Chapter 783
The Great River Wang Baobao Crossed on His Dragon Ridge!
The chase was brutal, lasting from dawn until dusk.
At this moment, lingering gunpowder smoke and the stench of blood still floated on the water's surface.
Wang Baobao stood at the stern, looking at the seven scattered fast boats behind him. A few hours earlier, when he withdrew from Hongdu, he still had 120 boats and 8,000 remnant soldiers.
But now only these remain, and they are still decreasing.
"Your Highness, two more ships have gone missing." The deputy general, Huo Bima, spoke in a voice like a broken bellows. He had been stabbed in the left shoulder, and the hastily wrapped cloth had been soaked in blood three times, and now more blood was seeping out.
Wang Baobao didn't turn around. He guessed what had happened to the two missing boats: either they were leaking and had sunk, or they couldn't hold on any longer and had to be lowered to the ground.
From Hongdu to here, it's an 80-mile waterway, and we have to leave some things behind every 10 miles.
First throw away the baggage train, then the wounded soldiers, and finally the warships.
Like a bear being hunted by a pack of wolves, it tears off its own flesh as it runs, hoping that when the wolves stop to eat the pieces, it can escape further away.
But Xu Da was not a wolf.
He is a hunter.
"How many people are left?" Wang Baobao asked, his voice so hoarse that even he didn't recognize it.
"Including our ship, there are 317 people." The man with the slit nose paused. "Of those who can wield knives, 103 are capable."
Three hundred and seventeen. Wang Baobao remembered that three days ago when he besieged Hongdu, he had a navy of fifty thousand men and more than three hundred warships. Now only a fraction remained.
The sound of drums could be heard from the river.
Deep and slow, each sound struck the heart.
Those were the war drums of Xu Dajun's pursuing fleet, unhurried and slow, like the drumbeats of an executioner on a stage before killing someone, letting you fully experience the fear before striking.
"Here we go again." Hollow-nosed Ma gritted her teeth and drew her knife.
Wang Baobao turned around and saw three "eagle ships" emerging from the fog downstream.
These boats are pointed at both ends and have paddle wheels on both sides, making them as fast as water ghosts on calm river surfaces.
The general standing at the bow of the ship was recognizable from a distance—Yu Tonghai, Xu Da's top naval commander.
"Splitting up the troops," Wang Baobao said.
Huo Bima was taken aback: "Your Highness?"
“Take three boats into the Han River to the east.” Wang Baobao pointed to a reed bed on the left bank. “I’ll take the rest and continue north. Xu Da wants me. Once you’re in the Han River, he won’t pursue you.”
"This humble general is willing to die with Your Highness!"
Huo Bima knelt on the ground and pleaded.
"Die?" Wang Baobao laughed, a bitter laugh: "I haven't lived enough yet, I'm carrying out military orders."
Huo Bima's eyes reddened, he clasped his hands in a fist, bowed deeply, and turned to jump onto the speedboat next to him.
The three boats turned into the Han River and disappeared into the reeds.
Wang Baobao watched them disappear, then said to the soldiers on the remaining four ships, "Raise the sails full and head north. Anyone who falls behind should take their own life. Don't become a prisoner and bring shame to the White Deer Army."
"Yes!"
The soldiers immediately agreed.
The next hour was the longest hour of Wang Baobao's military career.
Yu Tonghai's three eagle ships, like a persistent leech, remained three hundred feet behind.
Not too fast, not too slow, not rushing or crashing, just following along. When you speed up, he speeds up too; when you slow down, he slows down too. Like a cat playing with a mouse, not in a hurry to kill it, but to play with it until the mouse is exhausted.
"General, the ship on the starboard side... it can't hold on any longer," the bodyguard whispered.
Wang Baobao turned his head and saw that the sail of the speedboat on the right had three large holes, and the hull was obviously tilted. It was clear that the keel had been damaged by the battering pole last night, and water was seeping out. The soldiers on the boat were already bailing the water out, but the water was coming in faster than it was coming out.
“Let them...come closer,” Wang Baobao said.
As the two boats drew near, Wang Baobao saw the scene on the other boat clearly. There were seven or eight wounded soldiers lying on the deck, some with broken legs, some with arrow shafts stuck in their stomachs, and only five of them could still stand. They were all desperately trying to scoop out the water, which had already reached their ankles.
"General!" a centurion on the ship cried out, "The ship is in trouble! You must go first!"
Wang Baobao remained silent for three breaths, then took out a leather bag from his pocket and threw it over: "Inside are wound medicine and thirty taels of silver. You... do what you want with them."
The centurion caught the leather bag, paused for a moment, then suddenly knelt down and kowtowed three times.
Then he got up and said to those still able to move on the ship, "Bring the wounded over, we... will cover the rear."
As the two boats separated, Wang Baobao took one last look. The speedboat turned around and headed in the opposite direction towards the Eagle Ship. The soldiers on board lit the last remaining oil canisters. In the instant the flames lit up, Wang Baobao saw the centurion smiling.
boom--
The fire ship collided with the eagle ship, the explosion sounding muffled, like someone beating a drum at the bottom of the river.
One of the eagle boats caught fire, and the other two slowed down to fight the fire. Because of this delay, Wang Baobao's boat was pulled several miles further away.
But the price was a boat and twenty-three people.
This is just the beginning.
At Chen Shi (7-9 AM), another boat gradually fell behind because the oarsmen were exhausted. The eagle boat caught up and, without boarding, fired arrows.
Arrows rained down on the entire boat, and the men on board fell like wheat being harvested. One soldier, wounded by an arrow, jumped into the river and swam toward the shore, dragging a trail of blood. He swam a dozen or so feet and then stopped moving, floating on the surface of the river like a withered leaf.
Wang Baobao did not stop the boat.
At midnight, the hull of the last escort speedboat struck a reef and cracked. The people on board jumped onto Wang Baobao's boat. Seven people jumped over, and the rest sank with the boat. Their lives were lost in silence.
Now, Wang Baobao's flagship has become a lone boat.
There were 31 people on the ship, including him. Only 25 of them were still able to wield knives. Their food had run out yesterday, and they only had half a bucket of water left, mixed with river mud and sand.
"Your Highness, there's no road ahead..." the helmsman's voice trembled.
Wang Baobao looked up and saw the river making a sharp bend ahead, with steep cliffs on both sides, the waterway narrowing into a slit—a dead end; once inside, one would truly be trapped like a turtle in a jar.
“Let’s dock,” he said.
III. Abandoning the boat and going ashore
As the ship struck the beach, the keel gave its final groan and broke.
Wang Baobao was the first to jump off the boat. The river water was up to his thighs. He turned around and saw his personal guards dragging the wounded soldiers ashore. There were thirty-one people, four of whom were too badly injured to walk on their own.
"Your Highness, they..." The guard looked at Wang Baobao.
The four wounded soldiers also looked at him. One of them was young, at most seventeen or eighteen years old. His stomach had been cut open, his intestines were wrapped in cloth, and his face was as white as paper.
He looked at Wang Baobao, his lips moved but he didn't say anything, but his mouth formed the words: "Your Highness, let's go."
Wang Baobao squatted down, took out the last bit of silver from his pocket, and distributed it to the four people.
Then he stood up and said to his personal guards, "Leave some dry rations and water. Let's go." "Your Highness!" an old soldier suddenly cried out, "Give me a knife! Just a knife will do!"
Wang Baobao took off his sword and threw it over, sheath still attached.
It was a fine knife, with a silver-inlaid scabbard and gold-threaded hilt. The old soldier caught it, grinned, and revealed his toothless mouth.
The others silently left their weapons behind. The thirty-one became twenty-seven, and they disappeared into the woods on the shore.
They hadn't gone more than a hundred paces when a scream came from behind them, then stopped again, followed by the sound of horses' hooves—Xu Da's pursuers had landed.
"Let's split up." Wang Baobao said this for the third time.
He left eleven men behind and sent them west, while he himself led sixteen men north.
Before parting, he took off his luminous armor and threw it on the ground. The armor was covered in blood, but it still shone with a dim gold in the moonlight filtering through the forest.
“The man who wore this armor is already dead beneath the walls of Hongdu City.” Wang Baobao looked at his armor, his expression dark and uncertain.
I wanted to make a great contribution and show off, but I ended up exposing my backside and losing face!
Over the next three days, Wang Baobao learned what it meant to be "at the end of one's rope."
On the first day, they encountered Xu Dajun's patrol in the woods. Three of them died before they managed to kill two of the patrolmen.
The next day, he was hungry. He picked wild fruit, but the guards said it was poisonous and couldn't be eaten. Wang Baobao said, "Better to die from poison than from starvation." He ate some, then vomited and had diarrhea, lying in bed for half a day. That night, he found a stream and, while drinking water, saw his reflection in the water: his hair was tangled, his face was covered in scabs, his beard was unshaven, and his eyes were sunken, like a ghost that had crawled out of a grave.
On the third day, only he and his four personal guards remained. Of the rest, some fell behind, some stayed behind to hold off the enemy, and some collapsed along the way and never got up again.
Balu, Wang Baobao's personal guard, had his left foot swollen like a steamed bun. He had been bitten by a poisonous snake, and he had cut off a piece of flesh with a knife and applied herbal medicine, but he was still limping.
As evening fell, they emerged from a pine forest and saw the river.
The river was wide and the current was rapid. It crashed against the rocks with a loud rumble, like thunder.
There are mountains on the other side of the river. Once you cross the river, you'll be in Jiujiang. Jiujiang has already been infiltrated by Huangzhou Prefecture. Once he crosses the river, he should be safe.
But there was no boat.
Looking up and down, the riverbank is a steep cliff with no ferry crossing and the current is very rapid. It looks like the mouth of a waterfall!
They retreated, and behind them, the sound of horses' hooves was already very close; they could even hear Xu Dajun's shouts.
"General, find some wood to build a raft," Balu shouted.
They cut down three dead trees and tied them together with cowhide from their belts and torn clothes to make a raft.
He put it in the water, and the rushing current scattered it. He chopped and stabbed it, and it scattered again. In desperation, Balu pounded the ground with his fists until his hands bled.
Wang Baobao didn't speak. He stared at the river and saw something floating upstream.
It was a giant tree, as thick as a person could hug, blackened by the water, its trunk hollow, like a dugout canoe, drifting with the current, heading towards them.
"Heaven hasn't forsaken me," Wang Baobao murmured with great joy.
The two ran to the water's edge, and when the giant log drifted close, they jumped onto it. The trunk was hollow, just big enough for the two of them to curl up. They then called on their two other guards. Wang Baobao used his waist knife as an oar, and Balu broke off a tree branch to use as a pole. They rowed desperately toward the other side.
The giant log sank and swirled in the rapids. Once it almost hit a reef. Wang Baobao braced himself with his knife, almost dropping it. When they were still thirty feet from the opposite bank, they heard the sound of horses' hooves on the shore.
Wang Baobao turned around.
Xu Da has arrived.
A man in white robes and silver armor stood on the shore, riding a black horse. Behind him were more than twenty riders, all elite warriors. Xu Da was not wearing a helmet; his hair was tied up, and his face was weathered, but his eyes shone like knives.
The two faced each other across the hundred-foot-deep river.
Xu Da raised his hand, and someone behind him handed him a bow. He drew the bow, nocked an arrow, and shot it. The arrow pierced the air and embedded itself three inches into the giant tree, its fletching humming and vibrating.
"Excellent archery!" Wang Baobao exclaimed, his voice ripped apart by Jiang Feng. "Marshal Xu, today's humiliation will be avenged in the future!"
Xu Da did not answer, and fired three arrows in quick succession, but they were already too far away and fell into the water. Seeing the giant tree receding into the distance, he suddenly spurred his horse and galloped along the riverbank. He aimed carefully, took the spear from the Victory Hook, and hurled it with all his might!
This throw used all his strength; the spear streaked across the sky like a meteor, aiming straight for Wang Baobao's back.
Hearing the sound of something cutting through the air, Wang Baobao suddenly ducked down, and the spear grazed his back before shooting into the water.
Wang Baobao wiped away his cold sweat. That was close!
After paddling for half a day,
Wang Baobao and his three bodyguards tumbled down the giant log, collapsing onto the gravel beach, panting heavily. After a while, Wang Baobao managed to get up and look back at the opposite bank.
Xu Da was still there, standing on the shore, with more than twenty riders lined up behind him.
The morning light shone from the east, gilding him and his white horse. The river wind was strong, making his robes flutter like a flag.
The river, hundreds of feet wide, was surging with waves.
The shouts of men and the neighing of horses were swallowed by the sound of water, creating an eerie silence.
After a long while, Xu Da suddenly clasped his hands in a fist and bowed in this direction.
Wang Baobao was taken aback for a moment, then stood up and returned the greeting with clasped hands.
Xu Da said something, but it was too far away to hear clearly. However, judging from his lip movements, it sounded like, "General, your skills are superb."
Wang Baobao suddenly wanted to laugh. Yes, excellent craftsmanship. Fifty thousand troops were reduced to four men, and three hundred warships were reduced to a rotten log. They fled from Hongdu to Jiujiang, traversing a thousand miles, like stray dogs. This craftsmanship is indeed excellent.
What a silent irony!
However, Xu Da had no intention of letting Wang Baobao go at this point, and even organized people to cross the river on rafts to capture him.
However, despite several attempts, the raft could not cross the river. Just then, someone reported, "General, we've found a fishing boat!"
Upon hearing this, Xu Da said, "Alright, take your men and follow me immediately."
Just then, a cloud of dust suddenly rose from the opposite bank of the river, and a group of men charged out from afar. The leader, holding a long spear, was wearing a silver helmet and white armor, and looked very heroic.
Upon seeing this man, Xu Da's deputy general Yu Tonghai immediately exclaimed, "General, it's Zhang Dingbian!"
"Zhang Dingbian!"
Xu Da's eyes suddenly turned to the opposite side. Now it is said throughout the world that the Han people have two great generals, one is Xu Da, also known as Xu Tiande, and the other is Zhang Dingbian. However, he has performed more and is therefore known as the number one general in the world.
However, some people say that it was because Xu Da didn't encounter Zhang Dingbian. If he had, there would be no such thing as the greatest general in the world.
His words were full of disdain.
Therefore, Xu Da really wanted to have a showdown with Zhang Dingbian to see who was truly the greatest general in the land.
Zhang Dingbian arrived at the riverbank and saw the pitiful Wang Baobao. He immediately waved and said, "Guards, quickly escort the Imperial Uncle into the camp and summon a doctor to treat his condition."
Just then, the deputy general who had come with Zhang Dingbian said, "General, it looks like Xu Da over there!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Dingbian looked up and saw Xu Da standing there, spear in hand. Xu Da also looked at Zhang Dingbian. The two exchanged a glance, then clasped their fists together and turned their horses around. Now was not the time for them to fight head-on, but they both knew that a battle between them was inevitable, and that battle would be fierce.
After the two groups of people left, the military historian who accompanied the army stepped forward. He was there to record historical materials during the war and asked, "General Xu, how should this be recorded?"
"It is written that when Wang Baobao arrived at the river, a divine dragon helped him cross the long river."
"Huh? This looks so fake!"
"Then write that Wang Baobao and the other three carried a broken wooden stake across the river, in the waterfall area, and were safe and sound."
"This, Xu Shuai, how big was the dragon you just mentioned?" (End of Chapter)