My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 369: Really Cowardly, Really Steady
When Taishi Ci's challenge failed, Zhou Yu took over and led the fleet upstream along the Zhang River and directly to the city of Nanpi.

They pretended to try to transport the grain fleet into Nanpi City in order to force Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang to accept the battle.

The next morning, Zhou Yu led 6,000 naval forces and attacked along the Zhang River on dozens of large battleships. These warships were of similar specifications to those used in the Battle of Nanpi last year.

This is also because larger and stronger warships cannot enter rivers like the Zhangshui River, or at least it is inconvenient for them to turn around. After strengthening the protection of the side shooting holes, the warships are more than enough for use in the northern battlefield.

Zhou Yu advanced along the river, and soon both banks were filled with siege camps set up by Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang.

Yuan's army on the shore could hide behind the rammed earth walls and wooden fences of the camp and shoot arrows at will at the fleet on the river. The width of the Zhang River was only a few dozen feet. Even if they hid in the center of the river, they would always be covered by the bows and crossbows on at least one side of the north and south banks.

Fortunately, Zhou Yu was already familiar with the route. He had all the archers hide in the cabin and there were no ship operators left on the deck. The few who needed to temporarily operate the sails and ropes were all wearing steel helmets and iron armor, and there were extra shields erected next to the mast.

After a fierce exchange of fire, Zhou Yu's fleet was quickly shot into hedgehogs, but the soldiers were not seriously injured. Zhou Yu aimed his crossbow at the archers on the shore, but Yuan's army suffered more casualties.

After fighting for a while, Yuan's army realized that shooting arrows alone was useless, so they began to light rows of torches along the fortifications. Then the archers wrapped arrows in rags, dipped them in a small amount of oil, and then ignited them on the torches and shot them.

In some relatively narrow sections of the river on the battlefield, Yuan Shang's soldiers also mobilized soldiers with strong arms to throw torches directly at Zhou Yu's warships.

Unfortunately, these torches are poorly made. They can’t even be considered dovetail torches. There are no iron claw hooks at the tail, so they can’t penetrate the wooden board after flying onto it.

Throwing it on the deck might have some effect, but if it was thrown on the side of the ship, it would bounce directly into the river, and the arson effect would be worse than a rocket - at least a rocket could ensure that it would penetrate the wooden board and then continue to burn for a period of time.

A torch that cannot be pierced can only heat up for a second or two of contact, and then it disappears in a flash.

This level of fire attack made Zhou Yu almost lose the energy to deal with it.

He even felt that the barrels of bentonite mud hidden in the bottom cabin were unnecessary to use and could be saved for when the fire-fighting pressure was high.

Now, the sailors could simply use the pulley and winch bucket placed over the side of the ship to draw water from the Zhang River to pour water on the deck, which was enough to put out these small fires.

The generals under Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang who were commanding the rocket launchers on the opposite side were also shocked to see that Liu Bei's army had defended against the fire attack so easily.

In the south, it is very common to see pulleys and ropes installed on the side of a ship. In the north, at least in the eyes of the Jizhou army, it is a new thing. Although this thing is similar to the wheel for turning buckets at the well, the northerners just didn't expect to install a well wheel on the side of a ship.

The Jizhou Army's application and integration of water warfare technology was really poor. They couldn't even integrate the existing common technologies and didn't know how to use them in water warfare. It was no wonder that they were crushed by Zhou Yu.

Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang tried every means to block the exchange of fire in order to delay Zhou Yu, but in the end they achieved no results. Instead, they lost hundreds or even thousands of soldiers in the continuous exchange of fire.

Although Yuan Jun’s archers also had cover, their protection was not as tight as Zhou Yu’s. Continuous high-intensity combat resulted in increasing casualties and increasingly low morale.

As the battle progressed, the density of Yuan army's bow and crossbow fire became lower and lower. Many soldiers found that no matter how they shot, it was a futile effort. They simply squatted behind the rammed earth corridor and began to be passive and lazy.

After Zhou Yu observed this, his archers even dared to reach out to the side of the ship, pull out the arrows shot by the enemy, and shoot them back to replenish the insufficient arrows.

Sailors from Jiangdong often did this. According to official history, when Sun Jian was fighting Liu Biao, he had a shootout with Huang Zu's troops. The soldiers from Jingzhou fired arrows at the warships crazily, and all of them hit the planks. The defenders on the ship didn't have enough arrows, so they pulled them out from the planks and shot them back. Even if they were damaged or the quality was poor, they could still be used.

This incident is said to be one of the prototypes of Zhuge Liang's "Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boats" written by Luo Guanzhong later. Since Sun Jian was used to doing this, it is normal for Zhou Yu to use it.

In this way, Zhou Yu's ability to continue fighting is greatly enhanced. If nothing unexpected happens, there will be no problem in reaching Nanpi City.

Unfortunately, just when Zhou Yu was full of confidence, an accident occurred as expected.

After all, Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang were not mentally retarded. They had copied the answers to Cao Hong and Zhang He's failures last year, so they were prepared for the possibility of falling into the same pit twice.

Just when Zhou Yu thought he had timed it right, the fleet was moving slowly forward when suddenly there was a jolt and the few warships in the front made some dull sounds of breaking wood.

"Captain, we've hit a reef! There's a shallow sandbar in the water ahead, blocking the channel!" Zhou Yu's face changed. "How is that possible? Didn't General Taishi take this channel last year? He sent the grain ship directly to Nanpi City at that time! How could a reef suddenly appear on the road we've traveled?"

The lookout and the messenger were also silent and could not answer. Zhou Yu rubbed his hands together, his mind racing, and thought of a possibility:
"Could it be that Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang have been besieging the city for a long time, spending a lot of manpower, and deliberately destroyed the Zhangshui waterway to ensure that no ship can pass... This is a lose-lose strategy. It is certainly difficult for our grain fleet to pass,

If they take down Nanpi City in the future and want to attack the lower reaches of Zhangshui River, they will have to spend a lot of effort to clear the waterway and dredge the blocked riverbed. How much do they fear that the enemy will rescue Nanpi from the water..."

It was impossible for Zhou Yu to predict this in advance. After all, this place had been besieged by the enemy for half a year. How could he predict the changes in the hydrological conditions below the water surface before the enemy came to rescue?
Zhou Yu could only order the ships to suppress the enemies on both sides with arrows, and then let the ships that hit the reefs try to paddle out and retreat downstream. For those that could not paddle out, he organized the sailors to take off their armor and jump into the water to escape back to the supporting ships behind.

As for the grain transportation mission, it can only be temporarily suspended.

Although this battle failed to rescue the enemy and several ships were damaged by running aground, Zhou Yu still made a clear profit in terms of the casualty exchange ratio.

Moreover, he made Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang's troops realize that they had no way to stop Zhou Yu from coming and going as he pleased, and at most they could only prevent Zhou Yu from reaching the city. This was a huge blow to the morale of Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang's troops.

……

After Zhou Yu's unsuccessful attempt, he temporarily retreated and set up camp dozens of miles downstream. He reunited with Taishi Ci and discussed new countermeasures.

"It seems that although Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang are incompetent, they are cautious. At least they know how to learn from the mistakes made by their predecessors and make sure they don't suffer the same mistake twice. It is fair to say that they are slightly better than the mediocre generals."

Zhou Yu and Taishi Ci's evaluation of Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang did improve a little.

Although they have not yet come face to face with the enemy generals, the enemy is just timid and relies on siege camps and river corridors to defend, and refuses to take the initiative to fight.

But it must be said that this style of play is really stable. It is not easy for Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu to break out of the siege quickly.

Taishi Ci was unwilling to rack his brains. After thinking for a while, he could not come up with any new ideas, so he still hoped in Zhou Yu: "Gongjin is resourceful, so he must be able to find a workaround?"

Zhou Yu thought for a long time and suggested, "Actually... I don't think the military rations in the city are that short of food. Even if the Bohai defenders had winter crops last year, they would not be able to harvest summer wheat until this month."

Therefore, before the end of May, they would not have been able to obtain local food and fodder supplies. They should have been mentally prepared for this before they were besieged last year. Now, our army still has some time. If we cannot lift the siege within a month, Nanpi will not surrender due to lack of food.

As the floods in summer became more severe, Ziyu and Kongming judged that Cao's army would definitely attack Yecheng as soon as possible and launch a full-scale attack on Yuan Shang. I think as long as we can hold on until that day, Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang will withdraw without a fight.

The purpose of our visit has been mentioned at the beginning. It is not only to rescue Guan Tong, but also to weaken Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang and prevent them from returning to Cao - these people will not fight to the death for Yuan Shang.

In this case, it is better to skip the grain transportation step, or just pretend to transport grain as bait to attract Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang's attention and troops. Then, we will send out another surprise force to ensure that the defenders in Nanpi City will continue to hold on and shake Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang's will to continue the siege.

Tomorrow, I can pretend to try another waterway breakthrough, and even pretend to "want to split troops ashore and dredge the underwater shallows with shovels" to attract the main forces of Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang to block us. At that time, Brother Ziyi can choose the weak point of the enemy's siege camp and make a breakthrough. He doesn't need to destroy the camp, but just want to tear a small hole so that our army can rush to the foot of Nanpi City and shoot arrows into the city to warn people.

The content of the warning was nothing more than a false military intelligence, telling Guan Tong that 'Cao's army was already attacking Yecheng, Yuan Shang was unable to take care of himself, and he would definitely let Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang withdraw to Weijun within a few days'. In this way, the defenders would surely grit their teeth and hold on.

Our army could also take advantage of the situation and deliberately drop or miss some of the arrows when retreating after delivering the letter, so that some of the arrows would be captured by Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang's troops. In this way, even if Cao Cao had not yet attacked Weijun and Yecheng, some people in Yuan Shang's army would definitely believe it.

Because this kind of thing is hard to explain, the more Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang try to dispel the rumor, the more Yuan Shang's soldiers will think that the generals are lying to stabilize the army's morale. As long as our arrow book is written in more detail and the time is clearly stated, we can deceive as many people as possible.

Moreover, these things are self-proven. Even if Cao's army has not attacked yet, if we deliberately spread this news on a large scale, instigate discord, and spread the news that Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang believed it and wanted to return to support Yecheng, then how could Cao's army not launch an attack immediately?
Cao Cao would not hope that Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang would return to support successfully and greatly increase the defense force of Yecheng. He would definitely try to intercept Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang in Qinghe County and other places along the way.

In this way, when Cao's army really launches an attack in advance to intercept them, the lies we told will become true. Then we can take advantage of the situation when Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang really have to retreat and kill them, and we can achieve complete success! Why should we rely on our own strength to fight head-on with Yuan Shang's army who still have the will to fight? "

Taishi Ci thought about it and couldn't help but slap his thigh: "What a good idea, there are some things that Cao thief will definitely do, it's just a matter of time, at most ten days or half a month.

They were about to do something but didn't do it. We revealed it a few days in advance. It's not a lie. We just said it a few days earlier! Gongjin's plan is really brilliant! Let's follow it tomorrow!"

(End of this chapter)