This battle came to be known as the "Battle of Gangneung." ”

But the first place where the fighting broke out was neither Gangneung nor Zhijiang, but Yidu, which was further upstream.

The Kuizhou Navy Division was stationed in Yiling, and the generals Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang under Li Bao led more than 100 large and small warships to raid Baishui Town in the southeast of Yidu County of Chu State.

Both of them were smugglers and landed directly with sailors and looted Whitewater.

Baishui Town is quite rich, in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yangtze River was rerouted, and the county seat of Zhijiang was moved to Baishui Town, and it was still the county seat of Zhijiang until the Qing Dynasty.

After robbing Baishui Town, Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang immediately retreated, and then went to loot the villages in the western suburbs of Yidu.

Although this is the territory of Zhong Xiang, it is not the core ruling area, and only 2,000 soldiers are stationed there. When defending the city, he can also encourage civilians, but when he goes out of the city to fight, he is blind, and he can only let the Kuizhou sailors plunder.

Zhong Xiang's Dongting Lake Water Division sent a third to deal with it.

It's not that they don't want to send more, but the Jinzhou Navy has arrived in Hanyang, and the Dongting Lake Water Division has to go downstream to fight. It was necessary to leave ships to defend the Zhijiang River, and Zhong Xiang's naval army could only be divided into three.

After the two sides met, the Kuizhou Naval Division immediately retreated, intending to lure the enemy further upstream.

The situation of the river there is even more complicated, and the Kuizhou Sailor has long been familiar with it, as long as the Dongting Lake Sailor dares to chase it, he can even use the hydrology and terrain to fight a war of annihilation.

The Dongting Lake sailor was not fooled, and gave up after chasing for a while.

After days of experimentation and probing, fighting finally broke out.

The forces of the two sides were equal, with the Kuizhou Naval Division occupying the upstream position, while the Dongting Lake Naval Division had more large ships.

But the bed crossbows that Zhu Ming captured from the officers and soldiers were all equipped with the Kuizhou Navy. Only one was left in Hanzhong, and Zhu Guoxiang's students dismantled it to figure out various details and then imitate it.

Then I found out that there was no need to imitate.

The manufacturing cost is too high, the production time is too long, and too many people are needed for launch. With that time and money, it is better to build a few more tiger squat cannons.

This thing is so powerful that it takes twenty or thirty people to pull it apart, and it can fire seven arrows at once. The length of the main arrow is about 1 meter, the diameter of the shaft is about two centimeters, and the range of the main arrow can reach two or three miles. (There is also a reduced version, which can be pulled away by a few people, but the power is much less.) More than half of those seized by Zhu Ming belonged to the reduced version. ）

The most famous achievement of the Bed Crossbow was the killing of Xiao Tzurin, the main general of the Liao army, with a single arrow, forcing the Liao State to sign the Yuanyuan Alliance.

With bed crossbows, ordinary bow crossbows and flat artillery, the Kuizhou sailors almost pressed the Dongting Lake sailors to fight. But the latter relied on the big ship more, desperately rushed to the port, and even directly rammed the ship at full speed.

There were casualties among each other, and the Kuizhou Navy Division won a small victory.

There is no need to fight to the death The task of the Kuizhou Water Division is to lure part of the Dongting Lake Water Division away from the Jingjiang battlefield.

……

Zhijiang.

A large number of small boats that can carry more than a dozen people, and the dryland boats are carried directly to the camp on the north bank.

The wood of these ships is not dried in the shade, and they are too lazy to brush tung oil for corrosion, anyway, they are all disposable items.

Han Shizhong, Chong Yanchong, He Ji, and Wang Xun, four generals, with militiamen who had only been trained for three or four months, prepared to cross the narrow river to fight.

Not only are these militias short in training, but they also have to find time to clear land for farming. But they were well armoured, and the enemy had not practiced much, and they did not need much formation when attacking cities and fortresses.

The militiamen only need to remember that as long as they capture Zhijiang, they can turn into regular soldiers. The wasteland they have cultivated can enjoy more preferential tax relief policies, and their families will no longer have to give regular soldiers to cultivate the wasteland in the future.

"What a good thing to do!"

Han Shizhong put down the binoculars and said to Chen Ziyi: "How about crossing the river in a different place?" ”

Chen Ziyi was puzzled: "This is the narrowest, the river is only more than ten zhang (thirty or forty meters), and the generalissimo also agreed to cross the river here." ”

Han Shizhong said: "We know that this is the narrowest, and of course Pseudo-Chu also knows it, and even built a camp on the other side. ”

Chen Ziyi said: "I want to avoid the camp and cross the river upstream, where the river is only 20 zhang. ”

"No," Han Shizhong said, "you should cross the river in the most upstream, in the widest place, and kill directly under Zhijiang City!" ”

"If we cross the river there, the enemy's large and small warships can enter the river to block it, and our army will inevitably be annihilated if it is all small boats," Chen Ziyi said, "and when crossing the river at the narrowest point, the enemy's big ships are easy to run aground, and only small boats can come in, and our army can delay with artillery, and soon the whole army will be able to rush over." ”

Han Shizhong smiled: "Guess where the enemy warship is at this time?" ”

Chen Ziyi said without thinking: "It must be hidden in the narrowest part of the south bank." ”

The area where Zhijiang County is located can be mistakenly understood as a Jiangxinzhou.

But this Jiangxinzhou is large enough, more than 40 miles long, and nearly 10 miles wide at its widest point.

It is different from Chongming Island, it is not alluvial sediment. At first, it was connected to the north bank to form a piece of land, and the Yangtze River forked and rushed out of a river, which was surrounded by the two Yangtze rivers in the north and south.

The county seat of Zhijiang is in the westernmost part, where the river is the widest, five or six hundred meters.

The Chu army camp and main force were located in the easternmost part. Chen Ziyi and Zhu Ming also planned to cross the river here, and the river surface was only thirty or forty meters.

The warships of Yan Qi, the general of the Chu army, were all hidden on the south bank on the west side of "Jiangxinzhou", just to avoid Han Shizhong's sight. Once Han Shizhong crossed the river from here, the Chu army's sailors would be able to immediately kill and intercept it.

Even if large warships can't enter, they can still transport troops across the river to kill Han Shizhong in the open area of the confluence of the Yangtze River.

Han Shizhong continued to ask: "Where is the main force of the enemy army?" ”

Chen Ziyi said: "In the camp on the opposite bank at the narrowest point. ”

"Then why are we going to fight each other?" Han Shizhong asked again.

Chen Ziyi was dumbfounded when he heard this, he had already understood Han Shizhong's train of thought, and after relieving himself, he reminded: "You are too risky like this, if you are detected by the enemy, the soldiers who cross the river will be wiped out." ”

Han Shizhong said: "Crossing the river at night and attacking Zhijiang County. If the enemy army is defenseless, they will take the county seat. If the enemy is on guard, they pretend to camp outside the city, surround the point to send reinforcements, set up an ambush halfway, and eat the enemy who rushed back to help. ”

"Good strategy!" Wang Xun clapped his hands and praised.

He Ji also said: "This plan is feasible, but the enemy will not expect it." Because all the preparations of our army were to cross the river from the narrowest point, and even in order to facilitate the cavalry to protect the artillery, we also let the people carry the soil to fill in the rugged river beach. ”

Chong Yanchong said: "Yes, before that, even we didn't think about directly hitting Zhijiang County. The enemy general is not an immortal, how can he expect it? ”

Chen Ziyi is also an adventurous person, thinking about it, the more he thinks about it, the more feasible he feels, and finally makes a decision and says: "If there is an accident, I will shoulder all the responsibilities, and you only need to fight hard!" ”

"Hahahaha!"

Everyone laughed and felt happy.

This group of generals, when fighting for the Great Song Dynasty, suffered constraints everywhere.

Many times, even if you come up with a good plan, you will be rejected if the risk is too high.

Now it's very cool, and I can show my abilities to the fullest.

Next, instead of choosing an immediate action, each expressed his own opinion to refine the plan.

They created countless illusions and re-prepared for the crossing of the river upstream at the narrowest part of the river. The avoidance of the enemy camp here is obviously more common sense (there is no common sense of artillery blockade), which makes the enemy general more convinced of crossing the river here.

Chu General Yan Qi was very cautious, arranged sentries along the river, and quickly made corresponding moves to divide the troops and set up another battalion on the opposite bank.

even sent small warships to patrol the river day and night to prevent Han Shizhong from suddenly rushing to cross.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Eighteen artillery pieces, firing at a distance of dozens of meters, almost put the barrel in the face of the Chu army.

Two Chu warships were sunk, and one was heavily damaged.

The power of the artillery made Yan Qi so shocked that he no longer dared to send warships easily, and only let the soldiers patrol at night in small boats, while thinking hard about how to deal with the artillery.

That day, Deng Xia tried the cannonball, and the Chu army also picked up the cannonball, but he didn't expect this thing to be so sharp.

The artillery was supposed to be a hidden weapon, which suddenly bombarded enemy ships while crossing the river.

Now Han Shizhong changed the battle plan, and the artillery showed its fangs in advance, just to confuse the enemy general as much as possible and make the enemy general more convinced of the place to cross the river.

Even, taking advantage of the fact that the new camp of the Chu army did not build a good barrier, he continued to fire at the new camp, bombarding the wall on the north side of the wall.

After seven or eight days like this, the attention of the Chu army was completely attracted here, and he had almost forgotten the county seat of Zhijiang forty miles away.

Night.

Han Shizhong, Chong Yanchong, He Ji, and Wang Xun were four generals, and thousands of militiamen came to the river with small boats.

Hua Rong followed with the Shenji Battalion Firecrackers, while Chen Ziyi's cavalry stayed behind to protect Deng Xia's artillery position.

They smuggled in the most open part of the Yangtze River diversion, a location that no one had ever thought of, not even Zhu Ming had ever thought of attacking from here. Because on the other side of the river is the fortified city, and the Chu army and naval division can exert their full combat effectiveness here.

In the dark of the night, there was only a few glimmers of light.

At the wharf outside Zhijiang City, there is also a warship, which is used to transport supplies, and by the way, help guard the river.

The sailors on the ship slept soundly, and the generals led their troops to quietly dock, and soon touched the residential area outside the city.

There is no moat, because the Yangtze River is a moat.

Residents outside the city are also sleeping, and only one husband is still working.

"Enemy ......"

The husband was carrying the lantern, heard the footsteps, and subconsciously turned to look.

Due to the excessive fright, the husband forgot to run away, and tried to shout but could not scream, and seemed to have a spasm in his throat.

"Ahh

It wasn't until a shot came that the husband screamed in pain, and his mouth was quickly covered.

The nearby residents were awakened, and when someone lit the fuel lamp, Han Shizhong had already rushed to the city with a bamboo flying ladder.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

The guards on duty at the head of the city were also awakened and shouted loudly in a panic.

But it was already too late, and there were not many Chu troops left behind in Zhijiang, and it was impossible to stay on the city wall at night. Even in the panic, no one organized it, forgetting that there were still piles of falling rocks and rolling logs next to it.

Han Shizhong climbed up, and the defenders raised their guns to stab him, and he dodged and killed him.

More and more militiamen entered the city, killing the defenders and retreating, and in less than two quarters of an hour they were in complete control of the walls.

It was originally a vicious battle to cross the river, and it was a surprise attack battle with single-digit casualties by Han Shizhong.

(End of chapter)