When Lu Xun heard Cai Mao's words, he smiled and said, "The strategy I have made is nothing more than to show the strength of the weak, first pretend to be defeated, and then wait until the enemy is lured into the deeper, then surround and annihilate it.
Although this strategy sounds simple, it is also a strategy that was often used by predecessors, and it is nothing new. However, this strategy to lure the enemy into depth is often effective. Even some generals with great wisdom will sometimes get trapped. And for the current situation, this plan is even more suitable.
The Jiangdong Navy has been traversing the Yangtze River for a long time and has never been able to compete with it. In the eyes of Jiangdong generals, the self-armed military's ability may not be as good as that of Cao's army, but the ability to fight water is invincible in the world.
Although the Jiangdong generals cannot be said to be proud and complacent, they are indeed quite confident in their ability to fight.
In the eyes of Jiangdong generals, there is no force in the world that can win in the water battle with the Jiangdong army. If the Jiangdong naval army fights and defeats another naval army, it seems normal to those generals, and they may not be suspected that it was the other party's deception.
Of course, if Zhou Yu was in the Jiangdong army, he should be able to tell whether the enemy was a fraudulent defeat or a real defeat. However, this is just a outpost battle. How could Zhou Yu, as the commander-in-chief of Jiangdong, personally commander an outpost battle?
Cai Mao followed Lu Xun's plan and took 40,000 naval troops to fight against the Jiangdong naval troops.
The remaining 10,000 Cao troops in the mouth of Sanjiang were ambushed in the water camp with bows and arrows. As soon as the Jiangdong army entered the water camp, thousands of arrows were fired at the same time, and the opponent was hit hard.
Originally, Cai Mao did not plan to bring 40,000 people to fight. He thought that this number was too large. If he arranged more people to be ambushed, the ambush effect would be better after luring Jiangdong Army into the ambush circle of the water camp. However, Lu Xun knew that there was a gap between his own army and Jiangdong Navy. According to common sense, as a general in this situation, he would definitely fight with all his strength. If he kept it too much, he might be able to be seen by the other party as a trick to lure the enemy.
The fleets of the two armies quickly approached the river surface, and the battle was about to break out.
In water combat, bows and arrows are indispensable tools. When the two sides were still more than twenty meters apart, the archers on the front fleets of the two armies began to bend their bows and shoot towards the enemy in front. For a moment, arrows came and went on the river.
However, the damage caused by this long-distance shooting is ultimately limited, not to mention that as an outpost battle, there were not many archers arranged by both sides. After several rounds of arrows, the two sides only suffered more than a hundred casualties.
Soon, the boats and boats in the front row of the two armies collided one after another, and the soldiers set up wooden boards on the hull, held weapons and rushed towards the enemy.
If it was on the flat ground, the Jiangdong army was not as good as the Cao army, but the place where the battle was now is on the boat, and the hull swayed with the rise and fall of the water. The other factors were very different from the land war. As soon as the battle was fought, the Cao army was at a disadvantage.
Although Cai Mao has been training the navy for a while, there is still a gap with the Jiangdong navy. The more important problem is that the navy under Cai Mao has no practical experience except for the original surrendered army in Jingzhou.
Therefore, not long after the battle, the Cao army was suppressed by the Jiangdong army. On the boat, the bodies of Cao army soldiers continued to fall into the river.
"Retreat!" Cai Mao smiled bitterly. Although he had made plans to defeat him from the beginning, the strength gap between his own navy and the Jiangdong navy was even bigger than he thought.
With the issuance of Cai Mao's order to withdraw his troops, Cao's army turned the bow of the ship and retreated to his own water camp. While retreating, the Jiangdong army took advantage of the situation to kill again, and many Cao's soldiers who had no time to withdraw were killed.
"General, the enemy has retreated. It is time to pursue it at this time. Maybe he can still capture the opponent's water camp in one fell swoop and annihilate all 50,000 vanguards. If this is the case, he can achieve great achievements! If all the vanguards of Cao will be destroyed, and it will lose their aura. It will be difficult to destroy their army by then!" Seeing the retreat of Cao's army, Deputy General Chen Wu proposed to the chief general Taishici to pursue the victory.
When Taishi Ci heard this, he did not agree immediately, but he still pondered without saying a word.
Taishici's personality is not the kind of reckless person. Although it is not calm and steady, he will eventually consider it when encountering problems.
Although the self-army firmly gained the upper hand in the battle just now, for the Cao army, it was not yet at the point where they could not stand, and the time for their retreat seemed to be a little faster.
"I'm afraid there's an ambush..." Taishi Ci said in contemplation.
"The enemy fled in a cowardly manner, where did the ambush come from?" Another deputy general, Ling Tong, said angrily. His father Ling Cao died at the hands of Cao's army, so he naturally hated Cao's army to the core and wanted to annihilate him.
"General, Cai Mao has brought out a lot of troops just now, and he must not have enough strength to set up an ambush. What's more, our army's skills in sailing and sailing are unparalleled in the world. Even if there is an ambush, our army can retreat quickly, and the enemy will not be able to keep us." Chen Wu also continued to persuade Taishi Ci to pursue.
"Okay, then follow the words of the two, and pursue the Cao army!" Seeing that the two of them were so willing, Taishi Ci made up his mind and issued a chasing order to the entire army.