, and more than 100 archers were ambushed on the shore.

In addition, nearly 100 stone-hitting machines were deployed on the shore, and within 60 steps, the large stones shot out could penetrate the wall of the ship, and 8,000 soldiers were ready to block the Chu army from going ashore.

The Qi army was not worried about the cavalry of the Chu army, the three bridges on the Daqing River had been demolished, unless the pontoon bridge was built temporarily, and the small boats needed to build the pontoon bridge were all concentrated on the south bank, and now they only had to deal with the Chuzhou warships with all their strength to prevent the soldiers on board from landing.

More than 100 big ships came slowly, they did not get close to the small boat, there were still dozens of steps away from the small boat, they suddenly opened fire, more than a dozen warships opened fire at the same time, dense shells fell in the crowd of Qi troops 500 steps away, violently exploded, red flames burst out, black smoke rose into the air, the explosion made people turn over on their backs, shrapnel flew sideways, stumps were broken, the casualties were extremely heavy, nearly 100 catapults were also blown to pieces, only three rounds of shelling, the Qi army was killed and wounded nearly 1,000 people, even the main general Yao Zhi was also hit by a shrapnel, seriously injured.

The tragic artillery slaughter made the Qi army retreat in extreme panic, the new weapons of the Chu army made them frightened, and their fighting spirit was completely lost, thousands of Qi troops lost their armor and fled south in panic, even more than 100 archers hiding on the shore also fled without a trace, and dozens of small boats were still floating in the water.

An hour later, 30,000 Chu troops marched into Jinan City, Qi Wangfu was occupied by the Chu army, Huangfu Wujin immediately ordered, the Chu army divided into two routes, the general Zhao Yuankai led 10,000 troops to the Donglai Peninsula to accept the surrender of the counties, he personally led 60,000 elite Chu troops into Lu County, to meet the 100,000 Qi troops in the north of Pengcheng County.

Whether the Chu army can occupy Qizhou or not depends on this battle.

．．．．．．．．

(To be continued)