Chapter 241: Crossing the River with the People

Guan Yu and Xu Shu were not aware of the changes in Jiangdong, but even if they knew, they would not care.

After the fleet bypassed Jiangxia and headed north to enter the Han River, Xu Shu built a camp in the east of Dangyang City as he had planned in advance, to transfer supplies, food, and prisoners, in order to avoid Jiangxia's control as much as possible.

Of course, there were plans for Jiangdong to betray the alliance, but Xu Shu and Guan Yu did not want to use them.

After all, the Han people had bled enough.

Especially at the moment, this was even more so.

Xu Shu would lament after the war, but he would abandon these ideas during the war.

From the beginning of Cao Ren's announcement of his march, the battlefield in Fancheng was bleeding non-stop.

As a relative, Cao Ren knew a lot of news better than Yu Jin.

Including the strategy of quickly winning Xiangfan and then moving to Guanzhong, and the fact that food and grass were in short supply.

Therefore, from the beginning of the siege, Cao's army was forced by Cao Ren to burst out with all his strength.

Le Jin, who was guarding Xiangyang City, had a clear view of the attack and defense of both sides.

It was said that they were guarding Xiangyang, but in fact, the old general Huang Zhong camped not far from Xiangyang City. He did not come to the city gate every day, but watched from a distance and hunted the scouts out of the city with archery.

Over time, even the scouts were unwilling to leave the city gate. After all, they said they were defending the city, and the surrounding situation was in full view. They could not reach any farther places, so what was the point of leaving the city?

As time went on, the defenders of Xiangyang City even forgot that they were also under siege.

After all, the giant ship was now paying attention to Fancheng and was too lazy to even look at them.

So the soldiers on the north wall, which was originally unguarded, gradually increased. It was much more interesting to see the ships coming and going and the battle of Fancheng here than to count ants in Xiangyang City.

Le Jin knew this very well, but there was no good way. After all, what he feared most was that he would go out of the city to challenge the enemy to boost morale, but the navy on the river only needed to lean south and cut off his retreat in a moment.

So now the soldiers in Xiangyang City are watching the attack and defense of Fancheng with great interest, and Le Jin is watching the attack and defense of Fancheng with a heavy heart.

From the perspective of Xiangyang, they saw that Cao's army wanted to besiege the city on three sides, but the Cao's army in the east was wandered over by the giant boat, and a few rounds of shooting broke the morale, and then the Cao's army in the west also retreated like a tide.

So the Cao soldiers in Xiangyang could only listen to the deafening shouts and shouts from Fancheng with boredom, and imagine how fierce it was.

"I bet one hundred coins that Fancheng can't be captured."

"What's the use of your five-zhu coins? You can't spend them."

"It is said that the emperor Liu can still use money under his rule..."

"Oh, then I follow, bet one hundred and fifty coins... General!"

Le Jin patrolled the city wall twice, dispersed the soldiers who gathered together, and stared at the warships between Xiangfan in a trance.

As long as he could lead these ships away, he could go out of the city and kill the old general. Then all 30,000 soldiers from Xiangyang would go out, and they could attack Yicheng, Dangyang, and Linju, and directly attack the hinterland of Jingzhou, which could resolve the crisis in Xiangfan.

The shouts and screams in Fancheng were still deafening. Le Jin didn't know who the generals of Cao's army were under Fancheng, but Le Jin was not optimistic.

Siege warfare is difficult to fight, and now they can only attack one wall driven by the giant boat. If there is no brave general like himself who can go first, it will be even more difficult.

However, when thinking of going first, Le Jin remembered his 6,000 troops who were defeated under Jiangling City. They were all old soldiers who could follow him to go first, and they were lost in vain.

If there were this personal army in Xiangyang City at this moment, the soldiers who confused the army like just now would definitely be beaten with 30 military sticks!

In the central army tent under Fancheng, Cao Ren had no extra expression on his face, staring at the map non-stop.

Meanwhile, Xu Huang's face turned pale and he covered his waist and abdomen, while Wen Pin hung his left arm on his chest, neither of them spoke.

The siege had been going on for five days, but Fancheng was still as solid as a rock. Xu Huang and Wen Pin had led teams to attack before, but the results were not satisfactory and some were injured.

Therefore, Yu Jin suggested building a city on the spot to confront Guan Yu.

This is the dumbest but least error-free way to fight.

But Cao Ren, considering the worries about food and grass, did not comment, but looked at a scholar beside him:

"What does Kuai Zhubu have to teach me?"

Kuai Yue was quite afraid of the huge ship, so he said slowly:

"It will be difficult to take Fancheng if the navy is there. If you want to take Fancheng, you should first destroy the navy."

Cao Ren rolled his eyes in his heart. Do you need to say that?

But then Kuai Yue put his thoughts together, and Cao Ren frowned and thought, it seems that there is a little feasibility?

On this day, Guan Yu climbed up the city wall and saw that Cao's army did not come out in full force to attack the city as usual. Instead, they stopped fighting and smoke rose from the cooking fires. They looked like they were lying down. He could not help but be full of doubts.

"Since they have been unable to take the city for a long time, they must be looking for a way to defeat the navy."

Xu Shu felt that this was the only explanation. After all, Cao Cao had swallowed half of Jingzhou, and there were many generals who knew the navy. It was not surprising that he could come up with one or two ways to deal with the navy.

"And if we talk about the fastest way to see results, there is only..."

Xu Shu put on a strange smile on his face and just said:

"If everything goes well, General Guan may meet his old friend soon."

Guan Yu stroked his beard and decided to believe Xu Shu:

"Then Guan will wait and see."

Le Jin could no longer hear the shouting and killing in Fancheng, but on the contrary, the small boats of Guan Yu's army were coming and going more frequently.

The Han River between the two cities of Xiangfan was only three hundred feet wide, so Le Jin could see clearly that these small boats were carrying supplies and baggage, as if they were going to fight a protracted war.

But Le Jin was not optimistic about this move at all. The difference in military strength was too great. As long as they could survive the spring famine, the prime minister could mobilize 100,000 troops to besiege Fancheng. They would besiege it to death.

However, more than ten days after the shouting and killing in Fancheng stopped, Le Jin saw with his own eyes that the giant boat took the initiative to retreat downstream.

The giant boat was soon discovered by Cao's army, so the army surrounded it on three sides, and the tragic siege began again.

And the soldiers of the Xiangyang Observation Group soon pointed out the mystery:

"The water level is dropping! Look at the Shazhou in the west, more and more parts are exposed!"

Cut off the Han River and force the giant boat back.

Immediately, the soldiers of Jingzhou said that there was a very narrow place upstream, and the river was only thirty feet wide, which was very easy to block.

Only then did Le Jin understand what Guan Yu's army meant by transporting supplies to Fancheng before. This was clearly a desperate defense.

However, great ecstasy emerged in his heart at any time. In this way, wouldn't his chance come?

Cao Ren cherished this hard-won opportunity very much, so he put all his efforts into the siege this time, and did not stop until night.

Use the superiority of military force to suppress the rest time of the defenders of Fancheng. If he can endure for two days, the city will surely be broken!

Cao Ren was already ruthless in his heart, so he did not notice that Guan Yu, who was guarding the city on the top of the city wall, had disappeared. Instead, Xu Shu and Zhao Lei, who were waving their swords and shouting at the top of their lungs to control the soldiers, were replaced.

This noisy night made the defenders of Xiangyang unable to sleep well, and also covered up the movement in the Han River 20 miles east of Fancheng.

Guan Yu stood at the bow with his eyes closed to rest, and Gan Gui was scolding softly:

Just hang up the brocade sail, and hang a silver bell in the middle of the night. Are you worried that you are not conspicuous enough? Hurry up and retreat!

The sound of killing in the city 20 miles away was deafening, but Gan Gui turned a deaf ear and focused his mind, carefully guiding the boat to the north and slowly slide into the Yu River.

Their fleet was the battleships left over from Guan Yu's training of the navy. The hulls were long and narrow, and no engineering modifications were made. They could only transport troops or board ships, but that was enough.

Guan Yu himself withdrew from the battlefield of Fancheng with the giant ship. At the Dangyang dock, new ships were moored to replace old ships. The sailors were manning the ships, and the land soldiers were sleeping in the cabins to recuperate.

Nearly a hundred battleships were connected together, carrying 8,000 soldiers, slowly heading north along the Yu River under the cover of the night and the shouts of siege.

As the sky gradually brightened, the first people to discover Guan Yu and his party were the farmers in Xinye.

"General Guan, do you want me to get off the boat..." Gan Gui made a gesture, trying to intimidate and delay the leak of the news.

Guan Yu shook his head and said:

"Just raise the flag."

Gan Gui didn't understand, but he always listened to General Guan.

So Gan Gui's ship raised the largest Chinese flag, and each of the small boats behind raised two flags, one with the word Liu and the other with the word Guan.

Gan Gui found that he didn't understand it anymore. He saw that the faces of these people, who were full of wind and frost and numbness, gradually became excited, and some even began to run after the boats.

But they were weak and destined to not keep up, so only some voices were passed on with the breeze:

"Uncle Liu... General Guan... General Zhang!"

"Can you drive away Cao thieves?"

Facing Gan Gui's blank face, Guan Yu turned around. He looked ahead as if he didn't dare to look at the people on both sides. It seemed that he was explaining to Gan Gui, and it seemed that he was saying to himself:

"A few years ago, the people of Xinye were afraid of Cao Cao's reputation, so they followed their brother to the south and passed by Xiangfan. The people of the two cities also fled with their brother. In the end, they were defeated at Changbanpo and the people were all captured back."

Needless to say, Gan Gui understood the rest of the words.

Cao Cao has always had only one method for the people, which is to move them inland and cultivate the land. The settlers in Xinye must be one of the people who followed the lord to the south.

And it was not until this moment that Gan Gui had a new understanding of his lord.

"General Guan, we will not lose this time!"

Guan Yu shook his head:

"We cannot lose."

When Cao Cao learned that Guan Yu's troops were approaching Wancheng, he immediately ran to the top of Wancheng.

He couldn't figure it out: Why did Guan Yu appear here? How dare he appear here?

The red face and beautiful beard were familiar, but the strange long sword in his hand was unfamiliar.

The mixed thoughts before seeing Guan Yu finally turned into anger:

"Guan Yunchang, you dare to abandon Fancheng and go deep into the dangerous area, do you think there is no one in my army?"

Of course, Guan Yu couldn't hear it. He just sent out scouts as much as possible, and then began to build camps and forts, putting on a siege posture.

Such behavior made Cao Cao even more angry, but it was useless.

In order to capture Fancheng as soon as possible, there were few soldiers in Wancheng who could fight. There were only more than a thousand guards led by Xu Chu and the nobles. Instead of sending them out to fight thousands of soldiers, Cao Cao thought it would be safer to wait for the soldiers from Yecheng who were already on the way.

What Cao Cao didn't know was what Guan Yu was waiting for?

But within two days, Cao Cao knew it.

Another army came from the southwest, holding a huge flag with the word "Zhang". Zhang Fei laughed happily under the flag.

Before they arrived, the loud voice sent the voice first:

"Second brother is still one step ahead of me!"

And Cao Cao on the top of the city had a feeling that something was wrong.