My Father in Law is Lu Bu

Chapter 592

“General. What should we do now?” The deputy general asked. There were four hundred ships on the opposing side with over a hundred thousand troops. Even if there were only a hundred thousand enemies exactly, they would still need to kill over ten people per person. The Yangzhou Navy was not that exceptional.

This deputy general was a veteran that once worked with Gan Ning. He had participated in that battle that wiped out thirty thousand of the Jiangdong Navy. Even so, he was panicking a little.

“What do we do?” Lu Xun muttered. He stood at the bow of the ship with his hair blowing in the wind. There was no point for naval officers to wear helmets when the ballistae existed.

Lu Xun himself was lacking in confidence. He was a newcomer who only went up against Wen Pin once. He was only Yangzhou’s naval commander because Liu Mang recommended him into this position despite the objection of others.

Despite the fact that he was panicking, Lu Xun had to remain calm on the surface. As the commander, he had to remain calm or his men would panic.

“Since we are all here, let us give the Jiangdong and Jingzhou navies a greeting!” Lu Xun said decisively.

“Men! Put away the sails and prepare to meet the enemy head on!”

“Understood!” Lu Xun’s subordinates replied and delivered the message.

***

“Governor. The Lord requests to see you.” A messenger said to Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu then went up to the flagship where Sun Ce was waiting while looking at the actions of Yangzhou’s navy.

“Gongjin. What do you think the Yangzhou Navy is trying to do?” Sun Ce asked. The Yangzhou Navy had put away their sails. Without the sails, the Yangzhou Navy could easily be caught by the Jiangdong and Jingzhou navies.

“They seem to be taking the initiative to attack.” Zhou Yu replied.

“Attack?” Sun Ce asked again. “Did the Yangzhou Navy change commanders?” He had thought that the Yangzhou Navy would go down the Yangtze River to avoid combat. After all, they were heavily outnumbered. It would be the smart move to do. Yet, Yangzhou’s commander did the opposite and headed towards the enemy.

“Yangzhou did not change their commander. It is still Lu Xun Lu Boyan.” Zhou Yu shook his head. “This Lu Xun cannot be underestimated. The Lu Family has plenty of talented people.” He knew that Lu Xun choosing to attack was actually the right move. Zhou Yu noticed that Lu Xun has matured.

Zhou Yu saw that Lu Xun initially had an unripe military talent during Lu Xun’s battle against Wen Pin. His skirmishes against Lu Xun told him that Yangzhou’s ballista was much more powerful. Yet, Lu Xun chose to ram the ships instead of relying on the ballista. It was a risky maneuver that could have cost both sides to suffer.

Now, Lu Xun has matured. This fact made Zhou Yu feel a sense of dread.

“Lu Xun did this to raise morale. Milord should your subordinate’s warship focus on defending. Let the Jingzhou Navy take the lead.” Zhou Yu replied.

Sun Ce nodded and then had the messenger spread his order.

As Wen Pin was not a fool, he could tell what Jiangdong was doing.

“What are these people doing? The Yangzhou Navy is here, they should charge ahead and destroy Yangzhou!” Wen Pin’s deputy general said indignantly. Was Jiangdong afraid of twenty ships? “If that is the case, we should attack! Forget about Jiangdong!”

“Pass down my orders. Have our ships slow down.” Wen Pin gave the order. As he had been defeated once, he became cautious. There was definitely a reason Zhou Yu slowed down.

“General? Now is the opportune moment to attack Yangzhou! If we surround them, Jiangdong would not have a chance to take anything!” The deputy general advised. They would not be able to keep Jiangdong away forever since all the ships were chained together. Even so, being closer to Yangzhou also meant that they would have a higher chance of obtaining the new ship.

“Quickly pass down my orders!” Wen Pin repeated himself. He was too lazy to explain himself.

“Understood!” The deputy general nodded and went to spread the orders. Soon, the Jingzhou Navy also slow down and both navies were keeping pace with each other again.

“Cunning fox!” Zhou Yu cursed. He initially intended for Jingzhou to suffer the first blow while baiting Jingzhou with the prospect of merits. Since the Jingzhou Navy was unwilling to be sacrificed, Zhou Yu had to give up on this idea.

“Sent out the mengchong!” Zhou Yu ordered.

The small ships moved forward. Wen Pin saw this and followed suit even though he did not understand anything.

Zhuge Liang watched all this from a shore with something in his hand.

“Teacher. What is that?” Wu Hui asked. He saw that Zhuge Liang was looking at the river with some tool. However, it was hard to see anything clearly without the tool.

“This? This is a spyglass.” Zhuge Liang replied and generously handed over the spyglass to the book servant. When Wu Hui looked through the spy glass he exclaimed in surprise and dropped it. Fortunately, Zhuge Liang was quick enough to catch it.

“You are so easily excitable! Selling you a thousand times won’t even be able to pay for this!” Zhuge Liang shook his head. Zhuge Liang also cared about this tool a lot as the one that sent it to him was important.

“Teacher! We can see so far away with that!” Wu Hui trembled as he spoke. He was frightened when he found out he could see all the movements at the Yangtze River.

“That is why it is called a spyglass!” Zhuge Liang replied. He then furrowed his brows when he saw Jiangdong sent out the mengchong. This was not something he had planned for. As expected, Zhou Yu cannot be underestimated.

Lu Su saw the mengchong leave the towered ships. Each towered ship sent out two mengchong. These mengchong charged and collided against the Yangzhou Navy’s ships.

“Press onward!” Lu Xun finally understood Zhou Yu’s intentions. Zhou Yu wanted to slow down the Yangzhou Navy’s speed. They may be small but even insects could take down an elephant.

In response, the Yangzhou Navy continued to push on ahead and crushed the mengchong. The soldiers that could not escape were crushed along with their small ship.

“How many can you crush?” Zhou Yu saw this as an acceptable loss as all he needed was for the Yangzhou Navy to slow down. More mengchong continued to advance towards Yangzhou’s ship.

“General! There are too many of them!” Reports quickly arrived from the front saying that there were too many enemies.

Lu Xun wondered which of the four illustrious generals was the one who thought of this stratagem. Lu Xun’s intentions was to obtain a small victory as an opening move. The reason for this is to bolster his troop’s morale. On the other hand, his opponent was trying to prevent this from happening. With a weak finish, Yangzhou’s morale would surely plummet even further.

Lu Xun did not have the time to identify the culprit. He gave the order for the ballista to aim and shoot until there were no more mengchong in front of them.

The gunports opened up and the ballista fired. Even though Zhou Yu’s mengchong were agile, they were still no match for the ballista.

At first, the Jiangdong soldiers was somewhat glad. Unlike from when they were on the towered ships, they could easily dive into the water. As the mengchong was small, there would not be any huge whirlpools as well. They can simply swim to safety. However, that emotion quickly turned to fear. A rain of arrows fell onto the soldiers. Even those that jumped into the water could not escape. As the arrows were made of wood, they soon float back up to the surface. The living were at shock at the sight of the miserable victims. The ones that died immediately were the lucky ones. The ones that were still clinging on to life could only scream miserably. They couldn’t even commit suicide as they could not move. All they could do was suffer as they wait for their inevitable death.

There may be many mengchong on the river, but there were more ballista arrows. The river quickly turned red with blood. The other guys on the mengchong at the back saw this were frightened to death. They immediately withdrew without even waiting for Zhou Yu’s orders.

Zhou Yu did not blame them. He never expected Yangzhou’s warship to be this formidable. However, the more powerful it is, the more he and Sun Ce wanted it.

“Let the mengchong return.” Zhou Yu passed down the order. The remaining mengchong returned as quickly as they could.

“Pass down another order. Have these two nearby ships advance and protect the flagship! Milord. Let us go to the hold.” Zhou Yu said to Sun Ce.

Sun Ce nodded and followed Zhou Yu to the hold of the ship. Wen Pin saw this and also entered the hold.

“Raise half the sail, stop the ship and take aim!” Lu Xun ordered smoothly. Yangzhou’s twenty ships opened up all of their gunports and aimed.

“Fire!” Each ship fired their ballistae as though the arrows were free. Each ship had twenty ballistae on each side. Each ballistae could carry at least five arrows. That brings the total to four thousand arrows. When Yangzhou fired their ballista, Jingzhou and Jiangdong could only suffer unspeakable misery. Their vanguards were quickly turned to honeycombs and were falling apart. Even if the ships were reinforced or had secret compartments, it was still of no use.

“Raise the sails! Withdraw!” Lu Xun commanded calmly.

“General look at that over there!” Lu Xun’s deputy general pointed at Jiangdong’s ships. When Lu Xun looked towards that direction, he saw the iron chain. Lu Xun furrowed his brows when he saw that Jingzhou’s ships also had iron chains. It would seem that all of their ships were chained together. What are they trying to do?

“They can go the other way without turning?” Zhou Yu left the hold and took a look when Yangzhou chose to retreat. It would seem that Yangzhou’s warship did not need to turn around. They could simply go the other way.

Sun Ce also frowned when he saw the casualties. He had lost thirty four ships along with a total of over ten thousand men. His thirty four ships also could no longer be salvaged. On the other hand, Jingzhou had lost forty one ships. However, when the mengchong were included, the Jiangdong Navy suffered about as much casualties as Jingzhou.

Meanwhile, Wen Pin’s expression was even gloomier than Sun Ce’s. No one told him that Yangzhou’s opening move would be like this so he had placed his direct subordinates at the front. All of the casualties suffered were his direct subordinates. The new troops from Jiangxia survived.

“Pass down my orders. Remove the iron chains from those ships. We will pursue!” Zhou Yu said to the messenger.

“Understood!” Zhou Yu gave the order for the destroyed ships to be unchained. As Zhou Yu had earlier ordered the nearby ships to protect the flagship, it was these nearby ships that suffered the damage. After the destroyed ships were no longer chained, they started to sink. Sun Ce could not bear to see his ships sink.

“Milord. One cannot achieve great things without taking risks. Isn’t the damage to our ships proof of the strength of Yangzhou’s new ships? Once we obtain those new ships, we would be unmatched on the Yangtze River.” Zhou Yu placated Sun Ce. If their plan was successful, they would not only wipe out Yangzhou’s navy. They would also obtain Yangzhou’s new ships. When that happens, Jingzhou was finished. Jingzhou would not be able to obtain Yangzhou’s new ships since Liu Mang had gone missing at Jingzhou. On top of that, Liu Mang had sex with Liu Biao’s wife. Yangzhou and Jingzhou were already mortal enemies.

Meanwhile, Yangzhou would not be able to recruit new soldiers for the navy within a short time. The only reason they could form a navy so quickly the last time was because had brought the veterans from Jiangxia with him. Even if Yangzhou could make those new ships, it would be useless if they did not have anyone to use it.

This meant that the winner would be Jiangdong. Sun Ce felt better when he was reminded of this.

“All soldiers attack! Defeat the Yangzhou Navy!” Sun Ce ordered. His eyes full of greed and fighting intent. In all his life, Sun Ce had never suffered such big losses before.

Wen Pin had similar thoughts. After all of the iron chains were removed from the destroyed ships, they raised their sails and pursued the Yangzhou Navy while ignoring the fort. Once they defeat the Yangzhou Navy, the fort would be useless.

“Hahaha! That felt great!” Lu Xun’s deputy general laughed loudly and so did the other soldiers. Initially, they were all nervous because they were vastly outnumbered but now they had won. Their nervousness was gone.

“Haha!” Lu Xun also laughed after obtaining victory.

“Haha! The third Jiangdong ship that sank was done by us!” The navy soldiers started to discuss amongst themselves.

“Hmph! So what? You only sank one ship! The great me sank two ships!”

“You are just bragging. If it was not because we soften it up, you would not have been able to sink the enemy ship!”

“Hey! What do you think the Lord would reward us with this time?” With merits, naturally there would be rewards. The troops started to discuss about their potential rewards.

“Last time when we defeated thirty thousand of the Jiangdong Army with Gan Ning, the Lord awarded us with five acres of land and a thousand coins! This time, we should get at least four acres of land!”

“How could that be enough? You all only defeated thirty thousand troops. This time, we should get at least six acres of land and a thousand coins!”

Lu Xun watched his men argue with a smile.

“General. Do you think that Little Conqueror Sun Ce would feel angry?” The deputy general asked with a laugh.

“I am sure he would definitely have an unsightly face. There is also that Wen Pin. I want to see how he intends on going back and report this to Liu Biao!” Jiangdong had lost over ten thousand men. However, along with the previous battle, Jingzhou had already lost more than twenty thousand men. Jingzhou was definitely having it the worst. Everyone laughed again.

“Alright, that is enough. Have all the ships count our remaining ballista arrows!” Lu Xun waved his hand.

“Yes General!” The deputy general replied. Soon, Lu Xun found himself frowning at the low numbers. Lu Xun’s flagship carried one thousand eight hundred arrows. However, he had already used one thousand two hundred arrows. The other warships were facing a similar situation.

“We do not have enough ballistae arrows. What do we do now?” The deputy general asked with worry. Their new warship relied on these arrows to show off its power. They had already lost more than half of their fighting strength.

“This is my fault!” Lu Xun shook his head. He had forgotten to limit the use of ballista arrows. Though it was also true that they have brought down many enemies, and that the ballista was the one of the only way to reduce the pressure of being outnumbered.

Jiangdong and Jingzhou was being led by someone formidable. Their warships moved closely to protect the flagship and also to reduce the damage. Many of the ships that sank had received more damage than necessary. It was like whipping a dead person.

“Fortunately, there is still enough for us to use. We can hold out as long as we don’t fight openly.” Lu Xun said to the deputy general.

“General? Are we not fighting anymore?” The deputy general asked skeptically. Their good opening had raised morale so why are they not fighting anymore?

“Haha. I would have done so if we had more ammunition. But right now let us just forget it!” Lu Xun shook his head. Their new warship would become useless if they ran out of ammunition. It was not made for direct combat. Even the towered ships would be superior to their new warship. With the combined efforts of the Jiangdong and Jingzhou navies, the Yangzhou Navy would surely be routed.

Lu Xun knew how to quit when he was ahead. He had taken out at least thirty thousand of his enemies without receiving any damage. This was enough. Now he had two options. One was to go towards Baima Lake where they can station at Shouchun’s naval camp. The other option was to go towards the ocean and team up with Gan Ning and replenish his ammunition at Guangling.

The remaining ammunition was for in case they get ambushed along the way.

“General. Gan Ning should be on the way to Liaodong right now! It would be of no use even if we go and look for him!” The deputy general replied.

Gan Ning went to Guangling was because of Liu Mang’s plan to go to the ocean. Liaodong was where Gan Ning was supposed to get the valuable horses. If possible Gan Ning can even explore the coastline where they could even obtain another trump card to use against Cao Cao. There should not be any enemies at where he is going.

It Gan Ning was already going to Liaodong then going to find him would be in vain. On top of that, it was more dangerous to head towards Guangling compared to Shouchun. If they head towards Shouchun, both Jingzhou and Jiangdong would not dare pursue once they arrive at the Baima Lake. This is because the surrounding land was Yangzhou’s territory. On the other hand, Lu Xun would need to pass through Jiangdong’s territory to reach Guangling. Gan Ning was able to go the last time because of the ceasefire. Both sides had tacit understanding that they could not attack each other. However, the situation was now different since war had begun again.

After thinking for a while, Lu Xun decided to head towards Shouchun. It was meritorious enough if he could protect the Yangzhou Navy. After giving the orders, the Yangzhou Navy sailed towards Baima Lake. The Jiangdong and Jingzhou navies were so far behind them they could no longer be seen. Unfortunately, someone was waiting in front of them.

“Is everything ready?” Lu Meng and his men were stationed at the river. They were there not to battle but to fix the iron chains at the river and then hiding it with soil.

“Don’t worry, Brother Lu. We will be done before the enemy arrives!” His deputy general, Ling Cao, replied.

“Remember to hide everything well.” Lu Meng reminded Ling Cao. Lu Meng and Ling Cao was guilty for losing a battle that could have been won or at the very least caused a deadlock. However, they were defeated and even lost twenty thousand of their Lord’s elite troops. Sun Quan was even captured. Their orders were to protect Sun Quan even if their army was wiped out but they lost both the army and Sun Quan.

Fortunately for them, Yangzhou was greedy and wanted money. If they had executed Sun Quan, Lu Meng and Ling Cao would definitely have died as well. They were now here because of Zhou Yu’s recommendation. Lu Meng, Ling Cao, five thousand troops and thirty thousand reserve soldiers were at the river for a few days preparing the iron chains.

Finally, the Yangtze River was filled with well hidden iron chains.

“Hm?” Lu Xun was looking at the river from the bow of the ship.

“General. Once we return, you would surely be rewarded. Maybe you can even get permission from the Military Advisor to marry that medical officer.” The deputy general joked after losing sight of the Jiangdong and Jingzhou navies.

It was not a secret that Lu Xun liked that medical officer. It was Medical Officer Shang that took care of Lu Xun when he was unconscious. Lu Xun even held onto her while he was unconscious so she had to accompany him throughout the night. When Lu Xun woke up, he found her sleeping by his side.

“Miss Shang?” Lu Xun could not help but turn red when he remembered her beautiful face. Lu Xun still did not have a wife despite his age because his family was ruined. How would he have the time to find a wife?

Lu Xun shook his head to dispel the image of the beauty in his head and asked his deputy. “Do you not feel that something is wrong?” His intuition told him that something was wrong.

“No? You don’t mean an ambush?” The deputy general did not notice anything wrong. If there was an ambush then they would have run into it earlier. After all, they had already lost the enemy’s main force. Any ambush troops that appear right now will just be free merits to Yangzhou.

“General. There is no need to think too much! There are no other ships here except ours!” The deputy general said skeptically. Why is his superior being so nervous when they were returning from a triumph?

“Ship? Yes! A ship!” Lu Xun suddenly shouted after he was reminded.

“What ship? Is there an enemy ship?”

“General Yang. Don’t you think the Yangtze River is too calm? There are no ships here!”

“Maybe the merchant ships were well informed and know that there is a battle going on at Yangtze River?” The deputy general explained. Merchants in that era were all supported by nobles so they should have up to date information.

“No.” Lu Xun shook his head. “Even if merchant ships are well informed, what about fishing boats?” Lu Xun said. Fishing boats won’t be well informed. To begin with, if they don’t fish for a day, they would go hungry for the day. There were no such thing as freezers in that era so preserving fishes was hard and expensive. They needed to fish every day. Yet, there were no fishing boats in sight.

“You’re right.” The deputy general agreed after Lu Xun pointed this out. The river was too calm. Just as soon as he said that, the ship suddenly hit something and swayed.

“What’s wrong? Did we hit a reef?” Lu Xun asked. The collision was hard and Lu Xun had to hold onto something to prevent himself from falling down. The deputy general was not so lucky. He fell flat onto his face.

“Do you guys even know how to sail? Did you not see the reef?” The deputy general scolded.

“It is not a reef!” Lu Xun said as he stopped his deputy general from shouting even more.

“Then what is it?”

“Report! General! We hit an iron chain!” A messenger quickly reported.

“An iron chain at the surface of the Yangtze River?”

“Yes General!” The messenger nodded.

“How could there be iron chain here? Did someone blockade the Yangtze River?” The deputy general shouted.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” Chanting could be heard on both sides of the river.

“Do not panic!” Lu Xun ordered. The chanting came from land. Land troops could not do anything against the navy.

“It must be the Jiangdong Army!” The deputy general gnashed his teeth as he looked at Jiangdong’s banners with the characters Lu and Ling.

Iron chains on the Yangtze River? That did not make any sense. The troops from the shore could not harm the ships while the ballista arrows could easy wipe out the Jiangdong troops.

“Not good!” Lu Xun’s eyes widened. These were not ambush troops. They were just here to stall them and prevent them from reaching Baima Lake. If they were trapped here, the new ship’s flexibility is gone.

“Pass through it!” Lu Xun ordered loudly. They had to get out of this river. If they stay, they will die. Lu Xun did not believe his ten thousand troops can fight against a hundred thousand enemies.

“Understood!” With the orders given, all the ships sailed at full speed and crashed into the iron chain. With the power of twenty ships the iron chain was knocked loose.

“Brother Lu!” Ling Cao said worriedly when the iron chain they had painstakingly set up was knocked loose. He was afraid the Yangzhou Navy would just break through and leave.

“Don’t worry.” Lu Meng patted Ling Cao’s shoulder even though he was also nervous. His Lord’s scheme all depended on this moment.

“General! We cannot go any further!” The messenger reported as he gasped for breath.

“What happened?” Lu Xun and his deputy general took out their binoculars and looked. The iron chain had dug into the hull of one of their ships. The hulls of the others ships also looked wretched. If they continued to do this, their ships would break apart.

At this moment, the sound of beating drums could be heard again as the Jingzhou and Jiangdong ships caught up from behind.