readx;?readx; Chapter 678 Pulp Wheel Shenzhou

Before the war begins, it is necessary for us to understand the strategic situation of Qin and Chu in advance. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Since the eighteenth year of Zhaowu, after the battle between the two armies at Dongting Lake, the situation has changed greatly. Relying on the speed advantage of the paddle steamer in sailing against the current, as well as the super range of the new catapult and the terrifying power of the fire oil bomb, the effective tactics of 'going against the water after grounding, quickly opening up the distance, and attacking with long-range weapons' made the original superior warships of the Chu army unable to catch up and hit, and their own losses were not small.

Advanced weaponry and rational tactics and tactics finally leveled the advantages of the Chu army in terms of geographical advantages, training, and ships, and gave the Qin army the confidence to compete head-on with the Chu army on the river for the first time.

Marshal Bosheng and his Zhennan army finally waited for the long-awaited day, and the whole army was full of joy and enthusiasm. The old marshal completed the formation of the paddle steamers in groups of 20 and formed a number of small detachments, changing the helplessness of not being able to shrink back in the past, and attacked everywhere on the Qianli River, wantonly attacking the ships and ships of the Chu State.

Since he couldn't find a way to deal with the pulp steamers for a while, Zhu Lie had no choice but to swallow his anger and order all fleets not to fight without authorization, and temporarily avoid the edge of the Qin army.

Although the Qin army was arrogant for a while, it also knew that it did not have the strength to attack the opponent's military port, so it turned to attack the civilian ships on the river, regardless of nationality or part of the purpose, as long as they encountered it, they would all be sunk - Qin Lei had already announced to the world that no ships of the Qin State were allowed to enter the river, and if the ban was violated, they would also be destroyed as enemy ships...... In fact, the background of this will was that the Chu State sent a large number of deer antlers, musk, tea, silk and other goods to Jiangbei, which caused the cost of Qin Lei's special operations plan to soar, and it was almost impossible to pay the high acquisition costs, so it had to be done.

This arrogant move is absolutely a naked insult and challenge to the people of Chu who have always regarded the Yangtze River as a 'sacrosanct' territory!

In the first year of Qin's Tianyou, due to the turbulent public sentiment in the country, Zhu Lie had no choice but to send encirclement and suppression troops to sweep down the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in a dense formation, in an attempt to make the advantages of the pulp steamer unable to give full play.

However, Marshal Bo Xian had already prepared, and he ordered the elite troops to take advantage of the fog to cross the river south and lurk on the side of Nanchu at the mouth of the three rivers. He personally led the team to appear in front of the Chu army, and after a short contact, he fled downstream in a hurry, giving people the feeling of being caught off guard and in chaos. After chasing after the mouth of the Sanjiang River, the ambush of the Zhennan army came out of the fog, reoccupied the upstream, and attacked the Chu army with catapults fired oil bombs.

The Qin fleet, which had been fleeing eastward, also turned around and attacked the Chu army with artillery stones. In this battle, the Chu army had an advantage in terms of troops, but the Qin army had the advantage of geography and weapons, and seized the upper hand as soon as it came up.

But 'cowhide is not blown, snow mountains are not heaped', the Great Chu Sailor can cross the Yangtze River for 200 years, definitely not just because the opponent is too! They were not afraid of danger, and they fought bravely, and they tried to resist both sides. Zhu Lie ordered the fleet to be divided into two groups, one used the warships to attack the Qin fleet downstream, and the other used the giant building ships to block the river to prevent the Qin army upstream from approaching, and set off thunderbolt cannons and ** cannons, creating a large amount of smoke and confusing the enemy's sight, so that the hit rate of the Qin army's catapults was greatly off-standard, and the power naturally decreased year-on-year.

Zhu Hongjun, who was well versed in water warfare, used his most impactful warships to attack the Qin army downstream. Using the tallest and sturdy building ship to resist the Qin army coming downstream, it resolved the crisis of taking care of one or the other - but it also meant that the slow and bulky giant building ship would become a live target for the upstream Qin army.

The two sides chased each other on the river, and the fighting was fought from morning to evening, and the fighting was still fierce, and the damage was very serious. Gradually, the profound Chu army gained the upper hand, and it was about to encircle the Qin fleet.

Marshal Bosheng knew that he was still in a hurry, so he ordered someone to release a signal to Qin Youde's troops who were ambushed in the lower reaches of the river...... Qin Youde immediately ordered his subordinates to hold torches, beat gongs and drums, wave flags, and slowly approach the battlefield.

Zhu Lie saw the fire downstream, and the sound of killing shook the sky, thinking that Bo Xian had conjured up another fleet, and he was immediately deflated...... The current enemy is already very difficult to deal with, and if you join the fleet again, you will have to be surrounded and annihilated! Mingjin withdrew his troops, led the troops to withdraw from the battle group, and slowly retreated to the Xiangjiang River.

Not long after separating from Qin Jun, Zhu Lie suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "I'm so stupid!" If the Qin army still had troops, it would have been able to go into battle a long time ago, so why wait until this time to take it out? He ordered the troops to turn around quickly, wanting to catch up with the Qin army and save face.

Soon after the Chu army turned around, it met the Qin fleet that was preparing to return to Shuicheng in Jiangbei, and it happened to meet Qin Youde's so-called 'reinforcements', which could make Shangzhuguo's nose crooked.

Zhu Lie was not mistaken, Qin Youde's 'troops' were not 'pulp wheel divine boats' at all, but more than 200 civilian ships about the same size as pulp steamers, and even bamboo rafts and sampans.

"Tear them apart!" Zhu Hongjun was embarrassed and angry, and issued an attack order to the warship formation.

Who knew that those grass boats and rafts did not dodge, fell over the bow of the boat, and rushed towards the Chu army like arrows off the string.

"It's not good to dodge!" Seeing that the enemy army that had no resistance rushed forward without his life, Zhu Lie suddenly felt that something was wrong, and hurriedly issued an order to disperse and retreat.

However, it was still a step too late, and the Qin army, who was operating the boat, jumped into the boat and lit the ship's full load of flammable materials such as firewood and firewood. More than 200 warships in flames rushed towards the Chu fleet.

The officers and men of Chu suddenly remembered the allusion of 'Cao Mengde's defeat at the mouth of the three rivers', and as soon as they received the order, they couldn't wait to scatter and flee, and the formation was completely chaotic.

The main force of the Qin army took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill, and pursued it until it reached the depths of Dongting Lake before giving up, sinking more than 100 enemy ships, inflicting heavy losses on the invincible Great Chu Naval Division, and finally achieving the first complete victory in the battle against Chu.

Although a victory or defeat cannot completely reverse the contrast between the strength and weakness of the two sides, its far-reaching impact has long gone beyond the scope of victory and defeat, but has completely exposed a problem that Chu Jun has always been unwilling to admit in front of everyone's eyes. That is, compared with the Qin army's paddle ships and catapults, the Chu army's building ships and warships are already too backward...... In the process of the initial blockade and the final retreat, these slow-moving behemoths were almost all sunk by the Qin army, and only a dozen or so ships staggered back to the port, and it was impossible to fight again without thorough overhaul.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten, this is an eternal truth.

After this battle, the Qin army strengthened their determination to build pulp steamers, and they stopped building almost all other ship types, concentrating all their efforts on producing this kind of magical warship that was not limited by the flow of water. Especially after the installation of three-sided sails that can be quickly raised and lowered, its speed along the river also exceeds that of other ships, and it has made the most conservative officers and soldiers become its supporters.

And Zhu Hongjun, who learned from the pain, finally reluctantly gave up the concept of 'building ships must win' that he had insisted on for 50 years. "Isn't it a paddle steamer? We will too! "Dig out a dusty drawing from the vault...... It was the design of the pulp steamer that Gong Liangyu stole back from the Qin State many years ago, and out of the pride of the old aristocracy, he had always disdained to make this kind of thing, and he was forced to take it out until today.

Of course, it was impossible to use it immediately, so he first ordered his subordinate docks to build a few prototype ships, and after repeated sea trials, it was found that the performance was indeed superior to the original warship, so he ordered mass production.

But General Shangzhu was very stubborn, and even after the mass production of pulp steamers, he used them as a supplement to the fleet of building ships, and did not immediately give it its due status.

Facts have proved that truth is like the hardest stone, and even the most stubborn person will have a bruised nose and swollen face, and a broken head and bleeding. In the years that followed, there were dozens of battles between the two armies, each time the two armies were engaged in a merry fight, and the rest of the ships could not keep up even if they wanted to help. In the end, the winner is often determined by who has more pulp steamers, and has little to do with other ships.

In this case, those majestic building ships are more like a high platform for viewing the scenery, and they have completely lost their battlefield deterrent effect. Although he was unwilling, in the face of more and more and more advanced pulp steamers in the Qin army, Zhu Lie had no choice but to continue to expand the production scale of pulp steamers to deal with it......

By the spring of the seventh day of Tianyou, although the loss had been quite small, the number of pulp steamers of the Chu army still reached 800, which exceeded the Qin State by more than 200. The cost was that the construction scale of the rest of the ship types had to be reduced again and again, and even four years later, not a single building ship was launched...... Although I don't want to admit it, the era when Lou Chuan was king is indeed gone.

Now what Qin Lei has to face is the eight hundred same pulp ships, although the range, power, and accuracy of the Chu State stone throwing cannon are not as good as the Qin State, but in the bumpy water battle, this small gap is almost negligible.

I don't know where did His Royal Highness King Wucheng's bold words come from?