Chapter 7: Heavenly Thunder versus Earthly Fire

The night was so dark that Xiao Wen could not distinguish clearly for a moment, and was even more frightened by such shouts. He quickly ordered a retreat, and he had no choice but to retreat hurriedly towards his own warship.

Sometimes things happen by accident. The originally dark rainy night suddenly flashed with several lightning bolts.

The sky and the earth turned white, and the water and sky suddenly became bright.

Xiao Wen felt that he must be the same as the soldiers around him, and his face was pale with fear. Taking advantage of this light, they fled hastily back to the northern warships.

From beginning to end, there was not a single shadow of a soldier on Beichen's side. But during this exchange, Nan Xiao trampled on each other in fear, and lost the lives of hundreds of soldiers in vain.

As for those who ran directly into King Xiao Nanchen's barracks in the dark and were captured, there were hundreds of them.

The sky was getting light and the heavy rain finally stopped.

Xiao Wen, who was like a drowned rat, stood in his own water village, looked at the soldiers and generals in the same situation as himself, and then looked at Jiangbei in the distance.

Amidst the sound of drums and music, Zhou Shengchen was wearing a white brocade robe, sitting on a boat, slowly coming along the river.

Hundreds of soldiers in bright armor and bodyguards were by his side.

Xiao Wen watched from a distance and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: He is born a strange person! Sure enough, as the hymn says, "How many people are like kings in the world?" !

The guard beside him hesitated for a long time, and finally spoke to persuade: "Second Prince, let's fight together, maybe we can capture King Xiao Nanchen!"

Shaking his head, Xiao Wen rejected the proposal: "Since he dared to go on patrol like this, he must have been fully prepared. Furthermore, our night attack failed, and he did not take advantage of the chaos to intercept and kill. How could we do such a despicable thing? ?!”

The guard heard this with awe and quickly stepped aside.

The building boat over there was indeed patrolled by Zhou Shengchen himself. Seeing that he had reached the center of the river, he immediately ordered the boatman to stop paddling.

Xiao Wen here couldn't help but feel shocked: Do you really want to rush over and capture him? !

When he hesitated a little, he unexpectedly saw many small boats rowing out from behind the big boat.

Xiao Wen felt nervous, but someone came to report: "The soldiers on the boat are all wearing the uniforms of Nan Xiao's soldiers."

More than a dozen small boats rowed towards the south bank, and the people on the boats kept shouting: "Don't shoot the arrows! We are soldiers of Nanxiao. We were captured because we got lost at night. King Xiao Nanchen sent us back in person!"

Such shouts became more and more clear, and Xiao Wen couldn't help but feel ashamed for his wavering just now.

After all, the two armies were still fighting. After he regained his composure, he ordered people to go and pick up the returning soldiers.

The building boat Zhou Shengchen was riding on immediately started playing melodious drum music and slowly turned back to the north bank.

After this incident passed, Xiao Wen's complicated mood was beyond words, and he wrote a letter to King Xiao Nanchen on the other side.

This time, he directly mentioned the possibility of a truce between the two sides and said that he was willing to re-negotiate the price of trade goods in a reasonable manner.

Now that he had the intention of peace talks, Zhou Shengchen also sent an envoy to cross the river to negotiate with Nan Xiao.

But the transaction price of the goods is always difficult to reach an agreement. For example, there is a shortage of war horses in Jiangnan, and I am willing to exchange fifty pieces of silk for a fine horse.

But the quality of the horses and the quality of the silk must also be carefully discussed.

Then there was Zhou Shengchen, who asked for an increase in the supply of tea, and was willing to exchange a horse for 200 kilograms of tea made as required.

Because the custom of drinking tea had not yet formed at this time, even the nobles of Nanxiao still had to add many spices to their tea bowls before they could accept the tea soup that tasted bitter but had a sweet aftertaste.

Zhou Shengchen not only gave the method of picking and frying tea leaves, but also made the following requirements: press the fried tea leaves into cake shape while hot, and use it in the form of "tea string", weighing one kilogram per tea cake and one pound per tea cake. Ten tea cakes are strung together, wrapped in clean thick paper, and sealed in a special bamboo basket...

By analogy, every commodity traded has corresponding strict requirements.

After Xiao Wen received these articles, he first ordered people to combine his opinions with them and report them to his father in Jiankang, the capital of the southern Xiao Kingdom. He then gathered the results of the discussions between the monarchs and ministers there and conveyed them to the envoys in Jiangbei.

Envoys from both sides had frequent exchanges, but with little effect.

For goods that had been traded normally, Xiao Wen took the initiative to make concessions and brought the price back to its original state. But for the new requirements put forward by Zhou Shengchen, especially the tea strings of different qualities measured in kilograms, Xiao Wen only felt a headache.

At this time, there were no large-scale artificial planting of tea trees. If the quantity required by Zhou Shengchen was collected, I am afraid that many people and soldiers in Nanxiao would have to rush into various mountains and forests to pick tea.

After Xiao Wen responded to his own difficulties, Zhou Shengchen replied: It can be increased year by year. This can not only meet the needs of trade, but also enable Nanxiao to create new industries.

In fact, such negotiations cannot achieve any greater results.

Hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides were deployed on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. How could they withdraw their troops with just a few pieces of paper?

It is clear that neither side will give up unless they see the best interests of themselves.

The reason for the seemingly sincere negotiation is that the current weather is hot and rainy, which is not conducive to the fighting between the two sides.

Both sides had to show off and made some small-scale transactions. Immediately, people from the north bank received the silk from the south bank and said that the quality was too poor;

The South Bank accepted the furs sent from the North, saying only that they were not treated well enough and were simply unusable.

The envoys from both sides quarreled back and forth, and as the weather turned cooler, their tone became harsher. Another war is inevitable.

Seeing the autumn wind blowing, Xiao Wen stood on the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back, looking at the continuous military camps in the north of the Yangtze River, thinking secretly.

The border between Nanxiao and Beichen is along the Huaihe River, but with the current conquests on both sides, the border has become a lake.

The middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River are relatively stable, but in the middle and lower reaches, the north bank of the Yangtze River is mostly occupied by Beichen tribes.

Because of the lack of horses, Nan Xiao could not cross the river in large numbers to fight north. Beichen, however, relied on the advantage of having more war horses and could travel throughout Jiangbei.

The two armies have been facing each other across the bank for more than half a year, but they have not launched a large-scale battle. Speaking of which, it was not only the restraint of both parties, but also factors such as weather, food, and reserve troops.

After Xiao Wen thought deeply, he went back to the big tent to discuss with the ministers and staff.

Everyone thought that he was going to launch a posture, just like Zhou Lang's counterattack against Cao Cao, or like Xie Xuan and Xie Shi's counterattack against Fu Jian, using the navy to defeat the Northern Army.

Xiao Wen first nodded to this, and then made additional suggestions: "Advance by water and land, mainly by land, to overwhelm the Northern Army in one fell swoop and defeat King Xiao Nanchen!"

After hearing this, everyone felt that it was indeed novel, but they also doubted whether they could resist the enemy by fighting the Northern Army on land.

The Confederate army was advantageous in fighting by boat. No matter how brave the soldiers were, they ultimately lacked the cooperation of horses. However, the Northern Army had many cavalry, and when it was dispatched, it immediately showed a thunderous momentum.

Faced with everyone's worries, Xiao Wen smiled indifferently, and then said: "The navy used my banner to attack the opponent's water stronghold! But I personally led the elite soldiers, sneaked across the river at night, and came from his side and rear. Cover up!"

Xiao Wen's strategy was to imitate the methods used by Xie Xuan, Xie Shi and others to counterattack Fu Jian of the former Qin Dynasty.

The art of war is not irreproducible, because some strategies themselves are unsolvable, such as the strategy of "surrounding Wei and rescuing Zhao".

So now Xiao Wen believes that as long as the number of soldiers and generals and their momentum are fully prepared and mobilized, the rest will be God's will and the fate of King Xiao Nanchen.

While preparing for the war in full swing, Xiao Wen continued as usual, arranging envoys to cross the river for negotiations, and also ordered people to send fine wine to the north bank. He said he had nothing to do, so he had a drink with King Xiao Nanchen across the river.

Everything is ready.

On the night of the first lunar month, dozens of fast boats quietly sailed out from Nanxiao Water Village on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

The river flowed silently, and the boats made as little oar noise as possible as they quickly approached the north shore.

The navy camp in Beichen lit up countless lights in the dark night to illuminate the situation of their station and to demonstrate their strong military strength.

But the light is like a torch, but it can only illuminate the area near our camp, and cannot see very far.

The soldiers guarding the huge Beichen Water Village had to be extra cautious in this dark moonless night.

And because the troops on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been maintaining peace and harmony recently, the soldiers in Beichen got the wine sent from the South Bank and drank it happily.

Just when everyone was treating this moonless night as a wonderful night to relax, a scout suddenly discovered that dozens of small boats were quickly approaching their water village.

There were not many of them, and they were all small boats carrying a small number of soldiers. The general guarding Beichen Water Village did not pay too much attention to the report.

Out of duty, he still brought his guards to check. Those boats were still approaching quickly, and the guard immediately ordered to release arrows!

The arrow rain here was released, and those small boats also showed their true intentions. Under the control of the soldiers on board, they had already ignited their full load of firewood and turned into flaming hedgehogs, charging toward the north bank fiercely!

The soldiers on the north shore were not good at water battles, but now they saw the legendary fire ship again. The fire-fighting organization was unable to do anything, and the fire spread immediately, and the soldiers were immediately frightened and scattered in panic.

Behind those fire ships are Nanxiao’s real battleships. Countless warships then attacked, making Beichen Water Village even more panicked after being attacked at night.

Just when Nanxiao's soldiers thought they were proud, they suddenly heard the harsh sound of golden drums coming from the north bank in the dark night.

In the midst of the chaos, the Nanxiao soldiers who had already approached the north of the river saw countless monster-like wooden riprap carts suddenly appearing on the riverside.

What followed was the rhythmic shouting of Beichen's soldiers. Immediately, countless huge stones flew towards Nan Xiao's warship from those trebuchets in an almost seamless and endless manner!

"Bang", "Kacha", "Tong", "Oops——"

…

Various sounds came from Nan Xiao's warship.

The sound in the front was caused by the warship being hit by rocks, and the sound in the back must be the screams of the Nanxiao soldiers who could not bear the severe pain.

The big one weighs a hundred or ten kilograms, and the small one weighs dozens of kilograms. How can this world resist such a dense rain of rocks? !

It's better to be farther away from the north shore, and you can escape from the battlefield during the night. The Nanxiao warships and soldiers who were closer to the north bank could never return to the south bank.

Dozens of giant ships were smashed into pieces by the sudden rain of rocks, and even tilted precariously. In the end, they were submerged underwater together with the dead and wounded soldiers on board.

The burning ships were extinguished in an organized manner, and numerous warships ready to go appeared from the side.

These Beichen warships were arranged in a formation of several ships, covering the Nanxiao warships in the dark night.

Nanxiao's warship, which had originally rushed to attack in excitement, was now only worried that its rowing was too slow and would not be able to escape the attack of Beichen navy.

While pursuing, Beichen Shuijun fired rockets at the bow of the ship, making the escaped Nanxiao warship even more embarrassed.

Many warships were overtaken by Bei Chen Shuijun and could not launch a counterattack. After being fired by a barrage of rockets, they burst into flames.

If Nan Xiao's warships came at night, they were like flames emerging from the ground. Then the successive counterattacks of the Beichen navy were like the thunderous wrath from heaven.

Nan Xiao's warships were crowded on the river, and because they lost effective military contact, they became the target of a wanton attack by the Northern Chen Navy.

More and more warships were set alight, and more and more warships were burned and sunk in the river. Nanxiao's soldiers had no choice but to jump into the river to escape, but they inevitably drowned many more.

When the surviving soldiers of Nan Xiao stepped on the bank of Jiangnan again, they had only one thought, that is, they hoped that Xiao Wen, who had detoured and attacked Beichen's camp, could capture Zhou Shengchen as he wished. At the very least, he must kill a few more Beichen generals to avenge the current situation.

Nan Xiao's warships were defeated and returned to the south bank, and Beichen's naval forces did not continue to pursue them and returned to their own water village in an orderly manner.

Xiao Wen, who had already crossed the river at this time, looked at the flames in the river and could not guess the specific result of the battle for a while.

When he discovered that more warships were escaping southward with raging flames, he knew that tonight's navy raid had not succeeded. Zhou Shengchen either had a premonition or the defense was tight, which made Nan Xiao's naval assault impossible. The military sneak attack failed.

Although Xiao Wen was on the shore at this time, he seemed to be burned by those flames. His heart was like a burning fire. He saw the miserable condition of his own soldiers and ships. In addition to grief and anger, he also had embarrassment that he could not explain to his father.

Although his father was very partial to him, a prince who was famous for his martial arts, Xiao Wen also knew that his father had always loved the people like a son and was unwilling to engage in a large-scale war with Beichen.

In particular, King Xiao Nanchen was very famous. Emperor Xiao Xu of Nan Xiao knew that every extra day such a war was delayed would not only cost countless money and food, but also the casualties of soldiers and the displacement of the people, which was tragic.

Although benevolent, Emperor Xiao Xu of Southern Xiao also had the intention of annexing the world. Therefore, Xiao Wen made a wish to his father: He will personally lead his troops and cross the river to the north to bring peace to the world!

The big words came out, but at this time, Xiao Wen could only smell the unpleasant smell of his own ships and soldiers being burned.

He was so excited that the soldiers following him were also horrified.

Finally, the general persuaded, "Second Prince, we might as well return to the south bank as soon as possible!"

Xiao Wen came back to his senses and turned his attention from Jiangxin and Jiangnan to Beichen's land camp.

"They must have slacked off when they won the naval victory." He endured his heartache and said in a calm tone, "That was my king's plan to lure the enemy!"

After saying that, he was infected by his own ambition again, and a fierce murderous look appeared in his eyes.

The soldiers looked at each other and couldn't help but nodded secretly: This was indeed the arrangement when they made the plan.

Looking at the Beichen Camp in the distance, Xiao Wen curled his lips, raised his spear, and whispered: "King Xiao Nanchen must be proud and relaxed! We just rush into the camp and kill at will!"