Chapter 675 Yellow River Water Battle

"Report!"

"Report to the king, the Hebei Sailor has already crossed the Jishui estuary, and now it is only twenty miles away from Luokou." A scout with a torch in his hand hurried to Li Mi's tent on horseback to report it.

Hearing this, Li Mi stood up and asked loudly, "Have you found out how many large and small warships there are?" ”

"Back to the king, there are ten five-story five-tooth warships, thirty three-story Yellow Dragon warships, another hundred Qinglong warships, about 100 other flat-bottomed large ships, and about 300 fishing boats and small boats of various kinds. From a distance, it is clear that in the Hebei fleet, it is the flagship of the Anlan with the word Chen. ”

Shen Luoyan frowned when he heard this, "Chen Kefu has a total of one hundred and eighty large and small ships in the Northern Order, but now there are no less than six hundred ships, and there are more than two hundred large warships, which is strange. ”

"What's so strange about that." Since Fang Xuanzao came back from Mengjin, he has become more and more valued by Li Mi, and he also regarded himself as the first minister of the Wei State, and immediately said, "Although Chen Kefu only has one hundred and eighty ships, but now that he has more than six hundred ships, he must be pulling Wang Xuanying's little cub." It seems that Chen Kefu doesn't plan to return to Hebei with his tail between his legs. It's just right now, no matter how much he comes, we'll catch them all. ”

Li Mi's eyes also lit up with excitement, his heart was full of anticipation, he nodded, and said loudly to the heralds guarding outside the tent, "King Chuanben ordered, when Chen Kefu's fleet is still two miles away from Luokou, immediately set fire to the ship and attack." As soon as the fireboat was fired, the 10,000 horses prepared on the north shore immediately attacked by boat, and Chen Kefu's warship must be forced to the south shore and go quickly. ”

"Yes!" The herald got out of his tent and galloped away.

The sound of horses' hooves sounded in the night sky, but no one cared about it anymore. Chen Kefu's fleet had already fallen into the trap of the army, and it was too late to escape.

On the surface of the Yellow River, on the five-story deck of the Anlan Wuya battleship in the center of the fleet, the Chen character Daxu fluttered high. Under the Great Guard, Zhang Zhongjian stood solemnly. He was born as a prince of the Ryukyus and had fought against the Sui army's sailors. Later, he roamed the seas for many years and fought pirates. After defecting to Chen Kefu, he single-handedly formed the Liaodong Naval Division, not only fighting pirates, but also participating in the siege of Jiangdu many times, relying on many large weapons on the high warship, and fought with Nan Chen's army several times. Not only did he give strong support to the defenders of Jiangdu, but he also beat Nanchen's sailors and no longer dared to come to the Yangtze River near Jiangdu City, and all of them retreated into several large lakes.

Now there is a water battle on the Yellow River, and this is the first time. The Yellow River is not as good as the sea or the Yangtze River, the Yellow River is crooked, the water volume is not deep, and the river surface is not wide. A five-tooth warship like the Anlan was not suitable for battle, but since it was inevitable, he was not afraid at all.

All the ships had been lit up, and standing on the high five-story deck in the midst of the many warships, he could clearly see all the fleets of more than 600 large and small warships.

Beside him was a tall mast, on which not only hung a row of lanterns, but also several flag heralds, ready to relay his orders to the ships.

"Marshal, here we go. Traces of the enemy were found in the rear, and ships came out of the north shore, quite numerous. "In a row of observers holding clairvoyants, there was a sharp-eyed one who reported quickly.

Zhang Zhongjian picked up the clairvoyant mirror and looked behind, and sure enough, he saw countless boats suddenly appear on the river hundreds of steps behind. Most of these boats were small fishing boats, and from a distance you could see that there were quite a few short soldiers rowing in the boats. …,

"Chuan Ben Shuai ordered all the warships to suspend their advance and send thirty Qinglong warships to meet the enemy. A group of three warships and a hundred small ships were sent out to intercept them. The enemy deliberately let us come before attacking, and it is very likely that they will attack with fire. Send a few boats to pull a few iron cables in front of them to intercept them, and then use fishing nets to intercept them, so that the opposing fireships must not be allowed to break into the fleet. Only the enemy ships entered the attack range, and immediately attacked with ballistas and catapults, and ordered the battleships of Wuya and Huanglong, and all the sapper artillery wagons to prepare for projectile. ”

Zhang Zhongjian's rich experience is completely right. Not long after the large group of boats appeared, the boatmen began to ignite the flammable materials on board and jumped into the water lengthwise.

The small boats were lit one after another, and the blazing fire went straight to the sky, illuminating half of the night sky as bright as day. Although Li Mi has been developing along the Yellow River and canals, his subordinates do not have a professional navy. Although there are some boats, they are only left over from the old days when they were trading on the canal. In the back, Li Mi attacked the city and occupied an area, and he couldn't look down on that little bit of capitalless trading. He collected ships just to transport grain and grass.

Therefore, most of the ships collected in the hurry at this time were fishing boats, and the slightly larger ones were just grain ships. If these small boats want to fight a water battle with Chen Kefu's tall warship, it is undoubtedly hitting a stone with an egg. Therefore, Li Mi ordered all the small boats to be converted into fire attack ships. All the slightly larger grain ships were hastily turned into warships by Li Mi, loaded with 10,000 horses, and hidden on the north bank of the Yellow River opposite Luokou.

Hundreds of fireboats went down the water and crashed straight into the sailors of Hebei, and the raging flames seemed to set the Yellow River on fire. The billowing smoke changes the color of the mountains and rivers. Except for the officers and men of the Hebei Navy Division, who had experience in water warfare, they were very calm, but the 100,000 Jianghuai troops on the battleship at this time were all pale with fright. Many of the non-commissioned officers, if it weren't for the bullet pressure of the officers, would have even jumped into the river. In their opinion, such a fireship attack of the Wei army, the Hebei naval division could not dodge at all.

Even Wang Xuanying, the commander of the Jianghuai Army, was as white as white paper, and even his lips trembled slightly. He is also a general who has been on the battlefield many times, and he is used to life and death. But as he saw in front of him, watching the flames that erupted like a volcano rushing straight ahead, he felt that his life was completely out of his own control. This kind of slowly waiting for death to come is even more uncalming than the face-to-face life and death on the battlefield.

The two Qinglong warships, which could carry hundreds of soldiers, were already dragging a thick iron chain along the banks of the river towards the fireboat. Behind them, there were eight other identical Qinglong warships, and behind them, four iron cables were pulled.

Ten warships and five barrage cables crossed the river in an instant. At this time, the fireship in front had been intercepted by the first iron cable along the current, and with a bang, the fireboat crashed into the river and could no longer move forward. The iron cable was pulled, and even the two battleships on both sides were pulled and moved.

Behind the five iron cables, several three-story Yellow Dragon warships were already lined up, sideways on the river.

On the third deck, the captain waved his hand, "Launch!" Several heralds behind him immediately waved the red and blue flags in their hands, and one of the heralds hung up a lantern to signal the launch.

The sappers, who had already been ready, launched an attack one by one. On a total of three decks, all catapults, ballistas, and gunpowder projectiles were fired at the same time. Boulders, crossbows, and gunpowder packets smashed into the fireship that had already been aimed with the sound of the howling wind.

A huge stone struck a fireship that was stopped in front of the iron cable, and in an instant it shattered the fireship, and countless fragments with flames flowed down the waves. However, although the fragments of the fireship were able to pass through the first iron cable, the iron cables behind them were very low, and the iron cables clinging to the face once again knocked most of the burning shards down. …,

One after another, the flags were waved, the orders to fire were shouted, the sound of twisted strings sounded, and boulders, iron crossbows, and gunpowder packs flew out, hitting one fireship after another, breaking them apart, breaking them apart, and disintegrating them.

For the Hebei Navy Division, who has rich experience in water warfare, Li Mi's plan for a fireship is too simple. If Li Mi can have a similar battleship to attack along the river, coupled with this fireship, he may be able to cause a lot of damage to the Hebei Naval Division. But just like now, just throwing down a bunch of small fireboats, and the other ways of playing, which are not even personal, can't hurt a single hair of the sailor.

After the rounds of blows passed, all the fire ships had disintegrated, and after being intercepted by five iron cables, when the fragments that were still carrying the flames were still far away from the fleet, there were already rows of small boats with water hoses and waterwheels and other fire extinguishing tools, desperately spraying water on the flames.

Wang Xuanying had been standing behind Zhang Zhongjian, watching the Hebei Navy Division extinguish the originally terrifying fireships one by one, and he was extremely surprised. For the first time, he saw that the original water war could still be fought like this, and the original water war could still be fought so pleasing to the eye.

Bow his hand to Zhang Zhongjian, "In the past, I only heard that Yang Sushan, the Duke of Chu, had a long water battle, and in order to attack Nan Chen, he even invented this five-tooth battleship. But when I saw it today, I found out that Zhang Dashuai was really an expert in water warfare, such an amazing fire attack plan, it was so simple, it was broken without effort, and there were no casualties, which made the king admire it too much. ”

Zhang Zhongjian smiled, "It's not bad that Li Mi can come up with such a fire attack plan in a hurry. However, if he wanted to defeat my Hebei Navy Master with such a thin means, he underestimated us and looked down on himself. Come and don't be rude, now, Ben Shuai is very eager to see Li Mi and give him a meeting gift. ”

"Hahaha!" Wang Xuanying also laughed and said, "That's right, this king also wants to see the gift that Zhang Shuai gave to Li Mi now." ”