What was the secret weapon of the Roman navy?

The April breeze was warm and humid, refreshing, and the vast sea was dotted with white sails, and the huge Don fleet sailed on the Persian Gulf.

On the deck of the third floor of the ironclad ship, Li You and Liu Renliang were talking, and opposite Li You, sat a big cannibal with a wrapped head, this person was in his 30s, tall and thin, with a half-foot-long beard, his name was Ma Yinuo, a naval liaison officer sent by Pei Dilan, and at this moment, he was telling about his experience of fighting the Roman navy.

The Great Food Empire was a new empire, with a dilapidated shipbuilding industry in the country, and their navy was only receiving the original naval ships of the conquered countries, and they were not skilled enough in the use of the navy.

Last May, the Great Cannibal cobbled together more than 900 warships and carried more than 10,000 soldiers around the Balkans to cross the Aegean Sea and attack Constantinople.

At the beginning, Ma Yinuo introduced some basic information with a natural demeanor and a flat tone, and when it came to the specific combat process, Li You and Liu Renliang found that Ma Yinuo was obviously nervous, and there was a frightened look in his eyes.

Li You and Liu Renliang glanced at each other, feeling a little surprised, and didn't understand what terrible things Ma Yinuo had experienced.

Ma Yinuo was silent for a moment, his hands trembled slightly, and he said: "That night, our army was sailing on the sea, and I could already see the faint lights of Constantinople in the distance.

I reported what I found to the Commander-in-Chief, who ordered a direct attack on the Romans' warships, and our army was so large that the Romans in front had no way to retreat, and as long as they were surrounded, they would be able to annihilate them all.

When the Roman ships saw our army attacking them, they retreated in the direction of the port.

Seeing that the Romans did not have many warships, and fled in a hurry, everyone was very excited, thinking that the sneak attack was successful, Constantinople was in front, everyone was riveted to rush into the city, capture the Roman emperor alive, rob them of their treasures and women, and later ...... "Speaking of this, he couldn't go on, his eyes straightened, and his body trembled even more.

Seeing him like this, Bandy handed him a cup of tea, Ma Yinuo took the tea, his hands were still trembling, and the water in the teacup splashed out.

Li You, Liu Renliang and the others all felt a little funny when they saw him scared like this, and they didn't urge him, but just quietly waited for him to regain his composure.

After a long time, Ma Yinuo finally regained his composure, he put down the teacup in his hand, and continued: "Seeing that we were about to catch up with the Roman warship, at this moment, a fire suddenly broke out on the sea in front of us, and then it spread towards us, and then, and then there were fires everywhere, and a sea of fire became around it.

I was on the first [fo] ship, and the ship soon burst into flames. Everyone was attracted by the story he told, Li You was thoughtful, and Liu Renliang asked in surprise: "How can there be a fire on the sea?" ”

Ma Yinuo didn't answer, just shook his head.

Bundy was also very nervous, forgetting her identity for a while, she couldn't help but ask, "My lord, how did you escape?" ”

Ma Yinuo said: "After the warship caught fire, I wanted to jump into the sea to escape, but the sea was full of fire, and the soldiers were all in chaos.

The sails of the ship were also on fire, and we had to row with the oars, and the fire was so blazing that we couldn't bear it, so we jumped into the sea, and I jumped into the sea, and I held my breath in the sea, and swam desperately forward, and after swimming for a while, I couldn't hold my breath anymore, so I stuck out my head to breathe.

As soon as my head came out of the sea, my head immediately caught fire, I took a breath and hurriedly dived into the sea again.

After swimming a short distance, I felt depressed again, and I had to raise my head to breathe, this time I had some experience, when my head was out of the sea, I first stroked a few times with my hand, and temporarily removed the fire above my head, this time it was better, and in this way, I slowly left the sea of fire, and finally escaped with my life. ”

Speaking of this, Ma Yinuo was silent, but he still looked frightened.

Parti couldn't help but cover her little mouth with her hand because she was nervous, and when she heard him escape from the fire, she put her hand down, and she couldn't help asking, "What happened later?" ”

Ma Yinuo said: "You look at the beard I have, don't you think it's a little strange? In our country, only old people generally have such a long beard. ”

After saying that, he lifted his beard, and saw that there were obvious scars on his chin and neck, and he lifted his collar again, and there were large scars on the back of his neck, which everyone felt shocked to see.

Ma Yinuo continued: "In this battle, our army suffered a heavy defeat, the losses were too great, there were a total of 23,000 people in the navy and army when we set out, and less than 2,000 people were able to escape with their lives in the end. After saying that, he sighed and shook his head again and again.

Liu Renliang was not interested in these things that Ma Yinuo said, his attention was still on the question just now, and he asked again: "How can there be fire on the sea?" ”

Li You was also thinking about this question just now, and now that he had figured it out, he asked, "Did you smell a strange, pungent smell on the surface of the sea before the fire?" ”

Ma Yinuo said in surprise: "Yes! Your Highness, how do you know? There was indeed a foul smell on the surface of the sea at that time. ”

Li You then asked, "Is there something slimy on the surface of the sea?" ”

Ma Yinuo was even more surprised, and he said, "Yes." When I fled from the fire, there was a layer of slimy, oil-like stuff sticking to my body and clothes, and I couldn't wash it off for half a day. ”

When Liu Renliang heard this, he asked curiously, "Lord Wang, do you know the reason for this?"

Li You nodded and said, "There's nothing strange about this, you know the fierce fire oil we use, right?" ”

Liu Renliang nodded thoughtfully.

Li You continued: "The fierce fire oil is refined from crude oil, and the Romans they met used crude oil, which was very light, and they poured crude oil on the surface of the sea, and then ignited the crude oil, which caused this fire. ”

Liu Renliang suddenly realized and said: "So that's the case, the fierce fire oil can also be ignited on the water!" ”

Li You searched for relevant materials on the Science and Technology Library and saw the term "Greek fire".

Greek fire (Greek: Υγρ?Πυρ) is a liquid incendiary invented by the Eastern Roman Empire that can be burned on water or in water, it is an early thermal weapon, mainly used in naval warfare, "Greek fire", "Greek gunpowder" or "Roman fire" is just the name of the Arabs for this terrorist weapon, and the Eastern Romans themselves called it "fire of the sea", "mobile fire", "liquid flame", "artificial fire" and "fire of defense" and so on.

After Li You popularized the relevant knowledge to everyone, everyone looked at him with admiration.