Chapter 655: Fighting on Two Fronts
The same situation also happened in Hezhong Prefecture.
Maybe it was because Li Sui was not destined to die, or maybe it was because Li Sui's ancestors had gone mad from knocking their heads below, but at the last moment before going up to Meng Chong, Li Sui suddenly changed his mind.
He did not intend to lead the troops in person. He wanted to stay on the ship, command the battle from a high vantage point.
Li Sui pretended not to notice the hesitant expressions of the soldiers around him, and said righteously: "I am not good at swimming, and going to the Meng ship will only cause trouble for you. It is better for me to stay on the tower ship and command the battle. You should always pay attention to the command flag at that time."
Okay, there's nothing wrong with that.
Guangde Prefecture has long been located inland, close to Kyoto, and has a very advantageous geographical location.
Even when the Tartars marched south, they never reached Guangde Prefecture.
There was no shipyard in Guangde Prefecture, so the entire prefecture had no more than twenty warships.
These twenty or so warships, when placed in the river, are like slippery little fish, with extremely high maneuverability.
The war finally entered a familiar rhythm, and the officers and soldiers on the ship were in high spirits.
"Rescue Lord Song! And avenge our navy's previous humiliation?"
"Go! Perform great deeds and return home in glory!"
This group of navy officers all came from Jinghu North Road and were forced to stay in Guangde Prefecture. Because of the capture of Li Shoujie, they were ridiculed by the officers and soldiers in Guangde Prefecture.
This fire has been stuck in my chest and won't dissipate.
Now, I finally found the opportunity for revenge!
They wanted to show those landlubbers in Yunzhou what a real water battle was like! Victory on the front battlefield could not be achieved by relying on conspiracy and trickery alone!
"Lord Li, the ship is fast and can reach Hezhong Prefecture in less than half an hour. We can..."
Before he could finish his words, there was a loud bang and a flaming ball fell from the sky and hit the ship.
On the city wall of Hezhong Prefecture, Song Shouji was stunned.
Just now, he saw unusual movements of the warships through a thousand miles away and reported it to Duke Yun immediately.
Song Shoujie made up his mind that if Duke Yun wanted to lead his troops to fight, he would definitely agree after he postponed it twice.
However, the warships of Hezhong Prefecture did not go out of the city to fight, but instead remained on the city wall, and the objects covered with red cloth revealed their true appearance.
"What's this?"
Li Mingde's eyes sparkled with excitement, and his voice was trembling: "Yunzhou Cannon! The military workshop has been developing it for so long, and it finally succeeded!"
Li Shoujie had never heard of a cannon, but he had heard that the most powerful and longest-range weapon was the crossbow.
But the range of the bed crossbow is no more than one mile.
"Duke Yun, the enemy is still far away from us, how about we wait a little longer?"
Gu Nanxi smiled and shook her head: "Our cannons have a decent range."
Li Shoujie was speechless and choked. He quietly stepped aside and thought to himself, if the cannon doesn't work and Duke Yun wants him to go into battle, should he refuse twice or three times?
The artillerymen who had been waiting for orders had no idea that Li Shoujie secretly looked down on them. They were all impatient and ready to fight!
The muzzle of the gun slowly lowered for three quarters of an hour.
The gunner's eyes twitched as he adjusted the rear sight gap.
The 800-jin iron-bone gun carriage was sunk deep into the turret made of glutinous rice mortar.
Flakes of falling snow covered them and the gun barrels.
Through the telescope, the ox-horn lights of the three Mengchong warships flickered, and the sound of waves hitting the iron spikes on the bows could be clearly heard.
The artillerymen did not have clairvoyance and could not see where the target was, so everything depended on the artillery commander reporting the angle.
This is a great test of the ability of every artilleryman because the ship is moving very quickly.
Everyone was waiting for orders with great concentration. It takes a thousand days to train an army and only a moment to use it.
They want to make the Yunzhou cannon famous on the city walls of Hezhong Prefecture!
"Change to chain bullets!"
The gunner's boot soles crushed two bugs crawling along the gun carriage.
The moment the cast iron crane unloaded the remains of the sub-gun, the scalding smoke from the barrel condensed into spirals in the cold fog on the river surface.
The loader's burned knuckles were wrapped in vinegar-soaked linen, but he still accurately slid two eight-jin iron balls connected by iron chains into the mother gun.
This is a special sail-breaking bomb made by the military workshop for naval warfare. The chain length is just the width of the ship's mainsail.
Jiang Feng suddenly changed direction.
The rangefinder stuck the Lu Ban lock movable ruler on the parapet, and the dim light of phosphorescence jumped on the bronze scale.
The gunner held the cowhide tube in his mouth and blew hard on the directional fuse. Dark red sparks flew along the hemp rope soaked in camphor juice toward the mother gun. The air waves from the fire vent at the tail of the gun overturned two baskets of ballast stones.
The whistling sound of the chain bullet spinning out of the chamber is completely different.
The cast iron chain was stretched into a straight iron wire under the action of the initial velocity, and a death arc suddenly unfolded twenty feet away.
The fog on the river surface was stirred up to form a vacuum tunnel, and the cowhide canvas of the warships on the opposite bank first dented and then shattered as if bitten by invisible sharp teeth.
Amid the crackling sound of the sail rope breaking, the iron chain still entangled the lookout with its remaining force, and the entire bamboo war shed crashed onto the deck.
Suddenly, an orange flame exploded from the bottom of the battleship - the chain shell that had hit it earlier had accidentally ignited the fierce oil tank at the stern.
The burning grease spread along the river, turning the entire body of water into a river of fire.
In the air distorted by the heat wave, the dragon relief on the red cannon seemed to be swimming in the flames.
"Report to Duke Yun! All twenty warships have been sunk!"
The artillerymen looked somewhat embarrassed.
The stuffer's hands were burned by the hot barrel and were wrapped in sackcloth.
The gunner's ears were buzzing and he could not hear any sound outside.
The gunner was not much better than them. His face was covered in black, and when he coughed, the air smelled of gunpowder.
But without exception, they stood straight like a group of proud peacocks.
They have the right to be proud.
In less than an hour, they sank twenty enemy warships at the cost of zero casualties, gaining a huge advantage for their side!
Gu Nanxi was generous with her praise and gave a thumbs up: "Well done!"
The artillerymen grinned from ear to ear, especially when they saw reporters and painters from Yunzhou Weekly on the city wall.
The painter is holding the paintbrush frantically, wanting to record such an exciting moment!
The artillerymen couldn't help but straighten their bodies.
Li Shoujie was already numb. Was this still the water battle he was familiar with? His worldview was shattered!
If I were the enemy's general, what would I do when faced with such a terrifying Yunzhou cannon?
Song Shoujie was at a loss. Everything he had learned over the years was completely overturned at this moment.
"No. There are still the tower ships! The tower ships are outside the cannon's range. As long as the tower ships don't get close, the cannons can't hit them. They haven't lost yet!"
At this moment, Li Shoujie instinctively chose the way out of survival for the traditional water battle.
Gu Nanxi didn’t care how much shock the cannon brought to Song Shoujie, she wanted to take advantage of the victory!
"Open the gate!"
As soon as the sluice gates were opened, several warships that had been waiting for a long time, sailed against the wind and waves to fight against the tower ships amid the sound of drums!
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