When Cao Cao and Yuan Shao confronted each other in Guandu, Sun Quan took the opportunity to lead his troops to attack Guangling. Chen Deng used a trick to scare off the 100,000-strong army. They declined before fighting and suffered numerous casualties.
Eighteen-year-old Sun Quan tasted failure for the first time.
After this battle, Sun Ce realized that Sun Quan was incapable of commanding an army, so he personally went to Dantu to reorganize his troops and prepare to go north again. Unexpectedly, he was injured by an assassin and died of serious injuries.
Wouldn't it be a pity that a star who was so high in the sky would fall like this?
In particular, he and Tai Shici were close friends with Sun Ce, and they were brothers and sisters, which was heartbreaking.
This kind of pain and irreparable regret can only be felt by the two of them.
Zhou Yu took a deep breath, looked up at the waterfowl hovering on the bow, and murmured: "Bo Fu, he is always here..."
…
In Dazhai, Jiangbei, Cao Cao was receiving a secret report from Chang'an and Xuchang, shaking his head and laughing.
Cao Hong secretly reported that Xu Huang had two intentions and was deliberately slacking off and refusing to fight. He was afraid that he might have been in contact with Liu Qi and Guan Yu, so a thorough investigation should be carried out as soon as possible.
Cao Cao smiled and said: "Xu Gongming is a good general in the world. His loyalty is as long as the clouds. He will never have two minds. This must be Liu Qi's plan to alienate his son. I told Zi Lian not to worry about it and just guard the pass together."
The other one was a secret letter from Chen Jiao of Xuchang. Cao Cao handed it to Xiahou Dun next to him: "Zilin has made great progress since the humiliation in Xiangyang!"
When Xiahou Dun heard that it was about his son, he quickly took it and looked at it. One of his eyes suddenly widened and he said angrily: "This son dares to store food and property privately. How can it be so unreasonable?"
Xiahou Dun was always frugal and never amassed money. He often taught his sons not to be greedy for money and sex, and that a man must be ambitious and successful to be worthy of Xiahou's children.
Now Xiahou Mao not only keeps concubines, but also openly and openly collects money and reserves grain and grass. This matter is big or small.
At a small level, it means that Xiahou Dun loves money as much as his life, but at a big level, it can even be said that Xiahou Dun has evil intentions!
Cao Cao waved his hand and said: "Yuan Rang, please be patient and don't be impatient. Zi Lin has made great progress compared to the previous days when he was just having fun!"
Xiahou Dun hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "Since I left Xuchang, this boy has become more and more unscrupulous. I don't know anything about this. Please take a closer look, Prime Minister."
Cao Cao smiled and said: "I already know everything about Zi Lin's ambition! Do you know why he resells grain and makes a lot of money?"
Xiahou Dun's face turned livid and he said solemnly: "How can an ineffective thing have great ambitions?"
"Yuan Rang's words are wrong!" Cao Cao said with emotion: "Zilin thinks that he is temporarily unable to command the army, but he has Xiao He's ambition. He makes money and raises grain to support my army."
Xiahou Dun was surprised and said: "Is this true?"
Cao Cao stroked his beard and smiled and said: "Yuan Rang doesn't know. I secretly support him and Zi Huan to run Maolin Hall. It doesn't matter whether they can make money, but they just happened to train the second boy. It seems to be quite effective now."
"That's it!" Xiahou Dun breathed a sigh of relief and scolded with a smile: "This brat, even I was kept in the dark."
Cao Cao laughed and was praising the younger generation when suddenly Cao Chun walked in quickly and reported:
"Prime Minister, something bad has happened. Sun Quan beheaded the envoy and hung his head by the river to demonstrate. He has appointed Zhou Yu as the governor and sent troops north."
"This is unreasonable! How dare you underestimate me?" Cao Cao was furious and ordered: "Raise the account!"
Later, when all the generals gathered together, Cao Cao asked: "Has the water army of Xuanwu Lake been prepared?"
Cao Xiu came out of the queue and replied: "All the warships have entered the river, and the navy is ready for action. We are only waiting for the Prime Minister's order."
The Xuanwu Lake Navy has been training for more than two years. It was trained by Liu Xun, the former governor of Lujiang. It has 20,000 soldiers and 800 warships. Together with the Xuzhou Navy, they are all commanded by Cao Xiu.
"Very good!" Cao Cao stroked his beard and sneered: "Jiangdong relies on its strong naval force, and Sun Quan wants to use the river to stop me. This time I let him know that our Northern Army is powerful in naval warfare."
Cao Xiu clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Prime Minister. We will sail across the river in the end. Wuhu can be captured in one day. Niuzhu can be reached by land and water. Stone City is within easy reach."
"Haha, how awesome!" Cao Cao laughed and said, "It's not in vain that I spent two years of Jizhou's money and food training."
Just as he was about to send an order to send out troops, Xun You dissuaded him and said: "Prime Minister, the wind and waves above the river are high and strong, and they are not comparable to Xuanwu Lake. People in the east of the Yangtze River are accustomed to water warfare, and there may be no opponents on the water. We should defend the shore and break it when the Wu army comes. The best strategy is to counterattack."
Liu Xun said: "The rats of Soochow can only sneak attack. If we talk about a head-on confrontation, what do our navy have to fear? In the past, Sun Ce's kid deceived me to earn money from Lujiang. In the future, I will definitely avenge my shame. Sun Ce robbed me, and I will definitely take it from him." Get double the amount from Sun Quan."
Liu Xun had an old relationship with Cao Cao. He was once a subordinate of Yuan Shu and served as the prefect of Lujiang. After Yuan Shu's death, he established a separate regime between Jianghuai and Huaihe.
Sun Ce invited him to attack the Yuzhang clan thief to divide the property. Liu Xun happily sent his troops, but Sun Ce took advantage of the opportunity to attack Lujiang. He had no choice but to defect to Cao Cao. He always held a grudge against Sun.
Hearing that Cao Cao had launched an army to control the water at Xuanwu Lake and abandoned the prefect of Hanoi to train the navy for revenge, Cao Cao was worried that no one in the Northern Army knew how to fight on the water. However, Liu Xun had considerable experience in the Jianghuai area, so he ordered him to lead the army.
Zhang Xun was eager for revenge, and Cao Xiu and a group of naval generals were also eager to fight. Hefei had a great victory a year ago, Zhang Liao defeated Sun Quan with 800 troops, and killed 100,000 Wu troops with only 3,000 or 4,000 men. They abandoned their armor and fled in disgrace.
This precedent made Cao's army full of confidence. They all thought that the southerners were cowardly and would collapse at the first touch. Wouldn't it be easy to pick up the credit everywhere when they go to war against the enemy?
Cao Cao saw that his army was ready and laughed and said: "If Zhou Yu can't defend the south bank, how can he take Jiangdong? It's just a waste of money and food here. It's better to go out to fight the enemy first to test the strength of the Wu army, and then make a decision." .”
This was the first battle of the navy, and Cao Cao was looking forward to it. He ordered Liu Xun to lead the Xuanwu Lake navy to attack the Wuhu water village. Cao Xiu led the army to respond and went to a reef on the river bank to watch the battle in person.
When the generals came to the shore, they saw rippling water, and on the hazy riverside in the distance, the tall black shadows of Soochow warships swam back and forth, like giant beasts.
Xun You and others all looked solemn, and Cao Cao also frowned secretly. He spent a huge amount of money to build warships and transported them thousands of miles from Hebei to Huainan, but they were still half weak.
But at this time, the arrow was on the string and had to be fired. If Liu Xun could fight against the Soochow Navy and continued to build ships and expand the army, he would not be able to capture Jingzhou. Could it be that he would not be able to cross the Yangtze River?
Liu Xun sailed ahead. Just after crossing the middle of the river, Wu Jun's sentinel ship had already discovered it and immediately detached a fleet to fight.
The two armies met on the river and sailed to stabilize the fleet. Liu Xun stood on the bow of the boat with a sword in hand and shouted: "I am Liu Xun! Sun Ce attacked us in Lujiang. Although people died, revenge must be avenged. Call Sun Quan's son to come Die."
It was Han Dang who sent out troops to meet the enemy. Just as he was about to sign up, he heard Liu Xun insult Sun Ce and became furious. With a move of his hand, the warship started and crashed into Cao Jun.
Liu Xun was shocked and hurriedly ordered his soldiers to take the helm and move away, preparing to surround him and kill him with random arrows.
I saw Han Dang take off his bow and arrow, put his foot on the side of the ship, wait for the big ship to approach quickly, bend his bow and set an arrow, and shoot straight at Liu Xun.
"Despicable - another sneak attack..." Liu Xun was shocked and angry. He didn't expect that the other party would hit him at any time without even moving the ship away.
Han Dang ignored his shouting. His archery skills were second to none among the Wu army. He fired three arrows in succession. Liu Xun only dodged two arrows before being hit by one. He screamed and fell on his back.
