Chapter 1022 Opponents with Different Styles

Chapter 1022 Opponents with Different Styles

Chapter 1022 Opponents with Different Styles

On the fourth day of June, the rivers and lakes outside Hefei city were packed with boats.

County Magistrate He Chong was almost stunned.

All kinds of supplies were transported here for free, and there was almost no room to store them, so the only option was to conscript the elderly and healthy women to temporarily build more warehouses and mansions.

Soldiers speaking various accents were also gathering here, battalion after battalion, on a huge scale.

To be honest, in the past, when Jiangbei was conquered, the local gentry were treated like beggars, giving them a few melons and dates and conscripting a small number of soldiers to send to the court, and that was basically it.

But this "Northern Expedition" was generally generous. It almost returned to the situation when the Jin court was still in existence, when various major families honestly collected money, grain, and cloth to pay tribute to Luoyang, and it was even better.

Shan Xia and Shan Yanlin landed in Hefei with five thousand imperial troops.

Following him were more than 16,000 naval and land soldiers from Xiyang King Sima Yang's army, including 10,000 naval troops, 5,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, plus hundreds of personal soldiers and armored soldiers.

The composition of the forces is still top-heavy.

We can only think positively. In the era of Sun Quan, it was common for the navy to go ashore and serve as infantry, but it was obviously not as professional as real infantry. It was very difficult to attack Hefei, which was guarded by several thousand people.

Sima Yang's army still had 6,000 soldiers stationed on Chaohu Lake. There was no other way. The boats were too big and it was a bit risky to rush into the Nanfei River. So they stayed behind to transport food and military supplies.

The 5,000 imperial guards of the Shanxia tribe are all infantrymen. They are well-trained, well-equipped, and have been in the army for quite a while. However, they have one huge shortcoming: they have little experience in warfare.

The advantages and disadvantages of this kind of army are so obvious that even Shao Ze was scratching his head when he saw it.

Shan Xia didn't stay in Hefei for long.

He organized all the large naval ships into a group, including the ships stranded in the ponds and rivers near Hefei, and handed them over to the veteran general, Jurong Xu Chao, to command a total of 12,000 naval forces, to protect the Chaohu Lake and Hefei line, and to support the troops still rushing here. Xu Chao was a general under Zhou Fang and Gan Zhuo. After the two died of illness one after another, he was transferred to the position of Governor of the East Gate Water and Land. His family was originally from Runan. During the Zhongping period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, they moved south to Jiangdong. His wife, Ge, was the sister of Ge Hong.

On the fifth day of June, Shan Xia arrived near Chengde County.

At this time, the Jin State's naval and land troops gathered here numbered no less than 35,000.

"Greetings to the Grand Commander." When they climbed onto the temporary platform, the generals came to pay their respects one after another.

Shan Xia took a glance and suddenly felt a sense of heroism.

However, he needs to deal with practical problems first.

"The ancestor agreed to stay in Chengde?" Shan Xia asked, looking at the slightly dilapidated city.

"General, Zu Yue's army should have no less than 10,000 people, stationed inside and outside the city." Lu Wan pointed to the distance and introduced: "There is a camp east of the city with about 5,000 people. There are slightly more soldiers in the city, probably between 5,000 and 7,000. The city and the camp support each other, and it is difficult to capture them suddenly. I have fought several battles with them and failed to gain an advantage."

"Thinking back to when Zu Shizhi was recruiting refugees in Huaiyin and forging weapons, many people laughed at him at that time." Shan Xia sighed, "However, after many years, his troops have become elite and brave, and are a strong army. Shiyao, I got a military book in Luoyang, which was written by Shao the bandit and given to his martial arts professors and disciples. There are many impressive points in it. When Shao the bandit fights, he must know the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and us. From now on, where is Zuyue's strength? Where is his weakness? How strong or weak is our army?"

Lu Wan thought for a moment and said, "The soldiers of our ancestral army have fought for many years, and this one is strong."

"Their troops are well equipped with drums and gongs, and their orders are strict and clear. This is their second strength."

"Zu Yue is good at bewitching the soldiers, so the morale is still high. These are the three strongest ones."

"Most of the families of our comrades are in Xuzhou, which is a weakness."

"The ancestral troops are confined to one place and have insufficient supplies. These are the two weaknesses."

"The ancestral soldiers rebelled without reason and committed rebellious acts, but no one in the counties responded to them. This is the third weakness."

After Shan Xia heard this, he thought it was quite plausible, so he praised: "Shi Yao is really a good general."

"The strength of our army lies in our legitimate cause, our powerful navy, and our abundant supplies." Lu Wan continued, "The weakness of our army lies in our infantry.

"The first is 'many bad habits'. The soldiers are not afraid to fight, and their skills are commendable, but they have many bad habits and need to be rectified."

"The second is 'no one is under the same command'. Unit A has 2,000 soldiers, Unit B has 3,000 soldiers, Unit C has 4,000 soldiers, and so on, all gathered together. In the south of the Yangtze River, the dialect changes every 10 miles, and the customs change every 100 miles. It is so scattered that it is difficult for them to work together. When the war goes well, they fight indiscriminately, and when the war goes badly, they scatter in a hurry, with no one to cover their retreat. This is a mob."

"The third is 'too little experience in war'. The court officials just sit in Jianye, talking nonsense all day long, not doing their jobs. For many years, the Jianghuai area has relied on recruiting refugees to form an army and making them fight for their lives, but they don't care about it, as if the north of the Yangtze River is a foreign land. If this continues, Zu Yue and others will rebel at any time, which is like holding the sword upside down."

After hearing this, Shan Xia felt as if he was struck by lightning and remained speechless for a long time.

Sima Ying listened and smiled bitterly: "What Shi Yao said is not without purpose, but if it is serious, I don't know how the Sun Wu Dynasty would deal with it?"

"In the spring of the 22nd year of Jian'an in the Han Dynasty, Feizhan (the original leader of Shanyue) the leader of Danyang bandits received Cao Cao's seal and incited Shanyue to join Cao's army in attacking from the north and south. After Cao's army returned without success, Sun Zhongmou sent my great uncle (Lu Xun) and He Gongmiao (He Qi) of Kuaiji to lead troops to fight against them. They defeated Feizhan, captured the old enemies of Shanyue, used the strong ones as soldiers and the weak ones as households, and finally obtained tens of thousands of elite soldiers."

"A year before that, You Tu, the chieftain of the Shanyue tribe in Poyang, received the seal and ribbon from Cao Cao, and the Shanyue people in various counties responded to his request. It was also my great-uncle and He Gongmiao who defeated them and gained 8,000 soldiers."

"In the distant past, Zhou Gongjin used the six counties of Jiangdong to fight against millions of Chinese troops, and there were many Shanyue in his army."

Sima Ying understood as soon as he heard it.

During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, if we were to ask which powerful family had the strongest influence, it would definitely be Eastern Wu.

Sun Ce and Sun Quan wanted to train their own army, but they were troubled by insufficient population. So, since they could not directly rob the men of the wealthy families, they had to conquer the Shanyue.

Because Shanyue had no owner, whoever captured it would own it. It was equivalent to the Sun family and the Jiangdong nobles sending troops together and "dividing the spoils" after victory.

The army was formed from the Shanyue people and strictly trained. This was Sun's own army, and had nothing to do with the nobles. Of course, throughout the Eastern Wu Dynasty, there were still too few such troops, and in the end they were unable to suppress the old Jiangdong clans, but it was indeed an idea.

Lu Wan brought up this matter to tell them that today's northern refugees are the former "Shanyue" and the only population that the Jin court can control. However, you are indifferent and have stopped them in Jiangbei, with the dirty intention of letting them consume each other with the Shao thief. This is totally wrong.

Fortunately, things have changed now.

The establishment of overseas counties and prefectures showed that the imperial court began to take this issue seriously.

In time, the weak among the refugees will be registered and become households that provide food and grain to the court; the strong ones will be organized into an army, strictly trained, and equipped with sophisticated equipment. Perhaps in the future they will be able to become a powerful Northern Force that sweeps across the north and defeats the Pseudo-Liang.

But what I didn’t expect was that the Eastern Wu had been destroyed for decades, and now the Jin Dynasty, with its capital in Jianye, was still facing the same situation as the Eastern Wu and had to follow the same old path.

"We'll discuss this later." Shan Xia stepped forward to end the discussion and asked, "How should we defeat the enemy now?"

Lu Wan thought for a moment and sighed, "The navy can't break the city. If we forcefully attack, we will only lose soldiers and generals. When the main army comes to attack, it will be disadvantageous."

"What? Where does the army come from?" Shan Xia asked in surprise.

"Yesterday I captured a few of our army's soldiers who were out collecting firewood, and only then did I learn that Shao's soldiers had crossed the Huai River and entered Shouchun," said Lu Wan.

"How many soldiers does Shao have?"

"Some say 20,000 or 30,000, some say 30,000 or 50,000, and some even say Shao Bing has no less than 100,000."

"Why so many?" Shan Xia became uneasy.

Even if we calculate it at a minimum of 20,000 people, it is enough to decide the outcome of the entire war.

Just as Lu Wan said, even if you put all the 30,000 or 40,000 land and sea troops in front of you to besiege Chengde County, you may not be able to take it down. When the division is old and the soldiers are tired, Shao's troops will move south from Shouchun, and with the help of internal and external forces, it will not be difficult to win.

He suddenly felt that the prospects of this battle were bleak.

"General, it's not like there's no chance of victory." Sima Ying saw Shan Xia's unhappy face and consoled him, "Su Shigao and Liu Yueshi are all along the way..."

Shan Xia's expression eased a little, but he was still worried.

******
There were actually 3,000 Zu family soldiers near Shouchun, but they were sent out by Zhang Shuo: led by Zu Huan, they headed eastward to collect food and fodder.

In fact, there was little hope. The Zu Family Army, an external force, might not necessarily make the counties that were defending themselves in Zhengying City surrender, even if he pulled out the tiger skin of Daliang.

Zhang Shuo has been in Shouchun for several days.

He counted the troops at hand, roughly including -

Six thousand men of the Silver Spear Battalion were stationed in Shouchun City;

Four thousand proton troops were deployed at Bagong Mountain;
A unit of Zuo Feilong Guards consisting of 4,800 men had already crossed the river and were stationed outside Shouchun City.

Serving these 15,000 people were more than 10,000 strong men from the five counties of Ruyin, Chen, Liang, Nandun and Xincai.

In addition, 3,000 troops under Fu Hong took over the defense of the two Xishi Mountains, East and West.
A unit of 4,800 people of Zuo Feilong Guard advanced eastward to Wokou to monitor the direction of Yicheng. Huainan County had three counties on the north bank of the Huai River, namely Xiacai, Ping'a and Yicheng. Among them, Xiacai and Ping'a had been abandoned by Wu soldiers after years of tug-of-war, and the people had been relocated. Only Yicheng County was still in their hands.

Finally, there were thousands of navy, but Zhang Shuo didn't take them seriously at all, because Yang Bao was so cowardly that he only dared to put wooden stakes in the river, and did not dare to take the initiative to seek out the Jiangdong navy for a battle.

On the fifth day of June, after receiving news of the battles of Hubingtang and Chengde, he had a general understanding of the opponent's strength.

That afternoon, he left General Xu Lang of the Left Flying Dragon Guard to garrison Shouchun, with the naval commander Yang Bao as his deputy. He led all 6,000 soldiers of the Silver Spear Camp, 1,000 hostage soldiers, 1,200 soldiers of the Left Flying Dragon Guard, and 7,000 young men from various counties, a total of 15,000 infantry and cavalry, and rushed south to Chengde to rescue Zu Yue.

The day after he left, a large fleet sailed onto the Huai River.

There were no less than 500 ships of all sizes, sailing upstream with oars and sails, following the southeast wind, with a huge momentum.

On the morning of the sixth day, the vanguard fleet arrived near Wokou.

In the misty drizzle, thick crossbow arrows flew with great force towards the soldiers of Zuo Feilongwei Yanggu and Erlongxiangfu in Luxiang who were camped near Wokou.

Chen Yingen, the governor of the Luxiang tribe stationed here, was furious.

However, the bandits refused to come ashore to fight them, so they could only pass the news on as quickly as possible.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, the vanguard of the Jin army's navy arrived near Bagua Mountain.

On the wide river surface, the sound of drums rumbled continuously.

When they were about to approach the wooden fence that blocked the river, several ships came forward, tied thick ropes to the wooden stakes, and then towed them downstream in an attempt to remove this water obstacle at the mouth of the Fei River.

At 3:00 p.m., Jin general Han Huang led 3,000 men, under the cover of the navy, landed on the south bank and advanced towards Bagua Mountain.

At the same time, Tong Jian led 3,000 people to the north bank and landed near the Xiacai County town which had collapsed for the most part.

Almost in an instant, the battle near Shouchun broke out.

The Liang army, which was used to fighting in the north, encountered an army with a completely different style.

(End of this chapter)