Farmers of Shu Han

Chapter 1497 The Battle of Xiangyang (Part 1)

On the upper reaches of the Han River, as the morning light dispels the thin mist.

General Zhen Dong stood at the bow of the warship, slowly raising his right hand, palm down, fingers clenched.

The officer behind him, who was carrying the command flag, understood and quickly raised the flag.

The Han fleet began to change formation.

The left-wing warship slowly turned right, its bow pointing southeast downstream.

The right-wing warship turned left in sync, with its bow pointing southwest.

The eight warships of the central main force slowed down slightly, creating a distance of thirty zhang between themselves and the vanguard.

The ships maintained a distance of about fifteen zhang between each other, and although the formation appeared loose, it formed a triangular battle formation commonly used by the Han army.

Three boats form a small triangle, and nine boats form a large triangle, protecting each other from all sides.

Unlike the warships of the Wu Kingdom's navy, which were specifically designed for ramming and boarding maneuvers.

The warships of the Han navy were quite unusual.

Both sides of the hull have several rows of square holes, which are covered by hinged panels.

On the upper deck of the ship, there are wooden implements shaped like multi-tiered bookshelves.

Behind the deck, there was a raised area covered with tarpaulin.

At this moment, Han crossbowmen were conducting final checks beside the "multi-tiered bookshelves" on each ship.

That wasn't an ordinary crossbow.

The arrow slot is deep and wide, and the shaft of the crossbow bolt in the slot is as thick as an infant's arm. The arrow fletching is not feathered, but rather a bamboo tube more than a foot long is tied to it.

The tube was painted dark brown, and the nitrated hemp rope trailing from the end swayed slightly in the morning breeze.

Each vehicle has three rows, with ten arrows per row.

One hundred warships, over three hundred arrow carts, and more than ten thousand thunder and fire arrows.

After the inspection was completed, Du Yu came and reported in a low voice:
"General, the rocket launcher is in position."

General Zhen Dong nodded slightly.

The river wind picked up, and General Guan took a deep breath. The air already carried a faint, pungent smell of tung oil and sulfur.

He slowly drew his long sword from his waist, the tip pointing forward, silently.

But all the Han army generals who had been watching this side saw that cold glint.
-
At this moment, Lü Dai was intently observing the somewhat loose and ridiculous formation of the Han army upstream, and his unease grew stronger.

It's too neat.

It wasn't the kind of loose, unkempt military uniform.

The warships of the Han navy were loosely arranged yet remarkably orderly, as if they had been measured with a ruler.

But beside him, Quan Xu burst into laughter:

"The Han army is truly inept at naval warfare! With such a formation, if I were to break through from the center with my warships, their army would surely be torn in two, unable to defend both ends!"

Another general stroked his beard and echoed:

"Judging from the structure mounted on their ship's superstructure, it appears to be a crossbow cart. Could it be that they intend to engage our navy in a crossbow duel? How laughable!"

"Our great Wu warships are covered with raw cowhide, and the parapets are high and thick. How could ordinary arrows penetrate them?"

Lu Dai said in a deep voice, "We must not underestimate the enemy. Issue the order: the warships will be positioned at the front to hold the line, the fighting ships will spread out on both sides, and the large warships will prepare to maneuver and board the enemy ships!"

"promise!"

The drums and horns of Wu's army sounded loudly.

The massive fleet began to change formation.

Twenty giant ships slowly moved forward, like moving water walls, their iron rams gleaming coldly in the morning light.

The two warships spread out like the wings of a goose, while the fleet of warships swam among them like a group of sharks.

On the decks of each ship, Wu's sailors, shields and swords in hand, with hooks and ropes in hand, were ready to unleash a barrage of arrows once they were within a hundred paces, and then board the ships.

They were all too familiar with this tactic—suppression with crossbows, rapid approach, grappling hooks and grappling hooks, and boarding maneuvers.

For decades, the Great Wu Navy relied on this to dominate the Jiangnan region, and had never met its match.

The distance is four hundred paces.

Three hundred steps.

The crossbow windows on Wu Jun's warships were all opened, and the crossbowmen were in position.

The boom at the bow of the deck slowly rose, with the heavy wooden beam topped with iron suspended in mid-air, ready to smash into the enemy ship at any moment.

Two hundred steps.

Quan Xu could now clearly see the colors of the soldiers' clothes on the upper deck of the Han army ship.

A sinister smile curled at the corner of his lips as he raised his right hand: "Crossbows ready—"

Just now.

Upstream, in the Han army formation, Guan Yinping's long sword suddenly slashed down!

"wind!"

"wind!"

"wind!"

Three short, sharp commands, like tearing silk, rang out from each ship.

It wasn't drums and horns, but the roars bursting from the throats of thousands of people. The sound gathered into a tangible wave that overwhelmed the river!

next moment……

collapse!
collapse!
collapse!
collapse!
collapse!
……

The mechanisms of three hundred rocket launchers bounced simultaneously.

The sound wasn't the vibration of a bowstring, but rather a teeth-grinding cracking sound, like three hundred giant trees snapping simultaneously!
Ten thousand rockets were launched.

They are not the parabolic trajectories of ordinary arrows.

Because of the heavy arrow shafts and the powerful force of the arrow chariot, these arrows tore through the air with an almost straight trajectory, emitting a shrill whistle like a ghost's cry, and rushed towards the Wu army fleet!
The sky darkened for a moment.

It wasn't that the sun was obscured by clouds, but rather that there were too many arrows, too dense, weaving a deathly haze in the morning light.

The trailing smoke from the arrow tails formed a billowing curtain of smoke, as if the sky were collapsing, pressing down on the Wu army.

Upon seeing this scene, Lü Dai's pupils suddenly contracted.

That was not any kind of arrow he knew.

There was no sharp sound of feathers cutting through the wind, but rather a wailing sound, like the wailing of ghosts, as the bamboo tube spun in the air.

Tens of thousands of these "ghost arrows," trailing trails of blue smoke, resembled a cloud of calamity descended by a ghost king, obscuring the morning light and pressing down on his fleet.

"Raise your shield—" Quan Xu's roar was drowned out by the whistling of arrows.

The first wave of arrows descended.

puff! puff! puff! puff!
It wasn't the dull thud of an arrowhead piercing wood, but rather the cracking sound of a bamboo tube bursting, similar to the shattering of an earthenware pot.

Thousands of rockets hit Wu Jun's vanguard ship almost simultaneously.

Then, hell descended.

The moment the bamboo tube exploded, the layered filling inside was ignited.

The upper layer of nitrate-sulfur mixture exploded, shooting out blinding white light.

The iron sand ceramic shards in the middle layer swept across the surface like a torrential rain.

The thickened, flaming oil at the bottom splashes out and, upon encountering a spark, becomes an adhesive, burning flame.

The mainsail of a multi-story ship was hit by three torpedoes simultaneously.

boom!
Instead of igniting, the canvas instantly transformed into a fiery dragon soaring into the sky, the flames thick as blood, spreading wildly along the cable.

The mast groaned under the intense heat, snapped, and crashed onto the deck, burning canvas with it.

On the deck, a Wu crossbowman had just raised his shield when a thunderbolt exploded three feet to his left front.

The burst of white light blinded him briefly, followed by the excruciating pain of scalding iron shot piercing his leather armor and embedding itself into his flesh.

Before he could even scream, the splattered hot oil had already soaked his right arm.

The flames didn't flicker; instead, they "crawled" onto his body like a living thing, instantly engulfing half of him.

He transformed into a human torch, tumbling and screaming wildly on the deck until he plunged into the river.

The oil slick on the river surface was ignited, and flames spread across the water.

The superstructure of another warship was pierced by five torpedo rockets.

The bamboo tube exploded inside the ship's cabin, and the flames that burst forth expanded in the confined space, eventually blowing the entire side wall of the cabin off!
Broken wood chips mixed with human remains were scattered everywhere.

Even more terrifying was the flowing, fiery oil that spread down the stairs to the lower cabins, where arrows, tung oil, and canvas were stored...

It doesn't stop there.

The scene that followed caused Lü Dai to instinctively tighten his grip on the sword hilt with his right hand.

Boom!

Secondary secondary explosion.

The entire warship exploded from the inside, breaking into two pieces, and two huge fireballs ignited on the river.

"Fire! Fire! Quickly put out the fire!" a Wu general roared.

But how to save them?
When water is poured onto flammable oil, the flames instead flow with the water.

Someone tried to smother the fire with a wet blanket, which instantly ignited.

This is not any flame they recognize.

This is a war creation made by Mr. Feng, who combined the efforts of Han Dynasty craftsmen and Lady Mei over ten years, improving the formula, optimizing the process, and standardizing production.

It burns at a higher temperature, has stronger adhesion, and is far more difficult to extinguish than ordinary fire attacks.

Only the first salvo.

Of Wu Jun's twelve vanguard warships, six have already turned into burning coffins.

More than 20 warships, nearly half of which were engulfed in flames.

Hundreds of charred corpses floated on the river, and many more wounded soldiers struggled and sank in the burning oil slick.

The air was filled with a mixture of charred flesh, burning wood, and the pungent smell of sulfur, a smell so strong it was nauseating.

Quan Xu stood frozen at the bow of the flagship, his face ashen.

His left arm was slashed deeply by a piece of shattered bamboo, and blood soaked through his battle robe, but he was completely unaware of it.

He gazed at the inferno before him, a scene of burning ships and boiling people.

Looking at his comrades writhing and screaming in the flames.

Looking at the arrow chariots in the Han army formation, silently reloading like the Grim Reaper...

"This this……"

His lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a complete sentence.

As for Lü Dai, he could only stare blankly at everything in front of him.

His left hand, the hand that had held a sword for forty years, slaying the mountain tribes and suppressing the rebellion in Jiaozhou, began to tremble slightly uncontrollably.

It wasn't fear—or at least he wouldn't admit it was fear.

It's something deeper:
All the naval warfare principles he learned in his lifetime, all the experience he gained about boarding, jumping over, archery duels, and smashing the enemy with poles.

At that moment, it shattered.

He smelled the stench of burning flesh, the acrid smoke of burning wood, and the pungent smell of sulfur.

The smell entered his nasal cavity and rushed straight to his brain, making his temples throb.

"General..." The adjutant beside him said in a hoarse voice, "The Han army... the Han army's arrow carts are being reloaded again..."

Lü Dai suddenly looked up upstream.

The Han army's formation remained loose, but on each ship's deck, beside the bookshelf-shaped arrow carts, soldiers were skillfully operating them.

Pull out the empty slot, insert a new arrow, and pull the lever.

Their movements were so synchronized...so synchronized that it looked like they had rehearsed it a thousand times.

There were no cheers, no shouts, only silent and efficient preparations for slaughter.

"them……"

Lü Dai stared intently ahead, his lips trembling:
"They're not going to board the ship...they're going to...they're going to burn us all on the river."

The moment those words were spoken, a bone-chilling coldness crept up my spine and spread throughout my body.

He finally understood the source of his unease.

No wonder……

No wonder Feng Yong didn't come.

He doesn't need to come at all.

“Pass on the order…” Lü Dai began, only to find his voice trembling.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm. "Order all ships to disperse! Spread out! Don't huddle together! Accelerate! Charge!"

"Only by rushing over and getting close to them can these demonic flames..."

The words have not yet fallen.

Upstream, the second wave of commands rang out from the Han army ranks.

Not "wind," but something shorter and more violent—

"thunder!"

"thunder!"

"thunder!"

……

Lü Dai stumbled and almost fell.

He quickly grabbed the railing and strained his eyes to look ahead.

He saw the tarpaulin-covered bulges on the sides of the Han army ships suddenly being lifted off.

What was revealed was... a wooden device shaped like a giant scorpion's upturned tail that he had never seen before.

The end is not a stone bag, but a net bag, which contains round, melon-shaped grains covered with oil-soaked hemp fibers...

Earthenware jar?

"No!"

Lu Dai's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot, and he roared.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered something distant and terrifying.

The Battle of Longguan, whose brilliance was overshadowed by the Battle of Jieting.

The man who became a legend in the Battle of Jieting, Feng, also burned down the entire Longguan Pass.

And today, he even wants to burn down the entire navy of the Great Wu!

With flames and deafening roars, the Wu Kingdom's navy, which had dominated the Jiangnan region for decades, was reduced to ashes from a hundred paces away...

It is coming!
The shadow of Longguan, which had been deliberately silenced for many years and overshadowed by Feng Yong's brilliant achievements, now loomed over the Wu navy with unmistakable force.

"put!"

With a whoosh of his arm, dozens of pottery jars soared into the air.

It drew a high arc in the air, emitting a tooth-grinding, childlike shriek, as it crashed down on the most densely packed section of the Wu army fleet in the middle.

At this moment, time seemed to stretch out in Lü Dai's eyes.

He watched as the earthenware jars spun in the air, the oil-soaked hemp fibers stuck into their surfaces leaving tiny trails of sparks in the wind.

They fly so high and so slowly.

It was so slow that he could see the rough texture of the pottery on the surface of the jar, and the blue flames leaping as the hemp fibers burned.

Then, it fell.

The first pottery jar hit the top of the superstructure of a warship.

It didn't hit you, it stuck to you.

The moment the earthenware pot touched the wooden board, it deformed and collapsed with a "poof" sound, like a ripe fruit, before exploding.

boom--!
It wasn't the crisp sound of a thunderbolt exploding in a bamboo tube, but a deeper, fuller sound, like a giant drum beating in the chest.

The moment it exploded, a blinding white light expanded outwards, so bright that it temporarily blinded everyone within a radius of more than ten feet.

When the white light fades, the flame is revealed.

It wasn't the thick, flowing flame of a thunder rocket, but rather a gushing forth.

From the center of the explosion, a column of orange-red to white fire shot upwards for more than ten feet, like a geyser erupting from the ground.

The flames were mixed with countless tiny black specks.

It was iron filings and broken porcelain filling the earthenware jar, which, propelled by the explosive combustion, shot out in all directions at a terrifying speed.

Puff puff puff!
Five Wu crossbowmen behind the ship's tower were swept away by the iron sand storm, crossbows and all.

The leather shield held by the person at the front was pierced like paper, iron shot penetrated his chest, and exploded into a bloody hole in his back.

A man next to him had half his face sliced ​​off by a shard of porcelain, revealing stark white bone. He raised his hand in a daze and touched it before letting out a howl that sounded inhuman.

But this is only the beginning.

The thickened, flammable oil that had been layered inside the earthenware jar instantly vaporized and sprayed out under the high temperature of the explosion.

They didn't "flow" on the deck, they "splashed".

It was as if someone had scooped up a ladle of molten copper with a giant ladle and splashed it all over the place.

Everything that the flames reach catches fire.

The wooden pillars of the ship's tower rapidly carbonized under high temperatures, causing countless tiny sparks to erupt from their surface.

The cable didn't burn; it exploded. The entire cable instantly turned into a fiery snake, shooting upwards along the mast.

Even more terrifying were the kerosene spilled on people.

They stuck to the leather armor, which melted like wax.

When it sticks to the skin, it instantly causes blistering, scorching, and curling.

"what--!!!"

The screams didn't come in waves, but exploded simultaneously.

The entire deck of the warship had become a living hell.

Someone was engulfed in flames, running wildly, knocking over their companion, and the two rolled together in a burning mess.

Someone attempted to jump into the river, but the flames on their body were too intense. When they fell into the river, they created a cloud of steam, and when they resurfaced, they were charred corpses.

A pottery jar landed on the side of a multi-story ship.

It didn't hit directly, but exploded in the air, three feet from the ship's side.

Boom!

The shock wave was visible to the naked eye.

A distorted wave of air spread outwards, slamming hard against the ship's thick hull.

The hull planks dented inward, the wooden planks groaned under the strain, and cracks spread like a spider web.

The earthenware jars fell like rain.

Some exploded at the top of the mast, the burning fragments scattering like flowers from a fairy's shower.

Some of the explosions crashed directly into the crowd, tearing people at the center of the blast to pieces, while those on the periphery were thrown into the river by the shockwave.

One arrow landed precisely at the hatch of a large warship—a hatch containing arrows and oil.

boom--! ! !
Psychotic explosion.

The entire warship broke in two, and a huge fireball rose into the air, carrying burning fragments of the hull, crashing down on the surrounding ships like a meteorite.

A burning plank struck the sail rope of a nearby warship, and flames shot up the rope.

A section of the broken mast, still ablaze, pierced the hull of another ship like a javelin.

A series of fires, a series of explosions.

On the river, the flames didn't burn in isolated spots, but rather spread out in a continuous mass.

The burning ships collided and ignited each other, and the oil slick spread on the water, turning this section of the Han River into a boiling lake of fire.