Just over ten miles away from the mouth of the Thuan An River, Hue City is located on the banks of the Xiang River.

This royal city of the Nguyen clan in Quang Nam is also known as Phu Xuan and even has the nickname of Chang'an. This coastal city in southern Xinjiang, located in the south of the sky, was indeed the homeland of China in ancient times, and it was Lurong County under Rinan County of Jiaozhou during the Han Dynasty. After the rise of Linyi and the continuous invasion of the north, Lurong became a stronghold of the war between the two countries, and it was no longer owned by China after the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

After that, Linyi was replaced by Cham and Hue became the U state of Cham, and the king of Cham gave this state as a gift to the Annam Chen Dynasty. Chen Yingzong married his sister Princess Xuanzhen to the king of Zhancheng, and took Wuzhou and Lizhou as concubines, and the following year the Chen Dynasty renamed the two states Shunzhou and Huazhou.

When the Ming Dynasty became the ancestor, the Ming army recovered Annam, and merged the two states of Shun and Hoa into Hue Province, which was subordinate to the political envoy of Cochin, and Hue was officially named after that.

At this time, the candle waves at the mouth of the Thuan An River are rough and rough.

The battleship Zhou Yafu advanced with the tide, the wind blew the sails rattling, Li Ling and Ma Yuan were separated on both sides, the distance between the ships was not wide, and there were several slightly smaller warships on the left and right in front.

Dozens of warships of all sizes broke directly along the mouth of the Thuan An River, broke into the Xiang River, and went straight to Hue City, which was only 16 miles away from the sea.

Liu Jian looked at this majestic detachment, and his heart was full of pride and ambition. Although this is only a sub-fleet of the Sixth Fleet, the powerful size of three battleships, a dozen cruisers and frigates is still able to completely ignore the Nguyen family naval forces on the Hue River.

Although the Ruan family's navy adopted the Xiyi shipbuilding method to create soft sailing ships, the scale was small, only three to five hundred tons, which was equivalent to the fifth or sixth class frigates of the Han Royal Navy, or even only equivalent to the scale of the gunboats and patrol boats of the Han Royal Navy.

On the deck of the squadron's flagship, the Zhou Yafu, the war drums rumbled, and the battle horn crossed the river, slender and deep. Like the howl of the devil of hell.

The cavalry of the Jurchen Legion once again put on armor and stepped on their horses, they carried cavalry bows and waist swords, but they were also armed with cavalry and pistols, and they were also the only cavalry unit that still maintained iron armor.

Liu Jian needed the thousands of guns on the battleship to bombard Hue City, but Liu Jian was not completely careless, the ships of the Royal Navy had heavy cannons, but on the narrow inland river. But it has the feeling of a dragon swimming in the shallows, it is easy to be attacked, and it is difficult to move.

In addition to sending patrol boats and gunboats to escort the battleships on the left and right, Liu Jian also sent the Jurchen Corps to fight the front on both sides of the strait, and also sent the Marine Corps to follow the fleet to escort the two sides of the strait.

Tens of thousands of horses slaughtered from the mouth of the river to Hue City, the river was full of white sails, the battle flags on both sides fluttered, and the queue was meandering. The scene was spectacular.

Liu Jian stood on the upper deck of the stern, looking out at the city of Hue looming ahead.

"Fuchun? Changan? Liu Jian chuckled, these southern barbarians also dared to name a small wild city Chang'an, I really don't know whether to say that they are ignorant or fearless.

Liu Jian looked down at the battleship under his feet. Zhou Yafu is one of the battleships of the former Han Dynasty famous generals series of battleships of the Imperial Royal Navy, and the name of the ship is the name of Zhou Yafu, a famous general in the early Western Han Dynasty. The prestige of Zhou Yafu's fine willow camp is a model of ancient famous generals.

The battleship Zhou Yafu is one of the first-class battleships that has just been launched and officially put into service this year with a three-story gun deck and 100 guns. Although it is much behind the 2,500-ton Datang Lingyange-class battleship that is already under construction, the Datang Lingyan-class battleship is a newly designed battleship, and the construction of the first Datang Qin Shubao must be completed first. After the design of this series is verified, the official mass construction can begin. According to the plan, each of the Navy's nine fleets will be equipped with one or two Datang Famous Admirals in the next three years.

At that time, the Tang Dynasty will replace the former Han Dynasty and become the new flagship of each fleet, but now, Zhou Yafu and other former Han Dynasty general-class battleships are still the best battleships in the Han Dynasty.

The Zhou Yafu has one hundred and four guns on board, with a full crew of 860 people, which is more than 100 people less than the original, but it can drive on the river and is still a mobile battle fortress.

The trumpets were loud again, and a report came from the lookout post.

"Traces of enemy ships have been found in the upper reaches of the Xiang River!"

The captain of the Zhou Yafu is a right general, a right general of the navy with a golden tiger, who used to be a pirate captain across the East China Sea, who followed Zheng Zhilong and they went rampant on the sea, and later returned to the Han Emperor with Zheng Zhilong, and now he has also become the captain of the first-class battleship Zhou Yafu and the commander of this detachment.

The captain with a scar on his face had a pair of sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, and he stood on the deck like a nail while the wind and waves beat against the ship.

Hearing the report, he didn't show the slightest surprise or panic.

Although before leaving, he also objected to letting the fleet sail directly into the river and kill Hue City. But Liu Jian finally persuaded him that it was only fifteen or sixteen miles from Haikou to Hue City, and that the mouth of the Xiang River was very wide and the river channel was very deep, and Hue had an inland river wharf that could moor very large sea vessels, so it was not a problem for the fleet to sail in. Of course, Liu Jian's agitation method also played a big role.

The captain was full of confidence, in the face of Ruan's armed merchant ships, Zhou Yafu didn't need to put any line in formation, a few bow guns were enough to bombard the other party.

The only thing that needs to be guarded against is that the Nguyen clan will set fire to the ship in the inland river. However, the fleet had already taken precautions, with patrol boats and gunboats in front, which could ensure that not a single enemy ship would drift near the main battleship.

However, if the emperor used troops, or if the navy five tiger generals were here, they would never act like this.

The strength of the battleship is reflected in the sea, using the battleship line to form a powerful firepower, and sinking the opponent in a long-range salvo. Instead of burrowing into such inland waterways like rats, after the huge battleships enter the inland waterways, they are tantamount to tying themselves up, especially when dozens of ships of the size of a whole detachment enter the inland waterways, which is even more crowded.

A seasoned and cautious admiral, he would pick a few patrol boats to go deep into the river, and carefully probe the truth and the truth, rather than rushing into such a rash lunge.

Even Zheng Sen, who was the commander of the Marine Corps, saw this unprofessional approach, and he raised this question to Liu Jian and the commander of the detachment, but unfortunately, although the commander of the fleet was an old man of the Zheng family, he thanked him very politely. But in fact, Zheng Sen understood that the other party didn't put his words into his ears at all.

The other party only respects his identity, not his opinion.

In the opinion of the captain of the horse scar, this detachment has more than a thousand artillery pieces, dozens of ships, and the number of ships and artillery is not comparable to the fishing fleet of the Ruan family.

The heavy sword has no edge, and the great ingenuity does not work.

In the face of absolute strength, if you break ten times with one force, any kind of little trickery will seem pale and powerless. Captain Scar is a believer in full strength.

There were patrol boats and gunboats in front of the road, and there were cavalry and marines on the shore to escort them, which made this powerful detachment not be attacked by the Nguyen Gianm barbarians.

Normally, Captain Scar's thoughts weren't wrong. Although the battleship was the king of the sea, it had enough protection, and it was never a problem to enter the mouth of the river to fight.

Liu Jian really needs this fleet, and the current weather makes it less than twenty miles from the sea to Hue City, but there is no way to go at all. It's all mud, like a swamp. The artillery of the army cannot be transported at all, even twenty miles away. It can also be quite troublesome.

Therefore, Liu Jian didn't bother to temporarily bother to pave a day's passage, he directly drove the fleet into the river until Hue City, and then the powerful fire of thousands of guns on the battleship. It will far exceed the number and firepower of the artillery attached to the Jurchen legion itself.

The speed of the fleet on the inland river was not fast, and it was only sixteen miles from Haikou to Hue City, even if it was slow. It only takes half a day to arrive.

The river was filled with all kinds of roars, shouts, horns, and drums.

Liu Jian's offensive plan, the protagonist is the Sixth Fleet detachment, but the real coolie has to be the Jurchen Army. This Jurchen legion also seems to have lost its backbone since the chief officer Hauge was killed in the last battle of the Jingqili River outside the Guanxi to pursue the defeated troops of Dolgon.

With the will of the imperial court, they were finally transferred from the bank of the Heilongjiang River to the south of the sky.

The Jurchens are no longer active soldiers and horses in the Imperial Army, but are in the nature of mercenaries. The imperial court sent them to attack the Nanban, allowing them to keep some of the spoils as their profits after capturing the cities and villages.

The current Jurchen Legion has been completely reduced to fighting for money and spoils, they are no longer the fierce Eight Banners of the past, but they are equipped with new firearms, equipped with a lot of artillery, and a huge fleet to support the battle, they are also shotguns for guns, which is different from the past.

Hue City is already in sight, this Chang'an City of Guangnan people is not small, the long-term population in the city has reached more than 200,000, in this corner of the south of the sky, it is already quite good.

Zhou Yafu, Li Ling, Ma Yuan, one first-class battleship, two second-class battleships, and three giant ships are like three moving batteries floating on the river.

The cannon window had been opened, and the muzzle of the black hole was aimed at the city of Hue, which had a wall more than two feet high.

The rousing sound of the horn sounded the signal for a general attack.

"Go ahead and prepare for the shelling!"

Captain Scar screamed loudly, and the sailors on deck ran around, busy but not chaotic.

Hue City was there, like a fat lamb in front of a pack of ferocious wolves.

On both sides of the river, not far from Hue City, there is a fort on each side, and between the two forts is a wooden plank bridge.

The guns on the gunboats at the front were already shining, and they were the first to launch artillery strikes on the two bridgeheads.

The sound of the cannon was like a muffled thunder from the sky.

Cannonballs whizzed out.

At this time, the lookouts roared again, and the enemy met them.

Upstream of the bridge, many boats flowed down the river, and the afternoon drizzle hit the river, forming a rain and fog, but the lookouts could still see at once that there were quite a few of them, at least hundreds, large and small.

"If you don't measure yourself, you will find death!" Captain Scar snorted coldly, unimpressed.

There have long been battleships staring at these captains who are going downstream, and gunboats and battleships with puffed sails are going upstream.

The first two bridgeheads, along with the planks, had been shattered by the heavy shelling, and the wooden bridges had become countless fragments in the river, and the bridgehead was left with only two piles of ruins.

A dozen gunboats rushed over the shattered wooden bridges and bridgeheads, and slammed into the enemy ships that were coming downstream.

Zhou Yafu, Li Ling, and Ma Yuan also began to fire from behind, and for a while, the sky was full of the whistling sound of cannonballs flying by, and the bullets rained down.

Nguyen's ships were hit, shattered, and sunk one after another, like children's toys!

Zheng Sen followed on the shore with his rifle on his shoulder, and many soldiers were cheering for the gunners on the battleship, but Zheng Sen always felt that something was not right, and he seemed to smell uneasy.

Something was wrong, it was too smooth, and the ships of the Nguyen clan didn't look like they were here to meet them at all, but like they were here to send them to death, or rather, they were attacking ships with fire.

But these ships don't have sulfur oil or anything like that?

The guns were still roaring violently, and they were bombarding and going upstream, and the fleet had already passed through the bridgehead that had been blasted into ruins by them, leaving the two piles of ruins behind.

The river was littered with fragments of Nguyen's smashed boats, planks, sails, and masts, all over the river.

But something doesn't seem right.

So many boats were shattered, but there were not a few people struggling on the river.

The city wall of Shun'an can already be seen clearly, and you can even see the flags on the city wall, as well as the defenders on the city, and there seem to be many stone throwers?

Stone-throwing trucks?

Didn't the Nguyen family have a lot of artillery, didn't it say that Hue City was defended by at least a thousand artillery, why did they even put out catapults?

"Bombard the fort outside the city for me!" The Scar fleet ordered loudly, and not far outside the city of Hue, along the river and land routes, there were many batteries. These forts were not only erected on the head of the city, but also built many forts outside the city, erecting many cannons, echoing with the cannons on the head of the city, and increasing the defensive capability.

However, the Scar fleet was confident that with the powerful firepower of the fleet, it would be able to pull out all these fortresses outside the city like nails, and then directly approach the dock, and bombard the city wall at the head, directly blasting Hue City open.

Almost at the same time, these fortresses also began to fight back.

The first to counterattack was the stone thrower, and the jars with orange flames flew out of the fort batteries and headed straight for the river.

A swarthy jar dragged a long tail of fire across a graceful arc and smashed into the river.

The clay pot did not hit the Han warship, but smashed directly into the broken hull in the river, exploding, scattering countless sparks.

Clay pots, sparks, burning

Zheng Sen felt a pang in his heart, he finally understood what was wrong with the smell he smelled!

Those ships were indeed fire attack ships, but they didn't load them directly with sulfur and oil, but deliberately loaded nothing and let them smash them.

Hundreds of broken ship fragments filled the entire river, which just provided the best fuel for the countless fire oil canisters that fell from the sky, and the most terrifying thing was that the big broken ship fragments blocked the river, and also made the Han fleet closer and tighter, and it was more difficult to move and dodge.

The Xianghe River is on fire, it is burning violently, I don't know when the wind is up, the fire borrows the wind, the wind helps the fire, and the Xianghe burns more violently! (To be continued.) )