Lu Xun was wearing armor, and the heavy feeling of wearing armor for the first time made him quite uncomfortable, but he still took a bamboo shield inlaid with iron sheets to block the stray arrows, climbed to the high bow of the ship, and observed the enemy situation.
Seeing that the opponent's attack had slowed down and they no longer threw hooks over the side of the ship, he wondered if they were retreating.
As a result, he saw pirates on the opposite ship began to slide into the sea along the ropes, holding hammers and chisels in their hands, and swimming towards the merchant ship. He immediately reacted and shouted, "They are going to smash the ship!"
"Bow and arrow, shoot them to death!"
As soon as these words were spoken, archers on both sides of the ship leaned forward, aimed their bows at the pirates swimming towards them and shot. Immediately, several people on the opposite side were hit by arrows and died in the sea.
Guan Cheng saw this and ordered his own troops to shoot back with arrows. The Qingzhou pirates had the advantage in numbers, and for a moment the Youzhou archers were suppressed and could not even raise their heads.
When Lu Xun saw this, he ordered the side guards to be raised again to block the arrows. At the same time, he opened the arrow holes on the side guards so that the archers could hide behind them and shoot arrows.
The pirates who swam over were also very cunning. They dived into the sea and actually dived to the side of the Zhen family merchant ship. Then they stuck their heads out and used hammers and chisels to dig desperately near the waterline.
As they got close to the side of the ship, they were immediately in a blind spot for bows and arrows. The Youzhou army was helpless and could only watch as the other side pierced the ship.
Lu Xun looked over and saw the pirates enduring the freezing sea water while slashing the boat with red eyes.
If these people stayed a little longer, they would probably freeze to death in the sea, but now they were not afraid of death. For a moment, Lu Xun was shocked by their desperate fighting style.
As soon as he hesitated, Tian Yu had already tied a rope around his waist and shouted, "Let me go!"
The other soldiers hesitated for a moment, but when they heard Tian Yu urging them loudly, they quickly tightened the rope and lifted Tian Yu off the boat. Tian Yu held a long spear in his hand and aimed it at a pirate who was piercing the boat, piercing his skull immediately.
Guan Cheng saw this and ordered the pirates to shoot arrows at Tian Yu. Several arrows hit Tian Yu's armor at once, and the situation was dangerous. The other soldiers then reacted and got off the boat one after another hanging on ropes. Some of them held halberds, and some held shields, to help Tian Yu block the arrows.
Yuan Xi was standing at the bow at this time, shouting loudly: "Shoot arrows, shoot all the opponents to death!"
He drew his bow and shot at Guan Cheng, but the moment the arrow left the bow, the waves hit the boat, the bow tilted slightly, and the arrow lost its aim, and no one knew where it went.
Guan Cheng laughed out loud when he saw this, but he heard the sound of wind and an arrow shot towards his face. He was so scared that he subconsciously lowered his head. The arrow hit his iron helmet on his forehead, causing him to take two steps back and feel dizzy.
He was so frightened that he quickly lay down to dodge. With a whoosh, another arrow flew past his scalp.
Seeing that the enemy general was hiding behind the side of the ship and dared not show his head, Yuan Xi said to Lu Lingqi who was shooting arrows repeatedly: "The ship is shaking so much, how can you shoot so accurately?"
Lu Lingqi shot a pirate who was poking his head out of the sea to death with one arrow. Without even turning her head, she said, "This is easy. The ship is bobbing up and down, and there are pauses at both the highest and lowest points. This is a good time to shoot an arrow."
Yuan Xi was dumbfounded. How could he have forgotten this? Lu Lingqi was able to discover this so quickly. Doesn't that make him look like a mentally retarded person?
The two sides fought back and forth, and after another wave of pirates who went into the water to sabotage the ship were all stabbed to death by long spears, Guan Cheng finally gave up, ordered the ships to retreat slightly, and surrounded the Zhen family merchant ship from a distance.
Yuan Xi felt a headache when he saw this. Unlike on land where they could escape, at sea the two sides would end up fighting to the death. In this era, if one could not establish an absolute advantage in a naval battle, the only option would be a war of attrition, which would consume the number of soldiers on both sides. The number of Qingzhou pirates was obviously much greater.
Lu Xun, however, held a telescope, his face solemn, and said to Yuan Xi: "Gongsun's ship has begun to escape."
Yuan Xi observed through the telescope and saw that the few remaining dilapidated warships of Gongsun were accelerating to flee northward.
Just now, the Qingzhou pirate fleet took the opportunity to send out seven or eight ships to intercept the warships of the Gongsun clan that wanted to come to support. The Qingzhou pirates had rich experience in naval battles and had the advantage in numbers, so they forced the Gongsun clan ships to flee in panic.
The Qingzhou pirates did not chase after them, but instead made a circle and slowly surrounded Yuan Xi.
Guan Hai stood at the bow with the knife raised high. He and Guan Cheng had cooperated with each other many times and were very familiar with the operation. No one could escape from their hands!
Yuan Xi thought that it would be great if he had a few cannons, as none of the dozens of ships present would be able to escape. Now that he had no long-range weapons, he could only fight with the enemy by attrition. When the enemy's twenty or so ships surrounded him for a boarding battle, the Youzhou army would be wiped out sooner or later.
Lu Xun said, "Sir, it's not good if the other side surrounds us. Why don't we set sail and leave the encirclement first?"
Yuan Xi nodded, "Let's follow Bo Yan's words and return the fleet to Youzhou!"
Less than half a minute later, Lu Xun saw through the telescope that several ships came out of the Huangxian port and were rapidly approaching the route of Yuan Xi's retreat.
There are pirate reinforcements coming to intercept us!
Lu Xun said, "Intercept them from the front and cut off their retreat from the back. This is going to be a bit troublesome."
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We can slowly waste time with them and wait for an opportunity to burn all their sails. We can leave whenever we want."
The two sides chased each other for a whole day. At night, when the Youzhou army had run out of rockets and fireworks, they finally burned almost all the sails of the opposite side.
Just when the Youzhou army thought that the other side was helpless, Guan Hai and Guan Cheng looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter. They waved their hands, and immediately pirates came running up from the bottom of the cabin dragging brand new sails!
In a short while, more than 20 warships were equipped with brand new sails. Under the influence of the wind, their speed increased greatly and they surrounded Yuan Xi's fleet!
When Lu Xun saw it, he looked at Yuan Xi. Seeing Yuan Xi nodded, he ordered people to bring out two large fireworks several feet long.
Everyone held it upright and lit it. They saw flames spurting from the bottom of the firework and rising straight up into the sky. Two huge flowers of fire bloomed in the night sky dozens of feet high.
Guan Cheng looked up at the sky. The bright moon was hanging high in the sky. The fireworks gradually dimmed and turned into tiny pieces. He sneered in his heart. This thing can only start a fire. The killing power is very poor. Now the opponent is at the end of his rope, so he must be crazy and set off fireworks recklessly, right?
He raised the long sword in his hand high, "Go!"
"Kill them all!"
Night battles are extremely dangerous. Falling into the sea in the dark is almost a situation of certain death, so both sides dare not advance rashly and fight extremely conservatively. Rather than killing the enemy, it is more about harassing each other and preventing the other side from sleeping.
The Qingzhou pirates were not impatient either. They were determined to slowly consume the enemy's energy. If they continued to fight like this, the enemy's morale would collapse within a day.
In the cabin of the Youzhou army, several doctors were treating the wounded who were shot by arrows. They pulled out the arrows, cleaned the blood stains near the wounds, took out the bamboo tubes beside them, poured some golden liquid on the clean linen, and then applied it on the wounds.
The wounded man screamed loudly. It was obvious that the liquid was extremely irritating. However, the doctor did not even blink an eye and applied another layer of herbal medicine on the wound before bandaging it.
Then the healer took out a piece of something and handed it to the soldier, saying, "Chew it slowly, don't swallow it."
The soldier took it, peeled it, put it in his mouth, bit it hard, and immediately grimaced in the spiciness.
If Yuan Xi was present, he would recognize that this was what he was promoting experimentally.
garlic.
In this era, although Yuan Xi was unable to develop penicillin, Qu later thought of something that could serve as a slight substitute.
Allicin.
Although its effect is much worse than penicillin, it is the most effective antibacterial disinfectant and immunity-enhancing thing Yuan Xi can think of.
Garlic is native to the Pamir Plateau in central Asia and the Tianshan Mountains in China. It was introduced to China from the Western Regions by Zhang Qian during the Han Dynasty. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, it had become a common crop.
Volume 6 of Zhang Hua's "Records of Natural History" records: "Zhang Qian returned from his mission to the Western Regions with garlic, guava, walnuts, shallots, alfalfa, and coriander." In the Northern Wei Dynasty's "Essential Techniques for the People of Qi", Jia Sixie also said in "Garlic Planting": "Zhang Qian traveled around the remote areas and obtained garlic, grapes, and alfalfa."
Garlic contains allicin. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that garlic can treat stool sores, postpartum prolapse, and infantile convulsions. Modern medicine believes that garlic can enhance immunity and improve the transformation ability of the human immune system such as lymphocyte T cells and macrophages.
Fresh garlic, sliced or mashed and eaten raw, is good for heart health and is often used to expel intestinal parasites.
Yuan Xi did not take it too seriously at first, but later he found that the prescription Hua Tuo gave to Chen Deng also included the use of garlic to expel parasites. He suddenly realized that garlic is a good thing in this era!
People in this era have realized the antibacterial effect of garlic, and some people often eat garlic to strengthen their bodies.
After Yuan Xi and Hua Tuo mentioned this idea, Hua Tuo began to experiment with garlic and found that on the battlefield, crushed garlic could indeed inhibit wound inflammation and ulceration.
Although it is very irritating and the effect is not obvious, it is already very good for this era when penicillin cannot be produced.
Moreover, the extraction of allicin is not complicated. As long as there is a distilled water device, you can mash the garlic and soak it in distilled water for a period of time, and then you can get a golden liquid, which is the crude allicin.
Since the Western Han Dynasty, China has had bronze distiller's devices. Similar vessels were unearthed in the tomb of Marquis Haihun, which were mostly used to distill floral essential oils. Therefore, under Yuan Xi's promotion, making a tube of allicin to carry with you has become a standard for medical practitioners.
However, the disadvantage of allicin is that it is not easy to preserve. In most cases, it will become ineffective within ten days and can only be used as soon as it is made. Fortunately, the weather is cold and the shelf life is longer, so it comes in handy.
The Qingzhou pirates did not have such treatment. If they were injured at sea, they were basically waiting to die. Including those who died in the sea today, hundreds of people have been killed or injured.
But Guan Hai and Guan Cheng didn't care at all. There were nearly twenty ships and more than two thousand pirates below, and they could easily overwhelm the other side!
After the two sides fought for a whole night, the sky gradually brightened. When a hint of dawn appeared, Guan Hai and Guan Cheng saw that the merchant ships on the other side had slowed down a lot. They knew that the other side was tired and it was time to launch a general attack!