Chapter 322: Several battlefields
In Sun Ce’s army, the generals all turned their attention to Sun Ce, their expressions extremely ugly.
There was a lot of joy just now, and the Kuaiji army was severely damaged. As long as we continue to chase the opponent, it is very likely to completely defeat it. Even if not, we can also take advantage of the situation to encircle Shanin.
According to the prisoners' accounts, the Kuaiji army that could be captured this time was 12,000 men. Judging from the prisoners and heads they have captured so far, the opponent only has more than 8,000 men left at most.
If you calculate carefully, there will be a large number of defeated troops who will flee in all directions. Therefore, the real strength of the Kuaiji Army will only be less.
Now is indeed the best time to rush to Shanyin.
However, the loss of Youquan means that the army's logistics only have the food in Gaoqian Tunzhong.
Gaoqian Tunzhong has indeed accumulated a lot of food, but there is one key point that cannot be ignored.
Gaoqiantun itself is not big.
It was simply because it was located on a strategic pass and connected in all directions that it was selected by the Kuaiji Army to become a material transfer station.
A large amount of materials were shipped from Shanyin, passed through Gaoqiantun, and distributed to the Guling front line.
Gaoqian Tun itself is not a real storage place. Therefore, although there are many grains and weapons in Gaoqian Tun, they are only enough for the Sun Army for ten days.
The number of Sun's army is twice that of Kuaiji's army. In fact, the food stored in Gaoqian Tunzhong is enough for the Guling front line for more than 20 days.
But Gaoqiantun is just a transit station after all. He can't hoard more food, and there is no need to hoard more food.
Because military rations will be continuously replenished from Sanin.
But this is the situation of the Kuaiji Army. Now that Gaoqian Tun is occupied by Sun Ce, it means that they eat less food for a day and less inventory for a day.
Originally, Sun Ce could have returned to the army first, or sent a partial division to the north, attacked the Guling line from behind, and connected his own army in the north of the Qiantang River to cross the river, which would also open up the supply line.
But now the transfer station and base camp where I stocked up supplies has been lost in Youquan County. This means that even if I go north to Guling and open up the supply line, it will be useless. After all, the source has been blocked, and no matter how smooth the water pipe is, it will be useless. Can't get out of the water.
It is for this reason that Sun Ce's generals were divided into two factions.
The veteran faction headed by Han Dang advocated for stability and returned to the north. After defeating the Guling defenders, they returned to the north of Qiantang River and returned to the army with Zhu Zhijun who stayed in the north of the river to recapture the city.
Or they could simply attack Wucheng and encircle Wei to rescue Zhao.
In the view of Han Dang and other veterans, it is best to simply march into Wucheng. Both the Yan brothers and Wucheng powerful people have hoarded a large amount of food supplies.
As long as Sun Jun can grab these supplies, he will be able to breathe a sigh of relief for the time being.
Otherwise, after more than ten days of food consumption in Gaoqian Tunli, the army will collapse without food.
"General, you cannot return!"
Lu Fan, Chen Wu and other capable generals urged Sun Ce to send troops as soon as possible to attack Shanyin.
In their opinion, Shanyin may not be harder to fight than Wucheng, and now the Kuaiji army has become a defeated army, too depressed and weak to fight.
A large amount of grain is also stored in Shanyin City. This is Wang Lang's base camp and stores all the grain for the Kuaiji Army. The grain in Gaoqian Tunli is transferred from Shanyin City.
And once Shanyin is captured, Sun Jun will once again get out of the crisis and at least have a way out.
But if we only capture Wucheng, even if the food inside is no less than that in Shanyin City, it will only change from sudden death to chronic death.
Sun Ce's head hurt a little. To be honest, both sides had their own reasons for their opinions.
Although attacking Shanyin has more benefits, Han Dang's persistence is not without benefits.
Sun Ce already knew that it was Wang Sheng and others from Wucheng who attacked You Quan, together with the Yan Baihu brothers.
In Sun Ce's eyes, these people are simply a mob, vulnerable to a single blow.
If you go north, you only need to pretend to attack Wucheng for a few days, and you can divert Wang Sheng, Yan Baihu and others from Youquan. If you attack them halfway, you will definitely win a big victory and even take the opportunity to regain Youquan. fist.
Moreover, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai had just been expelled from Youquan, so they could handle each other more calmly when they went north.
With Sun Ce's decisiveness, he was unable to make a decision for a while.
Sun Ce's silence made the debate between Lu Fan, Chen Wu, and Han Dang more intense.
“General, please stop hesitating.”
Lü Fan’s calm face showed some anxiety as he admonished: “No matter what strategy you choose, general, you must make up your mind as soon as possible. If we delay for a long time, all the fighter planes will be lost, and our army will have no chance of survival.”
Lu Fan's words woke up Sun Ce.
As Lu Fan said, no matter which one you choose, it makes sense, but hesitation is the worst choice.
"What Zi Heng said is true!"
Sun Ce suddenly woke up and immediately slapped the case: "I have made up my mind! Let's go down to Shanyin first!"
Han Dang was stunned. After a moment, he didn't say much, he stood up and accepted the order.
But Sun Ce went on to say: "Send an order to General Zhu and order him to governor Jiangbei's headquarters and go north to meet the two uncles Cheng and Huang. Please ensure the safety of the two uncles."
As soon as Sun Ce said this. , Han Dang breathed a sigh of relief and immediately expressed his support.
Lü Fan and Chen Wu did not object. They tried their best to persuade the army to continue heading east. They did it out of public interest, not for power and gain, nor did they want to murder Cheng and Huang. So after Sun Ce decided to march eastward with the main force, Lu Fan and Chen Wu were very happy and satisfied.
Sun Ce made a decision, and Sun Jun immediately took action. Chen Wu and Lu Fan each led a group, with a total of 4,000 men setting off first to continue pursuing the Kuaiji army.
Sun Ce commanded the three Sun Hao brothers as the central army, Han Dang as the rear, and the whole army headed east.
Only a thousand people were left in Gaoqian Village, and they were also responsible for transporting grain eastward.
Immediately, the army was dispatched to pursue the Kuaiji army.
It’s just that we are already an hour and a half late by setting off now. It is really difficult to catch up with the Kuaiji army.
********
From Quan City, Zhou Bin came to the county government office and asked to see Zhou Yu.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Yu came out in person and took Zhou Bin's hand with a smile on his face.
"Brother Zixu, if it weren't for you, I would have been able to enter the city so easily."
Zhou Yu praised this because when Zhou Yu captured Youquan the night before, Zhou Yu Bin's bravery is extremely outstanding and his performance is quite impressive.
Although Zhou Yu's coalition forces rebelled against the powerful nobles in the city and opened the east gate and south gate, the occupation fell into anxiety.
Although Zhou Yu's coalition has a numerical advantage, there is a high probability that it will be able to defeat Cheng Pu's troops in multiple rounds.
But Zhou Yu really wanted to buy time at that time, and the situation was actually not too optimistic.
In the end, it was Zhou Bin who led the men to storm the north gate and forced the opponent into a desperate situation. He finally chose to give up Youquan and retreated.
Therefore, in Zhou Yu's eyes, Zhou Bin, a person with the same surname, was the primary contributor to this great achievement.
In addition, inviting Zhou Bin to meet has another main purpose.
This night attack scared Zhou Yu.
He really didn't expect that the brothers Wu Cheng Haoqiang and Yan Baihu would be so weak.
Therefore, Zhou Yu planned to control the defense of the three gates into his own hands.
Otherwise, he doubted that he would be trapped by these burdensome people after Sun Ce returned to the army.
So Zhou Yu came up with a way to take all the guarding tasks of the three city gates into his own hands.
Zhou Yu himself was responsible for the most dangerous south gate, and asked Yu Mi to take charge of the west gate, while the last north gate was entrusted to Zhou Bin.
Due to geographical reasons, Youquan only has three city gates, missing one east gate. This is also reasonable, because to the east of Youquan is the swampy coast.
After listening to Zhou Yu’s suggestion, Zhou Bin was secretly happy and agreed immediately.
Zhou Yu hurriedly reminded Zhou Bin again, asking the other party to be careful. At the same time, he also told the other party the information that tens of thousands of reinforcements were about to arrive.
Lu You, whom Zhou Yu invited, successfully convinced Wang Sheng, and Zhou Bin also convinced Zou He and Qian Tong. At the same time, he also established a line with the Yan Baihu brothers.
With such a good situation, how could Zhou Yu stay in Yangxian and do nothing. He immediately decided to go on an expedition, leaving only 2,000 Yu Mi troops to garrison in Yangxian and taking away all the other troops.
At the same time, Zhou Yu also sent news to Liu Feng who was under the city of Wuxi, as well as Taishi Ci and Xu Huang's troops who had arrived in Wuhu. Among these messages, Zhou Yu reported to Liu Feng the specific situation of the battle in the southern part of Wu County, and urged Taishi Ci and Xu Huang to send reinforcements.
Let’s not mention Liu Feng for the moment, but just talking about Taishi Ci’s route, his marching speed was quite fast, but now he has received a flying letter from Zhou Yu asking for help, and it has become even faster.
Moreover, Taishi Ci also took Xu Huang as the vanguard and was responsible for taking over Wucheng first.
At this time, Xu Huang's unit was no longer a pure cavalry unit, but an infantry unit.
However, despite this, Xu Huang's speed was still very fast. Zhou Yu sent messages twice, once after Yangxian sent troops, and once after occupying Youquan.
When Zhou Yu passed the letter for the first time, Xu Huang had already arrived in Lishui.
When Zhou Yu passed the letter for the second time, Xu Huang was already only two days away from Wucheng.
Tai Shi Ci was four days behind Xu Huang. After all, Xu Huang had changed his gear and did not need to carry too much food. He could get supplements at Lishui and Yangxian along the way.
Tai Shici's troops had more people, and they also had to carry a large amount of ordnance and supplies. When they received a message from Zhou Yu for the second time, they arrived in Yangxian.
The reason why Taishi Ci and Xu Huang acted so quickly was because they had a lot of criticism against Zhou Yu.
In their opinion, Zhou Yu sent troops without waiting for Tai Shici to arrive. In fact, he just wanted to take credit.
But out of overall consideration, Taishi Ci was still very worried about the gains and losses of Wucheng and Youquan.
Especially for Wucheng, Taishi Ci gave a death order, telling Xu Huang to hold on.
Once Wucheng fails, more than 10,000 elite troops of Taishi Ci and Xu Huang will be blocked in the narrow passage next to Zhenze, and the Youquan attacked by Zhou Yu will become An isolated city.
Even if You Quan is lost, as long as Wucheng is in Xu Huang's hands, Taishi Ci can easily go out of the narrow path of Wucheng, harass Sun Ce's rear, and even send troops directly under You Quan City, forcing Sun Ce to come back for a confrontation, or even a decisive battle.
Therefore, the task Xu Huang received from Taishi Cina was only to consolidate Wucheng, not to rush to support Youquan.
********
“Okay! Okay!”
After getting Zhou Yu’s advice to surrender to Wu Cheng Haoqiang, he contacted Yan Baihu, and together they sent troops to attack You Liu Feng loudly praised the news of the successful punch.
"As expected of Gong Jin, he is really good at using troops."
Liu Feng immediately summoned the generals and decided to launch a general attack on Wuxi.
At this time, Liu Feng had been marching under the city of Wuxi for nearly two months. Wuxi's moat had been almost filled in, and all the city towers except the south side had been destroyed.
What chilled Xu Kun and other Sun Jun generals was that Liu Feng brought out several siege equipment, each of which put great pressure on Xu Kun and the others.
For example, Paidao is like a well fence, but the top is not a fence for people to stand and shoot arrows, but a huge long knife. The operator can stand below and use the rope to pry the long knife, causing the long knife to sweep across the enemies and ordnance on the city wall, with considerable destructive power.
Xu Kun and others were overwhelmed by these siege equipment and suffered a lot, but they could not find a way to crack it.
The reason why Xu Kun and the others can still survive until now is entirely because Liu Feng did not launch a general attack.
Before, Liu Feng had been suppressing his generals.
In this regard, although the generals did not dare to disobey Liu Feng, they were always a little puzzled and confused.
I don’t understand why Liu Feng hasn’t taken Wuxi yet.
Now, Liu Feng finally issued the order for a general attack.
Early the next morning, Liu Feng's army launched a large-scale attack on the city. They first used stone cannons to smash the temporary fortifications on the opponent's city wall. At the same time, the southern expedition army led by Liu Feng began to line up and attack fiercely.
This attack is no longer the bottom-line attack like before, and it is no longer a one-man attack in the north.
The east and west of the city launched attacks at the same time in conjunction with the north of the city. They surrounded three and one was missing, and only let go of the south.
In just half an hour, someone reached the top of the city.
But Sun Jun was not a vegetarian, and he quickly counterattacked, forcing the Zhengnan soldiers to retreat from the city.
But after the first time, will the second time be far behind?
In just a quarter of an hour, someone from the west of the city also came to the top of the city, and a small landing point was opened up, forming a stalemate with the counterattacking Sun army.
After a day of fierce attack, the Zhengnan Army scaled the city wall three times. Although they finally retreated, the pressure on Sun Army was extremely huge, and there were also huge casualties.
On this day, more than 200 Sun Jun soldiers were killed and more than 700 people were slightly or seriously injured.
In just one day, there were nearly a thousand casualties, accounting for one-tenth of the Wuxi garrison.
With such a high casualty ratio, it would only take ten days to exhaust the Wuxi garrison. Not to mention that the actual casualties exceeded 30% to 40%, and the army was about to collapse.
Looking at the casualty figures on the document, Xu Kun felt pain in his bones.
Before Xu Kun could come up with a solution, the Zhengnan Army continued its fierce attack the next day, seemingly unaffected by casualties.
Xu Kun really couldn't bear it now. The casualties on the second day were as high as more than 1,100 people. If this continues, within two or three days, all the Wuxi defenders will be dead.
So, the next night, the Wuxi garrison, led by Xu Kun, abandoned all the injured and immobile, quietly left the city from the south gate of Wuxi, and ran all the way south.
On the third day, when the Southern Army planned to continue their attack on the city, they discovered that all the Wuxi defenders had fled.
However, in order not to alert the enemy, Xu Kun did not dare to set fire to the city of Wuxi this time. A large amount of food and ordnance could only be given to the Southern Conquest Army.
Originally, Wuxi had to hold on for more than three months. Now, in less than two months, only half to one-third of the materials, food, and ordnance in the city have been consumed. What is left is really not a small amount. number.
There is enough food left for 10,000 people for two months.
Liu Feng has 50,000 people here, which is enough for half a month, and this is food that does not need to be transported.
After capturing Wuxi, Jia Bin took the initiative to ask Ying to pursue Xu Kun.
After Liu Feng thought about it carefully, he chose to refuse.
Xu Kun is not a young and frivolous person. He is a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time, and he also fought with Sun Jian, a wall player.
Even a pig can learn a lot, not to mention Xu Kun is also a smart person.
Therefore, Liu Feng had never looked down upon Xu Kun, and Jiangdong was densely covered with lakes and rivers, so the cavalry might not be as convenient and fast as the infantry.
If there is a bad move, the few Sanhe knights will be eaten by Xu Kun, and Liu Feng will really be extremely happy and sad.
So, after Liu Feng decisively rejected Jia Bin's request, he chose to announce a list to pacify the people, and at the same time mobilized civilians to prepare for the next phase of the battle, with his troops directed at Wuxian.
During this battle, the generals made many meritorious deeds, and Zhao Fan and Yu Zi were even more brave. Especially the former, who was invincible and climbed the city wall twice. If Sun Jun hadn't fought back desperately, , Zhao Fan probably should have won the first place.
Finally, Liu Feng ordered to rest in Wuxi and wait for the transfer of food, ordnance and other materials. The food by water will arrive directly from Hangou in Wuxi.
At the same time, he prepared to launch another large army to surround Wu County.
********
With the help of Sun Ce's decision-making for nearly two hours, Zhou Xin's troops escaped safely back to Shanyin County.
Although they suffered a huge defeat and more than half of them were killed or captured, the remaining 6,000 people successfully retreated to Shanyin County. And since then, broken troops have continued to come to gather, and their numbers have continued to recover.
After seeing Wang Lang, Zhou Xin asked with a somewhat worried expression: "Ming Mansion, who evacuated Chadu Village?"
Originally, after Liu Feng's reminder, Zhou Xin and Yu Fan finally built a village at the current location, named Chadu Village, after discussion and on-site investigation.
Originally, the location of Chadu Village is quite good. Only two to three thousand people need to be placed here, which is enough to withstand an onslaught of ten thousand people for a period of time.
Therefore, after being prompted, Zhou Xin and Yu Fan discussed and placed three thousand people in Chadu Village.
I thought that even if Sun Ce really walked on the ancient Chadu Road, he would be blocked by Chadu Village. Here, he could at least buy one or two days for the Kuaiji army outside, and even be able to calmly join the army. Block these gangsters from Jiangdong.
But neither Zhou Xin nor Yu Fan expected that all the soldiers here would be transferred away.
After asking about the situation, it turned out that because the front line of Guling was tight and there were no garrison troops in Shanyin, no one came to Chadu Ancient Village.
In the end, Wang Lang had to transfer the soldiers here, part of them to supply the severely damaged Guling line, and the other part to strengthen Zhou Xin's troops.
If Wang Lang hadn't transferred these 3,000 men back, how could Zhou Xin have gathered 12,000 men to counterattack Gaoqiantun.
(End of this chapter)