The fighting lasted for ten days, and the sailors under Zhang Xianzhong were still resisting stubbornly.

Sun Chuanting asked Zuo Liangyu to defeat Liukou's sailors in five days to ensure that the army could start attacking Xiangyang Mansion in early December, but unfortunately Sun Chuanting was too light on the enemy, and it was not until the real battle began, Sun Chuanting found that Liukou's combat effectiveness was strong, and it was very different from before, as for why there was such a change, Sun Chuanting and Zuo Liangyu did not think deeply about the reasons.

After all, Zuo Liangyu is the general soldier of Huguang, and he is also a soldier, once he is put into battle, his strong nature of not admitting defeat will completely burst out, the first attack that began on the 16th, Zuo Liangyu put all his strength into the face of the Liukou Water Division launched several charges, the two sides fought on the river, the rumbling cannons, the dense gunfire, and the shouts and screams of the sergeants, intertwined, the battle entered the white-hot time, Zuo Liangyu was even ready to go into battle in person.

However, courage can not represent victory, the attack lasted for most of the day, the final result was that the sailors of Liukou had a slight advantage, seeing that they could not win, Zuo Liangyu could only order a temporary withdrawal of troops, this time in the battle, Zuo Liangyu lost dozens of ships, and Sun Chuanting, who supervised the battle, also had nothing to say, after all, Zuo Liangyu had done his best.

On November 20, the second attack began, and the sergeants, who had rested for three days, launched an attack again in the face of the Liukou Water Division, but this time the morale of the sergeants was far worse than three days ago, and when the two sides were fighting, they relied more on artillery and firearms, and the sergeants did not fight too much, and this time the battle did not last very long. After some losses on both sides, they quickly withdrew their troops.

On November 24, the third battle began, but the sailors were still not able to completely defeat the Liukou.

Battles on the river, unlike battles on land, do not have too many tactics that can be employed. Especially on the river surface that is not very wide, every move of both sides can be seen clearly, and it is not very possible to carry out many tactics such as sneak attacks, plus on the river surface in winter, the water surface is calm, the water flow is slow, and the attack speed of the warships on both sides depends more on the endurance of the sergeants.

Sun Chuanting and Zuo Liangyu both recognized a problem. That is the rogue who desperately resisted, the combat effectiveness is very strong, although the three battles have passed, the warship losses of the rogue sailor division are also very large, but people can still persevere, every time they fight, the momentum is strong.

This has never happened before.

It dragged on for a long time. It is very bad for the army, the army of 120,000. The daily consumption of grain and grass is huge, and the grain and grass carried by the army itself can last for about four months at most, and if the army cannot carry it, it will also seriously affect the itinerary of the army, and almost three months have passed. That is to say, the grain and grass of the army can last for more than a month, and then it will have to rely on the transportation of grain and grass from Wuchang Mansion and other places in Huguang.

It is not easy to transport grain and grass, and to maintain an army of 120,000 people, you need at least 600 stone of grain per day. It is 18,000 stone of grain per month, which is more than 3 million catties of grain, which requires a large number of carriages to be able to transport it.

The cruel reality finally forced Sun Chuanting to change his mind, he felt that he could not rely on Zuo Liangyu's attack alone to defeat the Liukou sailors, and that he had to attack by water and two-pronged to completely defeat the Liukou sailors, although such a tactical change was likely to affect the next battle to attack Xiangyang Fucheng.

Chen Xinjia was also anxious, Chen Xinjia, who had been guarding the periphery, did not know the battle situation of Xiangyang Fucheng, and learned that by the end of November, the army still did not start the attack on Xiangyang Fucheng, and he was very angry, and even took time out to come to Sun Chuanting's Chinese army tent to supervise the battle.

Xiangyang Mansion City, Prefect Yamen.

Many strategists were elated, constantly boasting about the combat effectiveness of the sailors, but Zhang Xianzhong had no expression on his face.

Just when the strategist was still happy, Zhang Xianzhong suddenly spoke.

"Order the sailors to evacuate to the city."

This sentence made the room completely quiet.

After a brief moment of consternation, one of the strategists quickly spoke.

"King, the sailor has defeated the officials and troops of the imperial court three times, and the morale is booming, and the evacuation at this time is afraid that it will affect the morale."

Zhang Xianzhong snorted inside his nose and spoke with some disdain.

"In the past three battles, the losses of the naval division are huge, more than two hundred warships, the loss of more than half of them, the official army has attacked for more than ten days, and no progress has been made, do you think the official army will be consumed with us, they will soon start to launch a larger-scale attack, the water surface of the Han River is not particularly wide, once the official army launches a larger-scale attack, the naval division will be difficult to stop, at this time, let the naval division withdraw to the city, in order to be able to preserve the strength and better defend the city."

It is rare for Zhang Xianzhong to make so many explanations.

After Zhang Xianzhong finished speaking, another strategist immediately spoke.

"What the king said is yes, instead of watching the sailors suffer losses, it is better to preserve their strength and garrison the city, the ultimate goal of the rebel army is to hold the city......"

Zhang Xianzhong showed a sneering look on his face, he was getting more and more unaccustomed to these strategists, every day he lived by playing tricks, and everyone was like a wall, just now he thought that there would be strategists who insisted on their opinions, asked the sailors to continue fighting, and said convincing reasons, who knew that someone would immediately echo his views.

Of course, Zhang Xianzhong didn't think about his own reasons, his violent temper and his move to kill people at every turn, I am afraid that Zhuge Liang will be reborn, and he will not put forward too many opinions.

After many of the strategists left the chamber, a man in black entered.

Zhang Xianzhong didn't look at the man in black, and spoke directly.

"The official army is attacking the capital city, what is the abnormal situation in the city."

"Report to the marshal, in the past few days, some scholars are quietly gathering, I don't know what to discuss, my subordinates have sent people to mix in, but when I saw strangers, these scholars began to chant poems and paint, and nothing else said, which made my subordinates even more suspicious."

Zhang Xianzhong's face showed a cold expression.

"So what do you think these readers are doing?"

"The subordinates think that these scholars are thinking of secretly colluding with the official army, and once the official army starts to attack the capital city, they will definitely make a move."

"Since you all think that such a possibility is possible, then what are you hesitating about, waiting for the official army to attack the city when they come to rebel."

The man in black hurriedly clasped his fists and saluted, turned around and left.

The Great War is coming, maintaining absolute internal stability, that is the most important thing, Zhang Xianzhong is a martial artist, there is not much culture, there is no good impression of scholars, after he occupied Xiangyang and Yunyang and other places, the prefect, Zhizhou and Zhixian officials sent are not mainly based on the amount of learning, at this time, the following detection of the city of scholars moved, that is, of course, it is to be suppressed immediately.

Such a thing as burning books and pit Confucianism is not a matter in Zhang Xianzhong's opinion, a group of scholars shouting blindly should be killed, as for what kind of impact it will have after killing the readers, there is no need to think about it.

More than 30 scholars in Xiangyang City were arrested and escorted to the downtown area to be killed.

The reason for the killing of these scholars is simple, that is, these scholars gathered a crowd to prepare for a rebellion.

This reason is very far-fetched, the scholars are powerless, how can they rebel, it is possible to say that they get together, complain, and even say some disrespectful words, but the crime is not to death, and the imperial army has begun the attack on Xiangyang Fucheng, at this time Xiangyang Fucheng has been in a state of frightened birds, Zhang Xianzhong raised the butcher's knife at this time, and faced the unarmed scholars, it was really a good idea.

When the more than 30 scholars were escorted to the downtown entrance, they were already unsteady on their feet, their mouths were closed, they could not speak at all, their bodies were tied up, and they had no strength to struggle.

More than 30 heads were cut off, and the bloody scene caused many people to retch, and the sergeants in charge of the beheading forced everyone to watch, and they were not allowed to turn their heads or bow their heads, otherwise they would be punished for complicity. These sergeants wanted to use such a bloody scene to shock all the ordinary people in the city and make others dare not think about it.

Such an approach must have an effect, which can deter most people, but Zhang Xianzhong may not have thought that this cruel and tyrannical method would also stimulate a small part of anger and backbone, so that these people who didn't want to care about many things stood up and started to resist.

After more than thirty scholars were beheaded, an even more unbearable order came.

The heads of more than 30 scholars were all hung at the entrance of the downtown area, and the corpses were not allowed to be gathered, so that these heads and corpses could be displayed in the downtown area to warn more people who were preparing to plot against them.

The common people all know that it is safe to enter the earth, not to mention that the people who were killed are all scholars, many of whom still have the reputation of being students, and they are highly respected in the city, but unexpectedly, the violent corpses are in the market, which is a great insult to the scholars.

That night, the heads and bodies of four scholars disappeared.

The next day, after Zhang Xianzhong learned of this incident, he was furious, preparing to launch a larger-scale search and massacre, many strategists tried their best to dissuade him at this time, but it provoked Zhang Xianzhong's greater anger.

The person who collected the body was quickly found, which was not a particularly difficult thing, so another round of slaughter began, and the person who collected the body was also killed in the downtown area.

A feeling of grief and indignation spread in the city, and no one had anyone to collect the corpses of the people who had been killed, but every day there were people silently looking at these heads and corpses, and a look of coldness and hatred burst out of their eyes.

Zhang Xianzhong didn't know about all this, and he didn't care about it, and his main energy was put on dealing with the attack of the official army. (To be continued......)