Zhong Changqing stopped on a hillock on the east bank of Fengsha Lake and watched from a distance as more than thirty warships of the Jingxiang Navy went straight into the Yuxi River waterway connecting Fengsha Lake to the Yangtze River.
I couldn't figure it out for a while.
"What's going on with the Jingxiang Army? They're here to commit suicide? Do you think you have too many warships?"
When the guards around Zhong Changqing saw this scene, they also asked in disbelief.
Zhong Changqing had a gloomy face and patiently looked carefully at the terrain around Fengsha Lake.
Fengsha Lake is a lake and swamp formed by the low-lying land after the Linjiang area south of Dafan Mountain became land.
This type of lakes are very common along the Yangtze River.
Qianchapu in Nancai County, Bailu Lake in Fantai County, Wazi Lake in Jiangling County, Sangchi Lake in Jianli County, Tianjing Lake in Tongling County, etc. are all similar to this.
These lakes and lakes basically have waterways connected to the Yangtze River. Even when the river floods during the flood season, these lakes and lakes are directly connected to the Yangtze River, making the water and sky one for dozens or even hundreds of miles to the left and right.
The people of Lujiang are very good at developing the area along the river. They not only built embankments along Fengsha Lake to stabilize the lake step by step, but also built several long embankments along the river.
Ten villages are distributed in the open land on both sides of Fengsha Lake.
This time, in order to turn Fengsha Lake, which is more than ten kilometers away from the river in the southeast of Dafan Mountain, into the station of Laizhou Navy, General Deng Bo directly occupied seven villages along Fengsha Lake and built them into forts.
In addition, four flood gate camps were built on both sides of the Yuxi River connecting the Yangtze River to Fengsha Lake.
Xunkou, Shuiguan.
The four flood gate forts face each other, forming two water passes in and out of the Fengsha Lake water camp.
In addition to blocking the rivers with iron ropes and wooden fences between the flood camps, elite generals were stationed in the camps, and trebuchets, catapults and other war machines were deployed, which were enough to attack the rivers that were only forty or fifty steps wide in the dry season.
The Yuxi River Channel is blocked.
Anyone who sees this scene can't help but think that if the Jingxiang Navy warships trespass on the Yuxi River, aren't they going to be a living target?
The Laizhou navy tried to invade Tianjing Lake several times before, but they all retreated with heavy losses. Didn't they just suffer a big loss here?
In the past, the navy used natural small lakes as docking bays for warships. This was mainly to facilitate the control of the scale of the water camp. Rural walls or city walls could be used to directly surround both the docking bay and the garrison of navy generals.
stand up.
Using the natural big lake to set up camps at the entrance of the big lake to the river to control entry and exit, although it is not common in history, Jingxiang has at least deployed it in Tongling and Songyang before them, and even took advantage of it to take advantage of it. How could they not
To take precautions and then attack by force?
Of course, Zhong Changqing would not think that the Jingxiang Navy was committing the crime knowingly, and even believed that the Jingxiang Navy must have some means unknown to them to dare to do this.
Maybe this is the root of why he has always been unable to feel at ease?
If Jingsheng Hou Xu Huai had no backup, it would be unreasonable to just sit back and watch them deploy water camps on the north bank, which is less than twenty miles away!
Zhong Changqing wanted to slap himself. He clearly realized that something was wrong at that time, so why did he hesitate to remind King Pingyan? Was he cowardly enough to slander them?
Zhong Changqing's heart was in his throat and he wished he could break the riding whip in his hand. He raised his head and looked towards the Yuxi River. Except for the four fortresses at Xukou on both sides of the bank, the generals had already climbed up the wall with crossbows and prepared to attack.
Shooting outside the Jingxiang warship that passed by, Zhong Changqing could still see that the trebuchet in the camp had also raised its suspension box.
On the side where the Yuxi River connects to Fengsha Lake, the Laizhou Navy also has dozens of small and medium-sized warships assembled, preparing to enter the Yuxi River waterway.
Zhong Changqing didn't know who was responsible for supervising the battle. Looking at the posture, it was obvious that the war supervisor could not easily let the Jingxiang warships advance to the Xukou camp.
Because the Jingxiang warships were brought too close, the trebuchets in the Xukou camp, which had a minimum firing radius, could not function. With only crossbows and a few crossbows in front of the wall, it was difficult to easily bring the Jingxiang warships to
repel.
It is also impossible to completely intercept the Beijing-Xiang warship outside Fengsha Lake with just a few iron ropes.
It is still necessary for the Laizhou Navy to actively participate in the war, and its warships to advance from the inside and outflank and flank the Beijing-Xiang Navy Army in the narrow and shallow Yuxi River waterway to better repel the Beijing-Xiang Navy Army, or
All his warships were sunk in the Yuxi River.
Defensive measures can help the defenders better resist invading enemies, but if the defenders cannot actively and heroically participate in the battle, no matter how strong the defensive measures are, they will only become a show-off.
The war supervisor immediately ordered the naval warships to directly enter the Yuxi River waterway to participate in the battle. Zhong Changqing felt a little relieved.
Immediately afterwards, Zhong Changqing saw that after entering the Yuxi River waterway, Zhong Changqing saw that the Jingxiang warships did go directly to the two outermost flood gate camps - the distance was shortened, and Zhong Changqing could see entering the Yuxi River.
Most of the Jingxiang warships were of ordinary shape, and they were all covered with turtle-shaped canopies.
Nowadays, warships have various forms. It is not uncommon to use canopies to fully cover the warships to better protect the naval officers from being shot by arrows.
Zhong Changqing didn't think anything was wrong at this time.
Although the several heavy trebuchets in the Xunkou camp had a chance to launch as the Beijing-Xiang warship approached, it was obviously too difficult to hit the fast-moving warship with the accuracy of the heavy trebuchet.
.
The stone bullets weighing hundreds of kilograms fell into the air one after another, creating huge waves several feet high in the Yuxi River, which made people feel pity in their hearts. They secretly thought that the stone bullets could hit the tortoise shell-like covering of the Jingxiang warship.
It will definitely create a big hole, and maybe even smash a warship directly through it.
This is the power that a heavy trebuchet should have, but its accuracy is too poor and its launch is too slow.
There was no chance for the heavy trebuchet to launch a second time. More than thirty turtle-backed Beijing-Xiang warships were seen divided into two teams and had already passed through the range of the heavy trebuchet.
Of course, the Chihu people and the Han army had also long ago learned to use small catapults to launch kerosene cans and scattered stone bombs within a range of fifty or sixty to more than a hundred steps from the enemy.
This kind of catapult is small and flexible, has a fast firing speed and is more accurate.
In addition to a small number of deployments on large warships, Zhong Changqing knew that there were also twenty or thirty catapults deployed in each of the four flood entrance camps, which could be used to attack the approaching Jingxiang warships or the Jingxiang soldiers on the warships; especially
In a flood-kou camp, twenty or thirty fire oil cans were thrown into the river at one time, which was definitely a big threat.
Speaking of which, this was also the first tactic used by the Jingxiang (Chushan) Army in infantry and water battles. Zhong Changqing suffered a lot back then, but now the Chihu people and the Han army have also learned it.
The two teams of Jingxiang warships quickly approached the two flood gate camps on the outside. At this time, Zhong Changqing could also see the kerosene cans in the camps being thrown out in arcs in mid-air...
The distance got closer, and when the Jingxiang warships were approaching the Xukou camp, the formation of ships also became denser. Zhong Changqing could vaguely see several kerosene cans smashing into the tortoise shell-shaped canopy of the Jingxiang warships and breaking into pieces.
Come on.
Next, Zhong Changqing saw the generals on the wall of the Xukou camp. He quickly soaked the firelighters wrapped in feather arrows with oil and ignited them. He quickly shot towards the Jingxiang warship and touched the Jingxiang warship.
The canopy also quickly ignited the poured kerosene.
Zhong Changqing originally thought that the fire would spread quickly on the canopy of the Jingxiang warship and force the soldiers of Jingxiang to emerge from the canopy to put out the fire. At that time, their generals in the Xukou camp would be able to use strong bows and crossbows.
Shooting indiscriminately.
However, what Zhong Changqing thought happened did not happen.
The fire did not spread on the turtle-shaped back shell of the Jingxiang warship, and quickly extinguished itself. Even the Xukou camp continued to throw kerosene cans out, but it was never able to really draw the Jingxiang warship.
Burn up.
When Zhong Changqing saw this situation, he was frightened. He didn't even bother to greet the guards around him. He directly got on his horse and rode towards the east bank of Yuxi River.
The Xukou camp, which was engaged in a battle, rushed away.
As it got closer and closer, it became clearer and clearer that the blue-black turtle-shaped shell of the Jingxiang warship reflected the metallic luster. Zhong Changqing sat in the saddle in a daze:
Is it true that Jingxiang covered the warships with iron armor?!
Previously, Xu Huai, escorted by four or five small warships, forced his way through the navy's blockade of the Yangtze River, and finally successfully landed on the west bank of the Caochang River.
The general responsible for the interception and pursuit at that time reported that the escort warships in Beijing and Xiang were covered with iron armor and were difficult to damage due to arrows and stones. This was the key to the navy's failure to intercept them on the Yangtze River in time.
Wu Chi, however, believed that these generals were talking nonsense in order to shirk responsibility.
Zhong Changqing didn't pay attention to it at that time.
He believes that under special circumstances, it is not impossible to armor individual warships.
However, it is not that there have been no craftsmen for thousands of years. The naval commander has thought about this idea. However, for a long time, the most elite warships have only been covered with cooked cowhide to prevent fire and reduce the damage of belemnite to the hull. It is not without reason.
.
When wrapping a warship in armor, if the armor is too thick, it will directly sink the warship, or make the warship heavy and slow to turn. But when it comes to wrapping a warship in thin armor with uniform thickness and limited weight, isn't this a joke?
?
Armoring a medium-sized midship ship is theoretically enough to create four to five thousand sets of armor.
This is by no means simply a question of how much refined iron is consumed, but more importantly, forging the refined iron ingots into thin armor pieces consumes extremely terrifying manpower and material resources!
Zhong Changqing extremely overestimated Jingxiang's manufacturing capabilities, thinking that Jingxiang could produce at least 8,000 to 10,000 sets of armor a year if they put all their efforts into it.
However, if I ask any general whether he wants ten thousand sets of iron armor or two midship warships fully covered with iron armor, who would be crazy enough to choose the latter?
Of course, Zhong Changqing did not rule out that under extreme circumstances, Jingxiang would build one or two fully armored small and medium-sized warships to serve as Xu Huai's escort battleships. But who would have told him that Jingxiang had already built dozens of fully armored warships?
Zhong Changqing would only think that this was a silly joke about an armored warship.
However, what he once thought was a boring joke was now vivid and even bloody before his eyes...
