My Father in Law is Lu Bu

Chapter 741

The battle going on at the ocean near Liaodong was the biggest thing happening in the world at the time. The common people and the officials at Liaodong Port were all watching with great interest. All they knew at the time was that a lot of warships had sunk. But they still think that An Yixuan had a chance to win. After all, he has so many warships.

“Have the turtle ships advance!” An Yixuan ordered calmly.

The turtle ship was a strange warship. The entire hull was covered in wooden plywood that is further wrapped in iron sheets. There are even spikes on it. It was just like a large turtle swimming in the ocean.

This ship has amazing defense. Not even the ballista can pierce through it. However, it was extremely slow. These kinds of ships would not appear at the narrow rivers since it could easily be boarded, rendering its strengths useless. Even if they cannot do that, they could still fire at it with the ballista. While the ballista arrows would not be able to destroy the turtle ship, a large amount of arrows could still make it heavy enough to sink to the bottom of the river.

However, at the ocean, the turtle ship had more places to move. Not only that, aiming at the ocean was harder since the ocean has a larger area. This allowed the turtle ship to become a powerful ship.

“The turtle ships!” Gan Ning saw the ships as well. These ships can block the ballista arrows but if you leave them alone, they could ram you. The galleon's defenses would not be able to endure getting rammed.

Over thirty turtle ships lined up, each dozens of meters apart from each other. They were like a fishing net approaching Yangzhou's ships.

Liaodong's port sat at the mouth of a strait. It had land on both sides. The wide opening was large enough to allow ships to pass through but the fishing net had sealed it off completely.

“General. Should we retreat?” One soldier asked. The turtle ship obviously intends to block the strait. At this rate, Gan Ning would be blocked inside the port.

“Retreat?” Gan Ning frowned. The turtle ships were slow. If they do not retreat now, they would be locked in with no escape. But retreating now would be embarassing since they came here as a show of power.

“Not leaving?” An Yixuan did intend to chase away Gan Ning. He wasn't confident of a perfect victory but forcing Yangzhou to leave was still a win. Without any nearby ports for Yangzhou to dock, Yangzhou would eventually have to leave to resupply. This would take a long time. The retreating warships would need to leave behind a rearguard. An Yixuan planned to destroy that rearguard to make up for the loss of his thirty swift ships.

“If you aren't leaving, then you'd better stay here forever!” An Yixuan may be cautious but that did not mean he avoided a fight. “Pass down my orders! The boarding ships stay behind the turtle ships!”

“Planning to board us?” Gan Ning muttered as he watched the enemy movements. Boarding ships were no different from transport ships. The only difference is that these troops weren't train to fight on beaches but on enemy ships.

“Boarding ships? We are your ancestors here!” Ling Cao said the moment he saw An Yixuan's formation. He immediately signalled a request to fight.

“General! General Ling Cao is requesting permission to fight!” The signal officer reported. Boarding battles were simple. They just get close and fight each other. Whoever wins can take the ship or otherwise destroy it. On the other hand, the losers were slaughtered. It had been this way at the Yangtze River for centuries. Ling Cao wasn't afraid at all in close combat.

“Ling Cao…” Gan Ning furrowed his brows. His feelings towards Ling Cao was quite complicated. After all, he killed Ling Cao's father in one of those boarding battles.1

By some strange fate, Ling Cao now served under him. The problem is that approving Ling Cao's request would disrupt his tactics. Their Lord had already made things clear. If they could solve the problem with cannonfire, there was no need to waste lives. Boarding battles usually wasted a lot of lives. But if Gan Ning does not approve Ling Cao's request, it might seem petty. Ling Cao may even be more resentful.

After some consideration, Gan Ning decided to follow reason. “Signal back and tell him to stay still. They are land troops. I cannot control him if we were on land but at the ocean, he must listen to me!”

“Understood!” The Huaxia signalled back, rejecting Ling Cao's request.

“Hmph!” Ling Cao snorted coldly. Although he was in a bad mood, he still did not dare to act on his own. Otherwise, he could be punished by military law. If only someone else had kept quiet, this is where it would have all ended. One of Ling Cao's 1000-men general was also unsatisfied and cursed. “How shameless! He is deliberately singling out our General! That Gan Ning just doesn't want our General to earn merits!”

“Exactly! We sunk a dozen of enemy ships earlier! He must be afraid of getting outshined!”

With this, Ling Cao's started to feel angry. That anger exploded the moment someone else reminded him that Gan Ning had killed his father.

In his anger, Ling Cao started to give the orders to advance. Some of his soldiers tried to stop him but their efforts were futile. Gan Ning may be their Commander but Ling Cao was immediate superior. They did not dare to stop him when they saw how furious he was.

“General! Bad news! General Ling Cao's ships are beginning to advance!” A messenger reported to Gan Ning.

“What?” Gan Ning almost jumped. “Didn't I tell him to stay still?” Gan Ning shouted as he grabbed the messenger.

“We already sent the signal but it was ignored!” The messenger was terrified.

Gan Ning let go of the messenger and took a look with his telescope. Sure enough, Ling Cao's ships had already raised battle flags. With Ling Cao's ship taking the lead, they were sailing pass the Monarch-class ships and heading directly towards An Yixuan's turtle ships.

“What is that fool thinking?” Gan Ning was furious. Defying orders was punishable by death. Gan Ning wanted to stop him but it was too late.

“Signal Liang Chen to provide support!” Gan Ning unwillingly gave the order.

“Support them?” Liang Chen saw the signal from the Dahan. “Ling Cao?” He then muttered as he looked through the telescope.

Liang Chen also hated Ling Cao. That man was a walking time bomb. Yes, Ling Cao's father was killed by Gan Ning but this was war. What did you expect? Despite this, Gan Ning still took good care of Ling Cao. Liang Chen really did not know why their Lord transferred Ling Cao here. This Ling Cao was a nuisance who have defied orders several times

“Request permission to fire on Ling Cao's ships!” Liang Chen gave the order.

Gan Ning signalled back. Permission denied. On top of that, Gan Ning gave a warning that Liang Chen dared to disobey him and open fire on Ling Cao's ships, he would be executed.

“What is brother thinking?” Liang Chen was confused. Why did Gan Ning give up such a good opportunity to get rid of Ling Cao?

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1) I'm aware that Ling Cao is the one that died and Ling Tong is the son. But this author has been using Ling Cao for ages.

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