Fenghou

Chapter 319 Rescue
The gratitude of the people in Yusha County was beyond Chen Qing's expectations. The black beans donated a thousand stones because Yusha County is rich in rice but not black beans.

There are more than [-] pieces of bacon and wind meat made into strips, all of which were donated to the army without taking any money. There are thirty or forty catties.

The soldiers could no longer ride horses, so they had to lead the horses. Early the next morning, the [-] troops bid farewell to Yusha County, chose an official road along the Yangtze River, and marched in the direction of Hanyang.
Two days later, the army arrived in Jiayu County, where Chen Qing's army joined Zheng Ping's [-]-seater navy. People, become a powerful main reinforcement.

In a large tent, Chen Qing pointed to Qikou Town on the map and said: "Zhao Xiaoyi's intelligence said that the inspection range of the Puppet Qi Army is about [-] li, and this Qikou Town by the river is about four miles away from Hanyang. Ten miles away, Lao Zheng's navy will join me in Qikou Town, and then we will discuss the next move based on intelligence."

"Does Dutong want to find the enemy's loopholes?"

Chen Qing nodded, "Their biggest loophole is that they don't know the battle situation in Jiangling, so they can't let them discover us in advance. Only by attacking the opponent by surprise, can we hope to win."

After setting the tone in Jiayu County, the [-] troops continued to kill in the direction of Hanyang in a low-key manner.
At present, Hanyang is surrounded by [-] puppet Qi regiments. The Hanyang army has [-] people, including the [-] defenders of Hanyang Cangcheng. The coach is Li Gang.

Amidst the fierce battle drums, the puppet Qi army aggressively attacked Hanyang City from three directions. The north, south and west sides of the moat were filled with soil, making the moat lose its defensive function.

The shouts of killing on the battlefield were loud, and arrows were intertwined densely in the air like rain. A siege ladder was overturned, and more than [-] puppet Qi soldiers on the ladder fell from the sky screaming.

At one corner, dozens of puppet Qi troops fought bravely to the top of the city. On the top of the city, the two sides fought fiercely together, and reinforcements from both sides came continuously, forming a tragic battle for the top of the city. The heavy price paid by hundreds of people killed the enemy soldiers rushing to the top of the city one by one, and finally a dozen enemy soldiers were forced to jump down the city.

Dong Xian watched the battle from a distance. This was the third attack on the city. The puppet Qi army invested [-] troops, while the Song army invested [-] troops.

It was getting late at this time, Dong looked at the sky first, and then looked at the battlefield. After fighting for a whole day, the Qi army still failed to capture the top of the city, and they were defeated three times. He saw that the soldiers were exhausted. Obviously, he had to order: "Send the order to withdraw the troops!"

'when!when!when! '

The bell for the withdrawal of troops rang, and the siege soldiers retreated like a tide, and the wounded soldiers were also carried away.

After a whole day of siege, the puppet Qi army suffered nearly [-] casualties, and the Song army also suffered more than [-] casualties. Hanyang City was still extremely strong. After a short rest, the night battle was about to begin.

Several scout cavalry rushed from the east and arrived at Qikou Town. The leader of the scout cavalry was Zhao Xiaoyi. He was ordered by the general Chen Qing to rush to the battlefield to check for information.

After Zhao Xiaoyi and several scouts waited in Qikou Town for half a day, Chen Qing led [-] cavalry to Qikou Town.

"See Du Tong for a lowly position!" Zhao Xiaoyi bowed and saluted.

Chen Qing got off his horse and smiled, "Thanks for your hard work, how is the situation in Hanyang?"

"Reporting to Dutong, the attack on Hanyang City is basically in a state of exhaustion. The puppet Qi army's offensive is very fierce, but they don't have many ways to attack the city. Like Jiangling City, they lack large-scale siege weapons, and they mainly rely on siege. Ti, both sides have suffered heavy casualties at present, the puppet Qi army suffered nearly [-] casualties, and the Song army also suffered more than [-] casualties."

"Where's the navy of the Puppet Qi Army?"

What Chen Qing is most concerned about is the navy of the Puppet Qi Army. As long as they have enough warships, they will threaten the safety of Baling County at any time.

"The Puppet Qi Army has about [-] warships, and about [-] sailors. The humble officials have already found out that the Puppet Qi Army's navy was obtained after the surrender of Xu Wen, the commander of Mingzhou. Xu Wen was stationed in Wuhu. There are [-] people. A warship, more than [-] people, probably surrendered to the puppet Qi army because they were lured by high-ranking officials, and they also looted Wuhu County, and their crimes were serious."

Chen Qing asked again: "The forty warships they seized later, are the forty warships left to us by the envoy Xuanfu?"

"Exactly! At that time, forty warships were moored by the Hanyang River, and the soldiers had all gone ashore. Only a small number of boatmen stayed behind on the warships, but they were able to sneak attack. Now a hundred warships are also moored by the Hanyang River, but the opponents Be very vigilant, four thousand sailors are in the boat, not even going ashore."

Chen Qing paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. It was very difficult to build a naval army. It required a lot of manpower and material resources, and it took ten or even twenty years to build it.

Now all the warships are the inventory left by the Northern Song Dynasty, including a large number of ships of the Yang Yao navy, which were also seized from the Song army.

Chen Qing was well aware of the serious consequences once the puppet Qi army or Jin soldiers got a navy. They could kill the Yangtze River at any time, invade the territory of the Song Dynasty, kill the people of the Song Dynasty, loot their property, and make the Song army unbearable.

The real goal of Chen Qing's rescue of Hanyang this time is not Hanyang, but the fleet of the puppet Qi army. He must completely destroy this fleet.

In the evening, Zheng Ping led [-] warships to Qikou Town, and Chen Qing immediately summoned all the generals on a large ship to deploy his plan for dispatching troops.

Zheng Ping had a naval commander named Li Shihong. He was a general of the Huguang water army. He was about [-] years old and was from Jiangxia. He had ten years of naval combat experience.

Chen Qing asked him: "How does the navy generally fight now?"

Li Shihong bowed and said: "To tell you the truth, naval warfare is the same as land warfare. It pays attention to formation. If the formation is properly deployed, there will often be a situation where several ships besiege a warship. In this way, they will have the upper hand. After capturing half of the enemy's ships, the enemy has to retreat, and generally will not fight to the end."

"What about the specific method of combat?"

"There are also three kinds of combat methods: far, middle and near. For long-distance combat, for example, bows and arrows are used at a distance of about a hundred steps, or gunpowder arrows are used to burn the opponent's sails. The middle distance refers to about [-] to [-] steps, and stone cannons are used. More, a boulder weighing [-] jins can smash the opponent's ship through a big hole within [-] steps."

"What about the firearms and kerosene?"

"Firearms and kerosene are used to ignite fires, and are usually used at close range, such as two ships next to each other, but to be honest, they are generally not used much."

"Why don't you use it much?" Chen Qing asked puzzled.

Li Shihong smiled wryly and said: "Because it's more troublesome. The ships are next to each other and hooked by iron hooks. In fact, it is no different from the battlefield. Who will use firearms at this time? Before you can ignite it, the other party will shoot you with one arrow." Killing is meaningless, it is better to rush up and fight fiercely with the enemy, firearms mainly use gunpowder arrows in water battles."

Zheng Ping also laughed and said, "Dutong, although we destroyed Yang Yao's car and boat with kerosene balls, the kerosene balls are really useless against warship sailors in the Yangtze River."

"Tell me why!"

"To tell you the truth, fire oil balls are good against immobile ships, such as ships used to siege cities, or vehicles and boats whose paddle wheels are entangled in fishing nets. Soon it was fully burned.

But sailing warships can’t do it. Fifty or sixty steps away, the river surface is undulating and the speed is very fast. It is very difficult to hit the fire oil ball. Fortunately, I hit one, but the burning area is very small. Soggy bedding on the bed solved that.

If you throw fire oil balls at close range, all the opponent's navy will come to your ship. What's the point of burning the opponent's ship? If you can't decouple, the two ships will burn together, which is what General Li said just now , The ships are no different from the battlefield when they are next to each other. "

Chen Qing nodded and said to Yang Zaixing, Liu Cui and Liu Qiong: "The three of you each lead [-] cavalry to wander around the periphery to harass the enemy. Don't fight the enemy head-on. Give me time until General Zheng and I wipe out the enemy. After the enemy's navy, we will launch an offensive against the enemy!"

(End of this chapter)