Volume 5, Chapter 11: Bloody Scorched Earth Battle (1/2)
Volume 5, Chapter 11: bloody Scorched Earth Battle
Bored, I tilted my head back to look up at the arrow-filled sky I calmly and composedly stood on the deck of the tower shi+p, because with the narrowness of the river here, Xiaoshunzi could easily take me and escape to the shore if needed As a result, I maintained a façade of caler, it was likely that I likely would have had Xiaoshunzi take azed down at the chaos upon the river surface, I foundHowever, for the sake of bolstering
The battle had already raged for close to two hours Soon, nearby Yong army units would likely arrive to provide assistance However, when I raisedI could not help feeling apprehensive Could it be that the Northern Han army had already sallied forth for battle? At present, with the unstable situation at Jishi+, how could they choose thisinspoke up calculatedly froht it over carefully This fleet should have been established at the beginning of last year The co of Northern Han, Ji Sheng This general had received infor a new ar has always been on bad tereneral received information that he asked for an edict to train a new arfei As a result, this general did not pay particular attention Thinking back on it now, they probably used the lake, the source of the Qin River, to train a navy Because they had the protection of experts from the Devil Sect, it was impossible for the scouts and spies we sent over to penetrate their defensive perieneral was under orders to oversee the overall situation froive such a slipup”
Waving s have reached this point, there is no point in discussing it any further However, that Ji Sheng should not be adept at naval warfare How did he beco it over, Su Qing answered, “The warshi+ps being used by Northern Han should be covered assault shi+ps of Southern Chu design Presumably, they were trained by so is also a cavalry coinally a fisherman on the Qin River At the very least, he would be a much more suitable commander than all of the others”
I pointed at the youthful general who had shot three arrows atseveral shi+ps to try to break through and attack the supply shi+ps Seeing his bravery and leadershi+p, I could not help being eht flashed across Su Qing’s eyes She introduced, “That man is a member of the Northern Han Royal Family He is the fourth son of the second-ranked Prince of Jin, Liu Dai Most of the Prince of Jin’s children are worthless Only this son froinally, the Prince of Jin wished to name this son his heir However, the Princess of Jin hailed froious house in Northern Han and naturally did not want the position of heir to be given to sos difficult for Liu Dai As a result, the Prince of Jin was forced to enlist Liu Dai into the ht that he would actually beco in admiration, I replied, “The Northern Han Royal Family has many talented members as expected This Liu Dai was probably also a cavalry commander and should not have spent that h he has plenty of shortcos, his abilities are already quite hard to come by If we can capture him alive, then it will be worth it even if we suffer athat his h our defenses and allow him to reach the supply shi+ps in the rear, I could not help feeling stirred After thinking it over, I whispered to Zhuang Ru, “Is it possible to allow hih and allow hi him? That man is a member of the Northern Han Royal Family and is a new but talented naval commander If we can capture or kill him, the Northern Han navy’s morale will definitely suffer a blow When the ti”
Finding things difficult, Zhuang Ru responded, “If the supplies suffer losses, His Ihness, the Prince of Qi, will likely place bla as we are able to either capture or kill this man,” I replied with a smile, “I will bear all of the consequences”
Relief appeared on Zhuang Ru’s face and he waved the signal flags in his hands It wasn’t long before Liu Dai was able to successfully penetrate the Yong fleet’s defenses Pleasantly surprised, he led his warshi+ps forward Because everyone was using fire arrows, the entire river quickly started to burn Several of the supply shi+ps were set aflame I knew Liu Dai’s intentions full well—he wished to destroy the supplies and strike a heavy psychological blow to the Yong ar the supply shi+ps, he could turn around and launch a pincer attack against the Yong warshi+ps, breaking the Yong fleet’s formation With his success, a number of Northern Han warshi+ps followed after hiradually been encircled by the Yong fleet With such an opportunity presenting itself, ed forward
What most of them didn’t notice was that, aside from the majority of supply shi+ps that retreated, there were a dozen supply shi+ps which had scattered to the sides when Zhuang Ru had initially issued the order, faintly surrounding Liu Dai and the warshi+ps that he had brought with hi Ru’s face With one order froin to row hard towards the middle of the river The sailors and marines aboard the shi+ps set ablaze the supplies before ju into the river to swi supply shi+ps moved forward, they surrounded Liu Dai and co all this, Liu Dai became deathly pale He had followed the current and knew that it would be impossible to turn his warshi+ps around in a timely fashi+on He could only issue the order for the warshi+ps to continue forward Just then, several of the supply shi+ps which had retreated suddenlyanchor in theLiu Dai’s advance After breaking through the flames and smoke, Liu Dai’s warshi+ps slammed into these supply shi+ps The marines aboard the supply shi+ps formed up and loosed several volleys of fire arrows before setting the shi+ps afla Liu Dai and his dozen warshi+ps were surrounded by a sea of fla, the coing flaht cut off by the sinally overjoyed that Liu Dai was able to set the eneht that a ’s heart grew frigid It was clear that Liu Dai had fallen into an i the swar knew if that they continued to fight, they could not hope to win He could only order a retreat The speed of the covered assault shi+ps was a lot faster than those of Great Yong’s, and it wasn’t long before they had disappeared into the distance
Seeing the ene Ru promptly issued orders to sweep the battlefield and search for prisoners All of the Northern Han sailors and marines left behind had died in battle Their valiancebitterly to the end, Liu Dai’s shi+p was overturned and he was knocked into the water Several strong swi hteen supply shi+ps and nineteen warshi+ps, while Northern Han lost seven covered assault shi+ps and twelve co fleet had suffered heavier losses and had lost, the entire fleet cheered and whooped This ti and been repelled In the future, the prepared Yong fleet would be able to control the Qin River, as they had plenty of ways of ensuring that the Northern Han navy would be unable to come south As for their inability to win a decisive victory, none of them orried After all, the responsibility of the Zezhou fleet was to transport supplies and not to fight against the Northern Han navy In addition, Zhuang Ru and his subordinates knew that the capture of Liu Dai would be a significant blow to the confidence of the Northern Han navy As a result, they were in especially high spirits As for the losses to the supplies, they would not take it to heart After all, I had forcefully assumed all responsibility
I happily paid the hundred taels of gold, allowing thethemselves Dazed from all of the river water that he had drunk, Liu Dai had been locked into one of the cabins Afterwards, I returned to my own cabin With a pained face, I penned a letter to the Prince of Qi, reporting the circu to the loss of a portion of the supplies Although I had voicedRu to sacrifice sohteen was a bit too excessive However, thinking of hoe had ht
Just then, Huyan Shou walked in Wearing a grave expression, he reported, “Daren, reinforcements have arrived”
As I continued to write at a tre on? From what I remember, there should be at least a thousand cavalry nearby Even though they can’t fight on water, with the narrowness of the Qin River, they can still use their bows to shoot arrows at the Northern Han navy Why have they arrived so late? Could it be that they did not see our signal requesting reinforcements?”
Huyan Shou resentfully answered, “Subordinate has already questioned their commander There were several small units of cavalry composed of a hundred horsenal, they came to provide support However, so half of the officers The cavalry was forced to chase the assassins and has been thrown into co a drop of ink to fall upon the white paper Looking at the letter which had been h and threw the incomplete letter into the brazier at the corner of the cabin Setting down the brush made from sheep hair, I rose to my feet with my face wooden I inquired, “Was this done by one person?”
Huyan Shou sadly responded, “That’s right From the techniques that he used, it should be one person Moreover, having implemented the scorched earth policy and forced the civilian population north, it would be ie number of assassins and spies to re azed at Xiaoshunzi and asked, “Do you have such methods?”
Xiaoshunzi stonily answered, “That man’smirthlessly, I inquired, “Tell me, how many people in Northern Han are on par with you?”
After thinking it over, Xiaoshunzi responded, “It should be Duan Lingxiao hi Wuji would not act openly”
I hesitantly replied after consideration, “Xiaoshunzi, tell xiao would remain in this area? It would not be easy if he wanted to assassinate me or the Prince of Qi However, it would be effortless if he wanted to assassinate soid voice, Xiaoshunzi said, “If Duan Lingxiao stayed here, he could only hide athe cavalry to implement the scorched earth policy and form units of five hundred and provide mutual support to execute all the citizenry of Northern Han, thus ensuring that Duan Lingxiao will have no place to hide Even if he wants to continue, it will be difficult for hiet close to our troops If he forces himself to do so, then those five hundred cavalryh to stall him until the experts from our army arrive No matter how advanced his martial arts, it will be difficult for hiestion carefully before replying, “This ent There isn’t tihness, the Prince of Qi Huyan Shou, relay my command and have our army implement the scorched earth policy early In addition, dispatch sohness, the Prince of Qi”
I hurriedly wrote out over a dozen orders After staers take theh I was the army supervisor and could not directly mobilize the troops, the current situation was quite unusual However, since I was only asking that the prearranged plan be pushed forward, my army supervisor seal should be effective Moreover, this was all out of consideration for every one of the low- andofficers If they did not value their lives, then there was nothing I could do Of course, I specially penned a letter to the Prince of Qi In order to ensure that it arrive without fail, I asked Su Qing to deliver it personally Although she was not Duan Lingxiao’sto have Xiaoshunzi deliver the letter After all, my life was the most important
On the postal road within the endless grasslands, a unit of cavalry swept past At their head was Su Qing Behind her was a unit of horsemen in azure armor Because she was under orders to report the situation to the Prince of Qi, Su Qing traveled as fast as possible, not daring to slon or stop By this juncture, all of the troops in the vicinity had received Jiang Zhe’s orders to accelerate the scorched earth timetable Fortunately, the majority of Northern Han’s population had already escaped to Jishi+ As a result, during the entire journey, Su Qing and her unit did not see toohad a heart of stone She paid little attention to thehad left in hurry, aside fro the cavalry Jiang Zhe had assigned to her Since the assassin killing the Yong army officers had probably not yet been captured or killed, Su Qing was extre to be even the slightest bit reray standing with his hands behind his back in a pavilion by the roadside Su Qing’s eyes were quite sharp One glance was enough for her to see the man’s shape quite clearly The man see as a pine tree His appearance seeht and honest His eyes possessed a hidden depth just like the abstruseness of the night sky,his profoundness
Su Qing reined in her horse,it co’s horse came to a stop, the horses behind her did so as well The cavalry unit that had initially been galloping madly came to a sudden stop All of the horsemen knew of the assassinations As a result, bloodlust pooled out froed together, seeray-clothed aze flitted over the horse with admiration at the cavalry unit’s excellence Unhurriedly, he took a step forward and indifferently asked, “Is Miss the Head Scout of the Yong ar, everyone understood that he had long ago deter’s identity The question was only asked to serve as confir coldly answered, “So it is the chief disciple of the Sovereign of the Devil Sect, Duan Lingxiao, who has come personally Does Lord Duan not know that you can’t prevent the inevitable? My Great Yong has elite cavalry nu so far as to support such a hopeless cause?”