Chu's two thousand navy troops fought against three thousand black armored troops.
If we look at the two in terms of military strength, especially if Chu's two thousand naval forces are only the main force, they only need to persist for a while before reinforcements will come to rescue them.
But another important factor on the battlefield is speed.
If the reinforcements have not been put on the battlefield by the end of the battle, then these reinforcements are equivalent to none.
So this is not a decision-making issue for Xiang Yan.
Xiang Yan immediately transferred the two thousand navy troops used for response to the south for reinforcements.
However, the two thousand navy troops were traveling upstream and the battlefield was still nine miles away. It would take at least half an hour to reinforce the battlefield.
It would have been no problem to rush for reinforcements in half an hour.
Because according to common sense, the Chu army can hold out for at least half an hour. After all, the Qin Shui army has only been trained for more than a month and the Chu army is all veterans.
However, the brutality and speed of the battlefield were beyond Xiang Yan's imagination:
As soon as the naval armies of Qin and Chu came into contact, they made a judgment.
Both armies faced the enemy in square formations, with warships from both sides passing through the gaps between each other and entering between the enemy's warships.
This situation usually occurs when both the enemy and we are confident in our own combat effectiveness and hope for a quick victory, because this will allow them to fully contact the enemy warships.
From the perspective of the Chu army, their combat mission was to block Qin's reinforcements.
General Chu's guess was that the reinforcements would not be too large.
In addition, the Chu army believed that it was well prepared and unprepared, so of course the Chu army was confident in its combat effectiveness.
As for the Qin army, it goes without saying...their confidence is based on their equipment and seeing through the enemy's strategies.
However, Shen Bing still felt a little uneasy.
After all, this is the first actual combat of the Black Armored Army.
Can the wheel warship play the expected role?
Can the morale and combat effectiveness of Wei's surrendered troops sustain this battle?
Will Tengjia cause problems in actual combat?
All of these are unknowns.
However, after the warships from both sides came into contact, Shen Bing's heart was half relieved.
The Qin army's warships fired a barrage of arrows at the Chu army, which only caused the Chu army to scream...
This does not mean that the Chu army will not fire arrows.
In fact, the warships of both armies each carry twenty-five people.
The problem is that the combat numbers of the two armies are different.
As mentioned before, the Chu army's warship requires fifteen people to control and ten others to fight, while the Qin army's warship only needs nine people to control the other sixteen people to fight.
As a result, the arrows fired by the Qin army were much denser than those of the Chu army.
What's more important is that the Qin Heijia soldiers were all wearing rattan armor and had large rattan shields hung on the side of the ship for cover.
Therefore, the arrows fired by the Chu army did almost no damage and were either nailed to the vine shield or blocked by the vine armor.
The arrows fired by the Qin army were not like this...
The Chu army must have several people rowing on one side of the ship. Because these rowing Chu soldiers have to make paddling movements, it is inconvenient to add a shield on one side. They can only add helmets and draped arms to enhance protection.
This is very common in the cold weapon era, which is to strengthen the protection of soldiers who have no evasive ability.
For example, the same is true for the driver of a chariot. The driver has to drive a car during combat, so he cannot block or dodge.
So the driver had a cape and armor, and a horseshoe-shaped lock was added to the cape.
The so-called lock is a piece of metal protruding from the armor plate. This will make the armor uneven and difficult for halberd or arrow attacks to penetrate.
This protection can be said to be the most comprehensive among infantry.
The same is true for the navy. Because oarsmen cannot dodge or block, they all wear capes and helmets. The sides of the helmets are thickened. When paddling, you can deliberately turn your head to one side to avoid arrows.
However this still doesn't help.
When Shen Bing was training the Black Armored Army, he instructed his soldiers to attack targets located at an angle of thirty degrees in front.
To be precise, it's not a "confession", but this is how we train during wartime.
To put it simply, the archers only shoot at the warships at an angle and ignore the warships directly on the side, even if the warships are shooting arrows at them...
The reason is simple.
At an angle of 30 degrees, after the arrow is shot, it will most likely pierce the death triangle of the enemy's oarsman's face and neck, making it difficult for the oarsman to even turn his head to block it.
On the contrary, if it directly attacks the oarsman on the front side, it will actually be an ineffective attack on the helmet and shoulders.
If there was any difficulty in this training, it was that the ancients had no idea about the thirty-degree angle, so Shen Bing had to put some thought into it.
This is actually a kind of collaboration:
Attack the target diagonally above yourself, and hand over the enemies on the flanks to friendly ships behind you.
This tactic is very effective.
Because the Chu army's oarsmen suffered heavy casualties at the first opportunity.
Then came the embarrassment of what Shen Bing said about substitutions: combat personnel must replace the oarsmen, otherwise the warship cannot sail normally, and combat personnel replacing the oarsmen will seriously weaken the combat effectiveness.
What's more important is that the combat personnel do not have the special armor of the oarsmen, especially without the armbands, so they become targets after being replaced, and they are almost replaced one by one to die...
The Qin Army's chariots had no such concerns at all. Their oarsmen were at the bow and stern of the ship, and they were protected around them with rattan shields.
The Chu army was commanded by a deputy general named Zhang Yao.
The navy of two thousand men originally only needed to be sent to command by a lieutenant general, but Xiang Yan believed that it was very important to block the reinforcements of the Daliang navy, so he sent a deputy general.
As soon as Zhang Yao saw this situation, he realized that something was wrong and quickly raised a flag and ordered people to send out beacon fire to ask for help.
On the other hand, he commanded the navy in close combat.
Zhang Yao's decision was obviously correct, at least within the scope of his knowledge.
If the bow battle is at a disadvantage, of course it cannot continue like this, and the navy should be used as infantry to engage in close combat.
So the warships of the Chu army approached the enemy ship one after another, and then stretched out their halberds to hook the target or even directly rammed into the enemy ship in an attempt to attack the enemy ship.
However, Zhang Yao soon discovered that melee combat was not a good option, or even worse...
However, they saw something like a mast on the enemy warship turn sideways, and then a huge boulder fell from the sky with a "boom" sound.
The warships of the Chu army that were approaching suddenly were hit with a big hole, and some of them even lost their balance and capsized.
Seeing this, Zhang Yao's expression changed greatly and he asked:
"What is that thing? Is it so powerful?"
But none of the guards on the side could answer.
That is actually the "racquet stick".
This racket pole is also called a lift pole. Its structure is very simple. One end of the crossbar is standing on the warship and the other end is tied to a huge stone and tied with a rope.
When an enemy ship approaches, turn it in the direction of the enemy ship and lower it...
This is something that only existed in the Song Dynasty. The record in the history books is: "If the pole is placed aside, the official boat will be broken when it encounters it."
Shen Bing uses it to prevent melee combat.
Zhang Yao now has a headache:
If you can't fight with a bow in close combat and can't reach your body, how can you win this battle?
So he had to hurriedly order to withdraw his troops.