Xiang Yan presented a sketch to King Chu of Chu and said:
"Your Majesty, please see, this is the 'wheel warship' made by Shen Bing."
The King of Chu took the picture and took a look at it and said curiously:
"How can this boat move through the water without oars?"
Xiang Yan replied:
"It is said that this ship moves on wheels that look like wheels on both sides, and it comes and goes like the wind."
"That Shen Bing used to be a craftsman and was very good at woodcraft. He had repeatedly invented new things and made strange things before."
"This time it's true."
The king of Chu was surprised and said:
"This boat can come and go like the wind without a wooden oar?"
"Then...what should I do?"
Xiang Yan replied:
"Your Majesty, although this 'wheel warship' is difficult to deal with, this is not what I am more worried about."
The king of Chu was surprised again and asked:
"What is the general worried about?"
Xiang Yan took out a map and placed it in front of King Chu, explaining:
"Your Majesty, please take a look."
"Daliang guards the Yellow River and the upper reaches of the Bian River."
"If the water slows down in the spring next year, the Qin navy can attack Chencheng by going down the Bianhe River, and they can capture Caozhou by going down the Yellow River."
"If these two cities are conquered, all the land in Huaibei will belong to Qin!"
Xiang Yan is right.
In ancient times, there was a big difference between going down the river and going up the river.
This is mainly because transportation was underdeveloped in ancient times. If you took the land route, you would need horses and people. Both the people and the horses would consume food and grass on the road, and the food and grass would be transported less and less, and the land route would take a long time.
But if shipping is carried down the river, the cost of transporting grain, equipment and even troops will decrease exponentially.
This is one of the reasons why Daliang City is so important to the Chu State. The city occupies the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Bian River, so the Qin army can attack Chu with Daliang as its base.
King Chu of Chu understood immediately, and he cursed bitterly:
"They all blame the King of Wei for being so unworthy and giving up such a strong city to others."
"If this guy could defend the enemy outside the city, how could our army be defeated like this?"
This is actually making excuses for Xiang Yan, but it is also true.
After a pause, King Chu continued:
"I think Caozhou is the most dangerous of these two cities. If the Qin army goes down the Bian River, it will divide the Caozhou army and the Chu state into two."
Xiang Yan nodded and said:
"Your Majesty, what you say makes sense."
"So we can't just sit idly by and ignore it."
"Otherwise, our army will be divided into several units that cannot communicate with each other."
This is the characteristic of the terrain of the Chu State. Although the dense water network is good for defense, if the enemy has a strong navy and occupies an important city upstream, the water network can easily be exploited by the enemy.
The King of Chu asked worriedly:
"But General, how can we respond?"
"Are we still going to give up on Caozhou?"
Xiang Yan replied:
"Of course we can't give up on Caozhou."
"If Caozhou is lost, Chencheng will be in danger; if Chencheng loses Shouchun, Chencheng will be in danger!"
"So our army has no way to retreat!"
Xiang Yan is right:
If Caozhou is lost, Chencheng, the old capital of Chu State, will be attacked from two sides by Qin State.
If Chen City is lost, the source of the Huaihe River will be difficult to secure, and the Qin army can then move down the Huaihe River to attack Shouchun.
If we abandon cities one by one like we abandoned Caozhou, then all the Chu army will have to hide in the mountains to the south?
The King of Chu couldn't help but look pale when he heard this. He didn't want to destroy the country just after he took the throne and his buttocks were still hot, so he asked Xiang Yan very politely:
"Then in the general's opinion, how should we defend Caozhou and Chencheng?"
Xiang Yan pondered for a moment, then pointed at the map and said:
"Wei Chen thinks that Chen Cheng has nothing to worry about."
"Probably because both sides of the Bianhe River are Chu lands, we only need to lay wooden stakes in the river and seal the river with iron ropes, so that the waterway cannot be used by the Qin army."
"The direction of Caozhou is quite tricky. Our army and the Qin army occupy both sides of the Yellow River. We can't seal the river even if we want to..."
The Qin army only needed to set up catapults and deploy crossbowmen on the other side, and the Chu army could not seal the river.
After a pause, Xiang Yan said again:
"I think Wei Chen..."
"If you want to defend Caozhou, you must attack instead of defend."
The King of Chu looked at Xiang Yan with a shocked look on his face:
"Offense instead of defense?"
"General, do you mean counterattack?"
Xiang Yan nodded and pointed to Qiancheng north of Daliang on the map and said:
"The area around Qiancheng is densely covered with water networks and there are many small castles."
"At this time, most of them are undefended due to river flooding."
"If we use the navy to capture this city and the surrounding mountain fortresses first."
"After the water subsides in the spring next year, our navy will use the water network to assist in the defense. It will not be difficult to defend Qian City."
"As long as the city is not lost, the Qin army will not be able to attack Chu!"
"We can use this city to consume the Qin army's military supplies."
The King of Chu could not help but nod his head and praised:
"What a great move to use offense instead of defense. This is a great plan!"
The strategy mentioned by Xiang Yan is indeed true.
Caozhou only occupies one bank of the Yellow River and has Handan to the north and Daliang to the south. It is in a state of being flanked by the Qin army and it is difficult to defend it.
If you want to defend Caozhou, you must capture Qiancheng on the west bank of the Yellow River, so that both sides of the bank can help block the river.
Originally, holding the city was also a big problem.
Because the Qin army's combat effectiveness is obviously stronger than that of the Chu army, wouldn't Qiancheng, which is located between Handan and Daliang, be surrounded by the Qin army in minutes?
The problem is that Qiancheng was built by the Wei State based on the river canal, and with the small forts distributed along the river canal, when the Chu army uses Caozhou as its base and naval reinforcements, it will indeed be able to fight the Qin army.
After thinking for a while, King Chu asked again:
"It's just that the Qin army also has naval forces to capture Qiancheng..."
Xiang Yan replied:
"The Great King Mingjian."
"It has only been more than a month since the Qin Shui Army was established."
"Its combat power and military strength are limited. Even with those chariots, how can it be the opponent of our navy?"
"So if the Qin Shui army doesn't come out, it will be fine. If it does, the entire army will be wiped out!"
The king of Chu nodded and said:
"That's very good, so just follow the general's plan!"
Xiang Yan actually had some selfish motives for fighting this battle.
The reason why I say "somewhat" is because his general strategic direction is fine.
It's just that he still wants to lure Qin Shui's army out and destroy it.
Strictly speaking, this cannot be considered selfish.
Because from the perspective of the Chu State, both the original Wei State area and the Chu State area were densely covered with water networks, so there is no doubt about the importance of the navy.
If the Qin State has a navy and it can compete with the Chu Navy, then it will be a big trouble for the Chu Army.
On the other hand, Xiang Yan expected that the Qin army would wait until next spring to attack Chu, and by then it would be too late for Chu to take action.
So, why not disrupt the Qin army's strategy by attacking first when the Qin army was poorly prepared?
Why not take advantage of the Qin Shui Army's fledgling period to lure it out and eliminate it?
If Qin lost its navy, wouldn't the Chu army dominate the water network in this area?
Xiang Yan's selfish motive was that he remembered that he had been flooded by Shen soldiers with an army of more than 100,000 men.
At this time, Shen Bing was also the captain of the Qin Shui Army, so Xiang Yan could avenge himself by doing this.