Chapter 223: Underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, the enemy is scheming But after Qin Zhen arrived in Jiangxia, he was greatly disappointed when he saw the Jingzhou navy. He had hoped to use the navy of Jingzhou to defeat the troops of Jiangdong and open up a passage to the south, but he found that the navy of Jingzhou was poorly trained and the warships were in disrepair. Come to think of it, although the number of Jingzhou navy is the largest in the world, they have never really encountered the enemy. Huang Zu lived in Jiangxia all year round. With Liu Biao in power in the west and Jiangdong in chaos in the east, he had never met a real opponent! Without an enemy, there would be no need to prepare for war, let alone train all day. Huang Zu was in charge of the army in Jiangxia for a few years, and the navy was abandoned for several years and had no combat power at all! But the arrow is on the string and has to be shot. Now they are all going to move south in a large scale. Even if the Jingzhou navy is not strong, they have no choice but to go ahead. It was a pity that he was not familiar with naval warfare, so he had to call Gan Ning to question him and ask him about the chances of the Jingzhou navy against the Jiangdong navy. When it comes to naval forces, Gan Ning can be considered an expert in this area. When facing Qin Zhen's question, he analyzed: "I have never seen the strength of the Jiangdong navy, so I dare not judge."

"But I see that although the navy of Jingzhou is weak, it has sufficient resources and a large number of ships." "As long as we take steady steps, we may have a chance to win!" "If the military advisor is really worried, I would like to go to Chaohu first." "If the Jiangdong navy arrives now, the Chungu direction will be empty. I only need 800 soldiers to break through the Jiangdong navy blockade." "As long as Huang Zu is here to hold him back for a while, our navy will cut off Zhou Yu's retreat from east to west, and we can defeat the Jiangdong navy!" When Qin Zhen heard this, he shook his head slightly and said: "I know Xingba has extraordinary abilities and will be able to break through the blockade." "But Zhou Yu is not well-known. I see that Huang Zu is old and stupid, so he must look down on him!" "If we are not prepared, we may suffer a great defeat." "If Xingba reaches Chaohu Lake now and the Jingzhou army is defeated, our army will have to face Zhou Yu alone. Even with the navy, we will not be his opponent." "Only by leaving Xingba here and stabilizing the situation can we advance on both fronts!" He knew very well that he could defeat the Jiangdong navy by attacking from both sides. But the problem was that the distance from Jiangxia to Chaohu by water was thousands of miles, and the Jiangdong navy was blocking the communication channel. If they want to contact the troops on both sides, they have to send the message by land! In this era, the navy could travel two to three hundred miles a day if the wind was against them, and seven to eight hundred miles in two days if the wind was favorable. Due to such a long distance, there was a huge delay in communication between the Jiangxia and Chaohu navies. It is very likely that Zhou Yu had already defeated Huang Zu before Gan Ning broke through the blockade. When their navy marched out of Chaohu Lake to defeat Zhou Yu, they might fall into Zhou Yu's ambush instead. Therefore, even if we have to attack from both sides, we must first stabilize the situation in Jiangxia! This logic is not difficult to understand. When Gan Ning heard that Qin Zhen wanted to use him to stabilize the situation in Jiangxia, he felt moved. You must know that he used to be an insignificant person in Jingzhou, but now he is so important under Qin Zhen. The more the comparison, the more grateful he is to Qin Zhen for his recognition.

At that moment, he secretly decided in his heart that no matter what, he would help Qin Zhen win this battle. After the two of them discussed this, they decided on a preliminary strategy, which was to stabilize the situation first and then attack from both sides. Unexpectedly, just as Qin Zhen had made a strategy, he noticed that the water stronghold suddenly became busy the next day. After asking someone, he learned that Zhou Yu's troops had already reached E County and were heading towards Shaxian. Qin Zhen was shocked when he heard this, and he hurried to find Huang She and asked: "I heard that Zhou Yu's navy has arrived in E County. He must have known that Liu Mu wanted to send troops eastward!" "Now that Mr. Huang has no intention of sending out troops, why is the water fort so busy?" Huang She was confused when he heard this and said hurriedly: "The Jiangdong navy has already arrived in Jiangxia, why didn't I know about it?" Qin Zhen's heart sank when he saw that he looked like he had just woken up. I thought to myself, you are Huang Zu’s biological son, but you don’t even know such a big thing. If you dare to invite Huang Zuzhen, it means you are not considered as one of my subordinates! However, even though he was thinking this in his heart, he said anxiously: "Zhen also just heard about this matter and thought that the Lord knew about it, so he came to ask, but he didn't expect that the Lord didn't know either!" Huang She was quite displeased when he heard this. It was not that he was displeased with Qin Zhen's behavior, but that he was displeased that his father didn't tell him anything! Seeing that Qin Zhen was a little anxious, he said seriously: "Don't worry, sir. My father has always been impatient. He must have received the letter in a hurry and has not informed you yet." "Let's go and ask them why this is happening!" Then he led Qin Zhen all the way into the mansion. When they arrived, they saw Huang Zu already ready to go to war. Huang She saw this and went up to Huang Zu to ask him the reason. Huang Zu got angry and said: "Do I need to inform you when I do things for my father?" "Now our army has not yet set out, so ask Zhou Yu about the boy's attack." "I heard that this man is also the descendant of a loyal and honest person, but I didn't expect him to help the tyrant and bully me like this!" "I will prepare my troops and fight them." "Enough of the idle chatter. You are not good at water warfare, so just wait inside the village." "Father, I will go and defeat Zhou Yu so that he will know how powerful our army is!" Huang She blushed with shame when he heard this, and said hurriedly: "Father, even if you didn't tell me, I should at least tell you that I'm here to help Liu Yuzhou!" Upon hearing this, Huang Zu looked at Qin Zhen indifferently and said: "He already knows, doesn't he? Since we don't need him to command the troops, what's the point of knowing it?" "I have ordered Su Fei and others to prepare for battle. Don't get entangled with them, or you will miss the opportunity to fight!" After saying this, he walked out with his belly bulging.

After being scolded by Huang Zu, Huang She was so distraught that he felt a little ashamed and didn't know how to face Qin Zhen. When Qin Zhen saw this, he hurried forward, took Huang She's hand and said: "Don't delay here, my lord. I see that Mr. Huang is behaving like this, which is a violation of the military's taboo of underestimating the enemy." "You must know that a proud army will be defeated. Although the enemy army has come from afar, since they dare to come here, they must be prepared." "If you let the Lord go alone, he will surely suffer a crushing defeat!" Huang She heard his advice and shook his head and sighed: "I know that you are well versed in the art of war, but now that my father refuses to listen to my advice, I know that he has violated a taboo. What can I do?" Seeing him like this, Qin Zhen hesitated for a while, then said in a deep voice: "Although Lord Huang did not listen to the advice, as a son, how can you not care about the respected one?" "Since Lord Huang has appointed Su Fei as the general for this battle, why don't you go and meet him?" "In this way, even if Lord Huang's army is defeated, with Su Fei in charge, he will not be completely defeated!" "When faced with a setback, he ignored the danger of Huang Gongan. This is not the behavior of a son of man!" Huang She was immediately ashamed when he heard what he said, and said hurriedly: "Sir, your words are polite. Although my father does not listen to advice, General Su is a good general and will definitely listen to it!" As soon as he finished speaking, he took Qin Zhen and walked towards Su Fei's tent. Speaking of Su Fei, he is actually a rare good general under Huang Zu. Although he is not very capable, he is quite loyal. In the original course of events, Gan Ning served under Huang Zu, but was never reused. It was Su Fei who recommended Gan Ning many times. After being rejected by Huang Zu many times, he persuaded Gan Ning to go to Jiangdong and provided some help. At this time, he was mobilizing troops and generals. Seeing Huang She coming, he did not dare to neglect him and hurried to meet him in person. After hearing Huang She's explanation, Su Fei frowned and said: "Our army has not yet engaged the Jiangdong navy. Sir, how dare you say such things and ruin our army's morale!" "It is fortunate that I heard this. If others knew it, wouldn't it anger the lord again?" Although Huang She was good at poetry, he was not very eloquent. When asked, he stammered and could not refute. Seeing this, Qin Zhen knew that Huang She was also unreliable, so he stepped forward and said to Su Fei: "I also believe that your army is strong and powerful, but a strong army will become arrogant, and an arrogant army will inevitably be defeated. This is an eternal truth. How can you not hear this, General?" "Besides, as the Art of War says, if you know yourself and your enemy, you will win every battle." "Your army has never fought against the Jiangdong navy before, and you don't know the enemy. How can you win?" "I am not asking you to go and ask Mr. Huang to stop the war, I just want you to give me some advice and divide the troops into three groups to provide support." "Also give us ships, and we are willing to go to the front line to watch the battle!" "In this case, if your army wins, that would be great. The rear army can gather their strength and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop." "If we lose this battle, we can divide our troops and prepare for it, and leave a way out. We don't know that we will be defeated here!" Su Fei asked about the remarks and thought that what Qin Zhen said made some sense. After all, Qin Zhen was not a spy sent by the enemy, and he also hoped that this battle would be won more steadily.

As the deputy governor, he naturally would not ignore such advice. After thinking for a while, he agreed to Qin Zhen's advice, allocated dozens of light boats to Huang She, and agreed to go and persuade Huang Zu to divide his troops. After receiving Su Fei's response, Qin Zhen did not dare to delay and quickly called Gan Ning and Wei Yan and said: "It's just as I expected. Zhou Yu has sent troops to Jiangxia. I think Huang Zu underestimated the enemy and is afraid he will be defeated." "You two will lead the troops and follow me aboard to watch the battle. If there is an opportunity, you two will help!" After saying this, he left Pei Qian in the water fort and boarded Huang Zu's fleet with Gan Ning, Wei Yan and others. The army left Shaxian Water Stronghold and marched eastward in a mighty force. After about two hours, they suddenly saw a horse boat coming to report: "Zhou Yu's fleet is about to reach Xiakou, but our navy has been blocked on the east side with floating wood, and they can't move forward!" Huang Zu was overjoyed when he heard this. He held the long sword in one hand and said with a smile: "Zhou Yu was a child who did not know the art of war. He went upstream without using a light boat to clear the way, and was eventually stopped on the river." "We are now sailing downstream, with the wind helping the boat, we will surely be able to defeat them in one battle!" "Pass on my orders. The warships are in front, and the large ships are in the back. If we encounter the enemy, we must break their formation first!" He immediately ordered Deng Long and Chen Jiu to lead the light boats, changed the naval formation, and headed eastward. It was autumn at that time, and a strong wind blew on the river. The boat moved faster and faster, and it reached Xiakou in less than an hour. It should be mentioned here that Xiakou is not actually a city, but the confluence of the lower reaches of the Han River and the Yangtze River. The original name of this place was Jiangxia Mountain. In the original history, Sun Quan defeated Huang Zu here. It was not until the Three Kingdoms period that Sun Quan moved to E County and established Wuchang County, where he built a city, and thus Xiakou City came into being. In this timeline, Xiakou City has not yet been built and is just a military stronghold. There is a camp built on it, which is also the gateway to the Jingzhou navy. The place where Zhou Yu stopped was right at the foot of Jiangxia Mountain. As soon as Huang Zu's army arrived, they saw countless large and small boats parked on the river in the distance, seemingly in disorder. Seeing their ship docked like this, Huang Zu's confidence soared, and he thought to himself: "Zhou Yu is a young boy, and he really has no ability to lead troops. With the situation like this, the ships in front and behind must be congested and unable to change the formation." "Now I have the ability to charge into any formation. It only takes a moment to break through the enemy's formation!" Thinking of this, he gave orders to speed up and charged directly into Zhou Yu's fleet with his fleet of warships. At this time, Qin Zhen stood on the boat, holding a newly made telescope, looking at the situation ahead. He was surprised and asked Gan Ning: "Xingba, I see that in the enemy formation ahead, there are large ships in front and light boats in the back. Could this be some kind of naval formation?" After all, he had no knowledge of naval warfare and could not tell what the situation was like in the direction of Jiangdong. He had no choice but to ask Gan Ning, who was an expert in this field. Gan Ning saw that he was holding something and could actually see the enemy formation in the distance, and he couldn't help but wonder:

"Sir, what is that in your hand? This place is far from the front line, and our boat is small, so we can't see clearly!" "Sir, how can you see the enemy's formation?" The scope of a naval battle is not as large as that of a land battle. The two armies can be seen fighting from several miles apart. Without a telescope, it is difficult to see the enemy's formation from their perspective. Seeing this, Qin Zhen handed the telescope to Gan Ning and said: "This thing was made in Huainan. The two mirrors are combined into one, and you can see everything several miles away in detail." "I see that the enemy troops are stationary on the water, not moving at all. I don't know what their formation is. Xingba, please take a look!" Gan Ning was naturally interested when he heard this. He took the telescope and said with a smile: "I have never seen such a strange thing before. Wait and see it!" "But I'm afraid you haven't seen it clearly, sir. You must know that the key to naval warfare is to be flexible and maneuverable. If the ship does not move, it will be a dead end!" "Since Zhou Yu has won the master's praise, how could he commit such a major military taboo?" Having said this, he raised the telescope and took a closer look into the distance. But he only took a glance, the smile on his face froze, and he said in a deep voice: "Oh no! The enemy is playing tricks on us! If we move forward, we'll fall into their trap!" (End of this chapter)