Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 107 101. Wu Jun Makes a Strategy
"Report! Generals, we have discovered that the Shu army has arrived at the Dongting Lake two days ago. The Shu army's land camp is located to the north of Dongting Lake and east of the river. The Shu army's water camp is located to the northwest of Dongting Lake, across the river from the Shu army's land camp."

The scouts of the Wu army walked into the big tent and reported the situation they had discovered on the front line to the generals and officials inside.

"The Shu army is coming so fast! They have arrived at the Dongting Lake area so early and set up camp. Moreover, the two camps on land and water support each other. In addition, we have few soldiers, so we may not be able to defeat them head-on..."

Xu Sheng looked at the map in front of him and said carefully. Originally, Xu Sheng's Wu army was going to support Jiangling. After all, even Cao Wei, a bystander, thought that Jiangling was a strong city and it would be difficult to take it easily, let alone Dongwu?
In the Eastern Wu's plan, Jiangling City could easily hold out for several months, which was enough time for Xu Sheng's troops to go and support it.

Unexpectedly, Xu Sheng learned about the fall of Jiangling just after passing Shaxian. Xu Sheng believed that even if Jiangling was lost, Sun Huan and other Wu generals could rely on important places such as Gong'an to resist and delay the Han army without any problem.

As a result, no one expected that under Hu Ban's design, Sun Huan actually held a banquet in Jiangling City, which resulted in all the Jiangling troops of Eastern Wu being wiped out and all of them were captured by the Han army. Even the Jingxiang Navy was directly incorporated into the Han army. There was no Eastern Wu general in Gong'an City, so it naturally opened the city and surrendered early.

By the time Xu Sheng, Ding Feng, Zhou Tai and others arrived at Zhouling, the western part of Jingzhou had almost completely fallen, and the flags of the Han army were almost everywhere in the counties and prefectures.

Facing the powerful Han army, Xu Sheng proposed to use the sharp advantage of the Eastern Wu navy to stop the enemy on the river, and the nearest and most suitable place for a decisive battle was Dongting Lake.

However, although Xu Sheng had a good idea, Dongting Lake was the location for the decisive battle that Feng Xi had decided long ago. It can be said that the Wu army was forced by the Han army to fight a decisive battle in Dongting Lake.

There is no need to say much about Feng Xi's land camp, with three or four layers of trenches, and even sharpened wooden spikes underneath. There are also randomly dug horse traps outside the trenches. In addition, the Han army's bows and arrows are sharp, while the Wu army has fewer people, so the probability of breaking Feng Xi's land camp by land battle is almost zero.

Zhang Nan's water fort was across the river from Feng Xi, forming a pincer attack against each other. In addition, the Han army had no habit of linking iron chains, so if the Wu army wanted to attack the Han army, it would have to face the situation of being attacked from both sides by the Han army.

Faced with the iron-clad arrangement of the Han army, Xu Sheng, although a good general, could not help but feel a headache.

"In my humble opinion, if you want to defeat the Shu army, you must first defeat its navy. If the navy is defeated, even if the Shu army is superior in land combat, it can only look at the river and sigh."

Ding Feng on the side spoke up to give advice, and Xu Sheng nodded. He naturally knew that they had to defeat the navy first, but the problem was that he did not have enough troops and it was difficult to act.

"Why can't we follow the example of the Red Cliff and set fire to the Shu army's water stronghold?"

Zhou Tai asked Xu Sheng on the side.

"General Zhou, although it is summer now and the southeast wind often blows, the Shu army is not like the Cao army that was not good at naval warfare and connected the ships with iron chains. On the contrary, after the Shu army integrated the Jingxiang navy, its naval warfare was as sharp as ours.

Secondly, at the Battle of Red Cliff, it was fortunate that General Huang Lao endured the physical pain and used the strategy of self-torture, and Kan Derun was a great eloquent man who made Cao Cao believe that General Huang Lao had surrendered, which allowed the small boats filled with kerosene and hay to safely approach Cao's army.

At this time, both our army and the Shu army are on guard against each other. If our small boats approach rashly, the Shu army will know that we intend to launch a fire attack, and they only need to send a dozen fast boats to stop our fire boats. "

Xu Sheng was quite helpless. At the time of Red Cliff, it can be said that the weather, the location and the people were all favorable, so Cao Cao was defeated with a fire. But now, only the weather is still favorable, because it is summer and the southeast wind is blowing, but the location and the people are not favorable.

Cao Cao's army was almost entirely landlubbers. The few people they had who were familiar with naval warfare, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, were killed by Zhou Yu's counter-espionage plan. Cao Cao had no choice but to adopt Pang Tong's plan of chaining iron chains.

Then Huang Gai pretended to surrender, allowing Cao Cao to set fire to the ship at a dangerous distance without checking, and the iron chains made it impossible to escape. These factors combined to create the miracle of the Battle of Red Cliffs.

Now the opponent is not the arrogant Cao Cao, but the sinister and cunning Feng Xi; the Han army not only knows how to sail, but even the Jingxiang navy under Guan Yu's command is likely to compete with the Eastern Wu navy, so naturally they will not play any tricks like chaining iron chains.

Besides, no one was trying to feign surrender at this time. If the Wu fireboat dared to approach, it would be intercepted by the navy's fast ships. It was just a fireworks display. "Don't panic, generals. I have a plan that can help our Wu army defeat the Shu army."

When everyone was silent, a general stepped forward and spoke.

"Oh? Do you have a plan too?"

When Xu Sheng saw that this man was just a captain, he made a joke and actually didn't think that the other party could tell him anything.

"General Xu, please understand. At this moment, our army has only 30,000 troops, which is barely equal to the Shu army's Luzhai. If we want to defeat the Shu army, we must rely on a unique strategy."

Xu Sheng nodded. This was nonsense. If he had 300,000 men, he would have killed them directly. Why would he be so sad here?

Most of the battles that people talk about most in history are those in which the weak defeated the strong. After all, it is natural to win by defeating the weak with the many.

"I am willing to pretend to surrender and gain the trust of the thief general Feng Xi so that he can help our army defeat the Shu navy."

This man spoke again, but not only did the generals think he was dreaming, even Xu Sheng thought he was exaggerating.

"What are you capable of? Why do you dare to speak so arrogantly? Although Feng Xi is a treacherous villain, it is not easy to deceive him."

"I only need to do this and that... I think Feng Xi will find it perfect."

The captain knelt on the ground and laid out his plan in detail. After hearing it, the generals looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Wen Xiang, what do you think?"

Zhou Tai was not good at these roundabout ways, so he asked Xu Sheng, who had the best brain among the crowd. Xu Sheng touched his chin and thought for a while, then nodded.

"Although this plan is simple, it is quite useful and highly credible. Not to mention Feng Xiuyuan, even we would hesitate for a moment."

When Zhou Tai heard that Xu Sheng approved of this plan, he simply asked the captain to act according to the plan and wait until they reached Dongting Lake.

Two days later, the Wu army finally arrived. The land army also set up camp on the north bank of Dongting Lake, and the water camp was on the east bank of Dongting Lake, which was almost a mirror image of the Han army.

At this time, in the Han army camp, after several days of overtime work, the craftsmen finally made what Feng Xi asked for. Although the technique was rough and the effect was greatly compromised, it was still usable after all.

Feng Xi looked at these huge things that looked like slingshots and crossbows in the camp and sneered. Not long ago, a lot of newly made gunpowder was also sent down the river along with the supplies.

For this naval battle, Feng Xi decided to come up with something groundbreaking to let the traditional navy of Eastern Wu have a good time - to open their eyes.

(End of this chapter)