Section 21 Small Win

Lu Meng was lucky. He did not fall into the river, but fell into his own boat. However, there were few soldiers on the boat. Several boatmen were panicked and pressed against the large ship that was constantly squeezing with the iron spear in their hands. The wind blew tighter. The big ship full of sails hit the waves half a man high and hit Lu Meng. Looking at the dark tummy, Lu Meng, who had always been brave, couldn't help but be frightened. He glanced at a small boat floating by next to him, jumped up first, kicked the body lying on the side of the boat with his legs, and shouted: "Change the boat, withdraw!"

The soldiers woke up as if they were dreaming and jumped onto the boat one by one. The two soldiers and Lu Meng raised their shields to protect the boatmen. Some of the remaining people helped the paddle, some were sailing, and some were steering, and they used their strength to row the boat as if flying. He walked along the way to pack up his men and horses, gathered the soldiers who were fighting with the Cao army, fought and retreated, and slowly retreated.

The situation of the central army surprised Lu Meng. A warship next to Zhou Yu's boat was knocked out a large hole that was one person high, and half of the boat had been flooded with water. The soldiers on the boat were nervously moving to the ship next to him. Even Zhou Yu's boat was squeezed with some soldiers. The wide boat was obviously a little crowded. The dozen generals who were supposed to be on his boat were also squeezed on Zhou Yu's boat.

Zhou Yu sat on the table with a deep face, but the generals beside him were not so quiet, and they all looked panicked. Even Cheng Pu, the right governor, showed a nervous look. Lu Su was admonishing him bitterly: "Governor, Gongjin, you can't hold on anymore. Everyone can see that the big brick group came to your warship. It has been three times, all of them landed around your warship. You also saw that ship, and the ship would be destroyed and the people would be killed. How did you know that you would not hit you next time? You still want Huang Gongfu..." Lu Su suddenly felt that this sentence was a bit unlucky, and quickly shut up, but his meaning was already very clear. He didn't want the way for Huang Gai of Zhou Yu's troops to go.

Taking advantage of this moment of dazedness, Lu Meng found out about the situation to some generals next to him. Somehow, a large brick bundle of straw rope suddenly fell from the sky and hit the ship next to him. Two soldiers killed on the spot, made a big hole in the thick deck, and hit the three oarsmen on the lower layer, knocking out a large crack in the bottom of the ship. There was no time to block the water, and the water rushed in and had to abandon the ship. This was not counting, one more fell every half a moment. From the beginning of the battle, three of them flew over to now. Fortunately, the two did not hit the ship, but the sky-sum water column aroused in the river made the boat next to him look frightened, and the last piece scattered in the air. The scattered bricks hit a small boat next to him, and the soldiers were bleeding from their heads and smashed several people on the spot.

The captain of the Zan Army, Lu Su, was sharp-eyed. He saw that the black shadow was coming from Cai Mao's ship. The directions were consistent in three times. He immediately judged that these strange weapons might be the legendary siege thunder cannons of Cao's army. As for how these weapons used on land appeared on the ship and how could they be so far, he didn't have time to think about it so much. He just knew that these thunder cannons must have been aimed at Zhou Yu's ship, and immediately advised Zhou Yu to retreat a little and not to push it forward. Unfortunately, Zhou Yu was like nothing happened. He just asked someone to pick up the people on the shipwreck, and continued to listen to the messengers' continuous reporting of the battle situation, and issued combat orders in an orderly manner.

"Zi Ming, why is your vanguard army back?" Zhou Yu saw Lu Meng covered in blood and put down the bamboo slips in his hand.

"Governor, the vanguard army is not good, I...I am defeated." Lu Meng lowered his head and knelt down and apologized with shame.

"Don't rush to apologize, tell me about the situation ahead." Zhou Yu waved his hand and used Yu Ruyi beside him to provoke Lu Meng's hand.

Lu Meng was relieved by Zhou Yu's calm voice. He paused for a moment before saying, "Cai Mao's Mengchong fight ships were all Jingzhou naval forces, with average combat power. Our army had the upper hand, but those connected ships were Cao Cao's Northern Army, with excellent weapons, strong combat power, and equipped with strong crossbows. Our ships were no match for them at all. We could only deal with them with relatively strong flexibility, and it was very hard to fight."

"Well, keep talking." Zhou Yu smiled, brought a glass of wine to Lu Meng, "Drink some wine and say it slowly."

Lu Meng looked at Zhou Yu with gratitude, took the wine glass and took a sip, and then handed the wine glass back to Zhou Yu: "Thank you, the governor. The big ships are also equipped with many strange-shaped wooden frames, with a heavy hammer on them. Once they fall, they are amazingly powerful. I have dozens of boats approaching the other big ships. If they want to climb up and fight, they are all sunk by these heavy hammers." Lu Meng remembered the tragic situation he saw on the way back, and the expressions of his subordinates who looked unpopular, and couldn't help but feel a little scared.

"But those brick-firing things?" Zhou Yu frowned and asked softly.

"No, those are fixed on the side of the big ship, they can only lift and land heavy hammers, and cannot throw bricks." Lu Meng thought for a while and said, "I killed Cai Mao's boat and saw a black shadow, which seemed to be flying out of the boat behind Cai Mao."

Zhou Yu looked at Lu Su in surprise, and the two of them couldn't help but take a breath at the same time. They always thought it was fired from the warship in front of Cai Mao, but they didn't expect to return it to Cai Mao's back. Zhou Yu was still considering sending his most elite man to kill him to see if he could destroy it at the same time. When he heard that he was still behind Cai Mao's ship, he immediately gave up his mind.

Lu Meng, who is known for his warlike and bravery in the army, was beaten back, and there was no chance for others.

"How is the battle between the two wings?" Zhou Yu turned his head and asked.

"Ling Gongji (Ling Tong) can still hold on, but Sun Changshui (Sun Lang) can't hold on anymore. Gan Xingba has already gone to reinforce and is fighting fiercely with the opponent's Yu Jin." Lu Su replied in an answer: "But the opponent's fight is getting easier, and I'm afraid our army will not gain the upper hand."

Zhou Yu nodded: "Telection, Gan Xingba cut off the rear, and the troops retreated steadily." He glanced at the generals who breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Don't panic, the wind is getting tighter, and the Northern Army is not accustomed to water wars. Even if there are large ships, they may not dare to chase them. It's okay for you to retreat slowly."

"No!" The generals blushed, gave their salutes, and came out one after another. When Lu Su saw the generals out of the cockpit, he breathed a sigh of relief. He tidied up his clothes and sat in front of Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu: "Two governors, our army has not won the upper hand in this battle. I wonder what you two are going to do?"

"What? Zijing has no confidence?" Zhou Yu glanced at Cheng Pu, who was nervous, and turned around and smiled at Lu Su.

"Hahaha..." Lu Su laughed loudly, "Victory and defeat are common in military affairs. Moreover, our army was not defeated in this formation, but it was just a even-match. Why did Gongjin say this? It's just that the performance of Cao's army was somewhat beyond our expectations. I would like to ask you what countermeasures you have. Mencius said that the time is not as good as the place, and the place is not as good as the people. Our army occupies the land and the land, and is united. We have a harmonious place. However, Cao Cao has won Jingzhou, and the people are not attached to the people. The Northern Army is not accustomed to water wars and does not obey the land. It doesn't take long to get epidemics, and the combat power will be greatly reduced. We still have an advantage."

After hearing this, Cheng Pu hesitated for a moment, but said nothing, but just picked up the wine glass to drink.

"Mr. Cheng, please speak in person if you have something to do. Isn't it better to discuss with each other?" Zhou Yu said with a smile.

"Gongjin, Zijing, I think it's better to say something. Jiangdong lives in a side area, and no matter whether it is manpower or material resources, it is not as good as Cao Cao. We fought a Jiangxia capital for several years, not to mention that we are not facing Jiangxia, but the entire China. The so-called geographical advantage is shared by both sides of the Yangtze River, and we occupy the land entrance. But it's the south bank. You have also seen this battle today. We are at a disadvantage. We fight very hard. The other side's big ship takes advantage of the wind, and we can't stop it. As for people, I believe you know that even Zhang Zibu (Zhang Zhao) does not support the battlefield with Cao. It's better not to talk about this person. The first battle was defeated by Huang Gongfu. It can be said that it was an accident. This battle was fought by the governor himself. All I can fight in Jiangdong has come, but it's still the situation. Do you think we still have a chance of winning?"

"Well, what should I do?" Zhou Yu pulled Lu Su, whose face turned dizzy, and asked with a smile.

Cheng Pu choked for a moment and said, "In my opinion, I will report the situation of this battle to the lord quickly and ask the lord to decide."

"Mr. Cheng said this very well, and Yu was just thinking of this." Zhou Yu bowed and smiled, "I would like to ask Princess Cheng to write, Yu will discuss it."

Cheng Pu then relaxed his face, bowed and went out. Lu Su looked at Cheng Pu disappearing outside the cabin, and then said coldly: "I don't know what the lord thinks, but he actually let this person work with Gongjin and is still above Gongjin. How can such a timid and afraid of things be accomplished?"

Zhou Yu put down the wine glass in his hand and closed the smile on his face: "Zijing, Cao's army's combat power was too much for us. If this battle continues like this, I am afraid that we will lose. We have to make another surprise plan."

"Gongjin, why do you say that too?" Lu Su suddenly changed his face and shouted in a deep voice.

"Zijing, don't be anxious." Zhou Yu waved his hand and stopped Lu Su: "You have also seen that Cao's army is not only stronger than our army, but also has not weak combat power. This big ship is even more difficult to deal with. Before finding a good solution, our army should not fight against it. It doesn't matter if Cao Cao dies 20,000 people. If we damage more than 10,000, it will hurt our vitality. You must know that after we deal with Cao Cao, there are still many things to do."

Lu Su was shocked and immediately calmed down.

Cao Cao sat in the middle of the tent, and the generals sat on both sides with a smile on their faces, each of them was extremely excited. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Xun You nodded to Liu Ba to indicate that the military discussion began. Liu Ba stood up and walked to the middle and said loudly: "After the efforts of all the generals, our army has achieved great results in this battle with Zhou Yu. According to the Prime Minister's order, we will inform you of the results."

Liu Ba didn't look at the data statistics in his hand and reported them one by one. Cao Chong looked at the numbers in his hand. He was shocked. Liu Ba was indeed a genius, very good at the prime minister in his previous life. The numbers were never forgotten. He was talented in accounting and should be a good housekeeper.

Although the water battle of Cao's army was not as great as the battle report said, it was also good. Yu Jin and Lejin on both wings relied on the strong impact and high stability of the large ship, fully utilized the combat effectiveness and excellent military advantages of the Northern Army, and tied with Ling Tong, Sun Lang and Gan Xingba. The central army Cai Mao defeated the caught off guard Lu Meng's front army and captured Lu Meng almost alive. He directly faced Zhou Yu's central army, used thunder cannons to directly attack Zhou Yu's central army, and almost hit Zhou Yu's local ship, turning Zhou Yu into the second Huang Gai.

Unfortunately, although the Jingzhou navy has improved its combat power after more than half a month of strong training, it is still no match for the Jiangdong navy. Among the casualties of Cao's army, 70% of the casualties were the casualties of Jingzhou navy. Facing the Jiangdong navy on the same warship, they still suffered more casualties than the Jiangdong navy, which really made Cai Mao a little discouraged.

However, while Cai Mao was depressed, there was something that excited him. The rod made by Liu Cong was powerful. After overcoming the initial panic, the soldiers who operated used their skillful training skills to beat the Jiangdong ships near the big ships in a mess and suffered heavy losses. Lu Mengdi's front army was defeated and out of control. This made Cai Mao happy that Liu Cong's thunder cannon modified onto the ship was unanimously recognized this time.

"According to the surrendered soldiers, although the ground thunderbolt cannon failed to hit Zhou Yu's warship this time, it did not achieve the beheading purpose of the young master." Liu Ba turned his head and smiled slightly at Cao Chong behind Cao Cao, and said loudly: "But one of the three brick cannons hit Zhou Yu's sub-ship. The two were also not far from Zhou Yu's ship, causing large-scale damage and greater panic among the enemy." He smiled and pointed to his heart. When the generals heard it, they couldn't help laughing knowingly. Especially when Yu Jin and Le Jin looked at each other, thinking of the Jiangdong water soldiers who were caught on the ground at that time, they kept muttering the "monsters" and laughed happily. When the generals saw Yu Jin, who was usually serious, they laughed loudly.

"From the results of this battle, the transformation of the pole and thunder cannons hosted by Liu Zhongyu was successful. The Prime Minister's Office decided to install pole and thunder cannons on all major ships. Please ask the generals to prepare the operation to send them to the baggage battalion together for training, but the number of ready-made ones is limited, so only some ships can be modified this time." Liu Ba looked around and asked Cao Cao for instructions. Cao Cao nodded with a smile and signaled to continue.

"There are the first batch of modifications to be announced below, including the first batch of modifications to the naval army governor Cai Mao, the Le Jin unit of General Zhe Chong, the Yu Jin unit of General Huwei, the Zhang He unit of General Pingdi, and the first batch of modifications to the fourth army."

As soon as Liu Ba announced, all the generals were a little strange. Needless to say, Cai Mao was Cao Cao's relatives, Cao Chong and Liu Cong's father-in-law. The good things they made would definitely be equipped with his army first. It's easy to say that Le Jin and Yu Jin had achieved good results this time when they boarded the ship for the first time. They should be rewarded, but why did Zhang He's troops also install them in the first batch?

Someone was about to express his suspicion. Someone next to him pulled him and said in his ear: "Don't you know that Zhang Yanyi's son was dragged by Mr. Cang Shu to teach the halberd method? What's so strange about this?" When the suspicious heard this, he suddenly realized and nodded and thanked him.

When Cao Chong was tossing his five hundred people, he found that they were not very strong in using long soldiers, including tiger soldiers, and Huang Zhong's 300 people and Wei Yan's 100 people, not to mention the halberds. They rarely used weapons like halberds. Cao Chong asked carefully and found out that long halberds are a kind of use technique, such as stings, hooks, chops, pushes, and they were very powerful. If they were not used well, they would be a spear. The cost of halberds was much higher than that of spears, so there were few people using land now. The best halberds in the entire Cao camp were several generals from the north, such as Zhang Liao, the dead Zhang Xiu, and Zhang He.

Among them, Zhang He's halberd was the best. Not only did he use his halberd well, he also had a personal guard, known as the halberd soldier. He was the personal guard of Yuan Shao at that time, as famous as Qu Yi's 800-sword shield. These people all used halberds, each with a long halberd and two short halberds. They had great achievements in combat and were invincible. They were famous among dozens of generals' personal guards, and they felt like they were approaching the Tiger Guard camp led by Xu Chu, but the number of people was relatively large.

Seeing the hunt, Cao Chong was happy and tried to persuade Zhang He to come over for a few days. In the end, he was not satisfied. He simply snatched his son, Zhang Xiong, the captain of the guard, into the camp. Zhang He made Zhang He cry and laugh, but only asked Cao Cao for instructions. Cao Cao frowned when he heard this. It would be fine to steal other people, but why did he snatch the captain of the guard? However, he did not ask Cao Chong back, so he had to find an opportunity to compensate Zhang He, and compensation was the first opportunity to modify the warships.

Anyway, Cao Chong's idea of ​​mixing the Northern Army and the Navy to improve combat effectiveness showed that this water battle was not only feasible, but also it must be done in this way. The navy took a small boat and the Northern Army took a large boat, complementing each other and cooperating with each other, which not only made up for the problem of the navy's weak combat power, but also solved the shortcomings of the Northern Army not being able to learn about water warfare. After this calculation, Zhang He actually took a big advantage.

"In this battle, our army lost more than 200 warships, all of which were small boats. Three of them were injured in large boats, but they did not affect the operation. More than 4,800 soldiers were killed in battle and more than 15,000 wounded, many of which were later killed by the wind and water. Sinking and wounding 150 warships from the opponent, capturing more than 2,100 enemy troops, and capturing the ship of the Jiangdong van Lu Meng." Liu Ba finally concluded. Cao Cao followed the announcement of the reward plan, encouraging everyone to continue to work hard and practice hard to prepare for the next complete defeat of Zhou Yu. The generals agreed and went out of the camp.

Then Jiang Gan was ordered to go on a mission again, and went straight to Chaisang to force Sun Quan to surrender to the proton. Jiang Gan was full of energy and boasted about Haikou in front of Cao Chong. If he returned empty-handed this time, he would jump into the Yangtze River and return. If he didn't come back, he would die in the river. Even if he couldn't complete the mission in such a good situation, he could not afford to lose this person.

Zhang Song wanted to pat Jiang Gan on the shoulder after hearing this, but when he saw that he might not be able to hold his shoulder, he had to retract his hand and smiled, "If you are not sure, send a letter in advance, I will take the boat to pick you up. You can just swim in the water for a few steps. If you really want to swim in the Yangtze River, I'm afraid you will float back." Everyone laughed a lot, and Jiang Gan himself laughed uncontrollably, pointing at Zhang Song and scolded: "I want to succeed at your stinky mouth, otherwise I will really drown, who can bear you?"
Chapter completed!