Voluht Aboard a Tower Ship (1/2)

Voluht Aboard a Tower shi+p¹

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Lu Can had trained elite cavalry in Sichuan, a secret unknown to all When the Yong forces co launched a joint attack on Shouchun, shi+ Guan held out in the city and did not retreat Lu Can secretly ordered the elite cavalry to sneak into Huaixi On the twenty-first, the Yong army’s fierce assault had stalled, and when noon arrived, the elite Southern Chu cavalry charged They devastated the Yong ar Shan’s force covered the treat of the rest of the Yong army, while Cui Jue’s force broke out of the encircle soldiers were casualties

2</sup> had lost his parents at a young age He becaust his clan When he first joined the army, he became a subordinate of the Prince of Qi In the fifth year of Longsheng, he was transferred to Xuzhou and became the subordinate of Pei Yun, Military Co, he obeyed orders to invade Huaixi and captured Zhongli He attacked Shouchun but suffered a crushi+ng defeat Dong Shan requested that he personally cover the retreat to s difficult for the Southern Chu army After some time, the Chu army called for his surrender Because of these words, he issued a challenge, picking Lu Yun and shi+ Yujin as his opponents in this duel Lu and shi+ cut down Dong Shan, and the Yong ar Records Voluht of the twenty-first day of the eleventh kou Lu Can was standing on the deck of the tower shi+p, gazing at the surging river water Behind hi Barracks’ navy had finished their preparations They would take advantage of this opportunity to cross the river and make a surprise attack They had been at a stale army for over twenty days Lu Can may have looked calm on the surface, but he was apprehensive at heart

He wasn’t worried about the opposite shore’s Pei Yun, even though the Yong army on the opposite shore numbered nearly a hundred thousand men, while he only had over twenty thousand men in the navy with less than a thousand shi+ps It would be ikou with this strength Even if he intended to recapture Yangzhou, it would still be difficult if he had fifty thousand marines

At Guazhou Ferry, neither army needed to be sure of success, because neither army had initiated battle for the past several days However, this allowed Pei Yun peace of mind, while Lu Can had to worry about the outcomes of numerous battles Could Huaixi follow his plans and achieve victory, could Xiangyang be as steady as Mount Tai, could Jia these was the battle in Huaixi If Huaixi were lost, Huainan would never again belong to Southern Chu The Yong ar and Jiangling without any hurry If this happened, Jingxiang would be isolated And the Yong artze River Southern Chu didn’t have any buffers outside of the Yangtze River Even if Sun Tzu were reborn, the situation would be too far gone to save by that point

After Lu Can received intelligence on the Yong th and position of each colu yang were the ions up so he couldn’t order theh nuts to crack Moreover, the Southern Chu garrison generals weren’t ordinary characters either If the Yong arion, they would need to double their own strength at the least

The situation in Huaidong had eroded as Pei Yun got straight to the point The Yong ar emperor had presu was a network of rivers In addition to the advantage the Southern Chu ar, Pei Yun didn’t advance recklessly even though he had easily captured Huaidong He even deliberately te ar arreat fanfare and used the three colu offensive, the vanguard knew it could only be Shouchun

Lu Canabout it If Yu Mian and Rong Yuan let up a little, the Yong are of it and execute an offensive And if Jingkou wasn’t on guard, Pei Yun could cross the river and capture Jianye Once the hundred thousand infantry and cavalry of the Yong army crossed the river, Lu Can was afraid history would repeat itself, due to the strength of the Jianye Royal Guard As a result, he could only watch as the Yong ar are force and a commander to seize Huaixi, then Lu Can would be powerless However, an underesti court and country, so Li Zhi did not dispatch a sun Ji and Pei Yun send their respective arether In this way, Lu Can had the opportunity to turn the tide

To achieve victory in Huaixi, Lu Can had strained all his h the commander in Huaixi, shi+ Guan, wasn’t an extraordinary talent, he was tenacious and cal arenerals who could take charge of attacking Huaixi, Lu Can had deliberately “neglected” the situation in Shouchun He didn’t send a relief force to save Huaixi Afterwards, he did not spare his beloved son’s life and had Lu Yun go to Shouchun to assist shi+ Guan This was extre, Lu Yun would perish in Shouchun even if Southern Chu triumphed in Huaixi However, if Lu Can did not do this, he could not calm the hearts and minds of the civilians and soldiers in Shouchun That wouldarmy would not exhaust itself Then it would be even more unlikely for nine thousand elite cavalry to shatter the Yong ar Cavalry that had been hidden

Southern Chu didn’t place much importance on cavalry because the terrain restricted them and because Southern Chu lacked the northerners’ confidence ever since the founding of the kingdo, Southern Chu had always been weak in this aspect

Southern Chu became a reluctant vassal when Zhao Jue, the Prince of De, was in charge of the military Zhao Jue lamented the unfavorable circumstances of the Southern Chu military, and under his persistence, Southern Chu finally obtained their own cavalry Relying on nearly twenty thousand cavalry troops, Zhao Jue blocked Great Yong’s southbound heavy cavalry and broke into Sichuan The Prince of Qi, Li Xian, assaulted Xiangyang twice, and both times this division of cavalry coordinated with the city defenders when they sallied out, allowing theain victory in the end However, after the death of the Prince of De, the monarch and subjects of Southern Chu suffered heavy blows and dishonor and humiliation Not only did they refuse to bide their tie or to seek reprisals, they instead appeased their overlord with their heads held high When Lu Xin, the Duke Who Suppresses Distant Lands, succeeded the Prince of De as the round was in the navy so he didn’t place much importance on cavalry As a result, this division of cavalry not only couldn’t increase their ranks, but they gradually weakened If not for the hard work of the Prince of De’s former subordinates, it would have been difficult to ’s cavalry

After Lu Can inherited the position of grand general, he decided to rebuild the cavalry But against Shang Weijun and coxia cavalry reached exactly three thousandthe support of the court So up his past to attack his character, criticizing Lu Can for wasting the pay and provisions of the troops and raising ant cavalry So recruits as a pretense for raising his descendants Naturally, Lu Can still could not antagonize Shang Weijun, so had no choice but to abandon preparations for a cavalry stables However, Lu Can did not give up After his triu Pass, he secretly trained cavalry in Sichuan

Yu Mian was very respectful toward Lu Can and always did as he was told Lu Can could hide the truth of the strength of the Southern Chu military Sichuan also contained ents not know of his stables’ existence, but the Southern Chu court didn’t know either

The warhorses came from three major sources: After the cavalry divisions established by the Prince of De were dissolved, Lu Can secretly sent the steeds to Sichuan and constructed a stables; Northern Han’s warhorses were sled on the sea—and while this route was not ideal as Great Yong’s influence in the Eastern Sea was very widespread, shi+pping was extremely difficult, the warhorses found it very difficult to sustain themselves, and they had to be transported a thousand li³ to Sichuan—many of the excellent horses in Sichuan’s stables came in from this route, but after Northern Han was destroyed, this route became mostly unusable; besides these sources, Lu Can even dispatched a trusted aide to Tubo, the Tibetan Eers and hardshi+ps on the journey obvious With Lu Can’s painstaking efforts in operating these sources, he eventually obtained the current force of Flying Cavalry with nine thousand cavalrymen

Lu Can made use of a variety of opportunities to select the riders He selected warriors fro the surrendered generals of Shu as well as the forenerals in Sichuan was a matter of course, but the former subordinates of the Prince of De arrived in Sichuan because of Rong Yuan, the co Yuan’s talent and sagacity were exceptional It was just that he wasn’t broadh After he took over the position of General of Xiangyang, he pushed out soreed When Lu Xin was commander-in-chief of the Southern ChuYuan, so he found a place for the officers in secret A them were quite a few cavalry officers Later down the line, Lu Can persuaded these men to train a cavalry force

Ten years of population growth finally allowed Lu Can to control a division of elite cavalry, an unknown factor, and this cavalry turned into Southern Chu’s key to victory Before the battle in Huaixi began, Lu Can had given secret orders to this cavalry division to sneak into Jiangling Although the narrow mountain paths of Sichuan were very difficult to traverse, and although the Yong arents with eyes and ears in positions with access to the highest authorities, the Lu faxia for xia stables as a cover, this cavalry division eventually arrived at Jiangling without a sound After the battle in Huaixi turned white-hot, the cavalry division took advantage of the turmoil to reach Shouchun Under the cover of darkness, the troops muffled the horses’ hooves with thick cloth, put coins in their mouths, and removed the bells from the horses They arrived outside the walls of Shouchun in silence and hid, waiting for an opportunity to attack When the Yong army exhausted itself, they worried the Southern Chu army would raid their encampment and run the for reconnaissance Because of this, the Flying Cavalry gave the Yong arreat victory in Huaixi

Of course, Lu Can had not yet received intelligence froh he hadthe battle in Huaixi, he would initiate the decisive battle today If a hard-fought victory were achieved in Huaixi, it would be best If Huaixi suffered a valiant defeat, then all theas soon as possible and recapture Yangzhou He could then use it to screen Jingkou and Jianye He had already entrusted the task of reinforcing Huaixi and the two battlefields in Huaidong to Yang Xiu Yang Xiu had been in the Jiangxia Barracks this entire ti thickened, so heavy it was nearly iers Lu Can sighed softly and said, “Attack”

Following Lu Can’s order, the Southern Chu navy attacked the opposite shore

In the seventh year of Longsheng, the battle that would decide the ultin kicked off