Chapter 542: Extraordinary Operation
Chapter 542: Extraordinary Operation
Yuwen Shu paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, looking very solemn. As a veteran who had experienced many battles, he certainly knew the military value of the black powder in front of him. Although it was currently just a combustible agent, it was convenient, simple, easy to carry, and could also be manufactured on a large scale, which was much more convenient than traditional rockets.
At this time, Yu Juluo whispered: "If it is just a rocket, it is not terrible. It is just a fire point. If it is shot at the ship, the soldiers can easily put it out. The reason why our ship was burned is that the ship itself is carrying a lot of fodder, plus it is concentrated and parallel, so if one ship catches fire, the surrounding ships will also suffer.
But it’s different on a big river, where the ships are scattered and there are many soldiers on board. This kind of rocket can only threaten the sails, but I don’t see how it can be scary.”
Yuwen Shu sighed and said, "The scary thing about it is that it is unknown. Apart from the fact that it contains sulfur, we know nothing about it. What exactly is it? Does it have any other effects? It looks like a mineral powder. I guess it is some kind of mineral that is abundant in the south. It is very likely that Xiao Xia obtained it when he attacked the Shanyue people."
"That's nothing to worry about!"
Yu Juluo smiled and said, "If it can change the situation of the war, the Shanyue people will not be slaughtered twice. If the general is still worried, you might as well give it a try."
"You mean crossing the river?"
"Yes! We still have more than 400 ships. We can definitely launch a river crossing operation, but we don't want too many people. We can try it out with 10,000 or 20,000 people. If it doesn't work, we can withdraw."
Yuwen Shu nodded slowly. He didn't care about the lives of ten or twenty thousand soldiers, but the opponent's new weapons made him unable to sleep.
"Okay! Let's make a test attack."
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The next morning, war drums sounded loudly on the river, and four hundred ships loaded with 20,000 soldiers set out from the north bank. They were divided into two teams, with two hundred ships in the vanguard and the other two hundred ships trailing behind.
This battle was led by Liang Boyin, a general under Yu Juluo. It was already early October, the north wind was blowing hard, and the fleet was moving very fast on the river.
But the Jin Wang army was well prepared, and You Junda led 300 ships and chariots to meet the enemy.
Leading the way were two 5,000-stone chariot ships. Despite the headwind, the ships were still very fast and maneuverable.
Xiao Xia also led the generals and watched the battle on a large ship weighing ten thousand stones. This was the first time that the Iron Fire Thunder was used in actual combat, and he hoped that he would not be disappointed.
You Junda's main ship gradually approached the enemy's bow ship. The ship turned the rudder and passed by the enemy ship at a distance of about forty steps.
The enemy's arrows rained down like raindrops, and You Junda shouted: "Prepare the crossbow to fire!"
Three crossbows had been pushed forward, and the soldiers had loaded iron fire bombs. You Junda shouted, "Fire!"
The soldier lit the match, and when it reached the red line, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
There were three loud bangs, and three iron fire mines were fired at the same time. The enemy's ship was made of pine wood and was a merchant ship. The density of the wood was not enough, and the three iron fire mines were nailed to the ship's wall. After only a moment, there were sudden and continuous explosions, and the entire ship's wall was blown to pieces. The ship suddenly tilted, and the river water rushed in. A large number of soldiers fell into the water in panic.
More than a dozen small boats of the Jin King's army appeared to salvage the soldiers who fell into the water. Yuwen Shu did not care about the lives of the soldiers, but Xiao Xia was not the same. He did not want to kill these Han soldiers.
Soon after, several other ships were hit by iron fire mines, and a big hole was blown in them. The hull began to sink slowly. The soldiers on the ship each jumped into the water holding a piece of wood to escape. They desperately waved for help to the warships of the King of Jin's army. Dozens of lifeboats came and rescued the soldiers who fell into the water.
Yuwen Shu was extremely shocked. He didn't care about the rockets, but this kind of explosion really shocked him. If it could be so effective in blowing up ships, then it could also be used to blow up city gates and cavalry.
At this time, the court warships caught fire one after another. Although the explosion was shocking, the effect of the rockets was even greater.
Rockets were fired from the warships of the Prince of Jin's army, and the sails of the large ships were set on fire. The power of the court ships depended entirely on the sails. Once the sails were burned, the large ships lost power and could no longer turn back. They could only drift eastward with the current, and were finally surrounded by the warships of the Prince of Jin's army. The court ships had no choice but to surrender. "Order the troops to withdraw!" Yuwen Shu had no courage.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!"
As the bell rang, the remaining ships slowly turned around and rowed desperately with long oars, moving closer to the north shore little by little.
But less than 300 of the 400 large ships returned, and the other 100 ships were either sunk or captured, resulting in the loss of 5,000 soldiers.
Yuwen Shu witnessed the power of the enemy's new weapons with his own eyes, and his courage was severely dampened. More importantly, he had no way to attack the south.
The soldiers were also talking about it, saying that the King of Jin had asked the God of Thunder for help in the battle, and that the other side had the help of the gods, so how could they defeat them? The morale of the 200,000-strong army quickly dropped.
The even more serious problem is the food problem. They only have enough food to support themselves for eleven days. Even if food is delivered from various counties, it can only last for one month at most.
In Shanyang County, hundreds of tugboats loaded with grain and grass were slowly moving. This was the grain team from Pengcheng County. The governor Huang Anren had requisitioned all the tugboats in the county, loaded all the grain and grass in the official warehouse onto the boats, and sent them to Jiangdu County. Only one thousand county soldiers followed on the shore.
In the dark night, Luo Shixin led two thousand cavalrymen to attack again, and shot two thousand rockets at the grain ships. Soon, hundreds of grain ships were all on fire. The state soldiers were frightened and had already fled.
At the same time, more than 300 large ships anchored at the canal outside Jiangdu City also caught fire, with thick smoke and flames rising into the sky, but strangely, the ships were almost unguarded and were just casually parked on the shore.
It was not until the fire had been burning for almost half an hour that more than 10,000 soldiers rushed to the rescue. Of course, it was of no use. In one night, there were two fires in Jiangdu County, one in the south and one in the north. All the ships were burned, leaving only blackened wreckage.
This was the asymmetric warfare advocated by the Shanyue people before. They did not deal with the army, but only attacked the logistics and ships, making the enemy army unable to defend themselves and exhausted. However, the Shanyue people did not implement this plan in the end. Instead, Xiao Xia took this tactic to the extreme, using his advantage in the water to burn all the court's ships.
But this time, Yuwen Shu did not get furious, but instead secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
A good cook cannot cook without rice. If the imperial court does not give him warships, how can he cross the river to fight?
The imperial court's shipyard was located in Yanshi County, east of Luoyang, where there was a large artificial lake called Longtan. The Luoyang Shipyard was on the west bank of Longtan. The imperial court recruited thousands of shipbuilding craftsmen from all over the country to build ships day and night. More than a thousand ships for the southern tour were built here.
There are three huge warehouses in the shipyard, all filled with various shipbuilding materials collected from all over the place.
Three thousand soldiers were stationed in the shipyard, patrolling day and night and keeping a very strict watch.
At three o'clock in the morning, a dozen men in black appeared outside the camp fence. They pushed away a large stone, revealing a dark cave entrance underneath, and left two people to guard the cave entrance.
This group of men in black were precisely the experts sent by the Jiangnan Dao Intelligence Agency. They dug a thirty-meter-long tunnel that led directly to warehouse No. 3.
Of course, they also had insiders. At least twenty shipbuilding craftsmen were their insiders, who clearly told them the target, which was in Warehouse No. 3.
Not long after, a wooden board in the warehouse was pushed open, and a dozen men in black came out of the tunnel one after another.
At this time, three hundred patrol soldiers were patrolling back and forth outside the warehouse. They had no idea that something had happened inside the warehouse.
(End of this chapter)