Chang Yuan took the initiative to propose to the Mongols to seize the source of the river during the summer harvest season. The reasons he put forward were also very sufficient. On the one hand, the Perak Army had difficulty crossing the river because of the dangerous water source and was not very vigilant. On the other hand, during the summer harvest season, the Perak Army was rushing to harvest grain in the fields. Chang Yuan's suggestion was to secretly transport the Mongolian army across the river during the day when people were working in the fields, and then stabilize the defenses of Jiangyuan City and Shiyu Reclamation Point, and use this as a bridgehead for the Mongolian army's attack on the west bank of the Jinma River.
The key to this plan lies in the ships, including not only the ships crossing the river, but also the navy ships one mile upstream of Jiangyuan City. The ships transporting the Mongolian army across the river were easy to handle. Those grain transport ships parked at the Wulitun Reclamation Point downstream of Jiangyuan City had long been in Chang Yuan's eyes. It's a bit troublesome to station a company of the Jiangyuan City Navy Brigade. This company has several light artillery boats and escort ships, but they are all parked on the shore during this period. Chang Yuan's plan was to lure these ships away by diverting the tiger away from the mountain. If that didn't work, he would raid and destroy them.
During this period of time, Chang Yuan secretly used some tricks in scheduling duty. During the summer harvest, not all of the Perak troops went to the fields to harvest crops, but some of them were left to guard, patrol and defend. By quietly adjusting the sentry personnel on duty, Chang Yuan replaced all the Jiangyuan City guards on the scheduled day of action with his own confidants. The watchtower posts at the Shiyu Reclamation Point downstream and the personnel guarding the grain ships were also replaced by his own people. Chang Yuan has some tricks to win over people. He often greets his subordinates and occasionally gives them small favors. In addition, the commander of the Jiangyuan Jigan militia company was born in the army and was quite strict with the soldiers. Over time, one-third of the soldiers of the Jigan company became Chang Yuan's confidants, and there were many buddies in various settlement points.
Just the day before the operation, a large number of Mongolian troops drove civilians and appeared on the other side of Sandu Water, Daojiangcheng Ferry and Xinjin City with timber for building pontoon bridges. These places were also the key crossing directions of the Mongolian army as deduced by the Perak Army Staff Department, which naturally attracted the attention of the Perak Army's naval forces. This was also Chang Yuan's plan to the Mongolian army to seize the opportunity to attack the east and attack the west. After the Jiangyuan navy received the order, only one light gunboat and one escort ship were left at the dock. The rest of the main warships went to Sandushui for reinforcements, and even three of the five small boats patrolling the surface were taken away.
On the day of the operation, the sky was full of morning glow. This strong sunshine was a good day for harvesting. Shortly after dawn, seeing Captain Ji Gan and the people in the city leaving the city, Chang Yuan gathered together more than 30 soldiers guarding the city, most of whom were his confidants. He first promised that if he joined the Mongols, he would be promoted and rich, and then he took out the surrender letter he had prepared and asked people to cut his fingers one by one and put bloody fingerprints on them. Naturally, his confidants screamed and immediately pressed the blood seal, but there were still more than ten soldiers who were completely confused, with hesitant eyes. Chang Yuan winked, and several of his confidants took sharp knives and stabbed the soldier who was holding the surrender document and refused to sign. The remaining soldiers faced the knife on their necks and had no choice but to press the blood letter and board the pirate ship.
After successfully taking control of Jiangyuan City, Chang Yuan divided his men into three parts. In addition to leaving people to guard the city gate, he also sent a few people to carry wine and meat to the dock a mile away to "reward" the navy—— Naturally, poison is added to the wine and meat. Chang Yuan took more than ten people to the Shiyu settlement point to sail a boat to meet the Mongolian army on the other side of the river. For ships, an extremely important means of transportation, the Pili Army strictly monitors them. Although those grain transport ships were empty ships, they were also protected by a navy company. However, due to the sudden movement of the Mongolian troops on the other side yesterday, they had returned to Xinjin City after receiving the order. The people guarding the boats at this time were the guards of the Shiyu Reclamation Point, and these people and the security personnel of the Reclamation Point were Chang Yuan's confidants.
After seizing the ships, Chang Yuan sent people to sail to the other side of the river to meet the Mongolian army, and then sent two ships upstream. There are still two small navy patrol boats on the river in Jiangyuan, and the patrol boat downstream of the settlement point has been killed. The soldiers on the ship were deceived by Chang Yuan's confidant who was guarding the ship. They temporarily relaxed their vigilance and approached the grain ship. Unexpectedly, as soon as they approached, dozens of people swarmed up to attack him. They were killed unexpectedly and their bodies were thrown directly into the river. In order to prevent the Pili Army from discovering the operation, the other patrol boat must be killed. One of the ships sent by Chang Yuan to hunt upstream was a captured patrol ship, and the other ship was a transport ship.
With the support of Chang Yuan, the Mongolian army on the other side of the river first occupied the Shiyu settlement, and then secretly entered Jiangyuan City. These Mongolian troops who came early were new auxiliary troops who were good at defending the city. They also included artillerymen and sailors. This was also Chang Yuan's suggestion to the Mongols. In Chang Yuan's opinion, both Shiyu Reclamation Point and Jiangyuan City have artillery, and each of the four Jiangyuan City gates has a powerful fortress cannon. With these artillery and the invincible field combat of the Mongolian cavalry, they can definitely defend the two places. Chang Yuan and his confidants are all second-line troops of the Perak Army. Their equipment is mainly cold weapons and they are not good at artillery.
In Jiangyuan City, Chang Yuan met several confidants who went to "reward" the navy. From those dejected faces, he knew that the plan had not succeeded. Huang Dagen and Liao Nilu were suspended from their posts due to lax military management, which shocked the navy brigade. Lequan'an severely punished a group of people who did not comply with the system, making the entire brigade's military discipline more strict. The commander of the two ships left at Jiangyuan Pier was their company commander Xia Dagen, so naturally they would not eat food given as gifts of unknown origin. Seeing that the poison plan failed, Chang Yuan ordered people to take the newly attached soldiers to seize the ship. In fact, the fortress cannon at the head of Jiangyuan City can also hit the ships at the dock, but the sound of the cannon will definitely alert the Pili Army. At present, the Mongolian army has only crossed the river between 400 and 500 new auxiliary troops, and there are still a large number of troops who have not yet crossed the river. It is really not appropriate to alarm the Perak army.
The new auxiliary troops who captured the Pili Army warships walked to the dock, but saw that the two ships were not on the shore. At this moment, the light gunboat was in the upper river, while the escort ship was swimming and fighting with two ships, one large and one small, not far downstream. The two boats, one big and one small, were the boats sent by Chang Yuan to hunt down the patrol boats. After they encountered the patrol boats near the lower reaches of Jiangyuan City, they tried to use deception. It's just that the soldiers on the Perak Army patrol boat saw that all the people coming were unfamiliar faces. The patrol boat was not driven by their colleagues, and the grain transport boat was also filled with a group of strong men with swords and guns in their hands. The situation was really abnormal, so they asked from a distance. talk. Seeing the other party chirping and accelerating, he knew that the situation had changed, so he ran away quickly, chasing after him even more urgently. When the patrol boat passed the navy dock, it signaled Xia Dagen's ship to prepare for battle and that it would warn upstream.
The sudden incident caused a rush of light gunboats and escort ships docked at the dock. Xia Dagen saw that the other party was approaching fiercely, so he ordered the escort ship to meet it directly to cover the light artillery ship and keep the distance. Although there were more people on Chang Yuan's side, the transport ship was heavy and the patrol ship was too small, so it couldn't help the escort ship. After the light gunboat occupied the favorable terrain, Xia Dagen ordered the signal to signal avoidance, and the escort ship quickly moved aside when it saw it. Seeing that the situation was not good, the people on the patrol boat and transport boat quickly turned around, but they couldn't do it in time. After a burst of cannon fire, the people on the two boats died. Then the light gun ship turned around again and bombarded it with artillery on the other side. After three rounds of cannon fire, the escort ship approached the two ships that had lost control. When we got closer, we saw that the people on the boat were already dead or injured, and it was a mess.
The new auxiliary troops on the dock witnessed the gunboats clearing up the two ships in an instant, and fearing that the shells would fall on their heads, they turned around and fled towards Jiangyuan City.
