Chapter 65: A Plan for Water Attack
Jingzhou is not only a thorn in the Yangtze River stuck by the Qing army, but also the gateway to the south of Xiangyang, so the Qing army still attaches more importance to Jingzhou's attack and defense. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 However, the number of Qing troops stationed in Jingzhou was small, and according to Sukh Saha's plan, the Qing army would attack the Ming army with water.
Before the plan for the water attack was decided, Sukh Saha had a heated argument with Feiyangu, Woh, Shuodai and others.
Feiyangu, Wohhe and others thought that the Ming army was originally a strong naval division, and then attacked it with water, so didn't they flood Jingzhou City by themselves, so that the Ming army's naval division could directly rush to the city? Once the Ming army saw through the Qing army's plan to attack with water, maybe the Ming army took the initiative to open the river embankment and release water, and then the Ming army's sailors could drive directly to Changhu! Therefore, to deal with the Ming army with water attack is to attack the enemy's strength with one's own shortcomings.
However, after analysis, Sukh Saha believed that the Ming army would not dare to take the initiative to open the river embankment and fight water against water! Because the Ming army had to consider the casualties of the people.
Shuo Dai agreed with Suke Saha's opinion, but Feiyangu felt that Wang Xinyu was not a good person, and in the battle of Xinhui, Wang Xinyu did not hesitate to fire at the head of the city and kill hundreds of people, so he definitely wouldn't care about water against water in the water attack. Once the Ming army also opened the river embankment, it was the Qing army that suffered.
Sukh Saha decided that the Battle of Jingzhou was different from the Battle of Xinhui, in that Xinhui was the people helping the Qing army defend the city. In Jingzhou, the common people did not help the Qing army, not to mention, if the river embankment was opened, a large amount of fertile land was flooded, it was the consequence that the Ming army had to consider, so the Ming army would not use water to attack the water.
In the end, it was Sukh Saha who had the upper hand, after all, he was the manager.
However, Sukh Saha did not come to defend Jingzhou in person, but chose to garrison Xiangyang, and he asked Shuodai to guard Jingzhou.
Since it was decided to use water to attack the Ming army, the main force of the Qing army was Lin Xingzhu's sailor.
Lin Xingzhu, Luo Shizhen and He Yingyuan retreated from Anqing and fled all the way to Jingzhou. Just in time for the Qing army to rebuild the water division, several of them were favored by Suke Saha and became the generals of the water division.
At this time, the Qing army no longer paid attention to the quality of the sailors' ships, and even used the wood that had just been cut down directly to build ships, anyway, these ships were disposable, and they didn't care how long it took to fight, as long as they were finished, they could be scrapped. In addition, the Qing army also confiscated the small boats of the surrounding people and used them for military purposes.
As for the officers and men of the Sailor Division, some nearby water thieves and bandits, as well as local fishermen, who had already been recruited from the Han River, were incorporated into the Sailor Division after a simple training.
In this way, the Qing army reluctantly recruited a sailor of more than 6,000 people and gathered more than 500 small boats. In order to cooperate with the defense of the Changhu embankment, Sukh Saha also dispatched another 1,000 Lu Battalion and 3,000 Minzhuang to be stationed on the lake embankment to prevent the Ming army from sneaking up on the lake embankment and disrupting the Qing army's water attack plan.
In Jingzhou City, the Qing army is also carrying out transformation, and the Qing army reinforces the city gate, blocks the city gate, and carries out waterproof treatment. Even if the Ming army broke the embankment, the city wall would be able to hold back the flood.
However, if the Changhu embankment bursts, the city wall of Jingzhou can not block the flood from the Changhu Lake, so the Qing army prepared a large number of rafts and bamboo rafts in the city, once they can't wait to open the Changhu Lake embankment, the Qing army in the city will take the rafts and bamboo rafts to retreat in the direction of Changhu. Just to open the embankment of Changhu Lake, it is also a last resort, Suke Saha originally meant that there was a large basin of lake water hanging over the head of Jingzhou, and the Ming army did not dare to attack the city rashly.
If the Ming army and land division set up a formation under Jingzhou City, dug trenches, and built fortifications to attack the city, then the Qing army would open the lake embankment and release water, which would definitely cause the Ming army to suffer heavy losses.
In the camp of the Qing Army's naval division on the edge of the embankment of Changhu Lake, Lin Xingzhu was discussing with Luo Shizhen, He Yingyuan and others.
Lin Xingzhu said: "Suke Saha used a water attack to deal with the Ming army, which is really a defeat! The Ming army's naval division is strong, even if Jingzhou is flooded into a Ze country and the Ming army's land division suffers heavy losses, their naval division can completely retaliate against us and kill all the way to Changhu! When the time comes, how can we resist? And I can guarantee that Shuo Dai and those flag men will not be able to outrun the warships of the Ming army on rafts and bamboo rafts! ”
"In that case, we might as well surrender!" Luo Shizhen proposed.
"That's right!" He Yingyuan said, "General Lin, you were originally a member of the Zheng family's army, you were captured by Zhai Po, and you had to surrender in order for the family to survive, this is different from Shi Lang's initiative to surrender, if you go back, they won't do anything to us, General Lin, let's surrender!" ”
Lin Xingzhu smiled bitterly: "If we fall, what will our family do?" Our families are all in the north, and if we fall, they will still be able to live, right? Even if it is a fall, you have to make a show to the court, right? We wiped out the sailors, and then continued to flee north, using Li Daitao's trick to cheat death, so that the court thought we were dead, and then sent someone to take our family out. ”
"A trick to death? It's a good idea! Luo Shizhen's face was happy, "General Lin, I heard that Shi Lang escaped by deceitful death, but he was unlucky, he went to Japan and ran into Zheng Jiajun's people, and he was arrested as a result, and this time he should really be dead." ”
The news spread very slowly back then, and the Qing court only knew that Shi Lang had been arrested, and did not know whether he had been executed.
"yes, it's still going to have to be a dozen! With these rabble, it is impossible to stop the Ming army! If it weren't for the fact that we had a banner man in our army to supervise it, we would have opened up all the rivers and let the Ming fleet in. Lin Xingzhu nodded.
In the small river channel leading from the Yangtze River to Changhu Lake, the small fleet of the Ming army has entered the small river. In front of the Japanese people is a pedal pole mineboat, followed by a small car boat of the Marine Corps, and in the middle of the fleet, there is a boat emitting black smoke, which is going upstream, slowly heading towards the direction of Changhu.
At the forefront, which was specifically responsible for finding out what was going on in the water, was a Japanese mineboat.
"The Manchu Tartars are also strange, they should already know how to make mines, right? Why did we go so far and didn't see the mines of Qinggou? Kuroda said, probing the bottom of the water with a bamboo pole.
A Japanese samurai laughed and said, "Their sailor is also called a sailor?" Just a few small wrecked boats! Mines are not easy to make, and if they copied them, they would not have thrown them in this small river to blow up our boats. ”
The pole minecraft moved forward slowly, and the Japanese samurai and ashigaru on board carefully probed the situation in the water, and from time to time people jumped into the water and dived under the water to find out the situation. The depth of this small river is not deep, the average depth of the main channel is only about five feet, and in many sections, the depth of the water is only three feet.
In the middle of the flotilla, the strange ship was emitting black smoke, and the ship's boilermen kept shoveling coal into the boiler. With the roar of the steam engine, the steamer moved slowly.