Man Wei watched intently and saw a row of rafts flowing down the mountain upstream.
Someone was waving the flag on the raft. When the distance slowly approached, Man Wei could see clearly that it was a flag of Cao's army.
In the past two days, Cao Zhen used a large number of small boats upstream, and rafts frequently launched attacks. The Jingzhou Army's naval warships fought across the river and tried their best to stop them, but the number of ships that could not be resisted by Cao's army was too large. Small boats continued to transport soldiers and were taken into Xiangyang City.
But this is the first time that dozens of rafts like this, with nearly a thousand people, arrived.
Seeing this situation, the generals and generals of Cao's army were all very happy and comforted each other and said, "It seems that the navy of Jingzhou army has no fighting spirit either!"
Man Wei was naturally happy, but he was responsible for defending the city and did not dare to relax.
He stared at the boat for a while and then looked upstream. Although the flood had passed, the water was still vast and the sky was dark, and it was impossible to see the situation in the distance. The wind on the water was getting stronger, and the boundless reeds that emerged from the shore were undulating with the wind, making rustling sounds, covering up other sounds on the river.
"No war? They came right?" Man Wei murmured to himself.
He called two entourages and said, "You go to the Beijing platform to look at the direction of the mountains. What is the situation of the water war between the two armies? Take the light cavalry out of the west gate, take the land route, and explore the waterway upstream... Go and go back quickly."
The two entourages left.
At this time, the few rafts that were headed by the row of rafts had already passed through the dense reeds on the shore. The rafts were rising and falling, and went deeper into the ponds by the water, not far from the northern wall of Xiangyang City.
When the Han River surged a few days ago, the waves directly washed away the city wall, as if they were about to push the entire city to down. In fact, the northern wall of Xiangyang City was not completely close to the Han River. This section of the city wall was built by Liu Jingsheng during the Chuping period. In order to save manpower, the western section of the north wall traveled horizontally with the Han River, while the eastern section slightly closed inward along the terrain of the pond by the water, and opened a distance from the Han River.
The north gate of Xiangyang City is open on the edge of a large pond. When the raft entered the range of the pond, Man Wei and others on the top of the city could already vaguely see the appearance of the soldiers on the raft.
"Liao Chun, come and have a look." Man Wei greeted a chief of staff and headed closer to him: "Does the soldiers on the boat have your acquaintances?"
Qu Chang, called Liao Chun, arrived in Xiangyang from the upstream the day before yesterday.
A considerable number of the troops led by Cao Zhen were the prefectures and counties that were originally stationed in Fancheng, and generally had good water quality. In the past few days, the raft they were riding was hit by Jingzhou military ships, and there were heavy casualties, but many people were able to escape after falling into the water.
Liao Chun was one of them. His raft was destroyed by the Jingzhou navy during the battle. He floated down with a log, and rescued several companions who were also struggling in the water on the way. Then he led them to retreat the Jingzhou military ships that were pursuing, and finally gathered more than 20 subordinates and safely arrived in Xiangyang City.
The reinforcements of Cao Zhen's troops continued to break through obstacles and entered Xiangyang City along the river, which greatly boosted the morale of the defenders, but also brought a lot of trouble. Because most of the institutions of their troops were broken up in the water battle, the reinforcements that arrived in the city were difficult to form a regiment for a while, and they had to beware of spies hiding the Jingzhou Army.
Therefore, Man Chong did not rush to call them to fight, but ordered them to uniformly station in the camps north of the city and arrange their organization and upper and lower classes first.
In the past two days, Liao Chun has made great efforts in this regard. However, because his original position was only Du Bo, it caused dissatisfaction with the officers of the Cao army with a higher status several times, and instead caused new troubles. During this period, three or five lives were killed in a row. I don’t know if the person who died was a spy in Jingzhou or was purely due to revenge.
Therefore, last night, Man Chong pulled out Liao Chun and his subordinates who were inclined to set up a single battalion, and Liao Chun was temporarily appointed as the leader of the Qu.
The camp of Liao Chun's troops was not far from the inside of the north city wall. At this time, Man Wei was patrolling the place and he was also with him.
After hearing Man Wei's inquiry, Liao Chun narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice: "I'm not hiding the lieutenant, there is no one I know. However, they are all subordinates of General Cao Zhen, and their flags and military uniforms are all right."
Man Wei asked casually, but after hearing what Liao Chun said, he waved his hand casually and asked him to retreat.
Liao Chun did not leave, stood in front of Man Wei, showing a look of wanting to speak but stopping.
"What? Do you have something to say?"
Liao Chun gritted his teeth and said, "Capital, please tell me that you don't have to let them in."
"What?"
"Captain, now the general is leading his troops, and it is more important than anything else to defend the city safely. Now there is no shortage of people in the city, as stable as Mount Tai. We just need to take strict precautions and wait for news of the general's victory. Why bother to be troubled because of the arrival of this reinforcement army?"
Man Wei frowned. He felt that there seemed to be something else in Liao Chun's words, but he didn't understand it for a while.
Man Chong's closeness to the assistant official Chen Zi approached Man Wei's ear and whispered: "It is the credit of my general to defend Xiangyang City, but there is no need to rush to let the subordinates of the backbone general intervene."
Man Wei was shocked.
The subtle trade-offs involved the relationship between local officials and central generals. Man Chong rarely talked about it, and Man Wei only had some vague feelings. He never thought that Liao Chun was a smart person, and he told it in one sentence.
He patted Liao Chun's arm hard and said repeatedly: "You said it very well!"
At this time, the raft had already landed. The soldiers on the raft came down one after another, and a military officer looked like an officer, who brought several subordinates to the city and shouted to open the door. The city did not dare to be negligent, so they put down the basket first, and the talisman letter brought up said that it was indeed a part of the commander of the backbone general Cao Zhen. They had previously stationed in Fancheng, and then rushed to Xiangyang again.
After all, Man Wei is just his father's assistant, so it is not convenient to face the arrogant soldiers and powerful generals under Cao Zhen.
So he said, "I won't meet them. Mr. Chen comes forward to deal with it. For food and other needs, be sure to provide good supplies and don't neglect it."
As he said that, he led his subordinates to leave in a hurry and asked someone to put away the flag so that he would not be embarrassed by Cao Zhen's subordinates.
The group of people descended along the Chengcheng Horse Road and walked into the mansion on the muddy road.
I have been busy guarding the city for the past three days, and the traces of flooding have not been cleaned up. Along the road, not only mud has silt over my ankles, but also decayed wood and collapsed walls. There are also temporary military tents on the street, most of which are empty, and some are also heard from the inside.
Many injured people even put in the same military tent with the dead, and dense flies were buzzing around the military tent. The injured people would probably die sooner or later. There were insufficient doctors in Xiangyang City, and no one could help them.
Outside the military tent, some people with a cringe look at each other secretly. They probably knew that the Jingzhou army had retreated, but there was no joy on their faces, and they were still full of fear and panic. Man Wei knew that most of these people were military households, and this war was so fierce that their husbands, sons or fathers were mostly dead.
Man Wei sighed.
He also knew that compared to Jiangling's generous attitude towards the people, the rule of King Wei in Xiangfan was really harsh. In recent years, it has repeatedly aroused public anger and caused civil rebellion and mutiny due to vigorous plundering for military use. Fortunately, this battle was basically won. Maybe there will be a chance in the future, which will give the people a little rest?
He thought so and continued to trek through the mud.
Chapter completed!