Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 777 Night Raid

What Taishi Ci was going to do now was the most risky move before the raid.

Take the initiative to expose yourself.

If you want to raid others, but you have to expose your own whereabouts first, it seems absurd, but it is also helpless.

Because it stands to reason that the best strategy for a night raid is to hide your whereabouts, advance at full speed in front of the enemy, and then be caught off guard and attack. However, for a water raid, even though it is dark, it is difficult for a ship as big as this to not attack before launching an attack. Discovered by the enemy.

More importantly, Taishi Ci has not yet determined which ship Zhou Yu is on, and a raid without a determined target is meaningless.

So what Taishi Ci has to do now is to send out a signal before approaching Zhou Yu's fleet, so that his own spies who don't know whether they are still there can see it.

If the spy successfully infiltrates Zhou Yu's fleet and sees Taishi Ci sending out a rocket signal, he will send a response signal and point out the location of Zhou Yu's flagship.

Of course, this is the most ideal situation. If the spy fails to successfully infiltrate Zhou Yu's fleet, then Taishi Ci's rocket will be equivalent to actively exposing his position and falling into an unfavorable situation.

This is not the worst case scenario. If the spies are caught and interrogated by the other side to give a confession, and in turn used to release false information, Taishi Ci's fleet will fall into a trap and be surrounded and annihilated by the other side.

Taishi Ci's thoughts changed rapidly, and then he burst into laughter, thinking that he had braved enemy arrows and clashed with horses to find reinforcements. Now that he was in a high position, he did not dare to take risks.

Fighting is a matter of life and death. How can one not take risks?

He squinted his eyes and looked at the dark shadows in the distance. The ships of Zhou Yu's fleet were vaguely like small dots. Then he resolutely inserted the rocket into the bow of the ship and lit the fuse.

The rocket shot up into the sky and exploded into a gorgeous firework. With a crisp sound, ships within a dozen miles could see it.

Zhou Yu turned his head and looked at the sky behind him, with an ominous premonition rising in his heart.

Looking at this position, it is a ship on the river. This rocket should be Yuan Xijun's unique signal rocket, but why is it behind him?

He hurried to the stern of the ship, opened his eyes wide, and discerned the distance in the dark night. But the night was so dark that he could not see clearly anything five or six miles away.

Zhou Yu watched, always feeling that there would be wild beasts rushing out of the night. With a thought in his mind, he ordered the soldiers to extinguish all the lights on his flagship, and at the same time ordered the surrounding warships to act according to law.

Tai Shici, who had already rushed within seven or eight miles, saw the bright lights on the river in the distance begin to extinguish one by one, and his heart suddenly sank. Regardless of whether the other side noticed him or not, he had obviously sensed something was wrong and began to hide his whereabouts. !

However, he could no longer look back and had no choice but to rush forward. If he couldn't do it, he could only gamble on luck!

As Taishi Ci's warship approached, three or four miles away, Zhou Yu's fleet finally discovered Taishici's warship. Under the chaotic shouts and orders, arrows shot at Taishi Ci's three warships like raindrops. .

Taishi Ci also issued an order for his own soldiers to raise wooden planks to cover the front. The dense arrows shot deep into the planks like exploding beans, crushing the soldiers on Taishi Ci's ship and unable to lift their heads.

Seeing that the three ships were only more than a mile apart from the opposite fleet, and were about to rush into the opposite fleet, but there was still no signal, Taishi Ci sighed secretly and issued an order. The three ships moved horizontally at the same time, aiming their sides at Zhou Yu's ship. Team.

Following Taishi Ci's order, his archers also began to shoot at Jiangdong, but due to insufficient numbers, they were quickly suppressed by the opponent.

After Taishi Ci shot a few arrows by himself, his face became more and more gloomy. It was so dark at night that he couldn't see the target at all. He was just betting on his luck and shooting randomly. Is he really going to die here with his opponent?

As time passed, Taishi Ci's ship and even the sails were filled with arrows, and the ship's speed became slower and slower. At this time, Zhou Yujun also began to react, and they split up to outflank them.

Zhou Yu used the sound of drums in the dark to direct the fleet to surround Taishi Ci's warship. Seeing that the opponent's resistance was gradually weakening, he began to feel relieved. He thought to himself that these people were really overestimating their capabilities. They wanted to defeat them with just these few ships. Own the army?

I'm afraid I don't want to try my luck to attack my flagship, but how can this be done so easily?

Wait, why did the opponent send rockets in advance?

Just when Zhou Yu was vaguely feeling that something was wrong, he was horrified to find that a rocket suddenly rose from the stern of his boat!

This rocket was not big, it could even be said to be very small. It only rose a few feet before exploding. The fireworks in the sky were only a few feet in diameter.

But that was enough. In the dark night, the line of fire drawn by this firework firmly marked Zhou Yu's flagship below!

When Taishi Ci was about to take a gamble, he saw fireworks exploding on a lightless ship on the side of the opponent's fleet. He was overjoyed. Although this might be a trick by the opponent, he had no other choice at this time. Roared: "Turn towards the fireworks and attack the whole ship!"

The three warships turned their sails and rushed towards the ship marked by fireworks!

Zhou Yu didn't know that he had fallen into a trap. He had no time to think about why there were enemy spies on his ship, but it was obvious that the three ships opposite were waiting for this opportunity!

He quickly issued an order for the surrounding warships to block in front of him and defend him, but the ships were not close to each other. Only a few could arrive in time, and the rest were desperately chasing behind the three local ships! Zhou Yu felt furious. As long as he blocked the first wave of attacks from the ground, he would surely slow down the opponent. When the opponent was surrounded, he would be unable to escape!

Taishi watched the ships on the opposite side getting closer and closer, and knew that the opportunity was getting closer and closer. He calculated the distance silently in his mind, and suddenly shouted, "Crossbow!"

The arrow-blocking planks of the three warships fell down at the same time, revealing several huge crossbows behind them!

Although this crossbow is not as huge as defending the city, it is still as long as two people. The crossbow arrow on it is as long as one person and as thick as a child's arm. The crossbow string tightened by the winch has collapsed the tail of the crossbow arrow, and it is ready to go!

The most troublesome thing about this crossbow is the production of the crossbow string. It is made of multiple strands of steel wire mixed with beef tendon and hemp rope. The production is extremely time-consuming and laborious. Yuan Xi gathered hundreds of craftsmen in Youzhou to improve it and completed it in one month. I can only make a few.

Taishi Ci waved his hand and said, "Let go!"

The soldiers activated their machine guns, and huge crossbow arrows shot out like evil dragons, hitting Zhou Yu's flagship more than ten feet away.

A dense sound exploded. Some of the crossbow arrows penetrated deeply into the hull, and some shot onto the deck, piercing the archers on the opposite side. The huge impact caused their bodies to fly up, and then stabbed the people behind them. , strung the two together and flew off the deck, then fell into the water.

The shrill screams in the air made the archers on Zhou Yu's boat tremble with fear, and they subconsciously wanted to run away. Zhou Yu shouted loudly, "Fight back quickly, their crossbows are slow to fire!"

Taishi Ci's soldiers had already taken the opportunity to carry the crossbow arrows up, put them on the crossbow bed, and then began to turn the winches on both sides to pull the crossbow string open again.

This is the winding mechanism that Zhuge Liang and his craftsmen improved by combining the principles of crossbows. This wheel-type mechanism is not only faster to wind, but also more labor-saving. This will more than double the speed of the extremely difficult giant crossbow!

Soon there was a whistling sound, and the crossbow arrows were fired, meeting the Jiangdong archers who were shooting arrows.

The Jiangdong archers never expected that the second wave of crossbows would come so fast. They were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. With miserable screams, the deck was littered with mutilated corpses.

Zhou Yu, who was hiding in the dark, took a breath when he saw it. The Jiangdong Navy has always been known for its well-equipped equipment, but he didn't expect to be suppressed so miserably now!

But before he could think of a countermeasure, the next attack from the opposite side arrived.

Each ship opened the middle baffle, revealing several small trebuchets fixed on the deck.

The soldiers took out the wooden barrels filled with oil, lit the fire cloth above, and then triggered the mechanism. The burning oil barrels smashed towards Zhou Yu's warship one by one.

Several ships were very close, and most of the dozen or so oil barrels smashed into the deck of Zhou Yu's warship, setting it on fire.

Zhou Yu gritted his teeth when he saw the soldiers howling and running around on the deck. The enemy was obviously preparing to come and wanted to kill him!

He can hide below the deck now, but the fire will spread and sooner or later he will be burned to death in the cabin. Several friendly ships around him also saw that something was wrong and rushed to rescue them, but they were shot by bed crossbows and could not get close for a while. .

Zhou Yu knew he couldn't wait like this, so he immediately shouted: "Take your shields and get on the deck to put out the fire!"

After hearing this, the soldiers on the ship had no choice but to risk the opponent's arrows, holding a shield in one hand and a bucket or wet linen quilt in the other hand, trying to put out the flames on the deck.

When Taishi Ci saw this, he knew that he could not let the other side put out the fire, so he immediately ordered crossbows and arrows to suppress it. Jiangdong soldiers were shot down one after another, but as Zhou Yu's personal guards, they were also brave. They leaned down, covered themselves with shields, and used wet hemp. The fire was put out, and some even used their bodies to suppress the flames.

When Taishi Ci saw it, he also secretly admired it. He ordered the soldiers to beat drums to send a signal. At the same time, the three warships moved out a wooden barrel as big as a man's head, put it on the trebuchet, and lit the fuse.

The distance had already been calibrated, and the three wooden barrels were thrown in an arc and fell towards Zhou Yu's warship.

Zhou Yu saw the strange-shaped wooden barrel in the air that was completely different from the previous oil barrel. He suddenly thought of what Yuan Xijun used when he attacked Jianghuai, and he suddenly screamed in horror.

"Get down quickly!"

The next moment, the three wooden barrels exploded together. Huge firelight and shock enveloped Zhou Yu's ship. Air waves and pungent smoke enveloped the soldiers who were putting out the fire on the deck.

And at the same time, along with the fire and smoke, there were countless iron nails and steel balls in the barrel.

The soldier's body was tossed up and down like a tattered doll, and then fell down. Countless blood spurted and splashed, and the deck was like a hell on earth.

Zhou Yu, who was hiding behind the board, could not hear any sound at this moment. He stared blankly at the board with several holes shot out in front of him, and then lowered his head to look at his chest.

There was a hole in his armor, blood seeped out, and pain immediately swept through his body.

(End of this chapter)