Chapter 625

Chapter 625

After four hours, Liu Pan started to furrow his brows angrily. “Why is the army not here yet?” The twenty thousand troops were not ready yet but his navy was already ready.

“Men! Go and execute the worthless trash in charge of this!” Liu Pan was already ready to kill someone. The time he had spent waiting altogether was already more than four hours. It was easily more than half a day. Yet only a portion of the ground troops were here. How could Liu Pan not be angry?

In fact, it is only still ‘safe’ because of the rebellion. Otherwise, someone with Hao Shao’s ability would not give them such a long time to prepare.

“Yes!”

“Military Advisor, please spare me!” Two officers that were in charge of deploying the troops panicked. Liu Pan was already angry. Without a proper explanation, they can say goodbye to their heads.

“Military Advisor, please quell your anger! It is not their fault. These are not warships!” Liu Pan’s deputy general pleaded for his subordinates.

“This damn Cai Mao!” Liu Pan said as his impression of the Cai Family dropped again. Had those thirty thousand troops at Fancheng be in his hands, he would not end up in this state. They would not be using fishing boats to transport troops.

The Jingzhou Navy! The former overlords of the Yangtze River has been reduced to using fishing boats! If the people knew about this, they would all become laughing stocks.

“Military Advisor. There are a lot of new recruits in the army. Please wait a bit longer!” In their army of fifty thousand, only fifteen thousand were veterans and elites. The rest were new recruits.

“I can wait but can war wait?” Liu Pan replied angrily. He wanted things done quickly. He wanted control of military power and obtain elite troops. Unfortunately, what he got was only new recruits. He didn’t even have any ships.

“General. Fifteen thousand men have already crossed the river. The thirty thousand troops on the other side is also already ready. Isn’t forty five thousand good enough? We don’t need to worry about just five thousand men. Besides, it would not be good if we change generals now.”

“Hmph! They can be spared but must still be punished! Men! Give them twenty strokes each!” Liu Pan waved his hand. This time, his deputy general could no longer say anything. Preventing the death penalty was the best he could do. Soon, these two officers were given twenty strokes with a large rod and were left groaning and bleeding.

“We shall attack the naval barracks at the Yangtze River in a pincer attack! I want to be feasting at their naval barracks by sunset! If you fail, I will be seeing your heads!” Liu Pan said to the two officers before storming off in a huff.

“Understood!” The two officers resisted the pain on their bodies and said their farewells to Liu Pan.

“The Military Advisor was about to kill us.” One officer said in fear.

“If it was not because of the deputy general, we would have already been killed for delaying the military situation!”

“The Second Lord is too privileged and would not think like us. The fishing boats were so small. How could we have gotten the job done in time? He is simply finding faults with us!” One of them complained as he was almost killed. They were veterans who used to work under Cai Mao. If they had to compare, they would rather serve under Cai Mao instead.

“Watch your tongue.” The other officer reminded. Liu Pan was still nearby. If Liu Pan were to hear this, the two of them would definitely be killed. Cai Mao was already deprived of his position and one way of provoking your superior is to claim that his predecessor was much better. The new superior would not allow this or else they would have no face to lead the group. Besides that, Liu Pan was becoming more dissatisfied with the things left behind for him by Cai Mao. All the important personnel related to Cai Mao were replaced with his own men. So it was also normal for those who served under Cai Mao to have complaints.

“Sunset is it?” The officer looked at the sky and saw that the sun was setting. There was only about four hours left. “Can we really do it by sunset?” The officer asked with doubt.

“What else can we do?” The officer named Zhang shook his head bitterly. “If we do not succeed, we will die. We have to do it no matter what!”

“We do not have all our soldiers here but we still have fifteen thousand men, of which several thousand were Wuling elites. With the pincer attack planned, we should be able to capture that naval base.” Forty five thousand men attacking a base that only has five thousand men. If they still could not capture it, they all might as well kill themselves. The only real problem is the amount of time they had.

“No need to worry about the time. Just wait for the Military Advisor to give his command.”

Soon, the sounds of drums could be heard.

“Prepare for battle!”

“Have we already requested for reinforcements?” The only ones guarding the naval base were Hao Shao’s deputy general and five thousand men. Hao Shao had already taken five thousand men with him to save Xinye so the people here were powerless to defend themselves. New n0vel chapters are published on

“Reporting to the deputy general. We have already requested reinforcements from Shouchun, Lujiang, Yiyang, and Zaoyang!” They did not request for reinforcements from only one place. These places had Yangzhou’s veterans and Wei Yan’s Yiyang Troops. As long as one place send reinforcements, they would be able to defend this place.

“Deputy general. Why did you not request reinforcements from the General?” One scout asked. The deputy general had requested reinforcements from everywhere except Hao Shao at Xinye.

“Let us not interrupt the General with anything else.” The deputy general shook his head. Hao Shao would be able to send help the fastest but when he thought of the rebels at Xinye he did not want to disturb Hao Shao. If Hao Shao were to return, they would not be able to keep Xinye and may eventually be unable to defend the naval barracks anyway.

“Pass down my orders. We will meet the enemy head on!” Not willing to be outdone, the soldiers all readied their bows.

When the Jingzhou Navy attacked, they were fought back with ballista, causing many casualties. On the other hand, the Yangzhou Army did relatively well as they were protected by cement walls. Soon there were many corpses from both sides floating at the Yangtze River.

“This tortoise shell is really tough!” Liu Pan watched the battle unfold from atop his flagship. He realized that he has underestimated this stronghold.

“The front is strong. But what about the back?” Twenty thousand troops led by his subordinates suddenly appeared from behind.

“Kill, kill, kill!” These soldiers were mostly new recruits but they could still fight. On top of that, several thousand were elites. With the elites leading the way, the morale of the new recruits were high. It was no wonder as their generals had told them that this stronghold only had five thousand men guarding it while all of them together were at least fifty thousand men.

With ten times the number, the enemy would become a joke. They would even get plenty of merits for this. Why would they not be motivated?

“Kill, kill, kill!” The soldiers shouted as they started to attack from the back.

“Er Gouzi. Didn’t your wife just give birth to a child? Leave. Do not let your child be without a father!”

“Xiao Li, your brother is already in the Hall of Heroes. You should leave an offspring behind first.”

In the end, only four hundred would stay behind as the main force. Three hundred injured soldiers that could no longer run way will instead cover for the three hundred escaping through the North gate.

“It is almost sunset.” At the North gate, two of Jingzhou’s officers were anxious. They were at the advantage but they could not be happy. This is because their orders were to capture the naval barracks by sunset. Failure to accomplish this task would mean their life.

“Send another wave of troops. I will personally lead them!” One of the officer gritted his teeth and decided to personally lead the attack.

“Have you gone mad?” Besieging was the most dangerous work. Anything that falls from the walls could kill. Even falling off the walls could kill. This is not counting any potential injury.

“What else can we do? If we do not capture the naval barracks, we are both dead!”

“There is no other choice then!” They would die either way so the two officers prepared themselves to charge ahead.

“Look over there!” One of the suddenly pointed. The North gates suddenly opened.

“Do they want to surrender?”

“How could that be?” Liu Pan had asked them to surrender before, promising them promotion and wealth since he wanted elites. However, they rejected the offer. As a result, Liu Pan attacked with full force and ordered that none of them were spared.

“Kill!” The Yangzhou Army that left the gates charged out towards Jingzhou’s troops without any formation.

“Have they gone mad?” If they still had the walls, they could stand against Jingzhou’s human wave attacks. Instead, they chose to charge out which would certainly cause the naval barracks to fall.

“No matter! We just need to capture the naval barracks to live!” The other officer replied, focusing on survival.

“That’s right! All soldiers, attack! Break into the naval barracks!” Even without orders, Jingzhou’s troops advanced. Both sides quickly encountered each other outside the walls.

The Jingzhou land troops initially had twenty thousand men. Even after sustaining losses, they still had at least sixteen thousand men. On the other hand, Yangzhou had less than a thousand men so they were quickly surrounded.

Yangzhou’s troops could only rely on their elites to fight and for a moment, seemed evenly matched. However, they were quickly overwhelmed. None of them were any kind of warriors so they were quickly swallowed up.

“Change direction! Charge out!” The Yangzhou Army was like an awl. One officer carrying the banner shouted and changed direction. The rest of the soldiers followed as they tried to charge out from a different direction.

“Hm? They are trying to break out?” The two Jingzhou officers could tell what was going on as Yangzhou’s troops were charging out through a weak point in their formation.

“Want to run? Impossible!” One of the officers wanted to lead his guards with him and attack Yangzhou’s soldiers but he was stopped by the other officer.

“Sigh. No need to go!”

“What are you doing? They are escaping!” The officer said anxiously.

“Let them run!”

“Hm?”

“Our objective is not them! There is no need to waste troops on them!” The North gate of the naval barracks had closed again but now there were less people guarding it.

“That’s right!” Now that the defenses were weaker, it would be easier to capture it.

“Pass down my orders! No need to chase the enemy! Attack the naval barracks!” The Jingzhou troops turned back towards the naval barracks and ignored Yangzhou’s fleeing troops.

Dai Yun, one of the escaping soldiers, gasped for breath after cutting his way out. His body was covered in sweat and blood. When he fought together with Hao Shao to stop Liu Bei, he was a mere 100-man general. Now he was a 1000-man commander. Dai Yun himself had already obtained the approval of many and Hao Shao was going to recommend him work as a 10,000-man commander under Huang Zhong. None of them expected this to happen.

“Deputy general Huang!” Dai Yun watched the fires burn behind him. The naval barracks could no longer be defended and its defenses only grew weaker after they escaped. The naval barracks falling would become inevitable so Dai Yun called out to the deputy general, Huang Xin, that sacrificed himself to bring up the rear. Based on Huang Xin’s character, he would die guarding the naval barracks.

Dai Yun knelt down and put his head on the ground. “Deputy general Huang. Take care of yourself!”

“Deputy general Huang. Take care of yourself!” The other surviving soldiers also did the same and said their farewells.

After wiping away his tears, Dai Yun addressed the troops. “Let us go find the General! We must take revenge!”

“Yes! Let us find the General and take revenge! Those who are only slightly injured will advance by themselves! The severely injured will advance in pairs, together with the ones not injured. We are going to Xinye!” Dai Yun said as he counted the remaining number of troops. There were about three hundred men left. The other seven hundred soldiers that charged out with him were dead or lost within the enemy formation.

After advancing towards Xinye for some time, they started to hear a rumbling sound. Dai Yun’s eyes grew wide as he thought that Jingzhou’s troops was chasing them down to kill them all. A heavy cavalry approaching from the horizon.

“Enemy attack!” Dai Yun shouted. The three hundred soldiers once again grouped together to prepare for an enemy attack.