Chapter 206: The Battle of Pengshan Water (4)

If the bombardment of the Mongolian convoy by the Thunderbolt gunboat is peeling an onion, then the blasting ship is a quick knife to cut the onion against the Mongolian army. After three rounds of blasting boats, the front half of the Mongol flotilla, which now became the second half, had been lost. The command ship, which had been surrounded by layers in the center, was now at the rear of the escape route. In addition to the heavy and slow movement of the Mongolian command boats, but also because the Mongolian ships are running in all directions, the wide river surface is also blocked, and there is no waterway to pass ahead.

Before the smoke of the last round of gunpowder had dissipated, a new wave of blasting boats from the Thunderbolt Army rushed again, aiming at the Mongolian command ship. Prior to this, Le Quanan ventured to the top of the ship's mast, discovered the largest and most luxurious ship through the telescope, and concluded that it was the command ship of the Mongolian army. Under the attack of the first three waves of demolition boats, the Mongolian ships that stood in front of the command ship were all destroyed. At that moment, he ordered the fourth wave of ten demolition ships to carry out a concentrated assault, and it was necessary to destroy this ship in one fell swoop in order to destroy the command system of the Mongolian army.

Seeing the blast boat rushing towards him, the Mongolian fleet was screaming again. Some people desperately shot rockets at the boat, and some people manipulated the bed crossbow at the stern of the ship to shoot, but the rocket had no effect, and the bed crossbow did not hit at all. Seeing that the blasting boat was getting closer and closer, some people on the Mongolian army began to jump into the water, some people who were not afraid of death drove small boats to meet them, and some people closed their eyes in despair.

After another earth-shattering explosion, a third of the ships at the rear of the Mongol fleet turned into flying logs. Le Quanan saw that moment through the telescope: first the flowing river suddenly stagnated, and then the river around the explosion point suddenly rushed into the air, even revealing the stones at the bottom of the river, and the next moment the river fell, the river soared, and the river rushed to all directions with a huge impact, and even stopped the advance momentum of the Perak army fleet, and pushed the remnants of the Mongolian ships downstream.

This wave of blasting ships basically exploded around the command ships of the Mongolian army, although the ships destroyed were not as good as a few times, but they achieved the goal of Le Quan'an - to completely destroy the command system of the Mongolian army. Under the huge blast wave of the explosion, not only the command ship of the Mongolian army was wiped out, but even the ship on which his own soldiers were traveling was completely destroyed. However, this concentrated blasting inadvertently cleared the blocked waterway and accelerated the escape of the remnants of the Mongolian army. Before the smoke cleared, Le Quanan commanded the Thunderbolt army to chase downstream.

The remaining Mongolian fleet still has more than 50 ships. Except for more than a dozen of these ships that panicked and headed downstream in the direction of Meizhou, most of them sailed into the Jinjiang waterway and headed for Chengdu. Because the Jinjiang waterway was much narrower than the Minjiang waterway, which was conducive to the escape of the Mongolian army with small boats, but not conducive to the pursuit of the thunderbolt army with large boats, Le Quanan only sent light boats to follow the pursuit. Because there is a fleet of Thunderbolt troops in the direction of Meizhou, although it is dominated by heavy artillery ships and baggage ships, there are five light artillery ships and ten escort ships, and there is no need to worry about the more than ten Mongolian military ships being able to escape, so Le Quanan only sent five escort ships to pursue. As for the main fleet, it stayed behind to treat the wounded, urgently repair damaged hulls and clean up the battlefield.

Just when there was a fierce battle on the surface of Pengshan Water, Ouyang Xuan and his party also approached Meizhou City. The loss of Meizhou City in the flood was not serious, except for half of the ships of the navy army capsized, the rest of the Mongolian army is still intact. There were 1,500 new annexed troops and 500 cavalry in the city, plus 500 cavalry who fled from Pengshan City, which can be described as a strong army. The special brigade that followed did not dare to approach Meishan City, and was still stationed on the mountain five miles outside the city. Although the individual soldiers of the special brigade were strong and had firearms, Dong Hu did not dare to be careless, so he asked his subordinates to dig several trenches, build two earthen walls, and lay a lot of mines on the way up the mountain. Ouyang Xuan's order to him was to only contain outside the city, not attack. As for the main force to attack Meizhou, it is naturally borne by the naval brigade.

After Ouyang Xuan arrived in Meizhou with the fleet, he asked Yu Laodu, who accompanied him, to conduct a tentative attack. Unexpectedly, the Mongolian naval forces in Meizhou were extremely fierce, and as soon as the heavy artillery ships of the Thunderbolt Army bombarded the target at the head of the city, they directly rushed towards the heavy artillery ships, and they were not afraid of the fire of the escort ships and light artillery ships. When the heavy artillery ships retreated out of range, they retreated and hid under the protection of the city's guns. It is said that the Mongolian naval army stationed in Meizhou did not fall behind in the confrontation with the Jiading naval army, but played with self-confidence, so it was not passively beaten. Although half of the ships capsized due to the flood, there are still more than 70 ships after salvage and repair. These Mongol ships were light and fast, and if they swarmed up, they might burst next to the heavy gunboats.

The heavy artillery ships were extremely expensive, and one was worth more than the more than 70 small boats of the Mongolian army. With the insufficient firepower density of the escort ships and light artillery ships in the front, Ouyang Xuan was definitely unwilling to take the risk of forcibly attacking the city. At that moment, he ordered the fleet to anchor and wait for Le Quanan to lead the main force of the navy to come. As long as the density of firepower is sufficient, the small boats of the Mongolian army will be destroyed halfway no matter how fast they are, and as long as the enemy's naval army is eliminated, it is the time when the heavy artillery ships show their might, and they only need to gather fire and salvo to destroy the city defense, and the rest can be easily solved by the infantry of the field brigade and the training battalion.

In the process of waiting, a lot of wreckage and corpses drifted downstream, most of which belonged to the Mongolian army, and very few belonged to the Perak army. Ouyang Xuan deduced from this situation that the naval army had won, and it was a big victory. After waiting for a day, Le Quanan led the main force of the water brigade to the waters of Meizhou City. Ouyang Xuan did not rush to order the siege of the city, but first listened to Le Quan'an's report on the battle situation, and then the staff drew up a battle plan. According to the situation of cleaning the battlefield, Le Quanan judged that the Mongolian army had destroyed at least 260 ships and captured 33 ships in this battle. Twenty-one of these ships ran aground, and the other twelve were abandoned on their way to Meizhou. The Mongol soldiers lost about 2,000 men, most of whom were blown up or drowned, and only a few were burned, and the Perak army only captured more than 600 prisoners.

Compared with the losses of the Mongol army, the losses of the Perak army were considered small, with less than 60 ships destroyed or damaged. Of these, three frigates were burned and eight were damaged, forty were blasted and six were sunk. In terms of casualties, more than 220 people were killed and wounded, including more than 80 dead and more than 140 lightly and seriously injured. Most of the dead and wounded were wounded by Mongolian arms and artillery ships, followed by melee combat, and then by the sailors of the demolition ships.

Although the blast ship was not a suicide attack, the casualty rate was extremely high. These demomen are all volunteers with hatred for their families and their country, and although they know that they will die, they still rush to the enemy line without hesitation. Of the 40 sailors who operated the blast boat, 11 were killed, 26 were seriously injured, and only 3 were unharmed, and the casualty rate was as high as 90 percent. However, the effect was also extremely significant, with it estimated that at least half of the ships lost by the Mongols were sunk by demolition boats.

Although this battle was a complete victory, after listening to Le Quanan's battle report, Ouyang Xuan's face was solemn, and he ordered the fleet to lower the flag at half-mast to mourn the victims of the Perak Army. Those Perak soldiers who bravely sacrificed their lives will always be remembered.