Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 113 107. Battle of Dongting Lake (I)

"Grand Commander, our spies have sent us news that the situation in the Wu army camp yesterday was indeed as Zhou Cang described in his letter. In fact, Ding Feng's prestige in the army has increased significantly because he personally cut off his hair."

Ma Liang hurriedly pushed open the curtain from outside the tent, his face solemn, holding a piece of rag in his hand, on which was written a brief account of what happened in the Wu army camp yesterday.

Feng Xi nodded, his expression unchanged. Just like he said yesterday, this kind of thing that is very easy to verify cannot be faked. After all, the other party is not a fool. He must act in full. How could he leave such a flaw?

"Although we have seen through the enemy's tricks, we cannot rely on them too much and make foolish mistakes. Let Zhang Nan try to challenge them in the next two days to see if we can get them to come out of the camp and fight a naval battle with us to eliminate their manpower."

It was impossible for Feng Xi to pin all his hopes on outwitting the enemy, so he had to give it a try in the next two days. Although Feng Xi already had a vague feeling in his heart that the Wu army would probably hold out to the bitter end, he had to wait for the night two days later to see the outcome.

As expected, after receiving Feng Xi's order, Zhang Nan personally led large and small boats to the Wu army's water stronghold to set up a battle array and challenge them through flag signals and loudspeakers, but the Wu army turned a deaf ear and acted like a turtle.

You Han soldiers can shout if you like. If you have the guts, stay on the river for a day. If you don't like us, just attack us. If you don't dare, then don't be an eyesore here.

Zhang Nan was somewhat helpless. The opposite naval stronghold was well prepared. After all, Zhou Tai, Ling Tong and other Eastern Wu generals were also experts in naval warfare, and their defenses were not sparse. And who knew if there were any iron chains, iron spikes or the like in the water stronghold, waiting for him to charge?

With no other options left, Zhang Nan could only return in disappointment and informed Feng Xi of the situation.

"It seems that Dongwu is determined to preserve its strength and go all in three days later... No, I don't like being so passive. I can be more proactive. Let Zhang Nan get ready tomorrow. I will lead the army to attack personally, and his navy will be on guard nearby. If the Dongwu navy dares to assist in the defense, they will be wiped out directly."

Since the water fort was lying on the ground and difficult to attack, Feng Xi decided to try attacking from land.

On the morning of the second day, after breakfast, more than 10,000 Han troops left the camp and headed straight for the Eastern Wu camp opposite.

"Xu Wenxiang is a famous general of the Eastern Wu. He has come here today to seek advice. Is it impolite to stay indoors like this?"

Feng Xi personally took his favorite iron loudspeaker and shouted at the Dongwu camp that had hung a sign of no war. Unfortunately, Xu Sheng was not a fool and would not shout at Feng Xi for no reason. Instead, he ordered the soldiers in the camp to strengthen the defense of the camp.

Seeing that Xu Sheng on the opposite side completely ignored him and looked like he was pretending to be dead, Feng Xi shook his head helplessly and waved his hand. A simple machine squeaked and was pushed up by more than ten soldiers.

"Oh no! It's a catapult!"

Xu Sheng narrowed his eyes and immediately recognized the true identity of the machine.

The technological content of the catapult cannot be considered high, but Feng Xi is not well-off now. Excluding the new gadget he made for Zhang Nan, the materials he has are only enough to make a catapult, and the effect is not particularly good.

After Feng Xi's repeated requests for modifications, the range of this catapult was only reduced to 100 steps, which is less than 200 meters in modern times. This distance can only be said to be better than nothing, but facing the current situation where the Wu army is acting like a turtle, it is very useful.

"Don't panic! The stones that a catapult of this size can throw are definitely not big! And there's only one of them, so it can't do any damage!"

When Xu Sheng saw that the other party was going to use a catapult, he shouted loudly.

The catapult is not a particularly advanced piece of equipment. To take a more recent example, Cao Cao used an improved version of the Thunderbolt Chariot during the Battle of Guandu at the suggestion of Liu Ye.

Going back to the past, the Chu State in the late Warring States Period had used catapults. At that time, Li Xin led 200,000 Qin troops to attack Chu, and was caught off guard by the catapults. Later, the First Emperor asked Wang Jian to help conquer Chu. As a well-read military scholar, Xu Sheng naturally had a lot of knowledge and was quite familiar with this siege weapon. However, at this moment, the Han Army's catapult was a defective product. Not only was it crudely made, but it was also impossible to load hundreds of kilograms of boulders. It would be great if it could load a hundred kilograms.

Therefore, Xu Sheng dared to encourage the soldiers to fight bravely.

Outside the village, the situation on Feng Xi's side was similar to what Xu Sheng had expected. Due to problems with the materials and the craftsmen's proficiency, this simple catapult had a maximum load capacity of only 120 kilograms. If it had more than that, not only would it fail to launch, it might also cause damage to the catapult.

However, Feng Xi didn't care about these shortcomings. After all, he didn't plan to throw any big stones. Not only would it be laborious, but the effect would not be that great.

"Load!"

Feng Xi waved his hand, and several soldiers in the formation brought over a few very low-quality jars and placed them next to the catapult.

This jar is made of fired clay, but its appearance shows that it is something that pursues quantity rather than quality. There are no patterns on the exterior, and apart from its flat shape, it is no different from a puddle of mud.

Moreover, this is not a common wide-mouthed or narrow-mouthed jar. It only has an opening with a diameter of less than a foot. At this moment, it is also sealed with mud, and a fuse made of kerosene soaked in it is left in the middle.

A Han soldier placed the jar in place, compared it with the angle of the Wu army camp, took out a flint from his arms, rubbed it twice against the jar on the catapult, and lit the fuse on it.

After the fuse burned, a dozen soldiers nearby hurriedly worked together to press down the wooden basket containing the pottery jar, causing the several strands of beef tendons that served as strings to be stretched to the extreme.

"put!"

Seeing that the force was almost built up, Feng Xi gave an order and the tendon that was pulled to the extreme by the lever on which the wooden basket was located was instantly reset, causing the wooden basket to bounce straight up.

The pottery jar placed on the wooden basket naturally drew an arc in the air and flew straight into the Wu army's camp.

“Swoosh—Puff!”

The pottery jar fell on an unfortunate tent, breaking the wooden supporting stick, and then fell to the ground along with the animal skins, canvas, etc. on it.

Of course, animal skins, canvas and other things would be fine if they fell to the ground, but this crudely made pottery jar was obviously in trouble.

With a muffled sound, the pottery jar exploded, and the liquid inside sprayed out in all directions, most of which soaked the outer cover of the unfortunate tent.

"boom!"

Things were not over yet. The still burning fuse came into contact with the splashing liquid and ignited it instantly. In a moment, a sea of ​​fire appeared out of nowhere on the ground.

"The water is gone! The water is gone!"

Immediately, a sharp-eyed Wu army soldier discovered the fire and rushed over to put it out.

(End of this chapter)