After listening to Cheng Pu's introduction, Sun Ce expressed his understanding.

Generally speaking, capturing the county government means occupying a county, because the county government is the political and economic center of a county, but occupying a county is still very different from truly controlling a county, which takes time to clear out the old influence and establish a new authority. Cheng Pu and Wu Jing occupied Lujiang, and Jiujiang was too short, and it took less than a month to complete the entire battle. Whether the people of the two counties can support them and whether the county soldiers are available is now a question, especially the opponent Wu Jing faces is the governor of Yangzhou.

If it were Sun Ce, he was not sure of a quick victory. He took the personal guard camp to take office, because he had to have a trustworthy force in his hands to do things. If he relied entirely on the county soldiers, he would not be able to make any difference for a long time. Cheng Pu and Wu Jing each had 5,000 troops, so they dared to fight Chen Wen. If they were all county soldiers, they would not even have safety guaranteed, and maybe the county soldiers would rebel at any time.

It's already good that the war will be fought like this.

Cheng Pu is very grateful. Although he is a veteran, he is under a lot of pressure in front of Sun Ce, for fear of being laughed at by his younger generations.

"I will introduce someone to you." Sun Ce said: "This person can help you in the future, but you must be careful to keep it confidential and try not to let others know his identity as much as possible."

Cheng Pu was curious and agreed immediately. Sun Ce winked at Guo Jia. Guo Jia understood and turned around to lure Jiao Zhongqing out. Cheng Pu stared at Jiao Zhongqing for a long time. "I should have seen you."

Jiao Zhongqing bowed to salute. "The Lord of the House is very good. I have been to the Prefect's Mansion twice and have a relationship with the Lord of the House. In the Xiajiao Ji, whose courtesy name is Zhongqing, was a clerk in the Cangcao period. Now I am a member of Guo Jijiu's scout camp, and I am in charge of Lujiang County."

Cheng Pu raised his eyebrows lightly and turned to look at Sun Ce. "So, you have known about the general's war in Lujiang for a long time?"

"I don't know. I have limited funds and limited manpower. I won't use them unless I have to. It's a matter of time before I can take down Lujiang. It's just a matter of time. I haven't arranged for them to cooperate, and they are preparing for other matters."

Sun Ce said while schematically signaling Lu Xun to spread the map. The map was just drawn, and it still had ink fragrance. This is the topographic map near Niuzhuji. It is centered on Niuzhuji and spans the three counties of Lujiang, Jiujiang and Danyang. No county map will be so complete and so detailed. This is the result of Jiao Zhongqing's three months of hard work. He has personally surveyed every important place above. The map is only a part of the results, and in addition, there are nearly 10,000 words of explanation.

When Cheng Pu looked at the map, he shook his head repeatedly. "This is the first time I have seen such a fine map. It's priceless. With a picture in hand, the situation is clear at a glance. No wonder your uncle was blocked in Quanjiao and Fuling. There is no other way to go besides this."

Sun Ce nodded. Although he had lived in Shu County for several months, he would not be able to figure out the situation without the map provided by Jiao Zhongqing. The current geographical environment of Jiujiang is different from that of later generations. The most obvious point is that it is centered on Chaohu and Shaobi, with a low-lying area in the south and north. Lakes of all sizes are scattered, with water and grass, and a large area of ​​primeval forests, with tigers and leopards and other beasts. There is a road that passes through the middle of these primeval forests, with a total length of five or six hundred miles, with only Hefei and Junqiu in the middle to stay for supply. If you walk from this road, Wu Jing would have to carry a lot of supplies, so he chose another road, going to Dongcheng, Quanjiao, and Fucheng for convenient supply.

But Quanjiao and Fucheng have mountains, which are conducive to defense and offense, so Wu Jing was blocked by Chen Wen.

Any military operation must rely on the terrain. Not familiar with the terrain, wanting to win is tantamount to talking to sleep. In the late Three Kingdoms, because Nanjun fell into the hands of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, Cao Cao had to go to Hefei to the east. Sun Quan established a defense line in the Liyang area. Even though Cao Cao was very skilled in using troops and was limited to the terrain, he returned without success. Of course, Sun Quan was unable to advance north, especially Hefei, which was his nightmare. After the battle of Xiaoyaojin, he could never push the front line north of Hefei again.

But Zhou Xin was not Sun Quan. Although he was the prefect of Danyang for several years, he did not know how to use troops. At present, he made two low-level mistakes. One was to deploy heavy troops in Niuzhuji, but he did not send troops to guard Liangshan. Liangshan was in the upper reaches of Niuzhuji, divided into two parts: East Liangshan and West Liangshan. Standing on the river, like the Tianmen, it was an important gate for defending the enemy upstream. He did not send troops to guard him, and Sun Ce drove straight in and easily arrived at Niuzhuji. The other was that he did not have a navy, but he tried to join the river and deployed some of his troops to the north of the Yangtze River, dispersing his troops in vain.

Of course, his biggest mistake was to actively seek a decisive battle. If he retreated to the hinterland of Danyang and took advantage of the Danyang soldiers' advantages in mountain combat and the geographical characteristics of Danyang's many mountains and forests, Sun Ce would have to conquer cities and land step by step. It would be rare to succeed in less than a year or two, and would have to consume a lot of energy and money. Zhou Xin wanted to fight to the decisive battle, which was exactly what he wanted.

Although Niuzhuji is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is easier to annihilate its main force in one battle and win the lead than running around the mountain.

Sun Ce decided to take Zhou Xin from Niuzhuji first. Defeat Zhou Xin, and Chen Wen and others from Jiangbei had nowhere to go, either die or surrender. If Chen Wen first attacked Chen Wen, if Zhou Xin retreated, his plan would be dashed. With Wu Jing's strength, even if it was difficult to break through Chen Wen's blockade in the short term, he would not suffer much loss. The only thing that worried him was Chen Deng, but Chen Dengxin was defeated and fled alone, which had limited impact, so he didn't have to consider it for the time being.

Sun Ce and Cheng Pu discussed joining forces to transfer Cheng Pu's troops to Jiangnan, first take Shicheng, and cut off Zhou Xin's broken road. Niuzhu's rock wall is standing in the middle of the river, and it is impossible to directly attack. Once the rear road is cut off, it is difficult for people on the rock to retreat. Apart from the warships, they can only swim. Zhou Xin does not have enough powerful navy cover, and the limited number of warships is not Gan Ning's opponent at all, and they are waiting to be captured.

Cheng Pu felt that this plan was good and happily accepted the task. Not long ago, he had just attacked Shucheng with Sun Jian. His soldiers were familiar with the tactics of siege. He took the initiative to ask for a fight and asked to attack Shicheng County.

Sun Ce agreed. "Mr. Cheng, you have to lose first before you can retreat from Hengjiangjin to avoid arousing Zhou Xin's suspicion."

Cheng Pu agreed immediately. "This is no problem. Without the assistance of warships, Hengjiangjin is really not easy to fight. How are you going to use warships? If you don't have a ship, it's unreasonable."

"Of course, we will attack Niuzhu Camp first, and then retreat like you."

Cheng Pu smiled and said, "It seems that your invincible reputation is going to be bad at Zhou Xin. I hope he can be satisfied."

"Mr. Cheng is joking. I have never been invincible. Last time I was in Xiaohuang, I was defeated by Yuan Tan and was seriously injured. The wound still hurts now." Sun Ce said as he patted his chest and laughed out loud.

Cheng Pu couldn't help laughing, and he shook his head while laughing. "Major General, you are really open-minded and not burdened by fame at all. There are not many generals who can do this. Who doesn't want to win every battle and be invincible?" He said, thinking of Sun Jian's attack on Shu County in anger, he couldn't help but shake his head secretly. In terms of martial arts, these two fathers and sons are similar. In terms of mind, nature and demeanor, Sun Ce is obviously better than Sun Jian.
Chapter completed!