The relationship with Jiangdong has long been an important topic in the Huainan Haoyou Alliance. After Lei Yuan came to Jingzhou, his main goal was to fight against Jiangdong. Therefore, Lei Yuan used various information channels to continuously increase his understanding of the forces of the Eastern Wu.
In Lei Yuan's view, Dongwu always held subtle dissonance in his judgment of his own strength. This dissonance is likely to be affected by the Battle of Chibi.
Before the Battle of Chibi, the Eastern Wu was just a force that was free from the Central Plains to fight for hegemony. Most of the wars experienced were concentrated in Wujun, Kuaiji and other Jiangzuo counties. The scale and intensity were relatively limited, and it was difficult to compare with the fierce battles of more than 100,000 people in the north during the same period. Therefore, even when Sun Yingbing's power was extremely powerful, it fell into the eyes of Cao Gong in the north, it was just a "blade".
When Cao Mengde commanded the south and raised hundreds of thousands of people who "wanted to hunt Wu with the general", he really didn't take Eastern Wu seriously. At that time, many people within Eastern Wu were also afraid of confronting Cao's army. Not talking about courage and timidity, this was indeed due to normal understanding of the strength of both sides.
Who knew that in the Battle of Red Cliff, the mighty Cao Gong was defeated?
Cao Gong himself argued that it was because the epidemic was rampant in the army, so the ship was burning back by itself, which was not a crime of war; but from the perspective of the Eastern Wu, this was of course because the Wu army was strong and destroyed the powerful enemy! After achieving this unprecedented victory, all the civil and military officials of the Eastern Wu were raised high, so they attacked north and west in a very short period of time, trying to expand their territory with this military power.
Before the victory halo of the Battle of Chibi completely faded, the generals of the Eastern Wu would be immersed in this arrogance and confidence. But this was just an illusion. The victory of the Battle of Chibi was the joint effect of many factors. The Wu army itself, except for the navy and some elites, was still the army that was only good at fighting and making small fuss in Jiangdong.
Lei Yuan understood this very well. Not long ago, he tried it himself.
In comparison, he felt that the combat effectiveness of the Lujiang Lei Family Army was more credible. After all, the Lei Family Army was backbone with many fierce old soldiers who had lived for the rest of their lives. They had annihilated the light cavalry of the Cao army and had fought against the Cao army in Huainan. Even if they were forced to evacuate later, the troops responsible for the cutting off the rear had fought fierce battles with the strong soldiers and generals of the Cao army, and they were not powerless to fight back.
With the scale of the Huainan Haoyou Alliance at that time, if it had risen earlier, it might not have been impossible to combine closely and transform from a powerful man into a small prince who dominated the land. However, when the luck was not good, the situation of the other generations gradually arose, the general trend of the world was settled, and there was no room for a third party to establish a foothold between the two powerful men of Sun and Cao.
However, the Lujiang Lei family's troops had arrived in Jingzhou intact and had undergone a considerable amount of training. Their strength was not weakened. Considering the military organization and the power they played on the battlefield would only be stronger than before.
Of course, just as advantages do exist, disadvantages are also obvious.
After all, the Wu army had a huge numerical advantage. If you want to win, you must use the time difference between them and the group crossing the river in batches.
Just as he thought of this, Wang Yue came to report: "General, the Wu army is about to land."
Lei Yuan turned his head and looked towards the river. He saw that the fog filled the river in the early morning and could not see clearly.
"Let's go, let's get closer and take a look."
The entourage led the horse, Lei Yuan turned over and jumped up, picked up his sword and spear, and quickly moved forward along the path in the forest. As the war horses ran eastward, the trees retreated on both sides, and the waves of the river water among the trees in front became clearer and clearer.
This woodland happened to be located on a high slope, roughly level with the natural embankment on the riverside, so the view was very wide. After walking about hundreds of steps, you can see naval warships appearing from the mist. The sound of undulating waves on the river covered the sound of the boat's oars and the low and powerful horns. The warships were like some kind of agile fish, slashing through the water surface lightly and slowly approaching the shore, without any attention.
The base of the Wu army in Jiangxia is Shaxian, which is hundreds of miles away from the Public Security Bureau, but it can really be reached on a trekking day and night by boat. This place of crossing the river has obviously been carefully selected, and it is the place where the public security city has the least travelled by the public security city in a few days ago. At this time, crossing the river can also use the fog on the river surface in the early morning to cover the fleet. It has to be admitted that the use of the Eastern Wu of the navy is indeed unique.
Unfortunately, the Lei family's army has been ready for battle.
In the past few days, the Lei family army has been stationed in a military camp outside the Gong'an City, and only sent thirty or fifty cavalry to patrol along the river. Because there are few soldiers, each team has a large patrol range. Generally speaking, for terrain suitable for landing, they will explore three or five times a day, and other river banks will pass by.
But this is just for the Wu army on the other side. The one who is really responsible for monitoring the river is a group of experienced veterans selected from the Jingzhou naval army. The strength of the Jingzhou naval army is inferior to that of the Eastern Wu naval army. There is no way to do it. But only by talking about the understanding of the hydrological geography of various parts of Jingzhou, these veterans are far more than ordinary people. As long as the ships of the Eastern Wu appear on the river surface, they can roughly judge the range of the other party's intention to land.
If the area with reefs at the bottom of the water is deducted within this range, the area with reeds growing on the shore, the terrain on the shore is complex and the army cannot expand in time... In fact, the remaining choices are very clear, just a few commonly used ferries.
This Wu army from Jiangxia was under surveillance every move. The 3,000 soldiers from the Lei family of Lujiang set off from the military camp last night and arrived at the riverside twenty miles east of Gong'an City that night, and chose a place to station and wait for the rabbit.
There are many rabbits, but they are still in a bunch.
The fleet that appeared at this moment was composed of more than a dozen small and medium-sized ships, with soldiers standing densely on the ship, probably the vanguard of the Wu army of Jiangxia. The ships at the front were approaching the harbor, and the soldiers either passed the pedals or jumped into the water directly, stepping on the waist-deep water to go directly to the ashore. Many soldiers on the ship behind were impatient to wait, and simply raised swords, bows, arrows and other objects above their heads, jumped into the river water, and swam to the shore. So many people kicked their legs and waved their arms, stirring the river surface near the shore like boiling. The sludge at the bottom of the water turned up, making the river water turn muddy yellow.
Several officers who were the first to land whispered, urging the soldiers to line up as soon as possible, while sending the entire team of soldiers to the front for vigilance. After all the ships and soldiers were put down, they immediately turned back, probably to pick up the soldiers on the large ship from the rear fleet.
"It's time for He Song to arrive." Lei Yuan whispered.
Before he finished speaking, a team of cavalry rushed to the north along the direction of the natural embankment.
The person who led this cavalry team was He Song, who was best at cavalry command in the Lei family. After learning that the Eastern Wu army was approaching, Lei Yuan urgently recalled He Song from Cenping and gave him important tasks. At present, this cavalry team has a total of 150 people, all of which are carefully selected strong soldiers. With the speed advantage of the cavalry, they are enough to cover the river bank that has a range of dozens of miles.
He Song's troops lined up in a whistle, and in an instant, the iron cavalry entered the formation. Although the Wu army tried their best to organize resistance, they could not hold on. A general of the Eastern Wu army roared forward, and He Song urged his horse to run diagonally and took his head with his sword. The rest of the Wu army became more and more panicked and dodged. The cavalry rushed on their horses, and suddenly stabbed the Wu army with big swords and spears, killing the infantry of the Wu army; suddenly they hit the horses, smashing the small Wu army that was trying to form a formation to resist, knocking them away, and then trampling them to death.
With just one attack, the Wu army was defeated. They fled frantically, jumped into the river water, and tried their best to wander. A few of them were probably warriors in the Wu army, wearing armor and entering the water. As a result, they swam not far away, and were constantly being led by the armor, struggling to disappear into the turbulent river water.
"It's so easy?" Li Zhen murmured.
Lei Yuandao: "Since ancient times, infantry wanted to fight against cavalry, only by using long soldiers, short soldiers and bows and arrows to form a close formation with a considerable scale of troops. However, the Wu army was indeed flawed in this regard. They were used to fighting on water or in mountains, and were good at fighting in small areas, fighting in groups of three or five people in groups. The soldiers rarely received training in formation and then fighting, and they were not yet firm in their foothold, so they naturally could not withstand the impact of cavalry."
The entourage nodded together.
Chapter completed!