Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

On the top of Suiyang City, the setting sun is like blood.

Huo Quji dug his five fingers deep into the cracks in the bricks of the city wall, and the back of his hand with bulging veins blended into the mottled city wall.

Ten miles outside the city, there were camps. The black flags of the Chu army formed a rolling black cloud in the twilight, and hundreds of catapults crouched in front of the formation like ferocious beasts.

"What a Chu Ning!"

Huo Quji squeezed out these words from between his teeth: "I never thought that the Chu army would take advantage of this opportunity to catch our army off guard!"

Huo Quji frowned and said, "It seems that Chu Ning's invitation to Your Majesty to meet with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is a conspiracy. The purpose is to make Your Majesty lead 30,000 imperial guards to Leling!"

"I believe the Tang army is also under attack from the Chu army. The Chu army wants to take advantage of our army's insecurity to launch a decisive battle."

Huo Quji slammed his fist on the parapet of the city wall and said angrily, "It was my carelessness!"

He thought that since the Three Emperors were meeting, the Chu army would not dare to start a war at this time, and he did not want to cause any trouble at this moment. He just wanted to wait for his own emperor to join forces with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty to capture Chu Ning!

Unexpectedly, at this critical moment, the Chu army launched an attack.

More importantly, the Chu army had made sufficient preparations for this battle. He did not expect so many catapults to be launched this time. If he had not been stunned by these catapults, his soldiers would not have retreated so quickly.

Deputy General Qiu Yongwang suddenly pointed to the northwest corner and said, "Look, Lord Protector of the Country!"

In the smoke and dust, I saw dozens of huge vehicles covered with oilcloths slowly advancing.

Huo Quji's pupils suddenly shrank - that was the newly built siege tower of the Chu army. The three-story tower was wrapped in water-soaked raw cowhide, and a crossbow reflecting cold light could be vaguely seen on the top.

"Report——!"

The blood-soaked scout fell to his knees. "The Tang army camp was attacked. General Zhang Gongjin retreated fifty miles!"

Huo Quji's face darkened. "It seems they want to take advantage of the fact that Your Majesty and the 30,000 imperial guards who came to support us are in Leling, and defeat our army right now!"

"Humph, I won't let them get what they want."

"Pass the order down, we can't hold on!"

Then he turned and left. He had to tell Emperor Liu Che about the situation here as soon as possible.

Outside the city, Han Xing looked at Suiyang City with a playful expression on his face: "The main force of the Han army is here, so let's hold on to them!"

"General Guan Yun, how are the siege equipment preparations going?"

Guan Yun narrowed his eyes and sneered, "General Han, please rest assured, everyone will be in place tomorrow!"

Han Xing nodded slightly. "Very good. Pass the order down. As soon as the siege equipment arrives tomorrow, attack the city immediately!"

"Yes!"

Guan Yun responded and went down to make arrangements.

Han Xing was not idle either. He returned to the camp and wrote a letter, and ordered someone to send a carrier pigeon to inform Chu Ning in Leling of the situation.

The smoke from the beacon fire on the top of Suiyang City had not yet dissipated, but the surface of the Yangtze River thousands of miles away was already experiencing huge waves.

Ran Ming stood on the third deck of the Fu ship, his armor reflecting the crimson glow of the morning sun. His thick fingers traced the steam rising from the river, and his white teeth were exposed in a grin.

"My men! Show the Han army what a real warship is!"

The Han army water fort on the north bank of the Yangtze River was still immersed in the morning mist. The soldiers on the watchtower suddenly widened their eyes - dozens of moving "cities" appeared out of thin air in the middle of the river.

The Chu army's specially made Fu ship was five meters high. The iron armor covering the bow shone coldly in the mist, and the three decks were densely covered with improved three-bow crossbows.

Even more terrifying are those turtle ships, whose arched iron shells are covered with spikes, looking like a group of prehistoric beasts emerging from the water.

"Enemy attack!" As soon as the shrill horn sounded, the red flag on the Chu army's flagship fell down with a loud bang.

Twenty linked warships suddenly rushed out from the fog, the hulls connected by iron chains formed a floating wall, and densely packed rackets extended from the gaps between the decks.

Before Han army captain Zhou Huan had time to organize a defense, he saw the turtle ship in the front row suddenly accelerate, and the iron spike on the bow of the ship "banged" and smashed the wooden fence of the water fort. Amid the flying wood chips, the deafening shouts of the Chu army were heard.

Ran Ming personally steered the ship and rammed it into the Han army's tower ship. The ramming horns on the bottom of the Fu ship directly tore a three-meter-long crack in the opponent's hull.

When the Han soldiers fell into the water like dumplings, the Chu army's water ghosts had already jumped out of the special diving chamber, holding the Water-Splitting Emei Spear and started slaughtering them underwater.

The blood soon dyed the surface of the river red, frightening the fish so much that they jumped out of the water frantically.

"Release the fire dragon out of the water!" Ran Ming's roar echoed on the river.

The catapults on the top floor of the Fu ship were fired at the same time, but they were not ordinary stone bullets - pottery jars soaked in flaming oil drew arcs with fire tails, and were ignited in mid-air by the rockets shot from the crossbows, and turned into dozens of fireballs with a diameter of three meters when they landed.

The Han army's flagship "Yunmeng" was instantly engulfed in flames, and the burning scraps of the mainsail flew like blood butterflies.

Even more terrifying is the Chu army’s new weapon, the “Underwater Dragon King Cannon”.

The assassins lurking at the bottom of the river fixed the sealed iron cans to the bottom of the Han army's ship. The air waves generated after the cans were ignited lifted the entire warship out of the water.

Han army general Zhao Cheng watched as his ship was blown in half, and the broken keel pierced the soldiers on the deck like the fangs of a giant beast.

"Get the crossbows ready!" Ran Ming wiped the blood off his face.

Three rows of Chu army crossbowmen lined up behind the tortoise-shell shield formation. The crossbows they held could shoot ten armor-piercing arrows each time.

When the surviving Han army tried to organize a counterattack, the torrential rain of arrows had nailed the ship's sides like hedgehogs.

A Han army captain charged with a shield in hand, but was pierced through by three crossbow arrows in succession, the last arrow going straight through his throat.

Seeing that the water fort was about to be breached, the Han navy commander Zheng Hun personally led thirty warships to fight a desperate battle.

These nimble speedboats tried to get close to the Chu army's large ships, but they saw dozens of square holes suddenly open on the hull of the turtle ship, and a paddling pole more than ten feet long extended from it.

With the loud sound of the gears turning, the iron-clad racket swung like a giant python's tail, smashing the approaching ship in half.

A Han warship managed to break in by chance. As the soldiers threw out the grappling hook, the top cover of the turtle ship suddenly flipped open, revealing a rotating knife wheel - this was a "meat grinder" designed by the craftsmen inspired by the water wheel, which instantly cut the climbing Han soldiers into pieces of meat.

Ran Ming laughed out loud upon seeing this, and personally picked up two axes to join the fight.

His huge body crushed a bloody path on the deck of the enemy ship. Wherever the axe flashed, the remains of the Han army piled up like harvested wheat straw.

A Han warrior came forward with a spear, but Ran Ming grabbed the spear shaft with one hand, swung him and the spear into the river.

When the midday sun pierced through the blood mist, the surface of the river was already filled with fragments of Han army flags.

The Chu army's water ghosts were salvaging spoils of war. What they hung around their waists were not heads, but severed right ears - this was Ran Mingli's rule, saying that they should be strung into a necklace to present to Chu Ning.

In this battle, 3,700 Han soldiers were killed, and only seven of more than 200 warships escaped back upstream, while the Chu army only lost five turtle ships, with less than 500 casualties.

"happy!"

Ran Ming stood on the captured Han army ship and kicked over the still-bleeding war drum: "Report the victory to His Majesty! Let's announce that the Yangtze River waterway is now in the hands of the Great Chu!"

He suddenly caught a glimpse of a silver light flashing at the bottom of the river, and it turned out to be a carp jumping onto the deck.

The deputy general smiled and said it was a good omen, but Ran Ming grabbed the live fish and stuffed it into his mouth. As his fangs tore open the fish's belly, he mumbled:

"Order to rest for half a day, then march up the river tomorrow and attack the Han army's main camp in Poyang!"

The river water whimpered as it flowed eastward, reflecting the flocks of startled birds on both sides of the river.

This naval battle not only destroyed the Han army's Yangtze River navy, but also cut off the water supply of the Suiyang defenders.

That night, all the fishing fires within thirty miles along the Yangtze River were extinguished, and the people rumored that they could see blood-colored ghost lights floating on the river - those were the wronged souls of the fallen Han soldiers hiding from the pursuit of the Chu army's water ghosts.