My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 274 The Final Blow to Zhang Xian

After capturing Baqiu without a fight and completely controlling the mouth of Dongting Lake in the hands of Liu Bei's army, Liu Biao's interference in the Jingnan area was basically blocked.

Because all the areas along the south bank of the Yangtze River that followed Zhang Xian in rebellion had fallen into Liu Bei's hands.

With this isolation zone, even if Liu Biao transferred his main force from Wancheng all the way 800 miles south to Jiangling, he would have no way to expand the results of the battle and could only stabilize his rear.

With Liu Biao's courage, his attempt to take back Wancheng had already completely offended Cao Cao, and he did not dare to take the risk of going to war with Liu Bei again.

Even if one is unwilling to accept the situation, one can only resolve it through negotiations with envoys to see if one can get some benefits back from the negotiation table.

It is normal for these literary exchanges to drag on for two or three months. Zhuge Liang in the rear will take care of and stabilize the situation, so the front-line generals do not need to spend any energy on it.

Zhao Yun ambushed and annihilated Huan Jie's troops in the early morning of May 9, then captured Baqiu City on May 10. It took him two or three days to restore order in the city, and then he quickly marched forward to threaten Luo County.

The only regret in the Battle of Bazhou was that Huan Jie was not captured or killed. Zhao Yun's initial plan of luring the enemy to break out and then ambushing them on the road outside the east city gate did include an attempt to kill Huan Jie, which Zhao Yun had thought of.

It’s a pity that things are unpredictable. When it comes to the actual execution on the battlefield, there is always chaos and darkness at night, so there are always various omissions.

Moreover, Zhao Yun did not expect Huan Jie to be so shameless. When the captured enemy officers were tortured after the war, several Changsha army officers confessed that Huan Jie had changed into the uniform of an ordinary soldier before leaving the city, and did not carry any seals or other items to prove his identity.

Zhao Yun slightly underestimated Huan Jie's will to escape. This guy is quite difficult to kill.

However, Zhao Yun also knew very well how to make up for it - as long as he captured Luo County as soon as possible and approached Xiangyin, he would prevent Huan Jie from organizing a second line of defense and slow down his own advance, then he could minimize the danger of Huan Jie's escape.

Luo County is roughly located between today's Xiangyin County and Miluo County. In the late Han Dynasty, it was the estuary where the Xiangjiang River flowed into Dongting Lake. It was also the place where the ancient Chu State poet Qu Yuan jumped into the Xiangjiang River.

Zhao Yun divided his troops to stabilize the order in Bachu in the rear, while at the same time sending the vanguard troops south to encircle Luo County, to ensure that the escaped Huan Jie could not return to Luo County and could not boost morale and organize the people.

Then, after the rear was completely stabilized, the main force was slowly transferred to prepare for the siege.

Gan Ning's navy also plundered and incorporated counties along the coast of Dongting Lake, cutting off the waterways between the various water systems flowing into Dongting Lake as a deterrent.

With these two approaches in place, the magistrate of Luo County finally did not have the courage to resist to the end. He opened the city and surrendered on May 17, two days after the arrival of Zhao Yun's main siege force.

Zhao Yun took a short break in Luo County, and continued south to Linxiang, finally approaching Zhang Xian's base. It is unknown whether Huan Jie took a detour back to Linxiang and met up with Zhang Xian during the time when Zhao Yun broke through Luo County, but this did not affect the overall situation.

While Zhao Yun captured Luo County, Gan Ning's troops swept along Dongting Lake and captured Yiyang.

Finally, Zhang Fei's troops in the northwest also returned to Zuo Tang from Chanling, continued to move south to recover Lingyang and Hanshou counties, and finally approached Linyuan County, the seat of Wuling County.

There were almost no battles in Lingyang and Hanshou where Zhang Fei fought, as all the battles were won based on orders. This was because the main force of Wuling Prefect Jin Xuan's field troops had been mostly wiped out by Zhang Fei in the Battle of Chanling. Jin Xuan had no mobile forces to defend and could only rely on the city guards and militiamen from various counties to hold on.

Seeing that Zhang Fei was fighting under the banner of the General of Chariots and Cavalry to suppress the rebellion, these second-line troops and miscellaneous personnel would never work hard for Jin Xuan. Of course, they would join whoever came their way.

Throughout mid-May and late May, the three generals of Liu Bei's camp basically spent their time in rapid advancement - this was also a matter of course, there was nothing to envy. After all, Jin Xuan's Wuling soldiers' field troops and the main field forces of Xing Daorong sent by Changsha and Lingling counties were all destroyed by the three generals of Liu Bei's army.

If the main force of the enemy was annihilated in the field battle, the subsequent advancement should have been unstoppable and could advance hundreds of miles in a short time.

At the end of May, Zhao Yun successfully began preparations for the siege of Linxiang, and Zhang Fei also began preparations for the siege of Linyuan.

In comparison, the attack on Linxiang was much more difficult. After all, Zhang Xian had served as the governor of three counties in southern Jingnan, and had been in charge for seven or eight years, so he was deeply rooted. Given the lack of information in ancient times, many people in the area only knew about Lord Zhang, but not the emperor.

Moreover, Zhang Xian used the imperial edict of Xudu to deceive many key officers into believing that they were the imperial garrison and Liu Bei was the traitor who opposed Cao Sikong's regent. After years of management and brainwashing by Zhang Xian, the Changsha garrison was full of fighting spirit.

Zhang Xian and his trusted officials also knew that if they were caught by Liu Bei they would surely die, and there was nowhere to escape, so they became more desperate and fought to the death.

Zhao Yun could only build and deploy ladders, Ge Gongche, and catapults step by step to destroy the outer trench fortifications, sheep and horse walls and moats.

It is estimated that it would take half a month to prepare the siege equipment before the battle, and another half a month to destroy the fortifications. A normal siege, even if it goes smoothly, will definitely take more than a month. If casualties are taken into account, it may take two or three months.

Don't complain that it's too slow. In the original history, the battle to suppress Zhang Xian's rebellion was given to Liu Biao, and Liu Biao fought for a whole year. Now, even if Zhao Yun took two or three months to break Changsha City, the entire Jingnan Campaign only took five months, which is 60% shorter than Liu Biao's performance in the same period of history. Although Zhang Xian is not outstanding in history books, his foundation in Jingnan is very solid. It can even be said that in terms of local control alone, his foundation is deeper than that of the Sun family in Wuhui.

Sun Ce conquered Wuhui by force, without deep cultivation and management, so many people under him were respectful but not convinced. Zhang Xian, on the other hand, had been managing Wuhui for seven or eight years by combining kindness with force.

As the siege of Changsha began, Zhao Yun's army encountered another problem. As time entered the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the heat in southern Jing caused the soldiers from the northern part of the army to suffer from acclimatization.

After several tentative attacks, Zhao Yun found that some soldiers suffered from heat stroke and other diseases in large numbers. He had to reduce the intensity of the attack to avoid too many non-combat casualties.

Then the population of the siege camp should not be too dense to prevent the outbreak of plague in the camp during the hot summer.

After entering June, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang in the rear also sent people to comfort the troops and ask about the progress of Zhao Yun's offensive. Zhao Yun also truthfully recounted the difficulties on the front line and hoped that there would be no pressure to rush, so as to avoid too many casualties and infections.

After the news was reported back to Wuchang, Zhuge Liang wrote another letter, suggesting that Zhao Yun could temporarily encircle the isolated city of Changsha without attacking it, avoiding the hottest season of summer, and at the same time divide his troops to conquer various counties, as well as Lingling, Guiyang and other places.

Zhao Yun had originally had this idea, and after getting the approval of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, he decisively carried it out. Anyway, as long as they surrounded Changsha City and ensured that Zhang Xian could not break out, it would not take much manpower.

Dispersing troops and reducing density will also help reduce the spread of diseases and improve sanitary conditions.

Zhao Yun only left 10,000 men in Changsha, and the rest of the troops went up the Xiao and Xiang rivers, and those who could be forced to land did so. During June and July, they fled most of the land in southern Jing.

When Guiyang Prefect Zhao Fan learned that Xing Daorong had died in battle, Huan Jie was missing, and Zhang Xian was surrounded in Changsha City, he was terrified and finally chose to surrender directly.

Except for some small-scale contact battles at the beginning and frictions and pursuits with bandits and robbers, there was basically no fighting in Guiyang County, and the entire county surrendered directly.

The Jingnan defenders in Lingling County still wanted to fight a few more battles. Some of their generals were Zhang Xian's trusted subordinates, but most of them had no will to fight. Especially when they learned that Zhang Xian was surrounded in Changsha City, those officials who felt that Zhang Xian's situation was hopeless chose to surrender one after another.

By the end of July, more than half of Lingling County had been conquered by Zhao Yun, and there were only seven or eight scattered small counties left. However, due to its remote location, deep in the Wuling Mountain area bordering Jiaozhou, and the subtropical jungle climate, there were many snakes and insects in the summer, making it impossible for the army to pass through.

We can only wait until the weather gets cooler and then slowly collect them. It’s not a big deal.

Finally, Zhang Fei's troops besieged Linyuan County, the seat of Wuling Prefecture, much faster than Zhao Yun's attack on Changsha. It took Zhang Fei only one month to lay siege and prepare siege equipment. By the end of June, he had conquered Linyuan despite the scorching heat.

The main reason was that the morale of the Wuling defenders was far less than that of the Changsha defenders, and their fighting spirit was weak. The governor Jin Xuan was betrayed by his subordinates, and his subordinates agreed with Zhang Fei to surrender the city and welcome Zhang Fei's army into the city.

When Jin Xuan realized that the situation was not good and tried to break out, he was eventually killed in the chaos, and the Han part of Wuling County was pacified. There were still some areas controlled by the Wuling Barbarians, which could only be conquered slowly in the future when there was time.

After Zhang Fei pacified Wuling, he did not send troops south to help encroach on the small mountainous counties in Lingling County that had not yet been controlled, because he soon had a new assignment - negotiations and mediation had already begun between Liu Biao's army on the northern front and Liu Bei on the responsibility and distribution of rights and interests in suppressing the rebellion in southern Jing.

Therefore, Zhang Fei, the bad guy, was needed to go to the river defense line in Wuling County and Baqiu County in Changsha County to completely strengthen the fence on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and to adopt a tough stance of "no one can speak without the clear order from the eldest brother" to prevent Liu Biao's military infiltration.

It is roughly equivalent to the role played by Guan Yu in Jingzhou during the Xiangshui negotiations between Sun and Liu in history. For some things, the time difference can be used.

Time quickly came to August of the fifth year of Jian'an.

As the hottest months of the lunar calendar passed, Zhang Xian in Changsha was also exhausted by Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun's army regrouped the troops that had pacified Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang, preparing to deal a fatal blow to Zhang Xian's last isolated city.

Except for the isolated city of Changsha, all the other four counties in southern Jing have been basically pacified, or have not yet been occupied and taken over.

The focus of the entire Jingzhou was on three things:
How Zhao Yun broke through Zhang Xian's last stronghold,

How Zhang Fei made trouble on the south bank of the Yangtze River to prevent Liu Biao's people from taking over,
And how Zhuge Liang dealt with Yi Ji, the envoy sent by Liu Biao to negotiate the issue of interest distribution.

-

PS: This chapter is a bit of a log, but it is necessary to advance the map. The Jingnan dungeon will be finished tomorrow. These troops can be transferred back to Jiangdong to start the final battle against the Sun family.

I don't want to take over the vast territory of Shuiwen and Jingnan bit by bit, which is too easy. I think it's quite suitable for the current details. After annihilating Jin Xuan and Xing Daorong, the remaining work of grabbing the land can be done in one chapter.

(End of this chapter)