Chapter 25: The Battle of Anqing IV
This commander of the Green Battalion Qing Army was still quite brave, and the commander covered in blood ignited the fire attack ship, and let the fire attack ship rush towards the Nanjing battleship by virtue of inertia and current, and stood at the stern of the ship himself, stabilizing the rudder. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
At this time, the Qing army attack ship was less than 100 steps away from the Nanjing battleship, after all, it was fighting on the river, and it was necessary to consider factors such as the width of the river, the depth of the water, the current and the direction of the wind, and the huge battleship could not run too fast, and it was difficult to avoid the impact of the fire attack ship. Soon, the fire attack ship rushed into the dead end of the battleship's cannon and rammed into the battleship.
A volley of bullets was fired from the battleship, and the Qing soldier was beaten into a hornet's nest.
"Hit by a Tartar!" Zhang Huangyan only felt that the battleship shook violently.
"It's okay!" Zhang Yukun said with a smile, "Just a fire attack ship can't burn our!" There was no gunpowder on the Tartar ship, and if there was, the ship itself would have sunk long ago. ”
The Qing army's fire attack ships did not carry gunpowder, only firewood, oil canisters and sulfur. If there was gunpowder, it would have sunk itself under the shelling of the Ming army. But without carrying gunpowder, a mere ship could not set fire to a huge battleship.
Some people on the Ming army ship dropped sandbags, and small boats came and hooked the fire attack ship with hooks to pull the fire attack ship away. Originally, the bow of the fire attack ship had iron nails that could be driven into ordinary ships. But when it came across a battleship made of sturdy oak, the iron nails were not very deep and were pulled apart by the Ming army.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the Qing fleet retreated one after another. But they are going down the river, with the wind and the water, and they want to retreat, but it is not easy to retreat. As a result, they were chased by dozens of marine boats of the Ming army, and they followed behind to chase and kill as much as they wanted. The big ships of the Ming army also followed from behind in a zigzag line.
The artillery batteries arranged by the Qing army on several hills opened fire, and the shells continued to fall in the river, raising columns of water that rushed to the sky. The shelling of the Qing battery's batteries looked terrifying, but in fact it was not very powerful. Most of the batteries here are imitations of all kinds of small cannons of the Ming army in the past, most of them are earthen cannons, the weight of the shells is between three catties and five catties, the firing range is short, the accuracy is low, the power is small, and it cannot pose any threat to the Ming fleet at all.
These earthen artillery bombarded the small boats of the Ming army, the small boats had small targets and high speeds, and they were not able to hit at such a long distance; The big ship attacking the Ming army had poor artillery accuracy, and it couldn't hit the target for half a day, and it was easy to hit a shot, and because the power of the cannonball was too small, it couldn't cause any damage to the big ship with an oak structure at all, just leaving a white mark on the outside of the ship.
The battleships of the Ming army and various artillery ships opened fire one after another, launching a fierce counterattack on the batteries on the hill by the river.
Rows of large and small fireballs erupted from the guns of the battleships arranged on the river, and the salvo of the fleet dazzled the Qing soldiers on the battery, and all kinds of solid shells, grenades, and flowering shells fell on the Qing batteries on both sides of the strait like hail, rolling and whistling and falling on the batteries, splashing stones and bricks, and from time to time the artillery of the Qing army was hit by shells.
The 64-pounder mortar guns of the artillery ships continued to fire shells, and the power of such a large-caliber flowering shell falling on the Qing army battery can be imagined. And because the pansulide [acid] plant has been completed, many flowering shells can already be replaced with shells filled with new gunpowder, and the power of that kind of shell is no less than the power of the fifteen-centimeter howitzer in later generations!
New flowering shells mixed with ordinary shells continued to smash on the forts, and the defenders on the Qing batteries suffered heavy casualties. The Qing soldiers who did not die were frightened by such powerful shells, and they all turned around and ran.
Not long after, the Qing army batteries on both sides of the Yangtze River fell into a sea of fire.
The fierce battle on the river was still going on, Shi Lang saw with his own eyes that the Ming army used the tactics of kite flying, turning the unfavorable conditions against the wind and water into favorable conditions, constantly distancing himself from the Qing army, and smashing the small boats of the Qing army with long-range firearms, he knew that this battle was bound to be lost.
"Commander, hurry up and give the order to the brothers to retreat, there is no need to die in vain." Lin Xingzhu came up and begged.
Shi Lang smiled bitterly: "This battle has been lost, and Anqing will inevitably be lost." If Anqing falls into the hands of thieves, will my Qing Dynasty Yangtze River Sailor still have a place to live? In that case, it is better to sacrifice yourself! ”
Lin Xingzhu persuaded each other bitterly: "Dashuai, we can go to Lianghuai, as well as the Huai River, and the canal, all of which are the places where my Da Qingshui Division is active." ”
"Huai River Canal? How did our ship get there? Fly over? The ship is lost, and the court will still give us silver to build ships? Shi Lang shook his head, "Shi has already decided, with me alone, in exchange for your escape." Tell the brothers to fight to the death one last time, destroy the boat, and then go ashore and escape! From now on, the Great Shimizu Division will no longer exist! ”
On the battleship Nanjing, Zhang Huangyan saw that a large group of Qing naval division warships did not retreat but advanced, rushing towards his fleet like moths to fire, and he asked very strangely: "What are the intentions of the Tartars?" ”
"But it's just the last stand! A matter of a hammer deal! Defeat their attack, and the water battle will be won! Zhang Yukun sneered.
The last desperate rush of the Qing army seemed to be a bit tragic, and the large and small warships rushed over desperately, and the ships were constantly hit by cannonballs and sank into pieces. However, the onslaught of the Qing army lasted for a while, and soon the offensive weakened. The Qing ships behind were no longer desperately rushing to kill, and the sailors on board jumped into the river one after another, some cut off the mast of their own ships, and some lit fire to attack the ships in advance.
"Just now the Tartar is still moving forward, so he admits defeat?" Zhang Huangyan shook his head.
"Strength is everything!" Zhang Yukun said.
Zhang Huangyan nodded approvingly, it is indeed strength that determines everything. The Ming army fought in a daze, like a hammer smashing an egg, all the way from Nanjing to Anqing. If it were not for its absolute strength, the Ming army could have been sent from Yangzhou, seize Lianghuai, occupy Xuzhou, and the Qing army in Anqing would have become a lone army. The Ming army on the West Road will take Xiangyang again, and then the Qing army in Anqing will have no way to retreat if they do not surrender.
However, the Ming army, which has strong strength, does not need to play any intrigues and tricks at all, anyway, it pushes all the way up, and crushes the past everywhere it goes.
At the same time that the Ming army in the lower reaches was going upstream, the Ming army in the upper reaches went downstream, and the fleet of the Ming Yangtze River Naval Division was like a bamboo, rushing all the way to the outside of the Anqing Naval Division of the Qing Army, and launched an attack on Shi Lang's lair.
Vehicles, boats, and river gunboats violently bombarded the gate of the water village in the camp of the Qing army's naval division, and several shells rolled and smashed on it, and the wooden water village gate was immediately shattered and turned into scattered wood chips. All kinds of warships of the Ming army fired fierce shells into the camp of the naval division, and fired red-hot shells into the camp of the Qing army.
The scorching shells hit the tent and set the tent on fire, and the camp of the Qing army's naval division immediately burst into flames.