Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 42 Cen Shui
Of course, Zhuge Liang was not the only one who knew how to calculate astronomical phenomena, solar terms and observe the climate in this era, but he was the most famous.

Besides Zhuge Liang, Wu Fan of Jiangdong was also renowned for his knowledge of astronomy, his expertise in calendar calculations, and his ability to discern the influence of wind and clouds. He was also adept at predicting the outcome of wars and the development of events by combining celestial phenomena, disasters, and human factors.

Wu Fan is well-known for predicting Liu Bei's capture of Yizhou and Guan Yu's defeat at Maicheng.

In history, Liu Bei's conquest of Yizhou was extremely difficult and dangerous, not as easy as described in the historical novels.

The 300-li journey from Jiameng Pass to Chengdu took Liu Bei two full years, with an average daily advance of less than 500 meters. Later, he even had to risk withdrawing the Jingzhou garrison, ordering Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun to lead troops out of Jingzhou and up the river westward to reinforce them. Only then was he able to capture Yizhou and stabilize the situation, but this also created hidden dangers for Guan Yu's future defeat.

During the most difficult period when Liu Bei was conquering Yizhou, there was no news at all, and even Cao Cao thought that Liu Bei was dead.

At that time, many people in Jiangdong believed that Liu Bei would be defeated in Yizhou, but Wu Fan insisted that Liu Bei would be able to capture Yizhou, and it turned out to be as he expected.

As for Guan Yu's defeat in Jingzhou, it was Wu Fan who instigated Lu Meng to send troops, believing that he would definitely succeed.

From this we can see that Jiangdong has a lot of talented people in all aspects.

But for Yan Yi at this time, these talents were like the cake that appeared in his mind when he was hungry, which was out of reach.

With a hint of worry, he led his troops and continued to march towards Cen Shui.

At 3 p.m., the large group of people arrived at Censhui.

Censhui is a small river with a width of only four or five meters. The water is calm and clear, and it is more than enough to replenish the water source for 1,500 troops.

On the south bank of Censhui River is a low hill that stretches twenty miles east of Qiangonglei.

This is the place where Xu Sheng and Fan Yan carefully selected the troops for Yan Yi. It is easy to supply, good for hiding, and not too far from Qian Gonglei.

A large group of people set up camp on the south bank of Censhui River, fetched water to cook, cut down trees, and built a row of simple fences around the camp. At the same time, they sent out cavalry to scout the surroundings and blocked the two nearby mountain passes.

In this era, there were no less than ten ways of setting up camp when the army went on an expedition. The most common ones were the firewood camping method, the trench digging method, the city building method, the wooden fence camping method and the rope camping method. These camping methods were not only used to defend against the enemy, but also for internal management.

Although Yan Yi's troops only adopted the relatively simple wooden fence camp method, everyone was quite tired after a busy period of work. After arranging the patrol and changing of guards, they went into their tents to rest.

Yan Yi slept very late, and from time to time he walked out of the tent to look up at the night sky.

The night view in the mountains has a unique charm, but he has no intention of appreciating it. He just hopes that the clouds will be thicker and lower, and it would be best if it would rain tomorrow.

However, since there is no refraction of sunlight at night, the number and height of the clouds cannot be seen by the naked eye, so one can only watch in vain.

Finally, he couldn't resist the sleepiness anymore and went back to the tent yawning and fell asleep.

The next morning, as soon as it was light, Yan Yi got up, washed, changed into a light hakama, and went out of the tent to patrol the camp.

At noon, the sun shone disappointingly from the east, making his mood instantly become depressed.

Only then did he deeply feel the pressure of leading troops in battle, which was not something ordinary people could bear.

Fortunately, there were more clouds than yesterday, which gave him a glimmer of hope.

Amidst this anxiety, Yan Yi absentmindedly inspected the camp and then came to the supply camp. The supply camp was temporarily staffed by two newly recruited soldiers from Danyang. These tall and strong men were making rapid progress and already had a hint of military air.

At this time, the open space in the baggage camp area was filled with various supplies: wooden pots, bamboo hats, cowhide, trees, rice, dried meat, clothes, cooking utensils, etc.

There are also several simple ladders and more than ten ordinary wooden ladders.

Usually, the main body of the ladder is composed of two parts: the main ladder and the auxiliary ladder. The main ladder is generally four meters long and the auxiliary ladder is generally five meters long. Therefore, in siege warfare, the total length of the ladder can reach eight or nine meters, or even longer.

However, the total length of these ladders in front of us, including the wheels, is only about six meters.

It’s not that there is anything wrong with these ladders, but Yan Yi specially asked craftsmen to make them according to the height of the city walls of Yuncheng and Qiangonglei. They used less materials, were lighter in weight, and were easier to carry.

As for other siege weapons such as battering rams, crossbow carts, flying towers, stone arrows, etc., they were abandoned because they were inconvenient to carry.

Yan Yi carefully inspected the supplies. Suddenly, a question occurred to him. His expression changed, and he looked at Xu Sheng beside him: "Can a raft made of wooden rafts be used to ferry war horses?"

The horses under his command were basically medium-sized war horses, and the weight of a horse could reach four or five hundred kilograms. This was four or five hundred kilograms according to the weight measurement method of later generations, which was equivalent to one thousand five hundred to two thousand kilograms in this era.

Horses are also easily frightened when crossing rivers.

Xu Sheng had obviously considered this issue and quickly said, "Don't worry, Young Master. I've already collected a large amount of cowhide from the treasury and have had people sew buoys out of it. As long as we secure the buoys around the raft and make it larger, it will be large enough for the war horses to cross the river."

Yan Yi breathed a sigh of relief and his expression relaxed after hearing this.

Just as Yan Yi's troops were making intensive preparations and waiting for a heavy rain to arrive before taking action, Qian Tong in Yuncheng was also paying attention to the movements of Yan's army.

Although Qian Tong withdrew his roving troops, his scouts were still keeping an eye on the movements of Yan's army.

"What? Yan Yu's troops set up camp after crossing Jiuxi River?"

Qian Tong frowned, put his hands behind his back, and paced back and forth in the conference room. A Tangqi, looking exhausted, stood in front of him.

All he could think about now was that the Yan army would arrive in Haiyan as soon as possible to fight against Wu Jing so that he and Zou He could take advantage of the situation to launch an uprising.

"Wenyuan, tell me, what does Yan Yu mean?" Qian Tong subconsciously turned his gaze to Wan Bing who was standing beside him.

Wan Bing was also surprised. He had clearly persuaded General Qian Tong to withdraw all his soldiers back to the city. Yan should have gone to Haiyan without any worries. What was he doing?

For a moment, he was also a little confused: "Don't worry, Marshal, perhaps Yan Yu's troops have been traveling for two days and are resting. Jiuxi is only two or three days away from Haiyan, so it's normal that Yan Yu is not in a hurry to march."

How could Qian Tong not be worried? He couldn't wait to take advantage of the war between Yan and Wu Jing to get a piece of the pie. What he was most worried about at this moment was that Yan would suddenly give up going to Haiyan.

As for other aspects, such as the possibility of Yan's sneak attack on Yuncheng, Qian Tong had also considered this issue, but he never took it to heart. Yan Yu's tribe was far away in Youquan. Could he really fly over and eat him?

As for Yan Yi's troops, he didn't take them seriously at all.

Who is Yan Yi? He is just a young boy who led an army for the first time. When he went out to explore the world, he was still drinking milk from his mother's arms, haha!
(End of this chapter)