My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 783: Death of Zhang Yu
Just one day after Cheng Yu evacuated Juancheng with his direct troops and hostages and their families, Guan Yu's troops arrived.

To be precise, it was Guan Yu's infantry vanguard that had arrived.

Guan Yu also had a small number of cavalry scouts under his command, who detected Cheng Yu's movements and the recent situation in Juancheng half a day earlier than the infantry. Then, while notifying the main general in the rear, they bypassed Juancheng and went upstream along the south bank of the Yellow River, trying to catch up with Cheng Yu and keep an eye on him.

After all, cavalry has no siege capability, Guan Yu has few cavalry now, and the main force of Xuzhou cavalry has been taken away by Zhang Liao. So even if these cavalry are left outside Juancheng to deter, they will not play any role.

It would be better to find out the situation clearly and then leave the subsequent offensive and defensive operations to the friendly infantry forces, while you only take charge of keeping watch.

After Guan Yu's infantry arrived at Juancheng, they quickly began to prepare for the siege. Before the attack, they also had to persuade the enemy to surrender as usual.

When Cheng Yu left, he did a good job of keeping the secret, and he also left people to guard the city, and the news inside and outside the city was cut off. When Guan Yu's troops first arrived, they did not know that Cheng Yu had already killed hundreds of hostages in the city to establish his authority.

At most, only a wise man like Lu Su would speculate that Cheng Yu might do such a thing, but without evidence, he could not be sure.

Therefore, Guan Yu's army's lines of dialogue were quite limited, and they could only use those old-fashioned words to persuade them to surrender.

Fortunately, the people in the city were already in a panic. Even though Guan Yu's army wasted some time and was not very effective in persuading them to surrender, they finally found the weakness of the Juancheng defenders within two days and then launched a targeted fierce attack.

Some soldiers wanted to defend the city to the death, but more and more soldiers wanted to lead the way, and Guan Yu finally took advantage of the chaos to break into the city.

It was at this time that Guan Yu realized how many atrocities Cheng Yu had committed in Juancheng.

"Cheng Yu is a bastard. He actually killed so many families of the righteous men who came to welcome our army. If he is caught, he must be punished according to the law to avenge those righteous men who rebelled! Even if my eldest brother is merciful, this kind of mercy should not be given to Cheng Yu!"

When Guan Yu said this, he was obviously really angry. He stroked his beard while speaking, and even his beard was trembling slightly. His phoenix eyes were narrowed into a slit, and they were still opening and closing slightly, causing the silkworm eyebrows above his eyelids to twitch.

Fortunately, Guan Yu had just been angry for a short while when an attendant suddenly walked in with a military report:
"Report! Lord Zhou of Hebei has urgent news about intercepting Cheng Yu."

When Guan Yu heard that Zhou Yu had sent a letter, he was immediately delighted and his anger was instantly suppressed. He couldn't help but think to himself: "Gongjin sent an urgent message. Could it be that Cheng Yu was intercepted?"

……

The words are divided into two parts.

Guan Yu himself led the main force of the infantry to advance steadily and capture Juancheng.

On the surface of the Yellow River, Cheng Yu had already brought his thousands of elite guards, as well as a large number of family members and hostages who had to be evacuated, on more than a hundred warships, and were heading upstream to retreat to Puyang in Dongjun.

Puyang was still safe for the time being, and most of the counties under Dongjun were safe. The north and south sides of that place were supported by other counties under Cao Cao's rule, so there would be no bulges and Guan Yu would not attack them.

Cao Cao's power was located in the north, and he had no naval power. However, Cao Cao's craftsmen had good shipbuilding skills and could build large ships, which was not much different from the southern princes.

The width of the Yellow River on the North China Plain can easily reach over 300 meters. As the largest river in the north, the ships that can sail on the river are naturally not small.

The ships that Cheng Yu usually controlled were at least equivalent to the warships in the south, and some of the larger tonnage were even close to the fighting ships in the south. However, they lacked the ultimate giant ships of the building ship level. The super-large ships that could carry more than a thousand people could only operate in the Yangtze River or the Han River, and would not exceed the Huai River in the north.

However, even though the tonnage is between that of a fighting ship and a warship, with each ship carrying two to three hundred people, it is already far more than other civilian ships in the north.

Therefore, Cheng Yu was very relieved and was not worried at all that any enemy would suddenly appear and try to intercept him.

Cheng Yu sailed peacefully on the Yellow River for most of the day, going upstream for more than sixty miles. Juancheng had already disappeared on the horizon. Even if he climbed to the top of the mast of the warship to look, he could no longer see the location of Juancheng.

However, just as Cheng Yu was gradually relaxing and preparing to return to the cabin to rest for a while, the lookout on the bow suddenly shouted, and the messenger quickly ran into the cabin to report the enemy situation seen by his comrades.

"Report to the envoy! We have found enemy cavalry chasing us from the south bank, and they are flying the flag with the word 'guan' on it!"

Cheng Yu, who had just closed his eyes to rest, couldn't help but twitch the lines on his cheeks when he heard the word "close". It was obvious that he couldn't help but get nervous when he heard the word "close".

But he quickly controlled his emotions, pretended to be calm, raised his hand and signaled the guards around him to help him up: "Let's go and take a look on the deck ourselves."

Cheng Yu walked to the deck leisurely, and looked in the direction pointed by the guard. Sure enough, he saw a group of cavalry, estimated to be only a few hundred people, no more than a thousand at most, riding their horses to chase along the south bank of the Yellow River.

Some cavalrymen chased close to the shore and tried to shoot arrows at the surface of the Yellow River with their horse bows.

But the Yellow River is at least three hundred feet wide, and Cheng Yu's fleet is sailing in the center of the river. Even the ship farthest to the left is more than an arrow's distance from the shore.

So all these arrows fell into the river, and the ones closest to Cao’s warships were at least dozens of steps away.

These useless shots naturally brought bursts of low laughter from Cao's soldiers. Cao's army had been defeated again and again recently, and their spirit was almost exhausted.

It was rare to have some good news to boost morale, and the soldiers were able to find joy in the midst of adversity. It was also good to take the opportunity to laugh at the enemy's futile efforts and to soothe and boost their own emotions.

Of course, Cheng Yu would not be like ordinary soldiers who relied on such ways of finding joy in suffering to relieve their emotions.

He was unwilling to underestimate the enemy. Even though he knew that the enemy's arrows could not shoot that far, he still cautiously returned to the cabin and continued to observe through the shooting hole in the porthole.

"It shouldn't be Guan Yu himself who is chasing. There are only so few cavalrymen and the flags are not right. It must be Guan Ping. Guan Yu really knows how to pave the way for his son. He never misses any opportunity to make merit. It's a pity that this time it is destined to be in vain."

After observing for a while, Cheng Yu quickly made a judgment and made a few comments with an expressionless face.

"Sir, the enemy cavalry is not many, probably only a few hundred. Should we go ashore and fight back? Our army has many powerful crossbows and can rely on the ship formation. Even if we don't go ashore, we will definitely have the advantage in shooting at the enemy."

Several generals around Cheng Yu began to work hard. They had been feeling very frustrated these days. It was a rare opportunity to encounter an enemy that was not strong, so they were eager to try and vent their anger and boost morale.

Cheng Yu was very cautious and didn't want to cause trouble for such a small profit: "No need, what if it is a trick to lure the enemy and there is an ambush. The bait of hundreds of thousands of cavalry is not worth our army's deep investigation, so just treat it as an ambush."

The generals were quite resentful when they heard this: "There are no hills or trees on the south bank of the Yellow River. Where can we set up an ambush? Besides, this place was controlled by our army yesterday. Guan Yu just chased here. I'm afraid he has no time to set up an ambush..."

But Cheng Yu no longer paid any attention to them and closed his eyes to rest again. After the generals complained for a few words, their voices gradually became softer and they finally stopped.

Cheng Yu just stayed in his huddle and ignored them for another hour or so, and the fleet sailed against the current for another dozen miles. The cavalry on the shore continued to chase them relentlessly, but they could not get down the river, and the number of people did not increase or decrease. They just kept shouting and cursing in unison.

Seeing the enemy's perseverance, Cheng Yu became more and more confident, knowing that Guan Yu must have no other way to deal with him, otherwise he would not be so persistent.

However, just when Cheng Yu completely relaxed, the sky gradually darkened, and some unexpected changes suddenly occurred upstream.

The lookout on Cheng Yu's boat had been on the lookout for a whole day, and although they took turns to rest, their vigilance would gradually decrease. In addition, as it was getting dark, the visibility was getting worse and worse, so it was not surprising that the small boat upstream was only vaguely visible when it approached within ten miles.

"Envoy! Small boats of unknown origin were found upstream! There are at least dozens of them, maybe even more. It's getting dark and it's hard to see clearly. There may be more in the distance!"

Cheng Yu had been very relaxed and almost fell asleep, but suddenly heard that there was an accident on the waterway. He quickly perked up and asked immediately with his mind racing:
"Can you tell friend from foe? Is it coming from the south bank or the north bank? Is it a ship from Puyang or Liyang?"

The messenger hurriedly conveyed Cheng Yu's request back. After some communication, the lookout finally provided the latest information: "It's dark, and the flag of the incoming ship is not clear. We can't tell if it's friend or foe! But it seems to be heading towards the south bank!"

Cheng Yu pondered for a moment and thought that if it was the north bank, it would be more likely that he was sent by Zhuge Jin.

Because the area on the south bank had not yet been occupied by Guan Yu, even in Juancheng, Guan Yu had just arrived and could not requisition civilian ships.

The Cangting area on the north bank may have been occupied by Zhuge Jin's troops for two or three days. The prime minister's main force was also defeated in Guantao and is said to have retreated to Wei County.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin had time to requisition the local civilian ships that had escaped the net for his own use.

The ships coming down were all small civilian ships. Even if they were enemies, their combat power should not be very strong. However, they were coming along the southern route. It was unknown whether it was Cao's army from Puyang coming to support the friendly forces, or whether the enemy was deliberately setting up a false formation to deceive him. Cheng Yu thought about it and finally decided to give the enemy a lenient view and give the innocent the benefit of the doubt.

He decisively ordered: "Don't be careless! Treat it as an enemy attack and be fully prepared! If the enemy only has small civilian boats that were temporarily requisitioned, there is nothing to be afraid of! Even if we shoot at each other with bows and crossbows, our army has the cabin to block the arrows, and the enemy's small boats don't even have side masts, so they will definitely not be able to shoot us!"

While giving the order, Cheng Yu also did his best to boost morale, making the soldiers firmly believe that they could definitely kill the enemy with the help of the large ships - if the approaching people were really enemies.

Cao's army had suffered enough losses at the hands of Liu Bei's army in naval battles that they were psychologically traumatized.

Cheng Yu was well aware of this, so before the fight began, he had to explain his side's advantages as clearly as possible to his subordinates to help them build up their confidence.

When the Cao army soldiers first heard that there might be an enemy, they were indeed a little panicked. After being comforted by Cheng Yu, they gradually calmed down.

Another general suddenly thought of an idea and tentatively suggested to Cheng Yu: "Since it is possible that it is the enemy's navy, can we allow our troops to go ashore and fight the enemy?"

This suggestion, which had not been thought through, was naturally immediately scolded by Cheng Yu: "What a bad idea! If we could take the south bank, why did our army use boats in the first place? What if we encounter Guan Yu and send cavalry to chase us? Even if we take the north bank, can we guarantee that we will not encounter Zhao Yun and Ma Chao?
The river is the safest road. The bravest will win when two meet on a narrow road. Even if it is an enemy, we must charge forward!"

Cheng Yu unified the thoughts in a stern voice, and the generals stopped talking nonsense.

The two sides were approaching each other quickly, and seeing that they were only five or six miles away, Cheng Yu began to get nervous.

Suddenly, the vanguard of the ships coming from upstream split into the north and south sides, slightly bypassing Cheng Yu's fleet.

After the lookout in Cheng Yu's fleet discovered this, he quickly reported it.

After learning this, Cheng Yu became even more confused and his vigilance eased a little, but he still asked the archers to remain on guard.

Finally, the distance between the enemy's vanguard and our side was shortened to three miles, two miles, and one mile, and the sky was getting darker and darker.

Finally, the first few ships actually bypassed Cheng Yu's fleet and went downstream. A large group of sailors on the ship shouted: "Is it General Cheng from Juancheng? We are ordered by General Cai of Puyang to come to support you. General Cheng, please leave! We will cover your retreat!"

After hearing the shouts from the approaching ship and seeing that the two ships had indeed passed each other and were at least an arrow's distance apart, Cheng Yu's tense nerves gradually relaxed.

They were going upstream, while the boat was going downstream. If they were enemies, they would not have missed them. If they had missed them, it would have been difficult for them to turn around and catch up with them upstream.

If one side is going with the flow and the other side is going against the flow, the side with the flow will attack and they will definitely face off head-on.

And just at this moment, the fleet that passed by Cheng Yu from the south side burst into shouts of killing, and it seemed that they were shooting arrows at the shore - and among the arrows they shot were rockets, which made them particularly eye-catching in the dim sky, and it was obvious that they were shooting towards the shore.

The enemy cavalry on the shore also began to shoot rockets at the river, which was also very conspicuous. Some rockets seemed to hit small boats, causing some fires on the river.

The effect is similar to tracer bullets in later generations.

Cheng Yu was stunned, then he observed carefully and realized that it might be the friendly troops coming to support him, and they were exchanging fire with Guan Ping's pursuers on the shore.

When things got to this point, even though it was dark, Cheng Yu completely relaxed his vigilance and no longer worried about the small boats of "friendly forces" coming from upstream.

However, soon after he relaxed, the following small boats of the friendly forces became more and more reckless in their trajectory, and they were rushing closer and closer to Cheng Yu's fleet.

Cheng Yu also felt that something was wrong, but in the chaos, he was unable to do anything for a while.

Just as he was hesitating, a dozen small boats rushing towards him suddenly caught fire on the surface of the Yellow River, and then headed straight towards Cheng Yu's central fleet.

When the other party lit the fire, the distance between the two sides was only a hundred steps at most, and the other party was rushing downstream head-on, leaving no room for dodging at all.

When Cheng Yu discovered the change, he ordered archers to shoot arrows to stop it, but it was too late.

More than a dozen fire ships targeted Cheng Yu's largest ship and rammed it, quickly causing multiple fires on the river. The rest of the enemy ships suddenly shouted in unison and tried their best to surround Cheng Yu.

"Kill Cheng Yu! Destroy Cao! Bohai Governor Zhou Yu is here! Cheng Yu, you bastard, deserve to die!"

As the shout was given, countless rockets were fired from the small boats. Many of the arrows were wrapped with balls of flax fibers soaked in grease, and there were even black powder cartridges.

There were also some kite-shaped firearms that could be shot out by the crossbows, and they could carry more ignition materials, and soon countless fire heads formed in Cheng Yu's fleet.

"Oh no! I was still careless!" The moment Cheng Yu saw the fire, he knew that he was too careless and too trusting.

Although the ships were small and did not seem to be very powerful, they were led by Zhou Yu himself, and he had laid out so many strategies specifically to burn their own large ships.

Cheng Yu's mind raced, and he quickly gave orders: "Keep your distance from the enemy ship! We will also turn around and go downstream! Shoot arrows with all your strength to stop the enemy! Zhou Yu is in a small boat and cannot defend against arrows!"

Cheng Yu's fleet quickly began to turn around as ordered, but it was already dark, and the emergency turn in a panic inevitably led to poor command. After a while, several accidents occurred in which Cao's warships collided with each other, making the scene even more chaotic.

Zhou Yu's small boat fleet also quickly approached the large ships under the rain of arrows from Cao's army. Zhou Yu was very clear about his own strengths and weaknesses, and he gave a decisive command: "Approach! Board and engage in hand-to-hand combat! Don't shoot at the large ships!"

Zhou Yu's soldiers did suffer some casualties, especially the elite vanguards who could not wear armor in naval battles for the sake of flexibility. They were covered by the rain of arrows and were inevitably killed or injured.

But they managed to take advantage of the chaos to board the ship despite the casualties. As the hooks climbed up, Zhou Yu's elite sailors boarded the ship and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Cao's army on the large ship.

The warships were swaying on the surface of the Yellow River. The soldiers of Cao's army were already unstable on their feet, and they could only display 60% to 70% of their martial arts in the fight. They were no match for the soldiers under Zhou Yu who had been proficient in water for many years.

After a while, Zhou Yu gradually reversed the situation, survived the initial difficult moments, and suppressed Cheng Yu.

Cheng Yu saw that the situation was hopeless, and his generals advised him: "Sir! The situation is urgent! There is nowhere to escape, why not... surrender?"

Cheng Yu stared at the other person with red eyes. He wanted to get angry, but then he realized that the other person was telling the truth and he really had no way out.

"Surrender? Just because I killed hostages for the Prime Minister... I already knew that Brother Zhuge disliked me. Liu Bei would spare others, but not me! Why should I die in humiliation again!"

Cheng Yu laughed miserably a few times, then turned around and told his most trusted confidants: "You guys, go and throw away the anchor stone, and then cut the ropes that tie it to the anchor stone!"

The trusted guards were all stunned, not knowing what the envoy wanted to do.

If you want to drop anchor and surrender, you can just throw the anchor into the Yellow River. The boat will naturally stop after it sinks to the bottom. But if you cut the cable later, wouldn't the anchor be thrown in vain?
But they were used to following the orders of the governor, so they did not ask any questions and just followed to the stern of the ship and pushed the anchor into the Yellow River.

However, just when the anchor stone was about to be pushed out of the side of the boat, Cheng Yu suddenly exerted force, rushed towards the anchor stone, and then rolled into the Yellow River holding the anchor stone.

"Envoy!" The guards were shocked and tried to pull the cable on the anchor.

But the anchor was used to fix the warship, how heavy was it? The guards who were holding the rope were instantly thrown into the water.

At this moment, the others came to their senses, and a guard officer hurriedly said, "Don't go to your death! Just do as the envoy said and cut the cable!"

Seeing that his attendants had not moved, he sighed with tears in his eyes, "Don't you understand? The envoy does not want his body to fall into Zhou Yu's hands and be humiliated. You have followed the envoy for many years, do you want to watch your head being taken away by Zhuge Jin and displayed everywhere?"

The guards finally understood what was going on and drew their swords to cut the ropes that tied the anchor.

Cheng Yu held the anchor and sank into the sand and mud at the bottom of the Yellow River.

(End of this chapter)