More and more warships sank to the bottom of the river during the advance of the Tang army, but few of the Great Yellow Dragon warships sank, and the solidity was not strong. All the gunboats of the Yongjun army have gathered in the third echelon, and the intensity of the cannonballs is becoming more and more fierce, and the big yellow dragon with a long sail is emitting thick black smoke and flames, and it still does not get close to the Yongjun.

The gunboats had retreated within the range of the artillery battalion on the shore, and in order to make the artillery battalion more convenient for attacking, they retreated to the downstream of the riverside wharf, and the Tang troops, who had caught up with the wind, had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation, and when they turned their bows and prepared to pursue downstream, they actually turned their wide hull towards the Xuanwu artillery battalion on the shore.

Li Siye was overjoyed, and immediately ordered the Xuanwu artillery battalion to bombard it desperately, and dozens of big yellow dragons were shrouded in dense artillery fire.

Guo Ziyi shouted so loudly that her voice was almost hoarse: "Don't get close to the riverbank, retreat!" Retreat to the other side! ”

After receiving Guo Linggong's flag order, all the ships quickly turned around and retreated, they pursued the Yongjun when the wind was fast, and at this moment the retreat turned into a headwind, so they had to quickly lower the sails and retreat towards the south bank with manpower.

How could the Yongjun let go of the opportunity to beat the enemy, and the Yangtze River Naval Division also quickly lowered its sails and pursued in the direction of the Tang army's retreat.

Guo Ziyi knew that once the Tang army's fleet retreated into the water village located in Jiangxia, it would inevitably become a fixed target and would be sunk one by one by the Yongjun gunboats on the river.

The defeat of the warship in the first battle does not mean that it is defeated, since the two armies are facing each other head-on, they can't do the artillery fire on the shore of the Yong army, it is better to temporarily withdraw to Chibi upstream.

Although the Tang army lost the first battle in the Yangtze River water battle, the number of the navy still has an absolute advantage over the Yong army, there are more than 200 large yellow dragon warships alone, and there are more than 1,000 other small warships of all kinds, these are all Li Siye and Shi Siming when they were desperate in the north, they Datang in the south for seven or eight years to accumulate the family foundation, such a scale and strength, not the Yongjun army stepped up to build dozens of ships in half a year to catch up.

Guo Ziyi also has a longer-term plan, and now Jiangxia City on the other side should be unable to hold it, and he will order Jiangxia's troops to retreat to Wuchang and Ezhou. Once the Yong army gained a firm foothold in Jiangxia, it would have to continuously transport troops to the south bank and supply more food supplies, and the Yangtze River would be very busy at that time. At that time, his sailors will go down the river from the upper reaches and use the water potential of the Yangtze River to block the transportation and supply of the Yong army, and the Tang army that will occupy Jiangxia will completely lose contact with the north bank, and the end of cutting off the supply of grain and grass will be surrounded and eaten by the Tang army.

When the Tang army withdrew to Chibi upstream, Li Siye immediately ordered the gunboats to enter Jiangxia, and the Yangtze River naval division bombarded Jiangxia City on the river.

The defenders of Jiangxia were instructed by Guo Ziyi to immediately retreat in the direction of Wuchang to avoid suffering greater losses.

Li Siye decided to transport the 130,000-strong army across the river by ship and completely occupy Jiangxia and Wuchang. General Duan Xiushi suggested to him: "My lord, the strength of the Tang army's navy is still there, and it occupies the natural water conservancy of Chibi upstream, once they rush down from the upstream while we are transporting troops, our navy will inevitably not be able to resist, and may be cut in two by the Tang army, and our army left in Jiangxia will lose support on the other side and will soon be eaten by the other party." Only when our army has complete control of the Yangtze River can it enter and occupy Jiangdong Prefecture. ”

Li Siye nodded, it was indeed the case, and he asked Duan Xiushi: "In Qing's opinion, what should we do." ”

"We should wait for the opportunity to wait, step up shipbuilding, and when our warships approach the Tang army, we can defeat the Tang army's naval division in one fell swoop and control the Yangtze River, and then the unification of Jiangdong is just around the corner."

At present, it seems that this is indeed the safest way, but they are building ships here, and the Tang army on the other side of the Yangtze River is also stepping up shipbuilding, and his sailors are too expensive to learn compared with the Tang army's sailors. The Tang Army recruited sailors, and the per capita swimmers were good. They formed a water division but had landlubbers per capita, and his Yangtze River sailor trained for six months to get rid of seasickness and other symptoms.

Besides, it was too expensive to build ships and fight, and the north was too badly damaged by the Anshi rebels, and he needed to recuperate, so he exempted the taxes of more than a dozen states in Henan Province and Hebei Province in one breath this year, and only relied on the taxes of Guanzhong, Hexi, Hanzhong, and Shu to add up, I am afraid that it is not more than one-third of the Jiangdong occupied by Li Yu. Although he was blessed with the sharp weapon of Xuanwu heavy artillery, in the matter of shipbuilding, he could not fight for Jiangdong, which was rich and did not suffer from the damage of war.

There is a more important point, the waste of cannonballs in the artillery battle on the river is too powerful, these are all spent like flowing copper coins, and a cannonball is the cost of the treasury, he can stand in this chaotic dispute for five or six years, all relying on the old money earned by operating the Western Regions Chamber of Commerce in the northwest of Hexi'an, and now he has eaten almost.

Li Siye wanted to eliminate Guo Ziyi's Yangtze River naval army at the lowest cost, but he couldn't think of a way for a while, so he had to order the sailors at the Jiangcheng wharf to step up shipbuilding.

One day, when he was walking by the river, he saw the puffer fish floating in the water with a swollen stomach, and he was immediately overjoyed and excited: "Now there is a way to break Guo Ziyi's Yangtze River sailor." ”

Mines, like mines, are low-cost and unskilled weapons, but they are as powerful as suicidal gunpowder boats, and Li Siye ordered craftsmen to cast bronze mines according to his ideas, filled with a large amount of gunpowder and iron sheets, which can be suspended in water and are not easy to find.

He specially ordered a target ship to simulate the situation when the ship hit a mine, only to hear a loud bang, the river was thrown more than nine feet high, and the front end of the target ship was destroyed into a pile of broken wood.

Although the target ship is not as strong as the Tang Army's Dahuanglong, it is also strong enough, and the requirements for power should be met, but it is not easy to deal with the triggering of the seal, and the bigger problem is that the Chibi where the Tang Navy stayed is in the upper reaches of Hankou, and the mines are not fixed in the river, and they will definitely float down the river until they enter the sea.

In the end, he came up with a brilliant idea, using a boat to pull a rope on each side of the Yangtze River, like a pontoon bridge tied to a heavy object, and the imprint line of the mine was attached to the rope, and when it was violently impacted, the mine would break away from the rope, and then there would be a violent explosion.

Li Siye laid out more than 50 mine nets in the upper reaches of Hankou, scattering more than 6,000 mines in total, turning the entire Yangtze River into a forbidden area for life.

After laying mines, in order to deceive the Tang Navy into going to war, he decided to sail all the warships out of the Hankou Water Village and cross the Yangtze River three days later.

After the secret post of the Tang army on the other side of the Yangtze River learned of the large-scale transportation of troops by the Yong army, they immediately reported to Guo Ziyi.

Guo Ziyi had already waited for a long time, and immediately ordered the Tang Navy to pour out, the sails covered the sky and the sun, and more than 200 Great Yellow Dragon warships marched in unison on the river. The ramming horns of pig iron were moving fast, and the soldiers had already raised their batters high.

Today, Guo Ziyi is determined to win, he takes advantage of the water flow upstream, and the river wind also adds power to it, plus the soldiers at the bottom of the boat swing their oars to hit the water, and the speed of the boat is rising, even if Li Siye arranges copper walls on the river, he can easily smash them.

Li Siye was also standing on the gunboat on the river today, and he looked at the end of the sky upstream, only to see countless sails outcropping, and Guo Ziyi's navy appeared.

Guo Ziyi stood on the flagship of the Great Yellow Dragon, waved the command flag and shouted: "Thousands of ships are flying together, advancing rapidly, crushing the enemy army, and blocking the Yangtze River!" ”

"Drink! Drink! Blocking the Yangtze River. "Soldiers with swords and guns stood on the deck, and the sound was thundering.

The first big yellow dragon that rushed to the front jerked violently, and with a loud bang, the entire hull was torn apart, and waves several feet high were stirred up on the water. Immediately afterwards, the second and third ships exploded violently, and one of the ships was broken in two, and the soldiers fell into the water with the undulation of the waves......