On April 15 of the 22nd year of Jian'an, Sun Quan, who received a holy decree from Cao Cao using the Han Emperor, officially declared war on his brother-in-law Li Sheng after some discussion. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info "Respect the emperor's order, please not be a minister." This is the slogan of their propaganda for this war. In fact, they themselves know that the slogan is just a slogan, and they are just using this pretext to seek to seize Jingzhou. This point is evident in another slogan after this high-sounding slogan: "According to the Yangtze River, protect the land" -- this is the real reason why Sun Quan wanted to attack Li Sheng.

Jiangdong is a country built on a naval army, so he pays great attention to the safety of the Yangtze River basin, although the current Yangtze River is occupied by his "ally" Li Sheng, and it seems unlikely that there will be anything unfriendly to him, but what is in the hands of others will never be better than what is in his own hands, so the Yangtze River must be completely in his own hands.

Based on this reason, Sun Quan decided to attack Li Sheng. In order to ensure the security of his country, he can't even take care of his sister. Suddenly ruthless, he ordered Lü Meng to be the governor of the capital, Cheng Pu to be the deputy governor, Jiang Qin to be the governor of the navy, and Zhou Tai, Han Dang, Huang Gai, Zhu Zhi and other famous Jiangdong generals commanded more than 40,000 soldiers and horses from Jiangxia to Hanjin. For a time, nearly 1,000 warships filled the river, waving flags and waving their flags, and the momentum was like a rainbow.

The Jiangdong Army made such a big noise in one breath, how could it still keep the declaration of war secret? Soon after the envoys of Jiangdong handed over the ultimatum of the declaration of war to Pang Tong, the governor of Jingzhou, Li Shengjun's white clothes brought the news that Hanjin had fallen due to a sneak attack by the Jiangdong army - Hanjin was a small city, because Liu Bei's remnants had just surrendered to Li Shengbian, and Hanjin was not a place of plaster and a critical place, so there were not many defenders in Hanjin, only 1,500 people. This is not a team that can fight, and the request given to them by Pang Tong is only to monitor the situation in Jiangdong nearby. Therefore, after Hanjin was attacked by the army of Jiangdong, Hanjin fell.

"Is this the declaration of war by you Jiangdong people? You're not slow to come here, are you? But after I received your declaration of war, I received the news of the fall of Hanjin, and it is conceivable that you did not declare war long before you submitted this document. The people of Jiangdong are really trustworthy. After receiving the news of the capture of Hanjin, Pang Tong, who was still smiling in the face of the ultimatum, suddenly turned a cold face and looked at the messenger with disdain.

"This ......" The envoy did not dare to answer, because Pang Tong's contempt and the strong pressure condensed by the unfriendly gazes of all the Li Shengjun generals in the entire Xiangyang Taishou Mansion Hall had left him speechless. Although "soldiers, treacherous ways are ......", even if he fights without declaring victory in order to achieve victory, it is not a big deal, but as a messenger, he is a little embarrassed in the face of the other party's pointing. The general can be unreasonable, but the envoy sometimes can't be unreasonable in order to save the country's face. This makes me a little embarrassed when I am unreasonable in the country I serve. Without any words, silence was undoubtedly the only thing he, as a messenger, could do right now. So, he closed his mouth and let that Pang Tong curse Jiangdong's injustice with his wonderful words.

After a long time, Pang Tong's cursing finally stopped, and the messenger said with a bitter face: "Actually, my lord does not want to have a conflict with Shu Hou, but the order of the Son of Heaven has to be obeyed, and the Xiangyang occupied by Shu Hou also makes my lord feel the pressure. This is also a matter of no choice, and I ask for the Governor's forgiveness. ”

"Hmph......" Pang Tong snorted softly, and retorted with a hesitant face: "Since Wu Hou is willing to obey the orders of the Han thief, I have nothing to say." I only hope that the envoy will convey this sentence to the lord of the order. ”

"What?" The messenger asked curiously.

"Since the war was started by you, it is not up to you to decide when it will end in the end." Pang Tong said calmly, and the threat was already clearly expressed in his words.

"We understand. The war starts now......" The envoy nodded, and after replying to Pang Tong's words, he quickly left Xiangyang under the escort of two Jingzhou soldiers. As an emissary, it is generally impossible for him to be killed, but only if he does not linger too long in the enemy's vital places. If he stays too long, he will not be seen as a messenger, but as a spy. As for spies, no single force will guarantee their safety.

The envoys of Jiangdong were taken away, but the generals and staff under the account of Pang Tong, the governor of Jingzhou, did not leave because of this. Just as the Jiangdong envoy said at the end: "The war starts now......" Since it has begun, then Pang Tong and his men have to make some countermeasures because of this. Although they have long thought of a lot because of this.

"What the Lord warned has finally become true today. Hehe, the people of Jiangdong are not very ambitious. Pang Tong said with a smile, he seemed to have some disdain in his seemingly self-talking words, but he used this to put a chip called self-confidence on the generals and staff under him: what are you worried about? All these things that are happening now are in the master's hands.

"Ha......" As soon as Pang Tong said this, everyone in the hall immediately burst out laughing. They all know very well about Li Sheng's worries about Jiangdong. As early as the beginning of this war, they were reminded more than once by their own governor Pang Tong, saying that they should be careful of the betrayal of the Jiangdong side. At first, I didn't believe much of this, but now it's all proven to be true. "The lord is really wise." Most of them thought so.

After laughing for a while, Pang Tong immediately raised the biggest question facing the current side: how to fight the next battle on his side when Sun Quan of Jiangdong joined the war.

At present, Jingzhou, the entire Li Sheng's forces were already facing such a two-front situation: in the north they had to resist strong pressure from Cao Cao's side, and in the east they had to resist the threat of Jiangdong's naval army. Unlike Cao Cao's land battle, which seemed to be able to exchange space for time and achieve victory, Li Sheng's naval division must be able to win a battle against the Jiangdong naval army, it cannot be defeated for a while, nor can it be constantly weakened in strength, otherwise once the Jiangdong naval army annihilates Li Sheng's naval army, then not only Xiangyang will be dangerous, but even the entire Jingzhou and Jiaozhou, which has the greatest influence on Li Sheng, will fall into the hands of Jiangdong, and Li Sheng is very likely to change from a force that can compete with Cao Cao to a force that can only be closed in a corner of peace. Such a result is unacceptable to Li Sheng.

Jingzhou is a very important place: for Cao Cao, who aspires to unify the rivers and mountains, leaving a unified foundation for his son, Jingzhou is undoubtedly a springboard for him to march into the south; For Sun Quan, who wanted to possess Jiangdong and further peek into the world, Jingzhou was a guarantee for him to be safely divided; As for Li Sheng, the significance of Jingzhou to Li Sheng lies in the fact that Jingzhou is the most densely populated and prosperous area of Li Sheng, compared with Shu Di, which is still under construction, Jingzhou, which has already formed a certain scale in the south, is where Li Sheng's economic interests lie, and a large number of materials, grain and grass that Li Sheng needs are supplied here. Of course, the direction he supplied was not Shuzhong, but Jiaozhou in the south.

Unlike Longzhong, who used two legs to enter the Central Plains in another time and space, what Li Sheng was looking forward to was a more detailed approach to the Central Plains with four legs. In Li Sheng's plan: Jingzhou, Hanzhong, Jiaozhou, and Liangzhou are all places where Li Sheng can send troops. At present, except for Liangzhou, which is still to be planned, the other three places have fallen into the hands of Li Sheng, and Jingzhou has become the waist of Li Sheng's forces because of his geographical location. If Li Sheng wants to stand up, he must ensure the safety of his waist, otherwise Li Sheng can only be a short man.

This is what Li Sheng did not want to see, he knew the importance of Jingzhou for a long time, and also understood that Jingzhou would one day become the target of Cao Cao and Sun Quan. Therefore, Li Sheng let his most trusted military advisor Pang Tong sit in Jingzhou, and after the expedition to Yizhou, he did not transfer all the soldiers and horses in Jingzhou to Yizhou. On the contrary, after his own power had developed to a certain extent, he also gave Pang Tong an order to expand the army: Jingzhou, like Yizhou, needed to have a regular army of 100,000 people.

Now the army of Jingzhou has completed the expansion. At present, Jingzhou already has 40,000 naval troops, 50,000 army troops, and 10,000 cavalry, becoming a powerful force. Of course, this was all done before Cao Cao and Sun Quan declared war on Li Sheng, but Pang Tong upheld Li Sheng's orders and hid these people, because Li Sheng's rule in Jingnan was already deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and there were white clothes and Haoyue as counter-espionage means, so the news of Pang Tong's army expansion, Cao Cao and Sun Quan did not know, they only understood: Jingzhou's strength is 50,000 regular troops and about 100,000 garrison troops, of which the 50,000 regular army is divided into 20,000 naval troops and 30,000 army forces. Everything was similar to the Battle of Chibi, and Li Sheng seemed to have only expanded his army in Yizhou, and did not take any action against Jingzhou.

"This may also be a little worried that Pang Tong's power is too strong." When they got the news, they couldn't help but make such speculations, and it was only natural that no monarch would raise the level of local power to the level of their own direct jurisdiction.

"In that case, can we persuade Pang Tong to win over?" Jiang Dong and Cao Cao both had such thoughts, but then they gave up, because they both thought of the arrogance of Pang Tong: "Without experiencing a certain blow, Pang Tong may not be easy to be convinced." They came to this conclusion: "The war must be fought first." ”

So, they didn't convince Pang Tong, and Pang Tong didn't know that they had tried to win him over. That's how it got to the point.

At present, the layout of the Jingzhou army is: Xiangyang, Pang Tong personally sat here and concentrated 70,000 soldiers and horses, including 30,000 regular troops and 40,000 garrison soldiers, and at the same time stationed 20,000 sailors in the embankment port in the north of Xiangyang City; Jiangling, garrisoned by Xu Ding, has 30,000 soldiers, including 10,000 regular troops and 20,000 garrisons; Changsha was garrisoned by Pengling, with 30,000 troops, including 10,000 regular troops and 20,000 garrisons, and the remaining soldiers and horses were commanded by Zhang Ren in Hankou, with 30,000 regular troops and 20,000 sailors, as the first line of defense against Jiangdong.

It can be said that before Jiangdong declared war, Pang Tong had completely arranged the overall situation of the entire Jingzhou operation and was ready to fight on both sides. Of course, this is only in the dark, as far as Cao Cao and Sun Quan are concerned: Pang Tong concentrated his 50,000 troops and 20,000 naval troops with a total of 70,000 people in Xiangyang, and although there are still some soldiers and horses outside Xiangyang, they are just a vulnerable army like the Hanjin garrison, which seems to be a very large and delicious piece of fat.

"Cao Cao and Sun Quan both thought that this time they would pick a big bargain. I just don't know what they think is a cheap thing when it turns into a tricky thing. Pang Tong said with a smile, he looked at the generals in his hall: "I have prepared a big battle for these guys who don't know whether to live or die, I hope it will satisfy them." ”

"Hehe......" Hearing Pang Tong say this, everyone in the hall couldn't help laughing. As for Pang Tong's general arrangements for this war, they had already come into contact with some of them, and they all had a certain understanding. They all thought it was going to be a big strategy. At this moment, when they heard Pang Tong say this, they all realized the beginning of the whole battle situation, and they couldn't help but focus after laughing for a while, looking at Pang Tong with blank eyes, waiting for their own orders.

"The envoy from Jiangdong was right, it was Cao Cao who asked them to join the war. Although this was obviously just a cover, it was a fact that Cao Cao wanted Jiangdong to join the war. So why did Cao Cao want Jiangdong to join the war? Undoubtedly, it is because of our water army. We moved all the warships of Fancheng south, so that Cao Cao could not cross the Han River. Of course, they can also mobilize ships from other places, but as long as our naval army exists, Cao Cao will not dare to cross the river wantonly. Because they were afraid that our army would attack them when they sent troops to cross the river, they planned to transfer the Jiangdong naval army and use the Jiangdong naval army to contain our naval army and create conditions for them to cross the river. This is Cao Cao's good plan. If we don't do what we do, won't we be so sorry for him? Pang Tong said with a smile on top of the lobby: "So, I order...... General Zheng Ping, you will lead the first section of the naval army to rescue Hankou with great fanfare. Remember, only a part of the people are fine. Pang Tong said in a lazy, casual tone.

"Part of the people? Don't...... What does the military advisor mean? Zheng Ping couldn't help but be a little stunned when he heard Pang Tong's words, he seemed to realize something, but he didn't completely figure it out, and there was a bit of doubt in his words.

"I mean to let you divide the fleet into two parts, one to be garrisoned in Yicheng, and the other to Jingling." Pang Tong smiled and said to Zheng Ping: "I plan to let the Second Fleet fail, give up control of Yunmeng Shuize, and stick to Jiangling to give hope to the Jiangdong Army." In this way, although the Second Fleet was defeated, it could still rely on the city defense of Gangneung to defend the Jiangdong Army. After the Jiangdong Army realized that Jiangling could not be captured, it was very likely that it would lead the army to Jingling and attempt to approach Xiangyang. Jingling is the place where we fought with the Jiangdong naval army. Your mission at Jingling was to defend and delay until the Second Fleet arrived from the rear to complete the front and rear attacks on the Jiangdong Navy. As for the other part of Yicheng, it was prepared for Cao Cao. We all know that Cao Cao's side let Jiangdong fight in order to divert our army. Now Jiangdong has sent troops, and you have indeed gone south to rescue. In order to be able to get Xiangyang smoothly, Cao Ren's crossing of the river will definitely start soon after you leave. What I mean is to first put a part of Cao's army under Jingzhou City, use Jingzhou City to resist Cao Ren's attack for a while, and then the Yicheng fleet will sweep Cao's rear and completely annihilate Cao Ren's army under Xiangyang. ”

"Drink...... That's a lot of money. When everyone heard that Pang Tong's plan was to eat Cao Cao's 100,000 soldiers and horses in one go, they couldn't help but gasp, but their admiration for Pang Tong was a little heavier. It is not uncommon for the past and present to destroy how many thousands of the opponent's troops are in one go, but most of them are the results of the defeat of the enemy after the battle, and there are not many people who say from the beginning that they want to eat the other side. It seemed to them that those who said that they were going to eat how many people they were going to eat in the first place were either arrogant fools or really capable guys - it was clear that Pang Tong was the latter, not the former, so they were shocked and full of anticipation for Pang Tong's plan.

"Military Division, if our army gives up the entrance to Hongze, what if the Jiangdong Army does not go to Jiangling after entering Hongze Lake, but goes from Hongze to Changsha? It must be known that Changsha is also the fundamental place of our army. Its importance is not below Gangneung and Yangyang. "Suddenly someone asked such a question.

"Huh...... Changsha? I didn't mobilize a single soldier in Changsha this time. With General Zhang Ren there, what am I worried about? Pang Tong said with a smile. He believed in Zhang Ren's ability very much, because he knew that it was the person that the lord looked at, and as far as he knew, the guys who could be favored by the lord seemed to be very capable.

"That'...... ...... on our side? Seeing that Pang Tong only arranged the transfer of the navy and did not mention the matter of the army at all, those generals were a little puzzled, they looked at Pang Tong and asked with a little hesitation.

"Wait...... When Cao Ren's army comes, you need to work hard. Pang Tong narrowed his eyes with a smile.

"That's ......" Everyone nodded, in fact, they also knew that they were different from Zheng Ping's army.

After the matter was arranged, Zheng Ping's army immediately attacked from the water village. At the request of Pang Tong, he set sail in the dark at night, and placed the flag of the navy on the wall, and then left quietly. It was a challenging task for him. Although he finally completed it perfectly, he was still a little worried when he remembered what had happened. He didn't understand why Pang Tong was doing this, but he didn't ask much, he knew that since the military advisor would give such an order, then he must have a reason to do so. Anyway, the conspiracy is all aimed at the enemy, and it really has nothing to do with him. You just need to do what you are responsible for.

The water journey from Xiangyang to Jingling is not long, and the gentle river allows boats to get there in a day, which is only a normal speed. However, it took Zheng Ping two days to arrive in Jingling from Xiangyang, because he had to stop in Yiyang. He sailed at half-sail speed, trying to maintain the battle formation, and seemed ready to fight at any moment. Of course, this is only a superficial thing. In fact, Zheng Ping did this in order to control the speed of the ship, he planned to arrive in Yiyang when it was dark, and then use the night to divide his troops in Yiyang, and leave part of the fleet in Yiyang according to Pang Tong's orders.

At the moment, Jingzhou has started a war with Jiangdong. Although Zheng Ping and Pang Tong both had absolute confidence in the security situation in their own territory, that confidence was only for Jiangling and Jingnan, and both Pang Tong and Zheng Ping were a little wary of Xiangyang City and the surrounding area of Xiangyang, which had just arrived. This is not their own territory, and naturally they don't know how many spies exist up there. They only knew that once their naval army left Xiangyang, they would undoubtedly have to do a good job of keeping the fleet secret--what happened at this moment was undoubtedly a conspiracy for the enemy, and the conspiracy could not be known to too many people.

After the division of troops in Yiyang was completed, Zheng Ping stayed in Yiyang for one night, then led the fleet to arrive at Jingling, took over the city defense of Jingling as the governor of the navy, and entangled the defeated troops of Hanjin and the original defenders of Jingling, and formed a new Jingling garrison stationed in Jingling for defense, and he himself led the men and horses of the navy to camp in Jingling Port, while paying attention to the situation of the Jiangdong army, and on the other hand, the water village of Jingling was rebuilt.

Zheng Ping was already the governor of the navy, and at this moment he was appointed by Pang Tong as the defender of one side, responsible for the defense of the southeast of Xiangyang, so he naturally had the right to obtain information directly from the white clothes. At his request, the battle situation in Gangneung quickly passed into his hands, giving him a clearer understanding of the battle situation in Gangneung.

Everything was as Pang Tong said, after the Second Fleet, which was originally stationed in Jiangling, took the initiative to attack the Jiangdong Naval Army, and then under the frantic fighting of the Jiangdong Naval Army, the Second Fleet retreated to Jiangling at the "tragic" cost of losing three heavy ballista warships, twelve medium ballista warships, and thirty warships, and fifty ships, and Li Sheng's army completely abandoned the defense of Hongze Lake and placed three targets that were extremely important to Li Sheng in front of Lü Meng: Xiangyang, Jiangling, and Changsha. Where is it attacked? Now it was Lu Meng's turn to have a headache.

Xiangyang, that is one of the goals to be achieved in this war, but at the moment, it is not a realistic thing to think of Xiangyang. Xiangyang was engaged in the battle between Cao Cao's army and Li Sheng's army. Li Sheng's most powerful navy, the First Fleet, is currently stationed in Jingling, guarding the not spacious Han River. This is different from the Yangtze River, which has a wide territory, and the numerical superiority of the Jiangdong naval army is not enough to play here. If you want to attack Xiangyang, you must go up the Han River little by little, and then after fighting Li Sheng, you will have to face the attack of Cao Cao's army. This will undoubtedly put Jiangdong's side into a crisis situation, but I am afraid that in the end I will take Xiangyang at the cost of a crushing victory, but what I get is the result of Cao Cao and Li Sheng's alliance.

As for Changsha, it was the center of Li Sheng's rule in the entire Jingzhou, and although there was no naval army, it was guarded by tens of thousands of troops. Those so-called garrison forces are actually not as bad as imagined, and they still have a certain combat power. This can be seen from the losses suffered by himself in the attack on Hanjin - Li Sheng's army defending in Hanjin was only 1,200 men, but they used the fortifications of Hanjin to cause the Jiangdong naval army to lose two ships and 15 Mengchong. Such a loss is not big for Jiangdong, but compared with the other party's meagre troops, it is a little surprising. And now Li Sheng's naval army has not been completely wiped out. Judging from the topography of Changsha, under the condition that Li Shengjun's naval army has not been wiped out, entering Dongting Lake, which is like a porcelain vase with a thin neck, is undoubtedly a self-inflicted behavior, which is also very undesirable.

"It seems that only Gangneung is our best choice." Lu Meng thought so.

Compared with the troubles of Xiangyang and the stability of Changsha, Jiangling, which is located on the edge of the Yangtze River, has not made large-scale defense arrangements because it is easy to be seen. According to the information obtained by Lü Meng himself, the land defense of Gangneung was completed by the 10,000 garrisons stationed in Gangneung for a long time, while the water defense of Gangneung was carried out by the Second Fleet of Li Sheng's Naval Army, which had just been defeated by himself.

“…… That is, the defense on the water of Gangneung was weakened by the defeat of their Second Fleet. Now Gangneung only has 10,000 infantry troops and a broken naval army, and compared with us, its combat power is conceivably low. I think we will be able to take Gangneung Fortress within the limits of what we can accept. Compared to the attack on Xiangyang and Changsha, the attack on Gangneung is the most suitable target for us at the moment. On his own flagship, Governor Lü Meng, who was in charge of this battle against Li Sheng, faced all the generals of the Eastern Wu Army and said the goal he had decided. Unlike the lord Sun Quan, who thought that it would be good to only attack Xiangyang and fight on a limited scale, Lü Meng, who was directly on the front line of the battle against Li Sheng and had a better understanding of the situation of Li Sheng's army, was bent on turning this battle into a battle, and he believed that it was best for Eastern Wu to get more places in a war. Of course, it is also the best for himself: "One war to decide two states, this is not something that anyone can do." "Lu Meng saw the key point of Jiangling to Li Sheng very thoroughly, he knew that if Jingzhou is the waist of Li Sheng's forces, then this Jiangling is the most important point in the waist, once Jiangling is taken by himself, then Jingnan and Jiaozhou will fall into their own hands, and the power of the lord will be greatly expanded, and at the same time of this expansion, he will also obtain greater merit. As soon as he thought of this, Lu Meng couldn't help but get excited.

"But...... This is not in line with the lord's order. Jiang Qin put forward his own opinion, and unlike those generals who only need to fight, Jiang Qin is still very politically savvy. Unlike Lu Meng, who only thought about the greatest benefits that his family would achieve in the short term, he thought about things that were more far-term: "If you attack Jiangling like this, and after capturing Jiangling, you can get Jingnan and Jiaozhou in your hands, then there will be no possibility of reconciliation with Li Sheng, a force that belongs to the same south, and then his side will be stronger than Li Sheng's, which will attract Cao Cao's attention." Before he completely digested the territory after the seizure. His side is still very weak, how will his side deal with the overall situation on Cao Cao's side and Li Sheng's counterattack? Thinking of such a possibility, Jiang Qin, who was not as fanatical as Lu Meng, frowned tightly and objected.

Hearing Jiang Qin say this, Lu Meng thought about it while thinking about it, thought for a long time, and finally insisted on his opinion: "If you want to turn your face, we have already turned our face with Li Sheng." Now that the war has begun, we should not think about so many things that we don't have. Striking at the enemy, striking the enemy without sparing a hand, is what we should do now. As for how to negotiate with Li Sheng and how to reconcile with Li Sheng in the future, that was what the ministers considered. We are soldiers, and we just need to remember our duty as soldiers. Attacking Gangneung is the most advantageous thing for us. We should get rid of all these rules. It's my decision, and if anything goes wrong, I'll take care of it alone. Lu Meng's words were not harsh, but they were very firm. He made everyone realize that the attack on Gangneung was an unchangeable fact.