To be honest, neither Zhang Xi nor Pang Tong expected that the war situation has developed to this point.
Mainly on the naval side. No matter how they thought about it before the war, Zhang Xi and Pang Tong never thought that they could beat the Soochow Navy, which was known as "the best in the world", so much that they could only stay in the water stronghold and hold on.
Pang Tong even wanted to suggest to Zhang Xi that we should not carry out a secret attack on Chencang, but just transfer Shi Bao, Jiang Wei and others to Wulin and attack Changsha directly.
As long as Changsha County is captured, the connection between Jingnan and other areas of Soochow can be completely severed, and the four counties in Jingnan can be captured with ease.
Not to mention, Zhang Xi is also a little cautious.
However, after a series of discussions, Zhang Xi and Pang Tong finally decided to implement the strategy according to the original plan.
On the one hand, the strategic arrangements have been made, and if they continue to be implemented, there will be no difficulty. However, if the strategy is changed midway and Jiang Wei and others are transferred to Wulin, then all the preparations made by Jiang Wei and others will be wasted. .
On the other hand, Zhang Xi was still a little hesitant. Without fully controlling the Yangtze River defense line, it was somewhat risky to rush across the river from Wulin.
Nowadays, Soochow's two naval forces, the Jiangxia Navy and the Baqiu Navy, have indeed been suppressed in the water stronghold by our navy, but this does not mean that they have lost their combat effectiveness.
In addition, on the ground in Jingxiang, the Han Dynasty only has these two naval forces. As for Soochow, they actually have reserve naval forces, such as the Soochow Navy that is responsible for defending the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and crossing the sea, and the Soochow Navy. The Soochow navy responsible for guarding Jianye.
If Soochow is really desperate, it is not impossible to send these two navy troops to help.
In this case, when crossing the river in Wulin to attack Changsha, the backwater channel and grain and grass supplies cannot guarantee absolute safety.
Therefore, Zhang Xi felt that it was better to follow the original plan and suppress Changsha with troops, but instead of attacking by force, he only needed to create enough pressure on Zhu Ran to attract him to mobilize troops from Wuling County.
As long as Soochow is not impatient and sees the possibility of holding on to the situation, Zhang Xi feels that with Sun Quan's courage, he will not send more naval troops to support.
After weighing the situation back and forth, Pang Tong did not continue to insist on his own suggestions, but agreed with Zhang Xi's idea of continuing to implement the strategy.
In this way, in October of the first year of Yanxi, Zhang Xi led his troops across the river from Wulin, entered Changsha County, and marched towards Xiajun County.
At this time, Zhu Ran was still in Luo County. When he heard that Zhang Xi was leading troops across the river and approaching Xiajun, he immediately led troops to reinforce him without hesitation.
Xiajun County is in the northeast of Luo County. If it falls, the Shu army can march straight in to attack Luo County. In this case, the Baqiu Navy in the north of Luo County will be cut off from support, causing the entire waters near Baqiu to completely lose control.
Therefore, Luoxian County is very important, and Xiajun County, as a barrier to Luoxian County, should not be lost as much as possible.
At present, the soldiers from Wuling County led by Zhang Cheng have not yet rushed to Changsha County to help, and Lu Zhi is also on his way north. Zhu Ran has no soldiers and generals to use, so he can only lead five thousand soldiers to help Xiajun County.
Originally there were only 10,000 soldiers guarding Xiajun County, but with Zhu Ran's rapid reinforcements, there were barely 15,000 soldiers. Even if Zhang Xi really led an army of 50,000 across the river, Zhu Ran would have to hold on for a while, waiting for Zhang Cheng to lead troops to come to the rescue. of capital.
What's more, when Zhu Ran led the troops to Xiajun County, he found that Zhang Xi had indeed led the troops across the river in person, but the strength was not 50,000, but only about 30,000.
Although there are a lot of troops, but why do you feel that it is a little different from what you expected? !
Moreover, after Zhang Xi crossed the Yangtze River, he did not rush to launch an attack. Instead, after the soldiers surrounded Jun County, he began to build siege equipment slowly and slowly prepared to attack the city. This made Zhu Ran feel Something is even more wrong.
According to Zhu Ran's idea, although Soochow is now at a disadvantage on the Yangtze River defense line, Zhang Xi leads a heavy army to cross the river, and the logistical pressure is not small, especially when the Yangtze River is not fully controlled. Transporting grain and grass to defense zones between armies is somewhat risky.
Therefore, Zhu Ran judged that Zhang Xi would attack Changsha County by force and seeking a quick victory.
After all, the longer it drags on, the greater the risk of logistical pressure on the Shu army.
If the Jiangxia navy or the Baqiu navy defeat the Shu navy in one direction and win the comeback, Zhang Xi's troops will most likely be blocked in Changsha County.
However, Zhang Xi's slow and leisurely behavior was indeed different from what Zhu Ran thought.
And the number of troops is wrong. Why are there only 30,000 people? !
Even if Zhu Ran made a mistake in predicting the strength of his troops, he should not have misjudged as many as 20,000 troops at once. Where did the rest of the Shu army go? !
Soon, Zhu Ran received an urgent report from Luo County. Shu general Zhou Tai led 10,000 soldiers to raid Luo County. Luo County was in danger! ! !
Zhu Ran almost jumped in fright.
There were only 20,000 infantry guards in Changsha, 10,000 were placed by Zhu Ran in Xiajun County to guard against the main force of the Shu army crossing the river in Wulin in the north, and the other 10,000 were left in Luo County by Zhu Ran.
Later, there was an emergency in Xiajun County, and Zhu Ran had to rush over with 5,000 people for rescue. Now, there are only 5,000 defenders left in Luo County.
Of course, this is not the most troublesome thing. The most troublesome thing is that there is no general guarding Luo County now. It will take time for Lu Ju to go north, and Zhang Cheng has not led his troops to arrive.
There is a huge difference between a city guarded by generals and a city without generals.
With a general guarding the defense, the garrison has a backbone, and the morale and morale of the army are naturally guaranteed. However, without a general guarding the defense, no one knows who to listen to, and the morale and morale of the army are naturally difficult to guarantee.
Of course, the county magistrate can also lead the garrison to hold on, but unless the county magistrate has a very high prestige in the county and can also suppress those foreign soldiers. But this is too difficult.
Historically, those who served as county magistrates and were able to defend the city from being invaded by foreign enemies were, without exception, all of them. Most of them were outstanding people. The magistrates who defended the city were the ones with a little integrity. The city was destroyed and the people were killed. The ones without integrity were the enemies. Before he came, the county magistrate ran away on his own.
Therefore, Zhu Ran really can't rest assured in Luo County now. Even if there are still 5,000 people guarding him, as for the county magistrate who comes from a local family, Zhu Ran is not even afraid that he will run away, but that he will come. If you "eat the pulp from the pot", then your way out will be cut off.
For this reason, after Zhu Ran simply put himself in someone else's shoes and weighed which was more important, Luo County or Xiajun County, he immediately made the decision to abandon Xiajun and return to defend Luo County.
Obviously, Luo County is the most important.
In this way, after the collapse of the Yangtze River, Zhang Xi occupied Xiajun County almost without a fight.
This made Zhang Xi and Pang Tong a little bit dumbfounded. This time they were really unjust. Zhang Xi really didn't want to occupy Jun County.
According to Zhang Xi and Pang Tong's plan, they planned to lead the troops to suppress Jun County first, and then divide their forces to take a detour, with Zhou Tai leading 10,000 soldiers to sneak attack Luo County.
For this reason, Zhang Xidu called Zhou Tai and ten thousand Han troops back from Zhangling.
But the purpose is not to require Zhoutai to successfully attack Luoxian. After all, according to Zhang Xi and Pang Tong's estimates, there should be 5,000 to 10,000 Soochow defenders in Luoxian. It would be difficult for Zhoutai to successfully attack Luoxian with only 10,000 troops. successful.
The real purpose was just to create a tense situation and make Zhu Ran firm in his idea of dispatching troops from Wuling County. At this time, neither Zhang Xi nor Pang Tong knew that Zhu Ran had already dispatched troops from Wuling County.
After all, the communication conditions in this era are limited, and careful work is not omnipotent. It is impossible that Zhang Xi will know everything about what happened in Soochow the next day.
Therefore, the original intention was to scare Zhu Ran's strategic division of troops. Unexpectedly, Zhu Ran could not help but be so frightened that he directly gave up the defense of Xiajun County and retreated to Luo County.
This matter was such a big deal. Privately, Zhang Xi couldn't help but lament to Pang Tong that after Zhou Yu, Soochow really didn't even have a commander-in-chief who could be put on the stage.
The Lu Xun in Huainan may be okay, but the Zhu Ran in Jingnan is obviously a little too far behind Zhou Yu.
Although Zhu Ran's performance disappointed Zhang Xi, Zhu Ran's withdrawal was indeed beyond Zhang Xi and Pang Tong's expectations. In this case, should his side send troops or not? !
Let's march in. Luo County is definitely the next one that needs to be conquered. But Luo County has 20,000 troops to defend it, so does Zhu Ran still need to mobilize troops from Wuling County? !
If you don't send troops, it's unreasonable not to leave a good city. Moreover, if you don't send troops, it will be even more impossible for Zhu Ran to mobilize troops from Wuling County to support Changsha.
Therefore, Zhang Xi still led the army to enter Xiajun County.
At the same time, Zhang Xi rested in Xiajun County for ten days to provide Zhu Ran with time to mobilize his troops. Then, he officially led the troops and set off for Luo County, with the 10,000 troops of Zhou Tai stationed outside Luo County. The horses converge.
Now, the main force of 50,000 people faced Zhu Ran's 20,000 defenders in Luoxian County.
It's still the same old rules, set up camp first, and then slowly start to prepare to cut down trees, build siege equipment, and prepare to besiege Luoxian County.
A few days later, according to the scout report from Zhang Xi's army, there was a Soochow army thirty miles southeast of Luoxian, with more than 10,000 troops heading towards Luoxian.
At this time, Zhang Xi was relieved and finally mobilized.
At this time, Zhang Xi could not think of the second possibility besides the reinforcements from Wuling County that more than 10,000 troops could come to support Changsha.
As a result, Zhang Xi immediately ordered the envoys in the army to hurry up and return to Jiangling to deliver the order.
Shi Bao, the partial troops of Jiang Wei and others can be dispatched! ! !
(End of chapter)
