My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 194 Dragnet
It is actually very easy to enumerate the possible choices a person might make when faced with the threat of surrender.

As Sima Yi said to Gongsun Yuan in history: "An army must have five things: if it can fight, it should fight; if it cannot fight, it should defend; if it cannot defend, it should flee; if it cannot flee, it should surrender; if it cannot surrender, it should die!"

The only options Su Fei could choose were the four remaining ones after removing the word "death" from the above sentence.

Fight, defend, flee, surrender.

This is a question that any mediocre general can thoroughly answer, let alone a wise man like Zhuge Jin.

Therefore, before he sent Meng Jian to intimidate Su Fei, he had already done all the homework and analyzed the countermeasures to all possible reactions of Su Fei.

Make sure the opponent can’t be defeated, can’t defend, and can’t escape.

At this moment, after listening to Meng Jian's report and realizing that Su Fei was stalling for time, Zhuge Jin only needed to apply the opponent's behavior pattern to the elementary school student formula of "fight, defend, retreat, surrender" on the previous level and do a simple calculation.
It was instantly apparent that Su Fei wanted to escape, or was really hesitating whether to surrender. In any case, it was impossible for him to fight or defend.

Because Su Fei was already in a state of recuperation, and he didn't need to take a breath after being beaten halfway through the battle. Delaying at this moment would be detrimental to the morale of Su Fei's army in both fighting and defending. Once the officers mistakenly believed that there was a possibility of peace, and then let them fight, their fighting spirit would not be so high.

Knowing that there was a high probability that Su Fei would run away, Zhuge Jin could not let him delay, so he asked Meng Jian to warn him again, and at the same time suggested that Guan Yu land on the sandbar on the north bank of Fankou during the negotiations, set up a rattan shield position, and begin to assemble a catapult.

Originally, if Guan Yu's army landed without any negotiation, Su Fei's army might have launched a counterattack and tried to repel the enemy on the beach.

But now the two sides are in the process of negotiation, and Guan Yu has not made any other hostile moves except landing on the alert, at least not any offensive moves.

Su Fei's side also wanted to delay time, so after this action was reported to Su Fei, Su Fei was not in a hurry to respond directly with force, but only sent people to negotiate.

Fortunately, within a quarter of an hour, Meng Jian came again and had a quarrel with Su Fei. He put forward Zhuge Jin's request that "if you want to consider surrender, you should first withdraw the tower ships from the waterway and stop playing tricks."

Su Fei secretly groaned in his heart, knowing that his attempt to escape had been discovered. He had no choice but to pretend to be nice to Meng Jian and told him that if Meng Jian went back first, he would immediately withdraw the ship that was blocking the Fankou waterway.

After tricking Meng Jian away for the second time, Su Fei immediately ordered: "Don't pack up the weapons and supplies. Abandon everything you haven't taken with you yet! Go now! How is the progress of sinking the two ships? Sink them quickly! Leave the rest of the supplies for Guan Yu to plunder. I hope Guan Yu will consider the military supplies and be more willing to search and suppress and temporarily postpone the pursuit."

Then, Su Fei's fleet began to retreat one after another, heading deeper into Liangzi Lake. The two ships on the channel were still in the process of being sunk, and the construction was about to be completed.

However, after Meng Jian went back, he informed Zhuge Jin of Su Fei's reaction, but Zhuge Jin still did not see the tower ships on the waterway withdrawn. He was 100% sure that the other party was buying time, rather than "hesitating whether to surrender."

Of course, this situation could not be tolerated, so Zhuge Jin directly suggested that Guan Yu launch an attack immediately.

The first counterweight trebuchet that had just been assembled started bombarding immediately, without waiting for the other two to be assembled, so it just fired first.

A boulder weighing over a hundred pounds flew over two hundred steps and smashed heavily onto the ship, smashing through a layer of side masts and a layer of cabin deck. The flying wood fragments were like sharp arrows, instantly killing and injuring several sailors.

The other Su Fei army soldiers who were still working on the ship had never seen this kind of attack. They were so frightened that they ran around, trying to find cover to hide.

After just a few rounds of stone bombardment, the other two catapults were also installed in a hurry. The firepower density of the catapults was doubled, and the remaining soldiers of Su Fei's army who were left behind immediately abandoned their ships and fled.

Guan Yu also learned from Gan Ning's lesson the day before, and immediately ordered the warships to seize the ship, trying to control the ship before its structure below the waterline was destroyed so completely, and then tow it away from the channel.

After some operations, hundreds of soldiers who were abandoned by Su Fei chose to surrender when Guan Yu's army boarded the ship. One of the two ships had not yet completely sunk, so Guan Yu immediately organized his own large ships to tow it and force it into the Yangtze River to sink it again, thus clearing the channel.

The other ship had already sunk, so they had to slowly find a way to deal with it, but it was also faster than Gan Ning's solution the day before. It seemed that Guan Yu's army already had experience in dealing with such situations.

After breaking into the Fankou Water Fort, they saw that Su Fei had not had time to set fire. It might also be that they did not dare to set fire in advance to avoid alerting the enemy. As expected, many of Guan Yu's soldiers were attracted by the stockpile of supplies and weapons and wanted to loot it first.

However, Zhuge Jin reminded Guan Yu: "Since Su Fei wants to delay time before escaping, he must want to go to Shaxian to surrender to Huang Zu. These supplies are just to divert our attention. Just seal them up first and let a small number of soldiers guard them. Anyone who privately breaks the seals to take them will be punished by military law when he returns!
The key for our army right now is to catch up as soon as possible. Su Fei didn't know that our new warships have the advantage of speed. Even if we let him run for an hour or two, he can't escape from Sha Xian. The Liangzi Lake waterway is nearly 200 miles long, which is enough for us to catch up! Attack quickly and don't miss the opportunity! "

Guan Yu nodded, and felt that what Zhuge Jin said made a lot of sense. He immediately ordered the enemy's abandoned baggage warehouse to be sealed, and then pursued with all his strength using speedboats.

Of course, in order to take advantage of the speed, Guan Yu's troops could only leave the friendly troops on the fighting ships to guard Fankou and capture the nearby E County.

They could only send out relatively narrow and high-speed fleets of new keel warships and old warships to pursue Su Fei.

In this way, Guan Yu's pursuing force will be reduced by about one third compared to the current total force, but there is no way around it. The fighting ships are too slow, and if the enemy army takes advantage of the time difference and runs away first, the fighting ships will not be able to catch up.

Fortunately, Guan Yu firmly believed that even if he left behind one-third of his troops, he would be able to catch up with and defeat Su Fei on the surface of Liangzi Lake with the remaining people!

Although Su Fei's troops would have more people than Guan Yu's after they were divided, he was already a frightened bird and had absolutely no intention of turning back to fight to the death.

Morale is something that is very difficult to boost back once it is lost. You have already ordered your subordinates to escape with all their might, so who would still fight to the death?

……

Su Fei didn't know that he had just led the main force to evacuate Fankou Water Fort. Behind him, Guan Yu took only one or two hours to break through the rear guard troops he had abandoned and continued to pursue them.

Su Fei continued to run for his life regardless of anything, heading towards Shaxian where Huang She was stationed.

Seeing this scene, some readers who are not familiar with the geography of Wuhan may feel strange: How can one escape directly to Shaxian/Wuchang by going through Liangzi Lake?
But the main reason for this ambiguity and misunderstanding is that the situation of lakes and swamps around Wuhan at the end of the Han Dynasty was much more serious than in the 21st century.

In fact, not only around Wuhan, but also in the Jianghan Plain of Jingzhou at that time, all the lakes and swamps were much larger than in later generations, including Dongting Lake, which is still called Yunmengze today. It was the reclamation and siltation in later generations over thousands of years that made these lakes smaller and smaller, and finally formed a large granary where "Huguang is well-fed and the world is well-fed". Therefore, at the end of the Han Dynasty, the East Lake, Huangjia Lake and Liangzi Lake in Wuhan in later generations were connected into one large lake. In later generations, there was even an artificial canal between Huangjia Lake and the Yangtze River, which could directly lead the water of the Yangtze River into Liangzi Lake.

From this perspective, the entire piece of land from Wuhan to Ezhou in later generations should actually be regarded as an island, because it has the main stream of the Yangtze River in the north and Liangzi Lake connected by two narrow rivers of Xiakou and Fankou in the south. The area of two prefecture-level cities in the middle is "surrounded by water on all sides". Shouldn't it be regarded as an "island"?

At this moment, Su Fei's inner thoughts were: If I can escape to the west of Liangzi Lake, I can sail the boat directly into the Yangtze River and escape. Of course, the canal connecting the west of Liangzi Lake to the Yangtze River is too shallow and too narrow for the tower ship to pass through, so the tower ship and the fighting ship can only be abandoned, and only the warships can be used to cross the river.

If it still doesn't work, then we will have to abandon all the boats, land on the northwest shore of Liangzi Lake on foot, and walk to Shaxian County.

It is precisely because the western entrance of Liangzi Lake is too shallow and too narrow, so under normal circumstances in previous years, Su Fei's ship only entered and exited the Yangtze River through Fankou, E County.

Today he was really forced into a corner. The Fankou was blocked by Guan Yu and he couldn't get out. In a panic, he had to choose an escape route that would eventually require him to abandon the large ship. He could just leave the tower ships and fighting warships as gifts to Guan Yu for free. He was lucky to be able to escape.

……

Su Fei ran for his life, forcing the rowers to row the boat day and night in three shifts to escape.

However, after a whole day and two nights (the escape began in the afternoon of April 16 and ended in the early morning of April 18), the 200-mile waterway had not yet been completed, and there were still about 20 miles left to the exit of the waterway on the west side of Liangzi Lake.

The wind on Liangzi Lake is weaker than that on the Yangtze River, and it is also upstream, so the navy cannot march too fast.

But at this moment, Guan Yu's fleet had appeared on the eastern lake horizon, and the pursuers had caught up.

"Commander-in-chief! Guan Yu is catching up! Our army is blocked here. If we insist on escaping, we will be pulled into a long snake formation and attacked from the tail! We should turn back and fight, or... surrender!"

Zhang Shuo, Chen Jue and Deng Long all showed anxious expressions and approached Su Fei's warship to ask for instructions.

"How did they get here so quickly? I have already blocked the Fankou waterway, and I have also set up flags in the Fankou Water Fort to bluff, but they have only been able to hold out for such a short time? This is impossible!"

"What should we do now? If we had fought the enemy to the death at Fankou Water Fort the day before yesterday, we would have at least had a solid camp to rely on. But now the army is in a panic and has been on the run for a day or two. There is nowhere to hide on the lake. Who can still fight to the death?"

Su Fei's face was terribly gloomy, and he had already completely imagined the subsequent deductions.

He is now not far from the canal connecting the west side of Liangzi Lake to the Yangtze River, but the canal is very narrow and only small boats can pass through it in a line. At this time, it is easy to cause congestion and competition because of who goes first and who goes later.

Guan Yu was right behind them, and everyone must have hoped that the friendly forces would cover their retreat while they could leave first. Once they had the intention to seize the opportunity, the entire army would collapse, and the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers would be lost in vain!

You are responsible for the lives of your brothers!

In the final analysis, the two biggest miscalculations in Su Fei's decision to escape were that he overestimated the time he could delay by blocking the Fankou Pass, and underestimated the speed of Guan Yu's new warship.

Of course, the underestimation of the second point is not a shameful thing, because just over two months ago, on the coast of central Fujian, even Zhou Yu underestimated the speed of the new keel warships, so that he was tricked by Bu Zhi and Lu Yi when transporting grain across the sea.

Although Su Fei could barely be considered a famous general in naval warfare, he should feel honored to have made a mistake that even Zhou Yu had made.

While Su Fei was hesitating, Guan Yu was getting closer and closer. The rear army of the Jiangxia navy could not escape in time and could only instinctively form a fleet formation for battle.

However, at this moment, another piece of news completely destroyed Su Fei's confidence.

Zhang Shuo's patrol boat, which was exploring the way ahead, suddenly came back to report: "Report! Commander! It's bad. The river from Liangzi Lake to Shaxian has been blocked by several warships sunk by someone unknown! Warships flying the Yangzhou Army flag have also appeared at the river mouth ahead!"

Su Fei was so angry when he heard this: "What? Did Guan Yu divide his troops in advance and bypass the Yangtze River? He had already calculated that we would retreat through the Liangzi Lake channel, so he sent people to block us at the junction of Liangzi Lake and the Yangtze River on the west side?"

Zhang Shuo and the others were also shocked when they heard this: "Aren't we completely trapped in Liangzi Lake? Both the east and west entrances are blocked by Guan Yu!"

Seeing that Guan Yu was getting closer and closer, the two sides were on the verge of a war. At this time, Guan Yu's army, which was chasing them, sent out a white-sailed warship to express its desire to negotiate.

Things had come to this point, Su Fei no longer had the courage to refuse, so he had to meet Meng Jian for the third time.

Meng Jian spoke straight to the point, "Commander-in-Chief Su! General Fu Bo asked me to tell you something: Since ancient times, an army must have five things: if you can fight, you should fight; if you can't fight, you should defend; if you can't defend, you should flee; if you can't flee, you should surrender; if you can't surrender, you should die!
Before I came to persuade you to surrender for the first time, General Fubo had already predicted all your possible reactions, without missing a single detail. He had long thought that you might retreat from the channel on the other side of Liangzi Lake, or even abandon your ship and retreat, but he hoped that you would not do such a stupid thing and give away the lives of more than 10,000 soldiers in vain.

Therefore, General Fubo has already suggested in advance that General Annan send a detachment to block you at the west entrance of Liangzi Lake. You are now trapped in a jar, with absolutely no way to escape! I can also tell you another piece of bad news. The reason why General Fubo suggested that the detachment go along the Yangtze River directly to the west entrance of Liangzi Lake is because the counties on the north bank of the Yangtze River did not resist at all!

Liu Jingzhou has sent his eldest son Liu Qi to personally lead troops to take over the Jiangbei counties of Jiangxia! Han Xi and Gao Xiang in Jingling and other places have already surrendered to the eldest son! Liu Jingzhou and the eldest son reached an agreement with our army. Our army helped them to intimidate the counties in Jiangbei and make them surrender to Liu Jingzhou.
Liu Jingzhou also acquiesced that our ships should take the northern shore of the Yangtze River and go around to the west entrance of Liangzi Lake to block the mouth! Huang Zu has been deserted by his friends and relatives. No one will die for him except his own family! Commander Su, you have done your best for Huang Zu. Why don't you quickly lay down your weapons and surrender! "

(Note: Don’t argue with Meng Jian’s time travel. The idiom “catching a turtle in a jar” was taught to him by Zhuge Jin before he set out.)

Su Fei and the other generals completely collapsed when they heard this bombshell news.

"What? The counties in Jiangbei and Hannan have directly submitted to the eldest master? Liu Jingzhou and the General of Chariots and Cavalry have officially joined forces to deal with Huang Zu?"

What kind of fight is this? Huang Zu will definitely die!

(End of this chapter)