open sea

Chapter 61
Although the mortar looks unattractive, it is still very scary to shoot out the iron bowl mouth gun. With a bang of one or two taels of gravel, it hit the enemy archers on the opposite bank, the ground, and the river like hail, not killing many people. At best, the [-]-step-distance Wankou Cannon is sending the shells there, and it is not high enough to hit people. It is difficult for stones to kill people, and at most it can only injure the enemy.

Huge momentum, not enough damage.

"Don't pray, the Xinjiang Bridge can't be defended, Mang Chong, hurry up and take someone to move the cannons to the back, to Qianhu's!" Chen Mu is now focused on how to keep these cannons, even if he can't keep them, he can't let them go The cannon was taken by the rebels, otherwise it would be difficult to get it back. "Fu Yuan, send someone to tell Chief Wu to let him resist the enemy with peace of mind. Chen will lead the troops to the east bank!"

"Those with swords and spears and guns and bows, line up east...go east first, and then line up there!"

The Banner Army has been seriously downsizing, and the days when the formations were listed are gone forever with [-]% of the old soldiers dead or injured. It would be foolish to expect the brave men who are not only afraid of battles, but also of him, to march in this formation.

With an order, more than 30 flag troops lined up, and Xiangyong rushed towards the east bank step by step.

In Chen Mu's view, Xinjiang Bridge was difficult to defend.The cold reality once again taught him a lesson. In any era, people who can gather crowds and make a huge impact, even small rebels, are not kind.

He is like an afterthought. At this moment, he can clearly see Li Yayuan's deployment-mobilize three thousand troops to attack Xinjiang Bridge from land, and exchange nearly two thousand casualties in exchange for the Ming army's attack on the river fleet. Inadvertently, when the Ming army used most of its forces to defend the Xinjiang Bridge, land and water attacked at the same time.

The strategy is not brilliant, even clumsy, so clumsy that even Chen Mu, an idiot who doesn't understand the art of war, can see through it.

But no matter how clumsy it is, as long as it works, it is enough for Li Yayuan.

Starting from the defense of Xinjiang Town, due to the huge disparity in the strength of the two sides, the initiative of the battle has always been in the hands of Li Yayuan.There is only a thousand days to be a thief, but there is no reason for a thousand days to defend against a thief. Li Yayuan said that when he attacked, no matter whether the Ming army was sleeping, eating, or shitting, they would have to raise their weapons to fight, and they would be worried all day long.

On the other hand, the rebels, no matter whether they ate or drank, the Ming army could only wait in full force and dare not attack.

No matter what strategy Li Yayuan uses, they can only accept it.Now they don't have any sergeants to use except for a hundred small boats on the river and a hundred sergeants from the Barbarian Battalion resting on the bank.

Deng Zilong's battalion ran towards the river bank like Chen Muqi's army.

Behind them, Bai Yuanjie was waving the command flag, and the sound of the horns between the beating of military drums and the symphony of the barbarian battalion fleet shocked Chen Mu, who was running to the east bank - this tone, Bai Yuanjie's military order was, attack!

The flags were unfurled, all the boats moved together, and the sergeants of the Manliu Battalion who were resting on the bank also waded through the water, and quickly boarded the boats to meet the rebel fleet that was several times larger than themselves in the river to the east.

The distance between the fleets of the two sides was tens of feet, and there were already rebels standing on the bows of the boats, throwing feather arrows with their longbows. The two sides were driving fast on the river, and they were about to collide in just a moment, but the sailors of the barbarian battalion were not seen to attack the enemy. Shooting the arrow made Chen Mu, who was sprinting along the bank, anxious, and secretly scolded Bai Yuanjie for being so rich but being too stingy with the barbarian camp!
If he had equipped the barbarian water pawns with dozens of blunderbuss earlier, there would not have been such a predicament. The water pawns headed towards the enemy ship hard against the arrows, obviously using old methods such as ramming or jumping gangs.

It is undeniable that no matter whether it is a collision or a gang jump, it is a very brave tactic that does not bear the style of a warrior, but this requires a premise, the premise that the strength of the two sides is not much different.

The Barbarian Battalion and the rebels are only on warships. If those wooden reinforced fishing boats can be called warships, they are four times worse than the rebels on the warships alone. What are they using to fight against the enemy!

Chen Mu couldn't even bear to look at those strong and shouting sailors of the barbarian battalion. It seemed that they would be swallowed up by the huge rebel fleet that was gnashing their teeth and sucking blood in the next moment.

He was wrong.

Forty to fifty paces away from the enemy ship, when the sailors from the leading warships on both sides could already see the ferocious expressions of the sailors on the opposite side, the five barbarian ships rolled out wooden box racks from the small cabins, ignited the fire, and scattered dozens of rockets towards the enemy ship. , burst into extraordinary light almost instantly, and the rocket shot towards the enemy ship with a scream.

When the arrow is nailed to the enemy's cabin, the gunpowder on the rocket ignites the kerosene bag, and a small piece of kerosene flows down the arrow and sticks to the ship. Although an arrow may only burn a palm-sized mark, Even if it adds up to a lot, it is really limited.

Most of the dozens of rockets were stuck on the first few ships of the rebel army, and some of them were ignited and some were not ignited. The damage was not good, but it could cause some confusion to the first few ships of the rebel army.

Then Bai Yuanjie waved the command flag again, the military music changed its tone, and the five barbarian ships that fired rockets accelerated towards the rebel formation in five directions. , making people have no idea what they're trying to do.

The archers of all the boats and boats of the rebel army drew their bows and shot at the barbarian boats. In a very short time, the five barbarian boats were shot like five big hedgehogs swimming.

After the five barbarian ships, the rest of the barbarian battalion slowed down and parted from the middle to the left and right. Archers walked out of the cabin and fired arrows at the enemy ships at fifty or sixty steps, and continued to slowly approach the rebel fleet. .

Just when the five barbarian boats full of arrows were about to plunge into the enemy fleet, the four sailors in the cabin rushed out and jumped directly into the river.

Immediately afterwards, the five barbarian ships that plunged into the enemy's ship formation exploded one after another, and the flames shot up into the sky!
"There's gunpowder in the boat!"

Just as Chen Mu thought, the five barbarian ships that drove into the enemy's fleet were not only loaded with gunpowder, but also had a huge amount of gunpowder and countless flying stones. cause unimaginable damage.

In addition to gunpowder and flying stones in the cabin, the exploded ship hurt people with flying stones and splashed huge sparks. Wherever the flame touched, it burned. Suddenly, clusters of flames arose on the surrounding exploded ship, which was good at wind. .

Bai Yuanjie put fierce fire oil in the boat, which is the usual tactic of the Ming army or ancient China in water warfare - fire attack.

Chen Mu turned his head, and Bai Yuanjie waved the command flag calmly, as if all this had been planned long ago. At this time, the fire on the river was just what he expected, and then he sent the order to the barbarian battalion on the river to retreat.

After all, this battle will depend on the land battle to see the outcome!
But this was enough. The fire attack destroyed more than ten vanguard ships of the enemy army, and the burning hull of the fishing boat prevented the rebel fleet from advancing an inch in the river for a moment, which was enough to make Chen Mu's banner army and Deng Zilong's battalion stand on the bank against the wooden barrier of the trench. Out of battle.

Everything is ready, just waiting to stop the enemy!
Note:
"There is flammable water in Gaonu County" - "Hanshu Geography"

"There are mountains in the south of the county, and the stones come out of springs, as big as Ju, burning brightly, and inedible. The county people call them stone lacquer"——"Houhan Shujun Guozhi"

Petroleum, formerly known as 'stone varnish, stone grease, stone grease water, fierce fire oil' was widely used in lighting, lubrication, fuel and military purposes in ancient China. There was a description of Shizhu in "Notes of An'an".

In 1521, in Jiazhou, Sichuan, when digging salt wells, they drilled into oil-bearing formations, dug out oil shafts hundreds of meters deep, and used the extracted oil as fuel for boiling salt.It is the world's first oil drilling shaft.

To make a digression, the "inedible" in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" and the "inedible" or "eat it..." in various ancient books arouse infinite reverie, and the courage of the ancestors to practice true knowledge is very powerful.

　good morning friends!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)