When later historians studied the history of the Shengtang Dynasty, they often liked to make concise and concise evaluations of those who had an important impact.

For example, Li Chengwu, the evaluation of this emperor by later generations is: courteous and amiable, indecisive.

Another example is Xu Youchang, who fought all his life and was evaluated as: brave and resolute, a model general.

And Yin Chengyi also commented, the same eight words:

Tend to be inflammatory, ambitious and sparse.

To be honest, it is too much to comment on General Yin Chengyi as "ambitious and talented". To be precise, he should be "unambitious and talentless".

And such an ambitious and talentless governor actually fooled Li Bing.

After the court played the right game, the emperor quickly issued a decree, ordering Yin Chengyi to lead 600 new warships to form the Yangzhou fleet, and at the same time coordinate and command the Yiling fleet and the Kunpeng Tenth Army to find an opportunity to fight and defeat the rebels.

Yin Chengyi has always wanted to serve as the commander-in-chief of the front line, and the sword is pointed south, and thousands of troops and horses sweep the universe and establish immortal achievements, so that he can live the addiction of the famous generals of the Holy Tang Dynasty.

However, due to the strong resistance of the military department and the various legions, Li Bing never dared to nod his head easily, which made Yin Chengyi very unhappy. Now that things have been discounted, he is in charge of the entire water army, which is better than nothing.

Of course, there is also a little credit for Ouyang Lin behind this.

Ouyang Lin has now focused all his attention on Shang Shu's left servant shooting Wei Zixuan, so Yin Chengyi, like Dong Tianxing, has also been cleared of suspicion. Otherwise, he would not have had the opportunity to take up the post of commander-in-chief of the naval army.

When Yin Chengyi took office, the first thing he did was to call Gong Chengze, who had fled back to the imperial capital to recuperate from his injuries for more than two months, and let him go to the front line with him.

Gong Chengze was defeated in Taizhou, and although he was scolded by the emperor when he came back, he still did not remove him from his post as the military affairs inspection and dispatch envoy of the Southern Expedition.

Therefore, Yin Chengyi took this chief army with him, the purpose was to let Gong Chengze help him suppress the front-line generals, so that he could smoothly grasp the military power.

More than half a month later, a huge fleet of 600 new warships set out from the Jinhe River, passed through Bohai County into the wide sea, and then turned south, preparing to bypass the Qilu Peninsula and go straight down the river.

There are two main reasons why Yin Chengyi chose to take the sea route, instead of entering the Huai River through the canal, and then arriving in Yangzhou from the tributaries of the Huai River: First, the road is easy to walk. Ships sailing the oceans were far more comfortable than navigating crowded canals full of civilian boats; The second is secrecy. In Yin Chengyi's view, taking the road of the open sea is conducive to secretly reaching the mouth of the river, which is enough to surprise the rebels.

However, in the eyes of his old friend and good brother Wei Zixuan, Yin Chengyi has no bullshit secrets to speak of. With Wei Zixuan secretly contributing, in the end, the only one who really felt the surprise was Yin Chengyi himself.

Sure enough, the fleet had just turned the cape of Dengzhou along the coastline and was about to go south, when it encountered hundreds of warships.

Although the warships that blocked Yin Chengyi's way were not very large, and even looked a little tattered, they were numerous and flexible, and as soon as they appeared, they quickly launched an attack formation, and surrounded the imperial navy in three directions.

Gong Chengze's eyes were sharp, and he quickly saw the identity of the other party: "Brother Yin, they are all thieves!" ”

"A thief?" Yin Chengyi was stunned when he heard this, and quickly stretched his neck to look carefully. Gong Chengze was right, the hundreds of small broken ships, the top of the mast was hung with messy flags such as the three-leaf flag, the copper coin flag, and the ghost fire flag, which were clearly the thieves and ronins who were in trouble in the sea.

Yin Chengyi couldn't help frowning: "Why did they come here?" And it seems to be waiting for us. ”

"I don't have time to care about that!" After all, Gong Chengze is a person who is used to the battlefield, far better than Yin Chengyi, a stupid person who is dissatisfied with a bottle and a half bottle is swaying, he hurriedly reminded the other party: "Hurry up and give the order to fight!" The enemy is going to charge. ”

Yin Chengyi reacted suddenly, and hurriedly sent an order to inform the entire fleet to be on alert for battle.

However, before the warships could adjust their formation, the ships of the thieves had already approached. All of a sudden, countless arrows burst through the air, shooting the St. Tang sailors on their backs.

Fighting on the surface of the sea is completely different from fighting in the rivers and lakes. Elements such as wind direction, ocean currents, wave bumps, distance mastery, etc., are all unfamiliar to the Shengtang fleet, which is dominated by the Jinhe naval army.

If it were Bao Yuchun's Kuohai Army here, of course, it would soon be able to seize the advantageous position and battle rhythm, and take advantage of the huge size of its own war ship to completely suppress the thieves.

But it's a pity that Yin Chengyi and his fleet don't know naval warfare at all, and they have a strong military force, but they only have one way to be beaten.

The ships of the thieves are fast and flexible, and the combat style is very fierce, hundreds of small boats shuttle back and forth directly next to the Shengtang warship, after firing a burst of arrows, turn around and leave, and then kill back again, and shoot another round, as if the Turkic iron horsemen are fighting on the grassland, frantically consuming the strength of the Shengtang.

On the other hand, on Yin Chengyi's side, it is good that the sailors can stand firm on the undulating deck, and it is basically impossible to talk about firing back with arrows. Most of the arrows they shot were either missed or misplaced, and most of them fell into the sea in vain, posing no threat to the thieves.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the thieves lacked large long-range weapons in their hands, and the sea surface was not suitable for fire attacks, so the Shengtang fleet was mostly killed and wounded, and the degree of damage to the ships was low. There were even some Saint Tang warships that launched a frenzy, and directly smashed and overturned many enemy boats.

The battle lasted nearly two hours, and as the sun sank in the west and the wind changed, the thieves roared, and hundreds of ships turned their sails and quickly broke away from the battle and sailed into the depths of the open sea.

Seeing this, Yin Chengyi finally let out a long breath, and then ordered the fleet under his command to move closer to each other, restore the original formation, and at the same time count and report the casualties.

After a while, his subordinates came to report that this sudden encounter had resulted in the death of more than 2,300 soldiers and more than 6,000 wounded.

Hearing this, Yin Chengyi was suddenly depressed. Before reaching the front line of the river, one-fifth of the troops were directly killed and wounded, which is simply inexplicable!

Gong Chengze comforted him beside him, in a war, it is normal to have casualties, but fortunately, the ship was not damaged, and when it reached the river, it was not too late to win and make meritorious contributions.

Yin Chengyi thought about it and felt that this was indeed the case, so he gradually forgot the unhappiness of the defeat in the naval battle of Dengzhou, regained the feeling of complacency before, and ordered the fleet to speed up the advance towards the river without having to anchor and rest.

Yin Chengyi has never been on the battlefield, but when he was young, he only roughly read a few military books, so he is not at all as sensitive as those famous generals.

After encountering a head-on attack, this guy neither adjusted the action plan, nor summed up the offensive and defensive tactics, nor did he remind his subordinates to strengthen their vigilance in time and be careful of the enemy's return to the pistol. Just continue to rush forward in a daze, how can there be a reason not to be beaten again?

Three days later, the fleet sailed to the open sea of Rizhao, where it was once again overtaken by the robbers' warships, and was once again besieged.

This time, the scale of the bandit fleet was larger than before, and nearly a thousand small and medium-sized speedboats slaughtered indiscriminately around the Shengtang warship, like a pack of wild wolves surrounding a bunch of big stupid elephants, cunning, flexible, and arrogant.

And those bulky elephants not only failed to hurt the wolves, but on the contrary, they were approached and bitten by the other party from time to time, and soon became scarred.

Gong Chengze saw that Yin Chengyi was like a waste of firewood, and it would be difficult to save his own life if he dragged it out, so he quickly took over the command from the other party, led the fleet to break through, and went straight to the Rizhao Wharf not far away.

Rizhao County was under the jurisdiction of Langya County, and at this time it had been recovered by Chang Tao's Xuanwu Army from the hands of the Japanese thieves. As soon as they saw the imperial warships fleeing into the port in a panic, the arrow tower on the shore immediately became vigilant. The Xuanwu soldiers used giant crossbows and trebuchets to block the sea and block the pursuit, and finally forced all the thieves back.

Yin Chengyi, who escaped from the encirclement, couldn't help but jump like thunder. He called the commanders of all battalions and units to his flagship, indiscriminately scolded them all, and put all the blame for the ineffective combat on their heads.

Gong Chengze originally wanted to persuade, but he looked at Yin Chengyi's angry and corrupt look, for fear that he would be unlucky in the end, so he didn't dare to say much, just stood by and watched the excitement.

Not long after, Chang Tao, who was stationed nearby, also rushed to hear the news.

Regarding the tragic experience of the imperial navy, the general of the legion was quite stunned, and at the same time puzzled: 600 large warships were beaten twice in a row by a bunch of broken ships by the pirates and ronins? In the end, you have to flee to the port and rely on the army to provide protection? This...... Is this a fool?

However, Yin Chengyi is the governor of the capital, and his rank is two levels higher than Chang Tao, and in the face of the annoyed and angry Shangguan, Chang Tao didn't say anything, but just ordered his subordinates to immediately treat the wounded on the ship, and at the same time brought good wine and meat to the sailor brothers to comfort everyone.

After settling the fleet and the wounded, Chang Tao asked Yin Chengyi what he was going to do next.

Yin Chengyi had long run out of ideas, and asked Chang Tao if he had any suggestions.

Chang Tao felt angry and funny, and said patiently: "Lord Yin, in my opinion, you better not take the sea route." From here to the mouth of the great river, there is at least more than 1,500 to 2,000 miles to sail. Although the sea is windy and the ships are fast, and the days of marching are shorter, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no more thieves. What if the two sides go to war again? ”

Gong Chengze also nodded again and again: "Commander Chang is right. It's not that we're afraid of those thieves, but there's no need to waste our combat power on them, you say? My lord. ”

Yin Chengyi frowned and thought for a while, and asked, "If you don't take the sea route, where will you go?" ”

Chang Tao scolded in his heart: What a stupid pig! As the Grand Governor, don't you usually study the map of Shengtang? Where do you have to ask others?

He suppressed his anger and introduced: "A short distance to the south, there is Donghai County, where many tributaries of the Huai River connect to the broad sea. Choose any one, turn into Hongze Lake, and then go all the way south to reach Yangzhou. ”