Three Kingdoms, I'm really not a general!

Chapter 286: Attack on Jiangdong

Hefei.

Zhang Liao was under a lot of pressure.

After the last Battle of Hefei, Cao Cao was worried that Jiangxi would be looted by the Eastern Wu army, so he ordered the people of Jiangxi to migrate to the Central Plains.

When the people passed the news to each other, they were terrified. More than 100,000 households in Lujiang, Jiujiang, Qichun and Guangling crossed the Yangtze River to Wu.

As a result, Jiangxi was depopulated, and only Wancheng remained south of Hefei.

When Sun Quan's army came to besiege Wancheng, Lu Xun made a feint to the east and attacked in the west, thus besieging Wancheng.

Lu Xun attacked Wancheng, and Wei general Zhu Guang and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians defending the city were captured.

Zhang Liao rushed to Wancheng from Hefei for support, and learned that Wancheng had fallen while on the way.

Therefore, Zhang Liao quickly built a fortress called "Nanxiashu" to the south of Xiashi as an outpost of Hefei to resist the army of Jiangdong.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Zhang Liao turned north for help. However, before the news reached Yecheng, Xun You and Cao Pi had already arrived with reinforcements.

When Zhang Liao heard that Xun You was coming, he immediately greeted him and said, "Today, the Eastern Wu army of 60,000 to 100,000 surrounded Hefei City. I was just about to go north to ask for advice, but I didn't expect you to arrive first."

Xun You said: "It is useless to defend the city. If the Jiangdong army arrives, we should go out of the city to fight and leave a small number of troops to defend the city."

Zhang Liao was stunned when he heard this.

There are less than 10,000 people in Hefei right now. How can they go out of the city to meet the enemy when there are 60,000 troops outside?

Because of the disparity in military strength between the two sides, all the generals were confused by this instruction.

In the atmosphere of "all the generals are suspicious", Zhang Liao couldn't help but ask: "The last time we attacked Sun Quan, it was because Sun Quan was useless and didn't know how to lead the troops, so we killed him."

"Although Lu Xun, who is leading the army now, is a rookie, he has his own way of deploying troops. How should we go out of the city to fight?"

Xun You said: "The King of Wei is unable to lead his army to fight outside. If we cannot get reinforcements today, if the Jiangdong army really besieges the city, the isolated city will surely be breached."

"So...we should attack the enemy before they gather. We should first defeat their morale and stabilize their troops. Then we can successfully defend the city."

"Success or failure depends on this battle. General, do you still have any doubts?"

"After a while of attack, the King of Wei will send troops from Yanzhou and Yuzhou to defend Huainan together, and Jiangdong will definitely return without success."

Zhang Liao nodded after hearing this.

Since Xun You said that reinforcements will arrive soon, it would be natural for us to go out into the battle and weaken the enemy's morale.

...

The next morning, as the sun was rising, Zhang Liao, wearing armor and holding a spear, went up the ladder first and charged straight into the enemy's formation.

He charged forward and killed dozens of Eastern Wu soldiers and two Eastern Wu generals personally.

While shouting his own name loudly, he charged into the camp of Eastern Wu.

In this way, they rushed all the way to the commander's flag, just like when they rushed into Sun Quan's camp.

Just when I thought I was about to succeed, I heard a command coming from the enemy camp!
"Halberd Guards!"

"kill!"

Zhang Liao was shocked when he heard this, and sure enough, he saw teams of guards holding long spears to prevent Cao's army from rushing up.

Soon, a man rushed out from the formation. He didn't look like a military general, but rather a scholar.

Holding a precious sword, he raised his head and shouted to the sky: "Zhang Liao! You bullied my master in the past. Today, I, Lu Boyan, hold the sword of the Marquis of Wu and avenge you!"

Seeing that the commander was right in front of him, Zhang Liao wanted to kill him with all his might.

However, each of these long-halberd guards was an elite unit that was not afraid of life or death, so it was difficult for Zhang Liao to defeat them even on horseback.

Instead, several of his deputy generals were killed.

He immediately realized that the situation was hopeless and quickly led his troops to retreat.

Lu Xun took advantage of the situation to counterattack, but fortunately Li Dian and Le Jin risked their lives to rescue him, otherwise Zhang Liao would have been in danger.

Only after today's battle, facing the Wei army that has always won battles in Jiangdong, did we realize that Lu Xun, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Wu who came today, is not an incompetent person.

I am afraid that the battle of Hefei has reached its most difficult stage.

Xun You saw that Zhang Liao had not won this battle, but he knew that this time a strong enemy had come! He quickly wrote back to Yecheng, asking the troops of King Wei of Yanzhou and Yuzhou to defend Huainan together.

But this matter made one person very dissatisfied!
Who?
It was Cao Pi who followed.

As Cao Pi thought, his own army had always won when fighting against Jiangdong before!

But when I came, I suffered a setback.

If your father knew about this, wouldn’t you blame yourself for being incompetent?
However, I had no way to defeat the enemy and could only feel depressed.

After much thought, there is no other way. If we cannot defeat the Jiangdong people, the bottom line is to defend Hefei.

Thinking in this way, he could then go to Xun You to discuss countermeasures.

That day he went to Xun You and said, "Lord Xun, I see that the Jiangdong army is strong today. I'm afraid that the troops from Yan and Yu alone are not enough."

"You can ask for more reinforcements to avoid any loss."

Xun You certainly knew what Cao Pi was planning.

The first time Cao Pi was transferred out by the King of Wei to lead the troops, it was not that Hefei must not be lost, but that he himself must not lose!

However, seeing that Cao Cao was seriously ill, the person who would inherit his mantle would most likely be Cao Pi. Even though Xun You knew what Cao Cao was thinking, he did not dare to point it out.

He simply explained: "Mobilizing the troops from Yanzhou and Yuzhou is already the limit."

"At present, Chang'an and Fancheng must be guarded by troops, and we must leave room to avoid accidents."

"Our military strength is indeed stretched to the limit at the moment, but we have 20,000 soldiers in the two states, which is enough to defend the city."

"It's just that Wenyuan failed to win the battle before, and he is afraid that the road will be cut off and the reinforcements will not be able to enter the city."

That's it?

That’s all?

Cao Pi originally wanted to bring more reinforcements, but he was shocked to find that not only would more reinforcements come, but now his route was blocked and even the original reinforcements could not arrive.

But he cried: "What should I do?"

Xun You was calm and said calmly: "It's okay. As long as Hefei doesn't fall, the troops will find a chance to enter sooner or later. Don't be impatient, or you'll reveal your flaws."

Seeing Xun You so calm, Cao Pi felt a little more at ease.

But the situation was so critical that he had never imagined it when he came.

But there was nothing I could do, I just felt more and more depressed.

...

Xing Daorong was naturally very concerned about the battle situation in Hefei.

However, news spread too slowly these days. By the time someone in Jiangdong passed the news to Xing Daorong, half a month had passed since Lu Xun won the first battle against Zhang Liao.

After hearing that Jiangdong was progressing smoothly, Xing Daorong immediately wrote a letter and sent it to Guan Yu, saying that the time had come!

And the reason why the two had to use letters even though they were so close to each other was naturally because of the drama of continued discord.

The two of them didn't even see each other, which made everyone in the army feel that something was wrong.

All kinds of rumors, those that were out of control, started spreading.

"What happened to General Zuo and General Qian? Why don't they even see each other?"

"Don't you know? The former general took away General Xing's merits twice before!"

"That's right, otherwise Cao's army would have been defeated long ago!"

"This is troublesome. Logically speaking, we are all General Guan's soldiers. So should we still listen to General Xing?"

"Yeah, yeah...if a fight really breaks out, who are we going to listen to?"

"Nonsense, of course I'll follow whoever he follows, this matter...is not something we can get involved in!"

There was a lot of discussion in the camp, but no one noticed that Bao Long had a grim look on his face and was listening to everyone talking.

(End of this chapter)