Soldiers come to the world

Cao Cao returned to Fancheng on the day he took Xiangyang to surrender. He knew the truth that a gentleman should not stand on a dangerous wall. Neither Cao Jun nor Xiangyang had a navy force. Once the Jiangxia navy blocked Hanshui, he would face great danger.

Cao Cao immediately appointed Cao Ren as the general of Zhennan and the prefect of Xiangyang, and incorporated the [-] troops in Xiangyang. , while Liu Cong was named General Fuwei and sent Xu Du to retire.

At this point, the Xiangyang faction among the three factions in Jingzhou disappeared and ceased to exist.

But Cao Cao was not in a hurry to return to Yedu, but continued to consolidate his occupation in Fancheng. He was most concerned about the construction of warships, which was directly related to his grand plan for the southern expedition. Yu stayed in Fancheng and presided over the construction of warships.

This morning, Cao Cao arrived at the Bishui River surrounded by dozens of generals. Cheng Yu finally decided to build the main shipyard in the Bishui River Bend after searching around. This is also the place where Gan Ning burned Cao Cao's ships a few months ago. place.

Cao Cao immediately stood on a hill, overlooking the lake bay below. The lake bay is nearly a thousand acres in size and sparkling. The surrounding fishing villages have long been demolished. Tens of thousands of peasants and craftsmen are nervously building shipyards and dozens of huge warehouses. It has been built.

"Is the depth of the water here enough to build a big ship?" Cao Cao asked with his horsewhip pointing at the bay.

Cheng Yu has been preparing for nearly a month, and these problems are already clear in his chest. He smiled slightly and said: "The deepest bay of this lake is twenty feet, and the shallowest is seven or eight feet. It is a natural deep-water lake. It is built with three thousand stones There is no problem with the warships at all, I have calculated that a hundred warships can be started at the same time, and a thousand warships can be built within a year."

"Where is the built warship parked?"

"Reporting to the prime minister, the warships are going to stop on both sides of Bishui. In order to prevent Jiang Xia's army from attacking the shipyard and warships, I will station [-] troops on each side of Bishui and lock the river with three iron chains at the mouth of Bishui. Set up fishing nets under the water surface to strictly guard against Jiang Xia's attack, it's just..."

Speaking of just, Cheng Yu couldn't help but sigh slightly, Cao Cao was taken aback, and asked, "What else is Zhong De worried about?"

"I'm worried that it's easy to hide from open guns, but hard to defend against hidden arrows. I'm especially worried that the Jiangxia army will send people to dive into the bay and burn warships with kerosene. Their kerosene is so powerful that they have no countermeasures so far."

Speaking of kerosene, Cao Cao was reminded. He turned to Cao Ren and said, "Last time you said you got two cans of kerosene from Jiang Xia's army, do you still have it?"

Cao Cao was referring to the last time the Jiangxia army used throwing pots to set fire to the pier of Fancheng. Cao Jun got two unbroken clay pots.

Not long after, several soldiers rushed towards Cao Cao with two clay pots in their arms. Cao Ren presented one of the pots to Cao Cao, "Prime Minister, this is it!"

Cao Cao took the pot and smelled it, and then looked at the color. It was light yellow and relatively clear. It was completely different from the kerosene that Cao Jun got from Puyang and Qingzhou. To burn on the water!"

Yajiang took the clay pot and ran towards the lake. After a while, a raging fire ignited on the water. After staring at it for a long time, Cao Cao sighed: "The fire is so fierce and fast, it is really hard to prevent!"

At this time, Zhang Liao said beside him: "I heard from people in Jiangdong that Jiang Xia's army's fire oil was also black and sticky at the beginning, and light fire oil appeared later. I guess it was modified in some way, and it was mass-produced. Reformation will definitely require a lot of manpower, as long as the prime minister pays a lot of money, there will definitely be someone who knows Jiang Xiajun's reformation method, this kind of thing is really impossible to prevent."

Cheng Yushu must have smiled and said: "Wen Yuan's words are justified. With heavy rewards, there must be brave men. I heard that oil is produced in Xiazhi County, so I can use the local natives to implement strategies. As long as we also have the firepower of Jiang Xia's army." Come on, my minister will not be afraid of Jiang Xia's attack."

Cao Cao nodded, "This plan is feasible, let Zhong De plan it."

He turned back to Cao Ren and said, "You can fully cooperate with Zhong De and make no mistakes!"

"As ordered!"

Cao Cao inspected the shipyards and warehouses under construction for a while, and then turned back to Fancheng. But just as he arrived at the foot of the city, he suddenly heard a piercing bell ringing from the top of the city, which made Cao Cao startled. At this time, a guard Pointing behind him, he shouted: "Prime Minister, Fenghuo!"

Cao Cao turned his head and saw the beacon fire burning above Dengsai City, billowing black smoke. He looked at Xiangyang City on the other side, and saw that the beacon fire was also lit above Xiangyang City.

Cao Ren stepped forward and anxiously asked for instructions: "This is most likely an attack by Jiang Xia's army. I must return to Xiangyang immediately!"

Cheng Yu said: "This should be the arrival of the Jiangxia Navy. Since the beacon fire is lit, there are still at least fifty miles away from Fancheng, and the Prime Minister can deploy it calmly."

Cao Cao nodded, and said to Cao Ren: "Go back immediately and mobilize the army to defend both sides of the bank tightly. Jiang Xia's army is not allowed to dock in Xiangyang!"

Cao Ren led his troops to fly away, and Cao Cao also entered Fancheng. He immediately mobilized an army of [-] to guard the north bank of the Han River.

. . . . . .

A fleet consisting of [-] thousand-stone warships and [-] sailors was sailing towards Xiangyang and Fancheng. Liu Jing stood in the fleet and looked at Fancheng on the north bank with his hands behind his back. Not in Xiangyang, but stayed in Fancheng all the time.

But Liu Jing's trip was not for Cao Cao, but to take the initiative to challenge Cao Jun, attack Cao Jun's arrogance, and use Jiang Xia's strengths to attack Cao Jun's weaknesses.

"Look at Zhou Mu, Cao Jun is ferrying!" A soldier pointed to the river and shouted.

Liu Jing had already seen that there were three ferries on the river in front of them, and they were desperately sailing towards Xiangyang. There were many soldiers of Cao Jun on the ferry. Liu Jing immediately ordered: "Crash them and sink them!"

The three big boats rushed past side by side, chopping the waves, and the three ferries were unable to dodge. They were slammed into by the big boat, and the ferry broke.

This scene happened on the Han River in the south of Fancheng, only two miles away from Fancheng. The tens of thousands of troops on the shore and Cao Jun on the top of the city could clearly see it, which made countless Cao soldiers feel a chill in their backs .

On the top of the city, Cao Cao witnessed all this clearly. He looked at the mighty fleet on the river, stretching for dozens of miles. In the front was a five thousand stone building ship with the new battle flag of the Jingzhou Army flying on its mast. , a red battle flag with a black battle sword on it, fluttering in the wind of the river.

"Prime Minister, that is the main ship of Jiang Xia's army!"

Yu Jin whispered next to Cao Cao: "The golden-helmed general standing at the bow of the boat should be Liu Jing."

Cao Cao's pupils contracted suddenly, and his eyes narrowed, staring at the enemy general on the bow. The golden helmet on the general's head was shining in the sun, which was extremely dazzling.

Cao Cao was still the first to see Liu Jing, but at this moment he didn't have any compassion for talent, he only had hatred in his heart, and he gritted his teeth with hatred. How dare Liu Jing come to show off in front of him?

At this time, there was another exclamation all around, and I saw a fire on the surface of the river, Jiangxia army boats approached the shore, Jiangxia soldiers held torches, and at the same time poured kerosene on the ferry, nearly a hundred boats were parked on both sides of the pier All the ferries were set ablaze by the soldiers, and thick smoke billowed on the river immediately, and the fire was monstrous.

Cao Cao could no longer bear this kind of unscrupulous provocation. He slammed his fist on the city wall, turned around and strode into the city, and the generals followed.

Standing on the bow of the boat, Liu Jing could also see clearly that a large group of Cao Jun generals followed one person down, and that person must be Cao Cao. Liu Jing couldn't help laughing coldly, he could imagine Cao Cao's helplessness and anger at this time .

In the hall, Cao Cao hurried back and forth with his hands behind his back, obviously angry. Dozens of generals beside him bowed their heads in silence, and the hall was silent. You can't burn the river with kerosene to prevent Jiang Xia's army from provoking."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Cheng Yu's voice from outside the lobby, "It's not right to burn the river with kerosene!"

Cheng Yu came in, bowed to Cao Cao, and said to Zhang Liao, "I actually thought of this method just now, but I asked a few boatmen for advice, and they told me that the flow of the Hanshui River is very fast. The water is slow, throwing an object in the middle of the river, and it will soon drift to both sides. The same is true for kerosene. Not to mention that we don’t have ships to go to the center of the river to sprinkle it. "

Zhang Liao fell silent, at this moment Cao Cao sighed and said to the generals: "You all go down!"

All the generals walked down the hall, and only Cao Cao and Cheng Yu were left in the hall. Cao Cao sighed and said, "Seeing Jiang Xia flaunting his power in front of his eyes, I have nothing to do. It's just a shame and a big humiliation. I'm worried that morale will be low because of this, and Jingzhou But because of this, the morale of the people is soaring, and now that I think about it, I was a little too hasty to seize Xiangyang."

Cheng Yu smiled and said: "Actually, the problem is not to seize Xiangyang, but the Prime Minister did not expect Liu Jing's determination to resist. Now I have seen Liu Jing's strategy."

Cao Cao stopped in his tracks and stared at Cheng Yu, "Please speak, Zhongde!"

"Obviously, Liu Jing wants to use the absolute advantage of the army to control the Han River, cut off the connection between Fancheng and Xiangyang, and then attack Xiangyang on a large scale, and confront us across the Han River."

Cao Cao frowned. Cheng Yu's words were indeed good. He also believed that Liu Jing was indeed planning this. After a long silence, Cao Cao asked, "If this is the case, what should we do?"

Cheng Yu sighed and said, "Other than taking advantage of the conflict between Liu Bei and Liu Jing, I really have no other way, but I have another suggestion."

"you say!"

Cheng Yu pondered for a while and said, "I suggest that the Prime Minister transfer Cao Ren away from Xiangyang immediately, and retreat northward from Fangling County across the Hanshui River. Liu Jing has not yet completed his deployment. Only in this way can we avoid repeating the mistake of Cao Hong being captured."

Cao Cao felt dizzy for a while. He wanted to find a reason to oppose Cheng Yu, but he couldn't find one. If the delay continued, Cao Ren really had no way out.

Cao Cao felt in a dilemma, so he glanced at Cheng Yu again, seeing that he was hesitant to speak, he said, "If you have anything else to say, let's say it together!"

Cheng Yu bowed his head and remained silent for a while. Although it was difficult to speak, he still had to remind Cao Cao.

"I suggest that the prime minister also leave Fancheng as soon as possible and return to the north."

. . . . . .