On the south bank of the Wei River, at Taiping Ferry, there were crowds of people, noisy voices, and a busy and lively scene. It turned out that the Han army was stepping up the construction of bank fortifications to prevent the Wei army on the other side from forcibly crossing the river.

On a hill on the north bank, Wei General Yan Hezheng squinted his eyes and looked hard to the opposite side. Seeing that the Han army's defenses were getting tighter and stronger, he became more anxious and wanted to lead his troops to rush over immediately. However,

At present, everything is unprepared, so he cannot be allowed to act rashly.

After receiving Cao Zhen's military order, Yan He immediately left a thousand troops to guard Anling City, and led the remaining five thousand troops to Chang'an on a double journey.

However, the Wei army was still a step too late. When Yan He led his army to the north bank of the Wei River, they learned that the ferries on the south bank and within dozens of miles downstream had fallen into the hands of the Han army.

Now the Wei army has only two ways to return to Chang'an, one is to take a detour, and the other is to cross the river by force.

If they take a detour, they will not be able to return to Chang'an for support in a short time, and the Han army has sentries within dozens of miles. Once they learn that the Wei army has detoured dozens of miles away to cross the river, they will definitely send troops to stop them.

Unless the Wei army made a large circle and crossed the river farther away, such as the Huayin area in the east, it would take longer.

Therefore, Yan He thought about it and decided to attack by force. After all, the river surface of more than ten miles long in front of him was the gentlest, and the shortest distance back to Chang'an from here was also the shortest.

"General, He Sima and the others are back?" Deputy General Ren Zhen jogged up the hill and said to Yan He with a happy face.

Yan He hurriedly turned his head and asked, "Oh? How is the situation? Have you found the ship?"

If the Wei army wanted to cross the river by force, they would need ships, but since the Han army captured several ferries such as Taiping Ferry, they had collected all the ships of all sizes within a radius of dozens of miles.

Yesterday afternoon, Yan He and his army arrived at the north bank and felt helpless after learning about this incident. He had to send two groups of troops overnight to search for ships upstream and further downstream, hoping to find some fish that had slipped through the net.

"Found it." Ren Zhen nodded heavily and continued: "They were lucky and found more than twenty sampans in the bifurcated waterway downstream."

Yan He was overjoyed at first when he heard this, and then asked with regret: "Are there only sampans and small boats?"

"Yes, what He Quan brought back were all sampans and boats. They had to go through so much trouble to find them," Ren Zhen replied.

Yan He said: "Forget it, just a small boat, it's better than nothing."

"What the general said is absolutely true. Besides, since they haven't come back yet, maybe they will have some surprises there."

He Ji is a Wei army garrison commander. He was ordered to lead people upstream to search for ships. He has not returned to the camp yet, so he is the Wei army's last hope.

Yan He nodded and said, "I hope so." He paused and then asked, "By the way, has the number of ships in the hands of the Shu thieves been ascertained?"

"The scouts just sent back some general news. The Shu thieves gathered a total of more than fifty ships of various sizes at several ferries. Among them, Taiping Ferry across from us has the most, with about thirty ships here." Ren Zhen said.

Yan He said: "Do you know how many large ships the enemy on the other side has?"

"The scouts reported that there seemed to be five large ships of the Shu pirates on the other side, each of which could carry at least fifty people."

Yan He pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "I know, I will order the scouts to investigate again and report back."

"promise."

In the evening, another group of Wei troops who went to search for ships finally returned to the camp. However, their luck was not as good as that of Paoze who went downstream, and they only brought back seven small boats.

Although Yan He was quite disappointed, he still gave some gentle words of encouragement. After all, he knew that He Ji and the others had tried their best. The fact that they could not find any ships was not because they were not trying hard enough, but because the Han army had taken the advantage and did things too well.

Absolutely.

"Damn Shu thieves, you really don't leave any room. I don't believe it. You can really seal the entire Thousand Miles of Wei River?" Yan He slammed the desk and thought bitterly.

After venting his anger, Yan He finally felt a little relieved. He picked up the oil lamp on the desk and went to the wooden map. He stared at several important places on it and began to think about it.

However, the Han army occupied a favorable location and was well-defended. No matter how hard he racked his brains, he could not come up with a useful strategy to defeat the enemy. After a long while, Yan He finally had some clues and immediately ordered people to summon a group of generals for discussion.

When everyone arrived one after another and everyone said the ceremony and took their seats, Yan He said bluntly: "Everyone, according to reports from scouts, all four ferries within a few dozen miles of the south bank have fallen into the hands of the Shu army, and the Shu army's strength is comparable to ours.

There are also two thousand cavalry as mobile troops patrolling the dozens of miles long section of the river. Therefore, the enemy's defense of these four ferries is very tight, and it is quite difficult for our army to cross the river.

However, the military situation in Chang'an is extremely urgent. The general ordered our troops to quickly return reinforcements. Therefore, our army cannot delay here and must try to forcefully cross the river. The purpose of calling you here overnight is to discuss a complete strategy. I wonder if anyone has a good idea.

Taught me?"

"General, the Shu army occupies the advantageous location on the south bank and has built strong defenses. In addition, there are warships patrolling the river. Under these conditions, it is too difficult for our army to force the crossing, so I thought it would be better to take a detour to the lower reaches.

Somewhere, it would be more appropriate to cross the river after avoiding the main force of the bandits." As soon as he finished speaking, Colonel Yan Chao clasped his fists and said.

Before Yan He could respond, Lieutenant General Ren Zhen, who was sitting on his lower left, rushed to shout: "No, the detour is too slow. Chang'an is still waiting for us to rush back for reinforcements. If there is any delay, the general will be harmed."

Overall deployment, if the situation collapses because we are rushing and delaying, we will certainly be responsible.

Therefore, after repeated consideration, the general and I categorically rejected the detour method, and our army must try to cross the dozens of miles of river to the south bank."

"But the Shu army is so tightly guarded that if we forcefully cross the river, we will be intercepted by them. I heard that He Sima and He Tuen Commander only brought back more than 20 small boats today, while the Shu army alone had large and small boats at the Taiping Ferry opposite.

There are more than thirty ships, and the gap in strength is large. It is extremely difficult for our army to win a water battle.

In this case, why should we let the soldiers die in vain? It is better to quickly take a detour to the weak point of the Shu army's defense downstream and then cross the river. Although it is slower, the chance of success is much higher.

As for the humble position in Chang'an, I believe that with the ability of the general, we can hold on for a long time. The Shu army will not be able to break the city for a while. We don't need to worry too much about this. Our top priority is to ensure that everyone can cross the river smoothly." Yan Chao retorted.

Ren Zhencai had just been transferred from another army. He had not shown any favors and had no prestige, so Yan Chao was not very afraid of him and dared to humiliate him in front of everyone.

"this......"

What Yan Chao said was not unreasonable. Ren Zhen couldn't think of a reason to refute him for a while. He was at a loss for words and looked extremely embarrassed on his face.

Yan He rescued him and said: "Chang'an is the foundation of our army in Guanzhong, and we must not let it fall into the hands of the Shu army. The thief who leads the invasion this time will be Yang Qing, one of the most famous generals in Western Shu. This man is full of scheming tactics." , as cunning as a fox, the general would not dare to underestimate the enemy's carelessness when facing him, so how can you dare to say something conclusively that Chang'an will be safe for a while?

Moreover, the Shu army rushed all the way to set up defenses because they were worried about our troops returning to support Chang'an. Therefore, our troops must not patrol here and we will not consider detours for the time being. Our top priority now is to come up with a strategy to force the crossing. , there is no need to say anything else."

"Yes, I understand." Yan Chao said sarcastically.
Chapter completed!