Since the width of this section of the Xiangshui River is only more than a hundred feet, tactics such as surrounding the enemy's side are difficult to implement, and there is no room for maneuver.
Therefore, a scene like this appeared on the battlefield: two huge fleets collided with each other with indomitable momentum, braving an overwhelming barrage of arrows like a plague of locusts.
Accompanied by a shocking loud noise, several stern ships rushing forward collided fiercely. In an instant, the bow of the ship was shattered into pieces. The soldiers on the deck were uncontrollably thrown into the sky, and some soldiers were thrown into the water.
However, looking at the entire battlefield, this kind of "kill one thousand enemies and damage eight hundred", which is similar to a desperate charge, is only a minority after all. Even if the width of the battlefield is limited, the fleets of both sides still try their best to open up the formation and leave enough enemy space.
The space through which the ship passes.
The two sides took advantage of the enemy ships to cross each other, and under the cover of parapets, war tents, and ship sides, they fired crossbows at each other and penetrated deep into the enemy's formation. When there was no way forward, a melee broke out, and in the end there was a fierce and cruel battle.
Boarding battle.
Liu Zong, with General Chen Jin as the vanguard and Huang Wu as the front, led 32 warships to open the way first, and he himself followed with 45 fighting ships.
These forty-five fighting ships are all equipped with at least two shooting poles on the bows. Several of the giant fighting ships that are more than ten feet long are even equipped with six shooting poles, that is, two shooting poles are placed on the bow and the left and right sides.
In order to confuse the enemy, the outside of the shooting poles were covered with crimson cloth. Although this unusual behavior attracted the attention of the Jingzhou navy officers, they did not take it seriously. They only thought that the opponent was extravagant. After all, they
Cai Hao, the coach of the Chinese navy, likes to put cyan canopies and purple curtains on the boats.
Liu Zong's fleet moved down the river at an extremely fast speed, rarely entangled with the enemy. The main task of the sterns rushing in front was to clear the way for the fighting ships behind and clear the obstacles.
In the process of advancing, the ships were either active or passive, and fell behind one after another. When Cai Zhong's large ship formation was in sight, Liu Zongfang was responsible for opening the way in front of less than ten ships. Even Chen Jin, the general who served as the front guard,
He was also intercepted by an enemy ship and could not hold out until the end.
Fortunately, another general, Huang Wu, was safe all the way. He looked at the last few "blockers" in front of him, changed his previous attitude of avoiding fighting, brandished his sword and shouted loudly: "Bump them, hit them, knock them away."
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The remaining sterns then formed a "wedge" formation and slammed into the enemy ships blocking the way forward.
The ground shook and the mountains trembled, people fell back, and the front suddenly opened up, completely exposing Cai Zhong's building and ship formation. Soon, a large number of fighting ships rushed out of the gap and swarmed towards Cai Zhong's building and ship formation.
Cai Zhong couldn't help but sneer on his face. He didn't know why the other party chose the tactic of "desperately attacking the Chinese army directly". However, in his opinion, this was undoubtedly a stupid decision.
There are twenty ships in the formation under his command, and there are sterns on the other two wings, and they are defended by fighting ships. The opponent's move is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg.
The building ship does have various shortcomings, such as the building on the ship is too high, the center of gravity is unstable, and it is easy to capsize when encountering strong winds and waves. But this only shows that it has poor adaptability, but it does not mean that its combat effectiveness is also poor. On the contrary, it is tall and majestic and can carry even more troops.
The crowd, like a water fortress, is the well-deserved overlord in the river.
This is indeed the case. As the two sides approached, the crossbows of the building ship formation easily gained the upper hand in the duel with Liu Zong's fighting ships due to their numerical advantage.
In the following boarding battle, the advantage of a taller ship with more people will only be greater. Just when Cai Zhong was so sure, Liu Zongfang's group of fighting ships rushed straight away and removed the crimson cloth on the bow one after another, revealing
One on the left and one on the right, fifty feet long, with huge stone shooting poles hanging on them.
When Cai Zhong saw it, he couldn't help but be shocked. Although he had never seen this thing before, a normal person could guess its purpose just by looking at the boulder on top of the wooden pole.
Cai Zhong suddenly broke into a cold sweat. If such a huge boulder were to fall down, even a tall and sturdy ship would probably not be able to remain intact.
At this time, the distance between the two sides was only more than twenty feet. The distance was too close. Cai Zhong could do nothing now. He could only shout in vain: "Shoot... shoot..."
However, the arrow rain was obviously much sparser compared to before. From this, it is not difficult to see that Cai Zhong was not the only one who was frightened by the pole shooting.
The soldiers of the first few battleships gathered at the bows and raised poles to form a pole wall, while the officers in charge of batting poles looked through the gaps in the pole wall and silently calculated the distance in their minds.
The racquet poles were usually protected by windlass and ropes were tightened and fixed above. When the bows of both sides were close at hand, several officials simultaneously released the racquet poles. The two thick racquet poles at the bows, carrying two huge boulders, suddenly fell down.
Towards the deck of the enemy ship.
"Boom...boom...boom..."
The huge bombardment sounded like the earth was shattering, instantly drowning out the noise on the battlefield.
The large ships, which had been invincible on the water for hundreds of years and could only be defeated by natural disasters, became miserable after just one round of beatings. Some houses with several floors were destroyed, and all the soldiers hiding inside were buried in the ruins.
Among them, some decks were broken, river water poured in, and the soldiers on them became scattered.
Countless people have fallen into the water. Those without armor can still float in the water. If they are lucky, they may have a chance to swim ashore. However, unless those wearing armor can find something floating on the water to use their strength, no matter how good they are at swimming, they will eventually fail.
When they are exhausted, death awaits them in the end.
When Paigang appeared on the battlefield for the first time, it achieved quite impressive results. In just one attack, five tall ships were almost paralyzed, like lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
Faced with a weapon that is irresistible to human power, even if Jingzhou's soldiers managed to save their lives, they were frightened by the power of the pole and could not muster any fighting spirit.
With the enemy ships so densely packed in front of us, it's enough to make us despair. What's even more despairing is that the rod can be retracted and used repeatedly. There's simply no way for people to survive.
The effect of force is mutual. The Jingzhou navy's building ship was smashed to pieces by the pole, and the battleship was also shaken. However, after all, Sergeant Liu Jing had been practicing for half a year and was already able to cope with it. The officers used the windlass to protect them and the ropes.
, skillfully pulled the shooting pole back and bundled it up, and then followed the command and dropped the shooting pole again.
"Boom...boom...boom..."
This time it was no longer just the first few fighting ships, but more fighting ships and more shooting poles were involved, and the effect was surprisingly good. One of the building ships, after being hit by three fighting ships, the ship
The ship's body tilted severely forward, and the river water surged into the cabin. It was difficult to restore the balance of the ship's body, and it was only a matter of time before it sank.
As an invincible battleship on the water, the defense line composed of ten high-rise ships should have been indestructible, but as a result, after encountering the pole, it immediately turned into a pile of fragile coffins on the water.
Witnessing all this with his own eyes, Cai Zhong tightened the hilt of the knife in his hand, his heart feeling cold.
"Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel..." The general under his command said in a trembling voice with a look of horror on his face: "The enemy is coming! The captain's flag is hung on the top of this ship, so it will definitely become the enemy's primary target of attack. In order to
For safety reasons, the captain should leave as soon as possible and transfer to another ship..."
The surrounding officers and soldiers all believed this, but Cai Zhong didn't wait for him to finish speaking, and glared at him fiercely and said, "You want me to abandon ship without fighting?"
"Captain, please calm down..." The general complained secretly in his heart. The captain was too inflexible. How could this be said to be abandoning the ship without fighting? "What the general meant was that if the captain was besieged by the enemy, it would be difficult for him to command.
A fleet battle will inevitably cause chaos in the entire army, which will be detrimental to the war, so why not..."
Cai Zhong did not listen to the other party's advice at all. He swung his long knife and slashed on the deck, saying decisively: "I was ordered by the general and military advisor to serve as the front of the navy. The enemy is facing us. How can I abandon the ship without fighting?"
Anyone who says this again will be killed!"
"..." When the soldiers heard this, they all had sad faces and felt chills in their hearts.
As he spoke, fighting ships arrived one after another like a swarm of sharks. Just as General Cai Zhong was worried about, the flag fluttering in the wind on the top of Cai Zhong's ship was the biggest target.
Cai Zhong looked solemnly at the shooting pole on the enemy ship. After getting closer, he realized how impressive the huge boulder installed on it was.
For a moment, Cai Zhongli had doubts about his decision. Faced with such a powerful and unbreakable weapon, was his persistence completely unnecessary?
But he quickly killed this idea. The general flag is the soul of an army, especially on the water. In a sense, the general flag is more important than himself. He himself can die, but the general flag cannot be thrown away.
, if the general's flag is lost to the enemy, it will definitely lead to the defeat of the front army.
When the stick roared down with the boulder, Cai Zhong's eyes widened, and his mind went blank. Maybe there would be a way to counter the stick in the future, but for now, he could only watch.
"Boom...boom...boom..."
In the violent shock, Cai Zhong and the surrounding soldiers were immediately thrown into the air like a goddess scattering flowers. Cai Zhong could not control his body and hit the wall of the cottage with his head. Blood flowed all over his face in an instant.
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Although he looked extremely miserable, he finally managed to save his life. If he hadn't been wearing a hood, his head would have been ruined, and there was no way he could have been spared.
Cai Zhong calmed down for a while before getting up in a daze. The deck two steps away in front of him had been smashed into shape, and the three-story cabin behind him had been destroyed. The general's flag placed on it was naturally also destroyed.
Can't find it.
However, this was just the beginning. The second round of pole-slapping attacks came immediately, and one of the bumpy, bloody boulders hit Cai Zhong's position.
"Captain...be careful..."
Cai Zhong was hit hard on the head and his reaction was a little slow. Upon seeing this, his generals hurriedly knocked him down and finally rescued him from the gate of hell.
Severe pain in his body and head hit Cai Zhong's nerves in waves. He reluctantly opened his eyes and found that the pillow on his face was his general's flag.