The good news that "Yuan Shao has started a war with Liu Bei again" is the ultimate courage to take the risk.

But he didn't know that in fact, the reason why Yuan Shao and Liu Bei really started again on the Northern Front was that Li Su had to collect and analyze information a few days ago, and after he completely realized that it was inevitable to go to war with Sun Ce, he suggested that Liu Bei take the initiative.

This is the only way to create conditions for Liu Bei to actively choose the future Northern Front battlefield. Liu Bei wants the Northern Front Battle to fight in Changping. At the same time, after the news is confirmed, it will further strengthen Sun Ce's determination.

Fortunately, Liu Bei did have the strength to restrain the attack and defend in the northern line, so when Li Su fought, Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang also started fighting again on the northern line, and even Ma Chao was transferred to Guan Yu's front to assist Guan Yu.

I won’t talk about the matter in the north for now.

Let’s talk about Sun Ce’s confident plan, all his current plans are in danger. After entering the country, on the 19th, he took Hanjinkou and Jingling County while the defenders were attacked by surprise. The initial battle went very smoothly.

A water camp was also set up at the Xiashui River estuary at the mouth of Hanjinkou. It was not very large, but very strong, short and concise. There were thousands of soldiers left to guard the Xiashui River estuary. The guards could manually control the passage of the river entrance, and prevent the subsequent Li Sujun's pursuit of waterways from transferring from Hanshui to Xiashui from here.

The choice of the position of the camp is only the same as the heroes, because when Li Su made northern expeditions to Yuan Shu and transited through Nanjun, he also stranded several warships in the Xiashui channel at this location, and then used this as an excuse to strand the troops to garrison and build camps to threaten Liu Biao and Liu Qi.

Famous generals who understand water war can see how important it is to take Jiangling and control the exits on both sides of the Xiashui River between Hanjin and Jiangjin, connecting the Yangtze River and Han River.

After taking these two places, Sun Ce himself continued to advance lightly with hundreds of personal guards, which was much faster than the large army. He arrived at Jiangling City on a starry night on the night of the 20th.

The other main forces of Sun Ce’s northern route also passed Jingling County along the Han River, and then went straight to Jiangling City on the north bank of Xiaze. However, after unloading the troops on the Han River, they would turn back dozens of miles, then drive into Xia River from Hanjinkou, winding around to Jiangjin and then to Jiangling.

This "human and ship separation" operation may be aware of the local geography, and the viewer who is not familiar with local geography may wonder, and he feels that it is necessary to not understand the need for one move.

But in fact, Sun Ce did this to better seize time. Because the biggest trouble with water transportation is that the river channel is not straight.

But Xiaze and Xiashui are seriously detoured, which means that the river channel must first go south to Jianli County, Hubei in the future, and then to Huarong County, north. The total distance is at least 100 miles away than the straight line by land. Therefore, when Sun Ce was in a hurry to pick up Cai Mao and steal Jiangling, it was safer to "dividend the man and ship".

Of course, these troop transport ships cannot be lost, so after most soldiers marched ashore in a straight line, the ship had to drive back a little, slowly walk on the Xiashui detour, two days later than the land troops to arrive in Jiangling.

In fact, Sun Ce had a total force of 100,000, and 35,000 people took a small boat to the Han River and Xia River, and 65,000 people took a large boat to the main channel of the Yangtze River in the south. The main value of the 35,000 people on the northern line is to seize time.

If you don’t grab the time, you will concentrate all 100,000 troops and go to the farther Yangtze River surface, which will save you much more trouble.

...

Sun Ce finally arrived in Jiangling first, and Cai Mao had been changing flags in the city for eighteen hours, which was only a whole day and a half.

Sun Ce was cautious and asked a small group of cavalry to enter the city to confirm. Led by a "meat detective" vanguard officer Ling Cao, he controlled the city gate, urn city and inner city gate in the north of Jiangling City. He also asked Cai Mao himself to meet on the north gate urn city tower and asked about the situation.

Then Ling Cao called out to Sun Ce, and Sun Ce personally brought the remaining hundreds of riders into the city.

This time, Sun Ce's army had 35,000 troops on the northern route, and Sun Ce himself was directly commanded by the commander. There were also Han Dang and Cheng Pu (disabled. When Lu Bu was besieged by Lu Bu at the time, Cheng Pu was disabled, so Cheng Pu could only lead troops and not charge himself.), generals such as Ling Cao, and intermediate military officers such as Lu Meng and Song Qian.

Sun Ce entrusted Zhou Yu to Zhou Yu with a 65,000 naval army on the south side of the Yangtze River. The senior generals under Zhou Yu were Huang Gai, Dong Xi, and middle-level generals including Chen Wu, Pan Zhang, etc.

Moreover, the Xiakou, Chaisang and other hinterland key points in the rear must also be kept to guard, so Sun Ce did not bring many generals this time.

For example, Zhu Zhi wanted to guard Lujiang in the north of the Yangtze River, He Qi, who was good at fighting Shanyue, stayed in Chaisang, Huang Zu was still in Luling in Jiangxi, and Sun He guarded the Niuzhu and Hulin in the Danyang Gate (later in Ma'anshan and Wuhu in Anhui, which were the upper reaches of Nanjing), and Sun Quan was in charge of Jianye.

The other counties that were not very important in the rear were thrown to elders of the tribe with low military power, such as Wu Jing (uncle), Sun Jing (uncle) and others to guard them.

After Sun Ce safely entered the city, he first personally confirmed the spoils cut by Cai Mao, and then looked at the grain stored in the warehouse. He was quite satisfied with the initial results.

"The wealth of Jiangling cannot be underestimated. Liu Biao has stored up for seven years and stored nearly two million stones of grain, which can ensure that our army... does not have to consider the issue of grain for at least a year."

Sun Ce's math aide, his mental calculation, made a calculation and told Sun Ce that the food was enough for 110,000 people to eat for fifteen months and that they could eat it until the spring plowing in February of the following year.

After Sun Ce came to this conclusion, his confidence increased greatly, and he became more convinced of his previous decisions. He decided to gain a foothold in Jiangling and steadily take over Jianghan.

So Sun Ce was quite enterprisingly asking Cai Mao about his situation in the past few days, and asked him to describe how he captured Jiangling, whether there were any changes or precautions.

In order to show off his merits, Cai Mao naturally talked about the thrilling twists and turns of the past few days, and mentioned that Li Su sent Zhang Song at the last moment and transferred a large number of supplies for the northern front, otherwise Sun Ce would have more spoils now.

After hearing this, Sun Ce shook his head and complained that Cai Mao was timid: "It seems that Li Su was not unaware of it until the last moment before the incident.

The Zhang Song he sent to patrol should be timid and knew that he could not stop you. He was afraid that his life would be taken into consideration, so he chose to use the excuse of transporting military supplies out of the city to reduce losses and save his life.

But Liu Bei and Yuan Shao started a war on the northern front, which can tell you that this is true. Yuan Shao sent troops from Luoyang to Nanyang, which should be true. Li Su was exhausted from dealing with the accident.

Therefore, if you serve Your Majesty and General Yuan, are you afraid that you will not have a good life without your Jingxiang family after changing your ranks? You should be glad that you are on the side of the winner this time.

However, it is a pity that you let a coward like Zhang Song go. After you gained a foothold in the city to control Jiangling, you should immediately send pursuers to chase Zhang Song and grab his supplies back!

In that case, our food storage will not only be enough for the army to eat for fifteen months, but also for two years! Now, it’s better, and another day and a half have passed, and Zhang Song must have run away.”

Cai Mao was also very depressed. He surrendered not to find a master to serve him. Sun Ce actually had such high requirements.

However, after all, he is the new master. Facing the rude accusation, Cai Mao just replied softly and hard: "If the lord is happy, he can also save it, but the price is higher.

Zhang Song didn't run far, he seemed to know that the supplies he brought were too heavy and he couldn't run fast. He walked a hundred miles to Dangyang and stopped. All the things were in Dangyang City. Zhang Song brought only two thousand grain-protecting soldiers, and he might not fight to the end. Zhang Song was not a military general who could lead the troops himself, and could not control the morale of the army."

Only then did Sun Ce's eyes lit up and he was very satisfied with the good news. It was time for him to establish his authority and he also wanted to intimidate Cai Mao, a vassal who had just joined, so that Cai Mao knew his power.

So Sun Ce thought for a moment and waved his hand to Han Dang who was following him: "Yi Gong, please send someone to inform the rear army quickly, so that the main force of the infantry, suitable for siege, do not rush back to Jiangling to meet, and go straight to Dangyang halfway.

If we break that small county, maybe the army will have more than a few military supplies. And we will soon usher in Li Su's counterattack. Now the sudden success is just an opportunity to attack.

If Dangyang's materials are occupied, Li Su will not be able to get the military supplies we need from hand to counterattack, and will have to transport them from Xiangyang to the south. The grain route will be three hundred miles away, which will be a blow to Li Su's troops' assembly speed and counterattack.

However, the cavalry continued to come to Jiangling first. First, there was still a lack of our army here. If General Cai’s men alone defended Jiangling, if Li Su counterattacked, people would inevitably be volatile. With thousands of cavalry controlling all parts of the city, it would not be easy to have a second thought. Second, cavalry is not suitable for siege, and it is useless to go to Dangyang."

The logistics accounts for wars have always been calculated like this. The occupation of Dangyang was not only because Sun Ce could get more supplies, but also because Li Su could not fight back the goods nearby, so this battle was very valuable.

Han Dang thought for a few seconds and bowed, "Then send Ling Cao to send the Hou Jun to change the route."

Cai Mao was also slightly angry when he heard Sun Ce not avoiding him from publicly expressing his distrust of Cai Mao's soldiers' combat effectiveness.

Fortunately, Cai Mao was still a little self-aware. He knew that his direct county soldiers and servants were indeed not as good as Sun Ce’s main elite troops, so he swallowed it after a little bit of construction.

Secondly, when Sun Ce mentioned him, he unconsciously called him "General Cai". This made Cai Mao, who was a fan of the official, think of many good things in an instant, and diverted his anger at criticizing him for being incompetent.

After Cai Mao and Han Dang left, he thought about the words and declined hypocritically: "The lord has a false reputation. The last general is just the commander of the Nanjun. Even if he abandons the darkness and turns to the light, he will not dare to be called a general."

Sun Ce patted him on the shoulder: "I have made great contributions to helping the court to restore Jiangling, and I will be able to win. I will go to Yecheng and express your respect to the court as a side general."

Cai Mao thought to himself: Although this master is a tough and ruthless temper, he is still quite straightforward to be awarded an official, so he will work hard for him for a few more years.

...

Under Han Dang's arrangement, Ling Cao brought more than 100 cavalry to form a small team of orders, returning to the back and forth, and notifying the rear army behind him. That night, he met the follow-up cavalry of Sun Ce's army and the main infantry force.

Ling Cao ordered the cavalry to continue advancing, and entered Jiangling City that night to help Sun Ce take over the city defense.

Because the infantry could not run, they camped and rested at night. The camping location happened to be between Jiangling City and Dangyang County. It was more than 60 miles away from Jiangling, and only more than 30 miles away from Dangyang.

The generals leading the infantry were Cheng Pu, and Lu Meng, Song Qian and others were under him. Seeing the order written by Sun Ce and the letter was correct, Cheng Pu ordered the troops to get up early tomorrow and walk on the road at dawn, so as to march to Dangyang in the morning, and rob a large amount of supplies in the city before resting.

Sun Ce's handwriting was written very clearly because there was also information provided by Cai Mao, saying that Dangyang small county was not a military base at all, and only the county magistrate brought hundreds of county soldiers to defend. Now, at most, Zhang Song rushes supplies from Jiangling to Dangyang's grain protection team, with a total of more than 2,000 people.

More than 2,000 troops who were panicked and likely to surrender, but the city walls were still ten feet high like dilapidated small county towns. It is very likely to quickly seize the time.

Sun Ce had 35,000 troops, including 5,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry. There were 27,000 cavalry left in Cheng Pu. The cavalry was going to Jiangling. The infantry left behind a team of 3,000 camped in Hanjinkou, Jingling, and left the necessary sailors to drive the ship. Therefore, Cheng Pu's battle was 27,000, and attacked Dangyang to attack thirteen and attacked one.

Everything was as planned. At halfway through the morning of October 21st (8 o'clock), the troops led by Cheng Pu got up in the early morning and rushed to Dangyang City with full energy. They immediately surrounded this small but now fat county town, and sent people to persuade them to surrender first.

When he thought of a small town less than two miles long by the city wall, he actually stored more than one million stones of military rations and a large number of expensive military supplies, weapons and equipment, how could Cheng Pu not drool?

Qu Junhou, a cavalryman brought by Ling Cao, led a small team of scouts. He was the kind of person who was very loud and usually was responsible for shouting and scolding. He approached less than two hundred steps from the city wall and opened his voice and shouted in unison:

"Listen to the soldiers of the Nanjun County in the city, General Cai has taken Jiangling to surrender to the Marquis of Wu! General Yuan has also gone south from Luoyang to attack Wancheng, and sent Lu Bu to hold General Guan in Hedong!

Li Su promotes villains who are despicable and defeated in Jingxiang, and harms moral gentlemen. The scholars are angry and angry, and the heavens are angry and people are resentful! Follow Li Su who has no future, surrender quickly..."

These people came to this distance and tried to surrender, and were worried that they would not hear the farther side of the city and were not impressed enough. They were used to doing this kind of business. They guessed that the distance was beyond the range and it was very safe.

Unfortunately, these people still didn't finish their last words, because the sound of the feather arrow breaking through the air interrupted the persuasion of surrender.

The cavalry of Sun Ce, Qu Junhou, directly covered his neck and fell off the horse. Several cursing soldiers next to him were shocked and turned the horse's heads to widen the distance, but three or four were shot off the horse by a series of arrows.

A group of guards on the top of the city shouted with high morale: "The Captain Huang Zhong is here! Wu Gou is traitorous and attacks my county, come and die!"

Seeing this, Cheng Pu was furious and wanted to command the siege with all his strength. But not long after the battle started, another large army sent a scout to the north to monitor Li Su's reinforcements to report, saying that a team of cavalry reinforcements were approaching rapidly in Xiangyang and was about to arrive in Dangyang, with the banner of the latter general Zhao Yun.

Cheng Pu's anger and enthusiasm suddenly calmed down: "Zhao Yun? How many cavalry are there?"

Cheng Pu has seen Zhao Yun's power with his own eyes. Six years ago, when Cheng Pu himself besieged Lu Bu with Han Dangsun Jian, he was chopped off by Lu Bu. However, Lu Bu was repeatedly consumed and retreated by Sun Ce, and Zhao Yun took advantage of him in the end. After the fierce battle, Lu Bu fled in panic.
Chapter completed!