Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 218 Water War
"My lord, Sun Ce's army has crossed the battle line again! This time, this time..." A messenger was sent from Mianyangkou, hurriedly reporting to Huang Zu.
Because Sun Ce had harassed several times in recent days and almost blocked the investigation from upstream, as if he was actively preparing for war, Huang Zu also stayed in Mianyangkou.
"Why are you in such a hurry? The kid from the Sun family is here, just let Zixiang fight back!" Huang Zu was unmoved.
Although Huang Zu was stationed in Mianyangkou at this time, the commander of the navy in the water fort was "Zi Xiang". His courtesy name was unknown, but his real name was very domineering - Su Fei.
Su Fei was a general under Huang Zu. Whether he was a great general selected from among the short men was not the point, but Huang Zu did often entrust the navy to Su Fei.
In history without the white rabbit effect, Gan Ning felt that being a pirate was meaningless, but he felt that there was no development when he returned to Shu County to be an official. After leaving Shu again, it was Su Fei who recommended Gan Ning to Huang Zu. When the latter was not valued but could not get away, Su Fei let him go. This led to the emergence of Gan Xingba, the future Jiang Biao tiger minister of the Eastern Wu.
Later, when Sun Quan destroyed Huang Zu, he wanted to execute Su Fei, but Gan Ning pleaded for him and stopped him...
However, now that Gan Ning had directly joined the General's Mansion, his relationship with Su Fei was limited to "having a familiar officer in Jingzhou" and they had dealt with each other when they were pirates.
Huang Zu did not take the report of the enemy seriously. After all, it was not the first time Sun Ce attacked.
That's why Huang Zu drew a battle line along the river. When Sun Ce's warships passed by, the Jiangxia navy would prepare for battle.
"My lord... the situation is different this time, it's so big... a huge warship has come... No, it's not a warship, it's a tower ship!" the messenger said hurriedly.
Huang Zu frowned when he heard this, and noticed the panic of the messenger, so he prepared to go out and take a look himself.
Tower ships have existed since the pre-Qin period. However, because the tall towers were built, the center of gravity of the ship was too high and it was easy to lose balance. With the technology at the time, tower ships would often capsize due to wind and water even if they were on the river and not in the sea. Not only were they weak against abnormal weather, but they were also vulnerable in fierce battles.
Therefore, nowadays it is mostly used as a luxury passenger ship - Emperor Wu of Han once built a huge ship that could accommodate tens of thousands of people.
Common warships are battleships, fighting ships, sea frigates and traveling boats.
After the Battle of Chibi, when the Eastern Wu relied on the Yangtze River for its own security, it gradually developed many more powerful warships, which was a real improvement over the pre-Qin period.
Otherwise, at the Battle of Chibi, they would have used these basic warships, which were not much more developed than those in the pre-Qin period.
Among them, the battleships and fighting ships are relatively "luxurious" main battleships. They all have cabins with arrow holes on them and are covered with cowhide on the outside. There are parapets around the ship as a cover. Oars extend from the oar holes on the parapet. Ordinary arrows are difficult to kill them, but they can shoot arrows from the arrow holes.
The difference is that the warship is larger and longer, has a heavy ram on the bow, a large cabin and a small deck, and is better at ramming in close combat; while the fighting ship is much smaller, has more oars, is lighter, and has a larger deck area, which means it is more suitable for boarding combat.
The battleship and the frigate can be said to be the basic ship types of ancient warships. When the Southern Song Dynasty fought against the Jin Dynasty, the battleship was still used, but there were many improvements, such as equipping it with different oars to make it more flexible...
Even the building ship can be seen as a warship with multiple layers of cabins stacked up, but there is a lot to be said about the balance.
In addition, the walking boats and sea gulls are supplements to the warships and fighting ships. Both are small boats. The former is only light, and generally has to force its way close to engage in boarding combat to pose a threat to the enemy. The latter has a more special shape, with a low head and a high tail, and floats on the side of the ship, resembling a seabird. Its main advantage is that it can maintain balance in bad weather and turbulent waters, and can be used for surprise attacks.
These are small boats that can be controlled by his soldiers.
The Pingchengfang in Bai Tu’s first batch of warships is an advanced version of the Haigull. The fast-paddle boat is more flexible than the Zouge, but it also requires more manpower.
Huang Zu came to the cliff by the river. As soon as he approached, he felt something was wrong... It was indeed very big.
In front of the three huge ships, the Zou Ge could not even get close, let alone engage in a boarding battle. The arrows shot from the ships were as powerful as the firepower of the defenders' city walls!
Naval battles are different from land battles, and the military formation commands are simpler - the ships at this time are also unable to coordinate too sophisticated formation changes.
Compared to land battles, naval battles rely more on strong ships and long-range bows and arrows.
This is why most of the isolated dynasties relied on the navy to maintain their existence - no matter how strong the enemy's army is, they still have to use ships and bows and arrows to fight on the water!
In addition to the differences in the physical constitution of the soldiers, a precarious dynasty could protect itself for a while even if its overall strength was relatively weak.
Although Huang Zu was neither a good writer nor a good warrior in Jiangxia, he had the support of Liu Biao, a "big money bagger" who pursued a strategy of defending the land. He himself represented the local gentry and had strong naval hardware. He was not afraid of Sun Ce at all. With only a few hundred boats, he was enough to make many famous generals sigh in despair.
When facing Jiangdong, although the other side also excels in water battles, Jingzhou is ultimately further upstream. Although it is possible to go upstream with oars, it still has the advantage of water flow, especially in the areas of Miankou and Xiakou, where there are cliffs on both sides of the river bank...
The demise of the Eastern Wu and the later Chen Kingdom was caused by the warships built in Yizhou, which were sailed down the river from upstream.
However, now, Huang Zu could only watch as his own boats were completely unable to approach the tower ship, and the soldiers on the ship were ruthlessly shot to death.
However, Su Fei is also quite experienced. Judging from the situation on the river, it seems that he is going to command the fighting ships to intercept and engage in a head-on fight!
The entire Jiangxia and Huang Zu's assets consisted of only six warships and dozens of battleships.
After all, whether it was Huang Zu or Liu Biao, the resources of Jingzhou that they could mobilize were very limited. Even during the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu only had "dozens" of warships to set fire.
After the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan wanted to expand his victory to Huainan but failed. At the same time, the internal situation of Eastern Wu was finally more harmonious because of this great victory, so he began to vigorously develop the navy and seek to secede.
Huang Zu saw the warships rushing towards the huge ship and could not help but hold on tightly to the horizontal railing in front of him - after this battle, even if he could block the opponent's attack, he would be seriously injured!
Then ask Liu Biao for more resources?
No...if the losses are too great, Liu Biao might even cross the river and burn the bridge.
However, Huang Zu also understood that he had no room for reservation now, so he pretended to be calm and said, "Hahaha, Zixiang is indeed smart in battle. Do you think that the bigger the ship, the stronger it is? A ship this tall, if hit by a warship, will be shaken at best, or worse..."
Duang——
There was a loud noise, and even Huang Zu, who was on the cliff near the shore, heard something of it. He looked over quickly, but... he did not see the ship capsizing as he expected.
Instead, it was a warship. At this time, the cabin was broken and the soldiers on board were wailing.
However, a huge rock rose again on the broken cabin. The rock was connected to a long and thin "mast". The attack on the ship before was launched by it!
The slapping pole was particularly popular around large warships from the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It was a wooden pole with a stone hammer on top and a rotating windlass at the bottom. After pulled up. As a close combat weapon in naval battles, it quickly replaced the ramming horn. It was not until the Song Dynasty that heavy crossbows and firearms began to be equipped, and the slapping pole gradually withdrew from the stage of history.
The cowhide of a warship can block arrows, but... how can it withstand a huge hammer falling from dozens of feet?
And after the smash, the racket quickly rose up!
The paddle of the General's Mansion version of the Five-toothed Warship has also been optimized to a certain extent. Not only is the material used for the pole arm made of iron-clad wood, but the windlass is also equipped with a magic gourd, which can withstand heavier stone hammers.
Warships that are good at ramming appear very vulnerable in front of the "slapper", the ruler of water melee combat...
