Yang Wei may not understand what ideological construction is, but he knows that if an army wants to become an army, it must have a fixed goal, so that it can become an elite, not a group of rabble who can only fight with the wind.

And in this era, for the sergeants and soldiers, the most intuitive goal is the commander.

When a commander can attack in the front, fight with everyone, retreat in the rear, and fight for everyone's survival, then the soldiers of this army will be willing to serve the commander to the death.

On the battlefield, the soldiers are not afraid of fighting for their lives, they are afraid that the commander will leave them alone.

Therefore, Yang Wei really carried out this break with the determination of death.

5,000 people, more than 40 warships, of which there is only one Mengchong warship, and the Eastern Wu Army, now there are three Mengchong warships, 1450 large and small warships. Under this kind of gap between the strength of the army and the warship, it is really a fool's dream for the sheep to survive.

Still, a miracle happened.

When Yang Wei was besieged by Zhu Ran's army, including the Mengchong battleship, there were less than twenty warships left. Zhu Ran took the initiative to withdraw the army.

Yang Wei really didn't understand how he escaped, because it was really incredible.

The gap in strength is too large, and the Broken Rear Naval Army led by Yang Qu fell into the situation of being surrounded by the Eastern Wu Navy almost at the first time, and in less than two quarters of an hour after the break, the Left and Right Wings of the Broken Rear Naval Army were broken through by the Eastern Wu Army, and the Eastern Wu Army could outflank them from both wings at any time, cut off the back road of Yang Qu, and encircle the Yang Qu Naval Army.

And once the Eastern Wu Navy completes the encirclement of the two wings, Yang Wei has no chance to get out at all, even if Yang Wei can stabilize the turbulent military heart, the best result is just a dying struggle, no more than half an hour, it will inevitably be completely defeated, and finally end up with a defeat and life and death.

But. Just when the Soochow Navy was about to complete the encirclement of Yangfu, the Soochow Navy suddenly began to retreat, withdrew from the warring waters, and went in the direction of Gong'an City.

Yang Wei's life hung by a thread, but in the end, he didn't have the time to figure out why Zhu Ran did this, so he quickly retreated with the only remaining dozen warships and retreated to the water village of the Jiangling Water Army.

It wasn't until he completely returned to Shuizhai that Yang Wei had the time to figure out why Zhu Ran would let him die. You know, at most, in half an hour, Zhu Ran will be able to completely solve the battle, what urgent military affairs can make Zhu Ran not even have half an hour of extra time?!

Yang Wei really couldn't figure it out, but again, he didn't have time to think about it seriously now.

Although the Jiangling Navy has withdrawn to the water village and has no worries about their lives for the time being, there are now less than 8,000 sailors left, and there are no more than 50 warships available, of which only one Mengchong warship remains, which is still a nearly half-crippled warship after a major battle.

Such a naval army has lost the ability to take the initiative to fight, and the turtle retreats to defend in the water village, the Dongwu naval army now has at least 150 warships, and more than 10,000 naval soldiers are just a passive situation.

In a defeat, the morale will drop by at least half, and if you are blocked and beaten in the water village again, the morale of the army will be finished sooner or later.

Therefore, Yang Wei found Wen Dai to discuss the withdrawal of the army.

Before, it could not be withdrawn, it was to cover the crossing of the river by the public security army, but now, the 9,000 soldiers who withdrew from the public security city to Jiangbei have quickly returned to Jiangling under the leadership of Zhong Limu.

The Gangneung Navy has no worries, plus its own battle losses are more than sixty percent, and only one-third of the warships are left, so they simply do not have the ability to fight again. If you don't retreat at this time, if you wait until Zhu Ran leads the navy to catch up, you really can't go.

Yang Wei and Wen Dai decided to follow the arrangement of Zhang Xi before the war, and when they could not hold the Yangtze River defense line, the navy army did not do a love war, and the whole army went up the river and took refuge everywhere in Badong County.

Therefore, when Zhu Ran led the Dongwu Navy again, preparing to besiege the Jiangling Water Village, he found that this Water Village had already been empty.

Frustrated?!

Maybe a little.

Do you regret it?!

Not at all.

The reason why Zhu Ran suddenly withdrew his troops when besieging Yangqi was not because he deliberately wanted to let Yangqi live, but because Zhou Yu, who had extinguished the fire at the ferry after the public security, sent a small boat to give Zhu Ran an order, asking him to quickly defeat the Jiangling naval army and go to the public security ferry to meet the army across the river.

Zhou Yu also specially asked the herald to emphasize to Zhu Ran that we must be fast, we must fight for enough time not to fight on the water, our goal is always Jiangling City.

After receiving such an order, Zhu Ran thought about it for a while and decided to immediately withdraw from the army and go to the public security.

In the Jiangling naval army, only 7,000 of the 20,000 people were left to retreat to the water village, the number of warships was sharply reduced from more than 140 to less than 50, and only one Mengchong battleship remained. It can be said that the Jiangling Navy no longer has the ability to compete for control with the Soochow Navy on the Yangtze River.

The encirclement and suppression of sheep is just the icing on the cake.

Since the general emphasized the need to hurry, he would first go to meet the army and cross the river, as for the remnants of the Jiangling naval army, at most they could only retreat to the water village to survive. It's the same with going back and cleaning up.

In this way, Zhu Ran considered the overall situation, temporarily let go of the sheep, went to the public security ferry to meet the Dongwu naval army to cross the river, and then led the naval army back to besiege Jiangling Water Village.

Although he pounced, whether it was Zhu Ran or Zhou Yu, they didn't care too much.

At this stage of the campaign, Zhu Ran's navy has completed the most important combat task, and now Zhou Yu has sufficient troops at hand, and there is no need for Zhu Ran's navy to fight ashore, so Zhu Ran's current task is to live near the public security and ensure the smooth flow of logistics and grass for the army.

After the remnants of the fleeing Jiangling Navy abandoned the water village, they could no longer pose a substantial threat to the Soochow Navy in terms of overall combat capability or lack of logistical supplies.

If Zhu Ran has extra energy, he can search for this remnant army and finally exterminate it, if he doesn't want to be so troublesome, then as long as he ensures that the waterway and grain route are unblocked, it's okay.

Now Zhou Yu is leading 22,000 soldiers to quickly advance in the direction of Jiangling.

The reason why it was 22,000 people, rather than more troops, was because Zhou Yu needed to leave enough manpower in the public security to guard against it.

Li Qiu broke through from the public security ferry, and Cheng Zhi was not able to catch up with the soldiers and bite Li Qiu, so in Zhou Yu's mind, there was still a Shu Han army of thousands of people on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

This army, lacking food and grass supplies, will most likely not pose any substantial threat to itself, but if you take it lightly and let this army kill a horse gun and take back the public security or public security ferry, it will also be a trouble.

Therefore, Zhou Yu left Lu Dai with 3,000 men to garrison Gong'an City, and Cheng Zhi with 2,000 men to garrison Gong'an Ferry, so that he could continue to go north and attack Jiangling with confidence.

Of course, the most important thing is that Zhou Yu does not have to worry about his lack of offensive strength.

To the east of Jiangling, there were not only 20,000 of Zhuge Ke's vanguard troops, but also 60,000 follow-up reinforcements led by Lu Xun. After converging these attacking forces, Zhou Yu had an attacking army of more than 100,000 people in his hands, and he didn't care about the shortage of these 5,000 people.

And on the battlefield of Yingxian County east of Jiangling, the guard of Yingxian County at this time, Zhou Tai, had abandoned Yingxian.

On the one hand, it was Zhang Xi who ordered Zhoutai to abandon Yingxian, get rid of the pursuing troops of the Eastern Wu Army, and lead the troops to retreat to Jiangling as much as possible.

On the other hand, Zhou Tai is not a fool, he has 10,000 people on hand, and it is okay to block Zhuge Ke's 20,000 people, Lu Xun will come over with 60,000 people to attack, and he will definitely not be able to stop it.

If it is delayed, Zhoutai may be able to hold on for half a month or even a month, but the problem is that fighting hard with the Dongwu army in Yingxian County is not what the current situation needs.

Even if Zhou Tai resisted hard in Yingxian, it was impossible for him to kill and injure a large number of soldiers and soldiers of Eastern Wu, after all, Yingxian County was not a strategic fortress, it was just an ordinary small county town.

Therefore, after Zhang Xi gave the order, Zhou Tai did not fall in love with the war, but immediately began to ponder the question of the route of the withdrawal of troops.

The most direct route from Yingxian to Jiangling is to go out from the west gate of Yingxian County, and go straight to the east gate of Jiangling along the official road, which is the closest and most convenient.

But the problem is that the leading generals of the Eastern Wu Army will most likely not be fools.

Even if Zhuge Ke has no brains, Lu Xun, who came from Huarong County in the south, is now a famous general in Eastern Wu, and he is a general with a very outstanding strategy.

This kind of person can't think of a possible retreat in Yingxian?!

Zhou Tai suspected that maybe Lu Xun had sent a forward force to ambush the main road from Yingxian to Jiangling.

Therefore, for the sake of insurance, Zhou Tai felt that he still walked out of the north gate of Yingxian County, went all the way to the north, and then went around in a circle and entered the city from the north gate of Jiangling.

Doing so, although it will waste a little time on the march, will be relatively safe.

Zhou Tai made a plan to withdraw his troops, and Zhuge Ke outside Yingxian County. Although Zhuge Ke was played by Zhang Te, a small person, once in history, it was just the result of his stubbornness, in fact, Zhuge Ke at this time did not have the capital to be stubborn and self-serving.

Although he also thinks a little highly of himself, there is nothing wrong with Zhuge Ke's brain.

He has 20,000 people, although he is not sure of capturing Yingxian, but he still has the ability to besiege Yingxian.

In the direction of the west gate of Yingxian County, as expected by Zhou Tai, Zhuge Ke specially arranged for 5,000 soldiers to set up an ambush there, after all, that place was the closest distance to the withdrawal of the defenders of Yingxian County, and it was necessary to guard against it.

And at the north gate of Yingxian County, Zhuge Ke did not take it lightly.

Of the four gates of Yingxian County, only the west gate and the north gate are suitable for withdrawing troops and breaking through, and Zhuge Ke also has enough soldiers in his hands to be deployed, so it is natural to plug all possible loopholes.

Therefore, in addition to the 1,000 soldiers who routinely besieged the north gate, Zhuge Ke also arranged an ambush of a force of 3,000 people twenty miles outside the north gate of Yingxian County to prevent Zhou Tai from breaking through the north gate.

And when Zhou Taizhen led his troops out of the north gate, broke through the interception of a thousand soldiers of the Eastern Wu Army, and headed north. encountered an ambush by Zhuge Ke's 3,000 Eastern Wu troops who had been ambushed in advance.

(End of chapter)