Cheng Dayou gently sniffed the water vapor with a slight smell of the river. The estuary of Fanjiang River in late autumn was wider and deeper than at any time. The vast river flowing eastward seemed to have nothing to block its way. The turbid waves rushed into the sea with a swelling of thousands of miles, as if telling people not to easily cross their bodies.

In the single-tube thousand-mile mirror, everything on the other side of the river was in my eyes, and everything seemed very calm. Cheng Dayou licked his dry and cracked lips with satisfaction, and Fanjiang's natural barrier. At this time, it would take a lot of risks to cross Fanjiang. Especially in late autumn, the river water rose sharply, which almost expanded by one-third compared to the original dry season. Many crops on the river bank had been swept into the water and became reed belts. In this place near the estuary, no one noticed that this would become a glorious point in history and would always be written into the history of the Tang River.

Since accepting the Northern Expedition mission, Cheng Dayou has been planning how to fight a beautiful Northern Expedition. It is unknown whether the East China Sea is the top three wealthy county province in the empire. Cheng Dayou is certainly clear about His Highness the current idea. Integrating the East China Sea intact is the most in line with His Highness the intention of His Highness the Qin Dynasty. Of course, this may not be realized, but Cheng Dayou is still ready to plan his life to see how to seize the East China Sea with the minimum loss.

The center of the East China Sea is naturally Jinling, but the Shanjiang River has become a natural barrier to protect most of the Donghai County. If you want to attack the East China Sea by land, Luyang and Pengcheng are both optional attack directions. However, Situ Tai also considered this point. The newly established 15th Legion in the Pengcheng area of ​​Luyang has concentrated four divisions. Most of these four divisions evolved from the newly established independent divisions in Yanyun and Donghai in the later period. Although Cheng Dayou did not take it seriously, once the battle started in the Luyang and Pengcheng areas, the war would inevitably bring losses to this area. Especially if the enemy defended the two prefectures and the Northern Expedition War evolved into a tough battle, the losses would be greater. Therefore, Cheng Dayou always hoped to solve this battle in a more effective and thorough way. Surprisingly, crossing the river should be the best choice, but this choice has many fatal flaws to overcome.

When Situ Tai gave up Jiangnan, he realized the danger of Jiangnan losing the East China Sea. Therefore, when he evacuated Jiangnan, he had already confiscated all the ships along the Hanjiang River and carried them all to Jiangbei. There were almost no decent ships available for crossing the river. Situ Tai also realized that he could not stop the crossing of a small army in the western border from such a long river. Therefore, a beacon tower was built almost every five miles along the river. Once there was any change, he could receive a warning in the shortest time.

He also specially selected almost all seven cavalry corpses of the Northern Army stationed hundreds of miles along the river. Maintaining the advantage of maneuvering, he could feel the warning in the shortest time, killing the small Xijiang Army crossing the river in one fell swoop. It should be said that Situ Tai took great pains to defend this Fanjiang defense line, but he forgot that the entire river defense was not enough to stop the Xijiang Army from heading north, and the entire Donghai County was even more endless sea in the east. Can the coastline of thousands of miles be defended?

Cheng Dayou proposed the plan to use naval and naval ships to concentrate north in Yuhang at the entrance of the Shanjiang River to let a main division of the Eighth Legion board the ship and land directly in the north from the hinterland of the East China Sea to enter the East China Sea. The other four divisions launched feint attacks in Luyang and Pengcheng to attract the attention of the enemy's 15th Legion. This plan immediately won Liang Chongxin's praise and immediately contacted civilian ships with Yuhang and Songjiang prefectures who had already entered the working state. Of course, this action still maintained a certain secret until the scheduled assembly time was truly settled.

More than 100 civilian ships collected from the coasts of Yuhang and Songjiang began to dock by land. This was originally a high embankment, which was temporarily reinforced as the place for the fleet to board after the fleet landed. A group of soldiers in neat arrangement began to board the ship. Within three hours, the soldiers must all board the ship, and then the fleet will follow the river to the sea first and turn north.

Although the entire boarding formation seemed a bit messy, it should be said that the whole process was quite smooth. Except for a few soldiers who accidentally fell into the water while boarding the ship, there was no other trouble. It was just that the delay time was slightly longer when the war horses boarded the ship. In order to strengthen the attack power of the assault troops after landing in the hinterland of the East China Sea, Cheng Dayou decided to try his best to retain the two brigades of cavalry. This also means that more than 2,000 war horses had to be shipped by nearly 60 ships, which greatly increased the difficulty of transportation. Fortunately, Yuhang and Songjiang both considered that some gaps might appear in the required ships, and specially collected some of the ships, which made the entire transportation plan barely complete.

It was not the first time Cheng Dayou took a boat, but it was the first time he went to sea. In the past, he had to go on a boat on an inland river. This time he had to enter the vast sea. When the lighter river water gradually turned blue, Cheng Dayou knew that he had already marched into the East Ocean at this time. The coastline gradually disappeared from people's eyes. Although the wind and waves were not big, there were still quite a lot of soldiers showing discomfort. Seasickness seemed to be contagious, and waves were pouring down a large number of people one after another. Cheng Dayou was worried, but the comfort of the ship boss made Cheng Dayou feel a little relieved. As long as these soldiers got ashore, they would not be long before they could return to their vitality.

According to the plan, the fleet will sail north for two days and two nights. Due to the influence of sea currents and wind direction, there may be some errors in the entire landing time, but the location has not changed. It is determined that it is near Rizhao Town, which borders Jinling Prefecture and Dengzhou Prefecture.

Cheng Dayou, who was dizzy, didn't know how long he had been sleeping. He could no longer hold on since the storm started at the sea. Cheng Dayou had never experienced the swaying taste. Although he tried his best to show his uniqueness in front of the officers and soldiers, the smell of seasickness could not be overcome by will alone. The stuffiness and discomfort in his chest were quickly revealed through vomiting. At this time, Cheng Dayou realized that he was no different from other soldiers. Looking at the ship workers who were chatting and laughing freely in the wind and waves, Cheng Dayou had to admit that his profession was specialized in this sentence. He did not know what kind of way the navy's combat would be carried out, but fighting under such circumstances was a bit higher for the soldiers.

"When is it? How long have I slept?" He suppressed the feeling of depression in his heart, Cheng Dayou held up his body and looked out the cabin. Due to the shortage of ships, the entire fleet had to forcefully carry more soldiers into each ship. Even Cheng Dayou, as the commander of the entire Northern Expedition assault cluster, could only be assigned to a small cabin, while others, from the division commander to ordinary soldiers, could only crowd together and spend the past two days.

"Go back to General, you have slept for eight hours, and it is already dawn." The personal soldier standing beside him replied.

"Oh? Isn't that close to the coastline?" Cheng Dayou felt his annoyance faded a little, and his eyes looked west.

"Well, it seems that the fleet is already moving westward, but the wind direction seems to be a little inappropriate now. The speed of moving westward is very slow, and the fleet seems to be moving. I heard from the boatman that time may be delayed." The personal soldiers quickly helped up the coach who was still not very adaptable.

"It's okay, I've already reached this point. Even if the Northern Army knows it, it's too late. As long as we land on the shore, the tiger will enter the deep mountains." Taking a deep breath, shook off the hands of his own soldiers, Cheng Dayou shook off his clothes and wiped his face, "Go and ask the boatman, how long will it take to get ashore? Time can be delayed, but this docking place cannot be wrong, otherwise who will we look for when we land on the shore?"

Soon the ship workers had a reply, and they would probably be able to see the coastline in three hours, which means that the fleet will be able to dock in four hours.

Huang Yuanchang looked at the sea with some anxiety. It had been two hours since the scheduled time, but there was still no fleet on the sea. Although it was very remote, Huang Yuanchang knew that once the fleet arrived, it would immediately become the focus of attention in public. The fleet could not do it from the docking to the entire army landing in less than three or five hours. Huang Yuanchang was not worried about anything else. The power of the Northern Army in this area had been weakened to the extreme. Whether it was Jinling in the south or Dengzhou in the north, there was almost no decent army. There was a division in Jinling City, but Dengzhou had only a broken security force under the name of the security division, and the actual organization was less than two regiments. In this case, no one could stop the army from landing on the fleet.

What Huang Yuanchang was afraid of was the impact of changes in sea climate on the fleet. Although the fleet hired experienced old ship workers, the changes on the sea were too severe. There were many things that caused the entire fleet to be destroyed in the storm as an official stationed in Dengzhou in the intelligence department. Huang Yuanchang had to consider it more profoundly.

"Sir Huang, look!" A scream of excitement and surprise woke Huang Yuanchang up from his trance, "It seems there is a fleet. Can you see if it is our fleet?"
Chapter completed!