However, when the warships of Soochow approached the place where the five battleships of the Jingjun Army were less than a mile away, they saw a loud bang on the starboard side of the Yangwei, and the fire was shining, and when the Jiangdong sailors were still wondering, the warship that rushed to the front instantly disintegrated in the sound of "boom", the mast was broken, the deck flew sideways, the warship was filled with gunsmoke, the fire was raging, and the hull that was broken in two was sinking rapidly, and the sailors on the ship jumped into the lake with a body of fire on their backs that were not killed, shouting for help, and the lake fell into chaos.

Without waiting for the surrounding ships to rescue, the five battleships fired in unison, the lake was filled with gunsmoke, the flames soared into the sky, and the Soochow warships that rushed to the front were shot one after another, and the explosions came one after another. The cannonball was so powerful that when it hit, all the small ships were sunk, and the large ships could not withstand three or two cannons, and the entire fleet of Soochow suffered heavy losses as if it were a blow to the head.

Zhou Yu also thought that the Jing army would actually use such a powerful weapon, the range was far higher, far exceeding the bed crossbow and trebuchet, and the destructive power was very amazing, but all those who were shot, eight or nine out of ten were sunk, and the warship that rushed to the front was almost destroyed. In addition to being stunned, Zhou Yu also understood the reason why Gan Ning crossed the ship, it turned out that the guns of the Jing Army Naval Division were all mounted on the side side, and once the opponent's ship entered the firing range, it could fire artillery attacks and the other party was powerless to fight back.

The artillery of the Jing army was powerful in Xiapi, and the Cao soldiers were blown up on their backs, and even Guo Jia, the first strategist under Cao Cao, also gave his life for this, which shows that the power of the Jing army's artillery is huge. Such a big matter naturally could not be hidden from the secret agents sent to Xuzhou by Eastern Wu, although Zhou Yu did not witness the power of the artillery with his own eyes. But judging from the secret report, those cannons weighed thousands of catties, and the landslides and ground cracks were deafening when the cannons were fired, and there were no ones who could not break them. It's just that Zhou Yu is very puzzled, how did Jing Jun move these behemoths to the ship, depending on the situation, each ship is equipped with at least 20 or more guns, and the weight is more than 100,000 catties, even a huge building ship like his ship can't carry it, how did Liu Ze do it?

In fact, Zhou Yu didn't know what to do. Placed on the city of Xiapi. It was a cast iron cannon, and the weight of each cannon was six or seven thousand catties, while the guns on the battleship were bronze cannons. Both in weight and caliber were much smaller than cast-iron guns. Although the power is naturally inferior. But it was more than enough to deal with wooden warships.

On five battleships, including the Janway, in the bow position. A bronze cannon with a caliber of five inches is installed, which has a long range and great power, and can exert its power in frontal combat and pursuit operations. On the lower decks of the ships on each side, ten bronze guns of a caliber of three inches were installed, and a single sideside salvo would be enough to destroy any enemy ship within the range of attack. The two broadside guns at the stern are equipped with slide rails, which can be moved from the side position to the stern, and even when the battleship retreats, it can also fire cannons to attack the enemy's pursuing ship, achieving a 360-degree all-round artillery attack.

Ma Jun has been engaged in the research and development of cast iron cannons in Xuzhou, and the red-coated cannon that shows its power on the city of Xiapi is his masterpiece, the red-coated cannon is powerful, but its own weight is amazing, it is difficult to move, it is only suitable for city defense artillery, not suitable for field artillery, and it is almost impossible to equip it on a warship. After Chibi, Liu Ze urgently needed to rebuild the navy and build a new warship, and Ma Jun was transferred to Baqiu. If you want to build a gunboat, the cast iron cannon is obviously not competent, so Liu Ze checked all the information and decided to recast the bronze cannon, Liu Ze provided the drawing style, Ma Jun made it from the facts, and the sample of the bronze cannon was soon released. Due to the foundation of cast iron cannons and the mature bronze technology since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the construction of bronze cannons is much shorter than that of cast iron cannons, Ma Jun designed a five-inch and three-inch bronze cannon, the weight of the cannon body is 1,800 jin and 1,200 jin respectively, much lighter than the bulky cast iron cannon, completely suitable for equipment on a warship.

Zhou Yu was completely stunned, but Lu Su reminded him on the side, only to realize that because the Jing army had advanced gunboats, no matter how many warships in Eastern Wu were, they could not get close, and it was completely a passive situation, Zhou Yu immediately ordered that all the flotilla retreat.

Originally, the warships of Soochow were all in a state of attacking forward, and as soon as Zhou Yu's military order was given, many warships began to turn the rudder and retreat backwards, but so many warships could not keep pace at all, and many warships collided with each other and made a mess on the lake.

Gan Ning saw the chaos in the formation of the Eastern Wu naval army, and immediately ordered the five battleships to turn the rudder to the right and rush straight towards the Wu army's fleet.

Five major battleships such as the Yangwei opened the way, and the naval division of the Jing Army was like a bamboo, and the warships of Soochow could not resist the enemy and were defeated one after another.

Gan Ning saw that Zhou Yu's flagship was real, and ordered the Yangwei to pull the sails, speed up the oars, and rush straight over.

At this time, the advantage of the battleship's fast speed was fully reflected, Zhou Yu's building ship was originally still five miles away, but the building ship was slower, and it was quickly caught up by the Yangwei.

The main gun of the bow of the Yangwei has a range of up to two miles at an angle of fire of 10 °, and the thief captures the king first, Gan Ning naturally can't let go of Zhou Yu, and he is chasing after him on the lake, just entering the range of Erli, Gan Ning ordered the main gun to fire, and the first shell failed to hit the building boat, and the water column several feet high was stirred up on the port side of the building ship. The main gunner immediately corrected the trajectory, and the second shell hit the stern of the ship with unmistaken accuracy, and the huge blast wave of the explosion almost flattened the stern of the ship.

Zhou Yu's face was pale, he knew very well that with the speed of the Lou ship, it could not be compared with the enemy's warship, on this vast Peng Lize Lake, as long as it was bitten by the other party, the Lou boat had almost no chance of escaping, and the other party had artillery, and if the Lou ship was hit a few more times, it would be enough to be buried at the bottom of the lake. Zhou Yu hurriedly ordered several warships escorting the escort to block the Yangwei's channel without regard to buy some time for the flagship to escape.

But a few escort warships were too thin, and the Yangwei could blow those escort warships apart with just one shot, rushing through the wreckage of those warships, and the Yangwei showed no signs of slowing down, and was desperate to chase Zhou Yu's building ship.

At this time, there was no longer a warship around the building ship to escort it, seeing that the Yangwei was getting closer and closer, several shots in succession, and successively hit the upper deck and hull of the building ship, and a large hole was blown out of the tail of the building ship, and the lake water rushed into the cabin, and the building ship was burning with a raging fire, and the hull of the building also leaned sharply to the left.

Zhou Yu's face was like ashes, and he looked up to the sky and sighed: "Heaven will kill me!" (To be continued......)