My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 141 I gave you a chance but you didn't use it (Part )

Liu Bei's order to Zhao Yun was to launch an attack on Huailing before the tenth day of April.

However, Zhao Yun captured Huai Ling City on the tenth day of April, and took Zhongli County without stopping on the twelfth day. After resting for only one day, he set out again. On the fifteenth day of April, the troops were already approaching Yicheng County with light equipment.

The progress was so fast that it definitely exceeded Liu Bei's plan. After all, Zhang Fei's troops would not start for another two days. Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin had to wait another five days after Zhang Fei started.

Yicheng County is the Fengyang/Bengbu of later times, and it is also a hub on the Huai River, controlling the intersection of Woshui River and Huai River. The communication between Chen and Qiao counties and the Huai River must pass through this water transport node.

That's why Yuan Shu arranged General Ji Ling here to guard the east gate of Shouchun.

This inverted T-shaped estuary has Yuan Shu's pseudo-capital on the west side and Liu Bei in the east and Lu Bu in the north on the other two sides.

Compared with this, the two small counties east of Yicheng that were captured in seconds by Zhao Yun were just appetizers, so they were only guarded by some unknown generals.

……

After Zhao Yun arrived, he immediately set up camp and defense in the north of Yicheng City, and prepared to attack the city, ordering his soldiers to cut wood and build more equipment.

Of course, the enemy's movements were also seen by General Yicheng at the first moment.

However, a quarter of an hour later, the highest civil servant in Yicheng City, the pseudo-left internal historian Yuan Huan, and the main defender Xun Zheng, arrived on the city wall one after another to observe Zhao Yun's military situation.

After Yuan Shu ascended the throne, he changed Huainan County to Huainan Yin because he wanted to make Shouchun the capital. He also imitated the Han Dynasty system and set up guards in the east and west of the capital to form the Three Auxiliary Guards.

However, Yuan Shu did not want to directly copy the place names such as Zuo Fengyi and You Fufeng, so he took a step back and retreated to the ancient name "Left and Right Nei Shi" before Emperor Wu of Han.

This fake Left Internal Secretary Yuan Huan was only the Deputy Governor of Yuzhou before Yuan Shu ascended the throne. He was a talented person recommended by Liu Bei three years ago when he was the Governor of Yuzhou.

During the two years when Liu Bei was in control of Xuzhou, his nominal official position was the governor of Yuzhou recommended by Tao Qian. Liu Bei's rule over Xuzhou at that time was "real but not in name", that is, he had actual control but no official position in the court.

Therefore, the two talented people he selected in those two years were both from Yuzhou. The first year was Yuan Tan, and the second year was Yuan Huan. This was to please Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu respectively and stabilize the external situation.

Although Yuan Huan also has the surname Yuan, he has no relationship with Yuan Shu. Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are from the Runan Yuan family, while Yuan Huan is from the Chenjun Yuan family. His father is the late Minister of the Interior Yuan Pang, who is also Cai Yong's uncle. Yuan Huan is considered Cai Yong's cousin.

In history, Yuan Shu and Lu Bu fought fiercely in Qiaodi, Yuan Shu was defeated, and Yuan Huan was captured by Lu Bu. In this life, due to the butterfly effect, Yuan Shu risked exposing his weakness to Liu Bei and Cao Cao, and was determined to fight Lu Bu to the death. He temporarily repelled Lu Bu, and Yuan Huan has not been captured yet.

Yuan Huan was a civilian official who was not very good at military affairs. When he saw the strength of the Han army, he was worried and asked, "How come Zhao Yun came so quickly? Hasn't General Ji returned to defend the city yet?"

Ji Ling's deputy general Xun Zhenghao had some knowledge of geography, and he thought about it and said:
"It's only been two and a half days since the message was sent out. How could it be possible for him to come back so soon? If General Ji is in Qiao County, I'm afraid the urgent report has just been delivered. Even if he is in Chengfu, he won't be able to get back in a day or two. Unless he happens to be in Longkang."

This time Ji Ling went north to drive out the invading Lu Bu's troops. No one in Yicheng City knew where Ji Ling was.

Because the whereabouts of Lu Bu's harassment troops were rather erratic, Ji Ling had to adapt to the situation and block the southern bank of the Woshui River. The northernmost possible location was Qiao County, and the southernmost possible location was Longkang.

If he was in Qiao County, Ji Ling might need another five days to get back. Even if he forced himself to march, it would still take three or four days. If he was in Longkang, he should be able to get back tomorrow.

All this was due to Zhao Yun coming too quickly, and Yuan’s army was helpless.

Yuan Huan looked gloomy. Knowing that Ji Ling could not be relied upon for the time being, he had no choice but to ask Xun Zheng:
"I wonder if General Xun has a trick to break the new siege ladders described by the Zhongli defenders? Our army should take the enemy's leniency into account and rely on our own strength to hold off Zhao Yun for at least five days.

Zhao Yun was able to conquer two cities in four or five days, both by marching and attacking. His siege equipment must have been very powerful."

Xun Zheng bowed and promised: "Don't worry, Nei Shi, no matter what weapons Zhao Yun has, the defeat of Huailing and Zhongli was ultimately due to the weak forces and lack of preparation for the enemy's surprise attack.

Yicheng has nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses, how can they be compared to those small counties? Even if there is no city to rely on, he may not be able to win in a field battle with Zhao Yun. What is there to be afraid of with a few siege weapons? "

After hearing this, Yuan Huan remained silent and handed over the military affairs of defending the city to Xun Zheng.

……

Xun Zheng was really nervous for two or three days, but during this period Zhao Yun did not launch any substantial siege on the city, at most he just harassed it a bit.

Moreover, Zhao Yun did not even try to completely surround Yicheng County, and allowed Yuan troops to enter and leave the city from three sides, allowing Xun Zheng to continue to send out scouts. Seeing this, Xun Zheng gradually relaxed.

The third day, April 18th.

The scouts sent by Xun Zheng finally brought back two pieces of news, one good and one bad, early in the morning of that day.

The good news is that Ji Ling has finally returned to help and is expected to arrive in the afternoon of the same day.

The bad news was that the scouts sent to the south met an emergency messenger from Yuan's army coming from the direction of Wujiang and Liyang, saying that Zhang Fei of Liu Bei's army had already set out from Chu County yesterday, attacked Liyang and Wujiang, and now it was estimated that he had divided and surrounded these two counties.

The emergency messenger rushed out before Zhang Fei besieged the city.

After Xun Zheng understood the situation, he naturally conveyed it to Yuan Huan. The atmosphere in the city became increasingly depressing.

Yuan Huan was silent for a long time, and just asked: "I wonder if General Xun plans to send troops to escort General Ji back to the city?"

Xun Zheng found this question a little unbelievable:

"General Ji has over 10,000 soldiers, why does he need support? Does Zhao Yun dare to intercept him in a field battle? I have observed over the past few days that Zhao Yun is a bit bluffing, and his troops are definitely not as many as General Ji's. It's enough for us to defend the city carefully and not make any mistakes, right?"

Yuan Huan hesitated for a moment, but still said: "Three years ago, when Your Majesty Yuan... had not yet fallen out with Liu Bei, Liu Bei recommended me as a talented person. At that time, I was just an official with no official duties, and I went to Xiaopei to pay a visit to Liu Bei and Zhao Yun.

If General Ji bypasses Zhao Yun and just wants to return to the city, it may be fine. If he directly attacks Zhao Yun, I am afraid he is no match for him - maybe General Xun should send some cavalry to remind General Ji?"

Xun Zheng heard this and immediately showed vigilance in his eyes: "Why did the Internal History say this? Isn't this going to shake the morale of the army? Could it be that because you have a history with Liu Bei, you have changed your mind when you see the critical situation?"

"I just have good intentions. I'm worried that Ji Ling might have met with an accident. Why do you doubt me?"

Yuan Huan sighed. Since he did not have direct control over the military power, he could only keep a low profile and kept silent from then on.

...That afternoon, in the north of Yicheng City.

After several days of forced march, Ji Ling finally rushed back from the front line fighting against Lu Bu.

It was also thanks to the fact that the troops fighting against him were not Lu Bu's main force, but Lu Bu's detachment led by Hou Cheng and Song Xian. If Lu Bu or Zhang Liao had led the troops, Ji Ling would probably not have been able to escape.

Even now, Ji Ling still paid the price of one or two thousand rear guard troops to get rid of Hou Cheng and Song Xian. At this point in the battle, Yuan's army was already stretched to the limit.

However, Ji Ling was still holding back a lot of anger in his heart. He felt that he was just like the exhausted Xiang Yu, who had to deal with Liu Bang on the one hand and Peng Yue behind him on the other.

Wherever you run, the enemies there will start fighting, and the empty side of your body will be targeted by another enemy.

This resentment made Ji Ling very uncalm. He wanted to catch a weak enemy with his sharp teeth and bite him hard, and not let go.

Finally, when he led his troops south along the east bank of Woshui River and fought all the way to the Huaihe River, he saw that as long as he detoured around the enemy camp ahead, he could enter Yicheng City.

However, the enemy troops in the camp rushed out, lined up along the Wo River, and took the initiative to intercept Ji Ling.

Ji Ling had good eyesight. When he looked carefully, he could see Zhao Yun’s flag, armor and horse from a distance.

Although the face could not be seen clearly from several hundred steps away, the color of the white and slightly pink Ferghana horse was so bright that there was no other horse in the army. As long as you saw the horse, you would know it was Zhao Yun.

"Zhao Yun only brought a few thousand men to attack Yicheng? If I had known this, why would I have rushed back so hastily? And I even left the rear army to Hou Cheng! Is Zhao Yun crazy? He actually dared to stand with his back to the water. Isn't he afraid that I would rush in and kill his entire army and drive them all into the Wo River to drown?"

After a brief moment of ecstasy, Ji Ling began to realize that Zhao Yun was deliberately luring the enemy, deliberately letting him see the hope of annihilating Zhao Yun and forcing him to fight this field battle.

However, this opportunity is really rare.

Ji Ling also wanted to take some time to slowly bypass Zhao Yun and pull the enemy away.

First go back to the city to meet up with Xun Zheng and Yuan Huan, gather more troops and fight Zhao Yun the next day. Or just stay in the city and don't go out, don't fight Zhao Yun.

Unfortunately, he was worried that if he returned to the city today and came to find Zhao Yun next time, Zhao Yun would not expose this flaw again and would not form a battle formation with his back to the water, giving him the opportunity to annihilate him completely.

Moreover, if he wanted to bypass Zhao Yun at this moment, the formation would inevitably become even looser.

Once Zhao Yun pursued, it would be easy for him to lose sight of both ends. The intercepted troops would likely encounter the same dilemma of "cutting off the tail to survive" that Hou Cheng and Song Xian had encountered a few days ago, and the cost might be thousands of lives.

If you become cowardly at this time, the low morale of the troops will be completely uncontrollable, and the roundabout maneuver may turn into being pursued and defeated.

After taking all factors into consideration, he finally became impatient. Ji Ling, who had been running around and had nowhere to vent his anger, decided to fight head-on.

"Zhao Yun! Last year, you relied on your unknown power to attack and kill my generals Liang Gang and Le Jiu. I attacked you in Xuyi for three months, but you hid and dared not come out. Today, you come to die! This general will help you and settle the old and new accounts together! The whole army will follow me to kill Zhao Yun!"

Ji Ling waved his spear, took the lead and led his troops to attack Zhao Yun, and nearly 10,000 soldiers attacked him openly.

Zhao Yun only had 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry, but they were all main combat troops, without any temporary militia or able-bodied men. The morale of the Han army was high, and they were well-rested, so they did not waver when they saw Ji Ling coming.

Zhao Yun deliberately did not leave the warships near the battlefield, but instead asked Zhang Zhao to take the sailors and civilians to anchor on the south bank of the Huai River in order to prevent his side from having the intention of retreating and refusing to fight to the death.

Zhao Yun didn't know that in history, Sun Quan's several subsequent northern expeditions were all caused by docking the warships too close to the battlefield, which resulted in the Eastern Wu soldiers wanting to board the ships and retreat once they were unable to attack and charge, thus being ambushed and killed by the enemy.

But Zhao Yun knew very well that Han Xin's formation of back-to-water defense would leave no way of retreat. If there were boats behind him, the soldiers would not fight to the death.

"Clang!" With a loud sound, Zhao Yun and Ji Ling passed each other on their horses, their swords and spears clashed. Before they could turn their horses' heads, the cavalry from both sides had already rushed up from behind.

The two were not able to fight against the enemy, so they could only fight the enemy in front of them separately, and they were caught in a melee of back and forth attacks.

Fortunately, Zhao Yun's speed of breaking through the siege was much faster than Ji Ling's.
He was like a sharp knife cutting flesh, cutting out an arc in front of Yuan's army, and all the enemies he passed were neatly cut off.

Ji Ling was worthy of being a fierce general of Yuan army. Before Zhao Yun rushed back, he had already killed seven or eight Han cavalrymen and was still shouting in a fierce battle.

Suddenly he felt a chill coming from the side and rear, and the sound of horses' hooves was particularly frequent. Ji Ling swung his sword, forced away the enemies on the left, and concentrated on dealing with Zhao Yun who was chasing him.

Zhao Yun's warhorse was extremely fast and the sound of its hooves was unusually dense, making it difficult not to attract the enemy's attention.

The two finally changed from a head-on collision at the beginning to riding side by side, sweeping across the two armies. While fighting, they also had to be on guard against whether there were scattered enemy cavalry on the other side that broke through their own cover and threatened them.

Zhao Yun and Ji Ling each cheered themselves up and fought for more than ten rounds, using all their strength in every move and holding back without mercy.

Zhao Yun initially thought that he would burst out suddenly and kill Ji Ling by surprise. However, it was their first battle after all, and Zhao Yun soon found that he had slightly underestimated Ji Ling's martial arts.

Ji Ling came with anger, high fighting spirit and full potential, and perhaps he could still withstand dozens of his moves.

Zhao Yun quickly adjusted his thinking, and began to focus on defense, waiting for the right opportunity to launch a killing move. The combination of fast and slow rhythm made Ji Ling, who was used to wielding heavy weapons, suddenly feel a little uncomfortable.

When heavy weapons are used in slow wrestling, the distance required to accumulate power is relatively long. Once you adapt to the slow rhythm of wrestling, the pre-swing of a move will be very long. Once the enemy speeds up, it is very easy to be hit.

After fighting for twenty rounds, Zhao Yun, by continuously changing the rhythm of fast and slow moves, pulled out a flaw in the pre-swing before Ji Ling's heavy attack, and suddenly sped up and stabbed a gun into the empty goal.

Ji Ling tried his best to change his tactics and pushed the sword down to block as quickly as possible, but he was still a beat too slow and was stabbed hard.

"Ugh!" Ji Ling was in great pain and could no longer hold his arms back, his sword still smashing down under the influence of inertia. Zhao Yun threw away his spear without hesitation, and Ji Ling smashed it hard with his sword, bending it, but he could not save himself from defeat.

Ji Ling felt his strength being drained away quickly, while Zhao Yun threw away his spear and quickly drew his sword to fight with him. Although Ji Ling had a long and heavy weapon in hand, he was already fatally wounded and his whole body was completely out of control. He could not even defeat Zhao Yun, who only had a sword. Finally, Zhao Yun completely killed him and cut off his head with his sword.

Because Zhao Yun's spear was bent by the impact, he did not dare to fight anymore, and he did not have time to pull the spear from the corpses on the battlefield. He immediately waved his sword to kill the cavalry of Yuan army that were swarming towards him. He quickly snatched a spear from the hands of the enemy soldiers he killed and continued fighting.

The news of Ji Ling's death spread quickly, and the morale of Yuan's army plummeted. They gradually became unable to withstand Zhao Yun's charge.

(End of this chapter)