Aspiring to the Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 167
Xiande three years, September [-]rd.

Guo Rong personally transferred the commander-in-chief of the Chinese army to Zhaobudu, and personally supervised the division to fight.

Seven generals Xiang Xun, Yuan Yan, Wang Shenqi, Li Jixun, Murong Yanzhao, Zhao Kuangzan, and Song Yanxi attacked the Southern Tang Lianhuan camp at the foot of Zijin Mountain, without giving the Southern Tang army a chance to breathe and cooperate.

In terms of numbers, only Zhu Yuan's [-] soldiers were missing, and the Southern Tang Army still had [-] soldiers, and their strength was only reduced by one or two tenths.

But marching and fighting is not about numbers, but the morale of people.

When Chen Jue was not acting as a monster, the Southern Tang soldiers were brave, their eyes full of desire for victory.

Relying on this belief, they fought back and forth with Zhou Jun.

But as Zhu Yuan, who had made great contributions, dismissed Li Jing, Chen Jue made trouble in the rear.

All the generals in the Southern Tang Dynasty felt insecure and chilled, and their state directly affected the generals and soldiers around them.

With the start of the fight, the Southern Tang army was obviously no longer in the state of fierce battle with the Zhou army.

It was Chen Decheng's department that had the problem first.

Chen Decheng is the son of Chen Huo, a general of the Southern Tang Dynasty. During the two months of fierce battle with the Zhou army, his performance was second only to Zhu Yuan and Lin Renzhao.

Yang Shouzhong, the Wuchang Jiedu envoy who replaced Zhu Yuan, arrived at the front line, but because Zhu Yuan's soldiers had all surrendered to the Zhou army, he had no soldiers to lead.

With a wave of his hand, Chen Jue split Chen Decheng's department into two, and gave half to Yang Shouzhong.

As a result, the strength of Chen Decheng's department was greatly reduced, and the morale was also greatly reduced.

Coincidentally, he met Xiang Xun, and under Xiang Xun's command was another general named Gao Huaide.

No matter how Chen Decheng resisted, he couldn't prevent the collapse of the village.

……

The Zhou army only attacked the Southern Tang military stronghold located at the foot of the mountain, and completely ignored the Southern Tang navy military stronghold built by the water.

Lin Renzhao's navy fought on foot to rescue, but he didn't dare to go too deep. Seeing that the situation was becoming more and more difficult to deal with, thinking of Guo Tingzhi's reminder, he gritted his teeth and said, "Withdraw the troops!"

Guo Rong watched Lin Renzhao retreat from the rear, his face a little ugly.

He didn't care about the situation of the other camps, and deliberately didn't attack the Nantang water village, just to lure the Nantang navy out of the water village and fight on foot.

They have cavalry in their hands, and they don't care about the defeat of the Nantang infantry.

It is impossible to run with two legs better than four.

Only the Southern Tang Navy is the most powerless.

As long as Lin Renzhao went deeper, he would immediately arrange for Zhao Kuangyin and Han Chongyun to cut off the retreat, destroying part of the navy first, and then reduce some pressure on Luo Youdu.

Now that Lin Renzhao retreated in time, it meant that Luo Youdu had to use his navy, which had been trained for less than three months, against the Southern Tang navy, which had twice as many as him.

This disparity in strength is too great, and Guo Rong's eyes can't help flashing a trace of worry.

The ships of the Southern Tang Navy that covered the sky and sun slowly sailed out of the water village and entered the Dongfei River.

Lin Renzhao looked at the topographic map of the Jianghuai waters in his hand.

There are three ways to retreat to Yangzhou from the Dongfei River where he is located. One is directly down the Dongfei River. If this is the case, it is tantamount to diving headlong into the waters of Chaohu Lake, which is too dangerous.

One is going up the Huai River, bypassing Guangzhou and entering the Yangtze River. This road is now impassable.Zhou Jun built a pontoon bridge in the direction of Xiacai, and there are giant trees with iron cables near the pontoon bridge.

In this way, the only way to go is to go down the Huai River to Chuzhou, and then go south to Yangzhou from Caoqu.

Lin Renzhao immediately ordered to go north and enter the Huaihe River. After thinking for a while, he said: "Send yachts to first divide the upper and lower reaches of the Huaihe River for reconnaissance."

He did not forget Luo Youdu's five thousand sailors.

Although Lin Renzhao didn't take the five thousand sailors seriously, the three words "Luo Youdu" were enough to make him treat them with caution.

Lin Renzhao himself is from an ordinary background, and he knows that it is not easy to rise in this troubled world.It is self-evident that it is so difficult for him to have a unique skill, and the opponent's literati who have no power to restrain him have come to this point.

According to common sense, Luo Youdu should use the water system of Chaohu Lake to go directly north into the Dongfei River, and thus participate in the war.

This is the fastest way to march, but it is no different from dying in this way.

The Dongfei River is a tributary of the Huai River, and its water flows from north to south.

If Luo Youdu led the navy to go northward along this channel, it would be tantamount to placing himself in the downstream.

When the gap between naval battleships and warships is not large, the downstream will lose half first.

Now Luo Youdu's navy has not appeared, obviously did not take this shortcut, unwilling to put himself in danger downstream.

Then it is possible for him to take the Hao River, go upstream from the Huai River, block his way back from the mouth of the Dongfei River, and occupy an upstream position.

The other party is very likely to appear in front of oneself.

A yacht is a scout on the water, fast as the wind.

In particular, the helmsman of the yacht is even more experienced. He came and went like the wind on the river, and disappeared from sight after a while.

About half a stick of incense has passed.

A cruising yacht is dispatched to ride the wind and waves.

"Report! On the east lower reaches of the Huai River, in the direction of Haozhou, an enemy navy was found. It is five miles away from the entrance of the Dongfei River."

Lin Renzhao clenched his fists excitedly, secretly rejoicing.

This Luo Youdu is really extraordinary, bold and resolute, for the sake of an upstream advantage, he actually sailed the boat around a large circle.

But man is not as good as God, no matter how many tricks you have, you will experience the first defeat in your life at the hands of a certain person this time.

It's also thanks to Guo Tuan's vigilance, otherwise it would be bad if he delayed for a while and waited for Luo Youdu to enter the entrance of Dongfei River.

"Go north quickly, sail into the Huai River, and seize the upper reaches!"

The mighty Southern Tang navy sailed upstream and entered the Huai River.

Seeing that the Great Zhou's navy hadn't appeared in the distance, Lin Renzhao waved his arms with the winning ticket in his hand, and said loudly: "Go down the river, today we will teach the puppet Zhou's little Zhuge how to fight with boats and water..."

Originally due to the embarrassing situation of the battle, the morale was not high, but under the encouragement of Lin Renzhao, they shouted one after another.

After driving down the river for about a mile, the outline of Zhou Jun's navy was in sight.

Lin Renzhao waved the command flag and began to form a formation on the Huai River.

The building boats are in the center, the battleships are at the forefront, the sea falcons are arranged left and right, the walking boats are at the rear, and the yachts are scattered and scattered.

This is the most commonly used water warfare method in the Southern Tang Army.

The characteristics of each fleet are brought into play.

The battleship is the strongest and located in the center can not only protect the main ship, but also face the enemy ship in the first place. The long-range attack method of water combat is the first, so the battleship is mostly equipped with strong bows and catapults.

The sea falcon is fast and light, and the bow is equipped with a metal drill bit, which is used to ram the enemy ship.As for the walker, it is loaded with elite soldiers, used to climb the enemy ship, seize the ship and kill the enemy.

Long-distance suppression first, and then sea falcon assault, boarding a ship and sweeping the tail, maneuvering a yacht, participating in a battle or rescuing soldiers who fell into the water, everything will try.

In the distance, Zhou Jun's navy gradually approached.

Lin Renzhao looked at the Zhou army's navy who had already formed their formation, with some surprise in their eyes.

The opponent's entire naval fleet is actually dominated by fighting ships. Don't you know that although fighting ships are strong, they are extremely heavy?
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(End of this chapter)