The Bajun offensive launched by Xiahou Yuan finally came to an end after Zhang He was defeated and Xiahou Yuan was unable to advance.
Although Xia Houyuan did not occupy Bajun in this battle, his original purpose was to relocate Bajun's population to enrich Hanzhong. This time he sent troops to plunder 5,000 households, nearly 30,000 people, so it cannot be said that the operation failed.
As for Liu Bei, he prevented Xiahou Yuan from occupying Badong. Although the two counties of Brazil lost their population, they did not lose a piece of land.
This battle is very strange. Both the Cao and Liu families feel that they are the winners, and each other's lord thinks it is a great achievement.
The same strange situation also appeared in the Huainan region.
At the same time that Xia Houyuan marched into Hanzhong, a war also broke out in the Hefei area of Huainan.
Facing both sides were the 70,000-strong army led by Sun Quan himself, and the 7,000-strong Hefei garrison led by Zhang Liao, Li Dian, and Le Jin.
Sun Shiwan was finally going to fight Zhang Babai.
Because Cao Cao captured Hanzhong, Cao Wei's troops were basically concentrated in Hanzhong and Yongliang. The troops in the Huainan area were severely depleted, and the defense force was seriously insufficient.
In addition, after Cao Cao returned to Yecheng, because he wanted to claim the throne, he left part of his army to guard Yecheng to deter some "ambivalent" people. Therefore, the soldiers transferred from the Huainan area were not able to return to the defense in time.
As soon as Sun Quan, who was in Jiangdong, saw this situation, he immediately wanted to attack Hefei.
For one thing, stop Liu Bei's mouth so that he doesn't go back and say this and that about himself. If I send troops to attack Hefei, it will be regarded as completing the alliance.
On the other hand, now is really the best time to attack Hefei.
After the last experience of confronting Cao Cao at Ruxukou, Sun Quan now felt that his military ability was not bad. Therefore, he confidently mobilized an army of 70,000, known as 100,000, and marched into Hefei.
In fact, neither Lu Su nor Zhou Yu tried to persuade him about this, because they both agreed with Sun Quan's judgment and believed that now was Jiangdong's best chance to conquer Hefei and occupy Huainan in one fell swoop.
Therefore, Lu Su was left by Sun Quan in Jianye to look after the family and be the governor of grain and grass, while Zhou Yu was placed in the rear army by Sun Quan to support him back and forth.
Here, on the one hand, there is Sun Quan's little thought, which is to reduce Zhou Yu's influence in the army as much as possible and expand his authority.
After all, from Sun Quan's point of view, it's easy for me to defeat the opponent's garrison of less than 10,000 with 70,000 troops. Zhou Yu shouldn't get involved in this good opportunity to gain reputation.
On the other hand, Sun Quan also wanted to install his cronies in the army, and at the same time cultivate some new generation generals for Jiangdong.
Zhou Yu actually knew this very well, but Zhou Yu himself didn't think there was anything wrong with Sun Quan's actions.
Sun Quan is the lord, and he does this to consolidate his authority, which is good for the stability of Jiangdong. Zhou Yu will not feel uncomfortable because of this.
Furthermore, Zhou Yu also felt that the new generation generals in Jiangdong were not growing fast enough. This was evident from the last battle in Jingnan. Except for Lu Meng, who could still be of some use, no one else could take charge of their own affairs. Therefore, training in the army was The power of the new generation is also urgently needed in Zhou Yu's opinion.
As for whether this would affect his status in the military, Zhou Yu was actually not worried.
Based on his achievements in the Battle of Chibi, as long as Zhou Yu is still alive, he will be the unshakable leader of the Huaisi Group, and no one can take his place.
Now Zhou Yu's position is quite aloof, so he doesn't care where Sun Quan puts him.
But Zhou Yu didn't expect that his lord could be so promiscuous.
Sun Quan led an army of 70,000 people to the expedition, with Lü Meng as the vanguard, Dong Xi, and Chen Wu as deputy generals. They fought and won consecutively along the way, and soon reached Jiangbei and forced Hefei.
Sun Quan took charge of the central army and followed closely behind him. Then there was a problem.
Lu Meng and others marched too fast, and Sun Quan's Chinese army couldn't keep up. As a result, the march became longer and longer. Even the front army troops were almost at the foot of Hefei City, and the Chinese troops had just crossed Xiaoyaojin and were completely out of touch. .
And Sun Quan also, in order to catch up with Lu Meng's front army quickly, actually ordered the entire army to follow up quickly after passing Xiaoyaojin, regardless of the scattered formation, and even more unprepared.
This is a taboo for military strategists. God knows what Lu Meng and Sun Quan were thinking, to make such a low-level mistake.
This flaw was immediately caught by Zhang Liao, who was good at seizing fighter opportunities.
Zhang Liao led 800 infantry, ventured out of the city, took a detour to ambush, and attacked Sun Quan's central army.
Sun Quan really didn't take it seriously at first. After all, Zhang Liao only had a few hundred people, but he had more than 3,000 personal guards alone, not to mention that he was surrounded by his own army.
As long as his personal guards drag Zhang Liao and reinforcements come from all sides with a greeting, Zhang Liao will be dead.
But Sun Quan also didn't expect that his personal guards would be so unwilling to fight.
Sun Quan's personal guard of 3,000 people was stunned to be dispersed by Zhang Liao and 800 people. Moreover, Zhang Liao was even more powerful. He killed two generals and twenty-seven levels in a row, forcing Sun Quan to retreat to the slope. Above, holding a spear to defend himself.
This is not a world where Wushuang mows grass. The soldiers of this era, especially the soldiers, are not all given for free. Zhang Liao can kill two generals at the 27th level in a row, which is very terrifying in itself.
Not to mention that Zhang Liao also shouted to Sun Quan, saying that he would challenge your sister to a duel with Sun Quan! ! !
Sun Quan definitely couldn't go down to die, but under the current situation, Sun Quan really might not be able to survive the arrival of reinforcements, and his own soldiers would be unable to bear it first. At this moment, reinforcements from the south arrived first.
To the south is the rear army, which is the army led by Zhou Yu.
As soon as Zhou Yu heard that his lord was actually "surrounded" by Zhang Liao's 800 men, he was speechless for a while and immediately ordered his troops to march for rescue.
Zhou Yu's commanding ability is much stronger than that of Sun Quan. Although the soldiers he led were marching in a hurry, the military formation was not chaotic. After rushing to the battlefield quickly, Zhang Liao saw the neat lineup of reinforcements and knew that he would not be able to get them this time. We can only lead the army to break out of the encirclement before Zhou Yu closes up to surround him.
At this time, Sun Quan, who saw Zhou Yu coming to help, finally regained his composure. He immediately gathered his own troops and reorganized their formation, demanding that Zhang Liao be entangled regardless of casualties and not allow him to retreat easily.
They have forced themselves, the leader of the party, to do this. If Zhang Liao's head is not retained, will Sun Quan still have face? !
Therefore, although Zhang Liao issued the order to retreat in time and took the lead to clear the way, only more than 300 people followed him back into Hefei City, and the remaining 400 people were left behind by Sun Quan and Zhou Yu.
In this battle, Zhang Liao's 800 men attacked Sun Quan's army, forcing Sun Quan to defend himself with guns, which greatly boosted the morale of the Hefei defenders.
On the Jiangdong side, although Sun Quan was frightened, he still managed to retain half of Zhang Liao's troops. It was not considered a complete defeat. Sun Quan was thick-skinned, so he naturally took it as a victory.
But Zhou Yu really didn't have this intention.
First, he persuaded Sun Quan not to march so riskyly in the future. At the same time, he scolded Lu Meng who came back later to help - you can commit such outrageous military taboos, so what else can you do? !
It's not that Zhou Yu is targeting Lu Meng, it's just that Lu Meng made a stupid mistake this time. As soon as he saw the Hefei city wall, he wanted to break the city and make the first contribution. He couldn't protect his own lord, so he couldn't figure out who was less important and who was more important. ? !
Zhou Yu scolded Lu Meng, he had enough qualifications and prestige, and Lu Meng's performance this time really disappointed Sun Quan. Therefore, even Sun Quan did not protect Lu Meng when he was scolded.
But the scolding was enough, and Zhou Yu did not want to intervene in the front army's attack. Instead, he continued to give it to Lu Meng as an opportunity for training. Zhou Yu was actually quite optimistic about Lu Meng's growth.
Then, Lu Meng, who knew his shame and became brave, launched wave after wave of attacks under the city of Hefei.
But, it’s useless.
Although Lu Meng is a mature general and has become somewhat of a commander now, he still lacks experience after all.
On the opposite side, Zhang Liao, Li Dian, Yue Jin, any one of them would be no worse than Lu Meng at this time.
Therefore, although Hefei has few soldiers, Hefei's city defense is strong, and the three generals have a reasonable division of labor, and they can work together. Lu Meng attacked Hefei for a month, but he didn't even touch the gate of Hefei City.
At this time, Sun Quan muttered that it had been more than two months since he sent out troops. Even if Cao Cao responded slowly, he should have sent troops to support him. If he continued to fight like this, it seemed that the gains would outweigh the losses.
Therefore, Sun Quan wanted to withdraw his troops.
But Zhou Yu dissuaded Sun Quan.
It has only been a month of fighting. How can a fortified city be captured so easily? If we retreat now, wouldn't all our previous efforts be wasted? !
When he attacked Nanjun, he, Zhou Yu, fought for nine months.
Moreover, it was not impossible for Zhou Yu to conquer Hefei, so Zhou Yu urged Sun Quan to wait.
In fact, as early as when Sun Quan sent troops to attack Hefei, Zhou Yu was thinking about how to capture Hefei. Before setting off, he finally came up with an idea.
The source of inspiration is Zhang Xi's performance in Luocheng and Chengdu.
Some details of Liu Bei's capture of Xichuan had already spread to Jiangdong at this time. Zhou Yu naturally knew that Zhang Xi used catapults when attacking Luocheng and Chengdu.
Although Zhou Yu still didn't know how to build a catapult that could attack more than 150 steps, he thought of a substitute - a bed crossbow.
Therefore, before setting off for the expedition, Zhou Yu asked Lu Su to dismantle parts of the crossbows in other important cities except Jianye, and send them to the front line in Hefei together with grain and grass.
Lu Su went back and forth for a long time before dismantling twenty bed crossbows and sending them to the front line of Hefei City.
Then, Zhou Yu ordered his soldiers to push twenty bed crossbows to the front line and shoot at the city head.
The crossbow arrows are thicker and more powerful than ordinary crossbow arrows. The number of twenty bed crossbows is enough to suppress the defenders on the Hefei city wall, preventing them from easily approaching the city wall to shoot back.
This is only the first step. Zhou Yu's second unit ordered the crossbowmen of Jiangdong Army to quickly advance forward when the top of the city wall was temporarily suppressed and the Hefei defenders were unable to counterattack, reaching the strike range of the crossbows, and then quickly formed an array. , and then fired crossbow arrows at the top of the city.
Although the range of the pedal crossbow is closer than that of the bed crossbow, there are more people and it covers a larger area. Since then, there is no room for anyone to stand on the Hefei city wall. Even if you hide under the female wall, you may be injured by the crossbow arrows, let alone anything. fought back.
Immediately afterwards, Zhou Yu asked Lu Meng to organize his army, and while the crossbow arrows were suppressing the wall, he pushed the cloud ladder and hook ladder closer to the city wall. As soon as the crossbow arrows stopped, he directly began to attack the city.
Although this would also cause the pedal crossbow and bed crossbow to accidentally injure one's own people, the casualties were nothing compared to pushing the siege equipment against the arrows of the defending army.
What happens next depends on Lu Meng, Dong Xi, Chen Wu and others. Zhou Yu will not interfere anymore.
If this cannot be captured, then Zhou Yu can only persuade Sun Quan to withdraw his troops and return to Jiangdong, and then make plans after properly training the army.
(End of chapter)
