The water battle at Nidun Lake lasted from dawn until nightfall before the enemy forces withdrew.

Looking at the warships burning fiercely on the lake surface, looking at the corpses floating on the water, Gao Chengyuan wanted to cry but had no tears.

The Left Five-Tooth Army’s twenty-six main warships all had carrying capacities exceeding a thousand dan. Their hulls used watertight compartment structures with twelve to sixteen internal bulkheads, and the hull bodies employed large quantities of refined iron components—they could be said to be exceptionally sturdy.

Several ships had been burned completely through yet still barely floated on the lake surface without sinking to the bottom.

Scorpion catapults mounted atop the deck could hurl thirty-jin standard fire oil jars and stone projectiles two hundred paces away. Crossbow ballistae could pierce through two-inch thick ship planking within a hundred paces. Not to mention that the main warships were crewed by one to two hundred combat soldiers, with a much higher proportion of powerful bows and arm-drawn crossbows compared to cavalry and infantry units.

However, these warships could only maximize their combat effectiveness in open waters.

But trapped in the relatively deep water area spanning three to four li in the center of Nidun Lake, surrounded on all sides by their own densely packed small and medium warships, the Left Five-Tooth Army’s main warships now resembled clumsy targets, reduced to objects of continuous fire attacks from the enemy from all directions.

The enemy navy’s hundreds upon thousands of flat-bottomed warships suited for rapid movement in shallow waters now struck their outer ship formations like wolf packs, seeking gaps to attack on one hand. But what gave Gao Chengyuan an even greater headache was that any enemy ship loaded with dry grass and soaked in fire oil, once ignited and drifting over from the downwind direction, could throw their terrifyingly dense ship formation in the lake center into utter chaos.

Only now did Gao Chengyuan profoundly realize how foolish it was to follow Duke Changguo Li Pu’s plan—concentrating a portion of the navy’s main force to approach Zhongli City from the eastern lake region for a forced assault.

Even if he had insisted on his own opinion and divided the Left Five-Tooth Navy according to the most traditional battle formation into five divisions—front, rear, left, right, and center—controlling the surrounding waters instead of arrogantly attempting a single decisive strike by entering Nidun Lake east of Zhongli City, he absolutely would not have met such a desperate and tragic fate.

After a full day of naval battle, the patrol boats and liaison vessels of four hundred dan capacity or less still retained about sixty percent of their numbers. But of the main warships exceeding a thousand dan capacity, only eight remained that hadn’t been completely burned through.

Even rescuing as many men who fell overboard as possible, of the more than thirteen thousand naval soldiers plus boatmen and sailors, those whose corpses floated on the lake surface or were trapped in warships and burned beyond recognition still exceeded four thousand.

Great Chu’s most elite naval forces had suffered over thirty percent casualties in a single day of battle.

The reason the remaining men’s fighting spirit hadn’t collapsed was that they were trapped in Nidun Lake. The surrounding reed marshes in all four directions had even shallower water—only smaller fishing boats could pass through. Not to mention that the winter reed marshes, once ignited, could burn across large areas with the wind, giving them no opportunity whatsoever to scatter and flee.

Gao Chengyuan himself had already switched command ships twice under his guards’ desperate protection.

Although the enemy forces withdrew before nightfall, Gao Chengyuan knew it wasn’t because the enemy was exhausted from fighting, but merely because they didn’t want to give his forces a chance to turn defeat into victory under cover of darkness.

No matter how foolish Gao Chengyuan was, he now understood that everything before his eyes was a trap. The Tower Ship Army remnants had been extremely well-prepared, primarily attacking their immobilized dense ship formations with various incendiary materials. While they suffered heavy casualties, the Tower Ship Army remnants’ losses were extremely limited.

Even their smallest scout boats had a two hundred dan capacity. Compared to the light skiffs and small boats the Tower Ship Army remnants used in large quantities in this battle, their vessels were also awkward in the shallow lake marshes. Throughout the entire day, they hadn’t managed to organize even one decent counterattack, constantly trapped in a passive position of taking beatings.

Gao Chengyuan stared somewhat numbly at the dark lake surface in the distance, thinking that the enemy’s withdrawal before nightfall might be because they expected that when their side attempted a nighttime breakout, the fleet formation would be chaotic, the soldiers’ morale would be low, their minds filled only with thoughts of escape—making it more convenient for flanking attacks.

***

Feng Liao stood in the woods on the southern shore of Hongze Basin. Even with a specially-made long telescope, the distance was too great—he could only judge by the pillars of smoke at dusk and the scattered remnant fires after nightfall that although the Left Five-Tooth Navy hadn’t been annihilated after a day of fighting, they were clearly still trapped in Nidun Lake.

“Is there any possibility of Gao Chengyuan leading his remnant forces to break through the encirclement?” Han Donghu, standing behind Feng Liao, couldn’t help but ask.

Gao Chengyuan was said to be Emperor Yanyou’s direct confidant, but he, Guo Liang and others had a decent relationship with Xuzhou, having fought side by side many times in the past.

Moreover, a considerable portion of the Five-Tooth Navy’s soldiers were troops transferred from the Dragon Sparrow Army and Left Guangde Army.

Watching the Left Five-Tooth Army fall into desperate straits while not only being unable to rescue them but even unable to warn them was extremely agonizing for people like Han Donghu.

Hearing Han Donghu’s words, Feng Liao merely smiled inwardly, thinking darkly that if Gao Chengyuan could survive the battle and learn all the details, who knew what kind of resentment he would harbor toward Xuzhou for not reporting what they knew. But since Han Qian wanted to be a treacherous hero, he needed the awareness and ruthlessness to rather betray the world than let the world betray him.

“Liang Army’s schemes are grand. If Gao Chengyuan can lead his troops to break out toward the western shore and abandon ship to go ashore within Zhongli County territory, he might at least preserve some spark of life for Great Chu’s navy,” Su Lie said at this moment.

Feng Liao turned to glance at Su Lie, thinking that while this Su Lie might not match Han Donghu in martial prowess, his grasp of the overall situation and keen eye were truly not lacking. He said: “News that Great Chu’s main naval forces fell into a trap and were destroyed will soon reach Yangzhou. When we return, we should prepare to evacuate Baiti Ridge at any time.”

“We still don’t know the Right Five-Tooth Navy’s situation. Should we send someone to circle through Zhongli County territory?” Han Donghu asked.

Now that water battles had fully erupted within Hongze Basin, infiltrating through Zhongli County territory would actually be much easier.

“There’s nothing worth seeing,” Feng Liao said. “The Right Five-Tooth Navy was originally planned to cover the flanks of Gao Chengyuan’s forces and monitor Liang Army movements from Xuzhou. Naturally, Liang Army would have long ago deployed an inescapable net in the waters north of Hongze Basin waiting for them to drill into it. These naval forces might die even more miserably than Gao Chengyuan’s men. At most, a portion might escape to benefit Prince Xin!”

Though Feng Liao couldn’t compare to people at the level of Han Qian, Li Yu, or Zhu Yu, with the situation having developed to this point, he still felt confident about how things would evolve next.

***

With Gao Chengyuan ambushed, there was absolutely no possibility in the short term of sending someone through Hongze Basin’s complex waters to break through the encirclement and rush to Zhuyu Bay where Duke Changguo Li Pu led three thousand cavalry of the Right Divine Martial Army to report and seek reinforcement.

Even the forces stationed on Hongze Basin’s eastern shore in Huaidong only realized something was wrong the next evening when they saw large numbers of Great Chu naval soldiers’ corpses floating downstream from the upper Huai River (western Hongze Basin). But not knowing the details, they could only strengthen defenses at the fortified towns along the shore.

Around this same time, Li Chong encountered messengers sent by Gao Chengyuan to break out from the western shore and seek aid in the wilderness west of Zhongli County town.

Yesterday afternoon, Li Chong had intercepted the two thousand rebel infantry advancing eastward from Haozhou City. With only a thousand cavalry under his command, he hadn’t dared attack directly. Instead, he had forced these two thousand rebel infantry to the foot of Jianxi Ridge west of Zhongli City where they could neither advance nor retreat.

This morning, Li Chong joined forces with Right Divine Martial Army General Gao Long, who had led four thousand cavalry and infantry to arrive first, and launched an assault on these rebel forces.

After a fierce half-day battle, they finally annihilated the two thousand rebels.

After Li Chong rallied his troops and finished tallying the battle results, he was just about to proudly dispatch someone to report to Chen Mingsheng and urge Chen Mingsheng to quicken the forced march of the Right Divine Martial Army’s seven thousand cavalry and infantry so they could launch a direct assault on Zhongli City, which had fewer than a thousand remaining defenders, before tomorrow.

He never imagined he would at this moment encounter the message from Gao Chengyuan reporting that Great Chu’s main naval forces had fallen into an ambush circle laid by the rebels in Hongze Basin and suffered catastrophic casualties.

“How is this possible?” Li Chong swung his blade to sever a poplar tree as thick as a rice bowl, asking in something close to a growl.

If the messenger hadn’t been one of Gao Chengyuan’s direct guards whom Li Chong had met before, and if this person hadn’t been carrying Gao Chengyuan’s seal, he would never have believed that the rebels had long ago laid an inescapable net in Hongze Basin waiting for Great Chu’s main naval forces to fall into it.

“The rebels most likely noticed the main naval forces’ unusual movements and dispatched all the Tower Ship Army remnants in a desperate gambit to fight this battle…” Gao Long said at this moment, having arranged for scout cavalry to rush to the western shores of Hongze Basin to reconnoiter the enemy situation. He walked over with furrowed brows.

Zhongli City held only about a thousand remnant soldiers, and Haozhou City seventy-some li away showed no unusual movements.

There was a cavalry unit from Shouzhou positioned southwest of Haozhou, but that location was closer to Chaozhou City—they should be planning to receive Chaozhou’s garrison retreating northward from the western side of the Wujian Mountain Range.

Moreover, that place was a full two hundred twenty to thirty li from Jianxi Ridge and had always been under surveillance by Bureau of Operations scout cavalry.

And no signs of large Liang Army concentrations could be seen north of the Huai River. The current situation more likely matched Gao Long’s judgment—everything should be the rebels desperately throwing the Tower Ship Army remnants forward, using their familiarity with Hongze Basin’s water conditions to fight desperately against Great Chu’s main naval forces, then withdrawing into the Huai River.

This could at least somewhat change the rebels’ long-term disadvantageous position of being passively beaten.

“No matter what, we should attempt a night assault on Zhongli City tonight. And Gao Chengyuan’s forces also need our support to abandon ship and fight their way ashore on the eastern side of Zhongli City to break through the encirclement. If something really is wrong, we can head southeast through Shiliang County territory to rendezvous with His Grace—there will still be time!” Xu Jing advocated.

Li Chong also understood that from beginning to end, it was the Duke of Changguo’s mansion that had strongly advocated using the navy as a flanking force to raid Hongze Basin. If he fled back in cowardly fear and the main naval forces ultimately suffered catastrophic losses, the spray of spit from court and country alike could drown his father.

Following Xu Jing and Gao Long’s suggestions, with nearly five thousand effective combat troops, launching a strong assault on Zhongli City with its mere thousand-plus defenders and receiving the naval remnants abandoning ship to come ashore and break out from Hongze Basin’s western shore was also the most correct choice…