Chapter 206 A shocking battle (1)
Translated by Gamer
Although Lu Su disapprove of Jiang Qin’s words, he only showed his dissatisfaction on this face. First of all, he was not a navy general. There is no one more knowledgeable than Jiang Qin at water combat and there is also no one more capable at fighting that Jiang Qin on the water. Second, although the words were so vulgar that Lu Su felt disgusted, he assumes it was Jiang Qin’s plan to anger Gan Ning and stop the blockade.
They had many strong ships but they could not leave the camp and could only watch helplessly. Now Gan Ning was fooled. Gan Ning and Lu Bu’s navy left the area and allowed the Sun Ce’s navy to come out to find out which one of them is stronger.
Jiang Qin smiled ferociously. So, you can’t take it anymore! Jiang Qin made up his mind that he wanted to destroy the Lu Bu’s navy and this runaway fish. After that, he will turn Gan Ning into meat and send it to the Lu Bu’s Army as well.
“General! What are you doing!” Gan Ning’s deputy was extremely puzzled. What is Gan Ning trying to do? Allowing the enemies to come out? They launched the surprise attack in the morning precisely to trap the enemy navy inside their main camp. As a result, only the Sun Ce’s Army would take a beating. However, Gan Ning unexpectedly allowed them to come out from the main camp to fight to the death. That is going against the plan! The Lu Bu’s Army at most have 7,000 soldiers and half of them were just recruits. On the other hand, not including the other divisions of the Sun Ce’s Army, their main army already had 10,000 soldiers. How could they fight this kind of battle?
“I originally do not plan to let them out of the river.” Gan Ning said coldly. He is not sure if Su Fei is really dead but he is sure that Su Fei has suffered greatly in the hands of Jiang Qin. This is because Su Fei even had to discard his treasured sword. Gan Ning still remembered when Su Fei took out his sword to teach him the two characters that meant loyalty.
Gan Ning behaved proudly and does not get along well with others. Otherwise he would not have become a thief at the Yangtze River. Gan Ning’s family was quite well off. He had magnificent clothes because he was quite prestigious in his childhood. They travel by boat and could be found wherever there is glory. His boat was also beautiful like a brocade.
When he became a pirate, lots of people cursed him and he caused lots of headache to the officials. However, for those that get to know Gan Ning, Gan Ning would do jump into a sea of fire to help them.
Gan Ning watched one of Sun Ce’s Army’s warships leave their main camp and entered the river. All their warships were giving extra caution in case Gan Ning launched another surprise attack. Come on! Come on! If you guys don’t come out, how could I destroy you?
Although Gan Ning has blocked the Sun Ce’s Army’s main camp, this also means that they could not give any substantial damage to the Sun Ce’s Army. If Gan Ning stormed the camp, his army would receive heavy casualties unless the surprise attack was a success. Unfortunately, they were discovered by a soldier.
“But general!” The deputy was still worried as the enemy army was much more powerful than theirs.
“Don’t tell me you don’t believe in me Gan Ning and the Little Lord?” Gan Ning asked back. Gan Ning was not an idiot. Although he considers himself better than Jiang Qin in navy warfare, he also realizes that he has less resources and soldiers than Jiang Qin. If it was a normal battle, Gan Ning knows that he would lose. However, today, he has that 5 giant things on his ship.
Two towered ship appeared from within the main camp, followed by another towered ship right behind the first two. This way, even if Gan Ning attacked them, the ships would be able to support each other.
Lu Su looked at the scene for a long time with doubt. He then asked. “General Jiang Qin. Going out like this, aren’t you afraid that Gan Ning might suddenly attack?” This is one possible tactic. To allow the enemy to cross the river halfway before attacking them suddenly. Although this tactic is usually used on land battles, it is also applicable for water battles. What if Gan Ning decides to attack Jiang Qin as he tried to come out.
“Don’t worry military advisor!” Jiang Qin was very confident. “Gan Ning does not have that ability!” Jiang Qin pointed at his towered ships. “5 ships. No.” Jiang Qin shook his head. “As long as 4 ships manages to go out, Gan Ning can forget about stopping the naval fleet from coming out.” Jiang Qin did not say that if Gan Ning suddenly attacks, 2-3 ships will be lost along with thousands of casualties as he was willing to pay that price.
Gan Ning was true to his word and did not harass the Sun Ce’s Army until they left the camp.
Jiang Qin’s navy and the Wan Cheng navy felt that something was off but they still managed to get to the surface of the river. Gan Ning’s navy held their breath as they saw the scene in front of them. In front of them were 10,000 elite navies and 20,000 common navies. The common navies were left behind by the Jiangdong’s nobles. Although they were not strong, they were able to send out more towered ships.
30,000 troops! On the other hand, Gan Ning only had 7,000 troops. The difference in strength is too big. The recruits were scared. Although the veterans were scolding the recruits, their hearts were also uneasy. None of them fought battles like this before. Although they were elites in the Jiangxia navy, they have lost to the Jiangdong navy before. Besides that, the Jiangxia navy had 20,000 troops while the Jiangdong navy had only 10,000 troops. Now they were fighting an opponent 4 times their size. Are those weird things on the ship reliable?
“Gan Ning! Just surrender! I will at least leave your corpse intact!” Jiang Qin carelessly said. He would not honor that promise. He was the one who killed Gan Ning’s brother Su Fei. There was only hatred and enmity between him and Gan Ning. Lu Su also did not say anything. Lu Su have also heard that Gan Ning was a water general. He was the Jin Fan Zei that became the deputy of the Jiangxia navy. He was a valiant general. The Jiangxia navy was strong and only managed to survive because of Gan Ning. If Gan Ning was not there, the Jiangdong navy would have defeated them long ago.
Jiangxia’s current state was the result of Su Fei and Gan Ning’s departure. It allowed the Jiangdong navy to easily defeat them. Huang Zu on his own was weak and collapsed on the first encounter. Fortunately for him, Liu Biao acted swiftly and send reinforcements but even then, half of Jiangxia has already fallen.
If Gan Ning were to join the Jiangdong navy, their navy would become more powerful! Although the Jiangdong Army does not lack capable commanders for the navy, Gan Ning was even more talented than them! Not only was he good at water battles but he was also quite versatile in cavalry battles. This kind of talent would be able to frighten all the warlord if he was in the Sun Ce’s Army.
In the original history, Gan Ning really was one of Jiangdong’s generals. Lu Su and Gan Ning have even worked together. Lu Su was the commander and Gan Ning was his general. With the two of them working together, Gan Ning’s abilities really shined. One example was when Gan Ning and Lu Su defended Yiyang (now Hunan) from Guan Yu. Guan Yu claimed to have 30,000 troops. He personally selected 5,000 elites and blocked the river and said he would cross it at night. Gan Ning only had 300 soldiers and then he said. “Give me additional 500 soldiers and I will deal with Guan Yu. When he hears my voice, he would not dare to cross the river unless he wants to be captured by me!”
Lu Su immediately gave Gan Ning 1,000 soldiers and on that night, Gan Ning went and fortified his position across the river. Guan Yu heard Gan Ning and saw the fortified position. He then gave up the plan and even some bundled up wood.
Lu Su shook his head as he lamented the death of Su Fei. Now Gan Ning would never join the Jiangdong Army. Sun Ce would not kill a veteran general like Jiang Qin just for Gan Ning. On the other hand, Gan Ning’s vengeance would never be satisfied. In other words, Gan Ning would forever be the enemy of the Jiangdong Army.
Since he was an enemy, there is no choice but to kill him! After joining the Jiangdong Army, Lu Su started to become a cold person. All those that obstructs the Jiangdong Army will be removed. Gan Ning is one of them.
Jiang Qin was very proud of himself. His army of 30,000 is out of the main camp. On the other hand, Lu Bu’s navy just started to be constructed. He wanted to see Gan Ning’s expression of regret, hatred and despair. This is because Gan Ning was the one that allowed this 30,000 troops to set sail, along with hundreds of ships. Just the sight of the army was enough to make a person feel numb.
Unfortunately, Jiang Qin was doomed to disappointment as Gan Ning looked at them indifferently. “Just this much? Didn’t you say you have 100,000 troops? This is all of it?” Gan Ning asked honestly as he was told that Sun Ce attacked Lujiang with 100,000 soldiers.
“100,000 soldiers!” Jiang Qin and Lu Su’s face sunk down. They thought that Gan Ning was mocking them. Their army of 100,000 did attack Lujiang but it did not manage to capture Lujiang yet! On the other hand, they have lost 40,000 soldiers along with 10,000 Danyang troops. They were then chased around by the Wolf Cavalry. The remaining soldiers were these 30,000 soldiers here and another 5,000 soldiers in Wan Cheng. 65,000 troops were lost, among them include 10,000 Danyang soldiers and 5,000 Yuzhou Cavalry, to capture Wan Cheng. This was Sun Ce’s Army! It should be known that Sun Ce only needed 3,000 soldiers to capture the whole of Jiangdong but needed 100,000 soldiers to capture Wan Cheng City.
Fortunately, Wan Cheng is at the center of Lujiang which will make the capture of Lujiang go much easier. This information made Lu Su’s heart feel at ease. However, Gan Ning brought the matter up and irritated Lu Su again.
It was an even bigger insult to Jiang Qin as his brother was killed in Wan Cheng and the corpse was not complete. Zhou Tai could not even be buried. Jiang Qin was also toyed with a yellow robed veteran and his arm was in pieces. As a healthy body is extremely important to generals, Jiang Qin felt his heart ache. His way of the martial arts is forever blocked! He was the same as Wu Anguo who also refined the body and was capable of carrying 50 jin hammers. His martial arts ability was no longer on the same level as Taishi Ci. At Hu Lao gate, he would be able to contend with Lu Bu for a while if he seeked death. Wu Anguo drank wine before the battle and looked down on Lu Bu before his arm got chopped off. Luckily, the loss of his arm woke him up and he managed to retreat, relying on his skill and the help of the other warriors.
However, because he lost his arm, he exited the path of the martial artist and disappeared from history. It is not known if he is living incognito or he died from heartbreak.
Jiang Qin was now in a similar situation. If was not because of his motivation to exact vengeance for Zhou Tai, he would have already taken off his armor and resigned.
“Since you seek death, do not blame me!” Jiang Qin looked coldly before he raised his only arm and shouted “Attack!” 30,000 navies on large warships started to advance. There was no particular strategy but Jiang Qin didn’t care. 30,000 would easily crush 7,000. They also would not be able to escape on the water. They could only fight.
Watching the countless warships beginning to move, all the arrows were also already ready to be shot with the navy standing by on the deck.
Gan Ning also held out his arm and shouted “Attack!” Even when the enemy is 4 times their size, he also issued the command to attack.
Both armies raised their sails. As the Jiangdong’s ship was on the higher ground compared to Gan Ning, their velocity was faster.
“Did he go crazy from hatred?” Lu Su was not very knowledgeable in water combat but he knew that there is no hope of the 7,000 troops to win 30,000 troops. There weren’t many instances of the few defeating the many for water combat as they were all on the same river. As most battles were like this, there weren’t many chances for there to be an ambush or other tricks.
Going crazy from hatred? Gan Ning admits he wants to separate Jiang Qin into eight pieces. However, this did not impede his judgement. If he were to lose this war, not to mention revenge, even his life would be in question.
1 km, 900m, 800m, 700m, 600m, 500m, 400m, 300m. The two armies could now see each other’s expression. The Jiangdong army had a tyrannical expression. As they had the advantage, they felt like this battle was just killing ducks.
On the other hand, Gan Ning’s navy were all nervous and in doubt.
“N?” Lu Su could now see Gan Ning’s warship clearly. 20 ships that was almost like Jiangdong’s towered ships. At this era, the popular method of fighting was to ram the ships together. After that, they would use ropes to board the enemy’s ships. “What is that?” Lu Su asked. Compared to his heart as a scholar, his heart as a general is much thinner. He saw several black cloths covering something big on Gan Ning’s towered ships. What is that? The object had to be a few hundred pounds. All of them would weigh about the same. Were there not enough soldiers? After all, the amount of soldiers on Gan Ning’s ships were not as much compared to the Jiangdong Army.
“Now is the time!” Gan Ning’s mouth turned into a sneer. “Pull the cloth! Let our children breathe!”
“Yes!” The soldiers on the same ship as Gan Ning did as they were commanded to and lifted the black cloth, revealing a ferocious mechanism. With a sharp head, colossus body, and multiple parts, it clearly shows the power of this mechanism.
“What!” Lu Su trembled and took a deep breath. He knew what those are! Those are the ballista crossbow! Where did they come from? It originally appeared at Wan Cheng and caused Lu Su a headache. Just one of that was enough to almost kill Sun Ce and destroy a siege tower! Now the ballista is back and this time there were 5 of it on the ship! There were 20 ships here! The ballista here was also different from the one on Wan Cheng! It was truly different!
(TN: Lu Su, you shall never escape from technology.)
