On the tenth day of August in the ninth year of the Han Dynasty, Liu Beijun's Zhang Fei's corps reinforcements arrived at the mouth of the water, and the military strength increased greatly, surpassing Dong Zhuo's army in terms of total strength, and the momentum was unmatched, but Kang Peng ordered Dong Zhuo's Jiangnan Corps not to use the reserve forces of the second line, and continued to hold on without fighting, using delaying tactics to consume Liu Beijun's last batch of military rations, and the surging Yangtze River helped Dong Zhuojun's great favor, and in the case of unable to obtain water superiority, Liu Beijun did not dare to attack rashly, plus Liu Beijun pinned his hopes on You Heng to provoke Kang Peng, Let Kang Peng order the Jiangnan Army to fight a decisive battle with Liu Bei's army, and the two armies confronted each other on both sides of the Yangtze River for more than ten days, until the news of Your Heng's defeat was delivered to Liu Bei.

On August 21, the ninth year of Chuping, the news that You Heng was humiliated by Kang Peng was finally sent to Liu Bei, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were greatly annoyed, fortunately on the same day, Cao Cao sent someone to send the news quickly, Cao Cao's army had been dispatched on August 16, and the sword head pointed directly at Liyang, the barrier of Yecheng, and launched a comprehensive attack on Dong Zhuo's Jizhou Army, which effectively contained Dong Zhuo's army's military strength. Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard the letter, and immediately ordered the army to dispatch and launch a fierce attack on Dong Zhuo's defense line.

When the heavy rain poured, Liu Beijun more than 4,000 warships took advantage of the heavy rain to cover it, risked to grab it from Chaohu Lake, and launched a strong attack on the south bank of Dong Zhuojun, Dong Zhuojun did not expect Liu Beijun to dare to take the risk of attacking between the wind and rain, and was caught off guard, several beachheads were lost one after another, and a large number of Liu Beijun landed on the south bank. Dong Zhuojun paid the price of losing two warships and more than 800 large and small warships, and repelled Liu Bei's army, and after Liu Bei's army on the south bank was divided and surrounded, except for a small part that fled back to the north shore, the rest was completely annihilated by Dong Zhuo's army.

"Our army eliminated and captured a total of 6,215 Liu Bei's troops, and sank more than 400 warships." That night, Sima Yi reported to Lu Su and others the post-war statistics, "But more than 8,600 of our soldiers were killed and more than 2,800 were missing, the battleship Hanzhong was sunk, the Jiangling was captured after being surrounded by the enemy, and the rest of the warships lost 813 ships." ”

"Even if Liu Beijun has soldiers who disappeared after falling into the water, our army is still considered to have lost this time, and the loss of the Zimu battleship for the first time has dealt a great blow to the morale of our army." Lu Su summed up heavily: "Although there are many reasons for the defeat of our army, Liu Beijun is a risky assault without prior warning, the power of the Zhuge repeater is too great, our army still has no advantageous weapon to restrain the repeater, Liu Beijun also has a mother and son battleship and a five-tooth battleship, the climate and wind direction are also the reasons for our army's excessive losses, but if you lose, you lose, I will not hide it, I will ask the king for guilt." ”

"Plus me, I'm also responsible." Pang Tong also said dejectedly: "As a military advisor, I failed to predict the enemy's movements, and the guilt cannot be blamed. ”

"Governor, military advisor, you don't have to worry too much." Contrary to Lu Su and Pang Tong, who were downcast, Sima Yi seemed to be high-spirited, "Not only did we not lose this battle, but on the contrary, we actually won this battle." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Pang Tonghu doubted: "The losses of our army in all aspects are far above Liu Beijun's, how can it be regarded as a victory?" ”

"When I was studying in Chang'an, my father-in-law once taught Sima Yi that war is fought with comprehensive strength, and you can't judge gains and losses from the victory or defeat of a battle." Sima Yi said loudly: "Although the losses of our soldiers are more than those of the enemy, how many reserve troops do we have?" What is the population base? The population under the control of our army has exceeded 20 million, and the loss of more than 10,000 soldiers is just a drop in the bucket, and the total population of Liu Bei's Xuyu and Xuyu prefectures is only 3.3 million, only one-sixth of our army is weak, even if we are two for one, it is very cost-effective, and the warships are the same, the total number of warships of our army is far above Liu Beijun, and the manpower and material resources are far more than Liu Beijun. ”

"It's a war, and you're talking about it like a business." Lu Su laughed and couldn't help but teach Sima Yi a lesson, but what surprised Lu Su, Kang Peng actually held the same opinion as Sima Yi, and did not reprimand him too much for the defeat in this battle, and added a special sentence to the telegram to the Jiangnan Army, "Lone has a lot of money, even if you exchange three for one, Lone will not lose." However, Kang Peng was not so reasonable in terms of tactical command, and still refused Lu Su's request to transfer 50,000 reserve troops of the Jiangnan Army to reinforce the front line, and repeatedly emphasized that he was not allowed to cross the river for a decisive battle, and was only allowed to defend to the death.

Dong Zhuojun, who lost the battle, Lu Su and Pang Tong examined themselves, but Liu Beijun, the victorious side, was even more miserable, although he captured a warship, but Liu Beijun's warship lost one-tenth of it at once, in fact, Liu Beijun's water transportation capacity not only did not increase, but decreased a lot. The consumption of Liu Beijun's treasure Zhuge Repeater is also very terrifying, and the arrows that must be made in the rear have consumed more than 100,000 in this battle, and Liu Beijun has scarce materials after being blocked by Dong Zhuojun's economy, and even the medicinal materials prepared by the poison on the crossbow are not much in the rear of Liu Beijun, not to mention the lack of livestock, which must be transported and supplied by manpower, and how much manpower and food will be wasted. There is also a horse chopping knife because it is made of all steel, and every time it is lost, there is one less, which is not only difficult to manufacture, but also a serious shortage of steel.

"Our army took the risk of crossing the river, ostensibly a big victory." At Liu Beijun's meeting the next day, Liu Bei said to his subordinates heavily: "But in fact, our army is a big defeat, the loss is too great, and the only gain of our army is only to boost morale." ”

"We can't venture across the river anymore." Zhuge Liang, who opposed the adventure yesterday, suggested: "Our army must let the enemy cross the river and fight a decisive battle with our army, so that our army can have a chance to truly win." When he said this, Zhuge Liang's eyes completely lost the confident light of the past, Liu Beijun's military rations can last for a maximum of forty days, and within forty days, he can't break Dong Zhuojun's Jiangnan camp and seize Dong Zhuojun's Jiangnan granary, then Liu Beijun will be completely finished.

Liu Bei stopped talking, and the general Kang Peng, who had high hopes for Liu Bei, failed, and Liu Bei had no way to provoke Dong Zhuojun to fight. But Zhang Fei shouted: "Big brother, don't worry, this matter is on me Zhang Fei, from today on, I will go to the door of the Dong thief camp every day to scold and fight, and my old Zhang can't believe that those shrunken turtles can't be scolded." ”

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had nothing to do, so they had to use a dead horse as a live horse doctor, and let Zhang Fei go to Dong Zhuojun's camp to scold the battle. A good Zhang Fei, sure enough, he rushed to the vicinity of the south bank with a fleet that day, and personally led Liu Beijun's soldiers to insult the generals of Dong Zhuojun's Jiangnan Army in every way, from Lu Su's eighteenth generation ancestor to Cai Maoxinna's fifteenth concubine, but Dong Zhuojun's generals had already received Lu Su's strict order not to fight, but Jiangnan scolded back, and nearly 10,000 people from the two armies greeted each other's mother, which was also spectacular.

Zhang Fei also knew that there was not much time left for his eldest brother to unify the world, and after scolding for three days, seeing that Dong Zhuojun still refused to fight, Zhang Fei had a plan, and after leading the warship to set up a water array outside the Jiangnan camp, he didn't scold, just sat on the boat tower and drank, and ordered the soldiers to perform sumo wrestling in front of him, and the winning soldier could get a reward for a bowl of wine, from morning to afternoon, without stopping.

A small boat had already reported to Dong Zhuojun's generals, Gan Ning, Sun Ce, Wei Yan and other grumpy Dong Zhuojun generals were furious, and Gan Ning shouted: "The ugly Zhang Fei dares to despise the gorgeous Uncle Gan so much, Uncle Gan, I will never spare him!" ”

"Yes, the Governor of Chengdu doesn't know yet, so let's light the warship and cut off Zhang Fei's dog's head." Sun Ce relied on being the son-in-law of Boss Dong, patted his chest and said, "If something happens, I will bear it with the Governor of Dadu." Dong Zhuojun's generals applauded, and they were about to go down to prepare, but Lu Su's cold voice came from behind him, "Pass on the king's order, and if you have a word to fight, cut it!" ”

The generals turned around and saw Lu Su standing behind him with the gold medal sword of the Metropolitan Governor in his hand, and seeing that the generals were about to speak, Lu Su waved his hand and said: "Needless to say, I know that this is the enemy's trick to lure the enemy, and you can't fight." After suppressing the generals' request for battle, Lu Su called a few more soldiers and gave a few orders, asking them to go down and do so.

"It's a good wine." Zhang Fei raised his head and poured a bowl of wine into his mouth, squinted his eyes and peeked at Jiangnan, his heart was extremely anxious, why had the enemy not been drawn out, at this time, a small boat suddenly came from the south bank of the Yangtze River, approaching Zhang Fei's fleet with a white flag, thinking that Zhang Fei, who had come to Lu Su to write a war letter, was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered the boat to come over. Who knew that when the small boat approached Zhang Fei's big boat, Zhang Fei was surprised to see that Dong Zhuojun's boat was filled with wine jars.

"General Zhang, the villain was ordered by the Metropolitan Governor to send ten jars of good wine to General Zhang." A junior colonel Dong Zhuojun pointed to the ten jars of wine that had just been loaded on Zhang Fei's warship, and said to the stunned Zhang Fei: "The Metropolitan Governor also asked the villain to tell General Zhang, the Metropolitan Governor knows that your army's food is scarce, and there must be less food for winemaking, from today onwards, as long as General Zhang drinks in front of our military camp every day, the Metropolitan Governor will send General Zhang ten jars of wine every day, and invite General Zhang to drink a good drink." ”

Zhang Fei was stunned for a long time, and only after a while did he react, laughed and grabbed a jar of wine sent by Dong Zhuojun, slapped the mud seal with one palm, and poured it into his mouth with his head up, until he drank most of the jar of wine, Zhang Fei put down the jar and laughed: "Go back and tell you the Metropolitan Governor, thank you for his wine, there is a mountain of food in our army, and there is a lot of wine, but as long as the Metropolitan Governor sends Zhang Fei, Zhang Fei will definitely laugh." ”

When Dong Zhuojun's junior colonel went back, Zhang Fei looked at his boat in a daze, what he said just now was just some face-saving words, if Liu Beijun was not short of food, he would not have attacked Jiangnan desperately, for the sake of Dong Zhuojun's hoarding in the granary in Jiangnan. Now that Lu Su is sending wine to Zhang Fei, it is clear that he will not fall for Zhang Fei, Zhang Fei is extremely confused in his heart, if Dong Zhuojun continues to be such a tiger and does not go out of the hole, how long can Liu Beijun last?

On the same day, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth year of Chuping, Cao Cao's 100,000 troops also killed under the city of Liyang, compared with Liu Bei's army, Cao Cao's army in Qingzhou was in even worse condition, not only inferior to Liu Bei's army, but also only enough food for a month, fortunately, Dong Zhuo's Jizhou army not only had to face the pressure of Cao Cao's army, but also resisted the threat of Karasuma, Xianbei and Xiongnu in the north, and the troops that could be used to resist Cao Cao's army were less than 80,000, and Cao Cao's army still had a glimmer of hope for victory.

Before Cao Cao's army came to the city, Dong Chong, who was the commander of Dong Zhuo's Jizhou Army, received the news, and the first thing he did was to run to his staff Tian Feng to get an idea, Tian Feng listened to Dong Chong's report on the enemy situation, and quickly formulated two tactical responses, the first was to abandon Liyang, collect the people and grain, and defend the city with the strong Yecheng, and naturally retreat when Cao Cao's army food was exhausted; The second tactic was to increase the troops in Liyang and resist one by one, and the ultimate goal was still to delay the battle time and wait for Cao Cao's army to run out of food.

"The advantage of the first tactic is that our army's losses are small, but the time for clearing the fields is tight, and the civilian losses are large, and we cannot kill and injure the enemy in large quantities." Tian Feng knew Dong Chong's ability, so he patiently explained the advantages and disadvantages of the two tactics to Dong Chong, "The advantage of the second tactic is that there is plenty of time, the civilian losses are small, and it can also effectively kill and injure the enemy. "Unlike the Jiangnan Army, Kang Peng's order to the Jizhou Army was to act cheaply, so Tian Fengcai offered Dong Chong the idea of taking the initiative to meet it.

Dong Chong secretly pondered, if he gave up Liyang without fighting, his reputation was not good, and it was not easy to explain to his eldest brother, although the losses of the resistance army were large, and he would kill many enemies, and he would also have face in the eldest brother. Thinking of this, Dong Chong quickly made up his mind and decided to send generals to reinforce Liyang and take the initiative to meet Cao Cao's army. As a result, when Dong Chong announced his decision at the meeting, he unexpectedly won the support of almost all the generals, especially Zhang Liao and Xu Huang, who also made a military order on the spot, promising to hold Liyang for ten days, giving Dong Zhuojun enough time to gather the people and complete the plan of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness.

When the vanguard of Cao Cao's army was killed under the city of Liyang, Zhang Liao and Xu Huang had already led an army of 30,000 to Liyang City for four days, and when they heard that Cao Cao's army had arrived, Zhang Liao discussed with Xu Huang: "The enemy is mainly infantry, and is good at attacking the city, and our army is mainly cavalry, and is good at charging in the field. Because Kang Peng had been idle in Tongguan for a long time, Xu Huang, who was eager to fight, had a reason not to agree, and immediately nodded and agreed.

In a moment, the black cavalry army was prepared, Zhang Liao and Xu Huang planned to discuss it, leaving only 3,000 soldiers to defend the city, and then led the whole army out of the city, Cao Cao's army was still camped ten miles outside the city, and when he heard that Zhang Liao and Xu Huang's army had arrived, he was worried that Dong Zhuojun was overjoyed with Cao Cao, who was also playing turtle tactics, and urgently ordered Xiahou Dun and Zhang He to lead an army to meet the attack, and ordered Cao Ren and Cao Hong to lead an army to attack left and right, bypassing Xu Huang and Zhang Liao's army to attack Liyang City, trying to take advantage of the emptiness of troops in the city to take the Liyang City of Yecheng's barrier, and by the way, receive the granary of Dong Zhuo's army in Liyang City.