The second day of the finalization of the increase in Guangling, Xuzhou general Chen Zhi led five thousand Xuzhou troops who had already been waiting for the Xuzhou army to set off south, and rushed to Guangling by way of Xiapi, which was a team that was reorganized to bring the old with the new, and the members had part of the Xuzhou army's ace Danyang soldiers, some of the veterans recruited and trained by Cao Bao in Xuzhou, and more of them were the Yellow Turban soldiers recruited and surrendered by Tao Ying in Yuzhou and the Xuzhou soldiers who had just been recruited and trained. It can already be regarded as the main force of combat.

It is worth mentioning that this team is also a team created by Xuzhou General Chen Zhi, from formation to training, Chen Zhi is responsible for it, and Chen Zhi's concept of governing the army also coincides with Tao Ying, that is, emphasizing discipline and collective cooperation. Because of the time relationship, the individual combat effectiveness of this team may still be very weak, but in terms of discipline, it has already given people a refreshing feeling, the team is strict on the march, the advance and retreat are measured, and the deployment is well-organized, which is very bluffed by a lot of princes lurking in Xuzhou, plus Chen Zhi is Tao Ying's henchman general, so when all the details are reported to the bosses, it is inevitable to add a sentence - reinforcement Guangling This team is the main force of Xuzhou!

Here again, emphasize the difference between the main force and ordinary soldiers, the army in the cold weapon war is composed of three parts, the first is the main force of the soldiers, the second is the auxiliary soldiers, and the third is the people, which is the so-called ancient three armies, in which the people are responsible for carrying, carrying burdens and carts and other transportation work, the largest number, in the case of insufficient manpower, young and strong women are often allowed to do these chores; The number of auxiliaries is secondary, responsible for auxiliary work such as boat bridges, escorts, engineering and cleaning the battlefield, and the ratio of auxiliaries to the main force is usually three to one, that is, three auxiliaries assist one main force in combat.

The number of main soldiers is the smallest, but it is the absolute main force of charging and frontal combat, and it is also the core and backbone of an army. Therefore, the situation of the Xuzhou army dispatching 5,000 main soldiers at once is naturally destined to arouse the vigilance and attention of every surrounding prince.

Confirming that the news of Tao Ying's reinforcement of Guangling was correct, the nearest Lü Wenhou reacted first, that is, he immediately transferred back the Hou Cheng and Song Xian teams who robbed and robbed grain in Lu and Rencheng and other places, and under the pretext of protecting the grain route connected with Xuzhou, the Hou and Song armies were stationed in Hulu County, which was close to Xiaopei, and at the same time paid close attention to every move of the Xuzhou army, ready to steal chickens at any time, and raided the five counties of Xuzhou, which were far richer and more prosperous than Yanzhou.

Still receiving this news, Cao Boss also made a decision immediately, and immediately gave up the plan of concentrating the main force to attack Changyi, changed the main attack target to the north of Chenliu County, and the main force went to attack Zhang Miao's army entrenched in that area, and the partial division continued to contain the main force of Zhang Miao's army guarding Dingtao, and deliberately ignored the main force of Lu Bu's army in Changyi, so that the capricious Lu Wenhou had the opportunity and strength to attack Xuzhou. And Lu Wenhou did not disappoint Boss Cao, in the case of Zhang Miao's frequent urgency, he only sent a partial division to Dingtao for reinforcements, and the main force was always in Changyi, waiting for news from Xuzhou.

In addition, our Uncle Liu Huang also smelled the opportunity to make a comeback, and under the pretext of suppressing bandits in front of the new boss Kong Rong, he couldn't wait to lead the more than 2,000 teams that were put together again, and took advantage of the fire to rob the small town of Zhuxian County on the border between Langya and Beihai, and suddenly choked the trade throat between Xuzhou and his ally Gongsun Zhan. Then Uncle Liu Huang acquiesced to Zhang Fei pretending to be a bandit and snatched more than 300 war horses that Tao Ying bought at a high price from Gongsun Zhan, and Yin Li, the general of the Langya guard of the Xuzhou army, was furious when he heard the news, and planned to personally lead his troops north to fight Liu Bei, but was held down by Tao Ying - in the current situation, Tao Ying had already said that he was not willing to add Kong Rong as an enemy. But even so, the situation in the north of Xuzhou has become worse, with undercurrents surging and crises ready to erupt at any time.

"Brother Highway, we're all up to you, you must be angry." This is the common wish of all Deputy Director Tao's enemies.

Okay, we can't disappoint Boss Cao, Lu Wenhou and Uncle Liu Huang, in the end, let's take a look at the reaction of Xiao Yuan Sangong's side. In fact, the distance from Pengcheng to Guangling City, the southernmost part of Xuzhou, is much farther than that from Pengcheng to Jiujiang, so when the 5,000 troops led by Chen Zhi were still rushing to Guangling at night, the news that Tao Ying finally made a move had already passed through the fast horse and was sent to Dangtu, to Ji Ling, the most capable general under the command of Xiao Yuan Sangong, and to Zhou Yu and Zhou Gongjin, the eastern bed fast son-in-law of Xiao Yuan Sangong............

"Good!" Hearing the news that Tao Ying had finally increased his troops in Guangling, Zhou Gongjin, who hated Deputy Director Tao so much that he slapped his palm on the desk with excitement, and said with a laugh: "Tao Ying annihilated the thief, you also have today, this time, you owe me, I want to get it all back!" ”

"Gong Jin, can you send troops?" Ji Ling was also eager to try, and couldn't wait to say: "The lord has sent several letters urging us to send troops, and if we don't do it, we can find a way to replace the lord." Come, blow a trumpet for me, raise the account, and gather the generals to take the proceedings. ”

"Wait, don't worry, general, you have to wait a few more days." Zhou Yu hurriedly stopped Ji Ling's impulsiveness, and explained: "General, if our army wants to close the door and eat Tao Ying Xiaoer's five thousand main forces, it must wait for this army to cross the Huai River. If this is the case, then our army will have lost all its previous achievements. ”

Fortunately, Ji Ling is still a person who can listen to advice, and he is very close to Zhou Yu, so he also accepted Zhou Yu's suggestion and decided to wait patiently for a few more days. Zhou Yu also persuaded Ji Ling to send a miscellaneous army to cross the Yellow River, and to be the pioneer to fight Peiguo Guyang, attracting the attention of the Xuzhou army.

To put it mildly, although Xiao Yuan Sangong is not the most elite among the heroes of the Three Kingdoms, he is definitely the most soldier - although most of them are third-rate soldiers who do not pay military salaries and often can't even eat, so even if it is just a feint mission, Ji Ling still sent tens of thousands of troops in one go, crossed the river to the north, and entered the territory of Peiguo County, which is reputationally belonging to Xuzhou's territory, deliberately pretending to be unable to discern the real direction of Yuan Shujun's main attack, Zhou Yu was overjoyed when he heard the report, and kept laughing, and even said that Tao Ying had won his own plan to avenge his friends, and said that it was okay.

But then again, although our Mei Zhoulang took a risky move this time, but it was also a risky move to play again, Xuzhou has been in war several times, and most of the population and economy are concentrated around a few county cities, and the elite soldiers and strong generals are all concentrated near the county towns of Pengcheng, Xiapi and Guangling, and they don't pay enough attention to the county seat, and Tao Ying's enemies are all giving priority to attacking the five county towns with money and grain, and they don't pay attention to the tattered county town, only Zhou Yu is ingenious, Point the blade at Xuzhou's two county seats, Xutai and Huaiyin. Once these two cities were taken by Yuan Shujun, the five counties of Xuzhou would be cut off from the waist, the north and south of the Huai River would lose contact, and Guangling City, an important town of money and grain, would also be isolated, and it would be a foregone conclusion that it would be captured by Yuan Shujun.

At the same time, as long as the Yuan Shu army, which has an absolute advantage in the navy, controls the Huai River and occupies the hinterland of Xiapi, where Xuzhou produces 50% of the money and grain and 80% of the pig iron, it will also be completely exposed to the Yuan Shu saber. In addition, there is another point, Huaiyin and Xutai are all on the south bank of the Huai River, as long as Yuan Shujun controls the Huai River crossing, Tao Ying's ace Junzi Army can fight again, and it is useless to cross the Huai River.

Five days later, the good news came from the lower reaches of the Huai River, the Xuzhou army led by Chen Zhi had crossed the Huai River in Huaiyin, only rested in Huaiyin for one night, and went south to Guangling before dawn the next day. After receiving this news, Mei Zhoulang laughed, and without hesitation, he immediately said to Ji Ling: "General, you can do it, first take the Xutai, and then go down to Huaiyin, cut off the north-south connection between the five counties of Xuzhou, and close the door to fight the dog!" ”

"Okay." Ji Ling was also overjoyed, and shouted without thinking about it: "Come on, go and call those rabbit cubs, ready to do it!" ”

The order was conveyed, and the main force of Yuan Shujun, which had been dormant in the Dangtu area for more than a month, moved, and the 40 building boats and nearly 100 ships built by the exhaustive force drove out of the neighboring Shaobi Lake, and more than 200 large and small ships were forcibly requisitioned from the people in one go, and the dense and almost filled the Huai River, which was not too wide, and more than 15,000 elite soldiers boarded the boats -- this was also the 15,000 troops that could be fought most under the command of Xiao Yuan Sangong, and set sail under the leadership of Ji Ling and Zhou Yu, and slaughtered to the lower reaches of the Huai River. In addition, Chen Ji, Lei Bo and Chen Lan led an army of 60,000 to the east by land, and rushed to the battlefield via Huailing to cooperate with Ji Ling.

At the same time, when Xuzhou Xizuo, who was lurking in Dangtu, found out that he had been deceived, it was already too late, Yuan Shujun had not only tightly blocked the large and small roads leading to Pengcheng in Dangtu, delaying Tao Ying to react as much as possible, but also blocked the Huai River waterway in the Zhongli area, so the boats were not allowed to go down, and Xuzhou was not given any chance to ventilate and report! -- And take 10,000 steps back and say, even if Xuzhou Xizuo has the opportunity to go north to report to Pengcheng at this moment, then no matter how fast it is, Tao Ying, whose main force is all in the north of Xuzhou, will not have time to make adjustments and reactions.

In early summer, the southeast wind is strong, the rain is abundant, the flow of the Huai River has increased greatly, and the fleet of Ji Ling's army, which has long been prepared to be familiar with the hydrological and geographical guide of the Huai River, marched even faster, and left the territory of Jiujiang on the night of departure, and entered the land of Xuzhou with great momentum. It only took more than a day for Ji Ling's army to arrive at the first target to raid Xutai City.

It was at this time that Zhou Yu, who came to the lower reaches of the Huai River for the first time, was shocked to find that the situation in the lower reaches of the Huai River was completely incompatible with the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which was completely plain and open, and the terrain on both sides of the river was low-lying -- because this was the current Hongze Lake! At the same time, the flow of water in the river is relatively slow, and the ability to flush sand is not strong, resulting in a very serious situation of sand inclusion in the river, making the water level of the river much higher than the ground, and it is all dependent on the embankment to restrain the water so that it will not flood - what does this mean, Zhou Yu, a natural expert in water warfare, knows better than anyone else!

There was no turning back arrow when the bow was opened, and it was too late for Mei Zhoulang to turn back, so he could only pray that the river situation on the Huaiyin side would be better, and he quickly waved his army to attack the city, and Yuan Shujun came too suddenly, Ji Wei, the defender in Xutai City, was not ready for war at all, and he was caught off guard and didn't even have time to close the city gate, Yuan Shujun's elite soldiers had already entered Xutai City, and Ji Wei, who only had a few hundred second-line soldiers in his hands, was forced to lead the defenders to surrender, and was quickly escorted to Ji Ling and Zhou Yu, to be interrogated by Zhou Yu in person.

"In the last few days, have you received any orders from Xuzhou?" Zhou Yu asked Ji Weiyu, "How many defenders are there in Huaiyin City in the lower reaches of the Huai River?" Who is the defender? ”

"General Huiyu, I haven't received an order from Xuzhou for almost half a month." In order to survive, Ji Wei replied very honestly: "Huaiyin is the throat of the north-south connection of Xuzhou, which is much more important than Xutai, so the old general Zhang Zhi stationed two thousand troops there, and the guard is Xie Yan, a general under Zhang Xu. ”

"How is your relationship with Xie Yan?" Zhou Yu asked again: "Are you familiar with him?" ”

"The villain is a Qu general under General Xie, and he is very familiar with General Xie." Ji Wei replied truthfully.

"Good." Zhou Yu was overjoyed and ordered: "Do you want to live?" If you want to, take twenty or thirty personal soldiers with me on the boat, go to Huaiyin to deceive the city for me, take Huaiyin, gold and silver beauties are up to you! ”

Ji Wei didn't even have the courage to escape from Xutai to report the news, and naturally he was not a loyal and brave person, so he immediately agreed. When Zhou Yu immediately asked people to arrange for Ji Wei and his cronies to get on the ship, he suggested to Ji Ling: "General, the soldiers are fast, there is only one hundred and sixty miles from Xutai to Huaiyin, it is now noon, we still have time, I hope that the general will work hard and immediately order to set off, and strive to arrive in Huaiyin before the dawn of the day, attack it unprepared, take Huaiyin City in one go, and grasp the initiative on the battlefield." As for the Xuantai side, just leave a few troops to guard and wait for the rear team led by General Chen Ji. ”

Ji Ling, who was a little seasick, wanted to rest for a night before leaving, but he couldn't resist Zhou Yu's repeated persuasion, so he had no choice but to nod and agree, and ordered the army to continue to go south by boat, and went to take Huaiyin overnight, leaving a thousand troops to guard the small city of Xutai, which was so remote that birds don't in this era, waiting for the rear army led by Chen Ji and Lei Bo and others.

Re-boarded the boat and walked dozens of miles, it was already dark, and Ji Ling, who was seasick, saw that there was nothing to do all the way, so he kicked the affairs to Zhou Yu in charge, and went to the cabin to rest with two beautiful maids in his arms. It was also at this time that Cheng Pu and Huang Gai, who had been demoted to the rank of cavalry governor and meritorious service, sneakily boarded the flagship and met Zhou Yu on the deck.

"Gong Jin, should the plan for the raid on Huaiyin be adjusted?" Cheng Pu warned Zhou Yu: "I wonder if Gongjin has noticed that the hydrological situation of the lower reaches of the Huai River is very unfavorable to us?" Once the sneak attack fails, and the enemy digs a dam upstream to release water, even if we do not land, we will not be flooded on the boats, and most of the ships will have to run aground on the downstream rivers, unable to advance or retreat, and become fish on the anvil. ”

Zhou Yu was silent, and replied after a long time: "I haven't been to the lower reaches of the Huai River, I don't know the hydrology and geography of this area, if I had been here before, I would definitely not use this risky strategy, but now we have no way back, at this time, Yuan Shu will definitely be furious, and I will immediately fall out of favor, all the efforts we made to avenge Bo Fu before will be completely wasted." ”

Cheng Pu and Huang Gai, who had also not been to the lower reaches of the Huai River, were also silent, admiring and moving Zhou Yu's forbearance and loyalty. After another half an hour, Huang Gai forced a smile and said: "Gong Jin's clever plan, unpredictable, no matter how Tao Ying Xiao'er annihilated, he would definitely not have imagined that Yuan Shupifu's main attack direction turned out to be two small counties in the lower reaches of the Huai River, and he would not take any precautions, as long as we take the small city of Huaiyin again, this battle will have a solid chance of winning." ”

"Yes, as long as we win Huaiyin, we will win." Zhou Yu comforted himself and sighed: "If we take Huaiyin, we can be invincible, and Xiangbei can disturb Tao Ying'er's hinterland at any time, so that he can't be guarded." Turning his most important money and food into a scorched earth. To the south, we can take the isolated and helpless town of Guangling, and then at the place where Bo Fu died, we can chop Tao Ying'er's accomplice lackeys alive and comfort Bo Fu's spirit in the sky. ”

"And!" Speaking of this, Zhou Yu's voice suddenly sank, and he said viciously: "If Tao Ying Xiao'er dares to counterattack Huaiyin's throat and reopen the connection with Guangling, I will not hesitate to dig up the north bank of the Huai River and feed Tao Ying Xiao'er and his hypocrite army to the fish!" ”

"We can do it!" Cheng Pu clenched his fists and gritted his teeth and said: "Xutai didn't receive any alarm at all before defending the military, and we easily took the city, which is enough to prove that Tao Yingxiao'er's attention is all in Pengcheng and Guangling, and he didn't expect our main attack direction at all!" Huaiyin Town, we will definitely be able to fight! ”

"I hope so, may the spirit of Bofu be blessed in heaven." Zhou Yu prayed silently, and then beat his spirits, and smiled at Cheng Pu and Huang Gai: "Two old generals, there is still a big war tomorrow, you should go back to rest early, Ji Ling is brave and unscrupulous, and his team is mostly a rabble, if the generals can't open the city gate and attack Huaiyin, I will ask you." Cheng Pu and Huang Gai respectfully agreed, and told Zhou Yu to rest early, and then returned to their respective ships to rest, recuperate and wait for the next day's battle, leaving Zhou Yu alone on the deck, in a daze in the night breeze.

The sky was dark, there was no moonlight, the banks of the Huai River were also dark, there was no light, only the river was roaring, the night wind was howling, and the dense reeds on both sides of the Huai River were swaying in the night wind. It wasn't until the night dew wet Zhou Yu's hair, slid down Zhou Yu's handsome face, and flowed down his neck, and two tears also seeped out the corners of Zhou Yu's eyes, slowly flowing along the handsome face, that the corners of Zhou Yu's mouth moved, and he choked softly, "Bo Fu, please your spirit in the sky, you must bless me." ”

Heaven does not bless the righteous man, almost at the same time as Mei Zhoulang muttered this sentence, after the reeds on the south bank of the Huai River swung, he suddenly shot out a series of evil eyes, green and faint like hungry wolves that saw their prey, with vicious greed, with a cruel grin, staring at the Yuan Shujun fleet full of soldiers............

(To be continued)