Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2558 Liu Zheng's 100 cavalrymen descend on Tan County, Qi Jiguang avoids the enemy's strength and attacks their weakness.

When the Qing-Han naval forces launched a surprise attack on Xuzhou, Donghai County, being located near the sea, was the first to bear the brunt. As a military officer of the county, the Commandant of the County naturally had the responsibility to protect the territory and ensure the safety of the people.

On one hand, he reported the situation to Guo Ziyi at the front line and to the governor in the rear. On the other hand, Wu Lin led his troops to Houqiu to defend against the enemy.

At this time, Wu Lin only had five hundred soldiers available.

If Zhou Yu hadn't stepped forward to offer his advice at this crucial moment, Wu Lin would have been in dire straits.

Unfortunately, Zhou Yu still appeared and disappeared without a trace. After helping him this time, he immediately vanished again.

However, it was precisely because Zhou Yu saved Wu Lin that he indirectly brought trouble upon Wen Yanbo, the governor of Donghai Commandery.

Unable to capture Houqiu in a short time, Liu Zheng decisively abandoned the area.

To be more precise, it wasn't that he was completely helpless against Houqiu. It was just that the reward and the benefits were disproportionate.

If it really comes down to a direct confrontation, he not only has to consider the issue of casualties, but also the issue of time.

If the delay continues, Guo Ziyi's reinforcements from the north may arrive soon.

However, no one would have expected that Liu Zheng, who had no choice but to abandon Houqiu, would secretly lead a hundred cavalrymen to bypass Houqiu and launch a surprise attack on Tanxian, which was located behind Houqiu.

The story of Li Cunxiao's eighteen horsemen breaking through the city is almost universally known, but it is only a continuation of folk tales and novels.

However, Liu Zheng's twelve horsemen taking Xinyang is a historical fact.

Tan County was now not only depleted of military strength, but also lacked capable generals. It was indeed defeated by Liu Zheng in a single battle, and the prefect Wen Yanbo and the assistant prefect Wang Can were both killed in battle.

Of course, the death of Wen Yanbo, a prefect, was not enough to give Qi Jiguang a headache.

What really gave him a headache was that Wang Shu, Wang Han, and Wang Yunzhi also suffered in this incident.

Wang Shu's lineage originated from the Wang clan of Bingzhou, who migrated to Langya in Xuzhou a few years ago.

A few years ago, with Li Xiang's support, the Central Plains aristocratic families suffered a considerable blow. At this time, the Wang family of Bingzhou moved a branch of their family there, purely to take advantage of the situation.

Of course, it wasn't just Wang Shu's lineage that moved there; Wang Kuang and Wang Yizhi's lineage also did.

Qi Jiguang was also helpless. Why did Wang Shu, Wang Han, and Wang Yunzhi go to the East Sea instead of staying in Langya? If they had stayed in Langya, would they have suffered this undeserved disaster?

Wang was, after all, a relative of the imperial family, and the deaths of these people were what truly gave him a headache.

The Qinghan Navy suddenly appeared in Xuzhou, and for a moment Qi Jiguang considered sending the 30,000-strong navy stationed on the Yangtze River out of the Yangtze.

Han Shizhong's Yellow River Navy participated in the battle in its entirety, but Qi Jiguang's Yangtze River Navy did not all go north to participate in the battle. At this time, 30,000 Yangtze River Navy troops remained in the Jiangdong area.

However, Qi Jiguang ultimately did not make this decision.

Mobilizing those troops would take too long. While traveling by water from Jiangdong to Xuzhou is indeed very short, at this time, the commander-in-chief, Qi Jiguang, is in the north, and it would take too long for his orders to reach him.

Moreover, the 30,000 naval troops left behind were to cooperate with the Yangzhou garrison in defending Yangzhou.

After all, based on the intelligence gathered so far, the remnants of Zhu Yuanzhang's forces who fled after the Southern War were currently in Yizhou.

In fact, even without the 30,000 Yangtze River naval troops, Yangzhou's defenses would be adequate. Although Chang Yuchun had moved south, he had only transferred half of his southern army; the other half remained in Yangzhou. However, without these 30,000 Yangtze River naval troops, if the Yizhou (Yizhou) were to cause trouble, Yangzhou would be forced to defend and unable to launch a counterattack.

However, once Southeast Asia is dealt with, we can then conveniently take care of Yizhou as well.

The reason for dealing with Southeast Asia first and then Taiwan is simply a matter of development.

Firstly, for the Great Jin Dynasty, the gains from conquering Southeast Asia would be even greater.

As for Yizhou, apart from threatening the flank of Yangzhou, it has little other use at the moment, but Yangzhou is already in the hands of the Jin army.

Therefore, as long as they can ensure that Taiwan does not affect them, they can focus on dealing with Southeast Asia first.

Secondly, there's the prospect of development.

Although Yizhou is controlled by the Zhu-Wu forces, it doesn't really have much prospect for development; population is their biggest constraint. Otherwise, they wouldn't be trying to plunder people everywhere.

However, the situation is different in Southeast Asia, where the biggest factor restricting their development is the level of civilization.

However, the forces of Southern Chu and Kushan began to compensate for this weakness in Southeast Asia to some extent.

In recent years, in order to integrate into Southeast Asia, especially during the first Southeast Asian alliance against the Kushan Empire, Southern Chu has opened up a large amount of civilization and technology from the Central Plains.

Since then, Southeast Asia has entered a period of rapid growth.

Therefore, Southeast Asia should be prioritized in terms of development speed.

Thirdly, Southeast Asia was no longer at its peak after the first Southeast Asian Association.

In war, one should naturally strike while the enemy is weakened and take his life.

Just like the great war in the north, the Great Jin has recovered from the previous three years of the epidemic, but the northern countries have not yet recovered, so naturally we should take this opportunity to attack them.

The same is true in Southeast Asia!
They launched this war before the other side could recover from the trauma of the war.

As for whether Yizhou would take this opportunity to threaten the homeland, the Jin army was not too worried about this.

Ultimately, it takes strength to threaten the homeland!

If the Yuan Dynasty's strength threatened the homeland, then the pressure would indeed be immense.

However, let's forget about the Zhu Wu forces in Yizhou!
In Yangzhou alone, the Jin army had half of the Southern Army Corps, plus 30,000 naval troops, plus the Yangzhou garrison, totaling 100,000 soldiers.

If Yizhou had a third of the strength of Yangzhou, that would be quite good.

Of course, another reason why Qi Jiguang did not plan to mobilize the 30,000 Yangtze River naval forces at this time was that Guo Ziyi's troops were easier to mobilize than those mobilized by other forces.

After all, Guo Ziyi's troops were located in northern Langya, at the border of Qingzhou and Xuzhou.

He had already received the news, so Guo Ziyi must have received it even earlier. In fact, he had no doubt that Qi Jiguang might have already taken action by now.

Qi Jiguang thought it over and over and decided that instead of heading south to Xuzhou at this time, it would be better to head north to Youzhou and attack the enemy's weak points.