Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3629: The chess game is difficult to control, the army changes, the river waves are surging, and the boats are plotting

Jiang Jiong is the tentacle extended by Fei Qian, but the tentacle cannot be equated with Fei Qian’s own hands and feet.

The same was true for other generals and soldiers.

Fei Qian has now gradually realized this, but he also cannot turn back.

It's impossible to take back all the command rights and then install a small system in Fei Qian's head, with a small map in front of him and a small mouse in his hand, so that he can perform multi-threaded operations at any time, right?
In the early days, Fei Qian was still able to adjust some of the details, but now it is almost impossible.

If Fei Qian really does everything himself, he will definitely be exhausted, and the key is that he may not be able to do it well. Focusing on the big and letting go of the small has become the working mode that Fei Qian must adapt to at present.

Like now.

"Send Lord Pang here."

Fei Qian dismounted from his horse and walked aside.

The soldiers were still marching in long columns, and the rising smoke and dust covered the sky.

Fei Qian stood silently, his eyes sweeping over the soldiers.

Although these soldiers look similar in appearance, in fact the overall quality of the Cavalry Corps is no longer as good as the group that Fei Qian led to conquer the north and south after he entered Guanzhong.

It's not that Xu Chu, who came later, is not as good as Huang Cheng who originally followed Fei Qian, but the overall level of the soldiers inevitably declined.

This is a simple and unavoidable problem.

The larger the denominator of the average, the lower the average will inevitably be.

As for some average values ​​in the future, they will inexplicably rise year by year. Even if the economy is down, inflation and unemployment rate are rising, they will still continue to rise...

That's very impressive.

People grow old and get injured. When a group of veterans retire, there will inevitably be a group of new recruits to replace them.

Therefore, the combat level of the Hussar Army is not a fixed value. It will fluctuate up and down, and it is all within the normal range.

In other words, the Hussars are still the Hussars, and their average value is indeed above the average level of the Han Dynasty's soldiers. However, it would be a bit funny to say that every one of these Hussars can crush the soldiers of the old Han Dynasty system.

No matter how arrogant Fei Qian was, he would never think that the soldiers and military academies under his command could be invincible under any circumstances.

The larger the scale of the war, the more the outcome of the battle tends to be determined by the average of all soldiers, rather than the upper limit of a specific soldier or general. In small-scale battles, unconventional means such as surprise attacks, as well as the personal bravery of generals and military officers, can indeed change the direction of the battle, but as the scale of the war increases, the proportion of unconventional means and personal bravery will decrease.

Fei Qian had to adapt to this change.

This also forces generals and military academies to adapt.

"My Lord."

Pang Tong came to Fei Qian.

Fei Qian nodded and signaled the guards to unfold the map.

"There are Cao's troops in Henei, with more than 5,000 vanguards." Fei Qian pointed to the area around Xiaopingjin and Mengjin, "Captain Jiang encountered the enemy here, and there were many battles, with both sides suffering casualties."

Pang Tong narrowed his eyes, pinched his chin, and thought for a while, "This is the strategy of Cao's army's strengths and weaknesses."

"A strategy of false and real?" Fei Qian looked at the map, "Shi Yuan, why don't you tell me in detail."

Pang Tong pointed at the land of Henei, "Henei is where the stars divide into Cang and Mao, and where the land borders the imperial capital. In the north, it relies on Taihang Mountain to protect Yan and Zhao, and in the south, it embraces the Yellow River to protect Luoyang. In the past, Emperor Gaozu controlled the Chu and Xiang Yu by Ao Cang, and Emperor Guangwu controlled the Han Dynasty by occupying Henei. In the past, Yuan Benchu ​​had the people of Jizhou, and Henei was actually his elbow; now Cao Mengde holds the emperor's order, and Huai County controls the throat."

Fei Qian nodded slightly.

Henei County is located north of the Yellow River and south of the Taihang Mountains. It is an important area connecting the Central Plains and the north. This should be a place of contention for military strategists, because if you control it, you can connect the north and the south, threaten Luoyang below, and find an opportunity to force Yecheng above.

"This place is a crossroads that connects to all directions. It is a key place. In the west, we can attack Tongguan and intimidate Yongliang. In the east, we can rush to Yanyu and shake Xuxian. In the north, we can cross Zhuozhang and control Yecheng. In the south, we can go through Chenguan and make Luoyang panic. With Cao Mengde's wisdom, he will not give up this place lightly. It is reasonable to have a large number of troops here." Pang Tong continued, "However, these 5,000 people are insufficient for the upper part, but sufficient for the lower part. This is to test the lord. If the lord is real, I will respond with false troops. If the lord is false, I can turn it into real."

Pang Tong drew a line with his finger, from the direction of Henei to Yanzhou, "If my guess is correct, Cao Mengde's camp must be located here... From the top, he can advance into Henei and drive Jizhou away, from the bottom, he can control Yingchuan and stabilize Yuzhou, from the left, he can defend Sishui and strangle Chenggao, from the right, he can protect Xuxian and secure Qiaojun. In the past, the Black Mountain Army came out of Taihang, marched into Yanyu, and eroded the local area. Cao Mengde moved left and right... I concluded that there must be many ferry bridges on the upper and lower reaches of the river, and Cao's army can quickly cross them..."

Fei Qian frowned.

Sometimes strategies are just that simple.

In other words, any keyboard warrior can come up with a "decent" battle plan.

For example, if you ask a keyboard warrior how to destroy the enemy, most of them will express contempt, saying that this is easy, just surround them, block them from all sides, and they will be destroyed, right?

Does it make sense?
That makes sense, everyone understands this.

Therefore, for keyboard warriors, if they surrounded and destroyed the enemy, then the enemy generals were stupid. On the contrary, if they failed to surround and destroy the enemy, then our generals were stupid. As for whether the conditions were met during the battle, whether they were prepared, the morale of the personnel, the degree of training, etc., these were not considered by keyboard warriors.

There is a mountain to the north of Luoyang, and beyond the mountain is a big river.

There are three and a half crossings.

There are Shanjin, Xiaopingjin, Mengjin, and Wushejin.

Wushejin is smaller, and Shanjin is relatively farther away from Luoyang, so the main ferry crossings are still Mengjin and Xiaopingjin.

Going east from Luoyang, the exit is Sishui Pass.

Of course, you can also choose to take mountain roads such as Yique Pass and Taigu Pass, but these mountain roads are not very suitable for the deployment of large-scale troops.

Especially for cavalry like those under Fei Qian, if there is no wide space to accelerate the cavalry, then the effectiveness of the cavalry will be even worse than that of elite infantry.

Fei Qian pointed at the location of Jiang Jiong marked on the map twice, "Captain Jiang is blocked here. There are mountains to the north, rivers to the south, and ups and downs in the earth to the east... If I send cavalry to cross, it will be difficult to deploy... Unless I send infantry."

Jiang Jiong was not given too many cavalry because the terrain at the southern foot of Taihang Mountain was narrow and difficult to deploy. Only after breaking through Wen County would the terrain in Henei gradually become more spacious.

Now Jiang Jiong was trapped in a narrow strip of land in Hanoi County and could hardly break through.

If you want to break through, you need to increase your troops.

We cannot increase troops at will.

Fei Qian stroked his beard and suddenly turned to another question, "What did Cao Mengde do in Gong County?"

Pang Tong's eyes flickered, "My Lord, could it be an old trick from Hedong?"

Fei Qian took a breath and frowned.

This……

The Fen River in Hedong is flowing, so even if Cao Cao deliberately "poisoned" the river, after Fei Qian ordered an inspection and dug out the rotten corpses buried in the river, he waited for the water to flow fully and then boiled the water, which basically avoided bacterial infection.

Even if there are occasional corpses that slip through the net and are not recovered, given the large water flow, it would be reckless to talk about toxicity without considering the dosage.

Gong County also has the Yi and Luo rivers.

Of course, this possibility cannot be ruled out.

But the possibility is not very high.

Fei Qian felt that Cao Cao’s focus should not be on this aspect.

So where was Cao Cao's deployment in Gong County?
"Send another thousand infantrymen to Captain Jiang..." Fei Qian looked into the distance and said, "We don't ask to enter Henei, but we ask not to lose Hedong. What do you think?" Pang Tong nodded and bowed, "My lord is wise."

Since Hanoi is already on guard, it is difficult to change the route, so we can only go through Gongxian.

"Send an order, Guanzhong and Hedong, prepare more herbs to prevent plague."

……

……

Big river.

There were many ships, and one after another, they were loaded with food, fodder, and weapons, preparing to board and get ready to set off.

On top of the ship, the battle flag of the Sun family of Jiangdong was flying high.

After Lu Su returned to Jiangdong, he basically unified his thoughts with Sun Quan, Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong and others, identified the most pressing interests at the time, reorganized the alliance agreement with Cao's army, tapped into the war potential, and reorganized the warship fleet.

This can only be called a "miracle".

But this is not a miracle of Sun Quan, nor a miracle of Jiangdong and others, but a miracle of the people of Jiangdong.

Although China is generally a land-based country, it does not mean that the Chinese people have not explored overseas waters.

With the exception of the Qing Dynasty, which was whitewashed in later generations but actually achieved nothing but failure, every dynasty since the Qin Dynasty began its large-scale search for overseas immortal mountains, up to the Ming Dynasty, tried to open up the water and advance overseas.

Even Sun Erlangzi has made moves to expand overseas.

Sun Quan was able to expand overseas thanks to Jiangdong's powerful shipbuilding industry. The main body of this shipbuilding industry was not Sun Erlangzi alone, but the people of Jiangdong, especially the shipbuilding craftsmen system of Jiangdong.

It was precisely because of these hardworking and intelligent craftsmen and common people, who were looked down upon by the sons of the gentry, that Jiangdong was able to quickly reorganize its fleet after suffering a setback.

Compared with Cao Cao's side, Jiangdong was relatively less under the pressure of war.

Most of the Jiangdong nobles did not feel much difference between submitting to Cao Cao or Fei Qian. They knew that the position of the master of the world was definitely not something they could get their hands on. The only difference was in how much benefit they could gain.

If Cao Cao won, they would try to negotiate with Cao Cao.

If Fei Qian wins, they will want to hook up with Fei Qian.

This kind of "self-knowledge" does not mean that the Jiangdong gentry during the Three Kingdoms period were so smart, but that their economic strength during the Three Kingdoms period was not strong, and they could not compare with the gentry in Jizhou and Yuzhou in terms of culture.

Otherwise, you can refer to the Jiangnan gentry during the Ming Dynasty.

During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the level of the gentry in Jiangdong was actually the worst, even worse than that of Sichuan and Shu.

After all, Sichuan has been developed since the Qin Dynasty, and some great Confucian scholars appeared in Sichuan during the Qin and Han Dynasties, but what about Jiangdong?
It was not until the Jin Dynasty that Jiangdong began to develop slowly. Interestingly, even though the Jin Dynasty moved south and brought with it a large number of craftsmen, technology, culture, etc., they were still called "Northern Barbarians" by the local gentry in Jiangdong. In history, Lu Wan, a southern gentry, once ridiculed himself for marrying Wang Dao, a northern gentry: "Although we are from Wu, we are almost barbarians"...

This time, the Jiangdong fleet was not very strong. It was mainly composed of small and medium-sized warships. The number of large warships was very limited, and at most there were only one or two ships serving as the commander's ships.

The governor was Huang Gai and the deputy governor was Lu Su.

It is naturally incomparable to the scale of twenty or thirty warships that Zhou Yu led on the expedition before.

Moreover, the quality of the Jiangdong naval soldiers in this fleet also dropped significantly.

Strictly speaking, these Jiangdong navy troops were more like temporary teams formed to achieve performance and recruit people, so these Jiangdong navy troops formed by various Jiangdong families seemed a little excited when they boarded the ship.

They were full of fighting spirit, not for the purpose of fighting against the Sichuan navy, but for preparing to go to Jiangxia and Jianghuai areas, and take advantage of the battle between Cao Cao and Fei Qian to transport back some manpower and material resources that they had long coveted but had never had the chance to "procure".

Of course, in some aspects, one still has to maintain a certain attitude, which is why Huang Gai and Lu Su were appointed as the chief and deputy governors respectively.

After all, even if it is a large transport team, it still needs some guards to ensure its safe arrival at the port, right?

Cao Cao asked Jiangdong to assist Jiangling in attacking the Sichuan navy, and also promoted Erlangzi's official position, from a mediocre general to the General of Zhennan, which was also considered to be officially entering the ranks of famous generals. However, it was obviously unrealistic to ask the Jiangdong nobles to contribute money, manpower and people to fight the Sichuan navy for the sake of Sun Quan's false reputation.

It's okay to show off and contain them, but it's still difficult to really rush over and fight to the death with the Sichuan Navy...

However, if there is an opportunity, the Jiangdong navy will not just sit there and watch without taking any action.

Therefore, the four words "act according to the circumstances" became the words most frequently mentioned by Sun Quan and Huang Gai.

Huang Gai obeyed on the surface, but in his heart he did not respect Sun Quan very much.

The path taken by Sun Quan was different from those taken by Sun Jian and Sun Ce.

This inevitably made Huang Gai, who made his name with his military achievements, and the veteran generals of the Sun family feel worried.

Sun Quan was young when he succeeded to the throne, and the support of these veteran generals was very important to him, so Sun Quan must have adopted an attitude of winning over and respecting them at the beginning of his succession to the throne. However, as time went on, Sun Quan began to balance power to prevent the veteran generals' faction from becoming too powerful.

Sun Quan's fear and suspicion of Zhou Yu also emerged during this period. Although Sun Quan thought he had concealed it well, in fact, not only Zhou Yu knew it, but Huang Gai, Cheng Pu and others also knew it.

Just like this time when Zhou Yu passed away, Sun Quan personally carried the coffin and buried Zhou Yu with the ceremony of a disciple. He even paid out of his own pocket and gave him countless gold, silver and jewelry. However, he only gave honorary titles to those who passed away after Zhou Yu, but no real power.

This kind of political enticement and honorary preferential treatment also continued to Huang Gai, Cheng Pu and others.

Sun Quan appointed Huang Gai, Cheng Pu and others as prefects and generals, but in fact Sun Quan was trying to reduce the military power of the veteran generals and transfer it to new generation generals such as Zhou Tai and Lu Meng.

Historically, Sun Quan's "hide the good bow before the cunning rabbit dies" move made Huang Gai's children only inherit the title of Guannei Hou, and later served as the commander of the Yueqi of Wu. This kind of palace guard position is an honorary position, and basically there will be no chance to make military achievements in life. Cheng Pu's children were promoted to "Duting Hou", but they also had no military power and were squeezed out of the power core of Jiangdong. As a result, Han Dang's children inherited his father's title, but because of the crime of "promiscuity", they took thousands of their followers and their mother's coffin to defect to Cao Wei...

The crime of "improper sexual conduct" seems to be quite serious in later generations, but in fact, during the Three Kingdoms period...

Even in the later United States, where officials were strictly prohibited from soliciting prostitution, when a group of New York Metropolitan judges were exposed for soliciting prostitution and could not be suppressed, it was just a personal conduct issue, and they were dismissed from their posts, without involving any other related persons. By comparing this, we can understand how unreliable the accusation that Sun Quan placed Han Dang's child in the Three Kingdoms period was.

Although Sun Quan had not yet shown it so obviously, Huang Gai could sense it. This time Huang Gai agreed to lead the army again, in fact, Huang Gai was trying to inherit more of Zhou Yu's "legacy" instead of becoming a governor in a marginal area who specialized in fighting the Shanyue.

Unlike Huang Gai, Lu Su, as the deputy governor, was the product of a compromise among many forces.

After Zhou Yu's death, Lu Su became the "bridge" for the successor, but there were many people who wanted to be the "bridge", and whether he could do a good job depended on Lu Su's personal ability.

This time, Jiangdong's expedition involves a huge number of issues and interests no matter from which aspect.

It is like a microcosm of the current political situation in Jiangdong between Cao Cao and Fei Qian.

Sun Quan stood on the bank of the river, looking at the forest of sails on the shore. Suddenly, as if recalling something, a sad look appeared on his face. He covered his face with his sleeves and sighed, "Although King Zhao of Chu lost Zixu in the past, he still had Zixi. Now that Gongjin was broken in Jiangdong, it is like cutting off your right arm! Zijing, if you had Gongjin here, why would you worry!"

Lu Su straightened his clothes and bowed deeply, saying: "I heard that Duke Huan of Qi lost Guan Zhong, and I sighed three times at night. Zhongfu's legacy is still there. Although Gongjin is dead now, the strategy for river defense has been engraved in the golden box. The soldiers will be reunited and we will have a strong army in time. My lord, don't worry."

Sun Quan reached out and grabbed Lu Su's sleeve, "Gou Jian was trapped in Kuaiji, but he still had Fan Li holding the halberd; Tian Dan defended Jimo, but he still had the ingenious plan of using fire bulls. Don't you know that Fu Chai also had the hatred of hanging his eyes on the East Gate? It's hard to have everything!"

Lu Su lowered his head, looked at the lines on the leather boots on his feet, and replied: "In the past, Zhao Dun died suddenly, Cheng Ying saved the Zhao family; Yue Yi left Yan, Tian Dan recovered seventy cities. Although I am not smart, I am willing to follow the wisdom of Xian Gao to reward the army and defend Jiangzuo for my lord."

"Good!" Sun Quan immediately took Lu Su's hand, took off the jade ring from his waist and put it in Lu Su's hand, "I got Zi Jing, just like Qin Mu got Baili Xi from five goatskins. In the past, Yan Zhao built the Golden Terrace, now I will set up a green jade table for you."

Lu Su bowed his head and kowtowed, "In the past, Shen Baoxu cried in the Qin court and did not eat for seven days. Now I am willing to follow the example of Zhu Zhiwu and escape through a rope at night. I will make the situation of the north and south like a Wu hook reflecting the snow, and make it clear to the world. Please rest assured, my lord!"

Sun Quan took a long breath and patted Lu Su on the shoulder, "Flowers bloom and fall in due time, the foundation of Jiangdong rests on your shoulders..."

At that time, the wind was blowing across the river, and the flags were fluttering, just like blooming flowers.

When the king and his minister looked at each other, there was light in their eyes, as if they were a perfect match.