Diqin Designer

Chapter 468 Qin Navy: Straight to the Water Fortress

"Building a water fortress here will not only defend against the Qin Dynasty, but also train a navy. If the Qin Dynasty sends troops, we can use this terrain to resist them!"

This place is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side. The bay entrance is shielded by islands. This terrain is a natural barrier, which means that the enemy can only attack from the sea, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

More importantly, considering the overall topography of Ryuchiu Island, this place can be regarded as the northern maritime gateway of Ryuchiu. When the Qin Dynasty came from the north, this was the first place suitable as a port and landing point. To find another suitable place, they would have to take a long detour.

Whether it's landing or establishing a port, it's not something you can just do by randomly picking a spot on the coast. Otherwise, the Allies wouldn't have needed to go through all sorts of false intelligence to deceive Germany before the Normandy landings during World War II; they could have just randomly chosen a spot on the coastline to land.

The people who built the water fortress grasped these two points, which is why Meng Tian said, "The person who built this water fortress is also a capable person."

Meng Tian then changed the subject: "The idea of ​​building a water fortress here to defend against the Qin Dynasty is good, but can you all withstand it?"

This water fortress was built in a very well-organized manner. The designer made it a fortress that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. If it were the Qin Dynasty navy in the past, it would not have been easy to break through it.

But times have changed. What has come now is not the Qin navy, but the Qin navy after its transformation. Not only are the ships more advanced, but they are also equipped with more powerful weapons.

This water fortress was a problem for the Qin navy in the past, but it is not enough for the current Qin navy. The nobles of the six states who built the water fortress obviously did not know the current development of Qin and were still looking at Qin with old eyes and old ways. Little did they know that "My lord, times have changed!"

But this can't be blamed on the former nobles of the six states. The establishment of the naval academy by the Qin Dynasty was not kept secret, but the various reforms of the Qin navy were kept secret. The former nobles of the six states who fled to Liuqiu Island had no idea what the Qin navy had become and could only imagine it based on the Qin navy of the past.

While observing the water fortress through binoculars, Meng Tian discussed with his advisors, "What do you all think is the best way to take down the water fortress?"

The staff officer system was established by the Qin military reforms, and the newly built Qin navy naturally implemented this system as well. Although the modern staff officer system was developed and improved by the Qin dynasty, it is not new. The Tang dynasty had the position of "military staff officer," whose responsibility was to manage military secrets.

Of course, the advisory system established by the Qin Dynasty is closer to that of later dynasties.

Several staff officers nearby, each with a telescope, were observing the water fortress. Upon hearing Meng Tian's question, they all had the same thought: What's the point of asking? This dilapidated water fortress looks sturdy, but that was before the advent of cannons. Now that the Qin Dynasty has cannons, it's nothing but a pile of clay chickens and earthenware dogs!
If the old weapons are still used, this battle will indeed be very difficult. The Qin navy will need to sail its ships to a relatively close distance to engage the enemy. Moreover, the power and range of crossbows are limited. Even the strongest crossbows cannot quickly destroy a watchtower or sink an enemy ship.

But cannons are different. They are powerful. Even a large ship can't withstand many cannon shots. The shells will almost leave a hole in it. Moreover, cannons have a long range. They can strike the enemy from a greater distance than bows and crossbows. There is no need to get too close to the enemy. This can prevent Liu Bei and Sun Quan from burning Cao Cao at Red Cliff.

After all, if your ship is sunk from a great distance, how can you set it on fire and then charge into the enemy fleet to set the enemy ships ablaze?

This is the change in warfare brought about by the advancement of weaponry. If Cao Cao had been able to equip his ships with cannons during the Battle of Red Cliffs, the two Qiao sisters would probably have been locked up in the Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

A staff officer replied to Meng Tian, ​​"General, I believe there is no need to overthink it; we can simply attack directly."

Young Master Li Nian truly possesses extraordinary talent, worthy of being recognized as a peerless genius who could become a sage of their time: the cannons he created were truly effective and changed the course of the war.

Meng Tian did not put down his telescope, still observing the water fortress, and said, "Continue!" The staff officer gave his reasons.

"We have powerful weapons like cannons. Cannons are superior to bows and crossbows in both range and power. With the power of cannons, we can hit the enemy, but the enemy cannot hit us. In this way, we can destroy enemy ships and naval fortresses from a distance."

The staff officer added, "During the attack, we should first strike and destroy the ships in the water fortress. It would be best to destroy all the enemy ships quickly. Once they have no more ships to engage us, our ships can advance and retreat at will. After destroying the ships, we can then launch an attack on the water fortress itself."

Meng Tian then put down his binoculars and carefully observed the area of ​​the water fortress that he could see. He concluded that, like the advisor, there was no need to devise any detailed and comprehensive battle plan for this water fortress; they could simply attack it directly.

But this was, after all, the first time the Qin Navy had set sail to carry out a mission, and it had to be done well. So he wanted to ask his staff for their opinions, to gather everyone's thoughts and avoid making mistakes.

Meng Tian then asked several other advisors for their opinions, and they all shared the same view: Although this water fortress is quite large and well-constructed, and may have more ships and soldiers than them, the advantage is in our hands. As long as we don't act recklessly, we have no idea how we can lose. We can just attack directly and be done with it. We just need to be careful in the process!
Seeing that all the advisors agreed, Meng Tian looked at the sun and said, "Then let's take this water fortress before sunset!"

As soon as Meng Tian's order was given, the Qin fleet quickly sprang into action, forming a battle formation and rushing towards the water fortress.

At this time, the water fortress was peaceful. Soldiers were guarding all the key points of the water fortress. The soldiers on the watchtowers were paying attention to the movements of all sides. Soldiers were also patrolling the sea near the water fortress in boats, keeping watch for any unusual movements coming from the sea.

These soldiers were almost all barbarian people. One of the patrolling soldiers complained to his companion, "What's the point of patrolling all day long? We've been patrolling for so long and haven't seen a single Qin person. I think those people are just playing us for fools!"

His companion chimed in, "Yeah, we've been patrolling for so many days and haven't seen a single Qin person. Maybe they made up the Qin story themselves. Besides, what business is it of ours if they have a grudge against the Qin? Why don't they let their own people patrol instead of making us do it? Those damned bastards..."

His companion couldn't help but curse. The same companion who had just complained sighed and said, "Who told us to lose to them back then? Now we can only obey these beasts."

These words silenced his companions. Yes, the root of the problem lay in their defeat. They had failed to defeat the people who had crossed the sea, and thus they were being used like slaves.

Although the water fortress was planned and designed by the group of people who crossed the sea, it was actually built by them. The group rushed to build it, which resulted in the deaths of many of their people. After the fortress was completed, they were forced to serve as soldiers for that group, guarding and patrolling the area.

Those people treated them badly, or rather, they looked down on them, not regarding them as human beings, and arbitrarily humiliated and beat them. Indeed, in those people's eyes, they were not the same as others, but merely a group of livestock to be driven as slaves.

They had been harboring a bellyful of anger for a long time, but they dared not resist. First, their parents, wives and children were still under the control of those people; second, they were no match for those people; and third, they were afraid of those people's cruel methods...

The soldier who complained first looked in a certain direction of the water fortress, where there were several tall poles, each with several human heads hanging from it. These were all members of the tribe who had been cruelly executed by those people. If you looked closely, you could see that some of the poles had mutilated limbs hanging on them in addition to the heads.

These incomplete tribesmen were considered relatively fortunate; some of the killed tribesmen were boiled alive in a vessel called a "ding".

With another sigh, the two barbarian soldiers continued their patrol to complete their task for the day. Just then, urgent drumbeats sounded, echoing throughout the entire water fortress. Before the two soldiers could react and figure out where the drumbeats were coming from, more urgent drumming and gonging sounds came from other places.

At this moment, whether they were soldiers on patrol, soldiers slacking off, or generals, they all had the same thought: something big has happened!
Qu Tong, the Chu general guarding this water fortress, was reading a book (on bamboo slips) in his room when he heard the alarms coming from all directions. He quickly put down the bamboo slips, hurriedly came out of the room, and asked, "What has happened?"

No sooner had he asked than he saw several plumes of smoke rising from the opposite mountain, clearly indicating that the beacon towers on the opposite mountain had spotted the enemy and were issuing warnings.

The warning sounds came from all directions, from the watchtowers of the water fortress to the patrol boats on the sea, all indicating that the enemy was coming from the sea.

Could it be...

Qu Tong's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly looked towards the northern sea, straining his eyes to see the situation at sea more quickly and clearly.

He actually saw something: ships sailing from the northern sea, heading towards his water fortress.

Because they were still far away, he couldn't see the specific shapes of the ships clearly, but judging from the traces he could see, these ships were different from the ships he had seen before, and each of them should be quite large.

The giant ship was coming from the north, and Qu Tong felt that it confirmed his ominous suspicion: the Qin people had arrived!

After carefully counting the ships, Qu Tong breathed a slight sigh of relief. Even if the Qin people's ships came, so what? There were only twenty-four of them, far fewer than the number of ships in his water fortress.

Although these twenty-four ships look bigger than theirs, they have more ships. As long as they can get close to these Qin ships and engage in boarding combat, even insects can kill wild beasts!
Hmm, we've only been watching for a short while, but these ships seem to have gotten bigger. No, these ships are getting closer to them, and they're moving so fast!

Could it be that the Qin people have already discovered the water fortress and intend to quickly rush into the vicinity of the fortress before the ships in the fortress are dispatched, catching them off guard?
Qu Tong thought to himself, his eyes flashing with sternness, and quickly gave the order: "Pass on my command, all ships in the water fortress shall set out immediately to annihilate the enemy coming from the north!"

He oversaw the construction of this water fortress and was fully confident in its sturdiness. He believed that the Qin people would have to bleed to take it down. Now, they had only sent twenty-four warships. Who did they think they were?
But since the Qin people dared to come, he dared to leave all of their warships behind. He wanted the Qin people to pay the price for their arrogance, as a form of interest for the destruction of their homeland and their exile to this island.

Qu Tong quickly issued a series of orders, and under his command, the entire water fortress began to operate rapidly. Wooden gates opened one after another, and soldiers followed their generals onto the boats moored in the fortress, rowing their oars towards the fleet to the north whose origins were still unknown.

However, the naval forces discovered Meng Tian's fleet too late, and their reaction was even later after Qu Tong gave the order. It wasn't that Qu Tong's response was wrong; on the contrary, he responded quite well and in a very organized manner. If it were the navy of any other country in this era, it could have effectively resisted them, but it was the only one that could not stand against the Qin Dynasty.

The Qin army has cheated! They have telescopes to spot them first, and artillery to attack them from a distance. How are we supposed to deal with that? It's not that our army is incompetent, it's just that the enemy has Gundams!

Qu Tong never imagined that after not seeing Meng Tian for more than two years, almost three years, the Qin navy fleet led by Meng Tian was no longer the Qin navy he knew.

Qu Tong and several noble generals from the six kingdoms stood together, all staring intently at the northern sea, at the twenty-four ships that were approaching. Some ships in the naval camp had already loaded their soldiers and set off, but many more ships were still not loaded with soldiers and ready to go.

Suddenly, Qu Tong heard thunder. Before one thunderclap had finished, another thunderclap rang out, and some thunderclaps even rang out at the same time, one after another, as if the northern sky was shaking and rumbling.

A former noble general from one of the six kingdoms said, "If we haven't seen any thunder or lightning, why is there any sound of thunder?"

Another former noble general from the six kingdoms said, "I've heard this thunder before. It also came from the north, but I saw no lightning, only the sound of thunder!"

Just now, they could assume it was thunder from the north, but because they were too far away to see the lightning, only hear the thunder, or that a thunder god from the north was raging, or some kind of mysterious phenomenon unknown to them. But now, seeing those twenty-four ships sailing from the north, the thunder seemed to accompany them...

Qu Tong and several former noble generals from the six kingdoms had a bad feeling. Could it be that the thunder was caused by these twenty-four ships?
If that's the case, how did these twenty-four ships, suspected to be Qin vessels, manage to do that? And what exactly did the thunder represent?
Another noble general from the six kingdoms remembered something, and his face immediately turned ugly: "I remember that we send people to patrol the distant seas every day, right?"

Upon hearing this, Qu Tong and several other former noble generals from the six kingdoms realized that the thunder just now was most likely caused by these twenty-four ships, with the aim of destroying the scout ships they had sent to patrol distant waters.

Qu Tong also remembered something and said with a grim expression, "Just now, warnings were being issued everywhere, but the scout ships patrolling in the distance did not return. I didn't think about it at the time!"

The reason they "did not return" was not because they did not want to return, but because their scout ships had been destroyed and they had no way to return.

(End of this chapter)