Chapter 119 The Battle of the Yangtze River, Han Navy VS Jiangdong Navy!

Under Zhou Yu's command, Sun Ce's army pretended to retreat, trying to lure the enemy into attacking, and ordered Liu Yao and other generals in Nanchang City to pursue them.

In order to make Liu Yao and others believe that Sun Ce's army was really retreating, Zhou Yu even passed on the intelligence from Jianghuai after careful consideration.

Your Majesty leads the army in person... The imperial court suddenly has thousands of naval warships... Yuan Shu's Huainan navy is losing ground... The imperial navy is divided into the Yangtze River defense line... Yuan Shu dispatches Sun Ce to lead the navy to block the imperial navy...

Because the imperial navy divided its forces and marched south to attack the mouth of the Yangtze River, Sun Ce's army could not wait to withdraw.

This is a logical chain that made Liu Yao and others believe it without a doubt!
The retreat of Sun Ce's army was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Liu Yao and other generals. They could send troops to slow down the speed of Sun Ce's army and buy time for the imperial navy!

This is a bait!
A conspiracy!
really.

After hearing the news, Liu Yao was moved! Wang Lang was moved! Zhu Hao was moved! Even Zhuge Xuan was moved!
But next to them, there is a little Zhuge!

Zhuge Liang asked, "Should the enemy retreat as a whole, or split up and move to the Yangtze River defense line?"

"The whole army is retreating! They are retreating in a hurry. It seems that the imperial navy fleet is coming with great force. We should seize the opportunity to pursue them and buy time for the imperial court!"

Liu Yao put forward his own ideas.

But Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "This must be the enemy's strategy to lure the enemy into an attack!"

Everyone was shocked!
"Why does Kong Ming say that?!" Zhuge Xuan asked.

Everyone also looked at Zhuge Liang. Over the past month, Zhuge Liang had fully demonstrated his talents and won everyone's recognition!
Even though Zhuge Liang was young, there were still young heroes!

Before that, Gan Luo became prime minister at the age of twelve; later, Guan Junhou was made marquis at the age of eighteen, and was granted the title of Langjuxu at the age of twenty-two!
Zhuge Liang said:
"The imperial navy fleet marched southward, dividing its forces into two groups to defend the Huai River and Yangtze River.

"This is a life-and-death moment. Yuan Shu and Sun Ce must stop the imperial navy fleet from advancing further.

"However, we must first stabilize the country before we can resist foreign aggression!
"If we don't deal with the resistance forces in Nanchang, Sun Ce's army will be attacked from all sides and will have trouble sleeping and eating.

“So they deliberately spread this news to encourage our ambition to send troops and delay, and then strike back.

"Otherwise, the normal choice should be to divide the troops and fight in two directions, support each other, and form a horn to avoid being attacked from both sides!"

...

"This...what Kong Ming said makes a lot of sense!"

When Liu Yao and other generals heard this, they felt that this was more logical.

Sun Ce's army retreated too decisively, which seemed to be due to military urgency, and they wanted to prevent the imperial navy from penetrating deep into the Yangtze River defense line.

But the problem is!

There are still these resistance forces in Nanchang City. The fact that they withdrew so decisively makes it seem like something is wrong!
...

"Everyone, let's keep our troops in place. Regardless of whether it is a conspiracy of the enemy or not, as long as we hold on to Nanchang City, it will be like a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh, and the enemy will not dare to go all out to attack the Yangtze River coast!

"Because we can attack them from behind at any time and make them vulnerable from both sides!"

Zhuge Liang said.

...

After Zhuge Liang's in-depth and easy-to-understand analysis, everyone agreed and decided to stay put and wait and see how the situation develops!

really.

Sun Ce's troops pretended to withdraw, but they did not move forward any further after they had gone very far.

Zhou Yu didn't expect that his plan was discovered by Liu Yao!

At this time, they were in a dilemma!

"Time waits for us!"

Zhou Yu sighed to the sky, and finally had no choice but to leave his troops behind and divide the forces to fight.

They confronted Nanchang City all the way and then attacked the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Because there is no time!
The imperial navy fleet must not be allowed to successfully enter the Yangtze River estuary, otherwise the defense line along the Yangtze River will face the sharp edge of the imperial navy fleet!
Of course, we must also be on guard against resistance forces such as Liu Yao in Nanchang City to prevent them from counterattacking at any time!
Just as Zhuge Liang said, Liu Yao and other generals remained in Nanchang City, which was like a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh, preventing Sun Ce's army from focusing on blocking the imperial naval fleet!
This is a stumbling block!

Sun Ce's army was divided into two routes, and almost all of his Jiangdong navy was mobilized to the Yangtze River defense line to block the imperial naval fleet.

A few days later, Zhuge Liang in Nanchang City felt that the time was almost up, and suggested to Liu Yao:
"General, we can send out troops to harass now!"

"That's exactly what I want!" Liu Yao nodded in agreement.

Speed ​​is of the essence in war and time is urgent. Even if Sun Ce's army wanted to lure the enemy into attacking, it would not be possible to maintain a stalemate for so long.

Therefore, during this period of time, Sun Ce's army must have split up and left.

really.

When Liu Yao led his troops to attack, he did not encounter a fierce attack from the remaining troops. It was obvious that Sun Ce's army had split into two groups and left, and its strength was not as strong as it could be.

Just in case, Zhou Yu left behind veteran generals Cheng Pu and Han Dang.

These two generals were among the four generals under Sun Jian. They followed Sun Jian in his battles throughout his life. Not only did they have great military achievements, they were also experienced in many battles!
But after all, after the troops were divided into two routes, the strength was reduced, and almost all of the Jiangdong navy was transferred away, leaving mostly infantry and cavalry.

Therefore, even with the presence of the two veteran generals Cheng Pu and Han Dang, it was still difficult for them to stop the resistance forces such as Liu Yao, Wang Lang, Zhu Hao and Zhuge Xuan.

This kind of military intelligence and war reports will naturally be delivered to the front line as soon as possible.

Within a few days, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had led their troops northward to the Dantu area of ​​Wujun and deployed defenses at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Zhou Yu and his men received news that Nanchang had sent troops to attack, and naturally they were a little worried about the situation in the country.

However worried they were, they could only concentrate on dealing with the imperial navy fleet and preventing them from entering the Yangtze River defense line.

Experienced generals such as Sun Ce and Zhou Yu could suppress such worries, but not every soldier under their command had this psychological quality.

Once the news spread, the soldiers became anxious and uneasy, fearing that Liu Yao and other resistance forces would attack them from behind.

This shook the morale of the troops, and they could not concentrate on the Yangtze River defense line!
This is Zhuge Liang’s purpose!
Obviously, Zhuge Liang's "keeping his troops in place" strategy became a major concern for Sun Ce's army, like a thorn in their throat!

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had no choice but to order the officers to boost morale and stabilize the troops.

During this preparation, the imperial navy fleet, which was sent south, finally took a detour around the mouth of the Yangtze River.

This naval fleet was commanded by generals such as Taishi Ci and Zhang Fei.

In a battle at the mouth of the Huai River, the imperial Han navy defeated Yuan Shu's Huainan navy, and generals such as Taishi Ci and Zhang Fei under Liu Bei performed well.

Therefore, the strategy of dividing the troops and marching south allowed them to take the lead.

Ever since he joined the navy fleet and started playing with cannons and firearms, Zhang Fei has lost interest in the cavalry battles he once fought!

The most exciting moment for Zhang Fei now is to operate the cannon and bombard the enemy!

He thinks this is the romance of men!
The cannons on the navy fleet require two or three people to operate because of their incredible weight, huge size, and complicated ammunition loading. The main ship guns even require five or six people to operate.

But Zhang Fei is worthy of being a powerful general who can defeat thousands of enemies. He can operate a cannon by himself, and he is even very talented and has become very proficient at it.

In a battle at the mouth of the Huai River, the Han Navy and the Huainan Navy fought, and Zhang Fei operated the cannon, hitting the target with every shot, and sank five enemy ships! This made Zhang Fei very excited, like a child who got a toy, very excited!

Because of his military achievements, Zhang Fei was promoted to captain of the ship.

Even after the imperial court deployed the strategy of sending troops southward, penetrating deep into the Yangtze River defense line, and encircling Huainan from both sides, Zhang Fei was promoted to one of the commanders.

Now Zhang Fei is the commander of a fleet, controlling fifteen warships, including five main battleships and ten scout patrol speedboats, which belong to the vanguard army.

When they went south from the Huai River and finally approached the mouth of the Yangtze River, they finally encountered the red horse boats of the Jiangdong Navy!
Small speedboats such as the Red Horse Boat are similar to cavalry scouts, and their main tasks are scouting, reconnaissance, patrolling, and fire attacks and surprise attacks.

"General, do we need to sink the enemy's red horse boats?" asked a messenger.

After thinking about it, Zhang Fei gave up the idea of ​​demonstrating. He said: "The ammunition is limited and should be used at the most critical moment. Let them go and give a tip-off..."

"I obey my orders!"

After the messenger left, Zhang Fei sent someone to notify the fleet in the rear, ordering them to guard against the attack of the Jiangdong navy.

After the Huaihe River naval battle and the training of the naval fleet in Qingzhou, Zhang Fei gradually became familiar with naval battles.

Although Zhang Fei was reckless, he was also a smart person. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for him to take actions such as "releasing Yan Yan out of righteousness" in the original history.

Sinking the enemy's red horse boat scouts at this time would only waste ammunition and alert the enemy.

Instead, let the enemy scouts leave and let them gather and deploy defenses. At that time, displaying artillery and firearms will surely intimidate the enemy!
Can defeat enemy warships in one fell swoop.

It was based on this idea that Zhang Fei's vanguard fleet did not act rashly, but instead allowed the enemy scouts to investigate.

The news gradually spread to the Jiangdong Navy's camp.

All the generals gathered to discuss the matter.

Huang Gai expressed his own opinion:

"According to the scouts' report, the vanguard of the imperial navy fleet heading south has already approached the Yangtze River estuary, and the commander seems to be Zhang Fei, Liu Bei's sworn brother.

“Moreover, the main battleships described by the scouts are all very large and stable. It seems that they are not converted fishing boats!
"This caused the morale of the soldiers to waver, and with the Nanchang rebels harassing and causing chaos behind them, they were under internal and external troubles and were attacked from all sides!
"We only have a vanguard fleet of fifteen ships. Why don't we lure the enemy deep into our territory and annihilate the fleet? This will not only boost morale, but also give us a better understanding of the enemy's warships. Kill two birds with one stone?"

...

After hearing this, all the generals expressed their deep agreement!

They must win a battle to boost morale, or even stabilize it!

Otherwise, if we continue like this, we will become afraid before the battle and be defeated without even fighting!
But in the end, they still looked at Zhou Yu.

Sun Ce asked, "Gongjin, what do you think?"

After fighting side by side for so many years, they fully recognized Zhou Yu's ability to strategize!
This is an outstanding general!

After Zhou Yu thought deeply, he nodded and said:
"General Huang is right, but we need to be on guard against the imperial navy's trump card! They can defeat Yuan Shu's Huainan navy, so they must have some secret weapons!"

Everyone agreed with it!

They went into in-depth discussions on this possibility, but in the end they found nothing!
Because naval warfare is nothing more than techniques and tactics such as water currents, wind direction, boarding combat, and fire attacks.

In the battle at the mouth of the Huai River, the imperial court's "Han Navy" was defeated by Yuan Shu's "Huainan Navy". How did they fail? What are the details?
They haven't received any specific military intelligence reports yet!

Zhou Yu had already sent people north to inquire, but because the imperial navy fleet had already attacked the Huaihe River defense line, the Jianghuai area was in chaos, causing some delays in military intelligence and war reports.

In addition, Zhang Fei and other generals led the naval fleet and marched south with great force, so time was urgent.

Therefore, Zhou Yu, Sun Ce and other generals did not know the specific details of the "Huaihe Water Battle", let alone the news of cannons, firearms, etc.!

In fact, even Yuan Shu of Huainan does not know the specific information about the cannon. They only know that the imperial navy fleet has an extremely invincible and terrifying lethal weapon!
This lethal weapon is unstoppable!

Due to the lack of military intelligence and war reports, there was an information gap, which led to misjudgment by the generals of the Jiangdong Navy!
Although the generals of the Jiangdong Navy strictly guarded against the imperial navy fleet and were cautious, they finally decided to lure the enemy deep into their territory and encircle and annihilate the vanguard fleet!
If they knew about the lethal weapon called "cannon", they might not have lured the enemy deep into their territory and encircled and annihilated them, but instead had dispersed their forces to fight!
When facing artillery, we should choose guerrilla warfare rather than this kind of intensive encirclement and annihilation warfare!

...

The Jiangdong navy took action to lure the enemy deeper into their territory.

The vanguard army led by Zhang Fei seemed to be greedy for merit and advanced rashly, penetrating deep into the enemy's defense lines.

A major battle finally broke out between the two armies in the Hengsha area at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River estuary during the Eastern Han Dynasty was different from the Yangtze River estuary in the future. There is no future Nantong, Qidong, etc. in Jiangsu, let alone Shanghai, Chongming Island, etc.

This is a large area of ​​wetland shallows.

Of course, for a more intuitive understanding, let’s temporarily name them Hengsha, Chongming and Changxing!
Hengsha is an estuarine sandbar formed near the mouth of the Yangtze River by the discharge of silt. It was later exposed to the surface of the water and became an alluvial island due to continuous sedimentation.

Hengsha Island is one of the three major islands at the Yangtze River Estuary. It is located at the Yangtze River estuary, surrounded by rivers and the sea. Hengsha echoes the two islands of Changxing and Chongming.

The Jiangdong navy set up an ambush in the Hengsha area.

Because this area was obviously the best ambush spot for naval battles, the Jiangdong navy deliberately retreated for fear that Zhang Fei and other naval fleets would not be fooled.

The Jiangdong navy pretended to be defeated and lured the enemy deeper!
In fact, this was exactly what Zhang Fei wanted.

Zhang Fei originally wanted to make the enemy troops assemble, and finally launched a massive artillery bombardment, so he took advantage of the situation and took the initiative to join the enemy!
The Jiangdong navy was luring Zhang Fei into a trap, but they didn't know that Zhang Fei took the initiative to fall into the trap!

at last.

After the 15-ship vanguard fleet commanded by Zhang Fei entered the ambush point of the Jiangdong Navy, they immediately launched a counterattack!
"kill!--"

The earth-shaking shouts of killing resounded throughout the Hengsha area.

Originally, because the imperial court's naval fleet went southward along the Yangtze River and was harassed by rebels in Nanchang City, the Jiangdong naval officers and soldiers were attacked from all sides and faced internal and external troubles, which made their morale unstable!

But seeing that the imperial navy fleet was so reckless and was lured into the enemy's territory little by little, the Jiangdong navy officers and soldiers regained their morale!
"It seems that in the Huaihe River naval battle, it was not that the imperial navy fleet was too powerful, but that Yuan Shu's Huainan navy fleet was too weak!" The generals thought so.

Of course, it is also possible that Zhang Fei's vanguard fleet, or even Zhang Fei himself, the commander, was too careless and too greedy for merit and acted rashly!

This is what the Jiangdong Navy planned!
No matter what, looking at the vanguard fleet of Zhang Fei and others that was deeply surrounded, the Jiangdong navy attacked from all directions!
Just like a pack of wolves attacking a sheep caught in a trap!

only!!!

The Jiangdong navy didn't know that Zhang Fei and other vanguard fleets had also bared their fangs at them!

They are not sheep, they are wolves in sheep's clothing!

"fire!!!"

Zhang Fei looked at the Jiangdong navy that surrounded him with crazy eyes!

Even though their vanguard army only had fifteen warships, and only five of them were main battleships with cannons, the remaining ten were speedboats for scouting, patrolling, and pursuing, while the enemy had nearly a hundred warships.

Fifteen ships VS nearly a hundred ships!
Any force faced with this situation would choose to surrender directly, or even commit suicide to apologize!

but! !! !!

Zhang Fei was not afraid at all, even a little crazy!!!
The soldiers on his fifteen warships also had fanatical looks in their eyes!!!
Following Zhang Fei's order, they took action immediately and fired!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!——"

(End of this chapter)