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On the morning of September 8, a large number of Chu army ships sailed down the river and arrived at the mouth of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River.
From the top of Hukou City, you can clearly see that the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is almost covered with ships of the Chu Army's Yangtze River Fleet.
These ships vary in size, but they are all battleships.
There may seem to be a lot of these warships, but except for six very conspicuous large warships, from a modern perspective, the other ships are actually not large in tonnage, generally only a few dozen tons, and there are even some sampans with only a few tons. boat.
Without exception, these ships are all galleys, that is, there are dense oars on both sides of the ship to enhance the ship's maneuverability when the wind is insufficient or when it is turned for combat.
These ships, according to the internal division of the Da Chu Empire Navy, are divided into first to third class river warships.
And this division is also simple and crude, directly divided by the number of artillery carried.
A first-class river battleship, equipped with more than ten naval guns.
A second-class river battleship, equipped with two to nine naval guns.
Third-class river battleships have one or no long-barreled naval gun at all.
It can be seen from the number of naval guns that this naval gun does not include the short-barreled artillery that can only fire shotshells, but only counts the artillery that fires solid shells.
After all, for battleships, those light short-barreled shotguns are not actually the main artillery, but can only be regarded as auxiliary firepower, mainly used to kill enemy ship deck personnel.
According to the classification of river warships, of the more than 100 warships in the Dachu Empire's navy, only six can be considered first-class river warships, and they are also commonly called large warships.
The matching naval guns are also different. Four of them were captured from the Ming Navy. The Chu Navy modified the naval guns of these four large warships and deployed two nine-pound naval guns and eight five-pound field guns. , in addition, it also carries a batch of 300-pound short guns for auxiliary combat.
There are also two warships that were converted from merchant ships. Both of these ships are sand ships, with a displacement of about two hundred tons. After modification, they are also equipped with ten naval guns.
As for the second-class inland river battleships, this is more complicated, because they vary in size. Some are captured, some are self-built, and some are modified merchant ships. The ship types are also messy, so the cannons they carry range from two and a half kilograms to five kilograms. The gun doesn't wait.
As for the third-class inland river battleships, because the ships are too small, they do not directly carry long-barreled naval guns, but mainly carry various short-barreled artillery.
Generally speaking, although the navy has implemented the classification of inland river warships, due to factors such as the relatively short establishment of the army and the complexity of the sources of warships, the various types of warships within are still relatively confusing.
There are seven or eight types of ships alone, including sand ships, centipede ships used as main battleships, a large number of sampan ships, and then some sand ships, Guangzhou ships, etc.
However, as the Chu army gradually builds more and more ships, this chaotic situation of ship types will gradually change or even disappear.
At present, the Da Chu Empire Navy has basically finalized several ship types of river warships based on the ship types of some warships captured from the Ming Army, as well as many civilian merchant ships.
The core one is the prototype of Guangzhou Shipyard, which is also improved with reference to the large inland river battleships of the Ming Army. It has a rated displacement of 200 tons and is equipped with ten naval guns.
This thing is said to be for inland river warfare, but in fact it is more concerned about the subsequent use of the Yangtze River estuary and coastal areas. Otherwise, there is no need to be so big at all. This first-class inland river warship is still under construction for the time being. One They haven't served yet.
The ships currently being built on a large scale by the Chu army are centipede ships that were used before the Ming Dynasty but were quickly abandoned.
Of course, it is not a pure centipede ship, but a centipede ship that has been modified by itself. It is mainly downsized, making the ship more suitable for navigation in narrow inland rivers. Its numerous oars give this warship excellent Mobility.
After special armament modification and the installation of a large number of artillery pieces, the firepower of this ship is also extremely outstanding.
This kind of centipede ship is also a key ship that the Chu Empire Navy is currently building in large quantities for river warships. In the past six months, more than 20 ships have been built at one time, with a displacement of about 80 tons. It is currently the largest ship built by the Chu Army. The absolute main warship in river warfare.
In addition, the Chu army also built a batch of smaller ships with a tonnage of only twenty or thirty tons.
Today, the Yangtze River outside Hukou is covered with these Chu army warships.
There are first-class river battleships with huge size and powerful firepower.
There are also centipede boats that are extremely flexible and have decent firepower.
There are also a large number of sampans and boats that are extremely flexible.
The densely packed warships looked so dense that Shi Kefa, who was at the head of Hukou City, was frightened when he saw them.
Under the watchful eyes of Shi Kefa and others, these Chu warships gradually approached the mouth of the lake, but they did not get too close. Instead, they anchored when they were still some distance away from the shore fort and pier.
Well, this place is where the Ming Navy's camp is located outside Hukou City. There are at least twenty or thirty warships parked on the outcrop, as well as dozens of ordinary ships that are not warships.
This made many people who thought that the Chu army's navy was going to directly attack the navy's camp breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, these Tiansha Chu thieves are not here to directly attack the navy camp.
Fortunately, they built a coastal defense fort near the dock outside the city and deployed at least twenty Hongyi cannons on it. Otherwise, these Chu thieves warships would have gone directly to the camp dock.
Otherwise, the Ming Navy, which seems to have a large number of naval camps, but in fact does not have many large ships, not many artillery, and military morale has also fallen to the bottom, may not be able to block these oncoming forces. The fierce Chu fleet.
However, at this time, a few people pondered a question.
These Chu thieves' warships set up their battleships with great fanfare to attack, but they only parked outside the naval camp and did not attack. They even got a group of large civilian sand ships directly connected in a row. This doesn't look right in any way. .
Several Ming navy generals who had survived the Battle of Wuchang and fled to Hukou frowned when they saw this scene.
Others, even Shi Kefa and others, couldn't figure out why the Chu thieves came with such a big fanfare but didn't attack.
However, these few of them knew it.
These warships of the Chu thieves were not here to attack the Ming Navy in Hukou Port. They were here to block the door.
And when was the last time the Chu navy navy ran to the door of the Ming navy navy and blocked the door?
Last year when the Chu thieves crossed the river!
The scene at that time was almost exactly the same as the scene now. The Chu navy navy was dispatched in large numbers and blocked directly outside the Ming navy camp outside Wuchang City.
Not only did they use warships to block the door, but the Chu Navy at that time also brought a large number of ordinary ships over. The ships, loaded with sand and gravel, rushed directly outside the Ming Navy camp to scuttle themselves to block the channel.
In the end, the Ming Navy stationed in Wuchang, even if they tried to counterattack, still failed to break through the blockade of the Chu Navy, and were finally trapped and died in the naval camp outside Wuchang.
The Ming army in Wuchang City could only watch helplessly as the Chu army crossed the river with great fanfare not far upstream and safely built a pontoon bridge.
When the Chu thieves crossed the river on a large scale and pulled down a large number of artillery outside Wuchang City, the Ming navy deployed outside the city faced the Chu army's ground artillery attack. They could not escape or fight. Finally, Most of the Ming navy officers and men were taken prisoners, and a large number of ships were also captured by the Chu army.
Now that the Chu thieves are playing this trick again in Hukou, the Ming navy generals who had fled from Wuchang to Hukou suddenly remembered the situation of the Wuchang battle last year, and then their expressions changed drastically. .
Someone immediately shouted: "Quick, rush out, don't let them block the channel, otherwise we will all die here!"
"Hurry up and tell the superiors that the Chu thieves are about to cross the river. The Chu thieves are definitely about to cross the river!"
It is a pity that although these Ming navy generals had foreseen something bad and had issued early warnings, they did not have many direct subordinates under them now, and as generals of the defeated army, no one listened to them.
So, after shouting for a long time, I found that no one was paying attention!
In the end, these people all showed helpless looks!
"What should we do now? How about we rush out on our own? They want to die, and we can't die with them!"
"Once the Chu thieves successfully cross the river, the navy camp outside the city will definitely not be able to stop the Chu thieves. It's hard to say within the city by then, but the navy barracks inside the city will definitely be destroyed."
"Escape? Just a few of us and a few boats escaped alone. There are more than a hundred Chu bandit boats outside. How can we escape so easily!"
"It's impossible to escape by boat, but there is still a chance to escape from the ground."
"We, with hundreds of brothers under our command, finally escaped from Wuchang, but we can't die cowardly at the mouth of the lake. We can't stay here any longer. Let's go directly ashore and go to Jiangnan."
"We don't need this boat. As long as we can escape smoothly, we don't have to worry about losing the boat if we have someone on hand."
After some discussion, these Ming navy generals began to contact their close sailors. In about half an hour, they quietly escaped from the navy camp with more than 300 sailors...
At this time, others finally knew why they ran away.
Chu thief, cross the river!
When the Yangtze River Fleet successfully arrived outside the Ming Navy camp stationed at Hukou and completely blocked the Ming Navy camp, a large number of ships and even bamboo rafts in the rear were loaded with a large number of soldiers and weapons of the First Infantry Brigade. Ammunition was set off and the battle across the river was officially launched!
Seeing this scene, Shi Kefa was not too moved. He just said lightly: "The Chu thieves infantry artillery has begun to cross the river. The navy should attack to intercept them."
In fact, Shi Kefa also knew that with the strength of the navy's dozens of warships, let alone intercepting them, they probably wouldn't be able to get out even if they wanted to.
But that's not important.
There is a high probability that this battle will be lost, and Shi Kefa has already been mentally prepared for this.
But you can lose, but you can't stop fighting!
So no matter what the result is, you have to go out and fight.
This situation is also used for the subsequent new standard troops and other battalion sentries and other troops.
However, just because Shi Kefa thinks so, it doesn’t mean that others will think so too!
