Adou who can afford it

On the evening of the second day after Zhou Yu's death, the scouts quickly reported that Li Tong and Man Chong, with a total of 5,000 Cao troops, had defeated Guan Yu's 2,000 men in Dangyang and were heading towards Jiangling.

On Zhou Yu's mourning hall, he was stunned for a while, it was really a house leak that happened to rain overnight.

Everyone's eyes looked at Cheng Pu, Cheng Pu ignored everyone's gaze, and said loudly: "Don't panic, Cao Jun is here, and the battle over there is it." Gangneung is at your fingertips, should you give up now?"

The generals said in unison.

Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu are the left and right governors, and as soon as Zhou Yu dies, this is Cheng Pu's biggest.

Liu Bei was not surprised to learn that Li Tong and Manzhong's army were coming, and asked the scout who was sent by Guan Yu to report: "Where is Yun Chang?" "

General Guan is leading more than 1,000 people, following behind Li Tong and Manzhong, keeping a distance of twenty miles. "

What is Zilong doing?" Liu Bei asked again.

General Zhao led five hundred cavalry to cruise along the banks of the Han River, harassing Cao Cao's grain routes, coming and going like the wind, and Cao's army in Xiangyang and other places was helpless. After

Zhang Fei sent someone to inform Guan Yu that Zhou Yu was dead, Guan Yu pretended to be defeated according to Liu Bei's plan and let Li Tong and Man Chong enter Jiangling.

Zhao Yun continued to harass Cao Jun.

"My lord, Jiangdong is gathering troops and horses, it seems that there is a war. A of Liu Bei's personal guards walked in and said.

"It seems that Cheng Pu wants to continue to persevere, since Jiangdong is going to do it, we have no reason to watch the show, pass my order, the whole army will assemble and fight together. Liu Bei said.

Jiangdong only sent out 3,000 people this time, plus Liu Bei's 2,000 people, and Li Tong and Man Chong, who had just arrived, were separated by five miles, and the two armies looked at each other from a distance.

Cao Ren stood on the city wall, looked at the army in the distance, and then looked at the Jiangdong army floating in the vein, and smacked his tongue: "Zhou Yu seems to be really dead."

Changshi Chen Jiao stood beside Cao Ren and smiled at Cao Ren: "Jiangling is saved now."

Cao Rendu had already made a plan to live and die with Jiangling City, and he couldn't help but smile at this time.

"But is it possible that Zhou Yu is cheating?" Cao Ren suddenly thought of this question.

Chen Jiao shook his head and said: "Even if this matter is Zhou Yu's deception, but at this time, the reinforcements are outside the city, and Zhou Yu and Liu Bei are no longer able to capture Jiangling."

Cao Ren nodded: "That's the same." "

Jiangling has been defending for nearly a year, and with the arrival of this group of reinforcements, Cao Ren is confident that he will hold it for another half a year, so that it will definitely be the coalition army that can't be consumed.

As for whether there is enough grain and grass in the city, whether there is enough ordnance, Cao Ren is not worried at all, Jiangling City has Liu Biao's accumulation of more than ten years of operation in Jingzhou, Liu Bei ran to Jiangling from Xinye, it was because of Jiangling's hoarding of countless grain, grass and ordnance, but Liu Bei was dragged down by more than 100,000 people in Xinye, and Jiangling was preemptively obtained by Cao Cao.

After nearly a year of attrition, only half of the grain and grass in the city's warehouses have been consumed.

Of course, this was also the original dispersal of almost all the people in the city, otherwise, after nearly a year of siege, how could there be so much food for the people in Jiangling City to eat?

The deputy general Niu Jin asked: "General, should we go out of the city to defeat this group of enemy troops and welcome reinforcements into

the city?" Cao Ren shook his head: "Don't worry, our city sergeants and soldiers can only fight more than 6,000 people, if we go out of the city, the defense force in the city will be insufficient, and it is very likely that Jiangdong rats and big-eared thieves will take the opportunity to seize the city."

Chen Jiao also agreed: "Defending Jiangling now is the most important thing."

Cheng Pu glanced back at Jiangling City, only to see the flags fluttering on the city, the city gate closed, and Cao Jun didn't seem to have any intention of coming out.

"General Cheng, are you attacking?" asked Lü Mengze, who came to Cheng Pu's location.

Cheng Pu shook his head: "Set up the defensive formation and don't move for the time being."

Cao Ren watched the movements of the army under the city, and saw a commotion in the Jiangdong army's formation, and thought that he was about to attack, but he only opened the defensive formation, which made Cao Ren stunned for a moment, and puffed out his eyes and said: "Jiangdong rats don't plan to attack?"

Chen Jiao said.

"What kind of tricks does this Jiangdong rat play?" Niu Jin muttered.

Cao Jun outside the city, Li Tong and Man Chong joined forces, Li Tong saw that the Jiangdong army actually made defensive measures, and couldn't help sneering: "You want me to attack?

Man Zhong looked around, and then calculated the distance from Gangneung City, it was only five miles, and there was an army in between.

"General Li, on the way we came, that is, almost eight miles behind us now, there is a mountain, and there are many trees on the mountain, send soldiers to cut down the trees, and camp on the spot. Full Favor suggested.

Li Tong immediately ordered a thousand-strong army to be sent to cut down trees, while the cavalry cruised to prevent the enemy from raiding.

The teams facing the coalition forces in front are in formation and ready to respond to the coalition attack.

At this time, the three parties inside and outside the city all maintained a posture of standing still. are all waiting for the other side to attack.

This scene is also extremely tacit.

"The rear of Cao's army sent people to the back of Tiemupo, and there were cavalry roaming left and right, it seems that they are planning to cut down trees and camp on the spot. The scout passed the news to Cheng Pu, the commander of the coalition forces.

Cheng Pu frowned, it seemed that Cao Jun had guessed his intentions.

"Let the scouts keep an eye on the movements of Cao's army in and outside the city. Zhou Tai, you transfer 2,000 people from the camp, and you must stop the Cao army from cutting down trees to build a camp. Cheng Pu ordered.

Zhou Tai took the order and left.

Liu Chan learned about Jiangdong's arrangement from Chen, and couldn't help laughing: "Hahahaha, it's done." Jiangdong is about to withdraw its troops.

Chen Zhi was puzzled: "Young master, where did you see this?" "

Although Cheng Pu is a veteran, he is timid, but he is not as good as Zhou Gongjin. He didn't think about taking Gangneung anymore. Sun Quan will soon order the withdrawal of the army. Liu Chan said.

The two armies were still facing each other, but in the rear of the confrontation, the partial divisions sent by both sides broke out into fierce battles.

As soon as Zhou Tai showed his face with 2,000 people, he was bitten by the cavalry of the Cao army.

Immediately afterwards, the news of Zhou Tai's defeat came.

This made Cheng Pu almost spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Cao's army is all elite, and among these cavalry, there is a cavalry of 300 people all wearing iron armor, and almost a single charge scattered our front, which is really unstoppable. In just half an hour, Zhou Tai returned from injury, covered in blood.

"Is it a tiger and leopard riding?" asked Lu Meng next to him.

Cheng Pu said helplessly: "The iron armored cavalry, this time I met the tiger rider in the tiger and leopard cavalry."

"The tiger ride is a heavy ride, the leopard ride is a light ride, where the tiger rides, there must be a leopard ride." How many cavalry does the enemy have?" Lu Meng looked at Zhou Tai.

"There are more than 1,000 people, and it is difficult to resist. Zhou Tai said.

Lu Meng couldn't help but ponder: "More than a thousand cavalry, they can completely use the cavalry to break through our formation, and then press in with the foot soldiers, what are you going to do with us now

?" Cheng Pu also fell into silence, and after thinking for a while, Lu Meng said to Cheng Pu: "General Cheng, is it a little inappropriate?" "

There is nothing wrong, it seems that Cao Jun has insight into our backhand." And this group of reinforcements wanted to preserve their vital strength to the greatest extent, so they chose to confront us. We are now in a difficult situation. Cheng Pu said helplessly.

In order to lure the Cao army in the city out of the city, Cheng Pu risked 5,000 men to face a possible two-sided attack, and the intention of doing so was precisely to concentrate all the remaining forces and break through one of the walls of Jiangling.

It's a pity that Cao Jun was not fooled, but chose to stick to it.

"What should we do now?" asked Lu Meng.

Cheng Pu said helplessly: "Withdraw." We can't stop Li Tong and Man Pet Army from building a camp, and after they build a camp, they echo the Cao army in the city, and we need to spend more if we want to attack the camp.

"Once withdrawn, it will be even more difficult for Gangneung to break through.

Cheng Pu shook his head and said: "The military spirit is no longer available, with the death of Gong Jin, and another year of war, the soldiers have no morale." "

Many soldiers have been fighting for a year in a row, and such high-intensity operations have long made the army demoralized, and it is a rare miracle that they can hold on until now.

"Could it be that nearly a year's efforts have been wasted like this?" Lu Meng said urgently.

Cheng Pu looked at Lu Meng: "Ziming, you know in your heart what the situation is now. There are more than 10,000 Jiangdong sons in the army, and their lives are not to be joked.

Lu Meng was gloomy, and finally struggled: "But the general's last words are for us to attack Jiangling!" "

This time is not that time, if the reinforcements of Cao's army do not arrive, it is inevitable that we will capture Jiangling, and now with the arrival of reinforcements, it will be difficult for us to capture Jiangling." Cheng Pu said with his eyes closed, he didn't seem willing to accept this result.

Lu Meng sighed heavily, his eyes were full of unwillingness, all this was really unacceptable.

The coalition army retreated slowly, even in the process of retreating, the Cao army, which had mobile cavalry, still did not send cavalry to harass, and seemed to not care about the retreat of the coalition army at all.

Liu Bei returned to the army, and Liu Chan was already waiting in the camp tent.

"This time I am waiting for Sun Quan's order, and the withdrawal of Jiangdong is already a certainty. Liu Chan said to Liu Bei excitedly.

Liu Bei changed his armor, put on his regular clothes, sat down and rested for a while, and said to Liu Chan: "After the withdrawal of Jiangdong troops, it is also very difficult for us to capture Jiangling alone, what are your good ideas?"

"Take advantage of the plague." Liu Chan said.

Liu Bei couldn't help but wonder: "How can such a natural disaster be used?" Liu

Chan said: "The decay of corpses can cause plagues, and when the population is dense and unhygienic, it can also cause plagues. Cao Cao once made a thunderbolt cart during the battle of Guandu, this kind of thunderbolt is a kind of catapult, we use this kind of catapult, corpses, feces into the city, now the weather is still hot, while the temperature has not dropped, it is a good time to cause a plague in the city. And there is another point, I watch the sky at night, an earthquake is coming, and it is more likely to cause a plague at that time. "

When attacking the city, throwing corpses into the city caused a plague, this method was first used by Genghis Khan, and then later Zhu Yuanzhang also used this method to fight against Zhang Shicheng.

Before this, although there were hundreds of years of turbulent times such as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and high-intensity wars such as the Six Kingdoms of Qin, such despicable and shameless means had never been used.

Liu Bei couldn't accept this kind of thing: "Isn't it too hurtful to the heavens

?" "Dad, how many people have you killed? Heaven didn't punish you?" Liu Chan asked rhetorically.

Liu Bei was speechless, indeed, he had killed countless people in his life, and God did not cut down a thunderbolt to kill himself.

"There are no ordinary people in Gangneung City anymore, we can do it with confidence. Liu Chan said.

"The plague is ruthless, if our army is also infected with the plague, then what?" Liu Bei thought of this crucial question.

Liu Chan grinned and said, "I have thought of this a long time ago, otherwise I would not have come up with such an idea." When I was in Linxiang, I gave General Huang Zhong a manual for the prevention of epidemics, and I will write it out later, Dad, you only need to ask the whole army to strictly enforce it, and if anyone fails to comply with it, he must be punished with the strictest military law. "