People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 496 Puzzled
Wang Dang felt puzzled by Xu Chen's question. He had never heard of Pang Tong and didn't know why Xu Chen suddenly asked about this name.

After he denied it, Xu Chen's expression became a little strange.

It is still debatable whether Pang Tong actually proposed the chain of strategies in history, but the chain of strategies proposed by Wang Dang were exactly the same, which made Xu Chen couldn't help but think more about it.

However, the result told him that there was no Pang Tong here, and the chain of schemes was indeed figured out by Wang Dang himself.

"No, absolutely not!" The first person to react was Ju Su. He immediately stood up and did not give Wang Dang any face: "My lord, please do not listen to General Wang's nonsense. If we are attacked by fire from the enemy, these iron chains will come to take our lives!"

Ju Su's voice was rare in the past, and his face showed obvious panic, as if he was very afraid that Xu Chen had heard Wang Dang's lies.

However, his worries were destined to be unnecessary. Xu Chen could make mistakes in other things, but he would naturally not repeat the same mistake as something that had already been recorded in history.

"This plan is quite clever, but the drawbacks are obvious. As Gong Yu said, if the enemy launches a fire attack, the consequences will be disastrous. The Wu general Zhou Yu and Shu Han's Xu Shu are both extremely intelligent. If we leave them this loophole, they will definitely notice and exploit it."

Although this plan did not work, Xu Chen still took Wang Dang's face into consideration and explained the specific reasons.

When Wang Dang heard this, he was also shocked to realize that this was inappropriate, so he smiled awkwardly and took a step back as if nothing had happened.

They talked for a while, and when Zhao Yun pointed to the battlefield and reminded them, they turned their attention back.

"The enemy is retreating!"

Hearing Zhao Yun's voice, everyone looked and saw that the Wu and Shu navy were retreating in their boats. The river, which had been fierce and bloody just now, began to calm down again.

In fact, the retreat of the Wu Shu navy was also within everyone's expectations, so they did not find it strange at all at this moment.

"After the enemy's test attack, we can roughly judge the strength of our navy. But we don't know how they will deploy and arrange in the future, and how our army should plan?"

Taishi Ci frowned, looking somewhat solemn.

The expressions of the rest of the people were not much better. Although they were not at a disadvantage in today's battle, the problem was that the enemy's navy was much larger. Whether it was a large-scale decisive battle or a protracted war of attrition, they obviously did not have an advantage.

Now that the navy has arrived, it only gives them the ability to challenge the Wu and Shu navy, but it is still very difficult to achieve the expected tactical goals.

"I think that after the enemy knows our strength, they will not take the initiative to launch a large-scale attack. After all, although our army is not good at naval battles, we can still fight them on equal terms. If we launch a general attack, the risks will be difficult to control due to the fierce fighting. This is not a wise move for them to gain an advantage.

If he were a subordinate, he would adopt the tactics of strictly controlling the waterways, holding his ground, and persisting in consumption, making steady progress with the advantage of scale.

For Shu Han and Wu, their goal in this battle is not to destroy our navy, but to keep the enemy out of the Yangtze River. As long as they can successfully block the waterway, they can achieve their goal. There is no need to actively seek a war. "

After Ju Shou's analysis, everyone nodded frequently, and their thoughts became clearer. Xu Chen nodded even more, Ju Shou was talking about the key point, the goal of the water battle between the two sides is not to destroy the other side, but to break through the blockade and prevent the breakout, so as the defending side, the Wu-Shu coalition army only needs to hold on to the waterway, and the Yellow Turbans should be the ones in a hurry.

This was indeed the case. Everyone immediately frowned, realizing the difficulty of the water battle.

Zhao Yun asked: "In this case, how should our army deploy tactics in the future? It may not be easy to go upstream and break through the blockade."

Taishi Ci shook his head and said, "That's wrong. There is no easy time in a war. Our army has to attack. We have to fight even when it's easy or difficult. Otherwise, how can we occupy the waterway?"

Xu Chen nodded: "Ziyi's words are a bit rough, but it makes sense. Apart from forcing a breakthrough, we have no other choice. The current tactical space in the waterway is too small. The enemy only needs to station heavy troops on the other side and cooperate with the navy to harass. It is simply wishful thinking for our army to successfully land and fight. Only by going deep into the upper reaches of the waterway and stretching the battle line can we find the enemy's weak points and cross the river to fight."

After hearing this, everyone stopped talking. This seemed to be the only way.

However, the worry on their faces could not be resolved. Although naval warfare was a different matter, the military laws were essentially the same. How could they not see the difficulty of breaking through by force?

Looking at today's battle, they had to admit that the Wu and Shu navy were more adapted to naval battles. The Yellow Turbans were going to charge against the defense line against the current, which was very risky and reckless even if it was a helpless move.

During the silence, they looked at Xu Chen from time to time, with expressions that were more or less weird.

Based on their understanding of Xu Chen, he would generally not make such a hasty decision. Unless there is a very high probability of success and there is no better choice, Xu Chen would never do this thankless approach.

The problem now is that even if we really fight hard, there doesn't seem to be much hope of success. This is obviously not Xu Chen's style.

Of course, even if they were puzzled, they would not say anything at this time. Even if Xu Chen no longer cared about his status, his natural leadership authority could still eliminate everyone's doubts, not to mention that from the beginning of his career to now, Xu Chen had hardly taken a wrong path. This impression of being a wise man further strengthened his authority.

It was not until not long after that the navy retreated and Ma Yan came down from the warship in a slightly disheveled military uniform that everyone's thoughts were interrupted.

"Reporting to the leader, our army successfully forced back the Wu and Shu navy in this battle. Both sides suffered casualties. We are currently calculating the losses. The wounded on each ship are being treated by military doctors. Each formation is also taking turns to maintain combat readiness and can respond to the enemy's surprise attack at any time!"

Judging from this report, Ma Yan handled the navy's post-war situation very appropriately, but he looked rather embarrassed.

Today's battle was actually far below his expected performance. It could only be said that the gap between training and actual combat was greater than he had imagined. Fortunately, although the Yellow Turbans were not good at naval battles, they were not that bad either. At least they could fight the opponent on equal terms, which gave Ma Yan some confidence.

Xu Chen had never had overly optimistic expectations. In his opinion, today's performance was actually quite good. So he would not blame him but encourage him instead.

"Most of our sailors come from the north. It's quite good that they can fight like this even though they are not good at naval warfare. I will give you another five days to summarize your practical experience and improve your tactics. Once everything is ready after five days, we will just wait for the east wind to rise and then break through upstream!"

(End of this chapter)