In the early morning, the fog drifted on the river, and bursts of fighting sounds came from the depths of the fog. Soon, dozens of warships were seen sailing out of the depths of the fog, passing through the Yudai River at the foot of Tonggu Mountain, and heading to the lake west of Tongling City.
Drive away.
The dozens of warships were in a state of disarray. The war tents and sides of the ships were covered with arrows, and there were still pools of blood on the decks. Some generals must have been injured or even sacrificed in the early morning water battle.
In addition to the three warships still emitting plumes of black smoke, and the navy officers on the deck were busy extinguishing the fire, there was also a warship with a huge hole torn open in the left front side, revealing the broken ship plank, which was obviously
During the water battle, he was severely hit by an enemy ship. Only because the watertight cabin was still functioning, he managed to escape into the Yudai River and was not directly sunk in the Yangtze River.
However, a dozen larger enemy ships chased them out of the drifting mist, but they did not dare to pursue them into the relatively spacious Yudai River. Instead, they stopped on the river outside the mouth of the river.
I can't go around.
To the east of the river mouth, in a camp located at the foot of Tonggu Mountain, the generals standing on the wall of the camp stared at the enemy ships on the river. Several trebuchets in the camp had already lifted the hanging boxes filled with stones high.
Lift it up and wait for the enemy ship to dare to chase into the Yudai River, then launch the trebuchet.
It was obvious that the enemy was very vigilant this time. They stared at the mouth of the river for a long time and finally went down the river.
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To the northeast of Tongguan Mountain, five or six miles away, Tongling City, like most county towns at that time, was built in a square shape, about 700 steps deep; to the north of Tongling City, it seemed low and stretched only from east to west.
Tonggu Mountain, which is five miles away, stands like a green barrier along the river.
The Yudai River meanders southward from the foot of the western foothills of Tonggu Mountain. It is the main river connecting the Tianjing Lake in the west of Tongling City with the Yangtze River.
Because Tianjing Lake is close to Tongling County, local people have cultivated land around the lake for hundreds of years, developed farming continuously, and built numerous fortresses.
Shi Hu led the vanguard troops and horses to camp at the eastern foot of Tongguan Mountain in the south of Tongling County. After Xu Huaide was granted the authority to control the troops and horses of King Qin in the world, he quickly rushed to Tongling and temporarily set up the camp in Tongling City.
In addition to requisitioning several fortresses along the Tianjing Lake as garrison camps, Xu Huai also set up several military camps on Tonggu Mountain, and ordered the 15,000 Suwei Imperial Army generals under his control to immediately attack Yu Gong, Ling Jian,
Generals Yu Zheng, Zhou Shu, Han Wende and other generals stationed there and took a peek at Lujiang County on the north bank.
Just as Liu Yan envisioned when he stood on the banks of the Qinhuai River, the Jingxiang Army relied on many requisitioned military villages and camps along Tonggu Mountain and Tianjing Lake, and used iron wire ropes to control the Yudai River and the two main waterways entering Tianjing Lake to the west.
The Heisha River forms several barrage cables that can be opened and closed quickly.
The Jingzhou navy was initially a small-scale force that broke into the navy's blockade. Some of the warships and navy officers were transferred to Tongling to rendezvous and took refuge in Tianjing Lake.
The Japanese soldiers were still very stubborn at that time. Taking advantage of the strong and huge boats, they forced their way into the Yuzhu River and Heisha River channels, hoping to annihilate the small group of Jingzhou naval forces in Tianjing Lake, which was only a dozen miles in radius.
After entering the river, the retreat was cut off by the river barrage cables that were suddenly straightened by the camp on the bank——
By chopping with a sharp ax and using the hull of the ship to hold the iron ropes against the pile foundations on both sides, the enemy ship may be trapped by the iron ropes for less than a stick of incense.
However, in such a short period of time, the catapults that quickly moved into position on both sides of the river were used as living targets to throw kerosene cans. The advance warships of the Jingzhou Navy quickly counterattacked, suppressing the enemy ships in the narrow river and launched a fierce attack. In the end, only
Less than half of the enemy ships fled in panic, while other enemy ships were either burned through the ship's planks and sank into the water, or were directly captured...
The soldiers suffered two losses, losing hundreds of men and horses.
(This chapter is not finished, please turn the page.) Only then did I realize that the land on both sides cannot be controlled. When a warship enters narrow waters, it will be a living target when faced with a fast-moving catapult.
From now on, I no longer dare to enter the Yudai River and Heisha River without permission.
However, Xu Huai set up the main camp of the infantry, cavalry and navy on the south bank in Tongling. He would never be satisfied just because the navy did not dare to enter the Tianjing Lake Lei Pond without permission.
His initial goal was to stop the Lubing navy from going upstream from Tongling and entering the river west of Tongling.
In the past month, as long as the warships of the Lubing Navy dared to appear on the river north of Tongling, the Jingzhou Navy would fiercely fight out of Tianjing Lake, with a small number of fast warships, such as stern ships,
Fighting ships and large-winged ships form an assault fleet to encircle and suppress lone enemy ships, or assault the flanks of the enemy ship array.
The assault fleet often fired arrows indiscriminately, or used sling crossbows to throw out several fire oil cans and then left. They never entangled with the prisoner warships on the river.
It's like a ferocious wild wolf pounces on a large but inflexible prey, bites it, and then turns away.
The Lubing Navy seemed to be strong, but in the past month of entanglement, both sides suffered disproportionate casualties, so they did not dare to trespass into the Yangtze River waters west of Tongling.????????????????
So as not to expose the weak flanks.
In Songyang County, more than a hundred miles upstream of Tongling, Fan Zongqi led the main reinforcements from Beijing and Xiangyang. He also relied on Songyang City and the nearby Qingtong Ridge, Shiji Mountain and Caizi Lake to make the same deployment to attack the Japanese navy.
Perform double containment.
At the same time, the Jingzhou Navy also used the two water camps of Caizi Lake in Songyang and Tianjing Lake in Tongling to recruit the remnants of the Jianye Navy. At present, in addition to Nancai, it still retains a certain amount of naval force, which is closely related to the Ezhou Navy under the jurisdiction of Jingbei Road on the south bank.
In order to guard against the possibility of the Japanese navy marching straight into the country, the Jingzhou navy is in Songyang, and the strength of Tongling has reached more than 4,000, with more than 200 large and small warships.
The site for building the floating ferry was not directly located in Tongling, but eighty miles upstream of Tongling, between Qiupu and Songyang.
At present, riverside camps with stable bank foundations and higher terrain have been selected to build riverside gate camps.
Because the mountains on both sides were higher from the river beach, Xu Huai ordered thousands of people to be requisitioned from Songyang and Qiupu counties to quarry stones from Huaiyang Mountain and Huangshan Mountain on both sides and transport them to Chaying, next to Chaying.
Giant stone piers were built as a fixed foundation for the floating ferry.
It is unimaginable to use traditional iron ring ropes across the river between Songyang and Qiupu.
After all, on the open river surface of four to five miles, a strong enough iron ring cable weighs more than 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms. At the same time, a pontoon bridge needs to be built, which requires at least six to eight giant iron ring cables, plus the boats used to build the pontoon bridge.
, the weight of the pallet and the impact of the Yangtze River water flow, how can it be possible to find suitable fixtures from both sides?
Qiupu and Songyang both have mountains and huge and towering stone cliffs, but they are far away from the river beach.
In addition to considering using lighter iron wire ropes to build giant stone piers on both sides of the bank for fixation, Beijing and Xiangzhou are also starting to cast dozens of giant anchors weighing over 10,000 kilograms in Yunyang and other places to fix floating bridges.
Resist the impact of water flow on the pontoon.
Even so, Yu Chengzhen, Zhuang Shouxin and others were still unsure whether the floating bridge could be used normally during the flood season. After completing the relevant preparatory work, they rushed to Tongling to report to Xu Huai and expressed this concern.
"Whether the pontoon bridge can be built in the end is no longer the key, you just try your best to build it!"
Xu Huai stood on the top of Tonggu Mountain with sleeves and comforted Yu Chengzhen, Zhuang Shouxin and others - building a Yangtze River floating ferry that can still be used in the flood season can be said to be a new test for the engineering and construction department. Yu Chengzhen, Zhuang Shouxin are in Biyang
He couldn't sit still and took action himself.
Although Tonggu Mountain is only 20 to 30 feet high, it is close to the Yangtze River, with lakes or silt deposited plains on both sides. The field of vision is still wide, and one can clearly see the north bank of the Yangtze River seven or eight miles away.
When Zhuang Shouxin came to report on the preparations for the Qiupu-Conongyang ferry, Xu Huai comforted them not to be anxious.
In fact, as long as they can successfully erect river blocking iron cables on the Yangtze River, from Qiupu County in Chizhou and Songyang County in Shuzhou to the west, the Yangtze River water transportation will be completely restored to smooth flow.
At that time, not only grain, fodder, weapons, troops and horses from Jingnan, Jingbei, Jingxiang and even Sichuan and Shu can be continuously moved eastward through waterways, and directly transported to Qiupu County and Songyang County where Chizhou Prefecture is located.
People and horses on the south bank can also go north by ferry, no longer need to stick to the pontoon bridge.
"The soldiers also want to learn from us and build a water camp in the area near the Lujiang River relying on Dafan Mountain and Fengsha Lake?"
Xu Wujiang came to Tongling this time, planning to stay in Tongling after Xu Huai personally went to the north bank to supervise the battle. At this time, he stood on the top of Tonggu Mountain and looked at the opposite coastal area for the first time and saw a group of Japanese soldiers.
The team is building several camps at the southern foot of Dafan Mountain in Lujiang County around Fengsha Lake. It is obvious that they want to imitate Jingxiang and build in the Linjiang area of Lujiang County to facilitate the rapid departure of warships?????????
???????A water camp base for movement and stationing.
"Our intention is obvious. If the soldiers want to contain it, there seems to be no other way." Xu Huai smiled slightly and said, "Let them follow suit. At worst, the water battle will be brought forward!"
Xu Huai set up the south bank camp in Tongling. One key point is that Tongling is the eastern end of the Huangshan Mountains. More than two hundred miles to the east is basically a flat plain. Only between Dangtu and Lishui are low mountains such as Niushou Mountain.
They are still under the control of the rebels.
Xu Huai only used the Niushoushan Rebel Army to undertake the defense along the river. Considering that the Japanese soldiers dared to land in Gyeonggi Province in large numbers again, he could quickly dispatch troops directly from the Tongling camp and take advantage of the right time, place and people to fight with the Japanese soldiers crossing the river.
Conduct a battle - In fact, he set up the south bank camp in Tongguan Mountain, Tongling, which frightened the Japanese soldiers and did not dare to land on the south bank in large numbers.
Of course, another more critical reason is that opposite Tongling is Lujiang County, which is heavily surrounded by Japanese soldiers.
If we want to solve the siege of Huaixi, the first key point is to first solve the siege of Lujiang River and open the passage to Chaohu in the east and Shucheng and Hefei in the north.
At present, the main station of the Lubing Navy is Chaohu.
Although Chaohu is safe enough, for the warships of the Imperial Navy to enter the Yangtze River through the Ruxukou channel, they must first pass through a nearly hundred-mile-long canal waterway, and then go upstream from the north of Wuhu County, which requires a two-hundred-mile waterway.
, to reach the waters of the Yangtze River between Tongling and Lujiang counties.
This means that on that day, Xu Huai orders the warships of the Tongling Water Camp to go out together with the infantry and cavalry gathered in Songyang, Qianshan and other places to occupy the riverside mountains such as Dafan Mountain in the south of Lujiang County. The Japanese navy may not be able to arrive in time.
Cooperate with his infantry and cavalry for sniper operations.
Therefore, the Lu soldiers imitated the water camps of Beijing and Xiangzhou in Songyang and Tongling, and correspondingly built water camp bases in the Linjiang area in the south of Lujiang County, relying on the mountainous terrain, hoping to rely on their superior naval power to, on the one hand, station the garrison.
The Jingxiang naval forces in Tongling were suppressed within Tianjing Lake and did not dare to enter the Yangtze River easily. On the other hand, they wanted to more conveniently attack Jingxiang's deployment along the river in Songyang, Qiupu and Qianshan through waterways, and even prevent Jingxiang from deploying along the river.
Set up river blocking iron cables on the Yangtze River...
In fact, when the Lujiang water camp base in Lujiang is quickly completed and the Tongling water camp enters the mouth of the Yangtze River, it will be less than twenty miles away from where the Lubao navy enters the Yangtze River mouth.
The water camp bases of both sides are so close that it will be difficult to avoid a large-scale water battle, unless you are willing to be suppressed by the other side and not show up in the inner lake...
