The moon is white and the wind is high, and the boats on the river are shadowed.
Zhu Ran's army had just boarded the ship and had not yet had time to drive out from the dock.
Cheng Pu was still applying fresh mud to the hull of the boat at this time.
No one expected that Jiang Xia Navy's ship was so fast that it had already reached them.
At this moment, seeing that the Jiangdong Navy was indeed unprepared, Shen Chen became energetic and ordered the soldiers to act according to the plan.
The fleet immediately started making noises, gongs, drums, and horns. Thousands of ships were beating gongs and drums at the same time on the river that was several miles wide.
The sound spread in all directions, and even the sound of the howling wind on the river and the crashing waves of the waves were drowned out.
Then the fifty fighting ships at the front turned on all their power and rammed headlong into the Jiangdong Navy fleet.
At this time, Zhu Ran wanted to order the soldiers to drive out the ship as soon as possible and block the opponent's route.
But many years of water fighting experience told him one thing - it's too late!
The speed of Jiangxia Navy's ships was far beyond their imagination. Before their ships could sail out, the opponent's ships would definitely collide with each other.
So Zhu Ran only hesitated for eight seconds and issued the retreat order when the Jiangxia Navy fleet was less than two miles away from them.
"Blow the retreat whistle and return to shore!"
Zhu Ran roared angrily.
"Beep beep beep beep beep!"
A sharp whistle sounded, and the surrounding Zhu Ran soldiers turned their heads and ran through the wooden planks built between the boats to the shore.
In ancient times, when stopping a ship, for fear of being blown away by the current and wind, the ship was often placed sideways on the shore to slow down the force of the current and wind.
At this moment, a ship was lying on the shore, and the soldiers on the ship ran back without looking back. Some people even crowded forward and backward and accidentally fell into other cabins, making a mess.
Fifty medium-sized ships from behind were approaching quickly. In just over two minutes, they had already rushed forward and crashed into the Jiangdong Navy ship in front.
Boom!
Bang bang bang bang bang bang!
It was like rolling thunder resounding through the night sky.
Countless collisions and loud noises spread in all directions, sawdust flew, and many ships were smashed.
But those fighting ships were also in dilapidated condition.
Ancient ships rarely chose to collide with each other. After all, they were all made of wood. If they hit others and sink them, they themselves would also suffer.
However, these ships themselves are dead soldiers, so there is no need to worry about whether they are cool or not.
So he turned on full power and crashed into the enemy's fleet.
Jiangxia Navy and Jiangdong Navy will fight to the death!
"Run."
"Help."
"Run, run."
Those Jiangdong Navy soldiers on the ship who had not yet run to the shore only regretted that their parents had lost two legs.
In an instant, flames shot up into the sky from behind, and many small boats were put down on the ship. Jiangxia Navy soldiers lit fires in the cabins, jumped onto the small boats and retreated in an orderly manner.
It didn't take long for the fire to spread from the fighting ship of the Jiangxia Navy to the ships stored at the dock port of the Jiangdong Navy.
The southeast wind blew violently, and with the help of the wind, the flames jumped three to four feet high. In an instant, the periphery of the Jiangdong Navy fleet turned into a sea of fire, dyeing half of the sky red.
At this time, Zhou Yu had just organized his troops and left the camp. Normally, he believed that the enemy should still be several miles away at this time, and it would take at least another quarter of an hour to rush to the dock.
At this time, Zhu Ran boarded the ship to intercept first, and he led the army to arrive later. With Cheng Pu assisting from the side, Zhou Yu believed that if the enemy dared to attack at night, they would be doomed.
And this is a very perfect plan.
Since you can only commit a thief by traveling a thousand miles away, there is no way to guard against a thief by traveling a thousand miles away.
Therefore, even if Shen Chen did not launch a night attack later, maintaining this state would not tire the soldiers.
It's better to come and react immediately.
But Zhou Yu never expected that when he led the army out of the camp, what he saw was the raging fire on the river bank several miles away.
"What's going on?"
Zhou Yu was shocked. According to his calculation, it would be some time before the enemy arrived, so how could there be a fire?
Because the night was too dark and the distance was too far to see clearly, Lu Meng said next to him: "Captain, the enemy may have attacked with fire. They may have been intercepted by General Cheng and General Zhu. There is a fire on the river. Let's go and see it quickly." Let’s see.”
"Yes, that's the only possibility."
Zhou Yu quickly comforted himself, after all, he naturally did not want anything to happen to the dock.
However, he didn't know that there is an effect in psychology called Murphy's Law, which means that the more you fear something, the more it will come to you.
Soon they came to the shore. The closer they got to the river bank, the colder Zhou Yu's heart became, because he saw that it was not that the enemy was intercepted at all, but that the river bank was already blazing with flames.
At this moment, Zhu Ran's remnants of the army were still on the shore. They tried their best to transport the silt and river water and wet the ships in the middle, trying to create an isolation zone to prevent the flames from burning.
At the same time, Zhu Ran and other middle and lower-level officers took the lead and rushed to the front of the sea of fire, cutting off the ropes of the ships in an attempt to release the surrounding ships.
However, blown by the southeast wind, the flames are extremely fierce. Often a ship will be burned into a fire ship in just one or two minutes. Then the flames will be blown northwest by the southeast wind, quickly igniting other ships. .
"It's over, it's over."
"How could this happen?"
"Our ship is going to burn down."
The many Jiangdong Army officers and soldiers behind him all looked ashen, and their morale was extremely low.
Although they did not lose many men, horses, or food, for the navy, boats were life, especially since they were still in the flood mouth area.
The Hongkou area is not entirely an isolated island. It is bounded by the Yangtze River to the east, Dongting Lake to the south, Yunmengze to the north, and a narrow strip of land to the west that leads directly to Zuotang, which is the Huarong County area of Yueyang City in later generations.
However, the reason why they were able to set up camp here was because there were ships. If the war went bad, they could immediately take the ship down the river and leave Jingzhou and return to Yuzhang.
But now that the ships have been burned, the only way to go to Tang Dynasty is by land. It can be said that we are going deep alone and will face the siege of the Jingzhou army at any time.
This means that they are already in an embarrassing situation of being isolated and unable to return to Jiangdong.
As a result, the morale of all the soldiers was on the verge of collapse.
"Pfft!"
Zhou Yu then spit out a mouthful of blood.
"Captain, Governor."
The surrounding young generals Ling Tong and Lu Meng rushed forward to help him.
Zhou Yu's face turned pale and he said with difficulty: "Quickly, let the soldiers put out the fire immediately. Don't worry about the outside. Use mud and water to wet the ships in the middle and protect the innermost ships."
"Quick, put out the fire quickly."
Ling Tong supported Zhou Yu, while Lu Meng quickly directed the soldiers to put out the fire.
Jiangdong's ships were arranged in three layers inside and three layers outside. Although the fire spread quickly, Zhu Ran desperately created a layer of isolation zone to come out. However, due to the small number of people, the fire was still burning fiercely.
The soaring fire dyed the night sky orange-red, the raging flames came with terrifying huge waves, and the surrounding area turned into a sea of fire.
In the middle of winter, at the end of December, the weather was still very cold, but the Jiangdong soldiers fighting the fire could feel the heat wave coming from a long distance away, even if they jumped into the river, and the air was filled with the smell of sawdust.
Fire burns the sea and boils the rivers.
There were rising ashes everywhere, and even the river under the boat seemed to have evaporated, rolling up hot steam.
The Jiangdong Army soldiers fought hard. Some used knives to cut off the ropes connecting the ships, some used mud and river water to create isolation zones, and some simply jumped into the water, filled buckets with mud and water, and handed them to their companions on the ship.
Tens of thousands of soldiers rushed to the rescue, but manpower was as fragile as ants in the face of natural disasters and fires.
In the distance, on the river surface, more than two thousand Jiangxia navy ships floated.
Shen Chen stood on the boat. Thousands of soldiers who had set fire to the front rowed the boat back. They were lucky in this battle. Because Zhou Yu only took precautions and was not sure that they would attack at night, he did not set up an ambush. Otherwise, in There are thousands of archers on board, and at least half of these people may not come back.
After the soldiers who set the fire returned, the former military commander, Su Fei, and Chen Sheng, the generals who personally led the soldiers to launch a brave charge, returned. Shen Chen praised their courage and at the same time issued the order for a general attack.
"Pass my order. The army will approach the shore on both sides and outflank it. We must not let any of Jiangdong's troops escape!"
"only!"
The messenger immediately blew the horn.
In an instant, the fleet began to disperse and sail towards the river banks on the left and right.
The Jiangdong Navy has more than a thousand ships than the Jiangxia Navy, a total of more than 3,000 ships.
Among them, there are as many as five or six large-scale ships, and there are countless other small and medium-sized ships such as fighting ships, stern ships, maotu, Luradi, red horses, fast boats, airships, and cruise ships.
These large and small ships were densely packed all over the river bank, with docks stretching for more than ten miles, and the flames formed a fire dragon.
At this moment, the fire dragon was blazing, the entire sky was illuminated, and the heat wave spread to all directions, creating a spectacular scene.
It's just as spectacular as it is spectacular, and it's hard for them to get close to it.
Therefore, Shen Chen could only choose to divide his forces into two groups. At least the left and right fleets had to sail more than ten miles to avoid the terrifying sea of fire and land elsewhere.
Huang Zu led more than 10,000 people to go around from the west, while Shen Chen led the other half of the people to go around from the east.
The direction he chose was right at the entrance of the Yangtze River, and the fleet came in a mighty manner.
And there happened to be some Jiangdong Navy ships over there, which were Cheng Pu's ships that were experimenting with the silt effect. They were not at the dock, but at the entrance of the Yangtze River. If they wanted to experiment with the ship being burned, they would naturally have to drive the ship against it. Hit it and see the effect.
Unexpectedly, this happened to preserve the last fleet of the Jiangdong Navy, about a few hundred ships. At this time, Cheng Pu had already driven the ship away from the port and arrived on the river. When he saw the enemy attacking, he quickly ordered a retreat.
Shen Chen saw from a distance that hundreds of ships actually abandoned the army and sailed towards the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. He did not choose to pursue them, but stopped the ships from Cheng Pu and went ashore to intercept Zhou Yu.
At this moment, the situation of the Jiangdong Navy on the shore was even worse. No matter how hard they tried to put out the fire, they still could not stop the spread of the fire.
There were only more than 3,000 ships, but less than 500 were saved, and an isolation zone was barely built. But before they could be happy, news of the Jiangxia navy's attack came.
Zhou Yu gritted his teeth and persisted, and ordered the soldiers who were putting out the fire to return immediately to prepare to meet the enemy.
As a result, the old camp was lost.
Huang Zu came ashore in the northwest and attacked Zhou Yu's main camp in the northwest.
He also chose to set fire, and this fire seemed to spread out the humiliation of being attacked countless times by Sun Ce and Sun Quan for more than ten years.
After his shame was wiped away, Huang Zu was so excited that he looked up to the sky and screamed. He was so happy that he coughed up blood.
Over there, Zhou Yu was also coughing up blood.
The main camp had stored all the materials for their expedition. Now, in addition to the ships, even the food and grass were destroyed, and they completely lost the hope of conquering the Tang Dynasty from land.
"Fight to the death, fight to the death! Only by fighting to the death can you go home!"
Zhou Yu said in an extremely weak voice to Lu Meng Lingtong and others beside him.
The others, Lu Fan, Xu Sheng, Huang Gai and others, were also extremely sad. Someone asked: "What are the governors talking about?"
Lu Meng cried and said: "The governor said to fight to the death! Only by fighting to the death can we go home!"
"Fight to the death! Go home!"
"Fight to the death! Go home!"
"Fight to the death! Go home!"
In an instant, starting from Zhou Yu's side.
Immediately afterwards, this power seemed to have infected the entire Jiangdong Army, and the entire army began to roar.
At this moment, the armies of Huang Zu and Shen Chen began to encircle each other in the distance. Hearing the shouts of Jiangdong's army in the distance, Shen Chen led the Yuluo horse off the ship and sat on the horse, frowning.
"Jiangdong's army has become a mourning army."
he said.
He was always accompanied by two lieutenants, Zhang Nan and Qu Gan.
After hearing what he said, Zhang Nan said: "Grand Governor, I have also heard that a sad army will win. What should we do now?"
"Retreat to the ship and consume them."
Shen Chen said.
"Report!"
However, at this moment, horses galloped in the distance.
Although they used ships as transportation, some scouts in the army still used war horses. In order to ensure that messages were conveyed on land, the war horses were placed in the cabin and could be used after landing on land.
This scout was Huang Zu's scout. He galloped over at this moment and said to Shen Chen: "General Huang burned Zhou Yu's camp. Zhou Yu led his army to fight with him. General Huang could not retreat in time. He was dragged by them and could not board the ship.
, he was afraid that the ship would be robbed by the enemy."
Shen Chen's brows furrowed even more tightly. He realized that he had made a mistake in command. He should not have gone ashore immediately. He should have waited on the river. When the heat was almost the same tomorrow, he would have sailed on the Yangtze River and exhausted all the people.
Share Jiang Dongjun.
The reason why he is anxious is that Cao Cao and Liu Bei are at war in the north, and Liu Cong still has 50,000 or 60,000 troops. What if Liu Cong is causing trouble behind his back when Cao Liu is fighting and Cao Cao is allowed to pick the peaches of Nanyang?
.
Moreover, although the Jiangdong Army lost its ships, it did not lose any food, grass, or camps. If the confrontation continued, they would be able to continue the confrontation for at least a few more months. By then, it would be useless for him to burn their ships.
Therefore, he wanted to end it once and for all, thinking that burning the Jiangdong Army's ships would lower their morale and defeat them in one fell swoop.
Unexpectedly, it turned them into mourning soldiers.
"Go rescue General Huang!"
Shen Chen knew he couldn't delay, so he immediately issued the order.
At that moment, their men and horses quickly began to run towards the shore and attacked the rear of Zhou Yu's army.
At this moment, Zhou Yu's army was fighting with Huang Zu's army.
Zhou Yu was already very weak, and his face was extremely pale. He murmured to himself: "I made a miscalculation, I made a miscalculation."
Lu Meng cried and said: "This is not the governor's fault. Who would have thought that their ships are so fast?"
"Pfft."
Zhou Yu spit out another mouthful of blood and said with difficulty: "This is the responsibility I should bear. I would not regret dying, but these Jiangdong sons are elites of the Marquis of Wu. I must take them back."
"But, but we don't have a boat anymore."
Lu Meng cried endlessly.
Zhou Yu said softly: "And, please come here."
Lu Meng quickly listened and went over.
Zhou Yu whispered in his ear several times, and finally said: "Do as I say."
"Captain!"
Lu Meng opened his eyes wide and said, "It can't be like this."
Zhou Yu suddenly opened his eyes angrily and said with his last strength: "Do as I say!"
Immediately afterwards, he still maintained the staring posture, but the strength in his hands was already very weak.
At the end, Zhou Yu slowly collapsed, as if he had no life left.
"Captain! Governor!"
Lu Meng was so sad and angry that he burst into tears.
At this time, Huang Zu had actually retreated to the ship. Although Jiangdong's army pursued him, Zhou Yu fell ill, and Ling Tong, Huang Gai, Lu Fan, Xu Sheng and others did not have unified command, resulting in an imbalance in scheduling and chaos.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Huang Zu repelled the first wave of enemy attacks with bows and arrows, barely got rid of their offensive, and successfully retreated to the shore and boarded the ship.
After having the ships, Huang Zu took advantage of his commanding position and shot Jiangdong's army constantly to relieve the pressure.
At this time, Shen Chen led the army from behind and came to kill them.
"Captain, look, Zhou Yu!"
Qu Gan had good eyesight, and he noticed that on a hillside not far away, Zhou Yu's governor's flag was hanging high, and there was a man with his back to them, sitting cross-legged on the top of the mountain, seeming to look into the distance.
There were thousands of soldiers protecting the mountainside. Further to the northwest of the hillside, a battle seemed to be taking place. All kinds of roars, shouts of death, the exchange of weapons, and even screams kept coming.
Shen Chen instinctively judged that this should be Zhou Yu leading the army to violently attack Huang Zu's troops. He seemed not to have expected that Shen Chen would choose to outflank the enemy in two directions, and actually the army was overwhelming, leaving only thousands of soldiers around him for protection.
certainly.
Maybe it wasn't that Zhou Yu didn't expect it, but that he had to seize Huang Zu's ship as soon as possible to take the initiative.
So Shen Chen immediately said: "The whole army made a surprise attack and captured Zhou Yu alive!"
"The entire army made a surprise attack and captured Zhou Yu alive!"
"The entire army made a surprise attack and captured Zhou Yu alive!"
"The entire army made a surprise attack and captured Zhou Yu alive!"
The shouts shook the heaven and the earth.
Shen Chen's army was like a tide, killing towards the hillside.
Soon the two sides were fighting together.
"Fire the arrow!"
At this moment, countless Jiangdong troops suddenly appeared on the hillside on the right, shooting at them rapidly.
"No, there's an ambush!"
Shen Chen was shocked and quickly ordered: "Ming Jin."
The tinkling sound of gold sounded.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Dongjun on the hillside on the right ran faster than them, and actually ran behind them in a swarm.
"Kill!"
On the other side to the west, shouts of killing gradually began.
It turned out that Huang Zu killed a large number of Jiangdong's troops with crossbows, which made him even more happy and actually pursued them.
Shen Chen was confused for a moment. The battlefield was so chaotic that it was easy for people to be confused about the situation. Ordinary people had no idea what was going on.
But fortunately, Shen Chen was smart and immediately thought that this should be Zhou Yu's plan. The situation on the front line should be that Huang Zu still had the advantage, so Zhou Yu deliberately created the illusion of a war between the two sides and lured him to come to support, so as to counterattack and seize his ship. .
"Zhou Yu is quite scheming, but I have been on guard against this move for a long time."
Shen Chen sneered, turned his horse's head and said, "Kill him."
At that moment, he joined forces with Huang Zu's army to pursue Jiangdong's army.
At this time, Lu Meng was carrying Zhou Yu's body on his back, crying continuously as he ran.
Jiangdong's army was in a mess at the moment, not at all like the victorious army that had just ambushed Shen Chen, but rather like a defeated army.
The soldiers abandoned their helmets and armor and fled eastward desperately.
However, Shen Chen had left thousands of troops on the ship. If they tried to rob the ship, they would definitely be shot with crossbows, so Shen Chen was not worried at all.
The army pursued, with both sides running in tandem, with one fleeing and the other chasing desperately. There was a serious disconnect between the front and rear. Many Jiangdong soldiers were exhausted or fell down. They were overtaken by the Jiangxia navy who was chasing behind them and chopped into pieces.
But it was these disjointed soldiers who briefly delayed the enemy's pursuit. Huang Gai even personally led thousands of men to cut off the rear and cover the retreat of the main force.
When they arrived at the place where Shen Chen parked his boat, the crossbow shot that Shen Chen expected did not appear.
"What's going on?"
By the light of the sky-reaching fire on the river bank, Shen Chen was riding a horse on the hillside three miles away to watch, which made him astonished.
Because he saw that his fleet was also fighting at the moment.
"Cheng Pu!"
Shen Chen's face turned cold.
Not only did Zhou Yu kill with a carbine, Cheng Pu also killed with a carbine.
He had a boat, and used it to rush to the location where Shen Chen's boat was parked, and then ordered the soldiers to get on the boat and fight hand to hand.
The ambushed crossbowmen on Shen Chen's ship were held back by them, so that when the main force of Jiangdong's army came running, they were unable to shoot at them.
The main force of the Jiangdong Army began to climb onto the ships one after another, and many ships were robbed. Huang Gai led the main force to the rear, so that the main force of the Jiangxia Navy could not follow them to entangle with the opponent.
"Huang Gai!"
When Shen Chen saw Huang Gai leading his men and horses not far away, he became angry, turned his horse's head, and killed in Huang Gai's direction.
At this time, Huang Gai had been surrounded by the Jiangxia navy that was several times their size. They were fighting bloody battles. The number of soldiers around them was getting smaller and smaller. At first, there were only two to three thousand soldiers, but now there are less than 800 soldiers, and the number is still increasing. Decreasing.
Shen Chen galloped away on horseback, holding a tiger dart knife. After approaching the battlefield, he dismounted, crossed the crowd of his own soldiers, came to Huang Gai, and shouted sternly: "Huang Gai, surrender and avoid death!"
"Hmph, you want me to surrender to a junior like you, what a delusion!"
Huang Gai was over fifty years old. His whole body was covered in blood, sweat and blood intertwined with each other. He was panting, but he still stood with a knife in his hand.
At this moment, Shen Chen felt like a villain bullying the old and the weak.
But he soon shook his head and gave up the idea.
There are actually no villains or heroes in this war, only a struggle for position and survival.
Shen Chen wants to end the troubled times and create a beautiful new world where everyone can afford to eat and study, where people can live and work in peace and contentment, and where there are no powerful families.
Sun Quan, on the other hand, wanted to dominate the south and dream of becoming the master of Soochow, so this war was naturally inevitable.
So no one of us is righteous, some just have different goals and ideals.
Shen Chen stopped talking nonsense with Huang Gai, bullied him, and slashed his head with the Tiger Blade in his hand, hitting the top of Huang Gai's head.
The surrounding soldiers suddenly surged again.
All kinds of spears, axes, axes, swords, spears, swords and halberds were chopped at random, and there were even bows and arrows shooting in all directions.
Huang Gai raised the sword in his hand to block, but his own strength was exhausted, and he was old and frail, while Shen Chen was young and strong, so he couldn't withstand this move, and the back of the sword was pressed to his shoulder.
"die!"
Shen Chen changed his moves again and slashed horizontally with his sword.
Huang Gai struggled to block, and he could only parry, but had no ability to counterattack.
After three rounds, under Shen Chen's fierce attack, Huang Gai finally couldn't resist and was hit in the chest with a knife.
Then Shen Chen flew away his sword, pierced his heart and pushed him back.
Huang Gai's eyes widened with anger, he took a few steps back, and finally fell down.
As soon as he died, the surrounding resistance weakened a lot, and the battle soon subsided.
"It turns out I'm already so strong."
Shen Chen looked at Huang Gai's body on the ground. Although Huang Gai was old and exhausted from repeated battles, he was experienced and was once one of the four strong generals who followed Sun Jian.
Unexpectedly, he killed him with just a few moves. Maybe he was already at the level of a second-rate general.
"Bury General Huang!"
Shen Chen raised his head and looked into the distance, shouting: "Continue the pursuit!"