The sky was blue and white, and suddenly the south wind blew, and then there were clouds of dense fog that came from nowhere, covering the entire waterway of the Yangtze River.

When Lü Meng saw the fog, he immediately led the entire Dongwu Navy to dispatch, this time, he still only brought the fighting ships and Meng Chong to participate in the operation, and all the building ships were left in the territory of the Lujiang River.

Once dispatched, he required his subordinates to advance at the fastest speed, thanks to the fact that the Soochow naval army was indeed well-trained and very familiar with the Yangtze River waterways in Jiangxia.

Soon he quietly came to the advance base of the Central Navy in Jiangxia, near the naval army Dazhai in Exian County.

Because there was a thick fog on the river, and it was already evening, the Yangtze River Fleet did not send patrol boats as usual.

Lu Meng confirmed the location he had arrived in through his own small boat sailing close to the river bank.

After receiving confirmation that he had approached the naval army Dazhai in Exian County, Lü Meng sent dozens of Mengchong ships to the access channel outside the naval army.

After confirming that there was indeed no one patrolling, these Mengchong boats lined up at the entrance and exit of the entire naval army.

The soldiers of the Soochow Navy struggled to move out of the cabin a large black ball-shaped creature with a long iron chain attached to it, and an anchor at the other end.

They lowered the anchor one by one into the river, and then lightly put the black balls into the river, and the black iron balls floated on the surface of the river.

After putting away all the hundreds of black iron balls, the Meng Chong of the Eastern Wu Navy carefully passed through the gaps in these black iron balls.

After this, Lü Meng continued to lead the fleet westward, until it reached the confluence of the two rivers in Hankou, and once again repeated the action just now, and once again dropped nearly a hundred black balls at the mouth of the Han River that joins the Yangtze River.

After the dinghy returned to the team, Lu Meng let out a long breath, fortunately there was no accident, but he knew how powerful these treasures were, and when he heard about the experiment, many people died.

Now that the setup has been successfully completed and safe and sound, this is basically half the battle.

He led the fleet back as the fog began to dissipate on the river.

When Lü Meng returned to the division and passed through Exian, the lookout post in the Dazhai of the Navy had already been able to see the fleet of the Dongwu Navy and immediately sounded the alarm.

Li Meng learned that the fleet of the Eastern Wu Navy took advantage of the fog to secretly go upstream, and he didn't know what they did, which was a great dereliction of duty.

At that moment, he did not dare to delay, and immediately ordered the whole army to set sail, whether it was a building ship or a fighting ship and Meng Chong, as fast as possible.

As a result, something unexpected happened to Meng Chong, a ship that rushed to the front, and it accidentally touched the black iron ball placed by the Dongwu Navy at the gate of Dazhai.

With an earth-shattering bang, the black iron ball exploded violently, exploding a column of water on the surface of the river.

The unfortunate Meng Chong was suddenly pushed into the air by the flames of the explosion, a foot or two above the water, and it was broken in two, and it broke at the waist.

It turned out that this black iron ball was the secret weapon of the latest invention of the Jiujiang Academy of Wei and Wu, called a water mine.

The two hundred mines were produced by the military factory under the Jiujiang Academy day and night.

Outside is a layer of iron shell that is not heavy, filled with black powder and a touch fuse developed by Jiujiang Academy itself, and a mine is enough to sink a fighter-level warship.

Although the fog gradually dissipated at this time, the sky was not yet light, and it was the darkest hour before dawn.

The rest of the warships of the Yangtze River Fleet had not yet reacted, and they had never thought that the Soochow Navy could have any weapons such as mines.

Therefore, the other warships were still in the inertia of sprinting, and as a result, several Mengchong and fighting ships hit mines one after another, and violent explosions occurred and sank one after another.

It was only at this time that someone noticed something strange in the water, sent an emergency signal, and all the warships stopped the emergency by dropping anchor.

The Yangtze River Fleet began to carefully search the water surface at this time, and sure enough, it was found that the entry and exit channels of the water village were covered with this kind of black iron ball, floating and sinking in the water, but not floating away.

Look at the power of the explosion just now, it was very amazing, even the larger fighting ships were all blown up and sunk at once.

Li Meng believes that even if the building boat bumps into it, the end will not be much better.

Therefore, when Lü Meng's fleet swaggered through the waterway outside Dazhai, the Yangtze River fleet could only watch dryly, but could not attack.

The sailors of the Soochow Navy Army saw that their old opponents who had suffered so much also had a day of deflatedness, and they shouted excitedly one by one, and they were a little carried away.

They whistled and made obscene gestures to the officers and men of the Central Navy, and loudly greeted the female relatives of the officers and men of the Central Navy.

Annoyed, Li Meng ordered several ships equipped with artillery to start shelling at the edge of the mine array.

In any case, the artillery of the Central Navy can shoot at a distance of 500 feet.

The Dongwu naval army got carried away, and it was not only three or four hundred zhang away from the water village, but it was completely within the range of artillery.

As a dozen shells whistled, one of the hapless ships began to capsize when they were near the waterline.

The warships of the Eastern Wu Navy have just woken up like a dream, and the Central Army still has artillery to use.

As a result, all the warships of the Soochow Navy desperately stayed away from the side of the water village and returned downstream.

However, in any case, it is undeniable that the Soochow naval forces successfully blocked the Yangtze River Fleet with mines.

They also blocked the mouth of the Han River, making it impossible for the entire Yangtze River Fleet to support the Han army's siege of Xiangyang by water during the Battle of Xiangyang.

The tactical intent was achieved and Zhou Yu's strategic vision was completed.

After Lu Bu learned the news, he could only secretly admire Zhou Yu.

The war wisdom of the ancients is not inferior to their own, isn't this the mine developed by others themselves?

Lü Bu could only send a letter to Li Meng, telling Li Meng what he knew about the mine-clearing methods, and asking them to try to clear the mines and strive to restore navigation as soon as possible.

After all, the waterway was blocked, not only could the warships be unable to sail, but many materials from the direction of Yizhou could not be transported by water.

The Wei-Wu coalition forces are now stubbornly holding the last strategic passage of Caiyang-Zaoyang-Fuyang-Tongbai Dafushan to ensure the supply of materials to Xiangyang City.

The war is in full swing, and the intelligence department has fewer and fewer channels to transmit information.

The Wei and Wu armies were also on guard against the spy personnel of the Han army to guard against leaks.

Even so, there was still an important piece of information coming out of Xiangyang City, and it was confirmed by Li Su that the source was reliable.

(End of chapter)