Cao Xiu looked outside the hall anxiously.
Under Cao Xiu's anxious gaze, a panicked figure of a scout appeared in the hall.
Seeing the scout returning, Cao Xiu quickly asked him:
"How is the military situation?"
Cao Xiu's voice was a little hoarse.
The hoarse voice, coupled with Cao Xiu's bloodshot eyeballs, proved the fact that Cao Xiu had not had a good night's sleep during this period of time.
And all this is because of that scholar-general named Lu Xun!
Just some time ago, Cao Xiu suddenly received an urgent report from the Chaohu sentry post, saying that an elite Wu army had made a surprise attack on the sentry post.
When he learned the news, Cao Xiu was stunned for a while.
Chaohu is the only way for Wu Jun's navy to go north to Hefei. Because of this, he will set up a sentry post at Chaohu.
The Wu Army's sudden surprise attack on the Chaohu sentry post undoubtedly directly illustrates one thing - that is, the Wu Army is likely to launch a large-scale military operation against Hefei next.
This was something Cao Xiu had not expected before!
Previously, Cao Xiu judged Lu Xun as a timid scholar-general who was afraid of getting into trouble, and he despised him in his heart.
Under his contempt, Cao Xiu believed that Lu Xun would not rashly lead his army to attack the fortified city of Hefei.
It was precisely because of this judgment that Cao Xiu transferred most of the elites from inside and outside Hefei to Guanzhong to resist the invasion of the Han army.
But what Cao Xiu didn't expect was that just after he transferred the elite troops from Huainan to Guanzhong, Lu Xun seemed to suddenly change and began to show his fangs to him.
At present, Hefei's troops are empty, and the Wu army is approaching step by step. How can this not make Cao Xiu worried?
Facing Cao Xiu's inquiry, the scout quickly replied: "A large number of Wu army warships have appeared on the Shishui River!"
After hearing the scout's report, Cao Xiu's mood changed from worried to anxious.
Hefei is located next to Shishui, and a large number of Wu army warships appeared on Shishui, which means that in a few days at most, the Wu army can launch a fierce attack on Hefei.
As early as the news of the Wu army's surprise attack on the Chaohu sentry post spread, people in Hefei, which was weakly defended, began to panic.
Under such circumstances, once the Wu army launches a fierce attack on Hefei City, can he rely on the old, weak and remnant soldiers with shaky morale to defend the fierce attack of nearly 100,000 Wu troops?
This is something that doesn't require much thought.
After realizing this, Cao Xiu, who felt that a disaster was imminent, slapped his palm on the desk in front of him angrily.
Cao Xiu stood up and roared at the deputy general standing beside him: "Why hasn't Jiang Xia Wenpin arrived with his army yet?
Is he going to sit back and watch Hefei be lost?"
As soon as he found out that Wu Jun wanted to go north, Cao Xiu sent this military information to Luoyang in an expedited manner.
Cao Rui's edict was also rushed to Cao Xiu's hands soon after.
In the edict, Cao Rui asked Cao Xiu to persist for a while, and he had already issued an edict to ask Wenpin, the prefect of Jiangxia, to support Hefei.
It had been several days since Cao Rui's edict reached Cao Xiu.
However, in the past few days, Cao Xiu has never seen the appearance of reinforcements.
Although Hefei was in danger, it was Cao Xiu's decision-making mistake.
But as a clan member of Cao Wei, how could Cao Xiu admit his mistakes easily?
He naturally turned his impatience and self-blame into anger and vented it on Wenpin.
Seeing Cao Xiu getting furious, the lieutenants on the side were so frightened that they didn't even dare to express their anger.
The deputy general's cowardly behavior made Cao Xiu even more angry.
He glared at the deputy general and said, "Send an envoy to urge us again.
Let the envoy tell Wenpin that if Gu does not see Wenpin's reinforcements within three days, Gu Shi will go to court to impeach him for delaying the march."
Cao Xiu is a clan member of Cao Wei, and although Wenpin has been guarding the border for more than ten years, he is still a surrendered general.
Under this status gap, Cao Xiu believed that his threat would definitely frighten Wenpin.
After hearing what Cao Xiu said, the deputy general bowed to Cao Xiu and ran out to deliver the order.
If you calculate carefully, this is the fourth time in the past few days that Cao Xiu has sent an envoy to Jiangxia to urge Wenpin to come for help.
It seems that Cao Xiu is really in a hurry.
...
On the land of Huaisi with crisscrossed water systems, a Wei army, led by a veteran general, was rapidly advancing towards the city of Hefei.
This veteran was none other than General Wei Hou and Jiangxia Prefect Wenpin.
Wenpin, who was riding on his horse, was looking in the direction of Hefei. Even though he was hundreds of miles away from Hefei and couldn't see anything at the moment, his face still showed an impatient look.
Being impatient has always been a big taboo for generals, and this kind of taboo was something that would not be violated in the past with the ability of civil servants.
But today is different from the past.
Wenpin received Cao Rui's edict a few days ago.
As soon as he received Cao Rui's edict, Wenpin was surprised at how quickly the situation in Huainan changed. On the other hand, Wenpin immediately began to gather troops.
But in a hurry, how could it be so easy to assemble the troops?
Moreover, as the governor of Jiangxia, Wenpin had to arrange the defense of Jiangxia County before leaving.
Due to various delays, Wenpin led his army from Jiangxia towards Hefei on the early morning of the third day after receiving Cao Rui's edict.
The tone of Cao Rui's edict was very urgent, which made Wenpin anxious to get to Hefei as soon as possible.
But even though Wenpin's marching speed was not slow, Wenpin still encountered three waves of envoys sent by Cao Xiu along the way.
Almost every day, there will be a wave.
Although the content of Cao Xiu's passwords brought by each wave of messengers did not change significantly, the wording became more and more severe.
Cao Rui's eagerness and Cao Xiu's severity caused a great psychological burden on Wenpin.
In this psychological state, Wenpin led his army and rushed outside Lu'an City.
Lu'an, as a county under Lujiang County, is only a few hundred miles away from Hefei.
It took less than three days for Wenpin to lead his army to the city of Hefei.
In the past few days, Wenpin has been leading his army towards Hefei. This high-intensity marching method not only exhausted Wenpin's sergeants, but also Wenpin.
Therefore, Wenpin thought of leading his army to rest for a while outside Lu'an City to recover some physical strength.
Of course, more importantly, once the Wei army crosses Lu'an, it means that the Wei army has officially entered the Huaisi waters with dense water networks.
Wenpin, who has guarded Jiangxia for many years, knows that for the Wei army who are not good at water warfare, areas with closed water networks are one of the terrains they fear most.
Even though he was very anxious, at this moment Wenpin still maintained the quality of a famous general and could make accurate judgments.
It is a pity that the current situation does not allow for any delay in hiring.
Just after Wenpin issued the order to set up camp outside Lu'an City, Cao Xiu's fourth wave of envoys came to Wenpin's envoys.
This time, Cao Xiu's lieutenant arrived in person.
And Cao Xiu's lieutenant was none other than Xiahou Ba.
When Xiahou Ba, a clan relative, came to Wenpin's army, he saw that Wenpin stopped marching and instead chose to camp outside Lu'an City for repairs. This made Xiahou Ba very angry.
It is obviously only a few hundred miles away from Hefei, why not rush to Hefei in one go?
Xiahou Ba found Wenpin, and after repeating Cao Xiu's harsh words to Wenpin, he himself said threateningly to Wenpin:
"Does the general want to lead his troops to respect himself?"
In terms of status and qualifications, Xiahou Ba was far inferior to Wenpin.
But he had a good father, so Xiahou Ba dared to say anything in front of Wenpin.
And when the words "carry troops with self-respect" fell into Wenpin's ears, he was frightened to death.
There is no general who is not afraid of these four words.
Wenpin immediately explained to Xiahou Ba earnestly.
But no matter how he explained it, Xiahou Ba's attitude was very firm - that is, to raise troops as soon as possible and continue to advance towards Hefei City.
After expressing his firm attitude to Wenpin, Xiahou Ba turned around and returned to Hefei.
He could point out Wenpin's "dereliction of duty" to his face, but after all, he had no command authority over Wenpin's army, let alone the right to supervise Wenpin.
However, Xiahou Ba was not worried. He knew that after he clearly relayed Cao Xiu's words, Wenpin would definitely make a rational choice.
Sure enough, after Xiahou Ba left the military camp, Wenpin looked up at the sky and sighed three times.
But in the end, for the safety of himself and his family, Wenpin chose to let the army set off.
After all, if he advances abruptly, he may indeed be ambushed by the Wu army, but if he does not advance immediately, he will definitely be liquidated by Cao Xiu within a few days.
Which of the two consequences is more serious is easy to choose.
The Wei army from Jiangxia had not rested long before they set off again under Wenpin's order. This naturally caused dissatisfaction among many Wei soldiers.
If we had known this, why would we stop and set up camp?
Isn't this a waste of energy?
The dissatisfaction of many Wei troops invisibly affected the military morale of the Wei troops.
It's not that Wenpin couldn't notice this, it's just that he couldn't help it.
At the moment, we can only hope to reach Hefei as soon as possible, and then let our troops have a good rest.
But Lu Xun did not give Wenpin this opportunity.
Just after Wenpin led his army across Lu'an City and entered the area crisscrossed by water, an elite Wu army naval force appeared behind the Wei army and completely cut off the Wei army's food route.
In addition to cutting off the Wei army's food route, under Lu Xun's instructions, General Han Dang led the Wu army's navy to land at a port between Lu'an and Hefei, and then blocked Wenpin's inevitable march to Hefei.
On the way.
Thanks to the convenience of water transportation, it did not take much time for the Wu army to complete this encirclement military operation.
Wenpin soon learned the news from the scouts.
When he learned that the ominous premonition in his heart came true, Wenpin's brain went into a shutdown for a while.
At this moment, Wenpin understood why Lu Xun sent troops to occupy the entire Lujiang River in the first place, and why he chose to send troops to Hefei in April.
Because once they occupy the entire Lujiang River, it means that the Soochow navy can move freely and freely in the water system around Hefei.
And April is the period when the spring floods of the Huaisi River system arrive. During this time period, the convenience of Wu Jun's naval march will be maximized, and they can almost come and go without a trace.
To occupy the entire Lujiang River is to create favorable geographical conditions, and to choose to send troops to Hefei in April is to create favorable weather conditions.
Now that the time and place are favorable, the last thing Wu Jun has to do is to make peace.
That is to say, swallow his support army to complete a heavy blow to the morale of Hefei's army!
The troops are weak and their morale has been severely damaged. Can Hefei be defended?
Wenpin, who was aware of Lu Xun's overall plan, looked pale as he saw the large number of Wu troops appearing dozens of miles ahead.
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This chapter has been completed!