Chapter 376: Enemy ships with as many locusts

"Sri Lanka" comes from the ancient Sanskrit name simhalaipa, which means "sheng lions", and Sinhala means "Playland" or "a bright and prosperous land". The "Han Shu" says "All the country of Chengbu". The "Book of Liang" calls the Lion Kingdom. The "Book of the Tang Dynasty" is called Sinhala. The Arabs call it sirandib, and the Song people transliterated the island as "Shilan". Chen Buqun learned Arabic from Zhao Xing, and he simply followed Zhao Xing to use the Arabic transliteration, calling the local "Sri Lanka".

In modern times, Sri Lanka is called "Gem Kingdom". The ruby ​​sapphire produced in its country accounts for more than 90% of the world's production. Because of its brilliantness, Europeans also call Sri Lanka "the tears of the Indian Ocean."

The place where Huruna ceded was the Jaffna region. Zhao Xing also had an impression of this place name. I remember that in modern times, he often heard this name on TV. The Jaffna Peninsula is a rectangular horn that extends to the Indian mainland and is the most rampant area of ​​the LTTE. The island is connected to the mainland, and the narrowest place is only more than ten miles, but this area is the most complex area.

The so-called most complex area does not mean that the peninsula is complex and has dense jungles. On the contrary, the terrain of the area is flat. Due to its perfect development, the original forests in the area have disappeared hundreds of years ago, and all the visible ones are low wheat waves.

However, the ethnic and religious situation in the region is the most complex. In this era, India was not composed of one country, and there were many small countries on the entire continent. Not long ago, the invasion of the country of Nain (Junin, also known as the Jura Kingdom, today's Goa region of India) caused countless Indian Tamil and Sinhalese immigrants here. In addition, there were also conflicts between the original Sinhalese royal family and the Tenilian natives on the island, which made the conflicts between the local race and religion very complicated.

In fact, at that time, this Jaffna Peninsula was not in the hands of the Hulunar Kingdom in the south. After the invasion of the country of Nai, it had already supported a vassal kingdom in the local area. The island of Sri Lanka was trapped in the confrontation between the north and the south. Hulunar (Polonnaruwa dynasty) in the south depended on the Sanfoqi, while the north and the south depended on the country of Nai. In addition, there were many independent small states mixed between the north and the south, which were either dependent on the south or the north. Some small states had less land than the size of a village in the Song Dynasty. However, in order to confront each other, the north and the south also allowed such villages to form countries and then survived by themselves...

At present, there are seven small states like this on the Jaffna Peninsula. Huruna threw this controversial land to the Song army, which was not just a matter of trying to drag the Song army into the water. Zhao Xing was limited to the poor information of this era, and he didn't know much about Sri Lanka. He didn't know that what Huruna gave him was a controversial land.

But no matter how controversial he was, he was not afraid, because behind him was the Song Dynasty, which had the world's largest productivity and the Song Dynasty, which had the world's first population.

The flagship slowly entered the front end of the Poker Strait, and the entire battle scene suddenly came into view.

The narrow Paoke Strait seemed very crowded. In addition to the rumbling sound of cannons, there were also the monotonous drums of the Indians. At the entrance of the Strait, several Song ships were fighting to the death. Two Song ships had already ignited a fire, but in order not to let these ships out of the Strait, they were emitting thick black smoke and still blocking the canyon with their bodies. At this moment, beside the two burning warships were countless canoes like ants, and the boats were also full of climbing Indians, who were biting scimitars in their mouths. They climbed up with their hands and feet. The tanned skin in the tropical areas was dense, and the remaining eyes could no longer be seen on the ship, but in the thick smoke, they thought of one or two explosions from time to time, which meant that the resistance on the ship had not ended.

Behind these two burning Song ships, there are seven fast-moving Song ships. They desperately circled around the open space of the strait with the help of the wind. On the one hand, they used the speed to get rid of the encirclementers. On the other hand, they desperately fired cannons while driving to rescue their companions.

"Battleship fleet, T-type formation. The third squadron enters the firing position. Once a favorable formation is obtained, fire immediately!" Zhao Xing observed the battle scene from the telescope and calmly ordered.

The third squadron is the name of the Central Fleet. Zhao Xing's fleet was divided into eleven squadrons. The first squadron suddenly stepped forward and used for patrol and early warning. After the second squadron fell, he was responsible for protecting merchant ships from fighting when he started the war. The most powerful Central Group became the third squadron, with more than 60 Class A battleships and more than 30 auxiliary ships of various types. It was the main battle fleet of the Song army.

There are some screen guards on the third fleet, and each squadron is responsible for a specific task, such as the Seventh Fleet, responsible for patrolling the left rear wing and protecting the army's wooden pulp...

This is how Zhao Xing refined his work to maintain a huge maritime fleet in the ancient times when communication means were poor.

With his order, the third fleet arranged the battle formation, the Class A battleships were arranged in two columns, and the Class C battleships were scattered on the left and right sides of the powerful gunboats to perform simple auxiliary work on expelling. After the first gunboats entered the range of the guns, they began to turn left and right, sailed to both sides, and the sound of cannons blocked the strait entrance with cannons. With their cannons, a column of water was raised at the fall of the strait entrance. The surging waves turned the water surface of the strait entrance into a "water forest".

When the two gunboats first drove a little further away, the two gunboats in the second row entered the firing position. They also turned to the rudders on both sides at the same time, facing the stern, and headed towards the top of the T-shaped front, while using their own artillery to create a new "water tree" at the entrance of the strait - if you look down from the air at this time, the fleet entering the combat position presented the English letter "t" on the ocean. For this T-shaped front, Chen Buqun parrots with his teacher, while other Song troops like to call it the "T-shaped front".

After a while, it was Zhao Xing's turn to enter the shelling position. As the warship sailed into the entrance of the strait, Zhao Xing and the officers who were observing the strait took a deep breath. At this time, there were probably not tens of thousands of Indian canoes floating on the sea. The water surface of the entire strait was densely packed with sampans, and even reed boats.

Many ships are very small, and there are only three or five people on it, but just three or five people, carrying a few kitchen knives, dare to rush out to rob Song Shang. This world is so unreasonable.

At this moment, the two Song ships that were still fighting were also in sight. Countless broken wooden boards floated on the sea, probably the canoe destroyed by Song army artillery, but the two warships were also covered with countless arson ships emitting thick smoke and fire. The bodies of the arson ships were slender and the widest part of the hull could sit down side by side. They looked like paddle boats used in modern competitions.

Most arson ships look very new, with white scribbling on the left and right sides of the state, and the treatment method is also very rough, as if they were re-launched two or three days ago. At the bows of those canoe, which were sharp like a needle, were wrapped with thinner punches, which were made of fine wuz steel. Now these punches are deeply stuck on the Song hull, as dense as lees from the volcanic human body. All the arson ships are filled with thick smoke, and the ground burning has come to an end, leaving only half of the hull still, and the other half is half sunk in the water, sinking and floating.

The deck of the two burning Song hulls was covered with thick smoke, and flames were raised from the gun hatches on both sides. From time to time, two or three explosions came. Around the hull, Indians, like ants, were still scrambling to climb onto the boat in the thick smoke and fire. On the two Song hulls, the sound of gunfire explosions continued, and the battle was far from over.

The shooting rate of shelling on the sea surface is very bad due to the lack of reference objects and the dust on the sea. Fortunately, Zhao Xing never asked soldiers to shoot at every shot. He focused on fire shielding and blocking. As long as the firepower is dense and the coverage effect is achieved in a certain area, even if the consumption is huge, the expected effect can be achieved.

This tactic was very successful at sea. In this era, even Venice and other countries, the three major maritime powers, had not yet formed an advanced tactical concept of firepower blocking, and the Indians were even more unable to do so. The Song army's cannons formed huge waves, overturning countless single-wood boats. The cannons dispersed many Indian ships deep in the gorge. However, because they were afraid of throwing rats, few shells fell beside the two burning Song ships.

On the two burning Song ships, the main masts were broken, and only the secondary masts remained. In order to complete the mission of blocking the strait, the two Song ships had already lowered their sails, and the masts were bare. Zhao Xing looked at the Song ship, which was still fighting to the death with respect. An officer reminded: "Sir, someone is climbing on the secondary masts."

Then the officer was talking about two Song ships that were still fighting. Chen Buqun turned his telescope to one of the Song ships, and Zhao Xing continued to command the rest of the warships to enter the shelling position.

After observing for a while, Chen Buqun reported: "The man on the secondary mast made a signal from us. He was waving the signal flag - bombarding me! He asked us to fire at him."

Zhao Xing's flagship had already left the shells. The last cannon had just been discharged. The gunners in the cabin were washing the barrel and filling new gunpowder. After listening to Chen Buqun's report, Zhao Xing silently took off his helmet and observed a moment of silence at the two burning Song ships, and then ordered: "As he said, order each ship to fire the two Song ships to help them disperse the Indians on board."

After a while, Zhao Xing ordered again: "Order the front to advance and order the Class C gunboats to enter the strait entrance."

The so-called front-line advancement is to push forward the fire position one after another.

Chen Buqun reminded carefully: "Teacher, the mouth of the Strait is narrow, and our T-shaped array cannot be expanded."

Zhao Xing continued to order: "Let the Class C warships go over and crush them, use their own body to sweep a piece of open space for me, transfer the Ninth Squadron, and the Tenth Fleet to participate in the battle."

The Ninth, the Tenth Fleet was actually a mercenary ship, each ship was loaded with two hundred musketeers. After receiving the order, the musketeers loaded up and all went to the deck, sat quietly on both sides of the mast, with the muzzle forward, waiting for the firing order.

They had to wait for a long time. After venting their anger, the Third Fleet entered the tail end of the front line. At this time, the Fifth Fleet, most of the small Class C gunboats, rushed forward from the gaps of the Third Fleet ships and inserted into the warring strait. The Third Fleet gradually advanced the firing position and pressed towards the strait entrance. When the Fleet broke into the strait, the Third Fleet completed the shelling mission. It was the Fifth Fleet's turn to show their power. They used their tall bodies to rush straight to the entrance of the strait, and bombarded the ground on the deck to throw grenades into the sea. These grenades made huge waves on both sides of the hull, and also covered themselves.

Zhao Xing had already entered the center of the battlefield at this time. He could not see the scene of the battle ahead, so he could only judge based on the sound of cannons. The sound of cannons was very dense at first, gradually sparse, and then the sound of the explosion of the grenades became a piece of sparse. At this time, the Fifth Fleet had already entered the mouth of the Strait, and the Ninth and Tenth Fleets were quickly sailing towards the mouth of the Strait. Standing at Zhao Xing's position, looking towards the mouth of the Strait, the Indian ships could no longer be seen, and there were all Song army warships in front of them.

In naval battles, flagships generally do not participate in the battle. They participate in the first round of artillery attacks in order to allow themselves to observe the situation of the battlefield in order to make reasonable judgments in subsequent battles. In subsequent battles, if the flagship itself goes barely, it means that the entire fleet is not far from being destroyed, because there are no other soldiers to be sent in his hands, or the battlefield is no longer required to be mobilized, so he has to go barely.

After the first round of artillery attacks, Zhao Xing's ship retreated to the center of the fleet. At this time, the Fourth Fleet was protected. This was a fast fleet with two Class A gunboats and eleven Class C fast sailing ships. They galloped quickly on both sides of Zhao Xing's warships, and at the same time conveyed the situation of the other fleets to Zhao Xing:

"The Fifth Squadron is progressing smoothly, and rescue personnel have boarded our damaged ship..."

"The Ninth Squadron entered the battlefield. The soldiers have opened fire..."

"The Indians have started to retreat, and the canoe has begun to retreat..."

"The main battleship stationed in the chariot has appeared, it is very tall, the Fifth Fleet has received fire..."

Soon, a contact ship sent the remaining soldiers of the injured warship. When the remaining soldiers boarded the Zhaoxing warship, two loud noises sounded on the sea. In order to clear the waterway, the Song army began to bomb the ship and destroyed the two injured warships.

The Song soldiers who boarded the ships stared silently at the sound of explosions. In the rolling black smoke, a huge flame rose from the cabin. The huge ship seemed to pause on the sea and looked at the world nostalgicly. Then, a larger ball of flames rushed up, and the entire ship expanded. Then, more explosions came one by one, and the thick smoke from the explosion shrouded the sea. When the thick smoke dissipated, the two warships who once fought were already informed from the sea that only one mast stayed alone on the sea. In the huge vortex, it stubbornly sank little by little.

Navy soldiers are different from Army soldiers. Because the army soldiers are often adjusted for defense, they have little feelings for their camps. However, life is lonely at sea. The sailors regard ships as their homes, and ships are their safe havens and shelter. The sinking of warships made the Song soldiers cry loudly. Several soldiers even knelt down and kowtowed to pray in the area where the warships sank.

All the soldiers sent were injured, and the seriously injured had been sent to the 11th Squadron, where medical supervision was used. Therefore, most of the people who could board Zhao Xing's flagship were lightly injured. After they had their emotions vented, Zhao Xing called over to inquire, and Chen Buqun took over the battlefield command.

"How did the battle happen? Tell me about the situation at that time," Zhao Xing asked.

The captains of both warships have been killed. The officer with the highest position on the scene was the first lieutenant. The first lieutenant stepped forward and replied: "Taiwei, we stopped for a moment at the entrance of the Strait, and then sent a class warship to enter the trench first. There was no ship on the sea. But after our flagship entered, it seemed that suddenly, countless warships emerged. They rushed towards us like they were desperate. There were too many numbers, so we had to fight and retreat to the entrance of the Strait. The Class C warships were fast and had already rushed to us. The Supervisor thought that letting them out of the Strait was not good for our army, so he went down to the entrance of the Strait...

There are too many enemy ships, and our cannons will not be bombarded very much. After this cannon, even if it cannot be bombed on the enemy ship, it can overturn two or three small boats. But we only have more than forty cannons, and the enemy has a total of several thousand. Even if the enemy soldiers fall into the water, they will not escape. They swim towards us in the sea and pry our boat boards with swords...

Later, some enemy soldiers approached the ground too close and entered our shooting dead corner. At first, our warship relied on its huge body and the people in the sea could not climb, so they continued to block the strait entrance. Unexpectedly, the enemy could actually climb up along the smooth hull. Later, more and more people climbed up, and they put ropes off our ship and hung beside the ship...

I don’t know where the enemy came from. Our two ships killed thousands of people, but the enemy still continued to continue. Our gun barrel was burned and our swords were broken, so we had to retreat into the bottom cabin and resist with the help of the hatch. Later, the enemy set off fire and kept attacking our bottom cabin. The captain was killed on the deck, the sailor was killed in the gun cabin. We retreated into the cabin, and then the cabin was lost. We went down the next floor and retreated to the gunpowder cabin... Then, the brothers came. The people in the chariot could not hold on and began to jump into the sea to escape."

Climbing, the victory of the people stationed in the chariot this time was due to a huge number and the other was due to their rare climbing ability.

Speaking of which, Indians’ ability to climb trees is a natural skill. Zhao Xing remembers that many rubber trees in tropical areas are as tall as ten meters and have bare trunks. However, Indians can climb to the top of the rubber tree ground without relying on any tools and pick off rubber.

It was probably because Song Jun was careless. When he saw the Indians' ant boat, he thought that his deck was two or three feet above the water and had nowhere to leverage in the sea. Those Indians must have no choice but to use their huge ship. Unexpectedly, the group of Indians climbed up the steep and smooth ship without using any tools.

Zhao Xing waved and called a staff officer. He repeated what he had just thought, ordered the staff officer to record it, and posted it to the entire army to remind the entire army to pay attention. Then he comforted the first mate with a smile: "It's not your fault. The world is so big, and you didn't expect that there are such people in this world who are good at climbing trees. However, as the saying goes, one will gain wisdom after one's mistake. This time we suffered a little loss, but we lost two warships. Can the enemy still use the same trick again next time?"

Zhao Xing then praised the two captains of the dead: "Yes, they are worthy of being my students. They did it right. Our army is outside the strait and can unfold the formation at any time, blocking the enemy at the entrance of the strait, but their huge number does not play their due role. It is convenient for us to release firepower in turn and pay tribute to the two captains. Our victory this time is thanks to their bravery and their decisive decisions."

Chen Buqun then interrupted: "Teacher, where do so many people come from in Zhunian Country? I suffered a big loss last time. Their huge number of land will make people feel numb."

At this time, the various fleets of the Song army entered the straits one by one. According to the results of the battles coming from the front, although the main warships of the Zhuluo people were not inferior to those of the Song army warships in terms of their huge size, their bows were square, and their rudders were extremely clumsy. The Song army warships with pointed bows flexibly surrounded the main warships of Zhuluo and beat the people of Zhuluo with artillery. The Zhuluo country had poor counterattack methods against the Song army, which was nothing more than ancient platoon battles and stone-casting cannons.

According to the war report from the front, the Song army broke the masts of several warships with artillery as soon as they came up. Even though the warships could only go with the flow, they were at the point where they could only be beaten but not fight back, so the Song army's boat surrounded and beaten...

There is nothing Chen Buqun has to do in this war, so he has time to chat. Zhao Xing also has the leisure to chat with him. He looked at the small island of Sri Lanka and said slowly: "The last time we went to Africa, we just passed by this sea area, so I don't know much about the situation there, but I know that the crops in this place grow very fast, and the grain is ripe three or even four times a year. Because the weather is hot, the people here mature early. In other places, women can have children at the age of thirteen or four. It is said that women here can have children at the age of nine.

Because the products are abundant and there is no need for food, people here can give birth to a very special one. You think that if you give birth to another generation in another, a cycle is thirty years, fifteen years of growth, and then fertility, and then the next generation can give birth to another fifteen years. The people here only need twenty years, and the new generation can give birth to a child again, so the population here is simply terrifying."

Zhao Xing did not know that after the reunification of Sri Lanka, the king here began to build reservoirs and develop farmland, making this land of Sri Lanka known as the "Asian granary" for the next five hundred years. The grain produced in the area it produced accounts for 70% of the entire Asian grain production area. It not only raised the Indian subcontinent, but also raised half of Europe through European colonists.

Sri Lanka has a flat terrain, with only a small number of hills in the north. Most of the entire island is suitable for cultivation as farmland. There is abundant rainfall here and the rice is ripe a year. Farmers do not even need to till or sow. Just the grains scattered in the wheat ears can grow a new wheat field after harvest. Of course, there is no need to fertilize locally, and the farmland yield is already terrifying.
Chapter completed!