Volume 3 Chapter 42: A Wave
In the twelfth month, the sky is filled with ice and fire, and Xuanming moves his seeds to Zhurong Palace.
On the afternoon of the seventeenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Xiaowusha, the former northern channel of the Yellow River, and the natural harbor behind the old dike had already been reduced to a sea of fire.
There was no desperate counterattack, nor was there any secret message from traitorous merchants crossing the river to report it... In the morning, the imperial camp navy that was floating downstream met up with Li Bao, the commander of the imperial camp's front army, and then, under the latter's leadership, they rushed straight to Xiaowusha without stopping.
However, by the time the large fleet of ships sailed downstream and arrived near Xiaowusha at noon, the Jin general's outpost on the west side of the Yellow River's old northward course had actually already noticed such a large navy in the river, and came galloping over on horseback to report the success.
At the beginning, the commander of Xiaowusha, Da (Shangbai and Xiada), didn't believe it at first... It was normal not to believe it... But when he personally walked up the old embankment of the Yellow River that served as the port wall and saw with his own eyes the huge fleet appearing in the shadows upstream, he did not slack off or delay at all. He almost immediately gave orders to those who knew how to operate ships in the port to enter the port to operate the ships, and then leave the port as soon as possible.
If you can fight the enemy, fight the enemy; if you can escape, escape.
To be fair, this was a very correct military order.
Unfortunately, hundreds of ships were crowded in the harbor, or water fort, behind the old dike. Although the Jin army controlled most of the ships in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, they neglected the construction of the navy and only used them as ferry reserves. In fact, because they only had ships in their hands, they were completely defenseless against the enemy on the water.
Therefore, how can so many ships escape in an orderly manner at one time?
What's more, the Song army's navy was sailing downstream, not much slower than the fast horses on the road. When Da (white on top and big on bottom) saw the outline and gave the order, the Song army's navy arrived there in the blink of an eye.
Li Bao, the commander of the front army of the Imperial Camp, led dozens of small boats of the Song army on the south bank as the vanguard, and rushed downstream into the old northward course of the Yellow River and rushed into the exit of the water stronghold. Soon after, Xiao En, the commander of the navy of the Imperial Camp, led hundreds of small boats to follow. The two of them, one light and one heavy, one sharp and one dull, were both accustomed to fighting on inland rivers. They just rushed head-on and coordinated well, and blocked hundreds of Jin army ships of all kinds inside the water stronghold.
Then, the fleet continued to move forward, suppressing with bows and crossbows on one side, and charging in small boats on the other, throwing gunpowder bags and torches into the harbor to launch a fire attack.
Almost at the same time, dozens of ships, under the personal command of Zhang Rong, lined up along the main channel of the Yellow River, across the broken old river embankment, and blindly fired gunpowder bags with fuses into the Jin army's port.
Besides, Zhao Guanjia's gunpowder bags could never solve the problem of airtightness, so even if the formula was more scientific, it could not make this thing with great potential out of the category of combustion aid... Needless to say, the disadvantages of this are obvious, but the advantage is that if a novice makes a mistake, no one will feel afraid or panic.
As for gunpowder, it was developed during the Song Dynasty nearly a hundred years ago. From fireworks to military gunpowder, who doesn’t know about it?
Therefore, when the small gun carriage malfunctioned and fired too slowly, causing the four ships to be ignited by their own gunpowder , the sailors calmly jumped into the water and let the ships sink. Of the more than 100 small boats that rushed into the old dike to block the port, 17 or 18 of them sank in a short period of time due to collisions, battles, and accidental ignitions.
But all this was worth it, even not worth mentioning, because the target of this battle, that is, the huge fleet of reserve ships of the Jin army, suffered a devastating blow in a very short period of time.
And this achievement is strategic.
With the steamer outside and the small boat inside, the small counterweight artillery carts fired in unison and manpower approached to hurl shells, and under the two-pronged attack, the scale of the fire was already earth-shattering in just a quarter of an hour, and the absolutely correct military order issued by the Great (Bai on the upper part and Da on the lower part) before made the fire completely out of control... After being ignited, the first reaction of many ships controlled by the Jin army sailors was of course to try to get out of the Song army's projection range and try to get out of the densely packed mooring area with wooden boats.
The result was that these ships on fire were like rats with their tails on fire, and they were the ones who actually caused the most ships to catch fire.
But unfortunately, Emperor Zhao would not reward these people. It was not because Emperor Zhao was unwilling to do so, but because it would be too difficult to escape under such a fire.
The fire covered the whole river, and the crude water fortress built in the past to collect the boats became the biggest obstacle for the Jin army sailors to escape. Most of these people were fishermen from Hebei, who were forcibly conscripted to take care of the boats. Logically speaking, they were indeed innocent... But war has always been like this. Good and bad people, innocent and guilty, are just a small existence in war.
No one cares about them, and no one can care.
Even as they saw the fire was unstoppable, the small boats of the Song army that had broken into the old Beiliu channel had begun to evacuate in an orderly manner and return to the main channel of the Yellow River.
"Captain Zhang!"
A three-meter-long boat sailed out from the broken old embankment, but did not form a formation, but turned towards the ship. The people on the boat only wore leather armor and leather helmets that were convenient for water combat. They looked no different from ordinary sailors. From a distance, they shouted loudly towards the large ship where Zhang Rong was. It turned out to be Li Bao, the former military commander of the imperial camp who had served as a guide and vanguard.
"Call me the commander-in-chief." Because they were far away from the battlefield and there was a huge fire across the embankment, they were sweating from the heat. Zhang Rong simply didn't even wear leather armor, but just opened his chest, exposing his dark chest. When he saw Li Bao coming, he smiled at him with his hands on his waist beside the huge water wheel on the side of the ship. "Li San, I have heard of your reputation in the rivers and lakes for a long time, and today I finally see you. Let me ask you first... Now that I have arrived at the Yellow River and am the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Camp Navy, I will be in charge of all the navy on the Yellow River... If I let my son-in-law write a letter to the emperor and ask for you from General Yue, are you willing to come?"
"The governor has a greater reputation." Li San did not respond directly. Instead, he stood on his hips like the other man in the stopped boat, then smiled. "But if you ask me, although the battle today was exciting, it only showed my ability as a commander, not the governor's ability." At this point, he pointed directly at a tall young man with a pale face and unable to stand up straight next to the bow gun carriage. "I think this unexpected victory, which took only two quarters of an hour, is two points due to the ingenious strategy of the governor's good son-in-law, two points due to the rapid ignition of the gunpowder bag, three points due to the government's decision to directly dig ditches and demolish bridges, and the last three points are the governor's ability to fight today..."
Li San's voice was so loud that the surrounding boats could hear it clearly. However, neither Zhang Rong nor the trusted leaders of Zhang Datou on the surrounding boats refuted it. It was obvious that they all agreed with Li Bao's words.
Many people even know that Li Bao's statement is still a loose one.
Because the biggest difficulty in this battle is actually how to make the Liangshanpo navy successfully enter the Yellow River. Once the Liangshanpo navy, or the Song Dynasty imperial navy, arrives at the main channel of the Yellow River, the rest should be really exciting.
After all, the most difficult phase of the battle had already been endured in the city of Tokyo.
Zhang Rong had been the head of the family for many years, so he had seen all kinds of rascals. Or maybe he was the ancestor of rascals, and he had long seen that Li Bao was going to make trouble, so he sneered:
"Li San, if you have to fart, do it now!"
"General!" Li Bao stood at the bow, putting away his previous ruffian look, pointing at the thick smoke and raging fire across the embankment and speaking seriously. "This battle destroyed the Jin army fleet. In the future, we can run rampant in the middle section of the Yellow River, but if the details are spread out, those lieutenants will be jealous and say that we can only show off our prowess on the water, but not on land... I saw clearly before I went in and lit the fire. The Jin army's water fort is huge. Not only are there many ships in the water, but there should be two or three thousand regular guards on the shore... Therefore, I want to ask the general, do you dare to let the heroes of Liangshanpo go with me, wearing only leather armor and carrying short weapons, and go to the shore again?"
Zhang Rong thought for a moment, but still smiled with his hands on his hips: "Li San, don't provoke me. Let me ask you, with such a big fire in the middle of the harbor, where are you going?"
"There!" Li Bao raised his hand and pointed to the riverbank further east.
Yu Yunwen, who had vomited all over the place due to the rapid march, had just recovered a little bit of his spirit, but he did not expect that the battle was already over. He was also a little dizzy, but at this time, he held on to the artillery carriage and tried to raise his head. He knew what Li Bao meant at a glance... This Li San wanted to take advantage of the boats, take advantage of the fire in the water of the water fort, go around to the river bank behind the enemy and land, and take advantage of the chaos to launch a sneak attack from behind.
This is a good plan. With such a big fire ahead, the Jin army in the harbor must be in chaos, and it will be easy to launch a successful surprise attack from behind. Even if the navy lands and engages in close combat by then, it should be enough.
Zhang Rong was slightly startled when he heard this, then he became serious, but then he slowly shook his head:
"Li San, let me ask you, how close is this place to Puyang? Will the reinforcements come when they see the fire? If we can't win the battle quickly, what will happen if the reinforcements from the Jin army arrive?"
"Then we should make a decision early and send troops early, so that we can win the battle quickly!" Li Bao still saluted on the boat. "I still say the same thing... I am willing to be the vanguard and lead the heroes of Liangshanpo!"
Yu Yunwen hurried to see his cheap father-in-law, and as soon as he turned around, he saw the big leader grinning on the ship: "Then I'll listen to you, Li San, and go ashore to beat him up!"
Li Bao was immediately overjoyed.
