My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 192 You nameless people should feel honored to die under Pang Tong's strategy

"What's going on? The defenders of Zhu County were not frightened by our sudden acceleration and the capture of Qichun.

Instead, you dared to lead your navy to the narrow valley of Jushui River to defend it? Shi Yuan, did your plan work?"

Guan Yu spent six days planning and brewing the strategy. He thought that the attack on Qichun would be slow and the tactics of fast and slow hands would be used. In addition, the Qichun defenders were defeated so badly and there were rumors of Yuan Shu and Cao's troops entering the country from the north. Zhang Hu would be frightened and choose to escape or be forced to surrender.

As a result, two days later, the final result was that Zhang Hu dared to send out his navy to fight. Why?

From Guan Yu to Taishi Ci and Gan Ning, they all felt that Pang Tong's strategy was a waste of time.

Fortunately, Zhuge Jin, who was responsible for supervising the entire army and providing support, still had enough patience with Pang Tong.

When Guan Yu was getting impatient, Zhuge Jin stepped forward and said fairly:
"Yun Chang, please be patient. Shi Yuan's plan did not work exactly as planned, but it did work. If Zhang Hu had not been frightened by our swift and decisive actions and our determination not to give in, would he have left the city to block the river mouth and fight with us? No.

If he had not been frightened, Zhang Hu would have chosen to defend the city! It was precisely because he was frightened that he knew that if the city was besieged and he did not surrender immediately, he would most likely be killed by our army, so he wanted to avoid being besieged.

The reason why Huang Zu's army still dared to fight with us today is entirely because they rely on the advantage of their navy. If they don't fight us head-on, they will always be dissatisfied in their hearts.

All the generals of Huang Zu's army knew that even if Yuan Shu's army and Cao's army came over the mountains, they would not have warships, so if they fought a naval battle, they would only have to face our army alone. They would not give up until they were completely desperate about the navy.

So what we have to do now is to make Huang Zu’s army realize that even if both sides do not use the army and only use the navy to fight, Huang Zu’s army is still no match for our army! This is the only way to nip their last bit of luck in the bud!"

Guan Yu still had absolute respect for Zhuge Jin, not to mention Taishi Ci and Gan Ning. They thought about it quickly and felt that it made sense.

The enemy didn't dare to defend the city directly and were surrounded, so they were forced to fight a naval battle. Doesn't this just show that Pang Tong's deception at least made the peripheral generals of Huang Zu's army lose confidence in land warfare?

They knew that as long as they fought a land battle, their own troops would definitely be crushed by the "Liu, Yuan, Cao encirclement and attack" situation that could occur at any time.

Only by fighting a naval battle can Huang Zu's army eliminate the Yuan and Cao families who may appear at any time, seize a time difference, and only have to fight Liu Bei's family in a one-on-one duel.

So what Guan Yu has to do now is to prove to the enemy: even in a one-on-one fight, you still can’t win!
After sorting out these causes and effects, Guan Yu knew how to make the decision.

He immediately said, "Ziyi, you lead 5,000 naval forces, mostly on new large ships, to the outskirts of Fankou on the south bank of the river, to intercept Su Fei who is monitoring E County, and ensure that once the battle begins, Su Fei dare not go out of the river to reinforce Zhang Hu.

Xingba, you lead 5,000 naval forces and use flexible warships to attack the Ju River upstream and try to break through Zhang Hu's river defense. I will lead 10,000 rear troops to patrol the river and prepare. If any route makes a breakthrough or we find another route of enemy reinforcements, I will immediately go to reinforce them. "

Guan Yu pointed at the map and clearly assigned tasks to the three parties.

The "Fankou" he mentioned was a river defense pass in E County on the south bank of the Yangtze River at that time.

That is the location of "Fankou Park" in Ezhou City in the 21st century.

In later generations, there was a large lake called "Liangzi Lake" between Wuhan and Ezhou. In the 21st century, this lake was separated from the Yangtze River, but it was still connected in the Han Dynasty, and the connection point was Fankou.

Therefore, the main force of Su Fei's navy stationed in E County usually hides in Liangzi Lake. If they block the Fankou Water Fort, Guan Yu will not be able to enter Liangzi Lake to pursue and kill him.

Now Guan Yu wanted to quickly destroy Zhang Hu and establish his authority, so he could only let Taishi Ci lead his troops to watch outside Fankou. If Su Fei dared to enter the Yangtze River from Liangzi Lake and cross the river to rescue Zhang Hu, Guan Yu would lead the main force to destroy him.

Taishi Ci and Gan Ning listened very carefully, and even checked the map while listening. They quickly understood their respective tasks and went to carry them out without further ado.

Zhuge Jin originally did not need to go to the front line to supervise the battle, but he heard that Zhang Hu's operation of blocking the mouth of the Ju River was quite creative, and he wanted to see it for himself, so he followed Gan Ning to see it, hoping that he could provide some improvisational suggestions.

Of course, given Zhuge Jin's caution, even if he supervised the battle, he would hide in the cabin of the most solid large warship and watch through the firing holes, and would never show his head. The cabin was surrounded by thick walls that even a powerful crossbow could not penetrate.

……

The next morning, at the mouth of the Jushui River, a relatively narrow place.

Gan Ning's troops were divided into more than a hundred warships and waited 300 steps outside the pass to avoid being shot at by the enemy troops from a high position.

Because the Jushui River was very narrow, with the narrowest part only about twenty feet wide, Gan Ning's fleet was unable to deploy and was forced to form a long snake formation.

If the troops are not allowed to land and the attack is only conducted by water, the attacking side will easily fall into a local shortage of troops and resort to a refueling tactic, with only a few ships being able to move forward at a time.

However, the defenders had two tower ships and thousands of archers who concentrated their fire, and there were also hundreds of archers lying in ambush on the cliffs on both sides of the river.

Gan Ning had seen this kind of scene before. He was an expert in naval battles. He just watched for a while and then decided to send out a death squad on three warships, advancing in unison. Each man was equipped with two sets of steel armor. They were to cut off all the cables and anchors that Zhang Hu used to tie the tower ship, so as to move the tower ship away from its current position.

Zhuge Jin and Pang Tong also came to observe today's battle. They both hid in the cabin of the largest warship and drank tea. After listening to Gan Ning's initial decision, Zhuge Jin had an idea:
"Is it really the inertia of history? Gan Ning's plan to defeat the enemy is almost identical to the one in history where Sun Ce asked Dong Xi to be a death squad, wearing double armor and cutting cables.

It seems that with the existing technical means, this kind of suicide squad tactics is indeed the best solution for destroying the mooring of the building ship and blocking the river. It can only be said that great minds think alike. "

However, Zhuge Jin always felt that since he was here, he should come up with better solutions than the ancients for these problems that could be solved by technical means, otherwise his talent as a science and engineering student in his previous life would be wasted.

I still have another 1,000 or 2,000 years of military vision, so I won't waste it if I don't put it to good use.

Zhuge Jin thought for a moment and stopped Gan Ning and immediately ordered: "Xingba, be patient. Sending the death squad to cut the cables and anchors may succeed, but the casualties will be huge.

Our army's steel armor is a strong defense, but it can't protect our forearms, calves, and faces. The enemy is well prepared for an ambush, with thousands of crossbows shooting crosswise, which is very serious. Even if a few arrows hit the hands and feet are not fatal, many soldiers will be crippled. If we can use safe technical means to defeat the enemy, we should try to be safe. "

Gan Ning naturally trusted Zhuge Jin unconditionally, so he temporarily stopped the order for the death squad to cut the rope, and then humbly asked for advice: "I wonder if the general has any good ideas?"

Zhuge Jin thought for a moment and said, "Don't our army carry counterweight trebuchets? Although they were originally used for siege, they can also be used to smash ships. Of course, it's best not to use heavy trebuchets.

Because once the ship is sunk, it will have to be slowly dismantled to ensure that the hull breaks apart and drifts away from the channel, so that the Jushui channel can be cleared. The water level here is shallow and narrow, and if the hull sinks intact, it will definitely block the channel. "

Gan Ning was also confused after hearing his old leader's concerns of "wanting both, and more". He couldn't figure out whether to use the catapult or not. He hesitated for a moment, but still couldn't help asking: "Then I wonder what the general wants our army to do now?"

After being reminded, Zhuge Jin realized that he had been thinking too long and his subordinates were still waiting for his orders.

So he immediately ordered: "The trebuchet is just a backup. First, move the parts of a few counterweight trebuchets down, assemble them on both sides, and set up a position of rattan shields and large shields to protect against arrows.

While the catapult is being assembled, Xingba, can you try to use the crossbow on the bow of the warship to shoot the cables of the tower ship across the way?"

Gan Ning suddenly felt that this was a bit unrealistic. "How is this possible? If a sharpshooter shoots with an ordinary crossbow, he may be able to hit a rope as thick as a bowl from a distance of one or two hundred steps, but its power is definitely not enough to cut such a thick rope. As for the crossbow, it is simply impossible to accurately shoot and cut a target as thin as a bowl from a distance of one or two hundred steps..."

Zhuge Jin was not disappointed with this answer. He was just asking casually. From Gan Ning's answer, he also keenly grasped a message:
"So, it's mainly a matter of accuracy, not the power of the crossbow? It's about missing the target, not about hitting the target and then firing continuously?"

Gan Ning was stunned, not understanding why his superior asked this question, but he still gave a positive answer: "Of course, if we can shoot it, it is still very likely to break it, but it is too difficult, and there are more than one cable and anchor." This is the answer Zhuge Jin wanted, and he also thought of a countermeasure in his mind after this conversation, and he heard him ask again:

"Can the crossbow on the warship only fire crossbow arrows? If it is used to fire ordinary spears or other objects, such as bamboo tubes, can it be fired?"

Gan Ning thought for a moment and said, "I can shoot, but not as accurately as I shoot with a crossbow. In actual combat, when the arrows for the giant crossbow are used up, I will hastily launch an ordinary spear to kill the enemy. However, the spear has no tail feathers, so it will deviate randomly after flying a few dozen steps."

Zhuge Jin nodded and said, "Let's give it a try. We can make some bamboo tubes and fill them with sesame oil. We can connect two bamboo tubes with hemp ropes in the middle. Then we can wrap the two bamboo tubes with a layer of cloth and temporarily fix them together one in front and one in the back. We can ignite them before launching. If we can wrap them around the cables used to tie the enemy's ships and burn them, that would be the best. If that doesn't work, we can sink them with catapults."

After hearing Zhuge Jin's plan, Gan Ning found it unbelievable.

But only Zhuge Jin knew that this was in line with the principles of physics. He actually turned the chain bullets used in smoothbore cannons in the later Age of Discovery into a simplified version that could be fired with a crossbow, with a shorter range and lower kinetic energy.

The chain bullets of later generations were two iron balls inserted into the gun barrel one after the other, and then connected by an iron chain. After being fired, due to the large inertia of the two ends, the chain bullets would be thrown up and entangled with the masts, rigging cables of the enemy ship, and then cut off all those slender objects, making the enemy ship lose power.

Of course, after switching to the crossbow, because the kinetic energy of the launch is at least one order of magnitude lower, it is unlikely to rely on kinetic energy to cut it off. However, as long as the projectile is incendiary and it is entangled in the enemy ship's cables and anchor ropes, it is still very likely to burn those things off with burning sesame oil.

The greatest value of chain bullets lies in that they greatly increase the hit rate against slender objects.

Originally, one point hits one line, and the point must land precisely on the line to break the line. After the chain bullet was added, it became one line hitting another line. As long as the deviation was not too outrageous, as long as the two lines had any intersection, it would be considered a hit.

Simple mathematical geometry calculations can show how big the difference in hit rates between the two is.

Although Gan Ning was not good at mathematics, he had a vague knowledge of physics and could roughly imagine the effect described by General Fu Bo. He immediately felt very hopeful.

Anyway, it takes time to assemble the catapult, so let's give it a try first.

……

After about an hour and a half, it was almost noon.

The catapults had not yet been assembled, but the "sesame oil bamboo tube chain bullets" for the bed crossbows had been prepared first. A pile of large thick bamboo tubes filled with oil, two by two, were connected to each other with hemp ropes.

Gan Ning then selected three warships, each equipped with a crossbow on the bow, and launched an attack on Zhang Hu's position.

Huang Zu's army had been on guard for a long time since early morning, and seeing that the enemy was slow to attack, they became somewhat lax.

Now that Gan Ning had finally arrived, Zhang Hu couldn't help laughing when he saw that there were only three warships:

"Is Gan Ning too arrogant? He dares to charge at my two ships with three warships. Shoot them hard! Make sure no one dares to leave the cabin! It seems that Liu Bei's army is only formidable in land battles, not naval battles!"

Huang Zu's crossbowmen immediately obeyed the order and immediately fired arrows like rain. A few of the Han army's rowers were not fully protected and were shot by the arrows, resulting in casualties.

Fortunately, most of the rowers were very cautious. They made preparations in advance and placed extra rattan shields at the oar opening on the side of the boat, leaving only a small gap for the oars to extend out.

Gan Ning knew very well that the accuracy of the crossbow would drop further after it was changed to shoot chain bullets from bamboo tubes, so he had to get close to the enemy ship before opening fire.

When they were about eighty steps away, he finally ordered the three ships to ignite the first round of chain bullet bamboo tubes and then shoot them out.

"Buzz buzz buzz" the strings of powerful crossbows hummed several times, and six bamboo tubes were swung out in pairs, making a whistling sound.

"Plop, plop,"
Because the accuracy was too low and the range and resistance attenuation were not under control, all the bamboo tubes in the first round fell into the river, with no hits.

"Raise the head of the crossbow a little higher! Get close to 60 steps before firing another round! Prepare to slow down! Don't rush too close, we can't withstand the attack from three sides! Don't get into the range of the crossbowmen on the cliffs on both sides!"

Gan Ning gave the order calmly and decisively. Several warships continued to move forward slowly under the rain of arrows. The crossbows were quickly reloaded and fired another round.

This time, two sets of chain bullet bamboo tubes finally whizzed and entangled the cables and anchor ropes of one of the ships. The two bamboo tubes on one of the chains collided and broke into pieces while they were spinning and stopping. Sesame oil splashed all over the cable and soon spread to the fire.

"Oh no! Gan Ning used fire attack, and there is oil!" Zhang Hujun finally panicked. Even though they were mentally prepared before the battle and smeared wet mud on the hemp ropes, after such a long time, the wet mud turned into dry mud, and with the help of oil, the hemp ropes would definitely not be able to withstand it.

Gan Ning on the other side saw that it was effective, and immediately ordered to continue firing two more rounds, and then the warships retreated quickly under the rain of enemy arrows. Because his warships had also been hit by enemy rockets, and some people threw torches at him, it was too dangerous to get closer.

Zhang Hu on the opposite side finally panicked. Although the rigging of the two ships had not been completely burned off yet, since he knew that the enemy had such a new trick and might make a final move at any time, out of fear of the unknown, Zhang Hu gritted his teeth and ordered the two ships to sink and run aground in advance.

"Cut open the bottom hold immediately! Release the water and sink the ships! It will be too late once all the cables and anchor ropes are burned through! The ships will drift away!" Zhang Hu was afraid of accidents and finally made the safest choice. The price was that the two ships were doomed to sink.

After a while, the two ships sank with a loud bang. Although most of the cables and anchors were burned off, they were of no use.

Gan Ning, who was far away, was secretly shocked when he saw this scene, thinking that the person on the other side was a courageous person.

If I had asked the death squad to wear double armor and cut the cables at the beginning, I guess the enemy would have chosen to do the same. By then, as long as the ship sank, it would not be able to drift away, and my death squad would have suffered casualties in vain.

General Fu Bo was cautious and steady, and he was able to find out the opponent's trump card without suffering any casualties.

Zhuge Jin also saw this scene, with a hint of ferocity on his face: "That's enough, the catapults should be ready, just smash these two ships! Break them until they float away with the waves!
Since Zhang Hu has seen so many of our cards, we can't let him leave alive, otherwise he will tell Su Fei about these cards, and we will be in trouble in the next battle. The people here must either die in battle or surrender, but they are not allowed to break out! "

Gan Ning also showed a ferocious look. Since the other party was resisting so stubbornly, of course he had to kill one to warn the rest.

He roared in response: "General, rest assured! Since he has resisted to this extent, I will not let him live! Killing this one will also deter the others!"

After a while, Gan Ning's counterweight trebuchet was assembled. After a simple calibration, the counterweight weighing more than one ton was hoisted to a high place, and then the limit latch was suddenly pulled out, and the counterweight fell heavily, suddenly throwing out a huge stone weighing more than 100 catties.

This time Gan Ning used single-headed bullets instead of gravel. His goal was to smash and penetrate the wooden structure. Of course, the heavier the single shot, the better the armor-piercing effect.

Zhang Hu and his soldiers on the opposite side were immediately amazed to see this unprecedented scene.

With a dull "crash" sound, a big hole was suddenly opened on the deck of a ship, causing a series of screams from people nearby.

The ship is such a large target, more than ten feet long, that no matter how you smash it, you can be sure that the big rock will fall on the ship. The only difference is that it is difficult to control where it will fall.

And no matter where it falls, it will directly smash through the wooden boards, causing wood fragments to fly everywhere, and it can also kill some enemy soldiers in the cabin.

These catapults were originally built to smash down civil engineering city walls, but now they are used to smash down pure wooden boards, which is extremely easy.

(End of this chapter)