Chapter 121: The Jiangdong navy was defeated, and the cannons were unstoppable!
"Uuuuuu——"

The sound of horns resounded throughout the sea, and Taishi Ci and other generals led hundreds of warships and charged into the ambush point of the Jiangdong navy.

After defeating Yuan Shu's Huainan navy at the mouth of the Huai River, the imperial navy fleet split into two groups.

It goes deep into the Huai River and then goes south to enter the Yangtze River.

The fleet attacking the Yangtze River was commanded by Zhang Fei, Taishi Ci and other generals, with Zhang Fei leading the vanguard fleet.

The Jiangdong navy lured the enemy deep into their territory. Zhang Fei took advantage of the situation and took the initiative to fall into the trap. He passed the information to Taishi Ci and other generals in the rear.

This shocked Taishi Ci and other generals, and they immediately increased the sailing speed.

at last.

Caught up at the most critical moment!

"Fortunately, the main battleship is still there and has not fallen into the hands of the enemy!"

General Taishi Ci and others looked from afar at Zhang Fei and other generals who were engaged in a melee, and were relieved to see that the five main battleships were still under the control of their own soldiers.

These main battleships are equipped with cannons, shells, gunpowder and other firearms. Such heavyweight weapons naturally cannot fall into the hands of the enemy.

"Prepare to attack immediately, outflank the Jiangdong navy, and annihilate the enemy right here!"

Taishi Ci and other generals gave orders in succession, deciding to intervene in this battle forcefully and use it to encircle and annihilate the Jiangdong navy.

There were hundreds of warships behind them, a total of five hundred, but there were actually only more than two hundred main battleships equipped with cannons.

But even so, the Jiangdong Navy is still in a crushing position!
This is a completely unequal battle!
Whether in terms of the size of the ships or the advancement of their weapons, they far surpass the Jiangdong Navy.

Even the Huainan Navy and the Jingzhou Navy, two of the best navies in the Han Dynasty, could not reach them!
Because, this was the "Ming Navy" that was ranked at the top of the world in the 17th century!

And now, it is only the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the third century!
After Taishi Ci and other generals gave the order, the fleet of more than 500 ships immediately dispersed in a strict formation.

Naval warfare is a battle fought by sailors on warships on the water. The movement and dispatch of warships on the battlefield are subject to strict regulations and management.

Those warships were like military formations on land. If they were in disarray, it would be difficult to organize an effective battle.

Formation is especially important for water battles!

Taishi Ci was originally from Donglai, a coastal city in Qingzhou, and was good at water warfare. After he joined Liu Bei and trained the navy, his water warfare skills improved by leaps and bounds.

During this period of time, I communicated with the naval commanders of the imperial court, and gained a different understanding.

Hundreds of ships seemed to be able to follow orders as if they were their own arms and fingers, and they surrounded the enemy in a strict battle formation.

This shocked all the officers and soldiers of the Jiangdong Navy!
"Gongjin, do we need to withdraw our troops?!"

Sun Ce and other generals naturally saw the imperial reinforcements first. Their smiles of victory, which showed they were sure of victory and ambush success, gradually turned solemn.

Just now, Zhang Fei had only fifteen warships under his command, and only five of them were main battleships equipped with mysterious weapons.

Now the imperial court has more than 500 warships as reinforcements, and no one knows how many of them are equipped with that mysterious weapon.

Even though the two armies had not yet fought, Sun Ce had already seen defeat!

"withdraw!!!"

Although Zhou Yu was somewhat unwilling, he still said decisively:
"But we can't just retreat. That would give the enemy a chance to pursue us! Order the red horse boats, yachts and other speedboats to rush directly towards the enemy ships..."

Zhou Yu immediately gave the order and the Jiangdong navy immediately changed its formation.

The main battleship managed to turn around and retreat, while small speedboats such as the Chimazhou rushed towards the enemy warships without hesitation.

Suicide attack!
They even set fire to the straw and oil on the Red Horse Boat halfway through the journey, which were essential items for a fire attack!
Because warships are made of flammable wood, fire attack is a common tactic in naval battles.

Fleets like the Jiangdong Navy would naturally prepare flammable materials in advance in order to launch fire attacks at critical moments.

"call--"

I don’t know whether it was a blessing from the weather or the Jiangdong navy deliberately chose the ambush point to gain the upper hand and advantage.

According to the current wind direction, Taishi Ci and his fleet are in the downwind, while the attacking Jiangdong navy's red horse boats and fire ships are in the upwind.

This resulted in the small speedboat, which was already very fast, being further accelerated by the wind direction.

If this burning fire ship rams into the imperial fleet, it will surely cause heavy losses and casualties! Even if it doesn't collide, it will be necessary to temporarily avoid the fire ship, which can cause chaos in the imperial fleet's formation and give the Jiangdong Navy an opportunity to take advantage.

This kind of tactics is always effective!
but! !! !!

This was only in the past, but now the imperial navy fleet possesses terrifying long-range attack weapons - cannons!
"Gunners, aim at the enemy fireships and fire!!!"

Taishi Ci and other generals gave orders. Although there were no sights, there were naturally no shortage of sharpshooters among the soldiers. They aimed by visual and feel and aimed at the suicidal fireships.

then--

fire! ! !
"Boom! Boom! Boom!——"

The cannon shells hit the fireship, blowing the blazing fireship away. The flames shattered into pieces on the sea, even affecting the fireship nearby, which exploded before it could get close.

There were also cannons that fell on the sea, rolling up huge waves and directly overturning the fire ship. After all, it was a small speedboat with too low a load, and it was easy to capsize in such a big wave.

Of course, there were also shells that missed the target.

However, under the bombardment of hundreds of artillery shells, most of these suicidal fireships were blocked and posed no direct threat to the imperial fleet!

Those few fireships that escaped the net were also flattened by the second round of artillery bombardment.

A very small number of lucky fireships managed to break through the siege, but were intercepted by the imperial navy fleet and did not cause much impact!
Naturally, this wave of fire attack by the Jiangdong Navy failed!

but! ! !

The delay in intercepting the fire ships gave the Jiangdong navy time and opportunity to turn around and retreat.

This was exactly the purpose of Zhou Yu and other generals. When the imperial navy fleet was trying to stop the fire ships, they had already left the ambush point and were rushing towards the mouth of the Yangtze River.

"Chase!!!"

Taishi Ci gave decisive orders to pursue the enemy while they were victorious.

In the past, this would be considered as being too aggressive and would lead to the possibility of being ambushed by the enemy.

But now!
A fleet with cannons can crush any enemy with ease and sweep through them. It will kill anyone who stands in its way, and it is unstoppable!

There is no defense that cannot be broken by one shot. If there is, then use two shots!!!

The imperial navy fleet is in hot pursuit!
This also enabled Zhang Fei and other vanguard fleets that were trapped in the siege to finally escape danger!
But now, only five of the fifteen ships are left, because these five are main battleships equipped with cannons and firearms, which cause headaches for the enemy.

But even the main battleship is now riddled with holes and scars.

"Clean the battlefield!"

Zhang Fei wanted to pursue the enemy while he was victorious, but looking at the wreckage of the ship and recalling his own recklessness, he secretly blamed himself and ordered the battlefield to be cleaned up, his own soldiers to be rescued, and the bodies to be salvaged.

In this ambush, the Jiangdong navy returned empty-handed!

but!

The vanguard naval fleet under Zhang Fei also suffered heavy losses!

This made the two armies angry, and naturally they did not want to stop fighting, so Taishi Ci and other generals kept chasing the Jiangdong navy!

They fought their way from the Hengsha Islands to the mouth of the Yangtze River, and finally went deep into the Yangtze River basin.

There are defenses of the Jiangdong Navy here, and even checkpoints to intercept them!

After all, waterways are not only passages, but also important tax routes.

Commercial traffic was facilitated by the advantages of water transportation, and the forces that controlled these waterways naturally took advantage of this to collect taxes.

However, facing these checkpoints and outposts, the imperial navy fleet would simply bombard them with one shot. If one shot didn’t work, they would bombard them with ten shots. If ten shots didn’t work, they would bombard them with a hundred shots!

There are more than 3 warships, and more than 10 of them are main battleships equipped with cannons. On these 5 main battleships, the number of cannons on each ship ranges from to , with an average of cannons per ship!
In total, thousands of cannon shots!

What level can stop us?!
The Yangtze River is almost unobstructed, and these checkpoints set up for collecting taxes cannot withstand the bombardment of cannons at all!
The imperial navy fleet commanded by General Taishi Ci and others was almost unstoppable, chasing after the Jiangdong navy!

……

(End of this chapter)