After the military order was issued, You Xuejiu and Bei Yan felt relieved, but they ran hastily to pass the order. After a moment, the soldiers on standby in the city swarmed up, and instantly the entire Daming City was as bright as Yuan City on the opposite bank. The whole city seemed to have suddenly come alive.
Then the Song army went down the river bank, shouting at the navy brothers in the river to abandon their boats and armor and flee directly back to the shore.
Seeing this scene and hearing the sounds of abandoning ships, the Jin army on the opposite side cheered and leaped for joy, feeling that they had won a great victory. The imperial navy, who had been suffering in the river without even knowing the extent of their casualties, were also relieved.
But soon, new problems arose.
"Marshal, there are many sunken ships in the river, but the light is not enough. Many of our wounded can't find the way." You Xuejiu, sweating profusely, hurriedly reported again. "We are bumping, banging, and freezing in the river. It's fatal to stay there for a while."
It turned out that the situation was different at this time. Originally, the Song army should have tried to avoid lights as much as possible when "raiding the river", but now they had to retreat and the Jin army's artillery vehicles were all in fixed positions. In any case, this "firepower" was fixed. At this time, they needed enough light.
The brighter the river, the greater the chance that Sean and his men would survive after abandoning the boat, and the greater the chance that the wounded would be rescued.
Since the decision had already been made to abandon the fight and rescue the people, Yue Fei had no choice but to give another military order, gathering torches and braziers from the surrounding areas, and piling fuel on the river bank to start a fire.
But once again, very quickly, after only illuminating the devastated river for a moment, the Jin army on the other side also realized the problem. While they continued to bombard the river, they gradually extinguished all unnecessary light sources except those of the artillery positions.
The river channel once again became bright on one side and dark on the other. Coupled with the light mist that had drifted in at some point during the night, the river channel became dim again.
This time, Yue Fei, You Xuejiu, and the hastily mobilized Song army were truly helpless for a moment... They could only decide the light and darkness on one side, how could they control the light source of the Jin army on the other side?
At the same time, the artillery vehicles on the other side continued to fire.
In this situation, even Yue Fei was a little flustered inside, but he was trying to remain calm... This was truly an unexpected sudden demand and emergency.
"Marshal, I have an idea!"
At this moment, Bei Yan rushed to Yue Fei again. "It can not only light up the river, but also show that we are really defeated and not pretending, so that the opponent will continue to be paralyzed..."
"What method?" You Xuejiu grabbed the other person, his hands were shaking.
"It depends on whether the Marshal is willing to let go!" Bei Yan dragged You Xuejiu and tried to see Yue Fei. "There is no wind tonight."
Yue Fei wanted to scold him, but he realized his opponent's plan in an instant, and then he said with a sigh: "If you are willing to do it, why can't I be willing to do it? Hurry and do it!"
Although You Xuejiu didn't understand what the two were talking about, he immediately let go of their hands. After only an incense stick of time, he knew what the method was... In the dark night, there were still continuous artillery shells in the river, and the Song army was still trying to rescue and save themselves. At the same time, a huge hot air balloon was carefully and quickly placed on the launching platform, and then the furnace was ignited, and wax was stuffed into the furnace at all costs, and the bellows were inflated with unprecedented effort.
With this effort, and the fact that cold winter nights are suitable for the use of hot air balloons, after about a quarter of an hour, the balloon inflated slightly, which then moved the surrounding ropes and roughly revealed a tiger pattern... However, at this time, the tiger was a little listless, as if it had just woken up, which made Yue Fei and You Xuejiu both feel that it was a little unreliable and they were just trying to give it a try.
As for Bei Yan, he was sweating profusely, holding the basket, estimating the strength, and giving orders non-stop, asking people to pour charcoal and firewood into the four sides of the basket continuously, while constantly reducing the sandbags outside, and then paying attention to the fire and the inflation degree of the balloon to maintain balance.
Gradually, the tiger finally opened his eyes. At this time, the hot air balloon was still unstable and had not been completely inflated. However, for the purpose of this operation, it seemed to be enough.
After he thought it was almost done, Bei Yan gave the last order, which was to pour some lard into the four corners of the frame, and finally to throw four torches in at the same time. After doing all this, he quickly left the vicinity of the basket, shouted orders, and cut all the ropes on the four sides, leaving only an extra-long tow rope, which he and dozens of soldiers dragged together.
Then, the hot air balloon, which was freed from its restraints but still able to maintain stability at the beginning, floated into the air at a slow but steady speed. At the same time, with the efforts of dozens of soldiers including Bei Yan, it slowly but steadily changed its direction slightly and floated towards the other side of the river.
During this time, the fire in the basket grew bigger and bigger, and the long rope soon spread out, but this did not stop it from attracting the attention of everyone in the two cities and the two armies from the beginning. In the end, when it turned into a blazing torch in front of everyone in the two armies on both sides of the river, like a burning moon, it burned itself above the river. I am afraid that tens of thousands of people on both sides were attracted by its magnificence and heat.
Obviously, even the rhythm of the Jin army's artillery carts became chaotic. At the same time, the river was suddenly as bright as day, illuminating dozens of ships or ship wreckages in the river clearly. After the initial trance, many soldiers in the front line of the imperial camp began to rush into the river regardless of everything to rescue people.
Many of the imperial navy soldiers also mustered up their courage again, some shouted loudly, and some tried to head eastward.
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