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Cao's army divided into two troops, one guarded Shouchun and the other guarded Hefei. Shouchun's army was less than 20,000, and was commanded by general Xu Huang, and Cao Cao personally took charge of Shouchun. Hefei was the main battlefield, with 50,000 Cao's army in the city, commanded by general Zhang Liao.

At the same time, Cao Cao dispatched 70,000 troops from Xuzhou and Yedu to the south. The reinforcements had not arrived in Hefei yet, but the water and land passages between Hefei and Shouchun were cut off by the Han army.

In fact, this was not caused by Xu Huang's hasty evacuation from Lu'an. The root cause was still in the Jiangdong Army. Without the restraint of the Jiangdong Army from the southeast, the Han army had no worries. The navy headed north in large numbers and approached the city of Hefei. In this case, if Xu Huang's army was not withdrawn, Xu Huang's army would be surrounded and wiped out by the Han army.

However, Xu Huang's army retreated, which did cause a great passiveness to Cao's army, that is, before Cao's reinforcements arrived, the Han army cut off the passage between Shouchun and Hefei. Even if Cao's reinforcements arrived, they could not support Hefei City.

To the bottom of this, it was the Jiangdong Army's poor cooperation that disrupted Cao Cao's deployment plan, which made Cao Cao very worried. There were only 50,000 defenders in Hefei City, and whether it could support the fierce attack of the Han army.

The withdrawal of the Jiangdong Army from Hefei brought a heavy blow to Cao Cao. He was anxious about the safety of Hefei, which made Cao Cao feel exhausted. In addition, he was old and eventually fell ill.

The Shouchun Prayer for the New Year is part of the pseudo-Imperial Palace built by Yuan Shu at that time. The pseudo-Imperial Palace has been demolished, leaving only this palace covering an area of ​​only ten acres, and now it has become the temporary place for Cao Cao to stay.

Cheng Yu hurriedly walked into the gate and met Cao Cao's guard commander Xu Chu. Cheng Yu quickly pulled Xu Chu aside and asked in a low voice: "What's going on with Duke Wei?"

Xu Chu sighed and said worriedly: "The situation is very bad. Last night, Mr. Wei coughed continuously and actually coughed up blood. He fainted. This was his condition at the beginning of last year and it recurred again. Military advisor, I am really worried."

Cheng Yu nodded silently and sighed: "It seems that I must persuade Duke Wei to return to Yedu as soon as possible."

He turned around and walked quickly towards the inner house, but Xu Chu had no confidence and wanted to persuade Duke Wei to leave Shouchun and return to Yedu. How difficult it is to

In the ward, Cao Cao had woken up from his drowsy sleep. He was sick like a mountain. Cao Cao looked dark and depressed, giving people a feeling of dying years. Two maids were serving him carefully to drink medicine. Cao Cao shook his head tiredly and pushed open the soup bowl. At this time, a guard outside the door reported, "Report to Duke Wei, Military Commander Cheng asked for a meeting."

Cao Cao nodded, "Please come in"

The door opened, Cheng Yu walked into the ward, stepped forward and bowed, "Weichen disturbed Mr. Wei to rest."

"Maybe, I just woke up and I was in good spirits."

Cao Cao smiled slightly, "Military advisor, please sit down."

Cheng Yu sat down on the side of Cao Cao. He looked at Cao Cao's complexion and felt very dark, and his eyes were not at all. He became more and more worried. Cao Cao understood his concern and smiled and said, "I was the same last year, even heavier than this. After resting for several months, he gradually recovered. Can't I speak now? You know that I couldn't even speak last year, so don't worry."

Cao Cao said a long sentence in one breath, and was really tired. He gasped for a few heavy breaths and closed his eyes again. At this time, the two maids also tactfully retreated, leaving only Cheng Yu and Cao Cao in the room.

"It is certainly regrettable that Duke Wei, the Jiangdong Army failed to participate in the war, but if they really participated, it would become the weakest link in our entire front. Liu Jing will fight the Jiangdong Army at a critical moment, and we may suffer unpredictable losses at that time, so..."

Before Cheng Yu finished speaking, a strange smile appeared on the corner of Cao Cao's mouth. He waved his hand gently, "Zhongde, I'm not that serious. You don't have to comfort me, I know very well."

Cao Cao sighed softly, "Of course I know Sun Quan's weakness, but compared to the importance of the Jiangdong Navy, his weakness is no longer important."

Cheng Yu was also silent and said for a moment: "Donald Wei should go back to Ye County to protect his body."

"If I can't hold on, I will go back, but it won't work now. Zhongde, now we are so passive, how can I go back with peace of mind?"

After a moment of silence, Cheng Yu said slowly: "Mr. Wei should believe in the distance and believe that he will defend Hefei."

Cao Cao nodded, "If I don't believe him, I will not let him command Hefei."

As soon as he finished speaking, the guards reported at the door: "Report to Duke Wei, a pigeon letter has been sent in Hefei."

Cao Cao was excited and hurriedly said, "Take it in."

A guard walked in, holding a pigeon letter that had been copied. Cheng Yu got up and took the pigeon letter and asked the guard to retreat. He looked at the letter and said to Cao Cao: "Duke Wei, is it about that little Hefei city."

A few days ago, the scout of Cao's army discovered that the Han army was building a shrinking Hefei city on the north bank of Chaohu Lake and was preparing to use it to train soldiers to attack the city. Cao's army sent a pigeon letter to the city, asking Zhang Liaoji to respond. Now it is Zhang Liao's reply.

"What did he say?" Cao Cao asked.

"Since the long term, the city is just a defensive weapon, and soldiers are the key to victory or defeat. The Han army can imitate the city, but it cannot imitate the Cao army. The Han army does not need to take it seriously."

Cao Cao nodded and sighed: "It turns out that there is a famous general's style."

.........

In early August, 70,000 Han reinforcements arrived in Hefei, giving the total strength of the Han army to reach 150,000. The Cao army also had 50,000 reinforcements from Xuzhou. Because the water and land passage was cut off by the Han army, it was unable to support Hefei, so it could only station in Shouchun, making Shouchun's strength reach 70,000, while Hefei had 50,000 troops. Judging from the total strength, Cao army was weaker than the Han army.

At this time, the Han army camp had moved north to a high ground about five miles west of Hefei City. Looking at Hefei City, Liu Jing looked at Hefei City in the distance and turned around and asked Fa Zheng: "Are you ready?"

"Report to Your Highness, you are ready to complete and you can take action at any time."

Liu Jing nodded, "Then let's take action tonight's two updates."

.........

For the Han army, the first obstacle to attacking Hefei City was undoubtedly the moat that was lit up, which was also the biggest difference between Hefei City and other cities.

For moats, the general solution is to erect wooden boards or fill the moats, but they are not applicable to the moats in Hefei City. This wide moat should be set up with floating bridges. However, Cao's army had sharp tincture oil, and whether it was using pontoon bridges or warships, they would be burned by the tincture oil thrown from the top of the city.

In desperation, the Han army could only use the most laborious but also the most effective means to divert the water from the moat. After more than a month of hard work, the project has gradually entered the final stage.

The moat of Hefei is actually part of the water supply. The water supply flows from Shaopi Lake in the north and pours into the moat. It then enters the Ruxu Water from the moat and finally flows into Chaohu Lake. Since the terrain of Hefei is high in the north and low in the south, this gives the Han army the opportunity to lead the water of the moat.

At night, thousands of Han soldiers were busy on both sides of the north side of Hefei City. The water supply was to connect the canal between Hefei and Shouchun. The river channel was originally narrow and a small river. Since mid-last year, Zhang Liao invested all the people to broaden and dig deep into the river, so that this canal could use the largest thousand stone cargo ship.

To the east of Shishui is a low-lying area. It was originally a lake and swamp, which was connected with Shaopi Lake. Later, Shaopi Lake gradually shrank and the swamp gradually dried up. After the transformation of the local people in the New Year, this dry swamp depression covering an area of ​​tens of thousands of acres gradually became fertile fields.

Before Cao's army widened the canal, water supply did not have a major threat to this area of ​​food, but rather a precious irrigation water source. However, since water supply was transformed into a canal, the river mattress was high, and water supply became a hanging river on the ground, posing a huge threat to the fertile fields that were originally low-lying.

Perhaps it is impossible now, but in decades, the canal will be disrepaired for many years. Once it breaks, it will cause a devastating disaster to the fertile fields in the low-lying areas. The key to the Han army's moat water is this canal.

After nearly a month of hard work, the 20,000 Han troops had built a river dam on the water supply ten miles north of Hefei, and put it into Hanoi with cloth bags. Tonight, as the last tens of thousands of bags of soil and gravel were thrown into the river, the water supply was finally cut off.

The moat also lost its replenishment water source. Due to the high and low terrain in the north, all the water in the moat will eventually flow into Chaohu Lake. However, the water in the moat suddenly rose, and the water level rose rapidly, and began to overflow out of the river bank and flow to the depression in the east.

At this time, several Han soldiers pulled open thousands of bags of mud and cloth bags blocked the embankment, and a breach about ten feet wide quickly appeared on the embankment. The surging river water rushed out of the breach, and the white waves roared and rushed towards the large fertile fields in the low-lying area.

More than ten miles away from the east, there is a small river called Feizhi River on the other end of the low-lying land. The locals called it Fei River, which flowed windingly into Baixia River dozens of miles away, and finally poured into the Yangtze River. However, the Han army dug an artificial river to connect the Fei River to Chaohu Lake. In this way, the flood flowing out of the canal submerged tens of thousands of fertile fields, forming a new lake, and the water flowed into the Fei River, and finally flowed from the Fei River to Chaohu Lake. In this way, the water supply was diverted and no longer flowed through the Hefei moat.

As the water was intercepted, the water level in the river channel south of the dam began to drop rapidly. Tens of Han soldiers standing on the west bank pushed the piles of soil and rocks into the river channel, widening the dam to half a mile. In this way, the water sewer channel in the south was completely blocked...

The next morning, Zhang Liao received the news and rushed to the end of Dongcheng. The scene in front of him surprised him. He saw a new lake ten miles away, which was white and tens of thousands of acres in size.

The water level of the moat under the city was rapidly lowering. The riverbed was exposed in the northern city area, and Xiaojin turned into a dry land. The dense Han soldiers were running and filling the soil into the sparse silt. The entire moat was only a section of the southern city, which was only a few feet deep. Within two days at the latest, the water of the moat would flow out.
Chapter completed!