Chapter 347: Fire-Resistant Timber

Boarding Battle.

This was the mainstream naval warfare tactic during the era of ancient cold weapons.

It could also be said that before the 17th century, naval warfare across the globe was much the same. That is, one would first use long-range projectile weapons like crossbows and javelins to kill personnel on the enemy ship, and when the two sides collided, use various means (such as pointed rams) to strike the enemy vessel; if it could be smashed, it was smashed, and if it could not be smashed, one would leap onto the enemy ship to engage in close-quarters combat until the enemy ship was finally captured.

Wu Zixu should be considered China's earliest master of naval tactics; he integrated the concepts of land chariot warfare into naval warfare, creating many ship types and a complete tactical system.

These ship types included the Great Wing, Middle Wing, Small Wing, Assault, Tower Ship, and Bridge Ship. Among them, the Great Wing undertook offensive missions; the Small Wing served defensive missions, somewhat similar to the frigates in modern navies; the Bridge Ship and Assault served as scouts, reconnaissance, and support, similar to modern cruisers or destroyers; and the Tower Ship was equipped with heavy crossbows to provide fire support for its own side.

Although they were all surface boarding battles, different peoples had their own characteristic weapons; for example, ancient Rome had the "Corvus," and ancient China had the hook-and-grapple.

The so-called "Corvus" was actually a drawbridge equipped with railings on both sides, and at the top of the bridge was a giant iron spike shaped like a bird's beak. Whenever it approached an enemy ship, the drawbridge would be lowered, the iron spike would pierce firmly into the enemy ship's deck, and then Roman soldiers would jump onto the enemy ship to fight.

The function of the ancient Chinese hook-and-grapple was similar to this, and it is said to have been custom-made for the Chu State by the military engineering master Lu Ban. This weapon was held by individual soldiers and shaped like a giant hook-sickle spear. When a boarding battle occurred with an enemy ship, "those who retreated were hooked, and those who advanced were fended off." It could prevent the enemy ship from fleeing, and could also hold off the enemy ship to keep it from getting close when the battle situation was unfavorable. The appearance of these two weapons greatly increased the power of boarding battles: the Romans defeated the maritime power Carthage with the "Corvus," and the Chu State also repeatedly defeated the Wu State navy in water battles using the hook-and-grapple.

Besides this, the ancient Chinese navy also had a unique tactic: sending soldiers with good swimming skills into the water to bore holes and sink enemy ships. The "Bronze Pot with Banquet, Fishing, and Hunting Patterns" from the Warring States period, now housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing, depicts a scene of soldiers attacking and killing each other in the water.

And so.

Under these circumstances, a form of close-quarters combat suitable for naval forces was born.

As well as, close-quarters striking!

What is striking?

It is using a unique weapon to conduct close-quarters combat.

From the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Song Dynasty was a peak in the history of ancient Chinese military technology development. This period saw the birth of many sharp weapons or the prototypes of future sharp weapons. Besides the fire-lance, Pili Cannon, and bed crossbow, the most outstanding invention in the field of naval warfare was the striking pole.

According to historical records, the striking pole "was made like a large mast, with a giant stone placed on top and a pulley mechanism below, with ropes running through the top, installed on large ships... whenever engaging an enemy ship, if it got close, the striking pole would be released to strike it, and whatever it hit would be instantly shattered."

This weapon was actually a giant stone tied to the top of a large mast, pre-secured at a high position with ropes. When approaching an enemy ship, the large mast would be suddenly released, using the force of the stone to smash and damage the enemy ship.

If the ancient Roman "Corvus" was like a mouth grown by a warship, then the striking pole was like a fist grown by a warship, used to smash the enemy ship when it approached.

During the war of unification, the Sui army used a type of warship called the "Five Teeth," which was equipped with six striking poles. When the Sui army encountered the Chen Dynasty navy near Jingmen, they used the striking poles to smash more than a dozen Chen warships in succession.

Later, during the campaign to attack Mianzhou, it happened to be a time of heavy rain and rising river waters, so the Sui warships could sail directly to the city walls. At that time, the Sui commander ordered the use of striking poles to strike the defenders on the city walls, and they soon successfully captured Mianzhou.

By the Song Dynasty, the rebel army of Zhong Xiang and Yang Yao modified the striking pole, installing a pivot at the bottom so that the direction of the strike could be changed at will, greatly increasing its flexibility. The "wheel ships" equipped with the new-style striking poles were extremely formidable; when Yue Fei was sent to suppress the rebellion, he did not dare to engage them head-on, and only managed to suppress them by using a stratagem.

That's right!

At present, the development of the Longyan Dynasty's navy has just happened to reach this stage.

That is to say, whether it is the Jingzhou navy or the Liangzhou navy, they are all using this kind of striking pole!

This kind of striking pole is also known as the Jingzhou Pole!

It is easy to imagine that this kind of striking pole was invented by the people of Jingzhou, and naturally, they use it with consummate skill and ease.

Therefore.

It is understandable that this Jingzhou navy possesses sufficient arrogance.

Liu Zheng smiled without saying a word.

In fact, he had long since devised a strategy to deal with this boarding battle and the Jingzhou Pole.

It was just that.

He preferred to watch these generals discussing and seeing their wisdom collide.

This atmosphere was what he liked.

Jiang Xuan studied it for a while and then said: "The Jingzhou Tower Ship is suitable for ramming. Of course, if we must talk about ramming, it is naturally no match for our Yinzhou ships! However, the opponent has the advantage of the river bank, and this point cannot be ignored!"

Xiao Qi nodded: "And the Tower Ship does not have a deep draft. The enemy will certainly take advantage of the disadvantage that our Yinzhou ships have too deep a draft, either by releasing water first or by setting up obstacles underwater!"

"In this way, a boarding battle becomes inevitable!"

The group discussed back and forth, but still shook their heads one after another.

They still could not avoid a boarding battle.

This was the most troublesome point for the Liangzhou Army today.

Liu Zheng was about to speak.

"What if we use fire attacks?"

Just then, someone suddenly asked.

Only then did Liu Zheng's eyes light up, and he clapped his hands and laughed: "Finally, we've hit the point!"

The crowd was startled.

Fire attacks?

Naturally.

In ancient times, no matter which people used what naval tactics, they all had one thing in common: the warships used were all made of wood, and the best way to deal with wooden warships was fire attacks.

Apart from the Byzantines who were skilled at using fire attacks (Greek Fire) in naval battles, the only ones who pushed fire attack tactics to the extreme in water warfare were the Chinese.

The most common weapons in water warfare were mainly of two types: one was long-range projectile weapons that launched burning materials at enemy ships, such as Rockets (arrows with burning materials or gunpowder packets tied to the arrowheads), Gunpowder Arrows (which relied on gunpowder combustion to propel the arrow forward), Catapults, Pili Cannons, etc. The other type was Fire Ships, which were warships loaded with flammable materials; during battle, they would be set on fire and then, aided by the wind, would charge toward the enemy fleet to achieve the goal of burning the enemy ships.

The two Song dynasties were the peak period of ancient Chinese naval warfare development. During this period, not only did many new weapons combining cold and hot technology appear due to the needs of war, but many brilliant naval battle examples also occurred. In the fourth year of the Jianyan era of the Song Dynasty, Han Shizhong led the Southern Song navy to intercept the Jin army led by Wanyan Zongbi as they returned north. The two sides engaged in a fierce battle on the surface of the Yangtze River. Because the Song navy's sea ships were massive, often several times the size of the Jin ships, they held the upper hand in the water battle and gradually drove the Jin army to the dead-water harbor of Huangtiandang on the south bank.

The Song navy blocked the exit of Huangtiandang. If the Jin army tried to break through with light boats, they would use their sea ships to attack from both sides, and when the two sides got close, the Song soldiers would throw iron hooks to drag them over. The Jin army was besieged for nearly a month, and later spent a large sum of money to bribe local villagers, learning that there was an old Laoguan River channel nearby that could lead to the Yangtze River. They dug through it overnight and returned to the Yangtze River, but they were still no match for the Song army in water warfare.

Zongbi then offered a large reward for a strategy to defeat the enemy. A Fujian man named Wang Zhiquan offered a strategy to Zongbi, teaching the Jin people to fill their boats with soil and lay flat boards on top to prevent rocking and to keep the hull from being hooked, "do not go out if there is wind, go out when the wind stops," and to shoot the Song army's ship awnings with Rockets. The Jin people used his plan and later indeed defeated the Song army.

In the 23rd year of the Shaoxing era, a naval battle broke out between the Song and Jin at Tangdao. The Song army used gunpowder weapons for the first time in human naval warfare: "The treasure ordered the Gunpowder Arrows to be fired in a circle. Where the arrows hit, smoke and flames rose, spreading to burn hundreds of ships," finally crushing the Jin army. In October of the same year, the Jin ruler Wanyan Liang led a large army to invade the south, and a fierce water battle broke out with the Song army on the Yangtze River. The Song general Yu Yunwen commanded the Song army to fire Thunderclap Cannons at the Jin army, and many enemy ships were burned. After two days of bitter fighting, the Jin army was defeated. The Jin ruler Wanyan Liang refused to retreat and was eventually killed by his subordinates.

Directly using Fire Ships to set enemy ships on fire: the Battle of Chibi at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was a classic example of a Fire Ship attack. The Cao army connected their warships head-to-tail, forming a massive water camp. Zhou Yu had his subordinates feign surrender to lower Caocao's vigilance, then sent ten small boats loaded with flammable materials to charge close to the Cao army's water camp, aided by the wind. When the other side was too late to react, they suddenly set them on fire, destroying more than half of the enemy's warships in one fell swoop.

Therefore.

Hearing Liu Zheng's words, the group all gave bitter smiles.

"Young Master, this fire attack is not that easy..."

Xiao Qi sighed even more: "This method is still useful if we are dealing with a navy whose shipbuilding is not very advanced. But for the Jingzhou navy, it is of little use."

"Oh?"

Liu Zheng frowned.

Jiang Xuan gave a bitter smile: "Viscount, because the wood used for these Jingzhou Tower Ships is all processed by the Nanyang people, it is extremely difficult to burn. For so many years, fire attacks have been completely useless when encountering Jingzhou Ships!"

Liu Zheng was stunned.

This actually gave him quite a shock.

Flame-retardant wood?

In this era, there is actually already flame-retardant wood? What is flame-retardant wood? It refers to wood that has had flame retardants added to it, a method of using Physics or Chemistry to improve the wood's fire resistance. The characteristic of this kind of wood is that it is difficult to burn.

In Liu Zheng's impression, although ancient people did occasionally develop simple flame retardants.

But it was not until around the seventeenth or eighteenth century that effective flame retardants and treatment Methods truly appeared.

Furthermore.

It was not until the nineteenth or even the twentieth century that a flame retardant industry gradually formed.

Of course.

This does not mean that perhaps another transmigrator has come to this world...

In this ancient era, all kinds of miraculous things actually emerge one after another. And... Nanyang? Thinking of this, Liu Zheng felt relieved. Since ancient times, Nanyang has had many Wizards; it is not impossible for these Wizards to have accidentally tinkered with flame retardants.

Moreover, that place also produces many kinds of plants!

This resin flame retardant is quite popular in later generations.

"There is such a thing?"

Liu Zheng gave a bitter smile.

He had also been wondering why these people had discussed such a simple Method as a fire attack for so long without bringing it up; that in itself was not normal.

A group of people.

Were once again at their wits' end.

Suddenly, Liu Zheng's eyes lit up, and he slapped the table: "I have it!"

Everyone looked over in unison.