West of Huating, Baiyangpi.

The captain Shen Rong sat at the bow of the boat, fiddling with the fishing rod in his hand, his face gloomy. Several guards stood behind him, muttering, complaining that the prefect Dong Zhao was biased. The Shen family has always supported Dong Zhao. This time, he went to war with Dong Zhao, and the Shen family gathered more than 2,000 pieces and almost went all out. However, Dong Zhao was not grateful. He didn't even let him participate in the frontal battle, but only let him lead 3,000 people to stay in Baiyangpi, saying that this was the only way for Man Chong to keep it tight, so that he would not let Man Chong sneak past.

Dong Zhao's words sounded reasonable. Man Chong had a ship. If he could not advance by land, it was a very reasonable choice to advance by water. But Shen Rong was very clear that Man Chong's ship was just some transport ships, and there would not be many real warships. At most, they were three or five escort warships. They could not carry all the soldiers. Even if they could reach the city of Yongqiu, their role was limited.

Dong Zhao wanted his younger brother Dong Fang to make meritorious service and deliberately suppress the people of Jizhou and prevent him from having a chance to avenge his shame.

These people in the Central Plains are really ungrateful. My Jizhou people have paid so much for Yuan Envoy and his son, but they only think about their own interests and are determined to compete with Jizhou people. They don’t think about it. Without Jizhou people, can they be what they are today? Or is the uncle wise and never pretended to be like these people. Unfortunately, the uncle died, Tian Feng and Ju Su were spineless, and they only knew to accommodate the Ruying faction. Now, even the people in Yanzhou are about to jump out. As soon as Yuan Envoy entered Yanzhou, Dong Zhao thought of forming a clique.

The more Shen Rong thought about it, the more depressed he became. He threw the fishing rod in his hand into the water with angrily, stood up, and shouted: "Let them get faster. If they can't complete the task before sunset today, I will sink them and the people and the boat."

The personal guards who were complaining looked at each other, happily took the order, and turned around to convey the order. They also accumulated a lot of resentment and were worried that there would be no chance to vent. If Shen Rong really interrupted and killed the people who were forced to be recruited, they would agree with each other and would be happy to do it themselves.

A small boat was rowing far away. Hundreds of people were driving ships carrying stones and soil, preparing to set up barriers at the Sui River exit east of Baiyangbei to block the Yuzhou army fleet coming from the east. The time was short, the task was urgent, and the Jizhou army supervised was terrible. These Chenliu people were very disgusted and were passive and lazy. They had been busy for a day but had no results. Instead, dozens of people ran to the night, and the progress was even slower.

After listening to Shen Rong's order, they learned that Shen Rong was going to drill through their ships as a barrier. The Chenliu people became even more angry, and their eyes were like fire. However, due to the cruelty of the Jizhou army, no one dared to speak easily. Someone escaped at night, and Shen Rong killed many people. It was broad daylight. Even if they wanted to run away, they could not escape the powerful crossbow in the hands of the Jizhou army, and they would only die in vain.

Why don’t these Jizhou people die?

The people swallowed their anger and accelerated their movements, shaking the ship quickly, but deliberately did not dump them at the designated location. They did not want to block reinforcements, but they also wanted Man Chong to come quickly and kill these inhuman Jizhou people.

It seemed that God heard their prayers, and the Jizhou army suddenly became riots, and someone pointed to the east and shouted. The people took the opportunity to stop their actions and looked into the distance. Above the Sui River, a small boat was rowing desperately, stirring up snow-white water splashes. Two boats were chasing behind them. Both sides were approaching quickly. One of the boats hit the slant, directly overturning the escaped boat, and the people on the boat fell into the water.

Some of the people cheered in a low voice. Needless to say, the Jizhou army who sent the reconnaissance was caught. Shen Rong sent out a total of five ships, twenty or thirty scouts. The reinforcements from Yuzhou suddenly approached. Now these Jizhou army were arrested, which means that the reinforcements will arrive soon.

"Silence! Silence!" The generals of Jizhou Army, who was supervising the worker, shouted loudly, raised their crossbows and threatened the people who were turbulent, but their expressions were nervous and their voices sounded a little trembling. When the people heard this, they despised them in their hearts. Although they started rowing again, not many people really worked. The Jizhou Army also knew that the situation was tense, and even if they were too busy, it would be too late. Killing people randomly would only arouse resistance and waste arrows.

Someone quickly informed Shen Rong. Shen Rong was skeptical and did not dare to neglect him. He quickly ordered the soldiers on both sides of the strait to prepare for battle. He had set up positions on both sides of the Sui River exit, and the powerful crossbowmen were on standby at any time. Not only did they prepare sufficient arrows, but they also brought a lot of fire-induced objects. Once the Yuzhou ship came, they would burn the ship with fire.

Hearing the sound of war drums, the powerful crossbowmen who were resting in the shade of trees stood up one after another, rushed to the position to line up, rolled the strings, prepare for arrows, and prepare for battle. Shen Rong also took a boat to the Baiyang Pond, facing the direction of Sui Water. At this time, several black dots had appeared on the water surface, getting bigger and bigger, and were quickly sailing towards the Baiyang Pond, gradually revealing his huge figure.

Shen Rong took a breath and his scalp was a little numb. What came was not the small and medium-sized warship he thought, but the tower ship. How could it be a tower ship? Shen Rong couldn't figure it out. Did Man Chong bring a real navy? The tower ship was not an ordinary warship. The tower ship could carry large weapons, such as heavy crossbows that humans could not hold, such as stone throwers. The range of heavy crossbows and stone throwers was far above the strong crossbows. The Jizhou power crossbowmen were no match for them at all.

It was broken, careless. Shen Rong lamented, his legs were a little weak. After hesitating for a moment, he immediately issued an order to retreat. On the water surface, the collected civilian ships he was riding on could not block the attack of the tower ship, and would be directly pressed into the water by the tower ship. His water quality was OK, but most of the soldiers in Jizhou were not very good at water quality, and there was no advantage in fighting on the water surface.

At the order of Shen Rong, the soldiers of Jizhou Army who were on the boat supervising the people did not care about the others and retreated one after another. However, the Chenliu people who were raising the boat for them did not think so. They seemed to be very forceful, but the ship did not move much. Seeing the Jizhou Army rushing over with a whip or a knife, they simply jumped into the water, and even overturned the ship directly.

For a moment, there were screams on the Baiyang Pond, and the soldiers of Jizhou fell into the water one after another, slapped in panic, causing waves of water to splash.

Shen Rong was so anxious that he stomped his feet, shouted and rowed the boat quickly, watching the boat turn, chasing him straight, Shen Rong was scattered and shouted desperately.

"Quick! Quick!"

The guards rowed hard, but their rowing level was really average. The more anxious they were, the slower the boat was and the more violently it shook. Shen Rong could not stand firmly, so he could only squat in the cabin, grabbed the boat gang with both hands, and turned his head back from time to time.

A tower ship rushed over, slashing the waves and directly hit Shen Rong's ship. With a loud "click", the civilian ship that Shen Rong was on was crushed and sank into the water. Shen Rong fell into the water and was covered in cold body. The tower ship did not stop at all, and crushed over Shen Rong's head and rushed to the dock to stop. Before the ship could stop, a rain of arrows soared into the sky and rushed to the Jizhou Army position on the shore.

The Jizhou army on the shore heard Shen Rong's call and had already formed a formation to prepare for war, but they still underestimated the speed of the tower ship. The formation had just been formed, and the tower ship had already leaned forward and launched an attack first. The dense rain of arrows was mixed with a few giant arrows like spears, and whistling mud bullets. The giant arrows and mud bullets pierced the large shield of the Jizhou army, smashing the Jizhou army's crossbow chariot, and hitting the newly formed positions of the Jizhou army.

Immediately afterwards, another tower ship docked, and launched a cover-type attack on the Jizhou army as it was before. The rain of arrows poured out, the sound was like thunder, and the momentum was amazing, making the Jizhou army unable to raise its head and had no power to fight back at all.

Then, the springboard was lowered from the tower, and crossbows were pushed out, rushed to the ashore, and quickly formed a formation. gōng    nǔ hand followed behind, forcing the Jizhou army formation, shooting with all his might, the sword and shield hand, and the spearman roared out, quickly cutting into the position of the Jizhou army, and slashing and killing.

After a brief battle, the Jizhou army collapsed, some people fled, and most of them were killed or captured.

——

When Dong Zhao received the scout's report, he was shocked.

He had known that two tower ships were heading west, but he didn't think that these two tower ships could defeat Shen Rong. One tower ship had a maximum of five hundred people, only more than three hundred soldiers, and two tower ships had only six or seven hundred people, while Shen Rong had three thousand people.

When the scout reported that more ships were heading west, he thought Man Chong was not in a good position to attack and wanted to send reinforcements. He was planning to send people to recruit Shenrong, but he heard that Shenrong's troops had been defeated and the Yuzhou army had already set up positions on the south bank of Baiyangbei.

He found it incredible. If Shen Rong had no warships and could not compete with the Yuzhou army on the water, it was understandable. Why was his position on the shore also defeated? The combat effectiveness of the Shen Family Army is obvious to all. Although Shen Pei was defeated in Xinzheng and the number of the Shen Family Army was reduced compared to before, these 3,000 people were still elite. They had experience in fighting head-on with the main force led by Sun Ce, how could they not stop the Yuzhou county soldiers led by Man Chong?

Dong Zhao was puzzled, but he didn't have time to think too much at this moment. Man Chong walked around behind him and set up a position first. He had to attack now. Otherwise, Man Chong rushed to Chenliu City and the morale in Chenliu City would rise sharply, and it would be even more difficult for him to break Chenliu again.

Dong Zhao led his troops to retreat urgently, and deployed tasks while marching. Before he arrived at Baiyang Pond, he received Dong Jen's military newspaper. Dong Jen arranged cavalry to enter Chen State and Yingchuan, in an attempt to cause a large army to be in a situation of overwhelming troops, forcing Chen State and Yingchuan's county soldiers to defend themselves and could not reinforce Chenliu. As a result, the cavalry sent out were ambushed continuously and suffered heavy casualties.

He initially thought it was Chen State and Yingchuan's county soldiers attacking, but later he found out that it was Chen State and Yingchuan's people's personal behavior. Some young and brave people were in groups of three or five, looking for favorable terrain, creating traps, and ambushing single cavalry. These people were trained and familiar with the terrain. The number of people was large, almost everywhere, and the accumulation of small amounts was large. The losses of the Jizhou knights were very considerable. They lost more than 300 cavalry in just two days. The remaining knights did not dare to go deeper and retreated one after another.

Dong Zhao lamented: "This is a soldier for all the people."
Chapter completed!