The two naval forces went straight down the river, one after the other, towards Jinling City on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
After traveling about ten miles on the waterway, a branch waterline appeared on the south side of the Yangtze River, and the pottery merchants' naval warships were turning sharply one after another.
Yuan Shu was urging Le to quickly drive the large and small warships into the waterway, but he suddenly woke up and hurriedly turned his head to look at Yan Xiang.
Sure enough, Yan Xiang turned his head and looked at Yuan Shu with a deep expression at this moment.
The glances between the two of them were meaningful and revealed a hint of vigilance to each other.
But when I saw the waterway twice, the land was gradually revealed. There were also some layers of mountains on the surface. The terrain was higher. If the ship sailed along the river, there would be something hidden in the mountains and forests on both sides.
The ambush troops with strong bows and crossbows will blast and shoot at the warships on the river...
Thinking of this, Yuan Shu couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. He turned to look at Yan Xiang and said with appreciation: "Thanks to Master Yan's warning in advance, otherwise Yuan might have caught the pottery merchant in pursuit of victory.
A child’s trick!”
Yan Xiang waved his hand modestly and said respectfully: "The general is wise and powerful. I just gave you a brief reminder. It is not a big deal."
Yuan Shu looked at the Jinling navy that had entered the narrow passage, and then asked Yan Xiang: "Then according to the opinion of the chief, what should Yuan do next?"
Yan Xiang curled the beard on his chin with his fingers and replied with a smile: "It's easy. Since the pottery merchant's navy wants to lure us into the waterway, just let them go in by themselves, General."
Ignore him, we turn the bow of the ship and go straight to Jinling City. After Xumi is missing, the pottery merchant's navy will have to chase them out. At that time, we will look for an opportunity to turn the bow of the navy and destroy them...
General, the initiative to fight or not to fight is in our hands this time."
Yuan Shu laughed loudly and extended a thumb to Yan Xiang.
Yan Xiang is worthy of being the number one think tank under his command, and he can change everything in the blink of an eye.
Yuan Shu's navy immediately turned the bow, ignoring the pottery merchants who rushed into the river, and instead directed the navy to continue downstream, heading straight for Jinling City.
Of course, Yuan Shu did not withdraw all the naval forces. He also left several surveillance ships. At the river mouth here, he closely watched how the pottery merchant's naval forces would act next.
After the navy had traveled another ten miles, the small boat monitoring the river channel grasped the idea, and immediately turned its bow, accelerated its speed, and approached Yuan Shu's main fleet of warships, waving the flag to the main ship and delivering the coded signal message.
Le squinted his eyes and observed carefully for a while, then grinned and laughed heartily: "Master Yan's fortune-telling! The pottery merchant's navy has indeed followed us out of the river. At this time, it is closely chasing our water."
The army is much faster than when we first met them. Judging from this situation, Tao is really anxious."
Yuan Shu felt greatly comforted when he heard this. He clapped his hands and his words were full of pride: "You little thief of the Tao family, you look down on me so much? You dare to show your shame with some superficial tricks. How can you deceive your general?"
?Now that your ambush is completely useless and you are still behind Yuan, Yuan wants to see what you can do to defend Jinling City!"
At this point, Yuan Shu ordered to Le: "Call the navy troops not to worry about the pottery thieves behind us for the time being. Let's just speed up the march and go down the river to take Jinling City! Let the pottery merchant's son follow behind.
Taste what it feels like to have your soul collapsed!"
"promise!"
…
…
Fifty miles north of the waterway from Jinling City to the Yangtze River outlet, there is a low-lying area. The draft here is not deep and the water plants are abundant, which is conducive to the driving and rowing of small warships. Gan Ning, Zhou Tai, and a group of water bandit leaders
, leading the navy troops under his command, are currently ambushing in this puddle.
Gan Ning sat on the edge of a small boat, flicking the water with a knife to make ripples, while holding a reed pole in his mouth and swinging it up and down. His tone seemed very helpless: "Damn it, I've been waiting for days.
! We haven’t seen Yuan Jun’s warships arriving here either. Could it be that the guy named Guo miscalculated the time and delayed the battle?"
Compared to Gan Ning's careless and careless attitude, Zhou Tai is obviously much calmer and more experienced.
Although he didn't know why Tao Shang insisted on believing in a young scholar's tactics, Zhou Tai did not make too many comments on the matter. Although Tao Shang was young, Zhou Tai could feel that this boy was not an ordinary person, so he blindly believed in it.
The strategist named Guo must have his own ideas.
Zhou Tao banged his sword against the ship's plank, looked at the river in the distance quietly, and said indifferently: "Everyone on the left and right has agreed to Mr. Tao to join the army. No matter how he arranges it, as officers and soldiers, we can
All you have to do is obey its instructions and don’t care about anything else.”
Gan Ning chuckled, turned around and spat the reed in his mouth into the Yangtze River, stretched out his tongue and licked the edge of the knife in his hand: "The problem is that I am impatient to wait! How come Yuan Shu, that thief, never comes? Really?
It’s so urgent that it kills people.”
Zhou Tai couldn't stand some of Gan Ning's habits. He frowned and reprimanded in a low voice: "Look at your bad behavior. After all, you are also a member of the army. Can you be more serious?"
Gan Ningheng snorted and was too lazy to pay him any attention.
At this moment, Jiang Qin suddenly jumped over from the boat next to him and whispered to Zhou Tai: "The boss!"
Zhou Tai turned around and glared at Jiang Qin dissatisfied.
Jiang Qin was a little confused by Zhou Tai's glare, and he didn't know which of his words made Zhou Tai angry.
Gan Ning laughed, looked at Jiang Qin mockingly, pursed his lips and said, "It's the wrong name!"
"oh!"
Only then did Jiang Qin realize where he had offended Zhou Tai. He quickly corrected his mistake and said again: "Ping Lu Xiaowei!"
Only then did Zhou Tai's expression soften appropriately.
Gan Ning raised his eyebrows slightly and curled his lips.
Zhou Tai is also quite vain.
"The spies are here to report that there is a large fleet coming towards us from the north waterway along the river!"
Zhou Tai and Gan Ning were both refreshed upon hearing this.
Gan Ning pushed his butt and legs hard, jumped up from the edge of the ship, and landed on the deck: "Is it Yuan Shu's navy or Jinling City's navy?"
Jiang Qin said to Gan Ning in a deep voice: "There are two armies of navy, but Yuan Shu's navy is in front, and Jinling City's navy is following behind!"
Gan Ning and Zhou Tai looked at each other in surprise after hearing this.
When Tao Shang conveyed Guo Jia's tactics, he told them to guard the waterway intersection dozens of miles in front of Jinling City, and told them to wait for Yuan's army to arrive before sending troops to attack Yuan Shu's navy, and that Yuan Shu's fleet would be at that time.
In front, Jinling City's fleet is behind. They will join Gan Ning and Zhou Tai with a group of Yangtze River water pirates to attack Yuan Shu's navy from both sides.
Gan Ning and Zhou Tai actually didn't believe this.
Logically speaking, Yuan Shu's navy went down the river, and Tao Shang's navy should have blocked his strategic position from the south of the Yangtze River to resist Yuan Shu's navy... According to general principles, Yuan Shu's navy was not
Those who might have run in front of Tao Shang's navy, even if he ran in front of their navy, according to common sense, Yuan Shu should have turned around and defeated them first, instead of taking Jinling City directly along the river, instead throwing Tao Shang and others away.
behind.
What happened in the middle that actually caused the two armies to change their offensive and defensive positions?
Will the person named Tao and the person named Yuan have a water fight?
It seemed that the man named Guo was not completely bragging.
Zhou Tai touched his chin, turned to Gan Ning and said: "It seems that although Mr. Guo is young, he really has some calculations in his heart... Mr. Tao Fu once said when he arranged for us people, we
If there is a battle, Yuan Shu will definitely turn around and attack the Jinling army behind him. At that time, Jinling City's fleet will try to delay Yuan Shu's momentum, and we will take advantage of this gap to attack Yuan Shu fiercely and win a complete victory.
...Whether this statement is true or false, it seems that it will be revealed soon."
Gan Ning laughed sinisterly and said: "Whether he is true or not, everything will be clear after we get out of the battle. Besides, what will happen even if Yuan Shu doesn't look back? I'm not afraid of him!"
…
…
Yuan Shu's fleet was flowing down the Yangtze River at this moment. Suddenly, a pair of densely packed boats crossed out of the sloping reed marsh waterway and rushed towards Yuan Shu's fleet at an extremely fast speed.
Come straight in.
Lejiu was the first to discover the traces of the navy ahead, and hurriedly reported to Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu and Yan Xiang were quite surprised when they heard this and hurriedly ran out of the cabin.
Yuan Shu squinted his eyes and carefully watched the navy rushing towards him from the opposite side, and said to Yan Xiang: "I didn't expect that the little thief of the pottery merchant would actually have a navy ambushing here. Yuan actually underestimated him."
Behind Yuan Shu, Yan Xiang said with a smile: "Don't worry, General. I'm watching from below. Those soldiers and horses are just the last defenders of Jinling City. They can't be considered a big deal. You see, their warships are all small boats."
, there is not even a decent building boat, and the people on the boat are not uniformly dressed and have different weapons. They must be weak troops under the command of the pottery merchant and cannot make much waves."
Yuan Shu squinted and watched for a long time, and agreed with Yan Xiang's opinion.
"Now that the defenders of Jinling City have also entered the water formation, Chief Yan thinks, how should we deal with this battle now?"
Yan Xiang slowly stroked his beard and said: "It would be better for the defenders of Jinling City to come to the river, so that we don't have to spend a lot of effort to attack the city. It's time to deal with them together at this moment... Yi Xia, this soldier
Ma Jie are weaklings in the rear and cannot have much success. The key lies in the main force of the pottery merchants following them. Since the little thief surnamed Tao wants to have a last-ditch fight with the lord, the lord might as well follow his wish, and
First detach some small boats to block Yuan Shu's incoming army. The Lord will lead the army to attack the pottery thieves in the rear. He will first destroy the main force of the pottery merchants, and then wipe out the Jinling defenders in the front. There will be no worries after that."
Yuan Shu rolled his eyes when he heard this, thought for a while, nodded and said: "It can be done!"