Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1163 Fight
Sima Yi huddled in the corner of the trench with his head in his hands, watching Du Xi looking at him with gratitude, and thought to himself that this guy was really easy to fool.

He tried to drag Du Xi just now because he saw there was no cover around and Du Xi seemed to have fainted, so he wanted to use his body to block the iron beads falling from the sky. However, when he was dragging him, he found that Du Xi was still awake, so he could only pretend to pull Du Xi and drag him in front of him.

At that time, Sima Yi had his back against the wall, and most of the space in front of him was blocked by Du Xi. As a result, if the iron ball flew over, there was a high probability that it would hit Du Xi first.

However, Du Xi knew nothing about this. Instead, he was deeply grateful to Sima Yi for saving him. He just squatted outside as a meat shield, not thinking about Sima Yi's thoughts at all.
After a while, the sounds of explosions in the sky began to become sparse, and finally disappeared completely. Then shouts of killing rang out, and it was obvious that the Jin army was attacking!

After hearing this, Du Xi and Sima Yi hurriedly stood up. Du Xi was afraid that the camp would be breached, so he rushed to the front of the camp with his spears, regardless of the blood on his forehead, and ordered Cao's soldiers to counterattack.

Sima Yi hesitated for a moment. He always felt that the explosion seemed to disappear too quickly. However, it was rumored that the Jin army's gunpowder formula was kept secret. Perhaps it was because gunpowder was scarce?

While he was pondering, the surrounding Cao army soldiers heard the order and rushed out, occupying the strategic positions in the camp, preparing to launch a counterattack against the attacking Jin army.

Seeing this, Sima Yi had no choice but to pick up a half-broken wooden shield from the ground, cover his body with it, and prepare to climb the wooden wall. As a result, Du Xi on top exclaimed, "That's not right. Why didn't the Jin army come up?"

Sima Yi immediately broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this and shouted, "Oh no! Hide quickly!"

Before he finished speaking, the whistling sound was heard again in the distance, and dozens of black spots appeared in the sky again, flying towards this side rapidly!

Du Xi also reacted at this time. He screamed, turned over and rolled down the wooden wall, but saw that Sima Yi had already used a wooden shield to support his head and crawled back to the ditch first, and his speed was several points faster than his own.

Seeing this, Du Xi didn't care about anything else. He took two steps at a time and dived into the ditch.

The other Cao army soldiers did not react so quickly. They had just heard the order to defend, and many of them were still in a daze when the second wave of attacks from the sky arrived.

The Cao army soldiers were almost all caught by the iron beads flying out of the explosion. Many of them were pierced through the body by several black lights before they could even react, and fell from the wooden wall one after another.

Sima Yi listened to the rain-like puffing sounds all around him, curled up with his wooden shield in hand, and thought to himself that he didn't know who on the other side came up with this sinister scheme, luring people out and killing them, it was really cruel!

It is no wonder that Sima Yi was depressed. This artillery deception tactic was invented during World War II and was widely used in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. The purpose was to use the signal of a charge to lure out the enemy defending in the tunnels, and kill them with covering artillery fire while they were deploying their positions.

This tactic was adopted by Yuan Xi to deceive Cao's army, which was not familiar with fire bombs. The effect was immediate. If Sima Yi had not been so cunning, he would have given his life on the spot.

Du Xi used his hands and feet to get his head under the wooden shield. Saving his life was the most important thing at this moment. He didn't care about his manners anymore and just wanted to save his life.

Sima Yi looked down and saw Du Xi's head just below his crotch. He felt the scene was ridiculous. He had fought many battles in Yizhou, but had never been so embarrassed. It seemed that the battle of Jizhou turned out to be so disastrous not only because of the ineffective resistance of Cao's generals.

At this time, Du Xi screamed as an iron ball shot into his thigh. The iron ball was so fast that it penetrated Du Xi's flesh and flew out and embedded itself into the earth wall next to Sima Yi.

Sima Yi reached out and picked the iron bead out of the soil, placed it on his palm to observe, and found that it was not an iron bead strictly speaking, but one with pointed ends and thick in the middle, like a miniature shuttle. No wonder it was so powerful.

Du Xique was twitching on the ground in pain. Fortunately, the iron shuttle did not hit his bones, but his flesh and skin were seriously injured. Blood soon flowed out, soaking half of Du Xique's pants.

But he was also tough, knowing that no one could help him at this moment, so he had to shrink his body as much as possible, and at the same time tore off strips of cloth and bandaged the wound.

Sima Yi saw this from the side and thought that he was indeed a veteran of the battlefield and at least had the ability to save himself. He raised the wooden shield to slightly cover Du Xi's head and asked, "Who is the other side's commander?"

Du Xi said: "It is Zhang He from Hebei."

After hearing this, Sima Yi said, "The four pillars were all generals under Yuan Shao. In addition to their bravery, they are also powerful figures who can use the strategy of false and real so skillfully."

Du Xi held back the pain and said, "It may not be Zhang He, it could be his military advisor!"

"I met the military advisor once before when I followed General Xiahou into battle. He was young but very arrogant. He even wanted General Xiahou to surrender."

"General Xiahou naturally rebuked him, and the two sides started to curse each other. The man was very eloquent and his curses were extremely disgusting. In the end, General Xiahou couldn't help but go out and kill him himself. As a result, he was almost ambushed. It was General Yu who risked his life to save General Xiahou."

Sima Yi listened and pondered, "What is the name of the military advisor?"

Du Xi thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be Zhuge Liang."

"He is younger than me. He was once known as one of the Four Friends in Jingzhou along with Meng Gongwei and others. But somehow, he was highly valued by Xionghu. He has made quite a name for himself in recent years. He is known as Xionghu's right-hand man along with Jiangdong Lu Xun."

When he said this, he sounded quite sour, because originally the reputation of the Four Friends of Jingzhou was not as great as that of the Four Friends of Yingchuan, but because of the emergence of Zhuge Liang, they surpassed the others.

After hearing this, Sima Yi said, "I have heard of this man. He is Xionghu's most capable military advisor."

"With Zhuge Liang here, it's no wonder Xiong Hu himself didn't come."

Du Xi was shocked, "Is this person so powerful?"

Sima Yi said slowly: "Although the reputation is great, the strength still needs to be tested on the battlefield."

"I also want to see if this man is really worthy of his reputation!" The shouts of killing sounded again, Sima Yi listened attentively and said, "This time they are really attacking."

"The strategy of false and real is not something that a military commander would do, but rather something that a counselor would do. I'm afraid that the person sitting opposite is, as you said, most likely Zhuge Liang."

"I'll go meet him, you wait here."

Du Xi watched Sima Yi leave with his shield in hand, and thought to himself, "The shield is so broken, why don't you leave it to me and find a new one for yourself?"

The pain in his thigh was so unbearable that he had to retreat back into the ditch.

Twenty miles to the north of the camp, the two armies had already been fighting to a standstill.

Yu Jin commanded his infantry to form a battle array and resist the repeated attacks of Zhang He's army. At the same time, he was anxious because the enemy obviously wanted to drag him here. Something must have happened in Xiahou Dun's camp behind him!

Unfortunately, Yu Jin was the commander of the infantry, so it was difficult for him to retreat and he would easily be defeated. So he could only form a battle array and slowly retreat, trying to find a suitable opportunity to leave the battlefield.

Zhang He on the opposite side naturally understood Yu Jin's intention. He rode his horse to the front of the formation and shouted, "Yu Jin, come and fight me in single combat!"

Yu Jin would naturally not be fooled. If he were to fight the opponent in a one-on-one duel, and was defeated, his side would be doomed!
Seeing that Yu Jin was not fooled, Zhang He continued to shout: "Yu Jin, you have made great contributions to Cao Ying over the years, but how did Cao Ying treat you?"

"You are only a lieutenant general now, right?"

"Xiahou Dun has won fewer victories than your eleven, but he is the commander-in-chief every time. Do you think this is fair?"

Yu Jin held up his shield and counterattacked: "Zhang He, don't try to sow discord!"

"Ming Gong has been very kind to me. Do you think you can sway me with your sweet words?"

Zhang He sneered: "At this time, you are still deceiving yourself!"

"Does the grace of knowing you mean sending you to your death?"

"Do you know what happened to the tens of thousands of Qingzhou troops a few days ago?"

Some days ago, the Qingzhou Army had served as a vanguard bait, but as Cao's army retreated and dug a river, the Qingzhou Army became a rearguard force. Under the double blow of the flood and the Jin Army, tens of thousands of Qingzhou Army were almost killed or wounded, with only one in ten surviving. They were already in name only.

Yu Jin sneered, "After all, aren't you the ones who killed them all?"

"No need to waste time, let's see what's going on!"

Zhang He smiled and said, "Don't worry, someone has already attacked you from behind. Once they surround you from both sides, you won't be able to escape even if you have wings!"

Yu Jin's heart tightened. The person he was most wary of was not Zhang He, but the military advisor named Zhuge Liang. Now Zhang He was in front and Zhuge Liang was nowhere to be seen. He was afraid that he had gone to attack Xiahou Dun!

Yu Jin was extremely afraid of Zhuge Liang's strategy. In his mind, Xiahou Dun could not defeat Zhuge Liang. If the camp behind him was broken, he would be surrounded as well!

Thinking of this, he suppressed his anxiety and mobilized his soldiers to defend. Zhang He was impressed by Yu Jin's flawless defense and thought that his cavalry could not break into Yu Jin's infantry formation. As the two sides fought each other, the variable would be the chariot team that was going to attack Xiahou Dun's camp.

While the fighting in Jizhou was going on bloody and violent, the situation in Shouchun was relatively peaceful.

However, the warships entering and leaving Shouchun Port every day, as well as the soldiers they carried, indicated that the war machine in Jianghuai had also started to move.

Most of them were transported to Runan, Yuzhou, while some of them were headed towards Chaohu Lake.

The reason for this is that in addition to Cao's army reinforcing Yuzhou, Jiangdong started to make trouble again.

Some time ago, Jiangdong and Liu Bei temporarily ceased fighting, so Liu Bei transferred his troops in Wu to Jiaozhou to attack the rebellious Nanman.

At the same time, because Liu Biao was seriously ill, Liu Bei sent Guan Yu to guard Jingnan. At the same time, Yuan Xi transferred Lu Xun to Yuzhou to attack Cao Cao, leaving a gap in the defense of the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Then Jiangdong sent several generals to encroach on the territories of Liu Bei and Yuan Xi, openly or covertly. Gan Ning, who stayed behind, could not bear the disturbance and reported the news to Shouchun.

At that time, Yuan Xi had just arrived in Shouchun and was preparing to take Lu Xun and Wei Yan to do a big battle. As a result, when the news came, Yuan Xi could only send Lu Xun to help Gan Ning first.

At the same time, Yuan Xi made an exception and appointed Wei Yan as the General of the Western Expedition, to cross the Huai River and confront Cao Xiu and Le Jin, while Yuan Xi himself stayed in Shouchun to support both sides.

As a result, his plan to support Jizhou was largely disrupted. Now he was depressed and began to write letters to curse Sun Quan, the rebellious son.

(End of this chapter)