Hearing Guan Gong's inquiry, Zhuge Wang cleared his throat and said, "General, the General Staff has drawn up the following operational guidelines, for the general to review: first, the army will suspend its advance, be stationed on the spot, and wait for all the supplies in the rear to be replenished;

Second, send a large number of scout ships and powered hot air balloons to the front to conduct reconnaissance, especially pay attention to the tributaries of the Yangtze River, connected lakes, reeds and other places where a large number of troops can be hidden, and be sure to find out whether there are any enemy warships hiding inside;

Third, after the results of the reconnaissance at the front come out and prove that there is no ambush ahead, the fleet should advance slowly, and the speed of advance should not be too fast, and it is advisable to wait within 50 li a day, and it is best to wait for the land forces on both sides of the strait to follow up, and the navy and army to advance hand in hand and support each other. ”

Zhuge Wang finished speaking the three operational guidelines in one breath, Guan Gong was dumbfounded, this is not a clever strategy at all, and there is nothing brilliant about the entire operational policy, it is just the most conventional and basic troop action precautions.

If there are no special circumstances, the Han army generally conducts a large number of reconnaissance first, and after finding out the surrounding situation, the large army slowly advances. Throughout the operations of the Hong Army over the years, most of them have done this, the army is like this, and the navy is the same, and there are very few tactical actions such as penetrating ~ interspersing, detouring, outflanking, and rapid breakthrough.

With such a decent plan of action, any officer in the Han army will come, so what do you want him to do? Guan Gong was very angry, so he said: "Wouldn't this be too conservative?" Is it necessary for us to waste time here? Sometimes, in order to achieve greater results, appropriate risk-taking is also needed. ”

Zhuge Wang said: "It is necessary, some time ago, we had an artillery battle with the Soochow Naval Army, and our rockets have been consumed a lot, and more importantly, in order to completely clear the reef area, we have left almost all the gun~ powder and made underwater bombs for them."

According to the calculations of the General Staff, the fleet's ammunition reserves have now been reduced to a dangerous level, and if we do not replenish them first, we may not have enough ammunition to cope with such a crisis in the event of an enemy ambush in the future. ”

Listening to Zhuge Wang's words, Guan Gong's face changed slightly, but his face was originally red, so no one could see this change. He had been clamoring to hit Jianye as fast as possible, even if there were traps, he was not afraid, that is, he had confidence in firearms and cement boats.

However, he overlooked one point, and that was the consumption of ammunition. The power of the twelve large cement warships is indeed huge, and when they are fired in unison, the rockets are overwhelming, and nothing can stop them, even if there are many people waiting for them in front of Dongwu in ambush, he is not afraid, he is confident that no matter how many enemies there are, they can all be destroyed.

However, there is a prerequisite for that, and that is to have enough ammunition. The incomparable power of those twelve giant warships came at a cost, and the price was that a lot of ammunition was consumed. A salvo costs about 500 rockets, and a few days ago in a battle with the gunboats of Soochow, several thousand rockets were used each time.

Although the results achieved were also remarkable, tens of thousands of rockets were consumed. Moreover, most of the fire ~ medicine barrels and mines in reserve are also used to blow up reefs, so it is indeed a bit troublesome if a large number of firearms are needed in the event of an attack.

Although Guan Gong is the commander of a group army, he has never tried this kind of situation of counting his fingers to fight, in the past, he could crisscross China with a red rabbit horse and a green dragon glaive knife, where is it like now, but also to calculate the consumption of materials to decide the next move.

It's not that Guan Gong is a martial artist who can only play with knives and guns and doesn't understand anything about logistics affairs and army management, but he is now in a high position, and he doesn't have to worry much about these trivial matters in logistics and materials, so naturally Wang Fu and other ministers and the staff department can help deal with it.

Because Guan Gong asked several questions in a row, Zhuge Wang continued after explaining the issue of material replenishment: "This course of action is indeed a bit conservative, but the art of war is cloudy. Of course, strange moves can win by surprise, but positive moves are an indispensable prerequisite. Note 1

Now that our strength is absolutely superior, we don't need to use any surprising means to win, as long as we crush the past with a dignified and upright division and the momentum of Mount Tai.

In the face of such a general trend, Dongwu is simply unable to resist, and even if it consumes national strength, it can consume the Dongwu people to death. So now it is the Soochow people who have to consider using tricks. They need to defeat the strong with the weak, and they need to find a way to turn back the decline. If they couldn't come up with a clever plan to win, then the fall of Soochow was almost inevitable.

This is also the main reason why the General Staff determined that there is an eighty percent chance that the Soochow Navy will have an ambush in front. What we have to do now is to advance steadily and slowly, and at the same time be vigilant and sabotage the conspiracy of the Eastern Wu Army to ensure that this inevitable victory will not fail. If the general is still in a hurry, please think about the Battle of Chibi back then. ”

Zhuge Wang's words are clear enough, now the Jingzhou Navy does not need to break through quickly at all, and advance to Jianye at lightning speed.

In the Battle of Chibi that year, Cao Cao also had an absolute advantage at the beginning, and judging from the comparison of strength at that time, most people in the world thought that Cao's army would win, so Cao Cao was full of spirit and composed a "Short Song Xing" (Note 2). It's a pity that he was so conceited that he repeatedly fell for tricks, and in the end, Zhou Yu used a serial plan to burn hundreds of thousands of troops to ashes.

Now the strength comparison between the Jingzhou Navy and the Eastern Wu Navy is very similar to the situation of the Chibi Battle back then, and even the Jingzhou Navy is stronger than the Cao Army back then, so as long as you don't fall into the plan and don't make the same mistakes as Cao Cao did back then, victory is only a matter of time.

There is a certain amount of truth in Guan Gong's proposal to advance to Jianye as quickly as possible, so that the Eastern Wu Imperial Court can be caught off guard, and even block the Eastern Wu royal family in Jianye, so that it cannot escape into Yunmengze in time.

However, there is also a certain danger of doing so, that is, it is easy to fall into ambush and cause unnecessary losses. Of course, even if you are ambushed, you can fight a bloody way with the powerful firepower of the Jingzhou naval army, but the loss of the soldiers will definitely be greater, and it depends on how to choose.

Wang Fu and Zhuge Wang persuaded for a while, especially Zhuge Wang, who mastered all kinds of data in the army, reasoned with the facts, and explained to Guan Gong the stock of ammunition, grain and grass, daily consumption, supply speed, and other data, and finally Guan Gong had to agree to suspend the advance.

Now Guan Gong regrets burning down the naval camp of Eastern Wu in a fit of anger, otherwise there will be a ready-made camp for them to set up camp. Now I have to work hard for the soldiers and re-establish the camp for the army to stay temporarily.

Note 1: The phrase "Qi" is not interpreted in this way, the word "Qi" refers to the reserve, referring to the team that was dispatched later, not referring to any trickery, but later generations have misunderstood this sentence, and here he will be interpreted as a misunderstanding.

Note 2: Historically, the creation time of "Tanka Xing" may not have been before Chibi, and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" attached it to that time.