At the same time, at dusk that day, Li Ru and Li Dian each led a fleet to leave Ruxuwu. Li Ru went to Wancheng to show off his diplomatic skills and persuade Li Hu to cooperate with Cao Zhi. Li Dian headed northeast
The direction is via Chaohu, and the purpose is to capture Zheng Bao's hometown in Chaohu. Cao Zhi wants to go to Zheng Bao's hometown before Li Hu arrives to see what is in Chaohu.
Three days later, there was still heavy snowfall in the Lujiang River. Outside the west gate of Wancheng, Zheng Bao had never been so anxious since he raised his troops to attack Wancheng. It was okay to have no success for a long time, and there was a continuous snowstorm all around, and it was about to end.
With supplies of food and grass, people in the army were already panicking. Wujie kept asking when the boat to cross the lake would come. The tone of speaking to him had also changed in the past two days, which seemed to mean that they were breaking up.
.
Zheng Bao cursed many times and sent back his subordinates. At the same time, he sent people to wait at the ferry every day, hoping for people to come from Chaohu. In order to buy time when he came, Zheng Bao took the dry road and did not prepare a boat at all.
But now those official roads have been completely covered by heavy snow, and there is no way to go in many places. The only place where the army can pass is Ruxuwu.
But if the boat from Chaohu didn't come, how could he leave? After waiting for another day, Zheng Bao couldn't wait any longer. He ordered his troops to stop shouting, swearing, and feinting, and mobilized his soldiers to use all the available wood nearby.
, worked all night to make rafts in preparation for the retreat of the army.
Most of Zheng Bao's men were water pirates, so they were very familiar with making rafts. Although Wujie's Lin Junman was not an expert in shipbuilding, he had a large number of people and plenty of strength. After demolishing the houses near the west gate, they rushed to the nearby mountains.
The valve wood was then transported back to the camp for Zheng Bao’s artificial raft.
If time were not tight, Zheng Bao's people could build a ship, but now is not the time to be coveted for comfort and beauty. Now they just need to build a waterway vehicle that can carry so many of them. Zheng Bao is not ready to wait any longer, he has a premonition
Something happened to his base camp in Chaohu, and he had to go back quickly.
Three days later, through intense and busy work, the raft that could enter the water was finally completed. Zheng Bao and Wu Jie took advantage of the night snow to stop and hurriedly sent out their troops. Soldiers who could fight were given priority to board the raft, and Lin Jun was trapped among the barbarians.
A large number of old, weak, women and children had to be abandoned, and the rafts built were limited and could not accommodate all the people to leave Wancheng. For a while, there were cries and begging near the west gate of Wancheng, all night long.
On the second day after Zheng Bao and Wujie left, Jingfu's outlying cavalry scouts were attacked by unidentified troops three hundred miles away from Wancheng. Of the five cavalry scouts in a team of ten, only two people came back alive.
After Jingfu and Li Hu learned the news, they were immediately shocked. Before they could recover, the soldiers patrolling the city brought back even more terrifying news. One night, Zheng Bao and Wu who besieged the west gate
Jie's men disappeared out of thin air. The successive bad news completely broke the will of the two of them, but their reactions were completely different. Jingfu immediately divided his troops at the west gate to fill the gap, and could not let Lu Kang in the city sneak out from the west gate and catch them off guard. At the same time, he started
Planning to break out of the encirclement and withdraw his troops, Li Hu agreed on the surface. After leaving Jingfu's tent, he immediately secretly summoned Yang Che, the "distinguished guest" Li Hei had brought back from Ruxuwu.
On the second day, Li Hu took the initiative to move five thousand troops, and Panhu Man, who replaced Jingfu, besieged the west gate of Wancheng. At the same time, Cao Zhi, who was in Ruxuwu, also received a secret report from Li Ru the next day. Jiang Qin was immediately ordered to select
The masters of the boats controlled the sampans and bamboo rafts heading towards Wancheng. At this time, everyone in Ruxuwu knew that a big battle was coming, and everyone was gearing up and eager to try, waiting for the last moment to come.
Not long after Jiang Qin led his men to leave the waterway of Ruxuwu by boat, on the night of the second day, the moon was dark and the wind was high, the snow was falling thickly and quickly, and the wind was even more violent on the lake.
People couldn't tell the direction at all. Jiang Qin was afraid that he would advance too quickly and damage the boats, men and horses, so he ordered the coalition soldiers who came with him to use the boats to hide in a nearby fishing village that could be sheltered from the wind.
The fishing village has long been deserted. No one dared to light a fire along the way, for fear of encountering the retreating enemy troops. All they ate was the dry food they brought with them. Tonight was no exception. Although the weather was very cold, no one dared to light a fire to keep warm.
, they could only curl up behind some leeward highlands, munching on dry food. Everyone stopped for a while and were about to take a rest and wait for the wind and snow to subside before continuing on their way.
Suddenly, from far away on the water, he heard bursts of human voices in front of him, and the sound of sliding on the water gradually approached. It seemed that a large number of ships were passing by. Jiang Qin was shocked and immediately climbed up to a nearby high ground with his two companions.
Checking, I saw thousands of torches on the lake moving slowly in the dark night.
Jiang Qin shouted: "No, they are probably the defeated bandits of Zheng Bao and Jiangxia Man." Jiang Qin knew how powerful they were, and if he was found alone and weak, he would definitely be wiped out. Based on Jiang Qin's understanding of water thieves
, Zheng Bao must have traveled all night regardless of the strong wind and relying on his navy's familiarity with the river. Jiang Qin knew that most of them would not come to this fishing village to rest, but the boats parked on the water outside the fishing village were easily spotted.
, so Jiang Qin summoned his companions to take advantage of the darkness of night, and Zheng Bao's people moved slowly. They quickly left the village, jumped into the cold lake water, overturned the boat, and drove the bamboo rafts to the roots of some ancient trees on the shore that were broken.
Hidden inside, these places can barely hide a part of the bamboo rafts. If you look closer, you can still see it. But the firelight is getting closer and closer, and the conversations between people can gradually be heard clearly. The shore can no longer wait.
Jiang Qin and others hurriedly climbed ashore and lay down on the high ground to take a peek.
As soon as everyone stepped on the slope, Zheng Bao's navy drove over. Maybe Jiang Qin and others were lucky, Zheng Bao and Wu Jie didn't have any intention of stopping, and drove directly past the fishing village. Or maybe it was too dark.
, no one who was careful looked at the looming bamboo rafts and boat bottoms on the shore of the fishing village.
It took tens of thousands of surface troops two hours to completely pass through the fishing village. Jiang Qin and others were sweating anxiously as they waited. After confirming that the enemy troops had gone away, Jiang Qin, who was lying behind a mound to reconnoiter the military situation, did not dare to
He was negligent, and hurriedly led people to drag back the overturned raft on the water, and dived to flip the boat that was about to sink.
Although Jiang Qin and others were familiar with the nature of water, in this cold winter, after all this work, everyone's lips were purple from the cold and their whole body was trembling. Jiang Qin saw that the army was far away, so he couldn't care less and went ashore.
He raised a fire, took off his soaked clothes, and warmed himself up by the fire. Otherwise, how could he spend the night? Even if he didn't die, he would suffer from frostbite. Jiang Qin's luck continued. In such bad weather, he would not be able to spend the rest of the night again.
No ships passed here, and many people fell asleep next to the hot bonfire.