Chapter 928 The Battle of the Yangtze River (Part 2)
More and more warships sank to the bottom of the river during the Tang Army's advance, but the Big Huanglong warships rarely sank, and their sturdiness was not bad. All the gunboats of the Yong Army gathered in the third echelon, and the attack power of the artillery shells became more and more intense.
The attack became more violent, and the big yellow dragon, which was moving forward with a long sail, was covered with thick black smoke and flames, but still did not get close to Yong's army.
The gunboats had already retreated within the range of the artillery camp on the shore. In order to make it easier for the artillery camp to attack, they retreated to the lower reaches of the riverside pier. The Tang army, which was catching up with the wind, had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation. When they turned the bow and prepared
When pursuing downstream, they actually turned the broad hull towards the Xuanwu artillery camp on the shore.
Li Siye was overjoyed and immediately ordered the Xuanwu Artillery Battalion to bombard them desperately. Dozens of Big Huanglongs were enveloped in dense artillery fire.
Guo Ziyi shouted until her voice was almost hoarse: "Don't get close to the river bank, retreat! Retreat to the other bank!"
After receiving the flag order from Guo Linggong, all the ships quickly turned around and retreated. When they pursued Yong's army, the wind was fast, but now the retreat turned into a headwind, so they had to quickly lower the sails and row quickly with manpower to retreat towards the south bank.
How could Yong's army let go of the opportunity to beat the enemy? The Yangtze River Navy quickly lowered its sails and pursued the Tang army in the direction of retreat.
Guo Ziyi knew very well that once the Tang army's fleet retreated into the water stronghold in Jiangxia, it would inevitably become a fixed target and would be sunk one by one by the Yong army's gunboats on the river.
The defeat of the warships in the first battle does not mean that they are defeated. Since the two armies cannot resist the Yong Army's artillery fire on the shore in a head-on confrontation, it is better to temporarily retreat to Chibi upstream.
Although the Tang army lost the first battle in the Yangtze River water battle, the navy still had an absolute advantage over the Yong army. There were more than 200 large Huanglong warships alone, and there were more than a thousand other small warships of various types. All of these were
When Li Siye and Shi Siming were struggling in the north, their Tang Dynasty had accumulated a fortune in the south for seven or eight years. Such a scale and strength could not be caught up by Yong's army, which took half a year to build dozens of ships.
Guo Ziyi has a longer-term plan. Now the city of Jiangxia on the other side cannot be defended. He will order Jiangxia's troops to retreat to Ezhou, Wuchang. Once the Yong army gains a foothold in Jiangxia, it will continue to transport troops to the south bank and return troops to the south bank.
To supply more food supplies, the Yangtze River will be very busy by then. By then, his navy will move down the river from the upper reaches, using the water of the Yangtze River to block the Yong Army's troop transport and supplies, and then invade Jiangxia.
The Tang Army would completely lose contact with the north bank, and the result of cutting off food and grass supplies would be to be surrounded and eaten by the Tang Army.
After the Tang army withdrew to Chibi upstream, Li Siye immediately ordered gunboats to advance towards Jiangxia, and the Yangtze River Navy bombarded the city of Jiangxia on the river.
Jiangxia's defenders received Guo Ziyi's instructions and immediately retreated toward Wuchang to avoid suffering greater losses.
Li Siye decided to first transport 130,000 troops across the river by ship and completely occupy Jiangxia and Wuchang. General Duan Xiushi suggested to him: "My lord, the Tang army's naval force is still strong, and they occupy the natural water conservancy of Chibi upstream. Once they take advantage of the natural water conservancy in Chibi,
When we rush down from the upper reaches when transporting troops, our navy will definitely not be able to resist it, and may even be cut into two pieces by the Tang army. Our army remaining in Jiangxia will lose support from the other side and will soon be eaten by the other side. Our army can only completely
Only by controlling the Yangtze River can we conquer Jiangdong prefectures."
Li Siye nodded, that was indeed the case, and asked Duan Xiushi: "In your opinion, what should we do?"
"We should wait for the opportunity and step up shipbuilding. When our warships get close to the Tang army, we can defeat the Tang army's navy in one fell swoop and control the Yangtze River. By then, we will be able to unify Jiangdong."
At present, it seems that this is indeed the safest way, but they are building ships here, and the Tang Army across the Yangtze River is also stepping up shipbuilding, and compared with the Tang Army's navy, the learning cost of his navy is too high. The Tang Army recruits navy, per capita
A good swimmer. They formed a navy but the average person was a landlubber. It took six months of training for his Yangtze River navy to get rid of symptoms such as seasickness and acclimatization.
Moreover, building ships and fighting wars is too expensive. The north was too damaged by the Anshi rebels and needs to recuperate. This year, he exempted more than a dozen states in Henan, Hebei and other provinces from paying taxes, and only relied on Guanzhong, Hexi, Hanzhong, and Shu.
The combined taxes of the middle areas are probably not more than one-third of the Jiangdong occupied by Li Yu. Although he has the blessing of Xuanwu heavy artillery, when it comes to shipbuilding, he cannot compete with wealth and has not suffered the damage of war.
From Koto.
There is a more important point. It is too wasteful to waste artillery shells in the artillery battle on the river. These are all spent on running water of copper coins. Shooting out a shell costs the treasury expenses. How can he fight in this chaos?
It has been standing for five or six years, all because of the capital earned from operating the Western Region Chamber of Commerce in the three places in Beiting, Anxi, Hexi. Now it is almost full.
Li Siye wanted to clear out Guo Ziyi's Yangtze River navy at the lowest cost, but he couldn't think of a way for a while, so he had to order the water workers at Jiangcheng Wharf to step up shipbuilding.
One day when he was walking along the riverside, he saw a puffer fish floating in the water with its bloated belly. He immediately said excitedly: "Now we have a way to defeat Guo Ziyi's Yangtze River Navy."
Like landmines, mines are low-cost weapons that do not require much technical content, but they are as powerful as a suicidal gunpowder boat. Li Siye ordered the craftsmen to cast bronze mines according to his ideas, and filled them with a large amount of gunpowder and gunpowder.
Iron pieces can be suspended in water and are difficult to find.
The completed mines had to be tested for their power first. He specially ordered a target ship to be built to simulate the situation of a ship hitting a mine. Only a loud roar was heard, the river water was thrown ninety feet high, and the front end of the target ship was destroyed.
It became a pile of broken wood.
Although the target ship was not as good as the Tang Army's Big Huanglong, it was still strong enough and the power requirement should have been met. However, the triggering seal was difficult to deal with. The bigger problem was that the Chibi where the Tang Navy stayed was upstream of Hankou, and mines were not added to the river.
If it is fixed, it will float down the river until it enters the sea.
He finally came up with a brilliant idea. He used a ship to pull a rope on both sides of the Yangtze River and tied it to a heavy object like a pontoon. The mine's signature line was connected to the rope. When it suffered a violent impact, the mine would
It broke away from the rope and exploded violently.
Li Siye deployed more than 50 mine nets in the upper reaches of Hankou, and scattered more than 6,000 mines in total, turning the entire Yangtze River into a restricted area for life.
After laying the mines, in order to deceive Tang Shuijun into fighting, he decided to sail all the warships out of Hankou Village in three days and sail them across the Yangtze River. At the same time, he sent all troop transport ships to and from the Yangtze River, with scarecrows on the boats to keep them out of sight.
After the secret sentry of the Tang Army on the other side of the Yangtze River learned of the Yong Army's large-scale troop transport, they immediately reported it to Guo Ziyi.
Guo Ziyi had been waiting for a long time and immediately ordered the Tang navy to go out in full force. The sails covered the sky and the sun. More than two hundred large Huanglong warships marched side by side on the river. The pig iron rams were advancing rapidly, and the soldiers had already raised their shooting poles high.
.
Today, Guo Ziyi was determined to win. He took advantage of the current in the upper reaches, and the river wind also added power to it. In addition, the soldiers on the bottom of the boat hit the water with their oars, and the speed of the boat increased steadily. Even if Li Siye arranged a copper wall on the river, he could easily move it.
They crashed.
Li Siye was also standing on the gunboat on the river today. He looked upstream at the end of the sky and saw countless sails protruding, and Guo Ziyi's navy appeared.
Guo Ziyi stood on the Big Huanglong flagship, waved the command flag and shouted loudly: "Thousands of ships are launching together, advancing rapidly, crushing the enemy and blocking the Yangtze River!"
"Drink! Drink! Block the Yangtze River." The soldiers with swords and guns stood on the deck and their voices were like thunder.
The first big Huanglong that rushed forward jolted violently, and with a loud bang, the entire hull was torn apart, and waves several feet high were stirred on the water. The second and third ships followed.
There was a violent explosion underneath them, and one of the ships was completely broken into two pieces. The soldiers fell into the water and followed the waves...