Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1290 Accident
Two hours later, Hua Tuo came out of the tent covered in sweat. He was almost exhausted and needed the support of two students to stand steadily.

When he saw Yuan Xi, he said, "Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission. At least I have saved him. However, the military advisor needs to rest and observe for a few days before we can judge whether he is safe."

Yuan Xi knew that this kind of surgery was most afraid of post-operative infection. Although Hua Tuo had made proper preparations and tried to reduce the wound as much as possible during the craniotomy and immediately blocked it with cotton soaked in alcohol after draining the blood, the conditions in that era were limited after all. Whether Pang Tong could survive the infection and what his recovery would be like depended on luck.

Thinking of this, he nodded and said, "Then you can stay here for a few more days, sir."

Liu Bei came over and said, "I will stay here with the military advisor, and prepare to return with the army."

Yuan Xi knew that even if Liu Bei wanted to attack the State of Wu now, he was powerless, because Liu Bei only had three to five thousand soldiers left, and almost everyone was injured, and more than half of the generals were killed. Under such circumstances, it was impossible to capture Nanchang.

It can only be said that Liu Bei's luck was really bad. He happened to encounter Sun Quan's main force. After a fierce battle between the two sides, it cannot be said that he was crippled, but that he was only left with one breath.

In fact, Yuan Xi did not expect this situation. First, he did not expect that Sun Quan would finally stand up. Second, he did not expect that Sun Quan would direct his spearhead at Liu Bei instead of himself.

Logically speaking, shouldn't Sun Quan hate himself the most for marrying Madam Wu? Could it be that he was really afraid of doing something bad to Madam Wu?
Yuan Xi shook his head, thinking that it was useless to think about these things now. He had indeed sent Wei Yan to attack Nanchang in advance, but Sun Quan was defeated faster than expected. Yuan Xi was worried that Wei Yan would be caught in the act. Now that the soldiers had rested for several hours, it was time to mobilize the fleet to sail from Poyang Lake via Ganjiang River and approach Nanchang City as quickly as possible.

He did not hesitate and said goodbye to Liu Bei: "In this case, I will go first. Please take care, King Hannan."

Liu Bei stood up and returned the greeting, saying, "Take care, King Jin."

Yuan Xi wanted to bring up the matter of Mrs. Mi again, but later felt that the occasion was inappropriate, so he kept his words to himself, bowed to Liu Bei, and led his generals away.

Gan Ning and others had been waiting by the river with their troops organized. When they saw Yuan Xi coming back, they gave an order and the fleet raised their sails together, braved the wind and waves, and headed straight for Poyang Lake. It took the fleet more than two days to pass through Poyang Lake and approach Nanchang City.

Nanchang became famous in later generations, in large part because of the Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng, which contains a sentence "It is surrounded by three rivers and five lakes, it controls the barbarians of Jing and attracts the Ouyue people", which shows that it has a rich water system. But this sentence also shows that even in the Tang Dynasty, the area of ​​Yuzhang was called a wild land. The reason was that the water system of Yuzhang was too rich, so the roads were not smooth, and many times there were swamps and dense forests, making it quite difficult to travel.

In this situation, when Yuan Xi sent Wei Yan to launch a surprise attack on Nanchang, he actually did not have much hope. However, he could not resist Wei Yan's strong request before the battle. Considering Wei Yan's previous successful experience in Yuzhou, Yuan Xi agreed.

However, in the Battle of Chaisang, Sun Quan was defeated prematurely and fled back to Nanchang, which made Yuan Xi even less confident that Wei Yan would succeed. After all, with the complex terrain near Nanchang, even if Wei Yan did not get lost, it would be difficult for him to threaten Nanchang before Sun Quan arrived.

However, when the fleet reached Hukou, north of Nanchang, they heard deafening cries of killing. The gates of Nanchang were wide open, and soldiers were constantly being sent out from the city to join the chaotic battlefield outside the city!

Yuan Xi was confused, what happened?
But he knew that the opportunity was not to be missed, so he immediately ordered the fleet forward. As the warships hit the dock, the Jin army generals and soldiers rushed down like wolves and tigers and headed straight for the city gate.

Upon seeing this, the Wu army commander on the other side of the city wall immediately closed the city gate. Thousands of Wu soldiers outside the city shouted and cursed. They saw the Jin army rushing over and after a little resistance, they had to kneel down and surrender.

Yuan Xi was standing at the bow, and saw Huang Zhong leading Wei Yan over. He then realized that the army that had just fought against the Wu army was actually Wei Yan's army. He was extremely surprised, and hurriedly went up to them and said, "Wen Chang, you actually did it?"

Wei Yan showed a trace of regret on his face, and said: "It's a pity that Yan failed to successfully launch a sneak attack on Nanchang."

He briefly reported the situation here. It turned out that seven or eight days ago, after he defeated the Wu army, he led 5,000 elite troops, secretly bypassed Poyang Lake from Yuzhang on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and attacked Nanchang from the southeast.

The journey would be five or six hundred miles, and the road was difficult to travel, which was almost impossible to do. However, Wei Yan had the experience of last time and made sufficient preparations. He not only studied multiple routes, but also found local soldiers in the Jin army to lead the way. Then, relying on some light boats, he boldly took a shortcut through Panyang Lake.

This gamble was very successful. All the Wu navy went to Chaisang, and the defense line of Poyang Lake was useless. No one even discovered Wei Yan's cavalry. In the end, Wei Yan arrived half a day earlier than expected. He sent people to lurk in the woods outside the city, waiting for dark to attack. However, when it was almost dusk, the spies reported that a fleet was coming from the north.

Wei Yan paid money to check and found that this fleet had obviously been through a fierce battle, most of the ships were damaged, and the soldiers were in a miserable state. They must be the defeated Wu army.

After thinking about it, he believed that the fleet would definitely be in a hurry to enter the city, so he ordered the entire army to approach the dock under the cover of night and wait for the Nanchang city gate to open when the fleet entered the city. He would then lead his troops straight to the city gate and attack the city!
At this time, Wei Yan did not know that this remnant army was Sun Quan's defeated fleet. Zhou Cang led the navy to support Chaisang, but Zhou Tai blocked them. Only Sun Quan and the military supervisor Yan Jun escaped with a dozen boats. After that, Zhou Tai and Zhou Cang were both injured in the fight. Zhou Tai took the opportunity to retreat, and finally caught up with Sun Quan and joined forces when they were about to reach Nanchang.

Sun Quan's face turned pale when he heard from Zhou Tai that the Wu army's infantry had fought a desperate battle with Liu Bei and were completely wiped out, Zhuge Jin's whereabouts were unknown, and Zhu Ran had died in battle. He brought 20,000 soldiers with him when he left, but only two or three thousand remnants when he returned. The Wu Kingdom was about to be destroyed!

He was distracted and commanded the fleet to sail to Nanchang Wharf, completely unaware that Wei Yan had been eyeing them covetously. As a result, after nightfall, when Nanchang opened the city gates to welcome Sun Quan, Wei Yan decisively launched a surprise attack.

The Wu army was caught off guard. Although the city sent out the few thousand remaining old and weak soldiers to rescue, and Yan Jun and Zhou Tai fought desperately, they prevented Wei Yan from breaking into the city, but the Wu army suffered heavy casualties in the surprise attack.

After a battle, the Wu army retreated into the city, but Wei Yan failed to enter the city. The only result was that Wei Yan took advantage of the darkness to chop Zhou Tai, who was originally injured, into a serious injury. Although Zhou Tai was rescued into the city, he was afraid that he would not live long. Seeing that the surprise attack failed, Wei Yan could only camp outside the city and wait for Yuan Xi to come. However, the Wu army did not defend the city well for the next two days. Instead, they kept going out of the city to fight with Wei Yan, which made Wei Yan quite worried.

Yuan Xi was puzzled and was about to speak when Lu Xun on the side said, "Something is wrong."

"Nanchang is already in danger. They should be able to guess that our army is coming. If they want to break the impasse, they should send people to various cities to ask for help and send troops, while preserving the strength of the defenders in the city. How can they go out of the city and fight General Wei like this?"

Gan Ning said, "I am also surprised that even a civilian official who does not know military affairs cannot make such a decision, not to mention that the officials and generals of Wu are not stupid."

Yuan Xi said: "If things are abnormal, there must be something wrong. If Wu State is not forced into a desperate situation, this is impossible."

At this point, everyone reacted, and Gan Ning said in a lost voice: "No way?"

Wei Yan was still rubbing his head, "Ah, I can't be so lucky, right?"

Lu Xun laughed, "It would be interesting if Sun Quan died in the Wei general's surprise attack or his whereabouts are unknown."

"Looking at the Wu army's situation, Sun Quan is either dead or missing."

"The Wu army is in such a hurry to leave the city, it is very likely that they are searching for Sun Quan's whereabouts!"

"As long as we block the passage leading out of Nanchang, Sun Quan will not be able to return even if he survives. I'm afraid Nanchang will collapse without a fight in a few days!"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi also laughed and said, "If this is true, it would be too absurd."

"Bo Yan, you are responsible for mobilizing all the troops and blocking Nanchang. At the same time, send people to contact the spies in the city to see if Sun Quan is really missing!"

Lu Xun immediately accepted the order. He thought for a moment and said, "The Wu army still has many cities in Yuzhang. It is possible that they will send reinforcements. To be on the safe side, I hope you will stay on the ship."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi immediately nodded in agreement. He stood at the bow, watching the generals and soldiers coming and going. In Nanchang City, I was busy setting up camps and blocking roads. I thought to myself that it would be difficult to rest for the next two days.

He entered the cabin, and Master Bu, who was grinding medicine, came to greet him. Yuan Xi explained the situation and said, "You can take a break these two days. You don't have to work so hard."

Master Bu Lian said softly, "That's the herbal medicine that Master Yuan Hua told me to boil. He said it's for preventing disease. I must watch the king drink it."

Yuan Xi looked at Master Bu Lian's serious expression and couldn't help but smile and said, "Okay, I happen to be free too, let's grind the medicine together."

The cabin window was opened and the midsummer wind blew in, bringing with it a hint of heat. Master Bu Lian rolled the grinding wheel vigorously, and his temples were already slightly sweaty. He could not help but breathe heavily.

Seeing this, Yuan Xi took the grinding wheel from her and said, "You should take a break first. It's very hot in Nanchang in summer. The climate is quite different from Xuzhou, right?"

Bu Lianshi resisted the urge to open her collar and fan herself, revealing a section of her fair neck. However, she immediately realized that it was indecent, and quickly turned her body to the side, saying shyly, "Indeed, the wind here seems to be like water, enveloping people and making it a little hard to breathe."

She whispered, "But maybe the scene on the river was too horrible. I have never seen so many dead bodies. Why could such a horrible thing happen in this world?"

Yuan Xi held the wooden handle of the grinding wheel, his hands kept moving, the herbs in the grinding wheel creaked, and gradually turned from twigs into powder. He seemed a little absent-minded, and said: "One general's success is the result of the sacrifice of thousands of people. To change a dynasty, I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of people will die."

"When an emperor ascends the throne, it is a throne forged with the flesh and blood of all people, so when you are in a high position, you must remember how you got this position."

"I hope this chaotic world can end soon."

A clear cry was heard, and the two could not help but look outside. They saw a pair of yellow cranes circling and dancing in the blue sky covered with green waves, flying towards the rising sun.

(End of this chapter)