Chapter 254 The First Battle of Fancheng
More than a hundred Jingzhou soldiers on the dock were caught off guard, hundreds of Cao troops arrived instantly, and more than a dozen Jingzhou soldiers in the east were chopped over, screaming sounded. When the rest of Jingzhou soldiers saw that the situation was not good, they turned around and fled.
The boatman sitting on the ferry resting and chatting was so shocked that he stood up one after another, looking at the killing on the shore at a loss. Before they could react, hundreds of soldiers of Cao army rushed onto the ferry and waved their swords and shouted loudly: "Those who dare to escape will be killed without mercy!"
The boatmen were so scared that they squatted down one after another. Cao's army immediately assigned soldiers to each ship, and two Cao's soldiers were on board, and ordered the ship to set sail, left Fancheng Wharf, and headed towards the mouth of Bishui River.
In the woods, Li Dian still kept his troops in motion, looking coldly in the direction of Fancheng, dealing with more than a hundred guards of ships, without the need for cavalry to be dispatched. He was waiting for reinforcements from Fancheng.
Cai Mao and Zhang Yun of Jingzhou surrendered to Cao Cao three years ago, but their surrender was different from Huang She's surrender. Huang She was the real surrender and accepted Cao Cao's title of official.
Cai Mao and Zhang Yun's surrender were a kind of pre-submission, which means that they had the intention to surrender, but did not formally surrender. This was the same as the investment intention and actual investment in later generations.
Moreover, only Cao Cao and some of their confidant advisers knew about the surrender intentions. Cao Ren was also told before leaving. However, Cao Ren deeply hated Cai Mao for not giving the ferry, but instead burned the ferry. He regarded Cai Mao as his enemy, so it was reasonable that Li Dian knew nothing.
In Li Dian's view, Cai Mao was a military advisor in Jingzhou. If he could capture him alive, this would be his greatest achievement. For this reason, Li Dian was particularly excited and looked forward to it.
"General, here we come!" a soldier shouted excitedly at the distance.
Li Dian also saw an army of thousands of people rushed out of the gate of Fancheng and rushed towards the dock.
Li Dian quickly estimated in his heart that about 3,000 people were about 3,000 people, which happened to be a delicious meal for their cavalry. He slowly pulled out his combat knife and shouted sternly: "Prepare for battle!"
The two thousand five hundred cavalrymen drew out their battle swords at the same time, and their eyes were filled with fierce light like wild beasts. They were extremely excited to stare at the soldiers rushing from afar.
The Jingzhou army led by Cai He rushed to the dock in a panic, trying to regain the ferry. Cai Mao also appeared on the top of the city and looked towards the dock with anxiety on his face. His originally inflated sense of glory had been exposed by the news that Cao's army had attacked the dock, leaving only a kind of panic that was trapped.
Cai Mao had already realized that he had been trapped. The so-called withdrawal of Cao's troops from Fancheng was simply a trap. The purpose was to lure Jingzhou troops into Fancheng. Cao's army's real intention was to seize the ferry.
At this time, Cai Mao had already seen hundreds of ferries slowly leaving the dock and heading eastward. This made Cai Mao both startled and angry and worried. Without the ferry, how should they go back?
"Military advisor, look over there!"
A sergeant pointed to the east bamboo forest and shouted in horror, "It's the Cao army's cavalry!"
Cai Mao also saw it, and saw a large number of cavalry fighting soldiers fighting out of the bamboo forest, with bright armor and shining swords, and murderous intent rushed towards the dock.
Cai Mao was shocked and hurriedly ordered: "Ring the bell to withdraw the troops!"
The bell rang on the top of the city and summoned the three thousand troops who had fought out to return, but it was too late. More than 2,000 Cao's cavalry rushed like a river and rushed into a panic group of soldiers in Jingzhou.
The soldiers of Jingzhou army raised their spears to resist, but they could not resist the cavalry's assault and were instantly torn apart by the cavalry. The cavalry of Cao army was extremely fierce, and they slashed the spear with their swords, killing the soldiers in Jingzhou, with their heads rolling, limbs flying across, and blood flowing into a river.
The soldiers in Jingzhou ran away crying and gradually began to collapse. Cai He shouted in a hurry, "Hold on, hold on to me!"
At this time, Li Dian came from behind him, "Thief General! Come with your life!" The sound was like a thunderbolt, and he swung his spear and stabbed Cai He's back heart.
Cai He was shocked and swung his knife to block it. With a loud bang, he opened Li Dian's spear, but his body couldn't hold it steady, and he shook it and almost fell off his horse.
At this time, the two horses intersected. In an instant, Li Dian took advantage of Cai He's unstable body and grabbed his skeleton tape with his backhand and pulled Cai He off the horse.
"Tiened!"
Several Cao soldiers rushed forward and held Cai He down and tied him up.
Cai He's arrest made the Jingzhou army even more chaotic. Thousands of soldiers fled westward, but Cao's army pursued them relentlessly and kept killing them all. They didn't even accept the surrender on their knees and killed them all.
The gate of Fancheng was closed. On the top of the city, thousands of Jingzhou soldiers were silently watching the massacre outside the city. Everyone showed fear on their faces. Some young soldiers who had not experienced the war could not help crying.
One hour later, the cavalry finally ended the massacre, left the corpses all over the ground, turned their horses to gallop north, and three thousand soldiers in Jingzhou were killed, more than 2,000 people left, and less than a thousand people began to flee back to Fancheng one after another. As soon as they entered the city gate, everyone burst into tears.
Cai Mao had no choice but to order people to go out of the city to bury the body and find the survivor. At this time, Wu Qing, the former guard of Fancheng, stepped forward and said, "Military advisor, Fancheng is not as good as Xiangyang. The northern city is easy to be broken. Once Cao's army goes south again, it will be dangerous. It's better to find a way to cross the river and return to Xiangyang!"
Cai Mao sighed, "Don't I want to go back, but the ferry has been stolen by Cao's army. How can we go back?"
Wu Qing thought for a while and said, "We may be able to withdraw Deng County."
Deng County is located dozens of miles west of Fancheng, but it was immediately rejected by Cai Mao, "Deng County cannot do it, the city is even more dilapidated."
Wu Qing immediately said: "In addition, he can only retreat to the Dengxian wharf to the west and send a few brothers with good water to swim across the river to ask for help. Liu Jing should send a boat to pick him up."
"Will he come?" Cai Mao didn't quite believe that Liu Jing would come to save him.
"If he refuses to come, how can he meet the elders of Jingzhou?"
Cai Mao thought about it and said that this is the same. Even if Liu Jing refused to save him, he could not ignore the eight thousand Jingzhou soldiers under his command.
At this time, Cai Mao looked back at Fancheng. More than an hour ago, he was still very proud of the support of the people in Fancheng. In a blink of an eye, he was about to abandon these people and leave, and his reputation was damaged.
But at this time he could no longer care about these people. Cai Mao called a confidant army marquis and whispered to him, "You lead 500 soldiers to guard the city gate. After I evacuate, I must close the city gates and not allow anyone to leave the city. Once someone asks, you will say that I will lead the army north to block Cao's army."
"The last general obeys the order!" The military marquis rushed away.
After Cai Mao arranged the military affairs of Fancheng, he led 7,000 troops out of the city, in the name of garrisoning outside the city, but in fact he ran westward.
Cai Mao was very panicked. He knew that Cao's army was definitely not as simple as snatching his own ship. Since he set up a trap, how could he let his prey escape?
Or the Cao army would not kill him, but the Cao army would not let the Jingzhou army go. If Cai Mao was wiped out or even captured, his dream of being a governor of Jingzhou would be shattered.
Cai Mao knew very well that Cao's army must have arranged heavy troops to wait, and now he could only retreat urgently while the enemy had not yet arrived. Perhaps there was still a glimmer of hope.
"Quick! Speed up!"
In the wilderness, Cai Mao kept urging the soldiers to speed up the march. At this time, he had already received news that the main force of Cao's army appeared seven or eight miles away from the north, with about 10,000 people chasing them quickly towards the southwest.
Cai Mao felt even more anxious and shouted loudly: "Go faster, Cao's army is chasing him from behind."
It takes about thirty miles from Fancheng to Dengxian Wharf. Although the official road is flat, soldiers can maintain a high-speed marching state, but they cannot cross the river when they arrive at the North Wharf. They have to send people to swim to report the news. Is it still too late to wait for the big ships on the other side to come?
The urgency of time was heavy in Cai Mao's heart, but he had no choice. He had left Fancheng and could only continue to run westward, hoping that time would still be too late.
From the official road to the north, there are endless forests, with several narrow hills distributed in the forest, making this forest more valleys that can form small paths.
At this time, the main force of a Cao army composed of more than 10,000 people, led by General Yu Jin, was chasing south quickly.
The main force of the Cao army did not leave. They dug a trap twenty miles north of Fancheng and waited for the prey to take the bait. At this time, the prey that had been trapped was eager to escape. How could the Cao army let them go?
"Quick! Speed up the pursuit and don't let the Jingzhou army run away!"
Yu Jin kept urging the soldiers to chase him. At this time, he no longer cared about sending scouts to investigate the ambush ahead. In fact, Yu Jin knew that there was unlikely to be ambush. If Cai Mao had prepared in advance, his ferry would not have been robbed so easily.
And Liu Jing and Liu Bei couldn't get the news so soon.
It was precisely because of this enlightenment that Yu Jin did not spend time investigating the ambush, but just urged the soldiers to run all the way.
Half an hour later, Cao's army passed through the hilly area and went westward to the official road. At this time, Cao's army caught two escaped Jingzhou soldiers and took them to Yuqian horse.
"General, these are two deserters, and they were caught by their brothers!"
Yu Jin looked at the two soldiers coldly. His cold eyes scared the two soldiers to kneel down and kowtow, "Give up your life! Give up your life!"
"I ask you, who will your Lord be?"
"It's Military Advisor Cai!"
"Do you have any other ships?"
The two soldiers shook their heads in a hurry, "The ship has been lost, and there are no other ships. I heard that they are asking warships on the other side to come for rescue."
Yu Jin laughed. The opponent's chief general was actually Cai Mao, and he was such a stupid person. Is it too late to expect the other side to come to rescue him?
If Cai Mao could be caught, it would be a great achievement, no less than Li Dian's capture of the ship. Thinking of this, Yu Jin began to be excited and waved his long sword and shouted: "Kill the North Pier, and those who catch Cai Mao will be rewarded with a reward of 500 taels!"
The Cao army soldiers suddenly became excited and screamed and rushed to the dock.
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Chapter completed!