From the depths of his heart, Ali had always disdained Jin Wuzhu's rampant attitude. This Jurchen general, who rose from an ordinary Ali Xi to a commander of ten thousand, was a rare cautious figure in the Jin army... In his view, the ups and downs of the battlefield, small victories and small defeats, were nothing more than ordinary occurrences. If victorious, continue to fight and seize the momentum; if defeated, start over and regain the advantage. To be so agitated, to lash his own military advisor over a single reply letter, to be so wanton over this level of battlefield fluctuation, his temperament was inferior to that of the new Zhao Song official on the mountains across the river under the dragon banner!

Such a posture, how could he be compared with the deceased Second Prince Wulib?

Of course, this was a typical example of the "fence effect" and the benefit of being too far away to see clearly... As a novice on the battlefield, Zhao Guanjia, so nervous that he opened group mocking and ruined the image he had been cultivating for nearly half a year, never expected that sitting high and sitting far away would actually have this advantage?!

"Seventh Brother, the Jin are trying to seize the boats!"

"I see it!"

Zhang Yongzhen, the Prepared General stationed in the center of the river, was the commander on the large ship that had previously broken the pontoon bridge. However, the man hesitated as he watched the chaotic situation on the north side of the Huai River.

It should be said that to the north of the pontoon bridge in the river, arrows were already raining down. Ignoring the range and disregarding military equipment and lives, the Jin army summoned the Han troops from within their ranks to drive them into the cold, shallow water. They forced the latter to draw their bows and fire crossbows in the shallows, engaging in skirmishes with the escorting small boats, to cover Meng'an Puluhun's leading the Jurchen elite onto the bridge to seize the boats in hand-to-hand combat. Bows and arrows were still manageable, but each crossbow bolt required a return to shore for reloading, which was truly devastating. But at this time, no one dared to ask Jin Wuzhu for hardship pay.

And when the army led by Puluhun threw out pre-prepared grappling hooks, all the Song naval forces suddenly understood.

But understanding was one thing; almost everyone was at a loss... Faced with the Jurchens' close-quarters melee combat, the first reaction of all the boats was to quickly disengage. However, the large and small boats were densely packed together, and their path was entangled by a seemingly weak but actually twisted and flexible pontoon bridge, making it impossible to turn around quickly.

Moreover, the more anxious the Song army became, the more difficult it was to move.

Relatively speaking, the Jurchen soldiers led by Puluhun were not really that reckless. They did not need to fight along the shaky pontoon bridge. In fact, after seizing several boats of various sizes, they quickly abandoned the pontoon route and instead used grappling hooks to connect the boats, using the dense boats themselves as an attack route... At the same time, after these boats were seized by the Jin army, they would be occupied by the Han troops in the subsequent Jin army, becoming strongholds for crossbowmen!

Throughout the process, the Song army's naval forces were like fish and shrimp hitting a fishing net, and although the Jin army was on the water, their speed of invasion was like wildfire... Zhao Jiu, high above, could not see the specific details, but he could see the Song soldiers jumping into the water to abandon their boats and escape, while the boats that were originally scurrying around trying to escape were like grasshoppers that had been slapped to death, stabilizing in the hands of the Jin army.

In just two quarters of an hour, all three entangled large boats were captured. A few outlying small boats managed to escape, while the remaining small boats continued to scurry and collide like headless flies in the area between the three large boats and the west side of the pontoon bridge, seemingly unable to escape their doom.

At the same time, the Song army naval force, which still had two-thirds of its strength, including the four large boats and many small boats on the southern half of the Huai River, as well as the reserve troops waiting upstream, had no intention of rescuing them. Instead, as the flags on the shore and on the boats waved non-stop, they chose to turn around and retreat actively, seemingly preparing to redeploy upstream to respond later.

Seeing this situation, the Jin army's drums beat loudly, and Jin Wuzhu laughed even more triumphantly, while the mountains on the south bank of the Huai River were in chaos again... Countless civil officials surrounded Yang Yizhong and Wang Yuan, relentlessly questioning them, asking why their naval warfare was not as good as the Jin army's. Wasn't it said that the Jin were the Liaodong Tartars and not good at naval warfare?

Some even insisted that the two give a definite answer, saying that since the pontoon bridge was destroyed, would it be difficult for the Jin army to cross the river today?

Even Zhao Jiu instantly dimmed in his grand master's chair.

Of course, Zhao Guanjia, whose knowledge was always superior in any case, would definitely not be as ignorant as these civil officials beside him... In fact, he knew very well what was going on.

In a word, the Jin army had won battles continuously for more than a decade, and their morale, equipment, and military prestige were at their peak, so they dared to fight, dare to risk, and dare to die. The Song army had been defeated and routed for several years, and their morale had dropped to an appalling level... Even the only well-organized veteran Western Army in the Huainan Camp, after running around most of China with Liu Guangshi, only dared to face the pontoon bridge with boats. Faced with the possibility of hand-to-hand combat, they did not dare to fight!

Faced with the Jin army's risky attack, instead of organizing a counterattack, their first reaction was to escape, and to escape in a disorganized and unstructured manner... Equivalent to a rout, which caused the boats to lose control, hindering each other, and ultimately failing to escape.

What was this?

This was, in the literal sense, fleeing at the mere sound of the wind! Collapsing without a fight!

This was the difficulty for Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun before, this was the reason why Liu Guangshi kept running away, this was the reason why the original owner of the body occupied by Zhao Jiu wanted to go to the southeast with all his heart, and this was the fundamental reason why everyone advised Zhao Jiu not to waste time here – after the Jingkang Incident, the Song army was really completely collapsed militarily, and the Jin army was really at its peak.

But, a contradiction lay in the fact that, to reverse this situation, someone had to stand up and counterattack first, right? And Zhao Jiu had been preparing for so long on the Huai River, although there were twists and turns, it was generally done to the best of his ability. So, if there was no hope on the Huai River now, would there be hope on the Yangtze River? If there was no hope on the Yangtze River, would there be hope in Jiangxi or Zhejiang?

This was another reason for Zhao Jiu's silence. What he had said to Yang Yizhong before was really not an intentional performance, but carried a lot of sincerity.

The same reasoning applied to what he had said to Zhang Jun before crossing the Huai River on New Year's Eve, to Zhang Jun after crossing the Huai River, to Han Shizhong in Jingen Town, and to Li Gang in Shuizibu Town... Sometimes Zhao Jiu himself could not tell whether his ancient-style sage demeanor was real or fake? Or how much of it was real and how much was fake?

The fighting in the Huai River had not stopped, and the wind was howling on Mount Bagong. Just like the new commander-in-chief and Jin Kingdom's Fourth Prince Jin Wuzhu, who became rampant when he gained power, Zhao Jiu, who had been playing the role of the Zhao Song official for nearly half a year, was disturbed by a clear defeat, even though he had not actually lost the overall situation and still held an extra trump card.

"That place, bring the boat over there!"

Just as the defeat on the Huai River was sealed, on a so-called Song army large boat in the river, Prepared General Zhang Yongzhen, standing on the bow, suddenly pointed to the broken section of the pontoon bridge to the north and spoke.

"Seventh Brother Zhang!"

The second-in-command on the boat, a Captain named Hou Dan, quickly stepped forward with a solemn expression to persuade him. "I know you are capable, and the Guanjia is watching from above, but now is not the time to show off! You are a good fellow from Longxi, why show off on the water?"

"If I could show off on land, why wouldn't I want to show off on land?" Zhang Yongzhen turned his head back, bursting into anger. "Isn't it that the Jurchens are even stronger on land?! The water is already where we can fight them the most!"

"That's not what I meant!" Hou Dan was extremely helpless. "The Jin are also strong on the water, and the defeat over there is already sealed. A boat of soldiers, including the Han rowers, is a full seventy or eighty people! There's no reason to sacrifice their lives for this!"

"You don't need to sacrifice your lives!" Zhang Yongzhen, upon hearing this, instead became ferocious. "Turn the boat to the north, send me over, and you can leave on your own!"

"That's not worth it either!" Hearing this, some soldiers from Longyou stepped forward and grabbed Zhang Yongzhen's waist. "Seventh Brother, I know you submitted to the Guanjia that day, but even so, why sacrifice such a good life for the Guanjia's few strings of money and a few bolts of cloth?! If you are gone, wouldn't we, this group of inferior goods from Longyou, be bullied in the army?"

"That's right." Hou Dan quickly persuaded again. "Today, the pontoon bridge is broken after all. Even if we lose many boats, it will take the Jin some time to use them, so it will be a matter for tomorrow or the day after. We are just doing our job for the day. Today, our actions have already been accomplished. When we return to the water camp, that Zhao Guanjia will have nothing to say and will instead reward us!"

"You know nothing!"

Zhang Yongzhen, having risen to the position of Prepared General in the Western Army, and being the leader of the troublemakers that day, still possessed courage and prestige. So, with a forceful push, he pushed the person holding him away, and then kicked him over.

Without waiting for others to speak, Zhang Yongzhen actually drew his sword from his waist, and then, with only one hand, grabbed the Captain Hou Dan, who had just spoken, and pressed him down hard on the bow, forcefully cutting off one of his ears with his outstanding personal martial prowess and strength...

With the ear cut off, this person released his hand, holding the ear in one hand and the sword in the other. Amidst the astonishment of the Western Army soldiers on the boat, he raised his voice to speak. His face was ferocious, like a demon:

"I have already figured it out today! You only need to send me over today. You can go and enjoy yourselves after I die, but if you don't send me, I won't be able to talk to you on this boat now!"

"Send him there!" Hou Dan struggled to get up, covering his face with blood, his face also contorted beyond recognition. He gritted his teeth and said forcefully, "He's gone mad and wants to die, and he doesn't appreciate kindness. If we don't send him, will he stay here to harm us?"

As he spoke, Hou Dan also drew his sword from his waist with one hand, but after confronting Zhang Yongzhen for a moment, he turned around angrily, brandishing his blade and shouting at the rowers.

Helpless, the crowd could only let the boat turn around in the heart of the river and place it at the broken section of the pontoon bridge. Zhang Yongzhen did not answer, but quickly removed his heavy iron armor, put on a set of leather armor, but left the iron helmet on his head. Then, holding his sword, he jumped down and went straight to the center of the battle to the north along the shaking pontoon bridge. No one knew what he was going to do.

However, even so, seven or eight soldiers from Longyou followed suit, similarly dressed, jumped off the boat, and followed Zhang Yongzhen north, launching a counterattack.

After these people went down, the boat no longer hesitated, but immediately began to row, turning its head back!

ps: I'm 30 years old, unknowingly belatedly... This is the old book friend of the actor... The avatar of Chulong! Scared me to death.