The Chu army camp.

Within a few days, the right Sima was folded, and the Mo family occupied the upper sandbar rocks, and locked the river with copper cannons and iron cannons, so that the main force of the boat division could not move, and the morale of the army plummeted.

When the king of Chu was flustered, Zuo Sima Jin said: "If you want to break the Mo family, you must take risks." Otherwise, it can't be broken. ”

The princes and ministers of Chu are now at a loss, and Zuo Sima's words are really like a drowning person encountering a log.

Now the situation of the army of Chu is extremely difficult.

To the east of Ba Shui, it is difficult to know how the Mo family is arranged.

guessed that the Mo family moved south, but they didn't dare to make it even more impossible to cross the Bashui attack.

One is worried that the Mo family is luring them to cross the river, and the thirty miles between Ba Shui and Xishui are all plains, once the Mo family retreats is to imitate the fox hair of the city in the past, and the retreat lures the Chu army to break away from Ba Shui, once it is surrounded, it is the end of the annihilation of the whole army.

At that time, it was sandwiched between Bashui and Xishui, and it was impossible to advance or retreat, and the Mo family was good at field warfare, and the Chu State gave up the camp that operated for more than a month, and it was afraid that it would not be able to be defeated.

And now the logistics and baggage of the Chu State are all in Yicheng, once the main force crosses Bashui, the Mo family sends a division to Yicheng to burn grain and grass to cut off the grain road, so the army will collapse without a fight.

When he was hesitant and had no plan, Zuo Sima had a plan, how could everyone not like it?

Zuo Sima said: "Although the Mojia field battle is difficult to defeat, it is nothing more than a human being after all. I watched the battles between the Mohists and Qi and Yue, all of them were won with fewer soldiers, but at the key point, they could always win with more and less. ”

"Therefore, in my opinion, if you want to break the power of the Mo family's field battle, you must find a way to win more and divide it up."

All the ministers said: "It is easier to know than to do." War is nothing more than that. That's true, but how? ”

Zuo Sima said: "It's the reason why you have to use the risk." ”

He got up and asked, "What is the so-called matter that the Mo family occupies the sandbar?" It's nothing more than that he doesn't want to damage his boatman. If its boat division can win like a land battle, why bother? If we destroy our boat division, our army will be defeated. ”

"Now that the Mo family has broken through the city of Hubei again, it is very likely to break through from the south of the Yangtze River. But its boat division is invincible, and if you want to break through from the south of the Yangtze River, you must go to the sandbar. ”

"Although the sandbar is large, there are only a few places where pontoon bridges can be erected. With tens of thousands of troops, it is not easy to cross the river. ”

"If it is blocked, although our army is numerous, it may not be able to stop it. But if they don't stop it, they will withdraw one after another, so that the Mo family thinks that the sandbar can cross the river, and the Mo family will cross the river from here. ”

King Chu said: "Retreat from Linjiang, wouldn't you learn from Song Xianggong?" Half-crossing is the most effective. ”

Zuo Sima shook his head and said, "That's not the case. The Mo family soldiers are scattered. Attacking halfway through the river made it difficult for the first batch of people to cross the river to gain a foothold at most, but the follow-up was continuous, and the place where the formation could be fought was only a few hundred steps, even if our army had a large number of people, how many troops could be gathered within a few hundred steps? ”

"Half-crossing and attacking, for the defense. My strategy is to attack halfway through and attack. Taking advantage of the danger of the river, the Mo family was divided into two, and our army gathered a large army to defeat half of it, and the other half had no strength to march and retreated without a fight. ”

For the first time, the king of Chu heard the words "cross half and strike", and he didn't understand its meaning and asked.

Zuo Sima said: "If you want to cross the river on a sandbar, the Mo family must not cross it all at once." ”

"Our army is temporarily retreating, what will the Mo family think?"

The king of Chu thought for a moment and said: "If he crosses the river and our army retreats temporarily, the Mo family must take this opportunity to cross the river with all his might, in order to form a decisive battle with me." ”

Zuo Sima clapped his hands and said, "The king is smart, that's exactly the case." ”

"If our army retreats temporarily, the Mo family will think that our army is afraid of war, and they will definitely cross the river with all their strength when the time comes. The forward of crossing the river is bound to be launched, and the beachhead is guarded for the follow-up division to pour in. ”

"Once his army is deployed, one side faces the river, and three sides are our army, and if he can develop one army, I can develop two armies."

"Halfway through the crossing, take a boat with a dead man, carry more sulfur and gunpowder and other fire-causing things in the boat, go down the river, rush to the sandbar pontoon, and burn the pontoon."

"Then there is half an army on the north bank, and half an army on the south bank, separated by a big river, and they can't be connected."

"Although the Mo family is strong in field battles, it cannot be defeated by one against three. At that time, there will be the Yangtze River blocking, and our army will attack in formation, and destroy the enemy on the north bank before the pontoon bridge is erected on the south bank. The pawn on the south bank, what can he do except look at the water and sigh and cry? ”

"Once half of the Mo family's troops are wiped out, the Mo family will lose the ability to attack. At that time, even if our army defended to the death, the Mo family could only choose to retreat. ”

"First, Chen Caihuai's division in the north can cut off his back road; Second, there are only half of the Mo family's teachers left here, so they can only retreat. ”

"That's why I said, this plan is risky, but it can use the river to divide the main force of the Mo family into two."

"Retreating for the time being is not to learn from Song Xianggong's upright formation, but so that our army can avoid the Mo family's bronze cannon and retreat to deploy more troops."

"The only thing is that if the dead soldiers are not successful, our army can only fight with the Mojia on the riverbank. When the time comes, the outcome is unpredictable, so it is called risk. ”

"Otherwise, it's not enough to break the elite of the Mo family."

As soon as he explained this, the monarchs and ministers of the Chu State understood what he meant.

Assuming that the Mohists wanted to cross the river from Jiangnan through a sandbank, without the cooperation of the boatman, building a pontoon bridge on that sandbank was the only option.

The Yangtze River is not a small river, unless it is a sandbar at these sharp bends, it is not so easy to build a pontoon bridge, especially since the boatman of the Mo family is still in the east of Xishui.

Now the Mo family is building forts and piling up timber on the sandbank, and the number of artillery is dozens of them, no matter how you look at it, it seems that you are ready to give up crossing the Ba Shui and choose to mobilize the Chu army to cross the river.

Zuo Sima meant that if the Mo family had the advantage of artillery at the sandbank, the Chu people in the Jiang'an area would not be an advantage at all.

Spread out all the troops, there is simply no way to show so many troops here.

In small-scale battles, the Mo family has an artillery advantage, coupled with the ability to fight in the field, I am afraid that the Chu people will not be able to take advantage.

The most important thing is that the Mohists do not have only one route to cross the river from the south bank.

If the early stage is not smooth, the Mo family can abandon this plan and choose other means.

Zuo Sima wanted to make the Mo family's intention to cross the river from the south bank firm, and to find a way to defeat the main force of the Mo family in this intention.

Then the solution is actually quite simple.

That is, deliberately retreating, deploying an anti-outflanking formation in advance, and deploying the troops.

Abandoning the beachhead induced the Mo family to firmly cross the river from the sandbank.

When the Mojia crossed the river halfway, they sent dead soldiers down the river from upstream, or requisitioned a large number of ships to stuff sulfur and gunpowder and other things, and burned the pontoon bridge downstream.

This is not to occupy the fortifications on the sandbar, but only to burn the pontoon bridges, and the success rate is extremely high.

Even if the Mo family has the advantage of copper cannons and iron cannons, it is impossible to stop these boats from rushing down the river and burning the pontoon bridge.

Once the pontoon bridge was burned, then the main force of the Mo family was divided into two parts, north and south, with the help of the river.

The whole army fought in the field, and it really couldn't be defeated. But if you only play halfway, and you have withdrawn in advance and deployed an outflanking formation, then it is very likely.

And also can build some barracks in the direction of the retreat defense, when the Mo family half of the main force is crowded on the riverbank, the artillery in the south, the cavalry will definitely not be the first to cross the river, the space is small and squeezed, the pontoon bridge is destroyed and there are no reinforcements, in this case, the main force is assembled with the advantage of three to one, how can it win, at least it must be a miserable victory.

For the state of Chu, the scattered troops were all within their control.

For the Mo family, once the formation is dissolved, it is a dead end.

As long as they can win, then the remaining forces of the Mo family will not have the strength to break through the defense of Chu in a field battle.

It is not necessary to defend here any longer, it is better to take the opportunity to retreat quickly, at least to the Huainan area, shorten the logistical distance, stabilize the position, and then seek to fight.

For the state of Chu, it can be regarded as a strategic counteroffensive, as long as it can fight to the death in exchange for half of the casualties of the main force of the Mo family, in fact, the state of Chu will win.

The Mo family attacked suddenly this time and took the advantage of a preemptive strike, once this advantage was lost, Wei Hanqi and other princes would definitely find a way to strangle Sishang.

Moreover, if there is really no one to support, the Chu State can also choose to sue for peace: the Yue State has not yet been destroyed, and the Mo family must be worried, it is a big deal to cede the entire Huainan, which can always survive, and it can shock the princes, so as to know the ambition of the Mo family, so that they can send troops to intervene.

Of course, there may be dangers.

But what Chu needs now is a strategic turning point, a strategic turning point that can be defended and proven to be able to defend.

Chen Cai's troops in the Central Plains of Huaibei, even if they want to sneak attack the Mo family's flank, they have to assemble before they can do it. Otherwise, one by one, the feudal monarchs will send it, and they will not be able to send it twice, and the Mo family will gather troops to eat it a few times, and the situation in the entire Huaibei will collapse.

If you want to assemble, you need time.

Where does the time come from? You have to squeeze it out of here.

Now the Mo family is in the stage of strategic offensive, Jiangnan is just a choice, just as Zuo Sima said, to induce the Mo family to attack Jiangbei from Jiangnan, because if the Mo family does not do this, they can still cross the river from Bashui to fight in the field, and they can also pretend to retreat and ambush halfway, after all, they will not be able to buy the time for the assembly of various departments and the dispatch of troops by the princes.

If the monarchs and ministers of the Chu State thought that they could defeat the main force of the Mo family on the opposite side in a field battle, then this strategic counteroffensive would be simple, crossing the river and lining up in a field battle, as long as there was a miserable victory or an undefeated draw, the Mo family would have to retreat.

The problem is that when the panic and the coup d'état has just been made, the totalitarians have been slaughtered, and the new army of the Chu king's division is disgruntled and unconvinced, the king of Chu Liangfu and his feudal lords do not even have the confidence that there will be a draw in the field battle across the river, and they do not even have the confidence that they can hold Ba Shui, so they can only choose to take risks in this case.

Even if it was a disastrous victory, the Chu State could gradually reverse the disadvantage by virtue of the proximity of the large rear after destroying the Mo family's sharp spirit.

…………

In the Mo family's camp west of Xishui, the boss looked at the scout's information with six fingers and smiled.

The newspaper said that since a few days ago, Shen Gong in Jiuzi City had led more than 15,000 men from his headquarters and less than 2,000 men from Jiuzi State to the south, preparing to join the Bashui defense line and increase the force group of Chu.

More than 18,000 people were gathering from the mountainous area in the north and heading south, and there were still about eighty miles away from the main force of the Chu State, and they had already left the mountainous area and were heading south along Ba Shui.

For Six Fingers, it's a fighter.

Before the reinforcements of Shen Gong and Jiuzi State approached the main force of Chu State, they crossed the river from the shallows north of Ba Shui to intercept it, and took advantage of the better mobility of the unhanging army to annihilate this support army within one day before the main force of Chu State supported, and quickly crossed the river from the north to press the main force of Chu Army.

If the Chu army avoids the battle, it will go down to the city, break the retreat, and break the grain road; If it is a decisive battle, the Mo family will have no worries, and they will no longer worry about crossing the river from the north side of the upper reaches of Bashui to form a formation against the main force of the Chu State, and the soldiers of Shen Gong will appear behind them.

His actions of occupying the sandbar and breaking the Hubei made the whole Chu State panic, thinking that the Jiehang army was preparing to cross the river from the sandbank, so that the Chu army began to gather its troops and line up on the riverbank.

He may not choose to cross the river from the sandbank, but he may not choose either, and it is this possibility and the large number of artillery deployed on the sandbank that make the Chu army make a judgment.

Shen Gong's reinforcement force of nearly 20,000 did not move and stared at the northern flank, and his six fingers did not dare to cross the river from the north of Ba Shui; Shen Gong's support army moved, so he gave the six fingers a chance, before it and the main force of the Chu army to reconcile, before the main force of the Chu army arrived, the tiger's mouth pulled out the teeth, and ate Shen Gong's support army, so that it could gain a foothold in the west of Ba Shui.

When the time comes, whether to attack the city and cut off the grain road and attack the side, or the whole army to gather in the field to attack the village and break the king of Chu, the choice is in their own hands.

To the west of Yicheng, is the Jianghan Plain, which is also the lifeline of the Chu army; To the north of Yicheng, two thousand years later, the future generations are the place where the jute riots broke out, and after two thousand years, it is still a poor place, and now if the main force of the Chu army is broken in Yicheng, then it can only rely on grazing to cross the Dabie Mountain, and the king of Chu does not want to eat grass, so he can only fight in the field.