Li You's Tang Dynasty

Chapter 494

The collective sailing of Cao Xiong's 32 warships is also very spectacular. The main ship Cao Xiong is on is about 20 meters long and 12 meters high. It is definitely the number one warship on the Bian River.

Cao Xiong looked at his fleet, he was in high spirits, but this kind of high spirits was only before he saw Li You's five-toothed ship.

After Cao Xiong saw Li You's five-toothed ship, the pride that originally belonged to Cao Xiong began to disappear. The five-toothed ship was almost three times the size of Cao Xiong's ship. Cao Xiong originally wanted to use a pack of wolves to bite a tiger. It is a pity that when one's own ship is about to approach the five-toothed ship, a sledgehammer will fall directly from the five-toothed ship.

"Boom!" With just one blow, Cao Xiong's ships were smashed to pieces.

The water bandits on the boat all jumped into the Bian water, and were captured by the Bianzhou sailors around the five-yad ship. Mo Xiaohua was sitting behind Li You's five-yad ship at this time, watching Mo Xiaohua applauded again and again when the hammer on the big ship was smashed to pieces by the water bandits.

You must know that Mo Xiaohua's younger brother died at the hands of Cao Xiong's water bandits.

Back then, Cao Xiong was not very powerful, and there were only about 20 people in his hands. These people did not dare to blackmail the passing ships. After all, the sailors on this ship were enough for the twenty or so people to drink a pot, so this group of people They will secretly attack the villages of ordinary people who rely on fishing for a living by the Bian River.

The life of fishermen in ancient times was very hard. Due to the special occupational production environment and climatic conditions, labor intensity, body posture, irregular life and diet of fishermen, etc., compared with ordinary people, there were some high-incidence diseases. For example: stomach disease, bones and joints, chronic bronchitis, injury and other diseases.These can be collectively referred to as "fishing occupational diseases".

These occupational diseases are only internal. In fact, there are more external troubles.

Fan Zhongyan once wrote a poem:

"Fishermen on the River"

There are people on the river, but they love the beauty of perch.

Jun sees a boat that haunts the storm.

This five-character quatrain "Fishermen on the River" has simple language, pointing out that fishermen not only have to work hard to paddle and pull the net, but also have to endure the danger of wind and waves.In the poem, it is written that a flat boat floats and sinks in the torrential river wind and waves, which makes people feel strongly that the fisherman is in danger and his life is as light as a leaf, which is full of the author's concern and sympathy for them.

Fishermen are not only cruelly exploited by fishing bullies, but also oppressed by the landlord class: they go ashore to pay their tolls, and they die without a place to die.Usually fishing is risking their lives. How many fishermen have their lives swallowed by the white waves.

There is an old saying: "Three points of life are spent on a boat or a horse." It also reflects the hardships and dangers of fishermen's lives from another aspect.The fishermen were forced to make a living and exchanged their lives for perch. Those who fished were not allowed to eat it, and those who did not fish enjoyed the beauty of perch to their fullest. This is really unfair.

It's already so hard, Cao Xiong still wants to attack every night, Mo Xiaohua's younger brother was cut off by Cao Xiong because he couldn't pay the money Cao Xiong asked for. In fact, Mo Xiaohua's younger brother is rich, but Mo Xiaohua Hua's younger brother couldn't give it, it was money for his mother's medical treatment.

Because of this, Mo Xiaohua joined Datang's water army and vowed to wipe out water bandits, but things backfired. The Tang court never valued water army. Captain, but still can only look at the water and sigh.

Fortunately, Mo Xiaohua never slacked off. He trained his navy every day and waited for dormancy. Finally, on this day, good news came. Qi Wang Li You came and directly attacked Huludao.

"Boom!" The hammer on the five-toothed ship was put down again, and then directly smashed another Cao Xiong's ship.

The water bandits on the boat jumped into the water wailing, shouting loudly for help, Mo Xiaohua stood on top of the big five-toothed boat, issued commands to all the ships, and tried their best to catch the water bandits.

This is the time when the Bianzhou navy is proud.

"What is this called a fight!" Zhou Likai sighed speechlessly. To Zhou Likai, this water battle was really meaningless. The so-called water battle at this time was Li You's big five-toothed boat crushing those small boats.

Hehe, in fact, water warfare is like this. It is the Beiyang Navy with shipbuilding technology. Don’t think that the Beiyang Navy is weak. The island was officially established, and the Qing government allocated 1888 million taels of silver every year for the construction of the navy.

The strength of the fleet used to be No. [-] in Asia and No. [-] in the world (according to the ranking of the "U.S. Naval Yearbook" that year, the top eight were: British Empire, French Third Republic, Russian Empire, German Empire, Kingdom of Spain, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Kingdom of Italy. , United States of America).

In 1886, Ito Yuhiro, the first director of the Ministry of the Navy of Japan and the principal of the Naval University, received the visiting fleet of the Beiyang Navy of the Qing Dynasty. After visiting the "Dingyuan" ship, he said with emotion: "If we start a war with the Qing Dynasty now, there will be no victory." Possibly, as long as the two ships 'Dingyuan' and 'Zhenyuan' can send the entire standing fleet to the bottom of the sea."

However, in less than ten years, the entire army was wiped out in the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This was not lost in tactics, not in integrity, not in fear of death, but in technology.

从甲午战前1875至1894年的19年，清征服的军费总支出是4600万两，加上在军工企业上的总投资4200万两，一共8800万两，而日本仅在1888年以后的八年中国家军费支出就高达4.63亿两，是清朝19年军备支出的5.2倍。

The most important thing in water warfare is the battleship, that is, technology. If the technology is not good, everything else is useless.

"Withdraw!" Finally, Cao Xiong couldn't stand it anymore, and lost about ten warships in a row. Cao Xiong knew that this big five-toothed ship could not be completed by a pack of wolves and tigers. The opponent was not a tiger at all, but a tiger. Behemoth, if you want to fight this behemoth, your own ships are not enough.

So Cao Xiong ordered a retreat, wanting to return to Huludao, relying on the island's defenses to fight back, but Cao Xiong was so naive, the moment he pulled his troops back to Huludao, Li You Giant arrows were shot one after another from the five-toothed ship, and there was a small jar on these giant arrows. After the jar shattered, a kind of black water flowed out from the jar.

When these water bandits have seen this kind of thing, they are curious to see what this black water is, but when they are curious to watch, a rocket is shot from outside, followed by a 'bang', and the fire explodes. rise.

Some water bandits were burned because of the black water on their bodies. These water bandits thought that the fire could be extinguished with water, so they rushed to the water's edge, but what surprised all the water bandits was that the water The fire cannot be extinguished by pouring water, not only that, but the fire actually grows bigger after being poured with water.

"Ah demon fire, demon fire, this is demon fire!"

The people who didn't know the fire oil immediately shouted the demon fire, and then saw more and more black pots, adding fuel to the fire, the fire was getting bigger and bigger, and more and more water bandits were burned to death, so How could these water bandits still have the intention to defend in such a situation.

They all fled in all directions, and even Cao Xiong had found a time to escape to his boat behind Huludao at the fastest speed. This was the escape method that Cao Xiong had reserved for himself.

This is the difference between bandits and soldiers. Bandits are selfish. They can't bear the damage. As long as there are a little more casualties, they will scatter and flee. Soldiers are different. They have faith, so their combat effectiveness To be above the bandits.

"rush!"

When the water bandits fled in all directions, Mo Xiaohua landed immediately, pulled out the horizontal knife on her waist, and rushed in. All the sailors also rushed into Huludao bravely. How should I say it? It is someone who has a grudge against the water bandits, and there is an opportunity for revenge, who will not die.

Li You also sent Zhou Likai to the island for the first time, and tried his best to search and rescue Cui Xiuniang. Li You didn't want Cui Xiuniang to have trouble, after all, they were acquaintances, and Li You and Cui's family were also alliances. If Cui Xiuniang couldn't be saved, Li You would also feel that Going back is not easy to explain.

Fortunately, this Huludao is not very big, and secondly, Cao Xiong really didn't intend to do anything bad to Cui Xiuniang, so after Zhou Likai landed on the island, he found Cui Xiuniang without much time.

And did this Cao Xiong run away?
The answer is that he didn't run away, and was directly caught by Mo Xiaohua. Just as he was about to board the boat, Mo Xiaohua rushed to fight with Cao Xiong's men with his sailors, and followed Cao Xiong's group who wanted to escape. The person was arrested directly.

However, this Mo Xiaohua did not directly kill Cao Xiong impulsively to avenge her younger brother, but captured Cao Xiong back. Li You appreciates this very much. For personal enmity, directly kill Cao Xiong, Li You will not punish him.

But Li You will definitely not use him in the future, but now Mo Xiaohua's performance is good, she is courageous, dares to fight, and knows the distinction between public and private, so she is a person worth cultivating.

After Li You wiped out the water bandits in Huludao in one fell swoop, all the boats belonging to the Huludao water bandits became winning prizes, and Li You asked Mo Xiaohua to pull them all back. Supplementary to the Bianzhou sailors.

The level of the Bianzhou sailors was raised at once, but this was definitely not the result Li You wanted, and then Li You suddenly issued his own order, the first thing that the Bianzhou sailors wiped out the Bianzhou water bandits publicized it.

Secondly, the money copied from the water bandits' lair was going to be distributed to those sailors. Many people didn't understand what Li You was going to do, especially Liu Simin. From Liu Simin's feeling, this time Li You rescued Cui Xiuniang. The matter ended like this, and everyone was happy, but Li You wanted to do something to reward the sailors.

This seal is enough to reward you secretly, but Li You wants to spread it widely. Suddenly Liu Simin doesn't know what kind of medicine is sold in the gourd of His Royal Highness Qi Wang, but no matter what kind of medicine Li You sells, he Liu Simin can only support, who makes the other party His Royal Highness Qi Wang.

Not everyone can bear that Chihu sword.

(End of this chapter)