The fleet continued down the river and arrived in Luzhou two days later. There are still many water bandits in this section of the journey, but these water bandits are far more violent than those in Xuzhou. They just send boats to follow them at a distance, and then escape after the tentative attack fails. At this time, the Luzhou administration had moved to the Shenji City on the Shenji Mountain by the river. The governor of the state was Zhu Xusun, a famous anti-Mongolian official. He was a native of Langzhou, Sichuan. He survived the massacre by the Mongolian army in Chengdu in his early years and was a staunch anti-Mongolian faction in the imperial court. Ouyang Xuan wanted to go ashore to visit him, but he was rejected again. Like Xuzhou City, Divine Arm City also fired arrows at the fleet trying to dock, and did not respond to flags or calls. Ouyang Xuan was unwilling to give in and ordered the fleet to wait outside the fire range of the city wall. He also ordered people to go to negotiate in small boats. However, Li Kaipeng, who went to negotiate, was not allowed to enter the city. He only had a conversation with the primary school in Divine Arm City outside the city gate and then returned angrily.
Li Kaipeng reported back to Ouyang Xuan that the reason why Zhu Susun did not open the door was because "once he was bitten by a snake, he was afraid of straw ropes for three years." It turns out that after Niulin defeated Zhang Shi, a Song Army general named Zhang Wei led a fleet to God's Arm City, claiming to be here to assist in the defense. This Wei is somewhat famous among the Sichuan navy, and many people in the Divine Arm City navy also recognize it. Just when the defenders were about to open the city gate to welcome him into the city, unexpectedly, a personal guard next to Zhang Wei suddenly rushed out and ran towards the city gate shouting "Zhang Wei has surrendered the Tatars", although the guard immediately He was shot dead by Zhang Wei, but the alert defenders had closed the city gate again. It turned out that Zhang Wei surrendered to the Mongols after Pu Zezhi defeated Chengdu. This time he was appointed by Niulin as a vanguard officer to open the city gate, and not far behind him was the Mongolian army Qianhu Andu La. led the Mongolian army.
To say that the terrain of God's Arm City is not as dangerous as that of Yunding City, it would be impossible to storm in as long as there is no supply of food. Therefore, after the Niulin army came, they only destroyed Luzhou's navy, but they had no choice but to continue towards Chongqing Prefecture. With Zhang Wei's lesson learned from the past, God's Arm City naturally refused to open its doors. What's more, although Zhu Susun knew that there was Yongkang County in Chongqing Prefecture, the news he received was that all the western Sichuan Plain had fallen into the hands of the Mongols. Did Ouyang Xuan, who claimed to be the magistrate of Yongkang County, surrender to the Mongols? Where did this thunderbolt army come from? With these questions in his mind, how could he open the city gate?
After hearing the reason, Ouyang Xuan shook his head with a wry smile, and had no choice but to order the fleet to continue heading towards Chongqing Prefecture. When he was in Divine Arm City, Li Kaipeng heard from the primary school commander that the Mongolian navy often came in and out of the water, so he suggested preparing in advance. Huang Dagen, who had just suffered a big loss from the water bandits, naturally did not dare to neglect and ordered someone to drive a small boat in front of the fleet. When defeating the water bandits on the Xuzhou River, the Pili Army was scuttled and sank a escort ship, and also captured several small boats of the water bandits. This kind of small boat was originally used by fishermen for fishing, but it is flexible, light and can run very fast on the Sichuan River, making it suitable for reconnaissance. This arrangement was quite effective. In less than half a day, the reconnaissance ship captured a Mongolian ship and captured several Mongolian sailors alive - to be precise, they were the new vassals who had surrendered to the Mongols.
The reconnaissance boat captured from the water bandits was originally a fishing boat. When it met two Mongolian navy ships going up the water, it was naturally regarded as a piece of the loot by the Mongolian army. In the eyes of the Mongolian sailors, this fishing boat looked like a weakling, so they took advantage of the large number of people on board to greet it. At first, the Pili Army scouts saw that there was nothing special about the incoming ship. The sailors on the ship also spoke Chinese. They thought they were the Song Army navy. But when they got closer, they were surprised to realize that they were the Mongolian navy. They winked at each other and said, When it was on the side of the ship, it suddenly attacked the nearest ship with force. Most of the traitor sailors on the ship were wiped out by muskets and grenades when they were caught off guard, and the rest were still stunned and made prisoners. The other boat saw that the situation was bad and ran away.
After interrogating the prisoners, it was found that they were subordinates of the surrendered general Zhang Wei and were ordered to conduct reconnaissance along the river near Fucheng, Chongqing. Niulin came from along the river, defeated the Syrian navy and suppressed the Luzhou Divine Arm City, and defeated Pu Zezhi's layers of defenses. His reputation was extremely loud, but he was unable to do anything against the well-defended Chongqing Fucheng. He had no choice but to go to Fuzhou, preparing to fortify the dangerous river section to prevent the Song army from going upstream from the Jinghu battlefield to reinforce Sichuan. This Niulin was extremely cunning. Before heading to Fuzhou, he used his usual trick of cheating defeat, deliberately leading the Chongqing navy to pursue him, but he secretly ambushed a large number of troops. The pursuing Chongqing navy was severely defeated by the combined attack of the Mongolian navy and the shore infantry.
After this disastrous defeat, Pu Zhezhi, who had already suffered a psychological shadow, ordered to stand firm and wait for help, and the naval vessels were also strictly ordered to stand firm in the water stronghold. Since then, Mongolian military ships have been able to move freely on this section of the water. After hearing the prisoners' confessions, Ouyang Xuan decided not to go to Fucheng, Chongqing. On the one hand, the Chongqing government, which had suffered consecutive defeats, must be heavily guarded and would not allow their fleet of unknown origins to enter the city. On the other hand, Ouyang Xuan was just a small county magistrate under the bureaucracy of the Southern Song Dynasty. There is a probability that he will not be received.
Sure enough, before the fleet approached Chongqing Fucheng, the defenders at the city head ignored the Song Army flag hanging on the bow of the ship and fired a large number of arrows, which fell far in front of the Pili Army fleet, causing large splashes of water. Of course, this is no wonder the Chongqing defenders. After all, the Song army dropped troops like a tide and generals like feathers under the Mongolian front. It was really difficult to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. Moreover, the fleet of unknown origin did not send out a code word. Who knows if they are themselves? people? With the lessons learned from Xuzhou City and Divine Arm City, the Pili fleet did not waste any time and went straight to Diaoyu City, the headquarters of Hezhou.
It is one hundred and forty miles from Chongqing Prefecture to Diaoyu City by waterway. Since it is upstream, it takes two days to reach it. Since the Perak fleet set off from Chongqing Prefecture, there were ships following behind. Huang Dagen only thought it was a reconnaissance ship for the Song Army, but he didn't take it seriously. There are just more and more ships following them, from a sporadic one or two to more than ten. When Huang Dagen was about to send a ship to drive them away, Ouyang Xuan stopped him. He also saw that this was a ship belonging to the Mongolian navy. These Mongolian ships were obviously waiting for the arrival of reinforcement ships from behind. For these Mongolian ships that refused to follow, Ouyang Xuan ordered the fleet to slow down. This strange order puzzled Huang Dagen. Facing the people who looked suspicious, Ouyang Xuan explained with a smile: "We want to enter the three cities of Xuzhou, Luzhou and Chongqing, but we can't. We just suspect that we are the Mongolian army. Under the circumstances, Hezhou will not Open the city gate. For the current plan, the only way is to use the heads of these Mongolian troops to open the city gate of Hezhou."
The Perak fleet sailed ahead unhurriedly, and the Mongolian fleet followed unhurriedly from a distance. The number of Mongolian ships was increasing. When they were still forty miles away from Diaoyu City, there were already more than twenty ships following them. When we were still about thirty miles away from Diaoyu City, a number of light boats appeared one after another upstream. These were the reconnaissance ships of the Diaoyu City navy. At this time, the Mongolian fleet began to change its formation, and Huang Dagen knew that the Mongolian army was preparing to take action. Although Niulin suppressed the Song navy from Xuzhou to Fuzhou, the Hezhou navy, located on the tributary of the river, did not suffer much losses and still retained a large number of ships. What's more important is that the main force of the Mongolian navy is currently on the line from Chongqing to Fuzhou, and the force near Hezhou is not strong. If we don't take action now, there will be no chance when the Diaoyu City naval forces are dispatched.
