Chapter 0163: Attack at Sea
The sea is beautiful, whether it's calm or angry, it's like a dreamy blue world. The sea is also very vast, and when it is deep in it, its edge merges with the horizon, as if it were as vast as the sky. When the spring sun rises from the distant edge and the golden morning glow falls, it is as if to drape this boundless blue world in a gorgeous colorful dress.
The two warships were bathed in the early morning sun, slowly sailing from a distance, their broken sails and broken decks, making them look as if they had just undergone a baptism of war and could sink at any moment. In fact, not far behind the two ships there were five or six ships flying the flags of the Terror Pirates, their hideous trebuchets and flint cannons formidable, and the archers on the deck were on standby, as if ready to fire deadly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, our ship is no longer good, the lookout has just seen a small island in the distance, we might as well retreat first!" Wang Huanchong's face was full of anxiety, he was the son of the king of Dengzhou Zhizhou, and he was also the general of the Great Song Pinghai Division, so he had rich experience in naval warfare and knew the current situation of the warship very well.
In front of him was the stern of the boat, where five people were standing silently at this moment, including Ma Zheng and Ma Zhi, the envoys of the Great Song Dynasty who were ordered to send envoys to the Jin Kingdom, and Zhu Bocai, Zeng Kun and Zhang Shuye, who were ordered to escort them, each of them was frowning at the moment, and their faces were covered with thick melancholy.
When Wang Huanchong's words came into his ears, Ma Zheng couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
"Huanchong, this place is not far from the coast of Cangzhou, and you can reach the shore in half a day at most, can't you really hold on a little longer?"
Wang Huanchong's face was bitter, he shook his head, and replied with great certainty: "No way, the water in the cabin is already very serious, and the pressure of the sea water may break through the ship's board at any time, and if I don't look for a place to dock, I can't guarantee that the ship will not sink, and at that time we didn't have a place to stay, and there was no way to resist those Liao people who pretended to be Haikou people!"
Seeing that the matter was so serious, Zhu Bocai next to him couldn't help but interject and asked, "What is General Hu Yanqing's opinion?"
Hu Yanqing is the commander of the Pinghai Division, commanding hundreds of warships of the Pinghai Division, not only the famous general of the Song Dynasty, but also the founder of the Northern Song Dynasty, after Hu Yanzan, his humanities and martial arts, eloquence, proficient in many Chinese, so this time he also accompanied the envoy to the Jin State, responsible for arranging the sea itinerary of the two warships. But right now, he wasn't on this ship, but on the ship next to him that was carrying the Jin Mission.
Wang Huanchong was originally Hu Yanqing's subordinate, and when he heard Zhu Bocai ask Hu Yanqing's opinion, he immediately replied urgently: "General Hu Yanqing has already called the flag just now, and he also means to let us land on that nameless island, so I came over to ask a few adults!"
Zeng Kun next to him has been listening quietly, not in a hurry to express his opinions, he is only in his thirties but can be on an equal footing with Zhu Bocai, and become one of the two important ministers in charge of the Imperial City Division, naturally he is also extremely alert, not to mention that Emperor Zhao Ji also married his eldest daughter, Emperor Jiade Zhao Yupan, to him, which shows that he is also a very powerful person.
At this time, after quickly weighing the situation in his heart, he immediately made a decision, and said resolutely in his words: "I think everyone should not hesitate, let's talk about it first, at least we can fight when we go ashore, if we really sink the ship, we have no ability to fight back at all!"
"But being trapped on an isolated island is a dead end after all, being trapped on this vast sea is equivalent to giving up the way to live!" Ma Zheng spoke out again and said what everyone was worried about, he was brave and resourceful, and had a steady nature, so he could be selected by Emperor Zhao Ji as the leading ambassador to the Jin State.
His words were also very weighty, and instantly silenced everyone.
After a long time, Zhang Shuye, who had never spoken out, suddenly began to take off his battle armor, and before everyone could react, he said categorically: "Everyone first escort the envoys of the Jin State on that ship to the shore, and I will take some brothers to break through in a lifeboat alone, and strive to rush to Dengzhou to ask for help from the Pinghai Division!"
Zhang Shuye is now only the governor of Haizhou, and his power is not big, but no one present despises him, not only because he was born in a famous family and has extremely high martial arts, but also because their Zhang family once overthrew Cai Jing in the early years, forcing Cai Jing to lose his official position and live in seclusion, but unfortunately due to the incomplicated relationship between the court, Cai Jing soon resumed his official position again, and Zhang Shuye was demoted to Zhizhou, although the final result was to lose, but Cai Jing did not dare to treat the Zhang family too much, which shows the status of the Zhang family in the court.
His proposal at this moment was also instantly agreed by Wang Huanchong, and he immediately took over and said: "Lord Zhang's plan is feasible, it is indeed not far from the coast of Cangzhou, plus the weather is better today, there is not much wind and waves, as long as you bring a compass, the lifeboat will definitely be able to rush to Cangzhou, but the problem is that as soon as the lifeboat goes out, it will definitely be seen by the Liao people who pretend to be Haikou, and when the time comes, they will concentrate on shelling, and the possibility of breaking through is very low!"
As soon as these words came out, Zhu Bocai didn't think about it, and asked in a deep voice: "How many lifeboats do we have in total?"
"Four!" replied Wang Huanchong affirmatively.
"Then we will break through in four directions, I don't believe that one person can't break through!" As he spoke, Zhu Bocai's eyes swept over everyone one by one, and he resolutely continued: "The situation is already like this, everyone has no choice, at the moment, only me, Zeng Kun, Zhang Shuye and Tong Guan sent Xue Ling on these two ships have the highest martial arts, then the four of us will lead people to break through and ask for help, and the others will stay and retreat to the nameless island with the Jin State Mission, occupy a dangerous place, and hold on to the better it lasts." ”
Everyone thought about it for a while, but they couldn't think of a better way, and they agreed to this resolution immediately, Wang Huanchong saw that the matter was settled, and he was relieved, and immediately waved the flag towards the other ship, informing the final decision over there.
Soon, the two warships began to move at full speed towards the nameless island, and the Liao people who were following behind seemed to have discovered their intentions and chased after them.
Fortunately, the shipbuilding technology of the Great Song Dynasty is extremely leading, and the warship has a lot of emergency mechanisms, even if it is dilapidated, but it can still be supported in a short time, after it is determined to give up the warship, these mechanisms are used, plus Wang Huanchong decisively ordered to throw away heavy weapons such as trebuchets and flint cannons, and the speed of the warship is naturally greatly accelerated, but the consequence of this is that the warship will be completely scrapped.
When approaching the nameless island, four life-saving boats were launched one after another, Zhu Bocai, Zeng Kun, Zhang Shuye and Xue Ling respectively took more than a dozen guards on the boat, raised small sails, rowed oars, and broke through from four directions like a fan, and the other people from the Jin State Mission and the Great Song Mission docked one after another, rushing towards the center of the island, intending to occupy the commanding heights on the island first.
The Liao people who pretended to be Haikou were already very close at this time, and the four life-saving boats had just begun to break through, and the fierce flint cannon attacked them, because Zhu Bocai was walking in the direction closest to the Liao warships, so his side was also attacked the most.
"Quick, row!!" Zhu Bocai squatted on the bow of the boat, constantly urging the people on the boat to speed up their oars.
"Bang!"
A flint bullet exploded on the edge of the ship, causing a hole in the right chord to break in an instant, killing the two guards who were sitting in that position and paddle there, and the boat began to leak. Seeing this situation, Zhu Bocai knew that it was impossible to break through, and immediately shouted hoarsely: "Hurry, quickly detour back to the island!!"
"Bocai, return to the island!!"
"Go back!!"
Zhang Shuye and Zeng Kun, who were on the boat in the distance, saw him being hit from afar, and they were also so anxious that they roared loudly.
At the moment of life and death, Zhu Bocai's movements were also very fast, and the boat quickly circled, avoiding the Liao artillery fire, and quickly rowed towards the island, fortunately, today's flint cannon is relatively primitive, and it cannot be easily turned, and the power is not very great, plus the Liao warship is larger, and the steering is not as fast as the small boat, so they were still able to escape.
But as soon as they escaped, Zeng Kun's boat was hit by two flint shells, the boat was broken in two on the spot, and half of the people on the boat were killed and injured in the blink of an eye.
In a flash of lightning, both ships failed and returned, but Zhang Shuye and Xue Ling successfully escaped the attack range of the Liao warships.
The hull of the lifeboat is long and narrow, the resistance is smaller, light and flexible, so the speed is much faster than the big ship, the people of Liao know that the big ship can not catch up, and soon divide more than a dozen lifeboat into the water, carrying the master of Liao to follow closely.
Xue Ling and Zhang Shuye, who broke through the encirclement, did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and personally paddled with the guards, always keeping a certain distance from the ships chasing from the Liao State, and sailed for most of the day after chasing and stopping, and the stretching coastline finally appeared in their field of vision.
In the middle of the night, they successfully landed ashore, but the Liao ships were still approaching rapidly, and they obviously had no intention of giving up.
Uncle Zhang looked back, his tiger eyes flashed, and he said decisively: "Miss Xueling, there must be a lot of masters in the Liao Kingdom, everyone might as well go separately, if you can run away one by one, at least there is more hope of breaking through and reporting the news!"
Xue Ling looked indifferent and nodded, "It's up to you!"
The situation was urgent, Uncle Zhang didn't care about saying much, he casually found a direction, and immediately performed light skills and jumped away, many guards also chose their own paths, and disappeared in the blink of an eye, but Xue Ling still stood in place, until she watched them disappear from view, and a sneer appeared at the corner of her mouth: "It's best that you are all dead, and you still expect me to report the news?" Those masters of the Liao Kingdom want to delay the time for you to report the news, they will definitely chase to the south or east, I just go in the direction of the Liao Kingdom in the north, and it will definitely be fine!"
When the words fell, Xue Ling took out the compass to identify the next direction, threw the compass away, and unfolded her body and rushed to the northwest.
She galloped all the way, the speed was very fast, and on the eve of dawn, it was already dozens of miles, even if she had deep internal strength, at this time she was also a little unbearable, feeling extremely sleepy, immediately stopped to look back, and when she didn't feel someone chasing her, her heart relaxed slightly, so she found a big tree and jumped on it, and slept in the nest of thick branches.
............
Brother Yelu Qingge's mood these days is very bad, he was forced to participate in the interception of the Great Song Dynasty mission because of his division's orders, every day on the sea wind and sun, naturally it is miserable, finally waiting for the ships of the Great Song Mission on the waterway, who would have thought that the guards of the Great Song Mission are very powerful, the two sides have been engaged in close combat several times, and the fight was extremely fierce, even he himself was in danger twice.
Once I was caught off guard in the melee, and I was almost shocked to death by Uncle Zhang's terrifying Heavenly Thunder Gong, but fortunately, the rescue of Qiong Demon Bald Bone was timely, otherwise I am afraid that my life will be lost. Another time was a sneak attack by Xue Ling's Tianshan Liuyang Palm, and in a panic, he could only throw out his favorite female slave to resist, but the female slave he had worked so hard to cultivate was beaten to death, and he was so angry that he jumped to his feet.
Today, he was reluctant to chase and kill the Song people who broke through and fled, and he was so tired that he panicked, but when he saw that Zhang Shuye and Xue Ling were among the people who fled, he suddenly came to his senses and rarely took the initiative to ask for battle. At present, Zhang Shuye and Xue Ling are alone, and it is a good opportunity for him to take revenge, so of course he refuses to let it go.
When he chased to the shore, he saw the Song people fleeing separately on the boat, and he was also a little hesitant who he should chase. We might as well chase that woman, with the martial arts of the two of us, it is very likely that we will join forces to capture her alive, and when the time comes, I will let you enjoy it first, and avenge your slave girl, but the person will belong to me, with her beauty, she will definitely be able to sell it for a good price in other tribes, or if you are willing to pay, I can also sell it to you, anyway, you and I are forced to participate in this pursuit, why bother chasing what Uncle Zhang Ye, his martial arts are high, not to mention, a handful of old bones can't be sold for a few dollars, it's purely thankless!"
"Okay! just do as you say!" Brother Yeluqing didn't think about it, and directly agreed.
The two didn't care about the other Liao soldiers, and immediately chased in the direction where Xue Ling fled, but they chased for more than two hours, but they didn't see Xue Ling's shadow at all, and Brother Yelu Qing's mood was also terrible, and he couldn't help complaining: "That woman can really run, isn't she tired?"
Qiong Demon Bald Bone had a gloomy face, and sneered while performing light skills and running quickly: "It's okay, although her martial arts are good, and her light skills are not bad, but after all, she is a woman, and her physical strength cannot catch up with us.
Brother Yelu Qing was slightly relieved, and then silently followed for a few miles, but still didn't see Xue Ling, which also made him a little uncontrollable, and was about to speak, but the little eyes of the bald bones of the Qiong demon suddenly flashed, and the fast-moving body suddenly turned around, and pounced directly on the big tree not far away, and the majestic internal force condensed in his right palm, and even made the palm completely black.
"Little beauty, I let you get away with it at sea that day, and I'll let you taste my rotten yin skills again today, and see if you still have the ability to escape!"
"Click! Click!"
Xue Ling's figure rushed out of the canopy, breaking countless tender green branches, and running away.
"Run?" Brother Yelu Qing's eyes flashed with cold light, and he carried the dragon elephant like a skill, and his left fist was wrapped in the power of a fierce dragon elephant, and he struck Xue Ling with great force......