When the Taiping Army's naval division warship appeared in Chen Guotai's sight, he knew that he had been fooled, and the siege of Shanghai was a trap carefully arranged by the long-haired thief, and the Qing army's land division was not a big threat at all in the eyes of the long-haired thief, and the long-haired thief regarded the Guangdong naval division as the biggest enemy at the beginning. The long-haired thief pseudo-king of the West who arranged this trap can be described as painstaking, since the first water battle in Wusongkou, the long-haired thief has been hiding the strength of his naval army, so that the land division can resist the Qing army and the land army section by section, his strategy of luring the enemy is not a thousand miles, but to lure you into the trap step by step, when you come back to your senses and know that you have been fooled, it is already too late.

If Xiao Yungui knew Chen Guotai's idea, he would definitely be embarrassed, and the idea of using the siege of Shanghai City as a bait to gather and annihilate the Guangdong sailors was a good idea for him, but there were too many uncertain factors, especially when Jiang Zhongyuan and Li Tingyu rushed to the aid of the Qing army, Xiao Yungui was very uneasy for a while, and he knew that it would be better to take Shanghai City as soon as possible. Fortunately, in the later battle of Suzhou, the Taiping army in the west hall also survived, and the luck was not bad, and the water bandits of Zhao Shunping and the canal were received, and the strength of the Taiping army's water army increased greatly, and the raid on Wu Song was also a strategy formulated by Xiao Yungui on the way back to Shanghai from Suzhou, and he didn't want to haode early in the morning.

In fact, throughout the history of Shijie warfare, there is no shortage of Jihua's very perfect battles in human wars, but no matter how smart you are and how calculating, it is impossible to control the overall situation of the battlefield, and you don't know how to improvise, so you can only summon a big defeat like Zhao Kuo on paper. Xiao Yungui's initial strategic goal was to capture southern Jiangsu, use Shanghai as a bait, annihilate the Guangdong naval division, and protect the Taiping Army's right to control water in the Yangtze River Valley. After the improvisation of Xiao Yungui, Zuo Zongtang and others, Zuihou still largely completed this strategic goal, which is enough.

In the rumbling cannon, Chen Delin, Lai Zhenhai and other generals gathered around Chen Guotai to ask about countermeasures, Chen Guotai waved his hand weakly and said: "Order the whole army to turn around and return to the division, take refuge in the inland river, go to the place where the artillery on the shore of the long-haired thief can't hit the artillery, and then fight with the long-haired sailor!" ”

Chen Guotai's decision was undoubtedly the most appropriate at the moment, but all the sailors understood that the sailor fleet was trapped in the Huangpu River. As long as the long-haired land and water army cut off the water and land grain routes, the Guangdong Navy fleet will not be able to support it for long, and the retreat of the inland river can only delay for some time, and sooner or later it will be a doom.

Lai Zhenhai gritted his teeth and said angrily: "Instead of sitting and waiting to die, it is better to fight to the death." Brother Chen, leave me a boat. Lao Tzu is looking for a long-haired thief to go desperately! ”

Chen Guotai smiled slightly bitterly: "The artillery on the shore of the long-haired thief and on the ship of the big war is fierce. Even if you give you a boat, I'm afraid you won't have to fight. ”

Chen Delin suddenly whispered: "Brother Chen, either or let's surrender, now that the long hair is strong, the long hair will be lowered first, and it will be useful." In the future, if the officers and soldiers come back, we will lead the troops anyway, this will work, and we will not lose our lives here. ”

Lai Zhenhai said angrily: "Chen Yanzai, what the hell are you talking nonsense? You're alone, and you're not worried. Our family members are all in Guangdong, if I wait for the long hair, my family will be beheaded! Are you still a bandit? The bandits are just robbing homes and houses, to put it bluntly, they are not rebels, but Changmao has rebelled with a banner, and those who have always rebelled will have a good end? Besides, if you are like this, even if you are an official and an army in the future, who will dare to use you? ”

Chen Delin was furious and wanted to ridicule him, Chen Guotai shouted: "No need to say it again! Tell the whole army to turn around and get out of danger first! ”

Lai Zhenhai and Chen Delin glared at each other angrily, and under the pressure of Chen Guotai's bullets, the two had to go back to their respective ships to command. Thirty-eight red boats were sunk by the artillery of the Taiping Army's naval division and land division, and the remaining 23 were all wounded, and the fast crab fleet was completely wiped out, and there were still 20 or 30 small boats and sampans, but they were all useless. Most of the soldiers and sailors were lost, wounded soldiers were everywhere on the deck, most of the grain ships were also destroyed, and countless supplies and equipment were lost.

Walking to the river in the area of Dongtang, Chen Guotai looked at the remaining soldiers and materials reported by the ships, and his heart was half cold, there was not much grain, gunpowder, lead, and lead bullet left, especially grain, the grain carried by the ship plus the grain of the remaining two grain ships was only enough for five days, and the gunpowder and lead were also the same, I was afraid that they would be used up in another battle.

Just when Chen Guotai was worried, the lookout shouted again: "The long-haired thief sailor is chasing after him!" ”

Chen Guotai hurriedly looked back, and sure enough, the Taiping Army's sailor warship appeared in sight again. Lu Shunde and Zhao Shunping, the sailors of the Taiping army, saw that the Qing army's sailors were defeated and retreated, and went up the current to dodge, and hurriedly packed up Ye Changchun's remaining warships, and sent someone to inform Chen Yucheng on the shore, and after letting go of the chains, they waved their troops to chase after them. Now that the Taiping Army's naval division has won the first battle, and its morale is booming, it is the time to annihilate the remnants of the enemy in one go, and it happens that the king of the West has sent someone to inquire about the battle situation, and directly ordered that if the naval division wins, it must be eliminated as much as possible, and strive to annihilate the Qing army's naval division in the shortest possible time. Lu Shunde and Zhao Shunping are on the rise, and they have the general order of the King of the West, how can they let go of this opportunity to beat the water dogs?

The Taiping army began to fire cannons from afar, and the two grain ships that followed behind were suddenly enveloped by cannonballs, and the shells fell on the surface of the river and stirred up a column of water that soared into the sky, and they were about to be hit.

Chen Guotai's eyes were cracked, and he summoned all the sailors and soldiers to gather on the deck, he stood at the stern, licked his lips, and shouted viciously: "Order the whole army to turn around, don't run away again, the long-haired thief is determined to win, and will not let us go, the whole army will turn around, let's fight with the long-haired thief!" Our Guangdong sailors crisscross the sea, where will we look at these inland river bandits on weekdays? Now the tiger is falling in Pingyang, the dragon is trapped in the shallows, even if he dies, he has to earn a fish and die and the net is broken! Don't fall into our name! The soldiers and sailors of the Qing army raised their swords and shouted loudly.

At that moment, Chen Guotai personally beat the drums of war, and the 23 red single ships of the Qing army turned around one after another, sideways over the hull to seize the favorable terrain and prepare for an artillery battle.

The red single boat is a perennial sea route to transport goods of the big ship transformed, the hull is large and solid, each ship can be equipped with 20 or 30 guns, Chen Guotai left in the hands of the smallest red single boat can also be installed 22 guns, 23 red single boats are more than 500 guns, once this kind of firepower is carried forward is extremely terrifying. But fortunately, the Huangpu River is far less wide than the Yangtze River at Wusongkou. The red single boats can only line up more than ten boats on the wide Huangpu River for two or three miles, and the rest of the red single boats are cruising in the back.

Lu Shunde saw that the red single boat turned around and was about to line up in a horizontal line, knowing that the Qing army's sailors were going to fight to break the net, so he immediately ordered the fire boat to be the lead, and the small boats such as sand boats and sampans followed, and all the small boats attacked together, and the big ships opened a formation in the back row to cover the bombardment.

The fierce artillery battle between the two sides began, and this time Chen Guotai's sailors had broken away from the artillery attack of Chen Yucheng's ambush on the shore. However, the Taiping army's warship artillery was purchased from foreigners, and it was equipped with some flowering shells, which were much more powerful than the shells of the red single boat, and the firing range was also farther, so the Qing army won more guns than the ships. The Taiping army won because the artillery was powerful, and the artillery of the naval divisions on both sides fought equally.

What made Chen Guotai feel uneasy were the Taiping Army's sand boats, sampans, small boats and other small warboats that rushed up as if they were not dying. Historically, in water wars. Large and small warships are most suitable for each other. At present, the small ships of the Taiping army are swarming, among which there are many fireboats, and the big ships of the red list have to separate their artillery to deal with the small boats, so that they can gradually suppress the artillery fire of the big ships of the Taiping army. But their guns hit far, and the cannonballs were even more powerful, and when they hit, they would explode, and the red single boats were wooden no matter how strong they were. One blow up is a big hole.

Today, the small boats of the Qing army in World War I were all lost, only the big red single boat was left to support independently, and the fireboats and boats of the Taiping army on the river were small and flexible, and the oarsmen on it rowed desperately to avoid the artillery fire of the Qing army, and rushed towards the Qing warships. Chen Guotai had no choice but to order the remaining Qing army sampans, boats and other boats to attack.

After receiving the order, Chen Delin did not rush up, but ordered the boats to continue to escape, he knew that his twenty or thirty boats would be a death if they went forward, and they were not enough for the Taiping Army sailors to plug their teeth, so he planned to withdraw from the battlefield first, and Zuihou found an opportunity to surrender and save his life.

Seeing that Chen Delin led the remaining small boats to flee backwards, Chen Guotai was furious and immediately ordered several red single boats cruising behind the formation to fire cannons to stop them. When Chen Delin saw the big ship firing cannons, he knew that Chen Guotai was angry, but it was difficult to ride the tiger, so he had to order the small boat to drive to the shallows, hoping to go ashore as soon as possible.

So the Qing army was lively here, firing artillery in front and back, the front was bombarding the Taiping warships, and the back was hitting their own people. Chen Delin finally took more than ten small boats to the shore, and the rest of the small boats were sunk by the Qing army's own big boats, and the river was full of the corpses of Qing sailors, and some of the undead struggled there to call for help, but were soon killed by the Qing army's arrows on the red single boat.

It turned out that Lin Qirong arrived with the pursuers, and he arranged a lot of bamboo rafts and boats on the river in the morning, but none of these boats were controlled, so they could only go down the water. When Lin Qirong was pursuing the Qing army, he was afraid of being intercepted by the Qing army's sailors, so he still ordered people to release all these boats.

So Chen Guotai had a large area of burning bamboo rafts and boats behind him, and if the Qing army boats were still there, they could still intercept these bamboo rafts and boats, but Chen Delin fled without a fight, so that the Qing army's red single boats would directly face the attack of these fire boats. In addition to stabbing with long bamboo poles and stabbing these bamboo rafts and boats, the Qing army on the red single boat could only use artillery bombardment to block it, but many unmanned bamboo rows and small boats still broke through the Qing army's fire net and bamboo pole array, pasted to the side of the red single boat, and several red single boats began to burn.

With the frontal fleet of the Taiping army approaching, the battle seemed to have been decided. After the two armies fought on the river for nearly an hour, the Qing army's 23 red single boats were sunk 12 ships, five were stranded in a panic, and the remaining few were rushed to the front by the Taiping army's sand boats, and they were also occupied by the Taiping army after a broadside battle, so that a twists and turns of the inland water battle came to an end. Due to the desperate counterattack of the Zuihou Qing army, the Taiping army's naval division was also seriously damaged, and both sides were defeated in a battle in which the fish and the net were broken. (To be continued......)