Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1075 Escape

In the dim cabin, Ding Feng was lying on the straw inside the cabin. He woke up in a daze. There seemed to be continuous noisy sounds coming from above his head, making it impossible for him to continue sleeping.

Ding Feng reluctantly turned his head and saw that his shoulder, which had been stabbed earlier, had been hastily bandaged. However, blood still kept oozing out, making him want to curse that bastard for being so perfunctory.

The severe pain made him suffer unspeakably, but what made him even more uncomfortable was that if the injury on his shoulder could not be healed in the future, wouldn’t he become a disabled person?

He sat up and saw several soldiers lying around him. Ding Feng was very angry. The cabin was so empty, but they had to lie next to him instead of going somewhere else. Could it be that there was no straw elsewhere?

But to be honest, the straw under Ding Feng had been used by someone to sleep on for more than a month, and it had already permeated the sour smell of sweat and urine. Ding Feng could not help but frowning. He didn't want to stay there any longer, so he gritted his teeth, stood up holding onto the bulkhead, and wanted to go up to the deck to take a look.

He saw that the soldiers on the ground in front of him seemed not to have heard the noise and were still sleeping. They were blocking his way, so he stretched out his foot and kicked the vest of the man in front of him.

The man didn't move at all. Seeing this, Ding Feng became even more furious. He increased the force of his foot and kicked him again, shouting, "How can you be a soldier if you sleep so soundly?"

The man was kicked and staggered, but still did not react. Seeing this, Ding Feng had no choice but to step over him and then turned around to see who was the blind man.

In the dim light, what came into view was a very young face, a young soldier who looked no more than thirteen or fourteen years old. He looked like a Shanyue person, but at this moment, his eyes were wide open and his tongue was sticking out, indicating that he had been dead for a long time.

Ding Feng couldn't help feeling a little cold, he went to look at the other people, and as expected, they were all Shanyue teenagers, all with wet clothes. Ding Feng guessed that they had been soaking in the sea water, and although they escaped onto the boat, they were too young to stand the cold, so they died suddenly.

Before he left for the expedition, he heard that among the soldiers this time, in addition to the private soldiers of various families in Jiangdong, there were also many Shanyue slaves who were captured to serve as soldiers. At that time, the guards around Ding Feng were all private soldiers, so they naturally had no time to take care of these insignificant Shanyue people. Now he realized that these slaves were probably not even adults and were simply used to fill in the gaps!

Ding Feng felt nauseous and heard the noises above his head getting louder and louder. He then used his still intact left hand to hold onto the bulkhead, stepped on the floor, and stumbled toward the deck.

When he climbed to the top of the stairs, he found that the hatch above his head was closed tightly. He stretched out one arm and pushed, but it didn't budge, as if it was nailed shut.

He exerted force several times in a row, accidentally affecting the injured shoulder, and the pain almost made him pass out. Finally, he managed to move the hatch cover open a gap.

The moment the hatch was opened, the light suddenly became bright, causing Ding Feng to close his eyes reflexively.

But before his eyes could adjust to the light, what came into his ears were chaotic shouts and screams, and then the bloody sea breeze blew into his nostrils, then entered his chest, made a circle, and sprayed out of Ding Feng's mouth again.

He exhaled and shouted, at the same time using force to push the hatch cover open most of the way. Just as he was about to go up, he heard a bang. A feather arrow shot next to the hatch cover and was deeply nailed into the deck, still shaking.

Ding Feng waited for a while, then slowly stuck his head out and saw a dead body on the hatch cover. He thought to himself, no wonder the hatch cover was so heavy.

However, there were more than one corpse on the deck. Ding Feng looked around and saw only Jiangdong soldiers lying on the ground. Most of them were dead, and the others were injured and unable to get up. They lay on the ground and struggled, their faces distorted in pain, and they kept screaming.

Ding Feng was a little confused. He remembered that he fainted after being rescued by Xu Sheng and brought onto the boat. Logically, he should have escaped, so why did they start fighting again?
Were we caught up by the enemy?

He stumbled onto the deck, picked up an iron spear to use as a crutch to support his body, and struggled to move to the side of the ship. With a quick glance, he saw that the sea was full of warships flying the flags of the Jin army navy, which had already broken into their own fleet.

At a glance, Ding Feng felt that although the Jin army's ships were almost the same as his own, they seemed to be crazy. They rammed directly, then covered them with arrows, and finally boarded the ships for hand-to-hand combat. It was clear that they were determined to capture all the Wu warships at all costs.

The Wu navy had just suffered a defeat and their morale was low. Now seeing the Jin navy acting so fearlessly and bravely, they became even more frightened. As a result, they were already at a complete disadvantage.

Ding Feng saw that the warship he was on was approached by several enemy ships, but there seemed to be no one in command on the ship and it was in chaos. Knowing that the situation was critical, he immediately shouted loudly to identify himself and commanded the soldiers to resist.

The soldiers on the ship were on the verge of collapse, but when they saw Ding Feng standing up, they were immediately reassured and followed Ding Feng to resist. After paying a heavy price, they finally escaped from the encirclement of the Jin army's ships temporarily.

Ding Feng looked back at his fleet, which was being eaten away. He knew that it would be useless to escape with only one ship. He ordered his men to continue the battle while calling a few soldiers and asking, "What happened?"

After a brief explanation from the soldiers, Ding Feng learned that the fleet was out of water and food, so Xu Sheng wanted to plunder Qingzhou. However, they encountered the fierce tiger fleet before they even reached the shore. The enemy's offensive was so fierce that the remaining Wu army was instantly at a disadvantage.

Ding Feng glanced at the sea and knew that his side was doomed. Being discovered by the enemy so close to the coastline, even if the whole army was not wiped out, there would definitely not be many ships that could escape.

He subconsciously wanted to escape directly, but when he thought of Xu Sheng who rescued him, he finally gritted his teeth and ordered his soldiers to bypass the enemy ship's attack range and look for Xu Sheng's warship.

Although the soldiers were somewhat reluctant, they did not dare to disobey the military order and immediately sailed towards the main camp of the Wu navy. After a lot of effort, Ding Feng finally found Xu Sheng's flagship. After the two met and talked for a while, Ding Feng learned that the general on the opposite side was Tian Yu, and his heart was immediately shocked.

Before Gan Ning defected to Yuan Xi, the most famous naval generals in Yuan Xi's army were Taishi Ci and Tian Yu. They were stationed in the south and the north respectively, and they had conquered a lot of territory.

Although Ding Feng had never fought against the two, he had heard of the battle between Taishi Ci and Sun Ce. Tian Yu was as famous as Taishi Ci, so how could he be much worse?

Thinking of this, Ding Feng said, "Given the condition of our soldiers, it is really not suitable to continue fighting like this. Why don't we retreat for the time being and make plans later?"

Xu Sheng said in a hoarse voice: "I want to leave too, but the other party is biting too tightly, I can't leave at all!"

"Besides, the food and water won't last more than a few days. Even if we escape, how long can we last?"

Ding Feng's eyes flashed with a fierce look, "If Qingzhou doesn't work, we can go to Xuzhou to rob it. It will only take three to five days!"

"Langya is very rich. We can just land there and rob a few villages. Soon we will have everything."

When he saw Xu Sheng's strange expression, he suddenly realized that he had said the wrong thing. Xu Sheng was a native of Langya, and asking him to rob his hometown, wouldn't that be causing trouble for him?
He had no choice but to change the subject and said, "There's really no way to fight now!"

"It is definitely impossible for all of them to escape. Now we have to keep one ship at a time. I am willing to cover Wen Xiang's retreat. If you die, just go to Wen Xiang to avenge me!"

Xu Sheng heard this and sighed, "Gong Yi risked his life to save you. If I run away alone now, how can I have the nerve to see the king?"

"Let's break through together, and let life and death be decided by fate!"

The fighting on the sea lasted a whole day. It was not until the sky was dark and cloudy at night that the remaining Jiangdong troops found an opportunity to break out. Although Tian Yu pursued them with all his might, it was difficult to track them in the darkness and vast ocean, and dozens of Jiangdong warships still escaped.

Although Tian Yu was not very satisfied, only one-tenth of the hundreds of warships escaped, and the rest of the ships were either completely destroyed or captured and surrendered. It was a great victory.

During this period, Tian Yu learned from interrogating the captives that Yuan Xi finally won the Battle of Baekje, so he was relieved to fight the Jiangdong fleet. Otherwise, he would be shocked and at a loss as to whether to rescue Yuan Xi or intercept the Wu navy.

Now that the dust has settled, Tian Yu sent people to chase the remaining Jiangdong ships, while returning to the port to see if Zhuge Liang can still hold on, and then prepare to set off for Liaodong.

Zhuge Liang had already been waiting in the city. He used a trick to repel Li Dian and forced him to retreat with his remaining troops. When he heard the news brought by Tian Yu, he was relieved and said, "Guorang can lead the fleet to meet the lord first. In order to prevent Cao's army from causing chaos, Liang will lead the troops to defend Qingzhou and listen to the lord's orders later."

After hearing this, Tian Yu did not delay and hastily replenished his supplies in the city and set out for Baekje that day.

He had the sailors rotate throughout the day and rushed to the east of the Korean Peninsula day and night. Finally, two days later, they arrived at the port of Weilicheng and met Yuan Xi.

As soon as he met Yuan Xi, he knelt down and confessed his crime. Yuan Xi helped him up and said, "You and Kong Ming did a good job. Besides, we have thought about dealing with similar or even worse situations in advance."

“Although it is a little different from what we originally envisioned, the results are pretty much what we expected.”

"It's only because I seem to be at a disadvantage that Jiangdong will be complacent and fall into our trap."

"Otherwise, if the Jiangdong Army retains its strength and fights a guerrilla war with us, it will be really difficult to deal with them. If they turn into pirates, we won't be able to live in peace here."

"The current result has completely achieved our goal. Once I conquer Baekje, I can turn around and focus on dealing with Cao Cao."

"This time Cao Cao caught us by surprise and caused us to suffer a great loss. I thought he was in poor health and would not make any big moves, but I didn't expect that I was still careless."

"What I'm worried about now is that Cao Cao has a backup plan. In that case, I can only return to Youzhou early, and this place will be handed over to Guo Rang."

Tian Yu quickly accepted the order, and Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Don't be so anxious. At least the time is almost ripe to conquer Baekje. Maybe there will be a wonderful show later."

(End of this chapter)