Su Fei went up the river to prepare the fireboat. Because after being attacked from both sides, Cai Mao will definitely escape, so Su Fei needs to go up a distance, build a good amount of gas, and find a good favorable terrain in order to burn Cai Mao's army. Su Fei's ship brought a lot of small boats, and these small boats were used as fire ships.

It also took a little time for Su Fei to prepare, and Zhang Shun deliberately waited for a day before appearing behind Cai Mao's fleet.

Cai Mao's navy is indeed not a good soldier, and its combat effectiveness is still good. Liu Biao's ability to suppress the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River still has a lot to do with Cai Mao's naval army. If it weren't for Cai Mao's navy crisscrossing the south of the Yangtze River and blocking the support between the four counties along the tributaries of the Xiangshui River, it would have been impossible for Liu Biao to defeat the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River.

Think about it, when Liu Biao first came to Jingzhou, he didn't have a single soldier, he relied on the support of these big families, if he didn't have any strengths, how could he occupy all of Jingzhou? Historically, when Cao Cao went south to Jingzhou, Jingzhou was almost all in the hands of Liu Biao. Only half of the seven counties were occupied by Cao Cao, but he took another Cangwu county from Jiaozhou and sent Wu Ju, a native of Changsha, to be the guard. Even the Jiaozhou Assassin Shi was recommended by Liu Biao to Lai Gong, but Lai Gong and Wu Ju were not in harmony, and Wu Ju used the military power in his hand to expel Lai Gong (the Assassin has no military power).

It can be said that Cai Mao's navy is the key to Liu Biao's maintenance of Jingzhou, which is why Liu Biao will put most of the military resources in Jiangling and let Cai Mao guard it. Cai Mao is not only Liu Biao's brother-in-law, but also a generation of celebrities, who was active in Luoyang during the period of Emperor Ling, and had friendships with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others, which can be said to be a typical example of both civil and military.

In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cai Mao and nephew Zhang Yun were mistakenly killed by Cao Cao, and in historical facts, Cai Mao is alive and well, but he is just far away from the center of power.

And Zhang Yun is not useless, and it is him who finds Zhang Shun approaching from behind. Zhang Yun noticed that Zhang Shun's ship was approaching from behind, and immediately had someone report it to Cai Mao.

When Cai Mao learned that he was being attacked from both sides, he knew that he had been hit, and he immediately ordered: "All the ships turn around, stop chasing Li Bao, bypass Zhang Shun's ships from the north, and return upstream!" ”

In water warfare, the upstream and upwind ports are very critical places, which are convenient for both attack and retreat. Cai Mao, who has a lot of experience in water warfare, naturally knows the importance of the upstream, so he let the navy shootout the upstream position as soon as possible, so as to put himself in an invincible position.

As soon as Cai Mao turned around, Li Bao downstream knew that Zhang Shun had come, and his plan was successful, "Ballista ready, shoot freely!" Cai Mao has been chasing us for several days, let him also taste the taste of being chased! ”

The soldiers below responded with a bang, and they did not use the ballista to attack in the past two days, and they were all passively beaten, only using bows and arrows to return fire. You can say that I am holding my breath in my stomach! As soon as Li Bao gave the order to fight back, they all geared up to give Cai Mao's army some color.

In less than a cup of tea, all the crossbow riders were in place, and after debugging the ballista, they used the crossbow arrows together, and then raised the crossbow and aimed it at Cai Mao's sailors, and pulled the trigger.

"Whoosh-" "Whoosh-" "Whoosh-" ......

Countless crossbow arrows shot at Cai Mao's sailors with screams, and Cai Mao's sailors, who were still turning, were immediately stunned, and many ships were screaming and screaming. I can't help them not scream, and I can't help them not scream.

There are three types of naval vessels in Cai Mao, the fighting ship, the shipwreck, and the grasshopper boat. The fighting ship is a large ship, and the ballista can still defend against it, so as long as it is not shot into the oar mouth and deck, there is basically no problem. But the warp and the grasshopper ship are not good, the warp is a medium-sized ship, its hull is not thick, it can be directly shot through by crossbow arrows, and the grasshopper ship is not to mention, this kind of small ship for reconnaissance does not say resist crossbow arrows, even if the bow and arrow shoot too much, it is possible to capsize. Zhuge Liang's grass boat borrowing can only exist, and Sun Quan's grass boat borrowing arrows is just an expedient measure.

Those sailors who were shot by crossbow arrows were directly nailed to the boat, and they couldn't die for a while, of course, they would keep screaming. And when they saw this scene, the water army was also terrified in their hearts, such a long crossbow arrow had exceeded their cognition, how could they not scream?

Zhang Shun saw Cai Mao turn around in the back, and also launched the ballista to attack.

Cai Mao was hit from both sides, the damage of the ballista was too high, and the shipboard and grasshopper boat were constantly shot, and soon the grasshopper ship was directly sunk, and the shipboard was also shot and missed several times. Cai Mao saw that it was not a solution, and immediately ordered: "Let the fighting ships protect the other ships, and we will retreat." ”

Cai Mao's order worked, and under the cover of the fighting ships, Cai Mao's sailors finally broke away from the battle and retreated upstream. Li Bao and Zhang Shun will reconcile, although their ships are much taller, but the speed of the ship is not as fast as Cai Mao's sailors, and they can only fall far behind.

It wasn't until the evening that Cai Mao got rid of Li Bao and Zhang Shun's pursuit and returned to Xiakou.

Xiakou is a water village from the Han River to the inlet of the river, where Cai Mao used to be stationed here when he supported Huang Zu to pacify Jiangxia. But later, after Jiangxia was pacified, Cai Mao abandoned this place. In history, when Xiakou was an important town in Jingzhou, it was only after Sun Quan eliminated Huangzu that Liu Biao lost the barrier of Huangzu and began to pay attention to Xiakou. When Huang Zu was still alive, the frontline town against Sun Quan was Fankou, that is, the water village in Yi County.

After Cai Mao returned to Xiakou, she seized the time to rest. Today's battle has dealt a great mental blow to his naval army, and after Zhang Yun counted the casualties, he immediately reported to Cai Mao: "Uncle, today our army has lost sixteen ships, fifteen grasshopper boats, one stern, and thousands of casualties among the soldiers. ”

"With such a large number of casualties?" Cai Mao was surprised, "It seems that their crossbow arrows are indeed very strong, and after this battle, we will also build some crossbows to use." ”

Zhang Yun wanted to speak and stopped, and Cai Mao saw it and asked, "Just say what you have." ”

Zhang Yun said: "Uncle, I saw their crossbow from afar, it is much larger than ordinary crossbows, we can't make them!" ”

Cai Mao said: "There will be brave men under the heavy reward, as long as we give enough money, we will definitely be able to find the person who makes the crossbow." ”

Zhang Yun nodded, and then asked, "Uncle, do we want to report to the lord that Zhang Yijun is too good at fighting, and we should let our colleagues be mentally prepared." ”

Cai Mao didn't think so, "We lost the first battle, if the lord heard about it, he would definitely panic, just send someone to inform Wen Ping, he should know what to do." ”

Zhang Yun nodded, it was true. Their lord Liu is not in good health, and if something goes wrong, they can't afford it.