Three Kingdoms: I switched to Liu Bei, why are you crying, Cao Cao?

Chapter 94: Using Water to Attack the Heart, Yuan Shu's Army Panic
Flooding a city, also known as using water instead of soldiers, is not a new strategy.

Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, the most famous battle example was Bai Qi's attack on Chu and the flooding of Yancheng. This battle caused the city to be flooded, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city were drowned.

The difficulty of flooding Shouchun is much lower than that of Yancheng, because the water level in Yancheng is higher than that of Yanshui River, making construction extremely difficult.

Shouchun is the opposite. Shouchun is located in a low-lying area in a concave plain. There is a tributary of the Huai River around it, which can be called a natural canal.

All we need to do is dig a canal, lead it to Shouchun, then build a dam across the river, and when the water level reaches a high level, we can start our work.

Therefore, after Qin Zhen proposed this, without waiting for Zhou Yu to reply, Lu Bu stroked his beard and said:

"So I know you have a plan, it's feasible!"

"If we act this way, no matter if Ji Ling sends out troops or not, we won't be able to defend this city!"

As he said this, he looked at Liu Bei and Sun Ce and said:

"What do you two think of this plan?"

Sun Ce listened, glanced at Qin Zhen, and nodded:

"This plan should work!"

After the two of them expressed their opinions, the decision-making power fell on Liu Bei.

Facing the gazes of the two, Liu Bei looked at Qin Zhen with some difficulty and said:

"How can we dig water and flood the city, endangering the people?"

"Military Advisor, do you really have no other strategies?"

He had not received any advance notice from Qin Zhen, so when he heard that Qin Zhen's plan was to flood the city, he became a little hesitant.

You must know that flooding a city will cause great harm to the people!
Even though the water level has dropped due to the drought, it is possible to flood half of Shouchun City if someone is determined to dig for water.

This might not drown many people, but the sewage would pollute the food and water sources in the city. In this case, even if they captured Shouchun, they would be hated by the people of Shouchun.

It is basically impossible for them to stabilize the situation as quickly as possible, which is contrary to the general direction proposed by Qin Zhen.

Logically speaking, Qin Zhen shouldn't act like this!
When Liu Bei looked over, Qin Zhen nodded expressionlessly and said:

"My lord, you must know that without this plan, we will never be able to take this city!"

"Our army cannot adopt this strategy. If Yuan Shu were to make a comeback, it would be a disaster for the people of Huainan!"

"Now that Huainan is suffering from drought, the people are living in poverty. If Yuan Shu returns in defeat, he will certainly impose heavy taxes again in order to expand his army. How can Huainan still allow Yuan Shu to cause such harm?"

As he said this, it seemed as if there would really be corpses everywhere. Liu Bei's heart sank again when he heard it. He turned around and looked in the direction of Shouchun City with a complicated look in his eyes.

After a long silence, he said in a deep voice:
"Forget it, let's just follow this plan! Let us take the blame!"

His behavior naturally made the atmosphere heavy in the eyes of everyone.

Even Lu Bu couldn't laugh at this moment.

Because they could feel the despair in Liu Bei's heart.

At this point, the three parties unanimously agreed to flood Shouchun with water.

After deciding on the plan, everyone returned to the camp to discuss the specific division of labor.

After all, this is a huge civil engineering project, and we also have to deal with the reaction in the city, so Zhou Yu immediately stood up and said:

"Everyone, now that the three of us have decided on this strategy, how about we divide the work?"

"One of them will dig the canal, one will block the river, and one will deal with the soldiers in the city!"

As soon as he proposed this, the three families began to think about it, but Qin Zhen saw this and stood up shakily and said with a smile:
"It is absolutely not feasible to divide the work among three parties! Then we can just build a dam and block the river with a few thousand soldiers and horses."

"It's difficult to deal with the soldiers in the city alone, and digging the canal is also a laborious job!"

"In my opinion, Sun Lang has the most soldiers and horses now, so we can divide them to build dams and dig water. The three families will each send 5,000 people to dig canals."

"The remaining troops should continue to be stationed outside to prevent Ji Ling from leaving the city. This is the only way to deal with it."

When Lu Bu and Liu Bei heard this, they nodded in agreement. Since it was a matter that would bring disgrace upon themselves, it was natural for the three families to share the work.

When Zhou Yu saw this, he secretly sighed. As the saying goes, one step wrong leads to all steps wrong. Qin Zhen's move of winning over Lu Bu in advance really controlled them.

With Lu Bu's help, it seemed like the three parties were conspiring together, but in fact, everything was dominated by Qin Zhen.

They are extremely passive if they want to plan anything!

In addition, Qin Zhen is a man of meticulous mind, and almost no small move of his can escape his eyes, making him really difficult to deal with!
Thinking of this, he simply said to Sun Ce:
"If that is your arrangement, we have no objection. What do you think, brother?"

Seeing Zhou Yu's agreement, Sun Ce nodded and said:

"Since Gongjin has agreed, there is nothing I cannot agree to!"

With his agreement, the matter was settled. Seeing this, Qin Zhen suggested again:

"In this case, we should start the construction today without delay, so that Ji Ling will know that this city is difficult to defend!"

The three of them listened and naturally had no objection, so they agreed again.

A meeting just ended like this.

When Sun Ce and Lu Bu left the camp, Liu Bei stood up and said worriedly:
"Military Advisor, is our army really going to act this way?"

"You should know that there are hundreds of thousands of civilians in Shouchun City. If our army is like this, how can we convince the civilians in the future?"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Qin Zhen shook his head and said:

"Don't worry, lord. Diverting water is not a strategy to capture the city, but a method to capture the heart!"

"My plan is not to flood the city, but to attack Ji Ling's heart."

"My lord, you only thought that our army's diversion of water into the city would cause great suffering to the people, but you never thought that Ji Ling in Shouchun City would think the same way."

"He has indeed been ordered to defend the city, but this city does not have to be defended!"

"Our army is so cautious, how can Ji Ling not be cautious?"

"If he has no soldiers in the city, then that's fine. But now he has soldiers and knows we want to carry out this plan, how dare we not fight?"

"And our army's chance to capture the city lies here!"

Liu Bei was stunned when he heard this:

"Since this is a psychological attack, why didn't you say anything just now?"

He thought Qin Zhen really wanted to divert water to flood the city, and he was quite conflicted for a while.

When Qin Zhen heard this, he smiled and said:

"If the lord believes what I say, that would be great."

"What I said just now was to confuse Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, so that they could not figure out how our army would break into the city!"

"Because Zhou Yu spoke before the lord called me, it is clear that he has bad intentions and wants to use this to cause trouble."

"At the moment, our army's calculations have not yet been revealed, and they have acted like this. We know that they have already begun to plot against our army."

"In this case, we must not let them know all our army's concerns, so that we can use them to our advantage!"

After hearing this, Liu Bei recalled what had just happened and nodded with a smile:
"So that's how it is. The military advisor didn't say a word. I was really scared just now!"

Qin Zhen smiled and stood up, saluted and said:
"Because this happened suddenly, I cannot speak. I hope my lord will forgive me!"

"Military advisor, there is no need to do this!"

Liu Bei waved his hand nonchalantly and said:
"As long as we don't flood the city, it will be fine. But I wonder what the military advisor's plan is for taking the city?"

"Our army's plan this time still depends on Sun Ce's troops blocking the river!"

Qin Zhen immediately smiled at Liu Bei and said, "My lord, please come closer and follow our plan. I guarantee that our army will be able to capture this city in no time!"

When Liu Bei heard this, he leaned forward and listened carefully.

After hearing these words, he was overjoyed and arranged it immediately.

On the other side, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu arrived at the camp.

As soon as he sat down, Sun Ce said to Zhou Yu:

"I have met Qin Zhen today. What do you think of him?"

Zhou Yu heard this and immediately sighed:
"This person is extremely thoughtful and can see the big picture from the details. He is truly extraordinary. With him assisting Liu Bei, he is truly a formidable enemy for our army!"

"Now I am unable to control it, I don't know how to deal with it in the future!"

Before meeting Qin Zhen, he was eager to meet this person.

But after seeing Qin Zhen, he felt a little regretful.

It was fine if he hadn’t seen this person before, but now that he saw him, he had no idea what the other person was thinking.

On the contrary, it was his actions today that caught Qin Zhen's attention.

When they were confronting each other outside the city just now, he only felt that this man had a smiling face like a tiger and was unfathomable.

Especially the look in his eyes that seemed to see through him completely, which left him with lingering fears.

I really can't understand how Qin Zhen, a former counselor under Cao Cao, could know him so well!

In contrast, Qin Zhen seemed to be famous throughout the world and his behavior was well known, but he did not know what kind of person he was.

If you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be in danger in a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, you will win one and lose one!
After meeting Qin Zhen, he immediately became unsure. While thinking, he said to Sun Ce:
"Qin Zhen is so thoughtful. He seems to have offered some advice today, but he may have something to hide. We can invite Zhang Gong and others to come and discuss the matter!"

Sun Ce once again followed this plan and summoned Zhang Hong and others to discuss the matter.

When everyone heard that Qin Zhen was actually planning to dig water to flood the city, they were all shocked.

Even Zhang Hong was quite surprised for a moment and said:
"If you follow Gongjin's words, Liu Bei wanted to take Shouchun, and now he wants to flood the city. How could he achieve this?"

"If Wang He is really Qin Zhen, he is so cruel and ruthless that it is frightening!"

Everyone listened, and naturally no one objected!
You have to know that after the fall of Shouchun City, the city became a ruined city and needed some time to repair after the water was diverted to irrigate the city.

Qin Zhen offered this strategy in order to quickly seize Shouchun. Isn't he a ruthless person?
As expected, none of the people under Lao Cao are easy to get along with.

After hearing this, Sun Ce thought for a while and said:

"Gong Jin said that Liu Bei has something to hide, but we are unable to find out. Can you please help us?"

When everyone heard this, they began to think about it. After thinking for a long time, they could not think of anything.

After all, it was just a simple plan to flood the city, and now that no action has been taken, what else can they come up with?

Seeing this, Zhou Yu thought that maybe he was just being overly suspicious, and maybe Qin Zhen hadn't concealed anything, so he couldn't help but say:
"Even if you guys can't figure it out, our army might as well follow the plan first!"

"When this man's plan is revealed, our army will know!"

When Sun Ce heard this, he knew that this was the only way to proceed, so he stopped worrying and followed Qin Zhen's plan.

In order to build a dam, he ordered Jiang Qin to lead 3,000 soldiers to the north to cut down trees and block the river.

He also ordered Pan Zhang to lead troops and work together with Liu Bei and Lu Bu to start digging the canal.

Once the three families move, they will naturally not be able to hide from the inspection in the city.

However, since Ji Ling was defeated by Lu Bu before and was injured by an arrow, he followed Yuan Huan's advice and stayed indoors.

Although the weather was getting hotter, the food and grass in the city could still last for more than a month, so even though Ji Ling was injured, he was not panicked.

What was worrying was that there were more and more soldiers and horses outside the city. With the arrival of Sun Ce, the number of the coalition forces had reached twice that of those inside the city.

Seeing that the enemy had not made any moves, Ji Ling called Yuan Huan and others to discuss matters:

"Now Sun Ce has arrived at the city. I heard from the spies that Liu Bei personally invited him to the camp as a guest, and the three families had a very pleasant conversation!"

"From this, it can be seen that Sun Ce was also persuaded by Liu Bei, but the enemy's troops have reached 40,000 and they are not moving now. How should our army respond?"

Yuan Huan had given him some precautions in advance, so he had no objection to Sun Ce coming. However, generals like Chen Lan were all very worried when they heard about it.

After all, Sun Ce was originally their colleague, and they all knew how good Sun Ce was at fighting.

Liu Bei and Lu Bu were already difficult to deal with, and now with the addition of Sun Ce, it becomes even more difficult.

At that moment, someone started to mutter:

"If we had known this, why would we have sent reinforcements to Hefei?"

"Now, Hefei has been saved, but how can we defend Shouchun?"

When everyone saw this, they looked up and saw that the person who spoke was Qi Ji, the man who had been defeated by Zhang Liao and returned.

They had the same thoughts but did not dare to speak out because Ji Ling had suppressed them. Now that Qi Ji said this, they all started talking at once.

From his words, it seemed that he was quite dissatisfied with Yuan Huan!

When Ji Ling saw this, he glared and said:
"Without your advice, do you think you can hold on to Shouchun?"

"Do you think that Sun Ce will not march north unless our army reinforces Hefei?"

"You are a bunch of good-for-nothings, stop talking!"

The generals were naturally dissatisfied when they heard this, but due to Ji Ling's authority, they dared not say much.

Seeing this, Yuan Huan sighed inwardly and stepped forward and said:
"What you generals said is not wrong. This matter was indeed a mistake made by me, and I cannot escape the blame!"

"But now that we are facing a powerful enemy, I hope you will not do this. We must advance and retreat together, only then can we defeat the enemy!"

After saying this, he said to Ji Ling:

"General, even if the enemy does not move, we can try to attack them proactively, or we can test the enemy's situation."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ji Ling was surprised and asked:

"Didn't you say that the enemy is strong and we should not act rashly?"

"Before, we had few soldiers and horses, so we couldn't move. Now that Sun Ce is here, how dare we move?"

"No, we didn't move before because both families were prepared!"

Yuan Huan shook his head, looked at everyone and said:

"Now that the three families have come, they think our army dares not to fight, but this is the time for our army to move!"

"You can try to attack tonight and see if you can break into the enemy camp!"

To be honest, after finding out Qin Zhen's plan, he would rather the enemy attacked the city, because if the enemy did not move now, it would indicate a bigger plot.

It would be better for them to test the situation first so that they can defend the city with peace of mind.

Ji Ling didn't know what he was thinking, but he thought this made sense, so he nodded and said:
"Well, our army may go and give it a try tonight!"

As he spoke, he really wanted to arrange for battle, but he saw a soldier walking into the mansion in a panic, shouting:
"Report, General, there is a large enemy force building a canal outside the city!"

When these words came out, all the generals were stunned. Ji Ling stroked the tiger's whiskers and said:

"The enemy is building a canal outside the city. Why is that?"

But before he finished speaking, Yuan Huan's face turned pale and he exclaimed:
"Oh no! The enemy might be planning to use a water attack!"

Sure enough, the enemy was not standing still, but was trying to grow bigger!

(End of this chapter)