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Chapter 2730 Jiangdong Attack!

Jingzhou is a very large territory, but the biggest headache is the lack of people. Therefore, the number of people that Wei Chi relocated this time was in the tens of thousands.

Fortunately, the Han Dynasty had already captured many counties in Runan, ensuring the supply of food and fodder for these people during their migration.

When Cao Ren of Yingchuan received the news, he originally wanted to send reinforcements, but he soon learned that Guan Ping was attacking Ye County.

Cao Ren was worried that this was just the vanguard. Considering that Man Chong said that Runan had almost been lost, he did not send troops to rescue it. He felt that sending too few troops would not make a difference, but sending too many would affect the defense of the city. Instead, he sent Man Chong to Shouchun to ask for help.

Of course, Cao Zhen couldn't just ignore everything, so he informed Cao Pi in Ye City that Ye County and Runan had been attacked at the same time.

Upon hearing this news, Cao Pi was furious and immediately prepared for a second personal campaign.

However, the emperor's personal expedition always takes a long time, and while they were delayed, 100,000 households in Runan were relocated.

Wei Chi acted relatively benevolently, allowing the people to sell their land and property to local powerful families and then reclaim land in Jingzhou to cultivate.

Therefore, the local powerful families readily agreed to the opportunity to expand their territory for free. They even provided carriages and horses to help transport the people, which explains the rapid evacuation.

With the tacit understanding between Wen Ping, Wei Chi, and the local powerful families, by the time Cao Pi led his army to Runan, the southern part of Runan was already almost deserted.

Actually, this was also Cao Pi's fault. He wanted to personally lead the expedition to reap the rewards, believing that with the mountains acting as a barrier, there wouldn't be many people coming, making it easy to pacify the region. He thought that no matter how much territory was taken, it would eventually be taken back.

Cao Pi did not expect that Wang Yue's target this time was not land, but population. So when Cao Pi arrived, he found that the powerful clans had already divided up all the local land, making it virtually impossible to recover.

It should be noted that these powerful clans did not pay taxes, so with Wang Yue's sneak attack, half of Runan was destroyed.

However, Cao Pi was furious and wanted to vent his anger, but he had nowhere to do so, because after Wen Ping received news of Cao Pi's impending attack from the powerful clans, he immediately escorted the supplies and retreated.

Moreover, Wen Ping and Wei Chi had joined forces in this mountainous area where transportation was not particularly convenient, and they had amassed nearly 4 troops. Cao Pi had no way to take advantage of their numerical superiority to launch an attack, and the two sides were locked in a stalemate.

Cao Pi was furious. The second imperial expedition could not end like this, so he arranged for Yu Jin, who had been redeemed and recuperating for a long time, to lead 30,000 soldiers to confront Wen Ping, and then went to Yingchuan.

At the same time, Cao Pi sent someone to Jiangdong to order Jiangdong to attack Jiangxia!
At this very moment, Liu Bei arrived with 50,000 troops from Shu. After hearing about Guan Yu's earlier actions, he immediately led his army to Wancheng, preparing to have a showdown between emperors with Cao Pi.

However, the battle took place in strategically important mountainous areas, places that were easy to defend and difficult to attack. This meant that the Cao and Han forces continued their stalemate. Although the fighting was intense, neither side could gain the upper hand.

At this time, Sun Quan, fearing an attack from Jiangxia, had returned to Jianye. In order to blockade the Yangtze River and protect the safety of Jiangdong, he had expanded his navy to more than 60,000 men.

With such a powerful navy blocking the borders of Wu and Wei, Sun Quan was finally able to sleep peacefully.

However, Jiangdong's naval camp near Chaisang only had more than 30,000 men. Therefore, in order to recapture Jingzhou in one fell swoop, Sun Quan appointed Lu Xun as the Grand Commander and led 30,000 naval troops and 30,000 infantrymen to rush towards Xiakou.

If they can capture Xiakou, Jiangdong can attack Jiangxia at any time. Even if this major battle fails, the losses won't be significant.

Xiakou, outside the water village
Guan Yinping stood on a rock, gazing at the river in the distance, and asked with some hesitation, "Husband, do you think the waters of Jiangdong will come?"

Seeing that Guan Yinping was clearly getting impatient, Wang Yue smiled and comforted her, "How could they not come? Haven't we already received news that they've mobilized their troops?"

Guan Yinping knew this, of course, but she was still a little worried and said, "But we don't know the exact time. If they don't come tonight, we've already held out for three days, and the soldiers probably won't be able to hold on any longer."

Wang Yue calmly reassured him, "No, the moon will be out tonight, it's no longer a good time for a sneak attack."

Guan Yinping glanced at the dark sky and thought it made sense, so she continued to wait.

The third watch.

Suddenly, a huge fire broke out in Xiakou Water Village, setting all the houses ablaze. Through the dazzling flames, boats could be seen everywhere on the river.

The Jiangdong navy has finally arrived!
Guan Yinping, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately shouted excitedly, "Catapults! Fire!"

The number of catapults produced in Jiangxia was enormous after a year of continuous improvement and production.

To ensure the effectiveness of the attack, Wang Yue had three thousand skilled soldiers in what he named the "Stone-Throwing Brigade," and to ensure a sufficient supply of stones, he also had twenty thousand auxiliary soldiers.

At Guan Yinping's command, a squadron of a thousand catapults were dispatched.

So many catapults hurled stones at the river, and after several rounds of attacks, hundreds more huge fireballs were launched at the river.

The fireballs were aimed directly at the tail end of the Jiangdong navy. When they were attacked by the stones, Lu Xun immediately ordered the ships to turn around.

As a result, the fireball hit the stern directly, instantly igniting several boats. At that moment, the east wind was blowing, and the fire quickly spread to other boats.

The boats were too late to avoid the fire ships, and with rocks raining down from the sky, they had no choice but to abandon their boats and jump into the river.

Even Lu Xun, knowing that the situation was hopeless, had no choice but to jump into the river with the help of his men and under the cover of the boats.

Meanwhile, at Fankou.

Pan Zhang led 30,000 infantrymen on a rapid advance along the riverbank. When he saw the towering flames of Xiakoushui in the distance, he immediately ordered an attack on Fankou.

What Fan Zhang didn't expect was that his army had just arrived at the city walls and hadn't even had time to order his soldiers to attack when hundreds of stones rained down from the city walls, instantly killing hundreds and injuring hundreds more.

(End of this chapter)