In the Wushan cottage, firecrackers are ringing, Li Laiheng's rebels are killing chickens and ducks, the cauldron exudes the aroma of meat, the big steamer is steaming with various wax flavors, and the soldiers are kneading the multigrain noodles and preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner. Zhu Shenglang, the king of Dong'an, who is attached to the righteous army, is also in a very good mood, for so many years, he has not had a good year in his dignified clan, and the days of drifting are not much better than Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, who has been floating on the sea for a long time.

Zhu Shenglang looked at the stewed meat dishes in the pot and sighed: "I can finally have a good meal of meat!" After eating multigrain wild vegetables for so long, the birds are about to fade out of their mouths! ”

Zhu Shenglang has no say in the matter of the Qiongzhou Army cooperating with the Kuidong Righteous Army, although he is a genuine Ming clan, but now he is just a puppet of Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun and others. The Qing court has been hunting down these clans, and if they can restore the Ming Dynasty, they will be able to live a peaceful life.

"What about the Qiongzhou Army? Didn't you say you were going to spend the New Year with us? Why is there no one in sight? "Yuan Zong didn't see Zhao Haisheng and Chen Shuigen when he got up in the morning, and he thought it was very strange.

"Back to the general, they went to the edge of the Wushan Gorge and said that they would monitor the Tartars." A soldier replied.

"For the Chinese New Year, who will transport grain and grass on the road! Isn't the Tartar too old? Yuan Zongdi muttered to himself, then turned around and went to take the teacup and drink tea. This tea was given to them by the Qiongzhou army, and the mountain spring water plus this tea leaves makes it refreshing and sweet to drink. However, for a rough person like Yuan Zongdi, it is a waste to give him good tea.

At this time, Chen Shuigen ran up to the cottage out of breath: "General! The Tartar grain ship appeared! They will soon pass through the Wushan Gorge! ”

The teacup in Yuan Zongdi's hand almost fell to the ground, and when he came to his senses, he put the teacup on the table and stared at Chen Shuigen with wide eyes: "Brother Shuigen, you are not mistaken, right?" ”

"Back to the general! That's right! Absolutely true! It's the Tartar convoy that is coming! Chen Shuigen replied with certainty.

"Tartars are actually transporting grain for the New Year?" Yuan Zongdi was very surprised.

Chen Shuigen replied: "General." Li Guoying must be in a hurry! I suspect that they have been without food for three or four days! And we are keeping an eye on it here, Li Guoying must think that we are relaxed during the New Year, so he wants to take this opportunity to transport grain into Chongqing! Checkmate! We have to do it now! Li Guoying can't be allowed to transport this batch of grain into Yucheng! Otherwise, after their batch of grain comes in, they will definitely be able to support the completion of the plank road! At that time, it will be difficult for us to cut off their food supply again! ”

"Do you still want to eat Li Guoying and them in one bite?" Yuan Zongdi was taken aback.

"Yes!" Chen Shuigen nodded affirmatively, "The army of more than 100,000 Tartars is crowded in Yucheng, and we will burn their grain." As long as we burn this batch of grain ships again, more than 100,000 Tartars will not even be able to eat, and we will take the opportunity to attack after the year, and we will be able to wipe out Li Guoying, Tu Hai, Zhao Liangdong, Wang Jinbao, these famous Tartar generals! ”

After Li Guoying's grain and grass were burned by the Western Expeditionary Army, he first took out his own grain stock, and called on Tuhai and other banner people to take out the stockpile to provide military use.

Under Li Guoying's call, the bannermen and Qing generals in the city took out their own grain stocks. However, although the bannermen and officials had a lot of food. But for an army of more than 100,000, it is just a drop in the bucket. Li Guoying had no choice but to limit the rations, let the firehead soldiers boil gruel that was so rare that it could illuminate the shadow of the people every day for the army, and sent soldiers to hunt and dig wild vegetables and pick wild fruits in the mountains, and all the pigs, dogs, chickens and other livestock raised in the city were killed, but even this could not last a few days, and soon Li Guoying was ready to slaughter the mules and horses used to pull the carts. When the mules and horses are all eaten, it is estimated that they will start killing the war horses.

Although Zhao Liangdong has always suggested that grain should be transported directly from the Yangtze River route upstream into Yucheng. However, Li Guoying, who has always been cautious, considered that the Three Gorges in the Wushan area were controlled by the Kuidong Righteous Army, and Li Guoying really did not dare to take this risk.

It's winter. The northwest wind was blowing, and the boats loaded with grain were going upstream, and the speed was very slow, as long as the Kuidong Righteous Army arranged some hidden piles in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and then made a few boats to sink to the bottom of the river, and made some huge rocks to arrange artificial reefs. Then use a raft to ignite a fire and go down the river, which can cause great trouble to the Qing army's sailors.

In order to ensure food security and transportation, Li Guoying set a trap in an attempt to lure out the Kuidong Rebels with a fake grain transport fleet and annihilate the rebels' sailors in one fell swoop. And consume the strength of the rebels, so that the food convoy can be safe.

Who knew that the Qing army's fake grain fleet sailed on the Yangtze River for several days, and the Kuidong Righteous Army was not fooled.

Li Guoying sent spies to infiltrate the area of Maolu Mountain and Wushan to spy on the rebels, but found that the rebels were busy with the New Year, and they didn't even send any spies to the riverside to spy on the routes of the Qing army. However, Li Guoying, who had always been cautious, still did not act rashly, but waited for a few more days, waiting for Chinese New Year's Eve, to determine that the righteous army in the east was celebrating the New Year and it was impossible to attack.

Li Guoying did not find the spies of the rebel army, but it does not mean that the Ming army did not send spies to monitor. The actual situation is like this, Li Laiheng listened to Zhao Haisheng's proposal, and the rebel army did not send spies. The task of monitoring the Qing army fell on the most elite of the Qiongzhou army. Every member of the Qiongzhou army has undergone strict professional training, is good at hiding camouflage, wears green clothes, coupled with good camouflage skills, cruel training allows them to endure mosquito bites in the woods for several days and nights, eat dry food when they are hungry, drink cold water when they are thirsty, and stare at the Qing army like a stone that does not move.

Hearing Chen Shuigen's report, Yuan Zongdi immediately reported to Li Laiheng about the passage of the Qing army's transport fleet.

"Brethren! Tartar grain ships are going to pass under our noses! Can you say yes? Li Laiheng stood on a high place, waving his arms high.

"Can't!" The rebel officers and soldiers roared one after another.

More than 5,000 members of the Kuidong Righteous Army left the cottage and set off to the riverside, where the volunteer soldiers dragged out their hidden rafts and boats from the mountains and forests by the river. In the blink of an eye, a water division appeared in front of Chen Shuigen and them as if it had emerged from the ground. Moreover, the scale of this sailor is not too small, with more than 200 fire-attacking rafts and more than 100 small boats.

Chen Shuigen was full of praise for the hidden sailors of the Kuidong Righteous Army: "I didn't expect you to hide a large sailor!" Descend the river and attack the Tartars, and a single fire can burn all their grain ships clean! ”

"In the past, our sailors were much stronger than Li Guoying's sailors! However, in the battle of Yucheng four years ago, because Tan Yi and Tan Hong defected to the enemy, our army suffered heavy losses. The loss of more than half of the naval warships allowed Li Guoying's thieves to control the Yangtze River channel! Li Laiheng sighed.

Later, some of the rebels drove small boats to lay wooden stakes in the shallow channel of the river, and some of the rebels pushed down boulders from the mountains and fell into the river, forming artificial reefs. Some people are ready to attack the raft with fire. After all the preparations were completed, the grain ships of the Qing army, which were going upriver at an extremely slow speed, slowly appeared on the river downstream.

In front of the Qing army's fleet were more than a dozen large warships and more than 100 small boats to open the way, followed by grain ships loaded with grain, sailing at turtle speed, and the speed of the ships was not even comparable to the speed of human walking.

Just as Li Laiheng was about to give the order to attack, suddenly there was a report from the Qiongzhou army that he did not receive at night: "Behind us!" A fleet of Tartar sailors was spotted upstream heading downstream! ”

"Li Guoying, Li Guoying! You really are a tortoise! Too cautious indeed! Don't give us a chance! Li Laiheng looked up to the sky and sighed.

The Qing army attacked back and forth, but Li Laiheng's righteous army was ready to shoot. Now that you're here, you can't stop halfway. If the army is withdrawn at this time, the Qing army will land and follow the pursuit. On the contrary, the rebels will suffer heavy losses, and they will lose their men and horses in vain. At this point, Li Laiheng could only give an order to let the fire attack raft go down the river and rush straight to the Qing army fleet.

"The Ming Dog Fire Attack Ship is coming!" The Qing fleet saw the raft coming down the river in front of them, and some people shouted.

"Quick! Set off a fireworks signal! Tell General Dong to let him pinch Minggou! A Qing army officer shouted.

A soldier on board the Great War ship set off fireworks and lit them. Only a "bang" was heard. Fireworks bombs burst into the air, and a large colorful salute bloomed in the sky.

In fact, there is no need for the clearing troops of the grain transport team to send out a signal. Li Guoying's subordinate Dong Xueli had already discovered the movement of the rebels downstream, and had already ordered the sailors to drive at full speed and kill the rebels downstream. Dong Xueli's sailor was smooth sailing, and his speed was extremely fast, and he was getting closer and closer to the rebel sailor in front.

"Our Lord Li is really clever! I guessed that the thieves would definitely not be honestly nested in the mountains, and would definitely come out to rob our grain ships! Hahaha! "Look at the rebel sailor ship that is about to be chased by him. Dong Xueli looked up to the sky and laughed.

At this moment, a cannon suddenly rang out on the bank of the river, and a large banner with the word "Liu" appeared from the mountains and forests, and countless archers appeared on the riverside, and rows of random arrows shot at the warships of the Qing army on the river.

It was Liu Tichun's department that launched the attack. Liu Tichun also received a report from the Qiongzhou Army and learned that the Qing army's grain convoy was going to pass through the Wushan Gorge. After some consideration, Liu Tichun planned to burn the grain ship of the Qing army, but when they arrived at the riverside, they found that there was still a Qing army sailor upstream! So Liu Tichun led his troops to ambush by the river, and when the Qing warships passed through the river in front of them, the rebels emerged from the woods one after another and shot random arrows like locusts at the Qing army's sailors.

The appearance of Liu Tichun happened to save Li Laiheng's sailor who was attacked by the Qing army from both sides.

The Wushan Gorge ambushed by the rebels was very narrow, less than a hundred paces wide, and the Qing warships were completely within the range of the rebels' bows and arrows.

After a few rounds of random arrows, almost all the ships were full of feather arrows, which looked like they were covered with a layer of reeds, and the Qing soldiers on the warship were splashed with blood and screamed miserably, and many of the Qing soldiers who were shot like hedgehogs fell headlong into the cabin, and some people screamed and fell into the turbulent river, and were swept away by the rapids at once.

"There are thieves on both sides of the strait!" Dong Xueli shouted.

The Qing army on the ship set up shields to block the indiscriminate arrows that were fired, and at the same time counterattacked with bows and arrows, bowl-mouth guns and copper fire guns, and the feather arrow projectiles rained into the woods on both sides, and suddenly a flying blood mist rose in the woods, and many righteous soldiers were shot by arrows one after another, screaming and falling. Several large ships also bombarded the shore with small Francophone cannons mounted on the ships, and the shells burrowed into the woods, and sawdust and branches and leaves flew everywhere, and the flesh and blood of the rebels hit by the shells flew sideways and turned into a rain of blood scattered in the woods.

The rebels either shielded themselves with shields or concealed themselves with the help of the terrain, using bows and arrows to shoot at the Qing army. The rebels had the advantage of terrain, but the Qing army's firepower was much more ferocious, and there were also Franc cannons, so the two sides were basically tied.

"Tartar General! That's you! Ambushed in the mountains and forests, Chen Shuigen saw Dong Xueli standing on a big ship and wearing silver-white armor from the telescope, and judged that the person must be the chief general of the Qing army, so he took out the rifled gun with a scope from his back, picked up the gun, and aimed at Dong Xueli, who was about 150 meters away. He held his breath, roughly estimated the amount of aiming advance according to the wind direction and wind speed, and the speed east of the target, and decisively pulled the trigger. The muzzle of the gun spewed out a ball of fire, and white smoke rose from the trees.

The high-speed spinning lead bullet burst out of the muzzle, rushed out of the woods, flew some distance on the river, and accurately hit Dong Xueli's helmet. The bullet pierced through the helmet as if it were penetrating a paper shell, piercing Dong Xueli's skull from the left front side, twisting the intracranial tissue into a piece of paste, and drilling out of the right back of the head, and spurting out of the sloppy brain, dirty blood, and bone fragments from the hole in the back of the head. Dong Xueli didn't even have time to snort, so he planted an upside-down onion and fell into the turbulent Yangtze River, and his lifeless body sank to the bottom of the river, and a piece of dirty blood floated on the surface of the river, which was soon diluted by the turbulent water.

"Dong Zhentai was killed! Dong Zhentai was killed! Someone in the Qing army shouted anxiously.

The main general was killed, and the Qing army's sailors, who had lost their command, were in chaos at once. The arrows on both sides of the strait rained down, and the Qing soldiers on the ship were shot into hedgehogs one after another.

"Don't mess around! General Dong is dead, you listen to the general's orders! A Qing lieutenant general stepped forward to command.

The lieutenant had just assumed command of the general army, and he had lived for less than a few seconds, when another gunshot rang out, and the heart guards on the adjutant's chest broke, and the bullets drilled into his body with the shattered heart guards, tearing his heart and lungs to pieces. The adjutant general of the Qing army screamed miserably, fell on his back on the deck, and the hole in his back that had been pierced immediately oozed a large amount of blood, staining a large area of the deck red.

The river was narrow here, and rifled guns completely covered the Qing fleet. Six rifled gunners who did not collect at night fired one after another, and the officers of the Qing Army's naval division, guerrillas, garrisons, and Qianzong were shot and killed one after another.

Downstream, Li Laiheng's sailor, who was rescued by Liu Tichun, had already lit the firewood on the raft, and one after another the fire-attacking rafts ignited a raging fire, emitting thick smoke, and rushed down the river to the Qing convoy at full speed.

"Stop Minggou's raft!" Qing army general Wang Yizheng shouted anxiously.

The small boats of the Qing army rushed out and rushed towards the smoke-filled rafts, trying to stop the fire-attacking rafts that posed the greatest threat to the big ships. (To be continued.) )