Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 310: A Strange Plan
"You little bastard Cai Mao! If you dare to fight me, I will beat ten of you!" Sun Ce roared angrily at the bow of the ship.
However, the enemy had already released driftwood along the shore, and the warships retreated back to the water fortress...
Without the enemy's naval cover, Sun Ce could choose to land, but in this case, the Jiangdong army would have no naval cover after landing. In areas with abundant water systems, infantry alone is basically a moving target, and it is not easy to advance the navy and capture the water fort, especially when Cai Mao chose the despicable floating log decompression tactic.
When encountering a small group of navy, Cai Mao would fight back, but when he found out that the Jiangdong army intended to launch a general attack, he would immediately retreat.
It can be said that "except for launching waves without pushing forward, if you jump I will squat and punch you hard." If there is no clever trick, I am afraid Cai Mao will not be able to hold on for a while!
The northern part of Jiangxia is the only way for the Jiangdong Army to enter Nanjun - although theoretically, Nanjun is to the west of the Jiangdong Army, there is Yunmengze in between!
At this time, Yunmengze had begun to shrink and was no longer as big as it was before the Qin Dynasty, but... it was also an awkward time.
In the pre-Qin period, people could at least travel by water, but now many waterways have shrunk into swamps. For example, the Huarong Road where Cao Cao was defeated and fled to Huarong is part of the Yunmengze, and the road is rugged and muddy.
To enter Nanjun from the south of Jiangxia, you can only take a detour to the north.
On the other hand, the Wancheng Army led by Zhang Xiu and the Yiyang Army led by Zhao Yun were mainly land-based forces and could not help much in Xiling. They were now mainly cleaning up Nanyang. Although they had not yet reached the edge of Nanjun, Liu Biao's real old nest, they were gradually clipping its wings.
"Okay, the people have entered the water stronghold." Zhou Yu persuaded Sun Ce to come down while gently waving his feather fan.
"Gongjin, do you have any ideas? As long as we can have a head-on battle, I will beat him to a pulp!" Sun Ce was so angry that he slapped the mast.
The Jingzhou navy is indeed not weak. In fact, due to the number of generals, armaments, and military strength, it is even better than the Jiangxia navy before the refit last year...
Cai Mao was indeed good at training and commanding the navy, and he had a flexible mind - he could not imitate the bows and crossbows of the General's Mansion, but the rackets with lower technical content had been installed on the ships of the Jingzhou navy one after another.
But even so, Sun Ce was still confident that he could defeat the enemy head-on!
"Good idea? Have you forgotten the order from the General's Mansion?" Zhou Yu rolled his eyes. At the same time, when he heard Sun Ce's words, he automatically thought of the "ghost idea" as a "good idea". This was the result of years of tacit understanding.
Sun Ce felt like a frosted eggplant when he heard this - indeed, the current strategic goal was to "step forward steadily and cautiously".
"What do you think big brother is thinking? Is he worried about casualties? But if it goes on like this, won't the impact on Jingzhou be even greater? Now Cai Mao has almost stopped the spring plowing in the entire northern Jiangxia for the sake of defense." Sun Ce said helplessly.
"Not necessarily... He must understand this logic. There must be some other reason." Zhou Yu narrowed his eyes and the image of Huang Jijiu from the Ministry of Works appeared in his mind.
Bai Tu only informed the front line to "advance steadily and cautiously" and did not explain the reason - he couldn't just shout everywhere now that Huang Chengyan would instigate his sister-in-law to surrender, right?
Not to mention that there is no guarantee that the plan will succeed, but isn't it going to cause trouble for Huang Chengyan if they publicize it everywhere now?
If we reveal our purpose now, not to mention Liu Biao, even the Kuai and Cai families will not agree!
However, people like Zhou Yu and Jia Xu can vaguely guess something even without any evidence or basis.
Of course, even if Zhou Yu guessed it, he didn't say it out loud. Jia Xu only tested Zhang Chunhua with this question as a "private lesson" and did not tell her the answer.
"What do you mean 'he'? Call me Big Brother." Sun Ce corrected him straightforwardly after hearing this.
Zhou Yu: ...
After glaring at Sun Ce, Zhou Yu continued, "But it's not completely hopeless... 'Steady and steady' only means avoiding risky tactics, but it does mean that we can't use tactics!"
"Oh? Is there any way? Can we force him to fight?" Sun Ce said with his eyes lighting up.
"Maybe not, but it will naturally be effective." Zhou Yu gently waved his feather fan, with a contented expression on his face.
In late April of the fifth year of Jian'an, Jiangxia suddenly became quiet.
The Jiangdong navy changed its previous posture of fierce attack and although it made some progress by land, it was harmless and there was no large-scale provocation of war. It even... encouraged the caravans traveling in Jiangxia and across the river.
Rumor has it that the Jiangdong Army was so relaxed that they held bonfire parties on the front line every day. With plenty of wine and meat, the soldiers would get drunk at any time.
What's more, some people witnessed that in the area where the two sides were confronting each other, the Jiangdong generals would deliberately sing folk songs across the river and joke with the Jingzhou army, creating a harmonious scene!
At first, Cai Mao thought that Zhou Yu wanted to lure him into attacking, so he remained firmly seated in Xiling, unmoved - except for launching waves but not moving forward!
Later, when he saw that Zhou Yu did not react, he began to speculate that Zhou Yu was trying to make him relax so that he could launch a surprise attack ?
Therefore, Cai Mao became more vigilant and doubled the number of scouts and night guards - if you jump, I will squat and punch you hard!
However, two months passed and it seemed that the other side not only had no intention of taking advantage of the slack to attack, but was even becoming more "arrogant". Those who didn't know would have thought that the General's Mansion and the Jingzhou Mansion had reconciled.
This also shows that Cai Mao was only very methodical in training and commanding the navy, but if it came to a battle of wits and strategy, he was no match for Zhou Yu.
In fact, Zhou Yu did not start planning this plan after he mentioned it to Sun Ce. Instead, he had been preparing for it since he received Bai Tu's strategic instruction of "steady and steady" and vaguely realized something.
The various opportunities to fight with Cai Mao in the previous battles were themselves part of the strategy.
The huge difference between before and after makes the current truce even more eye-catching.
In July, in Xiangyang City, Nanjun, there were already some rumors about Jiangxia...
Some people simply said that Cai Mao was secretly colluding with the Jiangdong army and responding to each other. Others said that Cai Mao intended to control Jiangxia, so he was too tired to fight. Some people even exaggeratedly said that Cai Mao intended to surrender to the General's Mansion, join forces with the Jiangdong navy, and take control of Nanjun!
When this rumor first appeared, the Cai family, the Kuai family, the Pang family, the Huang family... all followed suit to suppress this "evil trend", and even banned any discussion of the matter in Xiangyang City, and spoke well of it in front of Liu Bian.
However, by July, there was a sudden increase in rock sugar and white sugar on the market, and even white glassware appeared frequently on the market!
Jiangdong salt is fine, after all, it is inexpensive and of good quality, and a lot of it is sold in various places through the channels of agent families. And just like , Jingzhou Prefecture will not prohibit the flow of salt into it, but will encourage it instead.
Salt is also considered a strategic material, and it is not too much to exchange it for grain, but rock sugar, white sugar and the like are obviously not included. As for white glass... some people call it "soft glass" because of its fragile nature. Now everyone knows that this is also a "specialty" of the General's Mansion. Where do these come from?
Thinking of the previous rumors, Liu Biao finally exploded after discovering that the chef's dishes were getting sweeter recently, and even the Jingzhou Prefecture had purchased a batch of white glazed bottle ornaments...
