For this battle, there are many pessimistic and disappointed people among the nobles of the Yue royal family, and they are all trying to find a way back for themselves.

What many people want is to let the fleet delay time in front, quickly surrender to the Chu State, take advantage of the fact that the road is still open, give up everything in the Yue State, and flee to the Chu State with gold, silver, pearls and jade.

Everyone is a nobleman, and there is still the same enemy, the state of Chu should accept it, and it also gave the state of Chu a legal reason to occupy the country of Yue.

But Yue Wang Peng didn't want to escape.

In his life, he went from being ambitious to struggling to maintain the dog, all because of the rise of the Mo family in Sishang.

Although the dream of Yue Guo to go north to dominate from the Goujian era has long been shattered, although his strength has long been weak, and although he has long been a swollen face and a fat man, it was finally revealed on his hands.

He hates, so he wants to die in a war, nothing more than death.

When Fucha was captured, Gou Jian gave Fucha a chance, and he could also give him a hundred households, but Fucha still hanged himself.

Even if he didn't have the courage of the previous king, he didn't want to go to Chu to be a courtier.

Faced with this emotion of failure and despair, Yue Wang Peng just waved his hand and said, "Do your best." ”

Xu retreated, and Yue Wang Peng wiped his bronze sword and sighed.

…………

The fifth day of the fifth month of May.

Yangtze River Estuary.

There is a slight southeast wind, but the water is eastward.

There are no clouds in the sky, there is no fog on the river, and the drums are beating early in the morning, and shouting along the river.

The Mohists are the attackers, and the Yue Kingdom is the defenders.

The sailors of the Mo family arranged the fleet into a formation of outnumbered on the right and doubled on the left.

Four of the seventeen large ships were deployed on the right flank, in the direction of the upper reaches of the river.

The four building ships on the right flank were not arranged in a plane and a line, but in columns to cover the right flank.

Boats of all colors cruise behind the four boats.

The Chinese army has eight building boats, spread out in a line, and after keeping a safe distance, the rest of the small sailing boats follow.

On the left flank are the remaining five building ships, three in front and two in the rear.

The deployment of the formation is not about knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent, at most it can be regarded as playing up one's strengths and avoiding weaknesses.

This is an obvious formation of borrowing the wind and abandoning the water, as the main attacking side, it is difficult to grab the upper reaches of the hydrology in front of the Yue Guo Naval Division, because the Mo family's building ships are larger and move slightly slowly.

So abandon the hydrological upstream and strive for the upwind direction.

Its purpose is also to confront the Chinese army, to defeat the right flank of the Yue Guozhou Division with the left flank, and to rely on the building ships on the left flank to seize the upper hand, cut into the Chinese army of the Vietnamese army, and form an outflank.

The big ships are in front, one is to give full play to the advantages of artillery before engaging in battle.

The other is that because the building boat is too large and has a collision angle, and it is condescending, so the Yue Kingdom either sends the building boat to fight, or can only send a small sailing boat to avoid the collision of the building boat, and cut into the back from the gap of the building boat arranged in a row.

The building ship is used as a natural divider.

Therefore, the formation is that the big ship is in front and the small boat is in the back, with the big ship as the center, which is a bit similar to the arrangement of the soldiers in the rear in the car battle array: once the Yue boat is interspersed, the small boat of the Mo family will fight around the big ship.

The intention of this kind of formation is obvious, but often the more obvious the intention, the easier it is to achieve, the trickery is used strategically, and the battle still depends on the confrontation of the formation and the grasp of fleeting fighters.

In addition to these obvious intentions, the Mo family is preparing to completely annihilate the Yue Guozhou Division, because in this case, the Yue State will definitely want to seize the upper reaches of the hydrology.

It was necessary for the Yue State to prevent the Mo Jiazhou Division, which had the advantage of troops, from seizing the upper reaches on the right flank, thus creating a situation of going down the river.

In this case, once the left flank of the Mojia Boat Division seized the upper wind direction and completed the encirclement of the Yue Guo Zhou Division, then the Yue Guo Zhou Division did not even have a way to be defeated and flee.

This is also the purpose of the Mo family, this battle is not to destroy Yue at this time, but to completely destroy the Yue army, so as to completely control the Yangtze River and prepare for the next attack on Chu.

The south side of the river.

On the boat, the doctor listened to the faint sound of drums in the distance, stretched his arms, and waited for his servant to dress himself in the iron armor he had bought from Sishang at a great price.

This is a very useful piece of equipment for water warfare, especially in dogfights, and can often save lives. Of course, it was also very expensive, and it is said that the nobles bought this suit of armor for enough to train two warrior knights or six light cavalry or thirty musketeers with guns.

"Do you hear that? The drums are very methodical. ”

The servants beside him were good at water warfare, and after calming down and listening, he said, "Yes, it's very orderly. Slowly approaching, the oarsmen conserving their strength. ”

"They eat very well, with sugar, lard, fish. After a long fight, our oarsmen can't row them. ”

Xu smiled and said, "You forgot, they also have copper cannons." In the water battle near the river, the bow and crossbow used to be the best, but now it seems that it is not. ”

The servant asked, "Does the gentleman think that we will win this battle?" ”

Xu shook his head, and then said very firmly: "The Lu of the Eater, the matter of loyalty to the King." It's nothing more than death. ”

After getting dressed, he and a few close servants climbed to the top of the boat, and the drums began to beat.

The drum beating is directing the rhythm of the oarsmen, fast when it should be fast, slow when it should be slow.

Taking out the telescope with an expensive copper and gold shell, Xu looked at the Mo family fleet in the distance, observed it for a long time, and muttered: "It's very orderly, it's not fast or slow, and it's always maintained a formation." ”

Fighting on the water, it is easy to observe the formation on the opposite side, which is not a hidden thing.

On the opposite side, the Mo family's boatmaster ship was in front, and the small boat was behind, densely packed, using a speed that was not too fast to keep the formation forward as much as possible.

Xu observed for a long time, pointed to the left flank of the Mojia fleet in the distance and said, "Our only hope of victory is to rely on their left flank to make mistakes. ”

"This is the only chance of victory, to lure their left flank away from the center, to expose the gap, to eat their left flank."

The counselor next to him said, "What if they don't make mistakes?" ”

Xu was silent and did not answer.

If the other party does not make mistakes, there is naturally no chance at all, only failure.

The Mo family's intention to put on this formation was obvious, but even if it was so obvious, he could only pin his hopes on the possibility that the opponent would make a mistake.

The so-called famous generals are just seizing opportunities on the battlefield to break the face with points and fight less with more, but the current situation is that the strength of the three armies of the Mo family is not something he can easily eat, and no matter how much planning there is, it is meaningless.

There was only one possibility, to keep a fleet in the rear of the eastern flank, so that the right flank of the own side and the left flank of the Mojia family in the lower reaches of the hydrology would be defeated, and the left flank of the Mojia Zhou Division would be lured away from the brigade, exposing a gap, so that the Chinese army could not support.

Once the gap is exposed, the part of the remaining fleet rushes up with the help of the wind, and his own commander penetrates through the gap, defeating the left flank of the Mo family's fleet, thus exposing the gap, outflanking from the flank, and taking advantage of the opportunity of the melee to destroy the Mo family's small sailing boats and retreat from the battlefield.

If you learn from the turtle and turtle on the other side, that is, to keep the formation not chaotic, not to pursue, and not to seek merit, then you will have no chance at all.

There weren't many troops he was able to mobilize.

The Mo family deployed four building ships on the right flank, not in a line but in a column, obviously to protect their flanks.

But Xu can't ignore the right wing of the Mo family.

If it doesn't matter, the right flank of the Mo family can be used as a flank defense, or it can be converted to an offensive formation, seizing the upper reaches of the hydrology, and going downstream, and he will be defeated.

Therefore, it is also necessary to divide the forces and rely on the oarsmen and the wind to seize the upper reaches of the hydrology, that is, to appear on the right flank of the Mojia fleet, threaten its right flank, and do not let them quickly switch to an offensive formation to occupy the upper reaches and go down the river to penetrate directly behind his flank.

In the case of the Chinese army, the difference in strength is really a lot, and the number of building ships of the Chinese army alone is more than the number of building ships in the current fleet of the Yue country, and it is impossible for the Chinese army to surprise the army, only to drag it out.

The left wing wants the Mo family to make mistakes, but it also needs to find a way to lure them into making mistakes and find a way to let them pursue, so as to tear open the gap between the left wing and the Chinese army, so that they can be outflanked.

In fact, in this way, even if you win, it will be a miserable victory.

But with one advantage, the flanks of the upper hydrological reaches were abandoned, and the remaining fleet could escape down the river.

If you can get rid of enough Mo family's small sailing boats, then the Mo family will not attack in a short time, and the building ship needs the protection of small boats, according to experience.

Because he deployed two building ships on his left flank, and one-fifth of the remaining ships, to quickly seize the upstream, so as to fight with the right flank of the Mo family, and not let them seize the upstream to cover his flank.

The deployment of the Chinese army is relatively weak, but the thickness is larger, in order to entangle the Chinese army of the Mo Jiazhou division after the war.

Once the right flank is successful in luring the enemy, once the left flank of the Mojiazhou division begins to pursue and exposes the gap, then the rear forces of the Chinese army can cut through the gap with all their strength and eat the left flank of the Mojia family that protrudes because of the pursuit.

"Beat the drums, march!"

Shouting orders, the horns are melodious, and the strong man is bare-chested, revealing the tattoos on his body, and beating the war drums.

The oarsmen in the bilge listened to the call, shook the heavy oars, and shouted the trumpet.

They don't know what's going on outside, so they're the most obedient people who just need to follow orders and concentrate on doing their own thing.

As for the victory or defeat outside, they can't see it, and they don't know, this is the biggest advantage of the Yue country in water warfare: if the strategy of luring the enemy in land warfare is not played well, it is easy to be taken advantage of by others to break through, and the water battle oarsmen cannot see the battle situation outside, which is easy to do.

After the building boats, a large number of small galleys were also rowing forward, and these small boats were battleships, all of which were simple double-deckers.

Paddle below, with a partition on top, on which the sailors in charge of hand-to-hand combat are located, and when they get close to the enemy, they will shoot several crossbows and crossbows, and when they get close, they will slash each other.

The space for this kind of water war is small, so it is particularly cruel, there is no way out, either die, surrender, or win.

After the scuffle, it is common to have broken hands and short feet.

Although they can survive by falling into the water, it is the one who ultimately wins and controls the battlefield who is qualified to deal with those who have fled.

On top of the ship, a group of swordsmen wearing heavy armor surrounded Xu.

On the upper deck of the cabin, there were archers and musketeers, as well as two large crossbows.

These archers wore leather armor, some of which were ancestral rhino armor, and carried short swords or axes around their waists.

On the deck below were spearmen and archers, as well as grapples and ladders that were responsible for hooking the opposing ships. Further down are the oarsmen who only need to shake the oars at the command.

The more people do good deeds, the waves overturn, like walking on the ground.