Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 75: The Boat of Backfire
The north bank of the Wei River.

Western enclosure of Hanzhai.

Six thousand Wei troops lined up and waited. Under the command of Lieutenant General Niu Jin, they systematically replaced the soldiers who were filling trenches and pulling deer antlers in the front and came down to rest.

"General! Look! It's done!" Under the ox-shaped flag, the cavalry commander named Wen Qin pointed his spear at the blazing fire in the lower reaches of the Wei River and shouted excitedly.

Niu Jin also noticed a light in front of his eyes, and immediately looked towards the southeast.

But two or three miles away, on the surface of the Wei River, where the Han army camp blocked the view, the sky-high flames stood out in the hazy morning light.

Although the flames could not be seen due to obstruction of vision, the southeast breeze caused the blazing light and billowing black smoke to drift towards the northwest.

"Order Han Cheng to lead a group of troops to storm the Shu invaders' camp! Don't be stingy with your crossbows! Everyone, speed up the trench filling!"

"Have the soldiers shout to the Shu invaders that the pontoon bridge has been burned by our army. They have no way to retreat. Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Several personal soldiers quickly went under the banner to pass on the order.

While looking at the Shu army in front of him who were still resisting stubbornly with the help of fortifications such as the Huzhai River, Niu Jin reined in his horse and walked towards the bank of the Wei River, as if he wanted to see what kind of fire it was.

However, as the horse galloped towards the Wei River, the man suddenly realized that the center of the fire seemed to be slowly moving upstream of the Wei River.

Just as he was frowning in confusion, suddenly rows of Wei soldiers lined up and waited in formation on the empty surface of the Wei River!
"What's going on?!" Niu Jin looked at the fireboat that he was responsible for organizing people to build. At this moment, it was still one or two miles away from the center of the fire downstream, and he became more and more puzzled.

He immediately spurred his horse into a gallop, and in the short time it took him to rush towards the Wei River, a total of ten large rafts loaded with straw men, assassins, helmsmen and bellows had all passed by him.

Looking downstream in a trance, I saw the boats carrying the blazing flames. They were clearly not the large rafts made by the Wei Dynasty, but dozens of boats that the Shu invaders had placed across the wooden bridge upstream in broad daylight!
"General, why did the Shu invaders burn their own ships?!" Wenqin, the cavalry Sima under the central government, was stunned.

Niu Jin was also puzzled. "If the Shu invaders wanted to use iron chains to connect the boats to intercept our raft, that's understandable, but if they burn their own boats, won't we even have to light a fire?!"

Wen Qin nodded repeatedly at first, then suddenly realized, his pupils dilated, and he was overjoyed: "I understand, the Shu invaders must have thought the straw figures on our raft were our Wei soldiers, and they wanted to use the southeast wind to launch a fire attack!"

Everyone knows that the southeast wind is blowing now, but how can the southeast wind on the Guanzhong Plain be compared to the southeast wind on Red Cliff back then?!
The river in that section of Chibi is sandwiched between two mountains, and the riverbanks are all covered with dense forests. The so-called "wind is bound into a blade, and the forest adds to the power of the wind", which is why Zhou Yu succeeded in setting fire to the ships!

Niu Jin also said: "Now with this gentle southeast breeze, even our flags are barely unfurled. The Shu invaders actually think they can use this to destroy our fire ships. Isn't that ridiculous?!"

In preparation for today's battle, the Great Wei has manufactured more than forty large blowers, which are fully capable of overcoming this weak southeast wind and allowing the flames to blow towards the southeast!

On the Weishui Bridge Tower, Captain Zong Qian looked westwards against the Weishui River. In the reflection of the Han Dynasty's fire ships, he could clearly see the Wei invaders' soldiers lined up in battle array.

"Captain, the Wei invaders didn't take a boat, but a raft, right?! But what kind of raft can carry nearly a hundred soldiers?!" The personal guards on the bridge looked at the Wei soldiers who were on full alert, and felt inexplicably horrified.

The Han Dynasty's warships on the river could only carry more than 200 people. The Wei invaders were able to build a raft that could carry a hundred people in just a few days. This was completely beyond common sense.

The Zongqian was stunned when he heard this. He had already ordered his soldiers to draw their crossbows and prepare them. At this moment, he finally realized: "The people on the Wei invaders' raft are not real soldiers, but straw men!"

The soldiers guarding the bridge around the bridge tower suddenly realized.

Zongqian then issued another order from the bridge: "Soldiers, don't waste your arrows on the straw men. The Wei invaders will surely have someone behind the raft steering and setting fire to shoot the people behind!"

"Yes!"

The surrounding soldiers responded loudly.

At this moment, the first raft rushed into the narrow waterway only a hundred steps north of Middle-earth, and its speed increased visibly.

In just a few breaths, it collided directly with the Han boat, which was unable to move up due to the fast speed of the water.

"boom!"

The large raft of the Wei State, which directly occupied one-third of the waterway, suddenly burst into flames! It actually made a huge noise.

A real flame suddenly shot up into the sky!
On Wuzhangyuan, nearly a hundred people under the wooden pavilion suddenly had their pupils dilated.

Even Liu Chan was horrified at this moment. He had just seen a ship full of Wei soldiers crashing straight into the Han Dynasty's fireship, and then a real fire broke out!

The flames were so high that they even passed over the watchtowers on the Wei River!

Fortunately, such a tall flame was only in the initial burning stage for a few breaths, and the fire became smaller after a while.

However, even though the fire was slightly weaker, it was still more than half as bright as the flames emitted by the burning boats of the big man.

It's easy to imagine that the Wei soldiers on that ship were not soldiers at all, but straw men wearing armor and stuffed with fish paste, pine resin, and kerosene.

"Here it comes again!" someone whispered urgently.

Liu Chan also saw something and couldn't help but hold his breath and concentrate.

Almost instantly, another large raft, controlled by the Wei helmsman, passed by the burning raft and crashed into the Han Dynasty's linked boat at high speed!
The boat that the big man was carrying was pushed back a little.

Fortunately, the Han ships were connected by iron chains, which dispersed the impact force.

The fire started again, just like the previous raft.

Because the two rafts were not connected, the raging fire occupied most of the narrow Wei River waterway.

Liu Chan withdrew his gaze slightly and looked at another narrow waterway closer to Wuzhangyuan.

Zhongzhou divides the Wei River into two streams, north and south. The huge fire that attracted Liu Chan's attention just now occurred in the north of Zhongzhou, which was the half where the sunken boats had previously blocked the Wei grain ships.

A moment later, the same scene as in the northern section of the waterway happened again in the southern section of the waterway.

Under the influence of the southeast wind, nearly half of the straw men on the raft were soon set on fire.

Under the influence of the southeast wind, the raging flames and billowing smoke began to drift towards the upper reaches of the Wei River.

"Your Majesty, it now appears that linking the boats with iron chains can indeed hinder the Wei invaders' fire ships.

"But I still don't understand why you would take the initiative to burn our own Han ships."

Another of Liu Chan's attendants, Guo Youzhi, rarely participated in political affairs, so he was often ridiculed by people in the court and the public, and was regarded as a mere reserve to fill the numbers.

Liu Chan had been busy with military affairs and worried about defeating the enemy, so he never summoned him. He also never took the initiative to meet the emperor. However, while watching the battle today, he finally couldn't help but ask questions.

Li Yi, the son of Li Hui, the governor of Beijiang, and the Minister of State, looked at Guo Youzhi and asked in confusion:

"Your Majesty, the wind is blowing from the southeast. The fire on the Wei invaders' ships is burning all on themselves, and it seems that it will not burn our Han ships and wooden bridges.

"Could it be that the Wei invaders were careless and overlooked the effect of wind direction?!"

Liu Chan frowned slightly and was about to speak.

However, Zhao Guang was the first to refute the two of them:

"Shizhong and Shilang, as the Art of War says, 'Be lenient in estimating the enemy, and be strict in defending against the enemy.'

"When judging the enemy's situation, we should strive to be broad and detailed, anticipating as many possible means as possible of the enemy's future attack.

"Finally, we must strictly equip ourselves to resist the enemy.

"You and I both know that the wind is blowing from the southeast, so how could the Wei invaders not notice this?

"If you pin your hopes of defeating the enemy on their ignorance of the wind direction, you are only deceiving yourself and will inevitably suffer a crushing defeat.

"As for why you burned our Han warships, this is one of your majesty's clever ideas to strictly defend against the enemy.

"Everyone, just wait and see how your majesty's wisdom and the bravery of the soldiers will defeat the enemy. There is no need to worry."

Dong Shizhong had previously brought a group of the emperor's close attendants to support Xiegu, so as to correct the emperor's mistakes and assist the emperor in making decisions.

However, these days, all the discussions between His Majesty and important military officials were about military affairs, and those officials who once assisted the emperor in the palace were not qualified to participate.

As if they felt Your Majesty's neglect, they came to watch the battle with Your Majesty. Although they were not familiar with military affairs, they were all chattering.

It seemed that he was trying to gain an opportunity to show himself in front of His Majesty, which made Zhao Guang feel a little impatient.

On the other hand, Guo Youzhi, Li Yi and other courtiers and clerks were stunned when they heard that the method of setting fire to the ships to meet the enemy was actually set up by the emperor. Then they remembered that they had been questioning it just now.

However, no matter how much everyone thought about it, they could not figure out how the emperor's strategy could put out the fire and defeat the enemy.

But finally, no one dared to discuss this policy again and disturb people's hearts.

Liu Chan sat upright on a wooden chair with a stern expression. After a moment, his pupils shrank involuntarily.

Above the surface of the Wei River, the flames and thick smoke that were originally sweeping towards the west suddenly rolled back and began to burn towards the southeast.

Guo Youzhi, Li Yi and other officials were stunned when they saw this and were speechless.

"Look, everyone. Is the southeast wind still blowing on the Wei River?" Zhao Guang, who was standing beside the emperor, held his sword and looked a little stern.

"Can the Wei invaders still borrow the west wind?" Someone in the crowd suddenly spoke up, causing some people with a little intelligence to roll their eyes at each other.

However, soon, another person came up with a guess that sounded relatively reasonable, even very reasonable, to everyone else:
"Could it be that the wind direction has changed along the Wei River? The Wei invaders also have experts in feng shui and numerology who could have predicted the wind direction change?" "Just like during the Battle of Red Cliffs, when Zhou Yu predicted the northwest wind would turn into a southeast wind?!"

Liu Chan frowned again, turned his head and looked back, this time he finally found who was talking.

Assistant Minister Chen Zhi was a distant relative of Prime Minister Xu Jingyuan. Historically, he was a favorite of Adou in his later years. He rose to the rank of Minister of the Chancellery and supported Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition.

He was quite fond of numbers, and it was said that he had dabbled in astronomy and calendar calculation, divination with yarrow and tortoise shells, as well as unconventional ways such as fortune-telling with the five elements and feng shui.

"I have heard that Fengzong (Chen Zhi) is quite good at mathematics. Why don't you calculate for me how long this northwest wind on the Wei River will last?"

The young man with a rather majestic figure froze for a moment, then bowed and said hesitantly:

"Your Majesty, I am not proficient in mathematics and cannot predict the direction of the wind. I am just shocked that such a person exists in the Wei invaders' army."

Liu Chan was too tired to complain for a moment. These weird and unorthodox teachings really were believed by people these days.

So, why was the Jingkang Shame? Why did Kaifeng fall?

Emperor Qinzong of Song actually believed a sorcerer's trick of turning beans into soldiers! He summoned the Six Jia divine soldiers to open the city to meet the enemy, letting the Jin army into Kaifeng! I wonder if the Jin army was stunned when they successfully entered the city.

Zhao Guang frowned, obviously helpless against these learned scholars who were well-versed in ancient and modern knowledge. Finally, he snorted:
"Zhang He painstakingly devised this fire attack strategy, expending immense effort and taking immense risks.

"If this man really took the risk and came here at night because of the divination of the numerologists that the wind direction of the Wei River would change at this time, then the day when our Han Dynasty will recover our homeland and pacify the world is just around the corner!"

The people in the pavilion were much older, more experienced, and some even held higher official positions than Zhao Guang. How could they not hear the mockery in Zhao Guang's words at this moment?
He frowned and rolled his eyes for a moment, as if trying to tell young people not to be so impulsive.

However, he did not dare to say anything irresponsible or sarcastic to the newly promoted Longxiong Zhonglang in front of the Han emperor, whose majesty was growing.

"What Zhao Zhonglang means is that the Wei invaders have prepared a wind-blowing device?" Chen Zhi suddenly realized that it was rare to find a person who could predict the direction of the wind. How could there be such a person in the Wei invaders' army?
"Of course." Zhao Guang nodded.

All the officials looked around and talked a lot.

Liu Chan didn't care about the little incident between Zhao Guang and his ministers in the pavilion, and only kept his eyes on the Weishui battlefield.

By this time, the fire on the dozens of ships that the Han people were crossing the river had finally died down.

After a while, the fire was completely extinguished.

The flammable materials such as the ointment must have been burned out.

"Your Majesty, why are all the fires on our Han ships extinguished?" Chen Zhi asked in astonishment. "Could it be that the Wei invaders hijacked the ships and put them out?"

Everyone was shocked again.

Zhao Guang listened to everyone's discussion and spoke again:

"Can't you all see that the Wei invaders' boats are filled with straw men?"

Are they all straw men? Some people were shocked.

The Jie Cong Shilang, who was assisting the Huben Zhonglang Jiang in managing the Huben files, suddenly had an idea and made a suggestion:

"Longxiong Zhonglang is saying that the fire ships of the Wei invaders were filled with straw men?

"In that case, why not quickly order our Han soldiers to take a boat and throw the straw man into the Wei River?
"In this way, wouldn't it be easy to put out the fire?"

Upon hearing this plan, many people in the pavilion thought for a moment and then agreed. Some even asked whether Zong Yu and the soldiers guarding the bridge were not prepared.

Liu Chan couldn't help but look at the Minister of State Affairs, with a sincere and serious expression:
"Li Jiecong, I grant you a set of basin-collared armor and a set of chain mail. You may ride down the plateau immediately. I will ask the Right Lieutenant General to give you a hook and a long axe so that I can carry you to put out the fire.

"If we can successfully capture a few straw men before the fire on the enemy ship dies down, it will surely boost the morale of the troops and destroy the enemy's spirit.

"I will reward you for being the first to reach the enemy line with one million coins, one hundred pieces of brocade, and promotion to the rank of Tiger Guard Lieutenant. What do you think?"

Such a reward is indeed generous. Outside the wooden pavilion, many officials looked at Li Jiecong with envy.

Li Jie looked at the fire on the Wei River, thought for a moment, and then resolutely bowed: "Your Majesty, I will obey your orders!"

After saying that, he turned and left.

After walking a few steps, he turned around again:
"May I ask, Your Majesty, where should I go to obtain chain mail and collar armor?"

Liu Chan felt suffocated.

Zhao Guang was extremely helpless: "Li Jiecong, have you ever been to a fire? You really think you can get close to such a raging fire by boat?

"If His Majesty really gave you a suit of armor and sent you on, would you have the nerve to return if you were burned by the heat on the water? I'm afraid you would sacrifice your life for your country, leaving His Majesty with a harsh reputation!"

Li Jie immediately turned his head to look at the fire on the Wei River. Then his face turned pale and blue. Finally, he returned to a corner of the wooden pavilion in a sullen manner and never spoke again.

The other ministers also fell silent for a moment, and there was finally a moment of peace around the wooden pavilion.

Liu Chan looked north quietly. At this moment, all the Han Dynasty's fireships had been extinguished.

In the reflection of Cao Wei's fireboats, thick smoke from the smoldering fire began to cover the surface of the Wei River and rolled upstream with the southeast wind.

Even if the Wei army had blowers, they were placed behind the raft. At this moment, the flames produced by the burning straw man in front of the raft and the thick smoke produced by the smoldering Han boats were slightly blown eastward.

The billowing smoke produced by the smoldering Han ships was first rolled into the sky by the natural southeast wind and the northwest wind, and finally continued to sweep towards the upper reaches of the Wei River under the influence of the southeast breeze.

The smoke was extremely dense and thick. Compared with the smoke produced by the previous open fire, its strength and heaviness were definitely more than three or five times, which was extremely terrifying.

Black, yellow, and even blue. This yellow-blue smoke is naturally produced when sulfur is fully or incompletely burned.

poisonous.

Today, the people guarding the bridge and the boat have all wrapped their mouths and noses with wet cloths filled with charcoal powder, which can be regarded as simple activated carbon anti-gas and smoke masks.

The north bank of the Wei River.

Niu Jin, who returned to the central army to command his soldiers to speed up the filling of the trenches and attack the Shu bandits fiercely, was shocked to find that although the Shu bandits were slowly being repelled and it was difficult to prevent the Wei army from destroying the fortifications outside the camp, their morale did not seem to collapse because of the fire on the Wei River.

"General, is there any problem with the pontoon bridge?" Wen Qin looked at the blazing flames above the Wei River with a dazed expression.

"Do you smell it?" Niu Jin asked.

Wen Qin: "What?"

Niu Jin sniffed hard and said, "It smells bad. It seems to be sulfur."

Wen Qin asked in confusion, "General, isn't the straw man on the raft filled with sulfur? And the wind is blowing from the southeast, so isn't it normal to smell like sulfur?"

Niu Jin thought for a moment, then rode his horse towards the Wei River again, and Wen Qin followed.

After a while, when they reached a wider view, they saw that the fires on the dozens of wooden boats of the Han army had been extinguished without their knowledge! Thick smoke was now billowing out!
"General, what's going on? How come after so much time has passed, those dozens of Shu pirates' ships are still intact?!"

Niu Jin was inexplicably shocked. "That shouldn't be the case. Could it be that the Shu invaders knew that Wei would attack with fire ships, and therefore they had already made fireproofing for the ships?!"

In fact, in order to prevent the raft loaded with flammable objects from sinking before the fuel was completely burned out, the Wei Dynasty also took fire-proof measures on the raft, mainly by wrapping the raft body with wet mud to slow down the speed of the raft's sinking.

Wen Qin took a deep breath and shouted, "General, it doesn't matter even if the Shu invaders' wooden boats are fireproof!

"They don't have many boats, this is their only line of defense! We still have seven or eight rafts behind us! Wet mud can only slow down the fire on the wooden boats, it can't completely prevent it!
"Once these wooden boats sink, the Shu invaders will be helpless against the Wei's subsequent fire ships!"

At this point, the man again pointed his spear horizontally at the Han army camp and said, "No wonder the Shu invaders' morale remains high. They must have believed they could keep the pontoon bridge safe!"

At this moment, a raft of the Wei army slowly sank into the water.

A raft squeezed in the back soon collided with the Shu army's wooden boat, and a fire broke out again.

Because the blower was moved to the subsequent raft in time, the fire on this raft was more rapid and intense than before, and directly burned the wooden boat of the Shu invaders.

Niu Jin nodded again.

It was indeed unexpected that the Shu invaders had taken some fire prevention measures for the floating bridge in advance, but that was all, just a few dozen wooden boats.

Suddenly, a personal soldier came running over.

"General Niu, the northern moat surrounding the Shu camp has been filled! General Xiahou is leading his troops to remove the Shu bandits' antlers!"

Niu Jin was delighted when he heard this. He turned his head and looked towards the Han army camp. Sure enough, he found that the number of Han troops who had been defending the outer fortifications had decreased.

Just now, Guanqiu Jian had sent someone to analyze with him that the Shu bandits deliberately allowed Xiahou Ru to fill the trench, probably because they wanted to find a breakthrough from Xiahou Ru.

As long as Xiahou Ru pulls out the horns of the Beiwei deer, he will probably lead his army out from Beiwei to attack Xiahou Ru by surprise.

"Let's go! Order our elite troops to recuperate for another two or three quarters of an hour, and prepare to go to the north to defeat the enemy!" Niu Jin once again looked at the raging fire and billowing smoke on the Wei River, and finally reined in his horse and turned back.

(End of this chapter)