"Chu Sai and Xiang are connected, and Jingmen is connected to nine factions. The rivers flow beyond the sky and the earth, and the mountains are beautiful."
Although the Han River is not as powerful as the Yangtze River, it is still majestic and majestic.
The boat sailed down the river, passing through waves.
The blood stains on the deck had not even had time to be cleaned, and had dried and turned black after a night and a day.
Shi Jun stood on the bow of the boat, looking at the mountains unfolding in front of him, and truly realized what it means to "have mountains with and without them."
After half a month of high-intensity marching, he had a look of exhaustion on his face. He finally managed to seize the ship. He did not rest, but thought about the current situation.
His Majesty started an undeclared war after he ascended the throne, leaving the Song Dynasty with no time to mobilize too many troops. Only the Lu family army in Jinghu hurriedly responded. And now it has successfully attracted these troops to Jiangling and Xiangyang... It can be said that they were left behind by him.
Behind Shi Jun.
In front of him was Song Ting who was not ready for the battle.
Strategically speaking, it can be said to be smooth, but the difficulties are also great. There is a pursuit force behind us, and in front are the Han River and various important towns along the Yangtze River.
No matter what, he had to capture Ezhou.
Because Ezhou is an important town at the intersection of the Han River and the Yangtze River, the base camp of the Lu family's army, and the middle section of the Song Dynasty's Yangtze River defense line. Taking Ezhou was like stopping a snake by seven inches, which was enough to shock the entire Song Dynasty.
As the saying goes, "If there is a slight warning on the road to Jinghu, how can the counties in Jiangsu and Zhejiang sleep peacefully?"
This is the reason why Kublai Khan chose to attack Ezhou back then, and why Jia Sidao's contribution is said to be "our people depend on it for rebirth, and the royal family is the same as regeneration."
Just as I was thinking about this, a soldier reported: "Report to the commander, there are ships blocking the river ahead!"
Shi Jun raised his telescope and took a look. He made a decisive decision and shouted: "Crash it over!"
~~
"Report to the general, there are ships intercepting the river ahead!"
Zhang Yanran was resting in the cabin. Hearing the words, he stood up and walked up to the high platform. He squinted his eyes and looked forward in the river wind, muttering to himself: "Is it our ship or the rebel ship?"
He observed for a while, and when the distance was even closer, he finally determined that the boats blocking the river ahead were rebel ships, and they were all small boats, so he gave a loud shout.
"Crash it over!"
At this time, the distance was already close, and the Song army's warships had slowed down.
After listening to the general's order, the sailors hoisted the sails again and waved the oars vigorously.
"Archers prepare!"
The soldiers on the deck drew their bows and drew arrows...
The Song warship at the forefront was the Sea Falcon warship.
The Sea Falcon warship is an attack-type warship built after the Song Dynasty's southern crossing. It is ten feet long and has eleven cabins. It can carry one hundred soldiers and more than forty sailors.
It is protected by iron plates on both sides and has sharp iron spikes at the tip, making it suitable for collisions.
Zhang Yanran considered that he was pursuing Shi Jun, so he arranged all the Sea Falcon warships in the army in the front. He himself took command from behind in a large ship with a keel.
He didn't understand. How dare Shi Jun bypass the main force of the Lu family army to sneak attack the rear? How dare he?
It was smooth sailing when I went there, but if I want to go back to Sichuan and Sichuan, it will be difficult in Hanzhong.
What is the difference between this and dying?
Li Xia uses people to make them die. Shi Jun beats people like this just to make Li Xia die...
"Bang."
The wind direction was just right, and the five Sea Falcon warships in front of them collided directly with the ship that Shi Jun had left to intercept the river. One small ship was smashed into pieces, and pieces of wood flew into the air.
Zhang Yanran didn't think that the little boat Shi Jun left behind could intercept him...
next moment.
There was a muffled sound of "boom".
A Sea Falcon warship swayed, but began to sink.
"Boom, boom, boom..."
~~
"boom."
On the outskirts of Chang'an, on the bank of the Weishui River, Sun Deyu looked at the splashing water, turned to Guo Shoujing and asked, "Is it interesting?"
"Explosion in water
, it is convenient to open the river and clear the sediment, but the power is still small."
"What are you clearing out? It's used to blow up ships. It's so powerful in the water, it's enough to blow through the bottom of the enemy's ship. Can you guess how I built it?"
"Cow urine?"
Sun Deyu was surprised and asked: "How do you know?"
"It must be waterproof and airtight. There are not many materials that can be used, and cow urine is the most suitable. As for detonating, you can use incense wire as a fuse, but it must be ventilated. You can use... sheep intestines as an air vent, tied to driftwood.
superior."
"Well, Guo Ruosi, you can see through it at a glance?"
"It's not difficult to see through. The principle is the simplest. It's not difficult to make one or two. The difficulty lies in how to raise more cattle and sheep so that there are enough and good enough cow urine bubbles and sheep intestines."
"Tsk, tsk, come on, let me show you my next thing..."
The plank was floating on the surface of the Han River. A cannon attached to it exploded, creating a large hole in the bottom of a ship.
As the ship sank, sailors were also injured and killed by the explosion and fell into the water.
The soldiers on the deck jumped into the river, and the sound of "plop" could not be heard.
"boom."
Another cannon exploded...
On the river, with a loud "bang", the building boat Zhang Yanran was riding collided with the sinking Sea Falcon warship ahead.
He felt the ship swaying under his feet, but he could still stand and shouted loudly.
"Why don't you quickly pull people up?!"
Suddenly there was another muffled sound, and his feet shook violently for a while. Zhang Yanran stumbled and fell to the ground.
He turned around in shock and saw someone struggling in the river, blood fainting in the river.
When I took a closer look, I saw that the man was no longer moving, but only half of his body was floating on the Han River with his intestines and then slowly sinking.
"The ship is sinking!"
"Protect the general! Put down the boat!"
"I don't want to go in the boat. There are firearms underwater." Zhang Yanran had not calmed down from the panic and shouted: "I don't want to go down. There are firearms underwater..."
He no longer had the confidence to pursue Shi Jun.
At this moment, he remembered that it was Shi Jun who had hit ten with one blow in the first battle with Ma Hujiang...
~~
"Bang!"
The warship crashed into the small boat in front of it, and wood chips flew into the air. The ship led by Shi Jun moved forward in an unstoppable manner.
Based on their marching speed, the Song army in front had not actually received any information to intercept them. They just saw a large number of boats approaching and were conducting routine questioning.
"Fire the arrow."
He Tai, who served as Shi Jun's deputy in this battle, ordered.
He Tai was born in the Ke Enemy Camp and was a native of Dengzhou. He was also one of the "Twelve Warriors" who followed Liu Zheng to capture Xinyang. He was most familiar with the terrain around the Han River.
It is precisely because of He Tai's assistance that Shi Jun's journey has been so smooth.
In order to prevent the Song army from guessing this in advance, Li Xia also hung the banner "He Tai controls the capital of Wu Ding Army of Tang Dynasty" on the central army to hide it from others.
The enemy camp was fed up with being squeezed out by Lu Wende and surrendered to Mongolia along with Liu Zheng. Naturally, He Tai didn't like the Lu family's army.
Seeing those Song soldiers who tried to stop him fall into the water, he immediately shot an arrow himself, killing one of the Song soldiers who wanted to swim to the shore.
At the same time, at the command, arrows were shot out one after another.
At this moment, Shi Jun suddenly shouted: "Stop!"
Although Shi Jun was responsible for strategic command and He Tai was responsible for tactics, and the order to fire arrows was He Tai's responsibility, Shi Jun was still furious.
"This attack on the Song Dynasty is for the sake of the universal family, not for you to kill these people who are unable to resist."
"Commander Shi, there is no mercy on the battlefield."
"I will never be merciful when you shouldn't be merciful!"
"The general believes that these Song troops should not be let go at this time..."
"What Song army? They are just militiamen and petty officials."
The quarrel didn't go away immediately. He Tai's official position was lower and it was not easy to compete with Shi Jun.
But in his heart, he still felt that Shi Jun was not firm enough and ruthless enough in dealing with Song Ting.
It was not until two days later that the spies sent to both sides of the Taiwan Strait to inquire about information reported back several pieces of information.
"Sui coins?"
"Silver and silk are two hundred thousand each. Among them, one hundred thousand taels of silver were delivered in Jinghu. The local government said it was for autumn grain, and it was also said that war with us requires peace..."
After hearing this, Shi Jun's face already showed anger and he asked: "Then what?"
"The commander-in-chief knows that the imperial court asked the local government to collect autumn grain and pay 100,000 taels. I am afraid that if they collect more than 500,000 taels, then of course... they will sell their sons and daughters, and the people will not be able to make a living."
Tan Ma hadn't even begun to tell Shi Jun the details of what he saw along the way, but in just eight words, Shi Jun could already imagine how tragic it was.
He sat there, the anger in his eyes igniting little by little, and finally turned into a rage.
"Deserves to be killed."
He Tai, who was standing aside, suddenly felt a murderous aura coming from Shi Jun.
Ezhou, Wuchang County Government.
"After dealing with those who escaped, we finally have some peace of mind. You did a good job, not bad."
"Thank you for your compliments. This is what a villain should do."
Gou Shancai was standing in front of the Wuchang magistrate with a bow, smiling.
"But, those Mongolians living in the Lu Family Villa committed another murder under our Wuchang County yesterday, and I can't condone them."
"I'll deal with it now, villain."
"Go, this is the residence of the suffering master. I heard that they want to sue the prison chief."
"Yes, I understand."
Gou Shancai silently took the note and exited the public room.
He did not immediately follow the address above to find the host, but returned to his own residence in silence.
When no one is around, his eyebrows are always furrowed.
After he got home and locked the door, Gou Shancai finally cursed.
"The dog officers...all of them are a bunch of fucking dog officers."
"Cough...cough cough."
Suddenly there were a few coughs in the room, and Gou Shancai was startled, pulled out the dagger from his boot and walked around to the back room.
He slowly looked over and saw a wounded man lying half-lying there with an arrow on his body. Blood was flowing down from the place he was covering with his hand.
"Wuchang County Prison, the one who kills dogs...is it you?...I can't do it...you have to send me a message..."