Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 374 Reform (For the Alliance Leader Hu Ru)

"Eat my cleaver noodles!" Zhan Feng Wei Dayong was extremely flamboyant, wearing a red and green brocade cloak on the outside, covered by lamellar armor, and underneath the lamellar armor was a chainmail. He gripped a heavy, thick-backed cleaver in both hands and charged forward with unstoppable momentum.

"Crack!" With a swift movement, the large cleaver struck the terrified thief's shoulder, nearly severing half of his arm.

The thief screamed in agony, blood spurting as he stumbled backward.

Wei Dayong was relentless in his pursuit of justice, darting towards wherever there were crowds. He swung his thick-backed broadsword repeatedly, seemingly oblivious to who or where he struck. He was simply reckless, charging forward and creating chaos.

During the charge, he seemed to have been hit three times in the chest and lower abdomen. Two of them were harmless, but only one caused slight pain. However, this only fueled his anger, and he roared repeatedly, slashing and hacking, creating a bloody storm.

Liu Jiu also rushed up.

He wore only a layer of lamellar armor, held a long spear, and thrust at the bandits from afar, cursing incessantly.

Unlike Wei Dayong, who was wealthy enough to buy chainmail from foreign merchants and seafarers, he could only use the iron armor that had been taken from his head.

He wasn't as brave as Wei Dayong, who had to resort to constant cursing to bolster his courage when things came to a head. But he had no other choice; he had shamelessly begged for Zhan Feng, because it was a shortcut—a shortcut to promotion.

"Don't block my way." Liu Jiu stepped forward and thrust his spear into the abdomen of the thief opposite him.

The other person appeared to be a teenager, his face filled with panic and disbelief. After being shot in the abdomen, the ring knife in his hand clattered to the ground, and his body went limp.

"I told you not to block my way!" Liu Jiu felt like he had gone mad. He drew his spear, stepped forward again, and thrust it straight at Liu Jiu.

Before the assassination, he caught a glimpse of a sharp sword aimed at his ribs out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored it and braced himself. The spear pierced the chest of the enemy in front of him without any resistance, and then he pulled back to parry.

The iron sword was not very effective and did not cause any damage to Liu Jiu. As the second sword came, Liu Jiu raised his spear to block it, and together with another warrior who rushed over, he killed the man.

The man rushing over was named Tang Jian, a refugee from Jiangbei, who held a shield in his left hand and wielded a mace in his right.

His style was as aggressive as Wei Dayong's, but with more skill. In his nimble movements, he would smash his iron mace on the enemy's head, striking each one silently.

There were five others like them. Except for one who was unlucky enough to be shot in the face by an arrow during the charge, the other seven, relying on their strong armor and superior weapons, recklessly charged into the enemy ranks, disrupting their formation.

This is Zhanfeng, the group with the highest casualty rate on the battlefield.

This is a suicidal game for the brave, a chance to win big with little investment, and a path to instant success. As long as you survive, the benefits will be endless.

The seven men, like a chisel, drove deep into the bandits' loose formation, denting it completely.

Liu Jiu followed behind Wei Dayong and Tang Jian, rushing forward with his head down.

He had already abandoned his spear and drawn his secondary weapon, a ring-bladed sword, and was slashing fiercely. All around him were the panicked shouts of the enemy and the instinctive attacks of their weapons.

He lost count of how many blows he had taken. It felt like a small piece of his nail had broken or fallen off. His right leg was burning with pain, and there seemed to be another wound on his left arm—or perhaps it was just his imagination, he couldn't tell.

A scream came from the left rear, seemingly the voice of a familiar warrior from Taicang, who had fallen to the ground without anyone knowing why.

Liu Jiu didn't turn around. He fiercely stabbed his ring-blade into the chest of an enemy who was slashing from the side, then pulled it out, parried the ring-blade coming from the other side, and continued to advance.

In the midst of the fighting, Liu Jiu was struck hard on the shoulder, not by a sword or knife, but by a blunt object, which made him stagger.

Amidst a cry of pain, a sword was thrust towards his face, which he dodged by turning his head. He was then stabbed in the abdomen, but fortunately, his iron armor prevented any serious injury.

He mustered his remaining courage, brandishing his ring-bladed sword, which appeared to have two chips, and swiftly slashed at the neck of an enemy.

The steel knife encountered no resistance whatsoever, easily slicing through the flesh, and blood gushed out.

"Another one killed!" Liu Jiu gasped for breath, his face flushed and his head spinning. He mechanically followed behind Wei Dayong and Tang Jian. The three of them formed a combat team and did their best to squeeze through the gap they had created, desperately trying to throw the enemy into chaos.

Behind them, the sound of orderly footsteps grew closer and closer.

Arrows rained down from the sky, relentlessly reaping lives one after another.

The commotion in the enemy ranks gradually grew louder, and some of those who had been fighting desperately against them stopped, staring in horror at the orderly surge of armored warriors.

"Kill!" a roar rang out.

The swordsman charged forward bravely, wielding his sword and slashing straight down.

The spearmen thrust forward with volleys of spears, swift as dragons.

A spectacular scene unfolded: after a volley of gunfire, the bandits at the forefront fell to the ground like felled logs.

Another volley of gunfire came, and the enemy soldiers fell to the ground in a flurry.

The third volley of bayonet fire —

Liu Jiu suddenly felt a loosening in front of him, and the thieves who had been blocking his way retreated like a tide, their eyes looking as if they had seen a ghost.

"Thump!" Wei Dayong fell to the ground and lay motionless.

Liu Jiu was startled, but he didn't stop. He mustered his last bit of strength, gritted his teeth, and charged forward, swinging his knife at the thief who had exposed his back to him.

The main force continued to advance in a wall formation.

They trod over the corpses and equipment scattered on the ground, like a sophisticated killing machine, humming as it slowly reaped the lives of the slowest thieves.

After harvesting this batch, they quickened their pace slightly, lined up, and continued to harvest the next batch of the slowest thieves.

"Splash! Splash!" In their panic, countless enemy soldiers jumped into the river to escape.

Upon seeing this, the second wave of enemy troops, who were attempting to land, instinctively stopped.

They looked at their comrades falling into the water like dumplings being dropped into a pot, then at the "officers" clad in iron armor and armed with long spears and shields, and finally at the short weapons in their own hands; all of them showed fear.

Naval warfare is primarily fought with short weapons as the main weapon and long weapons as a secondary weapon. It is even less likely that one would wear iron armor. Going ashore at this time would be like throwing an egg against a rock.

Huang Chong, who was leading the team, also calmed down.

His men were a bunch of poor fishermen, with few bows and even fewer who knew how to shoot arrows. If the government troops had collapsed at the first touch, that would have been fine, but these men were really fierce and he probably couldn't fight them off.

Where the hell did this come from? Could it be the legendary Asud Army?

The knife-fish boat slowly came to a stop, gently swaying in the river waves.

Several small boats nearby spontaneously moved over to rescue Liu Rong's soldiers who had fallen into the water.

The pursuing armored warriors stood on the riverbank, drew their drawn bows from their waists, and called out names one by one to the figures floating in the river, just like they had practiced shooting straw men many times before.

Rescue efforts in Huangchong were forced to halt.

The fishermen and salt producers on the small boats raised rattan shields and wooden shields to protect themselves as they turned around and fled.

The fighting gradually subsided.

On the distant ship, Fang Guozhen slowly withdrew his gaze and looked to his left and right.

Some people avoided his gaze, not daring to look him in the eye.

Some people glared at them angrily, muttering, "Go ahead and shout! Why aren't you shouting anymore? You were the loudest shouters back then. Brother Fang didn't want to come, but you insisted. Why aren't you shouting now?"

"Exactly. Zhang Erlang, didn't you boast back then that you would annihilate the Liujiagang Navy in one battle and then go ashore and have a good time? Come on, I'll prepare a boat for you. You take your men up there and charge again."

"Chen Heiyu, didn't you say that if we couldn't take Liujiagang, you would listen to Brother Fang from now on without any further questions? The battle isn't over yet, only Liu Rong has died. You go on, hurry up."

The person whose name was called blushed and remained silent.

Fang Guozhen took in everything. After a moment, he gestured to stop the argument and called over his younger brother, Fang Guoying, saying, "Fourth brother, take some men to greet them. I just saw dozens of people escaping back in boats. Go and gather them up, then take them back to Changguo Prefecture."

"Changguo Prefecture?" Fang Guoying asked in surprise.

Fang Guozhen nodded and said, "There are still some people from Haihouzi in Changguo Prefecture. Most of them are relatives and friends of the fallen soldiers. Take some silk from the treasury and distribute it as compensation to them to comfort them."

"Oh, okay." Fang Guoying nodded, and seeing that her brother had no other instructions, she went to carry out the order.

Fang Guozhen then glanced at everyone, sighed, and said, "What's there to argue about? It's our own brother who died, and you're all laughing at him like this? It's ridiculous."

At this point, he glanced at the soldiers in yellow armor who were cleaning up the battlefield and said, "Now you all know, right?"

"The government navy is gone, but the land forces remain. The enemy, clad in heavy armor, wielding large shields and long spears, advances in a wall-like formation. Can you withstand them?"

As they spoke, their gazes fixed on each of them, and everyone lowered their heads, remaining silent.

"Since we can't stop them, then let's train harder," Fang Guozhen said. "The laws of land warfare are established by the dynasty, with ranks of ten thousand households, thousand households, hundred households, and garrison commanders, each with their own duties and strict orders. If you gather your local soldiers together like this, you'll swarm in when you win, and scatter in disarray when you lose. You might be able to win against weak government troops, but against stronger ones, this is what happened to you today. Tell me, do you want to change this?"

"Third brother, isn't it obvious?" Fang Guozhang slapped his thigh and said, "We didn't know before, but now that we've learned our lesson, we'll be foolish if we don't change. Actually, not only do we need to change our land warfare tactics, but we also need to change our naval warfare tactics. In the Battle of Wuhu Gate, the government troops were cut into several sections, and they themselves fell into chaos. If they hadn't, we could have fought. I think we need to change those tactics too. Now we have several hundred ships and tens of thousands of men, so why not organize them into a 'Ten Thousand Household Command,' with Third Brother leading the Ten Thousand Household Command, and then appointing deputy Ten Thousand Household Commanders under him..."

The positions of garrison commander, commander of a thousand households, and commander of a hundred households each have their own responsibilities, so everyone has an official post. Isn't that wonderful?

Fang Guozhen nodded first, then shook his head and sighed, "Many heroes came because of my reputation, because they thought highly of me. They agreed to live and die together, share wealth and honor, and were equals. How can I take away other people's weapons without permission?"

No, no, that's inappropriate.

"Third brother, the imperial court hasn't offered us amnesty yet! They're still pursuing us. If we don't reorganize properly, we'll suffer another defeat." Fang Guozhang said anxiously, "How can you be so sentimental? This will endanger everyone!"

"We're still at war, so even if we want to make changes, we can't do it now. We have to wait until we've returned to base, otherwise we'll give the government troops an opportunity to take advantage of us," Fang Guozhen said.

"Then we'll revise it after we return from war," Fang Guozhang said. "But it must be revised; we can't delay."

Upon hearing this, Fang Guozhen hesitated, then sighed, "It requires everyone's agreement. However—"

At this point, he looked at the crowd and said, "Although there are many people now, the situation is more chaotic than before, and looting is not a long-term solution. Well then, let's gather everyone together and discuss the current situation. We can't continue in this muddle-headed manner."

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