Yue Fei's attack on Nanjun was very fierce this time, and the Jingzhou army had not had time to arrange its defenses, so the Qin army defeated four cities in five days.
If this trend continues, Yue Fei will be able to attack Jiangling City again in a few days, and Liu Xiu must arrive at Jiangling before Yue Fei, otherwise it will not be easy to enter the city.
After Liu Xiu worked hard all night, he finally returned to Jiangling City before Yue Fei besieged the city. The next day, Yue Fei's army surrounded Jiangling again.
"Cen Peng, have all the garrison troops from each city been recruited back to Jiangling?" Liu Xiu asked.
"My lord, after receiving the news of Yue Fei's attack again, except for the cities on the front line that can block Yue Fei's advance, the defenders of the other cities were recalled by the general as soon as possible." Cen Peng said solemnly.
"How many defenders are there in Jiangling City now?"
"In addition to the fact that the army that resisted the Qin army on the front line has not returned, there are now 20,000 defenders in the city who have returned."
Liu Xiu's face darkened when he heard this, and he said in shorthand: "So, in just a few days, our army lost another five thousand troops."
Cen Peng opened his mouth but was speechless, and finally let out a helpless sigh.
Since Liu Xiu led an army of 10,000 people to march south to Jingnan, the number of troops has been increasing, and the highest number of casualties has not reached 3,000.
But when facing Yue Fei, at first the remaining army was reduced by two-thirds, and now the 5,000-strong army was annihilated in a few days.
Even though Liu Xiu was open-minded, he still felt distressed when faced with such a loss. But now that the matter had come to a point, it didn't help that he was distressed.
"Jiangling is a big city with high walls and thick walls. There is plenty of food, grass and supplies in the city. As long as our army does not take the initiative to go out to fight, it will not be a problem to defend it for a year."
Speaking of this, Liu Xiu added: "I have recruited another 10,000 troops from Jingnan. By then, Jiangling will have 30,000 defenders. In addition, there will be soldiers from the family to help defend the city, and Yue Fei
The siege force is only 50,000, so Jiangling is absolutely unbreakable."
Under Yue Fei's attack, the Jingzhou army suffered heavy casualties. Nowadays, both civil servants and generals in Jingzhou can't help but change their expressions when talking about Yue Fei, and they are in awe of Yue Fei from the bottom of their hearts.
But Liu Xiu's words made all the ministers feel uneasy. Although the fear in their hearts still existed, it was not to the point where Yue's expression changed.
"Next, our army only needs to defend Jiangling. Yue Fei will only retreat until the Qin army runs out of food." Liu Xiu said calmly.
At this moment, the spies suddenly came to report: "Please tell me, my lord, General Xian of the Qin army is coming to challenge you."
Liu Xiu didn't even think about it and said directly: "I'm sending an order to all the armies to ignore it and not to go to war. Our army only needs to defend Jiangling."
"But the person who came to challenge is..."
Seeing that the spy was hesitating, Liu Xiu couldn't help but frowned and asked, "Who is it?"
"It's Yue Fei."
"What?"
As soon as the spies said this, all the civil and military personnel of the Jingzhou Army were shocked. Liu Xiu widened his eyes and said, "You said the Qin general who came to challenge was Yue Fei? Yue Fei came to fight the general in person? How is this possible?"
When Liu Xiu heard that Yue Fei personally stood up to challenge him, Liu Xiu's first reaction was that he didn't believe it. Liu Xiu was not the only one who thought so. Jingzhou civil and military officials basically shared this view.
Who is Yue Fei? He is the governor of Xiangyang of the Qin Army. Although he is not yet the governor of Jingbei, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the governor of Jingbei of the Qin Army must be Yue Fei.
Is it possible that such a commander in charge of an army of tens of thousands would leave the army aside and fight against the generals himself?
Everyone would think it impossible, because for a general, it is enough to command the army, but to personally participate in the battle would be to sacrifice one's own merits to the last, so the first reaction of Liu Xiu and others was disbelief.
"My subordinates dare not lie about the military situation. If my lord doesn't believe it, he can go to the tower to have a look in person."
After hearing this, Liu Xiu immediately took his ministers to the city tower to take a look, only to find that the challenger below the city was undoubtedly Yue Fei.
"My lord, Yue Fei actually came to challenge himself. Is there any fraud involved?" Cen Peng frowned.
"Yes, yes..." the generals would respond one after another.
This scene was so weird, and so different from Yue Fei's usual style, that the generals in Jingzhou were forced to have wild imaginations.
Seeing this, Liu Xiu couldn't help but frown even more tightly, but Yue Fei, who was outside the city, shouted: "Liu Xiu, I heard that you are good at martial arts, do you dare to challenge me?"
"Yue Fei, don't try to use this to trick our army into fighting. I won't fall for your trick." Liu Xiu shouted with a cold face.
When Yue Fei heard this, he laughed, pointed the spear in his hand at the army behind him, and shouted: "Are you afraid that my challenge is fake and that seizing the city is real? That's all, keep your eyes open and watch."
At this point, Yue Fei turned around and shouted: "The whole army retreats five hundred meters."
As soon as Yue Fei's military order came out, tens of thousands of Qin troops retreated, leaving Yue Fei alone with his horse in front of the city, shouting: "Do you dare to fight now?"
Liu Xiu couldn't help but open his mouth when he saw this. He was really afraid that Yue Fei would use this to seize the city, but Yue Fei took the initiative to order his army to retreat. It was obviously impossible to seize the city from this distance.
"Did Yue Fei really just come here to challenge?" Liu Xiu thought to himself.
"My lord, the last general has invited me to fight and behead Yue Fei." Wei Wentong said, cupping his fists.
"this……"
Liu Xiu was a little hesitant. He always felt that Yue Fei had bad intentions, but as a general, he came to challenge him personally. This was too unreasonable.
Seeing that Liu Xiu didn't respond for a long time, Yue Fei took the initiative to start a war.
"Liu Xiu, I, Yue Pengju, am here to challenge you as a general. If no one from your Jingzhou army dares to challenge you, then you might as well lead the army back to Jingnan. The land of Jingbei cannot tolerate you group of wimps..."
"
As soon as these words came out, the Jingzhou army was so excited that even Wei Yan stepped forward to ask for a fight.
Wei Yan was originally a general under Han Xuan, but his brother Wei Wentong was under Liu Xiu. In addition, Liu Xiu had won many battles in Jingnan, so Wei Yan was feared by Han Xuan.
Liu Xiu had long coveted Wei Yan. After learning that Han Xuan was jealous of Wei Yan, he not only gained Wei Yan's allegiance through estrangement, but also defeated the coalition forces of Jingnan princes. It could be said that he killed two birds with one stone.
After much thought, Liu Xiu didn't think that Yue Fei could seize the city by fighting generals, and seeing that the generals were eager to fight with Qin, he immediately nodded and said: "In that case, Wei Yan, it's up to you to fight Yue Fei."
"Thank you for your trust, my lord. Wei Yan will behead Yue Fei and present it to your lord."
Upon hearing this, Liu Xiu shook his head and said, "Yue Fei's challenge this time has ulterior motives, so General, you must remember that when you leave the city this time, you don't seek merit, but just seek no faults."