Chapter 779
A huge outline appeared faintly on the river surface. In the night, it seemed like a huge monster was moving in the water, giving people an indescribable sense of shock and fear. All the soldiers were stunned. At this time, Zhang Liao suddenly reacted and shouted: "It is the enemy warship and the warship."
The soldiers woke up as if they were dreaming, shouting and shooting arrows at the giants in the dark. Zhang Liao was so shocked that his scalp was about to explode. He knew very well that being able to see the outline of the warship in the dark meant that the warship was already close to them and it was too late. He immediately turned around and ran quickly to the shore, and ordered: "All the warships in the water camp dispersed."
But no one answered him. When he turned around, he saw Yu Jin commanding the soldiers to fight back, leading by example, and not retreating. At this moment, Zhang Liao's dissatisfaction with Jin disappeared, but he was the commander of the entire army, so he could not stay to command the navy. He had to be wary of the Han army stealing camp on the shore.
Zhang Liao ordered the soldiers again: "Go and pass my order quickly, all the warships in the water camp will disperse."
The soldiers rushed to pass the order, but Zhang Liao didn't care about the water camp and rushed to the shore.
The Han warship that attacked the sneak attack was only about twenty steps away from the Cao army's water camp. These were three giant ships of 3,000 stone. They were equipped with a special head-hit, also known as the Breaking Village Ship. They were specially used to break through the enemy's water camp and were the pioneers of the navy. Behind the Breaking Village Ship are two hundred small sampans. The sampans are loaded with tinder oil and firewood, and are controlled by a soldier. This ship is extremely fast, but they cannot break through the Cao army's water camp. In this case, the Breaking Village Ship is crucial.
"General Yu, dodge and bump into it."
Several soldiers shouted, a broken village ship several feet tall suddenly appeared in front of them, rushed towards the water grid with an unstoppable force. Yu Jin was shocked and it was too late to avoid it. With a loud crack, the first broken village ship broke dozens of wooden stakes and rushed into the Cao army's water camp. Cao army soldiers fell into the water in a scream, and Yu Jin could not avoid it and fell into the water.
He hugged a wooden stake that had not yet been broken and watched the second and third broken village boats crashing towards the water village. Behind it was a dense small boat like a pack of wolves. Yu Jin couldn't help but sigh, and the scene of the Battle of Red Cliff was staged again.
Three large ships in the village broke the water village fences, and each section was more than ten feet wide. The sharp and rapid momentum of the village ship also shocked the Cao army on both sides to defend. At this time, the sound of attacking at the river estuary in the distance was loud, and two hundred small sampans were lit at the same time. Countless fire points appeared on the water surface. Two hundred fire boats rushed into the water village along the cracked gap and rushed towards the Cao army warships anchored on the shore.
Although Zhang Liao issued an order to disperse the warships, it would take at least half an hour to implement the order. The navy soldiers were on the shore. Even if they boarded the ship in time, the dense ships were crowded together. If the ships outside did not disperse first, the ships in the middle would have no way out.
The military camp on the shore was also in chaos. Cao's soldiers woke up from their dreams, and were busy wearing armor and rushed out of the tent with weapons. Many soldiers ran to the dock, but were deterred. They saw countless small boats burning with raging fires had rushed into the dense warships. Many small boats overturned in the collision, and the tincture oil on the ship also poured into the water. A large area of burning flames suddenly appeared on the water, which was more spectacular than the fire boat.
Just when the warships in the water camp were ignited, Huang Zhong led 20,000 Han troops to fight from the land. Their target was very clear and they headed straight to the naval camp near the river, because at this time, the attention of the naval soldiers would be attracted by the enemy situation in the water camp and would ignore the defense of the barracks themselves.
Although there were hundreds of soldiers defending the walls of the barracks, they could not withstand the attack of ten thousand Han troops. Three thousand crossbowmen of the Han army suppressed the defense of the Cao army with dense rain of arrows. More than a thousand soldiers hugged dozens of huge hitting wood and rushed towards the walls. The heavy hitting wood hit the walls again and again. The walls were shaking. Amid the shouts, the walls collapsed, and a gap of hundreds of steps wide appeared.
Huang Zhong shouted, "Fight into the enemy camp with me."
He took the lead, waved his sword and rushed into the gap first. Ten thousand Han soldiers rushed into the Cao army camp like a tide and rushed to all directions.
The fire surged into the sky on the river surface, thick smoke rolled, hundreds of Cao's warships fell into a sea of fire, as if the entire Ruxu River estuary was ignited, and the shouts of killing in the barracks on the shore were shocking, and the bodies were everywhere, blood flowed into a river, and the sticky plasma gathered into a stream, flowing into the river. The morale of the 20,000 Cao's sailors was sluggish and the morale of the army was turbulent, so they had no way to resist. They quickly collapsed under the fierce impact of the Han soldiers. The Cao's soldiers had no intention of fighting, and they all threw away their armor and fled their lives. The desperate soldiers knelt on the ground and surrendered.
At this time, the Cao army camp also ignited a raging fire. The north wind was strong and the fire spread rapidly. A tent was swiftly swallowed by the tongue of flames. Many soldiers had no time to escape from the tent and were engulfed by the fire. The firemen were screaming and running everywhere. Without taking a few steps, they fell to the ground. The fire curled up the soldiers.
Although the flames in the river are more than thirty feet high, which is terrifying, they are far away after all. The fires in the military camp directly threaten the survival of Cao's soldiers. At this time, the trend of retreating has quickly swept from the navy camp to the army camp.
On this side, led by Deputy General Zang Ba, Zang Ba cavalry on the war horse, commanding soldiers to demolish the camps, attempting to form an open space to isolate the spreading fires. At the same time, he also needs to prepare to defend against the soon-to-be-killing Han army. Zang Ba shouted loudly: "No chaos, line up to defend."
At this moment, a soldier pointed at the sky and shouted: "Look at General."
Zang Ba looked up and saw several large tents burning with fire were blown to the sky by the wind and floated towards him. He was shocked and ordered his left and right to say, "Look at them and don't let them fall into the camp."
But it was too late. Several burning tents rushed down and rushed into the dense tent. More than a dozen large tents behind Zang Ba were burning rapidly. Zang Ba cursed with hatred, "Quickly isolate them."
He knew very well that once the fire spread, the army would collapse. At this moment, a cavalry rushed over and shouted to Zang Ba: "General Zang, General Zhang, please withdraw your army into the military city immediately."
Zang Ba hesitated for a moment, and he looked back at the camp that was burning rapidly, and couldn't help but sigh. It was indeed the best way to preserve the vitality before chaos. He immediately ordered: "Retreat into the military city immediately."
The 20,000 Cao army soldiers were already a little shaken. After receiving the order to retreat, Cao army soldiers rushed toward the military city a mile away. But as soon as they ran out of the barracks, they heard a sound of war drums, and fire was shining. In the light of fire, General Wei Yan led 10,000 ambush troops to attack from the side, cutting off the retreat of Cao army, and Cao army soldiers were in chaos.
Zang Ba saw that the Han army was chasing him behind him, and the defeated soldiers were about to destroy his rear army. He was very anxious and shouted desperately: "Kill here"
Cao's soldiers fought to the death to break through, and the two sides fought fiercely outside the camp...
At this time, all the Cao army warships in the water camp were trapped in the sea of fire, and Gan Ning led the navy to land from the north of the water camp. 25,000 navy landed from the north, encircled the Cao army, and blocked the Cao army's navy from retreating north.
The two armies fought until dawn. Hundreds of warships in the water camp were burned down, and the water was covered with burnt wreckage of Cao's warships. Five thousand naval forces were wiped out under the joint attack of Huang Zhong and Gan Ning. Nearly 10,000 people were captured and surrendered, thousands were beheaded, and less than two thousand escaped.
The 20,000 army led by Zang Ba also lost nearly half. Zang Ba led his army to open a bloody road, and more than 10,000 people fled into the military city, but the Wei Yan army, who was responsible for the interception, also suffered heavy casualties, with more than 3,000 casualties.
Zhang Liao did not order the army to go out of the city to fight. He was persuaded by military advisor Cheng Yu. Although their troops in the city were as high as 35,000, Cheng Yu knew that Cao's soldiers were not good at night battles, and the camp had been burned down by fire. Cao's army was shaken. Going out of the city to fight would only cause more casualties and injuries, and it would be useless. It could not be restored to the fact that the water camp and military camp were destroyed. In this case, it is wisest to preserve their strength to the greatest extent.
Despite this, Zhang Liao personally led 3,000 soldiers out of the city to meet Zang Ba. It was Zhang Liao's response that allowed Zang Ba's army to break through the Han army's blockade and be safeguarded in the chaos.
The snow has turned into heavy snow, the sky is dark and gloomy, and balls of snowballs fall like ticks in the cold wind, and the sky is gray. On the top of the military city, Zhang Liao stood in the heavy snow and stared at the tragic situation outside the city. He was in a very heavy mood. The navy that he had worked hard was destroyed overnight. How did he explain to the prime minister?
At this time, Cheng Yu slowly walked forward, he sighed and comforted Zhang Liao and said, "It's over, Wen Yuan shouldn't worry too much. I didn't expect this. I will explain the situation to the Prime Minister. What's more, our navy's combat capabilities are far weaker than those of the enemy. They were attacked by them again. It is reasonable to fail, but..."
Speaking of this, Cheng Yu was a little worried and said, "I am a little worried about the Prime Minister's safety now."
Zhang Liao was shocked, "The military advisor said that the Han army should attack the prime minister."
Cheng Yu nodded, "The intention of the Han army is very obvious, which is to completely destroy our naval forces. If the water camp is burned down, the two hundred warships that followed the Prime Minister east will definitely be their target."
One sentence woke up the people in the bureau, and Zhang Liao suddenly became anxious, "What should we do if the warship is gone, how can we pick up the Prime Minister?"
"The general doesn't have to worry. Although the Han army warships will definitely intercept the prime minister, the prime minister may not surrender. He will inevitably abandon the ship and go ashore. As long as we rush to the north bank to pick us up, we will meet the prime minister. After all, there are 6,000 elite soldiers, and the Han army is not easy to deal with."
Zhang Liao pondered for a moment and made a quick decision: "Since that's the case, I personally lead the troops to rescue the Prime Minister."
Chapter completed!