The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 315 Gan Xingba

Zhao Qi sneered: "The Northern Song Dynasty is truly laughable. A bunch of burly Shandong men come to Hongze Lake to cause trouble? Don't they know where they are? They'll all be carried out of here."

One of his men said, "I saw the fisherman Zheng Laosi. He's the one who brought the Northern Song army here."

Zhao Qi: "These fishermen are really annoying. They make a living on the lake. When Hongze Lake floods, they are not affected at all, but we who farm by the lake suffer a great disaster. Not only do they not help us, but they also bring the Northern Song army to annihilate us. They deserve to die."

Subordinate: "Brother, what do we do now?"

Zhao Qi sneered: "What else is there to do? Just kill them! Teach these fools from Shandong a lesson. Perfect, we defeated the Northern Song navy here, so we can tell Li Cheng that we also helped him, and it will be easier for us to meet again with him in the future."

Subordinate: "Why should we curry favor with Li Cheng?"

Zhao Qi: "You don't know anything. A land bandit like Li Cheng will eventually be recruited by the government. I talked to him last time, and he said he wanted to go to Qi. Once he goes to Qi, he will become a high-ranking official. If we befriend him, he will naturally help us go to Qi."

The subordinate said, "Then why not surrender to the Song? We were all Song people before."

Zhao Qi rolled his eyes: "Don't you know how weak Song is? And Qi is backed by the Jin Dynasty. Song will be destroyed by Jin sooner or later. The only way we can have a future is to surrender to Qi and become Jin people."

His subordinates then realized what was happening.

Zhao Qi: "Enough with the nonsense. Send a few people to teach those idiots from the Northern Song Dynasty a lesson."

Li Bao's subordinates are humbly and diligently learning...

Seeing their clumsy movements, the Eastern Wu sailors spun a few men from their own ships and jumped onto theirs.

As they hopped from one boat to another, the small boat rocked violently for a moment.

Li Bao's men on the boat screamed in terror, "Oh no! The boat is going to capsize! It's going to capsize!"

Fortunately, the plastic man wasn't very emotional, so he didn't laugh at them. He just said in a flat voice, "Come here, I'll teach you how to handle the boat."

Li Bao's men quickly and obediently came over to listen to the Eastern Wu soldiers explain how to handle the oars, how to exert force, and how to control the boat to turn quickly.

Meanwhile, in the tall grass not far away, a group of river bandits were laughing uncontrollably: "The Northern Song soldiers are really laughable, they're still learning how to maneuver a boat right before battle."

"Get them!"

"Who goes first?"

"Of course I'll go first. I'll dive over, capsize their small boat, and once everyone on board has fallen into the water, I'll take them all out with one knife each."

"it is good!"

Several bandits silently slipped into the water, biting their daggers in their mouths, and swam toward the small boats of the Northern Song army.

The small boat moved slowly through the narrow waterway. The Wu sailors instructed them while vigilantly observing their surroundings. Such crisscrossing waterways made them easy targets for ambushes, so they were on high alert.

Li Bao's men were completely oblivious, still foolishly playing with the paddle.

One of the bandits had already swum to the bottom of the boat, a few meters below. He looked up at the hull above him, chuckled to himself, and then pushed off with his feet, rising to the surface...

The people on the boat were completely unaware. All he had to do was hold up the bottom of the boat with both hands and shake it violently, and all the weaklings on board would be doomed.

However, at that moment, the Wu sailors on the ship suddenly frowned, picked up their spears, aimed at the opaque green water, and thrust them in with a "plop."

Li Baobing, standing nearby: "???"

Just as they were about to ask why, they felt the water suddenly surge, as if some huge fish were thrashing and struggling beneath the boat, and then, bright red blood gushed out…

Li Bao's men were shocked: "Ahhh? What happened?"

"Enemy attack!" the Wu soldier shouted. "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! There are people underwater!" His shouts carried far and wide, and the Wu soldiers on every small boat became alert. Some raised their shields and short swords, some grabbed their spears, and some picked up their bows and arrows.

At the same time, arrows suddenly shot out from the tall grass on both sides of the waterway.

But the shield-bearers of Eastern Wu immediately raised their shields, deflecting all the arrows with a series of thuds.

An Eastern Wu soldier nocked an arrow and shot it into the tall grass. A scream was heard from the grass, and a bandit fell out.

Li Bao's soldiers panicked: "Huh?"

"Don't shout," the Wu soldier read aloud. "Keep your composure and don't run around on the boat. Aim at the arrows coming from the grass and shoot."

As he spoke, he kept a wary eye on the bushes.

With a whoosh, an arrow shot out of the bushes, striking Li Baobing squarely in the buttocks. Li Baobing cried out in pain. But the Eastern Wu soldier chuckled in a low voice, "Got you!"

He fired an arrow, which flew into the grass. Immediately, a scream rang out from the grass, and the guy who had just shot Li Baobing in the buttocks fell down, wounded by the arrow.

"Underwater! Underwater!"

At this moment, Li Baobing strained his eyes to look underwater and finally noticed the enemy at the bottom. Although the water was very green, when someone swam by, a huge shadow could still be seen passing by, like a giant fish.

"Brother, what should we do?"

The Wu soldier said, "Jump into the water and fight them underwater."

"Huh?" Li Baobing listened to this as if he were hearing a fairy tale.

But the Wu soldiers didn't waste any time; one of them immediately jumped into the water with a splash...

Soon, the two shadows underwater began to fight.

Twenty seconds later, one person floated to the surface; he was a soldier from Eastern Wu. The other person, however, needed to swell up before he could float.

The Wu soldier's head surfaced, he took a breath, and said in a monotone voice, "The underwater enemy is not strong. They are not a proper navy, just ordinary water bandits."

Gan Ning on the ship laughed loudly: "Ordinary river pirates dare to provoke my Jinfan Army! Haha, kill them all!"

Several more Wu soldiers went underwater...

Fights in the water are extremely short, ranging from a few seconds to tens of seconds before a winner is decided.

The Wu soldiers could surface soon after diving, but Zhao Qi's men, one after another, never rose again.

Li Bao's soldiers were a little timid at first, but they quickly became fired up and drew their knives: "Kill! We'll fight our way up too!"

Gan Ning waved his hand and said, "Withdraw from the waterway and return to the main force."

"Huh?" Li Baobing was just getting into it: "Why did you go back already?"

Gan Ning is a complete idiot; he can't explain himself at all. He just waved his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go."

The Wu soldiers in the water scrambled onto the boat, while those on the boat took out several planks and set them up on both sides of the gunwale...

The arrows shot from the grass all stuck in the plank.

This is exactly the same tactic that Zhuge Liang used when he borrowed arrows with straw boats!
The reconnaissance fleet entered the waterway, then withdrew, quickly returning to the side of the ships. Gan Ning jumped onto the flagship, walked up to Yue Wenxuan, and described the situation in the waterway in rapid speech.

Yue Wenxuan nodded: "Very good, this waterway has been explored. Let's rest for a while and then explore the next one."

(End of this chapter)