My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 316 Arrival in Wuxi
In the original history, Sun Ce faced this situation and made the same decisions.

In Sun Ce's eyes, he was unaware that Zhou Yu had marched south to Wanling and had already reached his rear flank.

The only difference between Sun Ce's view of the battle and that in history was that Liu Feng had caught up with him and reached Qu'a, while also capturing Piling.

However, after Liu Feng captured Qu'a, he only sent a few thousand men to garrison Piling, while his remaining troops stayed in Qu'a without moving, which aroused suspicion.

Sun Ce judged that Liu Feng was probably short of food.

It wasn't that Xuzhou couldn't produce enough food, but rather that it couldn't replenish the front lines in time. This forced Liu Feng to have troops but be unable to advance directly to the walls of Wuxi.

Therefore, Sun Ce immediately rejected the suggestion that the army should turn back north to rescue Wu in the north.

Fortunately, most of those who supported this suggestion were newly surrendered powerful families in northern Wu County. They were relatively weak in the army and did not have a decent leader, so they were not a concern.

On the contrary, the faction that attacked Yan Baihu first had a great momentum.

It is no exaggeration to say that from Cheng Pu to Huang Gai, Han Dang, and even Chen Wu and Lü Dai, they all held this view.

On the contrary, Sun Ce himself became the minority.

This is not surprising. The fact that so many senior military leaders in Sun Ce's army supported dealing with Yan Baihu first proves that this is the reasonable way to use troops. On the contrary, Sun Ce's strategy of attacking Guling first was risky and would be severely damaged if it failed.

In fact, in the original timeline, Sun Ce stationed his troops under the walls of Guling City and launched several fierce offensives, but he was never able to break through Guling. This also shows that Wang Lang was good at finding capable people.

Wang Lang didn't understand military strategy; his only advantage was winning the hearts of the people, which allowed him to command the loyalty of soldiers and powerful figures.

At the same time, Guling also gathered almost all of Wang Lang's supporters, as well as the powerful clans and gentry in Kuaiji Commandery who had strategic vision and knew that if the lips were gone, the teeth would be cold.

Once Guling falls, there will be other military forces in other parts of Kuaiji, but these forces will be beyond Wang Lang's control.

“Bo Fu, it is too dangerous to attack Guling first when heading south. If we amass troops under the city walls and Yan Baihu comes out of Wucheng, even if we don’t capture Youquan, as long as he sends troops to harass our supplies, our army will likely suffer a great defeat.”

Even though Cheng Pu increasingly respected Sun Ce, he remained stubborn and could not stand by and watch Sun Ce lead his troops into a desperate situation.

Huang Gai couldn't help but chime in, "Bo Fu, what Commandant Cheng said is indeed selfless."

Sun Ce turned around and gave the two men a cold look, forcing Cheng Pu and Huang Gai to lower their heads.

Only then did Sun Ce continue, saying, "What you all say is certainly correct."

Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and the others breathed a sigh of relief, but before they could even rejoice, they heard Sun Ce continue speaking.

"It's a pity that you all only know one side of the story, not the other."

Sun Ce's tiger-like eyes swept over the generals in the hall, and he continued, "The Yan brothers are nothing but thieves. They have no great ambitions. Although they have each gathered tens of thousands of men and occupied the hills, they have no ambition. In the end, they will only be captured by me."

“Wang Lang, a scion of a prominent family in Xuzhou, may not be knowledgeable in military strategy, but he is good at accepting advice.”

Sun Ce pointed to Guling: "More than 10,000 elite troops from Ji have already gathered here. If we go west, Guling can be used to harass our logistics and threaten Youquan. The worst option is to go straight to Wucheng and join forces with the Yan clan bandits to fight us."

"On the contrary, if we march south and attack Wang Lang first, the Yan brothers will definitely just stand by and watch, and will never send troops to harass our army, let alone send troops south to rescue Guling."

Sun Ce's words made a lot of sense, and the subsequent changes in the situation did indeed confirm his guess.

Yan Baihu indeed remained in his lair, not daring to make a move, watching Wang Lang's army be defeated and captured, while Sun's army marched north, leisurely invading Wucheng.

Although Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others admitted that Sun Ce's deduction made some sense, they still believed that it was wrong to just guess and throw 20,000 elite troops under the walls of Guling City to gamble that the Yan brothers would not send troops.
How could Cheng Pu and Huang Gai possibly accept this?

Seeing that Cheng Pu and Huang Gai still wanted to object, Sun Ce suppressed them with an extremely firm attitude.

"Alright, there's no point in saying more. Just do as I say."

Sun Ce immediately made a decision and issued an order: "I request that Commandant Cheng and Commander Huang remain to guard Quan County. If Yan Baihu dares to fight, you only need to hold out for five days, and I will return immediately."

Historically, the reward for merit in Qu'a was changed to the reward for merit in Wu County. However, Cheng Pu was still rewarded and was allowed to lead two thousand troops, while Huang Gai had five hundred troops, for a total of two thousand five hundred people.

Sun Ce then led the remaining 20,000 troops south to join Zhu Zhi in breaking through the Guling defense line.

Sun Ce made the same decision as in the original timeline, except that Zhou Yu had already arrived at Wanling.

********
Liu Feng, who was stationed in Qu'a County, finally received reinforcements.

Not only were the waterways and grain routes from Guangling and Xuzhou through Dantu and Qu'a to Piling completely opened up, but grain was also continuously transported over.

Meanwhile, grain from neighboring Jurong was also transported to Qu'a by land, relieving Liu Feng's immediate crisis.

In addition, Zhou Tai and Dong Xi's naval forces, after being expanded and reorganized, also reinforced Jiangdong. At the same time, Zhao Yun's 6,000 troops also arrived, followed by Xu Huang's 10,000 troops led by Taishi Ci.

As a result, Liu Feng now had as many as 50,000 troops gathered in the northern part of Wu Commandery.

At this time, Liu Feng received a letter from Zhou Yu in Wanling, which detailed the intelligence Zhou Yu knew about Wu Nan and listed it for Liu Feng.

After reading it, Liu Feng didn't call everyone this time, but only Zhao Yun, Jia Kui, and Gao Shun.

Among the generals currently stationed in Qu'a, only these three possess considerable strategic vision and tactical acumen.

After recounting the situation reported by Zhou Yu, Liu Feng inquired about the opinions of the three generals.

Of the three, Zhao Yun naturally held the highest position and had the most seniority, so Jia Kui and Gao Shun couldn't help but look at him.

Zhao Yun frowned, clearly unable to come up with a good solution for the time being.

Then Jia Kui glanced at Gao Shun, and seeing that the other party had no intention of speaking, he took the initiative to be the first to speak.

"General, in my opinion, this is a golden opportunity! We should immediately reinforce Wanling with troops."

Jia Kui preemptively declared that this was a golden opportunity.

"General, although Wu and Nan are in chaos, and it can be said that they are intertwined, their essence is that they are in a state of fragmentation. The enemy at Guzhang and the enemy at Youquan have been cut in two by Wucheng, and the transmission of information here will inevitably be greatly hindered. We can send reinforcements to Wanling. If we can take Guzhang in one fell swoop and recover Wucheng, then the momentum of advancing from the north and south will be complete, and Sun Ce will be unable to attend to both ends."

To be honest, the advance from the north was a series of tough battles. Even with the siege weapons that Liu Feng had painstakingly developed, as long as the defending troops were determined enough, they could still inflict considerable casualties on Liu Feng's army.

Jia Kui studied military strategy with Jia Xi from a young age, and he was known for his upright and honorable military tactics, but he also instinctively disliked fighting dull and tedious battles.

When an opportunity arose in Wanling, Jia Kui naturally gave it his full support.

After Jia Kui finished speaking, Gao Shun nodded and agreed, saying, "General, I observe that Generals Zhou, Jiang, Dong, and Gan are strict in their military discipline, and the naval soldiers are willing to serve them. Now is the time for the naval soldiers to fight. If the navy can successfully control Zhenze (later known as Taihu Lake), then Zhang will be completely isolated by our army, and at the same time, we can immediately establish contact between the north and south."

Jurong, Qu'a, and Piling counties are located north of Taihu Lake, while Guzhang and Wucheng are located south of Taihu Lake.

At this time, there were no large ships on Taihu Lake, which gave the Xuzhou navy, which consisted mostly of small boats, a significant advantage.

Once the Xuzhou navy controls Taihu Lake, the Xuzhou army on the southern front, starting from Wanling, will undoubtedly have an additional supply line, which will greatly alleviate the logistical pressure on this route from Wanling, thus allowing Zhou Yu and others to be more liberated in their military operations.

To give a simple example, if we rely solely on the logistics of Wanling, we would have to transport supplies by land. The distance from Wanling to Guzhang is more than 400 li. The cost of land transportation over this distance is not too excessive. Even with Wanling's grain reserves, laborers, and transportation capacity alone, it would be sufficient to support the effort.

However, if they were to continue attacking Wucheng, the pressure from the extra two hundred li would be more than double the difficulty.

In contrast, if Taihu Lake were controlled by the Xuzhou Navy, the northern army could directly supply the southern army with provisions by ship.

Wanling could also abandon land transportation and switch to waterway, heading north along Lengshui into Lishui, and then into Taihu Lake in Yangxian. This would be much easier than transporting grain by mountain road.

Yangxian is the same as Yixing in later times. At that time, Yangxian was still a lakeside city, built next to Taihu Lake.

More importantly, if they take this route, Liu Feng's army could even bypass Guzhang and head straight for Wucheng, because there is an official road that leads directly between Yangxian and Wucheng.

With so many benefits, it's no wonder Jia Kui and Gao Shun were so excited.

"What does Uncle think?" Liu Feng already had his own thoughts, and now Jia Kui and Gao Shun's suggestions only strengthened his resolve.

However, before making a final decision, he wanted to hear Zhao Yun's opinion.

"feasible!"

Zhao Yun said decisively, "I just calculated that if we have Lishui as a base, we can increase our troops by five to six thousand."

"An additional 10,000 troops can be added."

Liu Feng added with a smile, "Uncle, I can also order Li Yang to have his navy and Niu Zhu's navy work together to transport grain from Niu Zhu, enter the Li River at Wukou, and head straight for Yangxian. As for Guzhang, we can have Zhou Yu abandon Guzhang and head straight for Yangxian, and then we can advance directly on Wucheng."

Zhao Yun and his two companions were initially taken aback, but after careful consideration, they had to admit that Liu Feng's plan was indeed the best one.

This meant bypassing the mountain roads that stretched for seven or eight hundred miles, with logistics entirely via waterways, and also avoiding a siege.

If we were even bolder, we could simply ignore Wu Cheng and his group and bypass them altogether.

Anyway, the logistics team uses waterways, so there's no fear of Yan Baihu and Wang Sheng in Wucheng cutting off supplies.

In this way, Sun Ce might be caught off guard by Zhou Yu.

After reaching an agreement, Liu Feng immediately wrote back to Zhou Yu, ordering Zhang Ying's troops to remain in Wanling and take charge of logistics, while also instructing Zhou Yu to turn north and head along the Lishui River to Yangxian.

At the same time, Liu Feng also sent Teng Dan to Yangxian to persuade them to surrender. If Yangxian was willing to surrender, the officials and powerful families of Yangxian would be guaranteed to remain in their positions and would not be replaced. If Yangxian dared to resist, all those who resisted would be stripped of all their property.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Feng sent letters to Li Yang and Niu Zhu, preparing to open a new supply line. This task was assigned to Teng Zhou, who was asked to go to Niu Zhu immediately.

In addition, Liu Feng sent letters to Taishi Ci and Xu Huang, ordering them to board ships in Liyang and send 3,000 laborers from Liyang to Wukou to join Zhou Yu on their journey to Yangxian.

Finally, after ordering Zhou Tai and other naval forces to enter Taihu Lake and seize control of it, Liu Feng personally led a large army south to Piling, preparing to advance to Wuxi.

We waited so long, partly for news from the southern front, and partly to stockpile food.

Now that adjustments have been made on the southern front and food reserves are sufficient, it is time to send troops.

Liu Feng left 4,000 men under Pan Zhang to guard the four counties of Jurong, Qu'a, Dantu, and Piling, while only transferring 2,000 men from the Ironclad Warriors.

This time, the army consisted of Zhao Yun, Xu Sheng, Jia Kui, Gao Shun, Fan Neng, Zhao Fan, Yu Zi, 11,000 former troops of Zuo Rong, and 8,000 laborers mobilized from Wu County and northern counties of Danyang, totaling 48,000 men. They falsely claimed to be an army of 200,000 and marched straight towards Wuxi.

The scouts in Wuxi saw that Liu Feng's army was moving in a continuous line, with banners like clouds and drums like thunder. They knew that Liu Feng's army had started its campaign. At first, they wanted to get closer to observe, but many of them were ambushed and killed by Liu Feng's scouts.

The advantage of horses caused the scouts of Wu County to suffer repeated setbacks.

In just a few days, twenty or thirty people had already died in battle.

These are all shrewd, capable, and experienced scouts; even losing a few would be enough to break Xu Kun's heart.

Even now that so many have died, Xu Kun, with a grim face, still demanded that they find out the number and designation of Liu Feng's army.

Xu Kun naturally didn't believe Liu Fengjun's claim of 200,000 men, but the scale was certainly not small.

Xu Kun needed to know more, and so did Wu Jing, who was behind him.

Unfortunately, even though Xu Kun's scouts were very brave and resourceful, they still obtained very little information. They only found out that Liu Feng's troops numbered between 40,000 and 50,000, and that they had generals such as Zhao, Xu, and Gao, with Liu Feng personally supervising the army.

Besides this, Fan Neng was probably the one they knew best about the composition of the troops, the personalities of the generals, and other information.

At noon on the eighth day, Liu Feng's army arrived at the city of Wuxi.

This speed is neither fast nor slow; it's a moderate pace, a model of traveling thirty li a day.

Xu Kun had originally planned to launch a surprise attack while Liu Feng's army was still new to the area and had not yet established a firm foothold.

But Liu Feng didn't approach at all, not even making a show of force. He set up camp a full five miles away, leaving Xu Kun dumbfounded.

Isn't that being overly cautious?

Liu Feng ordered Xu Sheng to lead the vanguard, Zhao Yun to lead the left flank, Jia Kui to lead the right flank, Zhao Fan to lead the rearguard, Liu Feng to lead Xu Chu's thousand-man personal guard, and Pan Zhang's armored soldiers, Gao Shun's troops, and the remaining troops of Ze Rong to form the central army.

Xu Kun led Xu Yi, Zhu Chao, Sun He and other generals to the city wall to observe. They saw that Liu Feng's army was well-disciplined, with bright flags, and each unit was in good order. Their camping was carried out in an orderly manner, showing the appearance of a strong army.

Not only did Xu Kun frown, but his generals were also shocked.

News of Liu Feng's massive attack had reached Wu County, and Wu Jing also sent word, instructing them to hold their ground and not to engage.

At the same time, another batch of military equipment and provisions was quickly sent to replenish their strength.

However, no reinforcements arrived.

Xu Kun and the others felt only gratitude, but no dissatisfaction.

Wuxi is a formidable city, nestled against mountains and beside water. However, Wuxi is not very large nowadays, and it is already somewhat crowded with 10,000 troops stationed there. Further reinforcements would not be of much use.

On the contrary, military equipment and supplies, which would inevitably be consumed in huge quantities during offensive and defensive battles, were what Xu Kun and others valued the most.

"Generals, the enemy is now at the city gates. How should we respond?"

Xu Kun looked at the bustling Liu army camp in the distance and asked the people around him for their opinions.

Both Xu Yi and Zhu Chao were seasoned veterans and were generals of both wisdom and courage.

Take Xu Yi as an example. Later, he and Lü Fan launched a surprise attack on Haixi by sea, defeated Chen Yu, killed Chen Mu, a general of the Chen family, and captured thousands of people to return to Jiangdong.

These thousands of people are all the elite members of the Chen family.

The Chen family's later decline was not only due to Chen Dengying's untimely death, but also closely related to this incident.

Sun He was even more outstanding than Xu Yi. Although he was currently ranked below Zhu Chao, he later successfully became the Prefect of Lujiang and was one of the most valued and favored generals of the imperial clan by Sun Ce and Sun Quan.

Unfortunately, he later died in a conspiracy; otherwise, he would surely have accomplished even greater things.

Seeing Xu Kun ask questions, the generals present, though seasoned veterans, were unable to come up with any good solutions for the time being.

Liu Feng's army was not only numerous and powerful, but they were also very cautious when setting up camp. They not only maintained a certain distance, but also specially dispatched cover troops, including as many as three hundred cavalrymen.

Xu Kun's force probably only numbered about two hundred cavalry, and their mobility was far inferior to that of the enemy.

"General, judging from the current situation, the camps outside the city are under great pressure. Should we send in a few more troops?"

In the end, it was Xu Yi who spoke first. He was a member of Xu Kun's clan and had followed Xu Kun in his campaigns in the north and south in his early years, so their relationship was different.

The saying "to defend a city, one must defend its surrounding areas" means that when defending a city, if there is spare capacity, it is best not to abandon the areas around the city. Once abandoned, the attacker can easily surround the city, which will not only severely damage the confidence and morale of the defenders, but also allow them to better allocate their offensive direction and seize the initiative.

Therefore, Xu Kun established a military camp outside the north gate of Wuxi. The camp was not large, but it was very sturdy and located right next to the city gate, which could effectively protect the city gate and prevent the attackers from launching a direct attack on the city gate.

Xu Kun deployed three hundred elite soldiers to guard this stronghold. As long as the enemy could not take it down, the garrison could take advantage of the gap between attack and defense to send reinforcements out of the city to relieve the defenders.

But now, Xu Yi is worried that three hundred people might be too few.

If such a military stronghold were to be breached in one fell swoop by the enemy, the morale of the defenders would undoubtedly be severely damaged, and the subsequent troops might not even dare to leave the city to defend the stronghold.

In this way, not only will the city gates be left unprotected, but the military camp will also become a fulcrum for Liu Feng's army to attack.

Then the gain outweighs the loss.

(End of this chapter)