Chapter 902: Fireball (no, there’s no magic)
Chapter 902: Fireball (no, there’s no magic)
“Young Commander Long, we won’t be able to reach the ships.”
“The water is too deep.”
The soldiers gave the report when they noticed the ships had stopped. The design for the ships were rather small and low. It was different from the commonly seen ships that was used to explore the sea.
In fact, Long Qian Xing really wondered why Wei Da Kingdom even used those ships.
Rather than ships, they were more like fishing boat.
Well, their sizes were a bit bigger, though.
“…”
‘I can’t understand the thinking of Wei Da Kingdom. Though, if they’re on the river and their opponents at the river banks, they can indeed shoot from a distance.’
Long Qian Xing had heard about the tactics that Wei Da Kingdom used from time to time. It was to use the boats as interferences while the main soldiers were clashing on the river banks.
That was why those on the ships would all be archers.
“How many ships are there?” Long Qian Xing asked.
“Reporting to Young Commander, we have sighted around 15 to 20 ships. We’ll update the report when we get the precise number!”
15 to 20?
Wei Da Kingdom was really going all out in this battle.
“Archers, get ready!” Long Qian Xing waved his hand and then told them to prepare the things that he had asked before. “Prepare the fire.”
“Yes!”
The soldiers honestly didn’t understand why Long Qian Xing wanted them to use fire against the ships. The people there would be able to easily extinguished the fire since there were a lot of water around them.
But since their young commander ordered it, they all decided to follow suit.
In any case, if they could hit someone, it would also be quite good.
“Ready?”
Long Qian Xing watched as his soldiers were getting ready while those Wei Da Kingdom soldiers were also preparing their archers. He waved his hand.
“NOW!”
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Countless burning arrows were shot towards the ships.
“Gah!”
Some of the arrows struck while the others only reached the body then fell to the river. The leading general on the river, General Nan, scoffed when he saw that Long Qian Xing was trying to use fire.
“Shoot the arrow!” General Nan ordered loudly.
Swish!
“AAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Before they could even shoot the arrow, fire spurt out from those arrows that hit the water. This surprised a lot of soldiers, including the driver as he accidentally twisted the wheel. As the result, their ships shook.
General Nan was in disbelief as his body sway and fell to the river.
Splash!
He looked at the arrows in disbelief.
What kind of sorcery was it to cause the fire to react so violently when it hit the water?
Just as General Nan was about climb, he watched in horror as the ship was overturned right on top of him. He tried to swim away, but the heavy wooden ship directly fell on top of him.
Bang! Splash!
As a general, this must be the worst method for him to die.
Dying because he was crushed by a ship…
No other general would have suffered like him.
“Oh, the result is this good?” Long Qian Xing was a bit surprised. Looking at how the soldiers reacted violently, he began to wonder whether these soldiers had never known about this small phenomenon.
It was just a simple mix of burning oil and water. Since oil and water couldn’t mix with each other, it would react violently as the water evaporated and ejected the oil out, splattering them upwards.
It caused the fire to look like fireball spurting upwards.
But…
The reaction of the soldiers was a bit over the top, right?
Long Qian Xing was baffled when he saw how the soldiers were so easily surprised that even the driver couldn’t control the ships well. He only planned to catch them by surprise since there will be his soldiers who would go and ambush them…
Yet, they had already caused troubles for themselves.
“…Have you never cooked?” Long Qian Xing asked to the nearby soldier beside him.
The soldier looked at Long Qian Xing in confusion. “Young Commander, we cook meal when we marched forward but it’s only handed to a small portion of soldiers. The others usually don’t cook.”
And will never touch it.
Long Qian Xing’s lips twitched and he chose not to say anything else. He only felt glad that his roommate was a kitchen disaster back then and because he aced his lessons, he could even give lecture about this.
“Give the ambush signal.”
“Yes, Young Commander!”
“Don’t stop firing!”
“Yes!”
Watching as the Wei Da Kingdom’s soldiers reacted so violently when the fire burst out, Long Qian Xing began to wonder whether he would be able to use this tactic again in the future. It seemed to be so useful.
The things that he collected in the city back then was naturally cooking oil along with cloths. Cloths were used to tie at the tip of the arrows then it was soaked in oil before it was burned.
That way, he had effectively created fire arrow.
Tying so many cloths were tiring, though. Long Qian Xing was glad that he had subordinates to do that or it would never finish.
“Keep going!”
“YES!”
Their surprise wouldn’t last that long since they would realize that the fire eventually died down. Besides, the violent reaction wouldn’t last that long either. Before it happened, Long Qian Xing had to strike.
…
Sora’s Corner: Fireball
I’m not talking about magic here, but rather the properties of oil and water. Even a small amount of water dropped into a pan or deep fryer filled with burning oil will sink to the bottom, become superheated and erupt.
Because of this, if you cook and the oil caught fire, do NOT pour water. It’ll only form ‘fireball’ as the oil splashed upwards and caused the person who poured the water to be catch in fire.
More information can be searched on your own.