My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 277 The Army Marches on Ruyin
Zhou Yu was surprised. Liu Xun had been trying to entice Zhou Yu to help him with this, but Zhou Yu hadn't really held out much hope.

After all, he was very clear about Liu Xun's personality, and he had actually made other preparations long ago.

Unexpectedly, Liu Xun was serious this time and even recruited him as the Commandant of Lujiang, a military position that was more than enough to command an army.

Zhou Yu once served as the magistrate of Juchao under Yuan Shu, a county with a salary of 600 shi (a unit of grain). Yuan Shu even wanted to promote Zhou Yu to the rank of colonel, but Zhou Yu refused.

However, Zhou Yu already had sufficient qualifications. Liu Xun's appointment of Zhou Yu as a commandant at this time was not only legitimate, but also a perfect match in terms of ability and qualifications, and no one would object.

For Liu Xun, Zhou Yu had truly put in a lot of effort in this matter, and he should be rewarded for his contributions no matter what, otherwise who would work hard for him in the future?

There is also a deeper reason: the Zhou family has too high a reputation in Lujiang, and Zhou Yu now represents the Zhou family.

Liu Xun intended to use the pretext of reinforcing Shouchun to transfer Zhou Yu out of Lujiang, so that he could not return for a while.

In this way, no matter what decision Liu Xun wanted to make in the future, he could make it alone without having to consult with Zhou Yu or even try to win him over by dividing up the spoils.

Looking at Zhou Yu's grateful face, Liu Xun thought about his plan to kill two birds with one stone and couldn't help but smile smugly.

Zhou Yu smiled brightly, having achieved his goal and unexpectedly received a pleasant surprise at the end.

With the military rank of Commandant of Lujiang, he could rightfully lead the army northward, which was a huge relief to Zhou Yu's plan.

In this way, Zhou Yu felt that his plan was foolproof.

That night, Liu Xun invited Zhou Yu to a banquet. Both sides got what they wanted and were in high spirits, drinking until they were completely drunk.

********
After Liu Bei gained Liu Pi's allegiance, he immediately appointed Liu Pi as a lieutenant general, and He Man, Zhang Peng, Zhou Cang, and Pei Yi as generals of the central army, each in charge of the front, rear, left, and right commandants of Runan.

At the same time, Liu Bei also ordered Liu Pi to lead He Man and Zhang Peng to select 6,000 men to meet at the city of Ruyin and join forces to march south.

Liu Pi immediately accepted the order and prepared to take his leave.

Liu Bei, however, grasped Liu Pi's hand and said, "Gongxiao, you must know one thing on your journey: the discipline of our Xuzhou army is strict, and it is strictly forbidden to disturb the people. Anyone who robs the people or harasses the local area will be executed without mercy. I know that your troops have always had lax discipline, but now that they are under my control, you can no longer ignore this matter."

Liu Pi, courtesy name Gongxiao.

Upon hearing this, he nodded repeatedly and replied, "My lord, please rest assured. I am already aware of this matter and will certainly pay extra attention. Upon returning to Pingyu, I will first rectify military discipline, select elite troops, and join you in Ruyin!"

"good!"

Liu Bei patted Liu Pi's hand: "I will wait for Gongxiao in Ruyin."

"Thank you very much, sir!"

Liu Bei escorted Liu Pi five li outside Xiang County, but Liu Pi repeatedly begged Liu Bei to stay, and only then did he give up.

Liu Pi, accompanied by He Man and Zhang Peng, bowed deeply to Liu Bei in farewell, then mounted his horse and returned to Pingyu.

After returning to Xiang County, Liu Bei received a document from Zhang Fei's troops.

The document reports that after Zhang Fei joined forces with Zhao Yun's troops, he marched south with Guo Jia's advice, and arrived at Longkang City along the Huo River.

During the southward march, the surrounding counties of Pei and Runan frequently submitted surrender documents, bowing their heads in submission.

This included four counties: Shansang County in Runan, Zhi County, Yang County, Zhuyi, and Fuli County in Pei State, which surrendered without resistance.

On the advice of Guo Jia and Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei accepted their surrender and ordered them to transport grain to the walls of Longkang City.

At this time, there were more than 4,000 garrison troops in Longkang City. The main force consisted of Liang Gang's 2,000 men, plus 1,000 garrison troops, as well as hundreds of county soldiers and the retainers of local powerful clans. The remaining 1,000 were young men who were temporarily recruited.

The truly capable fighters were Liang Gang's two thousand retainers and one thousand garrison troops; the remaining one thousand or so able-bodied county soldiers were probably only good at throwing stones and shooting arrows.

Seeing Zhang Fei's army of ten thousand men, Liang Gang was filled with panic.

As Liu Bei's official rank and reputation grew, so did the reputations of his loyal ministers.

Liu Bei's close generals, such as Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, had already become famous in their respective regions. They were well-known in Xuzhou and their fame extended beyond Xuzhou as well.

As one of Yuan Shu's top generals, Liang Gang's judgment was undoubtedly excellent.

He had long heard of the formidable reputations of Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, and now the two of them were serving him alone, with their forces outnumbered by five to one.

Liang Gang was already restless, but when the time came, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and deploy troops for defense.

Fortunately, he never slacked off after arriving in Longkang. He diligently inspected the city's defenses and reinforced and improved the areas where they were lacking.

He is now very grateful for his previous diligence, which has given him a sense of security.

However, Zhang Fei did not intend to attack the city immediately. Instead, he left his camp and dug deep trenches, as if he wanted to completely surround Longkang.

Although Liang Gang was puzzled, he was also secretly pleased. He wished Zhang Fei would besiege him for a year or two, since there was plenty of grain stored in Longkang City, enough for Liang Gang's army to eat for half a year.

By the time the war between Yuan Shu and Liu Bei is over in six months, the outcome will likely be decided. He would be much happier to wait and see before making a decision than to start fighting now.

As if Zhang Fei had truly heard Liang Gang's thoughts, after leaving camp, he began cutting down trees and methodically but unhurriedly crafting various siege weapons.

Liang Gang also knew that once the siege equipment was ready, it would be time for the enemy to launch a full-scale attack.

He did want to sabotage it, but Zhang Fei's army protected the siege weapons very well, leaving Liang Gang only able to sigh in despair.

After learning that Zhang Fei had already surrounded Longkang, Liu Bei's central army finally moved.

Liu Bei appointed Tian Yu as his vanguard and personally led an army of 24,000 (falsely claiming 100,000) to march straight towards Ruyin City along the Ying River.

As Liu Bei's old comrade and a veteran minister in the second batch of leaders of various schools, Tian Yu spent the past year in Pei State doing his best to stabilize the local area, eliminate bandits, and assist Chen Gui in governing Pei State to prosperity.

As a military general who was not yet thirty, Tian Yu was not willing to retire in Pei State.

When Liu Bei launched his southern campaign, he specially transferred Tian Yu from Pei State to provide reinforcements, which made Tian Yu extremely happy.

However, Liu Bei also received letters from his beloved generals Zang Ba and Qian Zhao, who were very envious that Tian Yu had been summoned by Liu Bei. They expressed their desire to make contributions to Xuzhou and to serve Liu Bei in various ways in their letters.

This forced Liu Bei to repeatedly write letters to appease the other side and promise that he would give them priority in the next battle.

After receiving Liu Bei's assurance, Zang Ba and Qian Zhao quieted down for a while, but a few days later, they wrote again to inquire whether Liu Bei had sufficient troops and if needed, they could draw some more troops from them.

As Liu Bei's cause continued to grow, everyone's confidence and aspirations naturally increased as well.

Previously, Zang Ba's goal was merely to become the governor of a prefecture, while Tian Yu and Qian Zhao only wanted to stand out and make a name for themselves in their respective regions.

But now that Liu Bei has become the General of the Cavalry and oversees the affairs of three provinces, Zang Ba and others can't help but feel that they can set their life goals higher, such as becoming the governor of a province, or even the governor of a province.

To continue to advance, one obviously needs merit, and a large amount of merit at that.

Compared to political achievements that take a long time to accumulate, military achievements are undoubtedly a faster source of merit.

This explains why Zang Ba and Qian Zhao were so active.

In Liu Bei's army, Xun You served as military advisor and recruited Chen Jiao, Xu Xuan and others to serve as confidential scribes.

Ruyin City is an important town in Runan. Although the prefecture seat is in Pingyu, Ruyin is not only not inferior to Pingyu in all aspects, but even surpasses it.

Especially the city walls. The city walls of Ruyin City are 16 li in circumference, and the entire city wall is 3 zhang high. The base is more than 6 zhang wide, and the top is 1 to 3 zhang wide. The widest part can even be used by galloping horses.

The walls are made of rammed earth, with bricks on the outside. The lower part of the outer wall has a 2-meter-high stone base, and the whole structure slopes inward and tapers in layers.

The city was located northeast of the Ying River, and the city walls were surrounded by a moat more than ten feet wide, which was fed by water from the Ying River. Such a formidable city was no less impressive than Shouchun. In addition, there were five or six thousand soldiers in the city, as well as an equal number of able-bodied men. It is no wonder that Yuan Shu had great confidence in Ruyin.

Don't underestimate five or six thousand able-bodied men. In a field battle, Liu Bei could probably defeat the enemy with a thousand-man squad or even several hundred-man squads, and then chase and beat them like rabbits.

However, the situation is completely different when it comes to defending a city. These able-bodied men would be a powerful supplement to the regular army, as well as the best logistics soldiers, responsible for transporting military equipment, supplies, and grease to the city walls.

At the same time, they can be incorporated into the regular army at any time to supplement military strength.

With the city walls as a support, these young men would become bolder, and as the battle progressed, they might even evolve into veterans.

Therefore, if a siege cannot be completed in a short period of time, it can easily turn into a prolonged siege.

As soon as Liu Bei's army moved, Qiao Rui's requests for help poured into Shouchun like snowflakes.

Unfortunately, no reinforcements were requested. Instead, Qiao Rui was severely reprimanded by Yuan Shu, who ordered him to defend Ruyin to the death and strictly forbade him from abandoning the city.

At the same time, Yuan Shu also sent a message to Qiao Rui, clearly informing him that he was already gathering troops and that reinforcements from all directions would gather in Shouchun and then head north to relieve the siege of Ruyin.

Ruyin is less than 200 li away from Shouchun, with Shenxian County in between as its support.

If Yuan Shu were to gather an elite force of 20,000 to 30,000 men and march north, it would indeed be possible to successfully relieve the siege.

On the other hand, Yuan Shu also urged Liu Xun, Sun Ben and others to speed up the dispatch of reinforcements, and approved Liu Xun's recommendation of Zhou Yu as the Commandant of Lujiang.

At this moment, Yuan Shu was eager to win over more forces to serve him. It was rare that the Zhou family was willing to take up military positions at this critical juncture. Yuan Shu not only did not suspect anything, but was even pleasantly surprised.

Under pressure from Yuan Shu, Sun Ben had no choice but to gather 8,000 men with Sun Xiang and set off first, led by Sun Xiang himself, to Hefei. They would wait for reinforcements from Lujiang to join them before continuing north to reinforce Shouchun.

Liyang originally had more than 20,000 men, but Sun Ben and Sun Xiang had secretly sent 5,000 men across the river to Wu to join Sun Ce.

At present, Liyang only has 15,000 men left. After discussing it, Sun Ben and Sun Xiang decided to send 8,000 troops first, with Sun Xiang and Sun Ben each contributing 4,000 men. Sun Ben would lead the remaining 5,000 men to defend Liyang, while secretly expanding their military strength to prevent attacks from Liu Bei's army in Guangling or Liu Yao's army in Niuzhu on the opposite bank.

After receiving messages from Yuan Shu and Sun Ben, Liu Xun urged Zhou Yu to set off.

Thus, Zhou Yu finally led 8,000 troops and more than 5,000 laborers, escorting hundreds of carts carrying tens of thousands of bushels of grain, and began to head north.

He will arrive in Hefei within five days, and then the grain will be transported to Shouchun by waterway. The troops will travel by land, joining Sun Xiang to go to Shouchun as reinforcements.

At this time, among the eight thousand retainers in Lujiang, four thousand five hundred were from Zhou Yu's family. They were either old retainers or farmhands, and some had even served the Zhou family for three generations, so their loyalty was extremely high.

Of the remaining 3,500 people, 30% had some indirect connection with the Zhou family, and even the rest had heard of the Zhou family.

Therefore, Zhou Yu quickly won over the hearts of his troops and firmly controlled the military power of these eight thousand troops.

Sun Xiang led his own 4,000 men, along with an additional 4,000 men assigned to him by Sun Ben, to set off ahead of them. After all, not only was the journey long, but a third of the way was through mountainous terrain.

In fact, neither Sun Xiang nor Sun Ben wanted to come.

However, Yuan Shu has never mistreated them, nor has he engaged in the brainless act of declaring himself emperor, as is common in history.

Sun Ce was still in Jiangdong, and surrounded by enemies, so he had an excuse not to come. But Sun Ben and Sun Xiang had no choice but to come, otherwise their reputations would be ruined.

Sun Xiang set off with a heavy heart and arrived in Hefei on the fifth day of the ninth month. At this time, Zhou Yu had also been on his way from Shucheng County for three days. He would arrive in Hefei in just two more days.

Fortunately, after Liu Bei arrived at the city of Ruyin, just as the news from Longkang had come, he was only engaged in civil engineering projects, surrounding Ruyin completely and building a large number of engineering machines, but he did not launch an attack on the city walls for a long time.

Qiao Rui, the commander of the city, stood ready for battle while trying to mobilize the city's forces to increase the chances of a successful defense.

This southward campaign by Liu Bei attracted considerable attention. Cao Cao in the north, Liu Biao in the south, the emperor in Luozhong, and even Yuan Shao north of the Yellow River and Liu Yao south of the Yangtze River all sent scouts, spies, and agents to investigate the situation of the battle.

Intelligence from the battlefield kept pouring back to Cao Cao, who found it interesting and thus appointed Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, Man Chong, and Xi Lu as his advisors.

Xi Lu was the latest talent he recruited. His courtesy name was Hongyu, and he was from Gaoping County, Shanyang Prefecture.

Xi Lu was born into the Xi clan of Gaoping and was a classmate of Sun Qian, who served under Liu Bei. However, Xi Lu was far more experienced than Sun Qian.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xi family was just a prominent family in a prefecture, enjoying a good reputation in Gaoping, but in Yanzhou, they were no longer considered important. Compared with the Zhou family of Shucheng, they were like stars compared to the bright moon, not even worth mentioning.

What no one could have imagined was that the once powerful Zhou family of Shucheng had been cursed since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. First, their direct descendants were wiped out by Dong Zhuo, and after Zhou Yu turned the tide, they died young.

The eldest son was exceptionally brave and resembled his father closely, but he died even earlier. His daughter married the crown prince Sun Deng, but Sun Deng also died young. After his younger son made a mistake, he was banished to a remote and desolate place by Sun Quan.

From then on, the Zhou family of Shucheng never recovered and disappeared into the annals of history.

On the contrary, it was this Xi Lu who ushered in the glorious beginning of the Xi clan for hundreds of years.

Xi Lu's main deeds are recorded in the Records of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, but he does not appear in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

But the things he did were all major events in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

When talking about Xi Lu, one cannot help but mention Xun Yu, the gravedigger of the Han Dynasty.

Xun Yu was hailed as a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty throughout his life, and he never betrayed the Han Dynasty until his death. However, almost everyone he recommended turned against him and vied to become a minister of Wei.

Zhong Yao, Hua Xin, Wang Lang, Du Ji, Zhao Yan, Chen Qun, and so on, almost all of them were like this.

And Xi Lu was the best among them.

After being recommended by Xun Yu, he guessed Cao Cao's intentions and took the initiative to defeat Kong Rong and dismiss him from his post.

Although the court reinstated Kong Rong as Grand Master of the Palace a year later, Cao Cao had already taken notice of Xi Lu's contributions.

Later, he overthrew Zhao Wen, who died suddenly, framed Kong Rong and executed him, and ignored the emperor's pleas to force the empress to commit suicide. Xi Lu almost became Cao Cao's front man.

Although Xi Lu himself did not become one of the Three Dukes like Cheng Yu, Wang Lang, Hua Xin, Zhong Yao, and Chen Qun, his sons were still rewarded with two thousand shi of grain.

Xi Lu's descendants truly rose to prominence during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, producing an empress and an empress dowager, and at one point, they dominated the central government. All three brothers held sway over the court.

From then until the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Xi family was always one of the most prestigious families in the country.

At this time, Xi Lu still acted like a virtuous scholar from a prestigious family, following Xun Yu's side.

"Gentlemen, please take a look."

Cao Cao pointed to the map and said, "Liu Bei is deliberately being mysterious. He has launched a three-pronged attack southward to conquer the Huai River, but he has stopped at the foot of a fortified city and is building up weapons. What do you all think his intention is?"

Although there were few people present, they were all among the most brilliant minds of the time. Xi Lu might be a little less brilliant, but he was definitely a smart man.

Several people gathered around the map, looking at it while listening to Cao Cao explain the details.

The more they listened, the more they realized something was wrong.

The saying goes, "Speed ​​is of the essence in war," but no one uses troops like Liu Bei.

Even if we have enough food to feed the population, is there any need to waste it like this?
Is it an attempt to besiege the city?
"Lord Xuande is a seasoned warrior, no ordinary man. His trip south this time, and the fact that he specifically sent his son to Luoyang to seek imperial orders, must have a profound meaning behind it."

Man Boning was the first to speak. His voice was loud and full of righteousness: "In my opinion, Lord Xuande must have a backup plan. However, I am not wise enough to know where this backup plan is."

After hearing Man Chong's words, Cheng Yu nodded in agreement, saying, "Bo Ning's words coincide with my own. Although I don't know what Lord Xuande's intentions are, I suppose he will launch his countermeasures before the construction of his fortifications is completed."

Cheng Yu was in charge of all affairs in Yanzhou at the time and should have rushed back to Yanzhou, but he was delayed by some matters and had not yet left Luoyang, so he was summoned by Cao Cao.

(End of this chapter)