The Qiantang River flows through the entire Hangzhou Prefecture from southwest to northeast, giving birth to the beauty and richness of this Jiangnan water town. It even has a unique geographical location at the mouth of the sea behind it, giving rise to Qiantang, which has been famous for thousands of years and is famous all over the world. Spring tide.
However, water can carry boats, race them... and capsize them. Now this river, the mother of all people in Hangzhou, has become a sharp sword hanging over the heads of all Wu soldiers and civilians.
Wenjiayan is located in the upper reaches of Hangzhou City. It is the key point after the Qiantang River enters the boundary of Hangzhou. The water here is gentle and the terrain is open. It is the source of a large amount of upstream river water. But now, the situation here is very different from usual. In front of a small village with only a hundred households, a Song army of a thousand people was stationed. And not long after they arrived here, on the river A much higher dam than before was built to cut off the Qiantang River, leaving only a small opening to allow the river to pass.
This frightened the people in the village, because as the road forward was blocked, the water in the upper reaches of the river was slowly accumulated, rising inch by inch day by day. Now the river water here is much higher than the roof of the village. It seems that a catastrophe will strike at any time.
But under the protection of the Song Army, the people in this village did not dare to object. Although those soldiers never disturbed the people, they all carried bright swords and guns in their hands. Who dared to provoke them.
Fortunately, such days of worry were not too long. On October 29th, as a fast horse galloped towards us, the officer named Tao Zongwang gave an order, and the officers and soldiers took action together. The dikes that were several feet wide and high and stretched for miles were completely torn down.
As soon as the obstruction in front was removed, the stagnant and accumulated river water above suddenly let out its joy like a trapped animal escaping its cage. The Qiantang River, which had been flowing gently in the past, actually roared and flowed along with the momentum of thousands of horses galloping. The river rushed straight downstream, instantly washing away the remains of the mud and rock embankments that were still on the river... If it weren't for the newly built and reinforced embankments on both sides of the river, the surging river would have been blocked. It swallowed up everything around it.
Downstream, the river water, which had been shallower due to the interception above, with only half of its normal water volume, suddenly surged, and the flow rate of the river increased several times more than before, rumbling towards the city of Hangzhou. On the waterway only a few miles away from Hangzhou, dozens of large and small ships have been waiting for a long time. As soon as they heard the increasing sound of rushing water, they could see a water belt approaching quickly behind them. The sailors were all in high spirits, shouting continuously, setting sails, lifting anchors, swinging oars, orienting... All the ships were almost at the same time ready to take advantage of the current situation and rush straight to the city of Hangzhou.
"Let's go! It's time to enter Yongjinmen!" As the leader of the navy, Hun Jianglong Li Jun, shouted, all the ships moved almost at the same time, and the soldiers all showed excitement and firm eyes. Staring at the looming Hangzhou high wall ahead, he controlled the boat under his feet and rushed straight down as fast as possible.
With favorable winds and smooth currents, the five- or six-mile waterway was approaching in an instant. They could soon clearly see the flag of the Wu army above the Yongjin Water Gate, and even saw the soldiers and horses stationed there. Immediately, everyone let out excited shouts. , grab the gun and raise the bow, ready to welcome
Preparation for battle.
At this time, on the Yongjin Gate, looking at the countless ships coming in the wind and waves, the hearts of the defenders felt high, and countless bows and arrows immediately aimed downwards, just waiting for the commander-in-chief Yuan Kai here. With a single order, a volley of arrows was fired.
As the most adept general in water warfare among the Wu army, Yuan Kai and Xuande were extremely calm at this time. Even though the Qiantang River, which was carrying countless ships this time, seemed to be very powerful, it did not change his expression much. He just turned around. Looking at the reserve reinforcements who had been waiting here for a long time, he was filled with admiration: "Pang Shuai is still smart. He had expected that the Song Army would set the main target of the attack on Yongjinmen this time. Now that everything is ready, it depends on them How you are seeking your own death!"
In a blink of an eye, the five or six boats at the forefront had entered the shooting range of the archers on the city. Without any hesitation, Yuan Kai ordered: "Set arrows, launch rockets, and burn these eagle dogs to death!"
The torches that had been prepared were lit one by one, and then the arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth were also lit one by one, and then the archers shot them out with all their strength. Although some of the rockets fell into the water due to the wind direction and distance, more of them actually hit the approaching ships in front, and quickly caused a ball of fire on these small ships.
As a result, the Song army on the ship was so frightened that they no longer bothered to use bows and arrows to suppress the defenders on the city, and quickly put out the flames on the side or bow of the ship with buckets or other things. But during this delay, their ship had already rushed to the foot of Yongjin Gate, and what greeted them was an even denser shower of arrows. Suddenly, everyone on the ship was shot and staggered, screaming again and again.
As soon as the battle began, they completely suppressed the Song army. This made the Wu army in the city very powerful. Even if more ships came one after another to kill them, they did not show the slightest fear. They used arrows and prepared weapons in advance. The trees and rocks and other defensive weapons below blocked the ships from approaching their own water gate, and they had a steady advantage.
"Get out of the way of the small boat and drive the three large stern boats over, suppress the rain of arrows at the city head first!" Seeing that the first wave of offensive was frustrated, Li Jun frowned and immediately changed his tactic of attacking the city. From this point of view, the previous assumptions were still a bit too taken for granted, thinking that the flood could wash away Yongjinmen, and at the worst, it could kill the defenders by surprise. However, looking at the situation, the enemy was actually prepared.
Yongjinmen, as the largest of the five water gates in Hangzhou City, was originally prepared for large merchant ships entering and leaving Hangzhou - after all, this was an extremely important commercial and prosperous place in the Song Dynasty, and it was extremely convenient both by land and water. But now, the wide river channel here has become a good place for large ships to move forward and retreat freely. Especially when the water surface continues to rise, the disadvantages that restrict warships with extremely deep drafts are gone. Under the influence of sails, The three large ships quickly approached in a formation, and the soldiers on the three decks were not even much lower than the defenders at the top of the city.
"Fire arrows for me!" It was Li Jun who was commanding the battle on the ship at the front. Following his order, the Song Army's archers also poured a dense rain of arrows towards the opposite city, and immediately shot down the unprepared Wu Army. Many people were so frightened that they bent down and hid under the city walls to save their lives.
"Brothers, it's time to fight with me!" From the side,
Zhang Shun, who had already retreated out of the way, felt reassured after seeing the embarrassment of the defenders at the top of the city. He immediately seized the opportunity and loudly ordered to attack again. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity when the defenders at the top of the city were temporarily unable to take care of it and rush to Jinmen again.
This is where attacking Shuimen is far more advantageous than attacking Hanmen. With only a few large ships, they can form a stalemate with the enemy above and create a safer way for the small boats below to approach the city gate and try to break through the city. Doors create good conditions.
But just when Zhang Shun was manning the boat himself and leading more than a dozen boats towards the city gate, something unexpected happened suddenly. A wave rumbled from behind, not only causing the small boat below to bump and sway, but also the three large ships to rise and fall. This was so sudden that even though the ship was full of experienced veterans of water warfare, they were caught off guard at this time. In order to stabilize themselves, the arrow suppression on the city head was naturally relaxed.
It turns out that this is the real release of the Qiantang River water to the city of Hangzhou after the gates were opened. The water flow that pushed many ships to rush in before was just the prelude to the river water that had been accumulating for several days. At this time, the subsequent more violent floods came with a rumble.
If that were the case, the water skills of these sailors would not be greatly affected. However, the rushing river was blocked by the high city wall when it arrived in front of Yongjin Gate, so it was impossible to move towards it. The river in front of it can only roll back unwillingly after slamming heavily on the solid city wall. It is actually the same as the Qianjiang River turning back when it enters the sea.
This backhand wave was more turbulent than the previous wave that came from behind. It immediately swept Zhang Shun and other small boats, who were still trying to control the direction of the ship, and scattered them backwards. It also caused the three large ships to suddenly roll sideways, causing The soldiers on the ship exclaimed in surprise, and their horses fell over...
Although these sailors are all good at water warfare, at first they only fought in the calm waters of Liangshan. Wherever they had withstood the turbulent waters of the south of the Yangtze River, they suddenly fell forward and fell into a heap. He still had time to suppress the enemies at the top of the city.
Compared with the ships under the city that were beaten by this big wave, the Wu army on the city was as stable as Mount Tai. The city walls around Kinmen were built strong enough that even if the Qiantang River was extremely fierce this time, they could not shake the city walls even half an inch.
Yuan Kai was also overjoyed after seeing this and hurriedly ordered: "Hurry up and shoot them to death! There is no need to save any weapons, defeating the enemy is important!"
The soldiers then woke up from a dream and hurriedly moved into action. They once again used random arrows to form a dense net and directed it towards the enemy ships below, especially the three most threatening ships. It became their special target.
After the Song army on the big ship, which had not yet stabilized its position, suffered such a crazy blow, it was immediately dead and wounded. Seeing this, Li Jun could only order to postpone the attack and let the ship retreat to avoid it. Obviously, this vigorous first wave of offensive will not succeed after all.
But at this moment, several small boats suddenly jumped out like arrows taking advantage of another wave of water, heading towards Yongjinmen. And because the enemies on the city focused their attention on the three large ships, by the time they reacted, the first small ship had already rushed to the high wooden fence-like city gate...