Chapter 662: The Ships Were Seized
South Camp Eight Great Kings didn't catch the subtle hint of fear in Zhang Xianzhong's voice. He genuinely thought Zhang Xianzhong was ceding the spoils to him. He roared with laughter. "Excellent! Those ships are all mine now."
"Lads, let's go! Time to seize those ships!"
South Camp Eight Great Kings' flagship immediately turned and surged towards Gao Family Village's flat-bottomed cargo ships.
Zhang Xianzhong, however, leaped back onto his own flagship, letting out a dismissive snort. He glanced first at "Beach Landing Battle 1632" playing out on the opposite bank, then at the flat-bottomed ships menacingly surging across the river.
He quietly whispered to a nearby subordinate, "Go disable the rudder. We'll drift downstream and exit the battlefield."
The subordinate understood immediately. He rushed to the stern, shouting, "Commander, disaster! Disaster! Our rudder is broken, we can't steer!"
The crew on board, having received his signal, all began to wail, "It's broken! The ship's broken! We can't control it! Oh no, we're just going to drift with the current..."
And so, Zhang Xianzhong's flagship drifted away with the current.
With his commander's banner still flying from the ship, his bandit subordinates, seeing their general's flagship fleeing, quickly and voluntarily followed suit. Zhang Xianzhong's contingent thus withdrew from the battlefield, drifting further and further downstream.
"Fire!"
At Bai Yuan's command, the core Gao Family Village Militia opened fire.
The combat prowess of the core Gao Family Village Militia was far superior to that of the New People's Militia featured in "Beach Landing Battle." These soldiers had trained for years, and their weapons were forged flintlock rifles, not cast ones. Once they unleashed their attack, their firepower was utterly incomparable to anything the New People's Militia possessed.
"CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!"
A volley of dense rifle fire erupted. The small boats surging towards them were struck repeatedly, and bandits on board continuously tumbled into the water.
As soon as contact was made, Bai Yuan grinned. "These fellows, their fighting ability on water is even worse than the Xiaolangdi bandits!"
The Xiaolangdi bandits, at least, knew how to deploy rockets, lie prone for evasion, and use various fancy rowing techniques to dodge rifle fire. But South Camp Eight Great Kings' subordinates were essentially just living targets.
What could they do? It was the old adage: southern men for boats, northern men for horses.
These bandits, conscripted from Shaanxi and Shanxi, were poor swimmers, and many had only just learned to row. How could anyone expect them to possess strong naval combat prowess?
Rifle shots rang out continuously, and bandits kept falling into the water. Hand grenades were also tossed onto the small boats; a single grenade was enough to send all the bandits on one vessel to feed the fish.
The battle was a foregone conclusion from the start, a unilateral pummeling.
South Camp Eight Great Kings immediately realized something was wrong. When large groups of small boats had besieged the government warships earlier, his side had had it easy. But how did dealing with these large, flat-bottomed cargo ships suddenly become so difficult?
"Damn it all!" South Camp Eight Great Kings roared, "So Old West wasn't ceding the ships to me; he was just foisting a thorny enemy upon me!" Only then did he realize he'd been played, and he roared with rage. He turned his head, only to discover that Zhang Xianzhong's fleet had already disengaged from the battle and was drifting downstream.
Gao Family Village's eight large cargo ships, an unstoppable force, cut down all who opposed them. They moved freely across the river, pummeling the bandits until they cried for their mothers and fathers.
South Camp Eight Great Kings looked back at the riverbank, only to discover that the vanguard troops who had forced their way onto the bank earlier were almost entirely cut down.
"Blast it all," he muttered. "Rifles defending the riverbank are truly formidable." He only then realized there was no cover on the riverbank; it was essentially a shooting range for them. With a rifle unit defending the bank, no matter how many men you sent, no one could possibly charge up.
South Camp Eight Great Kings bellowed, "Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"
He, too, began shouting loudly, but he immediately encountered the same problem: his orders simply couldn't be heard across the expansive river.
He could only turn his flagship around and flee towards Zijing Liang and Chuǎng Wang.
Simultaneously, he banged loudly on a gong on his ship, signaling a general retreat.
With his retreat, the bandits had effectively lost both of their vanguard generals.
The offensive instantly stalled.
Next, Zijing Liang and Chuǎng Wang's larger fleets arrived. Their convoys included many merchant ships and even imposing tower ships looted from government forces, which certainly looked quite formidable.
But as South Camp Eight Great Kings' men retreated, they brought a wave of negative morale with them.
"We can't win!"
"Their firearms are incredibly powerful!"
"Flee!"
South Camp Eight Great Kings' subordinates, piloting their small boats, scraped past Zijing Liang and Chuǎng Wang's fleets, their men still shouting warnings that created a huge psychological impact on the bandits following behind.
Panic spread through everyone's hearts!
In the age of melee combat, once morale wavered, the problems would be immense.
Gao Family Village's flat-bottomed cargo ships continued to charge towards Zijing Liang and Chuǎng Wang.
The soldiers were already in a panic when small black spheres suddenly landed on their boats. With a deafening explosion, everyone was sent sprawling.
As soon as the rifle shots rang out, their own comrades fell miserably.
In an instant, Zijing Liang and Chuǎng Wang's men also fell into disarray.
The small boats on the river were jammed together; some tried to retreat, while others tried to push forward. The northern soldiers piloting the boats were already unskilled, and now they were even more frantic, creating a chaos that surpassed even the raw recruits of the New People's Militia.
A large mass of small boats, squeezed together, became completely immobile.
Gao Family Village's large, flat-bottomed cargo ships proudly and majestically charged forward. They collided with the clustered small boats, capsizing a swath of them. The northern soldiers, falling into the water, merely blew a couple of bubbles before being swept away by the relentless river current.
Zijing Liang and Chuǎng Wang were completely helpless. Daring not to engage in river combat any longer, they hastily retreated their forces, fleeing frantically towards the north bank.
Before long, the battlefield fell silent.
The bandits retreated back to Shanxi, abandoning all their boats and fleeing ashore. They stood hundreds of meters from the riverbank, not daring to approach it again.
Bai Yuan waved his hand. "Take all the boats they left on the bank."
The Gao Family Village Militia leaped onto the boats abandoned by the bandits, took up their oars, and rowed them away, one by one.
The bandits watched with wide eyes, seething with immense frustration, but there was absolutely nothing they could do.
Only when the last boat had been seized by Gao Family Village's men did Bai Yuan wave his hand. "Withdraw the troops," he called. "Let's head back."
Gao Family Village's large flat-bottomed ships, now accompanied by hundreds, perhaps thousands, of captured small boats, returned to Xiaolangdi. The beach landing battle on the opposite bank had also concluded, with all vanguard troops attempting to cross the river annihilated. The New People's Militia also began to withdraw from the battlefield.
On the banks of the Yellow River, only Zijing Liang, Chuǎng Wang, and South Camp Eight Great Kings' contingents remained, staring at each other in bewildered silence.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Zijing Liang finally let out a long sigh. "The other side actually possesses such aquatic monsters," he said. "All our ships have been seized. We have no way to organize a river crossing now. Gentlemen, what do you believe we should do?"
The bandit chiefs all exchanged bewildered glances, unable to utter a single word.
The situation was critical. If they couldn't cross the Yellow River, Shanxi Governor Xu Dingchen's pursuing troops would soon arrive, and they would be surrounded on its banks.
Grim, utterly grim.
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