However, while good news keeps coming, there is also a piece of bad news mixed in.
Xu Shiji was indeed the leading general in Shu. After Jiangzhou City was lost, he was even more ambushed by Wu Qi.
However, it is not that he did not make his own response. It should be said that Xu Shiji had already made his own response the moment Jiangzhou City was lost.
At the first moment, Xu Shiji had already thought of a crucial key point, food and grass.
As far as the Shu army is concerned, it is of course impossible for Xu Shiji to carry any food and grass with him when he goes out for a sneak attack. Therefore, this is the biggest crisis for Xu Shiji. If there is not enough food and grass, then the next situation of the Shu army can be imagined.
Know.
Yangzhou Army Zhu Tianpeng's side must have a certain amount of food and grass. However, Xu Shiji already knew by just thinking that even if Yangzhou Army Zhu Tianpeng had food in his hands, the amount of food and grass they had come from afar would inevitably be
Not many.
Even if Zhu Tianpeng of the Yangzhou Army has food in his hands, he may not be able to supply it to himself for too long. Under such circumstances, how can he be willing to supply food and grass to the Shu Army?
What's more, logically speaking, it should be the Shu army that supplies the Yangzhou army's food and grass.
Therefore, the biggest problem facing the Shu army next is the problem of food and grass. If this problem is not solved, they, who have been cut off from the middle of Shu, may not be able to hold on for a few days and will collapse on their own.
Unless, they can retake Jiangzhou City in a very short period of time and re-open the connection with Shuzhong. But, how easy is it to do this?
Gan Ning's navy suffered heavy losses, and Xu Shiji lost an additional 30,000 troops after an ambush. Therefore, even with the support of Xu Shiji's Yangzhou navy, they also lost 30,000 troops.
Doesn't take any advantage.
The current situation is that Wu Qi and Qi Jiguang have become the defenders, sitting on the fortified city, while Xu Shiji and Zhu Tianpeng have become the attackers, who still have no siege equipment.
Therefore, breaking through Jiangzhou is not feasible for the time being.
The other way is to retreat to Jingnan. If you go south along the Yangtze River, you can retreat before their food problem completely breaks out and the morale of the army collapses.
However, this is a dangerous road.
Since Wu Qi laid such a plan, then the dangerous parts of the Three Gorges waterway may no longer be easy to pass.
Although there are not many naval forces left in Jingbei, with the help of the dangerous terrain of the Three Gorges Waterway and the placement of a large number of iron cables and wooden stakes, there is no need to block them at all. They only need to delay them for a few days.
A large army will be defeated without a fight.
If they decide to retreat to Jingnan, although they can ask Zhu Yuanzhang for support through Zhu Tianpeng, if they cannot break through the Jin army's obstacles in a short time, it will be a devastating disaster for them.
But no matter which path they choose, for Xu Shiji, the most critical point is the issue of food and grass. If the food and grass in their hands can be made for more time, they will have more choices. When the time comes, no matter it is
No matter which path you choose, you won't end up with the morale of the military collapsing in a short period of time.
And where did the grain and grass come from? After much thought, Xu Shiji had to find a way from the Jin army. Not only because the Shu army had already detected in advance that Wu Qi had transported a large amount of grain and grass during this period, which was enough to support an entire army.
Food and fodder for a protracted war.
On the other hand, Xu Shiji, a famous marshal of his generation, confirmed that Wu Qi needed a lot of food and grass to set up this game. There must be food and grass for the Shu army in Jiangzhou City, but even if he joined the group, he would take all of it.
Even if it’s gone, it’s only enough for one month.
And the city of Jiangzhou has fallen into the hands of the Jin army, so it is naturally impossible for Shuzhong to transport food and grass here.
As for Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Xiuruo, if they attack Jingbei, neither of them is short-sighted. Of course, they know that Wu Qi's logistics can only be guaranteed by Jingbei. Therefore, even if it is just in case, Wu Qi will definitely store a large amount of supplies in advance.
of food and grass.
If Xu Shiji had a way to destroy all Wu Qi's food and grass, then both sides would probably die together.
When Xu Shiji saw Wu Qi capturing Jiangzhou City, he had already made some calculations silently. Although Jiangzhou City was empty at that time, Wu Qi wanted to capture it before Xu Shiji returned to Jiangzhou. In this limited situation,
In order to achieve this within a short period of time, the amount of effort required is enough to imagine!
In addition, even if the troops Wu Qi sent to the river to meet Qi Jiguang were empty troops, if he wanted to deceive Xu Shiji, he still had to ensure a certain amount of troops.
After some calculations, Xu Shiji guessed that Wu Qi's troops were actually very tight, especially those used to look at the granaries.
As for why Wu Qi didn't move the grain and grass to Jiangzhou City, of course he didn't have time. That was the grain and grass used by the Jin army of hundreds of thousands for half a year. How could it be possible that Wu Qi had just captured Jiangzhou City and the next second
Was it moved directly?
The important food and grass areas of both sides will inevitably become important investigation targets for both sides when the two armies are fighting. If this kind of place is used well, it will play a decisive role in the entire battle. The Wuchao in the Battle of Guandu is an excellent place.
example of.
However, Xu Shiji may have pinpointed the suspicious target through multiple investigations before. Now, at this time, there is no time for Xu Shiji to investigate and pinpoint the final place.
Therefore, Xu Shiji sent out all his generals and selected the three most likely places for a sneak attack.
It was precisely because there were no generals available at that time that Xu Shiji suffered heavy losses in Yang Ye's subsequent sneak attack.
As for Wu Qi, not to mention that there is Chen Ping beside Wu Qi who is checking for deficiencies and making up for them, they have already discovered that their food and grass are a vulnerability to them.
However, when the main force must be concentrated to capture Jiangzhou City in an instant, there really cannot be too many troops that can be used to protect food and grass.
For the sake of stability, Wu Qi simply dispersed the granaries in different places to prevent the possibility of being overrun by the enemy.
As a god-level commander, Xu Shiji's vision was indeed ruthless. Two of the three locations he chose were right. In the end, among the two right places, one supported the arrival of Wu Qi's reinforcements, while the other
Chu was breached by the generals sent by the Shu army, and they blocked the fire set by the Jin army's defenders in time, and finally managed to snatch some of the food and grass.
It is precisely because of this that Wu Qi's plan was only half successful.