Chapter 778
I Avoid His Edge?
"What! Hong is not Chen Jiu Si's target, Chen Jiu Si's target may be Fu You De's 100,000-strong army!"
Upon hearing Xu Da's analysis, Chang Yuchun couldn't sit still any longer. He stood up, his eyes wide, and looked at Xu Da, saying, "Second Brother, what are we waiting for? Let's skip Hongdu and go straight to Hukou. Maybe we can still save Old Fu!"
Seeing Chang Yuchun's reaction, Yu Tonghai said, "Commander Chang, things are probably not that simple. If they were, Commander Xu wouldn't be so conflicted."
Xu Da then spoke up, "Indeed, Chen's choice of this location to ambush us was too cunning."
"It's about two days from Hukou and one day from Hongdu. It will take Fu Youde's 100,000-strong army three days to travel from Hukou to Hongdu. If we rush to Hukou now, we may not be able to rescue Fu Youde in time."
"This news came far too late, and Chen Jiu Si sent Jin Yanzi as a blocking force, just like today. It seems like they were blocking us, but in reality, it's as if they were deliberately tipping us off."
"I'm now speculating that Chen Jiu Si's target is Fu You De. Is it possible that Chen Jiu Si is deliberately trying to make me think this way?"
"You're thinking that on purpose?"
Chang Yuchun frowned, looking at Xu Da with a puzzled expression, and asked, "Why do you think that way on purpose?"
"The purpose is to make us make the wrong judgment and go to rescue Fu Youde. At that time, he will be pressing on Hongdu with his troops, and then Hongdu will be lost. The importance of Hongdu is no less than that of Fu Youde's 100,000 troops!"
Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun said, "This is too convoluted."
Yu Tonghai said, "The art of war is to feign weakness and then exploit strength. This Chen Jiu Si is too formidable; he actually has such a strategic method!"
Xu Da said, "I have studied Chen Jiu Si. He is a cunning man and we must be wary of him."
Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun said, "This decision is so difficult to make, but it's actually quite simple. At worst, we can split our forces. You can take 30,000 troops to rescue Hongdu, and I can take 30,000 troops to rescue Fu Youde!"
Upon hearing this, Xu Da frowned and said, "Dividing the troops is even more undesirable; a piecemeal tactic is a path to certain death!"
Upon hearing this, Chang Yuchun said, "If this won't work, and that won't work, then what should we do now?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Da thought for a moment and said, "We should still follow the plan to rescue Hongdu. As for Fu Youde's troops..."
"Send more fast ships, hoping to break through the enemy's blockade and report the intelligence to Fu Youde. Then, have the higher-ups find a way to send troops to pick up Fu Youde. Only in this way can we succeed."
Yu Tonghai said, "Then let's send a fast ship there now."
Xu Da said, "Besides the Clippers, use all other means, including carrier pigeons. Don't be stingy with those carrier pigeons. As long as we can get the message out, we might be able to save our 100,000 troops."
"promise!"
Yu Tonghai responded and immediately began to take action.
Xu Da frowned and looked towards Huangzhou Prefecture, saying, "Chen Jiu Si, Chen Jiu Si, you really are my mortal enemy in my rise to power!"
Xu Da thought about it and then led his army to continue towards Hongdu.
At this moment, on a distant mountaintop, Jin Yanzi, who had just come up from the water, watched Xu Da continue towards Hongdu and said, "The King of Han was right. Xu Da is a man of firm resolve and will not easily change his strategic plans."
Thinking of Jin Yanzi, she said, "Immediately send a message to the Prince of Han and Prince Baobao of Hongdu, saying that Xu Da will continue down the Gan River and should be able to reach the battlefield of Hongdu in a day. Tell Wang Baobao to retreat immediately."
"promise!"
The soldier replied, and then Jin Yanzi added, "Send a message to Commander-in-Chief Zhang Dingbian by carrier pigeon: Xu Da should continue his journey to Hongdu. The plan can proceed as scheduled."
"promise."
Jin Yanzi said, "In addition, send out all our fast boats. According to the King of Han, we must not let Xu Da have a chance to send the letter to Fu Youde during this period. We must keep an eye on him."
"promise!"
The soldiers immediately agreed, and then quickly dispatched fast boats to intercept and kill spies along the river. In a war, not only the army is at war, but spies are also very useful.
The message spread very quickly.
Standing on the beacon tower along the river, Chen Jie watched the river rise and fall before him, and for a moment he couldn't help but think of a poem: "The mighty Yangtze flows eastward, its waves washing away the heroes of the past!"
stomping on...
As Chen Jie was pondering this, a personal guard rushed up to him, knelt down, and said, "King of Han, intelligence!"
Seeing this, Chen Jie reached out his hand, and at that moment, the guard immediately handed the intelligence to Chen Jie. Chen Jie looked at the intelligence in front of him, which had the Azure Dragon Seal on it. This was intelligence sent by Golden Swallow.
Chen Jie glanced at it, then said to Yuan Sanjia beside him, "Master, please cast a divination for me!"
Yuan Sanjia said, "Let's forget about casting a divination. The calamity between heaven and earth is already terrifying. If I cast a divination now, it won't be accurate. In the end, the fate of this world may have to be left to you!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Jie chuckled and said, "Heh heh, Mr. Yuan really trusts me!"
Yuan Sanjia said, "Those who face great calamities bear the mandate of heaven, so this is how it should be."
Chen Jie said, "That's enough. It seems that you can't reassure me, sir. Send someone to inform them that the enemy is trapped. Let Zhang Dingbian take charge of the rest."
Upon hearing this, the guard immediately agreed.
A day and a night later, the order reached Zhang Dingbian. Zhang Dingbian looked at the order from Chen Jie and said that the front-line matters should be decided independently without reporting.
Zhang Dingbian was deeply moved; this was absolute trust.
At this moment, Zhang Dingbian immediately asked his intelligence officer, "Where is Fu Youde?"
The messenger said, "We should be almost at Jiaolong Bay!"
Zhang Dingbian said, "Well, then we should make our move. By the way, how's Hongdu? Has Wang Baobao withdrawn his troops?"
The intelligence officer then said, "According to intelligence, Wang Baobao did not withdraw his troops!"
"Ok?"
Zhang Dingbian looked at the intelligence officer and asked, "Why? Didn't the intelligence officer tell him that Xu Da was going to Hongdu?"
The intelligence officer said, "He said so, but Wang Baobao said, he said..."
"What is he saying, all that fuss and nagging?"
Zhang Dingbian looked at the intelligence soldier and said, "He said: I will avoid his sharp edge!" The intelligence soldier's face immediately turned ugly upon hearing this.
Upon hearing this, Zhang Dingbian's face immediately turned extremely grim. After thinking for a moment, he said nothing, only saying, "Ignore him for now, notify the entire army to set up an ambush at Wulongkou and capture Fu Youde alive!"
This is upstream of Jiaolong Bay.
The morning mist shrouds the great river.
Fu Youde stood on the deck of the warship, watching the 100,000-strong navy sailing in an orderly fashion, with thousands of sails racing and blocking out the sun. The sound of oars striking the water was like muffled thunder, startling the birds roosting on the riverbank. A dark mass swept across the gray sky.
"General, the vanguard has passed Jiaolong Bay." Deputy General Lan Yu bowed and reported. At this time, Lan Yu had not yet achieved the greatness he would later attain, but was a junior officer serving in Fu Youde's army.
Lan Yu then clasped his hands and continued to report: "In two more hours, we will reach Wulongkou. After passing Wulongkou, it will take another day to reach the Hongdu battlefield."
Fu Youde hummed in agreement, his gaze still fixed on the river.
With an army of 100,000, a thousand warships, and two hundred supply ships, this was Zhu Chongba's last remaining asset on the western front. Now, Hongdu was in trouble. If Hongdu fell, the gate to the east would be wide open. Therefore, Hongdu could not be lost under any circumstances.
His surprise attack force sailed down the river with the goal of cutting off Wang Baobao's rear.
"Is there any news from Hongdu?" Fu Youde suddenly asked.
Lan Yu was taken aback: "There is no news."
“Hmm, why do I have this uneasy feeling?” Fu Youde turned around, his finger tracing the map on the bulkhead. “Wang Baobao’s attack on Hongdu is opening the door for Chen Jiu Si. I am Chen Jiu Si, and I will definitely send reinforcements. I will never sit idly by and watch our 100,000 troops support Hongdu!”
On the map, the Gan River meanders like a green snake. Hukou is at the bottom, Jiaolong Bay is in the middle, and Wulongkou is at the top.
After passing Wulongkou, the river suddenly widened, flowing directly into Poyang Lake, and further ahead lay Hongdu. "General, are you worried..." Lan Yu's expression changed slightly.
“Wulongkou.” Fu Youde pointed to that spot. “The river is sandwiched between two mountains, and the narrowest part of the waterway is less than fifty feet wide. It is full of hidden reefs. If we were to set up an ambush here…” He shook his head and didn’t finish his sentence.
But Lan Yu understood that the key to naval warfare lay in controlling the waterways.
Wulongkou is such a natural fortress that one man can hold it against ten thousand.
“But the scouts reported yesterday that there was nothing unusual at Wulongkou,” Lan Yu said hesitantly.
“What the scouts can see is what the enemy wants us to see, but what we want to see may not be what the enemy wants us to see.” Fu Youde took a deep breath, the river wind carrying the smell of fish filling his lungs. “Order the vanguard to slow down after passing Jiaolong Bay and send speedboats to scout Wulongkou first.”
"Order!"
The guards immediately agreed.
"By the way, did the scouts we sent out yesterday not return last night?"
"No."
Lan Yu answered, a hint of unease in her voice.
At 3:45 AM, the entire fleet arrived at Jiaolong Bay.
The river narrows abruptly here, with sheer cliffs on both sides, as if cleaved by a knife and axe. The rock walls are dark red, and legend has it that a dragon once underwent tribulation here, its blood staining the cliffs, hence the name Jiaolong Bay (Dragon Bay).
The river makes a sharp bend here, and the current is swift. When a boat reaches this point, it needs to lower the sail halfway, and the helmsman must concentrate fully.
As Fu Youde's flagship, the "Breaking Waves," sailed through the bay, he saw several vultures circling on the cliff top.
Bad omen.
"Speed up," he ordered.
The fleet passed through at full speed. But with an army of 100,000, the fleet stretched for more than ten miles. The vanguard had already left the bay, the central army was still in the bay, and the rearguard had just entered. Fu Youde's central army was at the most dangerous bend.
At that moment, a sudden change occurred.
A speedboat sped downstream like an arrow. Its hull was riddled with arrows, its sails were torn, and only one man could be seen standing at the bow, covered in blood, still desperately rowing.
"Stop them!" Commander Wang Bi of the vanguard urgently ordered.
Two warships attacked from both sides, forcing the speedboat to a stop. When the man was dragged onto the flagship, he was barely breathing, with three crossbow bolts stuck in his chest; the shafts had been broken, leaving only the arrowheads inside his body.
"Who are you?" Fu Youde crouched down to examine him.
The man struggled to lift his head, revealing a still-childish face—at most sixteen or seventeen years old, with cracked lips but a burning light in his eyes: "General Fu... General Fu... the vanguard... General Wang's... scout..."
"Tell me slowly."
“Wulongkou… there’s an ambush…” With each word the soldier uttered, blood gushed from his mouth. “Zhang… Zhang Dingbian… hundreds of thousands of naval troops… on both banks… ambushes… fire ships…”
Fu Youde's pupils contracted sharply: "When did you find out?"
“Last night…at midnight…I risked my life to swim across…to deliver a message…” The soldier grabbed the hem of Fu Youde’s armor, veins bulging on the back of his hand. “General…retreat quickly…entering the bay means…and certain death…”
Before he could finish speaking, his eyes glazed over, and his hand slowly fell to his sides.
The military doctor checked his breathing and shook his head.
Fu Youde silently closed the soldier's eyes and took a bamboo tube from his tightly clenched hand. He split it open, revealing a blood-soaked strip of cloth inside, with a rough charcoal sketch of the terrain of Wulongkou, marking the positions of the ambush troops and the hiding places of the fire ships.
At the very bottom of the strip of cloth, there was a line of small print:
"Zhang Dingbian has personally arrived, intending to annihilate our army at Wulongkou. Do not enter! Do not enter!"
The handwriting is messy, with the last stroke dragging out very long, showing how rushed it was when it was written.
"General, what should we do?" Lan Yu's voice was strained.
Fu Youde slowly rose and looked towards the exit of Jiaolong Bay. The vanguard had already left the bay, the central force was passing through, and the rearguard was still inside the bay.
If an order to retreat is given at this point, the vanguard will be trapped, the rearguard will block the bay entrance, and the 100,000-strong army will be like turtles in a jar.
But if we continue forward...
"Order the vanguard to stop the ships on the spot and form a defensive formation," Fu Youde said in a hoarse voice. "The central and rear guards, accelerate out of the bay and rendezvous with the vanguard. After leaving the bay, the fleet should immediately turn around and retreat downstream."
"Retreat?" Lan Yu asked incredulously. "But Hongdu..."
"Only by surviving can we save Hongdu!" Fu Youde roared.
Before the order was given, a thunderous roar of cannons suddenly came from the river.
Not one sound, but three.
Boom!Boom!Boom!
The sound came from the direction of Wulongkou, deep and muffled like thunder, echoing through the valley.
That was the roar of a heavy cannon—a new type of artillery unique to Chen Jiusi's navy.
Almost simultaneously with the sound of cannon fire, smoke rose from the cliffs on both sides of the Jiaolong Bay exit.
The black smoke shot straight into the sky, leaving three alarming streaks on the gray-white sky.
Immediately, the sounds of war drums, battle cries, and arrows piercing the air surged in from the direction of Wulongkou like a tidal wave.
The vanguard was ambushed.
"General! Urgent report from the vanguard!" The lookout's voice changed. "Wulongkou has been blocked by enemy ships! Arrows are raining down from both banks. General Wang requests the central army to provide immediate reinforcements!"
Fu Youde rushed to the side of the ship and snatched the monocular telescope.
In the telescope, the river surface in the direction of Wulongkou had turned into a sea of fire.
Dozens of fire ships sailed downstream and crashed into the vanguard of the army.
The fire ships were clearly specially made, filled with gunpowder and fish oil, and would explode upon contact. Three ships had already been set ablaze, and the soldiers jumped into the river like dumplings, only to be pinned to the surface by rockets fired from both banks.
Even more fatal was the blockage of the waterway.
Zhang Dingbian used iron chains to connect the boats, and stretched three ropes across the river to block the flow, with barbs and caltrops hanging from them.
The vanguard warships at the forefront had been hooked, unable to advance or retreat, and had become sitting ducks.
“What a Zhang Dingbian…” Fu Youde gritted his teeth.
He had calculated everything. He knew that Fu Youde would take this route, that the fleet would be unable to attend to both ends when passing Jiaolong Bay, and that the central army would come to the rescue when the vanguard was ambushed. Thus, he set up this elaborate trap.
"General, the vanguard won't last more than half an hour!" Lan Yu said urgently.
Fu Youde closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, there was no hesitation in them.
"Give the order to the entire army." His voice was as cold as iron. "The vanguard should abandon their ships, swim ashore, and retreat along the eastern mountainous area. The central army should split into two groups: one should feign an attack on Wulongkou to draw the enemy's attention, while the other should cover the rear guard as they retreat along the original route from Jiaolong Bay."
“The supplies…”
"Take what you can, burn what you can't, and never leave it to the enemy."
Military orders are absolute.
The flagship raised three red, piercing lanterns—a signal for "all troops to fight to the death, each attempting a breakout." (End of Chapter)