On the flagship, Yan Liang stood with his sword in hand, looking ahead in the distance.
His fleet was mighty and mighty, moving eastward along the current. It looked majestic, but in fact it was a bluff.
Yan Liang had hundreds of warships and 10,000 elite troops who returned from the victory, but those 10,000 elite soldiers were actually infantry.
At this moment, many of the elite infantry soldiers on the ship were lying on the side of the ship vomiting because they were not used to the rough waves on the ship.
But all this is no longer important. What is important is that Yan Liang knows that his sudden return is the biggest psychological blow to Sun Quan. Coupled with the Shamoko army who went to reinforce Huang Zhong, Yan Liang believes that under this double blow,
Sun Quan would inevitably choose to retreat in despair.
The ship was moving faster and faster, and the shadow of Fankou Camp appeared in front, and the Wu fleet also came into view.
"My lord, if the Wu army does not withdraw, what should we do? The landlubbers on our boat are not capable of fighting the Wu people on the water."
Zhou Cang, who was nearby, saw the seasick soldiers around him and expressed his concern to Yan Liang.
Yan Liang sneered and said loudly: "Send the order, let all the ships move forward at full speed and make it look like they are going to attack the Wu people."
Zhou Cang was startled, thinking that they came by water and originally intended to scare the Wu people. They should have taken their time. Now that they are approaching the Wu people in a hurry, if the Wu people see through the flaw, wouldn't all their previous efforts be wasted.
Zhou Cang was doubtful, but how could he dare to disobey General Yan Liang's order and hurriedly passed on the order.
The flag waved, and hundreds of warships hoisted their full sails and took advantage of the current, blowing up almost like the wind.
In the blink of an eye, the Wu fleet was already several miles away.
At this moment, Wu's fleet finally began to turn around and retreat downstream.
Zhou Cang couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw the Wu people retreating, and said curiously: "My lord, the Wu people sped up when they saw us. How come they escaped faster?"
"If the Wu army knew that we were just infantry, they would have sent warships to intercept them. Just now, the Wu people stood still and were obviously frightened by us. Now that our army is speeding up, it will only make the Wu people believe it more. Sun Quan's blue eyes will not retreat.
Strange?"
Yan Liang sneered and revealed his intention. Zhou Cang suddenly realized it and couldn't help but sigh: "My lord, you have a clever plan. It would be strange if you didn't scare that Sun Quan half to death this time. We can finally let out a bad breath."
In anger, hundreds of warships moved forward quickly, and in a moment they had reached the river where Fankou was.
At this time, the Wu army had withdrawn its troops and the 10,000 naval troops led by Gan Ning also entered the center of the river, preparing to join Yan Liang and continue the pursuit.
Although Sun Quan retreated, his current navy was not enough to completely defeat the Wu army, so Yan Liang calmly chose not to pursue.
The warship returned to the stronghold. When the flagship slowly entered the water stronghold, the entire camp was in jubilation. The more than 20,000 soldiers left behind were all cheering to welcome their lord's return.
"Long live--"
"Long live--"
When Yan Liang's majestic tower-like figure appeared in the sight of all the soldiers, these passionate warriors could not restrain the joy and admiration in their hearts, and couldn't help shouting.
"Long live" is a title worthy of the emperor, but in this troubled times, the princes of each side are actually the emperor of one side.
Yan Liang put down the rebellion of the Wuxi barbarians in Wuling, and frightened off the menacing Wu army with the force of thunder. Such martial prowess and power made the soldiers of the three armies so excited that they spontaneously shouted "Long live" to Yan Liang.
Yan Liang rode his horse to get to the trestle and walked slowly into the camp. He nodded to the soldiers along the way and calmly accepted their shouts that were almost like worship.
At this time, Yan Liang's hunting pride was burning in his heart. Hearing the sound of "Long live" like a roaring mountain and a tsunami, the heroic words of a certain hero flashed in his mind:
Princes, generals and prime ministers would rather have the seed!
You, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, could achieve greatness by growing a pavilion, how could I, Yan Liang, not be able to do so.
In the excitement and pride, Yan Liang has already begun to plan a new blueprint in his mind.
However, it was too early now, and Yan Liang knew calmly that retreating Sun Quan was just the beginning, and there would be a fierce battle to be fought next.
After returning to the camp, Yan Liang gave Gan Ning a secret order to set off overnight and rush to Xiangyang to take over the 10,000 newly recruited naval forces.
Because Yan Liang received news from Huang Yueying on his way back to Fankou, saying that the vehicles, ships and warships needed for the fleet of vehicles and ships had basically been completed.
Then, what Yan Liang has to do next is to make the 10,000 new naval forces familiar with the operation of vehicles and ships as soon as possible, and to be able to successfully conduct water battles with them.
With only a naval force and no good naval commander to command it, it was naturally impossible to unleash the strength of the fleet of vehicles and ships, so Yan Liang chose his most trusted naval commander who was best at attacking and fighting to take over the brand new fleet.
It would take some time for the fleet of vehicles and ships to form combat effectiveness. During this period, Yan Liang decided to adopt defensive tactics.
Due to the addition of the Samoko barbarian army, Sun Quan's pressure south of Chaisang increased sharply. As a last resort, Sun Quan had no choice but to mobilize troops and go to Chaisang to reinforce his troops.
As a result, Sun Quan's main naval force was at a military disadvantage.
In order to maintain the advantage over Yan Liang's navy, Sun Quan had no choice but to order more than 10,000 soldiers and horses from Lu Su's headquarters to return to the army.
In this case, Lu Su, who was originally besieging Ai County, had his troops reduced, and his offensive against Ai County was greatly reduced. In the short term, he would not be able to eliminate the invading army led by Wei Yan.
At the end of autumn and into winter, Yan Liang and Sun Quan, with nearly 100,000 troops on both sides, formed a confrontation on the front line starting from Shouchun in the north and reaching Aixian County in the south.
Just as the war in the south entered a stalemate, fighting resumed in the north after the late autumn.
Yuan Tan, who was sent to Youzhou by Liu Bei, used hard and soft means to steal the military and political power of his younger brother Yuan Xi within a few months, and took the entire Youzhou into his own hands.
After the autumn grain harvest, Yuan Tan immediately led his army south and launched another attack on Yuan Shang with tens of thousands of cavalry.
This time Yuan Tan's attack was no small matter. In order to deal with Yuan Shang, Yuan Tan returned the favor and lured the Wuhuan people into the fortress to help him fight.
At the same time, Yuan Tan also successfully instigated the rebels to merge the state with the provincial governor Gao Gan, who allowed the high officials to seize the Bing state and establish themselves. He refused to obey Yuan Shang's orders and adopted a wait-and-see attitude during the battle between the two Yuans.
At the same time, Yuan Tan's old general Han Meng, who had occupied the Luoyang front line and had no choice but to surrender to Yuan Shang, betrayed Yuan Shang and crossed the Yellow River north with his troops, attacking Hanoi County and threatening Yuan Shang's southern rear.
Suddenly, Yuan Shang's situation became extremely unfavorable, and he had to personally lead his army to go north to Youzhou to resist his brother's attack.
On the land of Hebei, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang once again fell into a life-and-death fight.
According to Si Wencao's information, Liu Bei from Xuzhou was also sending additional troops to the Pei Kingdom at this time. It seemed that he wanted to take advantage of Yuan Shang's lack of time to visit south and prepare to attack Yanzhou, which Yuan Shang held.
War broke out again in the north, and there was no peace in Yongliang either.
In the Battle of Wuguan, Cao Cao lost Wuguan and the clan general Cao Hong. He was afraid of Yan Liang's strength, so he could only stay silent and eat coptis. He considered himself unlucky and was forced to reach a tacit truce with Yan Liang.
After withdrawing his troops, Cao Cao raised his troops and entered Liangzhou again. During the several months of stalemate between Yan Liang and Sun Quan, he captured Guzang City, where the Liangzhou Governor's Department was located, and killed Han Sui in one fell swoop.
As soon as Han Sui died, the largest warlords in Xiliang were wiped out. The remaining small princes who were still stubbornly resisting surrendered to Cao Cao one after another to save their lives.
As a result, Cao Cao defeated Xiliang in one fell swoop, and immediately sent his troops south to conquer the Ma Teng clan who fled to Qishan.
After Ma Teng, Ma Chao and his son retreated to Qishan, they asked Zhang Lu in Hanzhong for help. Zhang Lu was still waiting and watching. Later, when Cao Cao destroyed Han Sui and the pro-reunion army marched south to Qishan, Zhang Lu felt his lips were dying and his teeth were cold.
So Zhang Lu sent his younger brother Zhang Wei to lead more than ten thousand Hanzhong soldiers north to Qishan to aid Ma Teng in his fight against Cao Cao.
With the help of Zhang Lu, Ma Teng and his son regained their military strength. On the one hand, they occupied the dangerous strategic point of Qishan Mountain, and on the other hand, they sent people to join forces with the Qiang people in order to resist Cao Cao's conquest.
When the time entered winter and the stalemate between Yan Liang and Sun Quan reached its final stage, Cao Cao was also on the Qishan line, forming a confrontation with the coalition forces of Ma Teng and Zhang Lu.
As for the Chaisang line, just as Yan Liang predicted in advance, after winter, Sun Quan began to be trapped in food shortages.
Although the autumn harvest in Jiangdong was considered to be a bumper harvest due to good weather and good weather conditions, the food harvested in the autumn not only had to supply the people of Jiangdong for the winter, but also feed Sun Quan's 80,000 to 90,000 troops who were not engaged in production, as well as the more than 30,000 people working on the Chaisang line.
This means that Sun Quan had to support more than 100,000 non-productive people in Yangzhou until the next autumn harvest.
So on the surface, it seems that the granaries everywhere in Jiangdong are piled up like mountains, but if Sun Quan spends a lot of money because of this, his grain reserves may not be able to support next year's autumn harvest. By then, he will have to start from the people's grain tanks.
If we force another conquest here, this will inevitably arouse resentment among the people in Jiangdong and even trigger a civil uprising.
If something goes wrong in the old nest, the blow to Sun Quan will be more serious than losing one or two battles, and it will cost Sun Quan his life even more.
Yan Liang is not the case. Now he owns the land of two states, and there is basically no war in the northern ruling area. Moreover, he has the advantage of farming. It is not a problem at all to support an army of 70,000 to 80,000 people with the people of the two states.
Therefore, Yan Liang was not in a hurry at all. He could drag Sun Quan down as long as he had enough food and grass.
But now, the war in the north has resumed, and Cao Cao is about to complete the extermination of Ma Teng, making Yan Liang realize that he must speed up the process of exterminating Wu so that he can free up his hands as soon as possible to deal with the powerful enemy in the north.
As a result, Yan Liang and Sun Quan reached an unprecedented ideological agreement in the second month after winter.
war!
On that day, an urgent report came from the upper reaches. Gan Ning's fleet of 10,000 vehicles and ships had passed Xiakou and would arrive at Fankou in one day.
On the day he received the news, Yan Liangsui wrote a letter of war in his own handwriting and sent it to Sun Quan.
In the letter of war, Yan Liang only wrote eight words: