"Prime Minister, Zhou Yu led the Jiangdong navy to retreat into the Danshui warship..." the scout said.
Cao Cao frowned and said to himself: "Zhou Yu retreated before fighting. What conspiracy is this guy playing?"
The mastermind Xun You was not around during the Battle of Chibi. This time Cao Cao learned his lesson and brought this mastermind with him.
Xun You ignored the others and expressed his own opinion, "Xinye connects Wancheng in the north to Xiangyang in the south. Although it is located on an important road, it is only an isolated city. Zhou Yu's move is nothing more than blocking our waterway to rescue Xiangyang in the south and besieging Xiangyang in the east.
If it cannot defeat it in a year, its land combat capability will be worrying. I guess I want to take advantage of the naval force and spend the main force of our army in Nanyang, so as to buy time for Sun Quan to attack Hefei."
Cao Cao nodded, "This is also what I am worried about. As long as Xiangfan is still in my hands, there is nothing to fear. If Hefei is lost, the Central Plains will be in danger. What is the current situation on the eastern front?"
Liu Ye cupped his hands and replied: "Prime Minister, according to the news from Huainan, Sun Quan's warships are currently in the Niuzhu area and have not entered Chaohu to attack Hefei..."
"Is Zhongde's Three Thousand Suspicious Soldiers so effective?" Cao Cao was puzzled.
"Sun Zhongmou is suspicious. Previously, Jiang Zitong retreated from the enemy with a letter. I guess he is also waiting for information from Xinye." Xun You analyzed.
Cao Cao smiled and said: "This Biyan is cautious. In this case, let's take Xinye as soon as possible. In such an open terrain, where can Zhou Yu set fire?"
"Ahem, lord, Cheng Pu must be talking nonsense about arson..." Yang Xiu, the army chief, reminded.
Cao Cao heard this very harshly and thought to himself, "Don't you, the Prime Minister, know?"
"Zi Lian, order the entire army to encircle Xinye tomorrow."
"Wen Ze, lead your troops to Danshui to contain Zhou Yu's navy."
...
Cao Cao issued orders continuously, and Cao Hong, Yu Jin and other generals took orders to mobilize their troops.
The next day, the main force of Cao's army began to attack Xinye. Cheng Pu and Han Dang prevented the soldiers from tenaciously defending the city.
Wenpin brought rams, catapults and other siege equipment from Wancheng. The intensity of the siege was much more intense than Zhou Yu's attack on Xiangyang.
Cao Cao wanted to move to Xinye quickly, and Cheng Pu wanted to buy time for Sun Quan. Both sides had their own ideals, so the casualties were very high.
In order to ensure Xinye's offensive, Yu Jin, who was responsible for containing Jiangdong's navy, only brought thousands of Qingzhou soldiers on the east bank of Danshui to shoot at Zhou Yu's navy on the warship.
The Jiangdong navy did not disembark, and Yu Jin's infantry did not wade into the water, so the fight was a bit of a fool's errand.
Lü Meng saw that Yu Jin had few soldiers, so he called for battle and said: "Captain, there are only three to five thousand people in Yu Jin. He clearly despises our Jiangdong navy. I am willing to get off the ship and capture this man."
"Don't be reckless. This may be Cao Cao's plan to lure the enemy. Let's face off like this and wait for the opportunity." Zhou Yu said firmly.
"Grand Governor, Cao Cao only used thousands of people to contain us, and his main force must be attacking Xinye. What opportunity are we waiting for?" Lu Meng asked with a puzzled look.
"I have said before that Jiangdong is good at water warfare but not land warfare. It would be unwise to abandon your own strengths and fight on land. I heard that Xiangyang's defenders are also mobilizing in the past two days. When Liu Bei's reinforcements arrive, we will take advantage of the chaos.
Go get Xiangyang." Zhou Yu explained.
"Then Mr. Cheng and the others..." Lu Mengxin said, we can't just watch Cheng Pu be destroyed.
Zhou Yu asked Lu Su: "Has Liu Xuande sent reinforcements?"
"Guan Yunchang has left the Yangtze River and entered the Hanshui River. He is expected to arrive tomorrow night. Zhang Yide assisted us in taking Xiangyang and has also set off from Jiangling." Lu Su returned.
"How many soldiers are there?" Zhou Yu asked.
"Guan Yunchang led 8,000 Jingzhou navy troops. It is unknown how many troops Zhang Yide had." Lu Su continued.
Zhou Yu was overjoyed when he heard that Jiangxia's navy only had 10,000 troops, and Guan Yu brought out 8,000 this time. This shows Liu Bei's fear of Cao Cao, and it is expected that there will not be too few reinforcements coming to Jiangling.
The next day, Guan Yu's waterway reinforcements arrived at Danshui. When Yu Jin saw the reinforcements arriving, he retreated five miles to the stronghold.
When Guan Yu arrived at Zhou Yu's main ship, he saw Jiangdong's warships arranged neatly, and each ship was full of soldiers. He couldn't help but be confused: "Why are tens of thousands of athletes from Jiangdong staying on board? Could it be that Cao Cao's military situation was wrong when he went south?"
"No, I am not good at land warfare in Jiangdong, so I asked the deputy governor to guard Xinye, and most of the governors blocked Cao's army from crossing the river by water." Lu Su explained.
"Preventing Cao's army from crossing the river? When Guan came over in a warship just now, he only found thousands of Cao's troops on the shore. Do you need tens of thousands to block it?" Guan Yu became more and more confused as he listened.
Just as Lu Su was about to explain, Zhou Yu chuckled and said, "These are Cao Cao's troops to lure the enemy. The main force of Cao Cao's army may be not far away..."
Yu Jin's thousands of restrained soldiers were like nothing in front of Jiangdong's warships. It was hard for Guan Yu to imagine why they could feel at ease here, but left Cheng Pu and others to fight in Xinye.
"What's the governor's plan?" Guan Yu continued to ask.
"Jiangdong Jian'er is not good at land warfare. General Guan just happens to support Xinye. Cao Cao is already empty in Hefei. Our Lord should have marched into Chaohu. Cao Cao's thieves cannot look at both ends. This battle will be as disastrous as Chibi..." Zhou Yu analyzed.
Guan Yuxu asked with his eyes: "We are all going to fight, what are the Governor going to do?"
"Cao Ren heard that Cao Cao came to rescue and the city of Xiangyang was in chaos. I want to lead the navy to cross the Han River to attack Xiangfan again, and cooperate with the Yide land reinforcements to capture the important town of Xiangyang." Zhou Yu explained.
Guan Yu was startled when he heard this, and thought to himself that Zhou Yu had paid this attention before and could not capture Xiangyang without reinforcements. Now that Cao Cao's reinforcements were in front of him, would he be able to capture Xiangyang? But he came under orders and did not ask any questions.
Guan Yu left Guan Ping to guard the warship, and he, Zhou Cang and others disembarked and ran directly to Yu Jin's camp. Jiang Xia's eight thousand men were very effective in fighting. In less than an hour of fighting, they killed Yu Jin, abandoned the camp and fled north.
After Zhou Yu heard the battle report, he was so shocked that he couldn't help but said to himself: "Guan Yunchang is well-deserved. If he can be restored to Jiangdong in the future, it will not be difficult for the world to be settled."
Lu Su saw Zhou Yu sighing at the bow of the ship, so he followed him and asked: "Grand Governor, General Guan's reinforcements have arrived. When will we go to capture Xiangyang?"
"Order all the warships to turn their rudders to the south, and our entire army will march to Xiangyang immediately." Zhou Yu ordered.
"Only." Lu Su responded with his hands raised.
Zhou Yu's fighting ship led the way, followed by hundreds of sailing ships, which were as spectacular as fish migrating.
When the fleet arrived at the waters of Xiangyang, Zhou Yu took a distant look at the city to the west where he had been fighting for a year, and then waved an order to continue heading south.
The generals thought that Zhou Yu was looking for a landing place, because there were indeed soldiers sent by Le Jin to stop the attack on the nearby river beach.
When the fleet left Xiangyang a hundred miles away, Lu Su saw that they had gone too far, so he said: "Grand Governor, is this too far? Marching by land is much slower, and this distance is estimated to take two days.
"
"If you have a boat, you should walk less. Zijing will wait and see. I won't let everyone get hurt." Zhou Yu smiled mysteriously.
Chapter completed!