There are seven counties in Jingzhou, three counties in the north of Jingzhou are: Nanyang, Nanjun and Jiangxia; and four counties in the south of Jingzhou are: Changsha, Wuling, Lingling and Guiyang.
Most of Jingzhou's essence is concentrated in Jingbei, and Nanyang and Nanjun counties account for 80% of Jingbei's essence. The remaining five counties combined can only rival one of the two.
Originally, Nanyang's overall strength was only slightly better than Nanjun, but after Qin Hao's efforts in the past few years, Nanyang has completely surpassed Nanjun in terms of population and economy.
Today's Nanjun has more territory than Nanyang, but you must know that Nanjun only has 17 counties, while Nanyang has 36 counties. It can be seen that although the total population of Nanjun is not as good as Nanyang, the average county population is even higher than Nanyang.
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The total population of Nanjun is nearly two million, and the smallest population among the seventeen counties under its jurisdiction is only sixty or seventy thousand. The populations of large cities such as Jiangling and Xiangyang exceed two hundred thousand.
After Qin Hao captured Xiangyang, he ordered Bai Qi to continue the attack. After Bai Qi got help from Wenpin, the army passed by without any bloodshed.
In just half a month, Bai Qi captured nearly half of Nanjun. Qin Hao now had seven new counties under his jurisdiction, and the population increased by more than 800,000.
Later, due to the obstruction of the Jingzhou family, Bai Qi was temporarily blocked at the foot of Jiangling City.
In addition, Huang Zu and other five major princes in Jingzhou also sent troops to seize the territory.
After weighing the pros and cons, Bai Qi decided not to care about the gains and losses of one city or one territory, and stopped attacking and stuck to the newly occupied territory, waiting for the five princes to fight over their interests.
Normally speaking, the five princes would definitely fight because of the uneven distribution of spoils. From this point of view, Bai Qi's decision was not wrong, but he made a mistake in his calculations, and the brothers Liu Biao and Liu Xiu also got involved in this mess.
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Soon after the five major princes sent troops, the Jingzhou family led Liu Biao to take control of Jingzhou. As Liu Xiu led 30,000 Jingliang coalition troops to station in Jiangling, most of the remaining ten counties in Jiangling also belonged to Liu Biao.
After Liu Biao and Liu Xiu entered Jiangling, one was responsible for the internal affairs and the other was for the external affairs. The division of labor was very clear.
By marrying a daughter of the Cai family, Liu Biao gained the full support of the Jingzhou family and stabilized Nanjun in the shortest possible time.
As for Liu Xiu, he showed off his fists and was responsible for holding on to his territory and resisting the five major princes who invaded from outside.
In just one month, Liu Xiu fought against the five major princes more than ten times, winning every battle.
Huang Zu and other five major princes also realized that Xinzhou Mu was not easy to mess with, and they all had the idea of taking it in as soon as they could.
But at this time, Liu Xiu sent Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue as envoys to lobby the five princes, saying that Qin Hao was the biggest threat to Jingzhou, and everyone should work together to drive Qin Hao back to Nanyang to talk about the rest.
Under the persuasion of the envoy Liu Xiu, the five princes finally realized that the most powerful prince in Jingzhou was Qin Hao, and this time he had captured nearly half of Nanjun. If he could not be expelled, they would sooner or later become Qin Hao.
Annexed by Hao.
In the end, Liu Xiu reached a reconciliation with the five princes, and the six parties formed an alliance.
Among the six major princes, Liu Biao sent 30,000 troops, Huang Zu sent 20,000 troops, Han Xuan and Zhao each sent 15,000 troops, and Liu Du and Jin Xuan each sent 10,000 troops.
The coalition forces totaled 100,000 troops, but external propaganda stated that the army was 200,000 strong. Under the leadership of Liu Xiu, they marched towards Xiangyang in a mighty manner, preparing to drive Qin Hao's forces back to Nanyang.
In the more than a month since Liu Xiu's battle with the five princes and the formation of the coalition, Bai Qi neither sent troops to sneak attacks nor sent envoys to destroy his alliance, but simply allowed his alliance to be successfully formed.
Bai Qi's abnormal behavior of inaction made all the Qin army generals anxious, but Bai Qi still didn't react at all, as if all this had nothing to do with him.
"General Bai, please say something, the coalition forces are coming to kill us." Wenpin said anxiously.
Wenpin had just joined the Qin army not long ago, so he didn't know Bai Qi well. If he hadn't known that Bai Qi was a confidant of his lord, Wenpin would have even thought that Bai Qi had secretly defected to Liu Xiu.
Seeing Wenpin taking the lead, the other generals also began to persuade him, but Bai Qi took a sip of tea and said calmly: "No hurry, no rush."
"Aren't you in a hurry? Do you have to wait until the troops are approaching the city before you, Lao Bai, start dispatching your troops?"
Li Cunxiao was also impatient. Seeing that Bai Qi still didn't take it seriously, he immediately said loudly: "Old Bai, this is not your military style. If you have any plans, tell everyone quickly. There are no outsiders here."
Bai raised his eyebrows, looked at Li Cunxiao, and said calmly: "General Li Cunxiao, you can call me whatever you want in private, but in the army, you have to call me general."
When Li Cunxiao heard this, he was so angry that his teeth itched, but who would let a senior official crush someone to death? He could only be discouraged and said: "Yes, General."
Bai Qi felt relieved when he saw this.
As the most powerful general of the Qin army, Li Cunxiao was deeply loved by his lord Qin Hao. In addition, he was a righteous and generous man, and had very good connections among the generals.
Bai Qi was actually afraid that Li Cunxiao would go against him, which would really make him unable to get off the stage. Fortunately, Li Cunxiao knew the difference between generals and did not really indulge in favors.
Originally, Bai Qi was planning to disclose the reasons for his inaction before the war, but because Li Cunxiao's reaction made him very satisfied, Bai Qi decided to tell the generals in advance.
"I know that the inaction during this period has made everyone very anxious, but please note that sometimes inaction is also an act."
Is inaction also an act?
Although the generals did not understand the meaning of Bai Qi's words, judging from the situation, Bai Qi obviously did it deliberately and was not arrogant as they thought, and they were finally relieved.
"Old...General, you told me earlier, you might have scared everyone." Li Cunxiao complained.
Bai Qi glanced at Li Cunxiao and said calmly: "Our army is far ahead of the other armies in Jingzhou in terms of manpower, equipment, and training. If we take the initiative to attack, the other side will definitely not be able to defend it, and our army will inevitably suffer heavy casualties if we attack by force. But.
If the opponent attacks, the situation will be completely different."
Qin Hao also sent the Nine Dragon Guards to Bai Qi this time, and Zhou Yu, who was standing at the end, suddenly lit up when he heard this, and said excitedly: "The reason why the general did not act is because he wants the other party to take the initiative to concentrate his troops. Our army is good
To annihilate them all in one battle?”
Bai Qi glanced at Wenpin in surprise. This newcomer had guessed his intention so quickly. He was a good talent.
After hearing this, Huang Zhong frowned and said in a deep voice: "General, you have ordered your troops to be divided and garrisoned in each county in advance. Our army's concentrated strength is less than 30,000. Do you think we should recall the scattered troops before the decisive battle?