My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 105: Fire Attack on Ruxukou

"These Yuan thieves are so arrogant. When they saw me approaching under the banner of Liu Xun, not only did they not stay alert, but they even dared to open the gate of the village on their own initiative?!"

Gan Ning, who was far away, knew that there was a high chance that he would succeed.

Because in the past six months, he has become accustomed to Zhuge Mansion Lord's meticulous planning. As long as the Zhuge family asked him to do something, he would do it without thinking. Even if it sounds strange at first, he will definitely win in the end.

But even though he had such a psychological advantage, when he saw the gate of Ruxukoushui Village in front of him open automatically, he was still almost stunned and shocked beyond words.

In his expectation, his fleet could approach within a few hundred steps of the enemy's stronghold, the water stronghold would be completely defenseless, there would be no attempt to sail out the boats to intercept, and the archers would not be allowed to shoot arrows. This was already the limit of his imagination.

Qiao Ruijun definitely regarded Lujiang County as a "safe rear base surrounded by his own people", otherwise he would not be able to do such a thing without ten years of cerebral thrombosis.

This sudden change made Gan Ning even more anxious. His brain began to quickly assess the situation, thinking about how to maximize the suddenness of the surprise attack.

Although he is not very good at strategy, he has a keen sense of command in battle. Everyone has his own strengths, and this is precisely his strong point.

Before Gan Ning came, he also did sufficient intelligence work and roughly scouted the terrain and layout around Ruxukou.

He knew that the port town of Ruxukou was mainly composed of two parts. One part was a civilian wharf bordering the Yangtze River, where a large number of merchant ships docked. In times of war, it might be used to berth grain transport fleets.

After the Yangtze River turns into the Rushu River, there are tightly guarded naval camps. Warships are mainly parked at berths along the Rushu River, rather than on the banks of the Yangtze River.

Because the Ruxu River is much narrower than the Yangtze River, naval commanders have tried to prepare several large ships in peacetime so that they can completely block the surface of the Ruxu River at any time when the battle is unfavorable.

Gan Ning originally did not dare to think of attacking the tower ship, but now Qiao Ruijun took the initiative to open the door for him, making him willing to take a gamble.

"Hold your composure, and wait until you start the fire. All ships, listen to my command! All the fire ships will rush directly into the water fort, and don't worry about the civilian ships on the Yangtze River! Those civilian ships are still deep in the water in the middle of the night, and they must be fully loaded with military rations. It is better to set fire to them and try to seize them in the chaos than to burn them!

"Use the fireboats doused with tung oil, focus on Qiao Rui's tower ship and surround it and set it on fire. Then, board it and cut the anchor stone and cables. Once the tower ship is on fire and drifts with the current, the other ships will be stuck in the Ruxu River and unable to get out, and unable to fight back!"

In just a few hundred steps, Gan Ning finally figured out the change of tactics, and quickly passed the order to the messengers who jumped on the board and swam. Because he did not give the order to light the fire, the captains of the other ships in Jinfan Camp did not dare to act rashly, and just drove straight into the water fort.

"Light the fire and cut the cables!"

Following Gan Ning's order, more than a dozen slender warships cut the ropes of the tattered small boats towed at the stern. Those small boats continued to rush forward relying on inertia and paddling. Then fires broke out on the boats, and they rushed towards their respective targets and set fire to the large warships in the water fort.

The damage caused by these fire ships was not huge, because Qiao Rui's army was not Cao's army after all, and they did not lock the warships in a chain.

So a small boat can usually only exchange one for one. In extreme cases, if the enemy ships are anchored relatively close, it is possible to exchange one for two or three.

But the vessels Gan Ning used to set the fire were all small boats, and what he replaced were at least large battleships, so it was still a great profit.

Moreover, because it was early in the morning, the enemy was not on guard. There were few soldiers on duty on many large ships, and the warships were basically empty. The number of soldiers on duty on the fighting warships was only two or three times that of the regular boats. They just stood there and allowed Gan Ning's army to ram them in vain, and the results of the battle were instantly expanded.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Shoot your arrows!"

"Who attacked? Liu Bei's soldiers?"

"I don't know who attacked! It was definitely an enemy attack! Ah, the ship is on fire!"

There was chaos in the water stronghold, and Gan Ning's army was left to kill indiscriminately.

The sailors on duty on the ship only rushed over to check after they discovered that their ship was on fire, thinking it was an accidental fire.

When the elite soldiers of the Jinfan Camp on the Han army's boats used flying claws and grappling hooks to climb up to the tower ship, the guards on the tower ship were unable to distinguish between friend and foe. Some thought that the soldiers were there to put out the fire, or wanted to drive the ship away to escape, so they just let the Jinfan soldiers climb onto the deck and draw their swords, and a melee ensued between the two sides.

"Cut all the ropes tying the ship to the anchor! Raise the sails as high as you can! Then jump into the water and retreat!"

Gan Ning personally led the soldiers and climbed onto a burning ship, killing three or five confused Yuan army sailors. He also threw the torches of the dead into the cabin. Then he personally grabbed a big axe and cut the thick hemp rope tied to the anchor stone, and then led the soldiers to cut the hemp ropes that tied the ship to the berth.

Because of the fire and the hoisted sails, the huge ship was drifting with the waves, causing the fire to spread and blocking a small part of the narrow Rushu River waterway.

Qiao Rui's three large ships were originally moored in a row along the west bank of the Ruxu River. In just two cups of tea, they were crisscrossed and cut across the Ruxu River. Although the navy behind had reacted and started to counterattack, they were stuck in the creek and could not get out.

The layout of the water fort, which was originally used to defend against enemy attacks, has now become a burden to our own people.

After doing all this, Gan Ning was still able to calmly look for a small boat nearby that had not caught fire, then jumped into the water and rowed back.

Gan Ning's rear troops who were responsible for the support were not idle in this short half-quarter of an hour. Under Gan Ning's advance deployment, they sent hundreds of sailors to board the grain ships on the outer Yangtze River docks, cut the cables and anchors, and then hoisted the sails and drove the grain ships away.

These delicate tasks would have taken a lot of time, but Yuan Jun's attention was not paid here at first. The soldiers who had just woken up rushed directly to the warships and water forts to reinforce and turn the defeat around.

It was not until the first few grain ships were driven away from the outer bank of the Yangtze River that the sentries noticed the abnormality here and hurriedly tried to chase and stop them, but the sailors of the Jinfan Camp had already cut the ropes and pushed the ships slightly away from the berth.

Some brave Yuan soldiers even jumped onto the grain ship that had already left the shore, but this behavior was obviously not replicable. Perhaps only one or two Yuan soldiers jumped onto a grain ship, and the rest did not dare to jump, or could not jump that far, and fell directly into the Yangtze River.

The Yuan soldier who jumped onto the grain ship and tried to take it back was no match for the sailors from the Jinfan Camp, who hacked him to death and threw him into the river.

"Quick, let the warships from the water fort come out to chase! Don't jump randomly! Jumping on will only lead to death!" The officers of Yuan army on the dock finally realized the situation and stopped their warriors from being reckless.

The enemy has already driven the grain ships away from their berths, so of course we have to use warships to chase them. How can we use the army?
……

However, the demand from the Yangtze River wharf was finally conveyed back to Shuizhai, but Qiao Rui, who had just arrived at Shuizhai, was helpless.

Because the troops in charge of the warships also came to report to him, and just told him a piece of bad news:
"The big ships can't sail out! The enemy generals burned our tower ships as soon as they came up, and cut off all the cables that fixed the hulls. The tower ships were pushed by the current and collided with each other, completely blocking the waterway! The rear army can't chase them! Otherwise, we have to use small boats to chase them!"

Qiao Rui himself was originally sleeping in Ruxu Town and was not at the dock. He only got on his horse and rushed over when he saw the flames rising towards the sky.

Seeing this tragic scene, his face turned pale, his expression was as if he had lost his parents, and blood rushed to his head.

He knew that if he couldn't catch up at this time it was a problem of ability, but if he didn't catch up it was a problem of attitude. If His Majesty knew about it, he would be severely punished.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth and forcefully give the order: "We must pursue them even if we have to rely on boats! We must not let the thief escape! I will personally pursue him!"

Gan Ning's entire army on the opposite side had succeeded and began to retreat in an orderly manner.

Originally, with the speed of Gan Ning's Jinfan Camp, Qiao Rui would definitely not be able to catch up.

But wasn't Gan Ning greedy? He temporarily robbed all the food at the civilian ship dock outside. These food ships sailed slower than warships. When Qiao Rui gathered a hundred or so small boats and rushed out of the water stronghold, he was barely able to slowly close the distance with Gan Ning.

However, Gan Ning was very confident and ordered the warships to stay behind, while the grain ships went ahead to protect them. When he saw the pursuers, he immediately ordered his men to show weakness and wait until they got closer before attacking.

Qiao Rui's troops were approaching within a few dozen steps of Gan Ning's rear ship. Even after Qiao Rui's troops fired two sparse volleys of arrows, Gan Ning ordered his troops to return fire, and he personally drew his bow and shot and killed several pursuers.

The archery skills of both sides were not at the same level in the bumpy water environment. After several Qiao Ruifang boats that were chasing too fast were shot by arrows and suffered heavy casualties, Gan Ning's army even turned their boats around and boarded the boats to kill all the people on them, and then dropped torches to burn the boats.

As he watched the fierce battle unfold, Qiao Rui suddenly realized that he was completely unable to win with the limited pursuit force he had at hand, and it was not just a matter of being ambushed.

The sailors were not as elite as the enemy, the forces chasing them were not enough, and their ships were worse than others, so they could only use small boats. It would be a waste of time to chase them any further.

But he was worried about being punished, and in a hurry, he saw that his ship was about to enter the range of the rain of arrows, and the arrows of Gan Ning's army had already begun to fall sparsely into the river water on the bow and side of the ship.

Qiao Rui suddenly came up with an idea, and while the soldiers on the same boat were not paying attention, he picked up an enemy arrow that had drifted nearby, carefully cleaned and wiped the tip of the arrow clean, then gritted his teeth and stabbed the side of his left arm with it, leaving a bloody wound.

"Ah! I was hit by an arrow!"

The soldiers nearby then turned their attention to the general, and were shocked to see him holding his bleeding arm in pain. There was also a general named Qu Junhou on the boat, who was Qiao Rui's confidant. He immediately shouted and blew the fire signal, asking the other pursuers to retreat.

"The general is injured! Let's spare those desperate thieves! Don't chase after desperate enemies!"

While giving the order, his trusted confidant Qu Junhou came over to comfort Qiao Rui: "General, don't worry. Although our army has suffered losses, you fought hard and were injured, and chased and annihilated thousands of invading enemies. General Liu will definitely not blame us. Even if we make a big fuss, we will have an explanation."

The farce of pursuit finally ended like this.

……

After daybreak, Gan Ning successfully returned to Chungu County downstream.

Zhuge Jin had been on standby in Chungu County for the past few days, because Wuhu downstream had not yet been captured, but Taishi Ci had already been sent out. Zhuge Jin was prepared to move his troops to Wuhu as soon as Taishi Ci reported back that Wuhu had been captured.

Zhuge Jin had long expected that Gan Ning would be able to win the battle. After all, this was a complete and pure sneak attack. Yuan Shu's army didn't even know that Zhuge's army was the enemy. It was almost like stealing Pearl Harbor.

If we can't win this, it would be too incredible.

However, when Zhuge Jin saw Gan Ning's battle results, he was still shocked.

We asked you to set a fire and burn some of Qiao Rui's fleet, but you actually brought back so many captured grain ships?
This is indeed... The Jinfan thief is very skilled in his job. Pulling out a tooth from a tiger's mouth is just a piece of cake. He even takes it away after burning it.

"How many grain ships were seized? How many warships were burned?" Zhuge Jin couldn't help but ask with a guilty conscience, fearing that he would not be able to offer a reward to Gan Ning.

Gan Ning said proudly, "I took a quick look at the river and there were probably 70 or 80 grain ships. We burned more than a dozen and towed back 60. Qiao Rui was quite good and loaded all the grain on board in advance.

It should be that after Liu Xun arrived, he would take these grain ships with him to go on the expedition, all of which were for Liu Xun's army to eat when he attacked Guangling. I thought it would be a pity to burn them all, and since the sailors had some extra, I just took them back.

I burned all three of Qiao Rui's tower ships, five of the seven fighting ships, and a small portion of the battleships. I didn't care about the boats, as they were not as valuable as my fire ships, so I just threw some torches as I passed by, and didn't burn them specifically. "

(End of this chapter)