Chapter 224: Turning the Tide, Gan Ning's Power Naval battles have always been Qin Zhen's weak point, but the principles of military strategy are generally universal. Hearing Gan Ning's words, he was startled and asked hurriedly: "Why is the enemy's formation so deceitful? Why will we fall into their trap if we advance further?" Gan Ning listened, staring straight ahead, and pointed to the distance and said: "Sir, you may not know that in ordinary naval battles, all ships must be deployed in battle formations." "Either the big ships are in front or in the back, and we can change the formation to meet the enemy according to the enemy's force!" "Now the enemy's army is like this. It seems that the battle formation is chaotic, but in fact there is order in the chaos." "Now Huang Zu is attacking with his fleet, hoping to break through the enemy's formation!" "If Zhou Yu had been experienced in naval warfare, he would have quickly led his light boats to meet the enemy instead of keeping his troops in place."

"But the enemy hasn't made any move yet, so we know there must be something fishy going on!" While he was speaking, Su Fei, who was far away, also noticed that something was wrong with Zhou Yu. When he saw that the enemy troops were motionless, he came to Huang Zu's side and said: "My lord, the situation is not right. Although Zhou Yu's ships were blocked, they were not tied up. Why did our army send out troops but did nothing?" "Order them to advance slowly and beware of the enemy's deception!" When Huang Zu heard what he said, he raised his hand and shouted: "Pass the order down, the front army slows down, and the central army stops!" After he shouted, he heard his subordinates shouting again and again, and the sound spread far along the river bank. At the same time, on the Jiangdong navy side, Zhou Yu was standing on a tower ship, wearing bright clothes and armor, looking heroic. Seeing the boat ahead begin to slow down, he raised the corner of his mouth and said: "I heard that Huang Zu is already old, but I didn't expect that he also knows about military affairs!" "But the navy of Jingzhou is just like this. They only slowed down after being ordered to do so for half an hour. It is obvious that their soldiers are weak and unusable!" Jiang Qin, who was beside him, heard this and asked hurriedly: "Commander-in-chief, the enemy is advancing slowly now. What should our army do?" When Zhou Yu heard this, he patted the railing and said with a smile: "Since he is preparing a trap, our army will dispatch troops!" "And order the front army to send out thirty light boats, with twenty men on each boat, ten to row and ten to shoot arrows." "When we get to the enemy, we will only defeat them, not win, and lure their troops over!" At his command, Jiang Qin passed the order down, sending the naval captain Ling Cao as the vanguard, and each of them boarded a boat to charge out of the army formation. Su Fei saw the enemy troops marching out, so he said to Huang Zuxi: "My lord, the enemy has marched out, about thirty light boats!" Huang Zu heard this, squinted his eyes, and sneered: "Since we have more than 60 ships in front of us, why should we be afraid of the enemy? Let's press on and let them know our strength!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Su Fei naturally passed down the order. When Deng Longchen heard the order, he hurriedly urged his soldiers to row the boats and rush forward. When the two sides met, there was a burst of shouting. The drums of the Jingzhou army were beating like thunder, but the rain of arrows from the Jiangdong side was sparse. After a short while, most of them were killed or wounded. Before the battle even started, they were defeated and began to retreat. Deng Long, Chen Jue and others hurriedly ordered their pursuit, and dozens of boats went straight down the water. Zhou Yu looked at the situation on the water and said to Jiang Qin: "Order another twenty-five ships to march out, just as we did just now. We will definitely lose, not win!" Upon hearing this, Jiang Qin ordered his young general Lu Meng to attack. After a while, he drove out with more than 20 warships. Before Lü Meng could engage in battle, Zhou Yu gave another order: "Order another eight ships to charge out suddenly, each with twenty men!" Upon hearing this, Jiang Qin simply sent out a small officer under his command to lead eight fleets to set off. At one time, the Jiangdong Army only had about thirty ships gathered together. When Huang Zu saw this, he immediately stroked his beard and laughed: "Zhou Yu is a child, his skills are exhausted. How can there be a warship in front and a sudden attack behind?" A Tumao is an impact-type ship. Unlike a warship that is capable of both offense and defense, a Tumao is used to attack and ram enemy ships. Therefore, in general naval battles, most of the ships would charge in the front while the warships would provide cover in the back. Zhou Yu's arrangement at this time gave him the illusion that the Jiangdong army was desperate. While thinking, he ordered Su Fei: "The central army will move forward. If this formation wins again, the enemy will have no place to resist and our army can defeat them in one fell swoop!" Su Fei was listening at this moment, and couldn't help but think of Qin Zhen's warning before he came. He hesitated for a while and said: "My lord, the enemy's plan is unknown now, so don't rush forward rashly." "Why not let the front army fight for a while, and then advance after breaking the enemy's formation!" Huang Zu didn't care at all when he heard this, and just said in a deep voice: "Do you think I don't know how to fight? The enemy is now blocked here and has lost its fighting power." "We have rushed to squeeze out many warships to block the enemy. If they are defeated by our front troops again, the enemy will surely retreat." "When that happens, how can our army continue to pursue?" "We should take advantage of the fact that the outcome of the front army has not yet been decided and push forward first. Once the front army wins, the central army will follow in pursuit and we will be able to achieve complete victory!" "If we delay here for a moment, we will miss the opportunity to fight!" "Don't say any more. Pass on my orders and march quickly!" Su Fei thought this made sense, so he gritted his teeth and ordered the central army to advance while the rear army moved slowly to provide protection. As soon as this order was passed down, the general offensive of the Jingzhou army officially began. In front, Chen Jue and Deng Long were advancing all the way and encountered Lu Meng's troops. There were loud gongs and drums and flying arrows.

Seeing this, Lu Meng knew Zhou Yu's order and did not dare to engage in battle, so he quickly ordered a retreat. But the raiders rushed forward, scattered their boats, and shouted: "Our army is no match for them. Withdraw immediately and do not advance any further!" After he shouted, the assault team changed direction and retreated to the east. By this time, the Jingzhou army had won three games in a row. Deng Longchen was full of confidence and immediately shouted: "The enemy's strength has weakened. Follow us and charge into their ranks!" As they spoke, the two of them led the vanguard troops and charged into Zhou Yu's army. When the commander Huang Zu saw this, he was overjoyed and said: "Zhou Yu, you little brat, really doesn't know how to fight. He lost three battles in a row and didn't even retreat. He deserves to be defeated here!" Amidst his laughter, he hurriedly ordered the fleet to speed up. Boom, boom, loud noises were heard one after another, and the fleet in front had already engaged in battle with the Jiangdong navy. Deng Long and others stepped down and led their troops to fight with the Jiangdong army. But at this moment, something strange happened. Zhou Yu stood on the ship and laughed, "The enemy is exhausted. Send out troops quickly and defeat them!" As he was laughing loudly, he suddenly saw a large number of archers appear on the one-man ship that was originally empty. Bows and crossbows were fired, and war drums were beaten, the sound resounding through the sky. When the navy of Jingzhou heard this sound, they were all shocked, and then they saw countless arrows shot from high places. Deng Long and Chen Jiu were both shocked when they saw this, and they shouted: "Oh no! The enemy has set up an ambush. Retreat immediately!" As they were about to take down the pedal, they suddenly heard a cry of surprise: "General, something bad has happened. There are people in the water!" The two of them looked down and found that hundreds of Jiangdong soldiers had appeared in the water, each holding a sharp blade and began to attack the ship frantically. At this time, their way forward was blocked, with arrows raining down from their heads and drowned people under the boat. How could they possibly survive? At that moment, Chen shouted: "Abandon ship, abandon ship, abandon ship quickly!" Shrill shouts echoed across the river, and a large number of Jingzhou soldiers began to jump off the boats. This abnormality naturally woke Su Fei up suddenly. Seeing that the front army was broken, he hurriedly said to Huang Zu: "My lord, the enemy is ambushed. Do not advance any further. Retreat immediately!" But just as he finished speaking, before Huang Zu could react, he heard a loud shout: "All troops, advance, help me break through the enemy's fleet!" As soon as this sound was uttered, dozens of large ships that had just stopped on the river began to row their oars in unison and pressed towards the Jingzhou navy. The floating logs that originally blocked the river were no longer able to block the river at all at this moment. Having just rested for a long time, the Jiangdong navy was all gathering strength and ready to move as soon as the order was given, at an extremely fast speed! As soon as the big ship from Jiangdong started moving, all the warships and other ships started moving at the same time. The originally disorderly military formation instantly formed a crushing formation.

In contrast, the Jingzhou army had lost its fighting spirit, and when they saw the front army retreating, their formation became chaotic. Huang Zu was so shocked when he saw this that his scalp went numb. He lost his confidence and shouted: "Withdraw troops, pass on my military order, withdraw troops immediately!" His formation was already in disarray, and upon hearing the sound, the soldiers under his command began to row their boats backwards. Due to inertia, a large number of boats began to shift, and the entire formation became a mess. If there is one thing in common between naval warfare and land warfare, it is that the formation must not be disrupted! This kind of chaos does not refer to the kind of chaos arranged by Zhou Yu, but the confusion of military orders. As the military situation changes dramatically, conflicts may arise between the military orders from the front and rear, resulting in different reactions from the front and rear troops. The front has stopped advancing, but the rear is still charging forward! In a land battle, this situation would lead to trampling, and in a naval battle, it would lead to ramming. The navy of Jingzhou was in this situation now. As soon as Huang Zu gave the order, the large warships retreated immediately. The ships behind had no time to stop and crashed into the hull with a loud bang. Even though the Jingzhou navy was good at swimming, they were still knocked so hard that they could hardly stand. Huang Zu fell to the ground with his buttocks, and shouted: "Don't panic. Quickly disperse the rear troops and have the light boats sail around both sides to pass the large ships first!" At this time, Su Fei also forcibly pulled the mast and hurriedly ordered the rear to clear the way. But as soon as he gave the order and looked back, he felt a chill on his back. He pointed behind him and said: "My lord, something terrible is happening. The enemy's two wings are encircling our army!" Huang Zu was horrified when he heard this. He quickly got up, held up his helmet and looked back, and saw that Zhou Yu's navy had already split into two groups. The tower ships in front blocked the retreat firmly, while the vanguard ships, warships and other ships in the rear kept pouring out from both sides. They did not engage in battle at all, but just kept moving forward. The ships were now on his flank and advancing. Looking from the air, it looked like a giant beast with its bloody mouth opened, wanting to swallow all the navy of Jingzhou into its mouth. Although Huang Zu was old, he knew what it meant for the navy to be surrounded. He was stunned for a moment, muttering: "I never expected that Zhou Yu would be so capable. I'm afraid my life will end here!" At this moment, a loud shout came from the east: "Don't worry, General. Gan Ning is here to help. I will cover your retreat. General, please break through quickly!" At the sound, the two men turned around and saw dozens of warships appearing in the rear, heading towards the south, blocking Zhou Yu's encircling troops. It turned out that when Huang Zu and Zhou Yu were fighting, Qin Zhen and Gan Ning had been watching from behind. When Gan Ning saw that Huang Zu had fallen into a trap, he wanted to send troops to stop him, but Qin Zhen stopped him and said: "Huang Zu doesn't listen to others. If we move forward now, it will be difficult to achieve our goal. The enemy is scheming. Let's see what their intentions are!" The reason why he had to go on the battlefield was to prevent the Jingzhou army from being completely wiped out. Although he didn't quite understand Zhou Yu's intentions, he knew that Zhou Yu was showing weakness to the enemy. If Huang Zu listened to the advice at this time, it would be good, but if Huang Zu did not listen to the advice, it would be useless for Gan Ning to rush forward to kill him. So he watched the battle while trying to stop Gan Ning from sending reinforcements. It was not until the third wave of Zhou Yu's troops set out and Huang Zu's central army advanced that he said to Gan Ning: "The first attack is powerful, the second is weak, and the third is exhausted. Deng Long and others do not know the art of war, so they will definitely fail here!"

"Huang Zu is marching now, Zhou Yu is taking action now, we can march out now!" After hearing this, Gan Ning no longer hesitated and ordered his men to divide into more than ten boats, with fifty people on each boat. Twenty men rowed the boat, and thirty men armed with swords and shields rushed forward as a stormtrooper. As a result, when they reached halfway, they saw that the enemy intended to encircle them, so Gan Ning led his troops all the way to the south bank, preparing to open a passage for Huang Zu. At this time, the main force of the Jingzhou army was still intact, but it just needed a shot in the arm to break the deadlock. Gan Ning's appearance restored the fallen morale. Driven by the desire to survive, the soldiers paddled desperately and finally opened a passage. Huang Zu saw this and did not even bother to thank him, but hurriedly ordered his troops to retreat. Zhou Yu originally wanted to encircle the enemy from both sides, and ordered Lü Meng and Ling Cao to advance in two different directions. However, they were blocked by Gan Ning. Ling Cao was on the south bank and was immediately furious. "How dare you, you idiot, to stop my army? Come and die with me!" As he said this, he drew his bow and shot an arrow towards Gan Ning. Unexpectedly, Gan Ning was an expert in water warfare and was agile enough to dodge the attack. He even sneered and said: "You have such a humble skill, yet you dare to show off your skills? Watch me shoot it!" After he finished speaking, he drew his bow and shot an arrow, which hit Ling Cao in the face and killed him on the spot. After Ling Cao's death, his subordinates naturally fell into chaos. Gan Ning led his men to charge forward and actually defeated the Jiangdong army. Zhou Yu was organizing a pursuit when he suddenly saw the Nan Bian formation in disarray. He was surprised and asked hurriedly: "What happened in the south? Why is there such chaos?" As soon as he asked the question, his subordinates went to investigate and received a report that General Ling Cao was shot and killed by an enemy general. When Zhou Yu heard this, his expression suddenly changed and he was horrified. He thought he had already secured victory, but he didn't expect that there was such a powerful general in Jingzhou! (End of this chapter)