Although he has been praying that the hydrological situation in the Huaiyin area can be better, but when he arrived at the scheduled battlefield, Mei Zhoulang, who had never been to the lower reaches of the Huai River, was completely desperate again, and the hydrological situation of the Huai River near Huaiyin was a hundred times worse than that in the area of Xutai!

The embankment in this area was built by Guangling Taishou Ma Bowei more than a hundred years ago! For more than 100 years, there has been no large-scale repair and reinforcement, relying on the piecemeal maintenance and repair of the local government and local villagers, taking some soil bags and gravel to fill the leakage, demolishing the east wall to make up the west wall, and the broken river embankment is full of barren grass and shrubs, and there are also cracks and leaks everywhere, so fragile that a soak of urine can flush a hole -- so four years later in history, Guangling Taishou Chen Dengcai spared no cost to overhaul water conservancy, built a dam in this area for more than 30 miles, and made the prototype of the Gaojiayan of the Great Wall on the water to defend the Huai Weir.

What makes Mei Zhoulang slander the ancients even more is that more than a hundred years ago, Ma Bowei didn't build the embankment for 10,000 years, in order to facilitate the irrigation of farmland for the mud legs, he also had to build an embankment in this area to store water, and made a huge artificial lake, Pi Lake, which slowed down the speed of the Huai River even more, raised the water surface of the Huai River, and turned the embankment in this area into a huge bomb from time to time! A time bomb that can blow the elite of Yuan Shujun to pieces!

It's useless to slander, Mei Zhoulang can't dig Ma Bowei out of the grave and whip the corpse, and kill again to vent his anger, and at the same time, fortunately, Yuan Shujun's fleet arrived at the Huaiyin battlefield before dawn, and Yuan Shujun still has the hope of succeeding in the city, so Zhou Yu didn't dare to slack off, and immediately helped Ji Ling formulate a siege plan, and sent the general Ji Wei to lead more than 20 troops to the west gate of Huaiyin, and ordered Cheng Pu and Huang Gai to lead a thousand elite soldiers to follow, and approached the east gate of Huaiyin with the last trace of night cover, Just wait for Ji Wei to open the city gate and enter the city, take Huaiyin in one go, and Yuan Shujun's fleet extinguished all the lights and temporarily docked five miles upstream of Huaiyin, waiting for the news of the sneak attack on Huaiyin.

After Cheng Pu and Huang Gai escorted the troops away, Yuan Shujun's fleet also all landed on the south bank of the Huai River, some seasick Ji Ling was not used to the wind and waves, and wanted to get off the ship and land to rest, Zhou Yu persuaded Ji Ling to wait patiently for a while, but Ji Ling, who has been very persuasive in the past few days, puffed out his eyes, and said to Zhou Yu for the first time: "I am a Qilu person, not like you floating on the water every day, if you don't hurry up and get off the boat to rest for a while, if I want to go into battle, how can I kill the enemy?" ”

Zhou Yu thought about it, so he had to accompany Ji Ling to get off the boat, and transferred the command flag array to the embankment on the south bank of the Huai River. When Zhou Yu persuaded Ji Ling not to be anxious, Ji Ling complained in turn: "Gong Jin, you also understand the hard work of the soldiers, there are many Nanyang soldiers under my command, they don't know the wind and waves, and there are countless seasick soldiers, so it's time for them to breathe a sigh of relief." Besides, it's still early, and the enemy on the other side of Huaiyin can't see us. ”

After that, Ji Ling didn't listen to Zhou Yu's advice, and ordered the whole army to abandon the ship and go ashore, and assemble under the embankment, and most of the elite soldiers of Yuan Shujun under Ji Ling didn't know the surname of Shui, and they had long hated the life on the ship for a few days. Zhou Yu just joined the army and had no command power, so he had to quickly look up at the sky, fortunately, it was the last darkness before dawn at this moment, and the sky was even darker at night, and Yuan Shujun's landing was indeed not easy to be discovered by the Huaiyin enemy five miles away, so he was a little relieved.

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Yu turned his vigilant gaze to the surface of the Huai River, it is now the early summer season, when the water in the river is abundant, but the weather is good these days, and there is no heavy rain in the upper reaches, so the river is less than two feet away from the top of the embankment, as long as no one deliberately destroys it, the possibility of the embankment itself is not very large, Zhou Yu quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and began to pray silently, "Bo Fu, you must bless me to succeed in defrauding the city." ”

At about the same time, Ji Wei, the general of Xuzhou who was bought by money and beauty, also led more than 20 Xuzhou traitors to the east gate of Huaiyin City, and began to shout about the city by the moat, while the elite soldiers led by Cheng Pu and Huang Gai lurked in the rear, hiding behind the stones in the forest, nervously waiting for the reaction in Huaiyin City.

To everyone's surprise, the first step of Ji Wei's deception of the city turned out to be extremely smooth - because the person who came out to answer Ji Wei happened to be Xie Yan, the general of Huaiyin and Ji Wei's boss, Xie Yan yawned, poked his head out of the arrow battlements of the city wall in a cloak, and shouted loudly: "Who is the city called?" Declare your name and official position. ”

"General Xie, I'm Ji Wei, your general Ji Wei." Ji Wei didn't expect Xie Yan to rest on the Huaiyin city wall for the night, but he didn't have time to analyze the reason, so he just put the torch next to his face and shouted to Xie Yan: "General Xie, something big happened over there in Xutai, Yuan Shu suddenly sent troops to attack Xutai, and the last general only had less than 600 men and horses at hand, and he couldn't resist the enemy, so he quickly fled back and reported to you." ”

"The platform is lost?" Xie Yan was taken aback, turned his head and didn't know who he was talking to, and then immediately turned around and shouted, "Ji Wei, you wait, I'll ask someone to put the suspension bridge right away." Come on, put the suspension bridge, and let Ji Wei and them enter the city. ”

"General Xie." Ji Wei thanked him with great joy, and the corners of his mouth suddenly showed a cruel smile, and Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others, who were hiding in the darkness behind, laughed even more, and nodded again and again, knowing that Sun Ce's spirit in the sky was blessed, and the Xuzhou defenders in Huaiyin City really had no preparations!

It's a pity that the heroic spirit of the little overlord also blessed the old department here, with a strange "squeak", the suspension bridge that was slowly falling suddenly stopped in mid-air, and the shouts of Xuzhou soldiers also sounded on the city wall, "General Xie, it's not good, the winch of the suspension bridge is stuck." ”

Seeing that he was about to succeed but encountered such an unlucky thing, the traitor Ji Wei, Cheng Pu, and Huang Gai all had an urge to vomit blood, but fortunately, our General Xie Yan quickly scolded again, "Slacker! A bunch of slackers! Usually ask you all to repair the city wall and city gates, but one of you is lazier than the other, and now you can't even put down the suspension bridge? Fix it, fix it right away! The Xuzhou soldiers in charge of the drawbridge agreed, hurry up and overhaul the ping-pong, Ji Wei and Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others were so anxious that they were sweating profusely, but they had no choice but to hurry up and pray to the sky, praying that the Xuzhou lazy soldiers on the city wall would quickly repair the damn winch!

At this moment, General Xie Yan suddenly had a new movement-pointing at Ji Wei in the distance and yelling, "Ji Wei, where is the army behind you?!" ”

"I've seen through it! Come on! Ji Wei's face changed greatly, and he quickly turned around and ran, more than 20 Xuzhou traitors were also holding their heads, Xie Yan yelled on the city wall, ordered the defending soldiers to shoot arrows, and rang the gong to alarm, and in the distance, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai were so remorseful that they stomped their feet again and again, so they had to come out of the hiding place to prepare in formation, and at the same time send people back to the fleet to report to Ji Ling and Zhou Yu.

At the same time, on Huaiyin City, Xie Yan also turned around, wiped his cold sweat and said to Chen Zhi, the general of Xuzhou who was hiding behind: "General Chen, you expected it, Ji Weixiaoer really came to deceive the city, the last general just lied to Ji Weixiaoer, and the enemy took the initiative to expose, but the last general is very strange, how did you know that Ji Weixiaoer betrayed Xuzhou?" ”

"To put it bluntly, a big sum of money is not worth it." Chen Zhi replied confidently: "Yuan Shu's thief army sneak attack on Huaiyin, it is inevitable to take the waterway, if Ji Wei does not defect and surrender, he really fled back to report the news, then he escaped by land There must be no enemy to take the waterway fast, it should be the enemy who arrived first." If Ji Weipifu grabbed the boat and escaped back by water, then he should call the city at the north gate of Huaiyin, which is close to the Huaihe River, but he came to the west gate of Huaiyin with open terrain to call the city, which is only one possibility, behind him, there must be a large number of people. ”

"I see." Xie Yan suddenly realized, scratched the back of his head and said: "Now the last general finally understands, why is the last general who has been cutting down the lord for more than ten years is still just a general?" Why did General Chen, you only follow the lord for a few months, and then you became a military commander. ”

"General Xie is too modest, your battlefield experience is far richer than that of the juniors, if there is anything wrong with the juniors, I hope you will not hesitate to give advice." Chen Zhi said a few words of politeness and modesty, and said quickly: "General Xie, it depends on you next, you have to pretend that Huaiyin is unprepared, hastily organize the city defense, and lure the enemy brigade to attack with all its might." By the way, there is also the half-placed suspension bridge of the West Gate, don't rush to pull it up, keep it to lure the enemy. ”

Xie Yan agreed, and hurriedly commanded the army to pretend to be in a panic, deliberately beating gongs and drums to gather the army to guard the city, and deliberately planted the flag in all directions, hiding the weapons to defend the city and exposing only a little, and then let the soldiers run back and forth on the city wall, shouting and shouting, so that the enemy outside the city thought that the army was unprepared. And the generals such as Cheng Pu and Huang Gai outside the city also really hit the plan, and concluded that Huaiyin City was unprepared before, and constantly sent envoys to meet Zhou Yu and Ji Ling, asking them to immediately lead the main force to attack.

At this time, the news of Ji Wei's accidental exposure of the city has also been urgently sent to Ji Ling and Zhou Yu, and after learning what happened, Ji Ling and Zhou Yu were also so remorseful that they stomped their feet again and again, scolding the army for their bad luck and missing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break the city, and then Zhou Yu had to inquire about the situation in Huaiyin City, and the messengers sent by Cheng Pu and Huang Gai replied: "The two generals are rest assured, there is no preparation in Huaiyin City, and there are very few troops, and the guard general Xie Yan is beating the gong to call the police, and call the army to go to the city to prepare." ”

"Really unprepared? Is there such a coincidence in the world? Zhou Yu was a little skeptical.

"Let's go!" Ji Ling jumped up and shouted: "The whole army set off, surround Huaiyin City, and take Huaiyin before Xie Yan and the thieves are ready!" Zhou Yu wanted to persuade a little, but Ji Ling had already hurried down the embankment, and Zhou Yu had no choice but to hurry up.

When our general Ji Ling hurriedly led more than 10,000 main forces to Huaiyin City, the sky was already bright, and he saw the dilapidated suspension bridge in Huaiyin hanging in the air from a distance, and saw the Xuzhou military flag and the Xuzhou soldiers who were making a fuss on the city wall, Ji Ling and Zhou Yu were greatly confident, and Ji Ling did not hesitate at the moment, and immediately made arrangements, ordering his deputy Xun Zheng to lead an army of 3,000 to attack the south gate of Huaiyin, and the general Li Feng led 2,000 troops to attack the east gate, in order to divide the defenders, Ji Ling personally sat at the west gate of Huaiyin, and took Cheng Pu and Huang Gai, who were guilty of meritorious service, as the vanguard. Storm the west gate of Huaiyin.

In a short time, the deployment of the various armies was completed, the war drums were beating, and the soldiers of Yuan Shujun carried the flying ladders and earthen bags, stones and other things brought with the ships and shouted up, while filling the narrow and shallow poor moat of Huaiyin with earthen bags and stones, while stepping on the ladder to cross the river, and put the flying ladder on the city wall and climbed up. However, to the great surprise of Ji Ling and Zhou Yu, although Xie Yan, the general of Huaiyin, was a notoriously reckless and incompetent person, he actually had a lot of experience in defending the city.

As a last resort, Ji Ling had to quickly adjust the siege tactics, first sent the long shield forward to form a temporary fortification, and the archers hid behind the shield to throw arrows to suppress the bows and arrows of the defenders in the city, and then concentrated their forces to fill the river, with the intention of sharpening the knife and not cutting wood, attacking the city with regular tactics. On the city of Huaiyin, arrows rained down, specifically shooting those soldiers who filled the river, causing huge casualties to Yuan Shu's army, and the same was true of the south gate and east gate of Huaiyin, the Xuzhou army panicked but not chaotic, relying on the terrain advantage to condescendingly beat the siege enemy, killing a lot of enemies and suffering very little losses.

Seeing such a scene, of course Zhou Yu became more and more panicked and weak-hearted, but Ji Ling scolded, "Xie Yan thief, when Huaiyin City is broken, I have to cut off the meat on your body piece by piece and feed it to the dogs!" Have you sent the baggage for the ladder trucks and siege engines? If you send it, I'll build it immediately, as long as there is a ladder truck, I can break through this dirt fence! ”

"General, Xie Yan's thieves have a good plan to defend the city, and continue to attack, but I am afraid that the losses will be greater." The general on the side persuaded Gao Shi: "There is still time for our army to leave and right, and the baggage is also very sufficient, it is better to stop the siege for the time being, first seize the time to make siege weapons, and then attack the city is not too late." ”

Ji Ling is indeed a person who can listen to persuasion, seeing that the self-army has lost the first opportunity, the Huaiyin defenders are not as weak as Zhou Yu estimated, and the siege equipment is not well prepared to win, although he is unwilling, he still nodded, and commanded helplessly: "Then Mingjin, let our team retreat first, camp in the northwest of Huaiyin, and hurry up to make siege weapons." ”

"General......."

Zhou Yu opened his mouth to say something, but Ji Ling shouted angrily: "Shut up!" The team here is all under my command, and most of them are soldiers who have followed me to fight in the north and south for more than ten years, don't expect me to take their lives to fill the city! After that, Ji Ling flicked his sleeves and led the generals away, leaving Zhou Yu standing awkwardly in place, looking at the north embankment with a gloomy face.

At this time, seeing that Ji Ling led the generals to leave Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai also hurriedly sneaked up, and Huang Gai, who was hit by an arrow in his right arm and covered in blood, said in a low voice: "Gong Jin, the situation is not good, we may have been tricked again!" The enemy in Huaiyin City is definitely not unprepared, but deliberately pretending to be panicked to lure us to attack the city! ”

In fact, Zhou Yu also had some suspicions that the Huaiyin defenders were acting, but there was no evidence, and when he heard Huang Gai say this, Zhou Yu asked casually: "How does General Huang know?" ”

"Just now, Gai saw that there were not many archers in the defenders of the city, but the feather arrows seemed to be very dense, so he became suspicious." Huang Gai quickly replied in a low voice: "Therefore, Gai took the risk of attacking the city once, and luckily climbed to the top of the city wall to take a look, and saw that behind the arrow battlements were all the defending soldiers who were waiting for the battle, not waving flags, not showing their figures, just hiding and taking turns to show up and release arrows!" ”

"Old General Huang, are you sure you read it right?!" Zhou Yu was shocked.

"Absolutely not!" Huang Gai lit up the wound on his right arm and replied in a low voice: "In order to take that look, if it wasn't for the fast dodge, this arrow almost hit Huang's face!" ”

Zhou Yu's handsome face suddenly became paler than a dead man, his heart was so nervous that he almost stopped beating, and there was only one thought left in his heart, "In Huaiyin City, there are obviously a sufficient number of defenders, why do you pretend to be chaotic and panicked?" The Huaiyin defenders found that Ji Wei had deceived the city, and the drawbridge was broken when it was only half of the winch, was it really just a coincidence? Don't......? ”

Thinking about this, poor Mei Zhou Lang didn't dare to analyze it anymore, trembling and about to pull the yellow cover, but he felt that his feet were also trembling slightly, and under the shock of his heart, Zhou Yu almost didn't think about it, and immediately crawled down on all fours like a king, put his ears close to the ground, and listened nervously and carefully............ "Gongjin, what's wrong with you?" ”

Cheng Pu and Huang Gai asked in surprise together, before the words fell, Zhou Yu was like a carp that had fallen into boiling water, and jumped up all of a sudden, holding Cheng Pu with his left hand and Huang Gai with his right hand, and without saying a word, he ran to the north of the embankment, and ran faster than a rabbit with an arrow............ "Gong Jin, Gong Jin, what's wrong?" ”

Cheng Pu and Huang Gai exclaimed again, but at this time, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai also found that the ground under their feet was trembling slightly, and there was also a faint sound of muffled thunder in the upper reaches of the Huai River, from far to near, getting louder and louder, like thousands of horses running, shaking the ground, shaking Cheng Pu and Huang Gai's eardrums! Immediately afterwards, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai understood everything, and together they picked up the relatively weak Zhou Yu and ran to the high ground, and they also screamed heartbreakingly, "Tao Ying annihilates the thief!" You're ruthless! You're so ruthless! Thief! You shameless and vicious thief! ”

It was too late to find the viciousness of Deputy Director Tao, the west of the battlefield, the turbid Huai River water swished eastward like a long snake, and the water potential was not very big at first, but the speed was very fast, and in a blink of an eye, it had rushed to the bottom of Huaiyin City, the water depth of the flat land was more than a foot, and the soldiers of the Yuan Shujun army were all scattered, rushing to flee to the high ground, but the water potential was so fast, but it was definitely beyond the reach of manpower, and in an instant it was already waist-deep, and countless Yuan soldiers were washed down by the current, disappearing into the depths of the waves, crying for help, endlessly, "Help!" I don't know how to water! Help! ”

The water continued to rise, and soon it had flooded people's necks, and the Xuzhou army, which had already blocked the four gates, had a city to avoid the water, and could watch the excitement on the city wall, but the soldiers of the Yuan Shu army scattered outside the Huaiyin city were unlucky, and were swept away by the flood on the spot, and only some of the soldiers who fled to the highlands avoided Huaishui, but they were also surrounded by Huaishui on all sides, crying for help, there was no way to go to the sky, and there was no way to go down. Xun Zheng, the general who was responsible for attacking the south gate and the east gate, was swept away by the flood together, and the soldiers were killed and wounded countless times, and countless generals and soldiers drifted with the tide in the flood, struggling and screaming until they disappeared into the depths of the waves, and the most elite Ji Ling army under Yuan Shu also lost more than half of it almost instantly.

By the way, fortunately, the Yellow River has not yet taken the Huai into the sea, Hongze Lake has not yet been formed, and there has been no major rainstorm in the upper reaches of the Huai River recently, so when the flood is highest, it will be flooded to the neck, otherwise, not only will none of Ji Ling's army want to escape back alive, but even the Xuzhou army in Huaiyin City may all have to be swallowed up by the flood!

Although the flood is not very deep, but this is enough, as the Huai River embankment was dug by the Xuzhou army, the water level of the Huai River dropped rapidly, Yuan Shujun's fleet full of grain and grass was also stranded, especially the forty building ships built with heavy money, all fell into the shallows, and the ships and forcibly requisitioned civilian ships were also stranded and overturned countless times, only a few small boats survived, and the remnants of Yuan Shu's army were all besieged in the flood, without food and clothing, and there was no way back, becoming a group of lambs to be slaughtered. and the infantry brigade of the Yuan Shu Army, which was rushing eastward, was also destined to be stopped by this flood, and it was difficult to take a step east, so naturally it would not be able to pick up Ji Ling's remnants of the defeated general............ "Tao Ying Xiaoer!" You're ruthless! You're so ruthless! Huaiyin is your land, and you even dug up the Huai River to flood the entire territory of Huaiyin, I think you will do next? What's next?! ”

Luckily escaped to the height of the Huai River embankment to avoid the flood, Mei Zhoulang, who was not willing to give up, came back to his senses, and the first thing he did was to scold Deputy Director Tao for his ruthlessness and ruthlessness, and he also used this kind of poisonous trick to cut off children and grandchildren on his own land! But after hysterical scolding for a long time, Mei Zhoulang quickly came to his senses and said secretly: "Does Tao Ying'er need to deal with the aftermath next?" The Huaihe River embankment is in disrepair, even if Tao Ying'er does not dig it, a flood in the summer may be washed away, and it will still be a flooded Huaiyin situation! ”

"Huaiyin this area is vast and sparsely populated, except for the small city of Huaiyin, there is no city, today Huaiyin City did not see a single person, must have all moved into the city, Tao Ying Xiaoer dug up the Huai River embankment by himself, the flood at most only washed away the farmland around Huaiyin, causing Huaiyin this summer's grain production to be reduced - but in this way, how much military ration will Tao Ying Xiaoer save? Is it because Tao Ying'er saved more money and grain, or is there more money and grain lost in Huaiyin's grain failure this year? ! ”

Thinking about this, Mei Zhoulang couldn't help but roar again, "Tao Ying Xiaoer! Thief! Annihilator! You, the world's No. 1 ruthless annihilator! ”

(To be continued)