When the fire first started, Liu Tichun's troops in the upstream direction also noticed the abnormality, but whether it was the Qing army camp roar or the mutiny, Liu Tichun thought that it had nothing to do with him. Liu Tichun didn't know what was going on, but he felt that it was unlikely that Deng Ming would break the contract and launch an attack, because it was not in line with Deng Ming's strategic vision, and if there was such a thing, he would not not notify him in advance.

After seeing the fire, Liu Tichun's troops ordered half of the soldiers to be awakened to prepare for battle, and sent twice as many probes out of the camp to search the surrounding area. And Liu Tichun ordered the whole army to get up and prepare for war after a quarter of an hour, anyway, it was not long before dawn, although there was no horse to report that there was an abnormality in the camp, but Liu Tichun was not vigilant when he stretched out the front line.

Moreover, Liu Tichun's troops camped alone on the north bank, and once they were attacked, they needed to hold on for a long time to wait for reinforcements, Liu Tichun thought a little and let Sancheng of the soldiers wear armor and climb the camp wall. Liu Tichun is still very confident in his camp wall, he seriously modified the terrain around the camp after landing, as long as he is not deceived into opening the camp gate, or encountering a demolition master like him, Liu Tichun has the heart to hold on to tens of thousands of enemy troops for several days.

Until a quarter of an hour ago, Liu Tichun was still calm, in his opinion, this was something chaotic on the side of the Qing army, not quite like a war, and the sun would rise in an hour or so, and then he would be able to see the situation more clearly. And it was then that the sound of artillery was heard at the entrance to the canal downstream.

"Are Chengdu people firing cannons?" The people behind Liu Tichun were surprised and began to talk to each other, and the sound of this cannon seemed to indicate that the Sichuan army had started a war with the Qing army.

The face of the commander of the Ming army also sank completely, and the red light in the distance flashed one after another, although the distance was very far, Liu Tichun could clearly see the location of the flames - it was on the surface of the river, which indicated that the naval division of the Sichuan army was attacking the target on the north bank.

However, until now, Liu Tichun has not figured out why the battle broke out without warning, Deng Ming repeatedly explained that he must not hijack the boats, and was even willing to pay out of his pocket to help these boats buy money; And Deng Ming's strategy is very clear, Liu Tichun is sure that he understands it very clearly, and now he is actually fighting like this.

Another series of red light came, and this time the position of the cannon was closer, and when the red light pierced the dark night, it also reflected the figure of the battleship, and at that moment, even the black river surface and the white fog on the side of the ship could be seen.

"It's Admiral Deng's first ship!" Immediately, a sharp-eyed guard said loudly.

This warship was launched at the beginning of this year, and most of the previous warships in western Sichuan were captured from the Qing army, but this one was completely manufactured by shipyards in Sichuan. Two years ago, during the Second Eastern Crusade, Deng Ming almost brought back to Sichuan the shipwrights of Liangjiang and Huguang, so that the shipbuilding level of Sichuan suddenly recovered to the level of the late Ming Dynasty or even higher, and in the past two years, he has been constantly manufacturing large ships, that is, the production of sea ships for Chongming can be done -- since the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan has produced sea ships and sailed down the river into the East China Sea, but later with the rise of shipbuilding in the coastal areas, the output of sea ships in Sichuan has been decreasing, and finally only inland river ships are produced.

However, Deng Ming did not intend to produce traditional Fu ships, because he never regarded the Manchu Qing as a rival on the sea, but asked the Sichuan shipyard to imitate Western warships - this kind of ship completely different from Fu ships was more cumbersome to make, but Deng Ming was not very demanding, let alone large. Deng Ming just wants to accumulate some experience and exercise his research and development capabilities, and in the future, he also plans to move the sea ship factory to Chongming.

And this imitation of the battleship, in addition to the use of soft sails, also required the arrangement of gun emplacements on the side side. Although the large river warship launched at the beginning of this year has not yet had mature soft sails available, its cannons have been able to be deployed on the side side, and this warship, which shows the production and research and development capabilities of the Sichuan shipbuilding industry, has been designated as the first ship of the fleet by the proud Deng Ming. Its special appearance also left a deep impression on the allies, so it was immediately recognized by the guards around Liu Tichun.

"Hmm." Liu Tichun nodded slowly, although he didn't know the reason yet, but the Sichuan army's participation in the war was already a sure thing.

At this time, a string of cannon sounds also reached Liu Tichun, which was also the unique cannon sound of Deng Ming's first ship: Liu Tichun and their first ship after visiting Deng Ming's first ship, they all laughed and said that this was a weapon that could only exert its power after the Ming army had mastered complete surface control. Because the traditional river battles are narrow frontal hedging battles, this new type of battleship artillery is on the flanks, and it will be unable to fight when hedging; However, because of its six gun emplacements on each side, it was obviously much more ferocious and convenient for the traditional ships to bombard the enemy on the shore.

In Deng Ming's demonstration shooting, the ship's six guns on the side would be fired one after another, and Liu Tichun remembered very well that the sound of the guns during the demonstration shooting was exactly the same as the roar he had just heard. This voice dispelled Liu Tichun's last suspicion, although it was dark, not everyone would read it wrong, let alone hear it wrong.

"It must have been the Tartars who attacked the party generals downstream, and Admiral Deng's sailors were dispatched to start attacking the Tartars to contain their forces." Liu Tichun had some suspicions that Dang Shousu took the initiative to attack, but even so, they broke into the camp to help each other, just like when they were in Chongqing; If the Qing army took the initiative to launch an attack on the party, then Liu Tichun would of course attack the canal Qing army to reduce the pressure on the party.

"All the army is armoured." Liu Tichun gave the order, he was basically sure that there were no large number of enemy troops near his camp, but for the sake of insurance, he still decided to leave half of the people and take the remaining half to help the party guard.

The Ming troops who received the order to attack boarded the ship one after another, and before Liu Tichun was about to give the order to anchor, several more cavalry rushed to the camp, led by Liu Tichun's probe horse, and followed by the messenger sent by Jiang Nan.

After discovering that there were indeed Ming soldiers dressed up, but they couldn't match the password, and showed obvious flaws in pretending, Jiang Nan concluded that this was an enemy used to tempt Liu Tichun, and immediately Jiang Nan ordered the sailors to fire at the enemies on the shore who were pretending to be Ming troops, in order to warn Liu Tichun's troops who might be coming, so that they realized that there was something strange in this and should not approach carelessly.

Since the hostility of the Qing army had been revealed, Jiang Nan immediately issued an order to attack freely, and sent clippers to transport scouts to land, so that they could quickly ride horses to warn Liu Tichun. Originally, these cavalry thought that they would encounter Liu Tichun's troops who came in a hurry on the road, or encounter the Qing soldiers who were in ambush, but they did not receive the slightest obstacle and ran all the way to Liu Tichun's camp.

"The Tartars didn't come to attack me." After learning that the Tartars actually used a trick to lure the enemy and tried to pretend to be the Ming army, Liu Tichun also suspected that a Qing army had sneaked nearby.

However, this Qing army definitely did not come to fight itself, since Liu Tichun can be sure of this, it is easy to find that the actions of the Qing army upstream can only be explained as a bluff, so the formation is suspicious: "The Tartars must be going all out to attack the party generals downstream." ”

Thinking of this, Liu Tichun was even more anxious, and immediately ordered the fleet to set off, rushed to join Jiang Nan, and immediately launched a counterattack against the Qing army on the canal.

……

The dense sound of artillery on the shore stunned Lin Qilong in Guazhou, and when the first one or two sounds came, Lin Qilong thought that the Qing army had done it here, and couldn't help but scold: "It's okay to set fire to it, it's still firing artillery!" I'm really not afraid of bombing the camp. ”

But Lin Qilong also guessed that in order to prevent the battalion from roaring, soldiers and horses from all walks of life would definitely lock the soldiers in the camp and take care of them carefully before burning the ship. Now the Ming army is on the side, and the soldiers are nervous to the south; All armies are in arrears on a large scale, and it is impossible for the soldiers to have no resentment in their hearts; The ship will be set on fire again tonight, and the conditions for the camp roar are almost all in place.

When the sound of artillery became more and more intense, and there was an unusual noise outside the camp, Lin Qilong finally realized that something was wrong, he looked over the river, and immediately saw the enemy ship that was constantly spewing fire. The swarthy battleships lined up the Yangtze River, and it looked like at least forty or fifty cannons were firing at each other—many more Ming warships were not equipped with large-caliber guns, but only silently hidden in the dark, occasionally reflected in the firelight of their neighbors.

These cannons used by the Ming army were all made by the Qing army, with different calibers and sizes, and the quality was also good, and Jiang Nan's shooting in the upper reaches was also to deter; Wu Baoping in the lower reaches is similar, he also ordered to open fire after hearing the sound of artillery upstream, blind shooting in the dark night will not have any results, but it can harass the enemy's morale, affect the judgment of the enemy commander, and can also warn the surrounding friendly troops. However, these voices sounded in Lin Qilong's ears, but they seemed to be thunderbolts in his ears, shaking his soul away.

"What's going on? Did anyone attack the Ming army? Lin Qilong shouted, most of the soldiers and horses stationed near the Guazhou camp were not his subordinates, and the number of temporarily recruited soldiers Ding Zhuang was still countless times that of the escort officers and soldiers, Lin Qilong couldn't control it at all, so he didn't know who broke out of this catastrophe.

After the initial shock passed, Lin Qilong also saw something abnormal, that is, the Ming army did not mean to land and attack, but fired indiscriminately on the riverside.

"Lord Governor, the Ming army is on the defensive," the commander of the standard battalion, who was also shocked just now, now let go of his heart: "Is it that the Ming army misunderstood the meaning of our ignition, thinking that we were going to launch an attack or try to cross the river at night, so they sent a fleet to interfere?" ”

"Ah, probably." After being reminded by the commander of the standard battalion, Lin Qilong also suddenly realized, and suddenly breathed a sigh of air: "That's good, that's good." ”

Since it was a misunderstanding, Lin Qilong felt that it was still easy to clear it up, and it wouldn't be long before the sun came out, and it was the darkness before dawn.

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