The sun had just risen when the night's march reached Sandbank.

With a charge, thousands of Chu people were scattered, and the Chu nobles stationed here committed suicide by throwing themselves into the water, and many of them surrendered.

The people of the Xuanyi Department gathered those who surrendered together, and three people who believed in the Mohist doctrine immediately jumped out of it, and then preached in Chu language, and the people's hearts were stable.

Only two brigades of the 6th Division were left to guard, and the rest, together with the combat engineer brigade, began to cut down and dig the earth.

The sappers were good at it, but so was the Sixth Division, which was known for being good at defense.

The advent of the age of firearms made the camp more useful, and most of the Chu people's sailing boats were small and not equipped with artillery, as long as the camp was repaired on the sandbar and the rocky rocks protruding from the middle of the river, these fleets were difficult to break through.

By evening, the first improvised timber fortifications had taken shape, and several companies from the Combat Engineer Brigade had begun to build the forts.

After dinner, the first batch of copper and iron cannons arrived from the south bank of the river, and the artillerymen began to deploy the copper cannons on the forts, and the soldiers were responsible for cutting down willow trees in the nearby swamps, weaving wicker baskets with branches and loading them into earth, and piling them up into forts.

The first batch of copper and iron cannons was twenty pieces, as well as a large number of sacks, all of which were strategic materials.

When the leader in charge of transportation saw Yu Su, he said: "You don't have to worry about the defense of Jiangnan, as long as you defend Jiangbei and Jiangxin." The Chu people had no available troops in Jiangnan, and the commander had already divided his troops to attack Hubei and destroy the only foothold of the Chu army in Jiangnan. ”

Yu said: "I have sent scouts to the west to reconnoitre, a large swamp, it is indeed difficult to pass. ”

The man smiled and said, "Don't worry. Back then, so many people were sent to Chu to survey and map the mountains and rivers, presumably these important and key places have been visited many times, so naturally they will not be wrong. ”

"Tomorrow, the Chu people will fight back, and it will depend on you here."

Yu Yu nodded in response, looked at the camp that had been slightly rudimentary, and thought that he should be able to withstand it.

…………

The Chu army camp.

The news that the Mo family sent troops south to attack the sandbank made the king of Chu panic and said, "It is advisable to retreat quickly." ”

Right Sima Jin said: "When King Zhao was in the past, King Zhao could avoid Yunmeng in order to fight for a long time. At that time, the Qin people went south to save Chu, the Yue people took the opportunity to oppose Wu, and the Wu people burned, killed and plundered unpopularly. Therefore, you can avoid Yunmeng and retreat from Wu after a long battle. ”

"At this time, the Mo family entered Chu, Qiu did not commit any crimes, and the foolish people obeyed. The new defeat of the Yue country, the sailors did not have a piece of sail left; The Wei people have been fighting for twenty years, and the elite is gone; The Qi people ceded Judi, and they were frightened; The Qin people newly broke the West River, and the soldiers were all bitter. At this time, who can save Chu? ”

"Besides, if you don't break the enemy of the sandbank, the boat division will be gone, and you will retreat into Yingdu, how will you defend it?"

It was only at this time that the ministers understood the seriousness of this matter, and they all understood that if the king of Chu slipped away at this time, then the Chu army would undoubtedly be defeated, the army would be scattered, and the state of Chu could be regarded as a dead country.

Only by holding on to the death and waiting for the support of the princes, there may be the possibility of surviving the country and succeeding to the shrine.

However, Zuo Sima said: "Right Sima's words are ridiculous. At this point, all the teachers of the Mo family are elite and invincible. ”

"For today's plan, the only way is to retreat quickly, retreat into Yanying, and connect Zhou, Qin, Wei, and Han for long-term resistance."

"At that time, the Mo army will go deep into Chu, there will be no food and grass, and you will be tired from a long battle, so it will be the time to counterattack."

Zuo Sima's fief is not in Jianghan, but in Nanyang, which is inherently so.

Ejun was anxious, and secretly said that your fiefdom was in Wan, and retreating north would naturally be able to hold your fiefdom. But my fief is in the south of the Yangtze River, if the Mo family has Jianghan, I have no fief, how can I be a fief?

Seeing that Zuo Sima's words were supported, E Jun said: "The Mo family is the best at construction, and it is a happy land at this time to build on the barren Si. Jianghan is rich and has a large population, and if it takes a year, the Mo family will definitely build Jianghan as Sishang. How can it be restored then? Even if the country is restored, the people are all seeking profit, how can they rule? ”

"The only way to do this now is to send a large army to besiege the sandbank."

Zuo Sima shouted: "Send a large army to besiege? How to keep the water of Naba? The main force of the Mo family is still there, and the troops are divided again, once the Mo family breaks through Ba Shui, won't the whole army die? ”

"Besides, I don't know how many people are guarding the sandbar now? How many people did the Mo family send to surprise attack? None of this is clear, how to recapture it? ”

Right Sima said: "Although I don't know, but judging from the First World War, I'm afraid there are about three thousand." You can send 5,000 elites to gallop and take it while its foothold is unstable. ”

The king of Chu can only do this, so he can give an order to mobilize 5,000 people, and the right Sima is personally in command to recapture the sandbank.

He also ordered all the departments to hold on and be careful when the main force of the Mo family crossed the river.

…………

To the east of Ba Shui, Six Fingers and a group of officers observed the movements of the Chu army on the opposite side with binoculars from a high place, looked at it for a long time, and sighed leisurely: "It's a pity." I thought that the king of Chu could think that if we sent someone to sneak attack, the main force would be empty, and he would find a way to fight back desperately and take the opportunity to counterattack. ”

"I'm ready to retreat to the Xishui camp to lure the enemy deep and cut off his back road, but I don't want the Chu people to not give me this opportunity."

If you want to switch from defense to attack, you need to change the formation and prepare in advance.

Observing the situation in the camp, it is easy to deduce whether the other side is preparing to fight back.

A division commander next to him said: "The Chu people didn't make much movement? ”

Six Fingers shook his head and smiled: "The purpose of our occupation of the sandbar is to destroy the boat master of the Chu people. The boat division that destroyed the Chu people relied on land battles to win. The fundamental reason for our victory in the land war is that we broke through the defense line of Pakistan. Of course, the Chu people will not be in too much of a hurry now. ”

"In terms of grain routes, the logistics and baggage of the Chu people are all in Yicheng, not that they can't be stolen, but there is no need for us to take this risk. stolen it, and the Chu people were in chaos; If you can't steal it, you will have to fold an army to the west. The advantage is mine, it doesn't need to be so. ”

"Even if the Chu people don't fight back, we don't need to be in a hurry. Ordered the whole army to retreat to the mountain camp in turn and give way to the front line. The 3rd and 4th Divisions were ordered to cross the river and break through Hubei, occupy Daye, and clean up the south of the Yangtze River. ”

"After the cavalry palace, it will take time for the Chu people to fight back with all their might. If it is only a small river crossing and harassment, the cavalry can be killed and defeated. ”

"I want to trick the Chu people to the east of Ba Shui, for fear that they will learn from the turtle and shrink back and not move. The Chu people had been lured to cross the river once before, and the Chu people were not fooled. I'm afraid they won't cross the river this time. ”

The order was given, the sappers and artillery in the front line withdrew first, the foot soldiers slowly based on the foundation, and the only formed cavalry division patrolled the riverbank.

The defense was deployed along the previous non-front camp, and the troops of the two divisions quickly crossed the river and went straight to Echeng.

When the army arrived, the ink people who were hidden in the miners of Daye Mountain immediately launched an uprising, and there were many people in the city who worked carefully or were pro-ink, and the inside and outside should be combined, and within half a day, the city of Hubei was broken.

Half of the grain was distributed to the people, and half was kept for the army.

A large number of cadres accompanying the army immediately rushed to Daye and Echeng, burned the contract, announced that all usury of the nobles had been abolished, and the land of the nobles was distributed to the people, and the people cheered.

Within a few days, more than 10,000 people were recruited, most of whom were miners and miners who were good at mining, and it was also the most serious place for the Mo family to infiltrate.

Miners are recruited far better than farmers, and they are naturally more organized than farmers.

…………

In the western sandbank, the Sixth Division, a lone army wedged into the rear of the main force of the Chu State, had already repelled two counterattacks by the Chu people.

The state of Chu seriously underestimated the number of troops occupying the sandbar.

After the 5,000 elites approached, the Chu State Boat Division sent a boat to meet them in order to cross the river.

However, the copper and iron cannons that had already been deployed took the opportunity to shoot indiscriminately, not on the ship, but on land, and it was several times easier to measure and calculate than on a bumpy ship.

In fact, in the first wave of Chu counterattack, the foot soldiers of the Sixth Division had not yet exerted their strength, and the Chu army was defeated.

More than 20 ships were destroyed by artillery, and only two of them were close to the sandbar, and they surrendered immediately, anyway, the Chu people knew that the Mo family would not be killed if they surrendered, and they were not nobles, even if they were the people who gave land, the Mo family did not look down on the land they planted.

The second counterattack of the Chu people was met by Lou boats, and they did not mobilize all of them, because they still had to guard against the Mojia boat division downstream.

However, this proved to be a huge failure.

The two building boats went upstream, and the wind direction was the north wind of autumn and winter, and the speed was extremely slow.

The speed of the Lou ship was much lower than that of those small boats, and although the Chu people had artillery on the ship, they only had two guns in the bow, and under the bumps, the hit rate was extremely low.

On the contrary, the army artillery that deployed the fort on land was like shooting targets during training, bombarding the two ships of the Chu State, and after a short time one was destroyed and the other escaped.

There were about 1,000 Chu troops who broke into the sandbank, most of them were elite armed with arquebuses and short swords.

But when he arrived on the shore of the sandbar, he was fired by a dense volley of muskets, and Chu Yousima was killed immediately, and the slaves around him desperately protected the body of Yousima and fled back to the north bank.

By October 23, the camp of Shazhou had been stabilized, and Daye Mountain in Echeng was broken, and the people who were requisitioned from the south bank began to strengthen the defense of Shazhou, and there were more than 50 large copper and iron cannons in the Shazhou area, which completely blocked the Yangtze River waterway, and it was even more difficult for the Chu people to break through.

The state of Chu thought that the Mo family wanted to move to the south of the Yangtze River, and crossed the bridge and crossed the river from the place where the sandbar was, which was greatly shocked.

At this time, it was no longer necessary for Shen Gong to guard the country of Jiuzi, and it was impossible for the Mo family to divide their troops to the north through the overlapping mountains and cross the Bashui to attack the flank, so they sent the mission Shen Gong to the south, and said that the viscount of the country of Jiuzi was in the righteousness of the suzerain, and gathered the main force of the country to go south together.

Moreover, the tactics of the Mo family's raid also made Shen Gong panic, worried that his own division would be eaten, and he could only move closer to the south.

On the 24th, Shen Gong received an order to abandon the Jiuzi State, and together with the 1,500 troops of the Jiuzi State, he went south, intending to strengthen the defense of Ba Shui.

In order to prevent the Mo family from attacking Yicheng, they recruited nearby people over the age of fifteen and under fifty to rush to the front line, but the Mo family had already publicized it, and many people believed that the Mo family would win this battle, and there were many fugitives.

The king of Chu was worried that the Mo family's front retreat was a plan, and he did not dare to cross the Ba River, and he was afraid that the Mo family would move to the south of the Yangtze River, bypassing Chu's boat division, and crossing the river from the sandbank, so he moved to the river bank, trying to defend it to the death, and did not let the Mo family cross the river.