Chapter 61 The Post-War Situation and the Prologue of the Northern and Southern Dynasties
In the evening, Fancheng was already occupied by Shen Chen's army.
At this time, the city was a land of Ze, and the heavy rain flooded the city, and the water in the city was more than a foot deep.
The only places where people can stand are the rooftops of houses and some higher slopes.
The material reserves of the forbidden army are basically on it, and a large number of Cao troops are also stranded in the city.
After the Jingzhou army entered the city, they transported all the prisoners to the rear camp by boat.
It took a full day to transport the captives.
And just when Shen Chen was captured in Fancheng and was about to continue to take advantage of the heavy rain to besiege Xiangyang City.
The battle of Yiling in Nanjun has also come to an end.
In fact, compared to the Xiangfan rainstorm, it is better to say that the Bashan rainstorm is appropriate.
Historical records show that heavy rain fell for more than ten days in the upper reaches of the Han River, which led to the flooding of the Xiangyang section of the Han River and flooded the Seventh Army.
Where is the Han River upstream?
The approximate location is in the area from Shiyan City, Hubei Province to Ankang City, Shaanxi Province in the later generations.
To the south is Wudang Mountain, Shennongjia area.
A little further south is the Three Gorges.
Therefore, when there is heavy rain in the upper reaches of the Xiangfan Han River, the deep mountains of Bashan in the south are also heavy rains.
The Yiling area is in this section.
Although the rain here is not as exaggerated and terrifying as Xiangfan, it is also not small, causing flash floods and mudslides.
It stands to reason that such weather is not suitable for the attack of Zhao Yun and Shamoke's army.
Because heavy rain will lead to unfavorable land battles, Guan Yu in history and Shen Chen now rely on the naval army to attack the enemy.
However, the morale of the Jiangdong soldiers stationed here had fallen to the bottom, and the generals Ding Feng and Song Qian could hardly recover the situation, so they could only support themselves, so there was no obstacle even in land warfare.
On September 6, Zhao Yunbu and Shamoke broke through the camp, beheaded Song Qian, captured Ding Feng, and broke the enemy army.
After cleaning up the battlefield and escorting the captives back to Zhijiang, the two followed the original plan, and Zhijiang left 5,000 people behind to guard the prisoners and serve as reserve reinforcements for Zhang Xiu and Liaohua.
They immediately traveled north by land to Xiangyang.
In addition to Zhao Yun and Shamoke, there were also Meng Da and Kou Feng, with a total of more than 30,000 people on both sides, who passed through Dangyang and walked to Yicheng, and arrived at Zhonglu south of Xiangyang on September 11.
But at this time, like Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang, they were a land army, there were no ships, and the Xiangyang area was raining heavily and flooding, and they couldn't get through.
Especially in the mountainous area of Da Xian in the north of Zhonglu County, a flash flood broke out and the land was submerged, so they could only be stationed in Zhonglu City.
Two days later, the scouts sent by Zhao Yun to contact Shen Chen finally returned, informing Shen Chen that he had broken through Fancheng the day before yesterday and escorted all the prisoners to the slope where they were stationed yesterday.
With the return of the scouts, Zhao Yun and the others were also given a new task, that is, they were responsible for escorting the captives to Yicheng in the rear.
For this reason, Shen Chen spent another day sending the prisoners from the camp to Zhonglu by boat.
On September 15, the torrential rain that had been falling for more than 10 days finally stopped, and although the weather was still gloomy and the sun did not shine on the earth, at least it was no longer as heavy rain as it had been in the past half a month.
However, after the rains, the land was left in shambles.
In the lower reaches of the Han River, especially in the Yunmengze area such as Jiangxia, a large number of plains were submerged, and the people suffered heavy losses.
Jiangxia is a lake-enclosed area designated by Shen Chen, where many villages used to be located, but now the flood has displaced the people and made them in a difficult situation.
But it's also something that can't be helped.
Just like the Yangtze River flood in 98 years in later generations, the affected population was as much as 223 million, natural disasters are something that cannot be changed by manpower, and Shen Chen can only immediately order and send officials to Jiangxia, Nanjun and other banks of the Han River Yunmengze to carry out rescue work.
Fortunately, now that the situation has stabilized, Sun Jiao was almost destroyed, Sun Quan and Cheng Pu were also besieged in Zhouling and Shaxian, the Jiangdong army in Nanjun and Jiangxia was expelled, and all counties were returned to Han soil again.
Without the enemy's obstacles, the officials who had fled in Jingzhou also returned to their respective posts and began to deal with the disaster area.
In particular, the Jiangxia Tuntian District, which was originally demarcated, was mostly the area where the families of Jingzhou veterans, Mei Gan, Lei Xu, and Chen Lan were stationed, and now order has been quickly restored.
When Zhao Yun and Shamoke withdrew to Nanjun, they left Lei Wei, Wen Bu, Deng Kai and others to stay in Anlu and organize these soldiers to resist the Jiangdong Army.
After the war began, under the command of Lei Wei, Wen Bu, Deng Kai and others, a large number of civilians moved to the Anlu area, and many people took up arms and stationed in that area to engage the invading Jiangdong Army, so that the loss of this part of the personnel was not large.
Only on both sides of the Yangtze River, the Han River, and Yunmengze, many people who had no time to escape were flooded.
I really can't help it.
It is impossible for Shen Chen to be able to notify from door to door while fighting.
Just like no matter how early the weather forecast is, the 223 million people on both sides of the Yangtze River will not be able to evacuate in the future.
However, the natural disaster will eventually pass, and when the war stabilizes, the government will also take on the corresponding responsibilities and start the disaster relief work.
The autumn wind of late September swept across the land, rippling the already undulating flood, and the tide was still surging, but gradually receded, leaving behind a patch of sediment where the flood had once been inundated.
Rice paddies have been washed away, cities have been turned into mud, and even some hills and hills have been lost to history due to massive soil erosion or flooding.
Zhao Yunbu and Shamoke's soldiers escorted the captives of Fancheng to Yicheng.
During this time, Shen Chen was not idle, taking advantage of the fact that the water had not completely receded, he led the main force to attack Xiangyang, and countless ships surrounded Xiangyang City every day, and the arrows rained down, so that the Cao army in the city could hardly raise its head.
It's just that Xiangyang is not so easy to fight.
It is the so-called Fancheng of the paper lake and the Xiangyang of the iron. Fancheng is much smaller than Xiangyangcheng, and the height of the city is also much shorter, and the size of the city is not the same level.
Although Xiahoudun was also flooded, Xiangyang City was too high, and the city was several times larger than Fancheng, so it was not so easy to attack it.
Historically, Guan Yu did not attack Xiangyang City, which had a higher defensive power, but attacked Fancheng, which Cao Ren was stationing.
It is because compared to Xiangyang, Fancheng, which has more defenders, is easier to fight.
Shen Chen's several strong attacks were blocked by Xiahou Dun, and if he forcibly attacked, the soldiers would suffer heavy losses, so he decided to take his time and not rush for a while.
Time passed gradually, and by the end of September, the water had finally receded.
Outside the city of Xiangfan, there was already a mess, the mud and sand covered the once vast plain, and the fields and villages had accumulated a thick layer of moist soil, and when the tide receded and the sediment dried up, it seemed to become a sea of loess.
Many trees have been uprooted, many houses have been washed away into ruins, and even in the silted mounds, you can occasionally see some corpses, mostly soldiers in Cao Jun uniforms, who have become giants.
On September 18, Sun Jiao's army was finally broken by Zhang Xiu's army, and in the chaos of the battle, Sun Jiao wanted to break through the siege, but was shot and killed by the crossbowmen, with more than 20,000 remnants, and less than 10,000 surrendered to Zhang Xiu.
After disposing of Sun Jiao, all the captives were also imprisoned in Dangyang.
Now Dangyang and Yicheng have become the local bases for Shen Chen's army to settle prisoners in the rear, and there are more than ten generals under Sun Quanjun and Cao Cao's army alone, and the number of surrenderers is also eighty or ninety thousand.
Even in order to guard these captives, Shen Chen had to place at least 40,000 people in the rear, which were jointly guarded by Zhang Xiu's department, Liaohua's department, and Mengda's department, and ordered 5,000 people from Koufeng's department to go south to take Jingnan directly, and recover the six counties of Jingnan together with Guiyang.
By September 26, Xiahoudun finally couldn't hold on anymore and wanted to break through.
It's not that he doesn't want to hold on to the city, but in history, when Lu Chang guarded Xiangyang, there were only so many thousands of people in the city, and there was not much food and grass needed.
Now there are more than 40,000 people in Xiangyang, and the city has been flooded, and a lot of grain and grass are wet and moldy and cannot be eaten.
More than 40,000 people consume a lot of grain and grass every day, and the grain he moved from the barracks to the city was enough for four or five months, but half of the flood has been flooded, and they have been holding on for more than a month, and they can only eat the grain for less than a month.
Based on the current situation, he judged that if he did not choose to break through, he was afraid that in two months, all the soldiers in the city would starve to death, and everyone would have to eat the corpses of the soldiers to survive.
Therefore, he sent messengers from the West City Gate every night, walked in the direction of Longzhong, and then ran to Jiangxinzhou in the upper reaches of the Han River, and ran to Yancheng by boat to consult with Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang, urging them to come to their aid as soon as possible, or to assist him in evacuating.
Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang couldn't get an idea, so they had to ask Guo Jia to go to the front line to plan for them.
Guo Jia was already seriously ill at that time, and he had a fever all day long, and he died of illness more than ten years ago in history.
It was also thanks to Shen Chen that he changed history, so that he did not go to the bitter cold land of Saibei, and survived with a fatal disease such as pneumonia.
But his body is like this, he was unrestrained when he was young, he liked wine and beautiful women, he was hollowed out by wine, and now he is fifty years old, and his body is deteriorating, and now he has to drag his sick body to the front line to give advice to Xiahou Yuan and them, which is also heartbreaking.
However, Guo Jia still supported his body and formulated two measures for Xiahoudun, one is to hold on, and the other is to evacuate. It's just that although there is a specific plan of action, it still depends on Cao Cao's intentions, so it can only be a stalemate now.
In this way, Xiahoudun still insisted on being a turtle shell in Xiangyang City. Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang were stopped by Shen Chen on the Lingyang slope north of Fancheng, and the soldiers and horses on both sides confronted each other and could not advance an inch.
Now they are all waiting for news from Cao Cao's side, whether to withdraw or continue to fight, they all want Cao Cao's side to make the final decision.
It was only with the fighting that came to a standstill in late September that the situation became clearer.
Since Jiangling Fancheng was breached and Yiling Yidao was also taken, for Shen Chen, the crisis in Jingzhou could be regarded as a complete solution.
At present, he probably has less than 100,000 people in Xiangfan, and there are generals such as Huang Zhongbu, Zhao Yunbu, Lü Changbu, Wenpin, Shamoke, and Shentao.
At first, 60,000 troops marched north, and then 75,000 people from Zhou Budo and the Ministry of Culture and Recruitment, and then 20,000 people from Zhao Yun's Department and Shamoke's Department arrived, totaling 95,000.
The Cao army is about 40,000 people in Xiahoudun's department, Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang's department together are about 40,000 people, and there are about 20,000 or 30,000 troops originally stationed in Wancheng, Xinye and other places in the rear.
In addition, there are more than 10,000 people in the Zang Ba Department, and nearly 20,000 people are still on their way.
As for Zhang Liaobu, due to Cao Pi's framing of Cao Zhi, it led to two trips back and forth from Chang'an to Luoyang, plus Zhang Liao rushed from Huainan to Yecheng to lead the troops, and then went south from Yecheng to Nanyang, the road was really long.
This is the case in history, when he came, Guan Yu had already withdrawn his troops because of Lu Meng's sneak attack.
At that time, it was November of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, so he had to wait until November to arrive in Nanyang.
Therefore, if you don't count the reinforcements of Zang Ba and Zhang Liao, the current Cao army in Xiangfan is about 110,000 people.
It looks like 100,000 against 110,000, Shen Chen is inferior.
However, due to Shen Chen's breakthrough of Fancheng, the morale of the soldiers was greatly increased, the fighting spirit of the soldiers was very high, and the combat effectiveness was also very strong, so Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang did not dare to take the initiative to attack.
And in the area of Xiakou.
At present, Sun Quan has about 40,000 people in Shaxian, originally more than 30,000 people, but the remnants of Lü Meng's wiped out troops include Quan Zong and Zhu Ran's thousands of people who escaped.
There are about 20,000 Cheng Pu's troops in Zhouling, and there are still 10,000 or 20,000 garrisons in Jiangxia and Xiling.
Therefore, there are still about 80,000 remnants of Sun Quan.
Moreover, these people are demoralized and discouraged, like the Jiangdong Army in the Xiling area of Jiangxia, and even defeated by the former Jingzhou Army veterans in Jiangxia Tuntian, which shows their current situation.
On the side of Shen Chenjun, if you don't count the tens of thousands of Lei Xu veterans in the direction of Shang'anlu, it is about 50,000, led by Huang Jian as the main general and Gan Ning as the deputy general.
The more than 30,000 people in the Yellow Shooting Division were originally surrounded by Sun Quan's 50,000 people.
However, Huang Zhong and Gan Ning rescued him, and Shen Chen left 20,000 men under the command of Gan Ning, plus a total of 50,000 people from the Huang Gun Division, and surrounded Sun Quan's men and horses.
Although 50,000 troops did not have an advantage over 50,000 troops, Huang Zhong Ganning raided the docks outside the city and robbed many of Sun Quan's ships, so that Sun Quan ran away without ships at that time, and divided his troops with Cheng Pu, and was trapped in Shaxian, in an extremely embarrassing situation.
As a result, the situation has changed dramatically.
When Sun Quan attacked Jingzhou, Cao Wei had 100,000 troops and Sun Quan's army of 170,000 people, while Shen Chen only had 70,000 people in his own headquarters and more than 30,000 people in Xiakou who was still under siege.
By the time Huang Zhong came to the aid with 70,000 men and eliminated the Lü Meng army in Jiangling first, the situation would have been much better.
Lü Meng was originally 60,000 people, and he divided 8,000 people to let Ding Fengchi aid Yiling, but in the first battle of Jiangling, Shen Chen wiped out more than 40,000 Jiangdong troops, and the comparison of the forces of the two sides suddenly became 170,000 to 220,000.
After that, Shen Chen's side successively had more than 8,000 people from Liaohua and Zhao Rong from Jiangzhou, and more than 10,000 people from Meng Da and Kou Feng from Shangyong Fangling came to help.
The Jingzhou army had almost 200,000 troops at this time.
Now Fancheng has been breached, more than 30,000 people in Yu Ban have been wiped out, and more than 40,000 people in Sun Jiao's department are gone, and then counting the Lü Meng department. Cao Cao lost more than 30,000 of Yu Ban's troops, and Sun Quan lost nearly 90,000 of Lü Meng's and Sun Jiao's departments.
The comparison of the forces of the two sides suddenly became 200,000 to 160,000, and the advantage was in Shen Chen!
However, this data cannot be regarded as accurate, because in the northern Xiangfan area, 100,000 people in the Shen Chen Division played against 110,000 Cao Wei, and 50,000 in the Ganning Yellow Shooting Division in the Xiakou area in the south played against Sun Quan's 80,000 remnants.
There were still 40,000 people left in Yicheng and Dangyang in the rear to guard Cao Cao and Sun Quan's captured troops, so in fact, Shen Chen should have about 10,000 battle losses.
But it's already remarkable.
Originally, Sun Quan's 170,000 people were disabled by Shen Chen. Cao Cao 100,000 people, 30,000 were disabled.
And his own losses are only more than 10,000 people.
It was undoubtedly a big win.
It is enough to compare with any beautiful victory in the 5,000-year glorious history of China, and even to be among the best in those classic battles.
And this war changed the original history of the Three Kingdoms.
Because when looking at the situation on the battlefield, we cannot only focus on the battle losses of both sides and the forces directly engaged.
Not counting the people's husbands, conscriptions, auxiliaries recruited by the three forces, and the soldiers and horses who fought Liu Bei and Cao Cao in Guanzhong.
Otherwise, if you calculate carefully, the people directly involved in this war will reach millions.
More people are indirectly implicated.
For example, more than one million people in Nanyang were occupied by Cao Wei, as well as the people who were affected by the floods of Xiangfan, the Han River and the Yangtze River.
And because Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan launched large-scale battles, the minfu and Qianshou who were responsible for transporting grain and grass in the rear, I am afraid that tens of millions of people were implicated.
You must know that the total population of this period in history is only twenty or thirty million, because in history, from the Battle of Chibi in the thirteenth year of Jian'an to the Battle of Xiangfan in the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an, there were many large-scale plagues in between, and the population also shrank sharply during this period.
Originally, there were 50 or 60 million people at the end of the Han Dynasty, but by the end of Jian'an, it had shrunk by half.
Now, although Shen Chen vigorously promoted Zhang Zhongjing's "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases", the situation is much better, but there are still many people who have been swept by the plague.
Therefore, the current number of people is estimated to be more than 30 million, and the Battle of Jiangling, the Battle of Yiling and the Battle of Xiangfan, which has not yet ended, directly or indirectly involved one-third of the country's population at the end of the Han Dynasty.
This shows how big the impact of this battle really is.
It is almost hollowing out the national strength of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu in history, as well as the national fortunes of the three parties.
It's just that in history, Liu Bei's national fortunes lasted less than a month from the peak to the decline, and the Battle of Hanzhong and the flooding of the Seventh Army were defeated shortly after Maicheng.
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But now Shen Chen has won a complete victory, almost emptying Sun Quan's national strength and national fortunes, and Jiangdong no longer has any extra troops to resist.
If Sun Quan died, Jiangdong would be easily occupied in less than a month, and even if Sun Quan did not die, it would not last long.
Therefore, Shen Chen did not concentrate on encircling and suppressing Sun Quan, but stared at Xiangfan and fought with Cao Jun.
Now is the time to start emptying Cao Cao's national strength and national fortunes.
As long as Xiahoudun, Xiahouyuan, Xu Huang and Zang Ba who came to help can be defeated, no matter how big Cao Wei's foundation is, he will have to break his muscles and bones, and he will not be able to go south for at least a few years.
At that time, Liu Bei's group can calmly destroy Jiangdong, pacify Yangzhou, and occupy the entire south.
Then start the Northern Expedition and conquer the Central Plains.
The situation between the North and the South will also begin 200 years ahead of schedule.