The Three Kingdoms become stronger when they get treasures

Chapter 193 The Battle of Hefei Ends
Under the persuasion of Lu Su, Lu Meng and others, Sun Quan turned around and went to Shouchun. After joining Jiang Qin, he guarded Shouchun.

However, Liu Fu led Shouchun's defenders to Hefei under the support of Xiahouyuan's cavalry.After Jiang Ji's design, Cao Jun realized the strategic goal of exchanging Shouchun for Hefei.

Now it depends on how quickly Cao Cao leads his army. If Cao Cao comes quickly, there is still a chance to recapture Shouchun before the logistics of Jiangdong Army catch up.If Jiangdong's army is fully prepared in Shouchun, as long as it can defend for a month, Cao's army will be under great logistical pressure.

On the way back, Zhou Yu learned that Hefei had fallen and Huang Gai had died in battle. Although he was deeply saddened, the matter had come to this point, and he could neither blame his lord nor attack Hefei again.

After such a long delay, the city of Hefei must have been prepared for defense, and the reinforcements sent by Cao Cao should be approaching the north bank of the Huaihe River.Although the Huaihe River is also a big river, there are many places in the upper reaches where the river surface is narrow, and the number of Jiangdong naval forces above the Huaihe River is not large.

After Zhou Yu joined Pan Zhang, he launched a tentative attack on Hefei, and found that the city was well-defended and dispatched well, and there was a cavalry force outside the city, so he had to withdraw.Although the cavalry unit was small in number, it was highly mobile and put a lot of pressure on the Jiangdong Army.If you take advantage of the Jiangdong army's attack on the city and rush to a weak place for a while, you may be able to overwhelm the Jiangdong army.

Hefei was in the middle, and Zhou Yu couldn't go to join Sun Quan. At this time, Sun Quan had less than 3 soldiers, including the collapsed army.Shouchun is too far away from Jiangdong, in case of any accident, it is not easy to withdraw.

Zhou Yu felt that Xia Houyuan's hundreds of cavalry were the most obstructive. As long as these hundreds of cavalry can be eliminated, there will be no cavalry of Cao Jun in the entire Huainan land, and Zhou Yu can lead troops to bypass Hefei to join Sun Quan.

On this day, Zhou Yu commanded the Jiangdong Army to pretend to attack the city, and after attracting Xia Houyuan, he pretended to retreat.Seeing the opportunity, Xia Houyuan planned to lead his cavalry to charge forward for a while, cut down a few Jiangdong troops, and then ran away.

As a result, the Jiangdong army launched a row of heavy crossbows unloaded from the warships, directly shooting through the dozens of cavalry rushing to the front, and then formed a wall with heavy crossbows, behind which were full of spearmen.

Xia Houyuan saw that he had been fooled, and quickly ordered to retreat, but the cavalry could not turn around directly during the charge. They had to either penetrate the enemy in front and slow down the horse slowly, or draw an arc to go around.

Going forward would be courting death, so Xia Houyuan had no choice but to lead his cavalry into the Jiangdong army formation next to him, intending to stand out and encircle him.This time the Jiangdong Army sniped bravely and stopped these hundreds of cavalry.

Seeing this, Liu Fu on the city wall wanted to order Lei Xu to lead his army out of the city to rescue Xia Houyuan, but Jiang Ji stopped him.

Jiang Ji also knew Xia Houyuan's position in the Cao Cao Group, but he saw Zhou Yu's banner, and he knew that Zhou Yu must have other ambushes, as long as he dared to open the city gate to attack Xia Houyuan, then the city of Hefei might be taken away by Zhou Yu again .

Liu Fu didn't dare to take the risk of losing Hefei City again, so he could only hope that Xia Houyuan would break out of the siege.

In the end, Xia Houyuan still killed him, but there were only a dozen cavalry around him, and he could no longer threaten the Jiangdong Army.

Although Xia Houyuan was not eliminated, the goal was achieved. Zhou Yu asked Pan Zhang to stay on Chaohu Lake with [-] sailors, and he led [-] soldiers to bypass Hefei and go directly to Shouchun.

After Zhou Yu left, Xia Houyuan led a dozen remaining tiger and leopard cavalry into Hefei.

Jiang Ji said: "The subordinates did not agree to the governor Liu going out of the city to rescue him, so I ask the general to come down!"

Xia Houyuan said: "You are right. Zhou Yu just wanted to use me as a bait to lure you out of the city. As soon as you open the city gate, they will attack aggressively. If Hefei is lost again, the entire Huainan will no longer be owned by the imperial court."

Therefore, Liu Fu and Jiang Ji continued to guard Hefei. After Xia Houyuan rested, he led a dozen cavalrymen to the upper reaches of the Huaihe River to wait and receive Cao Cao's arrival.

After Cao Cao set off from Wancheng with [-] elite troops, he rushed all the way to Runan, and ordered Li Tong, the prefect of Runan, to lead [-] Runan soldiers to go out with the army.

After arriving at the north bank of the Huaihe River, Zhang Yun pleaded guilty to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao said: "The Jiangdong navy blocked the river, and the cavalry couldn't cross the river. It's not your fault. It's just how to cross the Huai River. What can you do?"

Xun You suggested: "Prime Minister, the number of Jiangdong navy is small, and we occupy the upper reaches, so we can deal with them with chained boats."

Cao Cao was overjoyed and said: "Gongda's words are exactly what I want. I ordered Li Tong to collect ships. Li Dian and Le Jin supervised the construction of iron chain ships. Zhang Yun continued to attract the attention of the Jiangdong navy."

Cheng Pu also noticed that Cao Cao's army was coming, but he didn't care. As long as you control the Huaihe River, your army will not be able to cross the river.

But half a month later, Cao Jun suddenly launched three large iron chain ships from the upper reaches of the hideout, and the remaining [-] sailors drove the boats, carrying many archers.

Cao's army was upstream, and Cheng Pu couldn't resist it, nor could he use fire to attack, so he had to retreat quickly and return to Shouchun to report the letter.Cao Cao's army crossed the Huai River one after another and joined Xia Houyuan who was waiting on the south bank of the river. After knowing the details, he divided his troops into two groups, one led by Xia Houyuan, and led Zhang Liao, Li Dian, and Le into Hefei.The other route was led by Cao Cao himself to march towards Shouchun, and Mao Jie led the navy to drive down the Huaihe River with iron chain boats.

Just as Zhou Yu led his army to rendezvous with Sun Quan, he was thinking about how to defend Shouchun, and use Shouchun as a base to gradually subdue Jiujiang, Linhuai and other places in the east, but he received a message from Cheng Pu sent a clipper.

Cao Jun used iron chains to resist the attack of the Jiangdong water army, and the army had already crossed the Huaihe River.

"It's chained boats again, damn it!" Zhou Yu said angrily, there's no other way, being downstream is not as advantageous as upstream.

Cao Jun's aggressive crossing of the river, and so many cavalry, made all Zhou Yu's plans aborted.Shouchun is too far away from Jiangdong, and it is not convenient to transport reinforcements or food and supplies. If Cao Jun tries to block the Huaihe River again, his group will not even be able to escape.

Therefore, Zhou Yu had no choice but to advise Sun Quan to withdraw his troops back to Jiangdong. Although Sun Quan was reluctant to give up Shouchun, no matter how good Shouchun was, it was not as important as his own life. He had no choice but to take a boat from the Huaihe River and return around Hongze Lake before Cao Jun arrived. Koto.Before leaving, he ransacked Shouchun City, and when he returned, he sent an order to Pan Zhang to lead his army back.

At this point, the Jiangdong Army's first attack on Hefei was over, and both sides suffered heavy losses.

Jiangdong lost more than 2 soldiers. The veteran Huang Gai died in battle, but his body was never recovered.On the other hand, Cao Cao lost a thousand tiger and leopard riders, and Shouchun was looted and destroyed, and he could not recover within three to five years.

In this battle for Hefei, Jiang Ji made great contributions in planning and was transferred to the prime minister's mansion by Cao Cao as the chief secretary. Xia Houyuan ambushed Sun Quan, raided Huang Gai and beheaded Huang Gai, and was promoted to general of the guard army.Lei Xu, the former guard of Shouchun, made great achievements in battle and was promoted to the prefect of Lujiang.

After Sun Quan returned, he sent Kan Ze as an envoy to retrieve Huang Gai's body and buried it with generous gifts. Cheng Pu and others were deeply saddened.

(End of this chapter)