In the dark, the small size of the battleship used low-precision smoothbore guns to bombard, and the hit rate was naturally pitifully low. But the bombardment of the batteries of the Ming fleet was different, the fixed batteries would not run, the volume was large, and the hit rate of the smoothbore guns was low, it was not a difficult thing to hit the batteries.

After several rounds of shelling, the firepower of the counterattack on the Qing battery's batteries became weaker and weaker.

As early as the Ming army's small boat approached the shore, countless soldiers jumped off the boat and landed ashore to attack from behind the fort.

The fierce battle on the river was still ongoing, and Wang Xinyu gave an order: "Release the fire to attack the ship!" Now it's high tide, and the sea is pouring into the river, and the current is in our favor. ”

One by one, the fire attack ships sailed out of the Ming army fleet and followed the current towards the Qing army fleet. Although there is a barrage rope in the river, and there are underwater hidden piles at the bottom of the river, the draft of the fire attack ship is shallow, and it is a high tide, and the water level is still rising.

"Minggou's fire attack ship is coming!" With the help of the moonlight, the Qing army spotted the fire attack ship approaching them.

"Shoot the arrows!" A Qing soldier general shouted anxiously.

Rows of rockets were shot out from the Qing warships, most of the arrows fell into the river, and a few rockets hit the approaching Ming army attack ships, igniting the firewood accumulated on the ships, and several fire attack ships with arrows suddenly ignited a fire. But the fire attack ship was not afraid of fire, and after the fire, the Ming army behind still rowed the boat and rushed towards the Qing warship.

"Shoot! Don't let the Ming dog get close! The officer on the large ship of the Qing army shouted.

With the help of the lighting of the fire, you can already clearly see the fire attack ship burning on the sea. Several of the largest warships of the Qing army spewed fire, and shells swept across the river, smashing into the approaching fire attack ships.

Columns of water rose on the river, and some of the attacking boats were hit by shells, and the planks of the ships flew sideways, and the broken planks smashed on the boating sailors, some were pierced into the body by shrapnel-like wood, and some were hit in the head by the planks. The wounded Ming soldiers fell screaming, but those who had no casualties continued to row their boats towards the Qing army.

After all, the Qing warships were too small, and it was not so easy to fire two or three pounds of solid shells to sink the fire attack ship. The small cannon hit, but it pierced a hole, and it didn't sink right away.

The fire attack ships continued to approach the Qing warships, and the large Ming warships behind them also kept firing. There were fires flickering in the darkness, and it looked like lightning in the night.

"Boom" a fire attack ship collided with a Qing army's Cangshan ship, and the nail on the head of the fire attack ship pierced into the Qing army's ship, nailing the two ships firmly together. The raging fire soon spread to the Qing warship, and only the cry of ghosts and wolves was heard on the big boat, and the Qing soldiers jumped into the river to escape.

After a while, another fire attack ship collided with a large ship of the Qing army, and set the big ship on fire.

"Boat! The boat stops the barbarians! The Qing officer shouted.

The small boats of the Qing army rushed out and rushed towards the fire attack ship, trying to stop the fire attack ship. At the same time, the small boats of the Ming army also rushed out of the large fleet and killed the small boats of the Qing army.

The hand-to-hand between boats and boats is still a traditional broadside battle. The boats of both sides hedged against each other, and before approaching, the archers fired a volley of arrows. After approaching, the sailors on both boats stabbed each other's boats with long bamboo poles, and then the knife and axe men on both boats jumped over and jumped on each other's boats to slash and kill.

After all, the sailors of the Ming army are all veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time, and the core of the soul of water warfare is inherited in one line, and the recruits brought out are also proficient in water warfare. The Qing army's naval divisions were wiped out many times, and they were reorganized again and again, and the veterans who were good at water warfare had long been lost, and the quality of the newly formed naval divisions could be imagined, not to mention that the Qing army's naval divisions focused on the areas of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and the Fuzhou naval divisions were a group of dishes.

With their superb skills, the sailors of the Ming army either knocked over the small boat of the Qing army, or jumped on it and slashed the Qing soldiers on the small boat of the Qing army.

The sound of killing on the river shook the sky, the sword flashed, the axe was wielded, and the heads of the Qing soldiers were cut down into the water one after another.

There were also some Ming sailors who were particularly good at water and simply jumped into the water, and several people worked together to overturn the Qing army's boat from underwater, or pull the Qing soldiers on the boat into the water. In the water, the Qing soldiers were not opponents at all, and the Qing soldiers who fell into the water were pressed into the water by the Ming army and drowned.

In the blink of an eye, the small fleet of the Qing army was defeated.

In front of several small boats of the Ming army, sailors familiar with the nature of the water jumped into the water, tied the mines to the barrage, and set fire to leave.

"Boom" a column of water rose on the surface of the river, and the barrage was blown up.

The small boat responsible for the blasting rushed in, and the mines were thrown into the river. With one violent explosion after another, the underwater piles carefully arranged by the Qing army were blown into pieces of wood one after another, floating on the surface of the river, washed away by the current, and turned into water garbage that was harmless to the Ming army's big ships.

The big ships of the Ming army behind followed, rushed into the channel opened by the small boats, and ran over the large and small ships of the Qing army's naval division.

The artillery roared on the big ship, sinking the Qing attack ships that tried to approach one by one to the bottom of the river. Some of the Qing army's attack ships that slipped through the net were stopped by the Ming army's boats.

The Qing army's attack ships were wiped out, and the remaining Qing army's naval division warships were nothing more than a herd of pigs and sheep to be slaughtered in front of the Ming army's warships. The Ming warships rushed in, relying on the advantage of their own large ships to directly crush, sinking the Qing army's small boats one after another, or simply crushing them directly to the bottom of the river.

The naval battle at the mouth of the Majiang River was fierce until dawn, and when the first rays of sunlight hit the river, there was not a single Qing ship in sight on the river, and the Qing ships that did not run away were all sunk or captured, and the surviving Qing ships had already run away and fled back to Fuzhou in embarrassment.

Of the more than 100 Qing warships of the Qing army in Fuzhou, only more than 20 escaped back, and the rest were either sunk or captured.

On the fort at Majiangkou, the green Qing army flag of the green camp was lowered and replaced with the red battle flag of the Ming army.

The Ming army occupied Majiangkou, because there were not many Qing troops in Majiangkou, and the main force of the Qing army's land division was in Fuzhou City, so the Ming army that landed almost effortlessly conquered Mawei Town and occupied Mawei Port.

Wang Xinyu's flagship leaned on the horse reef in the middle of the river and docked on the shore, and Wang Xinyu, Wang Yuyou and others got off the big boat.

"The Tartars here have all surrendered." A garrison officer stepped forward to salute.

Ma Jiao is a river island at the mouth of the Min River, and there is Luo Xing Pagoda on the island. Because this is an isolated island at the mouth of the river, Zheng Chenggong once occupied this Jiangxinzhou eight years ago, and built a fortress under the Luoxing Tower, the Ming army was like a stake, nailed to the mouth of Fuzhou, and the Qing army was unable to capture this Jiangxinzhou for many years. Later, Zheng Chenggong went on the Northern Expedition, and then he took the initiative to give up this Jiangxin fortress. Geng Jimao saw Zheng Chenggong retreating, so he dared to send someone up to seize this Jiangxinzhou.

Now that the Ming army has come back, there are not many Qing soldiers on Jiangxinzhou, only more than 80 people, and as soon as the Ming army lands, the Qing army will surrender with its soldiers.

Wang Xinyu landed on the island, crossed a bluestone path, and walked into the Luoxing Tower Fort. As soon as I entered the door, I saw a large line of Qing soldiers kneeling inside, and the Ming army with swords and guns was staring at them from the side. In addition to the more than 80 Qing soldiers captured in Luoxingta Fort, these prisoners also included Qing sailors captured in the Battle of Majiangkou last night, and Qing army soldiers and soldiers captured in the Battle of Mawei Town.

"There are more than 1,600 captives in total, and they can't be let go here." The garrison officer said.

The sailors did not need to take prisoners as auxiliaries or people, and the captured prisoners were all held and awaited processing. Originally, these captives were going to be imprisoned until the Lu division came to Fuzhou and incorporated them into the Minzhuang or auxiliary soldiers, but Wang Xinyu changed his mind again, because everyone in the water division was very precious, and it was impossible to leave so many people to guard the prisoners. So he said, "Send them to Dongfan for hard labor first, and then restore their freedom when they behave well." ”

"No!" The guard arched his hand.

After that, a ship came, and the Ming soldiers escorted the Qing prisoners onto the ship and sent them to Dongfan Island.

Wang Xinyu climbed the Luoxing Tower, and Wang Yuyou beside him sighed: "Yecheng looks east to the sky, who will send the two pillars of the middle stream." ”

"Good poetry!" Wang Xinyu, who is not very good at literature, can only praise.

Wang Yuyou said with a smile: "The literati of those days only knew how to compose poems and write some sour words. But can writing poetry stop the butcher's knife of the Tartar? If you want to expel the Tartars, you need someone like Dashuai. ”

This sycophant is a good shot, but Wang Xinyu still respects Wang Yuyou more: "On the march, you still need a military advisor like Mr. Wang!" This clan only knows how to take by force, not by skill. With Mr. Wang's advice, you can get twice the result with half the effort. ”

Wang Yuyou pointed to the direction of Fuzhou City in the west and said: "The Tartars of Fuzhou are already the turtles in the urn, the mouth of the Majiang River is in our hands, and the route of the Minjiang River is also controlled by us, and the Tartars cannot cross the river to the south." We have occupied Wenzhou in the northeast, and Jianning in the northwest is estimated to have fallen into our hands. The Tartars of Fuzhou City are cornered! ”

"The Tartars of Fuzhou are not to be afraid, what I am worried about is that the weather is too hot, and the brothers are wearing thick armor when fighting on such a hot day, and they don't know how long they can hold out when they attack the city." Wang Xinyu wiped a handful of sweat and said.

Fuzhou in the sixth month of the lunar calendar is extremely hot, China's four major furnaces, in fact, Fuzhou is really a big furnace, Fuzhou terrain is surrounded by mountains, and the heat emitted by the river in summer can not be dispersed, shrouded in Fuzhou City, just like a steamer. At this time, it is not hot on the island at the mouth of the Majiang River, and it is still a little cool to stand on the top of Luoxing Tower, but once you go upstream, to the city of Fuzhou, it is really hot and unbearable at that time.

Considering that the climate was too hot, and also considering that the Ming army attacking from the waterway did not have many land divisions, so after the Ming army occupied the Majiangkou, it did not attack the city of Fuzhou again, but took Jiangxinzhou as the base point, and the Ming army's naval division was stationed at the Majiangkou.

At noon, the sun shone on the river, and the hot air rose from the river. Although there is wind on the river, the wind is hot. The heat in Fuzhou is even higher than that in Xiamen and Guangzhou, and the heat is unbearable.

"Pass the order, let the men boil more herbal tea, and everyone is ready to prevent heatstroke. Don't die here without dying on the battlefield. Wang Xinyu asked his soldiers to pass the order.

"On such a hot day, siege warfare is not easy to fight! The armor of the soldiers was worn on their bodies, and when they were exposed to the sun, they were as hot as steamers. But if you don't wear armor, you can't do it. If you attack the city, you can't wear rattan armor, and if you are burned by the city, you will be miserable. Wang Yuyou said worriedly.

In ancient times, warfare was generally fought after autumn, and the war was fought until the following summer came, and there was no war in the summer. The key is to consider that the heat of wearing armor in summer is unbearable, and if you take off the armor, it is easy to be killed.

Wang Xinyu fought well at sea, but when he went ashore, it was really a chore for the soldiers to attack Fuzhou City in this season. However, if Fuzhou City is not taken, there are so many Qing soldiers here, and the Ming army wants to spend the summer in Fuzhou, and life is not stable, and they have to guard against the Qing army coming out to harass at any time.

It is even more of a chore to fight siege warfare in summer, and it is better for the defenders of the city, and the auxiliaries and people at the head of the city are not wearing armor. But the besieging side does not wear armor to go to the city to fight? Isn't that sending to death?

The summer in Fuzhou is really hot, Wang Xinyu attacked Yunxiao and other places back then, although it was also a summer battle, but it was not as hot as Fuzhou, and it was bearable. In Fuzhou, if there is a war in June, non-combat attrition is a terrible number.

"Or will we besiege Fuzhou and wait until autumn and the weather turns cooler?" Li Rui proposed.

"I am afraid that the Tartars in the city will come out and harass us, and if we besiege the city, the brethren will also be hot! On such a hot day, everyone is usually shirtless, in case the Tartars come to sneak attack, it is too late to put on armor. Wu Haodong shook his head and said.

"Then don't surround Fuzhou, anyway, the tartar is already a turtle in the urn, and there is nowhere to go. We will take refuge in the summer at the mouth of the Majiang River, and we will fight after the summer. Li Rui said.

Wang Xinyu sighed: "I'm afraid the summer in Fuzhou won't get cooler until October." We'll have to wait four months. It is estimated that four months later, Nanyang has already started fighting. ”

Wang Xinyu's judgment is still relatively accurate, at this time the Dutch fleet has two months to enter the Strait of Malacca, it is estimated that between the eighth month of the lunar calendar and the ninth month of the lunar calendar, there will definitely be a fierce sea battle in the South Seas, that battle is the battle of life and death of the Ming army, if it wins, half of the rivers and mountains south of the Yangtze River will be stable; If it is defeated and loses the right to control the sea, the Ming army can only retreat in Zhejiang and northern Fujian, and the overseas islands will be completely lost, and all of them will fall into the hands of the Dutch.

In fact, it is not the key when to take Fuzhou, the key is the Strait of Malacca, which is thousands of miles away.

Thousands of miles away, the Ming army had landed on the island of Sumatra.

On the contrary, Sumatra in the sixth month of the lunar calendar is not as hot as Fuzhou, and the temperature in the South China Sea is about the same all year round, so that fighting in the scorching heat will not cause a large number of non-combat attrition like Fuzhou in June. (To be continued.) )