"Knock knock!"

Zhong Yi had just ordered Mingjin to retreat, and before the heralds could carry it out, there were already people beating drums to help in the battle.

Zhong Yimao rushed to another section of the city wall with his waist and shouted angrily at Zhou Lun, who was beating the drum in person: "What do you want to do? ”

Zhou Lun said: "Prime Minister, the arrow is on the bow, and I have to send it." The navy has already entered Qingcao Lake, and it can still fight if it moves forward, but once it retreats, the whole army will be wiped out, and the thief army will chase and kill the water division! ”

"Frontal water battles, where did you win?" Zhong Yi is very pessimistic.

Zhou Lun said: "A few days ago, a decision should have been made, either the army would go north for a decisive battle, or the whole army would withdraw to Xiangyin. The prime minister didn't dare to advance or retreat, and he could only be beaten if he defended here, and he didn't fight to the death today. The water army of Lujiao Village should also go out to help in the war! ”

As soon as the words fell, the gate of the water village had been opened.

Gao Lein led more than 60 large and small warships to kill the Ming army sailors who were ten times his size, intending to cooperate with Lei Dejin and Yang Mi to attack on both sides.

Zhong Yi went out to see the situation clearly, and lay down on the head of the city: "If you can't win the battle, the enemy's firearms are powerful, and you are sending you to death." ”

Zhou Lun said: "Prime Minister, don't fight if you're greedy for life and afraid of death." At this time, you can still fight to the death, if you hide and don't dare to fight, you won't even have a chance to fight hard in the future. ”

Zhong Yi didn't speak again, but Zhou Lun ordered Shuizhai to send cannons, that is, to use catapults to help friendly troops.

In later generations, a large area of land between the lake and the mouth of the Xiangjiang River belonged to the waters of Qingcao Lake at this time.

However, the siltation at the bottom of the lake has been very serious, and hills such as Shijun Mountain and Xiaoshantang are small islands in Qingcao Lake.

Why is it said that Lujiao Village can choke the Xiangjiang River?

It is because of the large area of water on the west side of Qingcao Lake, and only in summer and autumn when the water level is high, can large ships pass. Now it is the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and only a few rainstorms are not enough, and if the Daming Sailor wants to enter the Xiangjiang River, he must go south along the deep water area on the east side of Qingcao Lake.

The countless small warships of the Chu Army's naval division scattered towards the shallow water.

They are extremely familiar with Qingcao Lake and are not afraid of running aground at all. I planned to spread out the formation to avoid the shelling, and then rush to kill on three sides, rushing over to mix with the Daming Sailor to disrupt the battle.

And in the follow-up, there are countless small boats that set fires, fighting to the same end to destroy the Daming Sailors!

"To the northwest, fight and retreat!"

Pang Dingzi didn't want to entangle with the Chu army here, and the northwest was the deep water area of Dongting Lake, so he could fight as much as he wanted there.

Hundreds of warships were full of sails, and the boatmen swayed and stepped on the oars with all their might, and before engaging the Chu army's sailors, they sailed to the deep water area one after another.

It is not to run away, but to retreat while fighting.

More than a dozen gunboats opened fire with all their might, and the rest of the warships were also firing the Divine Arm Bow and the return cannon.

The warships of Yang Qi and Gao Leprosy are long and narrow and fast. They tried to leave the Great Ming Sailor behind, so they rushed to the front, and if nothing else, they were able to catch up quickly.

The distance between the two sides is indeed getting closer, at the cost of heavy losses in the warships under the command of the two.

More than 20 Chu army clippers were wounded and sunk by artillery, return artillery, and divine arm bows, and the Chu army sailors on board jumped into the lake to escape.

"Whoosh!"

The Chu army is equipped with something similar to a bed crossbow on the fast ship, and the power is definitely not as great as the bed crossbow, but the operator does not need so much.

The shaft of the arrow, the thickness of a pigeon's egg, was shot out, and it also carried a long rope, and once it hit the Ming warship, the two sides were connected by ropes.

The Chu army tried to take over the ship!

"Ignition!"

"Shoot the arrows!"

Since the muskets made in various places had to be sent to the north to concentrate on equipping the prince's Shenji battalion, there were no muskets in the southern divisions.

However, they have rockets!

It is to tie something similar to a monkey in the front of the shaft of the arrow.

Not only can it boost the acceleration of arrows, but it can also burn violently and ignite enemy supplies. In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Yu Yunwen fought against Quarry Rock, and Li Bao crossed the sea to attack Shandong, both of which used a large number of rockets.

This thing has been around since the end of the Tang Dynasty, and before that, rockets were made of flammable materials such as rosin.

Hundreds of rockets were fired, Yang Mi waved his sword and raised his shield to block a few, and most of the rest fell on the warship, and only seven or eight sailors were shot.

The ignition effect is limited, after all, this is not a fireboat full of firewood and grass.

Then, taking advantage of the gap between the Chu army sailors to extinguish the fire, the other two Ming warships had been reloaded.

Although only a dozen or so ships were armed with iron cannons, the remaining ships were all equipped with wooden cannons!

The advantage of wooden cannon is that it is cheap, and the disadvantage is that it is less powerful and not easy to store for a long time. Not only was it used during the Anti-Japanese War in China, but even Germany had wooden mortars during World War I, and Japan also had a large number of wooden cannons during the Russo-Japanese War.

It is also not a full-body wooden structure, and dense wood must be selected, and an iron hoop must be set on the outside.

More particularly, iron sheets will be embedded in the barrel of the gun, or the barrel is simply composed of iron sheets, and a layer of leather will be made when the iron hoop is added.

"Boom, boom!"

More than a dozen wooden cannons opened fire one after another, and a large number of small stones flew out like scattered flowers.

Anyway, the power of this thing is relatively small, and the Daming Naval Division is specially used for melee combat, and is used to attack enemies from a few meters to dozens of meters away. I didn't even bother to use iron bullets, and fired shotguns directly with pebbles.

Yang Mi was hit by a small pebble and fractured his tibia, and the tiger's mouth holding the shield was also cracked and bleeding, he shouted in panic: "Crash into the boat and grab the boat!" ”

The soldiers dragged Yang Mi back to hide: "General, you can't fight, the thieves have powerful firearms, and the brothers have died a lot!" ”

Yang Qi poked his head out to take a look, and found that the exposed sailors had been killed and wounded, and no one dared to stand outside anymore.

In last year's water battle, the Daming Navy Division was not equipped with wooden cannons, but this year it was all installed.

The tactics of the Daming Naval Division were as follows: use iron cannons directly at long distances, return cannons and magic arm bows at medium distances, and shoot shotguns with wooden cannons at close range. When encountering an enemy fireship, it can also be ignited in advance by firing rockets.

How does this make the Chu Army Sailor fight?

No matter how brave Yang Qi is, he is not afraid of death, and he knows that there is no chance of winning in the face of wooden cannon shotguns, so he instructed his own soldiers: "Send a message to Lord Lei Hou and ask him to retreat quickly, and I will lead the vanguard warship to resist the enemy after it is broken!" ”

Lei De quickly saw the flag signal when he entered the side, but the arrow had to be sent, the Chu army and the water division had already deployed and charged, and it was too late to collect the troops now.

Most of the warships, even if they received the order to retreat, it was difficult to retreat in an orderly manner, and they would inevitably be pursued and killed by the Daming Naval Division.

"Fence it out!"

Lei Dejin could only act according to the original plan, that is, to use regular warships to sacrifice his life to retain the Ming army, and use thousands of fireships to set fire during the melee.

Ying Xuan observed the situation with a telescope, and when he saw the actions of the Chu army's sailors, he couldn't help but sigh: "Alas! ”

The place of the battle between the two sides is in the transition zone between Dongting Lake and Qingcao Lake.

The hundreds of warships of the Daming Navy Division gradually dispersed into a tooth shape of twenty months. The officers and soldiers of the naval division called it the "anti-moon array", and the prince Zhu Ming said that this was the battle line.

On the Chu army's side, the naval division still uses the traditional water battle formation, and also knows how to fire rockets and ballistas.

The warships of the Chu army wanted to fight on the side of the ship, and finally rushed to the front with medium and long-range firepower, and they would face close-range shotgun fire from wooden cannons.

The Manichaean soldiers were also human, and they were equally afraid of death, and many of the warships were already frightened and retreated.

Seeing that there was no hope of a melee on the sideboard, Lei Dejin could only hope for the fireship.

More than 1,000 small boats filled with firewood rushed forward in the gaps of the battlefield, and from time to time one was overturned by the waves. This is the shells of the iron cannon and the return cannon, and the waves set off by falling into the water.

Eventually, some small boats approached, only to be greeted by countless rockets and shotguns.

The rocket fell on the boat, the firewood and grass were quickly ignited, and the sailors and fishermen who operated the boat could only jump into the lake to escape, and they could not send the fire boat to the Ming warship at all.

"Retreat to the shallow water!"

Redjin tearfully ordered that this battle could not be fought, and it was good luck to be able to escape back a quarter of the warship.

After dozens of Chu warships were left behind, they launched a suicidal charge, trying to entangle the Daming Navy.

Even Yang Mi, who had a broken lower leg and a cracked tiger's mouth, was leading the warship forward.

Unfortunately, another shotgun opened, and the pebble hit the shield, which flew and hit him in the forehead. Yang Mi fainted directly with blood on his forehead, and a piece of shattered shield sawdust was embedded in his cheek, and the left hand holding the shield had been shocked and his wrist was broken.

The command flag of the Daming Navy Division waved, and several battle lines changed formations to counterattack, surrounding the enemy ships that had fled in the desert.

For the Chu army, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and even some of the people in charge of the broken rear were so frightened that they turned around and fled.

When Lei Dejin led the remnants of the Chu army's naval division and successfully retreated to the shallow water area of Qingcao Lake, he was horrified to find that there were only more than 20 warships left.

"Don't chase it, it's easy to run aground over there," Ying Xuan, who was watching the whole battle, finally spoke, "General Pang, rescue many people who have fallen into the water, if you don't resist, don't kill the prisoners, they are all good soldiers!" ”

Pang Dingzi knew that the crown prince valued Yingxuan, and there was no need to make trouble because of trivial matters, so he immediately issued a military order according to Yingxuan's suggestion.

The Daming Naval Division allowed the remnants of the enemy to flee, stretching out bamboo poles one by one to pull the enemies who fell into the water up.

The rescued were all dejected, and sat there honestly and were tied up.

There were also sailors with strong faith, who did not want to be rescued, and struggled to swim to the shore several miles away.

The more Ying Xuan looked at it, the more distressed he became, and said to Pang Dingzi: "General Pang, some of them are floating on the water, but they are just injured and unconscious, so let's rescue them too." There are too many floating corpses in Dongting Lake, which can easily cause plague. ”

Pang Dingzi resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and ordered: "The whole army fishes out people, and those who are not dead are brought back for treatment, and those who are dead are dragged ashore and burned!" ”

However, it was said that Lei Dejin led the remnants of the water division back to Lujiao Village, knelt in front of Zhong Yi and cried bitterly: "Prime Minister, it was my poor command that killed many brothers. Cut off my head! ”

Zhong Yi held his breath in his chest, and he was already so angry that he didn't want to scold.

Zhou Lun said: "Prime Minister, abandon the Antler Village, and the whole army will retreat to Xiangyin." After a great defeat in the water war, the grain routes of the Xiangjiang River and the Miluo River will be controlled by the enemy, and tens of thousands of troops will run out of food here sooner or later. Before the main force of the enemy army arrived, it was necessary to leave here as soon as possible. ”

Zhong Yi didn't hesitate for long, and then ordered: "The whole army retreats." Who will guard the wall? ”

Zhou Lun said: "I am the guard of the Antler Village, and I should come to defend the future." ”

Zhong Yi's eyes were moist, and he held Zhou Lun's hand and said, "Take care, general!" ”

Just when the main force of the Chu army was packing up its baggage and preparing to evacuate by land, the reconnaissance horse that was observing the enemy situation in the north galloped back: "The Ming army is coming!" ”

Bai Qi and Wang Yuan's tens of thousands of troops were stationed twenty miles away.

The Daming Navy Division has already started, how can the army sit idly by?

(End of chapter)