Chapter 110: First Battle
Zhu Gai sat on his horse and thought for a moment, then looked up at the sun setting slightly in the afternoon, and then asked, "How did you lose the fifty riders under your command? Tell me in detail."
Song Wei knew something was wrong, but he still tried to cheer himself up and answered, "General, I was leading 500 cavalrymen to pass through the valley between two low hills to the west of the trailer. Just when we had entered about 100 cavalrymen, the Wu soldiers shot at us from the woods on the low hills on both sides."
"When I realized we were ambushed, I immediately ordered a retreat and gathered my troops to form a battle array on a mound three miles away."
Zhu Gai asked again: "Did you see how many soldiers Wu had?"
Song Wei lowered his head and said, "We retreated in a hurry, and the forest was dense, so I didn't see the number of Wu soldiers clearly."
Zhu Gai had already grasped the whip in his right hand: "After your troops retreated, did any Wu soldiers come after you?"
"Before I came to find the general, there was no enemy chasing us." Song Wei continued to answer.
Zhu Gai narrowed his eyes at the confidant in front of him, picked up the whip and whipped Song Wei on the shoulder.
Zhu Gai then said, "Your five hundred cavalrymen have only advanced one hundred, and the Wu soldiers can't help but shoot arrows at you. This must be a small force used by the Wu army to explore the way. If it was a large force, would you still be able to find me now?"
"Go back quickly and take your troops back to the place where we were ambushed. If the Wu soldiers are still there, set up a formation half a mile away and wait for me to arrive."
"If the Wu soldiers have already left, immediately rush westward in front of them and make sure to stop them for me."
Song Wei suddenly realized and quickly bowed to his general on his horse, then sped towards the trailer.
According to the arrangement made by the Right General Zhu Gai this morning, Song Wei's 1,000 cavalrymen were only responsible for finding a campsite and clearing the way. If they encountered a small group of Wu soldiers on flat ground, Song Wei would naturally lead the cavalry to split them up and then charge.
But the Wu soldiers were hiding in the woods, so Song Wei could only retreat and report to his general. Whether he dismounted and fought on foot or charged forward under the arrows, Song Wei did not have the authority to bear the possible losses.
When Zhu Gai led the remaining 9,000 cavalry to Guache, the messenger who had been waiting there informed Zhu Gai that the Wu soldiers in Guache had already fled westward, and Song Wei had led his troops to follow and pursue them.
Zhu Gai nodded. Since the Wu soldiers had already fled, Zhu Gai climbed up the trailer to observe the terrain while the sun was still high, and then chose a suitable place to set up camp.
Tonight, the troops under the command of Right General Zhu Gai will stay in the trailer.
In fact, whether it is infantry or cavalry, the actual time spent on marching every day is only a little over half a day from early morning to afternoon. The remaining half a day is often used to set up camp. When in the wild, the camp is the top priority.
In this small-scale encounter on the fifth day of the first lunar month, the Wei army's vanguard lost fifty cavalrymen, and then captured a hundred Wu soldiers while chasing the retreating Wu army. The results of this battle were then quickly sent to the commanders of both sides.
The commander-in-chief of the Wei army was actually Emperor Cao Rui himself. In the afternoon of January 5, Cao Rui was still on his way to Wuqiangkou, and would not arrive until the evening two hours later.
The commander-in-chief of the Wu army, Lu Xun and Lu Boyan, were at the Wu army camp east of Wancheng and opposite the Wan River.
As early as the first day of the first month, when the Wei State changed the era name from "Huangchu" to "Taihe", the Wu State changed the era name from the fifth year of Huangwu to the sixth year of Huangwu.
Since Cao Pi launched three-way attacks on Wu in the third year of Wei's Huangchu reign, Sun Quan no longer followed the reign title of Wei and instead used the reign title of "Huangwu" in the territory of Wu. It has been six years now.
On the first day of the first month of the first year of Taihe and the sixth year of Huangwu, Wu was as lively as Wei. Humans are born to obey rules and will naturally look for "meaningful" time to do things.
Sun Quan offered sacrifices to heaven at Wankou and appointed Lu Xun as the Grand Commander-in-Chief, granting him the Imperial Yellow Axe and commanding an army of 100,000.
On that day, Sun Quan had done his best to express his trust in Lu Xun. When Lu Xun was about to lead his troops north, Sun Quan even personally led the horse and whipped the way for Lu Xun, and asked all the generals to kneel down and salute Lu Xun.
It is truly an honor.
At that time, Lu Xun was sitting upright on his horse, looking at Sun Quan holding the horse and whipping him in front of him, feeling neither sad nor happy.
Since the King of Wu has entrusted the affairs of state to me, I, Lu Boyan, will do my best. As for other matters, such as Zhang Wen's words and the various things that happened to the King of Wu before, Lu Xun no longer thought about them.
Now that things have come to this, just face your fate calmly.
If you count carefully, the Wu army's strength this time is as high as 100,000.
Except for the 8,000 naval troops of He Qi who were sailing along the Yangtze River and the Wan River, and the 2,000 central troops of Song Qian who were guarding Sun Quan at the mouth of the Wan River, the remaining 90,000 troops were all handed over to Lu Xun to march north.
In addition to Lu Xun as the Grand Commander, Sun Quan also appointed General Fenwu Zhu Huan as the Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army and General Sui Nan Quan Cong as the Commander-in-Chief of the Right Army.
Sun Quan did exactly as he promised on the city wall that day, and ordered Zhu Huan and Quan Cong to lead 30,000 troops each. Together with the 30,000 troops led by Lu Xun himself, the total number was exactly 90,000.
The route from Wankou to Wancheng was much shorter than the route from Shouchun to Wancheng taken by Cao Wei.
Shouchun to Wuqiangkou is 350 li, Wuqiangkou to Wancheng is 180 li, a total of 530 li. It is naturally ten times easier for the Wu army to start from Wankou than for the Wei army.
Although there is less water in winter, large ships can still travel westward along the Wan River for about 80 miles. After 80 miles, they can disembark and travel by land, and then reach Wancheng in another 55 miles. This is the advantage of the navy and rivers.
Wancheng, located on the plain at the foot of Tianzhu Mountain, is sandwiched between two nearly parallel rivers, the Wanshui River in the east and the Qianshui River in the west. However, the distance between the Wanshui River and the Qianshui River is only more than ten miles.
Therefore, if someone controls the two rivers, Wanshui and Qianshui, and then locks Wancheng in the north and south, Wancheng will really be sandwiched in between.
To command troops like a god, one must rely on geographical advantages. The geographical advantages near Wancheng are like this, so Lu Xun naturally did the same.
On the evening of January 1st, Lu Xun led his troops by boat to Qiankou, eighty miles west of Wankou.
On the morning of the second day, Lu Xun gave all the 2,000 cavalrymen he had collected from the various armies of Eastern Wu to Pan Zhang, and ordered Pan Zhang to quickly march north along the Wan River from Qiankou.
On the morning of the second day, Pan Zhang led his troops to block the road from Wancheng to Wuqiangkou.
Lu Xun led his troops to block the city of Wancheng in the north and south, and set up three large camps covering a distance of 20 miles on the east bank of the Wan River opposite Wancheng.
The small-scale encounter at the trailer at noon on the 5th was the first battle between the vanguard troops sent by Lu Xun to scout in the direction of Wuqiangkou and the vanguard of Zhu Gai, the right general of the Wei army.
The Wu army had only 500 troops, and just as they arrived at the trailer, they ran into the troops of Sima Song Wei, a separate unit under Zhu Gai. When the Wu army's vanguard retreated, it was attacked by Cao's cavalry, and after losing a hundred people, it fled into the hills on both sides of the road.
Fifty cavalrymen against a hundred infantrymen, Cao Wei was still at a small disadvantage. However, the loss of a few dozen people was nothing in a battle involving more than 200,000 people on both sides.
The trailer was ninety miles away from the Wu army's Wancheng camp. When the news of the small-scale battle between the Wei and Wu vanguards in the afternoon reached the Wancheng camp late at night.
However, the lights in Lu Xun's central military tent were still brightly lit.
This was the second time that Lu Xun was appointed by the King of Wu to lead all the generals and be entrusted with the entire country's troops.
During the last Battle of Yiling, Lu Xun's qualifications and prestige were not yet deep enough to intimidate the generals, so there were people who repeatedly disagreed with Lu Xun, and Lu Xun had to persuade them with kind words and often cite Sun Quan's orders to get the generals to obey his orders.
But this time, with the great victory in Yiling and the King of Wu's previous preparations in Wuchang Wankou, Lu Xun's dispatch orders were strictly enforced and almost no one dared to be a troublemaker.
The vanguard troops sent to the trailer were the troops of General Liu Shao, who had been stationed in Wankou, Jiangbei for several years. In the division of Wu Wang before the war, Liu Shao belonged to Zhu Huan's left wing commander.
Even though the Eastern Wu had fewer horses, the vanguard would still be equipped with ten knights to serve as messengers. At this time, the Eastern Wu generals were discussing matters in Lu Xun's central army tent. The messenger first went to Zhu Huan's camp and learned that Zhu Huan was at the headquarters of the central army, so he rushed to find him.
After Zhu Huan got the news from the front, he stood up in the tent and said, "General, my general Liu Shao reported in the trailer that the 500 soldiers who were scouting ahead just arrived at the trailer in the afternoon. They shot arrows and forced back a cavalry unit of the Wei army. The Wei army lost about 50 cavalrymen."
"When they retreated along the road, about a hundred people were killed and wounded by the returning Wei army." After Zhu Huan finished speaking, he thought for a while and said, "General, since the vanguard of the Wei army has set up camp at the trailer, we have to fight for the strategic location of the trailer."
"Do you want me to send troops to the trailer to stop the Wei army?"
Lu Xun sat in the main seat in the tent, and said expressionlessly: "The carriage is about ninety miles away from here. Using infantry to attack cavalry is not our strength. We should wait for them to tire themselves out."
"General Zhu, please do not move your troops for now. I will make arrangements for you later."
Liu Shao belonged to Zhu Huan's army. Since it was Zhu Huan's subordinates who suffered losses while exploring the front, and the commander-in-chief did not allow him to mobilize his troops, Zhu Huan was naturally quite confused.
Zhu Huan bowed and asked, "Grand Commander, should we wait here?"
Seeing Zhu Huan asking, Lu Xun immediately explained to Zhu Huan in all seriousness: "General Zhu, the Supreme Lord has already explained it to us very clearly before we left for Wankou."
"This time we are not going to attack cities or plunder land, but only to kill as many enemy troops as possible. The key to victory is not in ourselves, but in the enemy."
"Our Wancheng camp is only ninety miles away from the trailer. If we send people to the trailer to stop it, we may be at risk of being defeated by the Wei cavalry."
Zhu Huan was a little dissatisfied, and then said: "General, even if we don't go to hook up, we can't just sit here and wait for Cao's army to come. There is no defense in these ninety miles, right?"
Lu Xun shook his head: "Of course not. General Zhu, you are good at attacking. I have other plans for your troops. Please take a seat first. I will let your troops move forward after Liu Shao's troops come back."
Zhu Huan bowed and sat down.
(End of this chapter)
