The early summer has arrived, and the scorching sun is scorching the earth mercilessly, and even the city walls are roasted to the point that you will feel hot when you touch it. In the battle of Fancheng, Wei Xu was burned to death on the spot, and Sun Li was surrounded by guards at the last moment and fled from the city wall, but in the end he had no choice but to abandon Fancheng, and Fancheng fell into a sea of fire.

There is no other reason, the Wei army was burned by Lu Xun's fire nearly half of the soldiers, Fancheng is no longer able to hold it, Sun Li put his heart in Fancheng hidden in the baggage also burned all, anyway, Wancheng still has grain, enough weapons to support the needs of 200,000 troops for half a year, even if the stronghold of Fancheng is burned, it can't be cheap Wu people, you must know that Fancheng is near the water, and it is not too troublesome for Wu people to use boats to carry baggage.

And Cao Xiu's side fled frantically for hundreds of miles and finally met Cao Zhenbu, who rushed down to support, and finally stabilized the army's heart, and got the support of Cao Zhen's grain and armaments, and the army in the middle was slowed down, but when I checked the soldiers and horses, I found that the soldiers and soldiers who died in the siege of Xiangyang were counted, and the Wei army's losses were as high as more than 30,000 people, and more than half of the wounded were miserable.

Even if he joined Cao Zhen's army, the Wei army was only 80,000 soldiers, because Cao Xiu was ill, and Xu Huang was also burdened with three arrows after being broken, Cao Zhen took over the command of the army and gave orders as the general of the army.

Cao Zhendun's army was in Zhuyang, Nanxiang County, and the army camped along the north and south of the river, and at the same time used iron cables to cross the river and placed thunderbolts on the soil on both sides of the Han River to defend against the Wu army's sailors. Because the ballistas of the Lou ship were all placed on the two wings, and in the face of the thunderbolt carts upstream, Wu Junkong had a range but could not exert it, Cao Zhen's move was almost half of the power of the Wu army's sailors.

So, the two armies along the Zhuyang line launched a huge battle, although the Wei army had a slight advantage in numbers, but because the division was tired, the overall combat effectiveness was actually inferior to the Wu army, but by the danger of Zhuyang and Cao Zhen's fort, several times forced back the attack of the Wu army, and the two sides fought for half a month without winning or losing.

After a big battle, both the Wu army and the Wei army suffered a lot of casualties, but compared with the Wu army, which was stronger in long-range artillery, the Wei army's losses were significantly greater, while the Wu army was more of a loss of money and food.

Compared with when Sun Ce was young, both his vision and his surname have made great progress, and he knows quite well that most of the three states of Wu are in uncivilized places, and they are not as good as Wei occupying the essence of the old Han Dynasty, and Wu can't afford to spend more than population and money and grain.

On the sixteenth day of the Battle of Zhuyang, the Wu army stopped the offensive and retreated to the front line of Shanyang County to build a camp. At the same time, Cao Pi of Wancheng also received a handwritten letter from Sun Ce.

The content of the letter is also very simple, Sun Ce first praised his father Wei Wu Emperor Cao Ying how wise, good at fighting, how heroic, and then sarcastic to Cao Pi, what tiger father dog son, father like a tiger, son like a pig and dog, ridiculed, and finally said that if Cao Pi does not have the courage to fight and die with me, then give way to your younger brother Cao Zhang as soon as possible, maybe Cao Zhang still has three points of his father's ambition, and has the courage to have a few tricks with me.

"Your Majesty, Cao Pi is feminine and not easy to be provoked, I'm afraid that the method of agitation is useless to him!" After being rescued from outside Fancheng, Zhang Ren was praised by Sun Ce's everyone and was given a seal, at which time he expressed his doubts about Sun Ce's letter of encouragement.

Sun Ce smiled when he heard this, but Zhuge Jin, who rushed back from Shu, explained: "General Zhang, of course Your Majesty knows that the method of agitating generals is useless for people like Cao Pi. ”

"That?"

"General Zhang, listen to me!" For Zhang Ren interrupting the conversation, Zhuge Jin was not annoyed at all, but smiled and said: "Jin returned from Shuzhong, but he brought back good news. Ma Chao has already entered Guanzhong, and it is said that a large number of Qiang people have been recruited to accompany him, and it can be said that supporting 50,000 troops will disturb Guanzhong. ”

Ma Chao's foundation is actually in Guanxi, but Han has the intention of abandoning Liangzhou, and although Wei attaches great importance to Liangzhou, it has not yet reached the point of being able to surpass Wu, so Ma Chao can only attract Cao Pi's firepower by disturbing Guanzhong and threatening Chang'an.

"Your Majesty's meaning, however, is that under the pretense of this letter of agitation, Cao Pi mistakenly thinks that the center of gravity of our army is still on the Nanyang line, so that he can ignore the northwest, even if the northwest happens, Cao Pi will not have time to look west?" Zhang Ren is worthy of being a veteran who is familiar with military books.

"When Ma Chao makes a big fuss, Cao Pi is afraid that he will have to pay a price if he wants to leave again." Needless to say, it's Qiao Ren.

"Haha!!" For a while, all the civil and military forces in the hall couldn't stop laughing, as if they were anticipating the embarrassment when Cao Pi learned that the northwest was in chaos in Wancheng.

"Ahem!" Zhuge Jin pretended to cough lightly twice, and said to the ministers: "Not only that, although the Han army has not moved, Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun have already left Hanzhong, intending to collect the people of Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding counties in Longyou into Hanzhong. ”

"This Liu Bei will really find a bargain, and if he collects 50,000 Qiang troops, he will not accept the people of these three counties!" Qiao Ren couldn't help but say with a thin mouth, "And this time Zhuge Liang came out of Hanzhong and also explored the road for his Northern Expedition!" ”

"I'm also going to ask Zhao Yun to come down from Hanzhong to attack Cao Zhen's army!" Sun Ce pouted and said, in the past, Cao Zhen blocked Zhao Yun's road in Xicheng, and now Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu converged in Zhuyang, and the defense of the three counties of Shangyong was weak and only Meng Da's 10,000 troops were only, as long as Liu Bei was willing to save face and surrender Meng Da again, when the Wu Han army attacked Cao Zhen before and after, he would swallow the 100,000 army. "It's a pity!"

"Your Majesty has nothing to regret, as long as Shangyong is still in the hands of Wei Jun, Liu Bei will always have a request for me." Qiao Ren said to Sun Ce: "If the Han army wants to leave Hanzhong, it must guard against the Wei army, and the one who can contain the Wei army is my Great Wu." And if the Wei army wants to attack Hanzhong, it is nothing more than a three-way march, all the way to Xicheng, all the way to the Meridian Valley, and all the way to the Slope Valley. My army of Xiangyang, if you are willing, can threaten Xicheng at any time and force the Wei army not to dare to attack Hanzhong. ”

"Yes!" Sun Ce lowered his eyebrows and thought about it, his plan was somewhat idealistic, not to mention anything else, if Meng Da was unwilling to surrender Liu Bei, the Han army would really not be able to attack Shangyong with this little force.

"Urgent!" At this moment, the middle of the facial features and the general Yi hurriedly rushed in from outside the tent, and the person in his fifties was still running so fast.

"What?" Sun Ce's brows couldn't help frowning again, Shi Yi usually pays great attention to appearance, if he didn't really have extremely important information, he wouldn't be so out of shape.

"Shouchun urgent! Wei generals Cao Ren, Du Yuban, Man Chong, Wang Ling, Pang De and other troops totaling 50,000 troops marched eastward to besiege Shouchun, and it was very urgent. At the same time, the armies of Xuzhou Zangba and Qingzhou Sun Guan gathered in Xiapi to confront Dai Dudu of Huaiyin! ”

"The Yanzhou army has also been involved!" Qiao Ren had already heard the word Shouchun, and he secretly screamed in his heart, and it was even worse when he heard Wang Ling's name. Cao Ren originally only had 30,000 troops stationed in Runan, but now it has risen to 50,000, apparently because of the transfer of Wang Ling, the assassin of Yanzhou, and Pang De's troops stationed in Xinye.

"Ziyan, Shouchun has soldiers!?" Sun Ce was obviously more concerned about the safety of Shouchun City, and the small army of Eastern Wu was concentrated on the western front, and the eastern front was only more than 30,000 soldiers and horses.

"Back to Your Majesty, Sun Shao of Shouchun has about 14,000 troops. Song Qian, Ding Feng and other troops in Hefei, Lu'an and other places added up to nearly 10,000 people, and Dai Gang in Huaiyin had about 10,000 soldiers. "Since Huang Zhong and Zhu Huan's troops were transferred to the Western Front, there were really a lot fewer soldiers and horses on the Eastern Front.

"No problem!" Sun Ce was obviously a little worried when he asked, Sun Shao was also his adopted son, although Shouchun City was not particularly important, it was also a springboard for the Wu army to advance north, a part of the defense system of the Beijing Division, and it could not be easily lost.

"It should be fine! Shouchun City is tall and strong, Shao'er is able to fight for a long time, and his subordinate general Hao Zhao is also a general who is good at city defense. Moreover, there are many captured Wei army grain and straw hoarded in Shouchun City, and there are more than 10,000 soldiers. ”

Zhu Ran and Sun Huan held Xiangyang City for three months with 10,000 people, and it made no sense that Sun Shao, Hao Zhao, and Liu Xun couldn't defend Shouchun with the same force. Hao Zhao and Liu Xun were both famous for defending cities in the Three Kingdoms, on the other hand, Cao Ren was never a good player at attacking cities, but those who were good at defending cities were good at attacking cities to a certain extent, and Cao Ren was not as simple as Cao Xiu.

"Looks like we're going to have a quick fight!" Sun Ce said helplessly, there are no reinforcements in the country to support Shouchun, and Shouchun has no strong city to defend in the Huainan Plain and can only retreat to Hefei, and Dai Gang in Huaiyin is in the middle of Zang Ba and Cao Ren. (To be continued.) )