Chapter 140 Chapter Twenty-Third

At the end of September in the thirteenth year of Jian'an in 131, at the suggestion of Lu Su, Liu Bei moved his troops downriver from Xiakou for more than 200 miles, and then stationed in Fankou to join the Eastern Wu army nearby.According to intelligence, Cao Cao's army is ready to fight in Jiangling and will go down the river at any time.But there was still no news about Zhuge Liang and Lu Su. Liu Bei was very worried, and hoped that Zhuge Liang could persuade Sun Quan to send troops, and the situation could be reversed.If the development of the situation is not what Lu Su expected, then I dare not imagine it.Liu Bei then sent outposts to the middle and lower reaches of the river every day to detect the movement of Soochow troops.

Zhang Fei said: "This Kong Ming, he has tossed us enough before going out. I think he can only play tricks." Guan Yu said: "Third brother, don't jump to conclusions, let's see if Mr. Kong Ming can persuade Sun Quan to send troops." Liu Bei remained silent, and he rarely showed his anxiety and uneasiness, but he was full of great confidence in Zhuge Liang. About two days later, the sentinel reported that General Sun had agreed to send troops, and sent Zhou Gongjin to lead the water army upstream, and was about to reach Fankou. Liu Bei came out of desperation again, how much he was grateful to Sun Zhongmou, and to express his gratitude, Liu Bei sent people to meet and condolences Zhou Yu's fleet.

The boat going up is very slow, like a big fish swimming against the current, its movement is relatively slow, and there are many boats, so the speed and distance must basically maintain the same pace.So it took a day or two before Liu Bei expected Zhou Yu's fleet to arrive. On the command ship, a man stood on the bow with his sword in his hand. There was a big red and yellow flag on the ship, with a big "Sun" character on it.Liu Bei on the shore judged that the person standing by the sword might be Zhou Gongjin. "Mr. Gongjin, Mr. Gongjin!" Liu Bei let go of his throat.

The weather was fine that day, and at noon, the clouds and mists on the river had disappeared.Zhou Yu turned his head to the shore, looked at the person shouting, and thought that this person might be Liu Xuande.After a while, Zhou Yu moved the command boat to the shore, and saw clearly that this man had big ears and a kind face. Standing beside him were two majestic men. I think this person is Zhang Yide, whose name is known to everyone in the world. The other person is tall, with a ruddy complexion, Danfeng eyes, and is very handsome. I think this person is probably the one who was in Cao Ying and his heart was in Han. Guan Yun of the Six Generals has grown up.

"Mr. Gongjin, please go ashore to rest." Liu Bei saluted. Zhou Yu said: "The situation is urgent, we are about to rush to Chibi. The general can go to the boat and have a briefing." Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to be in charge of military affairs on land, and boarded Zhou Yu's command ship himself. "How is General Sun's anti-Cao forces prepared?" "There are more than 30,000 people in total." Zhou Yu replied frankly. Liu Bei showed disappointment and uneasiness. Zhou Yu said confidently, "Don't worry about Yuzhou, just wait and see me defeat Cao Jun."

"Where are Kong Ming and Lu Zijing, why didn't you come with you?" Liu Bei asked. "The two of them are on the fleet behind and will arrive in about three days." The more Liu Bei thought about it, the more worried he was, bid farewell to Zhou Yu and returned to the camp on the shore, and immediately secretly dispatched many troops, led by Guan Yu, to the north across the Han River to prepare for deployment, so as to leave a way for retreat. 132 Cao Mengde encountered a serious problem. On deployment issues, he is very cautious.First of all, he ordered Cao Ren and Cao Hong to be stationed in Xiangyang, responsible for monitoring Jingzhou's surrendered troops from Xingyang to Jiangling, and keeping the communication routes between the frontline army and the rear open.Le Jin and Man Chong led Yuan's descending army to deploy in this area. On the one hand, they prevented possible counterattacks by the Sun-Liu coalition forces. On the other hand, they also made mutual checks and balances with Jingzhou's descending army, and personally established a logistics headquarters in Jiangling. , in order to grasp the overall military situation, and be ready to carry out the necessary response strategy at any time.He himself led Cheng Yu, Cao Chun, Zhang Liao and Xu Huang's legions, and cooperated with Jingzhou Cai Mao and Zhang Yun's 70,000 sailors, and sailed down the Yangtze River to the east, preparing to fight Sun Liu on the water.

Why did Cao Mengde suddenly give up the field battle he had always been good at, and choose the water battle he was not familiar with? This question, even many generals of the Cao army could not figure it out. Cheng Yu once asked Cao Mengde: "Our advantage is on land, and we go eastward with the current. In case Soochow deploys defenses everywhere on the water, how can our water army face the battle without long-term training?" Cao Mengde replied: "There are Jingzhou navy ahead to clear the way, 70,000 navy is enough for Soochow to suffer!" "In case Cai Mao and Zhang Yun change, how can we respond?" Cheng Yu said.

Cao Mengde replied: "Liu Cong is in our hands, and Cai and Zhang's relatives are all in Jingzhou. They can't wait to conquer Soochow and return to Jingzhou as soon as possible." In fact, Cao Mengde had already prepared such a score in his heart: If a large army attacked Soochow from the north bank of the Yangtze River, Sun Quan could wait for the natural danger of the Yangtze River to respond. Unfamiliarity is more dangerous.If Jingzhou went down the Yangtze River, wouldn't Soochow's advantage of the Yangtze River's natural danger disappear by itself? In addition, attacking from the water can deal a fatal blow to Soochow in terms of momentum, not to mention the number of Jingzhou navy forces. Twice as much as Soochow, as long as they have the advantage in the offensive and defensive battle of the Yangtze River, Liu Bei and Sun Quan will have nothing to do and have to surrender.

Sure enough, Cao Jun took Jiangling by force.However, the water contact between Cao Jun and Soochow has not yet begun. Serious questions arose.The soldiers in Cao's fleet vomited and had diarrhea one after another. In less than half a day, 20,000 soldiers were infected with the disease. Cao Mengde had to give up his plan to go south immediately and ordered the whole army to rest in place. Then, the shadow of death enveloped the fleet again, with an average of forty or fifty people dying every day. Cao Mengde ordered that the bodies of the dead soldiers be secretly thrown into the river at night, so as not to shake the morale of the army.

Cao Mengde ordered the Chinese medical officers of the army to concentrate all their efforts on dealing with the disease. These medical personnel bought back a lot of herbs on the shore or collected them personally, boiled them into medicinal soup, and sent them to each warship one by one regardless of day and night. In this way, over time, Cao Jun gradually adapted to the water and soil in the south of the Yangtze River, and the disease was no longer so serious. Attacking the heart is the top, attacking the city is the bottom, and defeating the enemy without fighting——Cao Mengde has always followed this Sun Tzu's art of war.Defeating Yuan Shao, occupying Jingzhou, and going down to Jiangling, the application of this rule really made Cao Mengde taste a lot of sweetness.After occupying Jiangling, he immediately sent envoys to Soochow to persuade Sun Quan to lay down his arms, but failed.He wasn't surprised.He still has a more objective and fair understanding of Sun Quan, the new generation of Jiangdong leader.Soochow already had Zhou Gongjin, an expert in managing the army, but now Zhuge Liang has been added.It seems that it is by no means an easy task to wipe out Soochow.How can we "surrender the enemy's army without fighting"? It seems that there is not much possibility of forcing Sun Quan to surrender like Liu Cong's generation.Now, it is necessary to prevent Soochow and Liu Bei from being able to combine forces, and let Zhou Yu deal with Zhuge Liang.