Chapter 652: Han Army Marches South
Time soon came to the summer of the 21st year of Jianxing, and the rice in Yangzhou was ripe.
On the Yuzhang Plain and the Danyang Plain, large areas of rice matured and swayed in the fields. Especially in recent years, Jiangdong has been blessed with good weather and should have had a bumper harvest.
So Sun Quan was also waiting to see the eastward movement of the Han army in Yangzhou and Lianghuai, and planned to withdraw troops to harvest grain.
His population and size were too small, and there were only a few strong people in the country. Now he has been staying at the border all year round. If he can't withdraw, he may not even be able to grow crops well.
However, just as Sun Quan withdrew some troops back to Jianye. When he was about to gradually disband the conscripted soldiers, the scouts of the Xiaoshi suddenly sent him some terrifying news.
Ma Su, who had been in charge of farming in Shouchun for more than half a year and even personally led people to dig canals, had put on his armor again. More than 10,000 troops in Huainan have begun to gather and recruit civilians for baggage transportation.
Looking at this posture, the Han army is planning to go south during the busy farming season in Yangzhou!
Seeing this, Sun Quan's fear of being dominated by Ma Su surged up again. For a time, the whole Yangzhou fell into a highly tense atmosphere again, and the soldiers who had just returned home had to be urgently called back.
However, at this moment, Sun Quan still hoped that Ma Su was just a feint. So the 30,000 Wu troops gathered in Jianye and still did not move to Ruxuwu.
After all, Ma Su wanted to spend a lot of effort on farming in Lianghuai, and naturally wanted to restore local production. And once the cannon sounded, gold was worth ten thousand taels, and a hundred thousand people cost a thousand gold a day. Once the war started, the production in Lianghuai would inevitably be frustrated, which was not conducive to farming.
However, Ma Su soon crushed Sun Quan's last fluke with practical actions.
In half a month, the Han army quickly assembled 30,000 troops and headed south from Hefei. The logistics went straight to Shouchun, and at the same time, the entire Yuzhou gave blood transfusions to Lianghuai.
Ma Su's plan was very clear. After all, I occupied the entire Central Plains. The current size is not comparable to the past. Do you still want to fight with me with your limited manpower in Dongwu?
While the Han army was heading south, Ma Su also wrote a special letter and sent someone to Jianye.
Ma Su's letter made Sun Quan very nervous. After all, since the complete break between Han and Wu, the two sides have not communicated with each other for five years.
In particular, all of Ma Su's letters are extremely lethal. Sun Quan does not want to die in less than two years after becoming the emperor of Wu. So after Ma Su's letter was delivered, Sun Quan specially ordered a close minister to open it for him.
Fortunately, compared with the previous ones, Ma Su's letter this time was quite conventional. There was no trickery, but a short paragraph written with ink pen.
"Recently, I have been ordered to punish the crime, and the flags are pointing east. Cao Fang surrendered. Now I have 800,000 naval forces, and I will hunt with the general in Wu!"
Such familiar words made Sun Quan's face change suddenly. As an old fox, he naturally saw what Ma Su meant.
Arrogance! Total arrogance!
In history, Cao Cao went south with such a speech, shocking the whole Yangzhou with great momentum. That was the most dangerous moment in Yangzhou, and it was also a rare highlight in Sun Quan's life.
It was a fire in Chibi at that time, which laid the foundation for his hegemony in the past few decades. In a sense, this speech should provide higher morale for his family.
But Ma Su was so fearless that he used almost the same words to scare him, Sun Quan. This is no longer a deterrent, and the arrogance towards Sun Quan has been expressed in his words.
Although it is not the same time or the same place, it is the same speech. Sun Quan, the pseudo-emperor of Jiangdong, can you fight Chibi again this time?
"Ma Youchang! How can you despise me so much!" A cold light flashed in Sun Quan's eyes, but it was quickly suppressed by reason.
Xiaoshi has already found out that Ma Su only dispatched 30,000 people this time. Although the 70,000 soldiers of the Lianghuai Army have begun to gather, they have not been dispatched after all.
But even so, Sun Quan knew that this number of people alone was not enough for his Eastern Wu. Even these 30,000 people might be too many for Ma Su, and only 20,000 would be enough.
In short, no matter how much Ma Su despised him, Sun Quan had to endure it. Not only that, he could also endure the pain in his heart and send the main force to Ruxuwu again.
Ruxuwu was the last stronghold of Eastern Wu in Jiangbei and the guarantee of Jianye's safety. In any case, Sun Quan could not let it be taken away by the Han army.
So, after Ma Su led his troops south and issued a provocative speech, Sun Quan immediately began to send reinforcements to Ruxuwu. 50,000 Wu troops entered Ruxuwu and held on there.
Lu Kang, the new commander-in-chief of Eastern Wu, was also very clear about the gap between them, so he quickly rejected Zhuge Ke's suggestion to counterattack. Tens of thousands of Wu troops insisted on defending the city with their superior strength.
The Han army was unstoppable all the way, advancing straight from Hefei to Ruxuwu, as if... No, it was entering an uninhabited area!
From Hefei to Ruxuwu, the 300-mile road in between was all uninhabited. The counties along the way had some people at the beginning of the confrontation between the north and the south, but as the war progressed, they had already become a wasteland.
The reason why Ma Su only brought 30,000 people to the south this time was also because of logistics issues. There were no civilians to recruit along the way, and no counties to rely on. The Han army's food and fodder had to be transported directly from Hefei to the front line, which was a huge pressure.
If the Han Dynasty had not already occupied the Central Plains and had a much richer family background, Ma Su would definitely not be willing to waste it.
However, even with only 30,000 people, the logistical pressure was still not small. When arriving at Ruxu Fort, the Han army had lost at least one-third of the food and grass transported from the rear.
This further strengthened Ma Su's idea that he must rebuild a frontier fortress south of Hefei no matter what.
As the Han army approached Ruxu Fort, Ma Su also discovered the vigilance of the Eastern Wu troops. But what surprised Ma Su was that he actually saw Sun Quan's flag in Ruxu Fort.
It had only been a few years since he was beaten last time, and Sun Quan dared to show up again?
Ma Su was a little surprised for a while. After pondering for a while, he immediately took Ma Zhong and several cavalrymen out of the camp and went straight to the bottom of Ruxu Fort.
"Han General Ma Su, please invite Sun Quan, the criminal of Jiangdong, to come and have a talk!" Ma Su came to the city and shouted to the Wu army on the top of the city.
Although Ma Su only came with a few cavalry, he still caused a commotion in the Eastern Wu. Lu Kang and Zhuge Ke quickly reported to Sun Quan and asked how to deal with it.
"Ma Su came alone again?" Sun Quan frowned, and thought of the shadow of the previous public security.
However, he was the King of Wu of Wei after all. Even though he was very cowardly, he still chose to face it head-on for the sake of morale.
"Follow me to the top of the city to see! I want to know what this kid from Yicheng wants to say!"