Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 547: A Thousand Miles to Jiangling in One Day
Just when Xiao Yi arrived in Jiankang, Hou Jing had already led the navy to the city of Jiangling.

In Jiangling City, Sun Changshi, who was guarding Jiangling, faced the mighty Yizhou navy. He really couldn't figure out where Hou Jing got so many warships from.

In addition to ordinary warships, what scares Sun Changshi the most is a ship that can spit fire.

When this type of ship approaches, it will spray out flammable tar and flames, which can easily ignite the intercepting warships, making the navy in Jiangling City dare not go into battle.

The navy did not dare to go out to fight, but the navy of Yizhou blocked Jiangling, and Hou Jing sent out a special warship.

At first, Sun Changshi thought it was an ordinary fire attack ship.

Fire attack ship, this is the type of ship that Sun Wu used in the Battle of Chibi. The ship was filled with flammable fuel, and after being ignited, it rushed into the enemy's fleet with the wind and ignited more warships.

Fire attack is also a common means of warfare for naval forces.

But Sun Changshi had already ordered all the ships in Jingzhou to return to the dock. What was the point of Hou Jing sending out fire attack ships?
Soon, Sun Changshi understood the significance of Hou Jing sending these ships.

When these ships approached the Jiangling dock, there was a sudden violent explosion, which directly collapsed the arrow tower on the edge of Jiangling City!

Not only that, the fishing nets and iron chains used to block the dock were also blown away, and even several warships anchored at the dock were affected by the wind and waves, shaking for a long time and almost capsized.

In fact, strictly speaking, the power of this explosion was not very great.

The power of black gunpowder is limited, but it has a strong impact on the hearts of the Jiangling navy.

In this era when prophecies and divinations were popular and both the north and the south were filled with a religious atmosphere, such weapons were no less than divine punishment.

The already weak will to resist in Jiangling City was also shaken by the thunder.

Immediately afterwards, Hou Jing began to attack the city on land.

Hou Jing used thunder bombs and shot the burning gunpowder cans onto the city wall with a catapult. The exploding gunpowder cans suppressed the archers on the city wall. Yang Jia personally put on armor and led his men to start the charge!

Chen Baxian also put on armor. The elite soldiers who were the first to climb the city wall mixed in with the cannon fodder wearing paper armor. The mighty army in full armor caused a great impact on the defenders on the city wall.

Generally speaking, the first batch of people to launch a charge are cannon fodder.

These cannon fodders were civilians captured from nearby areas. They were driven around like livestock in order to consume the energy and arrows of the soldiers defending the city.

But when the defenders on the city wall saw the soldiers charging in full paper armor, they were full of doubts.

When did Yizhou become so prosperous?
Even the cannon fodder are wearing armor?
When the defenders on the city wall began to shoot arrows, the paper armor was able to block most of the stray arrows. At this time, a large number of soldiers had already rushed to the bottom of the city wall.

Although they were a ragtag army, the paper armor could really block stray arrows and also gave courage to these ragtag troops who were originally meant to be cannon fodder.

On the battlefield, who doesn't want to make a contribution?
Being the first to ascend the stage is a tremendous achievement, one that is enough to change the fate of an individual and a family.

When Yang Jia and Chen Baxian led the elite troops to climb the city wall, the miscellaneous troops that were originally used as a rally also began to attack the city.

The ensuing battle even exceeded Hou Jing and Yang Jia's expectations.

It was unexpected that the army would be needed to wear down the morale of the soldiers defending the city, and it would take at least ten days or half a month of siege to take it.

Unexpectedly, perhaps because the paper armor charge was too shocking, or because the explosion of the gunpowder ship on the water affected the morale of the defenders, by the evening, Yang Jia found a flaw in the city defense and led his soldiers onto the city wall.

This time Chen Baxian showed his bravery, and he led several Liao soldiers who were good at climbing to occupy a section of the city wall. Yang Jia immediately led his soldiers to follow and gained a firm foothold on the city wall.

Once the city wall is breached, the attacking soldiers will continue to pour in, like ants causing a dam to burst, quickly tearing open the entire city defense.

By sunset, a hole was torn open in Jiangling City, and Yang Jia led the soldiers to control the city gate.

The moment the city gate opened, Jiangling City had already been breached.

Sun Changshi, who was defending the city, drew his sword and committed suicide, and most of the soldiers defending the city surrendered to Hou Jing.

This important town in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, a key river defense town that even Fu Jian failed to capture when he unified the north, has changed hands!

Hou Jing stood on the city wall of Jiangling, looking at this thousand-year-old ancient city, and his heart was extremely excited!
I chose the right track after all!
With so many talented people, fighting for their lives in the north with Duke Su, it is not as great as the achievement of capturing Jiangling!

As soon as Jiangling came, the dawn of unifying the north and the south had appeared!
As long as Duke Su resolves the trouble in the north, he will definitely lead his troops south. As a hero of unification, he will surely be ranked above everyone else when merits are awarded in the future!

Hou Jing was even more grateful to his wife in his heart. If it weren't for the lady of the Li family who pointed out this path, and he had volunteered to go to Yizhou, he would not have achieved such success.

When Hou Jing thought of his wife who was far away in Yongle City, he felt more motivated.

Now that his eldest son has been born, his contribution has made him one of the top people in the founding of the country. A few years ago, Hou Jing would not have dared to even think about it.

Thinking of the letter his wife had written a few days ago, in which she described the situation at home, Hou Jing felt that following Su Ze back to Luoyang from the Six Garrisons was the best choice he had ever made in his life.

Especially when Hou Jing heard that Gao Huan, who was his former acquaintance, had been in circles for so many years and finally chose to surrender to Duke Su, Hou Jing was extremely fortunate.

Indeed, this person’s achievements, in addition to his own efforts, are also due to the historical process.

If I hadn't seized the opportunity and followed the right Duke Su, I wouldn't have been so rich.

However, Hou Jing remembered his wife's instructions and did not dare to neglect them.

This attack on Jiangling consumed all of Yizhou's reserves, and there is no chance to expand the results of the battle for the time being.

The most important thing now is to defend Jiangling City.

In addition, Xiangyang, an important town in the north of Jingzhou, which is an important town connecting Henan area, must also be taken as soon as possible.

Hou Jing ordered Chen Baxian to follow the generals to rebuild the beacon tower and learn from Guan Yu to arrange the river defense line.

At the same time, he sent Yang Jia to lead troops north to capture Xiangyang.

In addition, Hou Jing also wrote down the process of capturing Jiangling in detail. An official copy was sent to the Government Affairs Hall and the Shogunate, and a secret copy was sent to Su Ze.

With his current position, Hou Jing is no longer the young man he once was. As a powerful frontier official, the most important thing is to reassure his lord.

Although Hou Jing knew Su Ze's ability, it was inevitable that he would be envied when he led troops outside. In his wife's words, "Your Excellency was promoted because of your loyalty to Duke Su. Naturally, you should continue to be loyal to the Duke to avoid suspicion."

Gao Huan, whom Hou Jing had been thinking about for a long time, finally arrived at the military camp near Jinyang from Liaodong.

(End of this chapter)