On a high ground backed by the riverbank, nearly 10,000 soldiers were busy consolidating the camp and setting up military tents.

Surrounded by the guards, Xu Rong pressed the hilt of his sword and looked at the camp with a solemn face, seeing that all the defense facilities were about to be completed, and the arrow towers were also towering, and there was finally a hint of relief in his eyes.

He has always been cautious in the use of troops, even with the strength of 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry, he did not dare to despise the combined forces of Nanying and Sun Jian in the slightest, and now he sent all 20,000 cavalry to help Lu Bu, leaving only 10,000 infantry to guard the main road, and it was even more like walking on thin ice.

Although the 10,000 troops under his command are elite, it is impossible to resist the soldiers and horses of Nanying and Sun Jian head-on, especially the cavalry corps of Nanying is a strong army that has been tempered since the Battle of the Yellow Turban. The only feasible way is to fight against the water, taking advantage of the complex terrain on the bank of the river, so that the Bohai cavalry can no longer be used, and can only besiege with infantry layer by layer, and fall into a tragic tug-of-war offensive and defensive battle.

Suddenly, the soldier on the high lookout post in the distance shouted, and a standard-bearer quickly waved the flag in Xu Rong's direction, making a series of flags.

"The enemy army is .......in sight" Xu Rong's side, an adjutant general stepped forward, stared at the flag of the army with his eyes, and translated loudly: "About 20,000 enemy troops....... are all infantry, no large ordnance, and they are coming quickly along the riverbank!" ”

"Oh?" Xu Rong said a little absent-mindedly: "20,000 infantry, then it must be Sun Jian's department!" Have you ever seen the main force of the Bohai Navy? ”

The flag commander on his side immediately waved the letter in flags, and quickly received a positive reply from the lookout: there was no cavalry of the Bohai Navy.

"Is this sending Sun Jian to test the truth of our army?" Xu Rong said to himself: "This seems to be a little inconsistent with that Eagle Yang Zhonglang's style of attacking like thunder?" ”

"Whole army! Defend the camp! Now that the enemy is approaching, he has no time to think about it anymore, so he can only fight first.

Groups of Dong soldiers poured out of the camp and set up shields behind the dense blockade outside the camp, and the archers also ran behind the wooden fence, ready to shoot.

The dust rises in the distance, and the banner of the word "Sun" flutters in the wind. A large number of Changsha soldiers appeared in neat steps. Judging from the continuous phalanx of thousands of people, the 25,000 troops of the Changsha Army actually poured out.

One phalanx after another lined up a stone's throw away from Xu Rong's camp, except for a few generals who seemed to be pointing in the direction of Dong Jun in front of the formation, there was neither the majestic roar of the ten thousand armies, nor the generals of the three armies who bravely competed to challenge, all the Changsha soldiers were silent and looked towards the battle, which added to the depressing atmosphere of the imminent war.

"Prepare for war!" In Dong's military camp, roars came and went. The shieldmen tightened their grips to hide their bodies behind the shields, and the archers tightened their longbow strings. Pointing diagonally to the sky together.

"Tom! Tom! Tom tom! In the large array of the Changsha army, a tight drum finally sounded, spreading far away.

"Steady! Steady! The roar of the officers broke out again in the Dong army, and according to their experience, the sound of drums was a signal that the enemy was about to launch a full-scale attack. The 10,000 Dong Jun all had sweaty palms and shrunken pupils.

However, to the surprise of all the officers and men of the Dong Army, the drums in the Changsha army were continuous, but the entire army was not moving. There is no tendency to divide the forces or press on the whole.

After a long time, the soldiers of Dong Jun couldn't help but feel a little restless, the arms of the archers who pulled the strings gradually felt sore, and the tense bodies of the sword and shield hands and spearmen writhed uneasily.

"Be vigilant!" Xu Rong's shouting voice resounded throughout the entire defense line: "The enemy army wants to loosen the morale of our army with a tired army. As long as our army is a little slack, they will attack! ”

In the Dong army, the officers and veterans were all terrified. What a vicious move, this is a strategy to imitate the battle of Qilu Long Spoon in the past year, "one blow and then three declines and exhaustion"! The soldiers held their breath again. Keep your eyes open and wait for the Changsha army to move.

On both sides of the enemy, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. The confrontation between the big eyes and the small eyes was like this, and for a while, there was a strange atmosphere.

"Ahh On the high platform of the lookout post, there was another scream, completely breaking the deathly silence of the audience. Many of the archers who gritted their teeth were suddenly taken aback, and almost missed the arrow that had not yet been fully drawn in their hands.

"What's going on?" Xu Rong turned his head angrily, but saw that the flag soldiers on the lookout were frantically playing out one flag after another.

"What...... An unidentified giant ship has appeared on the river! Behind Xu Rong, the lieutenant general in charge of translating the flag looked sluggish.

"Oh no! They also have a navy to help them fight! Xu Rong was violently shaken, and he pushed away the guards in front of him and ran towards the nearest arrow tower.

On the winding river in the distance, at least four huge ships of the building class slowly poked out their huge bodies, and there were still huge shadows behind them, and I don't know how many ships were coming in one after another.

"Gather half of the archers!" Xu Rong leaned over and shouted under the arrow tower: "Line up on the bank of the river, ready to ignite the rocket!" ”

Before the hurried archers finished their formation, a black cloud suddenly rose from the first giant ship and covered the shore.

"Shield!" A general of the Dong army screamed so loudly that his voice changed, but unfortunately he could not bring any protection to the defenseless archers at all.

"Ahh Under the dense rain of arrows, at least dozens of Dong Jun archers fell headlong on the bank of the river, gurgling blood everywhere.

"Don't panic!" Just as the archers were about to be in chaos, Xu Rong's roar came again: "Shoot back with rockets, shield hand cover!" ”

Seeing the group of shieldmen rushing towards them, the archers finally resisted the pressure of collapse, and under the orders of the officers, they stretched out long arrows with fire-burning objects into the brazier, and pointed together at the approaching huge ship.

"All of them are ready to let go of the ......" Before Dong Jun's general commanding the archers gave an order, a change arose on the river, and several enemy ships completed their orientation in the sharp swing of the side oars, and the bow of the ship pointed to the river bank.

"Click!" "Click!" "Click!"

It was as if there was a sudden thunder on the surface of the river, and with a few muffled thunderous noises, in the disbelief and horror of all Dong Jun's eyes, several round objects shot out from above the enemy ship, rolling in the air and smashing towards the river bank.

"No, it's a trebuchet! Hide ......," a Dong Army general screamed. Something even more incredible happened.

"Bang!" "Bang" The round balls that were suspected to be projectiles exploded in mid-air, bursting out with fireballs full of light and shadow, like a huge fire net towards the stunned Dong Jun archers on the river bank as a hood.

The screams were loud, the neat line of archers collapsed in an instant, and countless soldiers on fire scattered or rolled to the ground and wailed, and several fireballs ignited the flammable things that were originally ready to attack the enemy ship, and even spread the fire, burning the shieldmen who had just arrived.

"This! How could this be? Xu Rong stared blankly at the giant ships in the distance that were still releasing arrows and firebombs, his heart was blank, this sudden unknown method of warfare made him dizzy for a while, and he couldn't think of a suitable battle technique at all.

"Drink!" The rumbling roar pulled him back from the shock to reality, and in front of the camp, a team of Shajun soldiers finally began to move. They erected large shields, and in the form of an impenetrable tortoiseshell formation, one phalanx after another slowly but firmly crushed towards the Dong Jun camp.

The screams were getting closer and closer, and the enemy ships, apparently in order to cooperate with the ground offensive of the Changsha army, actually approached the shore and began to strike at the depth of the Dong army's camp with long-range forces.

"It's over!" Xu Rong was like a thunderbolt, and his whole body was shaky. He had calculated everything when he chose this camp, including the possibility that the enemy might use the boat to attack at night or that it might be flooded upstream, but he did not expect that the enemy would break the camp with such an overwhelming and powerful attack.

"General! Quickly give the order to retreat! Several lieutenant generals rushed to Xu Rong's side, and one of them shouted: "While the defense in front of my military camp is not chaotic, retreat immediately!" Otherwise, if the enemy ships continue to attack, we will be wiped out! ”

"Exactly!" Another general hurriedly said: "Taking advantage of the fact that the cavalry of the Bohai Navy has not arrived, and Sun Jian's southern warriors are far inferior to our army in physical fitness, our army will definitely be able to get rid of their pursuit!" ”

"Okay!" Xu Rong looked at the entire camp that was gradually becoming chaotic, and gave a tragic order: "The whole army retreats to the south, and try to take the rugged path to get closer to General Lu's main force...... If you take the main road, there will definitely be an ambush by the cavalry of the Bohai Navy along the way! ”

He looked at the approaching Changsha army, and suddenly gritted his teeth and said, "Someone! Give up unnecessary baggage, continue to set fire, since the fire has been completed, use this fire to block the pursuit of the Changsha army! ”

When Xu Rong looked back into the distance, the riverbank camp that had been completed in several days had completely fallen into a sea of fire. Under the combined attack of the enemy's naval army and the Changsha army on land, he did not even survive an hour, not only losing nearly 3,000 elite subordinates, but also losing a large amount of ordnance, grain and grass, which can be said to be a complete defeat...... He knew that he would be defeated, but he never thought that he would be defeated so quickly and so badly, and the Bohai cavalry, the main force of the enemy's army, did not even make any moves.

Under the reflection of the distant firelight, Xu Rong seemed to have become a statue, and his face was full of numbness. Suddenly, a strong sense of remorse hit his heart, he miscalculated the situation, he knew that the 20,000 cavalry that should have left Hu Zhen behind, at least had the ability to launch a-for-tat counterattack, how could he be so passive as now?

However, Xu Rong didn't know that Hu Zhen's 20,000 cavalry, who had already embarked on the road to help, were now facing an unprecedented life-and-death crisis. (To be continued......)