Liu Qing, as a famous military division comparable to the eldest grandson Xiangyu, her grasp of the battle situation is indeed sharp and abnormal, and she can see through the withered sheep's response to the Zhou army at a glance.

As the so-called south ship and north horse, the Jizhou soldiers belong to the northern soldiers, and they have little experience in water warfare, and the soldiers in the Taiping Army have indeed lived along the Yangtze River for a long time. In Liu Qing's view, Xie An's plan to rely on the Jizhou soldiers to defeat the withered sheep in the Yangtze River water battle is obviously not an easy task.

So after learning that Li Xian, the king of the Eight Sages, led a large army to leave Hengjiang and go to support Guangling, he immediately handed a war letter to his brother-in-law Xie An, not giving Xie An and Jizhou soldiers time to adjust to the water environment near the Yangtze River.

On March 25 of the fifth year of Jingzhi of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the withered sheep raised 8,000 troops and 130 boats in the first battle and went to the waters of the Yangtze River to fight against the Zhou army.

But to the surprise of the withered sheep, he ordered the whole army to set up a formation on the river and waited for more than an hour, but he did not see that Zhou Bing had the slightest intention of going out of the water village to fight.

"What's going on?"

Standing on the bow of the boat, the withered sheep looked at the Hengjiang Water Village on the side of Zhou Shi from afar, and saw that it did not move, and his eyebrows wrinkled unconsciously.

It stands to reason that he has made a private agreement with his brother-in-law Xie An, and the latter should not break the appointment to avoid the war.

[Isn't it scared?] ]

This thought, which was rather ridiculous in the eyes of the withered sheep, was only turned around in his mind before it was forgotten.

After all, when he was in Hukou in July last year, Xie An led 80,000 Liang troops to block as many as 1120,000 Taiping troops, and with a fortress-like camp, it was nailed to the mouth of the lake like a nail, so that Liu Qing and Wu Heng almost vomited blood in their chests, and even after all, the resentment that Wu Heng and Liu Qing had accumulated for a long time broke out against each other, and finally parted ways.

How can such a character be afraid of war?

"I see," as if he had figured out something, a hint ......of realization flashed in the withered sheep's eyes, and he muttered to himself, "Is it because it is difficult to defeat our army in a water war, so I plan to repeat the old tricks?" -- Copying the battle of Hukou and weakening the morale of our army? Hey! ”

Beside him, Wang Jian, the confidant general of the withered sheep, frowned when he heard this and said, "Dashuai, having said that, if you are your brother-in-law...... cough, if the Zhou army should not fight, our army will have no way to deal with him! -- Since Li Xian, the king of the Eight Sages, led a Zhou army to Guangling, I think that Xie An will no longer worry about the situation in Guangling...... If he is bent on entangled with our army here, what is it good for? ”

"What's the panic?" Glancing at Wang Jian, the withered sheep's face did not change at all, and he said indifferently, "If he is not in a hurry, is our army in a hurry?" ”

Wang Jian was stunned when he heard this, and then suddenly realized.

Thinking about it, if it were any of the other generals in the Taiping army, he would be anxious when he learned that Li Xian, the king of the Eight Sages, led an army of 50,000 or 60,000 to support Guangling. But the withered sheep will not, so far he has never regarded himself as Wu Heng's subordinate, the reason why he is attached to Wu Heng is nothing more than because he may be able to report to the Great Zhou court the blood debt that was poked at the door of the Jinling Ram family twenty years ago. As for how the Taiping Army was doing, and how the Southern Tang Dynasty was restored, these were not in his consideration.

"Since my brother-in-law doesn't fight, then I have to press step by step!"

With a sneer, the withered sheep waved the command flag in his hand, commanded the one hundred and thirty warships under his command, and slowly pressed towards the Zhou Army Water Village in the waters of the Hengjiang River.

After a while, the withered sheep saw a behemoth in the distance gradually becoming clearer, and the corners of his mouth raised a little inexplicable smile, and muttered, "As I expected, my brother-in-law knew that the water battle was not the opponent of our army, so he avoided the battle and collected the warship in the water village...... In that case, I will give a big gift to my brother-in-law! -- Hundreds of his boats were capsized! ”

Wang Jian showed a somewhat puzzled look on his face when he heard this, and asked in surprise, "What does the big handsome want?" ”

The withered sheep chuckled lightly and said, "Wang Jian, can the rocket I asked you to prepare a few days ago be ready?" ”

Wang Jian was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then nodded with a sudden realization, and muttered, "I see, since the Zhou soldiers are guarding the water village and not coming out, then, our army will set rockets to burn his warship...... Speaking of this, he seemed to suddenly remember something, and said with a look of embarrassment, "The big marshal said that the last general was in front of him to prepare fire arrows...... The hour is pressing, and the last general only asks the soldiers to pack up the rockets and get 8,000 arrows......"

"Yachiya?" Hearing this, the withered sheep frowned slightly. It can be seen that he is a little dissatisfied with the number of 8,000 fire arrows, and it is no wonder, after all, in the large-scale battlefield of tens of thousands of people, the consumption of arrows is particularly terrifying, just like the deceased Chu King Li Yan, in order to resist the Jizhou soldiers under the command of Li Xian, the king of the eight sages, he had prepared 160,000 arrows in Jiangling in advance, but in the first day of the war, Jiangling actually consumed 80,000 arrows, forcing Li Yan, the king of Chu, to requisition the people in Jiangling City to make arrows for him.

The war on land consumes arrows so badly, let alone the confrontation on the river? You must know that on the river, the two armies shoot crossbows and crossbows against each other and suppress each other, which is the key to victory, for this reason, among the 8,000 soldiers brought by the withered sheep this time, nearly 3,000 are crossbowmen. However, what does it mean that only 8,000 rockets were used to incinerate the warship? This meant that each Taiping soldier had only three or two arrows in his hands.

Two or three fire arrows can be discharged in the blink of an eye, and as long as the enemy pays attention to precautions, it will hardly play the role of burning the enemy ship.

"Dashuai, are we still attacking?" Secretly glancing at the expression of the withered sheep, Wang Jian hesitated and said, "Otherwise, it will be okay to show off your might in front of the Zhou Army's water village for a while." If he goes to war, our army will fight; If he does not fight, it will certainly be detrimental to morale, so even if our army retreats, it will not be in vain. -- After returning to the camp, he told the soldiers to hurry up the production of arrows in preparation for the ......"

Otherwise, Wang Jian's suggestion is indeed quite safe, but the withered sheep is not satisfied.

Hit the morale of the Zhou soldiers? Who doesn't know that his brother-in-law Xie An is the best at mobilizing and motivating the morale of his subordinates? When he was in Hukou, he was surrounded by Liu Qing and Wu Heng with 100,000 soldiers for 15 days, and the 80,000 Liang troops under his command were still full of morale.

"Attack! -- Ordered to storm the Zhou soldiers Hengjiang Water Village! Today, we must really hurt Zhou Bing! ”

The withered sheep gave his order as a god general and a commander of the canal.

At the same time, in the handsome tent of Zhou Bing's Hengjiang Water Village, Xie An was holding the tea carefully concocted by Qin Ke'er, sipping the tea leisurely.

Under the tent, Liao Li, Cheng Yang, Qi Zhi, Zhang Dong, Ou Peng, Tang Hao and other generals were lined up on both sides. In addition to Fei Guo and Ma Dan, in fact, Li Xian, the king of the Eight Sages, also temporarily transferred Su Xin and Li Jing, the second general, after all, the second general is good at leading the cavalry, and it can be said that he is the vanguard cavalry general in every battle. But unfortunately, the second general is not in the water, so instead of staying here and doing nothing, it is better to follow the Eight Sages King to support Guangling, in case Guangling has been conquered, the second general should also be engaged in the familiar cavalry battle, instead of standing on the boat and trembling, for fear of falling into the river.

"My lord, you have something to say!" Watching Xie An eat two cups of tea, Liao Li, the general of the Zhou army, obviously couldn't bear it anymore, and took the lead in breaking the deadlock in the tent.

Seeing Xiaoli's angry appearance, everyone who was familiar with him was secretly amused in their hearts. After all, Liao Liping is quite reliable when he is calm, and he can be called a handsome man with both civil and military skills, but this guy is easily impulsive, that is, hot-headed, and often when he is provoked by the enemy, or when he is at a disadvantage, his surname will become particularly irritable, and he is eager to find an enemy army to die with him, so he is known as a handsome talent who can only fight with the wind by the eldest grandson Xiangyu.

For example, if Fei Guo, Ma Dan, and Liao Li were each asked to raise 50,000 troops to take a county town guarded by only 5,000 soldiers, Fei Guo and Ma Dan might need to use 10,000 horses and pay 4 to 6,000 troops to forcibly capture that county seat, but Liao Li, although his strength may be higher than 10,000, but after the war, he only lost two or three thousand; And if the three of them are asked to raise 10,000 troops to attack, Fei Guo and Ma Dan are still at that level and losses, while Liao Li, he may not be able to capture that county town, he is the type that the more troops in his hands and the better the battle situation, the better the performance, on the contrary, he will be entangled in the battle situation of our defeat to the enemy, and he will be irritable and even give up on himself, and sacrifice himself.

It is precisely because of this impulsive surname that although Xie An has revealed the relationship between the withered sheep and him to the generals, seeing the withered sheep so rudely and arrogantly provocative and fighting outside his own water village, Liao Li still can't control the indignation in his heart, and he can't wait to teach the brother-in-law who doesn't know the height of the sky for his own coach.

Compared with Liao Li, the rest of the generals were much calmer, just like Tang Hao, who expounded the stakes without hesitation, and did not see the slightest fire.

"General Liao, don't be impatient, the withered sheep is provoking and fighting outside our army's water village, just let him go, didn't the adults say it, for now, our army's water war is not the opponent of the Taiping Army, why bother to find yourself boring, with your own shortcomings, attack the enemy's strengths? - But my lord, in fact, the last general feels that what General Liao said is not completely unreasonable, and now that the withered sheep are fighting outside our army's water village, if our army does not say anything, does it mean that our army is afraid of him? The last general thought that it was so fearful of damaging the morale of the soldiers under his command......"

"It's easy!" Before Xie An could speak, the veteran Zhang Dong, who had passed his forties, stroked his beard and said to the old god, "We can tell the whole army that our army has rushed to Liyang from Jingzhou at night, and the Taiping thieves know that our army is tired from hurrying, and they want to lure our army into battle, how short their wisdom is!" -- The soldiers and soldiers hid their indignation, recuperated for a while, and when they were full of strength, they let the Taiping thief army know the strength of my Jizhou soldiers! ”

I have to say that Zhang Dong is worthy of being the general sent by the rebels to guard Luoyang, and he said it well, and he made up the reasons why he did not want to fight, and in turn belittled the Taiping army, saying that the other party was a bandit who could only drill Confucius, and even in the end, he made a big publicity to boost the morale of his soldiers.

"Huh!" Xie An chuckled when he heard this, after all, he actually thought so too.

Although the withered sheep is his brother-in-law, although the two have a certain agreement in private, this does not mean that Xie An needs to send troops to fight because of a war letter from the withered sheep, and it is also when he knows that the water war is not as good as the withered sheep.

Seeing Xie An smiling and silent, Zhang Dong knew that he had said what his coach thought, and he stroked his beard and looked a little proud. It's no wonder, after all, Fei Guo, Ma Dan, and Tang Hao are too popular among the Jizhou soldiers, and he Zhang Dong used to be the main general of one party, but now, he can only serve as deputy generals under these generals in the prime of life, which makes Zhang Dong feel a little embarrassed.

Not to mention that his former deputy general Liao Li has now been promoted to a general, on an equal footing with him, which inevitably makes Zhang Dong feel a lot of pressure.

In fact, in the eyes of Xie An and Liu Qing, Zhang Dong's use of troops also has its own uniqueness, just like saying that a few months ago, Xie An and Liu Qing deliberately caused the defeat and collapse of the Zhou soldiers in the middle in order to trap and kill the general of the White Water Army. Don't look at the abundance of military talents in Jizhou, there are few who can do this.

If Fei Guo and Ma Dan are the two sharp swords in Xie An's hands, then Zhang Dong is a strong shield, which is not inferior to Yan Kai, the head of the four generals of the Eastern Army. The reason why the prestige is not as good as that of Fei Guo and Ma Dan is that the sword is used more often, and the shield is used less.

"General Zhang's words are wonderful! - However, if the Taiping army sees that our army does not come out and storms our army's water village, what should it do? ”

It was not someone else who said this, it was Qi Zhi, the former six god generals of the Taiping Army, a handsome man with both civil and military skills.

"......" The entire tent suddenly became quiet, and the generals subconsciously looked at Qi Zhi, especially Zhang Dong, with an old face that was slightly displeased.

Probably noticing Zhang Dong's complexion, Qi Zhi hurriedly explained, "General Zhang, don't misunderstand, the last general didn't deliberately target General Zhang...... It is possible that General Zhang has lived in the north for a long time and is not familiar with water warfare. However, in any battle above the river, the warship is particularly important, otherwise it will be tantamount to losing the opportunity and being forced repeatedly, just like the enemy has more than 10,000 cavalry and our side has no cavalry...... The difference between cavalry and warships is that cavalry can be included in the camp and in the city, while warships can only anchor on the riverbank, so if the enemy can see the location of our army...... Don't be careful! In the last sentence, he said it to Xie An with his hands clenched into fists.

"Hmm! -- The government is ready! Xie An nodded approvingly, after all, he was different from the generals under his command who only knew how to fight on land.

Qi Zhi was stunned, and then subconsciously glanced at Liu Qing, and then suddenly realized that he chuckled and said, "In this way, it will be a lot of trouble......

As if seeing through Qi Zhi's thoughts, Liu Qing glanced at Xie An, and said in a strange and cold tone, "I didn't offer any plans this time...... Hum! Someone said, "I don't need my wits this time, just let me stay in the camp." - cross the river and tear down the bridge......" The last sentence, Liu Qing gritted her teeth and said, but the tone was not so obvious, it can be seen that she is still making trouble because Li Xian does not trust her, and she will put this resentment on Xie An's head, although she doesn't understand why she blames Xie An.

However, in the eyes of the generals in the tent, Liu Qing's attitude was not so much blaming Xie An, but like a little woman complaining about her man, and her tone was so resentful that Gou Gong, who was discussing the same account, couldn't help but chuckle.

"Laugh what a laugh!" Liu Qing glared at Gou Gong hatefully, after all, in her opinion, Gou Gong was like Xie An's number one dog-legged minion, but when she stared, her little face was slightly red.

"Ahem!" Noticing that the generals in the tent tacitly showed strange smiles, Rao is Xie An's face was also a little embarrassed, and he changed the topic to Qi Zhi and said, "Don't worry, the 30,000 people of our army are all busy on the warship...... Even if the withered sheep kid leads troops to attack, he is not afraid of him! ”

[30,000 people are busy on the warship?] ]

Qi Zhi, who was laughing secretly, had a doubt in his heart when he heard this, and was about to ask carefully, when he suddenly heard a shout from outside the tent.

"Report! -- The Taiping army attacked our army's water village! ”

[Do you really dare to attack?] ]

The generals in the tent looked at each other, especially Zhang Dong, after all, Qi Zhi had just reminded him. As for Xie An, he frowned for some reason, beckoned Gou Gong and said a few words, the latter nodded again and again, and then left the tent in a hurry.

It is undeniable that the withered sheep led the troops to attack the Zhou army's Hengjiang water village, which did make the Zhou army generals who lacked experience in water warfare a little unexpected, but the most surprising should be the withered sheep himself.

No, no, it should be Wang Jian, the henchman next to the withered sheep.

"Hiss......" gasped, Wang Jian's eyes widened in shock, and he looked at the dense human heads and figures on the Zhou Bingzhou boat not far away.

Indeed, the Zhou soldiers are not blind, since the withered sheep with 8,000 soldiers and 130 warships came to the Zhou army's Hengjiang water village in a mighty way, beating drums and shouting, and there was no lack of provocations and shouts during the period. Naturally, they will raise their weapons and wait solemnly.

But the question is......

"Zhou Bing's speed is inevitably too fast, right?" Looking at the Zhou soldiers in the water village like a great enemy, Wang Jian really couldn't understand, after all, they went from provoking the battle to changing their minds halfway to storm the Zhou army's water village, which was only half an hour before and after, why when they attacked the water village, the Zhou army ships in all directions would shoot back such a dense number of arrows.

This amount......

[30,000 Jizhou soldiers are on board?] Instead of camping on land? ]

A hint of doubt flashed in the withered sheep's eyes.

[Did you anticipate that I would come to storm the water village?] - Not true! Half of these Zhou soldiers did not have weapons in their hands, and they were only taken out of the ship later, which means that ...... They are not on the ship to guard against a strong attack by our army, but what they are doing......]

The withered sheep glanced intently at Zhou Bing's water village, and his intuition told him that his intention to storm Zhou Bing's water village seemed to inadvertently cause him to break some of his brother-in-law's schemes.

Suddenly, the pupils of the withered sheep's eyes constricted, because he had spotted something that made him creepy on some of the ships of the Zhou army.

Following his line of sight, some of the warships in the Zhou army's water village have been fixed with thick ropes, iron cables and other objects, and wooden planks have been laid on them, and the Zhou soldiers are walking on them, as if walking on the ground.........

ps: In the field, the Internet café code word, please understand, thank you very much. (To be continued.) )