Chapter 316 Arrival in Wuxi
In the original history, Sun Ce faced such a situation and made the same decision.
In Sun Ce's eyes, he did not know that Zhou Yu went south to Wanling and had reached the rear flank of him.
The only difference in the battle situation in Sun Ce's eyes was that Liu Feng had already chased Qu'a and captured Piling at the same time.
But after Liu Feng captured Qu'a, he only sent thousands of troops to garrison in Piling, and his subsequent troops stayed in Qu'a without moving. This is very suspicious.
Sun Ce judged that Liu Feng was probably short of food.
It's not that Xuzhou can't provide food, but it can't be replenished to the front line in time. This forces Liu Feng to have no troops, but he can't drive directly to the city of Wuxi.
Therefore, Sun Ce immediately rejected the suggestion that the army return to the north to rescue Wu Bei.
Fortunately, most of the people who support this suggestion are powerful men from the northern part of Wu County who have recently taken refuge. They are relatively weak in the army and do not have a decent leader, so there is no need to worry.
On the contrary, the faction that attacked Yan Baihu first had a huge momentum.
It is no exaggeration to say that everyone from Cheng Pu to Huang Gai, Han Dang, and even Chen Wu and Lu Dai are also holders of this school of opinion.
On the contrary, Sun Ce himself became a minority.
This is actually not surprising. The reason why so many Sun Jun bosses support killing Yan Baihu first just proves that this is a reasonable way to use troops. On the contrary, it was used by Sun Ce who attacked Gu Ling first. It's a risky plan, and if it fails, it will cause serious damage to your muscles and bones.
In fact, in the original time and space, Sun Ce stopped his troops at the foot of Guling City and launched many fierce offensives, but he was still unable to break through Guling. This also shows that Wang Lang can win people.
Wang Lang didn’t know much about soldiers, he only wanted to win people’s hearts and make his soldiers strong and powerful to fight for him.
At the same time, Guling also gathered almost most of Wang Lang's supporters, as well as the powerful nobles in the entire Kuaiji County who had strategic vision and knew how to lose their lives.
Once Guling was lost, other places in Kuaiji were not without other forces, but these forces were beyond Wang Lang's control.
"Bo Fu, it is too dangerous to go south and attack Guling first. If Yan Baihu goes out to Wucheng after a sudden attack on the city, there is no need to capture Youquan. As long as he divides his troops to harass our supplies, our army may be unavoidable. It's going to be a big defeat. "
Although Cheng Pu respects Sun Ce more and more, he is still stubborn. He cannot watch Sun Ce lead his troops into a desperate situation.
Huang Gai couldn't help but support: "Bo Fu, what Cheng Duwei said is true that he is dedicated to serving the public good."
Sun Ce turned around and glanced at the two of them coldly, forcing Cheng Pu and Huang Gai to lower their heads.
Until then, Sun Ce continued to speak: "What you all said is true."
Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others were all relieved, but they had not had time to be happy. , and heard Sun Ce continue speaking.
"It's a pity that you only know one and not the other."
Sun Ce's tiger eyes swept across the generals in the hall and continued: "Brother Yan, there are no thieves. Although they have great ambitions and gather tens of thousands of people to occupy the hills, they will only be captured by me in the end if they don’t think about progress. ”
"Wang Lang, a son of a high-ranking family in Xuzhou, although he may not know the art of war, he is good at accepting advice."
Sun Ce tapped his hand on Guling: "More than ten thousand elite soldiers of the Ji army have been gathered here. If I When we go west, Gu Ling can attack our army's logistics and threaten Yuquan. The next strategy can be to go straight to Wucheng and join forces with Yan's bandits to fight me."
"On the other hand, if we go south to attack Wang Lang first, Yan will fight. The brothers will definitely just sit back and watch, and will never send troops to harass our army, let alone send troops south to rescue Guling."
What Sun Ce said is actually very reasonable, and the situation changed later. Confirmed his guess.
Yan Baihu did not dare to move out in his lair. He sat and watched Wang Lang's defeat and capture. Sun Jun sent his troops north to attack Wucheng in time.
But although Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others admitted that Sun Ce's inference had some truth, but based on speculation, they threw 20,000 elites under Guling City and bet that the Yan brothers would not send troops?
How could Cheng Pu and Huang Gai accept it?
Seeing that Cheng Pu and Huang Gai still wanted to object, Sun Ce suppressed them with an extremely tough attitude.
"Okay, talking more is useless, just do what I say."
Sun Ce immediately made a decision and gave the order: "Invite Captain Cheng and Huang from Youquan County Sima stays behind. If Yan Baihu dares to fight, you only need to stay for five days and I will rush back."
The Qu'a merit reward in history became the Wu County merit reward, but Cheng Pu was still rewarded and was able to lead a tribe of 2,000 people, while Huang Gai had a tribe of 500 people, for a total of 2,500 people.
Sun Ce took the remaining 20,000 troops south and joined Zhu Zhi to break through the Guling defense line.
Sun Ce made the same decision as before in the original time and space, but the difference was that Zhou Yu had already arrived in Wanling.
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Liu Feng, who was based in Qu'a County, finally waited for subsequent reinforcements.
Not only the water and grain roads from Guangling but also from Xuzhou to Piling via Dantu and Qu'a were completely opened, and grain was transported continuously.
At the same time, food from Jurong next door was also sent to Qu'a by land, saving Liu Feng's temporary emergency.
In addition, the naval forces of Zhou Tai and Dong Xi also expanded and reorganized to reinforce Jiangdong. Also arriving at the same time were 6,000 men from Zhao Yun's men, followed by 10,000 men from Xu Huang's men led by Tai Shici. Will also arrive gradually.
As a result, Liu Feng's troops gathered in the northern part of Wu County now reached as many as 50,000.
At this time, Liu Feng received a letter from Zhou Yu from Wanling, which introduced in detail the information about Wu Nan that Zhou Yu knew, and listed it one by one for Liu Feng.
After Liu Feng read it, he didn't call anyone else this time. He only called Zhao Yun, Jia Kui, and Gao Shun.
Among the generals in Qu'a now, only the three of them have good strategic vision and level of strategy.
After describing the situation reported by Zhou Yu, Liu Feng asked the three generals for their opinions.
Among the three, the one with the highest status and seniority is naturally Zhao Yun, so Jia Kui and Gao Shun couldn't help but look at him.
But Zhao Yun frowned, obviously he couldn't think of any good solution for the time being.
Then Jia Kui glanced at Gao Shun and saw that the other party had no intention of speaking, so he was the first to speak.
"General, in Kui's opinion, this is a God-given opportunity! We can immediately increase the number of troops in Wanling."
Jia Kui took the lead and directly identified this as a great opportunity.
"General, although Wu Nan is in chaos, it can be said that there is me among you, and you among me, but in essence, it is a situation of fragmentation. Therefore, the enemy of Zhang and the enemy of Youquan are Wucheng Cut into two, the message transmission here will definitely be greatly hindered. We can increase the troops in Wanling. If we can capture Guzhao in one fell swoop and regain Wucheng, then the north-south advance will be completed, and Sun Ce will be unable to take care of the beginning and the end. "To be honest, pushing all the way from the north road is a tough battle. Even with the assistance of the siege weapons that Liu Feng painstakingly developed, as long as the defenders are determined enough to fight, they will still be defeated by Liu Feng. The Feng troops caused considerable casualties.
Jia Kui has practiced the art of war with Jia Xi since he was a child, and he uses troops in an upright manner, but he also instinctively dislikes fighting stupidly.
At this time, a fighter plane appeared in Wanling, and Jia Kui naturally strongly recommended it.
After Jia Kui finished speaking, Gao Shun nodded and agreed: "General, I observe that the four generals Zhou, Jiang, Dong and Gan are rigorous in running the army, and the navy soldiers are happy to serve them. This is This is the time for the navy soldiers to use their lives. If the navy can successfully control Zhenze (later known as Taihu), Guzhang will be completely isolated by our army, and our northern and southern fronts will be able to establish contact immediately. "
< br>Jurong, Qu'a and Piling counties are to the north of Taihu Lake, while Guzhang and Wucheng are just to the south of Taihu Lake.
There were no large ships in Taihu Lake at this time, which was quite an advantage for the Xuzhou Navy, which had mostly small ships.
Once the Xuzhou Navy takes control of Taihu Lake, the Xuzhou Army on the southern route starting from Wanling will undoubtedly have an additional supply line, which will greatly reduce the logistical pressure on Wanling, allowing Zhou Yu and others to gain greater freedom in using troops.
To give a simple example, if we rely solely on logistics supplies along the Wanling route, we must transport them by land. There are more than 400 miles from Wanling to Guzhang. This distance consumes a lot of land transportation. It's not too exaggerated, even Wanling's grain storage, civilian labor and transportation capacity alone are enough to support it.
But if we continue to attack Wucheng in the future, the pressure brought by the extra two hundred miles will not only be twice as difficult.
Correspondingly, if Taihu Lake is controlled by the Xuzhou Navy, not only the northern front can directly replenish military rations for the southern front army by shipping.
Wanling can also abandon land transportation and take the waterway instead, go north along Lengshui into Lishui, and then enter Taihu Lake in Yangxian. This is much easier than transporting grain through mountain roads.
Yangxian is the Yixing of later generations. At this time, Yangxian was still a city along the lake and built adjacent to Taihu Lake.
More importantly, if he takes this route, Liu Fengjun can even bypass Guzhang and attack Wucheng directly, because there is a direct official road from Yangxian to Wucheng.
With so many benefits, it’s no wonder Jia Kui and Gao Shun are so excited.
"What do you think, uncle?" Liu Feng already had an idea in his mind, and now Jia Kui and Gao Shun's suggestions have strengthened his decision.
But before making the final decision, he wanted to hear Zhao Yun's opinion.
"It's doable!"
Zhao Yun said categorically: "I just did some calculations. If we have Lishui as our support, we can increase our troops by five to six thousand."
" Ten thousand more troops can be added."
Liu Feng smiled and added: "Uncle, I can also send an order to Li Yang and ask Li Yang Navy and Niuzhu Navy to move together to transport grain from Niuzhu to Wu. Entering the Lishui River, it drives directly to Yangxian. Guzhang is like Yangxian, so Zhou Yu can directly abandon Guzhang and go to Yangxian, and then drive directly to Wucheng."
Zhao Yun and the others were surprised at first, and then after thinking about it carefully, they had to admit that Liu Feng's plan was indeed the best one.
This is equivalent to getting rid of seven or eight hundred miles of mountain roads, and all logistics are waterways, and it can also avoid a siege battle.
If you are bolder, you don't even need to pay attention to people like Wucheng and just bypass Wucheng.
Anyway, logistics is by water, and we are not afraid of Yan Baihu and Wang Sheng from Wucheng cutting off supplies.
In this way, Sun Ce might be caught off guard by Zhou Yu.
After the discussion was completed, Liu Feng immediately wrote back to Zhou Yu, ordering Zhang Ying's troops to stay in Wanling and take charge of logistics affairs. At the same time, he asked Zhou Yu to turn around and go north along the Lishui River to Yangxian.
At the same time, Liu Feng also sent Teng Dan to Yangxian to persuade him to surrender. If Yangxian was willing to surrender, it would ensure that Yangxian's powerful officials could all maintain their positions and not be replaced. If Yangxian dared to resist, all those who resisted would be killed. , deprived of all family property.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Feng sent a letter to Li Yang and Niuzhu to prepare to open a new supply line. This task was handed over to Teng Zhou, asking him to rush to Niuzhu immediately.
In addition, Liu Feng also sent a letter to Taishi Ci and Xu Huang who followed, ordering them to board the ship in Liyang, send 3,000 Liyang civilians to Wukou, and join Zhou Yu to go to Yangxian.
Finally, after ordering Zhou Tai and other naval forces to enter Taihu Lake and compete for control of Taihu Lake, Liu Feng personally mobilized the army and marched south to Piling, preparing to enter Wuxi.
After waiting for so long, on the one hand, I was waiting for news from the southern front, and on the other hand, I was trying to save food.
Now that the adjustment on the southern front has been completed and sufficient food has been stored, it is time to send troops.
Liu Feng left Pan Zhang's 4,000 men behind in the four counties of Jurong, Qu'a, Dantu, and Piling, but only transferred 2,000 men from the Iron Armored Corps.
This time, Zhao Yun, Xu Sheng, Jia Kui, Gao Shun, Fan Neng, Zhao Fan, Yu Zi, and 11,000 Zuo Rong's old troops were mobilized from Wujun and northern Danyang counties. The 8,000 civilians, totaling 48,000 people, pretended to be an army of 200,000 and marched towards Wuxi.
The Wuxi scouts only saw the continuous army of Liu Fengjun, with flags like clouds and drums like thunder. They knew that Liu Fengjun’s army was activated. At first, they wanted to get closer to observe, but were stopped by Liu Fengjun. Feng Jun's scouts designed to trap and kill many people.
The superiority in horses made Wujun's scouts suffer defeat many times.
In a few days, twenty or thirty people had been killed.
These are all shrewd, powerful, and experienced scouts. Even if a few of them died, it would be enough for Xu Kun to feel distressed.
But now that there were so many dead, Xu Kun still asked them to find out the number and number of Liu Feng's army with a livid face.
Xu Kun naturally did not believe Liu Fengjun's claim of two hundred thousand, but the scale was definitely not small.
Xu Kun must know more about the situation, and so does Wu Jing behind him.
It is a pity that even though Xu Kun's scouts were very brave and resourceful, the information they received in the end was still pitiful. It was only found that the number of Liu Feng's troops was between 40,000 and 50,000. , there are generals such as Zhao, Xu and Gao, and Liu Feng personally supervises the army.
Other than that, they probably know Fan Neng best about the composition of the troops, the character of the generals and other information.
At noon on the eighth day, Liu Feng's army arrived at the gates of Wuxi.
This speed is not fast, but it is not slow either. It can be said to be quite satisfactory, a model of traveling thirty miles a day.
Xu Kun originally wanted to make a surprise attack while Liu Fengjun had just arrived and was not yet firmly established.
But Liu Feng didn't come close at all, and didn't even show off his power. He set up camp five miles away, which made Xu Kun stunned.
This is too cautious.
Liu Feng ordered Xu Sheng to be the front camp, Zhao Yun to the left camp, Jia Kui to the right camp, Zhao Fan led Yu Zi to the rear camp, Liu Feng led Xu Chu to guard the front camp with thousands of people, Pan Zhang Tiejiashi camp, Gao Shun The headquarters and the rest of Zuo Rong's troops formed the central army.
Xu Kun led Xu Yi, Zhu Chao, Sun He and other generals to the city to watch. They saw that Liu Feng's army was neat and orderly, with clear flags, all units in good order, and the camp movements were step-by-step, looking like a strong army.
Not only Xu Kun frowned, but his generals were also shocked.
The news of Liu Feng's massive attack has been sent back to Wu County, and Wu Jing also sent news to prevent them from holding on.
At the same time, another batch of ordnance and food was sent to them to supplement their strength.
But there are no reinforcements.
For this, Xu Kun and others were only grateful, but not dissatisfied.
Wuxi is a solid city, surrounded by mountains and rivers. It is indeed a strong city, but Wuxi is not big now. It is already a bit crowded with 10,000 people stationed inside. It is of little significance to continue to increase troops.
On the contrary, it is the ordnance and supplies that must be consumed hugely in offensive and defensive battles, but Xu Kun and others pay the most attention to them.
"Generals, now that the enemy has arrived at the city, how should we respond?"
Xu Kun looked at the fiery Liu Jun camp in the distance and asked the people around him.
Both Xu Yi and Zhu Chao have been fighting for a long time, and they are both wise and courageous generals.
Take Xu Yi as an example. In the future, he and Lu Fan would make a surprise attack on Haixi by sea, defeating Chen Yu, and kill Chen Mu, the general of the Chen family, and plunder thousands of people and return them to Jiangdong.
Among these thousands of people, they are all the cream of the Chen family.
The decline of the Chen family in the future, in addition to Chen Deng's untimely death, also had a lot to do with this incident.
Sun He is even better than Xu Yi. Although he is now under Zhu Chao, he later succeeded in becoming the prefect of Lujiang. He was a person who was highly favored by Sun Ce and Sun Quan among the clan generals.
It's a pity that he died in a conspiracy later, otherwise he would have done something bigger.
Seeing Xu Kun asking questions, the generals present, although experienced in hundreds of battles and rich in experience, could not come up with any good ideas at the moment.
Liu Feng's troops were simply outnumbered. He was very cautious when he went down to the stronghold. Not only did he keep a certain distance, he even sent out cover troops, among which there were as many as 300 cavalry. .
Xu Kun's troops only have 200 horses together, and their maneuverability is far inferior to that of their opponents.
"General, it seems that the pressure on the stronghold outside the city is very high. Can we increase the number of troops?"
In the end, it was Xu Yi who spoke first. He is from the Xu Kun tribe and has followed Xu Kunnan in his early years. After all, the feelings of the Northern War are different.
The so-called "defending the city requires defending the field" means that if you have enough energy to defend the city, it is best not to abandon the area around the city, because once you give up, the attacker will be able to completely surround the city with ease. This will not only be serious This dampens the confidence and morale of the defenders, and at the same time allows them to better allocate the direction of attack and take the initiative.
Therefore, Xu Kun set up a military stronghold outside the north gate of Wuxi. The military stronghold was not big, but very strong, and it was right next to the city gate. It could effectively cover the city gate and block the attackers. Directly attack the city gate.
In this stronghold, Xu Kun put 300 sharp soldiers to guard it. As long as the opponent cannot attack, the defenders can take advantage of the gap between attack and defense to send reinforcements out of the city to replace the defense.
But looking at it now, Xu Yi was worried that three hundred people was too few.
If such a military stronghold is defeated by the opponent at once, it will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the morale of the defenders. If not, the subsequent troops may not even dare to go out of the city to defend the military stronghold.
As a result, not only would the city gate be unprotected, but the military stronghold would in turn become the fulcrum of Liu Feng's army's attack.
The gain outweighs the loss.
(End of this chapter)