Dong Xi was wearing two layers of armor and weighed more than a hundred kilograms. In addition, he was seriously injured and was on the verge of death. His body fell into the river and sank immediately.
Seeing the cooked duck fly away, Huang Zu's soldiers were naturally dissatisfied and raced into the water to fish for it, but unfortunately they found nothing.
Huang Zu's soldiers could only use their spears to pick up Dong Xi and announce that "Dong Xi has been crowned."
Ling Cao was killed by Huang Zujun shortly after the war started. Dong Xi had been supporting the overall situation, but now Dong Xi fell into the river and died. The Jiangdong Army's forward soldiers, who were already divided and fighting on their own, were completely discouraged and fled the battlefield one after another.
Seeing that the vanguard was defeated, Xu Kun was shocked and angry. He did not expect that the vanguard fleet was defeated so quickly. It was so fast that it was defeated by the enemy before he could lead the vanguard to arrive.
What makes Xu Kun even more distressed is that he lost two generals, Ling Cao and Dong Xi. As the saying goes, "Thousands of armies are easy to get, but one general is hard to find." Both of them were Jiangdong generals. They had always been relied upon by brothers Sun Ce and Sun Quan, and now they are both.
Even if he died, he didn't know how to explain it to Sun Quan.
However, their deaths were not worthless. At least they made Xu Kun know that when the enemy had water weapons such as poles, it would not be appropriate to confront them head-on with large ships.
The vanguard led by Ling Cao and Dong Xi was an elite member of the Jiangdong Army, riding on a multi-story ship. However, the ship was slow in movement and had a huge target. It was a living target in the face of the enemy's attack pole.
With the bloody experience and lessons learned from the previous battle, Xu Kun changed his approach to using light boats as the front guard, with the Mongolian battleships as the shield, and the taller ships as the rear.
Although doing so caused Jiangdong's army to lose its water advantage, it also minimized the threat of pole shooting.
Facts have proved that the strategy Xu Kun came up with to deal with the enemy was quite effective. Once the two sides fought, Jiangdong Army took advantage of the small maneuverability of the ship and used five ships in a formation to surround the Huang Zu Army's large ship and launch waves of attacks.
The officers and soldiers of Huang Zujun were shocked to find that the clapping pole they had used so powerfully before seemed to have lost its effect.
There is no other way. The pole-shooting can only attack in a straight line. The Jiangdong Army's boats deliberately avoid the front and keep cruising around. It is difficult for the pole-shooting to be effective. Even if it succeeds occasionally, it only destroys a sampan boat and kills several people.
It's pretty innocuous.
Jiangdong's army used small boats to fight against the large ships of Huang Zu's army. They originally used eggs to hit rocks, but Jiangdong's army relied on its elite soldiers to survive for a while.
But Xu Kun was not happy. There was no other way to fight on water. To put it bluntly, big ships were better than small ones, and many ships were better than few.
Jiangdong's army was at a disadvantage because it was using small means to win big. However, the Xiakou channel was narrow and there was an ambush of Huang Zu's army on it. Therefore, Jiangdong's army had the advantage of having no warships, but it was difficult to use it.
In other words, Jiangdong Army is currently using "small ships to fight big ships, few ships to fight many ships." The reason why it has not shown signs of decline depends entirely on the lives of its soldiers, but this is not a long-term solution...
Sun Quan was sitting on the deck of the ship, listening to the battle reports from the front line. His face was as gloomy as water. He had already begun to imagine victory when he conquered Xiakou. Unexpectedly, not long after, the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.
Huang Zu's navy actually had a sharp weapon that could shoot stones, whether it was a fighting ship, a stern ship, or a building ship, it would smash everything into pieces.
The forward assault failed and was defeated by Huang Zu's navy. Ling Cao and Dong Xi were also in trouble. Now Xu Kun was leading the forward army to fight the enemy, and the situation was also not optimistic.
At this time, Sun Quan even belatedly discovered Huang Zu's sinister intentions. The latter had no intention of defending Xiakou. His purpose was to take advantage of the narrow terrain of Xiakou to eat up his front line.
military.
"Old tin forging thief..." Sun Quan gritted his teeth with hatred. He stepped into Huang Zu's trap and fell into an extremely disadvantageous situation. He could only continuously dispatch warships to support Xu Kun through the narrow and dangerous Xiakou.
Sun Quan himself also knew that this refueling tactic was not a good strategy, but he had no other choice for the time being. The risk of supporting by land was too high. After all, he was in enemy territory and rashly went ashore. Once he was ambushed by Huang Zu's army, the consequences would be disastrous.
The current passive situation is all due to the "shooting pole". If Huang Zu's army does not have a water warfare weapon such as the shooting pole, no matter what tricks and traps you have, Jiangdong's army will be able to break them.
Sun Quan was full of doubts. Huang Zu was a subordinate of Liu Biao. Huang Zu had such a stone-making war weapon, so Liu Biao must have also had it. But since he had such a sharp weapon, why did he lose again and again when facing Liu Jingshui's army?
Or is it that this kind of stone-firing war weapon comes from Liu Jingjun? This also explains why Liu Jing can always defeat the strong with the weak.
Thinking of this, Sun Quan couldn't help but turn his head and look at Lu Su beside him, and then realized that the latter's face was pale and his mind was not at ease.
Sun Quan felt cold when he saw that Lu Su was losing his composure, and couldn't help but ask: "Zijing, have you seen this kind of stone-made war weapon in Changsha?"
Sun Quan's guess was correct. Lu Su did indeed see the shooting pole on Liu Jingjun's battleship when he was on a mission to Changsha. Of course, the shooting pole was covered with crimson cloth at that time, making it difficult for outsiders to see the reality.
At that time, out of curiosity, he specifically asked Zhuge Liang, but the latter did not answer in detail. Since the other party had no intention of telling him, Lu Su could no longer pry into the secrets of his allies, so he had to give up.
In Lu Su's view, this was just a trivial matter, so he did not mention it to Sun Quan after returning to Jiangdong. He had already forgotten it until today...
Facing Sun Quan's inquiry, Lu Su's face was uncertain, he sighed secretly, and chose to tell the truth.
After hearing this, Sun Quan was angry and anxious. He couldn't help but pace back and forth, reproaching: "Zijing, you are such a smart man. How come you got confused at the critical moment? Liu Jing covered him with a scarf cloth.
It can be said that you are trying to hide it, which just shows the importance of this thing. Even if you take your allies into consideration, you can still order people to inquire privately, how can you give up so easily!"
Lu Suli sat down and worshiped on the deck, asking for forgiveness from Sun Quan. However, he did not agree with Sun Quan's accusation. He believed that his only mistake was not informing Sun Quan.
As for snooping and stealing the secrets of allies, he is a man with an upright temperament and a strong heart, and he doesn't even bother to do such things.
Moreover, the alliance with Jingnan is of vital importance to Jiangdong. Anything that may affect the alliance between the two parties cannot be decided by him alone.
If he acted on his own initiative and the alliance failed, would Sun Quan not blame him? Then he might even be tempted to kill him.
Sun Quan blamed Lu Su for his current passivity, but he soon ignored his complaints. One bad news after another came back from the front line. He continued to dispatch warships and rushed to the front line for support, but failed to save the overall situation. The fierce battle lasted for a long time.
The former army is already in a state of collapse.
Now, Sun Quan faced a serious question: should he continue to increase his troops and fight to the end, or should he abandon Xiakou and retreat?