Chapter 8, Fighting on the River
Pei Min disagreed with Chen Xiandeng's words and said: "The overall situation is not yet determined, so it's too early to speak now."
Li Bai said: "Why did Brother Pei say this? I see that this dragon is already trapped in the beast."
Pei Min thought that his brother was finally a hero on paper. He said in the poem "Bow destroys the tiger in the south mountain" and "hands to catch Taihangzi". In fact, he was not very familiar with bow hunting. He pointed to the water surface and said: "Each boat is surrounded by a ring, which is like a formation of infantry troops. You can attack and retreat and defend. This thief head can be called a general, and now he has indeed surrounded the dragon."
Li Bai said: "Well, why did Brother Pei say that the overall situation is not decided?"
Pei Min said, "Don't be anxious, but although this dragon is surrounded, it has not shown its defeat. The bandit leader seems to have great skills, but he has not really hurt the dragon. If ordinary people are surrounded, they lose their fighting spirit, which is because once a person falls into a desperate situation, they will be discouraged. But this dragon is a wild beast. Although I have never hunted a dragon, I think all beasts in the world are the same. The so-called trapped beasts are fighting. The difference between beasts and humans is that they do not know how to judge the situation. The more they reach the desperate situation, the more courageous they are, the more high the fighting spirit they are. Therefore, it is said that when hunting, you should open the net, so that they will not fight to the death, and wait for them to escape and chase them..."
While he was talking, the hunting ground had indeed changed. The dragon failed to hit several times, so he did not rush to attack again. Instead, he swam around in the ship array in semi-diving. The dragon's eyes were on both sides of the body, and slowly swam against each ship on one side of the body. The eyes on that side moved to observe the ships. Pei Min had a lot of experience in hunting and knew that many beasts had this habit. This was to observe the weak links of hunting. Every gap that could be taken advantage of, every wandering look, and every timid little movement would be taken into the eyes and used by the beast.
Seeing this, the thieves did not dare to act rashly. At this moment, the ships were very close. The woodcutters jumped back to their boat and formed a uniform encirclement again. The dragon swam a few more times, and suddenly sank into the water. Jiang Shuo said anxiously: "Scared... don't sneak away."
Chen Xiaowei said: "That won't be. The fishing net is very long. I just saw them carrying a lead sinker when they were getting out of the net. The autumn flood was over. The Han River here is only about a meter deep. If you want to dive and escape, you will have to touch the net. Just now, the fishing net is as strong as before. I am afraid that when weaving the net, extremely strong and tough things like diamond bamboo and silk in the hemp thread were added to the hemp. Therefore, if this black dragon king walks under the water, he will inevitably be entangled by the fishing net and cannot escape, so he will save his energy."
Pei Min narrowed her eyes and looked at Jiang's face carefully and said, "I'm afraid it's not that easy."
While he was talking, the dragon suddenly raised his head and rushed towards the boat where the master was sitting. The master had never made any moves before and had been sitting on the bow of the boat. Seeing this, the farmer and the woodcutter on both sides shouted in unison and attacked the dragon from both sides.
Both of them were elders, and they had already practiced the dragon-slaying technique in advance. They immersed the two weapons into the water, then lifted them upwards and cut the neck of the dragon. The attack concept was extremely clever, which not only avoided cutting the most valuable leather on the dragon's back, but also attacked the weakest neck of the dragon. Such a huge and heavy weapon was immersed in the water, and it was difficult for ordinary people to lift it. The two of them took action like lightning, and they were like waving an ordinary bamboo pole on land. Everyone exclaimed again, saying that this time, the clinker saw the opportunity very quickly, and suddenly jumped out of the water, and flipped it in the air, and poured it into the water again, causing huge splashes of water. Almost at the same time, the two weapons were cut out of the water at the same time, and the slightest difference was lost.
Suddenly, the fisherman's boat was rolling in the water. The dragon had already attacked the fisherman's boat. The iron weight on the fisherman's fishing rod had to be stretched a distance and swayed to have lethality, but it was difficult to hit the ground directly below his feet. The fisherman jumped upwards with a "hi" sound, and at the same time waved the iron weight upwards and made an arc, and then hit it downwards. When this jump waved, the attack distance of the iron weight was opened. The iron weight was a blunt weapon, and it was not afraid of hurting the leather. Therefore, the fisherman used all his strength. The iron weight hung on the wind and was like thunder. If the dragon showed its head and came out of the water, it would be severely damaged.
The water from the river was separated, but the dragon tail was coming out of the water. The iron puff hit the dragon tail. The old dragon was as unconscious as before. The dragon tail was whipped like a steel whip. The boat was whipped and swirled. The sailors on the boat were unprepared. Then several people were thrown off the boat. The descendants of the Black Dragon King rushed up in an instant and bit the few people who fell into the water into several sections. The fisherman fell down his toes and leaped up again on the boat hood, and then took the fishing rod again, because he thought that the dragon would chase after it with a blow, and just waited for it to poke his head and smashed it into a brain.
Unexpectedly, the dragon was not entangled and sneaked under the scholar's boat. But when he saw a surge, the scholar was thrown up on the boat! The head of the turtle came out of the belly of the boat, and the fishing boat was broken into several sections in the air. It turned out that the scholar was old and the dragon bones were no longer very stable. The Black Dragon King had already discovered this flaw during his previous tour, but he first attacked other fishing boats. When the other boats were busy, he raided under the water and pushed the scholar's fishing boat with his steel-like hard head. As soon as the boat was broken, the Black Dragon King jumped out of the encirclement of the fishing net with a rush.
When the boat was thrown into the air, the scholar knew something was wrong and jumped onto the boat on the left. However, the other thieves on the boat could not react and fell into the water one after another, and could not escape the crocodile's mouth.
In desperation, the fisherman threw the fishing rod out with his hand, and the iron weight drew an arc and hit the black dragon's head. The black dragon king floated and rose in the water, and the iron weight hit the water surface and stirred a large splash of water. However, although the momentum was great, it was difficult to hurt the dragon king.
When everyone on the official boat saw the dragon escaping, they couldn't help but feel regretful for the thieves. Jiang Shuo even fell down and said, "What a pity, what a pity..."
Chen Xiandeng suddenly said tremblingly: "It's a pity that you still have time to call the thieves, but the Dragon Prince is coming towards us!"
As soon as the black dragon was approaching the current and wanted to escape along the same path, he was coming towards the official ship upstream. When the sailors on the boat saw the dragon approaching, they were frightened. Pei Min said anxiously: "Turn the rudder and use the bow to face the enemy."
Although Pei Min is not a sailor general, he also knows that the bow of the ship is the strongest. At this moment, the big ship is facing the Black Dragon King with its weak port. Judging from the power of the fishing boat just now, if it hits the sidewalk, even if the official ship is much stronger than the fishing boat, it is afraid it will inevitably be hit by it. When the sailors heard this, they immediately turned the rudder to the left and divided it into two waves, rolling the oars together on the left and right, so that the boat could turn its head to meet the enemy as soon as possible.
Seeing that the ship was about to turn straight, Chen Xiandeng suddenly shouted: "No, no, contact the enemy on the side, right rudder! Right rudder!" Pei Min was a land general who was not accustomed to water wars. He only thought that he should meet the enemy on the bow of the ship, but he did not know that the bow of the ship was raised upwards in order to break the waves. If the bow of the ship was facing the black dragon, the dragon came against the water. From the next bow of the ship, although the cabbage ship was large, I was afraid that it would not be able to bear it and overturn it. Therefore, Chen Xiandeng shouted that the enemy on the side was low, and the deck was straight. The soldiers shot it with strong crossbows and still had a chance to shoot him or drive him away.
However, Pei Min was a third-rank general, and Chen Xiandeng was just a captain of the Zhechong Mansion from the seventh-rank. Although he knew that he was right, the soldiers did not dare to disobey the command of the superior for a while and were stunned. As soon as Chen Xiandeng said that, Pei Min knew the reason. At this moment, the soldiers were stunned again and couldn't help but furious and shouted: "Listen to the command of Captain Chen! Turn the rudder quickly! A group of fools!" The sailors then quickly reversed the rudder, and the oars changed to the left and right. The big ship slowly turned to the right, and then pointed the side of the ship at the dragon again.
At this time, the soldiers of Jinwu Guard had already opened their crossbows and pressed the arrows. The official ship was heavy and turned around. After finally pulling the boat across, the dragon swam three meters away. They began to dive and prepare to be similar to the fisherman's boat when they hit the boat. At the critical moment, the soldiers of Jinwu Guard pulled the crossbow machine hanging knife. At the sound of the bowstring, dozens of fine iron arrows shot out towards the dragon in the water. The distance was so close that the crossbow arrows had almost no arc and shot straight towards the head of the giant turtle in the water. Everyone on the official ship cheered, and the fishing boat opposite exclaimed, if this round of crossbow arrows was about to hit, they had to shoot several holes in the turtle skin. Even if they could kill the Dragon King, the poaching failed completely.
However, the Jinwu Guard made a mistake that only a land soldier would make. Fishermen with some experience know that when using a harpoon, they should fork the fish below the fish they saw, because the water will refract. The so-called "the pond is clear and the water is shallow". The swimming fish underwater looks a little higher than its actual position in the water. However, the Jinwu Guard aims directly at the position of the turtle dragon in the water and shoots a crossbow arrow. Seeing the arrow shoots at the head of the turtle dragon, it tilts upwards after entering the water. It is actually not a single branch, and the turtle dragon is still rushing towards the official ship without any injuries.
It was too late to stym the crossbow. The sailors of the Zhechong Mansion who were paddling on the left were frightened and scattered. The ten left Jinwu guards were elite soldiers in the army. Although they were also frightened, they did not retreat. The four of them pulled out their horizontal swords on their waists and lined up the front. Six of them stym the crossbows behind and formed a defensive formation to block Pei Min.
The guards of the Jinwu Guard had just finished forming the formation, and everyone felt a huge shock in the ship. Then they heard a loud crack. The Black Dragon King broke through a large grid on the port side and rushed straight to the deck. The guards surrounded the two sides and used horizontal swords to chop the Black Dragon King. The giant dragon seemed to know that the Tang army's blade was sharp. They turned their heads to avoid the four horizontal swords, and swept the back with a giant tail. The four guards who were in the forefront were immediately overturned to the ground. The left Jinwu Guards were all elite Tang army soldiers. Although they were still in danger, as soon as the soldiers in the front row fell to the ground, the six people in the back row immediately stepped forward and fired crossbow arrows at the Black Dragon King. But the old dragon was very agile. After sweeping down the sword guard, he immediately jumped into the river. All six iron arrows were nailed to the deck.
The crossbow guard ran to the side of the side and fired another round of crossbow arrows at the river. However, the black dragon was in full swing and rippling in circles. The river was shining brightly by the moonlight, and the waves were shimmering, but there was no shadow of the black dragon.
Chapter completed!