Chapter 252 I Bet Your Backyard Will Be on Fire
The Wei army’s camp was built very solidly.

Trenches, earth walls, chevaux de frise, antlers, fences, watchtowers and arrow towers are all available.

It was obvious that he would not leave until he captured Ruxukou.

Anyway, Jiangdong has well-developed water transportation, and Cao Yuanjing has accumulated a large amount of food and fodder in Wuhu on the opposite bank, enough to support an army of 100,000 for a year.

Just two words: fight to the death.

For Li Yuanhuier, Cao Yuanjing posed a considerable threat to him, but it was by no means fatal.

The Jianghuai riverside strongholds have geographical advantages for Jiangdong, but Ruxuwu is indeed in some danger at the moment.

After Xiao Shizhi led his troops into Wucheng, the Wei army suddenly intensified their offensive and attacked the city day and night for several days.

Fortunately, with the addition of fresh troops, the defenders in the city were able to hold on. However, if the Wei army continued this offensive, it would only be a matter of time before Ruxukou fell.

But this kind of offensive was difficult for the Wei army to sustain. Continuous high-intensity sieges were very exhausting for the siege troops.

Before entering Dongguan, Li Yuanhui deliberately showed up on the west bank of Rushu River to let the defenders in the city know that he, the commander-in-chief, had arrived.

When the soldiers in the city saw Li Yuanhui's flag flying over the west bank, they all shouted "General" and "General".

For the soldiers, official positions like Sikong and Mu of Yangzhou, although noble and sounding powerful, are not as prestigious as the General of the Southern Expedition.

The two sides can be considered old rivals. Cao Yuanjing's attitude towards Li Yuanhui changed from initial contempt to admiration, and now he feels that the young man is formidable.

Li Yuanhui, however, felt that Cao Yuanjing was a grassroots hero, a dragon. Whether he could become a dragon or not depended on his vision and the current situation.

If it weren't for the terrain constraints of Jiangdong, he might have achieved greater achievements.

Therefore, from his first battle at Ruxukou, to the second battle of Ruxu, and the later battle of Chaisang, Li Yuanhui never took it lightly.

Every time when troops are deployed to the north or west, inspecting the defense along the river is a necessary procedure, and no loopholes can be left.

However, facing Jiangdong's tactics this time, it was somewhat similar to Zeng Guofan's clumsy method of building a strong camp and fighting a stupid battle when he fought the Taiping Army. This made Li Yuanhui and the Jianghuai side a little uncomfortable.

Because this stupid method, to put it bluntly, is just a competition of consumption with you, and there is absolutely no room for any clever strategies.

If you want to defeat the Wei army, you have to attack their camp in reverse. Fifty to sixty thousand people camped together for twenty miles, with deep trenches and high walls, and corridors were built between them to connect with each other and support each other.

It is also possible to carry out mutual rotation of defense between troops.

The naval ships on the river patrolled back and forth, ensuring the food supply and retreat routes, while also guarding against any actions by the Jianghuai Navy.

As the attacking party, they used defensive means to the extreme.

Li Yuanhui had to admit that this move was indeed ruthless, and it made him and the entire Jianghuai Army feel uncomfortable.

But in general, even if it is a war of attrition, it is actually more beneficial to Jianghuai, provided that we do not consider the so-called general situation in the world.

As long as the Jianghuai side defends the two east and west pass cities on the line of Ruxu Mountain and Qibao Mountain, and even abandons Ruxu Fort, they can prevent the Wei army from going north to Chaohu Lake.

However, losing Ruxu Fort was equivalent to losing control of Ruxukou. The Jianghuai navy fighting outside could not return to Chaohu Lake, and the ships left behind in Chaohu Lake could not leave Ruxu Lake and enter the Yangtze River. This meant that strategic materials in the Hefei area could not be quickly delivered by water, and could only be transported via Feishui River to Huaihe River, then through Huaihe River to Guangling Grand Canal and into the Yangtze River.

It was a waste of time.

Unless there is no plan to attack Jiangdong in the short term, once Ruxuwu is lost, the manpower and material resources required to get it back will be difficult to estimate.

Therefore, we cannot give up until the last moment at Ruxukou.

However, Cao Yuanjing had made up his mind to continue fighting with Jianghuai, but he still attached great importance to the defense of Jingkou and Caishi. More than 10,000 soldiers were stationed in both places to guard against sudden attacks from the other side.

As a result, the two sides engaged in a protracted confrontation over Ruxu River, Ruxu Mountain, and Ruxu Valley.

However, there was some good news for Jianghuai. After conquering E County, Lü Qin's troops went up the river and marched to Wuchang and Xiakou. They also engaged in a battle with the Western Wei navy in Xiakou. The two sides fought a fierce battle, suffered losses, and formed a balance of power. Afterwards, Lü Qin led his troops to retreat slightly, and then led the two generals Li Su and Zhou Qiu to lead more than 20,000 troops from Shangjia and Huoshan to the north and approach Xiling.

After more than 20 days of siege, the defender of the city, Xu Xuan, who was appointed as the governor of Jiangxia and the general Zhendong by the Western Wei Dynasty, opened the gate and surrendered. The Jianghuai Army successfully captured Xiling City, the seat of Jiangxia County.

Li Yuanhui received the military report inside the Dongguan Pass. Although he was very happy, he just smiled and pretended to be calm.

He also said: "I knew that General Lu could accomplish this feat, so I rewarded him with the title of Marquis."

Lü Qin's contribution was not small, but he was granted the title of county marquis at that time, which was considered a promotion beyond his rank. After all, he had no title before, and he started directly as a county marquis, which was equivalent to skipping several levels. This was also because Lü Qin was the first person in the navy system and was irreplaceable.

So what Li Yuanhui said was full of "foresight".

Even if there were some disputes at the time, they are definitely gone now. And there is no need to think of ways to give rewards.

After all, it's not good to progress too fast, you have to slow down the pace a bit.

Jianghuai doesn't even have a complete state now. It doesn't matter if it just fights around in this small piece of land in the future. But if it goes out, how can it be granted the official position and title?
Therefore, Li Yuanhui always felt that the horse should be fed grass but not be allowed to eat too much.

After the capture of Xiling, the military order given by Li Yuanhui was not to advance rapidly, but to digest the territory, and to relocate the surrendered Xu Xuan and his 3,000 soldiers and their families to Wan County.

The Lujiang County troops originally stationed in An County were transferred to Xiling.

At the same time, there was also a secret letter, which the messenger was asked to hand over to Lu Qin.

The content of the letter was to order Lü Qin to seize the entire Yuzhang County when the opportunity arose. Li Yuanhui also hinted that Ruxukou might be abandoned, and he believed that Lü Qin would understand.

As expected, Lu Qin understood Li Yuanhui's intention. Chaohu Lake was originally the main stationing place for the Jianghuai Navy. If Ruxukou could not be defended, the Navy could not always stay on the Yangtze River. They could capture Yuzhang County and use Poyang Lake as the Navy's new stationing place. Moreover, Yuzhang County was a famous land of fish and rice, a rich place, and the plains by the lake were fertile, enough to support tens of thousands of troops.

Moreover, Yuzhang is upstream of Ruxukou, so advancing downstream has the advantage of downstream.

As for the Eastern Wei, all the heavy troops had been mobilized to the Ruxu line, as well as Jingkou and Caishi. After all, Jianye was the core area of ​​Jiangdong, and Yuzhang County was equivalent to a vassal state in the Eastern Wei. Shen Shangfa and Murong Jing also suffered heavy losses after the last war.
After carefully considering these situations, Lu Qin immediately realized that Li Yuanhui's idea was very feasible.

The Wei army concentrated its heavy troops in Ruxu and Wuhu. In fact, it wanted to engage in a long-term war of attrition with the Jianghuai army in the Ruxu area and use the resources of the entire Jiangdong to fight a war of attrition with Jianghuai.

Wait, drag.

Wait until the world changes and wait until the opportunity comes.

Although this method is a bit clumsy and highly dependent on external factors, there are only a few routes for the southern forces to go north.

Jiangdong is basically along the river.

So we can only fight to the death and try to consume the resources.

There is no other way out.

Fortunately, while Jiangdong was fighting hard against Jianghuai, it did not have to face harassment and attacks from other forces.

Geographical advantages and disadvantages are usually mutual. Mountains, rivers, and lakes can protect you, but they can also limit your development.

If the geographical location of the Central Plains is a place of four wars, then the Jianghuai area is a place of three wars. While it is convenient to send troops, it is also easy to be besieged.

Wasn't the situation at the beginning of the year that Luoyang wanted to unite multiple forces to sweep across Jianghuai in one fell swoop?
If Li Yuanhui had not won the bet, burned the grain and grass in the old city of Nandun, and first excluded the Chinese and foreign armies in Yuzhou from the battlefield, and then confronted the Wagang Army at Suishui for more than a month, successfully dragging the brothers and sisters in Guanzhong, Shuzhong and Hanzhong to send troops one after another, with good luck and a lot of capital, he could be called a gambling god. Then no one could predict what the current situation would be like.

Cao Yuanjing was also taking a gamble, betting that things in Jianghuai would not always be peaceful, betting that the Luoyang court and Wagang would take action against you sooner or later, betting that there would be changes in the world.

After all, his ancestor, Emperor Wu of Tang, Cao Cao, was a famous gambler. He might have used up all the blessings of his grandson.

Facing the aggressive Cao Yuanjing, Li Yuanhui's choice was to let Cao Yuanjing fight his own battle.

You may make a small profit in this game, but I will definitely not lose anything.

You wanna fight with me? How old are you? Don't you know?
(End of this chapter)