My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 107: Liu Xun: Although we were defeated for a while, we still have men against men. The advantage is in our hands.
Qiao Rui slowly hurried back to Ruxukou and saw that Liu Xun had indeed arrived.

He also secretly felt lucky that he was wounded by an enemy arrow early in the morning, and Liu Xun probably felt too embarrassed to get too angry.

The situation was exactly as he expected. Liu Xun didn't want to argue with the wounded, so he just held his breath and asked about the details of the battle in a businesslike manner.

Qiao Rui also told a half-truth, emphasizing that the failure of the battle was partly due to the court's misjudgment of foreign relations, which led to his surprise attack. Secondly, his own communication work must not have been done well, and Liu Xun's itinerary was leaked, which caught him off guard.

After these two main points of blame were pushed away, Qiao Rui then whitewashed the situation by describing how he fought bloody battles to repel the enemy, pursued them vigorously, and was finally heroically wounded, so that he had to give up on expanding the victory.

Liu Xun asked with a gloomy face about the specific results of the battle, and Qiao Rui said, "Our army suffered no more than a thousand casualties, and we shot and killed three to five thousand enemy troops. It was only because we could not seize the enemy's ships on the Yangtze River that we were unable to take the enemy's corpses."

This trick of using excuses is most useful during naval battles.

Liu Xun also knew that there must be something fishy going on, but without any evidence, and since they had a common interest in whitewashing the results of the battle and needed to work together to fool Yuan Shu, he just turned a blind eye.

"Let's not worry about the spoils for now, but the water fort has been hit so hard, we can't justify it if we don't fight back! I've already calculated that even most of the food for the expedition to Guangling has been burned and looted.

The remaining food is not enough for us to besiege Guangling City. We have to raise more food! We must take advantage of this period of time to launch a counterattack and win a great victory, so that we can report to His Majesty!"

Qiao Rui had no objection to this.

On his way back, he had already decided that the enemies were the Zhuge family and Taishi Ci, so he could target his attack and tell Liu Xun that the enemy was in Chungu County, Tongguan Town, Hulin Port and other places, so he could take revenge.

After a brief thought, Liu Xun agreed with Qiao Rui's judgment.

A few days later, Liu Xun joined forces with Qiao Rui and went to Hulin and Tongguan Town to show off their strength, burned some houses, and ravaged several small fishing villages along the river that traded with the Shanyue people, but they failed to capture the main force of Zhuge's army.

After wasting a lot of time, they finally confirmed that the main force of Zhuge's navy was stationed in Chungu County, and then they prepared to send the entire army to Chungu County to regain their ground.

Of course, before launching the general attack, they did as Qiao Rui had originally thought and sent envoys to negotiate and test the waters: they asked Zhuge Jin to hand over Taishi Ci's head, and said that as long as they killed Liu Yao's former subordinates who attacked Ruxukou, they could go to His Majesty and ask for pardon for the Zhuge family and allow them to rejoin Yuan.

This request certainly made Zhuge Jin laugh and cry - the other party actually still believed that it was Taishi Ci's troops who took direct action that night.

But Zhuge Jin did not refuse directly. Instead, he delayed for a few more days before refusing, buying his side as much time as possible to gather troops.

So when Liu Xun and Qiao Rui finally launched the general attack, it was already mid-June.

During the entire process, only one adviser on Liu Xun and Qiao Rui's side objected to this attempt at negotiation, and that was Liu Xun's Gongcao Liu Ye.

Liu Ye said that this kind of wrangling was definitely a waste of time. It would be better to send troops out in anger and take advantage of the fact that his own soldiers were just enraged by the sneak attack so that they could unite and win a quick victory.

Unfortunately, neither Liu Xun nor Qiao Rui had such decisiveness, so Liu Ye was too lazy to say any more nonsense.

Before Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he had a bad feeling. Yuan Shu did proclaim himself emperor, and was betrayed by so many "allies", which made Liu Ye wonder: How long will it take for Yuan Shu to be deserted by his friends and relatives, and whether he should find an opportunity to jump ship and run away.

He came to Lujiang just to avoid the war, his ancestral home was Shouchun. He joined Liu Xun because he needed to find a local supporter. If the supporter was not safe, what value would it have?
……

Liu Xun and Qiao Rui's slow preparations and delayed search for the enemy gave Zhuge Jin the opportunity to make full preparations.

On June 16, the third day after Gan Ning's successful surprise attack, Zhuge Jin, who was stationed in Chungu County, 80 miles downstream from Ruxukou, received good news from downstream.

Taishi Ci led 4,000 of his former subordinates upstream again and came to Chungu County to meet up with his allies to report victory: Wuhu City had been captured by the joint efforts of him and Guan Yu, and Sun Ce had not made any moves for the time being.

Guan Yu's main force temporarily remained in Wuhu County for vigilance, while Taishi Ci's troops returned to meet Gan Ning to prepare for a possible counterattack by the enemy.

Zhuge Jin immediately integrated Taishi Ci's troops into the team, asking them to speed up the transformation of warships, add some small equipment, and train to adapt to the usage environment.

Liu Xun and Qiao Rui were delayed by the messengers and negotiations, and did not launch the attack. Three days later, Guan Yu also brought 2,000 men to add icing on the cake, and joined forces with Gan Ning and Taishi Ci, bringing the total strength of Zhuge Jin's navy to more than 8,000 men.

Seeing Guan Yu coming, Zhuge Jin was still a little worried about the defense of Wuhu city, so he specifically went to Guan Yu to ask a few questions.

But Guan Yu said that he left 4,000 soldiers to Zhuge Liang to guard Wuhu, and there were 2,000 to 3,000 Shanyue soldiers from Zu Lang's army who had just been selected and conquered, which was enough to ensure that there would be no problems in Wuhu City in the short term.

Zhuge Liang also wrote a letter himself and asked Guan Yu to give it to his eldest brother, asking him not to worry. He said that based on the investigation of the scouts he sent out, Zhuge Liang judged that Sun Ce's emotions had stabilized and he should have recognized the situation, and it would be almost impossible for him to impulsively try to retake Wuhu.

Therefore, 6,000 people are enough to defend the city of Wuhu, and there is no need to worry about the problem of misappropriation of troops.

Seeing that his second brother had made such a judgment, and that it was indeed not necessary to have a brave general to defend a city, as long as the quality and morale of the soldiers were high enough, a wise general could defend the city as well, Zhuge Jin no longer had any concerns.

It was Zhuge Liang who was guarding the city himself!

However, for the sake of safety, Zhuge Jin had one last thing to ascertain and explain about Guan Yu's assistance:

"Yun Chang...are you familiar with naval battles? As far as I know, you seem to have never fought a naval battle before."

Guan Yu couldn't help but blushing even more. After hesitating for a while, he admitted frankly: "I have indeed never experienced naval warfare, but with a powerful enemy at hand, I have the opportunity to do my part. How can I be timid and stand back?
Besides, most of the county soldiers under my command are from Guangling, Danyang and Yuzhang counties, and most of them are good at water battles. As the commander-in-chief, even if I have never commanded a naval battle, as long as I follow Xingba and Ziyi's example and obey their orders, I think I will not make any mistakes."

Zhuge Jin secretly thanked himself for not having any preconceived ideas.

In history, Guan Yu also had good naval capabilities in the later period, but those abilities were slowly honed after he went to Jingzhou and stayed in Jingzhou for nearly ten years.

Just like Zhang Fei in his later years was good at mountain warfare, that was something he learned slowly while following Liu Bei in conquering Shu. No one is born with the ability.

But Guan Yu had just arrived in the south. In the previous battles to pacify Yuzhang, none of the battles that Guan Yu participated in were naval battles. Gan Ning, a professional, had fought on his behalf. The upcoming battle would be Guan Yu's first naval battle.

Zhuge Jin then said, "Yun Chang, although you are now a lieutenant, and Xingba and Ziyi are only captains, you are above all the generals. But if you want to participate in this battle, you must follow three rules.

As the saying goes, people learn things in order and specialize in different skills. You must obey the unified command in this battle. You can follow Xingba's instructions on the details of the battle and adapt to the situation. Don't be too arrogant. As long as you can win this battle, you will have mastered the art of naval warfare and can act on your own in the future."

If someone else said this, Guan Yu would definitely be a little dissatisfied, but it was totally fine for Zhuge Jin to say this. In the past ten months, Mr. Zhuge had accumulated enough prestige in his heart, which made him admire him very much.

Moreover, Zhuge Jin's current official positions are the prefect of Danyang and the General of the Central Army of Pingyue. The position of General of the Central Army is above that of the Colonel, and only Zhuge Jin's position can suppress him.

As the two chatted, Zhuge Jin also realized this, and felt that it would be better for him to personally command the battle, perhaps he could better coordinate with Guan Yu, Gan Ning and Taishi Ci.

So he changed his mind temporarily and decided to personally board the largest battleship and supervise the battle with Guan Yu.

Zhuge Jin still paid great attention to his personal safety, but with a sturdy large ship, it was not impossible for him to go to the battlefield.

After setting the rules, Zhuge Jin asked Guan Yu to lead his soldiers to sharpen their weapons in the next few days, adapt to the boarding and attacking on the big ship, and shoot arrows to suppress, and how to fight a dignified battle on the river. Gan Ning and Taishi Ci were more professional and experienced, and those roles that required roundabout fighting and flexible insertion were given to them. When allocating warships, Gan Ning and his men were mainly fast ships. Guan Yu's men were deployed on several fighting ships, responsible for the attack on the central army-

Zhuge Jin had never built a tower ship or equipped one.

Liu Bei's army's original territory was in the north, and they had just fought their way south. It had only been less than half a year since the Zhuge family gained a foothold in Yuzhang.

The construction period of the Louchuan, the largest warship in the late Han Dynasty, was too long. Half a year was definitely not enough to find craftsmen, prepare materials, and plan the construction.

Fortunately, Gan Ning's fire attack burned all three of Qiao Rui's tower ships. Even if Liu Xun still had some tower ships, the pressure would not be too great.

……

On June 20th, after several days of emergency assembly and running-in, the Han army finally faced the proactive and full-scale attack from Yuan Shu's army.

Liu Xun and Qiao Rui, who had lost a considerable amount of military supplies and large warships, became furious and gathered 20,000 naval forces, and headed straight for Chungu County from Ruxukou to attack Zhuge Jin's 8,000 naval forces.

They didn't know that if they had acted six days faster, they would have had a chance to defeat Gan Ning's 3,000 men alone (of course, if that happened, Zhuge Jin would not fight, he would abandon the water fort in Chungu County and run away to delay time)
Even if it was only three days faster, they could deal with only Taishi Jiagan's more than 6,000 people.

But they were so slow that they finally had to face the combined forces of Taishi, Gan, and Guan. It was all Yuan Shu's own fault because of the confusion within his army, the poor scouts, and the poor coordination.

In the afternoon, on the surface of the Yangtze River more than 20 miles west of Chungu County, Yuan's army was in the upper reaches and Han's army was in the lower reaches, and both sides deployed their battle formations in a mighty manner.

This was the start of a major naval battle, one of the three largest in scale since the end of the Han Dynasty.

After all, compared to land battles, naval battles are too rare. Previously, only two naval battles between Sun Jian and Liu Biao, and between Sun Ce and Liu Yao, could exceed this scale.

The Yuan army had nearly a thousand warships, covering the surface of the river, while the Han army had only a hundred warships, looking lonely.

However, the Han army generals were not too worried. Zhuge Jin had a clear understanding of the comparison of the military strength of both sides and informed the generals before the battle that the enemy army was only 2.5 times the size of our army.

The number of warships seems to be seven or eight times different, which just shows that too many large ships of Yuan army were burned, so a large number of small boats were used to make up the number.

The vanguards of the two armies were still several hundred steps apart. Zhuge Jin waved his flag, signaling Gan Ning's vanguard to shout in unison to undermine the enemy's morale.

The loud-mouthed soldiers in Gan Ning's army took out the wooden trumpets that Zhuge Jin had prepared before the battle and began to shout: "Liu Xun is incompetent and Qiao Rui is indecisive. They allowed our army to join forces with Guan Xiaowei who was fighting against Zu Lang! You have fallen into Zhuge Zhonglang's trap!"

Although not all Yuan Jun soldiers on the opposite side understood the logic, the grassroots officers could understand it to some extent. Some of the more active ones could not help but start to waver:
It's all because of the useless generals! According to the enemy, if we had come a few days earlier, we would have encountered fewer enemies? It's all because of the waste of time in Tongguan Town and Hulin Port!
……

Zhuge Jin, who was in charge of the central warship, had no idea what the enemy was thinking specifically, but he was still very satisfied when he saw Gan Ning successfully shouted out words that disrupted the enemy's morale.

He knew very well that morale confrontation in war was not only about how much advantage you had, but also about being good at propaganda.

Every time you gain a tiny advantage, you must fully publicize it when the time comes to fight to the death.

Let the enemy clearly know that he has suffered a loss, and lost twice, physically and mentally.

If we don't make full use of these advantages, it would be a waste of the surname "Zhuge".

Liu Xun, on the other side, didn't know how much his troops were shaken by this call, but he quickly ordered his subordinates to stabilize the morale of the troops:
"Hurry up and tell all the troops not to listen to the enemy's lies! There is no chance of delaying the battle! In this battle, our army is still 20,000 against several thousand. The advantage is on our side! Just look at the number of boats on the river!"

Afterwards, Liu Xun was furious and asked the left and right armies to speed up the encirclement, take advantage of the upstream flow, rush up to surround the Han army on three sides, fight in close combat, and not give the Han army any more opportunities to talk nonsense.

The Yuan army that rushed forward first had to face Gan Ning, the vanguard of the Han army. As soon as both sides entered the range of bows and crossbows, the Yuan army immediately fired arrows crazily, looking quite imposing.

Gan Ning, however, changed his previous domineering style and became a little "bullying the weak and fearing the strong". When he saw the enemy warships and battleships rushing towards him, Gan Ning avoided fighting and did not shoot at them.

Gan Ning's warships also generally had wooden boards reinforced on the side. Arrows shot at them were nailed to the wood and could be directly shot back after being pulled out. There was no need to borrow arrows from straw boats.

This kind of thing actually happened when Sun Jian was fighting Liu Biao six years ago. At that time, Sun's warships were better protected, and they used the ship walls to block arrows and shot them when they were pulled out.

Yuan Jun's long-range shooting had almost no results, and they could only rage helplessly.

Gan Ning defended against the enemy's main attack, and then took advantage of the situation to shuttle back and forth on the battlefield, specifically targeting Yuan's army's swift and circuitous boats for interception, directly pulling out the arrows on the deck and shooting at the boats.

The chariot had no shelter, and all the soldiers stood directly on the deck. At most, there was a roof similar to that of a wupeng boat, but it was only to protect against rain, not necessarily completely against arrows. Even if it was protected against arrows, it was only to protect against projectiles falling from the top, and there was no protection against flat shots.

Such asymmetric warfare immediately caused considerable casualties to Yuan’s small boat soldiers.

The Yuan soldiers on those small boats were able to adapt to the situation. They immediately took out countless hemp torches soaked in tung oil and tried to throw them at Gan Ning's warships in an attempt to launch a fire attack.

But the flexibility of a warship is higher than that of a fighting ship, and is not much worse than that of a pleasure craft.

While the maneuverability and flexibility of both sides were not much different, Gan Ning's Jinfan Battalion had better ship operation skills. They were always able to keep a distance from the enemy and were good at predicting the enemy's movements, thus not giving a large number of enemy boats the opportunity to surround them.

The torches thrown by Yuan's army fell on the river one after another and could not reach Gan Ning's boat at all.

Moreover, it was only the second year of Jian'an, and the Battle of Guandu had not yet taken place. Catapult-type weapons had not yet enjoyed a second spring of development in China, and naval battles generally did not use catapult-type equipment.

Even if there are, at least large ships of the fighting ship level can be equipped with them. There are definitely no warships or battleships. The most a battleship can be equipped with is a crossbow.

The miserable vanguard of Yuan's army finally realized the situation after many of them were shot and killed in vain.

Zhang Duo and Xu Qian, two generals who were born as pirates from Chaohu Lake, successively gave orders on their own initiative: let the warships bypass Gan Ning, go find those clumsy Han army ships, use torches to attack with fire, and rely on absolute numerical advantage to encircle and attack them.

At the same time, he required his own warships and battleships to encircle and intercept Gan Ning on a large scale, blocking Gan Ning's movement and preventing Gan Ning from fighting freely.

Of course, such a command also has a disadvantage, which is that it will occupy Yuan’s army’s large ship forces, resulting in the fact that Yuan’s army’s already small number of large ship forces were all tied up by Gan Ning.

But there was no other way. If they did not make such sacrifices and allowed Gan Ning to roam around and kill their own small boats, their morale would soon be ruined.

　I recommend a fantasy novel "My Late Bloomer in the World of Immortality".

　　I actually haven't read any fantasy novels, and I rarely read martial arts novels, but I read this book after someone recommended it to me. I think this book has a very humanistic feel and is quite like an alternate history novel.

(End of this chapter)