Ivory Lake is located in the southwest of Hongzhou Mansion City 80 miles, it was originally a tributary of the Ganjiang River, because the river channel bends, the shape is similar to ivory, so it gets its name. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The Ivory Pond River is not too deep, and the current is slow, and some places can even be crossed by wading; The banks are lush forests, but in the middle of the summer heat, they bring a cool place.

The camp was set up in the woods by the river to escape the scorching sun.

On 17 August, Zhou Ben led 10,000 elite soldiers, day and night, and finally arrived on the north bank of Ivory Pond and confronted the 60,000 Fuzhou coalition troops across the stream.

Such a fast marching speed shocked Wei Quanyan and others who learned the news, and the completely unsuspecting coalition army was in chaos for a while, and everyone didn't understand why the Huainan Army could suddenly appear here.

Fortunately, although the Huainan army came suddenly, according to the information received, the enemy army on the opposite side had only 10,000 troops, while the coalition army had 60,000 troops.

Only then did the panicked coalition soldiers regain their composure and begin to think about how to deal with the arrival of the Huainan Army.

Although Wei Quanyan is not good at leading troops to fight, since he has always had ambitions for Jiangxi, he will naturally send more people to find out the news of Huainan; So soon after Zhou Ben's army arrived, Wei Quanyan knew that the Huainan army on the opposite side was the Zhenguo army led by Zhou Ben.

"Isn't the Zhenguo Army in Guangling? Why did you come to Hongzhou so quickly? Could it be that before our army sent troops, they set out from Guangling? A general asked with a puzzled face.

"Could it be that Liu Wei is suspicious and uses those poorly trained state soldiers to disguise themselves as Zhenguo soldiers to scare us?"

The generals talked about it for a while, and many people didn't believe that the other side was the Zhenguo army that was still stationed in Guangling more than ten days ago, and even wondered if Liu Wei was preparing to show strength with weakness again.

These people all know that the elite army of the Huainan Army and the combat effectiveness of those ordinary state soldiers are two different concepts, if it is an ordinary state soldier, its combat power is at most equivalent to the coalition army; But if it is the elite of the Zhenguo Army, it will be extraordinary.

Wei Quanxian felt that it was very likely that the opposite side was the Zhenguo army, because the astonishing momentum of the enemy army on the opposite side before was obviously not comparable to ordinary state soldiers.

"The old man asked Er to send troops to attack Hongzhou as soon as possible, but he shirked it for various reasons, and now the Huainan army has reached the other side, cutting off our army's road to Hongzhou, and their reinforcements are only afraid that they will continue to rush to Hongzhou. At such a time, will you still be procrastinating? ”

In the coalition camp, Wei Quan's face was extremely gloomy, although the four-state coalition army had many troops, but the one that could really be controlled by him was the army of Fuzhou, and the Xinzhou army led by his younger brother Wei Zaichang may not be able to fully control it, and the armies of other Jizhou and Yuanzhou states could not be commanded.

It was precisely because of so many problems within the coalition army that the army was reluctant to move forward after it arrived at Ivory Pond, and the generals of all the departments excused themselves on the grounds that the weather was too hot to engage the enemy.

After listening to Wei Quan's sarcastic accusation, the generals were silent, but they thought in their hearts: "If you didn't have to stop at Ivory Pond and send someone to find out the news of Hongzhou first, I'm afraid that our army would have already captured Hongzhou at this time, so why would you take refuge here for the summer?" ”

Of course, although there are some complaints in my heart, no one dares to say it, and Wei Quanyan is angry at this time, if he collides at such a time, no one knows what the consequences will be.

"Big brother, don't mention the past, now let's talk about how to fight! The Huainan army has already confronted our army across the stream, and we still have to defeat them as soon as possible to take Hongzhou! Wei Zichang said with a somewhat unnatural face.

He was also one of the people who shirked the military order at the beginning, so he naturally felt a little embarrassed at this time.

"Yes, it's better to take advantage of the Huainan Army to come from afar and defeat it when it has not yet gained a stable foothold!" The generals also said.

Wei Quanxian also knew that now was not the time to be held accountable, and he had stopped at Ivory Pond before, so that he missed the opportunity, and his responsibility was not small.

"We have a lot of soldiers, but there are few enemy soldiers, and now our army still has the upper hand! However, although the main force of the Huainan Army was transferred to the Northern Expedition by Yang Wu, there were still many state soldiers in various states. Now that the enemy army has mobilized 10,000 troops, there will definitely be more enemy troops arriving in the future. Therefore, our army is in a quick battle, and the enemy's army is in holding on......"

In his opinion, the total strength of the enemy army is above himself, but the enemy army in Ivory Pond is not as good as himself, and the enemy army is from afar, so from any point of view, the coalition army should quickly fight with the enemy, take advantage of the current advantage to defeat the enemy army in front of him, and then occupy Hongzhou.

As long as Hongzhou is occupied before the arrival of enemy reinforcements, and when the time comes, he will be able to hold Hongzhou and plot the whole of Jiangxi.

"Solve it quickly, this is the old man's decision, what do you think?"

"The younger brother thinks that the eldest brother's method is very good, we have a lot of soldiers and few enemy soldiers, so we should fight quickly!" Wei Zichang said loudly.

"The last general seconded it!" The generals have come forward to support.

"Good! Then the generals will go back and prepare, and tomorrow they will be ready to attack, and the morning after tomorrow, all the troops will immediately cross the river and attack the enemy. Wei Quansar nodded.

According to his plan, 60,000 troops were to cross the river from three points, of which 15,000 troops were to be placed at the two crossing points upstream and downstream, ready to cross the river first and then outflank the enemy's rear from both flanks; The Chinese army, which he himself commanded, numbered 30,000 men, and was ready to force a river crossing from the front in order to contain the enemy's main force.

……

When Wei Quanyan set a quick strategy, opposite the Ivory Pond, Zhou Ben also set a quick strategy.

For Wei Quanyan, what he saw was the tiredness of the Huainan army coming from afar, and the possibility that Huainan's follow-up reinforcements might gather more and more, so he made the decision to fight quickly.

For Zhou Ben, although it is a good choice to confront the enemy army across the ivory pool and wait for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements, but in that case, the Huainan army will lose the initiative.

The Chu army on Gao'an's side was attacking fiercely, and I don't know how long it can hold out; If Gao'an is lost, the Chu army will go straight to the city of Hongzhou, or turn east to cut off Zhou Ben's retreat, and then Zhou Ben can only withdraw to Hongzhou, and this time Yang Wu will arrange such a big battle in vain.

Only by taking the initiative to attack can the stalemate be broken, and the danger can be quickly defeated, and at the same time force the Chu army to withdraw.

What's more, as soon as Zhou Ben arrived at Ivory Pond, he discovered an Achilles heel of the allied forces, as long as he resolutely took the initiative to attack, it was not difficult to defeat the enemy army.

The weakness of the coalition army discovered by Zhou Ben is that the coalition camp stretches for more than ten miles, and the battle line is very wide, but it lacks enough depth, as long as the Huainan army breaks through the enemy's defense line from the middle, it can quickly sweep to both flanks.

Therefore, the Huainan Army chose to concentrate the main forces in one place, and did not deploy troops along with the battle line of the coalition army. For Zhou Ben, since he decided to attack, he had to break through the front of the coalition from the middle with the sharpest attack in one fell swoop.

"Ben will tell you the truth, the enemy army has a large number of troops, which is six times that of our army, but although the coalition forces have a large number of troops, the troops from the four states have their own ideas, their military orders are not in order, their government orders are not clear, and their morale is low, and they are by no means the opponent of our army!"

"On the other hand, although our army has few troops, it is united, and our soldiers are well-trained and have high morale, far above the enemy."

"In addition, there is also a big problem with the enemy's formation, the battle line is too long, it is difficult to echo each other, and there is a lack of depth, as long as our army breaks through one point of theirs, this battle will be won!"

In the camp of the Huainan Army, Zhou Ben said loudly to his generals.

"Victory!" The generals all had perseverance and confidence on their faces, and they did not worry about being outnumbered.

Unlike the allied forces, Yang Wu on the side of the Huainan Army had already given an order that Zhou Ben was solely responsible for the command of this big battle, and no one else was allowed to intervene, so at this time, Zhou Ben did not need to consult with anyone to announce his general order.

"Wang Yu, order your troops to cross the river early tomorrow morning and launch an attack on the enemy army to test the enemy's reality! Remember, after your troops cross the river and engage the enemy, you must retreat within half an hour, and do not fall in love! ”

"The last general obeys!" Wang Yu replied in a deep voice.

He is the younger brother of the general Wang Juan, but he is still young, he graduated from the military academy with Li Chengding, and now he has accumulated merit as the head of the capital, leading thousands of soldiers.

Although he was asked to lead a thousand men across the river to attack the 60,000 enemy troops, he did not have any worry or fear on his face, but regarded this as an opportunity to make a difference.

Zhou Ben nodded, and then turned to Mi Zhicheng, the commander of the capital, and said: "General Mi, I ordered you to lead 3,000 people as the forward, and wait for the generals of this general tomorrow, ready to cross the river and attack at any time!" ”

"The last general obeys!"

"Li Decheng, you lead 3,000 people to follow Mi Zhicheng, if the attack of our army's vanguard does not go well, you must be ready to follow at any time, and you must ensure that you break through the enemy's defense line!"

"The last general obeys!"

……

Zhou Ben kept giving orders, and finally, he said loudly to the generals: "Tomorrow's battle, there is no advance or retreat, retreat from the latter, and there is no forgiveness for killing!" ”