Four days later, on the second day of July.

The bricks and stones on the walls at the top of Shouchun City are slightly broken and scattered, and the plasma flows down from the gap between the bays, solidifying and hanging on the wall, making it more and more scattered.

The Han army had been conducting two days of tentative siege, with arrows and stones flying, and several holes were slightly filled in the moat.

Wrapped in fresh livestock leather and covered with wet mud, the city-digging donkeys went straight to the city and dug up tons of rammed earth. In the end, they were inevitably destroyed by a huge amount of rolling wood stones, leaving a pile of lonely wreckage under the base of the city wall.

The soldiers and casualties on both sides were about hundreds of people, but the casualties of Cao's army were even less valuable. They were mainly temporary new men who threw away the wooden and rocks, and the Han army was full of real combat soldiers.

Who made the trench siege work not yet started? When the Han army tried to climb the city, they could not fully utilize the long-range firepower to suppress the walls.

The biggest casualties of Cao's army were composed of miscellaneous soldiers who had to poke their bodies out of the pile and throw wood and stone down.

Li Su asked the troops to use the old method to build many wooden structure houses and deploy them to the other side of the moat, allowing the crossbowmen to hide behind the wooden board and shoot arrows.

Unfortunately, with the technical confrontation between the offensive and defensive sides upgrading, the wooden array house has now been greatly reduced. It will be destroyed by the gravel rain of the slashed stone machine on the top of the Cao Jun city, and then the divine arm crossbowmen had to retreat.

What the Han army could do was to try to counter the catapult with the catapult.

But considering that Cao Ren was very cautious, the trenchers he used to attack the formation houses were deployed in relatively backward positions.

Therefore, it is almost impossible for the Han army to counterattack without entering the range of Cao's army.

Moreover, the siege of the city has only been more than ten days. The terrain of Shouchun City is high and the outside of the city on the south side is low-lying. Therefore, we need to build a marching tower in the south of the city to observe the troops and observe the artillery fire calibration. The height of the tower required to be built will be higher.

After comprehensive calculation, the construction volume of the building is far greater than that of other siege battles. It will take at least ten days to complete the work.

All this was expected. Li Su didn't put any expectations at all. She could only say that she had dates but no dates and stopped after being blocked.

So, after the test was clear, Li Su also started to deploy trench operations very alone, ready to spend two or three months to kill Cao Ren seriously.

Cao Ren knew the Han army's trench operations were excellent, and he tried to counterattack. He tried several times to send elite troops out of the city to attack the city at night.

Especially when Cao Ren was able to take advantage of this section of the Feishui River, he was actually controlled by the firepower at the city head on the west side of Shouchun City. Although the Han army's warships were sharp, they could not drive too close with the firepower at the city head.

Therefore, Cao Ren can always use the water gate on the west side of Shouchun. He wanted to open the door and release the boat and secretly transport some small troops, but the Han army could not stop him.

The Han army could only search carefully along the other side of the Feishui River, and guarded and intercepted the Cao army on the way to the Shaopi Dam.

Fortunately, Li Su and Zhuge Liang are both knowledgeable and capable of taking responsibility.

In this battle of Huainan West Road, the main generals they led include Gan Ning, Huo Jun and others.

Gan Ning was relatively reckless and good at attacking, so he handed over the main task of siege to Gan Ning.

Huo Jun is good at defending. In this life, Huo Jun did not gain any great achievements because Liu Bei's camp was smooth sailing. However, he had guarded many key points in Jingnan, ensuring that he had no worries for many years. He was a cautious person.

When Li Su was deploying troops, he entrusted Huo Jun with full authority to siege the northwest sides of Shouchun and prevent Cao Ren's small troops from leaving the city to sneak attack and destroy the dam.

Huo Jun did not disappoint his expectations, with a very strict defense. Within a few days, Cao Ren had two night attack suicide squads of hundreds of people, ensuring that the Shaopi Dam was safe and that the engineering troops constructed in the low-lying areas in the south of the city were absolutely safe.

After Cao Ren was destroyed two small elite soldiers, he realized that he could no longer be in trouble.

The Han army had just been surrounded for half a month, and its morale was high and its defense was cautious. Now is not a good time to destroy. We can only stick to it and wait for change. We hope that the Han army will relax and fall in a while.

After Cao Ren did not dare to move, Cao's army could only count on other friendly forces on the east and west sides to do the destruction of Shaobi, or they would have to give up.

Unfortunately, just a few days ago, Li Sujun got good news

Li Dian, who was originally located hundreds of miles west of Caoren, and the upper reaches of the Huai River is close to the mouth of Huai River and Ruhe River, is completely unavailable now.

As early as June 20, the main force of the Han army in Yuzhou, the unit led by Liu Bei, personally led by Liu Bei, completely captured Yancheng.

The main force of Cao Cao's army led by Cao Cao himself had retreated one after another before the city was broken, crossing the Rushui River to escape. Therefore, the troops behind the Cao army, which were finally surrounded and annihilated in Yancheng, were only a few thousand people.

Of course, starting from Zhuge Liang leaving Yingchuan and reporting to Li Su, during the Yingchuan stalemate in the past month, Liu Bei and Cao Cao each consumed nearly 10,000 and 20,000 to 30,000 losses, including injuries.

(Note: The battlefield loss ratio between Liu Bei and Cao Cao is far more than three. The total loss seems to be only three times, mainly due to the epidemic in the military during the scorching summer. Some patients can recover after resting for a few months)

The main battlefield is where the battleground is a place where the hard villages and battles are fought, and there is no detail to say. The food and food consumed is also another huge bill of millions of stones.

Now Cao Cao has retreated to Xuchang and Shangcai. After the loss of Yancheng, not only was the same county but most of Yingchuan County and some areas in northern Runan.

It can be said that all the counties between key nodes from Yancheng to Xuchang and Shangcai were taken away by Liu Bei, including Yingyang, Yingyin, Linying, Fanchang, and Dingying, Xiping, Zhaoling and Ruyang on the north side.

Because the source of troops was tense again, and Cao Cao discovered that after Liu Bei took down Yancheng, he actually did not attack along the river, but crossed the land route between Ruying and Ying and rushed to Ruyang, so Cao Cao had to guard it in three directions, and his troops became increasingly stretched.

In this case, Li Dian was sent to the hospital by Cao Cao's virus and directly from the mouth of the Ruhuai River, along the Rushui River, and further northward to Shangcai.

As a result, Li Dian's distance from Cao Ren's defense zone was further extended by more than 300 miles, which was equivalent to being unable to rely on his rescue at all.

Moreover, the impact of this matter was more than this. After Li Dian could not rescue Cao Ren, Cao's army completely gave up the land south of the Huai River and west of the Rushui River in Runan County.

The reason why Liu Bei did not rush to contact Li Su to communicate about these military progress was because the road was difficult to walk a while ago, and the messenger and scout had to go back to circle the Nanyang Canal, walk the Qingshui River from Wancheng, and the Han River flowed along the Yangtze River to Huainan.

Liu Bei felt that Li Su was fighting a siege anyway, so he was not very anxious, so he followed the normal communication rhythm of war reports every half a month. Only then did Li Su learn about the news ahead ten days after the capture of Yancheng.

Then, Li Su and Liu Bei were able to slightly distribute troops. Li Su went west and Liu Bei went south. It is estimated that half of Runan County could be eroded within half a month.

In addition, I heard that Guan Yu and Hebei stations have started fighting now, and their dispatch of troops was only half a month and more than a month later than Li Su.

It’s just that because the road is blocked, Li Su is not sure about the progress of other routes, but I heard that it was quite smooth and there was no surprise.

...

This kind of unified war that crushed the situation, good news always followed one after another. Just a few days ago, after getting good news from Liu Bei and completely isolated Li Dian, at the end of today's siege, Zhuge Liang finally brought Li Su good news in the direction of the east road.

As mentioned earlier, there were 40,000 Zhou Tai's troops on the east road. The original plan was to go north to attack Huaiyin along the Zhongdu River, Shanyangchi and Hangou old roads.

Zhou Tai sent troops only a few days later than the West Road, and there was also a response from Lu Fan, located in Guangling County, which should have been very smooth.

But in fact, the battle started. Except for the southern counties of Guangling County under the jurisdiction of Lu Fan, the southern part of Guangling County was soon restored. After passing Shanyang Lake, walking through Zhongdu Water, and entering Hangou, Zhou Tai's progress slowed down.

The main guard of Cao's army there was Cao Zhen, who was responsible for the defense of the entire Guangling and southern Xuzhou. He also had 10,000 or 20,000 troops, only half of Zhou Tai's. However, Cao Zhen also rushed to strengthen the men and expanded the army while defending along Hangou.

The biggest disadvantage of Zhou Tai's Eastern Route Army compared with the Western Route Army is that the pure artificial canal in the northern section of Hangou is too narrow and the large ship cannot pass through, so he can only attack with a ship like Cao Zhen.

Zhou Tai had to pull out the counties on both sides of the river one by one to protect the grain road. He dared not rely on the large ship and wide river like Li Su. The grain road on the river could not be interfered by the enemy or broken by small boats, and was pushed forward like a broken bamboo.

Cao Zhen resisted targetedly and harassed all kinds of things, and did not hesitate to pay any price, threatening Zhou Tai's liangdao at all possible, which was also a disguised reminder Zhou Tai to pay attention to this point and did not dare to make a rash move.

In this way, the attack on Huaiyin from Guangling on the eastern front was nearly a month slower than the western front. From this, it can be seen that Cao Zhen is a little bit good and seems to be better at elastic defense than Cao Xiu.

Of course, on the other hand, it was also because Zhou Tai lacked top strategists. He was just fighting according to the plan formulated by Zhuge Liang before the war, lacking adaptability, and not thoroughly implementing the plan, and there were unexpected situations.

Fortunately, all this was finally solved. The "tip plan" that Zhuge Liang had designed for Zhou Tai before sending troops was to allow Zhou Tai to take down Shanyangchi and block the mouth of the Hangou River, and then part of the large ships that could not be taken away from Hangou.

Take a detour back to the Yangtze River, flow out of the Yangtze River estuary, and then slightly away from the East China Sea coast for dozens of miles to ensure that the Cao army along the coast cannot see the Han army's mobility. Then this fleet can go north to the estuary of the Huaihe River and re-enter the Huaihe River. (The estuary of the Huaihe River at the end of the Han Dynasty is located north of Funing County, Yancheng City)

Then, you can go upstream and pass through Huaipu County (Lianshui) to threaten the rear of Huaiyin.

Of course, in the process of doing all this, we must cooperate with the establishment of camps in Shanyangchi-Shangou Southkou Shuizhai, and set up flags to make fires every day. We also pretend that all the main forces of the troops are still quarrel with Cao Zhen.

Zhuge Liang's plan was actually perfect, but unfortunately when Zhou Tai was implementing it, the scam was not in place. A few days after the Haiyong Dasha Ship troops retreated, Cao Zhen discovered an abnormal movement.

Zhou Tai had to transfer the troops back temporarily and attacked Cao Zhen in a fight, which made Cao Zhen mistakenly think that this was Zhuge Liang's trick to retreat and lure the enemy, which delayed time.

Fortunately, after such a backlash, Cao Zhen completely strengthened his opinion. After that, he neglected to come to detect Zhou Tai again, thinking that Zhou Tai was really weak in attacking and was incapable of advancing and retreating.

After the troops were deployed, Zhou Tai divided his troops along the coast, which was actually led by Li Yan.

But Li Yan encountered some strong winds on the sea and had to retreat to the coast of Hailing County controlled by the Han army to avoid the wind and waves. He spent a few days repairing the ship

In fact, this is not a bad luck. In late June of the lunar calendar, it is said that it may have hit a typhoon in the East China Sea. Li Yan only encountered small-scale tropical low-pressure winds and waves, and it was not a typhoon. Otherwise, he would not be able to come back, and it would be more than just a sailor who died in a boat.

After two small setbacks, Li Yan finally took advantage of the windless weather to successfully drive from Hailing County to the estuary of Huaihe River and seize Huaipu in one fell swoop.

After Zhou Taihe and Li Shixin got in touch with him after landing, he also increased the frontal attack and advanced directly to Huaiyin City within a few days, preparing to start the siege.

Cao Zhen, the commander of Huaiyin, was shocked. He never expected that the Han army could not use Hangou to communicate with the Yangtze River and the Huai River, but could directly drive along the sea from the Yangtze River estuary into the Huai River estuary.

If Li Yan was moved to the position and blocked the surface of the Huai River with a large ship, the Huaiyin defenders would have to be wiped out directly by making dumplings.

Even if you can delay defending the city for a few more months, your final outcome will definitely be miserable.

Faced with such a huge threat, the enemy's troops and equipment were absolutely superior. In addition, Cao Zhen also knew about Cao Xiu's death, Liu Xun's surrender, Cao Ren's besieged, and Li Dian was forced to leave...

All kinds of bad news are the straw that crushed Cao Zhen's fighting will and determination.

In the end, Cao Zhen chose to give up Huaiyin, and took the troops and precious weapons to cross the Huai River overnight, fled north to Sishui, and completely gave up the entire territory of Guangling County and retreated to the next important estuary node, Xiaxiang County, which is at the intersection of Sishui and Sui River.

(Note: Huaiyin is at the intersection of the Hangou Canal, Sishui and Huaihe River, so you can directly retreat from Huaiyin to Sishui.)

Xia Xiang is the key to the Xia Pi County, the most confidant in Xuzhou, and it is also Xiang Yu's hometown. If you go backwards along the Si River, you can go to Xia Pi and Pengcheng. Xia Pi is the prefecture of Xuzhou, and Pengcheng was the capital of Xiang Yu's Western Chu king back then. It can be said that if those places are lost, the entire Xuzhou will be basically over.

Cao Zhen did this, either. He had to preserve his strength for the sake of the overall situation of the Cao family. When he escaped like this, he could only take away elite soldiers and excellent weapons. Many of the strong men in Xinla escaped and scattered during the transfer, and the large amount of food and food gathered in Huaiyin City were not too late to take away.

After Cao Zhen escaped, there was no other Cao army soldier south of the Huai River except Cao Ren who was besieged in Shouchun City. The three counties in Huainan would soon be completely decreed by the Han army and divided into troops to occupy them.

Zhuge Liang's engineering operations in Shouchun City were no longer able to harass and destroy them.

After reviewing the good news reported by Zhuge Liang on the map, Li Su was also quite excited and ordered:

"It's so good. Starting tomorrow, people will call on Cao Ren before siege, let them know that Li Dian has been transferred to Shangcai, Cao Zhen has also fled to Xia Prime Minister, and there is no more Cao's army or soldiers in Huainan.

Well, it is best to arrest some Li Dian and Cao Zhen to deploy or surrender generals and let them go to Shouchun City to speak and show up to prove our propaganda. I believe that it will greatly hit Cao Ren's morale."

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