Zhou Yu was obviously unwilling to lose so many troops under a small Echeng.

There is a strategic purpose in waging war.

Jiangdong launched this campaign to attack Jiangxia, the purpose of which was to take advantage of the change of Jiangxia Taishou and the change of power, to march into the army, to quickly occupy the entire Jiangxia, and to establish a barrier to defend Jiangdong in the upper reaches of Jiangdong.

There are two key points in this battle, one is to quickly defeat Jiangxia before Xiangyang reacts, and the other is to be able to hold Jiangxia when the Jingzhou army counterattacks Jiangxia.

Originally, Zhou Yu still had a grasp of these two key points.

Jiangxia was originally at odds with Xiangyang, but now Huang Zu was controlled by Liu Mingsheng's secret descent, and Liu Biao sent his son to be Jiangxia's Taishou Jiangxia There will inevitably be power disputes within Jiangxia, which is the best time for Jiangdong to forge ahead.

As for the counteroffensive of Jingzhou, Zhou Yu didn't think there would be any big problems.

On the one hand, the most effective part of the Jingzhou Navy is the Jiangxia Navy Army, once the Jiangxia Navy is destroyed, it depends on the Navy in Jingzhou South County that is not much stronger than the fishermen, and Zhou Yu is not afraid of how many comes.

On the other hand, when Xiangyang has assembled its army and is preparing to counterattack Jiangxia, Sun Quan, who is in Chaisang, should have already brought a follow-up army to help. If you really want to fight, it will not be a problem to hold a Jiangxia.

But now, Zhou Yu has been forced to be trapped under Echeng for twenty days.

In the first ten days of naval warfare, it can be said that there was no danger, and the threat of the Jiangxia naval army was finally broken.

But ten days later, Zhou Yu was forced to go ashore to attack the city. These ten days are really difficult for Zhou Yu.

It's not that he, Zhou Yu, is incompetent, it's true. Really, after going back this time, Zhou Yu must go to Gongsun Quan, the master of the book, and let him strengthen the training of the naval army's land combat ability.

The two sieges before and after, they still occupied the advantage of numbers, and with the help of siege equipment, they were stunned that they did not capture Echeng, which was only defended by more than 1,000 people, but they suffered nearly 2,000 casualties.

Zhou Yu took a total of 30,000 soldiers to the battle, lost more than 2,000 people in the water battle, and after being forced to go ashore, Zhou Yu left 5,000 people to guard the warship, transport grain and grass, and ensure his own back road. The actual number of people brought to the county was only a little more than 20,000 people.

But in the past few days, it has been attacking the city and the camp, and Zhou Yu's losses are not small, if it goes on like this. Zhou Yu was also a little unbearable.

It's not that they can't do the defenders of Echeng, under Zhou Yu's estimation, even if the defenders of Echeng can hold on again, if there are no reinforcements coming, then in about ten days, they will be able to conquer this small county.

But. Is there really no reinforcements in Echeng?!

Echeng is not an isolated city.

Because the waterway of the Yangtze River was blocked, he could not send a ship to clean up the city without conquering it, so the Jiangdong naval army could not go up along the river to surround the east gate and north gate of Echeng and cut off the backup road of Echeng.

The north gate of Echeng is across the river is Yi County, which has not been taken, and Echeng can come to reinforcements through the direction of Yi County at any time.

The Battle of Echeng has been going on for twenty days. No matter how slow Jiangxia's reaction is, no matter how idiotic that son Liu Qi is, the reinforcements that should have arrived are almost there.

And even if there are no reinforcements in Echeng, he will conquer Echeng by himself in ten days. But so what?!

The main force of the Jiangxia Navy did not have much loss, if it came again under the city of Yixian. Zhou Yu suddenly felt that the 20,000 soldiers he had on hand seemed to be a little insufficient.

Therefore, while thinking about the problem of conquering Echeng, Zhou Yu hurriedly repaired a letter to his lord Sun Quan, asking him about the follow-up reinforcements.

The best result is that Echeng is a special case, and after conquering Echeng, the Jiangdong Army can drive straight into it and capture the entire Jiangxia in one go.

But Zhou Yu also had to consider the worst outcome, that is, he did not advance smoothly, giving Xiangyang Liu Biao time to react, in this case, he might have to gather Sun Quan's reinforcements and fight an encounter with the Jingzhou army on the ground in Jiangxia.

With his 20,000 soldiers alone, I am afraid that it will not be enough to deal with the army of Jingzhou.

Prepared for the worst, Zhou Yu continued to command the soldiers to attack the city the next day.

As for Zhang Xi, there is no way to do it now, except to stand at the head of the city and set an example to boost morale, he can only watch the tragic siege battle in this year.

The arrows of the Jiangdong army poured into the city wall as if they didn't want money, and the rushing cloud ladder approached the city wall again and again, and was destroyed or repelled by the city guards again and again.

The ladder is a little easier, with the help of the crash, the soldiers on the city wall only need to guard the landing entrance of the ladder, and then use the crash to destroy the front of the ladder.

But there's really no good way to rush the car.

The Jiangdong Army's rushing cart was very large, and the rushing cart was covered with cowhide, so as to reduce the power of the stones and crossbow arrows thrown on the city tower, and gradually cover the rushing cart to approach the city gate.

Several times, they had already marched to a distance of forty or fifty paces from the city gate, and Wei Yan had to take the risk of opening the city gate, leading the soldiers to rush out, scatter the soldiers who were protecting the rushing car, and burn the rushing car.

In fact, this is a very risky act.

If Wei Yan can't kill the soldiers near the rush car in time, then it is possible for the Jiangdong army to besiege Wei Yan while directly rushing towards the open city gate without rushing the car, and can directly break through the city gate.

Fortunately, Wei Yan was brave enough, and the commander was always very calm, and he successfully burned the car when he ventured out of the city twice.

Seeing this scene happening, Zhou Yuqi's teeth itched at the same time, and he once again strengthened his idea of training the Jiangdong Army's land combat ability after the war.

It's such a good opportunity, but if you can seize it once, this Echeng city has already been captured.

The result is good, the rushing car protected by hundreds of people was burned after being killed by a small force to disperse the guards, what is there to say? !

After attacking again for a day without success, Zhou Yu finally retreated and returned to the camp to think of other ways to break the city.

As for Zhang Xi, he was also busy inspecting the garrison at this time, motivating and comforting the soldiers, and then worriedly went to Kou Feng and Wei Yan to ask what to do next.

The Jiangdong army attacked the city for three consecutive days, resulting in nearly 200 casualties and nearly 50% of the wounded by the defenders of Echeng. If this continues to be guarded like this, Zhang Xi feels that he may not be able to hold it for a few days.

And Wei Yan didn't care about making trouble with Zhang Xi at this time, he also frowned, thought for a long time, and then sighed and said, "For today's plan, the only way to do this is to continue to defend and wait for Xiling reinforcements, as long as the reinforcements arrive, everything will be solved." ”

"Reinforcements" Zhang Xi could only sigh when he heard this.

What the hell is going on in Xiling, Zhang Xi doesn't dare to think about it anymore.

It has been almost a month since the first letter from me asking for the transfer of troops to Echeng was sent, and if Xiling had sent reinforcements at that time, it would have been time to climb to Echeng.

But now, up to now, Zhang Xi has not received any news, and the messengers sent to Yixian County have crossed the river once a day, and there has been no news about the reinforcements.

Zhang Xi is a little desperate now, wondering if he is being regarded as an outcast by Liu Qi.

Even Zhang Xi began to ponder - if he really couldn't do it, he led the army to retreat to Yi County overnight.

As for whether to continue to hold on or retreat directly to Xiling after retreating to Yixian, relying on Xiling's strong city defense. Let's talk about that.

Zhang Xi really didn't want to die, especially when he hadn't fallen into a desperate situation.

People who have crossed over are all meritorious and vaunted, how did they get to their own place, and the first battle they commanded was about to be defeated and die?!

Guarding the city of Hubei is to buy time for Liu Qi, to ensure the integrity of Jiangxia, so that the lord Liu Bei can win a complete Jiangxia in the future.

But for now. In case it really comes to the last step, if he really can't hold this Echeng, then he should return it, anyway, Zhang Xi didn't think about living and dying with Exian like this.

Zhang Xi didn't hide it, he took out this matter openly and discussed it with Wei Yan and Kou Feng.

Of course, I won't say that I'm afraid of death, but just in case, in order to get back.

There is no way, without the cooperation of Wei Yan and Kou Feng, Zhang Xi's escape alone can be regarded as an escape, and even if he returns to Liu Bei in the future, he will be dealt with by military law.

Wei Yan and Kou Feng didn't think about whether Zhang Xi was afraid of death In Kou Feng's eyes, Zhang Xi was wearing a "brother" filter, of course they wouldn't think that Zhang Xi was afraid of death when he made a retreat plan.

In Wei Yan's opinion, if Zhang Xi was afraid of death, he should have gone out to surrender when he was defending Exian County, and he would not have risked sending troops to meet him.

Therefore, neither of them opposed Zhang Xi's retreat plan, and even felt that it was a very necessary backup plan.

Wei Yan himself was also dissatisfied with Xiling's delay in coming to reinforcements, even if the internal situation in Jiangxia was complicated, but Chen Zhi still had thousands of troops in his hands, couldn't even Chen Zhi himself come to help?!

Therefore, Wei Yan was not surprised by Zhang Xi's retreat plan, this kind of backup plan should have been something that a city lord should have considered.

But when exactly to adopt this plan, Wei Yan obviously also has his own ideas, and Wei Yan will not easily evacuate Echeng unless he has to, especially now when he still has the strength to fight.

Zhang Xi didn't think about running away immediately, but just made plans and arrangements to let his five guards withdraw from the city defense in order to break through in the future.

If you still have to defend it for a while, at least for a few more days, what if the reinforcements arrive at this time?!

(End of chapter)