Chapter 172 Dongguan Ruxuwu

Choosing to start the action during the autumn harvest was naturally intended to take advantage of the enemy for food, or at least to prevent the enemy from carrying out the autumn harvest in peace.

In order to ensure a smooth autumn harvest, Li Yuanhui sent a large army to station in the area around the East Gate of Rushu River.

The various tribes set up camp along both sides of the Rushu River.

Afterwards, he ordered Guo Xing to lead the Tianzhushan Camp to garrison Liyang, and the Xuzhou Left Camp and Xuzhou Right Camp to garrison Guangling and Jiangdu, and personally inspected the defense along the river.

Make sure that Liyang and Jiang will not give the enemy any opportunity to take advantage.

Ruxuwu was the main battlefield prepared by Li Yuanhui for the Eastern Wei army.

Ruxuwu is located at the entrance where the Ruxu River flows into the Yangtze River.

In the 17th year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Sun Quan sent people to build a pass to resist Cao. It blocked the mouth of Ruxu River and formed the East Gate. It was also called Ruxu City at that time. Because its fortress resembled a "偃月", it was called偃月城 or偃月武.

Originally, the three characters "Ruxuwu" were engraved on the city wall. It is said that these characters were written by Sun Quan.

After the unification of Dayan, Ruxuwu was abandoned.

As early as July, Li Yuanhui had people rebuild the Guancheng, which was Ruxuwu, because the core of the defense of this area was Guancheng.

This type of dock city is close to the shore, with its back to the water and facing the flat land. In fact, it is half water and half land. The reason why Ruxu Dock is called Yanyue City or Yanyue Tung is that it is a curved dock wall built on the waterside as a defensive fortification. On the side facing the water, ships can enter the dock and moor. Because it is impossible to build a wall in the water, a fence is set up in the shallow water, leaving a gate for passage.

This is also why Ruxu River is also called Zha River and Ruxukou is called Zhakou.

Of course, the wall built by Sun Wu was to defend against powerful enemies in the north, and Li Yuanhui built the wall to defend against the south, so the emphasis and defense direction were different.

But the overall idea comes from Lu Meng's "building a dock between water".

The Eastern Wei army naturally understood this.

In early September, Emperor Cao Yuanjing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty personally led a large army to fight. He was accompanied by the general and the commander-in-chief of the navy Miao Xianyun, the King of Chu Cao Cheng, the King of Wu Cao Rong, and the Minister of Works Zhang Hongping. He sent an army of 180,000 soldiers and sailors to attack Ruxukou.

The army went up the river with hundreds of warships, and it was a mighty force.

From Jiangdu to Liyang, and then to Ruxukou, all the beacon towers along the river were lit.

In other words, the Eastern Wei army had just set out, and within a day, the Jianghuai Yan army at Ruxukou, hundreds of miles away, knew about it.

After seeing the beacon smoke rising, Li Yuanhui felt relieved.

"It's finally here."

I have to worry about them all day long when I don’t know when they will call me.

But when I knew they were coming, I suddenly felt relieved and just waited for the battle.

A few days later, warships of the Eastern Wei navy appeared one after another on the river opposite the Ruxukou.

Cao Yuanjing and several generals, as well as Minister of Works Zhang Hongping, watched the battle formation. After seeing the Yan army's deployment, they all looked troubled. Originally, the intention of the Eastern Wu to build a fortress between the waters was to block the Cao Wei fleet that was moving south along the water flow, and to defend against the Cao Wei infantry and cavalry that were moving on land on both sides of the river.

Now, Ruxukou is behind the northerners, and it is the Jiangdong people who are fighting, and the opponent is Cao Wei.
"I heard that Emperor Wu had made several southern expeditions to Ruxukou but failed to achieve any success?" Cao Yuanjing asked, looking at the city pass on the two tributaries of Ruxukou.

Zhang Hongping said, "It is true. Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen, father and son, had three southern expeditions and used troops at Ruxukou, but they all returned without success and even suffered heavy casualties on several occasions."

In fact, there were four large-scale military operations between Wei and Wu at Ruxukou.

In the 18th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao led an army of 400,000 to the south, known as "Drinking Horses from the Yangtze River". At Ruxukou, he sighed that he wished he had a son like Sun Zhongmou.

However, after a long stalemate, there was no progress, and they had no choice but to retreat. This left behind famous stories such as Gan Ning's 100 cavalry raiding the camp and Sun Quan borrowing arrows from a straw boat.

In the 21st year of Jian'an, Cao Cao personally led the army to fight the second Battle of Ruxukou. The result was a stalemate for several months, with heavy casualties on both sides. Finally, Sun Quan "begged for surrender", and Cao Cao gave him face and withdrew.

The third Battle of Ruxukou took place after Cao Pi replaced the Han Dynasty and led a large army to the south. Cao Pi ordered three armies to attack Wu. The eastern army, led by Cao Xiu, Zhang Liao and Zang Ba, attacked Dongpukou; the middle army, led by Cao Ren, attacked Ruxuwu; and the western army, led by Cao Zhen and Zhang He, besieged Nanjun.

Sun Quan appointed Zhu Huan to command the army at Ruxu to fight against Cao Ren, but Cao Ren did not listen to Jiang Ji's advice and directly attacked Jiangxinzhou, resulting in heavy casualties and defeat.

The last time, the fourth Battle of Ruxukou, also known as the "Battle of Dongxing", was after Sima Shi came to power. He sent Sima Zhao, Hu Zun, and Zhuge Dan to attack Ruxukou. As a result, they were severely beaten by Zhuge Ke, Ding Feng and their men, and Sima Zhao's title was even taken away.

"In all these four battles, Soochow benefited from its geographical advantages."

Cao Yuanjing heard this and said, "When the Wei attacked the Eastern Wu, they used both land and sea forces, but they still failed to achieve success. If we want to capture the East Gate Ruxu Fort, we can only land with infantry and take down the fortress before we can lead the navy northward."

Zhang Hongping nodded and said, "That's true. If we want to take Ruxuwu, we must land infantry and defeat the Yan army. Moreover, the Yan army has set up beacons along the river and has cavalry patrolling. Even if we land somewhere else, we will be driven into the river by the Yan army's cavalry. So for now, we can only set up camp in the south of the Yangtze River."

Cao Yuan remained silent, and after looking for a long time, he nodded, "Okay, let's do as Mr. Zhang said. Set up camp on the south bank."

Miao Xianyun, the Grand Admiral of the Navy, suddenly said, "Your Majesty, Mr. Zhang, we have sent people to persuade Governor Murong and Shen Shangxing of Yuzhang County to surrender. Why don't we try to persuade General Zhennan Li Yuanhui to surrender? I heard that he is a young boy, not even as old as the King of Wu. Maybe he will surrender if we scare him."

Cao Yuanjing and Zhang Hongping shook their heads at the same time. Cao Yuanjing said, "Do you know who Li Yuanhui is? He is Murong Ying's son-in-law and comes from a wealthy family. How could he surrender to us?"

Miao Xianyun smiled and said, "How can we know if we don't try? Weren't we prepared to fight Yuzhang? Who knew that they would surrender after we sent someone to say hello?"

Zhang Hongping said, "Yuzhang is located in the heart of Jiangdong, and is already trapped. Shen Shangxing is from Wujun, and we have people from the Wuxing Shen family to persuade us to surrender. Moreover, we have offered the condition of remaining stationed in the old place, but Jianghuai has geographical advantages over Jiangdong, and Li Yuanhui is now dominating one side. We can't offer anything to make this Zhennan General turn to us. Moreover, Li Yuanhui's father, Tang Guogong Li Yuan, is the commander-in-chief of Yizhou's military. If this father and son can complement each other, they can drive directly to Yingyin Guanzhong and attack Jingchu from both sides. They also have geographical advantages over Jiangdong. If he is not at the end of his rope, he will never surrender to my Eastern Wei. What conditions can my Eastern Wei offer him?"

King Cao Cheng of Chu laughed when he heard this and said, "Then we should beat him until he is exhausted. We have fought many Yan armies since we started our army. How is he compared to Yuwen Tan? If he is really capable, we can defeat him and let Big Brother take him as our son-in-law."

"Hahahaha." Miao Xianyun also laughed, "That's a good idea."

Cao Yuanjing snorted coldly upon hearing this, "Be my son-in-law? Humph, that depends on whether he has the ability. We have killed many such high-ranking officials who hold high positions but have only family backgrounds and no ability along the way, haven't we?"

Cao Rong, who had been silent until now, spoke up: "The defenses in the north of the Yangtze River are tight. If we force a landing, we will suffer heavy casualties. How about a night attack?"

After hearing this, Cao Yuanjing looked at Zhang Hongping standing aside.

Zhang Hongping thought for a moment and said, "Do you want to emulate Gan Xingba?"

(End of this chapter)