The last three kingdoms

Chapter 1340 Sweep
While Wang Jun and Fu Qian launched the attack, the other four troops also launched an attack on the territory of Wu State on the first day of July.

Huang Chong led the troops from the east, sent troops from Xiapi, Xuzhou, all the way south, and attacked Huaiyin, the important town of Xuzhong.

The Han army built a pontoon bridge on the Huaihe River. Although the Wu army counterattacked during the construction of the pontoon bridge, Huang Chong accepted the challenge calmly, mobilized a large number of archers, concentrated firepower, and attacked the enemy on the south bank with arrows. Many Wu soldiers cleared the obstacles to the construction of the pontoon bridge.

After the pontoon bridge was built, the Han army continued to march into the south bank of the Huaihe River through the pontoon bridge, besieging Huaiyin City in groups, and then launched a strong attack on Huaiyin City.

Although the defenders of Huaiyin resisted desperately, they were still outnumbered. After holding on for five or six days, the west gate was the first to be breached by the Han army. The Han army entered the city from the west gate and quickly controlled the whole city. Most of the defenders were wiped out. , The guard was also captured.

After taking Huaiyin, Huang Chong led his army to drive southward to attack Guangling, an important town in Jiangbei.

In addition to Huang Chong's troops, Jiang Bin who attacked Shouchun, Qian Hong who attacked Yiyang, and Wang Qi who attacked Jiangxia all had to face the problem of crossing the Huai River.

The Huaihe River is not wide, nor is it narrow. If boats are used to cross the river, the four groups of people will cross the river at the same time, and the number of boats required is extremely amazing. Therefore, before the preparations for the operation, the plan to use the pontoon bridge was designed to cross the Huaihe River. According to the plan, it is planned that at least three pontoon bridges must be erected for each group of people, so for four groups of people, twelve pontoon bridges must be erected at the same time.

Therefore, in the previous preparatory work, the pontoon bridge was a prerequisite. The first thing to do was to fully prepare. By the time of crossing the river, all the objects for the construction of the pontoon bridge were ready, and the speed of building the pontoon bridge was also quite fast.

Even if he was blocked by the Wu army like Huang Chong on the East Road, this situation also happened in the Shouchun and Yiyang river sections. However, the Han army had made contingency plans in advance and conducted various drills for this purpose. It was built smoothly, and all arms of the Han army coordinated and attacked decisively. They successfully repelled the obstruction of the Wu army and successfully completed the task of crossing the river.

After crossing the Huaihe River, several groups of Han armies marched together. Jiang Bin besieged Shouchun, Qianhong attacked Yiyang. Only Wang Qi encountered the least resistance. They drove south all the way to attack Jiangxia.

Among these roads, Yiyang is the hardest nut to crack. The governor of Yiyang is Zhang Xian, a general of the state of Wu. When Kang was dying, he handed over the task of defending the important town of Yiyang to Zhang Xian.

Yiyang was a fortress-level city that Lu Kang had managed for nearly ten years during his lifetime. It was the advance base of Wu State's Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, and it was also an important part of the Jianghuai defense line. The South Bank has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times.

This time the Han army attacked Wu, the primary attack target of the third group of troops was to remove the nail of Yiyang and clear the way for the Han army to sweep the Jianghuai River.

When building a pontoon bridge on the Huaihe River, Zhang Xian sent troops to try to interfere with the actions of the Han army. However, the Han army seemed to have been prepared. Let Wu Jun's plan to destroy the pontoon bridge go bankrupt.

Zhang Xian had no choice but to shrink his troops and retreat to Yiyang, preparing to hold on to the city.

After the Han army successfully crossed the river, they soon launched a strong attack on Yiyang.

Although none of these troops were equipped with firearms, other large-scale siege equipment such as catapults, bed crossbows, continuous ballistas, siege vehicles, and rush vehicles were readily available.After the siege operation started, the stone bullets thrown by the catapult hit the city wall of Yiyang. No matter how strong the city wall was, it would inevitably shake and be damaged. Smashing wildly, the walls of Yiyang City were riddled with holes, and the prong arrows shot by the bed crossbow were firmly nailed to the walls, providing a lot of convenience for the siege troops.

Zhang Xian didn't dare to slacken the slightest slack, and personally supervised the battle on the city tower. When there were cracks in the city wall, and there were some collapses, Zhang Xian would personally go to the emergency place and direct Wu soldiers to block and repair it.

After the Han army launched the offensive, Zhang Xian personally directed the battle on the top of the city day and night, fought bloody battles, and launched a fierce tug-of-war with the Han army.

Encouraged by Zhang Xian, the generals of the Wu army fought bravely, and everyone took the lead. They all sacrificed their lives and fought desperately, resisting the attacks of the Han army again and again.

On the side of the Han army, because they failed to capture Yiyang after days of strong attacks, Qianhong was also a little anxious, and personally went to the battle to supervise the battle and strengthened the attack.

The offensive and defensive battle of a city is equivalent to a war of attrition. The longer the delay, the greater the consumption of the battle. This consumption is not only the consumption of personnel, but also the consumption of weapons and materials.

Ji Han has been preparing for this attack for five full years. His strong national strength makes his preparations extremely perfect. On the other hand, Wu Guo, because the country is poor and weak, and its resources are limited, it is natural to invest in the front line of Yiyang It is also limited. After the outbreak of this battle, it only lasted for more than ten days, and Yiyang's accumulation over the years was exhausted, and the gap created by the casualties could not be replenished.

It wasn't that Zhang Xian didn't want to add, but that the entire Jianghuai defense line was extremely tight. Now Wu's rear could hardly find a single soldier to reinforce the front line. Now Zhang Xian had no other choice but to rely on himself.

But Zhang Xian's blood is there, and he is absolutely fearless, but his confidence in guarding Yi Yang has been worn out bit by bit in the daily attrition.

As the number of casualties increased, Zhang Xian was able to mobilize fewer and fewer defensive troops. Many sections of the city wall were short of manpower, and they were no longer able to deal with the Han army's strong attack.

Seemingly sensing that the Wu army was unable to support it, the Han army's attack became more and more violent and crazier. Finally, the torrent turned into a terrible flood, which broke down the last line of defense of the Wu army, and Zhang Xian also fell here. Amidst the monstrous waves, Yi Yang fell.

Immediately afterwards, Shouchun fell, Lu'an fell, Hefei fell, and urgent documents flew to Jianye like a snowflake. Sun Yu hurriedly ordered Lu Ji to move to Ruxukou, struggling to the death.

At the same time as the victory on the east road, Wang Qi led the troops from the middle road and drove southward. The attack area of ​​this road was only the junction of Jingzhou and Yangzhou in the state of Wu, which was the weakest. Wang Qi hardly encountered any decent resistance. Jiangxia reaches the north bank of the Yangtze River.

(End of this chapter)