Cao Cao's fleet set off at noon the next day after Liu Jing's fleet left, and returned to Ruxukou. He walked six hours later than the Han army fleet. It was the middle of winter. The wind was northwest and he walked against the current. Without special motivation, the fleet could not travel west.

The power of the Han army was an impeller, and soldiers were able to gain forward movement power by stepping on the wooden wheels in the fleet. Cao army's ships did not install impellers, but used long oars. Paddle holes were opened on both sides of the warship, and dozens of huge oars extended. The soldiers rowed the oars in the cabin so that the warship could move against the wind and against the current, so this kind of warship was also called a hundred oars.

However, compared with the Han army's impeller pedal boat, this kind of 100-oat boat is not fast, inefficient, and time-consuming. The same 100-stone impeller boat of the Han army requires only twenty people to operate, while a 100-stone wooden pulp boat of the Cao army requires forty people to paddle, so Cao Cao's fleet only brought six thousand people in name, but in fact there were ten thousand troops.

The fleet sailed for a whole day, less than a hundred miles, and was still sailing in Danyang County. At noon, Cao Cao was wearing a thick cloak and stood in front of the boat window and staring at the vast river. It was snowing heavily on both sides of the Yangtze River at this time, and the heavy snow on the river was even more wrapped in a strong west wind and roaring towards the fleet.

This kind of heavy snow is rare in the south, but Cao Cao has long been commonplace in the north. At this time, he was thinking about the situation in Jiangdong. The main reason why he formed an alliance with Sun Quan was to break the alliance between Liu Jing and Sun Quan, and in turn posed a threat to Jingzhou. However, Jiangdong's power was weak at this time and he was unable to compete with Jingzhou. Sun Quan's value of utilization was actually very small, so Cao Cao had new ideas.

He wanted to take this opportunity to annex Jiangdong, but he also knew that Liu Jing would not allow him to annex Jiangdong. Once Cao's army went south to Jiangdong, a war would inevitably break out. In the south, Cao's army was not the opponent of the Han army. More importantly, it would instead help Liu Jing swallow Jiangdong and make a wedding dress for the Han army.

So Cao Cao thought about it again and again that he would not send troops directly to Jiangdong, but he could support the pro-Cao forces. This pro-Cao force was not Sun Quan, but Sun Ben from Kuaiji County. He had to let Sun Ben unify Jiangdong. However, Cao Cao received news that because the Sun Shao forces in Wu County were supported by the Han army, the Kuaiji army could not even cross the Qiantang River.

In this way, eliminating the forces of Wu County as soon as possible became the focus of Cao Cao's consideration, and the most effective way to deal with Wu County was to attack the north and south. Sun Quan sent troops from the north and Sun Ben sent troops from the south. Wu County could not resist the north and south attacks of the two armies, so controlling Sun Quan became another major reason for Cao Cao's trip to Jianye.

As for taking Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao into the harem, it was also Cao Cao's dream for many years. He was about to succeed, but Liu Jing was stabbed and kidnapped Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao. This made Cao Cao extremely depressed. He could not use this matter to attack Sun Quan. The man had already run away, and it would be useless to force Sun Quan.

Cao Cao could only sigh that he had no chance with Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao. At the same time, he also hated Liu Jing deeply. It would be fine to be an enemy of him, but he actually had to compete with him for a woman. Is it unbearable?

Cao Cao was sulking in the cabin. At this time, soldiers rushed to report outside the cabin: "The Prime Minister, the sentry ship found the Han warship thirty miles ahead. They attacked the sentry ship, and the five sentry ships were sunk and only one escaped."

This news surprised Cao Cao. He quickly walked out of the cabin and saw two spies standing outside the cabin, covered in water, trembling with cold. Cao Cao asked quickly: "But Liu Jing's warship."

"Reporting to the Prime Minister, it is not Liu Jing's warship, but the banner of the headed warship is Gan. It should be Gan Ning's warship, with hundreds of ships."

Cao Cao's thoughts changed sharply. What does Liu Jing mean? Is he trying to intercept himself? At this time, Cao Cao suddenly had a bad premonition. Gan Ning actually dared to leave Wuhu and went out in full swing. Aren't he afraid that his navy would take his nest?

Since Gan Ning dared to come out in full force, he must have something to rely on. Could it be... Cao Cao was suddenly shocked and sweated coldly. It was at least a hundred miles away from Wuhu. If something happened in Wuhu, Gan Ning would not have time to go back to rescue him. There was only one possibility that Gan Ning dared to do this. Cao Cao began to worry whether something had happened to his navy army.

"Prime Minister, discover the enemy fleet" shouted the lookout soldiers on the mast.

Cao Cao quickly walked to the side of the ship and looked west. He saw countless black spots appearing on the gray river in the west, about ten miles away from them. This made Cao Cao nervous. Although he had 200 warships and 10,000 troops, most of the soldiers were used to row boats. They had no combat power at all, and the enemy was on the flow and had an advantage. Once they fought, they would inevitably be wiped out.

Cold sweat oozed from Cao Cao's forehead. After all, he was experienced, knew the balance and how to get rid of the crisis. He immediately ordered: "Transfer my order, and the fleet quickly approached the North Shore."

In this case, abandoning the ship ashore was their only and wisest approach. As the signal soldiers waved the flag-spoken signal, Cao Cao's fleet began to turn rapidly and headed towards the north shore.

The warships that came from the west were the 300 warships led by Gan Ning. They went down the river and were very fast. At this time, Gan Ning also saw the Cao army fleet, and he immediately ordered: "Chase with all your strength."

The Han army fleet accelerated its speed and chased the escaped Cao Cao fleet with all its might. Gan Ning was even more anxious. He was determined to capture Cao Cao and make unparalleled achievements. He kept ordering, "Accelerate, accelerate again."

The warships that Gan Ning were riding seemed to fly up on the river, getting closer and closer to the Cao army warships, but it was not that easy to capture Cao Cao. More than a dozen Cao army warships lined up on the river, blocking the way for Gan Ning warships. They quickly surrounded Gan Ning's ships, and dozens of huge rocks roared from Gan Ning's ships in all directions. More than a dozen Cao army warships arrived, cutting off the Han army warships behind them, and the two sides launched a fierce water battle on the river.

Although the Cao army's warships were far from the enemy's opponents, they successfully blocked the pursuit of the Han army's warships and bought valuable time for Cao Cao and his subordinates to escape ashore.

The water battle on the river was approaching its end. Nearly thirty Cao's warships were sunk ten, and more than a dozen other fired. However, Cao Cao's warships had already reached the north shore. The water on this area was very deep, and the warships could dock directly. Cao Cao landed on the shore under the escort of dozens of personal soldiers. More and more Cao's ships were docked one after another, and teams of Cao's soldiers rushed to flee to the land.

Cao Cao stood on a high ground, staring at the Han army warships on the river with a serious expression. He was almost certain that something might happen to his navy army. Cao Cao knew Liu Jing's intention very well. He wanted to break the deadlock. Once he destroyed his navy army, Sun Quan would change his mind and no longer fulfill the alliance between the two sides, and the alliance would become a piece of waste paper.

Cao Cao was even sure that Liu Jing would never allow him to transport 30,000 stones of grain to Jiangdong, and he had no ship available now. Thinking of this, Cao Cao couldn't help but sigh and was worried. At this time, Xu Chu stepped forward and bowed and said, "Prime Minister, let's leave first."

Cao Cao dug to the river again and saw that the dense warships on the river had approached the north shore. The nearest warship was less than 300 steps from the height he was standing. Cao Cao had no choice but to order: "Leave the shore and head towards Hefei quickly."

The Cao army soldiers were forced to give up their warships and began to evacuate from the north shore, heading towards Hefei a hundred miles away along the official road. The nearly two hundred warships and large amounts of food and food from the nearly 200 warships and ships discarded on the north shore fell into the hands of the Han army, but Gan Ning was very sorry that this was a good opportunity to seize Cao Cao, but he still failed to seize the opportunity.

...

The Han army's attack on Cao Cao's naval army finally triggered a chain reaction. The Cao army was forced to give up the Ruxukou army city because of the destruction of the naval army and the loss of all warships. Beizhe returned to Hefei, and the Han army no longer stationed its troops in Wuhu. Liu Jing led the army back to Chaisang.

Shortly after the Han army withdrew, Pang Tong arrived in Jianye in a small boat.

In Jianye Palace, Sun Quan was discussing countermeasures with Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong after the Han army broke through. A few days ago, Da Qiao returned to Jianye and brought Sun Quan a handwritten letter from Liu Jing. In the letter, Liu Jing said that he was willing to exchange grain for copper ingots in Jianye's official warehouse. In other words, after Cao Cao's 30,000 shi of grain aid became a month in the water, Liu Jing turned to express his willingness to help solve the food crisis in Jiangdong.

At the same time, Sun Quan also received the news that Cao Cao's naval army was destroyed and the Han army and Cao army withdrew at the same time. This news shocked Sun Quan and finally made him realize clearly that south of the Yangtze River, Cao army would not be the opponent of the Han army in any case. If he formed an alliance with Cao Cao, he would only humiliate himself in the end.

“I feel very grateful”

Sun Quan felt a little ashamed. Because he misjudged the situation, he almost made a big mistake. He sighed and said to Zhang Zhao and Zhang Hong: "I did not send my eldest son to Yedu. This is my wisest decision this year. Otherwise, I will be held back by Cao Cao and it will be difficult to turn over again. This time it is entirely my responsibility."

Zhang Hong and Zhang Zhao looked at each other, and Zhang Zhao bowed and said, "When I talk about this, I have a responsibility, and I cannot blame Wu Hou completely. After all, Jiangdong and Cao Cao signed an alliance to negotiate, and I was unable to dissuade Wu Hou in time, so I felt deeply ashamed."

Zhang Hong said calmly: "Associated with Cao Cao and put pressure on the Han army, this is the suggestion of Weichen. It should be that Weichen's responsibility is greater. However, Weichen believes that Jiangdong has no losses. On the contrary, in the confrontation between Liu Jing and Cao Cao, we also gained certain benefits. The reason why Liu Jing agreed to trade grain with Jiangdong was actually a compromise. From this perspective, our goal has been achieved. Although we took a dangerous step, of course, we also made some mistakes of being eager for quick success and instant benefits."

The mistake Zhang Hong mentioned here about quick success and instant benefits was to imply that Sun Quan agreed to give Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao to Cao Cao. Zhang Hong and Zhang Zhao didn't know about this in advance, but later they heard about it. However, this kind of thing was not easy to explain, so Zhang Hong could only vaguely remind Sun Quan.

Sun Quan smiled bitterly for a while and said, "What should we do next? Do we really use copper ingots to exchange for Liu Jing's food?"

He looked at Zhang Zhao, and Zhang Zhao hurriedly said, "Mr. Wu, don't rush to make a decision. If Weichen is not wrong, Liu Jing will definitely send someone to discuss this matter in detail."

As soon as he finished speaking, a guard in the hall bowed and said, "Report to the Marquis of Wu, the King of Han sent his military advisor Pang Tong and he has entered the city."
Chapter completed!