Chapter 299: Red-Coat Cannon
Half an hour later, the two armies confronted each other on the misty Yunluo River.
The Rongdi army wore gray armor while the Great Chu army wore black armor. The two colors weren’t too different, creating a dark mass that even dimmed the originally brilliant sunset clouds.
“Loose arrows!”
When enemies meet, their eyes burn with hatred.
Chunyu Hanfeng looked across the rushing waters at the silver figure on the opposing warship. Filled with rage, he ordered the arrow attack.
Ten thousand arrows were fired at once. In an instant, dense arrows like fine rain covered the sky, shooting toward the Great Chu army.
The Great Chu army raised their shields to defend for a while.
“Loose arrows!”
Long Yu ordered a counterattack.
Moreover, they fired only flaming arrows.
Tonight’s river wind was blowing toward the Rongdi camp. With the wind’s assistance, flaming arrows wove into a net of fire, easily covering the Rongdi warships.
Because the warships were connected by iron chains, when one ship caught fire, it quickly spread to other vessels.
The fierce river wind made the flames dance wildly, and the fire spread incredibly fast.
Soon the Rongdi camp was in chaos, and Chunyu Hanfeng lost his composure.
Standing beside Chunyu Hanfeng, Tantai Yi in golden armor turned pale.
“Quick! Break open the iron chains and separate the warships!”
The Great Chu army camp had the Four Sisters Mountain range at its back. With the mountains blocking the wind, most of the time the river wind blew toward the Rongdi camp. He had anticipated that the Great Chu army might use fire attacks, so when forging the iron chains, he had ordered locks to be added to them. Now they only needed to unlock them to separate the warships.
At his command, the panicked Rongdi soldiers hurried to use keys to unlock the chains.
On the opposite side, the Great Chu camp continued firing flaming arrows.
By the time the Rongdi soldiers unlocked the chains and scattered the warships, it was too late. The Rongdi army of eighty thousand had suffered significant losses.
Chunyu Hanfeng stared across the river at the silver figure on the opposing warship – arrogant and noble in bearing. Furious, he punched the mast hard.
“Retreat!”
He roared and ordered the withdrawal.
The remaining Rongdi warships slowly turned around. Since most Rongdi soldiers were not skilled in water warfare, the retreat was extremely slow.
“Pursue!”
Long Yu raised the Cangming sword and ordered the Great Chu army to give chase.
BOOM!
Suddenly a tremendous sound echoed across the river.
Chunyu Hanfeng and Tantai Yi looked around frantically for the source of the sound.
When they saw a blinding light orb flying toward one of their warships, both their faces turned deathly pale.
BOOM!
The light orb struck the middle of that warship perfectly, creating an even more deafening roar than before. In the next instant, the previously intact warship visibly split into two sections.
The deck cracked, the mast snapped, and Rongdi soldiers on deck screamed as they fell splash by splash into the icy river water.
Everything happened too quickly. Still in shock, Chunyu Hanfeng and Tantai Yi hurriedly looked toward Long Yu’s Great Chu warship.
On the opposite deck, they saw two long black cylindrical objects arranged neatly side by side.
Seeing those black objects clearly, Chunyu Hanfeng broke out in a cold sweat.
Tantai Yi was in the same state.
“Are those cannons?”
Tantai Yi had never seen real cannons, but he had seen cannon blueprints at Chunyu Hanfeng’s place.
Seeing that the Great Chu army had two cannons, he was utterly shocked.
Chunyu Hanfeng said somewhat dazedly: “Why do the Great Chu forces have such things?”
He was certain that when Long Yu brought his guards to raid the Rongdi underground armory, they had only stolen a small amount of finished black powder, not the cannon blueprints, because he had always kept those blueprints on his person. From beginning to end, only Tantai Yi had seen them.
“Without blueprints, how did Great Chu build cannons?”
Black powder needed to be used with iron tube cannons to unleash its powerful force. Precisely because he was convinced that Long Yu had no blueprints and couldn’t think to manufacture cannons, he had dared to brazenly bring eighty thousand cavalry across the river.
“Tantai Yi, what do you make of this?”
He stared at Tantai Yi with scrutinizing, suspicious, and even somewhat angry eyes.
From beginning to end, only Tantai Yi had seen the cannon blueprints at his place. If someone had leaked the cannon blueprints to the Great Chu army, that person could only be Tantai Yi.
Having followed Chunyu Hanfeng for many years, Tantai Yi understood his character very well.
Chunyu Hanfeng was naturally suspicious.
“Your Majesty, this minister has never done anything to betray Your Majesty. I also don’t know why the Great Chu army has two cannons. Let’s set this matter aside for now. The Great Chu army’s offensive is fierce – we should retreat first.”
Chunyu Hanfeng snorted coldly and had to temporarily suppress his suspicions about Tantai Yi.
“Tantai Yi, this king has complete trust in you. You’d better not disappoint this king.”
Feeling that Chunyu Hanfeng was like a different person than before, Tantai Yi’s forehead broke out in cold sweat.
“Continue firing!”
BOOM, BOOM!
On the opposite warship, Long Yu continued ordering the gunners to fire.
Blinding light points the size of sea bowls continuously shot toward the Rongdi warships. After several tremendous roars, several more warships sank to the river bottom.
BOOM!
Another tremendous sound – the gunpowder’s force shook the river water, sending it splashing. A blinding light point shot directly toward the warship carrying Chunyu Hanfeng and Tantai Yi.
This cannonball was aimed slightly off, grazing past the stern of Chunyu Hanfeng’s warship before falling into the river water.
The ship’s stern was destroyed, leaving a huge hole in the deck. River water poured in, and the vessel immediately lost balance. Everyone on the warship, including Chunyu Hanfeng, swayed unsteadily with the tilting ship.
“Bring me a bow and arrows!”
Long Yu raised his hand, requesting bow and arrows from those behind him.
Long Yi handed him an extremely heavy bow.
Long Yu took the bow, nocked an arrow, aimed at the opposing Rongdi King Chunyu Hanfeng, and smiled coldly with bloodthirsty intent.
This man had shot the little thing with an arrow – how could he not settle that score?
Whoosh!
The arrow left the bowstring like a fierce eagle, flying across the misty river surface toward Chunyu Hanfeng.
Because of the fog on the river obscuring vision, by the time Chunyu Hanfeng noticed the arrow flying toward him, it was less than half a meter away.
If this were on flat ground, at such a distance he could effortlessly block this arrow. Unfortunately, he was currently on a warship, and the damaged vessel was rocking unsteadily – he simply couldn’t stand firm.
Just as the arrow was about to pierce his chest, a white figure lunged toward him, followed by a muffled grunt.
Chunyu Hanfeng watched helplessly as Tantai Yi blocked the fatal arrow for him and slowly collapsed against his body.
“Tantai Yi!”
He cast a cold glance at the man on the opposite warship who had shot the arrow at him, then quickly bent down, grabbed Tantai Yi, and using lightness skills, carried him to another warship.
“Retreat! Continue retreating!”