In Jiangyin, ships one after another, whether they are large transport ships with hundreds of tons or small and medium-sized transport ships with only dozens of tons, are all busy and nervous at this time. The fleet carrying the Fifth Infantry Division begins to set off together. At the same time,
There was also a cruiser, two frigates and six armed merchant ships to escort them and provide direct artillery support to the army troops when they landed.
But at this time, more people did not turn their attention to them, but looked upstream!
Because there are already densely packed Ming navy ships in the upper reaches. In addition to more than 30 obviously larger Guangzhou ships and sand ships, there are more small boats of only a few tons. These small boats are densely packed.
covering almost the entire river surface.
You don't need to look at it to know that many of these boats must be loaded with various fire starters. Most of these are arson boats!
Perhaps sensing that the real decisive battle was about to begin, the Ming Navy obviously showed no hesitation and launched all the movable ships in a short period of time.
And now, the river upstream of Jiangyin is densely packed with ships of the Ming Navy!
On the Jiangyin Fort, the commander of the Yangtze River Fleet, Rear Admiral Chen Pingyang, frowned: "The person who came here is evil!"
At the same time, a naval colonel next to him said: "Yes, look at this posture, the enemy navy has already come out in full force. There are more than 30 large ships of more than 100 tons, and medium-sized ships of dozens of tons."
There are more than sixty ships, and the number of small boats is nearly two hundred. This number is basically consistent with the number we obtained from previous investigations!"
After that, he showed a hint of sadness: "The enemy troops are coming out in full force. I'm afraid the firepower of the fort is not enough, and there is no way to provide too much support to the fleet!"
At this time, Chen Pingyang said: "The fort only needs to provide covering firepower according to the predetermined plan. The rest depends on Mr. Ouyang!"
"In this battle, Mr. Ouyang personally leads the main force of the First Fleet to fight. This battle will be won!"
At the same time, on the First Fleet flagship Lianzhou, Ouyang Gui, accompanied by a group of naval generals, used binoculars to look at the densely packed Ming navy upstream, but he and Chen Pingyang and others at the shore fort were worried.
Very different, Ouyang Gui now looks full of confidence!
Ouyang Gui is confident, naturally not because of arrogance, but because he has confidence in the strength of the First Fleet!
In order to cooperate with the army in crossing the river, the navy spent a lot of money this time, and basically all the combat ships that could be mobilized were mobilized here.
Here, not only are there battleships from the First Fleet and the Yangtze River Fleet, but the Second Fleet has also dispatched its capital ships to the north to support the operation. In addition, some inland river vessels from the Minjiang Fleet and the Pearl River have also been dispatched.
At this time, the Tang Navy gathered on the river in Jiangyin Port, including three cruisers, nine frigates, 16 armed merchant ships of more than 200 tons, and six patrol ships of 150 tons.
Then there are about fifty inland river gunboats of tens of tons to assist in operations, and more than two hundred transport ships of various navies themselves or temporarily requisitioned.
Some of the warships will directly escort the transport ships to land, while most of them will conduct interception operations.
So many ships also cover the entire river!
Although the Ming navy on the opposite side was large in number and prepared to take advantage of its geographical advantage to launch a fire attack, Ouyang Gui's strength was not weak and he was well prepared.
Since the Northern Expedition was determined at the beginning of the year, the Navy has been studying how to cooperate with the Army in crossing the river. At the beginning, the Army was not planning to land in Tongzhou, but planned to quarry at a traditional battleground for military strategists.
They crossed the river and landed at Iso, but this plan was firmly rejected by the navy.
Because Caishiji is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the navy's strength in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is weak. Although there are nearly a dozen armed merchant ships, these ships can barely defend the Jinling River on weekdays, but it is almost impossible to cover the army's landing.
possible things.
Without the cover of the navy, the army's landing across the river would be nothing more than a joke!
Later, the Navy proposed landing in Tongzhou, east of Jiangyin, but the Army was not willing to do so, because if it landed in Tongzhou, it would be too difficult to cross the river, and the logistics would be more troublesome, and
It is too far away from Yangzhou. After the landing, the troops are small and it is easy to be counterattacked by the Ming army. However, if the scale of the landing is large, it will be very difficult.
At the same time, it will also face the threat of the Ming Navy, and the Ming Navy can attack from upstream, so the risk will be even greater.
Later, the navy made a guarantee that it would use all its main force to form a blockade in Jiangyin to ensure that the Ming Navy could not cross the Jiangyin blockade. At the same time, it would also gather more transport ships to ensure that it could defeat the army at once.
The divisions will be transported ashore, and one division will be transported on each round trip, striving to send the entire Third Army to the other side within two days.
The navy gave a sure deal, and only after all the main forces were deployed did the army agree to the plan to land in Tongzhou.
Now, the battle plan has been launched. The Fifth Infantry Division of the Third Army has boarded the ship and crossed the river under the cover of a small number of naval warships to prepare to land in Tongzhou. At the same time, other troops of the army are also preparing intensively. Although all
There are not many ships left, but they can transport as many as they can. Now, every quarter of an hour is very precious.
The army is crossing the river to land, and it's time to test the navy, because the Ming navy is coming, and it comes in full force as soon as it arrives. Those who come are not good!
After taking back the telescope, Ouyang Gui turned sideways and said to the chief of staff next to him: "Instruct all squadrons to prepare for battle according to the scheduled plan!"
Immediately, the Lianzhou flew a semaphore to convey the latest orders to each squadron.
The huge fleet began to change its formation and was divided into three. However, it did not deploy a single line of formation as usual in sea battles, but arranged three columns.
According to the plan formulated by the navy, in this battle, it is almost an impossible task to stop the nearly two hundred arson ships of the Ming Navy.
The Ming Navy not only had many ships, but also moved down the river. As long as they were not sunk on the spot, they could go all the way down the river and then be loaded onto the warships and transport ships of the Tang Navy that were almost facing the river.
So this time the Tang Navy changed its traditional tactics and changed horizontal formations into columns.
Since these fireships cannot be stopped head-on, let them drift down the river, and then use the huge crossfire of the column to smash them directly!
And this is why they formed three columns, because in this way they can maintain control of most of the river and make full use of crossfire to annihilate these arson boats.
Such tactics also placed higher demands on the firepower of the Tang Navy, because without sufficient firepower, it would be impossible to destroy these arson ships.
And once such a large number of arson ships are allowed to flow down the river, break through the interception of battleships, and then rush into the huge, slow-moving transport ship fleet, it will be almost a disaster.
"They are almost there, now the distance is less than 700 meters!"
"The fort is about to fire!"
The three columns have three cruisers with the most powerful firepower as their respective flagships, followed by numerous frigates and armed merchant ships, and at the rear are several new Lianping-class patrol ships.
Of course, in addition to these capital ships, there are nearly fifty ships of only a few tens of tons. The navy built them directly on the spot in the Yangtze River Basin, or simply transferred the inland river gunboats from the Minjiang and Pearl River fleets. They are also indispensable in this battle.
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These gunboats are small and very flexible. Those arson boats pose little threat to them, and what they have to do is to destroy these arson boats one by one!
Not long after, the artillery from the Jiangyin Fort on the shore opened fire!
The terrain of Jiangyin Fort is relatively high, and it is easier to aim. Of course, what is more important is that the ships of the Ming Navy are almost densely packed all over the river, and Jiangyin Fort has a lot of artillery. There are not only the large and small banks of Jiangyin Fort itself.
There are dozens of anti-cannons. In addition, the three independent howitzer battalions of the Army's Third Army, the Sixth Artillery Regiment, and the Eighth Artillery Regiment also moved all their artillery to the Jiangyin Fort, bringing the number of artillery here to more than two hundred.
More than two hundred artillery pieces fired one after another, and the shells they fired were basically arson bombs, grenades, chain bombs and other shells that had destructive power on ships, but ordinary solid bullets did not hit many.
Seeing the almost barrage-like shells fired by the Jiangyin fort, even Ouyang Gui on the river couldn't help but nodded. This level of firepower, even for the navy, could only be achieved by concentrating the main fleet.
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However, such a level of firepower did not move Ouyang Gui, because the firepower of the navy's main fleet was even more powerful. The huge fleet under his command had a total of more than 400 anti-ship artillery pieces weighing more than five kilograms, and its firepower
Directly exceeding twice the firepower of the fort!
In addition, the battleships are also equipped with a large number of shotguns. Although these shotguns are not very useful in naval battles, they are very useful against arson ships that only have a few tons or dozens of tons.
In this interception battle, the Navy and Army of the Tang Dynasty were preparing to intercept the Ming army's arson ships with unprecedented firepower coverage, and used a total of more than 600 artillery pieces to cover the landing of the army carrying transport ships in Tongzhou!
As rounds of barrages were fired from the fort, the ships of the Ming Navy that came quickly from upstream were inevitably hit and suffered different injuries. Some hulls were damaged, and some were directly hit.
Fires broke out, some resulted in heavy casualties, masts were broken, sails were damaged, and so on.
However, the Ming navy had many ships, so they continued down the river!