Chapter 126 Did Xiao Fang set a trap for me? I can surrender to Liu Bei, but I want to continue to be a local emperor!

"Fire attack?"

"That big-eared thief actually wants to use fire attack?"

Huang She blurted out an exclamation.

He had thought of many contingency plans and all possible responses.

There were only three ways that Liu Bei could use to break his iron chain across the river.

Either attack the Wulin camp on the north bank, or attack the Chibi camp on the south bank, or the navy will attack the iron lock formation and cut the iron locks.

Wulin was surrounded by mud, which was not conducive to the deployment of troops. General Deng Long was capable of defending the Wulin camp.

There is also the Chibi Mountain on the south bank, which is a dangerous obstacle. Even if Zhang Shuo led 4,000 soldiers, it was enough to defend it.

As for the last method, he personally led the tower ships and the archers were enough to force back Liu Bei's navy, making it impossible for them to cut the iron chains.

Huang She never expected that Liu Bei did not choose any of the three methods, but chose to use fire attack!

There was no one on the fire raft, so his archers were useless. How could they stop it?

Wouldn't it be possible for such a raging fire to easily melt his iron chain formation?
"The one who came up with this plan must be Xiao Fang!"

"Could it be that when that country bumpkin gave me this iron chain to block the river, he already knew the weakness of this iron chain formation?"

Huang She sucked in a breath of cold air, and thousands of terrifying thoughts surged into his mind.

At this moment, he felt like he had been tricked by Xiao Fang.

at this time.

One after another, the fire rafts crashed into the iron chains.

Immediately afterwards, the second and third ships collided one after another.

The raging flames quickly began to burn the iron lock.

Huang She shuddered, finally came to his senses, and shouted anxiously:

"Quick, move the boat closer and use the fork pole to push the fire boat away~~"

When the order was given, the Jiangxia soldiers woke up and hurriedly drove the tower ship closer to the iron lock.

Pole pitchforks were stretched out, trying to push the fire ship away from the iron locks.

To no avail.

If a fireboat came from downstream, it would naturally drift away downstream with a push using the pitchfork.

Unfortunately, the fire boat came from upstream. As soon as it was pushed out, the fire raft drifted downstream and hit the iron lock again.

Moreover, there were more than 200 fire rafts, and the Jiangxia army could not destroy them all with just over ten ships.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by a loud bang.

One of the iron chains was finally melted by the fire.

The iron chain that stretched across the river suddenly collapsed toward both banks and then sank to the bottom of the river.

The iron chain formation collapsed!
Once the iron chain was broken, the fire raft was no longer obstructed and continued to drift downstream, crashing into the Jiangxia army's warships.

Huang She was horrified.

The iron chain was burned off, which meant that Kuai Yue's plan had failed, and Liu Bei's 40,000-strong army by land and sea would be able to take Xiakou unhindered.

At this time, Huang Zu was leading the main navy northward in an attempt to attack Fancheng!

Xiakou City is short of troops, are we going to defend it with our heads?

When Huang Zu turned around, he discovered that his house had been robbed!
"The fire raft is heading towards us!"

"Major General, the fire raft is heading towards us!"

The soldiers' screams woke Huang She up.

He looked up and gasped, seeing that several fire rafts had lost their resistance and were rushing straight towards his flagship ship.

Huang She's face turned pale with fear, and without thinking any more, he shouted in a trembling voice:

"Retreat, all ships turn around and retreat back to Xiakou!"

"Send a signal to the camps on both sides, and tell them to abandon their camps and retreat to Xiakou!"

All the ships turned around like frightened birds and tried to escape downstream.

In the dry camps of Wulin and Chibi, thousands of Jiangxia troops were also thrown into chaos.

A few miles upstream.

Liu Bei immediately jumped to the shore and witnessed with his own eyes the spectacular sight of the iron chains across the river being burned off by the fire raft.

"Such a seemingly indestructible iron chain formation was actually broken by a fire without any effort?"

"Jinglue, you have used this trick to achieve two goals at once. You have helped Huang Zu, but you have also harmed him!"

Liu Bei sighed with emotion and looked at Xiao Fang with admiration.

Xiao Fangze smiled faintly, raised his hand and pointed at the river:

"My lord, the iron chain has been broken. Send an order to Wen Xiang to pursue the Jiangxia navy while they are victorious."

"We should also take action on land and destroy the enemy camp at Red Cliff!"

Liu Bei put away his emotions, a fighting spirit burned on his face, and he immediately issued an order.

The trumpets sounded and the drums of war rumbled.

Old Liu personally led the infantry out of the camp and attacked the enemy camp at Chibi along the south bank of the Yangtze River.

On the Yangtze River.

Xu Sheng, who was following behind the fire raft, also hoisted the flag of attack and urged 3,000 navy troops to pursue the Jiangxia navy that was turning to flee in defeat.

Huang She's flagship ship had just turned its bow with great effort.

The soldiers at the stern held out pitchforks and tried their best to push away the fire raft that was hitting them.

To no avail.

There were so many fire rafts that after a while, one of them crashed into the stern of the ship.

"Pong!"

The fire raft smashed to pieces, and the unburned kerosene on it splashed all over the ship.

The stern of the ship was immediately ignited, and the fire spread rapidly, burning half of the ship in a blink of an eye.

The burned soldiers screamed and jumped into the Yangtze River, while the surviving soldiers scrambled to the side of the ship, trying to board the boats and escape.

Seeing that his flagship was in danger, Huang She had no choice but to rush to the side of the ship and try to board the pleasure boat.

"Get out of the way, get out of my way!"

Huang She shouted loudly, waving the sword in his hand wildly, chopping down the soldiers who were fighting for the weapon.

Stepping on the corpses of his soldiers, Huang She jumped onto the boat and cut the rope without waiting for others to get on board.

Several soldiers paddled hard and carried Huang She away from the ship.

Looking at the ship turning into a sea of ​​fire, and watching his soldiers screaming and struggling in the sea of ​​fire until they were swallowed by the flames, it was a horrifying scene.

Huang Sheru seemed to have fainted and sat down with a thud.

"The iron chain formation is gone. I must flee back to Xiakou immediately and report to my father, asking him to lead the main force back immediately. Otherwise..."

Huang Shezheng muttered to himself, thinking about how to remedy the situation.

The sound of breaking air was heard, and sharp arrows came from behind.

Huang She was startled, looked back and took a breath.

Liu's warships were seen roaring after the fire rafts.

Arrows rained down from the boats, pinning down the Jiangxia sailors who had managed to escape by switching to small boats to the ground in large numbers.

"Quick, row to the shore!"

"Hurry up—"

Huang She screamed hoarsely, grabbed a wooden paddle and paddled frantically with all his might.

It's too late.

Xu Sheng's flagship ship crashed into them like a giant shark.

With a loud bang, the small boat was overturned, and Huang She and several soldiers fell into the river screaming.

Huang Shejing was good at water and after a slight struggle, he poked his head out.

Just when they were about to take a breath, countless flying hooks and iron claws on the ship whizzed down and stabbed them.

An iron claw hooked Huang She's shoulder.

"Ah~~"

A howl like a killing pig sounded.

Huang She, who was already soaked to the skin, was dragged onto the ship alive by iron claws like a captured fish.

...

As the sun set, the sounds of fighting died down and the battle was over. Liu Bei spurred his horse and entered the enemy camp at Chibi.

One after another, the warships entered the water camp, and the victorious naval officers and soldiers went ashore to meet up with the soldiers, carrying their respective victories.

"My lord, I have used the military advisor's plan to burn through the enemy's iron chain formation, annihilate the Jiangxia navy, and capture the enemy general Huang She alive. Please make your decision, my lord!"

Xu Sheng got off the boat and came forward to ask for credit with an excited look on his face.

"Wen Xiang fought well in this battle. When he captures Xiakou someday, Wen Xiang can be credited with the main contribution!"

Liu Bei smiled and praised him.

Xu Sheng was secretly delighted, but hurriedly said modestly:

"I was just following orders. If there is any credit, it should go to the military advisor."

Liu Bei nodded slightly and looked back at Xiao Fang:
"The fact that the military advisor came up with this iron chain formation across the river is unprecedented. He was even more able to come up with the method of using fire to break the iron chain formation. This kind of wisdom is truly unrivaled in the world!"

Old Liu's compliments were getting higher and higher, and Xiao Fang felt a little embarrassed to respond.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that this iron lock formation is unprecedented.

Historically, in order to prevent the Jin army from attacking from upstream, the Wu State set up this iron lock formation in the middle of the river for the first time to block the Jin navy.

As for the method of breaking the formation, it was later used by Wang Jun, a famous general who destroyed Wu, when he sailed down to Yizhou with his tower ship. He used fire to burn through the iron chain formation, marched straight into Jianye, and achieved the feat of destroying the country.

Xiao Fang simply matched the strategy of using an iron chain across the river and the strategy of using fire to break the iron chain from his database of battle examples based on the actual situation.

"Cough cough~~"

Xiao Fang coughed a few times and pointed in the direction of Xiakou:

"I guess Xingba and Huang Zu have already fought by now."

"My lord, the road ahead is clear. Let's go down the river and head straight for Xiakou."

Old Liu put away his emotions, and with a burning sense of heroism, he whipped the horse towards the east.

"Pass the order, advance the army by land and sea, and go straight to Xiakou!"

The 40,000-strong army, carrying with them the momentum of victory, marched eastward in a mighty force.

...

The upper reaches of the Han River, the area thirty miles south of Fancheng.

More than 500 warships of various sizes were sailing upstream to the north.

On the flagship of the building ship, a large flag with the word "yellow" was flying brightly.

Huang Zu stood proudly with his sword in his hand, his cold eyes staring straight ahead with a look of disdain in them.

Directly ahead, more than a hundred Fancheng navy ships were lying across the river upstream, blocking the way.

"General Chengzong, I have a few words from the bottom of my heart. I wonder if I should say them or not?"

The deputy general Su Fei behind him couldn't help but speak after hesitating for a long time.

Huang Zu glanced at him and waved his hand slightly, indicating that he could speak if he had anything to say.

"Liu Xuande has already taken over Nanjun, and the four counties in southern Jing will also be taken over by issuing an edict. Except for Jiangxia County, it can be said that Jingzhou is completely in his hands."

"Under such circumstances, even if our army unexpectedly captures Fancheng, Fei believes that it will not be able to reverse the situation."

"At most, Liu Bei was shocked and gave up attacking Xiakou and returned to retake Fancheng."

"Fancheng is sandwiched between Nanjun and Nanyang. It will be difficult for our army to hold on. In the end, the general will have to lead the army to withdraw to Xiakou."

"This plan can only solve the crisis temporarily. After Liu Bei has learned his lesson and made good preparations for the defense of Xiangfan, if the army attacks Xiakou again, how should we respond then?"

Su Fei analyzed the situation and his tone became more serious.

Huang Zu's expression was slightly shocked, and he asked coldly: "What do you want to say?"

Su Fei took a deep breath and bowed:

"I believe that the situation is set and Liu Xuande's capture of Jingzhou is a foregone conclusion."

"Now that the late Lord Jingsheng has passed away, the Second Young Master is nothing more than a puppet supported by Kuai Yue."

"Their master and his subjects have a deep blood feud with Liu Xuande, so naturally they are unwilling to surrender to Liu Xuande. That is why they want to incite General Chengzong to continue to be the enemy of Liu Xuande."

"General Chengzong, why should he let them use him? He brought us, the Jiangxia men, to fight to the death with Liu Xuande's army in a small corner of the country. Why should he pay for their funeral?"

"What I mean is, why don't you follow the general trend and find a way out for your father and son, as well as for the tens of thousands of Jiangxia soldiers, and submit to Liu Xuande?"

Huang Zu's body shook, and he suddenly glared at Su Fei.

He obviously did not expect that his trusted general would actually persuade him to surrender to Liu Bei before the war!

This will shake the morale of the army!
A flash of anger flashed in Huang Zu's eyes.

However, he did not have an attack immediately.

He was not completely unaware of the logic behind Su Fei's analysis.

Liu Biao once held a state in his hands, but was overthrown by Liu Bei and ended up dead and without a name.

What's more, he only has the soldiers of one county, so how could he dream of overthrowing Liu Bei?

Although Huang Zu claimed to be the best general in Jingzhou and was conceited by nature, he was not conceited to the point of becoming hot-headed and looking down on others.

After suppressing his anger, Huang Zu said meaningfully:
"I have considered what you said."

"It's just that Liu Bei destroyed the Cai and Kuai clans, and used all the poor scholars in Jingxiang and the wealthy scholars. It's obvious that he didn't intend to let any one clan dominate."

"If I surrender to him now, do you think I can keep my position as governor of Jiangxia?"

"I will fight this battle to win a bargaining chip for us!"

Su Fei suddenly came to his senses and finally understood Huang Zu's thoughts.

It was not that Huang Zu could not surrender to Liu Bei. The key was that his bottom line for surrender was to continue to be the prefect of Jiangxia and to continue to command his own troops.

To put it bluntly, I can nominally honor you, Liu Bei, as the lord of Jingzhou.

But you, Liu Bei, must treat me the same as in the Liu Biao era, and allow me to continue to hold the military and political power of Jiangxia, and remain the local emperor of Jiangxia.

Given Liu Bei's current momentum in sweeping away all evildoers, it was obviously impossible for him to agree to this condition.

Therefore, Huang Zu went with the flow, adopted Kuai Yue's plan, and took the initiative to attack Fancheng.

He wanted to use a victory to let Liu Bei see his strength and force Liu Bei to make concessions and agree to his conditions.

"I understand. General, are you trying to use war to force peace?"

Su Fei reacted and a hint of respect flashed across his eyes.

Huang Zu stroked his thin beard, sneered and said nothing.

After a moment of silence, Su Fei said:
"I understand the general's deep meaning."

"It's just that I have some friendship with Gan Xingba. Although he was born a pirate, he is a fierce general who is proficient in naval warfare."

"Back then, he defeated the strong with his weak side and killed Cai Mao, which was enough to prove his strength."

"General Chengzong will have to fight this man when he goes north this time. I think the general must be careful."

"If we lose this battle, General, I'm afraid that not only will you lose the confidence to negotiate with Liu Xuande, but then—"

Hearing Su Fei being so wary of Gan Ning, the sneer on Huang Zu's face disappeared in an instant, and gradually became gloomy.

Before he could finish, Huang Zu snorted coldly and asked:
"Is Cai Mao's embroidered pillow worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as this general?"

"Don't you think that I, Huang Zu, am no match for a mere pirate?"

There was a sense of dominance in Huang Zu's tone.

Su Fei was startled, and seeing that Huang Zu was angry, he dared not say another word.

"Today, I will kill that thief Jinfan and let Liu Bei know who is the king of naval warfare in Jingzhou!"

Huang Zu made a bold statement, drew his sword from its sheath, and pointed forward:
"All troops, listen up! All ships, form a battle formation and advance forward. Crush the enemy ships for me!"

The trumpets sounded and the drums of war thundered.

More than 500 Jiangxia warships, with full sails and oars, pressed towards the oncoming Fancheng navy.

As if he had learned the lesson from Cai Mao's defeat, Huang Zu did not push his flagship forward, but stayed in the center of the army.

The huge fleet went upstream in a crushing manner.

When the two armies were about a hundred steps away from each other, the Jiangxia navy launched a rain of arrows into the air and attacked the Fancheng navy.

Under the pressure of several times more arrows, the Fancheng navy was immediately suppressed to the point where they could not raise their heads.

Before the two armies engaged in battle, the Fancheng navy sounded a horn, and began to turn around and retreat upstream.

Huang Zu urged his fleet to pursue all the way, intending to take advantage of the situation and capture Fancheng in one go.

However, he had no idea that in the reeds on both sides of the Han River, pairs of ferocious eyes were staring at him.

Gan Ning pushed aside the reeds and watched the Jiangxia navy warships passing by under his nose without him noticing, with a sarcastic sneer on his face.

"This trick from the military advisor is truly a brilliant one."

"Huang Zu thought I was forced to retreat, but he never expected that my most elite Jinfan soldiers would hide in the reeds on both sides of the river..."

Gan Ning sighed with emotion, raised the iron halberd in his hand, and shouted:
"Light the beacon fires, and the convoys from both sides will march out!"

"Follow me and charge into the enemy camp from the rear, and take Huang Zu's flagship!"

(End of this chapter)