"It's better to retreat quickly! Only by retreating, the Mojia army will be unable to continue due to the lack of food and grass. If you want to break the Mo family, you must have the help of the princes, and it will be difficult to rely on the power of Chu alone. ”

Zuo Sima, who was still thinking about rescuing Shen Gong and strengthening the left army, cut off the Mojia crossing the river and returning in order to besiege the Mojia to the west of Ba Shui, immediately reversed his attitude.

Shen Gong fell too quickly, and some of them couldn't bear it.

A reality even more terrifying than the fall of Shen Gong is that if the Mo family can destroy Shen Gong so quickly, then what if they send an army to raid Yicheng? Who can hold it?

The field battle of the great army, if it could be won by battle, would have been fought in the field long ago.

What I thought before was nothing more than that the Mo family had an advantage in gathering field battles, so they stubbornly defended and built fortifications here, delayed time, prompted various countries to send troops, and also let Huaibei Nanyang Fengjun gather troops to surround Si to save Ying.

However, it now seems that this strategy will not be carried out.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Zuo Sima said: "Seeing that the Mo family was reluctant to move forward before, I thought that they were afraid that it would be difficult to break through the camp, or that they would lose too much if they broke through Bashui. ”

"Now, it seems, that is not the case. I'm afraid that the reason why they don't attack is just to completely destroy us. ”

"The trapping boat division is to prevent us from retreating to Jingshan Yingdu to defend, and the purpose is to achieve the goal of immediately crossing Bashui to besiege Shen Gong's division, so that the two armies will not reconcile."

"I'm afraid that the Mo family is plotting a lot, and they want to let the king and my ministers of Chu be wiped out here! The Mo family is going to fight a war to destroy the country! ”

At this point, the situation could not be clearer.

Things are different now.

At that time, when the Mo family had just arrived in Poyi, the king of Chu could escape, but the cost of escaping at that time was too great.

Except for the war of Wu Yue to destroy the country, there has been no war of destruction between the princes and powers for a long time, and the inherent thinking of the Spring and Autumn Period makes it difficult for them to imagine the war between Le Yi and Qi in the original history of Qi and Yu Ercheng for several months, and it is even more difficult to imagine a large-scale war such as Qin's annihilation of Yan Ying.

At that time, although the slogan of the Mo family was shouted loudly, the monarchs and ministers of Chu estimated that the Mo family would at most win a big victory, forcing the reform of the Chu State, or they would lose their minds and go crazy and actually want to destroy the huge Chu State.

At that time, the king of Chu was worried about the future monarchy, the nobles were worried about their fiefdoms, and the monarchs and ministers were worried about the Mo family occupying Jianghan and making a Si up again in a few years.

Therefore, at that time, the king of Chu wanted to fight, at least stick to Hubei and Di, take Dabie and Xiaobie as cities, take the Yangtze River as a pool, and build a fortress in a narrow space for defense, which can always be delayed for a while.

Who would have thought that the ambition of the Mo family was so great that they not only wanted to defeat the King of Chu, but they were also ready not to give the King of Chu a chance to regroup at all.

The trapped boat division originally thought that this was because the Mo family thought that crossing the river along the sandbar from the south of the Yangtze River could bypass the Chu army boat division, but they didn't want to care about the Chu army camp in the north of the river at all, they only cared about the boat division of the Chu State, and they wanted to destroy the last connecting force of the Chu State that could take advantage of the Jianghan terrain to resist step by step.

After the boat master was trapped, the Mo family showed its fangs: We didn't go to Ba Shui before, not because we were afraid of your camp and defense, but because we were worried that you would run. Now that you don't have a chance to run, we can go through Ba Shui and find a chance to annihilate you.

Yicheng is bordered by the Yangtze River in the south and Dabie in the north. In the land south of the Yangtze River, there is only one Daye and one Echeng at this time, and further south is still a wild land, Dongting Zhuyi.

If the city is stolen, the army of the Chu State will be trapped in this narrow place, and the logistics will be cut off, and the Mo family will be able to trap them to death even if they are trapped.

The Mo family is good at attacking cities, this is the impression left by the princes in the past 30 years, because those who are good at defending the city must be good at attacking the city, and the means of attacking the city were restrained by Mozi one by one.

It wasn't until Mozi died that the power of the Mo family and the right to interpret the non-offensive ran into the right hands, and the princes realized this: the only thing that restricted the Mo family's siege was actually their former non-offensive righteousness.

Can the city be defended?

After the defeat of Yue Guosi, Chu put all its energy on the northern Central Plains, and after being beaten by the Three Jins, Chen Cai's change had to continue to strengthen the defense of the Central Plains, and then the Song Zheng change made it impossible for Chu to put a lot of financial and material resources in the direction of Jianghuai.

In the battle of Dangshan, the world knew that a defense system like Dangshan might be able to block the Mo family, at least Dangshan supported it for many days, and because Dangshan was too close to the core area of Sishang, the Mo family could concentrate the strength of the entire Sishang and use tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder to capture it. In other words, if the defense like Dangshan is repaired, as long as it is too far away from Sishang, it can be supported for at least three or five months.

But when it was really built, the countries realized that that kind of cities were not so easy to build.

Stones, earthworks, bronze cannons, professional scholars who are proficient in nine geometry, a large number of labor, and huge expenditures. This is a heavy burden on the military and political system that integrates the peasants and soldiers.

The people are full of grievances, when the famine comes, they have to accumulate money to buy firearms, cotton cloth and ordnance, etc., there are many rumors that Zhou Tianzi melted Jiuding and minted money, and the king of Chu couldn't wait for his ancestors to really snatch Jiuding back.

Yicheng does not have such qualifications to build such a defense system now, everything always has a sequence, even the capital of Chu is too big, so it can only build the inner city appropriately.

With the Mo family's defeat of Shen Gong's division within an hour, this monster that has dominated the world for more than 30 years intuitively told Xiong Liangfu, who was busy with the coup d'état before and had no real contact with the Mo family, that Yicheng was only afraid that he would not be able to defend it.

Zuo Sima's words expressed the hearts of some loyal people, but also made some nobles whose fiefs were in Jianghan angry and opposed.

There are their own ancestors in the fiefdom, which is secondary.

The important thing is that without the feudal lords and nobles of the fief, they will gradually fall to the margins in the Chu State, at least the family cannot continue.

Chu State Ling Yin has only one real outsider so far, what is the ending? Where is his family now? And the big clan that really has a fiefdom, which one is not the evergreen ivy of the political situation of the Chu State?

If a country like Wu is attacked, sooner or later it will be able to restore the country. But if the Mo family captured Jianghan and governed according to the policy of Sishang, even if they recaptured the fief in the future, they would have to slaughter at least one-fifth of the fiefdom to continue to rule.

Many people don't want to leave, don't want to retreat, and feel that they should think of another way.

Ejun, who had been silent, said sadly at this time: "If you want to retreat, you should retreat when the Mo family enters Poyi that day." At that time, if you don't retreat, you have to fight, but if you really want to fight, you have to retreat, so that it is like reeds and grass with the wind, how can it be done? ”

"If you want to retreat, you can retreat on the same day, and you can still gather troops. Now the war is not fighting, retreating and not retreating, and the fighter plane is delayed......"

Zuo Sima said coldly: "This is not true. In the past, he did not retreat, because he still had the strength to fight, and he may not be defeated. If you retreat at that time, under the trade-off, the loss will be great. If you retreat today, you can still survive and stay in the future. ”

"Now the elite of the Mo family is dozens of miles away, and there is no news about the siege of Sishang, and there are even rumors that the Mo family has sent troops from the South China Sea to attack Wujiu and go down the Hunan River."

"Today's army is only 60,000 or 70,000, and I thought that the field war could be won. But I ask you, Shen Gong is also a person who knows the soldiers, and when he fights in battle, which of you can defeat Shen Gong's army in one hour? ”

"Seven years ago, the Mo family only sent cavalry to help fight in Yinyang, and no one knew what its infantry was, no one knew if they didn't fight for seven years. Some people may say that if they do not fight for a long time, their soldiers will decline, but now it seems that this statement is not credible. Not only is it not declining, but it is more courageous. ”

Xu Chengjun got up and was about to refute Zuo Sima's words, and the king of Chu said: "There is no need to argue about this matter, it is advisable to retreat quickly." The death of Shen Gong was cold in the army, and it was difficult to hold on. If you don't retreat, you may suffer a great disaster. ”

The king of Chu thought to himself, I am finally not like the ancestors of the battle of Wu and Chu back then, I ran away when the Wu people attacked, and I still held on for so long, but there is really no way to fight this battle, what can I do if I don't return it?

Seeing that the Chu people had made up their minds, at this time, the feudal monarchs no longer spoke.

After all, if you retreat, someone always needs to break the back, and if you refute it at this time, it must be the person who broke the back.

Either defend the city, or take the initiative to intercept the main force of the Mo family, no matter what, this is a road to death. Now it is a bronze cannon and a musket, and if you are not careful, you may be killed, and it is not polite to be caught by the Mo family, and it is said that you will have to suffer the trial of the untouchables, which is a great humiliation.

That being the case, naturally no one wants to come forward to be the one who is broken.

The king of Chu did not mention this matter at this time, but said: "If you want to retreat, you need to burn the warship." Burn all the warships and don't leave them to the Mo family. ”

"The food of the camp shall also be burned. The boatman's pawn and oarsmen all went ashore and retreated. ”

The king of Chu is still sober, the strength of the Mo family's boat division is still inferior to the three armies on land, if these warships fall into the hands of the Mo family again, the Chu country basically has no hope of recovering the country.

This retreat does not mean that it is enough to retreat a few cities.

Instead, it is necessary to retreat from Yicheng to Suiguo, and then from Suiguo to Yanying, and from Yanying to Wancheng to continue to retreat to Wancheng in order to gain a foothold.

Otherwise, you will always be pursued by the Mo family, and if you take a slight step slowly, you may be intercepted, and then it will be over.

In the northeast of Suiguo is Tongbai Mountain, where there is no artillery, so in the end you can only run in the direction of Xiangyang, where to flee north.

After Yanying, it is not the south, and the people there are not good at boating, so they should take away the soldiers of the boat master as much as possible.

Not everyone can fight on a ship, let alone be an oarsman, building and sailing boats can be built, but oarsmen and sailors are not so easy to train.

If there is no water division, even if the world changes in the future, it will be difficult to capture Jianghan.

Things have come to this point, and I'm afraid that's all there is to it. He retreated from the direction of Yicheng, Suiguo, and Yanying; Along the way, they sent messengers to inform the nobles that those who were willing to follow the king, and those whose families could afford to flee, fled north from all directions.

Historically, the Yan Kingdom was destroyed, and Tian Dan was also a member of the army of fugitive nobles. The reason for his fame is because of foresight: when everyone was fleeing, he tied an iron hoop to the axle, and when he fled, the road was not good and he ran for a long time, and many people's axles were broken, but the Tiandan family's was not broken.

It was because of this that he became famous, a good story for the moment, and then was promoted as a defender and finally successfully counterattacked.

At this time, there is naturally no such story, but the king of Chu still understands in his heart which people are his basic plate, and he did not flee with a large number of nobles, scholars, and families in Jianghan, and he will lack people to fight back in the future, and there is also a lack of people who can gain a stable foothold after running to the north.

He can't fight a war, and he hasn't given him a chance to show his level in governing the country, but he still has a family history when it comes to coups and infighting.

These nobles who fled together and had no fiefdom in the north will be the key for him to gain a firm foothold in the north and wrestle with the northern nobles, and when the time comes, everyone will work together, because after fleeing in the past, they have nothing but blood, and they have to cooperate with him to snatch food from the mouth of the northern noble family and seize power in their hands.