Chastity Layman

  Chapter 840 Meat Grinder

  The barbarians were discharged from the upstream along the river, full of soldiers.

  On the emerald green river, on the flagship of the Beiyang Zhenyuan, Admiral Cheng Chumo had just returned. On the high mast, the sailors on the watch waved small flags to convey the military situation below.

  The other party came fiercely, and countless wooden rafts went down the river.

  Although the river surged after the rain, the river was only sixty or seventy feet wide. Cheng Chumo immediately commanded the fleet to disperse, forming several small battle groups, and let the transport ship retreat to the downstream corner.

Zhenyuan puts down the anchor, raises the sails, and advances against the wind in the waves. This big battleship is majestic. There are two **** ships on the left and one on the right. Wait for the dinghy.

  Like a ferocious pack of wolves, facing the overwhelming wooden rafts coming down the river, they rushed up like that.

After more than a year of training and combat, the fleet of the Beiyang Fleet is no longer what it was when it was first formed. They have experienced the battles of Long Island and Beisha, the Battle of Liuqiu, and Guangzhou Suppressing the Eagle's Nest at sea can now be said to be well versed in the essence of water warfare.

  Several battle group ships seem to be close together, but they maintain a certain safe distance.

  The rumbling drums sounded on the Zhenyuan, and other major ships followed suit, one after another, especially exciting in the waves.

  The marines fully loaded in the cabin were already fighting on the shore at this time. On the deck, Cheng Chumo mobilized some sailors to come up to fight.

  These Jianghuai sailors stood there holding the crossbow, despite the high wind and rough waves, but their legs were nailed to the boat like roots and swayed with the boat.

Although half of the sailors were dispatched to fight on deck, Cheng Chumo and other fleet commanders were not worried. This is a fleet that can go deep into the ocean. The sailors are already well-equipped and experienced. However, on an inland river with a width of sixty to seventy feet, in fact, less than one-third of the sailors are needed to maintain the stability of the ship.

  In fact, many captains thought that Wei Gong was too stable in fighting, and did not reuse them at all. Many captains think radically that they have great potential and can advance both land and water.

  The marines landed and fought over there, and the navy here could go upstream.

   "Be careful of the enemy's fire attack!" Cheng Chumo was not careless. The task Qin Lang gave him was not to seek meritorious deeds, but to seek no faults, as long as he guarded the river and protected the flanks of the three thousand soldiers on the bank.

  Many of those simple wooden rafts didn’t even have oars, so one or two people at the head of the row supported a pole to grasp the direction, and then they went down the river by the current.

  The savages on the boat squatted or sat, all roaring and screaming.

  The narrow river surface is not a good situation for Beiyang, which has large ships. They have to avoid being hit by these rafts going down the river, and they have to make sure to leave room to avoid maneuvering.

  The barbarians were very brave, facing the tall battleship group, they still charged forward.

  The whining horn sounded passionately, and the war drum was even more exciting.

  The flags on the masts of all the big ships were waved, and the battle began.

  Sea falcons, sea sharks and other yachts and speedboats rushed out one after another. The sailors on the boats struggled to use the oars, and the crossbowmen started shooting with their crossbows.

  The barbarians were sitting on wooden rafts. Except for some guys in front who had shields in their hands, most of them didn't even have shields, and most of them didn't even have armor.

The barbarians lack armor, and the wooden raft has a low load capacity. If you wear shields and armor, you can only take fewer people, and not all barbarians can swim. Most of the barbarians who live in the mountains They don't know how to use water. For them, if they accidentally fall, the armor on their bodies will kill them.

  The crossbowmen on the speedboat of the Beiyang Navy rely on their own crossbows to shoot long distances, and the yacht is flexible and swims in the wind and waves.

  The barbarians on the wooden raft also began to fight back with bows and arrows.

   But obviously they didn't have many archers, and the arrows that responded were sparse, and they were far from the range and accuracy here, and most of the arrows fell into the water.

  The two sides continued to approach.

  Jianghuai crossbowmen shot faster, and many barbarians on the wooden rafts screamed and fell down from the arrows, and even fell into the river.

  A nearby raft burst into flames.

   Sure enough, the barbarians prepared a fire attack. They piled flammable objects on the wooden raft, trying to use fire attack to deal with the Tang army's large ships.

  But it is too naive to use these rafts without rudders to burn Beiyang warships.

  Two soldiers and horses collided together.

  Bows and crossbows flew back and forth.

  The barbarians used wooden rafts to land on the beach behind the Tang army's position. Those simple wooden rafts could not confront the navy fleet head-on.

  After the two sides approached, the barbarians could only look up at the ship's side of the navy, but Tang Jun was able to stand on the high deck and shoot them condescendingly.

   It is impossible for them to jump to the side and fight close to the ship, they can't go up.

   Can only hope to hit it, or break through the gap in the fleet.

   But the navy is not all big ships, they have ships of various types and sizes, forming a tight net, ruthlessly harvesting these barbarians who are like going to death.

   Almost one-sided massacre.

  A dozen wooden rafts caught fire did not work and were easily let go by the navy.

  But those wooden platoons full of barbarians were intercepted heavily, and all bows and crossbows were fired.

  The battleship Zhenyuan and two walkers and four warships set up three bows and crossbows to shoot.

   Massacre.

  It was like a group of ignorant sheep breaking into a pack of ferocious wolves, and the result was a merciless massacre.

  The surface of the Zuoxi River was dyed red.

  Countless wooden rafts shattered and fell apart, floating down the river. Many savages who fell into the water on the river were still struggling for help, and more savages sank directly to the bottom of the river.

  The sound of the war drums has been blurred, as if they are connected together.

   When no more rafts came down from the upper reaches, the water battle finally ended.

  The drums of war stopped.

  The flag bearer on the mast sends the signal of safety.

  Cheng Chu silently ordered all ships to report casualties and losses, and it was quickly summarized.

  The result was very good. There were no casualties on the big ship, only some sailors were injured or injured, and an unlucky Seafalcon was blocked and hit by several wooden rafts at the same time, causing the ship to break and leak, and finally had to run aground on the shore.

   "About three thousand barbarians were defeated by us, great victory."

  A member of the army shouted to Cheng Chumo excitedly.

   Two thousand sailors against three thousand barbarians, annihilating each other in an hour, is indeed something to be happy about.

  ······

  Qin Lang boarded the watchtower, and he could see the battlefield as far as he could see.

   The battle has been going on for over an hour.

  The two wings of the Tang army are still impregnable.

  Juma Wall has long been submerged by the corpses of barbarians, and a high mountain of corpses has been piled up between the river and the pond.

  The barbarians became more desperate as they attacked.

  When they tried to use wooden rafts and other surprise soldiers to raid and failed, the sound of Mingjin finally sounded.

  On Mount Tuomi, Nong Sanniang, Fu San and the others were all silent.

  The terrifying Tang army's position, like two huge meat grinders, not only swallowed all their thousands of Qingqi, but also swallowed at least 5,000 of them in more than an hour.

  If you count the three thousand who died on Zuoxi.

   Barbarians died at least eight thousand.

  This is a silent casualty figure.

  Long time.

   Fusan said with a dark face, "This shouldn't be."

  Miss Nong San also lost her composure, yes, she shouldn’t.

  Those damned Tang troops seem to have some magical powers, always tempting them, it seems that as long as they persist, they can break through the **** position, kill them, and drive all three thousand Tang troops into the river to feed the fish.

  But why were they the ones who failed to hold on in the end?

  Why they died there more than five thousand people.

   There are two huge mountains of corpses, each pile contains more than 2,000 corpses, and they can be seen clearly from the Tuomi Mountain two miles away.

  These two huge mountains of corpses are piled there, and now they have no chance.

   "The people of Tang Dynasty must be at the end of their battle, why don't we organize our troops and go through the pond in the middle?"

  The pond in the middle is about 100 feet wide, and the water is not very deep, but it is not possible to wade directly, at least you need a wooden raft.

But the problem is that although the pond is not that wide, it is surrounded by a swamp, and the wooden raft can only walk on the water surface. The swamp is full of traps, and the Tang people can kill them all as long as they arrange a random group of archers. Shoot dead in that swamp.

  Miss Nong San squatted down.

  She was motionless, as if petrified.

  On the battlefield, the barbarian army was slowly retreating. No one wanted to charge any more, not even approaching the two huge mountains of corpses.

   That's daunting.

  The chiefs of the many Juding tribes and the Zuoxi man's Dongzhu are rushing to Mount Tuomi. They are desperate and confused, and don't know what to do next.

   "We fought the most stupid battle! As soon as the surname Qin landed, we should have thought that it was a trap, and we shouldn't have stepped in."

  Fu San thought to himself, what's the use of talking about it now, when everyone was lamenting that they couldn't ambush Qin Lang, and seeing that he dared to come back to provoke, they all excitedly thought it was a chance to capture Qin Lang alive, who would miss it.

  Although he chose a terrain that was good for defense, everyone thought that with troops ten times his strength and in the wild, he could easily be stacked to death.

"The one surnamed Qin is a devil!" Nong Sanniang sighed, "He obviously has stronger strength, but he hides it on purpose, luring us to send troops up again and again, and before we know it, we lost more than five thousand people. Adding the 3,000 on the river, we lost more than 8,000 people at once."

  Fu San didn't want to hear this, and he even began to regret that he should have compromised with Nong Sanniang.

   "Let's withdraw."

  Nong Tiangui was furious, "Withdraw now? Just like this? More than 8,000 of us died in vain?"

"Then what are you going to do? Confront Qin Lang here? Have you thought about the consequences? Qin Lang might have sent someone to call for reinforcements yesterday. In two days, reinforcements will definitely arrive. By then we Are you going to be surrounded here?"

   "Go back to Tanzhou immediately, we can't stay here anymore."

  Nong Sanniang was confused, "And then?"

  She originally thought that she had persuaded Fusan to take down Zuoximan without bloodshed, and then came to ambush to capture and kill Qin Lang, and then went down to Longzhou to capture Yongzhou.

   Fusan didn't know how to answer, "Let's take a step and see!"

  (end of this chapter)