Under the command of Wang Xiongdan, Du Jun's warships tried to get close to the Centipede ship, which was about to pass by their own fleet, regardless of the danger of the Centipede ship's side ballistae fire.
However, at this time, the centipede ship, which was completely controlled by oar power, was much more flexible than the Du army warship, which was mainly driven by wind and supplemented by oars.
In the cabin of the Centipede ship, under the command of the captain's rhythmic bamboo whistle, the oarsmen performed their respective rowing movements uniformly and mechanically.
On the river, the centipede ship walked a zigzag route as nimbly as a water snake.
Not only did Du Jun fail to successfully get close to the Centipede warship, but in the process, many warships were sunk by the opponent's broadside ballistae.
After a while, these centipede ships rushed to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River behind the Du Jun fleet.
In this way, the current situation on the water battle battlefield is that Du Jun faces fifty or sixty Sui Army traditional warships in the northeastern downstream of the river, and fifty centipede ships in the southwest upstream.
Wang Xiongdan's navy was in a situation of being attacked from both sides.
Wang Xiongdan, who had long-term experience in water warfare, knew at a glance that something was wrong.
He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and immediately made a correct decision.
Ignoring the Centipede ships at the rear, they directly attack the Sui Army warships in front with all their strength.
If they can defeat these Sui Army warships or rush through their defense lines, they can completely wipe out the Sui Army troop transport ships following them.
In this way, even if one's own side suffers heavy losses, the results gained will be worthwhile.
Thinking of this, Wang Xiongdan ordered: "The whole army rushes downstream at full speed to annihilate the Sui army's warships and baggage ships."
As the bannermen's flags continued to be played, Wang Xiongdan's fleet formed a wedge-shaped array and quickly Pounced towards the Sui fleet downstream.
However, Wang Xiongdan could not imagine how fast the Centipede ship could be at its fastest speed.
After turning their bows upstream, these centipede ships rushed towards the rear of Wang Xiongdan's fleet again like arrows from the string.
Before, one of the two sides was going with the current and the other was going against the current.
Now one is still going with the current and against the wind, and the other is with the current, and the centipede oarsman is at full power.
Therefore, the relative speed difference is not big.
Before Wang Xiongdan's fleet even got close enough to the Sui army's warships downstream to exchange crossbows, the centipede ships from behind rushed up again.
This time, Wang Xiongdan's fleet learned a lesson.
They were afraid of the Centipede ship's side ballistae, so they tried their best to keep their hulls from being parallel to the other side, and turned the hulls sideways.
This played right into the hands of the captains of the centipede ships.
One after another, the centipede ships rammed straight into these thief warships that exposed their flanks.
Most of these pirate warships are fighting ships with relatively huge hulls.
The leaders on the ship never dreamed that this strange, low and long ship would dare to hit them directly.
A loud bang caused by the violent impact came immediately, waking them up from their state of shock.
The warship hit by the underwater metal ram of the Centipede ship first tilted violently, and the soldiers on the deck rolled to one side like dumped fruits.
Then a large area of the ship's side was broken, the cold river water instantly filled the bottom compartment, and the entire hull began to slowly sink.
Amidst the continuous loud noises, nearly a hundred warships in Wang Xiongdan's fleet were destroyed again.
Wang Xiongdan himself fell into the cold river water.
Within a short time, his limbs were frozen and he was unconscious.
He was holding on to a broken piece of wood and floating downstream in the river.
The remaining ships were already in disarray, had no morale, and were about to flee.
The fighting warships of the Sui army were already approaching, and arrows, flying claws, and spear hooks were attacking one after another.
These are Jiangdu's own navy, commanded by Jiangdu's local general Chen Ling.
Although there were still more than a hundred Du's warships at this time, they had no fighting spirit and were at a disadvantage when the two sides exchanged fire.
Many Du's warships had quietly slipped out of the battlefield and fled to both sides of the bank.
Immediately afterwards, some warships began to join the ship's side.
The soldiers on the deck came out with swords, guns, swords and halberds, stabbing and killing each other across the ship's side.
In the melee, the Centipede ship was afraid of accidentally damaging its own warships, so it no longer used the tactics of ramming and catapulting, and also started a boarding battle.
The forty soldiers on board each ship jumped onto the top deck one after another, holding javelins and spears in preparation for battle.
As soon as they got close to the opponent's ship, forty javelins were fired at the opponent's deck, and a group of thieves fell down amidst the screams.
Finally, the battle reached a fever pitch.
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Chen Ling personally went into battle wearing armor, boarded the enemy ship with two swords in hand, and slashed with his swords.
His example inspired the morale of the Sui navy soldiers.
They all fought bravely to be first, jumped over the gang of boats, and fought with the other side's soldiers on the deck.
The boarding battle only lasted less than half an hour.
Most of the pirates on the Du army's warships abandoned their weapons and surrendered, and the ships were controlled by the Sui army.
A very small number of Du's warships fled the battlefield in the chaos.
Flee to the southeast bank of the Yangtze River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Wang Xiongdan, who had drifted downstream, had also been picked up and captured by sailors from the Sui army's baggage ship at the rear.
Du Fuwei, who was still watching the battle on the shore, felt the biting chill of the snowy sky at this time.
Then he discovered that the baggage ships began to approach the northwest bank of the Yangtze River one after another, apparently about to land.
The whole battle ended too quickly, which was beyond Du Fuwei's expectation.
It was definitely too late to wait for the reinforcements mobilized by Ximen Junyi.
He quickly galloped along the river bank with his elite soldiers, trying to snipe the opponent's landing plan.
The other party obviously understood his intention, and the warships and centipede ships also gathered towards the river bank to provide cover.
At the same time, the troop transport ship divided into several groups, lowered the springboard on several river banks at the same time, and began to land.
The Sui soldiers in the boat swarmed out along the gangplank and passed through the reeds covered with a layer of snow.
Du Fuwei calculated that if he only sniped one of them, he might succeed, but he would soon be surrounded and beaten by several other groups of Sui troops who had successfully landed.
As a last resort, he had no choice but to step back a mile, stand firm, and continue to monitor the opponent.
A large number of Sui soldiers who had landed began to gather in the open space on the river bank.
A snowfield was full of footprints.
Suddenly, Du Fuwei saw from a distance of one mile that a large number of horses seemed to be unloaded on the ship.
To confirm, he sent detective horses to investigate.
As soon as several of Du Fuwei's scouts approached the Sui army's formation, dozens of riders galloped out of the Sui army's formation.
The scouts quickly turned their horses and left.
However, after running for less than a few dozen battles, they were overtaken by the opponent.
The sound of swishing arrows piercing the air was heard one after another, followed by the screams of these probing horses hitting the ground with arrows.
These cavalry were light-armored flying cavalry.
The Chen Ling Sui army dispatched to suppress Du Fuwei this time was the elite of the local garrison in Jiangdu.
Yang Guang also allocated a thousand light-armored flying cavalry for his Xia Yue command.
Du Fuwei was shocked.
This was not because there were cavalry on the other side's ship, but because these cavalry were too elite.
Because these scouting horses of his were the most capable soldiers in a hundred, and the horses were also the strongest horses in the army, they were actually destroyed by the opponent so easily
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