After this fierce water battle lasted for almost an hour, the Song army showed its decline.
The Song army sailors may be slightly superior in technology, but they are physically weaker than the Ming army sailors.
The soldiers of the Ming army had three meals a day, and they had enough to eat every time. Therefore, they were strong and full of energy, and they could last longer in battles.
Compared with the Ming army, the Song army did not have enough physical strength and gradually fell behind in the fierce fighting.
At noon, the Ming army had successfully captured more than 20 Song warships through boarding battles and gang-hopping battles, and sunk more than 20 Song warships. They also used these Song warships to charge against the remaining Song warships. , defeated the Song Army's second attack.
The Song army suffered heavy losses, while the Ming army's losses were less than one-third of the Song army.
Then, the Ming army's counterattack began.
The Ming army pressed up with a large number of warships, first attacking with large rockets, and then attacking with thunder cannons, rocks, crossbows, and kerosene at a closer distance. The Song army launched a fierce confrontation as soon as possible, also using thunderbolts and rocks. and kerosene to counterattack the Ming army.
Despite this, the Song Army's lagging behind in the number of warships and frequency of attacks put them at a gradual disadvantage and could not compete with the Ming Army's high-frequency and high-intensity attacks. As a result, the warships were seriously damaged and were attacked by the Ming Army's sharp firearms. Shocked, they began to retreat.
At first, it was just a few warships that fled, and it did not affect the brave resistance of other warships. The other warships were still resisting bravely and did not give up.
But soon, Wu Chao, the commander-in-chief of the Guazhou Navy, saw that he had less than fifty warships left. The Ming Navy became more and more courageous as they fought, and a large number of warships surrounded him, as if they wanted to defeat his entire army. The posture of eating in one breath is very frightening.
In panic, Wu Chao quickly lost his will to fight and could no longer adhere to Liu Qi's order to "protect Guazhou Crossing at all costs".
He looked at the black smoke on the north bank of the river, and thought about Liu Qi who still insisted on fighting despite being ill, and felt ashamed in his heart.
Just as he was mentally struggling, a large rocket launched by a Ming warship hit the starboard side of the flagship. With a loud bang, he was knocked to the ground. After he hurriedly got up, the struggle in his heart no longer existed. Now, Liu Qi and his past kindness have been completely ignored by him under the threat of life danger.
Wu Chao eventually became a fugitive general and ordered his flagship to immediately move to the south bank port and escape, no longer insisting on fighting, and then ordered the navy to retreat.
The flagship took the lead in escaping. When the other warships of the Guazhou Navy saw it, they stopped fighting and hurriedly fled with them. The warships that had gritted their teeth and persisted also lost their will to fight and just wanted to escape.
Because Wu Chao only cared about escaping as soon as possible, and after issuing the retreat order, he did not command an orderly retreat, so that the entire Song Army Navy became chaotic.
The Song navy became confused in order to retreat, but the Ming navy still maintained an offensive posture. Therefore, the Song warships were unable to cope with the cooperation of the Ming ships and were sunk and captured one after another.
Zhou Mancheng quickly determined that the Southern Song navy was escaping in a hurry. He was overjoyed and realized that he had won the battle. Guazhoudu was about to be completely controlled by the Ming army. He immediately ordered and led the entire army to attack, and all warships attacked. Enter the general attack state.
The remaining ships of the Guazhou Navy were unable to compete, and their retreat quickly turned into a rout. The Ming Navy pursued them all the way to the port of Guazhou crossing the Yangtze River, and basically annihilated the entire Guazhou Navy.
The remaining warships of the Guazhou Navy were either blown up by the Ming army or sunk and smashed to pieces by the Ming army. Some ships surrendered voluntarily after being surrounded to avoid being sunk.
After Wu Chao gave up the fight, he ran away very quickly. He abandoned his flagship and fled south in a hurry. Many navy troops also tried to follow him, but they were all killed by Ming army firearms at the port.
Zhou Mancheng then sent troops to seize the beach and land on the beach. While shouting shocking slogans such as "The Ming Dynasty is victorious" and "Liu Qi has been defeated", he defeated the port defenders of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Two sticks of incense later, Zhou Mancheng's sailors successfully captured the Jiangnan port, successfully controlled the north-south route of Guazhou Crossing, and completed the first phase of the Ming army's goal of moving south.
After Zhou Mancheng took control of the port, he immediately sent people back to Jiangbei to notify Zhou Zhi and request Zhou Zhi for reinforcements in order to complete the landing and further launch an attack on Zhenjiang Prefecture.
In almost a day, Zhou Mancheng commanded the Ming Navy to successfully defeat the Southern Song Navy and achieved quite good results.
In the first battle, the Ming Navy sank and destroyed more than 70 Song warships, captured more than 30 Song warships, annihilated more than a thousand Song sailors, and captured more than 500 alive.
In this battle, the Ming Navy was destroyed and sunk 21 ships, and nearly 400 sailors were lost. The losses were not small, but the results were really great, and they did reach the level before the war. Requirements for war.
That is, the navy captured Guazhou Ferry, cutting off the Song army in the south and north of the Yangtze River, laying the foundation and escort for the main force of the army to successfully cross the Yangtze River.
The navy has successfully completed this task.
In the evening of the same day, Zhou Zhi was overjoyed when he learned about this incident. He immediately arranged for some troops to go to Guazhou Ferry, preparing to cross the river on a large scale under the protection of the navy and set foot on the south of the Yangtze River to create some conditions for the arrival of subsequent large forces and consolidate the water supply. The division's results.
That night, some soldiers stayed up and used the lights on both sides of the bank to help nearly 2,000 Ming army cavalry cross the river. After dawn, they increased their efforts to cross the river. By the end of Chenshi, more than 4,000 Ming army soldiers had successfully crossed the river.
Yuan Xian, the division commander of the third division of Youyi Army who was the first to cross the river, believed that launching an attack as soon as possible and preventing the Song army from reorganizing its defense was the best decision for the Ming army. After discussing with Qin Gang, the division secretary, he made a prompt decision and decisively led more than 4,000 soldiers. The soldiers of the Ming Army launched an attack on Zhenjiang without wasting any more time.
However, when he led his army to Zhenjiang City, he suddenly found that there was no resistance in the city. The legendary Zhenjiang defenders disappeared strangely, as if they had never existed.
He led his army to occupy Zhenjiang City with ease, and gained an important town in the south of the Yangtze River without a single blow. He also obtained a large amount of food and supplies for the Song army that had not had time to be transported or captured, as well as a lot of money to reward the army, as well as ordnance and military life. Supplies, etc.
He did some calculations and found that the military supplies stored in this city were enough to last the 63,000 troops of the Ming Army participating in this battle for one month, which was a bit excessive, and it was almost enough for thirty-five or six days.
The Southern Song Dynasty Laotie kindly sponsored the Ming army going south to fight and supplied military supplies.
But I am the offensive side, you are the defensive side, and you are friendly to support my military supplies. What kind of approach is this?
Yuan Xian looked confused at the huge harvest.
He never thought that he would be able to capture Zhenjiang Mansion so quickly. He also thought about using a trick to hide the truth and create a huge illusion to coerce the Zhenjiang defenders to surrender. However, he did not expect that the Zhenjiang defenders ran away without any strategy for him. Opportunity.
Is this the army of the Southern Song Dynasty?
At this moment, Yuan Xian felt that he could almost understand why the Northern Song Dynasty had a million forbidden troops, but they were still beaten to pieces by hundreds of thousands of golden soldiers and completely lost half of the country.
With such an army, it is difficult to remain undefeated.
The army in his impression should be an iron army like the Ming Army that persisted in fighting until the last night and never gave up. They had absolute trust in each other, supported each other on the battlefield, and never gave up or abandoned each other.
Therefore, although the pre-war military secretary Zhou Zhixue asked everyone not to have too much respect for the Song Army during the pre-war mobilization, they should fully consider the differences between the Song Army and the Ming Army after liberation, and realize the Song Army's The main body is the numb lower class people who are illiterate and have not been liberated. They do not have a strong will to fight.
But at this time, Yuan Xian still felt that he had overestimated the Song army, and mistakenly believed that all Song troops would persist in fighting like the Song troops who were trapped in Lujin Town before.
He only has 4,000 people here, and the military intelligence before coming here said that there are still 10,000 defenders left by Liu Qi in Zhenjiang. If the Zhenjiang defenders close the city and defend it, he will definitely not be able to capture Zhenjiang.
As a result, all the Zhenjiang defenders fled, leaving him with an undefended city, allowing him to easily capture Zhenjiang.
So far, the Ming army has set foot in the south of the Yangtze River, established a firm foothold, and gained an advantage.
Zhou Zhi learned about this matter half a day later, and was no longer so surprised, because the successive happy events made him realize that the enemy he faced was really too overwhelmed.
Such an enemy who pulled his hips diluted his joy of winning the battle.
Not to mention the unknown generals, even the famous general Liu Qi did not perform very well. He felt that Liu Qi was not as brave and tenacious as he was when he fought against the Jin Army.
He felt that if this was the so-called elite of the Song Army, there would be no need to fight this battle, he had already won.
But then again, when the situation has reached this point, Yangzhou has still not been captured. The city of Yangzhou is still guarded by Liu Qi and has not surrendered. It is still prepared to hold on. Zhou Zhi feels that he needs to go south as soon as possible and cannot put the main army here.
So he held a military meeting and everyone came up with a solution.
He spent two days and two nights mobilizing all the soldiers in the army and some civilians, gathering 70,000 manpower, using the canal water to dig a larger and wider moat ditch, and then diverting the canal water. They came to use this river ditch to physically isolate the traffic inside and outside Yangzhou city.
Then Juma and Fangzi crossbows were set up on the edge of the river ditch, and crossbowmen were sent to be on guard. Then the offensive and defensive momentum changed instantly. If the people in Yangzhou City wanted to come out, they would have to face the ditch dug by the Ming army.
At this point, there was nothing to worry about. Zhou Zhi left the second division deputy commander Ling Zishi and led 5,000 soldiers to surround Yangzhou City along the river ditch, cutting off traffic inside and outside Yangzhou City, preventing the soldiers in Yangzhou City from leaving the city, and then led the main force of the army southward. Cross the river.
Before crossing the river, he also sent a letter to persuade the defenders to surrender, telling the defenders in the city that Guazhou Crossing had been controlled by the Ming army, the Guazhou Navy had been wiped out, and even Zhenjiang City had been captured by the Ming army, leaving Yangzhou completely alone. , there is no food inside and no reinforcements outside, what else is there?
If you don't surrender now, when will you wait?
Acting guard general Wang Fang was horrified after reading the letter of persuasion. He also noticed that the Ming army had really abandoned Yangzhou City and headed south. He was frightened to death.
Of course he knew what the loss of Guazhoudu and Zhenjiang meant.
Not only will Yangzhou become an isolated city, Jiangnan will also face huge dangers, and even Lin'an will be in great danger.
Before the war started, the Ming army said that they would "attack Lin'an directly". At that time, Wang Fang felt that the Ming army was too big and dared to attack Lin'an with tens of thousands of troops, which was even more outrageous than Jin Wushu's back then.
But now he realized that it was not the Ming army that was outrageous, but the Song army itself.
At this time, Liu Qi's condition improved slightly and he was drinking porridge to recuperate. Wang Fang thought over and over again and decided to tell Liu Qi about this matter to see if Liu Qi had any good solutions to the problem.
Wang Fang cannot afford the consequences of concealing the information.
When Wang Fang went to see Liu Qi, Liu Qi's spirit improved a little. He leaned on the bed and closed his eyes to rest. When he saw Wang Fang coming over with a bad look on his face, he realized something and closed his eyes again.
"Did anything bad happen again? There has been no war in the past few days. What happened outside the city?"
"You know it's a bad thing?"
"You can tell by the look on your face. You never hide things. Whatever is in your heart, you show it on your face for others to see."
Wang Fang lowered his head and was silent for a while.
"The Ming army dug a larger ditch around the moat to introduce canal water. Now, Yangzhou City is surrounded by the Ming army's ditch."
Liu Qi suddenly opened his eyes.
"What happened at Guazhoudu?"
"The Ming army sent a letter urging surrender, saying that Guazhoudu and Zhenjiang have..."
"Zhenjiang?!"
Liu Qi stared angrily: "What a joke! I still have 10,000 elite troops stationed in Zhenjiang Mansion! We have enough troops and food! The Ming army didn't even dare to attack Yangzhou, how could they capture Zhenjiang so quickly? All the Zhenjiang defenders were dead. Really? Why don’t you resist?!”
Liu Qi became angry, his face turned red, and he started coughing violently as soon as he finished speaking. Wang Fang was shocked, and quickly stepped forward to stroke Liu Qi's chest to help him breathe. It was not easy for Liu Qi to stop coughing and take a breath. He spurted out a mouthful of blood and his face turned pale.
"General! General! Come here! Come here! Call the doctor! Call the doctor!!!"
Wang Fang panicked, crying and shouting. Liu Qi's guards also panicked and ran around looking for the doctor. The whole mansion was in chaos.
Liu Qi panted for a while before he had some strength, and then he grabbed Wang Fang's wrist.
"If...if Guazhoudu and Zhenjiang Prefecture are lost, Yangzhou will really be an isolated city, but...but an isolated city also has its uses. Find a way...find a way to defend this place. With this as a premise, we will continue to ...The attacks on the Ming army cannot be stopped..."
Wang Fang was stunned for a while, feeling very sad and angry.
"General! It's already happened! How can we continue to fight? We are left alone! The royal power has not come, the Zhenjiang garrison is gone, and the court reinforcements are not coming. We are isolated and helpless! There is nothing we can do! This battle has been lost!"
"No! I'm still alive! Yangzhou is still there! Why are you coughing, coughing, coughing... coughing, coughing, coughing..."
Liu Qi opened his eyes wide and retorted. He almost coughed and fell over in excitement.
Now Wang Fang didn't dare to say anything and listened quietly to Liu Qi's instructions.
"We... we are a nail... nailed to the north of the Yangtze River, so that the Ming army has no choice but not to surrender no matter what. There is enough food in the city... we... we are on their food transport route, and we are the Ming army. The army is a thorn in their side, they can’t let us stay here and go south without worries..."
Liu Qi used all his strength to tell Wang Fang everything he wanted to say. Wang Fang nodded repeatedly and immediately stated that he would do his best to defend the city and never surrender.
"Absolutely not surrender! With us here, they dare not... dare not go too far south... Remember... we... we have not lost, we have not lost yet..."
Liu Qi held Wang Fang's hand tightly and stared at Wang Fang with his eyes, as if he had exhausted all his life's strength.
Wang Fang didn't know why Liu Qi made this kind of instructions like a deathbed statement, but from the sound of it, he always felt inexplicably uneasy.
The doctor came soon, diagnosed and treated Liu Qi, prescribed medicine, and sent bowls of medicine down, hoping to hang on Liu Qi's life and cure him.
But Liu Qi's spirit never improved, and his breath became weaker and weaker.
One day later, on the morning of April 12th, Liu Qi died.
Before he died, the white-haired Liu Qi suddenly opened his eyes, sat up suddenly, and shouted "Kill the thief" three times in a row with a look of reluctance on his face, and his voice resounded throughout the entire mansion.
Then his body fell limply on the bed, eyes wide open, lifeless.
A generation of famous generals has withered away.
