My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 680: Zhuge Qian was killed in battle and Cao Ren's navy was destroyed
"How could this happen? Order all troops not to listen to the enemy's rumors!"

"That's just bullshit! The enemy is just a bunch of runaways! Our army will win!"

Zhuge Qian saw that his naval formation was a little disorganized and the morale of the soldiers was somewhat uneasy, and he soon realized that something was wrong.

Although he tried his best to boost morale and explain the misunderstanding, his troops were stagnant in the chaotic battlefield, which was an ironclad proof that the attack was not going well.

How can an ordinary soldier know those great principles? How can he have a global perspective?

It’s just like the Battle of Feishui in history. If you don’t charge forward, the troops behind you will start to have random thoughts.

Zhuge Qian tried his best to suppress the rebellion, but finally found that it was completely useless. In order to prevent the collapse of morale and military discipline, he had no choice but to launch a strong attack and dared not wait any longer.

But after such unnecessary delay and trouble, Cao's army's morale and discipline had suffered a setback, and they had given up some of the initiative in vain.

As the fleets of both sides got closer, Zhuge Qian became more and more nervous. He was mentally prepared to let his fleet withstand the impact of a wave of high waves and then fight Lu Yi in a fair fight.

However, Lu Yi upstream was slow to release water, which surprised Zhuge Qian.

"Has Guan Yu rebuilt the dam to store water in the past few days? If he doesn't release the water now, does he have to wait until Lu Yi's warships engage in a fight with our army before releasing the water? Wouldn't that mean that even the enemy's own warships will be rushed?"

He thought to himself that he was just worrying too much. Perhaps Guan Yu had not had the opportunity to rebuild the cofferdam to store water recently, so he didn't have to guard against the huge flood waves during the battle.

The distance between the two sides was only six miles, five miles... getting closer and closer.

However, just when Zhuge Qian relaxed his vigilance, waves suddenly surged out from both sides of the Baihe River upstream and merged into the mainstream. Although the water force was not very strong, it caused the water head upstream to rise by several feet in an instant.

After all, Zhuge Qian was a direct descendant of Cao Ren and a northern general, so he didn't know much about water battles and water attacks. When he saw the flood peak suddenly appear, he was a little nervous, but then he quickly felt relieved.

"It turns out that only this little water has been stored these days! The waves are less than five feet high, what use can it be! No wonder Lu Yi didn't need to release the water too long in advance!"

The water level difference is too small and the water volume is insufficient. When this little water rushes in front of us, it will at most cause the fleet to shake a few times, but it is impossible for the ships to capsize!
As for the boats in Zhuge Qian's team, they might be overturned by small waves of this magnitude.

But the problem was that Cao's navy, led by Cai Mao, had been trapped once by Guan Yu's water storage attack, and the power of Guan Yu's water attack had been tested, so when Zhuge Qian came again this time, he was well prepared.

Therefore, when Zhuge Qian was arranging the battle formation before the battle, he consulted the surrendered generals from Jingzhou and designed a formation to ensure that in today's battle, even if they encountered a water attack, the losses of their own naval forces would be minimized.

At that time, the surrendered generals of Jingzhou taught Zhuge Qian a trick, which was to let him use the warships as the vanguard, the fighting ships in the middle, and the sailing ships following at the end.

The Baihe River is relatively narrow, and the navy formation will be very long and narrow. In this way, when the enemy attacked, Cao's navy's boat team was still far away from the battlefield, and there were large ships in front of them to withstand the impact of the current.

By the time the water reached the position of Cao's boat fleet, the force had weakened sufficiently to avoid capsizing the boats.

Zhuge Qian had done relevant homework before the battle and was on guard. At this moment, seeing Lu Yi relying on this little extra advantage of water attack to dare to fight against his side with four or five times the number of troops, Zhuge Qian was naturally overjoyed and felt that the opportunity to defeat the enemy was right in front of him.

"Soldiers! The enemy has only 20% of our strength! They don't even have any big ships! We are not afraid of waves of just a few feet! Today is the day for us to achieve our mission and annihilate Liu Ni's navy! Follow me and fight hard to avenge our humiliation!"

The warships and battle fleets of Cao's army rushed towards Lu Yi against the huge waves like tit-for-tat.

However, Zhuge Qian overlooked one thing.

Since Lu Yi dared to go with the waves and was not afraid at all that his fleet would be hit by the flood peak, he must have been well prepared.

In winter, the Baihe River is relatively dry, so the water flow is not very fast. The speed of the boat is not affected much when sailing downstream or upstream.

But at this moment, a flood peak with an extra drop of several feet suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Lu Yi went along with the waves, and his instantaneous speed was comparable to that of the Three Gorges, where "it takes only one day to travel a thousand miles to Jiangling".

In other words, it means sailing over a hundred miles in one hour, which is completely possible.

In the last few miles, Lu Yi's leading boat team would be able to reach Zhuge Qian in just half a cup of tea.

At this moment, several ships in Lu Yi's vanguard fleet suddenly caught fire.

No one knew how much firewood was on board the boat, which was also filled with fish paste, sulfur, charcoal and other materials. As soon as it was ignited, flames rose into the sky.

"Lu Yi was able to organize a fire attack under such hasty conditions?" When Zhuge Qian saw this scene, he felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave and his blood pressure soared.

His fleet had never deployed self-destructive maneuvers such as "chaining", so under normal circumstances, it was not too afraid of fire attacks.

Because as long as the warships are separated, there is enough space to maneuver, and they are not at anchor and vulnerable to surprise attacks.

So if you see a fire ship attacking, you can easily avoid it by just dodging a little.

Moreover, even if Lu Yi's fire ships were very efficient and could exchange one for one, so what? It was nothing more than exchanging a warship or even a battleship with a walking boat, which was not a big deal. Moreover, under normal circumstances, the hit rate would be very low.

Therefore, before this battle, neither Zhuge Qian nor Cao Ren, who appointed him to supervise the army, had ever thought that the enemy navy that suddenly appeared could actually launch a fire attack.

Who can deliberately guard against this?

Besides, Cao Ren was not a wise general. Although Guo Jia was knowledgeable, the time was too short. Guo Jia was bedridden and there was not much detailed first-hand intelligence for him to refer to and assist in his judgment.

Everything seemed so natural.

With the loud noises of several wooden boats colliding, several warships led by Zhuge Qian, as well as a small number of fighting ships, were soon hit by the fire ships.

Lu Yi's fire ship was moving at a very fast speed, like an arrow shot from a bow. The bow seemed to have been specially treated and was inlaid with a large iron spike.

Once it hit the enemy ship, it immediately pierced into it, embedding deeply. Even if the enemy ship was ten times larger than the fire ship, it could not get rid of it at all. There were also rolling waves pouring in through the breach, and for a moment, the water and fire attacked together, with an astonishing momentum.

……

At the same time, on the north side of the battlefield, on the largest warship of Liu Bei's side.

Twenty-five-year-old Lu Yi, holding a copper-tube telescope, scanned the battlefield with high spirits.

More than a dozen fires broke out and immediately hit most of the leading ships of Cao's navy. The fire fueled by fish paste and sulfur charcoal quickly spread, making the entire battlefield situation even more spectacular.

"Situ is really a genius. He can come up with such a brilliant plan of attacking with both water and fire! I really can't help but admire him!"

After looking for a few seconds, Lu Yi knew that today's battle was already won.

A few days ago, he was called in by Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin to discuss with him the problem of "how to repel the counterattack of Cao's army once the first batch of small warships of our army are transported into Baihe River by land using bamboo poles."

At that time, Zhuge Jin came straight to the point and mentioned to Lu Yi the old trick of "building a cofferdam to store water and releasing water to rush the enemy before the battle". Then, he also mentioned fire attack.

However, Lu Yi, who was well versed in naval warfare and had many years of experience in the South China Sea, made an initial reaction to sincerely suggest and refute, hoping that Situ would revoke his decision.

Because Lu Yi felt that although the water attack method was somewhat useful, General Guan had already used it once before, and Cai Mao also suffered a small loss and passed it. The enemy would not fall into the same trap twice, and would definitely be more cautious this time.

As for the method of fire attack, although it seems to be moderate, peaceful and standard, Cao's army did not mobilize many large ships, and there was no chance of being attacked by surprise while the ships were stopped, so it was easy to avoid and there was no need to use it.

Lu Yi's ideas at the time were not immature, and they were indeed in line with the orthodox principles of military strategy. People who were not familiar with the subject could not express them.

But in the end, Zhuge Jin turned a bad idea into a good one and combined water attack and fire attack. After hearing this, Lu Yi was immediately amazed. After returning, he improved it according to Situ's ideas, which led to today's practical operation.

"Although it is not easy to hit with a normal fire attack, Zhuge Qian stopped his ship in advance to guard against our water attack. When he wanted to move forward hastily, his fleet was too long and could not set sail at the same time. The front, middle and rear fleets would inevitably be disconnected. Therefore, the enemy ships would definitely have a period of time when the speed was lower, allowing our army to hit them, which could be considered a half-advantage of a sneak attack.

Our army rode the crest of the flood and could instantly increase the speed of the ship by more than double. The enemy was swimming upstream and it was difficult for them to dodge, which suddenly increased the chances of the fireboats hitting us several times.

Finally, the relatively narrow Baihe River, the low water level in winter, and the crowded enemy ships were another factor in our favor. These three advantages that Situ had anticipated were realized one by one. It was only natural that Cao's navy could not dodge, and the defeat was not unfair. "

Lu Yi quickly summarized and reviewed the situation in his mind, and it can be regarded as a way of learning war through war and deepening his understanding of Situ's strategy.

Now that many of the enemy's vanguard ships have been burned, the advantages and disadvantages of the warships of both sides have basically been eliminated.

Lu Yi's side was mainly composed of a small number of warships and a large number of pleasure boats, while the opposite side was also mainly composed of warships and pleasure boats, so neither side had an advantage.

But how could Lu Yi's talent in commanding naval battles and his ability to deploy troops be compared to those weak generals under Zhuge Qian and Cai Mao? Using the same boat, Lu Yi would have no problem beating Zhuge Qian.

What's more, Cao's army had lost morale and was gradually falling into chaos because a number of their vanguard ships had been burned.

Lu Yi's fleet rushed to the front, fired arrows desperately, and jumped on the board to engage in hand-to-hand combat. The naval officers and soldiers of Liu Bei's army stabbed and slashed with spears, swords and shields, fighting hard, each of them was willing to fight ten people at once and were not afraid of death.

Zhuge Qian's central and rear armies were at a loss as to what to do, and reinforcements were slow. For a moment, they even didn't know whether to advance or retreat.

Some generals with good vision knew that their troops were four or five times the enemy's, and even if the vanguard was burned, they could still fight, so they wanted to reinforce. But the problem was that not everyone had good vision, and some were more timid or had their own selfish motives. They all thought that judging from the fire in the northern vanguard, today's battle might have been ambushed by the enemy and it would be difficult to turn the tide.

It would be better to keep your useful body and retreat to Fancheng.

Chaos suddenly broke out on the Baihe River. Some ships wanted to go north to meet the enemy, while others wanted to flee south. In the panic, some of Cao's warships even collided with each other.

Some small boats were overturned and damaged, and the soldiers fell into the water and wailed. The scene became a complete mess.

Zhuge Qian's troops were in such disarray that Lu Yi would certainly not miss this God-given opportunity to quickly expand his victory. He took advantage of the upstream force and bravely penetrated into Zhuge Qian's fleet, cutting Cao's fleet into pieces.

Of course, Lu Yi himself was considered a Confucian general and did not have the ability to personally charge into the battlefield in the face of arrows and stones.

But today Guan Yu sent him to fight together with Han Dang, and Han Dang was brave and courageous enough to lead the troops.

In the melee, Han Dang personally commanded a warship and rushed to the front. When he encountered an enemy ship collision, he bravely jumped over and charged forward with sword and shield. Several warships under Zhuge Qian's command that had escaped the net and were not burned were killed and captured by Han Dang. The momentum was amazing, and Cao's army became more and more terrified.

At the same time, the army that Guan Yu had previously deployed on both sides of the river also exerted its strength at the right time and gave Zhuge Qian the final blow.

The archers on the shore desperately shot arrows at Cao's fleet. The density of the arrow rain increased again and again, making it so difficult for the soldiers on the boats in the rear of Cao's army to raise their heads.

At the same time, the drummers and horn players beat their drums and blew their horns, and the rest of the people shouted in unison towards the river:

"The thief Cao is defeated! The thief Cao is defeated!"

"Zhuge Qian was beheaded by General Han!"

"You have fallen into the princes' fire and water trap again!"

Under the pressure of being surrounded on all sides, the warships in the middle and rear teams of Cao's army finally chose to turn around and flee one after another, retreating towards the direction of Fancheng, with few resistance.

The boats were light and swift, and could sail downstream at great speed, so most of them were able to withdraw from the battlefield smoothly.

However, the remaining large ships were relatively clumsy and were located in the center and front of the army. After being divided and surrounded by Lu Yi, they could not move forward and had no support. They were successively annihilated by Han Dang and Lu Yi.

Zhuge Qian himself was in charge of the only large ship and was unable to escape, so he was caught up by Han Dang and his troops.

Han first used several warships to approach from the side to attract the firepower and attention of the enemy ships.

Zhuge Qian commanded the archers on the ship to shoot arrows at the enemy ships that tried to approach and board them.

But just when the crossbowmen's attention was diverted, Han Dang personally drove a warship and rammed the stern of the ship. Although Han Dang's ship was small, the bow was stronger and was wrapped with a layer of iron spikes, which wedged straight into the stern of Zhuge Qian's ship.

Then dozens of warriors threw out their grappling hooks and climbed up from the stern deck.

Although more than ten people were stabbed down by Cao's spearmen on the roof of the stern cabin at the beginning, Cao's army was surrounded and lost sight of the other side. In addition, Han Dang had people throw torches to create chaos after the collision, and finally succeeded in climbing up to the cabin roof.

Han Dang jumped to the top of the cabin, killed the enemy soldiers on both sides, glanced down from above, and soon noticed Zhuge Qian who was giving orders on the second deck.

Han Dang gathered the elite guards who had followed him, then swung his sword in the direction of Zhuge Qian, and more than a dozen warriors immediately pounced on the enemy.

Zhuge Qian had a large number of Cao soldiers around him, but they were confused by the random attacks from all directions and could not tell where the biggest threat came from.

After the two sides engaged in close combat, Han Dang quickly killed all the people and forced them in front of Zhuge Qian.

Zhuge Qian also drew his sword to block, but after a few moves, Han Dang slashed him diagonally in the chest, leaving a bloody wound more than a foot long.

Zhuge Qian felt a sharp pain, and all his strength was drained away. At the critical moment of life and death, he used all his strength in both arms to barely resist Han Dang's next knife attack and avoid being directly ripped open.

But Han Dang still had some strength left, and while the other party was trying to block the knife, he kicked him in the stomach. Zhuge Qian immediately curled up in pain like a shrimp, and the weapon in his hand fell directly onto the deck without being able to hold on.

Han Dang took advantage of the opponent's pain and let the weapon slip out of his hand. He flew close and slashed at him, cutting off half of his neck. The momentum of the knife was not stopped until the blade was caught by the neck guard under the helmet.

With the killing of Zhuge Qian, the resistance of Cao's navy was basically completely crushed.

All of Cao Cao’s direct military supervisors were gone, and many of the remaining ordinary soldiers and grassroots officers were originally from Jingzhou.

Even though these people were the core of Cai Mao's faction and had originally been at odds with Liu Qi, the original Jingzhou soldiers' will to resist was definitely far inferior to that of Cao's direct lineage.

The warships that were divided and surrounded surrendered one after another and were captured obediently.

Han Dang and Lu Yi also pursued the enemy all the way until it was getting dark, and then they cautiously withdrew their troops. They basically chased them for more than 30 miles, and destroyed all the large ships sent by Cao's army for this battle, and also destroyed some of the small boats.

Only the boat team of Cao's rear army retreated to Fancheng due to the congestion of the river and the chaos on the battlefield.

Cao's army sent out a total of more than 10,000 naval forces, and suffered as many as 7,000 to 8,000 casualties in this battle, including more than 2,000 killed in battle or fell into the water, and the rest were wounded, captured, or surrendered.

Only about 4,000 people escaped back to Fancheng.

The loss of personnel was not a serious blow to Cao Ren.

After all, whether it was the battle of Yuliangzhou or the battle of crossing the Han River to the north where Guan Yu chased him down the river, which battle did not result in the loss of 20,000 to 30,000 people? Yu Jin was badly defeated by Huang Zhong in Dangyang County, which was also a loss of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Today’s loss of 7,000 people doesn’t even rank.

But more importantly, after this battle, Cao's army completely lost the opportunity to "nip Liu Bei's navy in the bud when it just appeared in the Baihe River and had not yet gained a firm foothold."

Lu Yi and Han Dang gained momentum after this battle and completely established their foothold. Originally, they could only rely on the boats transported by land to fight, but Cao's navy collapsed, and they gave Lu Yi more than a dozen broken ships and a pile of wreckage that had been burned by fire.

Lu Yi can immediately upgrade his weapons. Next time Cao's army in Fancheng wants to attack, it will be Cao's turn to lack large ships, and the enemy will be able to bully the weak with their strength. How can they fight?
Not to mention the remnants of Cao Ren's navy who escaped from Fancheng, even if Cai Mao, who had retreated to Xinye before, went south and attacked downstream, Lu Yi would no longer be afraid of him.

As long as Lu Yi has a certain number of large ships such as battleships, he will be no less powerful than Cai Mao.

Therefore, after this battle, the water supply line of Cao's army in Fancheng was basically cut off.

……

Han Dang and Lu Yi were busy all night in pursuit and expansion of the victory, counting the spoils, collecting prisoners, reorganizing the surrendered soldiers, and receiving warships. They had no time to report the details of the battle to their superiors that night.

Therefore, Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin only knew that the two generals had won a complete victory. As for how the battle went in detail, it would not be revealed until the next day.

Guan Yu was quite excited and couldn't sleep all night. He paced back and forth in the tent, thinking about how to tighten the noose around Cao Ren's neck next.

This is not because Guan Yu lost his temper, after all, he has seen a lot of things. It is just because Guan Yu knows that the scale and degree of today's victory will have a very important and far-reaching impact on the development of the subsequent battle.

Therefore, before the results of the battle were counted, Guan Yu pulled Zhuge Jin together to discuss the follow-up plans and was already thinking about how to expand the results of the battle.

Zhuge Jin didn't care at all. He originally wanted to go to bed on time, but was dragged over by Guan Yu to drink and chat, so he felt helpless.

Guan Yu pulled him aside and asked nervously, "Zi Yu, how many warships can we capture from Cao Cao in today's battle? Can we make the navy of Fancheng unable to recover and never break through our blockade again?

What should we do with the captured and burned warships? Should we try to build a ship repair site along the Baihe River? "

Guan Yu's mind was full of thoughts on how to improve his naval strength in Baihe River as quickly as possible, especially by making use of the captured large ships, so that Cao Ren's supply line would be completely destroyed.

However, Zhuge Jin was much calmer than him. He just looked at Guan Yu with a little surprise, then smiled calmly: "Those slightly damaged battleships should of course be kept for our own use. Just a little repair will do, and there is no need to dock them.

As for those that were completely burned and only had a hull left... empty the loot from the hulls and let them float back downstream to be returned to Cao Ren."

Guan Yu was shocked when he heard this: "Let it float back with the water? Wouldn't that mean it's helping the enemy? We fought hard to defeat the enemy and captured it!"

Zhuge Jin signaled Guan Yu to calm down, and then explained to him: "Yun Chang, have you forgotten the military strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one behind? Although Cao Ren suffered a setback, the total strength of Cao's army in the entire Nanyang battlefield is still more than 100,000.

What we want is not a Fancheng, but to repel and defeat Cao's army at a smaller cost. If the enemy in Fancheng fights desperately, how many people will we have to die to take it? Give them a chance to survive. When the military supplies are short and they are unable to consume us, Cao Ren will lead his army to break through.

There are many battlefields suitable for annihilating the enemy. It is not necessary to complete it in a key water and land hub like Fancheng, so as to avoid more trouble at night. Besides, whether Cao Ren is defeated or not will affect whether we can force Yu Jin to land and capture the enemy safely. "

Guan Yu then realized that Fancheng’s strategic value was indeed very important, but the task of annihilating the enemy’s manpower did not have to be completed within the city.

Those large ships that had been burned to the point that only empty shells were left were drifted back to Cao Ren. It would not waste Cao Ren's craftsmen's manpower and material resources to repair them. After they were repaired, they could be used to shake Cao Ren's troops' determination to hold on to the end.

"Tzuyu is really thoughtful. We must clearly distinguish the primary from the secondary when doing things. We cannot have everything at the same time." Guan Yu pondered and admired, obviously convinced.

(End of this chapter)