The Battle of Jiangling lasted for two months and resulted in the loss of more than 20,000 troops. It finally ended with the Qin army capturing Jiangling and the Chu army fleeing.
After capturing Jiangling, Nanjun was basically in the hands of the Qin army. Although the Chu army still had a base in Jingbei, even strong cities such as Jiangling were breached, and it was basically impossible to defend the remaining cities.
The Chu army that lost Jiangling City had no hope of recovery. There was no other way to go but to withdraw from Jingbei, and staying in Jingbei would only result in the loss of troops and generals.
As for the Qin army after taking over Nanjun, will they then cross the river and invade Jingnan?
This depends on Liu Xiu's performance.
If Liu Xiu had the wisdom to retreat from Jiaozhou, Qin Hao would naturally not let Yue Fei invade Jingnan.
But if Liu Xiu insists on unifying Jiaozhou, then the Qin army will definitely fight across the Yangtze River. Even if Qin Hao doesn't want Jingnan himself, he will help Sun Jian or Huang Zu and bite off a piece of meat from Liu Xiu.
Therefore, the choice of whether the Qin Army will cross the Yangtze River does not lie with the Qin Army, but with Liu Xiu. This is undoubtedly another difficult choice for Liu Xiu.
On the other side, after Yue Fei led his army to Jiangling, he immediately sent troops to fight the fire and provide disaster relief. After a day of settling in, the fire and disaster in Jiangling finally calmed down.
"Commander, Deng Yu was too cruel. His fire burned one-third of the houses in Jiangling, leaving 50,000 to 60,000 people homeless.
In addition, half of the grain depot was also burned down by the fire. If Mr. Cai Mao had not arrived in time and stopped the Chu army from setting fire to the fire, I am afraid that the other half of the grain depot would also have been burned down by the Chu army." Lin Xiangru looked grave.
said.
When Yue Fei heard this, a trace of anger flashed in his eyes. He was obviously angry at Deng Yu's actions of disregarding the lives of the people. Then he bowed his hands to Cai Mao below and said, "Thank you, Mr. Cai, for taking action in time."
Deng Yu did not kill Cai Hao completely because Liu Xiu said he wanted to spare Cai Hao's life, and the situation at that time was extremely critical. Deng Yu had no time to waste on Cai Hao, so he let Cai Hao go and led the army away.
Cai Mao, who was lucky enough to survive, saw that the Chu army wanted to prevent the fire from burning the grain depot, so he took advantage of the situation to prevent the Chu army from preventing the fire and helped the Qin army save the grain depot, which was regarded as a great contribution.
"I don't dare to take it, I don't dare to take it. This is all Cai can do." Cai Mao said cautiously.
Although Yue Fei was polite to Cai Mao, Cai Mao did not dare to serve and be arrogant. After all, the Qin army obviously did not trust him. In the battle to capture Jiangling, they relied on him and the Jingzhou family on the surface, but in fact they regarded him as the Jingzhou family.
Cannon fodder, Kuai Qi is the Qin army’s real surefire weapon.
After learning this, Cai Hao once again saw the evil intentions of the princes, and he thought he was in control of his destiny, but he was the one being used from the beginning to the end, whether he was under Liu Xiu or defected to the Qin army.
.
Cai Mao was scared and completely discouraged, but he also knew that he could not escape at all and could only continue to struggle in this hell on earth.
Yue Fei glanced at Cai Mao suspiciously. The feeling Cai Mao gave him was so different from before that he even felt like they were two different people.
Yue Fei shook his head, and then said to Lin Xiangru: "Military advisor, I will leave the disaster relief to you. We must win the hearts and minds of the people of Nanjun as soon as possible."
"Well, now the population of Nanjun is not large, only more than 300,000 in total. Most of the people have been moved to Jingnan by Liu Xiu. It is not difficult to win the hearts of the people of Nanjun. As long as we show kindness to the people, our army will
Just implement the policy."
"What? There are only 300,000 people left in Nan County?"
Yue Fei screamed, while Lin Xiangru looked helpless. His governor only paid attention to the military affairs of the Chu army but ignored the policy. Liu Xiu did not hide it when he moved the people of Nanjun to Jingnan, but he didn't know it until now.
"Damn Liu Xiu." Yue Fei said angrily.
In order to capture Nanjun, Yue Fei personally led the army to attack three times. In the three attacks, he lost no less than 50,000 troops. But in the end, what he got was only Nanjun with a population of 300,000. So did he gain or lose?
"Captain, Nanjun is an important town in the north of Jing Dynasty. Its geographical location is extremely important. Once it can be advanced, it can be attacked, retreated and defended. Its role is not in population. It is acceptable to sacrifice some troops." Lin Xiangru advised.
After hearing this, Yue Fei's complexion improved a lot. If this was a loss-making transaction, he might really want to write a letter to Qin Hao to apologize.
"Report...report to the Commander-in-Chief, Deputy Governor Qin and General Yuchi are back."
"Quickly, let them in." Yue Fei said happily.
But when he saw Yu Chigong, who was injured all over, and his son with a bruised nose and face, Yue Fei could no longer laugh.
At first, Yue Fei thought that Deng Yu had set up an ambush, and was secretly surprised. How could Deng Yu set up an ambush under such circumstances?
But after listening to Qin Qiong's story, Yue Fei realized that it was the Shu army from Bajun who came east, blocked the Qin army's pursuit, and saved the lives of Deng Yu and the Chu army who fled.
"Hmph, I didn't take the initiative to provoke Liu Ji. He should have burned incense and worshiped Buddha. He hasn't even solved Li Shimin and Liu Yu yet, yet he dared to take the initiative to provoke our Qin army. He is simply looking for death."
Yue Fei snorted coldly and ordered: "Send a message to the governor and ask him to send 20,000 horses to guard the general. The 50,000-strong army under my command will fight to the death with Cao Shen."
As soon as Yue Fei issued this order, all the generals were excited, but Lin Xiangru frowned and said, "Captain, I'm afraid this battle won't be fought."
"Oh? Why is this?"
"The Chu army now only has 15,000 defeated troops, and only one Zhijiang remains in the city. The Shu army does not have any foundation in northern Jing. Although it took advantage of the situation to occupy Yiling and other counties when it went east, it was not enough to serve as a base for the Shu army.
Provide food and grass.
In addition, although I don’t know what kind of alliance there is between the Shu army and the Chu army, saving the Chu army is already the limit, and Liu Ji cannot fight with my army to the death for Liu Xiu.”
Although Yue Fei is a political idiot, he is definitely not a fool. Lin Xiangru said this, so how could he not understand.
"Commander, do you mean that the Shu army is going to run away?"
"They should be inseparable." Lin Xiangru said confidently.
Yue Fei's tiger body suddenly shook, and he shouted and ordered: "Send the order, the whole army will attack, and data must not be allowed to escape Jingzhou easily."
"promise."
Following Yue Fei's order, 50,000 Qin troops roared out and headed west, but in the end it was still a step too late.
After Yu Qin Qiong's battle, Cao Shen decisively ordered a retreat. When Yue Fei was about to catch up, the Shu army had already retreated to Bajun.
Of course, Yue Fei's journey was not without gains. The Shu army fled back to Ba County in a panic, while Yue Fei later regained Yiling, Yidao, Wuxian and other counties one by one.
After retaking several counties east of Nanjun, Yue Fei's army immediately went south to surround Deng Yu's remnant army in Zhijiang. However, Deng Yu had already run away, and by the way, he forcibly moved away the remaining troops in Zhijiang County.
Forty thousand people.
Since then, the Qin army has completely occupied Nanjun and officially expanded its power to the north of the Yangtze River.