Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1073 Missed Schedule
Jiangdong's retreat was not smooth sailing. Because of the hasty retreat, many people did not have time to get on board. The people on the ship weighed anchor and set sail. Those who did not get on board grabbed the planks and asked the people on the ship to pull them on board.

But the people on the boat had no time to take care of them. The boat turned around and sailed away in a hurry. The people who were clinging to the boat ran out of energy and fell into the sea. They struggled to float up and down for a few times before being drowned by the freezing sea water.

The only good news for the Wu fleet was that most of Yuan Xi's Jin army warships had been burned, so there were not many troops available to pursue them. As the Wu ships sailed away from the shore one by one, everyone saw hope of escape.

But not everyone thought so. Many people were left on the shore, including many generals. Among the high-ranking generals, in addition to Jiang Qin, who was unable to escape due to a thigh injury, there was also Pan Zhang.

It was unlucky for him. He wanted to shoot an arrow to attack Yuan Xi and steal the credit, but he exposed his whereabouts instead and was shot in the shoulder by Zhao Yun.

The arrow caused a serious injury, and Pan Zhang's right shoulder and arm were almost completely disabled. Of course, he could not fight with Zhao Yun, so he could only find a way to survive first.

So he took off his outer armor that revealed his identity, left his general flag, and tried to sneak onto the ship. However, his cleverness backfired, and this decision made him regret it so much.

Because he concealed his identity, the soldiers could not find him and mistakenly thought that he had left or died. So when Xu Shengding was ordered to retreat, each ship retreated on its own and did not think of looking for Pan Zhang at all.

After Pan Zhang was injured, he had difficulty moving and failed to board several boats. Even when he was about to grab a seat, he was pushed off by someone.

He was so angry that he started cursing and was about to reveal his identity, but when he saw Wu soldiers running to the other side to surrender from time to time, he swallowed the words back. He could not protect himself at this time. If he rashly exposed his identity, who knew if someone would surrender with his head for credit?
While he was blending in with the fleeing soldiers to look for a boat, he was still met with the pursuing Yuan Jin army. Some Wu soldiers knelt down to surrender, while some who wanted to return home fought stubbornly in groups of three or five, hoping to break out.

Pan Zhang hid behind the crowd, almost fainting from the pain in his shoulder. To be fair, his martial arts skills were among the best among the Jiangdong generals, but now he had almost no ability to fight back.

Because a general's martial power is closely related to his physical condition, except for a very small number of people who become braver after being injured, most generals will lose their combat effectiveness after being injured. A previously first-rate general may even be worse than a third-rate one after being injured.

This was the case with Pan Zhang. He was good at archery, but his arm was disabled at this time, and he could not use any of his martial arts. He could only dodge and evade. He used his long sword as a crutch and fled desperately towards the direction of the Jiangdong ships.

But what you fear will come true. Immediately, more than a dozen Jin army soldiers rushed over. Pan Zhang ran the fastest, which made him the most conspicuous. The leading young general saw him and shouted, "Stop!"

Pan Zhang panicked and ran even faster.

The young general was Sun Li, who rushed over and chopped down Pan Zhang's back with his ring-handled sword. Pan Zhang heard the sound of the wind and had to grit his teeth, use his left hand to push back and knock Sun Li's long sword away.

Although he couldn't use his right hand, he still had some skills with his left hand. Sun Li was a connoisseur. When he saw that the long sword was blocked by the opponent, his eyes lit up, and he grasped the hilt of the sword with both hands and chopped out several times like lightning.

Sun Li's moves were naturally not as good as those of Pan Zhang, a general who had been on the battlefield for more than 20 years, but he had the advantage of being strong. He also saw that Pan Zhang could only wield a sword with one hand, so he forced Pan Zhang to compete in strength.

This move of using one's strength to attack another's weakness showed that Sun Li's vision and martial arts had gradually improved. He chopped down several times with his sword, and Pan Zhang was unable to support himself with one arm. Sun Li found a loophole and chopped off his only remaining left arm with one sword.

Pan Zhang screamed in pain, quickly raised his broken arm, and shouted, "Wait."

But before he could finish his words, Sun Li had no time to put away his knife and subconsciously slashed horizontally, cutting Pan Zhang's throat.

Pan Zhang's left hand was cut off and he couldn't lift his right hand. He couldn't even cover the blood gushing out of his throat. He could only watch blankly as the blood from his throat spurted out like a fountain.

There was a look of disbelief in his eyes. He had been roaming Jiangdong for more than twenty years. Because he was good at protecting himself, he had survived so many dangerous situations. But now he lost his life at the hands of an unknown person?

His throat gurgled a few times, the scenery in front of his eyes gradually became blurred, and then the strength in his body rapidly drained away. He gradually collapsed to the ground and died.

Sun Li turned over his long sword and wiped the blood on Pan Zhang's clothes. He thought that since the other party was not wearing armor, his status must not be very high, but his swordsmanship was extraordinary. It seems that there are talented people everywhere.

In comparison, I couldn't even easily defeat a wounded unknown guy, which showed that I was not well-trained.

No, I still need to practice!

At this time, Zhao Yun led the cavalry to drive all the Wu soldiers into the sea. More than a thousand Wu soldiers did not have time to board the ship and struggled and wailed in the sea. Only two or three hundred warships were able to escape.

To the extent that so many people could escape under such circumstances, it was obvious that the general leading the team was very capable. Zhao Yun looked at the fleeing warships and felt very regretful. He also wanted to lead the navy in pursuit, but his strength did not allow it.

That's right, he is not good at water.

Zhao Yun was skilled in riding, shooting and infantry combat, but he had never fought a naval battle in these years. In this respect, he was somewhat similar to the generals in Cao's camp.

If he got on the boat, any few soldiers could kill him. Zhao Yun was very self-aware, so he never participated in any naval battles to avoid dragging others down.

Zhao Yun thought that most of Yuan Xi's territory, except for the coastal areas and the Yangtze and Huaihe River areas, was naval warfare. When he had nothing to do, he should learn how to fight naval warfare, so as to avoid being overturned at any time.

The strength of Wu's generals lies in that they are good at naval warfare and also at foot warfare. Although they are not first-rate generals, they are still considered first-rate or second-rate. However, sometimes being good at everything is equal to being good at nothing. The four generals of Jiangdong suffered a great loss at the hands of Zhao Yun today. Ding Feng was seriously injured, Pan Zhang died, and Jiang Qin was captured. It can be said that they were completely defeated.

Zhao Yun looked for a while and found that the previously agreed reinforcements had not arrived yet. He was not very happy and wondered what Zhuge Liang and Tian Yu were doing. Did they know that the battle situation today was still very thrilling?

He turned his horse and returned to where Yuan Xi's flag was. Yuan Xi had already begun to reorganize his troops and prepare to enter Weili City, which had been abandoned by the governor of Baekje.

After the Baekje soldiers were defeated and Jia Xu fled, the county magistrate in Weili City immediately fled to the mountains in the north. Then half a day later, he happened to meet Jia Xu who was also fleeing. The two felt sympathy for each other, hugged each other and cried, then fled together towards the Baekje capital.

On Yuan Xi's side, he ordered the soldiers to refrain from looting and killing after entering the city. At the same time, he ordered a doctor to come and take the tied-up Jiang Qin into the city to treat his injuries.

Jiang Qin endured the pain and said coldly: "I will not surrender!"

"King Jin might as well kill me!"

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Don't be so stubborn. If you want to die now, it depends on my mood."

"Also, the relationship between Jiangdong and me in the future may not be what you think, so you should stay alive first. If you really can't hold on any longer, I can help send you off."

Seeing that Yuan Xi was so single, Jiang Qin was speechless for a moment and was immediately taken to the city.

Zhao Yun was riding over at this time and said to Yuan Xi, "Kong Ming and Guo Rang missed the deadline. The Jiangdong fleet has more than 300 ships. We are unable to pursue them now. What should we do?"

Yuan Xi pondered and said, "They must have encountered something extremely troublesome, otherwise they wouldn't be in this situation."

"But fortunately we won this battle. Even if we can't completely annihilate the enemy, we have at least cut off one of their arms."

"We still have one or two hundred ships. It's still dangerous to pursue the enemy with this number. Besides, the soldiers are tired, so we can only go into the city to rest first. After all, conquering Baekje is the most important thing."

"Send someone to contact Kong Mingguo first to see what happened."

Zhao Yun immediately accepted the order, feeling regretful that if he could swim, he would be able to lead the troops in pursuit now!

On the sea, hundreds of Wu State ships were raising their sails and desperately fleeing southward.

When they came, there were over a thousand ships, but now there are only over three hundred left, and most of the soldiers were killed. Each ship is short-handed, which is an extremely miserable situation.

That’s not all. Although many warships were damaged, they were still able to hold on by patching them up with the tools on board.

But the biggest problem was that there was not enough food and water on the ship.

In order to carry out a secret raid, the Wu fleet did not dock for more than a month and relied entirely on the food and fresh water on the ship. Although it finally arrived successfully, the reserves on the ship had been almost used up and it could not last for more than a few days.

If this continues, we won’t be able to hold out in the open sea for long before we run out of water and food, and die.

If they want to survive, they can only find supplies from the nearest place, but this is Yuan Xi's territory. If they attack and plunder the local villages and towns, the danger will be much higher than a naval battle.

This is also the reason why Yuan Xi did not send troops to pursue. Even if he ignored the Wu fleet, Xiren might not be able to return home.

After much thought, Xu Sheng could only make a decision, which was to land in the nearest Qingzhou area and loot some supplies before continuing his march.

He ordered the ships to form a fleet and speed along the way. After just over a day, they saw the coastline of Qingzhou.

However, he also saw countless ship wreckages and a fleet heading towards him.

Xu Sheng immediately guessed that a great battle had broken out here before. Although he didn't know who won or lost, when he saw the Jin army flag on the other side's ship, he knew that he had not escaped after all.

Thinking of the four people who came here, and now only two are left, and not knowing whether he can return after this battle, Xu Sheng also aroused his ferocity and shouted: "Fight them!"

On the station ship of the Jin army, Tian Yu also issued an order to attack. He was originally full of anger and was even more worried about Yuan Xi's safety, but when he saw that the Wu fleet was obviously escaping, he finally felt relieved.

(End of this chapter)