Because the Yangtze River turned a big bend in the Guichi area, from the original east-west direction to the north-south direction, the water flow is from the south to the north, the original Ming army fleet against the wind against the water, to the vicinity of Anqing into the water and wind, and is not conducive to the play of large ships. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the case of a favorable wind or a smooth water, the Ming army could put the battleship in front to open the way, and even if the opponent attacked the ship again, it could easily break it with the advantage of speed. Now it is against the tide and wind, in order to guard against the Qing army attacking ships, the Ming army with a large number of sixth-class privateers and small sampans as the forward, followed by five-class cruisers and fourth-class cruisers, the real backbone battleships are placed in the back, with the small sampan in front to deal with the Qing army attack ships.

According to Zhang Yukun's judgment, the formation of the Qing army must be the traditional five-point plum blossom formation of the Shi family. Back then, Shi Daxuan assisted Zheng Zhilong to defeat the Dutch with this formation. But with the development of warship and artillery technology, if Shi Lang still uses this formation on the sea, it will be simply self-defeating.

Shipbuilding and artillery technology, especially artillery technology, a fleet that uses grapeshot, shrapnel and flowering shells in large quantities is not something that a few small ships can get close to. Grapeballs and shrapnel are not as effective as solid shells against large ships, but when they hit small boats, they can be swept away with a single shell.

The fleet can only take the zigzag line in the case of headwinds and currents, and slowly swim upstream. Zhang Yukun stood on the deck of the flagship battleship Nanjing. At this time, a black and oppressive Qing army fleet appeared on the river in front of them, and they were taking advantage of the wind and water to pounce on their fleet.

"The enemy ships are smooth sailing, besieging us with a five-point plum blossom array, there are many enemy ships, trying to besiege us with more against less, but we also have many sampans, and the privateers are already giant ships for them." Zhang Yukun turned around and said to Zhang Huangyan, who was standing beside him.

Shi Lang's ships are indeed numerous, reaching more than a thousand, but most of them are small sampans. There were 160 warships of the Nanyang Navy of the Ming Army, and more than 1,000 small ships of the Zhejiang Army, which were also very large. Moreover, the advantage of the Ming army was that there were many artillery pieces and they were powerful.

"Pass the order, slow down the whole army, and sail slowly!" Zhang Yukun gave the order.

The pro-soldier said "no" and turned to send out the flag signal.

In fact, the Ming fleet also has advantages against the wind and water, that is, when the Qing army's fire attack ships rush over, the Ming army's fleet can go backwards, play kite flying with the Qing army's fire attack ships, and bombard them with artillery at a long distance. Using the tactic of kite flying, you can bleed all the small boats of the Qing army.

On the river, the cannon roared, and the privateer in front of the Ming army took the lead in firing their guns, and the three-pounder cannon spewed out a ball of fireball, and the shells swept across the river and smashed at the small sampan and fire attack ships of the Qing army that were rushing over.

Rows of shells fell in the river, immediately rose up a column of rushing water, many small sampans and fire attack ships were hit, after the small sampan was shot, immediately broke a big hole, the Qing soldiers on the ship also had many casualties, the small sampan began to sink into the water, although there were compartments, but the people on the boat could only take care of the drainage, the speed of the ship immediately dropped; The attacking ship was hit by shells, which were all red-hot shells in the furnace, smashed on the firewood of the attacking ship, and immediately ignited a fire.

"The thief fleet seems to have stagnated?" Lin Xingzhu, the general of the Qing army's naval division, picked up the binoculars and saw that the large and small ships of the Ming army seemed to have stopped, stopped on the river, and only bombarded them from a distance with artillery fire.

The Qing army's fleet was smooth sailing, the speed was quite fast, although the Ming army's artillery shells were dense, but the accuracy was not very high, the first round of more than 500 shells swept across the river and smashed over, only a few dozen ships were shot.

"The thief is against the wind and the water, and the speed of the ship is slow! God help me! Hurry up! Capture the enemy ship and burn the enemy ship! Lin Xingzhu asked the soldiers to pass the order.

Thousands of Qing ships, large and small, swept out like arrows from the string and swooped down on the Ming fleet.

At this moment, the large and small ships of the Ming army began to slowly retreat, and while retreating, the bow of the ship turned and changed direction, and another unfired gun released a round of shells.

The fire flickered on the river, white smoke rose up, and another round of artillery shells whistled and smashed into the Qing ships. This time, the Qing fleet was closer, and the Ming army's artillery accuracy was much higher, and more than 20 Qing ships were shot and sank, or were ignited by scorching shells, igniting a fire.

After the Ming ships turned their bows, they became smooth sailing, and their speed slowly increased, so that the Qing ships chasing after them had to catch up, and the time had to be extended, which gave the gunners enough time to reload.

"Let the boat go and delay the Tartars." Zhang Yukun asked his soldiers to pass the order.

The huge number of small sampans and boats of the Zhejiang army rushed out, lined up in a diamond-shaped formation, and rushed towards the small boats and fire attack ships of the Qing army. In the small boat formation of the Zhejiang army, there are four catamaran clippers of the Nanyang Navy.

The firepower of the catamaran clipper is very weak, only a three-pounder gun, but this kind of ship is extremely fast, especially suitable for flying kites, when dealing with the small sampan of the Qing army, the catamaran clipper fires a cannonball and leaves, after loading, it can get closer, and then fire a cannon and leave immediately, it is impossible to give the Qing army any chance to approach. And on the current catamaran clippers, the smoothbore guns have been replaced with three-pounder hexagonal rifled guns.

The four catamaran clippers aimed at the waterline position of the four fire attack ships of the Qing army and opened fire, and the high-speed rotating hollow shells hit the four Qing army fire attack ships, because the inside of the shells was made hollow, and after hitting the waterline position of the fire attack ships, the shells drilled into the ship's board, deformed and deflected, and tore a huge hole in the waterline at once. The shell drilled into the cabin, the course of movement became irregular, tearing the compartment and digging a large hole in the bottom of the ship.

The Qing army attack ship that was shot immediately began to sink, which was a real one-shot kill.

The small boat of the Zhejiang army approached the small boat of the Qing army, and the two sides first used bows and arrows and bird guns to shoot at a long distance, and then approached hand-to-hand combat. However, the Zhejiang Army Naval Division was obviously not the opponent of the Qing Army's Naval Division, and as soon as the two sides came into contact, the Zhejiang Army's Naval Division retreated.

"A thief is no match! Pursue! The officer of the Qing Army's naval division shouted excitedly.

The Zhejiang Army Naval Division was indeed not the opponent of Shi Lang's Naval Division, and Zhang Yukun originally did not plan to use the Zhejiang Army's Naval Division and the Qing Army to fight hard, but only to delay time so that his own warships equipped with cannons could fly kites.

The small boats of the Zhejiang army left quickly, and the small boats of the Qing army chased after them from behind, but several sixth-class privateers had already turned around, and the fire spewed out from the gun door, and the shrapnel flew more than 100 steps, bursting over the river, and countless iron beads rained down on the Qing army's small boats 100 meters in front.

The effective range of this new type of shrapnel is about 200 to 300 paces, and a single shell can almost sweep away the soldiers on a small boat.