The veterans heard it right. The young general of theirs was talking about attacking Ai County.
Ai County is located at the westernmost end of Yuzhang County and is also the first county at the beginning of the Xiushui system.
This Yuzhang County is adjacent to Changsha County, which belongs to Jingzhou. When Liu Biao was still ruling Jingzhou, his nephew Liu Pan repeatedly invaded Ai County and invaded Yuzhang County, but was defeated by Taishi Ci.
This Yuzhang County is sparsely populated and cannot be considered a wealthy place. For the Eastern Wu, it is not an extremely important county.
But the special feature of Yuzhang County is that Chaisang City is also affiliated with this county.
Xiushui River went from west to east, passed through Xi'an, Yongxiu, and Haihun several counties, and finally merged into Poyang Lake.
Go north along Poyang Lake, you can enter the Yangtze River within a few days and reach east of Chaisang.
This means that if Wei Yan's army successfully invaded Yuzhang County, it would threaten to cut off the 50,000 troops of Eastern Wu and Jiangdong after cutting off the connection between the 50,000 troops of Eastern Wu.
This was exactly the plan that Jia Xu had made for Yan Liang that day.
Jia Xu knew very well that the Wu people were attacked by Yan Liang from 6 paths to the hinterland of Chaisang from the south. Therefore, when Sun Quan led his troops westward, he would definitely put the troops in the mountain passes in the southern part of Chaisang in advance.
Jia Xu cleverly changed his thinking and suggested that Yan Liang send troops to attack Yuzhang and threaten to the east of Chaisang from Yuzhang County.
As long as Wei Yan's surprise troops could invade Yuzhang County, Sun Quan was afraid that the Jiangdong road would be cut off. Even if he did not withdraw his troops immediately, he would draw troops to support Yuzhang County.
At that time, Wei Yan did not need to continue attacking. He could easily hold up a considerable number of Wu troops by just relying on troops to defend.
In this way, when Sun Quan's troops were weakened, his attack on Fankou would naturally be delayed.
After weighing Jia Xu's advice, Yan Liang made a decisive decision, and Wei Yan would complete the mission of this surprise attack.
Except for senior strategists and generals such as Yan Liang and Wei Yan, ordinary officers and soldiers had no idea about this strategy. From the moment Wei Yan left, the seven thousand soldiers had always thought they would take six paths to attack the south of Chaisang.
It was not until this time that Wei Yan revealed his mystery to them.
The soldiers who suddenly realized had no time to taste the surprise and had not had enough time to rest for a long time. Wei Yan ordered the entire army to go out again.
Wei Yan knew very well that in order to prevent the third time, the Wu people would inevitably have installed many detailed works in the Mufu Mountain area to detect the movements of their own army at any time.
Perhaps, at this moment, the Wu people's detailed works had already revealed their traces and were sending the information to Sun Quan.
What Wei Yan had to do was to change the way immediately and cross mountains and ridges before Sun Quan learned of his real attack target on this trip. He rushed into Yuzhang County with lightning speed.
The seven thousand Yan family soldiers did not have too much time to think. As iron-blooded soldiers, they didn’t need to use their brains. All they had to do was to obey unconditionally.
The entire army rushed and took a full three hours to cross the ridge to the east.
Soon after, Xiushui River entered the field of view. Wei Yan led his army to continue eastward along the river valley. The more he went east, the more flatter and wider the terrain became, and the marching was accelerated.
When only the last slanting light remained in the setting sun, the target city finally appeared in Wei Yan's vision.
Ai County, a small county on the western side of Yuzhang County, is now lying quietly by the Xiushui River, bathing in the sunset in the west. Just as I was about to fall into the arms of the night, I didn't know that a few miles away, there were a group of hungry beasts staring at her with their fierce eyes.
"After walking for so many days, he finally arrived!"
At this moment, Wei Yan felt so happy, and his murderous intent was igniting in his eyes.
Behind him, the seven thousand soldiers who were sweating profusely, ragged, and tired as if they were dogs, also had an excited and fierce light in their eyes.
"Brothers, there is Ai County ahead. Some of the city are good wine and meat, and some are white wives. Let me go into the city with me-"
Wei Yan roared angrily, and rode his horse and danced his sword out like the wind.
Good wine and good meat, white woman...
What else can arouse the fighting spirit of such a tired army more than these things? The seven thousand warriors are thriving in their blood, like hungry beasts, burst out and follow Wei Yan toward Aicheng.
...
Several miles away, Ai County.
On the top of the city wall, the young young man was patrolling the city wall listlessly.
The young general's name is Taishixiang, the son of Taishici, the general of Eastern Wu.
At that time, Liu Pan repeatedly invaded Yuzhang, but no one could control it. Sun Quan appointed Taishi Ci as the commander of Jianchang and ordered him to take charge of the counties of Ai, Xi'an, Jianchang and Haihun to deal with Liu Pan's invasion.
The Jiangdong army was privately owned. After Taishici was ordered to be transferred to Shouchun, he took away most of the troops. Less than 800 troops were left. The troops were led by Taishixiang and stationed in Ai County and guarded the western frontier of Yuzhang County for the Eastern Wu.
When Liu Pan was defeated by Taishi Ci, he did not dare to violate Yuzhang again. As Liu Pan was killed by Yan Liang, Jingzhou
As Yan Liang turned his focus to the north, Changsha County's threat to Yuzhang was reduced sharply since then.
Over the years, Yuzhang County has never suffered an invasion from Jingzhou.
Therefore, guarding Ai County is a real idle misfortune for Tai Shixiang.
Standing at the top of the city with a sword, looking at the setting sun, Tai Shixiang sighed and murmured: "I'm idle all day long. I don't know when I can lead my army to kill the enemy, make achievements like my father, and openly expand the territory for the emperor..."
Taishi Xiang sighed melancholy. It was obvious that as a famous general, he did not like this leisure time.
The sun is about to sink, and another boring day is about to pass.
Tai Shixiang sighed for a while, and after settling down on duty, he was about to turn around and get off the city.
Just as he turned around and had not stepped on the slanting ladder, suddenly, he seemed to hear something unusual in his ears.
Tai Shixiang instinctively raised his ears, turned around slowly, and returned to the battlement again.
The strange sound came from the west. He looked for the sound and raised his head, raised his eyes to the west, and looked suspiciously.
At the end of the avenue, there seemed to be a stream of dust convoluted.
Tai Shixiang's figure was slightly shaken, and an ominous feeling suddenly surged in his heart.
The dust fog became closer and closer, and in a moment it approached. The originally subtle sound also turned into a loud noise like the sky collapsed and the earth cracked.
In the dust and mist, countless figures emerged from it like ghosts. The flag fluttering in the wind was written with the word "Wei".
"It's Yan...Yan Jun!"
Tai Shixiang's head buzzed, and infinite horror instantly hit his whole body like a tide.
Aren’t Yan Liang’s army all gathered in Fankou and was dealing with the attack of the 60,000 troops led by the lord? How could it suddenly appear in Ai County?
Moreover, looking at the dense shadows of enemy, there were six or seven thousand people.
How did such an army hide the detailed reconnaissance and appear in Ai County like a divine weapon descending from the sky? Why didn’t there any reminder on Chaisang?
There were countless questions in his mind in an instant, but he couldn't find out because the turbulent enemy tide had already swept like a strong wind.
Seven thousand soldiers of the Yan family army rushed to the front of the city in a blink of an eye.
Tai Shixiang, who was looking forward to killing the enemy and making meritorious contributions, could only panic and scold his equally panic-like subordinates to resist the enemy that was killed like a tiger and wolf.
Outside the city, Wei Yan was sneering.
"Everything is the same as the lord expected. The Wu people in Ai County are indeed unprepared. Today, it is finally time for me, Wei Yan to make achievements, hehe."
Amid the sneer, Wei Yanyang shouted loudly, directing his soldiers like tigers and wolves to rush towards the city wall regardless of everything.
The city defense of Ai County was originally quite solid, but because Tai Shixiang was negligent in defense, there were only more than 400 soldiers on the city at this moment. However, in the Xicheng faced Wei Yan's main attack direction, there were less than 200 soldiers. With such a small number of troops, how could it resist the attack of Wei Yan's army?
The arrows shot from scattered and tickled, as if they were tickling Yan Jun, and they could not stop these tiger and wolf men from charging.
More than 7,000 people each brought a bundle of firewood into the moat. In a blink of an eye, they filled the deep trenches several meters deep. Yan's soldiers who passed through the moat began to climb the city wall like a tide.
Although there were no regular siege equipment like Yun Ladder, Wei Yan did not carry a large number of flying hooks during this trip. Hundreds of iron claws hooked the city walls, and thousands of people followed the city walls with a comprehensive attack. How could the more than 200 Wu troops on the city be able to cope with it?
In a blink of an eye, hundreds of Yan army warriors snatched up the city and started a melee with the Wu army at the city. The flawless Wu army could only allow more and more enemy troops to climb up the city. Even though Tai Shixiang relied on his martial arts and killed several enemy soldiers, he could not stop this huge momentum of climbing the city.
With a loud rumbling sound, the suspension bridge was cut off, and the west gate of Ai County was also opened by Yan's army. A large number of Yan's army outside the city began to rush towards the gate like a tide.
Seeing this situation, Tai Shixiang knew that the situation was hopeless. If he persisted, he would die here today.
Without thinking too much, he rushed to kill the city, and drove up the road, trying to escape to the east of the city.
Just when he didn't urge the horse in time, it was too late.
At the wide open city gate, countless Yan soldiers roared in like tigers and wolves, and Wei Yan was even more powerful and wanted to harvest people's heads.
He looked up and saw a short distance. Tai Shixiang was trying to escape. Wei Yan did not say anything, and rode his horse and danced his sword, and ran up like lightning.
The long sword in his hand, holding a powerful force, was like a storm and wave, and slashed towards Taishixiang on his head.
The enemy's force came too fast, and Tai Shixiang could not dodge at all.
As a famous general, he seemed to be aroused by ambition at this time. He then put his sword eyebrows forward, mustered up the courage, held up the big sword, and fought hard to block each other.
With the loud shout, Wei Yan's sword was already attacking wildly.