I was pulling trees in Daming, and Lao Zhu begged me to come out of retirement

Chapter 118 Chen Youliang: This wave is stable!

Thousands of warships sailed upstream.

Zhu Yuanzhang's first move stunned everyone.
No, brother, you are in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

You should be thankful that others don't attack you downstream, but how dare you attack you upstream?

Chen Youliang, who was in Taiping, was stunned at first when he received the information, but then a look of ecstasy appeared on his face.

This wave is stable! Zhu Yuanzhang is floating!

War requires the right time, right place, and right people.
Going against the swift current with 20 naval forces from downstream to attack the -strong army upstream, he felt that Zhu Yuanzhang was not going on an expedition, but rather seeking his death.

Now the counterattack of the Yuan army and the landlords' armed forces is still fierce, and Zhu Yuanzhang's million-strong army is basically dispatched to various counties and cities along the trade routes.

The maximum number of troops Zhu Yuanzhang could mobilize was only 20, but he himself had an army of 60.

Moreover, his soldiers are well-trained. Almost all of these 60 troops are qualified naval forces proficient in naval warfare. Combined with the most advanced warships in China, let alone 20, even 40 can be easily controlled by him.

Chen Youliang smiled crookedly.
He waved his hand at Zou Pusheng and said, "Prepare for battle! Show that peasant Zhu Chongba what a navy is!"

Zou Pusheng nodded and directly ordered the Hunjianglong, Saiduanshan, Zhuangdaoshan and Jianghaiao to set sail from the port.

In the age of sailing ships, whether new or old, short-distance or ocean-going, any ship with a little endurance has its own nickname.

Names like Hongtaihe, Fulaishun and Qianyanzi are meant to bring peace and harmony; these elegant names are mostly self-given by their owners.

But nicknames are different. In ancient times, it was said that a ship would not prosper without a nickname.

A nickname must be 'awarded' by outsiders. Even if it is indecent, once it is called out and spread around, and over time, it will be tacitly accepted, and then it will be considered a nickname belonging to the ship.

There is a certain amount of knowledge in giving nicknames to ships. The names should not only be humorous, crude, have allusions and origins, but also be appropriate and easy for people to accept.

Therefore, although these warships of Chen Youliang sound a bit childish, they were actually earned through repeated battles.

On the other hand, there was no news about Zhu Yuanzhang's powerful navy from beginning to end.

No one was optimistic about Zhu Yuanzhang this time because they had already thoroughly studied Zhu Yuanzhang's cards.

Those magic arts and magic treasures were not of much help in water battles. They already knew that the explosion of TNT needed a delay, and that if it touched water, the range of the explosion would be greatly reduced, causing only a small shock wave.

Therefore, Chen Youliang had made all preparations to deal with Zhu Yuanzhang.

Chen Youliang had more than 200 warships on the expedition. The largest warship could carry two to three thousand people, and the smaller one could carry more than 1000 people. The entire navy had nearly 60 people, which was a veritable large army. The saying "a single whip can stop the flow of a river" was not an exaggeration.

The largest warship was 15 zhang long, zhang wide, and zhang high, with three floors. There were even soldiers on horseback patrolling back and forth on the deck. The stern could not be seen from the front of the ship, and the hull was even covered with a layer of iron. It was a veritable ancient aircraft carrier.

In the historical Battle of Poyang Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang's soldiers standing on their own ships could only look up at the enemy ships. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang's navy at that time was more like a group of fishermen than a navy. They could only rely on the maneuverability of fishing boats and use muskets and crossbows to find ways to climb onto enemy ships and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to call Chen Youliang's warships a sea fortress.

During the battle, Xu Da once used a wolf pack tactic, using the maneuverability of small boats to barely destroy the enemy's vanguard fleet.
But then Chen Youliang immediately reorganized the fleet, took advantage of his huge ships, and used the artillery on the ships to launch a fierce attack on Xu Da's army. Xu Da's flagship was easily sunk, and Zhu Yuanzhang's army also suffered heavy losses, with countless people drowning.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was familiar with the events of the Ming Dynasty, naturally did not want to repeat the same mistakes.
Therefore, after obtaining the support of steam turbines, Zhu Yuanzhang also ordered craftsmen to build giant steel ships.

Unfortunately, his shipwrights were scarce, and they could only barely coat the outer surface of the wooden boat with a layer of iron. It was obvious that the technology of the Ming Dynasty was not enough to enable them to build a pure steel warship, and Tianyu's MC technology did not have the formula for the ship.

However, after solving the power problem, the Ming Dynasty managed to develop a large ship that was almost the same size as Chen Youliang's warships. At least they didn't have to worry about the dilemma of Chen Youliang simply ramming into them with his ship and breaking them up.

It was with the powerful power of the steam turbine that Zhu Yuanzhang successfully ignored the wind direction and headwinds and went straight to Chen Youliang's navy.

Chen Youliang was shocked at first when he saw the iron boat which was almost the same size as his own warship. He was doubtful and said:
"When did the other side send such a huge warship?"

But when he took a closer look, he laughed out loud:

"Hahaha, is Zhu Yuanzhang playing house? What kind of lousy boat is this? Isn't this just a large fishing boat?"

He discovered that Zhu Yuanzhang's "giant ship" was simply a large fishing boat, and apart from its size, it didn't even have many gun muzzles.

The soldiers under Chen Youliang also burst into laughter. Compared with their Hunjiang Dragon, the "battleship" on the opposite side was really ridiculous. It was not even worthy of being called a battleship.

Compared to the enemy's ridicule,

Zhu Yuanzhang was particularly relaxed.

He looked at the generals with a smile and asked:
"Who will go first?"

Xu Da and Chang Yuchun both raised their hands and said in unison:
"I'll be the pioneer!"

The two looked at each other, and there was a fiery flash in their eyes.

Chang Yuchun stared with his eyes wide open, patted his strong body with a muffled thump, and said proudly:
"We are the first pioneer of the Ming Dynasty! Who would not accept that?"

The end of the Yuan Dynasty was an era of many famous generals. All the princes had a large number of brave generals under their command. Among them, Zhu Yuanzhang's generals were the strongest. These people had their own expertise.
Xu Da was good at strategy, Li Wenzhong was good at raiding, Chang Yuchun was good at assaulting, Feng Sheng was good at flanking attacks, and Zhu Wenzhen was good at defense.

Logically speaking, Xu Da should have been the first to lead the battle, because in history, Xu Da had successfully defeated Chen Youliang's vanguard with his excellent experience in commanding combat.

However, this time Zhu Yuanzhang set his sights on Chang Yuchun, the first pioneer of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked with a smile:
"Do you dare to issue a military order?"

Chang Yuchun patted his chest vigorously and said confidently:

"Why not! Give us 1000 water cavalrymen, and we will make that bastard Chen Youliang never come back!"

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed: "Okay! We'll give you this chance!"

"Chang Yuchun, listen to my orders!"

"The general is here!"

"I order you to lead 1000 water cavalry to raid the enemy's main camp. Destroy their flagship first! Kill their morale!"

"The general will obey your orders!"

Chang Yuchun roared excitedly and walked into the cabin under the large fishing boat.

(End of this chapter)