Chapter 115: Battle of Dongting Lake (Part 110)
The land battle on the second day ended in nothing. After Feng Xi returned to the camp, he ordered Zhang Nan to be extra careful. Even if Zhou Cang did not perform any merit when he pretended to surrender tomorrow, he could not make any mistakes. If Zhang Nan's navy made any mistakes, all his efforts would fail.

Of course Zhang Nan did not dare to be negligent. He personally led the sailors and checked all the safety measures together with Zhao Lei. He only dared to rest after confirming that the defense measures on his side were complete.

On the third day, both sides maintained a rare tacit understanding and stopped fighting without any action. On the Jiangdong side, General Xu Sheng and other generals knew that they would fight the Han army tonight, so they ordered the soldiers to take turns to rest and conserve their energy to prepare for the battle at night.

The same was true for the Han army. Since Feng Xi had seen through Zhou Qian's plan, he naturally had to use his own trick against him. Feng Xi even acted like a thousand-layer pancake and made a plan in case his trick was seen through by the enemy, and then he would use his own trick against him again.

The two sides kept a tacit understanding and no one took action, but the soldiers on both sides had already smelled the breath of the storm. The camps of both sides remained silent, and the soldiers hurriedly wiped their weapons or took a break to replenish their energy.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Half of the day has passed, and soon it is almost dusk.

Feng Xi stood up and saw that the sky was gradually getting dark. He said to the guard beside him:

"Have the flag bearer send a signal to Zhang Nan, telling him that he can set off."

The guard nodded and quickly ran to the flag bearer in the camp. The flag bearer immediately passed the order layer by layer. Finally, the flag bearer on the other side of the river saw the signal from the flag bearer on this side of the river and immediately notified the guards on Zhang Nan's side.

"Commander-in-chief, the order from the Grand Commander has arrived, allowing us to set off."

The guard lifted the curtain and went inside to report.

"Okay, notify Vice Admiral Zhao, we'll board the ship and head to the middle of Dongting Lake!"

Zhang Nan changed into leather armor for the naval battle, picked up his spear, hung his sword, strode out of the tent with his guards, and boarded the boat docked on the lake with countless Han soldiers.

"Zi Yu, be careful."

The situation on the Eastern Wu side was similar. Xu Sheng, Zhou Tai, and Ling Tong were all on the shore, watching Zhou Cang and dozens of soldiers board a dozen small boats.

These small boats all had white flags flying on them, and were piled with flammable materials such as hay and kerosene. When they were close enough, these people would light the hay and rush straight into the Han army's formation, not seeking to set the Han army's large ships on fire, but only to disrupt the Han army's formation.

Zhou Cang smiled silently, bowed to the three people on the boat, and then ordered his soldiers to untie the ropes, hoist the sails, and slowly leave.

"All troops aboard!"

When Zhou Cang and his men were so far away that they could only see a few dots, Xu Sheng ordered the troops to board the ship. For tonight, Xu Sheng pulled out 3,000 men from Luzhai and even went on board to command the battle himself, while Ding Feng was left behind to guard Luzhai just in case.

The large and small ships of the Eastern Wu navy quickly hoisted their white sails, adjusted their positions, and chased in the direction Zhou Qiang had just left, with the soldiers shouting loudly as they chased.

It was already dark, and countless birds and animals were resting quietly by the Dongting Lake, but the sudden shouting and screaming from the lake startled them.

The birds spread their wings and fled in the darkness, disappearing without a trace; the beasts ran as fast as they could, hurriedly heading for the dense forests and bushes in the distance, fearing that they would be killed by these humans if they ran too slowly.

Zhang Nan had been waiting in the center of Dongting Lake early, which was also the meeting place requested in Zhou Qian's letter.

The Han army arrived early, so they had plenty of time to set up their formation. The small boats were in front, the warships were in the middle, and the large ships such as the fighting ships were not lined up in a row but were distributed in the Han army's formation in a row under the protection of many small boats. "...&%￥!"

Zhang Nan was resting with his eyes closed on his ship. The evening breeze blew across the lake, stirring up ripples. The scenery was extremely beautiful, but unfortunately the noisy sound in the distance instantly destroyed all the beauty.

Zhang Nan stood up and looked, and saw several small boats with torches lit coming towards him at a high speed, and the Wu army's fleet behind them seemed to be chasing them.

"Confirm the situation of these small boats ahead."

Zhang Nan narrowed his eyes and asked the flag bearer to give orders to the ship in front of the queue to confirm whether the other party was flying the white flag as stated in the letter.

"Commander-in-chief, the ship ahead reports that the boat on the opposite side is indeed carrying a white flag."

After communicating for a while, the messenger came to Zhang Nan to report.

"Issue an order to all ships to proceed according to the plan. If the boat on the opposite side catches fire, proceed according to the previous plan."

Zhang Nan stood up, holding his command knife, and walked to the side of the boat, looking at the brightly lit Wu army ship not far away. Zhang Nan knew that today's battle was the key point.

Before the battle, Feng Xi had told him countless times about the precautions, and Zhang Nan naturally would not ignore them out of trust in Feng Xi. Now was the time to test his training results.

"Good! The Shu army is unprepared! Once you get closer, look at the condition of my ship and follow me to light it!"

Zhou Qiang was overjoyed when he saw the dark shadows of Han army ships in the distance. He gave instructions to his men, and the soldiers nodded without saying anything, but rowed faster towards the Han army fleet.

"You are the ones who come here to surrender!"

When Zhou Qiang was close enough to the Han fleet, a Han soldier on a small boat opposite was shouting while holding a strange object. It seemed that his voice became much louder because of this object, like a thunder.

"Ignite! Break up the enemy's formation!"

When Zhou Cang saw the Han army's fleet right in front of him, he was too lazy to disguise himself. He picked up the torch himself and ignited the flammable items in the cabin. In an instant, the cabin was burning violently, like a big fireball, and was particularly conspicuous in the night.

Seeing that his commander had set fire, the dozen or so small boats that Zhou Cang was traveling with also set fire. A dozen huge fireballs took advantage of the east wind and crashed into the Han army's fleet.

An ordinary navy would inevitably panic upon seeing such a scene, or at least there would be some commotion. However, the small boats in the front row of the Han army seemed to have anticipated this, and each of the small boats took out from the cabin a tool that was more than ten meters long and had two Y-shaped forks on the top.

This is the fireproof fork that Feng Xi specially asked the carpenter to make. When used with the hook on the small boat, it can safely block the charge of this small fireboat.

"Squeak..."

Zhou Qian's fireship rushed straight towards a warship, but the dozen or so small boats guarding the warship surrounded it. Several small boats on the side directly threw out their hooks and grabbed the fireship from both sides like spiders.

(End of this chapter)