Guo Qifeng nodded confidently: "There is an answer!" Bao Shuai, the humble post can now be sure that Li Jiangyao and the others just want to attack Jiuzi, and most of them want to adopt the tactics of a sneak attack by the whole army. ”

"How so?" Bao Yuchun asked patiently.

"Obviously, a scout general of Zhao Shuo's level, if it weren't for the imminent big war, it would never be possible to personally go to the enemy to reconnoitre." Guo Qifeng analyzed: "Even, because Li Jiangyao will also participate in the war at that time, Nie Xianzeng ordered him to go out in order to ensure that most of them are safe!" ”

Bao Yuchun nodded when he heard this: "Well, there is some truth in this guess. If the commander personally marches in front of the battle, our scout generals will also be extremely nervous, and they will definitely personally arrive to investigate and ensure that nothing goes wrong. ”

Waiting for Bao Yuchun's approval, Guo Qifeng immediately came to his senses and continued: "Since Zhao Shuo has arrived at the front line, it means that the enemy's actions are approaching, combined with the time he just mentioned in passing, on the eighteenth of this month, he boldly guessed that this may be the day when the Zhenjiang Army sneaked up on Jiuzi!" ”

Bao Yuchun sneered: "The lies that people say in emergencies often don't have the opportunity to think about it carefully, so the day of the eighteenth day of this month, most of them are as you think, and it is a critical point in Zhao Shuo's mind." Even if it didn't hit, it should have been a day or two before and after. ”

Guo Qifeng couldn't help but say excitedly: "In this way, we have at least three days to prepare, and we can give Li Jiangyao a big surprise." If God blesses him and really lets him fight with the ship, maybe this time he can protect most of the Zhenjiang army without returning! ”

Hearing this, the calm and spicy Bao Yuchun couldn't help but be moved: if Li Jiangyao is killed or captured alive in this battle, the world will be more than half successful!

He stood up and stared at his subordinates in front of him: "Do you think that the Ninth Banner is sure to hide from the enemy's eyes and ears and secretly join the downstream battlefield?" ”

"As long as it's well deployed, it's absolutely fine!" Guo Qifeng replied loudly: "We are the well-deserved No. 1 water army in Shengtang, fighting on the river, and the buns in the town are far behind!" ”

Bao Yuchun bowed slightly, and said with a cruel smile: "Okay, Qifeng, this battle is under your command!" As long as we can block the Tenth Army in Xiabaxiao, and our fleet of Nine Banners can arrive in time in a concealed manner, Li Jiangyao will definitely be unable to escape, hahaha! ”

-

A Pegasus scout ran into the manager's tent and shouted, "It's moving!" It's moving! ”

Xu Youchang turned around, stepped forward to hold the scout who almost fell, and asked, "Is it the Ninth Banner?" ”

"Yes, Xu Shuai!" The scouts couldn't hide their excitement: "The first, fourth, and fifth battalions of the Ninth Banner of the Chizhou rebels and the second and third battalions in Shuzhou have begun to mobilize and assemble!" Their operations were very secretive, and they were chosen to be carried out secretly in the middle of the night. And in the outer waterways, the battleships of the 7th Battalion were still cruising as if everything was business as usual. ”

Xu Youchang shouted "Okay", turned his head to Li Jiangyao and said, "It seems that Zhao Shuo has successfully deceived Bao Yuchun!" ”

Li Jiangyao also bowed slightly: "The enemy mobilized the Ninth Banner at this time, which means that they confirmed that the Zhenjiang Army was preparing to attack the Jiuzi Fortress on a large scale, and decided to fight a two-sided encirclement battle on the way. ”

He raised his hand, his fingertips gently swiped along the waterway of the river on the map, and finally stopped at a place marked with the words "Daxingzhou".

This is a zigzag waterway on the river, and the river turns two bends in opposite directions at this point, and the two bends are only ten miles away from each other.

Xu Youchang walked to the front of the map and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Sometimes, I really admire your whimsy. Using the army to fight the navy, I'm afraid only you can figure it out. ”

Hearing this, Li Jiangyao didn't react in particular, but just asked, "How are the ministries preparing?" ”

Xu Youchang knew that he was concerned about the success or failure of the battle, and replied respectfully: "Returning to Daduhu, the Shenji battalions of the Second Army and the Fifth Army have already arrived in the dense forests along the river in Daxingzhou yesterday, and the other 360 trebuchets specially requisitioned can enter the ambush position and complete the debugging and calibration tonight at the latest. The number of fire oil bombs and giant crossbow arrows is also doubled according to your instructions. ”

Li Jiangyao nodded with satisfaction: "Well, they did a good job." How is the Kunpeng Army's side? ”

Xu Youchang responded: "I discussed it with Nie Xianzeng, and he is responsible for leading the troops to guard the area of Shangbaxia and Xiabaxia, preventing Bao Yuchun from detecting something wrong and leading the rebels to rescue." And the task of intercepting the Ninth Banner was handed over to Luo Yuan. ”

Li Jiangyao agreed, and motioned for Xu Youchang to continue.

"Nie Xianzeng's feint attack blocking troops, about two hundred warships, and let Luo Yuan take the rest." Xu Youchang introduced: "They will arrive near Daxingzhou in advance, and deploy 200 large ships in front and behind the zigzag waterway. As soon as the Ninth Flag enters there, it is guaranteed to be completely blocked. ”

Li Jiangyao thought about it seriously, shook his head and said, "If the Ninth Banner wants to cooperate with Bao Yuchun's strategy of flanking before and after, it must sneak in and come secretly. In this case, they will definitely send out a pathfinder ship in advance, and carefully search and advance. Luo Yuan's fleet was easily discovered by the other party. ”

Xu Youchang felt that this was reasonable, and couldn't help frowning: "Then what should I do?" If there is no ambush to cut off the enemy's rear route, once attacked, the Ninth Banner can completely retreat to Chizhou. ”

After thinking for a moment, Li Jiang looked at the map from afar: "In the direction of the upper reaches of Daxingzhou, are there any tributary rivers that can be used to hide troops?" ”

Xu Youchang raised his hand and pointed: "Here." Three or four miles away from Daxingzhou, there is a small river. However, I remember that the draft over there was not deep enough, and I was afraid that there was no way to hide the large battleship. ”

"Then change the boat!" Li Jiangyao's tone was resolute: "Ask Nie Xianzeng Luo Yuan and them to discuss the corresponding countermeasures, even if they all use small boats, they must cut off the retreat of the Ninth Banner!" ”

Xu Youchang replied in a deep voice: "Understood, I'll go to the two of them, immediately change the original plan, and come up with a new way!" ”

-

Guo Qifeng stood on the handsome platform of the flagship, looking at the dense fog covering the river, and couldn't help but feel anxious in his heart.

This kind of weather is definitely good for offense and not good for defense.

Even if we put aside the offense and defense, the outbreak of an encounter on a large river alone will be very complicated by the fog.

Tomorrow will be the eighteenth, and according to the scout's report, the Zhenjiang Army fleet located in Wuwei Water Village has entered the final stage of preparation. 50,000 troops were on board, and 600 warships raised their sails, ready to leave the dock at any moment and sweep towards the Guz.

After Bao Yuchun received the news, he immediately ordered Guo Qifeng to lead more than 500 warships under his command to leave the port in a queue, slowly meet the enemy upstream, and block the Zhenjiang Naval Division at the Lower Bashan Waterway according to the plan.

At the same time, Bao Yuchun sent people to light the beacon smoke and successively transmit a signal every five miles, informing the Ninth Banner of Chizhou, which was located more than 200 miles upstream, to set off quickly and secretly rush to participate in the war.

According to common sense, coupled with the time required to sail on the river, Guo Qifeng blocked the way of the Tenth Army of Zhenjiang in Xia Baxia, and the two sides fought for half a day at most, and the Ninth Banner could reach the battlefield and launch a surprise attack from behind the Zhenjiang Naval Army to deal a fatal blow.

However, the current foggy ghost weather that locks the river makes Guo Qifeng feel a little unsteady.

After hesitating for a moment, he passed down the order to slow down the entire fleet again, and at the same time changed the trihald formation to a crescent formation, and changed it to a defensive formation early.

The old sailors all know this truth: be careful to sail the ship of ten thousand years. Guo Qifeng is no exception. With such ghost weather, I can't tell when the Zhenjiang army will suddenly come out of the thick fog, so it's better to be cautious.

Anyway, my task is just to block them, early, late, and where, it's all about the same.

Compared with Guo Qifeng's caution, the Ninth Banner that was ordered to rush to the aid was a different picture.

The mist that filled the river suddenly made the heart of the main general of the Ninth Banner bloom. The order he received was to secretly run for 200 miles, kill at full speed to the waters downstream of Wuwei, and cooperate with the main force of Jiuzi to encircle the Zhenjiang army.

One of the most important points is the word "secret".

Before, the people of the Ninth Banner were still a little worried about how they could completely avoid the scouts' eyes and kill behind the enemy by surprise after walking such a long way on the river.

However, it now seems that all these worries are unfounded.

The reason is simple - even God is on the side of the Ninth Banner!

In the mist, the commander of the Ninth Banner passed down the order: the whole army accelerates and rushes to the lower reaches of the river!

With such an excellent cover, what is there to hesitate about?

As a result, the 256 building boats under the command of the Ninth Banner of the rebels raised their sails and oars, speeding up again and again, and marching downstream desperately.

However, what they never expected was that they were only halfway through the road before a nightmare came.

Thirty vanguard warships in charge of opening the way rounded the first bend of Daxingzhou, and just as they were about to turn the second bend, they collided head-on with a huge fleet of imposing troops.

The other party was obviously waiting for them here, and as soon as the pioneer ship appeared, thousands of rockets pierced through the dense fog and broke through the air.

In the blink of an eye, the seven or eight battleships at the forefront were completely covered by rockets, the sails suddenly ignited, the sailors died, and the vanguard suddenly fell into chaos.

At this time, the main fleet behind was still accelerating and preparing to turn into this ten-mile-long zigzag waterway.

The fog is really obstructive to the view. Although the main fleet had heard the gong siren sounding from the vanguard ships in front of them, and had sensed that they seemed to be panicking because they had been attacked, they could not see anything clearly, so the whole team did not react appropriately, but only reduced the speed of the ship and approached slowly.

But such a speed is still enough for the entire Ninth Banner to enter the Daxingzhou waterway. When the last two fighting ships in charge of the rearguard also turned the corner, the calm north bank of the river suddenly changed.

Hundreds of flaming oil bombs burst into the air!