In the third year of Xiande's reign, September 3rd.
Guo Rong personally moved the Chinese army's headquarters to Zhaobu Ferry and personally supervised the battle.
Xiang Xun, Yuan Yan, Wang Shenqi, Li Jixun, Murong Yanzhao, Zhao Kuangzan, and Song Yanzai attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty chain camp at the foot of Zijin Mountain, completely giving no chance for the Southern Tang army to breathe and cooperate.
In terms of numbers, only Zhu Yuan's 10,000 soldiers and horses were missing, and the Southern Tang Army still had 40,000 soldiers, so its strength was only reduced by 12/10.
But marching operations are not about numbers, but the morale of the people.
When Chen Jue was not acting as a demon, the soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty fought bravely, and their eyes were filled with the desire for victory.
Relying on this belief, they fought back and forth with Zhou Jun.
But as Zhu Yuan, who had made great achievements, was dismissed from his post by Li Jing, Chen Jue made trouble in the rear.
The generals of the Southern Tang Dynasty were all in danger and disheartened. Their state directly affected the officers and soldiers around them.
When the battle started, the Southern Tang Army was obviously no longer in the state of fierce fighting with the Zhou Army.
The first person to have problems was Chen Decheng's department.
Chen Decheng was the son of Chen Jie, a general of the Southern Tang Dynasty. During the two months of fierce battles with the Zhou army, his performance was second only to Zhu Yuan and Lin Renzhao. However, he was jealous of Chen Jue because he said something he shouldn't have said.
Yang Shouzhong, the military governor of Wuchang who replaced Zhu Yuan, arrived at the front line, but because Zhu Yuan's troops had all been led by him and surrendered to the Zhou army, he had no troops to lead.
With a wave of his hand, Chen Jue split Chen Decheng's troops into two and gave half to Yang Shouzhong.
As a result, the strength of Chen Decheng's troops was greatly reduced, and the morale was also plummeted.
By chance, he met Xiang Xun, who had another tiger general named Gao Huaide under his command.
No matter how Chen Decheng resisted, he could not prevent the army from being defeated.
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The Zhou army only attacked the military stronghold of the Southern Tang Dynasty located at the foot of the mountain, and completely left the Southern Tang Navy's military stronghold built along the water alone.
Lin Renzhao's naval division fought to rescue on foot, but did not dare to go too deep. Seeing the situation becoming increasingly difficult to deal with, thinking of Guo Tingwei's reminder, he gritted his teeth and said: "Withdraw the troops!"
Guo Rong watched Lin Renzhao's retreat from behind, his face a little ugly.
He did not care about the situation of other camps and deliberately did not attack the water stronghold of the Southern Tang Dynasty. He just wanted to lure the navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty out of the water stronghold to fight on foot.
They had cavalry on hand and did not care about the defeat of the Southern Tang infantry.
No matter how hard it is, two legs can't outrun four legs.
Only the navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty was the most powerless.
As long as Lin Renzhao went deeper, he would immediately arrange for Zhao Kuangyin and Han Chongyun to cut off the retreat, and first destroy a part of the navy to reduce some pressure on Luo Youdu.
Lin Renzhao's timely retreat now means that Luo Youdu will have to use his navy, which has been trained for less than three months, to fight against the Southern Tang navy, which is twice his own number.
This disparity in strength was so huge that Guo Rong couldn't help but have a hint of worry in his eyes.
Blocking out the sky and the sun, the Southern Tang Navy ships slowly sailed out of the water village and entered the Dongfei River.
Lin Renzhao looked at the topographic map of the Jianghuai waters in his hand.
There are three ways to evacuate to Yangzhou from the Dongfei River where he is, and one goes directly down the Dongfei River. This would be equivalent to diving into the waters of Chaohu Lake, which is too dangerous.
One is to go up against the Huaihe River, bypassing Guangzhou and entering the Yangtze River. This road is now impassable. The Zhou army built a pontoon bridge in the direction of Xiacai, and there were iron cables and giant trees near the pontoon bridge.
In this case, the only way to go is to go down the Huai River, directly to Chuzhou, and then go south from Cao Canal to Yangzhou.
Lin Renzhao immediately ordered to go north into the Huaihe River. After thinking for a while, he said: "Send a yacht to conduct reconnaissance on the upper and lower reaches of the Huaihe River first."
He did not forget Luo Youdu's five thousand navy.
Although Lin Renzhao did not take the five thousand navy seriously, the three words "Luo Youdu" were enough to make him treat it with caution.
Lin Renzhao himself also came from an ordinary background, and he knew how difficult it was to rise in this troubled world. It was so difficult for him to possess unique skills, and it was self-evident what he relied on to get to this point, while the other scholar who had no ability to restrain a chicken came to this point.
According to common sense, Luo Youdu should use the Chaohu Lake water system to go directly northward into the Dongfei River to join the war.
This is the fastest way to march, but it's no different from dying in this way.
The Dongfei River is a tributary of the Huai River, and its flow direction is from north to south.
If Luo Youdu led his navy to go north along this channel, he would be putting himself in a downstream position.
When the gap between naval battleships is not big, the downstream loses half first.
Now Luo Youdu's navy has not appeared, obviously not taking this shortcut and not wanting to put itself in danger downstream.
Then it is possible for him to take the Hao River, go upstream from the Huai River, block his return route from the mouth of the Dong Fei River, and occupy the upstream position.
The other party is very likely to appear in front of you.
The yacht is a scout on the water, as fast as the wind.
Especially the helmsman of the yacht was very experienced. He came and went on the river like the wind and disappeared from sight after a while.
It was about half the time for the incense stick.
A cruising yacht was sent to ride the wind and waves.
"Report! Enemy naval forces have been found in the lower reaches of the Huai River in the direction of Haozhou. They are five miles away from the entrance of the Dongfei River."
Lin Renzhao clenched his fists excitedly and was secretly thankful.
This Luo Youdu was indeed extraordinary and bold. He actually sailed the boat in a large circle for the sake of an upstream advantage.
However, God is not as good as man. No matter how many tricks you use, you will experience your first defeat in life at the hands of someone.
Thanks to Guo Tuanlian's vigilance, otherwise it would not be a good idea to delay for a moment until Luo Youdu entered the entrance of Dongfei River.
"Hurry north, enter the Huai River, and seize the upper reaches!"
The mighty navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty sailed upstream and entered the Huai River.
Seeing the shadow of Zhou's navy in the distance, Lin Renzhao waved his arms with certainty of victory and said loudly: "Go down the river, today we are going to teach little Zhuge of the Puppet Zhou Dynasty how to use boats and water to fight..."
The morale was originally low due to the embarrassing battle situation, but under the encouragement of Lin Renzhao, he started shouting one after another.
After driving down the river for about a mile, the outline of Zhou Jun's navy was already in sight.
Lin Renzhao waved his command flag and began to form a formation on the Huai River.
The building ship is in the center, the fighting ship is at the front, the seagulls are arranged on the left and right, the walking boat is at the rear, and the yachts are scattered in scattered directions.
This is the most commonly used water warfare method among the armies of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
The characteristics of each fleet are brought into full play.
Fighting ships are most sturdily located in the center, which can not only protect the main ship, but also be able to confront enemy ships head-on. Long-range attack methods in water warfare are the first, so fighting ships are mostly equipped with powerful bows, crossbows and trebuchets.
The Seagull is fast and has an iron drill on its bow, which is used to ram enemy ships. As for the walking boat, it is equipped with elite soldiers, who are used to climb enemy ships and seize them to kill the enemy.
First suppress it from a distance, then attack with seagulls, board the ship and mow the stern, maneuver the yacht, join the battle or rescue the fallen soldiers, all tried and tested.
In the distance, the Zhou navy navy gradually approached.
Lin Renzhao looked at Zhou Jun's navy who had formed their formation, with some surprise in his eyes.
The opponent's entire naval fleet is actually dominated by fighting ships. Don't you know that although fighting ships are strong, they are extremely heavy?