From Cai Ji's standpoint, whether it is the Sun brothers or the Cao family's father and son, they are all part of her plan, and there is no difference between friend and foe. But in Zhuge Liang's eyes, Cao Cao has always been a traitor who intends to usurp the Han, and there is naturally no need to talk about morality when dealing with traitors. Therefore, even though Cao Cao had already sent Liu Ye and Yang Xiuwei envoys to Liu Ying to negotiate peace, Zhuge Liang still launched a surprise attack on Dangyang City when the negotiations reached an impasse.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Accompanied by a calm and powerful drum beat, a wave of arrows came out in response, shooting towards the head of Dangyang City like flying locusts, so that the Cao army on the city could not raise its head. At the same time, dozens of boats covered with raw cow skins, under the cover of the rain of arrows, attracted nearly a thousand Liu Beibu sergeants all the way to the city of Dangyang to excavate the city wall. It would be a ridiculous fool to have thousands of men brave the arrows in the sky and dig the city walls with hoes and shovels in ordinary times. But at present, Dangyang City seems to have been soaked in floods for more than a month, and the rammed earth city wall has been soft under the infiltration of water, and even large areas of cracks and falling off have appeared in some parts. And these positions have naturally become the objects of Liu Beijun's key care.

Of course, Cao Jun at the head of the city would not watch his opponent pick up his hoe and throw off his arms to dig the city wall under his feet. Therefore, after a short time, large and small stones fell on Liu Beijun's head like hailstones. The soldiers who were hit wailed and fell into the water, but the follow-up robes ignored the bloody scene in front of them and hurriedly made up for it and continued to excavate. In some places where boats were densely populated, Cao Jun even spared no expense to scatter boiling oil and torches, turning the entire area of water, along with boats and soldiers, into a sea of fire.

Liu Ye and Yang Xiu stood side by side in front of the tent and looked at Dangyang City in the distance, and the expression on their faces could not see joy and sorrow. as the weaker party. Their protests were not listened to, and their existence seemed to have long been forgotten, so they could only stay in Liu Ying as they are now, helplessly sitting back and watching their opponents show off their might.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang ahead. Immediately afterwards, I heard bursts of cheers from the top and bottom of Liu Ying's rise and fall - "The city has collapsed!" The city is also falling! ”

Hearing the word "city collapse", Yang Xiu's expression suddenly changed. I saw him grab Liu Ye's sleeve and ask in a low voice, "How is this good?" ”

Although Liu Ye's face was as white as paper at the moment, he was still more calm than Yang Xiu after all, "Dezu is not in a hurry!" And the sub-city. ”

The sub-city refers to the small city to which the big city belongs, that is, the inner city and the urn city or moon city attached to the Guo. Before Liu Ye sent the envoy to Liu Ying, he had already begun to organize the people in the city to build a layer of sub-walls with wood and stone along the city wall of Dangyang City in case of accidents. Liu Ye believed that Cao Cao's temperament would never relax his vigilance because of the peace negotiation, but would seize the time to strengthen the city.

The facts are indeed as Liu Ye expected, although Liu Beibu desperately opened a hole in the west of Dangyang City. But Liu Beijun's soldiers, who poured into the city with the flood, soon found that there was a wall in front of them. The wall was not very high, and it looked rather rudimentary, but it caused great trouble for the besieging army.

Due to the lack of water level, Liu Bei's soldiers who rushed into the city had to get off the boat and wade through waist-high muddy water to attack. However, the Cao army defending the city could climb the sub-wall and shoot arrows or use guns to stab the invading enemy under the wall. After more than an hour of bitter battle with blood and mud splashing. Cao's army finally repelled Liu Bei's troops who poured into the city, and at the same time blocked the openings in the city walls with bricks, wood, and corpses.

Seeing that the hole that had been dug up with great difficulty was blocked again, and there were countless corpses and wrecks of boats floating on the river, Liu Bei, who was standing in front of the battle on his horse, only felt that his mouth was full of bitterness and his scalp was numb. It is said that Liu Bei has never experienced such a difficult battle since Rong. I think that back then, he also felt that it was too exaggerated for Yuan Shao to capture Yijing City with hundreds of thousands of troops for nearly two years. Now that it was his turn to attack the city, Liu Bei realized how lucky Yuan Shao was to have the help of the Heaven and Earth Cracking Technique in the past.

"My lord. General Kwan Yun. More than half of the right army is damaged, can additional reinforcements be sent? ”

The message from the herald was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, making Liu Bei dispel the idea of continuing to attack the city. But seeing that he glanced at the devastated Dangyang City unwillingly, he gritted his teeth and said, "Mingjin withdraws his troops!" ”

The sound of the gong not only signaled that Liu Bei's attack had come to an end temporarily, but also made Liu Ye and Yang Xiu breathe a sigh of relief. You must know that when he saw Liu Bei's troops flocking into the city before, Yang Xiu was so frightened that he even raised his throat. But before he could open his mouth to congratulate Liu Ye, he heard a clear voice behind him.

"I know that Liu Yilang is good at ink learning. When I saw it today, it really lived up to its name. ”

Yang Xiu and Liu Ye both looked back and saw Zhuge Liang standing behind the two with a feather fan in his hand, smiling rather than smiling. Yang Xiu hated Zhuge Liang in the first place. Thinking of Liu Beibu's undeclared war before, he immediately raised his face and raised his hand to ask Dangyang Cheng sharply, "Is this Liu Gong's sincerity?" ”

In the face of Yang Xiu's accusation, Zhuge Liang raised his sword eyebrows and confronted each other, "If you wait for all kinds of delays in advance, how can you say that you are sincere?" ”

Yang Xiu was overwhelmed by Zhuge Liang's words, so he had to shake his sleeves and skim his face with a cold snort. Liu Ye took over the topic and warned in a deep voice, "The flood will recede, Zhuge military division should not bully people too much!" ”

Zhuge Liang glanced at the seemingly calm river not far away, and had to admit in his heart that Liu Ye was indeed observant. The rain has stopped for more than ten days, and although Zhuge Liang has also sent people to build a dam to store water, it still can't prevent the water level outside Dangyang City from gradually decreasing. As for the rest of the counties in South County, the floodwaters have long since receded. And Cao Ren, who was originally dragged down by the flood, also took the opportunity to gather tens of thousands of troops and marched south to force Dangyang again. Zhuge Liang believes that the reason why Liu Ye and Yang Xiu can still deal with him so calmly at this moment is mainly because they have Cao Ren's support army by their side. Thinking of this, he went straight to the point and asked Liu Ye, "Yilang is waiting for Cao Zi's filial piety?" ”

"What does Zhuge Junshi think?" Liu Ye asked rhetorically with a pretended reserve. In fact, both Liu Ye and Yang Xiu knew in their hearts that after today's battle, there was not much time left for Cao Cao, and now the only bargaining chip they could count on was Cao Ren, who was also in Nanjun. Fortunately, Guan Yu is now presiding over the siege of Dangyang, and Zhang Fei is sitting in the rear in Changsha. Even Chen Zhi, who had killed Lu Bu with Xu Chu and Zhao Yun, was left by Liu Bei as a guard. In the eyes of Liu Ye and Yang Xiu, except for Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, who are known as the enemies of 10,000 people, and Chen Dao, who is a tall and bold artist, the rest of the generals under Liu Bei are all mediocre people, and they are definitely not Cao Ren's opponents.

Zhuge Liang did not directly answer Liu Ye's rhetorical question. Instead, he changed the topic, "Does the speaker know why Cao Gong has been defeated again and again?" ”

Zhuge Liang's question undoubtedly aroused the appetite of Liu Ye and Yang Xiu, causing the two to invariably set their eyes on the young military advisor in front of them. The next moment, I saw Zhuge Liang feather fan wave and said proudly. "All because of the others who underestimate Jing Yang Qunying!"

Zhuge Liang did not wronged Cao Cao when he said this. Because Cao Cao had not fought any hard battles in Jingzhou and Yangzhou before the Battle of Chibi, and Liu Bei was also a defeated subordinate who had been defeated repeatedly in front of Cao Cao, Cao Ying had never taken the civil and military celebrities of Jingyang and Yang into account. The Battle of Chibi and the subsequent flooding of Dangyang made Cao Yingjun and his ministers see the power of the strategists in Jingyang and Yang. When it comes to military generals, whether it is Liu Ye and Yang Xiu in front of them, or Cao Ren and other Cao Ying generals who rushed south to help, they only have Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Chen Zhi and other generals in the north.

No, at the same time that Liu Bei was besieging Dangyang, Zhu Gai, the vanguard general under Cao Ren, had already led his troops to pounce on Liu Bei's walled city in the northeast of Dangyang. The last time Guan Yu successfully blocked Cao Ren who was heading south here, Cao Jun missed the best opportunity to rescue Cao Cao. However, considering that there is no Guan Yu in the current Zhang Township. Zhu Gai immediately seized the opportunity to order the whole army to advance at full speed, striving to suppress the defenders of Zhangxiang with lightning speed and clear the obstacles for the main army that came later.

Under the scorching sun at noon, Zhu Gai and three thousand Cao Jun rushed all the way to the bank of Zhangshui. And their target this time, Zhangxiang City, stands on the other side of the river. According to the spies' report, there are more than 2,000 people from Liu Bei's department stationed in the city of Zhangxiang at present. The guard general Mi Fang is Liu Bei's brother-in-law. Although the number of soldiers and horses is not large, it has a geographical advantage, and it is stuck on the grain road where Cao Jun rescues Dangyang, which makes Cao Ren like a fish in his throat. However, if Cao's army sent troops to attack this village, it would take time to affect the rescue of Cao Cao. So Cao Ren ordered Zhu Gai to lead a group of soldiers and horses to contain Liu Bei's troops in Zhangxiang, so that the other party could not threaten Cao's army's rear road.

However, Zhu Gai looked down on Mi Lan who climbed to the top by nepotism. In his opinion, Liu Bei's brother-in-law has no experience in marching and fighting at all, as long as he puts on a siege posture, a little threat will definitely scare him into desertion and flee. In this way, the trouble on the side of Zhangxiang can be solved once and for all. So after a cursory survey of the surrounding situation. Zhu Gai decisively ordered the whole army to swim across the river.

Xu was influenced by Zhuge Liang's diversion of water to flood Dangyang. At the moment, the water level of Zhangshui was not high, and Cao Jun soon found a river channel that was only chest-deep to cross the river. However, Zhu Gai did not cross the river immediately, but first sent a team of scouts to put on a vigilant posture and closely observe the movements around him. The rest of the soldiers and horses lined up to cross the river. After a qiē was ready, he saw several Cao soldiers with good water ability swim across the river first, and led four ropes from the big trees on the west bank to tie them on the east bank. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers who lined up on the shore were divided into groups of twenty, carrying shields, ring-headed knives and other things, and carefully swam across the river with ropes.

Cao Jun's movements soon alarmed Liu Bei's troops on the other side. With the sound of drums and trumpets, a group of cavalry suddenly appeared in the city of Zhangxiang and went straight to the Cao army with banners. At this time, although the number of Cao troops crossing the river was small, they were not afraid of the incoming enemy. Under Zhu Gai's command, these vanguard troops quickly formed a charging cone-shaped battle formation, and they were ready to fight. At the same time, Cao's army, which remained on the opposite bank, continued to cross the river in an orderly manner to support Zhu Gai, who had already crossed the river.

For Cao Jun's calmness, Zhu Gai, as a commander, was extremely proud. In his opinion, the intrigue is removed. Whether it is Liu Bei's department or Sun Cebu's department, it is not the opponent of the elite division of the Central Plains. However, this sense of superiority did not last long. Before Liu Beibu in Zhangxiang City could come to him, a sharp shout suddenly sounded behind him. Zhu Gai, who was deeply dissatisfied, couldn't help but glared at the tiger and turned back to reprimand those who disturbed the morale of the army, but at a glance, he saw that the woods on the opposite bank seemed to be blazing in the sky.

Under the help of the wind, this sudden fire came extremely fiercely. In the face of the rapidly approaching fire, Cao Jun, who was still in a neat lineup a moment ago, was in a panic. Cao Jun, who was adjacent to the shore, hurriedly jumped into the water and fled for his life, regardless of whether he could swim or not. The soldiers farther from the shore threw away their armor and scattered in all directions. But Rao was so, and the poor worm that still had slow movement was engulfed in the fire and turned into a ball of wailing fire.

But for Cao Jun on the East Coast, their nightmare had just begun. Accompanied by scorching flames, another group of soldiers and horses were suddenly killed from the southeast. The hooves were vivid, neighing and shaking the sky, different from the bluffing soldiers and horses in Zhangxiang City, the posture of the cavalry charging in front of him was as smooth as a swift fluttering on its food. At the speed of the wind, a group of riders jumped over the wall of fire, brandished their spears and iron lances, and drove the already chaotic Cao army into the river like cattle and sheep.

Seeing the soldiers and horses on the opposite bank completely collapse into a plate of scattered sand under the squeeze of the fire and Liu Bei's troops, the anxious Zhu Gai finally realized that he had fallen into the trap set by the enemy. But not only could he not control the situation, but he could not even lead his troops back to help. Because the other side has already cut the rope connecting the two shores. Of course, he can also choose to escape. However, even if he escapes back to Cao's camp, what awaits him will be a strict military law. So Zhu Gai finally chose to stay, and stared at the opposite army and horses, trying to find out the initiator of this qiē.

The entire East Coast has now become a huge slaughterhouse, and there is a figure that stands out in the midst of the bloody storm. It was a burly and majestic warrior wearing heavy iron armor, and the war horse under his crotch had long been covered by the blood mud to hide its original coat color, and an iron lance was danced by him vigorously, like a bloody dragon.

Isn't it Runan Chen?

Xu felt Zhu Gai's gaze, and the general turned suddenly, and a pair of eyes as sharp as an eagle swept across Zhu Gai's face. In the past, when Cao Cao was on an expedition to Lü Bu, Zhu Gai had a relationship with Chen Zhi, and the young and unfamiliar face under the hood in front of him obviously did not belong to Chen Zhi.

If it's not Chen Dao, who will it be? Where did Liu Xuande come from such a person!

Just when Zhu Gai was puzzled, the general opposite suddenly showed a rebellious smile. I saw him pick up the long lance in his hand and draw an arc, pointed the tip of the spear directly at the tip of Zhu Gai's nose, and announced in a loud voice, "Yiyang Wei Yan is here!" (To be continued......)