As night fell, it was completely dark.

Shen Chen looked at the heroic figure of the old soldier on the small hill not far away, and suddenly felt that there was nothing more than this in his life.

Even if he is 60 years old, he is still the hero of the battlefield, who can be the one who can be the one?

This demeanor can be described as the dream of every general.

"General!"

Zhang Nan noticed that Shen Chen was looking in Huang Zhong's direction in a daze, so he shouted to him and said, "The enemy has withdrawn." ”

"yes, I know."

Shen Chen came back to his senses, nodded and said, "Come with me to meet the old general." ”

"Yui."

Zhang Nan followed behind him.

When the two came to the bottom of the hillside, Huang Zhong had already come down, and when he saw Shen Chen and Zhang Nan coming, he looked at Shen Chen and said, "You are Shen Chen?" ”

Shen Chen is still relatively easy to guess, the nineteen-year-old face that has not yet reached the crown is relatively small, the chin and lips are covered with a green beard, and he is also wearing armor that can only be worn by generals, so he will naturally not admit his mistake.

"Is it General Huang of Nanyang? I've heard about shoguns for a long time. ”

Shen Chen bowed.

Huang Zhong didn't hold it up, but bowed back and said, "Shen Xiaolang, the eldest son ordered me to come here to meet you." ”

"Everything has General Lao."

Shen Chen was polite and complimentary, and he was not arrogant because he was valued by Liu Biao and Liu Qi.

In the Jingzhou army sequence, it is divided into three grades, among which Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, and Huang Zu have the most power, followed by Liu Pan, Han Xi, Wen Ping, Lu Jie, etc., and finally Huang Zhong and a series of middle-level generals.

Strictly speaking, Shen Chen's Zhonglang will be on the same level as Huang Zhong. Because Huang Zhong's rank is also a Zhonglang general, before Shen Chen left his post, the two were at the same level.

But everyone knew that Shen Chen was young and had a promising future, so everyone regarded him as Liu Biao's cronies in the future and did not dare to underestimate him.

On the other hand, Huang Zhong only became a Zhonglang general at the age of sixty, and he obviously fell much behind in the future.

But now that Shen Chen has left his post and is currently serving as Liu Qi's doorman, in a sense, the two sides are no longer colleagues.

Shen Chen's rank was much lower than Huang Zhong's, but Liu Qi ordered the soldiers to listen to him, and Zhang Nanqu dared to wait for him to obey.

Of course, even so, because of Liu Qi's relationship, even Liu Pan would not have much contempt for Shen Chen.

Huang Zhong said: "I hope the old man came in time and didn't let you lose many people." ”

"The general came at the right time."

Shen Chen smiled: "I don't know what happened to the eldest son?" ”

"It's all arranged."

"That's the best, I expect that the Jiangdong Army will come in a day or two, and we must control all the banks of Shiling, Wuling and other places along the way, and not let their scouts notice."

"Okay."

Huang Zhong nodded and said, "You lead the troops back to Wuling to rest first, and I will make arrangements here first." ”

"Then there is General Law!"

Shen Chen thanked Huang Zhong and didn't say much, his soldiers walked for a long time, fought for a long time, they were indeed very tired, and they should have a good rest.

At that moment, he escorted Zhang Hong, with more than 2,000 remnants of Jiangxia, all the way south in the direction of Wuling.

After seeing Liu Qi in the Jingzhou military camp in Wuling, Shen Chen instructed Zhang Nan to take the soldiers to rest, and he discussed some things with Liu Qi, so that he could finally sleep well.

On the second day, Shen Chen had a small meeting with Liu Qi and Huang Zhong.

At the meeting, Shen Chen made arrangements to reorganize the various departments, and at the same time asked the soldiers to control all the places on both sides of Shushui from Shiling to Wuling to deal with the sudden attack of the Jiangdong Army.

Therefore, the Jiangxia naval army made the following deployments according to the terrain he had observed before; Huang Zhong's department led Yang Ling to lead 1,000 men to garrison Nanwu opposite Shiling, and Liu Qi's department led Zhang Nan to garrison 600 people to Shiling.

Then Shen Chen personally led 5,000 men to be stationed in the forest between Wuling and Shiling, that is, the place where he fought with Lu Meng yesterday.

Liu Qi led the remaining 5,000 men to disperse on both sides of the Wuling Mountains.

And the most important thing is that Liu Pan's army has arrived in Yixian, which is less than twenty or thirty kilometers away from here, and can come to support at any time, so that their total strength has reached 20,000 people.

Therefore, to a certain extent, because the Jiangdong Army still had to arrange a defensive line along the Yangtze River, and the number of troops to encircle and suppress them did not exceed 30,000, Shen Chen's army was already invincible.

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Two days later, on the 17th day of the seventh month of the 10th year of Jian'an, Jiangdong's fleet had also entered Shushui and headed for Wuling.

At this moment, inside the main ship, Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, Lu Su and others discussed things.

The three of them looked at the map above, and Lu Su said in a deep voice: "Shen Chen has achieved his goal, it seems that he is finally going to transfer Lu Meng and Xu Sheng from Yixian County to facilitate Liu Pan's response, and now they can retreat and advance." ”

"Hmm."

Zhou Yu nodded, but pointed to Yangxi and said: "The rivers around Jinghu Lake extend in all directions, and this river can also lead to Shushui, just enough to reach Wuling." ”

Lu Su asked, "Does Gongjin still want to send someone to intersperse with other small rivers?" ”

"yes."

Zhou Yu smiled bitterly: "This time I have completely fallen into passivity, I am afraid that it will be difficult to annihilate Shen Chen again in this battle." ”

Lu Su looked at Sun Quan and said, "Marquis Wu, if you exchange hostages with Shen Chen, how about you quit your troops?" If we continue to fight, we are afraid that we will not be able to please us. ”

Sun Quan clenched his fists and looked at the two of them with red eyes: "Do you want me to endure this humiliation?" If the eastern adults want to change it back, Shen Chen's head must also be replaced! ”

"Yui."

Both were helpless.

Lu Su looked at Zhou Yu again and said, "Gong Jin, the so-called knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent will win all battles, we must figure out what Shen Chen wants to do, so that we will not be controlled by others." ”

Zhou Yu pondered: "It's nothing more than two purposes, one, after exchanging protons, evacuate safely." Second, set up an ambush! ”

"I'm the same as you think."

Lu Su pointed to the map and thought: "If you want to set up an ambush, there are two ways, one is to ambush between the two mountains and hit it with a bow and arrow. The second is to build dams to intercept the flow of water and attack it with water. ”

Zhou Yu smiled: "I have also thought about these two problems, but I think it is not easy to build a dam, one is that they are short of manpower, and the other is that I have been to that mountain before, it is difficult to build a dam, and even if it can be built, you only need to look at the amount of water, and then send someone to investigate it at night to know whether it is true or false, Shen Chen should not be so stupid." ”

In modern times, it is very easy to build a dam and only need to be watered with reinforced concrete, but in ancient times it was a very difficult thing to do, requiring great manpower and material support.

Like Cao Cao's several water attacks, it took a long time and a lot of manpower to finally succeed, and it was very difficult.

Let's not say that Shen Chen is not manpowered, just to say that building a dam between the mountains and mountains requires extremely clever construction skills and abilities, and such skilled craftsmen are very few in the army, let alone go on expeditions to fight, let alone take them.

Therefore, both Lu Su and Zhou Yu believed that the strategy of building dams to intercept the flow of water was almost impossible to achieve, and even if they had such ideas, they did not have the ability and manpower to implement them.

"Yes."

Lu Su nodded, pointed to the map and said, "Then they will definitely choose to attack us with bows and arrows between the two mountains, and the area from Shiling to Wuling is the best ambush point." ”

Zhou Yu touched his chin and beard and said, "If we enter this place directly from Shushui, I'm afraid we will suffer heavy losses, and we must think of other ways." ”

"That's why Gong Jin proposed to bypass from the left flank?"

Lu Su asked.

Zhou Yu nodded: "Yes, it's a pity that these streams are too narrow for the big army to pass." ”

There are several small rivers between the Yangxi River and the Shu River, and the stream next to the hill where Shen Chen and Lü Meng fought before is one of them.

It's just that this kind of creek is no more than seven or eight meters wide, and the depth is different, and it is very reluctant to walk small boats similar to fishing boats, scouts, and yachts, not to mention troop carriers such as daring and scratching.

Therefore, it is impossible to transport a large number of soldiers in a short period of time, and even if they can, they cannot march on a large scale due to narrow roads and dense forests, so they can only send small troops.

"It doesn't matter."

Sun Quan waved his hand at this time and said: "If they ambush archers on both sides of the strait, even if a small group of soldiers raid their rear, it will be enough, Gongjin and Zijing, just do what you want." ”

"Yui!"

The two bowed.

At this moment, a scout suddenly came to report.

"Report!"

"Come in!"

"Captain Lu and Captain Xu pursued the enemy to Shiling, encountered an ambush, and Captain Lu was seriously wounded by an arrow."

The scouts informed them of the fact that Lü Meng and Xu Sheng had been repulsed by Huang Zhong's reinforcements the night before.

Because the entrance of Jinghu Lake is sixty or seventy kilometers away from Shiling, although Sun Quan only came here today, they only knew about it.

"What?"

Sun Quan was shocked: "How is Lu Meng now?" ”

The scout said: "I was shot in the chest with an arrow, but fortunately, at that time, Captain Lu was wearing a battle armor, and he didn't shoot the heart, but he shot through the collarbone." ”

"Send him back to Jiangdong for healing."

Sun Quan hurriedly ordered.

He still attaches great importance to Lü Meng, because although Lü Meng also joined the army during Sun Ce's period, he was not reused by Sun Ce.

At that time, he was just a subordinate general who followed Sun Ce, and his brother-in-law Deng was a low-level junior officer, and Sun Quan was later promoted, so he planned to be a henchman and a general, so he was naturally very attentive.

After the scout got the order to leave, Lu Su looked at Zhou Yu with a solemn expression and said, "Gong Jin, Shen Chen really set up an ambush in the mountains. ”

"Hmm."

Zhou Yu nodded and said, "Send someone up the water tonight to see if he sets up a dam, and then see how much water is." ”

"Wu Hou."

Lu Su said to Sun Quan: "I'm afraid I can't attack tonight, and I will attack again tomorrow." ”

"yes, I see."

Sun Quan is not the kind of person who acts recklessly for the sake of hatred.

Although he hated Huang Zu to the bone in history, he was extremely cautious every time, attacked three times, and finally killed Huang Zu.

So he also obediently listened to the words of the two and decided to act according to Zhou Yu and Lu Su's plan.

Present.

Zhou Yu first settled at the entrance of Jinghu Lake and Shushui, and sprinkled a large number of scouts to the south to investigate the situation.

At the same time, a number of small forces were dispatched, and they were ordered to start moving in the direction of Shiling from some small rivers such as the Yangxi River, the Puxi River, the Machuan River, and the Wuxi River, and arranged for them to prepare for the attack at a specific time.

In fact, the Shanyue people of the Han Dynasty were not only descendants of the Yue Kingdom, but also included a large number of Han powerful forces and landless Han people.

They formed a power group of thousands or even tens of thousands of people through clans, township parties, marriages, etc., occupying dangerous terrain, self-sufficient, and even smelting iron to make weapons and armor, this force ran through the entire Han Dynasty and even the Northern and Southern Dynasties until the Sui and Tang dynasties, until the two Song Dynasty gradually collapsed.

And if the relationship between these people and Jiangdong is about to leave, most of the time they are in a hostile state, but since there are hostile people, there are naturally people who want to take refuge, so these Shanyue people will also help the Jiangdong Army, lead the way to the Jiangdong Army or report the news.

It's just that the territory of the Shanyue people is different, and the Shanyue forces around Yixian County are composed of Chen Fu and Zushan, who have a hostile relationship with Jiangdong, and the two sides often fight in history, and finally settled by He Qi.

Therefore, although the Jiangdong Army also had the help of Shanyue people, in the area of Yixian, where the terrain was extremely complicated, they could only explore the periphery, and it was difficult to go deep into Shiling Wuling.

But even that is enough.

On July 18, Zhou Yu and his team got the news that the soldiers took advantage of the night to take a small boat to the south, and investigated all the way, but found no traces of digging and building a dam, and the amount of water did not decrease, which shows that the Jiangxia army was not prepared to attack with water.

And the scouts found that a large number of arrow towers were built on the hills on both sides of the river from Shiling to Wuling, which also confirmed the conjecture of Zhou Yu and Lu Su.

Therefore, after knowing Shen Chen's hole cards, Zhou Yu and Lu Su also made arrangements.

The number of troops on Shen Chen's side was about 20,000, and half of them were Liu Pan's troops in Yixian, and it would take a little time to rush over, and there were only 11,000 people on the front line.

The total strength of Sun Quan's side was about 30,000 people, first of all, the army of 6 or 7,000 Lu Meng Xu Sheng, followed by the main force of about 20,000 people, and then about 5,000 people temporarily transferred from all over Jiangdong.

The deployment of these troops was also very simple, with the main force of 20,000 people from Shushui raiding Shiling with small troop carriers such as Maotu, Zhufu, and Luluo.

Lü Meng was seriously wounded, and the six or seven thousand troops led by Xu Sheng still started from Yunxi, entered the upper reaches of Shushui from Qingxi, and arrived at the northwest of Shiling, that is, the left bank of Shushui, where Xu Sheng went north by land.

Then the remaining 5,000 people were led by Han Dang, who went south from Jinghu Lake, took some small rivers such as Yangxi River, Puxi River, Machuan River, and Wuxi River, and raided the northeast of Shiling, that is, the right bank of Shushui.

If you look at the map, Shen Chen's army is deployed along the coast, and the main force is concentrated along the Shiling to Wuling, and at the same time, Liu Pan's troops are in the rear to respond.

And Zhou Yu and Lu Su arranged a perfect pincer offensive, with the main force attacking head-on, while Xu Sheng and Han Dang divided their troops from the streams and rivers on both flanks to the two banks of Shushui, and attacked the Jiangxia naval army on both sides of the river from behind.

In this way, judging from the entire battle situation, once the battle begins, although it will be more difficult for the main force of the Jiangdong Army to attack, when the troops outflanked on the left and right flanks are in place, it will be a disaster for the Jiangxia Naval Army.

After another two days, on 20 July, the main force of the Jiangdong Navy officially marched and began to move towards Wuling, the upper reaches of Shushui.