Under the frequent disturbance of the Huaidong Navy Division in the early stage, the outpost piers and garrisons on the periphery of the Qianjiang Estuary built by Zhedong on the small islands in the sea such as Tanhu and Yehuangpan were all destroyed. In the later period, the Eastern Zhejiang Naval Division mainly learned from Huaidong, and arranged beacon fire sentry ships in the waters west of Daishan and Changdao Islands, including the Qianjiang River Estuary, to alert the enemy and prevent the Huaidong Naval Division from sneaking attacks.

There is no island base station, and only the sentinel boat is used to set up police, which consumes a lot. But the luxury family is still very wary of Huaidong, even if the price is big, it will have to be spent.

When the Huaidong advance fleet crossed the waters of Yehuangpan Island at night, it detected the sentinel ships deployed there by the Zhedong Naval Division. In the silence of the night, which was almost frozen, the beacon fire lit by the sentinel ship was like an orange lamp tossed in the waves, lit one after another, and quickly sent a warning to the Mingzhou Mansion on the south bank.

The crescent moon is like a hook, the starlight is faint, except for the deep blue of the sea, which seems to shake in the wind, there is a sparkling light, and farther away, the blurred horizon of an island or land.

Chen Yan stared at the sentry ship that burned in the distance to warn him, and did not say a word, which was his habit before the battle.

He was in a troop transport ship requisitioned from the Heishui Foreign Shipping Society, a deep-bellied sea ship with a capacity of 2,000 stones, including Chen Yan, carrying a total of 300 soldiers from half a battalion, in addition to more than 60 escorts and crew members. On the two wings and outposts of the six troop carriers were nearly 20 escort warships of various types from the Jinghai No. 1 Water Battalion.

They were only the left flank of the advance fleet, with a mixed formation of 3,000 sailors and foot soldiers.

They didn't pay attention to the sentinel ships in eastern Zhejiang that fled after lighting the beacon fire, and the combat goal of the advance fleet on the left flank was very clear, that is, to capture Hukou Village before the soldiers and horses left behind in eastern Zhejiang reacted.

Hukou, the mouth of the mouth of the Yongjiang River, is less than 30 miles away from Yinxian County, the capital of Mingzhou, and controls the estuary of the Yongjiang River, which is the key pass and dangerous place of the Changguo Islands in the east and the Mingzhou Plain in the west.

In the early years, in order to guard against the East China Sea Kou, the two Zhejiang county divisions placed water and land soldiers on the north bank of the Yongjiang River estuary and the east foot of Shaxi Snake Mountain to garrison the troops to defend against the Koukou, which was called Hukou Village. After the luxury family occupied the east of Zhejiang, they also attached great importance to Hukou Village. Even though Su Tingzhan led the main force of eastern Zhejiang's soldiers and horses to the west to attack Fuyang, the number of troops guarding Hukou Village was still more than 600, and there were dock port warships to defend it.

The first target of the Huaidong Army's attack on Mingzhou Mansion was Hukou. If you can capture Hukou Village in one fell swoop, not only can you cut off the connection between Mingzhou Mansion and Changguo and Daishan Islands, but the follow-up ships can go up the Yongjiang River and directly put troops into the hinterland of Mingzhou Mansion.

"How long will we have to wait?" Sun Zhuang leaned over and asked in a suppressed voice.

He had no experience in sea navigation, and when he saw the sentry ships lighting beacons one after another on the far sea, he was worried that the time would drag on too long, so that the soldiers and horses of the luxury family in eastern Zhejiang would have time to adjust their deployment, and the sneak attack would lose its suddenness.

Although Chen Yan is not a qualified naval general, but this side of the sea route has also taken a boat twice, he held the side of the boat, turned back to Sun Zhuang and said: "It doesn't take an hour, almost when the sky is bright, you can rush directly to the front of Hukou Village......"

"That's enough." Sun Zhuang said.

As long as it takes another hour to be able to directly hit Hukou Village, the defenders of the luxury family in eastern Zhejiang did not know the number of troops and the direction of the attack for a while, and the sky was dark, so there was no chance to adjust the deployment.

"Master Pole, save some strength when you go ashore," Chen Yan said in a suppressed voice, "The first fleet, in addition to us, also has the right flank fleet to attack Jintang Island. Hukou Village and Jintang Village, as long as one can be captured, the first batch of raids will be considered a success! Hukou Village is too dangerous, and most of the garrison soldiers are elite, so it is normal that they can't be defeated for a while. The lord also ordered, to spare the troops, it doesn't matter if you can't fight for a while, the key is to prevent reinforcements from entering. It will be easier to wait for the follow-up troops to press up and then fight......"

At this time, Chen Yan didn't care about Sun Zhuang's identity as an ordinary soldier, and told him the battle plan of the advance striker, for fear that he would fight for his life when attacking the village!

"I know, you'd better take care of your own business!" Sun Zhuang patted the scale armor on his body and said with a smile, "My life, Lord Yama wants to take it, it's not so easy to ......."

Chen Yan smiled, as the main general of the left flank forward, he could provide the best scale armor to Sun Zhuang and others, but he was responsible for commanding the entire battle to seize the village, and he couldn't take the lead in fighting side by side with Sun Zhuang, let alone go against Lin Lian's military orders, and not arrange Sun Zhuang to be in the army first.

Sun Zhuang and others want to win the respect and status they deserve in the Huaidong Army, and they can only rely on military merits to ascend to the top; Other than that, there are no other shortcuts.

The wind blew the sails, sandwiched in the sound of the waves lapping, like the sound of time passing, the night faded layer by layer in this silent atmosphere, and the surrounding islands, mountains, land and forests, layer by layer became brighter.

The Hukou village under the snake mountain seems to be hidden in the edge of the forest, the commercial port of the town, in the early morning mist to show the edges and corners, there are four warships from the east of Zhejiang from the mouth of the Yongjiang River. At the outpost of the advance fleet, six warships went up to meet them, and two Jiyun-class warships rushed directly into the mouth of the Yongjiang River to prevent the enemy from hiding ambushes in the mouth of the Yongjiang River.

At this time, it is better to get involved in danger than to avoid the inferior troop transport ships from directly attacking the enemy ships......

Sun Zhuang and eleven people from the old department, plus sixty other soldiers who first boarded the armor, had been transferred to the flat-bottomed landing ship. Sun Zhuang tried again to tie the metal hood weighing about ten catties tightly, holding a shield in one hand and an exaggerated halberd in the other, standing at the bow of the boat, staring at the Zhedong soldiers who intercepted them on the periphery of Hukou Village in the distance, the Adam's apple rolled up and down, his mouth was full of relish, and the blood was about to boil, and he smiled left and right: "Look at these turtle sons, their necks are washed, and their heads are stretched out and waiting for us to cut them!" "Laughing left and right, not afraid that arrows have been shot from the shore; Far away, the arrows were weak, and he took the sword and shield in his hand and pulled it away. While the warships on both wings were shooting arrows to cover, Sun Zhuang rushed down the bow of the ship first, stepping on the shallow water and rushing to the beach......

The more than 100 steps of fighting for the beach have to wade through shallow water and walk, the sand and gravel are also chaotic, and it is easy to fall in a hurry, so you can only shield next to the shield and move forward slowly with arrows. Walking to about 100 steps, the arrows are very powerful. Sun Zhuang just took the shield to protect his face, and there were constantly arrows hitting the shield or armor, clanging. It has to be said that the protection of scale armor is not comparable to ordinary leather armor, in addition to the dense steel armor such as fish scales, the inner lining is also extremely tough soft deerskin. Sun Zhuang was at a moment, and at such a close distance, he was hit by seven or eight arrows, and he was stunned that none of the arrows could penetrate the armor and cause him damage.

In addition to Sun Zhuang and others who wore fine scale armor, the others at worst had to wear an extra layer of armor to prevent arrows.

Chen Yan wanted to use them to rush ashore as quickly as possible, cover the follow-up armor soldiers to land on the shore and quickly encircle Hukou Village, and establish a defensive array on the west side of Hukou Village, in case of reinforcements from Mingzhou Prefecture, there was no time to use bows and crossbows to suppress first, so they could only use armor soldiers to stick to hand-to-hand combat......

Rushing closer, Sun Zhuang felt more and more enthusiastic about his body, his eyes were about to crack, and when he saw that there were three Zhejiang Eastern armor soldiers cooperating with him, he roared angrily: "Ah! Yes! Kill your! In the face of two steel knives and a spear, Sun Zhuang did not avoid it, taking advantage of their roar to be slightly stunned, he took the shield to suppress the spear stabbed by the enemy in the center, and then stepped on a strong foot, and took a step forward to slap the shield with his backhand, and the face of the enemy pawn in the center was smashed under a beat, and the blood burst out, revealing terrifying force!

The knife cut by the enemy pawn on the left flank was blocked by the shield of the soldier on the side, and the steel knife cut by the enemy pawn in front of the right in front of him, Sun Zhuangli ignored it, and stabbed the halberd into his chest first, abandoned the halberd and squatted down to pick up a steel knife, the left shield and the right knife, and the left and right armor pawns cooperated, steady as a rock, and pushed forward, and soon tore and shattered the defensive array laid by about 60 Zhejiang Eastern soldiers on the beach......

*************

When they landed on Daheng Island on the 23rd, it was already dark, and Huaidong's deployment was not very clear, and Chen Mingzhen and Chen Xiyan did not see Lin Jian that night.

It wasn't until the early morning of the next day that Chen Mingzhen and Chen Xiyan woke up in their sleep, and under the light of the dim wind lamp, they stepped on a huge warship with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and only then did they see Lin Jian and Qin Chengzu.

By this time, the sky was already blue, the water was blue, and the light was bright enough to see the surrounding scenery clearly.

Looking at the warships and troop transports sailing past the side, covering the sky and the earth, the sea area within a radius of dozens of miles, as if filling up the Huaidong warships, Chen Mingzhen and Chen Xiyan looked at each other: How many troops did Huaidong mobilize for this battle?

Lin Lian was wearing a purple official robe, withdrew his gaze from the clear open sea, turned to look at Chen Xiyan and Chen Mingzhe, and said: "Lin Lian is in military affairs, it is inconvenient to get off the boat to greet him, and he is a little lazy, please forgive Chen Ge Lao and Brother Mingzhe!" "It's as if the grudge between them never existed.

"......" Chen Xiyan was speechless for a while, and he didn't know what to say. Looking at the current situation, it is more and more certain that Huaidong is not acting in a hurry this time.

Chen Mingzhe asked: "Lord Lin has long expected that the luxury family will seize Linshui and gather troops to fight Fuyang?" ”

"How can a man not know a prophet?" Lin Jian smiled slightly and said, "However, the situation of Yanji is in danger, the troops from the south are transferred to the north, and the troops in the hinterland of Jianghuai are empty, and the luxury family will definitely not let go of this opportunity, which is not difficult to guess...... In addition to the extravagant family's actions, I think Luo Xiancheng will not be willing to be lonely in the west, but the news has not come for a while. ”

"Huaidong is a better plan in the end, just when the luxury family Zhedong is empty." Chen Xiyan said with emotion.

"It's hard to say at this time," Lin Jian said, "I'll take a boat to Zhedong to supervise the war immediately, Chen Ge Lao and Ming Zhe are interested in going together?" ”

As long as Huaidong gathers heavy troops to fight on the back waist of the luxury family in eastern Zhejiang, even if the luxury family captures Fuyang in the middle road, the army will not dare to go north from Fuyang and Linshui. At least at this time, Pingjiang Mansion, which is on the inner line of the two-front war, is not in much danger, not to mention that Chen Huawen and Su Pinxiao led their troops to the front to block the pass, and Meng Yishan will soon lead his troops to cross the river to the south.

Instead of going back to Haiyu to wait and see the situation, it is better to follow to eastern Zhejiang.

Chen Mingzhen glanced at Chen Xiyan, and Chen Xiyan said: "It's better to be respectful than to obey your fate, and the old man will go to eastern Zhejiang by boat!" ”

Chen Mingzhe and Chen Xiyan went south by ship with Lin Tie Yujinhai, although they could not participate in the secrets, but from the frequent transmission of military orders and the main fleet of the Huaidong Army accompanying them around the Jinhai, they could roughly estimate the scale of Huaidong's use of troops this time.

In addition to the main forces of more than 15,000 water divisions of the first, second, and third water battalions, Huaidong also dispatched more than 20,000 main force of infantry battalions, including the Chongcheng infantry battalion, the Changshan battalion, and the Hailingfu army, and the forces of the Chongzhou and Shengsi defense lines were almost completely exhausted.

In addition, Chongcheng, Hecheng, and Jiangmen gathered nearly 30,000 reserve troops and recruited nearly 500 merchant and civilian sea ships.

When the fleet passed through the waters of Huangyepan Island, the sun was in the middle of the sky, and at this time, a letter ship returned to report that the forward sharp pawn had captured Jintang and Hukou two villages.

The capture of Jintang and Hukou is only the first step, and it is the prelude to the war in eastern Zhejiang.

Judging from the situation last night and this morning, the Beacon Fire and Stagecoach communication system established by the luxury family in the two Zhejiang provinces is not slow, and the luxury flying tiger in southern Zhejiang and the luxury flying bear who supervised the battle in Fuyang or Linshui should already know the news of the surprise attack on Huaidong by Mingzhou Mansion at this time!

The soldiers and horses of the luxury family in Fuyang only need more than half a day to go to Xiaoshan by land; There is a shortcut to Puyang to Huiji, which only takes more than a day; It takes three days to get to Mingzhou Prefecture. It only takes three days for the soldiers and horses of the luxury family in southern Zhejiang to bypass Yueqing by land to Ninghai, Xiangshan and other counties in the south of Mingzhou Prefecture, and it only takes three or four days to enter Zhuji and other counties in Huiji Mansion by land by taking the valley road at the western foot of Tiantai Mountain.

The resistance of the defenders of Mingzhou, Huiji and other cities, as well as the reaction of Luxury Flying Bear on the Western Front and Luxury Flying Tiger on the Southern Front, all determined the next trend of the battle in eastern Zhejiang.

Theoretically, more than 100,000 troops could be transferred to eastern Zhejiang for battle, and the Huaidong army could only seize the opportunity for three or four days.