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In the previous battles against Wei, in the Jingzhou Shiren Group, Fang Shao was basically led by Fang Shao, and Fang Shao also won great honors through outstanding performances in several wars, and then gained incomparable power in the army. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

And Pang Tong, who thought that he was sitting in Chang'an and strategizing thousands of miles away, was actually silent, and no one would pay attention to him, and it was precisely because of this that he was overshadowed by Fang Shao within a few years.

In order to reassert one's authority in the army and in the court, it is necessary to regain it with great merit.

And now, the Wei State has been destroyed, and Pang Tong can only make up his mind from Wu.

So this time, Pang Tong did not contradict Zhuge Liang, but actively promoted the battle of Wu, but the premise was that he wanted to act as the protagonist of the battle of Wu.

With Pang Tong on this side, Emperor Liu Tai can no longer object, with his current authority, he can not oppose the entire court officials, so in the matter of defeating Wu, Liu Tai can only choose to shut up.

On this day, the central high-level of the Han State officially decided to cut Wu, and in the next few days of debate, it was about the choice of the main generals of each front of the Wu.

Of course, the headquarters of Zhang Fei, the general of the middle road, could not be moved, and only the command of the Qingxu battlefield on the east road and the Jingzhou battlefield on the west road could be fought for by Pang Tong.

Pang Tong first wanted to be the commander of Qingxu, because there were not only elite northern troops who had been baptized by the battle to destroy Wei, but also Wei Yan and other famous generals, and in the land of Qingxu, the water network was not as dense as that in the south of the Yangtze River, and the cavalry of the Han army was more conducive to galloping here, and the chance of victory was greater.

Pang Tong's plan was good, but Fang Shao resolutely opposed it.

The superficial reason is, of course, that he has been to the Qingxu area in person, is more familiar with the terrain there, and has cooperated with Wei Yan and other generals for a long time, and has a tacit understanding with each other, and he is more conducive to commanding operations there.

However, the private reason is that all the generals of Qingxu have followed Fang Shao for a long time, and they are Fang Shao's cronies who have been cultivated with great difficulty, and Fang Shao is unwilling to let Pang Tong take command, not only let him take advantage of this to make meritorious contributions, but also take the opportunity to dig into his own corners and divide the Qingxu Army that he has worked hard to manage.

Therefore, Fang Shao mobilized his energy in the court and fiercely resisted Pang Tong's proposal, and Zhuge Liang also decisively stood on his side.

Theoretically, the commander of the Jingzhou Legion is now the right great Sima Xu Shu, but because the Jingzhou Legion was heavily damaged during the last Wu invasion, its strength is far less than before, even if it attacks Wu this time, it also needs to reinforce part of the army from Chang'an, as well as the supply of grain and grass, so Xu Shu's right to speak has also been seriously weakened, and he has no way to influence the court.

As a result, the imperial court took Pang Tong as the great Sima, with 30,000 soldiers and horses in Guanzhong, as well as hundreds of thousands of stone grains and grass, from Wuguan to Jingzhou to command the Jingzhou Front Army, while Xu Shu could only live under Pang Tong as a deputy marshal, which was actually equivalent to being demoted to Pang Tong's staff officer, but Zhang Liao was entrusted by Pang Tong with important tasks and acted as the vanguard of the front of the Wu War.

When Pang Tong led his troops into Jingjing, the other two groups of people were also moving quickly.

In the middle of the road, Zhang Fei's department gathered nearly 130,000 soldiers and horses, and will move south from Xudu to launch an attack on the enemy on the front line of Ruqiao.

On the east road, Fang Shao's troops will gather 180,000 soldiers and horses, and the target is directly Xuzhou, and it is expected that after the capture of Xuzhou, they will go south to capture Huainan, and then attack Jianye with the remaining two roads.

The strength of the Wu and Han armies has reached more than 400,000, which is close to 90 percent of the total strength of the Han State.

Just when the 400,000 troops of the Han army were ready to go, the southeast of Wu was undergoing the test of locust plague, and under the careful encouragement of the Han army to infiltrate the Wu realm, the Shanyue rebels from all over the country frequently attacked the prefectures and counties in Wu, so that Biquan had to send 20,000 soldiers and horses to quell the rebellion of Shanyue.

Wu Guozhi seemed to be in crisis internally, but Sun Quan was not worried about the Han army's attack from outside.

The reason is very simple, on the Western Front, there is Lu Xun's powerful naval army, Sun Quan believes that this naval army is invincible on the Yangtze River waterway, and if he does not defeat the naval army that he is proud of, then everything else is empty talk.

As for the eastern front, although the land of Xuzhou was located in the north, and the Wu navy did not play a big role, Cao Zhen's return not only expanded the territory for Sun Quan, but also brought tens of thousands of elite foot soldiers to the Wu state, as well as thousands of valuable war horses.

Therefore, Sun Quan believed that with the solidity of Xiapi, Pengcheng, Xiaopei and other cities, coupled with the courage of Cao Zhen's troops, supplemented by the elite naval army of Wu State, it would not be a problem to resist Fang Shao's northern army.

As for Zhang Fei's attack in the middle, due to the distribution of mountains in the southern part of Runan, the mobile surname of the Han cavalry could not be used, Sun Quan believed that as long as he held the city and avoided field battles with the Han army, if the time came, the Han army would run out of food and naturally retreat.

Therefore, for the attack of the Han army, Sun Quan did not make greater military adjustments, but only added some soldiers and horses to the original first-line defense system, and at the same time, deployed nearly 40,000 mobile troops near Jianye as a reserve to send reinforcements to the Quartet at any time.

The hot summer had passed, and it was a good weather for the war, so Fang Shao rushed to Yanzhou before the beginning of autumn and fully took over the military command of the Eastern Front.

"Chief Wen, how did you do with the thing I told you earlier?" Fang Shao couldn't wait to ask when he saw Wei Yan for the first time.

Wei Yan said with a smile: "Don't worry, don't worry, how dare Yan not pay attention to what you have explained, Yan has gathered all the strong fishermen along the coast and trained a naval army of about 10,000 people." Although this naval army cannot be compared with the Jingzhou naval army, it can barely fight. ”

The water network in the two Huai areas is quite dense, the Han army in this area is the most lacking is the water army, and here is not compared to Jingzhou, almost everyone is accustomed to the water surname, most of the soldiers and civilians are landlubbers, the only one who understands the water surname is the fishermen along the Bohai Sea coast of the East China Sea in the Qingzhou area.

Therefore, as early as two years ago, before Fang Shao returned to Beijing, he instructed the town general Wei Yan to recruit fishermen to form a water army, and it seems that Wei Yan has not forgotten Fang Shao's instructions.

"This water army is our killer weapon, we can't use it for the time being, let's keep it for now." Fang Shao replied.

Wei Yan was a little puzzled, thinking that the southern expedition to Wu was already the first in the naval army, and it was not easy to train one, and if he did not go to Xuzhou to fight against the Wu naval army, what was the use of staying in the rear.

"Da Sima, the Wu people's naval army has cut off the main waterways leading to Xuzhou, if we don't open up the road to the south with the newly built naval army, then our army will rely on land transportation whether it is the delivery of soldiers and horses, or the transportation of grain and grass, it must be very difficult, this naval army, I think it should not stay in the rear." Wei Yan made his position clear.

Fang Shao said with a smile: "It's difficult to transport grain and grass, the key to breaking Wu lies in this water army, I have my own usefulness, you just wait patiently to see a good show." ”

Fang Shao was mysterious, Wei Yan was quite puzzled in his heart, but he knew that Fang Shao was resourceful, and he expected that since he arranged it like this, it would definitely have its useful use, so he didn't ask too much.

After finalizing the proposal of the naval army, Fang Shao immediately summoned the generals to discuss the attack on Xuzhou.

Xuzhou is the barrier of Huainan, and its topography is quite complex.

The core of Xuzhou lies in Xiapi, and if you take Pi, Xuzhou can be determined, and there are three ways to conquer Pi.

To the northeast, between Wulian Mountain and Yishan Mountain, there is a long and narrow corridor, which runs through Langxi County and Dongguan County and reaches Beihai Kingdom. Qingzhou and Xuzhou are blocked by mountains such as Mount Tai, Lushan, Yishan, Mengshan, etc., and the main road connecting the two states is only in the northeast.

The second route to attack Xiapi was located in the northwest of Xiapi, and this road was sandwiched by the Mengshan Mountains and Weishan Lake, and the terrain in the middle was flat, but the two wings were extremely difficult to pass. From there, it connects with Yanzhou through Peiguo and Shanyang County, and Xiaopei is located at the southern end of the exit of this road, that is, the gateway to Xiaopei's barrier on this road.

In that year, Cao Ying attacked Xuzhou several times, and chose this route for almost every battle. The most exciting battle was the moment before the Battle of Guandu, the elite cavalry was drawn from the front line, thousands of miles away, and the troops came to Xiaopei City within a few days, defeated the main force of Liu Beijun, and then pacified the entire territory of Xuzhou within a month.

The third offensive route is to capture Pi in the west through Pengcheng, and the area around Pengcheng is also mountainous, and Pengcheng is located in the flat avenue, which is the necessary place for this road to connect the east and west, and it is also a strategic place. However, to the west of Pengcheng is a dense tributary of the Huai River, and if the Han army marches through this route, it is very vulnerable to the threat of the Wu people's naval army.

Among the three roads, the one in the northeast Qingxu is far away from the Central Plains, which is not conducive to logistics supply, while the one in the west is vulnerable to the enemy's naval forces threatening the flank. Only the northwest Yanxu that road, the terrain is flat, the water network is not dense, is conducive to the infantry army, so since ancient times, from the Central Plains to attack Xuzhou, choose this one.

After several days of deliberation, Fang Shao and the generals finally finalized a specific plan for the march.

That is, with Yanxu Road as the main direction of attack, Wei Yan as the commander of the middle road, led an army of 70,000, and went south from Yangcheng, first taking Xiaopei, and then capturing Pi.

Qingxu Road, with Huang Zhong as the commander, commanded 40,000 troops, and went south from Qingzhou to capture the counties east of Xuzhou. With Deng Ai commanding 30,000 troops, attacking Pengcheng, these two roads were used as feints to contain part of the Wu army, and the three armies finally encircled Xiapi.

As for Fang Shao, he commanded 40,000 soldiers and horses, followed Wei Yan's main force, and used it as a reserve army.

Ten days later, the 180,000 Han army marched south by separate routes and took Xuzhou.

As the eastern border of Wu, although the upper and lower levels of Xuzhou had long been prepared for the attack of the Han army, when they really received the exact news of the Han army's invasion, there was still an uproar.

After all, the Han army that came to destroy Wei Yuwei was menacing, and such a sharp blade was terrifying even for the generals of Wu who had experienced a hundred battles.

Among the generals, only one had long been looking forward to the attack of the Han army.

In the Hussar General's Mansion in Xiapi City, Cao Zhen held the news of the enemy invasion in his hand, his face was full of excitement and excitement, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Fang Shao, you came just in time, the hatred of the country, the hatred of killing relatives, today I Cao Zhen will settle it with you!" ”

(To be continued)