After receiving the news of Jiangdong's emergency, Deputy Director Tao did not have the ability to send reinforcements to the Jiangdong battlefield, but this does not mean that Deputy Director Tao had no way to share the pressure for the Jiangdong battlefield, in order to relieve the pressure on Jiangdong, and in order to prevent accidents, at the end of the eighth year of Jian'an, Chen Zhi's team of the Xuzhou Army stationed in Shangdang gave up the plan to go west to Gaonu, leaving the two generals of Lu Burma and Tian Xiang to guard the Shangdang granary in Bingzhou to provide grain and grass support for the Hou Cheng team in Taiyuan, and Chen Zhi himself led an army of 20,000 to Hanoi. Yingchuan went straight to Nanyang and exerted military pressure on the Jingzhou army from the north.

Chen Zhi's team is a tired division, after returning thousands of miles to aid the Nanyang battlefield, it will definitely only be more tired and difficult to fight again, but Deputy Director Tao's abacus has always been very shrewd, and the dispatch of Chen Zhi's team to the south to the Nanyang battlefield is not to let Chen Zhijun attack the northern line of the Jingzhou Army, but to let Chen Zhi's team take over from Tai Shi Ci's team to guard the Nanyang control area, so that Tai Shi Ci's fresh army can go south to attack the Jingzhou Army's Jianyang and Xinye defense lines, and Chen Zhi's team will take the opportunity to rest in the northeast of Nanyang. After relieving the fatigue of the army, he could either go south to help Tai Shici fight Jingzhou, or he could go north directly and attack Luoyang, which was barely controlled by Cao's army, without delaying Deputy Director Tao's expansion plan at all.

A month later, Chen Zhi's team successfully arrived at the Nanyang battlefield, and Tai Shi Ci's team quickly completed the transfer of the defense area, and the prepared Tai Shi Ci team immediately went south to attack, and in early February, the Jingzhou army launched the first battle in Jianyang, and the Jingzhou army was already afraid of the Xuzhou army on land, and was afraid of three points before the battle. Tai Shi Ci's team came with the determination of revenge, and their morale and fighting spirit were very high, so the Jingzhou army was soon defeated on the battlefield of Jianyang and was forced to retreat to the city to hold on.

At this time, Liu Biao's deliberate support for his eldest son Liu Qi to take power also began to appear, such a big thing as the main force of the Jingzhou Navy Division sneaking up on Jiangdong, as the oldest qualified general in Jingzhou, Huang Zu, a veteran of Jingzhou who was in charge of the Nanyang battlefield. It wasn't until Liu Qi sent troops that he didn't know about this big event! Dissatisfied. Huang Zu simply didn't even bother to give reinforcements to the Jianyang faction, under the pretext that Xinye was more important and did not dare to move lightly, he deliberately connived at the Tai Shici team to be rude in the Jianyang area, and the Cai Mao brothers, who were even more dissatisfied with what Liu Qi had done, also took the opportunity to stand up and stir up the wind and rain. Not only deliberately neglected the major event of going north for reinforcements. He also constantly exaggerated the danger of the battle situation on the northern front. put pressure on Liu Biao, asking Liu Biao to recall the main force that Liu Qi brought to Chaisang and return to the division to guard the important town of Xiangyang.

In this way, it is natural to suffer Liu Biao, who supports his eldest son under great pressure. Liu Biao never dreamed that the carefully prepared Chaisang sneak attack battle that even his own important ministers had concealed countless times would be beaten by his baby son like this, and he didn't even take a Chaisang city for more than two months, let alone the strategic goal of defeating the Xuzhou Navy Division. At the same time, what Liu Biao didn't think of was that the baby son couldn't take Chaisang City, which was only guarded by more than 10,000 second-line troops, and was even repeatedly played around like a monkey by Qiao Rui, who had never been good at scheming, and was defeated in battle and suffered heavy losses in the face of the conspiracy and tricks of the Chaisang defenders, losing Liu Biao's face, and also giving enough truth to Jingzhou's civil and military opposition to letting Liu Qi take power.

There is Huang Zu slacking off Cai Mao to dismantle the stage, and Cai's blowing some pillow wind from time to time to say some strange things, the war in the south is not going well, the internal and external difficulties are uncertain, and the north began to have the elite soldiers of the Xuzhou army to press the border, and after a period of time for the baby son, Liu Biao, who was so anxious that he couldn't bear it, finally made up his mind and sent a messenger to the Chaisang battlefield to give Liu Qi an order, ordering Liu Qi to withdraw the main force of Jingzhou as soon as possible, not to fight any more, and not to lose face on the Chaisang battlefield.

Liu Biao's order was sent to the battlefield of Chaisang on the afternoon of February 23, and after receiving this news that he was required to withdraw his troops as soon as possible, Liu Qi, who had not achieved an inch of success in the Eastern Expedition, had a blue and black face, and did not say a word for two pillars of incense for a long time, and all the civil and military forces in Jingzhou had different thoughts, Zhang Yun and the Cai brothers were of course gloating, Wen Ping and Huang Zhong and others would be in a pity, and felt that it was a pity to withdraw from the army, and all the previous hard work would be wasted, and most of the Jingzhou civil and military forces such as Deng Yi, Liu Hu and Deng Long were relieved, I'm glad I finally don't have to fight anymore.

Kuai Yue, who married Liu Qi from the family, was also in a complicated mood, and after thinking about it for a long time, Kuai Yue said stubbornly: "The eldest prince, since the lord has an order, the prince may wish to consider retiring as soon as possible, during this time, the south wind is getting tighter, and if the main force of the Xuzhou thief army comes to help, the wind direction will be very unfavorable to our sailors, so it is better to withdraw the army, and wait until the future to reorganize the troops and horses, and then attack Chaisang for revenge." ”

Liu Qi's face was even more ugly, because Liu Qi knew very well that after Chaisang fought like this, after he ordered the withdrawal of the army, he wanted to count on his father to hand over more than half of the main force of Jingzhou to his Eastern Expedition to take revenge, it would definitely be more difficult than ascending to the sky. So after thinking and hesitating for a long time, Liu Qi said in a dry voice: "Let me think about it overnight and make a decision tomorrow." ”

Liu Biao just ordered Liu Qi to withdraw as soon as possible, and did not explain that Liu Qi would withdraw immediately after receiving the order, Liu Qi decided to think about it again for another night, and naturally no one objected, but in this night that was destined to make Liu Qi toss and turn, the new bad news suddenly came, it was after the fourth watch of the night, a small boat galloped to the bank of the Yangtze River, and the boat stumbled into the Jingzhou camp, bringing Liu Qi the news that the main force of the Xuzhou Navy Division had set off on the tenth day of the first month of February, and came to rescue Chaisang. At the same time, Jingzhou Xizuo told Liu Qi that because the Xuzhou Sailor also strictly blocked the Yangtze River waterway, he went to Xunyang by land, and then crossed the river to report the news, so he didn't know that the Xuzhou Sailor had arrived there at present.

After getting this news, Liu Qi was inevitably taken aback, and hurriedly sent people to reconnoiter the downstream movements, while summoning Kuai Yue to discuss countermeasures, Kuai Yue strongly persuaded Liu Qi to withdraw his troops as soon as possible, pointing out that now the wind direction has changed, and the morale of the old man in the army team is frustrated, and the generals and soldiers are all in their hearts.

Listened to Kuaiyue's suggestion. Although Liu Qi felt reasonable, he was afraid that the Xuzhou Sailors would not pursue and make his work useless, and he would go back to become the laughing stock of Jingzhou, so he had the heart to fight a decisive battle with the Xuzhou Sailors in Poyang Lake, and seek an opportunity to break the enemy on the spot, but Kuai Yue was still resolutely opposed, because the water surface of Poyang Lake was too open, the water flow was slow, and there was almost no upstream benefit, and the position of the wind direction was more important. At the same time, a decisive battle will be fought in Poyang Lake. The Qiaorui team, which is still holding on to Chaisang City, will inevitably threaten the safety of the Shuizhai camp of the Jingzhou Navy Division at all times. Attacking and retreating, it can be defended, harassing the Jingzhou naval division day and night, forcing the Jingzhou army to leave heavy troops to protect the camp, unable to put all its forces into the surface battlefield. This makes the prospect of a decisive battle for the Jingzhou Navy Division even worse.

When hesitating. A new accident has happened. The Jingzhou army patrol team suddenly escorted a Xuzhou soldier to Liu Qi, saying that the Xuzhou soldier slipped down the west gate of Chaisang and went directly to the gate of the Jingzhou camp, saying that there was a confidential matter to visit Liu Qi. Liu Qi, who has suffered several losses, does not dare to slack off. Hurriedly asked the Xuzhou soldier what was the matter with him, and the Xuzhou soldier took out a letter, kowtowed and said: "The eldest prince, the villain is the confidant of Sun Gao, the guard of the West Gate of Chaisang, and he was ordered to come to deliver the letter, please take a look at the son." ”

Very vigilant let the guards pass it to him, Liu Qi opened the letter and looked at it, but suddenly froze, because on this letter, Sun Gao, one of the guards of Chaisang, suddenly took the wrong medicine, and actually said that he wanted to surrender to the Jingzhou army, and about Liu Qi to attack Chaisang at half of the third watch on the night of the twenty-fourth, and he would open the west gate of Chaisang to let the Jingzhou army enter the city!

"Here we go again!" Liu Qi, who had already suffered similar hardships, was furious, and shouted several times after shooting the case: "Come on, push this spy out and behead it!" ”

"No!" The guard in the tent suddenly agreed, and the Xuzhou soldiers were scattered, and hurriedly shouted like a pig: "Son, wronged!" Treat unjustly! The villain is a messenger, not a spy! ”

"Dare to say that you are not a spy!" Liu Qi said angrily: "Sun Gao is a beloved general, why did he surrender to me for no reason?" You must have been instructed by the bridge to trick me into the city, and you will get into trouble! How can such a small skill of carving insects hide from my eyes? ”

"Childe, wronged, really wronged!" The Xuzhou soldiers cried and shook the sky, "We surrendered because Chaisang City was about to run out of food, and the baggage for defending the city was almost used, and there was no news of reinforcements, General Sun decided to surrender to you for the sake of his brothers!" If you don't believe it, you can send someone to the West Gate of Chaisang tomorrow night to see the situation, if General Sun doesn't open the city gate, or play any tricks, it's not too late for you to kill me again! ”

"Childe, this person has a point." Kuai Yue, who hurriedly read Sun Gao's book, hurriedly said: "The messenger is in my military camp, if there is really a fraud, you can kill him at any time, there is no need to rush for a while." Moreover, Sun Gao clearly agreed on the time and place, and our army had enough time to prepare for prevention, and he was not afraid of his deception. ”

After that, Kuai Yue hurriedly attached to Liu Qi's ear again, and said in a low voice: "Childe, Sun Gao doesn't have to be afraid even if he surrenders, the strength of our army is far above the enemy, and we are not afraid that the enemy will set up an ambush outside the city, and the moat of the West Gate of Chaisang has already been filled by us, and if the enemy wants to ambush us, it is nothing more than to arrange an ambush in the urn city, as long as we are well prepared, not only do we not have to be afraid of the jack gate arranged by the enemy in the urn city, but we can also turn around and plan to break the enemy's army." ”

Listening to Kuai Yue's reasoning, Liu Qi asked the guards to let go of the Xuzhou soldier, and asked Sun Gao about the surrender, only to know that Sun Gao was indeed afraid that the city would be broken and die because he had not seen reinforcements for a long time, so he sent his henchmen out of the city to send a letter to ask for surrender. At the same time, the Xuzhou soldier also told Liu Qi that Sun Gao chose to open the city at the halfway point of the third watch, because Qiao Rui was used to patrolling the city at the third watch, and Qiao Rui finished patrolling and went back to the room to sleep at the third watch.

Listening to the words of the Xuzhou soldier, Liu Qi was skeptical, nodded and said: "Okay, I will believe you once, if Sun Gao really opens the city and surrenders at that time, I will naturally reward you heavily, but now I must wronged you." Whoever comes, take him into the camp and take care of him, and do not abuse him, and let him go away. ”

The Xuzhou soldiers were indeed sent by Sun Gao to send the surrender book, and they were naturally not afraid of Liu Qi's arrangement, and after thanking Liu Qi, they left the Chinese army's tent with the guards, seeing that he looked as usual, Liu Qi and Kuai Yue also believed six points, and then Liu Qi discussed with Kuai Yue the countermeasures of using sandbags to hold the jack gate, and was ready to gamble on luck at night.

In this way, it is naturally impossible for the Jingzhou Army to retreat on the twenty-fourth day. Liu Qi only announced the news that the Xuzhou Navy Division was about to come to help, and ordered the generals to be on strict alert and prepare for the battle, and then make plans after confirming the time and number of troops of the main force in Xuzhou, and the generals of the Jingzhou Army, who were good at water warfare, did not persuade Liu Qi to withdraw his troops, and continued to stay with Liu Qi to wait and observe the situation. In the afternoon, Liu Qi arranged for the general Liu Hu to prepare for the night battle, prepare more sacks of sandbags, and the torches necessary for the night battle, and decided to try his luck in everything, and strive to take Chaisan before the main force of Xuzhou came to help.

A day's time passed quickly. Second watch. Liu Hu led an army of 8,000 out of the camp overnight, and lurked outside the West Gate of Chaisang under the cover of night, while Liu Qi stayed in the camp with Kuai Yue and others to wait for news, and at the same time, he also arranged a reserve team to assemble in the camp and wait for his life. Prevent everything just in case. During this period. Liu Qi, who hadn't slept for more than a day, finally couldn't support it. Leaned crookedly on the desk and fell asleep.

"Childe! Son! Childe, wake up! ”

Time passed the fastest in sleep, and Liu Qi felt that as soon as he closed his eyes, he was immediately woken up. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the person who woke him up turned out to be Kuai Yue, Liu Qi asked in a daze, "Uncle, what's wrong?" ”

"We've attacked Chaisan City!" Kuai Yue's excited shouting made Liu Qi suddenly fall asleep, "General Liu Hu has killed in Chaisang City, Sun Gao didn't lie to us, he really opened the city gate, and our team has already entered the city!" ”

"Really?!" Liu Qi was so surprised that he couldn't believe his ears, jumped up from the bed, rushed out of the tent with bare feet to watch, and saw that the direction of Chaisang was indeed a killing sound, the city wall was full of torches, and at the same time, the tower of Chaisang's west gate had also been engulfed in flames, just like a huge torch, reflecting half of the sky red!

"Sun Gao! You are my benefactor! After jumping up and yelling, Liu Qi hurriedly yelled again: "Quick, reserves, attack!" ”

"The reserves have already attacked." Kuai Yue replied with a smile: "I also ordered the army to ring the assembly bell, and our army is already gathering!" ”

Liu Qi laughed wildly, hurriedly put on his clothes and shoes, and quickly rushed to the big tent of the Chinese army to send troops, and the big tent of the Jingzhou army was already full of generals in the army, everyone was ecstatic, and they didn't expect that the self-army would be able to suddenly break through the city of Chaisangjian, which had not been taken for almost three months, when the enemy's reinforcements were about to arrive! Liu Qi was in high spirits, strode up to the handsome case, and said loudly: "Generals, let me tell you a good news, General Liu Hu, the general of our army, has successfully attacked the West Gate of Chaisang under my clever plan!" ”

"It turned out to be Childe's clever plan!" The generals of Jingzhou cheered together and asked, "Childe, what kind of trick did you use to break the city?" ”

"We'll talk about that later." Liu Qi waved his hand majestically and said loudly: "It is important to break the city now, Wen Ping, Huang Zhong, you immediately lead the people of the headquarters out of the camp, follow me out of the camp to the West Gate of Chaisang, and assist Liu Hu and Qiao Rui in the street battle!" Deng Long led an army of 10,000 as the rear team, and the rest of the generals stayed in the camp with Kuaiyue. The generals of Jingzhou sang their promises, and Liu Qi arranged a messenger to urgently order Yuan Neng to send troops to attack the south gate of Chaisang, and ordered Zhang Yun and Cai Zhong to send troops to attack the north gate of Chaisang, and then led Wen Ping and Huang Zhong to lead the army out of the camp in a hurry and rushed to the west gate of Chaisang.

When Liu Qi's team arrived at the West Gate of Chaisang, the 13,000 teams of the two Jingzhou armies sent before had basically entered the city of Chaisang, and the city wall of the West Gate of Chaisang had also been captured by the Jingzhou team. To Liu Qi's surprise, there was already a shouting of killing at the north gate of Chaisang, and when he asked carefully, he knew that the Cai brothers had raised troops to kill in front of the north gate of Chaisang, and the guards of the north gate of Chaisang were so timid that they opened the city gate and fled for their lives, so the Cai brothers had also successfully entered the city of Chaisang.

"Two horsemen! It's hard to grab credit! Liu Qi scolded, and then immediately ordered: "Wen Ping, Huang Zhong, the two of you will immediately lead the army into the city, you must drive the Xuzhou thief army out of the city as soon as possible, pay attention to protect the streets and houses, we are still useful!" ”

"Childe, you don't need to send so many troops into the city for street fighting, do you?" Wen Ping has some opinions.

"Then Huang Zhong stays, you take the headquarters into the city!" Liu Qi shouted angrily.

Seeing that Liu Qi was already angry, Wen Ping did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly raised troops to enter the West Gate of Chaisang, and when Wen Ping's team entered Chaisang City, Chaisang City was already a sea of people, and there were teams and figures of the Jingzhou Army everywhere. Countless Jingzhou soldiers cheered and jumped on the street with torches, and some people couldn't wait to smash the doors and houses into the houses to rob, and the streets were full of the sound of turning over boxes and cabinets and breaking dishes.

Of course, the Jingzhou army was prepared to protect the houses and streets, so even if there was no Liu Qi order not to set fires, the Jingzhou soldiers were very careful not to deliberately set fire to the houses, but it may be because the city was about to be destroyed, and the fifth watch was about to pass halfway, and the sky was still dark. The Xuzhou army actually set fire to the streets of Chaisang. Countless torches were thrown into the courtyard of the house, and rockets were thrown into the streets of the houses in the city, igniting one street after another, and the Jingzhou army was unable to put out the fire in the melee. The fire spread uncontrollably. The flames engulfed house after house. Countless pillars of fire rose into the sky.

What's even worse is that the Xuzhou army is in the southeast of Chaisang City, and the southeast wind blowing in the spring blows the fire to the northwest of Chaisang. Not only fueled the fire and accelerated the spread of the fire, but also quickly devoured the Jingzhou team that entered the city from the west gate and the north gate, a large number of Jingzhou soldiers ran for their lives in the flames, and had no intention of chasing and killing the Chaisang defenders, while the Chaisang defenders set fire, they did not hesitate to open the west gate and the south gate of Chaisang, and began to break through to the southwest of Chaisang.

When the fire just began to spread, the Jingzhou army also tried to fight the fire to protect the houses and streets, but the fire in Chaisang City burned very strangely, not only spread far faster than the ordinary fire, but also burned extremely fiercely, where the fire went, the houses and streets in Chaisang City seemed to be poured with fire oil and hidden sulfur saltpeter, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a sea of fire, and the Jingzhou soldiers who tried to put out the fire could not stop it at all, and they were burned to death and burned countless injuries.

More terrible than the fire is the thick smoke, the billowing smoke seems to be a sea of clouds tightly enveloping the entire Chaisang City, completely flooding the streets and alleys in the Chaisang City, the Jingzhou soldiers who are not familiar with the terrain do not distinguish things in the thick smoke, panic and run for their lives, trample on each other and countless dead, in order to win a way to survive, the Jingzhou soldiers who were not very strict in military discipline did not hesitate to draw their swords against each other, slash and trample each other, and step on the corpses of their own soldiers to flee for their lives, a large number of Jingzhou elites were burned to death by fire and smoked, Hacked to death by his own comrades, the city of Chaisang was full of voices crying for help, and crowds of Jingzhou soldiers rushing to escape for their lives were everywhere.

Seeing that Chaisang City quickly turned into a sea of fire, and seeing his own soldiers with dark faces, crowding out of the city in large numbers, many of them also simply carrying flames, Liu Qigongzi, who finally took Chaisang City, was dumbfounded at the moment of victory, and a terrible thought gradually appeared in Liu Qi's mind, "Could it be that?" Qiao Rui's old puppet, did he deliberately lead our army into the city, and then take the opportunity to set fire to the city? ”

"Childe! Son! Big things are wrong! Big things are wrong! Several soldiers rushed to Liu Qi and shouted with a crying voice: "General Liu Hu, he's dead!" General Liu, he's dead! ”

"My brother is dead? How can it be? Liu Qi yelled in disbelief: "How did he die? ”

"General Liu led us to chase and kill the Xuzhou thief army and rushed to the front." Several of Liu Hu's personal soldiers cried and said: "After the Xuzhou thief army set fire to the city, General Liu was surrounded by fire and took us to break through the siege, but was knocked over by our team who did not know where to rush from, and was trampled to death after falling off the horse, and we couldn't escape with his body, so we had to leave him in the city." ”

"Brother ——!" Liu Qi cried out loud - Liu Hu, like Liu Pan, although they are just Liu Biao's subordinates, but since Liu Qi emerged in Jiangxia and suddenly rose, Liu Hu firmly stood on Liu Qi's side, helped Liu Qi fight against the Cai family brothers, and had a deep relationship with Liu Qi, so after getting the news of his brother's death, although his heart had been seriously polluted by an unscrupulous character, Liu Qi couldn't help crying out loud.

Fortunately for Liu Qi, another Jingzhou general who led his troops into the city, Wen Ping, escaped by luck - but he had also been burned off his beard by the fire, and his face was blackened by the thick smoke. After coming to Liu Qi with a disgraced face, Wen Ping said in a hoarse voice: "Childe, we have been tricked again, the enemy is prepared to abandon the city and break through, before abandoning the city, the enemy also tricked us into the city and set fire to the city, not leaving Chaisang City for our use, but also taking the opportunity to hit us hard." ”

"Old man Qiaorui, where did you flee?" Liu Qi gritted his teeth and asked word by word.

"Chaisang Southwest!" Wen Ping pointed in the direction where the Chaisang defenders had fled, and frowned again and said: "I can't hear the shouting and killing, it seems that even if Yuan Neng and them arrive at the battlefield in time, they are still preserving their strength again." ”

"Order the whole army to pursue with all your might!" Liu Qi yelled.

When Liu Qi's whole army launched a pursuit of Qiaorui's team, the sky was already dawning, and under the morning sun that gradually climbed out of Poyang Lake, under the morning sun of February 25 of the ninth year of Jian'an, the Chaisang defenders who went out of the city in two ways cheered, sang, and rushed at full speed to a famous scenic spot in the southwest of Chaisang without stopping, this scenic spot is called Lushan, and friends who are worried that the mountain is not steep enough and that there is no water source on the mountain should be punished to review a poem called "Wanglushan Waterfall".

The sunshine incense burner produces purple smoke, and the waterfall hangs in front of the river.

The flying stream went straight down to 3,000 feet, and it was suspected that the Milky Way had fallen for nine days. (To be continued......)