Chapter 155 Chapter 24: Working hard for several years (4)

Years of painstaking efforts have been wiped out in ashes Liu Bei said: "Cao Ren guards Jiangling, an important military town in Jingzhou. There is a lot of grain stored in the city. We must take advantage of Cao's army's morale and take it as soon as possible. Otherwise, once Cao Ren settles down in Jiangling, Jingzhou will not be easy to recover." Zhou Yu said, "Yuzhou is familiar with Jingzhou, what do you think?" After thinking for a while, Liu Bei said: "Cao Cao's reputation in the Jingzhou area has been lost. It is better to increase the pressure immediately and make him retreat. I will send Zhang Fei's 1,000 troops to assist you, and I hope you will divide me into 2,000 troops. The situation where the two of us join forces. You attack Jiangling from the front, and I follow the Xiashui to enter behind it. I believe that under internal and external pressure, Cao Ren will definitely retreat."

Zhou Yu readily agreed to Liu Bei's plan. At the beginning of December in the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Zhou Yu led the original team of the Battle of Chibi, joined forces with Ding Feng, Jiang Qin and other troops on the outskirts of Jiangling, and launched an offensive towards Jiangling.Huang Gai and Han Dang guarded Sanjiangkou, Cheng Pu led the land troops Ling Tong, Lu Meng and other corps as the vanguard, Zhou Yu himself led the main force of the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Tai and Gan Ning Army, followed closely. Not long after Cao Ren had beaten Ding Feng back, Lu Meng and Ling Tong's vanguard of more than 10,000 troops had already surrounded Jiangling City.

Cao Ren's lungs exploded when he saw the Soochow army flaunting their might in the city, shouting and laughing. "I'll take hundreds of death squads to attack the Soochow camp at night, and give them a warning, otherwise they will be too arrogant!" Niu Jin requested. Cao Ren agreed. The Soochow army had been on guard for a long time. Seeing that Niu Jindai had entered the camp, they immediately surrounded them.Niu Jin couldn't take off his left and right sides, and the whole army was about to be wiped out. Seeing this, Cao Ren hurriedly mobilized his bodyguards, intending to go into battle by himself.

The staff officer Chen Jiao tried his best to stop him, saying: "there are too many enemies, it is useless for you to go. Since hundreds of people have been sacrificed, why bother to go to the enemy camp!" Cao Ren ignored it, put on his armor and mounted his horse, and personally led the guards into the enemy camp.Because it was so sudden, Lu Meng's general was dumbfounded, just like Guan Yu beheading Yan Liang, Cao Ren rescued Niu Jin's death squad in the blink of an eye.Facing the Soochow Army rushing in from all directions, Cao Ren took the lead to break out of the siege, but when he looked back, he couldn't find Niu Jin, so he turned around and went in again.The soldiers of Soochow couldn't resist, and Cao Ren finally rescued most of the death squads including Niu Jin.

Chen Jiao saw that he was covered in cold sweat from the city, and he couldn't help saying to the surrounding soldiers: "General Cao is really a god, no wonder the prime minister thinks so highly of him." After a surprise attack, Cao's army almost retreated completely, but Lu Meng's army was in vain, and the morale of Cao's army in Jiangling was boosted by this. Zhou Yu was unable to attack for a long time, and with the severe winter in central China, it was increasingly difficult to supply the army. Cheng Pu then advised Zhou Yu to give up the siege of Jiangling for the time being.Zhou Yu sighed: "A fierce general is so powerful. If it weren't for the strange southeast wind, Soochow would have been swallowed by Cao Cao long ago!"

Gan Ning held the opposite opinion to Cheng Pu, saying: "You can first send a small force to capture Yiling, another important military town in the southeast of Jiangling, and confront Jiangling Yao, and use it as a base to attack the western defense line of Jiangling City. Come, we can attack Cao Ren from the east and the west." Zhou Yu agreed to Gan Ning's suggestion, and Gan Ning led hundreds of people to successfully attack Yiling and occupy the mountain pass leading to the west of Jiangling. At this time, the reinforcements sent by Cao Mengde arrived.Cao Ren asked Xu Huang to take over the defense of Jiangling, and he led a contingent of 6,000 troops to attack Yiling from the mountain road, preparing to take back this mountain pass with all his strength.

Cao Ren's army was far superior to Gan Ning's army, and quickly attacked the mountain, and then ordered the archers to shoot continuously into the city from the high mountain.The Soochow soldiers were frightened to death, but Gan Ning showed no fear, talked and laughed freely, and personally braved the rain of arrows on the city wall to boost morale. Because Cao Jun had an absolute advantage, Gan Ning secretly sent someone to ask Zhou Yu for help.Zhou Yu thought that Cao Mengde did not care about Jiangling's survival, but unexpectedly sent Xu Huang, a fierce general, to support him. In addition, Liu Beijun's vanguard troops sent for Lejin in the Xiashui River Basin were blocked, and they could not come to join the army, so that the soldiers of the Eastern Wu army fell behind in terms of strength. into a disadvantage.

Zhou Yu advocated dividing the troops to go to Yiling, but Cheng Pu firmly opposed it. He said: "If Xu Huang knows this situation and takes the opportunity to counterattack, the problem will be serious." But Lu Meng said: "I suggest that Ling Tong's army should confront Xu Huang and hold on for ten days, and we can break the siege of Yiling." Zhou Yu adopted Lü Meng's suggestion and made Lü Meng the vanguard, taking a shortcut through the mountains to Yiling, intending to attack Cao Ren's rear and break the siege of Yiling. Cao Ren never expected that the army pinned down in Jiangling would suddenly appear behind him, and he had to fight hastily, but in the end he was outnumbered, and more than half of the 6,000 contingent died.Cao Ren had no choice but to take advantage of the cover of night and retreat secretly from the mountains.

After the battle of Yiling, Zhou Yu's morale was greatly boosted, and he was determined to completely capture Jiangling. Zhou Yu personally led the army to surround Jiangling. On the day of the siege, he even stood at the front to supervise the battle.Cao Ren ordered a rain of arrows to fight, and Zhou Yu was shot in the right rib, injuring his lung. When Cao Ren heard that Zhou Yu couldn't afford to be injured, he immediately led his army out of the city to fight back. Zhou Yu had no choice but to endure the arrow wound and sit in the base camp to command. At this time, Liu Bei's army finally defeated Le Jin's army and gradually cut off Jiangling's retreat.Cao Ren was afraid that the army would be killed, so he discussed countermeasures with Xu Huang.Xu Huang remembered the secret letter that the prime minister had given him when he returned to Yanzhou, and quickly opened it to read. It said: "Stick to Jiangling. If Jiangling is still on our side after two months, I will immediately raise troops to attack Sun Liu for the second time. If not, Then abandon it and retreat to Xiangyang."

Therefore, Cao Ren and Xu Huang had to abandon Jiangling and return to Xiangyang.