Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 454: The Swallow Head Breaks the Wind and Opens the Snow Waves
Li Qi, commander of the Dongting Lake navy, stood at the bow of the boat, with a thousand thoughts in his mind.

Logically speaking, after losing all his benefactors and comrades, Li Qi should be happy that he can finally face his enemies and fight to the death.

However, when he actually stood on the battlefield, Li Qi carefully thought about his mood and found that he was mostly afraid.

Is it fear?

Really scared.

However, this fear is not the fear of death, the fear of injury, the fear of water and fire, or the fear of being attacked by swords and axes.

If Li Qi was afraid of these things, he would not have competed with so many people for the position of navy vanguard in the first place.

What Li Qi feared was that even if he died, his death would be meaningless and he would not be able to avenge his dead comrades.

At this point, Li Qi fully understood Yang Qin's previous hesitation and dilemma. There is indeed great terror between life and death, but this terror is not just life and death itself. It is more about the worry of dying before fulfilling one's ambitions, which makes heroes shed tears.

After a chaotic period of thought, Li Qi finally came to his senses at the sound of drums. He looked at the Jin navy frantically forming their battle formations and couldn't help but laugh grimly: "Set fire to the ships!"

"Set fire to the ship!"

The military order was passed down layer by layer, and soon, three ships moving forward in unison released fourteen small boats filled with straw. The small boats were connected to each other with iron chains. After the sailors lit the fireboats, they jumped into the icy river water and returned to the big ship.

The fire ships drifted downstream and crashed directly into the front few Jin warships. The fire soon became uncontrollable, and the Jin soldiers and sailors on board could only jump into the river to escape.

Most of the Jin army ships had not yet had time to drop anchor. After the sailors escaped, the burning ships were like torches floating on the water, forming a wall of fire and drifting downstream.

This was much more effective than the small fireboats released by the Dongting Lake navy. Soon, more than a dozen Jin army ships were engulfed in flames, forming a moving sea of fire that slowly flowed downstream.

Compared with the Yangtze River, Yuxi River is too narrow. Since the Jin army's ships did not deploy in battle formation, they could easily be burned down and their camps would be blown back.

Pu Nianheda, the commander-in-chief of the Shenfeng Army, stared at the scene in amazement, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, his mind almost blank.

It was not until the guards called out loudly several times that Pu Nianheda reacted.

"Butler, let's go! This is a fire that no one can stop!"

Amidst the desperate pleas of his personal guards, Punianheda hesitated for a moment, then slowly shook his head: "No, if this continues, we won't even see the Song dog, and the entire fleet will be burned to ashes."

The guards were very anxious: "What's the good plan, General Manager? Let's do it! General Manager, please go to the shore first to take shelter."

Punianheda shook his head. "I'm the commander-in-chief of the Divine Front Army. According to military law, as long as I hold on, the Divine Front Army can still be saved. If I flee, the Divine Front Army will be completely hopeless. These are all our Jurchen men. How many able-bodied men do we have? How could I abandon them?"

The guards were even more anxious, but Punianheda had already issued a military order: "Have Shizhanchage and Axianlu take their ships and stand side by side with me, drop anchor together, and stop the fire ships!"

The personal guard was shocked and wanted to persuade him again, but when he saw Pu Nianheda's stern expression, his heart trembled and he immediately responded loudly.

Soon, under the flag signals and shouts, the four ships moved forward together, lying across the Yu Creek, and dropped anchor together, waiting for the fire ship to hit them.

However, Punianheda was still furious. The reason was simple. Axianlu didn't know whether he didn't hear the order, or deliberately disobeyed it, or had escaped in a small boat before the order was delivered. In short, the three ships belonging to Axianlu did not carry out the order, but were still lingering behind him, with shadowy figures on them, making a mess.

The four ships could only cover half of the Yuxi River, leaving a large gap in the middle that was large enough for three or four ships to pass side by side.

But it was too late.

Just as the four ships of the Shenfeng Army were forming a battle formation, a huge fireball mixed with several things that were no longer recognizable came down the river and hit them right in front of them.

Punian Heda was caught off guard and fell from the wheelhouse into the water as the ship rocked violently. He had removed his armor beforehand, so he didn't sink to the bottom. However, the flagship, despite the anchor's drag, was still thrown back two feet by the impact, knocking Punian Heda unconscious and crushing him to the bottom. Li Qi, unaware that he had easily killed a Jin general, saw the fireship stop moving and personally climbed the mast to investigate, quickly grasping the situation.

But even after figuring out the situation, Li Qi had no way to do anything in such a huge fire. Although there was a gap, water and fire were merciless, and Li Qi was also worried about getting burned, so he could only inform Yang Qin and Liang Zichu behind him while continuing to stand on the mast, waiting for the fire to become smaller before leading the army through.

However, less than half a minute later, Li Qi suddenly discovered that perhaps it was inspired by Punian Heda, the ship with a huge flag with the word "Gold", which was obviously the flagship, actually began to move with more than ten ships, and the westernmost Jin warship had already dropped anchor, and the soldiers on it began to jump into the water to retreat.

Further away, Li Qi discovered that the Jin army ships were turning with difficulty under the cover of the flagship. Although the Yuxi River was relatively narrow and the turning was very slow, they did intend to retreat.

Could it be that the Jin navy commander personally covered the retreat of the remaining ships?
As soon as this thought came to his mind, Li Qi made up his mind instantly. He grabbed the rope and slid down to the deck. Then he quickly returned to the wheelhouse and ordered, "Send a message to Shi You and Zhang Cong, have them follow! Forward!"

A moment later, Li Qi relied on his superb driving skills to cross the sea of fire, and then followed three or four scattered fire ships and rushed downstream.

Behind their ship, another six ships passed through this gap. Then a ship of the Chaohu navy tried to ram the burning fire ship, but was ignited by the flames and had to abandon ship to escape, which made the already narrow waterway even more blocked.

"Whether we can completely annihilate the Jin thieves' navy and avenge our grievances depends on us!" Li Qi shouted from the helm: "Raise the White Tiger Banner!"

The White Tiger represents killing and fighting, and raising the White Tiger flag means fighting to the death.

Li Qi then saw a steamer behind him with a large flag with the word "He" on it, also flying a white tiger flag. He couldn't help but take a few more glances, and then recognized that the naval officer on the ship seemed to be the Shandong water hero named He Zizheng.

He Zizheng also shouted the order: "What's the big deal about killing the Jin thieves? This time, let the Jiangnan navy see what our Shandong warriors are capable of! Stop talking about being invincible on the water all the time."

Listen carefully, we will put on our armor, board the ship, break the anchor, and set it on fire! Do you understand?"

"Here!"

More than a hundred soldiers on the ship responded loudly, then grabbed the ropes on the side of the ship, lowered their heads with their weapons in hand, and prepared to face the next collision.

"Crash into it!"

"Kill the thief!"

The seven warships followed suit, lined up in a horizontal line, and charged towards the Jin army fleet.

Looking at the Song warships that were charging towards them with the same determination to die together, Wanyan Zhengjia, who was on the Jin flagship, had a ferocious expression on his face. He lowered his head, put on his helmet, and shouted loudly: "Meet the enemy!!!"

"Kill the thief!"

The Jin army ships that had already dropped anchor could not move and could only wait in place for the attack of the Song army warships.

The first to arrive were the three fire ships. The sailors of the Jin army ships tried to push them away with hooks, but some of them still approached the ships. However, it was too late for the Jin army ships to deal with these fire ships.

Although the Yuxi River was narrow and the impact speed was slow, the head-on collision between the two ships still made a teeth-grinding sound. The soldiers on the ships fell to the ground, some even rolled on the ground like gourds, but still no ship sank.

The anchor chains on the Jin army ships were stretched to the limit, and the warships were twisted and turned, but they still stayed firmly in place.

"Get on board! Kill the bandits!" Li Qi stood firm, drew out two swords from his waist, and jumped onto the Jin army's flagship first.

"Hahaha, you cowardly Song dog, you dare to show your teeth in front of me!" Wanyan Zhengjia, who also stabilized his body, laughed out loud. With red eyes, he picked up the two maces and faced the battle head-on as the commander-in-chief of the Jin navy.

The Jin soldiers, who were originally afraid of the impending fire, saw their commander being so brave and shouted loudly. Under the reflection of the fireboats, they fought with the Dongting Lake navy.

(End of this chapter)