The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 440 We are the Northern Song Dynasty

Zhu Shuaimin: "?"

He froze for a full ten seconds, then suddenly reacted and roared, "What the hell weapon?"

"boom!"

"Crack!"

Not far away, an unfortunate Southern Song ship was hit by a cannonball. A solid iron ball landed on the deck of that ship, blasting a large hole in it. The cannonball then penetrated the hull, making a series of cracking noises as it pierced through several layers of bulkheads, causing the ship to suffer from severe internal damage.

Zhu Shuaimin was terrified!
As everyone knows, the soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty were completely thrown into chaos when fifteen cannons fired at once. The thousands of men in the fleet ran around the deck like headless flies, not knowing what to do.

Li Bao looked out the cabin window and couldn't help but laugh at the cowardly appearance of the Southern Song army. He shouted to the deck outside, "General Yang, let's charge and fight!"

Yang Tian was both amused and exasperated: "Hey, hey, the boat is rocking too hard. My men are having trouble even standing. Don't charge!"

Li Bao: "You don't need to fight, just chant your scriptures."

Yang Tian: “…”

Okay, let's chant the sutras!
Yang Tian and his subordinates had no choice but to chant together, "Brahma, my broken body, the mighty holy fire..."

Li Bao's men, maneuvering Spanish sailing ships, charged like mad dogs towards a large contingent of Southern Song army vessels.

A single ship charged into a massive fleet of thousands of ships on the opposite side.

Li Bao is just that crazy!
An amusing scene unfolded. As he charged head-on, the Southern Song ships showed no intention of fighting. The leading ships turned tail and fled without a second thought, followed by the flagship of the central army, Zhu Shuaimin, whose ship was also on the same route.

If the flagship has fled, how can the other ships not follow suit?
With a loud "boom," the massive fleet began to flee south.

When sailing against the wind, the stiff sail needs to be turned so that it is angled slightly towards the wind, cutting through the gale and letting it pass over the sides of the sail before pushing it in the opposite direction, so that the boat can move.

This was no simple operation, and the sailors were in a flurry of activity.

Just as they were turning their hard sails, the Spanish galleons were already close by...

The towering superstructure on the ship was designed for close combat. Li Bao's men deliberately didn't use firearms, but instead took out bows and arrows and fired wildly downwards. Their archery skills were mediocre and their arrows weren't very powerful, but even just firing a few random arrows was enough to terrify the Southern Song army into screaming.

The generals in the Southern Song army strained their ears to listen, and then they heard a strange voice emanating from the Spanish galleon: "Brahma's broken body, the mighty sacred fire..."

At that moment, they seemed to understand instantly, and someone shouted, "This is a Manichaean ship!"

"Ahhh, weren't the Manichaean heretics wiped out by Yue Fei on Lake Ting? How did they end up at sea?"

"Manichaeans are roaming the world, so it's not surprising that there are some at sea too!"

"The Manichaeans are incredibly skilled in naval warfare; no one but Yue Fei can win. Let's escape!"

Thus, a single ship, along with Yang Tian's group who were sightseeing, totaling only about two hundred soldiers, routed Zhu Shuaimin's army of several thousand. They fled south for dozens of nautical miles before stopping. Looking back, they saw that the Manichaean ghost ship was not pursuing them, and they breathed a sigh of relief. They then reported to the court that Xu Wen had colluded with the Manichaeans and laid an ambush at sea. Although Zhu Shuaimin fought bravely, he was outnumbered and had no choice but to give up. He begged the Emperor for forgiveness, and so on...

After reading the battle report, Zhao Gou could only roll his eyes. Oh well, as long as the traitors from Jiaodong weren't lying in ambush around him, he didn't care where they went.
-
The wind gradually subsided, and the boat stopped rocking so violently.

The Spanish galleon and Xu Wen's flagship slowly sailed side by side. Sailors from both sides threw out grappling hooks, hooked the other ship's side, and pulled hard, bringing the two ships face to face and stabilizing themselves. But even so, the Spanish galleon was still much taller, with one side of its gunwale higher than the other.

Xu Wen could only look up, bow to the Spanish galleon, and say loudly, "Thank you for saving me, my friends from the Manichaeism. But I don't know why your esteemed sect saved someone as rootless as me."

Li Bao's head popped out from the top of the tall ship's deck, looking down at Xu Wen: "Your accent sounds like a Jiaodong accent. I happen to know a lot of people from Jiaodong, so I recognized it immediately."

Xu Wen looked embarrassed: "Yes, I'm from Jiaodong. It's precisely because of my background that the Southern Song emperors and ministers were wary of me, and many people ostracized me. Now I can't make a living anymore, sigh..."

Li Bao laughed: "So that's how it is. No wonder the Southern Song people were fighting each other. Hahaha, how tragic!"

He loved watching the spectacle and laughed loudly.

Xu Wen was embarrassed by the laughter and said awkwardly, "I will definitely repay your life-saving grace in the future. Let's take our leave now."

"No, no, don't rush off." Li Bao said, "If the general leaves, where will he go to settle down? Why don't you come with me? I'm short-handed here."

At this point, Li Bao's eyes turned red, and he drooled as he looked at Xu Wen's ten ships and hundreds of skilled naval soldiers.

Xu Wen said, "Although I am not talented, I cannot associate with demons... cough..." After all, he was his savior, and he could not call others evil cultists. He quickly stopped and changed his words, saying, "I am not one of you Manichaeans."

Li Bao chuckled: "Who said we were Manichaeans?"

Xu Wen was astonished: "Weren't you just reciting the Sacred Fire Sutra?"

Li Bao shouted, "Raise the flag!"

The sailors on the ship immediately set to work and raised the naval flag of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Xu Wen looked closely and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh my, people from the Northern Song Dynasty!"

Li Bao laughed: "Having seen our cannons, didn't you think of that?"

Xu Wen then remembered that when the strange ship first appeared, it fired fifteen shots with a loud boom. Wasn't that the legendary firearms of the Northern Song Dynasty? It was said that the firearms of the Northern Song Dynasty were extremely powerful, causing the Jin army and the puppet Qi regime to cry out in despair. However, most of the Southern Song army had never seen them before, because the Northern Song and Southern Song had never actually fought a proper battle.

Xu Wen's feelings at this moment were extremely complex...

He was falsely accused of wanting to betray the Southern Song Dynasty and join the Northern Song Dynasty, which led to his current predicament. If he had followed the Northern Song Dynasty, wouldn't that have confirmed the truth of what the people who accused him said?

Zhao Gou might reward those who slandered him for this.

This...this is fucking awful!
No way! I'm not convinced! I'm not convinced!
Xu Wen roared at the sea, "Fuck your mother, Yan Gao!"

After shouting, his expression returned to calm, and he turned to Li Bao: "If you don't mind, I would like to trouble you to lead the way for me, General."

Li Bao laughed heartily: "Let's go, let's go! Hahaha, our Northern Song Navy has gained another great general. It's only a matter of time before we take over Dalian and Lushun."

Xu Wen was startled when he heard his words: "You're going to do something in Dalian and Lushun?"

“Yes!” Li Bao said, “I’ve been thinking about this for a long, long time, but unfortunately, I don’t have enough troops. Now that the Manichaeism and the general have joined, my strength has greatly increased, and taking Dalian and Lushun is a sure thing.”

Xu Wen thought to himself: My God, what kind of crazy boss have I gotten? Are all the generals in the Northern Song Dynasty this crazy?
(End of this chapter)