Chapter 411 Chasing all the way to the Red Cliff
Cao Cao calmed down and listened carefully to Jia Xu's analysis. He also felt that Liu Bei's actions were full of conspiracy.
"Jia Jijiu, as you said, what does Liu Bei rely on?" Cao Cao asked according to Jia Xu's thinking.
"King of Wei, Liu Bei's intention is to lead the king of Wei's troops to the boundary of Jiangdong..." Jia Xu said to Cao Cao with firm eyes.
"Jiangdong? Can Sun Quan take him in? Besides, Jiangdong is in chaos at this time. Uncle and nephew of Sun Quan are fighting for power. Do they have any leisure to meet Liu Bei? Cao Cao said disapprovingly.
Jia Xu knew that Cao Cao was determined to destroy Liu Bei. If Cao Cao had not held the principle of virtuous comoral Lixian, he would have turned against Jia Xu long ago: the pursuit is about speed. He has time and Jia Xu here.
"King Wei, what if Jiangdong Sun Group accepts Liu Bei? What if the two sides join hands to fight against us? Jia Xu asked urgently.
When Cao Cao heard this, his firm heart also swayed. After some thought, Cao Cao gritted his teeth and said, "If the Sun Group dares to conferate with Liu Bei, I will even destroy the Sun Group... If my wish is achieved, the time to unify the world will be shortened by half!" ...A man has something to do, and there is something he doesn't do! Jia Zhijiu, don't persuade me anymore. As for the result of divination, it's all false words! Jia sacrifice wine, I have made up my mind, and all the consequences will be borne by me!"
Cao Cao showed his determination to Jia Xu with clean and neat words in one step. Jia Xu felt Cao Cao's intention and knew that he was persuading Cao Cao, but he didn't know what was good or evil. Anyway, as a counselor, he has said everything he should say. As for Cao Cao's failure to accept it, it has nothing to do with him.
In fact, if Zhuge Liang hadn't followed Liu Bei, Jia Xu also felt that Cao Cao could destroy Liu Bei in one fell swoop this time. Even if the Jiangdong Sun Group and Liu Bei teamed up, after their alliance, the strength was only 150,000 at most, and after Cao Cao's side occupied Jingzhou, the strength had reached 500,000, and Cao Cao's advantage was extremely obvious.
However, Zhuge Liang's ability is unfathomable. Maybe Zhuge Liang is the nemesis of Cao Cao. Jia Xu's joys and sorrows are mixed.
While the two were talking, the tiger and leopard riders behind also rushed over one after another. Cao Cao said goodbye to Jia Xu and led 10,000 tigers and leopards to continue to chase Liu Bei. Without Cao Cao's words, Jia Xu also knows his current task: to gather all the ships in Jingzhou to go down to the east and go to Jiangdong!
Water surface combat is the weakness of Cao's army, which is also the weakness of Liu Bei's army... The more Jia Xu thinks, the more blurred his consciousness is. The hexagram shows that Cao Cao will eventually lose. How is that possible? Even if Liu Bei and Sun's Group join hands to fight against Cao Cao, the worst result is a draw. How could Cao Cao be defeated?
... The more I thought about it, the more blurred Jia Xu's vision. Jia Xu shook his head heavily and no longer thought about the future. He had to concentrate on the things in front of him. If it collapses innocently in the future, he can only treat it as a quilt.
It is this kind of mentality that makes Jia Xu go through life and death levels again and again. Jia Xu is vicious, but he has never taken the initiative to kill others. He is a passive life-and-death crisis, planning and using various tricks to save the lives of himself and his family. In troubled times, how many people can do it without taking the initiative to kill others? Jia Xu did it.
Jia Xu watched Cao Cao go on a war horse, and then he also turned over the horse and returned the same way. After three days of preparation, Jia Xu also obtained three building ships, fifty warships and 200 small warships. These harvests really came to Jia Xu's expectation. Later, under the explanation of the surrendered general Zhang Mao, Jia Xu also knew why there were so many large and small warships in the Jingzhou boundary: At the beginning, Liu Biao, the herdsman of Jingzhou, was not afraid of the invasion of the northern princes' armies, but he was afraid of the invasion of the Jiangdong Sun Group on Jingzhou, in order to prevent the Jiangdong Sun Group's Invasive, Liu Biao did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to build a strong water force, which was naturally led by Zhang Wei, the water overlord.
On the fourth day, Jia Xu personally commanded the army to advance side by land and water, leaving Jingzhou City.
Let's talk about Cao Cao. Cao Cao led nearly ten thousand tigers and leopards. After a day of rapid marching, he finally saw hundreds of medium-sized and small warships in the Yangtze River, including a huge building ship in the middle of the fleet. A red flag fluttered high on its mast, and a big word "Liu" was embroidered on the red flag.
Liu Bei's army is in the water, and Cao Cao's army is on the north side of the river bank. The distance between the two sides is more than 500 meters, and they can't attack each other at all. In this section of water, the Yangtze River waterway is straight and wide, but its two banks are steep mountain walls. Even if there are several gentle sections, the plains on the two banks are swampy. The official roads on the north bank of the river are not parallel to the Yangtze River waterway. Sometimes when the official roads encounter high mountains, they begin to twist and turn.
During this journey, due to the obstruction of the mountains, Cao Cao could not see Liu Bei's army.
Only when the official road is parallel to the waterway can Cao Cao and Liu Bei's troops look at each other. In terms of the two sides: Liu Bei's side retreated wholeheartedly and retreated to a safe area; while Cao Cao's side was single-minded to attack Liu Bei's army, but due to geographical restrictions, they could only watch Liu Bei's side calmly go east under their eyes.
Because a tiger sees the prey in front of him, the tiger can't open its belly to eat, which is very annoying. That's how Cao Cao felt at this time. No matter how the Cao soldiers insulted Liu Bei on the bank of the river, Liu Bei turned a deaf ear and indifferent.
"Uncle Liu, when did you become a shrinking turtle? You have the guts to go ashore to fight..." The generals of Cao's army and soldiers shouted angrily at Liu Bei and his army in the center of the river.
"Cao Aqian, don't follow us like a fart worm. If you have guts, send soldiers to the water to fight..." Liu Bei's side also refused to let back and scold.
Both sides are full of words. It's so lively.
Finally, it was Zhang Liao, who was wise and brave, who pointed out a clear road to Cao Cao. He suggested to Cao Cao: Don't follow Liu Bei's army. At this time, we should rush to the next ferry and use the ships of the next ferry to intercept Liu Bei's army on the water. As long as Liu Bei's army was forced ashore, at that time, even Liu Bei had wings on his back and could not escape.
When Cao Cao heard Zhang Liao's suggestion, he suddenly opened his hair. Now, only in this way can it be possible to run to the front of Liu Bei and block Liu Bei's retreat route.
Next, Cao Cao ignored Liu Bei's side in the water. He led the tiger and leopard riding along the official road at full speed. One day after the urgent march, Cao Cao's soldiers and horses were extremely sleepy. Seeing that it was getting dark, Cao Cao sent scouts to inquire around and choose an empty place suitable for temporary camp.
Just as Cao Cao sat on a mound and closed his eyes to refresh himself, the earliest scout came to Cao Cao and reported: "To the king of Wei, the place where we rest is only 300 miles away from Jiangxia County..."
After listening to the report of the scout, Cao Cao asked the tiger guard around him to take out a military map, and the other tiger guard lit the lamp to illuminate the map.
Cao Cao's eyes were fixed on Jiangxia County on the map, and measured his position with his fingers at this time. Finally, he fixed his eyes on the Yangtze River. He thought: Is Liu Bei's side going to retreat to Jiangxia County? If Liu Bei's side successfully enters Jiangxia County, and if he wants to attack again, he will clash with Jiangdong Sun's Group...
Just as Cao Cao was at a loss, a scout flew to Cao Cao's place. The scout came to Cao Cao and reported to Cao Cao on one knee and said, "To the king of Wei, according to this, there is an open area to the east five miles. There is a large ferry along the coast, and there are several villages scattered around the ferry... There are Jiangdong sailors stationed on the other side of the river..."
After listening to the report of the scouts, Cao Cao couldn't help but suddenly lit up: he suddenly remembered the information provided by the senior work he had placed in the Jiangdong Sun Group - the camp of the Shuilong Army in Jiangdong is in this water area, which is called Chibi! There is no sign on the map of this place, because this place is a new camp opened by the Jiangdong army.
Jiangdong Sun Group established the sailor camp in this hidden place in order to prepare for the future attack on Jingzhou and lay a solid foundation.
God really helped me... Cao Cao was secretly surprised. Finally found a place to stop Liu Bei's army, Cao Cao's previous fatigue was swept away. He looked as if he had been beaten with chicken blood, and his expression suddenly became excited.
He ordered the soldiers to end their rest and go to Chibi. Chibi was originally just an ordinary ferry. In recent years, it has been developed and utilized by Jiangdong Sun Group, gradually forming a climate: Chibi has been transformed into a large-scale market town. It can be expected that after several years of development and construction, it will definitely be an emerging military fortress.
Cao Cao led his army and quickly arrived at the Chibi Ferry. Chibi Ferry is an open flat land, with raised cliffs on both sides, and the other side is the sailor camp of the Jiangdong Group. The two banks are separated by a gentle river, which is 2,000 meters away. This is still the dry winter. If it is in summer, the two banks should be at least 3,000 meters apart.
From Jingzhou City all the way to here along the Yangtze River, Cao Cao himself also found that only this place was suitable for crossing the river. It is not a problem to station hundreds of thousands of troops on the north coast of Chibi Ferry. On the south bank of the Red Cliff in his sight, the camp of Jiangdong Marine Barracks stretched for miles from east to west, and the camp on the shore could not be seen at a glance.
At this time, night fell. Across the wide river, Cao Jun saw the faintly lit Jiangdong Marine Camp, such as Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and other super fierce generals with excellent ears, and could also hear the sound of fighting from the Jiangdong Marine Barracks. This shows the degree of hardship of Jiangdong sailor training.
Of course, the dark whistle of Jiangdong Marine Barracks also found that Cao Cao's army was cleaning up the place on Cao's side and preparing to camp. On the opposite side, a building ship and four boats were dispatched from the Jiangdong Marine Barracks. They lined up on the river to protect the gate of the camp.
At that time, Cao Cao sent Zhang Liao, a fierce general under his command, to the Jiangdong navy camp in a small boat to report the situation to the other party's commander-in-chief. Cao Cao hoped that the other party could help him stop the upcoming Liu Bei side.