Shen Chen looked at the heroic figure of the old soldier on the hill not far away, and suddenly felt that there was nothing more he could pursue in life than this.
Even if he is sixty years old, he still dominates the battlefield and looks down on him. Who can do that?
This kind of demeanor can be said to be every warrior's dream.
"General!"
Zhang Nan noticed that Shen Chen was staring blankly in the direction of Huang Zhong, so he called him: "The enemy has withdrawn."
"Well, I know."
Shen Chen came back to his senses, nodded and said, "Follow me to meet the old general."
"only."
Zhang Nan was following behind him.
The two came to the foot of the hillside. Huang Zhong had already come down. When he saw Shen Chen and Zhang Nan coming, he looked at Shen Chen and said, "Are you Shen Chen?"
Shen Chen is still easier to guess. He is nineteen years old and has a relatively small face, with a green beard growing between his chin and lips. He is also wearing armor that can only be worn by generals, so he will naturally not be mistaken.
"Is this General Huang from Nanyang? I have heard of the general's name a long time ago."
Shen Chen bowed his hands.
Huang Zhong did not ask for help, but instead returned the favor and said, "Shen Xiaolang, the eldest son asked me to come here to meet you."
"Everything goes well, General."
Shen Chen was polite and complimentary, but was not arrogant because Liu Biao and Liu Qi valued him.
The Jingzhou military ranks are divided into three levels, among which Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, and Huang Zu are the most powerful, followed by Liu Pan, Han Xi, Wenpin, Lu Jie, and others, and finally a series of mid-level generals such as Huang Zhong.
Strictly speaking, Shen Chen's Zhonglang General was on the same level as Huang Zhong. Because Huang Zhong was also a Zhonglang General, they were at the same level before Shen Chen resigned.
But everyone knew that Shen Chen was young and had a promising future, so everyone regarded him as Liu Biao's future confidant and did not dare to underestimate him.
On the other hand, Huang Zhong only became a Zhonglang Jiang when he was sixty years old, so he was obviously far behind in terms of future.
But now Shen Chen has resigned and is currently serving as Liu Qi's retainer, so in a sense, the two parties are no longer colleagues.
Shen Chen's rank was much lower than Huang Zhong's, but Liu Qi ordered the soldiers to obey him, while Zhang Nanqu dared to wait for the soldiers to obey.
Of course, even so, because of Liu Qi's relationship, even Liu Pan would not despise Shen Chen more.
Huang Zhong said: "I hope I arrived in time and didn't cost you many men and horses."
"The general arrived just in time."
Shen Chen smiled and said, "I wonder what's going on with the eldest son?"
"It's all arranged."
"That's best. I expect the Jiangdong Army will arrive in a day or two. We must control Shiling, Wuling and other places on both sides of the river along the way, so that their scouts cannot detect it."
"good."
Huang Zhong nodded and said: "You lead the troops back to Wuling to rest, and I will make arrangements here first."
"Then General Lao!"
Shen Chen thanked Huang Zhong without any further excuses. His soldiers had been walking and fighting for a long time. They were indeed very tired and should take a good rest.
At that moment, he escorted Zhang Hong and took more than 2,000 Jiangxia remnants with him, heading south towards Wuling.
After meeting Liu Qi at the Jingzhou Military Camp in Wuling, Shen Chen ordered Zhang Nan to take the soldiers to rest. He discussed some matters with Liu Qi and was finally able to have a good sleep.
On the second day, Shen Chen had a small meeting with Liu Qi and Huang Zhong.
At the meeting, Shen Chen made arrangements to reorganize the various ministries, and at the same time asked the soldiers to control the entire area on both sides of Shushui from Shiling to Wuling in order to cope with the sudden attack by Jiangdong Army.
So the Jiangxia navy made the following deployment based on the terrain he had previously observed; Huang Zhong's general Yang Ling led a thousand men to station in Nanwu opposite Shiling, and Liu Qi's general Zhang Nan led 600 men to station in Shiling.
Then Shen Chen personally led five thousand men to station themselves in the forest between Wuling and Shiling, which was the area where he fought with Lu Meng yesterday.
Liu Qi led the remaining 5,000 people to disperse on both sides of Wuling.
And the most important thing is that Liu Pan's army has arrived in Yi County, which is less than 20 to 30 kilometers away from here, and can come to support at any time. In this way, their total strength has reached 20,000.
Therefore, to a certain extent, since Jiangdong's army still had to deploy a defense line along the Yangtze River and the number of troops to encircle and suppress them did not exceed 30,000, Shen Chen's army was already in an invincible position.
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Two days later, on July 17, the 10th year of Jian'an, Jiangdong's fleet also entered Shushui in a mighty manner and headed towards Wuling.
At this moment, inside the main ship, Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, Lu Su and others were discussing matters.
The three people looked at the map above, and Lu Su said in a deep voice: "Shen Chen has achieved his goal. It seems that he will eventually transfer Lu Meng and Xu Sheng from Yi County to facilitate Liu Pan's response. Now they have It’s time to retreat and advance.”
"Um."
Zhou Yu nodded, then pointed to Yangxi River and said: "Rivers around Jinghu Lake extend in all directions. This river can also lead to Shushui, which can reach Wuling."
Lu Su asked: "Gong Jin still wants to send people to cross from other rivers?"
"yes."
Zhou Yu smiled bitterly and said: "I am completely passive this time. I am afraid it will be difficult to annihilate Shen Chen in this battle."
Lu Su looked at Sun Quan and said: "Wu Hou, how about we exchange hostages with Shen Chen and each of us stop fighting? If we continue to fight, we may not be able to get a good deal."
Sun Quan clenched his fists, looked at the two of them with red eyes and said, "Do you want me to endure this humiliation? If Lord Dongfang wants to exchange it, Shen Chen's head must also be exchanged!"
"only."
Both of them were helpless.
Lu Su looked at Zhou Yu again and said: "Gong Jin, as the saying goes, knowing yourself and the enemy will always win the battle. We must figure out what Shen Chen wants to do so that we will not be controlled by others."
Zhou Yu thought: "There are only two purposes. First, to evacuate safely after exchanging protons. Second, to set up an ambush!"
"I think the same thing as you."
Lu Su pointed at the map and thought: "If you want to set up an ambush, there are two ways. One is to ambush between two mountains and attack it with bows and arrows. The other is to build a dam to intercept the water flow and attack it with water."
Zhou Yu smiled and said: "I have thought about these two issues, but I think it is not easy to build a dam. First, they are short of manpower. Second, I have been to that mountain before. It is difficult to build a dam, and even if it can be built, it will be difficult." , just look at the amount of water and send someone to check it out at night to know whether it is true or not. Shen Chen should not be that stupid."
Building a dam is very easy in modern times. It only requires watering with reinforced concrete. But in ancient times, it was a very difficult thing and required huge manpower and material support.
For example, Cao Cao's several water attacks took a long time and a lot of manpower to finally succeed, which was very difficult.
Let's not talk about Shen Chen's lack of manpower. Just talking about building a dam between high mountains and lofty mountains requires extremely high construction skills. There are very few such skilled craftsmen in the army, let alone an expedition, and it is impossible to bring them.
Therefore, both Lu Su and Zhou Yu believed that the strategy of building a dam to intercept water flow and attack it with water was almost impossible to implement. Even if they had such an idea, they did not have the ability and manpower to implement it.
"Yes."
Lu Su nodded, pointed at the map and said, "Then they will definitely choose to attack us with bows and arrows between the two mountains. The area from Shiling to Wuling is the best ambush point."
Zhou Yu touched his chin beard and said: "If we enter this place directly from Shushui, we will suffer heavy losses. We must find other ways."
"Is that why Gong Jin proposed to go around from the left?"
Lu Su asked.
Zhou Yu nodded: "Yes, but unfortunately these creeks are too narrow and cannot be passed by large troops."
There are several small rivers between Yangxi River and Shu River that communicate with each other. The small stream next to the hill where Shen Chen and Lu Meng fought before is one of them.
It's just that this kind of creek is only seven or eight meters wide and has different depths. Small boats similar to fishing boats such as flying boats, scouts, and yachts are very difficult to use, let alone troop transport ships such as Lutou and Lu Nao.
Therefore, it is impossible to transport a large number of soldiers in a short period of time. Even if it can be transported, it is impossible to march on a large scale due to the narrow roads and dense mountains and forests, so only small groups of troops can be sent.
"It doesn't matter."
Sun Quan waved his hand at this time and said: "If they are ambushing archers on both sides of the strait, even a small group of soldiers raiding their rear will be enough. Gong Jin and Zijing, just do what you want."
"only!"
The two of them bowed their hands.
At this moment, a scout suddenly came to report.
"Report!"
"Come in!"
"Liu Duwei and Xu Xiaowei pursued the enemy to Shiling and encountered an ambush. Lu Duwei was seriously injured by an arrow."
The scouts informed them that Lu Meng and Xu Sheng were repulsed by Huang Zhong's reinforcements the night before yesterday.
Because the entrance of Jinghu Lake is sixty or seventy kilometers away from Shiling, although Sun Quan only came here today, they only knew about it.
"What?"
Sun Quan was shocked and asked: "How is Lu Meng now?"
The scout said: "He was shot in the chest with an arrow. Fortunately, Captain Lu was wearing a battle armor at the time. He was not shot in the heart, but he was shot through the collarbone."
"Send him back to Jiangdong for treatment."
Sun Quan quickly ordered.
He still valued Lü Meng very much, because although Lü Meng also joined the army during Sun Ce's time, he was not reused by Sun Ce.
At that time, he was just a general following Sun Ce. His brother-in-law Deng was a low-level officer. Sun Quan later promoted him, so he was intended to be used as a confidant and general, so he was naturally very interested in him.
After the scouts received the order and left, Lu Su looked at Zhou Yu with a solemn expression and said, "Gong Jin, Shen Chen has indeed set up an ambush in the mountains."
"Um."
Zhou Yu nodded and said: "Tonight, let's send someone upstream to see if he has set up a dam, and then see how the water volume is."
"Wu Hou."
Lu Su said to Sun Quan: "I'm afraid we won't be able to attack tonight. We will attack again tomorrow."
"Well, I understand."
Sun Quan is not the kind of person who acts recklessly out of hatred.
Historically, although he hated Huang Zu deeply, he was extremely cautious every time and attacked three times before finally killing Huang Zu.
So he obediently listened to the two of them and decided to act according to Zhou Yu and Lu Su's plan.
Now.
Zhou Yu first settled at the entrances of Jinghu Lake and Shushui, and sent a large number of scouts south to investigate the situation.
At the same time, several small groups of troops were dispatched, ordering them to start moving toward Shiling from small rivers such as Yangxi River, Puxi River, Machuan River, and Wuxi River, and arranging for them to prepare for the attack at a specific time.
In fact, the Shanyue people of the Han Dynasty were not only descendants of the Yue Kingdom, but also included a large number of Han powerful forces and landless Han people.
Through clan, township party, marriage and other connections, they formed power groups with thousands or even tens of thousands of people. They occupied dangerous terrain, were self-sufficient, and could even smelt iron to make weapons and armor themselves. This power lasted throughout the Han Dynasty and even the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was not until the Song Dynasty that it gradually collapsed.
The relationship between these people and Jiangdong is inseparable, and they are in a state of hostility most of the time. But since there are enemies, there are also those who want to join them, so these Shanyue people will also help Jiangdong's army, lead the way or inform Jiangdong's army.
It's just that the Shanyue people have different territories. The Shanyue forces around Yi County are composed of Chen Pu and Zu Shan. They have a hostile relationship with Jiangdong. In history, the two sides often fought wars, and were finally pacified by He Qi.
Therefore, although the Jiangdong Army was assisted by Shanyue people, in the Yixian area with extremely complex terrain, they could only explore the periphery, and it was difficult to penetrate deep into the Shiling and Wuling mountains.
But even this is enough.
On July 18, Zhou Yu and others got the news. The soldiers took a small boat and went south at night. They investigated all the way and found no traces of digging and building a dam, and the amount of water did not decrease. It can be seen that the Jiangxia army was not preparing to attack with water.
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Moreover, the scouts discovered that a large number of arrow towers and tall buildings were built on the hills on both sides of the bank from Shiling to Wuling, which also confirmed the conjectures of Zhou Yu and Lu Su.
Therefore, after knowing Shen Chen's trump card, Zhou Yu and Lu Su also made arrangements.
The number of Shen Chen's troops is about 20,000, and half of them are Liu Pan's troops in Yi County. It will take a while to get here. There are only 11,000 people on the front line.
The total force of Sun Quan's side is about more than 30,000 people. First, there are 6,000 or 7,000 Lu Meng and Xu Sheng's troops, followed by the main force of about 20,000 people, and then about 5,000 people temporarily transferred from various places in Jiangdong.
The deployment of these troops was also very simple. The main force of 20,000 people came from Shushui and raided Shiling using small troop carriers such as Chuge, Zouge and Lunao.
Lu Meng was seriously injured, and Xu Sheng led the six to seven thousand troops. They still started from Yunxi, entered the upper reaches of Shushui from Qingxi, and arrived at the northwest of Shiling, which is the left bank of Shushui, where Xu Sheng originally went north by land.
Then the remaining five thousand people, led by Han Dang, went south from Jinghu Lake and took the Yangxi River, Puxi River, Machuan River, Wuxi River and other small rivers to raid the northeast of Shiling, which is the right bank of Shushui River.
Judging from the map, Shen Chen's army was deployed along the coast, with the main force concentrated along the line from Shiling to Wuling. At the same time, Liu Pan's troops were in the rear to provide support.
Zhou Yu and Lu Su's arrangement was a perfect pincer offensive, with the main force attacking from the front, while Xu Sheng and Han Dang divided their forces from the creeks and rivers on both sides to both banks of Shushui, and attacked Jiangxiashui from behind, who were ambushing them with bows and arrows on both banks.
military.
From the perspective of the entire battle situation, once the battle begins, although the main force of the Jiangdong Army will be more difficult to attack, it will be a disaster for the Jiangxia navy once the outflanking troops on the left and right wings are in place.
The two sides went back and forth to dispatch troops and generals. After another two days, on July 20th, the main force of the Jiangdong navy officially marched towards Wuling, the upper reaches of Shushui River.