Chapter 120 Zhang Fei is surrounded and the army is coming!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!——"

Zhang Fei commanded a fleet of fifteen ships, five of which were main warships equipped with cannons, and ten were patrol and scout ships.

These five warships equipped with cannons attacked from all directions and fired at the Jiangdong navy that was surrounding and killing them!
Each main battleship has at least five cannons, which means that 25 shells were fired directly at that moment!
"Boom——"

The vanguard of the Jiangdong Navy was the first to be bombarded by artillery fire.

The cannon is so powerful!
It landed on the deck and blew a hole in it, causing countless casualties.

It fell on the hull and broke it directly, allowing seawater to flood in.

Even if it fell on the sea, it was like a huge rock falling into the water, rolling up waves and stirring up the formation of the Jiangdong navy fleet.

This completely shocked the entire Jiangdong navy!
Their morale, which had been boosted by the fact that Zhang Fei and other imperial fleets had fallen into a trap, was shattered into nothingness by the first round of artillery fire!
They were left with only shock and fear!

It's the shock and fear of unknown and powerful weapons!
It was not until the screams, wails, and the sound of waves from the whirlpool of the sunken ship awakened the Jiangdong navy that they were awakened from their dream!
"Ah—the boat is going to sink!!!"

"What kind of weapon is this?! It can be used at such a long distance and has such great power?!"

"I finally understand why the Huainan Navy was defeated?! Facing such a terrifying and powerful weapon, there is no way to resist it!!!"

"A whirlpool has appeared on the sunken ship of the Vanguard Army ahead. Hurry up and get out of the way, or you will be sucked into the whirlpool!"

"Hurry up and save them!!!"

The entire Jiangdong navy was filled with exclamations, screams, and chaos.

Zhang Fei's first round of artillery fire not only shocked the Jiangdong navy officers and soldiers, but also disrupted their aggressive formation.

Because the vanguard fleet was concentrated by artillery, the whirlpool caused by the sunken ships was like a roadblock, blocking the path of the rear fleet, and they had to change lanes.

The lane change in this chaos undoubtedly caused the formation to become disrupted, resulting in a chaotic and disorganized situation.

This scene was naturally seen by Zhou Yu and other generals who were commanding the battle in the rear.

"No wonder the Huainan Navy, the best in the world, was defeated by the sudden attack of the Imperial Navy. It turned out to be because of this weapon!!!"

Zhou Yu was horrified and directly shocked by the cannon. Even though the distance was very far, the roar of the cannon was still echoing in his ears.

"The power of this weapon is too terrifying!!!"

Sun Ce was also terrified and asked anxiously, "Gongjin, should we withdraw our troops for the time being? The enemy's attack has shaken our morale, and it is not conducive to continuing the fierce battle!"

Huang Gai also said: "Our vanguard fleet has been in disarray, which will affect the fleet in the rear, and the soldiers are shocked by the enemy's mysterious weapons. We should temporarily avoid the front line!"

All the generals thought that they should withdraw their troops and avoid the enemy for the time being!

However, Zhou Yu, after considering the situation, said in a deep voice: "On the contrary, now is the time for us to seize the opportunity to pursue the victory!"

"Why?!"

Sun Ce, Huang Gai and other generals looked at Zhou Yu in surprise and doubt.

Zhou Yu said:

"From the attack just now, it can be seen that among the fifteen fleets under Zhang Fei, only five main battleships have this weapon, and the remaining ten are unmoved. And after a round of attack, there was no immediate continuous attack, which shows that the operation is somewhat cumbersome.

“We should seize the opportunity to defeat Zhang Fei’s fleet at all costs. If we can seize that unknown mysterious weapon, even if we are completely wiped out in this battle, we will have the confidence to make a comeback.

"On the contrary, we know nothing about that mysterious weapon. If we retreat from this battle, we will be worried and anxious. Even if we force ourselves to organize a fleet to fight again in the future, we will be worried and unable to go all out!"

Hearing this, the generals woke up in shock!
Yes!

Even if we temporarily retreat from this battle, what will happen? ! This is a powerful weapon that defeated the Huainan Navy!

As long as they know nothing about it, the unknown and fear of this mysterious weapon will cause the morale of the Jiangdong Navy to collapse directly, and they will not dare to fight again!

Instead, they should take advantage of Zhang Fei's current weakness and defeat them at all costs to seize this mysterious weapon for research.

The pros outweigh the cons!

Huang Gai nodded and said:
"Gongjin is right. Zhang Fei's fleet of fifteen ships is only the vanguard. If the imperial court's fleet of hundreds or thousands of ships moves south, we will have no chance of resisting them!"

All the generals agreed and reached a consensus!
The Jiangdong Navy did not call off the troops, but in order to avoid affecting the fleet, they ordered them to disperse!
After all, they are all veterans who have experienced many battles. They have also seen some drawbacks and breakthroughs from the first round of cannon attack!
The cannon cannot perform continuous attacks, which means that the operation is cumbersome.

Although the attack of the cannon is powerful, its trajectory is relatively single. As long as the fleet is dispersed, it can avoid affecting the entire fleet.

Based on these speculations, the Jiangdong naval commander ordered another attack.

The Jiangdong Navy fleet did not retreat. It bypassed the sunken ships and attacked Zhang Fei and other fleets again!
This scene surprised Zhang Fei a little!
"I didn't expect that the Jiangdong Navy hadn't collapsed despite the suppression of artillery fire?! They have much stronger willpower than the Huainan Navy!!!"

The guard on the side thought for a moment and said:
"General, our vanguard army only has five main battleships with cannons. A total of 25 cannons bombarding can hardly be considered fire suppression!"

Hearing this, Zhang Fei was stunned for a moment, then woke up in shock!

The reason why the imperial Han navy and Yuan Shu's Huainan navy were able to form firepower suppression in the battle at the mouth of the Huaihe River was because of this.

That was a baptism of hundreds and thousands of ships, at least five hundred battleships, and thousands of cannons!

This constitutes fire suppression!
Only then did we defeat the Huainan Navy with one blow!
Now, they only have five main battleships and twenty-five cannons. It can't be considered as fire suppression, and they can't defeat the Jiangdong navy in one blow!
Thinking of this, Zhang Fei suddenly woke up and realized that he was still a little reckless!
We should wait for the follow-up troops to arrive, then fire hundreds or thousands of cannons to suppress the enemy with firepower, and directly defeat the Jiangdong navy in one blow!
Now, although the Jiangdong navy was shocked by the powerful cannons, they did not retreat. It was obvious that their spirit had not completely collapsed!
They might even be planning to defeat his vanguard fleet.

Zhang Fei secretly blamed himself!

Of course he would not say it out loud, and he scolded his personal guards: "You are the one who talks too much, don't I know that?! Why don't you prepare for the second round of artillery bombardment!"

"I obey your orders!!!"

The personal soldiers retreated in dismay, full of complaints.

Zhang Fei personally operated a cannon.

After the tedious work of loading gunpowder and shells was completed, he looked at the Jiangdong Navy fleet approaching and shouted:

"fire!!!"

The second round of artillery fire echoed over the sea area again and again.

"Boom! Boom! Boom——"

Five main battleships and twenty-five cannons, although not every shot hit the target, at least most of them hit the Jiangdong Navy fleet.

However, General Zhou Yu and others dispersed the Jiangdong naval fleet, which indeed reduced the losses a lot.

After two rounds of artillery bombardment, the Jiangdong Navy lost more than 30 warships. But it also allowed them to approach Zhang Fei's fleet!
At this time, it was too late to use cannons to launch a third round of attack!

The work of loading gunpowder and artillery shells is rather cumbersome, and even if the range is long, continuous firing is impossible.

And the cannon barrel also needs to dissipate heat.

This made Zhang Fei a little regretful, but only a slight regret, because in addition to cannons, they also had muskets!

"Musketeers prepare for boarding!!!"

The prototype of this fleet is the "Ming Navy", and the Ming Dynasty's firearms were mainly matchlock guns.

Because Liu Bian drew the peak period of the "Great Ming Navy", most of the fire guns were "matchlock guns", which were called "bird guns" in the Ming Dynasty. They were named because their ignition structure was like a bird's beak pecking at water when ignited.

The advantage of the bird gun is that it has a fast attack speed and does not require charging power to shoot like a bow and arrow.

It should be noted that training archers is extremely difficult, but learning to use bird guns is easy.

Since he was assigned the "Ming Navy" fleet, Liu Bian ordered training on artillery and firearms, and soon his soldiers became proficient in them.

If the three-piece war horse suit can shorten the cavalry training from several years to several months or days.

The advent of the bird gun shortened the training time of archers, or long-range attackers, from several years to several days.

Of course, the bird gun also has many shortcomings.

For example, it is difficult to shoot, and you can only aim mechanically without a scope. The damage and range are slightly lower than those of a charged bow and arrow. It is easily affected by wind and rain when igniting, and when igniting the matchlock, you need to keep the fire and the burning matchlock, which cannot be maintained for a long time.

However, Zhang Fei only ordered the "Musketeers" to launch a rapid boarding attack, mainly to intimidate the enemy!
After all, the emergence of unknown cannons and firearms was enough to make the enemy uncertain and worried, which was beneficial to the subsequent boarding battle.

The Jiangdong navy approached fearfully and finally launched a long-range attack on Zhang Fei's fleet.

But arrows can be dodged and you can use cover to avoid them, so the damage is not great.

Under the suppression of this rain of arrows, the Jiangdong Navy fleet finally approached Zhang Fei's fleet and surrounded their fifteen ships.

Next, it was boarding battle.

There are two main tactics for this type of battle: ship ramming and boarding.

Warship ramming is to use one's own strong ship to rush at high speed to the vital parts of the enemy ship, making the enemy ship lose its combat effectiveness. This is the role of ships such as warships.

During the Battle of Red Cliffs, Huang Gai drove a warship into Cao Cao's fleet.

When boats intersect or meet on a narrow road, they will engage in boarding combat. At this time, boarding combat is just hand-to-hand combat using weapons such as daggers and spears. In later times, the evolution of warships has significantly improved the close combat capabilities of warships.

Due to the influence of wind direction and water current, the Jiangdong navy did not use "warship ramming" but "boarding combat".

After the Jiangdong navy fleet surrounded Zhang Fei's fleet, they used spears, halberds, and long spears to attack!
But at this moment, Zhang Fei directly ordered: "Shoot!!!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang -"

Let's not talk about the power of hundreds of volleys of bird guns. But with the previous experience of cannons, this unknown and mysterious weapon is enough to intimidate the enemy!

Sure enough, the soldiers on the Jiangdong Navy ships immediately dodged in panic, running away with their heads in their hands, and were defeated in an instant.

If they had not stayed on the ships but fought as infantry and cavalry, their formation would have been in chaos and they would have been defeated directly.

But even with the constraints of the ships, the soldiers of the Jiangdong Navy did not dare to show their heads.

This is a boarding battle!

The Jiangdong navy officers and soldiers did not dare to show their heads, so Zhang Fei and other imperial officers and soldiers naturally took advantage of the victory and pursued them!
Zhang Fei was extremely brave. He jumped onto the enemy warship with the Zhangba Snake Spear in his hand.

"kill!--"

Perhaps many people have forgotten that Zhang Fei was a powerful general who could defeat thousands of enemies!

Water fighting is just a hobby. His strength lies in charging into battle and leading the charge.

With Zhang Fei leading the way, more and more soldiers jumped onto the ships of the Jiangdong Navy and engaged in close combat.

Of course, there were also Jiangdong navy officers and soldiers who faced life and death, fought back and started a fierce battle!

Although there was Zhang Fei, a powerful general who could defeat thousands of enemies, the ships were separated from each other and could not shock the entire army.

This also prompted the Jiangdong Navy soldiers on other ships to launch a counterattack!

The whole situation fell into a melee and fighting!

but!

After all, the Jiangdong Navy fleet had nearly a hundred ships. Even though more than thirty ships were destroyed after two rounds of artillery fire, there were still sixty or seventy warships.

And this is only the vanguard army. Generals Zhou Yu, Sun Ce and others are still watching and commanding the battle in the rear, and there are more than a hundred ships around them!
Since the battle of crossing the river, Sun Ce's power has developed rapidly, and Jiangdong has a large reserve of ships, fishing boats, etc. This also enabled Sun Ce to recruit soldiers and grow stronger. He had a naval fleet of two to three hundred ships and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command!

This is definitely a force that cannot be underestimated!

Facing the imperial court's aggressive army, they were naturally just small shrimps. But against Zhang Fei's vanguard fleet, they still had an absolute advantage!
When they saw the Jiangdong Navy's vanguard fleet surrounding Zhang Fei's fifteen ships, the two sides had already engaged in boarding and hand-to-hand combat.

Generals Zhou Yu, Sun Ce and others were finally certain that Zhang Fei's fleet's secret weapons and trump cards had all been revealed!

Then it’s time for them to mobilize their entire army!
"Send out the entire army to attack, annihilate Zhang Fei's fleet, and seize the mysterious weapon!" Zhou Yu gave the order directly.

All the soldiers received the order and attacked!
Huang Gai and other generals led the fleet to go out in full force. More and more Jiangdong navy ships surrounded Zhang Fei and his fifteen other ships.

At this moment, Zhang Fei felt a little regretful. He was still a little reckless!
Zhang Fei originally thought that the cannons would be able to crush the morale of the Jiangdong navy, causing them to collapse mentally and be defeated directly!
However, Zhang Fei misjudged the number of his own cannons and the intensity of the fire suppression, so he failed to inflict heavy damage to the entire Jiangdong navy!
What if instead of fifteen ships, there were one hundred and fifty?! What if instead of twenty-five cannons, there were two hundred and fifty?!
This is definitely fire suppression, a cannon baptism that will directly defeat the enemy with one blow!

But what a pity!
Zhang Fei underestimated the enemy!
This also caused their own fleet to fall into the encirclement of the Jiangdong Navy!
"Rumble--"

The fifteen warships under Zhang Fei's command were defeated one after another, and one after another was controlled by the enemy.

This not only resulted in the loss of the ship, but also the casualties of the soldiers on board.

This made Zhang Fei regretful!

The officers and soldiers of the Jiangdong Navy became braver and more excited as the battle went on!
Because the enemy is losing ground!

Because the enemy ships gradually fell into their control!

Because that unknown, powerful, terrifying mysterious weapon is about to fall into their hands!

Victory is just around the corner and within reach!

but!

At this critical moment, the sound of intensive drum beating suddenly came from behind.

Hearing the familiar sound of drums and shouts, Zhang Fei, who was sinking into regret, suddenly had his eyes brightened and was overjoyed!

This is the drumbeat and shouting of their "Han Navy" fleet!
Zhang Fei had no time to confirm it. They were surrounded and his soldiers were in despair. He had to give them hope.

Therefore, Zhang Fei shouted with all his might, "The follow-up troops of our Han navy are coming!!! The reinforcements have arrived!!!"

"Reinforcements have arrived!!!", "Reinforcements have arrived!!!", "Reinforcements have arrived!!!"...

Zhang Fei's voice was already as loud as thunder, and now his shouting with all his strength sinking into his dantian created an echo like a wave!
This was heard by the soldiers of both armies in the melee!
Our soldiers were stunned for a moment, and their morale, which had fallen into despair, suddenly rose!

After hearing this, the soldiers of Jiangdong Army immediately became frightened!

……

(End of this chapter)