Zhu Ran had not yet made up his mind whether to dispatch the defenders from Wuling County to Changsha to assist in the defense.
First, there are still 20,000 army soldiers in Changsha, and they are basically concentrated in various counties along the Yangtze River. Even if they are besieged by the main force of the Shu army, they can still hold on for a while.
Secondly, since Shu Han has launched an attack on Jiangxia, it must have divided its forces. Based on the information collected so far, Zhang Xi's strength in Wulin should be only about 50,000 at most.
The balance of forces has changed, so naturally, the threat to Changsha has also decreased.
Thirdly, whether it is the Jiangling Navy or the Xiangyang Navy, they are still unable to gain an advantage over the Soochow Navy in surface combat, let alone win easily.
As long as the navy is undefeated, Zhang Xi will not dare to let the main force of the army cross the river.
Therefore, in the final analysis, although the Soochow Army with a superior navy seems to be in a dangerous situation, in fact, as long as it defends the Yangtze River and Han River, it will be in an invincible position.
Although Zhu Ran's approach of dividing his troops to support Jiangxia seemed a bit risky, Zhu Ran still had certain confidence in the combat power of the Soochow Navy.
In the last battle of Jiangling, Zhu Ran was able to completely defeat the Jiangling Navy with equal strength. Now even though the strength is at a disadvantage, Zhu Ran is still confident.
The naval army is not a matter of simply competing with more people to determine the outcome.
As Zhu Ran's Baqiu Navy divided its forces, the Jiangling Navy stationed on the west bank of Baqiu finally responded.
As soon as Zhu Ran's fleet left the water stronghold, a fleet was also dispatched from the Jiangling water stronghold. Under the leadership of two Mengchong warships, they left the stronghold to pursue the navy that Zhu Ran had divided.
It was obviously impossible for Zhu Ran to let the Jiangling navy pursue it like this. He immediately led the remaining 10,000 navy troops out of the water village to form an array and intercepted the pursuing Jiangling navy.
It was very easy to stop the pursuing Jiangling navy.
In Zhu Ran's opinion, this was not a big deal.
Although the Jiangling navy that went out to pursue had two Mengchong warships, they only brought more than fifty large and small warships. Such a naval force only had a strength of six to seven thousand people. It was obvious that they were detecting the abnormal movements of the Baqiu navy. Later, he hurriedly launched a pursuit.
They don't have many troops, and their purpose is not to eliminate the supporting navy sent by Zhu Ran. Most likely, they want to catch up and hold back the supporting navy, wait for the large force to complete their combat readiness, catch up, and encircle and attack together.
Therefore, it is not difficult for Zhu Ran to intercept such a hastily dispatched navy force with his 10,000 navy troops.
Next, according to Zhu Ran's prediction, the Jiangling Navy should take the initiative to retreat to the water village after the interception failed. After all, regardless of the size of the troops or the number of ships, such a navy cannot be Baqiu Navy. opponent.
But the situation suddenly changed.
Seeing Zhu Ran leading the remaining Baqiu navy to fight, Zhong Limu, the navy who intercepted his own unit, sneered slightly and immediately ordered the entire army to attack.
From the beginning, Zhong Limu's military order was not to pursue the supporting navy, but to intercept the navy under Zhu Ran.
Regarding Zhu Ran's navy's tendency to use troops, Yang Xi and Zhong Limu have discussed and simulated it many times.
After receiving the news from the Wulin main camp and learning that the army had begun a feint attack on Jiangxia, Yang Xi and Zhong Limu made a lot of analysis on Zhu Ran's possible reaction and formulated a plan. Quite a few response options.
In this way, except for Zhu Ran's choice to continue to stay in Baqiu and remain unmoved, no matter what other choices Zhu Ran makes, whether to divide his troops to support Jiangxia or to support Jiangxia with the entire army, the Jiangling navy will be in this battle now. Law.
That is to first send Zhong Limu and lead a small naval force to attack, attracting enemy troops to besiege, and then Yang Di will lead a large force to follow up, counterattack and surround these Soochow naval forces, and cooperate with each other from the inside out.
In order to ensure that Zhongli Mu can better carry out the goal of attracting enemy siege, the naval forces arranged by Yang Jin for Zhongli Mu are all the old naval forces with the most combat effectiveness that survived the Jiangling Water War.
Originally, Zhong Limu was still a little worried.
Once Zhu Ran chose to let all 20,000 Baqiu naval forces go out to support Jiang Xia, then Zhonglimu's troops would be too few and there would not be enough warships. He was not sure whether he could survive the siege of 20,000 people. If you persist until Yang Di leads the main force to come to the rescue, there is no guarantee that under such circumstances, you will still have the combat power to cooperate with Yang Di in internal and external cooperation.
But, God help me.
Zhu Ran chose to divide his troops and sent 10,000 naval troops to Jiangxia, while he led the remaining 10,000 naval troops to stay behind. Zhong Limu's 7,000 men may not be able to capture 20,000 men, but Zhu Ran's 10,000 men can capture you. It is not a problem at all to stay behind in the navy.
Zhu Ran's navy was instantly entangled by the seven thousand Jiangling navy led by Zhong Limu.
Faced with such a sudden change, Zhu Ran was just stunned for a moment, and then immediately made a change.
Zhu Ran ordered the forward fleet to immediately launch a counterattack to repel the Jiangling naval forces who were already jumping off the side to engage in close combat. The rear fleet quickly spread to both wings of the front army and used bows and arrows to suppress the Jiangling navy's follow-up fleet and prevent them from getting closer. entangled.
The purpose is only one, to get rid of the entanglement of these Jiangling naval forces as soon as possible and quickly return to Baqiu Water Village.
It's not that Zhu Ran doesn't have the confidence to deal with the Jiangling Navy under Zhong Limu. What Zhu Ran is really worried about is the main force of the Jiangling Navy that will follow.
Once we counterattack Zhong Limu's navy here, it is possible to completely annihilate the Jiangling navy, but then facing the main force of the Jiangling navy, it may not be that easy to fight.
Of course, Zhu Ran still has the confidence and certainty to win, but the Jiangling Navy has a numerical advantage after all, and he does not have many naval forces in his hands now. Even if he loses a battle at a ratio of two to one, Zhu Ran will still be exhausted. opposite.
If all the naval forces are really wiped out, Zhang Xi on the other side of Wulin might really be able to cross the river with fishing boats and sampans to attack Changsha.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, Zhu Ran chose to retreat first and not get too entangled with the Jiangling navy.
There is a saying that Zhu Ran's judgment was not wrong, but he only misjudged it a little. The front of his navy did not easily defeat the Jiangling navy's jump-off melee attack as he imagined.
The two sides actually ended up in a draw and were still in an ongoing dispute.
The navy troops sent by Zhu Ran to both wings to suppress them with arrows were not able to stop the approaching Jiangling navy warships. These Jiangling navy troops seemed to be desperate for their lives, resisting the rain of arrows like locusts. Still desperately trying to narrow the gap with the Soochow Navy warships on both wings, they also wanted to engage in close combat by jumping off the side of the ship.
These Jiangling naval forces are a little too desperate, aren't they? !
Zhu Ran was quite surprised. The Jiangling navy two years ago did not have such a strong will to fight, right? !
Yes, it's just the will to fight, not the combat power. Under the precise arrow attacks of the Soochow Navy, the soldiers on the Jiangling Navy warships have been suffering constant battle losses, and the density and speed of the arrow counterattacks are far less than those of the Soochow Navy.
But they just fought hard and suffered losses all the way, so they rushed forward.
The combat regulations of the Jiangling Navy stipulate that when attacking, the general is in front. Zhong Limu is now on the central front, jumping off the side of the ship to engage in close combat. The Jiangling Navy on the left and right wings cannot retreat easily no matter what difficulties they encounter. .
This is one of the reasons why Yang Xi dared to boast in front of Zhang Xi, saying that the current combat power of the Jiangling Navy is no less than that of the Soochow Navy. The soul of this army was finally trained by Yang Xi.
Although there are still some gaps in individual combat experience and combat ability compared with the Soochow Navy, Yang Di chose to make up for it in terms of fighting will.
Of course, this has its pros and cons.
The good thing is that as long as Zhong Limu can always take the lead and fight desperately at the front, he can inspire the fighting will of all Jiangling Shui soldiers.
The disadvantage is that once Zhong Limu is killed, this army will most likely not have the courage to continue fighting.
But at least, now that Zhong Limu is still fighting, the Jiangling naval forces on both wings cannot retreat.
This desperate fighting method moved Zhu Ran for a moment, but then, Zhu Ran also made his own decision.
Since you can't get rid of it, forget it. It's just jumping off the side of the ship and fighting in close combat. Who is afraid of whom?
Soochow's navy was number one in the world, and it was not achieved by archery.
Jumping off the side of the ship to fight in close combat is an old tradition of our Soochow navy.
It is also time for this new group of Jingzhou navy to understand how their predecessors were unable to lift themselves up under the pressure of Soochow navy's jumping off the side and close combat.
Zhu Ran gave an order, and the warships on both wings gave up shooting and took the initiative to rush forward.
One on the left and one on the right, the two generals attacked together.
One is to stay and the other is to be yourself.
Don't forget, Zhu Ran was promoted by Sun Quan only because of his own bravery.
At this point, the Soochow Navy and the Jiangling Navy were engaged in a full-scale fight.
When Zhu Ran responded like this, the pressure on Jiangling Navy suddenly increased greatly.
The generals of the unified army are fighting on the front line, and the control of the battle situation is naturally not as smooth as when commanding on the battlefield. Then the development of the battle situation can only be determined by the individual combat power and teamwork of the soldiers.
In this regard, the Jiangling Navy was still far behind the Soochow Navy.
Zhongli Mu can clearly feel that as time goes by, what he can see on the battlefield is basically the Soochow Navy. This means that his navy is about to be unable to maintain its defense line. Zhongli Mu's side has already There are not many of our own soldiers left.
If this continues, Zhong Limu doubts whether he can hold on until Yang Di's main army arrives.
At this moment, on the west side of the battlefield, a huge naval fleet appeared within the sight of both warring parties.
Yang Xi finally arrived at the battlefield before Zhong Limu was defeated by the Soochow navy.
(End of chapter)
