Chapter 223 Fire on Water, Surrounded
There was a high ground on the upper reaches of the Han River more than ten miles away from Cao Ren's army, and at this time, a young general was standing on this high ground.
This young general is Guan Xing, the second son of Guan Yu.
Guan Xing held a command flag in his hand, and his focused eyes were constantly staring in the downstream direction.
Because he was anxious about waiting, Guan Xing took out a piece of herbal medicine from his arms and chewed it in his mouth.
As soon as the herbal medicine was taken into his mouth, the bitter taste instantly filled Guan Xing's mouth.
But it was this bitter taste that stabilized Guan Xing's mood.
Guan Xing was frail and sickly since he was a child, so he developed the habit of carrying medicinal herbs with him.
In today's world, many herbal medicines can be taken orally directly.
It was precisely because Guan Xing was frail and sick that when assigning tasks to the generals, Mi Yang paid special attention to Guan Xing and asked him to take charge of a very important task that did not require rushing.
As long as Guan Xing completes this task, his contribution in this battle will not be less.
Guan Xing knew how much Mi Yang cared about him, so he couldn't live up to Mi Yang's expectations.
On this high ground, there is also a simply made tent that can accommodate thousands of soldiers.
While Guan Xing was chewing the medicinal materials in his mouth, he stood on the high ground and looked far into the distance.
Finally, amidst Guan Xing's eager anticipation, a boat was speeding towards here.
When he saw the crossing appear, Guan Xing's face lit up with joy.
Soon after, the boat sailed at great speed and arrived at the Han River where Guan Xing was.
After the boat stopped, Guan Xing quickly got down from the high ground and walked towards the boat.
When Guan Xing walked near the boat, a messenger who got off the boat also came to Guan Xing.
The messenger bowed to Guan Xing, and then said to Guan Xing: "The general's words can be attacked!"
The messenger's words were very brief, and it was self-evident who he was referring to as general.
But when these six short words fell in Guan Xing's ears, a huge smile appeared on Guan Xing's face.
He has been waiting for these six words for a long time.
After receiving Mi Yang's order, Guan Xing no longer hesitated. He immediately ran to the high ground and waved the flag in his hand.
Under the scorching sun, Guan Xing's actions were easily noticed by thousands of Han troops in the highlands and underground.
After thousands of Han troops saw Guan Xing's flag waving, a surprising scene soon appeared under the open high ground.
Under the command of their respective generals, thousands of Han soldiers were pushing many large rafts into the Han River.
Those large rafts are generally made of bundles of reeds.
Because reed can be found everywhere and is flammable, it is an excellent fire-making material in the eyes of the people.
Driven by thousands of Han troops, countless rafts were quickly pushed into the Han River.
But because one end of the raft was fixed to the shore by a rope, looking at the vast white reed raft, it looked like waves of turbulent white waves, floating up and down on the wide Han River.
Seeing that the Han army under the high ground had pushed all the reed rafts into the Han River.
Guan Xing no longer hesitated. Under his order, the Han soldiers took off their torches and lit the reed rafts.
The flames instantly burned quickly on the reed raft.
After hundreds of the first reed rafts were set alight, Guan Xing ordered the Han soldiers to cut the ropes holding the reed rafts.
The ropes were broken by the sharp blades, and the reed raft, which had long been unable to hold back, carried the flames and rushed downstream quickly.
Guan Xing stood on the high ground and felt a huge heat wave hitting him.
In Guan Xing's eyes, the space on the Han River in front of him seemed to be distorted by the flames.
Then the white heat wave headed towards the enemy troops downstream like countless wild horses.
This spectacular scene fell in Guan Xing's eyes, causing a flush to appear on his face.
His contribution today cannot be the same as last year. He is just responsible for cleaning the battlefield!
Water fortress, also known as "water fortress", does not refer to military camps on the water, but refers to fences and fortresses used for defense near or on the water.
Because of the miraculous creation of nature, rivers experience different landscapes when flowing through different places.
Some landforms are suitable for building water fortresses to prevent enemy naval forces from entering your own waters.
For example, in order to stop the naval forces from Jiangdong, Huang Zu set up water fortresses everywhere in Jiangxia to guard against the enemy.
Those water fortresses brought a lot of trouble to the Jiangdong Navy.
Even the Jiangdong naval forces, who were good at water warfare, were sometimes helpless against water strongholds, not to mention that most of the army led by Cao Ren were northern soldiers who were not good at water.
So when all the troops behind him entered the water stronghold, Cao Ren breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Cao Ren ordered some soldiers to stay at the first water stronghold to guard the army's retreat.
Then he safely led the remaining tens of thousands of troops and continued to follow Meng Da toward the next water village.
At the beginning, Shen Yi knew that he could not resist Cao Ren's army with a small number of soldiers, so he spent a lot of manpower and material resources and spent a long time building multiple water forts, which were separated on the main Han River outside the West City.
On both sides of each water village, there are many tents lined up, and in the port of the water village, there are many empty ships docked.
In the past, these camps were inhabited by soldiers stationed at the water village.
When Cao Ren continued to lead the army deeper, standing on the tall ship, he found that the Mi army camps on both sides of the bank were very quiet at this time. It seemed that most of the people inside had been transferred away by Meng Da.
Under the leadership of Meng Da's hundreds of warships, Cao Ren's army has jumped over several water fortresses and is heading towards the West City quickly.
According to the information Meng Da revealed to Xiahou Shang, today Mi Yang led most of the elites in Xicheng to inspect Fangling County.
Because of this, Meng Dacai suggested that Xiahou Shang set the date of attack on this day.
The news revealed by Meng Da represents the current emptiness of defense in West City.
Moreover, the West City was Mi Yang's administrative seat, and the families of Mi Yang and his generals and soldiers were all in the West City.
If Cao Ren can take advantage of this opportunity to capture Xicheng in one fell swoop, even if Mi Yang gets the news later and leads his army to return for reinforcements, Cao Ren, who has Mi Yang's army and his family members in hand, will still be in an invincible position.
It was precisely because of this consideration that after seizing several undefended water fortresses in succession, Cao Ren increasingly urged the rising army to advance quickly.
But the Han River is not a smooth river. The Han River leading to Xicheng is full of various reefs.
Even the course of the Han River is not straight and has many corners.
These are undoubtedly delaying the advancement of Cao Ren's army.
Who calls others many?
On the contrary, Meng Da's hundreds of warships were lightweight and familiar with the terrain, so after passing a water village, Cao Ren suddenly discovered that Meng Da in front of him had disappeared.
But at this time, he didn't suspect anything else. He just thought that Mengda's hundred warships were traveling too fast, which caused them to temporarily disappear.
So Cao Ren quickly sent out several search teams to look for Meng Da ahead.
But not long after Cao Ren sent out several ships, the general Chang Diao standing next to him noticed something was wrong.
Chang Diao had excellent eyesight, and he saw a huge wave appearing on the upper reaches of the Han River in front of him.
But because he didn't see it clearly, Chang Diao didn't pay much attention at first.
After all, the sky is clear today and there are no violent storms. How could huge waves suddenly arise on the wide Han River?
As the "big wave" got closer and closer, the soldiers on the warships at the forefront of thousands of Wei army warships actually felt that the air seemed to be getting hotter and stuffier.
But before the feelings in the hearts of those hundreds of soldiers emerged for a long time, a scene suddenly appeared in their eyes, causing a huge look of shock to appear on their faces.
Not far ahead, they saw countless rafts burning with flames suddenly appearing, heading towards them rapidly.
August and September are the months when the Han River flows at its strongest, and the countless rafts are flowing down the river from upstream.
Driven by the current of the Han River, the brisk reed rafts were like powerful crossbows fired on the water, mercilessly hitting them.
Not long after, hundreds of Wei army warships collided with countless reed rafts burning with raging flames.
After the collision, almost instantly, the hundreds of Wei army warships quickly burst into flames.
Reeds are inherently flammable, and in order to complete the battle, Mi Yang had been collecting various kinds of kerosene some time ago, and then smeared them on the reed raft.
Under such circumstances, even a ship with rawhide protection would ignite when encountering such a flame, not to mention most of the Wei warships without rawhide protection?
After the countless reed rafts ignited the hundreds of Wei warships, they continued to be driven by the water flow towards the thousands of Wei warships downstream at extremely fast speeds.
What's more important is that after hundreds of Wei warships were set alight, the Wei soldiers on the warships were busy putting out the fires.
Therefore, when the hundreds of Wei army warships lost their helms, they were carried by the current towards the large number of Wei army warships downstream.
When this scene happened, most of the Wei troops in the rear were instantly frightened and showed fear on their faces.
Naturally, this includes Cao Ren, who stands tall and can see far.
In the eyes of Cao Ren, Xia Houshang, Chang Diao and others on the building boat, a burning wall of fire seemed to appear out of thin air on the Han River in front of them.
Then this wall of fire came towards them at lightning speed.
This extremely impactful scene fell in the eyes of Cao Ren and others, making their faces full of fear.
Only then did Chang Diao realize that the white waves he had just noticed were not water waves, but white fire illuminated by the blazing sun.
Fire is in water, water brings fire!
But by this time, it was too late to understand this.
Frightened, Cao Ren anxiously issued orders for the thousands of warships behind him to disperse quickly.
It is a pity that thousands of Wei army warships were originally traveling against the current. Under the resistance of the Han River, thousands of Wei army warships could not disperse so quickly.
Before the thousands of Wei warships could make a move, the waves of fire that seemed to be able to burn out everything had already arrived where the thousands of Wei warships were.
Then this wave of fire roared and ignited many Wei warships wantonly.
When the thousands of reed rafts at the front crashed into the thousands of Wei army's warships, countless reed rafts with flames appeared not far away, quickly heading towards the thousands of Wei army's warships.
Mi Yang has been preparing for today for a long time.
In the past month, he ordered his army to cut down reeds for a whole month.
A total of millions of bundles of reeds were cut. With the raw materials of millions of bundles of reeds, the reed raft he prepared today will definitely be enough.
As many reed fire rafts rushed into the array of Wei's warships, thousands of Wei's warships soon burst into flames.
Perhaps the building ship is protected by rawhide, so it can block the flames to a certain extent.
But rawhide is not a panacea. Once the flames burn completely, no matter how good the building is, it will eventually be burned down.
Soon after, the wails and shouts of many Wei troops echoed across the Han River.
Perhaps the flames had not yet burned them, but as the flames were rapidly devouring their warships, the fear in their hearts inevitably grew rapidly.
Cao Ren, who was on the boat, listened to the shouts of many Wei troops and saw that in just a short time, most of the tens of thousands of troops he was proud of were trapped in the sea of fire. His heart felt like he had been hit hard.
A look of great pain appeared on his face.
At this moment, waves of high-pitched and soul-stirring drums began to sound on both sides of the flaming Han River Basin.
This drum sound is not a common drum sound among the Wei army. These drum sounds belong to the Wei army's mortal enemy-the Han army.
Encouraged by bursts of majestic drums, groups of neatly-organized Han troops began to emerge from the mountains and forests on both sides of the strait.
Many crimson military flags, representing the pride of the Han Dynasty, also appeared in this blazing world.
Not far away, there were many Han soldiers running towards here quickly.
Tens of thousands of Han troops, led by proud drums and flags, took firm and heavy steps, formed a murderous military formation, and surrounded both sides of the Han River Basin.
Among the many Han army flags, a battle flag with the word "mi" was raised the highest and most conspicuous.
Under the battle flag with the word "Mi", the figure of a young general wearing Mingguang armor appeared in front of Cao Ren and others.
Seeing that figure, Xia Houshang on the boat almost fainted with anger.
Didn't it say that Mi Yang was in Fangling?
Then who is this person!
Compared to Xiahou Shang's anger, although Cao Ren's face was full of pain at this time, he could still maintain some sense.
At this moment, he still didn’t know that he had fallen into a trap!
Mengda concluded that the will was false, the empty military strength in Xicheng was false, and everything was false.
All of this is a trap set up by Mi Yang.
Cao Ren's reaction could not be said to be unpleasant. When the flames surrounded his tens of thousands of troops, he had already begun to lead his trusted generals to move from the building to the stern.
Then Cao Ren used his own banner to summon more and more Wei troops.
Using his prestige to gather Cao Ren, thousands of Wei troops gradually gathered around his warship.
At this time, as the flames burned, the world was covered by smoke and dust.
Many Wei troops crowded with each other on the warship. What's more, many Wei troops jumped into the water for fear of being burned by the flames.
Under such circumstances, thousands of Wei soldiers were drowned and trampled to death.
And these tragic scenes kept falling into the eyes of the Wei generals headed by Cao Ren.
Then a look of grief appeared on all their faces.
These are all the elites of the Wei Dynasty!
But now they are dying in mysterious circumstances before they even come into contact with an enemy soldier.
What's going on?
Cao Ren glared at Mi Yang on the shore with his teeth cracking, his heart filled with hatred.
Thief! Thief!
But Cao Ren knew that now was not the time to be angry, the most important thing now was to break out of the encirclement as soon as possible.
The reason why Cao Ren can still remain calm is because he is not at the end of his rope yet.
He still has a way out.
Cao Ren began to personally command the thousands of Wei troops who gathered around him, and quickly retreated towards the rear.
There were Han troops on both sides of the bank. It would be very disadvantageous to force a landing at this time, so we could only go back the way we came.
But unfortunately, Cao Ren's move was clearly seen in Mi Yang's eyes on the shore.
Seeing Cao Ren trying to escape, Mi Yang frowned slightly.
He brought tens of thousands of troops to his home for no reason, and now he has to leave without saying goodbye, which shows no courtesy at all.
The last person he saw who was so rude was named Sun Quan.
You've come here, how can it be so easy to leave?
At Mi Yang's signal, the general beside Mi Yang waved the command flag in his hand.
Under the command of Ling Qi, tens of thousands of Han troops on both sides of the strait placed the arrows on their waists on their long bows.
Tens of thousands of arrows flashing with cold light were instantly aimed at the thousands of Wei troops who were about to flee.
This scene was also noticed by Cao Ren, who was observing the surrounding situation, and it was this scene that caused cold sweat to appear on his face.
He is no longer calm!
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!