"PS: Although it is almost finished, I conservatively estimate that there will still be at least a few months left. More than 20 additional chapters can definitely be made up before the end. In fact, I still want to save it for the last chapter.
』
————The following text————
In June of the third year of Wei Xing'an, about half a month had passed since the Wei army's initial and last-minute attack in the Weishan Lake Battle, and the Wei army was ready to move again.
The reason is very simple, because the fifty ships recruited from Xiangfu Port by Wei King Zhao Run have arrived at Weishan Lake with a stroke of his pen.
To be honest, these high-rise ships are not very good, but they are more than enough for training Huling's navy. After all, these ships are all built by the "Shipbuilding Department" under the Wei Guoye Manufacturing Bureau, and they are of excellent workmanship. It must be
It is ten times or a hundred times better than the ships built by Wei soldiers in Huling area.
Speaking of these ships, most of them were used for transportation by the Wei State. In some cases, they were sold to merchants or chambers of commerce like Wen Shaobo or the "Su's Chamber of Commerce".
It is worth mentioning that in the "Battle of Wei and Han" two years ago, the Wei State did consider transforming these ships into warships to deal with the navy under the command of South Korea's Julu Shouyan Fu - if that
If Zhao Hongrun did not send any news to the mainland of Wei in Julu City during the winter of one year, these warships would be sent to the big rivers after the spring of the following year to compete with Yan Kui's navy for control of the waters.
However, because Zhao Hongrun led his troops directly into the enemy's hinterland and received miraculous results, this combat plan was abandoned by the court.
In the past two years, these building ships have been mainly responsible for transporting cement and other construction materials to the Hetao area, and assisting the local Wei army in building cities in Shuofang, Jiuyuan, Yunzhong and other places.
It was not until the water war broke out in Weishan Lake that the navy in the Huling area was in urgent need of warships. Therefore, these ships were transferred to the Weishan Lake area.
After the fifty ships arrived at Weishan Lake, the three Wei generals Li Ji, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu were a little excited. After all, they had only saved more than twenty large ships for two years.
There are only a few ships left, but now, the number of big ships has quadrupled all of a sudden - you must know the significance of big ships in water warfare, just like the chariots in siege warfare. Only bigger ships can carry more
Have many crossbowmen and use long-range weapons to suppress the enemy.
As for the stern, it is mostly used to deal with small boats and carry soldiers to rob the enemy's large ship. It is not realistic to expect it to crash the enemy's large ship.
"Your Majesty has an order, these warships and the generals can do whatever they want with them."
Shen Yu, who also received the letter from Wei King Zhao Run, said with a smile that what he called casual disposal meant that Li Wei, Zhou Kui and Cai Qinhu did not need to care about the fifty ships - in fact Zhao Run
He also told Shen Yu in the letter that the Smelting Bureau was already designing and building a new large ship, and this time it was a real warship specially used for water warfare.
In other words, those fifty large ships should be abandoned when necessary. Do not cause more casualties to the soldiers of the Huling River just because they are ships brought by the imperial court. In the eyes of Wei King Zhao Run, these are the ships of his Wei Kingdom.
Develop the backbone of the naval force in the future.
Of course, even though Shen Yu said so, Li Ji, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu naturally would not take it seriously and not care so much.
Let’s not talk about the fifty old ships, but what about the Wei Liannu on the ship?
Even though the second and third generation Wei Liannu are far inferior to the current fourth generation Wei Liannu, as war weapons, the power of these old objects is still astonishing.
On the ninth day of June, Wei Jun from Huling Water Village took these boats for a walk on the lake.
The Wei army, which consisted of more than 60 large ships, immediately alerted the Beibo Army, which made the latter immediately summon all the troops and dispatch warships as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
The first round of confrontation between the naval forces was naturally a contest of long-range weapons.
In the past, the Wei army in Huling suffered a lot in this regard. Without the Wei Liannu, they could only watch the machine crossbows on the Bei Bo warships firing crossbow bolts at them, but they were unable to fight back.
But this time, the two armies of Wei and Song fired their crossbow bolts almost at the same time.
Seeing this, Wei General Cai Qinhu was particularly excited, because as far as he knew, the more than two hundred serial crossbows that came with the ship this time were only second- and third-generation products forged by the Smelting Bureau, although they would not be said to have been eliminated.
, but in fact it was not as good as the newly researched fourth-generation Wei Liannu - when he thought that the "Huling Navy" formed by their three armies would have the opportunity to be equipped with the latest domestic war weapons in the future, he felt excited for no reason.
"Bang--"
"Bang--"
As the warships of the Wei and Song armies approached one after another, the war weapons of both sides continued to fire crossbow bolts as thin as a finger, causing damage to each other's ships.
But soon, Li Ji, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu realized a problem: Wei Liannu's crossbow arrows were consumed too much.
The arrows of Wei's machine-operated repeating crossbows are made of iron. If such a crossbow bolt can be exchanged for a warship on the opposite side, it will not be a loss. But the problem is that the ship is driving on the lake and floating unstable. How can it be done?
How about hitting enemy ships every time?
Unless you are very close, you may not be able to hit it once or twice out of ten times.
Calculated in this way, the crossbow arrow consumption of the repeating crossbow is very serious.
In comparison, the consumption of ordinary arrows is nothing at all.
"It is said that Qi is good at using money to win wars. In fact, the merchant navy of Wei Dynasty is not bad either..."
Cai Qinhu joked with Li Qian and Zhou Kui afterwards.
Indeed, in the past ten years, the entire Central Plains has only seen the Shang Shui Army of Wei State sweeping across the armies of other countries, but no one paid attention to the price the Shang Shui Army paid in winning these wars.
For example, when the Wei State fought in Hangu in Sanchuan County, the Qin State's 200,000-strong army was almost wiped out in the war. At that time, the arrows and crossbow bolts fired by the Wei army, including Wei's crossbows and machine-operated crossbow boxes, etc.
It is almost equivalent to the Wei State's annual tax revenue - fortunately most of those crossbow arrows can be recycled, otherwise it is really unimaginable that the Wei State can support several such wars.
But even so, due to Wei Gongzi Run's "lavish" military spending and war needs, the wealth that the old Wei King had worked hard to save for twenty years was almost emptied out.
Now, the Huling navy has finally had a taste of "winning wars with money."
However, considering that the crossbow arrows consumed during the water battle were almost impossible to recover, Li Ji, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu still felt heartbroken, especially when they saw the crossbow arrows made of iron shot far away.
When I didn't hit the enemy ship but fell directly into the water, I felt my chest tightening.
In the end, the generals who stayed on the flag ship to train were more nervous than the soldiers who were actually fighting on the front line. Before those Wei Liannu could exert its power, they shouted "almost" and "almost"
.
The water battle that day was just a small test for the Wei army.
In fact, with these fifty old ships and more than two hundred Wei Liannu alone, the Huling navy already had a chance of defeating the Song navy - as long as Li Wei, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu held the "forced landing" The other side's war intentions.
Once the Wei army invaded "Tengdi" on the other side of Weishan Lake and faced off on land, the Beibo army was no match for the Wei army.
Of course, considering that the purpose was not that, Li Qian, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu withdrew their troops not long after, and returned to Huling Water Village to continue studying the art of water warfare.
As for Shen Yu, while watching and learning from experience, he also temporarily served as the special envoy of Wei King Zhao Run, reporting some situations of the frontline navy to Daliang - for example, this time, he was like Daliang making suggestions, the 'precious' iron arrow, It is not easy to use in water battles because it consumes too much.
At the same time in Tengcheng, the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty, Xiang Ding, learned about the events of the water battle and completely guessed the intention of Wei King Zhao Run to use them to train the navy army.
There was nothing he could do about it.
In the next three months, the Huling Wei Army went to the Beibo Army across the mountain for training. The main purpose was to train the soldiers' on-the-spot reactions in times of crisis, such as what to do if the sails of the ship were set alight by the enemy's fire arrows, and what to do if the cabin leaked. etc.
As for the casualties of the soldiers, the soldiers of the three Wei armies, the predecessors of the Huling Navy Army, were the Chenggao Army, the Junshui Army, and the Fenxing Army. They were not new recruits who had just joined the army. They certainly knew how to protect themselves.
In fact, those with the highest probability of casualties were those soldiers who were unfortunately caught in the waves when the ship sank. In the vortex that appeared when the ship sank, few soldiers could escape death. This is why King Zhao Run of Wei asked the generals to decisively kill their soldiers when necessary. Reasons for abandoning ship and escaping.
In this way, around September, three more large ships came to Weishan Lake along the Lianglu Canal and docked at Huling Water Village.
These are the three real warships that the Smelting Bureau has been building in these days.
Although there were only three warships, it alarmed the entire Huling water village, causing the Wei soldiers in the water village to run to the lakeside to watch, and let out bursts of exclamations.
The reason is that the tonnage of these three warships is larger than the previous fifty old ships, and even larger than all the current ships in Wei State. What is shocking is that the keels and bottoms of these warships are They are all wrapped in iron sheets, which greatly increases the warship's collision resistance.
In fact, even the mast is sectioned with iron sheets, which greatly reduces the damage caused by fire arrows.
This time, "Xun Xin", the chief officer of the Shipbuilding Department of the Smelting Bureau, came with the ship. After meeting Shen Yu, Li Wei, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu, he explained to them: "These three ships" "Tiger" class warship is a new warship built by our Smelting Bureau..."
"Tiger level?" Li Qi, Zhou Kui and Cai Qinhu asked in confusion.
Seeing this, Xun Xin smiled and said: "This is the model naming within our Smelting Bureau. The generals don't need to care. The generals only need to know that the Tiger-class warship is the largest that our Wei Dynasty can currently build. Warships. In addition..." He pointed at the three warships and said with a smile: "In addition, His Majesty also specially named these three warships, called "Junshui" and "Chenggao" And "Fenxing Hao"..."
Hearing this, Li Qi, Zhou Kui and Cai Qinhu looked moved. They straightened their spines subconsciously and said with emotion: "Your Majesty, he still remembers..."
Looking at each other, the three of them were a little ashamed: their reason was that with the rapid rise of several armies such as the Shang Shui Army, Wei Wu Army, and Suppression of Rebellion Army, His Majesty had long forgotten about these three outdated " The original sixth battalion of the garrison was the Wei army.
But just when they wanted to say something to express their loyalty from the bottom of their hearts, Xun Xin, an officer from the Smelting Bureau, began to talk about the structure of the three Tiger-class warships in a very puzzled manner, which made Shen Yu, Li Qi, Zhou Kui and Cai Qinhu were all speechless.
But it's no wonder. After all, the officials of the Smelting Bureau have been very pragmatic people since they were not taken seriously at the beginning. In addition, Xun Xin is still anxious to return to the Smelting Bureau to deal with other matters after delivering the warship. How can he Are you talking here with Li Qian and others?
"...Tiger-class warships use double sails, but in the cabin, human oars can also be used to cope with windless weather...What kind of pedal-operated mechanical oars your Majesty requested from our Smelting Bureau? Our Smelting Bureau has not researched it yet. If it is researched, it may be used in the next generation of warships..."
Listening to Xun Xin's endless description of the structure of the Tiger-class warship, even Shen Yu was a little stunned, let alone Li Wei, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu. Mechanical paddles, what are those things? It’s obvious that the man from the Smelting Bureau speaks authentic Daliang dialect, but why can’t they understand it?
"cough."
A slight cough interrupted Xun Xin's self-amusement. No, he was talking about the structure of the warship. Shen Yu said what was in his heart on behalf of Li Wei and others: "This tiger-class... What is there on the tiger-class warship?" Weapons for water warfare?”
"have!"
Xun Xin glanced at Shen Yu, took these generals to board one of the warships, and then introduced: "General Shen Yu's suggestion in the letter, your Majesty has conveyed it to us. Indeed, if resources cannot be recovered, It is indeed a huge waste to use crossbow arrows in water battles. Therefore, our Smelting Bureau recommends using this...trebuchet!"
"..."
Shen Yu, Li Qi, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu stared dumbfoundedly at the direction pointed by Xun Xin's finger. They saw a huge trebuchet placed there.
Looking at the several stone bullet samples on the shipboard next to them, which were almost the size of a millstone, several generals simply stared at them: Attack, siege equipment?
"The fourth generation trebuchet is named "Thunderbolt" by our Smelting Bureau, which means thunderbolt in the clear sky. Its range is about four hundred feet..."
"..."
Li Ji, Zhou Kui and Cai Qinhu looked at each other in confusion.
How many people have never thought that siege equipment like trebuchets can actually be carried on warships and used as water warfare weapons?
But if you think about it carefully, it does make sense: if a stone bullet of this weight hits an enemy ship, it will completely destroy the ship and kill everyone!
When several Wei generals were dumbfounded and secretly swallowing their saliva, Xun Xin said with some unfinished meaning: "Actually, someone in Xun felt that ballistas were more suitable for use on warships than trebuchets. Unfortunately, there were several key issues that could not be solved. solve……"
After that, there was a lot of terminology among craftsmen, which made Shen Yu and others look at each other.
Half an hour later, Li Qi, Zhou Kui, and Cai Qinhu sent Xun Xin away with a lot of gratitude. They sent away this Smelting Bureau official who seemed to be steady but was actually a talkative man. Immediately, they happily Enthusiastically boarded the three Tiger-class warships named after their respective armies.
Touch the east, touch the west, no matter how you look at it, you will be happy.
The long-range trebuchet, the mid-range machine crossbow, the short-range machine crossbow box, and many key parts of the hull are covered with iron sheets. It has to be said that these three warships are indeed Tiger-class warships, even if
Just parked on the shore of the lake at this moment, it gives people an inexplicable shock, like three crouching tigers.
It's just that...a warship used in water warfare is named after the Tiger class. Is this appropriate?
Can a tiger go into water?
In fact, many soldiers of the Wei army in Huling later responded with confusion.
There was such a big commotion in Huling Water Village, and of course it was impossible not to alert the Beibo Army's informants.
Even in Huling County controlled by the Wei Army, many informants of the Beibo Army got wind of the news and sneaked to Huling Water Village in an attempt to get a glimpse of the three Tiger-class warships. However, the Huling Wei Army and the Beibo Army
The Bo army fought for more than two years and naturally took precautions. In the end, the informants of the Bo army in the north only knew that three new ships from Wei State had arrived at Weishan Lake, but the details were unknown.
Within two days, the information about these three Tiger-class warships was sent to the desk of Song Dynasty Prime Minister Xiang Ding.
There was very little information, just a few words. The general idea was that after the last fifty old ships, Wei State sent three more warships.
Apart from that, there is nothing else.
But Xiang Qian still figured out something unusual from it.
"Three warships... just three warships, did the Wei soldiers on the other side rush to watch and cheer for them?"
Standing at the window, Xiang Xuan put his hands behind his back and thought.
According to detailed reports, on the day when the three warships arrived at Huling Water Village, the Wei soldiers in the water village cheered so loudly that even in Huling County, which was more than ten miles away, they could faintly hear it.
Wei Jun’s cheers.
In fact, even the Beibo Army's sentinel boat patrolling the Weishan Lake that day was alerted by this and quickly moved closer to peek at the movement of the Wei Army's water stronghold from a distance.
In Xiang Xuan's view, the mere three warships could not arouse the Wei army's admiration. Obviously, they were definitely not three ordinary warships.
Within two days, the Beibo Army had the opportunity to see the true appearance of these three Tiger-class warships.
Mainly the Wei generals at Huling Water Village couldn't wait to try out the power of the three Tiger-class warships, Junshui, Chenggao, and Fenxing, and several members of the Smelting Bureau who happened to be left on board.
Officials also needed to record actual combat data, so the two sides hit it off and immediately put the three warships into use.
It has to be said that with the tonnage of these three Tiger-class warships, the soldiers of the Beibo Army were shocked when they appeared.
Later, when the three ships launched stone bombs in unison, and luckily hit a warship of the Beibo Army, directly shattering the hull of the warship, Li Huo, the general of the Beibo Army, almost stared at him.
come out.
With just one stone bullet, the warship built by the craftsmen of the Lu State was directly shattered?
What's even more terrible is that the three Wei army warships launched their attack outside the range of their Beibo army warships.
"Gurgling..."
The shattered warship bubbled and sank slowly. The vortex formed by its sinking sucked in the Beibo soldiers on the ship who had no time to escape.
Although the soldiers struggled desperately, it was still to no avail. They were suddenly swallowed up by the waves and sank to the bottom of the lake.
"Gudu."
Seeing this scene, Li Huo swallowed his saliva.
Although he had already foreseen that with the support of the Wei people, the Huling Wei army would quickly become stronger and gradually leave them behind, but he never imagined that this day would come so soon.
He glanced around at the stunned soldiers beside him, then turned to look at the white surrounding Weishan Lake, and sighed deeply in his heart.
"Our Song Kingdom's last line of defense... no longer exists."