Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 642: The principles of military training, even if you tell the barbarians, they won’t understand

When answering Joanna, Guo Kang was just dealing with it. However, in the following battle, the battle with the enemy's main force that he expected did not happen.

By 1:00 p.m., Guo Kang and his men had engaged seven ships in close combat. Although some soldiers suffered casualties, after a few battles, they got used to the rhythm and became more and more adept at fighting.

Since he had arranged rotations at the beginning, everyone's physical strength was still enough. However, the hull was still hit several times. The most serious one was when they were fighting, a rowing boat rushed over from the other side and directly hit the side of the boat, opening a nearly ten-foot-long hole.

However, the rams of this era are all on the waterline. Compared with the underwater rams of the classical era, this device no longer aims to directly sink the enemy, because with the advancement of shipbuilding technology, the underwater ramming driven by manpower has become less and less reliable.

The ramming angle on the water can be made larger and longer. The idea of ​​ramming has also shifted to focus on causing greater damage. A successful ramming can destroy the hull structure and make the enemy ship lose its combat effectiveness. Therefore, it was very popular throughout the Middle Ages.

But now, the ships have actually grown a lot. The large sailing ship that Guo Kang and his companions were riding on has grown a lot taller. It is difficult to achieve the effect of smashing the hull, sweeping across the hull, destroying the hull structure, and killing a large number of people by relying on the battering ram-like long pole ram on the bow.

Although their ship was fairly solid, it was only an inland merchant ship after all. Although the crew tried to resist with long poles as before, the enemy's ram was too long to resist. The hull was hit and immediately pierced. However, the ship was so big that the enemy's warship only destroyed part of the cargo hold when it plunged into it, and it got stuck instead.

The people on the ship had already had experience, so they took this opportunity to throw out a bunch of iron hooks and hook the enemy ship. The soldiers on the deck who were originally taking turns to rest, dropped their dry food, picked up their weapons and ran to the side of the ship.

At the moment of collision, Guo Kang almost fell down, but he immediately recovered and grabbed a rope to help. Joanna grabbed him and stopped him from rushing over. At this time, other soldiers had already jumped onto the opposite boat along the rope.

After the battle, everyone found out that the enemy didn't want to leave, but was really stuck. Now that the battle was over, they found out that the boat that was stuck in still couldn't be pulled out. Now, everyone was dumbfounded and could only float with this encumbrance for the time being.

Thanks to the route planned by Joanna, the intensity of the battle here was not very high, so they were able to quickly advance into the enemy's depths and even surpass the main force on the front line. After a while, Guo Kang even saw Shi Ke's ship.

When the two sides approached, Shi Ke's soldiers were fighting with the enemy. His ship was one of the newly built warships. It was said that it was made of good wood bought from Novgorodians. It should be much stronger than Guo Kang's ship. But it was probably at the forefront and suffered the most. When Guo Kang saw it, the bow of the ship was broken.

Guo Kang remembered that there should be a bronze figurehead on the bow of their ship. But now, it is completely invisible and no one knows where it has fallen. The entire ram is also broken in half, with only the root remaining, hanging crookedly. A crack has appeared at the bow, and many of the oars on both sides are also broken, with some fragments still floating on the water beside.

Several enemy ships were parked next to his ship. Some enemies had already boarded their decks and were fighting with the soldiers on board. Shi Ke, like Guo Kang, stood on the platform at the stern, surrounded by only three or four servants. There were not many people on the deck, and many enemies were running around on the deck without even being stopped.

"He's been beaten like this?" Guo Kang was very surprised.

As he said this, he looked at his boat again and began to think.

Although it was not far away, his boat actually had no maneuverability. It would take some effort to get close. Although Guo Kang studied machinery every day, he had never thought about boats and did not know how to repair them. I wonder if Joanna and the others had any experience in dealing with this.

Therefore, he quickly said, "Miss Qiao, is there any way now? Come up with an idea quickly so that we can go and help Brother Shi."

"Don't worry." Joanna shook her head, pointed over there, and comforted her: "Look, they are obviously prepared."

Guo Kang looked in the direction of her hand and found that Shi Ke was indeed calm and composed. He did not even reach for his weapon, but just looked around. At this time, he also saw Guo Kang next to him, and he was in a mood to wave over here.

"Look, this is how command is done." Joanna couldn't help but complain, "How can a proper commander lead the charge every day? Only the chieftain of a barbarian tribe would do that."

"Didn't you say you are the barbarian?" Guo Kang pointed out.

"Barbarians wouldn't be like this now!" Joanna said speechlessly.

"Emmmm..." Guo Kang often dealt with the Frankish barbarians, so he had reservations about this. However, while they were arguing, Shi Ke had already taken action.

The enemies on the deck were getting more and more crowded. Some of them had already rushed into the cabin and entered the bottom hold where the rowers were. The soldiers on the deck also retreated to the corner under the poop. If it was an ordinary ship, in this case, it would have lost its combat effectiveness. Because the rowers were usually hard laborers with no combat effectiveness, or even slaves locked in their seats, and they would not be given weapons. As long as they hacked around there and killed a large number of rowers, the ship would be ruined.

But the situation here was actually different. Guo Kang had noticed that the pirates who had rushed in never came out again. However, the ship was in chaos, and the others obviously didn't notice these situations. They might just think that the cabin was too big and they were not done yet. More pirates surrounded the stern where Shi Ke was. Some shot arrows at him, while others tried to climb up along the wall. Shi Ke and several servants crouched down and hid behind the wooden wall. Arrows hit the wooden wall made of logs, making a series of knocking sounds.

At this moment, two black muzzles suddenly appeared in the poop under Shi Ke's feet, and they opened fire almost at the people outside. Amid the roar, Guo Kang saw two long strings of blood burst out from the crowd. He could vaguely see the black shells flying out from the other end of the deck and finally hitting the water in the distance.

Two bloody tunnels were ploughed across the pirates, and some people didn't even react. Guo Kang looked down from above, and even saw some people staring blankly at their missing bodies, and then fell down wailing after a while. The enemy group was instantly in chaos, and many people were howling. Most people were not actually hurt directly, but they were still obviously panicked.

Drums were beating in the cabin, and a large group of strong men with bare chests rushed out, carrying wooden shields and short spears.

They quickly stabbed down several pirates at the door, then lined up and began to clean up the enemy in an orderly manner. The enemy also reacted and began to fight back. But these people were well-trained and in neat formation. Unlike the enemy, they did not focus on wielding weapons, but just kept pushing forward shoulder to shoulder.

Their martial arts seemed ordinary, but their strength seemed great. The enemy was completely unprepared. Although there were many people, few could stand. A large group of people were squeezed back by the two rows of people. Enemies kept losing their balance and fell to the ground, and were then stabbed to death.

However, they were much more formal than the pirates Guo Kang had fought before, and soon someone organized the people around them and tried to resist. These small groups, together with the temporary array of oarsmen, began to push each other.

There were other people helping behind the team. Some rowers even dragged out their oars. When they saw a stubborn enemy, they would use their length advantage to extend their oars over their teammates' heads and hit the enemy's head hard. This thing was so powerful that once it hit someone, they would almost always fall to the ground and die immediately.

Under this highly efficient attack, the enemy's efforts to gain a foothold failed again. If someone tried to form a team, they would be immediately taken care of. Guo Kang saw a man dressed as an officer jumping to the boarding step, shouting at everyone, trying to maintain order. Shi Ke picked up a short spear from the side and threw it over, piercing the opponent through, and fell into the sea.

Seeing this, the remaining enemies finally couldn't stand it anymore and began to flee. A whistle sounded on the ship. Guo Kang saw that two of the people who had retreated to the corner before had put on the helmet tassels of the centurion and blew whistles. The rowers who were still pushing stopped immediately and returned to the cabin one after another. In the poop, a group of fully armed soldiers trotted out in an orderly manner and took their positions. Led by one of the centurions, they chased the enemy's buttocks, jumped over the springboard, and rushed onto the enemy ship.

In half a quarter of an hour, the situation was reversed. On Shi Ke's ship, they even started to finish the work: several sailors ran out with buckets and sprinkled a lot of sand on the blood-soaked deck. Two more people ran to the bow, tightened the ropes, and quickly fixed the remaining ram. New oars were neatly extended on both sides of the ship - it seemed that they actually had replacement parts a long time ago, but they just pretended not to take them out before.

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On the deck of the enemy ship, the battle was not suspenseful. These enemies were not all rookies. Although Guo Kang's martial arts skills were mediocre, he had seen a lot and could see that some enemies' body movements and swordsmanship were actually very good. However, in this kind of battle, this level of martial arts advantage was no longer of much use.

On the nearest ship, there were several men who looked quite capable of fighting. The leader wielded a large axe and chopped a soldier flying. But the other soldiers immediately deployed, and someone threw out a grappling hook and pulled him. The centurion in the team strode forward and swung his sword to chop, and the enemy turned his head to block. But at the same time, two short spears stabbed from different directions, and someone used a hook spear to hit his leg. The man couldn't dodge in time and fell to the ground. He was immediately stabbed several times and couldn't move.

There were actually quite a few enemies on the ship, but they clearly lacked formation training. Another person was confronting the centurion, and was even suppressing him, but someone behind him shot two arrows in succession. While he was dodging, a person behind the centurion suddenly jumped out and chopped his leg with an axe. While he was holding on to the pain, the person behind him shot the third arrow, which accurately pierced his face. The other enemies were still blocked behind and did not catch up.

In this way, the situation was clearly evenly matched, and the enemy even had the advantage, but they were defeated. The enemy was obviously more numerous, but they were always outnumbered by the entire team. Those who dared to stand out were killed by them like flowing water. After these people were killed, the remaining ones didn't even dare to resist.

The fast-running enemies jumped into the water and fled; the slow-running ones dropped their weapons and surrendered. Soon, the battle on the ship was over.

"This is what a regular army should look like." Joanna said with emotion: "We were just fighting in a mess. It seems that we missed a lot of classes."

"This is not an ordinary regular army. This is the team that Brother Shi put together himself." Guo Kang scratched his head: "If my men have this ability, what would I worry about?"

"You are also a Roman noble, why don't you have your own family background?" Joanna couldn't help asking.

"Well... not that there are none, but the direction is different." Seeing that she was beginning to question, Guo Kang felt a little embarrassed for a moment, so he had to argue: "My guys... they can also fight, but they are better at preaching the truth and educating the people."

"You may think it is useless, but many things cannot be seen on the surface." He gave an example: "No matter how sharp the sword in your hand is, no matter how strong the sword skills are, it is just a commoner's sword, which can only kill a few bad guys at most; let the army be well-trained and obey orders, in fact, it is just a prince's sword, which can dominate for a while; being able to use the army to spread justice to all directions, and spread the gospel wherever it fights, this is the sword of the Heavenly Father, which can be called the king's army and used to restore Rome."

"In an occasion like this, please stop giving long speeches," Joanna said helplessly.

"Not really, this is the 'mental method'." Guo Kang shook his head: "Leading troops to fight is just like practicing martial arts. The skills themselves are very important and determine how much strength a person can exert; but the internal strength mental method determines the upper limit."

"What I said is not my own invention. It is the experience of Yue Wumu in training soldiers. I just changed it to a more familiar term here. With these methods, he trained a powerful army that is rare in the world. If anyone in the future can do it, they can really dominate the world."

"I usually tell people this every day because I think everyone still has hope. Do you think I would say this when I talk to those barbarians?" Guo Kang shrugged. "A real man's training is like training martial arts. When it reaches a certain level, it is a philosophical realm. Even if I tell the barbarians, they won't understand the truth."

(End of this chapter)