The fierce battle on the river near Gong'an on the first day gave Li Sheng and the Dongwu side the following conclusion: Since the combat effectiveness of the two warring sides is about the same, the battle between the two can only be a protracted and lengthy battle, and can only be a battle of mutual competition and attrition. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

It's just ...... "Is it that easy to launch a surprise attack?" This question appeared in the minds of the generals of the two sides at the same time, but they invariably came up with a negative answer: "The key to the surprise attack is a 'strange', since it is strange, it must be unexpected by the other party." However, the opponent's combat level is there, and its cunning has already been demonstrated in yesterday's battle. In the face of such a group of opponents worthy of his admiration, is it still possible for the surprise attack to succeed? Perhaps, but that's definitely not right now. After all, a big war has just been experienced, and both sides are very wary of each other. ”

"What are we going to do now?" The battle was over, and although they were very dissatisfied with the outcome of the battle, both sides had no choice but to gather their men to study the next steps while they were exhausted. On their respective warships, almost the same problem came from the mouth of the general who organized this meeting - Lu Meng on the Jiangdong side, and Gao Heng on Li Sheng's side.

"We need to repair, we need to improve the morale of the fleet, we need to get more supplies, we need to install more ships." Jiang Qin put forward these four requirements with an expressionless face. The unfavorable situation of today's battle made him feel that while he was on fire, he further saw his own shortcomings. He understood that it was already unrealistic to quickly catch up with Li Sheng's side in terms of technology, and there was no way for him to just put forward a pertinent opinion to Lu Meng on the current situation and his own level, and determine a very important fact: that is, if the Jiangdong Army wanted to defeat Li Sheng's army, it must rely on numerical superiority.

"Only...... Numerical superiority is what it takes to ensure further victories? Gongyi, is this what you want to say? The corners of Lu Meng's mouth curled slightly, and he looked at Jiang Qin with a little playfulness.

"Yes." Jiang Qin nodded heavily.

"So we're going to expand the army? Want to expand the water army? The smile on Lu Meng's face became clear little by little.

"That's right!" Jiang Qin nodded, and further added: "Not only to expand the number of soldiers, but more importantly, to expand the number of our naval warships, and to change the structure of our naval warships. ”

"Do you have a plan?" Lu Meng asked. As soon as he asked this, Cheng Pu, Han Dang, and Huang Gai all turned their eyes to Jiang Qin's face.

"Yes!" Jiang Qin nodded affirmatively. He didn't wait for Lu Meng's further inquiries before he explained on his own: "I intend to divide the Jiangdong Navy into two parts, namely the fast fleet and the standard fleet. The fast fleet requires a high speed, a strong long-range strike force and a strong survivability, in short, the warships of the fast fleet must have a level comparable to that of Li Shengjun's warships. Because, the combat methods of the two are comparable, and both are mainly based on flank attacks. As for the standard fleet, it is the main force of our army's operations, and I think several governors have more ideas about such a fleet than me, so I won't say anything about it. There are only a few requirements, the first of which is to strengthen the armor of the battleships of the Stern class. After all, at the moment it is our main force. Secondly, we must build new warships that have similar combat capabilities to those of the Walkers, and have considerable resistance to strikes. It is foreseeable from today's battle that the battle from now on will be a duel between big ships and big ships, and a small ship like Xiang Xiang is really out of the table. ”

"You mean to eliminate all the boats, build ships with the function of boats, increase the defense of the ships, and increase the number of heavy ships! Is it? Lu Meng summed up Jiang Qin's meaning in a very concise sentence. That's a lot of money. He couldn't help but sigh.

"But it's a must. The cornerstone of Jiangdong's security is the navy, and maintaining a strong navy is something we must do. Jiang Qin replied affirmatively. He believed that Lü Meng could understand what he meant: "Although the development of Jiangdong requires an army, in the case of an unshakable enemy like Cao Cao in the north, the navy army is better than the army to ensure the existence of Jiangdong." Moreover, this battle cannot completely guarantee the uniqueness of the Jiangdong Navy on the river. It was impossible for the Jiangdong Army to attack Yizhou under any circumstances, so Li Shengjun returned to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Although I don't know why Li Shengjun didn't attach importance to the development of the navy and gave up his advantages, it is conceivable that if Li Shengjun is defeated this time, with Li Sheng's cleverness, he will definitely attach importance to the navy again. With Li Shengjun's already superb skills, coupled with Li Sheng's own attention, God knows what kind of monster Li Sheng can create. At least, Jiang Qin himself couldn't think of this.

"Well, I'll go and convince the lord." Lu Meng nodded approvingly, he was persuaded by Jiang Qin—in fact, it was not convincing, because he also had such thoughts in his heart.

The general outline of the development of the Jiangdong naval army was determined in this post-war summary. As for the matter at hand, Jiang Qin and Cheng Pu discussed it and decided to do so: on the one hand, they urged the rear to transfer all the warships that could be used, and on the other hand, they were to conduct a "piecemeal" battle with the public security.

"Sortie...... Keep attacking, keep attacking everything we can. Wear down the power of Li Shengjun's fleet through consumption, knocking them out one by one. I would like to see how much military strength Li Shengjun still has for us to consume. When Jiang Qin said this, his face was very gloomy. He knew that by doing so, more people would definitely die, but for now only this was the only way to achieve victory for the Jiangdong army. Because the warships of the Jiangdong Army are definitely more than Li Shengjun's.

"What we need is decoy, that is, to use a part of the small fleet as bait and to place a large fleet behind this decoy fleet. Use the decoy fleet to attract the attack of Li Shengjun's fleet, and then pounce on it like a wolf pack on the grassland that sees its prey. Although the initial start is different, the final behavior is the same, so such a battle can also be called a wolf pack operation. Han Dang suggested. In the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the past, he had avoided Liaodong, and since he had seen wolves hunting in the wasteland of Liaodong, he felt that they now had a large number of small warships, and they seemed to be going to use such tactics to knock out Li Shengjun's warships one by one.

"It may work, but it requires a lot of oaths. The development of the army and the construction of warships are all things that will be done later. At present, we can only base ourselves on the current situation and use our existing resources to fight against Li Shengjun. I don't have much advice on how to do it, my request is that we have to fight, and we all have to win, and at the same time we have to think about the scale of the battle. Things like a decisive battle with Li Shengjun are not something we can do right now. Lu Meng listened to everyone's opinions, but did not explicitly adopt that point, but only gave his own requirements: "I only need the result, I don't need to go through." That's what he said.

"Understood......!" Everyone stood up and answered solemnly. As a veteran general, how did they not know that this was what Lu Meng clearly told them, and they could let it go? Although this kind of letting go undoubtedly made them bear a huge responsibility while gaining power, they were not afraid to take on such a responsibility, they were very confident in themselves, and some thought that according to their own tactics, they would indeed be able to eat Li Sheng's army little by little. Although such a victory will definitely consume a lot of strength on their side, they still think it is worth it.

"Come on, let's plan our first operation together." Lu Meng looked at everyone with a smile and raised such an issue. The generals of the Jiangdong Army quickly surrounded them and had a heated discussion on this.

And at the same time that their side began to discuss, the two people on Li Shengjun's side were also discussing with each other about the next battle on their side. Unlike the generals of the Jiangdong Army, who gathered together to discuss a problem, Li Shengjun's side did not have many troops, and there were only two generals who could make a final conclusion -- Xu Ding and Gao Heng, and the two of them were drinking under the bright oil lamps and discussing the situation on their side in the future.

The conversation began with a discussion of the battle losses of today's battle.

"What are our losses today." The damaged warship entered the military port, and Gao Heng was able to be idle, and he could finally face Xu Ding's problem.

"We lost six of our twenty-five heavy ballista ships; Thirty medium ballistae battleships lost ten. It is fair to say that in today's battles, we have lost at least a quarter of our combat strength. Gao Heng gave Xu Ding such an answer very clearly, even a layman was somewhat frightened to hear.

"Such a big loss?" Xu Ding was surprised, not knowing what to say. He was silent for a long time, and then asked Gao Heng another question: "In that case, then we should destroy a lot of Jiangdong Army." ”

"It's a lot. According to the results of our statistics. In today's battle, the Jiangdong Army lost 20 ships, 150 ships and countless ships, and the total force loss was about 10,000 people, but it also lost a quarter of its combat strength. Gao Heng gave such a positive answer to Xu Ding's question.

"A quarter? The share is similar to ours, but the absolute number is also quite a lot. In any case, today's battle was a victory. Xu Ding said with a smile. This was his true word, because he knew that a large part of today's results were due to his own cooperation. Therefore, he appeared happy.

Compared with Xu Ding's happiness, Gao Heng seemed a little lonely. He told Xu Ding very lowly: "In fact, this can only be said to be an accident, an accident of the Jiangdong Army without knowing that we have so many means." The generals of the Jiangdong Army were all veterans of water warfare. After suffering from us today, they will definitely think of a way to fight with us. If we continue to fight, I am afraid that it will be difficult for us to achieve such fruitful results as we do today. ”

"That's a problem." Xu Ding nodded understandingly. Although he didn't know much about water warfare, he also knew that he should pay attention to any kind of enemy. Therefore, he agreed with Gao Heng's words. He asked Gao Heng: "Do you have any countermeasures to this problem?" ”

"After experiencing today's World War I, the Jiangdong Army will definitely understand this point -- our Li Shengjun is not easy to mess with. Although we don't have as many ships as theirs, we can do the same damage, and it must be much more terrifying. In the face of such terrible strength, what will they do? Do you want to fight with us? They certainly won't take such a decision any further. Unlike most of the generals on our side who are from regular backgrounds, many of the generals on the Jiangdong Navy side were born from river pirates. Therefore, they inevitably possessed a trace of the habit of bullying the weak and fearing the hard. They will no longer seek a large-scale decisive battle with us, but will find a way to lure our fleet into attack by attacking places that we cannot protect, and then annihilate our fleet in one fell swoop by pressing in a large army. I think that after today, the Jiangdong Army will not focus on seeking big victories, but will continue to rely on small victories to boost its morale. Gao Heng did not immediately answer Xu Ding's words, but slowly said his judgment about the Jiangdong Army. He said it clearly, and Xu Ding also heard it very clearly, and there was no shock between the two. If there was a person from the Jiangdong Army between the two of them, then he would definitely be surprised. Because what Gao Heng said to Xu Ding was completely the general strategy set by the Jiangdong Army. Jiang Dongjun really wanted to do that.

"So what should we do about this set of Jiangdong Army?" Xu Ding asked without changing his face.

"From a purely military point of view, I don't want to pay attention to their small fleets. Because there are not many places that these fleets can attack, and there are not many things they can do, but from the side of the lord's benefit, I can't ignore them. After all, we can't afford to be completely indifferent to the enemy looting our own territory. Therefore, my idea is......" Gao Heng glanced at Xu Ding and said very seriously: "-for-tat." ”

"Oh? How to-for-tat? Xu Ding raised his eyebrows and asked carefully.

"I want to do it. Send some of our medium ballista battleships east of Ullin. Gao Heng said with a smile.

"How do you count it?" Xu Ding asked again.

"Didn't the Jiangdong Army try to lure us into the bait? Well, we'll take the bait - send all the ships out at once and play them as if they're fighting, and then defeat. The fleet was divided into two directions to break through, one group returned, and one group went to the east of Gong'an to attack and harass the Jiangdong Army. I think that the Jiangdong Army's expedition to this place must have a great need for logistical supplies. We medium ships could attack their supply fleets! Gao Heng smiled and said his plan.

"It seems a bit risky, is it necessary?" Xu Ding didn't understand all kinds of water warfare, he only asked questions about his own problems, "We just need to guard the public security and defend Jiangling." We don't have to think about other things so much, is it necessary for us to take this risk to keep entanglement with the enemy? As long as it is supported, the enemy will retreat in a few days. ”

"That's the most optimistic idea." Gao Heng shook his head a little stubbornly: "It would be great if it could really be like this, but what if something happens?" I believe in the strength of General Ganling, but I am not afraid of 10,000. Jianye is so far away from us, and we don't know what the situation is, so I think it's always good to put the hope of things completely on them, and it is better for us to work harder here ourselves, and weaken Jiangdong's strength more. ”

"That's too." Xu Ding thought about it and found that there was really nothing to refute, so he also nodded in agreement with Gao Heng's statement. He asked Gao Heng, "Then do you need my help with anything?" ”

"Yes, let me think!" Gao Heng pondered for a while and then gave an answer, "I need food, grass, weapons, ships, and manpower...... Lots of manpower. I estimate that the operation on the part of the Koto Army will begin in a few days, and I happen to make some improvements to my warship. ”

"Improving the battleship?" Xu Ding was surprised: "Is this needed?" ”

"Of course I do." Gao Heng rolled his eyes and replied as a matter of course: "It's different from the warships we have here to defend our strongholds. In addition to the high speed, the battleship that goes to the river pirates also needs to improve its firepower, endurance, and ability to continue the war. My suggestion is to cut out the catapults on the deck that don't shoot well and convert them into bed crossbows. Since the bed crossbow is lighter than the catapult, it can carry less ammunition than the catapult's ammunition. Therefore, in addition to being able to carry more ammunition and fight longer, the fully renovated battleship can also carry more grain and grass, so that the soldiers can fight longer on the river. ”

"In that case, then you can do it. I have handed over all 10,000 of my soldiers to you, hoping to complete the conversion of the battleship as soon as possible. Xu Ding was very good at what he said, especially when the other party said such a big thing that was completely approved by him.

"Don't worry. General Xu, I won't let you down. Gao Heng was full of confidence and bowed his hand respectfully to Xu Ding: "I will handle the matter of the water war." Once the war begins, I ask the general to give me full authority in the water war. ”

"That's fine. It is only natural that you are in charge of water warfare and I am in charge of land warfare. I don't know much about water warfare, so naturally I won't give blind command of what you say. Just do it, just like you do today. Xu Ding said with a smile, letting Gao Heng settle down.

"Whew...... Then I'll be able to do a big job. Gao Heng laughed, his eyes full of excitement. He is also ambitious, and he longs for his reputation to surpass that of Zheng Ping and Gan Ning, the generals in Li Sheng's army. He expects that when people in the future think of the generals under the lord Li Sheng, they will first think of his Gao Heng's name.

"This is really a lot of work to do!" Gao Heng felt so, but he was still very confident that he could achieve it.

The post-war "meeting" that had taken place at about the same time was over. For the next three days, the two sides stood up and secretly licked their wounds to prepare for the next battle. For a while, the whole front seemed calm, and everyone was accumulating their strength.

On the fifth day, the news finally came from the south, and the Jiangdong Army sent troops to attack Puqi, which was subordinate to Changsha County, and plundered the population of Puqi City. This time they used nearly half of the entire fleet to do so. Puqi County Commander Yan and Puqi County Lieutenant Luocheng were killed in battle, and the 700 garrisons in the city were wiped out. The Jiangdong army's movements were very fast, and when the people on the other side of Changsha saw the beacon fire burning in Puqi and sent people to rush there, they saw nothing but the empty Puqi city -- the Jiangdong army had already transported tens of thousands of people in the huge Puqi city in a few hours. And the information that Pang Tong got from Jiangling said that these people had been transported to Jiangxia, and then transported from Jiangxia to Jiangdong.

"What is this? This hand of the Jiangdong Army is simply more smooth than selling livestock. It's just that this person is not a livestock, and Jiangdong Army is a beast when he does this. Seeing this information, Pang Tong tried to tell himself not to get angry, not to get angry, but he still sat in his position panting and having a heavy temper. Because of Jiang Dongjun's behavior, he felt very annoyed. If it weren't for the overall situation to take into account, I was afraid that he would really give a death order to Gao Heng and Zheng Ping to wipe out the Jiangdong Army's people. Although it is very difficult to do so, it is difficult for people to take care of them when the time comes.

"What should I do?" Pang Tong pondered this question. Although the lord Li Sheng had already predicted, he also thought that the lord's prediction was correct, saying that it was impossible for the Jiangdong army to fight themselves, at least Changsha was safe, but Pang Tong had to admit that he was a little naïve: "It is impossible to fight yourself?" Maybe Sun Quan himself will take care of this, but the current Lu Meng will not be like this at all. This guy who 'bids farewell for three days, should be impressed' thinks of himself as Zhou Yu, and he is bent on fighting, and he doesn't care about the overall situation at all. ”

"What a headache." Pang Tong patted his head and got up in pain: "Do you want to suffer this loss?" Pang Tong asked himself, but shook his head heavily: This thing is unspeakable. This kind of loss is still bearable for yourself. But in the eyes of the lord Li Sheng, it is completely untrue. Pang Tong knew that his lord attached great importance to the problem of population, and the Jiangdong Army's behavior of plundering the population like this had already violated his bottom line. Judging from Pang Tong's understanding of Li Sheng, he reported this matter to Li Sheng, but he was afraid that Li Sheng was going to roar loudly, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".

Since the report was also to plan a counterattack, Pang Tong decided to use his authority to make things less troublesome - he planned to give Jiangdong a ruthless way to let the people in Jiangdong know that his side was not so easy to provoke, and he could also ruthlessly curb the arrogance of the people on the Jiangdong side.

"This kind of thing must not be allowed, and it will go on and on. We must teach Koto a lesson. Thinking like this, Pang Tong casually flipped through the plan in his hand, found Gao Heng and Xu Ding in Jiangling and sent a plan, and quickly made the following instructions in Shantou: "Allow the plan, but suggest that the First Fleet cooperate with the Second Fleet to take down Wuchang on the Jiangdong side and move it to me." In this way, I told Jiang Dongjun that if he robbed us of a small county, we would rob him of a large limit, so that he could see who was stronger between us. ”

The order was quickly conveyed and sent to Gangneung by spies overnight. It stands to reason that Pang Tong should be relieved of this, after all, everything he should have done has been done, and there is nothing to say, so regretful, but Pang Tong is still not at ease about this, he is a little worried: after pulling out some of the warships of the First Fleet, the strength of the First Fleet should have been weakened a lot. In this way, if the enemy suddenly swung his troops north to attack Jingling, would only such a third of the First Fleet's ability to protect Jingling from being lost? It's really hard to be reassuring.

"But there's no way. Our fleet is still too weak. Pang Tong muttered like this, but there was nothing he could do. He could only wait on the side, hoping that Lu Meng would not change his mind so quickly. In fact, he felt as if he was making a gamble.

Due to the change of plans, the retaliatory operation of the Gangneung side finally began on the third day of the Gangdong side's capture of Puqi Fortress. Gao Heng and Xu Ding, who had received orders from Xiangyang, sent troops from both land and water at the same time, and quickly rushed towards Wulin -- where the Jiangdong Army's frontline position was located, and because the fleet sent by the Jiangdong Army to attack and carry out a surprise attack had not yet returned, only half of the original Jiangdong Fleet was stationed in Wulin Water Village. From an outsider's point of view, this is exactly what Li Shengjun is aiming for.

Ulin is not Koto's territory. It was a county seat forcibly occupied by the Jiangdong Army. Such an identity matter determines one point, it is impossible for the Jiangdong Army to directly get the same enjoyment as the Gao Heng fleet in Wulin. Their damaged ships had to be repaired by their own hands. Although the Jiangdong Army had a large number of troops on the expedition here, because Lü Meng was anxious to carry out further operations, the Jiangdong Army only concentrated some manpower to repair and renovate some ships suitable for surprise attacks. As for more warships, especially those that were taken as the main force by the Jiangdong Army but were seriously injured, they did not have time to repair them because of one thing or another. When he heard that Li Sheng's navy was attacking, Lü Meng, who had nothing to do about it, had to urgently order those warships that had not had time to repair it to meet Li Sheng's navy. As for the army in Ulin City, Lu Meng also received the ship, which is also a normal thing, and the strength of the Jiangdong Army here is based on the navy. As long as their navy remains, Ulin still seems to them to be a place that can be captured anytime and anywhere.

The Jiangdong naval army completely abandoned the defense of the city on land, and they lined up a thick diamond-shaped formation at the entrance of Yunmengze to the south, so as to face Li Shengjun's attack: they lined up the building ships, although they were a little damaged, but they could still provide shelter for the large army, and mixed the ships as the second echelon in the building ships, and arranged the walking boats in the deepest part of the entire formation. It was the same at any time before, and the Jiangdong Army was still facing Li Shengjun with the bow of the ship.

Towards noon, the temperature slowly deepened, and the Jiangdong Army finally found Li Shengjun's fleet, which was obviously only a third of their size, in front. This is an all-large fleet of ships, at least in the eyes of the Koto Army. Not to mention those heavy ballista battleships that were larger than the Jiangdong Army's ships, let's just say that those warships that were slightly larger than the Jiangdong Army's ships were also big ships in the eyes of the Jiangdong Army -- in the eyes of the Jiangdong Army's people, all ships larger than the ships were considered big ships.

When the two sides were about five miles apart, Li Shengjun's sailors changed their formation under the command of Gao Heng. They turned into two teams of snakes and outflanked the Jiangdong Army from the north and south, thinking that they wanted to give full play to their strong advantage in firepower to deal with the Jiangdong Army. This is also Li Shengjun's consistent method. The Great War is on the verge of breaking out.