Fenghou

Chapter 973 Broken Luo (Part [-])
At the critical moment, the first large ship shook violently. There was a loud noise in the water, the ship shook violently, and stopped.

"General, there are hidden piles under the water, and the ship is stuck."

Yu Hongwu's expression became very serious. This was what they were most worried about, but it happened unexpectedly. He immediately ordered: "Warn the ships behind!"

A big red lantern was hung up to notify the ships a hundred steps behind to stop moving forward, and Yu Hongwu immediately ordered: "Launch the iron fire thunder!"

"Boom! Boom!" The four trebuchets fired iron fire mines at the same time, aiming at the pontoon bridge in front of them.

"Boom! Boom!"

A series of explosions, white water jets flew up to a height of one foot, and the water splashed everywhere. One of the iron fire lightning hit the target, a section of the pontoon was blown to pieces, and more than a dozen surrounding wooden piles were blown off.

The power of Tie Huo Lei stunned Zhe Keqiu on the top of the city. Realizing the critical situation, he shouted: "Throw fire oil to burn the boat, shoot from the bed crossbow!"

Dozens of burning kerosene barrels flew towards the big ship, and the big ship suddenly turned into a sea of ​​flames. In the flames, five hundred bed crossbows pierced through the air. Dozens of soldiers were shot down by the bed crossbow arrows, and nearly twenty of them The black armored soldier was shot.

"Dive quickly, the iron fire mine is about to explode."

A box containing four iron fire mines was burning in the raging fire. The match ropes of the iron fire mines were ignited, and the flames flickered. It was unclear whether all of them were ignited or one was ignited. Once it exploded, the whole The ships would be blown to pieces, and there were two hundred soldiers on board.

At this critical moment, a black-armored soldier rushed forward, picked up the Tie Huo Lei box and jumped into the water. The Tie Huo Lei exploded underwater, and the huge waves almost capsized the ship.

The hull of the boat was not destroyed, but a big hole was blown at the bottom of the boat, and the river water rushed in wildly.

The fire on the boat was burning, the cabin was flooded with river water, the big boat began to sink, Yu Hongwu had no choice but to order: "Take off the armor and abandon the boat!"

At this moment, the second round of attack by the enemy army at the head of the city began, and more than [-] barrels of kerosene hit the ship. The fire became more intense, and the black smoke filled the air. More than [-] soldiers were unfortunately hit by arrows.

The crossbowmen on the boat jumped out of the boat and went to the shore one after another. Yu Hongwu and more than twenty black-armored soldiers also took off their armor and jumped into the river to escape.

The whole ship was engulfed in flames and began to sink rapidly, and soon the river flooded the decks and the ship capsized.

Yu Hongwu looked back at the big ship, and the big ship had disappeared, only half of the mast was still exposed on the water.

With a long sigh, Yu Hongwu swam to the shore with all his might.
The attack fell short, and the generals watching the battle on the shore all sighed, but another trace of worry flashed in Chen Qing's eyes. There were twenty iron fire mines on board, but only five exploded before and after, and fifteen more sank into the river. Never let the enemy get it.

Chen Qing immediately said to Yang Zaixing: "Immediately send the water ghost down to get the Iron Fire Thunder, there are fifteen in total, not one less!"

At two o'clock, more than a dozen small boats gradually approached the place where the ships sank. More than a hundred water ghosts wearing black water tanks jumped into the water and dived to the bottom. The water ghosts quickly found the sunken boat and began to search for it in the cabin. After getting up, not long after, the water ghosts found three boxes of iron fire mines from the cabin, and the covers were not removed. There were four boxes in each box, twelve in total.

But there were still three iron fire mines that could not be found. Suddenly, they were discovered by the defenders at the top of the city. The defenders at the top of the city shouted loudly, and more than two thousand defenders shot arrows into the water together, and the arrows were like raindrops. When the shot came, several water ghosts were shot by arrows and unfortunately died in battle. The situation was not good, and the rest of the water ghosts had to evacuate quickly.

However, there are still a few water ghosts left behind. Their task is no longer to search for the iron fire mine, but to investigate the piling situation of the enemy army at the bottom of the water.

In the big tent, Yu Hongwu is reporting to Chen Qing the reason for the failure of the attack.

"Under normal circumstances, ships can rush into the city with the help of inertia, but I didn't expect that the enemy army had installed concealed equipment in the water. The ship was stuck and could not move. It became a living target for the attack from the city. Gunpowder, and the bed crossbow, the twenty-eight black-armored soldiers who died were all shot to death by the bed crossbow."

Chen Qing nodded and asked again: "Can Yu Tongzhi confirm that only five iron fire mines exploded? We searched repeatedly, and only found twelve, three missing."

Yu Hongwu lowered his head and thought for a while: "The last explosion was in the water. One of our brothers jumped into the water holding the iron fire mine that had been ignited. I can feel it. The power of the last explosion was so powerful that the ship was almost toppled. Turning over is definitely not the power of a single iron fire thunder, it should be several explosions at the same time."

"What's the name of this soldier?"

"It's called Zhang Wen, from Jingzhao Lantian County, and his parents are still there!"

Chen Qing turned to join the army and said, "Write it down, order the military department to find Zhang Wen's parents and give him three times the pension. His parents will be supported by the county."

"Humble job is written down."

At this time, Luo Kuan, the chief craftsman of the Firearms Bureau next to him, said to Chen Qing: "His Royal Highness, we have done experiments many times. If it explodes in a box, then the other iron fire mines put together will be blown up. The iron shell is very Brittle, rough, and easily broken, it will never remain the same, even if it is found, it will be half an iron shell at most, and it is meaningless for the enemy to get it."

Chen Qing nodded, and said to everyone: "The two failed attacks also let us see that the enemy's defense is very tight. According to the information obtained by the water ghost, there are thousands of hidden piles underwater. Not only The entrances and exits at both ends of the Luoshui River were sealed off, and the entrance to the moat was also sealed off, that is to say, attacking from the waterway was no longer realistic, so I decided to give up attacking from the waterway.”

"Then we can only go back to the original idea, blowing up the city gate with an iron rhino?" Yang Zaixing said in frustration.

Chen Qing still shook his head, "Zhe Keqiu is a famous general among Zhe family generals. He is experienced and seasoned. It can be seen from the siege of Luoshui that the defense he deployed was watertight. He blocked the boat with two iron chains and blocked it with hidden underwater stakes. Big ships, kerosene and gunpowder are used very skillfully, and bed crossbows, I am almost sure that he has deployed a large number of bed crossbows on the pontoon bridge in the city and on the shore, just to deal with our wolf pack tactics, so fortunately we did not Use a small boat full of soldiers to force a breakthrough, otherwise the entire army will definitely be destroyed."

Speaking of this, Chen Qing stared at Yang Zaixing and said, "Such an opponent, do you think he will make a mistake and give our soldiers a chance to approach the city gate or the city wall?"

"I don't know, but I should try it!" Yang Zaixing whispered after a moment of silence.

Liu Cui said: "Your Highness, what do you mean that we should abandon the idea of ​​trickery and prepare for a tough battle?"

Chen Qing glanced at Yang Zaixing, and said to Liu Cui and everyone: "We also have advantages, that is, heavy trebuchets and thousand-pace guns. I only discovered now that they are actually the main force to attack Luoyang. Now everyone go back and rest. It's time for the artisans to be busy."

Everyone got up and dispersed, Yang Zaixing stood up and said to Chen Qing in a low voice: "Your Highness, I really don't want to be reconciled to being humbled, I want to try again."

Chen Qing said lightly: "You can try it out, but it's best not to use Tiehuolei, and you can't let Tiehuolei fall into the opponent's hands."

Yang Zaixing resolutely promised: "Please rest assured, Your Highness, I will never let Tie Huolei fall into the opponent's hands. If I miss and fall into the bandit army, I am willing to use military law to deal with it!"

Chen Qing understood Yang Zaixing's stubbornness very well, and he would never be reconciled to not letting him experience failure, so he nodded and agreed, "Yes! You write a military order, and I will try."

While Chen Qing was discussing countermeasures with the generals in the central army account, the commander-in-chief of Luoyang City, Zhe Keqiu, was also discussing defensive countermeasures with a dozen generals.

Zhe Keqiu said to everyone: "I received a letter from Wan Yanchang asking us to pay attention to the iron fire mines of the enemy army. They are very powerful. A single iron fire mine could destroy the gate of Datong city. I didn't believe it at first, but I witnessed it with my own eyes today, and I realized that this thing is really powerful, if we can't prevent it, Luoyang City will definitely fall."

"Does the commander think that the Song army will attack from Luoshui again?" a general asked.

Zhe Keqiu shook his head, "Frankly speaking, I don't know. If I were Chen Qing, I would definitely give up Luoshui. He should be very clear that Luoshui has no chance. It doesn't matter whether it's a big boat, a small boat or swimming. If they break through Luoshui, they can only attack the city instead."

Speaking of this, Zhe Keqiu sternly said to everyone: "Chen Qing's army is best at sneak attacks at night. I must strictly implement the [-] rules for night defense that I have formulated. Whoever dares not to implement or perfunctory me will be punished by military law." Talk about chopping!"

Everyone saluted in unison: "Follow the order!"

(End of this chapter)