Wait, wait. Zhang Xi waited for a full seven days. During this period, he continued to be beaten back and forth by Zhou Yu, but still no reinforcements came from Kou Feng.
Reinforcements did not arrive, but Kou Feng's third letter arrived.
Kou Feng told Zhang Xi in the letter that he had indeed led his troops through Dangyang County and was marching towards Jiangling. But for some reason, the Soochow army that was supposed to be a suspect on the north bank of the Han River suddenly appeared in front of him. In front, they occupied the favorable terrain of Hulukou and intercepted their advance.
Now Kou Feng had to temporarily stop his advance, rest and prepare for war, and first defeat the Soochow army at Hulukou.
This is understandable.
Hulukou is one of the only roads leading to Jiangling.
If you look at the name, you will know that the so-called gourd mouth means that there are open areas on both sides, and there is a very narrow closing in the middle. The overall shape is like a gourd.
In this place, if the Soochow Army blocks the narrow entrance, and you want to support Jiangling through Hulukou, there is no way.
Go around? !
Yes, but you have to go back first, back to Dangyang County, and then detour west to Linju, making a big circle from the direction of Xiling in Yidu County before you can reach Jiangling. The distance is too far.
Kou Feng came from Xiangyang to rescue Jiangling. He must have taken the shortest route, so he would definitely choose to pass through Hulukou. If he went back around, the delay would not be a day or two, but ten days and a half. That’s too much.
Therefore, it is not a strange choice for Kou Feng to choose a frontal attack and defeat the Soochow army blocking Hulukou.
Besides, judging from the opponent's general's flag, the two sides had already fought against each other once, and Kou Feng knew it.
Last time on the north bank of the Han River, Kou Feng's main purpose was to test the enemy's dynamics, so he did not try his best, but he already had the upper hand.
This time, Kou Feng's troops had an advantage, and the combat power of his soldiers was a little higher than the opponent's. Kou Feng really didn't think that this Soochow army could stop him.
Even when Kou Feng came up, he chose his best to lead the troops into battle.
The terrain of Hulukou restricted the number of troops on both sides fighting at the narrow crossing. In this case, personal bravery could play a big role.
Select elites and focus on breakthroughs. As long as you rush through the narrow area of Hulukou and follow up with the infantry, you may be able to rush through.
Of course, if you can't break through the enemy's line, it's possible that you'll be stuck on one side of Hulukou forever, unable to move forward.
But Kou Feng is very confident in himself. In this world, there are not many people who can stop him from leading the charge.
First of all, they need to be able to match themselves in terms of personal martial prowess. Secondly, their soldiers must also be able to withstand the impact of Kou Feng’s Dongsanjunjun soldiers. The veteran generals of the previous generation dare not say that, but among their peers, Kou Feng Feng Zhen has this confidence.
Then... Kou Feng was blocked by someone.
It was none other than Zhu Huan. Zhu Huan, who was in urgent need of "paying homage to his crime and making meritorious service", led his troops and blocked Kou Feng's path.
After receiving Zhou Yu's military order, Quan Cong withdrew his troops from the north bank of the Han River without hesitation. With the transportation of the Jiangxia Navy, he landed again at Hanjin Ferry, and then marched all the way to Dangyang County before Kou Feng. nearby
There was no way. The boat going down the Han River would definitely be faster than the soldiers walking on two legs. There was no way Quan Cong could seize Dangyang before Kou Feng.
After that, Quan Cong carefully observed the nearby terrain and did not choose to intercept Kou Feng on the spot in Dangyang County. Instead, he gave up the advantage of city defense and chose to fight at Hulukou.
Intercepting Kou Feng in Dangyang, if Kou Feng really ignored him and marched directly around Dangyang County, Quan Cong would have stopped Lonely.
Because Dangyang County is not too far from Jiangling, it is only a five-six-day march, so Kou Feng can really go without logistical supplies and only take the rations with the army.
As long as Kou Feng leads his army into Jiangling, his logistical problem will be solved.
However, Hulukou was not good, and Kou Feng could not cross it no matter what, unless he turned around again, returned to Linju on the west side, and took a detour to support Jiangling.
If this is the case, Quan Cong can also follow Kou Feng and send troops to cover up the enemy at any time to slow down Kou Feng's advance.
Therefore, after making his own judgment, Quan Cong decided to deploy defenses at Hulukou.
During this period, Zhu Huan did not raise any objections.
Zhou Yu did not even mention Zhu Huan's treatment. Zhou Yu was busy arranging tactics and arranged for Quan Cong to intercept the reinforcements of the Shu army heading south.
But on Sun Quan's side, the punishment results for Zhu Huan have come out. There is no punishment.
But the prerequisite for this lack of punishment is - "Remembering the merits of the past."
In other words, Sun Quan was actually very dissatisfied with what Zhu Huan did, but because Zhu Huan had done great service to Wu and was a descendant of one of the four major families in Wuzhong, he turned a blind eye to this matter. .
However, everyone knows Sun Quan's temper.
When Zhang Zhao advocated surrender during the Battle of Chibi, Sun Quan would still bring it up from time to time and talk about it. Veteran ministers like Zhang Zhao who worked hard for the foundation of the Sun family were treated like this, so who did Zhu Huan count? !
If one day in the future Zhu Huan offends Sun Quan again, or if the Zhu family in Wuzhong offends Sun Quan, Sun Quan will never be stingy about settling old scores.
Therefore, for Zhu Huan, his top priority now is to "pay for his crimes and make meritorious services."
It is necessary to establish enough meritorious deeds to ensure that when Soochow Supreme settles old scores in the future, he will be treated in the same way as Zhang Zhao for his merits - just a few beeps, and will not really settle old scores and punish him.
Zhu Huan now has no time to argue with Quan Cong about who is the most suitable general. He must now block the Shu army at Hulukou.
Zhu Huan urgently needed such an opportunity to make contributions, and as for Quan Cong, to be honest, Quan Cong was quite a good person. He did not add insult to injury, but gave Zhu Huan this opportunity, allowing Zhu Huan to lead his own army and become a leader. Hulukou's first line of defense.
The soldiers under Quan Cong's command are the second line of defense.
Quan Cong had personally fought against the soldiers of Dongsan County, and he knew how powerful his opponent was.
Even though he led nearly 10,000 Soochow troops southward, the only ones who were really sure of being able to stop the Shu army were his 2,000 soldiers.
Quan Cong couldn't even guarantee whether Zhu Huan's two thousand soldiers could stop him.
And this is also the key reason why Quan Cong chose to intercept at Hulukou. The narrow place of Hulukou can line up a defensive formation of up to 1,500 people. More is useless.
No matter what the two lines of defense are, Zhu Huan is in front and Quan Cong is behind, it should be possible to block the soldiers of the three eastern counties for a while.
Of course, Quan Cong did not expect that his Shibing would not be needed at all. In the first round of the confrontation, Zhu Huan relied on his heroic fighting and the fighting spirit of his Shibing to block Kou. Feng's attack.
Now, Quan Cong's pressure was much lessened.
In fact, this is not surprising.
Kou Feng's use of troops in battle all relied on his own bravery and life-threatening fighting style. What was really powerful was that once the three axes failed to work, Kou Feng's ability to lead and command was still lacking.
As for Zhu Huan, he could just meet the basic conditions for restraining Kou Feng's three plans.
First of all, Zhu Huan himself was also famous in Soochow for his martial arts.
Maybe he is not as good as the older generation of powerful generals such as Gan Ning, Zhou Tai and others, but among the generals of the Mesozoic Era, in terms of force value, only Xu Sheng can be compared with him, and even Ding Feng is not as good as him.
Zhu Huan had the ability to lead his troops to stop Kou Feng from fighting when Kou Feng was charging into battle, and he was not at a disadvantage.
Secondly, Zhu Huan's soldiers were actually the first batch of soldiers to respond to Zhou Yu's call to strengthen land warfare drills.
The foundation of the Zhu family in Wuzhong is much greater than that of the Quan family in Qiantang. Among other things, Zhu Huan's soldiers are definitely more willing to spend money and food than Quan Cong.
In military training these days, apart from the so-called training methods, the most important thing is money and food. As long as the soldiers are well fed and well nourished, even if the training method is slightly worse, their own combat effectiveness will not be improved. How bad.
Therefore, whether they are generals or soldiers, Zhu Huan's soldiers are still capable of competing with the soldiers of the three eastern counties under Kou Feng.
Being able to stop Kou Feng's advance was a great achievement for Quan Cong's troops. Quan Cong was a little relieved, but Zhu Huan was not happy.
He only has two thousand soldiers, and he has spent a lot of money to train them, so every one of them is lost in battle.
World soldiers are different from county soldiers. The generals need to be responsible for their support. Sun Quan only limited the number of world soldiers that each general could lead, and he didn't pay a dime for the others.
Now Zhu Huan can block Kou Feng, but it does not mean that the soldiers under his command will not suffer battle losses.
Yes, at this point, Zhu Huan needed to "accomplish his crime and make meritorious service", and he didn't care too much. He had to fight hard. But even if he used up all his soldiers, he would not be able to stop the 15,000 Shu army on the opposite side.
At worst, they can just play cartwheels.
The combat strength of the Dongsanjunjun soldiers on the opposite side is relatively average, but on our side, in addition to our own Shibing, Quan Cong's Shibing still has some fighting strength. The remaining more than 5,000 Jiangxia Jun soldiers, It simply cannot afford such an interception task.
If it continues like this, sooner or later it will be exhausted.
For this reason, Zhu Huan had to suppress his unhappiness and discuss it with Quan Cong. How about we also have a wheel-to-wheel battle? !
After a while, we will switch defenses. You will be the first line of defense, and I will be the second line of defense? !
It's not that Zhu Huan wants to preserve his strength at this critical moment, but he has to do it. If the opponent's general is not stupid, he will definitely choose a wheel-to-wheel battle. If we don't do this, we won't be able to withstand it for too long.
In fact, after Kou Feng failed in his first attack and learned Zhu Huan's ability, he had indeed begun to prepare for a round-robin battle.
Kou Feng was a bit reckless in his use of troops, and his tactical command skills were a bit poor, but that doesn't mean he was a stubborn fool.
Since a quick victory is not possible, it is natural to choose a war of attrition. This is not a clever tactical choice, it is just the military experience accumulated from years of fighting.
As soon as he saw Kou Feng adjusting his troop deployment and preparing for a wheel battle, and then thinking about the current situation, he had to say that Quan Cong was really a good general.
He agreed to Zhu Huan's request, switched defenses with Zhu Huan, and led his troops to the front line.
(End of chapter)
