My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 341 Fleeing Li Mancheng
The first day of August, the seventh year of Jian'an.

It was also the fourth day after Zhou Yu launched his first surprise counterattack in Rizhao Port and defeated Sun Guan's troops.

Under Zhou Yu's harassment, Cao's army along the coast of Langya County finally began to mobilize and shrink.

The Cao army, which had been stationed in almost every fishing village along the Langya coast, was now like frightened birds, gathering in groups of at least several thousand people to build camps and defend.

The smaller strongholds were all completely burned down by Cao's army, and then they gradually withdrew from the northeast to the southwest.

Of course, Zhou Yu was always well aware of these latest developments.

Every day, his patrol boats would bravely disguise themselves as fishing boats and go to the coastal waters for reconnaissance. Even if they were discovered by Cao's army, they could still escape with their speed advantage.

When Cao's army arrived, they had no warships and could only fight back by relying on small fishing boats seized along the coast. Therefore, as long as Cao's army dared to go to sea to pursue, they would be hit head-on by Zhou Yu and completely annihilated before they had to go far.

After trying this once or twice, Li Dian and Sun Guan learned their lesson and never dared to go to sea again. Even though Zhou Yu's patrol boats were just a mile or two away from the shore observing the movements of Cao's army, Cao's army remained unmoved.

If you want to watch it, just watch it. Anyway, you don’t plan to stay for long. You will only be able to watch it in a few days. If you can’t afford to offend, you can always avoid it.

……

"The governor's use of troops is truly amazing. In just a few days, he has defeated Cao's bandits along the coast and forced them to withdraw. The men of Jiangdong are no match for those northerners in naval battles."

On the sea off Langya, a fleet of several thousand men was patrolling in the most advanced warships, searching for opportunities to fight. After hearing the latest situation reported by the patrol boats, several generals around Zhou Yu could not help but admire Zhou Yu's ability to use troops.

"What's the matter with the commander-in-chief or not? The lord and the envoy allowed us to form an army on our own and take charge of this war. This is a sign of trust in us. Although there are no outsiders at the moment, you should also pay attention to changing your words!"

Zhou Yu put down the telescope, put on a stern face and scolded them a few words, which finally made those crude warriors restrain themselves a little.

Jiang Qin, Xu Sheng and other generals quickly apologized, saying that they were just used to calling him that, and there were no outsiders around at the moment, so they were careless. They would definitely call him captain in the future.

After all, Zhou Yu had not made any achievements before his surrender to Liu Bei, so Liu Bei had already trusted him by allowing him to retain his title of lieutenant. Zhou Yu himself had no complaints about his current treatment, as he did not want to be harmed by those careless old subordinates.

After finishing the rules, Zhou Yu returned to the cabin, scribbled a few strokes on the sea chart, and fell into deep thought again, muttering to himself:
“If I were to deploy troops, since I knew that the coastal areas were unstable and could be easily defeated by the side with superior naval forces, I should have retreated quickly.

But judging from the reaction of Li Dian and Sun Guan, their retreat was very slow. They just gathered small groups of troops, stationed thousands of people at each point, and then slowly retreated from north to south. Each place was 70 to 80 miles apart, which was about a day's forced march.

The two or three hundred miles of coastline now form three isolated strongholds, including Rizhao Port. Isn't Li Dian afraid that I will concentrate my forces to attack one of them and annihilate the Cao army there? Or does he think that increasing the number of troops in each place to four or five thousand will be enough to hold on for a long time? "

A few days ago, when Zhou Yu attacked Rizhao Port for the first time, the landing force he mobilized was indeed not large. At that time, there were only more than 2,000 Cao troops assembled in an organized manner on the shore. Zhou Yu assembled five or six thousand people in one go, forming an absolute advantage in local forces.

After landing and forming a battle array, they rushed forward in a rush. Since Cao's army had no strong camps built in these seaports, they were defeated in one fell swoop.

Zhou Yu thought to himself: If Li Dian thinks that I only have so many troops, so he also gathers his troops, with four to five thousand people in each place, and then builds wooden fences and rammed earth fortifications, he can defend himself and avoid being breached, that is also possible.

But this idea is a bit passive, just like the beads on an abacus, which only move when they are pushed.

What if he could gather tens of thousands of ships and naval forces at once? If he gathered four or five thousand people to form a group, wouldn't he be crushed by the superior force and suffer more losses in vain?
What Zhou Yu wanted to know was why Li Dian and Sun Guan, although they had thought of withdrawing their troops, didn't do it all at once, but instead withdrew so slowly and in steps.

If you know that something is right, you should do it thoroughly. What's the point of just fiddling with it and moving it about?
He was mumbling to himself, and had not expected the warriors and generals around him to answer him. Unexpectedly, Jiang Qin, who was born a pirate, suddenly had an idea and offered a suggestion:
"Captain, do you think it is possible that... Sun Guan was born a bandit from Mount Tai, and is greedy for money and property, so he is reluctant to part with the supplies that have been transported up?
Cao's army had been wreaking havoc along the coastline for a month, and the captain had been keeping his troops in place until then. In order to maintain control over the coastal ports, Xiahou Yuan ordered Li Dian and Sun Guan to slowly move along the coast with carts loaded with food to transport the stored military rations to various places, as a long-term strategy.

Now our army has finally closed the net and hit them hard several times. If they want to retreat hastily, they will have to abandon these stored military rations and supplies. If they are reluctant to give up, they will have to slowly return along the same route. They have reduced their forces to several strongholds, and the distance between each point is roughly the distance that the convoy travels for a whole day. "

After all, Zhou Yu was born into a noble family, he had never lived a hard life, nor had he been a thief. His sense of empathy and understanding for the lower classes of society was still lacking.

Besides, he is only 27 years old after all, and Zhou Yu also needs to grow up.

After being reminded by his former pirate subordinate, he suddenly realized this possibility. Zhou Yu patted Jiang Qin on the shoulder with relief:

"When three people walk together, there must be one who can teach me. I think I know a lot about military affairs, especially naval warfare. But today I am not as good as Gong Yi. I have to admit defeat. It turns out that Sun Guan was reluctant to part with those supplies. This is not surprising.

Xiahou Yuan had already asked them to retreat, but they thought it wouldn't hurt to delay for another five or six days, or even seven or eight days, to transport the remaining food and other military supplies back. In this case, of course I must make them pay the price for what they have done.

"Pass on my order. The whole army will gather to the sea off Jiaoshan tonight and land at 4am to launch a pincer attack on the Jiaoshan Water Fort. Make a lot of noise, light more torches, and pretend that tens of thousands of people are landing. Let us send Sun Guan and Li Dian off again."

Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng immediately expressed their willingness to obey military orders and start preparations.

Jiaoshan is a mountainous area on the west bank of Jiaozhou Bay in later generations. It was called Jiaoshan during the Han Dynasty. It is also the place where Langya County, Beihai County and Donglai County border each other.

The Jiaozhou Bay or the area around Qingdao in later generations was divided into three counties at the end of the Han Dynasty. The west bank of Jiaozhou Bay belonged to Langya County, the north bank belonged to Beihai County, and the east bank belonged to Donglai County.

Because Jiaozhou Bay is suitable for building a deep-water port, there is also a water fort near Jiaoshan where Li Dian and Sun Guan are stationed, with several thousand troops stationed there. Since the retreat order of Cao's army was issued, the military supplies and baggage in the frontline areas will first be concentrated back to Jiaoshan, and then protected by heavy troops, and transported back to Rizhao by convoys, and then transported back to the inland.

Although looking at the map, it is quite close from Jiaoshan to Gaolan where the troops were stationed to besiege the counties of Lu Su, it is only less than a hundred miles away.

But in fact, Li Dian and Sun Guan could not take this route. They had to go back to Rizhao along the coastline, then go back to the Shushui River basin on the plain, and then go upstream to Juxian and Zhuxian, making a big circle. Because the straight road from Jiaoshan to Zhuxian is all through the steep mountainous area of Yimeng Mountain, there is no way to go. If the troops marched on foot, they might be able to cross the river at the cost of a certain number of casualties, but they would definitely not be able to cross the river with large carts and baggage.

All these geographical disadvantages were destined to be borne by Cao's army when it chose Langya, a place that was not contested by military strategists, to fight.

Who told you to fight in the poor and barren Yimeng Mountain area?

……

After Zhou Yu figured out Li Dian and Sun Guan's weaknesses, everything was arranged in an orderly manner according to plan.

In the late night, or an hour and a half before dawn the next day, with the advantage of one-way intelligence transparency, Zhou Yu's troops assembled all their ships and naval forces and landed smoothly in the north and south directions of Cao's Jiaoshan Water Fort.

They made a great show of attack, with each man holding several torches, and stormed the Cao army camp.

The general who was guarding the water fort that night was actually Li Dian. Li Dian was good at learning lessons. He was much calmer than when Sun Guan was attacked in Rizhao a few days ago, and he also built strict fortifications.

During Zhou Yu's first wave of attack, Cao's army defended the camp in a very disciplined manner.

Even though the bows and crossbows could not aim at distant targets in the dark, and could only fire blindly, the Cao army still persisted for a long time. In the hand-to-hand combat, the Cao army even had a good exchange ratio.

Liu Bei's army, which was reorganized from the surrendered troops in Jiangdong, once had to pay nearly twice the casualty exchange ratio to kill the Cao army soldiers guarding the camp - but fortunately, this fierce fighting did not last long, and the overall intensity was not high.

After only an incense stick of time, Cao's army was in panic and chaos. Zhou Yu's fierce attack and charge frightened Li Dian's troops, especially when Zhou Yu ordered the rear army to beat drums frantically and each person held several torches.

In the dark night, Li Dian's soldiers only felt that there were endless reinforcements of Liu Bei's army rushing up from behind.

In addition, the warships of Zhou Yu's troops on the sea also changed their previous "blackout" and lit torches. They also tried their best to disperse the fleet that had already landed. From a distance, it seemed that there were countless fleets on the sea.

This bluffing finally caused the morale of Cao's army to collapse. The generals around Li Dian could not hold on any longer and advised their leader, "General, let's break out! Liu Bei has too many ships and can probably land tens of thousands of people. We are alone here and may not be able to hold out for a day! General Sun was just defeated a few days ago. Even if he knew the enemy situation, he might not dare to come to rescue us!"

Li Dian brandished his sword to supervise the battle, trying to stabilize the morale, and shouted loudly: "We can't retreat! We are now behind enemy lines. If we abandon the camp, it will only collapse faster! We will only be completely annihilated by the enemy!"

The general's face was covered in blood, and he screamed to help Li Dian with advice: "General, don't worry! Liu Bei's army is attacking along the coastline in the northeast and southwest. As long as we abandon the baggage, travel light to the depths of Mengshan in the northwest, and walk to the siege camp of the counties to meet General Gao Lan, we can escape!

This way, at most we would lose some supplies, horses, and armor, but at least we could save our lives! If you ask me, it's all because of Sun Guan, the Taishan bandit who was born and raised. He coveted wealth and goods, so he had to retreat slowly and orderly and transport all the goods back, which caused us trouble!
As long as we can save our lives and return, General Xiahou will definitely not blame you. You can put all the blame on Sun Guan! In the final analysis, it was Sun Guan who was greedy and not decisive enough. We just fell into the trap by cooperating with him!"

Li Dian himself still wanted to resist, but seeing that his troops were in panic, he was frightened by Zhou Yu's momentum.

Moreover, in order to appear to have more people, Zhou Yu's troops were no longer satisfied with having a few more torches in the rear, but instead set fires everywhere. For a while, there were flames in many directions in Cao's camp, making it increasingly difficult to see the number of enemy troops.

Li Dian knew that he was ultimately harmed by Sun Guan's reluctance to give up military supplies and baggage. He sighed, gathered the troops he could still control, broke out from the northwest direction of Jiaoshan, and crossed the mountain into the depths of the Yimeng Mountains.

However, due to the ruggedness of the mountain route, Li Dian abandoned almost all the war horses in the army, and the soldiers also threw away their heavy iron armor and helmets. Only soldiers wearing light armor such as leather armor could continue on their journey.

Li Dian abandoned all other heavy supplies in the food tent. The only thing he could do was to set a fire before leaving the camp, trying to burn as much as possible and reduce the amount seized by Zhou Yu.

Even so, after Li Dian chose to break out, Zhou Yu did not relax and immediately sent people to attack Li Dian's rear army, attacking and expanding the results of the battle, and annihilating more than a thousand Cao troops. It was not until Li Dian went deep into the mountains for more than ten miles and the road became difficult to travel, and Zhou Yu's soldiers began to fall and be injured, that Zhou Yu stopped.

The subsequent forced march of more than 80 miles across the Yimeng Mountains was bound to result in hundreds of Cao's soldiers falling off the cliff and dying. The supplies that Li Dian left behind and had not yet been burned were all given to Zhou Yu.

That night, Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng were each responsible for attacking Jiaoshan Water Fort in one direction. Jiang Qin attacked the northeast and Xu Sheng attacked the southwest. They finally met in the camp smoothly. Looking at the large amount of supplies captured, the generals were inexplicably excited.

Letting Cao's army occupy the area for a month and slowly transporting military supplies from the rear was thought to be a long-term strategy, and it turned out to be a brilliant move.

Anyway, anything that Cao's army can't finish eating or using will eventually be given to Liu Bei's army.

Just when Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng were celebrating their victory and were planning to relax, Zhou Yu found them again and said, "Hurry up and bandage the wounded, and let those who can continue to fight go aboard to rest. We don't have time to waste."

After this victory, the enemy troops in the other coastal ports and water forts will inevitably become frightened birds. We must take advantage of the momentum of Li Dian's defeat to capture the remaining two coastal ports and water forts. We don't need to fight a hard battle, just scare them into abandoning their supplies and retreating lightly. Also, bring a few more captured Li Dian's officers and soldiers, so that we can shout and strike at the enemy's morale. "

When Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng heard that there was still a battle to be fought, they quickly restrained their laziness, reorganized the tired soldiers, announced a unified reward after the war, promised that the soldiers would not be treated unfairly, and then set out on the journey again.

Two or three days later, Zhou Yu, relying on the power he had gained after defeating Li Dian, successively defeated two coastal port water strongholds of Cao's army. There were no tough battles in each place, and there were not many casualties. In each place, only a few hundred enemies were killed and over a thousand were wounded or captured.

But the key point is that Cao's army was forced to retreat several times faster, and most of the heavy supplies were not taken away in time. They could only set a fire before their defeat and burn as much as they could.

After this battle, Cao's army learned a lesson: never think that you can control the coastal routes and block Liu Bei's army's traffic by occupying the seaports. A series of seaports guarded by separate troops is like delivering food to the enemy who concentrates superior forces.

Not to mention stockpiling supplies needed for long-term defense in a series of seaports and water fortresses. If you stockpile too much, they are all for Zhou Yu, and you will only become the enemy's transport captain.

(End of this chapter)