、、、、、、、、、、

"General, look ahead!" Sun Fujia pointed forward at this time.

Li Xiaogong raised his eyes, but found that a medium-sized warship with the flag of the Zhou army had appeared in front of him, and there were eight warships escorting it beside him.

"Isn't that the flagship of the Zhou Army's naval division? What's wrong? Lee Hyo-gung blurted out.

However, as soon as the words came out, he suddenly noticed that something was wrong. This week's flagship and its frigates, there are inevitably fewer people on board. The deck was almost empty. Moreover, when the sailors who rowed the boat saw the Tang Army sailors rushing over, they were so frightened that they fled one after another, put down the dinghy one by one, abandoned the boat and fled.

Li Xiaogong also felt that this attack had gone well, and even if Zhou Tao was a fool, he would not be frightened and flee just when he saw the enemy. So how can he explain to Yuming? At the very least, there should be a symbolic resistance.

However, except for the first time when the Zhou army and navy fought back for a while, there was no other resistance, and it was almost a battle and collapsed, as soon as the sailors on the ship saw the officers and soldiers of the Tang army sailor boarding, they were so frightened that they abandoned the ship and fled. This is really not like Zhou Jun's combat style!

At this time, the Tang Army's naval division had already ignited a small boat filled with firewood and fire oil and rushed into the Zhou Army's naval warship in accordance with the strategy given by Li Xiaogong earlier.

And those battleships did not dodge or dodge, and after being touched by the fireboats, they also quickly burned.

Just when the officers and soldiers of the Zhou Army's naval division were cheering, something surprising to them happened. I saw that from the water surface of the burning Zhou warship, a blue flame rose up, and then quickly spread on the water, and soon spread to the vicinity of the Tang Army's naval division, and extended upstream, turning Han Water into a burning fire dragon.

Li Xiaogong was suddenly so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat, secretly wondering how could this river catch fire? Wouldn't he burn all his ships as well?

He looked around, but his heart was broken. It turned out that I didn't know when, but a thick layer of black fire oil had floated on the river surface in the rear! This thing floated on the surface of the river, covering the entire Han water.

And this black oil ignited when it caught fire, and naturally turned the entire river into a sea of fire in an instant.

Under the reflection of the firelight, the Tang soldiers found that on the north bank of the Han River, a large number of Zhou cavalry appeared. They pushed catapults and parked them at the river. Then he threw the skins filled with black liquid into the Han water. And these skins scattered in the air, throwing the black liquid into the water, forming a thick layer of black oil, besieging all the ships of the Tang Army's naval division.

When the Tang Navy set those small boats on fire, the Zhou Army's ships caught fire, which naturally spread to the river and then extended to the Tang Army's warships.

Li Xiaogong was roasted by this sky-high fire and sweated, Fang suddenly woke up, and couldn't help vomiting blood in anger.

On the bank of the Han River not far away, Zhou Tao was standing on a high slope, staring at the skyrocketing fire on the river and the miserable sound from the battleships of the Tang Army's naval division, and muttered: "Li Xiaogong, I have lost more than ten warships today...... But your sailors are all gone! It's worth it! ”

Looking at the sea of fire around him, Li Xiaogong understood why the opponent's warship was moving so fast, how could there be so few people on board, and from beginning to end, the Tang Army's sailors did not encounter fierce resistance from the Zhou Army's sailors.

You must know that after Yu Ming cleared the Tang army stronghold on the north bank of the Han River, he never crossed the river, waiting for Zhou Tao to lead the Zhou army's naval division upstream. Anyone would think that Yuming planned to finish his work in one battle and fight to the death with Li Xiaogong on the Hanshui River.

Li Xiaogong has always thought so in his heart, and he is even happy about it. In his opinion, if he fought Zhou Tao in the Yangtze River, he still had no bottom in his heart. After all, Zhou Tao's giant battleship is really powerful, not only is the ship wrapped in iron sheets, not afraid of collisions, but also can fire fireballs, and when the enemy ship is not close, it will be hit and burned.

Due to the narrow waterway and shallow draft, the Han River could not be entered by the giant warships of the Zhou army. He could only send small and medium-sized warships against the current to fight against them, so he had the heart to fight and was ready to fight with Zhou Tao.

However, it wasn't until the moment the fire ignited that Li Xiaogong knew that he didn't intend to fight him hard at all, but just used his skillful force to set him up and turn more than two of his warships into wreckage.

This Yuming is really insidious! This kind of strategy made him even think of it.

Sun Fujia also felt that the Tang army was unjustly defeated in this battle. In fact, who would have thought that Zhou Tao's large number of naval division battleships drove over, not for water warfare, but to block the road of the Tang army's naval division running downstream, so that this fire would burn all the Tang army's warships.

In this way, it is natural that these more than ten warships, except for sailors, there are no other soldiers, and it is impossible to carry any warship weapons such as trebuchets and catapults. Of course, the empty boat will row faster and look amazing.

When the attention of the officers and soldiers of the Tang Army's naval division was attracted by the Zhou warships in front of them, Yuming sent ground troops to silently circle the back of the Tang Army's naval division along the riverbank, and then used catapults to throw skins filled with crude oil into the Han River.

When Li Xiaogong went all out and sent a large number of small ships to rush forward to burn the ship, he never dreamed that doing so would only cut off his own vitality and make this powerful sailor die in the fire!

The Zhou army only sacrificed more than a dozen small and medium-sized warships, and successfully gathered all the naval divisions of the Tang army in the Jingxiang area, and then burned them to ashes, but they did not die a few people, which can be described as a complete victory.

At this time, the officers and men of the Tang Army's naval division could no longer afford to attack forward, because they had already found that all around them had become a sea of fire. Everywhere visible to the naked eye, there was a thick black oil slick floating, and a raging fire was burning on the surface of the black oil.

In the flames, all the Tang officers and soldiers did not know which way to flee in order to escape. Now all the warships on the water have been burned, and the surface of the Han River has also become a sea of fire.

This kind of scene of burning the river is not unheard of by the Tang Army's sailors. When the Tang army invaded Jingxiang and fought with Xiao Miao's Jiangnan Naval Division, such a scene also appeared on the Hanshui River. But even then, the fire was not as big as it is now. And it was Liang Jun who was burned at that time, but this time it was replaced by himself!

"Everyone, jump! On board only to be burned alive! Sun Fujia shouted.

However, looking at the raging river, there are really few people who really have the courage to jump off the Han River, which has become a sea of fire.

Li Xiaogong stood at the bow of the ship, only to see that there was already a fire on the deck. He was already disheartened, looking at the fire on the ship, and the Tang officers and soldiers who were screaming and shouting, his eyes were glazed.

Although he tried to move, his legs were like lead, and he could not take a step.

"General, let's jump down, as long as we swim in the water, we can be saved when we reach the south bank of the Han River!" Sun Fujia finally couldn't resist the approaching scorching flames and shouted loudly.

But Li Xiaogong spurted out of his mouth with a mouthful of blood, and then shouted: "This is really a death for me!" Then he collapsed on the deck.

Even when he lost consecutive battles and lost the outer cities of Gangneung and Xiangyang, he was never so pessimistic and disappointed. But now, after he knew about the fire, he had been completely defeated, and there was no possibility of recovery. Whether it is Xiangyang or the entire land of Jingxiang, it can no longer be saved.

Sun Fujia couldn't take care of it at this time, and when he saw that the fire had burned the entire deck, he hurriedly helped Li Xiaogong up, and then jumped down into the river with all his might.

The bodies of the two fell through the billowing smoke and raging fire into the burning river.

Hearing only the sound of "poof", the water splashed on the surface of the Han River, and the two generals of the Tang Army disappeared.

But as they disappeared, the fire became more and more violent, and the flames soared into the sky.

However, Zhou Tao stood on the shore and remained silent, just ordering Zhou Jun to watch the river bank and kill him immediately as long as Tang troops swam ashore.

At the same time, the catapult no longer threw fire oil, but replaced it with boulders and fire bombs, aimed at the end of the sea of fire, and sank it as soon as a Tang ship escaped.

The fire in the Han River has become more and more intense......

……

After Zhou Tao's sailors dispatched, it was really extraordinary, first withholding it, making Li Xiaogong unable to hold his breath, and then attacking. Then Zhou Tao brought the experience of Chongming Island over and burned Li Xiaogong's army with a fire.

Li Xiaogong's luck was better, and under the protection of Sun Fujia's loyal protector, the two finally escaped back to the south bank of the Han River. However, by this time, the Zhou army had already crossed the Han River, surrounded the city of Xiangyang, and launched a fierce attack.

Seeing that Xiangyang could not be returned, the two snatched two more fast horses and fled to Padang in embarrassment.

The Tang army in Xiangyang City was already empty at this time, and when they saw the fire in the Han River, it was rumored that Li Xiaogong had been killed, and their morale was immediately low, and they no longer had the fighting spirit.

It only took Yu Ming a little more than an hour to break through Xiangyang City. Most of the Tang troops in the city surrendered, and a few recalcitrant ones were killed on the spot. Only Li Xiaogong's lieutenant led more than 8,000 of the more elite soldiers to escape through the West City Gate.

After the Zhou army captured Xiangyang, it immediately divided its troops into two, one led by Zhou Tao, and continued to swim upstream along the Han River on a naval warship, capturing several county towns west of Xiangyang, and opening the road to Hanzhong.

The other was led by Yu Ming himself, and went south to join forces with Li Jing and attack Yizhou.

On May 15 of the second year of Yongchang, Tian Zheng, the defender of Yizhou, led his subordinates to surrender Kaicheng, expressing his willingness to be loyal to Yuming and return to the Great Zhou. At this point, the land of Jingxiang fell into the hands of Yuming. The Zhou army has arrived at the city of Badong, threatening the safety of Bashu under the occupation of the Tang army, and the whole world is shaken.

However, while the Zhou army made great progress in the land of Jingxiang in the south, his own capital Luoyang was attacked by the Tang army and was in danger.

...