The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

Now that Liu Zheng understood it, his complexion suddenly became ugly.

"It's been tricked! It's been tricked!"

Liu Zheng immediately ignored Liu Chong, and hurriedly thought of going outside the house.

Xu Huang who was beside Liu Zheng was at a loss, not knowing what happened to Liu Zheng.

"What's the matter, my lord?"

"Gongming, something is wrong, we've been tricked!"

"It's a trick, my lord, please be safe and don't be impatient, don't worry, what's going on, the last general is still here, we are all still here."

"It's not us, it's Xuzhou!"

"Xuzhou? What happened to Xuzhou?"

"Lu Zhi was not in Liu Bei's team at all. They had already divided up their troops more than ten days ago. Lu Zhi led 3 people to attack Xuzhou instead."

The tone of Liu Zheng's words was a little cold.

Xu Huang could also understand what Liu Zheng meant by these words. Xuzhou didn't have much military strength, and the most important military strength was Tai Shici's [-] troops.

But before Liu Zheng came to Huainan, he had already rushed to send people to Xuzhou, and ordered Tai Shici's soldiers to rush to Qingzhou immediately.

I'm afraid that when Lu Zhi attacked Xuzhou, Tai Shici's men and horses had already gone to Qingzhou for rescue, so Xuzhou would become a piece of fat with not many garrisons. Lu Zhi with an army of [-] entered Xuzhou. It's like stepping into the land of no one.

The news hasn't come yet, but Liu Zheng knows that even now, it's too late for him to support Xuzhou.

"Xuzhou is over!"

Liu Zheng showed an expression of unwillingness, with some remorse and regret on his face.

"My lord, it's not certain. Lu Zhi only has 3 people. It's not so easy to occupy the entire Xuzhou. After all, we still have some county soldiers in various towns in Xuzhou!"

Chapter 695 The Death of Mi Zhu

After knowing that he had been tricked, Liu Zheng was very anxious about the situation on the battlefield in Xuzhou, and he wanted to directly support Xuzhou.

But now the battle in Huainan is not completely over.

He couldn't just get away and go to Xuzhou, so he could only ask his Jin Yiwei to rush to Xuzhou quickly to learn about the military situation, and then give Liu Zheng some intelligence information.

But not long after his Jin Yiwei left, there was already news from Xuzhou.

As expected, Lu Zhi's men had already appeared in Xuzhou. They diverted from Xiacai County, passed through Lingbi County, and fought all the way to Xuzhou City.

Because most of the soldiers and horses were cavalry, Lu Zhi's army attacked very quickly. When the smaller counties were attacked by an army of [-], they had no ability to resist at all and surrendered directly.

As for the larger cities, Lu Zhi's people did not attack at all, but rushed across the border and went straight to Xuzhou City.

On Xuzhou's side, although the speed of the spies spread the news to Xuzhou city, Xuzhou governor Mi Zhu immediately responded, and even dispatched all the soldiers of his Mi family to guard the city, but it was still not enough for Lu Zhi to watch.

Thirty thousand cavalry blocked Xuzhou City, and began to recruit Xuzhou soldiers on the spot, and stormed Xuzhou City within a few days.

Xuzhou City was originally guarded by Tai Shici's [-] troops, and there were no county soldiers here, so naturally they couldn't stop Lu Zhi's soldiers and horses from attacking.

In less than ten days, it was defeated by Lu Zhi's army. The head of the Mi family, Mi Zhu, was defeated and died along with Xuzhou City. The second master, Mi Fang, took some remnants of the Mi family to the south and fled to Yangzhou.

When the news reached Huainan City, Liu Zheng froze on the spot.

His body softened, and he slumped on a chair.

"Zizhong Mizhu Biaozi is dead, my Zizhong is dead!"

When the news of Mi Zhu's death reached Liu Zheng's ears through Jin Yiwei's hands, it was indeed a relatively big blow.

Liu Zheng was a little distracted, and some even didn't react.

He once thought that he had heard the news wrongly, but Liu Zheng, who understood the reason of the matter, knew that the news was correct and that Mi Zhu was really dead.

For a moment, Liu Zheng recalled Mi Zhu and some of his past experiences in his mind.

Although Liu Zheng has only met Mi Zhu a few times in total, and the number of times he has met can be clearly counted on his fingers, but Mi Zhu's status in Liu Zheng's heart is not low.

Even among the entire faction, Mi Zhu and even the Mi family helped Liu Zheng, except for Yuan Zhou, the Mi family was the biggest.

Liu Zheng also valued Mi Zhu very much, otherwise, he would not have given such an important position as governor of Xuzhou to Mi Zhu.

But Liu Zheng never thought that letting Mi Zhu be the governor of Xuzhou would actually harm Mi Zhu.

Mi Zhu is not a person who likes to escape, he is in the city, he will not choose to surrender or escape, he wants to stick to Xuzhou City.

However, he didn't have many troops at all. Even if he counted all the soldiers of the Mi family, he only had more than [-] people, so how could he be able to stop Lu Zhi's attack.

"Xu Huang!"

Liu Zheng yelled Xu Huang's name, and wanted to take Xu Huang's cavalry to help Xuzhou immediately, and then avenge Mi Zhu.

But just when Liu Zheng called Xu Huang and planned to take Xu Huang's men to Xuzhou for revenge, Liu Miao hurried over outside.

"Sir! The big thing is bad!"

"What happened again?"

"Water, there's a flood! Liu Bei's troops dug up Gaotang Lake, and now the flood has washed away the nearby crops and is coming straight to Huainan City!"

As the prefect of Huainan County, Liu Miao was recently arranged by Liu Zheng to keep a close eye on the water level of the Huai River. Once there is news, he is the first to know. Now that the water level of the Huai River has really risen, Liu Miao immediately ran over to tell Liu fight.

And when this news reached Liu Zheng's ears again, it immediately shocked Liu Zheng, making Liu Zheng almost lose his footing.

Although he had known for a long time that Liu Bei would definitely not give up flooding Huainan City, after he repelled Liu Bei and his troops, he thought it would ease Liu Bei's plan to flood Huainan City. Liu Bei flooded Huainan City's will.

After retreating for [-] miles, Liu Bei took people to dig down the half-dug Gaotang Lake dam overnight. Now the entire Gaotang Lake poured down and rushed out, quickly causing the water in the Huaihe River to rise. The water in the Huai River was already unbearable due to the recent days of rain, and now it has become even more unbearable.

Torrential floods rushed from everywhere outside the city, and the floods ruthlessly affected the entire Huainan County for a while.

Even Huainan City, which has always been highly respected by Liu Miao, was submerged by water at this moment, and the outside of the city became a vast ocean. Let alone horses, even people could not stay in the water for a long time.

In Huainan city, due to the terrain, it will not be submerged for the time being, but it is difficult for people like Liu Zheng to get out of the city, because there is already a lake outside, making it difficult to march.

Of course, the flooding of Huainan City was also a bad idea. Liu Bei didn't want to do it at first, but because of the heavy losses in the first battle with Liu Zheng, he saw the strength of Liu Zheng's cavalry, let Liu Bei know, and rely on himself People and horses can't compete with Liu Zheng at all.

Liu Bei himself also had not prepared enough ships to start the planning function of flooding Huainan City in advance. Without ships, he could only retreat because of this.

The battle between the two sides was temporarily stranded at this time, and Liu Zheng could not attack. He could only wait for Zu Lang's navy to come and use ships to take Liu Zheng and others away to Huainan.

And just like that, a few days passed.

Zu Lang's navy finally arrived in Huainan, and they could have arrived earlier, but because the water level in Huainan has risen sharply recently, the current is rushing and it is not suitable for sailing, so it was delayed.

By the time Liu Zheng returned to Wu Jun, Yangzhou with the help of Zu Lang's navy, it was already June.

June.

The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and these days of delay made Liu Zheng wake up in anger. He had been delayed for half a month and didn't go to Xuzhou. Even if he rushed there immediately, it would be of no avail.

So there is no rush.

After he returned to Wu County, the first thing he did was to summon Yuan Zhou and ask him about the specific situation of the battles in Xuzhou and Qingzhou.

When the ending of the battle between Xuzhou and Qingzhou was reported back to Wu County, this time, Liu Zheng did not lose his face in shock, but looked at these things with a normal heart.

Qingzhou and Xuzhou fell one after another. Liu Zheng, who originally occupied nearly five states and counties, lost two at once.The situation changed drastically.

Chapter 696 Big Defeat

Liu Zheng first checked the news from Xuzhou.

Under Lu Zhi's attack, Xuzhou seemed to be in the land of no one.

In half a month, Xuzhou City was captured, and then, in half a month, Lu Zhi's troops swept across Qingzhou. There were still many Tao Qian's remnants in Xuzhou. Did not really control Xuzhou.

So Xuzhou didn't have much resistance, and was quickly occupied by Lu Zhi again.

Liu Bei's soldiers and horses who retreated from Huainan City also diverted to Xuzhou, joining Lu Zhi's soldiers and horses, which accelerated the loss of Xuzhou.

Regarding the loss of Xuzhou, Liu Zheng had already thought about it when he was in Huainan.

However, he did not immediately lead his people to fight back, but asked about the situation in Qingzhou.

Originally, Liu Zheng thought that although the situation in Qingzhou was bad, he would not be completely at a disadvantage. After all, at the last moment, Liu Zheng had asked Tai Shici from Xuzhou to come to support him.

But Liu Zheng still underestimated Yuan Shao. As a force capable of contending with the imperial court, Yuan Shao naturally had enough powerful troops under his command. Qingzhou.

But it was also a fatal blow to Qingzhou. When Tai Shici's soldiers and horses went to support Qingzhou, they were still a step slower.

As soon as the tens of thousands of troops behind Yuan Shao arrived in Qingzhou, they accelerated the defeat of Zang Ba, Guan Hai and others. In the end, although Zang Ba and Guan Hai blocked Gao Lan and Ju Yi's attack, they failed to block Yuan Shao's attack.

In this way, when Yuan Shao's army pursued, Tai Shici's men came late, and finally relied on Donglai County and Beihai County to compete with Yuan Shao's army.

Originally, these two counties were enough to fight Yuan Shao's troops for a while, but Lu Zhi's troops who occupied Xuzhou did not kill Yangzhou, but diverted to cooperate with Yuan Shao to attack Liu Zheng's remaining troops in Qingzhou.

The purpose is to wipe out Liu Zheng's remaining troops.

As a result, Tai Shici in Qingzhou was unable to change the situation. After losing more than half of his troops, Xu You had no choice but to let them evacuate temporarily.

Use the help of Jiang Qin, the navy that Xu You brought over, to evacuate from the coast of Donglai.

When the remnants of Tai Shici, Zang Ba and others returned to Yangzhou using merchant ships and navy ships, they suffered heavy losses. There were tens of thousands of troops, and only more than [-] returned.

It is equal to the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army in Qingzhou, bandit soldiers and horses, and even half of the elite of Taishi Ci's headquarters, all lost.

Moreover, in order to cover everyone's retreat, Chu Yan delayed the enemy's army during the Battle of Beihai, and eventually died in battle.

When such a result reached Liu Zheng, Liu Zheng was no longer so sad.

After Mi Zhu's death, Liu Zheng has calmed down a lot. Although Qingzhou is also lost, his generals are still there, and there is still a day to fight back.

Losing two states in a row, this bad news, although it is bad news for Liu Zheng, there is no shortage of good news.

Although he lost his territory, it also made Liu Zheng aware of his shortcomings.

In the past few years, his development has been too smooth, as if he has never encountered any obstacles. To him, the heroes of the world are all ants and vulnerable.

Liu Guanzhang and Lu Bu, under his command, were all defeated. This caused Liu Zheng to think that the world was too easy. After this battle, Liu Zheng clearly understood that he underestimated the heroes of the world. .

It's not that Liu Zheng is so strong, it's just that he knows more than other heroes in the world, and he has some innate advantages, which is why he is in today's situation. If he is careless, Liu Zheng will also fall into a situation where he will never recover.

After losing Xuzhou and Qingzhou, although the territory has been reduced, Liu Zheng's strength is not far behind.

His defeat was like Cao Cao's defeat in Chibi in history.

Although it was a failure, it made Cao Cao understand more and know what kind of strategy to use to deal with the court and Yuan Shao.

Jingzhou is still under the control of Liu Zheng. Yangzhou has gathered all Liu Zheng's elites. Unless Lu Zhi and Yuan Shao's troops attack, they will not be able to fight.

After all, neither Lu Zhi nor Yuan Shao had their own elite navy. Without a navy, it would be difficult to cross the natural danger of the Yangtze River.

July.

Tai Shici and others who had retreated from Qingzhou returned to Wujun.

In the lobby of Wu County's government office, the main elite members of Liu Zheng's command gathered here.

in the hall.

Liu Zheng sat silently on the chair, his face was gloomy, and he never spoke.

On both sides, Xu Huang, Wen Pin, Lu Bu, Gao Shun, Pei Yuanshao, and others stood in sequence.

In the middle, Tai Shici, Guan Hai, and Zang Ba knelt on the ground to plead guilty to Liu Zheng.

"My lord, the last generals are incompetent and failed to defend the territory of Qingzhou. Please punish me, my lord!"

Tai Shici had the highest status among several people, so standing in front of him was also the most ashamed one.

The other people, at best, were charged with protecting Qingzhou, but Tai Shici not only did not get much credit for helping Qingzhou, but also lost Xuzhou. The double blow made Tai Shici feel bad all over.

The silent Liu Zheng did not punish Tai Shici and the others just because they lost the battle. After all, this battle was not their fault.

But this was a bad move after all, and Liu Zheng, who was clear about rewards and punishments, had to punish them.

"Get up, everyone. The reason why we failed in this battle is because we made too many enemies. At the same time, we were a little arrogant. We didn't understand the situation between us and the enemy. If we make mistakes, it is my fault and has nothing to do with you. "

"However, you have always lost your territory, lost your troops, and lost your generals. Each of you will be fined a year's salary, and the commander will be a junior general. If you make meritorious service in the future, you will be reinstated!"

None of them had any opinion on Liu Zheng's punishment.

"Thank you, my lord."

"This time we have lost too many soldiers and horses, which is not conducive to continuing to fight. Tell our troops to defend the current territory with all their strength. As long as we delay the battle, we will win."

After comforting these defeated soldiers, Liu Zheng was not worried about them, but he was more worried about those soldiers who died.