Xu Sheng followed Zhang Qi very early, and it can be traced back to the period when Zhang Zheng's army was still called the "Tianping Army". To be counted, he joined at the same time as Zang Ba.

However, because Xu Sheng was still young at that time and his body was not fully grown, Zhang Qiang did not immediately "ignite" him. It wasn't until Xu Sheng turned eighteen that he was "ignited" by arrogance and let his force directly promote to the peak of "Thousand People Broken".

After that, due to Xu Sheng's age and experience, Zhang Qi only let Xu Sheng serve as Zhou Cang's deputy general for a long time to accumulate experience and qualifications.

It wasn't until last year that Zhang Qiang cooperated with Dong Zhuo and successfully pocketed Baibo Valley, and Xu Sheng was able to take charge of himself for the first time and became the chief general of the First Army. Of course, the characteristics of his army are different from other generals in the Taixing Army. What arrogant let him command was not cavalry, nor infantry, but a naval army that was extremely rare in the Northland!

The navy of the Han Dynasty, often known as the "Lou Boat Soldier", commanded by the "Lou Boat General", crisscrossed the rivers and lakes, and has always been invincible. It's just that these professional sailors are usually distributed in Yangzhou and Jingzhou in the south. In the Yellow River valley of the Central Plains, there is basically no formed naval army.

This is actually very easy to understand.

Compared with the army, the navy is very expensive. Among other things, the annual cost of maintenance and replacement of the ship is quite a significant expense. Moreover, in the northern region, compared with the army, the navy is extremely restricted, and often encounters the treatment of "heroes are useless".

In the north of the entire Han Dynasty, due to the lack of precipitation, the rivers are not dense, and the water flow is usually not large, which is not too suitable for water transportation and navigation. And from a military point of view, the enemy that may appear in the Yellow River Valley. Basically, they were all miscellaneous cavalry. These cavalry are completely incapable of water warfare, so there is naturally no need for the imperial court to maintain a high-cost naval army.

However, when Zhang Mad obtained the entire Baibo Valley, facing the boiling Fen River, he immediately set the tone for the development of the Yellow River Water Army.

Although the Yellow River due to several rapids between the upper and lower reaches of the waterfall. It is impossible to realize the transportation navigation between the upstream, middle and downstream. But after sending people to investigate the hydrological data of the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the situation of the Fen River, he found that due to the neglect of the Han court, if he had a decent naval army in his hands, he could easily achieve hegemony on the water in the area of Bingzhou and Sili.

In this way, whether the Taixing army was attacking the surrounding riverside areas or carrying out the transportation of the army's baggage, it would be able to obtain great convenience.

You know, for some time to come. The main opponents of the arrogance were not the Xianbei barbarians in the north who had been attacked by the Taixing army and effectively suppressed, but other states and counties of the Great Han. The prefectures and counties surrounding the Taihang Army, especially Taiyuan and Hedong, both had several waterways that were barely navigable. As long as a small naval army can help the Taixing army, in the battles that take place along the river. Gain the initiative in the war.

Looking farther away, Zhang Qiang seemed to see it. The raging fire that burns in Chibi in the future. After Zhang Qiang succeeded in pacifying the north, the next step was to have the opportunity to attack Jiangnan. At that time, if you want to conquer Jiangnan in one fell swoop, a powerful naval army is also necessary for the Taixing army.

Prepared for a rainy day, Insolence decided to start now. Cultivate some of the seeds of the navy in the army. Maybe when, a small water army can be used by him.

When it comes to forming a naval army, compared to the landlubbers of Dian Wei, Zhou Cang, Xie Xun, Zhang Yan and others, Xu Sheng was born in Ju County, Langxi County, Xuzhou. Undoubtedly the most suitable candidate.

Xu Sheng was born near a big river, and he has a good water quality since he was a child. And when he was a country ranger, he had been in the rivers and lakes for a few years, and he had a slight impression of the composition of the Han Navy.

Moreover, according to the historical records in Zhang Mad's mind, Xu Sheng seems to have taken refuge in the Eastern Wu forces, which are famous for their naval forces, during the Three Kingdoms period, and became one of the few generals in the Eastern Wu army. This fully shows that Xu Sheng himself has enough potential in the formation of the water army.

Anyway, insolence does not currently intend to form an "invincible armada" (1). As long as he can suppress the enemy in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and its tributaries, he will be satisfied. Since there is such a famous Jiangdong general as Xu Sheng among the generals, does Zhang Qiang still need to consider others?

In this way, Xu Sheng took more than 200 soldiers from near rivers and lakes who could swim themselves, and began to build a naval army from scratch. At the same time, Zhang Mad was still secretly requisitioning fishermen and boatmen along the Yellow River and Fen River and handing them over to Xu Sheng, so that Xu Sheng could smoothly pull up a small-scale naval army with a total strength of about 600 people in the past year.

Compared with the army, the construction of the navy requires a lot more time and resources. Not to mention anything else, there are many troubles in shipbuilding alone, which cannot be solved in the short term.

First of all, there is the issue of wood. The wood needed for shipbuilding must be dried in the sun for three years before it can be used. If freshly cut wood is soaked directly in water, it will quickly rot and deteriorate and become unusable.

Secondly, there are few rivers in the north, and there are naturally fewer craftsmen in shipbuilding. And craftsmen who can build warships are naturally very few. If it weren't for Zhang Bao's network of Taiping Dao and the summoning of a master craftsman from Jingzhou who could build a ship on his own, the arrogant Yellow River naval army equipment plan could only be made up of by civilian ships.

As for the third point, the water conditions in the Yellow River and Fen River are complicated, not only are there many dangerous shoals and rapids, but also the water volume is small, the water level is shallow, and it is not easy to sail.

Fortunately, Xu Sheng has superb water quality, and has personally taken action many times to detect the hydrological conditions in various places, and it took more than half a year to thoroughly understand the hydrological situation of this section of the Fen River. Connected to the water surface of "Zhaoyu Qi", which is difficult to navigate, Xu Sheng also wandered around for half a month.

In the construction of the navy, Zhang Qiang has certainly spent a lot of effort, and the cost invested is calculated in hundreds of millions of dollars, but the navy controlled by Xu Sheng will certainly not become much larger in less than a year.

Not to mention anything else, in terms of the types of ships, there are certainly no large-scale "building ships" that can accommodate hundreds to thousands of people. The second-class "ship", which can carry more than 100 people and is used for conflict with enemy ships, does not have a single one under Xu Sheng.

The largest warships of the Taihang Army, namely the two "Brave Raids" and one "Fighting Ship", are all small and medium-sized warships that can only accommodate less than 100 people. The main composition of the entire naval army is still the "red horse" and "walker" that can ride from 10 to 20 or 30 people.

Moreover, these warships were all transformed by Taihang military shipwrights from the collected civilian ships. Compared with those specially built warships for water warfare, the combat capabilities are naturally not small.

However, the fleet is small and small, and it is enough to attack the battle of Taiyuan.

Xu Sheng went all the way along the Fen River this time, which can be said to be a dumping trip. In addition to a few small boats that had problems and needed to be repaired, he brought all the thirty small boats, such as "Red Horse" and "Walking Boat", which were able to row at "Zhao Yuqi". The warriors who dared to fight in the navy army were also swept away by Xu Sheng.

Now those who remain in the Baibo Valley Navy Base are only old and weak and craftsmen, so that Xu Sheng had to humiliate and invite the local garrison to help the guard and defense of the water village.

A naval army of this size, taken to the Yangtze River, is certainly not worth mentioning. However, when facing the side of the Taiyuan County Navy that only had civilian ships for transportation, Xu Sheng's Navy immediately showed a crushing posture!

Taiping Tao spreads all over the world, and the believers do not know how many. Even a few years after the defeat of the Yellow Turban Army, there are still a few devout Taiping Dao believers in the "Zhaoyu Qi" Mizuzawa. At the same time as sending troops to Taiyuan County, Zhang Mad had already asked Wei Xiao, the leader of the secret spies, to launch the Taiping Road in the Taiyuan area with all his strength to provide intelligence for the army's attack.

With those eyes that existed in the shadows, the water transport raid secretly planned by Bing Cao Peng, Li Yan and Pingtao County Ling Du Feng was actually not as secretive as they imagined.

After getting the news that the Pingtao County government suddenly collected ships that could pass through "Zhaoyuqi", Zhang Qi immediately realized the intention of Pingtao County. It just so happened that he thought of Xu Sheng's naval army that was rushing to the order again, and immediately decided to plan it.

The enemy army in Pingtao County wanted to transport troops to their rear, cut off their supply lines, and carry out front and rear flanking attacks. However, as long as the enemy's naval army is annihilated, those enemy troops who are sent out will become lone troops in the true sense. There is no food and grass inside, no rescue outside, in such a desperate situation, how long can more than 1,000 troops be able to hold on?

As for how to grasp the route of transporting troops to the enemy army in Pingtao?

Don't look at the hundreds of miles of water surface seems to be extremely wide, in fact, in the entire "Zhaoyu Qi", there are only a few waterways that can accommodate flat-bottomed boats carrying more than 100 stones. As long as there is someone who is familiar with the "Zhaoyu Qi" waterway, it is not difficult to judge this.

- Everything is as expected by the lord......

After Xu Sheng cleaned up the battlefield, the awe of arrogance in his heart deepened again.

For those small boats that scattered and escaped, Xu Sheng didn't care too much. What really worries Xu Sheng is those flat-bottomed boats. Only after seizing these water tools that are most suitable for transporting goods in "Zhao Yuqi", the next action planned by Zhang Qiang can be carried out smoothly.

After a simple screening of the captives, Xu Sheng drove more than 80 fishermen, who were timid and fearful, and had no combat effectiveness, to his "red horses" and "walkers" to act as oarsmen. The rest of the county soldiers and water thieves, after confiscating their weapons, were imprisoned in a flat-bottomed boat by Xu Sheng's subordinates.

Then, this "not small" naval fleet, under the control of the Taihang Army, began to slowly turn the bow of the ship and sail towards Shuibeili. (To be continued......)

PS: PS: (1) The Invincible Armada is a powerful naval fleet established by Spain in order to protect its sea lines of communication and its interests overseas, with more than 1,000 ships and more than 100,000 personnel at its peak. This fleet roams the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, proudly calling itself the "Invincible Armada".