A ship that can stand firm in the waves will definitely stand firmer on an inland river. However, inland rivers do not have as much space as the sea, so many means of naval warfare cannot be used.
Take the fire attack that Chu, Wu and Yue were very good at. The inland river flows from west to east. They knew how to use the flow of the river to pile firewood on some small boats and rafts and then pour oil on them.
After lighting them, the boats and rafts were sent down the river to hit the enemy ships and ignite.
Even though the tactics are simple, there have been many inland water battles in which such tactics have been used to win, and yet people have fallen victim to them again and again.
The tactics above the sea were also used by some people. It was at the end of the Ming Dynasty that Zheng Chenggong became familiar with the ocean currents and deployed tactics that he used in inland rivers to deal with the Dutch. The result was really a great success.
The navy of the original country had limited knowledge of the river, and even most of the river sections were controlled by the Chu State. They did not have an advantage in familiarity. Once they went deep into the area, the Chu State had controlled it for a long time. In this situation, it was different from the Chu State.
When fighting a water war on a large river, it is absolutely inevitable to suffer losses.
Historically, after Cao Jun went south, he annexed the Jingzhou navy. The combined strength of the navy and the army was nearly 300,000, which was far more than Soochow and Liu Bei's army who made up the numbers.
First of all, Cao Jun suffered a loss when he chose the camp where the naval army was stationed. Later, because he was not familiar with the local climate and wind direction, and because most of the northern soldiers in the army were unaccustomed to the acclimatization in the south, Cao Jun lost nearly 300,000 soldiers to the front line.
The Sun-Liu coalition with more than 30,000 troops.
The original army was not Cao's army, and the Chu army was not as weak as the Sun-Liu coalition. In terms of military strength of the two sides, just based on the current status quo, it was the Chu army that had assembled more troops.
Cheng Shuo's only knowledge of the water field was that he took a boat to travel, and he was not familiar with the rest at all. He had never thought about doing anything on the river, but he was interested in slowly learning about water warfare and becoming able to command both land and water warfare.
General.
According to the original plan, Cheng Shuo should divide the fleet under the chain of command into two parts. One fleet will enter the river westward until it branches into the tributary at the "Juzi" side, and enter along this tributary.
The other branch went out to sea again and stationed at the mouth of Huhaikou, a river in Wuhu along the coastal route of Wudi.
These five lakes are the modern Taihu Lake, which is not far from Wu, the old capital of the state of Wu.
It is just an attempt to enter the Five Lakes via "Jiuzi", so there will not be too many boats along this route, and they will be mainly "wing" boats, carrying only one building boat.
If the tributaries of the river at "Jiuzi" can provide large ships to sail to the five lakes, the original Congress will build many shipyards near the five lakes in the future, and then artificially transform the river that leads from the five lakes to the sea.
Wuhu became a large shipbuilding base, manufacturing two types of boats: flat-bottomed boats and pointed-bottomed boats.
Why not build a shipbuilding base along the coast or along the river? First of all, the coast is too desolate, and secondly, the riverbed of the river is changeable. More realistically, there is no shortage of wood for shipbuilding in the Five Lakes.
Regardless of whether they are Wu or Yue, they have not developed their territory to a high degree anyway. You can see virgin forests everywhere, and there are many big trees that need more than a dozen people to hug them.
It is different in the Central Plains. After hundreds of thousands of years of inhabiting, there may be towering trees, but the number is far less than that of Wu, Yue, Qin and Yan, and compared with Badi and Shu.
It is less.
In the past, countries with stronger national power had fewer towering trees in their countries. It is hard to say why.
What made Cheng Shuo worried was that the navy of Chu State was already gathering, and the branch of the river that was going to "Jiuzi" was very close to the "Que" place.
Currently, "Quie" is occupied by the Chu State, and a Chu navy has been stationed there. This navy was active at the scene of the confrontation between the original army and the Chu army, but it never entered the tributaries of the river and entered the five lakes.
The Yuan Kingdom cannot figure out whether the tributary of "Jiuzi" cannot be navigable to the Five Lakes, or the Chu navy is worried about being ambushed by the Yuan army on both sides of the tributary.
In addition, even if a tributary can accommodate the navigation of "wing" boats, it may not be able to accommodate the passage of lower-floor boats. You will only know if you try it on the spot.
The operation of sending people to explore the river bed took too long. The original country did not have so much time to waste, so it adopted the stupidest and most wealthy approach, directly letting a large ship go over to try. Of course it would be best if it could pass, but it couldn't be just
Wherever it is stranded, we need to rebuild it from there. No matter how long it takes, we must strive for labor to transform it to the point where it can be passed by the building ship sooner or later.
One thing to note is that whenever a river can be marked on a map, the river is usually longer, and the width is generally wider.
After all, there is no need to mark a water system that is too small, right?
Cheng Shuo thought about it and decided not to send naval troops to approach the "Magpie" for the time being, so as not to trigger a large-scale battle between the two sides on the river.
"You will be stationed at 'Han'. If the enemy comes, you can counterattack. In normal times, you will not provoke the Chu navy."
The person who received the order was Zhilin.
As the commander of the navy, Zhiying needs to go to sea with the fleet. They will appear on the coast of "Kuiji", the old capital of Vietnam, via sea route, and land in the local bay.
The original army accepted a group of naval generals from the original Yue Kingdom and had a full understanding of the local situation.
Of course, it’s not what the former Yue Navy generals said that the Yuan Kingdom believed unconditionally. The Yuan Kingdom still sent spies to the local area for actual exploration. The exploration results did not match someone’s description. After repeated confirmations, they lied.
That person will definitely be severely punished.
The navy of the Yuan Kingdom stationed near "Han" was dispatched in large numbers at once. Cheng Shuo sent some out one day and carried out control along the river. He used the fleet's actions to attract Chu spies and arrest those who behaved strangely.
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Those arrested were not necessarily spies from the Chu State, but there were definitely problems after being interrogated one by one. They were usually spies sent by a resistance organization in Wu, or someone from an old noble.
When the Yue Kingdom destroyed the Wu Kingdom, many nobles of the Wu Kingdom hid in the mountains and forests. Later, the Chu army came to intervene, causing many Yue Kingdom nobles to also hide in the mountains and forests. Until the original army came and took over, the local situation was originally
It's very complicated, and it becomes even more complicated once the original army comes.
The old nobles who did not hide came out and chose to cooperate with the original country. Whether they were the nobles of the Wu Kingdom or the nobles of the Yue Kingdom, they just wanted to restore the country. They knew clearly that the original country could not restore the old country, so how could they choose to cooperate with them?
Cooperation with the former army?
Speaking of which, the Yue State was a country supported by the Chu State, but the people of the Yue State did not feel that way, at least after the Chu State destroyed the Yue State, they did not feel any gratitude.
Currently, it is not only the Yuan Kingdom that is facing various troubles caused by the old nobles of Wu and Yue, but the Chu Kingdom is not much better either.
The Chu State wanted to cooperate with the old nobles of the Wu State. However, there was too much hatred between Wu and Chu, and the two sides really lacked a sufficient basis for mutual trust. Every one of the people sent by the Chu State to find the old nobles of the Wu State was wrong.
Missing.
One night, Cheng Shuo led his troops to leave the river and go to sea.
The location of this outlet to the sea is actually the location of Nantong City in later generations, but it is still a vast ocean.
Not only Nantong City, a large area that was land in modern times is also a sea area. It took more than two thousand years for the Yangtze River to continuously wash away the sediment and slowly turn it into a piece of land.
It is also strange to say that the side of the Yangtze River estuary forms land. The southern side is shorter but wider than the northern side, and the northern side is longer but narrower.
The same thing is the increase in the amount of land at the mouth of the Yellow River. The increased land area in the north is also rectangular, while in the south it is a wider fan shape.
What is the reason for that? Is it caused by the flow of sea water, or is it caused by the change in the location of the outlet?
Sailing on the sea at night, facing this situation for the first time can be quite scary.
Some people are frightened just by taking a boat on an inland river. When entering the sea, they will soon vomit due to their psychological emotions and the constant ups and downs of the boat.
Cheng Shuo also felt nauseous, but it was far from the level of vomiting.
The river's outlet is into the Yellow Sea area, but it is currently called the East China Sea.
The waves in the offshore are actually not high, but they are definitely rougher than those in the inland rivers.
On the decks of various ships, large and small, there were no army soldiers, but only sailors and navy soldiers.
Today is a moonless night, but there are so many and bright stars in the sky that it’s not like you can’t see even your fingers.
The position I stood at was too low, so I couldn't see the starry sky reflected on the sea. When I looked towards the land, I could only see a large black shadow, and couldn't see the lights of thousands of houses.
The ship Cheng Shuo was on was the flagship, and he didn't want to go down to the cabin at all. He held on to where he could, and his body swayed with the ups and downs of the ship.
"Warships also carry glass?" Cheng Shuo pointed to the window of the flagship room and asked curiously.
Glass? Which time traveler wouldn’t try to burn glass?
However, Zhiyao did not burn glass to sell.
To be honest, even in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were not so many gentry who cheated. The monarch could not cheat when selling glass to the nobles. Otherwise, he was just playing with fire. He cheated for a while and felt good for a while. If the news leaked that the glass was worthless, the result would be inevitable.
There will be an uproar across the country.
To the extent that the whole country is in an uproar? Social unrest will still be inevitable.
It is up to the king to do it, and the people and ministers are ready to be brought out by the king to vent the anger of the people. Even the officials will be buried in their families in a short time if they are not cheating.
Therefore, it is not impossible to use glass to deceive the ancients. Either you have to strictly control the information and keep the number of glasses on the market at a very small amount. Once the information leaks or there are too many glasses on the market, it is difficult to have a good ending.
The Yuan Kingdom had glass a few years ago. At first, Zhiyao used it as a reward to officials or nobles. Later, it was sold at a reasonable price.
In the past, every part of the ship was hollow. Without sailing on the sea, it was difficult to experience the biting cold wind at night.
When conditions permit, wouldn't it be a very reasonable operation to install it on the bridge room of each ship?
One thing is that although the glass installed on the bridge is about two centimeters thick, it is not shatterproof, and there is still a risk of shattering when hit by arrows.
In order to prevent additional damage caused by broken glass, you can see that there is a relatively large mesh of wire mesh inside and outside the window to fix it.
Barbed wire? Yes, craftsmen from the original country have developed wire drawing technology.
If Zhi Yao wanted to, he could have produced the chain armor, but Zhi Yao did not do that.
Why doesn’t Zhiyao use chain armor? There are too many reasons. The first thing to consider is whether it is necessary or not.
Compared with scale armor, where arrows may be shot through the gaps in the chainmail armor, the chainmail armor does seem to have no gaps. As long as the arrow itself is larger than the hole in the chainmail armor, it will get stuck on it and cannot penetrate further.
As soft armor, chain mail has the advantages of good mobility and a larger protective area than chain mail. Its shortcomings are also obvious. Because it is relatively soft and close to the body, it is difficult to defend against bludgeoning and punctures from long weapons such as spears and swords, and attacks.
It can directly hurt the armored person through the armor. If the lock rings are not dense enough, weapons such as long knives and axes can cut off the lock rings in rows.
It’s easy to understand why, although chain armor is used a lot in Zhuxia, it has never become highly popular. This is because Zhuxia has always had a large-scale production system, and the demand for melee defense is much higher than that of long-range defense.
defense.
To sum it up, the enemies Zhiyao faces are not dominated by their sharp long-range attacks. On the contrary, they have to consider more damage caused by melee combat. Chain armor may be of some use, but the real choice is to equip it.
Entered a detour.
The ancients were not stupid. If chain armor was really more useful in the East, it would not have failed to develop after being introduced.
Because of the existence of Zhiyao in the Yuan Kingdom, every time a concept is given, a large number of craftsmen will conduct research, and many new things appear every year.
As one of the senior officials of the original country, Cheng Shuo may be used to having too many new things, but most of them simply don't understand their uses.
This is not difficult to understand. It does not come from childhood. It is indeed more difficult to accept new things when you reach a certain age.
For example, modern young people can play with smartphones very smoothly once they are exposed to them, but some older people think they are too flashy. Older elders firmly believe that mobile phones with buttons are still suitable.
"How many days will it take to reach the bay and land?"
"If there is no accident, we can reach the bay within two days. Whether to land depends on the Chu army's coastal defenses. Do not land rashly."
That bay was called Hangzhou Bay in later generations, but currently there are many large and small islands in that sea area.
In the past, the State of Yue established many camps on those islands. After the State of Yue was annexed by the State of Chu, the Chu army did not abandon the camps on those islands.
What Zhiying needs to think about now is how to successfully land the army, and how to ensure that the Chu navy will not attack the retreat from the island, and at the same time rule out the Chu navy launching long-range weapons from the shore to attack the fleet.
The fact that the Chu State now has bed crossbows is something that the Yuan Kingdom has already gleaned. The bay is now very narrow and long. Once the Chu army moves the bed crossbows up the mountain for an ambush, with bows and arrows with a far enough range, they can indeed attack the Yuan Dynasty who are about to land.