At midnight, the wind grew stronger, and the howling southeast wind blew fiercely, blowing the ship's flag to the hunt.

Shen Chen stood on the board of the ship, his face was very solemn.

In history, the reason for the success of the Battle of Chibi was the deception of Huang Gai, in addition to the southeast wind.

Cao Cao brought in the ships filled with fish paste and firewood, which caused the fleet to be burned in the port of Wulin Wharf.

But none of them surrendered.

Even if there is a plan to deceive, the scheming Zhou Yu will not be fooled.

After all, Cao Cao was fooled for a reason, and at that time, Cao Jun was already in an overwhelming situation.

Countless letters of surrender from within Jiangdong were thrown at his case.

Therefore, Huang Gai's surrender was also reasonable, and did not arouse Cao Cao's suspicion.

However, there is no overwhelming situation in Jiangdong at the moment, and the Jiangxia Navy and the Jiangdong Navy are feuds, and there is only hatred between each other, and they will never surrender.

Therefore, even if he uses the strategy of deception, Zhou Yu will not be gullible.

Now that the southeast wind is blowing, it is impossible for Zhou Yu to be unguarded, and the periphery must be heavily guarded, and there are patrol boats everywhere.

Once discovered by Zhou Yu, he would immediately order his soldiers to get on board and confront them on the river.

Therefore, it is impossible to unknowingly bring the ship used for arson to Hongkou Wharf and complete the raid mission, so you can only think of other ways.

So what's the solution?

Assault!

This was the only way Shen Chen could think of.

He had already made countless rounds around Baqiu, surveying the surrounding terrain.

In between armistices, it was also common to take boats to reconnoiter the enemy.

It can be said that we know the situation between friend and foe very well.

Unlike the Battle of Chibi, this battle took place in Yunmengze.

At this time, Yun Mengze was too big, like a vast ocean.

Therefore, the biggest difference with the Battle of Red Cliffs is that the terrain space of the two is completely different.

The two sides of the Battle of Chibi confronted each other on both sides of the Yangtze River, Cao Cao was in Wulin, and Zhou Yu was in Chibi.

So once Zhou Yu's army set sail, Cao Cao would be able to react immediately, and he could only get close to the past by deception.

And Yunmengze is a big lake with waves, and the Hongkou where Zhou Yu is stationed is only a little narrower in the northeast direction, and the rest of the direction is a vast lake, with hundreds of miles of water, which is very wide.

It is impossible for the Jiangdong Naval Division to inspect every place, so there must be a flaw that will allow their fleet to kill with lightning speed.

There is one more point besides that.

That's Shunshui!

The Battle of Chibi and the Jiangdong Army were not smooth.

Even Cao Cao's Wulin is a little further upstream.

The Jiangdong Army must swim against the current.

On the other hand, this battle.

Baqiu is located southeast of Hongkou.

The southeast wind blows from the southeast, and the water of the Xiangjiang River flows into Yunmengze, and the Yunmengze flows into the Yangtze River along the coast.

Hongkou is at the mouth of the Yangtze River, just downstream of Baqiu.

In other words, this battle of the Jiangxia Navy is smooth and smooth, and the speed of the ship will reach the theoretical limit.

Therefore, with the addition of these objective conditions, Shen Chen decided to give it a go.

He stood in the bow of the ship, and in front of him there were fifty warships, each of which was filled with fish-paste grease.

In the Battle of Chibi, Huang Gai only had twenty ships, and he used fifty ships just to ensure that he hit with one hit!

Shen Chen raised his head to look at the flag that was already fluttering with the wind under the howling wind, raised the tiger courage knife in his hand, and shouted angrily: "Raise the sail!" ”

"Raise the sails!"

Everyone was shouting.

A large number of ships raised their sails.

Shen Chen looked around, his main ship was not a building ship, but a fighting ship.

Although there is no fish paste on the battleship, his fleet will attack with the fireships.

This means that the Jiangxia Navy will launch a suicide attack in this battle.

Although this could lead to heavy losses for the Jiangxia Naval Army, losing both, or one dead and one wounded, was the only way Shen Chen could think of to eliminate the Jiangdong Naval Division.

Zhou Yu, I will destroy Jiangdong today.

Shen Chen's cold gaze looked at the north, and said loudly: "Soldiers, defeat the enemy, just today. Ride the wind and waves, move forward, fight to the death! ”

"Fight to the death! Fight to the death! Fight to the death! ”

First, hundreds of soldiers on Shen Chen's fighting ship were shouting, and then the sound infected all the fleet, and the shouts continued for miles, and even the sound of the waves from the rolling river waves seemed to be muffled.

However, although the movement is very large, it will not be known to the Jiangdong Army.

Because Yonghu Lake is more than ten kilometers away from Hongkou, and the mouth of the lake is stopped by the Jiangxia army, it is impossible for their scouts to come in, so no matter how loud the momentum is, it is fine.

"Let's go!"

Shen Chen gave the final order.

With a long sound of the horn, fifty warships rushed to the front.

Each ship has more than a hundred soldiers, and they will launch a suicidal attack, which can be described as death.

Even Shen Chen himself was behind them, putting himself in danger.

But there's no way around it.

Living to the death and seeking victory in danger is the way of war.

The mighty Jiangxia sailors left the Yonghu wharf, crossed the mouth of the lake, and entered Dongting Lake.

Then he went all the way north and followed the current to Junshan Island in the north.

Zhou Yu naturally would not be unguarded, he saw that the southeast wind was suddenly getting stronger and stronger, so he sent a large number of patrol boats to cruise around the periphery, and also ordered a school of men and horses to be stationed at the dock.

However, the river waves were vast, and the Jiangxia Navy rode the wind and waves, and with the help of the wind and the current, they killed the Jiangdong Army at an extremely fast speed.

These boats not only have holes on the sides of the paddles, but also propellers and wheels in the rear, all of which are converted ships.

With the help of wind and water, they travel extremely fast.

At this moment, under the night, countless torches are lit at Hongkou Wharf, as if illuminating the night sky, the bright moon is waving, and the visibility on the river is still very high.

The reason why a large number of torches were placed at the wharf was because the Jiangdong Army had arranged a lot of sentry-type ships on the periphery.

These ships need to be lit, otherwise they will run aground with no port in sight on the way back.

As a result, it became the guiding light of the Jiangxia sailors.

The speed of the fleet was extremely fast, and when it was still eight kilometers away from Hongkou, a patrol ship of the Jiangdong Navy Division two kilometers away noticed something unusual.

The rolling river was mighty, and the hazy silver gauze dragon village was on the river in the night, and the soldiers on the patrol boat seemed to have a faint figure in the darkness of the south.

"What's that?"

Puzzled, the soldier turned to his sleepy companion and said, "Get up, it seems that something is coming." ”

It was too dark and far away for him to see clearly.

A few of his companions were awakened and hurriedly climbed to the side of the ship, the boat surging with the river, and the heavy anchor could not make the ship stand still and drift with the current.

In this ups and downs, everyone saw that countless ghostly figures had appeared in the northern night, and the speed was extremely fast.

"Enemy attack, quick, enemy attack! Go pull the anchor. ”

The captain rubbed his eyes, and after making sure that he was not mistaken, he hurriedly shouted to the cabin.

At the same time he scrambled to the bow of the boat.

Some soldiers went to pull the anchor, and some immediately ran to the cabin to prepare for paddling.

The captain immediately ran to the bow of the ship, raised the torch in his hand, and quickly waved it in the direction of the north.

Wolf smoke is released during the day, and torches are held at night.

These were the two most popular forms of communication in ancient times.

Especially on a big river like this, because the sound of the wind and waves is too loud, even if the news is transmitted with gongs, drums, horns and other musical instruments, it will not be able to travel far at all.

Maybe forty or fifty meters away, you blow the horn to death, and you can't hear the sound.

Therefore, it is necessary to rely on torches.

At night, four or five kilometers from the periphery of Hongkou Wharf, there are patrol boats and guard boats everywhere.

About 100 meters behind the patrol body, there were two warning boats, and the torches flashed, which immediately attracted their attention and immediately transmitted the news to the rear.

In less than two or three minutes, the news was already available at the Hongkou port.

"Woooooooooooo

The patrol soldiers on the shore immediately blew their horns to alert the nearby camp.

Garrisoned at the Hongkou port today is Captain Zhu Ran, who led the 5,000 men and horses of the first school of the headquarters to camp on the shore less than 50 zhang from the fleet.

After all, although the fleet was on the dock, the ships were too bumpy in the water, and the soldiers could not sleep well.

So they all live on the shore, too.

Hearing the movement at this time, Zhu Ran immediately rushed out of the tent and asked, "What's the matter, why is there a horn sound?" ”

"Report, enemy attack!"

The soldier came to report: "The patrol boat on the river has found the fleet of the Jiangxia Naval Division." ”

"Go to a group of people to report to the main camp."

When Zhu Ran heard the news, he calmly gave an order: "Quick, blow the whistle, the whole army will assemble, and everyone will get on the boat immediately." ”

"Yui!"

The soldiers immediately went to carry out the order.

Soon, Zhou Yu's main camp, which was three miles away, also learned the news.

In fact, their camps were scattered and stationed at Hongkou, and not all of them were on the shore.

The main reason is that the geographical location of Hongkou is average, and sometimes it suddenly rains and the river rises, which may flood the wharf.

Boats could float, but camps couldn't, so they had to be stationed a few miles from the shore at a higher level.

At this moment, the whole camp was already in a commotion, Zhou Yu felt upset and couldn't sleep today, and when he heard that the Jiangxia sailor was coming, he suddenly felt like a stone had fallen to the ground.

"Governor, the enemy is coming."

Ling Tong and Lu Meng broke into Zhou Yu's tent.

Zhou Yu didn't sleep at all, he was dressed neatly, and smiled calmly: "They came to kill themselves, I have already arranged people." ”

Lu Meng was surprised: "The Governor has already set up an ambush? ”

Zhou Yu nodded: "Yes, I have a hunch that Shen Chen may attack at night today, and I have already arranged for Cheng Pu's fleet to ambush on the side, even if they attack with fire, Cheng Pu's fleet has already prepared silt, and it will definitely be able to defend it." ”

"The Governor is really clever."

Ling Tong and Lu Meng were also immediately relieved and praised one after another.

Zhou Yu said: "Don't talk about it, immediately straighten out the soldiers and horses, and gallop to the dock to help." ”

"Yui!"

Ling Tong and Lu Meng hurriedly went out to prepare.

On the dock, on the shore of the northernmost port, Cheng Pu, who was asleep, suddenly woke up.

These days, he followed Zhou Yu's instructions to test the effect of silt, and found that if he wanted to block the fire, he had to place a large amount of silt on the hull and in the cabin.

Because the sludge only works when it is wet, and the dry sludge cannot prevent fire.

So he asked the soldiers to smear the mud every day to see how long it would take for the mud to dry.

I tried it again this evening, and by the time it was dry at night, because there was only a thousand days to be a thief, and there was no reason to prevent thieves for a thousand days, so Cheng Pu did not keep the mud moist all the time.

At this time, when he suddenly learned of the enemy's attack, he hurriedly ordered the soldiers to get up and board the ship, and let them store it in the cabin and smear the ship with the mud that the river water had kept moist all the time to prevent fire attacks.

"The enemy is more than ten miles away, and it will take at least two or three quarters of an hour to reach the dock at their speed, and it should be in time."

Cheng Pu thought to himself.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry."

On the bank of the river, not only was he in full swing to smear the mud, but Zhu Ran's troops were also in full swing to untie the ropes of the ship and board the ship to prepare for the battle.

At that time, the ships were densely packed on the wharf, with three layers inside and three layers outside, and there were wooden planks between them, like a lane, and in order for all the ships to go out, the outermost ships had to be removed one by one.

It's time-consuming.

But a well-trained Koto soldier could do it in just a quarter of an hour.

As the commander of the sailors, Zhou Yu naturally also calculated the speed of the ship, and in the case of smooth winds and rivers, sixty miles per hour is the limit he thinks, because their experimental speed is like this.

Sixty miles is about fifty miles, twenty-five kilometers for two hours, about twelve or thirteen kilometers per hour, and a maximum of fifteen kilometers.

Later generations recorded that the 15-ton two-masted inland river wooden sailing ship in Hunan was 10 to 12 kilometers per hour and 5 to 8 kilometers per hour against the wind and water, which was also in line with Zhou Yu's experimental speed.

This also means that in a quarter of an hour and fifteen minutes, the fleet travels a maximum of three or four kilometers.

The guard ship arranged by the Jiangdong Navy Division on the outermost part is about six kilometers away from Hongkou, and the range they can observe is at least about eight kilometers.

Even if there was a little delay in the process of information transmission, from the time the Jiangxia sailors discovered the enemy six kilometers away, to Zhu Ran and Cheng Pu boarding the ship to prepare to meet the enemy, the other party would definitely not reach Hongkou in fifteen minutes.

They even had more than ten minutes to line up.

This amount of time is enough for a well-trained Koto sailor.

Zhu Ran also thinks so.

It wasn't until his soldiers had barely boarded the ship, and before they could leave the port, that they saw the dense ships on the river coming towards them like a howling wind.

The speed of those ships was extremely fast, and the river broke through the waves, like arrows off the string, and in less than a minute, they were already close to the port.

"This"

Zhu Ran was dumbfounded.

How is this possible?

The news came back more than ten miles away.

How could the other party be so fast?

Zhu Ran was completely dumbfounded.

And at this moment, on the fighting ship of the Jiangxia Naval Division, Shen Chen's hanging heart finally let go.

Zhou Yu still underestimated the wind today, and the speed of the ship.

With strong winds and smooth water, as well as the blessing of the steamers, their fleet reached the limit of the speed of ancient sailing ships on the Yangtze River - thirty kilometers per hour.

In ancient times, the speed of sailing ships could reach a maximum of 37 kilometers per hour.

But that's just theory.

And what can really be practiced is about 30 kilometers.

For example, it is still the sentence in Li Bai's poem, "The white emperor of the dynasty is among the clouds, and thousands of miles of Jiangling are returned in one day." ”

If we take a 24-hour day, the speed of the ship is 26.83 kilometers per hour.

But Li Bai had not yet invented the steamship at that time.

Therefore, with the help of the ship, the speed of the ship can reach more than 27 kilometers per hour, which greatly exceeds Zhou Yu's expectations.

The most important thing is that the invention of the ship made Zhou Yu misestimate the speed of their ship.

When Zhou Yu was not so windy during the day, it was naturally wrong to measure the speed of the Jiangdong Sailors with relatively backward technical level.

In simple terms.

Zhou Yu underestimated the boat technology of the Jiangxia Sailor, as well as today's wind speed!

The development of science and technology changes life!