Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 266 260. On the verge of breaking out

Jingzhou completed its preparations quickly. An army of 50,000 set out from Jiangling, heading east by water, preparing to attack Chaisang from Jiangxia down the river.

The spies in Jiangdong had already found out the movements of Feng Xi's army and reported the situation to Zhuge Jin immediately. Fortunately, Zhuge Jin had made preparations and had arranged for He Qi and his son to go to Chaisang. Now Chaisang's city wall had been reinforced and could be said to be a strong city.

In addition, Chaisang has a unique terrain, surrounded by water on three sides and backed by mountains on one side. There is not much land available for deploying a large army. Therefore, Zhuge Jin thought that Chaisang should have no problem resisting the Han army for several months with its strong city walls and deep moats.

And there was no way the Han army could bypass Chaisang. Chaisang was located at the intersection of the Yangtze River and Pengli Lake. Even if the Han army saw that the Eastern Wu retreated in the city and directly bypassed it, their subsequent food supply route would have to pass through the gate of Chaisang. Couldn't this be cut off at will?

Therefore, the Han army had to control Chaisang in their own hands no matter what before there could be any follow-up arrangements.

Zhuge Jin knew this truth, and Feng Xi also knew it.

"Shiasang...Shiasang."

Before the expedition, Feng Xi muttered to himself while looking at the map. He was familiar with most of the terrain in Jiangdong, so he was also very clear that Chaisang would be a hindrance to his eastward advance.

And there is no need to think too much, Chaisang will definitely be heavily defended by the Eastern Wu. After all, as long as Chaisang is lost, the only thing left for the Han army is to march straight in.

Whether in field battles or street fights, the State of Wu could never be a match for the Han Army. Even naval battles, which were once the Wu Army's forte, could no longer reproduce their former glory due to the death of their famous generals and elite troops.

It was not difficult for Feng Xi to capture Chaisang. Today, Jingzhou was not afraid of the traditional strong cities. The development of various tools and gunpowder had already changed the fighting style of the Jingzhou army, and this Eastern Expedition was an experiment on this change.

Not to mention high-level officials from both sides like Feng Xi and Zhuge Jin, Sun Shao and He Qi of Chaisang were already under tremendous pressure at this time.

According to reports from spies, the Han army's 40,000-strong navy sailed down the Yangtze River and arrived in Jiangxia a few days ago. They are now ready to attack Chaisang at any time.

Of course, Chaisang also used methods such as iron chains across the river and buried iron pillars in places with slower water flow to try to stop the Han army's navy, but everyone knows that these methods are useless. It didn't take much effort for the Han army to remove these things.

"Since we are ready, why don't we take advantage of the Han army being trapped to break out of the city, use fire ships to clear the way, and defeat the Han army?"

When Sun Shao and He Qi looked at each other, a powerful voice rang out. It was Zhuge Ke. He had a bad temper. If he was given an army of 20,000, he would attack Jiangling directly.

Now that he heard that the Han army was coming, he felt that these two people were cowardly and were not like military generals. It would be better for him to take the initiative to attack according to his own plan and defeat the Han army. If all their manpower was killed or injured, the Han army's eastern expedition would definitely fail.

He Qi and Sun Shao looked at each other, and both of them revealed helplessness. This Zhuge Ke was not an ordinary unlearned person, on the contrary, he was quite knowledgeable, but his lack of practical experience and bad temper were the two biggest problems.

A half-full bottle is always swaying, and the most feared thing is people like him who understand a little, but not completely. Haven't you seen the royal family Yan Yuan and Sun Huan before? Although Sun Huan's head has been buried in Jiangdong since it was sent back by Feng Xi, there are many coincidences between what Sun Huan did and Zhuge Ke's current thoughts.

When Liu Bei led an expedition to the east in the past, Sun Huan proposed to attack first to weaken the Han army's morale. As a result, he was defeated in Zigui and fled back to Jiangling.

Later, after the Battle of Yiling, Sun Huan took the initiative to attack under the city of Jiangling, but was defeated again. This provided Zhao Lei with an opportunity to instigate the soldiers in the city to revolt.

These details were gradually known to Jiangdong as the war ended. Now Zhuge Ke was going to take the initiative again, and neither He Qi nor Sun Shao was too willing. But Zhuge Ke was Zhuge Jin's eldest son after all, and he was also the eldest son, so they could only coax him to come.

"My Lord, although we have 30,000 soldiers in the city right now, we are no match for the Han army in terms of both quantity and quality. If we take the initiative to leave the city, it would be fine if we can achieve something, but if we suffer heavy casualties, I'm afraid we will have to defend Chaisang again..."

In the end, it was He Qi who persuaded him. The meaning behind his words was very simple. You, Zhuge Ke, led the army out of the city to fight the Han army. If you won, it would be good. But what if you lost?
And how many people should be given to you? If you take less, it will be a waste. If you take more, you will give all these people away. Then will we still be able to defend Chaisang?

"How can you be sure that I will fail if I leave the city?"

Zhuge Ke was a little angry. Didn't He Qi not trust him at all? He felt that he would fail if he left the city and was blatantly looking down on him?

"My Lord, as the Art of War says, 'Before you think about victory, think about defeat.' We cannot pin all our hopes for victory or defeat on 'maybes' or 'ifs.'"

In the end, it was He Qi, who was well versed in military tactics, who persuaded Zhuge Ke to give up the idea of ​​leaving the city to meet the enemy.

"But young master, the fire attack you just mentioned makes sense. Now it is summer, the wind is blowing from the southeast, and the enemy is coming from the northwest, so you can prepare."

Seeing that Zhuge Ke seemed a little indignant, He Qi quickly comforted him and affirmed his plan of fire attack.

He Qi thought about it. This was not a water battle in an open area like the one in Dongting Lake, but a narrow terrain like the Yangtze River. Even if the Han army reacted, there was no room to dodge in a hurry. Maybe they could really burn a few Han warships by surprise.

"General He is right. I'll trouble you to prepare the fire ships."

When Sun Shao saw that He Qi had coaxed Zhuge Ke into submission, he immediately took advantage of the situation and assigned the task of supervising the construction of the fire ship to Zhuge Ke, giving him something to do and a sense of participation, so that he wouldn't be idle every day and come here to cause trouble.

"Okay... No, I obey your command!"

As expected, Zhuge Ke instantly felt that he had become an important person. He bowed in a formal manner and then went down to prepare.

"call……"

He Qi and Sun Shao let out a long sigh, then looked at each other and smiled helplessly.

The Han army reorganized themselves in Jiangxia and immediately went downstream. Feng Xi did not make the classic mistakes and sent many rafts and small boats to clear the way.

As expected, the iron chains, hidden stakes and other objects prepared by the Eastern Wu only blocked the Han army's small boats for a while. They were pulled out or moved away by the Han army soldiers after a while, and the large ships behind were hardly affected.

However, the Eastern Wu also buried a large number of hidden stakes and iron chains at the entrance where the Yangtze River flows into Pengli Lake. This was also a line of defense that could truly contain the Han army.

If the Han army wanted to remove these, they would have to brave the rain of arrows from the Wu army.

(End of this chapter)