Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1175 Accident
Zhang Yun arrived with his fleet. He stood at the bow and watched. Seeing that Yiling City was under attack in the distance, he quickly gave orders, ordering the fleet to form a formation, rush to the foot of Yiling City through the waterway, and attack the enemy together with the defenders in the city.

Before he set out, he received news that the troops coming to attack Jingzhou were not only Liu Bei's army, but also the Xionghu army. Therefore, he was very cautious when arranging the battle formation, and also used a small flying boat as a vanguard to explore the way to avoid being ambushed by the enemy.

Sure enough, as soon as the fleet arrived at the river mouth, it was attacked by rockets from both sides of the river. The rockets did not hit the small boat in front, but directly aimed at the sails of the large ship in the middle. When this wave of rockets came over, the sails of more than a dozen large ships immediately caught fire.

Zhang Yun had heard that the Jin army had new weapons, but this was the first time he saw them. Seeing the soldiers in a panic, he shouted at them to put out the fire quickly.

But at this time, dense arrows were shot out from the woods on the shore, knocking down the soldiers on the vanguard ships one after another. Zhang Yun saw this and shouted loudly: "Don't shoot, the enemy has an ambush, but the attack is not intensive. It is obvious that they are trying to delay time!"

"Don't worry about them, just rush to the city!"

Lu Xun, who was in the woods on the shore, saw that Zhang Yun's fleet was briefly in a panic, but still stabilized its formation and rushed over. He thought that the Jingzhou navy was indeed capable. They saw the weakness of their own lack of manpower so quickly. He was afraid that they would be difficult to deal with.

He acted decisively and launched a rocket. Sparks exploded in the sky. When the soldiers upstream of the river saw it, they decisively pushed the trees they had cut down previously into the water. In a moment, hundreds of trees flew down the river at a rapid speed and crashed into Zhang Yun's fleet.

Most of these trees still had their crowns, blocking the river. They continued to accelerate in the water flow and crashed into Zhang Yun's fleet that was coming head-on.

The first to bear the brunt of the attack were the dozens of flying boats in front. They had no way to avoid the impact of the trees and overturned one after another. After falling into the water, the soldiers struggled to float in the river, and their cries for help were endless.

Zhang Yun originally wanted to rush forward, but when he saw that the trees had blocked the entire river channel, he had to order the fleet to slow down and wait until the trees had passed before making any plans.

The trees stopped hitting the large ships. Although they could overturn small boats, they were not enough to cause enough damage to the large ships. After half an hour, only a few large ships were leaking.

Seeing that the trees were becoming sparse, Zhang Yun decisively ordered the boats to sail. When Lu Xun, who was on the shore, saw this, he secretly groaned in his heart.

Because of the tight time schedule, the amount of wood his soldiers were able to cut was limited. The trees far from the river were difficult to carry even if they were cut down, and the trees on the shore would be cut down sooner or later.

If the other side successfully lands at that time, our side will be in a passive position. The Jingzhou army is not a weak force. I am afraid that the promises I made before will not be fulfilled!
Zhang Yun watched the fleet slowly approaching the dock on the shore. There seemed to be hundreds of enemy defenders on the opposite side, who were still shooting arrows at the bows of the ships. He ordered the soldiers on the ship to fight back. He had thousands of archers, and they quickly forced the defenders to retreat under their volleys of fire.

With a few bangs, the first few large ships crashed heavily into the dock. Hundreds of soldiers immediately jumped off the ships, trying to rush to the foot of Yiling City first.

However, what was waiting for them was a loud bang, hundreds of people were blown away, and the entire dock collapsed.

Zhang Yun was on the flagship at the back. He saw a huge cloud of smoke rising. His ears were buzzing. A black object flew over and hit him on the forehead.

He subconsciously wiped it off, but when he looked down, his hands were covered in blood. He thought he was shot by a stray arrow, so he immediately shouted for the healer to come over. The lieutenant general beside him took a closer look and quickly said, "Sir, it's nothing, this is half of the dough that was blown to pieces."

Zhang Yun quickly slapped the broken meat on his forehead to the ground. Seeing that there seemed to be half a piece of nose on it, Zhang Yun felt even more disgusted and almost vomited.

What made him even more scared was that if he had gotten to the dock a moment earlier, he would be the one dead now!

While he was hesitating, Lu Xun's army on the shore had blocked the passage leading to the Yiling city gate with trees and was ready for defense.

Zhang Yun was still in shock, but he still ordered his soldiers to disembark and start fighting. The two sides immediately launched an offensive and defensive attack. Lu Xun commanded his soldiers to reinforce the camp, dig deep trenches, and confront Zhang Yun's army.

At the foot of Yiling City, Liu Bei was personally leading several generals to attack the city. When he saw Pang Tong with his arm wrapped, he said, "Military advisor, please stand back. I will hold on."

Pang Tong was shocked, "No, my lord, your body is worth millions of gold, how can you personally go to the battlefield?"

Liu Bei laughed and said, "Military advisor, you underestimate me. I have been in the army for twenty years and fought dozens of battles, big and small. I have braved arrows and stones every time."

"Military advisor, please watch carefully and see how we defeat the enemy!"

Seeing Liu Bei rushing forward with several deputy generals, Pang Tong felt unwilling. He blamed himself for his previous negligence and recruited too few generals for Liu Bei!

There were many famous civil officials in Jingzhou, but because of the long period of peace, there were not many capable military generals. After Pang Tong became the military advisor, he tried his best to find many talents for Liu Bei, but there were only a few who could lead the army.

However, most of those who have the talent of military commanders lack practical experience. Just like the several generals that Liu Bei has now, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi are all young men in their twenties and are not yet capable of taking on the important task of being the main general. And given the current situation, if there were a general as great as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Yiling might have been captured long ago!
Liu Bei stood on a simple tower cart and ordered the soldiers around him to shoot arrows. The soldiers below pushed the tower cart slowly towards the top of the city. When the defenders saw this, they shot arrows one after another. The arrows flew over like raindrops and hit the wooden baffle beside Liu Bei, with a continuous thumping sound.

Liu Bei drew the double-edged sword from his waist, held it in his hand, and then swung it vigorously, "Everyone follow me to the top of the city wall, fight to the death for survival, success or failure depends on this!" After hearing this, the soldiers of Liu Bei's army shouted and climbed up the city wall. Liu Bei originally wanted to climb the city wall himself, but was stopped by his personal guards and had to command from behind.

In the midst of his busy schedule, he turned around and saw at the river mouth in the distance that Lu Xun's army was leading people to prevent the Jingzhou navy from landing. He thought that now it would be a matter of seeing who was faster. With the breakthrough speed of the Jingzhou fleet, Lu Xun's side might not be able to hold out for three days, or even a day.

This is also the reason why Liu Bei was anxious to climb the city wall himself. Only by taking Yiling could he save himself and then support Lu Xun. However, in this way, attacking the city by himself would be a desperate gamble and many soldiers would die.

Thinking of this, Liu Bei was suddenly stunned. Logically speaking, he should not be so confused about public and private affairs. Could it be that he did this because Lu Xun was his son-in-law and he didn't want his daughter to be a widow?
Thinking of his first wife who died in Xuzhou, Liu Bei felt sad. Forget it, just be willful. If Lu Xun died here, I'm afraid his first wife would scold him in the netherworld, right?
Liu Bei calmed himself, took a step forward, raised the double-edged sword in his hand, and shouted: "Follow me!"

On the other side of the city wall, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi had both rushed to the top of the city wall. They broke into the defenders' formation with incredible swiftness, hacking and slashing in coordination, and soon approached Huo Jun who was supervising the battle.

When Huo Jun saw the two men rushing over, he immediately asked his soldiers to stop them, and he ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows to suppress the enemy archers on the chariot.

At this moment, a building vehicle crashed heavily into the wall in front of him, the wooden boards opened, and dozens of soldiers rushed out, rushing towards Huo Jun.

Huo Jun was caught off guard and quickly drew his knife, and led his soldiers to meet the enemy. However, at this time, a man rushed out from the crowd, holding a long knife in each hand, and chopped at Huo Jun on the head.

Huo Jun was puzzled, because the ring-handled sword was used with both hands, so how could it be used as a single sword?

As a result, the general on the opposite side attacked Huo Jun with one sword after another, and after a few moves, he suppressed Huo Jun.

Huo Jun was surprised. He thought that his military strength was among the best in Jingzhou. Who was the powerful general of Liu Bei's army?
While he was parrying and defending, he was observing carefully and saw that the opponent's arms were extremely long, which made full use of his advantages. His ears were also very distinctive, with very long earlobes, which could be said to be a rare appearance.

Huo Jun felt more and more puzzled, so he asked, "Who is coming?"

The man drew his sword and shouted, "I am Liu Xuande. I am leading the troops to break into the city today. If you surrender, I will not hurt a single person in the city!"

Huo Jun was shocked. "You are Lord Xuande, the King of Hannan?"

"Impossible, why would you come to attack the city in person?"

Liu Bei shouted: "Why not?"

"I was ordered to suppress the rebellion and support the Han Dynasty. Liu Jingsheng was a hero, but he didn't know how to judge people, so Liu Cong defected to Cao Cao, the Han traitor. You are his accomplices, so I have no choice but to take action!"

"If you still refuse to change your ways, don't blame me for being rude!"

Huo Jun heard this and without a second thought, he immediately threw away his sword, knelt down and surrendered, saying, "If I had known that the King of Hannan was coming, I would have opened the city to welcome him!"

At the same time, he shouted, "Drop your weapons! King Hannan is here. Open the city and surrender!"

Huo Jun's action not only stunned his subordinates, but also confused Liu Bei who was swinging his sword. What was going on?
I haven't even put in any effort, but the other person has already bowed down to me. Am I really that famous?

Huo Jun stood up and explained a few words, and Liu Bei finally understood that when he was in Jingzhou, Huo Jun had already been loyal to the Han Dynasty and admired Liu Bei's reputation very much, but due to Liu Biao's kindness, he could not make up his mind to join Liu Bei for a while.

Now that Liu Biao is dead and Liu Cong has succeeded him, he has colluded with Cao Cao. Huo Jun has long been dissatisfied, but has had no opportunities. When Liu Bei's army attacked the city before, Huo Jun was also hesitant. Now that he saw Liu Bei in person, he surrendered without hesitation.

Liu Bei couldn't stop laughing when he heard this. He quickly helped Huo Jun up and said, "General, you trust me so much. I will definitely not let you down!"

"Come here, tell the soldiers not to harass the civilians or injure the soldiers after entering the city!"

He turned to Huo Jun's soldiers and said, "If you are willing to follow me, I will accept you. But if you don't want to fight anymore, you can leave now. I will never hurt your lives. This is true, and the heavens can bear witness to it!"

After hearing this, Huo Jun's soldiers knelt down and said, "We are willing to serve the King of Hannan!"

Liu Bei stood up, unable to hide the smile on his face. For the first time, he realized that his fame had become so great without him noticing!
Even the defending generals would surrender to me because of my righteousness. This shows that my approach of going the opposite of Cao Cao was right. As long as I persist in going forward, I will surely establish a foundation in time!
(End of this chapter)