Past Jiangling is an open impact plain, and the misty Dongting Lake is also there. From this plain, it is directly to Changsha, with no danger to defend.
Therefore, Lao Cao stationed heavy troops here, blocking the river bank along the Yangtze River from here to Yangzhou. The purpose was to prevent Wang Yan's army from crossing the river in large numbers to guard the rear.
Wang Yan's navy veteran Cao Cao would definitely not be able to defeat him. With such a big warship sailing into the river, Cao Cao's navy warship was like a small sampan. Of course, the navy's warships can't come in. It's too tiring to swim upstream. But even if he doesn't use warships, Wang Yan still has warships that can sail offshore and inland rivers, and they are not comparable to Cao Cao's warships.
Fighting on the boat, Lao Cao had nothing to do, but it was not easy to land. This was why Lao Cao had heavily stationed troops on the river bank, and he would never give Wang Yan a chance.
"Kong Ming, you have seen the situation on the other side, how do you cross the river to attack?" Wang Yan asked casually with his hands behind his back.
Zhuge Liang was not afraid of General Wang at all, and said without hesitation: "Cao Cao's troops are making dangerous moves, and they will definitely look for opportunities to cross the Han River to disrupt our hinterland. We can send troops from Nanyang, cross the Han River to meet Cao's army, and attack Shu. Our soldiers will be brave and capable. , Cao Cao’s army is difficult to stop, and Cao Cao does not dare to abandon the Shu territory, so he must reinforce the army. In this case, the troops on the other side will inevitably be insufficient, and Cao Cao will inevitably retreat to the Shu territory to resist me with steep terrain. Therefore, I can defeat Jing and Yang in one battle."
Wang Yan asked with a smile: "Can you take on this responsibility?"
"With an army of 20,000, and one brave general, we will stop Cao Cao's invasion, attack Shu, and force Cao Cao to rush for reinforcements." Zhuge Liang said firmly, leaving no room for maneuver for himself.
"I can't say enough. Cao Cao is not a mediocre person. He has more capable ministers and he does have good plans. When I use troops, my first priority is to cherish them. There are many dangerous places in Bashu, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. If it is not necessary, the lives of the soldiers must not be wasted. . The general trend is mine, Cao Cao will be defeated, success or failure can be achieved overnight, it will not affect the big things, you should keep this in mind."
"Yes, General."
"The duties of joining the army remain unchanged. You go to Hanzhong. The warlord Zhao Yun will command 20,000 troops and horses to attack Shu. Guo Jia will supervise the supply of grain and grass. The documents will be delivered first, so go."
"Liang, you will live up to the great general's high expectations. If things don't work out, mention..."
"If it doesn't work, it won't work. Don't give my son a good life in vain. Just go." Wang Yan waved his hands, not wanting to talk nonsense anymore.
Zhuge Liang handed over his hand, bowed to leave, and rode away after a while.
Wang Yan also wrote a document, used his general's seal, and handed it over to his personal guards to deliver the order. It will first pass through Luoyang and then be sent to Hanzhong.
Wang Yan had actually had a lot of chats with Zhuge Liang before, and it was true that he was quite competent. This is normal. After all, Zhuge Liang was only twenty years old when he came out. He was able to make full use of various resources to preserve his vitality and win victory with very few troops.
So after some communication, although Wang Yan was not as thirsty for talents as the ancient kings and knelt down to ask for help, he still gave him trust and let Zhuge Liang, the county magistrate, supervise military affairs and lead Zhao Yun to command 20,000 soldiers and horses. An army all the way, this is quite reused.
Wang Yan did not stay long. After investigating the enemy's situation, he took his accompanying guards down the river and landed at Shicheng (Ma'anshan City).
This was originally a border area. After the war started, Huang Zhong, who was guarding here, cooperated with Dian Wei's Xuanjia Battalion to withstand the raid and then organized a counterattack. The battle went hundreds of miles and pushed the front directly to Wuhu. Therefore, the area around Shicheng became the rear area.
"Huang Zhong, see the general."
"Dian Wei, see the general."
The second general wore armor and respectfully struck his chest with his right fist in a military salute. Behind them, five hundred elite soldiers also acted in the same way, shouting to see the general, and paying attention to the general standing on the wooden plank connecting the shore.
General Wang, still wearing his green robe, walked onto the pier in a few steps, stood upright, and banged his chest loudly, shouting that he would win.
In an instant, all the soldiers were shouting victory.
After a set of inspiring and seemingly useless rituals, Wang Yan followed Huang Zhong and Dian Wei on foot along the river and strolled toward the front line.
"How have the casualties been recently?"
"Thousands of people have been killed and injured so far in the battle. The strength of Cao's army is several times that of mine. Although our army has expanded to 20,000 troops, the defensive area is very wide. Moreover, its troops and horses are complicated and they continue to harass our army..."
Huang Zhong talked about Lao Cao's tactics with an angry look on his face.
Lao Cao does have skills and fights well. Yangzhou was the main battlefield. Lao Cao mobilized 200,000 troops to attack at the beginning. Later, when he saw that Huang Zhong and others blocked the attack, they continued to increase their troops. Although Huang Zhong and others quoted each other, they lacked the coordination of the commander and fought independently, suffering some losses.
The main reason is that Lao Cao relied on his large number of troops to mobilize across the board and concentrate his troops to attack one place many times. If there are reinforcements from other places, Lao Cao will mobilize troops and horses to take advantage of the situation. As a result, these capable generals under General Wang suffered a lot of defeats.
Of course, they were not given in vain. They had strong troops and strong logistics. Although they suffered losses, they were not completely defeated. Moreover, it is now cold autumn, and it is getting colder every day. Cao Jun is still not good at keeping out the cold, which affects his combat effectiveness to some extent. Overall, the situation has stabilized.
There were not many casualties on Dianwei's side. There were more than 2,000 people in total, all of whom were heavily armored cavalry. So far, dozens of them have been injured and three people have died.
The advantage of heavy armored cavalry is there. The riverside is the main attack area, and it is all flood plains, so heavy cavalry can be used. It's time to use it. For so many years, Xuanjia Camp has hardly fought any battles.
"According to Han Sheng's words, the more than 200,000 troops are commanded by Cao Cao himself. There is no need for Han Sheng to worry too much. The battle is not going well, and it is not your generals' fault. It is actually Cao Cao's surprise attack. I have not appointed a commander, so you can go your own way. In order to fight, it's hard to be mentally and physically different. That's why I came to Yangzhou, let's see how long Cao Cao can hold out."
While joking, several people got on their horses and headed straight to Wuhu along the river. There are no people here anymore. They were either captured by Cao Cao or took the initiative to come to Wang Yan's side. The dozens of miles between the two sides are deserted.
As for the city of Wuhu, no one was stationed there. Because the battle line was in front of Wuhu, Cao's army could not move in even if it wanted to, and Wang Yan's army had no rules for besieging a city.
In the 24 years since General Wang started his business, he has never fought a siege battle, let alone a defensive battle. What they did most was to besiege cities, and they would never sacrifice the lives of generals for the sake of one city or one place. Nor would he sit in the city and be a bastard, letting others come over to beat him.
Martial ethics must be established. Some cities also set up tents in the wild, which means working hard.
Of course, the strength must be there, otherwise you will become a fool. It's just that the pros and cons of the city are here. It defends against strong enemies, but it also gives you the opportunity to be cowardly.
Arriving at the newly built military tent for him, Wang Yan took a look at the current battlefield situation in Yangzhou.
In the entire Yangzhou battlefield, Wang Yan's strategic goal was actually very clear, which was to capture Nanchang. Then proceed west from Nanchang, pass Luoxiao Mountain (Wugong Mountain) and go straight to Changsha. It can be said that by winning Nanchang, we won the Battle of Yangzhou. Then we fought again, and later the name in the history books should be called the Battle of Changsha.
Cao Cao naturally understood Wang Yan's strategic goal. He was to defend Nanchang from Wang Yan and put the front line in front, not giving Wang Yan a chance.
The current fighting locations between the two sides are around Huangshan Mountain, mainly concentrated in Wuhu, She County and Damo (Quzhou City).
After taking a general look, Wang Yan ordered: "Send orders to Lu Bu, Zhang Fei, Gao Lan, and Taishi Ci to go out together in ten days to attack Cao's army."
"Yes! General!"
The hairy officer in charge of communications who was sitting in the room responded, got up and ran outside, writing military orders and arranging the delivery of letters. On the 10th, we considered the time for fast horse delivery and preparation before the war. It must be fast.
Huang Zhong asked: "General, wars are going on all over the country, why are you doing this?"
"This move is to 'attack fiercely' to disrupt Cao Cao's vision. This time I will lead my own troops and attack along the river. You will lead the army to attack Wanling (Xuancheng), Jingxian, and Lingyang. If Cao Cao guards our place, don't leave. The ground is bound to be defeated. If we are not guarded, I can attack Pengze in a battle and send troops to Nanchang. On the Hanzhong side, there are also soldiers and horses attacking Shu. Cao Cao will definitely be hard-pressed to support his left and right forces, and he will be overwhelmed."
"The general uses his troops like a god, and this battle will be won."
"We must win!" Dian Wei, who had been quiet for a long time, finally said something.
Wang Yan smiled and had food brought up. He ate with a group of officers, casually chatting about the military situation and inspecting the level of these officers.
This time his arrangement seemed to be nothing. Just like Huang Zhong said, everyone was fighting, so it was no big deal. But the decisive factor was that he could order everyone to launch an attack on the same day, and still attack violently. There is a big difference between fighting fiercely and not fiercely, fighting separately or fighting together.
If he doesn't come, if he doesn't give orders, Huang Zhong and others will not dare to do so. Although it is said that the foreigner will not accept his fate, he still has to protect his life. Of course they can connect on their own, but if they win, they will be jealous, and if they lose, they will have responsibilities. Even though their big boss is General Wang, and even though they all know that Wang Yan doesn't care at all, they themselves don't dare to move.
And once they are defeated across the board, they cannot afford the consequences. They are just generals, not handsome.
Wang Yan has come here in person, and the world belongs to him. Fight as he says, and there must be nothing wrong with it. If you win, you have merit; if you lose, there is no fault.
A player with no political intelligence like Lu Bu has been cheated a lot, so naturally he has a lot to think about. Zhang Fei is a reckless man, and he has been beaten into submission by Wang Yan for a long time. He has been submissive to two people in his life, one is his eldest brother, and the other is Wang Yan. Without orders, he would definitely not move. The remaining Huang Zhong, Taishi Ci, and Gao Lan still understand the truth.
This is all true. The war of unification started, and the generals began to be careful. Of course, they believed that Wang Yan would not let the birds go, and there had never been an emperor like Wang Yan in the past, but this did not stop them from being careful.
And his strategy is actually quite effective. The so-called virtuality is real, and the real is virtual, just as he said to Huang Zhong. This time he was attacking across the board, and the combat effectiveness of his army was there, as was the strength of his generals.
Because of Cao Cao's actions, the generals in Yangzhou have expanded their army to at least 10,000 people. Of course, Cao Cao's army of more than 200,000 troops was not evenly distributed with 40,000 to 50,000 troops in one place. Instead, they were scattered everywhere, with enough troops left in Pengze and Nanchang.
The term "violent attack" means fighting a tough battle, which means that there can be a certain degree of battle damage. In such a battle, the combat effectiveness of his subordinates will be very high, and then the entire front will be in danger.
Even if Cao Cao knew that Wang Yan's goal was along the Yangtze River, because Wang Yan could use more forces to guard the riverside, Cao Cao could not stop him. If he increases his troops to block Wang Yan and Huang Zhong, then other places will inevitably be pushed back. If he defends other places, then Wang Yan will fight them out all the way.
But even though Cao Cao knew that there were the most troops along the coast, he still didn't dare to gamble because he didn't know whether there were ambushes elsewhere. You know, once Shexian and Damo are defeated, Nanchang will follow.
This is the difficulty for the commander-in-chief. Lao Cao will receive news of fighting in various places at about the same time. He needs to analyze Wang Yan's purpose and make decisions as quickly as possible. Soldiers need to be quick. If they are still unable to make a decision, the generals in front will fight desperately because they cannot move without orders. If they move, they will die. But if they don't move, they might be beaten to death by the opponent, it's that simple.
The time has come to test Lao Cao...
Ten days passed quickly. In the past time, Wang Yan recruited another 15,000 soldiers and horses to lead the army personally. At the same time, Dian Wei also followed him.
The soldiers recruited this time are all soldiers from Henan. The previous military orders have been issued, and under efficient operation, the reserve militia is already gathering. In fact, to be precise, most of them were soldiers from Jizhou. The troops added by Huang Zhong and others were local soldiers from Yangzhou. To be more precise, most of them were the former soldiers from Xuzhou, the group who followed Liu Bei in the early years.
After breakfast, Wang Yan stood up straight, with his feet wider than his shoulders and his arms stretched out. He let his guards put on the armor, and he was thinking about how many years it had been since he had fought in a war. After careful calculation, it turned out to be fifteen years. The last battle was the one that killed Gongsun Zan in Taiyuan. He didn't even wear armor and singled out Gongsun Zan and more than a dozen of his generals.
He is nostalgic, but he is not someone who clings to the past. It's just that now that he is forty-two years old, he is still a human being, and his physical fitness is indeed declining, although the impact is not big, just a little. But it is inevitable that he should think about his youth.
However, he feels this way a lot. Every time he has stayed in the world for decades, he can't help but think about it and always take stock of the gains and losses.
Soon, the personal guards helped put on the black iron armor and the red cloak. Wang Yan fastened his helmet, took the horse and stepped out of the military tent.
Rows of soldiers were already standing outside, and their horses were constantly pawing the ground. Everyone looked at the mighty General Wang with fanatical eyes.
A small number of them are veterans, most of them are recruits, and they have never seen Wang Yan very often. Now they want to fight with the general, of course they are fanatical.
Wang Yan rode on his horse and silently scanned the dark military formation, but did not see a pair of scared eyes. He nodded with satisfaction and waved.
The guard behind him picked up the horn tied to the horse, raised his voice with all his strength, and opened his mouth wide, and the deep horn sounded. Suddenly, the silent military formation became restless, and shouts came one after another. Immediately afterwards, they drove westward in an orderly manner.
On the opposite side, there are 50,000 soldiers and horses stationed in various places, and they are mobilized frequently to harass. Correspondingly, the soldiers and horses on Wang Yan's side were stationed accordingly. There is a local battlefield, and there are countless smaller battlefields. The wars everywhere are intertwined, forming a large-scale war.
Wang Yan personally commanded only more than 3,000 troops this time. He wanted to find the enemy's main force and then kill them. Dian Wei still needs to be behind him. He is a guarantee and a surprise soldier. Behind, there are militiamen dispatched and local militia gathered to guard the rear.
Old Cao was afraid that Wang Yan would sneak through the mountains and ridges, and Wang Yan was also afraid that Old Cao would come over. Moreover, Old Cao was much more ruthless than him. With all the militiamen drawn out, there would be no defensive force in the rear, so Old Cao would definitely kill him. Special kill.
Wang Yan rode on his horse and marched slowly forward, while the communication cavalry passed messages from everywhere. There were already battles ahead, some were victorious, and some were besieged. The main reason is that the enemy has more troops and his troops are smaller, which gives the enemy more room.
Therefore, General Wang micro-managed the front line, directly dispatching teams of more than 500 people, and from time to time he would send his troops to support.
Again, the art of war is to mobilize the opponent's troops by mobilizing one's own troops, and try to form a local situation in which more troops attack fewer troops.
Even if Wang Yan's army is more powerful, a formation of five hundred soldiers is enough to defeat Lao Cao's thousand-man army. But now is not the time when everyone was a grass-roots team. After all, Lao Cao's soldiers are elites who have been trained for six years. It is impossible to have a scene like the original battle with Yuan Shao in Hebei, and it will always cause him a lot of casualties.
This can be seen in the casualties caused by Lao Cao's raid on his army. If the soldiers were still of the same quality as six years ago, then this time Lao Cao took the initiative to attack, he would definitely be defeated.
It is necessary to adapt to the growth of the enemy.
Therefore, Wang Yan is also constantly mobilizing, and the large forces are approaching to press each other. Not only to attack the small with more, but also to try to form a situation of equal strength, then he will win the local war here.
In fact, after only one day of fighting, Xu Chu already felt obvious pressure. He knew that the opponent was Huang Zhong, but Huang Zhong didn't know that it was him. The two of them had never fought against each other so far. But the previous military confrontations between the two men generally resulted in victory and defeat for each other. But at the beginning, they did suffer a big loss, otherwise Huang Zhong would not have pushed the battle line so far.
But the two sides had been fighting for more than half a month, and he was already familiar with Huang Zhong's methods. Today, however, he felt quite uncomfortable. He had no strength to use it, and every move he made would be known to the other side in advance, which made him very frightened and uneasy. It was because he had lost control of the battlefield and was at a loss for what to do.
It seemed like there was a bottomless sinkhole opposite, where there was ultimate darkness and nothingness. He didn't know what the other side was going to do, and even while he was fighting, he didn't know what he was going to do.
Of course, the war is also heart-wrenching. One day lost, one day lost, casualties captured, etc. Xu Chu lost more than 3,000 troops and was already losing.
In the military tent, Xu Chu looked at the statistics of casualties by the army commander. He took a helpless sip of wine and ate a handful of peanuts, frowning and wondering what was going on.
Wen Chou had surrendered to Cao Cao for a long time. He was neither hacked to death by Guan Yu nor killed by Wang Yan. He was very lucky to live for many more years. This time, he served as deputy general to Xu Chu. He was also drinking, eating peanuts, and thinking hard.
Suddenly, he slapped the table and raised his head suddenly. Looking at Xu Chu, who had a calm look on his face and eyes full of questions, he said decisively: "It must be Wang Yan who is here in person!"
"Wang Yan is here in person?"
Xu Chu was surprised, and then he couldn't help but nodded: "It must be Wang Yan. Huang Zhong led the army to raid Wanling, and the person leading the army in Wuhu must be Wang Yan. If not, Huang Zhong would not dare to divide his troops. Wang Yan is really like a god with his troops. I am no match for him."
Wang Yan was strong and Cao Cao was weak. Therefore, Xu Chu used the arrogance of a strong man to speculate on Wang Yan. He did not think that Wang Yan's current status and the civil servants and generals under him would risk his own life. After all, swords and guns have no eyesight. This is the saying goes that a son with a lot of money cannot sit down in court.
But he didn't expect that Wang Yan would come.
He thought about Wang Yan's heroic past, and wrote about the military situation very simply, focusing on Wang Yan's affairs here, and asked someone to quickly report to Cao Cao, who was personally supervising the army in the rear, asking for instructions.
As a proud warrior and a fierce general with such a great reputation, Xu Chu would certainly not accept Wang Yan before the fight. From ancient times to the present, bragging has never stopped, and he does not believe that Wang Yan is really that awesome.
But in today's fight, he was convinced. In one day, Wang Yan reduced the number of three thousand people. If we fight again tomorrow, we will definitely lose more troops. Because Wang Yan's response to more than 50,000 troops is different from his response to 50,000 troops. Likewise, his command is also different.
He definitely couldn't stop Wang Yan, and it would even be difficult for him to hold on for too long. You can't do it by dividing your troops. Gathering your troops in one place is a recipe for death.
In addition, he was proud of his military strength. From Wang Yan's commanding ability, he believed that the rumors were untrue and seriously underestimated Wang Yan's commanding ability. From this, he believed that Wang Yan's personal combat effectiveness was still quite strong. If he were not confident in his own force, people like Wang Yan would not go to the battlefield in person, and his subordinates would not let Wang Yan do such a thing to seek death.
So he could only hope that Lao Cao could understand his difficulties. Either increase the number of troops, or Lao Cao himself comes over to challenge Wang Yan.
But what he didn't know was that Lao Cao already knew about Wang Yan's personal visit through the messages sent by various ministries in the morning...
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(End of chapter)
