Chapter 198: 196 — The Naval Battle of Ganzhou (For Alliance Leader

The southern expedition's commander was Fei Ruhe. Faced with government troops crossing the river, he made no response whatsoever.

If Huang Yao, Li Zheng, Jiang Dashan, and the others were in command, they would have struck immediately, recruited local peasants as auxiliaries, and then fought a major battle with the government troops to prevent more common folk from being slaughtered.

But who was Fei Ruhe?

The eldest son of the main line of the Ehu Fei clan — the Fei family's young master!

Even now, though Fei Ruhe accepted the Great Unity theories and believed this path could win the realm, deep in his heart he was still that scion of an old family. What did the deaths of more commoners matter to him?

Besides, when the Fujian troops went plundering the villages, the ones who truly suffered were the landlords. The smallfolk were only killed in passing.

The naval commanders — Gu Jianshan, Li Hui, Fan Chao, Wan Bangyan, and others — were summoned by Fei Ruhe for a council.

Fei Ruhe pointed at the map and said, "The government troops are secretly crossing the upper Gong River, while their main force crosses openly with great fanfare, and they've also sent men to loot the villages in every direction. To show such contempt for us, the enemy commander is either a fool or deliberately trying to lure us over. I'm not worried about the land forces — how should your naval force fight?"

Wan Bangyan was a son of a concubine from a great clan in Linjiang Prefecture. His family had voluntarily donated two boats to be converted into warships, and he had thus become a naval officer.

Though he had never passed the xiucai examinations, he was still a child student. He immediately analyzed the situation: "If the government troops only wanted to seize goods and wealth, they could have crossed the Zhang River and plundered to the west. There are no troops of ours to the west, nor any peasant associations we've organized. Since they crossed the Gong River to the east, the looting is incidental — their real intent is to draw our troops out."

Li Hui, a fisherman from Yongyang Town by background, scratched his head and said, "The river terrain here is exactly the same as Linjiang Prefecture. Could the government troops be copying what we did last time?"

"They definitely are," Gu Jianshan laughed. "Prepare fire-attack boats on one river, ambush the naval force on the other, and the moment the enemy arrives, strike from both sides at once. I made full preparations on the Gan and Yuan rivers back then, but Wang Siren's government naval force simply refused to take the bait. In the end, we had to force a fire attack by taking advantage of the rising water. The Gan River here is even wider — forcing a fire attack won't work. They have to lure our naval force in."

Wan Bangyan pointed at the map and said, "The Fujian troops excel at sea battles, but there's no way their seagoing ships could be transported to Jiangxi. The boats recruited within Fujian's borders can't reach Jiangxi either. So the government naval force has very few warships — all were organized and trained within Jiangxi. The government troops crossing the river so openly is nothing but a lure to draw our naval force into the Gong River. Once we fall for it, fireboats will inevitably swarm out. The government naval force from the Zhang River will also charge out to intercept. At that point, with fireboats ramming us from the front and the government naval force blocking us from behind, we won't be able to escape even if we wanted to."

"So," Fei Ruhe grasped the point, "the Gong River must conceal a large number of fire-attack boats, and the Zhang River must conceal the main strength of the government naval force."

"It's obvious," Fan Chao sneered. "Petty tricks like these — we Poyang Lake water bandits have used them plenty of times. You think we'd get confused and run off to our deaths? The government commander is treating us like fools."

Li Hui said, "Then let's do the opposite — ignore the government troops on the Gong River and just go destroy their main naval force on the Zhang River!"

Wan Bangyan shook his head. "We can't go straight to the Zhang River. Otherwise, the government naval force will certainly flee, and all our efforts will be wasted."

"Then we lure the government naval force out!" Gu Jianshan said.

"How do we lure them?" Wan Bangyan asked.

Gu Jianshan said, "Send thirty or forty grain-transport boats, disguised as warships, into the Gong River. When the government troops release their fire-attack boats and their naval force charges in from behind, our naval force will strike! They're cutting off our rear — we'll cut off theirs!"

This meant sacrificing thirty or forty grain-transport boats for the government troops to burn at their leisure, and who knew how many of those boatmen would survive.

Fei Ruhe made the decision at once: "Summon the boatmen. I want to recruit men for a suicide mission. Anyone willing to steer the boats and lure the enemy — whether they die in battle or escape back — will be rewarded with thirty taels of silver. Battle merits will be counted separately, and death compensations separately!"

Wan Bangyan said, "Just to sail the boats into the Gong River, nine boatmen per boat will be enough."

That still meant two to three hundred men for the suicide mission.

Gu Jianshan, Wan Bangyan, and the others immediately went to relay the military orders.

A surprising number of boatmen came to volunteer, because it wasn't a certain-death mission. Once the enemy's fire-attack boats were launched, they could jump ship and flee while still far away. Though it was the high-water season now, there were no floods, and that current was nothing the boatmen couldn't handle.

Of course, swimming quickly back to shore would still be rough — they could easily be attacked mid-swim by the government naval force charging out from behind.

One could only say that these suicide-squad boatmen had at least a fifty percent chance of survival.

And in their own view, the hope of living was over ninety percent, because every one of them prided himself on his superb skill in the water.

In the first ten days of the seventh month, the fourth day since the Fujian troops had crossed the river to plunder.

Thirty-six grain-transport boats, disguised as warships, suddenly charged from the Gan River toward the Gong River basin.

The act had to be complete. Fei Ruhe coordinated by sending out his troops — the main land force advanced ahead of time along the riverbank, creating the illusion of a joint land-and-water offensive.

From the Eight Mirror Terrace in Ganzhou city, the entire situation was visible at a glance, and wolf-smoke signals were lit at once to raise the alarm.

"The rebels have taken the bait!"

On the upper Gong River, Chen Tingdui was all smiles. He instructed, "Wait until the rebel naval force gets closer. Leave enough time for our naval force on the Zhang River."

At the same time, Chen Tingdui directed the government land troops, intending to fight a decisive battle with the main rebel force along the riverbank.

He had over ten thousand men; the rebels had only a few thousand.

Moreover, he had a thousand-man matchlock unit, which he had brought over from his Fujian seagoing ships.

Chen Tingdui had also sent scouts toward Ji'an Prefecture. From the time the rebels rose up until now, they'd had only a small number of archers and had never used firearms. Two volleys of rank-fire, he was certain, would send these Jiangxi rebels scattering in utter panic.

"Halt!"

Fei Ruhe turned his head to look at the wolf-smoke from Ganzhou city. Since the stratagem had succeeded, what was the point of continuing the advance?

After a brief wait, Fei Ruhe's entire army turned around and headed back to the main camp at the foot of E'gong Mountain.

The government troops inside Ganzhou city, seeing this, frantically waved signal flags.

At such a great distance, the naked eye could not possibly make them out clearly.

But Chen Tingdui saw it immediately, because he had a telescope — an item purchased at great expense from the Western red-haired barbarians.

This was the source of Chen Tingdui's confidence. Not only did he have superior numbers, his equipment was overwhelmingly better.

He had a telescope, he had a matchlock unit — and Fei Ruhe had none of these.

The matchlock soldiers under Zhao Han's command had grown to over a hundred men, all under Li Zheng's unified command. They were currently hidden in the city of Linjiang Prefecture, guarding against Zhu Xieyuan suddenly marching out from Nanchang.

Fei Ruhe truly had no firearms unit — only a newly trained force of a thousand archers.

"The rebels are withdrawing?"

Chen Tingdui lowered his telescope, his mind somewhat confused, unable to figure out what the rebels were doing.

A young man beside him suddenly shouted, "Father-in-law, quickly order the naval force to pull back!"

The speaker was Chen Tingdui's son-in-law, Huang Hanliang — historically, a stalwart fighter against the Qing. It was said he could compose essays at age nine and was a child prodigy known far and wide. He raised several thousand troops to fight the Tartars and ultimately died when a Qing soldier shot him through the eye with an arrow.

Chen Tingdui grasped the situation at once and urgently ordered, "Naval force withdraw! Naval force withdraw!"

The order-bearer sprinted toward the riverbank, frantically signaling with flags.

The Eight Mirror Terrace in the city also had a telescope, and even the government naval force had telescopes for observation. Their speed of information transmission was countless times faster than Fei Ruhe's side.

However, it was already too late.

Fei Ruhe had timed his withdrawal so that the government naval force would have just enough time to charge out from the Zhang River. If they didn't charge out now, they wouldn't be able to complete the encirclement — and those government naval forces weren't idiots.

In fact, over six hundred fire-attack boats had already been lit and were racing swiftly down the Gong River.

Thirty-six grain-transport boats, nine boatmen to each boat — one at the helm, eight treading the wheel-paddles.

The helmsman, seeing this, immediately shouted a warning, and the three hundred twenty-four death-sworn boatmen scrambled out of the cabins and leaped into the river to save their lives.

The six-hundred-odd fire-attack boats and the thirty-six grain-transport boats quickly collided, and the government naval forces also charged from the Zhang River into the Gong River, cutting off the retreat of those thirty-six grain-transport boats.

To make the ruse convincing, the bottoms of these grain-transport boats had even been loaded with many stones and dirt, so that their shallow draft would not reveal the deception to the government troops.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind — Gu Jianshan, leading the naval forces with only small and medium fast boats, sped from the Gan River to strike the government naval forces.

"Turn about! Withdraw, quickly!"

Before Gu Jianshan had even reached the confluence of the three rivers, the government naval forces had already sensed something was wrong and were flustered, trying to turn and flee.

The two sides collided right at the broad mouth of the river!

The government naval formation fell into utter chaos. Hundreds of fire-attack boats and the thirty-six burning grain-transport boats were drifting up from the south. And from the north came the real rebel naval forces.

Fortunately, they had already sailed out of the Gong River basin, and they turned one after another to flee toward the Zhang River.

In the confusion, there were even collisions, and several boats became entangled and blocked one another.

"Kill!"

The two naval forces finally closed to boarding range. The government side's shipboard equipment was backward — after all, these were all warships hastily refitted in Jiangxi.

Gu Jianshan, Fan Chao, Li Hui, and the other naval commanders all led their men in boarding and charging.

Wan Bangyan, after all, was a scholar from a great clan — he was not about to risk his life. He merely directed the warships under his command to race around to the southwest and envelop the enemy, preventing any hostile vessel from escaping into the Zhang River.

Chen Tingdui, the Regional Commander of Fujian, observing the battle through his telescope at that moment, was utterly dumbfounded.

Once his naval forces were annihilated, the more than ten thousand Fujian troops he had personally ferried across the river as bait would have no way to cross back and return to Ganzhou city. Although he still had over a dozen troop-transport boats left, he dared not send them across now — they would certainly be attacked by the rebel naval forces midway.

Over ten thousand Fujian troops could not return to Ganzhou city...

Of course, if they moved at once while the river battle was not yet over, a few thousand could still get across.

But who would go, and who would stay behind?

The troops left behind would probably mutiny on the spot.

His son-in-law Huang Hanliang said urgently, "Father-in-law, you must decide quickly. First option: abandon the three thousand defenders in Ganzhou city and immediately withdraw the entire army to Xingguo County or Yudu County. Second option: swiftly lead the troops to assault the main rebel camp! Our naval forces are completely lost, and we can no longer withdraw to Ganzhou city. There is no third choice. If we delay any longer, morale will collapse sooner or later."

"Attack!"

Chen Tingdui's eyes were bloodshot. He had more troops, and he still had a thousand-man firelock unit.

(With thanks to Hengfeng for the alliance-leader reward, and thanks to all readers for your rewards and subscriptions.)

(End of chapter)