Chapter 852: Sun Ce's Army Captures Guangling

Guangling City finally fell into the hands of Sun Ce's army. At this time, Yuan Yao's 20,000 reinforcements had just arrived at Tangyi County. Seeing this, Yuan Yao discussed with Li Ling and Liu Xun and decided that Li Ling would lead 10,000 troops to defend Tangyi and block Sun Ce's army from entering Jiujiang, while Yuan Yao would lead 10,000 imperial guards and Liu Xun's 3,000 defeated soldiers to enter Yuguo.

So far, there were 10,000 imperial guards of Yuan Yao, 5,000 soldiers of Liu Xun's war camp, more than 2,000 remnants of Zhang Xun and Yuan Si, and more than 3,000 defenders in the city, totaling 20,000 troops in Yuguo City.

However, Yuan Shu's army did not go out of the city to fight again when facing Sun Ce's army of less than 50,000. Instead, they defended the two cities and waited for Shouchun's next arrangement.

At this time, Sun Ce's army did not stop. He arranged Sun Jing to lead 10,000 elite soldiers, and then recruited 10,000 new soldiers from the captives and Guangling people, a total of 20,000 troops to defend Guangling. Sun Ce divided the remaining 25,000 troops into two groups. Lü Dai led 10,000 troops to attack Hailing, while Sun Ce led 15,000 elite troops to attack Gaoyou County with Zhou Yu's navy.

After the news of Guangling's fall reached Xiapi, Ji Ling knew that Xuzhou was no longer safe. Guangling and Xiapi were mutually dependent. Now that Guangling had been lost, Sun Ce's army had already entered Jiangbei, and he was stuck in Xiapi.

Cao Cao dispatched nearly 100,000 troops, while Ji Ling himself and the troops in Xiapi were only 50,000 troops, and could only barely defend against Cao Cao's attack. Cao Cao left 20,000 elite troops and 20,000 foreign troops to defend Ji Ling's army, and sent another 60,000 troops to intensify the attack on Xiapi.

After receiving the news that Sun Ce's army had captured Guangling, Cao Cao's army increased the intensity of the attack. Facing the increasingly powerful attack of Cao Cao's army, Ji Ling decided to change his strategy. First, he transferred 8,000 of the 10,000 soldiers in Haixi to Huaiyin, leaving only 1,000 soldiers in Haixi City to help defend the city, and the other 1,000 were sent to Huaipu City to use these soldiers and horses to enter the city along the Huai River.

In addition, he drew 10,000 soldiers from the remaining 30,000 troops in his hands to enter Xiapi City to assist Liang Gang and Yuan Yin in defending Xiapi. He and Chen Ji led 20,000 troops down along the Sishui River to defend Suiling and Xutai, and to control the Huai River line.

On the one hand, it was to guard the retreat of tens of thousands of troops in Huaibei, and on the other hand, it was to control the passage from Xuzhou to Jiujiang. In his view, the importance of Xuzhou was far from comparable to that of Jiujiang and Lujiang counties.

As for other places, Ji Ling thought that with Yuan Yao leading the generals to guard Xintangyi and Yuguo, he could guard Suiling and Xutai, and with the troops in Xiapi City, he could prevent the troops from the north and south from entering Huainan. On the battlefield of Yuzhou, since last year, the crossing of the river by the Anton Army had been repelled several times, so it should be safe, which could buy more time for the emperor of Shouchun.

What Ji Ling didn't expect was that the battlefield of Yuzhou, which he thought was very stable, was not as stable as he believed.

Just when Sun Ce began to sweep the cities in the southeast of Guangling County and Cao Cao's army launched an attack on Xiapi City again, hundreds of thousands of troops of the Yuzhou Army and the Anton Army had arrived in Runan. In order to confuse Yuan Shu's army, Huang Zhong divided the army into two, and 100,000 troops gathered on the north bank of the Huai River between Yuanlu and Fubo, making a false impression that they were going to cross the river here.

Huang Zhong led 30,000 elite soldiers, including the Yuanrong Crossbowmen and Iron Eagle Warriors of Huangfu Chaobo's Guards, and secretly sneaked into a camp in the southeast of Xinxi, which was the location for the Andong Army to cross the river.

As early as last year, Huangfu Chaobo had discussed with everyone that the most suitable place to cross the river was still Xinxi. However, the construction of warships in Xincai would definitely be discovered by Yuan Shu's army, so Huangfu Chaobo was ready to "openly repair the plank road and secretly cross Chencang" for Yuan Shu's army.

Xincai began to build ships on a large scale at the end of last year, and the news soon spread to Huainan. After discussion, Yuan Shu's army felt that the Yuzhou Army's navy in Xincai needed to go down the Ru River before it could reach the Huai River. Therefore, since last year, Yuan Shu's army began to increase patrols at the entrance of the Ru River in the Huai River. In contrast, the navy's strength in the upper reaches of the Huai River has been significantly reduced.

What Yuan Shu's army did not expect was that while the Yuzhou Army was building ships in Xincai, it was also building ships in a small river in Xinxi. However, Xincai built medium-sized warships such as Maotu Chima, while Xinxi built smaller 鉨 Chong Ship. This is a naval warship that can only carry about 20 people. Among the naval forces, except for the reconnaissance boats, this type of ship is the smallest.

After several months, Xinxi has built more than 50 鉨成车, which can carry more than 1,000 naval soldiers across the river at one time. In Xincai City, medium-sized warships sufficient for thousands of naval forces were built, as well as a large number of large rafts for the army to cross the river.

On March 28, the Xincai navy entered the Rushui River and began to go downstream to the Huaishui River. A day later, the navy fleet arrived at the north bank of the Huaishui River and joined the army that arrived earlier. For a time, the atmosphere on both sides of the Huaishui River became tense. Li Feng, the general of Yuan Shu's army stationed in Qisi, patrolled the army day and night, and at the same time, he repeatedly warned Shouchun and Leju upstream for help.

That afternoon, after receiving Li Feng's rescue, Le Jue was reluctant but still sent another 2,000 navy to Qisi. At this time, there were only 3,000 navy of Yuan Shu's army opposite Xinxi, but they needed to patrol the nearly 300-mile-long Huai River waterway from Min County to Qisi.

In desperation, Le Jue could only deploy one thousand naval forces in Xinxi, which was the most suitable place for crossing the river, and the remaining two thousand naval forces were distributed on the waterways of more than 100 miles east and west of Xinxi. In the camp on the south bank of the river, he deployed two thousand troops. The purpose of the two thousand troops was to assist the naval forces in controlling the floating bridge from the south bank to the central island of the river. In critical moments, Le Jue also allowed the garrison commander to destroy the floating bridge.

At the same time, Le Jue personally led five thousand soldiers to garrison in the county city of Weiguo, more than ten miles south of the Huai River. Together with the five thousand guards in the city, there were a total of ten thousand troops defending the place that he thought was the most suitable for crossing the river within his defense line.

In fact, Le Jue had also considered destroying the floating bridge south of the central island, but after careful consideration, he temporarily gave up the idea.

When the Huai River passed the south of Xinxi, it formed a large bend. After years of accumulation of silt, a small island was formed in the middle of the river. The island was not located in the middle of the Huai River, but slightly to the south. The island is not big, but it can be used as a water camp for Yuan Shu’s army.