If Gao Yuan knew the thoughts of the generals of the Qin army, he would definitely have a feeling of being shot while lying down. The generals of the Qin army must have overestimated themselves.

In fact, because the generals of the Qin army have basically never been on a ship, there is not much accurate confirmation of the speed of the ship's sailing, and the transport ships of the Qin army are loaded with all kinds of goods, and the draft is extremely deep, so the speed of travel is naturally much slower than that of ordinary warships.

Of course, when the ship was transformed, the plateau did make a lot of efforts to improve the speed of the warship, but it did not use any new technology, it was nothing more than to increase the number of oars, such as the main war ship was equipped with twelve pairs of oars, and the oars were increased and lengthened, and then divided into two groups of personnel to take turns rowing, plus the sails, so that the speed of navigation would naturally be greatly improved. According to the plateau estimates, if twelve pairs of oars are rowed together, the normal speed can reach about five knots, that is, ten kilometers per hour, and if the acceleration rowing, the voyage can reach about seven knots, or thirteen kilometers, in two hours. In this day and age, the speed of the ship is indeed quite high.

In addition, there is another important reason, that is, after entering the chasm, the fleet entered the smooth sailing, and the combination of these factors made the speed of the fleet of the Dai army greatly exceed Wang Jian's expectations, and entered the river in advance, which caught the Qin army off guard.

After Xin Sheng and Li Xin were ordered to leave the camp, Wang Jian also immediately walked out of his Chinese army camp, climbed the high platform, and looked in the direction of the river, only to see a little sail faintly visible in the distance. The fleet of the Dai army was about to reach the exit of the river.

Li Xin was ordered to mobilize trebuchets and crossbows to the side of the river to intercept the fleet of the Dai army, and in a fort closest to the river, there were a total of twenty-two trebuchets and twenty-five bed crossbows, and Li Xin drew a thousand soldiers from the fort and pushed these trebuchets and bed crossbows to the river.

As soon as the Qin army came to the river, the fleet of the Dai army had already approached from the three rivers, and it was only three or four hundred steps away from the mouth of the river at this time.

At this time, Li Xin didn't care about adjusting the distance, just visually felt that it was almost enough, of course, Li Xin was also a person who had been on the battlefield for a long time, although it was only a visual inspection, but he could basically see eight or nine without leaving ten.

However, to hit the warship, it is necessary to use more than 100 catties of large stones to be effective, if it is to use small stones, at most it can only kill a few soldiers, and the damage to the warship is not large, and this purpose is completed by the bed crossbow, the role of the trebuchet is still to destroy the warship, so the trebuchet must be advanced to within 250 steps from the river to throw stones.

In this way, the bed crossbow was the first to strike at the ship, and the trebuchet was pushed and pulled forward by the soldiers. Therefore, after Li Xin gave the order, the bed crossbow first stopped, and the soldiers pulled the winch, loaded the crossbow guns, and launched a blow against the fleet of the Dai army.

The crossbow sounded, and the crossbow guns flew out, shooting at the ships of the Dai army in the river, some of the crossbow guns fell into the river, and some of the crossbow guns crossed the boats, and they didn't know where they flew, but at least half of the crossbow guns hit the boats, of course, not because of the Qin army's excellent archery skills, but because the number of ships in the river is large, and the formation is relatively dense, so they can always be encountered.

However, most of the ballistas that hit the ship were only stuck in the side or tower of the ship, and not only did they have no effect on the hull, but even the casualties of the soldiers of the Dai Army were few. Because the side boards of the ships of the Dai Army were thickened and covered with raw cowhide, the defense was greatly improved, and most of the ballista guns could not penetrate the board of the ships.

And just after the first wave of crossbow strikes of the Qin army, the counterattack of the Dai army also came. This time, the fleet of the Dai army had a total of 112 warships, including 32 large warships and 50 medium-sized warships, each of which was equipped with four bed crossbows, and two bed crossbows and 30 large transport ships on medium-sized warships, all of which were loaded with weapons specially used for water warfare made in Guiling during this time.

In fact, before setting off, the main general who led the fleet expected that after entering the river, he would be stopped by the Qin army, so after turning into the river, the transport fleet took the middle river, and the warships took the river on both sides to protect the transport fleet. The attack of the Qin army began, and the Dai army immediately launched a counterattack against the Qin army. The bed crossbows assembled on each ship started one after another and fired back at the Qin army.

However, the bed crossbow of a medium ship fires a crossbow gun, and the fire from the hole of a large ship is a black thing. The sharp-eyed Qin soldiers could see clearly that these black things were roughly cylindrical, about two feet more than three feet long, about half a foot in diameter, and their heads were cone-shaped. However, because the large warship was a fully enclosed structure, the Qin army could not see the bed crossbow inside, so the Qin army did not know what the cylindrical object was used to launch it, and of course did not know what the use of these cylindrical objects was.

At this time, the Qin soldiers were still pushing the trebuchet forward, only to see a round and simple object fall on a place more than 20 steps in front of the trebuchet, "bang", fell and shattered, and then followed by a "whew", ignited a majestic fire, which also made the Qin soldiers let out a burst of exclamation.

In fact, this kind of round and simple object is a new weapon designed for water warfare on the plateau, in fact, it is a long cylindrical clay pot, with a total length of two feet and four inches, a diameter of five inches, containing fire oil, strictly speaking, the tank body is not cylindrical, but in the shape of an elongated water tank, the lid of the tank is made into a cone, and there are holes, and the fuse of the fire is inserted in the hole, and the tail is narrowed, and a small wooden tail of the cross shape is added, from the appearance, it is actually like a small missile.

The bed crossbow that fires this ceramic missile has also been modified, mainly to enlarge the groove of the bed crossbow and make a semi-arc, and the size fits the ceramic missile, although the clay pot filled with oil is much heavier than the crossbow gun, but because the shape is aerodynamic, and the small tail design of the cross shape, the range is only slightly closer than the crossbow gun, far more than the trebuchet. Once the pot hits the ground, or hits the target, the pot will naturally be smashed to pieces, and the oil will be ignited by the fuse, which will cause burning.

In water warfare, fire was far more powerful than other weapons, and even in the early days of firearms, fire remained the most powerful weapon in water warfare. Moreover, black powder has not yet appeared in this era, and it can only be ignited by fire oil.

Trebuchets sometimes also project clay pots filled with fire oil, but the size of the warships of this era was not large enough to fit the trebuchet, so in water warfare, they could only shoot opponents with rockets, but the flames carried by rockets were not large, and the range was also limited, and the effect was not large. So Gao Yuan designed this ceramic missile, and improved the bed crossbow, which was specially used to launch this ceramic missile.

In this era, it is indeed a weapon that is ahead of its time, and of course it is also a weapon with great power. However, Gao Yuan did not expect that this ceramic missile was not used in water warfare for the first time, but for shore attacks.

Because the greatest threat to the warship was the trebuchet of the Qin army, not the bed crossbow, and the Dai army mainly focused on the Qin army's trebuchet, one of the advantages of the bed crossbow over the trebuchet was that it could increase or decrease the elevation angle through guò, and the strength of the string to control the distance of the strike, and the dead angle was much smaller than that of the trebuchet. Therefore, the Dai army also let go of the Qin army's bed crossbow and fired pottery missiles at the Qin army's trebuchet.

The trebuchet is all wooden, naturally the most afraid of fire, the first round of counterattack by the Dai army, three ceramic missiles hit the trebuchet, causing a fire, and some pottery missiles fell in front of the trebuchet, causing the fire to burn, blocking the way of the trebuchet. On the fire trebuchet, although the Qin army struggled to put it out, the burning of the fire oil was not so easy to extinguish, and the missiles launched by the army were still falling, and after a while, more than 20 trebuchets were burned, and the other trebuchets did not dare to move forward anymore, and they retreated one after another, dodging the missiles of the army, and as a result, none of the trebuchets projected stones.

The upper deck of the Dai Army's warship was struggling to launch missiles, and the oarsmen were also rowing hard, so the entire fleet quickly sailed out of the range of the Qin army. Although the bed crossbow of the Qin army was impressive, and each of the warships of the Dai army was more or less hit by a few crossbow guns, the whole function of the crossbow was to shoot and kill a few soldiers of the Dai army, and then there was nothing.

Li Xin didn't expect that the ships of the Dai Army would have such weapons, and none of the more than 20 trebuchets he brought were used, so he could only watch as the Dai Army's warships sailed out of the river and headed straight for Daliang City.

At this time, Xin Sheng had just assembled the fleet, and this time he was finally able to sail out of the dock smoothly without a collision, so Xin Sheng was also quite relieved, and his hard work during this time was not in vain. However, the fleet of the army of this era had already sailed out of the river and headed for the direction of Daliang City, and the fleet of the Qin army had no time to intercept it. Xin Sheng was about to give the order and order the warship to pursue, but at this moment, he only heard the sound of a horn "woo" on the shore.

This was the order to collect the troops, and Xin Sheng naturally did not dare to disobey the order, so he had to order the fleet to return to the dock.

It turned out that Li Xin intercepted the process of the Dai army's fleet just now, Wang Jian looked very clear on the high platform of Gaogang, and looked at what weapon the Dai Jun launched from the ship, and it caught fire when it landed, making it difficult for the Qin army's trebuchet to play its own role, Wang Jian's heart couldn't help but tighten, is this a new weapon made by the plateau?

Although Wang Jian is not familiar with water warfare, he can also imagine how terrible this weapon will be once used in water warfare, and in Wang Jian's mind, there is even a picture of the Qin army's ships and rafts being beaten by the Dai army and burning one by one. Therefore, he immediately stopped Xin Sheng's pursuit, and hurriedly called Li Xin and Xin Sheng back, and asked in detail what this weapon was in the Dai Army? What to do in the future?