In addition to the 12 new-style sailing ships in the Xuzhou Water Camp, the more than 40 sail warships of the Lou Boat Army were only modified with water panels, and the overall speed of the fleet across the Dongting Lake slowed down, and it took two days and one night to reach the mouth of the Yuan River into Dongting Lake.

Entering the rainy season, the rainy season in the upper reaches of Yuanshui is also extremely abundant during this time, and the water surface of the estuary area is also extremely vast, submerging the river beaches and river beaches on both sides, and the water surface is almost ten miles wide.

To the north of Yunpanling, there are low mountains and shallow hills, which do not shelter the wind.

Since the main force of the Tanzhou naval army did not pursue it, the water battalion strength of Tanzhou in the Yuan River was simply not enough to resist the Chu army sailing to the southwest.

Ma Rong was in Hanshou City, Langzhou Prefecture, watching more than 50 sail warships sail past the river several miles away, and there was no main warship of the water camp chasing after him, and his hammer chest was full of tears:

"Tanzhou's foundation is ruined!"

Ma Rong also felt that the sword was on the wrong side before, and Han Qian, who helped Yang Yuanpu repel the Liang army in Xichuan, was not worried, but the battle of Yuanling City made him truly realize that the Wuling army that had not been created for two years was so invulnerable and so dense that he couldn't breathe, and he didn't want the whole army to be destroyed, so he could only flee back to Wuling in panic.

Ji Zhongqi's idea is good, even after more than 10,000 elites of the Dragon Bird Army enter the Huxi Plain, Tanzhou can also send additional troops to fight with it, but it is so difficult to defend the city, what is the chance of winning in the field?

Moreover, the military funds prepared by Xuzhou are much more sufficient than previously expected, but most of Ma Rong's statements in the book have not been taken seriously, and Ma Rong also knows in his heart that many people around the lord of the country think that he is making excuses for the defeat of Yuanling.

Crossing Dongting Lake by boat from the mouth of the lake, and then galloping all the way from Junshan, Wen Ruilin, who entered Longshou City to meet Ma Rong first, looked at the river a few miles away, and wanted to pull the prince Ma Xun and the lord Ma Yin to him, pointing to the scene in front of them and telling them to open their eyes and take a good look: "Look at it, look at it, you fools can't listen to Lao Tzu's opinion once?" ”

Wen Ruilin's chest was full of anger, but he also knew that now was not the time to make trouble, so he said to Ma Rong: "At this time, please also ask Lord Sima to immediately lead his troops to Wuling City - as I expected, most of the Chu army will besiege the city and send reinforcements, but no matter what, I still have to ask Lord Sima to defend Wuling City, otherwise Tanzhou will be difficult to protect!" ”

Even if it is guessed that the Chu army will surround the Wuling army and send reinforcements, Wuling City must still be defended.

There are only two fortified cities along the lower reaches of the Yuan River, Hanshou and Wuling, and the Chu army captured Wuling City, and to the north it could enter the hinterland of Langzhou, enter the south bank of the Yangtze River, and open up the communication with Jingxiang, and to the southeast it could attack the territory of Tanzhou, and the whole situation was really going to collapse completely.

Ma Rong immediately gathered the few horse troops in Hanshou City, and Wen Rui took the land route on the north bank of the river, and after chasing the Chu army fleet, he overtook it in the second half of the night and entered Wuling City in advance to deploy defense.

In the morning light, the fleet of the Chu army rippled the river, from northeast to southwest, passing through the river in front of Wuling City.

When the river was squeezed by the hills on both sides and sandwiched to the Yuyue Gorge, which was less than a few miles wide, the Chu army fleet did not continue to move forward, but docked at the river beach south of the Yuyue Gorge, where thousands of Chu troops jumped off their warships in the morning mist like tigers and wolves and rushed onto the river beach.

The river surface before and after the Yuyue Gorge is as wide as four or five miles, only this small section of the river surface is shrunk to only four or five hundred steps by the hills and mountains on both sides, on the one hand, the river water becomes extremely turbulent through here, and it is difficult to rush against the current, on the other hand, the hills and mountains on both sides of the bank can build camps and erect cyclone cannons to block the river surface.

The Chu army landed on the river beach south of Yuyue Gorge, and then controlled the hills on both sides of Yuyue Gorge, so that they could use Yuyue Gorge as a large camp to attack Wuling City, which was only ten miles away.

Ma Rong gathered 2,000 horse infantry troops on the shallow hill on the north bank of Yuyue Gorge, and when he saw the Chu army rushing to the beach, he immediately divided the hundreds of horse troops into several units and took turns to attack the fragile positions established by the Chu army on the river beach, hoping to give the Chu army a dismount and make the next confrontation less difficult.

Li Zhihe, as the deputy commander of the Dragon Bird Army, was also the main general of the westward march of the troops and horses, and stood with Han Qian and Lou Chuan Army Du Yu Hou Fan Xiang on a double-decker oared war ship, on the one hand, vigilantly watching the movements of more than a dozen row-of-oar warships downstream, and on the other hand, staring at the river beach where the generals landed.

At this time, it was raining lightly in the sky, and no one knew if the rain would become heavier, but they did know that there were only more than 5,000 rebels near Wuling City at this time, even if they came out of the city to snipe them ashore in front of the river beach.

If it drags on, it is not known how many troops and horses the rebels will be able to bring in from other places.

If you want to besiege Wuling City, you must be quick to take advantage of the hilly terrain around Wuling City to snipe rebel reinforcements coming from other directions.

If you go to Yunpanling to get off the boat to rectify the army, and then take the land route from Yunpanling to Wuling City, you will have to delay at least one day and one night.

However, in one day and one night, at least the defenders in Wuling City can increase to more than 10,000 people, and then it will be much more difficult to besiege them.

Li Zhihe ordered several square-headed flat-bottomed boats to put away their mast sails and rush directly to the river beaches on both sides of the landing position, concentrating seventy or eighty bed crossbows on the bow and top decks of the ships to limit the direction of the rebels' attack on the river beach position to the front, and then pushing hundreds of chariots onto the river beach, placing large crossbows on the chariots, and making the armor guards take shelter behind the chariots with shields, and gradually expand the range of the river beach position in front of the enemy.

The generals of both sides continued to draw their bows and control the strings, the feathered arrows were dense like locusts, and the war horses roared, and in the earth-shattering fighting and screaming, mixed with the last miserable howl of life, mixed with the dull and dull sound of halberds and shields colliding.

Countless swords and arrows pierced through the armor, pierced and slashed into the fragile flesh, and a puff of blood splattered and flew up, and more flowed along the arms, waists, and armor into the muddy river beach, turning the muddy river red.

The battle lasted for an hour, before noon, Zheng Hui led Tiancheng, Lin Haizheng and Xiying's 4,000 generals to attack from the south, Ma Rong could only take more than 200 corpses of the soldiers who died in battle, withdraw his troops and retreat to Wuling City, watching more and more Chu troops climb the hills on the north bank of Yuyue Gorge......

Du Yiming landed on the shore with the medical team, set up a medical battalion directly on the battlefield of the unruly river beach, and gathered the temporarily bandaged wounded soldiers for further debridement and wound suturing.

Once the wound is infected and suppurated, the best gold medicine in the world may have some healing effect, but timely debridement can effectively prevent infection, and almost 70% of the wounded can be effectively healed.

Otherwise, the Wuling Army experienced two fierce battles with a casualty rate of more than 30% in half a year, and it is difficult to say how strong the will to fight can be maintained at this time.

Zheng Hui, Zhang Ping, Tian Cheng, Lin Haizheng, Xi Ying and others will come over to meet Han Qian, Li Zhihe, Zhou Shu, Zhou Yan, Fan Xiang and others.

When Han Qian was in the Yuedong camp, the three princes and Li Pu, the Marquis of Xinchang, Yang Jian, and Shen Yang, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, decided to divide the troops into the Yuanjiang River, and clearly set up a camp to march west of Hunan to unify the command of the Chu army and horses assembled in the middle and lower reaches of the Yuanjiang River.

Han Daoxun did not come to the front line to command the operation, so Zheng Hui, as the military adviser of the county prince's mansion, the deputy envoy of the defense of the Wuling Army, and the assassin of Chenzhou, has been commanding the operation on both sides of the Yuan River, so he is naturally the natural candidate for the head of the camp, Li Zhihe, Zhou Yan, Zhou Shu, Fan Xiang, Xiying and others are the deputy generals, and Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Lin Haizheng, Yang Qin, Xi Chang, Feng Xuan, Feng Zhang and others have a lower status.

Han Qian, as the commander of the battalion, continued to be responsible for logistics and other matters.

Zhang Ping and Li Chong, who came with the army, served as the camp supervisor and the military envoy, and recruited the army to participate in the military.

And when the Yuedong camp, the three princes and everyone also preliminarily discussed the next battle plan in the direction of the Yuanjiang River, that is, Zhou Shu and Zhou Yi respectively occupied the north and east passes of Wuling City to intercept the reinforcements coming from these two directions, Fan Xiang and Yang Qinbu of the Xuzhou Water Battalion were responsible for intercepting the reinforcements of the water army going upriver along the Yuan River, and Li Zhihe would join the whirlwind artillery battalion belonging to the Fan Battalion and the Baggage Battalion to launch a strong attack on Wuling City.

The soldiers of the three battalions of Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Lin Haizheng, as well as the elite of the personal guard battalion led by Zheng Xingxuan, temporarily stayed in the large battalion on the north bank of Yuyue Gorge as reserve soldiers, and could be reinforced at any time in all directions if needed.

"So soon, all the adults will come over and prepare the troops for a few days?" Gao Shao asked in surprise.

Their progress in this direction is still very smooth, but every time they organize a new offensive, they have to carry out one to two months of preparations, and now they have just met on the north bank of Yuyue Gorge, and the day after tomorrow at the latest, they will complete the preparations for the attack on Wuling City, and at that time, the camp on the north bank of Yuyue Gorge may not be able to be built properly.

Han Qian sat on the opposite bank of Li Zhihe, the specific battle plan is currently known to only a few people, and it is even more necessary to further command the battalion commander below, and said: "There is not so much free time, even if the Marquis of Liyang sends Shu to go smoothly, the Shu army will not be able to withdraw from Yiling until June at the earliest, but the assembly of the Liang army in Caizhou will not stop." Once the rainy season passed, the Liang army attacked and built from Caizhou for only two years, and it was not much of a stable defense line in Nanyang, and it was difficult to say that the 30,000 defenders of Dengzhou, Junzhou, and Xiangzhou were as stable as Mount Tai, and the imperial court would inevitably send troops and horses from all over to reinforce Deng Xiang. At that time, the war on the side of Tanzhou will still be stalemate, so it will be a real dilemma. The Yuanjiang camp has completed the assembly at this time, so it must play its role immediately, and it will not be able to give the new soldiers and horses time to adapt and adjust, and the faster, more decisive, and more ferocious we move, the greater the deterrence of the Xiangtan forces, and the fewer reinforcements who dare to rush over in the end......"