Chapter 350: All-Encompassing Crush

Boom—

The entire Yongan Port was filled with mushroom clouds. The massive shockwaves caused many Tower Ships to shatter on the spot. Let alone those people?

The scene was incredibly spectacular.

Although these Torpedoes were rudimentary, the Quelehuoduo loaded inside was the real deal. This Quelehuoduo had been meticulously blended and compressed by Liu Zheng; it was entirely composed of the most flammable and explosive parts of Petroleum. Once ignited, it was a destructive force.

As the immense energy was unleashed, the soldiers of the Jingzhou Navy were instantly stunned by the explosions.

"Ah!"

"What is that?"

People with missing arms and broken legs screamed in pain as they jumped into the Jiangshui; in an instant, the river water was quickly dyed red. Those who had intended to fight shirtless had also fallen into the water.

The formation was thrown into chaos at once.

Under such circumstances, even if your swimming skills were excellent, what could you do?

What could a master swimmer do?

And at this moment.

The rapidly advancing Yinzhou ships had already arrived. As the saying goes, strike while the iron is hot; Liu Zheng seized exactly this opening. Because he knew that the damage and confusion caused by the Torpedoes were actually not that great—at most, they destroyed the enemy's Tower Ships—but once these people returned to Yongan Port, they could still form a fighting force.

Therefore, he had to strike decisively!

Xiao Qi, as the Commander of the Liangzhou Navy, displayed his decisiveness and leadership ability at this moment.

"Ram them!"

The Yinzhou ships were already thick-skinned and sturdy; if they were to collide head-on with these Tower Ships, they wouldn't be afraid at all, let alone now that the Tower Ships were teetering on the brink of collapse and the enemy had no ability to fight back.

Boom, boom, boom!

Twenty Yinzhou ships, like behemoths that did not belong to this era, like peerless savage beasts, slammed into them under Xiao Qi's command.

Although the scene was chaotic, the Yinzhou ships were uniform and orderly; this was the military discipline of the Liangzhou Army. Every Yinzhou ship headed toward its own target. If they encountered Jingzhou sailors who had fallen into the water along the way, the Liangzhou Army's crossbowmen, Great Dao-wielders, and Spearmen would appear on the decks and begin a cold, ruthless slaughter.

Boom!

Boom-crack!

One Tower Ship after another shattered upon impact.

At this moment, the general of the Jingzhou Navy finally reacted, his face turning black: "Do not panic, no one is allowed to panic! Follow my orders!"

However, at this time.

Jiang Xuan, who was far away on Liu Zheng's ship, had already picked up a Divine Arm Crossbow, loaded an arrow, and coldly aimed at the Tower Ship in the very center of the Jingzhou Navy.

Whoosh!

As he released his grip, the arrow flew out like a bolt of lightning; its target was not the general, but their army flag!

The Jingzhou Army Flag!

In ancient times, the army flag symbolized the spirit and backbone of an army, and could even be called its faith and totem. Therefore, no matter what, the army flag could not fall, and the army flag could not topple.

However, at this moment.

This arrow, which seemed capable of igniting the air, landed exactly on the top of the army flag.

With a bang!

The wooden pole just below the top of the army flag was instantly pierced and then severed by the arrow.

The army flag toppled down at once.

"The army flag has fallen!"

"This..."

"Is the general dead?"

"The general is gone!"

The scene was already quite chaotic, and once they saw their army flag had fallen, the men were immediately gripped by panic; everyone was like a headless fly without direction.

"Kill!"

This scene was undoubtedly very spectacular and grand. The Tower Ships, riddled with holes, were still burning. No matter how fire-resistant the wood was, with the addition of Petroleum, it would burn uncontrollably, and no method of extinguishing it would work. Besides... the ships were already blown through and the water was about to submerge the Tower Ships, so what was the point of putting out the fire?

Abandon ship!

One Jingzhou sailor after another jumped into the water, but doing so only brought them under the blades of the Liangzhou Army, and they quickly became dead souls in this river.

Of course, this would not be a one-sided massacre.

After all, the Jingzhou Navy still had experience in naval warfare. Moreover, the Jingzhou Navy had an army of one hundred thousand stationed here.

It would take a long time to behead these people one by one.

Besides, no one wanted to die.

As the saying goes, a desperate army will fight with a vengeance; they might not be able to win, but they would certainly launch a desperate counterattack.

"Fight!"

"Fight them!"

"A bunch of landlubbers, what is there to be afraid of!"

The Jingzhou Navy was also a group of tough men; who was willing to just stick their necks out to be slaughtered? Soon, these people began to counterattack, using their advantage in the water. Many Jingzhou soldiers struggled to pull the Liangzhou Army into the water, and some were ruthlessly held under the water by them, drowning directly.

Others were pierced by their blades and then became corpses, floating on the surface of the water.

"Retreat, retreat, everyone retreat! Withdraw!"

The general of the Jingzhou Navy went even more insane when he saw this situation.

This was not the result he wanted! He did not want them to stubbornly fight when they knew they couldn't win! As a general, he knew very well that at this time, they should retreat and then organize the remaining effective forces to hold Yongan Port and wait for reinforcements from Jingzhou.

He quickly had his deputy general find a way to raise the army flag again...

However...

Liu Zheng knew that this war absolutely could not be dragged out. Although Yongan was the gateway to Chuan Shu, to the east lay Jiangling, Xiangyang, and Jingzhou... these were all the territory of the Prince of Xiang. If the Prince of Xiang could find the time to send reinforcements, his army of one hundred thousand would be surrounded and wiped out.

At this moment, the reason Viscount Xiang did not launch a pincer attack from the rear was because he was too confident in the 100,000 Jingzhou Army at Yongan Port.

He believed that Liu Zheng could absolutely not defeat the 100,000 Jingzhou Navy.

Therefore...

This was yet another gap on the battlefield.

Today, Liu Zheng must take Yongan!

"Kill!"

Xiao Qi issued the order to attack again; at this time, those fifty Tower Ships of Jingzhou had all been reduced to fragments. The Yinzhou warships had also slowly pulled into the shore.

Hand-to-hand combat!

It reached a fever pitch!

The Jingzhou Navy, which had been stationed at the port, and the soldiers who had climbed up from the water, finally engaged in a white-hot close-quarters battle with the Liangzhou Army!

Puchi!

A blade went in.

Puchi!

A sword slashed down!

The battle on the water had finally reached the land. At this moment, the advantage of the Liangzhou Army instantly emerged.

They were originally landlubbers, but in this land battle, who did they fear?

One Mandarin Duck Formation after another was instantly formed.

Any Jingzhou soldier who passed by was invariably slaughtered by them.

"Retreat!"

"Everyone, retreat!"

The Jingzhou commander had already collapsed.

In reality, at this moment, his mindset had already shattered. The Yinzhou warships sailing over today were like behemoths. Now that the Liangzhou Army had reached land, they were completely like wild beasts from the north, like demons from Hell!

While one could not call it a total crushing, it took three or five of these slightly shorter Jingzhou men working together to kill a single Liangzhou soldier.

The gap.

At this moment, the gap became apparent.

"His Highness... His Highness, run!"

At this moment, Xie Chen, who had been waiting at Yongan Port, was already scared witless. The few attendants beside him hurriedly helped him onto a horse and retreated toward Yongan City.

Xie Chen ran for several miles, still unable to recover from the shock just now: "This... what is going on? Someone tell me, what is going on!"

Why were they blown to pieces in an instant?

Why was the operation they had prepared for so long instantly crushed by this Liangzhou Army?

This is not right!

This is not scientific!

None of his attendants could say, each quickening their pace, wanting only to escort Xie Chen back to Yongan City.

At least...

Yongan City still had two or three tens of thousands of garrison troops; it would not end in a total rout.

Who would have known.

Liu Zheng did not want to give them a chance to escape.

He had come with an army of 100,000 this time, and hadn't he brought 20,000 "Air Force" troops?

As soon as these 20,000 Air Force troops reached the shore, they donned their Gliders.

The target: Yongan City!

To capture the bandits, first capture their king!

Xie Chen was still on the road; as long as he was captured, Yongan would be in his grasp!

"Remember, keep him alive!"

Liu Zheng ordered.

"Yes!"

"Take off!"

Ten thousand Air Force troops took off instantly, and soon, these "birdmen" that blotted out the sky flew toward the direction of Yongan City.

"This..."

"What is that?"

Where had these Jingzhou Navy soldiers ever seen such things? A few days ago, they had heard that Qin Zhangfeng had taken a group of birdmen and flown into Shuzhou City. But that was only hearsay; who had actually seen it? Ten thousand Air Force troops taking off on the spot—the effect was undoubtedly explosive.

This was a crushing of confidence.

This was a mental collapse.

Yes...

This Liangzhou Army even had an army that could fly; what could their mere Jingzhou Navy do?

A group of people was left stunned.

Their hearts turned cold.

This directly affected their combat state.

How could they have any heart left to fight? Many people, upon seeing this "birdman" unit, were so panicked that they threw down their weapons and fled for their lives.

This gave the Liangzhou Army even more opportunities to pursue and kill.

Pursuing and killing all the way, the Jingzhou Navy retreated steadily.

Defeated.

At this moment, the commander of the Jingzhou Navy also turned deathly pale, a sense of despair surging from the bottom of his heart.

That bird-man...

Without a doubt, he could catch up to Xie Chen.

Xie Chen was already finished.

What point was there in them garrisoning here?

This was Yongan in Chuan Shu to begin with; why did they, people of Jingzhou, come here to join in the commotion?

On what grounds should they risk their lives for this Xie Chen?

When fighting a war, the most feared thing is for such a change in mentality to occur; once it changes, it is like a flood breaking through a dam, impossible to bring under control.

They panicked.

Their morale was completely gone.

Yongan Port was a military fortress in its own right and possessed solid defensive works; if the Jingzhou Navy's morale had remained stable at this time, they could have used these defenses to cause some trouble for the Liangzhou Army.

However, now.

It was already too late.

The Liangzhou Army, like a surging flood, was like a prehistoric behemoth that suddenly trampled its way in.

The port was breached.

A tragic slaughter began once again.

At this moment, Xie Chen was scared out of his wits.

"Faster, faster, faster!"

He shouted loudly.

The Horse Carriage was speeding along.

He only wanted to return to his Yongan now and then bolt the city gates shut tight.

This Liangzhou Army...

It was truly too terrifying!

How could he have been so shortsighted as to participate in this Bitter Remonstrance for the throne?

However.

Just as he was ten miles away from Yongan City.

Suddenly.

He felt that in broad daylight, the sky seemed to darken in an instant.

And then.

Following that, the four War Horses neighed in unison and came to an abrupt halt on the road, not daring to move forward any further.

"Wha..."

"What is going on?"

Xie Chen sat in the Horse Carriage, his body went limp, and a foul-smelling yellow liquid had already flowed out from his trouser leg.