Tibet

At the end of February, the rivers in the north of the Tang Dynasty completely thawed. Under the leadership of Nan Jiyun, the 50,000 troops stationed in Luoyang escorted 2,000 grain and material ships and marched to Pingzhou. The fleet would enter the Bohai Sea from the Zhangshui River and head to the mouth of the Rushui River along the coastline.

At the same time, the Tang army fleet led by Li Chengshi had arrived on the sea outside Nanhai Prefecture, the southernmost part of the Bohai Kingdom, and it was only about five days away from Longyuan Prefecture.

That morning, Li Chengshi suddenly received a message from the lookout that an unidentified fleet was found ahead, about 30 or 40 ships, sailing towards them.

Li Chengshi immediately walked to the bow, took out a high-powered telescope and looked into the distance. Sure enough, countless small black spots appeared on the sea dozens of miles ahead. Based on experience, he judged that there were about 30 or 40 ships.

Gao Hongyuan immediately said anxiously: "General, this is a Japanese ship!"

"Could it be a Silla ship?"

"Impossible, Silla has no seaport in the east, their ships are all in the west or south, Bohai has perished, there will be no one else except Japanese ships!"

Li Chengshi nodded and ordered: "Order the whole army, form a bag-shaped layout, and prepare for battle!"

The bag-shaped layout is a 'U'-shaped layout, ready to encircle the enemy fleet, but the Tang army has a wider range, and the enemy suddenly discovered the Tang army warships after entering the encirclement.

The enemy fleet has a total of 43 ships, all of which are about 3,000 stones. Gao Hongyuan recognized at a glance that these are all cargo ships of the former Bohai Kingdom.

Cargo ships and troop transport ships are not the same thing. Troop transport ships must consider the comfort of soldiers. Generally, a ship building will be built above the deck. If they want to live below the deck, windows must be opened on the ship wall to prevent the soldiers from suffocating. The characteristic of cargo ships is that the ship building is very small, and the goods are stored in the cabin under the deck, and no windows will be opened.

At present, neither the Bohai State nor the Japanese State ships have the ability to cross the Whale Sea. They must first go along the coastline and then cross the Tsushima Strait.

Therefore, when the Japanese ships return to their country, they can only go south along the coast first. Unexpectedly, they encountered Tang warships.

This Japanese ship actually saw the fleet. They thought it was a reinforcement sent by Japan. At first, they didn't take it seriously until they suddenly saw the Yellow Dragon Battle Flag of the Tang Dynasty. They finally realized that the other party was the Tang Dynasty army. At this time, they were already surrounded by the Tang army.

The other side also had Japanese soldiers guarding the ship. The escort force of a cargo ship was about 20 people. With three escort ships full of soldiers, the escort force of the entire fleet was about 1,500 people.

For cargo ships, there are usually only two to three escort soldiers per ship, but now there are more than 20 people, and there are three special escort warships. This kind of force configuration is definitely the highest level.

This also shows that the goods carried by the fleet are of great value.

Li Chengshi was experienced. From the number of soldiers escorting the ship, he realized that the ship on the other side must be full of valuables.

Li Chengshi decided not to use explosive arrows on the cargo ship, which would blow up the other ship.

He ordered: "Use crossbows to shoot all the enemy soldiers on the cargo ship, and sink the three escort warships of the other side at the same time!"

First, deal with the three escort warships of the Japanese fleet, each of which has nearly two hundred soldiers.

Here is a brief talk about the situation of the Japanese army.

Before the Song Dynasty, Japan did not have long weapons. Their army was mainly composed of cavalry, samurai, cavalry attendants and foot soldiers. Their weapons were mainly heavy rattan bows, round wood bows and swords. Their fighting method was first cavalry charge, shooting the enemy with horseback shooting, and then a large-scale samurai group charge.

Cavalry attendants are servants of cavalry. Their role is to put armor on the cavalry and help the cavalry get on the horse. They are basically the cavalry's own farmers.

The foot soldiers were barefoot and unarmored lower-level infantry. Although they also carried swords, their real role was to carry, cook, set up camp, keep sentry, and other auxiliary affairs, which was equivalent to logistical soldiers, but if the situation was critical, they would also fight.

The offensive means that Japanese soldiers are best at are sneak attacks and ambushes, which are determined by their organizational characteristics and weapons. Samurai do not have long weapons and cannot form formations to cooperate, so they can only fight alone. Only surprise attacks and sneak attacks can form a state of close combat and give full play to their characteristics of Samurai combat.

This kind of Samurai single-handed tactics has a far-reaching impact, deeply rooted in the bones of the Japanese army, and cultivated the Japanese army to always give priority to sneak attacks, surprise attacks, and other means.

This time, Japan destroyed Bohai with an extremely despicable sneak attack tactic, pretending to help Shangjing City defend the city wall, and then sneak attacked the Bohai army camp at night, killing 20,000 Bohai soldiers, and then broke into the palace and killed 3,000 guards, completely solving the armed forces of Shangjing.

This was the beginning of the wanton humiliation and massacre of the royal family and civilians in Shangjing. The killing lasted for seven days and seven nights, and almost all of the more than 100,000 men, women, and children in Shangjing were killed.

The three Japanese warships were surrounded by the two 10,000-stone warships of the Tang army. The Japanese soldiers shouted and shot arrows at the Tang army ships like raindrops.

There were shooting holes on the side of the Tang army warships. Soldiers squatted under the side of the ship and shot more than 20 explosive arrows at the enemy warships. After the impact, they exploded immediately, blasting large holes in the ship wall. The sea water immediately rushed in, the warships tilted rapidly, and the fleet soldiers fell into the water one after another, shouting for help, and they were greeted only by the ruthless shooting of the Tang army.

After several rounds of explosive arrows, the first Japanese warship quickly sank.

The other two Japanese warships were equally fierce, and one Japanese warship was trying its best to approach the Tang warship.

Li Chengshi stared at the enemy warship and ordered: "Let the enemy warship approach!"

He wanted to understand the characteristics and rules of the Japanese naval warfare through this encounter.

Without the Tang army firing explosive arrows, the last Japanese warship finally approached the Tang army warship. The Japanese soldiers shouted excitedly, and countless flying claws hooked onto the Tang army warship. The Japanese soldiers climbed frantically on the Tang army ship with swords on their backs.

The Tang army soldiers cut more than 60 ropes in a row, and more than 60 Japanese soldiers screamed and fell into the sea. There were still more than 50 people climbing onto the ship, jumping onto the Tang army ship like a group of monkeys.

Dozens of Tang army soldiers roared, rushed up with spears, and the two sides fought fiercely.

Although the Japanese warriors were very flexible in their steps, they were far behind the Tang army in height, strength, and weapons. The Japanese soldiers were basically less than 1.5 meters tall and thin, like nine-year-old children.

The Tang soldiers were all about 1.8 meters tall, sturdy and strong, with strong swords and sharp swords. The shields in their hands made up for the lack of flexibility.

A slash of the sword could knock the Japanese samurai more than ten feet away, not to mention the stabbing of the spear. The opponent had no power to reach him and was stabbed to death on the spot and thrown into the sea.

After only a quarter of an hour of fighting, all the more than 50 samurai who jumped on the boat were killed by the Tang soldiers. The Tang army only slightly injured three people, which were also the three people injured in the whole encounter.

After killing three escort ships, the next was forty cargo ships. The Tang army did not use explosive arrows, but shot them with crossbows.

The Tang army's 10,000-stone ships were high above the enemy, suppressing the enemy's 3,000-stone cargo ships. The Tang army had superb tactics. Basically, two ships clamped one enemy ship and shot arrows downwards at the same time. The Japanese soldiers on the ship had nowhere to hide. The cabin below was locked with iron locks. Most of the Japanese soldiers were shot and killed. The rest could only escape to the narrow cabin above. However, the cabin on the deck could not stop the heavy arrows of the Tang army from penetrating. They were shot into sieves and collectively shot and killed in the cabin. Even the boatman could not escape death.

The Tang army sailors pulled the ropes and jumped onto the enemy's ship. There was no one on the ship. Even some Japanese soldiers who were not killed by arrows could not escape death in the end. All their bodies were thrown into the sea.

One cargo ship after another was controlled and taken over by the Tang army. In less than an hour, the Tang army easily wiped out more than 1,500 Japanese soldiers and boatmen who were guarding the ship with powerful weapons and equipment and ten times the number of troops of the enemy.

After seizing a total of 40 ships loaded with cargo, the Tang army soldiers opened the locked deck cover and entered the cabin under the deck to check the cargo. They unexpectedly found that the cabin was filled with various treasures looted from the Bohai Kingdom.

A sea ship has about 150 large wooden boxes, and 40 cargo ships have a total of 6,000 large boxes, mainly gold and silver. The Bohai Kingdom is rich in gold and silver, which has been accumulated for nearly 50 years and was looted by the Japanese army.

Of course, this is only the wealth of Japan, accounting for 70% of the wealth looted by the Japanese army. Another part is the wealth looted by Japanese soldiers personally, accounting for about 30%, which is still in the hands of the soldiers.

This huge wealth was finally transported from Shangjing by ship after the river thawed, and then transferred to the sea ship and transported to Japan by sea. Unexpectedly, it encountered the Tang army warship fleet that arrived at the right time.

Li Chengshi immediately divided ten large ships and hundreds of soldiers to escort 40 cargo ships to Jeonra Island, and then transported them from Jeonra Island to Datang.

Although this was just an encounter, the Tang army already knew the equipment and tactics of the Japanese navy.

They were basically traditional bows and arrows and jumping boats. This pirate-like attack was nothing compared to the Tang army's powerful long-range firearms.

Even without firearms, the Tang army soldiers had absolute height, strength and weapon advantages in single combat, and could easily defeat the short Japanese soldiers.

With strong confidence, the Tang army once again marched northward in a mighty manner.