Jiang Wei received the order to move his troops eastward. Without any hesitation, he immediately withdrew from Wuling County and headed east along the transformed Dongting Lake swamp area into Changsha County.
Thanks to the Soochow side's unremitting efforts to transform Changsha County over the years, a large swampy tidal flat area surrounding Dongting Lake has been transformed into fertile farmland. Otherwise, Jiang Wei would have thought it impossible to march into Changsha in such terrain. Don't even think about it.
As for Lu Dai in Wuling County, when he saw Jiang Wei suddenly withdrawing from the siege and marching eastward, he immediately judged Jiang Wei's strategic intention.
This is to go to Changsha County to join the main force of the Shu army and besiege Luo County where Zhu Ran is located.
For this reason, Lu Dai had to make his own decisive response quickly.
The first thing Lu Dai thought of was to go north to attack Jiangling and encircle Wei to rescue Zhao.
As long as he can reach Jiangling City, no matter what happens in Changsha, Lu Dai believes that Zhang Xi will not sit back and watch Jiangling be in danger, and will definitely choose to withdraw his troops to protect himself.
But the problem that also makes Lu Dai feel embarrassed is that he now has insufficient troops and no navy to escort him.
During the days of fighting with Jiang Wei in Wuling County, whether they were defending the city or going out to attack and test, the Wuling County defenders suffered some battle losses. Lu Dai now only had more than 18,000 soldiers at his disposal.
The Baqiu navy was blocked by the Jiangling navy and could not get out of Baqiu. The water area from Baqiu to Jiangling was under the control of the Shu army.
Without a naval force to transport the soldiers across the river, if they had to rely on collecting ferries by themselves, it would be time-consuming and laborious, and there would be no guarantee that they would be able to safely cross the Yangtze River and arrive at Jiangling.
If the Jiangling navy discovered this on the way and directly sank the ferry, then the twenty thousand soldiers in his hands would die unjustly.
As for going south and entering Lingling County. Apart from anything else, Lu Dai knew that he could not really take root in Lingling County based on the choices made by the big families in Lingling County during this war.
When Zhang Xi takes care of Zhu Ran, he may be betrayed again by the wealthy families in Lingling County, making the same mistake as Lu Kai.
Therefore, after much deliberation, Lu Dai still felt that leading his troops to Changsha and joining forces with Zhu Ran was probably his most promising way to break out of the encirclement.
Of course, Lu Dai also knew that if Jiang Wei marched eastward, he would follow suit, and a wild battle would most likely break out between the two sides.
However, Lu Dai also has confidence in himself.
First of all, the military strength of the two sides is actually not much different.
He has more than 18,000 soldiers under his command, but his opponent Jiang Wei, after about a month of mutual offensive and defensive trials, has also suffered some battle losses, estimated to be around 18,000 soldiers.
Secondly, Lu Dai believed that his military command ability was not bad.
Although he cannot compare with famous generals like General Zhou Yu, he is not incompetent, and his opponent Jiang Wei is just a military novice who has just experienced battles.
Perhaps, he is very smart and has great potential, so he is valued by Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang.
However, on the battlefield, battlefield experience is sometimes more important than potential. If nothing else, just look at Zhuge Ke.
He is often boasted about how powerful he is, how brilliant his strategic vision is, and how experienced he is in wiping out Shanyue. But once he actually goes to the battlefield, a civilian can suppress him to death.
Lu Dai didn't think that he would be less capable and experienced than Wenpin.
Therefore, in the field battle between the two sides, Lu Dai did not think that he would lose to Jiang Wei. In fact, if Wenpin's victory over Zhuge Ke could be replicated, the entire situation in Jingnan might come back to life.
Now the focus of the battle in Jingnan is Changsha. As long as Soochow has the ability to defend Changsha County, even if the Shu army now occupies Wuling County and Lingling County, they will eventually withdraw from these places after the attack is unfavorable and return to defend Jiangling. .
It is true that going to Changsha to support himself is a bit risky, but the current situation in Jingnan is extremely unfavorable to Dawu. If we don't take a risk, how can we see hope of a comeback? !
Based on these considerations, Lu Dai decided to march eastward with his entire army to support Changsha County.
Then Lu Dai and Jiang Wei had an encounter on the edge of Wuling County and Changsha County.
Both sides are actually well prepared for this encounter, and no one is rushing to fight.
Based on Jiang Wei's judgment of the situation, he knew that Lu Dai might choose to follow him eastward to support Changsha, so he had been paying attention to the movements of Lu Dai's army behind him.
Not to mention Lu Dai, the reason he sent troops from Wuling was for this encounter.
Both sides were prepared. This encounter was naturally doomed from the beginning. It was a battle that had to determine the outcome.
But the final result was to disappoint Lu Dai.
He really failed to replicate Wenpin's victory over Zhuge Ke, but was defeated by the troops led by Jiang Wei.
In fact, the reason is very simple. Lu Dai made a mistake. Wenpin was able to defeat Zhuge Ke not because of Zhuge Ke's ability, but because of Zhuge Ke's character.
As long as Zhuge Ke can be a little more humble, less arrogant and self-willed, and can listen to Sun Sheng's advice a little more, with the combat effectiveness of the Soochow Navy, there is no way he can lose to Wenpin.
But Jiang Wei is not Zhuge Ke.
Although Jiang Wei also has some youthful spirit, he is not a headstrong character, nor is he so self-righteous that he relies on his own imagination to formulate tactical arrangements. Jiang Wei is honest, and based on the tactics taught by his master, in Commanding military formations in battle.
Jiang Wei's own abilities are very outstanding, and he has a strong ability to adapt to the situation. In addition, he does not mess around. If Lu Dai wants to find Jiang Wei's flaws in the field and defeat him in one fell swoop, it is impossible to even think about it.
Of course, if this is the case, Lu Dai can at least delay Jiang Wei's march and prevent Jiang Wei from quickly going to Changsha for reinforcements. After all, Lu Dai is considered a rare famous general in the middle period of Soochow, and he still has the ability to fight. of.
But the problem is that the army led by Jiang Wei is the Southern Han Army.
Although the Southern Army of the Han Dynasty has always guarded Chengdu and never went out to fight, their treatment, training conditions and training subjects are exactly the same as those of the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty. They were also written by Zhuge Liang and the late Zhang Fei.
The only difference between the Southern Army of the Han Dynasty and the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty is probably the difference in battlefield experience.
The Southern Han Army in Jiang Wei's hands is probably equivalent to the Northern Han Army that fought against Cao Wei's Central Forbidden Army led by Guo Huai near Mei County during Liu Bei's second expedition to Guanzhong.
Facing Cao Wei's Central Forbidden Army, which was at the peak of its combat power, the Han Dynasty's Southern Army might still be at a disadvantage due to lack of experience. But this time their opponents were not Cao Wei's elite Forbidden Army, but ordinary county soldiers from Soochow.
The land combat capabilities of the soldiers of Soochow County were so great that when the Han Nan Army encountered such an opponent, wouldn't it be a casual defeat? !
Lu Daizhen did not lose too much to Jiang Wei in terms of personal ability, but his Soochow soldiers directly demonstrated the traditional skills of Soochow soldiers after encountering an opponent whose equipment, treatment, physical fitness and fighting will were superior to his own. Hip stretching in the field.
The soldiers of Dongwu County, who were originally able to fight against the Han Dynasty Army in the city defense battle, were suppressed by the high-intensity attack of the Han Dynasty Army in the field battle. In the end, they could not withstand the pressure and chose to flee.
This is not something Lu Dai can control. This is the old problem of Soochow County soldiers. Their ability in field combat is too stretched.
The only thing Lu Dai could control was to escape from the battlefield in the direction of Guiyang County under the protection of his own bodyguards among the disintegrating army.
Jiang Wei did not pursue the victory and allowed Lu Dai to break through. Jiang Wei did not even try to gather troops from Soochow. The Han Nan army did not hesitate to do this.
Jiang Wei is now thinking about what he should do next.
According to Zhang Xi's military order, Jiang Wei should now take a detour north to Luo County to join the Han's main army and besiege Luo County.
But... After Jiang Wei entered Changsha County from Wuling County, he suddenly found that he seemed to be quite close to Changsha County, the county seat of Changsha County.
According to the intelligence Jiang Wei had received before, Changsha County did not seem to have many troops to defend it. If they could take advantage of the situation and capture Changsha County, it would be a moderate achievement.
Do you want to attack Changsha County? !
To be honest, from the perspective of military orders, it seems inappropriate for Jiang Wei to do this, and it is suspected of violating military orders.
But, when you are out on an expedition, if everything is done in accordance with military orders, you will be nothing more than a mediocre general. It doesn’t take much time to check the preparedness of Changsha County.
Therefore, in Jiang Wei's view, he just took a slight detour of seventy or eighty miles to Changsha County to see if there was any possibility of taking Changsha County in a sneak attack, and it was not considered a violation of military orders.
Well. The result disappointed Jiang Wei.
According to intelligence, there should be only a small number of Soochow soldiers stationed in Changsha County, and after a big battle under his command, there were only about 15,000 soldiers left.
If Changsha County is really empty of defense, it is not impossible to attack. But Jiang Wei found that the garrison of Changsha County was at least 8,000.
Okay, it's all a waste of time. With this small force, I can't attack a large city guarded by 8,000 people.
But just when Jiang Wei was disappointed and was about to turn north to Luo County, an army suddenly appeared in the south.
According to the scouts' reports, this army was from Soochow, with a strength of about five thousand.
And the most important thing is that the movement of this army is very hasty. It doesn't look like a normal march. It looks like it is trying its best to escape.
When Jiang Wei heard that there was such a good thing and he didn't eat the meat that was brought to his mouth, he would be really sorry for himself.
Jiang Wei immediately ordered the entire army to prepare for war and go to intercept it, first to eat the defeated Soochow army.
(End of chapter)
