Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 601: South Breakthrough
In October, the Yizhou navy set off from Jiangzhou, and its fleet reached Yufu, where it joined forces with generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. With 60,000 troops and ships stretching seven miles along the river, they sailed majestically out of the gorge.

On the fifteenth, the fleet was about to leave Xiling Gorge. At that time, because the entrance to Xiling Gorge was narrow, Le Jin led his men to carve rocks on the north bank and attach three iron chains to block the upstream, intending to block the waterway between Jing and Yi prefectures and prevent the navy from going south.

Having prepared in advance, Guo Huai built dozens of bamboo rafts, equipped with torches and hemp ropes, and had skilled swimmers guide the rafts. When the bamboo rafts were blocked by iron chains, the torches were lit to burn the chains. Under the intense heat, the three iron chains were melted in just half a day.

With the Xiling Gorge entrance open, the navy sailed eastward downstream, its ships covering the river, its banners and armor gleaming in the sun, and charged straight to Wolf Tail Beach.

Le Jin deployed 4,000 soldiers at Langwei Beach, with the fierce general Jiang Qin commanding the south bank and Cao general Sheng Rong assisting in the defense on the north bank. At that time, Langwei Beach was a steep and dangerous place with a rapid current, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Upon seeing the enemy at Langwei Beach, Guan Yu volunteered to fight. Guo Huai ordered him to lead his elite troops, advance by boat with the Dan people, and strike directly at Jiang Qin's camp. Meanwhile, Wen Ping received the news and ordered the brothers Huo Du and Huo Jun to lead 3,000 elite troops westward from Jiangling and advance along the north bank of the Yangtze River to attack Sheng Rong.

At dawn, the Tang army launched an attack on both the north and south banks, with land and naval forces coordinating their operations.

On the Langwei Beach river, several Dan people rode in large warships as the vanguard, while the rest followed in small boats carrying soldiers.

The fervent war drums echoed the surging waves as Tang army ships sailed down the river, charging towards dozens of Cao army warships that were coming to meet them.

"shoot!"

As the two armies drew closer, arrows were launched in succession, leaving arcs in the air. Due to the swift current of the river, many arrows missed their mark. After the second volley of arrows, the boats cut through the waves with the wind, and the Tang soldiers, shields raised and arrows in their face, were already close to the enemy ships.

As the ships collided, short spears were thrown and attacked, followed by a sudden roar from the soldiers. Taking advantage of the collision, the Tang soldiers jumped onto the enemy ship.

"Kill the thief!"

"Death to the thief!"

"kill!"

The collision produced a creaking sound as the wooden blocks rubbed against each other, and the two sides remained locked in a fierce struggle, neither willing to back down.

Guo Huai sat atop a large warship, standing at the bow, his eyes fixed intently on the battle raging on the river. Compared to the cold of Guanzhong, the Yangtze River, though the wind was biting, was not particularly cold.

On the north bank of the river, the Huo brothers launched a fierce attack on Sheng Rong's camp. Because all the cities on the north bank were now under Tang control, Cao Cao's remaining troops were few, and Sheng Rong was almost unable to withstand the Tang army's onslaught. Before the outcome of the naval battle was clear, the camp was breached.

Sheng Rong originally intended to escape by drifting down the river in a small boat, but considering the strength of the Tang army and the inability of Cao's army to stop them, he was terrified and led his troops to surrender to the Tang army.

With the surrender of the north bank to the Tang, the boats on the river could not withstand the fierce fighting of the elite Yizhou navy. Cao Cao's army abandoned several ships, and the boats retreated from Langwei Beach.

The camp on the north bank surrendered, and the naval forces retreated in defeat, leaving Cao Cao's army alone on the south bank. Under cover, Guan Yu led three thousand elite troops ashore.

Jiang Qin fought bravely, leading his troops in a fierce battle on the riverbank. Thousands of soldiers from both sides clashed in close combat, shouts of battle echoing across the sand, and the carnage was extremely brutal, with corpses and blood flowing everywhere.

"Send Gan Ning ashore to lend Guan Yu a hand," Guo Huai instructed.

"promise!"

As the first line of defense, the Yizhou navy had the advantage of having a large number of troops, while Jiang Qin had no reinforcements.

With Gan Ning leading a thousand men ashore, Guan Yu and Gan Ning's forces attacked together. Although Jiang Qin defended the terrain, he could not withstand the onslaught of the two fierce generals. By afternoon, Jiang Qin led his troops in retreat, and over two thousand of Cao Cao's men were captured.

Before the expedition, Zhang Yu issued an edict to all armies, forbidding the killing or humiliation of prisoners, ordering the release of all captured prisoners and ensuring they were not harmed in the slightest. Thus, of the two thousand prisoners, Guo Huai, having ascertained the military situation, kept only a few as guides, while the rest, under Sun Zi's arrangement, received rations and returned home.

The two thousand captured soldiers of Cao Cao were overjoyed, thanked Zhang Yu for his benevolence, and returned home in high spirits.

After breaking through Langwei Beach, Gao Shun led 20,000 infantry and cavalry ashore and advanced alongside Guo Huai's naval forces, committing suicide at Jingmen Mountain. The fortifications at Jingmen Mountain were formidable, and the prefect, Yue Jin, personally led his troops to garrison it.

Having lived in Shu for a long time, Gao Shun was well-versed in the methods of traversing mountains and taking shortcuts, so he planned to go around to the back of the mountains. Meanwhile, Guo Huai led his troops ahead of time, taking advantage of the fact that most of Cao Cao's navy had not yet arrived. With Gan Ning leading the Tanka people as the vanguard, they broke through the Jingmen waters again, preparing to encircle Yue Jin with Gao Shun.

In fact, when Cao Ren learned that the Yizhou navy had set out eastward, he had already sent Taishi Ci with a navy to advance westward. However, when they passed near Jiangling, they were intercepted by the navy led by Wen Ping. The two armies fought a great battle on the river, and Huang Zhong was ordered to break out from Yangshuikou and defeat Taishi Ci.

The Yangshui Canal was built under the supervision of Sun Shu'ao during the Chu Kingdom period. At that time, the capital of Chu was Ying, near Jiangling, and its food supplies depended on the Jianghan Plain. If they wanted to dominate Nanyang, their military supplies often had to be transported downstream to Xiakou, where they would enter the Han River and then reach Xiangyang. The waterway was nearly two thousand miles long.

To facilitate the dispatch of military provisions, Sun Shu'ao relied on the lakes and waterways surrounding Jiangling to construct a canal from Jiangling to Jingling, opening up a waterway between the Yangtze and Han Rivers, with a total length of about two hundred li, greatly shortening the original distance. The Jingzhou navy was stationed at various ports along the Han River, and with the help of the pumping canal, it could send ships to Yangkou and Xiakou without having to go through the Yangtze River to transfer.

Therefore, Cao Ren originally intended to rescue Yidao, but because Zhang Liao's troops were stationed in Hankou, threatening him from the east, he dared not lead a large army to advance rashly. He feared that if he advanced rashly, Zhang Liao would send generals to launch a surprise attack on Changsha. Thus, when Yue Jin was defending Jingmen Mountain, he received no reinforcements for a long time.

When Yue Jin saw that the Yizhou navy had reached the vicinity of Yidao, he was worried that he would be surrounded by the Yizhou troops. So he disregarded Gao Shun and burned the camp overnight, leading his troops to flee into Yidao.

After retreating to Yidao, Le Jin distributed all his wealth to his soldiers, preparing to lead his troops to defend the city to the death.

Meanwhile, seeing that he could not break through the blockade of Wen Ping and Huang Zhong, and fearing that Yidao City would fall, Taishi Ci abandoned his boats and marched straight to Yidao City. After a day and night march, Taishi Ci led 5,000 elite soldiers into the city and joined forces with Yue Jin to defend Yidao.

Gao Shun set up camp at Xiaoting and joined forces with the naval forces led by Guo Huai, preparing to first break through Yidao before advancing westward. At that time, the Tang army numbered fifty to sixty thousand, while the defending army numbered more than ten thousand, and a battle of attack and defense began on the spot.

The military intelligence was relayed down the chain of command and reached Cao Cao, who was stationed at Chaisang. Hearing that troops from Yizhou were marching east, Cao Cao led his army from Chaisang to relieve Jingzhou.

Cao Cao sent troops to Chaisang. Zhang Liao, along with generals Wang Wei, Hao Zhao, Huang Zu, Han Xi, and others, led 80,000 troops to garrison Xiakou, where they were stationed on the north bank to directly confront Cao Cao's main naval force.

Fearing that Zhang Liao would cut off his retreat if he advanced eastward, Cao Cao led his troops to garrison on the south bank, preparing to first defeat Zhang Liao and then defeat the Yizhou troops surrounding Yidao.

With Cao Cao holding Zhang Liao back, Cao Ren was able to leave Baqiu and lead nearly 30,000 infantry and cavalry to Gong'an, where he faced off against Wen Ping and Huang Zhong, who were stationed on the riverbank in Jiangling.

Besides the Tang army, the barbarian king Shamoke of Wuxi, under the lure of a large sum of money from the Tang envoy and suffering from oppression by the Cao people, led tens of thousands of barbarian soldiers in rebellion. They marched north from Henshan to Yidao and joined Gao Shun's camp.

Gao Shun was overjoyed to have tens of thousands of barbarians as his allies. He ordered the old and weak in both armies to build earthen mounds, intending to break through the barbarian road within a few months.

With nearly 100,000 troops besieging the city, the Yidao Cao army faced immense pressure. To boost morale, generals Yue Jin and Taishi Ci almost always led from the front. For example, Taishi Ci, with his exceptional archery skills, specifically targeted and killed Tang soldiers to bolster the army's morale.

On the western front in Jingzhou, the armies of Guo Huai, Wen Ping, and Zhang Liao, having just made contact with Cao Cao's forces and unsure of the enemy's strength, dared not rashly engage in battle. In contrast to the conservative western front, on the eastern Huainan front, the armies of Li and Xu were more aggressive.

Li Song led the Chinese army south along the Ru and Ying rivers, gathered in Huaibei, and took advantage of the receding water level of the Huai River to build a pontoon bridge on the river, break through the outer camps, and besiege Shouchun.

Xiahou Dun obeyed Cao Cao's orders and led nearly 20,000 soldiers to hold Shouchun, without making any move to send troops out.

Upon learning that Cao Cao's main army was not in Huainan, Tian Feng suggested a plan to attack Hefei.

Hefei is adjacent to Chaohu Lake, which connects directly to the Yangtze River. If Hefei can be captured, the route connecting Shouchun to the Yangtze River will be cut off, and the strategic importance of Chaohu Lake can be seized, allowing the army to reach the Yangtze River. At that time, Jiangdong will be undefended, and it may be possible to send troops across the river to sweep through the southeastern prefectures; or it may be possible to besiege Shouchun for a long time, waiting for it to run out of food and be in dire straits before surrendering and breaking through the fortified city.

Shouchun was a fortified city, and Li Song was aware of this beforehand. Therefore, he decisively adopted Tian Feng's strategy of attacking Hefei and ordered Zhao Yun to lead 20,000 troops south.

Zhao Yun's troops arrived in Chengde first. The city only had a few hundred soldiers, and the defending general, knowing he was no match for the Tang army, surrendered to Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun left troops to defend Chengde while he led his own troops to attack Hefei.

The general defending Hefei was Cao Zhen. Because of Hefei's strategic location, Cao Cao granted him several thousand soldiers and ordered him to lead the troops to defend the city. Seeing that Cao Zhen refused to surrender, Zhao Yun was temporarily blocked at the city walls and reorganized his troops to besiege the city.

When Li Song's army penetrated deep into Hefei, Xu Huang, leading only 50,000 troops from the coastal region, was considered a detachment. Therefore, Cao Cao left approximately 10,000 troops in Huaiyin, guarded by General Cheng Yu.

Xu Huang had long heard of Cheng Yu's reputation. Upon learning that Cheng Yu was the garrison commander of Huaiyin, he adopted a strategy similar to that of Tian Feng without hesitation. He personally led his troops to besiege Huaiyin and ordered Jia Qu, the governor of Xuzhou, to lead his troops down the Han Canal to first capture Sheyang City in order to cut off reinforcements from heading north.

Jia Qu, having long resided in Xuzhou, understood that Sheyang City was bordered by a lake to the west and the coast to the east, making it difficult to capture quickly. Therefore, he employed a feint attack, ordering his troops to halt midway, pretending to build a camp. In reality, they sailed out of the Huai River estuary, heading south along the coast, intending to land on the shore and launch a surprise attack on Sheyang City.

As expected, Wen Ji, the garrison commander of Sheyang, fell into the trap. Seeing that most of the Tang army's troops were deployed in the Hangou Canal, he planned to wait for the weather to get cold and freeze before launching a surprise attack on Jia Qu's troops. Therefore, he moved his troops to the river and lake.

Jia Qu led his troops on a three-day march, landed on the coast at night, and launched a surprise attack at dawn.

Because the city walls were undefended, Jia Qu easily captured Sheyang City. Wen Ji was furious and wanted to retake the city, so he led several thousand troops to fight Jia Qu. In the open battle, Jia Qu deployed his troops and defeated Wen Ji, beheading hundreds of enemies.

Wen Ji fled in panic, leading his defeated troops to Guangling, where he joined Xiahou Shang in defending the city.

Jia Qu temporarily stationed himself at Sheyang, cutting off communication between Huaiyin and Guangling, and recruited rebels to serve as guides for the southern expedition.

The crossing of the Huai River by over 100,000 Tang troops caused panic among the people of Jiangdong. To avoid being purged after the defeat, many wealthy families secretly wrote letters to the enemy, revealing a great deal of information about the Tang army's defenses.

(End of this chapter)