"What do you say? The Han army was less than sixty miles away from Xiling? How can it be? What about the iron cone at the bottom of the river and the iron lock on the Hengjiang River? ”

"General Qizuo, the Han army took away the iron cone at the bottom of the river on a bamboo raft. Storm the fortress on the shore with iron locks with infantry. The last general is outnumbered, the resistance is insufficient, and he desperately breaks through, just trying to deliver a message to the general! ”

“…… It's too fast, it's too fast, the imperial court's reinforcements probably haven't crossed Jiangling yet! That's it, give the order, let the brothers of the navy drive all the battleships. Array, meet the enemy! ”

Human aging and death are natural laws. At least in the era before Guan Yi crossed over, he had not yet found a way to live forever. Therefore, the change of generations is an eternal issue.

The military and political officials of Shu Han, if Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, etc. are the first generation, then Deng Zhi, Wang Ping, Ma Zhong, etc. are the second generation. Jiang Wei and Zhang Yi are the third generation. Guan Yi is the fourth generation.

On the side of Eastern Wu, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lu Meng, Lu Xun, Zhu Ran, Shi Ji, Lu Kang...... These successive commanders of the upper reaches of Jianye. There is no doubt that all of them are good generals and famous generals.

Now, the commander of the Jingzhou Army in Eastern Wu is Zhang Zheng. This is definitely not a mediocre general, but compared to his predecessors, it is still inferior.

Moreover, the generational alternation of Eastern Wu has at least reached this generation, and it has done a very bad job: under Zhang Zheng, the commanders of the infantry are Cheng Zhu and Wu Yan, and the commanders of the naval army are Lu Yan, Lu Yan, and Lu Jing, the two sons of Lu Kang. None of these people, except for Wu Yan, had any actual experience in leading a large corps into battle......

On the seventh day of October, Xiangyang fell. Then Lü Mu of Fancheng was forced to lead more than 30,000 Wu troops to retreat along the Han River.

On October 13, after entering the Yangtze River Valley, Zhang Zheng sent Lü Mu to Jiangling to organize the second line of defense: if the defeated soldiers were mixed with his own soldiers, the damage caused to the troops would be great.

At the same time, Zhang Zheng also hurriedly wrote to Sun Hao of Jianye: Your Majesty, I don't know what the war situation is in Yangzhou? If the general is not very tight there. Are you transferring the 50,000 mobile troops under your command?

Sun Hao's reply was still very fast, and the reply on October 28 arrived: I know about the matter in Xiangyang, let Lu Ji make meritorious service to the crime. It's still quiet here in Yangzhou for the time being, so I'll send you reinforcements. However, the reason why Yangzhou is so quiet is that it is estimated that the enemy is also waiting for us to concentrate our heavy forces in Jingzhou, and then take advantage of the weakness to enter. So, I'll give you support 20,000 sailors. The remaining 30,000 infantry still have to stay in Jianye just in case.

The reply was very fast, but the advance speed of the large corps of 20,000 sailors was definitely much slower than that of the envoy Yiye Qingzhou. So, it's November 13th, at least near Xiling City. Zhang Zheng had only 40,000 naval troops, 20,000 infantry, and more than 7,000 private soldiers from various families.

There's no way! Although he knew that the scale of the Han army's sailors must be extremely large, Zhang Zheng had to fight: Xiling, up, the Yangtze River waterway is very narrow, generally only three or four hundred meters to seven or eight hundred meters wide. After Xiling, the river will suddenly widen to several thousand meters.

It is different from Liu Bei's war against Wu in the past. At that time, Shu Han was limited to national strength, and its naval army was not enough compared to Eastern Wu. So Lu Xun dared to stick to Xiling: Before your infantry took Xiling, your naval army dared to march independently?

But now, the Han army alone has as many as 70,000 sailors in Yizhou. It already has the ability to march alone.

Therefore, Zhang Zheng had no choice, he had to arrange the naval army on the river surface of Xiling: the river surface on his side was very wide, and he could put up a very wide formation. And the Han army in the mouth of the gorge, due to the narrow river, no matter how many ships there are, can only send part of the troops to engage at one time - this is to line up to die!

On November 13, under Zhang Zheng's order, the Soochow Navy responded quickly. The order was given in the morning of that day, and the hour was near. The 40,000 Dongwu naval troops have all been deployed on the river outside the gorge.

Speaking of which, there were 40,000 sailors. In fact, it didn't take many ships to load.

Zhang Zheng's ship is the "Feiyun" building ship that Soochow is proud of. Ten feet high, there are five stories on the deck, and there are female walls on each layer. Ten winch trebuchets and six large levers were installed in the bow and stern. On this large ship alone, there are more than 2,000 soldiers. Together with the sailors, lookouts, and paddlers, there were no less than 3,000 in all.

The ship of Lu Yan and Lu Jing is called "Gaihai". It is a large ship that is even more magnificent and magnificent than Zhang Zheng's ship - this is Lu Youjie's private property.

Below three giant ships, there are more than 100 fighting ships. can carry hundreds of people.

Therefore, the 40,000 naval forces of the entire Soochow are mainly carriers of these more than 100 large ships. As for the other ships and sampans, they are all attached to the big ship and can be used when necessary.

The sun was in the middle of the sky, and noon had arrived.

"It's coming!" Countless masts faintly appeared on the river in the distance, followed by countless white sails. But then, it made Zhang Zheng and the others want to split: what rushed out of the gorge was hundreds of suicide flame ships with their bows lit with raging flames!

This is an inland water war, occupying the natural advantage of the upstream side over the downstream side.

"Herald! The hulls of the ships swing sideways, and sink these sampans for me with trebuchets! ”

"Whoa! General Zuo has an order, and the ships are swinging sideways! ”

Although there was a new young commander, in the end, Soochow's naval army was the foundation for the survival of the country. Therefore, the overall quality of the Soochow Navy is still very high. Soon after Zhang Zheng's order was given, the sailors, helmsmen, and paddlers all started in unison. More than 100 large ships quickly pulled their hulls horizontally.

With the incoherent "put!" from the commanders of the various ships, "put! "Launch! Hundreds of small stone projectiles rose into the air and quickly projected into the flame ship array released by the Han army upstream.

The first round of shooting was not very effective. But it didn't matter, as the landing point became clear, commanders at all levels adjusted the angle and intensity of the shot. After the second round of stone projectiles fell into the ship's formation, dozens of flaming ships were quickly hit.

This suicidal flame ship is a typical thin-skinned giant sail that seeks speed. The quality or something is completely shoddy. So, although the stone projectiles dropped by the winch trebuchet were much smaller than those dropped by the counterweight trebuchet on land. But don't say that it hits directly, even if it is a near-miss, it can often cause a flame ship to "enter the soul with one shot".

As countless stone projectiles entered the water from high altitude with extremely high potential energy, the loud sound that came out after hitting the ship, and the disintegration of part of the flaming ship, the sparks shot out in all directions, and the broken ship that disintegrated into planks still carried the flames down the river. The entire river surface quickly steamed.

"Shizhi, it seems that Soochow's response is good."

On the top of a mountain in the northwest of Xiling, Zhang Zun and Wang Jun climbed high and looked into the distance. Looking at the boiling Yangtze River, Zhang Zun couldn't help but feel worried.

There is no way, limited to the problem of the Three Gorges Channel. Even if they made up their minds to march during the dry season in winter, the size of the Han army's warships could not be too large: the so-called dry period was just that the water volume of the Yangtze River was smaller, and the river water did not flow so fast. The reef that was previously hidden under the surface of the water is only visible to the eye. But the reef in the river does exist, and the ship is too big, and if you are not careful, you will still hit it.

Therefore, the warships of the Han army had no problem dealing with the ordinary medium warships of Soochow. But in the face of giant ships such as Feiyun and Gaihai. It's still strong.

Therefore, Wang Jun's solution is: use the flame ship to break a way!

"Hehehe, former general, Dongwu relied on the navy to build a country. This attack can't be coped with, and it's long overdue. Where else do we need to do it? ”

"Well, that's the case? But this is going to break the enemy? ”

"In fact, with the strong strength of our Western Route Army today, it is not impossible to forcibly capture Xiling City by means of ants annexing the city. However, Da Sima was benevolent and did not like to use the bones of soldiers to pursue military exploits. I can't say it, I have to throw a lot of money. ”

After saying this, Wang Jun gently waved the command flag behind him. After that, the flag officers at all levels quickly passed the order to the Han fleet upstream.

At this time, the commander of the Han fleet was Yang Zong, a veteran of the Ji Han Dynasty. After seeing the new flag coming, he did not hesitate to order: "Let another five hundred flame ships go down!" ”

"Whoa!"

Throughout the afternoon of this day, Ji Han's naval army released nearly 2,000 suicide flame ships from the upstream in batches. Although the Soochow Navy not only attacked with stone bullets from the capital ships, but also put down the small ships of the ship class and tried their best to block it. But there are too many such ships. By the time the sun began to sink in the west, about 10 percent of the more than 100 main warships of the Soochow Navy were directly hit by the flame ships, and the remaining ninety percent had to turn to avoid them because there were too many wooden planks burning on the river. The entire array of the Soochow Navy has been completely loosened.

"Hahahaha~~ This is the time!" Although the sunlight is no longer very strong at this time, the entire river is full of fire. Wang Junho stood up suddenly, took out a huge red flag and waved it vigorously: "Herald!" The whole army anchors, assault! ”