Chapter 445: Flooded Seven Armies, Ambush from Daggers
Chapter 445: Flooded Seven Armies Ambush
January 1, the third year of Zhongping (186).
The ill-prepared 400,000 Yellow Turban army finally withdrew from Xiangyang, which can be said to be a menacing attack and a hasty departure.
As soon as the Yellow Turbans retreated, Qin Hao, the Han general who had just returned, ordered an all-out attack, and 100,000 Han troops went north to pursue them overnight.
When Xiang Yu saw the Han army leaving the city, he thought he had an opportunity, so he turned his guns again, but the Han army did not engage in battle, but tried his best to delay the attack.
Due to the cooler climate and lack of food and grass, the Yellow Turban cannot withstand long-term consumption.
After realizing Qin Hao's intentions, Xiang Yu ordered a retreat in batches and personally led the army to break up the rear.
In order to prevent the Han army from stalking, Xiang Yu set up ambushes along the way, but the Han army uncharacteristically watched from a distance, as if they had no intention of pursuing them. When the Yellow Turbans retreated far away, the Han army followed them again. In this way, one quickly left, the other slowly followed, and the forces of both sides began to shift northward again.
January 5th.
The Yellow Turban Army withdrew to the Han River and camped in Zengkou River, but at this time it rained heavily and snowed.
When rain and snow arrive, the temperature naturally drops faster, and most of the Yellow Turban soldiers are wearing thin clothes and cannot withstand the sudden drop in temperature, so they are eager to return home.
The day before the Yellow Turbans arrived at Hekou River, Yue Fei and Xue Rengui led an army to raid the ferry and destroyed most of the ferry.
Xiang Yu had no choice but to cross the river first, and at the same time ordered people to search for ferries and prepare to cross the river. Of course, his precautions against the Han army who were still attacking Xinye did not decrease at all.
On January 8, 40,000 elite Yellow Turbans crossed the Han Dynasty.
On this day, when Xiang Yu and his soldiers had just crossed the Han River, they heard the roar of thousands of horses galloping, and the turbulent water came overwhelmingly towards the Yellow Turban Army.
"Qin Hao, how dare you break the dike." Xiang Yu looked up to the sky and roared unwillingly.
Seeing this scene, Xiang Yu immediately understood why the Han army had been delaying for time. It must be to store water.
But how did the Han army accurately know that there would be heavy rain and snow in these days?
In fact, Qin Hao also wanted to know the reason. Guiguzi could actually know so early in advance that there would be heavy rains in Xiangfan in the first month of this year. Even the weather forecast couldn't be so accurate, right?
But the rainstorm really came.
Under the power of heaven and earth, manpower seemed so insignificant. The Yellow Turban army of 400,000 was crushed in an instant and turned into nourishment for the earth.
Long Qie, who was still in the camp, was so frightened when he heard the shocking noise that he hurried out of his tent and mounted his horse to check, only to see such a desperate scene.
Floods suddenly came from all directions, and the seven armies ran around in chaos. Countless people followed the waves, but they were eventually washed away by the floods.
Soon the floods had leveled the ground, and Long Qie and other generals used their horses to climb up the hill to avoid the water.
At this time, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu led their men to arrive in a large boat, waving flags and drums.
Most of the Yellow Turban generals saw no way out and only fifty or sixty people around them. Knowing that they could not escape, they had no choice but to surrender.
Zhao Kuangyin sent down all his troops and armor, detained them in the boat, and then led the army to capture Long Qie.
At this time, Long Qie and Ji Bu had met with Zhongli Mei, and their troops gathered more than a thousand infantrymen and stood on the hillside.
Seeing Zhao Kuangyin coming, Long Qie was not afraid at all and fought bravely.
Zhao Kuangyin did not fight with him, but surrounded him with boats and ordered his sergeants to fire arrows together.
After shooting most of the soldiers to death, Zhao Kuangyin began to persuade Long Qie to surrender. Seeing that the situation was in danger, some Yellow Turban generals also persuaded Long Qie to surrender.
"General, most of the soldiers have been injured. Now there is no way around, so why not surrender?"
Before Long Qie could speak, Ji Bu was furious: "We have received so much kindness from a great virtuous teacher, how can we be willing to surrender to the Han..."
Before Ji Bu finished speaking, Long Qie directly beheaded the one who had surrendered, and said sternly: "Let's talk about surrender, it's the same for these two!"
All the soldiers were afraid and fought hard to defend themselves against the enemy.
The Zhao Kuangyin brothers fought from early morning to noon, but still failed to capture Long Qie, but they did manage to capture Zhongli Mei alive after he slipped and fell into the water.
By this time, Liu Guan and Zhang had settled the war and arrived with their troops. After a siege, Zhang Fei captured Ji Bu alive.
After the two generals were captured, all the ordinary soldiers lost their fighting skills. Only Long Qie was still fighting hard.
As he continued to kill, Long Jie saw dozens of Han soldiers coming in a small boat, so he jumped on the boat with his sword and immediately killed more than ten people. The rest abandoned the boat and fled to the water to escape for their lives.
Long Qie held a sword in one hand and a halberd in the other, and was about to set up a boat and head towards Fancheng. Guan Yu saw all this, so naturally he would not let him go.
At the head of the river, a general rushed down with a large raft and directly knocked over Long Qie's boat, and was captured alive by Guan Yu in the water.
"Ding dong, Guan Yu captured Long Qie alive, the base force is permanently 1, the current base force is 102."
At this point, 85% of the Yellow Turbans' 400,000-strong army were dead in the water, and half were either killed or surrendered.
As for the remaining 10%, they were lucky enough to cross the Han River with Xiang Yu. Of course, this does not mean that they are safe.
Qin Hao has been planning for this day for so long, so how can he possibly give Xiang Yu a plan to make a comeback?
Liu Ji and Fang Qiao expected Xiang Yu to cross the Han River, so Qin Hao also listened to their strategies and set up an 'ambush from all directions' for Xiang Yu.
Ahead, on the way to Fancheng, there are ten groups of ambushes waiting for Xiang Yu to arrive.
Since Qin Hao knows how to flood, he has no other backup plan, and there is no way for Xiang Yu to support him across the Han River.
In order to prevent being caught in the trap again, Xiang Yu had to quickly lead his troops to retreat to Fancheng. However, before they were halfway through the journey, a pair of ambush soldiers came out from two mountains.
"Xiang Yu, Changshan Zhao Zilong has been waiting for a long time."
"Huang Zhong is here, and those who surrender will not be killed."
We just witnessed the grand occasion of the annihilation of the entire army. Even if Xiang Yu's men were elite troops, no matter how good their psychological quality was, they would not still have the will to fight.
Because of the terrain, Xiang Yu could not see the details of the Han army, so he did not dare to fight easily and directly led the army to seize the road.
After Zhao Yun and Qin Wu intercepted some of the enemy troops, they did not pursue them because they only had a thousand men.
The Yellow Turbans' surveillance of the Han army was not loose, so it was impossible for Qin Hao to send too many soldiers and horses to take a detour and sneak across the river, and this time's "Ambush from Flying Daggers" only had a total of 10,000 troops.
After avoiding Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong's ambush, Xiang Yu had not traveled ten miles when another two groups of ambush troops came out. This time it was Xiong Kuohai and Xu Chu, and behind them were Lu Bu, Xue Rengui, Yue Fei,
Yang Qilang, Qin Wu...
After the ten teams of ambush troops were exhausted, only 3,000 of the 40,000 elites remained. Most of them were killed, and only a few surrendered.
Xiang Yu led 3,000 soldiers and horses and fled back to Fancheng with difficulty, but when he arrived, he discovered that the flag at the top of the city had already been changed, and Qin Hao had been waiting for him on the tower for a long time.
Qin Hao looked at Xiang Yu with a condescending victor's attitude, and said with a faint smile: "Xiang Yu, you lost, completely lost."