Chapter 322 The First Naval Battle

Gao Hu's dragging of his feet and refusal to withdraw his troops led to the rapid fall of Zhao Prefecture. For this, Gao Wu issued an imperial edict severely reprimanding Gao Long, deeming him incompetent in leading his troops, which resulted in the loss of an important prefecture.

Gao Long was extremely aggrieved. His available forces were limited, and he had to both secure the transport of grain and supplies and defend the region; he simply lacked the strength to reinforce Zhao Prefecture.

In fact, to ensure the safety of Ji Prefecture, he was ultimately forced to abandon Zhao Prefecture and withdraw some troops to strengthen his defensive line.

Having been reprimanded for no reason, Gao Long became even more incensed, and he reduced the grain transferred to Gao Hu by another twenty percent.

Meanwhile, Gao Hu was forced to slow his pace while waiting for grain from Song Prefecture and other regions to arrive, which gave Zhu Song the opportunity to mobilize troops and rush to Pengcheng.

Currently, Pengcheng was garrisoned by over ten thousand troops led by Meng Zhenshan, while outside, Zhu Song and General Ma Zhiyuan led reinforcements to establish sturdy camps; the two sides formed a pincer formation that could be described as impregnable.

Unless Gao Hu possessed an absolute superiority in troops to launch separate attacks and restrain both sides simultaneously, any forced assault on Pengcheng would inevitably result in heavy losses.

In his frustration, Gao Hu could only send someone to report the situation to Gao Wu with all speed, hoping he could send reinforcements. If he had twenty or thirty thousand reinforcements, he would be confident in defeating Zhu Song in a single battle, thereby capturing the three prefectures of Huaibei in one fell swoop.

Having captured Zhao Prefecture without any effort, Lu Heng was full of confidence. For his second battle, he chose to avoid the heavily guarded Ji Prefecture and set his sights on Xing Prefecture.

Once Xing Prefecture was captured, he could strike directly at Ming Prefecture, Wei Prefecture, Bei Prefecture, and other regions, which would basically mean forming an encirclement around Ji Prefecture.

"Heh, the Flying Tiger of the Great Qian and the Crown Prince of Northern Liang—won't they eventually become my prisoners?"

Thinking this, Lu Heng acted accordingly; after resting for two or three days, he led his massive army southward, aiming directly at Xing Prefecture.

Gao Long was a veteran of the battlefield and quickly saw through the opponent's sinister intentions. Facing Lu Heng's aggressiveness, he soon made a response, drawing troops from Ming Prefecture, Wei Prefecture, and other regions to reinforce the defensive line of Xing Prefecture.

At the same time, he dispatched a light cavalry unit into Zhao Prefecture to harass the Yan army's supply lines; even if they could not cut them off, they would harass the Yan army's grain transport, delaying their pace of attack.

Gao Wu had not expected that a war where his two sons had taken nearly half the national strength would turn out like this; while feeling angry, he was also helpless.

After all, he was the one who had instigated the fight between his two sons, and now he could only act as the peacemaker to clean up the mess.

However, he was currently unable to decide on the trade-offs and could only cast his gaze toward his top strategist, Mr. Wei.

"Mr. Wei, how should we break the current deadlock?"

"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, His Highness the Crown Prince in the north is commanding with skill; he only needs a small number of troops allocated as mobile forces to resist the Yan army's offensive;

and in the south, if we do not provide the Second Prince with strong support, not only will the previous battle achievements be difficult to preserve, but it will also be easy to suffer heavy losses. Conversely, our army could settle the three prefectures in one battle."

Mr. Wei's words carried significant weight. Gao Wu immediately made up his mind, taking the twenty thousand troops mobilized from across the country, allocating five thousand to reinforce Gao Long, and assigning all the remaining troops to Gao Hu.

Furthermore, Gao Wu formally granted him the authority to make discretionary decisions regarding the deployment of troops and grain from the surrounding prefectures, effectively giving Gao Hu immense power.

Although having only five thousand fresh troops sent to him made Gao Long extremely displeased, with these fresh troops, he could coordinate reinforcements to various locations from the center, which made the northern defensive line as solid as a rock and nearly broke Lu Heng's teeth.

In the south, with the reinforcements, Gao Hu's available forces approached one hundred thousand. He dispatched Gao Wu to lead twenty thousand troops to monitor the direction of Pengcheng, preventing any unusual movements from Meng Zhenshan, while assembling his main force to prepare to wipe out Zhu Song's main force first.

A decisive battle was imminent; the clash between the former Flying Tiger of the Great Qian and the current rising star of the Great Qian began on the land of Xu Prefecture.

This battle almost became the focus of attention for all parties; whether it was Gao Yuan or Lu Heng, both sent a large number of spies to Xu Prefecture to monitor the progress of this decisive battle.

On the other side, the navy led by Cao Xing had basically established a firm foothold in Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, and now they had begun to march toward Weng Prefecture according to the original plan, the first step of which was naturally to eradicate the pirates.

Weng Prefecture, which was later known as Zhoushan, was very close to the mainland, and with its numerous islands, it became a hotbed for pirate breeding.

According to reconnaissance, there were at least a dozen waves of pirate forces here; the small ones had one or two hundred people, while the large ones had over a thousand.

However, there were no very solid offensive and defensive alliances between them, which gave Cao Xing the opportunity to defeat them one by one.

In the third month of the second year of Qiande, Cao Xing received orders from Gao Yuan and immediately led nearly a hundred warships to set sail from Jilong Port toward Weng Prefecture, preparing to launch a probing attack on the pirates.

These pirates only possessed some old tower ships; some were even just larger fishing boats, and they had no long-range attack weapons.

Cao Xing's attack on them could almost be considered a dimensionality reduction strike.

The pirates led by Hu Laosan were a medium-sized force among the Weng Prefecture pirates, possessing four or five hundred people and over a dozen tower ships; they usually went to the coast to plunder and lived quite comfortably.

Upon hearing that someone was coming to attack them, his first reaction was that nearby pirates wanted to annex them, so he cursed and called his men to board the ships, preparing to fight.

But when he saw the mountain-like heavy Treasure Ships, as well as the fluttering war flags of the Yue Kingdom, Hu Laosan was stunned; these were no pirates—these were regular troops.

"Run, run quickly!"

At this moment, Hu Laosan had only one thought in his mind, and he immediately ordered the ships to turn around and flee at once.

How could Cao Xing let go of this opportunity to test naval tactics? With a command, the signalman immediately notified them using flag signals, and then thirty fast Treasure Ships hoisted their sails full, darting out like arrows released from a bowstring.

How could Hu Laosan have imagined that these ships would be so fast? Within half an hour, his fleet was surrounded.

Seeing this situation, Hu Laosan decided to give up and fight to the death; he shouted angrily,

"Damn it, these people are truly unforgiving! Tell the brothers to prepare for boarding combat!"

However, the development of the battle quickly exceeded his expectations; these ships surrounding him had no intention of pulling alongside to engage in boarding combat.

Just as he was puzzled, these fast Treasure Ships began their attack, and huge stones were hurled out by catapults, heading straight for Hu Laosan's fleet.

In naval warfare, even if cannons were used, the hit rate was abysmal; the first round of stones was just a test shot, so naturally, they all missed.

This made Hu Laosan breathe a huge sigh of relief, but he didn't expect that before he could even catch his breath, the second round of attacks arrived.

The catapults carried out a total of five rounds of attacks, but only four stones hit their targets, smashing the towers of two tower ships and causing chaos.

Seeing this abysmal hit rate, Cao Xing could only sigh, then ordered a tactical adjustment, starting to close in and attack using the tactic of two Treasure Ships sandwiching one tower ship.

Seeing these ships beginning to approach, Hu Laosan felt he could fight again; he gripped his broadsword tightly, preparing to engage.

Unexpectedly, this attack still exceeded his expectations; it was not boarding combat, but crossbow bolts as thick as an arm.

These were heavy ballista bolts that Gao Yuan had modified based on the Taque Arrow; these arrows shot out with powerful kinetic energy, burying themselves deep into the wooden planks of the ships.