My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 752: General Liu will visit his loyal Yingchuan County today
Kan Ze returned to Shangcai City with the conditions of successful negotiations with Zhang Fei and Xu Shu, and immediately told Ling Tong, who was in charge of defending the city, the results of the negotiation.

Sun Quan had already fled with Cheng Pu's first fleet of evacuees, and several lieutenant-level generals sent by Cao Cao to assist Sun Quan also fled with him. So now Ling Tong had the final say on the defense of the city.

Ling Tong had no wisdom to speak of, only courage and a resolute character. So when he heard the results of the negotiations, he was a little hesitant, worried that Zhang Fei or Xu Shu had played a trick.

"Zhang Fei promised to let us withdraw safely, will he really let us withdraw safely? Xu Shu is also known for his cunning and resourcefulness. Could it be that he deceived our army into losing morale and not wanting to defend the city, so that everyone wanted to escape, and then he would attack us or even ambush us halfway and annihilate us?"

Facing Ling Tong's question, Kan Ze still dared to guarantee: "Although Xu Shu is resourceful, Zhang Fei has always been brave and he values Liu Bei's reputation, so he should not disdain to do such a despicable thing.

Liu Bei's reputation for trustworthiness has been known throughout the world for more than 20 years. How much must he cherish this reputation? Given Zhang Fei's understanding and loyalty to Liu Bei, he would not do such a thing for such a small profit.

In contrast, our army should be worried about whether the enemy will seize the opportunity to attack our army when we implement the negotiation conditions. After all, if they find a pretext to say that our army did not comply with the negotiation conditions first, then they can justifiably stop fulfilling the agreement.

So when our army retreated, we agreed to give up what we should give up. We agreed to only allow General Cheng's fleet to take over twice and to withdraw within two days, so we must do it. We should give up what we can't take away in time or what we don't have the transportation capacity to take away, and we must not lose the big picture because of the small, and give the enemy a handle. "

Ling Tong felt a little ashamed when Kan Ze reminded him of this, because he had thought at the beginning, "The enemy may not keep their promise anyway, so we won't keep our promise either, and we'll smuggle whatever we can."

Now that I have calmed down and thought about it, I realize that I really cannot give others an advantage.

Ling Tong was quite straightforward and admitted his mistake directly: "In this case, I will strictly control my troops, Mr. Derun, don't worry. If we need to negotiate with the enemy later, it will all depend on you, Mr. Derun. I only know how to command the army."

The two men had made up their minds and began to prepare for a full withdrawal according to the agreed terms. Cheng Pu's transportation capacity was insufficient, and many things were destined to be unable to be taken away, so Ling Tong generously sealed them up.

There were no surprises in the next one or two days. Ling Tong and Sun Quan, who had retreated to Dingying County, were originally worried that the enemy would break the negotiation terms, but they finally found that Zhang Fei and Wei Yan were very restrained, so they were relieved.

At the end of October, Ling Tong and Kan Ze finally withdrew from Shangcai safely with a rear guard force of more than 10,000 people. They stayed in Dingying for two or three days to rest, and then withdrew to Yancheng in the rear in batches.

As a result, Cao's army's defense line in the direction of the Ru River retreated ninety miles in one breath, and successively abandoned the two county towns of Shangcai and Dingying.

After all, this area is the heartland of the Central Plains. It originally had a developed economy and a dense population, so the distances between county towns were very close, generally only forty or fifty miles away, and even the distance between two counties was only ninety miles.

At this point, Cao's army completely lost the last territory in Runan County and retreated directly to Yingchuan County. Yancheng was the southernmost county town in Yingchuan County, just on the north side of the county boundary between Yingchuan and Runan.

After Sun Quan retreated to Yancheng in a panic, he had to apologize to Cao Zhen who was stationed there and explain the situation to him, and join forces with him.

According to the previous strategic deployment of Cao Cao's camp, Cao Ren was in charge of the overall defense of the entire Yuzhou direction.

Cao Ren himself was stationed in Xu County, and had to take into account Yingchuan and Runan, as well as Chen and Qiao to the east.

Under Cao Ren, there were Cao Zhen, Sun Quan, Xu Huang and other brave generals. Among them, Cao Zhen was in charge of Yingchuan, and Sun Quan was in charge of Runan.

Xu Huang was initially in charge of Chen and Qiao. But later, as Liu Bei's army attacked from more and more directions, Xu Huang was transferred to other places to plug the gaps.

So at this moment, when Sun Quan was defeated, he only had Cao Zhen to support him directly, and Cao Ren, his immediate superior, was also accountable in the rear.

Cao Zhen and Sun Quan were of equal rank. One was Cao Cao's nephew and the other was Cao Cao's son-in-law. Their qualifications were also similar, so there was no question of who suppressed whom.

Seeing Sun Quan lose his land, Cao Zhen felt a little contempt in his heart. He also felt that Sun Quan was afraid of death and unwilling to work hard for the court. However, he did not openly tear his face against Sun Quan to hold him accountable.

When the two met, Cao Zhen just exchanged pleasantries coldly and asked about the military details of the defeat:
"Brother Zhongmou, why did you lose so quickly? Shangcai and Dingying only held out for twenty days combined. Now Zhang Fei is approaching Yancheng. If our army wants to stop Zhang Fei from attacking our Tongbai Mountain defense line, this is the only barrier left! If we lose it again, I'm afraid Xu County will be directly exposed to the enemy's front!"

Cao Zhen's accusation may be difficult for laymen to understand at first, but it becomes very clear when you look at the map.

To the north of Yancheng, there are only two counties, Qiang and Linying, before you reach Xu County, which is the last strategic gateway to Xu County. The two counties further north are actually just for the sake of numbers. There is no strategic location to defend militarily. If you want to defend any further, you can only defend Xu County itself.

This can also be proved by the war examples of later generations. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei marched north from Huaibei to recover Bianjing. After the victory in Yancheng, Jin Wushu knew that he could no longer defend Bianjing militarily. He could only rely on playing the political card and relying on Qin Hui to kill Yue Fei. Although Bianliang and Xu County are not in the same location, the geographical situation of the eastern Henan Plain is similar.

On the other hand, Yancheng was located at a fork of the Ru River, so one could go upstream along the main stream of the Ru River to Xiangcheng. From Yancheng, one could go to the Ru River's tributaries, the Fei River and the Li River, to reach Dingling, Kunyang, and Ye County, and break through Cao's Tongbai Mountain defense line from behind.

(Note: Lishui, a tributary of Rushui, and Lishui, a tributary of Xiangjiang in southern Jing, are not the same river, but they have the same name. Perhaps the ancients chose place names too casually and did not know how to check for duplicates.)
Precisely because Yancheng was so important and Sun Quan’s defeat had caused Cao’s army to lose its last outer barrier, Cao Zhen had to be anxious.

Faced with Cao Zhen's accusations, Sun Quan had to find excuses for himself, emphasizing the enemy's strength and Xu Shu's treacherous and vicious schemes, not that he was unwilling to risk his life.

"...I also wanted to fight to the death for the court! But Xu Shu used a treacherous trick to break General Cheng's water stronghold. If our army doesn't retreat, we may be completely surrounded by the enemy both by land and sea. At that time, the whole army will be annihilated! In order to save my troops, I had to retreat!"

Sun Quan roughly explained the situation as follows.

Unfortunately, Cao Zhen did not fully understand his words. He still said in a cold tone: "Brother Zhongmou, you and I are colleagues. I have no right to blame you. The right and wrong will be decided by the general and even the prime minister.

But you said that Wei Yan relied on Xu Shu's treacherous plan to break Cheng Pu's water stronghold, so you had to retreat immediately. Isn't this a bit of a joke? Given the strength of the Caicheng City, couldn't you hold on for a month?

Even if you are surrounded, you can't expect us to rescue you? Even if you fight desperately, you won't retreat so quickly! Why do you think we won't try our best to support and rescue you? Why do you think we won't raise more warships?
And when you broke through, why didn't you burn the city? Why did you leave the remaining supplies for Zhang Fei to help the enemy?"

When Sun Quan was asked this by Cao Zhen, he was suddenly speechless, but he also felt extremely aggrieved in his heart.

What Cao Zhen said is indeed correct in theory, but it is also purely easy to say.

Yes, even if Sun Quan was at risk of being completely surrounded, he could indeed choose to hold on and wait for help.

But he doesn't believe that his friends can save him!

What is Cao Zhen's rank? Even if we don't count on Cao Zhen, but count on Cao Ren, can Cao Ren repel the attack of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei?

Sun Quan had a clear mind.

In this kind of situation, you can only rely on yourself. You can't leave your life and death to your friendly forces.

Unfortunately, Sun Quan couldn't refute directly, nor could he openly break off the argument and say "I don't believe you can save me", so he could only try his best to admit his mistake and find excuses to exonerate himself. In short, he felt very aggrieved.

The latest situation in Shangcai and Yancheng was immediately reported to Cao Ren in Xu County, and then to Cao Cao in Luoyang, who would naturally make a definitive decision on how to deal with the situation.

In short, at this moment, on the battlefield of Yancheng, it is inevitable that some rifts will arise between Cao Zhen and Sun Quan because of the issue of blame for the defeat.

Cao Zhen may not have been looking for trouble with Sun Quan, but he had to try his best to distance himself from the matter, emphasizing that "if he knew that Sun Quan was surrounded, he would have done his best to rescue him." In the officialdom, everyone has their own interests, and there is nothing you can do about it. If you don't fight for it, and others throw dirty water on you, you will have no way to defend yourself.

It's like a general named Zhang in the future. He hid in Mengmougou and defended it to the death. The blame for the final defeat must be attributed to Li Mouxia who watched him die without saving him. But if he ran away, Li Mouxia would definitely be the first to jump out and bite him, and would emphasize "If he didn't run away, I would definitely save him."

Anyway, since there is no way to prove it, who can't brag to get credit? This has nothing to do with the personal relationship between Sun Quan and Cao Zhen, it is purely a matter of seeking benefits and avoiding harm in the officialdom.

……

At the same time, cracks appeared within Cao's camp due to disputes over the withdrawal of troops and the abandonment of military supplies to the enemy.

Zhang Fei, Wei Yan and Xu Shu were making rapid progress.

After they firmly captured Shangcai, they quickly restored order in the city and divided their troops to continue advancing northward. Within three days, they took over Dingying, which had been voluntarily abandoned by the enemy. After another two days, they arrived at the outskirts of Yancheng.

Yancheng is surrounded by water on three sides. To the east and north is the main stream of the Ru River, to the south is the Lishui River, a tributary of the Ru River. Only to the west are some hills and highlands that are not surrounded by rivers.

Zhang Fei came from the south, so the warships could reach the south of Yancheng directly and set up camp across the river from the city. Later, they could go further upstream, land on the north bank of the Lishui River, and set up another camp west of Yancheng to besiege the city.

After the army arrived, Zhang Fei summoned Wei Yan and Xu Shu to ask for advice, wanting to see how the subsequent war would proceed. Especially since Xu Shu had told him before that if Sun Quan's entire army was allowed to retreat, there would be room for the subsequent operation of the strategy of sowing discord. Zhang Fei was impatient, and now that they had arrived in Yancheng, he wanted Xu Shu to fulfill his idea.

Xu Shu couldn't help but laugh after hearing this, but he couldn't show it on his face. He just smiled and comforted Zhang Fei: "Why are you so anxious, General? Since ancient times, has anyone expected the strategy of sowing discord to be effective immediately? Some things can only be encountered by chance, so we can only lay the groundwork first, and when the time is right, we can naturally launch it.

But at the moment, Cao Ren and Cao Zhen's distrust of Sun Quan's surrendered generals has not yet accumulated to that level. Let's first see how to break Yancheng, or pretend to break Yancheng and do something else. As long as we are getting more and more successful on the battlefield, the contradictions within the enemy army will naturally become more and more intensified. There is no need to rush this matter. "

Zhang Fei calmed down a bit after hearing this, and no longer sought to realize the benefits of the alienation plan immediately. He calmed his thoughts and asked, "What do you think our army can do in the name of 'taking the opportunity to capture Yancheng'?"

Xu Shu must have been thinking about this problem while he was on his way north with the army these days, so he didn't hesitate for too long at this moment. He sorted out his words a little and then put forward his new plan:

"Yancheng is located south of the Ru River and north of the Li River. Our army camped in the south and could pretend to go around to the west of Yancheng, land and camp, and then besiege Yancheng. In fact, after bypassing the city, we would set up camp upstream and store a large amount of supplies and fleets, then bypass Yancheng directly and rush to Ye County.

Opposite Ye County is Bowang where the Lord and Zhuge Lingjun are stationed. Bowang and Ye County respectively control the north and south sides of the Tongbai Mountain Pass. Once our army rushes to threaten Ye County, Cao's Tongbai Mountain defense line will completely collapse, and the Lord's main force attacking from Nanyang County to the northwest can be directly released into the Yingchuan Plain.

At that time, no matter Yancheng or Xuxian, there will be no strategic location to defend, and Cao's army can only choose to hold our army in a stalemate with a large group of troops, and it will no longer be possible to pin down our heavy troops with a small number of troops. "

As Xu Shu spoke, he asked the guards to bring a map and showed it to Zhang Fei.

When the Ru River reaches Yancheng, the water volume in the upper reaches of the Ru River is very small, and the river surface is not wide, making it difficult for large ships to pass. The Lishui River, as a tributary, is even narrower and shallower. The further you go upstream, the closer you get to the Tongbai Mountain area, and even warships cannot be sailed, only small boats of the first level can be sailed.

Therefore, the location of Yancheng, which is adjacent to the river on both the north and south sides, is sufficient to block the waterway. Cao's army did not even need to set up camp on the riverside like Shangcai did before, and build a water fort on the other side of the river to block the waterway.

In Yancheng, the river can be completely blocked by the city tower alone without the cooperation of the water fort on the other side. Small boats like Zou Ge also have no superstructures. When passing outside the city, crossbows fired directly from the city walls can suppress the small boats.

Moreover, it was already early November, and the river became more dry as winter approached, and the navigable river section became shallower and narrower. This was why Sun Quan and Cao Zhen felt that holding Yancheng would block Zhang Fei's route of advance.

However, according to Xu Shu's arrangement, if Sun Quan and Cao Zhen defended Yancheng to the death, it seemed that they could only block Zhang Fei's passage to Xu County directly in the north, but they could not block Zhang Fei's passage to turn west and stab Ye County.

Zhang Fei's troops first pretended to besiege and attack Yancheng, and then set up camp to the west of Yancheng on the north bank of the Lishui River. In fact, the supplies transported to the west of the city would not necessarily be used for the subsequent attack on the city, but could be directly diverted to continue attacking upstream along the river.

Of course, even if Cao's army believed that Zhang Fei was transporting supplies along the city for the purpose of attacking the city, and not for other purposes, Cao's army would still try their best to block and harass him. If they saw Zhang Fei's fleet passing by on the river outside the city, they would still try their best to shoot arrows to kill and injure them.

Therefore, this is still a very severe test of Zhang Fei's basic tactical skills, and Zhang Fei needs to make some coordinated diversionary attacks.

For example, some small actions could be carried out in other directions of Yancheng to attract the defenders' manpower and firepower, so that the troops sailing against the current in the south of the city would bear less pressure.

Xu Shu couldn't teach Zhang Fei the specific details, after all, Xu Shu was not a general who led troops directly, and he was not very specialized in tactics. It was impossible for him to break even the "Eight Gates Golden Lock Formation" as in the novel, which was just the imagination of literati like Luo Guanzhong.

Zhang Fei did not make things difficult for him. He just discussed with Wei Yan in private and made a specific tactical plan of "pretending to attack the city but actually circling it". Then they prepared to execute it separately.

……

In the following days, Zhang Fei's troops were quickly and efficiently dispatched.

Hundreds of warships were active on the surface of the Ru River on the east side of Yancheng. Some even tried to use the broken warships to directly connect and build a pontoon bridge, as if they were going to cross the river directly from the east to attack Yancheng.

There were also some dilapidated warships that were directly pulled by Zhang Fei to land on the riverbank outside the east gate of Yancheng and sank on it. A large number of bunkers and fortifications such as rattan shields and wooden battlement houses were also transported. In addition, archers under Zhang Fei relied on these defense facilities to shoot at Cao's army on the city walls every day, harassing and suppressing them, making them restless.

This attitude really fooled Sun Quan and Cao Zhen. Because it is theoretically feasible to cross the river and attack the city directly. And precisely because Yancheng is surrounded by rivers on the northeast, south and north sides, there is no moat in the city on these three sides, so they rely on natural rivers as moats.

And it is impossible for a natural river to directly touch the base of the city wall, so there must be a space of at most one arrow's reach or at least dozens of steps outside the city wall. If the enemy army directly uses boats to hit the beach and sink them to launch a landing, they can really use this space to organize a strong attack.

After all, a normal moat is not connected to the outside waters, and the enemy's warships cannot directly enter the moat. But the Ru River is a natural river, and the enemy's warships can directly enter. From this perspective, the defense effect of the Ru River is not as good as the moat, if the enemy has an absolute naval advantage.

Of course, Sun Quan and Cao Zhen did not want to see this scene, so they ordered Cheng Pu, who had been defeated before, to find another opportunity to counterattack, kill the landing enemy, and destroy the enemy's beach landing position.

Cheng Pu was originally able to defeat Wei Yan, but after a disastrous defeat at Shangcai Water Stronghold and a heavy loss of strength, he was no longer able to do it. However, the mission had to be carried out, so Cheng Pu had to give up the normal daytime attack and switch to a sneak attack at night.

Unfortunately, Wei Yan's precautions seemed to be very strict, and Xu Shu reminded him that Cheng Pu attempted a night attack on the fourth day after the enemy approached the city, but was discovered by the enemy and eventually retreated again.

Although Cheng Pu's troops suffered few casualties, this battle further strengthened Sun Quan and Cao Zhen's idea that "Zhang Fei just wanted to attack Yancheng first."

Zhang Fei's strategy of confusing the enemy was not limited to the above. He also sent thousands of his cavalrymen to harass the enemy along the east bank of the Ru River directly northward, destroying the Cao army-controlled area between Yancheng and Xu County, creating great momentum and chaos.

Especially since Zhang Fei had done this once three years ago, but he didn't penetrate that far at that time. So Cao Jun didn't suspect anything when he encountered this situation, and just thought that Zhang Fei was using the same old trick again, and took it very seriously.

Cao Ren, who was in Xu County, also sent an urgent envoy to Yancheng to hold Sun Quan and Cao Zhen accountable, to learn about the latest situation on the Yancheng front, and to demand that they must guard Yancheng, the last gateway to Xu County.

He also strictly ordered them that "even if Yancheng was surrounded by Zhang Fei, they must not retreat on their own. They must believe that the main force of the court will rescue them and must not allow the situation like that of Shangcai City to happen again."

After receiving Cao Ren's stern order, Sun Quan and Cao Zhen became increasingly fearful and terrified, which also affected their judgment to some extent.

Eventually, Sun Quan and Cao Zhen paid less and less attention to the blockade of the waterway south of the city, and a large number of troops were transferred to other more critical directions. Zhang Fei and Wei Yan divided their troops and stayed close to the Lishui River south of the city at night, using small boats to transport supplies upstream. Even if Sun Quan and Cao Zhen found some clues, they only thought that Zhang Fei wanted to attack Yancheng from the west of the city.

In fact, Zhang Fei did set up a camp to the west of Yancheng City and stockpiled supplies in the camp.

After operating like this for several days, as Zhang Fei gained more and more foothold, he finally decided to reveal his true purpose.

On the tenth day of November, Zhang Fei left Wei Yan in charge of the Yancheng battlefield, and he personally led more than 20,000 people to attack westward along the Lishui River.

The supplies needed for the raid were naturally maintained by those that were transported in advance to the camp west of Yancheng and stored there.

In other words, that batch of supplies was initially stockpiled under the banner of "military supplies needed for the siege of Yancheng", but after being stockpiled, it was actually diverted by Zhang Fei and used to attack Ye County upstream in the west.

With a fierce general like Zhang Fei charging, Cao's army in the direction of Ye County was naturally difficult to resist. In just two days, Zhang Fei rushed to Ye County and surrounded the city.

Although it is not easy to capture Ye County, not all of Cao's troops in the direction of Ye County are hiding in the city.

There was also a part of the local Cao army stationed at the Tongbai Mountain Pass in the southwest of the city. Because of the stalemate with Liu Bei's army in recent years, the Cao army built checkpoints at the local mountain pass to prevent Liu Bei's army from crossing the Tongbai Mountain.

When Zhang Fei arrived, the army led by Liu Bei from Nanyang County to attack Yingchuan County was actually already on full alert and had been attacking Ye County from the southwest direction of Bowang County for many days.

The vanguard of Liu Bei's army was Huang Zhong, who was also an extremely fierce and powerful general.

Therefore, the Cao army in the Tongbai Mountain Pass had just been facing Huang Zhong's fierce attack head-on and had been fighting a bloody battle for five or six days.

Now, Zhang Fei attacked her from behind and plucked out her anus.

It just so happened that Xu Huang was not in Ye County either. He had been transferred away due to some other incident.

Isn't it wishful thinking for Cao's army to rely on some unknown generals whose names are not even recorded in history books, and to use a checkpoint to block the front and back attacks of Huang Zhong and Zhang Fei?
Therefore, there are really no details worth elaborating on in the Battle of Ye County. The moment Zhang Fei rushed around from behind and arrived, everything was over.

Zhang Fei and Huang Zhong joined forces to attack from both sides, and defeated Cao's troops at the Tongbai Mountain Pass within two days. Huang Zhong was then released and joined forces with Zhang Fei to attack Ye County again.

When the defenders of Ye County saw that Liu Bei had personally arrived outside the city with his flag, and that Zhuge Liang was his assistant, and Zhang Fei and Huang Zhong were the vanguard, the general of Ye County was so scared that he gave up resistance and surrendered on the spot.

(End of this chapter)