The first stone projectile was shot just now, but because it was too far away, Cheng Fangyuan didn't think it would have any effect. But following the directions of the people around him, he saw that the Penglai had slowed down. Not only did it slow down, but it also adjusted the hull to expose the side to the front of the Falcon ship. "What's wrong? Could it be that he is preparing to pick up the ship?" Cheng Fangyuan said in surprise. He didn¡¯t believe that the other party would be easily intimidated and give up resistance and surrender. Although he didn¡¯t know Ye Chang very well, he also knew that this Sima of Jili Prefecture was not such a person. ¡°Everyone, cheer up and be careful, the other party may have some tricks up their sleeves.¡± After thinking about it for a while, Cheng Fangyuan ordered. The two ships were getting closer and closer, and Cheng Fangyuan ordered the trebuchet to be fired again. This time it was closer than the last time. The stone thrown went over the top of the Penglai and landed about twenty feet away from the Penglai. At this time, the distance between the two sides was less than fifty feet. There were no people on the deck of the Penglai, and it did not look like it was ready for a boarding battle. Cheng Fangyuan became more and more hesitant, but the matter had come to this, and it was unrealistic to stop now. He once again ordered caution and ordered the crossbows and shooting poles on the ship to be ready. Forty feet, thirty feet, twenty feet Fifteen feet At this distance, you can already clearly see the situation on the Penglai. Although the Sea Falcon ship is not a high-rise ship, it also has high-rise buildings on the deck, so Cheng Fangyuan can watch from a high position. There are more than ten people on the deck of the Penglai. It seems that they are all sailors and sailors, but there are no soldiers. "What on earth is going on?" Cheng Fangyuan couldn't help but have a thought in his mind, whether to stop the boat first and then wait and see. But at this distance, he just wanted to stop the boat, and it was not something he could just stop. The oarsmen were no longer paddling at this time, but were preparing to move the boat sideways. At this moment, the wall of the Penglai facing the Falcon ship suddenly opened. It was as if twelve windows were opened at the same time, and then, balls of fire were pushed out. Cheng Fangyuan's pupils suddenly shrank: "Crossbow - be careful" at the same time as he shouted, dull mechanical sounds came from the twelve windows almost at the same time. Twelve long crossbow arrows tied with grease and cloth flew over. Within such a distance, even if the waves kept shaking the Penglai, half of the twelve long crossbow arrows still pierced into the Falcon ship. Within the hull. "Treacherous" felt the tilt of the ship due to being shot. Cheng Fangyuan cursed and then ordered: "Counterattack, put out the fire." The sailors and soldiers on the ship hurriedly poured the prepared water on the ship to avoid crossbows. The fire on the boat caught fire. In a cabin below the deck, Wang Ran looked at the wall of the ship with a pale face. Half of the crossbow bolt penetrated from the outside and penetrated the cabin where he was. "What's going ona fight?" a companion next to him exclaimed. "There must have been a fight. This should have been fired from the Penglai The Penglai was actually equipped with a crossbow. Look, there is also fire. They must have wanted to use this fire crossbow to set the Sea Falcon ship on fire." Another A companion is in charge. "We have been staring at the Penglai for a long time. We haven't seen a crossbow installed on the deck" "It's strange, look at the crossbow bolt. Why is there a bamboo tube tied to it" "Go quickly, go quickly" There are two companions. While he was busy discussing the equipment on the Penglai, Wang Ran felt vaguely that something was not good. He felt like he was facing a disaster, so he opened the hatch and ran away with a loud shout. His two companions were a little surprised, there was nothing to escape from, it was just a fire, just put it out with water. Like Wang Ran, Cheng Fangyuan also felt like he was in catastrophe. Cheng Fangyuan stared at the places where the crossbows hit, thinking secretly in his heart. A general next to him laughed and said: "Ye Changqian's skills are at a loss Firing the crossbow below the deck is more concealable, but it is impossible to cause serious damage" This general's idea is very simple. This kind of shooting method is doomed. It is impossible to have a large shooting elevation, and the range of the crossbow is not far, and it cannot even shoot to the opponent's deck. Although the crossbow is equipped with fire, that kind of fire can only be truly lethal when it is attached to flammable objects such as canvas. Nailing it like this on the hull of the ship looks scary, but as long as it is extinguished in time, it will not cause much damage to the ship. However, at this moment, there was a loud bang, a crossbow was nailed into the hull of the ship, and a ball of fire suddenly appeared, and the pungent smell of sulfur spread along with the fireball. This was just the first sound, followed by two more sounds. Of the six crossbows that were driven into the hull, three exploded, causing three holes in the hull of the Sea Falcon. "This this this this?" Cheng Fangyuan continued He said four words "this", but did not form a sentence. This change really made him unimaginable. How could such a good crossbow explode like this, and also blow three big holes in the hull? The Sea Falcon ship is indeed sturdier than ordinary naval warships and is more adaptable to the winds in the sea.??, but its overall structure is still the general form of ships at that time, and naturally it is not as strong as the Penglai. Three crossbow arrows exploded, severely damaging its structure, and the swaying caused by wind and waves intensified the damage. At this time, there were creaking sounds from everywhere on the Sea Falcon, which was the sound of wood breaking, but no one had the energy to care about it, because the three explosions just now not only caused damage to the hull, but also caused the splashing of iron. Pieces of debris and broken wood were also found in the cabins below the ship's deck, causing casualties. Wang Ran turned back and looked at the cabin where he was just now. Now the cabin was completely changed beyond recognition, with debris everywhere. One of his two companions had a broken arm and was rolling on the ground in pain. The other one, who was close to the bulkhead, was lying on the board covered in blood and twitching. But where the bulkhead was originally, there was a hole as big as one person. Around the hole, flames were flying around, and smoke was rising. Looking at this scene blankly, Wang Ran's first thought was the "Five Thunder Technique". Taoists often say that they invite thunder to destroy evil spirits, and the sound just now was almost the same as the sound of thunder. Since Wang Ran was sent to deal with Ye Chang, he had heard a lot of rumors about Ye Chang, especially the incident of Ye Chang's encounter with the immortal. He was even more familiar with it. It's just that Ye Chang hasn't shown any "Taoist magic" or other abilities all this time, so he just has doubts about it. But now, Wang Ran has no doubt that Ye Chang knows the magic of immortality. If it weren¡¯t for magic, how could you ask the thunder from the sky to descend and use the crossbow arrow to inflict such heavy damage on the Sea Falcon ship? He was actually dealing with an immortal, an immortal who was skilled in the art of immortality. Wang Juan felt that his knees were weak and had no strength to support his body, so he fell to his knees with a thud involuntarily. Behind him, several soldiers who came after hearing the sound only saw him kneeling on the ground, kowtowing as if pounding garlic, and muttering: "Great Immortal, please forgive me, Master Ye, please forgive me" Those The soldiers were all frightened and frightened. Seeing Wang Yu's appearance, they first looked at each other, and then some timid ones followed him and bowed down, and kept chanting, begging the immortal for forgiveness. Since there was a leader, the others didn't believe it and didn't dare to act rashly. They just watched there. It wasn't until the flames at the hatch got bigger and bigger that they came to their senses and started to put out the fire with shouts. However, at this moment, the boat made another loud noise, and everyone was unable to stand still, and they were thrown into the sea one after another. Cheng Fangyuan was on the deck, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was holding on to a mast to prevent himself from falling. He watched the Sea Falcon ship exploded from the middle of the ship and broke into two pieces. He saw at least dozens of sailors and sergeants falling into the sea at the moment of the break. He saw the split hull begin to break into two pieces. It sank quickly. Two watermen who fell into the water fought for a wooden barrel that could help them float. They saw a whirlpool rising and swallowing the two watermen and the barrel together. The water also reached the mast he was holding, and half of his body was already soaked in the sea. At this time, he raised his head and looked at the Penglai, which seemed to be very close at hand - and then screamed at the top of his lungs. "Ah - ah" At this moment, Cheng Fangyuan's heart was completely confused and blank. Even if he was about to be submerged by the sea, his mind still stayed on why those crossbows caused such great damage. Su Chuuchi¡¯s mind also stayed at that moment. Three consecutive explosions made his eyes almost bulge out of their sockets. He originally thought that his admiration for Ye Chang had reached its limit, but then he realized that this kind of admiration has no limit. "This what kind of fairy treasure is this?" He couldn't help but mutter to himself. The telescope is an immortal treasure, the compass is an immortal treasure, and now, the thing that causes the explosion is also an immortal treasure. The emergence of this thing means that there is a new attack method in naval battles, and this attack method is difficult to guard against. Su Cuotui keenly felt that in future naval battles, there would no longer be boarding battles, at least boarding battles would no longer be the main method of combat in naval battles. From now on, the two sides in the naval battle will start firing crossbows at each other within a certain distance, and then the "immortal treasure" carried on the crossbow explodes, and a warship will become fragments on the sea, just like the current sea falcon Boat in general. He turned his face sideways and looked at Ye Chang, only to find that Ye Chang's expression was indifferent, even vaguely dissatisfied. This made Su Chouji even more frightened: With such power and such tactics, Ye Langjun is still not satisfied. So what will the weapons and tactics that satisfy Ye Langjun look like? Ye Chang is really not satisfied. The advent of gunpowder marked the beginning of the era of thermal weapons. In this era, some Taoist priests who made alchemy were already secretly passing on the original gunpowder formula, but today's battle was the first time gunpowder actually appeared on the battlefield. The reason why he was still confident even when Su Tongji didn't dare to guarantee victory in this battle was because of the twenty-four gunpowder packets stored in the cabin. The twenty-four gunpowder packets sealed and stored in bamboo tubes are?The result that Ye Chang began secretly developing after arriving in Liaodong. The formula of gunpowder is not difficult for him at all. It is nothing more than sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal powder. The key lies in the proportion. It took him more than a year to find the formula that he thought was most suitable, and then he made this gunpowder bag. The sealed bamboo tube filled with gunpowder is tied to the crossbow and detonated by the fire on the crossbow. At this time, its power is just that of a large firecracker. If it does not directly explode people, or the resulting fragments will explode people. , the lethality is actually very limited. "If it weren't for the naval battle, and the attack targets were relatively fragile ships at this time, instead of buildings such as cities and houses, these large firecrackers would probably just scratch the itch. For Ye Chang, who is used to seeing the power of firearms in another life, such powerful firearms are really worthless. Fortunately, although it was useless, at least it made a great contribution today. "Ye Sima, what should we do next?" Seeing that Ye Chang was always thoughtful and did not issue orders, Su Cuotui came back to his senses and asked in a trembling voice. Ye Chang raised his eyes and glanced at the sea. Where the Falcon ship was just now, there were only some whirlpools and some debris floating on the sea, proving that the Falcon ship once existed. In addition, there were some sailors and sergeants floating in the sea, each one crying for help, and some were trying to swim towards this side. "Let's go, head south first, and then return to Dengzhou." Ye Chang didn't have any mercy in his heart, he just gave those people a cold look and ordered. "Yes." Su Cuoji didn't have any resistance to this order. He ordered the sails to be full, and the Penglai caught the north wind, broke through the waves, and sped towards the south. The cry in the sea was thrown far away in an instant, and then it was no longer heard. Su Toutui patrolled around the ship and found that both the sailors and the sergeants had solemn expressions, looking at him with a bit of awe. Su Chuji knew very well that the awe was not really for him, but just because he had just followed Ye Chang. "No one is allowed to leak the news about today's events. Anyone who violates the rules will be struck by thunder from the sky." Everywhere Su Chuuchi went, he said loudly, and everyone nodded. Normally, "thunder strikes" would be just a joke, and no one would take it seriously. But that was not the case today. Those loud noises, the ensuing flames, and the destruction of enemy ships made everyone feel Dark. Maybe Ye Sima really has a way to communicate with the gods in the sky, and he is a first-class immortal. If he doesn't mean what he says, he may really be let down by the gods and become like the sea falcon ship just now. After giving all the orders, Su Chuchu returned to Ye Sima. Next to Chang, seeing that Ye Chang's demeanor had returned to normal, he said: "Lang Jun, after returning to Dengzhou this time, are you rushing back to Liaodong?" "That's natural. This time, we almost reached Japan before we turned back. Hai Zhong After drifting for nearly twenty days, we naturally have to return to Lushun. We also need to find a winter waterway that can travel between Lushun and Qidi even if the entrance to the Bohai Sea is blocked. " Hearing these words, Su Huijie laughed. : "This is easy to hear. I see that Langjun's ship-breaking weapon can also be used to break ice." The idea of ??using gunpowder to blast ice lacks operability, otherwise there will be no need for icebreakers in another life. Moreover, for Ye Chang, gunpowder is a secret that needs to be kept better than glass. Even Su Tongji doesn't know the secret now. If he didn't want to prove it in actual combat, Ye Chang would not have kept it at all. Take it out. "It doesn't have to be like this, it's just a detour. It's easy to freeze near the coast, but not in the sea." Ye Chang said with a smile: "If you can find a waterway that can go in and out of Lushunkou most of the time in winter, I will mark it as a great achievement for you. " Su Toutui had a smile on his face, and he was secretly relieved: Although that kind of secret weapon is sharp, it cannot replace people after all.