Chapter 350 Hidden Blade
However, this plan looks good, but it is also very risky.
As a result, Jia Kui's battle formation will become more and more distorted, and his weaknesses will naturally be revealed.
If Cheng Pu seizes a weak spot and charges forward, it will obviously be quite dangerous. For an experienced cavalryman like Cheng Pu to expect that the other party would not be able to discover his own weaknesses, it would be like deceiving others.
Jia Kui hesitated for ten breaths, and finally decided to give it a try.
After all, his military strength is 50% greater than that of Song Qian, and Jia Kui and Gao Shun are similar in that they both attach great importance to military training. During the Cao Wei period, the county soldiers led by Jia Kui were even comparable to the field armies of the four major war zones. This shows that his military training ability.
This is the capital Jia Kui wants to fight for.
After making the decision, Jia Kui continued to issue orders, while boldly deploying troops from the inside to fill the vacancies in the front line exposed by the bold insertion of the right wing, while using a 500-man shield-halberd troop as the core, Keep an eye on Cheng Pu's cavalry on the inside.
Wherever the opponent moves, they will send reinforcements.
The speed of the infantry is naturally not as fast as that of the cavalry, but the shield soldiers take the inside line, while Cheng Pu's cavalry not only takes the outside line, but also has to guard against the threat of crossbows and take long detours. In this way, both sides In the speed competition, the infantry took the lead.
Unless Cheng Pu maneuvers at a running speed, he may be able to be a little ahead of the infantry, but such maneuvers consume a lot of horsepower. With the current horsepower of Cheng Pu's cavalry, they can only support it once or twice at most.
This means that Cheng Pu is likely to have completely lost his fighting power after running and maneuvering. He has to rest the horse for at least a quarter of an hour and replenish a large amount of water, dry food and fine salt in order to recover part of his physical strength. Get back into the fight.
Under the command of Jia Kui, his troops formed the shape of long outside and hollow inside. With the rapid advance of the right wing, a huge protrusion was formed on the battlefield, and it was not far enough from Gao Shun's troops. Twenty meters away, it takes at most a cup of tea to meet the opponent.
At the same time, this protrusion also formed a pincer attack on Song Qian's forward. If Gao Shun's troops were included, it would become a three-sided siege. Song Qian's forward, who had already been forced, began to hesitate. got up.
Compared with these advantages, Jia Kui's army was also very empty inside. A large number of internal soldiers were transferred to the front line to fill the stretched front line of the salient.
As long as Sun Cejun is able to open a gap, the follow-up will not be a stalemate under normal circumstances, but will be overwhelming.
But the problem is that Jia Kui's judgment was correct, and Song Qian's troops have been mobilizing forward to counter Jia Kui's offensive. In this way, how could Song Qian, whose military strength was half that of Jia Kui, still have the strength to open a second front.
As for Cheng Pu’s cavalry, they were also perfectly protected by the Shield and Halberd Corps. Although it caused one to two hundred casualties of Jia Kui’s men, these casualties were undoubtedly meaningless and could not achieve any purpose. decisive role.
When Sun Ce rushed to the battlefield with the front part of the main force, he was obviously very dissatisfied with the situation.
This does not mean that Sun Ce's army is at a disadvantage. Although Jia Kui formed a three-sided siege on part of Song Qian's troops on the protruding part, on a large scale, Huang Gai, Rui Liang, and Song Qian The troops still surrounded Gao Shun and Jia Kui.
There is no doubt that Sun Cejun still has the upper hand and takes the initiative.
What made Sun Ce unhappy was that Jia Kui finally reunited with Gao Shun, and the two groups were connected.
When they successfully landed in Jia Kui and began to approach Gao Shun, Huang Gai, Song Qian, Rui Liang and even Cheng Pu did not decisively separate them, which already made Sun Ce unhappy.
After giving the order, although they seemed to have tried their best, they actually did not go so far as to ignore the cost.
In fact, with Sun Ce's army's strategic advantage, if he does not hesitate to pay the price, Song Qian's troops may be severely damaged, but the battle situation will definitely be able to separate Gao Shun and Jia Kui, and at the same time, Gao Shun's troops will be severely damaged. department.
At this time, Sun Ce rushed to the battlefield again and immediately threw in new troops. There was a high probability that Gao Shun's troops would not be able to hold on.
Once Gao Shun's troops are annihilated, Jia Kui's troops will become alone again, and the pressure will be completely put on the Southern Conquest Army.
Can you save Jia Kui yet?
Rescue, that’s just a tactic to add fuel to the fire, and you may have to keep sending them.
If we don’t save them, we will not only lose more than 10,000 elites, but they will also be wiped out by the established organizations, which will have a huge impact on the morale of both sides.
Sun Ce sighed, feeling a trace of regret in his heart.
Perhaps he shouldn't be in charge from behind. He should have gone out in person and commanded from the front.
********
Back to half a day ago, a total of five hundred large and small ships appeared on the sea behind Sun Ce's army on the battlefield. These included fifty stern boats, one hundred and fifty wide-mouthed plank ships, and three hundred walking boats.
In this position, Sun Cejun did not deploy any defensive troops at all, because this is a muddy and saline-alkali land three miles wide.
The soil here is so deep that an ordinary person's foot would be able to reach their ankles. If they were wearing armor, it would at least reach their mid-calf.
Landing in a place like this, even if you don't wear armor, it will take at least one or two hours to walk to the flat ground. There is no difference between taking it seriously and committing suicide.
It was precisely with this understanding that Sun Ce simply deployed a very small number of scouts in this direction, and they were still in a very deep inland area, with no movement at sea at all.
"General, it's time to start."
Yu Fan stood on the bow of the ship, looked at the sky, turned to the commander of the army, Zhao Yun, and cupped his hands and said: "If you do it now, the army can take advantage of it. The tide goes as deep as possible into the interior.”
Dong Xi nodded in agreement: "Mr. Zhongxiang's words make sense, let's do it."
Zhao Yun looked calm and saw that the two assistants specially assigned to him by Liu Feng agreed that the time had come. Of course he wouldn't have any other opinion.
"Since both gentlemen feel that the time has come, I should do my best."
Zhao Yun nodded, faced Dong Xi and said: "Dong Xiaowei, you can raise the flag to order the whole army. , the whole army attacked."
Dong Xi was overjoyed and hurriedly saluted Zhao Yun. After standing up, he turned back and gestured to the sailor on the mast, who quickly hung up a special flag. .
This huge fleet of five hundred ships had arrived at the outer sea an hour ago and did not enter the inland sea until half an hour ago. It was finally time to take action.
This operation actually used the principle of tide.
Those sludge and saline-alkali lands are essentially the alluvial plains of the Qiantang River. However, because there is no seawall, a large amount of seawater is irrigated during high tides, eroding the land, and turning these lands into saline-alkali silt lands.
Although it is impossible for people to trek through these muddy areas, ships can take advantage of the high tide to penetrate deep into the shore and the water is deep enough to go deep inland.
It’s just that this depth is usually short-lived. Unless you are not afraid of the ship running aground, you must always return to the sea before the tide goes out.
But Liu Feng and the others don't need it. What they want is to maneuver their troops behind Sun Ce's army.
Liu Feng carefully questioned Yu Fan, He Qi, Dong Xi and other people in Kuaiji, and determined that this plan was feasible, and the cost was only damage and scrapping of the ship. Of course, the ship cannot be too big, otherwise it will easily be stranded on the seashore and unable to go deep inland.
It is now a quarter of an hour before the tide reaches its highest point. The entire army can take advantage of this time to invade the inland to achieve the deepest effect.
All of these ships will be stranded on the shore, and they can only wait for high tide before finding a way to return to the sea. Even then, the bottoms of many ships will obviously need to be repaired.
But the cost of it all is worth it.
Once their thousands of elites appear behind Sun Cejun at the climax of the war, the absolute winner will not be the outcome of this battle, but whether Sun Cejun will be able to defeat them all here. The army was destroyed.
Yes, Liu Feng's idea was to overthrow Sun Ce's main force in one battle.
As long as they are completely wiped out on the banks of the Qiantang River, or at least severely damaged, then the subsequent recovery of the entire Kuaiji will be like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
Liu Feng's character is to take one step and count three.
Why was he in such a hurry in the past few years, even if he gave up the foundation of business, he also wanted to fight on all sides, first to recover Langya, then to Guangling, and even after the New Year, he traveled thousands of miles to welcome the Emperor back to the Eastern Capital.
There is only one reason for all this, and that is that you missed that point in time. No matter how much you want to do these things, you will not be able to do them, and you will have to pay at least several times, or even more than ten times the original price.
Take Langya as an example. Yuan Shu has been secretly wooing Zang Ba for a long time. Yuan Tan successfully crossed the river last year and occupied Jinan, and he will inevitably influence Zang Ba of Langya.
At that time, if Liu Bei wants to take back the rule of Langya, he will not only be influenced by many external forces, but he will also face Zang Ba who has been recuperating for a year.
The recovery of Guangling and the return of the emperor to the east are all the same. If you miss it, others will do it for you.
Liu Feng's previous "slowness" in the north of Wu County was waiting for the "fastness" on the southern line of Wu County.
Tai Shi Ci and Zhou Yu suddenly emerged from Wucheng and captured 20,000 Sun Ce's troops in one breath. Calculating the time carefully, Liu Feng had captured the entire Wu Commandery in just four months. Taking away half of Danyang County was much faster than Sun Ce taking half of Wu County in half a year.
Therefore, Liu Feng had no intention of getting into too much entanglement with Sun Ce on the banks of the Qiantang River. Although the other side's backup was far inferior to his own, good things like food should be saved if possible.
After all, the Sun family can squeeze out one to two million dan of military rations by relying on the essence of Bei Kuaiji. Sun Ce's army of more than 30,000 to less than 40,000 can last for a year. Still more than enough.
Liu Feng does not have so much time to spend with him on the banks of the Qiantang River. This year is the last window period. Next year will be the fourth year of Jian'an. Gongsun Zan was completely destroyed in the middle of this year. , Zhang Feiyan will also be defeated by Yuan Shao and hibernate back in the Black Mountain.
Yuan Shao in the north will unify the northern land. Wherever his eyes fall, there will be the eye of the storm.
So, in Liu Feng's plan, this year he will not only completely wipe out Sun Ce, but also completely capture Yangzhou, and then expand his army.
Therefore, Liu Feng specially appointed Zhao Yun as the commander-in-chief of the other division. He led the reinforcements of a thousand fine cavalry commanded by Xu Huang, landed around the back, and attacked from both front and rear, completely annihilating Sun Ce's troops.
Zhao Yun watched the fleet riding on the tide as it continued to penetrate deeper into the inland, rushing in for two or three miles in one go before the speed began to slow down.
Slowly, the big ship began to hit the ground and ran aground, unable to continue moving forward. Even if the small ship could continue moving forward, the water depth was already less than one meter, and it was obvious that it could not go far.
Fortunately, it was not far from the shore, or in other words, they were already on the shore.
Once the tide begins to recede, this will be the first piece of land to emerge from the sea. Because of this, the mud here is also the least. Even if a soldier in armor steps on it, he will only leave a deep footprint at most. That's all, it's far less scary than the shore at low tide.
Standing on the stern, Zhao Yun has a better view and can see far away. He can already see the normal land in the distance.
This made him breathe a sigh of relief. If the plan failed and the entire fleet was stuck in the mud, Zhao Yun would not be afraid of taking responsibility, but Liu Feng would be in big trouble.
"General, we succeeded!"
Yu Fan bowed his hands to Zhao Yun and saluted. When he raised his head, his eyes were already bright red.
When Liu Feng mentioned this plan to him, He Qi, Dong Xi and other people from Kuaiji, they were quite surprised. At the same time, they had no confidence in this plan because no one had ever done this before.
What shocked Yu Fan and others even more was that Liu Feng not only had to transport infantry, but also a thousand fine cavalry.
You must know that walking on a horse is not suitable for transporting horses. The attitude of horses towards water is extremely complicated, because it must be broken down into specific details for each horse.
Individual attitudes towards water vary greatly.
Some horses are very afraid of water, let alone the sea, even a small puddle will make the horse feel uncomfortable. Some horses like water very much and will even take the initiative to approach water sources and swim.
Whether horses are afraid of water or they like water, it is not a good thing for transporting horses.
The walking boat is small and has little shelter. Once the war horses are transported, it is easy for the horses to collapse emotionally on the ocean. By then, let alone the horses, even the walking boat will probably capsize.
So you must get on a large ship of the 艨艉 level to transport war horses.
The big ship obviously has a deeper draft and is more likely to run aground, which is naturally not a good thing.
Liu Feng also attached great importance to this, and specially sent out elite guards, and asked Dong Xi, Yu Fan, and He Qi to personally take the ships to the coast of Kuaiji for field inspection and testing, and finally came up with feasible results.
Liu Feng then made up his mind to fight.
But even so, the whole army, from Liu Feng to Zhao Yun, then to Dong Xi, Yu Fan, He Qi, and finally to the generals and soldiers below, are actually quite weak.
No one dares to guarantee that the ticket plan will be successful.
But everyone also understands that once this plan succeeds, the benefits will be extremely huge.
Attacking from the front on the Qiantang River, Sun Ce had Gu Ling as his support, and his campaign to conquer the South was a landing battle, so he was at a considerable disadvantage.
Although the Zhengnan Army is much stronger than Sun Ce's army, Sun Ce's army is also stronger than Wang Lang's army.
The most important point is that even if they win, it is likely to be a defeat. Sun Ce's army can still gather the defeated troops and retreat, relying on the cities in Kuaiji to resist one by one.
This is the scene Liu Feng least wants to see, and it is also the fundamental reason why Liu Feng is determined to fight like this.
(End of this chapter)