In May of the 24th year of Jian'an, it began to rain widely in Jingzhou and Yangzhou.
The rain was not heavy at the beginning, and it did not even rain in some places. The sun was still blazing, such as Jiaozhou and the southern areas of Yangzhou and Jingzhou. Only northern Jingzhou and the northern area of Yangzhou at the mouth of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River began to rain locally.
Nanyang is in the center of the rainy season. Due to the Qinling Mountains, the upper reaches of the Lihe River are the center of heavy rainstorms in the Funiu Mountains, and most of them are mountainous areas. Historical floods have been severe and heavy rains have poured down.
Therefore, starting from May 22nd, after the heavy rains came as expected, the riverbed of Lishui, which had a low water flow due to the drought some time ago, quickly filled up. The river water began to surge, gradually overflowing the riverbed, and the water level in the valley began to rise.
rise.
However, this still does not affect Cao Jun, because the river valley has not been filled up, and the water flow has only reached half of the entire river channel. Therefore, if you want to threaten Cao Jun's camp, the water level must at least overflow the entire river and start flooding the flat land. But
A heavy rain in just one or two days will not cause such a large flow of water.
But until early June, both Cao Hong and Zhao Yan had a premonition that something bad was going to happen. They expected the heavy rain to last for only a day or two, but now it seems that it has never stopped. The pouring rain is still falling, and it is worse at night than during the day.
So much that the whole world was covered by heavy rain.
For this reason, they had to immediately send people to Yecheng for help. When Cao Pi got the news and knew that Shen Chen had dug trenches and that it had been raining heavily in the past few days, he immediately sent the letter to Chang'an.
But Cao Cao had not received the letter. On May 26, after three or four days of heavy rain, the valley of Lishui was finally filled.
At this time, deep in the Funiu Mountains, dark clouds covered the entire sky, and the torrential rain caused the streams in the mountains to swell. The water flow was muddy yellow in color, and converged into small rivers that flowed into the upper reaches of Lishui River.
After the load capacity of the upper river valley reached its limit, the dam used to intercept the water in the upper reaches of Lishui in Funiu Mountain was finally washed away by the water flow. With a loud noise, a flash flood finally broke out in the afternoon of this day, like a gaping hole between heaven and earth.
, the whole earth was trembling.
"Boom!"
"Bang!"
A huge sound resounded throughout the world.
In Yecheng, Cai Du, who was staying behind, looked at the Lishui River to the north. He saw a loud explosion in the Lu Mountain to the west, followed by countless mountain torrents pouring down, covering the entire plain and valley.
The downpour hit Cai Du's face. He held up a bamboo canopy in his hand and wore a raincoat on his body. The pattering raindrops slid down the edge of the bamboo canopy.
It was obviously lunch time, but the sky was black. The slanting raindrops and the roaring mountain forests made the mountains and forests in the distance seem to be collapsing. The woods were crumbling in the wind and rain. After the loud noise, a large number of fresh yellow colors appeared.
The soil was washed out and many trees were destroyed.
Then the almost red muddy water flowed into the plain, and Lushan Mountain in the Funiu Mountains to the west turned into a waterfall. An unknown number of kilometers of land was submerged. The power of nature was fully revealed at this moment.
"Captain."
A lieutenant general next to Cai Du stepped forward and said: "It's too dangerous here. Let's retreat eastward to the highlands of the Dabie Mountains."
Cai Du smiled and said: "No problem, General Zuo once said that the terrain of China is high in the west and low in the east. There is not much difference between the north and the south. But since the Lishui River flows south, it means that at least the terrain around Yecheng is higher than that in the north.
Kunyang, the big flood will not come this way."
"But the inside and outside of the city have been flooded."
The deputy general looked outside the city and saw that Yecheng was actually far away from the Lushan flood point in the west, more than ten miles away.
Funiu Mountain to the west of Nanyang Passage is more than 20 kilometers away from Dabie Mountain to the east. Yecheng is in the center, so flash floods in the distance will not flood this area in a short time.
But the water level has skyrocketed, and the entire Nanyang Channel is covered with a shallow layer of water, and a steady stream of flash floods is rushing in the direction of Lishui.
Fortunately, the supplies in the city had already been moved to the higher hills to the east, otherwise Shen Chen's army would have lost a lot of supplies.
Under the pouring rain, even the temperature seemed to have dropped a few degrees.
Cai Du said calmly: "Since it was said by the general, it must be right. Our city is two to seven feet high. I stand on the city tower and I don't believe that the water can flood it. The supplies can be transferred, but we must hold on. Here, once the war situation changes, Yecheng must not be lost."
"only."
The lieutenant had no choice but to leave angrily.
There are only two thousand soldiers in the city now, although Cai Du believes that Shen Chen's plan will not go wrong.
But he also has a duty, which is to defend Yecheng.
If the entire city is left empty, if Cao Jun's reinforcements arrive in time after the First World War, he will at least ensure that Yecheng is still under Shen Chen's control.
So after he transferred the civilians, auxiliary troops and supplies from the rear, he had to lead the remaining soldiers to guard the city.
And just when Cai Du was looking at the collapse of a mountain torrent more than ten miles away.
At this moment, in Taiting, which is located dozens of miles away from Yecheng, and in Shen Chen's military camp, the water level has obviously exceeded the ground, submerging the entire military camp, and all the boats placed on the school grounds have floated.
Shen Chen is now in a large ship in the Central Campus. The ship is not a building ship, but a medium-sized fighting ship, more than ten meters long and three meters wide.
Due to the lack of time, the ships built are not extra-large, but only small and medium-sized. There are currently three battleships, and the rest are basically small troop transports such as turrets, canopy boats, and walking boats that can carry 20 to 30 people. .
But the boat had a roof, so rainwater couldn't get into the cabin. When the water slowly flooded the school grounds, the small troop carriers floated, but not very high, and the stern battleships remained motionless.
The main reason is that although the Lishui River is overflowing now, the water level is only about one foot. It has just covered a person's ankle and is in the middle of the calf. It is not very deep.
Therefore, unless it is a small reconnaissance ship that can only carry one or two people, troop transports and medium-sized stern battleships will definitely not be able to float.
"General."
In the cabin on the second floor of the fighting ship, Gan Ning opened the window and looked at the big raindrops falling outside. He wondered: "This ship can't float. Are we overestimating the rain?"
Shen Chen sat cross-legged on the main seat of the cabin and read a book carefully, with candles still lit on the table. Hearing Gan Ning's words, he smiled and said: "No hurry, just wait."
"The main reason is that I wonder if the rain will stop soon."
Gan Ning smacked his lips and said, "I have seen it rain for two days before and a city was flooded. However, although the rain was heavy, it didn't seem to make the water rise much."
"The amount of rainfall varies."
Shen Chen remembered the plight of a city before traveling through the city. The rainfall in that city reached 700-800 mm in three days, which is equivalent to a year's rain in three days.
The heavy rain in Nanyang is heavy, but the amount of rainfall is definitely incomparable. After all, the heavy rain is still to come.
For example, in the Battle of Xiangfan in history, it rained for more than ten days, and the water level soared by five to six feet to a height of more than ten meters, submerging the entire city of Fan. The amount of rainfall was probably comparable to that of that city in later generations.
However, Shen Chen had built a large number of dams in the mountains upstream of Lishui River. If everything went well, the dams would not be able to withstand self-destruction and there would be a brief wave of floods.
Although due to the vastness of the Henan plain, the floodwaters are expected to be discharged in large quantities, but if the water level rises a few feet, it will probably be possible to sail boats.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
At this moment, a desolate horn sounded from behind.
Gan Ning jumped up immediately and hit his head because of his excitement. However, he ignored his headache and covered his head and turned to Shen Chen and said: "General, here we come."
"I heard it and ordered the camp gate to be opened!"
Shen Chen said immediately.
"Quick, play the drum."
Gan Ning immediately got out of the hatch and shouted outside.
"Dong dong dong dong!"
Suddenly the sound of drums came from the fighting ship.
"Quick, quick, quick!"
Hearing the sound of beating drums, the middle camp was the first to take action. Soldiers from each camp put on their raincoats and boarded the ship in the rain.
Except for some of the soldiers in the surrounding camps who stayed behind, all the others boarded the ship.
The soldiers climbed into the boat one after another, took off their shoes, poured out the water, and put their shoes back on.
The rain almost obscured the sound of the horns, but amid the noise of countless horns and gongs and drums throughout the camp, the soldiers finally began to march as planned.
The soldiers at the gate of the camp in the north began to open the gate of the camp. The gate of the camp opened outwards. Almost as soon as they took off the door bolt, because the water flow was from south to north, the water rushed to both sides, leaving the empty door of the camp wide open.
On the mound of the south camp, the soldiers who had just blown their horns watched helplessly as the flood roared in the distance and came towards us at such a fast speed.
Almost not long after Shen Chen gave the order, the huge water flow directly flooded into his home in Dongying, which was close to the bank of Lishui River.
With a "bang", the fence outside Dongying was directly broken, and then a large amount of water flowed into the camp.
Fortunately, the soldiers had climbed to a high place and looked at the huge power of the torrent below in fear. Many people clung to the high oars fixed on the mound. The wind and waves were too strong and they were afraid of being blown down by the wind or A wave came and swept them away.
But their worries are obviously unfounded. This rain is definitely not comparable to the Battle of Xiangfan and the catastrophic floods in the Yangtze River in later years. It is just normal rain in the Meiyu season in the Yangtze River Basin.
The real heavy rain will still be two months away.
So the floodwater rose to a height of ten feet, about two and a half meters high. Their earthen hill was more than two feet high and could not submerge them at all. At most, their feet would get wet when the waves below hit the shore.
Soon the water flowed into the camp, and more floods spread to both sides of the river, especially the south bank of the lower reaches of the Lishui River. After all, the terrain of China is high in the west and low in the east.
The Wuyang garrison on the south bank of Lishui suffered first and was directly submerged by the flood.
The water flow on the north bank is relatively much lower, but in this continuous heavy rain, it is certainly not much lower. The floodwaters continue to flow north along the Lishui River, heading straight for Cao Jun's main camp.
At this moment, in Cao Jun's camp, Cao Hong stood in the high oar of the arrow tower on the earth mountain. He raised his head and looked up at the sky. The sky was gloomy and the clouds were so dense that he seemed to be out of breath.
The world is dark. Shen Chen's army was only three or four miles away from them before. Standing on the high mountain, you can completely see the Nanyang Army barracks on the other side that stretch for more than ten miles.
But now it was dark outside and nothing could be seen clearly. Occasionally, a thunderbolt illuminated Cao Hong's sad face.
He never expected that it would rain for three or four days.
Their camp and Shen Chen's camp were all located on the north bank of the Lishui River. After the Lishui River surged, both sides of the bank were naturally the first to overflow. As a result, Shen Chen's army and their camp all suffered.
However, Shen Chenjun had attacked the camp several times in the past few days and dug a large number of canals outside. The water flowed straight to his camp along the canals. The drainage canal in the camp was completely insufficient because the drainage canal was connected to the Lishui River, which has now overflowed. Now that it's here, there's nowhere to vent it.
This caused their camp to be completely submerged in water. The water flowed into each camp along the gaps between the fences. It was more than a foot deep and overflowed the calf. It was rising every day. The soldiers had to move to higher places and mountains. .
Fortunately, they had built a lot of earthen hills before, and there were wooden platforms on the fence outside the camp for soldiers to defend, so they could barely stay there. Otherwise, the soldiers would have fled long ago.
"General."
Zhao Yan saw Cao Hong's ugly face and comforted him: "Although our camp is flooded, Shen Chen probably won't feel well either."
"I'm just afraid that he will build a ship."
Cao Hong shook his head.
Zhao Yan smiled and said: "The water is only one foot deep. A small black-topped boat with a few people may be able to travel, but if he has an army of tens of thousands, how many such small black-topped boats will he have to build? The general can rest assured."
Cao Hong thought for a while and said: "The guards are right. I hope this heavy rain will pass as soon as possible."
Zhao Yan comforted him again: "We have sent people to Yecheng to ask for help. The prince will definitely send people to Chang'an to make a decision for King Wei. If we hold on for a few more days, King Wei will send reinforcements from Wuguan to help us."
"Um."
Cao Hong nodded, and suddenly remembered something, and said: "I told you to take good care of the army's granaries before, so as not to get damp. What happened now?"
Zhao Yan said: "General, don't worry, everything has been properly arranged."
"That's good."
Cao Hong felt relieved.
After the camp is established, the granary is also a top priority.
At that time, the construction of granaries was to use soil to build a circular high cylinder on the spot, with the lower part being at least three feet above the ground, and the upper part being covered with thatch to prevent moisture.
Judging from the current situation, the water flow is less than one foot, and it should not be able to flood the granary.
But Cao Hong was afraid that if the rain continued for more than ten days, it would be terrible if the water level rose to three feet high and the bottom of the granary was submerged.
Although the bottom was sealed with soil, it was soaked in water and the water might soak into the ceramic granary. Therefore, Cao Hong was still very worried about this and asked Zhao Yan to move some of the grain to higher places in the past two days.
The heavy rain was still falling, and the rainwater made a crackling sound on the wooden boards above the high oar.
Another thunder flashed in the distance.
At this moment, Cao Hong suddenly heard a strange sound and asked Zhao Yan, "Gu Jun, did you hear it?"
"What did you hear?"
"The sound of water flowing."
"Water flow?"
Zhao Yan turned his head and looked towards Lishui in the south.
The waves of the Lishui River rolled and the sound of the water flow was very loud. Apart from the sound of rain, howling wind and occasional thunder, the only thing left in the world was the roar of the big river outside.
He said: "Not far away is Lishui, and the sound of water flowing is normal."
"But it's getting louder and louder, listen carefully."
Cao Hong's expression was solemn.
Zhao Yan also listened carefully, and indeed he heard the sound of the huge waves in his ears.
It gradually covered up the sound of rain, the sound of wind, and the original sound of water flowing in Lishui. Then there was a "bang" sound, as if something was broken.
"Boom!"
There was a loud noise between heaven and earth, and the thunder flashed again.
Cao Hong and Zhao Yan suddenly opened their eyes.
They saw that the eastern camp of Shen Chen's army in the south had been washed away.
Immediately afterwards, a terrifying huge wave swept over the Lishui River. The waves were several feet high and rushed towards them like a mountain.