Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 123 117. Ending
Ding Feng, Quan Cong, Luo Tong and other high-ranking officials were captured by Feng Xi and his men. The remaining soldiers were already frightened by the explosion of gunpowder and thought that the Han army knew magic. Now that there was no one to command them, they all obeyed their will and knelt down to surrender.

The few who wanted to take the opportunity to escape from behind the camp were stopped by the troops led by Wu Ban and Bao Yi who had already cut off their retreat. Except for dozens of brave and lucky soldiers who jumped into the river and escaped, no one could stop them. The rest either died or surrendered, and were all left here by Feng Xi.

Feng Xi stood on a lookout tower in the Wu army camp, looking out at the lake. At this moment, the battle on Dongting Lake was at its climax. In the light of the fire, Feng Xi could see the Eastern Wu's tower ship clearly, but the ship only held on for a moment before it tilted to one side, causing Feng Xi to smile.

Although the Han army basically consisted of small boats, and Feng Xi was not a professional naval warfare expert, Feng Xi's knowledge of naval warfare was incomparable to that of the present era.

When the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, the 30,000 heavy cavalry that the Qing Dynasty was proud of were completely wiped out by the coalition's several thousand musketeers, while the Eight-Nation Alliance suffered only a few dozen casualties. This is the technological gap.

Nowadays, there is no such thing as a "navy". They are all "water forces", and the competition is also about the individual quality of the soldiers. Why is the Jiangdong Navy so unique in the world? It is nothing more than the crisscrossing water network in Jiangdong. Which Jiangdong soldier has not been to rivers, lakes and seas since childhood?

Swimming in the waves and holding your breath is just like walking and running. With such basic qualities of soldiers, how can other places in the country compare?

Just like the ancient northern tribes, why were they able to frequently plunder the Central Plains? They grew up on horseback, and riding horses was their instinct, so the nomadic peoples could mobilize all their people to fight, and they would go south to plunder every now and then.

So when did things change?
The answer is the emergence of automated thermal weapons.

A man's thirty years of horseback training, regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter, can be taken away in an instant by a Lewis heavy machine gun, and it can also take away dozens of people around you like you.

And its operator may have been a farmer for most of his life and has only been using this heavy machine gun for a few months.

Feng Xi was just accelerating this process at this moment, and Wu Jun was the first target chosen by this "dimensionality reduction attack".

"Grand Commander, the Wu army has already gathered the surrendered troops. What should we do with them?"

A captain came over and asked Feng Xi, who was looking at the river with deep emotion. Feng Xi came back to his senses and waved his hand.

"Take them back to our camp first and wait until the navy is done. They may have quite a few prisoners there too. We can send them to Jiangling later. We are still short of laborers."

After Feng Xi finished speaking, he continued to look at the lake, and the development on the lake was just as he expected. After a brief stalemate, the Wu army was defeated one-sidedly by the Han army.

The fire on the lake was still burning, but the shouting and killing had stopped. The Han army's large and small boats were on the river salvaging corpses and those who fell into the water. This was what Feng Xi had told Zhang Nan in advance. Rotting corpses were most likely to give rise to plague. Even though the downstream was the territory of Jiangdong, they were all descendants of Yan and Huang. What did the actions of Soochow have to do with them?

By then, even Feng Xi would not be able to bear the thought of killing tens of thousands of people due to the plague.

Therefore, Feng Xi's order to Zhang Nan was to burn all the floating corpses after they were salvaged, and even the ashes could be used as fertilizer, so it would not be considered a waste.

"Okay, it looks like it's over, let's go back to camp."

Feng Xi saw that the battlefield on the lake had entered cleanup mode, so he came down from the observation deck and gave orders to each unit.

Almost everything usable in the Wu army camp had been dismantled by Feng Xi's troops, and all military rations such as rice and flour had been captured by the Han army, making a huge profit.

After the war, statistics showed that the casualties of each unit were no more than a few hundred, most of whom occurred during the attack on the stronghold. Feng Xi ordered people to write down their names, which would then be reported to the relevant government offices, and condolences would be given to the families of these soldiers who died in the Eastern Expedition. This was also Lao Liu's policy at the time.

"Xiu Yuan! Xiu Yuan!"

Feng Xi returned to his own camp and rested for a while. When it was almost dawn, Zhang Nan walked into the tent with his loud voice.

"What's the matter, Commander Zhang?" Feng Xi sat cross-legged on the chair he had ordered the carpenter to make and glanced at Zhang Nan.

"Our army won a great victory, a great victory! More than half of the 20,000 Wu soldiers were killed or wounded, and our army captured nearly 8,000 people. Only less than 1,000 deserters are missing. And after the battle, we counted them. Hehe, guess what else we gained?"

When Zhang Nan said this, he couldn't help but raise his head with a proud look.

"We caught a big fish? Who? Xu Sheng? Or Ling Tong?"

Feng Xi was not too surprised. He had carefully prepared so many wonderful props for this water battle, it was impossible that there would be no gain at all.

"Ling Tong fell unconscious into the water, but was fished out and washed clean by our soldiers. Xu Sheng, Zhu Huan, and Zhu Yi surrendered. Zhou Tai tried to jump into the water to escape, but was blinded by the quicklime you gave him, and was shot to death by arrows."

Zhang Nan's face turned serious, and he informed Feng Xi of the result, which surprised Feng Xi. Although he had guessed that there would be a considerable harvest, such a large harvest was beyond his imagination. In addition to the capture of Luo Tong, Ding Feng, and Quan Cong, this wave could be considered a great harvest.

"You should sort out the captives and send them back to Jiangling. Let Wang Guoshan assign them to cultivate the land, build roads and repair walls."

Facing these captives, Feng Xi had already thought about their future uses. Jingzhou was newly established, and all places needed a large number of laborers to resume production. By then, let alone these captives, many Wuling barbarians might have to discuss with Shamoke and simply move to Jingzhou for assimilation.

"Oh, by the way, I have to write a victory report and report the results of this battle to Lao Liu."

Feng Xi slapped his head. He was so absorbed in the joy of fighting that he forgot that he still had to write some written documents. So he kicked Zhang Nan out and told him to quickly gather the prisoners and arrange for a ship to send them to Jiangling. He also had to write a work report.

In Chengdu, Zhuge Liang looked at the stars in the sky numbly.

Another general fell tonight, but Zhuge Liang had no reaction.

"Brother Liang, what's wrong? Why do you look like that?"

Huang Yueying saw her husband's dazed expression and hurriedly asked him, fearing that something had happened again.

"It's all right, but a general star fell in Jingxiang, and Jisu was above it. It seems that he died in a naval battle."

Zhuge Liang shook his goose feather fan, held Huang Yueying's hand, and explained patiently.

"Shouldn't this matter be reported to the king?"

Huang Yueying was a little confused. Her husband had been anxious and flustered in similar situations in the past, so why was he so calm today?

"Your Majesty is in Yong'an, and the war in Jingzhou is in the charge of Feng Xiuyuan. According to the news received a few days ago, Feng Xiuyuan is going down the river, intending to fight a decisive battle with Jiangdong in Dongting Lake. I'm afraid the outcome of this war will be decided."

Zhuge Liang could naturally see through Feng Xi's strategic plan of forcing the Eastern Wu into a decisive battle, and he also guessed that the battle of Dongting Lake must have ended with casualties.

However, Zhuge Liang was not worried about the casualties on his side, because the starry sky in Jingxiang was bright and there was no sign of weakness; on the contrary, the starlight in Jiangdong dimmed again, the meaning of which was self-evident.

(End of this chapter)