At dusk, thick smoke rolled on the dock of Xiangyang, like a sea of ​​fire, and hundreds of soldiers lit the boats on the dock.

Not only Xiangyang, but also at Longzhong Wharf ten miles away, there were also fires soaring into the sky, and smoke and dust spread across the river. More than 300 ferries coming from Fancheng were also set fire to the ground by the soldiers.

The fire on the Xiangyang Wharf caused an uproar in Xiangyang City. The city gate was crowded with people watching the fun and whispering.

Although most people were surprised, but in addition to being surprised, many people were still secretly happy and burned the ferry, which meant that Cao's army could not cross the river to the south.

After a moment, Cai Mao led thousands of soldiers to rush out of the city. Seeing that half of the ship had been ignited, he was so angry that he ordered the soldiers to go to rescue the ship.

The soldiers burning boats on the dock saw the rescuers from the city rushing out and rushed to flee, but a garrison leader was unable to run, and was caught by the soldiers under Cai Mao, and pushed and repelled them.

"Who? Who ordered the fire to be set?" Cai Mao asked with a roar in his eyes, and he wanted to swallow the head of the village in front of him in one mouthful.

The Junhou lowered his head, was very scared, and replied in a trembling voice for a while: "Report to the military advisor, General Cai ordered the setting fire."

Cai Mao was stunned and his anger disappeared. He turned around and looked at his subordinates before asking in a low voice: "Which General Cai?"

"General Cai Jin."

"Is it him?" Cai Mao gradually calmed down. He knew that Cai Jin was a steady person and would not do such stupid things. There must be a reason for this.

He wanted to kill the chief of the tun, but at this moment the murderous intent had retreated. After pondering for a moment, he said to Chief of the tun: "I will spare your life first and go and find Cai Jin to see me. If I dare to escape, I will show you the head."

"Yes! The villain dares not!"

The governor quickly agreed and hurriedly left. Cai Mao then slowly walked to the pier and looked at the burning fire dozens of steps away. The flames were breathing, and the hot heat erupted outward, scorching his face and shrinking his heart.

Although more than 500 ferries were burned down nearly 300, he still snatched back more than 200 ferries, which made him feel a little relieved.

A man rode a horse and rushed over. Cai Jin rushed over. He turned over and got off the horse, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "I will pay my respects to the military advisor!"

Cai Mao whipped the head with a whip. He pointed to the burning warship and roared: "You bastard! Look at your good things."

A deep blood mark appeared on Cai Jin's face. He didn't move. Cai Mao whipped him hard for more than a dozen times, making his face and neck burst. Then he exhaled his anger and glared at him and said, "Why do you explain to me?"

Cai Jin endured the severe pain on his face and body, bit his lip and said, "Head of the family, please let me report it privately."

Cai Mao glanced at the soldiers around him, and the soldiers retreated one after another. Then he said hatefully: "What do you mean, you say!"

Cai Jin lowered his voice and said, "Honor, this is actually the order of my grandfather to burn all the ships in Xiangyang."

Cai Mao was stunned. It turned out to be the second uncle. Why is this?

His mind flipped, and suddenly realized that it must be because the second uncle was afraid that he would have had a secret relationship with Cao Jun, so he simply pirated his thoughts.

But.

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How can the Xiangyang army run without ships?

He was extremely annoyed. Uncle Er was too arrogant and treated himself as a three-year-old child, which made him extremely dissatisfied.

After a long time, he prolonged his voice and said, "I understand this, you go!"

Cai gave a gift, turned over and ran away, and Cai Mao watched the fire swallowing up three hundred warships. After a while, he sighed. No matter what, he would leave some ferries for emergency response.

The fire on the Xiangyang Wharf burned until the night before the fire gradually faded out. All the ships disappeared and turned into piles of wreckage, floating on the water, which was a terrible sight.

At the same time when the fire was burning at Xiangyang Wharf, on the top of Fancheng City on the other side, Cao Ren, the chief general of the Cao army, was also watching the fire on the other side from afar, surrounded by dozens of generals. They could vaguely see the fire flashing.

At this time, several Cao army spies came back in a small boat. Cao army collected dozens of small fishing boats on the waters, but they were just water and cups of water, which was useless to cross the river, and could only be used as a whistle boat.

A spy ran and reported loudly under the city: "You are the general that all the ferries in Xiangyang City were burned down, and the ferries on the Longzhong Wharf were also burned down. I wonder what happened?"

Cao Ren's face suddenly sank, and he snorted coldly with great displeasure, "It's useless to be a two-faced and three-sworded thing, the Prime Minister trusts him so much!"

The fact that Cai Mao secretly surrendered to Cao Cao has always been a secret, and only a few people know that on the city, except Jia Xu, the other generals were confused, and they didn't know who Cao Ren was talking about?

Jia Xu knew that Cao Ren was angry and advised him: "General, don't be angry. The mission to go south this time was to capture Fancheng. We have completed the task and can explain it to the Prime Minister."

"Barring! What does it mean to complete the task?" Cao Hong next to him angrily scolded Jia Xu, without any politeness, staring at Jia Xu with vicious eyes, "Do you kill all the enemies for the generals. Do you let him go when you see the enemy in front of you?"

Jia Xu's face suddenly turned red. He had a bad relationship with Cao Hong. Cao Hong scolded him in public, making him unable to bear the pressure. He was about to have an attack, but Cao Ren glared at Cao Hong and scolded: "I won't retreat yet!"

Cao Hong snorted coldly and turned away. Cao Ren did not mention Cao Hong's rudeness, nor did he apologize. Then he continued the topic just now and said lightly: "Although that's the case, it seems that he can take down Xiangyang and gain greater achievements, but he has no ship to cross the river. How can people not be angry?"

Jia Xu held back his anger and shook his head and said, "If we force ourselves too hard, it will make Jingzhou share the same hatred and unite, and it is better to maintain a strong attitude. In order to compete for dominance, the various factions in Jingzhou will inevitably fight openly and secretly. When they fight to the point of losing both sides, we will take advantage of the fisherman. If the general is not satisfied with the achievements in front of him, I will persuade the general to start building a ship. When the prime minister officially goes south, there will be hundreds of warships. This is the real great contribution."

Cao Ren is a smart person. Although he doesn't like Jia Xu very much, he knows that he can distinguish right from wrong at least, and is not full of hatred towards Jia Xu like Cao Hong.

Jia Xu's reminder made him realize that the biggest problem for Cao's army to move south in the future will be warships. Whether it is going south to Jingzhou or expedition to Jiangdong, thousands of warships are the basis for pacifying the south.

Cao Ren nodded, "Jia Zongjun is very correct. I will start choosing a location to build a ship tomorrow."

In the early morning, when the first ray of light burst out from the thick clouds, a golden light sprinkled onto the earth, the Han River waves were undulating, and rippling golden light appeared. On Fancheng, the Cao army soldiers guarding the city began to change defenses.

Over the past few days, Cao's soldiers have gradually become accustomed to this calm defense and even have a hint of contempt for the Jingzhou army on the south bank. The Jingzhou army has never shown any sign of sending troops, as if Fancheng has never had anything to do with Jingzhou.

Just as a group of soldiers changed their defenses, a harsh bell suddenly came from the whistle tower at the top of the city, "Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The bell was loud and resounded throughout the city. All the soldiers of Cao were shocked. Some soldiers pointed to the east and shouted: "Warship! The warship is here!"

The soldiers rushed to the east of the city, and saw a team of huge warships appearing on the river under the red morning glow, with hundreds of masts like forests and sails like clouds, with great momentum.

Cao Ren also received the report and rushed to the top of the city. He couldn't help but sneer. This was Liu Jing's coming. As long as he expected, Cao Ren turned around and ordered: "Speed ​​up five thousand crossbowmen to the riverside. If the warship approaches, shoot me with arrows!"

Deputy General Yu Jin agreed and rushed down the city.

Although five years have passed and everyone has forgotten the jokes from that year, Yu Jin can never forget Liu Jing, who caused him to suffer a great loss. This has almost become a shame for his life and is engraved in his heart.

This was his second time to go to Jingzhou. He was shot by Zhao Yun in Bowangpo that year. It took him a whole year to recover from the arrow. Although it did not affect his martial arts, his scar would still hurt slightly on rainy days.

This time he came to Jingzhou again, and the hatred in his heart was still there, but the hatred became deeper and would not be revealed easily.

Yu Jin also saw the warship on the Han River on the top of the city. He knew that it was the Jiangxia warship coming, and Liu Jing was most likely to be among them, but he was not in a hurry to fight with Liu Jing. He knew very well that as long as the war continued, he would have a day of revenge sooner or later.

Yu Jin urgently dispatched five thousand crossbowmen to the shore, and Cao's army built a sand wall about four or five miles long with sandbags on the Han River shore to deal with the Jiangxia naval army.

Five thousand crossbowmen rushed over and hid behind the sand wall cover. Five thousand Cao army soldiers were tense and murderous intent, and nervously stared at the Jiangxia warship on the river.

At this time, the Jiangxia naval fleet was three miles away from Fancheng, sailing in the middle of the Han River, quite far from the shore. The sails had been closed and the speed had slowed down. On the first large ship of 2,000 stone, Liu Jing wore armor and helmet, staring at Fancheng coldly.

"Prince, there seem to be thousands of crossbowmen on the shore!" The lookout soldiers on the mast shouted loudly.

Liu Jing had noticed that there was a long earth wall on the shore of Fancheng, which was built with sandbags. It was about six feet high and less than a hundred steps away from the shore. It was obviously a bunker for defense against bows and arrows.

Once the ship is docked, the crossbowmen hiding behind the bunker will inevitably shoot arrows at once and eliminate the landing soldiers on the shore. From this, it can be seen that the Cao army has made sufficient preparations.

At this time, Xu Shu slowly walked up and smiled, "What do the prefect think Cao's army needs the most now?"

"It should be a warship!" Liu Jing replied lightly.

"But the prefect has thought that in addition to Jiangxia, there are hundreds of warships in Jiangling in Jingzhou. But now the Cao army can't even cross the Han River. How could they get these hundreds of warships?"

Liu Jing understood Xu Shu's meaning a little, "You mean... Cao's army wants to build a ship?"

Xu Shu nodded and smiled, "Apart from that, I can't think of any other way, unless there is a ferry in Xiangyang, but I heard that a fire burned the Xiangyang ferry last night and burned the last hope of Cao's army."

"Shipbuilding is a future, and I am concerned about the present moment now."

Liu Jing looked at the sand wall that was about a few miles long on the shore and said coldly: "Since you have come from Jiangxia, you will give Cao Jun a warning."

He turned around and ordered: "Tell me my order and prepare to attack Cao's army on the shore!"

On the river, ships are far apart, unlike in land warfare, which can be ordered with drums, so the orders must be very accurate. On the main ship, two red battle flags are waving, which is to issue flag words to the big ship behind, and the warship behind is also spreading flag words. Soon, the order issued by Liu Jing spread throughout the army.

The red flag is an attack signal, one red flag refers to archery, two red flags represent heavy attacks, that is, using a catapult and a stone cannon, and the three red flags are scattered attacks, and the ship can attack at will. Liu Jing's order is a heavy attack, which refers to using a stone cannon and a stone cannon to deal with Cao's army on the shore.

The thousand-stone ships began to turn around and leave the team and approached the shore. The soldiers activated the catapults and stone cannons installed on the side of the ship.

The trenchers and stone cannons used for ships are relatively small and are usually placed in the cabin. They are only pushed out when they are in war and fixed on the side of the ship.

The stone cannon is mainly used to shoot talc, about seven or eight kilograms, and is not targeted at people. It is mainly used to attack the opponent's warships at close range, and can also be used to destroy some buildings on the shore. It is obviously meaningless to use stone cannons to attack sandbag walls. Today's attack method is mainly catapults.

Small trenchers appeared on the side of the ship, and the soldiers quickly fixed it to a special iron wedge. This trencher was operated by a winch, and three soldiers could operate it, and could eject ten-pound objects weighing more than a hundred steps away.

As dozens of large ships gradually approached the shore, Cao's soldiers behind the sand wall began to become nervous. Yu Jin quickly estimated the range and had entered the range of crossbow arrows.

He immediately shouted loudly: "Prepare the crossbow arrow!"

A rapid drum sounded, and five thousand military crossbows were raised and aimed at the slowly approaching ship. Cao's soldiers' fingers hooked on the hanging knife. As the ship got closer, Yu Jin shouted loudly, "Shoot!"

The crisp sound of clappers sounded, and five thousand arrows shot densely at the large ship that was very close to the shore. The soldiers on the ship squatted down and hid behind the side of the ship, but there were still several Jiangxia soldiers unable to dodge and were shot by crossbow arrows, and they screamed and fell from the ship.

Just as the first round of crossbow arrows ended and the second round of crossbow arrows were not yet shot out, Jiangxia's warship also began to attack. With a sound of "bang! bang!", sealed pots filled with tinder oil were shot out by the catapult, and roared towards the sand wall cover.

The pottery jar fell to the ground and tinder oil flowed all over the ground. The soldiers of Cao's army did not know what this kind of unpleasant liquid was. Most of them did not take it seriously and continued to shoot arrows at the big ship. The second round of crossbow arrows shot at the warship again.

Yu Jin was secretly surprised and suspicious. He quickly walked to the wall of the sandbag, dipped a little liquid with his fingers, and put it on his nose to smell it. This pungent smell made Yu Jin suddenly think of something, it was carbon oil!

This should be the secret fire attack weapon of the Jiangxia army's victory over the Jiangdong army. Two years ago, Cao's army also discovered carbohydrate oil in Puyang. Yu Jin had seen it, but the carbohydrate oil was black and viscous, not as clear as it was, but the smell was similar.
Chapter completed!