Chapter 128 Zhou Yu designed an iron lock across the river, and Xun You and Guo Jia devised a plan to break it!

Two thousand ships of the Han navy were sailing on the Yangtze River.

As the king of a country and the ruler of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bian personally led the army to fight towards Sanjiangkou!

Not long ago, news came one after another from Zhang Fei and Taishi Ci's vanguard fleet - the Jiangdong navy and the Jingzhou navy set an ambush, blocked the enemy with iron chains, and set fire to burn, and the vanguard fleet suffered heavy losses!
After hearing the news, Liu Bian directly raised the strategic plan of sending only one thousand warships to Jingzhou to two thousand!
If it weren't for the remaining one thousand or so ships, all of which were giant ocean-going vessels, even the draft of the Yangtze River would be unbearable. Liu Bian was even ready to dispatch all 3800 ships of the Han navy to Sanjiangkou.

Because Liu Bian felt the call of a mission!

Sanjiangkou, naval battles, fire attacks, Jiangdong navy, Jingzhou navy... all these kinds of information, as well as Wulin, Chibi and other places near Sanjiangkou, all made Liu Bian see the shadow of the "Battle of Chibi"!

Liu Bian missed the Battle of Guandu!

The Battle of Chibi, Liu Bian doesn’t want to miss it!
As a time traveler, staying in the rear all day, protected by civil officials and military generals like a national treasure panda, you need to practice the rule that a gentleman does not sit in a hall or stand under a dangerous wall.

Liu Bian also wanted to make a big splash and personally participate in this historical turning point.

Of course, Liu Bian just wanted to feel involved, not really wanting to put himself in danger, nor did he want to let many soldiers and civilians die in the war.

You must know that in the Battle of Red Cliff, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed or injured!

If hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded, then the number of civilians would definitely double!
In troubled times, life is worthless. Even though Liu Bian was benevolent and loved the people, the Jiangdong and Jingxiang areas were devastated by war.

War is a ruthless machine. No matter whether you are a king, a general, or an ordinary citizen, no one can escape the ravages of war!

Liu Bian wanted to participate in the Battle of Chibi, and also wanted to end the Battle of Chibi as quickly as possible!

In other words, put an end to the rebels in Jiangdong and Jingxiang!
Rather than saying that he participated in the Battle of Chibi, it would be more accurate to say that Liu Bian wanted to put an end to the conflict between Jiangdong and Jingxiang in the Chibi area!
Therefore, Liu Bian ignored the desperate advice of civil officials and military generals, and rejected all objections and led the army to fight in person!

"Report - The vanguard fleet was ambushed and burned by the Jingzhou navy as it sailed upstream along the Xiangjiang River, losing a main battleship!!!"

Liu Bian and other civil officials and military generals had also heard the violent explosion.

They are now sailing to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Poyang Lake area, and are not far from Sanjiangkou.

But even if they are closer, it will take at least several hours. I don't know whether Zhang Fei and Taishi Ci's vanguard fleet can withstand the arrival of follow-up troops.

"Send speedboats to support the vanguard fleet!" Liu Bian gave the order directly.

"promise!!!"

Small and medium-sized ships were dispatched one after another, and Liu Bian even ordered cannons to be installed on the Zhongxing ships.

However, due to the size, draft and other issues of the medium-sized fleet, it only has one or two cannons at most, but that is enough.

The imperial court sent reinforcement troops ahead of others, and they encountered the Jiangdong navy's enemy blocking troops one after another on the way!

Not only did they use iron chains to connect boats to stop the enemy, but even in the Pengze area, the Jiangdong navy used "iron chains to connect the river" to stop the enemy!
There are even iron spikes on the iron chain!

The imperial court's reinforcement troops were blocked halfway. Caught off guard, many ships were pierced with holes by iron spikes and sank directly!
If we wait for the follow-up large force to arrive, we will obviously be blocked here!

This made the imperial reinforcements somewhat anxious, and the express ship sent back a message to the main force in the rear.

Even if there are cannons on medium-sized ships, it is difficult to break the barrier of "Iron Chain Lianjiang"!

Because the power of the cannon is indeed strong, but it is difficult to blast through the iron chain that connects the river!

It was difficult to aim the shells at the iron chains, and as for the fixed piles, they were all on the cliffs on both sides, out of the range of the cannons.

This was obviously a distance carefully calculated by the Jiangdong Navy!

It has to be said that the wisdom and strategies of generals like Zhou Yu cannot be underestimated!
...

The news quickly spread back to the rear.

After hearing this, Liu Bian stood at the bow and looked at the turbulent Yangtze River ahead, but he asked the civil and military officials behind him:
"What clever ideas do you have for defeating the enemy?!"

Upon hearing this, civil and military officials worked together to pool their wisdom.

The Jiangdong Navy's tactic of naval warfare was unprecedented and unheard of, and it was definitely the first time it appeared.

Iron chains connect the river, and there are even iron spikes hidden under the water surface that cannot be seen in the dark!

If the speedboat moves forward, it will not only be blocked by the iron chain, but also hit the iron spike, which will definitely pierce the ship. At that time, the river water will rush into the ship, and the only option is to abandon the ship and flee!

This strategy was enough to stop the imperial navy fleet halfway, and by the time they had disrupted their advance, it was estimated that the vanguard fleet of Zhang Fei, Taishi Ci and others would have been completely wiped out.

even.

Will the Jiangdong Navy just watch them destroy the barrier? !

Certainly not!

They can ambush in the dark and use long-range attacks such as archery to surround and attack reinforcements!

The iron chains connecting the rivers not only block the advance of the imperial navy, but can even be used as a bait!
This plan is an open conspiracy!

This made the civil and military officials look up to Zhou Yu, the commander of the Jiangdong Navy. This plan must have come from Zhou Yu!

but!

The Jiangdong navy has Zhou Yu, and Liu Bian has the world's think tank!

Even if Liu Bian led the army in person and did not bring many think tanks with him, top think tanks such as Xun You and Guo Jia were enough to deal with this plan!
Xun You bowed and said:

“Your Majesty, you can order the construction of a huge raft, more than a hundred steps long and wide, and tie a scarecrow in front of the raft, dressed neatly and pretending to be a soldier, to confuse the enemy and also block the enemy’s rain of arrows.

"At the same time, select soldiers who are good at swimming and have them hide behind the straw men on the same boat. As the raft drifts downstream, the iron spikes hidden by the enemy in the river will pierce the raft. Soldiers who are good at swimming will take out the spikes and take them away on the raft."

This plan is to use a raft to attract magnets!
Guo Jia also said:
"In addition, we can order the soldiers to make giant torches, pour anointing oil on the torches, and place them in front of the warships. When they encounter iron chains, they will light the torches and burn and melt the iron chains."

The plan is to burn the iron chain with fire.

With Xun You and Guo Jia's suggestions as inspiration, more civil and military officials immediately joined the discussion, and by pooling their wisdom and ideas, various solutions were devised.

Even an iron chain across the river could not stop the advance of the imperial navy.

"My dear ministers are indeed pillars of society. Give the order to get it done immediately!" Liu Bian nodded with satisfaction.

After the leader of the Han Dynasty gave the order, everyone immediately started to work, and everything was ready in just a few hours.

At this time, they finally arrived at the location of the "Iron Lock Across the River".

Looking at this grand gesture, one cannot help but sigh at the strong will of resistance of these rebellious people in Jiangdong!

However, soon, the strategy of using the rafts to attract iron spikes and burn iron chains was implemented, and densely packed bamboo rafts attacked. In front of the rafts were scarecrows disguised as soldiers who were good at water hiding behind them.

"Shoot the arrow!!!"

Sure enough, when the bamboo raft approached the iron chain, soldiers from the Jiangdong navy ambushed and immediately shot arrows from a long distance, trying to surround and attack the imperial soldiers who were blocked by the iron chain.

If the Jiangdong Navy had not lacked ultra-long-range attack weapons, they would even want to attack the main force of the Navy directly.

But unfortunately, they don’t have cannons like the imperial navy to bombard indiscriminately!

"Puff! Puff! Puff——"

Arrows rained down, but were all absorbed by the scarecrow in front of the bamboo raft. This can be regarded as an alternative version of "Borrowing Arrows from the Straw Boat".

Using the scarecrow as a human shield, the naval soldiers who were good at swimming immediately dived into the water, took out the iron spike, and took it away on a raft.

Faced with the obstruction of "Iron Chains Across the River", giant torches were used, and the flame temperature was raised with the help of ointment. The core of the flame was at least 1600 degrees, which is the melting point of iron, just enough to burn and melt the iron chains.

If there are only one or two ships, it will probably take at least three to five days to complete.

But this time, Liu Bian personally led the army to fight, mobilizing almost the entire Han country. In just three to five hours, the plans of "iron locks across the river" and "iron spikes to drill into the ships" set up by the Jiangdong navy were broken!
This scene made the ambush troops of Jiangdong navy terrified!
They immediately passed the news to the front-line troops.

The imperial navy fleet also had unimpeded access and charged towards Sanjiangkou with great force and momentum!

……

(End of this chapter)