"Everyone dismount, everyone dismount, don't surprise Yuan Jun!" Li Qiong shouted to the people following him. After determining the strategic target, Li Qiong led a group of cavalry along the river towards Gaotang Port.
When they were about to arrive at Gaotang, Li Qiong asked them all to dismount so that the sound of horse hooves would not disturb Yuan Shao's army.
"Liu Yong, go and investigate how many warships Yuan Shao has parked in Gaotang Port. Others start cutting down trees and building rafts, waiting for Liu Yong to come back." Li Qiong asked a scout to inquire about the situation, while others also started cutting down trees and building rafts.
Their plan this time is very simple, which is to cross the river on a raft and burn the boat, so that Yuan Shao and the others will never come back!
Not long after, the scout named Liu Yong came back.
"How's it going? Is the security tight? Are there many ships?" Li Qiong asked eagerly when Liu Yong came back.
"call!"
'call! '
Liu Yong held his knees with both hands and panted heavily. After a while, he raised his head. He waved one hand back and forth towards Li Qiong while panting and said: "Can't see much, it's too dark. All I can see is The harbor was full of ships, but the defenders on the ships could not be seen clearly.”
It was too dark. If he hadn't been along the river, he might not have been able to find Li Qiong and the others.
"What should we do, Brother Li, are we still burning?" Another soldier asked, raising a ceramic jar in his hand. This ceramic jar was filled with the medical alcohol they brought this time and the alcohol they had just redeemed with points. Medical alcohol is also the most important prop in this crime plan.
This is what their military advisor Chen Gong discovered. Medical alcohol has a combustion-supporting effect. A little bit of it will ignite!
"Burn!" Li Qiong thought for a moment and decided to burn. It's come, but if you don't vote, wouldn't it be in vain?
They couldn't detect the enemy's situation when it was dark, but the dark night also gave them the best protection!
"Liu Yong, look at our clothes. The others will come with me to burn Yuan Shao's ship!" As he spoke, Li Qiong began to untie his armor, and the others also untied their armor to reduce the burden on them.
Over time, about thirty rafts were built.
Li Qiong led more than thirty people to push a raft deeper into the river. Each raft was filled with two or three cans of medical alcohol and some hay and flammable materials.
After the raft was pushed to a certain depth in the river, Li Qiong and others climbed onto the raft and began to row towards Yuan Shao's warships.
As time passed, Li Qiong and others swam under Yuan Shao's warship, and the sky in the east began to light up with a faint white light. Li Qiong looked at the white light in the east and secretly thought, God helped him and the time was just right.
At this time, the sky was not completely bright yet, and they could clearly see the distribution of Yuan Shao's shipbuilding with the help of the weak light from the east.
I saw densely packed warships parked side by side in the port.
Seeing that time was almost up, Li Qiong poured medical alcohol onto the side of the warship and then lit it on fire.
Only a handful of blue flames were seen burning, and the blue flames gradually spread to other areas where alcohol had been poured. After a while, common yellow flames began to burn around the blue flames.
Seeing this scene, Li Qiong began to paddle the raft to find the next target.
Others followed suit, lighting one ship and starting to look for another one!
Soon everyone had consumed all the medical alcohol in their hands, and the thirty people almost set fire to more than seventy warships. After doing this, Li Qiong took the people away without any hesitation, and what he planned was done by God.
At this time, the flames were burning on the side of the warship, and no one in Yuan Jun noticed anything unusual.
Just when they were halfway through swimming, there were sounds of water leaking and fire fighting coming from the warship.
But it was too late to find out now. Almost all the warships were burning with blazing flames, and the entire Gaotang Port was sending thick black smoke into the sky.
The soldiers trapped on the burning ship jumped into the water regardless of whether they could swim or not.
"Hahaha!" When Li Qiong and others saw this scene, they looked at each other and laughed!
At this time, Yuan Shao, who was in Gaotang County, was walking back and forth in the hall angrily.
Before he woke up, he heard the bad news coming from Gaotang Port. All their warships were burned this time!
Only one or two ships remained. With such a big impact on morale, he could only postpone his plan to attack Pingyuan County.
"Are there any losses?" Yuan Shao asked everyone. He never expected that Liu Bei would send people to sneak attack their warships and burn all their warships!
These are all supported by his relatives!
Fortunately, the food and fodder were not on board.
Previously, Tian Feng was worried that the grain and grass would become damp and moldy on the ship, so he had people move them out of the ship in advance, otherwise they would suffer even greater losses this time!
"Back to my lord, this time we have a total of seventy-eight warships burned, one hundred and twenty-three dead soldiers, all of them drowned, and countless other losses of materials!" Tian Feng reported to Yuan Shao truthfully.
It can be said that except for grain and grass, other materials have suffered more or less losses.
"Lord, in my opinion, this may not be a bad thing!" At this time, Guo Jia stood up and said.
"Oh? Why did Fengxiao say this?" Yuan Shao asked curiously. All their warships were burned this time. How could this not be a bad thing?
"My lord, in the last years of the Qin Dynasty, the overlord Xiang Yu led his troops across the river. They all sank their boats, broke their cauldrons, burned their houses, and held three days of rations to show that the soldiers would die and none of them would return the favor. Xiang Yu used the strategy of breaking cauldrons and sinking boats to boost morale and reduce the number of enemies. "More, why don't we follow Xiang Yu's example and use this matter to boost morale? As long as we capture the Pingyuan County warships and burn them, it will be worth it." Guo Jia admonished Yuan Shaojin.
In his opinion, these warships were originally used to circumvent Gaotang. Now that the purpose has been achieved, these warships are of little use. Why not use the burning of the warships to destroy the ship again!
Moreover, they still have an advantage, and there is no loss of food and grass. To put it bluntly, they actually lose nothing!
"This plan is very good!" Yuan Shao figured out the key after Guo Jia's advice. As long as he captured Pingyuan County, these warships didn't matter!
"Report! Troops with flags bearing the Chinese character Kong are found in the east and are rushing towards us!" Just when Yuan Shao had just decided on his strategy, a scout suddenly ran in and reported to Yuan Shao.
"What did you say? An army with the banner of Kong?" Yuan Shao immediately confirmed to the scouts that the only one who could carry the banner of Kong in Qingzhou was the old guy Kong Rong! I heard that he had a good relationship with Liu Bei, and Liu Bei even gave him potato seedlings before. It seems that he came to support Liu Bei!
"Back to my lord, what I can clearly see is the banner with the character Kong, and the leader is Zong Bao and a young general I have never seen before!" the scout replied truthfully.
"Well, Kong Rong, you are here to ruin my good deeds again this time!" Yuan Shao's face became unhappy. He remembered that when he sent people to intercept Liu Bei and his party, he almost succeeded. Kong Rong's subordinate Zong Bao leads his troops to support!
Wen Chou had no choice but to retreat. Not only did he get nothing that time, but he also lost General Yan Liang!
"Chun Yuqiong, I order you to lead five thousand elite troops to intercept Zong Bao. First, advise the opponent and inform him of Liu Bei's crimes. If the opponent insists on supporting Liu Bei, destroy him!" After Yuan Shao thought about it, he decided to let Chunyu Qiong first. He advised Zong Bao to stay out of other people's business. Although he hated Kong Rong, he had made enough enemies now and he didn't want to make enemies with Kong Rong yet.
But if the other party doesn't know what's good, don't blame him for being rude!
Liu Bei used benevolence and righteousness as his sword, so he destroyed Liu Bei's sword of benevolence and righteousness!
The charge of colluding between Liu Bei and the Taishan bandits was confirmed!
"As you command!"
Hearing that Yuan Shao still dared to reuse him, Chunyu Qiong excitedly issued a military order and led his troops to intercept Zong Bao!
And here in Pingyuan County.
"Lord, good news. General Chen led his troops to attack Gaotang in the middle of the night. All Yuan Shao's warships were destroyed and Yuan Jun's plan was delayed!" Zhuge Jin excitedly presented the latest battle report to Liu Bei and Chen The palace congratulated.
"Brother, this may not be good news. During the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu, the overlord, risked everything to improve his morale and defeat the Qin army with fewer enemies and more enemies. Yuan Shao has Tian Feng and Guo Jia there. I'm afraid Yuan Shao will also use this strategy!" Zhuge Liang explained.
Chen Gong and Liu Bei on the side looked solemn. As Zhuge Liang said, this matter may not be a good thing!
Yuan Shao lost his warship. If they want to return to Jizhou, they don't need to ferry back at all. They only need to occupy Pingyuan County and then return from Qinghe County. In other words, Yuan Shao now has the conditions to return from Qinghe County.
A county adjacent to Pingyuan County and Qinghe County has been occupied by Yuan Shao. He can go back if he wants.
Now they can only pray that Gongsun Zan and Kong Rong can come faster, otherwise there will be no hope for Pingyuan County!
