The Ming fleet went all the way upstream, and did not go ashore before reaching Guazhou. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In front of the fleet, the small boat responsible for opening the way went upriver on the river, and from time to time someone on the boat stretched out a bamboo pole and stretched it into the water to detect whether the water was manipulated by the Qing army, arranged underwater hidden piles, or sank several boats and the like.

There are also some sailors who are particularly good at water and simply put on diving goggles made of eucommia gum and glass, and dive underwater to find out what is going on underwater.

"Here, there are several shipwrecks underwater!" Zhao Ah Crab, a sailor on a small boat, just climbed onto the boat and said something.

The name Zhao Ah Crab knows at a glance that he is the son of a fisherman, and he, like Zhang Ashui, is a fisherman's son who grew up by the sea since he was a child. Because of the Qing court's sea ban, many people violated the ban and went to sea and were killed, and Zhao Crab's parents were relatively timid people who did not dare to take risks, and as a result, his mother starved to death, and his young brother and elderly grandmother also starved to death. Just when the family couldn't live happily, the agents of the Heaven and Earth Society took them to Qiongzhou.

Zhao signed up for the army and became a naval soldier. His water skills are quite good, and in the small boat that opens the road in front, Zhao A crab often jumps into the river and dives to the bottom of the river to find out the underwater situation.

Holding your breath and diving to the bottom of the river for a few minutes is not a problem for the fishermen's children at all. Fishermen go into the water to catch crabs, shellfish, sea cucumbers, groupers, all need to dive to the bottom. At that time, there was no diving equipment, and it was completely dependent on people to dive and fish.

However, after these fishermen's children joined the Ming army, they were equipped with diving equipment. At that time, there were no oxygen tanks and diving suits, and the so-called diving equipment was a hose made of Eucommia ulmoides glue connected to the boat, and the divers who dived underwater wore a pair of diving goggles made of glass and eucommia glue on their heads, which could be firmly fixed on the face, and the snorkel was connected to the diving goggles, so that they could breathe fresh air transmitted from the surface of the water underwater.

Just because there is no pressurization equipment and diving suits, it is impossible for this diving method to dive too deep underwater, because underwater, every ten meters increases the pressure of one atmosphere, and when entering a place that is too deep underwater, people breathe or unpressurized air sent down from the water surface, and the air pressure inside and outside the body is different, which will lead to difficulty breathing, blisters in the lungs, and even death.

Even the best diver can only dive to about 20 meters. However, the water depth of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is mostly about eight to nine meters, and such diving equipment is enough.

After he dived underwater, he found that the Qing army had sunk several ships in the Yangtze River channel, blocking the channel, which would cause the Ming army's giant ships to be unable to pass.

The Qing army's method of blocking the channel with sunken ships could not stop the Ming fleet at all.

A few small boats came slowly, bringing in mines for underwater blasting.

"Let me go down again, I just went down, I'm going to fix the mine on the sunken ship." Zhao Ah Crab said to several other sailors.

Due to the large size of the wreck, it is not as good as blasting the underwater pile, and more powerful mines are needed to blow the sunken ship to pieces, so divers need to dive underwater and tie the mines to the sunken ship.

Zhao Ah crab jumped into the river again, and the Ming soldiers on the boat put a large mine weighing 150 pounds into the water, and then someone tied a stone to the mine, so that the mine with a light gravity than water slowly sank under the water. Zhao Ah Crab, who was working in the water, sneaked into the side of the wreck with a mine.

"This diving goggle is such a good thing! You can see it clearly underwater! Still breathing. It's just that breathing underwater feels a little harder. Zhao Ah Crab said secretly in his heart.

A mine weighing 150 catties, and a few large stones were tied, and the weight of the mine exceeded 200 catties. However, because of the buoyancy in the water, Zhao Ah Crab did not feel heavy at all with the mine. He dragged the mine to the side of the wreck, and then hooked the mine with an iron chain, connecting the other end of the chain to the wreck. After all this was done, Zhao Ah Crab surfaced with an underwater slow-burning fuse.

"The mines have been installed and can be blasted!" Zhao Ah Crab said.

A Ming sergeant on the boat took out a box of matches, struck the matches, lit the fuse, and then threw the fuse into the water. Because this underwater slow-burning fuse is wrapped in paraffin wax, which contains its own agent that can produce oxygen, the fuse can still burn slowly underwater.

After lighting the fuse, the oarsmen on the boat paddled desperately and quickly retreated to safety.

The fuse burned in the water, and soon after, the fuse disappeared into the mine's fuse tube and continued to shorten. A few minutes later, a column of water rose on the surface of the river, and the mines exploded violently under the water, and the white waves splashed in all directions, and the wreck under the water was blown into a pile of broken wood chips in the explosion, floating from under the water, floating on the surface of the river.

The shipwrecks of the Qing army were all Chinese-style wooden boats such as fir structure Fu boat sand boats, these ships had thin planks, and were far less solid than oak structure ships, and a ship of more than 100 tons was blown up by a mine.

The small boats of the Ming army continued to move upstream, and people continued to probe the underwater, and when they found a sunken ship, they blasted it with mines. With the sound of explosions sounding one after another, the sunken ships used by the Qing army to block the channel were blown to pieces. After a whole day, the Ming army opened up a long, eight-mile channel.

The next day, the Ming army went upriver again and arrived at the river around Guazhou.

"We can send messengers to deliver a letter to the Tartars of Kuah and ask them to surrender to us." Luo Zimu made a suggestion to Zhang Yukun.

Zhang Yukun agreed: "The soldiers who surrender without a fight, the good people are also good, if the Tartars are willing to surrender, we can also save a lot of trouble!" ”

Zhang Huang said: "The general also needs to be careful of repeating the old tricks of the Tartars, and delaying us with delaying tactics!" ”

"The last general will only give the Tartar three hours! If they still refuse to surrender at three hours, we will attack the city at once! Definitely not give them three days, ten days to prepare! Zhang Yukun said with a smile.

Seven years ago, Zheng Chenggong's Northern Expedition was a delaying tactic of the Qing army, Liang Huafeng and others said that they wanted to surrender, but Zheng Chenggong believed it and actually gave them ten days and half a month to make preparations! And Zhang Yukun left the Qing army with only a short three hours, and it was impossible to drag mud and water.

In Guazhou City, the defenders of the Qing army originally wanted to repeat the old trick and use delaying the army to delay the time of the Ming army. However, as soon as he saw the letter shot by the Ming army envoy with an arrow, which said that he would consider the time of three hours, the Qing army guard was furious and immediately rejected Zhang Yukun's persuasion to surrender.