Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1122 Encounter
When Cao Hong heard from the spies that Yuan Xi's navy was desperately rushing across the broken river mouth, his face suddenly darkened. Did the enemy want to die?
However, Yuan Xi's naval move also put him in a dilemma. If most of the enemy's fleet rushed over, his plan to break the dam to stop the enemy would be half-failed.

If he was forced to retreat and continued to use the breach of the dike to block the enemy, it would be tantamount to expanding the disaster in his own Yanzhou, and he would be the one who would suffer.

Moreover, in another month, it will be the summer flood season, and the Yellow River will only flood even more. But it is also the summer harvest season. If the area affected by the flood in Yanzhou is large, there will be a shortage of food.

The other party must have seen this clearly, so they tried their best to cross the breach area, trying to force me and drag me into the water with them, right?

Thinking of this, Cao Hong shouted: "Retreat to the next breach point 20 miles away and continue digging the river!"

"I don't believe they can keep following us!"

Jiang Qin and Lu Su stood at the bow, and finally led dozens of ships through the breach area. Looking at the broken pieces of the ship behind them, they were still frightened.

The two men did not dare to delay and immediately ordered the soldiers to speed up. However, after traveling less than seven or eight miles, the speed of the boat suddenly slowed down.

Lu Su stared at the distance carefully and said, "Something is not right."

"The water flow shouldn't be so slow, unless..."

Jiang Qin also reacted, "Unless someone upstream has dug up the river mouth again, letting the water flow out!"

He pounded the side of the boat with his fist. "No matter how hard we try, we still can't catch up!"

"The other side is really cruel, digging a river in their own territory!"

Lu Su comforted him, "For them, this is indeed the way to minimize losses."

"We don't have time to rush to the next location, and we can't let the soldiers get off the boats to fight on foot. After all, if the upstream is dug, the flood will soon overflow both banks, and it will be even more unsafe to stay on the shore."

Jiang Qin said bitterly: "Doesn't this mean that our plan has completely failed?"

"If the breach point is more than 100 miles in Yanzhou, only this area will be affected, but Qingzhou, a thousand miles downstream, will definitely suffer a major disaster this year. I'm afraid there will be no harvest and a thousand miles of barren land!"

Lu Su also looked solemn, "One year."

"We must drive Cao Cao out of Yanzhou and Jizhou within a year before we can rebuild the Yellow River embankment and prevent the downstream from being affected."

"Otherwise, from now on, the Yellow River will flood every year, and the people of Qingzhou will be homeless for decades."

Jiang Qin sighed, "How can it be called a year!"

"Jizhou will probably have to fight for a long time. It is unlikely that Cao Cao will be defeated within a year. How can we restore the Yellow River to its original state in the remaining time?"

"It will probably take several years just to repair the riverbank, not to mention disaster management!"

"Besides, the way Cao's army dug has turned this section of Yanzhou into a sieve, which is difficult to block. We have seen multiple breaches like this in Jiangdong before, and we can only start filling and blocking them during the dry season."

"But the climate in Jiangdong is warm, so we can dig during the dry season. In the Central Plains, the dry season is only in winter, and it's freezing cold. How can we block the way?"

Lu Su smiled bitterly and said, "This is not a problem we need to consider. What we need to do now is how to choose."

Jiang Qin asked, "What does Zi Jing think?"

Lu Su said, "Of course we should keep going and see where they can dig."

"And I have seen the weakness of this strategy."

Jiang Qinqi asked: "What weakness?"

Lu Su said: "The places where they dug the river were all on the north bank."

"This is to prevent Chunyu Qiong's troops on the north bank of the Yellow River from advancing at the same pace as us."

“And from beginning to end, they never dug the river from the south bank.”

"This is because the south bank is Yanzhou and Yuzhou. They need to transfer troops from them to cross the Yellow River to support Jizhou. Naturally, they will not destroy their own homes."

"So we just need to sail along the south bank. Even if there is a breach, we can always land on the south bank and get on the ship later."

"Let's push our way forward and see if Cao's army dares to continue digging the river!"

Jiang Qin listened and praised: "Zijing, this is a good idea. It satisfies my appetite. I also want to see if they are willing to flood all of Yanzhou!"

After a day and a night, when Cao Hong learned that Yuan Xi's navy was still advancing desperately, he knew that the flooding strategy would end here. However, if he waited for a month or two, the entire Qingzhou would be affected by the disaster, and the victims would become a burden to Yuan Xi, and his land forces in Qingzhou and Xuzhou could not be mobilized at will. Cao Ying's goal was achieved, but it was not suitable to dig the river at the moment, otherwise it would be self-defeating.

Thinking of this, he began to issue orders to his generals, shouting: "Gather the warships at the surrounding docks, block the river, cooperate with the infantry on the shore, and annihilate the fierce tiger navy in one fell swoop!"

Jiang Qin saw from afar that the river ahead was filled with warships, and Cao's soldiers on the north bank were ready for battle. He turned to Lu Su and said, "The other side finally couldn't help it and wanted to fight us."

He then sighed: "As a former Jiangdong general, I never dreamed that the battle site with Cao's army would not be the Yangtze River, but the Yellow River."

Lu Su sighed and said, "This is not bad. I have advised my lord... the King of Wu several times before, saying that Cao Cao is doing evil things and we should not follow him blindly, otherwise our reputation will be ruined."

"Although the King of Wu joined forces with him out of helplessness, I never thought that one day I would serve the King of Jin."

Jiang Qin said, "But considering the relationship between the King of Jin and that... lady, he won't kill the King of Wu in the future, right?"

Both of them felt puzzled. What a ridiculous thing this was. Right? King Jin was the only one in the world who could do such a thing?
Lu Su coughed and said, "With a powerful enemy at hand, let's put aside these unimportant matters for now. The enemy is flying under the banner of the Cao family, so they must be Cao Cao's trusted generals. We must not be careless."

Jiang Qin nodded and said, "I don't need to worry about that. Let's show Cao Jun that Jiangdong is not a country that gets its reputation for nothing!"

As the naval warships approached rapidly, shouts of killing rang out, and the two sides collided violently, officially opening the curtain of the Battle of Jizhou.

If you raise your perspective to a height of several thousand feet, you can see that within a radius of hundreds of miles, with Yecheng as the center, there are more than a dozen armies of various shapes and colors, rushing in all directions.

These troops ranged from a few thousand to tens of thousands, and naturally belonged to Cao Cao and Yuan Xi. Both sides mobilized their armies early and simultaneously deployed their battle lines in an attempt to seize the initiative.

And these war machines running at full speed will be encountered in the most ferocious manner in the next few days!
Chunyu Qiong, with 20,000 troops and Tao Sheng and Zhou Xin, his former subordinates from Jizhou, as his deputy generals, was rushing across the Qinghe border and advancing all the way towards the Yellow River in Yanzhou.

Tao Sheng said, "General, a spy reported that there are more than a thousand Cao troops harassing us from the north. Do you want to leave some troops to stop them?"

Chunyu Qiong said decisively: "No matter what, we must move forward to the westernmost direction where the Yellow River bursts its banks, and then go around to the rear of Cao's army. Otherwise, when the flood breaks out, we will not be able to support the navy!"

After hearing this, everyone marched with even greater force and headed straight for the place where Cao Hong, Jiang Qin and Lu Su fought.

At the border of Anping and Julu, Xiahou Dun led 30,000 troops and horses to block Zhang He's sudden attack, saying with a smile: "You thieves dared to attack Yecheng. Now that the King of Wei has discovered you, you are doomed!"

Seeing that Zhang He only brought more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, he naturally felt very confident. With three times the number of troops, how could he lose?
Zhang He laughed and asked, "A sneak attack?"

"joke!"

"I'll show you who has more soldiers!"

Then shouts of killing were heard everywhere, and Xiahou Dun received urgent news that Yuan Xi's army of about 10,000 people were flanking them on the left and right wings!
Xiahou Dun felt dizzy. Thirty thousand people?
Have so many infantry troops been deployed in previous battles against Xionghu?

Could it be that he has put all his main efforts in this direction?
But now he could no longer retreat, and had to withdraw slightly to defend against attacks from both wings. Not long after, Yuan Shao's former subordinates, General Guo Zu and Gongsun Du, respectively led their armies to attack Xiahou Dun together as Zhang He's lieutenants.

Xiahou Dun sent his men to resist, and led the opposite side in the lead with a fierce charge. He couldn't help but secretly groan. The attire of the opposite side did not look like Yuan Xi's elite Youzhou soldiers, but rather native Jizhou soldiers. Where did that fierce tiger get so many soldiers?
What he didn't know was that this was Yuan Xi's first large-scale conscription. Although their combat effectiveness was not as good as that of his direct subordinates, most of these Jizhou soldiers had fought in battles and their combat effectiveness was not lower than that of Cao's army.

Most of these Jizhou soldiers were private armies of the aristocratic families in the three counties, especially those in Bohai County. Yuan Xi recruited the aristocratic generals of Jizhou and promised them considerable conditions to let them contribute all their family's private soldiers to fight against Cao Cao.

Although these Jizhou soldiers might not necessarily decide the outcome of the battle, they were enough to maintain a stalemate with Cao Cao's army. Moreover, the previous actions of Ma Chao's army aroused the Jizhou gentry's hatred of the enemy and they all responded in unison.

An army based on private soldiers of the gentry may not be able to expand territory, but it is very active in defending the territory. After all, their livelihood depends on the land under their feet, so they are naturally very motivated to defend their hometown.

Therefore, the first time Yuan Xi adopted the approach of a large army, the Cao army, which was accustomed to being crushed by numbers, became extremely passive. Xiahou Dun was at a disadvantage from the start. While he was fighting desperately, he went straight to the west to support Cao Ren in Zhongshan.

But he didn't know that he had gained the upper hand. More than 200 miles to the northwest, Cao Ren was entangled by Gao Lan's army coming from Changshan Pass.

There were 20,000 men on each side, and the battle was evenly matched. Cao Ren didn't know that Xiahou Dun had encountered the same thing. He just wondered in his heart why Xionghu had placed so many soldiers on the flanks. Could it be that those on this side were the main force?
But when he saw the opposing general Gao Lan, he became confused again. The Cao army also had its own intelligence channels. Gao Lan had not made many military achievements in Yuan Xi's camp in recent years. How could he be qualified to lead so many soldiers?

According to the order of position, Gao Lan should be ranked at least seventh or eighth. If the people in front of him lead more troops than him, then Xionghu must have an army of 200,000, right?
How can it be?

Thinking of this, he thought that there was no news from Cao Zhen, who was sent earlier to launch a surprise attack on Gao Lan's rear. Could something have happened to him?

Cao Ren was right. When Cao Zhen and his group of several thousand Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were taking a detour, they ran head-on into Yuan Xi's army of two thousand men. When he saw the flag with the word "Zhang" on it and the general rushing towards them aggressively, he immediately judged that he had encountered Zhang Liao.

He was suddenly confused. Zhang Liao had a higher official position than Gao Lan in Yuan Xi's army, but he became Gao Lan's deputy general?

Is this reasonable?

(End of this chapter)