"General Zhao, the last general has to be reminded," when the military tent in the middle of the army was only the marching Sima and the captain, Jin Changtai called Zhao Xingde like this, with a bit of a joke, which was also caused by the happy mood brought by the recognition of Xia Guoying's ownership of Baozhou by the Han army. "The supply of 3,000 stone grain and grass for the Han army is almost half of the grain stored by our army. We are also facing a shortage of food and grass. The military rations were only enough to support them for three months. And when Kim Chang-tae jokes, he usually has a way to deal with it.

Zhao Xingde naturally knew this, and said with a smile: "What about Jin Sima's countermeasures? ”

"There are still three months to harvest the wheat and four months to harvest the red beams." Kim Chang-tae spread his hands, "If you don't want to eat bark and grass roots, you have to buy grain from the Central Plains." This time, 3,000 stone of military rations were delivered, and the battle of Kaizhou will still cost in the future. At least 5,000 stone of grain should be bought. He laughed and said, "This money for buying grain?" ”

"Dongmu Xing will pay five thousand yuan first. If there are still shortcomings, I will find a way. ”

"That's it!" Dongmu Xing is the joint stock of the 8th Battalion of Chengying, which has not yet been registered with Cao, and all the more than 7,000 shares are deposited in the hands of Kim Chang-tae, but they are recorded separately from the military expenses of the 8th Battalion. Jin Changtai nodded and said: "Because of these five thousand stones of grain and grass, the Han army is willing to mortgage the tax in Baozhou." In the future, if the government does not admit it, is this tax collected by Dongmu Bank? "The tax on this land will be collected by Dongmu Bank or the tax collector of the Prime Minister's Mansion, and the meaning will be completely different. If Dongmu Bank has the right to tax, it is equivalent to a de facto land split.

Zhao Xingde shook his head and said, "The Protector Mansion won't be so stupid. He paused for a moment and said in a deep voice: "Gather the centurion and discuss the military again before going on the expedition." ”

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This is the wind blowing over the river, Li Sihai is a little greedy to smell the unique smell of land, people who have been floating on the sea all year round have this problem. The Yalu River is not wide, and the water is green and clear, enough to carry 2,000 ships to sail in the main channel. On the east and west sides of the river, there is a walled city, which seems to guard the two gates of the Yalu River. Laiyuan County on the west bank and Baozhou City on the east bank were in the hands of the Goryeo people, and they were also within the range of the ship's artillery.

Laiyuan County and Baozhou City were built by Liao people, which is slightly different from the Central Plains City, and there are not too many people in the city. The largest walled city is on the hills on the bank of the river, and then the small camps of the garrison are scattered to the riverside like a string of pearls, and finally the wharf water village. The two city walls built on the north and south sides of the camp also extend from the big village perched high on the hill to the wharf, where the dragon is closed, and the wooden city towers stand on the wharf on both sides. On the wharves on both sides, dozens of wooden boats, large and small, are moored, more than a dozen of which are warships with battlements for firing arrows on both sides, and two or three particularly large ships have arrow towers built in the bow and stern.

The Koreans blocked the mouth of the Yalu River and wanted to seize all the goods upstream, which undoubtedly gave Li Sihai an opportunity to show the strength of the sailors. He immediately returned to Yueyang Island by speedboat, gathered all the men and horses of the fourth battalion of Chengying, and almost rushed to kill Baozhou. As for the land, from the understanding of getting along these days, Li Sihai believes that there is no need to discuss with Zhao De. He was convinced that Zhao De, like him, was a person who couldn't tolerate sand in his eyes. Since the 8th Battalion of Seungying was determined to spread its influence on the Yalu River in Taebaeksan, it would never tolerate the provocation of the Goryeo Kingdom. Men like them, with only one arrow in their hands, will immediately shoot into the enemy's ranks.

The Goryeo boats on the docks on both sides spotted the uninvited guest, but they didn't pay much attention to it. Although the appearance of the sea ship in the Chengying Camp is a little strange, it does not look particularly toothy and clawed compared to ordinary sea ships. Although there are not many ships of 2,000 materials in Liaodong, they can often be seen in the port of Goryeo, and among the ships that travel between the Song Kingdom and Goryeo, the hull can only be regarded as medium to small. Therefore, the Goryeo sailors anchored at the dock of Baozhou only made a slight commotion for a moment, and then sent a small boat over, which seemed to treat the warships of the fourth battalion as ordinary merchant ships, and wanted to come up to extort some favors or collect taxes.

"Captain Li, do you want to write a war letter first? Wait for the men and horses of the eighth battalion. ”

"Open the cannon and destroy the Goryeo Navy Building ship first." Li Sihai said expressionlessly, "This is the war book." ”

There were ten gun doors on each side of the ship, the gun windows had long been opened, and the sergeants were on the deck with their swords. Li Sihai's military order was not disobeyed by anyone in the fourth battalion of Chengying. Even Zhao Xingde personally trained the gunners of the newly assigned fourth battalion and did not dare. The marching Sima Wu Mai conveyed the military order, and the gun commander said in a long voice: "Ready-", and the gunners who had been waiting on both sides of the four-inch gun struggled to grasp the cable that bound the gun carriage and dragged the gun carriage back. The gunners in the back were already waiting there with their hands on the medicine bags that had not yet been punched. The position of the artillery reload was calculated a long time ago and was not bad in the slightest. Soon, the cartridge was fed into the chamber, the ramrod kept it close to the bottom of the chamber, and the gunners in front loaded the round cast-iron shells, while the gunners in the rear hurriedly inserted the thin awl through the fire door, pierced a hole in the packet, and inserted the gunpowder fuse. After all this was done, the gunners hurriedly pushed the gun carriage back into place.

While the gunners were busy loading ammunition, under the command of Li Sihai, the warship was slowly turning, and it did not pay any attention to the small boat that was rowing weakly towards this side, and aimed its port side at the Baozhou wharf, where the largest ships of the Goryeo Navy Division were moored. In the lower cabins, there were also gunners who walked up the narrow staircase to carry the separated powder bags and heavy shells to the upper deck where the guns were located. In order to prevent detonation by enemy fire, the compartments of the kits were carefully placed in several separate compartments on the ground floor, and in the event of a fire, the gunners waiting there could pull out the wooden corks and put seawater in to soak the gunpowder. However, this also caused problems in carrying the medicine bag during the battle. After the two gunners were on board, half of the time was spent training to load ammunition, restore gun positions and aiming, and the other half was spent training to quickly carry ammunition in a narrow sea vessel.

Now the gunner and the sailor are still two different systems, so after the marching Sima Wu Mai of the 4th Battalion gave the order to open the artillery, how to aim was the responsibility of the gunner centurion and the gunner. Unlike on land, the narrow gun doors of sea ships limit the freedom of aiming of each gun, and the sea ship itself is constantly shaking, so it becomes a very test of the gun commander's skill to shoot accurately.

"Fire!" The gunner centurion, who was in charge of the port gun emplacement, ordered. From the bow to the stern, the commanders of the guns gave the order to open fire in turn, and the gunners carefully lit the cartridges with their fire crackers. Since Zhao Xingde reorganized the artillery battalion, the speed and length of the combustion of these medicine primers have been tested according to the specifications. The artillery, which is ignited by two breaths before and after, must have been fired to the medicine bag in turn, and not at the same time.

This was the first time the gunners had fought on board, and in the cabin, all the gunners had grim faces, and the gunners on the starboard side put their hands on the cable that bound the gun carriage, as if they did not do so, the cable would suddenly disengage. The gunner carrying the kit even stood between the kit and the port gun position, for fear that a little spark would splash here. At this moment, the deck of the cannon was silent, only the sound of rushing water and the burning of the medicine primer could be heard, and soon, the powder primer of the gun closest to the bow of the ship burned to the end, and the gun commander almost saw a wisp of green smoke coming out of the fire door.

After the military order went down, Li Sihai secretly calculated the time to open fire, and he put his hands on the side of the ship. Although the power of this artillery is amazing, the damage to the hull at the moment of opening the cannon is huge, and Li Sihai suggested in his test report to the Ordnance Department that all the wooden planks be doubled, the keel thickened, the ship's ribs should also be doubled, and then the horizontal ribs should be added, so that the ship itself would not be shaken apart by the artillery. With his keen vision, Li Sihai also proposed to the Ordnance Department that if artillery is used as the main weapon of a sea ship, then the hull of the ship will inevitably be as large as possible, and the large ship will have more gun positions than the small ship, and it can provide the most stable platform for firing guns, and it is also strong, and it can withstand both the waves and the toss of artillery. The only downside is that it costs money.

The small Goryeo boat was getting closer and closer, and the faces of the Goryeo soldiers on the ship could be seen clearly, and Li Sihai even saw the surprised eyes of the other party, needless to say, they had just found the sergeant waiting on the deck.

Just before the Koreans had time to warn the stockade, there was a loud "boom", and a stream of flames with smoke erupted from the port side gun window, and the black cannonballs flew out in an almost visible arc, slamming into the wall of the Baozhou wharf with a strong momentum. Immediately after nine consecutive "boom", "boom" and "boom", accompanied by a huge recoil, the cannonballs fell around the Baozhou Water Village, and the two hit the side of the Gaolilou ship, and immediately penetrated the thin ship. This round of shelling was like a sudden rain in summer, and the Goryeo boats, which were already approaching, were frightened into the water. The four or five sailors above all looked at this side in amazement, not only did they not dare to stop them, but they couldn't even remember to escape.

Li Sihai admired with satisfaction the sawdust flying everywhere on the ship: "The first shelling, it was not bad. He still felt a little regretful in his heart, after all, these gunners were not trained by him. When the 10th gun on the port side opened fire, the sailors immediately changed their sails and rocked the oars, aiming the starboard side of the ship in the direction of the Baozhou wharf.

The sound of artillery roared across both sides of the Yalu River. On the official road four or five miles away from Laiyuan County, Zhao Xingde squinted his eyes and smiled at Jin Changtai: "It seems that the fourth battalion arrived before us." "Right next to them, the sergeants of the eighth battalion maintained a marching formation, and advanced unhurriedly towards the place where the cannon was fired.