22: Chapter 22 Unify the Other Side!

One hundred massive ironclad ships were pulled into the An Shen River by ten thousand trackers, and it took a long time for the huge ripples to finally subside.

The commanders of the five great legions of the Starfire Empire all stood solemnly on the bank, gazing across at the defensive positions of the Southern State Four Kingdoms alliance.

General Tang Xing, commander of The First Army, raised his right arm and roared at the sky, "Board the ships!"

The imperial soldiers immediately began to march in neat lines into the ironclad ships, following the procedures they had practiced beforehand.

Each ship carried thirty Cavalry riding snow wolves and one hundred fully armed infantrymen.

A total of thirteen thousand soldiers made up the vanguard force for this landing operation. They were all elite imperial soldiers selected through layers of rigorous tests and competitions within their respective legions.

Just as the vanguard force was about to finish boarding, General Tang Xing walked toward the nearest ironclad ship, saying, "Everyone, squeeze in a bit and make room for me."

Several officers and staff members immediately stepped forward to hold him back. "How can the commander be in the first wave of the assault? If you leave, who will command The First Army?"

"That's right, and besides, the other four legion commanders haven't moved. Why should our commander from The First Army be the one to go!"

General Tang Xing replied coldly, "This ship was designed by Deputy General Tang Meng of my First Army. How could I not ride it!"

After saying this, he shook off their hands and stepped firmly into the ironclad ship.

Soon, all the ironclad ships closed their hatches and drifted toward the southern bank, carried by the wind.

These ships had been designed and built by Deputy General Tang Meng together with the surrendered Artisans. Aside from the advantage of having five sides covered in iron plates, making them impervious to arrows and stones, they were almost entirely flawed.

First of all, their speed was extremely slow; no matter how strong the wind was, it could not make these behemoths move quickly. Furthermore, their center of gravity was very high, and many capsizing accidents had occurred during training. Therefore, the imperial soldiers inside the ships all maintained their positions with nervous expressions, fearing that moving around too much would cause the ship to flip.

The Cavalry were even more busy constantly soothing their restless snow wolves.

General Tang Xing closed his eyes, remembering how ecstatic Deputy General Tang Meng had been when he first built these ships, eager to urge the Emperor to march south immediately.

But when a scout sent by Deputy General Tang Meng to the Southern State uncovered a piece of information, he immediately became disheartened and shelved the ironclad ships.

Later, General Tang Xing and Deputy General Tang Meng, the two highest-ranking officers of The First Army, argued about this for a long time, but Deputy General Tang Meng consistently used the excuse that "the projected casualties would be too high" to strongly oppose using these ships.

It was only because His Majesty insisted on the southern expedition this time that these ironclad ships saw the light of day again.

"The casualties will indeed be high," General Tang Xing muttered to himself.

What did it matter how high they were? Nothing was more important than spreading the blessings of the Xingyang God.

He opened his eyes and, in the pitch-black cabin, estimated the time, thinking that they should have reached the center of the river by now and entered the defensive range of the Southern State Four Kingdoms.

Sure enough, countless "rumbling" and "crashing" sounds came from the iron plates surrounding the hull.

That was the sound of the Four Kingdoms alliance's rain of arrows and stones hitting the ironclad ships.

It was deafening, enough to cause a splitting headache, and even blurred one's vision.

At this moment, no orders or words of encouragement from any general or officer could be conveyed. All soldiers could only do as they had practiced: hold tightly onto the crossbars inside the ship and endure with all their might.

However, some soldiers actually felt relieved, thinking this was easier than the selection process. When the vanguard force was being selected, it was just like this: over a hundred people would crawl into a huge iron house, and then a catapult designed by Deputy General Tang Meng would throw huge stones at it.

Those who had their ears bleed from the vibrations or fainted were naturally eliminated.

In the camp of the Four Kingdoms alliance on the southern mountain, one of the defending generals could no longer restrain himself. "Alliance Leader, use that thing quickly! Our arrow towers and catapults are completely unable to stop those iron-shelled ships!"

"No rush!" Mo looked down at the An Shen River, assuming a demeanor of having victory in his grasp. "Wait until the Star Fire Nation's ships are fifty meters from our bank!"

After waiting for a while longer, he said to the general beside him, "Now!"

The long-impatient defending general immediately rushed out of the tent and relayed the order layer by layer.

Soon, the defending troops of the Southern State Four Kingdoms alliance poured countless barrels of black liquid into the An Shen River.

Mo, in the mountain-top tent, said to the kings of the three races beside him, "This oil, which is as black as lacquer and as thick as fat, was discovered within the territory of the Stone Person nation, so I call it petroleum."

The leader of the Stone Person nodded slightly, then immediately looked back at the An Shen River with worry, watching the offensive of the Star Fire Nation fleet.

The imperial soldiers inside the one hundred ironclad ships felt the world go quiet in an instant. They whispered to each other with puzzled expressions.

"What happened? Did the Southern State run out of arrows and stones? Why did the noise stop?"

"They probably realized it's ineffective against our iron armor. Whatever, once we land on the southern bank, we will surely slaughter them all."

General Tang Xing signaled for everyone in his ship to be quiet, then tilted his ear to listen carefully.

The sound of flames burning! On the water on the south side of the An Shen River, a raging fire had ignited!

Sure enough, the Southern State Four Kingdoms had used petroleum. The temperature inside the cabins immediately began to rise drastically!

The entire ironclad ship turned into a massive oven, and the imperial soldiers and snow wolves inside were being roasted alive.

Although the bottom of the ships was made of thick wood cut from the giant trees of the northern snow forests—extremely thick and sturdy—they could not withstand the fierce fire and oil. Soon, over a dozen ships were burned through, and the imperial soldiers who swam out were immediately met with attacks of arrows and stones.

There were also over twenty ships that capsized because the soldiers inside could not bear the pain of the roasting iron plates and struggled in panic, causing the entire ship to turn over.

The wooden ship bottoms exposed above the water also became targets for the Southern State Four Kingdoms.

The entire southern side of the An Shen River instantly turned into a living hell.

Thousands of Starfire Empire soldiers were being burned on the water.

Mo, the leader of the Four Kingdoms alliance, narrowed his eyes slightly. "I told you not to worry. No matter what kind of ships they have, they cannot pass the barrier of the sea of fire!"

On the southern bank, the defenders of the Four Kingdoms felt waves of heat and smoke. Seeing that over thirty ironclad ships had still drifted to the shore, they couldn't help but stare in shock.

The defending general waved his hand and mocked, "Look at you, scared like this, cowards! The Star Fire Nation soldiers inside are already roasted. As long as we have petroleum, we will burn as many as they send!"

As soon as he finished speaking, nearly a thousand imperial soldiers crawled out from beneath those thirty-plus ships.

General Tang Xing was the first to stand on the shore; this was also his first time setting foot on the land of the Southern State! Although his entire left arm had been scorched, he still raised his right hand high. "Imperial soldiers, assemble! For the Xingyang God, conquer the Southern State!"

He looked around at the hellish tragedy on the river, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. He roughly estimated that of the thirteen-thousand-strong vanguard force, fewer than one thousand soldiers had made it to the southern bank.

This was about the same number Deputy General Tang Meng had expected. Before the expedition, he had talked with Deputy General Tang Meng in prison for a very long time before finally finalizing the strategy of digging holes in the bottom of the ships beforehand.

At that time, Deputy General Tang Meng's eyes were filled with sorrow. "Adding a few more layers of planks to the bottom of the ship, a hole won't sink it. But it will be too difficult for you to hold the ship up under the fire and maintain the ship's balance as a shield. We Cat People are not naturally good at swimming, let alone having to work together underwater to maintain precise balance. So, no matter how much you drill before the battle, I estimate that less than one-tenth will make it to the opposite bank."

General Tang Xing looked at the soldiers gathering toward him, all soaking wet and more or less injured, and thought that these one thousand elites would be enough. He then shouted aloud, "For the blessings of the Xingyang God to spread across the continent, everyone charge with me! Take the Southern State!"