The New Year is approaching, and on the Xiangjiang River in the north of Changsha City, more than a dozen centipede clippers, fast crabs, long sampans and other inland river clippers of the Hunan Naval Division of the Qing Army have appeared. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"General! The Tartars are coming! The sentry hurriedly reported to Liu Guoxuan.

Liu Guoxuan walked out of the study and boarded the fort. Here is the Changsha North Fort carefully built by the Ming Army, on which there are more than 300 army artillery and eight hexagonal rifled guns.

The inland water division of the Ming army was stationed in Changsha, because there were no big ships, the Ming army was forbidden to fight with the Qing army, and they all hid under the protection of the fort, and the artillery on most of the naval warships was also dismantled and placed on the top of the fort, which strengthened the defense of the fort, so that the number of artillery here reached more than 600 pieces.

Liu Guoxuan stood on the platform, picked up the binoculars, and looked in the direction where the Qing army sailors were coming, only to see that this Qing army sailors were waving the banner of "Shi".

"Shi Lang! It's Shi Lang, the dog thief, who is here! Liu Guoxuan shouted, "The forts are ready!" As long as Shi Lang's dog thief enters the firing range, he will beat Lao Tzu hard! ”

The soldiers gave the signal of the flag, all the gun emplacements on the battery were ready for battle, and the gunners lifted their gun jackets, brought up the powder kegs and shells, and placed them on the edge of the gun emplacement. The eight hexagonal guns with the longest range had already begun to be reloaded, and as soon as the Qing army came into effective range, these eight guns would fire.

On the river, General Shi Lang stood on a boat, carefully observing the movement on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River.

Shi Lang didn't have a telescope in his hand. Telescopes are rare in this era, Ao Bai and Zhou Peigong's Huguang New Army did not have many telescopes in their hands, and the original Hunan Navy Admiral Shang Shan had a telescope, but when he handed over the Hunan Water Division, he did not hand over the telescope.

The Ming army's fort was carefully hidden in the jungle on a high ground by the river, and the dense woods obscured the sky and the sun, obscuring the outline of the fort. Looking from the river to the shore, it is not easy to spot the fort without a telescope.

"Minggou's sailors shouldn't dare to fight us, but I'm wondering, where will they set up a fort?" Shi Lang pointed to the river bank in front of him and said.

On the fort, Liu Guoxuan watched the fleet under the banner of "Shi" getting closer and closer, and had entered the effective range of the hexagonal rifled gun, originally Liu Guoxuan was ready to order the cannon, but he thought about it for a while, and changed his mind: "Put the Tartar in, and then fire the cannon when it is closer!" It is estimated that Shi Lang, the dog thief, is also here! Be sure to keep him! ”

Liu Guoxuan believes that Shi Lang must not know that the Ming army has a rifled gun with a very long range and very high accuracy, as long as he can calm down and introduce Shi Lang into the range where the fort can concentrate artillery attacks, Shi Lang can be killed.

If Shi Lang can be killed, then the next Dongting Lake water battle will be much easier.

Watching the Qing fleet get closer and closer, Liu Guoxuan set his eyes on one of the largest centipede clippers.

"Wait until the Tartars are in range, aim at the ship, and concentrate your fire! The Shi Lang dog thief must be in that boat! Liu Guoxuan called his own soldiers and pointed to the largest centipede clipper and said.

The Qing fleet gradually approached, and when the Qing fleet was less than three hundred steps away from the fort, Liu Guoxuan pulled out his waist knife and pointed at the Qing army ship and shouted: "Open the cannon!" ”

Eight hexagonal rifled guns that had long been ready to fire were aimed at the tallest and most majestic ship in the middle of the Qing fleet, and a large centipede clipper with the word "Shi" flag was hung on the ship, and the gunners picked up torches, stretched out to the fire door, and lit the cannons.

The firing angle of the hexagonal cannon and the Zhuyuan were adjusted in advance, and at intervals on the riverbank, there was an eye-catching flagpole with words written on it. It was used to calculate the distance, and each word represented a corresponding number, and the Qing army could not read the code, but the gunners on the battery could understand it. When firing from a battery, you can know the distance according to the position of which flagpole the enemy ship enters, and fire the cannon according to this distance.

There is a buoy every other distance on the river, which also corresponds to the flagpole on the shore, if the warship of the Qing army is far away from the river bank, only look at the flagpole, there will be a large error, but there is a buoy in the river to control, so that the distance is very accurate, and there will be no big error.

At this time, the largest centipede clipper

The hexagonal rifled gun spat out balls of fire, and clouds of white smoke rose from the turrets surrounded by trees.

Hearing the sudden sound of cannons, Shi Lang was scared into a cold sweat.

Several columns of water rose on the surface of the river, and shells fell into the river, splashing in all directions. Suddenly, several shells accurately hit the largest centipede clipper, and the high-speed rotating rifled cannon shells easily pierced into the ship's board like barbed wire tied to tofu, tearing the ship through several holes in one fell swoop.

"Crackling" a series of wooden planks shattering sound, the power of rifled guns is not comparable to smoothbore guns, the large centipede clipper that was hit by five shells broke in two, and soon sank into the water, leaving only a whirlpool on the river, few Qing soldiers on the boat had no chance to jump into the water to escape, and most of the people were sucked into the bottom of the river by the whirlpool that appeared when the shipwreck appeared.

Shi Lang was taken aback: "The thief's turret has a long range!" ”

"Fortunately, the general is wise!" Lin Xingzhu said, "If we were in that boat, all of us would have gone to the bottom of the river to feed Wang Ba!" ”

Shi Lang sneered: "The thief's artillery fire is so sharp, where do you dare to be on the biggest ship?" Isn't that a live target? But this thief's fort is too powerful! ”

The batteries on the shore roared, and rows of cannonballs whizzed down into the river, raising countless columns of water that soared into the sky. Although the accuracy of these smoothbore guns is not too high, the ships of the Qing army are already very close, and the shells of the Ming army are specially hailed to those relatively large ships, and more than ten shells fall, and there are always one or two hits, which is enough.

In the blink of an eye, another larger centipede clipper was shot and began to sink on the surface of the river.

Then a fast crab was hit by a cannonball, the Qing soldiers on the ship suffered heavy casualties, the board of the ship was smashed to pieces, and the fast crab finally broke into two pieces and sank into the water.

"Let's go! The thief battery is too ferocious! Shi Lang shouted.

The Qing soldiers on this long sampan immediately rowed back, and the long sampan with two pointed ends quickly retreated, fleeing downstream along the current, and quickly escaped from the range of the Ming army by virtue of the advantage of the small speed of the boat.

The attention of the Ming gunners was focused on the relatively large ship of the Qing army, and no one paid attention to this small sampan that could only carry more than ten people, but Shi Lang was on that small sampan!

This time, the Qing army came over, three centipede clippers were all sunk, five fast crabs were sunk four, ten long sampans were also sunk six, and of the eighteen large and small ships that came, only one fast crab and four long sampans escaped back. However, because of Shi Lang's clever choice, he did not take a big boat, but sat on a small boat, and as a result, Shi Lang, Yang Fu and Lin Xingzhu all fled back to Dongting Lake unscathed.

Seeing a few Qing boats fleeing, one of the soldiers asked, "Junmen, are we sending a few boats to chase the Tartar boats?" ”

Liu Guoxuan looked at the speed of those long sampans escaping, shook his head and said: "It's useless, you can't catch up, the Tartar is smooth, this kind of two-pointed boat is very fast, and you can't catch up at all." ”

After Shi Lang fled back to Yuezhou, he went straight to Wuchang without stopping.

In the Huguang Governor's Mansion, Zhang Changgeng was sitting in the study reading a book, and someone came to report: "Make Taiwan, Shi Junmen is visiting!" ”

"Let him in!" Zhang Changgeng put down the book.

Shi Lang was introduced into the study by the servants in the house, and when he saw Zhang Changgeng, Shi Lang knelt down on one knee and said a thousand words: "The last general has seen Zhang Zhengtai!" ”

"Why did Shi Junmen come to Wuchang?" Zhang Changgeng asked.

Shi Lang arched his hand and said: "Zhang Zhitai, our army has many generals, and we should not hold on to Wuchang, but should take the initiative to attack and fight with the thieves in Changsha!" ”

"Why did Shi Junmen say this?" Zhang Changgeng asked.

Shi Lang replied: "Zhang Zhengtai, the thieves built a fort by the Changsha River, and at least five hundred cannons were placed on it!" Among them, there are also eight very powerful, probably red-haired ghosts' sixty-four-pound super heavy cannons! That kind of cannon is very powerful, and a big ship of 200 materials can be sunk in a few cannons! From this point of view, the thieves are afraid of our army's Yuezhou Water Division, and they don't dare to attack at all! According to the last general, the thieves saw that our army had a large number of generals and a huge consumption of food, so they planned to stick to Changsha and exhaust our army's food! If we still stick to Wuchang, we can only consume grain and grass in vain! And the thieves can repair the spirit canal and build a big ship! If it is delayed by the thieves, I am afraid it will not be good for our army! ”

The army of more than 200,000 people, plus the auxiliary soldiers and the people, consumed an astronomical amount of food every day.

If the Ming army did not attack, but stuck to Changsha, confronted the Qing army in Huguang, and waited to build weapons, then the delay of time could only be very unfavorable to the Qing army.

Shi Lang saw this, so he hoped that the Qing army could take the initiative to attack and start a decisive battle with the Ming army in Changsha.

But Zhang Changgeng shook his head and said: "Shi Junmen, the decisive battle of Huguang, and the battlefield is set in Wuchang, it is Ao Zhongtang's proposal, if you want to change the battle plan, this official can't call the shots!" Shi Junmen, you just need to guard Yueyang! ”

Shi Lang said: "It seems that the last general will have to go to Anqing to see Ao Zhongtang!" If our army only thinks about the decisive battle in Wuchang, I am afraid that it will fall for the thief! ”

"Tomorrow is Chinese New Year's Eve, let's go to Anqing after the New Year." Zhang Changgeng said.

In Changsha, Wang Xinyu met Yu Chenglong, who was sent by Ma Xiong.

"Yu Jackie Chan?" Wang Xinyu read the name. Yu Jackie Chan's name sounds very familiar, and he seems to be a very famous character.

Looking at Yu Jackie Chan dressed as an old farmer, Wang Xinyu suddenly remembered that this Yu Jackie Chan was a famous minister in the early Qing Dynasty! This person lived a simple life, and he was a Qing official in the Kangxi period, alongside Wang Xi. Wang Xi and Yu Chenglong are both very honest and honest, when these two people were officials, they benefited the local people and gave the people a very good reputation.

Before Jackie Chan died, he served as the fattest governor of Liangjiang that year, but when Jackie Chan died, he didn't have any savings, leaving only a few sets of old clothes. (To be continued.) )