In August of the 20th year of Jian'an, Sun Quan officially attacked Hefei.
The situation in the world at this time is completely different from that in history.
Historically, Cao Cao conquered Guanzhong, defeated Han Sui and Ma Chao, and conquered Zhang Lu in the south.
Zhang Lu surrendered, Cao Cao captured Hanzhong and threatened Bashu.
At that time, Liu Bei had just captured Shuzhong, and his rule was far from stable.
Therefore, in order to put pressure on Cao Cao's eastern front, he negotiated with Sun Quan to return part of Jingzhou territory to Sun Quan in exchange for Sun Quan sending troops.
At that time, the two parties agreed that the west of the Xiangjiang River would belong to Guan Yu, and the east of the Xiangjiang River would belong to Sun Quan. The two would rule by dividing the river.
Sun Quan has benefited, and Cao Cao's Huainan is indeed empty. One hundred thousand versus seven thousand, the advantage is mine, so why not send troops?
So he chose to send out a mighty army and attacked outside Hefei City, making Zhang Liao famous throughout the ages.
But today is very different.
Liu Bei holds a complete Jing Yi and dares to send troops to Guanzhong to curb Cao Cao's development momentum.
At this time, Han Sui and Ma Chao had the intention of separatist rule and were afraid that Liu Bei would come to seize their territory, so they chose to face Cao Cao alone.
As a result, the two were defeated and fled to Xiliang to survive. They were forced to form an alliance with Liu Bei and led Liu Bei's army into Guanzhong to confront Cao's army.
Although Liu Bei mobilized some Jingzhou troops and horses to Xichuan, he only took away about 30,000 troops.
Among them, Liu Pan's army went north to Jiangling, and some county troops from each of the five counties in Jingnan were left to defend. 50,000 Jiangxia naval troops and more than 10,000 Zhao Yun troops still guarded Jiangxia Xiling.
In the Shen Dynasty, the 80,000 Nanyang Army was led by Wenpin, Lu Chang and others. About 50,000 troops were stationed in Yecheng and Wancheng areas, and faced off with Cao Cao's 100,000 troops in Yingchuan and Runan areas.
More than 10,000 county soldiers were dispersed in Zhanglingnan County and other places, while Shen Chen himself led 20,000 troops to attack the Wuguan Pass.
Because the soldiers and horses Liu Bei took away were the original soldiers and horses of Nanjun, Liu Pan had to guard the Jiangling area to make up for the lack of defense power in Nanjun.
Since then, Jingzhou's 200,000-strong army has only been mobilized from Jingnan. The main forces of Nanyang County and Jiangxia navy are still there.
It was just that the main force in Jingzhou was less mobilized, and there were not many soldiers and horses in Yizhou. In addition, the journey from Bashu to Hanzhong into Guanzhong was long and difficult, and the people pulled horses to transport the troops. The time was slow, the consumption was high, and the logistics pressure was great.
This led to the fact that in the direction of Guanzhong, Liu Bei could only mobilize the 50,000 soldiers and horses in Hanzhong, which was far from Cao Cao's opponent.
Sun Quan had also learned the news and knew that Liu Bei had only sent 50,000 Guan Yu troops out of Baoxie Valley to station in Wuzhangyuan, but they were suppressed and beaten by Cao Jun.
Then why didn't Liu Bei send more troops there?
It’s not that you are afraid of yourself.
Therefore, Sun Quan knew that if he did not send troops, Liu Bei would most likely choose to maintain the status quo and sit back and watch Han Sui and Ma Chao be defeated, and Cao Cao obtain Xiliang in Guanzhong.
After all, Jingzhou is his foundation. If Sun Quan makes a sneak attack from behind while his main force is dispatched, that would not be good.
So in this half-coercion and half-submission, Sun Quan was forced to choose to attack Huainan to win Liu Bei's trust.
This is his last chance.
So Huainan is so huge, where do we need to attack to take the entire Huainan as our own?
Hefei became the only choice.
Although Huainan is a vast plain area, you can also travel by land.
However, Jiangdong is stronger than the naval army and the infantry and cavalry are weak, so it is not wise to fight Cao's army on the plains.
Beyond that, there are logistical considerations.
At that time, Cao Cao's approach in Huainan was to strengthen the walls and clear the country, moving all the people north of the Yangtze River and south of the Huaihe River, creating an uninhabited land of more than 100,000 square kilometers.
If Sun Quan chooses to take the land route, bypass Hefei, and attack the hinterland of Cao Cao in Henan, the long supply line, coupled with the harassment of the Hefei defenders in the rear, will prevent him from plundering the people to replenish supplies, and he will be in a very difficult battle.
If Cao Jun were to attack him head-on in Henan at that time, the winning rate would definitely be low.
So he only has one path to choose.
That is to enter Chaohu Lake via Ruxushui, capture Hefei and then enter the Huaihe River Basin via Shishui, Fertilizer and Shouchun.
Taking the waterway in this way not only greatly reduces the cost of transporting grain and grass, but also greatly improves mobility because ship transportation can be carried day and night, which is much better than taking the land route.
The only problem is that Hefei is stuck on the road of this transportation line, just like the pass in the Qinling Mountains, which cannot be opened by one man.
But no matter how difficult the pass is, Sun Quan still has to bite the bullet.
What's more, now Sun Quan must press forward with his troops to make Liu Bei think that he has no more troops to attack Jingzhou, so he has to make a big show of it, with a hundred thousand troops, surrounding Hefei three levels inside and three outside.
So under this situation, Sun Quan sent troops.
On August 3, Sun Quan personally led his army northward along the Ruxu Waterway. The fleet blocked the sky and the sun, crowding the wide waterway. The front army, middle army and rear army stretched for dozens of miles, and the sails covered the sky and the sun. They were known as one hundred thousand men.
, crossed Chaohu and went straight to Hefei.
The weather was gloomy that day. Hefei City was located on the northwest bank of Chao Lake, stuck at Shikou, the mouth of the river where Chao Lake flows into Shikou. The majestic city was tall, and Cao Jun in the city was patrolling the city defenses in an orderly manner.
As the front line of Huainan, Hefei's location is extremely important. Although Cao Cao did not deploy heavy troops here, he naturally had his considerations.
The first is logistics.
Cao Cao is also under great logistical pressure now.
On the Nanyang front line, Jingzhou's military god Shen Chen was eyeing him, and he had no choice but to deploy heavy troops.
When there are more soldiers and horses, the people eat the horses' chews, and consume tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass every day. It costs too much to transport grain and grass from the rear.
Therefore, local people need to farm and provide food and grass supplies for the army.
Moreover, Cao Cao could not relocate the people of Runan, Yingchuan. First, he had a close relationship with the Yingchuan family and could not move the basic base of the Yingchuan family.
Second, he had nowhere to go after he moved. Since he compromised with the Yanzhou family, the Yanzhou family has been on guard against the Yingchuan family and has not allowed the Yingchuan faction to enter Yanzhou.
Therefore, the current situation can only be maintained, and a large amount of manpower and material resources are spent every day to resist Shen Chen. Even most of the soldiers and horses here have to farm, half farming and half guarding the border, in preparation for the south.
After the people of Huainan moved to Henan, more than 100,000 square kilometers of Huainan have become desolate wilderness. If too many soldiers and horses are deployed on the front line of Huainan, large quantities of grain and grass will be transported from the rear every day, and the long journey will be huge.
Therefore, we only placed 7,000 people in Hefei and put enough food and grass in the city.
As long as these 7,000 people can hold off the enemy for a month or two, the army from Chendu in Yecheng can come to help at any time, thus saving a lot of manpower and material resources.
Secondly, Cao Cao really did not have any extra troops.
Youzhou in the north must be guarded, the base camp of Yecheng, the emperor's residence in Chendu, and the front lines of the confrontation between Henan and Nanyang must be heavily defended.
Therefore, when he took the main force to Kou Lue Pass, he had no other troops.
But overall, Cao Cao's arrangement is still very powerful.
He calculated that Sun Quan could only attack Hefei, so he sent Zhang Liao and Li Dian to garrison in Hefei. As long as Zhang Liao and Li Dian could hold on for one month, enough reinforcements would arrive from the rear.
Naturally, Sun Quan also knew this, so he also planned to seize Hefei immediately with his troops and troops.
In this way, Cao Cao had nothing to do in Guanzhong, so he could gain Liu Bei's trust while calmly writing a letter to Cao Cao to negotiate peace, fawning over both parties, and preparing for a surprise attack on Jingzhou in the future.
At this time, the autumn wind was bleak, and Chao Lake was rolling up clear waves. Cao Jun, who was stationed on the lakeshore, had already noticed the mighty ships on the lake and hurried back to warn them.
In the city of Hefei, the bandit general Zhang Liao, the bandit general Li Dian and the guard Xue Ti led 7,000 people to guard the city. When they learned that Sun Quan's army had arrived, Zhang Liao, Li Dian, Xue Ti and others quickly held a meeting to discuss.
Zhang Liao and Li Dian have always been at odds with each other. They are actually on the same level. Neither can do anything to the other, nor do they obey each other's orders.
Therefore, in order to prevent the two men from delaying the military plane due to internal fighting, Cao Cao specially left his guard Xue Ti to mediate. Before leaving, he also left a letter to him, asking him to open it when Sun Quan attacked.
After Xue Ti arrived at the government office, he sat on the main seat and waited for Zhang Liao and Li Dian to come over.
Even though Zhang Liao and Li Dian were both generals, Xue Ti's full official title was called the Governor of the Central Protectorate. In the 12th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao appointed the Governor of the Central Protectorate to be the commander-in-chief of all generals.
For example, the guard Zhao Yan once commanded seven armies including Tao Jin, Zhang Liao, Zhang He, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Lu Zhao and Feng Kai.
Later, Cao Zhen, Sima Shi and others all held this position.
After Cao Wei's ninth rank Zhongzheng, this official was ranked fourth rank, while Zhang Liao and Li Dian's general rank was fifth rank.
In history, including when Cao Cao went to conquer Zhang Lu, he also gave the secret message to Xue Ti instead of Zhang Liao, Li Dian, and Le Jin.
Therefore, although Xue Ti is not as famous as Zhang and Li Le in history, he is actually the boss of the three of them and is currently guarding the city of Hefei as the commander-in-chief of all armies.
After a while, Zhang Liao and Li Dian came in, raised their hands and said, "Guard the Army."
"Generals, please take a seat."
Xue Ti stretched out his hand and motioned for them to sit down.
"Thank you, Hujun."
The two didn't bother to look at each other, and each sat down to the left and right of Xue Ti.
Xue Ti looked around at the two men and said: "Two generals, the scouts from the front have just reported that Sun Quan has led the army to Shikou. They are about to board the ship and dock, and enter Hefei. They are expected to arrive at the city tomorrow."
Change the source app to view the latest chapters of this book on multiple sites at the same time.】
"oh?"
Li Dian said in a deep voice: "Then we should immediately send a letter to Shouchun to ask for help."
"No rush."
Xue Ti waved his hand, took out a letter from his arms, and said to the two of them: "Before the Prime Minister left Huainan, he left a letter long ago. He said that if Sun Quan came to attack, he would open it and read it, and invite you two to come over."
Zhang Liao and Li Dian approached Xue Ti's desk. Xue Ti opened the envelope and opened the letter, and saw Cao Cao's personal message on it.
"If Sun Quan arrives, General Zhang will go out to fight; General Li will guard, and the guard army will not be able to fight."
"Go to war?"
Li Dian was shocked and said: "Are we still going out of the city to fight with Sun Quan?"
"snort."
Zhang Liao snorted coldly: "Since it is the Prime Minister's order, it must have its meaning. If you are afraid, just stay in the city and wait."
Li Dian glanced at him and said nothing.
Xue Ti hesitated and said: "It's just that Sun Quan claims to have a hundred thousand men and is coming with great force. If we go out to fight in the city, we may not be able to win."
"The Prime Minister is out on an expedition. By the time the Prime Minister's reinforcements arrive, Sun Quan will have already conquered us."
Zhang Liao said: "The Prime Minister asked us to go out of the city to fight Sun Quan's army before it could assemble, to severely dampen their morale and calm down the morale of the army. In this way, Hefei can be defended. The chance of success or failure lies in this battle."
"
Xue Ti pondered and said: "The general's words are reasonable. The prime minister has always known things well. With this arrangement, he knows how to deal with it. How many troops does the general need to go out of the city to fight Sun Quan?"
Zhang Liao thought for a while and said: "I will select eight hundred warriors tonight. When Sun Quan comes tomorrow, I will open the city gate and go out to fight Sun Quan to the death."
"Eight hundred?"
Xue Ti was shocked and said: "Is this manpower enough?"
"That's enough!"
Zhang Liao said loudly and authentically.
"good."
Xue Ti responded: "Just follow General Zhang."
At the moment, the three of them divided their work.
Xue Ti sent people to prepare beef and wine, Li Dian went to the city to inspect, and Zhang Liao selected the dead men.
At night, eight hundred dead soldiers arrived, and Zhang Liao gave them wine and meat in preparation for the battle with Sun Quan the next day.
At the same time, Sun Quan also arrived in Hefei.
Hefei is not on the shore of Chaohu Lake, but on the right bank of Shishui River to the north of Chaohu Lake. Xiaoyaojin is on the south bank of Shishui River, and the city is to the north.
The mouth of the Shishui River is very small and the water is relatively shallow. Large ships cannot pass through, so he can only stop the boat and land at the mouth of Chaohu Lake and the Shishui River, that is, Shikou.
According to Sun Quan's idea, after the army disembarked and captured Hefei, he could use the water supply and take small boats to transport grain and grass into the fertilizer water, then use waterways to attack Shouchun, and then shock Huainan.
When Liu Bei saw that he had sent troops and transferred Jingzhou's troops to Guanzhong, he could withdraw his troops and prepare for a surprise attack on Jingzhou.
But everything is difficult at the beginning, and Hefei is the first step in his Great Wall.
It's the day.
Sun Quan's army stopped at Shikou, then disembarked and walked northward by land to the outside of Hefei City. It was less than ten miles away from Hefei. On the left side of the army was the Shishui Xiaoyaojin Ferry, and due north was the city of Hefei.
After stationed outside the city for a night, in the early morning of the next day, when it was just dawn, Sun Quan issued an order for his army to go north and surround Hefei.
The 100,000-strong army, led by generals at all levels, began to organize their troops and horses in an orderly manner, arrange their formations, and head north.
Sun Quan was riding on horseback. There were only three thousand guards beside him. They were commanded by Chen Wu and were known as the "Lujiang Shangjia". They were the most elite troops in Jiangdong.
Behind Sun Quan was the front army, led by Song Qian, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, He Qi, Lu Meng and Ling Tong, following behind him.
There are more than 30,000 people in the front army of Jiangdong Army, 50,000 in the middle army, and 20,000 in the rear army guarding the camp. From the military camp to the foot of Hefei City, you can see at a glance countless crowds of people, with banners covering the sky and the sun, in an endless stream.
.
Sun Quanzhi looked at the Hefei City in the distance with great satisfaction. When he got closer, he got off his horse and walked to the Hefei City in a swaggering manner under the protection of the guards.
Chen Wu, the commander of the imperial guards around him, quickly persuaded him: "The noble body of the Marquis of Wu cannot be put in danger. Please retreat to the front army."
Sun Quan waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter. I have a hundred thousand troops in the rear, and I don't dare to come out to fight in Liang City. I will wait and see the enemy's situation here. When the army in the rear arrives, I will attack the city."
Chen Wu looked around and saw a small high slope outside the city two miles away from the city, so he said: "Marquis Wu can go to that high slope to observe the enemy's situation."
Sun Quan glanced at the small high slope. Two miles was 800 meters, which was a bit far away. Then he turned his head and saw that there was also a small high slope less than half a mile away from the city, that is, 200 meters away. Not only was it close,
The terrain was also higher, so he said: "Go there."
"this....."
Chen Wu was in trouble for a while, but he had to obey Sun Quan's order, so he had to lead Jiangdong Army's outpost there.
Their position at this time was less than one mile away from Hefei City, and the front army behind them was still some distance away from them. However, Sun Quan thought that the people in the city would not dare to come out even if they took the courage of a leopard, so he became very arrogant and swaggered to the city.
.
In the city of Hefei, Zhang Liao and eight hundred warriors were already waiting at the city gate. Above, Xue Ti and Li Dian were watching. Li Dian saw that Sun Quan was less than a mile away, so he said, "Guard Army, are you ready to fight?"
Xue Ti saw that Sun Quan was approaching the city with only three thousand guards, and was still walking here. The target seemed to be the small high slope outside the city, so he said: "Sun Quan seems to be going to that high ground to observe our situation.
This guy is really brave, wait until he gets closer."
Li Dian stared at Sun Quan's army intently, watching the flag representing Sun Quan slowly move closer to the small slope outside the city, and suddenly said in surprise: "He really dares to come."
"Sun Quan has always been like this. When the Prime Minister attacked Huainan last year, Sun Quan personally took a boat to check outside the Prime Minister's military camp in Dongxingti. The Prime Minister suspected that he was cheating and did not send troops. He just ordered the army to shoot arrows, but Sun Quan only ordered the ships to turn around. "
"The arrows are all flat and the boat is level," and left calmly.
Xue Ti said: "The Prime Minister also said that having a son should be like Sun Zhongmou, and you also know this."
Li Dian clicked his tongue and said in surprise: "Sun Quan's father is known as the Tiger of Jiangdong, and his brother Sun Ce is the little overlord of Jiangdong. It is said that Sun Quan also likes to shoot tigers and capture wolves. Could it be that his superb martial arts skills are why he is so brave?"
"I don't know how good he is in martial arts, so let General Zhang give it a try."
Xue Ti saw that Sun Quan was approaching the small slope and was less than 200 meters away from the city, so he decisively turned around and said: "I give the order to open the city gate and go out to fight."
"Dudududu."
A sharp whistle sounded.
Then the creaking city gate was opened.
Sun Quan in the distance was preparing to climb the small slope, and the imperial guards of "Lujiang Shangjia" were still forming formations to surround the small slope.
As a result, they saw the city gate in the distance suddenly open. In their confusion, a man wearing armor and holding a short halberd rushed towards them, howling like a wild wolf.
Sun Quan himself was stunned and stood there for several seconds without reacting. The imperial guards around him did the same, staring blankly at the enemy.
As a result, just a few seconds later, Chen Wu shouted, and the soldiers woke up from a dream and began to line up in formation.
But it was too late by now.
First of all, the temporary formation caused great confusion to the soldiers who had no time to complete the formation.
Secondly, they were too close to the city. Although they were outside the range of bows and arrows, they reached the city in about 20 seconds at a distance of 200 meters, leaving no time to react.
It was Zhang Liao who rushed to the front of the team.
I saw Zhang Liao leading the way, roaring: "Zhang Wenyuan of Yanmen is here, who dares to fight to the death with me!"
As he spoke, he rushed into the formation of Sun Quan's guards, slashed left and right with his halberd, and killed several people in an instant. The surrounding Sun Quan guards were overwhelmed by his momentum and retreated one after another.
At this time, 800 warriors arrived from behind him, forming an armor-piercing awl formation. Zhang Liao pierced the Jiangdong Army's formation like a cone head, so that the Jiangdong Army's formation that was about to assemble was disrupted again, and the soldiers
A mess.
"Kill!"
"Fight to the death with General Zhang!"
"You all die!"
Eight hundred warriors shouted slogans and fought hard.
Zhang Liao was even more brave and unstoppable. He swung around and killed dozens of people and another general. During the chaotic battle, he caught a glimpse of Sun Quan's flag not far away and shouted angrily: "Soldiers, where is Sun Quan? Follow me and charge forward."
, capture Sun Quan’s son alive!”
Not far away, Sun Quan panicked, looked around, and ran to the hillside behind him without choosing a path. The attendants around him also quickly followed him to the hillside, guarding him with long halberds.
"Sun Quan ran to that hill."
"Capture Sun Quan's son alive!"
"Kill!"
Cao's army was so powerful that they continued to follow Zhang Liao and rush to the foot of the hillside.
At this time, Sun Quan's guards blocked him with long halberds, and Zhang Liao couldn't kill him for a while, so he shouted at the foot of the mountain: "My son, Sun Quan, I'm going to kill your mother, please get down here."
If Sun Ce was still here at this time, he would definitely have gone down alone to fight Zhang Liao to the death. However, it was Sun Quan who was on the hillside.
Sun Quan's face was ashen and he looked at the situation down the mountain without saying a word, his back covered with sweat.
I'm probably thinking, "I won't go down there!"
The surrounding Jiangdong Army was defeated like a mountain, and Wu troops were running around everywhere.
"My son, Sun Quan, you are just a rhizome, a cowardless rat, and you have grown enough to come down and fight me."
Zhang Liao is still provoking.
Sun Quan remained silent, still saying in his heart, "I won't go down."
Zhang Liao saw that Sun Quan was not coming down, so he roared angrily: "Soldiers, follow me and charge forward to capture Sun Quan alive. The prime minister will give you a heavy reward."
"Hoohohohohohoho!"
The momentum of the eight hundred warriors became even more magnificent, and they followed Zhang Liao and began to charge.
Sun Quan's elite "Lujiang Shangjia" was in chaos. Not far behind Sun Quan were Song Qian and Xu Sheng, who quickly led their troops to come to the rescue.
As a result, the battlefield situation was so chaotic that their army was scattered by their own people just as they approached.
Zhang Liao continued to lead the soldiers to kill at the bottom of the mountain. Song Qian and Xu Sheng were wounded and defeated in the chaos. Chen Wu, who was guarding Sun Quan, saw that Zhang Liao was unstoppable and was about to rush up the mountain, so he quickly led his guards down the mountain to stop him.
The two sides fought, fighting to the death for dozens of rounds, and finally Zhang Liao beheaded Chen Wu, which made Cao's army even more powerful and continued to provoke at the foot of the mountain, causing the surrounding Jiangdong Army and "Lujiang Shangjia" to flee in confusion and form a chaotic mess.
Thanks to the support of Song Qian and Xu Sheng's troops, the Jiangdong Army in front actually numbered nearly 10,000 people at this time. However, the Guards were dispersed, causing the rear to be rolled back and overwhelmed, leaving Zhang Liao's 800 men in an offensive state from beginning to end.
If there are too many people, they will be suppressed and beaten.
Pan Zhang and He Qi's troops came from behind immediately. Pan Zhang saw the chaos ahead and a large number of Wu troops fleeing, so he rushed over and killed some of the retreating deserters, stopped the remaining troops, reorganized his troops, and moved closer to the battlefield.
At this time, the two sides had been fighting for more than an hour since early morning. Near noon, the battlefield was in chaos, with Jiangdong's army scurrying around and fleeing in all directions.
It's not that Wu Jun couldn't defeat Zhang Liao's eight hundred troops, but after they were broken up in formation, they were crowded, rushed, and crushed, causing those in front to run behind and those behind unable to pass. They were far inferior to Zhang Liao's formation.
But the good news is that there were so many Wu soldiers that Zhang Liao couldn't even cut them down, and he never had the chance to rush to the hillside.
He couldn't charge up, so he had to keep roaring at the foot of the mountain, hoping that Sun Quan would come down and die. Unfortunately, even if he said "x your mother", Sun Quan would not come down, and there was nothing Tu Zeng could do.
After a while, Pan Zhang and He Qi gradually gathered the surrounding Wu troops, and then slowly adjusted their formation to surround Zhang Liao.
Xue Ti and Li Dian, who were far away in Hefei City, saw this scene and immediately ordered the troops to retreat.
Zhang Liao kept rushing back and forth among the crowd, surrounded by countless heads of people, so densely packed that he naturally had no idea what was going on outside.
But when he heard the clanging sound, he immediately knew that Wu Jun was about to surround him, so he hurriedly led dozens of people around him, turned around and hacked for a while, fought his way out of the encirclement.
"Has the general abandoned me?"
At this moment, the shouts of eight hundred warriors came from the encirclement of the Wu army behind them.
Due to the increasing number of soldiers in Jiangdong, Zhang Liao's initial formation was also divided. There were only dozens of people around him. At that time, he thought that everyone else had died in the battle.
Unexpectedly, there were still hundreds of people in the encirclement who had not been killed. Zhang Liao did not hesitate at all and shouted: "How can we abandon our brothers and sisters?"
Then he led dozens of people and rushed into the formation again, rescued hundreds of Cao's troops, and ran back to Hefei City.
It was only then that Lu Meng Lingtong and other former troops finally arrived.
It took a long time for the 30,000 Jiangdong front troops to reorganize their ranks, and then retreated like a tide while protecting Sun Quan.
Cao's army on the city suddenly burst into violent cheers, as if they were laughing at Sun Quan's embarrassment. As a result, Cao's army's momentum skyrocketed, and their momentum soared to the sky.