At the suggestion of Jia Xu and Liu Ye, Cao Cao ordered Zhao Yan to supervise Xu Huang and other generals, and led 20,000 elites to ride in more cars, abandon their baggage, and rush to Huaidong lightly. Liu Ye took the initiative to ask for help, and was appointed by Cao Cao as a military advisor and accompanied the army.

In order not to let Liu Bei perceive his strategic intentions, Cao Cao pretended not to notice Liu Bei's strategy. Let the Huainan departments send scouts to closely observe the Feishui embankment, and let the soldiers of the various departments be careful that the fertilizer water suddenly bursts the embankment.

Under such circumstances, 20,000 elite sergeants, under the command of Zhao Yan and Xu Huang, rushed lightly to Huaidong, making the illusion of rescuing Picheng.

When he arrived at Ping'a to camp, Liu Ye took out the edict granted by Cao Cao and summoned Zhao Yan, Xu Huang and other generals.

In the big tent, Zhao Yan sat in the main seat, and Xu Huang, Liu Ye and others sat on the left and right.

"All the generals have arrived, please Liu Junshi to convey the king's military order." Zhao Yan said.

"Good!"

Liu Ye took out Cao Cao's edict from the bag and said: "The king has an order, ordering us to give up supporting Xiapi, copy Huo Jun's back road instead, join forces with Zang Xuzhou, and capture and kill his troops. ”

"Give up supporting Xiapi?"

Hearing this, the generals began to talk to each other, and they had quite objections to this military order.

Xu Huang looked suspicious and said: "Huo Jun took a boat into Surabaya, entered the siege of Picheng, and in case of emergency, the boat went down the river, advancing and retreating calmly, how should our army intercept Huo Jun's back road?" ”

Among Jia Xu's strategies, it seemed feasible to suggest that Cao Cao take Huo Jun by surprise and encircle and suppress him. But there is not much room for maneuver, otherwise Liu Bei, Pang Tong, including Huo Jun himself, would not dare to go north to Surabaya easily.

Huo Jun's partial army was not afraid of Cao's encirclement and suppression, and dared to fight in Qingxu, the core of which was that Huo Jun marched by boat. And in order to ensure the smooth back road, Huo Jun ordered his henchman Xu Sheng to sit in Huaiyin. Under such an arrangement, even if Cao Cao had an army of 100,000 to encircle and suppress, Huo Jun could easily retreat by boat.

However, there is no perfect strategy in the world, and it is precisely Liu Ye, a native of Jianghuai, who has found an operational plan.

In the puzzled eyes of everyone, Liu Ye coughed a few times and said: "Huaidong is sparsely populated and there are few enemy soldiers. What Huo Jun relied on was nothing more than the benefit of the boat. If you can cut off the boat and retreat, you can break Huo Jun's minions! ”

Wen Ji sneered and said, "Broken boat retreat, could it be that the military division can make Surabaya dry up?" ”

"Haha!"

Hearing this, the generals laughed a lot, and thought that it was difficult to achieve a retreat from the boat.

Liu Ye was not in a hurry, and said: "Even if Ye has the ability of the immortal family, he can't let Surabaya dry up." But it is not impossible to break the boat and retreat. ”

Saying that, Liu Ye sorted out his thoughts and said: "Surabaya goes out of Pengcheng, passes through Xiapi, and meets Huaishui in Sikou." The Surabay is narrow and wide, and the water flow is gradually slowing down, so if you want to prevent Huo Jun from withdrawing his army, it is better to camp in Sikou and block the waterway. ”

"When Surabaya was blocked, Huo Junzhou was difficult to enter the Huaishui. Our army is in the south, Zang Xuzhou is in the north, the king is in the west, Huo Jun's army is slightly strong, and he will also be the turtle in the urn, only to be captured! ”

"Clogging Surabaya?"

Xu Huang frowned and said, "During the rainy season, not only does Huaishui rise sharply, but Surabaya also rises. Now blocking Surabaya, there is no long-term success, I am afraid it will be difficult to achieve. If Huo Jun knows, he will lead the boat to withdraw quickly, and our army will waste all its achievements! ”

Usually it takes time to build a dam to flood the city with water. What about blocking Surabaya?

"Definitely!"

Liu Ye stroked his beard and said with a smile: "It's not to block Surabaya, but to block the waterway, making it difficult for boats to enter Huaishui." ”

"Although it is the rainy season today, Huo Jun built a river weir in Xiapi to accumulate Surabaya, so Surabaya has not risen sharply. The Surabaya River is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and the flow rate is gradually slowing. Our army can rush to Sikou lightly and camp under the river on both sides of the river. ”

"Use an iron lock to cross it, tie a wooden stake under it, and block the river, which can block the boat from entering the Huai. At the same time, the river channel was widened to divide the flow of Surabaya. Under the water level dropping sharply, how did the boat enter the Huai? ”

Then, Liu Ye stroked his beard and smiled lightly, and said: "The boats made by Huo Jun are protected from wind and waves, and most of the boats are pointed, and the draft is quite deep. In ordinary times, the boat passes in the ditch and the Yangtze River, not afraid of the wind and waves, and the traffic is smooth. But into the waters of Xuhuai, the river is wide and shallow, how can it be said that it is unimpeded? ”

Xu Huang and Zhao Yan glanced at each other and were surprised.

Liu Ye's trick is almost to grasp the details of the enemy situation in the waters of the enemy and us, if it were not for the local and familiar with the enemy situation, he would not have been able to come up with this strategy at all. Almost a lot of details are worn together, so there is such a strategy.

"A great military teacher!"

Xu Huang looked amazed and said, "Block the river and intercept the back road." When surrounded on three sides, although Huo Jun has the talent of the world, he is also limited, and the only thing is defeated! ”

Liu Ye bowed his head slightly, and said with a smile: "The back road is cut off, and Huo Jun can't be captured, but he can also break his department." Homeopathically went down to Huaidong, cooperated with the king, and threatened Jiangzuo. When Liu Bei learned that Huo Jun was defeated, he had to retreat to Hefei. Hundreds of miles of Jianghuai land returned to the rule of our army. ”

In the strategy jointly formulated by Jia Xu and Liu Ye, a counteroffensive plan was created for Cao Cao. Yu Xu Huai defeated Huo Jun, Zhao Yan and Xu Huang took advantage of the situation to go south, swept Huaidong, and threatened Jiangzuo.

Although Liu Bei raised a large army, after the Huaidong flank was lost, he had no choice but to retreat to Hefei and aid Jiangdong in the east. At that time, Cao Cao took out his energy and focused on Huaiyin and Shouchun, which would lock Liu Bei to death in Jiangbei.

The Jianghuai population is withered, and if one side wins an army, it can sweep hundreds of miles. For example, Huo Jun went down to Hefei and swept Huaidong and pushed the front to Huaishui. Only under the pressure of Qingxu's troops did they withdraw from the depth of more than 100 miles and retreat to Sheyang.

Zhao Yan pondered for a while and asked: "Since the king has handed over the edict and the military advisor, now the military strategy should be asked to explain in detail." ”

"Good!"

Liu Ye got up and walked to the map, pointed to Sikou, and said: "Huo Jun ordered Xu Sheng to guard Huaiyin in order to prevent Huaidong from being lost. Rushing to Sikou today, beware of Xu Sheng's detection. Therefore, our army should ride lightly, camp at Sikou at night, and block the river overnight, so as not to be detected by Xu Sheng. By the dawn of the day, although Xu Sheng raised troops to attack, he was not worried because of the small number of soldiers. ”

"Good!"

"The military division has been arranged, and I and the generals should follow the king's order to rush to Sikou and block the river overnight." Zhao Yan replied.

Under Liu Ye's arrangement, the Wei army, which stopped at Ping'a, adjusted its direction, diverted its route to the east, traveled day and night, and attacked Sikou lightly.

There are two or three hundred miles from Sikou to Ping'a, and the car rides on behalf of the traveler, and travels lightly. Two days later, at dusk, rushed to the area around Sikou. In order not to arouse the vigilance of the soldiers of Huaiyin City, which was twenty or thirty miles away from Sikou, the Wei soldiers rested on the spot.

At nightfall, under the command of Zhao Yan, Xu Huang, Wen Ji and others, the Wei army rushed to Sikou. Fortunately, the sky is beautiful, the moon and stars are scarce, and according to the previous plan, the civil engineering work began.

On both sides of Surabaya, thousands of fires dispersed the night, and 20,000 Wei soldiers were distributed on both sides, and in the shouts of the officers, they did not even set up a camp, and threw themselves into the work of blockading the river.

"Quick!"

"Lift the rope onto the pontoon!"

In the urging sound, the iron locks were connected first, and they had to be more than 400 meters long. Then more than 200 soldiers carried the iron lock onto the pontoon bridge, walked through the Huaishui in the wobbling of the pontoon bridge, and traversed the iron lock on the east and west banks.

There are many iron locks carried by large armies when they go out to fight, such as for building barracks or for camping on the spot. Of course, the quality of the iron lock in ancient times was not as good as that of later generations, after all, under the fierce fire, the iron lock could also be burned out.

The pontoon bridge is not a wooden bridge, and the reason why it can be easily built is due to the contribution of the boat. The boat is connected with a rope, and then the boat is connected to the two banks, and the wooden planks are laid on the surface of the boat, which instantly forms a pontoon bridge that can cross the river.

The iron lock connected the two banks, and the Wei soldiers put the removed wheels into the iron locks, and more than 100 wheels were tied to the iron locks several hundred meters long.

Placed in the water, the iron lock and the wheel sink slightly under the river water, the ink-colored chains, and the wood-colored wheels loom in the waves of the Huai water.

In the sound of the trumpet, more than 100 strong soldiers held hammers to firmly nail the iron locks on both sides of Sikou.

After a busy night, three iron cables crossed the surface of the Surabaya water, and rudimentary camps were set up on both sides of Surabaya.

Hundreds of trees were piled up on the riverbank, and the next step was to nail wooden stakes to the bottom of the river to stop the boats from entering the river.

After dawn, the whereabouts of the Wei army at the mouth of Surabaya were discovered by scouts and reported to Xu Sheng in Huaiyin City.

After hearing the news, Xu Sheng led more than 100 of his cronies to the south bank of Surabaya by boat to wait and see the situation.

Looking at the iron cable that had been built across Surabaya overnight, and the Wei pawns stationed on both sides of the river, Xu Sheng was both shocked and annoyed.

Adjutant General Zhang Ba said in a panic: "General, the enemy crosses the river with iron locks, and sets up hidden piles under it, and the army is stationed on both sides of Surabaya, so this is a move to block the river." The army of the governor is still in Xiapi, and the road will be blocked in the future, what should I do? ”

The Wei pawn on the north bank saw Xu Shengzhou, and Wen Jitong rode out of the camp, and the cavalry galloped by the river, showing off his might there.

"Boom!"

Seeing that Xu Sheng was embarrassed, and in anger, he slammed the railing with his fist, and the blood on his fist was dripping under gravity.

"Did the general raise the elite soldiers in Huaiyin City, go up by boat, and break the iron locks to protect the general's retreat."

Zhang Ba clenched the hilt of his sword and said anxiously: "If you sit idly by, our army will be destroyed, and your life will be in danger." ”

Zhang Ba, a native of Lujiang County. When Huo Jun recruited troops in Jiangzuo, Zhang Ba led the villagers to serve and followed Huo Jun to fight for more than ten years. Seeing that his general's back road was cut off, he was very anxious.

Xu Sheng looked at the thousands of bows and crossbows on the riverside, gritted his gums, and said, "The enemy has been prepared for intercepting the mouth of Surabaya. Last night, he led the troops to run to, crossed the river with iron locks, bows and crossbows, and cavalry were complete, and now he led the troops to attack, not only did my soldiers and soldiers suffer serious damage, but also it was difficult to protect Huaiyin City. ”

Zhang Ba pounded the mast, looked at Xu Sheng and pleaded: "The general has always been reused by the governor, and now the situation is like this, what should the general do with it?" ”

Xu Sheng forced himself to calm down and said, "The Governor's headquarters is far away from Sikou, and the army is alone in the north. Now send the cavalry to the north, pass the information of Sikou to the governor, and let the governor decide. The sergeants of our unit are stationed in Huaiyin, which not only threatens the enemy army in Sikou, but also reinforces the capital governor, and cannot be moved lightly. ”

In addition, he ordered the soldiers to march westward and spread the news of the battle to the king. Let the king make a plan and send troops east to support. Recently, the sergeant was ordered to attack and harass by boat to delay its progress. If the two sides of the strait are fortified, the way back to the governor will be completely cut off. ”

Then, Xu Sheng paced on the deck and said, "The current situation is not a dead end for the Governor. If the governor is willing to give up his boat to attack, or lead his cavalry to the south, he also has the hope of saving his life, but the army is difficult to protect! ”

"That's all there is to it!"

Zhang Ba drew his sword and split the boat, and sighed loudly.

On the bank of Surabaya, Xu Huang saw the boat carrying Xu Sheng retreating and asked, "What is the military advisor?" ”

Liu Ye stroked his beard and smiled, and said: "Huo Jun will know that our army will reach Sikou in the near future, and now we should quickly block the river, so as not to prevent Huo Jun from digging through the river weir and dredging Surabaya, and the boat will rush into Huaishui by the water potential." ”

"Recently, Xu Sheng will lead the sailors to attack and disturb the pontoon bridge, and General Lao Gongming will lead the sergeants to meet Xu Sheng, and the water thieves must not interfere with our army to block the river."

"No!"

(End of chapter)