On a high slope on the bank of Taoshui, a stout figure is sitting on a bed with a big umbrella cover above his head to protect him from the wind and rain. From time to time, this man also passed orders for his guards to rush to the camp under construction at the foot of the hill to supervise the speedy progress.

This stout figure is the emperor of the Xiongnu Han Kingdom in the Xiongba Pass - Liu Yao!

With so many armies gathered in one place, the most important thing is, of course, to set up camp. It's just that the scale of the camp here is many times larger than the water village in Lintao, and the progress of construction is naturally much slower. Now only a sloping area has been sorted out, tents have not yet been erected, and the trenches, fences, watchtowers, and wooden forts do not know where they are.

200,000 people is a terrifying number, so it is impossible to gather in one place when camping, but to garrison separately as a military unit. According to the plan, Liu Yao's camp would be guarded by the army, while the other military camps were dotted around.

It's just that the emperor of the Han State frowned tightly, and his face was much uglier than Zhang Jun's. The losses inflicted on his army by this never-ending heavy rain were no less than a confrontation with the enemy.

Think of the 200,000 people drenched in the rain, there is no dry firewood to live and cook, they all rely on raw water and raw food to fill their stomachs, and there are so many mosquitoes, snakes and ants around them that they are dying.

The death of some people because of the epidemic has long been expected by Liu Yao, but it is difficult for people to accept that they will die too much. He looked at Taoshui with heavy eyes, or go up the river faster, as long as the two cities of Lintao and Didao are destroyed, the army can take the waterway to the big river, and when the time comes, the soldiers will come under the golden city, see if the Zhang family will descend or not!

In the midst of the rain, suddenly dozens of horsemen galloped over, found Liu Yao's umbrella cover, and galloped over.

These knights were all Huns' horsemen and sentinels, and the rain drenched their armor and leather robes, and each of them had a tired face on his face. They were quickly stopped by Liu Yao's personal guards, and the centurion who led the team strode up to Liu Yao and bowed down heavily.

"Your Majesty, Hangou is also constantly building a water army! Just more than ten miles away on the shore of Lintao, camping! ”

Liu Yao suddenly got up and slapped his palm fiercely.

"The shaft is bold enough!"

Tiangong also seemed to be intimidated by Liu Yao's might, and the heavy rain weakened in an instant and turned into a light rain. The rain continued to fall, covering the distant world into a white expanse. The surface of the Taoshui River has become wider because of the heavy rain for several days, which is convenient for more warships to sail.

Zhang Jun was still standing on the watchtower of the water village and took out the telescope from his arms. A long time ago, Zhang Jun had ordered Chen Zhou, who was in charge of fine work, to search for the white crystal, but there was no news. Until this expedition, Chen Zhou finally spent a lot of money to buy two pieces of white crystal and sent them to Zhang Jun's hands urgently. It's just that this white crystal still can't reach the level of clarity in later generations, and there is some turbidity. But if you make do with it, you can also see far, which is much stronger than the naked eye.

The pontoon bridge built by the Huns is about eight miles away, and only a thin strip can be seen across the river with the naked eye. However, through the telescope, you can clearly see one wooden fort after another, watchtowers, and even the thunderbolts erected in the wooden forts, as well as groups of soldiers patrolling back and forth.

Liu Yao's strategy was very simple, that is, to use a large army to surround the two cities of Lintao and Didao and storm them, and the other to cross the river by pontoon bridge, and then attack Caohan from Baiyun Road. As long as these three cities are conquered, the newly occupied land west of Taoshui will once again return to the rule of the Han Kingdom. At the same time, Liu Yao's 200,000 army will no longer have any worries, and can drive straight into Jincheng.

At that time, the uncle who sat in the defense line of Jincheng and Yuzhong will face the troops of the Huns! In history, Zhang Mao did not hold on, but chose to make peace with his ministers. The situation is much better now than in history, but it also depends on whether Zhang Jun can stop the Han army in Taoshui!

In this decisive battle, the Chinese army in Liangzhou can be regarded as pouring out, and the cavalry of the Xiao Cavalry led by Ha Chengsi has been stationed in Caohan and can reinforce Lintao at any time. At the same time, the Jinxing County Government Army also entered Didao City early under the command of Dou Tao.

Zhang Jun turned his gaze to the lower reaches of Taoshui, the wharf and water village built by the Han army craftsmen on the shore have been formed, and a large number of ships have gathered, but there are no big ships, they are the largest but ten zhang long. Most of them look shoddy and are clearly hastily built. But there are a lot of them, at least hundreds!

"How can there be so many ships?" Chen Zhen, who was standing beside Zhang Jun, muttered.

Zhang Jun handed him the binoculars, and Chen Zhen hurriedly took it carefully. He can't help but cherish it, this object is the only one in the world, and it is also priceless. If you accidentally break it, you can't afford to lose it if you sell yourself. The telescope in his hand turned to the hill by the river, and suddenly he shouted, "Umbrella cover, umbrella cover, it's Hulu Liu Yao's umbrella cover!" ”

"Umbrella cover? The emperor of the Xiongnu Han State was able to go to the front line in person? ”

Zhang Jun snatched the telescope from Chen Zhen's hand, and following the direction of Chen Zhen's finger, he saw that it was indeed a huge camp under construction! Countless tents have been erected on a large hill, and countless Hun soldiers are busy with something, or reinforcing the tents, or wiping their armor and swords, or eating something, or patrolling back and forth.

It's too many to count! The main force of the Huns has spread its tentacles to the shore of Taoshui! And it's Liu Yao himself!

Zhang Jun looked at the top of the mountain again, all kinds of banners were fluttering, and countless Hun warriors wearing iron armor and holding swords and guns were clustered around a huge cyan umbrella. Under the umbrella, a tall man sat on a hu bed, stretching his neck to look at him.

"Could it be that he is Liu Yao, the emperor of the Xiongnu Han Kingdom?" Zhang Jun stared at the other party through the binoculars, as if he wanted to kill the other party with his eyes.

What Zhang Jun saw was indeed Liu Yao. At this time, Liu Yao was also squinting at the cement boat in the Taoshui River. It was the first time he had seen such a white warship, and it was unknown what it was made of due to the distance, but it was certain that it was not made of wood.

"Where is Chen An?" Liu Yao looked left and right.

Originally, he was a Jin general, but later defected to the Huns, and not long ago took advantage of the opportunity of Hu Yankui's dismissal to become the assassin of Qinzhou, Chen An, heard the call, hurriedly stepped forward, bowed and saluted: "The minister is here." ”

Liu Yao raised his hand and pointed to the boat on the river, and said: "The Han dog dares to peep into the camp of my great Huns, it is really daring, who can go out to capture it?" ”

Chen An glanced at the strange-looking cement ship from a distance, and did not remember that there were ships of this style among the sailors of the Jin Dynasty. However, looking at its size, and then looking at its speed in the water, you know that it is very difficult to deal with. Fortunately, this ship is just one.

"You can send the Qinzhou army Li Ping'an to fight."

Qinzhou guards Taoshui, has a certain experience in water warfare, Li Ping'an is also a Han'er, after defecting to the Huns, because the water war is not taken seriously, so he has not been promoted, so he has been appointed as a casual post in Qinzhou, usually responsible for arresting private businessmen on the water. In fact, to put it bluntly, his level is not very good, and he is okay to deal with the sampan of private businessmen, and he has never experienced a water war.

The generals of the Great Jin Dynasty who originally knew how to fight water either sent down the Zhao State of Qianshi to Shandong, or they had already run to the south of the Yangtze River, who would stay in Guanzhong?

After receiving the order, Li Ping'an immediately ordered twenty warships to attack. On both sides of the ship's side, cooked cowhide and fine nets are hung, and side signs are erected. In the gap between the side cards, bows and spears stretched out. Each boat has sixteen wooden oars, which are divided into left and right rows, plucking the river and dividing the waves. The oarsmen were sturdy men, shirtless, muscular, shouting trumpets and paddling hard.

On board, except for the oarsmen, there are warriors. Because the boat is small and easy to capsize, these sailors do not wear iron armor, everyone is just tight-fitting and short-handed, and at most they have a leather helmet on their heads. Some of the Hun sailors armed with spears and bows, and fought by boats. There are also some single-knife rattan cards, which are ready to jump into the gang - but looking at the tall side of the boat on the opposite side of the Liang army far above their side, it is estimated that no one jumped on it.

"Beat the drums, charge!" Li Ping'an also changed into the short clothes of the water battle, and looked up at the cool flag flying high on the strange warship. Gritting his teeth, he gave the order to charge.

At this time, the Hun naval army was still grass-created, so the means of combat were very simple, that is, beating gongs and drums and rushing up to shoot arrows, hand-to-hand combat, and ignition. If the river is narrow, the army on the shore can also shoot arrows and send stones.

However, what happened next made Li Ping'an breathe a sigh of relief, this Liang army warship, which looked quite large, probably found that the Hun warriors rushed out, and immediately began to retreat - why did it go backwards instead of turning around? Li Ping'an didn't think much about it, just shouted loudly and urged his subordinates to paddle hard. Twenty small boats with sixteen oars went against the current, speeding forward, and the Liang army warships launched a chase battle on the Taoshui River.

The distance between the two sides was gradually approaching, at first they were seven or eight miles apart, and after chasing for about an hour, there were only less than three or four hundred steps left. At this time, the huge Liang army warship had already arrived near the sailor camp near Lintao.

"Brothers, add another oar, and rush over!" Li Ping'an knew that the opportunity was coming, and he shouted, "The Han dog's boat is in front, let's surround it here, and let the Han dog cowering in the camp see how mighty the sailors of the Great Huns are!" ”

Before the shouts fell, the Liang army warship suddenly stopped retreating, and more than a hundred sailors under the cockpit desperately pedaled the ship, so that the warship instantly broke through the wave and rushed forward at the maximum speed!

"Hurry up, rush forward!"

Cheng Dahu also shouted loudly, drew his saber, and only pointed to a small Hun wooden boat four hundred steps ahead.

Given the order to move forward quickly, each of the hundred sailors tried their best to feed. The white waves parting from the bow of the ship were agitated, and the speed of the ship was suddenly increased to a point that was difficult for the Hun warships to reach!

"Left, left!" Wei Shun stood beside Cheng Dahu, shouting, and at the same time picked up a red flag and waved it vigorously, which was to convey the order to the helmsman at the stern. The hastily built cement ship did not have a steering wheel system, and the helmsman at the stern had to manually turn the rudder. Wei Shun, who performed well in the defense of Yuzhong, was responsible for waving the flag and commanding the helmsman, with the red flag to the left and the blue flag to the right. Anyway, it's a bit complicated to operate, but it's still manageable to get the boat up and running.

"Arrow! Target! Fuck it! ”

Li Ping'an saw that the warship that looked like a hill rushed out of the white mist and crashed into him, his head suddenly went blank, and he forgot to even turn around and flee, and just roared at the archer at the bow of the boat.

"No oars!"

A Han soldier pointed at the warship of the Liang army and let out an unbelievable roar.

"A boat without oars?" Everyone looked curiously, and saw that the gradually clear Liang Army warship really did not have oars to stretch out to paddle······

According to the normal development of history, the first steamship in China was Li Gao of the Tang Dynasty. Inspired by the wheels, he built a ship without sails or oars, but with one wheel on each side of the ship. Each wheel has eight blade paddles, the wheel is connected to the axle, and the axle is equipped with a treadmill. When sailing, sailors pedal hard like a water wheel. The shaft rotates and rotates, "using the wheel to dial the water", as if countless oars are constantly paddling. As the wheels rotated, the ship broke the waves like an arrow from the string. And in the West, until the fifteenth century, this form of ship appeared. Obviously, more than 700 years later than China.

And because of the appearance of Zhang Jun and the introduction of linkage machinery such as overturning and water cones, there are no technical problems in manufacturing ships. So when the Hun sailors led by Li Ping'an saw that the boat without oars could run fast, they suddenly felt that they had seen a ghost.

"Demon Law!"

"Liang Jun knows how to do witchcraft!"

Suddenly, all the sailors of the Xiongnu and Han armies rowed with their lives, and they hated themselves for not growing a few more arms. But the steamer of the Liang Army uses the power of the sailor's legs, which is not comparable to the strength of the arm at all, and it is a truth that "the arm can't twist the thigh" casually.

Li Ping'an's ship was the longest narrow wooden ship in Guanzhong, with a sharp bow that could only place a bed crossbow, and the Huns did not have a light stone machine, which was the most ordinary spear-like giant arrow. With a violent sound of breaking through the air, the huge arrow shot forward, impartially hitting the bow of the cement ship.

Then, there is no then. Such a big reinforced concrete ship can still sink a spear?

"Lord, I'm going to crash into it! Poof! Puff ······"

Seeing the hill-like enemy ships getting closer and closer, the Huns and Han soldiers who rowed the boats stopped doing anything, and they threw their oars and jumped into the water. After a while, there were few people on the whole wooden boat - all landlubbers who couldn't swim! Among them is Li Ping'an! However, he knew how to dive, but he was so stupid that he forgot to dive.

"Boom!"

With a loud bang, the huge cement collision angle in front of the Liang army's warship lightly touched the sixteen-oared wooden boat, and instantly smashed the bow of the small boat. Li Ping'an naturally couldn't stand still, plunged into the water, and just put his head out of the water, he saw a huge wooden board turning over from the front. He hurriedly shrank his head and narrowly avoided it, but Li Ping'an didn't know that the huge wooden board was constantly rotating, and as soon as he poked his head out of the water again, he was smashed on his forehead by an impeller plate with a pop, and sank into the water with a scream, and there was no movement······

Peace will not be peace from now on.