Since defeating the Jiangdong Navy head-on, Cao Jun began to frantically build iron-locked warships.
After half of Yu Jin's warships were renovated, Cao Cao was still not satisfied.
He continued to order the massive construction of warships, and gradually built them into chain-link ships.
But the journey was not entirely without twists and turns.
Because Cao Cao only recognized greatness and nothing else.
During the ban, Mao Jie once tried to merge two serial warships composed of more than a hundred ships into one.
The result ultimately ended in failure.
Iron chains and wooden planks were simply not enough to connect such a huge warship.
After testing, it was discovered that a hundred ships were already the limit of the chain-locked warships.
Cao Cao was extremely dissatisfied with this result.
The iron chain warships composed of a hundred ships are powerful, but they are far from the expectations of running across the Yangtze River.
Especially if you want war horses to attack warships, you need at least 500 serial warships.
At Cao Cao's insistence, Yu Jin and Mao Jie had to rack their brains again and try again and again.
But the result didn't change.
In the end, Cao Cao, who witnessed all this with his own eyes, had to accept this reality.
A chain of one hundred ships is the limit that can be achieved at the moment!
Since there is no way to build a chain of warships without limit, Cao Cao can only build a chain of warships consisting of a hundred ships without limit.
Cao's army was divided into three again.
On the one hand, due to the ban, Mao Jie led a series of iron-locked warships, each carrying 10,000 soldiers, to the water stronghold of the Chibi Jiangdong Army to provoke.
With two serial boats traveling across the river, staring at the Chibi Water Village, Cao Cao did not need to deploy any defenses at all.
Therefore, all Cao Cao soldiers who could breathe were arranged by Cao Cao to build warships.
They were so anxious that they could not even wait for a hundred ships to be built before they started to build the iron chain chain.
Soon, a month passed.
Cao Jun's military camp once again welcomed a brand new chain-locked warship.
According to the estimates of Cao Cao, Yu Jin, and Mao Jie, when the number of serial warships reaches four, they can carry 40,000 Cao troops to launch a strong attack on Chibi Water Village!
If the number of iron-locked warships reaches five, Cao's army of 50,000 troops will be enough to capture the Red Cliff Water Village, and force their way onto Red Cliff, completely destroying Jiangdong's army!
If the number of chain-locked warships reaches ten, then a hundred thousand troops can, with the help of the warships, forcefully log into Jingnan and break through all the fortresses built by Liu Bei!
Normally, ideals are plump, while reality is often skinny.
However, this time the reality was also full, and there were no problems with the tactics, but Cao's soldiers began to be unable to hold on.
A month ago, the plague was rampant within Cao's army.
The weather is hot, humid and rainy, which accelerates the spread of the disease.
Cao Cao issued a death order, and his generals could only ignore the physical condition of the soldiers and desperately sent soldiers to cut down trees and build warships.
As long as they are not unable to move or are terminally ill, they must participate in the construction of warships.
The soldiers who were originally ailing could not get any rest and began to fall down continuously.
These soldiers infected with the plague would eventually die of illness.
There is an extreme shortage of soldiers even to build warships, so how can we free up our hands to deal with the corpses of soldiers?
Therefore, throwing it into the Yangtze River is still the only solution.
That is, it is fast and does not occupy manpower and material resources.
But no matter what kind of river it is, tens of thousands of corpses will be sunk, which will have a huge impact.
What's more, all the water sources for Cao Jun's drinking came from the Yangtze River!
When Cao Cao saw three chain-locked warships sailing across the Yangtze River, he once again ordered the construction of a fourth one.
He really couldn't wait to see the five warships lined up on the Yangtze River.
But at this moment, Xiahou Dun finally couldn't help complaining to Cao Cao.
Within a month, more than 10,000 people died from Cao's army again!
Nearly 20,000 of them are infected, and this number is increasing every day.
If we continue to drive the soldiers unscrupulously, I am afraid that the death toll will skyrocket.
Cao Cao was obsessed with the warship all day long, and didn't even notice that his subordinates had become like this.
At this moment, Yu Jin and Mao Jie jointly came to look for Cao Cao.
It turned out that most of the 30,000 soldiers on the warship fell ill!
Hundreds of deaths every day!
Soon, the number of Cao Jun's soldiers dropped sharply to less than 80,000!
The number of sick soldiers reached more than 30,000!
Cao Cao was completely panicked when he learned the true situation.
After setting off from Jiangling with an army of 160,000, more than half of them died?
According to the previous practice, these more than 30,000 people may not escape the end of death from illness.
Doesn't this mean that there are less than 50,000 people left in Cao Cao's army?
It can only be said that fortunately, it has the advantage of the iron chain warship, which is full of deterrence and scares Jiangdong Army from even taking a step out of the water village gate!
Otherwise, Cao Cao would have no choice but to run away at this moment!
Xiahou Dun ignored Cao Cao's thoughts and expressed his opinions directly.
The sick soldiers were immediately given adequate rest, and military doctors were urgently dispatched from Xuchang.
As for things like building warships, we can only take it slow.
Yu Jin and Mao Jie also spoke frankly to Cao Cao.
Let the sick soldiers go ashore as soon as possible to rest.
If that doesn't work, first send an iron-locked warship to force Jiangdong's army.
Unfortunately, both of these suggestions were refuted by Cao Cao.
The warships are of great importance, and it is even more important to whether they can capture Chibi in one go and dominate the Yangtze River.
The matter of deterring the Jiangdong Army huddled in the Red Cliff Water Village cannot be terminated.
Only endless intimidation and oppression can make Jiangdong Army completely frightened and lose morale!
Yu Jin and Mao Jie were both generals with foreign surnames, so how dare they argue with Cao Cao.
After being scolded, he could only retreat and choose to obey Cao Cao's military orders.
Xiahou Dun was not too presumptuous, but complained to Cao Cao that the current number of soldiers could not guarantee the speed of building warships.
So, Cao Cao made a decision.
Cao Ren's 30,000 troops were mobilized to support the Wulin camp.
As for the guard work of Nanjun, for the time being, it is mainly based on Jiangling City.
The rest of the soldiers, such as those guarding Liu Zhang, were all withdrawn and gave priority to supporting Wulin.
Xiahou Dun was shocked after hearing this. If Cao Ren's soldiers were taken away, what would happen if Liu Bei made a sudden attack?
Cao Cao didn't answer. At this point, he couldn't care less!
Only by defeating the Chibi Camp can the war turn for the better!
The prerequisite for defeating the Chibi Camp is to have at least five chain-locked warships!
These five warships are also the key to the future southward attack on Jingnan.
Now, it’s time to fight for your life!
Success means recovering all losses.
Failure means that this southern expedition will end in a disastrous defeat!
Xiahou Dun failed to persuade Cao Cao. In fact, at this time, no one could persuade Cao Cao.
To persuade them to stop means to accept the innocent casualties of the army.
Cao Cao led 250,000 soldiers and 20,000 surrendered troops from the Jingzhou clan to go south, totaling 270,000 troops!
Now out of the 270,000, there are less than 130,000 left, half of them dead or injured!
Who can persuade Cao Cao to swallow this bad breath?
What's more, victory is just around the corner!
