Gan Zhuo led a total of 50,000 troops by water to invade Hefei and Yangzhou, of which he personally led the main force of 40,000 people to invade Hefei by land and water. In the face of the menacing Jiangdong army, Liu Kun, the governor of Huainan, responded calmly, and after reorganizing the Chaohu Water Division, he used the Water Division to hit Jiangdong again.

Originally, Liu Kun had more troops and few sailors, and he had given up Chaohu Lake for a time and only relied on Hefei to hold on, but when the Jiangdong Naval Division attacked Hefei on a large scale, he used a trick to make dozens of warships in Jiangdong die instantly. This battle not only allowed Jiangdong to change the history of Yangzhou assassination, but also made Jiangdong attack again.

This time, Jiang Dong tried his best to attack, so that Liu Kun had to deal with it carefully. Liu Kun is most worried about the water war, after all, the Jiangdong Naval Division has an advantage in terms of strength and experience, if the Jiangdong Naval Division cannot be defeated, the two towns of Hefei and Yangzhou will always be threatened by Jiangdong, and at the same time, it is also delusional to defeat Tuzhong without the assistance of the Naval Division.

Gan Zhuo is also a person who is not willing to be lonely, as soon as he arrives in Tuzhong, he immediately ordered the whole army to prepare to exterminate the Chaohu water division of the imperial court, and regain the dominant position of Jiangdong on the water.

Finding that the upper reaches of the Yangtze River suddenly floated a mighty fleet, the former military scouts of Jiangdong were stunned: "Could it be the enemy sailor?" ”

Gan Zhuo was about to personally lead the army to attack Liu Kun, when he suddenly heard that countless warships were floating upstream, and his brows suddenly twisted into a clearly visible ravine: "With the strength of the Chaohu Water Division, how dare they face our Jiangdong Water Army head-on, could it be that Liu Kun transferred the water divisions of Pengze Lake and Gaoyou Lake?" Could it be that my troops attacking Yangzhou didn't contain the two naval divisions? ”

But he said. Gan Zhuo took over the position of Yangzhou Assassin with the support of the local scholars in Jiangdong, and was in charge of tens of thousands of water and land troops in Jiangbei, the reason why he ordered the whole army to go up the river was because the Jiangdong Naval Division was much stronger than the Chaohu Naval Division, and in order to prevent Liu Kun from mobilizing reinforcements to intervene in the Battle of Chaohu, he ordered more than 10,000 people to attack Yangzhou, an important town in Huainan.

The scout couldn't figure out the situation either, and replied after a moment's hesitation: "My lord, the ship is flying the flag of 'Chaohu Water Division', but I don't know if it is the real Chaohu Water Division, or if it is a fake flag. Bravado. ”

After listening, Gan Zhuo also hesitated. Puzzled: "It shouldn't be! When we came to cut down Chaohu Lake, we sent secret agents to investigate the details of the Huainan Naval Division, although the Chaohu Naval Division severely damaged my Jiangdong some time ago, they definitely did not have the strength to confront me head-on. But now such a blatant downward the river must have an unknown conspiracy. ”

Not much. The scouts went and returned. Reward Gan Zhuo: "Lord Qiyu." According to some soldiers, the enemy was indeed the Chaohu Water Division. ”

"Is it really Chaohu Water Master?" Gan Zhuo was stunned for a moment, and said to himself, "Hiss." This Chaohu water master is so bold! Don't they know that the main forces of our Jiangdong Naval Division are all dispatched? Liu Kun is a famous man in the world, he doesn't really think that he can defeat my Jiangdong Sailor with these rabble, right? ”

Gan Zhuo made sense to say this, don't look at the Chaohu Water Division just defeated the Jiangdong Water Division, but Jiangdong still didn't take the Chaohu Water Division in his eyes. At the beginning, Jiangdong wanted to calm Chaohu Lake, but unfortunately, although Jiangdong broke the Chaohu Water Division at that time, the Chaohu Water Division was scattered and retreated to 800 miles of reeds, broken into pieces, and attacked the Jiangdong Water Division from time to time, which made the Jiangdong Water Army feel a big headache.

In particular, at that time, Huainan Tao Kan was strong, and Jiangdong had no time to draw out the remaining troops to encircle and suppress Chaohu Lake. Therefore, the generals of the Jiangdong Navy have some impressions of the Chaohu Water Division: the frontal combat ability of the Chaohu Water Division is scum, but they are braver and better at fighting than the Jiangdong people, and they are proficient in the combat mode of small groups of Liukou invasion.

Therefore, as soon as Gan Zhuo heard that it was the Chaohu Sailor who was dispatching out of the nest, he had to doubt the other party's true intentions, and seeing that the master would misunderstand, the scout hurriedly explained: "My lord, the strength of this Chaohu Sailor has made great progress compared to before, and there are many more giant ships than before, and the strength should not be underestimated. ”

Gan Zhuo suddenly realized: "It turns out that the strength has increased, how dare the little Chaohu sailor face my Jiangdong Navy head-on." Some time ago, when Wen Xian left office, he told Lord Ben to be careful of the sailors of the northern imperial court. Now that our army has just marched to the mouth of the Susu, we must be careful and vigilant so that the enemy will not have any opportunity to take advantage of it. ”

The generals replied, "Do as your lord commands!" ”

After pondering for a while, Gan Zhuo nodded silently, and then said: "No matter what the enemy's intentions are, let's give him a head-on blow first, so that he knows that we are powerful." If he comes to intercept our army, then kill the other party's prestige first, don't feel that if you win a game, you don't know the sky, and today Lord Ben just let them see the facts. ”

Knowing that hundreds of warships were floating in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, some of the subordinate generals were worried and persuaded: "My lord, our army is coming with victory, and when morale is high, our army is afraid that it will be difficult to defeat the enemy suddenly. ”

When Gan Zhuo was in high spirits, how could he retreat without a fight, only to see him wave his big hand, expressing disdain: "How can the Chaohu Water Master be compared with the Jiangdong Water Master?" Even if the other party has received some support, it has only been a few tens of days. As you are all troop leaders, you naturally know how long it will take to integrate the new troops into combat power. Although the Chaohu sailor has several giant ships, it is tantamount to a six-foot small two, dancing with a hundred-pound big knife, making adults laugh in vain, and it is easy to break. ”

Hearing Gan Zhuo's explanation, all the generals under his command immediately breathed a long sigh of relief, and when they looked at the mighty ships of the Chaohu Lake Naval Army, they had already regarded them as the people who sold their heads.

Therefore, Gan Zhuo boarded the boat to supervise himself, ignoring the upstream advantage of the Chaohu Naval Army, and set up a triangular attack formation, with 150 building boats in the center, 500 Mengchong and Walking Boat on both sides, and the remaining 600 or so small boats all in the rear, waiting for the harvest results. Although Ganzhuo claimed to have 1,000 warships, in fact, there were only 150 building ships and 300 boats, and the rest were all small fishing boats and cargo ships, which could not be attacked. Four hundred and fifty warships, that's all the strength of Gandro's army.

The Chaohu Navy has only 32 new-style building ships and 30 old-style building ships, and the number of building ships is only half of the Ganzhuo Navy, but the Chaohu Water Army has 100 Mengchong, 300 boats, and 400 yachts, which are pouring into the Yangtze River in turn. In terms of the number of ships alone, the strength of the Chaohu Navy is actually not much different from the strength of the Ganzhuo Navy Army.

The Chaohu sailors went down the river, fighting in formation, and there were 300 yachts in the forefront, each yacht carried three oarsmen, one sailor, and the sailor carried the torch, and the warship was suffixed with a fireboat. Three hundred yachts, divided into four rows, the first two rows of eighty boats, the last two rows of seventy boats, the overall formation of a chess-shaped phalanx.

The second is 32 new-style building ships, each side is divided into 16 ships, in parallel columns, each building ship is front and back, left and right, and 20 ships are assembled in a prismatic shape to escort them. Each building ship carried six nine-pound guns, twenty longbowmen, thirty crossbowmen, and forty other sailors.

Again, there were 100 Mengchong phalanxes clustered together, ten ships in a horizontal row, and ten ships in depth. The sailors on board Meng Chong were all armed with a flintlock musket and a crossbow.

Then there are thirty old-style building ships, plum blossom-shaped layout, where the Chinese army is located, and the layout of the building ships is equivalent to the layout of the Han standard building ships, and these building ships are the Jiangdong sailors who were captured at the beginning.

Finally, there are more than 100 boats, clearly divided into five columns, separated by a large number of waters. Sailors carrying sailors on a boat for half a day, or holding crossbows, or horizontal knives, or long bows, or long and short blades.

During this period, there were 200 yachts, loaded with six oarsmen and two heralds, galloping on the battlefield, delivering orders and contacting military intelligence.

There are nearly 1,000 warships in Chaohu Lake, stretching for thousands of meters, mighty and mighty, rolling towards Ganzhuo.

Gan Zhuo saw that the Chaohu front army was three hundred yachts and twelve building boats, and couldn't help laughing: "Sure enough, it is indiscriminate, although there seem to be many ships in Chaohu, they are all yachts and boats, and they are unbearable!" Passing on our military order, the whole army was in ambush, waiting for the enemy ship to travel within 100 paces, and then launched a charge, gathering and destroying the enemy in one fell swoop. ”

As the Chaohu sailors approached, the scouts of the former army found that the sailors on the yacht were all carrying torches, and immediately sent a warning message to Gan Zhuo: "The Chaohu sailors may use fire to attack." ”

Gan Zhuo was not confused, and while ordering the small boats of the rear army to disperse, he comforted the captains: "Although our army has hundreds of warships, the waters of the Yangtze River are spacious, as long as we are flexible in dodging, we will not be attacked by fire." Even if the Chaohu Navy released 3,000 fireboats, it would not damage the prestige of our army. ”

Unless the enemy ship is stationary, the strategy of fire attack can generally only be used as an auxiliary, and cannot be relied on as a decisive weapon. In the Battle of Chibi that year, the reason why the Eastern Wu Fire Attack was able to make a contribution was mostly because Cao Wei gathered ships and blocked the river with iron locks, which was difficult to dodge. It is precisely because of this that although they saw the Chaohu Navy release the boat to attack, Gan Zhuo and other generals from Jiangdong were not afraid and faced it calmly.

In Gan Zhuo's view, if there are fewer fireboats in Chaohu, they will either avoid it or sink it, and that's it; If there were more boats set fire in Chaohu, he would go down the river, avoid the Zhongjiang River, and then turn around and kill the Chaohu sailors back to the horse gun. After all, it is impossible to have all the fireboats, and the fireboats all over the Yangtze River, Chaohu can accumulate one batch, but it is impossible to accumulate the second batch.

Three hundred yachts in four rows of Chaohu Lake untied the ropes in turn, ignited the fire boats, deviated to the riverside, turned around and went backwards, making way for the rear army.

However, although the three hundred fireships were menacing, in Gandro's eyes, they could only barely be regarded as harassment: three hundred small fireships, distributed over a wide river of several thousand meters, had extremely limited lethality. While stabilizing the main army, Gan Zhuo conveyed the latest instructions: "The crossbowmen are ready, the long weapons are on guard, the sailors are all calm and motionless, the short weapons are replaced with standard irons and long oars, and all ships close to the fire are sunk." (To be continued......)