If you don’t enter the tiger’s den, how can you catch the tiger’s cubs?

Shilian Mountain is located in the northeast of Xunyang County, east of Huangmei County in later Hubei Province, and west of Susong County in Anhui Province.

This is the key road from Yangzhou Yuzhang to Jingzhou Jiangxia, and it is the only way for Jiangxia to go from Jiangbei to Yangzhou.

At the same time, it was also the southernmost dividing line between Qichun County and Lujiang County in Yangzhou in the Eastern Wu Dynasty, and the southernmost boundary between Hubei Province and Anhui Province in later New China.

At this time, the drizzle was still falling. There was an abandoned village at the foot of Lianhua Peak, northwest of Shilian Mountain. In a simple wooden house in the west of the village, Shen Chen and Liu Qi were discussing things in the house.

When Huang Zu attacked Yuzhang, he had 60,000 Jiangxia naval troops. However, after the Penglize naval battle last year, although he repelled the Jiangdong army, he also suffered heavy losses. Now he still has more than 50,000 troops.

Among them, more than 30,000 people were stationed in Chaisang, 8,000 in Xunyang, 5,000 in Xiaji, then 3,000 in Qichun, and a total of 5,000 or 6,000 in Xiling, E County and Zhu County.

Since the important counties along the way needed people to garrison, when Liu Qi and Shen Chen arrived in Xunyang, they did not mobilize soldiers and horses from the cities along the route. Instead, they only brought the 500-man Xiling garrison with them all the way to Xunyang.

After arriving in Xunyang, Shen Chen believed that Jiangdong might attack while Huang Zu was withdrawing his troops, so he urged Liu Qi to send troops to guard the road from Shilian Mountain to Xunyang and intercept Sun Quan.

So when he came out this time, Liu Qi asked Xunyang guard Zhang Shuo to lead 3,000 troops to defend the city. He and Shen Chen led 5,000 troops to go out to Shilian Mountain to ambush Jiangdong's army.

What Shen Chen didn't expect was that his guess was correct.

However, it was different from the imagination that the main force in Jiangdong was mainly ships, intercepting Huang Zu's army on the river.

Jiangdong chose to do the opposite, and the main force of the navy became the main force of the army, and actually came directly from the land in Jiangbei.

This is something unexpected.

Therefore, after discovering that the enemy actually had tens of thousands of troops, Shen Chen and Liu Qi did not choose to attack proactively. Instead, they sent people to notify Huang Zu while watching them pass by.

In the wooden house, Liu Qi frowned and said: "Ah Chen, Jiangdong Army has passed almost half an hour, and it is very likely that it has reached Xunyang. We can't just stay here."

Shen Chen, who is nineteen years old, 1.84 meters tall and burly, stood by the table with his hands on each other, looking at the map of Yuzhang on it in a daze.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Liu Qi said again: "Why don't we return to Xunyang immediately? At least we can defend the city!"

"It's difficult."

Shen Chen shook his head: "I suggested that General Huang divide his troops into three groups. I wanted to divert the main force of the Jiangdong navy away from the enemy's base and allow the army to retreat safely to Xunyang. However, I did not expect that the enemy would do the opposite. , choose the main force to abandon the ship and go ashore. Although the Jiangdong Army is not as powerful as the Kwantung Army on land, it is still much stronger than the Jiangxia Navy Army. General Huang may be defeated."

"Is it too late for us to go to support now?"

Liu Qi asked.

Shen Chen muttered: "Let me think about it, let me think about it"

He pondered again.

This strategy is actually a pretty standard retreat plan.

Due to the inconvenience of transportation in ancient times, coupled with the recent heavy rains, communication between the south and the north of the Yangtze River was difficult, which led to great problems in command.

Huang Zu had run out of food and wanted to retreat to the north of the Yangtze River. Shen Chen knew nothing about water warfare and could only provide a general suggestion of a military strategy. The specific plan still had to be left to Huang Zu himself.

So the entire plan for the layout is relatively rough.

To put it simply, Shen Chen suggested to Huang Zu that one day when the wind and rain were less severe and the river could be used for sailing, Huang Zu immediately chose to withdraw. At the same time, he should divide his troops into three groups and deploy suspicious troops to prevent Jiangdong from taking the opportunity to intercept.

At that time, Shen Chen thought that there must be Jiang Dong's spies in the Chaisang area.

Even if Jiangdong did not discover that Huang Zu's army was running out of food and grass, as long as he found the fragments of the grain transport ship and hundreds of thousands of stones of grain floating in the Yangtze River, he could definitely guess that Huang Zu would definitely choose to find an opportunity to retreat.

Therefore, he felt that there was a high probability that Jiang Dongjun would come.

But he didn't expect that Jiangdong Army would choose to abandon ship and go straight to Xunyang.

Aren't they afraid that Huang Zu would withdraw directly from Xia Pheasant or Qichun?

Maybe I have some troubles with sailing.

Zhou Yu and Lu Su.

They obviously had a handle on Huang Zu's psychology.

Shen Chen couldn't help but sigh.

We are facing many difficulties now because there is no means of communication.

He didn't even know the situation on Huang Zu's side, nor did he know whether Huang Zu really used his suspicion trick.

But what is certain is that whether he uses it or not, the situation on Huang Zu's side will not be too good.

Even if people were sent to inform Huang Zu in advance, it would not be a good thing to fight in the wild with the well-prepared Jiangdong Army without any preparation.

Therefore, what is before Shen Chen now is: First, he does not know the situation on Huang Zu's side.

Second, he didn't know how Jiangdong arranged it.

The third and most important point is, what can these five thousand people do?

Return to support Huang Zu?

The number of Jiangdong's troops that the scouts had previously investigated was over 40,000.

This means that the main force of Jiangdong Army is mobilized.

Even if Huang Zu didn't divide his troops and retreat according to his plan, the number would only be 30,000. If people like himself were added, it might not have any effect, but he might be involved.

In addition, there is another very important point, that is, among the entire Jiangxia navy, only Liu Qi went to stop the attack, so he brought enough arrows.

The Huang Zu Army was an army that retreated from the front line, and its arrows may not be sufficient. To fight such a frontal impact battle, it often depends on the arrows and the level of combat between the armies of both sides.

It is obvious that Huang Zu's Jiangxia navy was far inferior to Jiangdong's army in terms of numbers, preparation, and soldier quality.

It's a pity that I didn't bring the Huangmenting soldiers here...

Shen Chen sighed in his heart.

If he had brought Huangmenting's soldiers, he might have been able to sneak attack from behind while Jiangdong's army was attacking Huang Zu.

"Report!"

At this moment, a scout suddenly came to the door and shouted: "A fleet from Jiangdong has arrived from Guanting!"

"Did you stop at Guanting?"

Shen Chen asked.

The scout replied: "Yes."

"This should be the fleet that supports the main force of the Jiangdong Army. If my prediction is correct, the main force of the Jiangdong Army will most likely attack Xiaji and Qichun along the river after defeating General Huang."

Shen Chen muttered and said: "Sir, look at the map."

Liu Qi quickly came over.

The two looked at the map.

Shen Chen pointed in the direction of Xunyang and said: "The main force of Jiangdong Army is here at this time, and their supporting ships are here. Now the rear of Jiangdong is empty."

Liu Qi shook his head and said: "If we follow the path of Jiangdong's army and attack Anqing, it is very likely that we can capture it. But we have no retreat. There are no ships to pick us up. Once Jiangdong's army returns to defend there, we will definitely die."

"Um."

Shen Chen nodded.

It is not advisable to change tactics. They are covered by supporting ships. Even if they are repelled, they can leave at any time by returning to the river bank and boarding the ship.

They don't have a boat, so if they choose to change their homes, they will never return.

"But didn't the enemy send a ship?"

Shen Chen suddenly said.

Liu Qi was surprised: "What do you mean?"

Shen Chen pointed in the direction of Guanting and said: "What if we seize these Jiangdong ships and the main force of the Jiangdong army lets them fight to Jiangxia? Without the supply of grain and grass ships, they will go deep alone. If we have ships, we can return." Already."

Liu Qi was shocked and said: "Seize the ship?"

Shen Chen nodded: "Yes, our officers and soldiers are all well-trained naval forces. They are not good at land combat, but they are all good at water combat. Now that the enemy has sent a ship over, it is a good opportunity to seize chestnuts from the fire!"

Liu Qi hesitated: "This is too risky."

Shen Chen smiled and said: "As the saying goes, if you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't catch the tiger's cubs. If you want to break the siege of Xunyang, you must threaten the rear of Jiangdong. Eldest Young Master, please stay here, I will go."

Liu Qi hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "What Achen said is that if you don't enter the tiger's den, you won't catch the tiger's cubs. I'll go with you."

Shen Chen thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's go together. Without further ado, let's set off now."

At that moment, the two men issued an order and the entire army was dispatched.

When they came, they brought three days of dry food and a large number of arrows. Every soldier wore a raincoat and marched toward the south toward the official pavilion.

Guanting is located to the east of Xunyang and northwest of Longgan Lake in the south of Huangmei County in later generations. There are rural gatherings around this place and they mostly make a living by fishing. Therefore, Guanting has a relatively small ferry. Although it cannot accommodate so many boats, it can barely accommodate You can borrow the pier to dock temporarily.

The road in the Shilian Mountain Range is actually very wide, and it is not a dangerous place. Otherwise, if it is a place where one man can block it and no one can open it, five thousand people will not be able to try to stop Jiangdong's 40,000 army.

However, although it is not a dangerous place, there is a hilly area extending for more than ten kilometers all the way south, so there are many bunkers.

The ships of the Jiangdong Navy obviously valued this and chose to dock in the Guanting area.

The soldiers all wore coir raincoats and bamboo hats, heading south.

About half an hour later, they arrived at Guanting, several miles away from the Guanting ferry.

Shen Chen ordered his soldiers to hide in the mountainous area of ​​Jinxian Mountain, and he led dozens of people to the official pavilion to see the situation in person.

The light rain was still falling, but the mist had dispersed, and the view was still barely visible.

After arriving at Guanting Ferry, Shen Chen went up to a small hill himself. Looking from the height of the hill, he saw the Inner Bay Port in the south, where hundreds of ships were densely parked.

In later generations, Guanting Ferry was Dayuan Lake in Huangmei County, connected to Longgan Lake. At this time, it was part of Penglize. However, because it was located in the inner bay and surrounded by a large number of hills and mountains, wind and waves could not enter, so it was a place Excellent inland river terminal.

However, because it was originally built as a rural fishing port for surrounding villages to gather for fishing, most of the boats were basically just parked on the water, still some distance from the shore.

"strangeness."
To be continued...