New Age Artists

Chapter 278: Zero Winning Rate, Complete Loss (23)

The first pre-war meeting between Cao Wei and the Sun-Liu alliance.

Background: The time in the movie is October.

Zhou Yu and Liu Bei formed an alliance.

Sun Quan still wanted to swallow up Liu Bei's troops. Before Zhou Yu left, Sun Quan asked him to try to find an opportunity.

But because Cao Cao is present, we should not use too drastic means and try to fight without destroying him.

Liu Bei wanted to meet Lu Su, but Zhou Yu pushed back.

Let him recognize his own identity and try to see if he can gain command of Liu Bei's troops.

Zhuge Liang defended Liu Bei against Zhou Yu's temptations, pointing out that Zhou Yu's 30,000 men were too few.

Zhou Yu said it was enough to defeat Cao's army.

Zhuge Liang also pointed out the great role of Liu Bei, who was familiar with the geography of Jingzhou and had the support of local gentry.

If we want to take Jiangling back from Cao Cao, we cannot do without Liu Bei.

The two sides had a friendly exchange (open and covert fighting).

Zhou Yu discovered that even when facing a powerful enemy and suffering a military defeat, Liu Bei's team did not lose morale.

Resisting Cao is the main task, which requires cooperation with Liu Bei.

The test yielded no results, so Zhou Yu concentrated on preparing for war.

Zhuge Liang informed Liu Bei that the troops brought by Zhou Yu were very skilled in naval warfare.

In the battle on the Yangtze River, facing Cao Cao's soldiers, he was able to defeat the larger force with a smaller one.

After some testing between the Sun and Liu camps, both sides agreed to form an alliance and divided their respective powers.

Zhou Yu served as the main force and Liu Bei served as the auxiliary.

Zhou Yu had no command authority over Liu Bei's troops.

The allied forces of Sun and Liu discussed strategies to deal with Cao Cao, and both sides believed that they should fight Cao Cao as soon as possible.

Cao Cao's newly trained navy and the dependent Jingzhou navy had only been in service for a short time and were unfamiliar with each other, which was the time when their military strength was at its slowest.

The Jiangdong soldiers, who served as the main force, were all familiar with water and had good coordination.

Overall, the allied forces of Sun and Liu were very nervous and cautious when facing Cao Cao.

They both knew that they needed to cooperate with each other and that Cao Cao was not easy to deal with.

Do everything in your power to turn the situation in your favor.

The corresponding Cao Wei camp.

At this moment, Cao Cao was invincible.

Since going south, Liu Cong has been helpless. By defeating Liu Bei and occupying Jiangling, Jiangdong can be taken at any time.

Win, win, win, I’m so excited.

Therefore, Cao Cao's majesty became more and more awe-inspiring, and his subordinates were more respectful of him, just like treating the emperor.

Cao Cao also preferred to interfere with front-line command and perform subtle operations on the army.

The officers and soldiers under his command all stood in awe of Cao Cao's authority and longed for the rewards that would follow the unification of the country; no one dared to object to his decisions.

The only small problem was that some soldiers were not used to the local climate and an epidemic broke out.

But it's just a minor problem.

Cao Cao didn't care at all. He laughed and chatted with his men, mocking Sun Quan for being frightened.

When Cao Cao learned that Zhou Yu and Liu Bei's allied forces were heading up the river, he flew into a rage and chose to give Sun Quan a head-on blow.

"Two hundred and forty thousand against thirty thousand, no match for them!"

Cao Cao was extremely confident.

Although his military strength was not as large as the 800,000 mentioned in the letter of war to Sun Quan.

But he brought 160,000 troops from the Central Plains, plus the 80,000 troops recruited by Liu Biao, the total force reached 240,000.

With an eight-fold difference in military strength, it would be easy to destroy Sun Quan.

After seeing the results, Shen Santong said, "Pass, next game."

He wanted to compare the war decision-making processes of Cao Wei and Sun Liu.

Let the audience understand why Cao Cao was defeated and why Sun and Liu won.

If we say that Cao Cao's planning before heading south was a strategic failure.

Then the first battle was a tactical failure.

Although Sun and Liu had few troops, they were generally united. Zhou Yu was knowledgeable about military affairs and good at fighting, especially naval battles.

As for Cao Cao, he had military forces, but he did not pay attention to the huge changes in the objective environment on the battlefield.

Ancient warfare was particularly dependent on topography.

Cao Cao had never fought a naval battle. In the past, he always fought wars on land.

In land warfare, with a difference of more than eight times in troop strength, if they were deployed in full force, they would have a huge advantage.

But when it comes to deciding the outcome on the Yangtze River, the advantage in military strength is not so obvious, and it ultimately comes down to the battle between ships.

In this era, individual soldier skills were limited. Cao's army was good at land warfare but not at water warfare.

In addition, there was an epidemic and his troops were very tired after a long journey.

The newly formed navy and the newly attached Jingzhou navy were not well coordinated, so they should have focused on defense and adjusted their positions. Cao Cao chose to fight.

As a result, they were defeated by Zhou Yu's navy in the first battle.

After the failure in the first battle, Cao Cao's winning rate dropped from 50% to 60% to 40% to 50%.

It had an impact on Cao Cao, but not much.

Pre-battle meeting before the second decisive battle.

Background: After the initial defeat, Cao's warships moved to the north bank of Wulin to train the navy and wait for the right opportunity.

Zhou Yu docked his warship on the Red Cliff side of the south bank and confronted Cao's army across the Yangtze River.

During the standoff, there were some logistical deficiencies and a shortage of arrows.

Zhuge Liang rushed to the front line to put out the fire and borrowed arrows from a straw boat.

If there are no arrows, let Cao’s army make them.

At this time, as for Cao's army, Cao Cao was worried that the northern soldiers were not used to riding on boats.

So they connected the ships bow to stern, and the men and horses could travel on the ships as if they were walking on flat ground.

When the ships were connected, Cao Cao's chances of winning the unification plummeted.

From 40% to 50%, it dropped to only 10%.

This decision was made by Cao Cao himself, he just came up with it on the spur of the moment.

Even if some soldiers had doubts, no one dared to raise them.

Because Cao Cao became more and more majestic, he also became more and more anxious.

Everyone thought that the defeat in the first battle was just an accident. As long as the navy was organized steadily and the enemy advanced in an upright manner, Jiangdong would be unable to resist.

Cao's army is still invincible.

When Cao Cao ascends the throne and becomes emperor, everyone can be granted titles and appointed as a general.

The situation on the Sun-Liu camp was completely the opposite.

When he learned that Cao Cao's warships were chained.

Huang Gai, a general under Zhou Yu, took the initiative to propose that the enemy was numerous and we were few, and it would be difficult to hold out for a long time.

Cao's army is connecting their warships together, end to end, so we can use fire attack to defeat Cao's army.

We will win if we kill Cao Cao's navy.

At this time, Cao Cao's chance of winning the unification was only 5%.

Zhou Yu then helped Huang Gai perfect the plan.

He asked Huang Gai to pretend to surrender to Cao Cao, then used the false surrender to get close to Cao's navy, and then took the opportunity to burn the ships.

The letter Huang Gai wrote to Cao Cao was carefully designed.

He said that although he was an old minister of the Sun family, most people in Soochow now understood that resisting Prime Minister Cao's army would inevitably fail.

Only Zhou Yu and Lu Su were short-sighted and overestimated their own abilities.

He really wanted to surrender.

Now he is the vanguard of the Eastern Wu navy and controls the Wu army's food and fodder.

When the fighting starts, he will take the opportunity to make contributions for Cao Cao.

Cao Cao believed it and responded.

If Huang Gai could really do it, the official position and rewards given to him would be greater than those of all those who came to him before and after.

Huang Gai's excuse for feigning surrender was very clever.

The old ministers and food supplies were all replicas of Xu You's surrender in the Battle of Guandu.

Xu You was an old minister of Yuan Shao. The way Xu You suggested to Cao Cao was to attack Yuan’s army’s food supplies.

If you rise by this, you will surely fall by this.

Success will become a person's destiny. The greater the success in life, the more it determines future judgments.

The successful model of the Battle of Guandu undoubtedly had a huge impact on Cao Cao's judgment. This is the common weakness of thinking that likes to "sit back and wait for rabbits."

Huang Gai's words moved Cao Cao.

Ever since.

Cao Cao’s chance of success in unifying the country is infinitely close to zero.

From the nearly 100% success rate in pacifying the North.

The strategic mistakes in the temple calculations were reduced by more than 30%, the initial battle dropped by 10%, and the warship chain dropped by 40%. Zhou Yu seized this weakness and reduced the number of enemies to zero in one wave.

Lost completely.

The Battle of Red Cliffs has not yet begun, but the outcome is already determined.

Both strategy and tactics failed.

The outdoor drama ended and Red Cliff entered the war scene.

It’s all hard scenes, with a large number of people and grand scenes.

Shen Santong managed the crew in an orderly manner.

The benefits of training management personnel in the early stages will become apparent at this time. With a structure, it will be easier to expand the scale.

(End of this chapter)