Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 114 109. Battle of Dongting Lake (Part )
Unfortunately, the ordinary soldiers of the Wu army were still at a relatively superficial stage in terms of fire-fighting skills, and at first they instinctively tried to fetch water to put out the fire. However, the cans that Feng Xi ordered his men to throw did not contain ordinary kerosene, but simply distilled petroleum.

The oil of this era is completely different from that of later generations. People are scrambling to use it. Now people just use it as a substitute for kerosene at most.

Oils basically have one characteristic, which is that they are insoluble in water. Therefore, in later generations, whether it is a fire caused by cooking or a fire caused by a car engine, water cannot be used to put out the fire. The situation in the Wu army tent at this time was similar.

Unfortunately, ordinary soldiers did not realize that this was oil, and subconsciously poured it on the blazing flames. The liquid immediately splashed, and many sparks flew everywhere along with the scattered liquid, igniting the tent next to them that had been safe.

"Don't use water! Use soil! Use soil!"

There were still some knowledgeable soldiers in the Wu army. When they saw that pouring a few basins of water would only cause more trouble, they immediately shouted loudly to stop other Wu soldiers from using earth to put out the fire.

"What kind of fighting style is this?!"

Xu Sheng's forehead was covered with sweat. He was not a fool. On the contrary, as a famous general who would be remembered in later generations, Xu Sheng was very smart. Although he had never heard of Feng Xi's use of catapults, he immediately saw the danger of it.

Feng Xi didn't have to do anything but stay in front of their camp and keep throwing these strange kerosene cans into it. The morale of his troops dropped faster than using stones.

Humans and animals are not much different in terms of instinct. Seeing such uncontrollable flames will make them feel fear involuntarily, and they don’t know when the flames will burn them, which further amplifies the fear.

"No... We can't let them keep throwing catapults like this. Bring in all the powerful bows and crossbows and shoot at that catapult!"

Xu Sheng thought for a moment and made a decision.

I have tried to shoot arrows in that direction just now. Although Feng Xi's broken catapult is quite defective, its range is still much longer than that of bows and arrows.

At this distance, the bows and arrows of ordinary soldiers could hardly reach the catapults. Even if they did, the kinetic energy of the arrows was basically exhausted at a distance of nearly 150 meters, and they were easily blocked by the Han army's sword and shield soldiers who were well prepared.

Only some strong bows and crossbows could pose a threat to the catapults at this distance, so Xu Sheng ordered his men to quickly gather these things and prepare to force Feng Xi to retreat.

Why not leave the village and destroy the catapult? After all, the catapult is not easy to move.

The reason was simple. Feng Xi did this because he hoped Xu Sheng would take the initiative to fight him in a field battle. The Han army was elite, and the Wu army was not good at land warfare. If they met in the wilderness, the Han army could not even fight one against two, let alone three.

Therefore, Xu Sheng was unwilling to leave the camp and fight the Han army unless he had no choice.

"Fire arrows!"

Xu Sheng pointed his sword at the catapult in the distance. He mobilized his powerful bows and crossbows and shot two large jars at them. One of them fell outside the village because he didn't control the force well, and the other one smashed into the village and burned a group of tents.

"Whizzing"

Not only powerful bows and crossbows, but also ordinary bows and arrows were fired together to cover up the effective damage mixed in. Under the command of Xu Sheng, countless arrows were fired at the Han army who were still tinkering with catapults in the distance. This wave of arrow rain was really effective. More than a dozen Han soldiers were shot and lost their ability to move. There was even an unlucky guy who was shot directly in the head and died on the spot.

"Tsk, retreat slowly."

Feng Xi couldn't help but click his tongue when he saw that the other party had a way to fight him so quickly. Although the actual damage caused by the other party was not that great, it would not do him much good to continue shooting at him.

Originally, the unilateral throwing of the burning jars by the catapults must have boosted the morale of their side, and the Wu army could only watch in fear as their side attacked them.

But if Wu Jun can hurt their side, then it will just be a back-and-forth fight between the two sides, which will be meaningless.

"This broken thing still doesn't work. It's a pity that there are no skilled craftsmen in the army, and I only understand the principle..."

Feng Xi was quite helpless. He had a general idea about this kind of thing, including the principles and how to do it roughly. However, it was a bit difficult for him to think of ways to improve it.

Feng Xi even often hated himself for not being a science student studying mechanics, chemistry, synthetic materials, etc. in the future, but a fireman.

Seeing that he could not gain any advantage today, Feng Xi could only wave his hand and let the flag bearers signal the troops to retreat. It was not that the Han army could not attack by force, but the surrendered troops in Jingzhou had just been incorporated and had not yet been trained or had their morale restored. Their combat effectiveness had not yet recovered to that of Guan Yu's era, so Feng Xi did not want to consume too much of the manpower of the Eastern Expedition Army.

If the 50,000 men on our side were reduced to 20,000 or 30,000 in this battle, how could we attack Jiangdong and guard against Cao Wei at the same time?

Seeing the Han army calling off the battle, Xu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief and hurried back to the camp to command the soldiers to put out the fire. There was actually some chaos in the camp just now, but the camp wall was not in chaos because Xu Sheng was in charge, so the Han army did not dare to attack in one fell swoop.

"Quick! Cover this side with sand! Take down the tent over there quickly to prevent the fire from spreading!"

Under Xu Sheng's command, the fire in the camp was finally brought under control, and the soldiers put out the fire with trepidation. But even so, the strange "black oil" caused dozens of tents to be damaged, and a few unlucky guys were burned by the flying sparks when they used water to put out the fire.

"What a terrible weapon... Fortunately, the Shu army now has to rely on things like catapults to use it this way..."

Xu Sheng looked a little ugly. If he had this kind of weapon during the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao would probably have been defeated even faster.

Unfortunately, because the Wu army was almost wiped out in the Battle of Yiling, the news that the Han navy had already used similar incendiary bombs did not spread to Eastern Wu.

First, it was dark at the time and it was impossible to see clearly what the Han army threw. Second, most of the officers and generals who were concerned about this matter were dead, and the remaining soldiers were lucky enough to escape and were thankful. How could they have time to care about what it was?
Xu Sheng did not expect that the other side might use similar things in naval battles, but on the one hand, Feng Xi had instilled in Xu Sheng the idea that these things were almost this big, and secondly, the southeast wind was prevailing in summer at that time. If the Wu army were to confront the Han army, it would be the southeast fighting the northwest. If the Han army dared to set fire like this, sooner or later they would burn themselves.

Unfortunately, what Xu Sheng didn't know was that Feng Xi did not plan to use things like Molotov cocktails because of the wind direction. He invested most of his resources in Zhang Nan and naturally prepared other things.

(End of this chapter)