Since the beginning of Xi Yu, the Marquis of Xiangyang, in more than a hundred years, the Xi family has developed into a famous family in Xiangyang, and the new generation has also emerged in large numbers with talents. The most famous one is Xi Zhen, the younger brother of the Xi Zhen clan.
Only inferior to the Pang Tong of Xiangyang.
In addition, there is Xi Chengye, who is knowledgeable and talented, and his future prospects are also unlimited. He is known as the one who can prosper the Xi family.
As a direct descendant of the Xi family, Xizhen can actually follow the path of the two of them, that is, study hard, and when he has accumulated enough knowledge, he will marry the Kuai family, the Huang family, the Pang family, the Xiang family, the Yang family, etc.
Criticize each other to achieve the purpose of becoming famous. Those who want to have an official career will join Liu Biao's shogunate. If they don't have an official career for the time being, they will continue to stay at home and cultivate their reputation.
But Xi Zhen did not do this, not because he was not knowledgeable enough, but because he happened to experience the Yellow Turban Rebellion when he was a boy, and as he grew older, the world did not return to peace, but became increasingly chaotic.
Until Dong Zhuo deposed the emperor and brought chaos to the world, Guandong prefectures and counties recruited soldiers one after another to attack Dong Zhuo. It was under this background that Xi Zhen abandoned his writing and joined the army.
Xi Zhen's eyes suddenly condensed, and he saw dozens of flying stone carts in the enemy formation on the south bank.
His long arms were thrown high into the sky, and then flew towards the Xiang River like a meteor shower.
"Boom...boom...boom..."
Stone bullets whizzed and hit the river one after another. If a person was hit, no matter how sophisticated his armor was, he would definitely die. A small boat would be broken into pieces, and even a large ship would be in danger of sinking if it was hit by several stone bullets in a row.
.
"Whoosh..."
A stone bullet flew over Xi Zhen's head, and with a "click" sound, the huge building was directly penetrated by the stone bullet, and then the screams of the soldiers rang out inside.
Soon, another stone bullet flew past Xizhen's side and blasted straight into the water. It was so powerful that it turned a light boat full of soldiers not far away and turned it upside down.
Xi Zhen's heart tightened, but her face did not change. However, this frightened the attendants around her, and she hurriedly advised: "Captain, the enemy's flying rocks and chariots are very powerful. It's too dangerous for you to stand on the deck. Why not temporarily?"
avoid……"
Faced with the admonitions of her personal followers, Xi Zhen remained indifferent and refused to leave the deck even half a step, saying: "I was ordered by the military advisor to lead my troops to land to attack the enemy. Now that I cannot take the lead, I feel extremely ashamed. If I were in the rear, I would still be there."
Wouldn't it chill the hearts of the scholars to be afraid of arrows and stones? How much more could they stand between heaven and earth?"
"But..." The follower wanted to persuade him again.
"There is no but!" Xi Zhen looked solemn and said firmly, "I have made up my mind, don't say anything anymore."
In fact, Xi Zhen is not an exception. In addition, Cai He and Wu Ju, who were also assigned by Cai Mao to land, one is Cai Mao's clan brother and the other is a traitorous minister, also personally commanded the soldiers under the guise of arrows, making it even less likely for him to retreat.
.
The width of the Xiangjiang River here is only a hundred feet or so, and the Jingzhou naval fleet is densely populated on the river. Therefore, the hit rate of the trebuchets is very amazing, and more than ten large and small ships were destroyed in an instant.
Liu Jing stood on a hill in the distance and looked at Jiang Ming. He was even satisfied with the effect of the trebuchets. These trebuchets were all large trebuchets and required forty or fifty people to work together. They could launch twenty to thirty kilograms of stone bullets and were extremely powerful.
big.
The principle of the trebuchet is not difficult, and the production is relatively simple. There are tens of thousands of civilians at Liu Jing's disposal. Using local materials, he can easily make hundreds of trebuchets in a day.
However, it is easy to make a trebuchet, but it is not easy to obtain stone bullets. Since the target this time is a wooden ship, the requirements for the stone bullets are not high and can only be polished a little. However, quarrying has never been easy in ancient times.
thing.
Due to the limited number of stone bullets, Liu Jing only built more than seventy trebuchets. But now it seems that even these seventy trebuchets have achieved good results.
Liu Jing was now in the Chinese army, and he did not forget to pay attention to the battle situation on the navy side. The detective cavalry kept sending back battle reports from the front line. When he learned that Liu Zong had led his fleet to break through from the center, he used his pole to shoot down ten of the opponent's large ships.
The remaining ships even forced Cai Zhong to change his flagship twice. If things continue like this, victory will be a matter of time.
Liu Jing felt happy after hearing this. As long as the navy wins, the battle will be almost certain, and Cai Mao will have no hope of coming back.
At the same time, Liu Jing did not forget to pay attention to the other side, that is, the rear army of the Jingzhou Navy. For that side, he also prepared a backup plan. That is, dozens of ships loaded with grease and firewood were hidden in Laishui, a tributary of the Xiang River in the north.
This small detachment was led by Wang Qiang. Once they discovered that the opponent intended to land, they immediately launched the light boats and used fire ships to attack the warships behind them, trying to buy as much time as possible for their own side.
At present, the Xiang River is full of arrows, rockets, and flying rocks... Ships have been reduced to ruins, caught fire, or capsized and sunk. Dead bodies and injured people are floating all over the river.
Under such a situation, the speed of information transmission was far less convenient than on land, but Cai Mao still received news about the unfavorable operations of the former army one after another.
Cai Mao looked gloomy and was speechless for a long time. He did not blindly vent his anger on Cai Zhong, because he knew that although his brother was not a general, he was also a good general. He had contributed a lot to the destruction of the Changsha Navy.
.
Even though the warships of both sides were almost the same, he was actually beaten by the other side so much that he even had to ask for help from himself. This shows how powerful the other side was.
Cai Mao also got an important piece of information. The reason why Cai Zhong was defeated was because the opponent's ship had a wooden pole with a huge boulder installed on it. No matter it was a stern, a fighting ship or even a high-rise ship, all ships would be shattered and sunk if hit by the boulder.
Cai Mao's first reaction was the flying stone cart, and he and the Chinese army were suffering from it. The person who sent the message said that it was a flying stone cart with stones fixed on wooden poles and could be used repeatedly.
First there were giant crossbows, then flying stone chariots, and now a new weapon appeared. There must be someone in Liu Jing's army who is good at making large war tools.
However, this is no longer the point. The point is that Cai Zhong must not be defeated. Otherwise, not only will his intention of attacking Liu Jingjun from the front, center and back be completely ruined, but he will also be attacked by the opponent's waterway.
Cai Mao couldn't help but take a breath of air. For the first time, he felt that failure was so close to him.
At this moment, Cai He, Xi Zhen, and Wu Ju, after paying an extremely heavy price, landed on the south bank one after another and gained a foothold. The three soldiers formed a wall almost at the same time to cover the landing of their comrades behind them.
"put……"
As the flags danced, in Liu Jingjun's formation, dozens of ready-to-go bed crossbows roared at the same time. The wall, which could resist the horned bows and spread its attack, immediately became vulnerable when faced with the abnormally thick arrows of the bed crossbows.
It's like paper.
"boom……"
The arrows from the crossbow flew with a sharp sound, and the Jingzhou soldiers holding the spears fell back like flowers scattered by the rain.
The arrows of the bed crossbow not only easily penetrated the wall, but also penetrated two Jingzhou soldiers who were hiding behind the wall.
The power of the bed crossbow is amazing. Just one attack left the formation riddled with holes and fragmented. Crossbow arrows followed closely like rain. Jingzhou soldiers fell in batches like wheat being harvested.
land.
Wu Ju's troops were all from Changsha, and they were fighting against the locals. They were not willing to fight. Now that they suffered heavy casualties, they immediately collapsed and abandoned the formation.
This behavior of running away before the battle exposed his back without reservation. Liu Jingjun would not let go of such a rare opportunity. The crossbow array fired alternately and continuously.
"ah……"
"Do not kill me……"
"We are fellow villagers..."
Wu Ju Buqu shouted while fleeing, as if he wanted to use his nostalgia to impress Liu Jingjun, but unfortunately the crossbow arrows coming from behind did not slow down because of their shouts.
Crossbow arrows like locusts were overwhelming, sweeping everything in front of them. In the end, less than one-tenth of Wu Ju's tribe was able to escape back to the ship, and most of them died on the way.
Originally seeing Wu Ju's troops disintegrating and fleeing, Cai He and Xizhen's soldiers could not help but feel a little shaken, but then Wu Ju's troops gave them the most realistic warning at the cost of their lives. The soldiers of the second tribe were very happy in their hearts. Fortunately, there was no such thing.
Run away in the face of battle, otherwise they will end up with the same fate as the other party.
At this moment, Wu Ju felt that the eyes of both sides of the battlefield seemed to be focused on him. The eyes were sharper than knives. He seemed to be naked and enduring the torture of Lingchi. The strong sense of shame made him almost unbearable, and he wished he could find a place to go.
Drill in.
Wu Ju was so ashamed and angry that he executed all the people who took the lead in escaping. One of them was his domestic slave.
Then, in order to save face and boost low morale, he did not hesitate to take risks, armed himself with a knife and spear, and personally led his troops to land.