Chapter 268: Above the Chang Jiang

"Not good, quickly tell the Duke, have the Duke turn the ships around."

Above the Chang Jiang, Ji Ling leaped continuously among the various moving assault boats, his face filled with panic.

"Duke, quickly turn around, there are enemy ships ahead!"

Ji Ling finally jumped onto Yuan Shu's Main Ship and said with a panicked expression.

"Enemies? Then just fight through them."

Yuan Shu's expression did not change as he spoke; having just defeated Sun Jian and beheaded him beneath the walls of Nanchang, he was currently full of ambition.

"Duke, the enemy army is too numerous, and our main force has just finished a battle and lacks much combat strength. It would be better to evade for now, and wait until the army has recovered before making further plans."

Ji Ling was not Yuan Shu; from his previous observations, the number of enemy warships was simply terrifying, with masts like clouds, stretching on for a thousand miles.

The number of warships was absolutely several times that of their main army.

And most of what they were standing on were Transport Ships, not true warships, which possessed almost no combat strength at all.

Relying solely on the hundred assault boats at the front was truly no different from throwing their lives away.

And just as Ji Ling was still trying to persuade Yuan Shu to turn back, the warships he spoke of were already getting closer and closer to the warships at the front of Yuan Shu's fleet.

"Duke, ahead is Yuan Shu's main army."

Among the thousand sails, one tall warship was over fifty zhang long and three stories high, with banners fluttering; this ship was the Main Fleet of the fleet.

"Very good! This time, we will finish him off in one stroke."

Inside the Main Fleet, Su Fan also raised his Telescope, gazing at Yuan Shu's army in the distance, a murderous intent appearing on his face.

He had been waiting for this day for a very long time.

He had finally waited for it; Sun Jian of Yuzhang had already been defeated and killed, and he had been waiting for Yuan Shu to return home.

And to return to Runan from Yuzhang, if traveling by land, it was a full several thousand miles, and if taking a detour, it was likely ten thousand miles away; while taking the water route might be even longer in distance, the speed would be more than twice as fast.

Therefore, after Su Fan learned the information about Yuan Shu's army, he had long since made arrangements, with thousands of warships heading south from the Guangling river mouth, directly intercepting the opponent here on the river surface.

The warships under Su Fan's command had been built since he began developing Donghai Ling; now, over ten years later, there were a full ten thousand warships.

His naval force numbered a full five hundred thousand, and this time he dispatched half of his naval force, wanting to take down Yuan Shu in one fell swoop.

"Take action! The enemy has discovered us, do not let them run."

On this great river, they occupied an absolute advantage; one must know that the Chang Jiang in this world had also been expanded.

The river surface looked as boundless as the sea.

Hundreds of warships could line up in a row and rapidly speed toward Yuan Shu's army.

The warships of both sides were not on the same level, whether in quantity or quality.

Yuan Shu also had no fewer than three thousand ships, but among them, over seventy percent were Transport Ships; the ships were indeed large, with a draft of no less than a thousand tons, yet they had not the slightest combat strength.

The only ones with combat strength were likely the nearly eight hundred assault boats at the front.

These assault boats were around five hundred to eight hundred tons, which, placed on Su Fan's side, would only be small-to-medium warships.

His thousands of warships included small warships of five hundred tons, which made up nearly half, medium warships of one thousand tons, of which there were about one thousand, and the remaining hundreds were large warships.

Following Su Fan's order, the naval commanders immediately organized their respective fleets and rapidly charged forward in an Arrowhead Formation.

Very quickly, Yuan Shu's army also discovered Su Fan's warships and fell into a panic upon seeing the fleet that seemed to blot out the sky and sun.

The Yuan Shu soldiers on the assault boats at the very front all showed expressions of fear on their faces.

Unfortunately, before they could even think of retreating, the warships in front were already speeding toward them.

When the distance between the two sides was less than two li.

They heard a booming roar, and the sharp-eyed soldiers immediately saw dots in the sky.

Boom, boom, boom!

A few seconds later, they saw round spheres smashing toward them.

"Enemy attack!"

"Quickly dodge!"

However, it was already too late.

Countless Cannonballs had already bombarded them, falling like raindrops, splashing water as they hit the river surface, and once they landed on their warships, they would either explode suddenly or smash a huge hole.

Thousands of Cannons, along with countless Catapults, bombarded this side one after another.

In an instant, several assault boats were smashed and sunk.

More soldiers were smashed into bloody pulps.

"Counterattack, give me a counterattack!"

Yuan Shu's subordinates were not cowards either; seeing the enemy getting closer and closer, some commanders also successively ordered the archers and Catapults on their own warships to launch a counterattack.

Yet their counterattack was so insignificant.

Both sides maintained a distance of about five hundred meters; although some archers could reach this distance, it was only a small portion, and even if they fired, the threat was extremely minimal.

It could even be said there was not a shred of threat, because Su Fan's army was all wearing Iron Armor, with a layer of Leather Armor over the Iron Armor.

Even if the arrows hit, they could not cause any lethality to them at all.

It was as if they were just scratching an itch.

The battle fell into a one-sided situation, with Yuan Shu's army forced to endure constant long-range attacks.

"Immediately invite Yuan Zheng and the others, have them take action to intercept."

Yuan Shu, in the rear, learned that his vanguard fleet had lost dozens of assault boats in just the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, while the enemy had not lost a single one, and his face turned gloomy in an instant.

"Have the Transport Ships retreat immediately, find the riverbank, and then immediately disembark."

Yuan Shu was not entirely a fool; although he had nearly a thousand assault boats, they seemed to be no match for the enemy army at all, so if these assault boats could not stop them, then the Transport Ships behind him would become targets.

These Transport Ships were carrying not only grain and fodder but also soldiers; once these soldiers were sunk or captured, he would suffer a major blow and even fall into a dangerous situation.

Therefore, he could not care about anything else now and hurriedly called for the members of the Spell Group to go and stop the enemy's advance.

Following Yuan Shu's order, several hundred men in long robes from the rear quickly dashed toward the front line.

The dozen or so men in the lead even glided through the air directly over the river surface; these dozen men were all cultivators of the Soul Refining Realm.

"Hmm!"

"Everyone, Yuan Shu's Spell Group has been deployed; it is up to you now."

Su Fan also quickly noticed the changes at the front line, especially after his Divine Sense perceived those dozen or so people with powerful Divine Souls.

These dozen-plus men were indeed extraordinary; upon arriving at the warships on the front line, they immediately unleashed Magic Techniques, and as they acted, the river surface suddenly became turbulent.

Wave after wave of giant swells began to surge toward the warships of Su Fan and his men.

"How dare you!"

At this moment, the group of fierce generals under Su Fan's command also took action one after another, each driving their aura to instantly shatter these giant waves.

At the same time, the veteran generals Huang Zhong and Taishi Ci even drew their Precious Bows.