It had been nearly twenty years since Li Mu had led his navy for the first time to shock the world.
Because of Li Mu's naval superiority, people at that time forgot that Li Mu was also a cavalry general. Until Li Mu led a light cavalry and penetrated the hinterland of Chu State, it was like entering an uninhabited place.
People in the world always forget things quickly. After Li Mu conquered Southern Chu and Qi, they only remembered that Li Mu was a land general who was good at using cavalry. The memory of Southern Qin's navy gradually faded, and they regarded Southern Qin's navy as an auxiliary force that could only transport food and soldiers.
The Southern Qin Navy has not been silent in the past ten years. Li Mu often led the navy south to train.
It’s just because the distance between the north and the south is long and the information is blocked, so people in the world don’t know that the Southern Qin navy is more powerful than before.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the states of Jin and Chu supported Wu and Yue in their struggle for hegemony. Later, Wu and Yue became increasingly powerful and turned against their masters.
At that time, the south was also a battlefield for hegemony, and the naval forces of the three kingdoms of Wu, Yue and Chu all developed rapidly.
After Wu and Yue were destroyed and Chu unified the south, river battles were no longer necessary.
As for naval battles, the structures of seagoing ships and large ships sailing in rivers are different, so you need to re-point the skill tree. The territory of Chu is vast, so it is better to use chariots to push forward instead of attacking from the sea.
The maintenance of warships required a lot of resources, so the navy was almost abandoned because it had no place to use its skills.
The last battle of the remaining Chu navy was in the Yangtze River Delta, when Chunshen Jun and Li Mu fought.
In that battle, Chunshen Jun lost the trust of the King of Chu, and the remaining navy of Chu was wiped out. Chu lost forever the possibility of regaining the vast territory south of the Yangtze River.
Xiang Yan was also a land general.
The Xiang family was one of the first military families to realize the importance of cavalry. Although there were no stirrups, as long as the cavalry was strong enough and could clamp their legs against the horse's belly, they could use weapons on horseback.
Even if they are not strong enough, cavalry can use bows and crossbows on horseback. Shooting arrows from a distance and shooting arrows at close range have different pressure and lethality on the enemy formation.
Xiang Yan and his selected personal soldiers were all strong men who could fight with long weapons on horseback.
After Qin State had stirrups, it was able to train more cavalry. However, because Qin State had always been fighting annihilation wars, not many people could detect stirrups and spread the news of stirrups.
A very small number of people in the six countries noticed this, but the upper class nobles of the six countries not only despised craftsmen, but also rarely went to the battlefield, so this news did not reach their ears.
Someone also informed the generals of the six countries about this matter.
However, if the top beam is not straight, the bottom beam will be crooked. Most of the generals on the front line believed that less trouble is worse than more, so they suppressed the matter and did not mention it.
If it is mentioned, making and assembling stirrups will consume a lot of manpower and material resources, and matching weapons and cavalry training will be a lot of trouble. And if cavalry can eliminate chariots on a large scale, then won't so many chariot-making workshops under the nobles go bankrupt
Who dares to speak rashly
Among Qin's enemies, the Northern Hu and the Eastern Hu were likely to learn how to use stirrups, but by the time they figured it out, Qin's cavalry was still well-equipped to crush them.
We can learn from history that with their organized cavalry corps, the Central Plains dynasties always crushed the nomadic peoples in the north.
The most troublesome thing about the northern nomadic peoples was that they would rob and leave, which greatly undermined the productivity and stability of the Central Plains dynasty.
Later, when the northern nomadic peoples evolved into the northern dynasties, it was a confrontation between two dynasties, which was different from the traditional confrontation between the Central Plains dynasties and the northern nomadic peoples.
Let's not talk about the Hu people for now. In short, if the six countries want to update their cavalry equipment, they will not only have to invest a lot of manpower and material resources, but will also affect the interests of many people.
From ancient times to the present, it has never been easy to replace armaments that would lead to military system reform - military reform is also reform, and no reform is easy.
In the State of Qin, the King of Qin had the final say and held all the power. What did the other six states have
Xiang Yan was different from other mediocre generals. Although he was not qualified to be one of the four famous generals in the Warring States Period, he was at least a little bit perceptive. He discovered the role of stirrups during the war with the Qin State. So Xiang Yan equipped the horses of his personal soldiers with simple stirrups made of ropes and leather strips.
But he did not make it public, nor did he advise the King of Chu. He just treated this cavalry as his secret weapon.
Chunshen Jun gave in step by step, and was eventually put to death by the King of Chu.
With the lesson of Chunshen Jun, there will no longer be foolish people in the State of Chu who completely trust the King of Chu.
Moreover, Xiang Yan knew that after he invited Prince Qi to abdicate, the nobles of the Mi clan hated him very much, and some old feudal lords of the Chu State also despised him.
Although his move was beneficial to the State of Chu, forcing abdication is forcing abdication, and treason is treason. Xiang Yan, a person of a different surname, did what the Mi clan did, which was a slap in the face of the entire Chu clan.
He must increase his strength.
Xiang Yan put all his efforts into studying the cavalry of Li Mu and Wang Jian, and also trained a unit of light and heavy cavalry among his own private soldiers.
All his clansmen were taken captive to the Qin State, and the family's wealth was useless, so he used it all to build his own private army.
Xiang Yan never thought that he was inferior to Li Mu.
Although people in the world have never discussed who is better at leading troops between Xiang Yan and Li Mu, but rather who is better at leading troops between him and Zhu Xiang, and whether Zhu Xiang can still defeat him in another battlefield. However, Xiang Yan himself believes that he and Li Mu are in the same echelon, and Li Mu is only better than him in armaments.
He has now also built his own light and heavy cavalry, and believes that he can finally compete on the same level as Li Mu.
"What? Li Mu led the fleet to conquer cities north of the Huai River and has taken control of all the docks north of the Huai River?!"
Xiang Yan was shocked when he missed his target, and the whip in his hand fell to the ground.
King Qi of Chu and the ministers of Chu in Xiangcheng were also in tears.
Isn't Li Mu a cavalry general? Why did he use the navy again? !
King Qi of Chu racked his brains to think about what the navy looked like, and many older ministers of the Chu State began to have a headache.
They recalled the time more than a decade ago when Li Mu suddenly emerged and became famous in one battle, in which he led a strange-looking Qin navy and conquered the south bank of the Yangtze River within a month.
Now it is the boat division again, and it is January again.
This moment is just like that moment.
Li Mu had been boasting the title of "Cavalry General" in front of the people of the six nations for more than a decade, and now he had brought out his invincible navy!
"How could this happen? How could this happen..." King Qi of Chu was a little flustered. "When Lord Linwu left, he should have deployed heavy troops to defend the north bank of the Huai River. Why were they all destroyed within a month?"
The ministers of the State of Chu did not know why this happened.
Now they only received news of defeat at the front line, but no specific details.
Then a minister asked, "Could it be that Lord Linwu did not deploy any defenses in the south at all?"
There were also ministers who beat their chests and stamped their feet: "Your Majesty, I said that we shouldn't give all the military equipment to Xiang Yan. Even if Xiang Yan has no ambition to be independent, he was defeated by the Lord of Changping of Qin, so he is not good at commanding troops!"
Some people even said after the event: "The Lord of Changping had never been on the battlefield, but he was able to defeat Xiang Yan even though he was fighting ten enemies at the same time. Xiang Yan must be a Zhao Kuo."
"General Xiang is still much better than Zhao Kuo. Although General Xiang has not defeated the generals of Qin, he has never lost to the generals of Chu." said a minister who supported Xiang Yan.
His words silenced all the officials in the court.
King Qi of Chu pressed his eyebrows and sighed long and deeply.
Yes, although Xiang Yan once captured several cities of Qin, those cities originally belonged to Chu. When he attacked, the Qin army offered almost no resistance.
The first time Xiang Yan confronted the Qin people head-on, he was defeated by Duke Zhu Xiang.
What’s even more tragic is that the army led by Duke Zhu Xiang was not the main force of the Qin army.
Chunshen Jun once lamented that the defeated soldiers and generals who returned to Chu cried and said that when they attacked Guangling, the enemies all spoke Chu dialect and sang Chu songs, and they were Chu people. If Xiang Yan had not insisted on destroying the homes of the Chu people on the north bank of the Yangtze River, they would not have fought against their own countrymen.
The second time Xiang Yan confronted the Qin people head-on was when the Eastern Allied Forces attacked Hangu Pass.
Of course, the coalition forces were defeated in that battle.
So strictly speaking, Xiang Yan never won against the Qin State.
Given Xiang Yan's record in fighting against the State of Qin, King Qi of Chu certainly had doubts about whether it was a bit unstable to rely entirely on Xiang Yan for Chu's border defense.
But the more he picked, the more powerless he felt.
Yes, Xiang Yan never defeated the Qin generals, but he never lost against the Chu generals.
Xiang Yan's rise to fame began with the civil unrest in Chu, when his record was almost invincible!
The generals who can lead troops in Chu State now are either enemy generals who escaped from Southern Chu State and were beaten by Xiang Yan, or generals who were rescued by Xiang Yan after repeated defeats and became Xiang Yan's subordinates.
If Xiang Yan can’t get on, who else can
King Qi of Chu sighed repeatedly and smiled bitterly: "Do your best. Hurry up and get Lord Linwu back. Li Mu is coming to attack Xiangcheng."
Because Li Mu was good at flexible combat with light cavalry, the Six Kingdoms once arranged that Li Mu might be invincible when fighting on the plains with good mobility.
Now the naval general Li Mu controlled the dock on the north bank of the Huai River, and the natural barrier of the Huai River had collapsed. In front of Li Mu was the Jianghuai Plain with good mobility.
General Li Mu of the Navy will probably be transformed into General Li Mu of the Cavalry soon.
As King Qi of Chu was soberly aware, the Chu court ended the noise and quickly prepared to defend the city.
Some officials couldn't help but sigh.
The King of Chu is wise. It would have been great if the previous king had not reduced Chu to less than one-third of its territory today.
Now that Chu has a wise king, it's too late.
Apart from Qin, there is only Chu left in the world!
Just as King Qi of Chu had expected, Li Mu took advantage of his navy and rushed downstream from the upper reaches of the Huai River. After quickly defeating many unprepared defense lines on the north bank of the Huai River, he began to transport troops and horses from the south bank of the Huai River.
It's time to deploy Qin's cavalry, chariots and infantry phalanxes.
Li Mu did not consider himself a naval general or a cavalry general.
After hearing these titles, he said with dissatisfaction that these were deliberate derogatory words spoken by others because they were jealous of him.
He was also good at deploying troops and fighting in large formations with coordinated cavalry, chariots and infantry. This was the basic skill of a general at that time.
He has no record of fighting in this way simply because he has not had the opportunity to fight in this way.
Also, Li Mu had been depressed and angry for a long time listening to the rumors spread by the Chu people.
It was not him who destroyed the Southern Chu Kingdom, it was Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wu'an!
Are you Chu people a little bit sick that you can't even tell the difference between Wu An Jun and Wu Cheng Jun? !
The Chu people not only said so themselves, but also spread the word that it was Li Mu who destroyed Southern Chu. As a result, when the common people of the six countries mentioned the destruction of Southern Chu, they would think, "It must be Li Mu."
Li Mu went to Bai Gong with a pot of wine to complain, feeling extremely depressed.
He doesn't need to take credit for other people's achievements.
Is there something wrong with the Chu people
Li Si, Han Fei and Fu Qiu were also analyzing this issue when they got together.
The three of them all agreed that the Chu people did so because they were too afraid of Bai Qi, to the point of being afraid and deceiving themselves. They would rather Li Mu destroy Southern Chu than face the reality soberly. The one who destroyed Southern Chu was Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wu'an, who burned the ancestral tomb of the King of Chu.
The people of Chu were so scared of Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wu'an, that they seemed sick.
The traumatic stress of Chu State made Li Mu gnashed his teeth in anger. Li Mu had been guarding the southern Chu State and insisted on destroying Chu State alone. This reason was the fuse.
Li Mu wanted to let the Chu people see my, Wucheng Jun Li Mu’s, true fighting posture.
Of course Li Mu was capable of leading a large army in battle.
In the original history, Li Mu was sent by King Yan of Zhao to attack the State of Yan, and then he faced off against the armies of the State of Qin, both of which were tough battles.
Again, large-scale troop operations are the most basic combat method for the Warring States generals. It is the foundation. Li Mu's ability to use unconventional tactics proves that his foundation is solid. If he only uses the most basic battle formation, he naturally cannot be bad.
Moreover, the key to victory or defeat in a large-scale military operation is the quality of the two armies. Zhao has been destroyed, and the quality of the Qin army can be said to be invincible without any modesty.
Li Mu didn't even know how he lost.
But he thought so in his heart, but he wouldn't say it out loud.
What if it rains hard again? Or what if a plague suddenly breaks out in the army? Even more exaggerated, what if a meteorite falls from the sky
Don't be too sure about what you say.
Li Mu was a proud but cautious man.
After quickly preparing his army, he quickly surrounded Xiangcheng, then deployed his troops and waited for Xiang Yan.
Li Mu deployed his troops on the plain without any cover.
He made it clear to Xiang Yan that he was going to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements, and fight a decisive battle with him in this flattest place.
Both sides had the same advantages of time and place, and in terms of "people", the Chu army had a slight advantage because the Qin army was fighting on a foreign soil.
Now the Qin army is going to have a head-on decisive battle with the Chu army. The outcome will almost be decided in one battle. It depends on whether you, Xiang Yan, dare to accept the challenge!
According to military strategy, Xiang Yan should not have accepted the challenge.
There are roads everywhere on the great plain. Xiang Yan's primary goal is to rescue the King of Chu, and then divide his troops to defend each city, taking advantage of the geographical advantages and human support of Chu, attacking in multiple places and making the Qin army exhausted.
In the original history, this is how Xiang Yan defeated Li Xin.
Li Xin thought that Chu was similar to Qin and should be a centralized state. He thought that just beheading them would be enough and that 200,000 troops would be enough to capture Shouchun, just like attacking other eastern countries.
However, the feudal lords of Chu were extremely powerful. This meant that, apart from being held back by their own people in foreign wars, when the feudal lords faced life and death, they could fight in multiple locations and command centers with their fiefdoms as the core.
To use an analogy, the State of Chu was like a Hydra, and beheading it once was of no use.
As a result, Li Xin was distracted and defeated by Xiang Yan.
Wang Jian saw the characteristics of the Chu State and asked King Zheng of Qin to take out all his assets, bring out an army of 600,000, and directly launch a horizontal attack.
Chu was good at deep warfare. So Wang Jian simply stretched the battle lines to the widest, turning all the battle lines into frontal battlefields, forcing Chu to fight them head-on and lose battle losses.
The State of Chu was unable to resist, and Xiang Yan committed suicide after his defeat.
Now Xiang Yan should also follow the combat methods of the original time and space, bypass the main force of the Qin army, contact the armies of feudal lords in various places to fight in multiple locations, and make the Qin army lose sight of the big picture.
But Li Mu issued a declaration of war to him.
General Xiang, I heard that you often compare yourself to me. Now I will give you a chance to prove that you are not inferior to Zhu Xiang, who has never been on the battlefield.
Li Mu also mocked.
It was Bai Qi, the Lord of Wu'an, who destroyed Southern Chu, but the people of Chu spread the word that it was me who destroyed Southern Chu. Why is that? General Xiang, do you know? It can't be that the people of Chu are so afraid of Lord Wu'an that they dare not even mention his name
I feel deeply humiliated by this. So now I have to prove to the Chu people that I can also become their nightmare.
If the people of Chu dare not mention Wu'an Jun or Wucheng Jun the next time they bring up the matter of destroying Chu, I wonder whether they will attribute the credit for destroying Chu to Wang Jian, or simply give it to Zhu Xiang who can't fight
General Xiang, do you think the people of Chu are afraid of me
After Xiang Yan saw Li Mu's letter, he drew out his sword with a dark face and cut off the neck of the Qin envoy with one sword.
The human cervical vertebrae are very hard. Xiang Yan was able to behead the Qin envoy with one sword, which shows how angry he was.
Xiang Yan not only killed the envoy who delivered the letter, but also killed all the Qin people who were traveling with the envoy, and hung their heads on the flags to boost morale.
Someone advised Xiang Yan not to kill envoys when the two armies were fighting, but this person was also killed by Xiang Yan.
"Now we are in vengeance against our country. The Qin people are our enemies, how can they be called envoys?"
Xiang Yan was very angry.
Most of the Chu soldiers supported Xiang Yan's anger.
The two armies are about to fight, and you still say you won't kill the envoy? Damn Qin dog!
Xiang Yan's subordinates saw this and knew that although their general was angry, he was not angry to the point of losing his mind. Xiang Yan was using these Qin people's heads to boost the morale of his soldiers.
The Qin people were invincible in the world. The Chu State had been defeated for decades in a row, and its fear of the Qin people had penetrated deep into its bones.
This time their long-distance raid came to nothing, and they learned that the Qin army had outflanked their retreat, so the morale of the Chu army had fallen to its lowest point.
If Xiang Yan had not done something to boost the morale of the Chu army, the Chu army would have lost before even fighting the Qin army.
But after boosting morale, what choice will the general make
Xiang Yan was also thinking.
Intellectually, he knew that he should not accept the attack, but bypass the main force of the Qin army, join forces with the armies of other feudal lords, and then go to rescue Xiangcheng.
A more sensible approach is to ignore Xiangcheng and use Xiangcheng as bait.
There was enough food and grass in Xiangcheng City, so it could hold out for a while. During this period, Xiang Yan commanded his army and, together with other feudal lords of Chu, harassed the Qin army everywhere, or even directly attacked Southern Qin, making it more likely that the Qin army would be forced to retreat.
But emotionally, Li Mu's letter angered him.
Li Mu not only mocked him, but also mocked the State of Chu.
Who said that the State of Chu was afraid of Wu'an Jun? They were so afraid that they even spread rumors about who would destroy Southern Chu!
Xiang Yan held his breath and called over an ordinary soldier at random: "Do you know who destroyed Nan Chu?"
The soldier said stupidly, "It's Qin General Li Mu."
Xiang Yan: “…”
He called over a logistics worker and asked, "Do you know who destroyed Nan Chu?"
Without even thinking, the man said, "It's Li Mu!"
Xiang Yan: “…”
Xiang Yan said to his personal guards: "It was obviously Wu Anjun who destroyed Southern Chu!"
The guards were helpless: "General, this is the order of the previous king, have you forgotten it?"
Xiang Yan was confused for a moment before he remembered the order issued by Li Yuan, which was said to have originated from the King of Chu.
The State of Chu wanted to hide the fact that it was Wu'an Jun who destroyed Southern Chu, because when the people of Chu heard that Bai Qi had risen, they were all terrified.
Xiang Yan was ostracized at the time and was living in seclusion in his fiefdom, so he forgot about this absurd incident after hearing about it. His personal guards were staying at the Xiang family's house in Chendu at the time and were more aware of this.
"When the news came that Wu'an Jun had destroyed Southern Chu, Chendu immediately became chaotic. Many people spread rumors that Bai Qi was about to arrive in Chendu and was going to burn it down."
"Many people fled the city in a hurry to save their lives, and some people set fire to their homes in desperation. Bandits took advantage of the chaos to rob people."
"Although the previous king was incompetent, he had no choice but to fabricate such rumors in order to quell the unrest."
Xiang Yan was silent for a long time, then asked, "But Wu Anjun died soon."
The guard sighed and said, "Even if Wu'an Jun is dead, have the people of Chu ever seen his body with their own eyes? They are still afraid. Not only ordinary civilians, but also the nobles with the surname Mi are terrified of Wu'an Jun."
Bai Qi, the Lord of Wu'an, burned the tombs of the ancestors of the Mi family! This is the first time since the Zhou king moved the capital and the war started!
Xiang Yan was silent for a long time again.
He decided to calm down alone and think about what to do next.
But Li Mu didn't give him time to think.
Li Mu not only sent him a declaration of war, but also sent people to deliver letters to the feudal lords of various cities in the State of Chu, saying that he had already made an appointment with Xiang Yan for a battle.
Xiang Yan boasted to the outside world that he was a famous general of the Chu State. He also forced the King of Chu to recognize him as "Linwu Jun" and compare him with "Wu'an Jun" and "Wucheng Jun" of Qin State by forcing the King of Chu to recognize him as "Linwu Jun".
Wu'an Jun and Wucheng Jun were both granted titles based on their military exploits. Why should you, "Linwu Jun", be compared with me and Bai Gong? Is it because you forced the King of Chu to death
Such a coward actually wants to be on the same level as us. This is an insult to us!
Now Li Mu gives Xiang Yan this opportunity to let Xiang Yan prove that he is not a coward.
Without any tricks or reinforcements, Xiang Yan still has the advantage in terms of time, place and people. I, Wu Chengjun, will wait here to see if Xiang Yan dares to come!
Li Mu sent another letter to Xiang Yan. In addition to informing him that he had sent a declaration of war to other places in the State of Chu, he also mocked him for not being worthy of the title "Lord Linwu".
Although Linwu Junyang was defeated by Qin, he never lost any foreign wars except Qin. During the reign of King Qingxiang of Chu, Linwu Junyang could easily win against the coalition forces of Qi, Han, and Wei, and intimidate the princes.
You, Lord Linwu, have suppressed several rebellions in Chu, but the result was still the independence of Southern Chu. How dare you call yourself "Lord Linwu" with such a thick face? If Jing Yang knew about this, he would throw Lord Linwu's hat on the ground and step on it, thinking that this title has been tarnished and is no longer worthy of being worn on his head!
When Xiang Yan read the letter, his blood pressure rose rapidly. He felt dizzy, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and black vision. His mouth was full of fishy smell, as if he was about to spit out blood.
"Li Mu! This is too much!"
Xiang Yan was furious and ignored the advice of his subordinates. He ordered the entire army to march out for a head-on battle with Li Mu!
When Li Mu heard the news that Xiang Yan's army was approaching, he was digging the soil with a hoe.
The place where he was stationed was originally a village. Among the lush vegetation were crops left behind by the fleeing Chu people.
Li Mu was led by Zhu Xiang to cultivate his sentiments by farming, and he found potatoes in the grass.
Calculating the time, the potatoes should have grown up by now, so he excitedly picked up his hoe and went around looking for potatoes to dig.
When he learned that Xiang Yan had arrived, Li Mu dug out potatoes and said, "Kill some livestock. Today the whole army will eat potatoes stewed with meat."
"Yes, General!"
(End of this chapter)