Chapter 1156: Soft Persimmon Turns Into Hard Stone

Kuai Yue's proposal was recognized by the others. After all, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were world-famous for their strength. If they were asked to send troops to fight them, it was estimated that few people in the entire Jingzhou would be able to defeat them. As for the Nanyang Zhang Ji army in the north, they had fought several times a few years ago. The strength of the Xiliang army was something that the Jingzhou army could not match. As for the east and west directions, it was more difficult to enter Yizhou from the west than Zhang Ji and Liu Bei. However, going south and north was because the opponent's army was too strong, and going east and west was because the geography was too difficult. So after all the calculations, the newly acquired Wuling County Sword Spirit became a soft persimmon.

However, Cai Mao's suggestion to persuade Liu Bei's army in Changsha to attack Wuling from the east was rejected by Liu Biao and Kuai Liang. If Liu Bei was asked to send troops, he might have to give up some of his interests to them. Moreover, everyone did not think that it was not difficult to pacify the Sword Spirit Army in Wuling.

Now in Linyuan City, the seat of Wuling County, Jian Ling still didn't know that he had become a weakling in the eyes of Xiangyang people. However, even if he knew, he was not afraid.

Today's Jian Ling is no longer the embarrassing situation of the past. Since Wei Yan joined, the elite level of Jian Ling's troops is no longer the same as when he first started. You know, at the beginning, he relied on three transferred generals to defeat the joint troops of several players, and the troops trained by Wei Yan's subordinates were several times stronger than before.

As early as the beginning of the expedition to Wuling, military advisor Hua Xin had reminded him to pay attention to any unusual movements in Xiangyang, so he also took out a large sum of money to let his confidant Gao Yue form a secret team, focusing on Xiangyang, Jiangxia and Changsha. In addition, he was more willing to use the power of players than Huangfu Chaobo, so he also planted a lot of nails in Xiangyang City. When the army went out, Yidao City and Nantian City also had thousands of soldiers stationed.

After the army captured the entire Wuling, he ordered Wei Yan to select 10,000 elite soldiers from the surrendered soldiers, reorganized them into two schools, and secretly sent them back to Yidao City and Nantian City to Gao Yue and Hou Zheng, who were responsible for defending the two cities. In this way, there were nearly 16,000 soldiers and horses in the two cities on the south bank of the river. So once the Jingzhou army came to attack, it would be no problem to defend the two cities for one or two months. At that time, the elite army led by Wei Yan would have enough time to return for rescue.

Just after Xiangyang made the decision to send troops to Wuling, Jian Ling learned about Liu Biao's plan through several channels in a few days, but he didn't care much about it. You know, there is no general in the Jingzhou army now who can compete with Wei Yan. If there is only one thing that worries him, it is Liu Bei's army in Changsha. The strength of Guan and Zhang is too strong.

Fortunately, intelligence from several sources showed that Liu Bei's army in Changsha showed no signs of dispatching troops, which reassured Jian Ling.

In mid-September, after receiving the news that the Xiangyang army of 50,000 infantry and 10,000 naval forces had set out, Jian Ling ordered Han Hao and Qi Shen to lead 20,000 troops to defend the three cities of Linyuan, Yuannan and Hanshou. Jian Ling and Wei Yan led 30,000 troops to quietly return to Yidao, preparing to take advantage of the siege of Yiling City by the Jingzhou army to attack them from both inside and outside, and annihilate all these tens of thousands of people under Yidao City. He wanted to hurt Liu Biao once and for all, so that he would not dare to have any idea of ​​attacking him again.

Just when the Yidao war in Jingzhou was about to break out, Ma Teng was also gathering people to discuss matters in Guzang City, the capital of Wuwei County, thousands of miles away in the northwest of the Han Dynasty. Liu Biao was able to get the inside information of the title of king through the insider in Chang'an, and the other princes also had their own ways, such as Ma Teng. Therefore, after obtaining the five counties was one of the most basic conditions for the title of king, Ma Teng began to consider this matter.

After thinking about it, Ma Teng set his sights on the counties since Zhangye. If it was divided according to the division during the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, there were three counties west of Zhangye, namely Jiuquan, Xihai and Dunhuang. If Wuwei and Zhangye counties under Ma Teng's control were added, it would be exactly five counties.

In this way, the requirements were met.

Compared with Han Sui, his sworn brother in the south, and the Qin army in the west, the three western counties were obviously much easier to deal with.

At this time, Han Sui, who occupied Jincheng and Longxi, also looked towards Wudu County in his southeast. Wudu County ostensibly belonged to Dong Huang. However, the Han people had not fully controlled Wudu, but only declared sovereignty. In fact, the control of Wudu was still in the hands of the local Di people, and each city was basically controlled by the king of each Di tribe. Especially after Dong Huang became king, he turned his attention to the more prosperous Zuofengyi and Youfufeng counties, and actually ignored Wudu.

At this time, Han Sui's attention was due to Wudu. After thinking about it again and again, he immediately sent someone to Ma Teng to discuss with Ma Teng about dealing with Dong Huang. Ma Teng of course agreed happily, but Ma Teng meant that he had to wait until he pacified the Jiuquan counties before turning back to deal with Dong Huang.

After getting Ma Teng's consent, Han Sui began to prepare to send troops to Wudu.

In early October, the battle of Yidao in Jingzhou began. Fifty thousand Jingzhou troops boarded ships from Jiangling, went upstream, landed on the south bank of the river south of Yidao, and reached the city of Yidao. They then began to attack Yidao County and surrounded Yidu County, which was defended by ten thousand troops.

After the army attacked for several days, Yidao County was still standing, but was successfully attacked by 30,000 sword spirits who had been lurking 20 miles south of Yidao County. The 50,000 soldiers were killed and wounded in one battle, and more than 10,000 soldiers were killed and wounded. Only the commander Cai Mao led less than 10,000 soldiers to flee in a hurry, and the 10,000 navy was also attacked by surprise. After meeting with Cai Mao's remnants, they abandoned a large number of ships and fled in a panic.

After returning to Jiangling, they counted and found that only five tower ships were lost, and the loss of medium-sized ships such as fighting ships and red horse ships reached 20 to 30 ships. The remaining small boats were more than 100, and there were 30 to 40 large boats for transporting soldiers and food, plus countless food and equipment, all of which were thrown outside Yidao City on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

This battle can be said to have made Liu lose everything. He wanted to bite a soft persimmon, but who knew that he bit a stone. The Sword Spirit made a lot of money. He had already harvested a huge amount of food and supplies in Linyuan, but he didn't expect Liu Biao to send him tens of thousands of people and supplies.

Almost at the same time, Ma Teng and Han Sui's two armies also set out to attack Jiuquan and Wudu respectively.