Chapter 610 0605 [Era-Shaking Crush]

“Dong, dong, dong!”

Zhong Yi had just ordered the retreat, and before the messenger went to execute it, someone was already beating the drum to help.

Zhong Yi crouched and rushed to another section of the city wall, shouting at Zhou Lun who was beating the drum himself: “What do you want to do?”

Zhou Lun said: “Prime Minister, the arrow is on the string and must be shot. The navy has already entered Qingcao Lake. If they move forward bravely, they can still fight. Once they retreat, they will be annihilated. The enemy navy will chase them down!”

“How can we win a direct naval battle?” Zhong Yi was very pessimistic.

Zhou Lun said: “The decision should have been made a few days ago. Either the army will go north for a decisive battle, or the whole army will retreat to Xiangyin. The prime minister dared not advance or retreat. If he defended here, he would only be beaten. It is better to fight to the death today. The navy of Lujiaozhai should also go out to help!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the gate of the water fort was opened. Gao Lai led more than 60 warships of various sizes and attacked the Ming navy, which was ten times larger than his own, intending to cooperate with Lei Dejin and Yang Yao to attack from both sides.

Zhong Yi leaned out to see the situation clearly, and lay down on the top of the city wall dejectedly: "We can't win. The enemy's firearms are powerful. You are going to die."

Zhou Lun said: "Prime Minister, if you are afraid of death, don't fight. You can still fight to the death at this time. If you hide and dare not fight, you won't even have a chance to fight in the future."

Zhong Yi didn't say anything else, but Zhou Lun ordered the water fort to fire, that is, to use catapults to help the friendly forces.

The large area of ​​land between Lu Lake and the mouth of Xiangjiang River in later generations all belonged to the waters of Qingcao Lake at this time.

But the lake bottom was already very seriously silted up. Hills like Shijun Mountain and Xiaoshantang were small islands in Qingcao Lake.

Why is it said that Lujiaozhai can strangle the Xiangjiang River?

It is because the large area of ​​water on the west side of Qingcao Lake can only pass large ships when the water level rises in summer and autumn. Now it is the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and a few heavy rains are not enough. If the Ming Navy wants to enter the Xiangjiang River, it must go south along the deep water area on the east side of Qingcao Lake.

Countless small warships of the Chu Navy are scattered towards the shallow water area.

They are very familiar with Qingcao Lake and are not afraid of being stranded. They plan to disperse the formation to avoid the bombardment, and then rush to fight from three sides, rush over to mix with the Ming Navy and fight a chaotic battle.

And there are countless small boats set on fire later, fighting to the death to destroy the Ming Navy!

"Go northwest, fight and retreat!"

Pang Dingzi didn't want to entangle with the Chu Army here. The northwest is the deep water area of ​​Dongting Lake, and you can fight as you want there.

Hundreds of warships are full of sails, and the boatmen are rowing and pedaling with all their strength. Before engaging in battle with the Chu Navy, they are heading to the deep water area one after another.

It's not just running away, but fighting and retreating.

More than a dozen gunboats are firing at full speed, and the rest of the warships are also firing Shenbi bows and Huihui cannons.

The warships of Yang Yao and Gao Lai were long and narrow and fast. They tried to leave the Ming navy behind, so they rushed to the front and would soon catch up.

The distance between the two sides was indeed getting closer, but the cost was heavy losses in the warships under their command.

More than 20 Chu army fast boats were damaged and sunk by artillery, Huihui cannon, and Shenbi bow, and the Chu army sailors on the boats jumped into the lake to escape.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!"

The Chu army fast boats were equipped with something similar to a bed crossbow. The power was definitely not as great as the bed crossbow, but the operators did not need so many.

The arrow shafts as thick as pigeon eggs were shot out with long ropes. Once they hit the Ming warships, the two sides were connected by ropes.

The Chu army tried to board the ship and seize it!

"Ignite!"

"Shoot the arrows!"

Because the muskets made in various places had to be sent to the north to be concentrated in the prince's Shenjiying, the southern troops did not have muskets.

However, they had rockets!

That is, tie something similar to a sky monkey to the front of the arrow shaft.

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

This thing has existed since the end of the Tang Dynasty. Before that, rockets were made of flammable materials such as rosin.

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

The ignition effect is limited, after all, this is not a fire ship full of firewood.

Then, while the Chu army sailors were putting out the fire, the other two Ming warships had been reloaded.

Although only more than a dozen warships were equipped with iron cannons, the rest of the warships were all equipped with wooden cannons!

The advantage of wooden cannons is that they are cheap, and the disadvantage is that they are small in power and difficult to preserve for a long time. Not only was it used during the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japan, 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 wooden structure throughout, and dense wood must be selected, and iron hoops must be put on the outside.

The more sophisticated ones would embed iron sheets in the barrel, or simply make the barrel of iron sheets, and add a layer of leather when adding the iron hoop.

"Boom boom boom!"

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

Anyway, this thing is relatively weak, and the Ming Navy uses it specifically for close combat, to attack enemies a few meters to dozens of meters away. They are too lazy to even use iron bullets, and directly use small stones to fire shotgun shells.

Yang Yao was hit by a small stone and his tibia was fractured. The tiger's mouth holding the shield was also cracked and bleeding. He panicked and shouted in pain: "Hit it and seize the ship!"

The personal soldiers dragged Yang Yao back and hid: "General, it's too late to fight. The enemy's firearms are powerful. Many brothers have died!"

Yang Yao stuck his head out and found that a large number of sailors exposed outside had been killed and injured, and no one dared to stand outside.

Last year, the Ming navy had not been equipped with wooden cannons, but this year, they were all equipped.

The tactics of the Ming navy were as follows: use iron cannons directly at long distances, Huihui cannons and Shenbi bows at medium distances, and use wooden cannons to fire shotguns at close ranges. When encountering the enemy's fire ships, they can also fire rockets to ignite them in advance.

How can the Chu navy fight this?

No matter how brave and fearless Yang Yao was, he knew that he had no chance of winning when facing wooden cannons and shotguns, so he ordered his soldiers to say: "Send a message to Lord Lei, asking him to retreat quickly. I will lead the vanguard warships to cover the rear and resist the enemy!"

Lei Dejin quickly saw the flag signal, but the arrow had to be shot. The Chu navy had already deployed and charged, and it was too late to withdraw now.

Even if most warships received the order to retreat, it would be difficult to retreat in an orderly manner, and they would inevitably be hunted down by the Ming navy.

"Surround them!"

Lei Dejin could only act according to the original plan, that is, to use regular warships to sacrifice their lives to retain the Ming army, and use thousands of fire ships to ignite the fire during the melee.

Ying Xuan used a telescope to observe the situation. Seeing the actions of the Chu Navy, he could not help but sigh: "Alas!"

The place where the two sides fought was in the transition zone between Dongting Lake and Qingcao Lake.

The hundreds of warships of the Ming Navy gradually dispersed into more than twenty crescents. The navy officers and soldiers called it "anti-moon formation", and the crown prince Zhu Ming said it was a battle line.

The Chu Navy still used the traditional water battle formation, and also knew how to launch rockets and crossbows.

The Chu warships desperately wanted to fight on board, and finally rushed to the front against the medium and long-range firepower, and they would face the close-range shotgun shooting of wooden cannons.

The Manichean soldiers were also human beings. They were also afraid of death. Many warships had been scared back.

Seeing that there was no hope for boarding and fighting, Lei Dejin could only hope for fire ships.

More than a thousand small boats filled with firewood rushed forward quickly in the gaps of the battlefield, and from time to time one was overturned by the waves. This was the shells of the iron cannon and the Huihui cannon, which fell into the water and raised waves.

Finally, some small boats rushed forward, but they were met with countless rockets and cannonballs.

The rockets fell on the small boats, and the firewood was quickly ignited. The sailors and fishermen who were manning the boats could only jump into the lake to escape, and they could not send the fireboats to the Ming warships at all.

"Retreat to the shallow water!"

Lei Dejin ordered with tears in his eyes. This battle could not be fought. It was lucky to escape with a quarter of the warships.

Dozens of Chu army warships were left behind to cover the rear. They launched a suicide charge, trying to entangle the Ming navy.

Even Yang Yao, who had a broken leg and cracked palm, was leading the warships forward.

Unfortunately, another cannonball was fired, and a small stone hit the shield, bounced off and hit his forehead. Yang Yao fainted with blood on his forehead, and a piece of broken shield wood chips was embedded in his cheek. The left hand holding the shield had been shaken and his wrist was broken.

The Ming navy waved its flag, and several battle lines changed their formations to counterattack, encircling and cutting the fleeing enemy ships.

For the Chu army, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and even some of the people who were responsible for covering the rear were so scared that they turned their warships around and fled.

When Lei Dejin led the remnants of the Chu navy and successfully retreated to the shallow waters of Qingcao Lake, he was horrified to find that there were only more than 20 warships left.

"Don't chase them, it's easy to run aground there," Ying Xuan, who had watched the whole battle, finally spoke, "General Pang, rescue the people who fell into the water as much as possible. If there is no resistance, don't kill the prisoners. They are all good soldiers!"

Pang Dingzi knew that the prince valued Ying Xuan and there was no need to make trouble over trivial matters, so he immediately issued a military order according to Ying Xuan's suggestions.

The Ming navy allowed the remaining enemy troops to escape, and stretched out bamboo poles to pull up the enemies who fell into the water.

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

There were also sailors with firm beliefs who refused to be rescued and swam hard towards the shore a few miles away.

Ying Xuan felt more and more distressed, and said to Pang Dingzi: "General Pang, some of the floating bodies are just injured and unconscious, 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 should rescue people, take those who are not dead back for treatment, and drag the dead ashore and burn them!"

But Lei Dejin led the remaining navy back to Lujiaozhai, knelt in front of Zhong Yi and cried: "Prime Minister, it is my poor command that killed so many brothers. Cut off my head!"

Zhong Yi held his breath in his chest, and was too angry to curse.

Zhou Lun said: "Prime Minister, abandon Lujiaozhai and retreat to Xiangyin. After the great defeat in the naval battle, the food routes of Xiangjiang River and Miluo River will be controlled by the enemy, and tens of thousands of troops will be out of food sooner or later. We must leave here as soon as possible before the main force of the enemy arrives."

Zhong Yi did not hesitate for long and ordered: "The whole army retreats. Who will guard the village and cover the rear?"

Zhou Lun said: "I am the commander of Lujiaozhai, and I should be the one to defend and cover the rear."

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

Just as the main force of the Chu army was packing up the baggage and preparing to evacuate by land, the scouts who were observing the enemy in the north rushed back: "The vanguard of the Ming army is coming!"

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

The Ming navy has already taken action, how could the army sit idly by?