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

At the hour of Chou, the Yangtze River was shrouded in a veil of blood and darkness.

The Han navy, whose flags once covered the sky, now had only burning wreckage floating on the river, and broken masts piercing the night sky like broken bone spurs.

Zhou Yu's body was swept away by the river. The Han navy commander held his sword tightly until his death, as if he was making a final struggle against the surging river.

Chu Ning stood high on the edge of the building, his scarlet cloak fluttering in the night wind.

He looked at the gradually extinguishing fire on the river, and a cold arc appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Order all ships, all mobile warships to immediately dock and support the land battle."

His voice was like an ice-hardened blade, exceptionally clear in the darkness.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River, the defeated Han army infantry were fleeing on the muddy mudflats.

Their appearance of abandoning their weapons and armor formed a terrifying contrast with their high spirits when they crossed the river three hours ago.

The Chu army's arrows kept shooting from behind, and every sound of arrows breaking through the air would take away several lives.

Among the corpses lying in the mud, there was a young soldier who had been shot in the calf. As he crawled with his injured leg, he left a dark red trail in the mud.

"Your Majesty has an order!"

A group of Jinyiwei cavalrymen galloped along the riverbank: "The third and seventh battalions remain behind to cover the rear, and the rest of the troops immediately retreat towards Shouchun!"

Among the fleeing Han army, an old soldier with a bloody face suddenly stopped.

"Damn it!"

The old soldier suddenly thrust the letter home to the fellow villager beside him and said, "Tell Cuihua that her husband is not a coward!"

After saying that, he picked up his spear and rushed back.

There were many veterans like him in the Han army, and soon, the 20,000-strong rearguard force spontaneously assembled.

This temporary rearguard army was commanded by Han Meng, the left general of the Han army.

He was an old soldier in his early forties. His left eye was shot blind during a battle with foreign tribes ten years ago. At this moment, a determined light flashed in his remaining eye.

"brothers!"

He stood on a hill and roared, "We have a hundred thousand comrades behind us! If the Chu army wants to catch up, they'll have to step over our corpses!"

The Chu army's vanguard cavalry had already arrived.

Han Meng immediately gave the order: "Spearmen, form a battle array! Archers, occupy the high ground on both sides! Push those barricades to the center of the road!"

These experienced veterans quickly formed three lines of defense.

The first line was a simple fortification built with carriages and tree trunks, followed by a dense phalanx of spears, and finally archers.

The Chu cavalry did not expect that the fleeing Han army would suddenly turn around and resist.

The more than one hundred riders in the front suddenly ran into the sharp barricades, and the neighing of horses and the screams of people instantly tore through the night sky.

The following cavalry hurriedly reined in their horses, but the inertia of the charge still caused them to collide with each other.

"Shoot!" Han Meng gave an order, and thousands of arrows whizzed towards the chaotic Chu army.

Under the moonlight, those arrows looked like a swarm of bloodthirsty locusts, taking lives with every flap of their wings.

Ran Ming was furious when he saw this and immediately dispatched heavy infantry to attack.

In the next hour, this nameless river beach turned into a meat grinder.

The Han army used the terrain to set up layers of defense, and fierce hand-to-hand combat would break out when each line of defense was broken.

Han Meng personally stood at the front line with a knife in his hand. Seven or eight arrows had already pierced his armor, but the one-eyed general stood firm as if cast in iron.

"General! The right wing has been breached!" A captain with blood all over his face ran over to report.

Han Meng spat out a mouthful of blood foam: "Let the cavalry press forward!"

The Han cavalry charged forward, and the two sides engaged in a fierce battle.

When Chu Ning received the battle report in the rear, he frowned for the first time.

"How many people are there in the Han army's rearguard?"

"Your Majesty, about 20,000." Zhao Yu reported with his head down.

"Can 20,000 people hold back my army for an hour?"

Chu Ning sneered: "Order the heavy armored battalion to advance, and send in the cavalry. I want to see how long they can hold out!"

When the darkest moment before dawn arrived, the Han army's last line of defense finally collapsed.

Han Meng was wounded in seventeen places, and before he died, he pierced the throat of a centurion of the Chu army with his broken sword.

Where he fell, the bodies of the Han army piled up into a hill, but their sacrifice bought precious time.

Liu Che's main force had withdrawn twenty miles away.

At the beginning of the morning hour, the eastern sky was just beginning to turn pale.

Liu Che's carriage was galloping on the official road when suddenly a fast horse came from behind.

"Report! The rearguard troops have been completely annihilated, and the Chu cavalry has caught up!"

Liu Che suddenly pulled the reins and the horse stood up.

He turned around and saw countless flickering lights on the horizon behind him - they were torches held by the Chu cavalry, like a flowing galaxy in the darkness before dawn.

"His Majesty!"

Lu Xun said urgently, "Please move quickly. I will lead five thousand elite cavalry to cover your retreat!"

This young general was Liu Che's confidant. At this moment, most of the gold paint on his armor had peeled off, but his eyes were still as sharp as a knife.

Liu Che did not respond immediately.

He stared at the approaching fire in the distance and suddenly found that the light spots were distributed abnormally scattered - it was obvious that the Chu army had completely abandoned the formation in order to speed up the pursuit.

A bold idea flashed through his mind.

"General Lu, look."

Liu Che pointed at the pursuers and said, "The Chu army underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly. Their formation is in disarray. If our army suddenly counterattacks..."

"Your Majesty, this is impossible!" Lu Xun was shocked. "Our army has just suffered a defeat, and morale is low. The most urgent task is to preserve our strength!"

Liu Che's eyes became brighter and brighter.

He stroked the sword at his waist, which was the Emperor's Sword bestowed upon him by the late Emperor.

"If I flee back to Chang'an like this, how can I face the entire court? How can I face the people of the world?"

He suddenly raised his voice: "Pass the order, the entire army stops retreating, the archers immediately occupy the high ground on both sides, and the cavalry hide in the woods!"

Lu Xun wanted to dissuade him, but saw Liu Che had already drawn his sword: "I have made up my mind! Chu Ning thought I would flee like a stray dog, but I will do the opposite!"

The Han army acted quickly.

The archers climbed the hills on both sides of the road, while the cavalry hid in the elm trees beside the road.

The infantry deliberately abandoned their baggage in the middle of the road to create the illusion of a rout.

Liu Che himself changed into the armor of an ordinary general and personally commanded the counterattack.

A quarter of an hour later, the Chu army's vanguard cavalry arrived as expected.

When they saw the discarded supplies all over the ground, they became even more convinced that the Han army had been defeated.

The leading Chu army vanguard even laughed and said to his men: "Look at these Han dogs throwing away their armor and weapons! Brothers, work harder! Whoever captures Liu Che alive will be rewarded with a thousand gold pieces!"

Just as the Chu cavalry rushed through the ambush, Liu Che swung his sword and shouted, "Shoot!"

In an instant, thousands of feather arrows whizzed out from the darkness.

The tail feathers of these arrows were dipped in kerosene, drawing countless lines of fire in the air, like a meteor shower.

The Chu cavalry was caught off guard, and the hundreds of riders in the front were immediately thrown off their horses.

The warhorse fell down with a wail, throwing the knight on its back far away.

"Second wave, shoot!"

Liu Che's voice echoed in the wilderness before dawn.

Another hail of arrows fell, this time mixed with flaming arrows, setting the dry grass beside the road on fire.

In the firelight, the chaotic formation of the Chu army was exposed.

Lu Xun led the ambushed Han cavalry to attack from the flank.

These Han soldiers, who were full of anger, were like tigers descending from the mountains. They stabbed the Chu soldiers off their horses with their spears and chopped off the enemies' heads with their sabers.

A captain of the Chu army had just raised his shield when Lu Xun stabbed him away with a spear. The tip of the spear pierced through his back, carrying broken bones and flesh.

Liu Che stood on a high slope and looked back at the battlefield. The morning light gave him a golden edge.

He raised his bloodstained sword and sneered, "Even if I lose, I will bite off a piece of the Chu army's flesh!"