It is said that He Lu personally led the army across the Huaishui River and directly entered the realm of Cai. Nangwa got retribution, thinking that Wu's army was strong, and he was alone in Cai State, without a backup army, and he was worried that the Wu army would be cut back, so he withdrew the siege of Xincai before the Wu army reached Xincai. Nangwa led the army back to Hanshui and reported to King Zhao that Wu sent troops to rescue Cai.

In late June of the ninth year of the reign of Helu (506 BC), Wu Shi took a naval warship to the vicinity of Xincai, and arrived at the city of Xincai the next day. King Wu ordered the whole army to leave the city 10 miles and go to the village, and warned the soldiers not to enter Xincai without permission, and strictly prohibited the Wu army from entering the city to disturb the people.

When Cai Hou saw that the prince of Wu led a large army to rescue and relieve the siege of Xincai City, he was grateful, so he led hundreds of civil and military officials out of the city to welcome King Wu into the city.

The ornate carriage was already ready to stop, and the honor guard to greet it was unprecedented. The delicate maids accompanied King Wu to climb into the carriage, the musicians of the court played cheerful music, and the people in Xincai City heard that King Wu personally led his division to relieve the siege of Cai State, so they spontaneously sent out the city to reward Master Wu.

Because of this time, He Lu led the army to march in person, and the forbidden army stayed in Gusu City to help the prince defend the country, and the soldiers ordered the Long Wei battalion to be responsible for the protection of He Lu in the army under the leadership of Gu Xin.

King Wu entered the city with the Marquis of Cai under the escort of the Longwei battalion, and Sun Wu and the generals such as Wu and the soldiers were stationed in the big tent in the army, and they went to take care of the affairs of the army without mentioning it.

Cai Hou held a banquet in the palace and arranged for beautiful concubines to perform the dance of palace music, and was grateful to King Wu for saving Cai. Cai Hou told King Wu about what happened to him in the state of Chu: "The king of Chu is young, and state affairs are all controlled by Xiangguo Baowa. This man is very greedy, and he wants to take whatever he sees. often shows off the national strength of the Chu State and bullies the weak. Because the widow was unwilling to offer the jade pendant and the mink qiu to him, he imprisoned the widow and the Tang Marquis for more than a year. It was very unrighteous and unrighteous, so the widow decided to join Tang Hou. Defected to the Hyunjun. ”

Cai Hou told how his jade pendant mink qiu and Tang Hou's horseless BMW were forcibly seized by the sac tile.

The next day, Tang Hou led 3,000 Tang troops to Xincai. The three monarchs discussed and stopped, and Tang and Cai both sent their own troops as the left and right wings of the Wu army, which were uniformly dispatched by the commander of the Wu army to gather the strength of the three kingdoms to conquer the Chu state.

He Lu then ordered the soldiers to divinate the time of the division, and the day was in mid-July, and it was auspicious. On the day of his departure, he worshipped the gods of heaven and earth. Give the self-made sword "light" to Sun Wu, the commander of the Chinese army. After a few drums, Sun Wu ordered the three armies to pull out, and the three alliance forces set off from Xincai according to the formation of the army. He Lu was in the middle army, Cai Hou was in the left army, and Tang Hou was in the right army. All the way, killing the Chu country.

When the soldiers saw that they were coming, they took the warships and marched along the Huaishui to Cai Guona, how quickly they were so fast, and today the main general ordered all the warships to be parked in the bay of the Huai River, and the army was all on foot; Besides, Wu Jun is good at water warfare. Now that they are abandoning the ship, isn't it sacrificing their strengths and weaknesses?

The soldiers couldn't understand it, so they rode their horses to the Chinese army and met Sun Wu. He asked: "The commander gave the order to abandon the warship, and the soldiers all walked, but why?" ”

Sun Wu said with a smile: "Cross the Huai River into the big river." Our army will be going against the current, much slower in time. This will leave a long time for the Chu army to prepare. The soldiers should fight quickly, if the Chu army is well prepared. It would be much more difficult for us to defeat him. ”

"The Lord is trying to catch him off guard?"

Sun Wu nodded: "Being a general is not a race to be the first in a battle. It is to seize the opportunity in the entire layout, which is the main purpose of the speed of the soldiers, after all, war is a major event that affects the whole body. ”

"Our tens of thousands of troops rushed to the realm of Chu State, and Chu State would have known about it early. I thought that our army would not be able to form a surprise attack, and besides, the whole journey on foot, the sergeants were tired, and it was even more difficult to supply logistics. The members were still opposed.

"According to the normal way of marching, that is, we use the water division to turn into the big river, and then go upstream, when our army reaches the Han River, the Chu army is already there in battle. What does the general think? ”

Wu nodded, and Sun Wu continued:

"If our army takes the waterway, the Chu army can roughly calculate the time when we will reach Hanshui, and the soldiers of the Chu army will also arrange their troops according to this schedule. If our army uncharacteristically reaches Hanshui ahead of schedule, then their defense line may not have been built yet, and our chances of success are much greater. ”

The soldiers were convinced. Generally speaking, for countries with more developed naval divisions such as Wu and Chu, in order to save the sergeants physical strength and facilitate logistics transportation, warships are generally chosen to transport soldiers and baggage. Chu knew that the main force of the Wu army was in Xincai, and the time from Xincai to Hanshui by warship was roughly calculated by the Chu army. Only then did the soldiers know that Sun Wu was ready to take advantage of this to reach the Han River as quickly as possible and kill the Chu army by surprise.

Sun Wu ordered the vanguard to lead 3,500 elite soldiers from the northeast of Chu to enter the country.

On that day, the three armies were marching at a gallop. I saw a herald galloping to the chariot of Sun Wu, the chief general of the Chinese army, and dismounted and reported: "The vanguard general led the front army 30 miles away from here, and the city of Yujian Chu is called Dasui, and there are Chu generals to guard it, how to deal with the vanguard's request?" ”

Sun Wuming said: "Inform the vanguard that this march will pass through the three cities of Dasui, Zhiyuan, and Hades of Chu, and our army will take a detour, and must not alarm the Chu army, let alone attack the city and plunder the village." General Ling Fu was not allowed to fight, but only needed to intersperse all the way to Hanshui and set up camp. ”

The herald ordered the colonel to ride his horse away, and Sun Wu thought that sooner or later the guards of the Chu army would know that Wu soldiers were crossing, and if they followed their buttocks, it would become a trouble, so they sent Bo Yao to the Chinese army to listen to the order.

"After the general can lead 2,000 soldiers and horses, our army will pass through the three cities of Chu State, and the defenders of the Chu army will find out, if they attack our army from behind, the general will intercept and kill them!"

Bo Yao took the order and left, and Sun Wu ordered the army to continue to advance.

The army marched all the way, crossed Zhangshan, and drove directly to Hanyang in a few days.

Seeing that Wu Jun came so quickly, Nangwa was shocked: "How fast is Wu Jun? Sailing against the current, it is impossible to reach Hanshui at this time, could it be the vanguard? ”

Nangwa sent a fine work to sneak across the river to find out the truth of the Wu army.

On the second day, Xi Zuo came back and reported: "Wu Wang Lu personally led the army to come and led 100,000 troops to the north of the Han River. ”

Nangwa didn't believe it, so he angrily questioned the fine work, and said angrily: "100,000 troops, in the blink of an eye, Hanshui, will this boat go so fast!" ”

"The Wu army only came by land, not by warship. Pass the three passes, go to Zhangshan and then reach the north of the Han River. ”

Seeing that Wu Jun did not bring warships and came along the land route on foot, he inquired that Wu Jun had parked all the warships on the shore of Huaishui in order to hurry, and his heart settled down. This surging river is his own natural danger, and the Wu army can't cross the river without a warship, so why are you afraid of him? So Nangwa was relieved to set up a camp in the south of the Han River, and sent envoys to Yingdu to urge reinforcements.

When Wu Jun arrived to the north of the Han River, he looked at the rolling river, but he couldn't help it.

The soldiers knew that Sun Wu must have some plans, otherwise it would have been a huge strategic mistake to abandon the ship in the first place.

As soon as the soldiers arrived at the gate of the Chinese army, they saw that the herald was looking for him, saying that the commander had something to discuss.

When the soldiers entered the big tent of the Chinese army, they saw that the generals such as Fu Ji, Bo Yao, Zhuan Yi, and Gu Xin were all in the Chinese army tent, and their faces were solemn.

Sun Wu also knew the doubts in the hearts of the generals, so he first said his strategy:

"Tens of thousands of our troops have reached the bank of this great river, but there is no boat to cross. Ladies and gentlemen, what can we do even if we have a warship? Even if you cross this river, what can you do? Generals can keep their doubts, but they must obey military orders, and if they are disrespectful, the king's sword is here, and they will not be forgiven! ”

Several of the commanders stood up, willing to obey the military orders.

Although the soldiers had doubts, seeing Sun Wu like this, it was not easy to ask each other. After Sun Wu finished assigning the task, he let the generals go by themselves, leaving the soldiers alone.

Sun Wu smiled: "The general must have something to ask." ”

"In the face of the vast river, does the coach have a good plan?"

"If the State of Chu is willing to give up the land north of the great river, we will occupy half of the country of Chu for nothing, and this business will be a big deal. Is the general still not satisfied? It doesn't cost a single soldier to occupy half of the rivers and mountains of Chu State, why not? Sun Wu took a different perspective to discuss the current situation.

The soldiers suddenly realized: "What the commander means, the State of Chu will naturally come to us for a decisive battle, we occupy Jiangbei, how can the State of Chu give it away?" ”

Sun Wu daxiao said: "The Chu soldiers will naturally come, our army does not need to cross the river, the general will wait and see, knowing this, the other side can win a hundred battles." According to Ben Shuai's guess, Nangwa will definitely come to fight with our army for merit, so our army's fighters will come. ”

According to General Sun Wu's order, the soldiers went to guard the ferry north of the Han River. (To be continued......)