Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "Of course there is a way, when I came to Yuxian, I had already asked my lord for consent, and mobilized thirty counterweight stone throwers from Hugao Pass, which will arrive soon." ”

"Shiyuan will now arrange for manpower to build eight barrage cables as soon as possible, and when the stone thrower arrives, these barrage cables will be quietly installed in the Yangtze River waterway east of Jiangling."

"Then install the stone thrower on both sides of the Yangtze River, with the killing radius of the stone thrower, the sixty catties of stone bullets can reach at least four hundred zhang away, and the Yangtze River waterway is only four or five hundred zhang wide in a narrow place, and the stone throwers on both sides can easily cover most of the waterway."

"We only need to send a large number of infantry to protect the stone throwers and the winch of the barrage to ensure that the Soochow naval army can no longer come and go freely, so that Gangneung City can be impregnable?"

After Zhang Liao and Pang Tong heard this, their eyes lit up, and they were brilliant ideas!

In this era, the way to break the barrage is nothing more than to use a furnace to fuse the iron cable and break the winch.

But according to Zhuge Liang's assumption, there is no flaw.

Thirty stone throwers are enough to destroy any naval warship that dares to come to fight for wildfire, not to mention that the Central Army's stone throwers are equipped with bombs, fire bombs, and so on.

Zhang Liao added: "Let General Li Yan and General Wei Yan's subordinates defend these catapults together, I can transfer an artillery battalion to you to ensure that nothing goes wrong, and then the army against Cao Cao will be handed over to our Central Army!" ”

Pang Tong nodded, "With General Li Yan's 20,000 men and the artillery battalion of the Central Army, there is absolutely no problem holding the stone throwers on both sides of the strait." Soochow only has 30,000 infantry, and even if reinforcements arrive, it will only be 50,000 or 60,000 infantry. ”

The two sides agreed to discuss how to deal with Cao Jun after Zhuge Liang's method worked.

Pang Tong revealed: "General Wenyuan doesn't have to worry about the problem of troops, my lord has already recruited mountain people from Changsha, Lingling, and Wuling counties to form a new army, and when the new army is in place, he can replace the elite of Li Yan and General Wei Yan's subordinates, and he will have a greater grasp of dealing with Cao Cao." ”

Wei Yan also said: "What the military advisor said is right, the mountain people in all counties of Jingnan are all fierce, martial arts since childhood, and they usually make a living by fishing and hunting, and they can fight. ”

"With a little bit of training, it's a strong team, and it deserves a lot of use."

Zhang Liao relaxed at this time, "This is very good, anyway, to deal with Cao Cao, you have to wait until the stone thrower and the barrage iron cable are effective, and the time will come." ”

On the sixth day of the fourth month, it was another dark and windy night.

The rolling river flows eastward, and there are dark shadows on the river, and only when you get close can you see the dim lights floating on the river.

A large fleet of ships is swimming against the current.

At the center of the fleet were tall ships with their sails outstretched and the faint sound of horns.

Around the big ship, there are a few small boats that shuttle to and fro, like faithful hounds.

This is the naval army of Eastern Wu, the commander of the Eastern Wu naval army, Huang Gai, on the order of Zhou Yu, led a naval army of 15,000 people and 5,000 infantry to attack Jiangling, which is half of the strength of the Eastern Wu naval army.

This time, Huang Gai even planned to bypass Jiangling and go deep into the hinterland of Nanjun to plunder, anyway, Liu Qi's sailors had few ships and fewer ships, so he retreated far away, and did not dare to engage the Dongwu navy at all.

After Cai Mao's navy was defeated and surrendered to Cao Cao, there was no sailor on the Yangtze River to compete with the Eastern Wu navy.

Getting carried away can be used to describe the current yellow cover.

In order to rush to Gangneung as soon as possible, in this kind of night without moonlight, Huang Gai also dared to march overnight.

The deputy general Lu Meng tried hard to persuade him, but Huang Gai not only didn't listen, but also ridiculed Lu Meng for being a yellow-haired child, and he dared to point fingers at himself after only a few days of fighting.

Seeing that Huang Gai could not be persuaded to do so, Lu Meng had no choice but to send Meng Chong and Walkman to patrol ahead.

Because the visibility was too poor, the warships of the Soochow Navy were lit with many lanterns and torches, which were particularly conspicuous in this night.

Since it was going upstream, although there were many boatmen rowing, the boat was still not fast.

They didn't know that among the reeds on both sides of the Yangtze River, in the shrubs, there were many pairs of eyes staring at them.

Their bright lights are the best reference.

The speed, direction, and flow of the Dongwu naval army were sent to the command center of the combined forces of Chang'an and Jingzhou.

This command center is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River near Gong'an County.

There are still thirty miles of waterway from Jiangling here, and the waterway is relatively narrow, only less than 400 zhang wide, which is most in line with Zhuge Liang's vision.

Thirty counterweight rubblers have already been installed on the north and south banks of the waterway.

The Yangtze River waterway is less than ten miles from here to Jiangling, and it will change from east-west to north-south, which is a 90-degree turn.

So the current is turbulent, and the ships that go against the current get here, and the speed is slower.

In the vicinity of the command center is the position of the artillery battalion of the Central Army, and forty mortars have been installed and commissioned.

Pang Tong, Wei Yan and others finally had the opportunity to observe the true face of the mortar up close, especially Wei Yan, how could he not understand that such a thick iron pipe with a bowl mouth could exert such great power?

This artillery battalion has its own guard regiment, and except for the high-ranking generals of the coalition forces, other idle people are not allowed to approach.

The internal guard of the positions of the trebuchets was also carried out by this guard regiment.

In addition, nearly 40,000 infantry were hidden on both sides of the Yangtze River, and their mission was to protect the safety of the stone throwers and winches, and to crush the landing attempts of the Soochow naval army.

Under the efforts of the blacksmiths of Nanjun, the eight barrage iron cables have been installed in place, and the arm-thick iron cables have sunk to the bottom of the river, and they can be pulled up with a winch just waiting for the command center's order.

Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Li Yan, and Wei Yan were all in the command center, and since it was Zhuge Liang's idea, Pang Tong was embarrassed to snatch the right to command.

The four of them sat on chairs, sipping tea, and discussing the combat effectiveness of the new army formed by these mountain people in Jingnan.

"Report to the two military divisions, the Dongwu Navy Brigade is still five miles away, and it is about to arrive, and the Mengchong boat that opened the road has entered the iron cable area." A scout ran in and reported loudly.

Zhuge Liang nodded, "In the afternoon, let's explore and report again!" ”

After another half an hour, the scout came to report, "The enemy's vanguard has passed through the chain area and is about to turn into the next waterway, and the enemy team is entering the chain area, and there are no less than forty or fifty fighting ships and building ships." ”

Zhuge Liang patted the feather fan in his hand, oh, there was no fan originally, but after arriving in Chang'an, Lu Bu gave it to him.

Zhuge Liang felt that the temperament of the feather fan was quite suitable for him, which helped him maintain a stable mentality, so he couldn't put it down every day.

Zouge

(End of chapter)