Tian Feng insisted on defending Liaocheng County. On one hand, it was because of the credibility of the secret letter. On the other hand, it was because of its location.
Although Liaocheng County was only a county level city, due to the nearby rivers and terrain, its moat was the widest, making it easy to defend.
Hence, not only did Tian Feng use Liaocheng County as the frontline for this attack, he also planned to use Liaocheng County as the base south of the Yellow River. Regardless of the success or failure of this attack, he would use Liaocheng County as a nail to firmly plant into Yang Rui's territory.
At this moment, within Xu Province, there were still no large scale clashes. Lu Bu's Army's movements were still slow, as if they were not in a rush at all. Cao Cao was also still defending within a hundred miles of Yang Rui's camp.
Only Yuan Shu and Sun Jian became the most active. As the two warlords who sent out their troops late after the storyline of [Xu Province Struggle] officially started, they also sent out their troops in the name of supporting Yang Rui. At this moment, Yuan Shu's 500,000 troops and Sun Jian's 200,000 troops were heading toward Peng City, the governing city of Xu Province.
Their intentions were actually very obvious. Their goal was to control Xu Province!
At the start, Yuan Shu's main goal was to target Cao Cao. However, after Sun Jian joined in, he carefully analyzed the situation for Yuan Shu. As a result, the goals of the two armies changed.
As a hero in troubled times, the Tiger of the Gangdong, Sun Jian's strength and strategy were not weaker than any other lord. In his suggestion to Yuan Shu, he clearly analyzed the main opponents in the battle for Xu Province. They were Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Lu Bu.
Amongst them, Yang Rui was not included. This was because Sun Jian felt that Qingzhou and Xu Province were enough to take up most of Yang Rui's energy. Thus, Yang Rui did not have a big demand for Xu Province. Instead, he could use Qingzhou and Yanzhou to take down Xu Province.
At that time, he would give Yang Rui enough benefits in exchange and Xu Province could be easily taken over. Thus, the [Struggle for Xu Province] storyline gave the two of them a great opportunity to take over Xu Province.
Of course, Sun Jian's suggestion was also out of consideration for himself. If Yuan Shu could smoothly take over Xu Province, he would have more leeway in his territory. It must be known that in the battle with Liu Biao, Sun Jian did not gain any advantage.
In truth, the [Struggle for Xu Province] storyline affected Xu Province. Not only Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and Sun Jian, but it also had a big impact on other warlords and warlords.
"Sou! ! Sou!
… "
"Boom! Boom! Boom!
… "
"Help!"
"Ah! …"
"…"
"…"
"…"
Disregarding the actions of the various vassals, Yuan Shao's troops were defeated in Gaotang County. Yang Rui and Zhang Ning chased after them for more than two hours. The number of Yuan Shao's troops that were killed was still increasing.
After more than two hours, a large number of Yuan Shao's troops escaped from Liaocheng County to the shore of the Yellow River. At this time, the Yellow River became a natural moat that blocked their path.
When Yang Rui was in Xuzhou, he had sent an order through carrier pigeons to have the Taishi Ci Navy on the Yellow River destroy all of Yuan Shao's boats along the river. Based on the time, this order might not have reached Taishi Ci for long.
However, Taishi Ci was a capable general. Even if he hadn't received Yang Rui's orders, he would've destroyed the smaller ships when they encountered Yuan Shao's ships. He would drag the bigger ones away.
After Yuan Shao's troops crossed the river, he sent a portion of his troops to watch over the boats. However, these soldiers were not a match for the boats that were equipped with small catapults. There were also no generals that could compare to Taishi Ci.
Furthermore, there was a group of scaly armored soldiers that were extremely good at naval battles. Furthermore, they had a huge advantage in numbers. Yuan Shao's troops were naturally not enough.
Taishi Ci's navy was actually not far from Liaocheng County. A day ago, he had cleaned up the boats at the Yuan Shao's crossing point near Liaocheng County.
At Gaotang, Liaocheng and Yangping, there were many boats left behind. They were all collected by Taishi Ci. At this time, there were over a hundred captured boats behind Taishi Ci's navy. Half of them were medium sized transport boats.
It could be seen that Yuan Shao was going all out in this attack. One must know that Yang Rui had always placed great importance on the construction of boats. At this time, he only had 60 to 70 medium sized transport boats. It was not even as many as Yuan Shao had.
The main reason for this was that Yang Rui had only obtained the blueprints for the medium sized transport boats recently. He had only obtained them during the Interstellar Space War. He did not have the time to build many of them.
Another reason was that Yang Rui had used most of his craftsmen on the Bi 'an, Warships, and Turreted Ships. As a result, the construction of the transport boats was greatly restricted.
Of course, 20 to 30 of the medium sized transport boats in Yang Rui's hands were large transport boats. As long as they were two to three times larger than the medium sized transport boats, Yuan Shao's ships could not compare to them.
These 20 Bi 'an ships were originally supposed to be given to the Broken Moon Alliance. However, Yang Rui was only temporarily using them.
"Reporting to the general! There are no traces of Yuan Shao's troops in the upper reaches of Fan County. "
When Taishi Ci's navy reached the vicinity of Fan County, a small group of small boats suddenly appeared. A group of 20 small dagger-axe boats quickly approached under the leadership of a high-ranking military officer. These small boats were specifically used to scout for information on the Yellow River.
There were more than ten similar dagger-boat teams on the Yellow River, distributed in various sections of the Yellow River from Yanzhou to Qingzhou. They were slowly developed after Taishi Ci commanded the navy to enter the Yellow River and the Ji River. This time Yuan Shao's troops were crossing the river to attack. In terms of intelligence gathering, these dagger-boat teams played a considerable role.
"Reporting to the general! Last night, we discovered Yuan Shao's troops crossing the river near Liancheng County. They were stopped by our troops on the shore and have returned to Hebei.
… "
At this time, another fleet of dagger-axe boats came against the current at a fast speed. They approached Taishi Ci's ship and reported the incident of Yuan Shao's troops being attacked the night before.
At this time, the transmission of information was still a bit slow. From the time Yuan Shao's troops crossed the river to the time the information reached Taishi Ci's ears, almost a day had passed.
"Pass down the order. All the warships turn around and follow my ship. Send the captured transport boats to the nearby docks and watch over them closely …
… "
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