Chapter 35 burning warship

In the evening of Jiazi Day (December 7, 208 A.D.) in November of the thirteenth year of Jian'an, the sky was clear and windy, and there were no clouds in the sky. Even the surging river was much calmer.The bright moonlight shines on the sparkling river, which is quite beautiful in tranquility.Cao Cao and Zhou Yu are still facing each other across the river, but the Wulin Water Village on the north bank is so brightly lit that it looks like a mirage from a distance; the Red Cliff on the south bank is lifeless and gloomy, even so quiet that it makes people feel a little uneasy... The soldiers in the north were often sick, and Cao Cao was in the camp of the Chinese army. The command of the Cao Ying water army basically fell to the shoulders of the generals of Jingzhou, and Zhang Yun, who had been heavily relied on by Cao Cao recently, was guarding the outermost perimeter of the water village.His ship is also a three-story building ship, only a little smaller than Cao Cao's. There are also many soldiers with high battle flags, and countless guards and warships.Serving as his deputy were Hebei generals Ma Yan and Zhang Wei.These two generals were originally under Yuan Shang's command, and since they surrendered to Cao Cao, they have been loyal and brave in fighting, and Xuanwuchi was the most diligent in training troops; but the surrender was not as good as others' surrender, and now these two mighty northern men have to obey Zhang Yun .

Seeing that the night seemed to be safe and sound again, Zhang Yun ordered Mayan and Zhang Wei to be on guard below, climbed to the top of the tall building by himself, asked his own soldiers to cook two tails of fresh fish, scalded a pot of old wine, and ate and drank to watch Night scene on the river.Zhang Yun has also been a little smug these few days.As Liu Biao's nephew, after surrendering to Cao, not only was he not included in another book, but he was also reused, which is really lucky.Especially after the winter solstice banquet, Cai Mao suddenly fell ill, and Wen Pin took over the post of commander of the navy, and Zhang Yun seemed to be the deputy commander of the navy. I have never been so majestic, thinking of the bright future in the future, I am so happy that I almost forget my last name.

Eating and drinking was a little too much, so Zhang Yun fell asleep in a daze around his battle robe. After an unknown amount of time, he felt someone pushing him: "General...General, wake up..." "Damn it!" Zhang Yun opened his eyes, and slapped his soldier back, "How dare you disturb my dream!" The soldier covered his face and said aggrievedly: "An enemy ship is coming." "What!" Zhang Yun's legs trembled when he heard this, and he hurriedly got up and looked out of the window, feeling at ease again - it was almost midnight, and suddenly there was a wind, and the river was dark, but a row of warships appeared not far from the opposite side , there are about twenty ships, all with blue tooth flags erected, lest this side cannot be seen clearly, there are many torches erected on the bows, illuminating the flags clearly.But after the row of ships, even the Chibi water village opposite was still lifeless, as if there was no movement.

"General, set up the squadrons and shoot them back!" "Shoot what?" Zhang Yun shook off his cold sweat, and then smiled contemptuously, "What do you know, this is Huang Gai who has come to surrender to our army. This old soldier is really capable of bluffing people, saying that he can kill Zhou Yu with something, and the cowhide is almost blown." Well, in the end, he still came down with a face of nothing. See how I hurt the Prime Minister tomorrow! Don’t defend yourself, call his boat to come over.” "I know about the surrender, but... the wind direction seems to have changed, could there be fraud?" the guard reminded.

"Oh?" Zhang Yun poked his probe outside again, but felt a southerly wind coming towards him. The wind was so strong that people couldn't open their eyes. go." Since Zhang Yun said that there is no problem, the soldiers went to pass the order. After talking to the soldiers, there was a thunderous cheer from the upper and lower boats. It was like seeing relatives, many soldiers crowded to the front to watch the fleet, and the pressure made the building lean forward a little.Huang Gai's soldiers didn't see them either, they waved their flags and waved their hands from a long distance away.Zhang Yun spread the order, and the ships in charge of the defense, such as Changdeng and Maotu, stepped out of the way one after another.Huang Gai's fleet gradually approached Cao Jun's fleet.

It stands to reason that the enemy is coming, even if Zhang Yun does not go to greet him, he should wait and see nearby.But he put on the posture of a veteran of Cao Ying, and insisted on staying upstairs, waiting for Huang Gai to come to visit him; he sat there for a while, seeing Huang Gai's boat getting closer and closer, looking at it suddenly Something went wrong - the boats had the wrong draft! Although the twenty warships under Huang Gai's command were not large in size, each ship could hold at least a few dozen soldiers. If you want to sail steadily, you must have a deep draft, but these ships have a very shallow draft. , but it always looks like it can be overturned by a big wave, coming lightly.Zhang Yun couldn't help being surprised: Could it be that Huang Gai hastily acted and was defeated by Zhou Yu, so he only brought some empty ships?But the Dazhai on the other side was dimly lit and lifeless, how could it be that there was a fight?How could so many ships be empty?Could it be that what is so light and light is carrying not soldiers, but... fire starters!

Thinking of this, Zhang Yun's liver and gallbladder were torn, he pulled his neck and shouted: "There is fraud in it, stop the enemy ship!" There are many experienced Jingzhou soldiers in the army, and they have also seen something wrong.Zhang Wei immediately jumped out of the boat, pointed with his finger, and a dozen red horses patrolling the river were dispatched together.At this time, the two armies were only two or three li away from each other, Zhang Wei stood on the bow of the boat and shouted loudly: "The southern boat is going to approach the stronghold, quickly throw it away!" It became a long snake and came at full speed.

The closer you get, the more you can see that these twenty warships are light and fast, and their bows are all nailed with five-foot big iron nails, which will be firmly embedded as long as they hit Cao Jun's boat.The soldiers who had just waved affectionately with Cao Jun were gone, only the red curtains on the boat remained.Before Zhang Wei could figure it out, he suddenly heard a sound - a ball of fire ignited on Huang Gai's main ship.Immediately afterwards, all twenty ships were caught on fire, and the flames sprang up with claws and claws. It turned out that the curtains were covered with dead leaves of firewood and filled with fish paste. When the flames ignited, the curtain instantly disappeared. The firewood rose and was swept away by the southeast wind, and countless sparks rushed towards Cao Jun like red moths.Zhang Wei felt a burning pain, and was blinded by sparks.The driver of the boat was quite clever, so he quickly turned his oars and squeezed into the gap between the two fire boats, thinking that he could escape the catastrophe.Unexpectedly, there is another boat tied behind each fire boat, because it is impossible to see from a distance without the lights on. And the soldiers under his command immediately gathered arrows in disorder.

Zhang Yun could see more clearly from the tall ship, the fire illuminated several miles away, there were more than 20 enemy ships, and in the distance were all enemy ships, large and small, all following behind silently, at this time it was known that the enemy It was calculated, but it was too late to stop it.As soon as Zhang Wei died, the other small boats patrolling the river were either overturned or scattered, twenty fire boats crashed into the water fortress, and Cao Jun's battleships in the forefront immediately rushed into a row.Normally, if a ship is on fire, it would be fine to avoid it far away, but Cao Jun's battleships have been locked by iron rings to avoid wind and waves, or ten ships in a row, or five in a row, which can neither be separated nor turned around. The fire engulfed, and even Zhang Yun's building boat was surrounded and unable to move.

At this time, there was a loud cry of killing. Huang Gai led Jiangdong warriors to rush onto Cao Jun's warship in a burst of smoke and fire. They killed everyone they met and chopped them down.Later, the brigade led by Zhou Yu also arrived.In order to fight this battle, Zhou Yu specially supervised the construction of dozens of new warships. Instead of building attics, simple archery towers with three or four floors were built on the boards of the ships. Dozens of elite archers were lined up on them. Cao Bing, who was fighting head to head, shot into a hedgehog.There are also ballistas on board. Those huge crossbows are cut from whole tree trunks. The tip of the crossbow is dipped in pine oil and ignited. The ballista is tightened to cut off the rope. Not only is there a hole in the ship, but a fire will ignite.

Zhang Yun only felt a faint trembling and loud noise under his feet. He must have been hit by a crossbow in the attic. Looking down from the window, Huang Gai and his men had already boarded his boat. Numerous soldiers and soldiers were killed and injured by the fire arrows. Ma Yan Long gone.The man who claimed to be the deputy commander of the navy suddenly collapsed on the ground, he didn't even have the courage to go downstairs to break through, and stuck his head in the corner, enduring the sound of fighting from downstairs... I don't know how long it took, but Zhang Yun felt that the sound of killing was getting farther and farther away. He raised his head boldly, and saw that the attic was full of thick smoke, and there was no one around him. He wanted to go downstairs to escape, but saw that the stairs had been covered. The fire broke.He groped his way to the window again, only to realize that the vicious fire snake had gradually climbed up to the third floor, and billows of black smoke kept pouring in.He stuck his head out of the window to take a breath, but saw a shocking scene. Cao Jun's warship has turned into a sea of ​​flames, and the raging southeast wind has become an accomplice. The fire is taking advantage of the wind, and the wind is helping the fire, and it is advancing deep into Cao's camp. All eyes are red, and the burning soldiers are struggling, Screaming and wailing, they jumped into the river, and the water village stretching for dozens of miles has become a fiery purgatory.On the opposite side, there are countless Jiangdong warships densely covering the river, with bright armor and bright weapons, and the sound of war drums is earth-shattering, as if it is going to shake the vast sky upside down. "Cough, cough, cough..." Zhang Yun was choked by the thick smoke, and when he lowered his head suddenly, his face was burned by the flames that jumped up.He took a few steps back in fear, but he felt that the entire attic was shaking and crackling, and the heat was already rising from the soles of his feet—this building had been engulfed by the fire and was about to collapse. "Help! Help!" Zhang Yun yelled desperately, only to feel that the soles of his feet sank and fell down, and the floor was burned through.He stumbled and fell to the bottom floor, his bones were in severe pain. When he got up again, he was surrounded by raging fire. The flame was like an angry enemy... no, it was a hundred times more terrifying than the enemy. "Prime Minister, help! Cai Gong, help! Uncle...I was wrong..." Perhaps it was the hallucination of the dying man, Zhang Yun seemed to see Liu Biao's figure in the raging fire, and was waving a torch to call him.He tried his best to avoid the flames, but the burning logs kept falling from the top of his head, and it was impossible to avoid it.His battle robe was ignited, his hair was singed, and his legs and arms were entangled in the flames. He felt suffocated, dizzy and fell down. A pool of pus and blood...