knife

Chapter 774 Tail Docking
Zhang Shun gripped the railing tightly. This was the place where he had commanded his warships for many years, and this section of railing had been worn smooth by his constant use. But today, this warship that had been with him for so many years would come to the end of its glorious life.

With a slight squeeze, he snapped the piece off with a crack, held it in his hand, and then walked down to the next level.

Each floor was filled with sailors, all looking on with reluctance at their beloved companion.

Zhang Shun waved his hand and chuckled, "Out with the old, in with the new. This old buddy is getting old, and his resting in the water is the greatest reward for him. Don't be sad, everyone. Before long, you will have a brand new and the best warship. Let's retreat!"

The sailors walked one by one toward the ships behind them.

Zhang Shun led several trusted men directly to the bottom deck.

This warship is indeed very old, with signs of repairs and maintenance everywhere.

Standing in the middle of the hold, Zhang Shun exerted a little force with his foot, and with a muffled thud, a large hole immediately appeared in the floorboards. He waved his hand, and a burly man walked over from behind, wielding a large axe. With a few swings, the hole widened, and river water gushed out from below.

In the blink of an eye, Zhang Shun had made several large holes in the lower deck.

When they reached the first deck, the entire warship had clearly sunk about a foot.

Ahead of this slowly sinking warship, several other ships were already loaded with all sorts of flammable materials, awaiting the final orders.

Turning to look due north, a tall figure stood on another warship; it was Yan Yi.

At this moment, he was doing the same thing as Zhang Shun.

As predicted, a southeasterly wind is blowing tonight, coming from the river, passing hundreds of ships of all sizes inside the harbor, and then heading deeper inland.

Once the fire starts, the wind will fan the flames, and everything will become irreversible.

The mournful sound of bugles reached Zhang Shun's ears. He turned around and saw more than a dozen brightly lit warships with full sails slowly approaching from downstream. They were the warships of Zhong Wuyang, who had been on duty for the past few days, returning from their river patrol.

A bugle call is a signal, a command.

"Ignite it!" Zhang Shun ordered in a deep voice.

A flash of fire streaked across the warship in front of him. The tiny flame, in the blink of an eye, instantly grew into a raging inferno the size of a foot basin, rapidly spreading across the entire ship with lightning speed.

"retreat!"

Zhang Shun turned around and walked towards the ship behind him.

More than three hundred warships of various sizes were moored together. At this moment, under the arrangement of those who had a plan, one after another, raging fires were set off at those important points. In just a short while, the entire harbor was illuminated by the flames.

The southeast wind carried clusters of flames and bursts of sparks from one ship to another, quickly forming a fiery band that sealed off the entire harbor.

Chaos broke out in the harbor.

The warning gong rang throughout the night, startling countless sailors awake from their sleep. They rushed out of their cabins, scurrying about like headless flies.

The outer vessels quickly untied their mooring lines and began to retreat towards the center of the river.

However, the ships on the periphery were all warships from the Zhong, Yan, and Zhang families, who came from various places in Yuezhou. When they docked, Chen Yan's selfishness was now the noose around their necks.

These warships, which were well-prepared and easily retreated a certain distance, joined up with Zhong Wuyang's warships that were returning from patrol, and then revealed their ferocious faces to the warships in the harbor.

The ship's catapults launched stone projectiles into the harbor without needing to aim; all that was needed was to adjust the range.

When Chen Yan rushed back, the fire on the outskirts had already illuminated half the sky, and dozens of warships were burning fiercely.

Seeing all this, Chen Yan felt his insides burning. He opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood. He swayed and almost fell to the ground. The scene before him was like a father watching his son, whom he had raised with great care, being brutally tortured to death right in front of him.

"Zhong Wuyang!" he roared, looking at the figure on the distant river who was directing warships to launch stone projectiles and rockets.

"General Chen, what do we do now?" someone asked in a panic.

Swallowing the mouthful of blood, Chen Yan leaped into the air and flew from the innermost ship to the outermost one.

"follow me!"

The officers, unaware of what was going on, followed Chen Yan to the burning line of fire.

"Sinking ship! Sinking ship!" Chen Yan roared, grabbing a large axe and rushing into the hull of the ship, which was not yet fully ablaze. He swung the axe and in just a few strokes, dug a large hole in the bottom of the ship, and river water immediately gushed out.

His men immediately understood and led their men to board other ships to clear a firebreak before the fire spread.

In the end, there was strength in numbers. In a short time, several warships were sunk, and a river several tens of paces wide was exposed between the warships on the front line and the harbor.

Sacrifice a pawn to save the king.

Completely abandon the outermost warships that are certain to be lost, and try to save the innermost warships.

The further inward the ships were, the better and more advanced they were; of course, these were the ships of Chen Yan and his trusted confidants.

"General Chen, Prefect Linghu is here!"

Chen Yan turned his head and looked at Linghu De, who was standing on the shore under the blazing fire.

By this time, he had completely calmed down. "Continue building the isolation zone here. Save as many ships as you can!"

"As ordered!"

Chen Yan wiped his face, glanced once more at the raging river, and turned away angrily toward the shore.

Linghu De was filled with shock. It was the first time he had ever seen such a fire on the river. Even though the water was so close, it could not extinguish the flames. He could only watch helplessly as the warships struggled in the flames.

"How many ships can be saved?" Linghu De asked as he saw Chen Yan walking over, looking disheveled.

"It would be good if we could save a third of it!" Chen Yan said.

"Why did they betray us?" Linghu De pointed to Zhong Wuyang and the others who were still attacking the harbor with impunity on the river.

"There's only one possibility: these people are colluding with Director Wang!" Chen Yan said without hesitation. "Otherwise, it doesn't make sense why they would attack us. Prefect Linghu, how many troops can you mobilize? How many crossbows and catapults can you deploy?"

"What does General Chen want to do?"

“Zhong Wuyang dared to attack us, so he must have colluded with Wang Dao and his men. I guess Wang Dao’s main force will arrive here at dawn, hoping to completely destroy our fleet. We must prepare our defenses around protecting the remaining warships in the harbor. Our ships can’t get out, but we can’t let them in either!” Chen Yan said.

Linghu De suddenly realized.

Even if only a few dozen warships remain, it's better than nothing.

Moreover, although the ships are gone now, at least most of the sailors have been evacuated. Given time, it is not impossible to build some more warships.

(End of this chapter)