Aoshan Island can be said to be the remnant of Baohua Mountain extending into the river. In the early years of the previous dynasty, the island was small, only a few dozen feet in diameter, six or seven feet above the river. The mountain was shaped like an Ao, so it was named Aoshan.

The river has changed its course and accumulated sediment. It has gradually expanded to a sand island with a radius of three or four miles when the water level is high, and a sand island of seven or eight miles when the water level is low.

The water of the river rises and falls with the four seasons. Aoshan Island has not been artificially transformed, and the surrounding dams have been built to stabilize the island. It can be inhabited, and the cultivated area is small. In addition, the river to the north of Jinling is long and vast, and bandits and bandits come and go. Therefore, except in the spring and autumn, there are households along the river.

Apart from crossing the river to the island to farm or collect firewood, there are no households permanently living on the island.

In late September of the third year of Yanyou's reign, a group of soldiers led three to four hundred civilians to Aoshan Island. After that, cargo ships docked every once in a while, transporting large amounts of lime, masonry, wood and other building materials to the island to build the Aoshan Island.

Camp, house.

Aoshan Island is small in size, facing Tangyi, Gyeonggi, and Yangzhou across the river, and belongs to Runzhou in the southeast.

The Youlongwu Army moved to Runzhou. At this time, under the pretext that a small group of Shouzhou Army penetrated through the gap between the Tangyi and Yangzhou defense lines to the north bank of the Yangtze River to peer into the south of the Yangtze River, they built forts and small docks on Aoshan Island and stationed a small number of troops there.

Guarding soldiers and horses is also an aboveboard matter that cannot be discussed.

In early October, the new wind blows from the south, and the world becomes colder.

Compared with previous years, this year, affected by the turmoil in the Jin Kingdom in the north, Liang Jun gathered in the area north of the Yellow River on a large scale, and the situation along the Huaihe River became relatively calm.

They are worried that the streams along the Huaihe River may freeze at any time, Liang Jun's naval dispatches have also been greatly weakened, and Liang Jun has no signs of large-scale cavalry gatherings. This is destined to ensure that the generals in Jinling will be able to prepare for the northern line this winter.

Worry less about the battle situation.

Several warships sailed from the Qiupu River into the Yangtze River and followed the river to Aoshan Island. In the afternoon, they docked at the south side of Aoshan Island and built a trestle with rows of fir trees to serve as a simple dock.

Yang Zhitang boarded the trestle, surrounded by a row of generals, climbed to the top of a hill only seven or eight feet high on the south side of Aoshan Island, and looked around.

Choosing to build the navy camp here was Han Qian's compulsory requirement, so he had no choice. However, when you get to the island and look far into the distance, you can even vaguely see the water mouth where Hangou connects to the Yangtze River. This is undoubtedly a place where you can get a glimpse of Yangzhou and Tangyi.

a strategic location.

On the southeast side of Aoshan Island, the terrain that intrudes into the river is steep, and the middle is little affected by sedimentation. However, there are sedimentary sand banks extending out on the left and right, which are favorable conditions for building a dock.

Although it has been less than 20 days since we organized the manned landing on the island, there are only some simple barracks on the island. However, after the trestle has passed, a large amount of construction materials have been piled up, and it has not yet turned into a solid retaining wall or barracks.

"Your Majesty, it should be Feng Liao and Han Daochang who came from Tangyi." The guard came over, pointed to several sailboats in the northwest, and said to Yang Zhitang.

After burning the incense, Yang Zhitang could clearly see the figures of the several sailing ships. The two large ships in the front were the galleys used by the Tangyi Navy as the main battleships on the Yangtze River. In addition to the necessary sailors, the

Outside, there are only a few guards and horses.

Seeing this scene, Yang Zhitang felt relieved.

As an agreement, Yang Chitang requested an order to go to Yangzhou to inspect the military situation. In fact, the day when he officially took up the important task of proposing marriage was when Tangyi handed over the first batch of warships.

With these two galleys, which can accommodate up to 300 soldiers and 200 crewmen for combat, the Longwu navy can be considered to be of some size.

Not to mention the rumors, Youlong Wujun sent people to Aoshan Island to start construction, which was enough for the generals and officials of the court to see the clues.

However, even if it is seen that Shou Wang Yang Zhitang has the intention to build the Navy Camp and Wugang on Aoshan Island first, in the eyes of many people, as long as Yang Zhitang, who is from the clan, supports the imperial court, no matter whether Shou Wang Mansion and Huaidong are at this time,

How close you are to the Marquis of Qianyang and the construction of Shuijun Yingcheng on Aoshan Island will be beneficial to the court in the long run.

Otherwise, let alone the Liang Army, if the Huaidong Army and the Tangyi Army one day have different aspirations, cross the river from the north bank to the south, and land on the left and right sides of Jinling City, there will be no resistance on the Yangtze River.

As for whether to rebuild the Dachu Navy or to form a new navy under Youlong Wujun as a measure for Quan Yi, there is not much difference in the minds of many people.

Of course, even if Yang Zhitang is in charge of the Privy Council, it is impossible to allocate more military funds to Youlong Wujun when the central finance is so stretched.

Allocate money and food from the inner court?

That is even more of a dream.

And because Youlong Wujun had not undertaken heavy combat tasks before, the military resources it received before were equally distributed to each general, and the standards were even much lower than those of the Huaixi Forbidden Army and Tangyi soldiers.

Therefore, even if it is just to build a camp on Aoshan Island in the early stage, or to build a navy camp and a dock, the Youlong Military Army's current military resources are insufficient, and the Shou Prince's Palace first needs to pay for food.

Fortunately, Yang Zhitang has been the prince of Yuzhang County and the governor of Hongzhou for many years, and has run Hongzhou. Yuanzhou has a deep foundation. Even if it cannot be compared with Feng Han and other well-established aristocratic clans, he did not have enough money to raise 500,000 to 600,000 yuan in the early stage.

question.

Of course, even without the support of Xuzhou and the imperial court, the Shou Prince's Mansion did not have control over the navy.

The Zhennan Jiedushi established by the previous dynasty once had jurisdiction over the counties and counties along the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake (later the entire Jiangxi Province). Hongzhou was its governing state, located on the southwest side of the vast Poyang Lake. It has always been the

An important land and water town in the Ganjiang River and Poyang Lake water systems.

After the founding of the Chu Kingdom, the Zhennan Jiedushi was dismissed and the status of Hongzhou was intentionally weakened. However, in order to combat and guard against the Poyang Lake bandits, the local state soldiers in Hongzhou also organized a naval army of more than a thousand people.

Yang Chitang moved east of Runzhou along the river, and the situation of enemy invasion along the coast was becoming increasingly serious. He asked for an order to mobilize the Hongzhou water camp and move it to Aoshan Island to defend the capital. Can the ministers in the court not agree?

The problem is that the scale of the Hongzhou water camp is limited. After recruiting half the troops and horses, there are only more than 600 people and more than 20 large-winged ships and fighting ships.

The main mission of the Hongzhou Water Camp in the past was to fight against lake bandits and water bandits. The generals' combat effectiveness was not strong enough, and the warships were not strong enough. It was difficult to compete with Liang Jun's navy in deep and wide waters, and it was unable to single-handedly protect the river east of Runzhou.

, the coastal defense line, so we had to choose to cooperate with Xuzhou.

The main force of the navy was destroyed in Hongzepu. At that time, the situation in the Jianghuai River was critical. This was also the reason why the Hongzhou water camp did not rush to King Qin.

Otherwise, if Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and the states and counties along the Yangtze River were just cobbling together a naval force of 20,000 to 30,000 people from local state soldiers, how could there be any problems?

Of course, for Prince Shou's Mansion, the first and most difficult problem to solve is the warship.

Liang Jun's newly built naval force in Haizhou mobilized shipwrights and timber from various counties in the Liang State, as well as a large number of Jianghuai shipwrights and shipwrights who had been threatened by the Anning Palace and fled north.

As for Hongzhou, which is the sphere of influence of Prince Shou's Mansion, there are two shipbuilding yards, one of which is even run by Prince Shou's Mansion. However, for a long time, they have mainly built small and medium-sized ships that ply the waters of Poyang Lake.

There were no shipwrights with experience in building big ships, and they lacked the wood to build big ships.

This kind of wood usually needs to be cut down and transported from the old forests in the mountains, and then dried in the shade for two to three years before it can be used to build a ship; otherwise, the ship will crack and deform soon after entering the water, and it will not be able to withstand the beating of big winds and waves.

The Yangtze River Estuary is facing the enemy.

In the past, several shipyards in Jianghuai that could build thousands of stone ships were concentrated in Jinling, Runzhou and Chaozhou.

After the Jinling Incident, the shipbuilding yards in these three places were all destroyed, and the stored timber was either burned or transported away. The shipwrights and shipwrights were also taken away and fled north, becoming the shipbuilding force of Liang Jun's navy.

In addition, the shipbuilding yard that Gao Chengyuan organized in Yueyang that year had accumulated a batch of wood that could be used to build large ships, which could be used at this time.

The problem is that this shipyard is under the direct jurisdiction of the Hunan Xuanwei Envoy. How confident is Yang Zhitang that he can compete with the imperial court for the warships built by the Yueyang Shipyard, or that he can directly use the Yueyang Shipyard to stockpile wood and skilled ships that have been drying for three years?

Does the craftsman ask for his own name?

You must know that Huang Hua, Chen Fan and others are all representatives of the Jiangdong family clans. They are most opposed to the Shou Prince's Palace extending its hand too far in the Jiangdong states.

As the main battleship of the Tangyi navy, the galley is long and narrow like a shuttle, with sails raised. It can be seen with the naked eye that its speed is obviously much higher than that of ordinary rigid sailing ships.

As we sailed closer, the cast-iron horn on the bow looked like a ferocious beast hidden beneath the water.

During the Jinling Incident, people in Lanting Lane took the Xuzhou warship to attack the Donghua Gate Shuiguan. Although the hull was seriously damaged and had to be abandoned midway, the iron gate was torn open as thick as an arm and even the solid Shuiguan wall was destroyed.

A section of it collapsed, which was extremely impressive.

At that time, many warships of the Wuya Army on the left and right were built in Xuzhou.

Although most of these battle shows sank in Hongzepu, Liang Jun requisitioned a large number of civilians and ships afterwards to destroy all the sunken ships built in Xuzhou. Even the hulls were completely burned by the fire, which took a lot of trouble.

Towed to Haizhou, it can be seen that the strength of Xuzhou warships has long been valued by Liang Emperor Zhu Yu.

Yang Chitang heard from the secret agent of the Fang Division that the first dozen or so of Liang Jun's naval warships in Haizhou were even directly renovated using the frame of the sunken ship in Xuzhou.

After waiting for a long time, when he saw the war sailing ship approaching the trestle, Yang Zhitang couldn't wait to board the ship to meet Feng Liao and Han Daochang.

Because these two ships were to be handed over directly, Feng Liao and others brought less than sixty guards and sailors with them.

Seeing that Yang Zhitang was so impatient, Feng Liao simply ordered the escort, the sailors to withdraw, and the men from Prince Shou's Mansion to take over the two ships.

When facing the enemy, in order to avoid being attacked by fire and to facilitate the handling of war equipment, the three masts and sixteen giant sails will be lowered, and a total of sixty giant oars on the upper and lower floors will pump water to drive the ship forward; the sides and the top of the cabin

A total of thirty crossbows and scorpion cannons were placed on the deck, with a range of 250 steps.

Without the long-handled baton used by Wuya warships (building ships), long-range attacks cannot destroy enemy ships. Han Qian also strongly advocated avoiding side-to-side combat and using a strong hull to directly squeeze away and ram the encircling enemy ships.

open.

There are sixteen watertight compartments inside the warship. It is not a big deal if the ship's plates are damaged. As long as the overall structure is strong and does not deform, the warship can maintain its due combat effectiveness and persist until the end of the battle.

In addition to strengthening fire prevention, the ship also has a special water-drawing and extinguishing device. When encountering an enemy fire attack, it is much more efficient than the generals and boatmen who rush to use wooden sticks to lift water to douse the fire.

Feng Liao would leave several military attachés and boatmen behind to instruct the people in Prince Shou's Mansion on how to operate the two ships. At this time, he also practiced it in front of Yang Zhitang, and then asked with a smile: "The price of the bare ship is 20,000 yuan.

Including many war weapons and a set of replaceable accessories on board, the total amount is 40,000 yuan, and the two ships total 80,000 yuan - within three months, except for man-made damage caused by wind and waves, Xuzhou will repair it as new for free; one month

Within the period, if the prince is dissatisfied with anything, Xuzhou can also guarantee a return - I wonder if the prince is still satisfied?"

What advice can Yang Zhitang give?

Not to mention other things, the four iron anchors weighing three to four thousand kilograms at the beginning and end cannot be cast by Hongzhou.

With these four anchors, such a large hull can be anchored stably and directly in the deep water in the middle of the river, without having to worry about not even being able to find a big tree for mooring on the shore.

It is precisely because of the lack of this kind of iron anchor that can catch the mud at the bottom of the river that the thousand-stone ships built by Jianghuai are all shallow-bottomed and flat-bottomed ships so that they can be moored directly on the shoals. The same is true for the Five-Tooth warship, which cannot be built.

Pointed bottom boat.

However, a sharp-bottomed warship of the same size, even driven by a giant oar, is significantly faster than a flat-bottomed warship.

As a veteran who followed Emperor Tianyou in the north and south, how could Yang Zhitang not know the importance of speed in the battle between the two sides?

At least for now, at least on large warships, Xuzhou has an irreplaceable advantage simply by being able to cast such giant iron anchors.

The large and medium-sized fine iron components inside the hull used to strengthen the structural strength also need to be cast and formed at one time. At present, only Xuzhou seems to be able to do this.
To be continued...