Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 469

When Yuan Xi and Lu Xun saw the situation on the field, they knew that the waters around Donglai were probably controlled by pirates, and they even made targeted arrangements for the fleet of the Zhen family and the Gongsun family!
But the only thing the other party doesn't know is that these newly built sea ships of the Zhen family secretly added rams during construction. Although a lot of refined iron was consumed, it is already an extremely effective trump card in this era when cannons have not yet appeared. .

Yuan Xi gave an order, and amidst the roar of the strong winter wind, the ships of the Zhen family's caravan set up their full sails, cut through the waves, and rushed towards the pirate ships.

As soon as he came up, he used his ultimate move!
Hitting the opponent with a ship is also a common method in water battles, but it is not a small cost to spend so much iron that can be used to make weapons to make a special ram.

But since the capital investment has been made, it must be rewarded.

Those pirate ships were still firing arrows from afar, and when they woke up, the Youzhou army's ship had already rammed into it hard.

There were loud bangs continuously, and the huge iron ram directly smashed into the local ship's side, shattered the deck, and broke the keel. A relatively slender pirate ship was cut in half!
The enemy soldiers on the pirate ship flew into the air screaming, then fell into the water with a plop, and were immediately submerged by the turbulent sea waves. A few proficient in water skills struggled and shouted desperately in the water, trying to grab the broken ship fragments around them.

The soldiers of the Youzhou Army were also unstable due to the huge recoil, but luckily they fixed their bodies in advance, so they came back to their senses after a while.

This time, several big ships of the opponent were severely damaged. Even if they were not broken, the cabins below the deck began to flood. If this continues, the ship will sink sooner or later.

Suddenly, the people on the damaged pirate ship shouted in panic, looking for planks to escape, and the remaining intact pirate ship fled in a hurry, shooting arrows at the Youzhou army's ships indiscriminately.

The archers of the Youzhou Army also stood on the side of the ship and fired back arrows, but the sea was stormy and the arrows were not accurate enough to cause effective damage to the enemy for a while.

At this time, the fleeing ships came to their senses, and after a few orders, they joined together again, and the people above shot rockets coated with tung oil at the Youzhou military ships.

Seeing that the other party was aiming at the sails, Yuan Xi thought to himself that these pirates are really not ordinary people, how can they look like ordinary pirates with such a quick and effective response?

However, the Youzhou army did not have a good countermeasure for the extremely effective poisonous trick of rocket shooting the sail. The soldiers on the mast put down the rope, pulled the others to climb up, and attached the sail to the boat. Throw away the rocket to prevent the sail from catching fire.

Fortunately, the opponent's arrow shooting was not particularly intensive, and this kind of response was quite effective. The pirate ship on the other side saw it, and took the opportunity to rush over side by side, obviously wanting to board the ship and fight!

When Lu Xun saw the opposite side approaching, he knew that the opportunity had come. The soldiers hiding under the side of the ship threw earthen jars filled with tung oil one after another, and smashed them on the decks of the two enemy ships rushing forward with a roar. There was slippery tung oil all over it.

The pirates stumbled a few times on the deck, only to see the soldiers of the Youzhou Army stand up again, holding flaming torches in their hands!
They screamed: "Not good!"

The next moment, the Youzhou army threw a torch over and instantly set the deck on fire!

The two ships instantly caught fire, and the pirates on board jumped into the sea screaming. Seeing that the fire was getting hotter and hotter, it was obvious that the ship was going to be destroyed.

The rest of the pirates knew that they had encountered a hard nail, and they all turned to escape, trying to join the pirate fleet that was chasing the Youzhou army.

On the leading ship of that fleet, there were two leaders dressed in yellow scarves, one of them frowned and said: "Brother, this Zhen family's fleet is not right."

These two are the two famous generals of the Yellow Turban Army, Guan Hai Guan Cheng.

At the beginning, under the leadership of the two, they crossed the North Sea and the East Sea, and beat Kong Rong so hard that he couldn't defend, but now the two are leading this powerful sea fleet and continue to do evil.

It was Guan Cheng who spoke, he was a little younger, and he recognized the elder Guan Hai as his brother.

Guan Hai heard this, and sneered, "I'm afraid they came prepared, but if this kind of people still don't escape, it's just wishful thinking if they want to eat us."

"You can't let them escape, just surround them, board the boat and fight, don't let any of them go!"

After Guan Cheng heard this, he immediately issued orders. Under his command, dozens of warships of different sizes rushed towards Yuan Xi's side one after another.

When Lu Xun saw it, he ordered the ships to turn around and line up in a line, pretending to escape, but ordered the ships to set up rockets several feet long at the stern.

This rocket is naturally not an arrow, but an arrow mixed with gunpowder. When the pirate ships behind chased them more than ten feet away, Lu Xun could already see the pirates on the other side holding a sharp knife and gearing up for fisting. The rocket's fuse.

Hearing the sound of puffing, one after another, the fire snakes flew towards the opposite sail with great speed, and then hit the sail hard, and the sharp arrows were nailed to the sail.

The next moment, the arrow exploded, and the fireworks ignited the tung oil in the bamboo tube. The tung oil flowed everywhere along the sail, and the whole sail was blazing.

This time the Yellow Turban Pirates' ship was in chaos. Their rockets could only be launched with sackcloth dipped in tung oil.

Soon the seven or eight ships in front were hit one after another. Although the rockets were not accurate, the distance between the two sides was very close, and the sails were big, so they could hit them by aiming casually. The sails of all the ships were burned, and the speed suddenly slowed down.

Seeing the other party pull up the sails and run away at full speed, Guan Cheng was furious. It turned out that the other party had this idea!
He roared: "Shoot arrows!"

"Whether it's a rocket or an arrow, shoot them all!"

Upon hearing this, the pirates on the yellow turban ship hula la drew their bows and fired arrows at the Youzhou military ships.

Lu Xun gave another order, and the wooden baffles covered with iron sheets slowly rose on both sides of the ship. The arrows of the Yellow Turban pirates shot on it, and they were bounced out one after another, falling into the sea.

The rockets of the Youzhou army kept firing, and the sails of the Yellow Turban pirate ships kept being burned. The people on board were busy fighting the fire, and dozens of ships gradually pulled away.

Yuan Xi saw that the new water warfare method conceived had achieved the desired effect, so he couldn't help nodding secretly, but he was still a little dissatisfied, because in the final analysis, the rocket can only burn the sails of the opposing ship, rather than attack the enemy directly. cause damage.

Moreover, the maximum distance of the rocket fireworks is only twenty or thirty feet. This kind of distance from the opponent can also be achieved by a good archer, so it cannot form a decisive suppression effect.

Yuan Xi sighed. All this may not be changed until the appearance of cannons after who knows how many years. Now, due to technical limitations, he has not even achieved the best gunpowder ratio, so he can only do it step by step.

In the final analysis, things in this era are all handmade, limited by productivity and technology, and the output and quality cannot keep up.

Whether it is the angle of impact or gunpowder, they are all experimental samples. There are very few other products that can be applied, and the output is still frighteningly small.

He saw that the Gongsun fleet in the distance had escaped from the encirclement and was trying their best to regroup, but they didn't dare to approach. It seemed that they had lost a lot of strength, and they were obviously too timid to fight, maybe they could not count on them.

Looking at the pirate ships chasing after him one after another, Yuan Xi thought to himself that it might be a gang fight in the end.

Fortunately, the Rockets were beaten before, and their formation was successfully disrupted and scattered here. Now even if they are close to the pick-up station, they can only deal with one or two ships at the same time, so as to avoid the embarrassing situation of being trapped in a tight siege.

At this time, several light pirate ships had already arrived, and the sides of these ships were far lower than the Zhen family's merchant ship. They threw hooks one after another, hooked the merchant ship's side, and wanted to climb up along it.

Youzhou soldiers wanted to throw away the hook, but the other end of the rope was hanging on the bow of the pirate ship. Under the force of the waves, the hook was deeply embedded in the wood on the side of the ship and could not be pulled at all.

They pulled out the ring-head knives and hacked, but the rope was very strong, and after a few knives, they only cut off the outermost strands of fine linen.

But when the pirate ship whistled, the pirates grabbed the ropes and climbed up one after another. The archers of the Youzhou army shot arrows one after another when they saw it, and the archers of the Qingzhou pirates immediately suppressed it with arrows. The boards are full of arrows.

When Lu Xun gave an order, a soldier took a pottery jar filled with tung oil, put a plug on the bottle's mouth soaked in oil and lit it with sackcloth, and then threw it towards the boats below.

The clay pot was smashed on the other side's deck, and the burning tung oil flowed all over the deck. The Yellow Turban pirate shouted in a panic, and raised a wooden barrel filled with seawater to put out the fire.

Although the Zhen family merchant ship had the upper hand, the Qingzhou pirates were numerous and powerful, and a single Zhen family merchant ship surrounded several small boats. Seeing that the foremost pirate was about to jump onto the ship's side, Guan Cheng, who was watching from a distance, also showed joy.

With a calm expression on Lu Xun's face, as soon as he gave an order, the halberd warriors hiding below the deck climbed onto the deck one after another, rushed to the side of the ship, and stabbed the Qingzhou pirates who tried to board the ship.

The pirate who was climbing the rope to board the ship, was wounded, and fell into the sea screaming.

The two halberd warriors looked at the thick rope hooked to the ship's side, and stood on both sides of the rope. The halberds stuck out, and the two twigs hooked the same place on the rope at the same time.

The two let out a low cry, and pulled back hard, the two twigs cut the rope at the same time, the rope was firmly stuck, and could no longer rely on the toughness to unload the force, under the joint efforts of the two, a deep cut was actually cut .

The two tried again and again, and finally with a snap, the thick rope was cut, and the pirate who was still on the rope suddenly fell into the sea.

Seeing Guan Cheng on the bow in the distance, his face was gloomy. Looking at it like this, there are still no one knows how many people are under the cabin. Even if our own people board the ship, they will not be able to seize the opposite ship. They can only die in vain!

Looking at the turtle-like merchant ship of Zhen's family, Guan Cheng regretted it very much. In the past, as long as a pirate boarded the ship, the merchant ship would immediately lose its resistance and would be caught without a fight.

But now they have hit a hard nail. If they turn around, they will definitely be chased by the opponent's tail. With most of the fleet without sails, they will only be eaten away by the opponent one by one, and no one will be able to escape in the end!

How to do?
He looked at the besieged merchant ships of Zhen's family, and thought hard. With the fenders installed on the sides, the sails protected by people, and the long halberds to prevent them from jumping gangs, what weakness does the other party have?
Suddenly he thought of a trick, and hurriedly shouted: "Go into the water and scuttle the opponent!"

(End of this chapter)