On December 20, the 13th year of Jian'an, the north wind that lasted for March and April finally stopped.
The weather seems to have become milder.
It seems that early spring is approaching, the temperature is warming up, everything is taking root and sprouting, and the long-lost sunshine has dispersed the clouds and shone on the earth.
Now Shen Chen understood why the southeast wind blew in December during the Battle of Chibi in history.
Because spring comes back early.
The twelfth month of the lunar calendar is the first month of the solar calendar. Especially in the south, spring returns relatively early. It is also common for the climate to suddenly change in late winter and early spring at the end of the year.
In the following days, the Jiangdong navy continued to attack the north bank, hoping to use this place as a breakthrough.
Because the main force of the Jiangxia navy must guard the mouth of Yonghu Lake, there are only more than 10,000 defenders on the north bank. Facing the impact of 30,000 to 40,000 Jiangdong navy, their defensive pressure is still very high.
On December 25, at the end of the early morning eclipse and the beginning of Yuzhong, thousands of ships were once again floating on the river, heading towards the north bank of Baqiu.
Countless ships put up their baffles, large ships parked on the river, and a large number of small and medium-sized ships such as barracks, turrets, flying boats, scouts, fast horses, and yachts were launched into the water. Each ship carried a few to twenty or thirty people. The soldiers began to charge towards the shore.
Unless the ships are abandoning the ship when attacking on land, large ships such as building ships, fighting ships, and stern ships will definitely not be able to go, and they will easily run aground and run aground on the rocks. Only such small ships are very suitable for such land operations.
On the north shore, there are still a large number of small and medium-sized shipwrecks left. During this period, Zhou Yu failed to launch several attacks and finally left the ships on the beach.
Although several attacks failed and two to three thousand men and horses were lost, Zhou Yu summarized the failure experience and dispersed the fleets to attack. Thousands of small and medium-sized ships, carrying more than 30,000 troops, covered the entire river, and then began to swarm Conduct a surprise attack towards the shore defense line.
Shen Chen personally sat on the battlefield every time, constantly commanding and dispatching. Relying on exquisite command and well-arranged defense lines, he could barely repel Zhou Yu's attacks several times. But this time it was obviously a surprise attack by the entire army, and the scale was unprecedented.
In the past few times, there were only 10,000 people at most. This time, an army of more than 30,000 people pressed down on the border. It was obvious that Zhou Yu had discovered the flaw and finally planned to land on the beach and fight to the death with Shen Chen.
The two sides quickly engaged in battle, and the first ones to attack were naturally bows and arrows. The rain of arrows covering the sky along the coast was swayed towards Jiangdong's army, and fell into Jiangdong's fleet like dark clouds.
It is a pity that the river defense line on the north bank of Baqiu is too long. Zhou Yu dispersed his troops. Just in the area defended by Shen Chen, for more than ten miles, there were thousands of ships attacking. Bows and arrows could not cover everything, let alone the battles in recent days. Their arrows are also nearly exhausted, and their stocks are low.
In this case, it was difficult for the crossbows to pose any threat to the Jiangdong Navy. Soon they rushed ashore, worked closely together, and orderly began to use shields to defend against the bows and arrows, and climbed up using the wooden ladders placed with the ship. After crossing the fence, the close combat began.
"Report! The Hongshan defense line in the northeast has been lost."
"Report, the village of Jiangqiuju in the southwest has been lost."
"Report, the crossbows have been exhausted."
"Report, the enemy destroyed our high oar on the mountain."
"Report"
Bad news came one after another. Under the offensive of Jiangdong Army like a dark cloud, Jiangxia Navy was retreating steadily.
The river bank defense line was completely lost.
Shen Chen turned his jade horse around and ordered: "Sing the gold and withdraw to the camp."
"only!"
The messenger hurriedly went to strike the bronze hammer.
Soon the tinkling sound of gold resounded throughout the battlefield.
The soldiers of the Jiangxia Navy abandoned their helmets and armor one by one, gave up the defense line along the river bank, and fled to the rear military camp.
By noon, the Jiangdong navy had completely occupied the north bank and landed on land.
At this time, on the river, Zhou Yu was riding in a large boat. The flag bearer looked at the hills in the distance and saw the orange Jiangdong flag floating on the hills.
"Captain, we have won, we have won, the generals have already seized the beach."
The flag bearer shouted excitedly.
Below, Zhou Yu put his hands behind his back, looked at Baqiu in the distance, and said softly: "Send the order to continue the pursuit."
"only!"
The messenger next to him immediately waved the flag.
The flags were passed continuously, and the sound of trumpets and drums was continuously passed on, and soon it was transmitted to the attacking frontline troops in the distance.
Zhou Yu himself boarded a tug and sailed towards the river bank.
Along the way, there were corpses of both the enemy and the enemy and boats floating on the shore. The blood stained the entire riverside red. In many places, the yellow-brown rammed earth was completely soaked with blood, turning it into a dark red.
The war was raging on the river bank. In order to delay their progress, the Jiangxia Navy set fires. Unfortunately, the air in the south was already humid, and there was no fish paste. The fences on the river bank did not burn. There were sawdust everywhere, and bald tails fell off. Arrows and broken weapons were scattered all over the floor.
Zhou Yu strolled along the river bank with a smile on his face. If the Jiang defense was breached, then the Hukou defense would be ineffective. Their rear camp would be attacked. When the waterway advances, Jiang Xia Navy would be able to be completely destroyed here.
"This Baqiu is indeed a good place. It connects Yunmeng to the north, Changsha to the south, Yuzhang to the east, and Wushan to the west. Shen Chen deserves to be a first-rate hero in the world. He has unique vision. If he bases himself here, he can keep us Army attacks."
Zhou Yu was thinking as he walked: "It's a pity that he didn't build a city here. If he could build a city, it would be impossible for us to break in. But maybe it's not that he doesn't want to build it, but it's just that he can't build the city in a short time. If I To occupy this place, it will take time to build the city."
It has to be said that Zhou Yu's strategic vision is also very outstanding, and he recognized the importance of Baqiu early on. Just like in history, he valued this place very much. He not only built a city here, but also used it as a base to go north to attack Xiangyang, capture Jingzhou, and even In the end, they all died of this illness.
Therefore, he had already made up his mind to immediately build a city here after destroying Shen Chen, capture Jingnan first, and then go north to attack Xiangyang to prepare for Sun Quan's forces to capture Jingzhou.
"Report!"
At this moment, the scouts from the front suddenly came in a hurry.
Zhou Yu's thoughts were disrupted, he frowned and said, "What happened to make you so panicked?"
The scout dismounted and reported: "The enemy's reinforcements are coming."
"oh?"
Zhou Yu smiled and said: "It seems that Shen Chen can only mobilize the soldiers and horses from Hukou and send an order to the rear, asking the rear troops to immediately raid Hukou and attack from both sides."
"Captain."
The scout hurriedly said: "The reinforcements are not Hukou soldiers and horses, but come from the land, and they carry the "yellow" flag. Governor Cheng said that they should be Liu Pan's troops stationed in Luo County, with at least 10,000 people. above."
Are Liu Pan's reinforcements coming?
Zhou Yu didn't look very good, and he didn't expect Liu Pan to come so quickly.
He immediately went to the front line to inspect.
There are two camps of the Jiangxia navy around the north bank, namely the Su Fei tribe and the Deng Long tribe.
Further south, there are Chen Sheng, Zhang Hu and Hukou main camps.
At this moment, the Jiangxia navy on the north bank defense line had been defeated and fled into the camps of Su Fei and Deng Long.
The two camps are each other's horns, and they hold on to each other to the death.
Cheng Pu and Huang Gai, who were in charge of commanding at the front, led their armies to attack the two camps respectively. Because the bows and crossbows were consumed too quickly, the camp's defensive strength was seriously insufficient, and it was about to be captured.
But at this moment, Huang Zhong's reinforcements arrived in time and immediately entered the battlefield. Under his charge, the two men were beaten back.
At the same time, Shen Chen dispatched Chen Sheng's and Zhang Hu's troops. About 8,000 men were left in the main camp at Hukou, and the remaining nearly 20,000 horses were all put into battle. In addition to the 10,000 reinforcements brought by Huang Zhong, there were almost 30,000 horses. , which is not much different from the number of Jiangdong Navy who attacked Baqiu.
And Zhou Yu had no way to bring the rear army into the battle, because if he mobilized the rear army, the troops from Hukou would be able to attack their rear by boat, and even attack their Hongkou camp, so he could only choose to fight to the death on the spot.
However, they were able to win in the past because, first, the defense line of the Jiangxia navy was too long and it was difficult to cover everything, second, the enemy's bows and crossbows were exhausted, and third, they were large in number.
At this moment, they lost their numerical advantage. In addition, the enemy was fighting in a defensive camp and had geographical advantages. As a result, Cheng Pu and Huang Gai were unable to attack for a long time and fell into a bitter battle.
Although Zhou Yu personally came to the battlefield to command, Shen Chen was not a vegetarian. The two mobilized troops and generals, and fought from noon to dusk. The two camps were still as solid as rocks. On the contrary, the Jiangdong Navy suffered a lot of losses. The men and horses have been unable to be taken down.
"Ming Jin, withdraw your troops!"
Seeing that the battle situation was stalemate, Zhou Yu also knew that the balance of victory was no longer tilted towards him. It can only be said that Huang Zhong came at the right time, causing his defeat. Seeing that the sky was darkening, he had no choice but to order the withdrawal of troops.
Although Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Lu Fan Zhuran and others were unwilling, they had no choice but to leave corpses on the ground and hurriedly evacuated to the north bank of the river.
When night fell, the Jiangdong navy lost another one or two thousand soldiers and horses in today's battle and left in despair.
However, Jiangxia Navy was not much better.
Except for their great victory in the battle at Hukou on the first day, they did not take advantage in the subsequent battles.
They had been fighting to the death for several days. If the results of the first day were not included, the losses on both sides were basically evenly divided.
This is still under the condition that Jiangxia Navy occupies favorable terrain.
This shows the gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides.
At three o'clock in the day and approaching dusk, the Jiangxia navy pursued them all the way to the river bank. Lingtong Lu Meng and others broke up, and Jiangdong's army boarded boats to escape.
Shen Chen was riding on the Yuluo horse, watching their leaving figures, and snorted softly: "Let them escape."
Huang Zhong said with a smile: "The people behind them are two. There are two young generals with good martial arts. They actually joined forces and fought with me for dozens of rounds. Otherwise, I would have left dozens of corpses with this bow."
"Thank you, General Huang."
Shen Chen expressed his gratitude to Huang Zhong and said, "If the general had not arrived at the right time, Baqiu would not have been able to defend it."
Huang Zhong stroked his white beard, waved his hand and said: "This is my duty, no need to say thank you."
"Captain."
Su Fei came back covered in blood, still holding the Huanshou knife in his hand, wiped the blood on his face, and said: "We have used up all the arrows. We barely managed to repel them this time. What should we do next time?"
Shen Chen turned his head and suddenly looked at the flag on the top of the mountain that Jiangdong Army had not taken away. He pointed in that direction and said, "Look over there."
there?
The surrounding generals such as Huang Zhong, Su Fei, Zhang Nanqu Gan and others all turned their heads to look.
I saw that the southeast wind, which had been only gentle for several days, became stronger and stronger at some point, blowing the flag to the northwest.
"The wind is blowing from the southeast."
Huang Zhong said: "This year's southeast wind is much faster than in previous years."
"yes."
Shen Chen smiled and said: "The southeast wind is blowing. We don't need to wait for the next attack by them."
Su Fei was confused and said: "What does the governor mean?"
"Send the order!"
Shen Chen suddenly became serious, looked around and said: "The time has come. We will attack the camp tonight. Let the soldiers return to the camp to rest for two hours before setting off at midnight."
"Captain!"
Su Fei quickly said: "But there are not enough arrows."
Shen Chen smiled and said: "Clean the battlefield and recover the arrows. General Huang's army also brought feathered arrows. It is enough to barely fight a war."
"only."
All the officers and men immediately received the order.
Soon the sky darkened, the sun set in the west, the fire clouds on the horizon slowly drifted in the wind, and the beautiful glow reflected half of the sky.
Jiangdong Navy failed again and returned. During this period, they had lost four to five thousand men. Although Jiangxia Navy also lost at least 3,000 men, they had more people and fewer people, so the losses were greater than the opponent's. This is a kind of Failure.
Zhou Yu stood on the bow of the ship, and the ship slowly approached the temporary dock they built in Hongkou. Since there was no shelter, the dock could only be built on the bank of the Yangtze River. A long port was built with wooden piles on the bank. All the ships were connected end to end, compactly Spliced together, only in this way the fleet will not be swept away by water and wind.
"Captain."
Ling Tong said very reluctantly: "If we persist a little longer, we can"
Zhou Yu shook his head: "It's useless. They suddenly came with reinforcements and they are holding on to the camp. We didn't bring heavy equipment, so it's difficult to break in. Besides, it's getting dark. If we don't withdraw, the consequences will be disastrous."
Ling Tong sighed: "Then there's nothing we can do against them?"
Zhou Yu said with a smile: "Have we not already breached their river bank? Next time we come, bring equipment with you. Their camp will naturally be unable to defend itself."
"That's true."
Ling Tong was refreshed and felt much better.
The fleet quickly returned to the dock, and generals at all levels issued orders for the soldiers to tie up ropes, tie up all the ships, and tow them to the north of the Yangtze River with iron ropes and boats.
Zhou Yu got off the building boat and suddenly felt a slight chill. When he turned around, he saw the flag on the building boat behind him fluttering gently, and the direction it was floating was to the northwest!
This southeast wind is getting stronger and stronger.
Could it be rejuvenation?
Zhou Yu thought to himself.
As a native of Jiangdong, he naturally knows that the southeast wind blows in Jiangdong every spring and summer.
But usually spring only starts in January and February, but this year it started a month earlier than usual.
After the north wind stopped, the breeze was southeasterly for a few days, but Zhou Yu didn't pay attention at that time.
Now it seems that it will become a strong wind?
if it is like this..
Zhou Yu frowned, looked at the endless fleet, thought for a moment, and said to Ling Tong beside him: "Send more scouts to patrol the river at night, and arrange more patrol soldiers and left-behind troops on the river bank. Be careful.
"
"only."
Lingtong took the order and left.
After Zhou Yu issued the order, surrounded by his personal guards, he left towards the camp.
But don't know why.
He always felt a bad premonition.
seem.
In these two days, something big will happen.
"I hope I'm overthinking it."
Zhou Yu shook his head and returned to the camp to prepare for the defense tasks of each battalion tonight.
As the evening progressed, the southeast wind that had been just a breeze for several days became stronger and stronger, and the fluttering flags became more powerful, even making a loud sound and a high-pitched sound.
Two hours later at midnight, the wind became stronger.
The strong wind blows, and huge waves appear on the surface of the Yangtze River, lapping at the river bank and causing violent waves.
Jiang Xia Navy's fleet also set off in the dark of night!
tonight.
It's a good weather to set a fire.
The situation has been a little better in the past two days, and the sequelae have almost disappeared. However, the end of the year is approaching, and I will soon leave for my hometown. There are too many things, and updates are still not enough. Once it stabilizes, I promise to resume 10,000 updates. I will put it on the shelves from October to December
, for 3 months, I wrote at least 8,000 words every day. This state must be maintained. I also want to finish the book as soon as possible in the first half of this year and start a new journey.