Vol 2 Chapter 2917: Make great war fortune, Jianye offensive and defensive battles

Chapter 2917 Make a fortune from war, attack and defend Jianye

Chapter 2913: Making a fortune from war, Jianye offensive and defensive battle

Although Liu Yu, who became emperor, is currently the biggest anti-Qin leader, his opposition to Qin was also after Liu Ji became the king of Shu. Only Liu Xiu was anti-Qin from the beginning to the end. No matter who was against Qin, he Basically, they will help out.

 Liu Che rebelled against Qin and Liu Xiu helped;

Li Shimin also helped Liu Xiu in his rebellion against Qin;

Liu Yu rebelled against Qin and Liu Xiu still helped...

Look at the fate of the other princes who opposed Ying Hao. Whether it is Liu Che, Yuan Shao, Li Shimin, Temujin, or Nurhachi, the grass on their graves is basically three feet high. Only Liu Xiu has survived to this day.

Facing Qin's strong suppression and Sun Wu's crushing strength, Liu Xiu not only did not weaken, but also grew stronger and stronger. I am afraid that he is the only one among the princes in the world who can do this.

 Liu Xiu was a monarch who never lacked a view of the overall situation. He was very aware of the consequences of the defeat of the Three Kingdoms of the Central Plains.

For the current state of Chu, destroying Wu is the current biggest strategic goal. Only by destroying Wu and controlling the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River can Chu be initially qualified to challenge the Qin Dynasty.

 But the State of Wu is obviously not so easy to destroy.

Wu and Chu have been fighting for so many years, but generally speaking, Chu lost more and won less. Although under the leadership of Liu Xiu, Chu's strength has become stronger than Wu's, it has not reached the point of crushing it.

Had it not been for the internal fighting between Sun Ce and Sun Quan's brothers, which caused the division of Wu, and if Sima Yi beside Sun Quan was one of his own, Liu Xiu would not have destroyed Wu at this critical juncture.

Relying on Sun Wu's internal strife and Sima Yi's two trump cards, Liu Xiu had gained an absolute advantage in the battle between Wu and Chu after winning the Panyang Lake Water Battle. As long as he marched step by step, it was only a matter of time before Wu was destroyed.

But the centipede is dead but not stiff, and Sun Ce will not be able to catch it without mercy. It will obviously take a long time to completely eliminate Sun Ce and Sun Wu.

However, if Da Qin is allowed to defeat the Three Kingdoms Alliance and completely occupy the Central Plains during this period, the Chu State may not even be able to protect itself, not to mention destroying Wu.

Therefore, although Liu Xiu knew that for Chu, the most important thing at the moment was to destroy Wu, he still did not allocate part of his strength to support the Three Kingdoms Alliance so that it could hold off Qin for a longer time. It was best to keep fighting. .

“The Sui Kingdom has fallen and Yang Guang is dead. Fortunately, the Yongliang Army of the Qin Dynasty was dragged into the quagmire of the Western Regions and will not be able to return in the short term. Otherwise, the pressure from the Three Kingdoms of the Central Plains may be even greater.

Not long ago, a naval battle broke out in the East China Sea between the Qin, Wei, Song and Ming Dynasties. The strength of the navy of the three kingdoms in the Central Plains was severely damaged. When Zhu Di learned that our army had defeated the Wu navy, he wanted to buy prisoners of war from our army to restore the navy's strength as soon as possible and fight against the Qin army. .

I, the king, thought over and over again and decided to sell all the Soochow prisoners of war to the Three Kingdoms Alliance in exchange for money and food. "

Just as Zhu Di and Yao Guangxiao expected, Liu Xiu did not refuse after learning that they wanted to buy prisoners of war.

After all, for the Chu State, selling these prisoners of war would eliminate hidden dangers, obtain money and food, and allow the Three Kingdoms to continue to confront the Qin Dynasty. It was a good thing with many benefits and no harm. Liu Xiu naturally did not Reason for rejection.

In addition to selling prisoners of war to the Three Kingdoms, Liu Xiu even wanted to seize Jianye and kill Sun Ce, while continuing to attack Jiangdong. At the same time, he would detach a part of the navy to join forces with the Three Kingdoms navy to prevent the Three Kingdoms navy from being captured again. The Qin army was defeated.

Of course, although Liu Xiu had this intention, the prerequisite was to capture Jianye and kill Sun Ce. Only after he had no worries at all could he go to support other battlefields.

However, at present, Jianye is obviously not easy to fight. Sun Ce not only has 20,000 troops in his hands, but also mobilizes the entire city to defend the city. If he attacks by force, he will obviously end up with a lot of bloodshed.

Liu Xiu was really scared by Sun Wu. He knew that Sun Wu was still a tough guy even after this defeat, so he wanted to bypass Sun Wu and deal with Sun Ce first, then Wu Zixu, and then Sun Quan would finally deal with Sun Wu's most difficult problem. Big trouble solved.

But from this point of view, although Sun Ce is far inferior to Sun Wu, he is still a tough guy. I don't know if he can chew up his good skills.

Liu Xiu suddenly realized that adopting Sima Yi's strategy and secretly supporting Sun Quan to become the King of Wu was the most correct decision in his life.

Look at this group of people in Wu State. Sun Wu, Sun Bin, Sun Ce, Wu Zixu, and Lu Su. Except for Sun Quan, no one is easy to deal with.

 Therefore, only when Sun Quan succeeds to the throne can the internal conflicts in Wu State be completely intensified, and then he will have the opportunity to destroy Wu. Otherwise, Sun Ce and Sun Wu will lead the army to destroy Chu.

Deep down in his heart, Liu Xiu actually envied Sun Ce. Having a good father like Sun Jian not only left him the treasure land of Jiangdong, but also had so many outstanding people to help him, unlike him who had to do everything by himself. accumulation.

 No one knows better than Liu Xiu how difficult it is for him to walk on thin ice every step of the way.

Even though Chu is already the third most powerful country in the world, it may even be the second most powerful country, but it still faces the risk of national subjugation, and the sharp sword hanging above its head is the Qin Dynasty.

“None of the naval generals in the Central Plains were rivals of Zhou Yu, and the eighty-five thousand in the East China Sea battle could not defeat Zhou Yu’s thirty-five thousand. Therefore, in addition to purchasing prisoners, the Ming envoy also requested to borrow generals from our country.”

After saying this, Liu Xiu looked at the counselors below and said in a deep voice: "Although I am willing to lend generals to the Ming Dynasty, there may not be any water warfare generals in our army who are stronger than Zhou Yu."

I have to say that Liu Xiu was too sober.

Although Chu won the Battle of Panyang Lake, Liu Xiu did not inflate his belief that Chu's navy was stronger than Wu's, because the victory in this battle was too great, and it would have been impossible to win without Sima Yi.

 Looking back at the Battle of the East China Sea, Zhou Yu won the battle with 350,000 to 85,000 men. It was true that there was no merit whatsoever.

Even Liu Xiu had to admit that Chu State did not have a better naval general than Zhou Yu. Even if he personally led the army, he might not be able to achieve Zhou Yu's results.

 Zhu Di believes that there are naval generals in the south who can rival Zhou Yu. This is not wrong, but Chu State obviously does not have them. The naval generals who can rival Zhou Yu are all in Wu State, such as Sun Wu and Wu Zixu. But even if the Wu State had numerous outstanding figures and the quality of its talents was much higher than that of the Chu State, it would still have been beaten to the point of ruin by Liu Xiu.

It can be seen that the importance of the monarch is much higher than that of the ministers, and the only difference between Wu and Chu is that the monarch is not Liu Xiu.

“My lord, you are right to say so, but even if it is for the right to speak in the future alliance, you still have to borrow it.”

Pang Tong stood up and spoke. Obviously, as a young man, he also saw that it was not difficult to destroy Wu. What was difficult was how to destroy Wu before the end of the Central Plains War.

As soon as Pang Tong said this, he was immediately recognized by Liao Li, Kuai Liang, Kuai Yue, Huan Wen and other advisers.

 After careful consideration, Liu Xiu finally decided to send Guo Wei and Chai Rong, his father and his son, to represent the Chu State and go to the joint navy to assist in the battle.

 The best candidate in Liu Xiu's heart is actually Sima Yi. The opponent is the best in the world in terms of leadership and strategy, but his latent mission is not over yet.

Anyway, after the Battle of the East China Sea, the Great Qin navy was also severely weakened and would not be able to make a comeback in a short time. With the abilities of Guo Wei and Chai Rong and his son, it would not be a fool's errand to let them take the lead first.

In the Battle of Panyang Lake, 24,000 of Wu's 50,000 naval troops were killed in the battle, and the remaining 26,000 were captured by the Chu army.

Although twenty-six thousand prisoners of war are not too many, if they are bought with money and food, the Ming Dynasty alone obviously cannot afford it. After all, the Ming Dynasty is also expanding its army, and the consumption of money and food is huge, and it is impossible to use them all. Come and buy prisoners of war.

After some discussion, Pang Tong and Yao Guangxiao decided to sell 15,000 prisoners of war to the Ming Dynasty. The remaining 11,000 were sold to the Song Dynasty, 8,000 to the Song Dynasty, and 3,000 to the Wei Dynasty. Only then were all the prisoners of war sold.

 Even Liu Xiu was shocked after learning about the proceeds from the prisoner of war trade.

After plundering Ruan, Yue, Siam and other countries, although Chu State is not short of money and food, the more the better, no one will be dissatisfied, even if it cannot be used, it can be stored.

After the deal with the Wei, Song and Ming Dynasties, the Chu army's logistical pressure will be greatly reduced, and they will no longer be afraid of food shortages in the future.

 After understanding the huge benefits involved, Liu Xiu couldn't help but a flash of light flashed in his eyes. He felt that this kind of prisoner of war trade could continue forever.

Although all the Wu navy captured by Chu have been sold, as the process of destroying Wu accelerates, the Chu army will definitely capture more Wu prisoners of war.

You must know that Sun Ce and Sun Quan's two families had a total of three hundred thousand troops. Even if half of them died in battle, there would still be 150,000 prisoners of war.

As the war in the Central Plains progresses, the gap in the military resources of the Wei, Song, and Ming Kingdoms will only become larger and larger. At that time, the transactions between the Chu State and the Wei, Song, and Ming Kingdoms will probably not be limited to naval prisoners of war, and even infantrymen. Prisoners can also be sold.

After all, for the Three Kingdoms Alliance, instead of recruiting new soldiers and spending a lot of money on retraining, it is better to directly buy prisoners of war for reorganization. After all, the Wu army prisoners of war are definitely much stronger than the new soldiers.

With this thought, Liu Xiu seemed to have opened the door to a new world. Now he understood why Ying Hao wanted to open up sea routes, because the money for making war fortune was coming in too fast.

 The Qin Dynasty relied on selling ordnance to countries such as Nanyang and Tianzhu to make huge war fortunes and earn huge profits, which is why it developed so fast.

The maritime arms trade is a big piece of cake that the Chu State cannot take advantage of for the time being. However, during the Central Plains War, he can open up a new track and use the prisoner of war trade to make a fortune in the war, thus overtaking others in a corner to improve the overall strength of the Chu State. national power.

Thinking of this, Liu Xiu couldn't hold it in any longer and quickly ordered: "Send the order to the whole army to march to Jianye immediately."

At the same time, in Jianye, Sun Ce and his subordinates gathered together in King Wu's palace, but the atmosphere was extremely dull.

No one expected that the invincible Commander-in-Chief Sun Wu would not only be defeated this time, but also be defeated so miserably that all 50,000 naval troops were wiped out.

But the failure of this battle cannot be blamed on Sun Wu. If Sun Quan's 15,000 reinforcements had not arrived on time and disobeyed orders on the battlefield, no matter how hard this battle was fought, the entire army would not have been wiped out.

At this time, Sun Ce also had a look of remorse. If he had known that this situation would be like this, he might as well not have asked Sun Quan for help. As a result, the reinforcements came, but they might as well not have come at all. Not only did they not help at all, but they also delayed Sun Wu. The hind legs ultimately led to this humiliating defeat.

With the annihilation of the 50,000-strong navy, the entire Wu Kingdom will be the back garden of Chu’s navy. From now on, Chu’s navy can come and leave as they please.

Of course, this is not the most serious thing. The most serious thing is that without the protection of the navy, the Chu navy can march straight in and directly attack Jianye.

This is no less than a bolt from the blue for Jianye. After all, although Jianye, as the capital, is a fortified city, it only has 20,000 defenders. How long can it hold on? Once Jianye fell, the blow to Wu Jun would undoubtedly be fatal.

Sun Ce naturally knew this, so before the water war began, he had already organized the people and made preparations to defend the city. He was worried that if the navy suffered too much loss, the Chu army would directly attack Jianye. However, he did not expect that his navy would This time we will lose so miserably.

Things have already happened, and there is no point in regretting it. All Sun Ce can do is to strengthen Jianye's defense force and use Jianye as much as possible to consume the Chu army.

 But this is only treating the symptoms but not the root cause. Facing the steady stream of Chu troops, it will only be a matter of time before Jianye falls.

 But Sun Ce had no other choice. He could only place his hope in Sun Wu, hoping that Sun Wu could win a big victory to cheer up people before Jianye fell.

Sun Ce stood at the top of Jianye City, looking at the Chu navy on the Yangtze River waterway, and said solemnly: "Liu Xiu, let's put an end to Jianye."

Sun Ce had already sent his mother, as well as all the old, young, women and children in the family to Da Qin for resettlement in advance, and left a will to be succeeded by Sun Wu after his death. He was obviously prepared to die in battle in Jianye.

 (End of this chapter)