Li Yanzhi's water village is at the place where the Qinhuai River enters the Yangtze River, and the wharf where the Longjiang Shipyard is located is also where the original camp of the river sailor is located.

The more than 20 sea vessels are too big, and the existing wharf is simply not enough, so they have no choice but to moor in the middle of the river.

To the south of the Longjiang Shipyard, there is a naval fort, of which there are more than 20 artillery pieces, to block the river east of Jiangxinzhou.

As the chief soldier in charge of all the sailors, Li Yanzhi did not stay in Shuizhai, but regarded the largest Galen ship as a command ship, and stayed on the ship all day to deal with various military affairs.

For Li Yanzhi, the twenty sea ships in his hands are the foundation, and the original river master is only an assistant.

Ruyibo Liu Kongzhao went to Zhenjiang and left the entire Jiangjiang Shui Master to Li Yanzhi. The Caojiang Water Division, like other armies in Nanjing, was in a very complicated situation, and the nobles had a very strong infiltration, and many officers in the army had such and such connections with the nobles.

Leading such a naval division to fight against the thieves, Li Yanzhi is naturally not at ease, maybe when, these naval division officers will defect. However, he did not have enough time to purge the entire army.

In this case, decisive measures can be used later.

Hong Chengchou naturally informed Li Yanzhi before deciding to make a move on Xungui, and Li Yanzhi convened all the officers above the general level in the name of military council, and then put these officers under house arrest on his own boat.

Of course, what Li Yanzhi did was not so blunt, and did not kill people directly, but in the name of establishing a staff group, he left many officers as staff officers, and selected officers from Liu Kongzhao's family to go back to lead the troops.

When Liu Kongzhao left, he didn't take many people with him, and his family and cronies all stayed, these people are Liu Kongzhao's descendants, so they can naturally be used with confidence.

"Don't worry, this commander won't do anything to you, it's just that the enemy is currently in need of a unified command of the army, so I can only temporarily wronged everyone. However, the commander will give everyone the opportunity to fight, as long as you can fight bravely to kill the enemy and make achievements, the commander can ensure that your official positions remain unchanged afterwards. Li Yanzhi said to the detained officers.

The officers looked at each other, some very dissatisfied, some even more angry, some terrified, but they were helpless. The ship was full of Janissaries, and they were disarmed, and even if they tried to make a rebellion, there was no chance of success. The news that the homes of the seven nobles in the city had been raided had already been learned from Li Yanzhi's mouth, which made the officers who had anything to do with the seven nobles tremble, for fear that Li Yanzhi would attack them.

Li Yanzhi naturally wouldn't kill people indiscriminately, and at this time, all his thoughts were on the movements of the anti-thief sailor dozens of miles away.

"Dashuai, the anti-thief sailor has set up a large camp in Wan'an Beach, thirty miles away, and has no intention of attacking our water village." The Sentinel has returned, bringing back news of the anti-thief sailors.

"It's a pity that we are going too slow against the current, otherwise we could have gone straight to attack them and prevent them from setting up camp." Zhang Huang said.

"The anti-thief sailor is so far away from us and is setting up a village, just to prevent us from attacking." Li Yanzhi said lightly.

"Commander-in-chief, how should we fight this battle?" Zhang Huangyan asked.

Li Yan was silent: "The task given to me by Governor Hong is to guard the waterway of the Yangtze River and ensure the smooth transportation of materials in Nanjing City. ”

Zhang Huangyan nodded: "Then let's stay here." We have a water village here, a fort, and the firepower of our fleet is enough to block the Yangtze River. ”

Li Yanzhi shook his head: "But I don't want to be passive and defensive like this!" Governor Hong only has 4,000 Praetorian Guards around him, but he wants to defend the city of Nanjing, we have 20 sea ships in our hands, hundreds of Hongyi cannons on board, 7,000 soldiers of the Janissary Navy, plus more than 10,000 Jiangshui Divisions to assist, how can we just wait? ”

"Then fight, first defeat the anti-thief water division, and then send troops to help Governor Hong defend the city!" Zhang Huangyan clenched his fists.

The generals had the same opinion, and Li Yanzhi immediately wrote a letter asking for war and ordered someone to send it to the governor's palace in Nanjing.

After Hong Chengchou read the letter of invitation, he handed it to Zhao Yin, and he pondered.

"Is Dong Weng worried that General Li will be defeated?" Zhao Yin asked.

Hong Chengchou nodded: "That's right, the anti-thief ships have many soldiers and strong strength, and the hands of General Li are all sea ships that are not suitable for river warfare, once General Li is defeated by the anti-thief sailors, then the Yangtze River waterway will be controlled by the anti-thieves, and Nanjing City will be completely blocked and lose foreign aid." ”

"Then give an order to General Li and let him defend, without taking the initiative to attack." Zhao Yin said.

Hong Chengchou thought for a while, and said slowly: "Although Li Yanzhi is young, he has been a general soldier in Fujian for several years, has fought red-haired ghosts, suppressed pirates, and has a great contribution to the current calm in the southeast sea." He must have been more proficient in water warfare than Bendo. In addition, he has fought with the anti-thief water division, so he should have some understanding of the combat power of the anti-thief water division, and since he proposed to attack the anti-thief water division, he must have a certain certainty. If he can defeat the anti-thief water division as soon as possible and control the waterway of the Yangtze River, not to mention, he can also allocate part of his troops to help defend the city. That's it, since he wants to fight, let him try! ”

"What Dong Weng said is very true." Zhao Yin said.

......

After receiving Hong Chengchou's reply that he agreed to go to war, Li Yanzhi did not immediately send troops, but prepared for another day, and only in the early morning of the next day did he send troops against the current.

In this battle, in order to complete the battle, the 20 sea ships under the command of Li Yanzhi and more than 200 warships of the Jiangjiang Naval Division poured out, forming a mighty formation, heading upstream against the current.

Because of the countercurrent, it took two hours for the thirty-mile river journey, and it was only at noon that he approached the anti-thief water village.

Naturally, such a large-scale action of the imperial court sailors could not hide the anti-thieves, and through the clairvoyant mirror, hundreds of anti-thief ships could be seen across the river, and they were already in full array.

Because Li Yanzhi's sea ship has too many Hongyi cannons, the anti-thief sailor has already suffered enough, knowing that even if he hides in the water village, he can't avoid the attack of the imperial sailor. If you don't take the initiative to fight, you can only be beaten passively.

When the two fleets were still several miles apart, the Hongyi cannons on the ships had already opened fire one after another, firing shells at the anti-thief fleet.......

One after another, the shells fell in the river, splashing columns of water, listening to the deafening sound of shelling, and seeing such a situation again, the timid anti-thieves were already frightened.

"Order, fireship attack!" Fang Guoan, the chief soldier of the anti-thief water division, shouted.

Fang Guoan turned out to be a deputy general in Jiangxi and was good at water warfare, so Yuan Chonghuan handed over the command of the water division to him. Fang Guoan is very grateful for Yuan Chonghuan's trust. Fang Guoan also knew that if he could capture Nanjing in this battle, Zhu Yousong, the supervisor of the state, would ascend the throne in Nanjing, and if he could make a contribution to the attack on Nanjing, there would be no problem at all for Zhu Yousong to be crowned an earl after he ascended the throne and became emperor.

Yuan Chonghuan commanded the main force to attack Nanjing City, and handed over the fleet of the naval division to Fang Guoan, who had thousands of river boats and more than 50,000 soldiers in the hands of Fang Guoan, which could be described as powerful.

Moreover, after the last water battle, Yuan Chonghuan and Fang Guoan and other generals of the naval division summed up the lessons and made sufficient preparations for the next battle. Fang Guoan was also confident that he would be able to repel the imperial court sailors.

Under the command of Fang Guoan, more than 300 fireships flowed down towards Li Yan's direct sailor division, and these fireships had undergone special modifications, and each ship was equipped with a mast, on which a reed-made sail was hung. The sails of the ship caught the river breeze, and the boat went down the river at a very fast speed, rushing towards the imperial sailors.

......The Hongyi cannons on the 20 seagoing ships opened fire violently, shooting shells at the onrushing anti-thief fireboats, and from time to time the fireboats were shot and capsized, but the hit rate of the guns on the ships was too low, but they could not stop the rapid approach of the anti-thief fireships.

Immediately after the fireboat, Fang Guoan once again sent three hundred warships, each carrying fifty or sixty soldiers, using both pulp and sails, and followed the fireboat to attack the imperial navy fleet.

Many of the larger warships were equipped with catapult devices, that is, small stone throwers, to get close to the large ships of the attacking imperial navy.

Driven by the sails, it was down the river again, the speed of the fireboat was very fast, and when there was still half a mile away from the fleet of the imperial sailors, the anti-thief sailors who operated the fireboats lit the pyres with fire oil on the ship, and got on the small boats tied to the back, and cut the cable between the boats and the fireboats, and the fireboats quickly rushed towards the fleet of the imperial sailors. The bow of each fireship is equipped with iron ramming horns, which are iron spears with barbs, and if they hit the opposing ship, the iron anchor will penetrate deep into the hull of the opposing ship, and it is easy to separate under the pull of the barb.

Looking at the hundreds of fireships that had been lit down the river in the distance, Li Yanzhi smiled coldly and gave the order to block the attack.

Around the twenty sea ships was the fleet of the former river water division. Huang Shuang stood at the bow of the ship, staring closely at the anti-thief fire fleet sailing in the distance. He is a descendant of Liu Kongzhao, a hereditary family of 100 households, and served by Liu Kongzhao's side for more than ten years before he was appointed to the position of chief of the sailor, responsible for commanding a warship. Liu Kongzhao went to Zhenjiang and handed over the sailor to Li Yanzhi, Huang Shuang thought that without Liu Kongzhao's support, he would be sent to the cold palace, but who knew that in a blink of an eye, he was appointed by Li Yanzhi as a thousand households, responsible for commanding ten warships, which made him surprised and delighted. Although he knew that he was promoted because of Li Yanzhi's house arrest of many officers in the water division, he was still very grateful to Li Yanzhi.

Suddenly, a horn sounded in his ears, and Huang Shuang Huoran looked back and saw a string of small red flags hanging on the mast of the big sea ship where the Chinese army was located!

"All forward, stop those damn fireships!" Huang Shuang pointed to the river in front of him and ordered loudly.

Following his order, the sailors of his ten river boats quickly rowed their oars and pounced on the fire boats on the river.

Not only his ten river boats, but also more than 200 river boats of the entire river management division rushed out, and they all quickly crossed the twenty sea boats and faced the anti-thief fire boats.

For a time, hundreds of ships on both sides were hedging against each other, and the river less than three miles wide was densely packed with boats.

The sound of collision rang out, the shouts shook the sky, and the raging fire burned on the surface of the river.

The Hongyi cannon was still roaring, but the shells crossed the battlefield of fierce fighting and extended towards the rear fleet of the anti-thieves.

"Resist!" Huang Shuang shouted loudly, and more than a dozen soldiers held on to the long bamboo guns, and finally resisted the oncoming fireboat and forced it to stop on the river. The whole fireboat was burning, and the flames were burning several feet away, but the soldiers laughed and said that it was so damn warm.

Finally, when the sails of the fireboat were burned and the mast fell, the soldiers withdrew the bamboo guns that supported them, and let the fireboat continue to burn on the river, rushing towards the next target.

Some of the boats blocked the fireboat, while others were hit by the fireboat, and the flames on the fireboat spread, forcing the soldiers of the river and water division on the boat to dodge, and some soldiers were forced to even jump into the cold river.

In the face of the rapid momentum of the fireships, some of the officers and men on the warships were afraid, and they did not dare to charge forward at all, and refused to use their own warships to block the incoming fireships.

"Sink the retreating ship for me!" Li Yan looked straight and understood, pointed to the river boat not far away and ordered.

"Boom Boom" faced the more than 10 guns of the river boat and opened fire one after another, and the two shells hit the escaping river boat, two large holes appeared in the side of the river boat, and the river water quickly poured into the cabin, and the escaping river boat quickly capsized at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this situation, the other boats of the Caojiang Sailor who originally wanted to retreat were shocked, and they no longer dared to retreat, and were forced to meet the fireboat.

Most of the fireships of the Caojiang Naval Division blocked most of the fireships, but there were still dozens of fireships that broke through the interception and pounced down the river.

"Come on!" Li Yanzhi said coldly.

The flag was quickly raised to the mast, and seeing the flag, all the seagoing ships stopped shelling, quickly straightened their hulls, and pointed their bows to the approaching flotilla. At the same time, the sail operators quickly turned the sails, so that the sails could hold the river breeze, and the boat sailed in all directions, although it was against the current, it still gained a certain speed.

Looking at the fireships that were getting closer and closer, Li Yanzhi sneered, it was really stupid for the thief army to want to attack their own sea ships in this way. In the last naval battle, it was because he did not take precautions, and in order to shell the other side, the hull of the ship was facing the river, and the other side burned a sea ship. If the two sides are hedged, the three-masted ship's tall hull can directly crush the bathtub-like fireboat to the bottom of the river! And judging by the situation, the other side did not leave any soldiers to operate the fireboat, and thought of ramming their own sea ship with speed, how stupid!

The speed of the fireship is fast, the speed of the sea ship is slow, but in the case of hedging, the relative speed is very fast, Li Yan looked directly at the oncoming fireship, and did not give the order to dodge at all, so the Galen ship crashed directly into the fireboat, and the high bow was directly pressed against the fireboat, and under the great relative speed, the fireboat was crushed in the river at once.

It's okay for a fireship to hit the side of a seagoing ship, and there is not even the slightest chance of a frontal hedge.

PS: The state is really sluggish. Strive to adjust the state, speed up the tempo, and strive for more. Set up a flag first, and there will be two changes from tomorrow!