Jinting Han people

At this point, the Yangtze River battlefield had become a delicate arc. Although the Jin army's warships had been almost completely destroyed, they still retained a large number of medium-sized warships. This was mainly due to two reasons: first, the Han army was focused on its warships and had no intention of engaging the smaller ships; second, the Jin army had proactively withdrawn its smaller ships from the battlefield and reorganized its formation downstream, attempting to fight again.

This allowed the Jin army to retain over nine hundred small boats, a considerable number. Especially after the Han army's warships had largely exhausted their ballistae, both sides' methods of destroying ships from a distance had become ineffective. With the small boats' agility and maneuverability, they were not afraid of so-called fire attacks. If the Han army's warships did not intend to withdraw, the two armies were essentially back to square one, and the only way to resolve the issue from there would be boarding action.

Liu Xian hadn't expected the enemy to have such audacity, daring to counterattack even after losing all their warships. He assessed the situation and discovered the enemy navy was divided into two groups: one heading straight for the center of his warships, intending to engage them head-on; the other heading north into the river, attempting to outflank the Han warships. Liu Xian naturally understood their intention: the enemy aimed to cut his forces in two before capturing the Han warships. The Han army had already lost many small boats in their attempt to lure the enemy; if the warships were also captured, the battlefield situation would once again favor the Jin army.

“The enemy has convinced us that we are not good at boarding action!” He Pan saw through the Jin army’s intentions. He stroked his beard and analyzed, “The enemy is quite shrewd. They know that if we are allowed to withdraw like this, the naval battles will likely be one-sided. If we launch a counterattack with small boats now, we still have a chance to turn the tide.”

"What are the enemy's chances of winning?" Fan Ben asked.

"Then we'll have to let the facts speak for themselves." He Pan didn't even look up, focusing instead on the movements and development of the entire Jin army.

He Pan's words reveal a fundamental truth of the battlefield: no matter how ingenious a plan or how meticulous the layout, in the end, it is always the soldiers themselves who deliver the final blow. No one can replace them, especially when the two armies are locked in a stalemate. A single person's action can alter the fate of thousands, even tens of thousands. The same applies to boarding maneuvers. When naval warfare has entered the boarding phase, the power of generals and commanders is greatly diminished; they must trust that their soldiers can bring them victory.

Unlike the initial swift and fierce attack by the Han army, the Jin army, facing headwinds and currents, had to furl their sails and row with all their might towards the warships, making their approach less smooth. Fortunately, the wind had weakened considerably by this time, and the warships, being much larger and slower than smaller boats like the Mengchong and Maotu, allowed the Jin army to approach the Han warships at a relatively rapid pace.

However, this did not mean that the Han army would allow the enemy to board their ships so easily. The Han navy had already formed a battle formation. They were not simply deploying large warships in formation, but rather each large warship was escorted by more than ten small and medium-sized boats. When the Jin navy approached, the archers on the large warships could gather on the side where they were boarding and fire arrows down from the second and even third decks of the large ships. The arrows crackled and popped as they hit the decks and roofs of the Jin warships below, like a sudden downpour.

The Jin soldiers hid in the oarsmen's cabins under the canopy. The oarsmen rowed with all their might, quickly closing in on the warship. The Jin soldiers took out long hooks they had prepared beforehand and, braving a hail of arrows, wedged the hooks into the warship's gunwale. The two ships collided violently, swaying from side to side, but the hooks remained firmly in place, showing no sign of separating. Seeing that the two ships were now joined together, the Jin soldiers immediately climbed aboard and engaged the enemy in battle.

The force directly attacking the Han navy was Zhu Si's. Zhu Si himself stood in the foremost cabin. Having suffered two defeats previously, he was eager to gain merit. Seeing that his own troops had begun boarding action, he immediately led a dozen or so men forward to seize the ship. His attire was quite peculiar. In addition to the gleaming armor typically worn by officers, beneath his helmet was a specially made iron mask, revealing only his eyes and nostrils, painted with dragons and waves. Wearing this mask, Zhu Si held a bright red three-stone bow in his left hand and a ten-foot-long staff in his right. As he jumped onto the ship, he truly looked like a demon.

His attire clearly distinguished him from others, and the sharp-eyed Han soldiers attempted to surround and attack him. However, boarding action was significantly different from land battles. On ships, without a stable battle line and without support from other vessels, it was rare to be surrounded by a large force. Surrounding ships could at most use archery to kill the enemy, but in boarding action, the swaying of the ships was unavoidable. Under such circumstances, only the most skilled archers could hit the enemy; most others were just firing randomly and hoping for the best. In other words, boarding action was actually the most suitable stage to showcase individual bravery.

Braving arrows and stones, Zhu Si, along with his personal guards, first boarded a Han army warship. The warship was narrow, and the cabin swayed precariously, offering little room to move. Zhu Si then wielded his long staff, launching fierce attacks on the enemy's lower body. His weapon was long and powerful; although the Han soldiers were somewhat prepared, their experience was insufficient, making them vulnerable. After a few blows, if a wave struck, they could easily slip and fall onto the rocking deck. Once they slipped, before they could get up, nearby Jin soldiers would push them overboard into the river. If they didn't have time to remove their armor, they wouldn't even have a chance to surface before sinking to the bottom.

However, this was only a small-scale battlefield situation. Although Zhu Si himself performed very bravely, and the Jin army was better at swimming than the Han army, the Han army still had a great advantage in the overall battle.

After all, the main battlefield was within a line of dozens of warships. The soldiers on the upper decks of these warships could fire arrows from their elevated positions. While the arrows couldn't penetrate the ships, they could still strike the enemy during boarding maneuvers. Even with a low hit rate, they posed a significant threat to the Jin army. This allowed the Han army to often seize the opportunity to launch a preemptive attack while the Jin army was on guard against the arrows. In this situation, whoever gained the upper hand first could control the battle from start to finish.

Therefore, in the first round of boarding action, the Jin ships that approached the Han army's warships did not gain much advantage, and the losses of those who boarded and fought were almost equal. Sometimes, just as the soldiers in front had captured a ship and had not yet had a chance to catch their breath, the enemy from another ship would climb aboard, forcing them to retreat. But before the enemy could even catch their breath, friendly forces from another ship would help them board and fight. According to post-battle statistics, one warship changed hands seven times, demonstrating the intensity of the fighting.

However, the stability of the main battlefield did not mean that the battle was at a stalemate. Zhu Si's offensive on the front was thwarted, but it attracted enough attention. Moreover, due to the water flow and wind direction, even though the Han army was consciously maintaining its formation, the front line continued to advance eastward and move closer together, leaving the northern army, which was dealing with the Jin army's flanking maneuver, somewhat isolated.

The leader of this flanking naval force was General Zheng Pan, also known as the Bo-Fu General. As the Bo-Fu General, his naval skills were naturally among the best in the Jin army. The armored soldiers he led were not only good swimmers and familiar with boarding maneuvers, but they were also equipped with gear specifically designed for naval warfare.

First, there was their armor. To ensure agility, his soldiers wore light leather armor, with two-piece cowhide armor covering their chests and backs. To adapt to the slippery deck, they wore anti-slip spiked shoes. Their weapons were primarily specially made long-handled hooks designed to slash the ankles. With this equipment, the Fubo Army was a formidable force, skilled in both offense and defense, and few could rival them on the river. When Chen Min sent his army to attack Wuchang, he was overconfident on the river, only to be defeated head-on by the Fubo Army.

It must be said that the Jin army's tactics were indeed quite effective. The Han soldiers in the north were originally Huo Biao's troops, many of whom were Qiang people from the mountains, known for their fearlessness and fighting spirit. As soon as the two sides clashed, before the Fubo army even boarded their ships, they used long hooks to snag the ankles or hems of the Qiang people who were preparing to fight. Once they succeeded, they forcefully dragged their heavy, armored bodies into the river. The poor Qiang people had never seen such a strange tactic before. Before they could even fight, they were dragged into the Yangtze River, thrashed a few times, and sank to the bottom. Therefore, while the battle in the east was still at a stalemate, the battle in the north seemed to be one-sided. The Jin army easily broke through the formation of the warships in front of the tower ships, crashed directly onto the tower ships, and then climbed onto the decks, beginning the struggle for control of the tower ships.

Here, the Jin army's tactical advantage diminished. The larger size of their warships provided a wider battlefield, allowing soldiers to stand more firmly and form smaller formations. In this situation, the Jin army used long hooks, while the Han army used long spears; in a direct confrontation, there was no clear superiority of one over the other. However, among the leading Jin soldiers were some formidable generals. The Yamen General, Hu Kang, was a trusted and beloved general of Sima Xin, the former Prince of Xinye, and was once considered on par with Du Zeng.

He wasn't wearing the traditional armor of the Fubo Army, but just a simple two-piece suit of armor. He was wielding a large sword and fighting on the deck. He was eight feet tall, with a body like an iron tower. He swung his sword to disperse the crowd while moving nimbly across the wet deck, which was quite an eye-opener for everyone.

Upon seeing this, Huo Biao was initially alarmed: "Everyone says the people of Jing are cowardly, but I never expected there to be such a ferocious beast on the river!" But then he felt a chill run down his spine and secretly encouraged himself: "To gain merit, one should kill such a beast. What is there to be afraid of!"

Having said that, he drew his ring-pommel sword, roused himself, and shouted loudly at Hu Kang, "You little thief, if you're a real man, come and fight me!"

He harbored a provocative intent, and Hu Kang indeed heard him. The burly man turned around and saw a plain-looking but wiry man standing not far away, holding a sharp blade, but with gleaming eyes—clearly an extraordinary officer. Hu Kang immediately grinned cruelly and slowly said, "Boy, you're asking for death!"

Hu Kang swung his broadsword with force, spraying blood instantly and revealing the blade's true form. Combined with the blood on his armor, he looked like a terrifying Asura. The surrounding Han soldiers, seeing this, were terrified and instinctively made way for him. But Huo Biao, seeing this, had no intention of retreating. Instead, he advanced, striking first and quickly engaging Hu Kang in a fierce attack.

Although Hu Kang wielded a broadsword, the broadsword was ultimately an instrument for beating novices. Its advantage lay in the ease of applying force during slashes; if one could overcome skill with brute force, that would be ideal. However, against a skilled swordsman, its disadvantages became glaringly obvious. The broadsword, with its weight, offered little room for sophisticated techniques, rendering any mid-strike changes futile. Huo Biao capitalized on this, launching the first attack against Hu Kang, using speed to overcome slowness, primarily employing thrusting and parrying techniques. Hu Kang was forced to keep his broadsword at center line, forced to retreat repeatedly.

Hu Kang knew he had met his match, but he remained calm, parrying attacks while simultaneously considering his strategy. He wanted to achieve even greater merit and didn't want to get entangled with Huo Biao, so he thought: It's too late to launch an offensive; I might as well feign defeat, throw away my broadsword due to exhaustion, and then use the short sword at my waist to throw a flying knife, catching him off guard and potentially killing him instantly.

Having made up his mind, he deliberately shifted his broadsword slightly away from the center line, exposing his wrist. Huo Biao indeed thrust with the tip of his blade, and Hu Kang immediately panicked, dropping his broadsword and placing it between the two men. He then retreated several steps, reaching his right hand to his waist to retrieve a short knife. Next, he steadied himself, used his waist strength, and with his left hand hanging in front of him, he suddenly threw the short knife forward.

No sooner said than done, Huo Biao saw a flash of white light in front of him. In the nick of time, he instinctively turned sharply and tried to dodge. But he heard a "whoosh" sound, and Hu Kang was secretly delighted, which meant that his short knife had hit him! He looked up, but what he saw horrified him: Huo Biao had actually bitten the short knife that was shot at him with his teeth when he turned to the side. The blade had cut his tongue, leaving his mouth full of blood.

Huo Biao held the dagger in his hand, spat out another mouthful of blood, and chuckled incoherently, "It's only polite to retaliate!" Immediately afterward, he hurled the dagger in the same manner. Hu Kang, caught off guard, had no time to react and was struck squarely in the face, dying instantly. The soldiers nearby cheered in unison, proud of their ancestors' reputation, shouting, "The Flying Army of Wudang! The Flying Army of Wudang!"

The Jin army's morale was momentarily shaken. Zheng Pan's troops finally realized that while they could manage to defeat similarly sized warships and small boats, they were at a disadvantage on their own warships, resulting in another stalemate. At this point, He Pan also realized that it was probably impossible to defeat the remaining Jin navy head-on, so he said to Liu Xian, "Your Highness, now that we have destroyed the enemy's warships and these small boats cannot breach the dike, we have achieved our objective. There is no need to linger here. It would be better to return to Youjiang Estuary first."

Liu Xian agreed with this view. He pointed to the Jin army warships fighting behind him and asked, "But how do we retreat?"

He Pan declared decisively, "Break them back!"

Liu Xian suddenly realized that after the Fanyu warship issued its command, all the warships ignored the enemy ships that were entangled with them. After all, there were no opponents of equal size left, so they recklessly crushed and rammed them. The Jin navy made no progress in the battle for the warships, and the small boats left on the river watched as the large ships rammed into them without hesitation. The advantage of their size caused them to be directly capsized in the river. Seeing this, the remaining small boats of the Han army also withdrew from the battle one after another and went upstream.

Wang Xun was overseeing the battle from the shore when he saw the Han army retreating, and he frantically pounded on a withered tree. But now all the warships were destroyed, and he couldn't issue orders to the Jin army on the river. Similarly, the attacking ships could only execute the pre-arranged tactics; if anything unexpected happened, they had to rely entirely on their own ingenuity. Most of the Jin army, seeing that they had fought hard for half a day with little gain, and that the enemy had no intention of continuing the battle, naturally gave up the idea of ​​pursuit. With the first few ships taking the lead, the rest of the ships turned back to Shenzi Island.

Winter days are short on overcast days, and the sky quickly darkens. The river has returned to calm, the wind has completely stopped, and people can see floating planks and corpses everywhere. But some people have already sunk completely into the raging waves, and there's no way to retrieve them. (End of Chapter)