Chapter 207 - A shocking battle (2) (1/2)

Chapter 207 A shocking battle (2)

Translated by Gamer

“That thing!” Jiang Qin had some knowledge about it. Wasn’t that the thing that almost killed him and his master? That one arrow managed to hit his horse and splatter its head onto Jiang Qin’s face. Jiang Qin does not want to experience that ever again.

Now every s.h.i.+p has at least 5 of those things. As there were about 20 s.h.i.+ps, the amount of ballista would at least be 100 and the sight of it made both Lu Su and Jiang Qin feel numb. However, Jiang Qin insisted on attacking. “He only have 100 ballistae! He can only shoot 100 giant arrows and kill several hundred soldiers! What about the rest!” Jiang Qin tried to calm himself down. He is the commander of the Sun Ce’s Army. He is not allowed to panic! He tried to diffuse the situation by claiming that the ballistae would not do much.

On the other hand, Lu Su was not as optimistic as Jiang Qin. Can the ballistae only shoot people? He remembered that the ballista was used to shoot down the siege tower. Although the arrow managed to hit the weak spot of the siege tower, it needs to have a strong power to destroy the tower.

“Now is the time for you to taste my flames of anger!” Gan Ning as he commanded the deputy with the command flag. This command flag was meant for the ballistae only. Under Gan Ning’s order, the qualified soldiers pulled the string of the ballistae.

“Fire!” Following Gan Ning’s shout, Lu Su saw the scene he was afraid of seeing. Countless huge arrows were separated from the ballistae. Arrows the size of trees flew out. An iron-copper compound was also added onto the tip of these arrows. Both the arrows and the ballistae were prepared specially for this. These were not prototypes like the one used on Wan Cheng but finalized models meant for naval combat.

*Swoosh* All 5 ballistae from all 20 s.h.i.+ps shot the ballista arrow.

*Boom Boom Boom* The Sun Ce’s Army’s navy had bad luck. The hundred ballista arrows did not aim at them but at the floor of their s.h.i.+ps. The Sun Ce’s Army had a more intensive and packed formation. The benefits of this type of formation is that it could give stronger mental pressure on the enemy. Unfortunately, that formation was not good against the ballistae. The arrows fired from it was something that no men or horse could avoid. Staying in formation on the s.h.i.+p was no easy task. Even if the floor was not slippery, the s.h.i.+p would constantly shake on the river Yangtze River.

“What!” Jiang Qin and Lu Su stared in amazement. The power of these ballista arrows were really strong. The wooden floors of the s.h.i.+p could not stop these arrows and even the metallic layer on some parts of the floor in the s.h.i.+ps were pierced through.

Those outside the s.h.i.+p were still okay but the same could not be said to those at the hull of the s.h.i.+p. This is because the s.h.i.+p could not just rely on the sails to move. After all, if the wind is not good, the s.h.i.+p would stop moving. This is why there were people rowing the s.h.i.+p and the hull. Some of the arrows pierced through the s.h.i.+p and into their heads. After the hull was shot, the s.h.i.+p turned into a laughable state. The river water flowed into the cabin and the s.h.i.+p started to sink. If it was any other time, they would be able to dock at the edge of the river and do emergency repairs. Unfortunately, they were at war and the s.h.i.+p was in the middle of the river. They could only watch the s.h.i.+p sink slowly.

The towered s.h.i.+ps were still okay. The ones with bad luck were the smaller wars.h.i.+ps. One arrow was enough to completely destroy it. They sank into the water without resistance. Fortunately, the soldiers were knowledgeable with water and was able to swim back.

“Let them abandon the s.h.i.+p!” Jiang Qin issued the order. He also issued the order for the surrounding s.h.i.+p to support those that sank into the water and to also salvage anything they could. If they do not abandon s.h.i.+p now, their s.h.i.+ps will become targets.

“Yes!” Jiang Qin’s soldiers shouted from the flags.h.i.+p. One by one, the other towered s.h.i.+ps moved in to save the soldiers. More than 10 soldiers were saved for every small wars.h.i.+p.

“What a pity!” Gan Ning’s deputy was no longer in a panicked state. The other soldiers on the other towered s.h.i.+ps were the same. During that era, the basic method of naval combat would be the s.h.i.+ps trying to get a stronger and more stable position. As the s.h.i.+ps get closers, the soldiers would shoot arrows to kill as many enemies as they can. After that, the helmsman would ram the s.h.i.+ps and attempt to knock the enemy s.h.i.+p over. The one with the most s.h.i.+ps at the end is the winner.

Now the soldiers have not even started shooting normal arrows but Gan Ning’s ballistae already started it’s volley and turned 5-6 towered s.h.i.+ps into hedgehogs and another sank another 5-6 s.h.i.+ps. If Jiang Qin had arranged the s.h.i.+ps in a row, there would have been more s.h.i.+ps that were destroyed.

“There is nothing pitiful about it!” Gan Ning was also amazed at the power of the ballistae. Before the battle even started, they have already eliminated 6 towered s.h.i.+ps and at least 10 smaller wars.h.i.+ps. If Gan Ning were told about this earlier, he would have scoffed. ‘Before the enemy could even touch you, you would have already eliminated 6 towered s.h.i.+ps! What kind of dream is this? Those six s.h.i.+ps would have at least 2,000 soldiers! To feed all these soldiers to the fishes in a moments time. Did you think the enemies were made of paper?’ Now the mighty ballistae on the s.h.i.+p told Gan Ning that the story was not a dream.

Gan Ning’s navy were mostly filled with soldiers from the Jiangxia navy. It is inevitable for them to panic when they are fighting against the opponent that used to bully them especially when their opponents have 30,000 soldiers. Gan Ning himself was not certain of the result. Naturally the common soldiers would have it worse. The first salvo of the ballistae was just a test and each ballistae arrow was fired at random. The ballistae were not calibrated and the soldiers fired them on instinct.

If they could defeat 2,000 soldiers on the test run, what about the second and third volley?

Gan Ning was now confident and no longer a gambler.

“Fall back!” Gan Ning issued the order and the deputy nodded. The flag signaled again and the 20 s.h.i.+ps changed directions.

“Withdrawing?!” Jiang Qin’s forces were already shot with the volley and have just reorganized the troops. Now he wanted to rush towards Gan Ning but Gan Ning started to withdraw.

“General Jiang Qin! We cannot let them go! Quickly chase them!” Lu SU suddenly told Jiang Qin. Lu Su does not know much about naval battles but he knows about the ballistae. The ballistae would require time to reload. Although it’s power is large, it is also quite heavy. If a wars.h.i.+p can put 300-400 soldiers, putting 5 ballistae would only allow them to put 200 soldiers at most. If you consider the crews in the cabin, the total fighting force of the s.h.i.+p would only be about 100 soldiers. On the other hand, Sun Ce’s s.h.i.+ps would have at least 300 soldiers. Gan Ning would be finished the moment the soldiers board Gan Ning’s s.h.i.+p.

The advantages of numbers would take form and Gan Ning’s forces would only meet a dead end.

“All units, advance! We need to catch up to Gan Ning!” Jiang Qin also understood the reason. Loading the ballista was very troublesome and would need 20 soldiers to pull the bowstring like on Wan Cheng. The consumption of manpower and resources was extremely high and the ballistae would take up a lot of s.p.a.ce. This was one of the cons of using the ballistae, especially during naval battles.

Jiang Qin was shocked the moment the battle started. Before he could even reach his enemies, he already loss 6 towered s.h.i.+ps and 10 wars.h.i.+ps. It happened so quickly. If the amount of time was as long as the time needed to drink a cup of tea, the army of 30,000 would already be swimming in the water. Now that the ballista is reloading, it is Jiang Qin’s chance to approach. Catch up and stop them from reloading. After that, Gan Ning cannot escape.

On the surface of the water, which boat is the fastest? It is the wars.h.i.+ps. Wars.h.i.+ps, or a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps, were speedboats. The front of the s.h.i.+p was thin for the purpose of reducing the water resistance. It is also very fast as there were a large number of oars. These soldiers could pick up a sword to fight during combat and row the boat when they were not fighting.