Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1011 Everyone uses their own methods
When Yuan Xi arrived at Chaohu, it was the third day of Jiangdong Navy's attack on Lu Xun Navy.

On the first day, Zhou Yu's navy returned without success. In the evening, he ordered his troops to withdraw and the two sides stopped fighting.

But that night, the Jiangdong navy suddenly made a surprise attack at night, hoping to once again surround the Lu Xun navy stationed in the middle of the Chaohu waterway.

But they did not expect that Lu Xun had already been prepared, so he sent two fleets to defend the flanks in advance and blocked the surprise attack of the Jiangdong navy. At this time, the Ganning army in the rear joined the battlefield again, hoping to cut off the retreat of the Jiangdong navy.

How could Zhou Yu, who had suffered losses during the day, be fooled again? He immediately sent Han Dang to lead the army, and in turn raided Gan Ning's flank. The two sides lined up their warships in the dark and started to attack.

The two sides were in a stalemate for an hour. Ling Tong, under Han Dang, found out that the commander of the army on the other side was Gan Ning. He couldn't hold himself back and went around to the rear of Gan Ning's navy, hoping to raid Gan Ning's fleet.

However, this time around, they approached the shore of Chao Lake. Suddenly, dozens of trebuchets on the shore fired stones, catching Ling Tong's fleet off guard.

It was dark at that time, and there was only a faint moonlight at night. Ling Tong was unable to counterattack, not to mention that the Jiangdong navy did not control the land. This is why Zhou Yu's navy only chose the center of the waterway to raid during the day, because he knew very well that the Jiangdong navy was An army cannot attack with a short attack and attack a long one with a short attack.

Ling Tong was ambushed on the shore and had to retreat in embarrassment. When Han Dang learned about it, he reprimanded him. Seeing that the opportunity was lost, he could only order the fleet to retreat.

Seeing Han Dang retreating, Gan Ning did not pursue him deeply, but turned around to support Lu Xun's flank. After Zhou Yu learned about it, he knew that the raid at night had failed, so he had to move the fleet back.

A night of ineffectiveness also affected the Jiangdong navy's offensive on the second day, so Zhou Yu sent people to contain Lu Xun's middle army and put the main attack direction on Gan Ning on the flank.

He sent out Cheng Pu and Han Dang this time, thinking that Gan Ning was just an ordinary general under Huang Zu. The two oldest generals in Jiangdong were sent out, but they still couldn't defeat each other?
As a result, Zhou Yu was extremely surprised. Cheng Pu and Han Dang attacked fiercely for half a day, but were blocked by Gan Ning. In the afternoon, Zhou Yu couldn't bear it anymore and personally took the boat to look for Han Dang Cheng Pu.

When he came to the front line, he found that Cheng Puhan was commanding the fleet to fight hard with Gan Ning. The entire water surface was in chaos. The enemy warships on the right were mixed together. Many ships were burning with raging fires, and the lake surface covering dozens of miles in radius was covered. In the smoke.

Zhou Yu finally found Cheng Pu who had retreated and asked, "What happened?"

Cheng Pu's face was covered with black ash from the smoke. He spat angrily and cursed: "Damn, the other side is really difficult to deal with."

He and Han Dang led troops to break into Gan Ning's fleet. Unexpectedly, after receiving the alarm, the other party began to throw wooden barrels filled with kerosene. After throwing, they rammed the Jiangdong Navy warships, lit them on fire, and escaped in a small boat.

Cheng Pu wanted to order the fleet to put out the fire and retreat, but found that the opposite ship had an iron hook installed on its bow. During the collision, the two ships were hooked together and could not escape at all. He watched helplessly as the fire spread.

To be fair, Gan Ning's army did not have many ships carrying kerosene, that is, about fifty or sixty ships, but the fire points were all at the front of the battle. As a result, when Cheng Puhan was unable to form a formation and moved forward, Cheng Puhan wanted to spare him. The lone ship was attacked by the other side again, so it could only fight with the opponent in the pungent smoke.

Zhou Yu heard this and decisively ordered: "Send people to scuttle the burning warship."

Cheng Pu suddenly understood after hearing this, and quickly sent people to call Han Dang back. At the same time, he sent people to dig through the bottom of the burning warship. Within half an hour, all the burning warships sank to the bottom of the water, and the view of the lake became wider.

Cheng Puhan was overjoyed and praised Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu said: "There can't be so much fire oil on the other side, so we can take advantage of the opportunity to attack it."

The two were convinced by Zhou Yu and formed an array to attack Gan Ning's fleet. Gan Ning felt the pressure increase greatly. He saw that the casualties of the soldiers were increasing rapidly, but there was no kerosene in his hands, so he had to retreat while fighting.

The two sides turned into a pure meat-and-potatoes battle. Under Zhou Yu's command, Han Dang and Cheng Pu continuously attacked Gan Ning's warship. Gan Ning saw that the situation was in danger and was about to prepare for a decisive battle. Lu Xun's fleet arrived in time and made a surprise attack. Arriving at the flank of Jiangdong Army.

This caused considerable losses to Jiangdong's army. Lu Xun's appearance here was even more unexpected than Zhou Yu's expectation. He wondered whether something happened to the Chinese army?
It was getting dark at this time. For the sake of caution, Zhou Yu ordered Han Dang and Cheng Pu to join forces and hope that the Chinese army would retreat. Seeing this, Lu Xun and Gan Ning also reduced their defenses, and both sides stopped.

After Zhou Yu returned to the central army, Huang Gai came over with a face full of shame, saying that he had fallen into Lu Xun's plan and was blocked by a naval force, and the two sides began to fight.

During this period, Huang Gai found that there were not many people on the bow of the boat on the other side, so he judged that the other side was bluffing, and decisively sent people forward to press forward.

As a result, a large number of soldiers poured out from under the cabin on the opposite side. With prepared slings and crossbows, they launched a fierce attack on Huang Gai's former army. The frequency and density of attacks by a warship exceeded three times that of a normal warship.

Huang Gai was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses, so he had to retreat temporarily without pressing forward. The two sides faced off. It was not until Zhou Yu came back that Huang Gai learned that Lu Xun's army had sent an army to assist Gan Ning. Obviously he deceived himself!

Seeing Huang Gai's accusation, Zhou Yu did not want to pursue the case and said: "It's not the general's fault. These methods on the other side are really troublesome."

He squinted his eyes and looked at the sky above Lu Xun's Central Army, which was more than ten miles away. There was a ball several miles high from the lake. It was tied to a boat by a rope and was floating in the wind.

Zhou Yu learned from the intelligence sent back by spies that this was a secret weapon belonging to the Youzhou Army. The other party called it a balloon.

It is said that this bin can carry people, and it also has a means of far-sightedness. Together with sending messages, it can cover a range of dozens of miles, especially on the plains and lakes. Any one's own maneuvers cannot be hidden from the other side's eyes.

With this kind of thing, one's own troop formations and troop deployment directions can be seen at a glance, and battlefield strategy and deception become a joke.

On the other hand, if you don't know the other party's dynamics, how can you fight this battle?
Zhou Yu knew that to defeat this method at present, he could only rely on absolute strength to crush him, or to deceive the opponent's general camp's plan. He had no choice but to order all activities to cease and wait until the next day to find a solution.

However, on the third day, before Zhou Yu decided how to send troops, news arrived that reinforcements from the opposite side had arrived.

At that time, Zhou Yu did not know that Yuan Xi had arrived in person, but he instinctively felt that the reinforcements this time were not simple. After thinking about it again and again, Zhou Yu decided to shrink back to the southern entrance of Chao Hu, and at the same time sent people to set up defenses on the shore.

The reason for this is that the river connected to Ruxushui at the south entrance has been completely blocked and occupied by the Jiangdong navy. Even if Yuan Xi's army uses infantry to attack the Jiangdong soldiers on the shore, the Jiangdong warships in Ruxushui can still support it. In fact, No, the Jiangdong soldiers on the shore can also retreat to the warship to dodge.

Therefore, it is easy for Jiangdong Army to block the river, but it cannot do so when it reaches Chaohu Lake, which is hundreds of miles away. Zhou Yu has superior troops and is thinking of playing it safe. He will never enter Chaohu Lake before determining the enemy situation. adventure.

At this time, Yuan Xi was not in the center of Chao Lake. Instead, he took Zhuge Liang and Tai Shici from somewhere on the west bank of Chao Lake to meet up with Lu Xun who was coming over.

After listening to Lu Xun talk about the battle situation in the past two days, Yuan Xi nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Boyan."

He turned to Gan Ning and said, "It all depends on the general's support. Otherwise, Boyan would be unable to survive alone and would not be able to protect today's situation."

Gan Ning quickly clasped his fists and said, "The supervisor is young and promising. If he can fight on an equal footing with Zhou Yu, his future achievements will be limitless."

Lu Xun looked unwilling, "I have tried my best, but it is difficult to get even a cent from Zhou Yu."

"He is indeed the most outstanding counselor in Jiangdong, but he is really difficult to deal with."

Gan Ning also felt the same way, "Yes, this person is much more difficult to deal with than Han Dang Cheng Pu. He also fights in an upright manner, and I can't find any flaws in him."

Yuan Xi sighed: "Yes, he is indeed the most troublesome one in Jiangdong."

"But since we have balloons, he can only fight hard. At this point, we have forced him to have no other choice."

Zhuge Liang said on the side: "But if this continues, it will be a pure waste of troops and strength. Even if we can defeat Jiangdong miserably, I'm afraid..."

Everyone knows what Zhuge Liang is referring to. The conditions for victory on Yuan Xi's side are extremely demanding. Not only must he defeat Jiangdong, but he must also preserve his strength, turn back to deal with Cao Cao, and repel him before he can be said to have won the Jianghuai battle.

Yuan Xizhuo said: "Actually, there are still variables."

Lu Xun and Gan Ning thought Yuan Xi was talking about reinforcements. Unexpectedly, Yuan Xi's next words almost broke their guard, "According to the news, Sun Quan has crossed the river and headed north, taking the land route from Hengjiang to Juchao and bypassing the east side of Chao Lake. , went to Hefei with tens of thousands of troops. "

Lu Xun and Gan Ning were in a daze for a while. It was just the tens of thousands of Jiangdong navy troops. There were still tens of thousands of Jiangdong soldiers to attack Hefei and cut off the retreat of their own Chaohu navy?
There are only a few 4 defenders in Hefei City. How can it be defended? When Sun Quan seizes Hefei and attacks Chaohu with his navy, how can he fight on his own side?
Lu Xun immediately reacted and said: "Should we fight quickly, defeat the Jiangdong Navy, and then turn back to rescue Hefei?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "This will play into the opponent's plan."

"Zhou Yu is a stable man in battle, how could he leave us such a flaw? I'm afraid what he is thinking about is how to lure us into Ruxu Water and fight with him to consume us."

"When the time comes, we will be entangled by it, unable to advance or retreat, and instead we will fall into his trap."

Lu Xun admitted that Zhuge Liang was right and said unwillingly: "What should we do?"

"The longer it takes, the worse it will be for us. We won't give up on Chaohu, right?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "This time we did the opposite."

"The other party thinks we are in a hurry, but we are not in a hurry."

"We spent time with him."

As soon as these words came out, both Lu Xun and Gan Ning looked puzzled. Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Just relax and win this battle. Hefei will naturally have a solution."

"This war is like a series of interlocking knots. We have to patiently untie them one by one. When the last button is untied, it will be the day when the truth comes out and the overall situation is decided."

"Zhou Yu is not easy to deceive, so what we have to do now is wait for him to make his move first, and then give him a surprise."

(End of this chapter)