Chapter 493: Shi Lang's Loss

"Good!"

Andong County was the first to applaud, "Congratulations to Lord Caotai!" The ships of this thief must be on fire! ”

At this moment, like a stone stirring up a thousand waves, the staff and subordinate officials in the room got up one after another and went along with them.

"Lord Caotai is wise and far-sighted, talking and laughing, the thief is wiped out......"

"Ahem, even if Kong Ming and Zhou Yu come back to life, I'm afraid it's just that!"

"That's a mistake! Can Cao Bing have a fast artillery giant ship? Zhou Yu Kongming is far inferior! ”

"This gang of thieves claims to be undefeated in a hundred battles since the beginning of the army, but today they were finally defeated by Cao Shuai!"

……

The atmosphere of Wanghailou suddenly changed from solemn to relaxed.

Only Zhang Tianlu did not speak.

He knows very well - "the river is full of fireworks", not necessarily the thief's ship is burning.

Because, their warships have guns and cannons, and there is a lot of gunpowder on board, and now Tangbao only clouds are "full of fireworks", but they have not heard the sound of gunpowder explosion, which means that the warships of the Ming thieves have not been damaged.

Chen Jin's face was a little pale, but as a feudal official, he paid attention to joy and anger, so he only twisted his beard and said nothing, and ordered to send someone to investigate the truth again......

……

"Ganlin's mother!"

Shi Lang scolded fiercely.

The fleet that was going downwind was relatively easy to dodge the drifting fire attack ships at the beginning because it was upwind and the visibility was good.

But now, one by one, the burning fires were flowing down the river, and many of them had drifted behind them, and the smoke was so thick that people could hardly open their eyes, and the visibility became very poor, making the situation unpredictable all at once.

The most annoying thing is that the burning straw was blown up by the wind and turned into a sky full of sparks, igniting a lot of cloth products on the ship, although the flammable materials were put away early, but the handsome flag on the "Graflazone" was still burned a few holes.

Shi Lang paced back and forth on the bridge, trying to observe his surroundings.

The fact that the forward fleet is safe and sound does not mean that his second echelon can also escape.

In order to try to maintain course in the rapids, his troop carriers did not dare to drop their sails, and the low hull made it more difficult to avoid the flying sparks.

The smoke obstructed his view, which not only shortened his reaction time to evade, but also prevented him from seeing the boats.

He was very worried, although Commander Zhang's main force was almost all in the front and did not seem to have suffered losses, his own more than 2,000 men and horses were all behind.

Coupled with the full load of grain and grass, all kinds of materials, and the thousands of people and craftsmen, he felt distressed about any loss.

"Watch out for fire!"

Shi Lang gave an order while paying attention to the river.

Now, the river was full of burning ships, and the "Graffran", which led the way, was constantly rammed by the fire attacking ships, although there were sailors pushing the ships in front of them.

Each collision kicks up a large amount of burning straw, and in some cases, the scattered straw can even land on the deck.

Fortunately, although the straw fire was very strong, the staying power was not strong, as long as the sailors slapped it in time, it quickly turned into black fly ash.

However, this is already dangerous.

Shi Lang's face was blackened, and he kept shouting loud orders, and his whole body was soaked with sweat......

Suddenly, there was a hurried whistle from the smoke behind the troop carrier in distress, and Shi Lang's heart suddenly tightened.

Judging from the sound of the whistle, there were probably two or three troop carriers that were on fire, however, he could only know the general location of the ships in distress based on the sound, and he could not see which ones were in distress and what the situation was......

Fortunately, a gust of wind blew in time, blowing away a lot of black smoke shrouded in the river, and Shi Lang saw the surrounding situation clearly.

Floating on all sides were flaming fire-attacking ships, some of which had run aground on the shore, while others had collided and tangled together in the drift, forming huge burning fires, which slowly swirled along the river and drifted downstream.

Suddenly, Shi Lang's heart sank suddenly.

In the convoy of troop transports, one ship was surrounded by several fires.

The fire had consumed the sails, and the sailors were fighting desperately on the side of the ship, which had not yet been engulfed by the flames, but the flames were getting stronger and stronger, and they were almost approaching the cabin and stern.

"Signal them to abandon ship!"

Shi Lang stomped his feet and shouted.

Although reluctant, the matter has come to this point, and no matter how desperately he rescues, he will only take the lives of the soldiers in vain.

The plan had already been issued, and if it could not be saved, all the people on board had to be evacuated to friendly warships according to the order.

Shi Lang secretly resented, if only these small boats had as many sails as cannon ships, so that even if the mainsail fell, they could remain stable, instead of desperately holding on to the danger of fire, and it would be much easier to splash water on the sail.

"!"

Schneider suddenly scolded angrily.

He saw that another boat not far away was also on fire, but it was still fighting, and hurriedly ordered: "Order to abandon ship!" Fast! ”

At a glance, the ship had been dragged out of the mess of fire attack ships by nearby friendly forces, however, it was in flames from end to end, and its captain and sailors were still trying to extinguish the fire.

They were fighting desperately on the small back deck that had not yet burned, and some of them themselves became burning people, still fluttering......

Several boats next to it also leaned in, and some sailors quickly lowered the pumping pump and extinguished the fire with a water hose.

Shi Lang knew that for the captain, the warship was his life.

No captain wants to abandon the ship easily, and when the ship is gone, he is nothing.

Suddenly, a white light flashed in the middle of the ship, and then a violent explosion resounded across the river - the ammunition on board was destroyed!

The violent explosion tore the hull to shreds, and in an instant, the part above the waterline of the ship was gone, and one of the exploding planks slammed into the deck of the other ship, and white smoke was billowing up.

The captain and the sailors disappeared in the flames of the explosion in an instant, and a black thing flew in front of Shi Lang's eyes and fell into the mixed river.

Shi Lang was dizzy, and a sharp pain suddenly came from his heart.

I don't know if this ship is loaded with supplies or people, if it is full of soldiers or migrant workers, the loss will be great.

Although Shi Lang's most relied on Iron Man Army was on the "Graffran", the rest of his soldiers were also the elite of the Zheng Army, and he was reluctant to lose every person.

He clutched the handrail on the bridge and shouted, "Send a signal to the ships behind to salvage the living brethren!" ”

It appears that the explosion not only wiped out the crew of the ship, but also caused casualties on several ships that were rescued around it, one of which presumably blew up the rudder and immediately lost control and drifted sideways.

Several nearby boats immediately hooked it with pennies, and several sailors jumped on it desperately to control the ship.

Shi Lang was annoyed for a while, he felt that he was a little reckless today.

Fire attacks are extremely difficult to deal with, and if we knew that there were so many enemy ships, we should probably retreat first and fight them in an open place on the river, instead of rushing into this narrowest place to break into this fireship formation.

(End of chapter)