The current Ming army, there is no steam ironclad ship, no breech-loading rifled guns, although the Ming army's naval division is strong, but it is still a wooden battleship's naval division, which has the advantage of crushing the Qing army's naval division, but once it is hit, then it will also fall into danger, and will be attacked by the Qing army with fire and suffer heavy losses. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

But hot air balloon reconnaissance is actually a symbol of strength, the Ming army has hot air balloons, the Qing army does not, that is to show that the Ming army has absolute strength in this regard. Absolute strength is something that no conspiracy can fight against, and it is precisely because the Ming army has hot air balloons for reconnaissance that Shi Lang's conspiracy cannot succeed.

Although the Qing army also knows the principle of hot air balloons, is it just a kind of extra-large Kong Ming lantern? Why can we build a dog in the Ming Dynasty, but we can't build it in the Qing Dynasty?

So the Qing army also experimented with making hot air balloons, but when they tried to make them, they found that making hot air balloons was not so simple.

The hot air balloon that was originally made was burned out because it was not well controlled. After that, the Qing army easily made an air bag that could be inflated and had enough size not to be burned. At first, they used ordinary cotton cloth to make airbags, but the air leakage was serious, and the balloon could only barely be supported, and it was impossible to carry heavy objects into the sky at all.

Later, the Qing army changed to thick canvas to make hot air balloons, but it turned out that the canvas was too hard and too heavy, and the weight of building such a large airbag was very large, and the problem of air leakage was still not solved.

In the end, the Qing army experimented with the thin canvas, which was still the same, leaking, and the thin canvas seemed to be very unstable, and the seams were very easy to crack, not to mention, the hot air poured into it would crack if it was heavy again. The balloons that were so easy to make could only barely carry very light things to fly, and they couldn't carry people into the sky at all.

The Qing army did not know how the Ming army solved the problem of air leakage. In fact, the Ming military did use thin canvas, plus Eucommia ulmoides glue, that is, eucommia glue was used to prevent air leakage, and it also increased the strength of the canvas.

Some things are not something that can be imitated successfully, and the Qing army did not know the materials used in hot air balloons. In fact, the truth of materials science has been in later generations, for countries with backward materials science technology, it is a big problem, some composite materials, even if you put the sample in front of you to imitate, you can't imitate it.

What's more, in this era, the Qing army has not yet obtained a sample of the Ming army's hot air balloon, in fact, even if the Qing army gets the hot air balloon, it can't figure out how the eucommia glue is made.

Shi Lang saw the Ming army raise the hot air balloon, and his heart chuckled: "It's broken!" The dog used to release a big hole lantern! This time, our strategy is useless! ”

"Shi Junmen, what should we do now?" Yang Fu asked.

Shi Lang said helplessly: "Withdraw to Yuezhou first, and then we will find a way!" It is not an easy thing for Minggou Haikou to take Yuezhou! ”

The Qing fleet withdrew to Yuezhou, and the first battle between the two naval divisions on Dongting Lake ended in the defeat of the Qing army. In this battle, the Qing army's Huguang Shui Division suffered quite heavy losses, a total of 14 Dafu boats, 18 Haicang boats, 15 Cangshan boats, 31 fast crab boats and more than 200 small boats were sunk, and another 3 Dafu ships, two Haicang boats, 1 Cangshan boats, 12 fast crab boats and more than 100 small boats were captured by the Ming army, and more than 9,000 officers and men of the Qing Army's naval division were killed and wounded and captured.

Shi Lang's flagship arrived at the Yuezhou wharf, and as soon as he got off the ship, he saw Yue Le taking Goshha and personally greeting him at the wharf.

Seeing Yue Le personally come to the dock to greet him, Shi Lang immediately weakened his legs, knelt on the ground and wept bitterly: "Lord Wang! The last general is incompetent! Lived up to the high hopes of the prince! I also hope that the prince will punish the crime! ”

"General Shi, please get up!" Yue Le helped Shi Lang up, "Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and the defeat of the sailor in the first battle is not because General Shi is incompetent, but because the thieves are too powerful!" General Shi doesn't have to feel guilty, let's think of countermeasures! ”

Shi Lang and the others followed Yue Le to Yueyang Tower again, and Yue Le had already set up a banquet upstairs. Although Shi Lang was defeated, Yue Le knew that only Shi Lang could delay the pace of the Ming army, so not only did he not blame Shi Lang, but instead set up a banquet to welcome Shi Lang's return.

The maids brought plates of delicacies to the table like marquees, and soon the table was full. Yue Le didn't ask how the war was, but kept holding a wine glass and toasting Shi Lang, Lin Xingzhu, Yang Fu and others.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors, Yue Le turned to the topic: "General Shi, the thieves are menacing, but it may not be easy for them to take Yuezhou!" The city of Yuezhou is strong, there is a fort at the head of the city, and a fortress has been added to the city wall, as long as the sailor cooperates with the city wall, it is difficult for the thieves to conquer Yuezhou! As long as Yuezhou is here, the thieves can't go to Wuchang! Even if it was the worst plan, Yuezhou lost, we didn't lose! Wuchang is already an impregnable wall, and if the thieves want to attack Wuchang, they will definitely let them meet on our defense line and break the blood! ”

Shi Lang said: "Lord Wang, but the last general, as the admiral of the navy, cannot make meritorious contributions, which is really ashamed of the court!" If the thieves arrive at the city of Yuezhou, the last general will definitely have a way to break the enemy! ”

"What's the solution?" Yue Le asked.

Shi Lang stood up and saluted: "The thief sailor is powerful, we can't be defeated, we can only outwit!" We dragged the thieves under the city of Yuezhou! As long as the time drags on for a long time, the thief will inevitably have a loophole! When the time comes, you will be able to attack the thief sailor at night! A fire burned their sailors to the ground! ”

"So how should our army be deployed?" Yue Le asked.

Shi Lang turned around and said, "Come on, get the map!" ”

After a while, Shi Lang's personal soldiers took a large map of Dongting Lake.

Shi Lang asked people to empty a table, spread out the large map of Dongting Lake, spread it on the table, pointed to the map and said to Yue Le: "Yuezhou is close to Dongting Lake on one side, and our sailors rely on each other with the fort; And the fort was under the guard of Yuezhou City. We use the city to delay the thieves. ”

As he spoke, Shi Lang's finger moved to the position of a reed: "We ambush a strange army here, as long as we delay for a while, wait until the fog rises at night, our fire attack ship can be killed!" In addition, the Lu Division also cooperated with the attack, attacked the thief's sailor camp, and set fire to the thief's sailor while it was dark! ”

Shi Lang arranged an ambush to the south of Yuezhou City, waiting for the Ming army to attack, looking for an opportunity to sneak attack.

Because the southeast wind is abundant in this season, the Qing army must set fire from the south to the north if they want to set fires.

Yue Le understood what Shi Lang meant, so he smiled and nodded, "Okay!" In terms of water warfare, it is General Shi's strength! How to deal with the thief sailor, all at the disposal of General Shi! The 20,000 land divisions brought by this king here, General Shi can also mobilize and cooperate in the battle! (To be continued.) )