I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 72 A Foothold!

The war drums are beating! The strategic passes of Danglikou and Hengjiangdu, which were once relied upon on the south bank of the Yangtze River, have now become bridgeheads for Zhou Yu's attack on Jiangdong!

For three consecutive days and nights, Zhou Yu only beat the drums, making noise in the military camp. This often startled Zhou Xin so much that he couldn't sleep peacefully at night and could only go to the riverbank to look out. But when he saw that there was no sign of Zhou Yu's troops coming out, he had no choice but to retreat. For a time, the soldiers in the camp were all wilted like frostbitten eggplants, drowsy and listless.

"This cannot continue!"

Zhou Xin saw through Zhou Yu's strategy of exhausting his troops, and naturally he would not sit idly by and wait for his death.

"Although we were caught off guard and the enemy occupied two continents, we are still on the defensive, and the Yangtze River will ultimately be our advantage!"

Zhou Xin, having served as the governor of Danyang for a long time, was not an unlearned person. He immediately decided to harass Zhou Yu with ships to prevent him from transporting troops from Liyang to the two continents, clearly intending to trap and kill the soldiers at Danglikou and Hengjiangdu!
In the battles along the Yangtze River, naval warfare comes first!
Whoever wins the naval battle and seizes control of the river will be invincible!
When Zhou Yu saw that Zhou Xin had dispatched all his ships, he immediately smiled knowingly and ordered his soldiers to prepare and carry out the military order.

Zhou Xin's ships were designed to cut off the connection between Danglikou, Hengjiangdu and Liyang on the opposite bank. Therefore, the ships were deployed in an extremely dispersed manner, determined to cut off the road and let the soldiers in Danglikou and Hengjiangdu starve to death on the island!

At the same time, Zhou Xin was also constantly observing the warships anchored at Hengjiang Ferry. Those warships were so large that they could easily suppress other ships with their bows and arrows. In addition, these warships had played a crucial role in the previous battles at Danglikou and Hengjiang Ferry. Therefore, Zhou Xin believed that the main force of Zhou Yu's fleet must be anchored here. Once the warships started moving, he would send his left and right warships forward to sink them!

The once wide Yangtze River was now filled with ships, and the soldiers on both sides were focused on the waters in front of them, with no time to care about anything else!
"It's almost time!"

Zhou Yu stood at the Hengjiang Ferry, but his gaze did not linger on the ships of various sizes nearby. Instead, he looked upstream to the south!

Where the water meets the sky, a bright black line appears, dividing it in two!
A hundred boats race against each other! Like a divine dragon galloping!
The zouge is a small boat, not as majestic as a towering ship, nor as powerful as a warship, but because of its light size, it is the fastest!
Moreover, these boats are currently traveling downstream from upstream, and their speed has already reached its maximum!

Zhou Yu stood at the river's edge, confidently glancing at the opposite bank.

"The reason we've been beating drums day and night these past few days isn't to exhaust the enemy, but to keep Zhou Xin occupied and prevent him from thoroughly investigating the ships upstream!"

Hengjiangdu and Danglikou were natural bridgeheads for attacking Jiangdong. Zhou Yu himself even led his troops to seize these places first. Therefore, Zhou Xin must have subconsciously thought that Zhou Yu would advance from these two places to attack Jiangdong.

However, Zhou Yu did the opposite. Instead of amassing a large number of troops and ships on the river to fight Zhou Xin to the death, he sent Huang Gai, Jiang Qin and other generals upstream in small boats to wait patiently for the slightest opening Zhou Xin might reveal!
Cheng Pu, standing beside him, was also amazed.

"Even I thought the Commander would launch an attack from Danglikou and Hengjiangdu. I didn't expect the Commander to deploy his main forces upstream and take advantage of the gap when Zhou Xin sent out his ships to attack Jiangdong."

"The Commander-in-Chief truly possesses extraordinary military strategies. It seems that Governor Liu's appointment of him as general was not arbitrary, but rather a testament to his discerning eye!"

Even Cheng Pu, a veteran general, was amazed by Zhou Yu's abilities.

Previously, seeing that Zhou Yu was young, he thought Liu Miao was acting recklessly... But after this battle, he had to admit the depth of Zhou Yu's strategy and the sharpness of Liu Miao's judgment.

Cheng Pu, who had spent many years in the military, knew that age, seniority, reputation, and official rank were all bullshit!
The only standard by which the army can be convinced of its authority is the ability to win battles!

From now on, Zhou Yu's title of "Commander-in-Chief" will probably be well-deserved! At this moment, Zhou Yu remained calm and continued to observe the battlefield situation.

The sudden appearance of Huang Gai and Jiang Qin in a small boat upstream undoubtedly made Zhou Xin's expression change!

The extremely fast marching speed meant that Zhou Xin had no time to recall the ships that had already been dispatched, and he was forced to engage in battle!

Huang Gai, now clad in heavy armor, disregarded all defense, gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands, and like a ferocious beast, led his troops to charge onto the unprotected water fortress!

"Danyang's elite troops! Bah!"

Huang Gai's heavy armor made him fearless. Even if he was hit by arrows or cut by sharp blades, he could easily deflect them. On the other hand, Huang Gai wielded a knife with both hands and could often cut a guard in half at the waist with a single stroke, just like cutting melons and vegetables!
The Danyang garrison repeatedly tried to advance and stabilize the battle line, but Huang Gai's elite troops were able to easily defeat, break through, and drive them away!

Upon seeing their rear camp under attack, the ships on the Yangtze River were anxious to return to defend it. However, at the previously quiet ferry crossings of Likou and Hengjiangdu, drums suddenly sounded, and almost all the ships moored there rushed out, tightly entangled the enemy, and prevented them from returning to provide reinforcements.

The warship also set sail at this moment, and Han Dang once again led the archers on the ship to fire arrows, completely ignoring the presence of others!

For a time, some ships wanted to rush up and ram the tower ship, while others were in a hurry to go back to rescue. They completely lost unified command and were instead able to complete the encirclement and trap these ships on the river by Liu Miao's army, which was outnumbered!
Huang Gai, standing on the shore, moved with imposing momentum, heading straight for Zhou Xin's central command tent!

Zhou Xin had already confirmed that the banners bearing the character "Yuan" were fake, but as they pressed closer, he exclaimed, "What else could these ghostly soldiers be but Yuan Shu's troops?"

Zhou Xinming was familiar with the concept of "wind angles"... The so-called "wind angles" refers to observing the winds from the four directions and four corners to predict good or bad fortune.

Zhou Xin looked up and saw that the clouds to the north resembled a ferocious dragon. He immediately sighed, "There is a true dragon in the north. This is something that a mortal like me cannot resist."

After saying that, Zhou Xin actually led his troops away, handing over the Niuzhu camp to them!

The commander had already fled, and the remaining soldiers had no will to fight and surrendered one after another.

Soldiers on land who were unable to retreat in time dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground in submission. Soldiers on the ships on the river also obediently lowered their flags and stood around Liu Miao's warships, not daring to move.

Upon capturing Niuzhu, Zhou Yu immediately ordered Cheng Pu, Zhu Zhi, and others to recover the surrendered soldiers, while he himself boarded a warship and stepped onto the solid land on the opposite bank.

On land, the rocking of the boat was finally gone, which made it all the more reassuring.

Zhou Yu also looked back to the north, instructing his scouts to report back quickly.

"Quickly go and tell our lord that we have finally found a place to stand today!"

(End of this chapter)