My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 403: Kill Qin Qi first, then destroy Cai Yang

Regarding the issue of how to withdraw troops to support Huainan, Cai Yang's advice to Qin Qi was naturally very pertinent and practical.

As an uncle, how could he deliberately harm his nephew?
However, everyone who has studied criminal law knows that even if a person does not act with "intention" when doing something, there can still be "negligence" and "carelessness caused by overconfidence."

To put it bluntly, Cai Yang himself was not very good at strategy. Even if he gave advice from the bottom of his heart, it might still be a bad idea or he might not have fully estimated the enemy's situation.

Qin Qi is young and hot-tempered, and he will make some concessions and underestimate the enemy when executing. It is difficult to predict how far the final result will deviate.

The inner decision-making process of this noob is not worth the wasted words to describe.

In short, when Qin Qi finally executed the order to retreat, he chose a route that was still not safe and stable enough.

When his army returned south from Xiang County in the Sui River Basin, behind Cao Ren, they chose to cross the river directly from a Wo Shui ferry east of Chengfu County, hoping to take a shortcut and save time.

His deputy general did remind him at the time: "Major General, the old general has ordered that we must at least retreat to the west of Chengfu County, or even to Qiao County before crossing the river, to be absolutely safe. Isn't it a bit risky to cross the river here?"

Qin Qi pointed to the large group of boats gathered at the riverside ferry and said proudly: "Uncle has never been here in person, how can he know the latest situation on the battlefield and respond flexibly? The Art of War says that when a general is on the battlefield, he may not obey the orders of the king. If he can disobey the orders of the king, let alone the orders of his elders.

It is rare for merchants from Shansang County to escape the war to pass through Woyang Ferry. So many boats were left behind due to the war and were intercepted by us. If we don't use these boats to cross the river here, and wait until we reach the upstream east of Chengfu County to find a ferry, what if there are not so many boats?
By then, we will have to rely on three or five small boats to slowly ferry thousands of soldiers and horses. How many trips will it take to leave late? Wouldn't that be more troublesome? If you do as I say, how could my uncle know that I could suddenly find so many boats in Woyang Ferry! "

Qin Qi's deputy general also thought it made sense. After all, Cai Yang's order was to ensure that the risk of being intercepted and blocked was reduced.

Even if we hide further back and find another ferry to cross the river, the situation is so chaotic now that there are only a few civilian boats at most ferry crossings.

Gan Ning had previously caused damage along the coast of Longkang and other places downstream, which had frightened the fishermen in Qiao and caused them to hide their boats.

As for the common people, they don't care whether you are Cao's army or Liu's army. They just want to keep their boats from being requisitioned and avoid being forced to be boatmen for the army. Even if Cao's army came, the people would not cooperate.

We should seize the opportunity and use this captured fleet that has just run into trouble to cross the river.

……

Qin Qi thought he was "adaptable" and seized a good opportunity to cross the river and retreat.

Little did he know that his every move had already been discovered by several patrol boats hidden in the reeds along the coast, and then they were quietly lowered into the water to inform Gan Ning downstream.

Gan Ning had been "robbing and looting" along the Woshui River and the Huai River these days, destroying Cao's logistics within the territory, and he was doing quite well, but he still felt that it was not satisfying enough. After all, since he defected to Liu Bei, he was subject to military discipline, and it was not easy for him to do whatever he wanted like when he was a Jinfan thief.

Finally hearing the good news from his subordinates, Gan Ning stretched his body and became excited: "Finally, we have caught a big fish. The strategy that the military advisor gave us before the battle is really effective. Quick, all ships should cut anchor and set sail immediately. Follow me to attack Chengfu!"

While Gan Ning was planning his attack, he was reviewing the situation in his mind with great pride:
As expected, they still had to arrange several civilian fleets, pretending to be merchants from Shansang County or even Qi County, and fleeing to the rear of Cao's army from the various tributaries of Woshui to avoid fighting, deliberately allowing themselves to be captured by Cao's army.

The military advisor has a good plan, but he can’t catch the wolf without putting away his shoes.

Qin Qi's mind is very simple. He doesn't even think about the fact that in such a chaotic situation, there are merchants fleeing to the rear, and they might be baits of the enemy.

Just one hour later, Gan Ning's fleet was advancing rapidly, rowing against the current like crazy, and finally arrived at Woyang Ferry downstream of Chengfu County, and indeed ran into Qin Qi who was just halfway across the river.

Gan Ning didn't waste any time and charged straight towards Qin Qi's troops.

"Oh no! General Jinfan is coming again! Run!" The Cao army troops that had already crossed the river saw a large number of enemy warships coming from downstream, and they had no intention of fighting anymore, so they just mounted their horses and ran away.

Obviously, they had heard about Gan Ning's recent reputation from the surrounding soldiers and civilians, and knew that no one could match him on the Woshui River. If they were caught halfway across the river, they would just give up resistance. They could only blame their comrades for their bad luck.

Qin Qi's head was filled with blood. He couldn't understand how Gan Ning could come so quickly. Wasn't his mobility exaggerated? He crossed the river here on a whim.

If we go back three hours, even he himself didn't know that he would cross the river here, so it would be even more impossible for Gan Ning to ambush.

It's really weird!
But Qin Qi was young and energetic after all, and he still had some courage. He had already crossed the river, but he did not want to abandon his main force, so he ordered the troops around him to turn back and meet the friendly forces on the shore to prevent being pursued by Gan Ning.

Gan Ning on the other side was also very arrogant. After killing the enemies in the river, he saw that the enemy had fled and there were no more targets to kill. Gan Ning actually ordered some warships to dock on the west bank of the Woshui River, and then ordered the navy to land and line up, trying to chase and kill Qin Qi's scattered defeated soldiers.

How could Qin Qi tolerate this scene?
"These southern barbarians rely on their good swimming skills to compete with our army on the river, but they dared to go ashore and pursue the defeated soldiers after our army was intercepted and killed? Do they really dare to bully us Central Plains because we have no one? Let me show you the bravery of my northern warriors!"

Qin Qi gritted his teeth and took the more than a thousand cavalrymen and temporarily gathered infantry with him, and ordered them to turn around immediately and drive Gan Ning into the river.

Although Gan Ning's troops were not weak, they had just landed, and the first batch of people who came ashore were not in a dominant position. Many soldiers were still on the boat, and could only use bows and crossbows to provide long-range fire support to the comrades who came ashore.

But Gan Ning was not afraid at all. Relying on the first batch of about 800 people who landed, most of whom were infantry, and only generals and officers had war horses, he directly met Qin Qi's counterattack.

"The Cao army was intercepted and defeated by us halfway across the river. They were already frightened and their morale was low! They dare to fight back now, but they are just thinking that we southerners are not good at land warfare! As long as we wake them up, these villains will soon lose their courage again!"

Before the battle, Gan Ning did not forget to boost morale with a few words, and then rode his horse forward and led his troops to charge.

Most of his troops were sailors, so there were only a few dozen or nearly a hundred cavalrymen who could keep up with him. They were mostly officers, and there was no organized cavalry. But even these dozens of cavalrymen stifled the momentum of Qin Qi's counterattack troops. Most of the soldiers around Qin Qi who were pulled back to fight were all in the mentality of taking advantage, wanting to try whether the southerners were really incapable of landing.

Seeing Gan Ning's powerful momentum and fearlessness, the Cao soldiers who had just been attacked halfway across the river soon began to doubt their lives again.

Gan Ning took advantage of the opportunity and directly approached Qin Qi's flag formation. The two sides collided with each other in a head-on collision.

"The enemy general, die!" Gan Ning waved his iron halberd and killed a few enemy cavalry who were blocking his way. His moves were clean and neat, and the amplitude of his movements was not large.

Seeing that he had killed through the layers of enemies blocking his way, he raised his weapon accurately, relying entirely on the speed and strength of his horse's own sprint, and went straight for Qin Qi's throat.

Qin Qi felt his scalp tingling and he instinctively leaned back to dodge, raising the weapon in his hand to block, trying to block Gan Ning's iron halberd.

But Gan Ning just flipped his wrist slightly, and the iron halberd's momentum did not slow down, and the direction of the tip did not change at all, but the halberd's branch in the shape of a Chinese character "卜" turned an angle and just passed Qin Qi's throat.

Qin Qi dodged the sharp blade's attack from the front, but failed to avoid the sweeping and cutting of the small branch, and blood spurted out immediately.

The wound was not fatal, not deep enough, and did not cut the carotid artery.

But in a bloody battle, once a person's neck is injured, his brain will obviously be blank. Qin Qi's entire energy was drained out, and he thought he was dead, and he was completely unable to think of subsequent blocking moves. So Gan Ning easily made up for it with a few moves, and he was completely dead.

"Cao thief is bullying us southerners because we have no one! You thief will be killed! Today I will teach you how brave we southerners are!"

After Gan Ning killed Qin Qi, he became even more motivated and continued to charge with dozens of riders around him. All of them began to shout with all their might, shouting several times or even ten times the volume of the enemy's opponent.

Soon, everyone in Cao's army knew that Qin Qi had been killed and the cavalry team in the central army was completely defeated. Even though the remaining people were still numerous, they were completely frightened and fled in all directions.

Gan Ning's rear troops rushed forward, pursuing the enemy to the north, trying to maximize the results of the battle, and continued fighting until it was almost dark before they withdrew their troops and returned to the ships.

The seized war horses, weapons and prisoners were also lined up and taken onto the ship for custody, and then released downstream back to Longkang County.

……

On the other side, Cai Yang was halfway on his way to support the main force of Cao Cao, who was relatively slow in movement, in Huainan.

The next morning, some of Qin Qi's cavalry fled back and ran into Cai Yang, who reported the tragic defeat.

"What? Qi'er was killed by Gan Ning? I told him to retreat cautiously, why was he still so careless?" Cai Yang groaned in his heart, his chest filled with anger.

Some of his generals were filled with righteous indignation and advised him, "Old General, do you want to fight Gan Ning to seek revenge?"

Cai Yang gritted his teeth and suppressed his anger: "National affairs are more important! Liu Bei's offensive is swift and fierce. Lord Li is in Huainan and can't hold out for long. Anfeng has been lost, so we should first think about how to return to Yiyang as soon as possible.

Since Gan Ning is blocking us, we have to take a longer route to retreat further back to ensure safety. However, we still need to set up a false alarm to make Gan Ning think there is an opportunity, so that he will waste more time in Woshui to watch us. "

Cai Yang wanted to take revenge immediately, but reason told him that he might not be able to defeat Gan Ning.

It is better to endure it for the time being. If I can return to Yiyang, I can rely on the strong city of Yiyang to wait for Gan Ning to attack. Then I can return the favor several times over and take revenge.

After deciding on this idea, Cai Yang had to waste more time, but Gan Ning would no longer have the opportunity to intercept him in a field battle, so both sides suffered losses.

Gan Ning fully expected that he could fight another battle by attacking the enemy halfway across the river, but unfortunately the enemy had suffered a loss once and could not do it again.

He waited and waited, and finally stayed near Longkang until mid-September, when he suddenly received an urgent report from Zhuge Liang in the rear:

"General Gan, the lord and the military advisor in the rear have urgent orders for you to return immediately, go upstream along the Huai River, and participate in the siege of Yiyang."

Gan Ning was slightly stunned after receiving the order: "Don't you need me to intercept Cai Yang?"

The messenger reported truthfully: "The lord said that his side is progressing faster than expected, and will soon be able to surround Yiyang City, which is defended by Li Tong. As long as the siege is completed, even if Cai Yang returns, he will have to be surrounded by our army and attacked for reinforcements.

Therefore, please General Gan, return quickly. Anyone who wants to kill Cai Yang can wait for him at the foot of Yiyang City and kill him as well."

Gan Ning was overjoyed when he understood the details of the matter.

It turned out that the lord and Wei Yan were making such rapid progress that without myself and Zilong taking action, they would have almost reached Yiyang City.

In this case, it would be meaningless to stop Cai Yang from coming back to help. It would be better to let Cai Yang come back to help and then crash into the siege camp of Yiyang and die.

Naturally, Gan Ning did not say anything and ordered all the warships to cut anchor and set sail that day, sailing downstream at a high speed.

First, he followed the Woshui River to Yicheng and Xiacai, then went upstream on the Huai River, sailing day and night towards Yiyang to catch up with Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang.

(End of this chapter)