My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 108 Aggression like fire, immovable like a mountain

Liu Xun and Qiao Rui dared to attack Zhuge Jin by relying on their large numbers despite the heavy losses of large warships. Of course, they had something to rely on.

They also knew how much the size of a warship affected combat effectiveness during a naval battle.

Therefore, before this battle, Liu Xun and Qiao Rui also discussed how to defeat the big ship with a small boat. In the end, it was Liu Ye, the most skilled strategist under Liu Xun, who suggested a specific tactic to Liu Xun:
A large number of torches made of hemp fiber were used, soaked in tung oil and thrown at close range to set fire. Even though the boats were weak in combat, they were flexible and fast, and Liu Xun's army had the speed advantage of rushing upstream.

As long as they are not afraid of casualties, charge forward bravely, surround the Han army and throw torches at random, and burn the most threatening warships of the Han army, the Yuan army will have a good chance of winning with its several times greater troop advantage.

However, during the pre-war planning stage, Qiao Rui noticed a problem and questioned Liu Ye, that is, "the boats are short and the warships are tall. What if the torches cannot be thrown onto the deck or the cabin roof, but instead fall onto the side of the ship or the bulkhead and slide into the water?"
After all, this is like standing on the ground and throwing a torch to burn a house. In actual combat, due to the long distance and lack of strength, throwing it on the wall is the norm, and throwing it on the roof is much more difficult.

Liu Xun also felt that this concern was reasonable, so he asked Liu Ye to try to resolve it.

After all, Liu Ye was the one who invented the Thunderbolt Chariot. For a moment, the idea of "using a device to eject the cupping jar" even popped into his mind.

It’s just that the preparation time was too short. The Battle of Chungu was not like the Battle of Guandu, which could be prepared and held out for several months. The operations were too complicated to be deployed in time.

In the end, Liu Ye gave up those wild ideas and instead made some small improvements that came to him on a whim.

He asked the craftsmen to quickly nail a long forked nail into the end of the torch, and then bend and grind the fork into a hook.

When a torch with such a weight is thrown out, it will rotate like a grenade in later generations. With the help of inertial centrifugal force, if it hits the side wall of the board, there is a considerable probability that it will be hooked, so that the torch can hang upside down on the board and continue to burn, greatly improving the efficiency of setting fire.

Moreover, if a torch was thrown on the deck of an enemy ship, it would be easy for enemy soldiers walking around to find it, pick up the torch and throw it into the water.

Now this new type of torch that can be hooked on the outer wall of the ship is likely to hook into a place that the enemy cannot reach, and it can continue to stick and burn for a long time, which is simply perfect.

It's no wonder that Liu Ye's quick thinking actually has some similarities with the "swallow tail torch" that appeared in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and is very scientific.

Historically, siege rams in the early Han Dynasty were covered on top with a simple wooden board, which could be easily smashed and burned by heavy objects and torches of the defenders.

With nearly a hundred years of war in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, battering rams began to evolve into the kind of sloped top shown in the "Age of Empires" game in the middle and late period of the Three Kingdoms period, which could make torches and rolling logs and rocks thrown on it slide to both sides and "bounce".

So originally in history, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, in order to counter the battering rams, wooden donkeys and other siege weapons on the top of the slope, the defenders' burning torches also evolved into "swallowtail torches" with iron hooks at the tail to hook onto the top of the slope for continuous burning.

Today Liu Ye needed to use a small boat to throw torches high to burn the big ship. This improvement could be considered a blessing in disguise.

It was only after Liu Xun saw that his men could come up with such a powerful idea that he finally decided to go all out and bet all his navy on it.

……

However, ideals are full and reality is skinny.

In the initial stage of close combat, the casualty exchange ratio of Yuan's army looked quite embarrassing, and Liu Ye's idea seemed to have no effect at all.

But Liu Xun and Qiao Rui also knew that this was not Liu Ye's fault for his tactics, but that the troops had gone astray in their execution.

Yuan's fleet was intercepted by Gan Ning's warships. At the same time, Gan Ning moved flexibly and kept his distance from the range of the torches. As a result, Yuan's army fell into the most embarrassing situation and suffered quite a few casualties.

The newly invented swallowtail torch, a magical tool for setting fire to large ships, had no place to use it.

However, Liu Xun acted decisively and deployed most of his large ships to encircle Gan Ning and restrict his movements. He also used the remaining large ships to temporarily entangle Taishi Ci, regardless of the losses.

He also freed up all of his massive naval forces and concentrated them on breaking through the Han army's outer blockade and heading straight for Guan Yu's central army.

Hope of victory rose again in the hearts of Liu Xun and Qiao Rui.

“Although we suffered heavy casualties, we at least managed to break through Gan Ning and Taishi Ci’s blockade and reach the enemy’s fleet. This time, we used all of Lujiang County’s tung oil reserves, which was a huge expense, and we even gambled on secret weapons like the Swallowtail Torch. But as long as we can take down all of Zhuge’s fleet, we’ll win!”

After paying such a huge price and suffering so many blows in vain, Yuan's army's incendiary boat team finally arrived in front of Guan Yu's five large battleships!
The largest of these five fighting ships could carry 500 men, and was the flagship for Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu. The smaller ones could carry more than 300 men, which together could just carry the 2,000 reinforcements brought by Guan Yu.

Guan Yu's army is weaker in naval combat than Gan Ning and Taishi Ci's troops. Letting them ride on the largest ship, which will have the least bumps and seasickness, will help them fully unleash their combat power.

Seeing Yuan's army's fleet rushing towards him, Guan Yu felt like he was facing a formidable enemy and his expression was solemn.

But when he thought about the basic training that Mr. Zi Yu had given his troops in the past few days, he felt more confident.

What Mr. Ziyu taught are the principles of how to cope with ever-changing situations. These principles can be used in any situation. Just respond carefully to each situation!

As the boat fleet came within a hundred steps of the fighting fleet, Guan Yu took the lead and gave an order, allowing each ship to fire freely. Suddenly, the river was rained with arrows and stones. The boats had poor protection and were much shorter than the fighting ships.

Although the height difference is not as great as shooting from the city wall to the ground, it is at least equivalent to standing from an ordinary second-floor window and shooting at the ground. The advantage is obvious.

Many soldiers of the boat team were shot and killed as they charged forward, but Yuan's army was driven by the impact of the upstream water current and had no choice but to charge forward. It was impossible for them to dodge and move around. If they turned around and fled after being shot, they would only lose speed and die even more miserably.

"Don't be afraid! Charge forward! Throw the swallowtail torches and burn the battleship!"

The village chiefs and team commanders of the boat team shouted at the top of their lungs to boost morale. When one rower fell, they would order another comrade to take his place, for fear that the boat would lose speed and become easier to target.

Finally, relying on this courage, after paying the price of two or three small boats being shot dead or injured by the fighting ships, the other boats were able to rely on the sacrifices of their comrades and force their way into the range of the torches.

Then dozens of dovetail torches flew out like grenades.

"Puff puff--"

"Gah da——"

The torches fell heavily on the deck, or hit the side of the ship with their tails swung, and with the help of tung oil, flames immediately appeared in several places on the fighting ship.

Although the initial flames were mainly caused by the burning of tung oil, as long as the burning lasted for a few tens of seconds at most, even the ship's planks that had undergone simple fireproofing treatment would still ignite.

Especially the dovetail torches hooked on the side of the ship. Some of them were very tricky and hooked not far above the waterline. The soldiers on the ship could not reach them with their hands and feet, and had no way to push the torches into the river.

Finally, some soldiers hurriedly found spears and scraped the torches stuck on the side of the ship, just like cleaning barnacles off the wall of the ship.

But no matter how they fought, fires gradually spread to several places on the fighting ship. This made all the soldiers of Yuan’s army full of expectations and felt that the sacrifice of their comrades was worthwhile.

However, the expectant look in Yuan's soldiers' eyes only lasted for a few seconds.

The Han army immediately came up with a new strategy and carried out rescue work in an orderly manner, but it soon poured a bucket of cold water on the Yuan army.

A group of soldiers who were originally doing nothing on standby on the fighting ship suddenly rushed to the burning torches carrying buckets and mops. They first pulled out the torches and threw them into the river, and then poured buckets of grayish-white, mud-like substance on the ignited area.

The fire that Yuan Jun had been looking forward to was strangled invisibly.

"This is impossible! This is a tung oil fire. It can't be put out by pouring water! Tung oil should float on the water and continue to burn! Is there something wrong with the white paste?"

Several knowledgeable officers of Yuan’s army immediately despaired. They watched all this happen up close and began to doubt their lives.

The problem is, something so contrary to common sense just happened!
The morale of Yuan's death squad suddenly dropped drastically, and they fell into chaos, at which time they were killed and wounded by the Han army's bows and crossbows.

After all, nothing is more demoralizing than forcing a brave soldier to charge forward, risking his life, only to be told that his efforts were in vain.

……

"Is this the effect of porcelain clay slurry in extinguishing fire? Mr. Ziyu, did you foresee that Liu Xun would try to attack with fire? And that he would use such a vicious fire weapon?"

On the largest fighting ship, Guan Yu, who was originally nervous, calmed down again and was in high spirits when he saw the fire that had just ignited on his own warship being quickly extinguished.

He even ran back to the most heavily guarded cabin on the ship, despite the fierce battle, and asked Zhuge Jin, who was drinking tea and supervising the battle, about this question. He also held a swallowtail torch sample that had just been extinguished, and handed it to Zhuge Jin with both hands. "I didn't expect Liu Xun to attack with fire," Zhuge Jin answered very straightforwardly, taking the swallowtail torch and looking at it for a few seconds.

"I thought Liu Xun was a man without strategy, but he was able to come up with so many new and clever ways of attacking with fire. I guess he listened to the advice of some strategist. Could it be Liu Ye?"

Guan Yu thought Zhuge Jin was being modest, and quickly said, "Impossible! If you hadn't expected it, why would you have asked us to prepare porcelain clay paste to put out the fire?"

Zhuge Jin threw the torch to the ground and said, "We should be prepared for this kind of thing. The Han navy had almost no damage control before. I mean damage control.

That is, there is no special firefighting and emergency repair training, and there are no dedicated personnel and special tools. This is too crude. Since I have taken the initiative to build a navy, I must start with this aspect.

It's like when I was in charge of the army, the first thing I did was to ensure the medical and sanitary conditions during the march and camping. Drinking water had to be boiled, and wounds had to be cleaned and bandaged. These things, no matter what the enemy was like or how they fought, we should do them ourselves. "

The army focuses on medical and health care, and the navy focuses on damage control and repair. This is the only way to improve combat effectiveness in any era.

After all, Zhuge Jin is a modern man at heart. When he governs his army, he must of course start from the angle that he is best at, that suits him best, and that has the most room for improvement.

Among the three roles of resisting damage, output, and healing, it is obvious that the healer is the most suitable for modern people and the most neglected by the ancients, so let's strengthen the healer first.

Zhuge Jin had long thought that to prevent fire attacks, he must also consider how to extinguish oily flames. Then he thought of using wet mud - this was also the easiest way for the ancients to use local materials.

For example, it was written in the later "Wujing Zongyao" that it was a common idea to coat the outer walls of warships and siege vehicles with wet mud to prevent fire.

Zhuge Jin simply had more knowledge of chemistry than the ancients. He knew that silicate soils had better thermal stability, and that kaolin and Guanyin clay used to make porcelain were silicate soils. Yuzhang was Jiangxi in later times, which was suitable for producing porcelain, and such soils were everywhere.

Moreover, these soils are expansive soils, which are particularly good at absorbing water. After absorbing water, their volume can expand dozens of times. History textbooks say that during the rebellion of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the late Ming Dynasty, the poor people at that time "died of bloating from eating Guanyin soil" because of the expansive property of Guanyin soil.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin, who is so smart, could easily draw inferences from the past: using expansive silicate soil to form mud to extinguish fire can also prevent water from overflowing and meeting grease alone, causing the oil to float on the water. In this mud, water and mud are fully mixed and adsorbed together, which not only increases the specific heat capacity and cooling effect, but also has fire resistance.

Of course, when Zhuge Jin first came up with this bold association, he was not sure, but this kind of thing is easy to do scientific experiments.

During the pre-war preparations, he himself had people go to Poyang County (Jingdezhen) to dig up a lot of porcelain clay to conduct mud and grease arson experiments. He was relieved when he found that it could perfectly extinguish early oil-based arson.

Regardless of whether Liu Ye invented the swallowtail torch or not, the Zhuge family’s navy would have implemented such a high standard of damage control!

The Zhuge family's fire prevention technology has been upgraded many levels ahead of the arsonist.

This means that the attacking side is still using the arson technology that has just been upgraded from LV2 to LV3 to output damage, while Zhuge Jin is already using LV5 fire protection technology to set shields.

With that level of output, Liu Ye couldn't even break the shield.

……

Liu Xun's army's fire attack thus ended in complete failure.

However, this is not the most terrifying and most desperate point for Yuan Jun.

After defending against Yuan's strongest attack, the Han army quickly launched a counterattack.

After consulting Zhuge Jin and further refining the fire prevention ideas, Guan Yu quickly began to deploy the attack.

At this time, another small toy that Zhuge Jin had prepared for the navy in the past few days was used - it was a springboard facility fixedly installed on a large fighting ship with a sharp iron spike on the head.

To put it simply, it is a bit like the Romans' Crow warships boarding a plank, relying on gravity to release it directly onto a small boat, then locking the opponent, boarding the boat and killing them.

Of course, there were similar boarding boards with sharp iron spikes on the head in ancient China, and Gan Ning even used something similar. But in the past, these devices were either handheld and relatively light, or there was only one in front of the bow.

Zhuge Jin's warships borrowed the advantages of the Wu Ya warships from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Song Dynasty. Just like the head, tail and limbs of a turtle, two springboards were installed on both sides of the ship, and levers and coaxial labor-saving pulleys were used to ensure the lifting and lowering.

Zhuge Jin originally wanted to directly climb onto the Wuya warship's paddle, turn the springboard into a thick wooden pillar, and then enlarge the iron spike on the top into a huge hammer weighing a thousand pounds, so as to directly smash and sink the small boat.

But the project was too huge and he would not have enough time to complete it in Chaisang before the war.

Secondly, the tonnage of the ship required for the racket is relatively large, and the current 500-man-class fighting ship is a bit top-heavy.

Moreover, the pole must be fixed vertically, which will have a huge negative impact on the rise of the center of gravity of the hull and a sharp drop in sailing stability.

Finally, considering that the enemy was not that strong and there was no need to strike the pole so early, Zhuge Jin borrowed the idea of a scaled-down version and combined it with the Roman Raven warship to make a hinged springboard with iron spikes.

These springboards will not be very long, just the same as the width of the fighting ship, so they can be turned upside down and laid flat on the deck without being erected, which will not have much impact on the rise of the center of gravity of the hull.

When using it, the sailors first lift the end of the iron spike springboard, and then push it toward the middle along the board. When the lever cannot push it due to the force, they use the noose to pull the steering wheel-shaped wooden gear on the hinged shaft to complete the final release over the top.

As long as the springboard has been hinged past the highest point, the subsequent natural fall and impact can be achieved entirely by gravity.

If you feel that gravity alone is not hard enough, you can continue to pull the rope on the coaxial wooden gear on the rotating shaft to accelerate during the falling phase, making the inertia of the impact more powerful.

It's just that this operation is more difficult. If you don't pull fast enough, the acceleration force will become resistance. If you just want to hit the boat, it's completely unnecessary.

Now, Liu Ye has run out of means and the fire attack is completely ineffective.

It was Guan Yu's turn to use the iron spikes and planks, which the Yuan army had never seen before, to smash and fix those fly-like boats.

"Bang! Bang!" With several loud noises, several solid wooden boards about two feet long, several feet wide, and one foot thick, with iron bars on the surface and an iron spike weighing dozens of kilograms on the top, suddenly fell from the side of the battleship.

The Yuan army's boats, which were throwing torches at a very close distance, were hit like a fly swatter and could not move. The iron spikes pierced through the hulls and nailed them together.

Then, the archers on the battleships could even aim directly at the enemy soldiers on the captured ships and shoot them one by one. If the conditions were good and suitable for boarding and attacking, Guan Yu's infantry would not hesitate to rush over with shields to cut and kill.

As a result, any enemy boats that dared to approach within two feet of the fighting ship had to keep their distance to avoid being pinned down and killed instantly.

As the distance increased, the efficiency of throwing torches became even lower. It was impossible to throw them onto the deck of the Han army's fighting ship, and they would almost certainly only hit the side of the ship.

Many of Yuan's small boats were attacked from near and far, suffering heavy casualties, but they were unable to do anything. The fierce battle lasted for about half an hour, and finally the morale collapsed completely.

Yuan's army's small boat turned around and retreated upstream without caring about anything, trying to escape.

Guan Yu's troops were greatly encouraged and continued to chase the enemy's fleets and battleships that were still fighting with Gan Ning and Taishi Ci, attacking them from both sides.

Gan Ning and Taishi Ci had actually been fighting well, but they were not as good as Guan Yu's overwhelming advantage.

Both sides had large ships and suffered casualties in the fighting. Gan Ning and his men relied on their excellent command, expertise in naval battles, and their strong qualities to gain the upper hand.

With the addition of Guan Yu, the collapse of Yuan's army gradually began to snowball.

The Crow battleship-style iron spike springboard is also useful against large enemy ships.

As long as he was sure that the number of people and height of the enemy ships were not as good as his own, Guan Yu would rush forward, then use a springboard to pin the enemy down to prevent them from escaping, and then let his own sword and shield soldiers rush forward to kill them - Rome used this trick to destroy the Carthaginian fleet back then.

Liu Xun's warships were hit by the iron spikes, and although the structure was not damaged, each warship had less than a hundred soldiers. When they were hit by the battleships with three to five hundred people, they shot arrows from a high position, weakened them, and then jumped off the ship to attack. It was almost always a crushing victory with more people against fewer.

After killing several soldiers on Yuan's warships to establish his authority, when the iron spike springboard of Guan Yu's warship hit other warships again, the Yuan soldiers on the warships even knelt on the ground and surrendered without waiting for the enemy to board.

As the flags of Yuan's army were lowered on each ship after another, Liu Xun and Qiao Rui realized that the battle was no longer viable, and quickly ordered the entire army to withdraw and flee for their lives.

Zhuge Jin was overjoyed, and commanded all the troops to attack with all their might, killing, wounding, and capturing thousands. Only then were the remaining enemies able to escape by gaining a distance in the chaos.

(End of this chapter)