Three Kingdoms

While Fei Qian and Pang Tong were discussing the issue of Liu Pan and the scepter he brought, Cao's army had already gathered together in Jingzhou, and the forwards Cao Hong and Xiahou Dun were approaching Xiangyang again.

However, because of the fear of the Gan-Ning navy, Cao Hong and Xiahou Dun did not set up camp close to Xiangyang. Instead, they placed their main forces in Fancheng, and then naturally discussed how to solve the current situation in Xiangyang.

Xiahou Dun said: "Although the Liu family has occupied Xiangyang for a long time and has a solid foundation, it cannot be defeated hastily. However, it cannot conquer Xiangyang quickly, and it will inevitably delay the lord's important affairs." Nowadays, the Xiangyang navy is displayed in front, which is really worrying. If it cannot be cut off, it may be difficult to enter. 』

Xiahou Dun's words are also the current difficulty. Gan Ning's navy has now become an obstacle in front of Xiahou Dun. If it cannot be pulled out, it will be impossible for the horse to set foot in Jingzhou...

As he said that, Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong both looked at Cai Mao.

Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong had no problems in fighting on land, but in the mode of war on the water, neither of them was as good as Cai Mao.

Before this, neither Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong, nor Cao Cao thought that the navy was very important, or even felt that it was necessary to form a navy. But now, after being frustrated, they suddenly realized that There seems to be a shortage of one at home.

"If you want to conquer Xiangyang, you must first defeat the navy. Otherwise, you will have troubles in the future..." Cao Hong also said, "Furthermore, if we really conquer Xiangyang and Jiangdong... if we let them come and go, what will happen?" Can it be done? 』

Cai Mao was a little helpless. Are there any of you who come here to trick me when shit is about to happen?

But in fact, this is also the case in history. After Cao Cao conquered Jingzhou, he was even more anxious when facing Chibi than he is now...

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, and then to the Qin and Han Dynasties, the status of the navy has always been low. Of course, we can't laugh at fifty steps. After all, the feudal dynasties of later generations also showed how much they valued China's naval forces. After the Ming Dynasty was short-lived, they abandoned their martial arts...

Cai Mao did have some methods, but these methods were originally reserved for use against Cao Cao when the time was right, so that he could finally gain control of Xiangyang in Jingzhou, but what he didn't expect was that he would now be He was forced to show off his methods, because it was obvious that apart from him, neither Xiahou Dun nor Cao Hong had anything good to do against the Jingzhou navy...

After intense preparations, General Cao Jun left Fancheng, went down the Han River, and marched to Xiangyang again.

Gan Ning's scouts who stayed in the Han River soon discovered Cao Jun's movements and immediately reported it to Gan Ning Wenpin and others. Although the Xiangyang Bridge has been destroyed, if Cao Jun controlled both sides of the Han River, it would not be that difficult to build a pontoon bridge.

Wenpin felt that the arrival of Cao Jun was a bit strange. After all, Cao Jun was defeated recently and did not have enough naval power. Wenpin was a little confused by Cao Jun's actions this time, but Gan Ning didn't understand it if he didn't understand it. He certainly didn't understand it anyway. Maybe if this stalemate continues, there will eventually be a fight. Since Cao Jun is dispatched, let's fight.

Cao Jun took his time and walked thirty miles a day. The baggage ships transporting grain were in the Han River, accompanying the troops on land like a shadow. Every day when the sun just turned west, Cao Jun would set up camp and rest early.

This attitude confused Scout Gan Ning.

Cao's army's marching speed was neither too fast nor too slow. It was quite satisfactory and there was nothing wrong with it. But the baggage ships in the Han River looked like living bait no matter how you looked at them. There are more than a dozen warships filled with food and fodder, and there is no decent naval escort. This is obviously a flaw that was deliberately exposed.

However, the obvious flaw made Gan Ning hesitate, so much so that the Jingzhou navy did not attack for a long time. Both Cao Hong and Xiahou Dun are veterans of many years of fighting. It is impossible not to know the importance of food and grass. If they had not been beaten by Gan Ning before, such mistakes might have occurred. But now that Cao Jun is doing this, it is very likely that It's a trap...

However, with such hesitation, Cao Jun had already advanced to Xiangyang's attack circle.

It could not be delayed any longer. As soon as Gan Ning and his navy tried to make contact, Cao's army immediately stopped advancing and set up camp on the spot. The land and water camps were linked together to echo each other. Although the Jingzhou navy was still confused, after Gan Ning sent a large number of scouts to detect, they did not find any specific ambush by Cao Jun. So after weighing it, Gan Ning could no longer restrain his impulse and launched an exploratory attack. s attack.

Cao Jun relied on the military stronghold on the land to defend, dragged all the baggage ships to the shore, and then set up crossbow positions on the land to face Gan Ning's naval counterattack. Facing numerous bows and crossbows, Gan Ning's navy did not dare to be careless, and tested step by step, looking for flaws.

Cao Hong set up a command post on the high ground on the shore. Looking at the soldiers on both sides fighting, his mind went to other places. Cao Hong knew very well that in the face of these grains and grass, even if Gan Ning's side was tempted, the real battle had not yet begun, and once the real battle began, it would be thrilling.

The two sides fought fiercely for most of the day, each suffering injuries, but none of them were fatal.

Gan Ning's navy tried to set fire to Cao Jun's baggage ship several times, but it was obvious that Cao Jun had made a lot of preparations. Whenever there was a fire, Cao Jun covered it with wet sand, and there was no chance for it to continue burning. Gan Ning's side The same is true. Most of the casualties on both sides were caused by Liu Ya, and there were not many direct physical injuries...

After nightfall, Gan Ning's navy withdrew to a safe distance and maintained surveillance on Cao's army.

For Gan Ning, it is not necessarily necessary to defeat Cao Hong immediately. As long as Cao Jun cannot easily approach Xiangyang, it is also considered a victory. As for Cao Jun's baggage ships, he can burn them if they can. If they can't, they can block them. It doesn't make much sense to rush in and burn with heavy casualties.

At midnight, Cao Hong closed his eyes and lay down with his clothes on.

Suddenly there were footsteps outside the big tent. As soon as Cao Hong opened his eyes, he immediately turned over and sat up. In fact, he hadn't slept all this time. He was just dozing off. "What's the matter?" 』

"General, there is news..." the guard outside the tent whispered.

Cao Hong opened the curtain of the big tent, walked out, and said in a deep voice, "What's the matter?" 』

"Everything is ready..."

Cao Hong did not speak immediately, but stood outside the tent. After thinking for a while, he waved his hand vigorously: "According to the general's order, act according to plan!" 』

Gan Ning soon received a report from the scouts, saying that Cao Jun was making moves, and then followed Cao Jun to detect, and found that Cao Jun secretly built a pontoon bridge upstream...

"I see! Gan Ning sneered, "Are you using this camp to attract Yu, and then trying to go around and raid Xiangyang?" Come, send a message to Xiangyang! 』

The ordering soldiers left in a hurry, asking the Xiangyang defenders to be more vigilant.

Gan Ning, with his hands behind his back, walked around twice. Now he has two choices, one is to retreat and defend with Xiangyang City, the other is to march forward to destroy the pontoon bridge and defeat Cao Jun's plan.

After a while, Gan Ning ordered the attack.

The reason is very simple. Gan Ning doesn't like to retreat and defend.

Gan Ning left a small part of the navy to monitor Cao Hong's part of Cao's army. He led most of Cao's army up the Han River and rushed to the place where Cao's army built a pontoon bridge. After all, Cao Hong mainly focused on the army, and there were just some baggage ships on the water. Therefore, Gan Ning naturally did not think that Cao Hong would threaten his navy, so he could just monitor it from a distance.

The place where Cao Jun built the pontoon bridge was naturally a relatively narrow area on both sides of the Han River.

Cao Jun cut down some trees and seemed to first use the wood to form rafts, and then connect the rafts to form a pontoon bridge. This is also a commonly used method of building floating bridges.

But what Gan Ning didn't expect was that Cao Jun would target him from the beginning...

Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong didn't understand Gan Ning's temper very well, but Cai Mao did. For these generals in Jingzhou, especially Gan Ning under Liu Biao, Cai Mao had always observed and carefully speculated. Therefore, almost every move of Gan Ning fell into Cai Mao's deduction!

An ordinary person might have retreated to Xiangyang, but Gan Ning would probably choose to attack the pontoon!

On the battlefield, you can make a bet with a 50% chance, let alone an 80% certainty?

If you want to defeat Gan Ning's navy, you must create favorable geographical conditions so that Gan Ning cannot escape in a short time and severely damage his navy. The small water area at the pontoon just meets such conditions. This is carefulness. Choose a good battlefield.

Gan Ning initially thought that Cao's army on land was moving slowly anyway. If he could not make a single attack, there would be no big problem in going down the river to Xiangyang. Even if Cao's army retreated by then, Cao's army would not have any ships to pursue him. On the water, besides, who else can beat him on the water?

So Gan Ning thought there was no problem.

However, Cao Jun's goal this time was not to engage in a water battle with Gan Ning. Instead, he focused his attack on Gan Ning's ships.

No matter how powerful Gan Ning is, it is impossible to protect all the ships under his command from harm. Once these ships are destroyed, Gan Ning, no matter how powerful his water warfare ability is, will be useless...

So, when Gan Ning led his navy to attack Cao's army who was pretending to set up a pontoon bridge, Xiahou Dun gave the order to attack in an orderly manner.

As the battle progressed, Gan Ning, who had just come ashore and was about to destroy the pontoon, soon discovered that something was wrong...

These guys don't care about the Boardwalk!

Cao Jun obviously came prepared. The rafts that originally looked like they were tied up to build a pontoon were actually used to destroy ships! Large iron nails were installed on the front end of the raft. Once it hit a ship, it would be easily stuck on the side of the ship. Fire starters were piled on top of the raft, which was also hit by rockets shot by archers on the shore. Quickly ignite!

There were rafts and wooden piles constantly thrown out along the current in front of them. Gan Ning originally set up a formation to land on the pontoon and destroy the pontoon. Now he wanted to retract the anchor and turn around, but because he was in a small water area, it was difficult to turn around for a while. .

The iron chains that were originally hidden on the river bed were twisted up, cutting across the surface of the Han River. At the same time, more and more rafts were thrown out, and there were even half-cut branches and branches, tumbling messily in the current. Collision with and between Gan Ning's ships.

The Jingzhou navy soldiers struggled to push away these debris. However, the barbs and nails mixed in the debris were not easy to deal with once they were nailed to the side of the ship. More and more wooden piles and rafts are lingering, causing the boat speed to become slower and slower, and they are jammed together...

The greater the congestion, the more things gathered together, and the flames began to spread from the raft to the ship!

"kill! Fight out! 』

Gan Ning drew his sword, roared fiercely, fought hard, and broke through the siege of Cao Jun on the shore. He led his men back to the ship and ordered the ship to turn around. He knew very well that if he could not quickly open a breakthrough, he would be blocked by Cao Jun. If they live in waterways, these Jingzhou ships on the water will sooner or later turn into torches, and they will not be able to escape even if they want to.

Every Jingzhou navy also understood this. They followed Gan Ning and fought hard to break out of the encirclement, pushing away the rafts and even their own boats blocking the way. Flames rose and thick smoke billowed. From time to time, some people were so smoked by the fireworks that they fell headlong from the boats. Entered the Han River!

Xiahou Dun was not idle either. Although he failed to leave Gan Ning directly on the land, he still continued to give orders amidst the sound of war drums. Under the cover of the shield soldiers, the crossbowmen continued to shoot arrows from the shore. The crossbow arrows were mixed with rockets, making Gan Ning's Jingzhou Navy more and more confused and at a loss to deal with it.

Fortunately, the Han River was surging, and it was somewhat convenient to escape along the current. In addition, even if Xiahou Dun cut down a large number of trees, it was limited. After intensive waves of attacks, the follow-up was somewhat weak.

Gan Ning abandoned the ignited ships and escaped from Xiahou Dun's pursuit in a panic. Before he could catch his breath while going down the river, he saw the dozens of Cao Hong's baggage ships that he had not cared about before. When Gan Ning was about to pass, he rushed out. The bow of the ship was obviously a newly added collision angle, shining with a cold light...

"Turn!" Avoid it! 』

Gan Ning yelled.

The fire burst into flames.

The baggage that the Jingzhou navy tried hard to light was now lit by Cao Jun himself. However, the situation in front of him did not bring any joy to the Jingzhou navy, only endless fear...

…(⊙﹏⊙|||)…

Feixiongxuan is located in the southwest of Chang'an, on the bank of Fengshui. Within a radius of a hundred miles, many villages were originally abandoned during the Xiliang War, but now they have become the home of Feiqian's farming. There is a military station located in Fengshui, which naturally also takes care of guarding. The responsibilities of Liu Qi and Yuan Shang.

Liu Qi sat blankly on the high platform of Feixiong Xuan, his clothes disheveled. Anyway, my family is already in such a situation, so there is no need to pay special attention to appearance and appearance, and how to be free. In addition, it is now June and the weather is gradually getting hotter, so I open my chest and show my body in a debauched manner.

Regarding Fei Xiongxuan's supply, Fei Qian did not deliberately deduct Liu and Yuan. After all, with the current strength of the Hussar, it would not be a problem to raise two hundred more idlers, let alone two more. Anyway, Normally you won't die of hunger, but if you want to eat deliciously and be as picky as before, naturally you won't.

In fact, Liu Qi had fantasized about it more than once, imagining that suddenly his father would appear from the horizon, riding colorful auspicious clouds... Well, ahem, it was probably like that. Suddenly someone came to rescue him, and he would be very proud. Standing at the top of Chang'an City, he trampled General Fei Qian under his feet.

Then I woke up.

There was everything in the dream, but when I woke up from the dream, I felt empty, lonely and cold.

Sometimes Liu Qi would also think that if he had worked harder, listened more to his father Liu Biao, or imitated Liu Cong more, he would have pretended to study scriptures for a few days and dropped some book bags and so on. , will it be easy for his father, Liu Biao, to hate him, so naturally he doesn’t have to leave Jingzhou and end up in such a ghost place...

If I had known...

I should have known it earlier!

When they were young, some middle school teenagers would fantasize about what they would do when they grow up. Just like Liu Qi, she felt how painful it was to study when she was supposed to go to school. She thought that when she grew up, she would no longer need to study, but now she really As I got older, I stopped studying. After being beaten hard by the cold reality, I thought about how I could have studied well back then...

Thinking of reading, Liu Qi couldn't help but think of Yuan Shang.

Compared with Yuan Shang, Liu Qi looks like a sloppy beggar.

Yuan Shang would get up early every day, and even if there were not many servants, he would take care of himself carefully, then wear clean and tidy clothes, sit in the courtyard and read, read, read...

In addition to eating and sleeping, Yuan Shang spends most of his time reading.

Sometimes Liu Qi couldn't help but think that if he had half, no, a quarter of Yuan Shang's enthusiasm for reading, it would be Liu Qi himself who would please Liu Biao, not that little brat Liu Cong.

At this time, Liu Qi envied Yuan Shangneng for having the temperament to sit down and read a book. Every time Liu Qi picked up the scroll, he felt that the ink characters on the slips seemed to be dancing, twisting and turning on the bamboo pieces. Turn around, swing your arms and legs, and then you can't see clearly. If you look harder for a while, you will feel dizzy and sleepy...

Liu Qi climbed up, staggered off the high platform, turned around the corridor, and saw Yuan Shang still sitting cross-legged in the courtyard, holding a scroll in his hand, seemingly reading with gusto.

Liu Qi sat down next to Yuan Shang, crookedly, clasped his ankles with his hands, and subconsciously raised them to his nose and smelled...

Yuan Shang couldn't help but frown.

"ah? Sorry..." Liu Qi moved to the side, "I..."

"..." Yuan Shang did not put down the letter, nor did he say anything.

"Actually, I really envy you..." Liu Qi looked at Yuan Shang, his eyes showing very real emotions, "I get a headache when I read the book..."

Of course, Liu Qi envied Yuan Shang for much more than this.

Yuan Shang is envied by Liu Qi, both in appearance and in his daily behavior, because these are what he lacks. In comparison, Yuan Shang is more in line with the standards of a child of a noble family, while Liu Qi is like a child who sneaked in. The husky of the wolf pack.

Liu Qi was talking nonchalantly, talking about his troubles and confusion. Anyway, the only one in Feixiongxuan who could listen to him was Yuan Shang.

Yuan Shang seemed to be listening, but also seemed not to listen. He was looking at the book, but also seemed not to be reading. He sat still, like an exquisite statue.

After a while, a soldier suddenly shouted loudly outside the courtyard: "Uncle Yi Ji is here to visit!" 』

"ah? Uncle Ji is here? "Liu Qi was stunned for a moment, and then said, "Maybe something happened, I'll go there..."

Yuan Shang remained motionless.

It wasn't until Liu Qi walked out of the courtyard that Yuan Shang slowly put down the letter in his hand. Unknowingly, a tear fell from the corner of his eye, "Reading... Hehe, hehe, now... besides reading, I can also do something else." What...at least, you still have Yi Jibo, and I...hehe, wuwu..."