Chapter 416: Battle with Hongze Lake (Part 2)

Zhu Hulong stood at the bow of the ship and looked nervously in the distance. At this time, the lookout hand on the mast shouted loudly: "Northeast, a clutch!"

Zhu Hulong did not dare to be negligent, and immediately looked in the direction of the lookout hand. Sure enough, he found that a lonely fast ship was sailing towards this place in the distance, which was vaguely the ship he sent yesterday. However, despite this, he had to be prepared for battle. Zhu Hulong shouted loudly: "The crossbow is on the strings, the rocket is ready to raise the battle flag!"

Hearing his order, the soldiers on the deck immediately agreed and nervously made preparations before the war. Soon a fiery red battle flag was raised from the mast, and then Dong Zunhui's central army flagship discovered the battle flag raised in front and immediately began to be on guard.

After receiving the notice, Dong Zunhui hurriedly ran out of the cabin and ran to the deck to look around. Unfortunately, it was foggy in front of him, and he could only vaguely see a fast ship coming from a distance. When everyone was nervous, they heard cheers faintly from the forward ship, and then lowered the battle flag.

Dong Zunhui smiled slightly and shouted to everyone: "It seems that the messenger we sent has successfully deceived Chen Chengzhao. Brothers, have a good rest, we are going to win another big victory!"

Everyone cheered in a low voice, and soon Zhu Hulong drove a small boat and brought a messenger to Dong Zunhui's ship. The generals under Dong Zunhui also took the small boat to the flagship, listened to the situation report, and waited for Dong Zunhui's next order.

The messenger was not long-winded, and briefly introduced the situation: Chen Chengzhao ordered Zhu Hulong and others to stick to the Tushan Zhou army camp and gain time for the main force.

Although Zhu Hulong had heard it once, he still felt indignant when he heard it again. He couldn't help but mutter in a low voice: "Even we can't defeat the garrison army. If we stick to the camp, we will all die in Tushan in the face of the elite Zhou army!" Seeing Dong Zunhui looking at him with a smile, Zhu Hulong was shocked and quickly said: "Chen Chengzhao is really sinister. General, the last general is willing to volunteer to attack the Tang army fleet tonight!"

Dong Zunhui thought for a while, but shook his head. He said to the messenger: "You just said that Chen Chengzhao intends to regain the land occupied by our army, so he let Zhu Hulong and others stick to the Tushan camp to attract the main force of our army, and Chen Chengzhao will use the main force to counterattack our naval army. Is that true?"

The messenger nodded quickly. He thought for a while and then said, "When we returned this morning, we heard that Chen Chengzhao had ordered people to copy hundreds of copies of the notices occupying Tushan Camp and shot them into the Zhou army's water camp, trying to shake the morale of the Zhou army."

Zhu Hulong, who was standing beside him, hurriedly said: "General, Chen Gou is vicious. We must attack decisively and attack our navy forward and backward to completely defeat the Tang army!"

Dong Zunhui smiled and said, "Don't worry, when we are about to set off, I have ordered people to send information to our naval army and inform us of the fact that Tushan Wuyou. Even if Chen Chengzhao wrote a thousand letters, it would not shake our morale! But this is a good opportunity. When we fight the Tang army in Hongze Lake, we can only defeat the naval army; but if we can introduce them to the land, we can wipe them out in one fell swoop!"

Cao Quan, who was standing beside him, hurriedly said: "General, I will send someone to send a letter to Han Chongyun and the others in the fast ship!"

Dong Zunhui shook his head, "Believe in their judgment ability, believe that they can make the most favorable adjustments based on the specific situation. Besides, it is easy to alarm the enemy when sending letters now. We finally made Chen Chengzhao deceived, so how could he easily notice it? Send the order, slow down the speed of the ship, and pay attention to concealing his whereabouts. Let's wait!"

Hearing his orders, the generals immediately issued orders to their respective boats. Zhu Hulong was already impressed by Dong Zunhui's prediction ability, so he returned to his vanguard fleet very readily without raising any objection.

Han Chongyun and the others really lived up to Dong Zunhui's expectations for them. After receiving the ultimatum issued by Chen Chengzhao, Han Chongyun and the others discussed it for a while and organized the troops to evacuate in an orderly manner and quietly sent people to convey information from the land to Dong Zunhui's troops.

Looking at the Zhou army gradually moving away, Chen Chengzhao led his troops to easily defeat the Zhou army's coastal defense forces and landed successfully. Someone proposed to pursue them, but Chen Chengzhao shook his head and said to the generals: "Since ancient times, do not pursue the enemy, let alone the enemy has just been in a dilemma and has not yet fallen into a desperate situation. When two or three days pass, when there is a problem with the opponent's grain supply, it is the best time for us to attack."

The generals were also very convinced by Chen Chengzhao at this time, and they all said flattering words and did things to please. Chen Chengzhao smiled and said, "I have lived on the boat for so long, and now we have finally got ashore. Why don't we rest on the shore tonight and send a large army to follow the Zhou army and easily recover the lost land. What do you think?"

Who dares to object? Everyone is not a person who has no eyesight, but who dares to say no, so naturally they all sing hymns and agree. That night, Chen Chengzhao and the others abandoned the ship and set up camp. Because they were worried that the Zhou army would kill him and retaliate, the fortifications of the camp were repaired very hard, so that the soldiers were exhausted.

Chen Chengzhao said with a smile: "If the Zhou army loses the food and grass support from Tushan Camp, there will be no food soon. How dare you turn around and attack? You are so cautious, too cautious!"

If Chen Chengzhao expected that night was safe and safe, the soldiers of the Tang army were more convinced of the ability of the commander. The morale of Dong Zunhui who had been depressed by killing generals and flags, picking guns and crossbows was greatly improved. When the next day, the soldiers were full of morale and shouting slogans with high spirits. The next night, everyone was a little lazy, and fortifications were built in a hurry, and that night was safe and sound.

By the third day, the front army had heard good news, and had successfully recovered Sizhou and seized a large amount of military supplies. The Tang soldiers were cheering, and Chen Chengzhao looked at the two beauties that the former generals respected him, and he wanted to sleep with them on the bed with them. In order to boost morale, he ordered the whole army to drink and celebrate the victory.

So that night, the Tang soldiers were too lazy to build fortifications, and they all secretly got drunk half-drunk. Chen Chengzhao stripped naked early in the morning and rushed to the bed. So, Dong Zunhui also seized this opportunity and led his army to rush up quietly!

Facing the half-drunk Tang soldiers, the Zhou soldiers exerted their extraordinary combat power, easily broke through the extremely weak defense of the Tang army, and rushed to the vicinity of Chen Chengzhao's central army tent.

When Dong Zunhui strode into the central army tent, there was no one inside, but the bed was very warm. It seemed that Chen Chengzhao had escaped for a while, Dong Zunhui immediately ordered a thorough search, and soon grabbed Chen Chengzhao who was running away from the haystack in the stable.

That night, Dong Zunhui led his army to capture more than 3,000 Tang army soldiers. In the following days, under the attack of the Zhou army, more than 300 large and small warships of the Tang army and more than 7,000 soldiers were seized. Since then, the Tang army has no longer had mobile power on the Huaihe River!


Chapter completed!