Lu Xun was wearing armor. The heavy binding feeling of wearing armor for the first time made him quite uncomfortable. However, he still held a bamboo shield inlaid with iron sheets to block the stray arrows and climbed to the height of the bow to observe the enemy's situation.
He saw that the opponent's attack had slowed down and he no longer threw the hook rope to the side of the ship. He thought to himself that he was retreating?
As a result, he saw pirates starting to slide into the sea along the rope on the opposite ship. They were swimming towards the merchant ship with hammers and chisels in their hands. He immediately reacted and shouted: "They are going to scuttle the ship!"
"Bow and arrow, shoot them to death!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the archers on both sides of the ship leaned out and pointed their bows at the approaching pirates. Immediately, several people on the other side were hit by arrows and died in the sea.
Guan Cheng saw this and ordered his troops to fire arrows to fight back. The Qingzhou pirates had a numerical advantage, and the Youzhou army archers were suppressed for a while and could not raise their heads.
When Lu Xun saw this, he ordered the ship's side guard to be raised again to block the arrows, and at the same time, the arrow holes on the ship's side guard were opened, allowing the archers to hide behind and shoot arrows.
The pirates who swam over were also chicken thieves. They plunged into the sea and dived to the side of the Zhen family's merchant ship. Then they stuck their heads out and used hammers and chisels to dig hard near the waterline.
As they approached the side of the ship, they immediately reached a blind spot for bows and arrows. The Youzhou army had no choice but to watch the ship being dug at the other side.
Lu Xun looked over and saw the pirates enduring the biting sea water while drilling the ship with red eyes.
If these people stayed for a while longer, they would probably freeze to death in the sea, but now they showed no fear of death. Lu Xun was also shocked by their desperate fighting style for a moment.
When he hesitated for a moment, Tian Yu had already tied a rope around his waist and shouted: "Let me down!"
The other soldiers hesitated for a moment, then seeing Tian Yu urging loudly, they quickly tightened the rope and hoisted Tian Yu out of the ship. Tian Yu held a halberd and pointed it at a pirate who was drilling the ship, and immediately pierced his Tianling Cap.
.
Guan Cheng saw this and ordered the pirates to shoot arrows at Tian Yu. Suddenly, several arrows hit Tian Yu's armor, creating a dangerous situation. Only then did the other soldiers react and get off the boat with ropes hanging on them. Some were holding halberds, and some were holding halberds.
He took a shield and went to help Tian Yu block the arrow.
Yuan Xi stood at the bow of the boat and shouted loudly: "Shoot an arrow and kill everyone on the other side!"
He drew his bow and shot towards Guan Cheng. As soon as the arrow left the bow, waves hit, and the bow of the boat tilted slightly, causing it to lose its accuracy. It was unknown where it went astray.
Guan Cheng laughed loudly when he saw this, but when he heard the sound of the wind, an arrow was shot towards his face. He was so frightened that he lowered his head subconsciously. The arrow hit his iron helmet on the forehead, causing him to take two steps back and feel dizzy.
dizzy.
He was so frightened that he quickly lay down to dodge, and with a whoosh, another arrow flew past his scalp.
Yuan Xi saw that the other general was hiding behind the side of the ship and did not dare to show his head. He asked Lu Lingqi, who was firing arrows repeatedly: "The ship is so rocking, how can you shoot so accurately?"
Lu Lingqi shot an arrow to death a pirate who was poking his head in the sea, and said without looking back: "This is not simple. The ship is bumping up and down, and there are pauses at the highest and lowest points. It is a good time to fire the arrow."
Yuan Xi was dumbfounded, how could he have forgotten this? If Lu Lingqi could discover this so quickly, wouldn't it look like she was mentally retarded?
The two sides went back and forth, and after another wave of pirates who launched boats and dug boats were all stabbed to death by halberds, Guan Cheng finally gave up and asked the boats to retreat slightly, and surrounded the Zhen family's merchant ship from a distance.
When Yuan Xi saw it, he felt a headache. Unlike on land where he could escape, the two sides would end up entangled to death at sea. If naval battles in this era cannot establish an absolute advantage, they can only fight a war of attrition, and this consumes the number of soldiers on both sides.
The number of pirates in Qingzhou is obviously much larger.
Lu Xun, however, held a telescope and said to Yuan Xi with a solemn expression: "Gongsun's ship began to escape."
Yuan Xi looked through the telescope and saw the remaining dilapidated warships of the Gongsun family speeding away to the north.
Just now, the Qingzhou pirate fleet took the opportunity to separate seven or eight ships to intercept the Gongsun family's warships that wanted to come for support. The Qingzhou pirates had rich experience in naval battles and had a numerical advantage, which caused the Gongsun family's ships to flee in panic.
The Qingzhou pirates did not give chase, but circled around and slowly surrounded Yuan Xi.
Guan Hai stood on the bow of the boat, holding the knife high in his hand. He and Guan Cheng had cooperated many times and were already familiar with the road. No one had yet been able to escape from the hands of the two of them!
Yuan Xi thought to himself that it would be nice if there were a few cannons. None of the dozens of ships present could escape. Now that there was no long-range killer, the only option was to use up the enemy's energy and wait for the other party's twenty or so ships to surround them and start a gang fight.
, the Youzhou Army will be exhausted sooner or later.
Lu Xun said: "Master, it's not good if we are surrounded from the other side. Why don't we hang up the sails and leave the encirclement first?"
Yuan Xi nodded, "As Boy said, the fleet will return to Youzhou!"
As a result, less than half a moment later, Lu Xun saw through the telescope that several ships were sailing out of the Huangxian Port, approaching Yuan Xi's retreat route at a rapid speed.
This is where pirate reinforcements are coming to intercept!
Lu Xun said: "Intercept from the front and cut off the retreat from behind. Now we are in some trouble."
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "No problem, let's fight them slowly and wait for an opportunity to burn all their sails. We can leave as soon as we want."
The two sides pursued and fled for a whole day. At night, when the Youzhou army had used up all the rockets and fireworks, they finally burned almost all the sails on the opposite side.
Just when the Youzhou Army thought that the other side had nothing to do, Guan Hai and Guan Cheng looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter. They waved their hands, and immediately a pirate dragged a brand new sail and ran up from the bilge!
Within a moment, more than 20 warships were all replaced with brand-new sails. Driven by the wind, their speed increased greatly and they were encircling Yuan Xi's fleet!
Lu Xun saw it, looked at Yuan Xi, saw Yuan Xi nodded, and ordered people to bring out two large fireworks several feet long.
Everyone raised it up and lit it, and saw flames spraying from the bottom of the fireworks, soaring towards the sky, and two huge flame flowers bloomed in the night sky dozens of feet high.
Guan Cheng looked at the sky, the bright moon hung high, and the dimming fireworks turned into bits and pieces, but he sneered in his heart. This thing can only ignite, and its lethality is very poor. Now that the opponent is at the end of his rope, he is so confused that he sets it off randomly, right?
He raised the long knife in his hand high and said, "Up!"
"Kill them all!"
Night battles are extremely dangerous. If you fall into the sea in the dark, you are almost certain to die. Therefore, neither side dares to rush forward and fight very conservatively. Rather than killing the enemy, it is better to harass each other and prevent the other party from sleeping.
The Qingzhou Pirates are not impatient and have made up their minds to slowly wear down the opponent. Anyway, if the fight continues like this, the opponent's morale will collapse in less than a day.
In the cabin of the Youzhou military ship, several medical doctors were treating the wounded who were shot by arrows. They pulled out the arrows, cleaned the blood near the wounds, took out the bamboo tubes beside them, and poured some golden liquid on the clean linen cloth.
, and then applied it fiercely to the wound.
The wounded screamed loudly. It was obvious that this liquid was extremely irritating, but the doctor did not blink and applied a layer of herbal medicine on it before bandaging the wound.
Then the doctor took out a piece of something and handed it to the soldier: "Chew it slowly and don't swallow it."
The soldier took it, peeled it off, put it in his mouth, bit it hard, and grinned at the sharp bite.
If Yuan Xi were present, he would recognize that this is what he experimentally promoted.
garlic.
In this era, although Yuan Xi was unable to produce penicillin, Ku later came up with something that could slightly replace it.
Allicin.
Although the effect is much worse than penicillin, it is already the most effective antibacterial disinfection and resistance-increasing thing that Yuan Xi can think of.
Garlic is native to the Pamir Plateau in central Asia and the Tianshan Mountains in China. It was introduced and cultivated from the Western Regions by Zhang Qian during the Han Dynasty. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, it had become a commonly cultivated item.
Volume 6 of Zhang Hua's "Natural History" records: "Zhang Qian returned to the Western Regions and obtained garlic, guava, walnuts, shallots, alfalfa, and coriander." Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty also stated in "Qi Min Yao Shu: Planting Garlic": "Zhang Qian
Traveling all over the country, you can only get garlic, grapes, and alfalfa."
Garlic contains allicin. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that garlic can treat constipation sores, intestinal prolapse, and infantile convulsions. Modern medicine believes that garlic can improve immunity and improve the transformation ability of the immune system such as human lymphoid T cells and macrophages.
.
Fresh garlic, sliced or mashed and eaten raw, is good for heart health and is often used to expel intestinal parasites.
Yuan Xi didn't pay much attention at first, but later he discovered that Hua Tuo's prescription for Chen Deng also included the use of garlic to repel insects. He suddenly realized that garlic is a good thing in this era!
People in this era have realized the bactericidal effect of garlic, and some people often eat garlic to strengthen their body.
After Yuan Xi and Hua Tuo mentioned this idea, Hua Tuo began to experiment with garlic and found that on the battlefield, crushed garlic could indeed inhibit wound inflammation and ulceration.
Although it is very irritating and the effect is not obvious, it is already very good for this era when penicillin cannot be made.
And the extraction of allicin is not complicated. As long as you have a distilled water device, you can mash the garlic and soak it in distilled water for a period of time to get a golden liquid, which is crude allicin.
Since the Western Han Dynasty, China has had bronze stills. Similar vessels were unearthed from the tomb of Haihunhou, and they were mostly used to distill floral essential oils. Therefore, under Yuan Xi's promotion, he made a tube of allicin to carry with him, which was already a favorite among healers.
Standard.
However, the disadvantage of allicin is that it is not easy to store. In most cases, it will expire within ten days, so it can only be used as needed. Fortunately, the weather is cold and the storage time is longer, so it has come into its own.
The Qingzhou pirates do not have this kind of treatment. If they are injured at sea, they are basically left to die. Including those who were buried in the sea today, hundreds of people have been killed or injured.
But Guan Hai and Guan Cheng didn't care at all. There were nearly 20 ships and more than 2,000 pirates going down, and they piled up to death on the other side!
After the two sides fought all night, the sky gradually became brighter, and when a touch of white fish belly appeared, Guan Hai and Guan Cheng saw that the speed of the merchant ship on the opposite side had slowed down a lot. He knew that the other side was tired and it was time to launch a general attack!