Chapter 718-Zhou Yu Retreats
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Close to a month had already passed since the battle began and the Battle of Red Cliff was close to its end.
Outside Yiling City, Zhou Yu Army camp.
Hundreds of thousands of troops were squeezed together. Looking out, the uneven land outside of the city was covered with black tents; it was extremely boisterous and dirty streams flowed out.
As the cold wind blew, the general flags made a tearing sound.
In the woods further away from the camp, several logging sites were set up. Using the wood that they cut down, they took a few thousand smiths over from Jiangling City to build siege weapons.
On the muddy paths, there similarly were thousands of laborers wearing tattered clothing, braving the winter wind to obtain stone from the deep mountains; they used small carts to push the stone to the battlefield.
The area outside of the camp became the military factory base of the army. Before building up sufficient amounts of siege weapons, Zhou Yu would not dare to attack as he would not have a high chance of winning.
Occasionally, one would be able to spot troops who had returned from hunting.
The villages surrounding Yiling had already been swept by the troops and very little grain remained. If the army wanted to obtain anymore grain, they had to proceed to the villages that were further away.
Most of the laborers were actually volunteers from neighboring villages. If they did manual labor, at least they would be able to feed themselves; otherwise, they would only be waiting to die at home.
The stormy cloud of the food crisis had slowly appeared over the heads of the Zhou Yu Army. Starting from yesterday, the army had already begun rationing, and the first groups to receive a smaller amount of food were the smiths and the laborers.
They were forced to come over; now, they did not even have food to eat.
The lives of the people in such a chaotic time were just that bad.
Similarly, the Cao Cao Army in Yiling City was not in a good situation. More than 100 thousand people were housed in such a small city. Even if they had grain storages, it was not enough for such large-scale usage.
Breaking of grain supply had become the crisis for both sides.
Now, it would be decided on who could not hold on first. On this matter, Zhou Yu was extremely confident. After all, they had the initiative, and they could at least gather some grain every day.
The Yiling Army was just eating up their reserves.
Zhou Yu was like a patient hunter; he was gathering up the hunting tools, laying down the trap, and waiting for the prey to get weaker before giving it the killing blow.
He hoped that nothing surprising would pop up.
The fall of Chaisang would become the biggest change in this war.
...
After ten odd days, the warship carrying Zhang Zhao finally stopped at the port outside of Yiling City. With the medallion from Sun Quan, Zhang Zhao was able to smoothly meet Zhou Yu.
"Commander-in-Chief, something happened in Chaisang!"
Zhang Zhao did not try to cover up the matter, directly taking out the letter that both Sun Quan and Ouyang Shuo had written and passed it all to Zhou Yu.
When Zhou Yu opened the letter and read the contents, his expression became uglier and uglier. After which, he let out a long sigh. He had a guilty expression, "It's all my fault; I underestimated the Shanhai City Squadron and overestimated Xiong Ba's plan."
"Commander-in-Chief, the enemy was just too crafty; it was not your fault." Zhang Zhao consoled.
"Let's not mention it." Zhou Yu waved his hand; his relationship with Zhang Zhao could not be considered good, so he did not want to show too much emotion in front of the latter, "I'll give the order to immediately retreat."
Since Sun Quan was captured, Zhou Yu had no choice but to return.
The moment the military order was given, the entire camp started to get busy. The first to react were naturally the 20 thousand Jiangdong elites that were Zhou Yu's direct subordinates.
When attacking Jiangling City, this group was set as the reserve force; hence, they did not suffer much loses.
Zhou Yu was not a stupid person, and he knew that if he did not have this strong unit at hand, he would not be able to control the player army that was ten times their number.
Di Chen and the others were delighted, and they used that chance to stock up on battle contribution points.
...
The news of Zhou Yu retreating had spread to Di Chen's ears in less than half an hour.
He was shocked; he personally rushed into the tent and asked, "commander in chief, what is going on?"
Zhou Yu sighed. He was a little afraid to face this question; his face was ugly as he said, "Chaisang had fallen and the Lord has been captured. I need to rush back."
"What, Chaisang has fallen?" Di Chen was so shocked that he could not say anything.
"Take a look for yourself!"
Zhou Yu passed Di Chen the letter.
"Can this be a scheme by Qiyue Wuyi?" Di Chen still did not dare to believe it.
"With General Zhang Zhao personally here, what scheme can there be?" Zhou Yu shook his head and introduced Zhang Zhao to Di Chen.
Di Chen's eyes turned cold.
Qiyue Wuyi, I truly cannot beat you even a single time?
Di Chen was still contemplating in his heart, but he did not want to just leave like this, "Commander in chief, the preparation work for destroying the city is almost complete. Yiling is in our hands, isn't it a waste for us to leave now?"
"We have no choice; the Lord is in the hands of the enemy." In truth, Zhou Yu also felt that it was a waste.
"Commander in chief, I dare promise that Qiyue Wuyi definitely will not dare to do anything to General Sun. One must not forget that his troops are still in Yilin." Di Chen said, "Furthermore, Yilling is so far away from Chaisang so going there will take half a month. If we use the time difference, we can definitely take down Yiling."
For a second, Zhou Yu was tempted.
However, after thinking some more, Zhou Yu still bore the pain and reject the suggestion; he shook his head, "No, I cannot use the safety of the Lord as a betting chip. It's too risky, and it's not what I should do."
If the hostage was someone else, Zhou Yu would have taken the risk. However, since it was Sun Quan, Zhou Yu did not dare to take the gamble.
"Commander in chief, the person sending the letter also sent a Shanhai City General. He probably entered Yiling already." Zhang Zhao added.
"We are too clumsy!" Di Chen was furious.
Just thinking about it, one would know how delighted Yiling would feel when they learned that Chaisang had fallen. Even if they had originally intended to escape and retreat, they would defend to the death now.
If they acted truly vicious, the army could definitely find food in the city. To last for half a month was not a problem.
In history, there were cities that defended for over a year and still did not fall.
Hence, Di Chen knew that it was impossible to keep Zhou Yu, so his expression turned gloomy.
Zhou Yu sighed, "Retreat!"
Di Chen raised his head; he was filled with determination, "No, no I will not."
"You want to disobey my orders?"
"Commander, I won't follow you anymore. You have your choice, and I have mine. This time, I will take down Yiling." Di Chen was determined.
"Preposterous!" Zhang Zhao chided.
"Do what you want!" Zhou Yu looked exhausted; he waved his hand to ask Di Chen to leave.
Di Chen left. In the end, both sides broke off unhappily.
"Commander, how can you allow the players to do as they wish?" Zhang Zhao was emotional; he had never seen anyone so bold to openly go against orders.
"So what if I disagree? The players outnumber us, and we cannot force them."
The talking rights in the military depended on the strength of one's troops.
When Zhang Zhao heard these words, he was speechless. He had also led troops before and obviously understood that.
The tent instantly fell silent.
...
The next day, Zhou Yu brought the Dongjiang soldiers back.
On the other hand, Di Chen led 200 thousand troops to attack Yiling City.
The two armies went their separate ways just like that.
When the army set off, there was a small problem.
The Shanhai City General that followed Zhang Zhao over raised a request for Zhou Yu to board the turreted boat and leave. The Jiangdong Army would be taken back to Chaisang by the other generals.
"Do not be too much!" Zhou Yu did not say anything; instead, it was Zhang Zhao who could not hold it in anymore.
How was this an invitation? They were obviously locking him up.
"I'm only following orders; please do not make it difficult for me. My Monarch said that for the safety of General Sun, Zhou Yu would understand it."
"You!" Zhang Zhao was so infuriated by the threat that he nearly went crazy.
"Since it's a request by Lord Qiyue Wuyi, then I will respectfully follow it. I also wanted to take a look at your giant warship." Zhou Yu accepted nonchalantly.
He turned around and said to Zhang Zhao, "Please bring the troops back!"
"Yes!"
Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to take such action. He did not dare to underestimate Zhou Yu and allow him to lead a large army. If he let that happen, who know what would occur.
Hence, the best method was to invite Zhou Yu to the warship.
His actions were also aimed toward protecting Zhou Yu. Ouyang Shuo was not certain whether or not there were any of Di Chen's people in the Cao Cao Army; he did not want anything to occur.
To obtain Zhou Yu, Ouyang Shuo was going all out.
Yiling City, a certain residence.
When Bai Hua and the others received the letter, their hearts finally calmed down.
"Wuyi really did not disappoint us!"
Feng Qiuhuang smiled. During this period of time, being trapped in Yiling had placed a lot of pressure on them.
"However, in this battle, we have become side characters once more."
When Ouyang Shuo decided to set out to sea, Feng Qiuhuang had a spirit in her heart to use this chance to prove herself.
Who would have guessed that they would lose to a mole?
Although their betrayal had nothing to do with her, thinking about it still made her feel exceedingly aggrieved.
Bai Hua looked at Feng Qiuhuang and expressionlessly said, "I guess Di Chen will not just back out like that."
"That fellow is determined to defeat Wuyi in the battle map. It was not easy to push us to such a state, so how could he easily give up?" Feng Qiuhuang saw through Di Chen and killing intent filled her voice, "If we cannot even deal with him, we do not deserve to be allies with Wuyi."
"That's true!" Bai Hua nodded. Although she had a calm expression, the killing intent in her heart was not any less than Feng Qiuhuang's, "It's time to have a good battle with Di Chen. We have to settle what Caiyun Zinan did."
These two heroines or female devil leaders came to a consensus.
"Then we need to have a good plan!" Feng Qiuhuang smiled.
Although their personalities were vastly different, their desire to win was the same.