Volume 1 Jiangdong Fengyun Chapter 100: Great Victory
"Emergency military situation, emergency military situation!"
It was the hottest time of July, when the weather was turning cooler. In the city of Qu'a, a Du Bo riding a "war horse" was galloping through the downtown area. However, the city defense army in charge of public security had no intention of putting him on the blacklist - those who carried military intelligence were not guilty of riding a horse through the downtown area.
After all, the military information that needs to be delivered by messengers is basically urgent. Otherwise, the city princess can be used to deliver the message, and there is no need to rush.
Soon this military intelligence was placed on Bai Tu's desk, and Lu Bu, Lu Su, Chen Gong and others were all called by Bai Tu as soon as possible.
"It's the military intelligence from Xuzhou." Bai Tu spoke immediately when he saw Lu Bu had arrived.
Lu Bu, who was originally indifferent, focused his attention when he heard the word "Xuzhou".
After all, Yuan Shu's attack on Xuzhou this time was aimed at Xiaopei as an outpost, and Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were both in Xiaopei.
And although Jiangdong is now somewhat peaceful, Diao Chan has been in Xiaopei because Yuan Shu has consciously blockaded Huainan.
"Xiaopei City is broken..."
As soon as Bai Tu finished speaking, Lü Bu became visibly nervous, but then Bai Tu smiled and said, "It's just a great victory."
Seeing Bai Tu's expression, Lu Bu finally breathed a sigh of relief - although he didn't know what the city was captured and the "great victory" meant, but if Zhang Liao, Gao Shun or Diao Chan were lost, Bai Tu would definitely not keep it in suspense!
"Last month, Hou Cheng and Wei Xu, former subordinates of Ding Yuan, colluded with the Xuzhou nobles and intended to surrender the cities of Xiaopei and Pengcheng..."
When he heard that Hou Cheng and Wei Xu had rebelled, Lu Bu was very angry - but what the hard drive said was right, those were Ding Yuan's old subordinates and had little to do with him, Lu Bu!
"Fortunately, Song Xian, a general under my adoptive father, and Cao Bao from Xuzhou City understood the greater good. Under the inducement of the rebel generals in the army and the nobles in the city, they pretended to surrender to the enemy and secretly informed Wen Yuan and Envoy Liu..."
Song Xian, Wei Xu and Hou Cheng were all like-minded friends, and Cao Bao was the vanguard of the anti-Liu movement in Xuzhou City.
Therefore, it was expected that the two of them would be treated as "their own people" and lured together to surrender the city.
However, unexpectedly, Song Xian and Cao Bao came to the Infernal Affairs!
Bai Tu probably thought that Song Xian's words had become more reliable because of his earnest persuasion.
As for Cao Bao...
Bai Tu was also confused at first, but he soon understood - Cao Bao had offered the city to Lu Bu not long after Liu Bei occupied Xuzhou, so Liu Bei had no chance to win him over.
However, after Lu Bu initially refused the position of Xuzhou Mu, he immediately came to Jiangdong, and Cao Bao obviously hated Yuan Shu as well, so there was no buyer for Liu Bei for the time being.
As for Liu Bei... whether you call it "winning people's hearts" or "showing kindness", after a while, even Cao Bao was moved by him and his mentality changed.
But perhaps he still seemed reluctant to let go and was reluctant to surrender directly, which led to misunderstanding among other Xuzhou nobles who were against Liu.
Not only did Liu Bei take the opportunity to catch the spies in Pengcheng openly, but he also used the opportunity to make Zhang Liao and Gao Shun pretend to fall into the trap, causing Xiaopei to be captured by Ji Ling. In fact, at Guan Yu's suggestion, he dug up Weishan Lake.
Now with the help of the armor, when Guan Yu fully mobilized the power of the Azure Dragon, he could cause the water vapor to condense quickly. In addition, it was the summer flood season, and the night Ji Ling entered the city, Xiaopei was flooded. Countless soldiers in the military camp were killed and injured, and they fled overnight.
Ji Ling led his troops to withdraw from Xiaopei and wanted to go to higher ground for rest. However, after a night when the flood had finally receded, they were attacked by Zhang Liao's "defeated army" stationed on the hill.
Gao Shun's trap camp made it impossible for him to organize his troops into formation, and Zhang Liao led the charge and attacked Ji Ling.
Although Ji Ling was an expert in martial arts and could normally fight Zhang Liao to his heart's content, he had been running around all night and not only was his physical and mental state not in good shape, but even the horsepower of his armor's engine was insufficient. After twenty or thirty rounds, Zhang Liao chopped his indigo mask off with a single blow. He nearly lost his life, so he quickly retreated in panic.
On the other hand, after Zhang Liao cut off the commander's flag, the morale of the 20,000 to 30,000 remaining Huainan soldiers dropped further. Ji Ling's command range was also greatly reduced, and they were defeated by Zhang Liao and Gao Shun's troops!
At this point, Yuan Shu's attacks from both the north and south armies all ended in failure.
Ji Ling could only return to Ruyin County in the north of Runan County to gather the defeated troops, apologize to Yuan Shu, and guard against Liu Bei's counterattack!
But in fact, Liu Bei had no time to take care of other things. Although water attack and fire attack were strategies of using the weak to defeat the strong, water and fire were merciless. After Xiaopei was flooded, even though there were city maidens guarding the city and people in the villages outside the city had issued warnings, there were still countless victims. Liu Bei and Zhang Liao were both searching and rescuing the people and assisting them in post-disaster reconstruction.
Moreover, the roads were muddy and difficult to travel on, so they were no longer able to counterattack Ruyin. The most they could do was take advantage of Yuan Shu's weakness to recapture the southern part of Xia Pi County, Xuyi, and Huaiyin areas.
As for Yuzhou, not only did the people suffer from the disaster, but Xiaopei Ji was obviously dissatisfied. The people's morale in Xiaopei had also dropped significantly, which in turn weakened the city's defenses. The efficiency of government orders had also dropped significantly - this was the result of the people's will going against each other.
Zhang Liao had told Guan Yu before that after this plan, he would withdraw from Xiaopei, which had no strategic location to defend.
After all, the city defenses were greatly reduced at this time, and Zhang Liao did not want to use his old troops in Bingzhou to guard such a dangerous city.
Liu Bei also expressed his understanding. According to the previous agreement, Zhang Liao would assist Liu Bei in attacking Huaiyin, a county town south of the Huai River, which was under the jurisdiction of Xia Pi County, but geographically close to Guangling County.
After success, just go south along Hongze Lake, through Sanhe, Fanliang Lake and Zhongdushui, and you will reach Guazhou Ferry in Guangling County, the seat of Guangling County. Later, Wang Anshi wrote a poem saying "There is a river between Jingkou and Guazhou, and Zhongshan is only separated by several mountains."
The "Guazhou" in the poem is the current "Guazhou Ferry", Jingkou... Bai Tu has not been built yet, but now there is Dantu County on the riverside, just fifty or sixty miles east of Qu'a, not far from the site of "Jingkou", and it is also the place where the Wujun navy set up camp.
“A river between us” naturally means that they are only separated by the Yangtze River.
By then, as long as they attack from both north and south, it will not be a problem to capture Guazhou as a passage for Zhang Liao and Gao Shun to return south. Even if Yuan Shu is seriously injured, he will not try his best to stop Zhang Liao...
If there was only one port on the shore, it would be impossible to defend it alone. Less than 20 or 30 miles north of Guazhou Ferry is the county seat of Guangling County, "Guangling City". The city is deep and the walls are thick. If one focuses on defense, it will be impossible to conquer it without a strong attack.
Therefore, unless they were determined to capture Guangling, or their navy was far superior to Huainan, Guazhou would be undefendable and they would have to retreat to Jiangdong.
The navy of Jiangdong is definitely better than that of Huainan now, but Bai Tu did not vigorously develop the navy like the Eastern Wu in history, so it cannot be considered "far superior".
"Father, Gongtai, you should station troops in Dantu now and send troops to welcome Wenyuan and Zhongda when they return. If Guangling holds out, lure Wenyuan and Zhongda back. If Guangling sends out troops... you can seize the city!"
Although taking Guangling means taking the initiative in the geographical competition between Jiangdong and Xuzhou, in order to avoid a fierce battle, Bai Tu still gave the decision-making power to the people on the front line.
