After all the troops crossing the river landed, they began to build fortifications on the beachhead, although they were only simply piled up with sandbags or trenches more than one meter deep with sapper shovels, but the Beiyang Army was all equipped with 75 mm caliber mountain and field guns, which were extremely light, and if they did not directly hit the fortifications as they had just done, they would not have caused damage to the soldiers hiding in the fortifications at all.

Therefore, after the initial completion of the fortifications on the beachhead, the troops crossing the river can be regarded as gaining a firm foothold.

As for the Beiyang Army? It was not unclear that they had not thought about driving the troops crossing the river down the river, but it was a pity that in the process of building fortifications for the troops crossing the river, the artillery fire on the artillery positions of the Nationalist Army suddenly became even more fierce than before. You must know that the artillery of the National Social Army is not comparable to the Beiyang Army, not to mention the 210 and 150 large-caliber heavy guns, the 105 and 120 caliber guns alone are more than a step higher than the 75 caliber guns of the Beiyang Army in terms of power.

The casualties of the Beiyang Army were already very large when they were hit by artillery on the position, and if there was no protection from the fortifications, then just a random shell on the flat ground could reimburse a large area of the Beiyang Army. Not to mention that the river-crossing troops on the beachhead are not easy to mess with, although the number is only more than 3,000 people, and some of them are wounded, but with a large number of Madsen light machine guns, the river-crossing troops are not inferior to the Beiyang Army on the opposite side in terms of firepower, plus 37-mm infantry guns and 60-caliber mortars, the battle on the beachhead can be said to be impressive.

After the two regiments of the river-crossing troops were all brought ashore, the remaining 200 or so fishing boats began to slowly return to their starting points.

After noticing this, the artillery of the Beiyang Army, which had originally focused its attention on the beachhead, once again concentrated their artillery fire on the river......... As long as all the boats used by the Nationalist Army to cross the river can be sunk, there will be no threat to the river-crossing troops without follow-up support, which is still clear to the Beiyang Army.

And they know better that the strength of the National Socialist Army depends entirely on their equipment, and if the troops crossing the river are not supplied with ammunition, then it is not very difficult to clean them up, or even drive them down the river, and of course, those nasty artillery of the National Social Army are also troublesome.

"Alas, it's a pity that the artillery in the army is all 75 caliber light artillery, otherwise how could the other party be so arrogant..."

Seeing that the shells of the National Socialist Army kept falling on his own position, Li Chun would be a little angry. However, he also understands Yuan Shikai's difficulties, after all, the price of large-caliber artillery is too expensive, and the level of infrastructure in China is very poor, especially in terms of roads, it is simply difficult to use artillery of this caliber like 210.

It's just that after seeing the power of the opponent's artillery, Li Chun's heart was full of "envy, jealousy and hatred".

Hearing Li Chun say this, Zhang Shaozeng on the side only smiled bitterly twice, and then refocused his attention on the river.

The fishing boats on the river, because they did not carry a large number of people and equipment as they had just now, were much faster than just now, and the number was also a little less than when they set off, so the formation was naturally evacuated a lot, so on the way back, except for a few really unlucky, there were not a few fishing boats that were sunk.

"But now there are only more than 200 fishing boats left in use, and I'm afraid this number can only transport one and a half groups of people..."

Looking at the river crossing boats, which were obviously much sparser than when they set off, Zhu Qinglan frowned at Yang Shandao.

"That's a problem, indeed." Hearing Zhu Qinglan say this, Yang Shan also nodded. "Haven't the cavalry units that went out to collect ships have returned?"

"How could it be so fast." Zhu Qinglan smiled bitterly. "You know, they only left yesterday, and even if they are too fast, they won't be able to come back until the afternoon..."

There is no way, although Qianjiang County is close to the Yangtze River, but after all, it is not in the Yangtze River but inland, so even if there are many people who make a living from boats on the Dongjing River, there are still fewer boats that can be collected after all.

But...

"Ziqiao, you say, can you let Jingzhou collect some ships to come over?"

After thinking about the issue of the ship for a while, Yang Shan looked at Zhu Qinglan again.

"Jingzhou?" Zhu Qinglan frowned and asked a little strangely. "Isn't the ship we are using now collected from Jingzhou?"

Jingzhou County is close to Miao Lake, Changhu Lake, Haizi Lake, all three lakes are connected, and in Changhu there is a Tianguan River, which happens to be connected to the Dongjing River.

After Feng Guozhang shrank his forces to Qianjiang, he "collected" all the ships on the shore of Qianjiang, and did not leave a single boat to Zhu Qinglan and Feng Guozhang.

arrived in Jingzhou, because of the lack of time, Feng Guozhang did not collect the ships there, so now Zhu Qinglan and the boats they use are all collected by Jingzhou County, in fact, the cavalry unit responsible for collecting fishing boats is also collecting boats along the Tianguan River, and the ultimate goal is to go to Changhu to see if they can collect some boats.

This is also the reason why Zhu Qinglan feels strange, because they have already collected ships in Jingzhou, how can they collect again?

However, after listening to Zhu Qinglan's words, Yang Shan just walked to the map and pointed his finger to the side of Jingzhou County near the Yangtze River.

"I'm not talking about Temple Lake and Long Lake, I'm talking about this..."

"Yangtze River..."

Seeing this, Zhu Qinglan was even more confused.

That's right, there are indeed a lot of boats on the Yangtze River, and to be serious, as China's mother river, the boats on the Yangtze River are simply inexhaustible. But the problem is that as far as Zhu Qinglan knows, the Yangtze River is not connected to the Changhu Lake, so what is the use of many ships on the Yangtze River?

"Could it be that there is a river in Jingzhou that is connected and I don't know about?"

Looking at Yang Shan's confident appearance, Zhu Qinglan was not very sure of it.

It's just that as the commander of the Second Army and the actual person in charge of the Qianjiang front, he has studied all the maps around Jingzhou, and it is true that he has not found a single connected river...

In the end, there was no way, Zhu Qinglan could only look at Yang Shan, waiting for him to uncover the puzzle.

After noticing Zhu Qinglan's eyes, Yang Shan pointed to the location of Jingzhou on the map and said slowly...

"I mean, collect the ships on the Yangtze River side of Jingzhou County, and then transport them all to the Jingzhou Station of the Sichuan-Han Railway by land, and transport them to Qianjiang by train..."

Dumbfounded, Zhu Qinglan never thought that Yang Shan would come up with such an idea.

You must know that the port of Jingzhou is ......... from the railway station Well, it seems like it's only 5 kilometers away, but the fishing boats are very heavy......... As heavy as a 105 gun? It shouldn't be heavier than the 210 gun, right?

Zhu Qinglan is not a fisherman, so he doesn't know how heavy an ordinary wooden fishing boat is, but if it is only 5 kilometers away from the shore, Yang Shan's idea does not seem unrealistic...

After noticing Zhu Qinglan's somewhat changed attitude, Yang Shan also followed closely.

"Moreover, the three lakes of Miaohu, Haizi Lake and Changhu Lake are connected, and the area is very large, even if you use cavalry troops to collect boats, I am afraid it will take a lot of time, and if you want to row these fishing boats all the way from Changhu, the time will not be much less than the time used to collect..."Yang Shan said and looked at Zhu Qinglan. But what about the port of Jingzhou? The boats there are all ready-made, there is no need to spend time collecting them, just need to transport them to the railway station 5 kilometers away, and the speed of the train is definitely faster than the fishing boats themselves taxiing, if you send a telegram to Jingzhou now, maybe the first fishing boats will be able to transport them at midnight today..."

Hearing Yang Shan say this, Zhu Qinglan also felt that there was a little bit of truth, well, just a little, but in order to prepare the boats needed to cross the river, it was not impossible to try...

Thinking of this, Zhu Qinglan looked at Yang Shan and nodded.

After obtaining Zhu Qinglan's consent, Yang Shan himself was overjoyed, and then the two of them used the radio in the headquarters to send a report to the Jingzhou side, asking them to find a way to collect fishing boats in Jingzhou port, and then transport these fishing boats to the Qianjiang front line by rail transportation.

The left-behind personnel in Jingzhou were also stunned after seeing the telegram sent back by Zhu Qinglan and Yang Shan, and thought that the heads of these two lieutenant general-level figures were kicked by a donkey (established in the National Social Army), but these two figures are definitely high and powerful in the National Social Army, and the people who stayed behind could not ignore their intentions, so in the end they had to send the telegram to Yan Guang, who was sitting in Yichang.

When he first saw this plan, Yan Guang also felt a little whimsical, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was not impossible.

After all, Jingzhou's railway station is only 5 kilometers away from the port, and in order to facilitate access, there is a section of road between the port and the railway station, which is at least a good road in China today. If you just get some wooden fishing boats that are not very heavy to the railway station, and then pull them by train to Qianjiang, the feasible surname is very high.

After nodding their heads in agreement with the plan, the local officials in Jingzhou cooperated with the local garrison to recruit small ships in the port. Of course, in order not to lose the hearts of the people too much, the local garrison also paid a lot of money while collecting fishing boats.

In a sense, these rewards can already be used to buy new ships again.

So although the ships were recruited, the people who lost them were not too sad.

After collecting the required boats, the garrison, together with the hired migrant workers, loaded the collected boats onto trains, and then transported them by train to the Qianjiang front.

By the time the first batch of more than 100 fishing boats arrived at the Qianjiang front, Zhu Qinglan and Yang Shan on the front line had already transported the troops of the four regiments to the opposite bank with only more than 200 fishing boats. It's just that after completing this matter, there are less than 200 of the more than 200 fishing boats in their hands...

(To be continued)