Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 425 Withdraw

These golden-winged ships were used to great effect in the hands of old man Wang.

In just one encounter, Old Man Wang used seven or eight water battle tactics on the opponent, sometimes besieging, sometimes swinging, sometimes flanking, and sometimes crashing.

Even with those huge battleships, Old Man Wang can make full use of their capabilities.

In the State of Chen, Liu Dao can only command his own giant ship and two escort ships, which is already difficult. He cannot command the entire army like Lao Wang does. His ability is insufficient.

This enabled Old Man Wang to take advantage of his command and defeat the enemy with more troops everywhere.

On his main ship, flags and horns kept flying and trumpets were blowing. He was frantically commanding the army and launching different tactics. One after another, the Chen warships were destroyed, sunk, burned, or robbed.

Liu Dao was sweating profusely. Unconsciously, his huge advantage was disappearing rapidly. Looking around, he saw dense enemy warships in all directions.

Liu Dao didn't know how to respond for a moment.

When three golden-winged ships appeared around him, Liu Dao was completely stunned.

The big poles were used to hit the other boats continuously as a threat, so that the other boats would not dare to approach.

But Wang Lin was obviously not very afraid of this kind of intimidation. The two golden-winged ships approached the giant beast from two directions. Soldiers on the fighting ships kept shooting arrows. These arrows could hardly have any effect, but they would have a stronger psychological lethality.

The physical strength of the behemoth may be endless, but the people above the behemoth will always consume their physical strength.

Liu Dao fought fiercely from the beginning, without considering that the battle would turn into a defensive one. The soldiers' physical strength was severely depleted, which reduced the speed of the behemoth and even its power.

The big pole fell again and again, but the speed was getting slower and slower. From time to time, a small boat was hit by it and smashed to pieces, but the two golden-winged ships still risked their lives to attack.

"Bang!!"

Wang Lin didn't pretend this time. While the enemies were hitting their poles, he drove the Golden Wing Ship directly to the side of the giant ship and launched a powerful attack. The body of the giant ship showed obvious damage and shook again. Liu Dao saw some soldiers falling into the water with screams.

The other golden-winged ship had ropes ready and started throwing them at the giant beast.

Pull this way, hit that way.

The battering pole came down hard, and the Golden Wing Ship let out screams, but it still held on to the giant ship tightly.

"Command!! The enemy is coming from the stern!"

"what?!"

"Push back! Push back!"

"No, let go of the rod! Let go of the rod!"

Liu Dao was a little incoherent. The Golden Wing Ship had been connected to the giant beast with ropes, and then the soldiers began to climb onto the giant beast quickly, just like attacking a city.

More and more soldiers rushed onto the ship. On the ship, they were outnumbered, but these soldiers behaved extremely bravely. Facing more enemies than themselves, they kept Wang Lin's words in mind: the brave will win! !
Chen Bing was defeated step by step inside the giant beast and fled all the way.

Finally, the giant beast was controlled. Only a few people, including Liu Dao, stood at the highest point, holding powerful crossbows in their hands, aiming at the stairs, and preventing anyone from coming up.

However, the soldiers still rushed forward with shields in hand. This time, the crossbows were aimed at Liu Dao and several officers around him.

Liu Dao's eyes were full of despair.

Thinking of his wife and children at home, he felt even more sad.

Now, we will never see each other again. Even meeting in a dream is a luxury.

The soldiers in front of him suddenly separated their formation, and a man was seen walking out quickly.

Wang Lin raised a shield in his hand, dressed just like a sailor, not showing any demeanor of a general at all. He just stared at Liu Dao in the distance for a moment, and his eyes suddenly fell on his deputy beside him. He was stunned.

"Zhang Zhangshu?"

The crossbow in the deputy's hand fell suddenly to the ground, and the next moment, he knelt on the deck.

"General, you still remember me."

Zhang Shu used to serve under Wang Lin, but he was just a soldier with only twenty people under his command, and was not even an officer.

Wang Lin put down the shield in his hand and said, "Old brothers, I remember everything."

He looked at Liu Dao again.

"Are you Gai Tian's commander?"

"I am. You. I."

Liu Dao's lips were trembling and he didn't know what to say.

"Let the rest of you surrender. I never kill those who surrender. You all know this. As long as you are willing to surrender, I will continue to employ you."

Zhang Shu's eyes were filled with grief. "General, my family and I are all in the south. We cannot continue to follow you."

"If you don't want to follow me, then just go back south."

"Are you willing to surrender?"

"go back??"

Zhang Shu was stunned for a moment, "The general wants to let me go?"

"You fell into the hands of the enemy because of my fault. However, I am not letting you go, I am letting all of you go. The Han army has a military order not to kill those who surrender. If you want to go home, you only need to lay down your weapons and you can get travel expenses and return to your hometown."

Liu Dao hesitated a little, "But the Chen army ordered that the ship was lost and the people died."

"That's your problem. I heard that Chen Guo can solve many problems with money."

"You can choose to surrender, and then take them back and find a way to solve your problem. Or maybe you don't surrender, and I will kill you and let the others go. It's your choice."

Liu Dao slowly put down his crossbow and said, "I am willing to surrender."

Wang Lin finally breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly sent people to persuade the enemies to surrender, and then asked the soldiers to take the boats back to the water fort.

The water fort has been controlled by the army.

When they saw the giant beast carrying the Han flag and coming back towards them, they shouted excitedly.

Wang Lin brought all the captives down and told them not to be afraid, and that he would release them all once they had dealt with their affairs here.

Many of these captives were Lao Wang’s former subordinates. They were too embarrassed to see Wang Lin and kept their heads down.

Zhang Shu was one of the few old subordinates who dared to go see Wang Lin.

However, his face also showed some guilt, "General, we..."

"Okay, no need to say more. You served the State of Chen, I don't blame you. The failure was my fault, how can I blame you? Besides, Chen Qian was really good to his soldiers."

"You all have families here, and I won't force you to stay. Just go back."

"I hope that we will never meet again in battle. If we meet on the battlefield, you don't have to hesitate, and I won't hesitate either."

After Wang Lin finished speaking, he turned and left.

He returned to the water fort again, looking at the newly captured ships, the worry on his face was gradually replaced by joy.

He walked quickly towards the dock and came to Gai Tian's side, then slowly raised his head and observed the huge ship in front of him.

A smile appeared on Wang Lin's face.

The wounded beast quietly stopped beside Wang Lin, and Wang Lin couldn't help but reach out and touch it. The deputy general beside him sighed.

"It's a pity that it's an old ship. It would be better if it was a new giant ship."

Wang Lin glared at him, "What do you know!"

"It's better to have an old ship!"

"Nowadays, all the shipbuilders build fancy ships. They look impressive, but they are useless. The old ships are the strongest! Just looking at the collisions just now, do you think the new ships can handle it?"

"This is a huge ship! It's huge! You youngsters have no idea what it is! You don't know how to recognize a huge ship!"

Hearing Wang Lin's reprimand, the deputy general scratched his head and smiled.

Wang Lin looked at Gai Tian again with obsession.

"We finally have a giant ship."

"With the rest of the big ships, even if we stop attacking now, we will have made a huge profit."

The deputy general heard his words and agreed with them deeply.

"General, there are still some fast ships that have escaped. From now on, it will not be so easy to capture their camps."

"What are you afraid of?"

Wang Lin looked at the huge warship in front of him with fascination, "Now that I have Gaitian in my hand, why should I be afraid of the Huai Navy? Even if I encounter the Jiang Navy, I dare to fight them!"

"However, to be on the safe side, we still cannot use this big ship in this battle. It's damaged, so let's find someone to repair it first to prevent it from being too seriously injured. We don't have to rush to attack those people, just guard the gate. Yao Xiong and his men have already reached the other side, so let them attack those naval camps and destroy them so that they can't get supplies on both sides. We just need to stay here and wait for them to attack us on their own."

Things developed just as Wang Lin had expected. When Yao Xiong and Gao Yanzong learned that Lao Wang had blocked the door, they stopped pretending and stopped talking about siege. They directly started attacking along the coast and destroying the naval bases.

What the Huaishui Army relied on were the many camps distributed along this long stream of water. These camps allowed them to replenish supplies at any time and go out again.

And these camps need to be protected by the army. Usually, the local army cooperates with the navy to carry out defense work. But now, the local army is hiding in the city, and these places are only responsible for the navy. The combat effectiveness of the navy... Many of the navy are not armored. On the one hand, the current naval battles are no longer the kind of naval battles with shooting on both sides in the past. With the development of military technology, the current naval battles are mostly based on collision, projection and pole-shooting.

Of course, it doesn't mean that they won't shoot anymore. Shooting certainly still exists, but the proportion is not as large as in the past. The development of warships has changed the training direction of the navy from shooting to other areas. Most of the time, wearing armor will affect their combat effectiveness, especially those stationed in the port. They are responsible for guarding the warehouse and guarding against thieves. Why do they need to be fully armed?
The armor of the State of Chen was originally insufficient, and the army was not enough, and they gave it to you naval forces? ?

This resulted in the situation where the Han cavalry encountered the Chen infantry, which was almost equivalent to the feeling when the Chen giant warships encountered the Han small warships.

Yao Xiong and Gao Yanzong were killing people everywhere. The camps fell in an instant, and then they began to loot the supplies inside.

As for the enemy's navy, they could not do anything on the shore. When they met the knights, they had to run away for fear of being blocked on land and killed.

At this moment, the naval commanders of the State of Chen who stayed behind probably understood what was going on.

These Northern Hu people are not coming for the city, they are coming for us!

The fast boat came to report that Hai'an Camp had been captured and Gaitian had been taken away, which made the situation even worse.

In an instant, the Huai River Division was in chaos and morale was low, and its commander hurriedly gave orders to summon naval forces from all over the place, wanting to gather them together as quickly as possible, for fear that they would be defeated separately by Wang Lin.

Wang Lin was not in a hurry at all. He just blocked the Hai'an camp. He was not afraid that the enemy would escape from other waters or hide somewhere. The current Warring States period was enough. He seized a giant ship. Although one of his own golden-winged ships was half paralyzed, it was still worth it.

The war on Hua Jiao's side will not be over in a short time, and even if the Chen State wants to come to the rescue, it will not be able to come in a short time.

What do I have to worry about? Let them consume more food and grass first, and when they are short of supplies and get angry, it will be easier to fight.

Xiang River.

At the same time that Wang Lin was fighting against the Huai Navy, Chen State's former Xiangba Navy was also facing Chen State's main Jiang Navy. They had been fighting for a long time.

Although the Zhou navy helped, the situation became increasingly unfavorable for Hua Jiao.

On land, Yuwen Xian performed extremely well. Xu Du, as the commander, fought with Yuwen Xian east of the Xiang River. Despite the local advantage, Xu Du failed to defeat Yuwen Xian. Yuwen Xian used He Ruobi and Yang Su as his vanguards and launched a fierce attack on Xu Du. Yang Su single-handedly charged into the enemy's formation as if he was in an empty space. He seemed to want to vent all the grievances he had suffered in the past two years. He killed the Chen people and made them flee in panic. He killed more than 20 people in one charge and won the recognition of the entire army.

He Ruobi was not like that. Although he was also brave, he would not charge forward mindlessly. He led his elite troops to fight while circling around, directly cutting off Xu Du's retreat and forcing Xu Du to join forces head-on with his main force.

Yuwen Xian won the victory on land, and Xu Du had to flee the battlefield with his defeated soldiers and dared not move forward.

Although victory was achieved on land, the situation on the water became increasingly critical.

When Yuwen Xian returned, Hua Jiao looked pale and haggard.

His golden-winged warships suffered a lot of damage, and his elite troops were killed and wounded. He was defeated in battle after battle. Huang Fachi stayed to continue fighting with him, while Chunyu Liang had already divided his troops and began to go around to his rear, preparing to raid his home town.

After meeting Yuwen Xian, Hua Jiao hurriedly expressed his thoughts.

"General, although you have defeated Xu Du, the enemy has too many naval ships. We are no match for them. If we continue to stalemate, we will be defeated by them sooner or later. Chunyu Liang has already begun to block our retreat. We can no longer hesitate and must leave as soon as possible."

"There are rivers everywhere in Xiangzhou and Bazhou. If we don't have a navy, it will be useless even if we capture them. We will be attacked all day long, and food and supplies will not be able to pass through. I think it's better to abandon them and return to Liang State first."

Hua Jiao's spirit was completely destroyed.

At the beginning, Yuwen Xian said that they only needed to defend for a period of time and the enemy would retreat. Hua Jiao thought that this was the time for him to show off, but he didn't expect that this would be the ending.

He was beaten up by Huang Fachi and Chunyu Liang in turn, and was unrecognizable. If this continued, he would die here.

Yuwen Xian had no intention of blaming him.

Although Hua Jiao is a veteran, it would be a bit difficult for him to expect him to help him defeat Huang Fachu.

The current results are already very good. We have obtained many shipbuilders and so many golden-winged ships.

Yuwen Xian was not greedy, and he immediately agreed to the other party's request to withdraw troops.

Hua Jiao immediately issued orders in the army, asking everyone to get ready to follow him to Liang State.

At the same time, on a golden-winged ship of the army, Cao Qing, with his hands wrapped in silk cloth, had a gloomy face. There were obviously fewer people sitting next to him, and each of them was injured.

"Everyone."

"Qian Ming colluded with the Zhou people and always talked to Hua Jiao, asking us to do the most dangerous things. We and our brothers suffered the most casualties."

"As for those Zhou people, they have been here for so long, but they can't even understand the basic flag orders. I think they either don't understand or don't want to learn, or they just don't want to obey our commands."

"The Zhou people are asking us for help now, yet they dare to show such a face. If we return to Liang State and lose our current role, what will be our fate?"

After listening to Cao Qing's words, everyone agreed.

Cao Qing continued, "At first, we were all soldiers under General Wang. We were captured by Emperor Wen. Emperor Wen was kind and did not punish us. He was kind to us, so we stayed to serve him. But now Emperor Wen is gone, and even his son was killed by the Emperor of Chen. General Wang is in Han, holding an important position and training the navy. I want to take my people and go to join the general. What do you think?"

The people around were somewhat helpless, "It's good, but we betrayed the general in the beginning. Although the general is not a person who bears grudges, we still feel a little guilty about going to him again."

Cao Qing sneered, "Then take the gifts and go to him."

"Everyone, I have received an order to take a large number of shipbuilders captured from the Xiangdong Shipyard and escort them to Liang State."

"Giving away the Golden Winged Ship is not as good as giving away these master craftsmen."

"With these great craftsmen, what kind of ship can't be built?"

"Everyone, what do you think?"

These people came to their senses one after another, "Yes, if we take these people to the north, we might be able to gain great merit!"

"Oh, if that idiot named Qian wants to vote for Zhou, let him do it!"

"Sooner or later, he will realize how stupid he is!!"

(End of this chapter)