In the past, when the imperial court was conquering Liangshan, firstly, it was because it used local Xiang troops who did not work hard and pretended to be paid; secondly, because the boats they used were small, they were often overturned by Liangshan navy. Therefore, they could not It worked. In this campaign to conquer Liangshan, the imperial court learned from the past experience of wasting time and money and returning without success. All the troops were recruited were large ships that could hold a hundred or ten people. In this case, even if Liangshan's fast boats could get close to the ship, they would not be able to reach the ship. Huge ships can't help it.
Liu Menglong led the imperial navy to form a huge fleet, which was connected end to end and stretched for more than ten miles. It meandered from the eight hundred miles of water to the lake and watched the Liangshan Dazhai approaching. While we were walking, we heard the sound of cannons on the hillside in the distance. From all directions, many small boats sailed out from the reeds close to the hillside, heading straight towards the imperial navy fleet.
Many of the imperial sergeants on the big ships did not know how to swim and were temporarily recruited into the navy. The boat was moving unsteadily in the water, and the soldiers on board were already dizzy and frightened. Now they saw Liangshan boats floating over quickly from all directions, and they felt even more frightened.
Liu Menglong relied on the size of the ship and was not afraid. He shouted to the sergeant: "Fire the arrows! Just fire the arrows! Kill the Liangshan bandits."
On the big ship, the sergeants heard the order, put their arrows on their strings, drew their bows and shot. The arrows flew towards the Liangshan boat like locusts, and the Liangshan boat had to retreat. When the soldiers on board saw this, their morale was greatly shaken and they no longer feared the Liang Shanshui thieves.
Liu Menglong was so arrogant that he ordered his subordinates to move the ship and rush towards Liangshan Dazhai.
Leading the Liangshan boats to attack the imperial ships were the Ruan brothers and navy generals such as Li Jun and Zhang Shun. Several people suffered a burst of arrows from the officers and soldiers and had to retreat, feeling very depressed.
Ruan Xiaoqi said to Zhang Shun: "Brother Zhang Shun, the army's ship is big and ours is small. There are often a hundred or ten sergeants on their ship. Even if they draw their bows and shoot arrows, we can't get close to him. How can we win?" he?"
Zhang Shundao: "In the current situation, there is no other way. We have to dive under his boat and breach his boat. Naturally, he will not be able to move forward. We will think of a way then."
Ruan Xiaowu heard this and said: "This is the best! Brother Li Jun and I brought the boat to attack him, while brother Zhang Shun and Xiaoqi dived to dig the boat to prevent him from moving."
After several people discussed it, they acted according to the plan.
Ruan Xiaowu and Li Jun led hundreds of small boats, looked at the large ships of the army, beat drums and shouted together, and rushed forward. Liu Menglong still ordered the officers and soldiers to shoot arrows to kill the Liangshan bandits.
On the shore, Lieutenant Gao saw the large official ship and the Liangshan boat fighting together, so he ordered the sergeants on the shore to beat drums to help. In the lake, the officers and soldiers moved the boats close together. Hundreds and thousands of soldiers stood beside the boats, drawing their bows and firing arrows. All the Liangshan sailors who were shot fell into the water.
The lake water is dyed red.
Liu Menglong was overjoyed and hurriedly urged the ship forward, but the handsome ship gradually sank and could no longer move forward. It turned out that while the official army was fighting with Liangshan's ships and did not care about the water, Zhang Shun, Ruan Xiaoqi and others dived into the water and leaked Liu Menglong's handsome ship.
Liu Menglong was very confused and asked the sailor urgently: "What's going on? Why can't the ship come in?" The sailor replied in fear: "Commander, the cabin was leaked by the Liangshan bandits. The cabin is flooded and it can't survive."
Liu Menglong was furious when he heard this, and ordered the official ships to line up in order, connect them together, build a pontoon bridge, and gradually advance to attack the Liangshan Dazhai.
The officers and soldiers were ordered to line up the boats in a row and build a pontoon bridge. They put the soldiers on the rear boat into the previous boat and moved forward one by one, gradually advancing towards Liangshan Dazhai.
On the shore, Captain Gao didn't know what was going on and hurriedly came in a big boat. Liu Menglong boarded Captain Gao's ship and reported that the handsome ship had been leaked.
After hearing the report, Captain Gao saw that Liu Menglong's method of arranging the ships in order and advancing gradually was very good. He was overjoyed and ordered the officers and soldiers not to worry about anything else, but to just move forward and attack the Liangshan Dazhai.
On the golden beach, Song Jiang and others were very panicked when they saw the approaching imperial army. Song Jiang was frightened. He turned to look at Wu Yong and said in a trembling voice: "Military advisor, the army is approaching and the stronghold is in danger. What should we do?!"
Wu Yong said: "Brother Wuyou, we can mobilize all the fierce generals and brave soldiers in Liangshan to line up along the coast and shoot the officers and soldiers with sharp arrows so that they can't get ashore. Even if the officers and soldiers get ashore, we can gradually retreat to ensure the stronghold." No loss.”
Song Jiang then ordered all the generals to line up along the coast, shoot bows and arrows, and kill the imperial officers and soldiers without letting them go ashore.
A group of generals, Guan Sheng, Hu Yanjun, Qin Ming, and Dong Ping, each commanded a sergeant and were stationed along the coast, waiting to shoot the imperial troops when they came ashore.
The imperial soldiers and horses gradually moved the ship forward and gradually arrived at the shore of the golden beach. On the shore, Liangshan soldiers and horses fired arrows together, and a large number of officers and soldiers were shot to death in the water on the shore.
Upon seeing this, Captain Gao was furious and ordered the officers and soldiers on the ship to fire arrows to kill the Liangshan bandits on the shore. Unfortunately, the officers and soldiers of the imperial court were at the mercy of a long snake formation, and the superiority of soldiers and horses could not be used. The battle reached the end of the day, and the imperial troops failed to board the golden beach.
At night, Gao Qiu and the supervisor Cai You discussed the war.
Gao Qiu said: "The Liangshan bandits guarded the shore and shot the officers and soldiers with bows and arrows. The officers and soldiers formed a long snake formation on the boat. The soldiers and horses could not move away. It was difficult to conquer Liangshan for a while."
Hearing this, Cai You said: "Captain, you can swing the ships sideways and use arrows to kill the Liangshan bandits, and fight a war of attrition with them. When he runs out of arrows, the imperial army will bravely march up to Liangshan and conquer Liangshan."
Captain Gao was overjoyed when he heard this and said loudly: "Okay! Tomorrow, we will move the ships horizontally, deploy our troops, shoot at Liangshan, consume his arrows, and when he is tired, he will take advantage of the courage and conquer Liangshan in one fell swoop. .”
On the second day, Captain Gao ordered all the ships to move horizontally, and ordered the soldiers to come forward and shoot arrows at the Liangshan bandits.
On the golden beach, Wu Yong saw the ships of the government and the army arrayed horizontally in the water, and knew that the government and the army would start an archery battle with Liangshan. He hurriedly said to Song Jiang: "Brother Gongming, the government and the army have strong strategic reserves, and there is a continuous supply of arrows from the rear. Now The officers and soldiers arranged the ships horizontally, obviously to fight a war of attrition with us in Liangshan. We should send a small number of soldiers with shields to lure him and let him fire arrows vigorously. In addition, we should arrange a large number of soldiers to hide in the dark and wait for him to relax a little. , shoot arrows together, drive back the official ship, and take advantage of the opportunity to collect all the arrows it shoots towards the shore, so you are not afraid of fighting a war of attrition with him."
Song Jiang was overjoyed when he heard this, and sent Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, and Li Kui to lead a thousand soldiers, all armed with shields, to line up along the coast and shoot at the officers and soldiers. He also arranged for generals Hua Rong, Qin Ming, and Dong Ping to hide in the dark and wait on the top of the mountain. The cannons were fired, and they rushed out together, shooting arrows at the officers and soldiers. After suppressing them, they collected all the arrows they shot and prepared them for subsequent use.
Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, and Li Kui were ordered to lead a thousand soldiers, armed with shields, to rush to the shore and shoot at the officers and soldiers.
On the boat in the lake, Captain Gao saw this and ordered the officers and soldiers to shoot harder to prevent the Liangshan bandits from gaining any leeway. The soldiers were ordered to draw their bows and shoot arrows, and the arrows flew towards the golden beach like locusts.
On the top of the mountain in the distance, Song Jiang, Wu Yong, and Lu Junyi were watching the enemy's formation.
More than half an hour passed. Seeing that the officers and soldiers were already showing signs of fatigue, Wu Yong said to Song Jiang, "Brother Gongming, it's time to fire the ordering cannon." Song Jiang urgently ordered the ordering cannon to be fired.
Ling Zhen heard the order and lit the fire. Hearing the sound of the cannon, Hua Rong, Qin Ming, and Dong Ping rushed out with soldiers hiding in the dark, and fired arrows at the official ship together.
Seeing the kindness, Hua Rong aimed at Dang Shixiong, who was leading the army to shoot arrows at the front, fully pulled the bow string, and released a loud arrow. The loud arrow shot by Hua Rong flew straight to Dang Shixiong with a whistling sound, and hit Dang Shixiong in the face. Dang Shixiong shouted and fell on his back on the boat. The officers and soldiers were so frightened that they all crouched in the boat and stopped shooting arrows.
Hua Rong ordered some soldiers to shoot arrows to suppress the officers and soldiers; he also ordered some soldiers to gather the arrows placed by the officers and soldiers on the golden beach.
When Gao Qiu, who was on the boat in the distance, saw this, he realized that he had been deceived and fell down in anxiety. On the same day, the army failed to attack Jinshatan again.
At night, Gao Qiu and Cai You discussed military affairs together.
Cai You said: "Lieutenant, don't be impatient. Based on the current situation, if we can't capture Jinshatan Beach, we won't be able to deploy superior forces, and naturally we won't be able to capture the Liangshan bandits. However, the Liangshan bandits are surrounded by the army, and he has no supplies to supplement them." We might as well just waste time with him, and when he is exhausted, there will naturally be civil strife. At that time, we can organize troops and take advantage of the situation to attack. No matter how powerful he is, we can only capture him without mercy."
Gao Qiu was overjoyed when he heard this and hurriedly said: "What the supervisor said is absolutely true. With this method of attack, we will see if the Liangshan bandits can overthrow the enemy."
That night, the order to surround but not attack was issued to all officers and soldiers.
Early the next morning, the weather got brighter, the sun shone on the lake, and the waves shimmered. On the water, thousands of warships from the army and the army were arranged side by side, powerful and mighty, but they did not attack.
When the generals guarding the shore in Liangshan saw this, they urgently reported to the Zhongyi Hall of Dazhai in Liangshan. After Song Jiang received the report, he didn't know what was going on and was very confused. So he, Wu Yong and Lu Junyi, left the hall and came to the golden beach to check the situation.
In the water, the ripples are vast and boundless as far as the eye can see. I saw nearly a thousand official and military warships arranged side by side, with colorful flags all over them. Soldiers stood with guns in hand, looking at them eagerly, which was very mighty.
"What's going on?" Song Jiang was confused and muttered.
Wu Yong observed for a while and already understood the intentions of the imperial soldiers and horses. Wu Yong then said to Song Jiang and Lu Junyi: "Two brothers, looking at the posture, the officers and soldiers are not in a hurry to attack us." Song Jiang said: "This is the best." Wu Yong replied: "Brother Gongming, this is not good." Song Jiang Turning to look at Wu Yong, he asked: "Why do you see that?" Wu Yong said: "The imperial court is trying to trap us to death. Brother Gongming, given the current situation, we should prepare for the worst, waiting for the material to be exhausted, from behind Dazhai, Withdraw your troops and find a way out."
Seeing this, Song Jiang became anxious and hurriedly said to Wu Yong: "My military advisor brother, so it turns out that Liangshan is about to fall?"
Wu Yong replied: "Brother Gongming, this is a helpless matter. At the moment, send someone to find out the way out immediately to prevent any unexpected events."
It’s important to save your life! At this moment, Song Jiang could not think too much. He was so frightened that he hurriedly summoned Dai Zong, the Taibao of Shenxing, and Motian Shiqian, and ordered them to lead hundreds of soldiers to explore the way behind the stronghold and make preparations for withdrawal.
Dai Zong and Shi Qian were ordered to lead hundreds of soldiers over the majestic mountains behind Liangshan Dazhai to explore the retreat, but they saw colorful flags fluttering in the distance.
It turned out that when Gao Taiwei was attacking the Liangshan bandits, Privy Council Tong Guantong was afraid that the Liangshan bandits would not be able to defeat the official army, so he took advantage of the situation to break out, so he arranged for the army to surround Liangshan from the northwest and south.
