warring states careerist

Chapter 903
Chu army camp.

Within a few days, the right Sima was defeated, and the Mohists occupied the rocky rocks on the upper sandbank, and locked the river with copper cannons and iron cannons, so that the main force of the boat division could not move, and the morale of the army plummeted.

When the king of Chu was flustered, Zuo Sima said: "If you want to break the Mohist school, you must take risks. Otherwise, you can't break it."

The king and ministers of Chu were helpless now, what Zuo Sima said was like a drowning man meeting a log.

Now the situation of the Chu army is extremely difficult.

To the east of Bashui, it is difficult to know exactly how the Mohist family arranged.

Guessing that the Mo family moved to the south, they dared not cross Bashui to attack.

One worry is that the Mohists are luring them to cross the river. The thirty miles between Bashui and Xishui are all plains. Surrounded, that is the end of the annihilation of the entire army.

At that time, they will be caught between the Ba River and the Xi River, unable to advance or retreat, and the Mohists are good at field warfare. Chu State has given up the camp that has been in operation for more than a month, and it is afraid that it will be invincible.

And now Chu’s logistics and supplies are all in Zhucheng. Once the main force crosses Bashui, the Mohists send a division straight to Zhucheng to burn grain and grass to cut off the grain road, and the army will collapse without a fight.

At a time of hesitation, Zuo Sima has a plan, why don't everyone like it?
Zuo Sima said: "Although the Mohists' field battles are difficult to win, they are nothing more than human beings. In my view, the Mohists' battles with Qi and Yue are always won by fewer soldiers, but in key points, they can always win with more."

"So I think, if you want to break the prestige of the Mohists' field battles, you must find a way to divide them with more victories than less."

All the ministers said: "Knowledge is easier than practice. War is nothing more than this. The truth is good, but how can we do it?"

Zuo Sima said: "It is the old party who wants to take risks."

He got up and asked: "What is the so-called Mohism's occupation of the sandbar? It is nothing more than not wanting to damage his boat master. If his boat master can win every battle like a land battle, why should he do this? If our boat master is destroyed, our army will be defeated."

"Now that the Mohists have broken through E City again, it is very possible to break through from the south of the Yangtze River. But their boats are invincible. If they want to break through from the south of the Yangtze River, they must go to the sandbar."

"Although the sandbar is large, there are only a few places where floating bridges can be erected. It is not easy for an army of tens of thousands to cross the river."

"If it is blocked, our army may not be able to stop it even though we are numerous. But if we do not block it, we will retreat one after another, making the Mohists think that the river can be crossed at the sandbar, and the Mohist will cross the river from here."

The king of Chu said: "Retreating from the river, isn't it like Song Xianggong? Attacking halfway is the most effective."

Zuo Sima shook his head and said: "That's not the case. The mohist family's soldiers are well-arranged. Attacking halfway across the river will at most make it difficult for the first batch of people who cross the river to gain a foothold, but the follow-up will continue. The place where they can start a battle is only a few hundred paces away. , even if our army has a large number of people, how many troops can we gather within a few hundred paces?"

"Attack at halfway to defend. My strategy is to attack at halfway. Taking advantage of the danger of the great river, the Mo family will be divided into two. Our army will gather an army to defeat half, and the other half will have no strength to advance. Retreat without fighting."

It was the first time that the King of Chu heard the phrase "Cross halfway and strike", and asked about it because he didn't understand its meaning.

Zuo Sima said: "Like a sandbar, the Mohists want to cross the river, but they must not do it all at once."

"Our army temporarily retreats, what will the Mo family think?"

The King of Chu thought for a while and said: "If he crosses the river, our army will retreat temporarily. The Mo family must take this opportunity to cross the river with all their strength, in order to form an formation and fight me decisively."

Zuo Sima clapped his hands and said: "The king is smart, that's exactly what it is."

"If our army retreats temporarily, the Mohists will think that our army is afraid of war and must cross the river with all its strength. The vanguard of crossing the river must spread out and hold on to the beach to think that the follow-up troops will flood in."

"Once his army is deployed, one side faces the river, and our army is on three sides. If he can deploy one army, I can deploy two armies."

"Wait for him to cross halfway, take the dead men to board the boat, carry sulfur, gunpowder and other fire igniters in the boat, go down the current, rush to the pontoon bridge on the sandbar, and burn the pontoon bridge."

"There is half of the army on the north bank, and half of the army on the south bank. There is a big river separating them, so they can't meet them."

"Although the Mohists' field battles are strong, they can't use one enemy against three. At that time, there will be the Yangtze River blocking, and our army will attack in formation, and destroy the enemies on the north bank before the pontoon bridge is built on the south bank. What can the soldiers on the south bank do except look at the water and cry?" ?”

"Once half of the Mo family's troops are wiped out, the Mo family will lose their ability to attack. Even if our army defends to the death, the Mo family will have no choice but to retreat."

"Firstly, the teachers of Chen Cai Huaibei can cut off their retreat; secondly, there are only half of the teachers of the Mohists here, so they can only retreat."

"That's why I said that this plan is risky, but it can use Jianghe to divide the main force of the Mohists into two."

"Retreating for the time being is not to imitate Song Xianggong's dignified and upright formation, but to allow our army to avoid the bronze cannons of the Mohists and retreat to deploy more troops."

"The only thing is that if the dead soldiers don't succeed, our army will have to fight the Mohists on the bank of the river. At that time, the outcome is unpredictable, so it is called a risk."

"It's not like this, it's not enough to break the Mohist elite."

After he explained it like this, the kings and ministers of Chu State understood what he meant.

Assuming that the Mohist wanted to cross the river from the south of the Yangtze River via the sandbar, without the cooperation of the boat master, building a pontoon bridge on that sandbar was the only choice.

The Yangtze River is not a small Bashui, unless it is the sandbars in these sharp turns, otherwise it is not so easy to build floating bridges, especially when the Mohist boat masters are still east of the Xishui.

Now the Mohists built forts and piled up wood on the sandbank, and there are dozens of artillery pieces. No matter how you look at it, it seems that they are planning to give up crossing the Ba River and choose to mobilize the Chu army to cross the river.

What Zuo Sima meant was that if it was said that the Mohist had an advantage in artillery at the sandbar, the Chu people in the Jiang'an area would not have an advantage at all when fighting.

Dispatch all the troops, there is simply no way to deploy so many troops here.

For small-scale fights, the Mo family has an artillery advantage, and coupled with the ability to fight in the field, I am afraid that the Chu people will not be able to take advantage of it.

The most important thing is that the Mohists do not have only one route to cross the river from the south bank.

If things don't go well in the early stage, the Mo family can give up this plan and choose other means.

Zuo Sima wanted to not only make the Mohists firm in their intention to cross the river from the south bank, but also find a way to defeat the main force of the Mohists in this intention.

Then the method is actually very simple.

That is to retreat deliberately, deploy an anti-outflank formation in advance, and deploy the troops.

Abandoning the beachhead lured the Mohists to firmly believe in the idea of ​​crossing the river from the sandbar.

When the Mohists were halfway across the river, they would send dead soldiers down the river, or conscript a large number of ships filled with sulfur and gunpowder, and burn down the pontoon bridges down the river.

This is not to occupy the fortifications on the sandbar, but only to burn the pontoon bridge, with a high probability of success.

Even if the Mo family had the advantage of copper cannons and iron cannons, it was impossible to stop these boats from rushing down the current and burning the pontoon bridge.

Once the pontoon bridge was burned down, the main force of the Mo family was divided into north and south with the help of the river.

The whole army can't fight in the field.But it is only half of the fight, and it is a formation that retreats in advance and deploys an outflanking formation, then it is very possible.

Moreover, some camps can be built in the direction of retreat and defense. At that time, half of the main force of the Mohists will be crowded on the river bank, and the artillery will be in the south, and the cavalry will definitely not be the first to cross the river. The space is small and squeezed, and the pontoon bridge will be destroyed With no reinforcements, under such circumstances, the main force can be assembled with the advantage of three against one, and it can win no matter what, at least it must be a miserable victory.

As far as Chu State is concerned, the disbanded troops are all within the scope of its own control.

For the Mohists, if they stand against the water, once they collapse, it will be a dead end.

As long as they can win, the remaining troops of the Mo family will not have the strength to break through the defense of Chu State in the field.

There is no need to guard here anymore, it is better to take the opportunity to retreat quickly, at least to the Huainan area, shorten the logistical distance, stabilize the position, and then fight.

For the Chu State, it was a strategic counterattack. As long as they could desperately exchange for half of the casualties of the Mohist main force, the Chu State would actually win.

This time the Mo family attacked suddenly, taking advantage of the preemptive strike. Once this advantage is lost, the princes such as Wei Hanqi must find a way to strangle Sishang to death.

Moreover, if there is no one to support, the Chu State can also choose to seek peace: the Yue State has not yet been destroyed, the Mohists must be worried, at worst ceding the entire Huainan, they can always live on, and they can shock the princes, so they know the Mohist’s ambitions, and even send troops to intervene .

Of course, there may be dangers too.

But what Chu State needs now is a strategic turning point, a strategic turning point that can be defended and proved that it can hold on.

Even if the soldiers of Chen and Cai in Huaibei Central Plains wanted to sneak attack the Mohists, they had to be assembled.Otherwise, the lords would send them off one by one, and if they couldn't send them twice, the Mo family would gather troops to eat them a few times, and the whole situation in Huaibei would collapse.

It takes time to assemble.

Where does time come from?Just gotta get out of here.

Now the Mohists are in the stage of strategic offensive, Jiangnan is only an option, as Zuo Sima said, to lure the Mohist from the south to attack the north of the river, because if the Mohism doesn’t do this, they can still cross the river from Bashui to fight in the field, and they can also pretend to retreat halfway Ambush, after all, cannot win the time for the assembly of various ministries and the dispatch of troops by the princes.

If the kings and ministers of Chu believed that the main force of the Mohists could be defeated in field battles, then this strategic counterattack would be simple. If they crossed the river and lined up in a field battle, as long as they won a miserable victory or an undefeated tie, the Mohists would have to retreat.

The problem is that when panicked and the coup had just happened, the centralized faction was slaughtered, and the Chu king's new army was dissatisfied and unconvinced, Chu Wang Liangfu and his lords did not even have the confidence to have a draw in the field battle across the river. Ba Shui has no confidence at all, so in this case, he can only choose to take risks.

Even if it is a miserable victory, Chu State can gradually reverse its disadvantages by virtue of the advantage of being closer to the rear after destroying the spirit of the Mo family.

…………

In the Mohist camp to the west of Xishui, Commander Liuzhi looked at the scout's information and smiled.

According to the newspaper, since a few days ago, Shen Gong in Jiuzi City has led more than 2000 people from his headquarters plus less than [-] people from Jiuzi Kingdom to the south, preparing to join the Bashui defense line and increase the number of Chu troops. The country's military force group.

The total of more than [-] people is gathering southward from the mountainous area in the north, about [-] miles away from the main force of Chu State, and they have already left the mountainous area and are heading southward along the Bashui River.

For Six Fingers, this is a fighter.

Before Shen Gong and Jiuzi's reinforcements approached the main force of the Chu State, they crossed the river from the shoal north of the Bashui River and intercepted them. With the momentum of a goshawk fighting a rabbit, taking advantage of the better mobility of the Jiexuan Army, they supported the main force of the Chu State. Before, the support army was wiped out within a day, quickly crossed the river from the north, and pressed against the main force of the Chu army.

If the Chu army avoids the battle, they will go down to the city of Zhu, retreat decisively, and break the grain road; appear behind.

The action of occupying the sandbar and breaking the E city by himself made the whole state of Chu panic. They thought that the Jiexuan army was going to cross the river from the sandbar, so the Chu army began to gather troops and line up on the river bank.

I may not choose to cross the river from the sandbar, but I may not choose not to. It is this possibility and the large number of artillery deployed on the sandbar that made the Chu army make a judgment.

Shen Gong's reinforcement army of nearly [-] did not move and stared at the northern flank, and Liu Zhi did not dare to cross the river north of Bashui; Shen Gong's support army moved, and gave Liu Zhi a chance, before he and the main force of the Chu army joined forces. Before the main force of the Chu army arrives, they can pull out their teeth and eat Shen Gong's support army, so they can gain a foothold west of Bashui.

At that time, it is up to him to choose whether to attack the city of Zhu City and attack the side of the broken grain road, or whether the whole army gathers in the field to attack the stronghold and defeat the King of Chu.

To the west of Zhucheng is the Jianghan Plain, which is also the lifeline of the Chu army; to the north of Zhucheng, after 2000, the later generations will be the place where jute riots broke out, and after 2000, it will still be a poor place. Now if Zhucheng is broken, the main force of the Chu army will go north , then the only way to cross the Dabie Mountains is by eating grass. Since the king of Chu doesn’t want to eat grass, he can only fight in the wild.

(End of this chapter)