My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 830: Quickly Conquer Zuo Fengyi and Attack Chang'an City

After six months of management, Sima Yi built a long defense line along several counties along the Yellow River in Zuofengyi, with beacon towers and watchtowers everywhere. He also built corridors made of long trenches and rammed earth walls to facilitate the rapid dispatch of troops for reinforcement.

Sima Yi can be said to have completed the tasks given to him by Cao Cao and Cao Pi with all his heart and effort.

However, until today when Zhou Yu and Lu Yi launched the river crossing operation, Sima Yi's carefully designed defensive measures were still as weak as paper and were easily pierced through.

Thousands of Cao's soldiers fell into the mud of the riverbank while hastily launching a counterattack against Zhou Yu's vanguard landing troops. They were then repeatedly bombarded by the torrential rain of arrows from the Shenbi crossbows, and then collapsed.

"Shoot! Don't stop! Regardless of whether the enemy retreats or not, keep shooting! Let more soldiers land and line up completely before allowing the rear row of warships to return to pick up the next batch of friendly troops!"

Zhou Yu sat on the only large ship in the army, commanding the battle with great force, telling the soldiers not to worry about the ship running aground or any other material losses. Zhou Yu didn't care about these things, he just wanted to win and get the landing troops to gain a foothold as quickly as possible.

Other material losses are just a number to him.

The morale of the officers and soldiers was also high and they advanced rapidly. The sailors were shooting arrows madly with all their strength, ignoring the soreness in their arms from repeatedly cranking the handle to string the bow, and they repeated the action of shooting arrows mechanically and numbly.

The sky was just getting light, and the vision should have gradually become clearer. But the soldiers were used to the rhythm of mindless shooting in the dark. Even though they could see things, they were too lazy to aim or think, and just mechanically tightened the crossbow strings and released them, over and over again.

In the early morning by the Yellow River, the white crossbow tail feathers were densely embedded in the mud, like white reeds. When the river breeze blew, the feathers swayed like floating reed catkins.

When it was brighter, Cao's army on the shore had been driven back completely, and Zhou Yu's second batch of crossing troops had also arrived at the battlefield under the ferry of the fleet.

On the riverside battlefield outside Linjin County, the number of Liu Bei's soldiers has reached more than 20,000, and they are all elite.

Zhou Yu quickly struck while the iron was hot and launched a counterattack against Cao's river defense line.

The landing soldiers built a long trench bridge using rafts unloaded from the ship, and then rushed forward in a swarm.

The rammed earth wall and antler defense line behind the trenches did provide some defensive effect. However, Cao's army was short of manpower, and Zhou Yu's offensive could be widespread, focusing on attacking points where Cao's army was short of manpower. Cao's defense line soon became like a sieve, with multiple holes.

At this moment, another wave of reinforcements for Liu Bei's landing troops was transported up, and the general leading the troops this time was Zhang Fei himself.

Now that even Zhang Fei had arrived, Cao's army on the shore certainly had no hope of turning the tables.

……

Before this battle, Sima Yi had a very good plan.
We should attack the enemy when they are halfway across the river, and concentrate our superior forces to drive them back into the Yellow River when not many of the enemy troops have landed and have not yet established a firm foothold.

But when the plan was finally implemented, it ended in failure.

Barely half an hour after the war broke out, urgent reports came back from several fronts, saying that the local riverside positions had completely collapsed.

Zhou Yu has already landed and gained a firm foothold! Even Zhang Fei has landed, and he has destroyed several of his own camps and a series of beacon towers and watchtowers.

Sima Yi, who was in charge of the overall situation in Linjin County, was devastated by this series of bad news.

Sima Yi at this time was still just a civil servant, and he had not gained the practical combat experience that he would have more than ten years later in history. Cao Cao had never let him lead troops on his own before, and he could not bear such a heavy burden.

In this battle, Cao Cao certainly would not let Sima Yi take the lead alone. Instead, he equipped him with sufficient military generals, including Le Jin, the only remaining general in Cao's army, and some other generals, so that they could cooperate with each other in both civil and military affairs.

But with Le Jin's ability, when he heard that the troops sent to the front line to counterattack were beaten back by Zhou Yu in such a short period of time, he could not make any contribution except being frightened and confused.

A good cook cannot cook without rice. Cao Cao's hard power has really weakened to the extreme.

After Sima Yi briefly sorted out the cause and effect, he sadly reviewed the situation to Le Jin:

"It's over! The Yellow River defense line is completely destroyed! We shouldn't have made up our mind to defend it to the death! Our army was short of manpower, but we knew it was impossible to do it anyway, and in the end, we lost several thousand elite soldiers in vain!"

Le Jin also agreed with his view: "Indeed, no matter how well the defense line is built, our army has so few troops that it is impossible to defend it everywhere. We can only gather troops, set up more beacon towers, and after discovering the enemy's movement across the river, we can concentrate our forces to counterattack.

With such a deployment, we could only estimate the most likely points for the enemy to cross the river before the battle and take precautions in advance. But Zhou Yu had the guts to choose those riverbanks that were completely unsuitable for landing and had no available anchorages. Our army rushed over in a hurry and was naturally no match for them. Alas. "

Le Jin didn't know much about naval and landing battles, but after being beaten this time, he learned a lesson and gained experience.

One important factor that led to such a quick and complete defeat in this battle was that after being discovered, Zhou Yu acted decisively and looked for a location with no port or anchorage, landing directly on the muddy ground on the bank of the Yellow River.

There are too many areas like this, and Cao's army cannot defend them all.

Zhou Yu did not hesitate to let some of the warships rush to the shallows and pay the price of being stranded, and then cooperated with a large number of crossbowmen to suppress the shore directly from the cabins and decks. If Cao's army wanted to counterattack, they would naturally be defeated miserably.

After all, Cao's army was too small to set up defenses everywhere. Sima Yi's idea of defending the river bank was actually the same as Guan Yu's setting up beacon towers in Jingzhou to prevent surprise attacks from the Eastern Wu in history.

Historically, Guan Yu did not have so many soldiers to set up defenses everywhere along the Yangtze River. He could only concentrate his forces in the rear, and rely on beacon towers to send warnings at the front line, and then assemble troops after discovering the enemy.

Therefore, it was not unfair that Sima Yi lost so easily this time. The current Sima Yi was no match for Guan Yu in the late period of history. If Guan Yu could not defend against something, how could Sima Yi defend against it?

The past cannot be brought back, and there is no point regretting a battle that has already been lost.

A new, imminent and serious problem soon faced Sima Yi and Le Jin.

At this moment, can Linjin County and Heyang County still be defended? To put it in a broader sense, can the entire Zuofengyi still be defended?
After a quick review, Sima Yi immediately made a decision and discussed with Le Jin: "There is absolutely no need to defend Heyang County in the north. The purpose of leaving troops in Heyang was to ensure that there would be no gaps on the other side of the river from Linfen to Puban for the enemy to sneak across.

Now that the Yellow River defense line has been breached, Heyang is meaningless. We must immediately notify the garrison there to quickly retreat southward and get closer to us. There is actually no need to defend Linjin. We will eventually have to retreat to Chang'an for a decisive battle.

But if we leave first, the friendly forces in the north will never come back, and they can only try to hold out for a few more days. General Le, are you sure you can withstand the offensive of Zhang Fei and Zhou Yu and ensure that our army will not be besieged within a few days?"

After hearing this request, Le Jin felt his scalp tingling and rejected it directly: "How is this possible? Our army only has 30,000 to 40,000 troops along the entire Yellow River defense line, which is nearly half of the total force in Guanzhong!
But now we have already attacked halfway across the river, and we have lost thousands of people. A part of the troops is still blocked in the north. How can we stop Zhang Fei with the few people we have?
Just now, the defeated soldiers reported that Zhang Fei has 20,000 to 30,000 men ashore, and this number will only increase. In my opinion, we should withdraw directly to Chang'an, and leave the troops in Heyang and other counties in the north to Liu Bei. "

Le Jin directly rejected the suggestion of taking the risk to save his teammates. He felt that it was meaningless and waiting to save his teammates would only put himself in danger.

However, in fact, even if they retreated to Chang'an City in one piece, what would happen? After Liu Bei successfully landed in Guanzhong, Chang'an was just a turtle in a jar. Le Jin was just a little discouraged and didn't want to resist any more and lose more people in the process.

He has followed Cao Cao for more than twenty years, so it is probably unlikely that he would surrender to Liu Bei now.

The main reason was that there was no good treatment for surrendering to Liu Bei now. The whole world was about to be unified. This was the last battle, and Liu Bei did not need to recruit more generals. He had too many generals under his command, and he even had to consider the issue of their post-war treatment and resettlement.

Therefore, even if Le Jin was shaken, at best he would just try to reduce the number of casualties. If there was really no hope, then he would just watch Cao Cao and Liu Bei decide the winner as soon as possible.

As for these people, the worst that could happen is that they would be captured on the battlefield. It was impossible for them to surrender voluntarily. If they were captured, even if they were imprisoned, at least they would live a life of food and clothing without worries.

Sima Yi keenly felt the change in his colleagues' mentality and couldn't help feeling anxious.

His situation is completely different from Le Jin's.

Le Jin had done nothing politically wrong. He lost and was captured. At most, he would become a freeloader, and Liu Bei would not abuse him.

Sima Yi had originally helped Cao Cao come up with ideas, framed Prime Minister Zhao Wen, and helped Cao Cao abolish the Three Dukes system and re-establish the prime minister.

Liu Bei has never been lenient towards civil servants who help Cao Cao pave the way and create an atmosphere for usurping the Han Dynasty at the political level.

Therefore, whether it was Sima Yi or Xi Lu, these people would definitely not have a good ending if they were captured by Liu Bei.

Liu Bei could tolerate a simple and pure military general who had rebelled against him, but he would not tolerate a despicable politician who had helped to usurp the Han Dynasty.

At this point, Le Jin was unwilling to take any military risks, so Sima Yi had only two choices: either lead his troops himself to intercept and delay Zhang Fei's advance, or immediately send someone on horseback to Chang'an to report the news and let Cao Cao decide for himself whether to lead the army in person to stop the enemy or to issue an order to allow a retreat.

Sima Yi thought about it and decided that he didn't have the guts to fight Zhang Fei in the field, so he had to defend Linjin while sending out scouts to search carefully to ensure that there was no danger behind him. At the same time, he sent someone to Chang'an to ask for instructions.

Linjin County is not far from Chang'an, just over 200 miles away. A fast messenger can get there in one day, and someone else can bring back a reply tomorrow.

……

While Sima Yi was at a loss, on the other side, Zhang Fei had successfully reached the shore and cleared the enemy's outer defenses.

In Fenyin in the north, Lu Yi's process of opening up a landing site was as smooth as Zhou Yu's, and he also successfully brought Zhao Yun, the second batch of reinforcements, ashore.

The Cao army in Heyang County, opposite Fenyin, was even weaker than that in Linjin. Not only did they fail to push Lu Yi down the Yellow River, but they were chased and killed by Zhao Yun, who landed later, and the part of the Cao army that took the initiative to attack was almost destroyed.

Just half a day later, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun were like a pair of iron pliers, successfully drilling through and joining forces from two directions, completely connecting the landing site that stretched for dozens of miles.

The developments of the situation on the front line were also reported to the rear in real time. Liu Bei, Guan Yu and the Zhuge brothers who stayed in Pubanjin on the opposite bank were able to grasp the battle situation as soon as possible, and the time difference would not exceed half a day.

After all, the Yellow River is not wide, and it is possible to cross it several times in a day.

After Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun met up, they discussed how to implement the next battle plan and whether it needed to be adjusted based on actual conditions.

Zhang Fei felt that this was a good opportunity to outflank and annihilate the enemy.

Because of the existence of this landing site and the enemy's previous attempts to block them at the beach and disperse their troops everywhere, now they can easily penetrate and cut through them and wipe out a lot of enemy forces.

There are enemy troops stationed in Heyang and Linjin. If we surround them and annihilate them one by one, we can cut off a lot of Cao Cao's influence.

However, Zhao Yun had a different view. He pointed out: "Yide, you are usually so brave and decisive, but at this moment, you are still focusing on the small goal of annihilating a few thousand enemies here and annihilating ten or twenty thousand enemies there.

If you ask me, since the landing went much more smoothly than expected, and the war has only started for half a day, and the cavalry has already landed in large numbers, we might as well use the cavalry to attack Chang'an directly. Although the cavalry cannot attack the city, as long as they patrol and threaten the gates of Chang'an, and then block the roads for Cao's troops from all over the country to return to Chang'an, we can slowly defeat them one by one.

I don't care where the Cao army generals want to escape to, as long as they can't return to Chang'an and can't participate in our final battle to destroy Cao thieves, it doesn't matter whether they are annihilated earlier or later. After Cao Cao's death, will those enemy cities that have not surrendered continue to fight to the death against Your Majesty for an illusory thing?"

Zhang Fei thought about it and it made sense. At this time, why should he still worry about whether the enemy would break through?
What is the purpose of the enemy's breakout? To preserve their manpower for later use.

And this "later", when can it be later at the latest? The latest is naturally until the siege of Chang'an.

If we can stop the enemy from returning to join the defense of Chang'an, they will have no future, whether they are annihilated or not.

"Zilong is right. As long as those people cannot come to help us when we kill Cao, it doesn't matter if they die early or late. I will lead the troops to besiege Chang'an now, and Zilong, you will help me maintain the retreat. After all, it is 200 miles from here to Chang'an. Even if it is all plains and the road is easy to travel, we cannot ignore the food supply."

Zhang Fei suggested directly.

Zhao Yun was not happy when he heard this and immediately retorted: "The army has entered Guanzhong, what else do we need for food? It seems that neither you nor I are willing to give in, so let's go to Chang'an together, you surround the north of the city, and I surround the south.

As for military rations, the common people along the way will naturally provide food and drink to welcome the king's army. The military rations we carry are enough to last at least five or six days. Yunchang will soon follow with a large group of infantry. Are you still worried that no one will maintain the food supply route?"

Seeing that he failed to fool Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei gave up insisting and the two of them set out together, first taking all the cavalry and heading straight for Chang'an.

They simply don't care about the river defense lines in Linjin County and Heyang County.

Even if all Cao's troops in Zuo Fengyi fled, as long as they were not running to rescue Cao Cao, then let them run.

On the way to Chang'an, there are several counties along the way, all of which are along the Wei River, including Bashang, Xinfeng, and Yinban. Each county also has more or less garrisons.

Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun did not attack the city, but went around it and headed straight for Chang'an.

In the early morning of the third day after crossing the river, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun had arrived at the city of Chang'an with nearly 40,000 cavalry.

Chang'an is vast, and 40,000 people are not enough to surround every point of the city wall, but it is more than enough to block all of the dozen city gates of Chang'an.

Neither Sima Yi nor Le Jin could return to Chang'an.

(End of this chapter)