In the Battle of Yonghu, Zhou Yu, as the active attacker, suffered heavy casualties, lost dozens of ships, two or three thousand men and horses, and had to retreat to Hongkou.

Hongkou.

It's a vast land.

It is bounded by Dongting Lake to the south and Yunmengze to the north, and the Yangtze River runs through it.

The specific location includes Yueyangjun Mountain District in Hunan Province, Jianli County, Zhuhe Town, Bianhe Town, Sanzhou Town and other places in Jingzhou, Hubei Province.

However, in the Han Dynasty, because it was a flooded place, every time the Yangtze River flooded here, this place was called Hongkou, and the lakes on the north and south sides were connected, and it was also called Yunmengze.

Zhou Yu ordered the army to be stationed in the Hongkou area, which had become a land area with abundant water and grass, basil, and dense jungles growing on the plains like Wulin.

The Jiangdong army cut down trees and set up camp on the higher ground in this area, and built a wharf on the Yangtze River to the east to house thousands of large and small ships.

After a few days of busy work, when the camp and dock were first in size, Zhou Yu gathered many generals to discuss the military aircraft in his tent.

At the beginning of the meal, while the officers and men of the three armies were still eating breakfast, the battalion commanders had already gathered in Zhou Yu's commander's tent.

There are candles lit in the tent, Zhou Yu sits on the main seat, and the left and right heads sit on the left and right respectively Cheng Pu, the right governor Huang Gai, and then the Zhonglang general Xu Sheng, the general Lu Fan, the thief captain Ling Tong, the school captain Zhu Ran and the Pingbei commander Lu Meng.

Although Lü Meng completed the task of raiding the beacon tower, he failed to prevent Shen Chen from deploying defenses in advance, and finally failed the mission and fled Baqiu and returned to the Hongkou camp.

The generals sat separately, and there was a big wooden board behind Zhou Yu, on which was pasted with a map of the Baqiu area, he looked around at everyone, and said softly: "Everyone, Baqiu guards the south and north of Jingnan, and the terrain is extremely advantageous, if we want to fulfill Wu Hou's long-cherished wish, we have to conquer here." ”

Cheng Pu groaned: "This Shen Chen has chosen a good place and occupied this place, and we can't advance or retreat." There is no way to rescue Xiangyang from the north of the water, nor can it attack Jiangling or Jingnan to cut off Liu Bei's back road, this is a dangerous place. ”

"Hmph."

Huang Gai patted the eucalyptus and said angrily: "No matter what, I want to step on the Baqiu, capture Shen Chen alive, and avenge the righteous father!" ”

Cheng Pu said: "Gong Fu, we naturally want to avenge the righteous public, but that Shen Chen occupies a favorable position, with the land of Baqiu, it is difficult for us to storm in, we should still listen to the plan of the Grand Duke." ”

"The Grand Duke!"

Lü Fan got up and asked, "The enemy is stationed in Baqiu, why are we stationed in Hongkou?" Although this place is the confluence of the great river, Xiangshui and Yunmengze, the wind and waves are grand, and there will be floods every year, so it is not a good place to camp. ”

Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "Stationed in Hongkou is also a helpless move. Around Baqiu, there is only a slight water area with shelter from the wind. However, it is located in the middle of Baqiu and Luo County, stationed in Weishui, and is attacked by Liu Pan Shenchen. ”

Cheng Pu nodded and said: "Yes, we are better than the navy, Liu Pan has 20,000 troops, if you add Shen Chen's 30,000 Jiangxia troops, the strength will be comparable to ours." And if the water is on land, it is easy for them to attack from the north and south at the same time, which is not a good place. ”

Lu Fan said: "But now that we don't have a sheltered port, the ships can only be tied together with ropes to prevent them from being blown away by the wind. If the enemy were to attack with fire like the Governor, would we? ”

Zhou Yu explained: "Hongkou runs through the east and west, north and south, the north can enter Xiangyang, the south can enter Qingcao Lake, the west can go to Jiangling, and the east can retreat back to Yuzhang. Although there was no safe haven here, and our ships had to be roped together to prevent them from being blown away by the wind, it was a time when the north wind was blowing, and it was impossible for them to attack with fire if they were careful. ”

"That's right."

Huang Gai was suddenly surprised: "Before, the governor used fire to crack the serial ship of the Jiangxia sailor, why didn't he succeed?" ”

Captain Zhu Ran said: "Governor, I risked my life to approach the past, and I vaguely seemed to see them smearing something on the ship, and those fires couldn't burn over. ”

Ships smeared with something?

Zhou Yu thought about it.

At that time, the two sides were far apart, and they mainly shot bows and arrows at each other. In particular, his main ship was a mile away from the battlefield, and he couldn't see the opponent's movements at all.

However, Zhu Ran risked his death and approached a hundred meters away, and vaguely saw that Jiang Xia Shuishi's boat had been smeared with something.

But because the color of the silt was black-brown, somewhat similar to the color of the ship, they didn't know exactly what it was smeared.

What he knew was that the group of death squads who drove the boat over were wiped out by bows and arrows, so Zhou Yu didn't know that they were smeared with silt.

"Silt."

Zhou Yu's eyes flickered and said, "They should be smeared with silt." ”

"Silt?"

The crowd was amazed.

Zhou Yu nodded and said, "Yes, it can be fireproof, and it doesn't cost too much to do, just silt." ”

Although they didn't see what the other party had smeared clearly, they must have thought of it with Zhou Yu's intelligence.

In ancient times, there were almost no fireproof materials, and at most they were wrapped in iron sheets on ships to prevent fire.

However, the iron sheet is not very safe, and the aircraft carriers made of modern steel in later generations can catch fire, let alone ancient wooden ships.

But if it is a temporary fire prevention and does not require something too costly, it is naturally only silt. And it must be wet silt, and dry silt cannot prevent fire.

"It turned out to be mud."

Cheng Pu patted his head and said, "It's a pity, I didn't expect that Shen Chen to be so smart and actually prepare so much silt on the boat in advance." ”

Lu Fan asked, "Now that we are also connecting the boats, do you want to prepare some silt?" ”

Zhou Yu touched his chin and pondered: "It stands to reason that we don't need this thing, but if this method is useful, in case of fire attack in the future, we can follow it and seek justice." ”

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Cheng Pu.

Cheng Pu got up and arched his hand: "The last will be." ”

Zhou Yu instructed: "Please lead a fleet of ships to test the fire prevention effect of the ships smeared with silt." ”

"Yui!"

Cheng Pu received the order.

Zhou Yu said: "We can't use this sludge fire prevention for the time being, but it's good to test it first, so as not to need it in the future." The top priority now is to find a way to capture Baqiu. ”

Huang Gai said: "Governor, I am willing to lead my troops to fight them on land. ”

Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "Don't act rashly, you should first scout the layout of their camp, as well as the terrain of Baqiu and the enemy's fortifications." This time we didn't conquer Baqiu in one fell swoop, but we suffered from the fact that they had built a lot of high arrow towers on a large number of reefs at the mouth of the lake. ”

For the Jiangdong Water Army, silt fire prevention actually has little effect.

Because the place where they are now stationed is in Hongkou, the north wind blows in the south in winter, and the northeast wind and northwest wind are the majority, like Zhu Yuanzhang's Poyang Lake water battle, which is the northwest wind blowing.

Walking on the Yangtze River, it is more important to have a tailwind than a tailwind. When there are sails, even if it is an anti-fashion boat, it is very fast.

Now that they have a favorable wind, and they occupy the Hongkou geographical advantage, once the Jiangxia Navy Division operates on a large scale, it will soon be detected by them, even if it is the Jiangxia Navy Army's fire attack method, due to the headwind, the speed is not fast, and it will be easily intercepted by them.

In addition, with the north wind blowing, the fire will only burn to the south, and even if the fireship rushes to their fleet, the howling north wind will make it difficult for the fire to spread to the Jiangdong Navy ship in the north.

Therefore, if the Jiangxia sailor also wants to use fire attack, it is almost impossible.

After all, the fire attack conditions themselves are relatively harsh.

The first is to make the enemy stranded because there is no safe haven.

The second is that there must be a tailwind.

The two are indispensable, and now although they have been locked in chains, the Jiangxia Navy is in a headwind, and there is no condition to set fire.

Therefore, Zhou Yu didn't pay attention to silt fire prevention, at most, he just sighed at the cleverness of Shen Chen.

But it's not completely useless.

Although they don't need it for the time being, it has a role in Jiangdong.

In case there is a water war in Jiangdong in the future, and it is autumn and winter, when the north wind blows, because the Yangtze River travels from Jiangxia to Yuzhang from the northwest to the southeast, if there is a water war in Penglize, it is very likely that the Jiangxia naval army will have a smooth wind.

At that time, if the enemy attacks with death, such a thing may still occur, so Zhou Yu thought about testing the effect of this silt fire prevention, so as not to use it in the future.

At that time, Zhou Yu was stationed in Hongkou, training soldiers every day, and at the same time sending a large number of scouts to investigate.

December 10.

At this time, the Jiangdong Army had already laid a net around Baqiu.

The list of ships that come to scout every day is endless.

Huang Zu often went to the shore to watch the reconnaissance fleet of the Jiangdong Navy, which was extremely rampant, and often came to the shore to provoke, making him jump like thunder.

On this day, he finally couldn't bear it, and issued an order to send light boats and speedboats to pursue them, but unexpectedly fell into an ambush, and the Jiangdong Naval Division located on the opposite bank suddenly killed hundreds of fast boats and launched an attack on the scout ships of the Jiangxia Navy, causing them to lose a lot of men and horses.

Shen Chen was furious when he learned at this time, but Huang Zu had been kind to him, and he had a very high prestige among the Jiangxia sailors, so it was inconvenient to punish him, so he had to summon him to his main general's camp to persuade him.

In the camp of the main general of the Jiangxia Water Army, Huang Zu lifted the tent and saw Shen Chen sitting on the main seat and writing something.

"Governor, what is the matter with summoning me?"

Huang Zu said vigorously.

Shen Chen said with a smile: "Old General Huang, please take a seat, I heard that the general sent people to pursue, fell into an ambush, and lost some men and horses?" ”

Huang Zu stepped forward and arched his hand: "Yes, the Jiangdong Navy came to provoke every day, I couldn't be angry, I personally led the men and horses to pursue, and I almost died." ”

"That being the case, the old general should still take a break from his body."

Shen Chen said lightly: "Now is the time to fight, and the generals must not risk their lives, so the soldiers and horses under their command should be led by other generals first." ”

Huang Zu said angrily: "Governor Dadu, are you trying to take away my military power? ”

Shen Chen patted and shouted: "General Huang, I have repeatedly ordered that you are not allowed to fight, but you rashly pursued and lost hundreds of people. We only killed two or three thousand of the enemy's men and horses in our great victory yesterday, and you have caused us such heavy losses in this battle! ”

"I ......"

Huang Zu had a rough temper, but this battle was indeed his own fault, so he had no choice but to say: "Dadu Dudu, this battle is indeed my fault." However, we obviously won a big victory yesterday, why are we so cowardly and can't take advantage of the victory to pursue? ”

Shen Chen saw that he softened, so he said, "Old general, please also focus on the overall situation." The Jiangdong Navy is outnumbered, and we will be very passive in the face of the head-on, so we must wait for the opportunity. ”

Huang Zu said in a mournful voice: "Governor, but there is no way to go on like this. Now that they have all entered Jingzhou, can't they fight a decisive battle? ”

In history, Huang Zu faced Sun Ce's repeated attacks in turn, and he always focused on defense and rarely attacked.

But this time, the attitude has changed.

It's not that he has a weak character, it's that he has no way in history.

His soldiers and horses are far less than Sun Ce and Sun Quan, and the strength of the army is far inferior, so he naturally cannot carry it head-on.

But now he has experienced the glory of the Jiangxia Navy.

During the period of Liu Biao, it had the Nanyang Basin, and the population had a large number of grains and grasses, so the army was greatly expanded, and the Jiangxia Navy had as many as 60,000 or 70,000 men and horses in its heyday, and it was so vast that it almost flooded the entire Jiangdong.

As a result, there were several major battles, especially the two disastrous defeats at Xunyang and Huxukou, and Huang Zu's Jiangxia naval army suffered heavy losses, and the number of soldiers and horses was less than half of the peak.

This psychological gap made Huang Zu extremely unwilling, so he was angry that he was obviously victorious a few days ago, but he couldn't pursue it.

Shen Chen has always eaten soft rather than hard, and seeing Huang Zu's attitude, he soothed and said, "Don't worry, old general, I'm not afraid of that Zhou Yu." It's just that the time has not yet come, and we need to wait a little longer, the old general is patient and patient, and we will definitely be able to defeat them. ”

Huang Zu said in a low mood: "Xiaoqing, you are also my junior. It's not that I don't trust you, but I ..... I am mortal enemies with the Sun family, Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan have repeatedly offended me in Jingzhou, they want to kill me to vent their anger, why don't I want to defeat them? Now that I'm old and in good health, I'm afraid I won't be able to see the day when I defeat Koto. ”

Shen Chen said with a smile: "Please rest assured by the old general, the eldest prince is now about to recapture Jingzhou, and he still needs the old general to assist him." I have long been fully prepared for this battle, and I am bound to annihilate the Jiangdong Army! ”

Huang Zu said: "Xiaoqing is waiting for General Zuo." Cao Cao's army is now moving south, General Zuo is going north to meet the enemy, and the war in the north is not good. ”

"Of course not."

Shen Chen shook his head and said, "General Zuo still needs us to help, how can I pin my hopes on General Zuo." This time, I occupied Baqiu and forced Zhou Yu to be stationed in Hongkou as a last resort, just for the sake of the right time, place and people! ”

"The right time, the right place, and the right people?"

Huang Zu was puzzled and asked, "What is the explanation?" ”

Shen Chen got up and slowly walked outside the tent.

Huang Zu followed.

I saw Shen Chen raise his head, look at the sky, and said softly: "This location is advantageous, that is, we occupy Baqiu, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack." Harmony is that our army is united in its heart, and it will fight to the death with the Jiangdong Navy in the dead land! As for the time of day......"

He looked at the flag in the camp, which was blown by the north wind and fluttered to the south.

The north wind is still blowing.

However.

"Soon, the time that belongs to us will come!"

Shen Chen's deep gaze looked to the north.

"Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" recorded.

In December of the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao and Sun and Liu confronted each other in Chibi.

In the same month, the north wind that used to blow in the south suddenly changed to a southeast wind that can only occur in spring and summer.

So Zhou Yu and Huang Gai set up a bitter plan, Cao Cao was defenseless, and under the attack of the fierce southeast wind, the fire borrowed the wind and instantly destroyed countless warships of the Cao army in the sea of fire!

This is the burning of Chibi!

Zhou Yu!

I'm waiting for the wind, you, what are you waiting for?