Chapter 673: Shu Army Returns North
"What should I do? I want to ask what should I do!" Luo Tong replied coldly, obviously in a very bad mood.
He knew from the beginning that the position of the Grand Commander of the Eastern Wu was not so easy to do. Especially such an important position, but it was suddenly thrown to him, he knew it was a mess.
But knowing is one thing, and experiencing it in reality is another. When he really took the most capable navy troops in the entire Eastern Wu to sit in Xiakou, he realized how much of a headache it was.
Not only did he have to face the Shu army, which had abundant logistics supplies, double blessing of manpower and material resources, and was fighting at home. While responsible for defending the east and west gates of the Yangtze River, he also had to find a way to deal with the pressure from his own majesty.
Sun Quan, apart from other things, was very good at putting pressure on teammates.
Sun Quan: No, brother...
Being pressed so hard, even Luo Tong, who was always good-tempered, was almost unable to hold it. After learning that Sun Quan sent twelve letters in a day to urge him to return to the army, Luo Tong wanted to scold.
"Write a reply to your majesty! Just tell him that for the safety of Yuzhang County, I can't leave here no matter what. The only thing I can do is to squeeze out 5,000 naval forces to come back for help. There is no other way!" Luo Tong suppressed his anger and waved his hand.
"If your majesty thinks I am not up to the task, just send someone to replace me."
After Luo Tong vented his anger, his generals held back for a long time, and finally couldn't help asking.
"Commander-in-chief, the other side has so few people, why don't we press on with a large army, strangle them at Chibi Mountain, and then evacuate safely?"
"Fight? Captain, do you have any misunderstanding about the combat power of my Dongwu troops?" Luo Tong looked at his own troops in surprise and asked speechlessly.
"The other side has 2,000 people who attacked Chibi Mountain by surprise, and now they are defending in a dangerous place. Our Jiangdong Qu is at this level in land warfare. We can't even take Hefei, and we are still considering Chibi?"
Just kidding, Cao Cao couldn't do anything about Chibi Mountain at the beginning. Moreover, Dongwu was short of people, and Luo Tong dared not waste precious troops here.
So now he had no other choice but to stay here.
"But... it's not a solution for us to stay here. His Majesty is also under great pressure. With only 5,000 people coming back to help, I'm afraid..."
"I can't do anything about it. Jiangdong is already leaking air from all sides. If we just tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, the fragile defense line will collapse in the end." Luo Tong waved his hand and explained with a sigh.
"In this situation, even if Governor Lu is alive again, he can't do anything. I'm just a commoner in Jiangdong, what can I do?"
"Let it be. If your Majesty blames me, I can die to show my determination."
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With the successive victories of the Han army, Yangzhou was shaken as expected by Sun Quan.
In recent years, Dongwu has mostly fought with Han and Wei in places far away from Yangzhou. Therefore, Yangzhou has been peaceful for a long time. Even if the northern army fights to the Yangtze River, it cannot threaten Yangzhou.
But now, their last barrier in the north, Ruxuwu, has fallen. Not only that, it is said that the Han army has also seized a large number of ships, and forcing the Yangtze River is no longer a problem.
At the same time, the Eastern Wu navy, which they rely on the most, was still delayed in Xiakou. Under the constant urging of Sun Quan, they reluctantly returned to support 5,000 people.
Five thousand navy... this amount of troops is distributed along the entire Yangtze River, and each person is responsible for dozens of miles of river bank on average.
At the same time, in the south of Yangzhou, the Han army in Jingnan and the vassal army of Jiaozhou also began to threaten Nanhai County under the deployment of Guan Yinping.
At this point, Jiangdong can be regarded as a true four... three-sided attack. The entire Eastern Wu was already shaky under the siege of the Han army, and there was no hope at all.
And what made the local forces in Jiangdong most panic was actually Zhuge Ke's rebellion. The leader of the Jiangdong Huaisi faction suddenly broke the rules and personally went out to chop people with a knife, which made the local forces in Jiangdong have some bad associations.
What does the Huaisi faction want to do? Have they reached an agreement with the north?
Since Sun Quan came to power in Dongwu, the Huaisi faction has been fighting with the local faction. Before that, the Huaisi faction had always been the one that suppressed the local faction.
But as time went on, the local forces began to suppress the Huaisi faction in the balance of power. So far, the Jiangdong local faction has controlled most of the power.
Originally, this was a peaceful transfer of power. But with Zhuge Ke going out to chop people, this layer of window paper was broken.
The Huaisi faction has begun to collude with the enemy. If they continue to resist stubbornly. If the Shu army really crosses the Yangtze River in the future, won’t they really become a dish?
Until this time, the local forces in Jiangdong finally knew that they were afraid. In Jianye, the capital of Dongwu, all factions were in panic, and they desperately discussed what to do next.
For a time, the whole Jiangdong was in a panic. At this point when the Han army was about to attack, almost no one in Dongwu thought about how to resist the enemy.
If the Han army quickly crossed the Yellow River at this time, it would probably directly hit Jiangdong.
However, just when the Wu army opened up a position on the banks of the Yangtze River, and even Lu Kang was ready to die for the country. Suddenly, news came from Jiangbei that shocked everyone.
The Shu army withdrew!
After capturing Ruxu Fort, Ma Su led the Han army to rest in the city for more than ten days and rescued many ships. But he did not choose to continue to move south. Instead, he led his troops back north after leaving some troops to garrison Powu City and Ruxu Fort.
When the people of Jiangdong were in panic and it seemed that it was the most suitable time for a wave of attack, Ma Su stopped!
This situation completely confused the various forces in Jiangdong. Even Sun Quan’s first reaction after hearing this intelligence was,
"Ma Su, that bastard, wouldn’t he want to pretend to withdraw his troops and then kill back?"
As the most radical person in Ji Han’s combat style, Ma Su theoretically had no reason to withdraw his troops at this time.
But the fact is that Ma Su really led his troops to withdraw. It was not until Ma Su himself returned to Shouchun that Sun Quan accepted this fact.
After the false alarm, Sun Quan immediately breathed a sigh of relief. While lamenting that this defensive operation was not easy, he also secretly cursed Ma Su.
Idiot! You gave up such a good opportunity. You will never threaten Jiangdong again in your life!
Of course, it was not only the Eastern Wu who did not understand Ma Su's battle plan. Zhuge Zhan and others who followed the army were incredulous until Ma Su led the troops to Shouchun.
"Is this a strange deployment? With such a good opportunity, why doesn't the general take advantage of it and go south to win Jiangdong in one battle?"