"Kill!!"

"A team, aim straight ahead...... Shoot the arrows! ”

"Shieldman, shieldhand!"

When Xie An and his generals came to the port near the river where the warships were moored, the entire port had already fallen into a scuffle.

Because the troops carried by the withered sheep this time are not much, so it cannot pose a threat to the Zhou soldiers in a short period of time, so when Tang Hao, Liao Li, Zhang Dong, Qi Zhi, Cheng Yang, Dian Ying and other Jizhou soldiers quickly boarded various boats and began to command the corporals under their command, the originally slightly chaotic situation of the Zhou soldiers was suddenly controlled, and they began to counterattack in an orderly manner.

"A rough estimate is that there are less than one hundred and fifty warships, and the number of troops is about 10,000 at most......" After a cursory glance, Gou Gong explained the current situation to his lord Xie An in a low voice.

"It seems that the attack is mainly a demonstration......" Boarding a building ship, Xie An looked up at the Taiping army fleet. After all, in his opinion, if the withered sheep really wanted to forcibly attack his Zhou army's Hengjiang Water Village, how could he not go out?

You must know that water warfare is different from land warfare, even if one side has the world's great heroes like Liangqiu Hao, Liangqiu Wu, and Thunder, it is difficult to defeat the enemy with this advantage, after all, this is above the river, and everyone's actions are restricted by warships, and it is impossible to do it in the true sense [take the head of the general among the ten thousand armies].

In other words, vainly trying to suppress 30,000 Zhou soldiers with more than 10,000 troops on the river? It's just wishful thinking!

Therefore, Xie An concluded that the withered sheep must have come to demonstrate because he refused to hand over the troops, and seeing that his Zhou soldiers were closed, he temporarily changed his mind to attack the water village, otherwise, how could the withered sheep only come to attack the village with about 10,000 troops?

Xie An guessed correctly, in fact, the withered sheep carried fewer troops than he imagined, only 8,000 soldiers and 130 boats, and nearly 100 of them were small boats, only about 30 ships and a few building ships, which was difficult to compare with the endless fleet of Zhou soldiers.

It is precisely because of this that both Xie An and Zhou soldiers are not busy in the face of the strong attack of the Taiping army, after all, the gap in strength is here.

Sure enough, when the generals of the Zhou soldiers began to command, the situation of the war here was unfavorable for the attacking Taiping army, and under the bows and arrows of countless Zhou soldiers, the casualties of the Taiping soldiers climbed rapidly, and they frowned again and again.

"Dashuai, Dashuai, the situation is not good......" Seeing the situation on the battlefield, Wang Jian, the young general of the Taiping Army, said to the withered sheep in a low voice, "This time the Zhou soldiers are obviously prepared!" -- The battle situation is not favorable to our army, so why not retreat temporarily? ”

[Prepared?] ]

Withered Yang smiled indifferently when he heard this, in his opinion, Zhou Bing was a little chaotic before, this was obviously because the generals of the Jizhou soldiers were not in command on the boat, and only those thousands of generals and hundreds of generals who stayed behind, how could they make the best response in a short time? At most, he blindly asked his corporal to shoot arrows indiscriminately, fighting separately and scattering sand. But after just a stick of incense, the counterattack of the Zhou soldiers changed greatly, not only the strength of the counterattack was significantly strengthened, but also some boats began to adjust the position and direction of the hull, and even could cooperate with other boats, obviously, this is because the generals in the Zhou army arrived.

[The 30,000 Zhou soldiers are all busy with something on the boat, but the generals are not here, in other words, the Zhou soldiers are really preparing something......]

Squinting his eyes, the withered sheep stared at the behemoth connected by a dozen warships and countless thick ropes and iron cables.

Looking along the line of sight of the withered sheep, I saw that on the behemoth, Liao Li, the general of the Zhou army, ran like a flight on the hull with more than 100 soldiers, and came to the forefront of the battlefield in a very short time.

It is hard to imagine that a northern general, who was skilled in horsemanship and knew only how to fight on land, could run on a ship on the river, unaffected by the turbulent hull.

[Serial Ship...... Is this your trick, brother-in-law? ]

Exhaling slightly, the withered sheep crossed his arms and looked at the monster called the chain ship unhurriedly, thinking slowly in his heart about how to crack this thing.

After all, how could Yi Dry Sheep not see the horror of his brother-in-law Xie An's move?

In his opinion, once the Zhou soldiers are ready, the Yangtze River natural danger will no longer be a problem for the Zhou army, and when the time comes, as long as the Zhou soldiers take the serial ships to fight, how can the Taiping army, which only has medium and small warships, be the opponent of the Zhou soldiers? After all, the reason why the Zhou soldiers were not as good as the Taiping army in water warfare was nothing more than that the boats on the river were swaying back and forth by the action of the river, and it was difficult for the Zhou soldiers who were not familiar with the things here to maintain stability on the ships, let alone fighting? But on the other hand, if the Zhou soldiers had a way to overcome the problem of the instability of the ship, how could the Taiping army, which lacked combat experience, be the opponent of the battle-hardened Jizhou soldiers?

And beside the withered sheep, his confidant Wang Jian was obviously not as far-reaching as the former, seeing that Zhou Bing's counterattack was becoming more and more ferocious, Wang Jian couldn't help but panic, and called out to the commander who was in deep thought.

"Huh? Oh. After Wang Jian's several calls, the withered sheep came back from deep thought, began to pay attention to the current battle situation, and after sweeping the chaotic situation in front of him for a few times, he comforted, "Don't panic, although the strength of the Zhou army is three times that of ours, its boats and ships are not the best formation, and even, dozens of warships are crowded together, and even the most basic formation is not good...... Don't look at the number of Zhou soldiers, but there are only ten thousand people who can pose a threat to our army. -- With 8,000 enemies and 15 enemies, our side, which is not chaotic and the distance between ships is free, has an advantage! ”

"This ...... Hey? It's really ......," the withered sheep nodded in realization. Listening to the withered sheep's mention, he realized the real advantages and disadvantages of the two sides hidden under the chaotic situation, and his anxious mood gradually became a little calmer, but even so, he still couldn't help but glance at the withered sheep, and stopped talking.

It seemed to see through Wang Jian's thoughts, and the withered sheep chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I also value the casualties of the soldiers under my command, but if we retreat now, it will seem that our side has lost, and it will boost the morale of the Zhou army in vain, which is not good!" -- After destroying a few Zhou warships, it will not be too late for our army to withdraw! As he spoke, his gaze subconsciously glanced at the chain of ships connected by dozens of warships.

"Big ...... Could it be that the marshal deliberately planned to destroy that monster-like warship? Following the sight of the withered sheep, Wang Jian gasped in shock. He was shocked that Zhou Bing had made such a terrible monster in the water village, and he was also shocked by the appetite of the withered sheep.

But after thinking about it, Wang Jian spoke in support again. After all, in his opinion, if the withered sheep could destroy that behemoth, it would inevitably bring a great shock to Zhou Bing and greatly reduce Zhou Bing's morale.

Perhaps, although Wang Jian has made up his mind that no matter what kind of judgment the coach withered sheep makes, including surrendering to the Zhou soldiers, he will inevitably follow closely after his favor, but in his bones, Wang Jian still hopes that the withered sheep can lead their Taiping soldiers to defeat the Zhou soldiers, and even make the whole world change the dynasty in one go.

But what was quite surprising was that the withered sheep watched the chain of ships for a while, but in the end, he actually ordered his fleet to bypass the chain ships of the Zhou army.

This move made Xie An, who was always paying attention to the movements of the Taiping Army fleet, frown slightly.

[Chose to avoid it?] ]

His eyebrows were furrowed, and Xie An'an flashed a little suspicious.

In his opinion, if he was the commander of the Taiping Army, and saw such a terrible behemoth in the Zhou Army's water village, then his first reaction would be to destroy this thing at all costs, so as not to leave it behind. After all, the current serial ship can only be regarded as a semi-finished product, and both the volume and firmness of the ship have not reached the point that Xie An expected, and it is relatively difficult to destroy.

However, the withered sheep didn't seem to see the serial boat that was not a finished product, and deliberately asked the corporal to make a detour from the left, to say that there was nothing greasy in it, Xie An didn't believe it. After all, he didn't think that his brother-in-law could calmly pretend not to see it after seeing such a sharp weapon for cross-river fighting, unless the withered sheep could not detect the power of this thing.

It's just that......

Is this possible?

"Oh no......" While Xie An was pondering, beside him, Gou Gong held his small golden fan and sighed, frowned and gritted his teeth and said, "I don't want to be smashed by the adult's clever plan...... My lord, although it was a little late, you still ordered the chain ship to retreat slowly, right? lest it be destroyed by the Taiping army...... Even if it is not destroyed, it will probably be very bad for the little uncle to see any clues......"

His words were full of guilt. After all, it was Xie An who privately instructed Gou Gong to be in charge of all the things of the serial ship, and even the generals in the army did not know the details of the big and small things.

"......" Xie An frowned slightly when he heard this, looked at the situation on the battlefield, and after thinking for a while, he shook his head and said, "No, just let that chain ship stand by." - Ordered the ship's sergeants to fight back with bows and crossbows, and do nothing else! ”

[Allowing such an important thing to be under the noses of the enemy?] ]

Gou Gong was stunned, but seeing Xie An's resolute attitude, he didn't dare to say much, so Gu Zi called the herald to deliver Xie An's order.

What surprised Gou Gong was that the 130 warships of the Taiping army under the command of Ku Yang had not forcibly destroyed the serial ship except for asking his corporal to release arrows during the passage of the serial ship, as if it was just the most ordinary and inconspicuous small boat, and there was no need to destroy it.

"Hey!" For some reason, Xie An raised a slight smile on his lips.

At the same time, on the flagship of the commander of the Taiping Army, where the withered sheep was, Wang Jian had ordered his corporal to prepare fire arrows.

But what is quite embarrassing is that the Taiping army only has about 8,000 fire arrows in total at the moment, and it is simply a fool's dream to burn down the dense Zhou soldiers and boats in the vicinity.

In desperation, Wang Jian had no choice but to pin his hopes on the heavens, hoping that the two rounds of fire arrows fired by their Taiping soldiers would be able to inflict the greatest losses on the warships of the Zhou soldiers. After all, with their reserves of fire arrows, they could only shoot two salvos at best, and after that, they fell into the embarrassing situation of insufficient fire arrows, and at most they could only shoot the Zhou soldiers on the opposite ship with ordinary arrows. In all fairness, in the case of such a dense array of Zhou warships, the arrows fired by the Taiping soldiers could not shoot the Zhou soldiers very effectively, and even if a few unlucky ghosts were occasionally shot, they were obviously insignificant and could not cause essential casualties to the Zhou army.

However, just as Wang Jian was about to give the order, the withered sheep raised his hand to stop him.

"If you hurt the enemy's ten fingers, it's better to cut off one of them!" Raising his hand in a direction, the withered sheep said in a deep voice, "Pass the order, target the more than 20 Zhou army ships in this direction, and vent the only 8,000 fire arrows in our army!" ”

[8,000 Fire Bolts...... All shot at the more than 20 Zhou military ships? ]

Wang Jian looked at the withered sheep in disbelief, you must know that it was 8,000 fire arrows, venting on the more than 20 Zhou army ships, on average, each warship would suffer about 300 to 400 rockets, although the effect must be wonderful, but the problem is ......

"This ...... It's too wasteful......" Wang Jian muttered hesitantly.

"That's it!" The withered sheep snorted lightly and said in a deep voice, "The best way to demonstrate is nothing more than to kill chickens and make an example of monkeys!" - Don't forget, our army is only here to deter the Zhou soldiers! ”

Wang Jian's face was straight when he heard this, and he immediately ordered the ** standard-bearer on the ship to convey the order of the commander Withered Sheep to the ships behind him.

After only half a cup of tea, more than 3,000 crossbowmen from about 130 warships of the Taiping Army released cathartic rockets to the Zhou army's warships, which were only about 20 ships.

Two salvos, a full 8,000 fire bolts!

For a time, the more than 20 Zhou military ships seemed to be under the rain of fire, and the scene was so spectacular!

Almost in an instant, under the gentle river wind, the more than 20 warships were suddenly engulfed in the fire, and a total of more than 1,000 Zhou soldiers on board could not stop the fire from growing even though they quickly set out to extinguish the fire. In order to survive, they had to jump into the river to survive, regardless of whether they had a water surname or not.

At the end of March, the river was still cold and biting, and the more than 1,000 Zhou soldiers jumped this time, and it was not known how many people could be rescued by Tongze safe and sound. If half of the soldiers were to be rescued safely, it would be considered a fluke.

"Withdraw!" When he saw that it was good, he accepted it, and the withered sheep immediately gave the order to withdraw his troops. After all, the nearby Zhou soldiers were shocked by the tragic situation of the more than 20 of their own warships, so that they weakened the suppression of the Taiping army's warships with arrows.

With 8,000 soldiers and 130 warships, they boldly attacked the Zhou army's Hengjiang Water Village, burned more than 20 warships of the Zhou soldiers with fire arrows in half an hour, and caused more than 1,000 casualties to the Zhou army. During this period, the Taiping army lost two ships and more than 200 soldiers, which was almost negligible compared to the casualties caused to the Zhou soldiers.

I have to say that in terms of judging the situation and paying attention to the battlefield situation, the withered sheep is not inferior to Fei Guo, Ma Dan, Tang Hao, Qi Zhi and other generals of the Jizhou soldiers.

"Dry sheep, that kid ......" Seeing that the withered sheep patted ** calmly after causing such heavy casualties to his side, Rao is his brother-in-law, Xie An couldn't help but itch his teeth with hatred. But on the contrary, he was more and more happy with his brother-in-law, who was two years younger than him.

And Gou Gong obviously saw Xie Anxin's true thoughts, and said with a smile, "It's worthy of being a little uncle!" -- Entering and exiting my Jizhou Binghengjiang Water Village is like entering a no-man's land...... Beware, adults! The last sentence was said by Gou Gong in a joking tone, after all, he didn't believe that the Guild to which he was loyal would continue to lose.

"Heh, beware of being swallowed by that kid?" Xie An smiled faintly when he heard this, then shook his head and said, "Although the kid who is a withered sheep is smart, he is inexperienced after all...... Covering his ears and stealing the bell, wanting to cover up, how clear his intentions are! -- He said that in the water war, our army will win! ”

"Huh?" Gou Gong was stunned when he heard this, and looked at Xie An in surprise, after all, he didn't expect that his joke would involve Xie An's conceited victory announcement.

In the following days, the withered sheep uncharacteristically did not attack the Hengjiang Water Village of the Zhou army again, and the Zhou army took advantage of this time to step up the connection of the chain ships.

I have to say that the dry sheep's actions made many generals under his command shocked and anxious.

After all, most of the generals in the Taiping army lived near the Yangtze River, so how could they not see the terrible thing about the chain boats built by the Zhou soldiers? Even Wang Jian, the confidant of the withered sheep, began to secretly speculate, speculating whether the withered sheep was deliberately releasing water and planning to surrender to his brother-in-law Xie An.

"Destroy the Zhou army's serial ship?"

Faced with the puzzled questions of the generals, the withered sheep smiled faintly and said, "The ship is a dead thing, but the man is a living thing!" Even if our army had spent a heavy price to destroy the Zhou army's serial ships at that time, would the Zhou army not be able to build it again? -- There are forests near Liyang and Hengjiang, and the timber needed for shipbuilding is not a problem at all! ”

The generals were relieved when they heard this, and during the period, one of the generals asked again, "But the commander, if the chain of ships built by the Zhou army is completed, and the people will attack my Niuzhu...... In the end, the consequences are unimaginable! -- The marshal also saw that the soldiers of Jizhou, who had lived in the north for a long time, could run on the board of the ship and walk on the ground...... The strength of our army is not as good as the Jizhou soldiers, it is nothing more than relying on the poor ** boat of the Jizhou soldiers, and they cannot adapt to the shaking of the boats on the river......

"So what? ――What if Zhou Bing was asked to overcome the bumpy hull? Glancing at the general, the withered sheep chuckled and said, "It doesn't hurt to tell you the truth, the reason why Ben Shuai didn't attack the Hengjiang Zhou Army Water Village is because it is convenient for the Zhou soldiers to build a chain of ships...... After a few days of confrontation on the river, hundreds of Zhou soldiers and the previous warships were connected in one place, once our army used fire and water attack......"

As if they understood something, the faces of all the generals in the tent were filled with excitement.

Glancing at the generals, the withered sheep continued, "Our soldiers are not as elite as the Jizhou army, and the generals are not as brave as the Jizhou soldiers. -- Since the Zhou soldiers plan to use a chain boat, we will plan and call their 30,000 Zhou soldiers all fish and turtles at the bottom of the river! With that, he clenched his fists and looked up at the top of the tent.

"Decided by the First Battle!" (To be continued.) )