Tibet

"After capturing Jiangxia, we will use Jiangxia County as a logistical center to attack Yuezhou from Ezhou and Tanzhou. We must capture Baling County at all costs. As long as Baling County is captured, Li Ye's army will not be able to attack Chang'an. If we gain a foothold on the south bank, we can only retreat to the north bank.

After all, his enemy is the Yan Army. The Yan Army will attack Xiangyang at any time. He does not dare to stay in the south for a long time. In this way, we have saved the Jiangnan West Road, and then we will aim to fight against the Anlushan rebels and march towards Huaixi. To develop Taoism, if we can capture Huaixi, we will have a buffer. "

Li Lin excitedly told everyone about his plans for next year. He wanted to consolidate the territory of Jiangnan West Road, develop northward, and capture Huaixi Road. Maybe the year after next, he would march to Jiangnan East Road and Huainan Road.

At this time, a low horn sounded in the distance, and Ji Guangchen said quickly: "Your Majesty, the attack has begun!"

Li Lin perked up and quickly looked to the north.

There is a several-mile-long Caohe waterway in the northeast of Jiangxia City. The waterway connects to the Dadong River and flows directly into the Yangtze River. Twenty-five large ships were seen approaching in a queue. They were all three thousand stone cargo ships. Each large ship was fully loaded with hundreds of people. Soldier.

The big ship is about two feet high and is still one foot away from the city head, so each big ship has a wooden platform about ten feet high. The wooden platform is about six or seven square meters, and there is also a bridge board for the upper city, which is one foot long. About five feet and three feet wide, soldiers could quickly run along the bridge to the top of the city.

"Woo——"

The trumpet sounded again, and 20,000 King Yong's troops rushed towards the moat of the East City.

On the top of the city, 10,000 Jianghan troops had already entered the city. The soldiers were filled with murderous intent and were ready to fight. Lei Wanchun looked coldly at the fleet that was about to enter the moat and shouted sternly: "No arson, follow my order!"

A large amount of dry straw was piled under the city, and two thousand militia soldiers were responsible for carrying this hay.

There are also a thousand jars of fire oil, each jar weighs about five kilograms. The jars have handles and can be thrown directly. They are all thin-skinned pottery jars that break when they fall to the ground.

There were also 300 jars of rapeseed oil, which were also used to deal with enemy soldiers ascending the city.

At this time, the first large ship sailed into the moat. It was a large ship of three thousand stones, followed by more than twenty similar large ships, and there were several small boats beside each large ship just following.

Lei Wanchun could see clearly that just as the Jiedushi said in the pigeon letter, a big ship was used as a nest car, and he planned to use a three thousand stone ship to dock in the city, and then use small boats to build a pontoon bridge.

Lei Wanchun waved his hand and said, "Send straw!"

The order was conveyed, and two thousand militia soldiers gathered towards the east city holding straws. However, they ran as close to the female wall as possible so that the Yongwang Army soldiers outside could not see them.

Under the city, Hun Weiming personally led 20,000 troops to participate in tonight's siege. Of course, Ji Guangchen considered the enemy's fire attack. They prepared dozens of buckets of water on each ship. Once Jiang Han's army threw burning wood over, the soldiers They immediately doused it with water.

As the ship sailed into the moat, the two armies first launched an intensive bow and arrow battle. Arrows were shot at the ship and the city head like raindrops, and people kept screaming when they were hit by arrows.

The fleet did not immediately rely on the city wall, but continued to sail south along the moat. A dozen ships had already entered the moat, but the Yongwang Army had to wait until all the ships entered the moat before they began to attack the city in a large scale.

Li Lin was watching the battle from a distance. He saw that the enemy troops on the top of the city were in a panic. The horns were sounding continuously and figures were running. They were full of the sudden tension and panic of the battle.

Li Ye's army seemed completely unaware that there would be ships coming tonight. Even the generals behind him felt the enemy's panic and uneasiness, and everyone burst into laughter.

But Ji Guangchen realized that something was wrong. The opponent's performance tonight was completely different from his previous calmness. Initially, he sent troops to attack the city at night, but the opponent was very calm, rational and orderly. He was not as panicked as he was today.

Moreover, the opponent's tactics were wrong. They only used bows and arrows to shoot and did not use fire attacks. This is unreasonable. At least there should be countless torches thrown out. This only shows that they are prepared. The soldiers are controlled and are not allowed to use fire. The opponent is very likely to Attack with fire.

"Your Majesty, the enemy has been prepared. We will suffer a disastrous defeat tonight. I suggest you cancel the operation immediately and withdraw the army!"

Before Li Lin could ask, the military advisor Xue Yu next to him snorted dissatisfiedly, "Why did Ji Shijun say this?"

Ji Guangchen explained: "The other party clearly knew that we would use ships to attack the city, but they showed no preparation. This is not normal. Lei Wanchun was well prepared and calmly dealt with the previous attacks. He was so panicked tonight. It was clearly intentional.”

Xue Yu asked: "We were refitting the ship twenty miles away, but Lei Wanchun couldn't see it at all. How could he know that we were using ships to attack the city?"

"Comrade Xue, don't forget that the enemy war fleet came to monitor our modified ships three days ago. I think Li Ye will definitely send a pigeon letter to Lei Wanchun to remind him to defend."

Xue Yu sneered, "What a 'I think!' Ji Shijun, you just take it for granted that Li Ye and Jiang Xia have a dove letter connection. In fact, it is just your guess. Let me ask you a question, if Li Ye thinks that we want to If he uses ships to attack, why doesn’t he destroy twenty-five large ships? Isn’t it possible that he can’t do it with his naval strength?”

Xue Yu's last rhetorical question was very sharp. The fact is that he is a swordsman and I am a fish. It would be easy for the other party to kill twenty-five large ships. The reason why they did not take action can only mean that they did not think of this siege plan. Since they did not think of it, Li How could Ye remind Jiangxia City?

Li Lin nodded secretly. He agreed with Xue Yu's inference, which was interconnected and reasonable. However, Ji Guangchen's request to withdraw his troops was a bit taken for granted. It was probably because he had lost three battles in a row and was a little timid.

Ji Guangchen said for a long time: "Perhaps Li Ye had a deeper idea that prevented us from destroying our ship!"

Li Lin was very disapproving and waved his hands and said: "The arrow is already on the string and has to be fired. Whether we win or lose tonight, it has nothing to do with Ji Shijun!"

Ji Guangchen let out a long sigh in his heart, it must be wrong, but he couldn't find a reason to refute Xue Yu.

At this time, all twenty-five enemy warships sailed into the moat. The ships threw flying anchors towards the city. The flying anchors caught the city. It was not tied with ropes but iron chains. The soldiers on the city could not Cut off.

The soldiers on the ship worked hard together, and the ship gradually moved closer to the city.

The ship was still two feet away from the city, and Lei Wanchun shouted sharply: "Attack!"

"Woo——"

The horn sounded, and the soldiers squatting at the base of the wall stood up one after another, lit the shells of clay pots filled with kerosene with torches, and threw them toward the nearest ship.

In the night sky, hundreds of red fireballs were seen flying towards the ship.

Then I heard ‘Bang! Bang! ’ There was a cracking sound, this was the fireball hitting the ship, the clay pot shattered, and a fire suddenly ignited on the deck and hull.

The sudden change stunned Li Lin and everyone. Then, hundreds of fireballs flew towards the ship, and many clay pots smashed into the cabin. A fire broke out in the cabin, causing the soldiers inside to scream.

Hun Weiming reacted and shouted: "Shangcheng! Attack the upper city!"

There was still some time before the ship was completely burned, and they made full use of this short period of time to allow soldiers to rush to the city.

The pontoon beside the ship had been built, and the soldiers on the shore were forced by the generals to rush towards the burning ship.

The soldiers on the ship had already begun to attack first. They climbed onto the platform with short spears and shields, and turned the bridge plank towards the city head. There was an iron hook on the front end of the bridge plate, which could hook the city head.

But soldiers on the city had already dumped cans of rapeseed oil onto the bridge board. The bridge board was covered with greasy rapeseed oil. The Yongwang Army soldiers rushed onto the bridge board with their spears, but they couldn't stand at all, and they all slipped and fell. If you fall, you are lucky to be able to fall into the water, but the bottom is almost all stone slabs.

The soldiers suffered broken bones and tendons, and if they were unlucky, they were killed on the spot.

At this time, countless soldiers at the top of the city threw bundles of straw onto the city.

Hun Weiming tried to make a desperate move, but the defenders were unequivocal and did not give them any chance. Thousands of bundles of straw were thrown onto twenty-five large ships in succession. All the large ships were engulfed in blazing fire. The soldiers on board could not withstand the burning flames. , there was a cry of ghosts and howling of wolves, and they jumped off the boat to escape for their lives.

The twenty-five large ships on the moat were all covered in flames, turning them into fire ships. Even if there were soldiers who could rush to the top of the city, it would be meaningless.

Xue Yu was so anxious that he stamped his feet, but Li Lin looked at the twenty-five ships that were completely engulfed in flames in despair. His heart was filled with despair. Li Ye had such sharp firearms, how could he be his opponent.

At this moment, Ji Guangchen hurriedly came with a soldier to report, "Prince Qi, the eldest prince was defeated in Tanzhou. Almost all the 30,000 troops were destroyed. The eldest prince only fled back to Hongzhou with a few hundred people!"

Li Lin was stunned. This news became the last straw to overwhelm his will. Looking at the blazing fire in the distance, at this moment, Li Lin had the intention of quitting. He no longer wanted to stay in Hongzhou or Jiangnan. Xidao, he must stay far away from Li Ye.