All the generals around Quan Cong shouted in unison: "This time we will surely realize your majesty's great ambition, take Liaodong in one fell swoop, steal Cao Shuang's retreat, and wash away with blood the shame of the Jiangbei War in the past few months!"
Quan Cong waved his hand and said: "This time we have no backup and can only rely on ourselves. That means we can only succeed but not fail. Listen to my command and land ashore!"
All the kings of the Eastern Wu Dynasty had the intention of the Northern Expedition. Sun Quan, who reigned the longest and survived the death of Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Cao Pi, was the monarch of the Eastern Wu who wanted the Northern Expedition to unify the world the most.
But it is a pity that several generations of the Sun family spent fifteen years on Huang Zu, which allowed Cao Cao to pass the most dangerous stage and gradually unify the north.
Since then, Sun Quan launched the Battle of Hefei four times, spanning nearly thirty years. What is embarrassing is that Sun Quan never captured Hefei.
During the Second Battle of Hefei, Zhang Liao defeated Sun Shiwan. After all, Soochow's military system was mostly private soldiers, and the infantry's combat power was far from being able to compete with Cao Wei's cavalry. The Sun family dreamed of the Jianghuai line
Therefore, it was tightly controlled by Cao Wei.
So isn't the navy the strongest in Soochow? Because of this, Cao Wei did not dare to go south in a large scale. There was no army that could always compete with the navy of Soochow. Once Cao's army crossed the river and was cut off, Cao's army would be alone.
Well, since Cao Wei cannot be defeated on land,
So why did Sun Quan, who reigned the longest in Soochow, never think of launching an attack from the sea, directly forming a powerful navy to land in Cao Wei's Qingzhou Youzhou, and opening up a second battlefield behind Cao Wei? The answer is, Sun Quan wanted to
Yes, but the strength does not allow it. These five reasons are very realistic.
The first point is that the Soochow Navy is very powerful, but it does not mean that Cao Wei does not have a navy. During Cao Cao's period, destroying Soochow became a strategic plan of the Cao Group. As early as the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao began to train vigorously
navy,
In the first month of the spring of the thirteenth year, the Duke returned to Ye and built the Xuanwu Pond to train the boat divisions. The Xuanwu Pond was an artificial lake dug by Cao Cao eight kilometers south of Tongque Tai in Yecheng, where he trained his sailors.
Meaning, so Cao Cao knows that he is not good at navy, so he just stares at him if he is not good at it? That’s all training is done!
This was also Cao Cao's preparation for going south to conquer Liu Biao and Sun Quan. Jingzhou was easily captured and surrendered without much fighting. At this time, the naval strength of Cao's group reached its peak.
Originally, during Liu Biao's time, it was difficult for the Sun family and his son to get involved in Jingzhou. Liu Biao relied on the Jingzhou Navy. Therefore, Cao Cao's acquisition of the Jingzhou Navy was an added advantage.
At that time, Cao Cao was so proud that he wrote a letter of war to Sun Quan, "Today he will subdue 800,000 navy troops, and then he and the general will hunt for Wu." Of course, Cao Cao definitely did not have 800,000 navy troops, but he still had 100,000 navy troops.
of,
It's a pity that the navy of Cao's group reached its peak quickly and declined quickly. In the Battle of Chibi, all the elite Jingzhou navy was lost. However, Cao Cao did not stop his plan to destroy the Sun clan. On his way back from the defeat in Chibi, he still prepared to train the navy.
Division, in the spring and March of the 14th year, the army arrived at Qiao, and they built light boats to control the water.
The following two generations, Emperor Wen of Wei and Emperor Ming of Wei, were also capable of establishing naval forces. During the period of Cao Pi and the Battle of Jiangling that broke out in Soochow, Shang Yeduo held an oil boat and sent more than 10,000 people on foot and cavalry to sneak across the river to attack the Jin Dynasty.
The army encircled and burned its boats, attacked both on land and water, and destroyed them.
It can be seen that the navy of Cao's army still had a certain combat effectiveness at that time. In the fifth year of Huangchu, Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi ordered "For the navy" and "personally ride the dragon boats, follow Cai, Ying, and Fuhuai." The following year, Cao Pi ordered "For the boats"
"The army marched eastward", and "there were more than 100,000 soldiers". After proclaiming himself emperor, he ordered Sima Yi to train the navy and control the navy in Jingzhou, hoping to follow the Mian River to attack Wu.
During the reign of Emperor Wei Ming, in order to attack Gongsun Yuan in Liaodong, he ordered Qing, Yan, You, and Hebei to build large-scale sea ships.
So don’t underestimate Cao Wei’s naval strength. Although it is not stronger than Soochow, once Soochow launches an attack on Cao Wei from the sea, it will inevitably have to mobilize the Soochow navy along the Yangtze River.
Then the long Yangtze River defense line will have many defensive weaknesses. The Cao Wei Navy cannot defeat the overall Soochow Navy.
But it is still possible to stay behind, and Cao Wei's Jianghuai front line is too close to Jiankang. If Cao Jun has the navy to rely on, he can fight across the river with confidence, then Jiankang will always be under the deterrence of Cao Jun's cavalry, and Sun Quan does not have the guts
Carrying out this military adventure.
The second point is that even if Soochow realizes the operational plan of landing in the coastal areas of Cao Wei, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, and Youzhou are not the core of Cao Wei's rule. The Wu army's landing is not enough to cause Cao Wei's overall military passivity. Cao Jun has sufficient time and space to mobilize troops.
By besieging the Wu army, the weakness of the Wu army will be exposed again. If there are not enough war horses, there will not be enough cavalry.
It is difficult to transport enough siege equipment by transporting troops by sea. So how can the Wu army's infantry capture the city behind Cao Wei and face the ravages of Cao Wei's cavalry? If they send too few soldiers, they will not be effective. If they send too many, once they are surrounded and annihilated by Cao Wei, the Wu army's elite
If everything is lost, Soochow may be in danger of national subjugation.
The third point is, does Wu Jun's navy have enough strength to carry out the sea landing operation plan? But no, Wu Jun's navy is very powerful, and its warships are also the strongest among the Three Kingdoms.
In the past few years, the navy under He Qiqi's rule was very elite. According to the "Three Kingdoms. He Qi Biography", Meng Chong's battleships were regarded as high as mountains.
Therefore, one word to describe Wu Jun's warships is "big". However, such large ships do have advantages in fighting Cao Jun on the Yangtze River. However, there is a problem that makes it difficult for Wu Jun's navy to achieve maritime operations.
At that time, Wu Jun's warships had a flat bottom, so Wu Jun's so-called large warships had a flat bottom and a shallow draft because they had no keel for support. In addition, the superstructure was tall, so they could easily capsize. There were no such warships on the Yangtze River.
It’s a big problem, but when you go to sea, it’s easy to capsize in bad weather. The soldiers on the ship can only feed the fish no matter how good the water quality is.
Therefore, even if the Wu army can transport the main force to the rear of Cao Wei, this is not a one-time delivery. How to ensure the subsequent logistics? The probability of accidents in sea transportation is too high. Once there is a problem with the army's logistics, the result is that the Wu army will be in chaos.
Moreover, the navigation technology at that time was not developed. Sun Quan and even the state of Wu were far less powerful than Cao Wei. Their expansion to the north was blocked. They were their allies in the west, so they could only seek expansion opportunities in the southeast.
The fourth point is the question of whether the Wu Army's navy can establish a stable base after landing at sea. That is, even if the Wu Army's logistics support is good, how many troops will the Wu Army need to open a new battlefield behind Cao Wei?
When Sun Quan asked Lü Meng about the feasibility of capturing Xuzhou, that is, capturing the Huainan line, Lü Meng said in "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms. The Biography of Lü Meng" that Cao Cao was far away in Hebei, and that he had conquered the Yuan Dynasty, and had no time to visit Jiyou and Ji.
Xu Tu's garrison has heard nothing but can't defeat it. However, the terrain is accessible by land, and the heroic cavalry can ride on it. The Supreme Being has captured Xuzhou today, and Cao Cao will come to fight for it in the next ten days. Even though there are 78,000 people guarding it, it is still worrying.
According to Lu Meng's point of view, even if the Wu army sent 70,000 to 80,000 men to garrison the captured Xuzhou, they were still not sure that they could repel the invading Cao army.
So for the sea landing operation, how many soldiers did the Wu army have to transport to establish a strong bridgehead at Cao Wei's rear base? Eighty thousand? One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Soochow definitely does not have the national strength to support the consumption of such a large army for a long time, but when it comes