Although three armed merchant ships and two light artillery squadrons were not enough to change the battlefield situation, or even to prevent the Mongolian army from freely traveling between the east and west banks of the Minjiang River, they caused the Meizhou navy to suffer a great deal without the protection of siege equipment on both sides of the river. Yu Xing ordered three armed gunboats to take the lead, and moved two squadrons of light artillery onto the ship. They took advantage of the range and launched a guerrilla war with the Meizhou Navy. This puts the Meizhou Navy in a dilemma. If they pursue it, they will face the attack of siege equipment on the city wall. If they stop in place, they will only be beaten in vain and cannot fight back. If they retreat, the warship will be safe, but the transport ships traveling between the two sides will be It will be bombarded, and it will be a dilemma.
Liu Da'er also tried to use gunboats to deal with it, but the few imitation fortress guns in Meizhou were clumsy and not suitable for use on ships. After the cannon was fired, the Jiading naval vessel was unscathed, but the Meizhou gunboat was sent to the bottom by the huge recoil. It is said that the navy is a technical branch, and gunboats are a combination of current high-tech. Not only the ships have special requirements, but the ship's artillery must also be specially designed to meet the requirements of light weight, small recoil, wave resistance and waterproofing, etc., as well as requirements for gunners Also very high. It takes long-term training to operate in a tight space and hit an opponent's moving ship in rough waves.
Yu San did not order the gunboats to attack upstream, but only patrolled the waters next to Jiading City. On the one hand, his mission was to help defend Jiading City rather than destroy the enemy, and on the other hand, he also had to save ammunition. The three armed merchant ships currently have less than half of their ammunition, and the two gun squadrons' light artillery only have a few dozen rounds of ammunition left. Jiading is now in Gucheng, and these ammunitions are missing every time. Yu Sande used these ammunition and the grenades, landmines and other firearms he brought with him at the most critical moment to defend the city. Although Jiading City can also produce black powder, the quality is far inferior to that produced by the Perak Army. Even if it is used reluctantly, the range and killing effect of the artillery will be greatly reduced.
After several exchanges, the war entered the calm state before the war, with both sides fighting hard. At this time, Cao Zhizhou had captured Hongya and Jiajiang counties and was heading toward Jiading along the Qingyi River. Cao Dayer was building more siege weapons and driving Minzhuang to dig trenches in front of Jiading City. Yulin was not in the camp in front of Jiading, but also set up his tent in the ravine behind the logging camp. As a Mongolian from the bitter cold land in the north, he, like the Mongolian cavalry under his command, could not stand the humid and hot weather. Although it was late May, which was not the hottest time in Shu, these Mongolian cavalry did not raid the countryside as frequently as before, but only sent a large number of rangers to conduct reconnaissance.
In the blink of an eye, it was early June, and Cao Zhizhou's Yazhou Army also arrived downstream, realizing Liu Dal'er's plan of a three-pronged attack on Jiading City. At this moment, there were 12,000 Mongolian troops gathered at the foot of Jiading City. After Liu Daer surrendered to Mongolia, all the garrisons in Meizhou counties came under his banner. In addition, he recruited a large number of people to serve as soldiers, which greatly expanded his strength. However, in order to piece together the 2,000 troops and horses that attacked Jiading this time, he also used all his might, so that most of the people guarding Meizhou City and its subordinate counties were strong people. He was not worried that the Perak Army would take the opportunity to attack. On the one hand, Yulin told him that Huoli, the secret agent, had led a large army to approach Guankou Village of the Perak Army. On the other hand, the Mongolian navy was about to go south and seize it with the cooperation of internal agents. Pengshan City. By then, the Perak Army will have nothing to do but there will still be troops to attack Meizhou.
Cao Zhizhou brought more than 3,000 soldiers to Jiading City, more than Liu Daer brought. The poor people in Yazhou Mountain are not as poor as Meizhou. It is not easy to assemble so many soldiers. You must know that Yazhou has also deployed heavy troops in Mingshan City to prevent the Thunderbolt Army. It also left Yazhou City, Lizhou, Diaomenzhai and other places. Got troops and horses. The reason why so many soldiers and horses were sent out this time was not only Cao Zhizhou's aggressive military expansion, but also because he attracted many Yifan and Qingqiang tribes this time, and these tribes sent out a total of one thousand people. He promised these tribes that after the completion of the project, large areas of land would be allocated to them in Jiading Prefecture and Meizhou for farming, and trade rights in the Yi-Tibetan area would be granted.
With the strong support of the Pili Army, Zeyang has transformed from the leader of a cottage to the leader of more than a dozen cottages and three grassland tribes, with a population of over 10,000 under his control. Nowadays, Dajianluo not only has strong soldiers and horses, but also has become a trading center for 500 miles around. It makes a lot of money just by collecting tolls, making other Yi and Tibetan tribes extremely jealous. Cao Zhizhou promised exactly what this tribe wanted most. Want something. As for the land in Jiading and Meizhou promised by Cao Zhizhou, it is also very credible. Due to the frequent disasters caused by swords and soldiers, a large amount of land was idle throughout western Sichuan. Both Cao Zhizhou and Liu Da'er were recruiting laborers to cultivate it. However, their violent expropriation was only slightly better than that of the Mongols, and most of the refugees still continued to go to the areas under the jurisdiction of the Perak Army.
The addition of barbarians from the Yi and Fan tribes greatly enhanced the strength of Yazhou's army, but it also brought endless troubles to Cao Zhizhou. These Yi and Tibetan soldiers were powerful in individual combat but also helpless. They did not obey orders at all and even dared to clash with Cao Zhizhou's soldiers, causing more than ten casualties each. Cao Zhizhou spent most of his energy every day on appeasing and coaxing the Yi and Tibetan leaders, which made him very anxious. After capturing Hongya and Jiajiang City, these Yi and Tibetan soldiers became extremely barbaric. They ran rampant like bulls that broke into a porcelain shop. They killed everyone and robbed women of their property. In the end, they set fire to the city and burned it. He had no intention of leaving any scraps for the Yazhou soldiers behind him. Fortunately, the fire was extinguished, otherwise Cao Zhizhou would have been left with nothing. It is said that he now regrets recruiting these barbarian soldiers from the Yi and Fan tribes.
There were 7,000 people from the Erlin tribe who came to Jiading this time, including 5,000 new auxiliary troops and 2,000 cavalry. These new auxiliary troops came from Jianzhou, Longzhou and other places. At this time, they had all arrived on the west bank of the Minjiang River. They would attack the city together with Liu Dal'er and Cao Zhizhou. Yulin personally led five hundred Mongolian cavalry to garrison the ravine behind the lumberyard. In addition to serving as scouts and covering the new annexed troops attacking the city, his most important role was to supervise the troops. The other 1,500 cavalry are still on the east bank of the Minjiang River. Their role is to prevent the Song army from Luzhou from attacking from the directions of Zizhou, Longzhou and Fushunjian.
The Mongolian army outside the city is making preparations in full swing, and Jiading City is not idle either, and is also preparing intensively for war. Zan Wanshou selected dozens of brave soldiers to rescue Luzhou, Chongqing Prefecture, Bozhou, Xuzhou and other places, and even sent messengers to the Yi tribes in the south of Jiading and the Duzhangman tribes on the border of Xuzhou. In the letter, he explained the dangers of Jiading falling into the hands of the Mongolian army, and looked forward to reinforcements to jointly fight against the Mongols. Zan Wanshou did this not because he didn't trust Ouyang Xuan's promise to come to help, but because he felt that the imperial court and friendly forces would not sit idly by and did nothing. He even had a sense of luck with the barbarian tribes, thinking that they might send help because they were dying. Yu San collected all the sulfur in the city, sent people to scrape the walls with saltpeter, mixed it with charcoal to prepare hundreds of kilograms of black powder, and used small clay pots to make many improvised bombs. Although these simple bombs are not as powerful as the Perak Army, they are more than enough whether they are used to blow up people or destroy siege equipment.
