Chapter 226 Zhou Yu Defeated (3)
“Raise the sails!” Zhou Yu is angry. Now, whoever that questions him would only face death. As a result, all the warships raised their sails without question. The sails were raised and the ship also accelerated with the power of the peddlers.
“Raising the sails? Haha, did you want to surrender?” The sails were basically cloth that is white which looks the same as the surrender flag. Besides that, raising the sails also increased the area the ship could get damaged.
Kuai Liang sneered. Perhaps Zhou Yu panicked? It is a normal reaction after seeing the fearsome power of this weapon!
“Even though I understand that, I have no choice but to send you into the river! The only good Duke of Zhou is a dead Handsome Zhou.”
Kuai Liang raised his hands to order another volley onto Zhou Yu’s flagship. After Zhou Yu’s flagship is destroyed, the whole of the Yangtze River would belong to the Jingzhou Navy. Liu Mang sold all their warships as a message that the Lu Bu’s Army does not want to fight for the Yangtze River. They want to obtain the Huai He River and take revenge on Cao Cao at the Central Plains. If there are three parties, they would need to balance out their strength but if there were only two parties, the two parties can exhaust all their strength to kill each other. The winner would become the overlord for the Yangtze River.
Naturally, Kuai Liang also considered the fact that it was a ruse by the Lu Bu’s Army to make the Jingzhou Navy and the Jiangdong Navy fight. However, their cover was too convincing and the cake was too big. The Lu Bu’s Army sold 23 warships loaded with ballistae to Kuai Liang. It allows the Jingzhou Army to test its powers and to defeat Zhou Yu. After they manage to equip the rest of their warships with ballistae, would the Jiangdong Navy still be able to defeat them? After defeating Sun Ce and the JIangdong Army, they would be able to afford spending on more fleets. Kuai Liang did not believe that the Lu Bu’s Army could match them in production.
“Go die!” Kuai Liang’s eyes flashed. In his eyes, Zhou Yu’s flagship was crushed and Zhou Yu would then drown in the river.
Unfortunately, nothing happened. Giant arrows did not appear to destroy Zhou Yu’s flagship
“What happened!” Kuai Liang shouted in anger.
Kuai Liang fumed. Initially, he was so happy that when Zhou Yu is defeated, he would write a brilliant poem on top of the Yangtze River. But now he felt like he just ate a swarm of large flies. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling made his heart ache.
“Master Zi Rou! We have run out of arrows!” Deng Long felt a little awkward. Similar to Kuai Liang, he would very much like to see Zhou Yu’s flagship sinking. Unfortunately, that did not happen because the ballistae has ran out of arrows.
“It can only shoot five arrows!” Deng Long said to Kuai Liang. In fact, both Kuai Liang and Deng Long knew that the ballistae could only shoot 5 arrows. However, they became too excited when they saw the Jiangdong’s Navy getting defeated.
“Reload quickly!” Kuai Liang knew that the Lu Bu’s Army must have taught them how to reload the ballistae. Kuai Liang calmed down but was still not pleased. Just a little more! It is because of this that they were unable to destroy Zhou Yu’s flagship and become heroes and saviors of Jingzhou.
“Why, did Master Zi Rou not know that it could only shoot 5 times?” Although Zhou Yu could not hear Kuai Liang’s conversation, he could see Kuai Liang’s gloomy face. The overpowering Kuai Liang is no longer there and was replaced by ruined Kuai Liang.
Ever since Jiang Qin’s navy was destroyed, Zhou Yu started to study about Lu Bu’s Army’s new weapon. This is because no matter what happens, Jiangdong would need to deal with this new weapon. Zhou Yu had never expected to obtain the blueprint of Lu Bu’s ballistae. At first, Zhou Yu had the idle thought of how to fight the ballistae using the current fleet. He put down the idea when Sun Ce mentioned about obtaining the blueprint. Unexpectedly, Zhou Yu’s chance to utilize his plans came out.
The ballistae was a weapon that can shoot 300 paces away and could shoot 5 times rapidly. 1 volley was enough to take down a small fleet. 5 volleys would make that fleet disappear completely. As expected, that happened to Han Dang. Gan Ning would have ridiculed the Jingzhou Navy for their terrible ballistae operating skills. To use it properly, only 2 warships were needed to aim at 1 target. This would ensure its destruction and at the same time, maximizing the amount of destruction it could cause. It would allow them to destroy 3 times as many enemies with 5 volleys. It would be able to destroy a majority of Zhou Yu’s Army.
However, Kuai Liang and Deng Long made the same mistakes. They assumed that concentrating their firepower would cause more terror and strike fear into their enemies. They would not be wrong if they were fighting someone else but their opponents were Zhou Yu’s Ace Army. Their stratagem was completely ineffective. The five volleys only managed to destroy Han Dang’s ships.
The ballistae can only shoot five times! It was their weakpoint. After shooting 5 times, they would need t to prepare a new bowstring. Zhou Yu has already counted the number of arrows were shot and he counted 5 times. Now was the time for Zhou Yu to fight back.
“Quickly reload!” Kuai Liang was gloomy. Although Gan Ning’s navy had taught them how to reload the ballistae, it was a very time-consuming process. They needed to place the giant arrows on the ballistae and then a lot of people would need to pull the bowstring. In times of peace, the time taken would not be a problem but it would be terrible to do this in the middle of combat. Even now, Zhou Yu’s warships were approaching.
“Master Zi Rou, we should also raise the sails!” Deng Long suggested. According to Gan Ning’s navy, they would need to keep their distance especially if they needed to reload the ballistae. Otherwise, they would end up engaging in close combat.
“We can only do this! Raise the sails, all units, fall back!” Kuai Liang felt frustrated. Initially, the battle was going well but suddenly this had to happen. It was as if they were being made fun of. Luckily, Kuai Liang’s heart was in a good condition. If it happened to someone with a bad heart, he would already be sent to the next life.
“Trying to increase the distance?” Zhou Yu could see the Jingzhou Navy struggling to reload the ballista. He knew that Kuai Liang is increasing the distance to buy time. Zhou Yu will not give him this opportunity. He has also learned from Jiang Qin’s soldiers about what happened during the fight with Gan Ning.
If they did not chase Gan Ning’s navy, Gan Ning would chase them and shoot them down. When they decided to chase Gan Ning, Gan Ning would fall back and prevent them from catching him. It was this annoying strategy that destroyed Jiang Qin’s navy.
The current battlefield was different. Although the warships were the same as Gan Ning’s and the Jingzhou Navy were stronger than Gan Ning’s Navy, the biggest difference was that this battle has Zhou Yu, the number 2 figure in the whole of Jiangdong.
“Not the same wind, not the same water, not the same river! Master Zi Rou, your death would not be worthwhile!” Zhou Yu muttered to himself. Sure enough, Kuai Liang found something wrong. Their speed was slower than the Jiangdong Army. At the rate they were going, they would be caught before they could reload the ballistae!
The critical point was that they were both going downstream right now and could turn into Jiangdong. Kuai Liang had chased Zhou Yu’s flagship so that the ballistae was aiming Zhou Yu’s ship when he needed to fall back. As a result, they needed to turn the ship around but ships during that era could not execute U-turns. As a result, the Jingzhou Navy’s warships experience more resistance compared to the Zhou Yu’s Navy. Once they were caught, they would be torn apart by Zhou Yu’s Navy as most of the navy were not harmed. Kuai Liang did not believe that his less than 7,000 soldiers could win Jiangdong’s 20,000 soldiers. In that case, Sanjiangkou would be Kuai Liang’s grave.
Biting his teeth, Kuai Liang had a certainty. They absolutely must not be caught! To gain distance and time to reload the ballistae, someone would need to bring up the rear and cover their retreat!
“Let warships 1, 4 and 6 turn the bow and charge towards Zhou Yu’s navy!” Having no way out, Kuai Liang could only do this. He only had 23 warships and each warship was priceless. The one that makes his heart ache the most was the ballistae on top of the warship. That weapon was truly priceless. He had to trade 4,000 craftsmen and 20,000 gold to obtain it! Kuai Liang was very reluctant.
However, he was even more reluctant to risk losing his entire fleet.
“Yes!” Deng Long nodded his head. He also knew this means sacrificing those warships. Those on board would have no way out but Deng Long was already helpless. Although he was the general for the navy, but now he had to listen to Kuai Liang’s commands. Kuai Liang’s words were military orders!
Deng Long gave the orders for the 1st, 2nd and 6th warship turned to engage Zhou Yu’s navy. This command made many soldiers boil as nobody was willing to court death and did not want to do it. Opposite them was over 20,000 soldiers that were all hungry for their blood like fierce tigers as they had just shot down a lot of their friends.
However, Deng Long gave the order again. The meaning was for Jiangxia and their family, do it anyway! This made the three vessels silent and they soon begin a mad rush towards Zhou Yu’s navy.
Deng Long’s words had two meanings. The first was that if they did not defeat Zhou Yu, their family would not have peace. The second meaning is that if they do not attack Zhou Yu, their family’s lives will be threatened. As a result, the soldiers could only choose to court death.
Kuai Liang’s strategy worked and the three warships charge towards the Jiangdong navy without using their ballistae. One by one the Jiangdong ships started to crowd around these three ships. They were soon outnumbered and annihilated. The higher ranking officers on board gave out their final message just before they were killed “I hope the general treats our families well!”
“Sacrificing an arm? Good technique!” Zhou Yu cannot help but admire Kuai Liang as even Zhou Yu would be too reluctant to part with the ballistae. As a result, Kuai Liang lost 1/7th of his battle strength but the distance increased again.
Master Zi Rou, if this was peaceful times, you may have won. But now, I am sorry! Even the Heavens would not help you! Zhou Yu raised his hand and cool air passed through his fingers.
“Wind!” Zhou Yu smiled as he had waited for this moment! Zhou Yu has long since known what the weather of the Yangtze River would be like. Although he was unable to change it, he knows when the wind would start blowing. It was a blessing to those going downstream while it was hell for those trying to go upstream.
“Wind!” Kuai Liang’s face froze. He did not know when the wind would arrive. Although the wind helps ships that was going downstream, it was particularly strong for the Jiangdong Navy. This is because Zhou Yu have large and tall warships.
The flagship was large and also had large sails. The strong winds ended up accelerating the Jiangdong Navy’s warship and the ship soon caught up with Kuai Liang’s warship.
“Destestable!” Kuai Liang was about to be heartbroken as even the Heavens did not help him! Even the Gods refused to receive Zhou Yu’s head! The oversized towered ship caught up with one of Kuai Liang’s warship but Zhou Yu did not find trouble with it. He instead went for a decisive confrontation with Kuai Liang.
“Is the ballistae ready yet!” Kuai Liang was angry. Originally, they were the hunters, hunting the Jiangdong Army with the ballista. Now they were being hunted by Zhou Yu!
“Not yet!” Deng Long also shouted as he wiped off the sweat on his forehead. He and Kuai Liang were in this together. Zhou Yu’s flagship came in front of Deng Long causing him to panic. After so many years of war with the Jiangdong Army, Deng Long has developed an unknown fear of Zhou Yu that has been commanding the navy all this time.
“Not yet!” Kuai Liang shouted in anger! “Order warship 5 and 7 to turn around and fight back!” Two more ships were sacrificed to protect Kuai Liang’s flagship.
“Yes!” Deng Long could only helplessly follow commands. The only person with a loss sacrificing the soldiers would be Deng Long. He really hoped this battle would at least earn him a promotion and replenish his troops.
Before the ships could act, they were already behind Zhou Yu’s flagship. They struggled to stay between the crevices of the towered ship.
“9th warship! Engage the enemy!” Deng Long commanded the 9th warship instead to help the flagship escape.
However, Kuai Liang made a wry smile and shook his head. “It is too late!” Zhou Yu’s flagship crashed into Kuai Liang’s flagship. Kuai Liang’s warships were originally from the Lu Bu’s Army and were only equipped with the ballistae. The ship itself however, was obtained from Jiangxia. Although Jingzhou has a shipbuilding industry, they were mostly merchants making a living and did not develop their skills. The old and dying Liu Biao also did not push their talents further.
The ability to maintain and repair the warships is already a good thing. However, Zhou Yu’s warship has large sails and the features of a towered ship. His towered ship was twice as big as a normal towered ship. When this ship hits Kuai Liang’s ship, Kuai Liang’s warship started to crack. If It was not because of the strong wood used, the ship would have already sunk into the river.
“Master Zi Rou, quickly leave!” Deng Long pulled out his sword and started to protect Kuai Liang. He can sacrifice the entire fleet here but he cannot allow Kuai Liang to die here. If Kuai Liang is dead or captured, not only will Huang Zu not forgive him but his Kuai family would also be destroyed.
Kuai Liang did not argue as he knows that now is not the time. He nodded and ran in the opposite direction. He is a scribe. Although he knew a little bit of martial arts, it is mainly used for emergency self-defense. If he were to fight right now, he would only increase the burden of the soldiers.
Kuai Liang’s life is the top priority. All the ships that could have retreated also rushed back to fight with Zhou Yu’s flagship! Although Zhou Yu is surrounded by a dozen ships, he did not panic. This is because, he knew he would win!