Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

At a rate of one barrel of kerosene per ship, it would take one barrel of kerosene to burn seventy ships.

However, according to the assassins who transported the kerosene, Wu Hong accepted Yin Shaokang's suggestion and led a group of men to Chang'an to buy kerosene.

Judging by the time, we should be able to return to Suizhou in about fifteen or sixteen days.

Wu Hong and his group will likely take even longer to return with the goods.

After careful consideration, Li You decided to wait and see.

The war plans and timelines of the Tang Dynasty were not determined by Li You.

Therefore, this time, we'll burn the ships if we happen to encounter them, and if we don't, we'll just consider it a trip. We'll do our best and leave the rest to fate.

I can wait fifteen or sixteen days.

Burning seventy ships has a different effect than burning all four hundred ships.

The more you burn, the better the effect.

However, the kerosene purchased at a high price from the Wei King's Pool can be tested first to see how well it ignites.

Li You ordered his soldiers to scoop up the dark oil with wooden ladles and pour it onto the wood.

Then they lit torches and threw them up.

The effect is amazing.

Flames roared up on the black oil noodles, their color turning white and shiny, and the thick black smoke they emitted was extremely pungent, with sparks even flying out from the burning surface.

That poor piece of wood was quickly ignited.

It is important to know that the flame temperature produced by kerosene can reach 500-800℃, far exceeding the ignition point of wood.

Li You licked his lips: "Sanwa, try splashing water on it and see if you can put out the fire."

Wang Sanwa followed orders and poured a bucket of water on it.

But then the fire suddenly swelled up and burned even more fiercely than before.

Temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius are far higher than the boiling point of water.

Once water comes into contact with such high temperatures, it will instantly vaporize and expand rapidly by about 1700 times, thus producing a powerful steam explosion that makes the fire burn even more fiercely.

In modern kitchens, if a cooking oil pan catches fire, you can't extinguish it with water, let alone burnt oil.

The oil fire during the Kwete Wars, which burned for eight months, is a case in point.

Yin Hongzhi exclaimed in surprise, "This thing is incredibly domineering!"

Yan Hongxin said, "I saw this thing when I was in the army. If it sticks to a person and burns, it's a truly horrific sight."

Looking at the rising flames, Li You recalled the plan he had previously devised to set the ship on fire and suddenly had a new idea.

"Hongxin, have you ever seen a water gun made of bamboo tubes before?"

"A water-spraying gun? This...I've never heard of such a thing..."

"Uncle, what about you?"

Yin Hongzhi said he had never heard of it.

Li You thought for a moment, then said, "The principle behind this water-spraying bamboo gun is quite simple. Sanwa, go and call some people to go to the mountains and cut some bamboo, preferably the thickest kind."

"My lord, we're making bamboo charcoal, right? There's some freshly cut bamboo at the earthen kiln."

"Oh, that's fine then. Go and get a few... wild boar pelts. Don't you have any ready-made?"

"some."

"Bring over a few sheets of cloth, and some linen. That should be enough."

Yin Hongzhi and Yan Hongxin listened to Li You's instructions with some curiosity.

Wang Sanwa summoned two soldiers who brought over the items Li You needed.

Li You picked out a relatively thick bamboo stalk, drew his knife, and cut off a section of the bamboo.

Then, using a knife, a small incision was made in one of the septa.

The term "segment" refers to the stratum separating bamboo nodes.

Then, after much effort, the other segment was completely shaved off.

Find another suitable wooden stick, tie burlap to the end of it to make it bulge.

After binding the burlap, Li You instructed Yan Hongxin to use a sharp blade to cut the wild boar hide into long strips.

Finally, these strips were tied to the bulge on the wooden stick.

Li You inserted the matchstick-shaped object into the previously processed bamboo section, checked it, and found it to be fairly tight.

Then, Li You lowered the end of the bamboo section with the small hole into the wooden bucket, and pulled the "matchstick" stuffed inside backward, clearly feeling that the bamboo section in his hand had become heavier.

There's a chance!

Li You took the bamboo section filled with water out of the wooden bucket, aimed it forward, and then suddenly thrust the "matchstick" forward. The enlarged part compressed the water in the bamboo section, generating pressure, and a stream of water shot out from the small hole at the other end, rushing more than ten steps away.

The simple bamboo water gun is now complete.

After draining the water from the bamboo section, Li You drew water again to test it.

It feels like this is my first time making it; the expansion at the front end isn't tight and delicate enough, and some water seeped out towards the back.

Otherwise, the spraying effect would be even better.

"How about it? This is a water-spraying bamboo gun. It's not that hard to make."

Yin Hongzhi was surprised and also a little curious: "You'er, what's the use of this thing you made?"

Yan Hongxin, who was standing nearby, had already realized what was going on and laughed, "Brother-in-law, aren't we going to burn the ship? With these water guns, we can fill them with kerosene and spray it onto the big ship from a dozen paces away. Wouldn't that save a lot of effort?"

Upon hearing this, Yin Hongzhi suddenly understood.

Yan Hongxin's older sister was Yin Hongzhi's wife, so he called Yin Hongzhi his brother-in-law.

Li Youdao said, "I haven't done a very good job yet. Hongxin, go and pick some skillful people to discuss and improve this water gun. For example, we can open up more of the bamboo nodes so that we can use more space in the bamboo nodes to store more oil."

Upon hearing this, Yan Hongxin accepted the order and left.

Sixteen days later, the weary assassin Wu Hong arrived at the mountain stronghold with the Chang'an kerosene he had painstakingly purchased.

To avoid suspicion, Wu Hong was careful and bought the kerosene from different merchants.

After purchasing them, they were transported out of Chang'an in batches.

They only met up again on the road after leaving Tongguan and continued transport.

The kerosene transported to Tongbai Mountain Village in this way totaled more than 500 barrels.

This amount, plus the seventy-odd barrels that Yin Shaokang obtained, is enough.

We also made about three hundred bamboo water guns.

Thanks to improvements, when tested with kerosene, its range could reach over twenty paces.

Now everything is finally ready, and we can set off.

Li You decided to personally lead the troops, with Yan Hongxin and Zan Junmo as his deputies, and selected 500 men as a reserve force to join the Jiazi Battalion and the Northern Army Battalion, totaling 1,300 men, and head to Jiangzhou.

Including Yan Hongliang's 300 men who had already been dispatched, the total force deployed to Jiangzhou this time was around 1,600 men.

Yin Hongzhi and Liang Mengbiao were left behind by Li You to guard the house and jointly handle camp affairs.

Wu Hong, the assassin who had contributed greatly this time, was also promoted by Li You and went to Jiangzhou together.

Southerners travel by boat, northerners ride horses.

The Yunshui River, which flows through the foot of Tongbai Mountain, is relatively shallow and can only be navigable by small passenger boats.

Li You divided his team into small groups of about fifty or sixty people, and hired boatmen in different places along the Yun River.

The boatmen were too busy with their business to care what was inside the wooden barrels that these people were carrying.

Because these people paid a lot of money, the boatmen rowed the boats with great effort.

The boats traveled south along the Yun River for two days before entering the Han River.

The Han River is the largest tributary of the Yangtze River. It has a large volume of water and a large number of ships, including many large vessels, can travel on it.

On the Han River, Li You saw ships from a thousand years ago.

The smaller ones are everyday boats, about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) long.

The middle ones range from five or six zhang to ten zhang.

The largest of them could be as long as twenty zhang, which is equivalent to sixty meters today.

The shape of this large ship is quite similar to that of a flying bird, with the widest part being the middle and rear, narrowing towards the bow and stern, forming a streamlined shape.

This design helps ships to cut through the waves.

Moreover, both the stern and the bow of the boat are decorated with intricately carved, upturned eaves, which are very beautiful and demonstrate the ingenuity of the ancients.

A day later, after reaching the Jiangxia ferry crossing, one can enter the Yangtze River via the Han River.

The Yangtze River is wide, and its water volume is more than ten times that of the Han River.

If you go down the river, you will reach Jiangzhou, which is today's Jiujiang in Jiangxi.

Note: A simplified map is attached for easier understanding.