The two armies marched in the opposite direction, and collided head-on at the fourth quarter of the unitary hour when it was dark, and Bailiyan ordered to anchor and stop the ship ten miles away:

"Jiang Jie, order the ship to stop!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Each ship of the coalition forces was equipped with a number of flag-speaking hands, which were signaled by two-color flags during the day and marked by two torches at night, and were combined with different limbs to facilitate the transmission of orders.

Compared with the current situation, which still relies on relatively simple and abstract means of communication such as simply waving flags and blowing trumpets, the rich body language is more advanced, and the content that can be expressed is hundreds or thousands, which greatly enriches the content of orders.

In the night, you can see that the river is densely lit, and there is a great plan to prepare for a night battle.

"My lord, there are small boats in front of the enemy, and the big ships are lined up behind the small boats, and if our army stops here and attacks them, it will be extremely unfavorable to our army." Jiang Jie said.

"The night battle of the navy is not good for both sides, especially when the upstream ship hits downstream, the water situation is unclear, and it is even more unfavorable for the upstream ship. Give the order to the thirty boats in the front row, open the distance horizontally, lower the boats, and pour fat into the river. ”

"Yes, my lord!"

The oil was packed in wooden barrels, of different sizes, large barrels could hold more than 50 catties, small ones could hold more than 10 catties, and each warship of the coalition forces carried 200 pounds in case of emergency. The oil poured into the water and quickly went down the river, floating on the surface of the water or sticking to the outside of the hull, making it difficult to distinguish in the dark.

At the same time, after the coalition forces stopped the ship, Mooney decisively ordered the ship to stop, and at this time it was less than eight miles away from the coalition army:

"Your Excellency, the northerners stopped their ships at this time, which is beneficial to our army, and our army should surround them in one go, why do you also stop the ships and hold your troops?" Norenga urged.

"It was so dark that I couldn't see anything on the river except the fire. They came only in big boats, not small boats. Perhaps it was the time to wait for the light of our fleet to be exposed when it was dark, so that they could use small boats to ram us along the shallow waters on the banks of the river, loaded with black fire powder.

Immediately send a command to the navy, send several small boats to the front of the sentry, and each large ship to the left and right of the two small boats to keep a close eye on the surface and underwater, and at the same time have the cavalry set up a bonfire on the shore to prevent their small boats from sneaking up along the shallow waters,"

"Obedience"

About half an hour had passed, and there was a noise in the cabin:

"Norenga, what's going on in the cabin?"

"I don't know, I'll take a look."

Norengar stepped down the deck to the lower cabin, the noise coming from the galley in the aft hold:

"What's the situation, noisy and yelling!"

"Qi Yu belongs to the head of the group, we are preparing the broth, and the result is ......"

The man pointed to a cauldron, only to see a large black unknown substance floating on the iron pot, and Norenga hurriedly asked:

"How is the soup this color!"

"That's the kind of water that comes up from the river, it's never been seen before, it's full of unpleasant fishy smell."

"Then don't you just pour it out and change the water."

"I've changed it many times, and it's always like this."

The man was busy fetching a new bucket of water from the porthole, and there was still a layer of black slime floating on the clear water, faintly emitting a fishy smell. Norengar came to the deck with a bucket and explained the details:

"Your Excellency, you see, there's something like ink floating on this bucket."

Mooney took the torch and leaned down to poke his head down, dipped a little of it with his hand, looked at it closely, and was immediately startled:

"Black water oil, this is black water oil!"

"Black water oil? At the beginning, the black water oil that came out of the ground in the West Mountain of Cupy Gongxi! ”

"It must be. This black oil is sticky and not dry, it ignites when it is ignited, and the black smoke is poisonous, which is very powerful. But how can there be black water and oil here, could it be that the northerners poured it into the river? ”

Mooney quickly realizes that the situation is not good, but Norenga disagrees:

"How can oil be boiled in water, there must be a dry burning material to burn."

"No, Temir and Nakikas, who confronted the northerners in the western mountains, said in May that the northerners attacked them with a stone cannon cart that fired burning black water oil, and the black water oil could still burn when it fell on the swamp. Could it be that this kind of thing can't burn up even if it floats on the water? ”

Thinking of this, Mooney casually inserted the torch into the barrel, and with a bang, the air expanded, and the oil floating on the water surface rushed to the front of him fiercely, and Norenga was simply shocked:

"This ...... The hateful northerners are plotting against us! ”

The next moment Mooney was busy:

"Quick, blow the trumpet, let all the ships row to the shore at once, and let the sailors come ashore."

"Yes!"

As soon as the words fell, there was a commotion on the boat, and someone shouted:

"Look, it's fire, it's on fire upstream!"

Mooney looked at the voice, and his face suddenly turned pale:

"Damn, row to the shore, quick!"

The coalition forces dumped a total of more than 100,000 catties of oil upstream, and a large fire burned the entire surface of the river, and the fire was spectacular.

"This thing stinks, my lord" Jiang Jie grinned and covered his nose, full of disgust.

"Bear with me, and you'll be fine in a while."

Bai Liyan was also flustered and disgusted by the amazing smell, he knew that the source of the fishy smell was different from the different types of oil, and the composition of hydrogen sulfide and hydride was different, but he didn't expect it to be so strange and smelly in reality.

Most of the oil used by the Black Turban Army is asphalt, with only a very small fishy smell. The oil from Xishan began to spew out of the ground, with a strong stench, and it is said that the Soviet side ordered people to collect it, and many people were smoked.

The fire spread all the way downstream with the oil, the speed was extremely fast, the small boat that rushed to the front did not have time to evacuate the first fire, and the one that had docked was also not spared, the hull was contaminated with oil fire, and the hull burned extremely violently, and the Jinxuedi people rushed to the shore, and many people fell into the water and drowned in the chaos.

Mooney's flagship ran aground in panic and was forced to change to a small boat to land, which was extremely embarrassing. Looking at the raging fire on the river, he was heartbroken:

"I didn't even go on a round, and I lost to them, how can I continue the fight!"

Nolunga then said:

"Your Excellency, warships and sailors are docking, and we have not yet been defeated. They can only set fire to the river, and when the upstream ships arrive, we can still hunt them down. ”

"No, you're wrong. We have been defeated, not on the battlefield, but on morale. Look at our fighters for yourself, one by one is like a frightened reservoir dog, in their eyes there is nothing but fear or fear, where is the courage to fight, we have no morale to compete with them. ”

"This ......"

The generals were silent, and the frustration of frustration jumped on their faces.

At this time, the river surface was all opened, and all the warships blocking the river were leaning towards both banks, some ran aground, some caught fire, and some survived, and countless people escaped from the fire, and the scene was chaotic.

Bai Liyan put away the binoculars and shook her head, not satisfied with the results:

"The enemy's reaction was too fast, and it was a pity that a fire failed to sink several large ships on the river, killing and wounding tens of thousands of people."

At this time, Jiang Jie put down the binoculars but his face was happy:

"My lord, the river has been opened, and the enemy ships have evacuated to both sides of the river, and the sailors have gone ashore, why don't our troops take the opportunity to rob their boats."

"It's not easy to say, don't look at their boat leaning against the shore, once our army gets close, the inside oars will not be able to play a role, and it is very likely that they will collide with their boat, and it is possible to run aground and hit the reef."

"My lord, our army can use rope hooks to tie up its angle of attack, and there is no need to approach at all, just use our ship to pull away the enemy's good ship."

"Oh, that's a good idea."

Unlike the later heavy sail battleships and early ironclad ships, the draft is deeper, and the angle of attack is placed below the bow water level, which is used to ram the cabins and keels below the waterline on the side of the enemy ship, causing great damage.

Most of the early wooden ships were light and shallow, and the main cabins were located above the waterline, and the space utilization rate below the waterline was not high, so the angle of attack was mostly located above the water surface, and the height was directly opposite the main hull cabin. With the rope hook bolt main angle of attack, it can be pulled away by another ship without boarding, and it is very maneuverable.

Of course, it was still possible for the Jinxuedi to cut the ropes, but a warship that was busy fleeing for its life was obviously easier to attack than a fully manned and heavily armed warship.

After careful consideration, Baili Yan asked people to row small boats and pass the plans to the captains of each boat separately.

In the second half of the night, the fire spread downstream with the current, and the fleet quickly lifted anchor, quickly switched from a horizontal column to a column on both sides, and sailed slowly from the east and west sides of the Bertila River.

During this period, a small boat was sent to rush in front of the fleet, and the veteran soldier who was familiar with the water jumped into the water, swam the cable with an iron hook to the enemy ship, nailed it to the corner of the attack, and tied the other end to the big boat, and forcibly dragged it away.

The warships that did not run aground and caught fire were easily towed away by the coalition forces, and the stranded ones took some effort. Seeing that there were still remnants on the ship, Baili Yan ordered:

"Jiang Jie, send orders to all ships, send people to board the ship, sweep away the remnants, and quickly control the ships!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Allied sailors quickly boarded the captured ships in small boats to clear out the few Jinxuedi people.

Seeing this situation, Norengar was angry and couldn't get rid of it, and repeatedly asked for battle, with the permission of the legion commander Mooney, trying to recapture the ships, and after a fierce battle, both sides won and lost, and the coalition still won more and lost less, and the fierce battle lasted until dawn, and Norenga only captured three ships, most of which were still not recaptured.

"My lord, a total of twenty-seven warships have been captured this time, as well as five ships of 3,000 stones." Jiang Jie said quickly, his excitement overflowing.

"Order the ships, transfer the sailors to the new ship, and leave the Bertila River for Bougrat as soon as possible."

"Yes!"

The coalition fleet withdrew from the waters of the incident downstream, and Mooney waited for reinforcements from the upstream navy in the morning, but failed to pursue it.

"Norunga, how many ships and soldiers have our army lost." Mooney asked in a deep voice, his face expressionless.

"Two hundred and thirty-four small boats were burned, twelve large boats were burned or sunk, five were injured, and twenty-seven were taken. More than 1,900 people were drowned and killed, and more than 1,000 were injured. In general, the losses of the soldiers were not very large. ”

"Humph!" Mooney snorted coldly: "We are so embarrassed, it is not the soldiers who are lost, but our military might." You see, the northerners are not as vulnerable as you think. All things being equal, they're like fish in the water, slippery! ”

"Then are we still chasing?"

"If you can get your soldiers to row faster than they do, you can chase them. If not, let people go to the Taryon River immediately, if it is right, the situation on the Taryon River will not be too good, even worse than ours! ”

"Understood, Your Excellency"

At this time, another of Mooney's naval forces stopped Sikong Nan in the Tarun River, and Sikong Nan also chose to go downstream.

Different from Bailiyan's night fire attack, Sikong Nan encountered Jin Xuedi's naval army during the day, and blocked half of the river with oil and fire attack, forcing enemy ships to rush to the other half of the waterway.

(End of chapter)