After three o'clock in the night, there was a sudden sound of drums in Ye County, and the sound echoed in the valley with the wind.
The Cao army camp immediately became tense and the entire army was on alert. Cao Hong and other generals were also on alert in the camp.
But after waiting for a long time, no enemy troops came to attack, and everything fell into silence again. Cao Hong cursed angrily: "You are using the same old trick again!"
Cheng Yu said, "There is no reason to raid the camp with such fanfare. This must be a tactic to tire out the troops. General, be patient and don't rush."
Han Hao said, "Liu Qi's use of troops is unpredictable. This time he is just bluffing, and he may do it again. We need to be careful."
Cheng Yu stroked his beard and said, "You can order the soldiers to defend in batches. The front camp should be on alert, and the back camp should rest. We can attack the city tomorrow."
In the dark night, Cao Hong did not dare to act rashly. He sent a message to Cao Ren, asking him to arrange for the soldiers to rest and send for help if there was any danger.
Han Hao had already suffered a defeat, so he did not dare to be careless. He personally requested orders to patrol the camp and sent out scouts to closely monitor the movements ahead.
Half an hour later, the surroundings were quiet. Suddenly, torches lit up on the mountain road ahead, and shouts of killing approached the camp.
Han Hao was shocked and quickly beat the drum to give a warning, and the entire camp was mobilized to fight the enemy. When all Cao's troops were in battle array and drawing their bows and arrows to prepare to meet the enemy, the fire on the road went out and everything returned to silence.
When Cao Hong arrived at the camp, he was furious to see the fire had disappeared. Cheng Yu persuaded him to return to the camp and ordered all camps to be more careful and be ready for battle at any time.
After a while, they heard the sound of drums in the distance, which startled the defenders and made them stand up one after another. After this happened three or four times, the soldiers became a little lazy and fell drowsy.
Cheng Yu, on the contrary, became nervous. He thought that the enemy's repeated harassment was most likely preparation for an attack on the camp, so he simply stopped resting and waited at the camp gate in person.
Until dawn, the road ahead was empty, and it turned out to be a false alarm. Looking at the guards, they were all listless and had no morale. Cheng Yu sighed inwardly.
Han Haoyan said: "This is a strategy to tire out the troops. Liu Qi knows that Ye County cannot be defended, so he told us not to attack the city with all our strength."
Cheng Yu stroked his beard and pondered for a moment, then sneered, "Liu Qi has only tens of thousands of soldiers, and I have 100,000 elite soldiers. We just need to send them out in batches. Even if we use a trick, it will be in vain."
When the two men returned to the camp, they saw Cao Hong sleeping on the table. They woke him up. Cao Hong had dark circles under his eyes and his eyes were red. He cursed Liu Qi for being despicable.
Cheng Yu advised: "General, calm down and move the front troops to the rear camp to rest. Let General Cao Ren lead the attack on the city first, and then come to support in the afternoon. We can capture the city in one day."
Cao Hong was exhausted, so he had to switch with Cao Ren and move the soldiers in the front camp and the ambush to the rear camp for rest.
Cao Ren led his troops to Ye County and saw that the Jingzhou army had dug trenches outside the city overnight and diverted water from the Li River to form a defense line. There were five earthen hills from east to west, with arrow towers built on top, and archers ready for battle.
Zhang Fei immediately held the river bank with his spear in hand and shouted, "General Cao, we meet again. Do you dare to fight to the death?"
Seeing that there was only a wooden bridge over the river, which was guarded by troops led by Zhang Fei, Cao Ren realized that fighting was futile, so he ordered his soldiers to prepare sandbags, wood and stones to fill up the river.
Niu Jinyan said: "Liu Qi diverted water from the Li River. If the river is filled, the water will spread and the army will be unable to move forward. We must first block the water upstream before we can fill the river."
Cao Ren agreed with this and ordered Niu Jin to lead 3,000 soldiers to block the water outlet, and the rest of the soldiers and horses carried soil to fill the river.
Cao Ren led his infantry forward to hold the formation, and archers hid behind them, shooting arrows at the hill. The two armies shot at each other, and Cao's soldiers carried stones and sandbags like ants and threw them into the river.
The drums of both armies sounded loudly. The soldiers of Jingzhou had the upper hand and had the advantage. Cao's soldiers kept falling, but they were numerous and kept fighting. They simply threw their companions' bodies into the river.
The river channel was dug overnight and was not very deep. It took the loss of more than a thousand men to fill it up. However, the water level upstream did not subside but instead spread over, forcing Cao Ren to retreat temporarily.
Just as he was blaming Niu Jin for his slowness, he saw Niu Jin retreating with his remaining troops in a panic, reporting: "There are soldiers guarding the river mouth, and I divided my troops to attack, but who knew there were ambushes upstream..."
"Waste, bastard!" Cao Ren was furious. He ordered Wang Shuang to guard the central army and personally led his troops to block the river mouth.
Not long after Cao Ren left the central army, there was a loud drum sound from the opposite side. Niu Jin ordered to form a defensive formation, but saw ambushes coming out from the mountains on both sides. Zhao Yun on the left and Gan Ning on the right came down the mountain like tigers.
The two wings of Cao's army were cut in two, and their formation was in complete chaos. Niu Jin was unable to restrain himself, and knew that he was no match for the two generals, so he fled in panic amid the chaos.
Zhao Yun and Gan Ning led their troops to charge back and forth as if they were in an empty land. The blood flowed like a river and corpses were everywhere, mixing with the spreading river water, making the road a mess.
Cao Ren led his troops to the river bank, but found that the defenders had already retreated. He was ordering his soldiers to block the river mouth when he suddenly heard deafening drums from the direction of the camp. Soon, soldiers came hurriedly to report that the Jingzhou army was ambushed on the mountain and the entire army was defeated.
Cao Ren was so angry that he roared to the sky, his eyes went dark and he almost fainted. His personal soldiers hurriedly supported him, but he had no choice but to lead his troops to retreat, and more than 10,000 people were killed in this battle.
When Cao Hong woke up in the afternoon, he heard that Cao Ren had fallen into another trap. He was furious and led his entire army to attack.
Cao's army was coming aggressively. Zhang Fei had already retreated back to the city. Looking at the tragic scene outside the city, Cao Hong gritted his teeth and said, "I will not stop until this city is conquered."
Cao's army divided into three groups and rushed in like a tide, surrounding Ye County on three sides. Arrows rained down and shouts of killing shook the sky.
Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and Gan Ning each guarded a gate. They had plenty of ash bottles, wooden sticks, boiling oil, etc., and the killing caused black smoke to billow and the sky to darken.
The wall of Ye County was not high. Relying on its superior military strength, Cao's army never stopped attacking from dusk until sunset. Some people kept climbing to the top of the city wall, but they were all killed by Zhang Fei and others.
After dark, Cao's army retreated a little to cook, and then lit torches outside the city, making it as bright as day, preparing to attack the city overnight.
Liu Qi and Zhuge Liang were watching the battle on the city wall. They were horrified by the tragic scene. The cruelty of reality was something that could not be expressed in movies or TV dramas.
The mountain wind blew over the city walls, and the smell of blood and burning corpses was so nauseating that I almost vomited several times.
However, Zhuge Liang was calm and composed, gently waving his feather fan as if ignoring the tragic scene. He did not look like a rookie villager at all.
Liu Qi sighed inwardly. Although they had also never experienced war, Zhuge Liang had experienced the chaos and displacement of young people since childhood, while he came from a peaceful era and his abilities to adapt to the environment were different.
Kou Feng, who was in charge of allocating supplies, came to report: "Cao's troops are very numerous, and they are short of arrows and weapons. General, you should make preparations early."
Liu Qi nodded and said, "You protect the military advisor and retreat first, I will follow."
Zhuge Liang said: "General, you are the most important person in the army. Jingzhou is in danger. You must not take any risks. Zilong and others are capable of resisting the enemy and retreating calmly. It is better for us to leave together."
Liu Qi thought so too. Although he wanted to stay to boost morale, if anything unexpected happened, with his current abilities, he would become a burden.
He called Zhao Yun and the other two and told them to act according to the plan, quietly leave Ye County under the cover of night, and return to Bowang City to prepare.