Chapter 231: Lu Su dispatches troops to fight Zhou Yu again Faced with Zhuge Liang's conclusion, everyone was surprised at first, and then asked the reason. Zhuge Liang then told everyone what he had seen and heard along the way, and analyzed it for everyone: "At present, Jiangdong obviously knows that our army intends to move south, so they will set up defenses in Danyang County." "But now our army is advancing together with the navy of Jingzhou, and the enemy army in Danyang is between the two armies. That is why Zhou Yu sent out his troops first to defeat the navy of Jingzhou first." "Now that their troops are not moving, it is clear that this plan has been defeated by you, so if they want to win, they must turn around and attack our Chaohu troops first!" "When I saw the enemy army heading north, I didn't know their intentions. I just thought they were going to ambush the Jingzhou navy." "But now that the Jingzhou navy has not moved, Zhou Yu has withdrawn the troops from Chungu first. This is obviously to lure our army here and then defeat it with a surprise attack." "If our army underestimates the enemy and advances rashly, we will be defeated by Zhou Yu's special forces!" After his analysis, everyone was shocked and thought that Zhou Yu was a real thief.

If Zhuge Liang had not been here, their navy would not have known the whole story and might have been defeated by Zhou Yu! Amid this surprise, everyone naturally asked Zhuge Liang what strategy he had to deal with the situation. When Zhuge Liang heard this, he said directly to everyone: "Although this situation is a plot by the enemy, there may still be a chance to defeat them!" "This matter must be discussed with Governor Lu Su first." "Since the enemy's Chungu troops have withdrawn, our army's plan to move south should be postponed." "Everyone please wait here. I will go and see Governor Lu Su before we can discuss it!" As he spoke, he walked out of Anxian again and headed towards Chaohu Lake. On the other hand, it is said that since Lu Su took office as the commander-in-chief of the Chaohu navy, he has been preparing for war. Originally, he had only 7,000 soldiers under his command, but after taking in Geng Qi and other troops, the number expanded to more than 11,000! Despite such a huge naval force, there are only a few hundred ships. Among them, there were only seven tower ships, and the rest were dozens of fighting ships, warships, and then light boats and horse ships. In order to ensure the effectiveness of military training, Lu Su simply led these soldiers to become self-reliant. In addition to farming, they also caught various aquatic products in Chaohu Lake to supplement meat. After a few months, the soldiers under his command became stronger and stronger. Seeing this, Lu Su was full of confidence and wanted to go to Chujiang and fight the Jiangdong navy immediately. After all, Liu Bei and Qin Zhen had done their utmost to be kind to him by simply handing over power to him and not interfering in anything else. As a mere merchant, Lu Su was grateful to be treated so kindly by his wise master, so he would naturally repay him with all his heart. But unfortunately, the Chaohu navy was too weak, and all its hundreds of warships were gone after they were used up. Therefore, although he promised Qin Zhen that he would look for an opportunity to break through the defense line, he actually did not dare to act rashly. In addition to training troops every day, they would drive a cruise ship to the river mouth to observe the movements of the enemy. He spent more than half a year watching like this, and almost knew the configuration and formation of the Chungu navy clearly.

Originally, when he heard that Qin Zhen had requested the Jingzhou navy to send troops, he wanted to try to break through the blockade and rush to the river to relieve Qin Zhen's worries. As a result, before he could take any action, he heard the news that the Chungu navy had withdrawn. Upon hearing this, his generals Hu Si, Geng Qi and others excitedly came forward to challenge for battle. Only Lu Su felt something was wrong, and after a while he thought: "Zhou Gongjin has always been a bold and cautious person. The Chungu navy has trapped our army for more than half a year, and now they suddenly withdraw. There must be something fishy!" As soon as he said this, Hu Si thought for a moment and then tried: "Perhaps Zhou Yu cannot defeat the Jingzhou navy and will withdraw his troops!" But when Lu Su heard this, he quickly shook his head and said very cautiously: "Zhou Gongjin is a man who is not a mediocre person. I have never seen the troops of Jingzhou." "But we also know that their army has not fought for many years, so they may not be strong in battle." "Even if Gongjin is defeated, there is no need to mobilize the troops here!" "Don't you know that if he mobilizes the troops here, our army can rush into the river?" "If he is defeated, transferring troops here would be like drinking poison to quench thirst and seeking his own death!" Geng Qi listened to this and thought it made sense, but then he said: "That being said, the reason our army couldn't move in the past was because we were trapped in Spring Valley." "Now that the Chungu troops have withdrawn, we have access to the river." "If we don't send out troops, what should we do?" When Lu Su heard this, he was also troubled and thought to himself that Zhou Yu had given him a difficult problem. Liu Bei established a navy in order to open up a passage to fight against the Jiangdong navy. In the past, they could not move because the entrance to the river was blocked, which allowed him to stay here in peace. But now that the passage has been opened, he has no reason to remain idle. What can we do even if we know that Zhou Yu has a plan? You can't just keep your troops like a turtle and wait for the Jingzhou navy and Jiangdong to fight, right? In this case, let alone whether Jingzhou is willing or not, even Liu Bei may question his ability! After thinking about it, he made a decision and ordered the two of them: "Although the enemy's move is unusual, we have been entrusted with an important task by our lord and must not move!" "Pass on my military order. Use the red horse boats to sail out of the river bank first to investigate the enemy's movements!" "First, find out the military situation in the north and south of Spring Valley, and then our army will take action!" After receiving the order, the two dispatched a large number of red horse boats to explore along the river, traveling more than 200 miles north and south, and reported back directly: "The enemy has advanced westward to Pengze, and from Pengze eastward, the enemy's navy is invincible!" When Lu Su heard that the river was wide, he was surprised and wondered if Zhou Yu had really given up the Chujiang defense line? You know, there is no defense on the river bank, so their troops can go directly south to Jiangdong without any obstacles! This obviously does not conform to Zhou Yu's previous strategic thinking of keeping the enemy out! This situation occurred because, firstly, Zhou Yu was not worried at all about their troops moving south, and secondly, the military situation in the west was indeed urgent, forcing Zhou Yu to do so! Obviously, the first possibility is the least likely, as Zhou Yu could not help but worry about their troops moving south. From this perspective, it is the second situation. The military situation in the west has developed to the point where Zhou Yu has to adopt an extreme strategy. After realizing this, even a cautious man like Lu Su finally felt relieved and led his troops westward.

But when he left Chaohu Lake, he met Zhuge Liang who came to report the news. After listening to Zhuge Liang's explanation, Lu Su was naturally shocked and said: "According to what Kong Ming said, Zhou Yu has deployed a special force in Pengli Lake?" "Now he is withdrawing from Chungu to lure our army there!" Upon hearing this, Zhuge Liang said with a serious face: "That's right, so I came here this time to persuade the governor not to go there in person. He needs to find a way to defeat the enemy first before taking any action!" When Lu Su heard this, he thought about it carefully for a while and said: "Zhou Gongjin is a very vigilant man in using troops. Our army is now marching out of Chaohu Lake, and he is probably aware of our situation!" "If we stand still, it will only make them suspicious and they may not take the initiative to attack us." "Since he has set an ambush in Pengli, our army may be able to lure the tiger away from the mountain." "Now that General Zhao and his men want to lead their troops south, our army can use this as cover." "Kong Ming should go back and report first, and order General Zhao and others to go to Congyang first." "I will pretend to help you cross the river. If Zhou Yu sees this, he will take the initiative to attack." "Perhaps we can inform the military advisor in advance and contact the Jingzhou navy to take action." "After Zhou Yu is lured out by our army, we will have the Jingzhou navy charge into Pengli Lake and attack Zhou Yu's water stronghold!" "After we defeat the enemy's water stronghold, our army will return and attack from both directions, and the Jiangdong navy will surely be defeated!" When Zhuge Liang heard this plan, he nodded and sailed west again. Lu Su waited until Zhuge Liang left, then pretended to be cautious and slowly moved westward. Naturally, Lu Su's troop movements could not be hidden from Zhou Yu's detection. When Zhou Yu heard that Lu Su had finally left Chaohu Water Fort, he was overjoyed and said: "Lu Zijing has fallen into our army's trap. Now that the troops have left Chaohu Lake, they must be heading to Pengli Lake!" "If he goes this far, our army will have the opportunity to defeat the enemy!" This was the first good news they had heard in some time, and all the generals were delighted to hear it. Only the veteran general Han Dang heard this and said with a worried look on his face: "But when I saw Lu Su coming here, he was walking slowly and cautiously. Even if he was going up the river, he shouldn't have walked so slowly!" But Zhou Yu was not too worried when he heard this: "General, you don't know this. Although Lu Zijing has never been in battle, he is a very steady person!" "When he sees our army withdrawing, he must be suspicious that our army has an ambush. If he does not do so, it would be unusual." "Now that he is acting like this, it is clear that this person is still unaware of our military's plans." "Right now, our ambush troops are all in the lake on the north bank. If he investigates like this, he will not be able to find anything unusual!" "Although the progress westward is slower, it's not a big deal!"

"The only thing I am worried about is the navy of Jingzhou. Since they entered Xiazhi, they have been training every day and have not marched." "Qin Zhen is a man of many tricks. If he sees our army heading east, he will definitely become suspicious!" "So if we want to defeat Lu Su's army, we should first go to Xiazhi and fight him, so that he won't know what we want!" "But I wonder which general is willing to lead the army to fight against it?" As soon as he finished speaking, a general came out and bowed, saying: "I have not achieved any merit since I came here. Now I am willing to lead my troops to challenge Xia Zhi!" When Zhou Yu heard this, he took a closer look and saw that the man was eight feet tall and very imposing. He could not help but say happily: "If the Yuan Dynasty is willing to go, I will lead the troops to help!" This general was named Dong Xi, also with the courtesy name Yuandai. He was also one of the generals under Sun Ce. When Sun Ce went south to Kuaiji that day, Dong Xi was waiting for him at Gaoqian Pavilion. Sun Ce was impressed by Dong Xi and thought he was very extraordinary, so he entrusted him to the thief Cao under his command. Later, when Sun Ce attacked the Shanyin bandits Huang Longluo and Zhou Bo, Dong Xi personally beheaded them and was promoted to Sima of the Separate Department and Commandant of Yangwu. In the original process, he followed Sun Ce to conquer Liu Xun and made outstanding military achievements. However, at this time, Dong Xian was just a brave general of Jiangdong, and had not yet become as famous as he would be in the future. Seeing that Dong Xi was willing to fight, Zhou Yu immediately led his troops forward and led the fleet towards Xiazhi again. On the other hand, it is said that after Qin Zhen planned to replace Huang Zu with Cai Mao and Huang She, he discussed with Cai Mao about moving the army to Xiazhi. Also, because the Jingzhou navy had not been trained for a long time, they had to set up camp on the river bank and train every day. If possible, Qin Zhen would certainly like to urge the navy to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible, but the troops of Jingzhou are really no match for Zhou Yu, and there is no news from the east, so he can only wait here. Unexpectedly, one day when he was fishing on the shore, he heard the deafening sound of drums on the water, so he climbed up to a high place to look. Then they saw Zhou Yu's fleet had arrived, and they were coming against the waves in small boats, shouting and cursing on the river. Seeing this, Cai Mao was naturally surprised and said to everyone: "We have been confronting Zhou Yu here for several days, but Zhou Yu has not come to challenge us!" "What happened now that made Zhou Yu take the initiative to provoke me like this?" Huang She heard this, although he didn't know what Zhou Yu meant, but he heard the shouting and cursing below, so he said in a deep voice: "No matter what his intention is, he has challenged us, and we cannot hide here. Now that the enemy is coming, who is willing to go out first?" At this time, it would be appropriate to let Gan Ning go into battle. But Gan Ning was an outsider after all, so he could not give direct orders. After this was said, no one responded, only one general stepped out and said: "I am willing to lead the army to fight!" Huang She took a look and saw that the man was over seven feet tall and quite sturdy, but he looked unfamiliar. While he was hesitating, he heard Cai Mao whisper beside him: "This is Huo Du from Zhijiang, Nanjun. He is quite brave and might be worth a fight!"

Upon hearing this, Huang She nodded and ordered Huo Du to lead his troops and charge out on twenty small boats. (End of this chapter)