The Yuan army naval warships lined up with a storm of steep snake formations, fired fire in turn and bombarded the Kaohsiung port. The smoke from thousands of cannons filled the entire sea, but the results were not ideal because they did not dare to shoot close. Several warships in front tried to break into the port, but were sunk by shore defense artillery.

The Song army built nine forts along the coast of Kaohsiung, covering the sea surface of the port without dead corners. The fort was conspicuous, the breeze of the bronze artillery was rifled, the ballistics were straight, the initial velocity and accuracy were much higher than that of the smoothbore artillery. The cost was that the manufacturing process was complex, the wear speed was fast, and the construction cost of the fort itself was also extremely high. The base was made of stones and reinforced with cement made of shells, and iron plates were used to reinforce the gun position. The Yuan army's artillery shells could only smash a pit on it.

The fort was powerful and defeated the Yuan army's arrogance. Wen Tianxiang, who was personally at the front line to command the battle, was very pleased. He thought that when he was building the fort, he had a dispute with Dang Paiguo. The right prime minister had his opinion and believed that the Song army needed to build an offensive navy, and the limited financial and material resources should be used to build warships, rather than the forts on land. However, Dang Paiguo insisted very stubbornly that the port must be protected by the forts. In the end, the court compromised and reduced the plan of the nine forts to three, and the cannons were also reduced from the eighteen to twelve gates. Now I feel regretful when I think about it. If it is constructed according to the plan, then Kaohsiung will be as solid as a decisive thing.

The naval battle lasted for three days, and the Yuan army navy did not get any advantage. They tried to land elsewhere several times, but were stopped by the Song army navy. Several transport ships full of soldiers slipped to the shore in the dark, but hit the reef, and all three thousand people made fish food.

On the fourth day, Fan Wenhu became anxious. After all, the navy was not as good as the land division. He consumed a lot of drinking water, dry food, gunpowder, and ammunition every day. One day he would be unable to support himself, so he could only return in a defeat.

So Fan Wenhu, the right prime minister of the Southern Province, summoned all the generals to discuss matters to withdraw from the military. Lord Fan sat on a large tiger-skin chair, wearing a golden helmet and gold armor. This was not real metal armor, but paper armor commonly used in the Song Dynasty, made of silk cloth and paper. It was strong and light, with golden paint on the surface, and shining brightly under the sunlight. The tiger was majestic, but in Ji Yuqian's eyes, Fan Wenhu was an absolute paper tiger.

"I can't capture it for a long time, so I'd better go back to Penghu to replenish my food and fodder before attacking them." Fan Wenhu said.

All the generals nodded and said yes, most of them were surrendered to the Southern Song Dynasty, and they were not cowards. They just had some psychological barriers to attack their old bosses. The boss said he would withdraw his troops, so he should retreat.

Ji Yuqian stepped out and said, "Sir, you must not. The Song army is already exhausted. If you rush into the port in one go, you will win this battle. If you withdraw your troops in the middle, our morale will be bleak, and then you will lose your strength. This battle will be difficult to fight."

Fan Wenhu narrowed his eyes and looked at Ji Yuqian, smiling and said, "I didn't see that the Song army is too scarce." To be honest, he looked down on this deputy who was born in a civilian, but Ji Yuqian was deeply favored by Emperor Kublai Khan. He was also a northerner and was slightly higher than his southerner in his position. The emperor issued an order to let the two of them work together, and they had to balance themselves, so they could treat each other with courtesy.

The generals also spoke, supporting Fan Wenhu's decision. Their reasons were very good. There was not enough Danshui and there was not much ammunition. The Song army's cannons had a long range and great power. Our warships could not beat them. Anyway, they just didn't want to fight to the death.

Ji Yu's anger accumulates little by little. He knows Fan Wenhu's routines. He has professionally cheated his teammates for decades. He can cheat more than 100,000 people who have been expeditioning to Japan without any harm. It is a waste of this 100,000 naval army to him. He can lose any battles he can win. He has been wasted eleven years, so he is not a person like Fan Wenhu!

He patiently explained that we are in trouble, and the Song army is even more difficult. Although their cannons are sharp, continuous firing will cause explosions. If we do not care about casualties, as long as we rush into the port to fight the Song army in close combat, the fort will lose its function. As long as a thousand elite soldiers land on the shore, the chances of victory will be 80%.

Fan Wenhu didn't like to listen to these things at all. He pretended to think for a while, but decided to withdraw his troops.

Ji Yu endured it.

The Yuan army navy returned without success and retreated overnight to Penghu.

After nightfall, a black shadow climbed into Fan Wenhu's cockpit from the outside of the ship, and sprinkled some colorless and odorless medicine powder in Lord Youcheng's teapot...

When Fan Wenhu got up at night, he was thirsty. He grabbed the teapot and took two mouthfuls, fell asleep. He didn't get up until noon the next day. Lord Ji Yugan came to ask for orders, and the personal soldiers kept blocking him, but in the end he couldn't stop him. Ji Yugan and others rushed in quickly, only to find that Fan Wenhu was in a deep coma.

The main general lost his command ability, and Ji Yugan naturally took over the navy. Before the Yuan army reached Penghu, they turned around and rushed towards Kaohsiung again.

Wen Tianxiang and others never expected that the Yuan army would kill so quickly and come in full force. They changed their conservative tactics and rushed into the port at any cost. The three turrets and twelve cannons were red, and the gun barrels were still unable to stop the Yuan army's attack.

Ji Yugan had the power in hand and took the order. Fan Wenhu's surrendered generals were not afraid of him, but they were deeply afraid of Kublai and the Yuan Dynasty behind Ji Yugan. With the choice of chopping their heads and sacrificing the lives of soldiers, they resolutely chose the former and forced the warships to charge to the death, killing no less than a dozen disobedient intermediate officers.

After paying the price of fifty warships and thousands of lives, the Yuan army finally rushed into Kaohsiung Port. The soldiers wearing paper armor landed in small boats. The Song army shot them with crossbows and muskets. The paper armor stained with sea water not only did not decrease its strength, but was more resilient and could not penetrate the arrows. They waved their scimitars and fought with the Song army. The naval battle finally turned into land battle.

...

Looking at the corpses floating in the harbor, Ji Yugan deeply understood what a general was to achieve success, but he had no mercy. These people should have died. Even if they did not die in Kaohsiung, they would have died in the battle of expedition to Japan in 1281 AD. As more people died, their lives became numbers and NPCs in the game, and he didn't care.

The Yuan army successfully landed in Kaohsiung. They had a large army, with a total of 100,000 troops. Apart from sailors and artillery, half of the infantry could land. The population of the Southern Song Dynasty was only about 300,000, but the number of soldiers fighting was less than 50,000. The two sides were temporarily evenly matched, each occupying half of the city, and they launched a desperate street battle, fighting for the streets and houses, with heavy casualties every day.

However, as the continuous reinforcements and supplies arrived across the strait, the scale of victory was tilting towards the Yuan army. A charred courtyard in the east of Kaohsiung City was the frontier command post of the Song army. Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie were commanding the battle here, while Lu Xiufu protected the emperor and fled into the mountains. As for Chen Yizhong, he had already slipped away, but was blocked by the Yuan army on the way to Chameng City and sunk the whole family.

The two loyal ministers looked at each other for a long time, their eyes full of loneliness and sadness. They thought that God would bless the Song Dynasty to survive overseas, but they did not expect that God was actually joking with them.

"Maybe it was God's will that I shouldn't drive them away." Wen Tianxiang suddenly realized, "We have angered God, and we should have such a disaster."

"Why not send a boat to Ma Yi for help?" Zhang Shijie said.

Wen Tianxiang smiled sadly: "Even if they are willing to send troops to help, the front is wolf, and the Zhao family's country is over. You and I have been blessed with the emperor for many years. How can we hand over the orphan and widowed mother to a group of traitors? Even if we surrender, it will be more decent than the filthy palace."

Zhang Shijie is also a person who wants to be respected. Moreover, no matter how difficult the situation is, it is not as desperate as it was in Yashan. He gritted his teeth and said, "What the Prime Minister said is the most, and no one wants to ask for it. At worst, you can take the emperor away from overseas, to Goryeo, Japan, and to Chameng."

The battle continued. On the tenth day of the street fighting, the Southern Song Dynasty was exhausted and the gunpowder was exhausted. In a fierce battle, Zhang Shijie led the way and died in the battlefield. The Yuan army fired books of persuasion of surrender with artillery. Tens of thousands of books of persuasion of surrender fell on the Song army's positions like snowflakes. Many people surrendered, and Wen Tianxiang was defeated and captured.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Lu Xiufu took Zhao Bing and more than ten people to escape by boat while the night was falling, and a small boat headed south, with his destination Ma Yi.

It was dawn, and Lu Xiufu looked back at Liu Qiu inadvertently, and was shocked to find that the Yuan army warship was chasing him, and urgently ordered the sailors to drive the ship quickly, but their boat was small and weak, and the speed was far less than that of the Yuan army's three-masted ship. He was about to catch up with him, Lu Xiufu sighed: "The sky was dead and the Song Dynasty." He carried Zhao Bing on his back and was about to commit suicide.

A shadow of sail appeared in front of him. Lu Xiufu rubbed his eyes and vaguely saw the Song banner. It was Ma Yi's reinforcements! He was filled with mixed feelings and tears filled his eyes.

The reinforcements led by Liu Yanzhi himself were indeed coming. Their entire army dispatched only fifty warships to launch a fierce naval battle with the Yuan army pursuers. The hot shells roared by. After firing hundreds of artillery guns at each other, the Yuan army navy was defeated. Lu Xiufu carried Zhao Bing onto Liu Yanzhi's warship.

Lu Xiufu put down the emperor and covered his face with his sleeves: "I am ashamed of seeing the Grand Master."

Liu Yanzhi ignored him and helped Zhao Bing up: "No, the emperor was shot!"

Zhao Bing's back was bright red, and he was hit by a flowering bullet in his heart, and he was already dead.

"Tai Shi, save the official family!" Lu Xiufu was shocked and fell to his knees.

Liu Yanzhi shook his head: "Even gods can't save the official family."
Chapter completed!