It was discovered that Yang Anxuan was attacking Qin with all his strength and was unable to go south. Liu Yu decided to fight quickly and pacify Liu Yi in Jingzhou as soon as possible.
On October 22, a messenger from Jingzhou came to Xiangyang and came to the government office to ask for an audience with the governor Yang Anxuan. After receiving the news that Zhu Lingshi had broken the pass, Yang Anxuan ordered 40,000 troops to go to Xingyang, Yanzhou. He and his engineer Zhang Gang led 6,000 soldiers and horses, 2,000 chariots, a batch of baggage and the remaining 1,000 kilograms. Gunpowder set off for Aoguan two days ago.
During the Zhizhong period, Xin He received the envoy from Jingzhou. After reading the letter, he told the envoy that Governor Yang was on an inspection tour of the counties and was not in the government office. He did not know when he would reply.
The messenger was worried, but he had no choice but to stay in the Yin Hotel and go to the government office twice a day to see if Governor Yang had any reply.
After breaking the Aoguan Pass, the Jin army was extremely excited from top to bottom. Yongzhou's military merit system was sound. Everyone knew that if the Qin company could be successfully defeated, it would be normal to advance several levels, and even become a general from a small soldier.
Zhu Lingshi ordered to rest and renovate the fortifications at Yaoguan. The Qin army would definitely not be willing to lose Yaoguan. Two days later, Yin Ji led 6,000 troops and horses from Shang County, bringing the number of Jin troops to 20,000.
Twenty miles northwest of Yaoguan is Lantian County, and beyond Lantian County is Chang'an City. Seeing that the Jin army was approaching the city, Yao Xing ordered Yao Bi to lead 30,000 troops to Lantian County to defend, and the Jin army must not be allowed to pass through Lantian County.
This time Yao Xing took out all the old men in the treasury. Thirty thousand soldiers, horses, armor and equipment, ten thousand cavalry, ten thousand light cavalry, and ten thousand infantry. In addition to Lantian's original defenders of four thousand, thirty-four thousand The soldiers and horses blocked the Jin army's westward march tightly.
Yao Bi led his army to camp in the east of Lantian County, and sent light and heavy cavalry to challenge Aoguan in an attempt to recapture Aoguan.
Zhu Lingshi had dug three trenches on the west side of Yaoguan and built a stone wall. Behind the stone wall, there were dense trees and arrow towers and tamping platforms to shoot at the invading Qin army.
On October 28, Wang Zhen'e led his army to attack Tongguan. Qin Tongguan's guard general Yao Yu, the general in charge of the south, defended according to the danger.
At this time, Wang Zhene knew that Zhu Lingshi had used gunpowder to destroy the pass and entered the pass first. He was anxious and wished he could break through the pass earlier to compete with Zhu Lingshi.
However, Yao Xing sent someone to tell his fourth son, Yao Gu, that the Jin army had a weapon that could make a loud noise and collapse the city.
Yao Huang did not dare to let the Jin army approach Tongguan. He lined up crossbows at the top of the city and built a shield wall under the city to prepare for the attack. The terrain in front of Tongguan was narrow and the army could not deploy. Wang Zhene rushed to Tongguan several times and sent troops to dig holes in the city wall. However, the Qin troops in the city rushed and drove them away. The holes dug out with great difficulty were refilled and compacted.
Wang Zhen fought fiercely at Tongguan, while Liu Zhong led the navy to attack Puban. The defender of Puban was Yao Yi, the second son of Yao Xing, the Duke of Qin Taiyuan, the governor of Bingzhou.
Yao Yi used Sima Sun Chang's plan and ordered people to load bamboo baskets with rocks and sink them into the river to block the Jin army's ships.
They also built dense tamping platforms on both sides of the Yellow River, with strong bows and crossbows on them, and the Jin fleet was not allowed to land. Chen Yu suggested to Liu Zhong that since he could not move forward, he could simply take the Wei River and cross directly to Jingkou in the north of Chang'an, then attack the Wei Bridge and seize Chang'an from the north.
Liu Zhong felt that the navy only had 10,000 people, and if it penetrated deep into enemy territory to seize Chang'an, and was outnumbered, it would be better to attack Dingcheng first, attack Tongguan with Wang Zhen's army, and then join forces to march westward to seize Chang'an.
Dingcheng is located thirty miles west of Tongguan. Yao Xing's uncle Lu Gong Yao Shao led five thousand soldiers and horses to guard the place. Liu Zhong sent someone to inform Wang Zhene of his plan. When Wang Zhene was blocked before Tongguan, Zheng sent people to investigate carefully to see if there was a path around Tongguan. When they learned that the navy intended to attack Tongguan, they immediately agreed that the navy would attack Tongguan on November 8th. , Wang Zhen'e led his army to launch an attack. Yao Gu stood at the top of the city and watched Sima Yao Yu lead his army out to defend, but the Jin army was unable to advance.
Suddenly, General Ningshuo Zhao Xuan pointed to the river and said, "Look, Mr. Chen Liu." I saw countless Jin ships on the river coming from a distance, the wind blowing the sails like arrows, passing under Tongguan.
The Yellow River flows at the foot of Tongguan, with Zhongtiao Mountain to the north and Qinling Mountains to the south. On both sides of the river are steep cliffs, as high as a knife and an axe, several feet high. There is no place for ships to dock.
"Light the beacon fire, and quickly send someone to inform Duke Lu of Dingcheng, asking him to intercept the Jin ships on the river." Yao Gu ordered.
Eight rivers circled Chang'an, and the Later Qin Dynasty was of course on guard against anyone attacking Chang'an from the waterway. The Wei River is open near Dingcheng, and the terrain on both sides is flat, allowing warships to land from here.
Yao Xing built a water village in the north of Anding City, with 200 warships and 4,000 naval troops, under the control of Lu Gong Yao Shao.
In Dingcheng, Yao Shao received the emergency report of the beacon fire and ordered the Shuizhai warships to stand ready. He ordered the two sides of the river to ram the platforms to fire crossbows and throw stones at the warships in the river. At the cost of six warships, the Jin Navy navy set off on the Weihe River near Anding City. Confronted with the Qin navy.
Chen Yu asked for orders to attack first. Liu Zhong was disgusted with this ambitious subordinate, but he could not stop him from performing meritorious service, so he had to order Chen Yu to lead fifty ships to attack the left wing, and Qian Lei to attack the right wing.
Qian Lei is already a sixth-rank general, and his more than ten years of military service have transformed him from a fisherman on the river into a calm and steady general, deeply respected by his subordinates.
Yang Anxuan led his army to rescue Luoyang, and Qian Lei stayed with Liu Zhong. Huan Xuan entered Jiankang, but Liu Zhong escaped, and later went to Xiangyang. Qian Lei always stayed with Liu Zhong.
Later, Yang Anxuan asked him to take his family to Xiangyang. When Qian Lei took his family to Xiangyang, he told the villagers that as long as they followed him, each person would be granted fifty acres of land. The Qian family was quite prestigious in the village, and most of the villagers followed him to Xiangyang. .
Yang Anxuan did not break his promise and chose a fertile land near the water for Qian Lei to give to his villagers. The land they received would definitely be less than fifty acres.
The female soldier Qiao Li he saved back then became his wife and gave birth to a daughter and two sons. The couple had a harmonious relationship.
Governor Yang learned that his father Qian Feng was a veteran who had participated in the Feishui War, so he hired him as an instructor in the garrison with the salary of a school captain.
Soon after arriving in Xiangyang, his younger brother Qian Miao also joined the army and is now also a commander in the navy. More than 30 villagers who came to Xiangyang with him joined the navy and became a powerful arm under his command.
The river wind blew his beard, and Qian Lei ordered the warship to turn to the right in a deep voice. His subordinates were all good men, and the ship swam nimbly in the water like a fish boat.
Before the expedition, General Liu came to him and said that if he could capture Chang'an in this attack on Qin, everyone who went on the expedition would make great achievements, and it would be a sure thing to be awarded a title.
Qian Lei knew that the imperial titles were divided into Dukes, Princes, and Sons. He did not dare to hope for a Marquis. He would be satisfied if he had a count or a viscount for his meritorious service.
Both the Earl and Viscount titles have fiefdoms, ranging from 200 to 800. I can also count as saving some family property for my two children.
He heard from General Liu that his lord had built a school and planned to hire a great scholar to teach him. Anyone from childhood to adulthood could enroll in the palace.
Qian Lei planned to send his two sons to the academy to study. When he was young, his family was poor and he was illiterate. It was only after he joined the army that he could read a little with the scribe in the camp.
I fight my life on the battlefield, don't I just want my children and grandchildren to enjoy wealth and wealth? What's more, I heard from General Liu that the lord plans to send the young master to the academy to study, so isn't his child a classmate of the young master since he was a child, and he will work hard for his master? Then you can enjoy the blessings with the young master.
The flag was waving amidst the sound of the horn, and Qian Lei concentrated on directing the navy to advance. The Jin navy's navy stretched out two horns, one on the left and one on the right, and stabbed hard at the Qin navy.
Comparing the two, it shows that Qin's navy is far inferior, and it sends out ships to fight in a mess. On the river, the crossbows fired and trembled in unison. The stones thrown smashed the ship's side so that wood chips flew away. The arrows were shrouded like dark clouds and fell on the ship's deck with a loud sound.
"Tuk Tuk" secret sound. Dong Zun, the naval general of the Qin Army, discovered that the crossbow arrows he found had clearly penetrated the Jin ships, but the Jin ships continued to charge forward as if nothing had happened.
Seeing that the Jin ships were only five or six feet apart, Dong Zun shouted: "Get ready to fight." Qian Lei stretched out his hand, and the river wind came from the east and naughtily slipped through his fingers.
At this moment, the warship he led was located on the east side of the Qin army, taking advantage of the wind to set fire to it. Of the 600 rockets sent by the Ordnance Department, General Liu gave 200 rockets to himself and General Chen respectively for this battle.
The rocket was pierced through a small gourd behind the arrowhead, which contained five taels of gunpowder. It was fired after lighting the fuse, and exploded where it landed, covering several feet with flames.
When he received the rocket, General Liu took everyone to try several arrows. After the rocket exploded, it could stick to the deck and even water could not put it out.
Qian Lei paid attention to the traces of burning. There should be grease in the gunpowder, so it could splash.
"Fifty rockets," Qian Lei gave the order briefly. The soldiers on the five warships lit the fuses at the same time and fired the rockets in their hands towards the Qin army's warships.
Some of the arrows exploded in the air, scattering sparks on the ship, and some were nailed to the deck.
It exploded with a "collapse" sound, sending sparks flying everywhere. The sparks stuck to the ship, immediately attracted the hull, and quickly spread into flames with the help of the wind.
The warship Dong Zun was on was also set on fire, but water warfare and fire prevention were necessary drills. The Qin army did not panic. Someone put a bucket into the river and poured water to pour on the flames.
"Pump," Qian Lei said coldly. More than ten bamboo tubes were lifted out, the linen blocking the mouth was pulled out, and they faced the Qin ship on the opposite side.
The bamboo tube is about ten feet long. The bamboo knot is opened in the middle, and the cloth bag is used as the shaft. The inside is filled with black gunpowder.
After giving the order, the soldiers pushed the shaft forward with force, and the powdery black gunpowder shot out from the nozzle as thick as a chicken egg and sprayed down the wind to the Qin warships.
When the powdery black gunpowder touches a spark, it explodes immediately, and the flames suddenly turn into a wall of fire, burning blazingly.
Seeing the Qin ship caught in the sea of fire, Qian Lei felt his scalp numb. The gunpowder developed by the Ordnance Department was really powerful. Two days ago, I heard General Liu say that General Zhu used gunpowder to blow up the barrier, and he was almost reaching Chang'an.
"Abandon the pump", Qian Lei meticulously followed the instructions of the craftsmen who accompanied the army, and the soldiers carrying the pump threw the pump into the river.
Seeing that the fire was so fierce that one could feel the scorching flames from three feet away, Qian Lei calmly ordered: "Stand back a few feet, aim the rocket at the unburned ship and continue firing." On the Qin ship, there were many The soldiers' bodies were ignited with flames, and they jumped into the water crying.
Dong Zun's beard was scorched by the flames. Under the protection of his own soldiers, he ran towards the boat tied to the stern. His defeat was certain.
On the left, Chen Yu saw the fire on the right, and he was angry that Liu Zhong secretly helped Qian Lei and gave the advantage to Qian Lei. The Qin army's navy was in chaos, and Qian Lei would get the credit for this achievement.
The Qin navy was on the verge of defeat. Instead of pursuing it, Chen Yu ordered to distance himself and seize the limelight.
In the space of a cup of tea, more than a hundred rockets rose into the sky, and the Qin army's warships were enveloped in a sea of fire.
The officers and soldiers of the Qin army couldn't stand the scorching fire and jumped into the water one after another. Liu Zhong knew that he could not be lenient when he went deep into the enemy's territory. If these Qin troops were allowed to escape, they would become enemies on the battlefield one day, so he ordered the Qin troops in the water to be shot.
The fire burned for more than an hour before the flames gradually extinguished. Countless corpses were floating on the river, drifting downstream along with the remains of wooden boards.
Shenshi, Tongguan. Yao Gu and the Qin Army officers watched in horror as corpses wearing Qin Army leather armor floated down from the upper reaches. The five or six miles wide estuary was covered with corpses and the remains of warships. Yao Gu knew that the navy was doomed.
That night, under Sun Chang's persuasion, Yao Gu quietly abandoned Tongguan and headed for Dingcheng at Zishi.
