Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1074 Melee
The reason why Tian Yu and Zhuge Liang failed to arrive on time was because Cao's army upstream played a big trick.

Although Cao Cao's navy held back the Jiangdong navy in the last Battle of Chaohu, this time when Jiangdong raided the Korean Peninsula, Cao's army in Yanzhou still launched a real offensive.

Because Yanzhou had never formed a navy in the Yellow River section within its territory before, the Jin army spies in Qingzhou did not pay too much attention to it, and as a result, many details were overlooked in the intelligence.

Strictly speaking, the ships built by Cao's army in Yanzhou were not regular warships, but crude river-crossing tools. However, they were well made and could move steadily even in the turbulent waters of the Yellow River.

Moreover, it has a lot of internal space and can accommodate many soldiers. It has a sail but no deck. In comparison, it is more like a large canoe.

This type of ship is easy to build, so Cao's army built a lot of it in a short period of time. Because the matter was kept secret, Qingzhou did not get the news until Cao's army gathered and boarded the ships.

However, in order to deal with the Jiangdong navy, Qingzhou had concentrated most of its warships at the Huangxian Wharf at the mouth of the Yellow River. So when Cao's army advanced eastward along the river at lightning speed, Qingzhou had just received the news and it was too late to send ships to intercept them along the way.

It was the flood season of the Yellow River, and Cao Cao's ships came very quickly. They moved eastward along the river without any delay. They had only one goal, which was Huangxian Wharf!

At the same time, near Mount Tai at the junction of Qingzhou and Yanzhou, Lei Bu Chen Lan, a subordinate of Cao's army, reappeared like a ghost. They had previously taken a lot of refugees and civilians with them in the mountains, and attacked Qingzhou in advance, attracting the attention of Zang Ba and others who were responsible for the defense.

At that time, the news of Cao's fleet had not yet reached Zang Ba's ears, so when he heard that Cao's army was attacking, he immediately sent troops to attack Lei Bu Chen Lan. As a result, the attack went further and further away, gradually moving away from the direction of the Yellow River.

With this mobilization, Cao's army opened up the gap in Jin's military strength, and the choice of Qingzhou as a breakthrough point was undoubtedly correct, because most of Yuan Xi's army's advisers and generals were in Jizhou, while most of those in Qingzhou were civil servants, who were unable to respond.

Of course, this strategy involved many aspects and was extremely easy to fail, but the reason it could achieve such an ideal result was naturally because Cao Cao personally planned this operation.

And the facts have indeed proved Cao Cao's vision. Cao's army launched a rare and beautiful raid in recent years. In a very short time, this fleet of more than 10,000 people approached the Huangxian Wharf and launched a fierce attack.

Although there were soldiers stationed at Huangxian Wharf at that time, most of them were reserve troops from Qingzhou, and not many of them had experience in fighting. Under the attack of Cao's army, the soldiers defending the city were at a loss and almost broke the city.

The official currently serving in Huang County is Yang Xun, who succeeded Bu Zhi because of his remarkable political achievements.

It was bad luck for Yang Xin. He was good at government affairs but not good at fighting. Moreover, Huang County was not the front line of the war and was not prepared for war. Yang Xin, a civil servant, was guarding the city with reserve soldiers. Under the fierce attack of the enemy, the situation was precarious.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Yang Xun had to send people out of the city to ask for help from Zhuge Liang and Tian Yu who were waiting near the Huangxian Wharf, preparing to cut off the Wu navy's retreat.

When Zhuge Liang and Tian Yu learned about this, their faces turned grim. The Cao army had seized this opportunity too well. Now they had to face a difficult choice: should they protect Huang County or go to support Yuan Xi?
The one who was hit harder was Zhuge Liang. After he defected to Yuan Xi, he had been doing well, and even when fighting against Cao's army, he had never suffered any losses. So he subconsciously thought that Cao Cao was nothing special. He thought that although Cao Cao had been powerful in the past, he might be dying now, so why was he no longer as powerful as he used to be?

But this time Cao Cao taught Zhuge Liang a good lesson. Tens of thousands of Cao's soldiers attacked Huangxian at night with speedboats, delaying the Jin navy that was about to set out in Huangxian, in an attempt to prevent Zhuge Liang and Tian Yu from setting out on time.

Because the garrison was insufficient, Tian Yu could only temporarily pull the navy soldiers to the top of the city to defend. While ordering the soldiers to shoot arrows, he said to Zhuge Liang beside him: "Military Advisor, what should we do next?"

"Should we repel Cao's army first, or give up Huang County and go meet the lord first?"

Zhuge Liang saw Cao's soldiers attacking the city and taking the opportunity to board Yuan Xi's navy to sabotage it. He looked unhappy and said, "Although they won't set fire to the ships now, I see from their actions that they are probably destroying the rudders and other key parts."

"Even if we defeat them, we will need to spend a lot of time to inspect and repair them. The enemy generals are very good and know how to delay us at the lowest cost."

"If we ignore it and force our way out of the port, those damaged ships will get out of control and everyone on board will die in the sea."

"So my idea is to annihilate this group of Cao's troops as much as possible, and repair the ship at the same time before going out to sea."

Tian Yu disagreed and said, "If we can't get to Liaodong in time, won't the lord have to face the Jiangdong navy alone?"

"Given the comparison of the forces on both sides, even if you defeat the Wu navy, it will only be a miserable victory. It is more likely that you will be unable to handle the battle alone, and even your life will be in danger!"

"If anything happens to the lord, we will be the sinners!"

Zhuge Liang's face became even uglier after hearing this. He looked up at the sky for a long time, then closed his eyes and concentrated on calculating for a long time. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, "My lord and I have done some calculations before and considered the worst case scenario."

"Even if the Lord's fleet is completely destroyed by Jiangdong, he can still escape to the mountainous forests under the escort of soldiers, or at worst take the coastal corridor of Liaodong."

"The Jiangdong soldiers are not comparable to our lord's soldiers in terms of land and sea warfare, and with General Zhao here, we can retreat safely even if things don't go well!" "But if we lose the Huangxian Wharf, the large amount of food and goods stored at the Yellow River port, as well as baggage and weapons, will fall into the hands of Cao's army. They can use these to cut off the Qingzhou waterway with Huangxian as the center. If we don't care and let them cause chaos at will, or cooperate with Lei Bu Chen Lan in the direction of Taishan, Qingzhou might be lost!"

"So the most appropriate response at the moment is to destroy Cao's army first, and then gather ships to leave the port."

Tian Yu said in a hoarse voice: "Military Advisor, have you ever thought about what would be the point of us defending Huang County if something happened to the Lord?"

Zhuge Liang said in a deep voice: "Liang has confidence in the lord."

"And Liang will repel Cao's army as quickly as possible. Let the general rush there to meet the lord first."

"I have used the art of stargazing to see that the lord is not in danger. If anything happens to the lord, I am willing to commit suicide to make amends!"

Seeing that Zhuge Liang was so determined, Tian Yu had no choice but to accept it. The two of them worked together and quickly stabilized the morale of the panicked soldiers. Then they relied on the navy as the vanguard and launched a counterattack against Cao's army.

The general leading Cao's army this time was Li Dian. Although he was young, he had an extraordinary record in the battles of the past few years and was not afraid of death, so he was appointed as the vanguard commander this time, leading the fleet to launch a surprise attack to cooperate with the Wu navy's plan.

His initial attack undoubtedly achieved very ideal results. Li Dian even saw hope of breaking the city. However, the opponent's counterattack made Li Dian stop at the gate of the city and could not move forward any further.

Li Dian saw that the enemy soldiers organized several counterattacks and his own soldiers were unable to resist and kept falling down with casualties. He felt the pressure doubled and knew that the opponent had sent out its elite troops.

Soldiers with this kind of combat power should be the Youzhou Army under Xionghu. This certainly shows that he has successfully disrupted the opponent's plan to go to sea, but it also means that he will now have to bear the opponent's full-strength offensive.

Li Dian also began to hesitate. If he fought to the death with the enemy, he would certainly be able to inflict heavy damage on the enemy in the end, but he was afraid that only a thousand of his tens of thousands of men would be able to return alive, which meant that the entire army would be wiped out.

I have worked so hard to contain the Jin army, but even if I succeed, it will only be a favor to the Wu State. Even if the other side can kill the ferocious tiger, what does it have to do with me?
Li Dian did not think that he should be rewarded for his merits afterwards. This was not to say that Cao Cao was confusing right and wrong, but because the merit of killing Yuan Xi was too great and Li Dian could not bear it at all given his current status.

He is just a small captain now, and he still has a long way to go to climb up. Above him are deputy generals, lieutenant generals, miscellaneous generals, and four generals. So Li Dian guessed that even if he succeeded and was rewarded, he would not even get the biggest share of the credit.

So no one was willing to come this time. It was almost an opportunity to die, so no one competed with him for it. Anyway, just sitting there would also be credit, so why bother to risk his life for credit.

And the most important point is, if Yuan Xi really died, the overall situation in the world would almost be decided in advance, so would he still have a chance to move up?

In the end, what Li Dian relied on were his own nearly 1,000 private soldiers among the more than 10,000 people. If he lost all these lives today, what else would he have to fight for?
Thinking of this, Li Dian began to hesitate, and his previous attack momentum gradually slowed down. He began to gather soldiers for defense and at the same time began to think about the retreat route.

Tian Yu, who was at the front, keenly felt that Cao's offensive had weakened. He thought to himself, could it be true as Zhuge Liang thought, that there were many secret infightings in Cao's camp? If the generals coming this time were from the Cao or Xiahou families, there would surely be a fierce battle. If they were generals from other families, they would not be so desperate?
Tian Yu saw that this was a rare opportunity and naturally would not let it go easily. He immediately ordered his soldiers to organize several charges, which repeatedly defeated Li Dian's army.

But when he was about to withdraw his troops, Li Dian's army came up again and entangled with Tian Yu. Tian Yu turned around and counterattacked, and Li Dian's army retreated again.

After repeating this several times, Tian Yu finally realized that although the enemy was hesitant, they would not retreat just like that, so the siege became a stalemate and delay. While preserving his strength, as long as he could not free up his hands to go out to sea, his plan would be achieved.

Thinking of this, Tian Yu had a headache, but at this time, Zhuge Liang led his troops out of the city to find Tian Yu.

Zhuge Liang got straight to the point: "We just reoccupied the dock. I have had people check the damage to the warships and are working to repair them."

"I have marked out the ships that are not damaged and have been repaired. General, you can take these ships out to sea first and meet up with the lord."

"I will hold off Cao's army from the rear, and I will send the repaired ships to find the general later."

After hearing this, Tian Yu immediately said, "Thank you for your hard work, Military Advisor. I will set off now!"

He knew it might be too late to go now, but he could not give up as long as there was a glimmer of hope, so he quickly boarded the boat and went out to sea. However, not long after he went out to sea, he encountered the remnants of the Wu army who wanted to escape to Huangxian to plunder.

Tian Yu was filled with rage, and immediately led his fleet forward.

(End of this chapter)