Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1032 Waiting for opportunity
The most troublesome thing about fighting in a wealthy land is its dense population. Although there are many young people, if they are exploited by the enemy, they will threaten the defenders. This is extremely difficult to prevent and deal with.

However, Cao Cao was the best at this. Whenever he went to a place, he would instigate and coerce the local people to attack the city and feed the war with war. This was how Nanyang in Jingzhou was dragged down.

Zhang He and Xu Huang were alert enough and took precautions in advance, but they failed to stop Cao Cao's rapid attack. Now they lost everything in one move, and the situation was on the verge of collapse.

But the two of them could only grit their teeth and hold on. If they returned to Shouchun directly now, they would be giving up the young people of the surrounding towns with a radius of hundreds of miles, and in turn become Cao Cao's supplementary soldiers!

When they did not choose to fight hard, the two of them discussed and put the infantry into the city to defend on the road to Shouchun. They only led the cavalry as a mobile force, waiting for an opportunity to sneak around the rear of Cao's army and attack.

But after a few days, little effect was achieved. Although Cao Cao's army slowed down its marching speed, it responded well under the leadership of Cao Cao. Xu Huang and Zhang He's sneak attack did not achieve the expected results.

The two of them became more and more anxious. Now Cao Cao's army was only a few dozen miles away from Shouchun. At this distance, they could attack the city at any time!

The two of them saw that several of the nearest towns in Shouchun were captured by Cao's army one after another, and then the young men inside were captured as laborers. They then discussed returning to Shouchun immediately. Now that Cao's army had occupied various strategic points, there was no room for peripheral operations.

Zhang He said unwillingly: "I'm really embarrassed this time."

"The envoy is facing a confrontation with Jiangdong in Chaohu. I don't know what's going on."

"However, Cao Cao seized the time very well. My lord was using troops in Chaohu, and there was no time to rush back to rescue Shouchun. The winner would have to be at least ten days and a half later. Can Shouchun survive this period? It’s still unknown.”

"What!" The two of them were shocked. After asking about the situation, they looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

"Has anything like this ever happened since ancient times?"

Zhang He's heart was heavy, and he thought for a while, "Do you think my lord can make a quick decision and come back to fight against Cao's army?"

"Jiang Dong tried his best this time, but I'm afraid the situation is not very optimistic."

Xu Huang could only say: "I hope so, but we have to consider the worst case scenario before we win the battle. We must first consider the defeat."

The two soldiers stared at Zhang He and Xu Huang strangely, and said: "Report to the two generals, Chaohu and Hefei, both battles were won."

The two men led the army towards Shouchun rather glumly. This time they brought more than 10,000 people out, but when they returned there were only a few thousand people. It was a rare defeat in the past few years.

Zhang He was shocked, "Hefei was beaten?"

Xu Huang spoke up: "There is news that the fighting started the night before yesterday. I heard that Hefei was also attacked by Jiangdong Army."

After hearing this, Zhang He nodded and sighed: "Go back to Shouchun and discuss how to defend the city."

Xu Huang shook his head and said: "Probably not, otherwise the message would have been sent here long ago, and I'm afraid Jiangdong Army would attack in two directions."

As a result, they asked two soldiers and found out that Yuan Xi had returned to the city a few hours earlier than them!
After hearing this, Xu Huang asked doubtfully: "Why did my lord come back so quickly? He withdrew from Chaohu?"

"Did Hefei give up too?"

Zhang He was silent for a long time before saying, "It does seem a bit difficult."

As a result, when they arrived at Shouchun City, they were surprised to find many soldiers coming in and out of the city gate. The two of them were a little confused. Didn't they say there were no soldiers? Where did Shouchun mobilize the soldiers?

"But in the past few years, my lord has always been able to surprise people, maybe this time too?"

"Wouldn't that mean Chaohu fell?"

Zhang He shook his head and sighed: "Not to mention that my lord's fire plan defeated the Jiangdong navy, but Jiangdong's 100,000-strong army attacked Hefei and was defeated by Wenyuan's 800 cavalry?"

After hearing this, Xu Huang sighed and said: "It's difficult. Jiangdong may not have more than 100,000 people coming this time, but here in Jianghuai, we can only count on 40 to 50,000 people, right?"

"But if Cao Cao hadn't intervened and Jiangdong was the only one, he should have been able to withstand it."

"Should we say that Wenyuan is too strong, or that Jiangdong is too weak?"

Xu Huang was also speechless, "Unexpected, really unexpected."

"Yi Wenyuan has made a great contribution this time. In comparison, this time we look too ugly. Let's go and apologize to the lord together."

When the two people came to Yuan Xi's official residence anxiously, Yuan Xi had already greeted them and smiled at them: "Thank you for your hard work, two generals."

The two of them were even more ashamed. They knelt down in the tunnel and said: "My subordinates are unfavorable. They failed to stop Cao's army. They also lost their troops and generals. They ruined the lord's important affairs. I hope the lord will punish him."

Yuan Xi helped the two men up, sat down on their seats, and said, "The two generals don't have to blame themselves. In my opinion, it is extremely difficult to slow down Cao's army with this kind of troops."

He paused, "If it were me, I wouldn't be able to do better than the two of you. That's Cao Cao, he's not that easy to deal with."

Then Yuan Xi smiled and said: "My ability to come back in time is not only due to the concerted efforts of the counselors and generals, but also thanks to the cooperation of Jiangdong Army."

"If we fight for a few more days, I will not be able to return to the army in time and will be blocked outside the city by Cao's army. Then Shouchun will be in trouble."

"But now we are much more relaxed. This time, most of the troops have returned, and there are also Jiangdong soldiers who have taken refuge. Most of them are Shanyue people who have enmity with Jiangdong. They have good fighting power, although they cannot form formations without training. But it’s enough to defend the city.”

"Now I have issued an order to mobilize the surrounding towns that have not yet fallen and send troops into Shouchun. When the time comes, Cao Cao will be dragged here. As long as it survives the previous waves of attacks, Cao Cao's army will be unsustainable."

"Assuming that Cao's army will arrive tomorrow, the military affairs in the city will be handed over to the two generals." Zhang He and Xu Huang stood up quickly and said loudly: "The general will stop Cao's army to the death!"

Ruxushui, connected by Ruxukou, broke out again.

Previously, the Jiangdong navy withdrew with Sun Quan, Zhou Yu and others. Yuan Xi's navy, led by Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, followed closely and finally caught up with him at the junction of Ruxushui and the Yangtze River.

Seeing that they could not escape, Jiangdong's navy turned around and fought with Yuan Xi's navy. The two sides fought for most of the day, but the battle was still extremely stalemate.

Lu Xun stood on the bow of the ship, looking in the direction of the Jiangdong Navy, and said gloomily: "I didn't expect that the Jiangdong Navy would still have such combat power despite its defeat."

Next to him, Zhuge Liang had already put on his silk turban and crane cloak. He shook his feather fan lightly and said, "After all, there are many generals in Jiangdong. Although Zhou Yu was seriously injured and Han Dang died in the battle, there are still Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others who are enough to stabilize the situation."

"On the other hand, because General Taishi was injured, we can only rely on General Gan to hold the battle, so we are still somewhat stretched during the confrontation."

"But Jiangdong's army is gone and will retreat sooner or later. What I'm worried about is not them, but the Cao army's navy that did not participate in the war."

Lu Xun's eyes flashed, "The military advisor is talking about the one that fled back to Xiakou before the war started?"

"He is as fearful of battle as a tiger, and running away in the face of battle should not be a cause for concern, right?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head and said: "Things may not be that simple."

"I always have a vague feeling that behind his actions, there must be someone with complicated thoughts."

"If we are too aggressive, the other party may find out."

Lu Xun listened thoughtfully, and finally said: "I understand."

"Don't rush into the Jiangdong Army's formation first, slowly fight a war of attrition, and then look at the situation."

Among the docks near Wankou to the west of Ruxushui, the ships of Cao Jun's navy were hiding among them.

No one would have thought that on the night of the Battle of Chaohu, Cao's navy, under the command of Xinbi Sima Yi, first instigated the Jiangdong navy's rear troops to escape, then coerced them into occupying Xiakou, reorganized their warships, and then secretly returned!

At this moment, Sima Yi read the military intelligence reports one after another, then raised his head and said to Xin Pi: "The Fierce Tiger Navy is advancing and retreating in a controlled manner, and no flaws have been revealed so far."

"It did not directly break through the Jiangdong Navy's formation, but moved steadily to hold the Jiangdong Navy back."

"At this time, both sides have kept their distance, and their strength has not been greatly reduced. If we want to take advantage of both sides at this time, I'm afraid it will be difficult to do so."

Xin Pi agreed: "If the strength of these two sides is not compromised, we may not be able to win either side."

Sima Yi said goodbye, saying he couldn't win, but whether he could win or not.

He said: "The supervisor is right, so we must wait patiently for the opportunity."

"My lord is about to attack Shouchun. If we can capture Shouchun, and then annihilate the fierce tiger navy and Jiangdong navy that are fighting among themselves, we will be able to capture Jianghuai for my lord, and even make the first contribution to Jiangdong." !”

"So now we must stay calm, hold back until both sides fall into a quagmire that they cannot leave, look for each other's flaws, and then attack in one fell swoop to destroy the two navy armies!"

Zhou Yu screamed in pain and woke up from the couch.

He opened his eyes and felt a sharp pain in his side ribs. He subconsciously reached out his hand and touched the bandaged wound. The pain was so severe that he almost fainted.

He raised his hand and saw that the palm of his hand was still a little sticky red. He knew that the wound was still bleeding. The bed under him was shaking constantly. The smell of river water kept rushing into his nose. Zhou Yu immediately realized that this was probably on the ship. .

The memory came back to his mind, leading the troops on the shore to break up the rear, and then being shot by a stray arrow, and then his identity was unknown.

Zhou Yu smiled bitterly, completely defeated.

There were faint sounds of fighting in his ears. Zhou Yu struggled to stand up and tried several times before sitting up.

He called the guards outside the door and asked about the situation, only to learn that he was now on Sun Quan's ship. The warship was pressing down the Chinese army, and Cheng Pu and others in front were blocking the pursuit of Yuan Xi's navy.

Zhou Yu lowered his head, thought for a long time, and then said to the guard: "Help me go to see Duke Wu."

Sun Quan was sitting in the cabin, waiting helplessly. When he heard that Zhou Yu was coming, he quickly got up and welcomed Zhou Yu in. He said, "Thank you for your hard work, Commander. It's better to heal the wound first to prevent it from rupturing."

Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "It doesn't matter, Yu has failed the master's entrustment, and it is really impossible to redeem it until death."

Sun Quan said repeatedly: "What are you talking about, the governor? If the governor hadn't fought to the death to cut off the rear, I might have lost my life."

"What's the matter with the Governor?"

Zhou Yu said, "I think we should not fight the Xionghu navy any more. We should withdraw as soon as possible. This is the only way to preserve our safety."

Sun Quan asked in confusion: "Why?"

(End of this chapter)