When the Huainan army easily defeated Liu Chu and captured Hongzhou, Li Chengding, who was on the sea, was in deep distress. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The sea is too big, although Li Chengding has heard people talk about the vastness of the ocean before, but he has not seen it with his own eyes after all.

When he led the navy to attack Tamna Island this time, he was very excited at first, after all, this was not only his first time seeing the ocean, but also his first time alone. Immediately lead an expedition to a foreign land.

This euphoria lasted for several days, until the fleet encountered a storm in the depths of the sea.

Violent storms at sea are not comparable to those on land, and storms are usually accompanied by rough seas.

At this time, the technology of ship construction was not yet developed, and sailing above the sea was a high-risk business.

Historically, because the road to the Central Plains was cut off by hostile forces, the King of Min could only send envoys to the Central Plains by sea to pay tribute to the Later Liang.

Along the way, the comings and goings were often met with storms and waves, and the number of ships that were swept up and submerged was as high as four or five tenths.

As far as Huainan is concerned, if it were not for the urgent need for a suitable place for raising horses to solve the cavalry problem, I am afraid that the plan of the cross-sea expedition will also encounter considerable resistance in Huainan.

After all, the risk is so high, if there is not enough profit, no one wants to take this risk.

Fortunately, the distance that the Huainan army needed to sail on Tamna Island this time was much shorter than the distance sailed by Wang Shenzhi's envoy, so the possibility of encountering a storm should be smaller.

However, what Li Chengding didn't expect was that they were still very unlucky to encounter a storm.

This time, the Huainan Army sent a total of 5,000 men and more than 100 ships, all of which were large ships suitable for sailing in the sea.

However, in the face of the power of nature, these seemingly sturdy ships are so fragile that many ships sank in the storm, and many more were blown away by the storm.

And Li Chengding's luck was excellent, his boat was only slightly damaged in the wind and waves, and it was completely fine after a little repair.

But when the storm stopped, Li Chengding's face was full of sorrow: there were more than 100 ships when he set out on the expedition, but now there are only more than 60 ships with Li Chengding, and he lost nearly forty percent of the ships at once!

What made Li Chengding feel even more heartbroken was that his friend, Chai Kehong, who graduated from the New Army together, also disappeared in the storm.

In order to reduce the risk, Yang Wu ordered Li Chengding, Chai Kehong and other generals to take different ships when they set out on the expedition, so as not to lose the command of the entire expeditionary army due to the wreck of one ship.

Of course, Li Chengding also knew that those missing ships were not necessarily sunk in the storm, most of them should have been lost, and maybe they could join them in the future.

At this time, after counting the number of ships again and checking the current state of each ship, Li Chengding ordered to immediately find a shelter from the wind to facilitate the repair of those ships damaged in the storm.

Not all ships were slightly damaged like Lee's ship, but many more were badly damaged, and it was a miracle that they were able to survive the storm without being silent on the spot.

Speaking of which, this is also thanks to the unique technology of Chinese shipbuilding - watertight compartments.

The watertight compartment technology was invented in China, and it was used to a certain extent in the Tang Tianbao period, and it was more commonly used on sea vessels in this era.

With this unique technology, the ship can have strong resistance to sinking; However, it was not until the end of the 18th century that Westerners began to use this technology.

However, many of the ships that survived were in dire condition and were in dire need of a calm, shallow area of water for repairs.

However, when Li Chengding ordered to find a suitable place to repair the ship, someone came to tell him that they had lost their way!

There is no reference in the sea, and it is not easy to discern the direction.

Although the compass has been used in small quantities to give sailors certain directions, it is more difficult to determine where they are in the middle of the sea.

If you can't determine your position, it's not very useful to know the general directions of southeast, north, and west.

"This damn storm! This damn sea, I swear, even if the king himself orders it, I will never come to the sea again! ”

After hearing this bad news, Li Chengding cursed viciously and loudly.

After cursing, Li Chengding had to calm down and look for a countermeasure.

Now that the storm has subsided, the sea is still not calm, and there may be another storm at any point, and in the current state of the fleet, it will be catastrophic, and in the end I am afraid that not even a single ship will survive.

On the one hand, Li Chengding ordered the soldiers on the ships that were so badly damaged that it was difficult to sail at a relatively fast speed to the good ships, and then abandoned those ships in order to leave the place quickly; On the other hand, he ordered several major generals to come to his boat to discuss the next steps.

Although they were leaving the place quickly, they had chosen to sail in a northeasterly direction, and before deciding on their next move, they could only sail in the same direction, after all, their original destination, Tamna, was in that direction.

"General Xiao Li, in the old man's opinion, the current state of the fleet is simply not enough to continue to complete the mission, we have lost forty-seven ships (including the ships that were voluntarily abandoned), and the loss of soldiers has also reached more than thirty percent, and they are now full of panic, if they are allowed to continue north, even if they arrive at Tamna Island, I am afraid that there will not be much morale to fight. Therefore, the old man thinks that our army should return immediately now. ”

"Moreover, we have lost our way, and it is difficult to say where we will end up if we continue to sail north-east on our current course; However, if we sail back, the south is currently my Huainan territory, as long as we sail in the opposite direction, even if the final direction is deviated, we can still return to Huainan's territory! ”

At the beginning of the meeting, the veteran Cheng Ji put forward his own opinions.

This time on the cross-sea expedition, Yang Wu asked him to serve as Li Chengding's deputy general, he was full of reluctance in his heart, if it wasn't for Yang Wu personally going out to persuade him, he would definitely not accept this task.

However, although the task was accepted, Cheng Ji was still a little reluctant in his heart.

Now that the fleet has suffered heavy losses in the storm, Cheng Ji has stepped forward to end the expedition as soon as possible.

"The last general seconded the proposal, this expedition to our army has failed, for now, let's go back and repair the ship first, and pacify the soldiers!" As soon as Cheng Ji's opinion came out, there were immediately people who supported him, and this person who supported him was Sima Fu, the general of the navy who made contributions in the Battle of Haozhou.

Sima Fu is not very old now, and he is good at water kung fu, so he was ordered to participate in this expedition.

He was originally an old general of Qian Biao like Cheng He, and before Cheng He was captured by the Huainan Army, he was only a small general in Qian Biao's army, which was far from Cheng He's old qualification.

At this time, Cheng Ji expressed his opinion, and he naturally wanted to stand up and support it.

Of course, he didn't dare to openly help and speak, and only dared to beat the side drum at such a time, so as not to be considered a gang.

In addition to Cheng Ji, there are other generals, including many of the original Huainan generals, who also agree with Cheng Ji's opinion, after all, the current situation of the fleet is indeed not optimistic, for the sake of insurance, it is better to return first.

"General He, what do you think?"

Although he is still very young, Li Chengding is very dignified after becoming the main general, but he listened to everyone's opinions at this time, but he was silent, and asked He Jingzhu instead.

In addition to Chai Kehong, He Jingzhu also participated in the same group of generals who graduated from the New Army as Li Chengding.

He Jingzhu was originally just the adopted son of Li Jian, the governor of the Tianwu Army, and Li Jian was cruel and murderous, and he didn't care much about He Jingzhu's adopted son, and the treatment he gave him was not much better than the domestic slaves of the Li family at this time.

Later, it was He Jingzhu who gradually showed his unique talents when he grew up, and Li Jian's attitude towards him was much better.

However, the hard life since childhood has brought a different influence to He Jingzhu from others, so Li Chengding, the second generation of generals who are really rich and noble, have a very cheerful personality, but He Jingzhu's personality is extremely introverted, and he rarely takes the initiative to communicate with others.

At this time, after hearing Li Chengding's inquiry, He Jingzhu said slowly: "In the opinion of the last general, we should not return to the ship, after all, the military order given by the king has not been completed yet, if you go back here, how to explain to the king?" ”

A smile flashed on Li Chengding's face, and then disappeared.

His thoughts are actually similar to He Jingzhu's, although the fleet has suffered large losses now, it still has enough strength after all.

After all, this is his first time alone. Li led the army to the battle, if he went back like this, although there was a storm as an excuse, Yang Wu would not do anything to him, but how could he go back like this?

In addition, Yang Wu deliberately asked him to go out as the main general this time, and there were no high-prestige generals among his subordinates, mainly some young people, even if Cheng Ji, the only veteran, was still a general, and he couldn't restrain Li Chengding at all.

In this way, Li Chengding can be said to be the absolute leader of this army, and he can give full play to his talents as he wants.

"The meaning of this general is the same as that of General He, if we don't complete the task assigned by the king, if we go back like this, it will be difficult to explain to the king!"