As Zhou Yu rectified his attack formation, the catapults on the Wu army's warship also began to throw out small and medium-sized stone bullets of about 30 to 40 kilograms to fight against the powerful but slow fire frequency of Taishici's side.

Some of the ships that were closer to the Han army were even replaced with "grape bombs" composed of gravel, and the firepower was extremely rigorous.

If Li Su was present in person and witnessed this battle, he would definitely have the instant illusion of "Beiyang Navy 305 slow cannon against the Japanese fleet's 120 rapid-fire cannon".

Taishi Ci's firepower combination is obviously a bit out of place. When it is far away, the hit rate is too low, almost so low that it is completely ineffective, wasting the range advantage.

As soon as they approached, because the Wu army warships were running away quickly and the relative angles of the enemy and us changed quickly, it was difficult for the Han army's catapults to quickly turn and keep up with the aim.

Even if you only hit one, you can smash the deck of the enemy ship, and even the bottom of the ship is cracked and leaked, but it will be useless if you can't hit it.

Of course, Taishici's side did not completely miss the attack. As the combat distance shortened, about a quarter of the time for incense, two or three Wu army ships and a fighting ship were hit one after another.

Among them, the battleship was relatively strong, and it was hit by a Baihanjin stone bullet and it was just the deck broken. And two of the three shots were directly sunk.

One was the deck, and the bottom of the ship was continuously penetrated into the water. The other was very lucky. A large hole was smashed near the waterline at the side of the ship, and then the water waves broke into the gap. The ship began to tilt, and soon the hole was completely submerged under the water, and then overturned and sunk.

In contrast, the ships with holes at the bottom of the ship slowly sink, and it is more convenient for soldiers to escape, so there are few casualties just because the ship is sunk. The sailors on the side-turned and overturned the sinking ship are mostly caught off guard and drowned, and many of them are swept into the vortex and cannot escape.

Although there was no ship sunk on Taishici's side, he was hit by rocks and grape gravels and could not take care of himself.

Of course, the grape bomb used by Zhou Yu was impossible to sink Taishici's warship.

But it is very easy to penetrate the thin wooden boards of superstructures such as cabins and other buildings, as well as the wooden female walls and trunks that help the soldiers on the boat cover the arrows. The wooden boards in these parts were originally designed to be less than an inch thick, just cover the crossbow arrows and do not have to withstand water pressure.

Therefore, several of Taishici's warships were like the decks and superstructures of heavy warships were washed by rapid-fire cannons in later naval warfares, and the soldiers were killed and injured. If they were really more casualties than the number of warships on both sides rather than the number of sunks, it was obvious that Taishici was still at a loss.

As some of the ships on Taishici's side suffered too many casualties, no one rowed and steered sails, and their speed and steering flexibility began to decline. Then, even a siege under Zhou Yu rushed over, launched a siege battle, jumped to the Han army station ship, chased and killed the remaining soldiers, and took the ship away.

During the fierce battle, a fighting ship appeared on Taishici's side because of the heavy casualties and could not resist the chopping and slaughter. The remaining soldiers knew that they could not do anything, so they jumped out of the Han River, trying to escape on their own friendly ships.

Taishi Ci was shocked: "Zhou Yu actually used a lever catapult in a water battle?! His catapult was lighter than ours and shot closer, but the effect was so sharp?

This is impossible! This is the first time Wu Jun used leverage catapults in actual combat, and he had no practical experience before! How did they summarize so much experience and run in the tactics of the troops?

Although our army is the first time to use a large-scale catapult in a water war, we have three or four years of experience in land warfare application. Is there really a person who is born to know this in this world? Zhou Yu is born with talent for water war tactics and weapons cooperation?"

Although Taishici was depressed, he had no time to waste time when facing a war. He could only try his best to urge the troops to continue firing, and simply let the remaining ships that had not been significantly weakened and further shorten the distance between the two sides.

Taishici has figured it out: when equipping grape bombs, although the closer the hit rate and greater the power, the smaller the range. If you really stick it to within fifty steps, you will throw it over the top and cannot hit the enemy ship.

Since this is the case, take advantage of the fact that most of the main ships on the side are not seriously injured and injured, and approach the battle. If the opponent wants to jump to the gang, as long as there are enough soldiers on the ship tower, the opponent will definitely suffer a loss in attacking. If the opponent does not fight on the side, then the higher side of the ship will have an advantage in covering the shooting with a crossbow, especially a continuous crossbow.

Taishici is upstream of the Han River and Zhou Yu is downstream, so it is definitely possible to approach at full speed. In just half a cup of tea, most of Taishici's warships reached a very close distance and began to fight with Zhou Yu in close combat.

While rushing over, although the Han army was washed by the last two waves of grape bombs, hundreds of casualties were killed, but they also survived the most difficult period.

Moreover, since the Han army warships were equipped with larger catapults, they could also switch to grape bombs during the charge. They were nothing more than slow firing speed and low coverage efficiency. However, no matter what, they still killed hundreds of Wu army sailors on the opposite side at the same time.

This feeling is a bit like the Yamato/Mussashi's 460mm main gun fired No. 3 air-to-air fire shotgun. It seems to be more or less anti-aircraft guns hitting mosquitoes. It is very useless, but at least it can be used.

"All crossbows are moved to the bow and fired! Do not take the initiative to place the crow's beak and snatch the boat and jump to the gang! Just beware of the enemy's jumping ship and rushing!"

As the close combat began, Taishici commanded in an orderly manner. He knew very well that there were many enemies and small ships. Even if he wanted to fight in close combat, he should play the advantageous role of "defending the city" and throw the siege to the other party.

For a moment, the protagonist on the battlefield almost switched from the trencher grape bomb to the counterattack of the crossbow.

Dozens of crossbows on both sides rushed towards the enemy ship and shot them. Hundreds of featherless convex arrows burst into bombardment at the same moment, just like a pile of porcupines instantly becoming bulging.

Countless arrows were pierced on the wooden boards of the cabin, and on the female walls, the arrows that leaked through the gaps and shooting holes caused a burst of screams and blood.

Both sides completely gave up their expectations of sinking each other's warships and instead concentrated on killing the enemy's live power. It was quite meaningful that players of the Age of Discovery game "resolutely change to hand-to-hand combat if they can't win the artillery battle."

Taishi Ci waved his sword and patrol the ship to supervise the battle, and his mood gradually became solemn: "Sikong actually guessed it again! Zhou Yu has been working on so many crossbows in recent years, but the scale is not inferior to our army! Alas, the truce in the two years after the fight against the rebels in Xiliang was too bad for the stealing and spreading of military technology.

But there is no way to do this. Your Majesty is a benevolent king. At that time, even the capital of the late emperor was still there. Your Majesty could not have taken advantage of the military that Wuming's army to attack other princes at will. Those knowledgeable people slowly imitated our weapons."

At the same time, although Zhou Yu on the opposite side was relatively small, he bravely put down the "crow beak" on the bow of the turret. The iron cone under the crow's beak pierced into the deck of the enemy ship, which naturally formed an effect similar to the suspension bridge placed at the city gate.

Many Wu army sailors immediately took swords and shields, and under the cover of friendly long-range firepower, jumped from the crow's beak suspension bridge to rush over the enemy ship.

Some of the snipers of the Wu army who used powerful crossbows were hiding sideways behind the pile, sneaking at the shooting holes in the cabin of the Han army's large ship opposite, and counterattacked as soon as they saw someone showing an arrow.

It's quite like a chicken-eating player erecting a gun in front of the window when his teammates rushed to the house. Although this kind of shooting must have caused casualties to each other, Zhou Yu's side has many people and can withstand such an exchange ratio.

Zhou Yu was able to cooperate with the navy's tactics to this level, which shows that it is a rare genius in the water war in the world.

Fortunately, Taishici is the only famous water war general who has had practical experience in eliminating pirates today, and he has a lot of experience in defending the battle to seize ships.

He tried hard to organize his own troops to resist in an orderly manner, and decisively ordered the fighting ships that were trapped in a siege to give up the unrealistic fantasy of "annihilation of the enemy on the springboard", and instead allowed Zhou Yu's soldiers to rush over the springboard and occupy the deck, but the Han army defended the ship tower and killed the Eastern Wu sailors exposed on the deck.

Zhou Yu, opposite, observed through the porthole himself, and thought to himself:

"Taishici is brave enough to know that he can't do anything to defend the enemy outside the ship, so he decisively guarded the high places on the ship and gave the bare deck that was not avoidable to our army. He retreated without being confused, and did not panic if the deck was lost, and his morale would not collapse, and he was worthy of being my opponent."

Since ancient times, it is very rare for generals who can organize their troops to retreat without collapse.

Don’t look at the drama in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that "fake defeat and lure the enemy, wait for the enemy to enter the ambush circle and the ambush troops will come out, and the defeated troops will also return to the death" is so easy to write. In fact, if it weren’t for the famous generals leading the strong team, the fraudulent defeat and lure the enemy, the probability of being cheated and lure the enemy will be turned into a real defeat.

Looking at the Battle of Feishui, Fu Jian just made the Former Qin army retreat slightly, and he became a general collapse. He knew how difficult this matter was.

Later, in the Warring States Period in Japan, the Shimazu family "Daoye Fu" and almost unified the Kyushu. They did not know how to learn and imitate the names of other princes? No, the principle of "Daoye Fu" is too shallow, and it is because the army's military discipline is not enough to be learned.

Taishici at least did "after asking the soldiers to give up the deck on their own initiative, they did not collapse in morale. After retreating to the ship building, they were surrounded. They still had the confidence to firmly believe that they could retake the deck and drive the ship away in a while."

Unfortunately, today's battle is a showdown between two of the three famous generals in the water battle today. Even so, Zhou Yu can still adapt to the situation and solve it.

(The other three are Gan Ning. For the first five, plus Lu Meng and Lu Xun. Lu Xun is still too young now, and his practical experience and military strategy are insufficient. Lu Meng is not much younger than Gan Ning, and he has enough experience, but he has not studied hard in his life and does not understand military strategy. So these two cannot be compared with the previous three)

Seeing the Eastern Wu sailors rushing through the springboards, stepping onto the Han army's fighting ship, and then being blocked on the deck of the Han army's fighting ship, being shot by the crossbows deployed by the Han army on the ship's tower, with heavy casualties, Zhou Yu quickly took out a new tactic.

Groups of Eastern Wu sailors carried many pots on their backs. After igniting the contents, they threw them on the wall panels of the Han army's fighting ships. Some of them fell into the portholes, or were thrown to the roof of the ship's cabin and behind the female walls.

At first, the Han soldiers thought that the other party had used sesame oil or other animal and vegetable oil filling pots, and wanted to play with fire attacks. The Han army officers all felt incredible: How expensive is oil? Jiangdong has no natural tincture oil, and only animal and vegetable oil can it be used to make a lot of fire?

Moreover, the warships on both sides were tied together with nail-board suspension bridges with crow beaks. If they really set fire, aren't they afraid that the warships of the Eastern Wu army would suffer in the end? Although the Wu army's ships were small, they had to nail a large ship of the Han army. If the fire spreads in the end, it would be a good deal for the Han army to change to five.

No matter how you look at this, you won’t be able to attack with fire in such a situation.

Unfortunately, the Han soldiers soon discovered that something was wrong.

Zhou Yu was not planning to attack fire at all! After throwing these pots and spreading, he found that what was burning inside was just cheap straw.

The most despicable thing is that these straws are not completely dried, but are slightly half-dried, which is enough to ignite at once, but when it burns, the smoke is very large and the smoke is rolling.

Anyone who has cooked rice with firewood in rural areas knows that before firewood is completely dried, the smoke is the biggest when burned, and it is particularly choking.

Zhou Yu's purpose was to cover the Han army crossbow formations in the boat tower and the cabin roof in the rolling smoke, allowing the Han army crossbow soldiers to temporarily choke on the smoke and reduce their combat effectiveness, and also seal the targeting vision.

In this way, when the Eastern Wu sailors attacked the ship tower through the deck, they were suppressed to a lower level of condescending long-range firepower.

The Han army crossbowmen are like sweeping through the smoke in the chicken-eating game, and their hit rate is greatly reduced.

The series of attacks that were built by crossbows, charge, sealing smoke, throwing flashes, and completing one-time attacks finally made Taishici's side unable to resist any more.

Taishi Ci also knew that it was amazing. Seeing that things were not done, he decisively chose the hero to cut off his arm, abandoned the two or three fighting ships that rushed to the front and were surrounded by groups, and then ordered the subsequent fleets to retreat.

He commanded with his flag and drum horns, and asked the soldiers on the warship who were trapped in deep-hard warships to launch a counter-charge. He rushed back to the Eastern Wu soldiers who rushed to the deck of his ship, and then used all his skills to break the crow beak suspension bridge that had been built, and left the contact and turned back.

Because the original plan was to "kill the enemy with bows and crossbows and roll wood and stones to defend the ship tower", it has now become a counter-charge to defend the enemy on the deck, and the casualties of Han soldiers naturally increased suddenly.

It’s like in a siege battle, the defensive side originally stood on the wall and threw things down, but now it actively opened the city gate and fought to fight to kill the enemy. The difficulty increased by more than several times?

Fortunately, Taishici's determination to bet was very complete, and he did not care about casualties for the time being. Moreover, the Han warships in the back row had just been trapped by one or two small boats from the Eastern Wu side, so they were indeed too late. So after paying the price of hundreds of deaths and more wounded soldiers, they finally broke off contact.

But Taishici's side also turned from going downstream to sailing against the current, making it difficult to quickly distance themselves from the Eastern Wu navy. Both sides were still as arrows as rain, and the remaining catapults opened fire again, killing in a mess.

Fortunately, Taishici also kept a last backup plan. He also left a reserve fleet to support behind the main fleet. In the reserve fleet, many valuable light boats were also prepared, filled with firewood.

After Taishici retreated for several miles, he commanded the rear army to release fire ships to block the enemy. Because the fire ships went downstream, the distance between the two armies' warships that went upstream was naturally shortened rapidly.

After the flames rose, the brave Han sailors on the fire ship still insisted on sticking to the stern of the ship, controlling the direction of the rudder to avoid their own people and specifically picking up the pursuers of the Eastern Wu. It was not until they were about to collided, or at least avoided friendly forces that the Han elite soldiers on these fire ships were transferred and escaped.

"Fire Attack? Li Su was also attacked by other naval generals of the princes. He had been attacked several times. If he could defend, I couldn't defend. That's too underestimated me. We haven't had any information yet."

When Zhou Yu saw the fireboat rushing, he calmly arranged three measures:

All crossbowmen gather fire at the stern of the fire ship, especially at the steering position! Be sure to shoot as much as the helmsman of the Han arms ship! Try to make the Han arms ship lose control as soon as possible.

Then, Zhou Yu asked his fleet to disperse its formation, and his helmsman commanded and avoided it freely.

Finally, some long pole hands ran out from the warships of the Eastern Wu, and they were holding the same long bamboo pole as the ones they had when the Han army defended against Yuan Shushui and fire attacks in the Battle of Xinye in the Qingshui River. The head was covered with iron sheets, so that the fire ship could be stretched out as much as possible.

The Hanshui River is very wide, not comparable to the small rivers such as Jingshui. Zhou Yu used these three moves one after another, and the defensive effect of the fire attack was slightly better than Li Su's performance in the Xinye Campaign. Although the tactical ideas of the two were the same, the generals under Li Su were not as good as Zhou Yu when executing tactics.
Chapter completed!