In the Battle of Yong Lake, Zhou Yu, as the active attacker, suffered heavy casualties, losing dozens of ships and two to three thousand men, and had to retreat to Hongkou.
Hongkou.
This is a vast land.
To the south is Dongting Lake, to the north is Yunmengze, and the Yangtze River runs through it.
The specific locations include Junshan District in Yueyang, Hunan Province, Jianli County, Zhuhe Town, Bianhe Town, Sanzhou Town and other places in Jingzhou, Hubei Province.
However, in the Han Dynasty, it was a flooded place. Every time the Yangtze River flooded, this place would be submerged, so this place was called Hongkou. The lakes on the north and south sides were connected, and they were also called Yunmengze.
Zhou Yu ordered the army to be stationed in the Hongkou area. Hongkou had become land at that time, with luxuriant water and grass, basil everywhere, and dense jungles growing out of the plains like Wulin.
Jiangdong's army cut down trees and set up camp on higher ground here. They also built docks on the east side of the Yangtze River and placed thousands of large and small ships.
After several days of busy work, when the camp and the wharf began to reach a large scale, Zhou Yu summoned many generals to discuss military matters in his tent.
At the beginning of the meal, while the soldiers of the three armies were still eating breakfast, the generals of each battalion had already gathered in Zhou Yu's commanding tent.
There were candles lit in the tent. Zhou Yu was sitting high on the throne, with Cheng Pu, the left governor, and Huang Gai, the right governor, sitting next to him. Then there were Zhonglang general Xu Sheng, Bi general Lu Fan, the bandit commander Ling Tong, and the Zhe Chong commander.
Zhu Ran and Pingbei Commander Lu Meng.
Although Lu Meng completed the mission of raiding the beacon tower, he failed to prevent Shen Chen from setting up defenses in advance. In the end, the mission failed and he escaped from Baqiu and returned to the Hongkou camp.
The generals sat down respectively. Behind Zhou Yu was a large wooden board with a map of Baqiu area on it. He looked around at everyone and said softly: "Everyone, Baqiu is guarding Jingnan and Jingbei. The terrain is extremely favorable. If you want to complete Wu
Hou Suyuan, we have to conquer this place."
Cheng Pu pondered: "Shen Chen has chosen a good place and occupied this place. We can't advance or retreat. We can't go north from Mianshui to rescue Xiangyang, nor can we attack Jiangling or Jingnan to cut off Liu Bei's retreat. This is a dangerous place."
What a land."
"snort."
Huang Gai slapped the case and said angrily: "No matter what, I will crush Baqiu, capture Shen Chen alive, and avenge the righteous man!"
Cheng Pu said: "After the Duke is dismissed, we naturally want to avenge the righteous Duke, but Shen Chen occupies a favorable location. With the land of Baqiu, it is difficult for us to attack by force. We should listen to the plan of the Grand Governor."
"Grand Governor!"
Lu Fan stood up and asked: "The enemy is stationed at Baqiu, why should we station at Hongkou? Although this place is the intersection of the Dajiang River, the Xiangshui River, and the Yunmengze River, there are strong winds and waves, and there are floods every year, and
Not a good place to camp."
Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "It is a helpless move to station in Hongkou. Around Baqiu, there is only Weishui area with shelter from the wind. However, it is located between Baqiu and Luo County. Stationed in Weishui, Liu Panchenchen
Pincer attack."
Cheng Pu nodded and said: "Yes, our victory is due to the strength of the navy. Liu Pan has 20,000 land troops. If we add Shen Chen's 30,000 Jiangxia navy, the military strength will be equal to ours. And if the water is on land, it will be easily attacked.
They are attacking from the north and the south from both land and water at the same time. This is not a good place."
Lu Fan said: "But because we don't have a sheltered port now, the ships can only be tied together with ropes to prevent them from being blown away by the wind. If the enemy uses fire to attack like the governor, then wouldn't we?"
Zhou Yu explained: "Hongkou connects east, west, north and south. You can enter Xiangyang in the north, Qingcao Lake in the south, Jiangling in the west, and return to Yuzhang in the east. Although there is no shelter here, our ships must be connected with ropes to prevent
It was blown away by the wind, but fortunately the north wind was blowing at this time, so as long as we were careful, they couldn't attack with fire."
"Right."
Huang Gai suddenly asked in surprise: "Previously, the governor used fire attacks to crack the chain ships of Jiangxia Navy. Why didn't he succeed?"
Lieutenant Zhu Ran of Zhechong said: "Captain, I risked my life to get close to it, and I vaguely seemed to see them smearing something on the ship, which the fire could not burn through."
Was the ship smeared with something?
Zhou Yu started to think.
During the war, the two sides were far apart, and they mainly shot bows and arrows at each other. Especially since his main ship was one mile away from the battlefield, he couldn't see the other side's actions at all.
However, Zhu Ran risked his life and got closer to about a hundred meters away, and vaguely saw something smeared on Jiang Xia Navy's ship.
But because the color of the mud is dark brown, which is somewhat similar to the color of the ship, they don't know exactly what was applied.
What he knew was that the group of suicide squads who sailed over were annihilated by bows and arrows, so Zhou Yu didn't know that they had smeared the mud.
"silt."
Zhou Yu's eyes flickered and he said, "They should have smeared mud on them."
"silt?"
Everyone was quite surprised.
Zhou Yu nodded and said: "Yes, it can prevent fire, and it doesn't cost too much. It's just silt."
Although they didn't see clearly what the other party applied, they must have thought of it with Zhou Yu's intelligence.
In ancient times, there were almost no fireproof materials, and the most they could do was wrap iron sheets on ships to prevent fires.
However, iron sheets are not very safe. Modern aircraft carriers made of steel in later generations can catch fire, let alone ancient wooden ships.
But for temporary fire protection, and it doesn’t require high-cost things, naturally only silt is needed. And it must be wet silt. Dry silt cannot prevent fires.
"It turns out to be mud."
Cheng Pu slapped his head and said, "It's a pity. I didn't expect that Shen Chen was so smart that he actually prepared so much silt on the boat in advance."
Lu Fan asked: "Now that we have connected the ships together, do we need to prepare some mud?"
Zhou Yu touched his chin and said thoughtfully: "Logically speaking, we don't need this thing, but if this method is useful, we can follow it if we encounter a fire attack in the future. Virtue seeks justice."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Cheng Pu.
Cheng Pu stood up and cupped his hands and said: "The general will be here at the end."
Zhou Yu ordered: "Please ask Duke Demou to lead a fleet to test the fire prevention effect of smearing silt on the ships."
"only!"
Cheng Pu took the order.
Zhou Yu added: "We won't be able to use this silt to prevent fire for the time being, but it's good to test it first so as not to need it in the future. The top priority now is to find a way to capture Baqiu."
Huang Gai said: "Great Governor, I am willing to lead the troops to land to fight them."
Zhou Yu shook his head and said: "We should not act rashly. We should first investigate the layout of their camp, the terrain of Baqiu and the enemy's defenses. This time we did not conquer Baqiu in one fell swoop, but we suffered from the large number of reefs they had at the mouth of the lake."
Many high oar and arrow towers were built on the island.”
For the Jiangdong navy, silt fire prevention actually has no effect.
Because the place where they are currently stationed is at Hongkou, the north wind blows in the south in winter, mostly from the northeast and northwest. Like Zhu Yuanzhang's Poyang Lake water battle, the northwest wind blew.
When walking on the Yangtze River, it is more important to follow the wind than to follow the current. With sails, even if you are sailing against the current, the speed is very fast.
Now that they have a favorable wind and occupy the favorable location of Hongkou, once the Jiangxia Navy moves on a large scale, they will soon detect it. Even if the Jiangxia Navy uses fire to attack, the speed will not be fast due to the headwind.
You can easily be intercepted by them.
Moreover, with the north wind blowing, the fire will only burn to the south. Even if the fire ship rushes into their fleet, the roaring north wind will make it difficult for the fire to spread to the Jiangdong Navy ships in the north.
Therefore, it would be almost impossible for Jiangxia Navy to use fire attack.
After all, the fire attack conditions are quite harsh.
The first is to prevent the enemy from having a safe haven.
Secondly, there must be a favorable wind.
Both are indispensable. Although they are now locked together, the Jiangxia navy is in a headwind and has no conditions to set fire.
Therefore, Zhou Yu didn't pay much attention to silt fire prevention. At most, he just admired Shen Chen's cleverness.
But it's not completely useless.
Although they don't need it for the time being, it is useful in Jiangdong.
If a water war breaks out in Jiangdong in the future, and it is autumn and winter when the north wind blows, since the section of the Yangtze River from Jiangxia to Yuzhang flows from northwest to southeast, if a water war breaks out in Penglize, Jiangxia is very likely to occur.
A situation in which the navy is going smoothly.
When the time comes, if the enemy launches a desperate fire attack, something like this may still happen, so Zhou Yu wanted to test the fire-proofing effect of this silt to prevent it from being used in the future.
At that time, Zhou Yu was stationed in Hongkou, training his soldiers every day, and at the same time sending a large number of scouts to investigate.
December 10th.
At this time, Jiangdong Army had already laid a dragnet around Baqiu.
There are countless ships coming for reconnaissance every day.
Huang Zu often went to the shore to watch the Jiangdong Navy's reconnaissance fleet. The Jiangdong Navy was extremely rampant and often came to the shore to provoke him, making him furious.
On this day, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and issued an order to send out light boats and speedboats to pursue them. Unexpectedly, they were ambushed. The Jiangdong Navy on the other side suddenly sent out hundreds of boats and attacked the Jiangxia Navy's scout boats, causing them losses.
There were a lot of people.
Shen Chen was furious when he learned that, but Huang Zu had been kind to him and had a high prestige among the Jiangxia navy, so it was not convenient to punish him, so he had to summon him to his general's camp to persuade him.
In the camp of the Jiangxia naval commander, Huang Zu opened the tent and saw Shen Chen sitting on the main seat writing something.
"Grand Governor, why have you summoned me?"
Huang Zu said calmly.
Shen Chen smiled and said: "Old General Huang, please sit down. I heard that the general sent people to pursue him, and he was ambushed and lost some men and horses?"
Huang Zu stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "Yes, the Jiangdong navy came to provoke them every day. I was so angry that I personally led the men and horses to pursue them, and I almost died."
"In this case, the old general should still take some rest."
Shen Chen said lightly: "Now is the time for war. Generals cannot put themselves in danger. The troops under their command should be led by other generals first."
Huang Zu said angrily: "Grand Governor, are you trying to take away my military power?"
Shen Chen slapped the table and shouted: "General Huang, I repeatedly gave orders not to go out to fight, but you pursued us rashly and lost hundreds of people. We only killed two to three thousand enemy troops in our victory yesterday, but you have caused us losses in this battle." So tragic!"
"I"
Huang Zu had a rough temper, but he was indeed at fault for this battle, so he had no choice but to say: "Grand Governor, this battle is indeed my fault. However, we clearly won a big victory yesterday, so why were we so cowardly that we couldn't take advantage of the victory to pursue it? "
Seeing that he softened, Shen Chen said: "Old general, please keep the overall situation in mind. Jiangdong navy has many troops, and we will be very passive in a head-on battle, so we must wait for the opportunity."
Huang Zu lamented: "Captain, but this stalemate is not an option. Now that they have entered Jingzhou, can't they still fight decisively?"
In history, when Huang Zu faced successive attacks from Sun Ce and Sun Quan, he always focused on defense and rarely attacked.
But this time he changed his attitude.
It's not that he has a weak character, but that historically he has no choice.
His troops and horses were far less than those of Sun Ce and Sun Quan, and the strength of his army was also far inferior. Naturally, he could not face him head-on.
But now he has experienced the glory of Jiangxia Navy.
During Liu Biao's period, he owned the Nanyang Basin and had a large population and food. Therefore, he expanded his army massively. At its peak, the Jiangxia navy had as many as 60,000 to 70,000 troops. It was so powerful that it almost submerged the entire Jiangdong.
As a result, there were several battles, especially the two disastrous defeats at Xunyang and Ruxukou. Huang Zu's Jiangxia navy suffered heavy losses, and the number of soldiers and horses was less than half of its peak.
This psychological gap made Huang Zu extremely unwilling, so he was very angry because he had clearly won the previous few days but could not pursue the enemy.
Shen Chen has always been a soft-spoken person, but when he saw Huang Zu's attitude, he comforted him and said: "Don't worry, old general, I'm not afraid of Zhou Yu. It's just that the time has not come yet, and I still need to wait. Old general, be patient." With patience, we will surely defeat them."
Huang Zu said in a low mood: "Xiaoqing, you can be regarded as my descendant. It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that the Sun family and I are mortal enemies. Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan have repeatedly invaded our Jingzhou. They wanted to kill me to vent their anger, but I Why don't you want to defeat them? Now that I am old and my health is deteriorating, I may not be able to see the day when I defeat Jiangdong."
Shen Chen smiled and said: "Please rest assured, old general, on this point. The eldest prince is about to retake Jingzhou, and he still needs the help of the old general. I have already made complete preparations for this battle, and I will definitely annihilate the Jiangdong Army!"
Huang Zu said: "Xiaoqing must be waiting for General Zuo. Cao Cao's army is going south now, and General Zuo is going north to meet the enemy. The war in the north is not going to be good either."
"Of course not."
Shen Chen shook his head and said: "General Zuo still needs us to help him, so how can I place my hope on General Zuo? This time I occupied Baqiu and forced Zhou Yu to station in Hongkou, just to ensure that the time, place and people are favorable. !”
"The right time, right place and right people?"
Huang Zu was puzzled and asked: "What is the explanation for this?"
Shen Chen got up and walked slowly outside the tent.
Huang Zu followed.
Shen Chen raised his head, looked at the sky, and said softly: "The favorable location means that we occupy Baqiu, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The harmony means that our army is united to fight to the death with the Jiangdong navy! As for this It’s the right time.”
He looked at the military flag in the camp. The military flag was blown by the north wind and fluttered to the south.
The north wind is still blowing now.
However.
"Soon, our time will come!"
Shen Chen looked towards the north with deep eyes.
"Three Kingdoms" records.
In December of the thirteenth year of Jian'an, the coalition forces of Cao Cao and Sun Liu faced off in Chibi.
It was this month, and the north wind that originally blew in the south suddenly and rarely turned into the southeast wind that only occurs in spring and summer.
So Zhou Yu and Huang Gai set up a bitter plan. Cao Cao was unprepared. Under the fierce southeast wind attack, the fire took advantage of the wind and instantly destroyed countless warships of Cao Cao's army in a sea of fire!
This is the burning of Red Cliff!
Zhou Yu!
I'm waiting for the wind, what are you waiting for?