found a very likely danger, although the Chaohu water battle was already in hand, and it was already easy to hit the rookie sailor in Xuzhou, but Chen Fen said that he had no intention of continuing to fight and expand the results of the battle, and hurriedly ordered the flag to be played, and ordered the fleet to assemble and return, and the order was so sudden that even the captains of the ships of the Yuan Shujun Naval Division were a little overwhelmed, and they couldn't understand why Chen Fen missed this great opportunity to defeat the enemy.

Finally recalled the fleet, Chen Fen didn't have time to explain the reason in detail to a cadre, so he directly ordered the whole army to return, and then took the time to introduce the danger discovered before to the generals under his command, and asked the sailors of each ship to immediately seize the time to rest and prepare for another hard battle. But even so, there were still many sailor generals who questioned, "Governor, do we need to be afraid of the sailors of the Xuzhou thief army blocking the waterway?" The situation of the thief army and the sailor has also been seen, it is not our opponent at all, and we have the advantage of the upstream, and it is not easy to break through the blockade of the thief army and sailor? ”

"Fart!" Chen Fen, who was considered good-tempered in Yuan Shujun, rarely cursed a swear word, and then roared angrily: "What do you idiots know? If the Xuzhou thief army blocked the waterway with a chain of warships, and the infantry cavalry covered our army with strong bows and crossbows and rockets on both sides of the strait, how could our army be invincible? Don't be scared, withdraw for me immediately, and seize the Xuzhou thief army to block the waterway and withdraw from the waterway, otherwise we will all be finished! ”

After listening to Chen Fen's order, the generals of the Yuan Army's naval division had no choice but to honestly return to their respective warships to command the retreat, and Chen Fen ordered his fierce general Dong Xi to serve as the vanguard, leading a team of clippers to go first, to obstruct and destroy the Xuzhou army's blockade of the waterway, and lead the army to withdraw to the waterway. Seeing that Chen Fen's team was retreating, Lu Su, the governor of the Xuzhou Navy Division, who had not withdrawn to the Xushui River, also breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly ordered the flagship to raise the handsome flag again, and used torches to call all the ships to assemble, preparing to reorganize the team and turn back to fight again.

Not to mention the regrouping of the Chaohu Water Division in Xuzhou, it is only said that after Chen Fen's team quickly retreated to the water, they went all the way down the river to the south, and it only took more than half an hour to withdraw to the vicinity of Qibao Mountain, seeing that the Xuzhou team did not set up an ambush to intercept the waters near Qibao Mountain, the narrowest part of the river, Chen Fen and Zhang Ying and others were surprised and inevitably secretly rejoiced, Xue Li patted his chest and rejoiced: "Thank God, fortunately, the pottery thieves don't understand water warfare, if the pottery thieves set up an ambush here to intercept, it will not be so easy for our army to break through." ”

Fortunately, but for the sake of prudence, Chen Fen's fleet still rushed south, and Chen Fen sent someone to order the forward Dong Raid, asking Dong Raid not to worry about the disconnection between the front and back of the team, and the forward fleet just moved forward at full speed, as long as it could arrive at the battlefield before the Xuzhou Navy Ship closed the river, and obstructed the Xuzhou Navy Division from carrying out the trick, he would give Dong Raid the first credit of this battle! In addition, Chen Fen listened to Zhang Ying's suggestion and ordered another water battle general, Chen Wu, to lead a team of clippers first, regardless of the taboo of dividing troops in water warfare, in order to put his troops into the breakthrough battlefield as quickly as possible and protect the way for the main force to retreat.

The order was conveyed, and the forward Dong Raid's team was even more desperate to advance, taking advantage of the downstream to fly south, and also caught up with a Xuzhou warship that was slow to move because of the hull injury, but Dong Raid's team also didn't care about picking a cheap beat the water dogs, bypassing the slow enemy ship and going south, it took nearly three hours later, and finally caught up with the Xuzhou warship brigade in the Cangtouwei area, seeing that the Xuzhou ships were still slowly turning around and lining up, and it was not as good as nailing the chain chain ship, Dong Raid shouted a fluke, Then he didn't have time to observe the water surface of the water at night, so he directly ordered: "Raise the flag and rush up!" Break through the bandit ship team! ”

The flag was played, and the speedboats of more than fifty light speedboats rocked the oars and fast-forwarded, turning like flying, rushing towards the Xuzhou fleet that had not yet been connected to the rows, but at this time, there was a sudden whistling sound of a giant breaking through the sky in the sky, dozens of huge stone bullets fell from the sky, and smashed into the Dong raid fleet with terrifying strength, at least three Yuan Shujun clippers were hit by stone bullets, and were smashed into the mast cabin, the mast was broken and the cabin was shattered, and the ship's side deck was cracked, and the boulder that hit the deck was still unsubsidy. The cold river water either poured into the cabin from the rupture of the ship's side, or directly into the boat from the bottom of the boat, and the three clippers slowly tilted together and became floating garbage on the river, and the sailors and soldiers on the boat cried wolf and rushed to jump into the water to escape.

Although Dong Raid's flagship was almost hit by a stone bullet, Dong Raid couldn't care so much about it, and he didn't care about observing the casualties, Tie Qing just urged the ship to charge, and the flag bearer on the lookout tower also continued to use torches to give the charge flag and order the whole army to storm. Finally, the first Yuan Shujun clipper rushed through the gap that the Xuzhou fleet had no time to block, and rushed to the pitch-black open water.

Just when Dong Raid quietly breathed a sigh of relief, a loud "bang" ended the breakthrough dream of Dong Raid's team, the first Yuan Jun clipper that broke through the Xuzhou fleet, as if it was blocked by an invisible giant hand, suddenly stopped advancing, the bow of the ship also cracked, the cold river water surged into the cabin, and the Yuan Jun sailors and sailors who had just been knocked down by their usual surnames also howled like killing pigs and screamed, "There is something underwater, there is something under the water blocking the channel!" ”

By the way, the tactics of the iron cable blockade across the river were invented by Jianping Taishou Wuyan of Eastern Wu a few decades later, and the tactics of setting up a water fence to block the waterway were not until the Northern and Southern Dynasties more than two hundred years later, so if Yuan Shujun's naval division could be prepared to prevent this, then General Dong Xi and his soldiers must be like Deputy Director Tao, and they were also possessed by traversers.

"Bang bang bang" impact body endlessly, one after another Yuan Shujun clippers, including Dong Xi's flagship, were urgently laid by the Xuzhou army to lay iron chains and dense water fences to block the way, several clippers were also smashed into the ship's side, the sailors and sailors on the ship staggered, screaming and shaking the sky, Dong Xi himself was even more colorless, hurriedly ordered the soldiers to go into the water to check the situation, the darkness on both sides of the water has already flown countless arrows and boulders, overwhelmingly smashed to the lighted Dong raid fleet, Dong raid team soldiers were hit by countless arrows, At the same time, several ships were hit by Xiangyang artillery shells, and the team was completely chaotic.

In a moment, more than 40 Xuzhou building ships were connected into a row, slowly squeezing to the downstream water barrier, and the Xuzhou elite soldiers Danyang soldiers who could fight some water battles also quickly boarded the ship, and joined forces with the sailors to fight the Dong raid fleet, although Dong raided the army to the death, but the Danyang soldiers were extremely brave, and the strength was far above the Dong raid team, resulting in one clipper after another being taken away by the Danyang soldiers, and the soldiers of the boats were killed and slaughtered by the Danyang soldiers, and the dead were innumerable, and Dong Raid himself died in the chaos, and the Danyang soldiers took their ships, And all these clippers are chained and locked to the water fence to form a new line of defense.

Busy, Chen Wu's fleet has also arrived at the surface of the Cangtouwei water, at this time the Xuzhou warship has been chained, the upper board is flat, a large number of Xuzhou soldiers boarded the warship, with a strong bow and a hard crossbow to entertain Chen Wu's fleet, the emergency erection of more than 60 Xiangyang cannons also continue to send stones, the huge stone rain roaring and constantly smashing into the dense Chen Wu fleet, one after another Yuan Shujun warships smashed through, the arrows and boulders in the sky are like locusts, and the Yuan Shujun soldiers who are struggling to call for help on the river are dense, The Xuzhou soldiers on both sides of the river laughed wildly, and the sound was earth-shattering.

Chen Wu, who was hit by two arrows, was forced to withdraw from the battlefield, but the warship made a difficult U-turn on the narrow river, and more huge stone projectiles had already flown in the air, sending more Yuan Shujun warships to the bottom of the river.

When the sky was slightly bright, the main force of the Yuan Shujun Naval Division led by Chen Fen finally arrived at the surface of the Cangtou Wei water, so that the Yuan Shujun Naval Division was like the color of the earth, more than 40 Xuzhou warships were not only connected into a huge 'convex' horizontal row, the horizontal fleet has also built five pontoon bridges and water fences, dense wood is nailed to the bottom of the river, and the top is connected by iron locks, and it is extremely difficult for small boats to pass, let alone large warships full of ordnance soldiers.

Observing the left and right sides of the strait through the increasingly bright sky, the faces of Chen Fen and Zhang Ying and other sailor generals are inevitably more exciting, there are already a large number of Xuzhou soldiers on both sides of the water, including many rare ironclad cavalry in Jiangdong, the terrain on the shore is high, and countless siege Xiangyang cannons have been arranged, always on standby, and can also send out a giant stone bullet that can destroy the warships and ships of the Yuan Shu army, the evil handsome flag of Deputy Director Tao flutters in the wind on the east bank, and the arrogant laughter of the Xuzhou soldiers also echoes endlessly on both sides of the water, up and down are complacent to the extreme.

"The Grand Duke, the pottery thief sent an envoy to surrender!"

"Shoot back!"

After decisively rejecting Deputy Director Tao's kind offer to surrender, Chen Fen, who was loyal to Xiao Yuan Sangong, only thought about it for a moment, and soon ordered the soldiers to prepare fifty fast boats, loaded with firewood and thatch, and poured fire oil and sulfur and other fire-causing things, and then arranged for the daredevils to drive these fireboats to charge the Xuzhou fleet, in a vain attempt to burn the Xuzhou fleet connected together with the flames, and open the way for the self-army team to escape.

The veteran Chen Fen's breakthrough tactics are of course symptomatic, and Mei Zhoulang is also the boss of Cao who used this trick to break through, but two important factors doomed Chen Fen's tactics to be impossible to succeed, one is the wind direction, the southeast wind direction in early summer is seriously unfavorable to Chen Fen's military ships in the northwest, and the other is the Xiangyang cannon, which can hit the Xiangyang cannon with a stone bullet weighing more than 300 pounds and nearly 500 steps, which ensured the successful crossing of the river by the Mengyuan army............ Without trying, of course Chen Fen couldn't know that his tactics were destined to be unsuccessful, but after trying, Chen Fen soon became completely desperate, more than fifty fireships had just sailed into the range of the Xiangyang cannon of the Xuzhou army, because the wind direction was unfavorable and it was not even time to ignite the fireboat, the dense boulder rain was already whistling, like a flock of crows suddenly skimming the air, screaming and smashing the head of the Yuanshu army fireship team, either smashing the fragile fireboat to pieces, or setting off a terrible huge wave, One of the stone bullets hit the bow of a fireboat, and the soldiers of Yuan Shujun, who were gathering at the bow of the ship to ignite the fire, could not avoid it, and they were immediately smashed into flesh and blood, screaming and shaking the sky.

Headwind and destined not to load too many sailors, the speed of the Yuan Shu munitions will naturally not be very fast, so that the relatively slow launch of the Xiangyang cannon has the opportunity to throw boulders again, the second wave of stone rain hit, and seven or eight fireships were smashed through and sunk, at the same time the Xuzhou soldiers on the shore also slammed the Yuan soldiers on the fire ship with strong bows and crossbows, the Yuan army killed and wounded heavily, and there were countless people who escaped from the water, and finally only one fire boat was able to ignite the firewood and grass, and barely rushed to the front of the Xuzhou warship array, However, the sailors on board were soon shot dead by all the Xuzhou soldiers on the ship, and several sailors went into the water, and with the help of the side of the shore roadside, they easily dragged the fireboat to the shore with ropes and iron hooks and destroyed it, which did not pose the slightest threat to the Xuzhou fleet.

Seeing this scene, Chen Fen, who was hiding in the distance upstream, was desperate, so he could only quickly summon Zhang Ying, Xue Li and Chen Wu and other capable generals to discuss countermeasures and discuss how to break through the blockade of the Xuzhou army. It's up to you to say such stupid things! Our army is full of sailors, how can we be the opponent of the tiger and wolf division of the pottery thief on land? How can you get rid of the pursuit of the Xuzhou cavalry? Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if we can escape to the bank of the Yangtze River, how can we cross the river without a ferry? ”

Xue Li closed his mouth in shame, and Chen Wu suggested: "Governor, prepare some fireboats, this time you don't need a fast boat, use the building boat as a fireboat, rush to the side of the pottery thief ship formation and set fire, let our building ship and the enemy ship die together, and open the way for the rear army to advance." ”

Chen Fen hesitated, and Zhang Ying next to him said: "Metropolitan Governor, if you want to save some of the warships, there is only the tactic of General Zilie left, but the stone machine of the Xuzhou thief army is too powerful, and it can only act at night, so that the stone machine of the Xuzhou thief army cannot be accurate." ”

Chen Fen nodded slightly, and was about to make up his mind to use this tactic, but Xue Li next to him said: "It's useless to burn the ship formation of the Xuzhou thief army, how can the stake formation and iron lock formation behind the Xuzhou thief army be broken?" Can't break the wooden stakes and iron cables of the Xuzhou thief army, and our sailor fleet still can't break through the interception of the pottery thieves? ”

Zhang Ying and Chen Wu all had nothing to say, Chen Fen's face was also blue, and he couldn't find a way to break the Xuzhou water fence for a while.

Hearing this news, Chen Fen's face inevitably changed again, and he gritted his teeth and said: "The exterminator must let Lu Su Pifu wait until our army breaks through with all his strength before making a move, and the front and rear entrapment force our army to be in chaos." ”

"Governor, make up your mind." Zhang Ying said quickly: "The Xuzhou thief army and the Poyang Lake Water Division, once it is delayed for a long time, when the Tao Thief Poyang Lake Water Division also arrives at the mouth of the Xushui, and such an interception array is also set up in the downstream of the Xushui, our army will not have the slightest hope of breaking through." ”

"Governor, there is no hope of breaking through, and our army has no reinforcements from the water division, there is no way to go to the sky, and there is no way to go down, so it is better to surrender." Mr. Xue Li suddenly spoke, trembling and said: "I heard, I heard that Tao Envoy Jun treated the surrendered army quite well, and our army surrendered in the past, and Tao Envoy Jun will not treat our ...... badly." ”

Before the words were finished, Mr. Xue Li's former companion Zhang Ying had already rolled his eyes, Chen Fen jumped up with a blue tendon on his forehead, and pulled out the sword at his waist, without saying a word, a sword stabbed Xue Li in the chest, poor Mr. Xue Li never dreamed that Chen Fen would do it directly without even saying hello, and was caught off guard by the long sword through his chest, and died on the spot with an unbelievable look. After pulling back the bloody sword, Chen Fen roared: "Drag this traitor out, throw it into the river to show the public, give the order, seize the time to rest, and prepare to break through overnight!" ”

Mr. Xue Li, who used to be Tao Qian's subordinate and had a grudge against the old Tao family, was so hiccupped, and the Yuan Jun Sailor stationed in the upstream security place also temporarily stopped all actions and began to seize the time to rest and prepare for the night breakout, Chen Fen arranged for his henchman Chen Wu to be the vanguard, ready to sacrifice sixty building ships to burn the breakthrough road, and arranged a large number of sailors who were familiar with the surname of the water, so that they could prepare axes, saws, hammers and other things, and as soon as they burned the Xuzhou army ship array, they immediately went into the water to destroy the Xuzhou army water fence. However, at this time, the Xuzhou army had a new move............ Seeing that Yuan Shujun's naval division did not move, Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison and other Xuzhou army decision-makers were thumbs up analysis, and they could also guess that Chen Fen was planning to break through at night, although the heavy and tall Xiangyang artillery was inconvenient to move and could not be immediately transferred to the upstream to launch an attack, but this point still could not help the Xuzhou decision-making level, only after a little discussion, the Xuzhou army immediately built a pontoon bridge a hundred steps upstream of the ship, and then repaired a temporary water barrier in front of the pontoon bridge, preparing to intercept a large number of fireships that Chen Fen's team would definitely release, Although Chen Fen's scouts saw this situation from a distance and quickly reported it to Chen Fen, Chen Fen was afraid of the threat of the Xuzhou army's stone machine, so he did not dare to launch an attack during the day to send him to death.

Both sides are seizing the time to arrange the arrangement and recuperate at the same time, a day's time passed quickly, the sky will be dark at the beginning of the shift, the prepared Chen Fen team finally began to break through, sixty building ships are divided into two horizontal teams in the front and rear, full of fire-starting things, the first to sail downstream to ignite the ship, the skilled sailors in small boats with the front team, just touched the near of the water fence and launched in advance, swimming to the wooden fence to destroy.

This is a breakthrough battle and anti-breakthrough battle of both sides, the battle has just entered the white heat, with the faint moonlight and the light of the soldiers on the shore guidance, more than 60 Xiangyang cannons of the Xuzhou army continue to bombard, throwing countless boulders to the head of the enemy's fireship team, the selected Huishui Xuzhou soldiers also rushed to the pontoon bridge with spears, and stabbed the enemy sailors in front of the fence with spears, Yuan Shujun sailors were not to be outdone and waved axes to counterattack, the fight was very fierce, and the Xuzhou soldiers also took the initiative to release rockets, The boat of the Yuan Army's sailor division, which was full of fire-igniting things, was ignited in advance, and the river was soon filled with thick smoke, raging fire, and screams, roars and fighting sounded straight into the sky.

For the well-prepared Xuzhou army, the slow-moving Yuan army's sailor ships on the narrow river are of course moving live targets, although Chen Wu's fireship team is already a desperate impact of death, but it was still ignited by the dense rockets one after another, and was also smashed and smashed by huge stone projectiles one after another, none of them were able to rush to the front of the Xuzhou ship formation and die with the Xuzhou warship, all of them were destroyed in front of the arrow rain and stone rain of the Xuzhou army, and slowly sank. Chen Wu himself was also hit in the face by a stray arrow in the scuffle and died of serious injuries.

It is commendable that during the fierce battle, Zhang Ying, the general who returned from Liu Xuan's army, also showed extraordinary courage and personally led 600 warriors to rush to the land, killing the Xiangyang artillery position in a vain attempt to destroy the Xuzhou army's slinging position, but they were greeted by the Jizhou elite soldiers who had recently surrendered to the Xuzhou army, and thousands of Qingxu elite soldiers.

When the third watch, Chen Wu led sixty ships have all been sunk by the Xuzhou army, although Chen Fen also has to arrange the fireboat to go south to impact, but the other generals of the Yuan Shu army and the sailor division are unwilling to die in vain, no matter how Chen Fen shouted the order, no general is willing to lead the army to impact the Xuzhou army's interception array, Chen Fen was furious, drew his sword and beheaded two generals, which reluctantly forced a fleet to go south to impact, but the fleet was just close to the battlefield, and immediately docked to surrender to the Xuzhou army, Deputy Director Tao was overjoyed, and rewarded the generals, He also ordered this ship to intercept in a formation and thicken its own interception formation. Seeing this scene, the morale of Yuan Shujun's sailors was suddenly greatly discharged, and countless soldiers jumped off the boat and surrendered ashore, and there were even grassroots generals who led the ships to surrender.

Finding that the enemy's morale had collapsed, Deputy Director Tao decisively ordered people to release fireworks signals upstream, and ordered Lu Su to lead the Chaohu Water Division to kill from the upstream downstream, and when the sky was full of light Lu Su's fleet arrived at the battlefield, the death knell of the main force of the Yuan Shujun Naval Division finally sounded, and the Yuan Army Naval Division, which had no fighting spirit, could not resist the impact of the Chaohu Naval Division, and was almost powerless in front of the Xuzhou Naval Division with flying muskets, and was soon rushed into chaos by the Xuzhou Naval Division, and the Xuzhou Infantry Cavalry also went to the shore to launch rockets to flank Chen Fen's team, The desperate Chen Fen team completely collapsed, and ships surrendered to the Xuzhou team. Chen Fen saw that the general trend had gone, and cried bitterly to the south to kill himself with a horizontal sword, and the rest of the troops surrendered, and the main force of the Yuan Shujun Naval Division, which dominated the lower reaches of the Yangtze River for less than half a year, finally ended in the annihilation of the entire army in front of the Xuzhou army.

When the news of the annihilation of the entire army of the Navy Division reached Spring Valley, Xiao Yuan Sangong vomited blood on the spot and fell into a coma, and when he was finally rescued from the left and right, the first thing Xiao Yuan Sangong did was to shout with a crying voice, "Send someone across the river to seek peace, seek peace!" As long as the pottery thief agrees to a truce, no matter what the conditions are, Lone agrees, no matter what, Lone is also his own uncle in the pottery thief's main room, and he, who is his niece and son-in-law, can't he even leave me a foothold, right? ”

(To be continued)