Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 219
Wuling is not a straight mountain, but a continuous small mountain range. The highest mountain is called Wushan, so it is called Wuling.

There are also a large number of small hills under Wushan Mountain. These small hills are connected with each other to build this majestic mountain range.

At this time, on the mountainside of the back mountain, thousands of Jiangdong troops were in a situation of losing their positions.

They were ordered to take a sneak attack from the rear, but halfway through the climb, the water suddenly flooded at the foot of the mountain, and then hordes of Jiangxia water soldiers appeared on the mountain to attack with arrows.

As a last resort, Han Dang, the leader of the team, had no choice but to use another small hill as a cover, and ordered the soldiers to hide in the forest on the reverse slope behind the mountain, facing the invading Jiangxia navy, and repeatedly repelled them.

When Shen Chen arrived, Liu Qi was commanding the encirclement and suppression, but this Jiangdong army was very tenacious, and the two sides fought each other for a quarter of an hour without any results.

"Achen, you're here."

Liu Qi stood on a higher hill and looked down. The enemy was actually behind the hill, but because of the slope, neither bows nor arrows or rolling stones could hit him.

And if you go down to fight at close range, you will be hit back by the opponent's counterattack. Therefore, the two sides fought back and forth on a slope of about 40 degrees. In addition, there are many forests and overgrown trees. It is also easy to find cover, so it is very easy. Difficult to beat.

Seeing Shen Chen approaching, Liu Qi, who had been stalemate all the time, was overjoyed and said to him: "Look, Ah Chen, those Jiangdong soldiers have occupied the hill below, and it is very difficult for us to attack. Do you have any solution?"

Shen Chen stretched out his head to peek down, and saw that the slope below was not very steep, but because the road connecting the hill on this side and the hill on the opposite side was relatively narrow, and the left and right slopes were above [-] degrees, it was difficult to attack from other directions. The connected trail passed by, but the trail was occupied and it was difficult to attack by force, so there was a stalemate.

He thought for a while and asked, "Are you persuaded to surrender?"

"Not yet."

Liu Qi said: "However, the leading general calls himself Han Dang, and Han Dang is a veteran of Sun Jian, so he probably won't surrender."

"That's hard to say."

Shen Chen smiled and shouted to the bottom: "General Han, can you come out and say something?"

Han Dang climbed up the slope, showing half of his head, looked at him vigilantly and shouted angrily: "Shen Chen, what kind of trick did you use?"

"There is no trick."

Shen Chen said: "It's just that the upper reaches of Shushui River just broke the embankment. Now your Jiangdong army is submerged, and Sun Quan doesn't know whether he is alive or dead. Why don't you come down sooner?"

"Pooh!"

Han Dang said angrily: "You want me to surrender, it's a dream."

Shen Chen sighed: "Since this is the case, then we can only attack by force."

"Come if you want, it's useless to talk!"

Han Dang made a dull voice, revealing the will to die in his eyes.

Shen Chen said to Liu Qi: "Young Master, let people cut down trees, make boats and go around behind the mountain. Now that the flood has passed, the only thing left is to slowly release the flood. We can only attack them from the rear."

The opponent occupied a mountain top, and it was difficult to attack directly due to the terrain. If it was burned with fire, it would not be able to burn. One is that the air is humid, and the other is that it is not easy to burn.

Although it has already entered autumn at this time, the leaves of the trees in the south are all emerald green, and water can be squeezed out with just a pinch, and there is no fire at all.

Therefore, unless Lu Xun carried a large amount of hay with him to light Liu Beijun's tent like in the Battle of Yiling, it would be impossible to directly set fire to the opposite mountain, so he had to choose to make a boat from the water to go around and attack the rear.

Wushan, the highest peak in Wuling, is only over 200 meters above sea level, so the hills below are naturally not that high. The small hill occupied by Han Dang is only 50 meters high, but the water level below has risen by more than ten meters.

That is to say, even if they passed by by boat, although the opponent was condescending, their distance was only 40 meters high. Shooting from behind and being flanked by front and back could still threaten them.

Now Liu Qi went to implement according to Shen Chen's plan, and after more than an hour, he barely made a hundred raft-like boats, carrying two to three thousand soldiers and rowed to the back mountain.

However, Shen Chen still underestimated the speed of the water flow. Although the hills on both sides prevented the flood from spreading, the Shushui still played the role of flood discharge. The water level dropped several meters in just one hour, which made it very difficult for Jiangxia's navy to deal with it. .

After about two more hours, the two sides fought fiercely until midnight. After paying a very high price, Shen Chen personally led the attack on both sides and attacked the small hill occupied by Han Dang.

At this moment, Jiangxia's navy was densely packed around the hill, and everyone was holding torches. Han Dang didn't bring many people, only three to four thousand.

In this kind of attack, their number is getting smaller and smaller, and many of them got lost in the mountains, or fell into the water, and some couldn't help but surrender. The height in that area was only 50 meters, and the area was less than [-] square meters. There is less and less living space for them on the small hills.

In the end, Shen Chen finally captured the top of the mountain, forcing them to the mountainside, condescending and shooting down a large number of arrows, which soon made it impossible for them to retreat. Various voices persuading them to surrender came and went, and many people chose to surrender. .

"General Han!"

Shen Chen shouted to an anti-slope below: "The situation is over, surrender."

"It's impossible for me to surrender."

Han Dang's mood was already very low, but he still cheered up and said: "It took three generations for my lord to establish a foothold in Jiangdong. How can I lose it to you? If you want to fight, fight."

"Ugh."

Shen Chen sighed, and ordered: "Shoot the arrow!"

"Fire arrows!"

Countless arrows shot towards the slope below, and there were very few remaining Jiangdong soldiers, and a large number of them were shot to death soon.

The sound of falling into the water was endless, and at the end, Han Dang screamed and rolled down the cliff, was caught by a big tree, and barely escaped with his life.

But immediately after the last line of defense fell, hordes of Jiangxia navy swarmed in, and some people shouted to capture Han Dang alive, don't let him go.

Seeing this situation, Han Dang said with a sad smile: "Shen Chen, you won this battle, but don't be too complacent, my lord will defeat you one day."

After finishing speaking, he barely stood up, covered the wound of the arrow shot into his shoulder, turned his head, jumped into the flood several meters deep, and disappeared.

It was already very late, but because the heavy rain had stopped long ago, the sky was clear and clear these days. As the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, the bright moonlight shone on the water, making the muddy flood water glow with a silvery white brilliance.

Shen Chen sighed: "There are still righteous men in Jiangdong, but it's a pity that Sun Jian and Sun Ce are all admirable people, but Sun Quan is not the master of the Ming Dynasty, and the righteous men followed the wrong people."

"Ah Chen, let's go."

Seeing him standing on the top of the mountain and looking at the water below, Liu Qi said, "Go back to the camp and rest for the night, and it's time to set off tomorrow."

"Ah."

Shen Chen nodded, turned his head and walked towards the top of the mountain.

The surrounding Jiangxia sailors stayed behind to deal with the aftermath, escorting the prisoners to escort the prisoners, cleaning the battlefield to clean the battlefield, the moon was as cold as water, and the battle was finally over.

In the daytime of the next day, the floodwaters had almost completely receded, leaving behind a mess at the foot of the mountain, with yellow mud all over the ground and countless corpses, ship fragments, broken trees, weeds, branches, debris that were swept away by the flood. stone.

This is only at the foot of the mountain, and more were washed away by the flood, and floated along the river to Jinghu Lake tens of kilometers away. At least tens of thousands of Jiangdong navy troops were killed or injured in this battle. The famous generals don't know how many, it is hard to estimate. .

No one even knew the life and death of people like Sun Quan and Zhou Yu, and Shen Chen and the others didn't have the heart to clean up the battlefield, because the battlefield was already in a mess, and there was almost no value in cleaning it up.

However, in order to prevent the rotting corpse from causing a plague and harming the surrounding Shanyue people, Shen Chen also specially instructed Chen Pu and Zu Shan to send someone to bury the Jiangdong Army's corpse, and it was Shen Chen who paid them to do it, otherwise they would have to pay for it. It doesn't have to take this effort.

In early August, Shen Chen and Liu Qi returned to Nanchang.

It was not until mid-August that Liu Biao received the news at the residence of King Chu in Xiangyang City, Nanjun County, Jingzhou.

In fact, the earliest news he received was that the Jiangxia Navy was defeated and Huang Zu was captured.

This news once made him feel very uncomfortable. First, Huang Zu was his reliance, and second, once Huang Zu failed, no one could stop Jiangdong Navy.

In the end, he never expected that Shen Chen would bring him a big one, which made him overjoyed.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, Hexi Your Majesty."

In the backyard of the mansion, Jia Xu bowed his hands to Liu Biao with a smile and said, "The Jiangdong navy suffered heavy losses in this battle, and if they are unable to regain Yuzhang, the king can become emperor and dominate the south."

Liu Biao put the official document in his hand on the table and said with a happy smile, "Yes, I didn't expect to come back from a desperate situation. Ah Chen is really a lucky general. Sun Quan survived by luck, Zhou Yu was seriously ill, and all the other generals were killed or injured. Tens of thousands of Jiangdong soldiers were submerged in a flood."

Sun Quan didn't die, but he almost lost his skin.Zhou Yu was seriously ill, Lu Su was not flooded in the rear, Han Dang was killed in battle by Zhonglang, Ling Cao, the captain of the thieves, sank to the bottom of the river, Lu Meng, the captain of Pingbei, was seriously injured, and Rui Liang, the captain of the East, was shot to death.

Others include Danyang Duwei Quanrou, Fengzheng Duwei Liu You, Liwu Duwei Chen Chong, Hujun Duwei Chen Zong, Sima Lushi, Ding Lie, Huang Song, Zhu Zhong, Deng Shao, Zhao Fei, Li Dai, etc. More than ten middle and lower-level generals drowned.

It can be said that Jiangdong's middle-level officers are barely left except Lu Meng, and they are almost broken.Apart from those who did not participate in the battle, the only high-ranking general who participated in this battle is Xu Sheng, who is still alive.

In addition, there are some celebrities who did not serve as generals, but followed Sun Quan, such as Zhang Hong, the censor, drowned, Sun Quan’s youngest son, Hu Zong, who served as Jin Cao, was dying, served as Sun Quan’s personal bodyguard on the ship, and Zhou Zhou, who had been holding Sun Quan’s shield Tai was in a coma for several days and became seriously ill.

Therefore, except for Zhonglang general Xu Sheng and Zhechong school lieutenant Zhu Ran, the entire Jiangdong army was safe and sound, most of the generals were dead, wounded, and sick.The rest of the low-level soldiers were even more difficult. There were more than 3 horses, less than half of them returned alive.

This battle can almost be said to have severely damaged the entire Jiangdong. Although it did not reach the point where Cao Cao killed Yuan Shao's 400 soldiers in the battle pit at Guandu, Jiangdong's background cannot be compared with Yuan Shao. Only three to four million, and Jiangdong's aristocratic family problems are more complicated, so this battle can be described as a heart-breaking battle.

It is estimated that Sun Quan will be very reluctant to defend along the Yangtze River, let alone invade Jingzhou again.So in the future Liu Biao can confidently proclaim himself emperor, and then he will continue to send troops to beat Jiangdong and Yizhou. According to Jia Xu's strategic deployment, if he dominates the entire south, he will be able to send troops to the Central Plains and seize the world of Han!

"Your Majesty, the most urgent task now is to issue an edict immediately to inform Jingzhou to boost morale."

Jia Xu also said: "In addition, the Jiangxia navy should enter Yuzhang again. Our losses in this battle are also very large. Your Majesty can recruit some soldiers and horses to enter Jiangxia and Yuzhang counties. After he becomes emperor next year, he can attack with a large army. Jiangdong, destroy the Sun family."

"Ah."

Liu Biao nodded in satisfaction, "Wen He's words really win my heart."

Jia Xu murmured: "Since Yuan Shao died of illness this year, his third son Yuan Shang was succeeded by a false edict in Yecheng, and Tian Feng used Yuan Shao's real edict to let Yuan Tan succeed him in Qingzhou. Yuan Shang has Yuan Shao in his hands. The main force, Yuan Tan, has a righteous name, and if these two fight, the north will be captured by Cao Cao, and we must also destroy the south as soon as possible."

Liu Biao asked: "In the meaning of Wenhe, what should I do with a widow?"

Jia Xu laughed and said, "Does Your Majesty know about the recent changes in Yizhou?"

"You mean about Zhang Lu?"

"good."

Jia Xu nodded: "Seeing Liu Zhang's defeat, Zhang Lu wanted to take advantage of the situation to attack the whole of Yizhou. At this time, Liu Zhang is weak. If there is no one to help, Zhang Lu will take advantage of him. This man occupies Hanzhong and Bajun, and his strength is not enough. Xiao Wang, if he wins the whole of Yizhou, even if the king wins Jiangdong in the future, it will be very troublesome if he wants to get Bashu."

After Liu Zhang's defeat in Zigui, his strength was very weak.

In history, Zhang Lu actually had not only the territory of Hanzhong, but also half of Berkshire.

Liu Zhang's actual territory is only Guanghan County, Shu County, Guanghan Dependent Country, Shu County Dependent Country, Jianwei County, and the southern part of Berkshire.

The approximate area of ​​later generations is from Chengdu in the west, Luzhou in the south, Chongqing in the east, and Mianyang, Suining, and Nanchong in the north, that is, the Sichuan Basin, which is still only two-thirds.

The other third of the Sichuan Basin, that is, Guangyuan City, Bazhong City, and Dazhou City in later generations, is currently under the actual control of Zhang Lu.

Historically, Liu Zhang had always wanted to take back these places and appointed Pang Xi as the prefect of Bajun, but he was defeated by Zhang Lu.

At this time, the troops sent by Liu Zhang to attack Liu Biao were almost wiped out, and their strength plummeted. It happened that someone in Hanzhong dug out a jade seal from the ground and dedicated it to Zhang Lu. Zhang Lu thought that he had a chance to get the whole of Yizhou, so he went south to attack Chengdu.

Jia Xu believes that Liu Zhang's vitality is seriously injured now, and Zhang Lu has absorbed a large number of people from Guanzhong because of Dong Zhuo's rebellion in Chang'an.

In this case, the population of Hanzhong and Berkshire would be large, and if Zhang Lu gets the entire Bashu Plain, the strength will be stronger than that of Liu Zhang who has not been defeated, which is not good for Liu Biao.

At that time, even if Liu Biao wins Jiangdong, if he wants to take Yizhou later, the difficulty will increase too much.

"What does Wenhe mean?"

Liu Biao asked.

Jia Xu's eyes showed a bright light and said: "Your Majesty should attack Yizhou with his troops, drive out Zhang Lu in the name of uniting with Liu Zhang, and then take advantage of the trend to annex Yizhou, then the south can be settled!"

(End of this chapter)