Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1073

"Dalang, the situation is a little bit bad."

General Lu Nan frowned.

In front of Ning Chun and the others, it was a sand table.

It is relatively simple to do, but there are still mountains, rivers and cities.

The south of Yongping County and Feng Xuan's Yongxi County are separated by Yunkai Mountain, the west is the confluence of Yushui (Yongjiang River) and Tanshui (Qianjiang River), and the west is Yulin County of Tandian.

To the south are Ning Daoming's Hepu and Ning Changzhen's Ningyue counties.

Yongping County is considered small among the counties, and it is all mountainous, with a small population and few fields.

Except for Guilin County (the original An County) in the north, which is still reliable, that is the central faction with Li Xizhi as the prefect, and the rest are all rebels.

"Don't worry, Guilin has Governor Li, and Nanhai County has General Li. Our Yongping County happens to be in the middle reaches of the Yu River, and the second Li can come along the river to help."

Now Ning Chun feels that he is still in Yongping. If he is in Hepu County and changes places with Ning Daoming, he will be surrounded by all sides now.

Although Ning Chun and Ning Chang are really of the same generation, but Ning Chang is really over 60 years old, but he is less than 30 years old. In the early years, he also went to Goguryeo with his father, and even once studied in the Imperial College of Chang'an City. After reading the book, he worked as a guard in the Qinjun Mansion.

Among the Ning clan, Ning Chun is the one who reads a lot and has a broad vision.

There are many mountains in Yongping County, which also has the advantage of having many mountains, that is, it is easy to guard.Back then, Li Guangdu was separated from the Yongping County rebellion. With this small territory, he attacked from all directions, but he had the upper hand everywhere.

"The imperial edict has been promulgated. Your Majesty will add me as the commander of Guangxi Daoyou. Sooner or later, Hepu County will still be mine."

Chang Daoming and others are attacking the cities and streams in the county that refuse to follow the rebellion, but Ning Chun does not intend to rescue them.

He prepared to guard Yongping City, and if he couldn't do it, he would retreat to the north of Yujiang River, or if he couldn't, he would simply retreat to Cangwu City in Cangwu County, which is on the edge of Lijiang River. It is convenient to go to Li Jing in the South China Sea.

Of course, he didn't intend to run unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Let's see when Li Jing and the others arrive!"

·······
Above the East China Sea, a fleet is marching mightily.

Because the San Francisco in the south of the Yangtze River has not yet been truly pacified, the imperial court had to go south to Lingnan and could only take the sea route, or it could only go from Bahan Road to Jiannan Road to central Guizhou or Yunnan.That would be too long a detour and the road would be difficult to walk.

Still more convenient at sea.

Board the boat from Jiangdu, leave the mouth of the Yangtze River, and head south along the coastline.

This time when Li Jing went to Lingnan, it was no longer the kind of big boat that he used to go to sea last time. Although the big boat could carry hundreds of people, it was not resistant to wind and waves. Even if it was sailing along the coast, it would capsize and sink. possible.

This time, the ship was newly built by the Royal Shipbuilding Bureau, named Treasure Ship, which was completely different from the previous ship.

It has four masts, two masts in the front with rail sails, and two masts in the back with jib sails. It is twenty feet long, has several decks, and the poop is very high.The stern deck of the largest treasure ship has seven floors and can have a draft of three feet.

Compared with the original ship, the forecastle is lower, and there is no middle cabin. Although the poop is still high, the square poop is very distinctive, not to mention that its sails are all soft sails.

According to the captain's introduction, this kind of sail is not suitable for inland navigation, but it is very convenient at sea.

The long boat that Li Jing was on had four masts and three decks, with low sides and a long and narrow hull.

"Our ship has a low center of gravity, is not afraid of wind and waves, and has a strong loading capacity, especially a strong combat capability. The bed crossbow and magic machine gun equipped on the ship can attack enemy ships from a distance. Able to jump onboard a ship and fight in close quarters."

"For such a long boat, the keel is not easy to obtain, right?"

Li Jing asked.

"Our Royal Shipbuilding Bureau has adopted the latest splicing keel technology, which greatly reduces the difficulty and cost. However, such a treasure ship is still expensive to build."

This new type of treasure ship is not only designed for maritime trade, but also capable of fighting.To prevent coastal pirates from attacking, especially on ocean voyages, after passing Guangnan Road, the coast goes all the way south until Tianzhu Sea and Persian Gulf. There will be many pirates along the way. In the past, it was very dangerous for merchant ships to encounter pirates. Yes, although merchant ships are large, they are slow. Pirates' ships sometimes hide in offshore harbors or behind islands, and they are often hard to guard against sudden attacks.

Once boarded by them, it may be the possibility of ship loss and death.

For this reason, Luo Cheng specially provided some design ideas, and then rewarded the craftsmen with a lot of money to solve the problem, and developed and built a new generation of treasure ships.

The ship that Li Jing was on could carry 100 soldiers, and it sailed normally. After it was fully loaded, it could not carry more than [-] crew members, sailors, and guards.

"Can you drive into the Yujiang River?" Li Jing asked.

"We are the crew of the Royal Maritime Trade Bureau. We have the highest salary and the best sailing skills. Yujiang is a big river, so there is no problem at all."

"We used to be really brave when we sailed the big boats to the sea. Thinking about it now, I really admire us at that time." A bosun said with a smile.

Building boats are only suitable for use on the Yangtze River, not even when there are winds and waves on the Yangtze River, but they can go to the sea as well.

As a result, the ship often capsizes, and some people are lucky, and they can even float to places that they dare not even think about. For example, in the early years, Feng Deyi accompanied the expedition to Goguryeo, but when the fleet encountered wind and waves, he floated from near the mouth of the Yangtze River to Baekje. went.

There were also Japanese who originally planned to land in Shandong, but ended up drifting to Ningbo.

Of course, there are many more unlucky ones. For example, there was a Japanese envoy sent to the Tang Dynasty who stayed in the Tang Dynasty for decades and became a high-ranking official at the prime minister level. The boat went home, but encountered a strong wind on the way, and more than half of the boat capsized.

A few boats floated to Hangzhou, and the old man even went all the way to Vietnam, and was robbed by pirates. Fortunately, he once served as the Annan Protector, and finally returned to Chang'an. It can be said that he narrowly escaped death.

In the early days of sailing, firstly, the boat was not good enough, and secondly, the sailing skills were not good, so if you deviated from the waterway a little, you might have to let it drift to see your luck.

Those who travel by sea in this era generally only know one route. Once they deviate, if they are farther from the coast, they may not even be able to find the direction.

It's a gamble.

However, navigation technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the past few years. The development of watertight cabins, nautical compasses, and astronomy, etc., have greatly increased the sense of security of these sailing seas, let alone now that there are such amazing treasure ships. Fear, and no longer worry about pirates.

Sitting in the poop, Li Jing looked at the mighty fleet, which consisted of more than 30 such treasure ships, followed by hundreds of refitted old-style ships.

The blue sky and the vast sea, the top of the mast, and the red flag flying around.

Li Jing couldn't believe that such a powerful fleet was actually just a merchant fleet of the Royal Maritime Trade Bureau, followed by other maritime merchants.

They took Li Jing to Nanhai County by the way, and they also planned to help Li Jing to quell the chaos after finishing the deal in Nanhai City.

Looking at the sailors with knives and axes in their waists, I think that there are many merchant ship guards, spearmen, and crossbowmen sitting and resting in the cabin.

Li Jing felt a little crazy. These people were neither soldiers nor sailors, but the emperor's merchant fleet. How could there be such a good ship, so many guards, and such good equipment?

There are only fifty guards per ship, and more than 30 ships are nearly one regiment of soldiers. If those sturdy sailors are counted, wouldn't this be two regiments?

(End of this chapter)