Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1280 Water War
Wu Zhi and Zhu Shao were the officials closest to Cao Pi. They were Cao Pi's true confidants. In Cao Pi's heart, they were far better than the other ministers appointed by Cao Cao.

After Cao Cao's death, the two men rose to high positions. Wu Zhi was promoted to General of the Central Army, and Zhu Shao was promoted to Commander of the Central Army. They looked down upon their peers and were the most popular at the time.

So when Wu Zhi came out to impeach Yang Jun just now, all the Cao Wei officials present kept their mouths shut. They all knew that this must be instigated by Cao Pi. Who would dare to jump out and offend Cao Pi?
The Wei Feng case involved a wide range of people and was a huge taboo in the Wei State. Many people believed that the Jin State was behind it. Cao Pi's hostility towards the Jin army and his response in the Wei Feng case were also one of the important reasons why he was appreciated by Cao Cao.

So when they saw Cao Pi questioning Cao Zhi, Cao Wei and other officials understood that this was because Cao Pi had just ascended the throne and his prestige was not prominent. It was difficult for him to achieve outstanding political achievements in both domestic and foreign affairs. The remaining breakthrough was to take advantage of the issue to suppress and punish Cao Zhi and his remaining forces in order to achieve the effect of killing the chicken to scare the monkey.

When Cao Zhi was sweating profusely and at a loss, Zhu Shao stood up again and began to list the offenses committed by Yang Jun and his friends. Unconsciously, he began to lead the charge to Cao Zhi. When the officials of the Yingchuan faction saw this, how could they miss this opportunity? They immediately stood up and spoke in agreement.

As the outcry against Yang Jun and his cronies grew, the focus gradually shifted to Cao Zhi. Seeing the gazes of hundreds of officials on the scene directed at him, Cao Zhi knelt on the ground, lowered his head, and began to speak out in his own defense.

But Cao Pi shattered Cao Zhi's fantasy with one sentence, "Marquis Pingyuan, I heard that when the Cui family was captured in Yecheng, they surrendered to the State of Jin?"

"I remember that your wife who is not married yet is from the Cui family, right?"

"What happened between Princess Qinghe and Marquis Pingyuan and surrendering to the enemy and relying on the Yuan family?"

"Has the Marquis of Pingyuan already defected to the State of Jin, and is taking this opportunity to destroy our Cao Wei state?"

Cao Zhi's lips trembled. He turned his head slightly and saw Xu Yi in the crowd. The other party was looking at him provocatively, grinning and making silent mockery of him.

Xu Chu died in the battle of Yecheng and was posthumously named Marquis of Mouxiang by Cao Cao. Then Xu Yi inherited the title of marquis and was appointed as the general of the royal family, thus gaining a foothold in the court. When Cao Zhi learned about this, he guessed that Cao Pi might have been behind Cui's death. Even if that was not the case, he should not have indulged Xu Yi. This was obviously rubbing salt into his own wounds!

This made Cao Zhi feel heartbroken and hateful. Why did he come back so stupidly?

I am so stupid that I still care about family ties. Now that Cao Cao is dead, who can help me avenge myself?

If I had known this earlier, I might as well have defected to the State of Jin with Cao Qing. Maybe one day I could kill Xu Yi. This is better than kneeling here and being humiliated!

He clenched his palms tightly, lowered his head again towards Cao Pi's raised feet, and continued to speak with difficulty, bowing his head to apologize.

Above Yecheng, Cao Qing stood on the top of the city wall and looked towards the west with a trace of confusion in his eyes. How was his fourth brother doing in Xudu in the distance?

After Cao Wei lost Yecheng, Cao Qing did not go to Jicheng to visit Madam Ding because of the war in the north. Instead, he was temporarily settled in the city by Yuan Xi.

In the meantime, Yuan Xi traveled between Jicheng and Yijing, and fought off the Xianbei invasion, but he had no time to pay attention to Cao Qing. It was not until he brought Zhen Mi back to Yecheng that he realized that he had almost forgotten Cao Qing during this period of time.

After Zhen Mi met with Cao Qing, she came back and asked Yuan Xi, "How do you plan to deal with this Princess Qinghe?"

Yuan Xi asked: "What did she tell you?"

Zhen Mi shook her head and said, "She didn't say anything. That's why I can see her struggles with her husband."

"In fact, I already knew a lot about this eldest princess. Cao Xian once came to me and asked if my husband had been neglecting Princess Qinghe because he was concerned about their sisters' feelings."

"Cao Xian said that Cao Cao had paid for the evil he had done with his death, and that Madam Huan and the others actually had no interest in revenge against Cao Cao's family. Madam Huan even visited Madam Ding several times."

"They think that the king should do whatever he wants. Are they going to let Princess Qinghe wait for her whole life?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said helplessly: "You are all overthinking. There are so many talented young people in the world. Could it be that Cao Qing must have set her sights on me?"

"And now that I'm at war with Cao Wei, what will my men think if I'm involved with Cao's people?"

"I will set out to attack the Wu Kingdom in a few days. We'll talk about Cao Qing when I come back."

After hearing this, Zhen Mi thought to herself that her husband was really deceiving himself. If you don't want to take responsibility, then just find someone to marry her off, or send her to Madam Ding. What's the point of leaving her in Yecheng for a long time?
As a result, Yuan Xi did not meet Cao Qing until he left Yecheng and headed south. Zhen Mi was quite helpless, so she arranged for Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao to take turns to accompany Cao Qing to relax, so that Cao Qing would not be upset.

Xiao Qiao was accompanying Cao Qing today. Seeing Cao Qing staring off into the distance in a daze, she whispered, "Sister, are you missing your family?"

Cao Qing came back to her senses and sighed, "Yes, I remembered my fourth brother."

"He has an extreme temper and a weak character. He was so confused that he insisted on returning to Wei. It was okay when my father was here, but I'm afraid Xudu is not a good place for him now."

After hearing this, Xiao Qiao curled her lips and said, "Is it the one who wrote the Ode to the Bronze Sparrow Tower?"

Cao Qing had also heard of this joke, so she smiled bitterly and said, "This is just a joke between the King of Jin and his wife. I'm following my father, so how could he possibly know about you two sisters?"

Xiao Qiao scratched her head, "I guess the king is just making fun of us." "Sister, you must have made a great decision to rebel against Wei, right?"

"The king is so heartless, I don't know what he is thinking."

Cao Qing's face was gloomy. "I have actually let go of the affair a long time ago."

"Your Majesty is actually very smart. The reason I did this is not only because of the infighting in Wei, but also to find a way out for the Cao family. I am also prepared to pay the price for this."

"But the King of Jin sees this very clearly. Now that Jin and Wu are fighting for life and death, if he promises me conditions, it will inevitably affect the country's plans, so he simply doesn't want to meet me."

"For someone like the king whose goal is to conquer the world, no matter how high my status or how beautiful my appearance is, I cannot be compared with this goal. The king is capable of great things, and he knows the difference very well."

"All I can think of now is that one day I can go to the Northland and reunite with my mother and brother. I will be satisfied."

After hearing this, Xiao Qiao felt very upset. She thought that being born in an imperial family meant that every family has its own difficulties.

My husband has been gone for more than a month. What has happened to Jianghuai now?
"Fire!" With the order, the Jin army's warships lit pottery balls as big as watermelons, then closed the lids to seal them, and then pushed them into the water. The pottery balls fell into the water, but sank several feet below the water surface, and then floated towards the Wu army's warships along the current.

The warships of the Jin army took the opportunity to row backwards desperately to get away, until they had rowed several dozen feet away, and then they heard a series of loud noises from behind.

As the pottery jar exploded underwater, several large holes were blown in the planks of Wu Jun's ship below the waterline, and the ship began to take in water and capsized.

This pottery jar is a simple mine with a counterweight of iron inside, which allows it to get close to the Wu army warship underwater and then be blocked by the ship's planks under the water. It then explodes and blows open the cabin, causing the ship to take in water and sink.

Although mines can be designed to be extremely complex, apart from the guidance systems of later generations, there are actually only two difficulties: one is how to maintain a certain depth underwater, and the other is how to ensure ignition in a confined space.

The former was solved after a lot of experiments, and the counterweight that was suitable for buoyancy was found. The latter was also solved by saltpeter, which could produce oxygen when heated. As long as a certain amount of saltpeter powder was mixed into the burning gunpowder, it could continue to burn.

This is also the principle of oxygen supply for sealed submarines, but after experiments, Yuan Xi found that the cost-effectiveness of submarines was too low. Not only were they easily damaged by undercurrents during flood seasons, their efficiency in releasing mines was also extremely low, which was far less convenient than releasing warships to approach the enemy.

So in this summer's turbulent naval battle, the Jin army used a large number of warships to approach and harass the enemy, and then destroy the enemy's warships, making it difficult for Wujun to cope with it.

Of course, the Wu army had rich experience in naval warfare and would not sit idly by. Under the command of Lu Ji, they mobilized a large number of warships to escort the tower ships to deal with the Jin army's surprise attack.

Yuan Xi's response to this was more direct. He threw fire bombs onto the river, setting the Wu army's warships on fire, disrupting their formation, and then waited for an opportunity to attack.

Although Lu Ji had the help of Xu Sheng and Ding Feng, his experience was limited after all. He was not used to the endless new tactics and offensive equipment of the Jin army. In the past half month, he was almost suppressed and the riverside water forts were lost one after another.

Ding Feng, who was standing beside Lu Ji, saw that the battle was going badly and his own ships were sinking one after another. He could not help but said to Lu Ji anxiously: "Commander-in-chief, I am willing to lead fifty ships to break into the Jin army and kill the enemy commander!"

"If I'm lucky, I might even be able to kill the fierce tiger!"

After hearing this, Lu Ji shook his head and said, "It's not that easy. We almost fell into a trap last time, which resulted in General Zuo Rong being injured. The enemy general is watching closely, so we still have to find the weakness of the Jin army before we can strike a fatal blow."

"Before that, you can only wait patiently for the right time. That's when you can strike."

After hearing this, Ding Feng had to suppress his anxiety and wondered if he could really wait for it.

And that Zuo Rong, he didn't fight with all his strength, I'm afraid he has some other thoughts?

Ding Feng guessed correctly. There were two groups attacking the Jin army in front. One was Xu Sheng in the west, and the other was Zuo Rong in the east.

Yuan Xi's surprise attack from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was beyond Lu Ji's expectations, because Lu Ji thought that Yuan Xi would take the Huai River, meet up with Lu Xun, and then go south from Ruxukou to break the Jin army's defense line. However, the opposite side attacked from two directions, forcing Lu Ji to send Zuo Rong to resist.

Zuo Rong was previously a subordinate of Tao Qian, but later rebelled against Xuzhou, killed several officials and generals of Xuzhou, and fled to Kuaiji with his wealth for refuge. Afterwards, he killed Zhu Jun's son Zhu Hao, was attacked by Liu Yao, and fled to the State of Wu to join Sun Quan.

Because Zuo Rong had a very bad reputation, Sun Quan did not use him for a while. Now that the Wu State was in danger, he appointed him as a general and sent him to stop the Jin army.

Zuo Rong was actually quite good at fighting. When Sun Ce was alive, Zuo Rong was one of the few people in Jiangdong who was capable of defending the city. So as soon as he went into battle, he fought back and forth with Huang Zhong on Yuan Xi's side.

But as the Jin army continued to use new weapons, Zuo Rong began to be unable to hold on. Seeing that he was retreating step by step and was being compressed into the Ruxukou waters by the two Jin armies, he knew that the destruction of the Wu navy was only a matter of time, so he began to make plans.

(End of this chapter)