My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 256 Xu Kun: Escaped Gan Ning's Shooting, but Not Taishi Ci's
It was noon on the Yangtze River.

It is equivalent to the situation on the Yangtze River between Jingjiang and Jiangyin in later generations, where Xu Kun's fleet was chasing relentlessly and gradually approaching, while Taishi Ci's fleet was "fleeing in a hurry" in front, clumsily and slowly.

Taishi Ci looked at the sky. The sun was almost at its zenith. His usually brave heart tensed up a little. He carefully recalled the battle plan for today that General Fubo had given him.

Unlike Sun Ce's army which was hastily divided into two parts, the navy of Liu Bei's army was divided into three parts today.

The slow-moving and clumsy troops at the back, luring the enemy, were Taishi Ci's troops, numbering about 5,000 men, all using large and sturdy old-style battleships.

Twenty miles downstream from Taishi Ci, on the north bank, there is a navy of 9,000 people deployed. They are also the absolute main force of today's battle and are led by Guan Yu himself.

Guan Yu’s warships came in all sizes, but they were all light keel-type vessels, that is, new ships built in the last two or three years, with fast speeds.

The reason why Guan Yu wanted to keep such a long distance was to ensure that the enemies chasing Taishi Ci from behind would not be able to see his presence through the lookout on the mast and thus underestimate the enemy.

Once Taishi Ci was about to engage in combat with the enemy, Guan Yu would turn around and fight back, taking advantage of Taishi Ci's ability to stick to the enemy to outflank and inflict a fatal blow on the enemy.

In addition to Guan Yu and Taishi Ci, there is a third group of Liu Bei's navy today, coming from the south bank near Sun Ce's territory, and standing a little further downstream than Guan Yu, with about 4,000 people. The generals leading the troops are Zhang Duo and Lu Yi, and they are also driving new keel warships, and they will also wait for an opportunity to join the decisive battle.

Moreover, because they came by sea, Lu Yi had all new and large ships along the way. Although the number of people was small and the military supplies and logistics were all provided by Wang Lang, they would definitely be a strategic force.

Taishi Ci reviewed the battle plan in his mind, and recalled the time of high tide on May 18th as instructed by Zhuge Jin. He felt that it was almost time to test it, so he decisively ordered:

"Each ship should turn around and try to engage Xu Kun. Let's see how he reacts. Will he rush over to fight us, or keep his distance and wait for the main force of the rear army?"

After receiving the order, Taishi Ci's deputy general Xu Qian immediately used flag signals to command the ships to turn around and test the enemy.

Due to the huge size of the fleet and the heavy ships, it took more than a dozen large warships two cups of tea to complete the turnaround one after another.

A dozen miles behind, Xu Kun's fleet also quickly discovered this movement. Huang Gai immediately asked Xu Kun: "My Lord, Taishi Ci turned around! Could it be that he found that his speed was too slow and he was about to be caught up by us, so he wanted to prepare a battle formation first and fight to the death?"

After hearing the news, Xu Kun indicated that he wanted to go up to the mast in person to confirm the situation. So the lookout on the lookout immediately threw down a hemp rope. Xu Kun's guards hurriedly helped to tie the safety rope around Xu Kun, and then helped him half climb and half pull up to the lookout.

After watching for a while, Xu Kun confirmed that Taishi Ci was planning to fight in a battle array, so he adjusted the formation to meet the enemy in order to avoid the formation being scattered and the front and rear being unable to take care of each other when being caught up.

Xu Kun grinned secretly and ordered, "Let's slow down the boat too! Keep our distance! Just wait for Bofu to catch up a little, so that we don't have to fight Taishi Ci alone for too long. After all, our boat is smaller than Taishi Ci, so close combat is not good for us."

Therefore, Xu Kun's fleet did not turn around, but slowed down and encircled Taishi Ci from the north and south directions, trying to approach Taishi Ci from three sides.

Taishi Ci saw that the enemy was slowing down, and also knew that the enemy's vanguard was waiting for the main force of the central army, in order to shorten the time difference they would need to hold on alone after the battle began.

But Taishi Ci knew that today's battle would take advantage of the tide, so he was happy to make a fortune in silence. He ordered the fleet to turn east again, pretending to be passive, as if "wanting to fight but unable to, and can only flee again."

Seeing Taishi Ci's dilemma, Xu Kun became more and more proud: "Taishi Ci's ship is clumsy and slow, and he can't escape. If he turns around and kills me, I won't fight him. It's really too aggrieved.

Everyone said that the Zhuge brothers were brilliant and that Guan Yu was able to command troops with ease, but they were at a loss today! They had fast ships available, but in order to ensure the scale of the troops and to ensure that all the troops were dispatched, they had to bring more than a dozen slow ships, which eventually caused the entire army to lose its speed advantage.

Don't you know that the speed of a fleet is determined by the slowest ship in the fleet? This is simply superfluous! "

In any case, Taishi Ci's two consecutive U-turns really slowed down his and Xu Kun's journey by at least two incense sticks.

Sun Ce's main fleet was originally at least half an hour's sailing distance behind Xu Kun, but after this turmoil, they almost caught up with him and were now less than ten miles away from Xu Kun.

Seeing Taishi Ci running away at full speed, Xu Kun was afraid that the distance would be too far again, and he estimated that Sun Ce would soon catch up, and looked up at the sky. This time he finally decided to attack with all his forces.

"We can't let Taishi Ci pull away again. The time we just wasted is enough. We must catch up with him at full speed and outflank and intercept Taishi Ci. We only need to fight for an incense stick's time to delay until Bo Fu catches up. By then, Taishi Ci will surely be destroyed! Although our boat is small and we are at a disadvantage, we can still hold out for an incense stick!"

Huang Gai received the order and immediately carried out Xu Kun's order. During Taishi Ci's two U-turns, Xu Kun's fleet, which had been keeping a distance to the north and south wings to encircle him, finally, under the command of flag signals, moved forward like a pincer attack and entered a real bloody battle.

Taishi Ci, who was on the boat in front, also smiled smugly when he saw this scene, and he also looked up at the position of the sun.

"It's past noon, the tide is rising, the entire army will turn west again to attack Xu Kun! Charge at full speed at Xu Kun's center!"

A cup of tea later, Taishi Ci's fleet turned around for the third time and headed west to confront Xu Kun head-on.

Xu Kun didn't care about this at all. He had calculated the speed of engaging the enemy. Although his ships were small, they were numerous, and his troops far outnumbered Taishi Ci. Basically, it was more than 10,000 people against 4,000 to 5,000 people.

He could surround Taishi Ci from three sides and attack him from the south, north and west almost simultaneously. Even if the ship was smaller and suffered some disadvantages, the advantage of the number of people and the three-way encirclement was enough to offset it.

However, just as the two sides were rapidly approaching each other, Xu Kun suddenly realized something was wrong. The two fleets were clearly only three or four miles apart in water. Xu Kun suddenly discovered that his pincer attack fleets on the north and south wings were approaching relatively slowly.

However, the speed at which the central army, moving from west to east, and colliding with Taishi Ci's troops was approaching each other was extremely fast, beyond expectations. Even though he had ordered all the rowers to stop rowing and the sailors to lower the sails a little, and they were sailing only at the speed of the river, the distance between the two sides was still rapidly shortening.

"Why did Taishi Ci's ship suddenly speed up? This is impossible! How could a fighting ship sail so fast against the current?"

Because there were no telescopes in this era, Xu Kun had to wait until he was relatively close and could see the waves of Taishi Ci's fleet breaking through the waves before he could estimate the difference between the speed and the expected speed. Xu Kun couldn't help but exclaimed. In the end, Huang Gai was more experienced. After a brief observation, he couldn't help but slap his thigh and shouted in surprise:
"My Lord, this is bad! Taishi Ci took advantage of the Guangling tide! He has been escaping for the entire morning, waiting for the Guangling tide to rise in the afternoon so that he can turn around and fight back! Now he is not sailing against the current, but with the current! If the tide rises a few miles further, he will be in front of us. If we don't turn around by then, it will be our turn to sail against the current!"

Normally, the water of the Yangtze River estuary flows eastwards, but during high tide, the surface water of the river flows westwards.

Xu Kun did not expect that the enemy would turn around and attack at the time when the tide was high. He initially ordered the front army to spread out to the north and south wings, keep their distance, and attack in a combined force in the decisive battle, so he miscalculated the timing.

It's too late to adjust now.

After just two cups of tea, Taishi Ci's five thousand men, riding on eighteen warships, with an average of more than three hundred people on each ship, rushed straight into Xu Kun's central army.

Xu Kun had more than 10,000 men assigned to him by Sun Ce, who were boarded on more than a hundred warships, with about a hundred people on each ship. However, these more than 10,000 men were divided into three parts. At the first moment, only the forty or fifty ships in the middle engaged in battle with Taishi Ci.

The number of people on both sides was basically the same, but Xu Kun's ships were smaller, with an average tonnage of only 30% of Taishi Ci's warships, but the number of ships was three times that of Taishi Ci.

Moreover, in order to change the formation and keep distance before the battle, some ships were turning around, so the formation was inevitably a little chaotic. He did not estimate the timing of the battle at all. It can be said that he wanted "this and that", and in the end he got neither.

"Boom!" A loud noise marked the beginning of Taishi Ci's attack.

It turned out to be a battleship of Taishi Ci's army that had taken advantage of the high tide to attack, and it rammed head-on into a warship of Xu Kun's army that was turning sideways, directly capsizing the small boat.

Hundreds of Jiangdong Army sailors fell into the water, screaming and wailing, which stifled the morale of the Jiangdong Army.

"Archers, shoot with all your strength! No need to face the enemy with the broadside, charge directly at the enemy with the bow! Ram if you can! Our ship is much bigger than Xu Kun's, don't be afraid of a collision! They just went from downstream to upstream, so they must be having trouble moving!"

Taishi Ci decisively ordered all ships to attack Xu Kun's central army without paying attention to the enemies on both sides. Taishi Ci's warships had already adapted to the rising tide and attacked behind the tide, while Xu Kun's fleet would not cross the tide until the eve of the battle, and would inevitably be swept into a whirlpool and unable to control for a long time. By the time they stabilized, the battlefield had already become a mess.

"The left and right wings, hurry up and get together! Why are you rowing so slowly! Stop Taishi Ci for me! Stop him quickly!" Xu Kun was so anxious that he desperately asked the two wings to speed up and get together, but it was already too late to stop the local decline.

Taishi Ci's warships forced their way to a very close distance, and formed an absolute force advantage in the local battlefield like cutting melons and vegetables, and successively rammed and sank three or five of Xu Kun's warships.

The archers on the battleships also relied on the parapets and upper portholes to shoot arrows at Xu Kun's fleet. Xu Kun's fleet quickly lowered the portholes to avoid the rain of arrows, but the side holes where the rowers stretched out their oars could not be completely closed, and the rain of arrows shot into the oar holes, making the rowers howl in pain.

"General, Xu Kun's left and right wings have arrived and are within the range of bows and crossbows. What should we do?" On Taishi Ci's ship, the lookout also reported the latest emergency situation to Taishi Ci.

Taishi Ci: "Don't worry about them! Just focus on Xu Kun's central army! Let the north and south wings fire arrows to harass us! Fire back freely! But don't get close!"

Soon, Taishi Ci and Xu Kun were completely entangled in a fight. Several warships beside Xu Kun were eager to protect their master, and they all rushed up to entangle Taishi Ci's warship and wanted to engage in a boarding battle.

Taishi Ci would ram whatever he could, but if he couldn't ram the side of the ship, it didn't matter. He would just use the side's nail plates to tie down the ship.

Then use bows and crossbows and dovetail torches to suppress the enemies on the deck, then send out sword and shield soldiers to board and kill them. After occupying the upper deck, throw dovetail torches into the cabin windows to create chaos.

If the Jiangdong Army could not stand the smoke and fire and rushed out of the cabin, they would be killed directly at the hatch until the entire ship surrendered or was burned down.

There is nothing to elaborate on these details, because Guan Yu also used this move when he fought Liu Xun's Lujiang Army in the Chungu-Ruxu Water Battle two years ago. Taishi Ci and Gan Ning had both watched it, and this was the second time they used it, so they were very familiar with it.

In the bloody battle, Taishi Ci always wanted to sink Xu Kun's flagship, or rush up to kill him.

Unfortunately, Xu Kun's boat was commanded and driven by Huang Gai himself, so he was quite agile in dodging left and right and was never approached by Taishi Ci.

Taishi Ci had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and suppress the enemy by shooting arrows from a high position.

Xu Kun had been hiding in the lookout on the mast to give orders. When he encountered the enemy, he wanted to come down repeatedly, but the fleet was hit by the tide and was too bumpy to climb down, so he had to hide in the lookout all the time.

Seeing that the fighting was getting more and more intense and the rain of arrows was getting more and more dense, Huang Gai became very anxious. He repeatedly urged Xu Kun to come down quickly, hide back in the cabin, and stop observing the enemy situation in person.

The lookout in the beam also pleaded with Xu Kun: "Master, don't worry about the bumps. Just go down. I will hold the hemp rope tied to your waist tightly. You won't fall down even if it bumps! At worst, I can tie myself to the mast first!"

Xu Kun looked at the lookout with gratitude, and then decided to ignore the shaking of the ship, lower the lookout and hide back in the cabin.

However, just as he was tied around the waist with a rope and was half crawling and half falling down, another hail of arrows came.

Xu Kun happened to be behind the sail, so the enemy archers could not see him and shot blindly. He was still shot in the calf by a crossbow arrow, but fortunately the injury was not serious.

However, the lookout holding his hand in the gazebo above was too high and the target was too obvious, so Taishi Ci shot him in the head with an arrow from seventy or eighty steps away.

The arms of the shot lookout twitched and relaxed. Xu Kun, who had been shot in the calf, was too weak to grab the ladder himself, and fell heavily onto the deck from a height of more than ten feet.

The crossbow arrow that originally failed to penetrate his calf was hit by the gravity of the fall and instead went straight out from the other side, causing Xu Kun to let out a howl and faint from his severe injuries.

"Hurry up and protect the master and get him into the cabin! I'll be in charge here!" Huang Gai was extremely anxious. He personally protected Xu Kun with a knife, sent him back to the cabin, and then guarded the cabin door.

(End of this chapter)