The explosion of the mine had spread into a continuous stream of firecrackers, and the big ship behind followed closely behind the boat in front of it and was swept away by the huge waves stirred up in the water. Guo Ziyi, who was on the flagship in the rear, saw this scene, and naturally understood that this was a conspiracy, and hurriedly shouted for people to give the order, all lower the sails and reverse the pulp, and turn the rudder in the river.

It is unlikely that the boat will be too fast to stop it, and even if it turns on the spot and makes a U-turn, it needs to be reduced to the lowest speed. The Tang Army's naval division was originally located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which was their advantage, but this advantage became an irreparable disadvantage because the ship was too fast.

The mines tied to the hemp rope formed hundreds of tight nets in the Yangtze River, and the Tang warships that rushed up were sunk one by one, and for a time the Tang Navy lost more than half of them, and the remaining warships either turned around and returned, or had no choice but to run aground on the river beach.

Guo Ziyi originally gave high hopes, and the Yangtze River Naval Army, which had strong troops, was completely defeated in this battle. How could Li Siye give up this good opportunity to beat the water dogs, and immediately mobilize the gunboats to pursue the north, to wipe out the Tang army.

Guo Linggong led the remaining warships back and fought to the death with the Yong army on the river, but their courage and courage were blown up by the mines on the river, and the artillery roared like a rainbow on the Yong army's side. The warships of the Don Army either surrendered, or retreated back continuously.

But in the midst of the fiasco, there were still loyal men, and six Tang Army Great Yellow Dragon warships hung up their sails to adjust the ships, and with the determination to die, they crashed into the enemy gunboats. One of them aimed at the flagship of Li Siye, the king of Yong, and the soldiers rushed towards the enemy with a quick oars.

Li Siye was so frightened that he hurriedly gave an order to the gunboats, asking them to concentrate fire and sink the warship, and the repeated artillery fire blew up waves on the river, and the big yellow dragon of the Tang army passed through the waves like a fish, and the artillery blew up the hull, and the flames raged in the river breeze. The soldiers endured the scorching flames and continued to make a splash with their oars. More shells hit the hull, but unfortunately the big yellow dragon slowly sank in the water before hitting the enemy flagship.

Guo Ziyi led the remaining ships to retreat to the Chibi Water Village, and decided to abandon the Water Village and the ships to hold the Ezhou City, but these things could not be left to the Yong army, they simply scuttled the remaining warships to prevent a fire from burning the Water Village.

But in this battle, there were probably more than 60 big yellow dragons deliberately stranded on the riverside, or directly surrendered to the Yong army, Li Siye's army also captured other small warships of the Tang army, the strength of the naval division instantly doubled, and the more significant significance is that the Yongjun army has direct control of the Yangtze River waterway, and has more strategic options.

Therefore, he made a more bold and direct battle plan, equipped all the existing Dahuanglong battleships with artillery and converted them into gunboats, built a large number of troop carriers, and no longer attacked Jiangzhou, Raozhou, and Danyang along Jiangxia step by step, but went straight down the river to Quarshiji and attacked the healthy city on the other side of the river.

Therefore, he prepared for nearly two months, and formed a fleet of about 600 large ships and more than 500 small boats, loaded with 120,000 soldiers, and headed for the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

At this time, the Tang army still had a lot of troops in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and there were large armies garrisoned by Guo Ziyi's old general Gu Huaien in Jingkou and Wuhu, as well as a large naval army.

Li Siye took advantage of the gunboats, and he had the sharp weapon of mines in his hands, so he was naturally not afraid of the Tang Army's sailors downstream. Within two days, the Yangtze River Naval Division had reached the vicinity of Wuhu. Li Siye dropped a lighter wooden box mine from the upper reaches downward, with 15 to 20 mines in a string, which exploded after being hit by an enemy ship, and sank many warships of the Tang Army for a time.

When the gunboats of the Yong army went down the river, the few warships of the Tang army immediately became prisoners or broken wood on the river.

Emperor Li Yu, who was sitting in Jiankang, was shocked, and on the one hand sent someone to Ezhou to meet Guo Ziyi, asking him to quickly return to Jiankang to preside over the occupation, and on the other hand, he gave an order to Gu Huaien, who was stationed in Jingkou, and ordered him to mobilize a naval army to guard Jiankang.

Fugu Huaien knew that after Li Siye's Yongjun defeated Guo Ziyi, his strength was invincible and the waters of the Yangtze River, but he still mobilized more than 200 warships to the west to rescue Jiankang, the two sides fought fiercely on the Yangtze River for a while, under the raging artillery fire, Fugu Huaien retreated to the Yangtze River beachhead outside Jiankang City, and scuttled a large number of ships full of stones, and drove wooden stakes on them to make artificial reefs, intending to prevent the Yongjun from landing.

Downstream of Jiankang is Yangzhou on the other side, Li Siye once sent the general Bai Xiaode to garrison it with 50,000 or 60,000 people, and a large amount of ammunition and grain were stored in the treasury of the city.

Li Siye has such a logistics base, so he can naturally fight a naval artillery siege battle. On the one hand, he sent water ghosts to sneak under the water to demolish the so-called artificial reef, and on the other hand, he lined up gunboats horizontally on the river and bombarded the head of Jiankang City repeatedly.

The deterrent power of artillery is amazing, not only can destroy fortifications, but also can kill and injure a large number of enemies, Li Yu sat in the palace of Jiankang City, he could faintly hear the muffled thunder on the city, and the timidity in his heart can be imagined.

He hurriedly invited Prime Minister Yuan Zai and Wang Jin, hoping that the two could give him advice. Yuan Zai seems to have long expected that Jiankang City would not survive for a long time, so he secretly transferred his property to Hangzhou, and at the same time secretly wrote to Li Siye of the northern court to step on two boats. Waiting for the future when the ship of the Tang Dynasty sinks, he can continue to be an official in the new dynasty.

It's unfortunate that Wang Jin also has such thoughts in his heart, but he was born in a high-ranking family like the Taiyuan Wang family, so he will not have such thoughts blatantly, but most of them have no taboos about surrendering.

Li Yu asked the two worriedly: "Now the rebels are firing artillery on the surface of the Yangtze River. Jiankang City is in danger, where will I go, the two Aiqing please give me some guidance. ”

Yuan Zai is a shrewd person, so he naturally refuses to show his attitude easily, but he also doesn't want to bury his life with the emperor in this Jiankang City. He immediately made a suggestion to Li Yu: "The traitors are surging, I am afraid that Jiankang will be lost, Your Majesty, you are the foundation of the country." It is better to temporarily lead the civil and military officials to temporarily retreat to Yuhang, and wait for the army to hold Jiankang and defeat the Yongjun, and then lead the officials back to Jiankang. ”

Li Yu also wanted to withdraw, but he was also worried in his heart, and asked suspiciously: "Now that my Tang soldiers inside and outside the city are bent on resisting the enemy, it is the time when I need to boost morale. “

Yuan Zai gave Wang Jin a look, and Wang Jin had to reluctantly step forward and said: "Your Majesty's withdrawal from Jiankang, although the army's morale is somewhat unstable, but now the enemy is currently in danger of Jiankang, but how can the gains and losses of a city and a place be compared to Your Majesty as the foundation of the society, so the minister also dared to suggest that His Majesty first withdraw from Jiankang and go to Yuhang to avoid the military disaster, only if Your Majesty is still there, the military spirit will not be lost." ”

Li Yu didn't have an idea for a while, he was really unwilling to abandon Jiankang and run away in his heart, because the meaning of Jiankang is different from other places, and it has been the capital of the southeast since ancient times. In the past, his grandfather and father fled Chang'an twice, which caused half of the Tang Dynasty to be half of today's rivers and mountains, and now if Jiankang is abandoned, there will be no place for him in the whole world.

He believes that we should not only listen to the opinions of civil officials, but also listen to the thoughts of military generals, but the generals are all out of the war, and no matter how fast Guo Ziyi is, he will not be able to come back for a while.

He had no choice but to wave his hand and say, "The stakes are so high that I have to think about it slowly." ”

The two prime ministers were about to speak, but they were driven out by Li Yu with a wave of his hand.