At the same time as the fire ships were attacking, the Shu people who were chasing the defeated Han army on the east bank also realized something was wrong. When they were frightened by the mighty fire on the river, they looked at the Han army in a blink of an eye and found that the Han army was crumbling to the north. During the procession, a circular formation of armored soldiers appeared at some point, and the Han cavalry who had preceded it all moved around from both sides. As the number of defeated troops decreased, the Han army's circular formation gradually spread out in a straight line, completely shielding the Shu people from the defeated troops. Even if they could not see the movements behind the square formation, it was not difficult for the Shu people to guess that the defeated troops Reorganizing the formation.
At this time, Gan Ning was at the forefront. Seeing the raging fire on the river, he knew that today's battle had been lost. However, he knew that people were in panic at this time, and retreating might cause a large-scale rout, so he said to his subordinates: " The enemy's position is not stable at this time. If we can take advantage of the situation to counterattack and defeat them in one fell swoop, the overall situation can still be saved, but if we just retreat, we will not survive!"
After saying that, Gan Ning led dozens of Jinfan thieves to continue the attack and rushed straight into the Han army's formation. He held two long swords and waved them back and forth, as if his energy was inexhaustible. The Han soldiers around him were holding swords with him. Under the thrust, the spear poles collided slightly, and everyone was beaten to the point of numbness in the mouth and trembling hands. In the second round of the fight, Gan Ning easily killed him. In addition, Gan Ning had always spared no expense in giving gifts to his troops. At this time, the generals were charging forward, and the rest of the Jinfan thieves also exerted their strength, and for a while they beat the Han army back steadily.
But as the Shu navy was caught in the fire, the offensive and defensive initiative had been completely reversed. Just as Gan Ning led his troops to charge, the Shu soldiers who had not followed up suddenly discovered that there were more than a hundred boats paddling from the west bank. Although they were small boats that could only carry twenty people, the river upstream was not wide enough. For a mile, they rocked the oars and beat the waves, moving very quickly. In just a quarter of an hour, three thousand Han soldiers were transported to the west bank.
When the Han soldiers came ashore, they first fired three rounds of powerful arrows, knocking the Shu soldiers who were not well formed on the bank to the ground, and then rushed eastward with their swords. The elite of the Shu army were all in front, and they were unable to withstand the flanks. , they were quickly killed and their horses were turned upside down. Upon seeing this, the Shu troops in the rear began to retreat to the rear, regardless of Gan Ning's still fighting in the front.
At this time, the generals of the Han army began to cross the river by boat to direct the offensive. They saw hundreds of ships of the Shu army being ignited by the fire blown by the north wind one after another, eventually forming a dazzling sea of fire in the river. Burning black smoke rose into the sky, always connected with the low and thick clouds, and the clouds were gradually shrouded in black smoke, as if all the clouds in the sky had been blackened.
The river water also reflected a dazzling red light under the reflection of the flames. The river surface, which had been somewhat darkened by the big ship, suddenly became brighter. Even the soldiers upstream could clearly feel the hot smell of the flames and the choking smell of the burning ships.
In this case, the Han army could be said to have won a complete victory. Gan Ning himself wanted to change the situation of the battle with one or two charges, which was actually completely impossible. Through the black smoke on the river surface, one could vaguely see that the Shu people were retreating in full force, and the imposing sight of the rows of boats and oars before the war was no longer there. The remaining ships of the Shu people were raising their sails, hoping to use this north wind to escape from the battlefield as soon as possible.
The winner was decided, and Chen Chong, who was on the watchtower, felt relieved. He went down to the watchtower and was about to survey the general offensive situation on the tidal flats. However, he was blown cold by a gust of autumn wind. Only then did he realize that he had broken out in a cold sweat and was soaked to the skin. His entourage quickly helped him sit down and rest. , Chen Chong waved his hand, summoned Yin Feng and asked, "Have Meng Qi and the others crossed the river?"
Yin Feng cupped his hands and replied: "Prime Minister, as soon as the fire ship sets off, Ma Junhou will lead his troops across the river first."
Liu Fan, who was defeated in the fire attack, now looked at the war in the north and was in a desperate situation, knowing that he had no hope. No matter how depressed and dejected he felt, he could only leave the burning Shu navy, changed to a small boat, pulled up the sail and fled straight to the Shu camp. And there were countless people following him. In order to make the ship lighter, the Shu people abandoned weapons and even rice and grain into the river and let it drift with the waves. Fortunately, the north wind was very strong at this time, and the wind was smooth. Within half an hour, the Shu army camp several miles away could be seen in the distance.
Previously, the Shu army came out from the camp in full force, but some guards were still left in the camp to watch over the camp. But the silent atmosphere made Liu Fan feel strange. Just as he parked by the Nishui River and led the people ashore, he suddenly felt something was wrong in the forest, so he asked everyone to wait where they were and sent scouts to the camp to find out the news. As a result, the scout did not return for a long time, and he suddenly knew that something was wrong. He was afraid that the Han army had divided its troops and attacked the camp! So he quickly took everyone back to the boat, and then continued eastward along the river.
Just as they were setting sail, there were indeed bursts of noise in the forest on the east bank, and then Han troops ran from it to the edge of the forest. Among them, there is a knight in shining armor who stands out, it is Ma Chao. Ma Chao knew that he could not catch up, but he was successful, so he ordered his subordinates to shout loudly to the people on the boat: "Where are the lost dogs going!" and then waved their swords to demonstrate.
The Shu people on the boat couldn't help but feel ashamed and angry when they heard the ridicule from the shore, but they were more confused about their future. They couldn't help but look at Liu Fan and found that Liu Fan was also lowering his head in thought. After a while, when Liu Fan realized that there was silence around him, he raised his eyebrows and said leisurely: "Victory and defeat are normal things. Why be so depressed? Why not go back to Jiangyang first and gather the defeated soldiers."
So the Shu people's fleet spread out from head to tail, and on the morning of the third day, they passed slowly and slowly across the river outside Jiangyang for more than ten miles. At this time, Jiang Yang was still staying behind for Liu Fan. In the city, he saw Shu ships sailing eastward one after another without formation, and knew that the upstream must have failed.
Rumors began to spread in the garrison. Some people said that Liu Fan was dead. Tens of thousands of Shu troops had been captured since Huang Quan. The situation was very bad, and the imperial court was coming soon. Jiang Yang's order as the guard cannot prohibit all this. The army became increasingly noisy, and finally launched a mutiny in the evening. The sergeants rushed into the county government and killed the county magistrate. The temporary city lord was promoted from the city, and someone wrote a letter of surrender to arrange a fast ship to go to Nan'an overnight to surrender to Chen Chong.
The next day, Liu Fan, Huang Quan and others walked alone through Jiangyang. After seeing the Jiangyang City Wall from a distance, the followers planned to go in and rest directly. However, after the attack on the Shu Camp, Liu Fan did not act rashly. Instead, he anchored on the river near the bank, raised the red flag, and then boarded the Watch the direction of Jiangyang carefully from the observation deck.
After a long time, he went down to the deck and ordered to weigh anchor and continue eastward. No one on the boat knew why. They were tired from the journey these days and just wanted to go ashore to rest and continue eastward. Who knew if they could come back? Liu Fan was afraid that people would be unstable, so he told everyone: "The shore has been occupied by the imperial court. If you and I go ashore, we will be tied up and given to Chen Chong!"
It turned out that he and the guard had made an agreement long ago. When a red flag was raised in the river, a yellow flag would be hoisted in the city as a signal to report safety. Nowadays, there are no secret signals in the city. Knowing that the situation in the city has changed, how can we dare to go ashore.
Since Liu Fan could not go to Jiangyang, he had to continue eastward and go straight to Jiangzhou. In this way, the fate of the entire Shu Dynasty was decided.
Although Liu Fan and other navy troops returned to Jiangzhou in a small boat in embarrassment, after all, the river road was smooth and there were no obstacles. Everyone finally returned to Jiangzhou one after another. Because the remnants of the Shu army navy gathered in Jiangzhou, Chen Chong also Instead of continuing to expand the offensive down the river, he continued to sit in Nan'an, gathering the Shu troops who had no time to escape on land one by one, and sent a message to the counties of Jianwei, Zangke, Yongchang, and Yizhou in the south of the Yangtze River, almost with a wave of his hand.
Most of the remaining Shu troops, except for Gan Ning and Zhang Liao, also surrendered to Chen Chong.
Because Gan Ning, as the vanguard of the Shu army, was surrounded by several times the enemy and still fought against the enemy, he led thousands of Jinfan thieves to the north for several decisive battles, and was ultimately outnumbered. Gan Ning fought to the end. He took off his clothes and fought hard, exposing tendons and scars all over his body. To others, he looked like a ghost. When he died in the battle, others did not dare to move forward. But looking at him standing in the formation, his body was like a rock. Although he was bloody It flowed like a stream, but it stood firm, and finally died of exhaustion due to bleeding.
Zhang Liao initially acted as a flanker and did not go deep into the battlefield. When the front army was defeated, he led his army back to the camp, but was ambushed by Ma Chao and his troops in the forest. The two could not quickly decide the victory, but as the Shu army collapsed Gradually rushing back, Ma Chao gradually faltered. Finally, Zhang Liao found a gap in the battle line, led his troops to escape, and headed for Jiangzhou to join Liu Fan.
After receiving the news that Zhang Liao was out of trouble, Chen Chong felt very regretful. He said to the generals in the government: "Wen Yuan has no shame in seeing me. He will follow Liu Fan on a dead end." However, there is no doubt about the glorious results of the Nan'an battle. , the Han army beheaded nearly 20,000 people and captured 40,000 Shu troops, including Dong He, Yan Yan, Fei He, Zhang Su, Liu Min and other famous Bashu generals.
In the subsequent inventory of supplies, 400,000 Jinxiu horses were found in the Shu camp, more than 200 boxes of gold goods, and even the three elephants that had caused the Han army so much trouble were found. After Ma Chao presented the captured beasts to Chen Chong, Chen Chong distributed all the brocades to the soldiers, and handed over the gold goods to the court. As for the remaining giant beasts, after careful consideration, he had them raised in Nan'an for the viewing of the soldiers and civilians as a gift. This battle is commemorated.
At this point, Chen Chong's battle against Shu also came to an end. It can be said that except for Badong, all the remaining counties in Sichuan were unable to resist. By November, officials from various places sent by Chen Chong also took over all counties in Yizhou. A total of 710,000 households and 3,238,000 and 46 Dingkou were obtained. When the statistics were reported to Nan'an, all the staff in the government were dumbfounded and privately discussed that although they had won many battles since Yanxing's army, this was the first time that he had been able to win such a huge victory in one battle.
However, Chen Chong didn't feel much about this. The war was over and winter had arrived. The trees were shaking and the wind was blowing. This reminded him of the wild geese flying north, so he began to pack up and salute, and began to return to Guanzhong. preparation.
(End of Bashan Chushui)
