A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1031: Two stalemates on three major battlefields, a new era of the Ezhou Campaign

September, 11th year of Great Chapinin

The Xia-Tang War progressed to the second stage, which was the seesaw battle of the Ezhou Campaign.

In the first stage, Daxia relied on the advantage of firearms to crush the enemy with ease. In just one month, it took over the entire Jiangbei area and suppressed the Tang army in the south of the Yangtze River.

The Southern Tang army took advantage of its warships and built a defense line relying on the natural barrier of the Yangtze River.

Just across the river, the Tang capital of Nanjing was right before their eyes. However, the 300,000-strong army of Daxia could not move forward because the navy had not arrived yet. They could only sigh at the river and could not move forward a single step.

In the war situation between Xia and Tang, it can be generally divided into three battlefields.

That is, the Jinling battlefield, the Ezhou battlefield, and the East China Sea battlefield.

Now the Nanjing battlefield has come to a standstill because of the natural barrier of the Yangtze River.

Although the Xia army's naval division on the East China Sea battlefield acted without restraint in the waters north of the Huai River, the northern navy has always been inferior to the southern navy since ancient times.

Therefore, the navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which dominated the South China Sea and inherited most of the naval heritage of the former Tang Dynasty, was still not enough.

Since the situation in Nanjing and Donghai could not be improved, the Xia army placed its hopes on the Ezhou battlefield.

The reason why the Ezhou battlefield dragged on for more than two months was that the new warships of the Kuizhou navy had not arrived, and the southern army had few artillery pieces, only more than 20 pieces, which was far less powerful than the central army.

After the initial panic, the Tang army soon found a way to deal with the situation and completely blocked the city gates, rendering the Xia army's artillery useless.

Unless the large-caliber artillery of the Central Route Army is mobilized.

Now, in order to adapt to siege warfare, the Xia army has produced the largest caliber artillery known as the "Great General".

'Dajiangjun' is a pain-relieving copper cannon. To prevent it from exploding, it has an iron hoop. It is one meter long, two hundred millimeters in diameter, and weighs forty kilograms.

With the combined efforts of the entire firearms manufacturing institute, there are only five guns now, and all of them have been allocated to the central army.

Therefore, the Central Army was able to quickly wipe out the entire Huainan area.

After the Xia army's fruitless attacks in the first month, the Ezhou battlefield entered a state of stalemate.

The Tang army was stationed in Jiangxia and the Xia army was stationed in Jiayu.

The war on land was over, but the war on the river never stopped.

Every day, the navies of Xia and Tang would fight fiercely on the Ezhou and Yuezhou sections of the river.

Over a two-month period, countless warships sank at the bottom of this section of the river, making it impassable.

After each battle, the two sides had to spend several days to send people to salvage the sunken ships to avoid blocking the river.

September 26
The navies of both sides once again fought near Chibi.

The Tang navy was so powerful that the Xia army had to use all the warships on the Yangtze River to barely cope with it.

But even so, the Xia Kingdom's navy retreated a certain distance at regular intervals, so that in two months, the Xia Kingdom's water fort had to retreat from Yuyue Mountain to Chibi Mountain.

Lu Zhiyuan, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Tang navy, held up a telescope seized from the Xia army, stood on the tallest ship, and looked at the Xia Kingdom's water fortress shrouded in river fog in the distance.

"Captain General, could it be that the Xia people dare not leave the village?"

Listening to the general's ridicule, Lu Zhiyuan shortened his telescope with an expressionless face and said coldly: "Don't underestimate the Xia people."

He looked down at the telescope in his hand and said thoughtfully, "The Xia people are good at engineering. Almost every large ship is equipped with this device. With just this device, they can fight back and forth with more than a hundred warships and the three hundred warships of the Tang Dynasty."

"Even the Yi people are inferior to them in many ways. We are far inferior to the Xia people."

The deputy general laughed and said, "What the Grand Commander said is true."

"Look, Xia Jun is coming out." Hearing the exclamation from the observation tower, Lu Zhiyuan pulled out the telescope again.

After a moment, he quickly gave the order: "Pass the order, the army will immediately deploy its formation and block the water fort. When two-thirds of the Xia army comes out, we will rush in and make sure to block them inside and annihilate the Xia navy."

Today's naval battle will determine the future comparison of naval power between Xia and Tang on the Yangtze River.

If Tang won, Xia, without the support of its navy, could only withdraw its troops in disgrace, and the war between the two countries came to an end. If Tang lost, it would only lose some battlefields, and at worst, it could retreat to Jiangxia and maintain a defensive position.

Time kept passing. Naval battles were different from land battles, and both sides needed a long time to prepare.

More than two hours passed before Lu Zhiyuan ordered the front army to attack, the central army to press forward, and the rear army to be ready to support at any time.

This battle will be a battle for the destiny of the Tang Dynasty.

Fortunately, the commander of the Xia navy was Bai Shun, the deputy admiral of the navy and Prince of Linxin, who was the son of Bai Lang, Prince of Qi, and had long anticipated the Tang army's surprise attack.

So as early as one-third of the Xia warships were out of the camp, they began to arrange their battle formations.

Although this means that Xia Kingdom will only have more than 30 warships available for combat, it is better than having the entire fleet of more than 100 ships fall into chaos.

In an instant, more than 30 warships of the Xia army engaged in battle with more than 100 warships of the Tang army's vanguard.

The warships soon engaged in a crisscrossing attack. First, the bows and crossbows on the ships fired continuously, and then densely packed bows and crossbows fired at the same time, greatly scattering the sailors on the warships.

Some warships were equipped with small catapults, which caused some warships to be smashed and sunk before they could get close.

The long-range battle ended and the two sides began boarding battle.

Often two Tang army warships would deal with one Xia army warship.

Even though the Xia army's sailors had high morale, they could not win.

An hour later, the melee on the river ended, and only seven or eight warships of the Xia army escaped.

The sound of drums resounded throughout Chibi, and the Tang army's warships swarmed after the defeated Xia army's ships and rushed towards the more than 80 warships of the Xia army that had just formed a battle array.

After a fierce battle, only more than 60 ships were left in the Xia army's vanguard.

The two sides started the second round of battle.

With the Xia army relying on the water fort and with the help of tens of thousands of infantry archers, they finally repelled the attack of the Tang army's vanguard. More than 30 Tang ships quickly retreated to their camp like stray dogs.

The Xia army was not in a good situation either, having lost more than twenty ships, and only about sixty ships were left that could continue fighting.

Lu Zhiyuan was unwilling to let Xia's army take a short rest, so he quickly rushed up with 130 warships of the central army.

The two sides were once again engaged in a bloody battle, and the surface of the river was constantly filled with blood, corpses, and broken wood.

After losing more than 30 warships, Tang general Lu Zhiyuan ordered the central army to retreat temporarily and pushed forward the rear army in preparation for a war of attrition.

As Lu Zhiyuan expected, the Xia army lost more and more warships as time passed.

Two hours later, the Xia army had only more than 30 warships left, and they were struggling to resist with the help of bows and crossbows from the water stronghold.

Lu Zhiyuan stood on the flagship at the rear of the battlefield, waving a feather fan in his hand, like Zhou Yu of the Eastern Wu, and the frosty face melted for the first time:
"This battle, our army won."

In contrast, on the battlefield ahead, Bai Shun returned to his flagship from the Tang warship with a bloodstained face. Looking at the few remaining warships of his army, he said indignantly:

"Damn Baisong, why don't you come? Do you want to watch me die here?"

The Baisong mentioned by Bai Shun is the son of Chu King Bai Hai. He was named Prince of Nanping and the commander of the Xia Kingdom's new warships.

The Baisong that was constantly mentioned finally appeared at Chibi.

Compared with the old warships, dozens of ships do not have long-range weapons such as rackets and crossbows on the deck. On the contrary, there are rows of black cannons on the side of the ship, fixed to the deck with large iron nails.

The sailors coming and going were constantly carrying gunpowder or shells from the cabins and were ready for everything.

"Sir Admiral, we have reached Chibi."

Hearing the news from the lookout, a smile appeared on Baisong's face.

"Very good, then let us announce to the world the arrival of a new era."

Dozens of new warships equipped with dozens of cannons, escorted by more than a hundred small and medium-sized auxiliary ships, penetrated into the back of the Tang army like sharp swords.

(End of this chapter)