Chapter 892

Past Jiangling is a vast alluvial plain, and the ten-mile smoke waves of Dongting Lake are also on that side. Past this plain, it is directly Changsha, with no danger to defend.

So Old Cao stationed a heavy army here, along the Yangtze River, all the way from here to Yangzhou, blocking the riverbank. The purpose was not to let Wang Yan's army cross the river in large numbers, guarding the rear.

Old Cao certainly couldn't beat Wang Yan's navy; such large warships sailed into the river, and Cao Cao's warships were like small sampans. Of course, the navy's warships couldn't sail in; sailing against the current was too tiring. But even if they didn't fight with warships, Wang Yan still had warships sailing near the coast and in inland rivers, which were not comparable to Cao Cao's warships.

Fighting on a boat, Old Cao had no choice, but wanting to land was not easy; Old Cao's heavy army stationed on the riverbank was for this reason, absolutely not giving Wang Yan a chance.

"Kongming, you have already observed the situation on the opposite bank; how to cross the river to attack?" Wang Yan carried his hands behind his back and asked very casually.

Zhuge Liang was not afraid of General Wang at all and said without hesitation: "Cao Cao takes risks, and will definitely seek an opportunity to cross the Han River and disrupt our hinterland. We can send troops from Nanyang, cross the Han River to meet the attack, and attack the Shu region. Our soldiers are sharp and generals are brave, and Cao's army cannot block them; Cao Cao will not dare to abandon the Shu region and will definitely send reinforcements. In this way, the troop strength on the opposite bank will definitely be insufficient, and Cao Cao will definitely retreat to defend the Shu region, resisting us with steepness, so I can settle the Jing and Yang regions in one battle."

Wang Yan asked with a smile: "Can you take on this responsibility?"

"Twenty thousand great troops, one brave general, will definitely block Cao's army from invading, attack the Shu region, and force Cao Cao to send reinforcements." Zhuge Liang said decisively, not leaving any room for himself.

"Words cannot be said to the end; Cao Cao is not a mediocre person, and there are more capable officials under his command, who indeed have good plans. I use troops, first emphasizing cherishing soldiers. Bashu has many dangerous places, easy to defend and hard to attack; if it is not necessary, do not sacrifice the lives of soldiers in vain. The general trend is with me, Cao Cao will definitely lose; the success or failure of a morning or evening does not hinder the big event; you should keep this in mind."

"Yes, General."

"The position of military advisor remains unchanged; you go to Hanzhong, supervise Zhao Yun to lead twenty thousand troops to attack the Shu region, and all grain and fodder will be supervised by Guo Jia. The document will be sent first, go."

"Liang, will definitely not fail the General's expectations. If the matter is not accomplished, lift..."

"If it is not accomplished, it is not accomplished; do not sacrifice the good lives of my sons in vain; go." Wang Yan waved his hand, not wanting to talk more nonsense.

Zhuge Liang cupped his hands, bowed, and retreated; after a while, he rode away.

Wang Yan also wrote a document, used his general seal, and handed it to his personal guards to pass the order. First via Luoyang, then sent to Hanzhong.

Before this, Wang Yan actually had chatted with Zhuge Liang a lot; he was indeed not a pushover and had considerable level. This is normal; after all, Zhuge Liang was only twenty years old when he came out of the mountains, and he could fully utilize various resources, preserve vitality, and achieve victory with very few troops.

So after communicating, although Wang Yan did not have the ancient king's thirst for talent and knelt to invite people, he also gave trust, letting Zhuge Liang, this County Magistrate, supervise military affairs, lead Zhao Yun to command twenty thousand troops, and independently control a route of the great army, which was a position of great importance.

Wang Yan did not stay long; after investigating the enemy situation, he took his personal guards down the river and landed at Shicheng (Ma'anshan City).

This place originally belonged to the border region; after the war started, Huang Zhong, who guarded here, cooperated with Dian Wei's Xuanjia Camp, resisted the surprise attack, fought a battle and pushed out more than a hundred miles, and directly pushed the front line to Wuhu. So the Shicheng area also became the rear.

"Huang Zhong, pays respects to the General."

"Dian Wei, pays respects to the General."

The two generals were wearing armor, respectfully hitting their chests with their right fists, performing military salutes. Behind them, five hundred elite soldiers also performed the same action, shouting to see the General, and paying attention to the General standing on the wooden board at the pier.

General Wang was still in a green robe, walked onto the pier in a few steps, stood straight, also knocked his chest with a bang, and shouted victory.

In an instant, all the soldiers were shouting victory.

After a set of rituals that inspired people and seemed to be of no use, Wang Yan followed Huang Zhong and Dian Wei, walked along the river, and strolled toward the front line.

"How are the casualties recently?"

"Since the battle, a thousand people have been killed or injured. Cao's army has several times more troops than us, although my department has expanded the army by twenty thousand, the place of defense is very wide. And their troop mobilization is complex, continuously harassing my army..."

Huang Zhong said Old Cao's fighting method with a face of indignation.

Old Cao indeed had a hand, and the war was fought well. Yangzhou is the main battlefield; Old Cao sent 200,000 troops to attack fiercely at the beginning, and later, seeing that Huang Zhong and others blocked the attack, he sent reinforcements one after another. Although Huang Zhong and others helped each other, they lacked command and coordination, fought on their own, and suffered some losses.

Mainly because Old Cao relied on having many troops, coordinated the whole line, and repeatedly concentrated troops to attack one place. If there were reinforcements from other places, Old Cao would mobilize troops to take advantage of the emptiness. This led to the fierce generals under General Wang's command suffering some defeats.

Of course, they were not pushovers; the troops were strong, the logistics were strong, and although there were losses, it was not a collapse. And now it is the cold autumn, one day colder than the next, and Cao's army is still relatively poor in cold protection, which somewhat affected combat effectiveness. Overall, the situation was stabilized.

Dian Wei's side did not have any major casualties; there were only two thousand people in total, all heavy cavalry, and they had only injured dozens and died three people so far.

The advantage of heavy cavalry is there; the riverside is the main attack area, all alluvial plains, and heavy cavalry can be used. It should be used; for so many years, the Xuanjia Camp had almost never fought any battles.

"Listening to Hanzhong's words, more than 200,000 great troops are like arms, it must be Cao Cao commanding personally. Hanzhong, don't worry too much; the disadvantage of the war is not because of you generals. It is because of Cao Cao's surprise attack, I did not appoint a commander, you fought on your own, and your hearts and strengths were not the same. I came to Yangzhou for this reason, just to see how long Cao Cao can hold on."

Between laughter, several people got on warhorses and walked along the river straight to Wuhu. There were no people here long ago; they were either captured by Cao Cao or took the initiative to run to Wang Yan's side, and the dozens of miles at the border of the two sides were uninhabited.

And the city of Wuhu was not occupied by anyone. Because the front line was before Wuhu, Cao's army wanted to garrison but couldn't get in, and the army on Wang Yan's side did not have the rule of besieging the city.

General Wang started his enterprise for twenty-four years and had never fought a siege battle, let alone a city defense battle. What he did the most was besieging the city, absolutely not sacrificing the lives of generals for a city or a place. He would not shrink in the city like a turtle and let people come to fight.

Martial virtue must be established. Even if there is a city, set up tents in the wild; it is just dry, hard dry.

Of course, there must be strength there to be good; otherwise, wouldn't it become a fool. It's just that the pros and cons of the city are here; it defended against strong enemies, but also gave oneself a chance to be cowardly.

Came to the military tent that had just been set up for him, Wang Yan looked at the battlefield situation in Yangzhou today.

The strategic goal of Wang Yan's side in the entire Yangzhou battlefield is actually very clear, which is to take Nanchang. And then advance west from Nanchang, cross the Luoxiao Mountains (Wu Gong Mountain) and go straight to Changsha. It can be said that taking Nanchang is the victory of the Yangzhou battle. Then continue to fight, and the name in the later history books should be called the Battle of Changsha.

Cao Cao's side naturally also understood Wang Yan's strategic goal; he was just defending Nanchang from being obtained by Wang Yan and kept the front line at the front, not giving Wang Yan a chance.

The places where the two sides are currently fighting are centered around Mount Huang, mainly concentrated in Wuhu, Shexian, and Damu (Quzhou City).

Looking at it roughly, Wang Yan ordered: "Pass the order to Lu Bu, Zhang Fei, Gao Lan, and Taishi Ci's departments, ten days later, advance together and attack Cao's army fiercely."

"Yes! General!"

The military officer responsible for communication who had been sitting in the room until he grew hair responded, got up and ran out, wrote the military order, arranged for the delivery of the letter. Ten days is considering the time for fast horses to send letters and pre-war preparations; it must be fast.

Huang Zhong asked: "General, various places are already fighting endlessly, why is this?"

"This move is to 'attack fiercely' to confuse Cao Cao's vision. This time I lead the troops myself, attacking along the river. You lead the army to attack Wanling (Xuancheng), Jingxian, and Lingyang. If Cao Cao guards my place, other places will definitely not be able to resist. If he does not guard my place, then I can take Pengze in one battle and point to Nanchang. On the Hanzhong side, there are also troops attacking the Shu region; Cao Cao will definitely be unable to support from left to right and be overwhelmed."

"The General uses troops like a god; this battle will definitely be won."

"Definitely win!"

"Definitely win!" Dian Wei, who had been quiet for a long time, finally said a word.

Wang Yan laughed, asked people to send food up, ate with a group of military officers, chatted about the past, and told the truth; Liu Bei's startup team was all drunk...

This is all indeed existing; the unification war started, and the generals all began to be careful. They certainly believe that Wang Yan will not kill the donkey after the mill is finished; there has never been an emperor like Wang Yan in the past, but this does not delay them from being careful.

And his strategy is also quite effective. The so-called "empty is real, real is empty," just as he told Huang Zhong. This time he is attacking fiercely on the whole line, and the combat effectiveness of his army is there, and the strength of the generals is also there.

Because of Cao Cao's actions, the generals in Yangzhou have already expanded their troops, at least more than ten thousand. Cao Cao's 200,000-plus great army, of course, did not send four or five thousand to one place evenly. Instead, they were scattered in various places, and enough troops were left in Pengze and Nanchang.

The saying of attacking fiercely is to fight hard battles, that is, there can be a certain degree of combat damage; fighting like this, the combat effectiveness under his command is very high, and by then it will definitely be an emergency on the whole line.

Even if Cao Cao knows clearly that Wang Yan's purpose is along the Yangtze River, because in this way Wang Yan can use more forces to guard the riverside, Cao Cao has no way to block it. If he increases troops to block Wang Yan and Huang Zhong, then other places will definitely be beaten back; if he defends other places, then Wang Yan will fight all the way out.

But Cao Cao, even if he knows clearly that the troop strength along the coast is the largest, still dare not gamble, because he does not know whether there are more ambush troops in other places. After all, once Shexian and Damu are broken, then what comes next is Nanchang.

This is the difficulty of the commander; Old Cao will receive news of fighting from various places within a similar time, and he needs to analyze from it what Wang Yan's purpose is and try his best to make decisions to respond. Troops value speed; if there is no decision for a long time, the generals in front are just fighting for their lives there, because they cannot move without orders. But if they don't move, they might be beaten to death by the opposite side, it's just that simple.

It's time to test Old Cao...

Ten days passed in a flash; in the past time, Wang Yan again conscripted 15,000 troops to lead himself, reaching 20,000 people. Divide the troops into three routes, front, left, and right armies, and Wang Yan led the front army vanguard himself.

This time, the conscripted ones were Henan soldiers; the previous military order had been issued, and under efficient operation, the reserve militia had already gathered. In fact, to be precise, most of them were Jizhou soldiers. The troops supplemented by Huang Zhong and others were Yangzhou local soldiers, and to be precise, most of them were the former Xuzhou troops, the group of people who followed Liu Bei here in the early years.

After breakfast, General Wang stood in a "big" shape, his feet wider than his shoulders, his arms stretched out, letting his personal guards put on armor for him, while his brain was thinking about how many years he had not fought a battle. After calculating carefully, it had been fifteen years. The last battle was the battle where he killed Gongsun Zan in Taiyuan; he didn't even put on armor and fought Gongsun Zan and more than ten generals under his command one-on-one.

He misses the old, but he is not a person who is stubborn about the past. However, he is already forty-two years old now; he is still a person after all, and his physical fitness is indeed declining, although the influence is not big, only a little bit. But it is inevitable to make him think about his youth.

However, he has many such feelings; every world where he has stayed for decades, he can't help but want to think about it, and often take stock of gains and losses.

Soon, the personal guards helped him put on the mysterious iron armor, put on the red cloak, Wang Yan fastened his helmet, took the horse spear, and walked out of the military tent.

Outside, there were already rows of soldiers standing solemnly, and the horses were constantly digging the ground. A pair of fanatical eyes looked at the majestic General Wang.

A small part of them are old soldiers, and most of them are new soldiers, who have not seen Wang Yan much. Now they are going to fight with the General, so they are naturally fanatical.

Wang Yan rode on the horse, silently scanned the black military formation, and did not see a pair of fearful eyes. He nodded with satisfaction and waved his hand.

The personal guards behind him picked up the horn tied to the horse, put enough strength, drummed up their mouths, and the heavy horn sound rang out. In an instant, the silent military formation became restless, and shouts came one after another. Then, they entered the west in an orderly manner.

On the opposite side, there were 50,000 troops, stationed in various places, and frequently mobilized and harassed. Correspondingly, the troops on Wang Yan's side also corresponded to garrison. A local battlefield, and countless small battlefields, the wars of various places intertwined, constituting a war of considerable scale.

This time, the troops led by Wang Yan himself were only three thousand, and he wanted to find the enemy's main force and then kill them. Dian Wei was still behind him; that was a guarantee, a surprise force. Behind that, there were mobilized militia, as well as local militia gathered, responsible for guarding the rear.

Old Cao was afraid that Wang Yan would secretly climb over mountains and ridges to insert, and Wang Yan was also afraid that Old Cao would come over, and Old Cao was more ruthless than him; in the case that the militia were all drawn out, there was no defensive force in the rear, and Old Cao would definitely kill them all.

Wang Yan rode on the horse and marched slowly, advancing forward, and communication cavalry passed news from various places. The front was already fighting, some achieved victory, some were surrounded. The main reason lies in the enemy's troop strength, and his troop strength is small, and the enemy's room is larger.

So General Wang micro-managed the front line, directly dispatching teams of more than five hundred people, and from time to time sent teams under his command to support.

Still that sentence, the art of war is to mobilize one's own troops to mobilize the other side's troops, and try to form a situation of more fighting less in the local area.

Even if Wang Yan's army's combat effectiveness is stronger, five hundred soldiers in formation are enough to beat Old Cao's thousand-man team. But now it is not the time when everyone was a grassroots team before; Old Cao's soldiers were at least elite trained for six years. Wanting to have a scene like the Battle of Hebei with Yuan Shao back then is impossible, and it can always cause him not small casualties.

This point can be seen from the casualties caused by Old Cao's surprise attack on his army. If the soldiers were still of the quality of six years ago, then this time Old Cao's active attack would definitely be a crushing defeat.

Adapting to the enemy's growth is something that must be done.

So Wang Yan was also constantly mobilizing, and the large troops were pressing close, not saying to fight more with less, but also trying to form a situation of equal troop strength, then he would achieve victory in the local war here.

In fact, after fighting for a day, Xu Chu already felt obvious pressure. He knew that the opposite side was Huang Zhong, but Huang Zhong did not know it was him, and the two had not fought yet. However, the confrontation between the two armies, generally speaking, was that each had wins and losses. But at the beginning, he indeed suffered a big loss, otherwise he would not have been pushed out by Huang Zhong for more than a hundred miles.

But after fighting for more than half a month, he was already familiar with Huang Zhong's path. However, today, his feeling was quite uncomfortable. He had strength but couldn't use it; every mobilization of his was known in advance by the opposite side, which made him very panicked and uneasy; it was the powerlessness of losing his grasp of the battlefield, and for a time he was a bit at a loss.

It seemed that the opposite side was a bottomless pit, which was extreme darkness, nothingness. He didn't know what the opposite side wanted to do, and even while fighting, he didn't know what he wanted to do.

War is of course also attacking the heart; losing for a day, losing for a day, casualties, being captured, etc., Xu Chu lost more than three thousand people and was already red-eyed from losing.

In the military tent, Xu Chu looked at the casualties counted by the military secretary, drank a glass of wine helplessly, ate a handful of peanuts, and frowned, thinking hard about what was going on.

Wen Chou had surrendered to Cao for a long time; he was not cut to death by Guan Yu, nor was he killed by Wang Yan; he was very lucky to live for many more years. This time, he was the Assistant Regional Commander for Xu Chu. He was also drinking, eating peanuts, and frowning.

Suddenly, he slapped the table and looked up suddenly. Looking at Xu Chu, who was in a bad mood and full of questions, he said decisively: "It must be Wang Yan!"

"Wang Yan?"

Xu Chu was surprised, and then couldn't help nodding: "It must be Wang Yan. Huang Zhong led troops to surprise Wanling, and the person leading the troops in Wuhu must be Wang Yan; if not, Huang Zhong would definitely not dare to divide the troops. Wang Yan is truly a god at using troops; I am not his opponent."

Wang Yan is powerful, Cao Cao is weak, so correspondingly, Xu Chu used the arrogant attitude of a strong person to speculate on Wang Yan, so he did not think that Wang Yan's status today, as well as the civil and military officials under his command, would still personally risk arrows and stones; after all, swords and guns have no eyes. The so-called "son of a thousand gold, do not sit under the eaves" is the principle.

But he didn't expect that Wang Yan just came.

He thought about Wang Yan's fierce past and nodded very simply, silently brewing his fatal blow.

The other side's Wen Chou was even less talkative; he was also dressed as a small soldier. Between him and Xu Chu, slightly in front, was a small soldier, wearing bright armor, hanging a cloak, holding a famous weapon...

Cao Cao knew that Xu Chu was brewing, turned to listen to others' reports, and adjusted his tactics in real time.

Before, he had not really confronted Wang Yan's army on the front-line battlefield until this time, until today, that he finally felt what people often said about the fierceness of the soldiers under Wang Yan and how strong the combat effectiveness was.

If there were no accidents, his 50,000 troops really couldn't beat Wang Yan's 20,000 people; they were really strong. But he was really unconvinced, so he insisted on staying here, just to wait for that ray of life.

After seven or eight minutes, watching Wang Yan successfully kill in, Xu Chu shouted: "Kill!"

As his voice fell, the Assistant Regional Commander who disguised as the main general rode forward, killing toward Wang Yan who was rushing at the front. Xu Chu and Wen Chou fell behind by a horse's head, one left and one right, and also rushed over...

The vanguard General Wang was already a bloody man at this moment, all from the blood of unknown soldiers, and he only felt his blood surging, very happy. He had been a turtle for a long time, so he had to move his legs. He belongs to the stage of moving his legs now.

Since he was not cowardly, he was very brave, and brave to the bones. This seems to be a sick sentence, but it is not. He was really cowardly before, with a sub-healthy bamboo-like body, and what kind of pretense was he pretending; if someone punched him, he would lie on the ground and ask for money in minutes. Now he is really brave, which stems from his strength, which can eliminate any trouble and ensure his own strength.

Similarly, the gap between children from rich and powerful families and children like him who walked out of the mountain valley is the same; many principles are connected...

His vision is very good, and he has already seen the bright-armored main general rushing toward him. Similarly, he also saw the two riders following the main general.