Three routes advancing simultaneously, the real and the feigned intertwined.
On the southern shore, the remnants of Han Chang's forces and hastily mobilized local garrisons fortified themselves by the perilous terrain, watching the beacon towers. A battle over the control of Jiangnan, and even the fate of the entire realm, was like an arrow on the bowstring, ready to be released.
On the morning of May 28, at the first crack of dawn, the mist over the Yangtze River had not yet dispersed.
On the northern bank of the Yangtze, three arrows flew simultaneously into the twilight of dawn.
—Accompanied by the resounding of war drums.
The great battle erupted abruptly!
At the downstream Zhenjiang section, Yue Fei's camp was the first to sound the war drums.
A hundred massive warships, resembling moving fortresses, slowly pressed towards the river's heart, their mastheads perilously poised, with siege engines tense and ready to deploy.
