Chapter 309: Battle of Zitong Water (I)

"General, the Qin army retreated!" At the same time as the Qin army set off, Guan Yu immediately told Chang Yuchun about the news.

After hearing this, Chang Yuchun smiled and said, "Haha, this Wang Feng is still a little self-aware, knowing how to advance and retreat. General Li, what do you think?"

Li Jing replied: "Although Chang'an has increased its troops to move south, in terms of speed, it is definitely not as fast as our army. If Wang Feng doesn't leave, he will not be able to leave when our army's main force arrives."

Chang Yuchun nodded with a smile and said, "Okay, since Wang Feng wants to leave, let him go, send someone to urge him, and order Deng Qiang and Zhang Liao to come to Fucheng as quickly as possible, and wait for the arrival of the main force of the Qin army."

On March 15, 20th year of Qianyuan, the follow-up troops of Deng's army arrived in Fucheng one after another, and together with 30,000 Shu troops, the total force reached 125,000.

On March 20, 50,000 Qin reinforcements led by Qin general Bai Chen and Sima Gong arrived in Zitong. Together with the 20,000 men in Meng Chengting's hands, the total force reached 140,000.

In the camp of Fucheng, when Chang Yuchun learned that the Qin army reinforcements had arrived, Chang Yuchun summoned all the generals to discuss matters. The Deng army that entered Shu was gathering together, with Chang Yuchun as the main general, Deng Qiang and Zhang Liao as the deputy generals, Generals Li Jing, Guan Yu, Wang Shao, Shan Xiongxin, Hu Yanzhuo, Qin Qiong, Huang Mu, Song Guang, military advisors Zhu Sheng and Fa Zheng, except for Hu Yanzhuo who stayed in Yufucheng, they were all here.

"Everyone, the Qin army reinforcements have arrived. Since that's the case, I will lead the north to seek a decisive battle according to the plan we had formulated before." Chang Yuchun said.

The decisive battle with the Qin army was discussed by the Deng army over the past few days. Although the Qin army's strength was above the Deng army, Chang Yuchun was confident that he could defeat the Qin army. Moreover, the gap between the two armies was not particularly large. In terms of the general lineup, the Deng army was much more luxurious than the Qin army.

On March 22, Chang Yuchun led a 100,000 army to leave Fucheng and head north to Zitong. The Deng army originally had 95,000 troops, but in order to collect 100,000 people, he forced five thousand elite troops from the 30,000 Shu army to collect 100,000 troops. Jiang Huang did not dare to have any objection to this. After receiving the news that Deng's army went north, Wang Feng led 120,000 troops to camp at Zitong River and looked across the water with Deng's army. The battle between the two armies of Deng and Qin began.

By the Zitong Water, Chang Yuchun and Wang Feng both humorously stationed the camp beside the Zitong Water. At the same time, both armies had tacit understanding and put the Shu army behind to guard their houses. There was no way, the Shu army's combat power was too unbearable, and it was easy to pull them down with them.

The Zitong Water is a tributary of the Yangtze River in Bashu, but it does not have the width and depth of the Yangtze River. As long as it is not in the rainy season, it can pass even without a ship, which does not affect the combat. Moreover, Chang Yuchun also has deep considerations in choosing the Zitong Water as the place where the two armies fight. Deng's army is both southerners and most of them are familiar with the water nature. Although warships are not required to be used for combat in the Zitong Water, as long as it is in the water, southerners are relatively cheap.

On March 25, 20th year of Qianyuan, Deng and Qin armies formed formations by the Zitong waters. However, today was not a decisive battle, but just a test of each other.

Chang Yuchun looked at the Qin army opposite and ordered: "Song Guang, Huang Mu obeyed the order!"

"The last one is here!" Song Guang and Huang Mu stepped out.

"I will lead our troops to move forward slowly!"

"Here!" After Song Guang and Huang Mu received the order, they took their troops into the Zitong River and walked towards the north bank. Seeing this, Wang Feng was not willing to be outdone and ordered: "Ma Sheng, Sima Gong listened to the order."

"The last general is here!" Ma Sheng and Sima responded respectfully.

"I ordered you two to lead 20,000 troops to fight Deng's army!"

"Here!"

Ma Sheng and Sima Gong led 20,000 troops to walk slowly towards Zitongshui. The two armies met in the middle of the water and started fighting without saying a word. Generals and generals, soldiers and soldiers, Song Guang fought against Ma Sheng, Huang Mu fought against Sima Gong, and the two armies were happily observing the gap in strength between the two armies.

After nearly an hour of fighting between the two armies, the Deng army gradually began to gain the upper hand, not because the Deng army's combat power was stronger than the Qin army, but because the two generals of the Qin army had begun to be suppressed by Song Guang and Huang Mu. Ma Sheng was fine. After all, Song Guang is old now and after his peak period, the two fights back and forth, but Sima Gong is in trouble. Huang Mu is only less than forty years old this year, and he is in his peak period, and his strength is several streets higher than Sima Gong, so he was suppressed by Huang Mu after a few rounds of battle, and he is in danger several times.

Seeing this, Wang Feng frowned and ordered: "Send the order, I will withdraw the troops!" Now that he has basically figured out the strength of Deng's army, it will be meaningless to continue to fight. Besides, Sima Gong is now beaten into a dog, and if he doesn't withdraw his troops, Sima Gong may have to explain it here.

"Dong!Dong!Dong!" As the sound of the Qin army sounded, the Qin army began to leave the battlefield in an orderly manner. Song Guang and Huang Mu wanted to pursue it, but they were called back by Chang Yuchun. Today's battle has already started well, and Chang Yuchun also stopped when he saw the good news. After all, today is not the time for a decisive battle, so there is no need to chase and fight. Besides, just Song Guang and Huang Mu, rushing up is probably not enough for the Qin army to get stuck in the gaps.

After the two armies stopped fighting, Chang Yuchun immediately summoned all the generals to let them all talk about their feelings today.

"Li Jing, how strong do you think the Qin army is from today's battle?" Chang Yuchun did not ask the two generals Deng Qiang and Zhang Liao at the first time, but asked Li Jing. This shows that Chang Yuchun attached great importance to Li Jing.

Li Jing was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect Chang Yuchun to be the first to ask him. He was a little at a loss, but Li Jing's psychological quality was very good. He quickly adjusted, paused and replied: "Go back to the general, from the situation of fighting with the Qin army today, the Qin army's combat power is not weaker than our army, but the Qin army has a very deadly point, that is, the Qin army's general's strength is far inferior to our army. According to the spy's return, there were only five Qin generals who went south this time. Although I don't know if there are any ruthless characters among these five people, our army's generals gathered, and even if the wheel battle was inflicted, it would consume the Qin army to death."

After hearing this, Chang Yuchun nodded with satisfaction. Li Jing's analysis of the Qin army was very good. The Qin army was not weak, but the quality of the general was not high. Although Ma Sheng and Song Guang fought hard today, you should know that Ma Sheng was at the peak. As for Song Guang, he had already passed his thirties when he surrendered to Deng. Now twenty years have passed, Song Guang is also over fifty years old. He can still fight with the peak Ma Sheng, which is enough to show the strength of the Qin army.

It is also understood that Ma Sheng is one of the few powerful generals of the Qin army. In the Deng army, to be precise, there are several who can compete with Song Guang in the Deng army entering Shu. What should the Qin army fight against him?

"General Deng Qiang, General Zhang Liao, I wonder what do you think General Li Jing's analysis is?" Chang Yuchun asked Deng Qiang and Zhang Liao again.

"Returning to the general, General Li Jing's analysis was very accurate, and the general believed that Wang Feng, the chief general of the Qin army, could also see this, so the general thought that Wang Feng would minimize the head-on confrontation with our army as much as possible." Deng Qiang replied, and Zhang Liao on the side also nodded repeatedly.

After hearing this, Chang Yuchun also agreed with Deng Qiang's view. Wang Feng was not a fool. Although the Qin army had more troops than the Deng army, the gap was not that big. If the war started rashly, when the two armies were in a stalemate, the general of the Deng army directly killed the general of the Qin army. Even if there were many people in the Qin army, it would be useless, so Wang Feng would definitely not dare to fight casually next.

"General, although the Qin army dare not confront our army head-on, the Qin army came from afar and all the food, grass and supplies needed to be transported from Hanzhong. I believe that it is very tight in logistics, so the Qin army will definitely have actions and must be guarded." At this time, the military advisor of Jinwu Guard Zhu Sheng said that why Chang Yuchun dared to fight with 120,000 Qin army with 100,000 Qin army was to bully the Qin army's logistics. In order to fight quickly, the Qin army would be anxious. The most taboo in this kind of battle of hundreds of thousands is to be impatient. Whoever can't stand it first will lose.

Chang Yuchun thought for a while and said, "After today's battle, the Qin army should not have any major moves. Now we have to compare with the Qin army who is more patient. We will respond to changes with the unchanging situation and take action. You all come to see!" After that, Chang Yuchun came to a simple map in the tent, pointed to a small hill above the Zitong Water and said, "This is the highest point on the south bank of the Zitong Water. You can observe the situation on this north bank. We will need a general to lead a team of troops to garrison and grasp the Qin army's every move."

"General, I am willing to go there!" Wang Shao, the general of Shence Guard, took the initiative to come out. Wang Shao knew that he was not very capable and was not young anymore. He was younger than Song Guang's army in Shu, and was nearly fifty-year-old, so this task was the most suitable for him.

Chang Yuchun nodded and said, "Okay, then please General Wang lead his troops to garrison here. After you arrive, set up a lookout and beacon tower, and monitor the movements of the Qin army for twelve hours a day. You need to repay each hour, but remember?"
Chapter completed!