Yang Di moved his camp to Baqiu, so Zhu Ran did not dare to leave Lukou without authorization, and the defenders at Xiakou were insufficient. In order to prevent the Xiangyang navy from flowing down the Han River, Zhu Ran had to request Sun Quan to mobilize the Soochow navy from Poyang Lake for reinforcements. Xiakou.
As Yizhou's 30,000 navy troops marched eastward, Sun Quan also felt the pressure. The number of navy troops on both sides near Jiangxia was really disproportionate. In desperation, Sun Quan had to agree to Zhu Ran's request and send General Lu with the Five Gentlemen Zhonglang. Kai led 30,000 Poyang Lake navy troops to Xiakou and replaced Zhu Ran in Jiangxia.
After making such an arrangement, Sun Quan was still not at ease, and sent Liu Lue's younger brother Liu Ping with 20,000 infantry to reinforce Jiangxia and follow Zhuge Ke's command.
Judging from this arrangement, on the one hand, Sun Quan was also worried that the Shu Han would take this opportunity to start a war, so he made defensive preparations in advance. On the other hand, Sun Quan obviously wanted to train and reuse Zhuge Ke, and sent reinforcements with generals who had neither qualifications nor military merit. Outstanding Liuping.
Otherwise, the veteran Ding Feng and Sun Quan's son-in-law Quan Cong were left behind in Jianye. They were stronger than Liuping in terms of military exploits and seniority. Why not send them to lead troops to reinforce Jiangxia? !
To put it bluntly, we still need to ensure Zhuge Ke's right to speak in Jiangxia so that Zhuge Ke can grow up as quickly as possible. If Ding Feng or Quan Cong goes to Jiangxia, with Zhuge Ke's current qualifications, how can he command these two people.
It can be seen that Sun Quan still has high expectations for Zhuge Ke.
After the land and sea reinforcements were completed, Sun Quan felt a little relieved. Jiangxia had now gathered more than 100,000 land and water troops. Even if Zhang Xi took the initiative to initiate a war, Wu would still have the capital to fight.
However, Zhang Xi really has no intention of having a big fight.
After Yang Di marched into Baqiu and established a water stronghold, he hid in Dongting Lake and stayed there for a long time. Zhu Ran didn't know whether he should take the initiative or defend first.
Zhuge Ke, who had received reinforcements, ordered Liu Ping to lead troops to garrison Zhangling and press the border of Jiangling County, while he led troops back to defend Xiling to increase the defense of northern Jiangxia to avoid repeating the previous two breakthroughs in northern Jiangxia. They did not dare to attack Jiangling County rashly.
As for Zhang Xi, when facing the threat from Zhang Ling, he did not take advantage of the situation to strengthen the defenses of Wulin and other counties. He still adopted a defensive strategy of loosening outside and tightening inside, gathering troops in Jiangling City. If you have the ability, Soochow Just attack in, see if you still have any lives, and then go back.
Both sides are deploying troops, but both sides are a little afraid to act rashly.
Slowly, the two sides entered a state of relative stalemate.
And this state can be said to be what Zhang Xi hopes to see most. He doesn't want to fight a war, but he needs to attract the heavy troops of Dongwu Tun to Jiangxia through constant small frictions, and at the same time, use this small frictions to increase The actual combat capabilities of one's own army.
Especially the actual combat capabilities in the navy.
In the spring of Yanxi's fifteenth year, the weather gradually warmed up, and the Baqiu navy, which had eliminated the unfavorable factor of wind direction, finally took action.
Yang Di began to assign the Baqiu navy and the Yizhou navy stationed at the public security bureau to jointly form a river patrol team. Both parties began to tentatively move towards Lukou.
Because they were dispatching a small-scale river patrol team with no more than ten warships in total, it was impossible for Zhu Ran to attack with great fanfare just for a small river patrol team. Therefore, Zhu Ran's response was also very simple - He dispatched his own river patrol team to drive away the Shu Han's tentacles that penetrated deep into the Lukou.
Even this method of fighting is more beneficial to Soochow.
The biggest advantage of the Jiangling Navy is actually the ship formation composed of stone throwing and rushing, which is extremely lethal at long distances. Close combat is not actually the strength of the Jiangling Navy.
In a duel between patrol teams, it is impossible to send out a powerful weapon like Throwing Mengchong, and without enough walking skills and warship escorts, Throwing Mengchong is a living target, and Yang Di will not be stupid enough to patrol. Jiang sent the Mengchong battleship alone for this matter.
Therefore, in actual battles between the river patrol teams, long-range combat is mainly based on bow and arrow suppression, while close combat relies on fighting. Both of these are the strengths of the Soochow Navy.
Even with the same strength, there would be no problem if the Soochow Navy was one against two, not to mention that Zhu Ran was more cautious and sent an equal number of river patrol teams to confront the Jiangling Navy, so there would be no problem.
And this is actually the case.
Although it was a small-scale friction initiated by the Jingzhou navy, in the river patrol battles, the Soochow navy often still had the upper hand when its military strength was at a disadvantage.
Even at the most serious time, two Jingzhou navy patrol teams could not defeat a Soochow navy patrol team.
Of course, this is because the Jingzhou Navy is not good at close combat. The more important reason is that the Jingzhou Navy's river patrol team was jointly formed by the Jiangling Navy and the Yizhou Navy.
The combat effectiveness and actual combat experience of the Yizhou Navy severely hindered the Jiangling Navy.
Regarding this, the Jiangling Navy was naturally full of complaints, but fortunately, Yang Xi was the commander of the navy who fought every battle. He had extremely high prestige among the Jiangling Navy, so he was able to suppress the situation.
As for the Yizhou Navy, there is no doubt about Wang Jun's personal ability, and he also knows how to mobilize the morale of the army. Although he suffered repeated setbacks, with Wang Jun's encouragement, the Yizhou Navy did not give up on himself, but held back. I want to prove myself in one breath.
Wang Jun himself was also relaxed enough. He knew that he was inferior to Yang Di in terms of theoretical knowledge and practical ability in water warfare, so he took the initiative to learn from Yang Di.
During normal training, Wang Jun and Yang Di each manage their own naval forces, but during wartime, Wang Jun will voluntarily give up the command of the Yizhou Navy and hand it over to Yang Di.
In addition, strictly speaking, the two of them are not pure military commanders. They are both scholars. Therefore, the two of them actually get along quite happily.
The coaches of both sides got along harmoniously. After experiencing the initial unpleasantness, the two naval forces under their command gradually found a sense of working together as they worked together.
The Yizhou Navy's actual combat experience slowly began to improve, and the Jiangling Navy also gradually adapted to the intensity of water fighting in the battle with the Soochow Navy, and its close combat capabilities also improved.
All this made Yang Xi and Wang Jun very satisfied, but made Zhu Ran very uncomfortable.
As the battle loss ratio between the two sides got closer and closer, Zhu Ran finally thought about it. Are these Shu thieves killing talents and using our Soochow Navy as a whetstone? !
At the beginning, because the Soochow Navy had an obvious advantage in close combat and could win with one against two, Zhu Ran really didn't think much about it.
Since the Jingzhou naval forces gave up their strengths and chose their weaknesses to fight, Zhu Ran would certainly want to pursue such a self-destructive behavior.
But as the battle continued, the Soochow navy gradually changed from being able to win with one against two, to two against three, and even to the point where even now it is impossible to win even with two against three. If you can't see this anymore What the heck, Zhu Ran has been the commander-in-chief of the Soochow Navy for so long in vain.
The Jingzhou Navy is training with the Soochow Navy! ! !
It's really not very harmful, but extremely insulting. When did the invincible Soochow navy suffer such humiliation? !
Zhu Ran was very dissatisfied, and wanted to give the Jingzhou navy some color. But after calming down and thinking about it carefully, Zhu Ran found that he really couldn't do it.
There were only 20,000 Lu Shui troops in total, while the Jingzhou Navy troops at Dongting Lake and Gong'an Ferry totaled 70,000 people. In a battle with one against three, Zhu Ran could not see any hope of winning.
If he wants to win, it is not impossible. He can completely mobilize the Xiakou Army for reinforcements, and then bring about 20,000 naval reinforcements. Zhu Ran really has the confidence to fight against Ba Qiu and the Jingzhou Navy of the Public Security Bureau.
But the problem is that if the Xiangyang navy goes south at this time, Zhang Xi of Jiangling launches a land attack against Jiangxia, and a big battle is about to break out.
Zhu Ran didn't mind having a water fight with these Shu thieves, but if it involved a battle involving more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, even with Zhu Ran's qualifications, he had to be cautious.
If this kind of thing is not reported to the emperor, and it is not decided by the emperor, don't even think about it.
Zhang Xi does not want to start an all-out war with Soochow at this time. In fact, for Soochow, now is not a good time to start an all-out war with Shu Han.
One is that the national power is indeed inferior to that of Shu Han, and the other is that Soochow has not tried to attack Jingzhou in recent years, but after so many years of fighting and back and forth, in the end, not to mention conquering Jingzhou, even the four counties of Jingnan that were finally obtained were lost. .
Even the governor-general Zhou Yu was unable to accomplish anything. Among the generals living under Zhou Yu's shadow, who dared to have the confidence to say that they could capture Jingzhou? !
Even the current General Lu Xun did not dare to say such bold words.
Therefore, the war cannot be fought, but Zhu Ran cannot ignore the increasingly aggressive river patrol team of Baqiu Navy.
In desperation, Zhu Ran could only strengthen the scale of his own river patrol team, and take advantage of the fact that his navy still had the advantage of close combat to expand the results as soon as possible.
As long as the Jingzhou navy is given enough kills to prevent the Jingzhou navy from invading the country, there will be some room for change in this matter.
However, Zhu Ran was not sure whether he could do this.
(End of chapter)
