Chapter 285: Night Raid On The Water Fortress
Inside the government office, Gan Ning gazed at a newly made sand table in front of him, which depicted Xunyang County and North Pengli Marsh, a water bay containing a water fortress and barracks on the shore.
This was another Battle of Chibi, but it was completely different from the historical Battle of Chibi.
After gazing for a long time, Gan Ning slowly said to the three strategists beside him and Zhou Yu who had just arrived: “In terms of strength, we are no match for Cao Cao on land, this is beyond doubt, but our advantage on the water far exceeds Cao Cao’s, so our goal is not to defeat the Cao Army, but to thoroughly destroy the Cao Army’s warships and completely destroy their naval power.”
This was the difference from the historical Battle of Chibi; in the Battle of Chibi, the Cao Army’s forces on both water and land were completely annihilated, but now it was unrealistic on land—even if they attacked into the navy barracks, the hundreds of thousands of troops in Xunyang County dozens of li away would immediately come to support and instead surround them.
So destroying all kinds of ships on the water surface was the most realistic and achievable goal, and without warships, even if the Cao Army had millions of troops, they could not cross the Yangtze River by a single step.
Zhou Yu was very interested in this kind of sand table and studied it repeatedly, his eyes revealing astonishment—this sand table was truly a decision-making tool.
Soon, Zhou Yu’s gaze shifted back from the sand table, and after pondering for a moment, he said: “If we destroy the Cao Army’s warships, will it affect the Jiangdong war situation?”
“Of course there will be an impact, but I don’t know to what extent.”
Gan Ning was telling the truth; the Cao Army in Jiangdong already numbered nearly 200,000 and had formed its own system, occupying all Jiangdong land except Dantu County, with sufficient grain and fodder sources—a major defeat in Jiangbei would not have a substantial impact on them.
It would only affect Cao Cao’s political decisions.
Zhou Yu finally made up his mind, “Please have the Marquis of Chu issue the order—when do we act?”
Gan Ning slowly said: “Three days from now, we act at the first watch; Strategist Lu will discuss the specific action plan with you in detail.”
…………
Inside the temporary Chancellor’s Mansion in Xunyang County, Cao Cao was discussing Jiangdong matters with several strategists.
Cao Cao certainly knew that Dantu County Town was high and difficult to attack, especially after being equipped with large amounts of fire oil, making the attack extremely difficult; with Jiangdong’s internal surrenders holding an absolute advantage, Cao Cao decided to use the method of subduing the enemy without fighting to finally resolve Jiangdong.
Cheng Yu stroked his beard and said: “Chancellor, long-term encirclement is also a method; under long-term encirclement, the soldiers’ military morale and spirits will gradually collapse, and with us opening the south city gate, after a few months, large numbers of soldiers will secretly flee, and eventually morale will completely dissipate, forcing Jiangdong to surrender without a fight.”
Xun Yu also said: “Strategist Cheng is right; disintegrating morale is the most effective method—we can build large catapults to throw propaganda leaflets into the city, telling the officers and soldiers that as long as they actively surrender, not only will they be safe, but they will also receive heavy rewards; once officers and soldiers actively come out of the city to surrender, Jiangdong is completely finished.”
Cao Cao nodded repeatedly; he glanced at Jia Xu who had just returned and was standing silently pondering on the side, thinking that Jia Xu was the strategist who understood Jiangdong best, so he smiled and asked: “What ideas does Strategist Wen Zheng have?”
Jia Xu smiled and said: “Sun Quan and the Jiangdong Regime have one biggest weakness: they always harbor illusions about negotiations, always thinking that negotiations can solve everything; targeting this weakness, this subordinate has an upper and lower stratagem.”
“Tell me the details!” Cao Cao became interested.
Jia Xu unhurriedly said: “This subordinate will first speak of the upper stratagem: our negotiations revolve around two main points—one is the legitimacy of the Jiangdong Regime, which Jiangdong wants to preserve but we will not allow to exist; the other is negotiations over military power, financial power, and official power. Actually, this subordinate thinks we can allow Jiangdong to exist and even give them official power and financial power; Chancellor, as long as we get military power, Jiangdong will be like a fish on the chopping board.”
Cheng Yu and Xun Yu exchanged a glance, both revealing a trace of disdain in their eyes; the core of Jia Xu’s stratagem was one word: deceive—just like deceiving Jiangdong with the seven-year agreement before, this time it was still deception, deceiving Jiangdong into giving up military power, with his own credibility and reputation being entirely unimportant.
Cao Cao also noticed the look in Cheng Yu and Xun Yu’s eyes, so he had the two of them leave before asking Jia Xu, “I want to know about your lower stratagem, sir!”
Jia Xu was silent for a long time, then said in a voice not loud but exceptionally clear: “Assassinate Sun Quan!”
………
At night, Cao Cao stood with his hands behind his back in front of the hall; he was still considering Jia Xu’s suggestion, which was somewhat against morality—it seemed Xun Yu’s method was more appropriate, using leaflets to disintegrate the Jiangdong Army’s will and make them surrender voluntarily; not all generals were resistance factions, and the Jiangdong noble families surely had their own descendants in the army.
‘Utilize the Jiangdong noble families!’ Cao Cao finally figured it out.
At that moment, the distant sky suddenly turned red—this change was too obvious, and Cao Cao clearly sensed it; he was stunned, as the reddened sky was precisely the water fortress in Pengli Marsh—Cao Cao immediately felt a sense of foreboding and shouted to the guard beside him: “Go inquire if something has happened at the water fortress!”
The guard dashed out; Cao Cao was restless and paced back and forth in the main hall—he had already guessed that something had likely happened at the water fortress.
At this time, it was just the first watch; inside the Cao Army water fortress, firelight blazed as five Tuma Warships crashed through the water fence, opening a wide passage, followed by more than three thousand Mengchong Warships and Doujian charging into the water fortress through the passage—Zhou Yu led more than eight hundred warships responsible for the west side of the water fortress, while Gan Ning personally led two thousand five hundred warships responsible for the central and eastern parts of the water fortress.
At this time it was just the first watch; the Cao Army navy soldiers were basically all in the shore barracks—although there were soldiers on duty on the Cao Army warships who removed the anchor chains in the emergency, it was actually meaningless, as the warships could not go ashore and could not leave the water fortress; all paths out of the water fortress were blocked, and those water fences originally meant to block the enemy instead prevented the Cao Army warships from escaping.
Incendiary bombs accurately struck the Cao Army warships one after another, fierce fires rapidly spreading as one Cao Army warship after another was ignited, burning fiercely on the water surface—nearly two thousand Cao Army warships were without exception all set ablaze.
Navy commander Yu Jin stood on the shore, despairingly dropping to his knees; he could never have dreamed that his navy was so fragile, like a painting that the enemy could easily tear to shreds.
The huge difference between navy tactics and army tactics completely overturned Yu Jin’s cognition; although his scout ships had detected the enemy attack three li away, what could he do—he could neither deploy an ambush nor lead the army to withdraw, leaving him helpless and able only to watch as the enemy navy charged into the water fortress and burned all the warships.
Fierce fires completely engulfed all the Cao Army warships in the water fortress; Gan Ning and Zhou Yu’s joint fleet was rapidly withdrawing—Zhou Yu stood on a Doujian, gazing complexly at the blazing inferno in the water fortress; he could never have dreamed that they would so easily destroy the Cao Army’s warships.
“Why was it so easy?” Zhou Yu murmured to himself.
Strategist Lu, accompanying him at the side, smiled faintly: “When Cao Cao transferred the warships from Chao Lake to North Pengli Marsh, we knew he had made a huge mistake—he forgot that Pengli Marsh and the Yangtze River are one; we could intercept his fleet in the Yangtze River and similarly destroy his fleet in Pengli Marsh; the reason we didn’t act immediately was that we were waiting for the right moment to ripen.”
“The right moment to ripen?”
Zhou Yu murmured the phrase twice, then suddenly realized, “You… you were waiting for the Jiangdong regime change.”
——
【Something came up at home today, taking a leave for the first update, normal update this afternoon】
