My Father in Law is Lu Bu

Chapter 747

On that day, the Liaodong Army learned what was meant by ‘a thousand cannons roaring in unison’. The three Monarch-class warship, each equipped with over a hundred cannons, fired side by side on the Liaodong Army. Countless shells fell onto the shore. When the cannons overheated, the three warships turned to the other side and continued firing.

The Liaodong were not the only ones shocked. Ling Cao was also shocked. What kind of war is this? How many men would be left standing after that bombardment?

When they attacked Liaodong’s ships. They used solid shells that could deliver the greatest impact to the enemy ships and force them to sink. But their target this time was the port with no defences. On top of that, the area was densely populated. Because of this, Yangzhou used explosive shells. Once the explosive shells fell onto the crowd, it would explode and scatter shrapnel everywhere. With the acceleration caused by the explosion, each shrapnel was fatal.

Ling Cao watched one explosive shell fell onto a crowd of about a hundred men. After the explosion, only about a dozen were left standing. The rest were dead or would soon die from the shrapnels.

“This…!” Mo Ran was shocked. Wasn’t the range only two hundred meters? This was over a thousand meters away! Mo Ran’s men were already crying out for mercy and wishing that their parents gave them more legs to run away with. But it was already too late.

Mo Ran looked at the miserable scene before him and gritted his teeth. “Retreat! Retreat!” They could no longer fight. Staying at the port would just make them a target. They had to retreat back to Zhangyi County.

The bombardment stopped after the cannons were so hot they could not be used for a while. By this time, the gunners were all ecstatic. This was the first time they were allowed to fire so freely. They never had this chance during practice.

Dongfang Ming and An Yixuan also watched the scene of Mo Ran’s army scattering. His men no longer dared to remain in formation. Dongfang Ming and An Yixuan gulped. That range and the power of those cannons. Any strategy they had would have been useless if Yangzhou fought like this from the start.

But then a flash of killing intent appeared in Dongfang Ming’s eyes. The stronger the Yangzhou Navy, the more likely he could get his revenge on Gongsun Kang.

“Pass down the order. It is time for Ling Cao and the others to act.” Gan Ning commanded and the signal flag was raised.

The cannon fire stopped but Yue Peng ran over shouting before Mo Ran even had the time to breathe a sigh of relief. “Not good! General! The enemy is coming!” The deputy general Yue Peng have already lost his confidence and was in panic. He was like a lost dog.

“Calm down! Calm down!” Mo Ran glared at his deputy general and slapped him twice. “How can you be panicking when you are a deputy general! How disgraceful!” It was only then did Yue Peng calmed down.

“General. What do we do? They enemy have landed.” Yue Peng asked again as he feigned composure.

“We fight with all we’ve got.” Mo Ran replied. Even he did not have the answer. “How are our Zhendong troops doing?”

“Over a hundred dead. Two hundred severely injured and many more lightly injured.” Yue Peng reported. These Zhendong troops are the ones wearing Yangzhou’s equipment. There were only about three thousand of them and their luck had been quite good. These armor had excellent defence and the troops would survive unless they were hit directly by the cannon. They also had been quite far from the cannonfire as Mo Ran had placed them at the back to be used as a surprise unit. This was why their casualties had been low.

Mo Ran felt his heart ache. The Zhendong troops were his elites.

“The Zhendong troops are to advance and stop the enemy. The rest are to retreat to Zhangyi County!” Mo Ran commanded.

“Understood!” Yue Peng understood how much Mo Ran valued the Zhendong Troops. If they were to be used as the rearguard, the position that suffers the most casualties, it would mean that there were no other options.

“It’s our turn now!” Ling Cao’s expression turned dark. Yangzhou had been winning against Liaodong for all of its battles except one. It was the one where Ling Cao disobeyed orders. How could Ling Cao accept this?

“Kill!” Ling Cao shouted as the transport ship all landed at the port.

The Yangzhou Navy jumped onto the shore and advanced. They expected a fight but there were little to no resistance from the enemy. The Liaodong troops were desperate to escape. What kind of resistance could there be? To them, the Yangzhou Army were demons. The cannons could kill dozens in a single shot. Their morale had already hit rock bottom.

Ling Cao had a strange expression. Normally, he would have enjoyed battles where he could defeat enemies without much effort like these. But now, he had nowhere to vent his anger.

“Gan Ning is just giving me merits.” Ling Cao muttered. No matter where he looked, he only see dead bodies or prisoners capture. They weren’t being soldiers here, they were the cleanup crew.

Ling Cao’s deputy who had previously accused Gan Ning for sending them to their deaths also gave an awkward laugh. If this was sending someone to their deaths, then there would be no such thing as war.

Fortunately, Ling Cao would not be too disappointed. He soon received news that a large group of enemies were blocking their way forward.

“Oh?” Ling Cao headed over and saw the enemy. The Zhendong Army carried different banners but Ling Cao noticed that their armor was familiar. Ling Cao then looked down at his own armor and then his men’s.

“I heard Liaodong bought a lot of our defective armor. These must be the Zhendong Army!” Ling Cao commented.

“There seems to be a lot of people.” Ling Cao looked at the Zhendong Army that had formed up. They knew that Yangzhou’s troops have landed so the Monarch-class warships could no longer fire recklessly or else there would hit their own men. Because of this, the Zhendong Army was not afraid of grouping up.

The Zhendong Army formation had at two thousand five hundred while Ling Cao only had about a thousand. There were still more troops on the way but the transport ships can only transport two to three hundred men at a time.

However, it didn’t matter. Ling Cao relished the challenge. “Pass the order down! We will teach these defective troops a lesson!”

“General. Don’t we need to wait for the others?” The deputy general asked. They were outnumbered while the enemy was well rested.

“Do we need to?” Ling Cao sneered. “If we can’t get rid of these Liaodong women, we would turn into a laughing stock!”

“Understood!” The deputy general nodded. They, the landing troops were supposed to be the ones attacking the enemy soldiers. But most of the enemy had already been wiped out by the cannons. The landing troops needed to contribute at least this much.

Soon, thousands of men were ready for battle. These troops included both the soldiers from Yangzhou New Army and the soldiers from Jiangdong. They were all elites.

“Only a thousand men?” Yue Peng was surprised but then he smiled menacingly. “Good!” Yue Peng had been left behind to lead the Zhendong Army. He initially thought it was a thankless job but he did not expect to be given the chance to earn merits. After all, his own army nearly outnumbered the enemy three to one.