On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 231 Breakthrough in Zhejiang

On the north bank of Zhejiang, all the generals were accompanying them. Cui Che stopped by the river and raised his eyes to look south.

It was the spring flood at this time, and the waves were rough and the waves were washing over the sand.

Cui Che secretly marveled: The spring tide is so terrifying, what will the August tide be like?

In his last life, he never had time to watch the tide on the Qiantang River. In this life, he finally got his wish, but Cui Che looked at the gathering of boats on the south bank, frowning and not smiling.

Everyone walked along the river bank for a while before returning to the camp outside the city in Yuhang County.

"Do you have any good strategies to defeat the enemy?"

Cui Che asked.

Li Jing was about to make suggestions, but someone overran him.

I saw the guardian coming out of the queue and saying:

"The people of Wu are good at water warfare, but it is difficult for our army to compete with them, so we should avoid their sharp edges.

"If the enemy attacks, Duke Yan must not fight with them. Please lend me thousands of troops to sneak across Zhejiang and break down their fortress.

"The enemy will have nowhere to retreat, they will not be able to fight if they advance, and the rebel army will be in chaos. This is how Han Xin defeats Zhao's plan!"

Upon hearing this, Cui Che thought to himself that although Lai Hu'er's plan could make the enemy advance and retreat at a loss once it succeeded, it would only scare Gao Zhizhi away, but it would not be able to annihilate the enemy.

However, the most important thing at the moment is to break through the Zhejiang defense line, avoid head-on confrontation with the rebels, and sneak attack their fortress, which is indeed a good strategy.

He nodded and said:

"General, this is a very clever plan."

Then he looked at Li Jing. He had seen him intending to speak before, but for some reason, Li Jing remained silent.

Cui Che did not urge him, but after the military meeting ended, he left Li Jing alone and asked:

"Just now I saw the pharmacist was about to say something, but he had a plan, but it was inconvenient to say it?"

Li Jing then said:

"Now that the tide is raging, it is difficult for even the Wu people to control the boats. The high-ranking thieves can only confront our troops and wait for the tide to subside before looking for an opportunity for a decisive battle.

"Jing thought that Duke Yan might as well use his fine cavalry to sneak across from the upper reaches and take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to attack his stronghold at night."

Cui Che thought to himself: No wonder Li Jing was unwilling to offer advice before. It turned out that he and Lai Hu'er had the idea together and planned to attack the camp.

The only one is to wait for the decisive battle, take advantage of the opponent's overwhelming force, and then seize the empty camp.

The other plan was to cross the river and attack at night when the two sides were facing each other.

Night raids were Cui Che’s specialty, but this time Cui Che shook his head and said:

"If it were normal, I would have used the medicine master's strategy, but this battle is no better than before."

Li Jing didn't understand why Cui Che said this. After all, he was only twenty-one years old, and it was his first time to go on an expedition with the army. He could speak succinctly about the art of war, but he lacked practice.

Fortunately, Cui Che didn't play riddles either. He explained:

"The imperial court's improper handling has made the people of Jiangnan resentful, and the people's hearts are with the thieves, not me.

“The south of the Yangtze River is no better than the outside of the Great Wall. It is densely populated and it is difficult to hide people’s eyes and ears by traveling on horseback.

"Come to the general's plan, the enemy troops will come out in full force, and our troops will sneak across. Even if they are noticed, they will face an empty camp, and they will definitely be able to capture it."

Li Jing suddenly realized it. After thinking about it carefully, he felt that what Cui Che said was quite reasonable, and even said that he had learned from it.

Looking at Li Jing's leaving figure, Cui Che said silently to himself:

"Li Jing today is indeed a bit greener."

But he forgot that he himself was only one year older than Li Jing.

However, as Li Jing said, in the next few days, Gao Zhizhi stood still and the two sides faced off across Zhejiang, waiting for the opportunity.

But Cui Che did not sit still. He remembered that he had read an article and mentioned why Zhuge Liang could borrow the east wind.

It was because he understood the local hydrology and climate characteristics in advance.

So Cui Che ordered people to capture a large number of fishermen from the north of the Yangtze River. Instead of preventing them from being deceived, he ordered people to ask about the weather one by one, fearing death for them.

It was finally confirmed that the river tide at this time usually stops in mid-March, and there are occasional northerly winds.

Cui Che then summoned the generals and discussed with them to prepare a fire attack plan in advance. If there was a north wind on the river that day, he would attack with fire.

If things don't go as planned, give up.

On March 13, the eleventh year of Kaihuang's reign (AD 591), the storm in Zhejiang subsided.

On that day, Gao Zhihui brought thousands of warships to cover the river, hoping to fight the Sui army in a water battle in Zhejiang to decide the outcome.

However, Cui Che just ordered his men to guard the north bank strictly and not to attack.

The rebels repeatedly provoked, but the Sui army remained unmoved. Gao Zhizhi also noticed that the morale of his troops was declining.

As the saying goes, once you make great progress, you will be exhausted again and again.

As the rebels approached the Sui army's water stronghold, Lai Hu'er led five thousand elite troops allocated by Cui Che to sneak across Zhejiang in hundreds of light boats from the upper reaches.

In broad daylight, this operation was inevitably discovered by rebel scouts.

After landing, Lai Hu'er ignored the formation and led five thousand elite soldiers straight to the rebel camp. When Gao Zhizhi on the river learned the news, Lai Hu'er had already broken into the empty camp.

Just as Gao Zhihui was about to turn around to rescue him, the camp on the south bank was already in flames, and black smoke was rising and drifting to the south.

The wind has risen.

The rebels were already exhausted, and when they saw the camp on fire, they wondered what the situation was like on the south bank. Everyone was frightened, and the morale of the army was in chaos for a while.

When the rebels turned the ship around, the Sui army, which had been waiting for a long time, finally made a move.

When Cui Che saw that Laihu'er had succeeded in seizing the camp and the rebels were about to retreat, he immediately ordered all his troops to attack. Led by seven large five-tooth ships, numerous large and small warships advanced with great noise and attacked from the front.

Gao Zhizhi did not have outstanding military talents. At this critical moment, he did not know whether to turn around and fight the Sui army or rescue Nan'an.

The generals on the flagship were all waiting for Gao Zhizhi to come up with an idea, but Gao Zhizhi's mind was already blank.

Without waiting for the flag signal, the rebel warships were at a loss of ground, some wanted to fight, others wanted to escape, and the whole river was in chaos.

Suddenly, more than ten fishing boats appeared behind the Sui army's five-toothed ship. They rushed to the forefront, and the boats were filled with tung oil and dry firewood prepared in advance.

The fishing boats are driven by carefully selected people who are familiar with the water, including Mai Tiezhang, who once swam in the Yangtze River at night.

Originally, Cui Che didn't want to risk Mai Tiezhang, but he couldn't resist asking for help, so he had no choice but to agree.

Of course, the rebels also understood the Sui army's intentions. Arrows continued to rain down on the fishing boats approaching them, and one after another soldiers were hit by arrows and fell into the water.

But it couldn't stop the fishing boats loaded with dry firewood from using the wind to sail towards them.

At this time, Gao Zhihui finally came to his senses under the urging of his subordinates. He did not dare to return to the south coast and had to order the fleet to sail eastward to the offshore sea.

During the time when the rebel fleet turned around, the fishing boat was already approaching. The iron rod, which had been weighed down by the rain of arrows and could not lift its head, ignited the boat and jumped into the cold river water.

The sound of falling into the water came one after another, and more than a dozen fishing boats turned into fire dragons and rushed towards the rebel warships that were too late to evacuate.

The wind was so strong that the fire spread quickly as soon as it came into contact. Even the Sui warships did not dare to approach.

Countless firemen screamed and jumped into the river. After struggling for a while, there was no sound.

Gao Zhizhi had already fled in panic, Mai Tiezhang had been fished out by friendly forces on the warship, and the fire turned the river red.

(End of chapter)