The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 757
At night, the moon was covered by dark clouds, and the stars were dimmed. More than a thousand large ships were still moored on the surface of the Yangtze River. The dark large ships were lined up one by one, row by row, with masts like forests, and they were stretched out for dozens of miles. In the distance, lighting torches are lit on the boat, and from a distance, it looks like fireflies.

The Tang army was not good at naval forces, had no experience in water warfare, and did not have strong financial resources and outstanding craftsmen to build large-scale warships. Therefore, after the founding of the country, no five-tooth ships were built. There were only more than 200 five-tooth ships. Some were seized from Xiao Mian in the north, and some were built by Xiao Mian; some were built by Yang Su for Sui Mie Nanchen, and they can be used after repairs, but these warships are not large.In order to promote the country's prestige and deter Yizhou forces, Li Yuan brought them along.

In addition to the five-tooth warship, there are upper and lower two-story warships. This kind of warship can only carry 30 people at most. There are two masts at the front and back, and there are crossbow holes. Driving on the river is like flying.In addition, the boat has a special advantage, that is, the hull is covered with cowhide, so it will not be easily ignited.However, the disadvantages are also obvious, that is, the boat is small and cannot withstand the strong wind and waves, especially at night, if no one is watching it, there is a risk of being blown away by the wind and waves.

Since the construction of the Hanshui defense line in the Tang Dynasty, warships with low technology and low cost have developed rapidly.A total of [-] ships followed the fleet this time, with [-] ships at the front and rear, serving as the front and rear troops, and the other [-] ships were mainly used for patrolling and delivering news.

That is to say, there are more than [-] large and small warships in this fleet, and the rest are all merchant ships, and they are listed on the river in the form of "艨舯—五牙—商船—艨舯".

At night, the wind was strong, and the water surface was turbulent. The warship without weight was heaving up and down on the water surface, and the thick cables slapped the mast, making a crackling sound.

The name of the former army commander is Zheng Wenxiu, he was originally the king of Chu under Xiao Xian's command, and he was in charge of guarding Zhijiang in Nanjun. At that time, Lu Wang Wanzan, the guard general, and Yang Daosheng, the Song king Yang Daosheng, the Changlin guard general, led their troops to surrender to Li Tang. He can control [-] soldiers and horses to guard the capital. If there is a war and they are needed, they can rely on the position of general of the twelve guards, and in principle, be the deputy commander of the first army.However, the four of them, as generals, naturally did not have the chance to be deputy commanders. However, they all have rich experience in water warfare, so this time they have a place to use.

Zheng Wenxiu cherished this opportunity very much, and dutifully led a hundred boats and three thousand soldiers to open the way ahead every day. During the day, he deployed the hundred boats into a lineup of "twenty, thirty, fifty" to advance At night, it is the other way around, using iron chains to lock the boats into three rows and mooring them on the river surface. One is to prevent the boats from getting lost, and the other is to prevent a boat from upstream from colliding with the fleet. It is a bit like locking the river with iron chains. .

Zheng Wenxiu's command ship was located in the middle of the second row day and night, and his command ship was a small five-toothed ship, which could carry 300 people, and a small boat for summons was attached to the left, right, and rear.

Zheng Wenxiu yawned and asked, "What time is it?"

"Go back to the general, it's almost time." Infected by Zheng Wenxiu, the commander of the personal army also yawned.

Zheng Wenxiu moved her body, walked out of the cabin, and the cool night wind blew with mist, her drowsy mind cleared up a lot.Seeing that there was no abnormality in the row of fires in front of him, he said with a smile: "In more than half an hour, the sky will be bright, and tonight is over."

"General, this is the hinterland of my Tang Dynasty, why are you so careful?" The commander of the personal army has been with Zheng Wenxiu for many years, and he doesn't have much scruples when speaking.

"Be careful that you can sail for thousands of years." Zheng Wenxiu smiled and sighed: "Although this is the heart of the Tang Dynasty, the territory is not peaceful."

"The general thinks so, and others don't have to." The commander of the personal guard complained in a low voice: "The three thousand soldiers given to the general by the emperor eat and sleep at night... like three thousand dead pigs. Listen , The snoring sound is like thunder, and the command ship is like this, let alone anything else. What if the enemy comes to attack?"

Zheng Wenxiu also felt a little uneasy, and immediately ordered: "Pass down the order, everyone be vigilant, no one is allowed to sleep!"

At this moment, the boat shook violently, and Zheng Wenxiu asked loudly, "Look what happened?"

Someone said in a daze, "Back to the general, a big uprooted tree drifted down the current and happened to be stuck on the bow of the ship."

"Some people went down on both sides, and cut off the branches. By the way, the trunk was also cut into several pieces, so as not to hit the fleet below." There was a flood ahead recently, and this kind of tree drifted down from time to time, but Zheng Wenxiu didn't think much about it. .

But he forgot that one mile ahead was the first line of defense tied together by fifty boats, and the distance between the boats was not far. This kind of trees should be blocked by the upstream fleet.And this distance between the two banks, there are no big trees.

With the sound of ping-pong-pong, the hull suddenly swayed, as if floating a little bit, Zheng Wenxiu knew that it was because the trees were cut down and the ship lost resistance.

After waiting for a while, several wet soldiers walked up to the third deck from both sides. Zheng Wenxiu shouted, "Go and rest when you're done."

"General, I have something important to report in my humble position." A man stepped forward quickly.

Zheng Wenxiu took a look at this person, and found that this person was filled with a strong evil spirit, "What's your name? Judging by your aura, you shouldn't be an unknown person?"

"Back to the general, intoxicated by the humble position, I don't know if the general has heard of it?"

It was Shen Guang who came.

The more than 1000 soldiers on the fifty boats in front slept like dead pigs, and they had been silently eliminated, and the ships were also doused with kerosene. Except for a small number of soldiers who were left to lift anchor and light the fire, the rest Use the big tree with branches to rush to this row.

As the command ship of the former army, it is very important to control the hundreds of ships of the former army. Since the fleet is interlocked with iron chains, Zheng Wenxiu prevents the ship from being stolen when it is moored at night. The big lock, all the keys are stored on this command ship. Only by occupying this command ship can you get the key to unlock the stern.Then they ignited individually and crashed into the five-fanged fleet downstream.

And the sound of ping-pong-pong just now was that he and the soldiers were dealing with the soldiers of the Tang army, and then they swaggered up. Under the pitch-black night, no one noticed that they had changed.At this time, Zheng Wenxiu asked her name unsuspectingly, so she simply gave her son's name.

"Intoxicated? The person who named you should be a good drinker." Zheng Wenxiu said with a smile.

"Uh... no." Of course Shen Guang knew that Yang Tong, who named his son, was not good at drinking.

"is it?"

"Yes." Shen Guang looked at Zheng Wenxiu, who was only a dozen steps away from him, and suddenly rushed over. Zheng Wenxiu's right arm broke suddenly, and blood sprayed half of Shen Guang's body.Before Zheng Wenxiu screamed, he fell down, because his head had been cut off by a sharp sickle.

The sudden change stunned Zheng Wenxiu's personal guards. At this moment, countless sickles tied with ropes were spinning all over the sky, whistling and flying, piercing the guards' throats, chests, and blooming on their bodies. Bloody demon flower.Dozens of corpses fell on the third deck in a haphazard manner, with broken limbs and arms scattered all over the floor, and their wide-open eyes were empty, as if fear, despair, unwillingness, and longing for life still remained.

Dozens of warriors in black uniforms stood around blankly, and the flying scythes in their hands were still dripping blood.They all looked at Shen Guang like puppets, as if they were waiting for instructions.

"I'm stupid... This is too cruel, too violent." Shen Guang's face was full of excitement and disbelief.But being stared at by these dozens of pairs of faint green eyes, he also felt a little hairy.

This is the assassin unit sent to him by Yang Guang, the number is only 200, but if Yang Guang uses it properly, these [-] people can play a role comparable to a hundred thousand troops, and they have been urged so that he can only use them in critical situations. time.

Shen Guang didn't use these people before, but now, in order to take down the command ship, he threw in all his brains. As a result, the lethality displayed by these people really shocked him.

If we had known this before, we should have sent these people to climb the dragon boat and kill Li Yuan.But at this moment, it was too late to regret. Shen Guang knew that these people were full of muscles and lacked wisdom, so he quickly said, "Go and help."

These samurai didn't answer, and all of them left at once. Soon, there were still dull footsteps like drums from the lower floor, and occasionally screams and wailing pierced the silent night sky.

And Shen Guang also rushed to the cabin. He ignored the scattered corpses on the ground, just stepped on the corpses and walked towards the inner cabin. As soon as he arrived at the cabin door, he saw a blood-soaked captain of the Tang Army holding a big wooden box rushing towards the cabin. When he came out, he slashed at him with a knife, but was dodged by the captain of the Tang Army, and jumped out from Shen Guang's side, and quickly fled out of the cabin. Shen Guang swung his backhand and hit the captain's neck with a dagger.

Lieutenant Tang Jun screamed and fell to the ground. The wooden box in his hand fell to the ground and cracked, and three bunches of keys slipped out from inside. looking for something.

Shen Guang stepped forward with a knife, chopped off the head of the captain of the Tang army, grabbed three bunches of keys, and rushed out of the cabin, let people climb up the mast, and raised fire to signal the row of boats upstream to raise anchor.

Under the unexpected impact of the soldiers of the Sui army, most of the nearly [-] soldiers of the Tang army on the row of [-] boats died on board. The Sui army headed by Guang ended the battle, then lifted the anchor as a whole, and crashed into the twenty ships in the third row downstream in an arc.

Because there was no key, the soldiers of the Tang army on this row of boats could not quickly untie the iron chains, and were surrounded by two rows upstream. The chaotic Tang army was quickly annihilated by the morale-like Sui army.

After the Sui army occupied the hundred ships of the former army, Shen Guang immediately took out the key and asked someone to untie the iron chain.

Standing on the command ship, he ordered: "The fire boat will attack."

The soldiers on the top floor lit the beacon, and the seventy boats immediately went down the river. Each of these small boats was manned by two soldiers proficient in water skills, and they rammed the Five Fangs Fleet head-on.

The speed of the ship was extremely fast, and it approached the Five-Year Fleet in a short while. The officers and men of the Tang army yelled and shot arrows one after another. to them.When they were more than ten steps away from the fleet, the soldiers lit the sails and rushed towards the fleet.

He himself ran to the stern of the ship, untied the rope tied to the mast, and then tied it firmly around his waist, jumped into the river one after another, and climbed upstream under the ropes to the thirty unlit boats. Soldiers struggling to wring the winch, the soldiers who set fire to catch up.More than a dozen soldiers were unable to escape, and the ropes had been burned, so they could only jump into the rolling Yangtze River.

Although Li Yuan, who woke up from his sleep, had already given the order to divide the ships, the land in the water was different, and it took at least half an hour from the order to the execution. The soldiers in the navy were all asleep, and even if they were in place in time, the dense ships crowded together. The outer ships do not disperse, and the middle ships have no way to go.

Generally speaking, if [-]% of the large ships are set on fire, the entire fleet is almost doomed. The thick smoke on the river makes no one approach them, let alone board the ship. It was unbearable, and they jumped into the water to escape for their lives, and no one risked their lives to divide the ship.

In an instant, more than a dozen five-toothed boats were plunged into the sea of ​​flames. In addition, the fire took advantage of the wind and the wind to help the fire. In less than a moment, more than sixty five-toothed boats were ignited, and suddenly the flames rose into the air, thick Smoke billowed and covered the sky and the moon.

At this moment, the Tang army barracks on the shore was already in chaos. The soldiers of the Tang army who had been driving for a day woke up from their dreams. They hurriedly put on their armor and rushed out of the camp with weapons. Small boats burning with raging fire rushed into the dense five-tooth fleet, and the entire Yangtze River water surface became a sea of ​​​​fire. Billowing thick smoke and soaring fire made all soldiers daunted.

The grain transportation fleets in the middle and lower reaches also seemed to echo, burning up one after another.Since the grain ship fleet still carried fodder for the war horses, it had the potential to be the first to come first. The burning flames billowed into the sky and the smoke billowed, which was countless times more spectacular than the five-tooth fleet upstream.

Standing on the deck of the dragon boat, Li Yuan watched his fleet being engulfed by the fire bit by bit, knowing that there was no way to recover.

Fortunately, in order to prevent assassins from being assassinated, he would clear the surrounding area of ​​the dragon boat every night, leaving only the stern to patrol, so he could retreat to the shore in time. He gave the order with a dead heart: "Send me the order, the big ship turns around and moves closer to the south bank."

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(End of this chapter)