Chu Tianxiu and Li Yu rode their horses and came to the riverside with a team of 1,000 guards cavalry.

However, he saw hundreds of large warships and hundreds of small and medium-sized warships moored along the river, with as many as 30,000 elite sailors on board.

A forty or fifty-year-old middle-aged naval army general with a rough face got down from a large warship and bowed to the two, "The last general Zhou Lu, knock to see the hussar general and the Wei general!"

The last general was ordered by the imperial court to come to assist the hussar general in crossing the river. The enemy army was on the other side of the river, and General Shu Mo could not stay away from the fleet and went to Danyang City to meet the two generals. ”

This Zhou Lu can also be regarded as an old qualified general, who has been in the Great Chu army for more than 20 years.

However, he didn't dare to pose in front of Chu Tianxiu.

In the army, military exploits are emphasized.

The battle of Danyang has long shocked the Great Chu Dynasty, and it can defeat the 200,000 army of Wu King Xiang Bi in one fell swoop.

For a naval general like Zhou Lu, who usually only exterminated hundreds or thousands of water bandits, such a battle feat can only be beyond the reach of the dust.

The generals who dare to boast of their military exploits in front of Chu Tianxiu are probably not three or two in the Great Chu Dynasty. Emperor Xiang Yanran, King of Ping, Li Rong, dared to call themselves predecessors.

"General Zhou, please get up!"

Chu Tianxiu said with a smile, "General Zhou came from afar, and he worked hard. Can General Zhou have a way to send my army across the river safely? ”

"Difficult!

On the way here, the last general carefully watched the other side.

The princes' camps in the Wujiang area are densely packed and stretch for seventy or eighty miles. And there are thousands of large and small boats, and there are countless rafts. Everywhere, there is a tight guard.

It's almost impossible to cross the river here!

Once our army launches a crossing of the river, I am afraid that the princes will definitely use a large number of rafts to ignite fires and impact and burn our warships!

Even if we were lucky enough not to burn the warship, our troops would have been surrounded by many encirclements when they reached the opposite shore and went ashore. Looking at the large camp on the other side, there are at least 500,000 soldiers and horses.

The last general has fought on the water in his life, and he has never fought such a large-scale battle. ”

Zhou Lu shook his head, a little embarrassed.

There were also many warships on the side of the princes' coalition, and he didn't dare to get too close to watch.

Chu Tianxiu stood by the river, looking at the other bank, but it was hazy, ten miles away, and he couldn't see it clearly.

You don't have to think about it to know.

The boundary of Wujiang County on the opposite side must be a large camp of princes, and there is no edge to be seen.

Chu Tianxiu couldn't help but hesitate.

Since ancient times, the river has been the most difficult threshold to cross.

The ten-mile river is dangerous, and it is more difficult to cross than the wall of the imperial capital Jinling. There are countless famous generals who have returned home by the river.

Cao Cao's 800,000-strong army in the Battle of Chibi was defeated and returned, which is a typical example.

I knew that the other party would definitely attack with fire, but it was still difficult to withstand it.

In order to prevent the princes from attacking at night, the imperial warships were burned with fire.

Zhou Lu took the naval warship into the inland river of Quarry Rock near Danyang and anchored in safe waters.

...

In a flash, more than half a month has passed.

The imperial court did not think of a safe way to cross the river to the north, and the princes did not dare to cross the river to the south, and the situation fell into a stalemate for a while.

In Danyang County.

The blacksmiths of the whole city were not idle, and they hurried to build powder guns, small steel cannons, and bronze cannons.

The Wu army farmers and miscellaneous soldiers who were arrested before, and tens of thousands of the strongest farmers, were all left in Danyang to mine and strike iron.

Tens of thousands of laborers have skyrocketed, making Danyang City's steel production capacity explode again.

Chu Tianxiu also had no good way to cross the river safely, so he was ruthless and ordered to make various styles of bronze cannons.

This bronze cannon can be used as a land cannon...... But in fact, the most suitable place for them is to make naval guns.

Because they are too heavy, they can easily reach 500 catties or 1,000 catties, and it is difficult to transfer them on land. Even if there is a wooden carriage, it is quite troublesome.

The carrying capacity of large warships is tens of thousands of catties, or even more than 100,000 catties, and they can easily carry these heavy cannons.

A thousand catties weighs only ten more people, and for a large warship that can carry hundreds of armor soldiers and a large amount of food and supplies, it is certainly not too much of a problem to carry ten bronze cannons at the same time.

If it is a small steel cannon weighing 50 catties, it can be fixed directly on the warship, and the cannon can be fired, which is naturally simpler. It's just that the range is not far enough, and there is nothing wrong with anything else.

The large warships of the Great Chu Dynasty were all building ships.

They are usually upper, middle, lower, and below deck cabins, with a four-story structure.

The top command platform and the middle level are archers and ranged soldiers.

The lower level is the sword and armor soldiers, spearmen, hook soldiers, and other melee soldiers.

In the cabins below deck are sailors, who are responsible for rowing.

The space inside the large warship is very large. You only need to transform the lower floor into a bronze artillery turret and fix it, and you can upgrade an ordinary building ship into a bronze artillery warship.

This kind of modified warship, of course, is very rudimentary. It cannot be compared with the fleets of later generations. It's definitely too late to redesign a bronze artillery battleship.

But the warships of the princes and enemies did not have bronze artillery at all. There were only archers on board ... In front of the cannons, the archers did not mean anything.

Such a roughly modified gunboat is enough to go sideways on the river!

Chu Tianxiu was in Danyang City during this time, desperately increasing the production of various artillery, and at the same time transforming the three hundred large warships brought by Zhou Lu.

Experiment with firing a cannon on a large warship, and what the effect will be. How far is the range, how accurate and powerful is it, and whether it will capsize the ship.

At first, Zhou Lu was very skeptical about the power and range of the bronze artillery, and how useful it was on the battlefield.

But after seeing it with his own eyes, he simply doubted life.

"Boom!"

On a large building ship, a 1,000-pound bronze main gun opened fire, directly shelling three miles away, knocking a dilapidated old ship out of a big hole.

What is the concept of Sanli? It is almost one-third the width of the river here.

A building ship is placed in the middle of the river, and it can be attacked within six miles to the left and right. The enemy ship was still in the distance and was hit.

Replace it with a small bronze cannon, and you can hit a mile or two away.

The lightest small steel cannon can hit a mile away.

In terms of five hundred paces per mile, the archers only shoot a hundred paces, and only one-fifth of the range of a small steel cannon.

Even if it is only equipped with the lightest small steel cannon, it only needs to keep a certain distance from the local warship, and the enemy warship is pressed to fight.

After the modification of a large building ship, a bronze main gun was added to the front, and ten bronze cannons or twenty small steel cannons on each side were added, which was almost like a hedgehog.

Dozens of shells hit it, and it was impossible for the enemy warship to get close at all, and it would be directly smashed to pieces and sunk into the river to feed the fish.

"It's... The legendary... Artillery? ”

Zhou Lu was on the warship, his ears were almost stunned by the sound of bronze artillery, and his legs trembled.

He fought all his life in water battles, shooting each other with a round of arrows, and then jumping on the opposite boat to fight desperately.

I never thought that such a huge enemy ship could be sunk from a few miles away.

There was no need for close contact between the warships.

Times are about to change!

Artillery is the king of war!