Ming Zuo

Chapter 245 Water Battle [Additional]

In the depression in the middle of Yushan Mountain, hundreds of soldiers were digging around an inconspicuous soil bag.

Liu Zongzhou, Li Banghua, Geng Ruqi and others walked around anxiously, waiting for the result.

Even Bi Maokang came.

After receiving a letter from Zuo Menggeng, saying that Cao Zhi's tomb might have been discovered, these bigwigs were extremely excited, and rushed to find something.

In fact, after seeing the scriptures and the ancient inkstone in Fanbai Temple, Liu Zongzhou and others believed it a little bit.

In addition to being a master of literature, Liu Zongzhou also has a lot of research on archaeology.

Literati who advocate ancient times don't understand archaeology, and they can't justify it.

"Report, we found an ancient sword."

Several soldiers rushed over, presenting a bronze sword unearthed from the soil.

Although the body of the sword is full of dirt and rust, just looking at the simple style of this sword, it is full of a sense of age.

Liu Zongzhou couldn't wait for a moment, so he immediately cleaned up on the spot.

Li Banghua and Geng Ruqi were helping at the side, with solemn and dignified expressions, as if a sacred ceremony was going on.

At this time, Zuo Menggeng, Mao Yuanyi, Liu Yiyuan and others will stand aside and can only watch the three big bosses work patiently and meticulously.

After about an hour or so, the dirt on the sword was quickly cleaned up, revealing its original appearance.

Liu Zongzhou lifted it up carefully and exposed it to the sunlight, and saw three inscriptions on the sword body.

"Sure enough, it was Cao Zijian's tomb, and we found it."

Liu Zongzhou's attainments in ancient prose were even stronger than that of Mao Yuanyi, and he recognized the word "Cao Zijian" on the sword at a glance.

This is enough to prove that the barren and unusual earth bag in front of me turned out to be the tomb of Cao Zhi, the number one literati in the Three Kingdoms.

Subsequent discoveries also verified Liu Zongzhou's words.

The various funerary objects unearthed are all in the style of the Three Kingdoms period, and information related to Cao Zhi is inscribed in many places.

Even if the tomb is not opened, it can already be determined that this is the tomb of Cao Zhi.

Liu Zongzhou hurriedly told Zuo Menggeng: "Zhongheng, this place must be protected so as not to be destroyed by others. Cao Zijian is a great master of the generation, a literary hero through the ages, and should be admired by the world."

Although Zuo Menggeng didn't know much about Cao Zhi's status, he also knew that such a historic site really needed to be protected.

"Don't worry, read Taigong, I will immediately allocate funds to repair this place."

Li Banghua asked for approval.

"So good."

No one knows that Cao Zhi's tomb was discovered in 1951, when a leader came to Yushan to inspect the Yellow River, and saw a child playing with an ancient sword.

The leader took it out of curiosity and found that the words "Cao Zijian" were engraved on it, which led to the discovery of Cao Zhi's tomb.

Zuo Menggeng advanced this history by more than three hundred years.

Liu Zongzhou and the others were very concerned about this matter, and they stayed here to manage the excavation, which also allowed Zuo Menggeng to get away and start planning to attack Shuibo.

After more than ten days of construction, the overall water channel has been connected, and the final release of water is still needed.

During this period of time, the new army was not idle, and they were all working hard to learn the essentials of fighting on the water.

Those who taught them were Li Qingshan, Ma Yingshi, Ren Qi, Zhang Qi and others.

"Look, Senzu, we have oiled every ship, so that we won't be afraid of fire."

In water warfare, fire prevention is always the top priority.

Because the ships of this era are all made of wood, once they burn, it will be a disaster.

The ships used by the new army are all merchant ships and tank ships of various companies.It is usually used to transport goods, not to fight, so naturally it will not be oiled.

Ren Qi checked around, found this shortcoming, and immediately responded to Zuo Hua.

Zuo Hua hurriedly sent someone to prepare oil, and oiled all the boats.

Zhang Qi also picked up a long pole, and said: "The most common way to fight on water is to get some small boats, pile them with inflammable objects, and let them down with the wind. This kind of boat has nails on the front, once it hits Our boat, it is very difficult to get rid of it, and our boat must be burned. So I made this kind of long pole, which can push the arson boat away."

Li Qingshan also played a role.

"Sir, I've seen our artillery, that kind of projectile can explode, but it's not good for water. It will go out when it hits water, but it's not as good as a solid projectile. As long as it hits the enemy's ship, it will definitely sink."

Suddenly, Zuo Menggeng sent people to rush back to Linqing to gather a batch of solid shells.

Although the new army is currently developing the warhead of the flash cap fuze, it will not be popularized so quickly for a while.What's more, so many shells have been produced before, so they can't be wasted.

Unexpectedly, such a powerful warhead was useless in water battles.

Among the strategies presented by Li Qingshan and others, there are many novel gadgets, all of which were beyond the imagination of Zuo Menggeng and others.

It can be said that without their help, the new army would definitely lose sight of this attack on Shuibo.

When the new army was fully prepared, Feng Benyu also came to report the good news.

The entire river channel has been fully connected and can be released.

"What are you waiting for?"

Following Zuo Menggeng's order, the dams all over the river began to explode one after another.

First, the dam of Jindi River was blasted, and the rolling river flowed into the canal.Subsequently, the dam on the east side of the canal, the dam of the Daqing River, and the dam of Anshan Lake were also blasted.

The torrential turbid water spread across the river at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in just a few hours, it filled the originally barren area.

Looking around, a large piece of jade belt appeared out of thin air under the ground.

Feng Benyu was very responsible, and walked along the new river again, and after measuring the water levels in various places, he ran back happily.

"San Zuo, the water level at the shallowest point is more than four meters, which is enough for sailing."

After wasting more than ten days, the road became smoother.

Zuo Menggeng was in a happy mood and looked at Mao Yuanyi.

As the commander of this battle, Mao Yuanyi understood.

"Army attack!"

The flag was waved on the flagship, and the ships got the order, and they lifted anchor one after another, followed the flagship, and sailed into the river one after another.

At the entrance from the Daqing River to Anshan Lake, the artillery regiment had already been in place, and more than a dozen artillery pieces were deployed on both sides to cover the fleet entering the water.

Jia Yunzhi watched the water nervously with a telescope, for fear of accidents.

The first boat successfully entered the mooring.

Ren Qi was on the boat, lying on the bow, staring at the water surface and below.

"The water on the left is shallow, go to the right."

The boatman listened to the order, pulled the sails and turned, and the tank boat drew an arc on the water surface, and at the same time turned its side to the depth of the mooring.

This ship is equipped with four cannons, which can attack the enemy at the first time.

It took a full hour for eighteen large ships and seventy-five small boats to enter the mooring.

At this time, Guo Yunbiao had already obtained the military information.

"Hmph, Zuo Menggeng is going to kill them all. There is nothing to say, this place is our lair, if we lose this place, we will be dogs in the water. Brothers, let's have a good fight, and let these landlubbers show us how powerful we are. "

The thieves of the White Lotus Sect mobilized in full force, paddling small boats one after another, sailing quietly to various places in the water, and setting them up on the way forward for the new army.

"The people of the White Lotus Sect will surely dig a boat, and the big boat must be kept on the periphery. If the White Lotus Sect attacks with fire, let the small boat go up to deal with it."

Since entering the water, Li Qingshan was extremely nervous and reminded him from time to time.

Mao Yuanyi followed the good example and scattered the big boats around to form a line of defense to protect the small boats in the middle.

Big ships are not afraid of being chiseled.

Such a thick ship plank can only be pierced by hand underwater, that is a joke.

And because the water waves are calm, the water of Anshan Lake is very clear, and it is easy to guard against large ships.

The fleet went all the way south, only to see the blue waves all around, and the land gradually disappeared, like the sea.

No wonder the officers and soldiers have nothing to do with it.

In such a vast water area, it is impossible to encircle and suppress the thieves with less troops.

After walking for a few miles, I saw a large tidal flat on the left and continuous reeds on the right.It was so densely packed that it was impossible to see clearly what was going on inside.

Li Qingshan said again: "The people of the White Lotus Sect are used to using these reeds, so there may be people hidden in them."

Zuo Menggeng asked: "Then how should we deal with it? Firepower?"

Li Qingshan shook his head.

"This reed stretches for miles, no amount of guns will help. The best way..."

He gritted his teeth, feeling that Zuo Menggeng might not adopt it.

"The best way is to throw kerosene into it and set it on fire."

The reeds are dry in winter, and once they are dipped in kerosene, they will not stop until they burn out.

It's just that this is a good way to do it, and it was never used by the government and army to suppress bandits in the past.

Zuo Menggeng didn't believe in the nonsense of "there is peace between heaven and earth", so he immediately ordered.

"Burn this swamp of reeds."

Given the choice between sacrificing soldiers and burning the reeds, he would definitely choose the latter.

Moreover, the new army has a lot of time and is not in a hurry to advance quickly.Step by step, the White Lotus Sect's thieves have no place to hide.

Accompanied by his order, each ship used trebuchets and crossbows to shoot pots of kerosene into the reeds.

The clay pot fell into the water, and the oil inside flowed out and drifted along the current, providing the conditions for arson.

Afterwards, the boats wrapped oil-soaked cloths with crossbows, lit them and shot them into the reeds.

The crossbow has a range of hundreds of steps, even if someone hides in the reeds, there is nothing to do.

Dozens of crossbow arrows pierced into the reeds, most of them fell into the water and extinguished, but as long as one was stained with kerosene, the fire could not be stopped.

Sure enough, thick smoke suddenly rose from somewhere in the reed marsh, and then several feet high flames shot up into the sky, and quickly began to roll towards the surrounding reeds.

Thousands of new troops waited outside the reed marsh, just waiting for the fire to burn the reed marsh.

(End of this chapter)