Of course, the Han army also thought of using tunnels to attack the city, and specially transferred several engineer battalions for this purpose.

However, the two tunnels they dug were discovered by the Wei-Wu coalition forces, one was blown up, and the other was filled with water from the Han River.

The two sides were once again at a stalemate, but unlike Cao Cao and Zhou Yu's growing anxiety, Lu Bu seemed to have been looking forward to it.

Jiaozhou Bay, thousands of sails gathered, thousands of large and small ships, almost crowded the huge Jiaozhou Bay.

There are countless ships on the water, and the land is also crowded with people.

Groups of officers and men of the Han Army wearing black military uniforms were orderly boarding the big ships and small boats moored on the shore.

Fill one, sail away from one, and immediately a new ship will come in to take over.

It can be seen that there are quite a few building ships mixed in the middle, but all the externally visible equipment has been removed, such as slapsticks, trebuchets, bed crossbows, etc., and converted into transport ships.

There are also many newer, purpose-built transports with wide pedals that go directly to the pier or trestle, allowing soldiers and horses to enter the cabins directly.

High on the shore, stood a group of men dressed as officers in distinctly distinctive costumes.

The black uniforms are army officers, and they have an armband on their left arm on their uniforms, and the pattern is a bird of prey flying under the scorching sun, which is Hai Dongqing, and people who are familiar with the situation of the Han army can recognize this as the armband of the Haotian Army.

The other half of the officers were snow-white uniforms, with different ornaments on the cuffs, all of which were golden, and at first glance they were high-ranking officers of the Navy.

The highest-ranking is the Minister of the Navy Xu Sheng, and the tall red-faced man next to him is the commander of the Yellow Sea Fleet, Gan Ning, commander is a new term invented by Lu Bu, of course, this is what Lu Bu himself said.

The tall, thin man next to him, who was obviously much weaker, was Lu Su, the deputy commander of the Yellow Sea Fleet.

The generals of the Haotian Army who stood with them were none other than Ma Chao, Sima Yi and the four division commanders.

The Haotian Army and the Central Navy are going to carry out a large-scale mission together, and I dare not say that they can be defeated, but it is absolutely unprecedented.

For this mission, everyone has made careful preparations.

Just in order to conceal the ubiquitous spies of Wei and Wu, and mobilize the Haotian Army to participate in the war, a large number of troops from the servant armies of various ethnic groups and the National Defense Army were mobilized successively.

In the name of changing guards, exercising expeditions against barbarians, etc., the various units of the Haotian Army that should have been in other places were secretly gathered here.

Many special transport ships have also been specially built to better transport people and horses.

Now everything is ready, just waiting for Lu Bu's military order.

And today I finally received Lu Bu's military order, the content is very simple, "Action!" Everything is according to plan, and Ma Chao and Sima Yi can make decisions on the spot. ”

For this mission, the Haotian Army was all dispatched, four divisions participated in the battle together, and even the artillery regiment also went out with the army, in order to transport those artillery, but it took a lot of effort.

In addition to building, refitting, and requisitioning a large number of merchant ships and transport ships, the Central Navy has also formed the most powerful escort fleet in history.

The two 1,000-ton galleons that had recently entered service were called sail battleships by Lu Bu and named the Taishan class.

This galleon still retains a double deck, with nine six-inch guns on one side of the upper deck and nine eight-inch guns on one side of the lower floor, plus two six-inch guns at the bow and stern, for a total of forty guns.

In particular, the newly assembled eight-inch guns, cast with the latest cannon steel, were almost as heavy as the six-inch cast iron guns, and the charge and firing range were almost twice as large as the six-inch guns.

In addition, there are six 800-ton Huashan-class warships, 16 500-ton Chang'an-class warships, and 10 300-ton reconnaissance ships.

In addition, the fleet also carried the original assault brigade, which had been officially renamed the 1st Marine Division, and they went out with the fleet, and they, like the Haotian Army, had been reequipped with Ma's rifles.

The size of the Taishan-class sail battleship is huge, and when the sails are full, it really covers the sky and the sun, and it is magnificent.

Xu Sheng and other admirals were very proud of their two giant ships, and Xu Sheng made a special trip to see off everyone, especially the Taishan-class warships.

Gan Ning and Lu Su will command the escort fleet and the mixed fleet this time, and they will each be in charge of a Taishan-class battleship.

When the hour came, the trumpets sounded, the trumpets sounded, all the ships raised their sails, and everyone stood on deck, waving goodbye to the crowd on the shore.

The convoy opened the way ahead, and the convoy followed in a mighty way.

All ships sailed offshore from the coastline to prevent anyone on land from seeing the fleet's movements and revealing their whereabouts.

Within 100 miles of Jiaozhou Bay, military management has long been implemented, and no entry is allowed but no exit is allowed to prevent leakage of secrets.

The entire Grand Fleet went so smoothly and smoothly to the open sea at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The reconnaissance ship has already discovered that there is a small fleet of the Soochow Navy at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and there are several fighting ships and Mengchong, which should be used for long-range early warning.

Through the flag, Lu Su received Gan Ning's order to lead six Chang'an-class galleons and six reconnaissance ships to clear the obstacles.

The Dongwu Navy did not dare to engage in the battle at all, and when they saw the tall Taishan level from a distance, they were so frightened that they fled.

Lu Su was in hot pursuit, and the news that the Soochow Navy had mines had been notified to the Navy as soon as possible.

Therefore, after entering the mouth of the Yangtze River, Lu Su asked the reconnaissance ship to open the way in front, search carefully, and be careful of mines.

Soon, Lu Su's fleet marched to the vicinity of the original Dongwu Navy Dazhai Dantu, and did not encounter mines along the way, looking at this posture, the Dongwu Navy had given up the mouth of the Yangtze River.

When the ship sailed here, it was found that the Dantu Dazhai, which had been attacked once by the central army, was already empty.

Those fighting ships and Meng Chong who escaped from the estuary continued to flee upstream, and it seemed that the Soochow Navy had moved their Dazhai away.

Lu Su sent two reconnaissance ships to follow the warships of Soochow to the upper reaches to have a look, and he himself sent another reconnaissance ship to deliver a message to Gan Ning's army.

Because the target of their trip was Guangling City on the other side of the Dantu.

The strategic plan formulated by Lu Bu is still to start with the north and then the south, and then the east and then the west.

The huge battle of Xiangyang was launched only to attract the attention of Wei and Wu to the greatest extent and mobilize the elite main forces of Wei and Wu to Xiangyang.

The reason why Lü Bu did not attack Sun Quan first was because he always believed that Wei was more threatening than Wu, and the alliance between the two countries was also dominated by Wei.

As long as the Wei State is defeated, the remaining Wu State does not have to worry.

Soon, the reconnaissance ship that followed the small boat of the Soochow Navy to the upstream came back and reported that the new Dazhai of the Soochow Navy was set up in Niuzhu.

In addition, a mine array was set up on the surface of the Yangtze River near Jiangcheng, blocking the entire Yangtze River waterway, leaving only a passage for ships below the fighting ship to pass through.

Niu Zhu

(End of chapter)