From the afternoon of that day, the Tang Army's water village became busy. Thousands of soldiers were sent to clean up the wreckage of the burned ship in the water, and moved the supplies from the grain ship to the next morning. The Tang Army finally left the ship.
Nearly a thousand bags of kerosene were found in the cabins of the two ships.
Although Chai Shao was a tolerant and tactful man, he finally couldn't help but get angry. He ordered people to find Lu Zushang and a dozen other senior officers guarding Jiangling, pointed at a pile of kerosene bags and scolded them angrily: "You guys
I can understand why you say you don’t dare to dispose of the materials in the ship without authorization, but how do you explain to me the kerosene in these ships? Isn’t the lesson learned enough by burning more than 300 warships? "
More than a dozen senior generals lowered their heads, and no one dared to say a word. Lu Zushang took a step forward and said solemnly: "General, we did search the ship before, and found no other items except food and fodder, because considering the possibility
We wanted to exchange prisoners of war with the Sui army, so the supplies on the ship were not unloaded. I really didn't expect that there was still kerosene hidden in it. Moreover, the fire did not go out after burning the ship. I originally wanted to wait until it was completely extinguished before moving it into the city. It happened that the general was here
The time has come."
"You mean to say that my arrival was unlucky and delayed your transportation of supplies, is that right?" Chai Shao said coldly.
Lu Zushang lowered his head, "I don't dare to do this because of my humble position. This is my responsibility."
"Hmph! It's your responsibility again, General Lu. You have to bear too many responsibilities, and I don't dare to punish you. What do you think I should do?"
Lu Zushang felt sad and could only sigh secretly and said: "I humbly ask the General to remove me from the post of General Jiangling."
Chai Shao's face darkened, and he squeezed out a sentence between his teeth. "I'm sorry, my official position is low, and I made General Jiangling laugh at me."
After saying that, he turned around and left angrily. Lu Zushang watched him go away, not understanding what he meant. A general next to him reminded: "General, except King Jing, no one else has the right to remove you from the post of Jiangling General.
What you said about dismissal was a bit sarcastic. You offended him."
Lu Zushang was stunned. Is it so easy to offend people? He suddenly felt a kind of haggardness. It was too difficult to deal with these high-ranking officials. He offended people at every turn, and it happened to offend Chai Shao, the most powerful prince-in-law today. He couldn't help but grow angry.
A long sigh...
Chai Shao looked at the salvaged wreckage for a while, and then rode towards the general's city. As soon as he entered the city gate, a general waiting by the city gate came forward and said: "General Chai, I have something to say under my humble command."
Chai Shao knew that this man was Lu Zushang's deputy general Liu Fangzhi, so he asked coldly: "What's the matter with you?"
Liu Fangzhi took another step forward and whispered: "General, Lu Zushang is suspected of collaborating with the enemy."
Chai Shao frowned. He took a deep look at Liu Fangzhi. This was Lu Zushang's lieutenant and the second-largest figure in Jiangling City. He actually said that Lu Zushang was a collaborator with the enemy?
"Come to my room and say it!"
Chai Shao whipped his horse and galloped away into the city. Looking at Chai Shao's back, Liu Fangzhi couldn't help but smile and said to himself, "Lu Zushang, you actually want to sacrifice my head to the flag to see who killed him."
Who... Chai Shao's residence was Xiao Xian's villa in the past. The palace has been demolished as a forbidden area, but the villa is still there. It covers an area of 40 acres, is lined with green trees, and has pavilions and pavilions hidden among red flowers and green leaves.
The scene is extremely exquisite, which suits Chai Shao's temperament very well. His wife Li Xiuning was originally going to come with her this time, but due to poor health, she stayed in Chang'an.
Chai Shao walked directly into the living room and sat down. After a while, a soldier brought Liu Fangzhi in. Liu Fangzhi knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See you, General!"
Chai Shao picked up the teacup, took a sip, and said calmly: "No need to be so polite, get up and say what you have to say!"
"yes!"
Liu Fangzhi stood up and said: "Let's talk about the night the big ship caught fire first, because some soldiers saw that it was the Sui Army spies who set the fire. But that night, Lu Zushang's confidant Zhao Lan was on duty outside the water stronghold, but he didn't find anything."
"This is normal. It is so dark that it is difficult to detect the enemy's situation, and if he comes in and out from the shore, it is even less likely for him to detect it. Based on this, it is a bit far-fetched to say that Lu Zushang is collaborating with the enemy!"
Although Chai Shao did not like Lu Zushang, he would not frame him as a collaborator for no reason. The key is that at this time, Chai Shao did not want to cause chaos, otherwise even if he could not remove Lu Zushang, he would have Li Xiaogong remove him. It is impossible for Li Xiaogong not to lose face.
to himself, so he did not comment on Liu Fangzhi's accusations.
Liu Fangzhi sighed, "General, I am not accusing him of collaborating with the enemy for no reason, because he did tell people around him more than once that he should not surrender to the Tang Dynasty. He said that his grandfather was also a Fan Yang Lu family, and now he is a Fan Yang Lu family.
Serving in the Sui Dynasty, he would have a better future if he surrendered to the Sui Dynasty, and he also told his generals twice that the Tang Dynasty was over and those who knew the current affairs should submit to the Sui Dynasty. This time Yang Yuanqing personally went south to conquer the country, which was a good opportunity."
"Did he really say these things?" Chai Shao asked with some disbelief.
Liu Fangzhi knelt down, pointed at his heart and said, "I, Liu Fangzhi, am willing to swear by my ancestors that if I tell any lies, my ancestors' souls will not be able to live in peace in heaven."
This can be said to be the most vicious oath in the Sui Dynasty. No one would swear by their ancestors easily. In fact, Liu Fangzhi did not lie. Lu Zushang did say these words, but he could not let go of Li Xiaogong's kindness to him, so he did not surrender.
Sui army.
Chai Shao's face darkened. Since he swore like this, he had to believe it even if he didn't believe it. He paced slowly in the room with his hands behind his back, anger flashing in his eyes. Lu Zushang actually had counter-intentions, which was unexpected to him.
Liu Fangzhi felt that Chai Shao believed his words, and also felt the anger in his heart. He couldn't help but feel secretly proud, and said: "There is one more thing that I have to report to my humble position."
"Say! What else is there?"
"Also, when we intercepted the grain transport ship, we captured more than 200 Sui soldiers. Lu Zushang was extremely generous to these soldiers. He treated their injuries and provided them with very good food and housing. The conditions were much better than those of the Tang soldiers, and they were not
The soldiers of the Tang Army abused the prisoners of war and were not even allowed to scold them. I was thinking that if it was an officer of the Sui Army, maybe he wanted to persuade the prisoners to surrender, but these are ordinary soldiers. Is this necessary? I inferred that he did not want to offend.
Sui army, leave yourself a way out."
"Is there such a thing?" Chai Shao was already visibly angry.
"The humble position is true. If the general doesn't believe it, I can take the general to check it out in person. More than two hundred Sui troops have been placed in the post house in the south of the city."
At this moment, a bell suddenly rang 'Dang! Dang! Dang!'. The sound was loud, as if coming from the direction of the city. Liu Fangzhi's face changed. "General, this is the enemy's attack.
The news!"
Chai Shao was also taken aback. At this time, he did not care to investigate Lu Zushang's willingness to surrender to the enemy. He walked quickly outside the house, "What happened?" he asked loudly.
A soldier rushed to report, "General, the Sui fleet is coming!"
Chai Shao's heart twitched. He thought of the 50,000 troops stationed in the north of the city. If the situation was critical, he would mobilize them into the city first. He ignored Liu Fangzhi, got on his horse, and ran towards the city with his soldiers... At this time,
More than a hundred giant warships appeared on the river. They were all thousands of stone ships, several feet high and more than ten feet long. The bows were covered with iron armor. They looked like huge beasts with towering masts reaching into the sky.
, with a huge sail hanging diagonally, rushing toward the water village.
Although the main warships of the Tang Army have been burned, there are still more than 200 small boats, each carrying more than a dozen people. They shuttle back and forth under the huge warships, which are very flexible, but they do not play any role.
If you are not careful, you will be knocked over by the Sui army's warship.
More than 20 small boats were piled up at the entrance of the water village in an attempt to block the Sui army's warships from entering the water village. On the first warship, General General Hong of the Sui army's navy commanded the warships to attack bravely.
The warships mercilessly rammed into more than twenty small boats. Huge waves surged, and more than a dozen small boats were knocked over. Tang soldiers fell into the water one after another, and there was a cry of wailing.
The warship crashed into the village gate, and the armored prow of the ship smashed the gate into pieces. The huge warship rushed straight into the water village, followed by the second and third ships, and the big ship behind simply did not pass the village.
He opened the door, directly broke the wooden stake inserted in the water, and rushed into the Tang Army's water stronghold.
The wooden piles in the Tang Army's water village could withstand the impact of a ship with a maximum of three thousand stones, which was the load capacity of an ordinary river warship, but it could not withstand the impact of a sea ship with ten thousand stones.
On the pier, thousands of crossbow troops were already in formation. Lu Zushang bit his lips and watched the Sui army warships approaching. At this time, one of his generals pointed to the fire oil leather bags piled on the pier and suggested: "General, you can use the fire."
The oil was poured into the river and the enemy ships were set on fire."
Lu Zushang had already thought of it, but he was a little worried, because in this way, more than a hundred grain transport ships were likely to be burned together. This was what General Chai planned to use to carry troops across the river. If they were burned, it would really be a disaster.
There were no ships crossing the river, and civilian ships could not collect them.
"General Lu, there is nothing we can do. The Sui army is coming to destroy the grain transport fleet." The generals under his command saw through the Sui army's warships' intentions.
Lu Zushang looked at the grain-carrying ships that had been unloaded one after another. He also believed that the Sui army's purpose was to destroy the ships. Instead of destroying the grain-carrying ships, it was better to take a risk and maybe burn down a few Sui army warships. He
He gritted his teeth and ordered: "Ship out with kerosene and burn the Sui army's warships!"
The soldiers loaded the leather bags filled with kerosene onto the boats. More than a dozen small boats were loaded with kerosene, and each boat was manned by three or four soldiers. They left the dock and sailed towards the Sui army's ship.
On the Sui army's warship, the experienced Lai Hong had already seen the Tang army's boat approaching, and also saw the kerosene skin bag in the boat. He arrived just in time, and he sneered and said: "shoot with bows and arrows!"
In an instant, dense soldiers appeared on both sides of the ship, with bows and arrows drawn. Before the Tang army's boat could get closer, a storm of arrows was fired at the boat. The boat had nowhere to hide. The Tang army soldiers could only hold up their shields to resist, but they could not stop the dense rain of arrows.
, for a moment, the soldiers of the Tang Army fell into the water screaming.
There was no one left in the dozen or so small boats loaded with kerosene. The arrows pierced the leather bags, and the black pulp-like kerosene filled the boats. Laihong ordered again, "The water ghosts get off the boats and guide the boats into the grain ships!"
"
More than a hundred water ghosts jumped from the big ship and pushed the small boat into the middle of the densely packed grain transport ships. They flipped on the small boat and sprayed all the kerosene into the water. The kerosene gradually formed a sheet on the river, forming a swarm of water ghosts.
More than a hundred grain transport ships seemed to be soaked in kerosene.
The bell rang on the big ship, and the water ghosts jumped into the water and fled, struggling to escape from the kerosene area. At this moment, a rocket tied with oilcloth was shot out from the big ship and landed on the river. "Boom!"
With a sound, the river suddenly burst into flames, engulfing more than a hundred grain transport ships... To be continued. You are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation.) rq