Therefore I Wish to Fight 6

Xu Sheng’s eloquence had a magnetism that drew people’s hearts. Although they couldn’t respond properly because of the presence of high-ranking people, not a few soldiers were nodding their heads.

However, Bu Zhi thought rationally rather than being led by emotions.

‘Land route? What land route!’

They didn’t even have war horses. What cavalry would a navy have? The military camp does keep about a dozen or so war horses for sending messengers, but when boarding ships, only people get on.

They might be called a navy, but on land, they’re just infantry.

“Land route. What are you saying? Are you saying we’ll go through Yunmeng Marsh?”

Yunmeng Marsh was a vast wetland spread widely in this area. The wetland, large enough to be called the Great Yunmeng Marsh, was literally half water, half land, greatly restricting even cavalry activities.

In fact, even Zhang Ran had put all her effort into setting the marching route to avoid the Yunmeng Marsh somehow. If it was such a Yunmeng Marsh, even infantry might be able to face cavalry.

But Xu Sheng spoke as if that was nonsense.

“What are you saying, General of the Right? What’s the point of going through a marsh in such an urgent situation? And if we go towards Yunmeng Marsh, we’ll eventually have to cross the river to get to Xiagu, which is also a problem.”

That’s right, that’s right, but.

‘A person who can think of that is saying to go by land?’

If we meet the enemy while going by land to provide support, how could we break through, it would be fortunate if we just maintain a standoff.

Bu Zhi felt like pounding his chest in frustration.

“In that case, let’s go by water even at the risk of losing ships! We’ll just push through the iron chains! How strong can iron chains spanning hundreds of zhang across the Yangtze be! Even if a few ships are damaged, we can just transfer those soldiers to other ships!”

Yes. This is right. Bu Zhi praised himself for wisely analyzing the enemy’s weak point, even by his own assessment.

How long is the Yangtze River, how could they make iron chains to block it all? It’s probably just ropes, not iron chains, but the scouts couldn’t see properly because of the river mist.

“I agree with the General of the Right’s thoughts. But they wouldn’t have sent a suicide squad just for a show of force. The problem is not the iron chains, but the iron rods.”

Sun Shao, who had been listening to Xu Sheng and Bu Zhi’s argument, spoke up.

“Didn’t you say we could just push through with warships?”

“It’s possible, but there’s a problem.”

“Problem?”

“It would be better if the ships run aground. As the General of the Right said, we could just rescue the stranded people and continue. What I’m worried about is the situation where ships get caught on the iron rods and can’t move at all. If ships block ships, and those blocked ships block more ships behind them, creating congestion, we won’t be able to handle it.”

“No, is it possible for so many ships to get caught?”

“When they plant iron rods in the river bottom, they also attach heavy stones to them, and if those stones are heavy and the iron rods are properly planted, they won’t easily give way no matter how much we push with ships. Unless the ships form a perfect line and row together. But you know that’s nonsense, General of the Right.”

While saying this, Sun Shao conveyed that it would be difficult to avoid if they had worked hard on purpose, because not just iron rods but even large trees would do.

Moreover, there are cases where they even connect the iron rods or trees with iron chains, which makes the situation even worse. Because what needs to be avoided becomes a line, not a point.

“If the enemy commander has any sense, he would have prioritized that, and seeing that they’ve strung lines on the river as well, it’s clear that iron chains or thick hemp ropes are also connecting between the pillars under the river.”

“To do such a large-scale work in a short time!”

Bu Zhi let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

“Civilians would have been mobilized too. To complete this work in just a few days with only soldiers, tens of thousands would be needed. Those who know the local feng shui must have cooperated, no doubt.”

As Sun Shao said, the civilians did help the Nanling Army in the work of blocking the Yangtze’s waterway.

It was thanks to the goodwill that Pang Tong had instilled in the people when he tried to win the hearts of Jingzhou during the Yiyang standoff between Sun Quan and Liu Bei in the very distant past, as well as the rewards.

Would they force their way through the Yangtze’s water transport, which might be described as a minefield in the future, or choose the land route instead of taking a gamble?

At this crossroads of choosing one or the other, as Bu Zhi hesitated, Xu Sheng’s thunderous shout flew at him again.

“What is there to worry about, General of the Right!”

Unlike them who were just looking at the situation itself of the unbelievable event of the waterway being blocked, Xu Sheng spoke of the intention beyond that.

“What is the intention of those bastards who are trying to hinder us somehow by forming suicide squads! It means they’re struggling to occupy Xiagu Castle!”

Xu Sheng’s argument, which started by discussing intentions, was based on quite logical grounds, unlike a fierce general who had only boasted of bravery until now.

“They are in a hurry now! Don’t you understand yet? Didn’t they say the enemy’s troops are only 20,000? To do this kind of work, even mobilizing civilians, they must have brought several thousand troops. What’s the reason they deployed them here instead of pouring them into attacking Xiagu Castle? It’s all to drain Xiagu Castle’s strength, delay our arrival, and somehow occupy Xiagu Castle!”

When there’s strength left and morale is sharp, it’s common sense in military strategy to avoid attacks. Zhang Ran used that time for blocking future reinforcements rather than wasting it.

The fact that they blocked the Yangtze, consuming resources and troops despite having the option to give up Xiagu Castle, showed their intention to definitely occupy Xiagu Castle.

“They’re after the golden pheasant and golden king! They’re trying to capture the Crown Prince! While we’ve been coming all this way, they must be exhausted from fighting to capture the impregnable Xiagu Castle. On the other hand, our army is full of energy from coming by boat. What use is cavalry to be afraid of when the soldiers are exhausted? If we advance rapidly like this and strike the tired enemy from behind, we can definitely win!”

As Xu Sheng spoke at such length, even Bu Zhi and Sun Shao began to waver.

Is it true? Did they do this to somehow buy time to attack Xiagu Castle through suicide squads?

Then, as Xu Sheng says, isn’t it right to arrive quickly even by land somehow and strike the tired enemy from behind, defeating them with a joint attack with Xiagu Castle?

Along with the strangely persuasive reasoning, combined with Xu Sheng’s outstanding intuition that he had shown so far, even Bu Zhi, who had been most strongly opposed, began to feel tempted.

Xu Sheng’s intuitive military operations were already well-known. In the past, Xu Sheng had defeated Huang Zu’s son Huang She, who came with thousands of soldiers, with just under 200 troops. And that wasn’t by relying on the castle, but by opening the castle gates and going out.

That’s not all. When fighting against Cao Cao at Ruxu, even when the ship ran aground in a sudden gust, he alone led soldiers to charge and break through the enemy camp in an unbelievable feat.

He was truly someone with the ability to instinctively know when to attack and when to retreat.

As his thoughts reached this point, Bu Zhi now began to recall evidence to rationalize Xu Sheng’s argument himself.

‘Yes. General Xu Sheng is right. 20,000 troops… If we assume 10,000 troops to surround Xiagu Castle, even if they take out troops for this side, it’s 10,000. 10,000 vs 10,000. No matter how much cavalry they have, they must be tired from the continued siege.’

Moreover, the terrain here isn’t particularly good for cavalry to be active.

The Wu army had been keenly aware of their inferiority in cavalry forces for a long time, so they had researched and trained countermeasures for a long time as well.

Recently, they even created their own anti-cavalry tactics by incorporating the Liuhua Formation said to have been developed by the current enemy commander, Zhang Ran.

The more he mulled it over, the more Bu Zhi became assimilated into Xu Sheng’s words.

Bu Zhi is undoubtedly a person with outstanding talent who has cultivated his abilities through effort. However, he had what could be called the humanity of an extraordinary person in a good sense, or clumsiness in a bad sense.

In the original history, there was a man named Wang Zhan who defected from Wei to Wu. He told Bu Zhi that Wei was planning to attack by filling the Yangtze with sandbags, and Bu Zhi sincerely believed this outlandish story and ran to Sun Quan insisting they must quickly devise countermeasures.

Bu Zhi had fallen for such an incredibly far-fetched claim of filling the Yangtze with sandbags. How much more for the words of someone far more persuasive and with actual experience?

‘I was too overwhelmed by the name Zhang Ran and couldn’t make a proper judgment!’

With Xu Sheng insisting and Bu Zhi agreeing, disembarkation was carried out immediately.

They even went so far as to jeer and mock at the Shu-Han suicide squad stupidly watching their disembarkation from the mid-river island.

Did they think our Wu army would fall for their strategy?

Even from a distance where they could barely see, the Wu soldiers haughtily threw sneers, venting the hostility and stress that had built up so far.

The prestige of the Wu army, breaking free from the enemy’s trap and advancing proudly step by step!

Despite all the talk about Zhang Ran, the only time they had felt her fear was during the last Jingzhou defensive battle. Even then, the perception was stronger that they were defeated by Pang Tong and Pan Jun’s four-eyed scheme rather than Zhang Ran, so to the Wu soldiers, Zhang Ran was just a peculiar female general active in the Central Plains.

At most, the generals recognized her strength rationally, but now even that had flown away.

To those who were dreaming of rescuing Xiagu Castle and serving the Crown Prince, the harsh reality inevitably approached.

What was waiting for them ahead was neither the rear of the Nanling Army tired from siege as they had hoped, nor a separate force of about 10,000 that had hurriedly come to stop them.

What they witnessed was the Nanling Army divided into six, waiting for them.

It was the incarnation of despair.