The Qing army sailors who escaped from the waterway did not take it easy for long, and after traveling three or four miles of waterways, the cries of the Qing army and the soldiers of the land division behind them echoed in their ears, and they had reached the three-way junction where Yunzaobang joined the Huangpu River.

This place is different from the purgatory-like Shura battlefield behind him, this place is quiet and serene, the reeds on the bank are fluttering in the wind, the Huangpu River is mighty and flowing, the two sides of the river are surprisingly quiet, and you will reach Wusongkou for a few miles.

Chen Guotai stood at the bow of the boat, watching his boat pass by here, obviously feeling that something was wrong, and Lai Zhenhai frowned on the side and said: "The puppet king of the West is a thief who is stubborn and cunning with soldiers, it is impossible to let us go to Wusongkou so easily......

Before the words fell, the hulls of the three red single boats in front of the boat were slammed, and the helmsman on the boat was uncertain, and the hull of the boat hit the river under the huge inertia of the current and wind, knocking over several sampans and fast crab boats guarding beside him.

Chen Guotai's face changed dramatically and shouted: "It's not good, there are chains or wooden stakes under the water to block it!" There's an ambush of hairy thieves here! ”

At this moment, an arrow flew up in the reeds on the west bank, and fell directly to the river with a terrible sound, and the reeds on both sides of the bank and several harbors seemed to be tricky, and countless fires came out, and in the smoke of gunpowder, the dense artillery with a sharp whistling sound went straight to the Qing army's naval fleet in the river.

Because the first three red single boats in front were stopped by underwater iron locks and hit across the river, the sailors hurriedly adjusted the sails and tried to adjust the direction of the rudder, and the oarsmen were also trying to correct the hull, but the back of several red single boats could not dodge and collided directly, even Chen Guotai's boat also crashed up, Chen Guotai and Lai Zhenhai were hit and staggered, but fortunately, the two were on the boat for a long time, and when they saw that they couldn't get out of the way, they shouted loudly to make the whole ship ready for a collision.

Chen Guotai held on to a cable to stabilize his body. Then he scolded loudly: "What a cunning long-haired thief, this time the iron lock Hengjiang is actually hidden underwater!" ”

Lai Zhenhai nodded and said: "Yes, and the iron chain is just enough to stop the bottom of the bed of the red single boat in the depths of the water, but the rest of the sampans, fast crab boats and other small boats can pass." ”

When the cannon hit, Chen Guotai and Lai Zhenhai had no time to talk anymore, they each hissed and shouted, and ordered the lookout to play a signal flag, ordering the red single big boat to fire back, and the rest of the small boats were ready to send some soldiers ashore to clear the long-haired thief artillery array on the shore.

The lookout waved the flag a few times, and a cannon flew in. Impartially in the mainmast of Chen Guotai's ship, the lookout screamed miserably on the mainmast, and followed the fallen mast into the water. Following more artillery concentrated on Chen Guotai's boat, it seemed that the Taiping army recognized this ship as the main general of the Qing army's sailors, so they concentrated on attacking this ship.

Suddenly. The cannons rained down, and large holes were smashed into the deck and hull. The sails have long since fallen. The sailors on board were in disarray. Chen Guotai's order could not be issued, and the entire fleet was in chaos, some of the red single boats turned around and opened fire, some collided with each other, and some of the small boats were overturned by the big boats, and some rushed through the iron chains. There are also more than a dozen sampans and fast crab boats flying to the shore, ready to go ashore to fight.

The sampan boats that were fighting the vanguard only reached the shore, and countless Taiping musketeers and archers appeared in the reeds on the shore, and dense lead and feather arrows flew in. When he boarded, he beat the Qing army on the ship to countless corpses. Seeing that they could not go ashore, these small boats had no choice but to retreat.

Chen Guotai's boat had already been riddled with holes, and Chen Guotai and Lai Zhenhai escorted He Chunjian to board a small boat and hide on another red single boat to take refuge. The artillery fire on the shore of the Taiping army continued to attack, and the large and small ships of the Qing army on the river were crowded together, becoming the most live target. Before boarding the small boat and abandoning the boat, Chen Guotai's life-saving herald took several small boats to give the order separately, ordering a small boat, a fast crab boat, and a sampan to rush forward first, and the large and small boats to act separately, and go downstream to put down water ghosts to clear the underwater obstacles for the big boat, otherwise they can only wait for death if they are crowded together.

After receiving the order, the Qing army's navy boats, fast crab boats, and other small boats with shallow drafts immediately passed through the gap in the red single boat and drove downstream to avoid the artillery fire on the shore of the Taiping army. These small boats sailed out of Lixu, and the artillery fire of the Taiping army did not chase these small boats, but only hit the red single boats on the river, and after the artillery of the red single boats began to return fire, the amphibious artillery of the two armies began a desperate battle.

The escaped Qing army boat and fast crab boat stopped at a certain place downstream, and was about to put down the water ghost and sneak over to cut the iron chain, when a Qing sailor shouted: "There is a fleet of long-haired thieves downstream!" ”

The sailors in charge of commanding the small boat fleet, Li Xinming and Ye Changchun, were on a fast crab boat, and when they heard the shouts, they hurriedly looked up, and sure enough, on the Huangpu River downstream, the oars and sails of the Taiping Army fleet composed of dozens of large and small boats spread out in unison. Li Xinming was wearing a short suit, holding a short blade and turning around and shouting to Ye Changchun: "Brother Ye, you take here and order the little ones to go into the water and cut the iron chains, I will take half of the small boats to meet the enemy, you chisel the iron chains as soon as possible, and let Boss Chen and their big ships come over, otherwise it is a taboo for us to separate the big and small ships, I am afraid that we will be broken one by one by the long-haired thief water army!" ”

Ye Changchun is also a person who is used to water warfare, knowing that in water warfare, large and small ships complement each other as horns, and if they fight separately, they often win less and lose more, so he responded loudly at the moment: "I understand that although Brother Li stepped forward, the younger brother would cut the iron chain desperately." ”

At present, the small fleet of the Qing army's sailors was divided into two, Li Xinming rushed forward with more than ten fast crab boats, more than 30 small boats and sampans to meet the enemy, and Ye Changchun personally led people to swim to the bottom of the red single boat.

On the other side, the sailor fleet is the Taiping army sailor led by Lu Shunde and Zhao Shunping, after the morning raid on Wusong, the battle has been decided by noon, Lu Shunde and Zhao Shunping were ordered by Xiao Yungui to lead the sailor to the three-way pass to help Chen Yucheng who blocked the Qing army here, Xiao Yungui knew that once the Qing army learned that Wusong was occupied, it would desperately return to help, Chen Yucheng's land division against the Qing army had a chance of winning, but it could not stop the Qing army's water division, the iron lock Hengjiang could only be blocked for a while, once the iron chain was destroyed, It is possible for the Qing fleet to break through to Wusongkou. At present, the Wusong Fort has just been recovered, and there are not even artillery on many forts, and the confluence of the two rivers at the three-fork junction, the water flow is complicated, there are many port forks, and the river surface is narrow, which is just suitable for ambush, so it can only block the enemy at the three-way crossing, and the Qing army naval division must not be allowed to escape from the three-way crossing, otherwise the Wusongkou River is wide, and it is difficult to stop the Qing army's naval division once the warships are deployed.

Lu Shunde and Zhao Shunping were ordered to immediately lead the fleet upstream, and when they reached the three forks, they heard the sound of cannons, and the two urged the oars to support them, and when they came to the three forks, they saw that the Qing army's sailors were separated, and the boats were downstream, Zhao Shunping was overjoyed and said: "The separation of the big and small boats of the Qing Demon Sailor is a good time to break them one by one." ”

Lu Shunde was also happy: "That's right, order the whole army to move forward and annihilate the Qing Demon Fleet first!" ”

Seeing this, Zhao Shunping pulled out the sharp blade on his waist, took off his robe, revealing a short coat and tight-fitting water, and said loudly to Lu Shunde: "Brother Lu, the younger brother will lead the small boat to meet the enemy, and you will lead the big boat to help with artillery and muskets!" ”

Lu Shunde said loudly: "Brother Lao Zhao, you should be careful." At that moment, Zhao Shunping went down to the small boat and led the small boat to protect the wings in front of and behind the big boat, and Lu Shunde ordered the big boat to start firing cannons.

Most of the Taiping army's big war ships were large inland river merchant ships and large grain ships, which were far less sharp than the Hongdan sea ships, but they were still able to suppress their firepower against the small fleet of the Shangqing army. In the small fleet of the Qing army, the largest is only a dozen fast crab boats, this kind of fast crab boat has rows of oars on both sides, the shape is like centipedes and crabs, the hull is usually painted red and black, the Yuan and Ming dynasties are called "centipede boats", the Qing Dynasty is called "fast crabs", the Qing Dynasty often haunts the golden waterways of foreign trade at the mouth of the Pearl River in Guangdong, and robs the property of passing ships. Raise the oars without wind, raise the sails in the wind, and use the oars and sails together if necessary. The large "fast crab" has more than 20 oars on each side, each with two strong men, walking on the water like flying, using the odd speed of the boat to chase the "prey" and evade pursuit.

The fast crab boat was originally a pirate ship in the Pearl River Delta, when it was shaken, it was like a crab's foot stretched, it was extremely fast, muskets and crossbows could be placed on both sides, and the bow of the ship could be equipped with artillery. Later, the Qing court officials opened their minds, and they recruited some pirates, Xiang Lai Zhenhai and others were born as pirates, and with the addition of these people, the Qing court soon imitated the fast crab boat, and the Qing court relied on the fast crab boat to fight poison with poison and arrest pirates and smugglers.

Lu Shunde is a fierce general under Luo Outline, in the early years, he and Luo Outline were both members of heaven and earth, and they had fought in the boat armies of Guangdong and Guangxi, and they knew very well the speed advantage of the fast crab ship, and at this moment, the fast crab ship was coming downstream, and it was even faster, so Lu Shunde ordered the gunners to aim at the direction of the fast crab boat and fire their guns in advance, if they only wanted to aim at the fast crab hull to fight, they would never be able to hit the fast crab boat.

Lu Shunde's order was issued, and the artillery fire of the Taiping Army's big ship suddenly became accurate, four fast crab boats were hit by flowering shells, one was hit by the bow, the entire bow was suddenly torn apart by a huge shock wave, the stern was raised high, and quickly sank into the water, and the other three were hit at the stern, the rudder was destroyed, and the stern was also torn open a big hole, and after a few spins on the river, it also slowly sank into the water.

After four rounds of artillery, the Qing army's fast crab boats took the lead and approached the Taiping fleet, but they lost eight fast crab boats, and the remaining six were still bravely advanced under the leadership of Li Xinming, a fierce general of the Qing army's naval division.

Seeing that the Qing army's fast crab had arrived, Zhao Shunping shouted loudly with a sharp knife in his hand: "Brother Lu, they fought well, brothers, the Guangdong barbarians actually sailed to our Jiangnan inland river to show off their might, are they no one in our Wuzhong?" Come with me, brothers! Let the Guangdong barbarians see the true colors of our Wuzhong Naval Army! Zhao Shunping's canal bandits shouted in unison, and they all opened their sails and rocked their oars, hedging towards the Qing army's fast crab boats, and a battle to catch the water was about to begin. (To be continued......)