Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 900 – Final Battle at Fei River
East Jin camp, middle tent.
Ouyang Shuo took a look at Jia Xu. Understanding what he meant, Jia Xu stepped out and said, “Counting in the 300 thousand troops in Shouyang, the enemy has a total of 600 thousand troops. On the other hand, we have 340 thousand if we considered the navy.”
“In terms of strength now, our army has the advantage. Since we are going all out, we must strike before the Shouyang army arrives. If we win this battle, the Shouyang army will not make much difference.”
Xie Xuan said doubtfully, “If we take the initiative to strike, we need to cross the river. The enemy will not be so foolish to back off, right?”
Jia Xu nodded, “Naturally, they will not.”
“Then what should we do?”
“If they do not retreat, we will just forcefully strike.”
If this person was not the famous Three Kingdoms strategist, Xie Xuan would have burst out laughing, “Forcefully strike? Did I hear you wrongly? Do you know how many men we will lose? Can this war even be fought?”
“General, calm down.” Jia Xu smiled, “Even if we do not forcefully strike, the Shouyang army will forcefully attack once they arrive. The key is still the control of the Fei River, which is why the Zhoushan Squadron wants to destroy the Yashan Squadron and enter the Fei River first.”
“No wonder.”
Xie Xuan understood. Before the final battle, the navy of both sides needed to have a good battle.
Xie Shi was a little worried, “Can the Yashan Squadron win?”
Toward the Yashan Squadron, Ouyang Shuo was really confident, so he smiled and said, “90%.”
“Good; then that’s decided.”
Xie Shi did not hesitate, and he immediately gave the order. The victory in Jingzhou made him really confident in the player army.
After settling on the battle plan and coming to a common consensus, the five of them discussed the specifics in detail before leaving.
The moment the meeting ended, the entire East Jin camp started acting.
Ouyang Shuo gathered the other Lords to report the matter. Regardless of whether they were willing or not, they had to follow the plan because it was the decision of Xie Shi and Ouyang Shuo.
Either they join or quit the Battle Map.
Of course, none of the Lords were so boring. After all, everyone led their troops here to earn merit points.
Hence, they had no reason not to join in the battle.
Huo Qubing officially replaced Xie Shin as the East Jin commander, leading the 340 thousand troops. Xie Xuan would be the deputy commander. The various Lords all met Ouyang Shuo to hand over control of their troops.
As for how to arrange the troops, it was up to Huo Qubing.
After Xie Shi stepped down, he used his identity as chief commander to gather tens of thousands of laborers to get wood and transport it to the East Coast of the Fei River.
The laborers were mostly woodworkers, and they could build bridges on the Fei River.
The entire camp instantly became really busy. The atmosphere before the war was bustling but also nerve-wracking. The north house army wanted to strike back at the Qin army, and the player army wanted to kill the enemy to gain points.
…
The noise of the East Jin camp alerted the former Qin.
When Fu Jian got the letter, he frowned. Di Chen and Wuqi were helpless and could only cheer on Fu Jian. They said that even if the East Jin army took the initiative to attack, they could not cross the Fei River.
Although that was the case, Fu Jian could not fall asleep.
Bad things happened one after another, and his confidence had almost reached a breaking point.
Di Chen and the others were all really depressed. Apart from when they just entered the Battle Map and things went smoothly, everything that happened after felt like they had fallen into the enemy’s trap. It was like they were being controlled.
They could only blame the fact that they lacked a strategist like Jia Xu.
…
Battle Map, 15th day, Huai River region.
Since the start of the battle, the navy that had not been doing much became the focus. Whichever side managed to take down control of Fei River would win the initiative of the battle.
The Huai River current flowed quickly.
Early in the morning, both squadrons were in a standstill at the intersection of the Huai River and the Fei River.
The leader of the Yashan Squadron was Fleet Admiral Yu Dayou. For the Zhoushan Squadron, it was a retired navy general.
Both sides had their good points.
Xiong Ba was only a 2nd class Marquis and could only bring a limited number of troops. Hence, to earn merit points, he brought a portion of land troops. Hence, the Yashan Squadron was only half a division.
Along with Xie Shi’s ten thousand navy, the soldier difference was much more apparent.
However, fighting in a river, the number of soldiers was not the key to victory. After all, no matter how many ships one had, only 10 could engage at one time.
War started at 8 AM.
They were old enemies, so there were no tricks. They just directly fired until the enemy fell. Once a ship sank, the one behind them would cover the gap, and the cycle would repeat.
Although the strategy was the same, the weapons and equipment were different.
Since both sides were turreted warships, the key was the cannons.
The Yashan Squadron was using the improved P1 Type Cannon. Along with the help of the Flying Squad, they slowly gained the upper hand and were forcing the Zhoushan Squadron back.
At 10 AM, the intersection had entered the control of the Yashan Squadron.
At this very moment, Xie Shi led 10 thousand sailors to cut in from the back. The Yashan Squadron took all the fire in front, using their light ships to enter the Fei River.
Although the Zhoushan Squadron was anxious, the Yashan Squadron was keeping them in check, so they could not move.
12 AM, the East Jin navy entered the Fei River.
When Yu Dayou saw that, he immediately changed the formation and locked up the entrance to Fei River. He had changed to a defensive formation. The Zhoushan Squadron general could only give up helplessly.
Each one of their warships was hard to come by. King City could not be compared to the Great Xia Dynasty, so they could not easily waste ships. They had tried their best, and there was no need to make unnecessary sacrifices.
Hence, in just one morning, victory was decided.
Seeing that, Yu Dayou arranged five turreted warships into the Fei River to help the East Jin navy control it.
…
While the navy was fighting, the other people were doing things too.
The laborers that Xie Shi had mobilized were building bridges on the Fei River for the army to cross. When the East Jin navy entered the river, the entire process was suddenly sped up.
The Qin army wanted to disrupt them. However, under the bombing of the Flying Squad, there was not much that they could do. At 5 PM, the Qin army knew that they could not destroy the bridge, so they focused on preparing for the war instead.
Close to nighttime, 50 bridges laid quietly on the river surface.
This night was destined to be a sleepless one.
…
16th day of the Battle Map, the sun rose up.
The war atmosphere was already reaching its peak. Some of the soldiers could not sleep well because of their nerves. When the sun rose up, soldiers on both sides of the Fei River all woke up.
The soldiers all woke up and wore their armor. After eating their breakfast, they rushed to the drill square to gather.
The navy squadron spread out on the Fei River. Between the warships, there were many bridges that lined up to the opposite shore.
On the west shore of the Fei River, 300 thousand Qin troops waited in their battle formations.
Based on Wuqi’s arrangement, the 50 thousand Qin troops were arranged at the back to protect the safety of the emperor. In truth, Wuqi had given up on using those 50 thousand Qin troops.
The true pillars were the 250 thousand player forces.
The army spread out along the shore; the formation was waiting solemnly. Although Wuqi accepted the commanding rights of the player forces for just half a month, each force was running really efficiently. As expected from a God General.
The Qin army was lying in wait; they had the geographical advantage.
On the opposite shore, there were 250 thousand player troops at the front. The 70 thousand north house army was used to protect the right wing.
8 AM, the war drums were blown once again.
‘Wu~~!’
Along with the war horn, the cannons fired, providing cover fire for the army troops. They instantly cleared out a hundred meters of space on the west shore to allow the East Jin army to disembark.
“Charge!”
The huge army charged into the Fei River, ready to go all out against the Qin army.
“Kill!”
The Qin army was not fazed, and all of them filled with killing intent.
In less than 20 minutes, both sides engaged in slaughter.
In such a special scenario, infantry was the most useful.
As for the temporarily built bridges, they naturally were not that good. Moreover, a large portion of the troops had not been through relevant training, so they could not help but fall into the river when they tried to cross.
Regularly, soldiers would drop into the water and get scooped up by the navy.
With that, the first wave of attacks by the Qin army was easily blocked, which raised the morale of the Qin army.
Huo Qubing was not disappointed. More and more soldiers tried to cross the river to fight the Qin army. They sacrificed themselves to buy some room. The entire west coast of the Fei River was in a sea of flames.
When it came to the final battle, there were no tactics to speak of. It was all based on the ability of the commander.
Wuqi against Huo Qubing; these two God Generals were on the same level.
At 10 AM, after paying a heavy price, the East Jin army finally made their way across the river. The battlefield had totally shifted to the west shore, and the war entered a crucial period.
Both sides were the elites of their territories, so their combat strength was comparable.
In this encounter, both sides suffered heavy losses.
The entire battlefield was like a huge meat grinder, and there were people dying at every moment.
Both sides close to 500 thousand troops. Under the commands of their two God Generals, they went blow for blow.
Unless one was personally present, they would not be able to imagine the kind of scene this was. Looking out, the entire earth was covered in armor, and everyone was closely packed together.
No matter who it was, the moment one entered such a battlefield, their blood could not help but boil.
Ouyang Shuo brought three thousand Divine Martial Guards and appeared on the battlefield. In the Battle Map, dead soldiers could be revived by using battle contribution points, so it was the best place to train troops.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to absorb killing aura for the Tianmo Spear.
Such a group of elite troops was pretty much unkillable on the battlefield. When Wuqi saw that, he arranged a large number of troops to cover and attack. However, he did not expect that Ouyang Shuo was just using himself as bait, and he was actually coordinating with Huo Qubing to counter attack.
Falling for it once, Wuqi lost all hope in attacking Ouyang Shuo, so he focused on the main battle.
After fighting for an entire day, it was like the sky was collapsing, and blood flowed like a river. The two sides were equal in strength. Victory could not be decided, and both sides were locked in a stalemate.