The Legend of Shushan Xuanjian

Chapter 783
Is it in the essence of inflammation?I sigh that the talents are exhausted, and there are no heroes.Hu Ma drives three criminals, who will be the fortified wall of the Great Wall?The nations are galloping, and the two palaces are secluded. When will this hatred come to an end?Look around the thatched cottage three times, is there no virtuous person lying high?
God's will has favored me for Zhongxing, my emperor is martial, and he follows his great-grandson Zhou Fa.The borders of Hehai and Hai are all obedient, so why should the wild captives be wiped out?Cuiyu toured the south, but there was no way to knock on the door, and there was nothing but rushing to the crown.Lonely and loyal, the sword is cold and soaked in the autumn moon.

—— "Nian Nujiao · Yanjing Zhongfu" Huang Zhongfu (Song Dynasty)

……

Tian Shengong was defeated in Jinshan and was unable to cross the river, so he had to retreat to Guazhou.

Liu Zhangang took a breath, and just as he was secretly rejoicing, the scouts came to report the urgent military situation: General Fan Zhixin under Bai Fu led 4000 troops, went around to the upper reaches, crossed the river suddenly from Baisha, attacked Xiashu (now north of Jurong City, Jiangsu Province), and cut off the The retreat of Liu Zhan's army is exactly the same as when Liu Zhan dealt with Li Yao.

Liu Zhan suddenly felt bad.

……

Liu Zhan dared to cause chaos in the Jianghuai area because of his newly trained navy, and the biggest reliance of the navy was a batch of main warships presented to Liu Zhan by the Japanese kingdom.

These warships are all several feet high and decorated with red lacquer. The largest warship is fifteen feet long and two feet wide.Each ship has three layers, a horse shed, and soldiers patrolling back and forth on horseback.All the boxes are covered with iron.

The stern has three decks, the upper deck being shorter than the lower deck.There is only one deck on the bow.

The three decks at the stern allow crossbowmen to shoot from above.When ships meet with each other, the outcome is not by ramming angles, but by shooting crossbow arrows or throwing short spears, torches and other burning objects.

The stables are at the front end of each deck, and the sheltered part at the back is used by soldiers.Once the two ships meet, they can charge and fight on horseback.

Riverboats cannot run purely on sails, so these warships are powered by oars, and the oarsmen are all below the lowest deck.

In addition to the main warships funded by the Japanese state, with the assistance of Zhang Jingchao, the envoy of the Japanese state to the Tang Dynasty, Liu Zhan was able to concentrate on building more warships and training the navy.

Within a year, Liu Zhan trained a new naval force, which was larger than the Jianghuai Navy led by Chen Honghu in the past, and it was no problem to transport soldiers, horses, food, grass and equipment.

……

Hawkeye led the scouts, and after some investigation, he drew up the formation map of Liu Zhan's navy in detail.Mark Liu Zhanshui's ship type, quantity, draft and other details one by one.

Seeing the size of Liu Zhan's navy, the Tang army generals gasped and whispered to each other.

Bai Fu smiled calmly, and asked Ding Jiuqu and Sheng Hailiu, "What do you two generals think?"

Before Ding and Sheng joined the Hebei Daoyi Army, their ancestors were fishermen on the Yellow River for generations.In the last years of Tianbao, the common people were in dire straits.Ding and Sheng led the fishermen to become bandits, and obeyed the order of the leader of Shanyun Hengzhai in Huxi Village, the leader of the Lvlin League in Hebei Province.

The sailors trained by these fishermen are good at water warfare and have good strength.

Seeing General Bai's questioning, Ding and Sheng hurriedly stood up and saluted.

Sheng Hailiu said: "Liu Zhanjun's giant ships are indeed very big, with very high arrow towers. It is very difficult for ordinary small boats to attack them. However, these giant ships are slow, deep in water, and difficult to control. There are many challenges in fighting in rivers and lakes. weakness.

As the saying goes, if there is a benefit, there must be a harm.As long as we have the right tactics, we can still defeat them. "

The navy led by Ding and Sheng consisted of hundreds of warships.Compared with Liu Zhanjun's giant ship, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a small sampan.

The generals in Anxi are not familiar with water warfare, and they don't understand the mystery of it.Naturally, they felt that Ding and Sheng were trying to support their appearance, and they encouraged themselves.

Ding and Sheng had just been transferred from Hebei Rebel Army to Tang Army generals, their official ranks were relatively low, and they were soft-spoken. Seeing the generals in Anxi, they were quite disapproving, so they couldn't say more.

Bai Fu smiled and said: "Liu Zhan was originally a general of the Tang army in Henan Province, and his original intention of forming a navy was nothing more than transporting troops and food to the besieged city for supplies and assisting in the siege.

The Wa Kingdom was afraid of offending Datang, so they did not dare to openly declare war with the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, although they provided Liu Zhan with a large number of warships, they did not dare to send Japanese sailors to participate in the battle, and did not provide a clear water warfare strategy.

In terms of assisting the siege, these giant ships do have advantages. They can use the tall arrow towers on the hull to suppress the firepower of the defenders, and then use the stern, which is about the same height as the city wall, to build a flyover at the stern and directly attack the buildings near the water. of the city.

Whether these giant ships are good or bad, the key depends on who will use them and how to use them?
In my opinion, the biggest weakness of Liu Zhan's navy is that Liu Zhan and his senior generals don't understand water warfare.

Although Liu Zhan has huge warships, he only regards these warships as supply ships for transporting troops and food, or as siege equipment like ladders, and does not really regard the warships as sharp weapon platforms.

Liu Zhan doesn't know how to command huge ships. In Liu Zhan's view, once these huge and heavy ships disperse, they will be destroyed by opponents one by one.The safest way is to connect the bow and stern of the ship, the men and horses on the ship are like walking on the ground, and then let the cavalry gallop on the deck of the battleship.

In the final analysis, this is still infantry and cavalry combat tactics, not real naval tactics.

Moreover, once the giant ships are connected together, it constitutes a major hidden danger in water warfare.If you are not careful, you will repeat the mistakes of Cao Cao who burned Chibi. "

Ding and Sheng are masters at maneuvering boats and turning rivers and seas.Seeing that Bai Fu is proficient in the way of water warfare, he nodded quickly, deeply convinced.

Bai Fudao: "General Alberts of Persia told me a story about the naval battle of Actium. It is said that seven or 800 years ago, Michel (Egypt) and Daqin (Rome) had a famous naval battle. The cause of the naval battle was the rice The Xi'er Fleet wanted to break through the Daqin Fleet's blockade of the bay, so the two sides fought to the death.

Each side has an excellent commander, the commander of Mixier is called Anthony, and the commander of Daqin is called Octavian.

The warships of Mishir (Egypt) were huge but inflexible, and the tactics of naval battles were correspondingly backward. These giant ships could only be used as combat platforms for infantry.

The Daqin (Roman) Navy gradually developed during the century-old process of suppressing pirates. The warships became smaller and smaller.

In that era, Mixier and Daqin didn't have any decent long-range weapons, and they couldn't destroy their opponents through long-range shooting.

Therefore, the Daqin Navy accelerated its speed and rammed the huge Michel fleet.Later, there was a more tragic battle of jumping gangs and seizing ships, causing the warships of both sides to strangle together.

The navies of both sides completely disrupted the front line while pulling each other, creating many gaps that could be exploited virtually.

In the end, the small and medium-sized ships of the Daqin Navy took full advantage of their speed and besieged a single enemy ship with sharks.

Mixier's giant ship was limited by its slow movement, and was blown out of formation by the current in the more turbulent open sea, and was besieged by ships several times its own size again, so it could only rely on the huge size of the battleship to bite the bullet go down.

What's more terrible is that Michel's two commanders were completely isolated by the siege ships, and the entire command system seriously failed.Hundreds of warships could only fight trapped beasts in increasingly narrow waters, and were finally wiped out by the Daqin Navy.

It can be seen that the key to water warfare is to fight according to the tactics of water warfare.

Water warfare is not only a fight between soldiers, but also a fight between ships.Only by giving full play to the characteristics of the ship can it be possible to win.

According to this idea, let's compare the advantages and disadvantages of our warship and Liu Zhan's warship.

Liu Zhan's giant ships are all built of square timber, without heavy keels that can support the angle of impact.The warships of the two generals Ding and Sheng not only had ramming angles, but also were wrapped with copper and iron armor on the outside of the hull, which was not only not afraid of collisions, but also not afraid of fire attacks.

In addition, although the warships of the two generals Ding and Sheng were small, they were extremely fast and maneuverable, and they could take the upper hand at any time, using catapults to launch fire bombs or small fireboats.

Another important point is that most of the warships provided by Wa Kingdom to Liu Zhan were rebuilt sea-going ships with relatively deep drafts.Warships fighting in rivers and lakes must ensure a shallow draft, even at the expense of other performances.

In this regard, Liu Zhan is obviously a layman. He could have supplemented ships specifically for the weaknesses of his navy ships when building new warships.However, he didn't have this awareness at all. Instead, he continued to build giant ships in imitation of Japanese warships.

If Liu Zhan wants to rely on the superiority of the navy to fight against the imperial court, he should launch a war and occupy the Jianghuai River during the flood season of the Yangtze River in summer.

Today, it is the dry season of the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and other rivers, and the water levels of rivers and lakes are all low.

As long as we carefully select the battlefield for the water battle and fight in shallow water, we can use our strengths to avoid weaknesses and destroy Liu Zhan's giant ship. "

Having said that, Bai Fu ended the military meeting in a relaxed tone.

"The Battle of Chibi is famous in history and has made Zhou Lang famous. You all cherish it, and hope to meet you in wealth and honor in the future."

(End of this chapter)