Chapter 515 This time there is really no hope
On the north bank of Xiangyang, hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban troops formed a battle array along the river. Their camps were connected in an endless stretch. Even a camp in the wild occupied a large area and was densely populated, like a city.

In the river on the north bank, there were also many ships docked. These were the Yellow Turban navy that had been maintaining a rhythm of small-scale attacks in recent days.

The huge navy with thousands of warships and the army of hundreds of thousands of people were clearly here to capture Xiangyang, but when the two armies actually faced off, the Yellow Turbans were exceptionally quiet. This was the most confusing thing for the Wu-Shu coalition forces in recent times.

In such a large-scale war, the Yellow Turbans only maintained small-scale attacks, which did not seem like they were seeking a decisive battle.

However, the Yellow Turbans' naval and land forces were right before their eyes. If this was not for a decisive battle, Wu and Shu could not think of any other possibilities, which made things even more puzzling.

What on earth are the Yellow Turbans doing?
What were the Yellow Turbans doing? They were just waiting for a signal. When the Yellow Turbans' naval and land forces arrived in Xiangyang and stayed there for more than ten days, the signal finally came.

But then they saw Lu Meng leading a group of soldiers hurriedly walking out of the Lu Division barracks, heading all the way to the shore, and then boarding the Youzhou.

When he walked in front of Ma Yan, Lu Meng excitedly slapped a letter against his chest and said, "Finally, there is news from the leader. I think it won't be long before the Wu and Shu camps react!"

Ma Yan was shocked when he heard this. He immediately took the letter and read it. Seeing that the content was exactly as Lu Meng said, he couldn't help but clapped his hands and said, "Well, well, I have been fighting for so long that I am almost sick. Now it is finally time to take action."

After reading the letter, Ma Yan reacted quickly and immediately threw the letter into the fire to destroy it.

At this time, the two looked at each other and then laughed in tacit understanding.

The two men walked to the other side of the deck and looked at the iron wall defense line on the opposite bank from afar. For a moment, they felt quite amused and proud.

Ma Yan couldn't help but shook his head and said with a smile: "I'm afraid that the rulers of Wu and Shu haven't figured out what's going on yet. When I think about how they will react when the news gets out, I can't wait to see it. Unfortunately, I don't have the chance. I think their expressions will be very interesting."

Lu Meng agreed with this. Not to mention Ma Yan, he also wanted to see it very much. However, he quickly gave up the idea of ​​joking and talked about business: "At this point, Wu and Shu are almost doomed to fail. Next, we need to pay closer attention to their movements. Once things develop in the expected direction, our army can launch an attack."

Ma Yan straightened his mind and looked at Lu Meng again: "Speaking of which, General Wuli should have some news by now."

Lu Meng nodded and said, "Our army is attacking on three fronts, but General Wuli's front has an uncertain chance of success. If not, the Prime Minister would not have specially sent Xun Chen to follow General Wuli. So there is no need to have too high expectations for the eastern front. If it succeeds, that's the best. If it doesn't, that's fine."

Ma Yan said: "Indeed, even if the east front is not favorable, we and the leader alone will be able to win the battle. It's just that the process will be much slower."

Upon hearing this, Lu Meng smiled and said nothing more.

There was one thing that Ma Yan did not know and he did not intend to say, which was the intelligence from within the Wu-Shu coalition that he had already established contact with his brother-in-law Deng Dang.

Although Deng Dang was only a middle-level general in the Wu army, as long as he planned properly and exerted his strength at the critical moment of the battle, he could have influenced the outcome of the battle.

"Brother-in-law, I'm doing this for your own good. I'm giving you a chance to make a great contribution. You must seize it."

Looking at the other side, Lu Meng couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

He knew that even if Deng Dang really gave up the dark and joined the light and exerted his strength at the critical moment, the role he could play was just icing on the cake, which was nothing more than helping the Yellow Turbans to end the battle faster. On this chessboard, the Yellow Turbans' chess pieces were already arranged, and now was the time to tighten the stranglehold.

At best, Deng Dang was just an idle chess piece on the chessboard. It would be great if he could bring about an unexpected effect, but if he couldn't, it would not affect the final victory of the Yellow Turbans.

This was an opportunity for Lu Meng to make merit for his brother-in-law Deng Dang. At that time, whether Deng Dang was willing to cooperate was no longer something Lu Meng could decide.

Fate is so fickle that no one would have thought that the brother-in-law and the wife's brother would end up on opposite sides. It will depend on what happens next whether the relatives will kill each other or everyone will be happy.

At the same time, in Xuzhou, a young scholar and two servants rode their horses slowly to the riverside.

The water of the Yangtze River is surging and rushing. It is this ferocious river that nourishes countless lives in the southern part of China. At the same time, it also buries countless heroes.

"Sir, if you go further downstream, you will reach the scene of the naval battle not long ago." A servant boy pointed downstream. Although nothing could be seen on the river at this time, they knew they were not far away.

Another servant boy also echoed: "People along the way all said that in this battle, the Yellow Turban leader Xu Chen used his divine power to draw lightning from the sky to strike metal and iron, and in one fell swoop, the Wu and Shu navy was buried in a sea of ​​fire. Is this really possible? Why don't I believe it at all?"

The book boy at the side disagreed: "Of course, such words cannot be believed. They are just nonsense spoken by ignorant people along the way. The people of Xuanxia are all followers of Xu Chen. It is inevitable that they will embellish Xu Chen with gold powder. If anyone really believes it, I will laugh at him for the rest of his life."

Zhuge Liang just listened quietly to the two servants talking and did not express his own opinion.

Of course, he didn't think that it was really as the people along the way said, that it was Xu Chen's magical power, but the content of the story might not be false.

The situations described by so many villagers were basically the same, which could only mean that such a thing really happened that night. Perhaps there really was something like a lightning strike or an attack by metal, and the fleet was indeed destroyed by a fire. The villagers only saw what they saw and did not know the specific reasons, so they easily associated these things with Xu Chen, and thus the talk of some kind of divine power of a master of heaven.

If it weren't for the serious content of these words, Zhuge Liang, who was traveling here, would not have made a special trip to look for it.

"You two should keep quiet and search further downstream. What the local people saw is more real. You can find out the truth by asking them. What is there to argue about now?" Zhuge Liang smiled faintly, gave the two a lesson, and then rode forward first.

The two servants followed, but they were not idle. Instead of talking about the magical powers, they asked about the current situation in the world: "Sir, do you think that the Wu and Shu navy has been defeated here, and there is no hope for them."

Zhuge Liang rode his horse slowly, and after a moment's hesitation, he said, "It's not completely hopeless, but after this disastrous defeat, the original 50% hope of resisting the Yellow Turbans has now been reduced to 20%. The rest depends on how they perform later."

He stopped talking halfway. The two servants looked over in confusion and saw Zhuge Liang suddenly pull up the reins and stop.

After turning a mountain road here, Zhuge Liang looked at the scene in front of him from afar. His eyes suddenly widened. After being stunned for a long time, he finally reacted.

After being stunned for a while, he seemed to have figured something out and his expression suddenly became complicated.

"This time, Wu Shu is really doomed."

(End of this chapter)