They passed through Fancheng and Xiangyang all the way, heading towards Danshui so brazenly and blatantly.
Gan Ning has been feeling a little too busy lately. Whenever he sees any towns, ports, etc. along the way, he can't help but gear up and want to fire a few cannons.
Unfortunately, Lu Yan explicitly prohibited their extravagant and wasteful behavior, because the inventory of artillery shells was only one-third of the initial amount.
"Sir, we can actually give Fancheng and Xiangyang a try." Obviously, Gan Ning still misses these two cities.
But Lu Yan shook his head and said: "Capturing Pang Tong is more important than capturing Fancheng and Xiangyang!"
"No matter how powerful Pang Tong is, he can't compare to you, sir!"
Lu Yan glanced at Gan Ning, who was suspected of being a flatterer, and replied: "Having him around is always a trouble. We should deal with it as soon as possible to avoid long nights and dreams."
Gan Ning smacked his lips twice and sighed: "Okay, I just don't know how long I have to wait..."
Just when Gan Ning felt so uncomfortable that he wanted to howl, Su Fei suddenly ran up to them, pointed at the south bank of Han River and said: "Lu Qiaoqi, Xingba, look over there!"
Lu Yan and Gan Ning raised their heads and looked in the direction of Su Fei's finger, only to see a long line of people on the shore, pointing at their fleet, like a group of people eating melon.
"Jingzhou Army!" Gan Ning and Su Fei suddenly said in unison after staring at each other for a while.
"Jingzhou Army?" Lu Yan was stunned when he heard this and asked, "What is this Jingzhou Army for?"
"Maybe they are going to reinforce Xiangyang City." Su Fei guessed.
"Sir, why don't you shoot them twice?" Gan Ning asked tentatively.
"Hit your sister! Don't expose our weapons to the Jingzhou Army so early, okay?" Lu Yan glared at Gan Ning and said.
"Then we don't care about them?" Gan Ning asked unwillingly.
"Ignore it for now, let's continue heading north and make sure to block Pang Tong!"
Seeing that Lu Yan had made up his mind, Gan Ning stopped insisting.
Lu Yan's fleet continued to sail northward along the Han River, but little did he know that Pang Tong, whom he wanted to capture, happened to pass him by!
"Military advisor, they went north, but it seems they didn't discover our identity!" Wenpin wiped his cold sweat and said with a clear heart.
Pang Tong did not answer, but ordered: "Order the soldiers to march at normal speed, and then speed up and rush back to Xiangyang to set up defenses when Cao Jun's navy is no longer visible!"
"Here!"
"The entire army obeys the order and maintains normal marching speed!"
A quarter of an hour later, someone shouted:
"The fleet is out of sight!"
“I really can’t see it anymore!”
"Listen to the order, move forward at full speed, and rush back to Xiangyang!"
After traveling 20 miles north, a scout suddenly reported: "Report! Lu Qianqi! Many vacant ships were found on the shore ahead, at least more than two hundred!"
When Lu Yan heard that the ship was spotted ahead, he immediately thought of the Jingzhou army that had watched them, "No! Pang Tong ran away by land!"
After Gan Ning heard Lu Yan's shouting, he immediately reacted. He slapped his thigh and said, "Oh! We really should have fired a few shots before. Maybe Pang Tong was killed?!"
But now it's too late to turn around and pursue him again.
Lu Yan could only sigh and said: "That's all, Jingzhou is such a big place anyway, there is always a chance to catch Pang Tong, a slippery loach."
"Come here, give me the order to go down and collect these boats. They will be used by other teams to cross the river."
...
Let's say that after Cao Cao and others led their troops to the Danshui battlefield, they found that Pang Tong had already escaped.
In desperation, Cao Cao could only order his army to move to Deng County, intending to collect more ships and prepare to cross the Han River.
Zhang He and Gao Lan were worshiped as vanguards by Cao Cao, who ordered them to lead an army of 10,000 to Deng County, preparing to capture Deng County first and then build transport ships there to prepare for the army to cross the Han River.
The march went smoothly at first, but as they walked, Zhang He, Gao Lan and the two couldn't help but started to take turns scolding each other.
There is a turbulent river in Deng County, which flows through the Xinye Huibai River into the Han River and then connects to the Yangtze River. The shipping within the territory is smooth. But the shipping is smooth, which is not a good thing for Cao's army, because Zhang He Gao Lan and they are leading a cavalry army, not a navy army!
After walking a few miles, you encounter a small river, and after walking a few miles, you encounter another river. Who can stand this?
The army once again crossed a river three to five meters wide. Zhang He could not help but gritted his teeth and asked the locals: "How far are we from Deng County?"
The guide estimated the distance and then replied respectfully: "It's probably less than seventy miles back to the general."
"We're finally here..." Gao Lan couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said: "Speed up and capture Deng County to prepare for the army to cross the river!"
"Speed up!"
"Quick, quick, quick! I'm soaked all over, I feel so uncomfortable that I'm going to die!"
The seat of Deng County is Fancheng, which is an important town across the river from Xiangyang City.
But now there are only 3,000 defenders in Fancheng, and the defender is only Deng Zhi, a scholar who has just been promoted. It can be seen that Jingzhou's senior officials already feel that there is no hope for Jingbei's defense.
Deng Zhi is also a man of both civil and military talents, but he has just been promoted and has not yet fully demonstrated his abilities.
There were too many rivers in Deng County, which greatly slowed down the march of Zhang He and Gao Lan. By the time they arrived outside the city, it was almost evening.
With the army stationed outside the city, Zhang He ordered his troops to set up camp and build siege equipment, while at the same time he sent troops to the city walls to persuade Deng Zhi to surrender.
Deng Zhi was a native of Xinye County, Yiyang County. He was fair and honest, capable of literary and military skills. In his early years, it was predicted that he would become a general.
In fact, in the late Shu Han Dynasty, Deng Zhi first moved to the position of former military advisor and former general, led the governor of Yanzhou, granted the title of Marquis of Wuting in Yangzhou, and soon oversaw Jiangzhou. In the sixth year of Yanxi, he moved to the position of general of chariots and cavalry, and later was granted leave.
It can be said that he is an extremely popular minister.
But now Deng Zhi is still just a young man in his twenties who is just starting out.
According to Zhang He and Gao Lan,
The two to three hundred thousand allied troops in Jingzhou and Jiangdong have been defeated, Pang Tong has also fled back to Xiangyang, and the entire northern Jingzhou will soon fall into the hands of the Cao family.
There were only three thousand defenders in Fancheng guarded by Deng Zhi. How could they be their opponents?
So while Zhang He and others set up camp to build equipment, they also sent an eloquent person to persuade them to surrender.
The person who was fortunate enough to receive the task of persuading surrender was a Sima who accompanied the army. He had studied for several years and was fairly eloquent.
The Sima was unsure of Deng Zhi's true attitude, so he could only cautiously walk to a position one hundred and twenty steps outside the city, barely standing outside the range of a bow and arrow.
He took a big trumpet made of rolled paper and shouted to the city: "I am the Sima who is accompanying the army under General Zhang He, the bandit general. I also invite the city guard to come out and see me!"
Although the distance was a bit far, the defenders on the city still heard it.
Hearing someone shouting from Cao Jun, one of the defenders on the top of the city immediately turned around and left, and not long after, he brought back a young scholar in his twenties or seventies.
Deng Zhi came to the top of the city, looked down at the Sima who was accompanying the army outside the city, and shouted: "This is the guard general, what are you doing here?"
When Jian Dengzhi arrived, Sima, who was accompanying the army, straightened his clothes first, then bowed and saluted: "General Deng, listen to me..."