The ship slowly entered the side path where there are less ships. Although Jia Xu was dragged into the cabin of the ship, he still paid attention to the surrounding waters. As they travelled further in, the vegetation became denser. This caused Jia Xu’s instincts to scream at him to leave as quickly as possible.
“Your Majesty. The river water would turn rapid further ahead on this side path. There would be a lot of shaking later.” The boatman explained.
“Rapid waters? Would we get past that quickly?” Jia Xu asked.
“Of course. We would be able to rejoin the main stream of this river within an hour.”
“That is great. The faster we move, the better.” Jia Xu hoped to leave this place.
“Understood.” The boatman nodded and raised the sails. The ship sped up and soon left the small boat behind.
Jia Xu gave a sigh. He was a person who observed others and was not used to being observed instead.
“Once we leave this side path, we would already be within the borders of Xiangyang.” Liu Mang patted Jia Xu’s shoulder to comfort him.
JIa Xu certainly hoped so but before he could speak, there was a sudden crash. Both Jia Xu and Liu Mang almost fell into the river.
“What’s going on?” Jia Xu and Liu Mang stumbled in shock. Fortunately, Liu Mang was able to protect both himself and Jia Xu from suffering any injuries with the little bit of martial arts he had learned.
“Report! Someone has used iron to block our way forward!” One soldier reported.
“Blocked by iron?” Liu Mang’s eyes grew wide as he looked forward. At the location where the river was flowing most rapidly, there were several thick iron chains tied at two ends to form a blockade. The bottom part of the ship had crashing into the iron, breaking the planks. Fortunately, the ship was sturdy enough to not get cut into half. Unfortunately there is not much different for the current situation as they would not be able to proceed with their journey.
Just as Liu Mang and the rest busied themselves with the situation on the ship, they suddenly heard the sound of drums beating.
“Kill!” Shouts came from several dozen small boats that appeared from the reeds. Each small boats had at least five people. Altogether there were at least a hundred assailants.
“Not good! We have been ambushed!” They panicked as they had been ambushed in such a tight location.
“Everyone! Prepare to fight!” Liu Mang roared out and all the soldiers took out their swords. There may be hundreds of enemies but fortunately, Liu Mang did not only have his soldiers. The boatman and his workers would also need to help in battle if they wanted to live.
“Milord. Do you see that small boat over there?” Jia Xu pointed at a small boat as he said to Liu Mang.
“That is the small boat we have investigated earlier!” They had been sneered at by the boatman for that action. Yet the occupants of this small boat truly had bad intentions. If this was not the case, why would they come so close to the warship and even join the rest in this ambush?
Jia Xu sighed with remorse. He had suspicions about that small boat and had checked it out. However, he did not find any swordsmen inside. This caused Jia Xu to think that the small boat was harmless. He never expected it to be a disguise that would be even more dangerous the less harmful they appear. The small boat’s purpose was not to stop or attack Liu Mang’s ship. Their real intent was simply to monitor Liu Mang’s ship. That was why Pang Tong kept feeling like he was being watched.
The enemy ships did not come for a direct fight. The soldiers on the ship shot their arrows at Liu Mang’s ship.
“Not good! Those are fire arrows!” Liu Mang exclaimed as he looked at the fire arrows in the sky. There was no way to stop these arrows from falling onto the ship. However, it would be extremely problematic if the arrows struck the sail. After all, the sails were covered in oil to prevent corrosion. Unfortunately, the easily flammable sails ended up causing the ship to end up on fire.
“Extinguish that fire!” Liu Mang commanded. If the fire were to spread, it would be extremely hard to deal with it later. They would all end up swimming in the waters.
Liu Mang had only just given the order but then there was another loud sound as there were more crashes coming from the small boat.
“Not good! Water demons!1” The boatman alerted this time. Although he was merely a second tier in the Jingzhou Navy, he still understood what this is after many years navigating a warship. All those ramming sounds were the sound of the small boats striking at the ship.
“Kill!” In the end, the soldiers hooked onto the ship and came on board. Liu Mang was already surrounded.
“Who is ambushing us?” Liu Mang roared and took out his sword. “This is not the time to be thinking about this. All soldiers, prepare for battle! Boatman! Get your men and extinguish the fire! You there! Protect Mister Wenhe! The rest of you, follow me and attack!” Liu Mang could only get the boatman and the rest of the crew to put out the fire. He only had twenty soldiers with him and he would need all of them to fight against the enemy.
“Kill! Kill!” The close combat started. Liu Mang’s men were all elites personally selected by Yang Hong. Some were even those cultivated by Yang Hong to deal with Yuan Shao. They were extremely vicious.
Liu Mang would not stop to rest during this life threatening crisis. He had already cut down three people. However, he underestimated Jia Xu. Rather than allow himself to be protected by the two guards assigned to him, he joined up with Liu Mang in killing their enemies. After all, he came from Wuwei and have already learned how to fight. If he had only relied on his mouth the entire time, he would have died a long time ago.
Although Jia Xu was not a general, he was still experienced in battle. The sword in his hand swiftly struck down an enemy. He then moved on to the next without even removing the blood from the sword.
“This old fox!” Liu Mang had truly underestimated Jia Xu. He had thought that Jia Xu who was so afraid of death would be hiding at the very back. Naturally, Liu Mang would also not allow Jia Xu to die and would protect Jia Xu. He did not expect Jia Xu to go up and fight. Before coming to Jingzhou, Jia Xu had complained a lot. He said gave many excuses like being old and unable to travel. Bullshit. Where else can you find an old man killing several men with a long sword?
However, this was praising Jia Xu too much. Jia Xu went to battle simply because of self-preservation. He knew he would also die if Liu Mang and the others were killed. Rather than waste soldiers to get himself protected at the back, it would be better if everyone joined the fight. At the very least there would be another three extra fighters helping in the battle.
As more of the small boats approached, more enemies climbed aboard the ship. Liu Mang, Zhou Cang and Guan Hai led the soldiers ferociously but they were outnumbered. Eventually, casualties started to appear. One of the sergeants had his arm chopped off. Despite the unbearable pain the man roared as though it could chase the pain away. He then killed the enemy with his remaining arm. However, he was not able to hold out for very long with only one arm and was eventually killed in battle.
“Wenhe! Be careful!” Within a short moment, Jia Xu had killed about three people. He was about to pull out his sword from an enemy corpse when a killing intent came from the side.
Jia Xu no longer cared about anything. He immediately let go of his sword and rolled away disregarding his appearance. His was unexpectedly quick with his movements. This saved his life as not a moment later, a serpent spear swept across. The two soldiers meant to guard Jia Xu were cut into two along with many of the other surrounding enemy soldiers. Amongst all of the people within that spear’s reach, only Jia Xu had managed to escape alive.
“Hmph!” The wielder of the Serpent Spear harrumphed in dissatisfaction for failing to kill Jia Xu and stepped forward. “The Military Advisor is truly good at scheming. He knew that you, the False King Liu Mang, would take this route!”
“Zhang Fei Zhang Yide!” Liu Mang shouted out the name of the person that had just arrived.
“Hahaha! It is I! Pretty boy! This time I have accepted the orders from the Military Advisor to take your life! I heard that you are the son-in-law of the Slave of Three Surnames! That Slave of Three Surnames killed my Brother Chen Dao! I haven’t repaid him for that! I guess I should first take your life as interest!” Zhang Fei shouted as he raised his Serpent Spear in the sky. It was as though he did not see Liu Mang as a threat at all.
Liu Mang finally knew who prepared this attack when he saw Zhang Fei. Liu Mang had been careless. He had found out about Tang Yun’s death and guessed that this was Pang Tong’s action. However, he never expected to be attacked like this. Tang Yun was just one person so the entire thing could be covered up. However, this attack could not be covered up.
Naturally, Pang Tong knew that this could not be covered up. He never wanted to conceal this in the first place. What he wanted was Liu Mang’s life. As long as Liu Mang is dead, Liu Biao would become an accomplice regardless of whether the man had participated in this. He would then have no choice but to fight against Lu Bu. Besides that, Liu Bei and Liu Mang were already mortal enemies. If the assassination was a failure, they would simply be hated more by the Liu Mang’s Army. It would not even be an issue. On the other hand, a success would start a war between Liu Biao and Lu Bu which would be beneficial.
Liu Mang thought to himself as to who was the culprit that leaked their whereabouts. In fact, there was no need for Liu Mang to think about it. Pang Tong would definitely know about the shortage of provisions in Yangzhou. He would also know that it would take half a month to transport provisions from Jingzhou to Yangzhou. From there, he could deduce that Liu Mang would take the quickest route. The small boat behind Liu Mang’s ship was only there to monitor Liu Mang. Finding out when Liu Mang would depart would also be an easy task with the influence of the Huang Family.
“Kill me? By yourself?” Liu Mang also became angry. Zhang Fei seemed set on wanting to take Liu Mang by himself. These were the kind of people that put others in a bad mood. Zhang Fei thought of himself as the God of War. Even then, it was not certain that he could win.
“I alone am enough to kill you!” Zhang Fei licked his lips. He had been restrained for far too long by Pang Tong and had the urge to kill. If it was not because Zhang Fei would be prohibited from drinking alcohol, he would have exploded a long time ago. Now that he has a place to vent, he would not give it up for anything. He would definitely kill Liu Mang.
“Then come and try it!” Liu Mang and Zhang Fei clashed as sparks flew out of their weapons.
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