The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 239 Volume Camping
“We have already reached Yiling?”

Liu Bei subconsciously looked towards the river bank.

"How dare Zhou Yu act so recklessly on the Yangtze River? Couldn't General Wen Pin stop him with his navy?"

The Jingzhou navy is well-known, and logically speaking, it shouldn't be so weak in a battle on the river.

Fu Tong was a little embarrassed: "Most of the navy in Jiangling City have been transferred to Xiangyang by General Wen Pin."

Sima Yi had previously requested boats from Wen Pin to guard against Cao Cao. Wen Pin thought that Xiangyang was a strategic point in Jingzhou, and Liu Biao himself was in Xiangyang, so it could not be lost. However, Zhang Xian in southern Jingzhou did not have many naval forces, so he sent a large number of naval forces to Xiangyang to block the waterway and stop Cao Cao.

Unexpectedly, Sun Ce from Jiangdong intervened and used his warships to kill his way to Jingzhou, leaving Wen Pin with nothing but sighing at the sight of the river. He had no choice but to hand over the task of stopping Zhou Yu to Liu Bei.

"I see."

When Liu Bei heard that Wen Pin had transferred all the navy of Jingzhou to Xiangyang, he was not angry but felt relieved instead.

Others may not know how terrifying Cao Cao is, but Liu Bei knows it very well.

As long as they can resist Cao Cao under the city of Xiangyang, it doesn’t matter if they lack some warships.

Compared with the unknown Zhou Yu, Liu Bei was more afraid of Cao Cao who was besieging Xiangyang.

"In this case, we should advance quickly!"

Since Liu Bei already knew that it was difficult to station troops in Yiling, he naturally did not want to go there again.

It would be better to attack Zhou Yu while he is still unstable, force him to retreat, clear the road, and fight on the wide terrain to the east.

Liu Bei immediately ordered Zhao Yun and Gan Ning to lead the navy to capture Yiling on the north bank of the Yangtze River first, while he himself, Zhang Fei, Li Yan and others led the infantry along the road to attack Yidao on the south bank.

But Liu Bei had only marched ten miles when Zhao Yun and Gan Ning had to retreat.

"My lord, Zhou Yu has already led his troops to garrison in Yiling. Even if we insult him, he won't come out to fight us... I'm afraid it will be difficult to directly advance to Yiling."

Liu Bei was surprised.

He had heard Fu Tong's explanation that Zhou Yu was just a young man, so how could he be so experienced in marching and doing things?

Moreover, Gan Ning's scolding is quite unpleasant, and anyone with a bad temper will be irritated by him... I didn't expect that Zhou Yu could actually endure it?

For a moment, Liu Bei no longer looked down on Zhou Yu and became cautious again in his march.

It was not until they reached the other side of Yiling that Liu Bei saw that Zhou Yu's soldiers were in neat formation and had high morale. The last trace of contempt in his heart completely disappeared!
"There are so many heroes in the world!"

Liu Bei was both happy and heartbroken.

It is really a waste of talent that such a person is under Yuan Shu's command.

So Liu Bei sent several messengers across the river to meet Zhou Yu, hoping that Zhou Yu would come to his senses and return to the court instead of committing rebellious acts here.

After several messengers came back, they couldn't help but praise Zhou Yu to Liu Bei.

Zhou Yu was a man of elegant appearance, handsome manners and humble character. When he met Liu Bei's envoys, he treated them according to the etiquette of meeting an envoy of the imperial court and showed no arrogance at all.

But Zhou Yu's attitude was also very clear -

Never retreat!
Zhou Yu, on the other hand, politely asked Liu Bei to withdraw his troops and return to Yizhou. He said that Yizhou was not a new place, and he heard that Guanzhong had suffered a disaster in the past two years, and most of the food and grass must have been transported to Guanzhong. Liu Bei must be short of food and could not hold out here for a long time, so it would be better to lead his troops to retreat to avoid wasting the people's strength in vain.

When Liu Bei heard these words relayed by the messenger, his heart suddenly tightened.

Because Zhou Yu was telling the truth.

Most of Yizhou's grain and fodder had already been transported to Guanzhong, and there was not much left for Liu Bei.

after all,

According to the original plan, as long as Liu Bei led his army to Jiangling, he could eat the food in Jingzhou without having to transport food from Shu, which was thousands of miles away.

But now Liu Bei was blocked here by Zhou Yu, and food and grass became a huge problem.

If Zhou Yu had continued to hold his ground, Liu Bei might have had no choice but to retreat because of running out of food and grass, just as Zhou Yu said.

"General Fu, Zhou Yu is now in Xiaoting in Jiangbei. Can we ask General Wen Pin to lead his troops here to cut off Zhou Yu's retreat and trap him to death?"

But Liu Bei's plan was rejected by Fu Tong again.

He smiled bitterly and said, "Uncle Liu may not know that General Wen Pin is now making every effort to guard against Sun Ce in Jiangxia."

"Sun Ce has always been known for his courage. Now that he has occupied Jiangxia, his momentum is astonishing. His general Taishi Ci is stationed in Changsha and can cross the river to attack Jiangling at any time... General Wen Pin really doesn't dare to send out any more troops!"

Is Sun Ce really so powerful?

Liu Bei frowned immediately.

The reason why Sun Ce ordered Zhou Yu to go to Yiling was to prevent Liu Bei's Yizhou army from going to support Wen Pin.

During this period, he kept an eye on Wen Pin and prevented him from coming out of Jiangling to support Liu Bei.

Now, Liu Bei and Zhou Yu in Yiling, and Wen Pin and Sun Ce in Jiangling, have reached a strategic stalemate.

But this stalemate won't last long.

Because Liu Bei came from Yizhou and consumed a lot of military supplies, he would lead his troops to retreat sooner or later.

Although Sun Ce also attacked Jingzhou from Jiangdong, thousands of miles away, he had just captured Jiangxia and four Jingnan counties and could live on the local food. He could definitely hold out much longer than Liu Bei.

So Zhou Yu also clearly told Liu Bei that this was an open conspiracy.

Seeing that Liu Bei was short of food and grass, he came up with a blatant conspiracy.

At the same time, Zhou Yu also made his attitude clear:

Never send troops out!
As long as you don't send troops, you won't fail. This is what Sun Tzu said: A good warrior first makes himself invincible, waiting for the enemy to be defeated!

"Sun Ce, Zhou Yu."

Liu Bei couldn't help but admire.

Judging from the current situation alone, there are probably only a handful of people in the world who can surpass them in military affairs.

He actually wanted to use this method to force himself to withdraw his troops, so as to completely surround Jiangling and seize Jingzhou. It was truly a brilliant plan.

"But these two people underestimated me, Liu Xuande."

Liu Bei sat firmly in his tent and immediately began to deploy his subordinates to break the arrangements of Sun Ce and Zhou Yu.

First, Zhao Yun led several thousand soldiers and horses to quietly cross the river and hide in the mountains west of Yiling. Then he sent Zhang Fei and Gan Ning with only two thousand soldiers and horses to set up camp on the plain south of Yiling with great fanfare, shouting and cursing day and night, and being extremely arrogant.

Zhang Fei and Gan Ning are really fierce when they scold people.

For a whole day and night, the two of them didn't utter a single repeated word.

In particular, Zhang Fei's calls of "Jiangdong rat", "Zhou Yu child" and "Yuan Ce little thief" made all the soldiers in Yiling City very angry.

Huang Gai, who came here with Zhou Yu, couldn't wait to lead his soldiers to charge into the battle!

"Gongjin! They are camping in the plains, without support, and yet they are so arrogant. How can we ignore them?"

"Let them keep scolding. I'm afraid the morale of the soldiers in the city will be destroyed by their scolding!"

……

Zhou Yu just glanced at the towering mountains to the west and shook his head slightly.

"If they want to curse, let them curse."

"It's not like you'll lose a piece of flesh if you get scolded a few times."

"If we are lured into battle by Liu Bei and our plan to capture Jingzhou is ruined, that would be a real setback."

Zhou Yu strictly ordered his generals to go out to meet the enemy, while he himself sat in the house with a feather fan and a long scarf, studying music, and did not pay any attention to the shouting and cursing outside.

Zhang Fei and Gan Ning were at a loss when they saw that Zhou Yu refused to come out of the city to fight.

Liu Bei had no choice but to order Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, and Zhao Yun, who were hiding in the mountains to the west, to withdraw.

When Zhao Yun was retreating, he was also discovered by Zhou Yu's scouts.

When the scouts brought back the news that Liu Bei had set an ambush in the mountains to Yiling, all the Jiangdong generals suddenly realized what was going on and began to praise Zhou Yu.

Seeing that Zhou Yu was not fooled, Liu Bei sent soldiers to attack Yidao on the south bank, hoping to lure Zhou Yu to come to the rescue.

The general stationed in Yidao was the veteran general Cheng Pu.

When Huang Gai heard that Cheng Pu was surrounded, he came again anxiously and asked Zhou Yu to send troops to rescue him.

But Zhou Yu said calmly: "Mr. Cheng has always enjoyed great prestige among the soldiers and can inspire their morale. As long as he guards the place with all his heart, Liu Bei will never be able to break through Yidao."

Just as Zhou Yu expected, when Cheng Pu saw Liu Bei coming to attack, he immediately stood on the city wall to supervise the battle, which greatly boosted the morale of the defenders!
Seeing that he was unable to capture Yidao, Liu Bei sounded the call to withdraw his troops and returned to the camp to ponder.

Liu Bei's strength lies in battlefields with less than 10,000 people.

In the current Battle of Yiling, Liu Bei's troops alone reached 30,000, and Zhou Yu's troops also numbered over 10,000, which obviously far exceeded the upper limit of 10,000.

In the previous two attempts, Liu Bei was still using the idea of ​​a battlefield of tens of thousands of people to lure Zhou Yu to attack.

But Zhou Yu focused his attention on the entire battlefield, including Liu Bei, Cheng Pu, Wen Pin, and Sun Ce.

For Zhou Yu, the most important thing is to maintain the overall situation and complete the established strategy.

Compared with the entire Jingzhou that was captured after forcing Liu Bei to retreat, the mere thousands of soldiers under Liu Bei's command were obviously insignificant.

After Liu Bei stumbled twice, he also saw Zhou Yu's determination.

He knew that it would be impossible to lure Zhou Yu out with just some small benefits.

That being the case...

Liu Bei looked back at the forest behind him.

"What if it's all the troops under my command?"

"What if... the entire Yizhou?"

Liu Bei's current 30,000 troops are all the troops in Yizhou.

If Zhou Yu could wipe out all of Liu Bei's troops here, the entire Yizhou would be in Zhou Yu's pocket!
The several thousand soldiers under Liu Bei's command might not be enough to compare with Jiangling guarded by Wen Pin, and not enough for Zhou Yu to take the risk of attacking.

But what if it is the entire Yizhou?

What if we use the entire Yizhou to lure Zhou Yu?

Zhou Yu, will you still be as indifferent as you are now?
Liu Bei was born in a humble family. In addition to his tenacity, he also had the most important thing -

He is willing to do it!
At worst, I can start over. Is there anything worse than having nothing?

After realizing this, Liu Bei stopped hesitating and turned around and walked into the mountains.

"The entire army will enter the forest and set up camp!"

(End of this chapter)