After Guo Jia died of illness, Cheng Yu fully accepted the Jiangdong Intelligence Network. This time, Cheng Yu was fully responsible for the instigation of Jiangdong officials.

Naturally, the fewer people know about such secret matters, the better. Even core strategists such as Liu Ye and Xun You were kept in the dark.

Jia Xu's layout in Jingzhou was a great success, and he was not greedy for me and returned to Wancheng directly and no longer participated in the plan to attack Jiangdong.

Cheng Yu's layout in Jiangdong has not achieved much results so far. It is not that Cheng Yu does not work hard or that the officials in Jiangdong are loyal, but that Sun Quan is not as good as Liu Biao and his son, and he controls the situation in Jiangdong very well.

Before going to war, Cao Cao had already decided on the strategy. This time he would not be satisfied with Jingzhou. He was ready to do his best to pacify the entire south!

Cao Cao was quite concerned about how to deal with Sun Quan in Jiangdong. Because Cheng Yu was not around for the time being, Cao Cao was undecided for a moment, so he gathered his advisers to discuss it.

Liu Ye did not express his opinion because he avoided suspicion, so Xu Shu naturally did not say a word. Only Xun You proposed this feasible strategy.

Cao Cao used his plan and issued a manifesto and sent envoys to Eastern Wu to observe the movements and stills of Jiangdong.

Of course, the cunning Cao Cao did not expect a manifesto to make Sun Quan surrender, but he just took the rituals first and then the army, and occupied the righteousness.

Time flies so fast, it is late autumn and early winter, and it has been three months since Cao Cao went on the expedition. Although the army has been resting recently, many of his soldiers have fallen ill.

According to the Suijun Langzhong, the soldiers should have been dissatisfied with the local conditions and the combat effectiveness of the army has dropped greatly.

Cao Cao was too idle in Jiangling. He rectified the surrendered army in Jingzhou and obtained more than 200,000 troops, which was joy and sorrow.

What I am happy about is that after the recruitment of these surrendered troops, even if my army is a little unacceptable, it will not have much impact on the army's combat power.

What’s worried about is that the number of these surrendered troops exceeded that of Cao Cao’s own army, and because they were locked in the military camp for a long time, the morale of the army was very unstable and there was a tendency to be unsuppressed.

The generals of the army, such as Cao Ren, Xiahou Yuan, all raised their concerns to Cao Cao:

"If these soldiers are dismissed now, they may surrender to Liu Bei and Sun Quan and become their strong enemies. If they stay, not only will the military rations be a huge pressure, but also because the large-scale inability to adapt to the local conditions of the northern soldiers, they can no longer suppress the unstable army of Jingzhou. Once a mutiny occurs, the entire Jingzhou will be in danger. These troops must be properly arranged!"

Cao Cao was not unable to arrange these surrendered troops. It was feasible to transfer them from Jingzhou to military farms or guard the border, but Sun Quan in Jiangdong has not yet been pacified and the war is imminent, so he cannot mobilize troops in large quantities.

Cao Cao could no longer sit still. He needed to find something for these anxious surrendered troops, so he needed to fight Sun Quan quickly.

He also knew that if Sun Quan wanted to surrender, it would be impossible to intimidate merely with a manifesto, and strong military pressure was necessary.

After he left behind the troops guarding the city, he led the army to the expedition despite his fatigue.

Before the war, Cao Cao announced generous conditions for meritorious service and rewards, which raised the morale of the soldiers and horses in Jingzhou, and then almost all of them were brought out. Most of his army was dispatched, with a total of more than 500,000 troops, claiming to be one million.

The Cao army was vast and advanced along the river, and came along the river. It camped on the north bank of the Yangtze River opposite Chaisang, connecting Jing and Xia in the west, Qi, Huang and Zhaizha in the east, and hundreds of thousands of troops were overwhelming Jiangdong.

...

...

Ma Su and Zhang Fei led thousands of troops and horses that Zhuge Liang took away from Xiakou and returned to Xiakou to garrison.

Xiakou is located at the intersection of the Han River and the Yangtze River. Most of these 5,000 soldiers and horses are naval troops, and their land defense capabilities are much worse.

Although the more than 100 cavalrymen brought by Ma Su, the offensive and defensive capabilities on land were not weak, because Gong Li and Tian Shi were both from Wuxi Barbarians, and most of the more than 1,000 people were barbarian soldiers and were good at fighting in the mountains and forests.

Although there are only more than a thousand more soldiers and horses, the ability to defend the city has been greatly increased, so Xiakou's defense is even more reliable!

Originally, Zhang Fei was shocked by the power of Ma Su's more than 100 cavalrymen, and praised the new saddles and double-sided stirrups. He wanted to train his eighteen cavalry generals into such cavalry.

Since Ma Su created this army, he naturally would not hide his own personal information. Even if Zhang Fei didn't say it, he would also change Zhang Fei's personal information to the same equipment.

It happened to ambush Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry and obtained more than 200 good horses and available armor. Ma Su asked the craftsmen to follow the army to nail the horses and replace them with saddles and stirrups, which solved the problem of the mount.

Zhang Fei's subordinates only had dozens of cavalry brought from his hometown, the most powerful of which was called the Eighteen Cavalry and Yan Generals, and each of them had good force.

Since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, these soldiers have followed Zhang Fei for decades and have not suffered any loss. Their abilities can be imagined. If Zhang Fei had enough troops, each of them could become a general.

Zhang Fei took these eighteen men as the backbone and carefully selected 200 soldiers with good courage and riding skills from five thousand soldiers. It happened that each of the eighteen cavalry generals led ten cavalry.

Zhang Fei's personal follower finally formed an army. Although the number is not as large as Guan Yu's 500 school knife handle, because he is an armored cavalry, his combat effectiveness will not be inferior to Guan Yu's 500 school knife handle.

After Zhang Fei's cavalry guards formed an army, there were naturally eighteen generals of Yan to train, but he also targeted Ma Su's spearheads.

This type of military equipment is not a problem. The key is the talent of the soldiers. Ma Su is very supportive of Zhang Fei in training spearhead soldiers.

This spearhead soldier is not considered a military service, but can only be said to be a killing skill. It is like throwing a grenade. If organized when needed, the lethality can be much stronger than the bow and arrow.

With the assistance of Gong Li and Tian Shi, Zhang Fei selected only less than a thousand people from 5,000 people, and had certain talents in throwing guns. The number of gunmen increased to more than 2,000, and his power increased by more than twice.

After Zhang Fei selected the spearheads, he naturally had Gong Li and Tian Shi training, and he became idle again.

Ma Su asked Zhang Fei to come to guard Xiakou, but not only to train his ability to command troops and fight alone, but to make him an expert in water warfare. It is Ma Su's main purpose.

Since he was stationed by the river, Zhang Fei was familiar with water warfare. Without the general leading the army, the soldiers would have no backbone and it would be difficult to win in the battle.

The most important thing is that when attacking Liu Zhang, if Ma Su wanted Liu Bei to change Guan Yu's decision to guard Jingzhou, he had to start with guarding Xiakou.
Chapter completed!