Chapter 538 - Crippled Liu Ping, Beginning of Navy Warfare
Everyone in the Sun Clan group wasn"t worried about Lu Meng"s notification since it was only a skeleton at first. As they had destroyed 20,000 evolved bone soldiers, they thought that it was another weakling that slipped through their nets.
However, another member of the group didn"t let her guard down. Diaochan, as the leader of this faction, immediately checked this ent.i.ty with her immortal sight.
And she discovered the person she was looking for!
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Diaochan: "Heads up! That skeleton is the reincarnation of Emperor Liu Ping! Do not let him get away! Kill him before he causes more harm to our people!"
Although Diaochan wanted to capture Liu Ping"s soul, the skeleton"s evolution ability was a threat. She couldn"t afford to let Ping get any stronger, or he would become a thorn to Tong and his allies.
For now, she wanted Liu Ping to be sent away to the reincarnation river. Even if he reincarnated again, she could apprehend him when he was a baby. Then, Tong, Medusa, and Friday could cripple or imprison him for the rest of eternity.
Diaochan: "Shangxiang, use everything to kill Liu Ping!"
Sun Shangxiang: "Roger that, dear mom."
Diaochan: "…"
Everyone: "…"
…
Sun Quan, Sun Shangxiang, Huang Gai, and all generals rushed to help Lu Meng. When they arrived, they found the skeleton, who had climbed up from the moat. As for the zombie corpses, they already disappeared.
"What happened here?" Asked Sun Quan.
Lu Meng"s face was dark. The damage in his lung wasn"t completely healed yet, "That skeleton is stronger than the rest of them. It can emit poison gas."
Without waiting for others to make the first move, Sun Shangxiang activated her homing arrow skill and empowered it with her 7-wing aura. 50 Light arrows flew toward Liu Ping.
*BOOM* *BOOM*
*BOOM* *BOOM*
Liu Ping"s skeletons shattered into pieces in an instant. 10 of the arrows destroyed Ping"s skull.
Liu Ping was unable to retaliate. He collapsed on the ground, and his spirit eyes dimmed. The purple gas dispersed afterward.
"That"s it?" Sun Shangxiang was disappointed, "I thought he was stronger than this."
Sun Quan shrugged, "You"re the strongest cultivator among us. If he"s stronger than you, we would have died ages ago."
Everybody nodded in agreement. If the skeleton could withstand Hua s.h.i.+"s attack, then they would need Diaochan, Li Feihong, and Liu Yang"s help.
"Bah, boring. Let"s clean up the battlefield. We need to extinguish the fire before it spread."
Sun Shangxiang led the generals to the fortress. They had a lot of work to do.
…
A month pa.s.sed since the annihilation of the undead army.
All remaining bones and corpses were gathered and buried in the moat. The Sun Clan Army helped the local restoring the farmland and marched southeast, heading to Guangling and rendezvous with Gan Ning"s fleets.
Everyone believed that Liu Ping had been vanquished. He should have pa.s.sed on, and the soul should have entered Lilim"s reincarnation river.
*Pu*
5 meters underground, a piece of bone absorbed soil nutrition and the buried corpses.
Bones, rotten flesh, mud water, and rocks merged with the small bone piece.
From a small fragment, it increased its ma.s.s and transformed into a skull frame.
The skull slowly took shape as it consumed everything to regenerate. Two fireb.a.l.l.s lit up inside the skeleton"s eye sockets.
Liu Ping groaned as he opened his eyes.
He died, but his soul didn"t enter samsara. Instead, he was trapped in this piece of bone.
His strength degraded to the previous state before he got his corruption aura and poison gas. He had to start over, and he had to regenerate his entire body back.
"…"
No one knew what the skull was thinking. He continued to heal himself in secret.
…
Without the threat of the undead army and Gan Ji, Guo Jia pushed the main forces forward. 200,000 Elites from the Immortal Legion and Crimson Angel Legion pressed southward. They loaded cannons on their battles.h.i.+ps.
The current wars.h.i.+ps that Guo Jia"s forces used were called Mengchong, aka covered a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps. They were row s.h.i.+ps that had a wooden roof to cover the s.h.i.+p from arrows. However, each of them was large enough to carry 50 - 100 soldiers.
But Guo Jia removed the s.p.a.ce for soldiers to load cannons on the front deck, so the s.h.i.+ps could become sailing artillery against Sun Ce Army.
The sight of 2,000 wars.h.i.+ps already intimidated the defenders enough, but Guo Jia wanted to give them despair. He sent a special unit in the water in advance and had them wait for instructions.
On the opposite side, 1,000 similar wars.h.i.+ps lined up in an array along the riverside, blockading Guo Jia"s forces from crossing the Yangtze River.
Sun Ce"s forces didn"t consist of only 1000 mengchong s.h.i.+ps, but they also had ram boats, floating fortress s.h.i.+ps, and 18th-century galleys. They also had stolen cannons on the galleys and the fortress s.h.i.+ps.
But Guo Jia"s enemies weren"t just Sun Ce and his subordinates. Huang Zu, who was the governor of Jiangxia, mobilized his forces east, heading toward Lujiang.
Xu Huang"s legion and Sima Yi"s former soldiers, numbered 200,000 men, dispatched from Lujiang, heading west to intercept Huang Zu"s 50,000 men.
Number was in Guo Jia and Xu Huang"s favor, but that was not their trump card.
Gan Ning: "Our unit is at the entrance. Want me to enter the river?"
Gan Ning"s fleets had reached the mouth of the Yangtze River, where the Yellow Sea met the flesh water. From this point, the fleets could change course from the sea coast to the river route.
Guo Jia: "Where are Sun Quan"s units?"
Gan Ning: "They"ve boarded our s.h.i.+ps. We"re ready."
Guo Jia: ��Ignore the river. Keep sailing south and land the troops on Wu sh.o.r.e."
Guo Jia: "@Sun Quan, your units will capture Wu, Huiji, and Jianye while their attention is on us."
Guo Jia: "@Li Feihong, sorry to trouble you. You have two objectives. First, a.s.sist the front line and protect our men with your gate abilities. Concentrate on taking down those galleys. Second, I need you to bring a 10,000-man task force behind the line of Sun Ce. Burn every granary or warehouse you find and destroy their backup weaponry after this today"s battle ended."
Guo Jia: "@Tais.h.i.+ Ci, you will mark Sun Ce. Do not allow him to help his troops. Kill him if you can!"
Guo Jia: "@Everyone, move out! From this day onward, we won"t rest until Sun Ce"s forces are destroyed!"
…
Dong Bai received the mobilization policy from Guo Jia. She turned toward Tais.h.i.+ Ci.
"Don"t worry about my safety. I"m strong enough to protect myself. Go find Sun Ce and kill him."
Dong Bai sent Tais.h.i.+ Ci to fight his former lord.
Tais.h.i.+ Ci took the command token and flew toward Sun Ce"s fleets without hesitation.
Even though he used to serve Sun Ce in the other timeline, he refused to acknowledge Sun Ce in this world. He disliked Sun Ce"s greed and ignorance.
Within a few seconds, he found Sun Ce in the sky, glaring at him and Dong Bai Army.
"Traitor! You still have the face to fight me?"
Tais.h.i.+ Ci brought out his two halberds. He glared back at Sun Ce, "You are the traitor. For our future and the peace of people, you and Lilim have to die!"
The two rushed at each other. Both 7-wing angels collided in mid-air.
…
The Yangtze River was averagely 800 meters wide. The long river and the deep water was enough to sail large s.h.i.+ps in it, which made the river suitable for naval combat.
The wind blew from east to west, from the sea to land, but it wouldn"t influence the upcoming battle as both factions occupied north and south cliffs and banks. To cross the river to the other side, they had to defeat the other forces first.
2,000 Cannon mengchong s.h.i.+ps sailed toward Sun Ce"s fleets. Countless oars rowed the boats south.
At the same time, Sun Ce"s fleets reacted. 1,000 mengchong s.h.i.+ps, 100 fortress wars.h.i.+ps, and 500 ram boats moved north, challenging Guo Jia"s navy forces head-on.
Several ram boats took vanguard positions. They rushed toward Dong Bai"s wars.h.i.+p vanguards, planning to ram them directly.
The boat crews ignited dried haystacks on the s.h.i.+ps when they accelerated to the right speed. Then, they jumped off their boats.
Had it been normal warfare, this would have been a perfect tactic against big battles.h.i.+ps.
However…
*Zaaa*
*Zaaa*
The unit that Guo Jia had deployed them in the water long before the battle started finally took action. A thousand soldiers emerged from the water. They were the special force from Immortal Legion, who were trained rigorously for years for this one battle.
Tong and Te Langpu used to call this unit [Navy Seal], which specialized in amphibious warfare. Everyone in this unit also mastered diving techniques and learned Medusa"s lamia steps, which worked even in the water.
Unfortunately, they didn"t have the luxury to sport modern waterproof rifles for everyone. However, they weren"t incompetent enough not to learn melee combat and wing power.
They spread their wings, each with two each, and swung their reinforced glaives at the burning boats.
The approaching boats were destroyed and sunk before they could reach Dong Bai"s vanguard fleets. In addition, the seal team dragged the boat crews, who had abandoned s.h.i.+ps, down into the bottom of the river, and killed them with their knives as if they were angry river spirits.
The destruction of ram s.h.i.+ps disrupted the south fleets, but it wasn"t enough to stop their advance.
As mengchong wars.h.i.+ps on both sides got closer to the others, 10 galleys, Sun Ce��s trump cards, sailed forward at a high speed from behind the fortress vessels.
Galley s.h.i.+ps got into their firing range first as they had superior mobility. They turned their sides to Dong Bai"s mengchongs, baring their side cannons toward their enemies.
*VHOOM* *VHOOM*
*VHOOM* *VHOOM*
Before they could unleash their cannons, several blue portals appeared under the galleys, and all wars.h.i.+ps fell into the holes.
*VHOOM* *VHOOM*
Li Feihong didn"t forget to add giant fortress s.h.i.+ps into the mix. Everything fell into the blue sinkhole.
As soon as all advanced s.h.i.+ps disappeared, the mysterious sci-fi portals closed.
Just like that, Li Feihong sent all advanced wars.h.i.+ps into his private dimension. What happened to the s.h.i.+p crews afterward was not pleasant as Ma Chao, Lu Lingqi, Zhang Min, and Li Feihong"s Special Forces of 10,000 elites were waiting for them.
Still, that didn"t prevent Sun Ce"s cannon vessels to harm Dong Bai"s fleets.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Both side"s mengchong s.h.i.+ps exchanged their cannon fires. Thousands of cannonb.a.l.l.s flew and wrecked the others.
2,000 Dong Bai wars.h.i.+ps against 1,000 Sun Ce"s wars.h.i.+ps. The result was obvious. Casualties occurred everywhere, but Dong Bai"s s.h.i.+ps outgunned her enemies, so her fleets sunk more Sun Ce"s wars.h.i.+ps.
Several rowboats from Sun Ce tried to approach Dong Bai"s cannon vessels, hoping to raid them. However, the Navy Seal unit in the water ambushed them and dragged the fight into the water.
Archers, musketeers, and crossbowmen on the wars.h.i.+ps coordinated with the seal team. They provided covering-fire for these brave men in the water and shot down any enemy near their s.h.i.+ps.
However, Sun Ce"s forces also had a unit that excelled in underwater combat. They rushed at the seal team and got into a melee battle.
Soul detonation also randomly occurred throughout the battle as they fought in the water. Cultivators from both sides fell like flies.
The exchange lasted for half-a-day before they ran out of cannonb.a.l.l.s. Still, Sun Ce"s navy units were routed and were forced to retreat back to the southern riverbanks.
Dong Bai lost 500 cannon vessels, while 90% of Sun Ce"s s.h.i.+ps sank into the bottom of the Yangtze River or disappeared into Li Feihong"s dimension. She might be victorious in this exchange, but she didn"t chase after Sun Ce"s forces.
The battle was far from over. In the sky, another battle was still ongoing.
Two 7-wing cultivators were clas.h.i.+ng their blades in the sky. Sound of metals. .h.i.tting each other resounded throughout the battlefield below.
The duel between Tais.h.i.+ Ci and Sun Ce had not finished yet.