My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 258: Desperate Struggle Upgrade

"General, Sun Ce's army has boarded the ship and occupied the cabin roof! What should we do? They are in a commanding position!"

More and more soldiers from Sun Ce's army jumped onto the battleship where Taishi Ci was personally in charge. The archers of Sun Ce's army also aimed and shot at any Taishi Ci's troops who dared to show their heads on the top of the battleship, ensuring that the top of the cabin was completely occupied and secure, and then attacked the cabins below layer by layer.

"Don't panic! Guard the hatch! Spearmen block the door! Sun Ce won't come in so quickly!"

Taishi Ci's face was resolute. The situation was already so critical, but he remained calm. He kept in mind the tactics that Zhuge Jin had told him before the battle and responded accordingly.

His subordinates were inspired by his calmness and also mustered up their courage. They stabbed several cabin doors with their spears and quickly stabbed to death the brave warriors of Sun Ce's army who tried to board the cabin first.

After Sun Ce's army's first wave of attack attempts was thwarted and several warriors died at each hatch door, their morale was stifled and they calmed down a little. They changed their strategy and threw fish paste pottery jars with torches into the hatch. Fire immediately began to spread at the hatch door, forcing back Taishi Ci's long spearmen who were blocking the door.

The fuel of "fish paste" appeared frequently in the southern wars at the end of the Han Dynasty, and both sides were familiar with it.

In the original text of "Records of the Three Kingdoms" which records the Battle of Red Cliffs, there is a description of the specific technical operations Huang Gai used when he pretended to surrender to Cao's army and set fire to it, which was "pile dry reeds and firewood inside, pour fish fat on it, and cover it with a red curtain."

In ancient times, when animal fats were expensive, fish paste was the cheapest kerosene for the southern rice-rich areas. However, this fish paste was not the same as the oil Zhuge Jin used for lamp oil.

Lamp oil must be from whales and dolphins, which produces less smoke, is brighter, and is more expensive.

The fish paste used for ordinary arson is made from waste oil from cheap miscellaneous fish. It produces a lot of smoke and the flames are not very bright. However, these disadvantages become advantages when setting a fire. The large amount of smoke is just enough to blind the enemy.

As a dozen pottery jars shattered and splashed, ignited by torches, the spearmen at the hatch retreated one after another, coughing.

Because of the flames, most of the attacking soldiers were unable to enter the cabin immediately. Only a few fearless souls chose to rush in despite the flames.

The defending spearmen were caught off guard. They did not expect someone to rush out of the fire and were hacked to death in an instant.

But more spearmen immediately turned their guns around and stabbed and poked at the fire men, smashing them into pulp. Both sides fought with their lives at stake.

During the fierce battle, Taishi Ci even personally killed two Jiangdong soldiers with a horse-slaying sword. He waved away the blood and thought to himself: These enemies attack so swiftly, they must be the most elite troops around Sun Ce. To deal with them, I have to fight to the death by any means necessary.

He was a little hesitant at first, thinking that it would not go that far, and was also worried that his men would resist such a risky and daring way of fighting. But Sun Ce's decision to leave no chance for survival and to kill them all helped Taishi Ci make up his mind.

Taishi Ci took a deep breath and shouted:
"The Sun thieves have already used fire attack! Let's let them have a taste of the power of fire attack. Take out the fish paste jars and swallowtail torches in the compartment, open the portholes and smash the side of the ship with all your strength!
Carry the bentonite mud from the bottom to put out the fire! Check your bamboo armor and be ready to abandon ship at any time! "

Taishi Ci issued several orders in an orderly manner, and the soldiers fighting to the death followed his orders one after another.

It turned out that a large number of fish paste pottery jars were also stored in these fighting ships of Taishi Ci. This was also one of the backup plans arranged by Zhuge Jin before the war. He instructed Taishi Ci, "If you are entangled by Sun Ce's main warships when luring the enemy, and Guan Yu and Lu Yi cannot rescue him for a while, use this desperate tactic to inflict heavy damage on the enemy."

Of course, this kind of tactic would definitely not be used under normal circumstances. Burning the enemy during a boarding battle can easily spread and burn yourself. It is only a backup plan in desperate situations.

Soon, hundreds of pottery jars filled with fish paste were moved to the side of the ship's portholes. Then the soldiers opened the portholes that had been closed to avoid arrows, and threw the pottery jars directly at the Sun Ce army's ship that was boarding.

The pottery jars broke into pieces, and the fish paste flowed down the side walls, seemingly about to flow into the river. But soon, Taishi Ci's soldiers threw out swallowtail torches with iron hooks at the end, igniting all the flowing fish paste, forming a large, thin flame.

Naturally, this sudden change was immediately noticed by the attacking soldiers. There was panic on the burning ship, and some soldiers who were burned by the flames were at a loss. Some even jumped into the river to put out the fire.

The other ships under Taishi Ci's command, seeing that Taishi Ci's ship had begun to set fire to the enemy regardless of the spread of the fire, also realized that it was time to use the backup plan of gambling their lives. Since they couldn't win with normal fighting methods, they could just set fire to the enemy.

The ships under Taishi Ci followed suit, and several of Sun Ce's ships caught fire one after another, including Sun Ce's own ship, which was also engaged in a boarding battle with a Taishi Ci ship, and was soon also burned by the combination of fish paste jar and swallowtail torch.

Chen Wu, who was on the same boat with Sun Ce and was responsible for protecting him, immediately noticed this and quickly reported it to Sun Ce:
"My lord! Let's keep our ship at a distance! The enemy ships have also started throwing fish paste jars and setting fires! The outside of the ship is already on fire!"

Sun Ce was a man of courage and bravery, and was not moved at all. He even bravely rushed to the side of the ship and looked down with his own eyes. Several arrows flew past him, but Sun Ce was not moved at all, as if he was not afraid of being shot.

When he saw the fire, Sun Ce was slightly frightened, but he quickly regained his composure. After retreating back to the battlement, he waved his hand heroically, signaling Chen Wu not to panic:
"Don't worry! It's just a new type of torch called a swallowtail torch. The fish paste can't hang on the side of the boat and will soon be washed into the river. This fire can be stopped and extinguished!
Humph, Taishi Ci is expecting to use the same tactics he used against Liu Xun to deal with me. How can I be compared to Liu Xun? In today's battle, the enemy ship is short and ours is tall. Our torches and fish paste jars can be thrown directly onto the deck of the enemy ship and all of them will be caught.

The enemy ship can only throw us on the side of the ship, and the side of the ship is vertical, without any bumps, so the fish paste can't get stuck! Even if it gets stuck, it will go down with the water! Immediately let the soldiers prepare to flush it with water!"

Sun Ce had also heard of the Swallowtail Torch, a weapon used in naval warfare and city defense. After all, it was originally invented by Liu Ye of Yuan Shu's army and used in naval warfare. Later, Zhuge Jin also copied it and improved it slightly, and used the same method to kill Liu Ye's navy.

Later, Liu Ye defended Hefei and Zhuge Jin attacked Huang Zu's Xiakou. They both used this weapon. It has been three years since then, and the spread of technology is inevitable. In the Chungu-Ruxu battle between Guan Yu and Liu Xun, Guan Yu was able to kill Liu Xun with the swallowtail torch and fuel. That was because Guan Yu's ship was large and Liu Xun's ship was small during the decisive battle. Today, the situation is reversed, so it is not surprising that Sun Ce is not afraid.

However, just after Sun Ce ordered to fight to the death and prepare to put out the fire, within a short period of time, the Jiangdong army quickly discovered new anomalies.

"Why is this fish paste so thick? It flows down for a while and then stops! It's hard to wash it down with water!"

"Oh no! The side of the ship has been burned through! This fire can't be put out at all!"

As for why this happened, the soldiers under Sun Ce naturally could not figure it out no matter how hard they tried.

But for Zhuge Jin, "thickening the oil" is the simplest method. Many protagonists in time-travel novels like to add rubber juice and sugar to the oil to thicken it and prevent it from extinguishing. But there was no rubber or sugar in the Han Dynasty. Not to mention white sugar, even brown sugar was expensive, much more expensive than fish paste.

But it doesn't matter. For someone who has mastered all the high school chemistry knowledge, there are too many options for oil thickeners. Considering the environment of Guangling County, it is easy to think of whether it is to boil konjac/agar with kelp, or boil gelatin with pig skin, and add a little to fish paste to thicken it, or mix several formulas.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin spent a lot of time practicing before the war, and the tactics he used were all optimal solutions that had been repeatedly tested in the laboratory.

Taishi Ci couldn't understand the principle behind the fuel in this new fish paste jar, but it didn't matter. As long as he knew its characteristics, knew how to use it, and could bring out its advantages, that was enough.

Soon, all of Sun Ce's nine warships that were engaged in boarding battle with Taishi Ci's warships were engulfed in flames as they hurt and burned each other.

Of course, Taishi Ci's fighting ship itself was not immune. With both sides fixed by grappling hooks, once the tower ship, which had a tonnage advantage of two or three times, was completely burned, the fire would quickly spread to the fighting ship.

Moreover, Sun Ce himself was also sparing no effort to throw fish paste jars and torches onto Taishi Ci's battleship, and they were all thrown on the deck, so they could all be caught. Taishi Ci's side desperately took out the stored bentonite mud and poured it on the fire source, trying to put out the fire, but it only delayed the process and made themselves burn slower than the enemy.

Taishi Ci's face was ashen and resolute. When his warship was about to catch fire and was difficult to move, he took a final look to the north and then ordered the small boat to be lowered as a lifeboat.

Before abandoning the ship, he was pleased to see that Guan Yu's main fleet had already engaged in battle with Sun Ce's army's outer small boat forces.

Because all of Sun Ce's large ships were entangled by him, and most of them were on fire. The outer battleships, warships, and boats of Sun Ce's army had no advantage when facing the charging and shooting of Guan Yu's new keel warship fleet.

Sun Ce's original intention was to concentrate his tower ships to first consume all of Liu Bei's fleet, annihilate them all in boarding battle and even capture them, completely eliminate the hidden danger of Taishi Ci, who was the "center bloomer", and then turn around to fight Guan Yu and Lu Yi who were outflanking them from the outside.

However, in the process of taking the "center blossom" bait, Sun Ce's own battleships were involved, resulting in a situation of mutual destruction, which was very embarrassing.

Taishi Ci, wearing the armor that was custom-made before the war and made of bamboo tubes tied together, followed the guards around him down to the lifeboat.

There were also many surviving sailors from Taishi Ci's army who jumped into the river directly because there were not enough small boats or they had no time to escape to the small boats. However, most of them were wearing bamboo tube life-saving armor. Unlike the sailors from Sun Ce's army who fell into the water, they did not need to rely on swimming and paddling to keep themselves from sinking. The difference in the difficulty of survival was huge.

There was originally simple armor made of bamboo at the end of the Han Dynasty. This kind of armor was later passed on to Japan and was still in use until the so-called Warring States Period, mainly for the "Ashigaru" who were peasant soldiers.

However, the original bamboo armor of the Han Dynasty was made by cutting bamboo tubes into strips and then weaving them together.

During the preparation period before this battle, Zhuge Jin built additional armor made directly from hollow bamboo tubes for Taishi Ci's troops who were to carry out the most dangerous mission.

This also saves the labor of processing bamboo strips, and production is extremely quick. As long as there are enough bamboos for you to cut, you can simply string them together to make armor. It is faster than making a bamboo raft and is almost a no-cost business.

In this way, the hollow part of the bamboo tube provides great reserve buoyancy, and the effect is no worse than that of modern life jackets.

In order to ensure the life-saving effect after entering the water, this bamboo armor only has a top, and there are straps passing under the crotch to ensure that after entering the water, the legs are facing downwards, the upper body is floated upwards, and the head can definitely be exposed to the water to breathe. It is very scientific.

Taishi Ci used the remaining energy of several old-fashioned fighting ships that were about to be eliminated and burned them to easily drag Sun Ce's main tower ships into the water, and they perished together.

My ship is 200 tons and has more than 300 soldiers. Your ship is 600 tons and has more than 800 soldiers. It's a one-for-one exchange, and we have life jackets. To be honest, if Liu Bei's side can win the battle today, Taishi Ci will definitely be the first to win.

Guan Yu and Lu Yi were only there to reap the aftermath. Even though they killed and captured more prisoners than Taishi Ci, they could not match Taishi Ci's contribution of directly killing the enemy's main force.

Faced with the raging fire, Sun Ce's men could only jump into the river without protection, but Taishi Ci could wear a life jacket and wait leisurely for Guan Yu to end the battle, and then come to clean up the battlefield and rescue.

Taishi Ci has completed his mission in this battle, and the follow-up is the work of his teammates.

(End of this chapter)