Two hundred warships, with all their sails hoisted, began to swim down the river with the sound of rumbling war drums.
Gan Ning was at a disadvantage and faced an enemy several times his own, but he still chose to face the enemy.
Cai Hao, who was going up the river, saw the enemy fleet dispatching, but a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth.
"You Jinfan thief, you still want to repeat the old tricks but you have underestimated my strength, Cai Mao."
Cai Mao's arrogant face showed disdain. He immediately and calmly ordered the ships to move closer to each other, reduce the distance between ships, and steadily advance towards the enemy in a dense formation.
In the previous water battle, Zhang Yun was defeated because the fleet formation was too wide, and the gap between the ships gave Gan Ning an opportunity to rush through the smaller ships.
Now Cai Mao has learned his lesson and pushed forward in a dense formation, blocking the opportunity for enemy ships to penetrate. He believed that as long as he pushed forward with such a dense iron wall formation and suppressed it with a powerful force,
The opponent, no matter how cunning Gan Ning is, will be crushed.
Five hundred warships straddled the river, advancing in a mighty manner with great momentum.
Gan Ning mainly focused on small ships, and his fleet of only two hundred people was too small compared to Cai Mao's army.
Gan Ning showed no fear and only urged the fleet to move forward faster.
Already possessing the momentum upstream, he raised the full sail, and with the push of the oars, he reached the fastest speed, moving like the wind, and quickly approached the enemy.
After a while, the two armies entered each other's crossbow range.
Cai Mao waved his sword and took the lead in issuing the attack order.
There were more than a hundred fighting ships and more than 3,000 crossbowmen in front of them. The sharp arrows that had been set up long ago came out in response to the sound.
Amidst the alarm of thousands of birds chirping, countless arrows soared into the sky, roaring towards Gan Ning's army like a heavenly and earthly net.
Under the rain of arrows, screams suddenly broke out, and hundreds of Gan Ning soldiers were hit.
Immediately afterwards, wave after wave of arrow rain poured towards Gan Ning's fleet without stopping.
Faced with such a powerful suppression of arrows, Gan Ning and his warriors did not flinch. They continued to advance rapidly despite the rain of arrows.
After a while, the two armies were no more than a hundred steps apart.
The timing is right.
Gan Ning, who stood proudly on the bow of the ship, shouted: "Give me the order. Each team will launch a fire ship."
The flag waved and the message spread throughout the army in an instant.
According to the advance battle plan, each team lit up the gunboat at the front, and the soldiers retreated to the walking boat that followed behind.
After the ropes were untied, more than forty fire ships rushed towards Cai Mao's army like wild horses that had escaped the reins.
The stern ships had flammable substances such as saltpeter and kerosene hidden in advance, and they would burst into flames in just a moment. With the force of the current and the inertia of the previous acceleration, the fire ships turned out to be like fire dragons.
Generally, unstoppable, rushing forward.
On the flagship, Cai Hao, who was standing proudly, instantly fell into endless horror.
He never expected that Gan Ning did not use the speedboat to catch the ship again as he expected, but instead used the fire ship tactic unexpectedly.
Now that the formation of his fleet is so dense, the original iron-wall-like formation has become the biggest mistake.
"Quick, the whole ship spreads out. Avoid the fire ship!"
Cai Mao was so horrified that he completely lost his dignity and screamed loudly.
Before his order could be given, the frightened ships immediately began to flee.
Unfortunately, it's too late.
The fire ship coming like the wind gave the enemy no chance to escape.
Such a close distance, such a dense formation, and such a fast speed, when Cai Mao's navy just changed course, more than thirty fireships sprayed tongues of flame and crashed into the fleet.
With loud crashing noises, eight fire ships hit the enemy ship immediately.
The raging flames spread quickly, and in just a blink of an eye, the entire wooden fighting ship was set on fire.
The fire was raging and it was impossible to put out the fire. The enemy soldiers on the battleship were afraid of being buried in the sea of fire, so they had no choice but to rush onto the deck and dive into the water to escape.
The other twenty or so fire ships passed through the gap in front and hit the enemy ships behind them in the blink of an eye. Those enemy ships that were set alight lost control and could only drift backwards along the current.
Go, if you do this, it means that more fire ships will hit you downstream.
As it spread like this, in less than a quarter of an hour, half of the river was covered in fire, and most of the more than 500 Xiangyang navy warships were on fire.
Countless frightened soldiers jumped into the water, and either drowned in the roaring river or were hit by their own ramming warships. The rest of the soldiers who could not jump away all died in the fire.
The desperate Cai Mao, seeing that the situation was over, immediately abandoned his flagship and took a boat to escape downstream to Xiangyang Water Village.
The Jingzhou fleet, which had lost its command, quickly fell into chaos under the impact of the fire. The remaining ships turned around and fled desperately.
At this time, Gan Ning calmly drove the fleet, following closely behind the fire ship, like a wolf driving a sheep, chasing the enemy down the river.
In the afternoon, Cai Mao and the surviving soldiers of the more than one hundred warships and Wanbaduo fled back to the water village in a hurry.
The fire boat arrived shortly after, plundered the water village, and then went downstream along the river.
The nightmare was not over yet. Just when Cai Mao took a breath, Gan Ning's navy pounced on him.
Two hundred warships, with the momentum of a great victory, used all their strength to attack the water stronghold.
The main force of the navy was lost, and more than half of the 30,000 soldiers and horses were lost. At this time, Cai Mao was already in shock, and he had no intention of holding on.
Cai Hao, who had just escaped to the water stronghold, did not dare to hesitate at all. He immediately led his more than 10,000 remaining troops, abandoned the water stronghold, and fled towards Xiangyang City.
Gan Ning's 5,000 navy troops captured the Xiangyang Water Village almost without a fight.
After the great victory, Gan Ning left some troops to guard the water camp, while the remaining troops quickly advanced towards Xiangyang City. At the same time, Pegasus sent people to report the news of the great victory to Yan Liang's main force in the northern suburbs of Xiangyang.
######
Xiangyang, northern suburbs.
In the large tent of the Chinese army, Yan Liang's legs were resting on the desk, and he was reading the military books leisurely.
As the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces, he was calm and relaxed at the moment, without any sense of tension in a war.
The faces of the generals in front of the tent were tense. Except for Xu Shu, everyone had a bit of uneasiness on their faces.
Wen Chou, Hu Che'er, and the other generals present are all good at land warfare. When fighting on land, they have a hundredfold confidence in themselves.
But these landlubbers know nothing about water warfare.
There were 30,000 enemies and 500 battleships, led by Liu Biao's subordinate Cai Mao, who was the second best at water warfare besides Huang Zu.
With Gan Ning's navy of less than five thousand, Wen Chou and others were really unsure whether they could defend the pontoon bridge. What's more, Yan Liang's order to Gan Ning was to annihilate Cai Mao's navy.
"It's good if we can hold it. We still have to annihilate all the enemy forces. Our General Yan You's appetite must be too much."
The generals in the tent are all thinking this in their hearts at this moment.
Yan Liang was not worried at all. He defeated Zhang Yun in the last battle. Yan Liang had 100% confirmed Gan Ning's water fighting ability.
He believed that his vision was absolutely correct and Gan Ning would never disappoint him.
Time passes minute by minute.
In the big tent, the atmosphere became increasingly uneasy.
From early morning to noon, a full half day has passed since the scouts came to report that the two armies were fighting on the pontoon bridge. Everyone is anxiously waiting for the outcome of the battle.
"Brother, in my opinion, our army should move its camp towards the pontoon bridge to prepare for any unexpected events." Wen Chou couldn't help but add.
"Unexpected, what unexpected?" Yan Liang put down the letter and pretended to be confused.
Wen Chou coughed a few times, cupped his hands and said: "Brother, the weak is the enemy of the strong, and the outcome is unknown. If the pontoon is lost, our army is in danger of being cut off on the south bank. What I mean is that if the army can camp close to the pontoon,
, if something unexpected happens..."
Wen Chou didn't finish the following words, but the meaning is obvious.
He wanted to say that once the pontoon bridge was lost, the army could withdraw from the pontoon bridge to the north bank as soon as possible to avoid being cut off from the south of the Yangtze River.
Yan Liang only smiled faintly and asked: "Ziqin, don't you believe in Xingba's strength?"
Wen Chou paused, "Xingba certainly has the ability to fight in water, but this time the strength of the two sides is too disparate. I'm afraid Xingba won't be able to do what he wants."
Although the words were euphemistic, the underlying meaning was clear.
Wen Chou just had distrust towards Gan Ning, a young general who was just starting out.
"You may not trust Xingba's strength, but don't you also trust my general's ability to recognize people?"
Yan Liang asked again, and this time Wen Chou was speechless.
Man Chong, Wen Pin, Xu Shu, even Hu Che'er, Zhou Cang and others, who were originally unknown people, once they were put under Yan Liang's command, they exerted unprecedented energy, energy that shocked the world.
At this time, who dares to doubt Yan Liang's ability to recognize people?
The tent became quiet for a moment, and the uneasiness of the generals was suppressed by Yan Liang's strong self-confidence.
Yan Liang picked up the slip again and continued to read the military book leisurely.
The sun was setting in the west, and several hours passed in the blink of an eye.
The sound of hurried footsteps sounded, and a scout entered the tent. From Wen Chou down, the nerves of the generals immediately became tense.
The scout fell down in front and shouted excitedly: "General, General Xingba defeated Cai Mao's navy and broke through the enemy's water camp. Now the entire army is advancing towards Xiangyang."
The big tent fell into silence, and you could hear a needle drop.
Then, thunderous cheers broke out.
Gan Ning won, not only annihilating the Jingzhou navy, but also breaking through the enemy's stronghold, and his troops marched towards Xiangyang.
Not only did he win, he won a great victory.
The young general who was born as a Jinfan thief actually accomplished all of this inconceivably.
Wen Chou, who was in a state of excitement and jubilation, couldn't help but hold up his hands and said: "Xingba, a good general in water warfare, is rare in the world. My brother's ability to recognize talents with his sharp eyes really makes my foolish brother admire him."
The other generals were all amazed and admired Yan Liang's ability to recognize people.
Yan Liang is not humble either, he only holds his head high to accept the admiration of everyone.
Xu Shu, who had been calm all this time, now smiled and said: "My lord, the Xiangyang navy has been defeated. Now it is time for us to let go and use all our strength to capture Xiangyang City."
The pride of hunting was burning in Yan Liang's chest. He stood up suddenly and said loudly: "Pass this general's order, and the entire army will break out of camp immediately and march into Xiangyang!" (To be continued. Registered members of Piaotian Literature recommend this work.