Conquering Wu is not the same as conquering Wei.
To defeat Wei, we need to consider strategy and tactics, where to advance, where to be the main attacker, and where to be auxiliary. Cao Wei's territory is too large, and there are too many places that can support each other, so we must seriously consider it.
But to conquer Wu, there are actually only two ways to go.
One is to clear Qingxu and Huainan by land, then cross the river and reach Jiangdong.
The other is to advance by water, bypassing most of the area north of the Yangtze River, and directly follow the river into the lake to attack Jianye.
Unfortunately, the Jingzhou navy was not strong enough. It could neither capture Jiangxia and obtain a springboard to attack Jianye, nor could it defeat the Soochow navy in a water battle. Therefore, it was basically impossible to use the Jingzhou route as the main attack direction.
In fact, this is something that both Han and Wu can see clearly, so both sides have their own priorities in strategic arrangements.
On Jiangxia's side, the navy is the main force and the army is the supplement. As long as the navy is undefeated, Jiangxia will be fine.
On the Huainan side, the army is the main force, supplemented by the navy. The biggest role of the navy is probably to connect the various waterways between Huainan and Xuzhou, so that the Soochow troops can coordinate with each other.
Therefore, when Lu Xun learned that the Han Dynasty had decided to conquer Wu, he immediately began to prepare for the defensive battles in Huainan and Xuzhou.
As for Jiangxia, it is completely left to Zhu Ran's navy to defend.
This was almost the only choice, and neither Han nor Wu were surprised. However, Lu Xun waited and waited. From the autumn of the 16th year of Yanxi to the summer of the 17th year of Yanxi, he did not wait for the Han army to arrive. attack.
This made Lu Xun a little uneasy.
With Ji Han's current national strength, if he wanted to prepare for a war, it would take at most half a year to prepare.
But now, almost eight months have passed, and there is still no movement to send troops whether it is in the direction of Jingzhou or Yanzhou, which is somewhat incredible.
Judging from the intelligence sent back from the detailed work, Ji Han indeed gathered more than 200,000 troops in Yanzhou, including 80,000 local county soldiers in Yanzhou, 50,000 county soldiers from Heluo, Yingchuan and other places, as well as those transferred from Hebei. An army of 70,000 to 80,000 people.
These soldiers had already assembled in the Yanzhou area in May of the 17th year of Yanxi. But now it is July. Two hundred thousand soldiers and horses have gathered in Yanzhou, and they have been there for two months. Could it be that the Shu Han disliked the fact that there were too many military rations, so did they need to consume a batch like this? !
Obviously, Lu Xun didn't think Shu Han would do such a heartless thing, so there was only one possibility.
That is, the Shu Han took action in a blind spot that Lu Xun could not take into account, and this 200,000-strong army was just a cover. However, Lu Xun really couldn't figure out what blind spots he could not think of in the current obvious situation.
In fact, it can be regarded as Lu Xun's blind spot.
However, this blind spot is not military, but economic.
This is not to say that Lu Xun's political ability was not good. In fact, Lu Xun was a man of both civil and military talents. During his time as governor of Huainan and Qingxu, he played an important role in the economic development of Huainan and Xuzhou and the restoration of people's livelihood.
However, the Lu Xun of this time and space was not the Prime Minister of Soochow in history. He had been staying in Huainan and had no chance to return to Jianye to preside over the state affairs. Therefore, although Lu Xun had heard about national economic policies , but not much is known.
Ji Han did indeed take action, but it was not a military level action, but he was waiting for Zhibaiqian and Oizumi Dangqian to play their greatest role.
In the 16th year of Yanxi, the Han Dynasty decided to conquer Wu. After Xu Shu and Zhang Xi exchanged letters and agreed on the focus of each other's attacks, Zhang Xi began to collect Daquan of Soochow.
To put it simply, it is to cut off the trading value of Daquan Dangqian when Soochow is in recession, triggering price fluctuations in Soochow, especially grain prices, and then use Han Wu baht to purchase large quantities of Soochow after entering the autumn harvest season. Grain and other military supplies caused the outflow of grain and grass from Soochow, and military supplies were insufficiently prepared.
To be honest, such a good economic policy can only have the effect of messing up Soochow's armaments, and it is really overkill.
If Zhang Xi can be given a little more time, for example, three to five more years, then Zhang Xi is really sure that he can directly destroy the small peasant economy of Soochow in this economic war, leading to the collapse of the Soochow family and the Sun Quan and Sun Quan turned against each other because of the uneven division of interests.
After all, people in this era do not understand the power of inflation, and Zhang Xi cannot be ignorant of it.
And there is enough time. After all, this era is still an era of small-scale peasant economy, and its ability to deal with inflation is very weak. This amount of time is enough to destroy a political power.
But unfortunately, Zhang Xi did not have this time, and the conquest of Wu was imminent and had to be launched.
Another thing, in fact, the economic war this time has been going on from more than a year ago to now, and the Han Dynasty is somewhat unable to bear it.
The Jingzhou aristocratic family and Li Yan were overwhelmed by the massive loss of materials, while Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and others were mentally overwhelmed by the consequences of this economic war.
After more than a year of economic war, although in the early stage, Dahan obtained a large amount of grain, silkworms, fish and other benefits from Jiangdong, in the later period, in order to stabilize the price difference caused by Daquan Dangqian, Dahan ensured the price of Daquan Dangqian. The transaction value also paid for too much Shu brocade, paper, and ore benefits.
To be honest, if the Han Dynasty had not already had a relatively favorable central government, and if this matter was planned and endorsed by a great man like Li Yan, it would have been enough to trigger the Jingzhou Family twenty years ago. A large-scale rebellion was launched.
With such a huge expense, neither the Jingzhou family nor Li Yan would be willing to continue to maintain it for another three or four years.
These people were quite complaining when they saw that their immediate interests were being damaged more than expected.
Li Yan is better. At most, he only adds fuel to the fire in private. On the surface, he still expresses support and defense for Zhang Xi's relevant policies.
However, the spokespersons of the Jingzhou aristocratic families in the Han Dynasty strongly criticized the official and private smuggling trade in Soochow.
However, these people actually had no influence on Zhang Xi. They only dared to criticize the policies and praise him, and no one dared to rise to the rank of governor or general in charge of Jingzhou.
Just kidding, the big families in Jingzhou are not stupid. One is the new general, the de facto number one in the military, and the other is the governor of Jingzhou who has guarded Jingzhou for many years and almost all the government orders are spoken out of his mouth. Which of these two people can be offended? !
In fact, the Jingzhou family would rather offend Zhang Xi than Wang Ji.
If you offend Zhang Xi, Zhang Xi has a good temper. As long as he does not threaten his family, he will not retaliate.
But it offends Wang Ji. It is estimated that the Jingzhou family can start a split within itself to see if there are enough benefits to be gained.
Therefore, in fact, Zhang Xi and Wang Ji would not make any changes for their sake, except that Zhang Xi and Wang Ji found these voices in the court a little troublesome.
The real reason that made Zhang Xi decide to terminate the economic war early was Zhuge Liang.
When Zhuge Liang arrived in Jiangling and secretly discussed strategies with Zhang Xi, he also gained a certain level of understanding of the actual implementation of this economic war.
Ma Su is a smart man, and he is now much calmer in his work. The story he told Zhuge Liang and his expectations for the future of economic warfare can be said to be relatively conservative.
After all, this is Ma Su's first time presiding over manipulation. He doesn't know what it will be like in the future, so he has always been cautious.
But Xie Hong finally got an opportunity to face the Han Prime Minister, so he naturally showed off his talents with all his strength and told Zhuge Liang all the possible consequences of economic war.
Among them are the most radical and devastating results, Xie Hong said.
Of course, Zhuge Liang would not think that economic warfare was bad because of Xie Hong's remarks. He just heard it and wrote it down after he was done.
But, when Zhuge Liang left Jiangling and returned to Chang'an, Zhuge Liang thought carefully about Xie Hong's statement. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the radical result Xie Hong said was not impossible.
Once both sides are unable to control the scope of the economic war, at least the Soochow economy will completely collapse, and at worst, half of the people in the Han Dynasty will be in dire straits.
The more Zhuge Liang thought about it, the more worried he became. He was worried that what Zhang Xi had released was not a wolf that specialized in biting Soochow, but a group of tigers that didn't choose their targets to eat people. In fact, the wealthy families didn't mind being like these tigers. .
Therefore, the more Zhuge Liang thought about it, the more worried he became, and he quickly wrote a secret letter to Zhang Xi, asking Zhang Xi how possible the radical outcome mentioned by Xie Hong was.
As for Zhang Xi's answer, he didn't even know much about this economic war. It was all managed by Ma Su and Xie Hong, and Zhang Xi had not heard of the possible effects of the economy.
Even in modern society, there are not many small countries that have gone bankrupt due to economic war.
That was still in the commodity economy society. In today's era of small-scale peasant economy, the economic system is more fragile, and the destructive power of economic war will only become more powerful.
Therefore, Zhang Xi could only reply to Zhuge Liang, tell the truth, and tell Zhuge Liang that if it were the most extreme situation of losing control, I am afraid that not only half of the Han Dynasty, but the entire thirteen states of the Han Dynasty would fall into turmoil again.
After receiving Zhang Xi's reply, Zhuge Liang thought for a while and wrote back to Zhang Xi - to suspend the economic war.
(End of chapter)
