Su Fei received the order after the second quarter of the meal.
Of course, the more than 30,000 Jiangxia Navy troops were not crowded into one military camp, but scattered throughout Baqiu Township.
Among them, Shen Chen led the main force of about 10,000 people, stationed in Yong Village in the south of Baqiu Township, north of Yong Lake. There is a dock here, and to the south is the vast Yong Lake connected to Dongting Lake.
Then Huang Zu led about 8,000 people and stationed themselves at Baling Mountain in the northeast, which was later known as the Jin'e Mountain area in Yueyang.
There are also generals Zhang Hu, Chen Sheng, Deng Long and others who each led two to three thousand people to camp in the north.
Su Fei was stationed in a small fishing village in the northernmost part of Baqiu.
At this time, there were already people living in Baqiu, the ancestors of Baling. Along the river bank, a large number of villages took root and gradually developed into villages and towns.
Shen Chen's camp and Su Fei's camp were in the south and north. More than 30,000 men and horses were camped dozens of miles along the Dongting Lake near the Yangtze River in Baqiu. The flags covered the sky and the sun, and all kinds of camps, ditches and walls were endless.
Since the two camps in the north and south were relatively far apart, it took about a quarter of an hour before the guards rode over to deliver the order.
At two o'clock in the meal, a group of one hundred soldiers, led by the captain, left the camp and headed towards Hongshan in the north.
Su Fei Camp was relatively close to Hongshan. Walking four or five miles north, they reached the foot of the mountains south of Bajiao Lake. There were dense trees and steep mountains along the way. They were walking on a long and narrow path in the high mountains, with dense jungles on both sides.
At this moment, there was a sudden movement in the woods nearby. The leader of the team suddenly became alert and shouted: "Line up!"
The team reacted instantly.
The warriors in the front row held up their shields and spears. The swordsmen and shieldmen on the left and right wings drew their swords one after another. The archers in the middle took out their bows and arrows and began to line up.
But soon a distressed voice came out of the forest. The man was dirty and wearing the uniform of the Jiangxia Navy. He crawled out of the bushes on his hands and knees and shouted: "One of our own."
"superior!"
The village chief did not relax his vigilance because of these words, but waved his hand.
At that moment, two groups of people surrounded him, one on the left and the other on the right. The man who crawled out did not resist, but immediately squatted down and put his head in his hands and said: "I am the 2 Shi Er of the third team of the Jia Qu Mao Zi Tun under the command of Colonel Deng." Gao Xian of the corps is guarding the No. 3 beacon tower with the team, and the corps leader’s name is Wang Zhi!”
The military system of the Han Dynasty was very simple, with five troops and one team, ten men and one team, five teams and one team, two teams and one tun, five tuns and one song, five tuns and one song, two departments and one school, and five departments and one army. But the specific operations of the camp There was no planning, and there was no battalion headquarters.
Therefore, in order to facilitate management, Shen Chen re-registered and set up camps. When the ministry was a unit, because the chief officer of the ministry was Army Sima, he was already considered a mid-level general, so he was named Sima.
The lower-level officials below the Ministry are named after the Heavenly Stems when they reach Qubu. The Tunbu are named after the Earthly Branches, and the teams, Shi, and Wu at the lower level are named by numbers.
Therefore, the full names of the soldiers under Shen Chen, such as the one named Gao Xian, should be Dudu Shen, Deng Xiaoweibu, Li Sima Camp, Jiaziqu, Maozitun, Third Brigade, Ershi, Erwu. To be precise Wu is a lifelong number that every soldier must memorize by heart.
This was a temporary change when Liu Qi appointed Shen Chen as the supreme commander of Jiangxia Navy. Only he knew about it.
So when he heard him accurately tell the number of his team, the commander of the village was sure that this person was indeed one of his own, so he went up and shouted: "Since you are guarding the beacon tower, you should perform your duties, why are you here?"
Gao Xian quickly replied: "An enemy raided beacon tower No. 3. I didn't dare to go to beacon tower No. 1 and 2, so I ran straight to the Su Xiaowei camp to report the matter!"
"What?"
The chief of the village was surprised: "Who raided the beacon tower?"
"Jiang Dongjun!"
Gao Xian said without hesitation.
"Didn't Beacon No. 4 send out a warning signal?"
the chief of the village asked.
It stretches for more than 100 miles from Baqiu to Chibi, and more than 200 miles from Zhouling. Along the way, Shen Chen set up more than ten beacon towers, each with a number.
Beacon Towers No. 1 to 4 are actually the Hongshan area northeast of Sufei Camp, with the Yangtze River to the north, and a circle around the Yangtze River to the other side of Bajiao Lake in later generations, just to ensure that the news will not be leaked.
However, Gao Xian said with a sad face: "Suddenly there was heavy fog this morning. Standing on the mountain, you can't see anything more than twenty feet away. Let alone warnings, you can't even hear the shouts."
"Walk."
The commander waved his hand without hesitation and said: "The Jiangdong Army must have taken advantage of the heavy fog to raid our beacon towers along the river. We will go back and report it to Colonel Su immediately!"
As they spoke, they immediately turned back.
At this time, Beacon Tower No. 1 was less than a mile away from them. Lu Meng stood on the top of the mountain and looked south. He could already see Su Fei's camp several miles away.
It was already the end of the meal time, that is, around nine o'clock in the morning. The heavy fog dissipated, and the view between heaven and earth was very clear.
Lu Meng saw that Su Fei's camp in the distance was extremely quiet. Except for the patrols on the river bank, there were no soldiers patrolling around the camp. There were limited sentries and there were only a few scattered docks outside the camp. It was obviously because of the war. Because of the platform, their defense of the rear was not very strict.
"Captain, everything has been dealt with."
The deputy general came to him and said: "Jiangxia Navy has set up sixteen beacon towers on the riverside, and we have wiped them all out. In an hour, the governor's army should be able to reach Baqiu."
"Um."
Lu Meng nodded and said: "Continue to observe their camp. As long as they don't make any movement within half an hour, even if they know something after half an hour, it will be too late."
The lieutenant smiled and said: "Even if I know now, it's probably too late. It's the end of the meal. I heard that Shen Chen will drill his soldiers every day, but water combat training is once every three days. We are not going to board the ship today." At that time, I could only practice on land, and it would be impossible to board a ship and set off so quickly. I think Shen Chen is nothing more than that, and the governor will take his life in this battle!"
Lu Meng said with a serious face: "Don't underestimate that guy, he is famous all over the world, and his military skills can be said to be like the reincarnation of Han Xin. It is said that Mr. Sima Decao, a famous scholar in Jingzhou, gave him the title of Tiger and Silver Fox. Last time in Yi County, Wu Hou and the governor Everyone suffered a big loss from him, even I was washed away by the water and almost drowned, how can you be short-sighted?"
The deputy general then remembered that he had underestimated Shen Chen, and Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, Lu Meng and the others who were defeated by him were nothing, so he quickly said: "Yes, yes, yes."
While the two were talking, they saw a group of people appearing in the wilderness from a distance, heading towards Su Fei's camp.
"Why is there a team of people there?"
Lu Meng was surprised.
The deputy general frowned and said, "Could it be that they stationed a team in that forest?"
Lu Meng thought for a moment and said, "It's possible."
The lieutenant general said: "Captain, what should we do? If the soldier who escaped at the beacon tower goes back and reports."
"No rush, let's take a look first and then talk."
Lu Meng waved his hand: "If they immediately beat drums and gongs to gather troops, we will immediately light up the smoke and notify the governor."
"only."
The deputy general has the order.
That team was exactly the team that Gao Xian found before.
They were originally sent to change the guard at the beacon tower along the coast. They met Gao Xian halfway and hurried back to report.
If the village chief was smarter and knew that someone had raided the beacon tower, he should not have gone back in such a big way, but secretly sent one or two people to take a detour to report the incident.
But when they heard the news, they didn't think so much and hurried back, but Lu Meng saw them.
Soon Su Fei got the information.
As the governor of Jiangxia under Huang Zu, he was the second-ranking figure in the Jiangxia navy. Naturally, he was smarter. He did not immediately beat drums to gather troops, but immediately sent fast horses to inform Shen Chen.
About a quarter of an hour later, Shen Chen got the news. He was shocked when he learned that the beacon tower had been occupied.
However, he did not panic, but quickly issued several orders, and the entire army began to take action.
Another quarter of an hour later, it was close to the three quarters of the corner, and Zhou Yu's fleet should be arriving in half an hour. Lu Meng, who was on the Hongshan Beacon Tower No. 1, saw a group of people coming from Su Fei's camp again.
Come out and head towards the forest to the north.
About ten minutes later, another group of people came out of the woods.
When the deputy general saw this scene, he breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It seems that they have indeed stationed several groups of troops in the woods. They are changing defenses."
"Hmm"
Lu Meng hesitated for a moment. Although he felt a little strange, he couldn't think of anything strange. After all, it was normal for several groups of troops to be stationed on the riverside and in the forest around the camp. It was also normal to change defenses in turns.
It will make people feel surprised.
The only thing that surprised him was that a guard soldier who had escaped from the beacon tower had disappeared without a trace, and he did not see a single person running towards the military camp. It was puzzling.
In fact, their position was in the north. They could only see the situation to the north of Su Fei's camp, but not the south.
Su Fei sent someone to inform Shen Chen, heading south from the south gate of the camp. His troops had already begun to gather in the south camp. None of the sentry guards outside were mobilized, just for fear of alerting Lu Meng.
Compared with the low-level officers at the bottom, Su Fei, as the governor of Jiangxia, still has two skills.
"Our ship is coming!"
At this moment, the lieutenant had already seen numerous ships riding the wind and waves on the Yangtze River to the north. With the help of the north wind, they raised their sails and galloped along at a very fast speed.
They were rowing against the current, but Jiangdong Navy's ship technology was still very advanced. The soldiers rowed hard, and with the support of the wind, they were as fast as arrows.
Lu Meng laughed when he saw this scene: "Let's prepare too. We may have to raid their camp later."
"only."
The deputy general responded and immediately ordered the soldiers to assemble.
"wrong!"
Lu Meng suddenly turned around and opened his eyes wide.
The lieutenant general looked at him in astonishment and asked: "Captain, what's wrong?"
Lu Meng immediately said: "Send smoke!"
"What?"
The lieutenant general was shocked and said: "Captain, our fleet will arrive soon. It is less than twenty miles away from Shen Chen's base camp. Setting off the smoke at this time will make them prepare!"
Lu Meng glared at the deputy general and squeezed out three words from between his teeth: "Let! Wolf! Smoke!"
"Yes yes yes."
The deputy general was frightened by his expression and hurriedly did it.
At this time, Lu Meng looked towards the Su Fei camp over there with red eyes.
He had felt something was wrong before, but for a moment he didn't think anything was wrong.
When Zhou Yu's fleet came over, he remembered the time!
Because they had already calculated when they set out, Jiangdong Navy has always been sensitive to navigation on the Yangtze River.
Based on the recent wind strength and current speed, they calculated that it would take about two hours.
The journey from Chibi to Baqiu is more than a hundred miles and takes four hours. With full paddling and a favorable wind, the sailing speed is about 17 or 18 kilometers almost every hour.
Before setting off, Zhou Yu told Lu Meng that they would set off at the beginning of the meal time and arrive at the end of the day.
Seeing that Zhou Yu's fleet arrived at the agreed time.
Lu Meng suddenly remembered something.
Someone had been sent here to investigate the situation of Shen Chen's army before.
They eat on time around three quarters of the lunch hour every day, and then rest for half an hour in the camp. At about the end of the meal period and the beginning of the meal period, the whole army starts training.
But now Su Fei's camp is quiet as usual, is there any sign of training?
So Lu Meng knew immediately that they had been exposed.
Soon the smoke started to rise.
Su Fei in the distance immediately got the news and knew that the enemy already knew that they knew each other, so he stopped pretending and gave an order to set off for the riverside.
At this moment, on the Yangtze River, Zhou Yu's fleet of light boats was sailing rapidly. The river was four to five miles wide and the waves were vast, and the big ships were riding the wind and breaking the waves.
"Captain, there is smoke rising from the shore!"
Ling Tong, a twenty-year-old young general, inherited his father's troops and positions, followed Zhou Yu, stood on the side of the ship, and looked into the distance. At this time, he suddenly saw smoke rising vertically, and quickly reported it to Zhou Yu.
Zhou Yu was resting in the cabin. His old injury was not healed. He coughed twice. He followed Ling Tong out. He looked up and saw the black smoke rising slowly, which made him frown.
There are two situations when this happens. One is that they were discovered, which was Lü Meng's smoke. The other is that Lü Meng fell and there was a beacon tower that was not captured. After seeing their fleet, they issued a warning.
No matter which situation happens, it proves one thing, that is, they have been exposed and they must consider their next actions now.
"Don't worry, continue the attack, go straight to Baqiu, and capture Shen Chen alive!"
Zhou Yu glanced at the location of the beacon tower.
This is the last beacon in the intelligence. It is more than 20 miles away from Shen Chen's main camp. Even if the news is passed now, they probably won't have time to board the ship and prepare for battle.
When Lu Meng on the top of the mountain saw this scene, he frowned. Knowing Zhou Yu's thoughts, he could only say: "Get ready to fight, the governor is going to continue the attack."
The soldiers of Lu Meng's tribe gathered one after another and began to go down the mountain to prepare to attack Su Fei's tribe.
at the same time.
At Shen Chen's camp in Yong Village on the north bank of Yong Lake, countless soldiers began to board the ship.
At the junction of Yong Lake and the Yangtze River, a large number of water forts, docks, and high oars were built on both sides of the river. Groups of soldiers were stationed in them, preparing to intercept the enemy at the mouth of the lake.