Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 421 0416 [Old Han Offers Advice] (Add more changes for the leader's cover)
This battle was later called the "Battle of Jiangling."

But the place where the battle broke out first was neither Jiangling nor Zhijiang, but Yidu further upstream.

The Kuizhou navy was stationed in Yiling, and Li Bao's generals Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang led more than a hundred warships of all sizes to raid Baishui Town in the southeast of Yidu County, Chu State.

Both of them were private salt dealers, and they landed with sailors directly, looting Baishui Town.

Baishui Town was quite prosperous. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, when the Yangtze River was diverted, Zhijiang County moved to Baishui Town. It was still the seat of Zhijiang County until the Qing Dynasty.

After looting Baishui Town, Qiu Shanshui and Li Jiang retreated immediately, and then went to plunder the villages in the western suburbs of Yidu.

Although this is the site of Prime Minister Zhong, it is not the core ruling area, and only [-] soldiers are stationed here.When defending the city, they can still encourage civilians, but when they go out to fight in the city, they are caught blind, so they can only be plundered by the Kuizhou navy.

Zhong Xiang's Dongting Lake Navy sent a third to deal with it.

It's not that they don't want to send more, but that the Jinzhou Navy has arrived in Hanyang, and the Dongting Lake Navy has to go downstream to fight.In order to keep ships to defend the Zhijiang River, Prime Minister Zhong's navy could only be divided into three parts.

After the two sides met, the Kuizhou navy retreated immediately, intending to lure the enemy further upstream.

The river conditions there are even more complicated, and the Kuizhou navy has long been familiar with it. As long as the Dongting Lake navy dares to chase after it, they can even use the hydrology and terrain to fight a war of annihilation.

The Dongting Lake Marine Division was not fooled, and gave up after chasing for a while.

After going back and forth for several days, the battle finally broke out.

The strength of the two sides is equal, the Kuizhou Navy occupies the upstream position, while the Dongting Lake Navy has more large ships.

But all the bed crossbows seized by Zhu Ming from officers and soldiers were equipped to the Kuizhou Navy.Only one was left in Hanzhong, and Zhu Guoxiang's students disassembled it to figure out all the details before imitating it.

Then found that there is no need to imitate.

It was too expensive to manufacture, took too long to make, and required too many hands to launch.With that time and money, it is better to build a few more tiger squatting guns.

This thing is so powerful that it needs two or 30 people to pull it apart, and it can fire seven arrows at once.The length of the main arrow is about 1 meter, the diameter of the arrow shaft is about [-] centimeters, and the range of the main arrow can reach two or three miles. (There is also a reduced version, which can be opened by a few people, but the power is much lower. More than half of those captured by Zhu Ming belong to the reduced version.)
The most famous achievement of the bed crossbow is that it shot dead Liao army leader Xiao Talin with one arrow, forcing Liao to sign the Chanyuan alliance.

Relying on the bed crossbow, ordinary crossbow and leveling cannon, the Kuizhou navy almost suppressed the Dongting Lake navy.But the latter, relying on more large ships, recklessly rushed close to the board, and even directly rammed the ship at full speed.

There were casualties, and the Kuizhou navy won a small victory.

There is no need to fight desperately. The task of the Kuizhou Navy is to lure some Dongting Lake Navy away from the Jingjiang battlefield.

……

Zhijiang.

A large number of small boats that can carry more than a dozen people are carried directly to the camp on the north bank by boat on dry land.

The wood of these ships was not dried in the shade, and they didn't bother to brush tung oil to preserve it. Anyway, they were all disposable items.

Han Shizhong, Zhong Yanchong, He Ji, and Wang Xun, four surrendered generals, led the militiamen who had only been trained for three or four months, and prepared to fight across the narrow river.

These militiamen not only have a short training time, but also have to find time to open up wasteland and farm land.But they are well-equipped with armor, and the enemy has not practiced much, and they don't need formations when attacking cities and villages.

The militiamen only need to remember one thing, as long as Zhijiang is captured, they can turn into regular soldiers.The wasteland they reclaimed can enjoy a more favorable tax reduction policy, and their family members will no longer have to rent wasteland for soldiers.

"This object is really useful!"

Han Shizhong put down the binoculars and said to Chen Ziyi, "How about crossing the river in another place?"

Chen Ziyi was puzzled and said: "This is the narrowest place. The surface of the river is only more than ten feet (40 meters). The Generalissimo also agreed to cross the river here."

Han Shizhong said: "We know that this is the narrowest place, and of course the pseudo-Chu also knows it, and even built a camp on the other side."

Chen Ziyi said: "Naturally, we must avoid the camp and cross the river upstream, where the river is only twenty feet high."

"No," Han Shizhong said, "you should cross the river at the most upstream, at the widest point, and go directly to the city of Zhijiang!"

"If you cross the river there, the enemy's large and small warships can enter the river to block it, and our army will be wiped out if we are all small boats," Chen Ziyi said. Come in, our army will be able to delay it with artillery, and the whole army will be able to rush across in a short time."

Han Shizhong chuckled: "Guess where the enemy warship is at this time?"

Chen Ziyi said without hesitation: "It must be hidden on the south bank at the narrowest point."

The area where Zhijiang County is located can be misunderstood as a Jiangxinzhou.

But Jiangxinzhou is big enough, more than forty miles long and nearly ten miles wide at its widest point.

Unlike Chongming Island, it is not alluvial from sediment.At first, it was connected to the north bank to form a piece of land, and the Yangtze River forked out of a river, and then it was surrounded by two Yangtze Rivers in the north and south.

Zhijiang County is in the west, where the river is the widest, with a full length of 600 meters.

The camps and main forces of the Chu army are located in the east.Chen Ziyi and Zhu Ming also plan to cross the river here, the river is only 40 meters away.

General Yan Qi's warships were all hidden on the south bank of the "Jiangxinzhou" west side, just to avoid Han Shizhong's sight.Once Han Shizhong crosses the river from here, the Chu army's navy can immediately rush out to intercept him.

Even if large warships can't get in, they can transport troops across the river to kill Han Shizhong in the open place where the Yangtze River confluences.

Han Shizhong continued to ask: "Where is the main force of the enemy army?"

Chen Ziyi said: "In the camp on the other side of the narrowest point."

"Then why are we going head-to-head?" Han Shizhong asked again.

Chen Ziyi was dumbfounded when he heard that, he already understood Han Shizhong's train of thought, and after he calmed down, he reminded: "You are too risky. If the enemy finds out, all the soldiers crossing the river will be wiped out."

Han Shizhong said: "Crossing the river at night, we made a surprise attack on Zhijiang County. If the enemy was unprepared, he would take the county. If the enemy was on guard, he would pretend to camp outside the city, encircle points for reinforcements, set up ambushes halfway, eat them and drive back. Rescue the enemy."

"Good strategy!" Wang Xun clapped his hands and praised.

He Ji also said: "This plan is feasible, and the enemy will certainly not expect it. Because all our army's preparations are to cross the river from the narrowest point, and even for the convenience of the cavalry to protect the artillery, we even asked the peasants to fill up the rugged riverbank with soil. "

Chong Yanchong said: "Yes, before this, even we had never thought of directly attacking Zhijiang County. The enemy general is not a god, how could he expect it?"

Chen Ziyi is also a person who likes to take risks. After thinking about it, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was feasible. Finally, he made a decision and said: "If something happens, I will take all the responsibility. You just need to fight hard!"

"Hahahaha!"

Everyone laughed and felt happy.

When this group of surrendered generals fought against the Song Dynasty, they were constrained everywhere.

In many cases, even if an excellent proposal is proposed, it will be rejected as long as the risk is too great.

Now it's very cool, and I can show my abilities to the fullest.

Next, instead of choosing to act immediately, each expressed his or her opinion to improve the plan.

They created countless illusions, and re-prepared for crossing the river at the upper reaches of the narrowest part of the river.The enemy's camp is avoided here, which is obviously more in line with common sense (there is no common sense of artillery blockade), which makes the enemy generals more convinced that they want to cross the river here.

Chu general Yan Qi was very cautious. He arranged sentries along the river, and quickly made corresponding actions to divide his troops and set up another camp on the opposite bank.

They even dispatched small warships to patrol the river day and night to prevent Han Shizhong from suddenly rushing across.

"Boom boom boom!"

Eighteen cannons fired at a distance of tens of meters, and they almost hit the Chu army's face with the barrels.

Two Chu warships were sunk, and one was severely damaged.

Yan Qi was shocked by the power of the artillery. He no longer dared to send warships lightly, and only let the soldiers patrol at night in small boats, while thinking hard about how to deal with the artillery.

When Deng Xia tested the cannon that day, Chu Jun also picked up the cannonball, but he didn't expect it to be so sharp.

The artillery was originally a hidden weapon, and it suddenly bombarded the enemy ship when crossing the river.

Now Han Shizhong changed the battle plan, and the artillery showed its fangs in advance, just to confuse the enemy general as much as possible and make the enemy general more convinced of the location of crossing the river.

Even, taking advantage of the failure of the new camp of the Chu army to build a barrier, they continued to fire at the new camp, bombarding the northern wall of the camp with holes.

After seven or eight days, Chu Jun's attention was completely attracted here, and he almost forgot about Zhijiang County, which was [-] miles away.

night.

Han Shizhong, Zhong Yanchong, He Ji, and Wang Xun, four surrendered generals, led thousands of militiamen to the riverside with small boats on their shoulders.

Hua Rong followed with Shenji campfire musketeers, while Chen Ziyi's cavalry stayed behind to protect Deng Xia's artillery position.

They smuggled across the widest part of the Yangtze River branch, a place no one thought of, not even Zhu Ming thought of attacking from here.Because there is Jiancheng on the other side of the river, and the Chu army's navy can exert its full combat effectiveness here.

In the dark night, there are only some glimmers of light.

There is also a warship docked at the wharf outside Zhijiang City, which is used to transport supplies, and by the way, help guard the river.

The sailors on the ship were sound asleep, and the generals led their troops to land quietly, and soon reached the residential area outside the city.

There is no moat, because the Yangtze River is the moat.

Residents outside the city are also sleeping, and only one watchman is still working.

"enemy……"

The watchman held the lantern, heard footsteps, and subconsciously turned around to look.

Due to the excessive fright, the watchman forgot to run away, and wanted to shout but couldn't make a sound, as if his throat was convulsed.

"what!"

It wasn't until a shot came that the watchman yelled in pain, and was quickly covered over his mouth.

The nearby residents were awakened. When someone lit the oil lamp, Han Shizhong had already rushed to the city carrying a bamboo ladder.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

Some of the guards on duty at the top of the city were also awakened and shouted in panic.

But it was already too late, there were not many Chu troops staying in Zhijiang, and it was impossible to guard the city wall at night.Even in the panic, no one organized them, forgetting that there were still piles of falling rocks and rolling logs beside them.

Han Shizhong climbed up, and a defender stabbed him with a gun, but he dodged and killed him after listening to the sound.

More and more militiamen entered the city, killing the defenders and retreating steadily, and completely controlled the city walls everywhere in less than a quarter of an hour.

It was originally a fierce battle across the river, but Han Shizhong turned it into a surprise attack with single-digit casualties.

(End of this chapter)