Eight hundred and eighty-eighth chapter Liu Bei is stunned again
On the south bank of the Yishui River, there is the Chu army's camp.
In the imperial tent, Gan Ning walked into the tent with shame and knelt down to plead guilty to Yan Liang.
"This battle is just to test the enemy's reality. It is not the crime of promoting hegemony. Hegemony does not need to blame itself." Yan Liang was very generous and did not hold Gan Ning responsible for his defeat.
Gan Ning then stood up, cupped his hands and said, "At that time, I only had 10,000 soldiers and horses. If there are tens of thousands more soldiers and horses, we may not be able to cross the river. Please give me another chance."
Yan Liang did not answer, but smiled and turned his gaze to Pang Tong.
"The Yishui River is not wide. The careful work of the Han State can easily report the movements of our army to Liu Bei. Even if our army sends more troops and horses, Liu Bei can respond in time. The 50,000 Wuhuan cavalry are enough to stop them.
It is not a wise move for me to send my 200,000 troops to cross the river at the same time and continue to forcefully cross the river."
Pang Tong calmly analyzed the Han army's combat strength and expressed that it was not appropriate to forcefully cross the river again.
"If we don't forcefully cross the river now, we'll have to wait until the winter comes when the water freezes before we can cross the river." Gan Ning sighed.
Pang Tong shook his head and said: "There is still more than half a year before winter. Now that Liu is about to be destroyed, how can we wait that long? Furthermore, even if he can cross the river smoothly, Liu Bei will have 90,000 troops and horses, relying on Yi Jing's strong support."
The defense line may not be able to stop the attack of our 250,000-strong army.
In the imperial tent, the ministers fell into silence.
What Pang Tong said is indeed true. The Yijing defense line in front of us seems to have become an insurmountable barrier.
"The people Liu Bei is fighting are nothing but the Wuhuan cavalry. If the Wuhuan cavalry can be destroyed, the Yijing defense line will not be afraid." In the silence, Yan Liang spoke calmly and pointed out the key point.
"However, Liu Bei has made up his mind to defend Yishui, so how can he use the Wuhuan cavalry to fight us decisively."
Gan Ning's concerns were also the concerns of his ministers.
If you want to eliminate the Wuhuan cavalry, you must first be able to fight them. But now that even Yishui cannot cross, how can we fight Wuhuan.
As for Liu Bei, it was obviously impossible to send the Wuhuan cavalry across the river and come to die on his own initiative.
"Now things are simple. You can gather your wits and think about how to induce the Wuhuan cavalry to fight with us." Yan Liang said loudly.
All the ministers were thinking hard and coming up with strategies.
Suddenly, a sly smile appeared at the corner of Pang Tong's mouth. It was obvious that he had an idea in his mind.
"Prime Minister, do you have any clever ideas? Come on quickly." Yan Liang waved his hand and smiled.
Pang Tong didn't answer first, but turned his attention to Gan Ning: "Xingba, you have fought against the Wuhuan cavalry. How are their equipment?"
"Wuhuan mainly uses light cavalry. Regardless of cavalry or war horses, they mostly use leather armor. To be honest, the equipment is very poor." Gan Ning said with a bit of disdain in his tone.
The Wuhuan were originally a nomadic people outside the Great Wall. They were short of money, iron, and technology. Naturally, they were not equipped with sophisticated iron armors, but only backward leather armor. Not only the Wuhuan, but also the Hu people who were surrounded by the Han Dynasty, except for the Qiang who were most closely mixed with the Han people.
Except for human beings, this is the case for the rest of the Hu tribe.
"That's right." Pang Tong nodded. "Although the Wuhuan cavalry is numerous, their armor is extremely fragile. I believe that our army's five thousand iron pagoda heavy armored cavalry will be able to defeat them in a head-on confrontation."
Destroy it."
Iron Buddha!
Pang Tong's words suddenly reminded everyone, even Yan Liang's eyes flashed with excitement.
The Chu cavalry has been divided into two types since the Jingzhou era. One is the Shenxing cavalry, which is extremely maneuverable for side attacks, also known as light cavalry. The other is the iron pagoda, which is extremely powerful in impact and defense, also known as heavy cavalry.
.
Heavy cavalry is a very expensive unit. Just the set of horse armor and human armor is extremely expensive. In addition, due to the lack of armor, both the horses and knights are elites.
When Yuan Shao was at his peak, he had a thousand heavy cavalry in his army, which was already powerful. Now, although Yan Liang controls ten states, he can only manage to form an iron pagoda heavy cavalry of more than 5,000 men.
However, since the Northern Expedition, the enemy was weak and we were strong. Most of the Chu army's battles were fortified battles, so Tiefu Tu seemed useless.
Although the Shenxing Cavalry can take advantage of its speed to quickly attack the enemy from behind, in a frontal attack, it cannot even break through an ordinary heavy infantry phalanx, let alone a fully armed heavy cavalry.
Using Iron Buddha to destroy Wuhuan Qingqi is indeed a feasible plan.
"What the Prime Minister said is true, but in this situation, how to induce the Wuhuan cavalry to engage in a decisive battle with my Iron Buddha Tu? This is the most critical problem," Yan Liang said calmly.
Pang Tong smiled slightly: "I have a plan. Maybe I can force the big-eared thief to send Wuhuan Qingqi to have a decisive battle with Juntiefutu."
Yan Liang's expression perked up and he immediately became interested.
Pang Tong immediately explained his plan without any haste.
The more people heard it, the more novel it became. Many people felt that Pang Tong's plan was too risky.
Only Yan Liang nodded slightly. The strategy Pang Tong mentioned was very to his liking.
"Prime Minister, this is a very clever plan. Let's do it like this. If Liu Bei, the big-eared thief, can't get out, I will force him out." Yan Liang sneered.
"Although Prime Minister's plan is clever, it still requires a general who is familiar with the terrain to achieve this success." Fazheng reminded from the side.
Yan Liang thought for a while and said loudly: "Quickly tell Cheng Pu to come and meet you."
…
Pang Tong's plan was being carried out secretly. On the surface, Yan Liang ordered the generals to continue to create the illusion that Yishui would be crossed by force.
The Chu State's 250,000 troops spread out along the Yishui River and built large rafts with great momentum.
Liu Bei, who was shrinking in Yi Jingzhong, did not dare to underestimate him and ordered both sides of the strait to closely monitor the Chu army's movements to prevent Yan Liang from sneaking across Yishui from other places.
In order to perform the trick well, Yan Liang followed Liu Bei's wishes and divided his troops many times, pretending to sneak across Yishui from upstream and downstream.
After Liu Bei learned about it, he naturally sent the Wuhuan cavalry to the north bank to intercept it.
In half a month, the Chu army failed to sneak across three times, losing nearly 2,000 soldiers, but failed to find a foothold on the north bank.
For Liu Bei, this long-lost winning streak was enough to make him ecstatic after "defeating" the Chu army's cross-river battles one after another.
Liu Bei regained his confidence again, and gradually became even prouder. He was confident that this time, Yan Liang would be defeated by the Yishui River.
Liu Bei, who was overjoyed, naturally showed no mercy in order to continue to befriend Wu Huan. He would reward Wu Huan heavily every time he won a battle.
Because Liu Bei escaped from Julu in a hurry, the large amount of gold and silver he brought out of Yecheng had to be lost on the road, so Liu Bei didn't have much money left in his treasury at the moment.
In order to pretend to be wealthy and please the Wuhuan people, Liu Bei could only order the counties and counties in Youzhou to donate money to meet military needs.
Youzhou is not a prosperous place. Now it is a heavy burden to supply Liu Bei with food and fodder for military use. Now that additional tributes have been added, it is even more overwhelmed.
Since the government had no money, it naturally had no choice but to levy force from the people. For a time, the people in various counties in Youzhou complained and secretly cursed Liu Bei as a tyrant.
At this point, in order to deal with Yan Liang, Liu Bei no longer cared about his reputation and turned a deaf ear to the resentment of the people. He also issued several imperial edicts in succession to urge contributions.
Although Liu Bei received a generous reward, the Wuhuan people did not appreciate it very much. They continued to behave evilly, and every time they won, they would rape, humiliate, and plunder.
At first, the Wuhuan people were hesitant and only dared to plunder after victory. Later, with Liu Bei's connivance, they plundered cities and villages everywhere when they had a little leisure.
In the counties and counties near the north bank of the Yishui River, from cities to villages, countless households were plundered by the Wuhuan people, and countless people's wives and daughters were taken back to the camps by the Wuhuan people and wasted.
The people were resentful about this, and Zhang Xiu and many other military ministers were also indignant. They made many suggestions to Liu Bei, asking him to warn the Wuhuan people.
Liu Bei was afraid of offending the Wuhuan people, so under Zhuge Liang's advice, he still turned a blind eye. In turn, he severely scolded his ministers and ordered them not to mention the matter again.
Zhang Xiu and other ministers had no choice but to sigh and close their mouths.
…
Thousands of miles away, Bohai.
The sea is vast and calm, with only white clouds floating leisurely overhead.
Fifty ships with full sails were sailing rapidly on the sea.
Taishi Ci stood on the bow of the boat, looking far ahead, his old face flashing with excitement.
Since returning to Dachu, Yan Liang admired Taishi Ci very much and directly promoted his official position to General Zhendong. Such preferential treatment made Taishi Ci extremely grateful.
It's a pity that Yan Liang has so many powerful generals under his command, and Taishi Ci has not had much chance to make meritorious deeds since his return.
Receiving such preferential treatment without any merit, Taishi Ci always felt uneasy in his heart, feeling that he owed Yan Liang something.
Now, Taishi Ci, who wanted to repay his kindness with meritorious deeds, finally got the chance, and Yan Liang entrusted him with this important task.
What was loaded on the warship was five thousand large Chu iron pagodas. These were the elites of the Chu state. Yan Liang was able to trust Taishi Ci to command such an important force. Taishi Ci was deeply moved by this trust.
The grateful Taishi Ci was eager to repay Yan Liang's trust and kindness with a great victory.
"Look, there's a coastline ahead!" the soldier shouted, interrupting Tai Shici's thoughts.
Taishi Ci's spirit perked up, and he quickly raised his eyes to look into the distance. Sure enough, he saw the end of the sky and the sea, and the outline of the land winding out.
At this time, on the port side, a signal flag was hung on Ling Tong's flag, saying that the destination had been reached and calling the entire army to prepare for landing.
With the fighting spirit burning in his chest, Taishi Ci tightly grasped the big gun in his hand and shouted excitedly: "Give me the order, order the soldiers to put on their armor and mount their horses, and prepare to attack Ninghe."
After the order was passed, the cavalrymen on the ships became energetic and began to prepare. The collision of armor and weapons was heard.
The boat moved faster and faster, and half an hour later, the situation on land came into clear view.
Taishi Ci's face was as cold as a blade, and he had only one thought in his mind: kill Ninghai, kill Yuyang County, take Jixian County directly, and seize Liu Bei's lair!