The strategy formulated by Zhang Xi seems to be quite complicated, but in fact, it is just different response methods based on multiple possibilities.
In fact, to put it bluntly, if there is a chance to attack Wuling, then attack Wuling. If there is no chance, it is enough to capture the counties north of the Yangtze River in Jiangxia and maintain the strategic advantage over Soochow.
How the actual war situation will develop depends on the actual situation.
Once the war breaks out, no one can say what the final outcome will be.
After the strategy is formulated, it depends on how the preparations of both parties go.
After half a year of preparation, Zhang Xi finally officially sent troops from Jiangling to the south in late September of the first year of Yanxi.
According to the available intelligence, Zhu Ran predicted that Wuling County's defense was empty, as Pang Tong expected, and sent troops in advance to increase Wuling County's defense. Currently, Wuling County is defended by about 35,000 soldiers.
But again, there is good news.
In order to increase the defense strength of Wuling County, Zhu Ran did not choose to mobilize troops from Changsha, but chose to mobilize troops from Jiangxia. Now Jiangxia only has 20,000 sailors and 15,000 infantry for defense.
In this case, once Zhang Xi stationed troops in Wulin, the threat to Jiangxia would be too great.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Zhang Xi immediately raised his troops and led 70,000 infantrymen to garrison in Wulin, facing Dongwu Zhuran across the river.
The 25,000-strong Jiangling navy also immediately sent troops, leaving the Jiangling water stronghold and going down the river. They set up another water stronghold on the west side of Baqiu to watch Zhu Ran's Baqiu navy.
At the same time, Shi Bao, Jiang Wei, Pan Jun and others led 30,000 troops, but did not attack in Jiangling City. Wen Dai led 5,000 naval troops to garrison the Jiangling water village, ready to help Shi Bao and others cross the river at any time.
When Zhang Xi moved, the first person with numb claws was Zhu Ran.
From the beginning, Zhu Ran's defense focus was on Wuling and Changsha counties, especially Wuling County, which has been the focus of Shu Han's military deployment in recent years.
He really didn't expect that Zhang Xi would station troops in Wulin and dispatch 70,000 to 80,000 troops at once.
This force is a great threat to both Changsha and Jiangxia.
The only advantage is that starting from Wulin, whether you are attacking Changsha or Jiangxia, you must have the help of the navy.
To attack Changsha, you need to cross the Yangtze River, and to attack Jiangxia, you need to defeat the Jiangxia Navy stationed in Xiakou. The Jiangling Navy currently does not have the ability to fight on two fronts.
But there was one thing that Zhu Ran didn't quite understand, and that was the location of Jiangling Navy's water stronghold.
Generally speaking, if Zhangxi troops are stationed in Wulin, in order to facilitate coordination and command, the water stronghold of Jiangling Navy should be set up near Wulin. But now the water stronghold of Jiangling Navy is on the west side of Baqiu. Facing his own Baqiu Navy across the river.
The Yangtze River is very wide, and it is not possible for Zhu Ran to completely block it with a water fortress and not even let it pass.
The Jiangling Navy is stationed on the west side of Baqiu. Obviously, it does not mean to go to Wulin to join Zhang Xi's main army. The purpose of the Jiangling Navy is to keep the Baqiu Navy in check.
So the question is, without the help of the navy, how can Zhang Xi cross the Yangtze River or Han River and attack Changsha or Jiangxia? !
By fishermen's sampans? !
Zhu Ran really couldn't understand what Zhang Xi was going to do now.
As for Zhang Xi, he was arranging his troops calmly at this time.
First, Zhou Tai was asked to set off first, leading 10,000 troops to attack Jingling County, Jiangxia County.
Jingling is the only county town on the west side of the Han River among the counties in Jiangxia. The purpose of letting Zhou Tai lead troops to attack this place was to attract Zhuge Ke's attention and let him judge that the Han army was going to attack Jiangxia, thereby shrinking the Jiangxia navy's return. Guard against Xiakou and dare not easily cruise in the Han River Basin.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Xi asked Wen Qin and Guanqiu Jian, each with ten thousand troops, to go north from Huarong County to Hanjin Ferry. At Hanjin Ferry, they waited until Wenpin's Xiangyang navy went south.
After Wenpin's navy arrived at Hanjin Ferry, they would first meet Wenqin. Guanqiujian's soldiers crossed the Han River and entered the northern part of Jiangxia County. Without the obstruction of Jiangxia's navy, this task should not be too difficult to complete.
After that, Wenpin will continue to lead his troops southward and attack Xiakou, while Wenqin and Guanqiujian will divide their troops to attack Yundu, Anlu, Nanxin, Xiling and other counties after entering northern Jiangxia, and clear out the The Soochow Army forces north of the Yangtze River.
This is actually not that difficult. Jiangxia currently only has 15,000 infantry and 20,000 naval troops.
Faced with the threat of 70,000 Han troops, it is unlikely that Zhuge Ke will continue to divide his troops to garrison in various counties. He must concentrate on defending Xiakou and Shaxian counties to prevent Zhang Xi from directly breaking through from Jingling in the west. In the north of Jiangxia, there should be remaining There were no fewer than a few soldiers stationed there.
But when Wen Qin and Guan Qiu Jian made a big fuss in the northern part of Jiangxia, and Wen Pin led the Xiangyang navy to the outskirts of Xiakou, Zhang Xi did not believe that Zhu Ran could still sit in Baqiu.
The Han army's early combat preparations were carried out completely in accordance with the response plan formulated by Pang Tong.
Zhu Ran is still calm now, but Zhuge Ke can't sit still.
Zhuge Ke, although he thinks very highly of himself, still has some talent.
After Zhang Xi stationed troops in Wulin, Zhuge Ke did as Zhang Xi expected and chose to directly abandon Jingling on the west bank of the Han River.
There is no way, the Shu army has 70,000 troops stationed in Wulin Tun. Even if Zhuge Ke sends all 15,000 Jiangxia army troops to Jingling to defend the city, they may not be able to defend it. Once they cannot defend it, Jiangxia will only The navy is left to fight.
The risk is too great. It is better to abandon the defense of Jingling directly and let the Jingling defenders retreat across the Han River. At the same time, they gather soldiers from other counties and counties in Jiangxia, totaling 12,000 people, and all of them are stationed in Shaxian for defense.
But Zhuge Ke did not completely abandon the defense of northern Jiangxia. He at least left a thousand county soldiers to guard each of the three counties of Yundu, Anlu and Nanxin in northern Jiangxia.
Although they could not stop the large army, if the Shu Han were only a small force crossing the Han River to fight, the defenders in these three counties would still be useful in warning in advance and holding on for a while to wait for reinforcements.
At the same time, after Zhuge Ke drove away Zhang Cheng and ignored Sun Sheng, he completely took control of the command of the Jiangxia Navy and did not order the Jiangxia Navy to huddle in Xiakou for defense.
On the contrary, Zhuge Ke ordered to strengthen patrols on the Han River when the Shu Han army was pressing down on the border.
Zhuge Ke was actually afraid that Zhang Xi would split his troops and cross the river from other parts of the Han River Basin to threaten the northern part of Jiangxia County.
Zhuge Ke's vision and response were not a big problem, and he also showed some of his personal abilities and strategic vision.
But his biggest problem is still his serious lack of battlefield experience. Moreover, he is so confident that he is completely unaware of his problem.
In Ying County, Zhuge Ke only arranged for 3,000 men to intercept and kill Zhou Tai's breakout troops. He did not have a clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of his troops. This was Zhuge Ke's biggest failure in letting Zhou Tai break out. .
But at that time, it was Zhou Tai who abandoned the city, and Zhuge Ke was the victor. They had won the battle, and even if some of the defeated troops broke through, it was not a big deal.
Zhuge Ke didn't realize that it was his problem at all. He just felt that Zhou Tai's luck was too good.
This has led to Zhuge Ke still being somewhat self-righteous in his military use.
He actually thought that the Jiangxia city guarded by a thousand soldiers could delay the Shu army's attack, waiting for him to send troops to rescue.
Furthermore, Zhuge Ke's water warfare experience was even more lacking than his land warfare experience.
Zhuge Ke did see the hidden dangers of defending the Han River and arranged for the Jiangxia navy to patrol back and forth in the Han River basin. However, he did not understand the combat routine of the navy at all and still commanded the navy as if it were an army.
Patrolling along the river, in Zhuge Ke's understanding, is the same as the army sending out scouts to detect the enemy's situation. He did not follow the naval warfare method and send a fleet of Mengchong warships as the main force, supplemented by large and small warships, to patrol the water stronghold. It is to use all Zou Ke as the main patrol force.
According to Zhuge Ke's understanding, Zou Ke is fast, flexible and convenient, and is very convenient for patrolling the Han River Basin.
But the problem is that such patrols can detect Wenpin's Xiangyang navy going south in advance, but in the face of Wenpin's large navy force, the Jiangxia patrol team composed entirely of Zong Ke has no capital to delay the Xiangyang navy's southward movement. He didn't even dare to take the initiative to approach, for fear of being directly surrounded by the Xiangyang navy.
Therefore, Jiangxia's navy patrol team could do nothing but warn Xiakou. They could only watch helplessly as Wenpin led the army to occupy Mengjin Ferry and transport all Wenqin and Guanqiujian's troops across the Han River.
Therefore, while Zhu Ran was still wondering what Zhang Xi was going to do, Zhuge Ke had already known in advance that the Xiangyang navy was going south and transported troops across the Han River to attack the northern part of Jiangxia.
Zhuge Ke suddenly became anxious, and he immediately made his own response.
The first order was to have all the defenders in Yundu and Nanxin counties retreat, abandon the defenses of the two counties, concentrate 3,000 troops, and defend Anlu to prevent the Shu army from sweeping across northern Jiangxia.
The second order was for the Jiangxia Navy to take the initiative to intercept and kill the Xiangyang Navy under Wenpin's command in the Han River Basin.
As long as the water battle is won and the Han River Basin is regained, the logistics and food supplies of the Shu troops crossing the river will be cut off. If he sends the main army force to reinforce Anlu, he can still suffocate the Shu troops raging in northern Jiangxia.
The third order is to ask for help from Zhu Ran, who is stationed in Baqiu.
There are 20,000 Xiangyang naval forces and 20,000 Jiangxia naval forces. The two sides have equal strength and do not have an advantage.
But now Jiangxia's life and death may depend on this naval battle, which makes Zhuge Ke dare not rely on him.
There must be enough naval troops to help in the battle to ensure victory in the Hanshui Battle, so that Jiangxia can be defended more securely.
Although Zhuge Ke is arrogant, he has a strategic vision. He knows the importance of Jiangxia and must not lose Jiangxia. For this reason, no matter how reluctant he is, he must ask Zhu Ran for help.
Zhu Ran, who received Zhuge Ke's request for help, also knew the importance of Jiangxia, and he also wanted to support Jiangxia. But on the other side of the river to the west, there was a Jiangling navy of 25,000 people.
If he asked all the naval forces to go to the Han River to assist in the battle, then the Jiangling naval forces would definitely take the initiative and follow them to fight.
Or, simply let your navy leave the Yangtze River waters, and the Jiangling navy directly transport the Shu army stationed in Wuling across the river to attack Changsha.
Both approaches would make Zhu Ran jealous and he would not dare to act rashly.
Finally, after careful consideration, Zhu Ran decided to divide his troops.
Half of the Baqiu Navy was divided and led by Ding Feng to go to the Han River to assist in the battle. He led the remaining 10,000 Baqiu Navy to defend the water stronghold, blocking the Jiangling Navy and the Shu Han Army in Wulin.
At the same time, Zhu Ran began to think about whether to let Lu Dai send troops to support Changsha.
Seeing that the Shu Han army has basically gathered at the border between Wulin and Jiangxia, it is unlikely that even the Xiangyang navy is here to attack Wuling County, right? !
Hmm. This is a bit hard to say.
(End of chapter)
