The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Thanks to Shen Yi's perfect planning, the battle ended with a complete victory for the Han army and the annihilation of the Wei army.

This victory even amazed Zhang Fei, who praised Shen Yi for waging a near-perfect annihilation battle.

After the great battle, Zhang Fei convened a meeting of his generals and decided to send Ding Feng with 10,000 troops and sufficient provisions to support Sui County. He and Shen Yi would remain in Jiangxia to stabilize the situation as soon as possible. At the same time, all Wei prisoners of war would be sent across the river for reform. As for Wen Ping, Tian Yu, Yang Tai, and You Ding, they would naturally be sent to Jiangling to be dealt with by Liu Bei.

The next morning, Ding Feng led his army to set off, while Wen Ping, Tian Yu, and the other three were sent away. Zhang Fei took full control of the Jiangxia army, and Shen Yi became the governor of Jiangxia, taking full control of Jiangxia's administration. The first thing he had to do was land reform.

It is worth mentioning that Shen Yi's position as the Prefect of Jiangxia was not temporarily appointed by Zhang Fei, but was a position he held concurrently from the beginning.

Jiangxia's jurisdiction was half in Jiangnan and half in Jiangbei. After the Battle of Red Cliffs, it was divided into three parts, with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan each occupying a part. After Sun Quan surrendered, all the counties in Jiangnan came under Liu Bei's control, and Shen Yi, who was stationed in Chaisang, naturally took on the position of governor of Jiangxia.

Now that the territory north of the Yangtze River has been recovered, it is only natural for Prefect Shen Yi to fulfill his duties.

Therefore, Shen Yi handed over the mess in Zhu County to Zhang Fei and rushed to Xiling to meet up with Guan Yan and Peng Yu. After Zhang Fei finished dealing with the matters in Zhu County, he would naturally also go to Xiling, since Xiling was the seat of Jiangxia Prefecture!

Furthermore, with the news of Wen Ping and Tian Yu's capture, Xu Huang, who was attacking Sui County, and Zhang Liao, who came to the rescue but was blocked by the Dabie Mountains, were also forced to retreat.

Only now has Jiangxia been completely recovered. Once Shen Yi completes the land reform, the Wei army will never be able to retake Jiangxia.

While Zhang Fei and Shen Yi were quickly reviewing Jiangxia's administrative affairs, three messengers with command flags on their backs ignored the city gate guards and charged into Jiangling City in an almost reckless manner. As soon as they entered the city, they impatiently shouted, "Great victory in Jiangxia... Great victory in Jiangxia..."

It was midday, and the streets were unusually crowded. Seeing the impetuous messenger, the man quickly made way, stepping to the side of the road before realizing what had happened. He grabbed his companion and asked, "What did they just say? A great victory at Jiangxia! Another victory?"

Victory is something everyone longs for, and upon hearing of the great victory at Jiangxia, the entire city rejoiced.

Amidst cheers, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Zhao, and others rushed into the palace to report the good news to Liu Bei.

But Liu Bei had already received the news and didn't need them to report it. Seeing the three of them come in, he immediately shouted excitedly, "Yun Chang, Kong Ming, Zi Bu, this battle was fought beautifully! This Shen Yi is simply a brilliant commander."

Guan Yu glanced at the ceiling with an arrogant expression. Shen Yi was promoted by his son, and he felt proud of the victory.

Zhuge Liang, waving his feather fan, exclaimed, "Indeed, by using all available resources to encircle them from all sides, first trapping Wen Ping and Tian Yu before launching a general offensive to capture them both in one fell swoop, what a brilliant strategy! With such a general in His Majesty's hands, how can the Han Dynasty not prosper?"

As is well known, annihilation battles are the most difficult to fight. Shen Yi not only succeeded in winning them, but also captured two generals, Wen Ping and Tian Yu.

Capturing the enemy's commander-in-chief alive, and even capturing two of them at once, would be a sensational event in any era.

After his initial excitement, Liu Bei said with a hint of regret, "It's a pity we couldn't take Zhangling. If we had, we wouldn't have had to cross the Han River; we could have gone straight to Nanyang from Jiangxia."

Jiangxia and Nanyang are separated by the Tongbai Mountains, and south of the Tongbai Mountains is the Dahong Mountains, and further south of the Dahong Mountains is the Han River. In other words, Jiangxia and Nanyang are separated by the Tongbai Mountains and the Dahong Mountains. The only passage is the Suizhang Corridor, which is sandwiched between the Tongbai Mountains and the Dahong Mountains. It was later renamed the Suizao Corridor.

To the east of the Sui-Zhang Corridor lies Sui County, and to the west lies Zhangling County. Now that the Han army has recovered Sui County, taking Zhangling would be tantamount to seizing the Wei army's gateway to Nanyang. They could enter Nanyang at any time if they wished.

But having just captured Sui County, he already had his eyes on Zhangling; Liu Bei was somewhat dissatisfied.

Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "It's only a matter of time, so there's no need to rush. The most urgent task now is to stabilize Jiangxia and appease the people and gentry. Shen Yi's battle report says that he plans to carry out land reform in Jiangxia. Although this is necessary, I'm afraid he's being too radical and pushing all the Jiangxia gentry to the opposite side of the court. So I'm thinking we should try to appease the Jiangxia gentry. Also, if Shen Yi is going to carry out land reform, he will definitely lack manpower. I plan to send a group of officials who are good at land reform to support him."

Liu Bei nodded and said, "The Prime Minister can handle these matters himself; there's no need to ask me."

Zhuge Liang added, "But Wen Ping and Tian Yu are about to be taken to Jiangling. His Majesty must personally appease them. The world is not yet unified, and their placement is directly related to the attitude of Wei generals towards the court, so we must be cautious."

These two were the only two Wei generals captured by Liu Bei after he ascended the throne. They had to be treated with the utmost courtesy. Only in this way would other Wei generals surrender willingly. Otherwise, if they were treated unfairly, other Wei generals would see that this was how the Han Dynasty treated them and would fight to the death with them on the battlefield.

Liu Bei nodded and said, "When they arrive in Jiangling, I will personally go out of the city to welcome them. Also, the Wei soldiers who surrendered with them must be appeased and not let them suffer any injustice."

"Wei soldiers who surrendered should not be treated poorly, but the Han soldiers who followed Shen Yi to annihilate the enemy should be treated even worse. We cannot allow the Wei soldiers to receive better treatment than them, lest we chill the hearts of our own people. The General's Office should quickly tally up the battle merits and distribute the rewards. All the generals who fought this battle should be promoted, especially Sun Lang, Hu Kun, and others. It was not easy for them to bring 20,000 newly assembled righteous troops from Runan to Jiangxia."

The current imperial court is no longer the makeshift organization it once was; all matters now have standardized rules and regulations, and everything must be carried out according to procedures.

Guan Yu bowed and said, "Your Majesty, rest assured, I will certainly not let the soldiers who shed blood on the front lines lose heart."

Liu Bei laughed and said, "Then let's go prepare. Everyone's been busy lately."

After everyone bowed and took their leave, Zhuge Liang returned to his residence and immediately ordered the news agency to spread the news of this great victory.

As a result, the people of the city rejoiced and began to discuss Shen Yi frantically. Shen Yi instantly topped the trending search list and became the most popular star at the moment, achieving fame overnight.

Then the matchmakers in the city became active, frantically going around inquiring about Shen Yi's family situation, wanting to arrange a marriage for him. When they learned that he was already married and even had a six-year-old child, the matchmakers' disappointment was written all over their faces.

Even more disappointed than the matchmaker was Sun Quan. On this day when the whole country was celebrating the great victory at Jiangxia, only Sun Quan was unable to feel happy.

Shen Yi was from Jiangdong and was just a minor official in Jianye County. It was as if he was right next to me. Yet, I had lived in the same city as Shen Yi for so long and hadn't realized how talented he was. What a waste!

If only we had known earlier that Shen Yi possessed this ability...

But there's no point in talking about it now, let's just celebrate together.

With this thought in mind, Sun Quan's heart was bleeding, but he had to force a smile and celebrate with everyone against his will.

Amidst such laughter and merriment, Wenpin and Tianyu were escorted back to Jiangling.

It's not quite accurate to say they were "escorted," because they weren't shackled; they were dressed neatly and returned by car without experiencing any unfair treatment.

They weren't physically suffering, but their mental state was another matter. The closer they got to Jiangling, the more uneasy they felt, unsure how to face their old acquaintance Liu Bei.