Tao Ji had long seen the movement of the Wei army building bamboo rafts on the other side of the shore. Not only did he not panic, he scoffed at it, thinking that the Wei army's actions were extremely stupid.

Although bamboo rafts can cross the river, compared with warships, bamboo rafts are insignificant and have limited carrying capacity. At most, a few people can stand on a bamboo raft. Even if the Wei army built thousands of bamboo rafts, the troops they could invest were very limited. There were only a few thousand people involved in the attack, and tens of thousands of people were in trouble.

Moreover, there was no blockage on the bamboo raft. Even if they could sail to the other side, the Wu army was already on the verge of battle by the river and arranged a large number of archers. With a raft of arrows, it was enough to shoot these Wei soldiers into hedgehogs. How could they successfully cross the river?

More importantly, the maneuverability of bamboo rafts is very poor. They are not like boats that can row in the water, advance and backward, turn left and right, and change direction arbitrarily. The sailing of bamboo rafts is relatively rigid, and they can only go downstream and use a strut to slightly change the direction. As for going upstream, it is almost unnecessary to think about it.

If the Wei army wanted to use bamboo rafts to cross the river, they had to go into the water upstream, downstream, and approach the other shore diagonally.

If there is no one on the other side, then there is no big problem with the Wei army crossing the river, but there are at least 40,000 to 50,000 Wu troops in Panyu New City, so how could it allow them to land easily?

Even if they were lucky enough to climb ashore, facing the Wu army's defense line, they would have to die in vain.

So when facing the Wei army's bamboo raft crossing the river, Tao Ji didn't care at all. It seemed that the Wei army was really forced to do so, so he thought of such a low-key attack method!

Tao Ji just smiled and ordered the Wu army along the coast to strengthen its vigilance. He went back to the camp to rest. These days, Tao Ji has been busy with relocation, and it is so busy that it is dark. Now he has finally stopped and now he can finally take a break.

Tao Ji was quite confident about the defense of Panyu New City. After all, through such a wide river and sea, the Wei army, who was known for infantry and cavalry, could only sigh.

It is purely funny to want to cross the river if you build a few bamboo rafts. The vastness of the estuary of the Yushui River has long subverted people's imagination of rivers. The sea and sky are vast and boundless. There are no warships. It is simply whimsical to cross the river with a few broken bamboo rafts.

Tao Ji also exchanged views with Shi Ji. Shi Ji also agreed with Tao Ji's idea. It is estimated that the Wei army had no choice but to do anything. After all, the Wu army adopted the measures to strengthen the walls and clear the fields, so that even if the Wei army took Panyu, they would not be able to get the supplies they wanted.

The Wei army's naval fleet that showed its power in the Yangtze River system was unable to reach Jiaozhou. It was because Shi Ji was attracted by this that he boldly moved all his troops to this sandbank that was just a stone's throw away from Panyu City, leaving the Wei army across the river, but he was helpless.

Although it is very simple to make bamboo rafts, the Wei army wanted to take Panyu New City through bamboo rafts, so they really thought too much. War is not a joke. The Wu army has already been on guard and is ready to defend. Even if the Wei army prepares for more bamboo rafts, it is a delusion to attack the new city.

Amid the sound of ridicule of the Wu army, the Wei army had already completed the task of building bamboo rafts as planned. The next step is to test the waters. Although the Wei army has been working hard during this period, if they cannot convert the bamboo rafts into tools for attack, all their previous efforts will be wasted and will not have any effect.

In fact, there was no one in the Wei army who were using bamboo rafts, including Yang Hu, who were from the north, who were always unfamiliar with water wars.

In the past, during the battle to cross the Yangtze River, the Central Army had the support of the navy fleet, making them cross the river as if they were walking on flat ground, so they did not feel any difficulty at all.

But now without the support of the navy, the Wei army had to find a way out. The ready-made materials were bamboo. In fact, for Yang Hu, he had no choice but to choose bamboo rafts. He also knew that it was better to use boats to cross the river, but now where to find so many boats, so bamboo rafts crossing the river became his only choice.

It is necessary to test the waters. The Wei army must master the skills of controlling these bamboo rafts, so Yang Hu arranged some water-oriented Wei soldiers to test the waters on the bamboo rafts. If these soldiers unfortunately fell into the water during the test waters, they would at least not be drowned if they could swim.

When testing the waters, I still found many problems.

First of all, the carrying capacity of bamboo rafts is lower than their prior estimates. Originally, they believed that bamboo was hollow, and rows of bamboos were tied into bamboo rafts, which could carry a large amount of weight.

But in fact, the newly cut bamboo is all wet and its portion is relatively heavy. Moreover, after the bamboo enters the water, it cannot guarantee that every bamboo joint will be intact and will not enter water. Some bamboos have slight cracks, and after entering the water, the water will be poured into the middle of the bamboo tube.

Besides, when bamboo rafts are cut without a sidewalk, the bamboo raft will sink when people step on it, and even the people's feet are covered with water. In this way, it is impossible to guarantee that the bamboo raft can withstand greater weight.

Through the test ride, there were only five or six people riding on each bamboo raft, and seven people were the upper limit. If there were more, the bamboo raft would probably sink into the water.

After all, every Wei soldier needs to wear armor, use shields and weapons. Each person's weight is no less than thirty kilograms. The combined weight of five or six people is indeed quite heavy.

On average, one bamboo raft rides six people, so a thousand bamboo rafts can only transport 6,000 people across the river at one time, which is obviously lower than Yang Hu's expectations.

According to Yang Hu's prediction, at least about 10,000 troops were required to invest in an attack, which puts pressure on the Wu army that can defend the other side. If the number of people is too small, the pressure will be insufficient.

It seems that it can be solved by rebuilding bamboo rafts. Now a thousand bamboo rafts can ride 6,000 people. If one thousand of them is rebuilt, wouldn’t it be able to ride 12,000 people?

But on the water surface, it is not as simple as on land that it can pile up people. Each bamboo raft will occupy a piece of space on the river. Yang Hu calculated that a thousand bamboo rafts already occupy enough space. Even if there are many bamboo rafts built, they can only be lined up behind.

It is impossible to reach the other shore as soon as possible, but there are no meaningful numbers of bamboo rafts.

Just like a hundred thousand troops walking through a narrow valley, no matter how many soldiers and horses are, they can only pass in sequence. If they cannot expand their formation, no matter how many troops are, it is useless.
Chapter completed!