Volume 1 Chapter 49: Water Battle (Part 1)
Deep down in his heart, Ali had actually always been disdainful of Jin Wushu's arrogance, because this Jurchen general who rose from a mere Alixi to a commander of ten thousand men was a rare cautious man in the Jin army... In his view, ups and downs on the battlefield, small victories and small defeats were actually the most normal things. If you win, just keep fighting and seize the victory completely; if you lose, start over and regain the victory; if you are startled, you will be whipped for a reply letter. He was so unrestrained because of the ups and downs of this level of war. His demeanor was not as good as the new official of Zhao Song under the dragon flag on the mountains on the opposite bank!
With such an attitude, is he worthy of being compared with the deceased Second Prince Olibu?
Of course, this is the typical wall effect and the benefit of being too far away to see clearly... As a novice on the battlefield, Zhao Guanjia was so nervous that he started to laugh at everyone and ruined the image he had spent half a year to build. He never thought that sitting high and far away would have this benefit? !
"Seventh Brother, the Jin people are trying to seize the ship!"
"I saw it!"
Zhang Yongzhen, who was in the middle of the river and ready to attack, was the commander of the large ship that had previously crashed into the pontoon bridge. However, when he looked at the mess on the north side of the Huai River from the boat, he fell into a moment of hesitation.
In addition, the north of the floating bridge in the river was already raining arrows. The Jin army ignored the range, weapons and lives, called the Han army in the army and drove them into the cold shallow water, forcing them to draw their bows and crossbows in the shallow water and shoot at the small boats that were used as support, in order to cover Meng'an Puluhun and the elite Jurchens to go up to the bridge and fight to seize the boats. The bows and arrows were fine, but the crossbows had to go back to the shore to reload after one shot, which was really a collapse, but at this time no one dared to ask Jin Wushu for any hard-earned money.
When the army led by Puluhun threw out the prepared grappling hooks, all the Song army's naval divisions suddenly realized what was going on.
But even though they were awakened, almost everyone was at a loss for a moment... Faced with the Jurchens' aggressive hand-to-hand combat, the first reaction of all the ships was to quickly escape from the battle. However, there were so many large and small ships at the moment, and they were entangled in front of them by a floating bridge that seemed weak but was actually twisted and flexible. How could they turn around in a moment?
Moreover, the more anxious the Song army was, the more difficult it was for them to move.
Relatively speaking, the Jurchen soldiers led by Puluhun were not really that adventurous. They did not need to fight along the swaying pontoon bridge. In fact, after they captured several large and small ships, they quickly abandoned the pontoon bridge route and used hooks to connect the ships, using the dense ships themselves as the attack route... At the same time, after these ships were captured by the Jin army, they would be occupied by the Han army in the subsequent Jin army and become the garrison of archers!
During the whole process, the Song army's navy was like fish and shrimps hitting a fishing net. Although the Jin army was on the water, its invasion speed was like wildfire... Zhao Jiu was high above and could not see the specific details, but he could see that the Song soldiers jumped into the water and abandoned their ships to escape, while the boats that were originally running around trying to escape were like grasshoppers that were slapped to death, and then stabilized in the hands of the Jin army.
After just two quarters of an hour, the three entangled large ships were all captured. A few small boats on the periphery were able to break away, while the remaining small boats continued to run around like headless flies in the encirclement-like position between the three large ships and west of the pontoon bridge, and it seemed that they could not escape the disaster.
At the same time, the Song army's navy, which still had two-thirds of its strength, including the four large ships on the southern half of the Huai River, several small boats, and reserve troops waiting upstream, had no intention of going forward to rescue. Instead, as the flags on the shore and on the ships kept shaking, they chose to turn around and retreat, apparently intending to re-deploy their troops upstream for subsequent response.
Seeing this, the Jin army beat drums loudly, and Jin Wushu laughed even more triumphantly, while the mountains on the south bank of the Huai River were in chaos again... I don't know how many civil officials surrounded Yang Yizhong and Wang Yuan and asked them why they were not as good as the Jin army in water battles? Wasn't it said that the Jin people were Liaodong Tartars and were not good at water battles?
Some people even insisted that the two give a definite answer, saying that since the pontoon bridge was destroyed, would it be difficult for the Jin army to cross the river today?
Even Zhao Jiu became dejected in his chair in an instant.
Of course, Emperor Zhao, who was always knowledgeable, was definitely not as ignorant as the civil officials around him... In fact, he knew very well what was going on.
In a word, the Jin army had been winning battles in succession for more than ten years, and their morale, equipment and military power were at their peak, so they dared to fight, fight and die; while the Song army had been defeated and routed for several years, and its morale had dropped to an outrageous level... Even the only organized Western Army veterans in the Huainan camp, after following Liu Guangshi across most of China, only dared to use boats against pontoon bridges, and did not dare to fight in the face of possible hand-to-hand combat!
Faced with the Jin army's adventurous attack, their first reaction, which clearly had the absolute power to fight back, was not to organize to fight back, but to escape, and they fled on their own without any organization or structure... which was equivalent to a rout, which caused the boats to lose control and hinder each other, and none of them escaped.
What is this?
This is literally the case of fleeing at the first sign of trouble! Rampant without a fight!
This was the difficulty that Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun had before, this was the reason why Liu Guangshi kept running away, this was the reason why the original owner of the body occupied by Zhao Jiu wanted to go to the southeast wholeheartedly, and this was also the fundamental reason why everyone advised Zhao Jiu not to waste time here - after Jingkang, the Song army was really completely collapsed militarily, and the Jin army was really at its peak.
However, there is a contradiction. If you want to reverse this situation, someone has to stand up and fight back first, right? Zhao Jiu has been preparing for the Huaihe River for so long. Although there have been twists and turns, he has generally done his best. So if the Huaihe River is gone, will the Yangtze River be there? If the Yangtze River is gone, will Jiangxi and Zhejiang be there?
This is another reason why Zhao Jiu remained silent. What he said to Yang Yizhong before was not a deliberate performance, but was full of true feelings.
The same reasoning applies to Zhang Jun before crossing the Huai River on New Year's Eve, Zhang Jun after crossing the Huai River, Han Shizhong in Jingou Town, Li Gang in Shuizibu Town ... Sometimes Zhao Jiu himself can't tell which of his imitations of ancient saintly monarchs are real and which are fake? Or how much is real and how much is fake?
The fighting in the Huaidu River continued and there was panic on the Bagua Mountain. Just like the rookie commander-in-chief and the fourth prince of the Jin Dynasty who became rampant after gaining power, Zhao Jiu, who had played the role of the official of the Zhao Song Dynasty for half a year, was also disturbed by an obvious defeat, even though he had not lost the overall situation and held an extra trump card.
"That place, pull the boat over there!"
Just when the defeat in the Huai River was certain, on a so-called Song army ship in the river, Zhang Yongzhen, who was standing on the bow and ready to attack, suddenly pointed to the broken end of the floating bridge in the north and spoke.
"Brother Zhang Qi!"
The second most senior officer on the ship, a captain named Hou Dan, stepped forward and tried to persuade him. "I know you are capable, and the emperor is watching you, but this is not the time to show off! How can you, a brave man from Longxi, show off your abilities on the water?"
"If I can show off my strength on the shore, why wouldn't I want to show off my strength on the shore?" Zhang Yongzhen turned around and was furious. "Aren't the Jurchens stronger on the shore?! The water is the most worthy place for us to fight them !"
"That's not what I meant!" Hou Dan was extremely helpless. "The Jin army is also strong on the water, and the defeat is certain. There are 70 to 80 soldiers and rowers on a boat! There is no reason to lose their lives for this!"
"You don't have to die!" Zhang Yongzhen's face turned grim upon hearing this. "Turn the boat to the north and take me over, and you can go on your own!"
"That's not worth it!" Upon hearing this, a close soldier from Longyou came forward and hugged Zhang Yongzhen's waist. "Seventh brother, I know you obeyed the emperor that day, but even so, why did you sacrifice such a good life for a few strings of money and a few pieces of cloth given by the emperor?! If you are gone, won't we, the inferior people from Longyou, be bullied in the army?"
"That's right." Hou Dan also hurried to persuade him. "After all, the floating bridge was broken today. Even if we lost many boats, the Jin people would take them for use tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. As the saying goes, we have done what we did today. When we return to the water fort, the Zhao emperor will have nothing to say and will reward us instead!"
"You know nothing!"
Since Zhang Yongzhen had risen to the position of a general in the Western Army and was the leader of the riot that day, he still had some courage and prestige. So he just pushed the person who was holding him away with force, and then kicked him over.
Without waiting for anyone to say anything, Zhang Yongzhen actually pulled out the knife from his waist, and then grabbed the captain Hou Dan who had just spoken out beside him with one hand, and then relied on his outstanding personal bravery and strength to pin him down on the bow, and forcibly cut off one of his ears...
After his ear was cut off, the man just let go of his hand, but he held his ear with one hand and held the knife with the other. He spoke loudly to the astonishment of the Western Army soldiers on the ship. His face was as ferocious as a demon:
"I have figured it out today! You just need to send me over today. After I die, you can go and be happy. But if you don't send me over, it will be difficult for me to talk to you on this boat now!"
"Send him away!" Hou Dan got up in a panic, covering half of his face with blood. His face was so hideous that it was hard to tell his shape, but he gritted his teeth and spoke vigorously. "He has gone crazy and wants to die. He doesn't know what is good or bad. If we don't send him away, will he be able to harm us?"
As he spoke, Hou Dan also drew a knife from his waist with one hand, but he only confronted Zhang Yongzhen for a moment, then turned around angrily, holding the blade and scolding the rower.
The crowd had no choice but to let the boats circle in the middle of the river and park at the broken end of the floating bridge. Zhang Yongzhen did not answer, but took off his heavy iron armor and put on a leather armor, but left the iron helmet on his head, then jumped down with a knife in hand, and went straight to the center of the battle group in the north along the shaking floating bridge. No one knew what he was doing.
However, even so, seven or eight soldiers from Longyou followed Zhang Yongzhen's example, dressed in the same way and jumped off the boat, following Zhang Yongzhen's lead to the north and attack in the opposite direction.
After these people went down, the ship no longer hesitated, but immediately started rowing and turned around!
