My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 829: Crossing Puban, Defeat Linjin, Entering Guanzhong

"Brother... why did His Majesty come in person? It's just a trivial matter of crossing the river. As long as Your Majesty gives the order, I can crush Sima Yi on the other side into powder at any time!"

One day in early May, outside the city of Anyi, the capital of Hedong Prefecture, Guan Yu personally led a small number of his generals and civil servants and marched more than 30 miles upstream along the Wei River to welcome Emperor Liu Bei who was about to arrive that day.

Before the battle started, Guan Yu in Hedong also heard about the recent situation on the southern front. It was said that since April, the court had sent Huang Zhong to harass Cao's army at Hangu Pass with a small force, forcing them to retreat. Then the court army successfully took Hangu Pass and Hongnong County.

At that time, Guan Yu thought that since the Qiaohan Road was almost opened, his elder brother should be stationed in Luoyang, waiting for him to cross the river, defeat Linjin, occupy Zuofengyi, and open Tongguan from behind.

By then, even if my eldest brother wanted to personally participate in the siege of Chang'an, he could take the land route via the Qiaohan Road to reach the city of Chang'an. There would be no need to take a long detour and cross mountains and rivers.

Unexpectedly, Liu Bei finally came to Hedong in person, intending to fire the first shot in the Guanzhong Campaign in person.

When Guan Yu first heard the news, he was a little confused, thinking that his elder brother did not believe in his ability. So when the emperor and his ministers met, his words were a little evasive, and when the words came to his lips, he still strictly followed the court etiquette and called him "Your Majesty".

Liu Bei naturally knew Guan Yu very well. From the hesitation in his address, he could tell that he was confused. Liu Bei did not shy away from him and took Guan Yu's hand and said:
"Are you still worried that your contribution is not big enough? As long as we can revive the Han Dynasty, why should we divide the military merits among ourselves? I usually don't pay attention to these things, but this is the final war to annihilate the country after all.

"I personally supervise the army for the sake of the future, so that we can better preserve our brotherhood. Besides, Yide and Zilong will also go to the battle, and they have been able to take charge of their own affairs before, so it is better for me to personally lead them, and it will also save their face."

Liu Bei was not afraid to speak out. He came today to ensure that the final battle to annihilate the country would be won by the emperor. The first credit would go to the emperor, so that the generals below would not be so successful that they would shock the emperor.

In fact, except for Guan Yu, all other generals under Liu Bei could think of this on their own, including Zhang Fei. Because in history, Liu Bei only let Guan Yu take charge of things on his own. When Liu Bei only had two states, he dared to give one state to Guan Yu to govern on his own, which shows his trust. No one else had such treatment.

In this life, when Liu Bei's territory was divided into two areas, Guandong and Guanxi, he handed over Guandong to Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu, one civil and one military, while Liu Bei himself led Zhuge Liang to fight in the west.

Therefore, in Liu Bei's camp, only Zhuge Jin and Guan Yu were used to managing the affairs of several states. But Zhuge Jin was a civil servant and did not need to directly handle frontline military affairs. Now he was promoted to one of the Three Dukes in the court, so his situation was naturally different from Guan Yu's.

Guan Yu had never paid much attention to these things, but when he was reminded of this, he was completely relieved.

This is good, brother is protecting himself.

Moreover, Guan Yu had rarely directly commanded generals of Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun's level to fight, and he would mostly assign military affairs of a state to them and let them worry about them themselves.

But now the enemy is only a small territory left, and Liu Bei has gathered so many elite soldiers and generals. If Guan Yu leads the troops, he will definitely have to micromanage. It would be embarrassing to let Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun accept the micromanagement of another general. They were originally brothers, so if they had to be divided into superiors and subordinates, it would be better to let the emperor personally micromanage, and everyone would be in harmony.

"Brother is really good at employing people and is considerate of the people. It was me who neglected it at the beginning." Guan Yu thought to himself, and his knot in his heart was completely untied.

The king and his subjects were completely frank with each other. When they returned to Anyi City, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun also came. The Zhuge brothers followed Liu Bei from Luoyang. Zhuge Liang originally wanted his elder brother to be in charge of military affairs outside, and he stayed in the court to handle internal affairs, but Liu Bei insisted on bringing him to participate in the event, saying that it would be a pity if Kong Ming was absent from such a big event. In this life, can he achieve greater martial arts in the future?

So even if he didn't need so many people to give him advice, Liu Bei still treated everyone equally. Even if it was just to help his confidant improve his resume or to have a good record in the history books in the future, he would still bring people in. The government affairs of Luoyang were temporarily handled by Lu Su, Gu Yong and others.

The high-ranking civil and military officials of the imperial court gathered together, feasted and relaxed for a few days in Anyi City, reminiscing about their long separation, and sharing their latest military intelligence with each other, making the final mobilization and coordination before the war.

After Liu Bei and Zhuge brothers listened to the enemy situation on the front line, the specific battle plan was basically ready to come up with.

After careful consideration, Liu Bei gave the task of crossing the river first to Zhou Yu and Lu Yi, who had just been transferred from the rear.

After the Battle of Luoyang the year before, Zhou Yu returned to Bohai County to serve as a civil servant because Liu Bei's army no longer needed to fight naval battles. At that time, Zhou Yu was also guilty of "not rescuing the emperor in time" and was punished together with Zhao Yun.

Liu Bei asked him to return to be a civil official, firstly to win the support of the people, and secondly to protect him. However, he has been reflecting on himself for two years now. In addition, Sun Quan and Ling Tong died in the battle last winter, and Cheng Pu was captured. Zhou Yu was no longer suspected of letting the enemy go. If there was an opportunity for a naval battle again, he might as well make up for it.

As for Lu Yi, he and Bu Zhi had been serving as officials in Lingnan for many years, and at most returned to the hinterland of Yangzhou to serve, and rarely participated in the war in the north. But this time it was a war to destroy a country, and Liu Bei also wanted to treat it equally and not let Zhou Yu take all the credit for being the first to ascend the city, which would be more convincing. So Lu Yi was also transferred here in advance, and brought with him several thousand sailors from his own lineage.

Liu Bei personally ordered: "Gongjin, Boyan, listen to my order! Five days later, on the morning of May 8th, you will each lead an army and set out to cross the river from Pubanjin and Fenyin respectively.

Gongjin went to Puban and landed near Linjin where Sima Yi was stationed. After ensuring a stable foothold, he helped the rear army land. If the enemy intercepted him on the river, he would fight them hard on the water!

Boyan went to Fenyin and landed near Heyang County on the opposite bank. He should be careful to choose a relatively weak spot in the southern suburbs of Heyang City to go ashore. If he was intercepted by the enemy navy, he would deal with it in the same way.

After the two armies gained a foothold, Yide and Zilong each led a main force of cavalry and infantry to follow up and besiege Linjin and Heyang county respectively. If the enemy wanted to attack our army halfway across the river, we would counterattack on the spot. On the naval warships, it is imperative to prepare more crossbows in advance to ensure that after the friendly forces landed, powerful crossbows could be used from the ships to cover the battlefield along the coast.

Yunchang, you will stay behind Puban for now. When the front line is firmly established, you can send boats back and ferry the central army across. I will also go with you."

"Here!"

"The general will obey the order!"

The generals agreed in unison, and their fighting spirit was high.

……

After the last military meeting before the war, each unit went to its respective attack positions to make final preparations.

Liu Bei assembled a total force of more than 100,000 to nearly 200,000 troops, aiming to achieve success in one battle.

But it is definitely unrealistic to cross so many soldiers at once, unless Liu Bei delays for another two years and allows Guan Yu to build ships in Hedong for another two years.

Therefore, in actual combat, Liu Bei felt that it would be enough to gather enough ships to ferry 30,000 to 40,000 people across in one wave. At most, after the front army gained a foothold, he could make five or six more ferries to transport all the combat troops, as well as the subsequent food, fodder, and military supplies.

With Cao Cao's current total military strength, it is less than 100,000 in total - in fact, Cao Cao also sent Cao Zhang and Cao Xiu away, taking away a large number of cavalry. Now the actual military strength Cao Cao has is less than 80,000.

It was only because Cao Cao did a good job of keeping the Western Expedition secret, so even after several months, Liu Bei only vaguely knew that Cao Cao had sent people westward to find a retreat, but Liu Bei had no idea how many people were mobilized in the Western Expedition.

But no matter what, Liu Bei and Zhuge brothers firmly believed that even if the first batch of landing was only 30,000 people, it would be impossible for Cao Cao to attack them halfway across the river with all his strength, so this was enough.

Moreover, in the last two or three days before crossing the river, Liu Bei would have Huang Zhong launch some tentative attacks in the direction of Tongguan to further divert Cao's attention and attract its troops. In this way, the resistance encountered on the day of crossing the river would be even weaker.

This idea was also suggested by Zhuge Liang. As the so-called military strategy goes, if you want to weaken the enemy's resistance as much as possible, why not do it?

Huang Zhong captured Hangu and Hongnong in April, and has been hiding outside Tongguan for more than half a month.

Originally, Huang Zhong could have been idle, but Zhuge Liang persuaded Liu Bei to give an order to Huang Zhong to continue to build the Ge Gongche and other heavy siege equipment day and night for the next half month. He also pulled a lot of catapults from Luoyang to the Tongguan front, or cut down wood on the spot to build them.

All of this was done to divide Cao's army. Cao Cao also knew that the Zhuge brothers were cunning and treacherous, and he would definitely worry that they really had some new and powerful siege weapons that could directly attack and break through Tongguan. Cao Cao would definitely not dare not be on guard. ...

Everything was ready, and the wheel of history soon turned to the eighth day of May.

Early in the morning, before daybreak, around four o'clock in the morning, Zhou Yu and Lu Yi each led 10,000 naval forces and 6,000 elite infantrymen specially used for beaching, and set sail in the dark.

The two routes together amounted to 32,000 people. Each sailor was equipped with a crossbow, which was absolutely super-equipped.

There were too many people to row the boats, and they simply couldn't be used. But Liu Bei's army was now so wealthy, and the Shenbi crossbow had been popular for several years. It was absolutely no problem for the army to gather tens of thousands of them. It was completely reasonable to equip the army that was making its first crossing today with 20,000 crossbows.

Even if they cannot be used, they can be put aside first. When the ship reaches the designated position and the enemy launches a counterattack and wants to attack halfway across the river, the sailors can stop the ship and take out the crossbows to provide fire support, which is completely in time.

Anyway, the training time required for crossbowmen is much shorter than that for archers. After three to five days of training, they will know how to use a crossbow, and after half a month of training, they can be considered proficient.

Before today's river crossing battle, Liu Bei's army had already had all the sailors practice the use of the Shenbi Crossbow repeatedly in advance, so everything was ready.

In order to ensure the suddenness of the attack, Zhou Yu and Lu Yi's vanguard troops crossed the river in the dark without lighting torches.

However, Sima Yi and others on the opposite side were indeed alert. Although they had not waited for Guan Yu to cross the river in the past six months, they never dared to relax their patrols and defenses on the surface of the Yellow River.

Soon after Zhou Yu and Lu Yi began to cross the river, they each encountered patrolling enemy fleets, and a chaotic battle broke out on the water in the dark.

"Enemy attack! Liu Bei's navy has crossed the river! Quickly light the fire to signal the enemy! Ah——"

There was a commotion on Cao's patrol fleet, and then it stopped abruptly. Apparently, the lookout who was giving the warning was shot dead by the rain of arrows from the opposite side. But Cao's warships hurriedly lit fires, and the Cao army on the shore knew that the enemy had crossed the river.

"I didn't expect Sima Yi to be so vigilant and strict in training his troops, and to have been able to raise such a loyal patrol fleet."

Zhou Yu pondered in his heart, and at the same time felt a little indignant.

Sima Xiaoer, this has ruined his sneak attack plan. He had no choice but to vent his anger on the Cao army patrol in front of him.

This Cao army patrol team had a total of 20 warships, the largest command ships were warships, and the rest were small boats. Zhou Yu saw that he had been exposed, so he ordered all his warships to light fire signals so that they could see more clearly in the dark and avoid collisions, and then attacked.

Zhou Yu's warships rained down arrows, and Cao's fleets were shot like hedgehogs one after another, and the sailors on the ships were also turned into hedgehogs. Several fleets relied on the cabins to shield themselves from the arrows, and Cao's soldiers hid in the cabins to escape. Zhou Yu drove his men to surround them, and threw swallowtail torches at very close range, and soon all the Cao's warships were burned into blazing balls of fire.

A Cao army commander and several troupes all screamed in the flames as they rushed out of the cabin and jumped into the Yellow River. Zhou Yu easily wiped out the patrol of dozens of warships, not a single one was spared alive.

Dozens of miles upstream in the direction of Fenyin, Lu Yi did almost the same thing at the same time and also annihilated a patrol team of Cao's army, thus getting off to a good start.

However, although one or two thousand Cao's sailors were killed or wounded in both routes, their whereabouts were exposed. The enemy generals on the shore received the alarm, and Cao's soldiers were awakened from their sleep, quickly dressed in their armor in the camp, and went out of the camp to form a battle array.

"The enemy is gathering, hurry up and get ashore! Send out fifty boats and land directly on the mudflat ahead. Don't worry about the boats, line up as soon as you get ashore! Send the warships up as well, and use the crossbows to cover the infantry that are coming ashore!"

Zhou Yu also knew that time was running out and the sooner they got ashore, the safer it would be, so he immediately changed the plan and gave the order.

According to the original plan, they had to carefully select the landing point when they landed. There were several locations nearby that were suitable for anchorages, which would allow the ships to return as quickly as possible after unloading the soldiers and then pick up the next batch.

But since Sima Yi had already noticed it and Zhou Yu also had to race against time, he directly asked some of the boats to take the shortest straight line and rush directly to the mudflats on the bank of the Yellow River. Even if the boats got stuck and could not be dug out in a short time and could not be used to transport the next batch of friendly troops, at least they could get ashore as soon as possible.

Moreover, the landing site is relatively muddy and soft, so it is very difficult for the enemy to launch a counterattack. If there are cavalry, the horses' hooves will be more likely to sink into the mud.

Readers who are not familiar with these geographical features only need to think about how serious the soil erosion is on both sides of the Yellow River, and they will understand.

Under the erosion of the turbid current of the Yellow River, muddy riverbanks on both sides were often washed away, and large chunks of earth were directly carried away by the river. Therefore, many farmers along the river in Henan Province joked that their land would be moved to Dongying, Shandong (the mouth of the Yellow River) in a few decades.

Zhou Yu chose such a place to land. The earth closest to the edge might be directly washed away by the Yellow River. If a small boat got stuck in such a place, it would naturally be impossible to pull it out for a while, but it would also be very difficult for the enemy to counterattack.

Sima Yi on the shore was indeed not prepared for this move. He hastily dispatched several troops to attack Zhou Yu halfway across the river, hoping to push the still unstable Zhou Yu into the river.

But when those Cao generals arrived, they were a little confused to find that Zhou Yu had chosen an unexpected place to land. However, Sima Yi's orders to them were very strict, and they knew that if Zhou Yu was allowed to gain a foothold, it would be more difficult to fight later, so they had no choice but to charge forward.

"Zhou Yu has not yet landed many people! Take this opportunity to kill their vanguard back into the Yellow River! Kill!"

After a lot of noise, Cao's army rushed forward in a chaotic manner. But not long after the charge, the front-line infantry found that the ground was really difficult to walk on, and they were all stuck in the mud.

Zhou Yu on the other side was not in a good situation either. The infantry he sent ashore were more heavily armored than Cao's soldiers. Some officers wearing armored boots sank knee-deep into the mud on the bank of the Yellow River when they stepped on it.

However, they didn't need to move much. Once they got ashore, they just stood there and waited for Cao's army to attack. This was a little better.

The massive number of crossbows prepared by Zhou Yu on the river had been drawn but not fired. Some warships even ran aground and rushed to a very close distance to provide support.

"Shoot!" Seeing that Cao's counterattack troops were approaching, the generals under Zhou Yu responded impulsively and ordered to shoot arrows.

The dense rain of arrows, as dense as locusts, flew in a curved angle and covered the Cao army that was counterattacking with some steps forward and some steps back.

"Ugh..."

"The enemy just landed, how come there are so many crossbowmen?"

Cao's counterattack troops were soon stunned by the gunfire, and the scene was chaotic for a while.

Although the hit rate of the arrow rain in the dark was not high, as they were just aimed in a general direction and covered randomly, the number was too large and too dense.

Some Cao's troops were lucky enough not to be shot, but they heard the screams and cries of pain from their comrades around them, and they were also confused. But they had no choice but to continue to rush forward like fools.

The two sides finally entered close combat, with ring-handled swords, maces and round shields clashing against each other, each strike hitting flesh, and they engaged in a brutal fight.

As the battle went on, many Cao soldiers realized that they were outnumbered, and they didn't know how many of their comrades had died in the rain of arrows fired by Zhou Yu during the charge.

(End of this chapter)