Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 202 Burning the Sky and Boiling the Sea
"General of Chariots and Cavalry!"

"Fu Taolu is here!" The fire ship, billowing black smoke, roared down, and Fa Miao pointed south and shouted loudly.

Zhao Yun stared intently at the scene.

Sure enough, three or four miles upstream, thick black smoke and continuous flames were seen rushing northward along the river.

A moment later, Zhao Yun looked at the Wu army's naval ships again, and saw that they remained motionless. He couldn't help but clap his hands in praise:

"it is good!"

"All soldiers, prepare for battle!"

"Gather all the elite troops!"

"Once the Han River is ablaze, we must first break through the Wu infantry at the very top!"

Fa Miao paused slightly and looked at Zhao Yun.

Although the old general had stayed up half the night, there was no sign of fatigue on his face.

However, the exhilaration he displayed at this moment was something Fa Miao had never seen before.

Throughout the night, regardless of the battle situation, the old general remained calm.

"Cough cough..." The old general, who had spent his life in the military, suddenly coughed twice.

Fa Miao frowned slightly, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

On the banks of the Han River.

Huang Bing rushed to Bu Zhi's side and said something to him.

Bu Zhi, with a serious yet slightly excited expression, left the banner on the shore, strode onto the ship, and looked straight upstream.

"Roll the mud boats upstream, line them up in a row!"

"Huang Bing, lead your thirty warships, following the mud boats, and prepare for battle!"

Upon receiving their orders, the soldiers rubbed their fists together, ready for battle.

The boatmen rowed out their oars, lining up the fire-resistant warships that were covered in wet mud and damp felt.

Huang Bing also led more than thirty warships, blocking the mud boat behind them.

Upstream.

On a tall warship, Fu Qian, with a cold expression, saw the Wu army's ships lined up and rowing upstream. Instead of ordering all the ships piled with fuel to be lit, he ordered the gong to be struck.

Upon hearing the sound of the gong, the boatmen rowing the ship began to row in unison in the opposite direction, bringing the warship to a stop. The sailors on deck then lowered the stone anchor.

Dozens of Han army warships dropped their stone anchors and drifted downstream for several dozen steps before finally coming to a stop.

Wu Jun's navy was just two miles downstream.

"Down!" Fu Qian shouted without the slightest hesitation.

On the dozens of boats closest to the north bank, Han soldiers, upon hearing the general's order, immediately carried hundreds of pottery and wooden jars from the boats' hulls and poured their contents into the Han River.

Before long, the Han River near the north bank was covered with a thick, black liquid.

These black liquids, called "fierce fire oil," rose and fell with the waves, spreading and diffusing.

The oil film that forms on the water surface refracts sunlight, producing a dazzling array of colors that shimmer and dazzle the eye.

Downstream.

Bu Zhi gazed at the Han navy, whose ships had suddenly stopped, and for a moment he was puzzled.

Not long after, he was astonished to see that the surface of the Han River near the north bank was now covered by a layer of black, unidentified substance.

It is about a hundred paces wide and occupies nearly a quarter of the water surface of the river here.

As the black water flow drew ever closer, almost colliding with the vanguard of Wu's warships, the bewildered Bu Zhi suddenly realized that this substance was probably a kind of flammable oil.

With this thought in mind, he subconsciously looked towards the North Mountain.

The wildfires on the northern mountain are burning so fiercely, could it be this thing causing the commotion?
“Fate…” Bu Zhi shouted out the word “fate” with great effort in astonishment and trepidation, but then stopped, not knowing what to call fate.

"Order the downstream boats to drop anchor and disperse!"

At that moment, Fu Qian, who was upstream, finally ordered the fire to be lit.

The eight linked boats, assembled from simple cargo boats, fishing boats, and rafts, were quite large.

Now they stand in a row, occupying almost three-quarters of the Han River's surface.

Upon hearing Fu Qian's command, the soldiers on the linked boats lit up the dry firewood, straw, and stalks on the boats almost simultaneously.

The thick hemp rope connecting the stone anchor had long been cut down to just a few strands, and the soldiers controlling the ship drew their swords and cut the rope after setting the fire.

The eight flaming barges, propelled by the current and the efforts of the rowers, accelerated downstream almost simultaneously.

Upon seeing this, Fu Qian began to direct the sailors to row in the opposite direction, propelling the warship upstream and retrieving the fallen wooden claws and stone anchor.

Downstream.

The raging oil, drifting downstream, has collided with the Wu army's warships at the very front.

The Wu soldiers looked at the black liquid clinging to the sides of the warships, completely baffled and unaware of what it was.

Many officers speculated that it might be fuel for fire.

But they had never seen this thing before and didn't know what to do with it, and... it seemed they couldn't do anything about it.

The continuous black oil flowed downstream through the gaps between Wu's warships.

Before long, several streams of black oil flowed downstream to the three-story ship where Bu Zhi was located and adhered to the side wall of the ship.

"General, look!" Bu Zhi's sir retrieved a large handful of black oil from the water, stepped onto the deck, and handed it to Bu Zhi.

Bu Zhi's nose twitched as he smelled a scent he had never encountered before. He then reached out and smeared a handful of black oil from Sima's hand.

It feels extremely sticky.

"Is it oil?"

"What kind of oil?"

"Light it!" Bu Zhi ordered Sima to pour the handful of black oil onto the deck. He then took a torch from his personal guard and solemnly brought the torch close to the black oil.

"--boom!"

The pool of black oil was instantly ignited.

Smoke and flames billowed.

The flames suddenly shot up to everyone's waists.

The small patch of fire was so intense and fierce that it was completely incomparable to the flammable materials such as fish oil, tung oil, and sesame oil, which startled everyone who was gathered nearby.

Thick black smoke billowed up, and everyone could clearly feel that the flames were very hot. Even the warship deck, which was coated with tung oil for fireproofing, quickly began to burn, and the wood sizzled and crackled as it burned.

Someone brought a bucket of water to put out the fire, but Bu Zhi immediately cursed, "That's oil!"

The Wu soldiers on the ship were all astonished.

"Oil?"

"Black oil?"

"Is everything on the Han River oil?!"

"Where did the Shu army get so much oil?!"

Bu Zhi ignored the soldiers' clamor and simply covered the small patch of black oil and raging fire with a wet blanket.

He then turned south and shouted, "Quickly raise the anchor and untie the mooring lines, and spread out downstream! No... cut the anchor directly!"

To anchor, the ships need to be perpendicular to the stone anchor, which means that if Wu's warships want to anchor, they all have to crowd upstream.

Just then, Bu Zhi suddenly felt a wave of heat coming from behind him.

"General...General...fire!"

"The wet felt was burned through by the fire!"

The Wu soldiers on the ship stared in astonishment at the raging fire that had reignited on the deck.

Bu Zhi had also turned around, staring at the thick smoke and raging fire before him, his face full of disbelief.

"Bring me sand!" he shouted urgently.

The soil and sand specifically designed for fire extinguishing were quickly covered over the pool of black oil and the raging fire.

However, the flames burned through the damp soil covering it in no time, and the crackling sound of the deck exploding due to the fire grew louder and louder.

Bu Zhi's heart pounded wildly, utterly astonished, and he abruptly turned to look upstream.

"--boom!"

Just then, the Han army's linked ships, laden with burning cargo, crashed into the Wu army's vessels, disrupting Bu Zhi's train of thought.

"—Boom!" Just as Bu Zhi's mind went blank, a loud explosion suddenly erupted over the Han River!
Bu Zhi's gaze froze instantly, and the world in his pupils contracted, faded, and disappeared in an instant, leaving only a vast expanse of boundless fiery red flames.

The Han River is burning. On the surface of the river, covered by raging oil, the flames seem to spread almost instantaneously, igniting everything in a flash.

Flames shot up several meters high, engulfing the shorter hulls of the mongooses and fighting ships. Even the three-story ship where Bu Zhi was located could see the flames leaping into the air.

Waves of terrifying heat relentlessly assaulted Bu Zhi's face.

A raging fire, almost devastating to the heavens and the seas, burned unchecked on the surface of the Han River, in the eyes of the Wu army's officers and soldiers.

Bu Zhi was still unable to react. The firelight and heat stung his eyes, making him instinctively cover them with his hands.

The clattering of soldiers running haphazardly on the deck never ceased.

"--what!"

"—It hurts, it hurts!"

"—What's going on?!"

"What is this?! What is this?!"

The screams, a mixture of shock, fear, pain, disbelief and other complex emotions, kept assaulting Bu Zhi's eardrums.

Further upstream.

A sea of ​​fire.

It was truly a sea of ​​fire.

On dozens of fireproof mud boats led by Wu general Huang Bing, a raging fire instantly erupted, forming high walls that surrounded and divided the warships.

The officers and soldiers on the ship were either burned by the flames, their hair was burned and their bodies were on fire, or their skin and orifices were burned by the instantaneous high temperature. They ran and rolled on the ship, screaming in agony.

Many people jumped directly from the boat into the water in an attempt to alleviate their pain.

However, when they surfaced for air, they were forced back into the water by the endless sea of ​​fire.

The raging oil floating on the water even engulfed those who surfaced for air, turning them into human torches.

Before long, countless corpses floated on the Han River.

Near the south bank, the Wu navy, which was not directly affected by the fire, also fled in chaos.

Wu Jun's first line of defense was breached.

Under Fu Qian's command, the Han army warships sailed slowly downstream.

When they encountered unmanned Wu army mud boats blocking their way, the Han soldiers used hooks to grab the mud boats blocking their warships, and then worked together to push them aside, quickly clearing a path.

The war drums on the ship beat wildly.

Even the boatmen rowing the boats were encouraged, and their oars flew as fast as lightning.

The warships sped down, billowing smoke and bursting into flames, and approached the Wu navy directly.

Fu Qian stood at the bow of the ship, his face stern, his sword at his side.

His armor was glowing red in the firelight, and his eyes were also bloodshot.

"—Boom!" The ram of the warship slammed straight into the belly of a Wu army warship, piercing a large hole in it.

The Wu army's navy was already terrified and in chaos by the raging fire that was burning the sky and boiling the sea, and they couldn't control their ships. Now, with the Han army's ramming attack, many of them were knocked into the water.

"Kill!" Fu Qian roared.

After drinking, he leaped onto the Wu army's warship, causing the warship to sway.

"kill!"

"Avenge Lord Fu!"

A few veterans who had experienced the Battle of Yiling, with red eyes, jumped onto the Wu army's ships and began hand-to-hand combat with the Wu army.

Each warship carried only a few dozen Wu soldiers, and in just a few dozen breaths, the Han army had wiped them all out.

Fu Qian jumped back onto his warship and led his fleet to continue the pursuit of the Wu army.

Wu's warships could not reel in their anchors or cut their mooring lines, and were soon rammed by Han's ships, leading to a series of boarding battles.

"Die, you dog!" Fu Qian, covered in blood, roared and charged through the fleeing army as if it were nothing.

One by one, the heads of Wu's soldiers flew up and fell.

Blood splattered everywhere, liver and brains were scattered on the ground.

"Revenge! Avenge our grievances!" Fu Qian raised his knife and brought it down, his eyes bloodshot and his sleeves soaked with blood.

He changed more than ten knives in his hand, yet he seemed tireless, never stopping for a moment.

Although the broadsword in his hand was not easy to handle, it was still incredibly sharp. He slashed horizontally to the left and vertically to the right with overwhelming momentum.

Wu Jun fled continuously, broke away, and jumped into the water.

Fu Qian, clad in full armor, charged fiercely and slashed sharply, like a god of war amidst the chaos of the Wu army, advancing relentlessly.

Behind him, the fighting spirit of the Han soldiers burst forth from their bloodshot eyes and roars, unleashing a furious barrage of blows and spears upon the Wu soldiers.

At this moment, the Han army, like ferocious tigers and hungry wolves, unleashed a terrifying power that the Wu soldiers had never seen before.

The Wu soldiers fell with cries of agony, their corpses mercilessly trampled underfoot by the Han army.

Finally, someone begged to surrender.

Fu Qian spat in the man's face, first beheading him with a single stroke, then angrily cursing, "How dare you accept Wu the dog's surrender!"

"--kill!"

"--kill!!"

"--kill!!!"

The shouts of killing shook the heaven and the earth.

The sea of ​​fire, fueled by the intense heat of the oil, moved downstream with the flow of water.

Wu's warships were in complete disarray, unable to reel in their anchors or break their mooring lines.

Once the ship's hull is coated with the flaming oil, the burning flames will cling to the Wu army's warships like maggots on a bone.

More and more of Wu Jun's boats were set on fire.

Countless soldiers from Wu Jun also jumped into the water to escape.

The three-story ship drifted northward downstream.

Because of its enormous size, it moves extremely slowly.

On the top deck of the ship, after issuing his last command, Bu Zhi remained motionless, staring blankly at the sea of ​​fire around him.

The lower edge of the ship was also ignited in many places by the flames produced by the black oil, and no matter how hard they tried to put it out, they couldn't extinguish it.

Fu Qian pointed forward and led more than ten warships straight toward the tower ship.

"--boom!"

The sharp ram pierced several large holes in the bottom of the ship in an instant.

The Wu army on the warship suffered the least damage, and with Bu Zhi on board, their morale was at least somewhat maintained.

Under Bu Zhi's command, crossbow bolts began to rain down on the Han army's warships.

"Throw!" Fu Qian commanded.

Then, with all his might, he threw the pottery jar in his hand onto the side of Wu's warship.

"Bang!" The earthenware jar shattered.

The viscous, fiery oil then adhered to the walls of the three-story ship, which was nearly ten feet high.

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

The Han soldiers followed closely behind Fu Qian and made the same throwing motion as him.

The sides of the ship were quickly covered with thick, viscous oil, which dripped continuously into the Han River.

Under the influence of the water flow, the huge ship was slowly surrounded and encircled.

With a wave of his hand, Fu Qian turned the flag upside down.

The Han army boatmen all rowed backward in unison.

After creating some distance between themselves and the Wu army's warships, Fu Qian took out a fire arrow, lit it, and together with the Han soldiers, they drew their bows and shot arrows.

"—Whoosh!"

"—Whoosh!"

Hundreds of fire arrows shot towards the warship, drawing beautifully curved parabolas.

(End of this chapter)