ps: (two chapters in a row on the weekend, one day off tomorrow)

In early June, the Yangtze River Basin has entered the flood season. The water potential of rivers, streams and lakes has become turbid and mighty, and the river between Tangyi City and Jinling has become wider day by day.

Aoshan Island, located in the middle of the river just north of Changchun Palace, serves as the naval base of Youlong Wujun and can also be said to be the gateway to the northeastern part of Gyeonggi Province.

When the water level of the Yangtze River is low, Aoshan Island is fully exposed and is more than 14 to 5 miles long from east to west. However, when the flood season comes, the shallow siltation area is submerged under the river water, and the length from east to west is shortened to six miles, and the width from north to south is only three miles.

Aoshan Island is only more than twenty miles away from Tangyi City on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and the Linjiang Military Fortress Yingluan Village in the southwest corner of Yangzhou is only more than twenty miles away from Aoshan Island in a straight line. This also directly determines its military

value.

On the easternmost side of Aoshan Island, there is an open water area of ​​about three to four hundred acres recessed into the land. The initial construction of Youlong Wujun on the island was made of long stone walls, extending from the two wings of the land into the river, dividing Aoshan Island.

The concave water area is isolated from the external river water, forming an inner lake that can accommodate a large number of warships.

The water village is built on the inner lake of the mooring boat. A large amount of resources were invested and it was built after four to five years of unremitting efforts.

Aoshan Island has now become one of the most important military fortresses on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province. It is equipped with barracks, water fortresses, ship repair yards, and solid city walls. In particular, the easternmost section of the wading city wall has a top of more than five feet.

It is wide enough to allow hundreds of generals to mount the city wall to fight. There are towers built on the two corners of the land. Behind the waterlogged city wall in the middle section, wooden piles are also laid, and four water platforms several feet square are built, with rotating mountain cannons, bed crossbows, etc.

War weapons that can attack enemy ships trying to approach the water stronghold.

Since the outbreak of this crisis, in addition to the original soldiers and horses of Youlong Wujun, the DPRK has also recruited soldiers and horses from various states and counties to increase the number of soldiers and horses stationed in Yangzhou to 10,000 infantry and 3,000 naval troops to strengthen the Tang Dynasty.

The defense east of the city was strengthened, and the garrison on Aoshan Island was also increased to 3,000 infantry and 5,000 naval troops.

Entering June, the weather in Jinling is already very hot. In the afternoon, there are more than a dozen warships on Aoshan Island, and they go out to the water village to practice as usual. You can also see dozens of sails on the north shore in the distance. From Qingxiang on the west side of Tangyi City,

Driving out of the river mouth, it was Tangyi's navy warship.

In the past three or four months, the Tangyi Navy has sent warships into the Yangtze River every once in a while for drills, and even inspected passing river ships, but they usually did not cross the center line.

Even though the watchtower blew the warning horn as usual, it was already commonplace in the camp and no attention was paid to it. Even the scouts standing in the watchtower blew the horn so feebly.

However, the scouts on the watchtower soon discovered that there were far more warships entering the Yangtze River waterway from the mouth of the Qingxiang River on the other side from Shuiying Dazhai in the west of Tangyi City. There were also hundreds of warships swarming together.

It sailed down from the upstream direction of East Lake along the north shore.

Seeing the enemy sentry ship crossing the center line that was previously the default center line between the two sides, the sentry on duty in the watchtower, like a cat whose tail was stepped on, shouted: "The enemy is attacking, go and light the smoke to warn!"

The horns and war drums on the watchtower can only warn the generals in the camp, but looking at the scale of the navy dispatched to Aoshan Island on the other side, any general with a little experience knows that this is by no means a simple military threat.

The sentry on duty at the watchtower did not bother to ask the general for instructions, and directly ordered the beacon tower to be lit to warn the garrisons on the south bank, the eastern foot of Baohua Mountain, and Yingluansai in the southwest of Yangzhou.

…………

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"Mom Le Bazi, who asked you to light up the smoke?"

Putting on his armor in a hurry, Zhou Dun, the general of Aoshan Island, officially known as Runyang's Inspection Envoy along the Yangtze River and Yuhou, the fourth capital of Youlong Military Army, grabbed the handrail and climbed to the top of the watchtower while looking under the railing.

The panic-stricken sentry general Lu Jinhai glared and shouted.

In the past three or four months, the navy on the north coast has occasionally made deterrent moves. The people inside Aoshan Island have been alerted and put on alert. At most, it was a flurry of activity. But at this turbulent time, lighting up the beacon smoke will inevitably lead to chaos.

The capital and palace were in a state of panic.

If it was a false alarm in the end, Zhou Dun didn't know whether Prince Shou would directly call him to Jinling City to reprimand him.

Then when Zhou Dun climbed up to the watchtower and saw the situation on the northwest river, he suddenly took a breath of cold air and the hairs on his back stood up.

They have several warships training and guarding on the river at the northwest corner of Aoshan Island. The view of these warships is far less wide than that of the watchtower. Before, they might have thought that there were more than a dozen warships crossing the center line from the north shore and the north side.

The ship came over again to act as a deterrent. Before conveying clear instructions to the island, under the leadership of its general officers, it had already come over forcefully.

Their original intention was to drive the incoming ship back north of the center line.

When Zhou Dun climbed up the watchtower, several galley warships on the front side of Tangyi Navy were spreading out to the two wings. The three large galley warships behind them not only adjusted the sail masts to the angle, but also dozens of large wooden boats.

The oars, like centipede legs, were already rowing desperately, and the ship was as fast as an arrow off the string, rushing straight towards several of their warships.

In the distance, more than two hundred large and medium-sized warships have formed a battle formation and divided into two teams to attack Aoshan Island.

There are several five-masted warships in the center, and their decks are densely packed with armored soldiers. They are obviously soldiers preparing to land on the island and attack.

"Han Qian's grandson is going to attack Aoshan Island. Quickly send the order for all the warships to return to camp!" Zhou Dun shouted to the deputy general who rushed to the watchtower.

He did not send anyone to deliver the message to the south bank. It was not because he had forgotten this. At that time, the Jinghai Gate outside Jinling City was only twenty miles away from Aoshan Island, and the Yandangji Camp where the guards were stationed was only eleven miles away from Aoshan Island.

Erli, there is no need to even light the beacon fire here, the garrison at Jinghaimen and Yandangji have already noticed the strange movement here.

Although Aoshan Island has 5,000 naval troops and more than 200 large and small warships, the number of warships may not be less than that of Tangyi Navy, but Zhou Dun does not think that he has a chance of winning by hastily sending all the warships to the water fortress.

Zhou Dun thought of taking back all the dozens of warships that were on guard outside, and relied on the city wall and defensive equipment extending into the river on the east side of the water stronghold to block the Tangyi warships from the water stronghold, waiting for the imperial court to come out.

After gathering enough naval warships from various places, they will have a decisive battle with the Tangyi navy on the river.

Zhou Dun passed the military order in a panic, and in almost the blink of an eye, he saw that the warships they had been guarding on the northwest side had already failed to get out of the way, and three warships were hit hard by the enemy from the side and behind.

There are eight large galleys purchased from Xuzhou on Aoshan Island. Of course Zhou Dun knew what would happen if ordinary galleys and midships were hit by a galley built by Xuzhou at high speed.

He could almost imagine the sound of the keels or planks of the three warships being cracked and broken, and helplessly watching hundreds of soldiers being knocked into the water. Although the Tangyi Navy did not kill the soldiers who fell into the water, they soon

Quickly adjust to catch up and ram other escaping warships.

"...These grandsons are real!" Zhou Dun roared angrily and angrily. He asked someone to fetch his spear and bow, and strode towards the east wall of the water village.

The east wall of Shuizhai is made of large bluestones built from both sides of the land, extending into the river. It blocks the three to four hundred acres of water recessed in the East Island from the outer river. However, these waters are dug deeply as a

The docking place of Shuiying warships.

In order to ensure the strength of the city wall extending into the river, slots were cut into the large bluestones used to build the wall, and molten iron was poured into them to connect them.

Now that Tangyi's army was serious about starting a fight, Zhou Dun in a hurry did not dare to move all the warships out of the water stronghold to form a battle array. The east wall of the water stronghold was destined to become the focus of competition between the two sides.

There are towers at the two corners of the east city wall, and there are two water platforms several feet square on each side of the water gate, but Zhou Dun doesn't think this is enough.

The east wall is mainly too narrow, with the top only five feet wide. Currently, in addition to more than a dozen crossbows, there is no room for cyclone cannons, and the four water platforms only hold four medium-sized cyclone cannons. Fortunately, after the Battle of Xichuan,

The cyclone cannon spread across the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, otherwise the several-foot-square water platform would have no operating space for a traditional towed trebuchet - this was far from enough in Zhou Dun's opinion.

In addition to small and medium-sized warships moving as close to the inside of the water village as possible, Zhou Dun also ordered eight large galleys to dock close to the inside of the city wall.

The top deck of the galley is almost as high as the walls. Not only can more generals be called upon to stand on it to participate in the defense, but the weapons on the deck of the galley can also directly attack enemy ships trying to approach the city wall.

It was reported that the defenders closed the water gates tightly and arranged the warships behind the city wall to assist in the defense. Lin Zongjing, who was tall and with a stern expression, stood on the deck of the ship. He spat out the straw stick in his mouth, smiled lightly, and said: "This

The battle turned out to be much easier than expected. Ask Xu Mu to attack with fire after approaching..."

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Du Chongtao and Yang Zhitang, surrounded by a group of cavalry, galloped into Yandangji.

Aoshan Island is located in the northeast corner of Jinling City. Standing in front of the Jinghaimen Gate Tower, you cannot see the water battle on the east side of Aoshan Island. Only by going out of Donghua Gate and entering the Yandangji Military Fortress can you directly observe the water battle eleven or twelve miles away.

fighting.

At present, there is no sign that the troops and horses on the north bank are going south to land for battle. Even if the troops and horses on the north bank are landing south, Yan Dangfan will be the key point of defense. As the bodyguard of the pro-army governor Du Chongtao, Privy Councilor Yang Zhitang entered Yan City accompanied by Guo Liang.

While wandering around, I happened to see eight galleys of the Tangyi navy approaching the east wall of the water village.

The three of them each picked up the bronze telescope and looked there.

It is difficult for any company to imitate the bronze telescopes made by Tangyi. In the early years, Tangyi sold a small amount of them at the strong request of Yang Zhitang and others. However, each bronze telescope sold for up to one million yuan, and the Privy Council gritted its teeth and bought them one after another.

Some of the senior generals at the command level of the imperial army and bodyguards were not fully equipped.

"Han Qian really had a secret. The Scorpion Cannon of the Tangyi Navy can be thrown more than four hundred steps!" Du Chongtao almost groaned in pain and stamped his feet, "Zhou Dun committed a big taboo by putting all the warships into the water stronghold.

!”

Although Yang Zhitang's military achievements were not as great as those of Du Chongtao, Zhang Zhi and others were more prominent, but they were also veteran generals of the Great Chu.

Tangyi has always supplied external ordnance. The bed crossbow has an effective range of between 150 and 200 steps; the scorpion cannon, which can be placed on the deck of a warship and thrown into combat, has an effective throwing distance of about 250 steps.

.

The Scorpion Cannon uses fine steel | crossbow arms, with a large number of thin steel wires wound as strings. Yang En once ordered the craftsmen to imitate them, but the quenching of the fine steel |

Two hundred paces, so in recent years, elite war weapons have been mainly purchased from Tangyi.

Although everyone expected that Tangyi would hide his secrets, they never expected that the Scorpion Cannon used by Tangyi Navy could make such a big difference between the Scorpion Cannon sold externally!

Yang Zhitang also knew why Du Chongtao was so impatient!

If Zhou Dun deployed all his warships outside the water stronghold and lined up against the east wall of the water stronghold, the scorpion cannons of the Tangyi navy would have a long throw distance, but as soon as the Tangyi navy approached, their warships would immediately attack them.

When fighting on the side, you won't be at too much of a disadvantage.

Now, Zhou Dun has collected all the warships into the water stronghold. The water stronghold is not like an ordinary camp city. You can go out of the city to fight back by opening the city gate. Even if you are blocked by enemy ships after approaching, the water stronghold will close the gate.

It cannot be opened, and the water platform cyclone cannon behind the east city wall is small, and its range is not even as far as the scorpion cannon on the enemy ship. This means that the east city wall, the defenders on the city wall, and the warships behind the city wall have become living targets.

.

"Send a boat over quickly and ask them what they want to do?" Du Chongtao was so anxious that he jumped up and down, and Yang Zhitang was so anxious that his temples jumped.

The defenders of Aoshan Island have been his hard work over the years.

He saw that the warships parked on the southwest river of Aoshan Island were larger in size, and he expected that the general who was commanding the battle in Tangyi was there. In a panic, he wanted to send someone by boat to rush over for negotiations.
To be continued...