At the end of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 820 The arrogant soldier will be defeated
In the late autumn of October, when the setting sun was shining, dilapidated warships could be seen everywhere on the river outside Jiangling City, most of them were filled with arrows, and there were traces of artillery bombardment. Smoke rose, and countless floating corpses floated down the river. The scene was desolate and tragic, as if in the end of the world.

The iron chain across the river was cut off by the Qi army. Xu Shiji, the marching chief of Jingxiang Road of the Great Qi, boarded the pier on the springboard. Cheng Yaojin, Shan Xiongxin, Xue Wanjun, Xue Wanche and other generals greeted him solemnly. Qi Qi bowed respectfully and said: "See Director Xu!"

"You generals have worked hard!" After Xu Shiji said a few words on the occasion, he led his generals into Jiangling City, climbed to the top of the city and looked at the river.

This Jiangling city was the capital of Xiao Liang, and it took half a year before it was finally captured by the Qi army.

This year's Lantern Festival on the [-]th day of the first lunar month, Xiao Mian did not follow Gao Bufan's ultimatum, and went to Luoyang to plead guilty, and then Xu Shiji followed Gao Bufan's imperial decree to send troops to attack Xiao Liang.

The Qi army started a full-scale attack in early February, advancing both land and water, sweeping down the Han River and the Yangtze River, attacking cities and land all the way, it seemed to be very smooth, but the actual fighting was not easy. From February to October, they fought eight times. It took more than a month to finally conquer Xiaoliang's capital Jiangling.

It can be seen from this that Xiao Liang's strength is really impressive, and Xiao Mian has a nickname called Xiao Sanduo, which means many lands, many soldiers, and many generals.

Xiaoliang's territory is separated from Han River in the north, Jiaozhi in the south, Yiling in the west, and Jiangxia in the east. It spans the provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam. One of the well-deserved "lots of land".

The more the land, the more the population, and the more the population, the more soldiers must be. It is said that it has 40 soldiers, and there are quite a few generals under Xiao Xian's command. The prince alone has seven seals, namely: Jin Wang Dong Jingzhen , King Lei Shimeng of Qin, Zheng Wenxiu, King of Chu, Xu Xuanche, King of Yan, Wanzan, King of Lu, Zhang Xiu, King of Qi, and Yang Daosheng, King of Song.

But till now, three of the seven princes under Xiao Xian's command have been beheaded, namely King Lei Shimeng of Qin, King Wanzan of Lu, and King Zheng Wenxiu of Chu.

In addition, Xiao Liang also lost Chongling County, Handong County, Yiyang County, Anlu County and Yong'an County.Now that the Qi army has even captured Jiangling, the capital of Xiao Liang, Xiao Mian can only lead his remnant soldiers to flee downstream to Baling (Yueyang, Hunan), which means that Xiao Mian almost lost the whole of Hubei.

Let's say that after Xu Shiji captured Jiangling City, he continued to chase and kill Xiao Xian along the east of the river, and Pei Renji and Zhang Zhenzhou of the Eastern Route Army also successively captured Mianyang County and Jiangxia County. of the territory.

Xiao Mian fled to Baling like a frightened bird, and ordered his general Zhou Faming to lead the navy to resist Xu Shiji. However, this man apparently agreed to Xiao Mian, but turned around and led his men to surrender Xu Shiji, and also presented nearly a thousand warships. , and the four counties along the river.

Xiao Mi was so angry that he vomited blood when he heard about it. He was suspicious and harsh to his subordinates. Since Zhou Faming surrendered to the enemy, he even distrusted his subordinates. People are timid and trembling, and those who are turbulent have begun to alienate him, and there are signs of betrayal.

But Xiao Xian didn't know it yet, and he didn't lose his will. After all, he lost Hubei. He still has Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam. Monarch, life can still be enjoyable.

For the time being, I will not mention how Xu Shiji continued to deal with Xiao Xian, but Gao Bufan dispatched all the generals under his command after he pacified Jianghuai. Pei Xingyan took Lujiang County and Tong'an County (in Anqing, Anhui), while Yu Chigong led the navy up the Yangtze River to cooperate with Liu Heitai and Pei Xingyan to sweep up.

As for Du Fuwei, he stationed his troops in Xin'an County. In this way, the Qi army surrounded Lin Shihong's territory in a semicircle in the north, east, and south. After Qi Jun made dumplings, it would be difficult to stir up trouble.

On October [-]th of the first year of Tianbao, the navy of the Qi Army led by Yu Chigong was stationed on the river at the wharf of Nanling County, Xuancheng County.In Jiujiang County upstream, the navy under Lin Shihong's command was stationed at the entrance from Poyang Lake to the Yangtze River, waiting in full force, and sent a large number of spies to closely monitor the movements of the Qi army's navy.

At this moment, Gao Bufan was standing on the bow deck of a main battleship, surrounded by a group of advisers and generals, including: Du Ruhui, Wen Yanbo, Cui Jiuling, Ling Jing, Song Zhengben, Zu Junyan, Yu Chigong, Cui Zijian and Cui Zisheng and others.

Bai Yunshang stood quietly beside Gao Bufan, still shining like a bright moon, but it seemed to be a little plump, and her body looked more graceful and charming.

At this time, everyone's attention was focused on the river. Looking from a distance, they saw a square piece of wood floating on the water. Everyone stared at this piece of wood closely, holding their breath, reluctant to blink, and their faces Expectations are written all over it.

At this time, a fast boat sailed down from the upper reaches quickly, and rammed straight towards the piece of wood. It was about to hit it. Several sailors on the boat jumped into the river at the same time, and were waiting nearby Liao boat rescued.

At this time, the fast boat finally bumped into the piece of wood. There was a sudden muffled bang, and huge waves surged on the surface of the river. , the entire bow hull tilted and began to sink slowly. It was obvious that the bottom of the ship had been blown to pieces.

The two sentinel boats approached quickly, circled the fast boat that was about to sink a few times, and then quickly moved towards the flagship where Gao Bufan and the others were.

"Report to the emperor, a mine blasted a hole in the bottom of the fast ship, about one foot in length, and many cracks in the bow." A captain on the sentry ship reported loudly.

At this time, the fast boat with a damaged bow had already sunk halfway, and its stern was raised high.Du Ruhui stroked his beard and smiled, "Your Majesty, the torpedoes are quite powerful, even giant ships can deal with them."

Cui Jiuling said happily: "The key point is that the mines can be deployed on the river in advance, making it impossible to guard against them. It's really wonderful."

Everyone also nodded their heads in praise, and Bai Yunshang silently recited Amitabha Buddha. The compassion of Buddhist disciples made her unbearable, and she also felt a little sympathetic to the opponents of the Qi army. First, there were artillery, flying thunder, firecracker thunder, and now there was a sea mine. Although it is not directly aimed at people, it is actually much more terrifying than artillery and flying thunder, because these things are aimed at ships. Once the bottom of the ship is blown up, the entire ship will fall into the river and be buried in the belly of the fish. One death per ship what!

There is no doubt that this kind of mine is a new product "developed" by the Shenji Bureau this year, and it is another big killer.

Gao Bufan was both surprised and delighted, he just mentioned the idea of ​​the mine to Gao Ming at the beginning, but he didn't expect to come up with it so soon, Gao Ming is amazing, he is simply a genius in the field of weapons.

Gao Ming is one of the original soldiers of the Gao family in Bohai. I don’t know if you still remember that when Gao Bufan established the magic machine class, this kid was the captain. It is precisely because this kid is talented in this area that Gao Bufan focused on training it. Teach him Arabic numerals, physical geometry and other knowledge.

Later, the Shenji Class was upgraded to the Shenji Bureau, which was separated from the army and was responsible for the development of weapons. Gao Ming also became the first master of the Shenji Bureau. The superintendent of the god machine, and the chief master craftsman.

Over the years, the achievements of Shenjijian are obvious to all. Firecracker mines, flying thunders, ten thousand enemies, artillery, and sea mines are constantly innovating. If one day in the future, Shenjijian makes firearms, Gao Bufan will not be surprised at all.

Let’s get down to business, let’s say that after Gao Bufan verified the power of the mine with his own eyes, he took everyone back to the cabin and sat down.

Wen Yanbo stroked his beard and said with a smile: "With this mine, it will be easier to deal with Lin Shihong."

At the mention of Lin Shihong, all the generals couldn't help but grit their teeth.Some time ago, Lin Shihong told Du Fuwei, who came to recruit for security, that he would reply within half a month whether he would accept Daqi’s recruitment. As a result, half a month later, Du Fuwei went to Yuzhang again to inquire, and Lin Shihong said that he had not yet discussed As a result, we have to wait another half a month.

At this time, even a fool knew he had been tricked, Du Fuwei left Yuzhang City angrily, and truthfully reported Lin Shihong's attitude to Gao Bufan. Shen Faxing's tomb was already three feet high. Although Lin Shihong did not tear up the imperial decree, the nature of teasing Emperor Qi was equally bad, and he must not be spared.

Yuchi Gong said in a deep voice: "As long as the emperor gives an order, the general will immediately lead the navy to go north to Jiujiang, wipe out Lin Shihong's navy, and then go straight to Poyang Lake and take Yuzhang City."

Gao Bufan calmly said: "General Yuchi deserves to be the number one general in our Great Qi, but Lin Shihong is quite strategic, so don't take it lightly."

All the counselors nodded in agreement, no, Du Fuwei was tricked by the other party not long ago, and I heard that Lin Shihong also took the opportunity to recruit many soldiers of Xiao Xian, so he is quite a cunning guy.

"You guys think, why did Lin Shihong procrastinate twice?" Gao Bufan asked with great interest.

Zu Junyan said: "It's not difficult to guess. Lin Shihong probably wasn't ready yet, so he deliberately delayed the time."

Cui Zisheng said disdainfully: "Give him a few more months to prepare, as long as we meet our Qi army, we will still be defeated like a mountain."

All the generals present showed proud smiles, and Gao Bufan couldn't help but frowned secretly when he saw this. The current Qi army is indeed extremely powerful, with continuous victories, and the morale of the soldiers is high, and it is inevitable that they will feel proud. This kind of mentality is It's very dangerous, as the so-called arrogant soldiers are bound to be defeated, once they become paralyzed, they will not be far from defeat.

However, Gao Bufan didn't point it out directly. After all, sometimes he said it a thousand times or ten thousand times, but none of the losses had any effect, so Gao Bufan pondered for a while and said, "Cui Zijian and Cui Zisheng listen to the order."

The Cui brothers were overjoyed and immediately came out and said: "The last general will obey the order!"

"I ordered you two to lead three thousand troops to take Jiujiang as the vanguard." Gao Bufan said.

The Cui brothers retreated excitedly, and Gao Bufan ordered Yu Chigong to lead the main force of the navy to meet the Cui brothers. At the same time, he ordered Liu Heita and Du Fuwei to lead the army to attack Jiujiang County and Poyang County respectively.

Lin Shihong sent a large number of spies to monitor the Qi army navy downstream, so when the Cui brothers led a hundred warships up the river, the news quickly spread to Jiujiang upstream.

There are 3 sailors under Lin Shihong's command, and thousands of large and small warships. They are much stronger than Li Zitong at the beginning. Now there are 2 sailors stationed in Jiujiang, led by General Feng An. , Lin Shihong arranged two-thirds of the navy to Jiujiang, leaving only 1 people stationed in Poyang Lake, responsible for defending Yuzhang City.

Let's talk about this Feng An, who is about fifty years old and an experienced veteran. When he heard that the navy of the Qi army came from the lower reaches, he immediately waited in full force.

A few days later, brothers Cui Zisheng and Cui Zijian arrived near Jiujiang with 100 pioneers and more than [-] warships, that is, four combat units.

As the saying goes, newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Although there are only 3000 people, the Cui brothers are not at all afraid. Seeing the Chu army's navy forming a stronghold at Jiujiangkou, they immediately took the initiative to attack. The artillery on the four main battleships fired a salvo. The artillery shells roared and fell into the Chu army's water village, blowing up people's backs.

However, the Cui brothers were not happy yet. Hundreds of small boats rushed out of the water stronghold of the Chu army. These small boats spread out on the vast river, and rushed towards the Qi army fleet downstream at a very fast speed by taking advantage of the downstream. .

The Cui brothers didn't care. Although the artillery didn't do much damage to these scattered boats, it didn't matter. The Qi army still had flying thunders and firecracker mines. As long as the boats approached, they would use the flying thunders and firecracker mines, which were enough to feed these small boats. Pot up.

However, the Cui brothers quickly changed their complexions, because these small boats of the Chu army are all sub-ship mothers, connected in pairs. .

At this time, the hundreds of mother ships were close to the Qi army's fleet less than 50 meters away. The soldiers on the ship lit the dry firewood on the daughter ship one after another, then broke the iron chain connected to the mother ship, and supported the mother ship to return upstream. The sub-ship burning with raging fire continued to ram into the Qi army's fleet like an arrow.

Brothers Cui Zisheng and Cui Zijian were shocked, and hurriedly mobilized the sentry boats to intercept these burning sons and mothers, but the fires were burning so fast that the sentry boats had no time to completely intercept them. As a result, the two main battleships were unfortunately caught by the fire boat The most terrible thing is that these fire boats are also equipped with sharp iron spikes on the bows. Once they are hit, they will be firmly inserted into the hull, which is very difficult to get rid of.

Therefore, most of the Qi army's ships were caught in the attack and ignited, and the order suddenly became chaotic.Seeing this, Feng An immediately led the main force to fight out. Cui Zisheng and Cui Zijian were defeated and hurriedly retreated downstream.

(End of this chapter)