Chapter 1066: Heading North to Youzhou
Outside Changshan Island, a giant dock suddenly appeared next to the dock, which surprised the people on the island. However, unlike the surprise of ordinary people, the shipbuilders were very happy. Because of the war in Qingzhou, they had not started work for several months. After moving to the island this time, although all the wood was moved, there was no sign of building a dock on the island, which made the craftsmen very anxious. They prepared to ask Zhao County Magistrate several times but did not find an opportunity. Unexpectedly, the dock suddenly appeared in front of everyone overnight.
The shipbuilders immediately rushed into the dock and carefully examined the situation in the dock. They found that it was the same as the dock they had in Shuanghe City. Although everyone was surprised, they did not think about it.
Afterwards, tens of thousands of civilians, under the organization of officials, moved all the wood transferred from the dock into the dock. As all the materials were moved into the dock one after another, the dock that had been stagnant for several months began to build ships again.
Outside the dock, a wall no less than the county wall was built with the efforts of tens of thousands of civilians. After the wall was built, the dock would once again become an independent area, and even other residents on the island could not enter the dock at will. To the west of the dock was the water fort of the Tang army's naval wrath camp. To the north of the dock, a small military formation would be built to protect the safety of the dock together with the navy.
Just as the dock on Changshan Island began to be rebuilt, the battle in Shuanghe City started again. What made Xiahou Yuan happy was that the battle at the dock seemed to be going smoothly. It was not long after the battle started that the dock was attacked. However, before Xiahou Yuan could react, a lot of smoke suddenly rose from the direction of the dock, and then the entire dock was in flames.
Xiahou Yuan was shocked. When he was about to send someone to inquire, a soldier came to report in a panic that the Tang army's dock was empty. The huge dock near the sea that the soldiers who attacked the city wall the day before had seen disappeared overnight. Not only that, there were a lot of flammable objects everywhere inside the wall. After the army entered, it was quickly surrounded by raging fire. Only less than 300 of the 1,000 attacking soldiers escaped.
"Gone!"
The Cao army generals nearby were also stunned when they heard this. Xiahou Yuan was also confused, but he knew that the soldiers did not dare to lie about military intelligence. However, he had never heard of the sudden disappearance of a giant dock before. In the past, he only knew that the alien territory would be downgraded after reaching a certain degree of damage, but he had never heard of it disappearing. Although he had never heard of it, Xiahou Yuan was sure that the Tang army must have used some kind of props. Now the situation was unclear, Xiahou Yuan's mind was in a hurry, and he quickly made a decision. He ordered the messenger beside him: "Come on, sound the gong to call back the troops, and order all the escaped soldiers to be brought to the central army tent. I want to ask about the situation of the war at the dock."
As the gong sounded, in the surprised eyes of the Tang army soldiers, tens of thousands of Cao army soldiers retreated like a tide and returned directly to their own camp.
In the central army tent, Xiahou Yuan carefully asked the soldiers who escaped from the dock, but still could not figure out the reason. Since he could not figure it out, Xiahou Yuan did not dare to act rashly. He was not sure if the Tang army had any other traps waiting for him. After thinking it over again and again, Xiahou Yuan wrote down the matter in detail, and then sent a fast horse to Cao Cao in Yanzhou, leaving it to Cao Cao to decide.
Xiahou Yuan took advantage of this period to let the soldiers rest. The battle in Shuanghe City had been going on for more than a month, and the soldiers were already a little tired. During this period of time waiting for Cao Cao's military order, the soldiers might have a rest. And he also needed time to figure out the current situation at the dock.
Huangfu Chaobo did not care about the fact that Cao's army stopped attacking the city outside the city. He was now waiting for the fleet from Qingdao and Changshan Island. The fleet from Qingdao had set off two days ago, and the immigrants from Changshan Island were also ready.
As soon as the fleet from Qingdao City arrived, they could board the ship and set off.
Five days later, the huge fleet escorted by most of the navy from the Nutao Camp and Zhenhai Camp finally arrived at the Shuanghe City Wharf. Huangfu Chaobo ordered the people to rest in Shuanghe City for a day, and then the army set off again. One hundred thousand people left Shuanghe City under the escort of 30,000 navy and headed towards Leting in the north.
Because it is already July, the fleet has to travel against the wind all the way, and it takes nearly 20 days to reach Leting Port. Along the way, although Huangfu Chaobo has repeatedly paid attention, nearly a thousand old and weak people still died on the ship for various reasons, but fortunately there was no epidemic.
At this time in Leting City, Huang Xu has led a thousand cavalrymen to escort more than 5,000 war horses and good horses to Leting. With him, there are officials and thousands of soldiers from various towns. After they meet the immigrants in Leting, they will escort them all the way to their own territories outside the Great Wall.
From Leting to the territory controlled by the Tang army outside the Great Wall, the nearest is Xiaban Town, which is nearly 400 miles away. If the immigrants walk all the way, it is estimated that it will take 15 to 20 days, but if they take the Luan River, it is generally about ten days. Although the time is not much less, it is valuable to save the immigrants' energy.
There are a hundred thousand immigrants arriving this time, so after everyone in Longhua discussed it, they planned to divide them into two parts. Among them, the old and weak women and Confucians took the boat all the way north along the Luan River to Chengde, while the other young and middle-aged people went Under the escort of officials and infantry, they went northward by land.
During these twenty days of travel, as Huangfu Chaobo had been on a route for several years, he was very relieved to leave it to Jiang Qin to manage the entire fleet, but he took advantage of this rare time to go offline and accompany him. I had my wife and children for a few days, and only occasionally went online to check on the status of the entire fleet.
After receiving the news that Jiang Qin's fleet was about to arrive at Laoting, Huangfu Chaobo stayed on the ship honestly. This morning, Huangfu Chaobo had just gotten up and watched from the bow of the ship with Guo Jia, but he saw a semaphore coming from Jiang Qin's flagship. Soon, Huangfu Chaobo, the messenger of the large ship, came to the deck to report : "My Lord, General Chiang sent a signal saying that the fleet will arrive at Laoting Port before noon today. Please prepare, Lord."
Huangfu Chaobo nodded to show that he already knew, then turned to look at Guo Jiadao: "Don't worry, Fengxiao, we can arrive at Leting today."