A heavy snowfall caused the war to rage, and most of China, which had been fighting for almost three months, temporarily stopped.
In the Guanzhong area, the temperature began to drop in early December, and snow fell intermittently until the New Year's Day of the third year of Zhangwu of the Han Dynasty. For this reason, Liu Bei had to temporarily settle in Mei County and was unable to move eastward to Sanfu immediately.
In the Nanyang area, it started to snow in mid-December, and it also snowed on New Year's Day of the following year, which blocked the Jingzhou Army's northward march. Sima Yi, the defender of Wancheng in the Wei Dynasty, had enough time to organize the city defense and regain the morale of the defeated army.
The same is true for Qingxu. Under the heavy snowfall, the Jiangbei Marching Army led by Zhou Yu was unable to conquer Pengcheng Kingdom in a short time and completely occupied Qingxu.
Don't tell me, at this time, Zhou Yu already wanted to back down.
Yes, it's an amazing thing.
At this point in the battle, Jiangdong had the overall advantage and was about to capture Qingxu. Sun Shiwan had no intention of retreating, but Zhou Yu was thinking of retreating.
It looks very incredible, but Zhou Yu really has his own reasons.
A few years ago, when Lu Meng was still alive, he once persuaded Sun Quan, saying that the land of Qingxu was mainly based on cavalry warfare. The soldiers in Jiangdong were mostly good at water warfare but not land warfare. Therefore, even if Qingxu was temporarily occupied, it would be impossible to hold it.
Lü Meng used this as a basis to persuade Sun Quan to attack Jingzhou and occupy the Yangtze River defense line. With the naval power of Jiangdong, even if he could not conquer the world, he could easily seize the southeast.
This was the strategic plan Lu Meng made for Sun Quan.
Zhou Yu initially scoffed at this plan.
Not to be honest for the so-called Sun-Liu Alliance, this alliance was indeed necessary to exist under the circumstances at that time, but when Liu Bei captured Hanzhong and sent troops out of Yongliang, the existence of this alliance actually had little significance.
What Zhou Yu sneered at was that Lu Meng, as the person who took over the military power in Lu Su's place, actually took refuge in such an easy way and persuaded his lord Sun Quan to settle down in a corner.
On a larger scale, this is called a lack of strategic vision. On a smaller scale, Lu Meng's pattern only remains at the level of leading the army to protect himself.
At that time, Zhou Yu felt that as the commander-in-chief of the first army, Lu Meng could clearly see the shortcomings of the Jiangdong Army, but he did not want to change it. Instead, he chose to avoid this approach. This was not what a first-class commander should do, and he also failed his lord Sun Quan. expectations for him.
But now, Zhou Yu understood Lu Meng a little bit.
Since returning to command the army, Zhou Yu has indeed carried out targeted training on the land warfare capabilities of the Soochow Army, trying to increase the mobility and land warfare capabilities of the Soochow Army as much as possible. This was the reason for the last waterway sneak attack on Qingxu. And this time, after dispatching troops from Huainan, they attacked thousands of miles and defeated the Wei army in Qingxu Land and trapped Pengcheng State.
However, I'm afraid this is the limit of what Zhou Yu can do now.
Especially after entering winter, Zhou Yu discovered that many things he thought were one thing were actually another thing when he encountered them.
Among other things, the winter in Huainan is different from the winter in Jiangdong, and the winter in Qingxu is very different from the winter in Huainan.
It's not that Zhou Yu didn't take the weather factor into consideration, but after actually experiencing it, he discovered that there was still a big difference between what he thought was the weather factor and the actual weather factor.
In the Jiangdong area, there are basically only a few sleets in December. Even in the Huainan area, it is just light snow. But in the land of Qingxu, where there is heavy snow, you may not be able to see people even a foot away.
Zhou Yu did take into account the difficulty of fighting in winter and prepared some winter clothing - but the difference between the Jiangdong soldiers' definition of winter and the actual winter in the Qingxu Land was really huge.
During this period, the biggest battle losses for Zhou Yu's soldiers were not casualties during the siege at all, but non-combat attrition after the cold weather.
The medical conditions are just like that these days, and the conditions in the military are even more difficult. If you get sick in winter, those with better physical fitness can still fight it off, but those with slightly worse physical fitness are basically waiting to die.
This is the first problem Zhou Yu needs to solve.
The second problem Zhou Yu needed to solve was fighting in the plains. Facing the combat capabilities of Cao Wei's cavalry and infantry, how should the soldiers of Soochow, who had always been famous for water warfare, deal with it.
When fighting in the Huainan area, the disadvantage in this area was not too obvious. After all, the Huainan area was still densely covered with water networks. Even if there was a gap in individual combat power, Zhou Yu could still use various geographical conditions to quickly transport troops and deploy troops. The method of commanding troops is used to create a local situation of more attacks and fewer attacks to make up for the lack of combat power.
At Shiting, he lured the enemy deep into Cao Xiu's army and wiped them out in one fell swoop. This was how he came about.
But in the land of Qingxu, these advantages disappeared.
Therefore, in the land of Qingxu, we can only rely on some false and real routines to catch the enemy unprepared and seize the strategic initiative first. Only then can we have the power to fight.
When Lu Xun came to Xia Pi and Zhou Yu led his troops to break out of Cao Xiu and Jia Kui's encirclement, they all used this method.
But even so, when Zhou Yu advanced from multiple directions and seized the strategic initiative, and when the enemy stopped being careless and held on with all their strength, Jiangdong Army's siege field capabilities were unable to capture the small Pengcheng Kingdom.
This made Zhou Yu realize again that the combat power of the Soochow Army, even after many trainings and adjustments by himself, was still not enough to compete with Cao Wei's infantry on the plains.
Not to mention that the Wei army and the northern cavalry were not mobilized to go south. Once the northern cavalry that was defending the foreigners in the north chose to go south, Zhou Yu did not think that the Soochow Army could be a match for the cavalry in an open area like the Central Plains.
Based on the above reasons, Zhou Yu was indeed considering the possibility of temporarily withdrawing his troops.
Of course, Zhou Yu did not mean to give up Huainan, the land of Qingxu that he had finally obtained, and to temporarily withdraw his troops, but to temporarily retreat and rest.
According to Zhou Yu's ideas and plans, he withdrew his troops and returned to Huainan first, leaving Lu Xun to garrison Xiapi and Zhuge Jin to garrison Langya State. They surrounded Pengcheng State on three sides and shifted to strategic defense, not giving the Wei army a chance to counterattack.
After the troops are withdrawn, it is not that they do nothing. They must find ways to adapt the soldiers to the weather in the north as soon as possible, and continue training to strengthen the land combat capabilities of the Jiangdong soldiers. Finally, and most importantly, we must find ways to do it from other places. Bring horses and form Jiangdong's own cavalry unit.
If you want to go north to fight for the world, you will definitely not be able to do it without enough cavalry.
Taking advantage of the sudden heavy snowfall in the past few days and being unable to fight, Zhou Yu organized his thoughts and wrote a memorial to Sun Quan, the Great Emperor of Soochow, hoping to get Sun Quan's permission to withdraw from Pengcheng at the right time and follow him. Cao Wei temporarily suspended the war.
Now it is not ten years ago, or in other words, in the past ten years or so, Sun Quan has slowly changed, and he is no longer the "lord" he used to be.
Zhou Gongjin is elegant and elegant, and obviously cannot be the kind of person with low emotional intelligence. Zhou Yu started to pay attention to some things very early.
But the problem is that even though Zhou Yu paid such attention, Sun Quan was still very unhappy when this memorial was delivered to Sun Quan in Shouchun City, Huainan.
retreat? !
Why retreat? !
Now that the Cao thieves are trapped in the war on the Western Front, Cao Xiu has retreated, and Xu Huang can only defend Pengcheng, unable to counterattack or reinforce Qing Xu.
At this time, if we don't take the opportunity to defeat Qingxu in one fell swoop and unite Huainan and Qingxu, and retreat at this time, will there be such a good opportunity next time? !
Another thing, when he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, Cao Pi once wrote a special document to tell the world, accusing himself of tampering. Liu Bei, the man who claimed to inherit the Han Dynasty, never treated me like this.
What's even more terrible is that Cao Pi actually issued an edict directly two years ago, telling the world that Cao Wei was going to attack Soochow.
To send troops to attack a certain force, we actually informed the people of the world two years in advance. This simply means that we don't take Soochow seriously, let alone me, the great Emperor of Soochow.
Now that Soochow is progressing smoothly, one side is as fierce as a tiger, but in the end they only captured Xiapi County, and they have been besieging Pengcheng Kingdom for almost three months, and they still cannot capture it. If they retreat under such circumstances, where can Sun Quan, the great emperor of Soochow, save his face? !
Therefore, Sun Quan strongly disagreed with Zhou Yu's suggestion to withdraw his troops.
But... there is something wrong, Sun Quan also muttered a little.
First, Zhou Yu wrote very clearly in the memorial, clearly describing the current difficulties and the difficulties that may be encountered in the future.
Although Sun Quan said that his desire for power is getting stronger and stronger now, at least he is not confused yet, and it is not yet time to use palace fighting to balance the internal forces. Sun Quan still has to admit that what Zhou Yu said makes sense.
Second, based on Zhou Yu's status in Jiangdong's martial arts and the army Zhou Yu now controls. Zhou Yu's opinion cannot be ignored by Sun Quan as if he was letting off steam.
At this time, although Sun Quan still trusted Zhou Yu, due to the inherent sensitivity and wariness of politicians, Sun Quan was always a little uneasy with so many troops in Zhou Yu's hands.
After retreating and returning this time, Sun Quan could take this opportunity to split the military power in Zhou Yu's hands, and at the same time, he could gather the military power in Qingxu and Huainan areas into his own hands again. For Sun Quan, retreating was actually a good thing. Very advantageous to myself.
Third, after fighting for so long, there has never been a good harvest. It is better to take this as an opportunity to obtain sufficient benefits from Cao Wei at the negotiation table. This is also a way out.
There is one thing in Zhou Yu's memorial that can be said to be very appealing to Sun Quan.
Cavalry, Soochow must have its own cavalry, and this cavalry must be directly in Sun Quan's own hands.
Really, it doesn't take much. In Jiangdong, as long as you have three thousand armored cavalry in hand, the Sun family will be completely stable.
We must find a way to get this cavalry!
(End of chapter)
