When Nakikas heard that the warship had been robbed, he hurriedly dispatched cavalry to pursue along the river, although he arrived on the east bank of the Delangisi River the day before Sikong Nan and Jiang Jie, Bailiyan was already waiting on the west bank.

At the same time, Gongliangwen led the army to evacuate Yasai Waterfall and arrived at the Derangi Pass, where Jin Xuedi's 400,000 recruits were still trapped in Yasai Waterfall and failed to cross the river.

While Sikong Nan and Jiang Jie were sailing against the current, Jin Xuedi's navy was in hot pursuit, and at this time, the strength of the two armies' water warfare was judged.

When Sikong Nan and Jiang Jie led the ships to the shore, Baili Yan quickly drew soldiers on board, went down the river and attacked the Jin Xuedi naval army head-on, fought fiercely for a day and night, and almost annihilated its warships and naval forces, and the coalition army lost four warships, sank twelve enemy ships, and then got thirty-one large and small ships, at this time the coalition army had sixty-two ships, and the surface of the West River was all owned by the coalition forces at this time.

Facing each other from the other side, Nakikas was devastated and helpless, and sent a messenger to order the Kaleze garrison Yabuk to lead his army to prevent the coalition forces from sailing down the river.

At the same time, Bailiyan and Gongliangwen saw through Nakikas's strategy:

"There are about 50,000 or 60,000 barbarian cavalry on the east bank of the Xihe River, so that the barbarian defenders outside the West Mountain will not exceed 70,000 or 80,000, and the 400,000 barbarian troops under the Yasi Ai Waterfall are still blocked on the west bank of the waterfall.

Judging from the following, there is Mr. Su in Xishan, and the barbarian army will definitely not transfer troops from outside Xishan, and the only one who can be transferred nearby is Calesser's 100,000 pursuers, so if our army takes a boat north again at this time to return to Xishan, there should be a gap to take advantage of. ”

"But if the cavalry of the barbarian army on the east bank gives up the east bank and pursues north along the river, even if the navy arrives outside the west mountain, Mr. Su may not be able to respond."

Gongliangwen said worriedly, and Bai Liyan took over:

"General Gongliang, please rest assured, the grain and grass in the grain can still be used for more than a month. This time, our army sailed north, neither landing nor engaging with it, but coming and going in this water network. The soldiers and horses on the east and west banks of the river could not cross the river, and at the same time they were exhausted by their lives. ”

"Oh! You're saying that relying on the water network and dealing with it for the time being? ”

"Yes, the Jin Xuedi people will definitely not only have this fleet, the Posong River has been leading to the Guannei, there are thousands of ships in the river, and I don't know how many merchant ships, and now one of its fleets has been intercepted by our army, and the river is blocked, and it will definitely send warships to intercept our army nearby. Therefore, our army can wait here for the rest of the work, reinforce the naval army, annihilate all the rivers, and seize its boats, so that we will kill two birds with one stone. ”

The Jin Xuedi army is also a naval army, and its combat effectiveness on the surface of the battle is extremely poor, and the strength of the Jin Xuedi people on the periphery of Posong Province is now forced to reach one million, and the coalition army has no possibility of winning in the land battle. Only by using the water network as a base barrier and relying on the naval army to compete with it.

Gongliangwen twisted his long beard, and after a little thought, he said:

"Then who will go to war, and who will stay behind?"

"Under the command of thousands of men to fight, the general stayed behind to prevent the enemy from training."

"Since the general will stick here, Yan Gongzi should leave the gunpowder jar to the general in case of emergency."

"Yes, there are still a lot of them in the army, and you only need to take some of them with you."

Gongliangwen probably thought that the risk of staying behind was very great, and he would face a siege of five or six hundred thousand people, even if there was a favorable terrain, it still could not completely offset the numerical superiority of the Jinxuedi people, especially the land gap of more than ten miles wide in the Delangi Pass, which would be a huge pressure on the coalition forces in the short term.

After agreeing on the plan with Gongliangwen, Bailiyan adjusted his deployment overnight, and took Sikong Nan and Jiang Jie, two generals, with only 50 large and small warships, and took the ship before dusk on the second day. The rest of the warships were left to Gongliangwen to help him train sailors, and at the same time continue to blockade the West River, preventing the Jinxuedi people from crossing the river on the east bank of the West River, and reducing the pressure of strategic confrontation.

The flagship of Bailiyan's ship was a large captured ship, which could carry 220 or 30 men including oarsmen[Note 1], but the space was very narrow and the equipment was not very sufficient.

Different from the ships of the Central Plains, ships of the same size, the Central Plains warships are at least more than thirty percent more than the cargo capacity and reserved space, and the design and layout of the Jinxuedi warships are extremely unreasonable in general, and there are very few war equipment.

There are many fixed bed crossbows on the decks of medium-sized and large warships in the Central Plains, and there are even stone artillery carts to facilitate long-range attacks on the water, and even land attacks, not to mention crossbowmen, most of the sailors are accustomed to light bows, and their tactics are extremely flexible. On the other hand, the Jinxuedi warships were only equipped with a unique angle of attack at the bow.

To be fair, there is no denying that the angle of attack is very powerful, but the effect is very limited.

The naval battles are all face-to-face, and the probability of a frontal collision in the Central Plains water battle is extremely small, all of which are sideways avoidance and then release arrows to catch the broadside jump and tie to the ship, or fire attack, it is really difficult to play the most difficult angle of attack, and it is almost difficult to hit the bow of the enemy ship.

Therefore, the angle of attack tactics are mostly used for the impact on the side of the hull, but in fact this opportunity is almost non-existent, once the enemy ship is found coming from the side, the distance is at least a few miles, and your own warship will never wait stupidly on the surface of the water to hit you, and have enough time to adjust the direction to avoid risks.

Bai Liyan judged that because there was no surface threat, there was a serious technical stagnation in the shipbuilding technology of the Jin Xuedi people, and the development of technology needed technical craftsmen at the same time, and the external pressure could accelerate the tilt of state-owned technical resources to a certain field.

Moreover, technology investment needs economic benefits, if there is only investment, and there is no direct economic and military benefit, with the current world's cognition and thinking, it is rare to develop technology without immediate benefits, and it is not surprising that there is a serious bias in the field of technology projects. [Note 2]

At the same time, Qianyue Mountain was from waterless warfare and shipbuilding workshops, and the Jinxuedi people rarely captured shipbuilders and craftsmen from the Central Plains, so they were unable to build similar warships.

Even if they can use the original thieves to steal the patterns, there are no qualified craftsmen and designers, and the Jinxuedi people are even struggling to copy.

As the ships slowly sailed away from the west bank in the morning and dusk, Nakikas on the east bank almost unsurprisingly mobilized cavalry along the river to pursue, but Bailiyan ignored it and continued to sail north, arriving at the west section of the river outside the West Mountain in the afternoon of the same day. At this time, the Jin Xuedi people had set up troops and horses on both sides of the strait, trying to repair the pontoon bridge, but they were wiped out by Bailiyan and the navy.

Looking at the enemy troops still scurrying on the shore, Jiang Jie said at this time:

"My lord, will our army continue to make a detour down the river to the west, or will we continue to cruise here to prevent the enemy from crossing the river?"

"Continue to the north, the situation in the valley is unknown, Ben will fall into the mountain tonight, sneak back to the West Mountain to meet Mr. Su. You, Sikong Nan, and Yuke continue to cruise around and wait for my orders. ”

"No!"

It has been more than a month since he left the valley, the situation in the valley is unknown, the grain and grass will not be sent into the valley for a while and a half, Su Fangyi is completely unaware of the situation outside the valley, Bailiyan is worried about the change of the situation, so that he is at a loss and has made mistakes, it is necessary to sneak back to Xishan to explain the details with him, so as to coordinate the use of troops in the two places.

After explaining in detail to Jiang Jie and Sikong Nan, the navy continued to take a boat to the north while the sun had not yet set in the west.

The ravines and hills outside the west mountain are forested, the grass and trees are luxuriant, and there is very little flat land along the banks of the river that can accommodate the brigade to march.

Bailiyan took advantage of the night to abandon the boat and go ashore with 100 people, and touched into the mountains in the middle of the night that night. More than 100 people hiked for three nights and two days, four mountains in a row, and arrived at the camp of Su Fangyi in Houshan in the morning after three days.

What shocked Bailiyan was that within a month, Su Fangyi successively built an earthen wall cottage at the entrance of the Houshan Cave and the mountain trail leading to the west mountain, and guarded the road to the village according to the danger, blocking the entrance to the Houshan cave in a radius of more than ten square kilometers nearby, and completely incorporating it into the coalition defense area.

At the same time, the vast mountainous area of several square kilometers outside the West Mountain has been turned into a frontier that can be defended, so as to facilitate the long-term garrison of troops.

Baili Yan explained the ins and outs of the future in detail, and Su Fangyi looked at the Delang base map scribbled by Bai Li Yan and said:

"The two places are one hundred and twenty or thirty miles apart, and although they are connected by waterways, they do not pass through the valley, and the grain and grass in the valley will probably be a big problem for a long time."

"What Mr. Su said is very true, and he is here for this matter. I wonder how many days the grain ration can still last? ”

"It's less than a month. If he could not lure away the enemy soldiers outside the West Mountain and transport the grain and grass into the valley, no matter how much grain and grass Delangi hoarded, it would be useless! ”

"Does that gentleman have a clever plan to break this game?"

Baili knew very well that if he camped in Delangi, he would not be able to transport all the grain and grass into the valley, but if he did not take root in Delangi, he would need to fight a fierce battle, and this was a price that the coalition forces could not afford at the moment.

Not to mention that there is simply no room for four or five hundred thousand people in the valley, and after the grain and grass are exhausted, it is still necessary to obtain rations from the outside.

Su Fangyi pondered for a long time, and suddenly said:

"I have a plan, but it's very dangerous."

"Oh, I don't know what Mr. has in mind?"

"About fifteen days ago, the scouts reported that the Jinxuedi had dug a canal north-east of the outer lake, and it was not known where it would lead, but they were now filling in the outer lake, and I thought that they must have dug a pond in a low-lying place in the distance, so as to fill in the outer lake, and at the same time divert the water from the valley to other places, so that they could march to our valley by land.

With the current progress, I am afraid that it will not take ten days to fill out a piece of land from the west side of the outer lake to connect to the west bank of the outer lake, and march into our valley. At that time, a fierce battle is inevitable, and the barbarian army outside the West Mountain will definitely make some moves. Therefore, if the Waihu barbarian army can be defeated, and at the same time, the barbarian army outside the West Mountain can be introduced into the West Mountain to annihilate it, then the West Mountain will undoubtedly be unimpeded in a short time.

Only before that, the enemy must not be allowed to reinforce the Chubygon, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

"What Mr. Su means is to hold down the 100,000 soldiers and horses of Calezer and the 400,000 people who came from the Guannai."

"Exactly, it must be delayed for at least twenty days, and it cannot be ordered to reinforce Chubigon."

"I'm afraid it's going to be very difficult. Even if our army can block all the West River, the 400,000 Jin Xuedi people from the pass are all infantry and horses, and there are many cavalry, they can completely detour to the upper reaches to cross the river. ”

"Did General Baili ever think, what do these 400,000 people eat?"

"Hiss......" Bai Liyan subconsciously thought of something, and suddenly realized: "Mr. Su is saying, let his men and horses cross the river, and intercept their grain and grass behind!" ”

"It is precisely that even if our army forcibly blocks its crossing of the West River, it can still continue to look for a ferry to cross the river from hundreds of miles, or even thousands of miles, along the river.

The rest of the barbarian army was still able to cross the river downstream without our warships. But if they let their men and horses go away and cut off their grain and grass, it will not be so easy for them to cross the river in a detour. ”

[Note 1] Because the volume ratio of the ship is restricted by the height and space of the cabin, the unit of manpower transported by the same type of ship is not the same.

If it is an ocean-going voyage and a non-trade voyage, it can maintain the greatest self-sustaining power by loading more fresh water and food and less people. In the case of inland river transshipment manpower, more people are loaded, no goods are loaded, less fresh water and food are loaded, and fresh water and food are supplied in kind by relying on the wharves with dense inland rivers.

So a ship with a maximum capacity of a hundred people, for running cargo, maybe only twenty sailors, and if it is an ocean, thirty sailors, not loading, more fresh water and food. If it is transporting people, it is full of people.

At the same time, subject to the constraints of hull structure and space height, ships of the same tonnage and ship type, due to the difference in square coefficient and volume ratio, and people are not standard cargo and flexible cargo, so a ship with a load of 100 tons, according to weight, can hold 1,000 people, but people need basic space and range of activities, so it is impossible to stuff people into the cabin like sardines.

[Note 2] Regarding the development of civilization technology, all civilizations, civilization forms in any period, whether it is stone tools, bronze and iron tools, steam power, electric civilization, network age, intelligence, all different civilization systems must have their own technical advantages, and technological shortcomings, almost no civilization has the field of technological development that goes hand in hand and does not have any shortcomings.

Just as no one is perfect, so is the development of civilization. Therefore, all civilizations must have their disadvantages, and the same is true in the military field. Especially under the agricultural civilization, the spread of information is slow, the development of technology is uneven, and the forms of different civilizations are affected by the differences in regions, climates, animal resources, and natural endowments, and their military fields must not be balanced.