If a siege of a large-scale battle lasts for a year, it is not a problem at all. In other words, this is the stalemate time that a siege war should have.
But... obviously, it is not suitable for the current battle in Jingnan.
Zhang Xi could really besiege Luo County for a year, but Sun Quan would not give Zhang Xi this time.
The start of the war in Jingnan was not unexpected by Sun Quan. After all, various intelligence before the war showed that the Shu Han would attack Jingnan.
But the outcome of the battle in Jingnan was indeed beyond Sun Quan's expectations.
Originally, Sun Quan was thinking, no matter what, he only has a small number of 100,000 people in Jingnan and Jiangxia combined. If you Shu Han want to launch a large-scale attack, how can you fight without 200,000 people? !
What's more, the Soochow Navy ranks first in the world! ! !
In the battle against Jingnan, there was no navy, so what the hell are you doing? Then Sun Quan went to Baqiu one after another, and the naval forces in Xiakou and Xiakou lost one after another.
This slap in the face makes a snapping sound.
It doesn’t matter that Zhuge Ke, a young man, lacks experience in water warfare, Zhuge Ran commanded the water army to lose like that in Baqiu. Are you embarrassed? !
Just when Sun Quan was furious with Zhu Ran, he received another battle report. The four counties in Jingnan were in emergency.
Lu Dai in Wuling County may have 20,000 troops, but he was forced to hold on to a small county town.
Lu Kai of Lingling County, who was in the rear, was unexpectedly attacked and lost the entire county. His life and death are now unknown.
Zhu Ran of Changsha was first frightened and gave up Xiajun County, and then ordered people to attack Liling County. Thirty thousand Shu troops directly threatened Yuzhang County.
At this time, Sun Quan was no longer angry, but furious.
Zhu Ran is incompetent, Lu Dai is useless, and Zhuge Ke is just a name.
But after being furious, Sun Quan regained his composure.
The situation was already like this, and Sun Quan also knew that it was useless no matter how angry he was. The most important thing now was to quickly find a way to deal with the threat posed by the Shu Han.
But the problem is that before the war, Sun Quan did not think that he would be unable to defend the four counties of Jingnan and Jiangxia. Therefore, Jiangdong and Huainan were not ready to support Jingnan. The current situation has changed too much. Come on, less than two months since the war started, it has actually developed to the point where the four counties in Jingnan are about to fall, and even Jiangxia is in danger.
Sun Quan didn't know if Zhu Ran could hold out until the moment he sent reinforcements now that he was starting to mobilize for war.
But no matter what, Sun Quan still had to make preparations.
In the four counties of Danyang County, Wu County, Kuaiji County, and Lujiang County, the county troops were concentrated to prepare food, grass, ordnance, and be prepared to send troops to support. Yuzhang County concentrated troops to do defensive work to prevent the Shu bandits from east after conquering Liling County. Enter Yuzhang County.
Mobilize the naval combat readiness in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Once supplies are completed, they will immediately move up the river to support Xiakou.
This was Sun Quan's response to the beginning of the war in Jingnan.
However, these responses were carried out in a hurry, not only requiring one to two months of preparation time, but Sun Quan could not guarantee whether the soldiers could exert their maximum combat effectiveness.
For this reason, in addition to asking Zhu Ran to wait for help, Sun Quan also privately sent his own envoy to the Jingnan front line to talk about friendship with his brother-in-law.
As far as the public is concerned, there is no deep hatred between Shu and Wu. They are just jealous of each other. It is just some territorial disputes. If the two families fight so fiercely, won't it allow Cao Wei to reap the benefits? !
Personally speaking, no matter whether my sister recognizes it or not, we are still a family. Why should it be so ugly? !
If the Shu Han side only has a claim to the territory of Jingnan, we can't sit down and talk. Why should we go to such a point of fighting each other? !
Of course, Sun Quan's purpose of doing this was to paralyze Zhang Xi and slow down his attack on the four counties in Jingnan. On the other hand, Sun Quan was also trying to buy time for himself to summon reinforcements.
When Sun Quan eats something in his stomach, he won't vomit it out easily.
However, Sun Quan also knew that his brother-in-law was not easy to fool. If he wanted Zhang Xi to be fooled, he had to send someone who Zhang Xi could not refuse to see. Sun Quan sent Zhou Yin.
Zhou Yu’s second son and Zhang Xi’s nephew. You can’t disappear, right? !
In this way, Zhou Yin, sent by Sun Quan, passed through Yuzhang County and headed for the front line of Changsha County.
First, he met Zhu Ran and conveyed Sun Quan's request for Zhu Ran to stand firm and wait for reinforcements. Then he left the city and went to the Han army camp, where he asked to see Zhang Xi and conveyed to Zhang Xi face to face Sun Quan's request for the two families to stop fighting and make peace.
"My lord is willing to redefine the boundaries based on the Xiang River agreement, and the two families will stop fighting and make peace. I don't know what Zhang Huiqi wants, what do you think?!" Zhou Yin said.
There is one thing to say, Zhou Yin's ability is really not good, it is far worse than his father.
Of course, if he really came here, he probably wouldn't come to negotiate, but directly to start a war.
However, Zhou Yin's rhetoric did not emphasize that Soochow still had the strength to fight and that fighting with each other was not actually necessary. On the other hand, it did not show Soochow's sincerity in making concessions.
This kind of rhetoric, let alone Zhang Xi, even if you were replaced by someone like Mi Fang or Fu Shiren, they wouldn't be able to believe this nonsense.
I have already reached the east of the Xiang River. Soochow has only one Lu Dai left to guard the city west of the Xiang River. Why should they return to the boundary demarcated by the Xiang River? !
There is no sincerity in the negotiation conditions. Who can believe your empty words?
However, this is still considered a junior. When Zhou Yu was alive, Zhang Xi might not have cared about Zhou Yin, but after Zhou Yu passed away, Zhang Xi looked at Zhou Yin as if he were a junior.
He did not refuse in words, only said that he would consider it carefully, and then asked Zhou Yin to go back to Luoxian County to see Zhu Ran, and then directly launched the siege.
In the previous offensive and defensive battle in Luoxian County, Zhang Xi had already started to prepare for the siege. He had not fought yet. On the one hand, he was waiting for the siege equipment to be prepared. On the other hand, he also wanted to see Shi Bao in the south and Jiang Weineng in the west. There can be no breakthrough.
But now it’s impossible not to fight.
Zhou Yin's arrival was said to be to negotiate peace, but in fact, from the perspective of Zhang Xi and Pang Tong, how could they not see that this was Sun Quan's attempt to delay the war? !
If Sun Quan really wanted to make peace, he would not send a junior of Zhou Yin's level as an envoy. At least he would have to send out important ministers like Gu Yong and Bu Zhi who have the ability to independently decide the terms of peace. He would send Zhou Yin as an envoy. There is obviously only one goal, which is to confuse Zhang Xi by relying on Zhou Yin's special identity.
Another thing is that the conditions for demarcating the Xiangshui River are really lacking in sincerity. If there is a little sincerity, it will have to go to Guiyang County.
So we started fighting directly as a response to Sun Quan's peace proposal.
Zhou Yin still couldn't understand why the situation suddenly changed again. Didn't he say that he would carefully consider the terms of the peace negotiation? But Zhu Ran was not as naive as Zhou Yin and directly challenged the defense of the city.
By the way, Zhou Yin was also asked to quickly return to Jianye to repay the Supreme and ask for help from the Supreme.
Actually, it doesn't matter whether he asks for help or not. Zhu Ran already knows Sun Quan's arrangements, so sending people to ask for help has no practical significance.
Zhu Ran just found an excuse to ask Zhou Yin to leave the front line quickly.
Just like Zhang Xi used coaxing methods to lure Zhou Yin back to Luoxian County before attacking the city, Zhu Ran actually used this coaxing method to coax Zhou Yin back to Jianye.
The two of them actually protected Zhou Yin, keeping him as far away from the battlefield as possible. Who made Zhou Yin Zhou Yu's son?
The confused Zhou Yin left Luo County as soon as possible and returned to Jianye at Zhu Ran's strong request.
The offensive and defensive battle in Luoxian County officially began.
Both sides invested their maximum strength, one side attacked and the other defended, both doing their best.
Zhang Xi knew that Sun Quan was already preparing reinforcements. According to Soochow's mobilization capabilities, he had at most one and a half months to attack the city, maybe only one month.
If Luoxian cannot be captured within this month, and when Soochow's naval forces arrive at Xiakou, Zhang Xi may have to temporarily withdraw his troops and return to Wulin, wait and see how the war develops, and then decide whether to continue the attack on Changsha. .
This is very annoying when attacking Soochow. Without the advantage of the navy, it is really difficult to defeat it in one battle.
For this reason, Zhang Xi and Pang Tong discussed carefully and finally decided to let Jiang Wei give up the siege of Wuling County and directly choose to march eastward to Changsha County.
Just doing this will cause Lu Dai of Wuling County to escape from trouble. He has 20,000 Soochow County soldiers in his hands.
Once Jiang Wei leaves Wuling County and comes to Changsha, Lu Dai has three choices.
One is to go north to counterattack the public security forces, overwhelm the river, sneak attack on Jiangling, and encircle Wei to rescue Zhao.
This approach is the greatest threat to Zhang Xi's army and what Zhang Xi is most worried about.
But Pang Tong felt that with 5,000 naval troops led by Zhong Limu guarding Jiangling Water Village, Lu Dai did not have enough naval warships to respond. Even if he could collect enough ferries to cross the river, it would be impossible to break through Zhong Limu's force. Defend and land at Gangneung.
And even if he breaks through Zhongli Mu's defense, Jiangling still has Wang Ji. With Wang Ji's ability, even if he temporarily recruits some private soldiers from aristocratic families to guard Jiangling, Jiangling will not be easily lost.
This attack on Jingnan has received the full support of the Jingxiang family. Those families will not refuse to give up this private army.
At least Pang Tong believed that this risk was worth taking.
The second is to go south and attack Lingling County.
If Lu Dai adopted this approach, then Zhang Xi would be least worried about letting Pan Jun retreat into Changsha County and join Shi Bao.
As long as Zhu Ran's army in Changsha is defeated and Lu Dai is dealt with, Lu Dai has no other choice but to escape from Jiaozhou and return to Soochow.
The third type is that Lu Dai also leads troops to aid Changsha.
In this case, it depends on whether the Han Dynasty's southern army can defeat the Soochow soldiers in the field. This depends on the military command capabilities of Jiang Wei and Lu Dai.
This approach is what Zhang Xi and Pang Tong hope for most.
Zhang Xi had confidence in Jiang Wei's ability, while Pang Tong had confidence in the combat effectiveness of the Han Dynasty's southern army.
If Lu Dai really did this, then the 20,000 Soochow soldiers he led would probably not even think about coming to Changsha County as reinforcements.
I just don’t know which response Lu Dai will choose.
(End of chapter)
