The Yihe River exits from the northern slope of Funiu Mountain in Song County, and goes almost in a straight line to the north, directly into Yique County. However, there are still rolling hills along the bank, making the river twists and turns and looming.

Cao Chengxun looked over and immediately felt a chill running up his spine:

In the distance, dozens of black spots are moving down the Yi River from the cover of a hill. What are they if they are not sailing warships?

Behind the key point, there was a steady stream of warships that looked like black dots, sailing downstream from the river bend behind the slope. It was impossible to guess how many warships were going down the river.

However, how could there be warships in the upper reaches of the Yi River?

Where do these fly from?

For a long time, Song County and Yique, located in the upper reaches of the Yishui River, have been under the control of the Heluo Military and Horse Command. It was not until five days ago that the soldiers and horses stationed in Ruzhou of the Southern Dynasties brazenly left Guangcheng Pass and attacked the Yihe River.

and cut off their communication with Song County.

In order to ensure that the soldiers and horses of Ruzhou in the Southern Dynasties could not confiscate a boat from the Yi River, the Heluo Military and Horse General Office confiscated all the boats in Song County and Yique and dragged them to Luoyang or Yanshi downstream.

On the one hand, people in the two counties are strictly prohibited from building private fishing boats to enter Yishui for fishing.

At least five days ago, Cao Chengneng confirmed that Yishui is located in Song County, and there is not a single boat in the main branch river in the southern part of Yique County.

Although the Yishui River leaves Song County and has a river channel of more than 200 miles to the south, most of which is indeed under the control of the soldiers and horses of the Ruzhou camp of the Southern Dynasty, the upper reaches of the Yishui River are deep in the Funiu Mountains.

Not to mention the twists and turns, there are also rocks and dangerous shoals everywhere.

During the flood season, when the water level of the Yishui River rises sharply, rafts can still be placed in the mountains and the rafts can be discharged. But now that it is October, there are two or three dangerous shoals above the water in the southern part of Song County alone.

Even if Ruzhou secretly built ships deep in the Funiu Mountains, how could these warships pass through these dangerous shoals and enter the Yishui River north of Song County?

Besides, in recent years, they have sent scouts to the depths of Funiu Mountain to conduct spying, but they have not noticed anything unusual!

Where did these warships come from?

…………

…………

Thirty miles south of Yique City, on the bank of the Yi River, Wang Xian, the commander of the Heluo camp, Jiang Ang, Fu Liang and others reined in their horses and stopped on a hillock.

On the south side of Pogang, an artificial trestle dock on the east bank of Yishui River was built in just three or four days. In addition to the three thousand generals who had already boarded the ship, a new batch of three thousand troops had also arrived.

They gathered on the river beach and waited to board the ship.

Yes, heading south from Song County, the Yishui River is dangerous, narrow, and winding. There are several dangerous shoals in Song County alone, which will emerge from the water after autumn, blocking shipping.

At this time, even rafts and rafts could not be put down smoothly.

However, there are no absolutes in everything.

In the past six months, Wang Xian was in Ruzhou on the one hand actively preparing more siege weapons, and on the other hand he secretly transferred thousands of boatmen from Jingzhou and Xinyang.

, thousands of troops, cut wood in the upper reaches of the Yishui River and built hundreds of flat-bottomed warships.

After sending troops to surround Songxian County and cut off the communication between Songxian and Yique, Wang Xian ordered the flat-bottomed warships upstream to go north, and also mobilized thousands of extra troops to walk along the coast. When they encountered dangerous shoals and reefs, they would

These warships were forcibly dragged over and directly entered the river downstream of Song County.

In the past, the iron armor of warships built in shipyards in Jingzhou, Xincai, Xinyang and other places only covered the sides, decks and other parts above the waterline, and the bottom of the ship was still made of wooden hulls.

This is not to save iron materials, but because there is currently no ability to solve the corrosion problem of hot-rolled iron plates.

If the hot-rolled iron plate is immersed in water for a long time, it may rust and wear out in a year and a half.

However, the flat-bottomed warships built this time on the upper reaches of the Yishui River were, to put it bluntly, disposable consumables.
Chapter completed!