In March, the war that swept the world entered its fifth month.

During this time, the fighting everywhere has become less intense than before, and yet even those who most expect peace and tranquility will not be optimistic. Because they knew that this brief lull was only a prelude to a more violent outburst, and it would not be long before the raging flames of war would burst out and spread a hundred times more intense than before.

On the twentieth day before the withdrawal of the main force of Qingzhou from Chuilongcheng, Wang Yu's general flag appeared at the foot of the boundary mountain at the junction of Shangdang and Taiyuan - Sheep's Head Mountain. This place is less than eighty miles away from Qi County, and the distance to Terrier Yang City is also only more than a hundred miles, if Wang Yu is willing, it only takes one day and a night for the Wind and Fire Cavalry to appear in front of Ma Chao!

In this regard, Ma Chao behaved extremely cautiously, he withdrew the siege of Jiaoyang City, retreated to the west, and withdrew for more than 50 miles before setting up camp with his back to Zhaoyuze.

Obviously, although Ma Chao had some scruples about Wang Yu's arrival, he had no intention of backing down, as long as Wang Yu advanced further, a big battle was inevitable.

If the two armies were to engage in a head-to-head battle, including auxiliaries, the total number of troops participating in the battle would exceed half a million! It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a million-dollar war. Such a great battle may not be unprecedented, but there is no doubt that it was the largest battle in the late Han Dynasty in recent decades.

At the same time, in the calm of the Central Plains, a huge storm is also brewing.

During this time, both sides of the battle showed relative restraint, except for the occasional collision between the scout rangers, there was not even a hundred-man level conflict. Both sides are in full swing to dispatch troops, and along the Jishui coast, there are dense troops, and the murderous aura that rushes to the sky seems to freeze the rushing Jishui.

If it hadn't been for a series of battles before, there would have been a large-scale flow of refugees in the area between Ji and Pu Ershui. Guo Gong's fate is a warning to everyone, and before the two behemoths collide, they are not far away, which is pure death.

Another proof that the war is far from over is that on the battlefield of Xuhuai, which was calm at the beginning of the war, the war was in full swing. In the Qingzhou Army, there are indeed many people who hold the weight, but Zhang Jaw and Pang Tong definitely cannot be classified into this category.

I gave up Sui'an before, but I didn't want to be attacked on both sides and stretch the battle line too long. When they learned that Sun Ce had abandoned Huainan and gone to Yanzhou, what burned in the hearts of Zhang Jaw and Pang Tong was raging anger.

This is a contempt! Contempt for the officers and men of the entire army of the Xuzhou Legion! Thought that leaving a hairy boy who had never experienced any battles, just fourteen years old, plus tens of thousands of rabble, was like suppressing Xuzhou and stabilizing Huainan? This is simply wishful thinking!

As soon as they got the news, Zhang Jaw and Pang Tong mobilized the whole army, and the mighty troops went out of Pengcheng and entered Qian County. Sun Quan and the generals who stayed behind had been making preparations, and when they heard that Zhangjaw's troops were out of Pengcheng, they didn't dare to slack off at the moment, and they took up the 50,000 soldiers and horses left behind, and set up a formation under Xiaoxian County to meet Zhangjaw.

A fierce battle ensued between the two sides.

Sun Quan, assisted by veterans such as Huang Gai and Han Dang, commanded well, but after several days of fierce fighting, he gradually couldn't resist it after all.

Although the strength of the Jiangdong Army has the upper hand, there are too few elites, only 15,000 soldiers and horses of the Jiangdong headquarters in front of them, and the other 35,000 soldiers are all incorporated Huainan Army, both in terms of combat strength and morale, they are quite weak, and they are not at all the opponents of the Xuzhou Army, which is almost mournful.

The battle lasted for ten days, and finally ended with Sun Quan giving up Xiao County and defeating Zhuqiu.

Before Sun Quan was defeated, he left some soldiers and horses in Xiao County, but the effect was not good, and he only resisted for half a day, and then directly raised the white flag and surrendered the whole army. Zhang Jaw took Xiao County, the momentum was even stronger, leaving Xu Sheng to defend the city, and Pang unified the Dao to supervise the army westward, chasing after him, and finally blocked Sun Quan's 30,000 remnants in Zhuqiu City.

For the Jiangdong Army, the situation suddenly became extremely sinister.

Not to mention that in Sun Quan's army, there are Sun relatives such as Sun Quan and Sun Jing, veterans such as Huang Gai and Han Dang, as well as rising stars such as Zhou Tai and Zhu Huan. If these people are wiped out by Zhang Jaw, Jiangdong will inevitably be greatly injured, even if reinforcements are sent from the mainland, without these experienced generals, how can there be hope of turning the tables?

What's more, once Sun Quan's ministry is annihilated, Sun Ce of Yanzhou will become a rootless Ping and a tree without roots, even if Cao Cao takes care of the overall situation and does not move any bad intentions. In the case of no backup, how long can Sun Ce's 30,000 soldiers hold out?

What's more serious is that without the combat power of Sun Quan's department, Huainan is already empty to the extreme, as long as Zhang Jaw divides thousands of soldiers and horses to the south, with the echo of Haoqiang, sweeping Huai and Si is just around the corner.

If Zhou Yu hadn't arrived in time, Sun Quan would have really confessed to Zhuqiu.

Zhou Yu is almost the busiest person in the world during this time. After solving Yuan Shu, on the one hand, he wanted to appease Yuan Shu's old ministers and restore the order of Yuan Shu's old leader, and on the other hand, he wanted to incorporate the Huainan army, not only to supplement the combat strength, but also to not want the Yuan army to disperse in a hurry, and they all returned to the mountains to become bandits, which made all parts of Huainan unstable.

These two tasks are very complex and difficult propositions, and it is really difficult to complete them in just ten days. That's not all, Zhou Yu still has to pay attention to the battlefield in Qiaoxian County, and is always ready to go north to reinforce Sun Quan - from the very beginning, Zhou Yu has not been at ease with Sun Quan, who is too young and too low in prestige, and it is impossible to integrate all the forces of 50,000 soldiers and horses.

No matter how much attention he has, the speed of the exchange of information cannot be increased. Sun Quan was defeated too quickly, and by the time Zhou Yu received the news of Xiao County's defeat, Sun Quan had already been besieged in Zhuqiu.

Zhou Yu had no choice but to hand over the affairs of Shouchun and Huainan to Liu Bei, and he led 5,000 Jiangdong troops plus 10,000 newly incorporated Huainan troops to rescue Sun Quan in Zhuqiu.

Zhou Yu knew that his approach was very dangerous, a heroic figure like Liu Bei, as long as he saw a gap, it was possible to create an opportunity to come out, give him a chance, then it was really difficult to predict what he could do.

Liu Bei has secretly hooked up with Yuan Shu in the past two years, and he already has a lot of latent forces in Huainan, and this time it will definitely not be a problem to stabilize the place in the name of the Jiangdong Army and expand the original latent forces by two or three times. This is a considerable hidden danger for the future rule of the Jiangdong Army over Huainan.

But Zhou Yu had no other way.

Waiting for Sun Ce to come back to help, first, it may not be too late, and second, Sun Ce and Cao Cao have already agreed on the strategy of Yanzhou, and the general attack is imminent. If Sun Ce withdraws his troops or sends troops back to help, it will definitely weaken the power of the general attack, and in the end, neither side will fall well.

In order to contain the Xuzhou army, Zhou Yu had a lot of dealings with Guangling during this time, Zhang Hong, who was in charge of diplomacy, and Zhuge Jin, who had recently defected, were all stationed in Sheyang, just to say that the Chen family father and son raised troops to echo, and attacked Zhang Jaw back and forth with the Jiangdong Army.

But the Chen family's father and son, who have always been at odds with Qingzhou and like to see the wind and rudder, don't know what medicine they have taken. Even if he really understood Xu Shu's defeat in Bingzhou, he did not take any hostile actions with Qingzhou.

Although Zhou Yu is young, his ability to understand people's hearts is not weak, and he knows that eighty percent of the Chen family's side can't be counted on.

Maybe it's because it's close, and it has a deep enough understanding of the strength of the Qingzhou Army, or maybe it's the role of the frontier opening strategy. The Chen family has now changed course and placed their bets on Qingzhou. Zhou Yu even suspected that if it weren't for Xu Shu's defeat, which made the overall situation confusing again, Guangling's army might have turned south and was ready to cross the river to attack Jiangdong.

This is not his cranky thinking, with the shrewdness of the Chen family's father and son, how can he not see that now is the moment when the role of Guangling's soldiers and horses can be brought into full play. If you miss this opportunity, with Guangling's troops, you won't be able to capture much benefit for the Chen family.

Since Guangling did not move, it meant that he was ready to surrender to Qingzhou. didn't immediately point the finger at Jiangdong, but was just worried about Qingzhou's failure and didn't want to do things desperately.

Sun Ce can't come back, Cao Cao can't count on it, Jiangxia and Changsha still have to leave some troops to guard against Liu Biao and Li Ru, and Zhou Yu can only maximize Liu Bei's role and quench his thirst.

As it turned out, Zhou Yu's decision was quite correct.

When he arrived at Zhuqiu, Zhang Jaw had already transferred fifty heavy catapults and smashed a big gap in the eastern wall of Zhuqiu City! If Zhou Yu arrives three or five days late, the Eight Achievements of Zhuqiu City will be broken.

For Sun Quan and others, Zhou Yu is a timely rain and a cool breeze in summer.

The appearance of reinforcements can not only enhance the strength and boost morale, but more importantly, with Zhou Yu taking over the command, the Jiangdong Army is not as passive as before.

Huang Gai and Han Dang are both experienced generals, but these two are far from being handsome, and it is no problem to train troops in peacetime and charge into battle in wartime, so it is difficult for them to command and dispatch alone. Zhou Tai is a pure fierce general, and Zhu Huan has some skills, but he is young after all, and unlike Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, who are righteous brothers, his prestige is not enough to convince the public.

The strategies brainstormed by these people, in front of Zhang Jaw's experience and Pang Tong's intelligence, are like children playing at home, and it is strange not to be beaten.

After Zhou Yu took over, the situation improved greatly. The Jiangdong Army changed its previous decline and gradually gained some color. In particular, Zhou Yu and Pang Tong each came up with their own tricks, and they also used the method of virtual and real to confuse the enemy and attack the enemy's wisdom warfare, adding a little brightness to this big war.

Overall, the Jaws still have the upper hand. But imagining that it was like before, it would be difficult to quickly overwhelm the Jiangdong Army, and the Jianghuai battlefield once again regained balance.

Jianghuai was at a stalemate, and the people who were paying attention to this big war turned their attention to Bingzhou and the Central Plains again, waiting with bated breath for the final outbreak of that one or more battles that would determine the final direction of the war.