Section XXIII

When the Empress Dowager and Wu Ming were talking at the head of the city, Yu Zhaobin's vanguard had arrived in the middle of the river, and sure enough, with the sound of a gong, the enemy's fleet continued to drive out, wanting to take the lead with the Southern Han naval forces.

Whether it is Nanning or Hanshui, both cities are built on water, and their city defense also relies on the river. If the enemy comes to attack, the naval army can not retreat, then the danger of the river is lost, once the enemy occupies the advantage of the river, the advance can occupy the dock, and the retreat can use the naval army to carry out endless harassment of the city, so for both sides, the initiative on the river is not to fight and to fight. Although the southerners occupy the advantages of the navy, after the loss of the north, they are also desperately expanding the navy, and after several years of development, the Hanshui is almost the same as the Jiangnan navy, at least in terms of scale, the two sides are already equal.

The chief general of the Northern Navy is still Wang Zhiqing, the commander of the Le Lang Water Division. After the first battle of Hanshui, Li Tie saw the gap between the combat power of the northern and southern naval armies, and after learning from the pain, he decided to expand the naval army in Hanshui to fight against the powerful Jiangnan naval army. But to build a naval army, it is not an overnight thing, first of all, there must be boats, and secondly, there must be people. The ship is easy to get, and the trees on Fenglin Mountain are shady, and it is a good raw material for shipbuilding to take it nearby. But people are a little nerve-wracking, as the saying goes, "the northerners are good at horses, and the southerners are good at boats." "If you want to find a rider in the north, you can say that you can grab a lot of them. But if it is replaced by a water general, it will be a handful.

In fact, Li Tie also knew that in the first two battles of Hanning, the responsibility for his defeat was not on Wang Zhiqing, and after thinking about it, there was really no one available, so he had to be transferred from Le Lang and stationed in Nanning again.

The Southern Han Dynasty recently dispatched troops, and the north was naturally alert. They also knew that in the case of the integration of the central and western regions, the northwest and the Southern Han Dynasty, the south had surpassed the north in terms of territory and national strength, and it was only a matter of time before they launched a counterattack, but the counterattack of the Southern Han came so quickly, but it was somewhat unexpected.

In the past few days, Wang Zhiqing has been unable to sleep and eat, he is afraid that the Southern Han Dynasty will capture Hanshui in his sleep, he has the experience of two defeats, if Hanshui is lost, with Li Tie's temper, he has to be dismantled.

Seeing that the whole army in the south was dispatched, Wang Zhiqing breathed a sigh of relief and shouted: "Order the left and right flanks to be pressed immediately, advance hand in hand with the Chinese army, and give the southerners a head-on attack, so that they can't take a step beyond the thunder pool." ”

Nanning Han River is separated by a river, since the establishment of the two Han Dynasty, the two sides around the river when the conflict, in the small-scale encounter, the early period of the Northern Han Dynasty suffered a big loss, after the death and injury of countless people, its naval army has grown up rapidly, whether it is a large-scale operation, or a small-scale conflict, the formation of the discharge also seems to be the same, now and the southern encounter, there is also a mutual attack and defense, and even trained some special naval forces such as Xiahou Tian's water ghost department, so that the south suffered a lot of losses, so that the Jiangnan naval army is deeply afraid, and now the encounter, the biggest possibility is that there are casualties on each other, and then each reinforcement, all out of formation, no one dares to act rashly, so as not to enter the range of the opponent's catapult and fall behind, the final result is nothing more than no one to attack, after a long confrontation without a problem, in the end, no one retreats.

Wang Zhiqing's left wing is his subordinate and deputy Ren Xianzhi, who is old and respectful. The right wing is in charge of Xiahou Tian, after Xiahou Ba guarded Hanshui, Xiahou Tian has been following his father for several years. Contrary to Wang Zhiqing's dissatisfaction, his official position has been promoted again and again, and he is now a general of Wupindangkou. The official is a big one, and the people are also a little arrogant, what Wang Zhiqing is most afraid of now is that Xiahou Tian does not obey the command and comes to his own way, and when the situation is chaotic, he may be defeated.

The river wind was as cold as ever, and the warships on both sides slowly pressed in, and it was solemn. The two sides were 500 paces apart, and Yu Zhaobin gave an order to attack the soldiers around him: "Order all ships to start the thunderbolt and fire the formation to carry out the first round of strikes on the enemy ships." ”

Yu Zhaobin, the commander of the Water Lion Battalion, was in command of a medium-sized vessel capable of carrying fifty people. The ships dispatched in the north are much larger, Wang Zhiqing's flagship Fenwei, the full capacity can reach 500 people, just ten times that of the south, Yu Zhaobin's ship is compared with one of them, the size gap is as straight as a cloud of mud, such a small ship to take the lead, if it is natural in peacetime, but these ships are equipped with Ruyi machines, the evasion is extremely strong, coupled with the long-range strike power of the thunderbolt car, the kite tactics are implemented. With the tactic of "the enemy advances and I retreat, and the enemy retreats and I advance", you can also play the opponent to death.

Wang Zhiqing lined up in a long snake formation, and hundreds of large and small ships lined up on the river, marching in unison. The Jiangnan Navy lined up in a Xuanbao formation, which was scattered, and there was a lot of room for maneuver between the ships. It is to take into account the maneuverability of the Ruyi machine and give each ship more room to dodge.

After the oil bomb and gunpowder bomb were applied to the military, all countries have mass production, the so-called torch stone bomb array, is to use the long-range strike power of the thunderbolt car, the oil bomb or gunpowder bomb into the opponent's formation, the ship dodge is not allowed, and generally will be shot, even if it cannot sink the opponent, it can also damage the enemy ship, so that its mobility is greatly reduced. After the invention of the Ruyi machine, the Jiangnan Navy has begun to try this method, and the effect is very good, and the north has suffered several losses.

He gave the order, and the soldiers around him immediately sounded the lantern language, and the forward fleet received the order and dispersed at once. From the southern warships, red flames rose up, with brilliant firelight, straight to the northern warships.

"Boom, boom......"

As soon as the bomb landed on the battleship, it exploded violently. Even if the Thunderbolt is not easy to aim, but the two sides are so close to each other, and the northern warships are huge, and the evasion is not strong. After this wave of blows, although a large part of the bombs fell into the river, a considerable part still hit the enemy ships. On many northern ships, there was a fire immediately, and there were even two smaller ships, the fire was very strong, and the battleship began to sink slowly, obviously losing the strength to fight again.

When encountering this kind of fighting, escaping will only suffer a big loss, because the south has a wishful luck and is full of maneuverability, turning the bow of the ship and escaping, the southern warship can chase and fight at the same time, and it will only be a live target for others, in fact, Yu Zhaobin thinks the same. The best way to deal with it is nothing more than to go at full speed, rush forward and engage the enemy hand-to-hand, or go on a rampage directly, disrupt the enemy's position, and give full play to the advantage of the height of your own ship.

But the river was filled with gunsmoke, and the enemy ships seemed to be stunned, and did not meet them, but slowly turned around, lined up, turned the side around, and aimed at Yu Zhaobin's department.

Seeing that the other party responded like this, Yu Zhaobin couldn't help but be stunned, in this case, wouldn't the entire fleet become a live target for the thunderbolt? However, the fighter plane was fleeting, and he couldn't think much about it, so he immediately shouted: "Pass the order, and launch a second wave of offensive immediately." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden loud noise, as if the entire river was trembling, from the side of the enemy warship, suddenly flashed a flash of firelight, as soon as these fires came out of the enemy ship, they turned into fireballs, flying towards their own side at high speed, falling into the river, and then turning up a monstrous giant Lang, once it landed on the battleship, a big explosion immediately occurred, the power was more powerful than the torch stone bombardment, several warships were hit by fireballs, and they were torn apart in the violent explosion, occasionally mixed with the screams of the soldiers before they died.

What the hell is this, although Yu Zhaobin is familiar with water warfare, this is the first time he has seen this weapon, and he was a little overwhelmed on the spot, and he was stunned by this wave of attacks.

Just when he was at a loss, Wu Ming at the head of the city was terrified to death. Others don't know what it is, but as a person who has come over, how can he not know that it is a gunwalnut. Did the North invent such a sharp weapon? It is rumored that Shangshu Yiguan of the Ministry of Industry of the Northern Han Dynasty is stronger than Liu Ze, and it seems that what he said is true. However, there is gunpowder in this world, and it is reasonable that the south can think of hot air balloons, and the north has developed gangholes.

He lamented in his heart that war can promote the development of science and technology, and it seems that what he said is true, and this point is profoundly illustrated from the results of the efforts of both sides to prepare for war. But now is not the time to sigh, he settled down, and said to the lamp beside him: "Immediately notify General Zhuge and order General Yu to turn around, go around to the front of the enemy, surprise the enemy from the front, and engage in hand-to-hand combat." ”

The history of water warfare is about to turn a new page and enter the era of artillery warfare, he thought to himself. However, the gunwales were not without weaknesses, in the early days, the chamber was not made of special steel, and the fire had to be extinguished after a few shots, otherwise it would be blown up. Moreover, to maximize the power of the gunwales, you have to line them up and face the enemy on the side. If the enemy goes around to attack head-on, there is no other way but to turn. As for the stern guns, bow guns, which appeared later, they were only improved expedient, and their power still could not be compared with the platoon guns on the sides.

Wu Ming was familiar with history books and knew a little about gunwales, so he immediately thought of a way to deal with it. The herald received the order, and immediately played a lantern at the head of the city, and conveyed the order to Zhuge Fei as soon as possible.

The long snake formation of the northern platoon, while the southern platoon should be the Xuan Sac Formation. In addition to the left and right wings of this array, the Chinese army is divided into two parts, one is the front army, the other is the rear army, the front army is naturally Yu Zhaobin, and the rear army is Zhuge Fei to guard. Zhuge Fei lined up this formation, although there is the idea of letting the Ruyi car exert the greatest power, in fact, there is another point he did not declare, that is, the left wing of the Southern Army, which is responsible for the Chinese and Western armies, although the elite of the Chinese and Western armies, Xiang has a hundred battles and wins, but that is only on land, to the river, how is its combat power, Zhuge Fei is really bottomless, he is in the center, forward can be directed to Yu Zhaobin, once the left wing has an accident, it can also be urgently reinforced.

The naval forces dispatched by the two sides have nearly 40,000 troops in the south and more than 30,000 in the north. A round of gunwales from the north came down, not only stunned Yu Zhaobin, but also made Zhuge Fei frightened to death, such things are unheard of, how to deal with them? was a little dazed, and the soldiers next to him shouted: "General, Zhenxi Hou has an order." ”

Inevitably missing, the light language generally has to be called more than three times, in addition to the group order, you have to wait for the other party to type out the information to confirm the receipt of the message to stop. Zhuge Fei turned his eyes and saw the second round of light language repeated on the city. Although he had doubts about the strength of the Chinese and Western armies in the water battle, in the Battle of Guangyang, Wu Ming only turned the tide and defeated the Southern Barbarian Naval Army in one fell swoop when his own commander fell into the hands of the enemy. Zhuge Fei was also present at that time, so he did not have the slightest doubt about Wu Ming's command, and immediately said to the pro-soldier: "Immediately give an order to General Yu to go around to the enemy ship and attack frontally." ”

After thinking about it, he said again: "The whole army pressed on and began to prepare for hand-to-hand combat." ”

The other party actually has such a sharp weapon, it seems that the plan of using a thunderbolt to implement the "kite warfare method" is no longer feasible, and Yu Zhaobin's warships are all small boats, and if the enemy is condescending in hand-to-hand combat, he will suffer a great loss. Zhuge Fei is also a resolute general, and immediately chose the middle lane of reinforcements. As for the possible worries of the left, he could not take care of them at this time.