Zhang Hong thinks it is too risky and completely unnecessary.

When the two armies fight, one side of the defense needs to defend the city, not only does it require less troops, but it also has almost no transportation consumption. The soldiers have a strong city to rely on, and everything is not much different from usual, and their morale is stable. The attacking party is not the case. First, they must leave the familiar environment and enter the enemy's territory, the baggage, and the food must be transported. They need to collect civilians and consume a lot of food. When they arrive at the city, they must also build siege equipment, dig fortifications to siege the city, and attack with arrows and stones at the top of the city, and suffer major casualties. In the end, they may not be able to capture the city.

The price to be paid from defense to offense is not exponential, but four or five times, or even more.

The current strategy is to use defense instead of attack, with the eight governors as the core, relying on the strong city and defense in the third line, try to avoid attacking, minimize consumption, and then control valuable mobile forces in your hands and retain the initiative. If it is changed to a full-scale attack on both wings, Sun Ce will face the first thing he wants to recruit troops, increasing at least 100,000 people, so the increased consumption will be very amazing, and the accumulated results in the past few years can be consumed in one year.

And it costs a price, but may not get the desired result.

Nanyang and Guanzhong are too close, the news is spread very quickly, and the court has done a lot of detailed work. It is difficult to conceal everyone's eyes when a large group of people is mobilized. It is said that it is a setting up a situation, and it is very likely that it will be faked and true. After the court learned about the specific situation, if it does not attack, it will be difficult for Sun Ce to take the lead. If it attacks, Sun Ce will be able to mobilize troops and can only face the emperor alone.

In fact, before facing the emperor, Sun Ce had to face another problem: the people among the nine governors who had the experience of commanding tens of thousands of troops in combat were Zhou Yu, Tai Ming Ci, Huang Zhong, and no one else had similar experiences. No one dared to say whether they could complete the task. If one or two mistakes occur - this is almost inevitable - Sun Ce would have to take charge of the overall situation and could not face the emperor in Nanyang.

Instead of doing this, it is better to fight steadily. Although the third-line battle is not small, as long as they do not take the initiative and do not blindly expand the scale of the war, they can still bear it. Sun Ce is young and can afford it, not less than the past few years. In these few years, the governors can take turns to fight and expand outward. With Sun Ce behind their backs, even if they encounter some trouble, they will not collapse completely.

Sun Ce's ambition is in the world, and his goal is not only to the existing territory of the Han Dynasty, but also to conquer the four barbarians in the future. He cannot do everything himself. He uses this opportunity to let the governors fight in practice and cultivate talents who can stand on their own, and pave the way for the future. It is undoubtedly more valuable than to let them go into battle hastily.

The situation between the two sides is like this. Wu State was in a stage of rapid growth in strength. As long as Sun Ce did not make mistakes, the court should be anxious. Why give up the initiative for a few years? Too much is as bad as changing the existing strategy. It seems that it is just a step forward, but this step may be the difference between life and death, victory and loss. The possibility of a complete collapse may not be great, but it is entirely possible to backfire and be farther away from the goal.

Sun Ce felt that Zhang Hong's analysis was reasonable, so he decided to be more cautious and temporarily put aside this plan and first look at the progress of the war in Hanzhong. If the war in Hanzhong is progressing smoothly, or even exceeds expectations, then let Zhou Yu first enter the battlefield, launch an active attack, seize Yizhou, and then evaluate the risks based on the actual situation. He and Yuan Tan and Liu Bei fought many times, and were more clear about their strength, but they were not sure about Cao Cao's strength. It is also necessary to be cautious. If Huang Zhong and Zhou Yu fought smoothly, perhaps he would not need to attack in full force, and the emperor would have to send troops to restrain him.

Two days later, a heavy rain suddenly came, and the Han River rose sharply. The floating bridge between Xiangyang and Fancheng was washed away, and the flood continued to flow through the Xiangyang city gate. Fortunately, Xiangyang City was prepared, all kinds of candids and earth bags were available. When the rain was fierce, Xu Shang, the commander who stayed at Xu Huang, asked Sun Ce for instructions, prepared for flood control, blocked several city gates in time, and avoided an unexpected disaster.

Sun Ce looked at Xu Shang with admiration, and after asking, he realized that this was the autumn flood in Xiangyang. Xu Huang had already arranged it and would arrange exercises every year.

——

Fangling, on the banks of the river.

Huang Zhong stood on a yellow boulder by the river, lowered his head, looked at the clear river water, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Xu Huang said that at most three days, the water level will definitely retreat, and at least it will retreat below this huge rock. Three days have passed, and everything is as Xu Huang said, the once surging river water has returned to calm. The huge rock has exposed the water as promised, and only the dead branches and leaves on it can prove the experience of being flooded not long ago.

Huang Zhong was stationed in Wan for several years and once led his troops in Shunyang area. He had not entered the mountains. He did not expect the floods in the mountains to come so suddenly and fiercely. If Xu Huang had not arranged it properly, he would have suffered a great loss before he could take the battle. Water and fire were ruthless. If the baggage, food and grass were washed away by water, and even the soldiers suffered major casualties, he would have to go to the King of Wu to forgive himself.

This mission was originally Zhou Yu's, but it only fell into his hands after adjusting the defense zone. In private, some people said that it was the King of Wu who took care of him and gave him the opportunity to steal Zhou Yu's credit. He could not argue and could only do his best to complete the mission and live up to the King of Wu's entrusted.

The King of Wu equipped him with three generals. Now Xu Huang has initially demonstrated his value. Huang Zhong was very curious about what Xu Shu would have to surprise him. The scholar Ru Ying met with the King of Wu and then stationed in Wuguan for six years. This was his first real mission to carry out his mission. Huang Zhong was very confident in his heart.

If it weren't for the arrangement of the King of Wu, he would definitely refuse. Xu Huang at least had experience in refusing Wu Yi, and Xu Shu had no experience in field fighting except assisting Qiao Rui in guarding Wu Pass. Can such a person do it?

"Governor, Xu is here." Li Yan rode over and ran over with water. The horse's hooves kicked the river water and splashed snow-white water.

Huang Zhong withdrew his mind, responded, and looked up at the distance. Several horses ran along the river bank. One of them was of medium size, slender figure, short beards, and had no expression. There was no expression on his eyes. There were flames rising faintly. Behind him were several guards with wide arms and round waists, each of whom looked alert, seemed casual, but they maintained a small formation that covered each other and responded at any time. Huang Zhong saw it in his eyes and sighed secretly. This man was quite well-organized in his training, at least these guards were well-trained.

Not long after, Xu Shu came to the huge rock, turned over and dismounted, and took root.

"The Chief Wuguan Commander, Xu Shu, has met the Chief Wushe."

Huang Zhong bowed and returned the gift. "Thank you for your hard work, I haven't encountered any trouble on the road?"

"Fortunately, I just repelled some thieves who were overestimating their abilities."

"Shen brothers?"

"Shen Dan."

"How are the casualties?"

"Three people were slightly injured and beheaded 171 people."

Huang Zhong looked at Xu Shu. Xu Shu's face was calm, neither proud nor angry. Although Huang Zhong was curious, he did not ask much. He had heard Xu Huang look at the situation report of Yu Shangyong and Fangling, and knew that although there were no major families here, there were many powerful people. Because of the complex terrain, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The prefect sent by the court and the county magistrate had limited ruling ability. Most of them were limited to the surrounding areas of the county town. The rest of the areas were actually under the control of local tyrants. After Wu Yi became the prefect of Hanzhong, he was very polite to these local tyrants, both giving officials and money, hoping that they could use their advantages of familiar terrain to block the attack in the direction of Xiangyang.

The Shen brothers are among the best. They are Shangyong people, claiming to be descendants of Shen Kingdom. After intermarrying with local natives, they have always been representatives of local forces. Xu Shu came from Wuguan and must pass through their territory. It is inevitable that there will be conflicts. Judging from the number of casualties on both sides, the scale should not be large, but Xu Shu beheaded 171 people on the other side at the cost of minor injuries to three people. He fought beautifully and was fully qualified to be proud.

It seems that Xu Shu has great ambitions and is not an easy person to satisfy.

"What are Yuanzhi's opinions on this expedition?"

Xu Shu said a few words of humility, and saw that Huang Zhong was sincere in his attitude, he did not refuse, and said concisely and clearly: "Shu fought bravely. Judging from the intention of the King of Wu, he should use war to train and train soldiers, and start the war situation in the southwest in the name of taking Hanzhong. This battle is the beginning of decades of war. It is better to fight steadily and not to go on impetuously."

Huang Zhong was stunned for a moment and didn't understand what Xu Shu meant. Is the war situation in the southwest referring to Yizhou? If you don't talk about Yizhou directly but the southwest, is it because the scholars are innovative and deliberately don't like others?

Li Yan, who was standing aside, was also a little curious. Seeing that Huang Zhong did not speak, he took the initiative to ask: "May the southwest war situation mentioned by Xu Duwei refers to the entire Yizhou?"

Xu Shu glanced at Li Yan, raised his hand and stroked his short beard, and said lightly: "I'm not satisfied?"

Li Yan knew that he was rude and quickly bowed his hand to his house. Xu Shu was a little surprised after hearing this. "It turned out to be Military Advisor Li, who has long admired him for a long time. As for the current situation, it is not a big mistake to say that it is Yizhou."

Li Yan's eyes flashed slightly, and he felt a little unhappy. He was recommended by Huang Zhong to Sun Ce. Sun Ce included him in the Military Advisory Office and sent him back to Huang Zhong to be Sima. He actually had two positions, and his official identity was Huang Zhong's Sima and had a name for him. Xu Shu only mentioned his military advisory identity, but not his Sima identity, which was obvious that he looked down on him. If he had not been a military advisory identity, Xu Shu would not be willing to talk to him at all.

"Please give advice from the chief lieutenant."

Xu Shu looked at Huang Zhong. Huang Zhong smiled politely but did not say anything. Xu Shu understood and pondered a little. "The terrain in the world is nothing more than plains, grasslands, mountains, and soldiers are nothing more than infantry and cavalry, navy, different types of soldiers, adapted to different terrain. There are many grasslands in the north, suitable for cavalry crisscrossing and mountainous jungles in the south, suitable for infantry conquest. The governor commanded the infantry and learned the battle of mountains. In the future, he would never go to the north of the desert or go to sea, and could only go to mountainous lands. This is true in Hanzhong and Yizhou, so it is not a big mistake to think that the southwest is Yizhou, but his ambition is slightly smaller."
Chapter completed!