After listening to Cheng Pu's introduction, Sun Ce expressed his understanding.

Generally speaking, the capture of a county means the occupation of a county, because a county is the political and economic center of a county, but there is a big difference between capturing a county and actually controlling a county, which takes time to remove the old influence and establish new authority. Cheng Pu and Wu Jing occupied Lujiang and Jiujiang for too short a time, and it was less than a month to fight and fight, whether the people of the two counties could support them, whether the county soldiers were available or not, it was a question now, especially the opponent Wu Jing faced was still the Yangzhou Thorn History.

Replaced by Sun Ce, he was not sure of a quick victory. He took the guard battalion to take office, that is, he had to have a trustworthy force in his hands to do things, and if he relied completely on the county soldiers, he would not be able to do anything for a long time. Cheng Pu and Wu Jing each had 5,000 men and horses, so they dared to fight against Chen Wen, if they were all county soldiers, they would not even be safe, maybe when the county soldiers would rebel.

It's not bad that the battle is like this.

Cheng Pu is grateful. Although he is a veteran, in front of Sun Ce, he is under a lot of pressure, for fear of being laughed at by the juniors.

"I'll introduce you to someone." Sun Ce said: "This person can help you in the future, but you must pay attention to confidentiality and try not to let others know his identity." ”

Cheng Pu was curious and agreed. Sun Ce glanced at Guo Jia. Guo Jia understood, turned around and lured Jiao Zhongqing out. Cheng Pu stared at Jiao Zhongqing for a long time. "I should have seen you."

Jiao Zhongqing bowed and saluted. "The prince of the house has a very good memory, I have been to the Taishou Mansion twice, and I have a relationship with the king. In Xia Jiaoji, the word Zhongqing, and when Lu Fujun was in office, I was a Cangcao official, and now I am a member of the Guo Saijiu Scout Camp, in charge of Lujiang County. ”

Cheng Pu raised his eyebrows lightly and turned his head to look at Sun Ce. "So, you already knew about the general's war in Lujiang?"

"I don't know. I have limited funds and limited manpower, so I will not use them unless I have to. It was only a matter of time before Lujiang was taken, it was only a matter of time, and I did not arrange for them to cooperate, and they were preparing other affairs. ”

Sun Ce said as he motioned to Lu Xun to spread out the map. The map had just been drawn and was still scented with ink. This is a topographic map near Niuzhu Rock, with Niuzhu Rock as the center, spanning the three counties of Lujiang, Jiujiang and Danyang, and any county map will not be so complete and detailed. This is the result of Jiao Zhongqing's three months of hard work, and he has personally surveyed every important place above. The map is only a part of the results, and there are nearly 10,000 words of description.

Looking at this map, Cheng Pu shook his head again and again. "It's the first time I've seen such a detailed map, and it's priceless. With a picture in hand, the situation can be seen at a glance. No wonder your uncle was blocked in the area of Quanjiao and Fuling, and there is no other way out. ”

Sun Ce nodded. Don't look at the fact that he has lived in Shu County for a few months, if it weren't for the map provided by Jiao Zhongqing, he wouldn't be able to figure out the situation. There are many differences between the geographical environment of Jiujiang and later generations, the most obvious of which is that with Chaohu Lake and Shaobi as the center, there is a low-lying land in the south and a north, with large and small lakes dotted around, aquatic plants and grasses, and a large area of primeval forest, in which there are tigers and leopards and other fierce beasts. There is a highway that passes through the middle of these primeval forests, with a total length of five or six hundred miles, and only the two cities of Hefei and Junyu can stop for supplies in the middle. If he walked from this avenue, Wu Jing would have to carry a lot of baggage, so he chose another road, taking Dongcheng, Quanjiao, and Fucheng to facilitate supplies.

But there are mountains in Quanjiao and Fucheng, which are conducive to defense and not conducive to attack, so Wu Jing was blocked by Chen Wen.

Any military operation must rely on the terrain, and if you are not familiar with the terrain, it is tantamount to talking in a dream if you want to achieve victory. In the later period of the Three Kingdoms, because Nanjun fell into the hands of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, Cao Cao's eastward expedition had to take Hefei, and Sun Quan established a defense line in the Liyang area. Of course, Sun Quan was also unable to advance northward, especially Hefei, which was his nightmare, and after the first battle of Xiaoyaojin, he was never able to push the front north of Hefei.

But Zhou Xin is not Sun Quan, although he has been a Danyang Taishou for several years, he does not know how to use soldiers. For now, he made two low-level mistakes. First, heavy troops were deployed in Niuzhuji, but no troops were sent to garrison Liangshan. Liangshan is in the upper reaches of Niuzhu Rock, divided into two parts, East Liang Mountain, West Liang Mountain, standing between the river, like the gate of heaven, is an important pass to defend the upstream enemy. He did not send troops to guard it, and Sun Ce drove straight into it and easily arrived at Niuzhuji. The second is that he did not have a water division, but he tried to fight in the middle of the river, and threw part of his troops into the north of the river, scattering his troops in vain.

Of course, his biggest mistake was to actively seek a decisive battle. If he retreated to the hinterland of Danyang and gave full play to the advantages of Danyang's soldiers who were good at mountain warfare and the geographical characteristics of Danyang's mountainous forests, Sun Ce would have to attack the city and seize the land step by step, and it would be difficult to succeed in less than a year and a half, and it would consume a lot of energy and money. Zhou Xin wanted to fight a decisive battle, and he was in his arms.

Although Niu Zhuji is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is easier to annihilate its main force in a battle than to run all over the mountain.

Sun Ce decided to take Zhou Xin from Niu Zhuji first. Defeat Zhou Xin, Chen Wen and others in Jiangbei will have nowhere to go, and they will either die or surrender. If he attacked Chen Wen first, in case Zhou Xin retreated, his plan would be in vain. With Wu Jing's strength, even if it is difficult to break through Chen Wen's resistance in the short term, he will not suffer too much loss. The only thing that worries him is Chen Deng, but Chen Deng is newly defeated and runs away alone, and his impact is limited, so he doesn't need to think about it for the time being.

Sun Ce discussed with Cheng Pu, joined forces, transferred Cheng Pu's headquarters to Jiangnan, took Shicheng first, and cut off Zhou Xin's broken road. Niu Zhu Isobi stands in the heart of the river, it is impossible to attack directly, once the back road is cut off, it is difficult for the people on the rock to retreat, except for the warship, there is only swimming. Zhou Xin did not have a strong enough sailor to cover, and the limited number of warships was not Gan Ning's opponent at all, waiting to be caught.

Cheng Pu felt that this plan was good and happily accepted the task. Not long ago, he had just attacked Shucheng with Sun Jian, and his subordinate soldiers were familiar with siege tactics, so he took the initiative to ask for battle and asked to attack Shicheng County.

Sun Ce agreed. "Cheng Gong, you have to lose the battle before you can retreat from Hengjiangjin, so as not to arouse Zhou Xin's suspicions."

Cheng Pu agreed. "This is no problem, without the assistance of warships, Yokoetsu is really not easy to fight. How are you going to use the ship? There are boats that don't need to be used, and this can't be justified. ”

"Of course, it is to attack the Niu Zhu camp first, and then, like you, suffer a defeat and then retreat."

Cheng Pu said with a smile: "It seems that your invincible prestige is going to be bad in Zhou Xin's hands, I hope he can be satisfied." ”

"Cheng Gong said with a smile, I have never been invincible, last time I was in Xiaohuang, I was defeated by Yuan Tan, and I was seriously injured, and the wound still hurts." Sun Ce patted his chest as he spoke, laughing out loud.

Cheng Pu couldn't help laughing, he shook his head while laughing. "Major General, you really see it, and you are not burdened by false fame at all. For generals, there are not many people who can do this, who doesn't want to win a hundred battles and be invincible. As he spoke, he remembered that Sun Jian was angry and attacked Shu County, and he couldn't help but shake his head secretly. In terms of martial arts, these two fathers and sons are about the same. In terms of temperament, Sun Ce is obviously better than Sun Jian.