Chapter 340: Jishui River Rising
As it turned out, Xun You's worries were unnecessary.
Zang Ba can be said to be the general under Tian Ze who is most familiar with the art of survival.
What a coward.
Apart from anything else, the original purpose of training this army was to facilitate retreat and escape.
After all, Zang Ba had once been a bandit, and the saying he believed in most was: As long as the mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood.
When Zang Ba, who was originally preparing to march into Lu County, learned that Cao Cao was heading south, he turned around without hesitation and headed back to Mount Tai.
Although Cao Cao had the ability to intercept Zang Ba.
However, Zang Ba's previous disgusting tactics made him cautious. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to let Zang Ba go for the time being and go south to fill the defense line around Snake Hill.
Although he was confident that he could defeat Zang Ba, he was not sure that he could catch up with him.
With his military attainments, he easily noticed the unusualness of Zang Ba's troops from the battle report presented by Xiahou Dun.
This army was obviously marching at a very fast speed, and was not afraid of crossing mountains and hills.
To sum it up in two words: difficult!
Even if you catch up with them, you may not be able to defeat them, and even if you defeat them, you may not be able to catch up with them.
Unless Zang Ba led his troops to leave the mountains and come to the plains, or spent a large number of troops to completely surround them.
Otherwise, it would be almost impossible to inflict heavy damage on this army.
The former was almost impossible given Zang Ba's character. As for the latter, he didn't have that much manpower and time to waste on Zang Ba.
If there was a chance to kill Zang Ba, he might have thought about doing it, but it was obviously impossible.
Cao Cao would naturally not do something that would affect the overall situation for the sake of a few thousand soldiers, as it would not be worth the loss.
And Zang Ba also knew that he should quit while he was ahead.
Having seen Zhang He review the Battle of Guanzhong, he had deeply felt the terror of Cao Cao. He felt that he was no stronger than Zhang He and had no hope of defeating Cao Cao.
Besides, his goal has been achieved.
It would take Cao Cao at least half a month to go back and forth south and set up defenses.
This half month was extremely important to Zhao Yun, and was enough to determine the direction of the war.
In the southern part of Gaotang County, Zhao Yun set up his military camp, using the Ji River on the south as a natural defense line. Not far behind him was the Yellow River. Han Dang led the navy to station here, ready to provide support at any time.
Zhao Yun, who was well versed in military tactics, chose an extremely clever location for the camp, which gave Yuan Shao, who was leading his army, a bit of a headache.
"Is our navy really that much worse than Tian Ze's army?" Yuan Shao asked somewhat unwillingly.
Ever since seeing the advantages of Tian Ze's navy in his early years, Yuan Shao has been preparing to build a navy.
Unfortunately, the world was in chaos at that time. There were few craftsmen in the north who were good at making warships, and there was also a lack of a large number of soldiers who were good at naval warfare. Yuan Shao's naval construction had never taken off.
After all these years of accumulation, I finally feel that I have achieved some level of proficiency, so I just pulled it out and prepared to fight with Tian Zejun.
As a result, after only the first day of fighting on the small Ji River, Yuan Shao's army felt the gap between the two sides was like a chasm.
Chunyu Qiong, who was a little dusty, had a helpless look on his face. As Yuan Shao's confidant, he was given the important task of commanding the navy part-time because of his excellent military skills.
I thought that the Ji River was relatively narrow, and that we had sufficient troops. With 50,000 troops advancing by water and land, we would definitely be able to defeat the navy led by Han Dang. But...
Recalling the encounter between the two navies, the other side had warships that were at least three orders of magnitude larger than his own, as well as countless bows and crossbows and catapults. Chunyu Qiong felt that the navy was not suitable for him. The 20,000 naval forces, facing Han Dang's 5,000 naval forces, were killed without any chance to fight back, nearly half of the warships were damaged, and countless soldiers were killed and wounded.
There was no way. The boat was not as tall as the others. I couldn't climb up to attack, and I couldn't outrun them even if I wanted to run.
The arrows shot by the army on the shore could not penetrate the thick hull at all, and the army itself would become targets for the enemy to shoot.
The fight between the two sides was a complete dimensionality reduction attack.
Chunyu Qiong didn't even feel frustrated about the defeat, because he felt that it wasn't a battle and was not fair at all.
"My lord, Tian Ze's naval warships and equipment are too advanced, and his navy is extremely elite and well-equipped. Most of our men are from Hebei, who are not good at naval battles, so defeat is expected." Ju Su said to comfort him.
He had long guessed that his side would definitely be no match for Tian Ze's navy, otherwise Tian Ze's efforts over the years would have been in vain, but he did not expect to lose so badly.
"If the Jishui River and the Yellow River are both controlled by Han Dang's navy, how can we deal with Zhao Yun's troops?" Yuan Shao asked with a slightly ugly expression.
This time he was full of ambition and was determined to wash away the previous shame with blood.
Unexpectedly, I was rejected right at the start.
Relying on the two rivers in front and behind, Zhao Yun managed to stop him, and even if he attacked, he had no strong foothold.
Xun Chen and the others were silent. Shen Pei was the first to speak: "By doing this, does Zhao Yun not want to transport food to Zang Ba? With the Jishui River blocking us, we can't get in, but how can he transport food?"
Xun Chen heard this and shook his head slightly: "The Ji River is very long, it is difficult for us to defend it, but Zhao Yun can launch an attack from any point and transport food and grass for Zang Ba's troops."
"But if we disperse our defense, Zhao Yun will definitely concentrate his forces to attack our weaknesses."
At this moment, Xun Chen deeply felt the importance of the navy.
With a navy around the big rivers, we can attack or defend.
Especially since Tian Zejun is good at practicing the Back to the Water but the Moon formation, he is even more difficult to deal with.
"If we can't defeat Han Dang's navy, I'm afraid we can only wait until the Ji River dries up." Xun Chen sighed.
It was already late autumn, and the Ji River should have entered its dry season, but now the water level was strangely high, which made him feel incredible.
If not for this, they actually wouldn't have to worry about the navy under Tian Ze's command. Normally at this time the water level of the Ji River could not support warships that were too large.
However, the celestial phenomena are unpredictable, and Xun Chen just thought that it happened to be a climate change during this period, causing the water volume of the Jishui River to surge, and it should subside soon.
However, where he couldn't see, Tian Ze was secretly performing magic.
As a human-shaped "Dragon King", he can expand the water volume as long as there is a river.
Xun Chen felt that the strange amount of water was created by Tian Ze.
It's just casting some spiritual rain magic upstream. As long as it doesn't hurt people directly, it won't have any impact.
Besides, he brought rain in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in order to clear the silt and dredge the river channel. As for the rising water level of the Jishui River, a tributary of the Yellow River, it was just an "unintentional" situation. What does it have to do with him?
After hearing what Xun Chen said, Yuan Shao nodded slightly.
The navy is no match for them, so they can only wait for some time for the river to calm down.
However, he felt secretly uneasy in his heart, because the water flow was indeed too strange, as if it was specially prepared for Zhao Yun.
What should he do if this continues?
(End of this chapter)
