Pen&Fun&Pavilion www.biquge.inforeadx;? There were more than 30 small boats loaded with 3,000 soldiers, but only eight escaped back in the end, and behind these eight small boats, there were also the main warships of the East China Sea Army.

The East China Sea Army used the sound of the horn as a communication signal between ships, and in the sound of the horn one after another, thousands of large and small warships of the East China Sea Army were across the river, and then, each warship moved up and down in unison.

The guns of one door were pushed to the edge of the deck, and the hull of the ship was also opened one by one, and the black holes of the guns poked out of the small doors.

Knock, knock, knock, knock -

The sound of drums sounded, and on the warships of the East China Sea Army, the artillery roared in unison, spewing out flames.

Countless shells pierced the sky and fell to the south bank, and in just a few moments, the south bank of the Dongjiang River was like a boiling pot, exploding everywhere, and there were people's roars and screams everywhere.

The Zhenjun army was captured in the southern camp during the day, and that night, it was forced to evacuate, when they came in, they were 20,000 people, and when they withdrew, there were 15,000 people left, and the other 5,000 soldiers were either buried in the Dongjiang River or were killed in the southern camp.

The southern camp of the East China Sea Army is now in ruins, and thousands of warships are lying across the water surface of the Dongjiang River, and they have launched a wanton bombardment of the southern camp.

This battle can be regarded as the first fiasco that Cai Huang suffered before he joined the army, fortunately he was smart enough not to let the soldiers under his command cross the river together, and fortunately he was decisive enough to not insist on staying in Nanying to defend to the death, otherwise, the casualties of the Zhenjun army would never be only these 5,000 people.

Now Cai Huang can understand that the Nanying was not attacked by his own side, and the more than 100 small boats in the camp were not taken away by the enemy in the future, whether it was the Nanying or those small boats, they were deliberately left to him by the East China Sea Army, and the entire Nanying was a designed trap.

"Li Yongfu, this revenge will not be avenged, I swear not to be a person," Cai Huang stood on a high ground, looked at the direction of the Dongjiang River, gritted his teeth and said, Cai Huang is not a generous-minded person, but a person who will retribution, he led the army from Sichuan to the Dongjiang River, all the way to the ground, more than ten large and small cities were captured, after dozens of big and small battles, but the total casualties along the way were not as many as the casualties of this battle, how could he not hate Li Yongfu in his heart,

However, the southern camp has been destroyed, and the scale of the artillery fire of the East China Sea Army is too strong, and it is impossible to set up another station on the south bank of the East River River, so Cai Huang can only lead his subordinates to camp ten miles away from the East River.

Ten days later, the main force of the Zhenjun Army and the Southeast Naval Army both arrived at the mouth of the Dongjiang River (referred to as the Dongjiang Estuary).

The southern camp of the East China Sea Army has now been bombed into ruins, the wharves and ports are all damaged and unusable, and the ships of the East China Sea Army can only anchor on the river dozens of meters away from the shore.

Cai Huang took a small boat and came to the commander's warship of the Southeast Water Army, on the boat, he saw Shangguan Xiu, as well as the generals of the First Army and the Southeast Water Army, Cai Huang took a deep breath, walked to Shangguan Xiu, knelt down to salute, and said: "The last general is not in good command, and he suffered a big loss in the first confrontation with the East China Sea Army, please punish His Highness,"

Shangguan Xiu waved his hand to him, motioned for him to get up, and said: "I have read the battle report of this battle carefully, although our army was defeated, but fortunately, there are not many casualties, remember this lesson, no matter when it comes, don't despise your enemy, not to mention, there is still a strong enemy in front of you,"

Cai Huang didn't get up immediately, but kowtowed forward and said, "Your Highness has taught you a great lesson, and the last general will definitely take this as a warning, and you will never commit it next time,"

Shangguan Xiu nodded, his eyes fell back to the map, and said: "Fighting with the East China Sea Army is nothing more than two tactics, one is water warfare, the other is land warfare, fighting a water war, our army is fighting more with less, and it is also necessary to overwhelm the enemy army from the front, and completely annihilate the main force of the enemy army, which is not easy, and to fight a land war, it requires our officers and men to cross the Dongjiang River and attack the large camp of the East China Sea Army from the north bank,"

Luo Ren frowned, and said: "General Cai's defeat is enough to prove that as long as the East China Sea Army is still there, it will be as difficult for our army to cross the river as it is to ascend to the sky,"

Shangguan Xiu's gaze swept around the map and said, "How about our army march eastward, avoid the camp of the East China Sea army, and then cross the river,"

Zhang Luan continued: "The East China Sea Army is on the south bank, it must have an eyeliner, and it is impossible for any movement of our army to hide from the eyes and ears of the East China Sea Army, when our army crosses the river, once the East China Sea Army suddenly attacks, the consequences will be unimaginable."

Shangguan Xiu's eyes rolled and said, "Directly bypass the Dongjiang River, enter Anjun first, and then Anjun will attack the East China Sea military camp,"

Zhang Luan said: "First of all, it takes too long to do this, and secondly, even if our army does it, the East China Sea Army can completely abandon the camp, whether it goes north or south, it will become a problem for our army's henchmen,"

As long as the East China Sea Army is not annihilated, as long as its main force still exists, then it is the henchmen of the Xijing Imperial Court.

Shangguan Xiu narrowed his eyes, smiled helplessly, smiled bitterly, and said, "In this way, it is unlikely that the army's plan to cross the river to fight will be implemented,"

The generals present looked at each other and nodded their heads one after another, and Shangguan Xiu said categorically: "If you can't cross the river, then fight a water battle with the East China Sea Army, and see if our Southeast Sea Army is strong, or the rebel East China Sea Army is strong,"

Zhang Luan and other generals of the navy responded in unison: "Yes, Your Highness," frdo

The next day, in the morning, the Southeast Navy sounded the horn of attack,

More than 600 large and small warships of the Southeast Navy Army almost poured out of the nest and rushed to the other side of the Dongjiang River, and at the same time, the warships of the East China Sea Army also sailed out of the port wharf on the north shore one after another, facing the warships of the Southeast Navy Army.

Raising his eyes and looking at the opposite side, the warships of the East China Sea Army were one after another, and the battle formations of large and small warships spread out for miles away.

Zhang Luan stood on the deck, and Shangguan Xiu stood side by side with him, both of whom were holding monoculars in their hands, looking at the enemy warship opposite.

After watching for a long time, Shangguan Xiu slowly put down the binoculars and said to Zhang Luan beside him: "The warships of the East China Sea Army are a lot more than our army,"

Zhang Luan frowned, did not answer immediately, a naval army general said confidently: "Your Highness don't worry, although there are many warships in the East China Sea Army, there is nothing to worry about, our army has thirty ships in Zhenhai, and there are only ten ships in the East China Sea Army, and in a head-to-head confrontation, our army has an absolute advantage,"

It can be heard that the generals of the Southeast Navy are full of confidence in the Zhenhai ship, in fact, the Zhenhai ship is indeed the most advanced and most powerful water giant at that time, Shangguan Xiu did not ask too much, raised the binoculars, and continued to look at the enemy army on the opposite side,

The warships of the two armies were moving in the opposite direction, getting closer and closer, and when they were still more than a mile apart, the warships of both sides opened fire almost at the same time.

The cannonballs flew in the air, and very few of the shells that hit the opposing ships fell into the river, making a muffled pop and not causing any waves.

The real full force of the two sides was when they were fifty meters apart, and at this time, the distance between the two sides was close enough, not to mention that within the range of the artillery, even the guns had already entered the firing range.

In such a close situation, even if the guns used at that time were smoothbore guns and had no rifling, the shells fired could still accurately hit the opponent's warship.

Boom, boom, violent explosions kept coming from the warships on both sides, and the warships on both sides were all thick smoke.

On the side of the Southeast Navy, three medium-sized warships were seriously damaged, two of them were sinking rapidly, and the other one had tilted and could no longer move forward.

On the other hand, on the side of the East China Sea Army, although there were also several medium-sized warships emitting smoke and looking badly damaged, instead of sinking, they could continue to move forward and counterattack the ships of the Southeast Sea Army.

Seeing this, Zhang Luan finally saw it clearly, and he said in a deep voice: "Something is wrong with the warships of the East China Sea Army," as he spoke, he handed the telescope in his hand to a staff general,

The general hurriedly took it, looked at the battlefield in front of him, looked at it for a while, his face changed suddenly, and he said in shock: "The warship of the East China Sea Army has been equipped with steel plates,"

Adding steel plates to a warship, this was not a simple matter at that time, not to mention the technical problems, just to add steel plates to a medium-sized warship, the steel consumed will need hundreds or even thousands of catties, so much steel, if you make weapons, at least hundreds of pieces, if you make helmets, you can make thousands, now it is only used to strengthen a medium-sized warship, it is too extravagant, how much silver does it cost,

For the Southeast Water Army, it is unimaginable to install steel plates on warships, but the East China Sea Army just did this.

The shells of the East China Sea Army hit the warships of the Southeast China Sea Army, and the shells directly smashed through the surface planks and exploded inside the warship, undoubtedly doubling the lethality.

And the shells of the Southeast Navy Army hit the warships of the East China Sea Army, not to mention that they could not penetrate the surface of the steel armor, even if they exploded, the damage to the steel armor was very limited.

Therefore, the attacks on the warships of the two sides are obviously about the same, but the Southeast Navy has sunk two medium-sized warships, and one is seriously injured, on the other hand, on the side of the East China Sea Army, one medium-sized warship has not sunk and can still continue to fight.

Shangguan Xiu put down the binoculars and asked in a condensed voice, "Is it difficult to add steel plates to the warship?"

The general licked his lips and said: "Back to Your Highness, it is not difficult to install steel plates, just use rivets to reinforce the steel plates on the hull, the key is that steel plates are expensive, and the silver for adding steel plates to a medium-sized warship can build more than five warships,"

Shangguan Xiu's eyes narrowed and asked, "Why didn't you report to me earlier?"

The forge has long begun to use steam engines to produce steel, to be precise, Zhenjun first introduced steam engines, it was for steelmaking, with the steel output of the forge mill, not to mention adding steel plates to a warship, even if all the warships of the Southeast Navy were equipped with steel plates, it was not so difficult.

As a result, now I see that the East China Sea Army has added steel plates to the warship, and the Southeast Navy has told him that the warship can be added with steel plates, and after adding steel plates, it can still float on the water and will not sink, but now what is the use of telling him this, he is a human being, not a god, and it is impossible to turn all his warships into steel plates with a wave of his hand.

Zhang Luan opened his mouth and said: "Your Highness, the installation of steel plates on warships costs a huge amount, and the warships of the East China Sea Army with steel plates should only be those that fought in front,"

He didn't think that the East China Sea Army had enough silver to add steel plates to all the warships, in fact, it was true, but the East China Sea Army had many more warships with steel plates than Zhang Luan expected.

The warships of the two armies fighting in front are now closer, and some of the warships have crossed over, and when the two ships are staggered, the guns on the hull of the warships are fully open, and the barrels of the guns poke out, and they fire with all their strength at the opposite side.

At this time, the advantages and disadvantages of warships with steel plates and warships without steel plates have become more obvious.

The warships of the Southeast Navy were sunk one after another, and the warships of the East China Sea Army were sunk only a handful.

At this point in the battle, the morale of the Southeast Navy has begun to fall rapidly, in fact, it is also very understandable, the two armies are fighting, the other party can easily hurt me, and I can't hurt the other party even if I desperately can't hurt the other party, how to fight this battle, the fighting spirit of the soldiers is not broken, it is strange,