According to the normal combat strategy, the navy should take advantage of the speed advantage of the downstream to quickly break into the enemy formation from the center in a wedge-shaped formation, and then break through the enemy's fleet in two sections and break through each of them. But now Li Xing has given up the wedge formation and changed to a wide frontal phalanx, precisely in order to give full play to the advantages of the catapult's intensive strikes.

Li Xing had already planned for the battle, and he could fight a decisive battle in the narrow waterway of the Yangtze River, so as to give full play to his own firepower superiority. However, the Jiangdong Army was in a position against the current, so it could not give full play to its superior tactics of rapid advance and boarding of ships.

And the Jiangdong army is familiar with water warfare, and it is not stupid, it has already set up a position, just waiting for Li Xing's army to rush out first when it can't hold its breath, and then avoid the edge of Li Xing's army and occupy the upstream to fight again. It's just that he waited for more than an hour, but he never saw any signs of Li Xing's army rushing over.

On the flagship, Gan Ning was the first to lose his breath and said: "General, it seems that Li Xing is very cunning, I don't think we have to wait, with the combat strength of our Jiangdong Army, we can break the enemy army without deliberately occupying the upstream." General, give the order for the whole army to attack. ”

Huang Gai, who was standing with his sword in his hand, was silent, silently staring at the enemy fleet in the distance, and he was still hesitant in his heart.

"General, I see that there are signs of a change in the direction of the wind, we should not delay it any longer, and the lord is still waiting for the news of our battle, so please give the order to attack." I am willing to lead the elite soldiers of my headquarters as the vanguard, seize the enemy's flagship, and decapitate Li Xing's head to the general. ”

In the face of Gan Ning's repeated urgings, Huang Gai finally made up his mind, drew his sword vigorously, pointed his sword at the enemy, and said sharply: "Pass my general's order, and the whole army will start attacking."

The earth-shaking war drums rose violently, and on the command ships of each formation, all kinds of signal flags waved like the wind, and the fleet composed of more than 500 warships, with their sail power and oar power, drove straight towards Li Xing's navy.

Water warfare is as common as a common thing for these Wu people, and the set of tactics they rely on to win has long been proficient in their hearts, and this naval army under the command of Huang Gai can be said to be unstoppable.

The huge building ships and the secondary fighting ships went upstream, steadily pushing towards the enemy fleet, and when the two sides were more than 300 paces apart, thousands of crossbowmen on each ship began to attack. At the same time, Li Xingjun's crossbowmen also immediately began to counterattack, but their attack power was significantly inferior to that of the Jiangdong Army.

There is no other reason, the Jiangdong warships are tall, and the crossbowmen on each ship naturally surpass Li Xingjun, and they have a tendency to be high, and they naturally have a great advantage in long-range attack power.

After several waves of arrows, the two sides were close to more than two hundred paces, so the archers also participated in the long-range attack, and at this time, the density of arrows was so great that it was like a downpour.

Such a dense long-range attack was very effective in suppressing the counterattack of Li Xing's army, and when the two fleets approached one hundred and fifty paces, the flag of the Huanggai flagship changed, and hundreds of ships rushed out from the two wings of the big ship, and under the suppression of their own firepower, they quickly rushed towards the enemy formation.

This is the usual method used by the Jiangdong Army, their stern ships will ignore the enemy ships on both flanks, concentrate on the enemy ships in the center of the front line, and use this as a breakthrough point to tear a gap in the center for the wedge-shaped main fleet behind them, and then the entire fleet will quickly penetrate into the enemy formation from the center and divide one into two. And when this tactical action was completed, the enemy army that had been split in two was basically disheartened, and the rest was ravaged by the Jiangdong Army at will.

The naval army fights, and the rupture of the formation also declares that the victory or defeat is decided. Even Li Xing, who had little experience in water warfare, knew this very well, and as soon as the military advisor Chen Deng saw the enemy rushing out, he urgently ordered his own 100 ships to attack with him, and he was sure to block the Jiangdong rushing group that pounced.

Huang Gai saw that Li Xing would respond in this way, so he ordered the major ships to adjust their firepower and concentrate on attacking the enemy's rushing ships, opening a smooth path for the impact of his own ship group.

However, Chen Deng was arranged by Li Xing to be stationed in Hefei for many years, and he studied the tactics of the Wu people, so he also came up with his own set of countermeasures. The 100 ships on their own side were all reinforced and refitted, and the hull of the ship was covered with oxhide as thick as two layers, and it was extremely difficult for the Wu people's bows and crossbows to shoot through. With such a strong protective force, it has to successfully penetrate the enemy ship group, and use the angle of collision with the bow of the ship to make a hand-to-hand collision with the enemy stern.

Although the thickened ships sacrificed the advantage of speed, they had the advantage of the upstream and the heavy defensive capability, but they took advantage of the collision, and more than 100 ships rushed several times their own enemy ships under the impact, they actually stubbornly withdrew, and after successfully slowing down the momentum of the enemy ships, hundreds of ships rushed together and launched hand-to-hand combat on the water.

Huang Gai didn't expect Li Xingjun to successfully block the assault of his own side, which made him a little surprised, but it was just an accident, he still had full confidence in the advantages of his own giant ship. Therefore, he ordered the main fleet to continue to rush towards the center of the enemy formation, trying to forcibly tear through the enemy formation with the advantage of firepower.

In the blink of an eye, the main fleets of the two sides were less than 100 paces apart. At this moment, the river was already covered with blood-stained floating corpses, and the 2,000 men who dared to die in one hundred ships were surrounded and killed by the enemy, and they were about to be wiped out first.

It was these two thousand people who dared to die that won valuable fighters for Li Xing's army. When he saw Jiangdong's fleet still approaching unnoticed, Li Xing's eyes couldn't help but show a look of pride, but his expression was still as calm as water, he waved his hand lightly, and said coldly: "Send a signal and order them to use trebuchets." ”

The flagship's flag waved, and the impatient Tibetan tyrant who had been waiting for a long time stepped forward, suddenly ripped off the canvas covering the trebuchet, and said sharply: "Brothers, it's time for us to show our might, aim at the big ship of the Jiangdong Army, and bomb me to death!" ”

Ten seconds later, a red stone projectile rose into the air, crossed a bright arc in the air, and fell into the river on the left side of the Jiangdonglou ship in front of it, and did not hit.

However, it didn't matter, the red stone bullet was just a command bullet, and the moment it fell into the water, more than 100 trebuchets fired in that direction, and the bucket-sized stone bullet frantically approached the enemy with the sound of the fierce wind.

After hearing only a cracking sound, the Wu Junlou ship in front was hit by five stone bullets in a blink of an eye, and the three or four fighting ships around it were also shot, and this trebuchet was successful for the first time. (To be continued.) )