Chapter 280: Hello Chang'an
Chapter 280: Slaying the Enemy
“General, the Bianzhou naval forces are twenty li ahead!”
“Report, General! The Bianzhou navy is still ten li away!”
With each report from the scouts, the distance between the two sides gradually shrank.
“Five li out, the Bianzhou navy is advancing quickly!”
By this point, Xu Zhengye and his entourage could see flickering lights ahead along the wide river, moving steadily toward them.
Seeing their speed, a general at Xu Zhengye’s side sneered, “These people are really eager to die!”
Xu Zhengye drew his sword, the scarlet cloak striking against the firelight.
Raising his sword, he shouted in a booming voice, “All Kuangfu soldiers, follow me to slay the traitors and the Empress lackeys! First, we break Bianzhou, reclaim Luoyang, and then execute the Empress’s collaborators!”
The generals beside him drew their blades and roared, “Slay the Empress’s traitorous party!”
The sound echoed, layer upon layer, as soldiers raised their weapons and shouted, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
The warships quickened their pace.
The night wind whipped Xu Zhengye’s cloak as he stared ahead, eyes alight with murderous intent.
On the journey to Luoyang, heavy rains had slowed them, and rumors began circulating among the troops, claiming that the heavens opposed this campaign, warning of disaster through the constant rain…
Absurd!
He executed dozens publicly to quell the panic and dissent within his army.
Tonight, he would use the lives of these ten thousand Bianzhou sailors to awaken the fighting spirit of his soldiers.
With morale thus bolstered, only then could he hope to take Luoyang from Xuanzhe troops and Li Xian.
As the distance closed further, Xu Zhengye quickly realized that the twenty-odd Bianzhou warships ahead were ordinary Central Plains vessels.
In contrast, his own hundred-plus ships were elite vessels from Jiangning and Yangzhou.
Due to the geography, Yangzhou’s ships were designed to defend the East China and Yellow Seas, while Jiangning’s ships were adapted to the currents of the Yangtze. Their size, construction, and weapon placements far exceeded the ordinary ships of the Central Plains, giving them a clear advantage.
Now, with over a hundred ships behind him, their presence was overwhelming, like a mountain—almost insurmountable.
Opposite them, the Bianzhou ships had only their desperate courage to rely upon—the kind of blind bravery that, to an enemy, looked like foolish recklessness.
“Fire arrows!”
Naval tactics prioritized ranged combat before boarding.
Xu’s front-line ships unleashed volleys of arrows, dense as rain.
The Bianzhou forces also shot arrows, but their target was difficult to reach: the Xu army’s ships were tall, built for sea battles, and the arrows mostly struck the sturdy hulls without harming the crew. Meanwhile, Xu’s ships held the height advantage.
Bianzhou sailors began falling from arrows and plunging into the river, and their formation gradually collapsed.
Xu’s generals seized the opportunity. “Attack!”
With the enemy disorganized, it was the perfect moment to close in, board their ships, seize the rudders, and cut off their retreat.
“Behead the Bianzhou commanders! One hundred gold for each!” Xu Zhengye shouted. “Take no prisoners tonight. Slay the Empress collaborators—leave none alive!”
“Tomorrow, we’ll display their heads at Bianzhou’s gates!”
“Kill—!”
The horns of war sounded aboard Xu’s ships.
Yet, the Bianzhou vessels swiftly reorganized. Twenty ships formed two rows, ten ahead, ten behind.
The leading ten did not retreat—they surged forward to meet Xu’s advancing fleet!
Even though Xu’s ships were larger, he hesitated, sensing something amiss. “Slow—” he shouted instinctively, but it was too late.
The ten forward ships, carrying only a few sailors, moved quickly due to their lighter hulls and collided with Xu’s vessels.
At the moment of impact, the Bianzhou sailors suddenly adjusted the rudders, turning their ships perpendicular to Xu’s.
Simultaneously, they dropped the side barriers of their vessels—ingenious contraptions that transformed into drawbridges with sharp iron spikes, each nearly a person’s length and shaped like a bird’s beak.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
As the ships collided, the spikes embedded into the prows of Xu’s ships.
The foremost ten Xu ships shook violently. A general yelled, “Hold them! Kill them!”
The Bianzhou sailors’ gambit was clear—they intended to board the Xu ships.
Yet instead of climbing, they leapt into the water from both sides!
Soon, the ten ships became empty.
Xu’s forces were bewildered. An experienced naval officer shouted, “Check under the hulls! They may be digging!”
“Shoot them!”
“Quick, inspect below!”
Amid the chaos, Xu Zhengye noticed the ten Bianzhou ships that still restrained his fleet. He looked ahead and realized that more firelight appeared one li beyond.
One, then several, then dozens of lights flickered, revealing new warships rising like phantoms from beneath the water!
The previously retreating ten ships swarmed around these newly emerged vessels. On the tallest tower ship, a fully armored young woman sounded a single drumbeat.
“Dong!”
“Dong-dong!”
With this signal, the ships, like awakened sea monsters, surged forward!
On that tower ship, the armored girl steadied a heavy crossbow, squinting at her target.
Its range exceeded three hundred paces. Around her, nine others on neighboring vessels had already taken aim, like hunters ready to strike in the night.
“Not Good！”
Xu Zhengye could not discern their exact movements but immediately understood the danger. He retreated, shouting, “Stop! Abandon the ships quickly!”
“Except for the front row, all remaining vessels, retreat!”
“Retreat swiftly!”
“Move fast!”
The front-line Xu soldiers ran about, shouting, many unaware of what was about to happen, being shoved onto rear vessels or into the water, creating utter chaos.
Ships collided in the confusion, hampering movement.
“Fire arrows!”
A clear, commanding voice issued the order—drums relayed the message.
“Dong!”
A fire arrow shot from the girl’s hands, slicing through the wind.
“Whoosh!”
It struck one of the ten empty ships with precise accuracy. Flames hissed and spread…
One by one, fire arrows streaked through the night, embedding themselves in the empty ships.
Flames gradually merged into sheets of fire, and when enough accumulated, a deafening explosion rocked the river.
“—Boom!”
“—Bang!”
It was gunpowder!
The ten ships had been secretly packed with it in advance.
Xu Zhengye’s front-line soldiers, caught unawares, turned pale as their ears rang—including the general who had once boasted he would visit Bianzhou’s pleasure houses.
Bad news: the pleasure houses were out of reach.
Good news: the halls of the King of Hell awaited instead.
Fear flickered across the men’s faces only briefly before they were hurled into the air by the blasts.
Their warships were destroyed, flames climbing with the night wind, spreading backward.
Many sails ignited, the immense shockwaves rocking the water and causing ships to sway precariously.
Screams of agony, panicked shouts, choking smoke, and soldiers plunging into the river turned the scene into a nightmarish inferno.
The helmsmen panicked further, and the advantages of their large vessels became a hindrance in the confusion.
Ringing in his ears, Xu Zhengye gripped the railing, struggling to steady himself. He shouted, “Do not panic!”
But amidst the chaos, his voice was nearly drowned out.
“General! General!”
A dazed Daoist priest stumbled forward, retching onto the railing before he could even speak.
“General…” The priest wiped vomit from his mouth, eyes wide with terror, trembling as he pointed forward. “Look… that… that is…!”
Xu Zhengye looked ahead, his eyes shaking as he pierced through the flames.
The ships approaching were far more than ten, far more than dozens…
Flickering lights connected across the water, moving like a coiled, powerful dragon in time with measured drumbeats.
High above, fluttered the large command banners marked with the character “Xiao” and the army flag of “Sheng.”
“How… how is this possible…” the priest stammered, his previously composed demeanor gone.
The reinforcements that should have remained behind had somehow crossed their path, appearing directly in front of them!
And there were too many to count—probably no fewer than Xu’s own fleet!
Xu Zhengye’s mind raced, no time for reflection—he had walked into a trap.
In the face of danger, there was no room for distraction.
He shoved a panicked helmsman aside and took control of the ship, shouting, “Fire arrows! Bring me more fire arrows!”
They had gunpowder too, but gunpowder’s use in warfare was still a recent innovation, only a few decades old. Producing it in large quantities was no easy task. Xu Zhengye had intended to reserve it for the siege of Luoyang, the stronghold of the formidable Xuanzhe troops.
By comparison, a mere ten thousand Bianzhou sailors were not worth such expenditure.
But he could never have anticipated that Xiao Min’s army would suddenly appear here and lay an ambush!
Under Xu Zhengye’s control, the chaotic situation slightly stabilized. They began to reposition the disordered ships and mount a defensive counterattack.
Amidst the flames, both sides exchanged volleys, the clash of battle deafening.
The battlefield extended beyond the river.
Xu Zhengye quickly realized that arrows were raining down from both banks.
These were also troops brought by Chang Suining and Xiao Min. They had traveled by water, but for transport purposes, the ships were larger than those used in combat. For battle, to maintain mobility, a single ship could not hold hundreds, so Chang Suining had arranged ambushes along the shore as well—both to observe the battle and to cut off Xu Zhengye’s retreat.
Additionally, she had discovered that Xu Zhengye’s fleet was limited in number and heavily laden with supplies. Among her forces, ten thousand cavalry had not traveled by water.
Xu Zhengye’s few elite soldiers would face these ten thousand as vanguard.
To guard against Xu Zhengye’s cavalry strike, Chang Suining had also prepared an ambush on land.
These were the hidden troops waiting for Xu Zhengye’s vanguard.
She had noticed that from the outset, Xu Zhengye had sent signal fireworks—likely to coordinate with his subordinates.
Yet strangely, even as dawn approached, the ten thousand cavalry, who should not have been far behind, had still not arrived.
With the battle lost at the outset, the situation deteriorating, and the cavalry delayed, another trusted general was struck down by an arrow. Xu Zhengye’s eyes glowed crimson with rage.
“General! General…”
The Daoist, hair disheveled, his whisk brooms long gone, crawled forward and clutched Xu Zhengye’s armor. “The situation is dire! General, you must retreat!”
Xu Zhengye lowered his gaze, steady and cold. “Do you remember what you told me in Jiangdu?”
The priest had assured him that his campaign to Luoyang would achieve greatness.
The priest trembled under Xu’s penetrating gaze. “I… I… could not foresee this calamity…”
“Is that so.” Xu Zhengye gave a faint, silent smile, then drove his bloodied spear downward in a slant.
The priest opened his mouth but could make no sound—the spear had pierced his neck.
Blood poured from the priest’s mouth as Xu Zhengye asked coldly, “Did you ever predict your own death today?”
Xu Zhengye, seeking greatness, had gathered so-called gifted men, and Buddhist and Daoist figures, to bolster his prestige and give the illusion of acting under heaven’s mandate.
Yet this priest had been a complete fraud.
Not a fool himself, Xu Zhengye had never blindly trusted the man, but it did not prevent him from venting his fury now.
He withdrew the spear, then stabbed the priest again and again—once, twice, thrice—until his face was spattered with blood.
“Plop!”
As a soldier near him fell to an arrow into the river, another sharp arrow approached.
Xu Zhengye swung his spear, deflecting it.
Looking up, he traced its origin—not from the shore. His position made him untouchable by the bank archers.
Soon, he noticed a ship bearing the “Sheng” banner had maneuvered to their flank.
At its prow stood a fully armored youth with a bow. The dawn behind her cast her features in silhouette.
Xu Zhengye immediately recognized her—this was the Chang family girl who had “cursed” him with her proclamation: General Ning Yuan!
His gaze darkened instantly, murderous intent gathering like a storm.
