Chapter 383: The Fire

On Lianshan Island, the crazy Zhong Xiang drove more than 10,000 sailors to land in battle. Zheng Zhiqiang had less than 3,000 soldiers on hand, while the others were craftsmen. These people were very skilled in operating catapults and other equipment from a distance, but they would not be able to fight in close combat. The Bozhou Navy, who had opened the long scattered formation, avoided the attack of the catapults to the greatest extent and finally attacked the first circular defensive line at noon.

Zheng Zhiqiang immediately ordered the catapults in this area to be destroyed, and then retreated the people to the rear, each of them distributed weapons and prepared to use them as a reserve team. If Zheng Zhiyuan's fleet did not come for a long time, they would sooner or later go to the front line of hand-to-hand combat.

The entire defense line was pushed back by about 100 meters, and the circular defense line was smaller, but it was closer and stronger. When you retreated, your soldiers were already at the top of the peak. On the other side of the peak, there was a steep mountain wall. The Fuzhou Navy did not leave any way out for him.

Zhong Xiang's attack at all costs made a breakthrough in the evening, and the second line of defense was broken again. Zheng Zhiqiang was forced to retreat to the top of the mountain, where they had their last reliance, two bastions that were supporting each other. At this time, the navy and marines had reduced their personnel to less than a thousand, and the craftsmen finally put on their armor, lifted their spears, bows and crossbows, and walked onto the wall of the bastion. This would be their last place to fight.

Standing on the top of the basin, Zheng Zhiqiang looked at the endless sea. Brother, where are you?

The peak is not that easy to attack. Due to the limitations of the terrain, Zhong Xiang cannot launch too many attack teams at a time. He can only send two to three hundred people to launch an attack at a time. In the face of this intensity of attack, the brink can handle it very easily and will not pay too much.

After attacking for more than half an hour, Zhong Xiang finally realized that the battalion offensive and defensive tactics that were the best in Dingzhou were indeed perfectly applied. After another defeat, Zhong Xiang stopped this unnecessary tactic of adding fuel. Standing in front of the battalion, Zhong Xiang thought hard for a moment, and looking at the big trees all over the mountain, he finally took notice.

Zhong Xiang stopped the attack. Zheng Zhiqiang had a rare time to breathe. While seizing the time to recover his strength, he sent a few loud soldiers to stand at the top of the bastion, laughing and scolding Zhong Xiang, and rumbling and slashing out all the eighteen generations of the other party's ancestors and scolding him. Zheng Zhiqiang hoped that Zhong Xiang would be angry and sent troops to attack again, slowly consuming the other party's troops. He just needed to press the other party firmly on the shore before the eldest brother returned.

Some trenchers were brought up and arranged in front of the trench. That was part of what Zheng Zhiqiang had not had time to destroy. However, Zheng Zhiqiang didn't care. The design of the trenchers could effectively protect the stone bullets of the trenchers.

But beyond Zheng Zhiqiang's surprise, the stone catapult on the opposite side was not a stone bullet, but bundles of firewood and thick wood. Seeing these things piled up higher and higher under the two bastions, Zheng Zhiqiang suddenly understood what the other party wanted to do, and his face turned pale. Damn, he wanted to set us on fire.

Zhong Xiang looked at the piles of wood branches and leaves, and grinned, "I'm not afraid that your turtle shells will be hard. Today I will roast you one by one into roasted suckling pigs."

Rockets shot towards the branches that had piled up to the top of the bastion. After a few breaths, the fire ignited, with thick smoke, and rolled straight towards the two bastions with the sea breeze.

"Hurry, use cloth to wet the water and cover your mouth and nose!" Zheng Zhiqiang shouted. Although the fire could not burn into the bastion for a while, the thick smoke was even more unbearable.

The fire became stronger and stronger. Gradually, the fire overshadowed the rolling smoke, roasting the outer wall of the bulwark into a faint dark red color. At this time, the castle was already extremely hot, and the stone walls several feet thick were not dared to lean on them. Once the exposed muscles touched these stone walls, they would immediately make a chirp sound, and the burnt meat smell floated inside the bulwark.

More and more soldiers fell down. They were either accidentally leaning against the wall and being burned or choked by the rolling smoke. Seeing the catapult on the opposite side throwing new wood into the fire, Zheng Zhiqiang was desperate. At this time, he was almost exhausted when he was sweating. If the fire had not blocked Zhong Xiang's attacking team, only a small group of soldiers rushed in could kill all the people in the basin.

A smile finally appeared on Zhong Xiang's face, and victory was approaching. After these hateful Fuzhou soldiers, after they seized them, they would hang them upside down on the top of the mast and light their sky lanterns.

"Master, look at the sea!" Zhong Xiang was proud to hear a trembling voice from a soldier beside him, glanced at him dissatisfiedly, turned to look at the sea. When he saw that the blood in his body was almost frozen. Although the fire on the top of the mountain was raging, Zhong Xiang was still as if he had fallen out of an ice cellar.

His whole body trembled.

On the sea, dozens of ships came by the wind, and the sails spread out were blown by the wind. At a glance, the fleet had four or five large ships of five thousand materials. The other ships were even more numerous, rushing towards Lianshan Island. On the mast, the high-flying Dingzhou military flag showed the identity of the visitor.

"Retreat, retreat back to the boat!" Zhong Xiang shouted at the top of his lungs, and the Bozhou sailors who were constantly cutting down trees and adding bricks to the fire spread their feet and ran towards the beach.

The navy left on the ship without Zhong Xiang's orders raised the sails in panic and raised the iron anchor. But what scared them was that most of the sailors were still stranded at the top of the peak and were still not short of the seaside. Judging from the speed of the other ships coming, even if they returned to the ship in time, they would not have time to go out to sea to fight.

Zheng Zhiyuan was also anxious when he looked at the peak of Lianshan Island where the smoke was rolling and the blazing fire. Has Lianshan Island been lost, and kept instructing the sailors to speed up and accelerate again.

Zhong Xiang and his sailors finally ran back to the dock in anger and returned to their ships. But the tragic thing was that the Fuzhou Navy also arrived at this time. The dock was directly under their attack. Before there was enough time to turn the bow of the ship, the Bozhou Navy ship, which was densely packed on the dock, was immediately on the live target.

"Roar out, rush out!" Zhong Xiang's eyes were blood red, and he shouted. The five thousand-item ship he was in accelerated. After knocking over several of his own small boats, he finally rushed out of the narrow dock with the rainy arrows, stone cannons, and lit grease bottles on the sea.

The Fuzhou Navy immediately divided a five-thousand-material warship, and three three-thousand-material warships came to siege.

As night fell, countless torches were lit on the Fuzhou Navy's ship. On the pier, the burning ships reflected the pier's lights brightly, and the wails and screams were endless. The Bozhou Navy's situation was gone.

Two hours later, the wounded Zhongxiang ship broke through with difficulty, and behind him, several ships chased him relentlessly. At this time, the other ships of the Bozhou Navy had basically lost their combat effectiveness. More and more sailors were unwilling to stay on the ship and be beaten, but it was difficult to fight back. They simply parked the ship on the shore, but the people ran to the shore, threw away their equipment, hugged their heads with their hands, squatted on the ground, and surrendered.

The battle was over, and Zheng Zhiyuan stepped onto the ground with his feet. Before he could be happy, he immediately ran to the top of Lianshan Island. As soon as he ran to the hillside, he saw a mess. Teams of soldiers with black faces, only two rolling eyes exposed, supporting each other, and walked down from the mountain step by step. At the front of them, it was Zheng Zhiqiang, who was worried about.

Seeing the eldest brother, Zheng Zhiqiang, who had just turned around in front of the gate of the King of Hell, ran back quickly, hugged the other party suddenly, and two lines of tears rushed out of two white seals on his face.

Men don’t cry easily, but they are not sad.

Lianshan Island became a sea of ​​joy this night. Although the navy and marines suffered heavy casualties, it achieved a huge victory in the entire battle situation. After this battle, the Bozhou Navy, one of the three major navy divisions in the south, was already dead in name only and no longer poses a slight threat to the Fuzhou Navy. Seeing the busy cleaning the dock, checking for soldiers who were scavenging the trophy, and looking for soldiers who were hunting for the wreck, Zheng Zhiyuan could no longer hide his joy.

"Report to General Zheng and the General Manager, the Fuzhou Navy advance team wiped out the Bozhou Navy. Except for Zhong Xiang's escape, 20,000 Fuzhou Navy has disappeared from below Zhongli."

When the news of the good news reached Dingzhou, Li Qing was entertaining his current allies, Xiao Weiran, the Xiao family of the Luoyang court and Xiao Haoran's clan.

Xiao Weiran came to seek punishment.

Tian Feng was escorted to Dingzhou by Zhong Jing and others, and was warmly welcomed by Li Qing. While Li Qing met Tian Feng, he immediately wrote a letter to Xiao Haoran and asked him for Tian Feng's family.

Xiao Haoran was heartbroken by the great changes in Qinzhou. He absolutely did not believe that Tian Feng was betrayed, but he could not tolerate the other party killing his grandson. If Tian Feng could surrender, he might have let Tian Feng live, and only took Tian Xinyu who killed Tian Ci. However, Tian Feng's escape made him furious. The actions of this veteran general were extremely fatal to the morale of the soldiers in Qinzhou, and Li Qing's letter added fuel to the fire. Xiao Weiran's only purpose here was to ask Li Qing for Tian Feng and escort Tian Feng back to Luoyang.

Li Qing greeted Xiao Weiran with a smile, but he did not comment on the other party's request. Tian Feng, the statistical investigation department, took great pains to expose his branch in Qinzhou to get people out. How could he easily hand over to his opponent? Moreover, it is easy to get a thousand troops, but it is hard to find a general. Since a person as wise and brave as Tian Feng and such an unparalleled brave guy like Tian Xinyu has fallen into his hands, it makes sense to hand over it.

"Mr. Xiao, Tian Feng trusts Li and travels thousands of miles to join us. How can I give him to you without trust and righteousness? This is absolutely impossible. But I also know that Duke Xiao is very sad about his grandson's sudden death. I am very sorry for this. Therefore, in order to make up for your losses, our Dingzhou is willing to pay a certain price for Tian Feng's life."

Xiao Weiran's face looked very bad. Although the result was expected before coming, he still felt unacceptable to Li Qing's statement in person.
Chapter completed!