Chapter 177 The Forgotten Tang Navy

The bloody battle eventually began on the Yangtze River. Both Chen Ying and Li Shimin knew very well. What really determines the victory or defeat of the Jiangnan battlefield is not the gains and losses of a city and a place, but the control of the Yangtze River.

Whoever controls the Yangtze River's waterway means who has the initiative on the battlefield. Losing the initiative on the Yangtze River's waterway means losing the initiative on the battlefield.

For this reason, Li Shimin had to spend a lot of money and compete with Chen Yingyi. For example, he picked out three or four hundred ocean transport ships from the ocean fleet.

Although the ocean-going fleet was the lifeline for Li Shimin to lose from the Fusang continent to the Central Plains, in order to compete for control of the Yangtze River channel, Li Shimin didn't care about so much. In fact, with the failure of participating in the East China Sea Battle and the losses in several storms, Li Shimin's ocean-going fleet had dropped to more than 6,000 ships. Despite the heavy losses, this number was still several times the advantage of the Tang Dynasty Navy.

Of course, the most important function of this ocean-going fleet is not to transport personnel, but to transport materials, such as food, equipment, and various supplies.

In contrast, the Bashu Navy of the Tang Dynasty led by Xunxiang seemed much shabby. There was no navy built by Li Jing in Jiangnan, no Dengzhou Navy, and even the Yellow River Navy of Luoyang. The only warships participating in the battle were mainly sand ships and square boats collected, and there were only a pitiful thirty-seven.

There was no way, Chen Ying discovered that Li Shimin's main force came from the huge ocean transport fleet. He gathered all the naval warships of the Tang Dynasty and prepared to ambush this ocean transport fleet. The second step was to completely destroy Li Shimin's captain on the Indochina Peninsula.

Only by destroying Li Shimin's ocean transport fleet can this war not be fought endlessly.

Yangtze River Swallow Rock.

The Fusang Navy had three or four hundred escort warships, with heavy sails covering the sky and the sun, which was spectacular. Although the number of Bashu Navy in the Tang Dynasty was nearly ten times lower than that of the Fusang Navy in terms of quantity.

But they were not afraid at all, raised the bloody battle flag, and rushed towards the downstream with sails!

The two sides of the Yangtze River were in the hands of the Fusang coalition. Everyone rushed out to watch the war. When they saw their own fleets storm and the number of Tang army fleets was sparse, many people laughed proudly. A scholar in white shook his fan and shook his head: "The old thief warship in Xunxiang is only 10% of my King's fleet. Although it was along the river, he actually dared to fight bravely. He was really a mantis arm and was chariot. I don't know how to write the word "death"!"

Several scholars laughed out loud: "The King's fleet is full of spirit and is going downstream. There are millions of people from Jiangnan who cheer. The right time, place and people are all in hand. We are sure to win! Let's relax and see how the crown prince defeated the thief's chief and pulled out the old thief's beard!"

A scholar whispered: "That old man is not easy to deal with... After all, His Royal Highness... I'm afraid he is not his opponent!"

His voice was very light, only he could hear it himself, of course, he did not dare to let others hear it on purpose.

At this time, the distance between the two fleets was very close. Several giant tower ships in Fuso opened fire at the same time, of course, these weapons were crossbows of Roman blood.

Although the crossbow cannon is known as a cannon, it is actually similar to the Eight Niu Crossbows of the Tang Dynasty. They all use the tension of the crossbow arm as the firing kinetic energy. Although the power is not small, the firing range is really limited.

The big stone bullets flew out at high speed, and then smashed out a row of drainage columns six or seven hundred steps away. It was quite spectacular, but unfortunately it was useless.

But the scholars applauded, and the scholar in white even said: "It's great, very good to win the enemy's courage before fighting!"

Someone wondered: "After firing so many cannons, I haven't even wiped the sails of the enemy ships. Is this a good thing?"

The white-clothed writer glanced at the guy and snorted coldly: "This is called showing weakness to the enemy! This is called showing that one can be said to be unable, and showing that one can be used is not used. Understand?"

The man was even more puzzled: "You just said you wanted to take the lead, but why did you suddenly become a sign of weakness from the enemy?"

Scholar in white: "...I can't explain it to a rough person like you!"

As the Fusang Alliance navy was getting closer, Xunxiang's smile became stronger and stronger.

The thirty-seven Bashu Navy warships habitually face the enemy with their sideways and then break down. There is no way to do this. Although rockets can be launched while marching, they are not easy to control during marching. If you want to hit the target, you must look at the mood of the rocket.

"Swish swish swish swish..." A scream that made people's hair stand upside down sounded. Thirty-seven warships fired their first volley. The air waves rolled, the smoke flames cut through the air, and a terrifying sea of ​​fire rose from the Fusang Navy formation.

Although the hull of the ocean transport ship is tall and generally has a load capacity of 1,000 tons in later generations, the key is that it is large and has a large target, making it easier to hit the target. To allow rockets to accurately hit targets of human size, it is estimated that one hundred fire bombs will be difficult to hit one, but if it were a warship that was twenty-five and six feet long, aiming would be much easier.

Terrifying flames rose from the hulls of countless ocean-going warships, and even a rocket bomb pierced through several decks, exploded inside the warship, breaking into two pieces, and quickly sank at a speed visible to the naked eye.

More people were blown up and flesh and blood. Don’t be busy with the help of those who were not hit. The rocket exploded and caused a fire, which immediately made the hull burn! The ocean-going giant ship that could accommodate nearly a thousand sailors immediately shot into the sky and exploded repeatedly. Many sailors rolled into the river with fires from the deck, and the shrill screams made people shine.

The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were cheering loudly and they were immediately mute. Many people's eyes fell on the scholar in white. The scholar was a little embarrassed and insisted on saying, "Victory and defeat are common in military affairs. We have hundreds of warships, but we have only lost dozens of tower ships. Why bother to care?"

Obviously, Prince Li Chengqian thought so too. He commanded the fleet to hold a group and pressed it down, intending to rely on the number of people to find the truth. No matter how powerful your rocket launcher is, there are only a few dozen. My warships are almost more than your rockets. If you run into a group, you will not die!

Li Chengqian was not a frivolous reputation. In the era when the winner was the king, he was despised as a poor loser. As the crown prince, there were two princes in history that could not be deceived. One was the crown prince of Wei Liu Ju. When facing his old son, Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, he dared to resist angrily. According to the records of the Han Secretary, Liu Ju began to raise the flag to rebel on the July Renwu day, and was defeated on the July Gengyin day, which means nine days later. Although Liu Ju only supported nine days, he had no army and only relied on criminal prisoners and death soldiers in the East Palace. It was difficult to reach the sky if he could fight with Liu Che to the nine heavens.

The second prince was Li Chengqian. He joined forces with Hou Jun when Li Shimin was about to depose him, and eventually became defeated. Regardless of his ability, he was the only one among the sons of Li Shimin.

Li Chengqian smiled coldly and said, "Starting the ship!"

At this moment, countless Fuso navy began to release the small and slender boats. The boat was extremely shallow in draft, similar to the dragon boats in later generations. There were more than thirty oarsmen. They sailed at full speed and could row a speed of eighteen or nineteen knots when sailing at full speed.

Xunxiang looked at the short, thick and powerful sailors in surprise, and said angrily: "It's actually a Japanese slave!"

This is a relatively clever point of Li Shimin. He found that the slaves of Xingma Tai Kingdom were extremely obedient and were very desperate when fighting.

At this time, Xunxiang felt something was wrong. These small clutches were very fast and could not aim at it at all. Although a rocket hit Daluo and hit a clutch, it immediately exploded, forming a sea of ​​fire with a radius of more than 200 steps.

The rocket is actually not that powerful. The only explanation is that the Clippers have something similar to tincture oil.

At this moment, Xunxiang felt the pressure. No matter how superb the command art you have, no matter how powerful your fleet is, facing this group of fire ships that rushed over at a speed of dozens of kilometers per hour, they were all hit to pieces. Who would want to fight with such a crazy opponent?

Anyway, I don’t want to find the face!

But now they are unwilling to be reluctant. The river surface is so wide, and it is okay to move forward, but it is a bit difficult to retreat. Everyone wants to leave this place of right and wrong quickly and avoid the kiss of death of the rocket ship. They inevitably collided with each other in panic. The sound of the hull breaking is endless. Before the rocket ship's offensive was launched, their losses rose sharply.

Li Chengqian did not waste such an opportunity. With a command, the rocket ship ignited the fire. The dwarf on it looked furious and shouted "onboard". He manipulated a small boat equipped with hundreds of kilograms of tinder oil to fly across the river and plunged into the middle of the chaotic fleet of the Bashu Navy.

The rumbling explosion kept ringing like a thunderstorm.

Explosions are dazzling like festive fireworks.

The pillars of fire rushed up with large pieces of hull debris.

The cracked hull was shot in the fire.

Seeing that his fleet had lost more than half, Xunxiang also exclaimed.

"Damn it, isn't it just a desperate effort? Who is afraid of whom?" Xunxiang roared: "I passed the order from this general, and do not retreat and launch all the rockets!"

As the sad battle roared through the sky, the remaining dozen rocket ships lit the remaining rockets one after another. They fired all the rockets on the ship without caring about the tail flames that the rockets backfired.

As a result, the entire river surface has become more lively.

In particular, the large amount of tail flames and gas generated during the rocket launch covers the entire river surface, and rockets, like meteor fire rain, explode from time to time in the middle of the Fusang Navy warship.

The Fusang Navy, who attempted to rely on the number of deaths, ushered in the most terrifying nightmare. Their formation was so close and chaotic that the rockets that attacked could hit a warship with their eyes closed. Once they were hit, they would explode. Most warships could only be blown into two parts in half!

Those sailors also tried to use crossbows to shoot at the Tang army naval warships, but they didn't use it. In terms of range or rate of fire, rocket ships had an absolute advantage.

Waves followed by waves of "onboard" calls, crashing the warships looking for the face into the sky, while more Fusang Navy warships were blown up all over the sky!

Blood and flames dyed the river red. The people of Jiangnan who were watching the battle on both sides of the Yangtze River were dumbfounded and watched the terrifying massacre, silently.

As for the white-clothed Confucian scholar who seemed to have read several military books, he had long become mute, watching all this blankly, unable to say a word.

If you look closely, you will find that this guy's face has become as white as his clothes, and his legs are shaking even harder than cotton...

Xunxiang's thirty-seven warships lost a total of twenty-nine ships. To this end, any fleet would be inevitable. However, Xunxiang's three flagships were replaced in a row, but there was still no intention of giving up.

However, Li Chengqian, who had lost nearly half of the ocean warship, was just a furious child after all, and his heart was the first to collapse.

With half-rejection from his subordinates, Li Chengqian retreated.

As Li Chengqian retreated, other Fusang navy retreated, and the battle between Yanziji gradually came to an end.

There were no winners in this battle. The thirty-seven warships that were looking for the eyes eventually returned in a stumble, while Li Chengqian lost more than 300 warships, and as many as 100 fire ships.

...

Chen Ying, who arrived in Fengcheng along the Chidao all the southeast, met with Su Dingfang.

Looking at the densely packed Tang army camp like ants, Chen Ying and all the Tang army generals looked grim and silent.

Only He Yue'er still looked at Chen Ying with a cynical smile and said, "I'm going to fight the Fusang coalition forces to the decisive battle, is Jian Zhang?"

Chen Ying smiled bitterly and said, "Those who say they are not nervous are either idiots or are stupid. I am not bothered, of course I am nervous."

He Yueer said: "Actually, you don't have to be nervous at all. I have seen through it. All of this seems to be destined by heaven, and it's useless to be nervous!"

Looking at He Yueer, a woman who seemed to have never shown any timidity and was as thick as steel, Chen Ying couldn't help but laugh.

He Yue'er said seriously: "Don't laugh, what I said is true!"

"Okay, okay, I believe what you said is true... Maybe all this is really not sure, and it's useless for us to be nervous. We can only fight to the death and kill him, and see if this God who is determined to force people to death can open his eyes and give us a way out..."

After Chen Ying finished speaking, he looked deep at the night sky in the south, as if he wanted to penetrate the layers of fog and see the battle on the Yangtze River.

Chen Ying was not worried about the battle on the Yangtze River itself, and a temporary failure did not mean anything. After rebuilding the Rongzhou Shipyard, Bashu had a complete shipbuilding industry system upstream.

In fact, the shipbuilding industry in Bashu is not worse than that in Jiangnan, and can even be said to be higher. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Chu naval army was the most powerful, while the Qin State had only a small number of warships in the Hequ area of ​​the Yellow River. Therefore, when Qin and Chu were fighting, the Chu naval army often used the crisscrossing river channels in their territory to attack the Qin army. In order to completely solve this problem, King Hui of Qin decided to form the Qin naval army. On the basis of the acquisition of the original Bashu naval army, Qin State established a shipyard in Bashu, built a large number of tower ships and fighting ships with strong combat power, and placed them in the Qin naval army. As a result, the Qin naval army system began to take shape.

In 279 BC, Bai Qi commanded the Qin infantry and cavalry to attack the Chu State of Yingdu along the land. At the same time, Sima Cuo set out from Bashu, commanded 100,000 naval troops, 10,000 large ships and 6 million hu of rice, and attacked the Chu State of Qianzhong along the Fuling River. Under the powerful offensive of Qin State's waterways, Chu State lost a large area of ​​territory and was forced to move its capital to Chencheng. Since then, the Qin State's naval army has been intimidated by the princes.

Now the shipyards in Rongzhou (Today's Yibin, Sichuan) have been equipped with large combat ships one after another. With the help of rockets, they are definitely not afraid of consuming them.

Because in order to control the Yangtze River waterway, Li Shimin had to draw ocean warships from the ocean fleet. Once more, the more the Tang Dynasty naval troops would have more obvious advantages in the ocean war.

Now, the biggest problem is whether Li Shimin's courage is great enough, whether he can give up everything, ignore the battle of the Yangtze River and advance the entire line, and that will make it difficult to fight.

In such a large-scale battle, the ambush and local advantages are no longer important. Even if you annihilate thousands or tens of thousands of troops of Li Shimin, it will have no meaning to him at all.

...

In Linhuai City, Li Shimin finally received the result of the battle from Yanziji, the Yangtze River. He was not too surprised. Li Chengqian was more interested in training than the battle itself. To be precise, although the loss was a little greater, he regained the temporary control of the Yangtze River.

However, Li Shimin felt an inexplicable uneasiness in his heart.

He couldn't tell the problem, but the uneasiness became stronger and stronger.

Du Ruhui suddenly said: "Your Majesty, how long has there been no news about the Tang Dynasty's Navy?"

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "There has been no news for more than half a year since the Battle of the East China Sea, and I don't know where they are now!" "Not good" Du Ruhui said, "Did they go to Fusang?"

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "We almost empty Fusang, and the gold and silver mines there were also all given to the aristocratic families. Even if their navy went to Fusang, some people would fight with them! Let's talk about it..."

Speaking of this, Li Shimin's face became extremely ugly.

The Fusang Continent is very large. The hundreds of warships of the Tang Navy alone cannot be swallowed up, and it may be able to survive.
Chapter completed!