As ships got closer, Leng Changxi and Sima Ray could see each other’s looks more clearly. Leng Changxi’s white armor looked shining and stunning while the golden armor of Sima Ray in the distance was opulent and luxurious.
“Fishing boats?” Sima Ray snorted with disdain. “After all these, I thought he had come up with a masterstroke. Well, it now seems not alarming at all.”
In Sima Ray’s view, Leng Changxi was fighting a hopeless battle. Did he really think that he could cross the Sui River with several broken fishing boats? Tilting his head, Sima Ray didn’t hurry to order soldiers down to prepare cannons but just looked at those fishing boats in the river that seemed overwhelming as if he was watching a show.
Yu Haitang lowered his head to take a sip of tea and said, “Your Royal Highness, it’s better not to underestimate him.”
“Maybe I am not wrong.” Thinking of that Leng Changxi, the God of War, should borrow fishing boats to cross the Sui River, Sima Ray couldn’t help laughing at him. “It’s likely that he has really run out of his talent.”
Yu Haitang said nothing. Leng Changxi who stood on the deck stared at the flag on the prow that flew freely due to the heavy wind.
“It seems that Hei Ying’s divination has come true,” Leng Changxi turned his head to Qin Yunuan and said to her. “The wind really comes from the east today, and we sail faster than usual.”
Qin Yunuan nodded. Seeing that boats of West Xia got closer and closer, Sima Ray then ordered archers and artillerymen to get ready for the fight at a suitable time.
It took many people and materials to build Sima Ray’s high military camp. Seen from afar, it looked as if a fortified wall had been built along the banks of the Sui River. Seemingly. Sima Ray planned to occupy the whole area and prepared for a protracted war against Leng Changxi. True, the land near the Sui River was fertile, and all forces wanted to occupy it. As long as Leng Changxi could cross the river, he could make it to the capital city and then the royal palace. This was why Sima Ray tried every means to stop Leng Changxi from crossing the Sui River.
Outside the water stockade was a line of newly built warships that were overwhelmingly large and powerful. In fact, Leng Changxi had supervised the building of these warships. But they ultimately were used to attack him.
There were holes on both sides of these warships, each one of which was the size of dozens of fishing boats. Inside the ship were cannons whose caliber was one-fist wide. Gun barrels reached out from those holes and aimed at small fishing boats of Leng Changxi.
Seeing so many gun barrels and large warships, Leng Wu felt dizzy. It was also the first time for Mu Qingyu to take part in such a water war. She carefully counted those ships and gun barrels.
“Don’t bother. There are 28 warships in all, and each has 10 gun barrels on each side. So 560 gun barrels aim at us now. Want to avoid them? Ho, unless you can fly or dive deep,” Leng Changxi said with his head tilted. He had supervised craftsmen to build these warships, so he knew something about them. Mu Qingyu was a bit surprised that Leng Changxi should be able to mock himself in such an urgent situation leisurely.
Sima Ray who stood on the wall indeed planned to do what Leng Changxi assumed. Leng Changxi couldn’t evade shells unless he had wings. No, even if he had, he might not be able to escape.
Sima Ray waved the red flag in his hand and made a gesture to tell soldiers to get ready. On one side were 29 beast-like warships that seemed large enough to cover the sky while on the other side were countless small ant-like boats in the river. Once all canons were loaded, and shells were fired, there would be full of black smoke over the river.
“Leng Changxi, farewell,” Sima Ray said with a smile while waving the red flag. At once, soldiers pushed all gun barrels out and aimed them at those ant-like small boats. Soldiers in warships were filling the gun barrels and tended to light fuses nervously.
“General, what should we do?” Tuoba Wuyu hadn’t been through this before. He walked forward and looked flustered.
“Take it easy,” Leng Changxi said in a gentle tone. He even tilted his head and nodded at Sima Ray. It seemed that he was provoking Sima Ray.
Sima Ray wore a twisted smile. He seemed to have seen all these ant-like boats of Leng Changxi sank in the river. But then, he heard several unusual thumps. The closest warship suddenly tilted and the whole ship sank into the water slowly.
Inside the ship, a heap of iron shells rolled back and forth, breaking a large hole on the opposite hatch.
“What’s wrong?” Sima Ray didn’t expect this. When he turned around, he saw Leng Changxi who was smiling on a small boat.
“Wet. They are wet,” a soldier shouted while running quickly out of the hatch. “All shells somehow get wet, and we couldn’t fire them. All iron shells ran in a reverse direction and landed on our ship.”
More than one warship went wrong. Soon, the other 27 warships all met with problems one by one. Soldiers in ships were in great panic. Only thumps and soldiers’ cries could be heard. Among 28 ships, three were the most seriously damaged with leakage at the bottom. They were close to sinking.
“D*mn,” Sima Ray said while fiercely shaking his fist. He had kept a close eye on provisions. How could such a big accident happen?
However, Yu Haitang looked leisured as if everything was well in his hand.
Seeing that the most powerful fleet of Qi should attack themselves, Leng Changxi’s soldiers couldn’t help laughing. At this time, there were many bubbles in the water. Sima Ray stared at the water surface, and as he expected, he saw many fishermen slowly swam from his side to Leng Changxi’s boats. They hid underwater at first and then climbed into the ship holes by stepping on the anchors to pour water into the gun barrels when Sima Ray didn’t notice them.
Leng Changxi really got something. He should be able to buy over fishermen living on the downstream of the Sui River in such a short time.
“Your Royal Highness, your cannons seem ineffective,” Leng Changxi said. He was on a Qingzhui horse that was white and green on the prow. The village head specially sent the horse to him. It was said that Qingzhui was as fast as the wind and it could run on a boat as smoothly as it did on land. Leng Changxi was not good at swimming, so the village head sent it to him to show his determination.
Now, it was of great help.
Leng Changxi held the rein. The horse seemed to understand what he wanted, so it raised its fore hooves, neighed and ran like the wind to the opposite warship. It ran quickly on the tilted warship deck that was close to the water surface. Even, it easily jumped over the high wall Sima Ray took pains to build.
Neighing loudly, the horse directly jumped over the wall. At the same time, Leng Changxi in white armor sat upright on the horse. Only he and the horse could work with each other so well to finish this very challenging jump.
His cloak was parted by the wind and sang with it. Leng Changxi’s hair was not messy at all, with some on the temples blown to his face. He held the black-iron spear in his strong hand in a seemingly natural way. But in fact, he was leveraging his genuine energy.
Soldiers around didn’t expect this. They just watched Leng Changxi leaped onto the wall and did nothing. After quite a while, they took their weapons and besieged the battlement. At once, it was crowded with soldiers. Sima Ray pushed his way with a long sword in his hand. The blade was shining just like Leng Changxi’s spear.
“General, it’s been a long time,” Sima Ray greeted first.
Leng Changxi sneered, “Your Royal Highness, did you merely leverage your energy to your upper body when practicing martial arts? We just met half a month ago when you were trapped in my military camp and fled in haste. I still remember how shining your golden armor was under the sunset.”
“You…” Sima Ray was irritated by Leng Changxi. He immediately wanted to fight with Leng Changxi. When He was about to leverage his genuine energy to his body, someone having a skinny hand gripped his wrist. Being touched by a cold hand, Sima Ray suddenly shook and then saw Yu Haitang slowly came to him in his wheelchair. That small monkey which looked like a lion still stood on his shoulder.
“Mr. Yu?” Sima Ray was a bit surprised.
“If you want to kill yourself, feel free to leverage your genuine energy,” Yu Haitang said while slowly loosing his grip. “You should not know you are severely poisoned. It seems that you’ve been under his control.” Yu Haitang took a look at Leng Changxi. Although Leng Changxi concealed his feeling very well, Yu Haitang still managed to see him through. When Sima Ray was about to leverage his genuine energy, Leng Changxi looked cunning and expectant. He was familiar with this look. That man looked like this that year.
At that time, he lost to him. But now, he would never lose to this young man.
“Poisoned?” Sima Ray was truly poisoned by Qin Yunuan before but later, Baili Ai had cured him. Was Baili Ai not skilled enough so that he hadn’t been fully detoxified?
With just a glance, Yu Haitang knew what Sima Ray was thinking and said with disdain, “That young man is only able to cure ailments. He’s not skilled enough to treat severe ones yet.” Then he turned his head to Leng Changxi and asked, “Young man, do you know me?”
Everyone knew Yu Haitang, a legend in historical records. He was the former state teacher in North Liao and had led soldiers to conquer other countries. He was invincible. Later, North Liao was thrown into turmoil. He alone helped the six-year-old grandson of the former emperor to ascend the throne. He was nominally the state adviser, but in fact, he was the one governing the country. However, it wrote in historical records that he headed for Thule to seek for an ever-young recipe for the young emperor and never came back. Some people said he had become a god while others believed he died there.
But one thing for sure was that Yu Haitang sought the ever-young recipe for his own sake. Because the young emperor was just six years old and he wouldn’t be in a hurry to find such a recipe.
Facing such a legendary and treacherous man, Leng Changxi just smiled gently and said, “How would I not know? Students in the Imperial College have looked at your portrait so many times that the painting is worn out. They admire you so much.”
Yu Haitang was about to smile, but Leng Changxi turned his head and continued, “But I didn’t do that. I think, His Royal Highness who directly shows me his cruelty is much lovelier than you, a hypocrite.”
