Chapter 1451: Han Banner World (One Hundred and Forty-One) Naval Battle

The smoke cleared, and the entire beach was completely unrecognizable. Sand pits about ten meters deep were scattered all over the beach. The cold river water was pouring into these pits. The incomplete bodies were slowly moving under the push of the water. At this moment, even the quiet Yingshui River was boiling. Near the shore, a huge vortex was forming and rotating. After a while, with a bang, the huge waves finally hit the river bank.

Several survivors were lost and wandering on the beach unconsciously. The direction they were heading was the Yingshui River. They ignored the desperate shouts of their companions behind them and plunged into the cold river. After struggling a few times, they disappeared from everyone's sight as they sank and floated with the river.

The river water turned red.

Novel ww.zhu.; The snow on the beach turned red.

The sand also turned red.

The first wave of attackers disappeared on the river beach. On the embankment, the Chu army, which was about to move forward, turned around and disappeared behind the embankment in the blink of an eye. Countless rafts that were made with great effort were either shaken apart or turned into pieces of wood floating down the river.

Bai Xizhong's first attack was over before it even began. From the night he arrived in Yingchuan County to today, he had not seen a single living Han army, and he had already lost thousands of people. Seeing the bodies of the Chu army scattered on the beach, Bai Xizhong vomited blood and his face flushed.

The war now is very different from before. There are too many things he cannot understand in it.

"Retreat and rest for a while." He gave the order with difficulty.

Jingzhou, Nanyang County, on the map in front of Gao Yuan, the positions of several Qin armies were marked on the map by Ning Xin, and Qu Wan's army of tens of thousands attacked Yingshui. It was specially marked in black to show its degree of danger.

"The last battle!" Gao Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, "It's time, send a message to the whole army, the general attack begins."

In order to lure the Qin army to send troops, Gao Yuan's attack on Jingzhou of Chu State has been neither hurried nor slow. In many cases, he even had to desperately create an illusion of difficulty, and each army took turns to attack. Even so, the Han army has now compressed the Chu army into a very small area, approaching Xinye, approaching Anyang, and hitting Anzhong. The Chu army has been reduced from the initial 500,000 troops to less than 300,000. The 200,000 troops lost. Most of them were defeated by the Han army. These troops were not well-trained. After being defeated, they fled, took off their military uniforms, ran all the way back home, and became farmers again with a hoe.

Now that Qin has almost come out in full force, Gao Yuan's goal has been achieved.

There is no need to waste time with the Chu people anymore.

Li Quan held the railing of the ship with both hands, watching his fleet going upstream. The river water hit the side of the boat, causing it to sway slightly. This was a fleet of fifty three-story ships. Except for the first ten warships, the rest were all loaded with marines transferred from the navy. Li Quan was excited to be able to command this army that attacked cities and plundered land overseas again.

A few days ago. King Gao Yuan of the Han Dynasty met with the commander of the inland navy. After comforting him with gentle words, he made it clear that after this battle, he would return to the navy and become Yang Qingyi's deputy. This made Li Quan very excited. Although he took a long detour, he finally returned to the navy that made him dream.

The navy under his command became the first force of the general attack. They would act as a sharp arrow and pierce the core of the opponent from the water. Since the beginning of the war, the Han navy has not launched an attack on the last remaining navy of the Chu army, and the Chu navy also knows that they are no match for the enemy and has been shrinking in the water fort, but now, they can no longer hide and have to come out to fight the Han army to the death.

"Commander Li, the Chu navy appears in front." The flag signaler bowed his head and shouted loudly on the diaodou.

"The warships move forward to meet the enemy, notify the troop transport ships in the rear to open the distance between the warships and be on full alert." Li Quan ordered loudly.

The ten warships in front are equipped with dozens of cannons and countless divine crossbows, but the troop transport ships in the back are equipped with only one cannon at the bow and stern to reduce weight and load more marines.

As the flag signaler waved the flag, the ten warships in front broke away from the team, accelerated forward, formed a human shape, and sailed forward.

Against the current and the wind, from the perspective of naval warfare, the Han army is indeed at a disadvantage in form, but considering the huge gap in the long-range attack power of the two sides, these disadvantages can basically be ignored.

"Small boats, so many small boats." The soldier on the diaodou shouted in surprise. In his field of vision, he saw hundreds of small fishing boats, which were rapidly going downstream. In front of the huge Han warships, these small fishing boats were almost no different from a small reptile. Why would the Chu army use such small boats to attack? The soldier was a little puzzled.

Li Quan was different. When he saw those small fishing boats for the first time, he understood what the Chu army wanted to do. In the past, on the sea, the indigenous people of the places they conquered had thought of all ways to attack their big ships.

"The enemy wants to use fire attack, all warships turn around, face the enemy sideways, and fire at full speed to smash all these fishing boats." Li Quan shouted loudly.

The warships slowed down, turning slowly on the wide river surface, aiming their most powerful sides forward. When they had just set up their positions, countless small fishing boats had clearly appeared in front of them. Li Quan was slightly surprised, because there were no flammable objects piled on these fishing boats, and nothing could be seen from the outside. All he could see were two soldiers on each boat, paddling desperately.

Li Quan's face changed color as his mind turned. "Send orders to all ships. These small boats are most likely loaded with explosives. Don't let them get close. Fire and sink them."

If it was a fire boat, Li Quan would not be afraid. His warships were all covered with iron armor and the hulls had been specially treated for fire. Even if they were ignited, they could manage the damage in a very short time and would not make the warship lose its combat effectiveness. But if it was explosives, it would be different. Any small fishing boat that came up to detonate could immediately make one of his warships lose its combat effectiveness. The most terrifying thing was that these small fishing boats slipped through them and approached the troop transport ship behind them, which would be troublesome. Sinking one ship would mean thousands of lives.

The rumbling sound of the cannon rang out, and shells jumped out of the cannons, flying towards the small fishing boats on the river with red flames. Li Quan stared at the front intently. When he saw a small fishing boat hit by the artillery, it made a deafening noise and the whole boat was blown into pieces, his guess was confirmed. It was indeed a pure suicide attack with explosives.

"The artillery continued to fire, put down the small boats with the ship, I need the death squad to set up an interception line on the river." Li Quan took a deep breath.

With the sound of bangs, the small boats carried by the ship were put into the water. Each boat was equipped with two soldiers. After they boarded the boat, they waved the oars without hesitation and slid forward. Fifty small boats were put down on the ten warships. These small boats set up an interception line a few miles in front of the warships. If the Chu army's suicide attack boats rushed over from the interception of the artillery, they would form the second line of defense.

Li Quan stared at the river surface nervously. The wind was strong on the river. The gunpowder smoke from the artillery would be blown away by the wind as soon as it rose. This allowed him to clearly see the battle situation on the river surface. Because of the downstream and the wind, the enemy's suicide attack boats came very fast, so fast that his artillery could not adjust the shooting angle in time.

At least half of the fishing boats on the river surface had been destroyed by artillery, but dozens of them still broke through the firepower network and mixed with dozens of small intercepting boats. The Han soldiers jumped up from the boats, raised their swords and directly picked up the approaching Chu ships, fighting with the enemies on the ships.

At this time, behind these small boats, dozens of large warships of the Chu army also appeared. The throwing arms of the catapults installed on them were clearly visible. Li Quan knew that the things were definitely not throwing stone bombs, but explosive packs with ignited fuses. If they were hit by them, it would be enough to drink a pot.

"Send a signal to the troop transport ship behind, and launch the lifeboats on all the ships to form the third line of defense to prevent these suicide boats from attacking the troop transport ship."

"Warships move forward to meet the main fleet of the Chu army, fire, fire!" Li Quan drew his sword and shouted.

The sound of a loud explosion came faintly from a distance, and the flag signaler on the diaodou shouted loudly: "Commander, the left wing No. 8 warship was hit by the enemy's suicide attack, the port side was damaged, the cabin was flooded, and the hull was tilted."

"Tell them to immediately carry out damage control, the ship continues to move forward, and unless it sinks, it is not allowed to retreat, fire!" Li Quan roared.

The warship's artillery fired shells at the Chu army's tower ship farther away, and not far away from them, countless small boats were still entangled together, and violent explosions were heard from time to time.

Hundreds of small boats were lowered from the troop transport ship. Once these small boats entered the water, they rowed forward without hesitation. Each boat had two oarsmen and two marines. The addition of these small boats quickly decided the outcome of the battle between the small boats on the river. From time to time, desperate Chu sailors detonated explosives and perished together with the Han ships that attacked them. With each explosion, several lives disappeared on the river.

(Happy New Year, and all the best.) (To be continued.)