Lu Meng returned to the army to rescue food and grass, and that was just an attitude.
The fire has been burning for more than half an hour. Both what should be burned and what should not be burned are almost burned. It is strange that food and grass can still be rescued.
In fact, it was just an excuse to retreat without damaging morale as much as possible.
After temporarily retreating and returning to the camp, Lu Meng finally recovered the actual loss of grain and grass in his army. The grain and grass stored by the rear army were basically burned out, and there was only a small granary, which was fortunately saved because it was built relatively far away.
But the food and grass there, even if 30,000 people were spared, would only be enough for two days.
The only thing that Lü Meng is lucky about now is that because he has to prepare for a decisive battle with the Jiangling garrison, before the battle, Lü Meng allocated a batch of food and grass to the soldiers of each battalion. If you save some of this food and grass, you can still survive for three or four days. of.
This adds up to almost five or six days.
The Jiangdong Army's logistics grain transport fleet transports grain supplies every fifteen days, and now there is only about eight or nine days left before the next grain transportation and supply time.
In other words, there is a gap of about three or four days for food and grass.
A conservative estimate would be four days, and an optimistic estimate would be about three days of food shortage.
But Lu Meng was not worried about this.
Lu Meng not only marched with this army, but also had an army of 20,000 from the Sun brothers in Jiangxia, as well as their supply line.
Although I don’t know why these two haven’t arrived at Jiangling yet, even if they encounter some troubles on the way, the Sun brothers should be able to reach Jiangling City in five or six days. By then, they can borrow three or four days of military rations. If it's an emergency, it shouldn't be a problem.
Lu Meng was explaining this to the generals in the camp, so that the generals in the camp could feel at ease and continue fighting with peace of mind. Sun Huan sent someone to report that Liu Bei's army had robbed food on the way. He was now stationing troops to wait for the follow-up food and grass to arrive, and it was difficult to reach Jiangling City for a while. .
By the way, I also asked Governor Lu if he could support us with some food and grass. It doesn’t need to be much, just enough to feed the 20,000 troops for a day or two.
After Lu Meng read Sun Huan's letter, he almost couldn't breathe.
If I give you a day or two of food and grass, my army of 30,000 will be hungry soon.
What on earth did Sun Huan do? Liu Bei's army, with less than a thousand men, was able to rob more than 20,000 of your grain and grass and burn a third of it? !
And you two brothers, who have been dragging their feet until now, are still camping thirty miles outside Jiangling City? !
If you guys had come two days earlier, Jiangling City could have been captured. Did you know? !
Lu Meng really felt stuffy, very stuffy and uncomfortable.
But he couldn't say anything.
Sun Huan managed to save two-thirds of the food and grass, but Lü Meng was burned and only had two days of food and grass reserves left.
Besides, what can you do if someone's surname is Sun? !
What's even more terrible is that many of the generals in the camp have already persuaded Lu Meng, saying that this time there is not enough food and grass, and if it is not possible, they should retreat first and wait for the next opportunity to attack Jingzhou again.
Except for Ding Feng, Zhu Huan and other relatively clear-headed generals did not say anything. Even Quan Cong joined the ranks of persuading the troops to withdraw.
After all, in this battle, the combined losses of most Jiangdong generals were not as great as the loss of Quan Cong alone, which resulted in nearly two thousand casualties. For Quan Cong, the losses were already as severe as breaking his muscles and bones.
These people wanted to retreat because they didn't want to suffer further losses, but sometimes Lu Meng really didn't understand how these people's brains grew.
Now that we are attacking Jingzhou, we have completely fallen out with Liu Bei.
Now that we are retreating, we have not captured an inch of land, and the result of wasting food and grass without achieving any results is considered light. When Liu Bei frees up his hands, aren't you afraid that he will come knocking on your door? !
Oh, this group of people may really not be afraid. After all, their core interests are in Jiangdong. Although Guan Yu has trained a usable navy, it is not easy to defeat Jiangdong's navy on the Yangtze River.
But don't forget, Liu Bei still has Wuling and Lingling counties in his hands. Instead of taking the water route, he will attack Changsha Guiyang by land, and then enter Jiangdong from Yuzhang County. What can you do to resist? !
The two families are no longer allies. You don't naively think that with Liu Bei's strength now that he has Jing Yi, he will still make concessions to Jiangdong, right? !
Those who cannot withdraw their troops, after dispatching troops this time, really cannot just withdraw their troops.
But before Lu Meng could figure out how to persuade the generals in the camp to continue to persevere, Zhu Huan spoke for him first.
"Gentlemen, now that we have fallen out with Liu Bei, we are retreating like this before we have accomplished anything. How can we explain to the Lord?!" Zhu Huan said to the generals in the camp.
Lu Meng felt a little reassured that not all Jiangdong generals were thinking about the little land in their hearts.
but.
Zhu Huan turned around, raised his hands to Lu Meng, and said, "It's just that the supply of food and grass for our army is inconvenient now. The two generals Sun Huan and Sun Yu don't have any extra food and grass. The city of Jiangling is well defended and it is urgent to leave. Why don't the governor retreat to the south of the Yangtze River temporarily? Join forces with Xu Wenxiang and use Xu Wenxiang's grain and grass to temporarily relieve the urgent need. After the grain, grass and ordnance are in place, the governor will go north to attack Jiangling again, or go south to attack Gong'an and take the two counties of Wuling and Lingling. In one thought, wouldn’t this be the best of both worlds?!”
On the surface, Zhu Huan did come up with a good idea.
Now Lu Meng's army only has enough food for three or four days.
In this case, we should take the initiative to shorten the journey of transporting grain, retreat to Xu Sheng camp outside Gongan City, close to the Yangtze River ferry, and receive supplies on the spot.
Firstly, it can shorten the supply time. Secondly, even if there is any accident in the supply, it should be possible to rely on the food and grass in Xu Sheng's hand to support the food consumption of the 30,000 army for several days.
But now Lu Meng felt that his head was buzzing and hurting, and he couldn't hold back the anger anymore.
On the surface, Zhu Huan had a good idea and said he could advance and retreat freely, but in fact, once Lu Meng retreated, it was basically impossible to capture Jiangling and occupy Nanjun.
This time it was a sneak attack on Jingzhou. The biggest advantage of the strategy was a surprise. They occupied Nanjun before Guan Yu and Zhang Xi could return to defense in time. This way, they could block Guan Yu and Zhang Xi in Xiangfan and cooperate with Cao Cao's offensive to attack from both sides.
If you are not lucky, Guan Yu and Zhang Xi will be defeated and flee. If you are lucky, it is not impossible for Jiangdong to occupy Xiangfan.
But if you retreat to the south of the Yangtze River, not to mention that it will create time for Guan Yu and Zhang Xi to return reinforcements, but if you retreat like this, the morale of the soldiers will be greatly affected. Even if you attack Jiangling City again, it will be difficult to attack again. Get off this fortified city.
Without the support of his own main force, the 20,000 partial troops led by Sun Huan and Sun Yu would not be able to make any splash, and in the end they could only retreat to Jiangxia to protect themselves.
Therefore, Zhu Huan asked himself to retreat to the Jiangnan Public Security Bureau and join Xu Sheng to attack Wenpin of the Public Security Bureau. In fact, the real strategic purpose was to make Lu Meng give up attacking Nanjun and use the Public Security Bureau as a springboard to cooperate with the Jiangdong Army in Changsha and Guiyang to capture Wuling. and Lingling, all based on Jingnan.
Aren't you worried that this expedition of sending troops and troops will waste food and fodder in vain? !
After conquering Wuling and Lingling counties, it can be regarded as a waste of effort. No matter what, it is still an expansion of territory, and everyone will not be embarrassed after returning.
Furthermore, as long as Wuling and Lingling are captured and all of Jingnan is occupied, it will be equivalent to blocking Liu Bei's land attack route to Jiangdong. If Liu Bei wants to retaliate, he must use the navy to decisively defeat the navy. Jiangdong is afraid of this. who? !
This is the real purpose of Zhu Huan's proposal.
In the final analysis, Zhu Huan was only thinking about his family's core interests in Jiangdong. However, this person had a better strategic vision than others. He could come up with a strategy that would allow Lu Meng to step down, which everyone could accept and which was relatively safe. Come.
To put it bluntly, Zhu Huan's suggestion was actually good. After all, the defense forces in Wuling and Lingling counties were insufficient and there were civil strife. The only trouble was the recruitment of police officers.
However, the reason why we did not attack the police before was to gain time to attack Jiangling. It was not because we could not defeat them.
Now as long as the food and grass are in place and more than 30,000 people attack a city garrisoned by several thousand people, Wenpin, no matter how capable he is, will not be able to hold on for long.
And once Jiangdong captures Gong'an, it will be equivalent to sealing the Wuling and Lingling armies in Jingnan, and they can eat them whenever they want.
Even Lu Meng had to admit that Zhu Huan's suggestion was a good one.
But Lu Meng was unwilling to give in.
Although Lu Meng does not have such great ambitions, and his strategic vision may not be as good as those of Zhou Yu and Lu Su, he is at least much stronger than Zhu Huan and others.
If we do not occupy Jingzhou, or in other words, if we do not occupy Nanjun, the Yangtze River defense line will be shared with the enemy.
In this way, Jiangdong will always be in a passive situation of being beaten. Even if it wants to defend itself by occupying Jiangdong, there will eventually be a day when it cannot be defended.
Yes, Jiangdong is now invincible in water battles.
But what about the future? !
One day, whether it is Cao Cao or Liu Bei, they have trained excellent naval forces. Once they defeat Jiangdong's navy on the Yangtze River, will there be any dangerous places to defend based on Jiangdong's geographical location? !
Therefore, whether it is to march to the north of the Yangtze River and fight for the world north, or to occupy the Yangtze River defense line and defend the Yangtze River, Nanjun must be captured.
However, none of the generals in Jiangdong could see this clearly, and they kept thinking of their own interests and persuading them to retreat. Lu Meng felt so depressed.
When he was in Jianye, although Zhou Yu also objected to sending troops to attack Jingzhou, he was justified, but his route was different from his own, and he had the same idea about Jingzhou.
But now for these Jiangdong generals, Lu Meng really felt tired.
Relying on these people, Jiangdong will belong to others sooner or later, so he, Lu Meng, will never allow this outcome to happen.
He has been greatly favored by his lord Sun Quan, so forget it if he never has the chance to repay him in this life. Now that he has the opportunity, Lu Meng will never let it go.
Even if he died under Jiangling City, he would never retreat.
Therefore, Lu Meng ignored the noisy Jiangdong Army generals around him and made a decision against all opinions.
Xu Sheng was ordered to lead 5,000 troops to continue to besiege Gong'an City and guard against Wenpin. The other 3,000 troops were ordered to escort some grain and grass northward to support the Jiangbei camp.
Sun Yu and Sun Huan were ordered to besiege the east and north gates of Jiangling City, and temporarily hold their troops stationary while they built siege equipment.
Lu Xun, the Lukou garrison, was ordered to increase the frequency of grain and grass transportation, and at the same time lead the navy to guard the Yangtze River grain road.
After a new round of supplies on their side is in place, they will begin to attack the city with all their strength.
(End of chapter)
