Zhou Yu was about to save Xiling, but Liu Qi hurriedly stopped him, saying General, you have a great credit for breaking Cao Bing, and you are tired, so it is better to leave the matter of rescuing Jiangxia to our brothers. Zhou Yu was still hesitating, Liu Pan secretly kicked Liu Qi, and then gave his hand: "What my brother said is true, but although Cao's army retreated, it was not far away, and the defense of Jiangling City should not be neglected." Wujiu Town is here, the geography is familiar, and it is appropriate to stay, only to work hard General Zhou. ”

After the meeting, Liu Qi quietly asked Liu Pan, why did you let Zhou Yu save Xiling? He made such a great achievement, and his prestige soared, so he was afraid that Huang Zu would not be able to suppress it, if he took the opportunity to annex Jiangxia, how would it be good? Liu Pan said that I was also worried about this, but what I was more worried about was that once you and I left Jiangling to save Jiangxia, Zhou Yu took the opportunity to control the entire Jiangling City in his own hands, wouldn't it be worse? It's a big deal, we don't want Jiangxia, Jiangling can't be lost!

After all, Liu Pan has been guarding Jiangling for a long time, this is his basic plate, how can he rest assured that Zhou Yu will stay in the city alone?

So early the next morning, Zhou Yu led 30,000 Jiangdong soldiers to board the ship and go down - he originally wanted to ask the Liu brothers to borrow some men, but Liu Qi politely refused on the grounds that it was also important to garrison Jiangling. Zhou Yu said that Cao Cao's morale has fallen, even if he comes to fight Jiangling now, with the strict defense of the city, and the protection of boats and boats on the river, there are more than 10,000 people is enough to guard for a month, I don't believe that Cao Cao's grain and grass can be eaten for so long, and there is no point in keeping more soldiers. However, the Liu brothers resolutely refused to allow it, and left Guan Yu's subordinates in Jiangling City and were not allowed to take them away.

Zhou Yu had no choice but to propose Jian yì, saying that once I fought with Cao Cao in Jiangxia. The news came. Then you will send troops north to attack Dangyang. For me to contain the Western Front, Liu Qi casually agreed.

Although Zhou Yu reacted quickly, after all, the waterway was tortuous and long, but he still failed to block Cao Cao between the Han River and the Zhuanshui. Huang Zucai and Cao Bing had a small battle outside the city, and Zhou Yu's sailors arrived, that is, they went down the river bank. It protects the horns of Xiling City. Cao Ren did not dare to move, so he had to set up a camp to wait for Cao Cao's arrival.

Immediately, Cao's 90,000 troops and Huang Zu and Zhou Yu's 50,000 troops began a series of fierce battles. The difference in numbers between the two sides is not very large, especially the southern army has cities and river boats to rely on, specially defended, Cao Cao attacked for seven or eight days, although the losses were heavy, but he was not able to inflict heavy losses on the enemy, seeing that the army was running out of food and grass, but could only call in vain.

Good at this time. Gradually, I felt that the counteroffensive in Jiangling City had weakened - to put it bluntly, Huang Zu was a little unable to work. Cao Cao didn't know that it was Huang Jie's persuasion letter that worked. There was still a contradiction between Huang Zu and Zhou Yu, so the generals were summoned to discuss, and everyone said that then we will put the main direction of attack on the southern front, as long as Zhou Yu is repulsed, there will be no rescue outside Xiling, but it can be drummed down.

They didn't know that Zhou Yu's army had also been reinforced at this time - Wen Ping led the army south to Changsha, threatened Changsha to defend Han Xuan, and finally forced Han Xuan to send troops to the north to help, so Wen Zhongye and Huang Hansheng led a total of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and successively drove to the Yangtze River. Zhou Yu sent a message to Huang Zu, saying that in the next few days, you should take it easy, and when you encounter the attack of the Cao army, you just need to hold on, and you don't have to fight back, and when the Cao army will send the main force to me, you will suddenly dispatch and copy the back road.

Huang Zu read the letter and smiled, which is exactly what he wanted. On the one hand, his son Huang Jie's letter of persuasion was sent over, and he was quite shaken in his heart, and on the other hand, he was able to direct the pressure to the southern front, so that his own Jiangxia soldiers were less damaged, so why not do it? As for whether they will attack the rear road of Cao's army in the future - let's talk about it when the situation comes.

Huang Zu has been guarding Jiangxia for more than ten years, and in essence, he is like the dead Zhang Xian, he is a small separatist force under Liu Biao's big secession forces, but Zhang Xian is against Liu, and Huang Zu is attached to Liu. Liu Biao was attacked by Cao Cao, out of many years of kindness, Huang Zu must help guard, but if he wants to bury Liu Biao, or save Liu Biao's life with his life, he will not do it if he kills his head. Moreover, his son Huang Shot is still in Cao Cao's hands, and when the north and south are obscure, he should support the army and defend it, and confront the Cao army.

Because Huang Jie's letter had already brought Cao Cao's promise, if he was willing to give up Liu Biao and bow down to his vassals, he would allow him to grow in Jiangxia.

For the separatist forces in various places, Cao Cao must be leveled one by one, but because of the difficulty and ease of the process, the order can be set - to put it bluntly, first pinch the big ones, then destroy the small ones, pinch the disobedient ones first, and then destroy the ones that are still deferential. In the original history, the land of Qingxu was semi-independent of the central power for a long time, but because of his obedient attitude, Cao Cao tried to tolerate it as much as possible when the foreign enemy was still there - Zang Ba was tolerated until Cao Cao hung up, and then Cao Pi seized his military power and recalled the central government.

If Jing Shun was killed, Cao Cao naturally hoped to pinch Huang Zu by the way, but now the progress is not smooth, and Jiangxia has become a strategic point blocking Xiangyang and Huainan, so Cao Cao made a certain compromise and asked Huang Zhu to make a wish to Huang Zu and ask him to defect in time. If Jingzhou is pacified and Liu Biao is destroyed, is Huang Zu still enough to suffer? If you want to pinch it out in minutes, it's not a matter of minutes?

Huang Zu is not stupid, he is naturally afraid that Cao Cao will cross the river and tear down the bridge, and it is better to follow the old master than to follow the old master - they all know each other - so he has been hesitating, but on the surface he is resolute in the main battle. If Cao Cao attacked Jiangling for a long time, and the southern army was trapped and had no power to counterattack, perhaps Huang Zu would surrender as soon as Huang Jie's letter went, and now Cao Cao suffered a big setback under Jiangling City, so Huang Zu continued to be cautious and continued to wait and see.

Of course, wait and see, the battle that should be fought must be fought; Fighting a war is a war, and it is best to be able to let others carry it in front, pick up the leaks yourself, and preserve your strength.

So Huang Zu replied to Zhou Yu: "It's like the king's life." ”

In fact, as long as Zhou Yu has a deep ditch and a high base, stubborn defense, and consumes a little more time, Cao Cao's grain and grass will not continue, and he will inevitably retreat, but Zhou Yu can't afford it anymore. A few days ago, Sun Quan suddenly sent the cavalry captain Yan Jian to come, saying that Xun led the Youzhou Navy Division to the south, and had broken Yin and Cheng, ravaging Huiji, Sun Quan was forced to collect his troops and rush back to Wu County, and also asked Zhou Yu to end the battle in Jingzhou and quickly withdraw to guard his hometown. Zhou Yu was shocked on the spot: "Is it unreasonable? An You sent a boat south from Youzhou, a thousand miles away and can attack people? ! ”

Yan Jian said that if there is no definite news, Wu Hou will not order you to find an opportunity to withdraw from the army - I have already inquired clearly, it is more than 40 sea ships and 7,000 soldiers in the Xun Department, and Yu Lu has also looted the sea ships, sailors, and soldiers in Deng, Hai, Xu and other prefectures, which is even more double, taking the islands outside the mouth of the Yangtze River as the forward base, and it has been several trips back and forth between Wu Hui. Wu Hou was preparing grain and grass supplies, and recruited new soldiers to be transported by ship to support your Jingzhou campaign, but the main port was destroyed by Shi Xun, and he was forced to open the treasury for relief, and he was increasingly overstretched. In addition, Lu Su is still in Pengli, attacking from time to time, harassing our grain road, general, you are in Jingzhou, which is equivalent to becoming a lone army, if you are frustrated, then Dongwu will die. So since you have won a big battle and destroyed the prestige of the old thief, it is better to accept it when you see it, and find an opportunity to flash people quickly.

Zhou Yu hurriedly replied to Sun Quan, saying that once Cao Cao attacked Jiangxia, there would be no place for us in Jiangbei, and it would be difficult for Jingzhou to defend for a long time. So I can't retreat at this time, I have to force Cao Cao back to the north completely.

Therefore, Zhou Yu was also anxious, and did not dare to fight with Cao Cao for a long time - especially the grain and grass transported from Jiangling was getting less and less, and the Liu brothers' explanation for this was that there were too many hukou to abandon Xiangyang and move south, and the Jiangling treasury was not sufficient, so Zhou Yu was very considerate - so he was anxious to have a decisive battle with Cao Cao and completely solve the Jingzhou problem.

Cao Cao, naturally, also received the news that Xun Zhuo had effectively harassed Wu Hui, and he knew that Zhou Yu would have to withdraw sooner or later. If their own grain is sufficient, they can wait until Zhou Yu retreats, and then take Jiangxia, the problem is that the original 200,000 troops have eaten almost the grain stored in Nanyang and Nanjun, so they have to travel thousands of miles from the Central Plains, and the harvest in the Central Plains this autumn is not very good, Xun Yu has written many times to complain, in case there is a small problem in the transportation link one day, the army is disheartened, I am afraid that it will be poisoned by Zhou Yu. Therefore, even if we don't count the losses, we have to speed up the attack!

This is also another type of "one is willing to fight, one is willing to suffer", so Zhou Yu simply wrote a letter to Cao Cao, asking for a decisive battle on a certain day, Cao Cao picked up the pen, drew a circle on the war book casually, and then handed it over to bring back. After the general discussion, everyone said that it was not difficult to defeat Zhou Yu, but it was not easy to hit or even annihilate it - they had their backs to the Yangtze River, and there were river boats cruising, and they would go directly to the boat and go far away when they saw that the shape was not good, and when we turned around and went to Siege Xiling, I am afraid that they would go ashore. Cao Cao couldn't help but sigh: "As Hongfu said in the past, if there is no water master, it will be difficult to determine Jiangnan." ”

Strictly speaking, the Cao family is not without a water army, but the scale is too small. Cao Cao once wanted to summon Lu Su to lead the boat division to the west and attack Zhou Yu, but the problem was that the Jiangdong naval army was not all brought to Jingzhou by Zhou Yu, and Sun Quan's generals Chen Wu and Jiang Qin also led a detachment to patrol in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Moreover, the number of Lu Su's naval army is less than half of Zhou Yu's, not to mention that the southern army and the Jiangxia naval division help each other, so I am afraid that if the attack will not succeed, it will be broken, and the loss will be greater.

Cao Cao even thought about summoning Shixun to come - don't you harass Wu Hui, just drive the boat into the mouth of the Yangtze River, go upstream, and cooperate with Lu Su to calm Chen Wu and Jiang Qin first, isn't it? Fortunately, there were still a few people around him who understood, and told him that the structure of the sea boat and the river boat were different, and the draft was deep, so he might not be able to drive down the Yangtze River, so Cao Cao had to give up.

Therefore, Cao Cao discussed the battle against Zhou Yu the day after tomorrow, and set a strategy, he must sneak out of the surprise army, occupy the river bank, and cut off the enemy's retreat, so as to win the victory! (To be continued......)