Three Kingdoms: I help Liu Bei grow thousands of miles

Chapter 162

"Prime Minister, Zhou Yu led the Jiangdong water army back to the Danshui warship," said the scout.

Cao Cao frowned, and said to himself: "Zhou Yu retreated before fighting, what kind of conspiracy is this fellow playing?"

The mastermind Xun You was not there during the Battle of Chibi, this time Cao Cao learned his lesson and specially brought this mastermind along.

Xun You ignored the others, and expressed his own opinion, "Xinye, north of Lianwan City, and south of Xiangyang, although it is located on an important road, it is only an isolated city. Zhou Yu's move is nothing more than trying to block the waterway for us to save Xiangyang from the south, and Jiangdong besieged Xiangyang. If it can’t be defeated for a year, its land combat capability is worrying. I guess I want to use the advantage of the navy to spend the main force of our army in Nanyang, so as to buy time for Sun Quan to attack Hefei.”

Cao Cao nodded, "This is also what I am worried about. As long as Xiangfan is still in my hands, there is nothing to fear. If Hefei loses, the Central Plains will be in danger. What is the situation on the east front now?"

Liu Ye cupped his hands and replied, "Prime Minister, according to the news from Huainan, Sun Quan's warship is currently in the Niuzhu area, and has not entered Chaohu to attack Hefei."

"Zhongde's three thousand suspects are so effective?" Cao Cao was puzzled.

"Sun Zhongmou is suspicious. Before Jiang Zitong withdrew the enemy with a letter, I guess he is also waiting for information from Xinye." Xun You analyzed.

Cao Cao laughed and said, "Bi Yaner is cautious. In this case, let's take Xinye as soon as possible. Where is Zhou Yu going to set fire to such an open terrain?"

"Ahem, my lord, it should be Cheng Pu's nonsense to talk about arson," Yang Xiu, the chief secretary of the army, reminded.

Cao Cao heard it very harshly, thinking that the Prime Minister didn't know?

"Zi Lian, order the whole army to encircle Xinye tomorrow."

"Wen Ze, you lead your troops to Danshui to contain Zhou Yu's navy."

Cao Cao continued to issue orders, and Cao Hong, Yu Jin and other generals took orders one after another to mobilize troops.

The next day, the main force of Cao's army began to attack Xinye, and Cheng Pu and Han Dang organized soldiers to defend the city tenaciously.

Wenpin brought siege equipment such as rams and catapults from Wancheng, and the intensity of the siege was much more intense than Zhou Yu's attack on Xiangyang.

Cao Cao wanted to go to Xinye quickly, and Cheng Pu wanted to buy time for Sun Quan. Because both sides had their own ideals, the casualties were very heavy.

In order to ensure Xinye's offensive, Yu Jin, who was in charge of containing the Jiangdong water army, only brought thousands of Qingzhou soldiers on the east bank of Danshui to shoot at Zhou Yu's water army on the warship.

The Jiangdong navy did not disembark, and Yu Jin's infantry did not wade, so the fight was a bit of a joke.

Lu Meng saw that Jin's soldiers were few, so he called for a battle and said: "Great Governor, there are only three to five thousand people in Yujin. He clearly despises our Jiangdong navy. I would like to get off the boat and capture this man."

"Don't be reckless, this may be Cao Cao's tactic to lure the enemy, first confront like this and wait for the opportunity." Zhou Yu said firmly.

"Governor, Cao Cao only uses a few thousand people to restrain us, and his main force must be attacking Xinye. What kind of opportunity are we waiting for?" Lu Meng asked puzzled.

"The governor said before that Jiangdong is good at water warfare but not land warfare. It is unwise to abandon one's strengths to fight on land. I heard that Xiangyang's defenders have also been mobilized in the past two days. When Liu Bei's reinforcements arrive, we will take advantage of the chaos. Go get Xiangyang." Zhou Yu explained.

"Then Cheng Gong and the others..." Lu Meng said in his heart that we can't just watch Cheng Pu be wiped out like this.

Zhou Yu asked Lu Su, "Has Liu Xuande sent reinforcements yet?"

"Guan Yunchang has entered the Han River from the Yangtze River, and it is estimated that he will arrive tomorrow night. Zhang Yide assisted us in capturing Xiangyang, and he has also set off from Jiangling." Lu Su returned.

"How many soldiers are there?" Zhou Yu asked.

"Guan Yunchang brought [-] Jingzhou sailors, but it is unknown how many paces Zhang Yide has." Lu Su continued.

Zhou Yu was overjoyed when he heard that Jiangxia's naval force was only [-], and Guan Yu brought out [-] this time, which shows Liu Bei's fear of Cao Cao.

The next day, Guan Yu's water reinforcements arrived at Danshui, and when Yu Jin saw the reinforcements, he retreated five miles to the village.

Guan Yu went to Zhou Yu's main ship and saw Jiangdong's warships lined up neatly, each ship was full of soldiers. He couldn't help being puzzled: "Why are tens of thousands of Jiangdong soldiers staying on board? Could it be that Cao Cao's military situation in the south is wrong?"

"No, I am not good at land warfare in Jiangdong, so I asked the deputy governor to guard Xinye, and the governor blocked Cao's army from crossing the river by water." Lu Su explained.

"To prevent Cao's army from crossing the river? When Guan came over by warship just now, he only found thousands of Cao's troops on the bank. Do you need tens of thousands to stop it?" Guan Yu became more and more confused as he listened.

Just as Lu Su was about to explain, Zhou Yu laughed softly, "This is Cao Cao's army to lure the enemy, and the main force of Cao's army may be not far away."

Yu Jin's thousands of pinned soldiers were like scratching their feet in front of the Jiangdong warship. It was hard for Guan Yu to imagine why they could feel at ease here, but left Cheng Pu and others to fight in Xinye.

"What is the plan of the governor?" Guan Yu continued to ask.

"Jiangdong Jianer is not good at land warfare. General Guan just happens to support Xinye. Cao Cao is empty here in Hefei. My lord should have entered Chaohu Lake. Cao's bandits can't look at both sides. This battle will be as disastrous as Chibi." Zhou Yu analyzed.

Guan Yuxuan asked, "I'm going to fight, what is the governor going to do?"

"When Cao Ren heard that Cao Cao had come to rescue him, the city of Xiangyang was in disarray. I wanted to lead a navy to cross the Han River and attack Xiangfan again, and cooperate with Yide's land reinforcements to capture the important town of Xiangyang," Zhou Yu explained.

Guan Yu was taken aback when he heard this, and said to Zhou Yu that he had paid attention to this before. He could not defeat Xiangyang without reinforcements, but now that Cao Cao's reinforcements have arrived, he can defeat them instead?But he came here on orders and didn't ask much.

Guan Yu left Guan Ping to guard the warship, disembarked with Zhou Cang and the others, and ran directly to the forbidden camp. Jiang Xia's eight thousand sons were very capable in fighting, and within an hour of the battle, they were able to escape from the forbidden camp and fled north.

Zhou Yu was shocked from ear to ear when he heard the battle report, and he couldn't help saying to himself: "Guan Yunchang is a well-deserved name, if he can be used by Jiangdong in the future, the world will not be difficult."

Seeing Zhou Yu sighing at the bow, Lu Su followed and asked, "Governor, General Guan's reinforcements have arrived, when will we go to capture Xiangyang?"

"Order all the warships to turn their rudders to the south, and our whole army will march to Xiangyang immediately." Zhou Yu ordered.

"Wei." Lu Su cupped his hands in response.

Zhou Yu's battleship led the way, followed by hundreds of warships, just like fish migrating.

When the fleet arrived in the waters of Xiangyang, Zhou Yu took a long look at the city in the west that had been fighting for a year, then waved and ordered to continue southward.

The generals thought that Zhou Yu was looking for a landing place, because there were indeed soldiers sent by Le Jin on the nearby river beach to stop him.

When the fleet was a hundred miles away from Xiangyang, Lu Su saw that he had gone too far, so he said, "Governor, is this too far? Marching by land is much slower, and the distance is estimated to take two days. "

"If you have a boat, you should walk less. Zijing will wait and see. I won't let everyone suffer." Zhou Yu smiled mysteriously.

Lu Su scratched his head, and continued to go south along the Han River. When he reached the end, it merged into the Yangtze River. Where is there any waterway that can lead to Xiangyang?
(End of this chapter)