Chapter 203 The Battle of Queyue
It's ridiculous to think that an earthworm shakes a big tree! ---------Tang Hanyu's "Tiao Zhang Ji"
It is said that Huang Zu was full of doubts and hesitation, and could never make up his mind to fight for peace. Although Bu Zhi fulfilled his mission, Huang Zu was still noncommittal and said that he was not afraid of Chen Long and invited Bu Zhi back.
Before the bird of prey could move, suddenly a person in the lobby got angry and yelled loudly. It was Mi Heng Ni Zhengping who was standing like a fool. Just listen to Mi Heng shouting to Huang Zu: "Damn old man! Wake up quickly! Zishan's kind words are meant to point you to a way to survive! Chen Long is a celebrity around the Empress Dowager. He conquered thousands of miles of fertile land in a few years, and The Chen family of Yingchuan, the Pang family of Xiangyang and many other noble families are helping each other. How can their ambition be comparable to that of a local snake like you in Jiangxia? If you resist, it will be like throwing an egg against a stone. You are extremely stupid! You, a dead old man, don't care if you die, but you still want to be implicated. Will Huang She die with you?"
Huang Zu didn't expect that Mi Heng would go berserk, and his head would be wet with scolding. In anger, he drew his sword and was about to kill Mi Heng. Fortunately, Huang She hugged Mi Heng tightly, so Mi Heng walked away and packed his bags back to the plains. carry.
After Mi Heng's disturbance, Huang Zu was so angry that he even skipped seeing off the guests. Bu Zhi had no choice but to leave a letter written by Chen Long and returned to the military building next to the city gate, leading his followers to leave. .
Huang She stayed by his father's side, constantly comforting him. When his father's anger calmed down, Fang tried to persuade him: "You Heng has always been arrogant, and my father should not be as knowledgeable as a junior. However, there is some truth in Mi Heng's words. As for Chen Long's strength, I'm afraid my father can't resist, so why not take this opportunity to surrender, and you can be regarded as a veteran of Chen Long's struggle for world supremacy, and he will become a general in the future."
Huang Zu only loved this one son. Hearing this, he sat down and sighed: "Son, I don't know this truth, but you heard it. Chen Long asked me to move out of this castle. If I agree like this, Jiang Xia will no longer It belongs to our Huang family."
Huang She frowned and said, "Father, in my opinion, Jiangxia is being targeted by Chen Long, and Liu Biao has abandoned us. I'm afraid Jiangxia is no longer ours."
Huang Zu showed a scheming expression and said: "Only by causing more headaches for the opponent can we have bargaining chips. If we, father and son, want to continue to hold the top position in this castle, we need to fight and win."
Huang She gradually understood his father's intentions, but he always felt that something was wrong. He said in a deep voice: "Father, Chen Long has always promoted the happiness of the people, so he has won the hearts of the people in Lingling. If we can really cooperate with him and conspire for the world, Much better than this castle!"
Huang Zu did not expect Huang She to say these words, and murmured: "She'er, are you sure you regard Chen Long as a capable master? You have never thought of dominating one side, and then maybe occupying a county? Or even becoming The king of a country?"
Huang She was dumbfounded when he heard this, and stuttered: "Father, father, since your ambition is so lofty, how should you deal with the fact that Chen Long's Qinglong Army is attacking? If you resist, you may be defeated, and then everything will be in vain. beam!"
Huang Zu waved his hand impatiently and said: "So, don't think so far. I have made up my mind. We must fight the first battle. Chen Long fights on two fronts. It is estimated that the troops will be scattered, and I have never heard of Chen Long. How strong is the naval force? Once we win, maybe we will get a few more years of development." Huang She could only agree.
After Huang She left, Huang Zu came to the top of the castle and looked down at the entire majestic castle. Looking at the Queyue Castle that I had built with my own hands, I had mixed feelings in my heart. Thinking that this castle was about to be handed over from my own hands to others, I felt even more reluctant to part with it.
When Bu Zhi returned, Huang Zhong, Xi Zhicai, Yang Huai, and Gao Pei listened to Bu Zhi's report. At this time, the navy and army soldiers of the Third Army and Yang Huai's navy had been training together on Dongting Lake for more than a month, and their morale was high. high.
As the mixed warships were sworn in, Huang Zhong gave an order. The huge naval fleet, including ten giant warships, twenty medium-sized warships, and more than fifty small warships, went out of Dongting for the first time to fight, and went straight along the Xiangjiang River. Yangtze River outlet. The mouth of the Xiangjiang River had long been blocked by wooden stakes and iron chains by Huang Zu. Huang Zhong ordered the naval boats to clear them one by one, and the speed of the entire fleet slowed down.
Huang Zu's reconnaissance ship had been swimming in this area for a long time. On this day, he suddenly saw a huge navy approaching from all over the sky and covered the river. He was so frightened that he quickly reported back. Huang Zu had never seen such a huge new warship. After hearing about it, he quickly ordered all naval forces to dispatch and block the mouth of the Xiangjiang River, so that Huang Zhong's warships could not break through the mouth of the river to avoid being fully launched by Chen Long's navy on the Yangtze River.
It has to be said that Huang Zu's strategy was absolutely correct. Only a few of Huang Zhong's large naval ships could line up at the mouth of the Xiangjiang River. Both sides fired several rounds of arrows. Huang Zhong relied on the size of the ships to make a slight breakthrough. , but was greeted by the enemy's kerosene rockets, and a large ship unfortunately caught fire. Fortunately, it was put out in time, but Huang Zhong did not dare to attack again rashly, so he had to temporarily withdraw his troops and only set up defenses at the mouth of the Xiangjiang River. The first contact battle ended hastily.
After the first battle, Huang Zu couldn't help but feel more confident. Although these seemingly huge warships were scary, the narrow river mouth just limited their performance. Without the speed of the ship, there was no collision force. Instead, it was his own warship that shuttled flexibly. He turned around and fired kerosene rockets at the big ship, almost burning down a big ship in Huang Zhong in the first battle.
Of course Xi Zhicai was aware of this problem and found a tributary of the Xiangjiang River overnight. It could enter the Yangtze River upstream, but the water was very shallow and could only allow small boats to pass. Xi Zhicai ordered the big ships to retreat for more than ten miles, with the medium-sized warships in front, and all the small ships entered the upper reaches of the Yangtze River along the tributaries. After a night of deployment, Huang Zhong's navy had formed a situation of surrounding the Xiangjiang estuary from both sides, while Huang Zujun was immersed in yesterday's victory and was unaware of it.
The next day was extremely early, and there was a slight mist on the river. The medium-sized warships of the Qinglong Navy were in front, and the large warships were behind. After a dozen miles of acceleration, they were already moving at full speed. The deck was full of archers and crossbowmen. As soon as they got out of the river mouth, Xi Zhicai ordered them to beat the war drums, light the rockets, and rush at full speed towards Huang Zu's warships blocking the river mouth.
Huang Zu's warship had been monitoring the outlet of the Xiangjiang River, and was naturally well prepared. The warship quickly moved away, straightening the iron locks between the two ships. Rockets flew in all directions, and several sails caught fire. Huang Zhong's warship gained speed this time and suddenly wedged itself into Huang Zu's naval force. The advantage of the ship's huge size was reflected. Not only did it knock over several small boats, but the archers were also condescending and shot at the enemy sailors in sight at close range. Out of the Yangtze River.
Huang Zu's naval force tried its best to intercept, but when the enemy's ship slowed down, suddenly a large number of small warships appeared in the mist in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. They rushed horizontally into the naval formation, and their sharp iron-clad bows wedged themselves into the weak hull of Huang Zu's warship. On the side, the river water gurgled into the ship, and the soldiers jumped into the water to escape. Huang Zu's navy quickly fell into chaos on the flank. The other ships were at a loss. They didn't know whether to continue to deal with the big attack from the front, or to turn around and resist the sudden rush of small boats from upstream. While he was still hesitating, several more warships caught fire.
Huang Zujun gradually suffered heavy losses and found that he could not resist the enemy, so he had to abandon the mouth of the Xiangjiang River and sounded the horn of retreat. All the ships of the Qinglong Navy were able to sail out of the water mouth, and the Yangtze River was covered with water for a while. Xi Zhicai ordered the troops to march at full speed and pursue them one after another. They followed Huang Zu's defeated ship directly to the water village on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
The water village was just around Queyue City. Huang Zu set up many large crossbow machines, temporary barracks, and even a few catapults along the shore of the water village. For a while, the rocks on the shore were raining down, so Xi Zhicai ordered the ship to stop outside the shooting range. However, the warships could not stop simply because many of them were attacked by stones and were seriously injured.
This was the first time that the Qinglong Water Army launched a full-scale attack, and Xi Zhi gradually gained some experience in water warfare. Yang Huai and Gao Pei have been training the navy, and they were also entrusted with important tasks this time. Although the Qinglong navy was just in its infancy, it still relied on its powerful warships to force the battle-hardened Huang Zu navy back to the water stronghold. It can be said that it was a victory in the first battle.
After forcing Huang Zu's warship back, warships loaded with Huang Zhong's Third Army Corps quickly landed on the north bank of the Yangtze River according to the scheduled landing site. It took a full day for the 30,000-strong army to finally assemble. Under the personal leadership of Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, and Xi Zhicai, they reached the edge of Queyue City in one fell swoop. They first destroyed the temporary military camps along the Yangtze River and seized many bows and arrows. , crossbows, and even a few trebuchets were captured.
The barrier of the water stronghold was lost, and the main force of Huang Zu's navy was completely surrounded by Huang Zhong's army and navy. There was nowhere to escape. The few breakout operations were all repulsed, with the loss of troops and generals.
Huang Zu was already in the castle and learned that the water stronghold was besieged. He sat down in the Taishi's chair. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, the proud Jiangxia navy was already besieged in the water stronghold and could not move. Huang Zu personally led his troops out of Queyue City with the intention of opening up the passage between the water stronghold and the city walls. However, they happened to encounter the troops of Huang Zhong and Wei Yan who had already ambushed them. They lost their troops and generals, and returned in defeat.
Huang Zhong did not attack the city, but besieged the east side of Queyue City, blocking the communication between the water stronghold and the city wall. The naval forces persisted in the water stronghold for more than ten days. They had already run out of ammunition and food, and finally surrendered. Huang Zhong Countless ships were obtained, and tens of thousands of prisoners of war were taken.
Huang Zu knew that the naval force was gone and the enemy was only surrounding the east. He obviously hoped that he could lead his troops to escape through other city gates quickly to avoid heavy losses in the siege. Huang Zu ordered people to stock up on food and grass, summoned tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city, and issued an announcement saying that he would live and die with Queyue City, but this caused an uproar among the gentry and people in the city. After all, Huang Zu's power was in danger and the city could only be destroyed in a matter of days. Chen Long had always worked for the benefit of the people. Who would be willing to die for the city at this time?
Many wealthy families failed to persuade Huang Zu openly, but secretly instigated various forces to kill Huang Zu and then dedicate the city. Huang She saw this in his eyes and felt anxious in his heart. He remembered that Mi Heng scolded his father the day before he left, and he had already seen through the outcome of today. Huang She then made up his mind to surrender to Chen Long, and determined to help his father solve the catastrophe of killing and annihilating his family.
On the ninth day after Huang Zhongjun besieged the city, Huang Zu returned from inspecting the city. Seeing that his morale was low, he returned to the castle study and sat in silence. Suddenly, the door of the room was pushed open with a creak, and Aizi Huang came in and bowed. When Huang Zu saw Aizi, his mood improved, and he was about to ask what was going on. Suddenly, he saw several tall and powerful soldiers appearing behind Aizi. He instantly understood Aizi's intention, his hands shook involuntarily, and he fell to the ground. In the Taishi's chair.
If you want to know what happens next, listen to the explanation next time.
