At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Zhang Liao took Wei Yan and other 300 people to Hefei City. On the way, he saw the sets of very well-forged armors. He picked up a set and weighed it. Feeling the heavy weight, he was very impressed.

"The materials used for this set of armor can make about ten sets of light armor. What your majesty said is true. The cost of heavy cavalry is really unimaginably high."

"But when I go to the battlefield, I can fight ten against one."

Wei Yan raised his head, with a hint of arrogance in his words: "We all have to fight to the death to repay the kindness of the king. For us, the point of the king's hand is where we fight to the death! Our battlefield Only advance, not retreat, until death!"

"Until you die!"

Three hundred Tiger Guards soldiers shouted together.

"The soldiers of the Tiger Guards are all elite, this point, I will never doubt it."

Seeing such a powerful tiger guard heavy cavalry, Zhang Liao nodded: "This time, it's your first battle. Your Majesty and this general have great expectations of you. You should be prepared. At the critical moment, you must go up to the battle!" battlefield."

Zhang Liao's expectation was naturally true. Zhang Liao really wanted to know to what extent the cavalry, which he had never seen before, could perform.

Guo Peng only sent [-] tall horses, and then asked Zhang Liao to select another [-] war horses according to the standards of these [-] horses.

Then feed these war horses a concentrated feed composed of forage, beans, and eggs, so that the war horses will be full and full of strength.

Then, the heavy knights of the Tiger Guards will be given meat and dry meals every meal to ensure enough oil, water and protein to ensure their combat effectiveness and to ensure that they have enough strength to support the heavy armor.

Looking at their food standards, Zhang Liao clicked his tongue.

Guo Peng is really generous and gives preferential treatment to ordinary soldiers. Soldiers in the Wei Army no longer eat vegetable porridge, but can eat dry rice, but the standard for treating these heavy cavalry is better than that of ordinary mid-level officers. preferential treatment

He understood more deeply why Guo Peng said that building heavy cavalry was a waste of money.

These three hundred fierce heavy cavalry, isn't it just a waste of money?

If everything is like this, if you still can't show a reliable record and amazing combat effectiveness, you don't need heavy cavalry.

After discussing with Guo Jia, Zhang Liao inspected the defense and war preparations of the Wu army on the opposite bank, and learned that the Wu army used a large number of small warships with high mobility as the main force, and gave up using large buildings as the main warships. Case.

According to Zhang Liao's analysis, it may be that the catapult destroyed Sun Wu's large warship before, which impressed the other party, especially Zhou Yu, very deeply.

In order to prevent such a thing from happening again, Zhou Yu abandoned the slow-moving large ships and used a large number of small warships to resist the Wei army's attack, so that the advantage of the Wei army's catapults was reduced to lowest.

"Zhou Gongjin is indeed talented. No wonder the king demoted the entire Zhou family to Youzhou because of Zhou Gongjin's taking refuge in Sun Bofu. Now it seems that Sun Bofu is dead, but Zhou Gongjin is still alive. Zhou Gongjin is our biggest obstacles."

Zhang Liao said so.

"That said."

Guo Jia's face was full of confidence: "Can Zhou Gongjin stop our army's advance? What's more, our army has no intention of fighting him here at all. The real decisive soldiers are not here. When Zhou Gongjin finds out , will he cry or laugh?"

Guo Jia looked at Zhang Liao with a wicked smile on his face.

Zhang Liao thought about it.

"He never expected that we would launch a surprise attack from the sea, choose a place that he couldn't predict to land, and directly copy his back route. When he was flanked by front and back, he didn't know what he would think."

Zhang Liao and Guo Jia's predictions were correct.

Although Zhou Yu knew that Guo Peng had built a navy, he didn't know that this navy was built on the basis of cross-sea landing operations. It was a large navy with a large number, a strong carrying capacity, and a large scale.

The fundamental purpose of this navy was not to fight against Sun Wu's navy in inland river battles. Guo Peng didn't intend to beat Sun Wu's navy in inland water battles at all, and that was unnecessary.

His goal is very clear, which is to directly stab Sun Wu in the buttocks with a sharp knife, causing the Sun Wu regime to bleed heavily and lose its resistance.

Destroy Sun Wu's head office and main force directly on the front line, and then push it all the way to the south, bringing the entire Jiangdong into rule.

Zhou Yu was still preparing for a fierce offensive and defensive battle with the Wei army along the Yangtze River. He believed that the Wei army would definitely use a large number of ships to break through his defense line, and he was ready for a desperate fight.

As for behind...

Landing operations across the sea seemed to be out of Zhou Yu's understanding.

Of course, it was not within the scope of understanding of Wei Jun's command level. Guo Peng directly commanded Tai Shici to do this, and asked Zhang Liao to choose some powerful troops to land together with Tai Shici's navy, trying to gather 2 people. Raid from the water.

For this reason, Guo Peng also recruited a large number of private large ships for military use, carrying soldiers, war horses and strategic materials, and opened a second front.

Attack Sun Wu on two fronts, delimit the main battlefield within the range of Wujun and Danyang counties, and deal a devastating blow to the main force of Wu army in Wujun and Danyang counties.

As long as Wu County and Danyang County are conquered, the Sun Wu regime will basically be declared annihilated, and the remaining three counties are just flat pushes.

The same is true of the strategic intelligence obtained by Zhang Liao.

Zhou Yu concentrated his main forces in Wu Jun and Dan Yang Jun, and the main force was along the river, where the warships of Sun Wu's army were densely dotted, and he looked like he would never admit defeat in a desperate battle, and he looked full of momentum.

From Zhang Liao's point of view, this was nothing more than a bluff. They were not that strong at all. Once they were landed by the Wei army, the Wu army would not be able to compete with the Wei army in a field battle on the frontal battlefield.

What Sun Ce couldn't do back then, Zhou Yu couldn't do now either.

Chapter 719 720 Eighty-Three Route Attack (Repair)

So far, Wei Jun has prepared for the battle to destroy Wu, and has a complete strategy and tactics.

Strategy and tactics have not been the focus of discussion for a long time. The focus of discussion is how to implement it better.

Although Tai Shici's water army was the main attacking force in this battle, the Wei army also needed to make enough offensive postures along the river to restrain the main force of the Wu army, so that Zhou Yu had no time to worry about it. After all, the main force was going to cross the river.

Zhang Liao will take a boat with Tai Shici to surprise the rear of Wu County. He will be the chief general and Tai Shici will be his deputy. Zhang Liao will personally lead the army to complete the surprise attack.

To be honest, Zhang Liao didn't want to miss such a large-scale landing operation after nearly 200 years.

On the frontal battlefield, Deputy Marshal Yu Jin was the main general, stationed in Liyang, Jiujiang County, and stormed Caishiji, using Shicheng as the main breakthrough.

General Hengjiang Xu Huang led his army to confront the Wu army on the opposite bank in Xiang'an County, Lujiang County, with Wuhu County as the main breakthrough.

As for Guangling County, Zang Ba, the prefect of Guangling County, led the army to garrison Guangling County to confront the Wu army, with Dantu County as the main breakthrough.

Each of the three armies has its own focus, and Xu Huang and Zang Ba must obey Yu Jin's command, and Guo Jia will assist them.

At that time, the three directions will march together and fight fiercely with the Wu army stationed there. This battle will start and Zhou Yu's main force and attention will be restrained.

At the same time, Zhang Liao took a boat with Tai Shici, led another elite group to make a circle from the sea and landed in Wujun smoothly.

Zhang Liao personally stabbed Wu Jun in the buttocks.

The Wei army's war preparations are in place, and an attack can be launched at any time.

More than [-] soldiers of the Wei army stared at Jiangdong, sharpening their swords eagerly, waiting for an order from the commander Zhang Liao.

To be honest, fighting more with less has never been the mainstream for the Wei army. Even before the Jian'an year, we often encountered wars fighting more with less.

It's also because Guo Peng has a large area under his jurisdiction and a small number of troops. Sometimes he can't do what he wants, and he can't concentrate on a country unilaterally, so it happens from time to time to fight more with less.

However, around the time of Jian'an, Guo Peng vigorously expanded the army, gradually expanding the entire size of the Wei army from 30 to 40, increasing the number of troops in the Northwest Central Plains and Southeast three corps, and enhancing their combat effectiveness.

Moreover, at the same time as the battle of the West Expedition to Guanzhong, the three major princes in the south of the Yangtze River also died, losing troops and generals, and their military strength declined, so the Wei army gradually gained the upper hand in terms of strength.

The crushing situation in terms of national power was thus formed. The three princes joined forces and wholeheartedly resisted Guo's attack, and they were no longer Guo's opponent.

In this battle, Zhang Liao claimed to have an army of 20, and he was ordered by the emperor of Han to put down the rebellion of Wu.

Zhou Yu, on the other hand, claimed to have an army of 15 to defend the Han Dynasty and eliminate Han thieves.

However, even if it is claimed, Wu Jun is no longer Wei Jun's opponent.

No matter how much Zhou Yu claimed, it would not be possible to turn an army of more than 4 to less than 30 into [-].

It occupies a large area, has a large population, and the rapid recovery of construction. Under the ebb and flow, the situation of Guo Wei crushing Jiangnan will appear sooner or later.

And once it appears, it is irreversible, which is the significance of the times.

After all, the population of Jiangnan cannot be compared with that of the Central Plains. After all, it is not the mainstream of development, and they have no spare energy to develop it.

If it weren't for the coercion of someone from Guo, Liu Zhang and Liu Biao would never have thought about going south, and would never have developed the south.

Now, Liu Biao has moved his residence south to Jiangling, which is by the river.

Once the situation changed, Liu Biao would definitely take a boat across the river to escape. This was what he had prepared. He even prepared enough boats by the river to leave Jiangling with him and his family property.

Liu Biao has prepared in this way, and the Jingzhou forces who have not flirted with Guo Peng are naturally also prepared. Everyone knows what is going on here. Once Guo Peng attacks, will they be able to defend it? Category.

Of course, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun are more in the same party, flirting with Guo Peng.

They want Guo Peng to come.

Liu Biao absolutely didn't want it, but Guo Peng wanted to come, and he couldn't help it, so he had to send troops south to open up living space.

If it was still a few decades ago, when Jingzhou had a population of 700 million, Liu Biao would not have been so worried at all.

However, since Emperor Shun, the entire south has been plagued by plagues year after year. There have been six or seven major plagues, and small plagues have occurred year after year without stopping. As a result, the population of Jingzhou has dropped sharply.

For example, the family of Zhang Zhongjing, a medical sage, had more than 300 people, and two-thirds of them were killed or injured because of the plague, which shows the impact of the plague on the population of Jingzhou.

The Yellow Turban Army is not a big threat to Jingzhou, at least not as big as the north.

If the sharp population decline in the north was caused by the war, then the sharp population decline in the south was caused by the plague under relatively peaceful conditions.

When Guo was in charge of Qing and Yanzhou, he couldn't find a cure, so he used isolation and cremation to limit the plague.

He used the coercive force of the army to establish a local plague rapid response mechanism, and distributed it to every village and township for intensive study and drills. Although it was somewhat inhumane, it effectively limited the spread of the plague and protected more people. .

Jingzhou people are not so lucky.

Several major plagues caused heavy population losses in Jingzhou. When Liu Biao took over Jingzhou, Jingzhou was no longer the most populous state in those days.

In particular, the four counties in Jingnan suffered heavy population losses. Changsha County and Lingling County, which used to have a population of one million, both lost nearly two-thirds of their population due to the plague, and they were no longer as large as they were in the past.

Liu Biao wanted to rely on these places to open up living space and crusade against the barbarians. It was not easy, and there was resistance from local tyrants.

Like Liu Biao, Liu Zhang also faced such a situation. The barbarians in Nanzhong had a large number, great influence, and strong combat effectiveness.

Wu Yi, Wu Ban, Yan Yan, Zhang Ren and other generals sent by Liu Zhang to crusade against the barbarians in Nanzhong did not progress smoothly, but rather slowly.

After the Battle of Hanzhong, in more than a year, Wu Yi and Wu Ban jointly launched three attacks on Nanzhong, and only plundered more than 2 people in total, and paid for the death of more than 2000 soldiers. , lost a lot of supplies.

There is definitely a benefit, but the benefit is not that great.

This gave Liu Zhang a headache.

Liu Biao and Liu Zhang had no time to look north in order to open up the south, and of course they were not so concerned about supporting the Sun Wu regime.

Even so, Zhou Yu will not be caught without a fight, but actively prepares and defends actively.

On the side of the Wu army, Zhou Yu took Sun Quan to sit in Moling together, and led [-] elite soldiers in Moling, serving as a strategic general reserve team to support the major battlefields at any time.

In response to the three advance routes of the Wei army, Wu County also set up three defensive positions.

Veteran Huang Gai led his army to guard Wuhu County, facing Wei General Xu Huang's front army head-on.

Clan general Sun Jing led an army to guard Shicheng, assisted by Han Dang, and confronted Wei Jiangjin's front army head-on.

Clan general Wu Jing led an army to guard Dantu County, and confronted Wei general Zang Ba's army head-on.

The Wei army attacked from three directions, and the Wu army resisted from three directions. Throughout June, the two sides confronted each other along the river. There was no war, but the cloud of war had long been filled.

Zhou Yu was in Moling, dispatching troops calmly and calmly, exhausting the population that the Sun Wu regime could control, and constantly increasing the number of auxiliary soldiers and civilians that could be used.

Not only that, he also urgently expanded the army, distributed weapons and armor to the strong men, incorporated them into the army and sent them to Moling for intensive training.

He thought about grinding his guns in front of the battle, so he would have to spend more troops as a backup, because he knew that the Wei army had more numbers than the Wu army, and he had to expand the army no matter what.

Chapter 720 720 Nine Liu Biao's backyard caught fire

Zhou Yu worked hard to prepare, but in the face of Wei Jun's strong deterrence, Wu Jun still showed symptoms of Wei-phobia.

The troops of the Wu army, who were confronting the Wei army head-on, inevitably thought of the previous disastrous defeat and Sun Ce's death, and feared the war.

As time went by, deserters even appeared in the major military camps.

In response to this phenomenon, in addition to beheading the deserters, the major military camps also thought of a solution by Zhou Yu.

The generals of each army showed the suicide notes written by themselves to their families to the soldiers, and then burned the suicide notes in front of the soldiers, and gave a passionate speech to boost morale.

Then Lu Fan arranged for people to spread rumors in the army, saying that Guo Peng was going to usurp the throne and proclaim himself emperor. If he lost this battle, Han would be gone. Wu Jun, as the defender of the Han Empire, would definitely be settled by Guo Pengqiu.

If he loses, Guo Peng will slaughter everyone in Jiangdong and never accept surrender. This is what Guo Peng swore before sending troops to the north.

All their private property, all their family members will become Guo Peng's, and they will be deprived of everything and become miserable slaves.

At the same time, Lu Fan ordered to replace all the "Wu" flags in the army and replace them all with "Han", preaching that the Wu army was fighting for and defending the Han Empire.