When his subordinates reported the situation from several beacon towers along the lake to Li Sheng, in the face of the news of Jiang Qin's attack, Li Sheng's hand holding the information trembled slightly. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info This is definitely unexpected news for him, although he has prepared in advance, but when he heard this, he still had a surprise that he couldn't hide: "History has finally changed." The first thought that crossed his mind was the thought, even though it had been realized by him for a long time.

There is no such thing in history that the Eastern Wu Army marched into Changsha in the thirteenth year of Jian'an, so Li Sheng could properly arrange everything in the past with the presence of the old gods. But now that everything has changed, he naturally can't help but have some speculation.

"The fleet led by Jiang Qin had thirty ships and fifty ships, and its strength was estimated to be between 5,000 and 8,000. In addition to the 20 large ballista ships and 30 maritime merchant ships of a sub-fleet taken away by General Zheng Ping in the name of the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce, only 12 large ballista warships of the 1st Ballista Fleet and 3 large Ballista warships of the 2nd Ballista Fleet, 8 medium ballista warships and 20 ships remained here. Although we have 10,000 sailors left, none of them have participated in major battles. In terms of soldier training, we are not as good as the men and horses of Jiangdong. So......" Li Sheng, who quickly gathered his subordinates after receiving the information, said here, glanced at Gan Ning, who was in charge of naval affairs, and said in a deep voice: "Xingba, are you sure of defeating this fleet?" ”

"My lord, I'd rather make a military order." Gan Ning, who was ordered by Li Sheng, immediately flashed out when he heard this, and asked for his life with a fierce hand: "I would rather use the head of Xiang Shangshang to ensure that I can defeat the land and destroy it outside Changsha for the lord." ”

"Xingba, it's really my blessing to be so brave." Li Shengle laughed: "In our army, there are not many people who can understand water warfare, so it is natural that the matter is entrusted with carte blanche Xingba." However, as a coach, Xingba should not make a military order at every turn. You just need to fight with confidence, if you fail, I will lead my army to defend Changsha City. ”

"Thank you, Lord." Gan Ning saw that Li Sheng was sincere, and he entrusted the navy with full authority to himself, and he was willing to back up for himself, so he was immediately moved and bowed again and again.

"You're welcome, you are one of the commanders of our army, and I, as a superior person, should give you trust and support. If the generals are outside, but the Lord doubts the generals, so that the soldiers run out of food, how can this battle be fought? I'm just doing my duty as a monarch. Li Sheng shook his head and said humbly. After all these years, he is still the same in some ways.

"General Xingba, I wonder what you think about this battle? The enemy's navy is very strong. I heard that Jiang Qin once led a partial army to break Huang Zu's Jiangnan naval army on the Yangtze River, and the defenders did not dare to move, which is not comparable to those young people. When Gan Ning stood up and sat down again, Pang Tong on the side asked. He asked, drinking the wine from the small gourd. For a while, a faint aroma of wine permeated the hall, and the mellow taste made everyone swallow their saliva involuntarily. In such a solemn meeting, there is no one else who can make such an "excessive" move except for him, the phoenix. Although Kong Ming also brought a feather fan with him, which is also a bit "excessive", it is quite formal compared to Pang Tong. For this, Li Sheng didn't persuade him, but Pang Tong's appearance of being sick after leaving the wine made Li Sheng relented in the end.

"What a natural drunkard." Li Sheng couldn't help but sigh. The more others drink, the more they drink, the more they drink, but the more he drinks, the more sober he becomes, the easier it is to make tricks. This made Li Sheng somewhat strange. In the current Li Shengjun, Liao Li is in charge of government affairs, Zhuge Liang is in charge of strategy and military politics, and Pang Tong is in charge of tactics It is already a conventional fact. Although Li Sheng did not make such an announcement, everyone, including himself, unanimously recognized it.

Because they got used to it, everyone turned a blind eye to Pang Tong's various "excessive" behaviors. Although there were still a few good generals in the army who were overwhelmed by Pang Tong's temptation, they knew that they did not have Pang Tong's privileges, so they had no choice but to show patience. The current meeting is not over yet, so they naturally can't be too presumptuous.

Hearing Pang Tong ask this question, Gan Ning thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "The size of the enemy fleet is much larger than ours. Although the combat effectiveness of a single warship of our army is higher than theirs, the estimated combat power of the two is roughly equal due to the number of opponents. If it is a head-to-head match, it will be a miserable fight. Therefore, I intend to set the battlefield near Changsha City and meet the enemy head-on with the Second Fleet. Although the Second Fleet is not as powerful as the First Fleet, it can dock closer to the embankment and rely on the crossbow on the embankment to make up for the lack of combat power of the fleet. Yang Xu led the First Fleet to ambush in the Xiangshui on the right side of the city, and when the enemy's combat strength was almost consumed, he detoured back to the enemy's rear from the right side, attacked the enemy, and completely defeated the enemy. The key to this tactic lies in the cooperation between the two fleets, which was originally very difficult for the fleet fighting on the water, but it is not so troublesome for our army, which already has the flag and the light. Every captain on the battleship trained by the lord was able to understand the meaning of the flag, which made the cooperation between our troops smooth to the point of success. Relying on this smoothness, we can arrange the fleet very flexibly, thus making up for the lack of training of our soldiers. Gan Ning smiled, analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of both the enemy and us, and directly formulated a set of "complex" battle plans. Of course, this complexity can only be compared to the simple frontal combat of the naval army, and for the army that is good at strange changes, this kind of plan is still very simple, and it is nothing more than the usual left and right attacks.

"Hehe, General Gan Ning is really confident." Pang Tong nodded and said with a smile. Although he didn't know exactly how to fight the water war, he knew Gan Ning's self-confidence from what Gan Ning said. For such confidence, he is eighty percent sure that Gan Ning can win this battle. So, he turned his head and suggested to Li Sheng: "Lord, it seems that we can arrange the merit book to serve in advance." ”

"That's right." Li Sheng immediately sent an order, "Get ready for a celebration banquet." He heard what Pang Tong said, and saw Kong Ming nodding inadvertently, and his heart suddenly calmed down. What both the dragon and the phoenix agree to, so what can't be achieved? He laughed heartily as he thought about it.

******

A day later, with the same determination to win, the two fleets met on the water in front of the city of Changsha. It's another sunny and breezy day, and good light brings good fulfillment. Twenty miles away, the lookouts on both masts saw each other's fleets neatly lined up on the lake.

"Twenty miles ahead, there are fifty warships, not counting the warships, and the formation is a wild goose marching formation." Gan Ning stood on the large ballista battleship "Xingba" named after himself, facing the lake breeze coming from his face, and listened to the clear report from the lookout with the mast.

"Are the geese marching?" The corners of Gan Ning's mouth curled slightly, and a hint of a smile hung on his face, which was a confident smile and a disdain for the enemy: "Jiang Gongyi, you are still quite confident in your own fleet." Unlike in the hall, where they were somewhat cautious in the face of Li Sheng, Gan Ning was ruthless at the moment. What to defeat the enemy, what to expel the other, these requirements seem to him to be too childish. "Annihilate the opponent as much as possible!" It is the real purpose of Gan Ning's heart.

"The whole army array, a long snake formation! Large ballista battleships in front, stern battleships in the back, scattered at intervals! Gan Ning quickly gave the order. His fleet began to change formations. The huge hulls of the ships have changed from the original bow facing forward to the hull facing forward. The battleships were facing the enemy sideways, and they were like dragons running rampant on the river. If someone in later generations saw the battle formation laid out by Gan Ning at this time from the air, they would definitely be surprised with their faces and eyes: "Is this still a long snake formation?" It's basically created a whole battle line in the ocean age. Although the battleship piloted by Gan Ning was much smaller than the legendary invincible giant ship, the laws between the battleship and the battleship were the same as those of later generations. This is indeed a battle array, yes! ”

When Gan Ning's side adjusted the fleet formation, Jiang Qin's side also led his fleet to keep the formation close and closer. When Gan Ning formed a long snake formation, the distance between the two sides was less than ten miles.

At such a distance, not only can Gan Ning's side clearly see the changes of the other party, but even Jiang Qin, who has not set up a lookout on the mast, can already carefully observe the fleet formation on Ganning's side and the ships of Ganning's own fleet by virtue of the wide field of vision on the roof of the ship.

Seeing the strange warship and Gan Ning's long snake formation from afar, Jiang Qin, who had been on the battlefield for a long time, was still very strange in his heart: "What kind of warship is this?" The ship is not like a ship, the ship is not like a ship, and there is a big disc in the middle of the ship, which is really weird. Jiang Qin hesitated, but he was more concerned than the strangeness of the opponent's warship: "Gan Ning, a very strong guy, why did he use a long snake formation against himself?" You must know that the long snake formation is not a formation conducive to attacking. How is he going to use this formation? If it's on land, it seems that it can also use the softness of a long snake formation to flank the enemy and attack the enemy. But this is on the water, and the mobilization of warships is not as simple as mobilizing soldiers on land, and the number of warships on the other side is not more than that of oneself. The more Jiang Qin thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong: "How could Gan Ning make such a stupid move?" He was puzzled by this.

However, no matter how much Jiang Qin wondered, he never thought of changing his formation into a sharp arrow formation that was most conducive to attacking the Long Snake Formation. After all, this is on the water, not on land, and with the command of thirty ships, it is already a great thing to ensure that the formation of the fleet is not chaotic in the middle of the march. Unlike Li Sheng, who initially asked Pang Tong, Zhuge Liang, and Gan Ning to design a complex and practical set of flags and lanterns with him, the Jiangdong Army's flag could only use a few orders as before.

After about two quarters of an hour, the distance between the two sides was about three miles. At this distance, Ganning's fleet moved. They drew up their sails, rode the wind, broke the waves, drew a large circle on the surface of the lake, and rushed down towards Jiang Qin's fleet. The speed of the ship was so fast that in less than a quarter of an hour, the distance between the two sides was only two and a half miles.

"It's time to give them a little color." Estimating the distance between the two sides, Gan Ning smiled and muttered. It's just that this smile looks like a demonic smile in the eyes of his subordinates.

"It's the devil's smile when it's torturing people." When they thought of this, their hearts were relieved. Because they all understand that their generals are going to torture not others but those damned Jiangdong troops on the other side, "I really feel sorry for you!" That being said, they didn't have much to think of feeling sorry for each other after all. They listened to Gan Ning's order: "This ship! The bow of the ship was ready to attack, targeting the right flank of the enemy. ”

"Yes!" The whirring wind could not hide Gan Ning's order, and the four young soldiers standing on the deck of the bow of the ship with an inexplicable excitement and firmly followed the steps of the original training step by step to fiddle with the weapon in front of them, which was called the "fire crossbow".

The "Fire Crossbow" was not originally there, but was added to the bow of the "Xingba" only a month ago. And the "fire crossbow" was only caught by the instructor in the dock fort half a month ago, and they were urgently trained in theory. They had never operated the "Fire Crossbow", and they had never seen how powerful the "Fire Crossbow" really was, they were only sent here by virtue of their previous experience in operating the bed crossbow, plus a few model operations - the outbreak of war interrupted their learning process, and they were all urgently transferred to the front line just like the Xingba that had just been dragged to the dock for a second refit.

"Have you adjusted the angle and orientation of Wangshan?" One of the four asked.

"It's a point on the left. So the amount of lead time is about the same. The other said excitedly.

"The next step is to light the fire. It seems that just by lighting this, you can fire sixteen crossbow arrows inside? Not! Boss, you're going to have to keep it up. I heard that the recoil of this fire crossbow is very large. The third man beckoned to the big man behind the crossbow with an iron plate hanging from his chest.

"Don't worry. No problem. The big man smiled heartily, and pushed his body forward again, increasing the force of forward.

The flames scurried up along the twine, soaked in tung oil, and quickly sank into the black iron box. A strange and sharp whistling sounded, and the big man with the iron box felt a strong blow on his stomach, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood. He swayed a few steps, but finally blocked it with his strong body, and a smile of pain and joy appeared on his face: in the distance, the sixteen crossbow arrows that flew out of the iron box flew a distance of two miles to the top of Jiang Qin's fleet.

Perhaps because of the shooting during the march, although the advance position of the enemy ships had already been estimated, the crossbow bolts fired did not completely hit the enemy. Sixteen bamboo arrows, closed together by iron hoops, fell with long white smoke, some submerged into the water, others stuck in the armor of the enemy ships, and only a few of two or three hit the enemy's foredeck. It was where the soldiers on the ship stood, but because of the attack from such a distance, the experienced soldiers reacted quickly, and took a few steps back, but did not suffer any damage.

"I really didn't expect the Ganning Army to be equipped with a crossbow that could shoot so far. Luckily, our sons didn't have a hand injury. Jiang Qin couldn't help but be surprised when he saw this scene, and secretly a little happy.

However, this happiness was short-lived. The Jiangdong Army didn't know what kind of demon magic was set up on the crossbow arrows attacked by Gan Ning. I saw that the bamboo arrows rooted in the hull of the ship suddenly exploded violently after the white smoke dissipated. "Rumbling...... The thunderous roar of the ...... was remembered on the poor ship, and a little orange flame strangely appeared on the ship and Mondstadt burned. In the blink of an eye, the battleship with forty soldiers on board was engulfed in the billowing flames. Because it is not a "giant" like a building ship, the weak hull is not prepared for fire prevention at all, and can only helplessly watch everything get worse.

"What a terrifying weapon, it actually destroyed a stern in one blow, it's a little too terrifying." Seeing the ship in the distance being engulfed in flames, Jiang Qin's face suddenly turned extremely blue. He was obviously frightened by the attack power displayed by Gan Ning's side. Although the building ship that is the main force of the Jiangdong Army is much stronger than the ship destroyed by Gan Ning, basically one building ship has the combat power equivalent to four ships, but Gan Ning can destroy one ship in one blow, so doesn't it mean that Gan Ning can destroy his own ship as long as he launches four identical attacks? Looking at the three warships on Gan Ning's side that were similar to the "Xingba", Jiang Qin couldn't help but sigh helplessly. He felt as if he was going to hold Gan Ning higher.

The fleets of both sides continued to approach each other, and when they were about a mile and a half apart, the attack on each other began. The bed crossbow is the most powerful weapon at this distance, and becomes the only means by which both sides can attack each other. There was no weapon that could go further than the bed crossbow, other than the terrifying power that Gan Ning had just demonstrated.

"But fortunately, Ganning's attack only lasted once and then didn't move, maybe because the interval between weapon firing takes a long time." Jiang Qin thought about it, and then laughed self-deprecatingly: "I, Jiang Gongyi, when will I be so afraid of the enemy like a tiger?" He was bitter for a moment, and felt in his heart that it seemed to be because the scene just now was too shocking.

However, after concentrating on the next scene, Jiang Qin felt that the scene could only be regarded as pediatric. After all, what is happening right now can be regarded as a real big scene: countless crossbow arrows flying through the air and throwing them in the direction of the so-called enemy. When Jiang Qinzheng thought that the other party did not have a building boat, it was impossible for him to fire so many crossbow arrows in one breath like his side, the bamboo crossbow arrows that were pressed by the black pressure undoubtedly broke his dream.

"What's going on? This row of arrows is raining down, and there are not afraid of hundreds of crossbow arrows. What kind of ship are they steering? Actually...... How many bed crossbows you have? He was so dumbfounded that he forgot for a moment to give the order to the ships to avoid. Although in the face of such a dense rain of arrows, even if he ordered to avoid it, it was useless, but to make a self-contained and calm general like Jiang Qin show such a shocked expression also confirmed how "big" the matter in front of him was. ”

The standard configuration of the Jiangdong building ship is that a ship is fully staffed with 150 people, including 15 sailors, 5 helmsmen, 30 paddlemen, 40 fighting soldiers, 28 crossbowmen (archers), 32 bed crossbowmen, and 8 bed crossbows. Because the bed crossbows themselves were too heavy to be carried, the eight crossbows were placed on the platform on the top floor of the building facing all sides, and were equipped with two bed crossbows in each direction. Although this arrangement allows each direction to have a balanced attack power, for the single side engaged with the enemy, only two of the eight bed crossbows can really activate the effect.

Jiang Qin's fleet was equipped with thirty ships, and only sixty crossbows and arrows could be fired in a single salvo. Such a sparse attack may be normal for a fleet of his size, but it is too weak for the Ganning fleet, which is equipped with new ships.

With the exception of the strange and useless weapon called the "Fire Crossbow" that had just been added to the bow, the configuration of the "Xingba" was generally carried out according to the standard ballista battleship: a full strength of 250 men, 10 sailmen, 2 helmsmen, 28 wheelmen, 50 glabradors, 40 crossbowmen, 80 bed crossbowmen, and 40 slingers. It is equipped with 20 bed crossbows and 8 catapults. Due to the requirement in advance to use the long snake formation as the attack formation, the warship was required to arrange weapons on the side of the ship as much as possible at the beginning of the design, sixteen of the twenty bed crossbows were arranged in this way, and six of the eight catapults were also in this way, and because the catapult and bed crossbow platforms in the bow and stern were equipped with disc-shaped chassis, it was also possible to concentrate the catapults and bed crossbows in the bow and stern of the ship in one direction at any time for attacking. Thus, a large ballista warship was ensured to have 12 bed crossbow attack points and 5 catapult attack points, which met Li Sheng's requirement to enhance the unilateral attack capability to the greatest extent possible.

As for Li Sheng's medium-sized ballista battleship, although it was slightly smaller than the large ballista battleship, it was only equipped with fourteen bed crossbows. However, due to the use of the same configuration as large ballista battleships, it was also guaranteed that medium ballista ships would have nine bed crossbow attack points when facing the enemy on the side.

Gan Ning's Second Fleet consisted of four large ballistae, eight medium ballistae, and twenty ships, so when he attacked the enemy with a long serpentine formation, it had 168 bed crossbow attack points at the same time, which was nearly three times the attack power of Jiang Qin's fleet.

The dense attacks, coupled with the various strange arrows mixed in, caused the ships of the Jiangdong Army to catch fire one after another. Unlike Jiang Qin, who had the intention of destroying those strange warships, Gan Ning seemed to have the idea of knocking out the opponent's warships first. In his opinion, the captain is undoubtedly the rank of a soldier in the Jiangdong Army fleet, and to eliminate the soldiers as much as possible is undoubtedly to turn the enemy's fleet into a group of poor bare-bones commanders. It's funny to think about, and it's the most refreshing. The Jiangdong Army's warships did not have much ability to prevent fire attacks, which gave the bed crossbow shot by Gan Ning's side the capital to easily bully them.

Half a day after the start of the war, six ships of the Jiangdong Army were burned and soon lost their combat effectiveness. Although this mere six ships was not a much-bothering loss for a fleet of fifty ships and thirty ships, such a loss was caused within two quarters of an hour, which made even a calm person like Jiang Qin feel a little shocked. He had not known of such a means of destroying enemy warships from such a distance.

"The long-range attack is not as good as the opponent's, so I have to engage in close combat. Tell the whole army to speed up and be sure to break through into enemy lines. Jiang Qin gritted his teeth, and suddenly ordered loudly with a ruthlessness in his heart. As the general of the Jiangdong Army, he has never been forced to look like this on the water. Although he is a humble man, no matter how humble he is, he also has his pride as a warrior. He didn't want to be defeated miserably like this, even if the person who defeated him was Gan Ning, who was more famous than him before.

"Yes!" The soldiers did it quickly. Although the crossbow arrows shot from Gan Ning's side still ruthlessly ignited one ship after another, the formation of the Jiangdong Army fleet was not chaotic because of this, and they all meticulously carried out the orders of the main general, showing the elite demeanor of the strongest naval army in the world in front of the enemy. They think of themselves entirely as machines, not as human beings.

The fleet of the Jiangdong Army quickly approached Ganning's fleet. Although the Ganning Army inflicted a devastating blow on the Jiangdong Army's stern through volleys again and again when the other side rushed over, the Jiangdong Army was still determined. It was as if they hadn't seen their comrades or that they were dying.

"Be ruthless to yourself, and even more ruthless to your enemies, Jiang Qin, you are really a master." Looking at the enemy coming from the front, Gan Ning seemed to sigh and mock. The enemy's fleet had obviously caused him some trouble, but he was not afraid of it. Standing in front of the command platform of the "Xingba", he faced it very calmly and gave an order very clearly: "The whole fleet is divided into two, and the captains of the ships act according to the predetermined plan. At the same time, send a signal to Yang Xu and them to start acting. ”

"No!" The soldiers under Gan Ning's command also strictly obeyed Gan Ning's orders. Although they still managed to be as ruthless to themselves and the enemy as the Jiangdong Army did, they seemed to be the same as the Jiangdong Army in terms of following orders.

The distance between the two sides became closer and closer, from the first one mile to half a mile and then to a hundred paces. In such a bright eye, the two warring sides saw each other's faces very clearly at such a distance. The bed crossbow was still being fired, but it was no longer used as the main means of attack. The crossbowmen who came out of the cabin splashed waves of black arrows with their crossbows and arrows. The exchange of blows to each other caused casualties on both sides.

Fifty paces, this is the distance that even the fighting soldiers on the ship of the Jiangdong Military Tower are ready for battle. However, even at this distance, the fighters on Ganning's side still showed no signs of showing their heads.

"Looks fine." Jiang Qin let out a long sigh of relief. Gan Ning's battleship did not have the configuration of a brawler, which was undoubtedly another means of victory besides the bow and arrow in the abandonment of water warfare. Although Gan Ningjun's long-range attack power made him a little shocked, he still felt that Gan Ning's path was a detour when he gave up the fighting power that was really used to determine the victory or defeat of the water for the sake of this not powerful long-range attack power.

Of course, he was very glad that Gan Ning had taken a detour. After all, they are enemies of each other at the moment, and the mistakes of the enemies are worthy of rejoicing on their side.