The Yangtze River was a true natural barrier; crossing it was immensely difficult.
Yet both Cao Cao and Liu Bei had crossed it. The method was simple: force their way across.
In the Huai River region, they drove Yuan Shu south of the Yangtze. Then, while the defenses were lax, they used large numbers of small peasant boats to send powerful generals across the river. After securing the crossings, they sent more troops over to expand their foothold, and just like that, the Yangtze's natural defenses were breached.
Afterward, Cao Cao went all out against Yuan Shu, while Liu Bei seized on Sun Ce and hammered him relentlessly.
The present-day Liu Bei was far beyond what Liu Bei had been in the same period of the original timeline. He possessed greater strength and stronger military acumen; after all, his half-year of study in Liaodong had not been for nothing. He had also consciously been learning from Wang Yan. Although he did not understand economics and could not manage things as General Wang did—with only two taxes throughout his territory, a commercial tax and an agricultural tax, the latter clearly set at one-tenth, sustaining the entire realm through those two sources—he had still done his utmost to improve the treatment of both soldiers and civilians and solve their problems. His army remained highly capable in battle. Moreover, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu had learned guerrilla warfare: penetrating deep alone, coming and going freely. That was terrifying.
For example, in the earlier battle for Xuzhou, Old Cao, who was most skilled at cutting off others' supply lines, had been beaten utterly helpless by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Now that Liu Bei had crossed the river to attack Sun Ce, although Sun Ce had secured the support of a considerable portion of