Although Liu Xin didn't know about Cai Zhong's appointment as the governor of Changsha, both Cai Mao and Cai Jue knew about it. With the lessons learned from Cai Mao's confinement at home for more than half a year, and the warning from his sister Cai Jue, Cai Zhong was not the governor of Changsha.
He is quite law-abiding and does not dare to do anything wrong. Cai Zhong is also a little smart. Anyone who can get a death-free medal from Liu Xin can speak in front of Liu Xin and is a master who cannot be messed with. Therefore, for Gan
Cai Zhong fully agreed to Ning's request. In this way, he really didn't send the news to Xiangyang, so Ma Yun, Ju Shuo and others had no way of knowing Gan Ning's movements.
The Jingzhou navy was well-trained and its equipment was comparable to that of the five major armies. Although they abandoned their boats and landed ashore, they moved just as quickly. It only took less than half an hour from assembly to departure. When the army arrived at the border between Changsha and Yuzhang,
Yan Baihu's army had not seen anyone yet. Gan Ning did not delay and directly ordered to march towards Yuzhang. After marching for more than thirty miles, he ran into Yan Baihu's troops.
The composition of Yan Baihu's army is very complex. The officers and officers are all served by bandits who originally followed Yan Baihu. The soldiers are bandits, people who have been forced to do so, and Sun Jian's subordinates who have surrendered. Such an army usually oppresses
There is nothing wrong with the people taking advantage of them by force. But if they really go to the battlefield, even their formation will be problematic.
Gan Ning couldn't care about that much. When he saw the enemy army right in front of him, he immediately became excited, roared angrily, and rushed over waving his sword. Yan Baihu never expected that he wanted to sneak attack Changsha, but Changsha's army was the first to attack Changsha.
The fight came over. Before he could recover, his troops were already in chaos.
Yan Baihu did not expect that his army would collapse at the first touch. He reined up his horse in panic and ran back into Yuzhang City. He counted his men and lost more than 20,000 men. Before he could feel sorry for the loss, he heard that the soldiers
He came to report that countless soldiers and horses were coming outside the city. Yan Baihu climbed up to the top of the city and saw that the black army was charging towards the city wall with shouts.
Although the people under the city are Jingzhou navy, they also go to the training base in the western suburbs of Xiangyang every year to participate in drills, and they are no strangers to siege warfare. Moreover, they have lived on boats for a long time, walking on gangplanks, and ganging up on boats are commonplace, and their skills are compared to ordinary people.
The infantry should be more flexible.
The walls of Yuzhang City were not very high, and all the soldiers under his command were frightened. Yan Baihu commanded for a long time, but when he saw that he could no longer resist, he hurriedly ran down the city, not even returning to the prefect's house, and fled eastward.
Yan Baihu's home base is in Wu County, but from Yuzhang to Wu County, there are Kuaiji and Danyang in between. These are all under the rule of Yangzhou. At that time, the situation in Yangzhou was the most complicated, and the relationship between the counties was also the most subtle. Within the jurisdiction of Yangzhou
There were six counties in total, Yangzhou Mu Liu Yao only controlled Danyang and Jiujiang two counties, Lujiang County was occupied by Yuan Shu, Kuaiji County was controlled by Wang Lang, and the remaining Wu County and Yuzhang were Yan Baihu's territory.
Yan Baihu's two territories are separated by Danyang and Kuaiji counties. However, because Yan Baihu and Wang Lang were always on good terms, he accidentally learned that Sun Jian had sent his troops north and Yuzhang was empty, so he used Kuaiji to conduct a sneak attack and succeeded.
. If it weren't for his very good relationship with Wang Lang, his two territories were blocked from traffic, and sooner or later one of them would be lost. Now, seeing that Yuzhang can no longer be defended, Yan Baihu will naturally retreat to Wu County, then
Taking the Kuaiji road became the only option.
Although the old servant in the Prefect's Mansion didn't know his movements, it didn't mean that Yan Baihu's men didn't know where he had fled. Under the coercion of Gan Ning's sword, someone soon confessed. Yan Baihu must have escaped.
Went to Kuaiji.
But at that time, the south was vast and sparsely populated. Only four counties, Danyang, Wujun, Yuzhang, and Kuaiji, covered almost all of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and most of Jiangsu in later generations. The gaps between the cities were also relatively large. Yan Baihu completely
It is possible not to enter Kuaiji City, but to take a detour and flee directly to Wu County.
Gan Ning's battle was not satisfactory. Yan Baihu and his men were like soft persimmons, which would rot with just a pinch. Gan Ning, who was still in excitement, said without thinking: "The army needs to rest for a while.
Two thousand men will guard Yuzhang, and the rest will prepare to attack Kuaiji."
This Yuzhang was originally under the control of Sun Jian and was successfully attacked by Yan Baihu. Today, he returned here again. Cheng Pu and Huang Gai were very excited. However, it didn't take long for Cheng Pu to calm down from the excitement.
He raised his hands and said: "This is to inform General Gan. The mission given to us by the commander is to guard Changsha, and we are not asked to use troops against Yan Baihu. If there is something wrong with continuing to march, I think we should ask for instructions from Xiangyang first before deciding where to go.
."
Gan Ning said disdainfully: "What? General Cheng is so proud just after he laid down a Yuzhang? Or are you afraid of Wang Lang in Kuaiji? Yan Baihu dares to mess with me. Today I beat him to the point where he has no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth."
!”
During this period of getting along, Cheng Pu already knew that Gan Ning had this kind of character. He did not mean to ridicule him, so he was not upset and continued: "General Gan has learned clearly that the last general has nothing to fear, and the last general is not afraid of Yan Baihu."
They are irreconcilable and want to skin him and cramp him. However, the lord does not know how the war is going when he is in Sanguan. Even Yan Baihu dares to take the opportunity to attack Changsha. Are the other princes turning a deaf ear? What if we wait for the expedition?
If you leave a gap for the enemy to take advantage of, it will be too late to regret it!" Su Fei also said with a sad look on his face: "General Gan, if you mobilize the army without permission from above, I'm afraid..."
Gan Ning interrupted him and said: "Although my lord has not asked me to attack Wang Lang, as soon as a man is born, he should make contributions and expand the territory! The time is right now. If we don't take this opportunity to capture Kuaiji, Wu
County, when will we wait? In this case, General Cheng, I will give you five thousand troops to stay in Yuzhang City and wipe out the remnant bandits in the surrounding counties. The others will follow me to pursue Yan Baihu."
Cheng Pu and others saw that Gan Ning had made up his mind, so they had no choice but to accept the promise.
Although this left Gan Ning with only 15,000 troops at his disposal, this amount of troops was still a great military force in Jiangnan. The population in Jiangnan was sparse, so the number of troops was correspondingly insufficient. Historically,
, Sun Ce was able to capture a piece of Soochow with only a few thousand men and horses at the beginning. Even though the princes who ruled Jiangdong didn't have many troops, each side invested ten thousand people to count as a large-scale battle. Later, Chibi
During the battle, facing Cao Cao's 830,000 troops, Sun Quan handed over to Zhou Yu only a mere 50,000 troops. In the northern battlefield, more than 100 to 200,000 troops were needed at every turn. In the recent two battles,
In a large-scale battle, the Kwantung Allied Forces conquered Dong Zhuo and Liu Xin's Northern Expedition. The total number of troops dispatched by both sides was more than 600,000.
However, Jiangnan also has the characteristics of Jiangnan. The dense water network there is not only disadvantageous for cavalry, but also very inconvenient for the movement of large armies. The supply of food, grass and baggage often makes the commander-in-chief of the three armies a headache. However, these problems do not trouble Gan.
Ning's troops were originally naval forces. Although no warships were mobilized for this expedition, as long as they found a few small boats or built a few rafts, they could handle any river, no matter how wide or fast. From Yuzhang to Kuaiji
, hundreds of miles away, they arrived in just two days.
Yan Baihu walked halfway, suddenly turned north, bypassed Kuaiji City, and returned to Wu County. Wang Lang, the prefect of Kuaiji, did not get the news of Yan Baihu's defeat. He was shocked to hear that Liu Xin's army was attacking. He didn't know why and hurriedly
Summon civil and military officials for discussion.
Yu Fan, the prefect of the county, stood up and said: "My lord, Liu Xinyuan is far away in Jingzhou. Since his army can come here, Yuzhang should have been captured by him. He attacked with the power of new victory. In the opinion of his subordinates,
My lord may negotiate peace or ask for surrender, but you must not fight, otherwise your life may be in danger."
Zhou Xin, the school captain, said angrily: "How can you increase the ambition of others and destroy your own prestige? Since ancient times, when soldiers come, they will be blocked, and when water comes, the earth will cover them up. Liu Xin's men and horses have come from afar, and they can take advantage of their fatigue and attack them unawares. My lord, the last general
I am willing to lead an army out of the city and take the heads of the enemy generals as sacrifices!"
Wang Lang was overjoyed and said: "General Zhou is willing to go, why worry about the enemy not retreating! Liu Xin is greedy. He not only seizes the Yuzhang, but also comes to invade our Kuaiji. If we don't teach him a lesson, he still doesn't know how high the sky is."
Yu Fan was speechless and resigned. The Yu family was a famous family in Kuaiji, and many of them went to Xiangyang to do business. They brought back several copies of Dahan Express, commonly known as newspapers. Through the oral accounts of these merchants and the descriptions in the newspapers, Yu Fan
Fan also had a preliminary understanding of the situation in Jingzhou, and knew that Kuaiji's strength was absolutely no match for Liu Xin. Zhou Xin was just a brave husband, and Wang Lang, as the governor of a county, did not know how to advance or retreat.
It is really disappointing to bring a huge disaster to Kuaiji.
As soon as Gan Ning arrived at the city gate, he saw the city gate opened wide, and a large army of soldiers came out to kill the general. The leading general waved a sword in his hand and shouted sharply: "Who is coming?"
Huang Gai waved his whips and rushed ahead, saying loudly: "I am Huang Gai, the subordinate of Mr. Liu, the shepherd of Jingzhou. If you are interested, please hand over Yan Baihu quickly to avoid the loss of life. Otherwise, wait for my army to kill you."
If you go in, you will definitely regret it."
Zhou Xin laughed loudly and said, "You nameless rat dares to come and stir up trouble on Tai Sui's head and kill me with a knife."
Before he finished speaking, Zhou Xin waved his sword and faced Huang Gai. Huang Gai raised his two whips and fought with him. The two fought for about ten rounds, only to hear Huang Gai shout loudly and use his left hand.
A whip hit Zhou Xin on the chest, shattering a bronze breast mirror. Zhou Xin was startled, reined in his horse and ran away. Huang Gai, who had expected this move, patted his horse and caught up with his right hand.
A whip hit him on the back of the head. His brains suddenly burst. Zhou Xin staggered on his horse and fell down.
Wang Lang saw it from the top of the city and repeatedly ordered the city gate to be closed. When the soldiers who followed Zhou Xin out of the city saw Zhou Xin being whipped to death by Huang Gai, they all turned around and fled into the city. For a while, the people in the city wanted to close the city gate.
At the city gate, people outside the city were in a hurry to enter the city, and they actually blocked the gate of Jiangji City.
In desperation, Wang Lang didn't care that the people crowding the city were all his own soldiers and horses, and shouted loudly: "Quick, shoot random arrows!"