On May 4, the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an, at the end of the morning, Liu Bei's main ship stopped outside Xiakou City.

Strategically speaking, the strategic significance of Xiakou is actually higher than that of Gangneung.

Because Jiangling only held the road from Jingzhou to Yizhou, while Xiakou was in the triangle of Yizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou and Nanyang to the north.

From Xiakou to Xiangyang and Nanyang in the north, Jiangdong in the east, Jiangling and Yizhou in the west, Jingnan and Jiaozhou in the south, which is a thoroughfare.

Convenient transportation is also the reason why this area can develop into an international first-line metropolis like Wuhan in later generations.

As a preparation for the battle of Wu, Shen Chen set Xiakou as the rear baggage base.

The main reason is that it can transport materials from Hanshui from Nanyang and Xiangyang in the north, the Yangtze River from Yizhou and Jingnan in the west, and the Yangtze River in the east is the attack point.

In addition, when Liu Bei and Sun Quan maintained a superficial alliance before, Xiakou was the commercial center of Jingyiyang Sanzhou, and many warehouses were built.

Therefore, whether it is defensive or offensive, it can be used as a transit area for this war and escort the front-line attack.

After Liu Bei's fleet entered the Xiakou Wharf, many small boats were rowed out of the wharf, and the ropes thrown from the boats were brought to the shore, and then the slender men began to pull the boats to the shore.

Soon, hundreds of ships were towed into the port, and Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and several other close courtiers slowly walked down from the ships.

Below, Shen Chen, the governor of Nanzhou, Zhao Yun, the general of Zhengdong, Huang Chu, the general of Zhendong, Gan Ning, the general of Zhengbei, Guo Mu, the Taishou of Xiling, and Deng Fu, the new Taishou of Jiangxia, and others have already been waiting.

Liu Bei only brought 20,000 horses this time, and the senior generals only brought Guan Yu, Ma Chao, Wei Yan, Pang De, and more than a dozen captain-level generals.

The top strategists didn't even bring any of them.

Now the lineup of generals and strategists of Liu Bei Group is still very luxurious, needless to say, the five tiger generals who are super first-line in terms of generals, and there are also Gan Ning, Wei Yan, Pang De, Guan Ping, Shamoke and others on the first line, and the rest will be countless.

In terms of strategists, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Fa Zheng, Jia Xu, and Xu Shu are all at the top level. The second-line strategists also include Ma Liang, Huang Quan, Liu Ba and so on.

Among them, there is even a Shen Chen who is both civil and military.

Although Shen Chen has been on the battlefield relatively little now, his force value is only a little weaker, between the super line and the first line.

Not to mention the strategy, the earliest proposer of the strategy of dividing the world.

Therefore, Liu Bei Group can be described as full of talents.

However, like the situation faced by Cao Wei, now that the territory is larger, there are more places to govern, defend, and guard.

Zhang Fei is now guarding Xiliang Town, and Huang Zhong is in Hanzhong.

Zhuge Liang sat in Jiangzhou to deal with the affairs of the two states, Pang Tong took care of the entire Chengdu Plain in Shu County, Xu Shu assisted Huang Zhong in Hanzhong, Fa Zheng was in poor health this year and recuperated in Jiangzhou, and Jia Xu was too old to run around.

So there are not many people brought by Liu Bei.

However, as the saying goes, there are not many people who are fine, and these generals alone are enough to calm the scene, not to mention that there are so many civil and military generals in Jingzhou, and it is enough to deal with Jiangdong.

After everyone got off the boat, Shen Chen led the soldiers of Jingzhou to greet him, bowed down and saluted: "Meet the king!" ”

"Meet the King!"

Everyone saluted and shouted in unison, quite loudly.

Liu Bei looked at his son-in-law with gray hair and beard, stepped forward to hold him, and looked up and down with a smile: "Xiaoqing, you are strong again, how are you doing?" ”

Asking about daily life is a way for Han people to greet each other, similar to how the later generations have been doing recently.

Shen Chen said with a smile: "King Meng is worried, and his living is very good. ”

"Hahaha."

Liu Bei patted Shen Chen's shoulder and said to Guan Yu behind him, "Yun Chang, do you remember?" Xiaoqing was very thin back then, but now she is strong like this, but we are almost thin to the bones. ”

Guan Yu was also white, squinted his eyes and stroked his beard and said: "The years are not forgiving, the future is the world of their young people." ”

"Uncle Yun Chang broke the Cao army, the sword is not old, this attack on Jiangdong is exactly what Uncle Yun Chang needs."

Shen Chen replied with a smile, and then said, "King, let's go to the city first." ”

"Okay, let's go into town."

Liu Bei nodded.

At that moment, under the leadership of everyone, he entered Xiakou City.

Entering the county mansion, Shen Chen proposed that Liu Bei and they had been traveling from Jiangzhou for several days, and they should rest and rest first, and then inspect military affairs tomorrow.

But Liu Bei insisted on looking at Shen Chen's tactical plan for this battle, and wanted to hear his overall layout for the battle against Wu.

Because none of Liu Bei's five strategists were brought, he only brought Dong He, the commander of the army, Ma Liang, Shangshu Yang Yi and others.

Moreover, they often live in Yizhou, and they do not know much about the situation in Jiangdong.

Therefore, this time the strategic and tactical planning, Liu Bei will give Shen Chen full authority to be responsible, and they will all listen to Shen Chen's arrangement, so the entire strategic and tactical arrangement of this big battle will be on Shen Chen alone.

Naturally, they wanted to listen to Shen Chen's plan.

Shen Chen couldn't resist him, so he had to take them to the main hall to explain his tactics this time.

Liu Bei also sat down in the hall, and Shen Chen asked people to remove the main seat, erect a wooden board on the main seat, and hang the map of Jiangdong he had drawn.

All the soldiers below are seated.

Shen Chen stood above, pointed to Yutu and said: "I don't need to say more about the strategic tasks of this battle, eliminate Sun Quan, occupy Yangzhou, and even if necessary, maybe drive Cao Wei's forces out of Huainan, take Huaishui as the boundary, and achieve our goal of dividing the world into two." ”

"Hmm."

Liu Bei nodded slightly, this is a strategy set by Shen Chen Zhuge Liang more than ten years ago.

Shen Chen continued: "For tactical tasks, I think the troops should be divided into two routes, one way and the main waterway, from the south of the river. You can break through the mouth of the water first, and you can besiege the defenders of the mouth of the mouth first, bypass the water dock from the land north of the river, cross the river from Liyang, and take Jianye directly, but I don't recommend doing this. ”

"Is it because the river is difficult to cross, and there is still a problem with transporting grain?"

Ma Liang asked.

Shen Chen glanced at him approvingly: "Yes, the river is several miles long and horizontal from north to south, as wide as the sea, and the army lacks big ships and can't cross the river." Moreover, we have made a long journey from Jingzhou, and the best way is to transport grain and grass by ship, and it is indeed not easy to transport grain by land. ”

The battle of Jin to destroy Eastern Wu was that the main force of the Jin State first destroyed the forces of Jingzhou of Eastern Wu, and then went south by boat to take Jianye. On the contrary, Huainan was so close, but only Wang Hun and Sima Ling were sent, which was the problem of crossing the river and transporting grain.

Guan Yu stroked his beard and said: "This battle is to break through the Xukou from Jiangbei, Wenyuan is now stationed in Hefei, do we need to arrange men and horses to guard against Cao's army?" ”

"Cao Pi is too busy to take care of himself, how can he have the courage to come to the rescue of Jiangdong."

Shen Chen said with a smile: "I heard that after Cao Cao's death, many sergeants and soldiers mutinied and dispersed, just dealing with civil strife and suppressing the rebellion Cao Pi was anxious. ”

In history, as soon as Cao Cao died, the Qingzhou soldiers rebelled.

It doesn't have that much impact now, because most of the mutinous Qingzhou soldiers are now all his prisoners and are currently detained in Jiangxia farming.

But even if only a few soldiers mutiny in the rear, it will be a very headache for the Wei State, which is greatly injured.

Unless Cao Pi is crazy, he is probably not so bold to send troops.

And even if he dares to send troops, he is not afraid, so many soldiers and horses in Nanyang are not vegetarians, he dares to send troops to Huainan, and Zhou Budo will dare to send troops to Henan, to see who can't hold back first.

Dong He, the lieutenant general in charge of the army, said: "Governor, I have a question. ”

"You say."

"Why don't you transport the soldiers to the south bank of the river first and attack from the south bank?"

"That's a good question."

Shen Chen smiled and pointed to the map and said: "The terrain of Jiangdong belongs to the northern plains, the south is hilly and high, the mountains are connected to the river, the only attack point in the south of the Yangtze River is here, called Tongguan Township, and the north to Yanzai Township, you can directly take Jianye by land." ”

Everyone saw a few points marked on the map, because the map only roughly pointed out the location of the enemy and us, and only drew some hill graphics in the southeast hills, so Dong He had no idea about the terrain here.

In fact, during the Han Dynasty, the Yangtze River in this area was still very wide, almost connected with the southeast hills, the west and north of the mountain is the mighty Yangtze River, and there are no roads on the south bank.

The only place that could be attacked by land was Tongguan Township, which was probably located in the east of the urban area of Tongling City in the later generations, that is, in the area of Tongguan District.

Dong He asked, "Since there is a road, why not use this place as a point of attack?" ”

Shen Chen explained: "It's not that I want to fight with Sun Quan in the mouth of the water, but after Yanzai Township, there are Zheqi City and Spring Valley City, and the rivers here are flooded, all over the swamps, it is not easy for the infantry to attack, and the transportation of grain and grass is also inconvenient, and there are important towns such as Wuhu, Yuhu, and Danyang in the rear. ”

The urban area of Tongling City was also connected with the Yangtze River in the Han Dynasty, and the Tianjing Lake, South Lake, Tongling West Lake and other places in the urban area were natural lakes formed by the Yangtze River breaking out of the embankment land and the river water slowly receding.

And Yanzai Township is the Fanchang District of Wuhu City in the later generations, placed in the Qin period, the west is a large mountain range, the east is also a large mountain range, only to the north there is a road to Wuhu.

But the key defense of Koto is also laid out here.

Because there is a mountain called Zheqi Ridge in the west of Fanchang District in later generations, this Zheqi Ridge is the place where the Han Dynasty Ochre City was built, guarding the Yangtze River in the north, choking the passage in the south, and there is Chungu County in the middle, which is the throat of the main place.

Therefore, it is not that Shen Chen has to fight the battle of Xukou, but that this place is indeed the last line of defense in Jiangdong, and it is also the pass that Sun Quan must defend to the death.

The mouth of the river contained the enemy's attack on the north bank of the river, and the city of ochre contained the enemy's attack on the south bank of the river.

Topographically speaking, unless Liu Bei's group can fly over, even if it has occupied the entire north bank of the Yangtze River like the Western Jin Dynasty, it will have to rely on the naval army to forcibly break through in order to kill Jianye.

Liu Bei understood this, frowned and said, "Then according to Xiaoqing's meaning, aren't we going to fight a tough battle with Sun Quan in the mouth of the water and in the city of ochre?" I remember that when Huang Zu sent troops to Jiangdong, he was stopped by Sun Quan here. ”

"Yes."

Shen Chen nodded: "Sun Quan occupies a favorable location, and this place is indeed an insurmountable hurdle. ”

"If the terrain is difficult to penetrate, can you disintegrate the enemy from the inside?"

Ma Liang asked: "I heard that after Sun Quan's fiasco in Jingzhou, the people of Jiangdong were impetuous, turbulent, and unstable, and the army probably had no fighting spirit. ”

Shen Chen said with a smile: "Ji Chang asked the point, yes, in this battle, I think the siege is the bottom, and the heart is the top." If you want to destroy Koto as soon as possible in a short period of time, you must start from the inside of the enemy. ”

Liu Bei hurriedly said: "Does Xiaoqing have a countermeasure?" ”

"Yes."

Shen Chen nodded, nodded at the bottom of the map and said: "Sun Quan's main force is now dominated by the strength of the family, and the family resists us, and only wants to surrender to Cao and is unwilling to return to Han, so the strength of the family will inevitably fight to the death, and the mouth of the family has become a hard bone to gnaw here, but we have an advantage in the south." ”

He drew a circle in the southeast hilly area: "The Shanyue people have a long-standing grudge with the Sun family, and the Sun family wants to enslave Shanyue and force them to pay harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, so the Shanyue people rise up and rebel endlessly. And we are strict with the scholars and treat the people well, and the heads of Shanyue and Jiangdong Qiantou are all interested in us. ”

"At least in the past six months, the leaders of the Shanyue tribes in the southeast of Jiangdong have submitted countless letters to us, and there are many local officials and generals from the bottom of the poor family who also plan to serve, and even more than a dozen families are willing to submit."

"So from Jingnan to Yuzhang Nanchang, and then from Nanchang to Yuhan, Geyang, Shangrao, Dingyang, Xin'an, Wusheng, Zhuji and other places, along the way the mountains and more are all the horses, although the road is thousands of miles away, but where the people want, I don't know how many soldiers and horses will join us, and there is no need to worry about the problem of grain and grass."

"When the time comes, you only need to send a general to attack Qian Tang for thousands of miles, Qian Tang's defenders are insufficient, and the people's hearts have long been no longer belonging to Jiangdong, Qian Tang can be easily broken, when the time comes, kill all the way from Huiji to Wu County, destroy Sun Quan's nest, and then take Jianye directly, and the front-line army should be combined with the outside, so why worry about Jiangdong is uneven, and the great cause of the lord is not successful?"

In the end, Shen Chen already had a smile on his face, smiling at everyone in the audience.

The world is constantly in turmoil, and there are three legs in history. Between Wei, Shu and Wu, a magnificent heroic epic was outlined.

But now the situation has changed greatly, Jiangdong is about to be destroyed, and Soochow is about to completely disappear in the long river of history.

Mr. Qian Mu, a famous historian in later generations, once analyzed that the Liu Bei group of the Three Kingdoms treated the people well, fought with the scholars all the year round, and did not fornicate with the family, so it became the first target to be eliminated.

The Cao Wei clique and the family were close to each other, sometimes suppressing and sometimes co-opting, so they became the second regime to be eliminated.

Only the Sun Wu Group has always been bound to the family and has received the full support of the family, coupled with the geographical advantages and people, can it last so long and finally perish.

This shows how powerful the family was at that time. The Jiangdong Shi clan almost controlled a large amount of property, population, and land, so they were able to contribute troops to the Sun clan, and they were always in the main force of resistance to the Liu Bei group and the Cao Wei group.

But now Sun Quan has been defeated several times, and even the foundation of the Jiangdong Shi clan is close to being exhausted, the population has exhausted the grain and grass, and the people of Jiangdong are angry.

At this time, the Liu Bei group, which was kind to the people at the bottom, came to destroy Sun Wu, and the people of Jiangdong naturally ran to tell each other, everyone was looking forward to the return of Wang Shi, and everywhere he went, the people would welcome him wholeheartedly.

The ancients were not as good as the location, and the location was not as good as the people.

The people of the Jiangdong Group are close to being exhausted, but the people of the Liu Bei Group have already begun, so this battle is naturally logical!